Beary Christmas..

No I didn't spell Berry wrong, and it's not that kind of Beary, leave it to Nana to make the coolest tree ever! She was tired of the same old tree every year, and made her very own Bear Tree. It is adorable!! There is even an angel bear for the top!

We decorated it with home made snowflakes afterwards too. Ruby and family have a tree they decorate with handmade ornaments and this year they were making pipe cleaner ornaments. She brought them over and we were all playing around making a few, and some ended up sharing a few branches with some bears!

RED = Poor Conditions

The whole lot of us had planned to go to Medicine Hat this past weekend, but one by one every one's plans got squashed. So it ended up being just us, not even Maddie, she was heading to Banff for the annual Santa Parade. We couldn't leave til Saturday night, and we thought, well, a short visit is better than no visit... so off we went... into the FOG! We couldn't believe the sights surrounding our car?! It was like a movie set, I was waiting for someone to yell " Cut, too much fog" but that yell never came! With fog lights and crossed fingers we made it into the Hat in time for supper.. a little late but there!

We had a great visit as usual, but too short. Careful what you wish for... we TRIED to leave on Sunday afternoon, but the roads, according to the road report were RED. Poor conditions. We figured we would try and maybe the storm was going the other way. Maddie had phoned safe from Calgary to say the road from Banff was terrible it took them twice as long to get home. But we were all the way to the East... how bad could it be... haha we had our answer soon enough. At first it seemed ok, it was clear in the Hat, but as the snow built up on the windshield, and the roads got icy, then the fog was back, and when it came in low enough to shield our view again, we turned back..... so our short visit, just got longer!

Which the Napa's didn't even bat an eye, they already steaks out for everyone ready to BBQ!! The next day we waited til the roads were "Green, or at least Yellow" before we attempted again. We arrived safe and sound around dinner. Phew, not a fun ride tho.... how dare it snow in December?

KA photos

I almost forgot to post the pix of us @ KA. When we were sitting waiting for the show to start, we kept wishing we could take pictures ( little did I know about the camera mishap... but that's another story? ) when the camera crew came out and asked if he could take our picture. I jumped up YES!!! Silly me, I was going to ask him to take it with the stage in the background... I din't have to, he said" do you want the stage in the background?" and before my next request could leave my lips... he asked, "did you want me to wait for the fireball?" haha, I loved this guy!!! So we sat with a permasmile waiting for the fireball to go off behind us, and click, the master at work captured the perfect picture!! Twice!!

We also met the Coca Cola bear!! Great, Fun pics!!!

Canada Makes Drudge!

As some of you may know (my wife certainly does!), I am a little, wee bit of a newsy. My constant driving campanion is 660 News because I ALWAYS want to be up to date. Every so often something really newsworthy and interesting happens. Well, this was one on those weeks!

One of my favourite sites to visit is the famous (famous to newsies) Drudge Report. It apparently gets 25 million hits a day and breaks many new stories first even before some major networks do. It is named after Matt Drudge who became famous when he scooped every major news organization in 1998 by breaking the Clinton-Lewinsky story. Anyway, today was a special day on Drudge as Canada was literally front and centre on his page for everyone to see. Drudge has ignored the exciting drama up here in the Great White North until today... Cool! (if you are newsie, I guess)

(click above to enlarge Canada's glory!)

The Grey Cup

Things that make you go hmmm??? Maddie's school had one of the Stampeders come with the grey cup so the kids could see it up close and personal. But?? when Maddie went to take a picture of it, they wouldn't allow it because she can't use her cell phone in school? What do they think, that they are pilots and can't have the cellular interference? I just don't know sometimes. Anyway, luckily for Maddie, she has already seen a Grey cup up close, with a football player too! Here is Maddie and Roco Romano in 1999.

