Snow Boarding

At my work, a number of people had decided to learn to snow board this year. They bought season passes for Thursday night and new boots, boards and bindings.

I have wanted to try this for a long time and decided on Thursday to take the plunge. I know I will either invest in skis (which I know how to do) or a board because anyone who lives here needs to own these things because of the opportunity to take advantage of the gorgeous mountains.

After work we all piled into one of the guys trucks and went to Cypress. I rented my gear and bought a lift ticket and headed for the bunny hill with a few of the guys in tow to teach me the basics.

Snowboarding is hard...really really hard. It is nothing like skiing which I think is more intuitive given that we have 2 feet not one. I fell and I fell and I fell, but after I started to get down the hill with only a couple of falls the guys left me and I practiced on my own.

Even getting on and off the chair lift is a huge challenge. Coming off the chair lift I fell 3 or 4 times before I got the hang of "surfing" off of it. Even just walking around with one foot in your binding is a huge challenge. It is like skate boarding which I never was any good at.

Despite the fact that it is hard, the thrill of going down the mountain once you've got it is terrific and there is more of a sense of accomplishment then with skiing. I think I will invest in new boots, a new jacket and buy a used board.

I am sooo sore right now though. My bottom and my knees are black and blue and my forearms are aching from picking myself up over and over again. After about 10 runs on the bunny hill, I headed into the lodge and had some beers with everyone and watched the Canucks play. (they lost though)

I could get used to this for sure. There are no pictures however as it was quite shameful and I wasn't going to ask someone to take a picture of me falling on my ass.

Emily Carr

Last weekend Mike and I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery and visited the Emily Carr exhibit.

There were approximately 200 pieces in total. Most were hers and some related Native artifacts and paintings done by native artists.
Most of her art consisted of paintings of native scenes (totem poles and native people) and nature scenes consisting mainly of trees.

I enjoyed the period she spent in France where her palate was very bright, colorful and cheery and quite a few of the larger paintings of massive BC trees.

I discovered from this that I like paintings done in oil on canvas because of the texture it creates, and larger paintings due to the presence they demand.

Mike found the exhibit boring. "Just totem poles and trees", but I was happy I went and will certainly go again.

Also that weekend we made our first trip to Costco after having purchased a membership. We probably paid for the membership in that trip with what we saved in huge packages of kleenex, paper towel, toilet paper, dog food, perrier water, etc.

New Years

For New Years we met up with Chris and Rain at Sayo and JD's place (Rain's sister).

We had some drinks and then Chris, Mike and I headed over to our place before making our way to the Stone Grill.

At the Stone Grill Entree's are delivered to your table Raw and they cook in front of your eyes on a granite slab which is heated to 400 degrees.




It's a great place if you like your steak cooked to an exact rareness.

Also your veggies can be reheated so every bite is hot.

They don't use any marinades or oils so it is very healthy as well






Then we went back to our place and had champagne and appetizers and rang in the New Year. I barely made past 12 as usual and Mike and Chris took advantage of that to break in the new XBox.

Happy New Year!