Well, who knew comfort was a mere replaced motor away?? And who would have guessed that in a one-year old home you'd even expect to replace a furnace motor?? Bless the little minds at work, keeping employees gainfully occupied when a little thing like your home heating system dies in -40 weather...

Yes, we got fixed up yesterday morning, and delightful warm air was circulating back throughout our home. My craving for pickled herrings and sardines is diminishing by the hour...

This morning, I must crank out a quick posting, and get my plus-sized bee-hind over to a blood lab, for some of my ongoing diabetic testing for control. I'll confess - I'm just a bit overdue. To compensate, I've cut back on my glazed doughnuts. However, I may have made up for that by substituting chocolate birch bark, and salt-water taffy.... Not good...

Chow for now!

We have decided to take our Eskimo impression to the next level, thanks to our new home's subtrades, or more accurately, some of the equipment they installed.

We returned from a warm little getaway this past weekend to record low temperatures in Calgary. The last recorded time it was this cold at this time of the year (-40 Celsius with the wind chill), people were commuting to work in Conestoga wagons, and Laura Ingalls still had pigtails and a petticoat...

So, we were just starting to get used again to charming little things like frostbite and brittle automotive steel, warmed only by the Celine Dion cds in our family room sound system.

Then we got dealt another surprise. yesterday.

I returned from downtown to find the homestead just a bit nippier than usual, and our sled dogs were nowhere to be seen. Looking at the furnace thermostat, it was 17 degrees, instead of the programmed preference of about 20.

Our furnace, just over a year old, had died it seemed, leaving an open invitation for Jack Frost and Hypo Thermia to stay awhile and party. As of this morning, we have survived by the grace of a gas fireplace, a couple of little ceramic heaters, and the body heat that is provided by incessant sobbing.

We hope to report a return of heat by tomorrow...

Chow for now!!

Ah yes, it seems like just yesterday that we lived in Kelowna, where balmy weather prevailed year-round, and my winter parka was a light windbreaker....

Shovelling the driveway for the second time yesterday here in our new home, I was temporarily blinded by the fogging of my glasses, whenever I breathed. I had bundled up with a fresh buffalo carcass, and Arctic mittens. On the plus side, I couldn't gripe out loud - my lips wouldn't separate.

It's been so long since I've lived in Manitoba I'd forgotten charming little winter diversions, such as square tires on the car, and a need for things like gas line anti-freeze, or lock de-icer spray. It's easy to forget little things like that, distracted slightly as you can be when your fingers have become as rigid as fresh carrots...

We'll get used to it again. After all, we spent most of our lives in this type of climate. Electric boxer shorts are a godsend, and if I look in the closet, I'm pretty sure I still have that old red toque that we all got issued as kids here in Canada.

Chow for now!!

OK, last time with Vegas for now, I promise…

Mrs. That Dan Guy and I were reflecting last night on the history that’s being lost in Vegas, as the market there continually changes to attract the younger crowd, and their deep Texas Hold’em pockets.

When we first started to go many, many years back some of the classic joints were still up and running. We visited and got souvenirs from The Sands, where the Rat Pack of Frank, Sammy & Dean used to rule the strip. That establishment has now been evaporated, much like many of Dean’s drink glasses.

We also got a chance to visit The Dunes, before that hotel and casino was imploded on national TV. I think at the time of that visit we stayed at the original Aladdin, which we heard was bought by Donald Trump while we were there. I think he flipped it, and so did the new owners. There’s even reconstruction going on at this moment at the brand-new Aladdin.

The latest venue to close and get scheduled for the wrecker’s dynamite stick is The Riviera. It won’t be too long before the whole strip gets leveled, and they start over from scratch.

We’ll still be heading out there, on our motorized Rascal scooters, to see what they’ve built to replace it all…

Chow for now!!

Well, what a fine welcome back home to Calgary last night!

It was -31 by the temperature readout on my Jeep’s message center last night (actually morning – we got in at 1:00 AM), which warmed up to a downright balmy -27 by the time we hit downtown. One minute you’re walking down a sunny street in a short-sleeved shirt, sipping on a cold Michelob, the next minute your teeth are chattering the opening drum riff of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll”. Caramba…

And, it had snowed, so now this morning after I ingest enough coffee to get my internal temperature backup to at least 80 degrees, I’ll have to go shovel the bloody driveway. Mrs. That Dan Guy has already told me to go jump in the lake, after suggesting my pinched nerve would prevent me from doing it myself.

