Who needs horsepower?

This may have been the coolest thing I have ever done. In. My. Life.

Want to go dog sledding an hour west of Calgary?  Snowy Owl is the way to go.

Snow in May

That is just wrong.  So I am getting on a plane and going back to Texas.

One of course did not really lead to the other, but it worked for this post.

I am going to eat Mexican food and bar-b-q.  I am going to shop.  I am going to hang with my brother.  I am going to see a real baseball game.

I am going to be warm.

See you when I get back.

Canadians Please Read This

You DID NOT WIN the War of 1812.

And I am really tired of seeing these magazine covers when I go to the grocery store.

There was another one in October of 2011. The title of that piece was "Damn Yankees Are Trying to Steal Our Victory."

And this is why I don't really care that my older son in getting a "B" in his History Class. I would actually prefer he NOT learn what his Canadian teachers are trying to teach him.

Here is the really funny thing. We DID NOT fight you in the War of 1812. I looked back over some history books because I am not an historian and I don't really remember the War of 1812. Not a really big deal for us. We tend to focus on the Revolution and then jump straight to the Civil War.

Here it is:

(1) We (the Americans) were mad at the British for two reasons. British soldiers were helping the Indians ATTACK our (American) settlements. That is just rude. AND the British were conscripting American soldiers to serve on British ships in the war against Napoleon. That is just wrong.

(2) On June 18, 1812 America declared war on BRITAIN. Not on Canada. There was this big land mass on our Northern border called Canada, but there were no Canadians. Only British subjects. And some "Aboriginal Peoples".

(3) Despite being involved in a war with the French, the British sailed into the Great Lakes and attacked Ohio. I think we should have given them Ohio and been done with it, but we didn't. The Indian Chief Tecumsah helped the British, but we killed him and defeated the British. Round One goes to the Americans.

(4) British ships landed in Washington D.C. and burned The White House, The Capitol and (egads) The Library of Congress. Aside, does this make them book burners? Round Two goes to the British.

(5) Everyone was tired of fighting. The British were busy with the French. The TWO nations, the US and Britain, signed a treaty agreeing to behave as if the war had never happened. Stalemate.

Two things ... you can't lose a war to someone you aren't fighting. And, I would argue that we did not LOSE the War of 1812 in the first place. From a Canadian magazine and I quote, "Military historians generally describe the War of 1812 as a stalemate."

Hey, so just stop it with the magazine covers. And the articles with statements like this, "We won the War of 1812--because we fought to be ourselves." Canada became The Dominion of Canada in 1867. I would suggest that next time you "fight to be yourselves" you might not want to wait 50+ years to actually become a nation.

Get over it.



P.S. Want something we claim. I will gladly give up all rights to Basketball.

P.P.S While we are at it. Why are so many Canadians named Gord?

P.P.P.S There is also no Mexican food here. Y0u may call it that, but it isn't.

Glorious Day

Have you missed them? Those glorious photos of the Canadian Rockies bathed in brilliant sunshine? Were you starting to think that all I did was read? Were you wondering if I ever went outside?

How is that for proof that I go outside?

I may have mentioned it before, but in case you missed it I will state it again. I love to ski.

The opportunity to ski every weekend in the winter was one of the reasons I said "yes" when my husband asked if I wanted to move to Calgary.

We drive 90 minutes, put on our gear, ride the gondola and we are here:

Sunshine Village in Banff National Park.

And yesterday was one of those EPIC days in the Rockies. The sun was shining in the blue sky, the winds were calm, and the snow was almost perfect (a little powder would have been nice).

We branched out from our comfort zone and skied the whole mountain. We skied all three peaks, tackled every color run, and made it down the mountain in one piece. I could talk forever about yesterday, but I could never do it justice.

First lift of the day - freshly groomed.

First Run of the Day - We were the only people on the hill

I sometime have to pinch myself ... I live 90 minutes from here.

You won't see many posts about our skiing for a couple of reasons. It is usually too cold for me to take my hand out of my glove to take a photo. The weather is not always this nice. Sometimes I am too busy skiing to even think about taking photos. But until we start hiking again and you are treated to weekly photos of our adventures, this will have to tide you over.

Just don't forget to watch for explosives:

I don't just read. I ski.

Ski days in 2011-2012 season: 7
Ski days in 2012: 4

I Think He Might Be Spoiled

Child: I Have a confession.
Me: Yes?
Child: I was going to run away on Saturday, but I changed my mind.
Me: Where were you going to go?
Child: XXXX's house.
Me: How were you going to get there?
Child: I was going to call the car service to pick me up.

No Way!

I don't know if my Houston Public Library had this or not. But all I know is that I can CHECK OUT e-books from the library and read them on my iPad. That Rocks.

So I am "totally" a child of the 80's.

First up, Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, one of the 13 books I haven't read in this years Tournament of Books. I don't even care if it is good. I am just excited I don't even have to GO to the library now to get the books I want. I can check them out on my iPad sitting in front of the fire. Where It. Is. Warm.

Life is good.

Oh WOW! Life is even better! Since I still have my Harris County Library Card I can check e-books out from them too!!! Yippee. O.K. so now I am just a geek.

Do You Know What COLD Is?

Worth It

We spent the weekend in Fernie, BC and I could be writing about the 8 inches of fresh powder. I could be writing about the great runs. Or I could be writing about the short lift lines and the great friends we travelled with.

