Maui

Hi Everyone..

So in case you haven't heard yet; i have made a sudden treck out of the country. It is somewhere i had hoped not to go quite yet, but here I am... In Maui.

I always said that i didn't want the USA as my first stamp in my passport, and i had hoped that they wouldn't stamp it... but they did.

But now that i am here, I don't really care.

so, long story short - Melissa and I had planned to go somewhere warm together this winter. We figured that we would take my Fairmont deals and her westjet deals and go somewhere and not have to spend a lot on the trip.

Turns out that Mels family decided to come to Maui for their vacation and because we had planned to go somewhere together she invited me along. I found out about this about a week before the trip. My next working day I requested the week and a half off! and it was granted to me (i don't know why!!!, like really - who would give me a week off with only a weeks notice?) but - I worked hard to pull it off and get 2 weeks work done in one.

I flew out at 7am from calgary on saturday and after a confusing trip through the vancouver airport, we managed to get on a flight bound for Maui. A measly 6 hour flight later and I was in +25 degree weather!

Now, i had talked about doing my scuba a little bit before and i decided to take advantage of being here in a tropical wonderland by getting that item scratched off my to-do list.

Walking into the dive shop on saturday, they laughed at me when i said i wanted to get it done before thursday! "it can't be done" well, someone how they managed to make it happen. It took a one day session with a guy named Kioni, and then 2 days with another lady named Rachel.

so, let me tell you about going under the water the first time.

See, i had put sunscreen on, and when i first put on my mask i tasted something well..., salty... I thought about my sunscreen and how i just got my face wet and thought that i was tasting my sunscreen... so - i started spitting!! but i could not get rid of the taste! it was gross... yukky.. goopy... but after all that spitting it was still there. I decided to just deal with it. I put my mask on and got ready for the decent under water.

I got myself "sorted" and decended under water. I couldn't do it - but i refused to go back up to the surface. I was trying to get on my knees on the bottom but i couldn't breath right! Kioni was looking at me wondering if i was going to get the hang of it. I knew all i had to do was calm down and take a nice breath and i'd be good. But... let's see you take it easy breathing out of some strange tube thing! really - it is not easy! well, it is... but it is quite the mental hurdle to get over!

Finally, after a few moments i managed to get my breathing under control and the rest was simple. Even clearing the mask was easy! well, not easy - but not nearly the challenge as getting myself to just breathe!

it's now been 3 days, and 5 dives and i'm feeling pretty comfortable under the water. Tomorrow I am going to Molokini, it's the remans of a volcano and it's just a cresent moon shaped island. Promises to be an interesting dive! I am pretty excited.

Oh, and i really hope to get the pics, but i saw a giant sea turtle today on my second dive... the turtle was a mere... 30cm from my face!!! ya... was about to high five it! but you aren't supposed to touch them! ($10,000 fine!)

hmm, what else... well, i'll tell you more when i see you this weekend! should be flying into Toronto friday afternoon around 5pm. (i know, traffic, but it's the earliest i can get there, and i'd rather wait in traffic then in the vancouver airport)

Cheerio!!

Michael

Oh.. that taste in my mouth... the "sunscreen"

i'll say these few words..

it tasted "salty"
this is "Maui" aka... Ocean...

ya... SMRT!!! :)

More on stanfields

Emily,

Yes I did know that stanfields was made in Nova Scotia, The bike tour actually took us past their factory and we peaked in as we biked by, but maybe a good tour would be fun if i can ever get out there for a visit!

So, In my last blog i mentioned that i was going out for halloween. I dressed up as Woody from toy story. I got really lucky with the value village i visited and found everything i needed for the outfit, save a good pair of cowboy boots and a vest at one store. I eventually found a vest, but ended up creating my own from an old white t-shirt. and Just before i headed to the pub i was looking up quotes for the "pull string" and realized that woody came with a guitar.... and guess what i had lurking in my closet... a $0.01 guitar i bought of e-bay! so i went to the pub and pulled off a 2nd place in the costume contest! i'll try to post some pics on facebook tomorrow so you can see!

I won dinner for 2 at the walliser Stube!!! Sweet!

oh, David. I wasn't home today - went to canmore to play volleyball.

ummm... let's see where this goes???

So i haven't been at a computer in a while, so this most likely will end up being another one of my long rants.

so, While you are all enjoying fall, taking pics of beautiful autumn colours; I am freezing my buns off in the cold. Well, not really... But winter has arrived in Lake louise and it's cold fingers have sunk their nail into the mountain... which mean ski season has arrived! if i was feeling energetic, which i may be feeling this afternoon. I could hike up to lake agnes and ski down. I just may do that today, or maybe up to saddleback pass. but that requires energy, which i am a little low on right now.