Well, for one thing, we don’t even have a lake anywhere near here, and if we did, it would be frozen solid…

Chow for now!!

All good things must come to an end. Even if we try to hold them back with a shotgun and liberal amounts of Jack Daniels…

Today is our last day in Las Vegas :-(

However, it has been a terrific trip, and last night we attended our last show – the reason we did this sudden impulse run in the first place (after declining 2 previous offers from friends and family). We saw Johnny Mathis, up close and personal. Well, as up close and personal as you can get with almost a 30-piece orchestra…

The very first time we came to Vegas, we saw John Byner, an impressionist famous for introducing the world to Super Dave Osborne, and his wacky impression of Mathis. This time we saw the real deal, and he exceeded any expectations we brought to the show. A voice still like melting butter, and to hear all his hits with a full orchestra, well, all I can say is we were mesmerized.

Somehow we ended up with awesome seats for all of these shows. Last night we were seven rows back. Pretty much the same for Liza and Toni...

Aside from shows, we’ve done the usual scampering between casinos and sightseeing. Best place to us so far has been The Luxor – note to certain family members!!

Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but we still have a few loose coins jingling that need to find a home!

Chow for now!!

OK, before we get going this morning (which by the way gets later every day), let me just say that I am a lifelong, card-carrying heterosexual, that just happens to have a wider scope of appreciation for musical sty lings maybe than someone named Bubba…

So when I tell you that my wife and I took in the Liza Minelli show here in Vegas last night, all that means is that we got to see one of the most legendary names in music still performing today.

After all, despite all the recent melodramas in her own life, and maybe one of the worst radars EVER for her own partners, she is the daughter of Judy Garland, and star of multiple mediums. I can’t say for sure, but it’s unlikely she’s ever had to wait for Ryan Seacrest to tell her she’s safe for another week…

We knew going in there was going to be some big moments, and we got those with her kick-ass performances of Cabaret and New York New York. But what we didn’t expect was her interpretations of other artists’ songs, plus the songbook she has of her own to reach back into. Simply put, sensational. Which when I say that, may be the reason I felt the need to clarify things earlier…

Chow for now!!

I’ve got two words that sum up our first full day in Vegas yesterday: Hooters.

In our travels, we ended up at this latest addition to the…uh…colour of The City Of Lights. And we quite enjoyed it!! Not bad gambling, the place is indeed well thought out, and had loads of nice food and beverage facilities. We may end up back there today. Just our little way of supporting those poor owls…

And, once again, live comedy takes a back seat here in Las Vegas. We tossed around adding another show to our lineup last night, and considered either Rita Rudner, George Wallace, or Carrot Top. We decided on George because, well, he’s getting old, and may not be here the next time we are.

Phoning the box office at The Flamingo, I heard a promo for the new Toni Braxton Experience, in the main showroom. Mrs. That Dan Guy, who has ears like a military bat, heard it as well. Game over, we were off to see Ms. Braxton.

And by the way, if you only know of Braxton’s mega-hit Unbreak My Heart, this lady has one heck of a song catalogue, and knows how to entertain the Bejeesus out of a crowd. We had a blast!!

As did Mr. Wayne Brady, and Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air), who turned out to be seated just a few tables away from us…

The adventure continues!!

Chow for now!

The company has left the building, and so have we!!

Bringing our hacking, wheezing, cold-wracked bodies down to the airport last night, we got on a plane, and ended up in some place called Las Vegas...

On the flight down, we could barely keep our eyes open, and Mrs. That Dan Guy was struggling with a sore throat.

As the plane touched the runway, all that went out the window, as we hit the ground running after check-in, and spent the next four hours on the casino floor like super-hyper dervishes on full-out overdrive. Or, in layman terms, a pair of excited chickens, too dumb to know their heads have been cut off...

Wahoo!!

More to come!

Chow for now!!

