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We wish you a great long weekend. Hoping it’s friend and family filled before kids get back at it on Tuesday.

This morning we gave away some more tickets to Cirque du Solei’s ‘Corteo’. (More to come next week by the way)

Many of you have you been emailing with great reasons why you deserve them. I’d like to share a couple.

The first one funny. The second one touching and had Eric and I in tears when we talked with Shannon on the show. She deserves the small smile that these tickets will bring her and her daughter.

From the home office in Glamorgan:

Top 10 Reasons I Want To Go To Corteo and Why I Should Win Your Tickets

10) I love me a good dancing bear.

9) Might be good therapy to get over my fear of French clowns.

8) I hear the half time poutine is delicious.

7) The wife’s been nagging me to get us some culture. Like seeing
The Dark Knight 4 times doesn’t count.

6) Want to see how many mimes they can stuff in that little
Peugeot.

5) Pretty sure that’s one place I won’t get caught in the crossfire in
a firefight between warring track suit guys.

4) Heard the Edmonton Eskimos were going to be there on a team
outing to get psyched up for the Labor Day Classic.

3) Turns out the ‘cirque’ in Cirque du Soleil is NOT an abbreviation
for a certain medical procedure so I was getting worried over nothing.

2) Let’s face it. If Stephane Dion wins the next election, this whole
country will be one big French circus.

1) What part of the word FREEloader don’t you guys understand?

Dear Matt & Eric,
Hello! I am not sure if you remember my daughter & I from May 2006. My husband, Russell Galichowksi, was killed instantly in a car accident on the St. George’s Bridge
April 20th, 2006. All of our friends and family were kind enough to put an auction together for my daughter Megan Rose to go into a Trust Fund for her. At that time she was 18 months and now just about 4yrs.
You two gentleman were kind enough to come to the Auction and support us!!! Thank you for that!!! I still remember you to this day!!!
Just recently I took my husbands voice off my answering machine…….”I listen to Jack”………I continue to listen!! My daughter sleeps with me and every morning we wake up to you two “crazy heads” as my daughter
Megan calls you!!!
The reason why I am writing this is to try and win tickets for my daughter!! Russell & I had gone to two other shows. I just wanted to share something with Megan that Russ & I did…it would be magical for her.
The tickets are quite costly for a single mom!! I would just like some laughter back in our lives and a little sparkle in my daughter’s eyes!!!
Thank-you for taking the time to read this!!
Once again I am thankful for you two “crazy heads” supporting the Galichowski Girls!!!
Take care,
Shannon Galichowski

Every time I have had the chance to hang out with Earl Connor I’m amazed at how inspirational, driven, genuinely funny and self effacing he is.

On lone leg Earl WILL win the 100 meters in Beijing as part of the Paralympics games in a couple of weeks.

This morning he spent an hour with us during the show talking about his story, sharing funny personal antidotes on his road to success. And many, many challenges that make him one of this city’s greatest athletes.

Check out more about him at agendasport.ca

Matt

Your turn

So many fun things going on at the station these days!

Stop by and see Dug Joy in action tomorrow as he’ll being doing his show live from the ‘Husky’ on Barlow in the N.E. Gas station in the hood not an appealing draw? Then I guess I didn’t mention FREE CORN! Not just any corn but Tabor corn. Help yourself to a bushel or at the bbq. Also, some great prizes like diamond ear rings.

Sept 11th look for Eric and I at ‘Woodys’ on 17th as judges for Jack’s Neil Diamond Karaoke Contest. Winners from that night will win tickets to Diamond’s sold out show at the dome. If you want to participate, get hooked up by checking out the info on the main page here.

I’m just back from a great few days in Phoenix. It’s a ‘go to destination’ for me with friends here and of course Paige and I. But this trip was really special as it was just my two brothers, Kevin and David, who met me down there coming from Ontario. If you’re like me and in the same age bracket, I’m sure you’ve discovered it becomes harder and harder to stay connected to your siblings. We’re in the process of growing our own families and the distance is obviously an issue.

Recognizing this we made a pledge to have a ‘Brother’s trip’ every year. Make it a Thurs to Mon and each year another is responsible for the organizing. Being the eldest I had this, the first year. Needless to say I picked a place I love, have accommodation and is only 2 and half hours away. So no doubt I’ll have to start preparing for a hiking, camping and canoe trip in Ontario next year! Regardless of what it is, I’m already looking forward to it. And if an annual ‘sibling trip’ isn’t something you do or have thought about, I can’t suggest anything more strongly.

