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I’d never really thought about it until a few days ago, but I wonder what it would like to have a baby genius. A kid so smart that the people at Mensa opened their arms to him despite the fact he’s not even 3 years old.

I’m talking about a little kid in Calgary named Anthony. He has an IQ of 154.

To put this in perspective, the average person like you and me have an IQ around 100. The geniuses at Mensa average about 135.  That puts little Anthony in the company of people like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

I mentioned he’s only a baby, right? Only 2 years and 9 months old. Anthony can already names all the planets in the solar system, count to a thousand, recite the alphabet backwards and speak three languages.

What could I possibliy do with a child like that? I speak one language moderately well, and enough French to find a bathroom in Quebec if neccesary. I can’t name more than half the planets, and I have trouble with the alphabet going in the normal direction. What could I possibly offer a child like that? He would be bored stiff with the ‘ol man by the time he was 3.

I love my kids, and all three of them are quite intelligent. But I’m sure glad that Mensa hasn’t come calling. My oldest son gets a kick out of playing grammar police when I, or anybody else, mises up their “there”, “they’re” and “their’s”.  And he’s 21. Can you imagine having your toddler correct you on your grammar while you play in the balls at Chuck E Cheeze?

I hope Anthony goes on to great things. I think he’s already well on his way. I’m just glad it’s not me trying to keep him busy. My youngest son is now almost taller than me, the oldest has mechanical inclination I would die for, and my daughter is quite likely the smartest person in the entire family.

But I can still outsmart them. Beat them in a game of “Connect 4″.

Once in a while.

I’d like to think it’s wisdom. They like to think it’s dumb luck.

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

Three hours. That’s all it took to convert our backyard from winter to summer this weekend.

On Saturday morning at 11 o’clock, the grass in the backyard was brown, and covered with snow mould and leftover crabapples from last fall. The patio furniture was in the shed. The barbeque was all tarped up. It was still winter.

Then my wife went to work. Summer was coming to our deck, whether it wanted to or not. Up went the gazebo, out came the patio furniture, followed by the hose to clean off the patio furniture. When I picked up my son from work, I stopped into Rona to see if they had one of those dethatching blades for your lawnmower. I’ve always thought about getting one, but never did. I found one for $8, so I figured out what the heck?

What was I thinking all these years? Seventeen springs have come and gone, and every year,  I tried to rake out all the dead grass manually. Boom – 20 minutes with this new blade, and I felt like a farmer who just run the combine through his fields. The dead grass was up to my shins. Granted, I still spent a couple of hours raking and bagging, but this time, the grass was GREEN underneath. Could be the best $8 I ever spent.

You know who was really impressed? Rylee the dog. She’s never had the whole yard to herself. We’ve only had her for a couple of months, and her trips outside have been limited to the strip of yard that runs along the fence by the park. The snow in our backyard melts really, really, really slowly. This was the first time she’d had run of the yard, the full yard, to herself. So many corners to explore, so many old crabapples to eat, so much new dirt to drag in the house.

I often wonder if I’d love the arrival of spring and summer as much if I didn’t live on the prairies. As a kid growing up on the coast, we had flowers by February. Weather like this was no big deal. Here in Calgary, after 6 months of cold weather, I really, really look foward to the arrival of the warm weather. I love not wearing socks. I live in shorts.

Next up, the Jeep roof.

Then again, despite the fact we just set a record high of 25 degrees 10 minutes ago, the forecast for Friday is flurries and +3.

Easy boy. We’re not out of the woods yet. However, if I want, I can’t sit and watch the flurries from a chair on the deck, and watch my green grass turn temporarily white.

And I think that’s kinda cool.

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

I saw a few trailers and 5th wheels cruising down the Deerfoot today, headed out to take of advantage of the smokin’ weather this weekend. Anytime you can get out and light a campfire in April, you jump on the opportunity. The forecast high for Sunday is 22. We didn’t get our first 20 degree day last year until the middle of May.

That got me to thinking about our poor ‘ol trailer, sitting out there on an acreage just outside the city. It’s been there since last fall, when we decided to try to sell it. Before that, it was on a friend’s acreage out in Balzac. The last time we actually used it for it’s intended purpose, camping, was back in October of 2010.

Not that we didn’t get much use out of it. On the contrary. That trailer sat up by Gull Lake year round for almost 8 years. We’d start camping in early May, and get out every weekend until the early part of October. Some of the best weekends of our life were spent around that trailer.

Then the kids grew up. One by one they started staying home, and letting my wife and I go up on our own. Eventually, we just decided to pack it in and bring the trailer home. Last year, we weren’t sure of our plans, so we decided to keep it, and just leave it out at our friend’s plan until we figured out what we wanted to do with it. We’re still working on that plan.