You Know You Have Family Visiting When:

The first day is the only day as hosts that you keep the place as immaculate as it was when they arrived…

Even by the first breakfast morning of their stay, bed hair isn't even close to being a concern. Not even by 3:30 in the afternoon…

The first morning breakfast – a buffet of dizzying choices that would make Horatio Sanz salivate… The rest of the visit – stale cereal and toast…

By the second night, you are blaming odd lingering odours on “random methane emissions”. Hey, you’re in Alberta for Pete’s sake…

Due to a bizarre mutual bout of insomnia, you accidentally almost share a bed with your brother-in-law. Twice!

You've worn a lamp shade on your head, and it's still a few weeks to Christmas...

The staff at the neighborhood bar hollers out "Norm!!" everytime you saunter in, this past week.

Chow for now!!

It is entirely inexplicable…

Once again, we are just about to depart on a little getaway, and once again Mrs. That Dan Guy is getting sick. And once again, I am the one that has passed on what was once just an amusing frog in the throat, but is now a full-blown cold. Every freakin’ time…

The Ghetto Gang visit continues. Yesterday we watched the BC Lions maul those cute little Quebec birdies. It was painful. Whoever is in charge of allowing lions to compete against birds should be shot.

After the game, we all went out sightseeing. Did we go view the Calgary Tower?

No…

Did we peruse the incredible array of wild animals at the Calgary Zoo??

No…

Did we at least take a drive through historic Inglewood, the original downtown Calgary???

No…

We ended up at Calgary Casino, almost the first landmark you see driving out of the airport. But, they do have western sculptures in and outside the building, so it felt like a tourist attraction. Not exactly Banff…

Chow for now!!

Last night I found myself trapped in a 1980's Dudley Moore movie...

We went to bed a little late last night, after a 3-game match of Bumper Pool with the Ghettos. The men ultimately triumphed over the ladies. We were - in a word - awesome.

Exhausted after such an extended athletic output, I fell asleep almost immediately. Until about 1:30 AM, when this recurring frog in my throat began ribbiting again...

And nothing would stop it. Trying to clear my airwaves by blowing my nose, each box of Kleenex I reached for ran out after offering up one flimsy piece of facial tissue. The cough syrup I guzzled only made my hacking taste like I was trying to expel a cherry-flavored hairball..

So, I got up, and went downstairs to make myself a cup of tea, and read a bit. Only by then nature suddenly called, and I had to make a trip to our main floor powder room. Where I promptly plugged the ongoing bane of my existence...

After returning to the bedroom and awakening Mrs. That Dan Guy again, I used my amateur plumbing skills to clear the clog, and then had to deal with some post-nasal drip from bending over. The Kleenex box offered up one flimsy piece of nasal tissue...empty!!

I went back to bed and fell asleep around three am, but I had considered grabbing a throw and sleeping on the reclining sofa in our family room. Recounting this tale of woe over breakfast, it turns out I must have just passed Mr. Ghetto in the hall, having the same slumber problem I was. He DID end up grabbing the throw, and sleeping on the sofa.

We might have had an awkward moment explaining sharing that sofa in the morning, when our wives discovered us...

Chow for now!!!

We're In The Ghetto!

or

Ghetto Comes To Town...

Our first visitors to this latest home have arrived, just in time for tomorrow's Grey Cup finale. We are polishing up our hospitality, and tucking away the good silver - the in-laws are in town!!

Ghetto Girl & Mr. Ghetto (no relation to Mr. Geico) arrived last night, and will remain until early next week. Aside from running them around to show off our new home town, we will also have to modify some of our daily routines - such as breaking wind willy-nilly first thing in the morning, and streaking slowly down to the coffee pot...

*******************************************************************************

In between shuttling them last night, I had to pop out to attend a book launch for the Alexandra Writers' Centre Society, or which I am both a member and a board member. I handle the publicity portfolio, which was off to a rocky start last night. Someone must have shot the homing pigeons I dispatched to the various media outlets, as NOTHING appeared anywhere to promote the event...ugh...

I am also dealing with a small frog on my throat. Nothing serious,but those legs of his sure can flop around...

Chow for now!!

To whomever on the tech team here at Blogger.com that anonymously repaired my woeful blog site, my humble thanks. It looks so much better...

*********************************************************************************

I have discovered this past week that I have absolutely zero resistance when it comes to Christmas decorations.

