In anticipation of Vegas, it was something of a gambling weekend...and I came out ahead!

Friday night, after work, a few of us played a small, winner take all, game. I played fairly conservatively, bet at the right times, and managed to take the game, winning $40. Saturday night was Adam's poker tourney...bigger buy in and a few more players. I was on fire right off the bat, starting out with pocket 3s which ended up giving me a full house once the river came out. I continued to play conservatively, but strong and built up a pretty good pile of chips. Herch and Jack both went on on a double knock-out by Adam's friend, Kevin, who beat them on the river. Choy lasted a bit longer, but was 3rd out, and Adam died 4th. This left me at the table with a buncha guys I didn't know (all Adam's friends). It was fine...the others went to play a $10 game in the kitchen, and I continued on at the main table. My pile of chips dwindled a bit...I wasn't getting the hands I had been in the beginning. I won a few though, but a couple of stupid calls cost me a buncha chips (I met a pre-flop all in with a Q2...the other guy had pocket 4s, and no queen came up on the board). I had a great comeback when it was down to 4 players. I called a pre-flop all in, this time with pocket queens (the all in just about put me all in as well...so I'd have been out had I lost). The other guy had KA (suited...spades). The flop came out and in it was a king...giving him a pair of kings and beating my queens. Th turn yielded no advantage, but the river brought out her highness giving me trip queens and taking dude outta the game (and securing at least my money back!). That was a heart-thumper of a hand. My demise came not too much later. I had a heartbreaker of a hand when I held onto a suited 78, and a 7 and an 8 came out on the flop (and a queen). I thought I had it, I shoulda gone all in, but I decided to just bet moderately big and drag it out. The turn was nothing, but the river was another queen, giving me two pair, queens and eights...with a 7 kicker. Dude I was up against had an 89 in his hand, giving him the same two pair, but with a 9 kicker. Argh!! I was wounded pretty good after that one, and my final few hands were not played terribly well. I decided to go all in on a stupid hand, thinking I could bluff it out, as I didn't really have strong cards. I lost...but getting third meant I got my money back. 'Twas a good poker tourney though.

Saturday I also played squash in the afternoon. Herch, Yeech, BOS, and Yeech's friend Shona were in attendance. I only won one game vs BOS...and it was a beautiful comeback from 8-2! Shona was a beginning to the game...much like I was just a few month ago (not that I'm much beyond a beginner now). She played well for her second time out. I had a few great rallys with Yeech and Herch, but couldn't get the upper hand on 'em.

Sunday I was lazin' around, then Yeech called and he, I, and Herch went for lunch buffet at Fountain (Chinese). It was good. The rest of the afternoon was spent messing around on the computers and not getting a heck of a lot accomplished...well, ok...some stuff was accomplished.

I went for a short run last week...8 songs I think (although I did lose track at one point). Need to go for at least a 15 song run this week...hopefully the weather is good.

I depressed the electronic shutter button on the top of my digital camera, but no picture was taken. It turned out my 256MB SD Memory Card was full. Oh well...I'd taken enough pictures. Earl had the Jeep turned around and was slowly starting his descent. I walked behind, keeping an eye out for the rubber plug that fell out of the tow hitch on the way up. The road was an old cutline access...it wasn't very long. We had used it to reach the top of a small hill to take some pictures of the mountains across Kootenay Lake. It was not a used road...there were holes and rocks and small trees all over it. At the top end, things were easy and safe...with the mountain on one side, and a smaller berm on the other side. Nearer the bottom though, the berm disappeared and it was a dropoff to the ditch running alongside the highway. The Jeep bumped and rattled as Earl manouevered it down the road, but it's a surefooted machine and it handled the terrain with no trouble. But near the bottom, maybe 20 feet up from the highway, Earl got a bit too close to the wrong side of the road and the front tire started to sluff off on the loose rock. Stop! Ok, we've got a problem. With the rocks being so loose, and the Jeep being so close to the edge, it was very possible that any further attempt to move forward might result in sliding sideways and rolling the Jeep...not good. Luckily Earl has a 12,000 lb winch on the front. We located a tree stump up the mountain a bit and ran the winch cable up to it. With the front end now supported, it was time to attempt getting out. With I calling directing the turning of the wheels, and Earl juggling both the driving and winching, the Jeep moved a short distance and then the backend started to slip. Stop! Rethink. Breathe. Ok, I run the winch, Earl drives, and we take it real slow. I kept the pressure on the front with the winch, and Earl got the wheel turned on the right angle to get the Jeep out of harms way and back onto solid road. Phew! One more hole and then the ditch back onto the highway (which looked impressive as the Jeep tottered on two wheels as it went through) and we were good to go.

That was Sunday, the day before I was to leave the Kootenays and return home after my 10 day vacation and visit with Earl.

Earl is a friend I made in New Zealand. I met him through Ian. He is originally from Canada, but spent 11 or 12 years in NZ as a distribution agent for Subway. He is now back in Canada, living in a great, old house in Kaslo. I had not seen him since I left New Zealand.

During my visit we did some off-roading (as is clear from the start of this post)...the first time we went, we ending up winching out of trouble twice, although that trouble was not the rolling danger that was Sunday...just 'stuck in snow' type of trouble. We explored north, travelling through New Denver and Nakusp.

Some days we worked on his house...he's putting down new floors everywhere and had much of them done. We put down the one in his office, which was easy enough, although all the books had to be moved off his bookshelves so we could get them out of the way. As he has quite the collection of books and magazines, that was a job and a half in itself. The flooring looks awesome...it's Lapacho wood, from South America...very hard, very nice grain. I also moved some of the electronic equipment for his office into the basement, wiring things through a hole in the floor. That cleaned up the mess of wires he had running along the floor nicely, as well cleared up a bit of shelf space.

