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It’s the May Long Weekend, the official start to camping season, campfire season, s’more season (yes, that’s actually how you spell it) and tarp season.

It’s kind of ironic that on the night that camping season begins, we’ll be watching our trailer head east to Medicine Hat, without us. We finally did it. We sold the trailer. It took a while for my wife to convince me to do it, but it just finally made sense. We didn’t camp at all last year. The trailer just sat on our friend’s acreage in Balzac.  There’s other things to pay for, like braces, and university tuiton,  and food.

I’ll be sad to see it go. There’s some pretty good memories tied up in that ‘ol 2003 Westwind. It was our second trailer. The first was an ’88, and it just got too small after a couple of years, so it was either upgrade, drive each other crazy, or just stop camping. We chose to upgrade.

When we bought it, the kids were 12,9, and 6. They’re now 21, 18 and 15. The older two stopped coming with us when they hit about 17. Even our youngest son was trying to find ways to bail when he was only 13 or 14. I guess they’d just had their fill of spending the summer’s at the campground. And that’s fair enough. On a cold, wet weekend, the adults tend to gather around the campfire and visit the days and nights away. When you’re a kid, sitting around a fire all day and all night just doesn’t cut it. So, they’d end up watching TV or reading, or doing homework in the trailer. Stuff they could do at home, where it was warm and dry, and where we had a full fridge of things other than hot dogs and marshmellows.

Still, there were some pretty rousing games of cards held on that kitchen table over the years, the midnight games of rotating beds, where, come morning, nobody was in the same beds that they started in. Even the days when the toilet got plugged, and my wife, armed with nothing but a clothes hanger, came to save the day. That’s probably a day she won’t remember with as much fondness as I do.  It was funny at the time. Even funnier now.

So, it’s time to say so long to our ‘ol buddy. The people buying it are coming up from Medicine Hat. They’ve got grandkids that love to camp, so I’ve got a feeling there’s still plenty of memories left to be made in that trailer.

Here’s hopin’.

Use “trailer” as your 1000 point bonus code until Monday at midnight.

As I write this, the Hockey Marathon For Kids is winding down it’s final few hours. I believe the new world record for longest hockey game kicks in at 4pm, with the guys playing an extra couple of hours until 6pm. Just in case somebody tries to break the new mark, they’ll tack on a few extra hours.

As strange as it seems though, the world record is really an afterthought. This was always about raising money. Money for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. Money for little girls like Diamond Marshall, who was diagnosed with cancer just over a year ago. She’s the little girl that handed the flowers to Prince William and Princess Kate last year. The little girl that stole the worlds hearts. She’s in remission right now, and about to start a new drug they hope will help her win her long term battle.

This is about Lyall, Diamond’s dad. He wears the name of his first wife across the back of his jersey. Memory was her name. People like Lyall shouldn’t lose their wife and daughter to the same ugly disease.

That’s the reason their playing hockey today, and have been for the last 251 hours, give or take.

The players feet started to swell so much that they needed to put out a call for donations of larger skates. And that was only a few days in. They’ve been stitched up from errant pucks, one guy’s playing on a broken ankle thanks to a rut in the ice. None of them will call it quits. They can’t. If Diamond won’t call it quits, then either can they.

I’m hoping that the Hockey Marathon for Kids really picks up steam this afternoon, as they count down the final few hours. Their goal was to raise$1.5 million dollars. At last count, they were just over $1,200,000. I’ve got a feeling a few big cheques will find their way into the pot by 6pm tonight. I hope so. That said, please don’t think that your $10 donation, or $20 donation, or $100 donation won’t make a difference. It makes all the difference in the world.

Especially to kids like Diamond Marshall.

To all 40 players that took part, all the volunteers that offered to massage, tape, cook, deal with the media, and a thousand other things over the past 10 days…….thank you. You’re a special group of people, and you should be extremely proud of what you’ve done.

Now, go take a nice two day nap. You earned it.

Use “marathon” as your 1000 point bonus code until midnight tomorrow.

Mookie often talks about how much he loves Banff. He and his wife and mini-Mookie and Bandit the dog head up to the Rockies every chance they get.