My wife and I already have boxes and boxes of festive decor in the basement, but already this season we have bought cowboy-related ornaments for our tree, as we now live in a cowboy-themed province. We buckled like a big ole belt with a steer head stamped on it...

We've also picked up a wreath that matches our new colour schemes in this current house, although the old green one probably would have worked just as well. Mrs. That Dan Guy tried sneaking it into the house, but I could tell by the shade of the feathers it wasn't a new hat.

And, the other day at Canadian Tire I looked longingly at an inflatable 6' snowglobe for the yard, with a Santa & reindeer Merry-Go-Round inside. Like Barnum said, there's one born every minute, and I am reincarnated on a regular basis this time of year...

Chow for now!!

I believe we experienced our first Chinook yesterday, and it turns out to be a weather pattern, NOT a really large salmon with magical powers...

It was +12 degrees driving home last night (Celsius), so you can only imagine how sweltering it was. We had to have the air conditioning on in the car!! It was all I could do to keep from ripping my shirt off, and using it as a makeshift beret. Why I would even think about doing that is anybody's guess...

It is kind of odd, having a stretch of biting cold, then having to rifle through your drawers for your jogging shorts and silk muscle shirt. I guess we'll get used to it...

Chow for now!!


Hey, my site is back to normal!! How did that happen?????

I had a little tickle in my throat just before bedtime last night. Nothing to worry about I thought, just head off to bed...

Well, at 1:30 AM I awoke with a severely sore throat, and deep cough. Trying to lie back down, I couldn't breath. Swell!!

So, I got out of bed, and sucked on a Halls cough drop. That helped, but I still couldn't quit trying to clear my airway of what had developed into a medium-sized furball, with some unruly pieces of residual fur.

Downstairs I went, to make a cup of tea with honey, and two splashes of cough syrup for good measure. TV at 2:20 AM leaves much to be desired for anyone not interested in how to make $10,000 in just 4 days with no work yourself, or how to easily conceal male pattern balding.

I did set the VCR for that though...

I ended up reading some of Bob Newhart's exceptional new biography "I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This". But it was so good I was staying up, instead of trying to saw some logs in my warm and fuzzy bed.

Which I went back to at about 3:15 AM. However, my cough was still preventing me from sleeping, and now I had gone and woken up Mrs. That Dan Guy. Who advised me to try having some tea with honey before rolling over and trying to get back to sleep herself.

Up again, I had a second cup of tea, and alternated between hacking and chuckling. This Newhart book is just terrific... I think I did manage to fall asleep around 5 AM.

Anyhow, I sit before you today, bleary and weary. However I have a seminar to attend this afternoon, so sleep will have to wait until I get home later tonight.

At least the furball is a little smaller now....

Chow for now!!

Check back later....full plate this morning....

*******************************************************

OK, back from the travels!!

Yikes, busy morning today. Two rounds of back-to-back physiotherapy, for the now happily-diminishing arm and neck woes.

Literally back to back, as each therapist today tried to discover new ways to make me holler "Uncle!". I can understand the relation of these two issues to my back, but for the life of me I can't understand why one of them makes me do those hula hoop exercises...

After physio, I had to rush off to do some grocery shopping, which I can respect is likely not exactly earth-shaking news, but after having to discard all of our left-over Halloween candy due to the recent salmonella scare, I needed to replenish our "sweet" stock. Thirteen pounds of saltwater taffy should do the trick...

I also have a few more stops to make today, but I felt lunch was a necessary stop, as a cartoon I saw earlier in the newspaper made me really hungry.

On that, has anybody been reading the new Chuckle Brothers cartoons in the paper?? These Canadian guys are writing a brand-new syndicated comic strip, which reminds me a lot of The Far Side and such. Today's strip was a picture of a couple of chickens boarding a KFC airlines flight, and commenting to one another about how maybe that wasn't such a great idea!!

Chow for now!!

Still no luck getting my site here to look normal again. The profile and links are way down at the end of my postings. Quality control here at That Dan Guy is clearly marginal at best...

So, how is everyone's holiday shopping going so far?? Judging by retail displays, we should have started before Halloween. Most new displays I saw for this past October 31st event were tucked way back behind enormous Christmas decoration stacks, and the latest gizmos to celebrate Santa's arrival. Makes you feel like a procrastinator if you haven't already gotten busy hanging lights and mistletoe.

