We got a Wii

For Sang's birthday, I agreed that we could splurge on Nintendo's latest, the Wii. It went on sale yesterday, and we are now proud owners.

We first headed to the Zellers in my parents' area, because it is a small store, and I figured that no one would think to line up there. Nope - people did! And a rather unfriendly group too, of forty-something, "all my friends are on-line" men. They pretty much told us to buzz off, as there were only 7 consoles being sold in the store, and they were already spoken for.

Next, we went to the Superstore. Much friendlier crowd, mid-twenties, mostly guys. Shortly after we arrived, Superstore opened up the outside doors, so we could all wait in the (heated) atrium. The people in line told us the store had 15 systems available, and we would be getting number 14. Number 15 was spoken for about twenty minutes later, when a group of guys showed up.

One illustration of their friendliness, someone went out and picked up Tim Hortons coffee and TimBits for everyone. The waiting in line was actually a fun experience, as everyone was excited and chatty.

About half an hour before the store opened, we got handed out tickets to redeem for our Wii (proof of being there early, to avoid a mad dash through the store). And then, after two hours of waiting, we got in!

Wii came with one controller and nunchuck, and Wii sports. We also got Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and an extra controller (they sold out of the extra nunchucks by the time we got to the front of the line). We love it! We've played Wii sports bowling and tennis, and Sang has boxed. And, we've played the Monkey Balls.

I wouldn't call it high intensity exercise, but it definitely is more movement that the traditional video games. For many of the games, you need to stand up. And, I got warm enough to necessitate taking off my sweater.

Like all video games, the more you practice, the better you get, but I don't think excelling at traditional styled systems guarantees that you'll be good with the Wii.

So, my verdict = lots of fun!

Feet

A few nights ago, my husband and I snuggled a little before we fell asleep. The sheets were soft, he was warm...ahh....but I couldn't help recoiling when my feet touched his dry, rough feet.

The next night, he put lotion on his feet before we went to bed (who likes it when people shun your touch, and who wouldn't try to fix it?)...but his feet were just clammy.

"My manly feet don't know what to do with this lotion," he complained, "I think they are trying to sweat it off"

The night after that, he reapplied the lotion, but the result was extremely cold feet, the likes of which are usually only seen in women, which made me wonder, is that why women get cold feet and hands more often then men? Is moisturizing to blame? Or, intermittant moisturizing maybe? I use lotion nightly, and I don't suffer from cold extremities.

Our little adventure

Sang and I visited Chris and Claire last week. We drove up on the Yellowhead, in a rented Chrysler Pacifica. We spent some time in West Ed Mall, and had lots of fun watching the sea lions, and exploring the shops.

FSJ was cold, but the company was wonderful. Chris and Claire were great hosts, and Sang and I just had fun hanging out, enjoying their company. Madalyn is even more beautiful in person than she is in pictures, if you can believe that. She is at a wonderful age, where she is too young to play strange or care that I am not mommy or daddy. She let me hold her and soothe her, and one morning, she even treated me to a couple of rare smiles. Beautiful girl - you are a heart breaker.

One the way back home, Sang and I thought it would be a treat to drive through Jasper and Banff. Instead of taking highway 40, we thought it looked faster to take route 734, or Forestry Trunk Road. Well, the 40 might have been curvey and longer, but 734 wasn't paved. We soon realized that going only 60 km/hr wasn't going to allow us to arrive at our destination in a timely manner, and I was not enjoying the thought of driving down this narrow, gravel, steep and snowy (though sanded) road once the sun set. We noticed a sign that said that the 40 and Grande Prairie were only 80 km away, if you took the turnoff. Well, we figured that it was better to head for the main highway.

Unfortunately, this road was worse. It was narrower. It was snowier. It was not sanded. Shortly after we pulled onto it, the car slipped to the side a little and we almost fell off the road. As we had seen almost no other traffic since we left the yellowhead, I thought it prudent to drive a little slower, because if we went into the ditch, there was going to be no one coming for a while, and I now had no idea where I was - so it might have taken CAA a while to find us. Driving now at about 40 km/hr, we saw two big shapes on the road ahead. They weren't moving.

"Don't worry," Sang assured me, "those moose don't have horns, so they're female. They won't charge us."

As we got closer (about 5 meters), they slowly walked off the road. And, we saw our first wild moose.

After a little while, we saw some more big shapes on the road. These had big horns. And weren't moving. Sang reassured me that we "probably" weighed more than a moose. Thankfully, this bull moose also eventually wondered off the road, then stared at us as we drove by. Very cool to see a moose that close. But, kinda scary too. They are really, really big.

Behind the moose, just hanging out, was a reindeer. It scampered and leaped away, and had delicate (compared to the moose), fuzzy horns. I did not know that moose and reindeer hung out together. But, these were.

Shortly after that, we saw another pair of cow moose, but these were off to the side of the road.

We reached the end of this snowy road to meet a cross street, and the only sign read "private road, travel at your own risk". How inviting.

We figured we would turn north, back towards the yellowhead direction, and hope for the best. We soon saw a sign that said "caution: high pressure natural gas". I'll admit, I thought there was a good possibility we would blow up on the road (this one was still narrow, but sanded, again). After a little while, we thought we might be traveling in the wrong direction, so we carefully turned around.

We drove and drove, and nothing. So, we pulled off as close to the side of the road as we could, turned on the four ways and waved down a semi to ask for directions. The driver told us to turn back around again, and drive about 15 - 20 minutes.

We drove again, and after 20 minutes we were not at the highway, and by now it is very dark and I am getting very anxious. We are still in the middle of the forest, with nothing but trees, the only lights those ominous gas refining burning chimneys, so Sang waved down another truck, who said we were only a couple miles away from the 40. Finally we reached it, and I have never been so happy to see paved roads.

After a bit more driving, this time, thankfully, with lots of other cars, on a paved and maintained road, we ended up in Grande Prairie, where we spent the night, abandoning our idea of driving through Jasper and Banff. We figured we had already had enough adventure. The two hour drive from FSJ to Grande Prairie took us seven hours.