Like a lot of Calgarians, I just nod when I read his post, and acknowledge what a beautiful town it is. Then, I realize that we haven’t been up to Banff forever. Not through Banff. Not by Banff. Actually paying your park fee and GOING to Banff. For us, it had been a long, long time.

I’m not sure why that is. Why we take things like that for granted. When I was younger, and lived on the coast, we would think nothing of hopping in the car and driving for a couple of hours to go ski Whistler. Then, we moved to Vernon, where Silver Star was 15 minutes away, and went skiing once in 3 years.

It was the same with Banff. We’d been there when the kids were younger, and I’ve been up to the Banff Centre to introduce some concerts, but it’s been several years since we actually strolled the streets of Banff. My wife and I did that over the weekend. Booked a night at the Rundlestone Lodge, right on Banff Ave, and hit up the candy stores, the souvenier stores, the “Christmas” store my wife had heard so much about, but never visited, and every other store along  the strip.

Then we went to find a place to take some pictures. We hit the Bow Falls, the gondola, Banff Springs, a quick roundabout through the parking lot of the Banff Springs Hotel, and every spot in between. We took pictures with the camera, the tablet, our phones. We won’t have any problem find pics to remind of our weekend. That’s for sure.

It’s breathtaking. Even if you never step foot on Banff Ave, and you avoid the crowds, the scenery really is something you can only get a few places in the world. And this scenery is only 90 minutes away.

I often said I was a “water” guy. Meaning that some people love mountains, and nature. Others, like me, prefer lakes, oceans and just being around water. I’ll always be a “water” guy, but I just realized that there’s a big part of me that’s was missing out on one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Never again will I take Banff for granted.  It’s just too majestic. People would die to live this close to paradise. We do.

Nice to see you again, Banff. It’s been a while. I promise it won’t be that long again. See you again soon.

Use “Rockies” as your 1000 point bonus code until midnight tomorrow!

So many Mom’s to thank, so little time.  Yes, it’s already Mother’s Day weekend. Where does time go?The easiest place to start is with my Mom, one of the most compassionate people on the planet. I’m blessed to still have both my parents in my life. She’ll be 79 next year, but she’ll still goin’ strong, and I fully expect to still be around to hit triple digits some day. It’s funny. I talk to my parents every weekend, and when I’m talking to my Mom on the phone, the vision in my head is of what she looked like 20 years ago. They live on the Coast, so I don’t get a chance to physically see them very often. So, in my mind’s eye, Mom will always look like she did in her 50′s.  Same for Dad.

Mom was, and always will be my rock. When times were tough, she was always there with a kind word, or a helpful suggestion. It didn’t matter whether I was 5 or 45. She was always there for me, and still is.

Then there’s my wife. The mother of my 3 kids. I wrote about making sacrifices in my last blog entry. My wife is the queen of making sacrifices. For the kids. For me. For the dog. She’s always put everyone’s interests before hers. So much so that sometimes we take it for granted.

That’s what Mother’s Day is all about. Taking the time to say “thanks” for all the sacrifices they make throughout the year, and throughout their lives, that somehow we forgot to acknowledge. From remembering to pick up milk when everybody else forgot, to taking the day off work to spend with a sick child, because nobody else could.

There’s my Mom-in-law, who’s merely a slightly older version of my wife. One of the sweetest ladies on the face of the earth. I really cashed in on the Mom thing with those three. Hit a bigger jackpot than the 649.

And thank you to every mother who’s child I’ve ever coached. Thanks for standing in the rain to make sure you saw their first catch, or their first homerun. Trust me, they’ll never forget you were there for one of the biggest moments of their young lives. Thanks for teaching them to respect adults, and other players. Thanks for buying them a slurpee on the way home after a tough day at the park.

Picking you up when you fall. That’s what Mom’s do. Always have, always will.

Happy Mother’s Day, Moms……and thank you!  For everything.

What else could we use for a 1000 point bonus code, but “Mommy”. Good ’till Sunday midnight! Have a great weekend!

Twenty five years ago, I was a twenty-something kid with a bad mullet and the inability to grow chest hair. I also got married twenty five years ago today.

