No, the two aren’t connected, sorry to say.  However, a friend of mine has an offer I think everyone should see, and as technologically savvy as I am, I only have a few resources with which to promote on her behalf.  Ergo, I’m paying a favor forward, AND someone might be able to win a vacation.  See?  It’s all in the marketing.

Check out the offer below.  You have only have till the end of October to do something about it, so do it already!

genesisvacation.pdf

We didn’t ask her to write this, she did it on her own.

Happy Thanksgiving, my Canadian friends!  (And an equally boisterous Columbus Day to any American readers, too!)

This year, the family went up to Manning to visit my in-laws (my wife’s sister) for the holiday.  If you don’t know where Manning is, it’s closer to the Northwest Territories than it is to Calgary.  It’s the home of the Manning Comets, and it’s a town with a big moose statue in it.  If you think I’m here to mock it, you’d be way off – after all, I used to live in a town that boasts a giant thermometer.

We left Thursday afternoon, just before one o’clock.  Ten pee breaks and nine and a half hours later – I counted, although it must be noted that two were technically “pauses”, as no peeing actually occurred – we arrived.  I saw a cow in the middle of the road on the way there; other than that, it was pretty uneventful.  And as noted above, it was a long drive, so we all went to sleep shortly thereafter.

Friday was a brand new day.  The kids bounced on the trampoline with their cousins, and bounced some more, and some more.  The trampoline is so popular, it might be the fourth “Manning cousin” now.    The brother-in-law went combining, and the womenfolk did women stuff, so I did some Stagewest work.  Then we had chili for dinner.  Again, “uneventful” was the theme for the day.  However, it was an exciting night, as my daughter lost another tooth.  I’m happy to report it was non-trampoline-related, and will be the basis of another blog on another day.

On Saturday, I got to ride on the combine for a couple of hours.  My son wasn’t interested in going, but my daughter was, and did.  We picked a lot of canola seeds that day, and by we, I mean I didn’t have a darn thing to do with it.  Three combines, one truck collecting it all, and the time really flew by.  Best of all, no animals were injured in the process.  After that field was done, I went back to the house, while the brother-in-law went the other direction to do another 600 acres or so.  At least, that’s what he said he was doing… he wouldn’t give me the brush-off, would he?  At the house, we had a hot dog roast over a fire in the backyard, then we did S’mores.  More relatives showed up later that night, more wood was burned, and no more teeth were lost.

Sunday.  Dinner day.  And holy moley, what a dinner it was.  A big, BIG turkey.  Stuffing.  Mashed potatoes, and turnip, and sweet potatoes, and brussel sprouts (I didn’t have any), and cranberries, and salad, and buns, and gravy, and wine… I could be missing something here.  Oh yeah, we forgot to do the mushrooms and onions, but geez, I don’t know where it would have fit on the table.  Good thing I left room for dessert – after all, it would have been rude to not sample both the apple and the pumpkin pie.  I had to draw the line somewhere, though, so I didn’t put ice cream on top of it.  Just whipped cream.

And we drove home today.  The kids slept through most of it, thank God, so there were only three breaks coming back home.  Seemed a lot faster.  We picked up Angus, our yorkie, from the kind folks who watched him over the weekend – we owe them some dogsitting now – and pulled into the driveway at about 5:30.  All is well.  It was a great weekend, and everything was great.  And a special thanks to the Tooth Fairy, who found us way up there.

Well, THAT didn’t come out like I hoped it would.

Let’s try that again.  Since getting hired by Stagewest Hospitality about five weeks ago, I’ve been travelling a lot.  I’ve been to Edmonton, Camrose, Kananiskis (twice), and Medicine Hat (twice again!) – glamorous places, each and every one of them – learning about the various properties Stagewest manages.  Last week, we were down south  celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Medicine Hat Lodge.  It was a joyous occasion, and a busy place… luckily, our cake top lady was also an EMT, but that’s a story for another time.

So with the travelling, and the steady and structured nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday I’m experiencing now, it’s harder to find the time to sit down and write something.  It’s even more difficult to find something to write about.  When I was devoting all of my entrepreneurial energies to Belterra, I’d look for good, supportive articles about the market, or Alberta, or the oilpatch, and let all three of my readers know about it, daggumit.  In all seriousness, it helped me learn for myself, and built some credibility when I met with prospective clients.

Now, it’s tough.  I’m not at home as much, meaning less time to find those articles.  Less time to help out around the house.  Less time with the family and the family dog!

But I will try harder in the future to get some stuff down here.  Maybe it’ll be about the MLB playoffs, or the BNI golf tournament I’m volunteering at tomorrow.  Who knows.  But the next update WILL come faster than two weeks from now.

Heck, maybe I’ll even finish my list of Hall of Famers… geez, I better make that a priority.