Here’s the problem with trailers. In 2003, we bought it for about $30,000. Last year we tried to sell it for $10,000 and had a few nibbles, but no bites. I have a real hard time taking so much of a loss when the trailer’s in almost the exact same condition it was when we bought it. I’d just as soon hang on to it, rather than give it away.

I guess the problem is that so many people, like us, eventually sell their trailers. Maybe their kids grew up too. Maybe they got bored. Perhaps they bought a new one, and are just trying to sell the old one. Either way, there’s a LOT of used RV’s on the market. Every size, every style. It’s a buyer’s market, without question.

Then there’s our truck. It’s a great ‘ol truck. However, the primary reason we keep the truck in case we need to tow the trailer somewhere.

I think you’re getting the drift. I’ve written many times before in this blog that I’m cheap, and I am. Stubborn too. I’d rather not sell the trailer and truck, than sell them for less than their worth. However, the two of them together would pay off our daughter’s braces. Or pay for her tuition at the U of C in the fall. Eventually, I’ll have to give in to reality.

It’s our 28 foot boat anchor, but it’s a boat anchor with some great memories. Maybe I can find a way to weld it to the side of the house, and create an extra bedroom.

Have a great weekend, and use “camping” as your 1000 bonus code until Sunday at midnight!

What with Coldplay in town tonight,  and Garth Brooks selling out in 58 seconds, it’s been a busy week for concert news in Calgary. Not all of it good. In fact, on Saturday morning, there was a whole lot of bad news for a whole lot of Calgarians.

As you’ve probably heard, or experienced on the weekend, Garth Brooks show on July 12th for the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede sold out in less than a minute.

15, 322 tickets.

Gone.

In less than 60 seconds.

It just doesn’t possible. My wife was getting her tires changed on Saturday morning, and decided to try to land some tickets on her phone. When she got a “no tickets available” result at exactly 10am, she thought she’d made some kind of error. So she tried again at 10:01, at which point she already missed the boat, along with thousands of other disappointed fans. Likely hundreds of thousands of disappointed fans.

I’m not sure how to react to this, because it’s exactly what I expected.  I knew that season ticket holders in the club section with the Flames had first crack at their seats before they even went on sale. Ditto for those that own a box. And, really, that’s fair enough. Some will say it’s not fair that those with money, or executives of oil companies get first dibs on tickets, but I begrudge them nothing. In most cases, they worked hard for their money, or their position, and Flames tickets are just part of the perks.

Now, scalpers are a different story. They’re the scum of the earth, at least in the entertainment world. They’ve configued phone and computer programs that overload Ticketmaster’s systems, and in essence, kick everybody else to the back of the line. It’s not fair, and it’s certainly not in the spirit of a Garth Brooks concert. He could’ve charged $200 and still sold out, but he came in with a price tag of $62 for every ticket, including front row.

Still, scalpers are a part of life. That’s why I’m not sure what the answer is. If Ticketmaster could find a way to stop them, I’m sure they would.

Somebody came up with the idea of having to assign a name to every ticket purchased, kind of like the airlines do. A great idea, but probably not practical. It would be a very time consuming process. My personal opinion? Limit the tickets to two per person. Why six? If nothing else, it would make the scalpers work that much harder.

What’s done is done. The tickets are gone. Garth can’t do a second show. We’ll just have to move on.

However, if you get the urge to pay $500 for a ticket to the concert off of E-bay, or Stub Hub, or Kijiji, just take a long walk, a few deep breaths, throw on a Garth album, and rethink your purchase.

If nobody buys a ticket for $500, then there’s no market for scalpers. It’s as simple as that.

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

Once of my favourite books when I was a kid was “The Guiness Book of World Records”. I used to leaf through that thing for hours at a time. The biggest, the smallest, the longest, the hottest, the coldest. It was all there in those pages. Me and my buddies always to joke about what world records we were going to set.

So, you can imagine how exciting it was to find myself in the middle of a new Guiness Record Attempt on Saturday at the main gym at Sait. In support of the Calgary Counselling Centre, the  Ohtsuka Amateur Karate Foundation held the “Break the Cycle” breaking event, trying to set a record for the most pine boards broken simultaneously, and help stop domestic violence in the process. They had over 200 people there, all trying to break a board with their foot at the same time.

It costs about $10,000 to get Guiness to come out and monitor your event, so given that this was a fundraiser, they opted for the self-administered method. They had cameras, and video cameras, auditors and afidavits, and people confirming boards were broken. It was really kind of cool.

I was only there as the emcee, the guy that keeps things moving, and counts everybody down to the big stomp. However, we broke 191 boards on the first attempt, and some people couldn’t stick around for a second try. So, we asked for a little help from the crowd. A few more joined in, and before I knew it our promotions director Lisa and I had our shoes and socks off and were all set to help set a new world record.

A Guiness World Record. I was actually taking part in a world record attempt. I felt like I was 10 again.

