Ahhh! Spiders!

Like many of you know, Kristy is deathly afraid of spiders. If she spots one, she gives one of the most panic-stricken screams you've ever heard and takes off like a gazelle running for its life from a cheetah. It is pretty comical, especially since they are the tiniest little spiders, and not ones like this:


The worst part of it is that Kristy has a radar to spot spiders that would rival even the best technology found in the Pentagon. She can step into a gymnasium and she could spot a daddy long legs from 100 feet away. Being the noble husband that I am, I always come running to the rescue, quickly and efficiently eliminating any possible threat to my darling wife's happiness.

Unfortunately, Kristy has started to train Zoë in her "spider spotting" ways. A couple of days ago, Zoë kept saying "Spider! Spider!" and pointing to the end table in the living room. So I gallantly strode over to eliminate this:



In case you can't tell what it is, its a piece of lint. Yes, lint. All that I know is that its going to be a painful time until our daughter can begin to distinguish the difference between a real spider and everything else...

Flames Fan!

Just as a preface to this note, I am NOT a hockey player. I played hockey for 3 years in my life (when I was 5 and 6 years old, and then in a spring league when I was 13). Maybe I should have been one because I would be considered a HUGE hockey player, but instead I am a relatively small basketball player... I also have not been much of a hockey fan in general for most of my life, but have become a bigger one in the last 10 years.

I am a pretty big Calgary Flames fan, however. I have been a fan for as long as I can remember. It all started when I was quite young, probably around 8 or 9 years old, when I got a Christmas present from my Grandma. It was a alarm clock with a radio built in. That was the gift that I have used the most in my life, lasting for the better part of 15 years. I set the radio to 660 AM, better known at the time as 66 CFR, which stood for Calgary Flames Radio. I would be sent to bed at a decent time every night and I would stay up for hours just listening to the voice of Peter Maher (pronounced Marr) as he called the play-by-play of the hockey games. He still announces the games today, even having the opportunity to announce the games on the radio for the last Canadian Olympic team. I listened faithfully for years and years, even when the Flames became incredibly bad in the mid to late 90's. (Note: I still listened to 66 CFR even when Flames games weren't being broadcast. They played music from the 60's and 70's. Needless to say, I wasn't "in the know" when it came to popular music at the time. As a matter of fact, I never have really been too knowledgeable when its come to current music, except for maybe from when I was 18-20 and from 22-25 years old [the two year hiatus was from when I was a missionary]. I do feel to a large extent that music from this era is much better than a lot of todays garbage.).

As some of you may know, there has been quite a buzz around the Flames recently because of a few trades that they have made. I would even say that its been one of the most exciting times in recent history for Calgary, except for when they made it to the Stanley Cup finals in 2004. They acquired a player by the name of Olli Jokinen (below), arguably one of the top centermen in the game, as well as a very good defender in Jordan Leopold, who played for the Flames when they made the above mentioned run for the Stanley Cup.



In his first game with the Flames, Jokinen scored two goals, while Leopold scored another. I feel as if these two moves have definitely cemented Calgary as one of the favourites to win it all come playoff time. All I can say is... GO FLAMES GO!!!

I Love My Job!

For the past two years, I have worked for APX Alarm as a technician, installing and servicing alarm systems. My first summer, I hauled the family out to the Detroit area and worked hard for 4 months. This past summer, we stayed in Edmonton and I worked half as hard as I took 3 courses over the Spring/Summer semesters, yet somehow I made twice as much money. Besides the busy season (from May-August), there is a bit of work available in April and September as sales reps do "post season" work. That leaves me with 6 months off!

I recently just got on full time as a service tech. I go and fix peoples systems. No matter how slow it is, I am guaranteed to be paid 36 hours of work each week. Its pretty sweet. It also allows me to be at home more often each day. Today, I had no service calls to do. Here are some pictures of our morning today.





Zoë and I made breakfast crepes today. We invited Auntie Erin over to enjoy them with us. They consist of scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese wrapped up in a crepe. You can add peppers (we didn't have any), condiments (I like some salsa in there), and anything else. Of course, fruit filled crepes are always delicious. The recipe for crepes is extremely simple. For a small batch, all you need is 1 egg, 1 cup of milk, and 1 cup of flour. Combine flour and milk first and mix till smooth, then add the egg. I also add a half tablespoon of sugar too. You usually need to add a bit more milk to bring it to the right consistency (needs to be fairly runny). Then you can use a frying pan (you need to grease it before each crepe. I use Pam.) heated to the point where water will dance on it.

It is such a beautiful day today that we decided to play with bubbles outside. Unfortunately, our bubble gun broke so we had to improvise. I remember playing with HUGE bubbles as a kid by just combining dish soap with water and using a wire coat hanger shaped into a circle to make them. You need to use tons of dish soap though, so use the cheap stuff from a dollar store. The kids and I had tons of fun playing with them.





As you can notice, the other perk about having time off with the family is that I have the right to not shower and stay in my p.j.'s for hours on end. Don't feel too bad for me, though, as I do work my tail off in the summer.