This Hair's For You

Everyone thinks of A Flock Of Seagulls as a one-hit wonder from the early 80's, even though they had a number of singles, including "I Ran", "Space Age Love Song" and "Wishing", to name but a few. Instead of their music, everyone remembers the ridiculous haircuts. Sigh. Yes, the hair was ridiculous, but the music was fantastic!

I've been rounding out my AFOS collection recently with b-sides and rarities and came across this little gem...AFOS doing a Budweiser beer advertisement!!! How cool is that?

If I'm not mistaken, it is loosely based on their song "Telecommunication".

Ghosts of Jingles Past...

30 years after I first heard it...17 years after leaving Nova Scotia...the bloody Casino Taxi jingle is still solidly embedded in my head. Whenever someone asks me for the number of a taxi, the first thing that pops into my head is 429-6666. Well, sheesh, that doesn't do a feller much good here in Vancouver does it? I tried to find the Casino Taxi commercial on youtube but it's not there. As far as I can recall, these are the lyrics:

"If you're a person on the go, write down this number

It's the key to travelling quick!

It's Casino Taxi's number

429-6666

Casino Taxi, they're the fast ones

Casino Taxi, near as your phone!

No need to run, don't get wet, dial that number

429-6666 (ba ba ba) or 425-6666 (ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba!)"

As far as I know, there are no other taxis in Halifax. That was a great jingle.

I can say the same thing for the Halifax Pizza Huts..."42 O - double O - double O, it's ooey gooey good!"

Now if anyone can remind me of the lyrics to the Green Gables convenience store jingle, my day would be complete. "At Green Gables we stay open just for you!"

OK, well it's not the original ad by any stretch, but my aunt June did find this version on youtube, at least to give you a vage idea of the Casino Taxi jingle. The original ad was much punchier!

Thanks June, for coming up with this...not sure if it is 100% right but it sounds pretty close to me...

You forgot to buy some food and now it's late.
You'd like a tasty snack, but it's late.
Come on down to Green Gables, morning noon or night
Our shelves are filled with goodness, our stores are clean and bright.
Day or night, remember what we do
At Green Gables we stay open just for you.

That made my day! Love that tune as well!

Don't Bother Me...Blogger At Work

Hey, get that camera out of my face, Brooks...

If you wanna see more pics of the kids and what they're up to, it doesn't hurt to post a comment every once in awhile, people!

Jamboree G-O-A-L

Saturday was the end of season soccer jamboree, where the Condors played 4 matches at UBC on the spectacular new artificial turf. These games were 7 on 7, played on a much larger pitch than during the regular season. The larger playing surface meant the boys had to practice the skills they learned during the year and play together as a team. The kids who are used to running end to end on the smaller field quickly tired out, and passing was key.

And wouldn't you know it, Justin dashed up to the side of the net and drilled a pass into the net for the first goal of the jamboree for the Condors. Way to go, Justin! It was an awesome goal, and it got him fired up such that he was in the heat of a lot of action. He took a nasty boot to the shin that took him down awhile, but later on made a great play on defense and booted the ball about a mile up field to his teammate. I've never seen him kick the ball so hard and far before.

But you know what the best part of the soccer jamboree is? It is the END! The last games of a gruelling season that runs from September to March, through the cold, wet days of a Vancouver winter. Thank the good Lord it is finally over!!! With the length of the season, I'm surprised Vancouver isn't turning out more world class soccer players. I'm exhausted. Baseball is up next!

Seattle

We spent a few days in Seattle over March break. It isn't far from Vancouver but we haven't been there with the kids before. I guess because its just a typical dirty American city that pales by comparison to the beauty and cleanliness of Vancouver. Seattle is kind of a bigger, dirtier, more run down, less spectacular version of Vancouver. And with an overcrowded freeway running right through the middle of it. Blech. Whoever it was that decided to shelve the idea of a freeway through downtown Vancouver deserves a medal.

The area around the Space Needle is semi-interesting. There`s a combination museum of music and science fiction...right...hmm...ok then, moving on...there`s some interesting architecture there.

The kids were hiding behind the art, and yes, Justin is there hiding in the background somewhere. Zero cooperation! I`m sure I wasn`t that difficult when I was a kid. That`s Jess and Jamie hanging out with us.

Nonetheless, I managed to get a picture of the little monster.