Matt

Your turn

I found myself profoundly struck by the evening news yesterday. More shootings, death on the roads, fires and growing gang concerns. To counter that malaise, this morning we wanted to hear nothing but GOOD NEWS STORIES from your lives. We ended up with great ones from simple observations like “What a great sunrise today!” to touching stories of kind neighbor’s actions and those beating death. Take a listen to the link below. Also, there are a couple of emails listeners sent during the show.

Matt

Your turn

Message: Good News. I was listening to you guys driving into work this morning, talking about all the good news. I thought that I would share my good news with you, just to give you that warm fuzzy feeling.
Last St. Valentine’s day, you and Eric delivered flowers to me and Laurie here at the office. The reason being was that my boyfriend at the time was being a terrible boyfriend. We ended up breaking up just before Valentines day.
I have to say that since that time, he has totally changed and we are now back together. He is wonderful and I couldn’t ask for a better partner. We moved in together this last weekend, and we are both looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.
Hope you guys at the station have a wonderful day, and thanks again for the flowers.

Message: happy news flash:
My mother in law sick with cancer wanted to holiday with her kids but alas she did not make it and passed away just before Christmas. The kids decide to vacation together this past week on a house boat in memory of Mom…the boat name when we get there “Mamma’s Dream”…coincidence, maybe.

Message: Good News Story – I would like to tell you of a good news story involving my husband. We often travel to Cuba and have made many friends down there. One of our friends was in a very bad accident that resulted in him being paralyzed (bad news). Although the government provided our friend a regular wheelchair it is very hard to use and his wife’s shoulders are starting to hurt from pushing her husband around all the time. On our last trip down there in June my husband promised our friend that he would come back to Canada and purchase him a electronic wheelchair. Well, we purchased the electronic wheelchair (good news!!) and even better news is that friends have been donating money towards the purchase!! We are currently in the process of reserving our trip back down to Cuba and can’t wait to deliver the wheelchair to our friend!

If the Olympics haven’t caught your imagination and interest, it could be some of the sports really aren’t that interesting. Thanks to some great callers this morning we have a list of combined sports that may make for better watching. Please add some of your own.

Steeple Chase/Shooting
Sync Swimming/Hammer Toss
Sync Swimming/Boxing
Table Tennis/Rhythmic Gymnastics
Javelin/Sprinting
Discus/Skeet Shooting
Archery/Platform Diving
Water Polo/Equestrian
Beach Volleyball/Wrestling
Opening Ceremonies/Closing Ceremonies

Have a great weekend inside watching the games while it’s 30 and sunny out!

Matt

Your turn

A passing interest in watching the Olympics is all I can admit to. Sitting inside watching people on T.V. playing games doing things in the athletic arena while outside the sun is shining and I could be doing the same, seems a tad odd.

But a couple of side stories have caught my interest and we’ve shared them on the show of course. Media and people seem outraged and people are quite distraught upon learning the Chinese government decided to have a ‘prettier girl’ lip sync during the opening ceremonies rather that have the real singer who they deemed not as aesthetically pleasing.

This what people want to condemn China for? After untold years of suppression, human rights atrocities, killings of dissidents, impoverishing their people and sending our kids lead toys, it’s them pulling a Milli Vanilli that has people upset.

I was struck by an email we received this morning and was jilted to reality. As we cheer and celebrate those wearing our flags at the games. Let’s keep in mind always, the others wearing the Maple Leaf in other countries.

Erin Doyle is the latest soldier we’ve lost and he obviously touched those who knew him. Thanks for sharing David

message: To The Man Upstairs

We from below the heavens have found ourselves sending you another soldier to watch upon us from above.
A father ,brother-in-law ,son to many and a husband, and friend and protector to all.
He comes to your with no worries , or fears to what he has done to protect and serve those who he cares for and more.
One who drops everything for what he believes in and loves who he leaves behind.
Have him watch over the rest as he would want to be known for the one who guards the heavens. We wish him to be that for you. You will never find a soul so rich in love and loyalty for the heavens.

Guard us ,protect us watch over us Erin. We will miss you for many years to come.
Here’s to you Erin my brother-in-law and friend a Irish toast to you and the man upstairs…. watch over us all.