We’ve both had a ton of comments on our Facebook pages, from close friends, and friends and family we haven’t seen in a long, long time. We appreciate them all.

The funny thing is…….it wasn’t that hard.

Maybe it’s ’cause we were in love then, and we’re still in love now. Maybe it’s because we’re so polar opposite on the things that don’t matter, and so connected on the things that do. I’m not sure exactly what they magic key to celebrating a silver anniversary is. I guess I just always assumed we’d make it there, and beyond.

Sure there’s struggles along the way. In the early days of radio, we were as poor as poor could be. We actually used to sit at the table and decide which bills would get paid that payday, and which ones would have to wait another two weeks. There was a country song on the radio back then, that went:  ”Love will get you through times with no money, better than money will get you through times with no love”. That was our theme. We knew things would get better eventually. So, you stick it out. Together. We never did get rich, but most months we can pay most of the bills on time.

If you can teach your kids the difference between right and wrong, and stand as a united front when something goes sideways, you’ll stand a much better chance of getting through the “child rearing” years unscathed. Actually, I don’t think you ever get through entirely unscathed. All kids leave a few scars here and there.  They also provide the opportunity to make your marriage tighter than it was.

I’m not going to blather on about what it takes to succeed at marriage for 25 years. A lot of great people are just better off apart. It happens. I’m just blessed to have someone that makes me a better person when we’re together.

In a nutshell – here’s why we’ve been married for so long. My wife would love nothing more than to have a housefull of people to celebrate our anniversary. She loves parties. Big parties. As big as you can throw them. However, she also knows that the thing I least desire in life is to be the centre of attention. I’m a background kind of guy. So, for 25 years, she’s put up with small celebrations, or sometimes, no celebration. We do everything on a small scale. She does it for me.

Sacrifice.

That’s the word I’m looking for.  Sacrifice. Making sacrifices to make the other one happy. That’s what 25 years is all about.

In fact, use “sacrifice” as your 1000 bonus code until midnight tomorrow.

Mama Mia Pizzaria. That’s the name of one of the dances my daughter’s competing in today at the U of C. It involves props. Lots of props.

Pizza boxes.

What started off as a normal Monday morning got really hectic, really quick. I blame it on the pizza boxes. I drove my daughter to work at the studio at 9:30, then came home for a coffee, shower and read the paper. I picked her up at 11:30, with the intention of coming home, grabbing her costumes and then dropping her off at the university.

The best laid plans of mice and men, as they say.

My daughter forgot something at the studio, so we turned around and drove back. While in the process of doing that, she got a text asking her to pick up the props for “Mama Mia Pizzaria”. No problem. Despite the fact the truck is jammed to the roof, inside and out, with stuff for goodwill, we’ll find a way to squeeze a few pizza boxes in.

50.

That’s how many pizza boxes we had to pick up. All of a sudden, squeezing a “few” props in was turning into a bit of a handful. There were pizza boxes everywhere. Some in the box of the truck, some in the back seat, some in the front seat. I looked in my rear view mirror. Pizza box. Side view mirrow? Pizza box. Still, we arrived safely at the house, with about 10 minutes on the clock to grab a bite, and grab the props for the dance she teaches. More props. I started thinking about where the bungy chords were. Might have to strap these suckers to the roof.

After a quick 7 minute grilled cheese, we headed out the door to head to the U of C. ”

Daughter: “Can you unlock my door for me, please?”.

Dad: “It’s unlocked”.

Daughter: ” No, it’s not. I locked it when we came in the house”.

Dad: (glancing at the keys still in the ignition) “You LOCKED it?”.

Suffice to say that panic set in. She needed to get to the U of C for the dance competition, and I needed to get to work.  And the keys were locked in the truck. I ran into the house to look for a spare, and call Mom to come and rescue us. No answer. No answer on her cell. No answer at work. Starting to wish we owned a horse. Or a ride ‘em mower.

Tick. Tick.

When I came back outside, I find my daughter using a coat hanger from one of her costumes to try to pop the lock. My window was cracked open! Enough to pick up my daughter, and have her reach into the truck and pop the lock. SUCCESS!

