Movember Edmonton - 2013 Curling Bonspiel

This year marks my 6th year participating in Movember and my 5th Movember curling bonspiel. Every year the bonspiel keeps getting bigger and better. Unfortunately though that popularity left me with no room to play on any teams this year. So instead I tagged along with some buddies 'coaching' one team and documented the curling shenanigans of Chrissy and her team.

I like to take pictures of people shooting just to capture their form.

A large component of the event is the team costumes and generally ugly outfits. My buddy Chris brings out his blindingly bright yellow sweater every year as it remains a crowd favorite.

Other highlights this year included a team in one piece animal costumes and Amy's puppy dog shirt.

In between games we got some Pilsner in us and discussed strategy as one the 'Flying Eagles' advanced to the A Final and the 'Foster's Heros" stunk up the consolation rounds.

Much to the chagrin of the fans The Flying Eagles were demolished in the finals. The only consolation for Jenny and Parker was that Adam and the Flying Eagles made the playoffs as opposed to their Oilers.....burn!

Chrissy's team didn't fare well through the day. I got the feeling though that most of the them didn't really care too much.

So ended the first Movember Bonspiel for us as man and wife.

Camping at Medicine Lake

Earlier this summer I joined Adam and Ivan for a camping trip to Medicine Lake Provincial Park. It was decided that the trip would be a guys only weekend and I think that suited Chrissy just fine as she had been travelling for work and wanted to rest (She finds it hard to rest when I am around...weird).

We arrived at the our campsite and promptly set up our tents and went for a walk to get some wood.

Even before we got back to our site the rain started. We scrambled around through our gear and came up with a makeshift shelter using a tarp, extra tent pole, an empty beer can, a cooler, an axe and a bunch of rope (pictured in the back during dryer times).

Many nearby lightning strikes and multiple beers later the rain stopped and we got a small fire started with Adam`s kerosene drenched cotton balls. Unfortunately we used most of them that night and had issues with the wet wood the next morning. 

After way too long the fire eventually caught on and we set to work burning the giant log situated in our site.

Note the rotisserie ax innovation developed by Adam.

Adam and Ivan have camped together many times and are comfortable just vegging out and sitting around the fire for hours on end. Me, not so much, I get a little stir crazy just sitting around. Every once in a while, between rains, I would get up and take a walk to the lake and skip rocks.

This would be followed up with more waiting out the rain and more beer in which I may or may not have fallen asleep.

With the sun out again Ivan and I coaxed Adam away from whittling wood to go for a walk on a nature path. The trail was pretty overgrown and wet, but it offered up some nice scenery and a good harvest of old mans beard for future fire starting.

Like all good trails and hikes it ended at the waters edge. Medicine Lake itself isn`t very large, but with its small size it remains quite calm and serene.

It was a nice and easy weekend and I recommenced the campground for anyone looking to unwind. However, if you are like me and need some diversions I would not suggest you stay for any more than a couple of nights.

Thanks to Adam and Ivan for letting me tag along, and special thanks to Ivan who let me use a bunch of his pictures for this blog.

Castrol Raceways Night

A couple of weekends back Adam, his son Parker, Ivan, his Father and myself had a men's night out at the Castrol Raceway south of Edmonton.

The races featured 3 type of cars/competitors in separate races.

The races were fun to watch. The beer was flowing, the cars were fast and the treats were cool.

The raceway on a hot summer night is a great attraction for the area. While I don't think I would ever become a regular I would definitely go out once or two times a year.