Rest In Peace Brother

BY By David Krawchuk

Hope and trust everyone had a great weekend! Ours was fantastic with the highlight being Beck’s Baptism at ‘St. Albert the Great’ followed by a party at our place. Always nice to bring together friends and family from different circles and people hit it off immediately.

The parental visit continues and enters month 2……errrr…I mean week 2.

I love them dearly and it’s a joy to have them around and spending time with their grandsons. However, if I hear “Say, how bout we go for a walk?” one more time I may lose it or purposely break my leg to save myself from yet another trek. There’s the morning walk, closely followed by the post lunch walk and of course the pre-supper walk to work up an appetite and missing post supper walk is unthinkable. We’ve covered every possible route in our area and have seen all there is to see ten times over. So now, we’re driving to other places for a walk. Driving to walk seems odd to me. What’s become of parents these days? What happened to T.V. and just sitting around talking about how nice it looks outside?

Want to share an email we received from a gal that maybe we can help in some way. Should you have any ideas, let me know

Hi guys! I am so mad at people here! I am a single mom of 3 boys, and don’t work in the summer, but was able to get my special needs 8 year old a new bike on Tuesday. He rode that bike all day and evening, he was so happy. We put it in our back yard that night and when he went out yesterday to ride it, it was gone!! Stolen from our backyard, yet everyone here leaves stuff out all the time! I am just devestated about this, as I don’t have any money to go get him a new one! I can’t believe the people here at all! I live in a rental townhouse complex. I even called the police to file a report yesterday and they said they would call back and still haven’t! What can a struggling parent do here? I must consider moving again? Poor kids…. Lori

Matt

Your turn

Yet again, it pays to be a Jack Freeloader! We called Christine Cichacki this morning to give her some good news. And she was thrilled to hear she’s won tix to see Tom Petty at the Dome! More winners every morning this week. Get in on it if you’re a Petty fan.

Had a great day at the zoo yesterday with the whole family. We love that place more and more and see new things all the time. Liam’s fascination with the dinosaur area never dulls.

One thing I did find curious though. I’ll put the guy at 19ish sporting a very clever t-shirt that no doubt matches his limited intellect. It was black with huge bold white lettering…’F…K WAR’!. Now I’m not one to question or debate a person’s politic views in the public form. But when the public form is thousands of kids who are face level with your profanity? Dude, crawl back into your parent’s basement, plop yourself onto your crusty futon, get back to playing ‘Grand Theft Auto’ all day and don’t come out until dark. Or read a book, get a vocabulary, some common sense and decency.

Matt

Your turn

Hope and trust everyone had a great long weekend!

Ours was a joy every minute as my parents are visiting from Peterborough Ont. This has been there first chance to meet Beck, and that Liam is far more interactive than he would have been the last time they say him, it’s very special to watch.

If you heard the show this morning you’ll know that was one small wrench regarding the weekend which made for us having a cat fight all morning. Eric and Sarah kindly invited us up to the their cottage in Sylvan Lake Sun/Mon. Long gone are the days that an overnight trip to the cottage can be orchestrated in 10 minutes by throwing swimming trunks and a cooler and head out. Two young kids, my parents, two cars, special groceries and supplies bought, bags packed for every possible contingency, cars loaded, agitating exchanges that all begin with “Did you remember…..”, plus portable DVD hooked and fired up with Liam continually changing his mind on what movie he wanted to watch first. Oh, did I mention this was all Sunday morning? Suddenly that damn red signal lights up on the blackberry which I catch from the corner of my eye. (my only good eye since the other was caked with flung yogurt).

“O’Neill’s, I’m so sorry but I’m so ill this morning, plus there’s a good chance of rain. We’re thinking that we’ll head out tomorrow instead”

Turn engines off, unpack car and re-program Liam’s “We’re going to a cottage” to “We’re going to kill Eric”.

You’ll be happy to here that he made it off his death bed and is feeling much better now thank you very little.

We received an email this morning that I want to share and hope that you may have some info you can fire back.

Friday, early evening, I found some money at the Market Mall. I would like to find the person who lost it. I called the store, (Zellers) as I was rushed for time when I found the money and they said a young girl came looking for the money but didn’t leave her name. Wrapped inside the money ($115) was a receipt from Good Will. I think she really needs her money back. Could you please announce this. I appreciate it so much. My contact info is below. Cheers, Toni

Matt

Your turn