We broke 203 the second time around, which will be the official record if Guiness accepts all the documentation. I imagine it’ll take a few weeks, maybe even a few months to have it confirmed.

What we know for sure? We raised over $20,00o for the Calgary Counselling Centre, to help stop domestic violence. Next year, if they try to break their own record, I’ll let you know, and you can come on down and join in the fun.

It’s for a great cause.

And you might find yourself in the Guiness Book of World Records.

How cool is that?

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

According to the article “What People Earn – Then and Now”, Carrie Underwood was making $16,000 as a waitress only 8 years ago. Today, she makes about $20,000,000 per year. I’d say she’s done okay for herself.

The article got me to thinking about myself, “Then and Now”, and my kids, “Now and Then”, as I look into the future.

My first job was pumping gas for $3.00 an hour at the Broadmoor Gulf in my hometown of Richmond, BC. That was sometime in the late 70′s. After that I moved onto working with kids in a City parks program. I had to pinch myself when I found I out I was going to make about $5.75 an hour. Ironically, our union went on strike a fewdays after I started working there, and I ended up at just over $6.00.

Then came the buns.

I delivered buns for a company that provided supplies for McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s a bunch of other big name restaurants. The hours were brutal, from 3am-11am, but the pay was sky high, at least in my mind. It was the summer of ’82, and I was making $1700 a month, or just over $20,000 a year. That was a lot of money for an 18 year old kid in the early eighties.

Then, in August of ’82, I started my career in radio. I wouldn’t make “bun” money for many years after that. In fact, I don’t think I matched my “bun salary” until I moved to Edmonton 7 years later. The sacrifices we make to do something we love. Eventually I made enough to buy a house and have kids, and feed them every now and then.

If you’re waiting for the part where I tell you I now make $20,000,000 a year, you’ll be reading for a long time.

I remember my Dad teaching me about the value of money at some point, and somehow his salary came up in the conversation. Seems to me it was around $40,000 a year. Solid money for those days. I just took a look at my son’s T4 for last year. He left Grandpa in the dust.

My daughter teaches dance, and works the office in her studio, and my youngest son just started his first job at a gas station. Both make about $10 per hour. I sometimes sit and wonder what their benchmark for “good money” will be. Will $100,000 per year be standard stuff by the time they’re my age? What will they consider rich?

When the Barenaked Ladies released “If I Had a Million Dollars” in 1991, it sounded like so much money. These days, if the 649 had a million dollar jackpot, nobody would bother buying tickets. Funny how times change.

Here’s the way I figure it. If you were happy “Then”, and you’re still happy “Now”, then the rest doesn’t really matter.

Although $20,000,000 would come in handy.

Have a great weekend, and use “million” as your 1000 point bonus code until midnight on Sunday!

The NHL playoffs start tonight and, I”ve gotta tell you, it’s not easy being a Canucks fan in these parts. Dare I say that Flames fans hate us more than the Oilers? If there’s one thing that Flames fans say that drives me up the wall, it’s “We have one Stanley Cup. How many do you have?” It’s a conversation ender every time. How do you argue with that?

I think I’m more prepared for the playoffs this year. Last year was the first time the Canucks had made a serious run since the mid 90′s. I was in it with my heart and soul. I lived and died with every game. And they found a way to make every game interesting. When they led the Stanley Cup final three games to two over Boston, I momentarily let down my guard, and allowed myself to actually believe we had a serious chance of ending the drought. Alas, we found a way to lose.

Again.

I’ve been a diehard fan since the team played it’s first game back in the Pacific Coliseum some 40 odd years ago. That means I’ve been waiting for over 4 decades for a Stanley Cup. We’ve played in three finals, and lost all three.

That’s why I’m more mentally prepared this year. I’ll hope to win, but realize that we might lose. I’ll still wear my jersey to work every game day. I’ll still smirk every time a Flames fan at work gives me a hard time. I just won’t allow myself to believe until we’re actually hoisting the thing over our heads.

Being a fan is a funny thing. I’ll always have a soft spot for where I grew up, but I love Calgary with all my heart. I wouldn’t want to raise my kids anywhere. I truly believe that it’s the greatest city in the world. However, despite the fact that I’ll probably never live on the coast again, it’ll always be the Canucks first, and the Flames second. It’s just the way it is. I’m sure Flames fans living in Vancouver would say the same thing, and I think that’s pretty cool.

Wish me luck. It could be a rocky journey, but it’s one I can’t wait to make. Maybe this time it’s to the top of the mountain.

Ironically, I’m playing “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus as I type this. Good omen?

As hard as it is for you to do, I”m going to make you type the word “Canuck” as your 1000 point bonus code until midnight tomorrow!

We spent the night huddled in front of the TV last night. We had no choice. We had to get that close to see.

