Two can dine for 4.99

That's what we needed for Josh.
He only brought a 10 spot.

It's a good thing he has good friends with the same taste in junk food.
But we ended up pooling our bags of Smartfood, Doritos and Ruffles chips
At least they shared with the lone adult in their group - ME.

The ride up was pretty tame.  Some kids brought iPods, iPads, and iKnitt to keep them busy for the bus ride up.  I didn't sit at the back with Kieran.  I sat in the middle in my own row so I didn't cramp his style, or get bothered by them in case I wanted to nap.  It was an early 7:15am bus ride from the school to Moonstone.

I was going to bring a book, but forgot to bring it.  Also, I had our helmets and food in the bag, and couldn't fit any more.

I'm glad we brought lunch.  That was the plan.  Avoid the cafeteria food, but it seemed to find us anyways.  I ate our lunch and watched Noah eat jello with his fingers, then I said "why don't you try using a Dorito?"  He did, and then he used his fries. And then there were Yahvi's squashed cupcakes.

Our bagged lunch balanced out the fries and pizza leftovers that Kieran bought anyways.  Also it supplemented Josh's with carrots and cucumbers.  He ate most of our cucumbers.  Glad for that. Kieran didn't eat much of the cucumbers which he normally loves. And I didn't want to bring back as much food as we brought.

Weather report.
Chilly.  It was -17 deg C where we were skiing, -25 deg C with the wind chill.  And it was windy at the top.
I don't tolerate the cold as much as I used to.  In any case, I had enough 'Little Hotties' to put in both of our gloves and on top of my toes in my boots.  Plus I bought a new pair of Hot Chillies socks.  And this seemed to work well.  And the new balaclava was pretty good.  Although the mouth and nose area was perforated and let in a bit of frigid arctic air.  But it was better than having it frozen like my cotton one.  Plus my nose didn't go numb.

We took 2 breaks.  Once for lunch.  Glad we went in shortly after 11am, because the rush starts at 11:45am.  And then we took another a 1pm.

The school said we'd be back by 6pm, but we packed it in around 2pm and left the hill by 3pm.
And were back at school by 4:15pm.
The bus ride was about 1hr 15min each way.  I was anticipating traffic on the way home, but it was light.  The boys were starting to get tired by 2pm anyways.  Mathew joined us for the last few runs on the Mt St Louis side.
Josh said he was pooped.  Probably because his eyeballs were frozen since he didn't bring goggles.  So I rented him a pair in the afternoon.  I was feeling it too, I could feel a slight headache from cold.  I was well pretty covered, but there were leaks of cold air getting through and circulating around my forehead.
The cold can be fatiguing entirely on it's own.

I had not been to Moonstone in a few years.  Not since Kieran was much younger.
I had Josh lead since he skis here every weekend for lessons.  I like the variety of the runs.  Better than Horseshoe.  So maybe next year, Kieran can do lessons here.

The boys did find trails through the trees, but there are signs prohibiting it and you can have your lift pass removed if caught. Phew!
We went through them 3 or 4 times before we actually read the signs.  We had no choice but to go back the 3rd time because Noah had stuck his pole in the trail and it was still there sticking up where he planted it.  Then he dropped his other pole.  But I was trailing the boys through the trees sweeping up.

I was kinda glad.  That run with the trees, has flat spots that make me work.  Then we got to some of the other challenging runs. However navigating the trees and avoiding branches can be challenging, too.

HMS - Upper EL - Ski trip Photos

Cup 2014

We're all smiles now.    But when the game starts.  The friendship ends and the cheap goals suck! But we said we'd try to make it 2x a year instead of once and usually late.  Scheduling starts in August and never finalized until Christmas time.


This is what we're playing for.  This odd bowl we found at Winners or Homesense that we mounted on to a base.  This game has been going on since 99.  And it took us 10 years of NHL 99 before we finally got into the year 2000.  And it's still only NHL 2K7 so we're back to 8 years behind again.

It's now 8 years old.  Took us that long to come up with the idea we should have one.  Guess that's why we're all still middle class and not in the uber rich echelon of world.

In any case, there's only 1 spot left on the base.  And then we'll have to add a row.  Exciting!

But before we begin.  We ate a great dinner in our 80% reno'd house.  Hey, the floors don't squeak, and we do have a functioning kitchen and 1 working bathroom.



It'll be done in 2015! It's gonna be a great YEAR!  Win or Lose.

We catch up all the way back from high school days. Well high school reunions that I've never attended.  Talk of FB and how 1 never has used it, 1 no longer uses it, and 1 trolls and the other uses it but has no friends, since no one looks at his posts.

The rice was cooked, indian food was buttery, the beer was cold, the samosas were 1 week old, but were still good.  I kept them refrigerated.  And once you nuke them for a minute they are as good as 2 days old.  I didn't mention the sauce had been sitting out for a week.  Hey it's the next day and I'm fine. So they'll be ok too. Must be something in the microwave radiation.

We even had violin music, Twinkle and Minuet, before we exchanged stuff we rebrand as gifts and purge some clutter from our homes.
I didn't start that tradition.  Although some people might say it's me, because I will admit, I've done it.

Although I passed off stuff to nieces and nephews and they took to it like flies to compost.

I dunno but this guy comes with flyers in an old K-Mart bag and goes home with great stuff!

Someone else goes home with that K-Mart bag to haul the re-gifts. What a deal man.  Gonna call this guy the Magic Man from now on, cuz he makes his junk disappear.
Like Russell Oliver. 'OH YA!'






This is just a sample.  I still have some stuff upstairs.
Direct from the Philippines.  One size fits all. And may or may not have spelling mistakes.







I took a pic before we started.  Because we're happy.  No one has lost yet.
No frustrations, no cheap goals.




We needed to play a structured game.  D-fense!
It was tight, mostly getting used to the controls again.
And trying to follow where the puck was was dizzying or maybe my glasses were just dirty or my prescription was old or my eyes are aging.

The games were close.  Except for 1 blowout where we just scored at will. It was too easy.  Like re-gifting junk to kids.
It felt like it was our time again.
Glory was ours for the taking.

Up 3-1 we just needed 1 more game.  It was the closest we'd been to victory in 4 years.

No lead was secure.  Except for that 6 goal lead that lead to a 10-2 drubbing.

Scoring first didn't mean a thing.  And although we came back to make it close.  We came up short.  Again.

I guess I'll keep my partner.  He played awesome.
We played awesome.


We got beat again.
Next year will be different.

But this year it was the same result.

The Cup 2015 Champions

Derrick & Hong