Time elapsed from panic to freedom? About 4 minutes.

We got her to the university on time. I got to work on time, albeit with my hair a shade grayer than it was to start the day. And somewhere today, the dancers in “Mama Mia Pizzaria” will gracefully carry their pizza boxes to victory.

Morals of this story? 1) Don’t leave your keys in the ignition, even at your own house. 2) Don’t answer texts about pizza boxes. Ever.

Use “pizza” as your 1000 bonus code until midnight tomorrow!

I don’t know whose heart was beating harder. Noelle’s or mine.

She was our contestant yesterday on the $10,000 Workday Bonus Pay contest. For those that haven’t played along before, we open Bonus Pay envelopes with cash inside, usually starting about $100,  and gradually building towards $10,000. The idea is to stop before you get the empty envelope. It could come at the $300 mark, the $421 mark, the $1000 mark.

Or, the empy envelope could never come. And you could win $10,000 cash!

I’ll be honest. I never thought I’d come across the person that had the nerve to go all the way.  You have to be willing to walk away from $5000, to take a chance at $10,000. You’ll have to “no thanks” to $7,000. Not a lot of people can do that. I know I couldn’t. The average person tries to get to around $500, and then take the money and run.

Noelle wasn’t your average person.

She went through the first 10 envelopes in a hurry. She’d decided it was $2000 or bust. That’s a pretty lofty goal. It doesn’t get above $2000 all that often. But, that was her plan. I don’t think her pulse got above 75 the whole time. She was cool as a  cucumber. Calm as could be.

Until we got past $2000. Now what?

Noelle decided to throw caution to the wind, and go for it. Several times she walked away from several thousand dollars to open the next envelope.

Keep in mind that I have no idea what’s about to happen. I’m just the middleman. It’s all between Noelle and the envelope lady. I’m not sure who was more nervous. Me or Noelle.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Noelle finally decided to stop at $9901. She justifiably decided that opening one more envelope, risking that much money, would be silly just to be the first person to hit $10,000.

So, while we still haven’t had a person that went ALL the way, I’m guessing that I probably won’t get that close again for a long time.

A new car, and tatoos for her and her boyfriend. That’s Noelle’s plan. Happy shopping, Noelle!

Thanks for letting me be part of the ride.

Use “payday” as your 1000 point bonus code until midnight on Sunday!

So,  are we playin’ baseball tonight, or not? Sounds like a pretty simple question, right? Not in Calgary.

 Our baseball team is playing Cochrane tonight. As the team manager, I get to deal with all the fun stuff like paperwork, league meetings, and rainouts. That was our dilemma today.  Justifiably so, the manager from the Cochrane team wanted to know as soon as possible whether we’d be playing or not. There’s nothing like making the 45 minute trek out to Calgary, and then turn around head home because it’s pouring outside.

This is Calgary, though. Actually Cochrane has problem even more extreme weather in the spring.

I checked the field at around noon. It was still damp from all the rain, but it looked more than playable…..as long as it doesn’t rain anymore. One of the coaches checked it an hour ago, and it still looks good. I e-mailed David Spence to see what the next 6 hours looked like. He said we might get a few showers, but nothing major. So I made the call to Cochrane.

 Game on!

The reality is that no matter how great the field looks, or whatever David’s  radar and satellite say, anything can still happen. It could rain like a typhoon nonstop starting at exactly 6:30, or it could be nice and sunny for the rest of the game.

That, my fellow Calgarians, is why we dress in layers.

I’ve always found it ironic that parents are always the first ones to suggest cancelling games. Not so much at this age group, where the boys are 15 or 16, but when they’re just little gaffers. There’s nothing in the world they’d rather do than play in puddles. They’d love to play in the rain. Baseball, softball, soccer, anthing.

Sometimes it’s a safety issue.

More often, it’s a “parents don’t want to stand out in the wind and rain” issue. 

Let ‘em play in the puddles, I say. They’re only kids for a few short years. What’s an extra load of laundry here and there. And an extra bath or two.

