BC Parks: Chilliwack Lake Park - Lindeman Lake

With the kids not coming back from the Island until this evening Chelsey and I decided to go out for a nice hike. We wanted to go to Greendrop Lake but we learned the snow was still pretty thick up there so we just went as far as Lindeman Lake. Both lakes are within the Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park boundry with the trail head about a 35 minute drive from our house. Although we only made it as far as Lindeman Lake it was still a super good hike as we had time to fish and do some geocaching. As per usual I did not catch any fish, probably too cold for them, but we did find two geocaches. Enjoy the pictures...

Vancouver Real Estate

I have tried to keep my financial and economic rants to a minimum on this blog but sometimes the stupidity and lack of common sense I see is too great that I can no longer contain myself; sorry but today is one of those days.

Somehow a Vancouver mortgage broker got my work e-mail and has been sending me his monthly newsletter. I don’t mind the spam as I like to see what is going on out there so I usually check it out. One of his masterful pieces today was how to buy a house in Vancouver without a down payment. I show the article here as it is relatively short:

A Male Epiphany

As I sit here watching the IPL T20 Cricket I came to the realization I am pretty lucky to have lived in a different country as a child. If it was not for living in Australia as a youngster I would only understand North American sports. Now I can watch even more sports and enjoy it all!  Not only do I get to watch the Vancouver Canucks make a run at the cup but I get to watch the Sunday AFL Footy match (Aussie Rules Football) and cricket. If you are a young person who likes sports I suggest you spend a year or two in a foreign country to broaden your horizons when it comes to watching sports in your 30's. Is anyone willing to take Cohen for a year when he gets a bit older? Gotta make sure he is well trained to watch sports and drink beer in his older years...The chicks dig it! That being said, the Twenty20 Cricket is awesome to watch, much more enjoyable then the Day Matches and Test Matches I watched as a kid. Rumour is they are trying to get Cricket to spread to North America and this new format should help. I would match rather watch a T20 Cricket match then a boring ass baseball game. With the immigration from South East Asia to Vancouver I am sure they could make a good go of it here.

CRICKET TWENTY 20 - A New Spark To The Spirit of the Game

Chelsey Can...Cook...and Bake?

It is no secret that I did not marry Chelsey for her cooking abilities. While she has been known to fire off the odd turkey once a year her cooking has been the subject of many discussion amongst the two of us. When she does make dinner (she says she never makes dinner because she works 3 nights a week...) it often comes from the freezer with the sauce from a jar. Tonight though it all changed. When I arrived home from work Chelsey and Kyah were making a Strawberry Angel Cake and dinner was fresh salmon with yummy vegetables and spinach salad. It only took her 30 minutes and it was awesome, one of the tastiest dishes she has ever made; check out these pictures...

Kyah's "Play"

Kyah grabbed me as she had a one minute play to show me; this is what she had...


Untitled from Michael Woods on Vimeo.

Black Swan - Starring the Twins

Cohen and Kyah have their dance recital coming up in June. Today they have their official "photoshoot" so I snapped a few shots before they took off. Only took Kyah 2 minutes to spill orange on her outfit but Mum did a great job of getting it out. I will upload the official pictures when we receive them, until then,  enjoy these pictures...

Trading Hockey Cards

I have an addiction to hobbies. I love doing things. From mountain biking, to reading, to fishing, to blogging, to golfing, to everything else I do; it is all fun and I never get bored. Something I did as a kid and I started again last year with Cohen is collecting hockey cards. This year we are collecting the 2010/2011 Upper Deck Series 1. What I am looking for is someone in the 'Blogosphere' to trade cards with. I copied the list of cards to a spread sheet and highlighted the ones we have, the names in italics are doubles that we can trade. I also inputed the special edition ones we have too. You probably have to click on the link and go directly to the Scribd site because the spreadsheet below is a bit of an eyesore. Anyone for a trade?


Hockey Cards

What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You

I have often wondered if the average American, or Canadian for that matter, realizes that we are helping to bail out the indebted European nations such as Greece via our contributions to the IMF. I also often wonder what the average American would do if they knew it. The chart below highlights just how much various countries are ponying up to shore up the balance sheets of the moronic countries; as you can see the US is throwing in a cool $50 billion, but hey, whats a few billion between friends?

I have my thoughts regarding who is actually getting bailed out here (perhaps it is actually the European banks who hold all of this government debt on their balance sheets) but I won't bore you with that rant. I would just like to know how many Americans actually know that they are bailing out these guys.

Seth Meyers Vs Donald Trump

Below is a clip from the recent White House Correspondents Dinner. The clip is of Seth Meyers,from SNL fame (Saturday Night Live) throwing out a few jokes - mostly towards Trump and Obama. The Trump fun begins around the 2:10 mark of the video and is a must see; very funny stuff!

Some Humour

Came across this on the blogosphere

Twins having a swim lesson

The kids have been in swimming lessons for a few weeks now. They are getting better but it is tough to keep Cohen in the pool as it is too cold for him. Today I found out Kyah hates life jackets. The instructor was putting them on as they were heading for the deep end; before I know it Kyah is freaking out saying it is too tight. It wasn't too tight, she just likes to be naked. Picture are a little grainy but still enjoyable...

Free Parking at BC Parks

BC Premier, Christy Clark, has done what she promised and has made parking in BC parks free again. The Vancouver Sun article said it only generated $1 million in revenue;  I am sure that after fixing all the vandalized meters the net income was a lot lower. Vancouver Sun article here.

Congrats Pops!

Seems in my family you get fitter with age. My Dad ran in the Times Colonist 10K today in Victoria and he came 43rd out of around 450 people in his age group; which is 60-65. This year he ran it in 53 minutes and change which is far better then his time last year which was 67 minutes and change. Congrats Dad!

Congrats also to my Uncle Darrel, who is my Dad's little brother, he came in 8th in the same age group as my Dad with a time of 47 minutes and change. I guess I can sit on my ass for another 30 years before giving it a shot!

Gold Panning with The Twins

It seems Spring has finally sprug and we took the opportunity today to make the most of it. Chelsey has dragon boat practice this morning so I took Cohen and Kyah to try our hand at gold panning out in Yale. I have never tried it before so I asked some guy if we were in the right area; he was super nice and even showed the kids some of the gold he found. It was a super nice area where we were and the kids had a great time running around. We did some panning but I think my technique is off a bit. In the sun you can see the gold flakes sparkling in the pan so I know they are in there. I think we may need the help of a certain Uncle Nick to give us some tips! I took a bunch of the material home to work on my panning technique so I will update if we find anything.

After gold panning I was happy to see the kids spend a good 3 hours outside playing in the front yard. Spring has finally sprung. Enjoy the pictures!

Back in the Saddle

Due to the very slow speed of our computer I was boycotting the blog. My Mum was here last week and our computer was so slow she couldn't even Farmville on Facebook! Well, thanks in part to the proceeds of our lovely babysitting moonlight job we have a new computer. Look forward to a more active blog this summer!