Safe Camera Etiquette

Now I know that the odds of someone stealing your camera when you ask them to take your picture are low, it would be really hard to make a clean get away in a crowd with 2 people chasing you, but this is a risk I would NOT take. Nobody gets to have my nikon in their hands.... well, there are some exceptions. Here are my "safe photo" tips....
1. Ask the professionals. It's hard to run off with someone's camera when you are working! The bartender that served us our drinks here, took this picture.

2. GET collateral. A girl asked us to take her picture, which I happily obliged. Then she said "I'll take your picture too".... so... I kept her camera, and handed her mine. She took the picture and we traded back! Haha, see her camera in my hand in the photo!

These 2 methods have worked well for us, getting the odd picture of both of us together in amongst the hundreds of other photos. Another "safe" method, is to have a second camera. We carry the little camera with us for that reason. Also it's easier to hold the little one up and take our own self portrait!

Hope you enjoyed my tips. Safe picture taking!

Christmas Coffee

Ok you bloggers, let's see how many people are popping into the cookbook every now and then? We made our Christmas Coffee today, so if you are wanting to make it, here is a run down of the ingredients again, and start now, or it won't have time to blend :-)

Pick a Coffee that isn't too strong. We picked a Medium blend.





Let the orange peels dry before you put them in the mix!



First fresh ground coffee.... notice the blog in the background?



Break up 18 cinnamon sticks...





Slice Vanilla beans length wise......



....cut into small pieces...



add about a Tablespoon of cloves...



Seal container, shake it up and refrigerate. Shake it up often, enjoy Christmas Morn'

Random Facts about our Vegas Trip

Money spent on parking during our 5 visits to The Strip (in US Dollars) - 0

Parking is free and available everywhere. It is much less difficult to move around to any hotel on the strip using the easily accessible Interstate 15 than it is to park at Chinook Mall here in Calgary.

Money spent on gambling (in US dollars )- 22

The slot machines appear as soon as you get off the plane. They are about 25 feet from the gate. There are huge lines of them while you are waiting for your luggage (pictured below).

They're everywhere. Here is a line of
them in the baggage claim area at
McCarran International Airport.

Yearly average rainfall in Las Vegas (in inches) - 5

Amount of two day rainfall on November 27 and 28, 2008 (in inches) - .75

Our hosts (and probably most citizens of Las Vegas) were shocked at the amount of rain that fell during that two day period. Both days set records for daily rainfall according to Las Vegas meteorologists. Nearly 20% of the total yearly rainfall fell during that 48 hours period. The last time it rained before this? According to our hosts, the last drops fell in February 2008. In the picture below, you can see the flash flood the water created in the road. Apparently because it is so dry, Las Vegas lacks a sewer system that can handle this much water in this short a period of time.



Amount of turkey the MGM Grand Hotel prepared for Thanksgiving (in pounds) - 2000



All restaurants seem to have a Thankgiving menu nicely
priced that had everything you could ever want to eat for
Thankgiving.

Number of attractions that we went to see that closed mere seconds before we arrived - 2


The Star Trek Exhibit's former home. It ran for 11
years and just closed this past September. Damn!


The Titanic Exhibit was still advertised as open on cabs and
in magazines we read. It must have closed just days before
we got there. It will re-open in the Luxor hotel around
December 15th. Damn! Damn!

Happy Blogaversary

Well this little Blog, is a whole year old!! What started with a "welcome" has grown into a full fledged diary, and even has a book! We've come along way, thanx to all our readers for laughing with us ( and at sometimes ) here's to another year of Bloggin... Cheers

Focus

I have to do an ode to the Focus car we rented. Rental fees were only 9.00 a day from Payless rental, so we were joking about what kind of car we would get.... or maybe it was a bicycle?? It wasn't a bike. It was a cute little blue car that had unbelievable gas mileage. We bought a full tank, drove all over the great land of Nevada and the last day when the tank blinked low we put 5.00 in. There is a gage in the car that tells you how many miles you can drive. So after our whopping 5.00 the gage said... 100 miles!! Incredible!

We drove 410 miles on 1 tank!