Do retailers really think that we might forget to do our annual pilgrimage to the malls? Or do they feel we now need more than just the 12 Days of Christmas to fulfill that trek?? When I'm debating real versus artificial trees with my neighbor in August, I think the holiday has maybe gone a little awry...

One problem I face every year is having the wherewithal to resist opening my wife's presents before Christmas morning. I've already opened her new Meat Loaf cd (the bat is back, third time's the charm!!), and I charged her cordless weed-wacker, just to ensure it works before the warranty runs out.

Chow for now!!

Last night my wife and I caught one of the last performances of Stage West Dinner Theatre's current production of "Dream Girls". This was our second time at this venue, and last night's production was even better than the one before.

Part of the fun is that this Tony-award winning musical is a pretty thin riff on the rise of Diana Ross & The Supremes. It also doesn't hurt that for a dinner theatre production, the professionalism was unbelievable. Indicated by a note at the entry, playing the lead role of discarded Dreamette Effie for our showing was the understudy, and she made you wonder how good the other actress had to be, if this one hadn't been the frontrunner. She was a freakin' powerhouse!!

Considering this production is just about done, the place was packed to the rafters. I'm serious - we actually saw people in the rafters.

Maybe it was a mezzanine, they do keep that area fairly dark...

The only downside of this venue is the buffet that's part of your admission. Picture to the contrary, I eat like a bird. A small, cute bird - too polite to ask for seconds at a family barbecue.

However, at a buffet, especially a terrific one like we visited last night, I swell to more...well. ostrich-like proportions regarding my appetite, and even eat stuff I wouldn't touch on a dare here at home. Drives the missus crazy...

Chow for now!!

Today I'm going to post a column of mine that ran last year at this time:

Remembering Toy Guns & Soldiers…

As a kid back in the late 60’s, I would often join with other youngsters in the neighborhood, and the whole gang of us would play War.
Sure, sometimes we played as cowboys, or space explorers, but the war games we most always ended up playing were probably inspired by the popularity of similar-themed American TV shows back then, like Vic Morrow’s gritty “Combat!” or the clever “Rat Patrol”, which incidentally happened to star a pre-“Young & Restless” Eric Braeden (Victor Newman, but it’s not like I watch the damn show…I’m just a stockpile of general trivial knowledge. PS – he didn’t have his moustache back then.).
War as a group game was great to play as a kid because you didn’t need much else aside from your imagination, and a stick for a rifle. Oh sure, most of us that were regulars eventually ended up with realistic toy accessories, but you weren’t left out just because your parents hadn’t bought you a plastic cap gun from Woolco before the weekend.
If you wanted to, you could spend your entire allowance on anything from a plastic camouflage helmet, to a toy bazooka that fired bomb-shaped missiles. A buddy and I actually ordered the “real” submarine that you could order off the back page of one of our comic books. Sadly, the submarine never did arrive, nor did we ever see our money again. Probably just as well, I would likely not fit in it today anyway…
Even more elaborate than the life-sized war gear for us kids were the countless accessories for G.I. Joe action figures, for whom you could purchase everything from a scuba set, to snappy Navy dress whites. Oh yeah, and a very realistic-looking acoustic guitar, because Elvis had one in “G.I. Blues”…
We read comic books, like Marvel’s Sgt. Fury, and comic strips like Sad Sack & Beetle Bailey. But clearly, it wasn’t just us kids that were fascinated by war. As I mentioned earlier, TV had loads of serious war shows that parents watched as well, and some admittedly not so serious, like Hogan’s Heroes. As a kid, I often wondered how Richard Dawson finally made it out of Stalag 13, and onto hosting Family Feud…
The movie theatres offered up their own interpretations and recreations, with a leathery John Wayne biting a hand grenade, or captaining PT boats in epic after epic. Mr. Wayne ultimately represented every branch of the military over the course of his career, even The Green Berets. That one even had a hit song.
Which brings us to music and war…
Around the time my chums and I were rolling around in the battlefield grass of someone’s front yard (and hopefully missing what Rover might have deposited earlier), music artists were shifting from patriotic anthems about war, to protesting it. “Give Peace A Chance”. “For What It’s Worth”. Edwin Starr’s “War”. “Springtime For Hitler”.
OK, that last one was Mel Brooks, but the point is the artists were reaching a society growing increasingly weary of war, and moving away from the patriotic ditties of the 40’s & 50’s.
Until 9/11…
After an unprecedented attack on U.S. soil, the gloves were off again, and music reflected the stunned feelings of a nation. Country artists led the charge, with Alan Jackson’s emotional “Where Were You”, and a slightly more direct sentiment within Toby Keith’s “Courtesy Of The Red White & Blue”. Elton John, in his lavish new Red Piano show in Las Vegas frames his 70’s classic song Daniel with a moving video tribute to Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped and killed in Pakistan, a victim of this new war on terrorism. The first minute alone, morphing on a wounded young soldier in the foreground, sucks the breath right out of you…
Yeah, playing War as a carefree kid may have been fun, but as an adult, I couldn’t be happier that in my lifetime the sacrifices made by others ensured that I’d grow up to the ripe old age that I have so far, without ever having had to strap on a real gun with a group of my own young buddies.
As of this writing, many others have not been so lucky.
Lest We Forget…