Some other days we worked on his car (a '66 427 Cobra) whilst visiting his parents. His parents were great, putting us up and feeding us for 3 days. I met Earl's brother, Mike, who also seems like a good guy. The car is all in pieces right now, as it undergoes restoration to original status. Most equipment on the car is original, but either needs cleaning, rebuilding, or replacement with something that is original or replica original. The engine is out because it was rebuilt recently...although I'm sure he'll have it back in soon enough. I plugged away on cleaning items and prepping areas to be painted. I don't know a whole lot about working on cars, so I just do what I'm told (especially when it's a car of this stature).

We watched a lot of movies...at least one every night. He has a screen and projector, so it was pretty much like being at the theatre. I won't even list the movies we watched...there were so many. I did finally see The Black Stallion, which he has been bugging me to watch for a while now. It was good.

So that was my trip. It was good to getaway, good to visit with Earl, and lovely to be in the Kootenays...they are really very beautiful. It was that cold either...sure the ground was frozen, but there wasn't much in the way of snow and I was comfortable enough in just my light jacket.

Came home Monday, Q&S picked me up at the airport, then we went for dinner at Red Robin (and Liane met us there). Back to work on Tuesday...nothing much had changed there (although somehow they managed to mess up the functioning of the Citytv switcher a little bit).

Vegas is coming up...can't wait!

Went for a 15 song run this morning...well, sorta morning. It passed from morning to afternoon while I ran. Beautiful day for a run...wow, the weather sure has changed in the last week! It's great running weather...it's sunny, so it's pleasant to run, but it's still cool out cause it's February...so you don't get uncomfortably hot whilst running (I'm usually actually cold for the first kilometer or two..especially in the shade). 15 songs is pretty good, last week I did a 16. This translates to about 10k...although last week it took me over an hour to complete, and this week I did it in just under an hour! I've signed up for the TC10K again this year...April 30th. I intend to beat my time of 57:14 from last year.

Booked a trip to Vegas (that's Las Vegas, in case you're a dumbass and not in the know) this morning, before the run. Myself, Q, Yeech, and Herch, plus possibly a couple other guys will be flying down to Sin City for a few days of debauchery next month. I've never been, but have wanted to go for a long time. Very excited!

I haven't played squash in a while...I need to get back at it.

The Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival is over. I volunteered three times...last Saturday night, and this past Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The first night was without incident. The Saturday afternoon I had an incident. I ran a movie, The Taming of the Shrew, as a widescreen (16:9) feature, when it was intended to be viewed at 4:3. Yes, it's my fault, I take the blame...but! The slate on the tape did say that it was 16:9 (and there was even a circle in the slate, that only looked circular when viewing in 16:9 mode. Plus! the first couple minutes of the movie, which was all I was really able to watch into when setting it up, looked fine to me running in 16:9. Apparently there was one or two complaints...hopefully not too many people noticed (or cared). The theatre was quite full. Sunday afternoon sorta had an incident, but this was not my fault and there was nothing I could do. The movie, Satellite (which was quite good), was letterboxed 4:3. I set it up properly, but the image was blown up quite big to fill the screen. Anyways, the cinematography in the film was somewhat inconsistent and looked out of focus sometimes. It was really bothersome to me and a few viewers. I noticed this focus issue when I was setting up the flick, but as I had focused the projector properly, and other parts of the film were in focus (like the titles), I knew it was nothing to do with my projection that caused the fuzzy images. My theory is that the producers shot some scenes with soft focus (possibly on purpose, possibly my accident) and either didn't notice during post production (as it didn't look terribly bad on a small monitor), or weren't able to re-shoot to fix them. Blown up for the big screen, the soft focus was noticeable, but on regular size TVs, I'm sure it would barely come through. Ah well.

I went to the wrap up party last night. I didn't really meet anyone at the fest...just some of the venue volunteers and only for brief moments. The job of projectionist is a lonely one. The organizers gave me a thank-you gift bag containing some Purdy's Hedgehogs, Silk Road Tea, Hemp Soap, and something else I can't even remember. It was very nice and I wasn't expecting anything. I sat at a table with a couple of women who had volunteered as well. I don't want to call these ladies old, but they were older than I. They were very nice and had lots to talk about and we found common ground. The party was at The Reef, so I had some jerk chicken and plantain chips (Choy's favourite). It never really built up any momentum though...probably cause it was a Sunday night. I left around 11:15 I think.

In addition to volunteering for the fest this past weekend, I was also sick...again! This time around it was more runny nose and phlegmy coughing and sneezing...although I did have the sore throat for a day or two. My immune system must be weak. I took Friday off...I coulda probably done ok at work...but Battle woulda killed me if I got him sick...so I did the noble thing and stayed home. Saturday was probably the worst day as far as runny nose. I damn near went through a whole roll of toilet paper in my 5 hour projectionist shift! I had planned to go out that night to celebrate Becky's birthday...but by 8pm I had to admit that I wasn't in the best of shape to be going out...even for a bit (plus I didn't want to get anyone else sick...especially Becks who leaves for NZ on Wednesday). I missed out on some drinkin' and dancin'...ah well. Sunday I started to feel better and by Monday my nose was clear(ish).

Not much else going on. Being sick sucks...I hope to not be sick again for a while, or ever! I am very jealous of Becky going to New Zealand...I hope I can get back there at some point in the somewhat near future. I do have my Earl visit in Kaslo coming up soon...that will be good.