Last night I travelled into banff in a massive snow storm, joy. Is it weird that i enjoy driving in this horrible weather? it may be the car, emily, This car of yours is really good in snow - although, i am comparing it to the old dodge, which handled as well as a motorcycle in the snow.

anyway, as i was driving, and passing a line of cars, driving in that lane that isn't cleared because everyone is driving in one line making a track that doesn't really follow a lane so much as hopefully following the road... i was thinking about why i like driving in bad weather... Is it because it makes me think? Or is it because nothing will ever be quite as bad as that trip to Kingston in the Grand am with Dad going to a hockey game, in a white out when I could barely see the on coming trafic, let alone the lights of the transport truck that was right in front of me. And the only way i knew i was still on the road was that if i was still traveling at 8okm/h and i was sure that if i was in the ditch i wouldn't be traveling that fast! I also remember trying to slow down, but realized that as long as i could still see A taillight infront of me, i could assume i was still on the road. anyway, that day will always be worse than anything else i could face... except for that trip last year where i couldn't even see the side of the road until i was almost off the road, and i had no tail lights to follow. but that just reminded me of the previous story - so i kept going...

So, on the topic of winter and skiing, guess who is getting a free ski pass... well, hopefully... I have a pretty good idea that i will though! see, the ski hill has a number of event through the year that they need volunteer help with. Being the activities guy at the chateau means that i also communicate information like the above to the colleagues to help them get free passes, so in this process i was talking to a girl named Danielle about this and released the application form to the chateau colleagues, at the same time - Danielle made a surprise visit to my office on Friday to personally request my application! so, i think i should get a free pass! yaya ($800 saved!) I just have to help out with 8 events over the year! not too bad!

hmmm... on the topic of cold bums.

The underwear blog

(i've been planning this one for a while!heheh)

so, as a guy, we don't have much in the world of Underwear to choose from. We have Tighty whities, boxer breifs, boxers, and an assortment of interesting underwear the provides not much functional use, besides looking silly.

Each of these forms of under garments provides a different style of comfort and control, and non really excite me to purchase... I always dread purchasing underwear, it's always in a bag that looks like socks with this picture of a dude on the front, sporting said style of underwear. I am always embarrassed about the idea of purchasing such an item from a store, and having that awkward moment at the checkout when you drop the underwear on the conveyer belt thingy.

Well, as you can guess, i recently had an underwear purchasing experience. It had come time for me to purchase new under garments a few weeks back. (about the time i decided to write this blog) I seemed to have run low on garments of the under wear nature that didn't have holes in them or had enough material on them that they didn't look like a lace version of the underwear i had purchased.... about 2 years ago... (ya.. it's been that long).

I bit the bullet on a trip to calgary and stolled into Zellers looking for some underwear. there was some interesting items to choose from, but i couldn't find my size in the style i like, in the brand i like... so i ended up giving in and purchasing sume ugly blue coloured hanes undies. I wasn't really satisfied, so i only picked up a set of 3 to tide me over for a little longer 'til i could find the stanfields version. (they are made in Canada, i like to support things made in Canada, by Canadian Companies)

thank-fully, this store had that automatic check out stand! I didn't have to go to a check-out girl! yay (i was excited)

On this trip, I also stolled into Sears with a friend who was looking for boots or something. As we walked by the mens wear section, there they were! a whole rack of Stanfields Underwear, but odly, these were like twice the price of the Hanes? was it worth the $$ for these undies or was it just because we were in Sears??? I had to find out. So i picked up a bag of 2 (on sale too, so i was happy - i must be Dutch) and these undies didn't have that pic on the front!

I was content with this purchase, but little did i know that when i walked into Marks Work Wearhouse that I'd find another pair... by a brand that i had never seen make underwear before... I found out that dakota makes underwear, and these were twice the price of the sears pair! but check it out! these were made of that material that under armour uses! this both surprised me and excited me. I love my performance T's and now i could have non-cotton, performance oriented underwear! but, only 1 pair cost over $20!

Was it worth it... YES...

It is true, the more you spend, the better the gear. When i got home i had to try on these under garments and discover if i had made wise purchases or not.

the Hanes performed as expected - they covered me up...
the Stanfields, Oh the Fit! so nice, and I could feel that the matrial was much better than the Hanes...
the Dakota... well... Thankfully I live alone because i love wearing them!

so there you have it, and update on the world of underwear. Now you don't have to wonder what is out there for Men. there is choice!! and you don't have to go with underwear with a picture of a half naked guy on the front! and you can get excited to purchase cool, good quality underwear!!! hahaha...

ya.. i just needed to tell you that! Cause i wish someone told me about it.

well... what else to say...

Veggie Tales - Pirates who don't do anything is on TV right now... Not that i'm watching it.. but it's on...

Tonight is Halloween at the Pub. I am going as Woody from Toy Story! apparently i act like him??? I need to find cowboy boots.

oh.. no i don't have a phone yet... and i promise that this time i will start an address/phone book so the next time i lose my phone i can still call you and don't have to ask for your phone numbers!