©November 11, 2005 Dan St.Yves

I give up....

I probably shouldn't bite the hand that allows me to do this for free every day, but as you might have noticed, this page has become a visual mess.

My profile and other information is floating somewhere around the bottom of the page, and the page itself looks as if I brought it into Bobby Two-Finger's Instant-But-Not-Terribly-Accurate Blogging Service.

Apparently this may only be an issue for anybody using Internet Explorer, so maybe I should write a brisk letter of dissatisfaction to Bill Gates.

I've even tried republishing the thing, but it still looks like a loopy criminal on the lam did this while he was running way. On a pogo stick...

Ugh...

Of course, I could post this now and everything will be back to normal, so if that happens to be the case, I offer my humblest apologies....

Chow for now!!

We are currently at war....

with every blasted toilet in our home!!!!!!!!

This has to be one of the simplest household appliances, next to the common free-standing bread box but we can't master a single one of them.

We've got toilets that run, toilets that double flush, and toilets that play dead. I've got chains in the tanks that slip off, chains that get hooked and require surgery to get untangled. I've got chains that are trying to make a run for freedom down the very drain they are supposed to be operating in the first place.

And don't even get me started on ballcocks....

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem...

Chow for now!!!

Jeez, I shoulda just stayed in bed this morning….

I awoke to the disturbing news today that Britney Spears and Mr. Britney Spears have filed for divorce. She is citing irreconcilable differences.

How irreconcilable can those differences be, for the love of all that is bright and shiny??

She’s a dancer, and Mr. Britney is a dancer.

She’s a singer, and Mr. Britney is a….

Well, OK, there’s at least one difference that just may really be irreconcilable!!

******************************************************************************
Hey! Our Flames won a game!!

******************************************************************************

If you want to weigh in on the great James Blunt Rocks/James Blunt Sucks debate, go back a couple of days and add your comments to that appropriate posting…

*****************************************************************************

Hmm. This has suddenly become a potpourri today. “I’ll take Potent Potables for $200, Alex!”

*****************************************************************************

If there’s a finite amount of lobsters in the ocean, will there be a restaurant chain simply named “Red” someday??

***************************************************************************

Chow for now!!

Just a brief entry this morning, as I am running late to head into town for my physio....

And appropriately, my brain is barren at the moment....

We'll continue this later.

Chow for now!!

******************************************************************

And, we're back!!

Say, if you're looking for something different to fill some time, why not consider catching Prince at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas??

Starting Nov. 10th, His Purpleness will be appearing every Friday and Saturday night at 3121 - a new club in that hotel.

For a mere $2875. US per person, you can catch The Paisley Funkmaster in this rush seating venue, and according to the website, he has no scheduled time he wil be appearing. The Nov. 24th and 25th dates indicate a midnight show.

But, at that price per person, you may want to be a little conservative at the gaming tables beforehand. You may also need to be Bill Gates...

Chow (again) for now!!

Oh, the humiliation...

In one ill-fated fell swoop, both my (original) hometown Blue Bombers, and my (new) hometown Stampeders will be curling, cross-country skiing or knitting instead of competing for the Grey Cup.

Life is cruel, and/or worse...

