Snow days are here again! We have had cold and snowy weather the past few days here in Victoria, and I must admit that it is pretty nice to get snow once in a while, as long as it doesn’t stay around too long. This morning Suede and I took Yoshi for a quick spin at the park before having to run some errands. He and Digger will get a better walk this afternoon.

On the way home these ice and snow encrusted ferns caught my attention. There were lots of icicles hanging off this rock, but the way the ice surrounded the ferns was pretty cool.

I did some playing in Paintshop with a few of these. The above one I aplied a soft focus filter.

This picture I changed to black and white, then darkened the darks a bit.

I duplicated this picture, deepend the colors, merged back to the original, then applied the soft focus. I like the way it looks. Kind of dream like.

I tried to make this picture colder looking by duplicating it, adding a blue filter, then merging back to the original.

Our cat Aprhodite is none too impressed with the white stuff.

Over the Christmas Holiday this year I had a very relaxing time, and took quite a few pictures. For the first time ever for either of us, Suede and I woke up Christmas morning in our own bed. My mom and sister had come down the night before with my moms dog Kodi. Yoshi and Sheba were a little confused by Kodi (a long haired Chihuahua). Christmas morning was relaxed with just the 4 of us. We opened our presents, then ate an awesome brunch of home made eggs benedict. Yum! Later in the day Suede’s dad and step-mom arrived, and we set about making Christmas dinner. Again, and awesome meal. KaptainK and JJ also came by for dinner, and brought their faithful companion Big D. In case you weren’t keeping track, that was 8 people, and 4 dogs at out place for dinner that night.

The rest of the past week has been a bit of a blur. Dogs walks pretty much every day. Mountains of laundry, and dishes were done. More people visited. Then the cleanup. Taking down the tree, putting away the decorations, putting away the loot. Phew, exhausting. I almost need a break from my vacation.

My Christmas gallery is here, and the slideshow is here.

Sunday Suede and I treated her mom, my mom, and my sister to a play at the Belfry. Since it is Christmas time, we chose a Christmas play. The twist was that it was an improv play. In fact, the title was A Twisted Christmas Carol.

In a word it was hilarious. Hands down this was the funniest improv I have seen. The plot follows that of the book, but it is made modern through suggestions from the crowd. Some of the the changes involved the characters, some of then involved the scenes. For example in our play, Scrooges business was transformed into a Ballroom Dance studio instead of the classic accounting firm. The set was magnificent. The backdrop they used throughout was that of a huge advent calendar. Made for some interesting cast entrances.

If you are looking for something to do this holiday season, I can’t recommend this show enough. Call and order tickets right now. You won’t be disappointed.

Friday nights party was quite a bit of fun. The limo picked us up around 5:15, and for the next hour and a bit we toured Victoria picking up other people. Once we arrived at Sauce I was introduced toa bunch of people, and the party got going. There was an open bar, an appies sitting out when we arrived. Around 7:30 the buffet dinner was served, and it was pretty good. After dinner the draw prizes were given away (Suede won a $20 gift certificate to Sauce), then the DJ started. He was alright, but he had a few problems with a few songs.

As the night wore on, the dancing on the tables started. It was quite funny to watch the reactions of passersby on the street when they saw the ladies dancing on the tables.

As the music got louder I started to not have as much fun as I was. I ended up leaving a little earlier than Sue, but still had a great time.

Tonight is Suede’s companies Christmas party. We won a free pass to the party including a limo ride there and home with complimentary champagne. The limo? It is one I never thought I would ride in.

Read more to see it.

Friday night I played in my first poker tournament. It was a $40 buy in, and it was put on by one of my co-workers. I was a little apprehensive since I had only really played poker once before. But, it was only $40, and I thought I would at least go check it out and see how I do.

I ended up having a lot of fun, and if I am invited again, I will do my best to make it.

We were playing No Limit Hold ’em. Just like I have seen on TV. After verifying a couple rules, we were off and running. We had two tables going, and I won a few hands. One guy at the other table was out in 20 minutes or so.

One hand in the first round that stuck out for me was a hand that came down to me and Craig. Craig was low on chips, and I had a pair of 10’s. I was feeling pretty good, so I was going to stay around. Craig went all in (I think it was after the flop). It was all he could do. I called, and we showed our cards, Craig with a Jack high, me with my pair. The turn card was a Jack! Crap! Then the river card was another Jack. Craig lived to play a little longer. 🙂 It was pretty exciting, even though I lost that hand.

The table I was at was the first to get down to 3, so we waited for the second table to knock another guy out.

At the final table I think I played fairly well, and only got suckered into one bad hand.

Another really fun hand was when it got down to Jason and I. I had a 9, and another lower card. In the community cards were 2 9’s, and 2 10’s. Sweet. I did my best to keep Jason in it, and when it came time to show, I told him full house, 9’s over 10’s. He was not happy and threw his cards down. I didn’t pay attention to them. Another player pointed out that Jason had a 10. That meant he had a full house, 10’s over 9’s. Doh! I lost that one by a hair.

After making it to the final 3, I was feeling pretty happy with myself. Part of the pot went to the person with the highest hand. Jason had 4 of a kind (3’s with a Queen I think). Mike and I got into in one hand. I was dealt a pair of 10’s, and was pretty happy with those. The flop contained 2 more 10’s. Hmm, now that is a hand I wanted to see. I did my best to keep Mike in the hand, but he ended up folding. Being a novice, I tossed my cards in and started collecting the chips. I mentioned that I had 4 10’s and was hoping Mike was going to stay in. Then I was told that if I had thrown them in face up, that would have counted as a played hand! I could have had the highest hand, but I didn’t know to throw them in face up.

Around 12:30 Jason, Mike and I agreed to put a time limit on it. When time rolled by, we called the game, and split the pot 3 ways. I ended up with $110. Sure was fun though.

This past Saturday Suede and I were on our way to a friends house for a party.

We stopped at the lights on Lampson to cross Esquimalt. We were heading north, and the intersection lights are a little different. The Eastbound Esquimalt road traffic gets a green with a left run arrow. Next goes the Westbound traffic, again with a left turn arrow. Finally if there is any traffic on Lampson, it will get the green.

Suede and I were in the truck on Lampson, and the Westbound traffic light had just gone red. When our light went green I checked the intersection, and noone was running the light. A split second after I started moving, Suede yelled for me to look out. Heading Eastbound, a lady had taken off from the line!

I jammed on the brakes, and with both hands layed on the horn as she crossed less than 5 feet in front of me. I saw her look up at the light, look over at me. She was scared. I left the horn on for along time to drive the point home.

She continued through the intersection and pulled over. I think my message got through to her. I put the truck into first gear, and proceeded to the party.

I have no idea why she jumped the light like that. When I started into the intersection she definitely wasn’t moving. Inattention almost caused an accident.