The big screen gave up the ghost yesterday. At first I thought it was the PVR, so I spent an hour chatting with a Shaw rep to see if we could troubleshoot the problem. Eventually, when the screen went black for the 37th time, I had to admit that it wasn’t  the cable box. We spend the afternoon turning it off to let it cool, running upstairs to watch the end of the Masters golf tournament, and turning the big screen back on once it cooled down. That got real old real quick.

We’ve had the thing for 8 or 9 years now. Ironically, we didn’t really want it when we got it. It came with our new couch and loveseat. No extra charge. Just a free 52″ TV. Sold.  So, it really owes us nothing. With three kids, a dad that loves sports, and a mom that likes to fall asleep on the couch while she’s “listening” to her favourite shows, it’s given us thousands of hours of good tv watching time.

However, it created a bit of an issue. What do we use instead? There’s a big TV upstairs, that’s even older than the one that just died, but it’s so blurry you almost need to wear 3D glasses. Plus, it’s heavier than a tank. So, we settled for the tv from down in the basement, the one that used to be in the trailer. All 21 inches of it.

For a brief moment it reminded me of when my wife and I bought our first new TV just after we got married – a 27″ RCA. That seemed HUGE at the time. As a matter fact, it seems huge now, with a 21″ screen in front of me.

Then I remembered…….hockey playoffs! I’m a born and bred Vancouver boy. I haven’t lived there for more than 25 years, but I’m still a Canucks fan. And their playoffs start on Wednesday night. That gives me 48 hours to figure it out. I’ve heard that the ‘ol rear projection TV’s aren’t worth fixing because it’s just too expensive. However, last time I checked there wasn’t an extra $500-1000 stuck in my pocket.

So, if you’re a Canucks fan, and your watching the game on a screen that’s bigger than 21″, where the players don’t look like ants……….:)

Use the word “television” for your 1000 point bonus code until midnight tomorrow!

I’m not sure how, or where, it started. But around our house growing up, Easter meant the the “egg bonking” championships of the world!

As long as I can remember, we’d all boil up some eggs, colour them with various shades of dye, and then place them safely on the counter for the Sunday morning “bonking”. What’s a “bonk?”. Glad you asked. You hold the egg between your thumb and index finger, and bonk your opponents egg. If it cracks, you spin it around to the other end. The first to have both ends of their egg smashed is out, with the victor moving on to the next round. Eventually, it comes down to the final two left standing, who compete for the trophy, and the bragging rights until next Easter.

There’s various stategies involved. You’d think “bonking” harder than your opponent would be one of them. It doesn’t work. The harder you shoot out your egg, the more damage you do to your own. I gave up that strategy when I was about three. A smooth, controlled “bonk” beats out short, repetitous “bonks”.

There’s also been a few instances of “bonkgate”. To this day, I still believe one of my sisters managed to use her knuckle as part of her attack. It was never proven, but she sure smashed a lot of my eggs in the process.

My wife and our kids tried it a few years when the kids were young, but it just didn’t catch on in our house. It still lives, however, at my parents place. Now easing into their 80′s, they’re wily old veterans at the annual “bonk”. My three sisters will join them if possible, along with as many neices and nephews as possible. When our kids start having kids, they may have to rent a hall.

The more I talk about it, the more I smile, the more I miss those days. Good luck with your eggs, family, and watch out for J’s knuckle!

Whatever the traditions in your enjoy, enjoy them to the fullest!

Happy Easter!

Use “bonk” as your 1000 point bonus code until Sunday at midnight!

“Do I have to call you coach?”. That one hasn’t come up yet, but I’m sure it will, as the Ritchie men team up for a new baseball season.

We had our first baseball practice yesterday, in the sunshine, at Confederation Park. I only wish we could’ve practiced on Saturday, so that we could’ve laid claim to having had our first practice in March. That’s never happened before, and likely won’t happen anytime soon. The next practice is  scheduled for Wednesday night.  The current forecast is rain, snow and a high of 4. I rest my case.

This season is going to be an interesting one. My youngest son is playing, his older brother and his buddy are coaching, and I’ve signed on to be the team manager. All three Ritchie boys on the same team. It sure beats running from park to park to try to catch a few innings here and there. When both boys were playing, it wasn’t uncommon to watch 3 innings of one game in the SW, and then zip up to the NE to catch 3 innings of the other son’s game.

I’m sure this will present some challenges as we move along. Dad’s are always harder on their own kids. It’s just the way it is. Imagine when your older brother is your coach. You can’t talk back. You can’t argue. You can only say, “yes, coach”, and suck it up like the rest of the team. There could be a few rather heated discussions on the drive home.

Still, there’s not a place I’d rather be. The two places I’d most like to spend the day are at a baseball diamond, and with my family. Now I can do both at the same time, for the next two or three months.

Life is good.

Play ball.

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