It's the end of the world as we know it...

and I Don't feel FINE about it!

This morning... I woke up to gas prices being a RIDICULOUS $103.9/L ... I can't believe how STUPID that is. My first clue that SOMETHING was wrong with the world was when I walked past the neighborhood 7-11 and it wasn't even POSTING a gas price. I instantly paniced. Could they not FIT the new price on their sign? When I went to bed gas was 98.9. I always wondered what would happen when we got into 3-digit gas prices (not counting the decimal)... cuz hardly any of the signs around town are equipped to handle that. Silly me - I thought that maybe gas would NEVER get more expensive than 99.9. But today I learned that I was naive in my assumption. I learned that when gas prices get too ridiculously high - they just don't POST them anymore. EXCEPT for the Petro-Canada that I drove past. It PROUDLY boasted its new gas price... excited that their investment into that 3rd digit for their sign was finally paying off.

Well I say - SCREW IT. I'm not EVER buying gas for more than 99.9.... that is high enough as it is. I've never paid a dollar for gas YET - NOT EVEN IN BC!!!!! and I'm NOT gonna start now!

Goodbye Achilles... it's been nice knowing you...

hello calgary transit...

I think I'll write a strongly worded LETTER!

On Saturday... me & Liz & Eyk went to Sylvan Lake waterslides. It was a BEAUTIFUL day... the park was PACKED... and we only got on 10 or 11 slides. WHAT the HECK??? We were there for like... 5 hours?... and yes - it's true... we went on SO few slides.

AND THIS IS WHY:

SYLVAN LAKE has the WORST SYSTEM for deciding when the next person can go down the slide!!!!! The people who work at the top of the slide just SIT there and daydream for awhile (a LONG while) until they decide to open the gate so the next person can go down.

SERIOUSLY it was REALLY annoying. Whenever I went down... if Liz or Eyk went after me, I had to wait at the bottom for like... a MINUTE before they came out... and it only takes like... 15-20 seconds to slide down?

They could get a LOT more people down a LOT more slides if they were more efficient.

HERE are my suggestions for the owners of sylvan lake, in order of preference:
1. INVEST in some kinda SENSOR system like west edmonton mall has so that people can automatically go down the slide when the light turns green.
2. Have the people who work there WATCH from the TOP to make sure the person going down the slide has reached a certain point, and then let the next person go.
3. Buy a STOP-watch for everyone that works there so that there is SOME sorta regularity.

All in all it was a good day... it's just disappointing to think that we spent $25 to get in there... and that worked out to $2.50 per slide. Not the best deal ever.

I'm gonna be an AUNTIE!!!!

for REAL this time I am... and here is a picture of the little guy... or girl! M&M is expected to arrive in late January... so the countdown continues!!

"That is the definition of a cult..."

I work with some people who have interesting views on life... I always thought that they were just obnoxious and ignorant. But I just overheard a conversation that makes me sad and angry at the same time. This guy at work (let's call him... john) is talkin to someone (I'm NOT eavesdropping - he talks LOUD!) about his brother-in-law who is a dentist... but he doesn't have any money because he gives half of it to the church. He can't understand why someone would give all their money to a charitable organization. "That is the definition of a cult... once you give them all your money - you're hooked - they can control you". And he followed that up by saying "you may as well give all your money to the red cross".

Is there a huge difference here? I mean - yes - we are called to tithe... but... if John decided to give up his glamorous squandering lifestyle and gave 10% of his earnings to red cross... that's better than nothing right? at least there is SOME level of generosity and well-doing in that.

I have to admit that I SUCK at tithing regularly... I keep track of how much I owe (so in the end it all evens out)... but I do NOT tithe on a regular basis... and the more I forget to tithe the bigger the number I have to write on my next check... the more bitter I get about having to do it. NOT BITTER exactly. But I just can think of all the other things I would rather spend my money on. This is bad I know... and I'm TRYING to work on it. It's just hard to be surrounded by people who make WAY MORE than I do... and spend it ALL on themselves. All I hear about is the new house, the new car, the new boat, the new huge TV, the glamorous weekend away somewhere... it's hard to not be affected by that. I even have family members that don't tithe... And its hard to not be a LITTLE jealous of their materialistic lives.

I know that God is going to bless me for giving back to him... but its just sometimes hard to keep sight of that!!

http://hikinggalore.blogspot.com/

We are keeping track of the hikes we do this summer. I never can remember (by name) which hikes I've done, and which ones I actually liked and blah blah blah. So ya... check this link out! It might even prove to be informative for someone other than myself!

The Lion, The Witch and... ugh... ASLAN

Eyk and I went to Christian Pub the other day... and we were so excited cuz we bought "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" on CD! Last summer Eyk reintroduced me to this WONDERFUL series of books... and I've read the entire Chronicles since then... so when we saw them on CD we were both excited... and we opted to buy the Lion & the Witch separately before we buy the entire set.

Anyways... we were listening to it today on the way home from Golden... and we were LOVING IT... until ASLAN came into the story. Before you freak out... let me explain. The problem is that I don't like Aslan's VOICE on the CDs and its wrecking it for me!!! Aslan, in Eyk's description, sounds like a French person trying to cover their accent while pretending to be English. My description is that he sounded like a pompous-french snake on CRACK... or something. There was NOTHING in his voice that even comes CLOSE to what I think he should sound like! It makes me scared for the movie that comes out in December. I hope the director of the movie tried to portray the characteristics of God better than the person who developed these CDs. He says S's like a SNAKE and speaks really LOUD and condescendingly... ugh. So annoying!

I was driving while we were listening to it... so sometimes I would get distracted and stop listening for awhile... and when Aslan started talking - I thought it was one of the scary bad-guy wolves or something... until Eyk told me it was Aslan... cuz he sounded so creepy and scary!

I just think it's weird...

why live life, when you can watch it?

I was watching TV the
other day with my cousins... when a commercial on MuchMusic came on... and it said: "WHY LIVE LIFE, when you can WATCH IT?"...

That is the single most STUPID and offensive thing that I've ever heard on TV... EVER! I suppose there are some things that if I had to choose - I would rather watch, than live. Like... transit bombings in London... or other random acts of terrorism. But I know that is a selfish choice and deep down I would really just rather that junk like that didn't happen at all.

I spent all week doing touristy things with my cousins... and realizing that I have SO MUCH more life to LIVE that its kinda sad!! (in a good way!!) Some of my relatives, have now officially seen more of the Banff and Lake Louise area than I have... and they aren't from this half of the continent!!

Stuff on my list of things to DO, not WATCH now includes:
- hike to the teahouse in Lake Louise (and do all the other hikes too!)
- see Moraine Lake near Lake Louise
- drive the back highway route to Lake Louise
- horsebackriding in Banff area
- canoe on Moraine Lake
- stay at the Douglas Fir Resort in Banff (cuz they have 2 HUGE waterslides!!)
- possibly the $5 luge ride at C.O.P.

... and probably more things... but I forget right now...