Vegas, Baby!

So, I was gone last week on an impromptu vacation. You see for the last month or so my lovely wife had been planning a surprise trip for us to celebrate my birthday in Vegas. She went through great lengths to try and keep this trip a secret but at every turn fate seemed ready to outdo her. Kudos to all of my friends who helped perpetuate the mystery even though I was getting more and more suspicious. My first clue that something was up was when I noticed on my work schedule that I only had 8 hours scheduled for the week of my birthday. Upon grilling my boss, she relented and told me that my wife had asked for me to have that week off.

I remembered that earlier in the month Colleen had asked me about where I would like to go if we could take a vacation some day, and my choice was Las Vegas because everyone I know has been there and I was feeling a little left behind. A couple of weeks passed and I began thinking that I might have had it wrong, but then a week before my birthday, my little brother dropped the bombshell. He left a message on my answering machine saying "Hey Carl, we're back from Cuba and I got those cigars that you wanted. I'm not sure if you're home or in Vegas yet. Mom told me you were going. Anyway I could only get you a couple but I think they're the ones you want. Gimme a call"

Not wanting to upset Colleen, I chose not to tell her that I knew, for fear that her confidence in her secret planning might be shaken. Then the second person to tell me was my friend George who was having a problem with a show that he is directing. He asked if I could fill in on short notice for an actor who couldn't perform the opening week of the show. He told me "I know this is last minute and that you're going to Vegas and you'll probably want to relax and not study a script". It was at that point I was sure that I was going to Las Vegas, and I told Colleen what George said. She was a little disappointed that I knew we were going. I didn't, however, know when. I kept wondering how Colleen was going to get me to the airport without me getting suspicious. I knew that I had to go to the airport the next day to have breakfast with some friends of my parents and.....wait a minute! My parents are in on the ruse.

The next morning I woke up and went along with the plans to "have breakfast" but I started noticing things. For one, my passport had disappeared from my jacket pocket, then my backpack was sitting in the middle of the bedroom and disappeared shortly after. Other things seemed to have vanished from the room as well (the Nintendo DS, my face cream, the camera, some of my clothes), but I pretended not to notice.

My parents showed up to take us to the airport on the pretence that "It's early, and you might be too tired to drive". We got to the airport, and decided to have breakfast because my parent's friends plane was "late". My dad then left the table to go find them and after a while miraculously returned with my suitcase and backpack. It was at that point I told my parents that I already knew. Oh well, I was going to VEGAS, BABY!

We stayed at the Flamingo,

ran into my friend Tim, who was the one surprise that Colleen had been able to keep a secret,

drank giant $33 vodka/Red Bulls that I accidentally ordered,

smoked cigars,

rode a mechanical bull,

went to the Star Trek experience,

drank,

saw Spamalot,

(Picture coming soon)

visited some hotels,

went on some rides,

gambled,

and drank some more.

The rest of the story "stays in Vegas".

To see the rest of the photos click here.

Cheers, Carl.

Catching up

Just some of this and that and general catching up. I don't think I mentioned this in a previous post but I January 10th of this year I had Lasik eye surgery. This is how I looked before.



Now that I have had the surgery I look exactly the same. But now you look different to me.



Pretty spiffy huh?

Also if you live in Calgary this is not news for you, but if you are living in Japan for instance this might come as a bit of a surprise. The weather changes very fast here, in fact last week we had one day with fog, snow, rain, hail and sunshine all on the same day. I remember seeing snow in Japan and laughing because it barely collected on the ground. So for my friends in Japan, here are a couple of pictures of the snow from our back yard.





I am keeping busy at the bakery, making bread and decorating cakes. I have added a few pictures of my cakes to our Flickr site. This first picture is a cake I made for a customer mainly because my co-workers said it couldn't be done. Normally a 6"x8" cake is pretty small for putting a cake kit (themed toys that go on a cake) on but it is still doable. I took the challenge and put two kits on one 6"x8" cake, thereby creating a beautiful fusion of Spiderman and Barbie that perhaps the world will never see again.



My next creation was for my good friend Andrew's birthday. We sometimes play a game called World of Warcraft together and so I though a cake inspired by this game might be fun. I bought a toy and used it as a cake kit, and created a rocky outcropping complete with bloodstained rocks and voidwalker bracers (way to geeky for me to even explain), to accompany the undead warlock that stood watch over the cake. I only wish the picture had turned out clearer to capture all of the airbrushing that went into it.



Anyhow, that's enough for now. Cheers!

Singing in the Brain

I know I haven't posted in more than a month but to tell the truth I don't think anyone noticed. Colleen and I have been crazy busy with practicing for the Kiwanis Music Festival and our show "Ace Morran and the Snow Job" which played last night at the Pumphouse Theatre's One Act Play Festival to better than expected reviews. I managed to record a few of the numbers from Kiwanis and with some help have made them available on the Internet. So without further ado, here they are.

Patrice Barnes Troupe singing Run Freedom Run from Urinetown



The Merry Makers singing We're All in This Together from High School Musical



Colleen singing See I'm Smiling from The Last Five Years



Nikki singing Easy as Life from Aida



and finally Jeremy singing I Need to Know from Jekyll and Hyde



Cheers for now, I will post some miscellaneous photos in the next week or so. Carl.

Real Life Super Hero

When Colleen and I were living in Japan we had the opportunity to see a very interesting New Years program. It's an obstacle course that apparently they do every New Year and everyone who is everyone from TV personalities, stand-up comedians, athletes and movie stars are invited to take part, and it has a huge turn-out. When Colleen and I watched the 2005-2006 event it was an all day televised extravaganza. An obstacle course in four sections. The first one is timed and many people don't get past this part. The second section is also timed and weeds out even more people. The third section is not timed and is all endurance sheer muscle power. We never saw anyone make it past the third section. One guy got very close but couldn't finish. This year from what I gather someone actually made it to the fourth section and won. Keep in mind this whole thing is done in just one day, so no rest days to recuperate. This video highlights the winning performer in his superhuman feats of daring do. Check it out.



And now you can't say that people can only do that stuff in comic books.

Unreal reality

So I came across this video a few minutes ago, and thought I would share. Even for those who are not technically savvy, (which I barely am) this is really cool stuff. You can take a photo of anyone and render a movable 3-D image. If this stuff becomes mainstream, just try using a photo as evidence in the courtroom. Have a look for yourself.

I'm a bad man

While I'm not an advocate of beating children, I do find child on child violence a source of pure entertainment. I'm not talking junior high school students stabbing each other, I'm talking about five year old kids delivering a two handed Etch-A-Sketch to the cranium. Or using a lazy-boy to catapult your sibling into the next room. On American television they have shows like Nanny 911 or Super Nanny. I watch the first five or ten minutes that generally show a montage of the kids wailing on each other. Comic gold I say. This is why the video camera will always be nearby when I finally have kids. So when they are killing each other I will have it on video, to be enjoyed in slow motion (at their wedding many years later). Does that make me bad? I was surfing the web and came across this little clip I at first found it to be somewhat disturbing, but then it turned into something great. Kid on Dad violence. Have a look.



Cheers.

Happy New Year

Well Colleen and I rang in the New Year sick as dogs. Hacking, coughing and sneezing away we rang in the New Year drinking and playing games. I phoned my friend Chiaki in Japan to see how things were and to see if she could send me some Japanese New Years food. Unfortunately fish doesn't travel well in the mail. But she did send me some pictures that brought back great memories from last year when her family shared their New Years tradition with us.







Wishing you all the best in the new year.