Activesteve.com is Born…

You know, for all the complaining people do about how cold and miserable the winters are around here, I must disagree with them. Take for instance a great weekend that I had on Jan 21-22nd. That weekend had all the trappings of a classic Canadian winter outing. A group of 13 of us guys got together to snowshoe out to Jim Doucette’s property out by Calabogie Peaks for a night of Poker, Cigars, beans and booze. What could possibly make for a better outing I ask you? The cabin, although not completed yet, was plenty comfortable for us. I hauled out a proper poker table, and Jim brought out a ton of food. To make the outing even better, Mother Nature blessed us with a dump of like 25cm of fresh snow. Were it not for that, it might have been a slush-fest. Instead, however, we were treated to a nice peaceful trek in the snow (and of course an associated shovelling of a path to the outhouse!). When we got out there, Jim put Darcy, Kevin and myself to work getting things ready for the rest of the crew. Once 3 other people showed up, I declared a shift change, and the 3 of us went out for a great little snowshoe around the area. Kev took a bunch of pictures throughout the weekend, and you can check them all out in his Calabogie Poker Night set.

Well, since many of you may also follow Kev’s blog, you’d already be aware that he made the jump and actually stood in line to buy a new iPhone. Of course, he’s already written up a post about that, and you can read it in all its glory, should you be inclined. I myself chose not to make that leap. I’ll be holding off on either buying an iPhone or a BlackBerry until my employer opts to make it part of my everyday life. This may surprise some of you, and it was indeed a conscious decision and thought, but I just can’t justify spending $1000+ a year on that kind of service. Why? Well, I’ve got lots of computers already. I have a couple iPods already. I have a cell phone, a work phone, and a home phone. I have several GPS devices (car, wrist, computer, handheld). Do I need to bring them all together just so that I can use them on a whim while walking or in the bus or car? Nope. I decided I don’t. As exciting as the new tech may be, I think I still ascribe to the belief that dedicated units are better. Surely Kev will disagree, and I respect that, but I decided it isn’t for me. However, that didn’t stop me from jumping on a bandwagon just the same, and forking over the same amount of money. What did I get? Well, the XBOX 360 of course! When the price for the 20Gb model dropped to $299, I couldn’t resist any longer. Read on for a little story about that if you’d care to.

Wow, things really get different in the off season for me! This past weekend was a complete departure from the disciplined Steve that I’ve been of late. Instead of denying myself all of my vices in order to train hard, I decided to just ‘let my hair down’ and party hard. Luckily, the doctor had just what I ordered. Friday night was set to be the Dr. Teeth year end party, to celebrate the close of yet another year of playing Ultimate Frisbee. A nice laid back (and by laid back I mean really intense) evening at Dave’s crib with the team-mates. Then, instead of recovering and taking it easy on Saturday, it turned out that it was our good friend Andy’s Birthday! Huzzah. Hmmm, now, how to celebrate that occasion? Why, Lucky Ron of course, with its associated delicious quarts of beer, followed by a nice pub meal at Patty Bolands, along with more beer, then off to some place called ‘Collection’ for a crazy round of Martinis (thanks I-A!). Now, normally, this would conclude my broadcasting night, but instead, we had to head to yet another party at McLarens on Elgin, to help Ian and Esther celbrate their upcoming wedding in New Brunswick. Yikes, turned into another crazy evening again! What follows isn’t for the faint of heart 😉