But I am not writing about those things.

I am writing about my new boot heaters.

Slip the insoles into your boots ... my new ski boots came pre-wired ... charge up the batteries and turn them on. Warm toes! I am not kidding.

Eight inches of powder and below freezing temps. Warm toes. Worth. Every. Penny

SPARK

What a great name for a science museum.

We spent our first museum visit since moving to Calgary (I can't believe we haven't been yet - I am museum crazy) at the SPARK Science Center enjoying Astronomy night.

We had so much fun. We took the telescope that my brother gave us for Christmas 3 YEARS ago to the "learn how to use your telescope" night hosted by the Center and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. I had no idea that we have an Equatorial Mount scope. Until last night I didn't even know what and equatorial mount was. The best part of the evening ... after learning how to set up the telescope and taking it outdoors, WE had a line of people waiting to look at the moon. Gives new meaning to the words "amateur astronomy night."

Can't wait to practice and go back in February.

Sunshine Village

I love to ski. No really. I LOVE to ski. I have been downhill skiing since I was about 5 years old. We spent every Christmas in Colorado for years and, many times, Spring Break as well. I married a man who also loves to ski. I will freely admit that the opportunity to really ski again was on of the reasons I said yes to this assignment.

So with a high temp of 22 degrees and flurries in the forecast we headed out to the slopes. Jealous? Wanna see where we went ...

Sunshine Village

Oh my, was it ever as good as I remember. Maybe even better because now my kids are able to ski with us. We don't do the same runs as we used to ... more green and easy blue slopes, but the weather was perfect and the snow was like "champagne powder." I loved it. And who wants to put money on the fact that the boys will be out-skiing us by the end of the season.

Want to see my kids?

My goal - 20 days on the slopes this season. Hey, it lasts until may 23rd.

Glacier/Waterton National Peace Park - Days One and Two

I am very tardy in posting about our trip to Glacier National Park over Labor Day weekend, but as this is my favorite place in the entire world (and having traveled to 36 of the 50 states and at least 25 countries I can say that with some security) I can't just leave it to memory.

The first day of our trip turned out to be a little disappointing. I had expected such great things from the Northern brothers of Glacier National Park and from her majestic looking hotel, The Prince of Wales.

I was seriously underwhelmed by the hotel. While beautiful on the outside ...

the inside could stand a serious renovation. I am not expecting the Fairmont - although I love a good luxury hotel - but just someone to care enough to clean the windows and add some comfortable chairs to the lobby.

We did get in two black bear sightings and a little hiking. Maybe I would have liked this side of the park more if I had hiked more, but we were saving ourselves for two days of strenuous hiking to come.

Day two got better. We went to Target! and ate at the Buffalo Cafe. If you are ever in Whitefish, Montana eat here. The Blue Cheese burger comes close to perfection. Finally we entered Glacier and followed one of the iconic red busses over the Going to the Sun Road.

Laugh AT Your Kids

Sometimes you just have to laugh at your kids.

Even if the other moms in the room look at you like you are committing some form of mild child abuse. The kids are funny.

And they look funny when they fall on their butts on the ice on their first day of ice skating. They look even funnier covered in ice from falling over and over again. They look silly when they are sprawled out face first (with helmets, thank you very much) in the middle of the rink.

I am not a mean mother. I am actually quite nurturing. But this was hysterical.

And you want to know something? Because I was over there laughing with tears running down my face from the sheer joy of watching my kids fall over and over again ... they were laughing too. They weren't crawling over to the side asking me to quit. They weren't sitting on the ice crying - not from pain - but from frustration. They were laughing at themselves and getting up and trying again.

Ice skating is not something that comes naturally to two boys who grew up in Texas. We don't even have icy streets, much less rinks covered in ice. There are one or two indoor rinks, but we play baseball and football. We just don't ice skate, except on Christmas holidays.

That changed yesterday, J and M did skate. And they did it with conviction. They - quite literally - threw themselves into their lessons. They ended up beaten and bruised. But they were laughing the whole time.

I can't wait until next week.

A Very Different Place

My boys are starting the new school year tomorrow. For the first time in 5 years we are in a new place with a new school. I like it.

I like that I don't know any of the teachers. I don't know which teachers go out and regularly get drunk at the bar. I don't know which teachers can add and which ones can't.

I also really like that the teachers don't know my kids. They did not talk to their teachers from last year so they don't know what someone else's preconceived notion is.

They will get to find out for themselves that J is smart in a "think outside of the box sort of way". They will get to find out for himself that he is a veritable encyclopedia of animal facts. They will get to discover that here is a child - and a boy even - who reads because he truly loves to.

They will soon understand the everyone loves M. I mean everyone. His genius is in finding a way to make people like him. They will find out that, because of this, he can also be incredibly lazy. Why should you do the work if you can smile and get someone else to do it for you?

I also really like that they have a natural foods chef on staff who makes all school lunches out of locally sourced organic food. SCORE! They were part of the "Food Revolution" before it became popular.

Welcome to Canada

I had a great day. I got to visit the office of the company that transported my car, the customs office (for the second time in a week), and the Calgary Police District Office after I was rear ended by an Aussie. And I thought the Canadians were the bad drivers. At least I was still driving the rental and not my still almost brand new Subaru.