Anyhow, moving on:

"The Monday Morning Nobody-Asked-Me-To-But-Here-I-Go-Anyway Concert Review" - The Dixie Chicks!

(Or, Why I Will Never Be A Professional Concert Reviewer)

OK people, first off - Banjo Quest 2006 is back, with a vengeance!!

I spent most of last night in Banjo Heaven, as The Dixie Chicks appeared here for the first of TWO shows in The Saddledome. And what a show!!

These chicks aren't so much Dixie as they are p'd off these days, but does that ever make for a great live performance. Whatever they were sellin', the crowd was buyin'. Before they even hit the stage the crowd roared over a promotional video for their upcoming documentary "Shut Up & Sing".

When they did arrive, the crowd on the floor got up on their collective feet, and stayed that way on through the encores (one of which was an exceptional acoustic Chicks-only version of Travelling Soldier).

And, as fate would have it, we ended up on the side of the stage where Emily Robison (and her banjo) was stationed.

All I can say is that when they did "I'm Not Ready To make Nice" live, with all the genuine emotion and anger that that song addresses, the arena went a little loopy. That performance makes songs like "Cowboy Take Me Away" a little inconsequential...

The irony here is that when The Dixie Chicks first broke out, we didn't much care for them. We even missed their mainstage appearance when we attended The Merritt Mountain Music Festival on their first big North American tour.

However, by the time they released Top Of The World, we had started to listen to them, and really enjoyed what they were doing.

We certainly enjoyed what they were doing last night...

Viva la Banjo!!!!!!!!

Oh, and by the way, I was a little confused about who their warm-up act was. I had heard it was going to be Rob Schneider, which sounded to me just a little odd. I mean, I know he used to do Elvis impressions on SNL, but he's primarily known for making juvenile and entirely tasteless movies.

Turned out to be Texas alt-country singer/songwriter BOB Schneider, who did a mighty fine job as well...and as a bit of trivia, he's touring with the bass player from Los Lobos.

Chow for now!!

Spent the better part of an hour yesterday waiting in line at Coles TD Square Bookstore in downtown Calgary, for a chance to meet Stuart McLean, author and host of the popular CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe
http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/index.html .

For anyone out there that may be beginning to wonder if I just make this stuff up every day, see the lovely photo over to the right, as "Exhibit A".

And thanks to my lovely wife, who also doubles as an amateur photographer among her many other talents!

Now if only she could figure out a few camera tricks, to make me look a little bit less like a pregnant water buffalo...is that a fan beside Stuart, or is Barney wearing pants now??

At any rate, the reason I was thrilled to stand in line for over an hour is that this guy is far and away my favorite Canadian writer, and I have a lot of those.

He was scheduled to sign copies of his new book Secrets From The Vinyl Cafe until 2 pm, but when we walked back by at about that time, the crowd was still lined up almost into the Sears store,which is pretty much in the next mall.

And he still had his warm signature smile on his face...

Coming up tonight - The Dixie Chicks, and yes Virginia, there will be banjos!!

Chow for now!!

Um, some people may want to just skip past today’s entry. Especially certain collectibles proprietors in Winnipeg…

Just sayin’…

The Saturday Morning “Nobody-Asked-Me-To-But-Here-I-Go-Anyway” Concert Review” – James Blunt

OK, I’m not going to lie here. We first caught wind of this guy on Saturday Night Live, and became instant fans. Big fans. But I’m also the same guy that has seen Chris de Burgh live in concert almost a half dozen times AND Leo Sayer at least once, so clearly I have no inner strength for resisting high-pitched male voices.

At any rate, we were not alone at this event, as Mr. Blunt packed out the Saddledome for his show.

The crowd was somewhat demographically similar to the one that also attended The Who recently, however unlike those fans, these people will likely remember where they were last night. Not a whiff of narcotic substances in the air that I could detect, although I could swear at one point I could smell lavender vanilla cranberry candles…

Actually, the crowd was skewed just a shade to the female side, but there were lots of guys there as well.

Opening act Starsailor was a bit Matchbox 20ish, with their lead singer and guitarist even looking a bit like Rob Thomas. I wouldn’t have known them if I tripped over them on the subway, but they got the crowd going, and the younger ones clearly knew their hit.

