Home Sweet Home

Dayna and I moved into our new house on February 27^th, this is the primary reason I haven’t been able to update my blog.  We have been busy doing lots of little things around at the house and having a great time doing all the work. 

Here’s a timeline from our first couple of weeks:

 Tuesday - Move into house, We have a couple of minor plumbing leaks and some painting to do upstairs

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Wednesday - Unpack half our stuff, Stove and Dishwasher delivered, Install new toilet

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Thursday - Re-pack our stuff for painting in living room, hallway and master bed room, Fridge delivered

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Saturday - On our first weekend, Dayna’s dad comes over with his 2 friends Dave the plumber and Robert the painter.   Robert had us sanding the walls and fixing/finishing the molding a round the doors, don and dave look at the plumbing.  They decided to replace all the old copper pipes with pex.  Open dishwasher and realize they brought us the wrong one

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Sunday (3^rd)– we installed 2 new hose bibs and tear out half the ceiling in the basement to install the new pipes

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Monday – continue work on painting

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Thursday – Clean out gutters, new dishwasher and microwave hood fan delivered.

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Friday  - finish painting in living room

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Saturday - pack up and sand the walls in the master bedroom.  Help with plumbing, almost all the piping is in

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Sunday (11^th) – leave for Cuba for a week

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Sunday (18^th) return from Cuba, our room was finished while we were away, but we have to put the blinds back up and set up our bed before we can sleep

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Saturday – switch the water over to the new lines, replace ceiling tiles in the basement

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Sunday (25^th) – install dishwasher and complete repair is complete. Finally! Fertilized the lawn and sprayed for moss

Huge thanks to Dave and Robert for all there help!

Cuba

At first it seemed a little weird that we would be going to Cuba 2 weeks after moving in however, after all the work we were doing it was a chance to relax for a week.  We stay at the Barcelo Solemar in Varadero.  Dayna’s parents and a few cousins also came on the trip.  We had a fun time together, we took a day trip to Havana as well as a jeep tour, where we drove a jeep around the country side.  We stay had some quality beach time include time to build a sand castle.

Time to unpack and set everything up and relax for a little bit.  I have a bunch of travel coming up before we can start up any more projects. I just got back from San Diego for the first World cup of the year. Next stop Norway.

Home owners

On Monday Dayna and i went to court to finalize the sale for our house.  Lucky for us no one else came to bid on the house and we got it for our original bid.  Here are a couple of photo i was able to take this week.   We move in on February 27th.

Valentines Day dessert on the deck of our new house

I was also finally able to post our Wedding slideshow on Youtube. Follow this link to find it:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puNUqiFAVWs 

Turn up the heat

I haven't had an update in a while because there hasn’t been too much to update.

Dayna and I went skiing at Whistler for a day.  I haven’t been Skiing at Whistler since Steve and I went like 4 years ago.  We had a fun time playing in the snow.  

The Indoor BMX track has been open for the last couple of weeks and I have been going to the indoor a couple of days a week.

I have been in Tampa for the continental championships for the past week, I came here looking for some great weather, hoping to get a tan.   However, it was cool all week and got colder.  At the track today it was near freezing with winds up to 25km/h.  I didn’t’ expect to have to wear a T-shirt, long sleeve, sweater, Hoody and Coat, plus 2 pairs of pants in Florida. Oh well. We had a good time of it anyway.

We have been patiently waiting for our court date on our house. 
Monday is the day.  Excited and nervous at the same time!

It's Winter in BC

I finished off the holidays with a couple of Bike rides on my new bike.  My New Years resolution is to be more active.  To often I have found myself not doing anything physical in day, just work, TV, eat, sleep.  I have been actively trying to get out more and ride my bike.  The other night I even went for a night cross country ride.  We put lights on our bikes so we can see in the woods.

The weather was nice on new years eve so I went golfing in the morning, it was nice to cap off the year with one of my best rounds of the year, on a frozen golf course.  +8 on 9 holes, but who’s counting.   I put my new zip wedge to good use!

In the evening Dayna and I went t to a friends house for the celebration.  One of the weird things about new here in BC, is that we always watch a taped broadcast from New York City.  Why can’t we have a live version form the west coast.

