My snow blower arrives tomorrow!!! Yay!!! After 4 years of shovelling the white stuff manually this winter is gonna feel like a dream!
Our new driveway is not going to be paved until spring so this year is going to be the throwback year for us. I suspect we’re going to go with a base of packed snow over the gravel and use the snowblower just set up a couple inches.
Don’t mind me as I shovel manually…grumblegrumble… Oh wait, I don’t have to, I still have a teenager in the house! Yay!
SWMBO and I went to Jasper this past weekend to celebrate our anniversary and I had a somewhat surreal experience. In the Jasper Park Lodge is a little sushi place called Oka Sushi. It reminded me a lot of this place I saw in a documentary, and is probably about as close as I’ll ever get to it. The sushi was the best we’ve ever had, and that includes what we ate in Victoria this summer.
So what is the surreal part, you ask? I was eating world class sushi in Jasper; far, far away from the ocean. Also, I got to see Anna Olsen live. She is smokin’ hot in a little black dress.
Having stayed in Fairmont hotels from Alberta to Newfoundland, I don’t think I’ve ever had a food experience that was less than amazing. I don’t like lobster and the old Fairmont Newfoundland chef made a lobster bisque that I could not only stomach but actually enjoyed.
Yeah, that’s what I do. It only becomes an issue when you get a couple of days of thaw and it turns into a skating rink.
When we first bought the house my inlaws gifted us with two seasons of snow removal. What a wonderful gift as I got to spend the early morning after a snow fall standing on my front step, coffee in hand, as my neighbours all spent hours shoveling.
Then, as my neighbours all gradually either paid for snow removal or purchased snow blowers I had to start shoveling and the shoe was on the other foot. At first it was kind of zen. I got to get out of the house, have some exercise, and take a break from the destructive whirlwind that my toddler daughter generated.
For the last two years it has been nothing but hell as the snow piled up almost higher than I could fling it and storm followed storm followed storm. I could have almost kept up but for the solid wall of crap that the snowplow was leaving.
Now I’m looking forward to the first major snowfall.
And the season comes to an end for the Riders: lost 18-10 to the Eskimos yesterday. However, I don’t think much of the Esks’ chances against the Stamps, considering that the Esks’ offence didn’t score a point yesterday - all the points were scored by special teams. Calgary will take it, I think.
Based on yesterday’s eastern game, I think the Als go in the favourite over the Ti-Cats.
Oh well, there’s always another season for the Riders.
Go Stamps!
I’m honestly surprised the 'Riders did as well as they did this year with Kory Sheets gone to the NFL (for one preseason play before suffering a season-ending injury) and Darian Durant injured down the homestretch. But they’ve got a solid core and should be competitive again next year with Durant healthy again.
I kind of like the Als right now, but the Ti-Cats have really been strong in the second half, winning seven of their last nine, including a decisive win over Montreal in the last week of the regular season. I’m expecting to see Collaros beat Crompton in the East. But I’ve been known to jinx teams before by the simple act of placing my support behind them.
Kent Austin is a good coach and the Ti-cats have steadily improved under him, so I’m not discounting their chances. But the Als have also improved steadily in the home stretch.
I’m now cheering for the Als, because a Grey Cup buddy from Montreal will always cheer for Sask if the Als are out, and I return the favour.
Go Ti-Cats! Since Winnipeg is out of the mix, they’re my go to. My parents have been die hard Ti-Cats fans since the Angelo Mosca days. Tense times in our house when the BBs and TCs were in the finals against each other, and Wpg was a Western team…
While we are on the subject of the CFL, can anyone tell me why the BC Lions ended up in the Eastern Conference? 
I am only a casual fan and missed the reasoning for this.
Bloody stupid idea, if you ask me. :smack:
The last two playoff spots are wild-cards. The BC Lions had a better record than the third place Eastern conference team, so they crossed over as the lowest seed in the East.
Ah - now I get it! Thank you - ignorance fought!
The western teams have traditionally been stronger than the eastern teams for the past decade or so, and there were grumblings that it wasn’t fair that a fourth place team in one division that had a better record than the third place team in the other division should miss the playoffs, so the crossover was instituted. So far, it’s always been a western team that’s crossed to the East. Saskatchewan crossed over in 2005 (?), and I think there’s been at least one other cross-over.
The fourth place team has to have won more games than the third place team in the other division. If they’ve got the same number of wins, the third place team keeps the playoff spot.
So far, the cross-over team has never won the semi-final match.
Is anyone here going coming to Vancouver for the Grey Cup? If so, party at my place!
Before or after the game. I’d love to go, but I just can’t justify the expenditure. My other half is working in BC Place during the game.
I got Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story out of the library yesterday. My almost 11 year old is requesting me read it to him as his bedtime story. :eek: I told him it was rated for a mature audience and discretion advised. He told me I could say “bleep” instead of the swears. :smack:
Thanks for the offer, but our Grey Cup travels have reduced considerably since the Cub arrived on the scene. The last Grey Cup we went to was in Regina, where we can walk home from Taylor Field.
Any Winnipeg Canadopers? I will be in the 'Peg Dec 8-12 (lucky, lucky me!) and would love to meet up one evening while I am there. Work stuff during the day but evenings are free.
hmm - I thought we used to have some Peg dopers, but I guess they’ve all moved on.