They did do a terrific unplugged medley of two Neil Young tunes though, before kicking into Silence is Easy, so I’d have to say we enjoyed them as well…

But we weren’t there to see starry sailors, we were there to see James Blunt, dammit!

Which we did.

I never got to experience Beatlemania, but this guy came dangerously close to maybe being a distant relative of that hysteria. The crowd went freakin’ nuts, and the younger members of that female-skewed audience squealed incessantly. And sang along with every song. Even the new ones!! Which by the way, if you enjoyed his first album, the next one sounds just as good.

If you hated it, prepare for another year of Bluntmania…

But I digress. Mr. Blunt was an excellent showman, and the comparison to classic Chris de Burgh is not at all unfair, as he uses some similar melodramatic devices in his songwriting. And he can cover Supertramp pretty well as well, apparently. Both he and his warm-up act used a fair bit of wah-wah pedal, which you just don't hear much anymore...

Two big thumbs, way, way up!!

Chow for now!!

Requiem For A Rodent...

It's been a tough go for rodents these past few days.

First off, there was Roseanne Barr whacking squirrels with a slingshot on last night's episode of My Name Is Earl.

Before that, Calgary made national news this week after banning the Saskatchewan Roughriders mascot Gainer The Gopher from the semi-final playoff game here tomorrow. Something about Prairie Dog Norwalk Virus, or uncontrollable diarrhea. I'm not sure what the true official word is, but the gopher is grounded.

As far as Gainer goes, we've been to a CFL game here when Saskatchewan is in town. Those fans are profuse, and crazy. Adding a gopher mascot with highly contagious strains of malaria and grasshopper breath just doesn't sound like a good idea to me...

And, still somewhat in the rodent family, it would appear that we have an obsessive compulsive rabbit in our neighborhood.

With fresh snow everywhere, we are seeing rabbit tracks throughout our back yard. Actually, we've seen Bugs himself a few times.

His habit appears to be running madly around the yard, but now we are seeing patterns. He (or she) runs in exactly the same line several times, before repeating the process in a different line.

Except for the other night, when a larger set of footprints adjacent to his (or hers) indicated a chase may have been afoot!!

A-whoooooo!!

Chow for now!!

It dawns on me this morning (hey, a bad pun!!) that I haven't talked about our TV viewing habits lately, so let's discuss that this morning...

So, to set the tone, let me just admit that my wife and I DO NOT watch any super-popular shows, like Desperate Housewives, House, or any of the Idol series. No particular reason, but admittedly it does make for some awkward moments around the water cooler most mornings.

The fact that I work at home and feel compelled to linger around our water cooler may be a bigger concern in the long run, anyhow...

So, how do we fill in time if we don't watch the highest-rated TV shows??

To start, we have adopted a couple of shows that feature the former Grand Poobah of the rock band KISS, Mr. Gene Simmons. We have been thoroughly enjoying the tongue-in-cheek peek inside their family lives on Family Jewels. And, we have just gotten on the Gene Simmons: Rock School band wagon, which I fear may still have plenty of available seats even now.

What are we watching from this new season's offerings? Well, we started to watch Heroes, but after falling asleep during every episode to date, I think we'll bail on that one.

LOVE 30 Rock, the new comedy with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, who has yet to be as embarrassing onscreen as he can be in real life. Also, the show that follows that one, Twenty Good Years is good for a laugh or two.

There's probably more, but I have to run. Physio beckons!!

Chow for now!

"Is it hot in here, or is it just my feathers?"

This is just another example of why I can't expect a normal day in our household. Ever...

Mrs. That Dan Guy had to dress up for Halloween yesterday, and the character she had to appear as was Mrs. Peacock, from the Clue board game. Her entire collective of colleagues at work was a virtual gameboard of Clue characters.

However, as Mrs. Peacock, her costume included a large blue boa, with what I have to assume are entirely natural blue feathers. They make for excellent insulation (hence the concern over temperature), and even feature a molting feature, as I have found remnants of the boa throughout the house.

She spent most of yesterday spitting out wayward pieces that floated up around her face...kind-of like watching Sylvester after dining on a very cold Tweety (sorry, PETA, but it's nature's way!!)...

Today is a normal workday, so I am hoping to get through breakfast without a peep (heh heh heh).

Chow for now!!