So, here’s hoping Cochrane didn’t drive out to Calgary for nothing. If they did, I’m sure I’ll here about it.  And it’ll probably be loud.

Use “weather” as your 1000 bonus code ’till midnight tomorrow!

We all have a little “geek” inside of us. And this weekend, being a geek was both cool and frustrating. The big Comic Expo drew over 50,000 people to the BMO Centre this weekend. So many, in fact, they had to turn people away. It’s hard to believe that the first show, in 2006, drew less than 3000 people.

I have to admit. The Calgary Comic Expo is the last place in the world you’d ever find me. It’s just not my thing. The only comic I ever read when I was a kid was “Archie”. I didn’t see the “Star Wars” movies until they came out the second time around in the late 1990′s. I’ve never seen any of the “Superman” movies, or the “Batman” movies. You get the idea. Science fiction and action heroes just didn’t push any buttons for me.

That, however, doesn’t exlude me from being a geek.

For a few years in the mid 90′s, I really got into sportscard collecting. Even now, I still have a huge collection. I just don’t visit cardstores, or troll Ebay looking for deals anymore. If there’s a big sportscard show in town, I’ll go down for a look. So, while the “Green Hornet” doesn’t mean anything to me, a Bobby Orr rookie card does. I’m just a different kind of geek.

I also play fantasy baseball. That’s where you draft a team of real Major League Baseball players, and pretend you’re their manager. There are millions of players all across the globe.

As I look at that sentence, I just realized the key word is “pretend”.

Some people like to pretend they live in a world of superheroes. Others like to pretend they manage professional baseball teams. While science and telescopes may turn one person’s crank, another’s passion might be the world of werewolves or witches and warlocks.

“Geekdom” doesn’t descriminate.

I just wish I’d realized all of this year’s ago, when we used to make fun of the school chess club. A club I eventually joined in grade 6 or 7, when I actually took the time to learn how to play the game.

So, to all the geeks that dressed up as their favourite superhero at the Comic Expo, I applaud your honesty.  Sometimes spending a few hours in a “pretend” world isn’t such a bad thing.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to change the starting lineup on my fantasy baseball team.

Use the word “geek” as your 1000 point bonus code until midnight tomorrow!

The average tax refund this year in Canada is $1541. Apparently, somebody got my share.

After a couple of months of procrastinating, I finally picked up a copy of Turbo Tax a couple of days ago, and got to work. I started with my two oldest kids, who are getting modest returns this year. One gets about $30, the other about $300.

Then I started working on ours. I had high hopes this year. We’ve been paying Revenue Canada for years. In fact, the only time we don’t end up owing them money, is when we go heavy on RRSP’s. This year, our ace in the hole was the fact that we had to shell out a whack of cash for my daughters oral surgery and braces this year. Insurance only covered about $1500 of that, so we had a bunch to claim in medical expenses to claim.

Really, I guess we wouldn’t be making money, because we had to pay out money to try to get some of our own money back from Revenue Canada. I don’t have a degree in business, but that business model doesn’t seem to profitable.

After a flurry of T-4′s and receipts, I hit the magic button to complete my wife’s return. It’s never a good sign when the number in the top right corner turns red. That means we’re already in the hole. So, I started on my return. Another flurry of paperwork, and I got to hit the finish button one more time.

I shouldn’t have hit the button.

We were even more in the hole.  I’m really not sure how that happens. I just know that I needed to find those orthodentist receipts in a hurry. Our multi-thousand dollar “ace in the hole” did help out. It got us back to the break even point.

I won’t lie. I was really looking forward to getting my national average of $1541. If my wife and I were average Canadians, we could’ve been cashing cheques for$3082! Oh the things we could have bought.  According to a survey by Yahoo,  about 55% of people say that pay off bills with their tax return. Another 20% invest it.

Hah! If we ever manage to beat Revenue Canada in the annual tax return game, we’re going back to Jamaica.

Or buying a new lawnmower.

However, I’d settle for just calling it a draw.

Maybe next year.

The deadline to file, by the way is midnight on Monday. Time’s a tickin’.

Use “tax” as your 1000 point bonus code until Sunday at midnight! Have a great weekend!