For the first weekend of the year I got to go to Alberta and build an indoor track in Olds.  I would like to stay I enjoyed my time there and got a taste of winter, but winter followed me home, more on that later.  The best part of the trip was being able to have dinner with Dan and Tracy before flying home on Saturday night.

So yes, winter followed me home.  We currently have snow and were in a cold spell of -4C.  It supposed to last the week and then get better.

Last night, we had a sushi party at a friends house.  We made our own sushi.

House update:  Dayna and I have put in an offer of the Carshill house.  The bank has accepted and we are currently waiting for our day in court.  We should hear something this week.  Then hopefully no one coming to court and out bids us. 

Happy Holidays

It has been an exciting and fun holiday season.  Last Tuesday I took a day off and we went downtown to go skating on the outdoor rink on Robson street.  

In the evening we went on the Christmas train in Stanley park. 

Canucks vs Wings.  The Jensen’s and I took the bus from the pub down to the game.

I sold my old mountain bike and bought a new one on the 23^rd.  

On Christmas eve Dayna and I went for a ride to try out my new bike.   Try and find Dayna in the woods.

Christmas tree at the Picco’s

On Boxing day Dayna and I went to future shop at 6am to buy a Dyson vacuum.  It was crazy how may people were at the store at 6am.  If we were 10 minutes later we would have totally missed out.   Crazyness.

Lastly, so far we are not moving next month.  We have been looking at some houses and we may put in an offer on a house in Maple Ridge.  Stay tuned to see how it progresses.

Happy Holidays to All! 

Movember

A full months update, so i'm being lazy and doing bullet points with pictures.

BC Lions game

o   With BC place reopening and the BC Lions on a roll.  We went to the BC Lions game against the Edmonton Eskimos, the battle for first place.

Halloween

o   My favorite thing so far this fall has been being able to spend some time at home with my wife and relax.   I was home for 3 weeks in the end of October and after a 2 week trip to Ontario, I’m home for another 5 weeks for Christmas.

o   For Halloween Dayna and I carved our annual pumpkins

Movember

o   In the month of November I grew a moustache to raise money for prostate cancer.  Thank you for everyone that donated, I raised $220.  

Weekend in Seattle

o   The first weekend in November we booked a last minute trip to Seattle on my La Quinta points. We spend the night in downtown Seattle, when for a nice dinner and relaxed. In the morning we went on the Underground tour of the old city and walked around the city.  We had lunch by the pike fish market.  

COC OES

o   Off to Toronto for a couple of days of meeting and an interesting hot yoga session….. no for me.   Following our meeting we had the COC OES (Canadian Olympic community Olympic excellence series).  It was exciting to meeting other Olympic coaches and talked/plan for the games in august.

Copetown

o   What to say about the slave labour tour.  No, I had a great time visiting with my family and probably got a years worth of work done in 7 days.   I was great to see my family and spend time with them, one of the things I really miss living so far away is my family.  Plus when I buy I house, they’ll have to come out and do some work for me.

o   Now in December we have put in our notice that we will be moving.  In January were moving back to Maple Ridge into another basement suite.  It will be a good test as to where we’ll want to buy.  Were hoping to buy a place in the next 8-12 months. 

Pan Ams wrap up

Our female team pursuit team on their way to gold and a pan am record.

Morning of the BMX race.  They scheduled our event for 9am, so we had to be at the track at 7:30am and it was still dark.  The races went well and the lone Canadian Jim Brown made the final.  We were happy for Jimmy to end the season with a solid finish.

Here is Curt Harnett (1996 Olympic medalist in track cycling) reenacting his Pert Plus commercial to the cycling team.  He quoted it word for word, we watched it on YouTube after to confirm.  Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-xxC_qImd0   ….. Priceless

To go to event we supposedly needed ticket, except when we arrived all we needed was our accreditation.  Jim and I walked into swimming and tennis (almost on to the court). 

How to make working the road race interesting

We finished off our games with a Canada vs. Brazil female soccer game.  The 2 top ranked teams ended 0-0.   Then it was off to bed for a 3am wake up call and a 12-hour travel day home.

Home sweet home. So happy to be home for a couple of weeks.  Food never tasted so good!