love hate relationship

The end of March is no time for snow. This is what I figure. Despite living in such a northern city I hate snow. Hate might not be strong enough of a word.

At the same time I acknowledge that it looks beautiful. If I never had to drive in it, shovel it, or have it make my glasses wet I would adore it.

Or perhaps if I only saw it for a short period of time i could enjoy it. Instead of cursing it from September to April?

I think that could actually be true.

Still, when someone who rarely has to deal with it says they want it, i am inexplicably filled with rage, and I really can't quite figure that one out at all.

the north american house hippo...

I may never knit this again, but omg!!

I'm not sure why I had so much trouble with this pattern, it couldnt be easier, just one of those things, or maybe it's a lack of motivation on my part. I'll buy that.

But it did come out full of epic cuteness even for all of it's faults.

Next up knitting a globe. A tiny one, I promise I haven't completely lost my marbles.

yet...

101 in 1001

I decided to try this and see hwo I can do. It's one month in and so far I've started a lot of the ongoing ones and finished a couple.

1. See a hockey game in every Canadian rink
2. Get a Canucks inspired tattoo
3. Leave a lovely anonymous note for someone to find
4. Pay for the next person behind me at Tim’s
5. Knit something practical
6. Paint anything
7. Send a post secret postcard
8. Watch the Oilers warm up, not the away team
9. Eat five places I haven’t before
10. Go to Vegas
11. Do a six week workout without missing a scheduled day
12. Update my blog at least once a month
13. Put a coin (loonie if possible) in a jar every day
14. Go to Newfoundland
15. Go to Cincinnati
16. Lose 20 pounds
17. See at least 20 Canucks games live
18. Go to a Ducks game where they don’t play the Canucks
19. Write ten short stories
20. Do something on New Years Eve
21. Learn how to crochet
22. Read 10 books
23. Go to five concerts
24. See ten movies in a theatre
25. Watch all of the Lord of The Rings in one day
26. Go to Toronto to see a show
27. Hide a note in a post secret book at a bookstore
28. In summer ride my bike every day off for two weeks
29. Treat my sister to a trip somewhere
30. Fill up all my empty picture frames
31. Fill in a whole book with stuff. Every page.
32. Take a class
33. Buy new skates
34. Go swimming
35. Get something pierced
36. Take a picture at a welcome to... wherever sign
37. Touch the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans
38. Write a letter to someone I’m not friends with anymore and mail it
39. read 10 books
40. read 10 books
41. read 10 books
42. read 10 books
43. read 10 books
44. read 10 books
45. read 10 books
46. wreck a journal

I'm on book seven. I've been to a hockey game in Edmonton. Updated my blog, put coins away, been to a Canuck game, bought skates, written one short story, and seen a movie in theatre. Not a bad month. Now lets see how the next... uh however many there are left, go.

canada's game, vancouver's canucks

On the fifteeth we were lucky enough to sit lower bowl for a Canucks playoff game. There is so much in that sentence that makes me happy. We never sit that close anymore, back when we didn't get to go to too many games we always did, but we go to a lot now and we'll flying cheap and buying cheaper tickets enables that. I loved so much about that night. That I got to share it with my favourite person in the world was very much the top of that list. Okay. It's not even remotely cool to say that about your sister? I know that, but it's true. Built in best friend and the rest of all the lame sappy greeting card things about sister's aside, it really is true for us and I love that. We got to sit and watch our favourite team, in one of our favourite cities, wearing our favourite jerseys, having eaten yummy food, and had an amazingly fun flight there, watched our team so up close, and watched them win, and best of all we got to do it together. Thumbs up all around!

We made this sign in a restaurant before the game. Kind of a little amused that we were at one ocean and they were on the opposite end of the country at the other ocean. Yes there are more than to, but whatever for our purposes I'm being less specific. ;p There's better pictures of us that I took that night and that she took too, all up on facebook, but this one just sums up so much for our lives.

For me I've stood at GM Place and sang O Canada loud and proud and sang it with no anthem singer when Mark Donnelly asks us too, but I've never felt so much pride and so much happiness as doing it on Wednesday. One of those we are all Canucks moments. I've been having a lot of them lately. We probably won't get to another playoff game. Timing wise it's hard and my god they only get more expensive as time goes on, but that one game... it'll be a long time before anything matches up to that. A long time.

believing in blue

This picture was taken at our last game this season in Rexall. In three weeks we'll have seen the Canucks play three times, and that makes me happier than I can really put into words. <3 We look so happy and silly in this picture for people who would be so filled with rage and shame and sadness by the end of the night. Not because our team lost. Not even close, but because of general douchebaggery of Oiler fans.

I am unapologetically a fanatic for the Canucks. I don’t miss games, on tv, ever, barring something messing up with the vcr, yes I still use a vcr, shush. Point is I don't miss their games in some way shape or form, I've been to see them play all over Canada, Florida, and California and many more locations to come. I love them more than is probably good for and or healthy for me. I admit it fully. But I have never been and never will be the kind of fan that gets in anyone's face about it. I am so thankful and happy and almost feeling blessed that I have gotten to see them as much as I have.

Part of getting to see them and living where I do (in a chief rival's city) means sitting in the opposing teams rink wearing the away team's jersey. Not a friendly place to be. Not even close. We're not talking about 'oh I really don't like your team' or the usual kind of chirping. Me and my sister have sat apart sometimes and I had to stop wearing Canucks clothes to the games, it was too scary to walk out after alone. Not just the things screamed at us as we walked out, but the times we got shoved and had people get right in our faces to intimidate. This last game, the Canucks lost, there were a lot of extenuating circumstance, a death 'in the family' a crazy long road trip, blah blah blah whatever else, they lost. And as we walked out of the building, someone tried to shove us. Someone told us to go back where we came from. Once we assured them we were in fact from here, they called us 'dumb bitch' and then 'fat bitch'. And then there was just so much more abuse of the same sort heaped on us as we walked out.

I think this crosses a line. I love my team. But I would never, ever speak to someone like that, not for any reason whatsoever in regards to sports. There may be other circumstances in my life that I would, such as under direct attack, the kid that shoved a gun in my sis's face, that guy I could cheerfully do some real damage to if we knew who it was, but I digress. I can be a bitch and even a bit of a douchebag to people, but my god, to full on attack someone, and it did feel like an attack, it just crossed so many lines for me. I live here and this is is my city too, but that team and those fans, they are not… anything I want to be associated with. I always joke about exile in Oiler country, but it does feel like that sometimes.

This last week we were in Vancouver for a game. And it felt like… like coming home. I don’t know how to put it into words any better than that. This Wednesday we're flying back to Vancouver for a playoff game and I know standing there waving my towel and cheering and Louuu-ing that I'll get all teared up and be filled with so much love that my heart won't know what to do with it's self. I've paid way too much to go there and have to beg to get the day off, but for me to have that feeling. To be blessed enough to see these boys that I love so much, entertain me and make me so proud… it's priceless and it's amazing. I love them.

playoff beards and random babble

There are things that are more important in my life than hockey. Even if sometimes it doesn't seem like that, and at the same time right now all that I can even think of is knitting this playoff beard. No pattern and no idea what I'm doing and precious little time, but by God. I'm going to get it ready before I get to Vancouver for a playoff game. Come hell or high water. That being said I got exactly nothing finished on it today, and I go back to work tomorrow, so clearly I am full of hot air, amongst other things! At any rate I think all of this is a better use of my time than thinking about the chocolate man commercial and how I'd eat a lot of that and ruin him forever? Yep. Much better. Meow!