And speaking of monsters, Justin was swallowed by a whale at the Children`s museum, where we blew off about 4 hours! Sheesh! A good rainy day thing to entertain the rug rats.

Justin did a great job on the rock wall.

The weather finally turned and we took in the zoo. The kids enjoyed a ride on the vintage carousel.

Justin, Jess, Brooks and Jamies take a ride on a komodo dragon.

You know, I just don`t even know where to begin to describe this picture. At some point over the past year, I`m sure Justin was abducted and replaced with an alien clone.

Overall, the kids had fun, we had some great pizza from Serious Pies, the hotel was a super mega deal, the zoo was pretty cool and it was nice to get away. If I had to rank the major cities of the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver is by far number one, and I`d recommend Portland over Seattle without hesitation.

One Last Olympics Related Picture?

Holy cow! Just got this picture from Justin's school. Who says Canadians aren't patriotic? But this is a little over the top! We've come out of the Olympics with a fever pitch of Canadian patriotism...sure to impact my kids for their entire lives.

I have to admit that I've always considered myself Nova Scotian first and Canadian second, but I don't think there's any worry of that happening to Justin and Brooklyn. Furthermore, Justin went into the Olympics mildly interested in hockey and has come out a hockey nut! He commented while the Canucks game was on TV last night that Ryan Kessler played for Team USA and Roberto Luongo was Canada's goalie. Wow, I guess he was paying attention!

New Car - BMW 528i

Yeah, I broke down and got silver this time. I got tired of constantly washing that damned black car, even though it was much more stylish. This one has the great luxuries of my old car like the heated steering wheel, heated seats, parking assist, automatic passenger side mirror adjust for parking, handsfree cell phone and so on, plus a usb jack for my iPod, free satellite radio, automatic side view mirror retraction in parking lots so people don't take off your mirrors, gps navigation system and great one touch buttons for your favourite radio stations or dialing phone numbers. Rides like a dream. The US auto makers have a long way to go to compete...

What A Party...Sad It's Over

It has been an astounding 17 days of competition, but the games were so much more than medals. I have never seen anything like this. Canadians embraced these games and it was a non-stop, magical experience. The venues were full, the fans cheered with passion, and the city was behind the games fully and completely. Everyone was happy wherever you went.

We started off with the tragic death of the Georgian luger, the cauldron glitch, no snow, broken down zambonis and an Olympic flame secured behind a chain link fence, and things didn't look so good for Vancouver. I was nervous. But the spirit of the people took hold and Vancouverites took over the streets, people filled the Live City sites and then the brilliant, if unusual, February sunshine made the city sparkle like a jewel.

Canadians, typically repressed when it comes to displays of patriotism, took to the streets in red and white. Never have I seen so many Canadian flags, hockey jerseys, maple leafs and painted faces. It was the most amazing display of love for our country I have ever seen. It was not difficult to get swept up in national pride and it was so contagious it spread across the country and even to visitors from nations around the world.

I will always remember coming out of the hockey game v. Russia only to stop at a pub to watch the Canadian women go silver and gold in bobsleigh. That Wednesday was an incredible day for Canada, and the beginning of the gold rush in the final days of the Olympics.

These were great games. Fun games. Friendly games. The world left smiling and even though I'm sad it is over, it is 17 days I will remember forever!



The sky lit up every night in downtown Vancouver!



The light show...



A snowboarder flies over Robson Square on the zipline!

Cool. Lasers.

Ken is glad he came home from Houston to experience a city gone mad!



Brian and Ken on the streets!

Wow, what a rush. Congrats, Canada! Congrats, Vancouver!

Leave No Doubt...Canada ROCKS!!!

Photo of Team Canada's dressing room...

Leave no doubt…this is OUR game. This was the slogan plastered all over Team Canada’s dressing room. My co-worker’s brother works for Easton and had incredible access to the dressing room and the players. He has a great photo of he and Luongo with his gold medal after the game in the dressing room. Wow! How lucky!

What an incredible journey this Olympics has been for Canada…

14 GOLD! The most EVER won by a host country…in fact a record for gold medals for ANY country in the winter Olympics. In European terms, Canada is the outright winner of the games, since they tend to judge the winner based on the number of gold medals, not the overall medal count. We did OWN THE PODIUM!!! Way to go, Canada!!! Our athletes were amazing from curling to speed skating to moguls to hockey.

