INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE; PLENTY INSANE, GOT NO BRAIN!

Typically, it is not socially acceptable to cry in public, at least not for a guy. You are definitely forbidden to shed a tear even after experiencing intense physical pain (like getting drilled in the jewels by a red rubber ball while playing dodge ball) or watching a sappy movie (if you haven't already had your masculinity questioned for even making the mistake of being in the theatre where one is showing in the first place).

33 Dec. 25 FERNIE ALPINE RESOSRT TICFERNIE BC $
For the second Christmas in a row, I find myself up at 5 a.m., loading up the car with food, various items of clothing, my ARCHOS mp3 player, and my snowboard. Again, I find myself heading west, into BC, in search of glorious powder. This time, instead of driving through the mountains (which really aren't that visible at this time of day anyways), I am now driving through rolling plains, the occasional midget peak popping up here and there. I am absolutely blown away as we drive through Frank, a small town completely buried in a rock slide in the early 1900's. The road I drive on snakes through the rubble. The irony of a town built right beside this rubble, with the guilty mountain who spewed its unwanted shale still looming, is lost on me. Another hour and a bit and we pull into Fernie, the start of a 3 day adventure in riding some of the best powder ever! I had no fears of being borderline reckless because I knew that if I fell, I would be landing in 30+ cm of the biggest, fluffiest pillows you could imagine. Sandwiched in between 2 days of Fernie was a jaunt to Kimberley. With it mainly groomed trails, this provided a much needed rest for the spent legs from doing the more technical powder bowls the day before. And it was perfect in ensuring that there was enough juice for the following day's visit to the more technical side of Fernie.

At our dodge ball party this past weekend (c'mon, dodge ball people can be cool too!) we ended up playing Cranium. One part of the game involves selecting an "artist" from both teams to draw on a pad with enough clues to entice your team members to successfully guess the answer. Sort of like Pictionary. Each artist is handed the answer card, looks at what they need to draw, and then the round begins. Our team was stoked, knowing that correctly identifying the answer would surely tip the momentum of the game in our favour. Our artist was even more stoked at the surety of his drawing skills. It started off well, as our team was able to guess that there were two words to the answer, the second one being "cat". Our artists was now working furiously to try to provide enough for us to guess the first part of the answer. "Tomcat", "Bobcat", "Thundercat", and anything else that ended in "cat" was shouted enthusiastically by my team, certain that we were going to get this before the other team, who, up to this point, was fairly quiet. Suddenly, someone on the other team shouted "spotlight" and the round was done. All of my team was dumbfounded by the actual answer. I could not, for the life of me, see how "spotlight" and "something-cat" were related. Our artist was protesting, exclaiming that "spotlight" was not the right answer. We all look at the card now, automatically assuming that the other artist had forgotten what they were supposed to be drawing. We all peer in, closely.

45 Dec. 31 GASBAR # 1777 CALGARY AB $
Spoiled by the conditions seen in BC, Lake Louise lacks lustre, especially since it appeared that everyone in Calgary decided to come here, today. The long lines reminded me of Blue Mountain, which I had heard wasn't even able to make snow because of the warm weather blanketing Ontario. With so much driving (most memorably the drive back to Calgary from Fernie in near white-out conditions and having all-you-can-eat rice at downtown Sushi Tokyo), these GasBar transactions are frequent. New Year's Eve was fairly quiet, but pleasantly bejewelled by J&D dropping by to toast it in with some Bicardi Breezers. Horray for 2007!

Data Head. Star Performer. Word Worm. And one more. Each category demands a different skillset, whether it is knowing trivia, being able to hum a tune so your teammates can guess the name of it, or being able to spell a word sdrawkcab without writing it down. The last category is the one that requires the use of tactile and creative skills, like sculpting putty or drawing something on a piece of paper, which is what we were doing. The name of this category, Creative Cat. So, while the other artist saw the actual answer on the card (spotlight), our artist saw Creative Cat (every game card has the category name on it) and thought that was the answer. The look of frustration and desperation on his face was priceless as he was trying to think of how to draw "Creative". After realizing what had happened, I was laughing so hard I started crying. We all were. So, masculinity preserved!