Sure, the Americans had the most overall medals, but Canada still scored 26 medals in total…a RECORD for Canada and 2 more than our previous high of 24 in Torino. And Canada missed many medal opportunities because our athletes were going for gold and wiped out or crashed because they were pushing so hard! We had more top 8 finishes than any other country!

Canada kicked ass, and won the most important gold medal of all…HOCKEY GOLD…in dramatic fashion, in a game we'll remember here in Canada for all time, 3-2 over the brash American upstarts. It was payback after losing to the USA in the round robin game 5-3. Sidney Crosby redeemed himself after a failed break away in the third and caught the magnificent Miller off guard in overtime. WOW!!! And I thought the stunning victory over Russia was amazing!!!

16.6 million Canadians watched the game making it the most watched program EVER on Canadian television. After the puck went in the net the entire country erupted in one great cheer that was heard around the world! From Sidney Crosby’s hometown in Nova Scotia to the LiveCity site in Yaletown, Canadians were overcome with joy, winning hockey gold here on our home soil. Team Canada skated around the rink waving a massive Canadian flag as tears of happiness rolled down the cheeks of millions red and white clad fans from coast to coast to coast. Thousands of Canadians took to the streets…closing down most of downtown Vancouver and even Yonge Street in Toronto! Oh Canada!!! What a finish to the greatest Olympics ever!!! Whoohoo!!!

I might add that Team Canada scored more goals than any team has ever done at the Olympics. Simply put, the boys got the job done.

I am prouder than ever to be CANADIAN!!! TRUE NORTH STRONG!!! Go Canada Go!!!!!!

Canada House

Canada House, sporting 50's-esque-McDonald's-like arches, was designed by an American firm and was a sore point for Canadians in the days leading up to the games. Oh well, it was cool anyway, with Gretzky's jersey on display, interactive hockey and snow boarding games and an opportunity to get your picture taken with the Olympic torch. Lighten up, people, what else do you need?

Why yes, you're right! Beer! Well, there was a beer garden right across the plaza. Mmm.

Canada 40-something...Ken and Brian!

The Great One's jersey...

Passing the doobie...I mean torch...from one Canadian to another!

Would it be OK to club a baby seal with this thing? Hahaha...OK, bad joke, just kidding. Well, I'm not really, you could do some damage with this bad boy. OK, I'm kidding, just go to the next picture, would ya!



Ken shoots!



Interactive hockey and I didn't get along. Maybe it was the beers...more beers, please!

Bronze Medal Game!

Ah, so much to blog and so little time. The past few days have been one non-stop celebration of Canadian GOLD! Last Sunday was supposed to be Super Sunday and we came up empty...our Own The Podium program was looking like a sinkhole of taxpayer money...but then we had Wonderful Wednesday, Fantastic Friday, Stellar Saturday and SWEET SUNDAY! Yeah, baby!!!

The stinking lousy Fins didn't even make the Americans skate in their semi-final, which is why the USA was so well rested to take on Team Canada on Sunday. That's also why I had to cheer against them in the bronze medal game that Ken and I attended on Saturday night. That and the fact that Slovakia has a great team that played its heart out at the Olympics. The Slovaks have never won a hockey medal, but this team beat the Russians and the Swedes, and almost beat Canada. Pretty impressive. Hossa, Gaborik, Demitra, Handzus, Satan, Chara, Stumpel, Palffy, Halak...a team with a ton of NHL talent.

The Fin team was loaded with talent too, but I'm too disgusted with them to mention any names after the total collapse to the Americans. Ugh.



Ken and I hanging out in mainly Canadian crowd...but one that enjoyed a great hockey game regardless of the countries involved. That's what was so great about these Olympics, the Canadian fans enjoyed every minute and every great performance by every country.

Face off!

Hossa from the Detroit Red Wings was dangerous throughout the Olympics...

He scores! Slovakia was up 3-1 after 2 periods of play! Go Slovakia!

Oh no! The Fins pour it on in the third period! Slovakia falls behind!

The Slovaks give it their all to tie the game at 4...but...no goal!

The Fins win the bronze and I lose a bet with Ken. Oh well, it was a lot of fun. Who knew a hockey game between Finland and Slovakia could be so entertaining!