Movin' a shed

Yesterday we fulfilled Logan's dreams of moving our shed. Since we moved in he has thought and talked about moving the shed from one very conspicuous corner of the yard to one that is out of the way.

The Before. Everyone showed up at noon. We got started right away.
This is everyone's excited face. Yeah - we can do it!

I thought the first hour was going to be a struggle to get the shed started, up out of the hole. The boys gave a little push and it rolled right out. No problem.
A short celebration and the strategy session to figure out how to turn it 180 degrees as well as push it.

We used two 10' ABS tubes and two 2' tubes. As we were turning it we would pause to reposition the tubes. There were many occasions that we need to weight one end of the shed. One way we achieved this was to have the girls hop inside the shed and stand in the corner that was needed. This was the other method.
Another pause to reposition a tube.
Half way. Pressed right up against the deck. (Check out the new deck colour - Tugboat).

The move team: Logan, Lindsay (who kept Charlie out of the way), Jason (new mohawk and all), Dan, Craig, Jen and myself.

We complete the move at 12:38. From arrival at noon to completion 38 minutes. Wow. I honestly thought that at 2:00 we would be stopping for a beer and talking about how we were going to change our approach, or making a trip to home depot. nothing. It was great!

Almost as soon as we finished the sun broke through the clouds and it got hot.

Out came the beer and the snack on the patio set. And then out came the bocce ball.

It was so intense the bocce that the tape measure was used to ensure all points were awarded properly.

Charlie really liked the bocce balls as well. He chased the one red ball around the yard, pushing it with his paws and teeth - trying to bite the damn thing. He loved it.

Logan's Birthday

Logan turned 27 on March 5. Hard to believe we are older than 25. Sometimes I think about our school days and thinking about how old I thought 30 was. There is a huge difference between 25 and 30. 27. Old.

The Sunday before Logan's birthday we arranged a bit of surprise at Uncle Gord and Auntie Shelley's. Logan thought we were just going for supper. We were going for his birthday supper. When ever we go out for dinner Logan always orders a Bacon Cheddar Burger. So that is what we had. He loved it.

For dessert we had Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake. (The creepy face is because Jason is taking the photo and because of the image on the cake)

For a while now all Logan was asking for his birthday was Golf Clubs.

Pictured are the set of clubs that both sets of parents and I bought. Stef and Lindsay and Dan put in for the bag you see. Logan decided that he didn't need a new bag and would rather return the bag for a driver. So we found a driver on sale that matched his set.

He loves them. The other day he took them to the driving range and was impressed with what they did for his drive. The other boys took a turn and they were also impressed.

On Monday night the birthday celebration continued. Early the week before (he didn't know we had planned family supper on Sunday) he had decided we should have Pizza Hut and Cherry Cheese Cake. We invited Lindsay and Dan and Stef over.

Card from Kotlar's and pointing at the Club they helped make happen.

Card from my parents and also pointing at the clubs.

And the Driver from Lindsay, Dan and Stef.

Tuesday was his birthday. Logan started work at 6am and I was also on a twelve hour day starting at noon. Basically we weren't going to see each other at all. So I had sent texts to everyone. To Baldwin, one of the cops on his rotation. He and his wife Kendal have hung out with us a couple of times. She had made him cupcakes for his birthday. The rest of our regular friends had arranged to come over after his shift. Jen brought the ice cream cake, Craig brought the beer. It was great!

He also opened his present from Andrea on his birthday. A new Wii game. We already had the game she had picked up, so we made a trade for Game Party; lawn darts, horse shoes, beer pong, shuffle board, that sort of things.

I think he had a good time.

Christmas Party

Tonight was Logan's work Christmas Party. It was held at Aussie Rules, a great dueling piano bar. I was pretty sad 'cause it was a two show day for me and I was not able to join until after the evening show (10pm ish). The little time I was there was a hoot.

To add to the fun:

There were door prizes. Each of our tickets won.

First a Sony Blu-Ray Player!

And then Guitar Hero III for the Wii.
How Fun. Especially since we only paid for one ticket. The ticket included dinner. As I was not going to be joining till almost the very end of the night they just gave him my ticket for free. So a $40 ticket, good fun, and a couple hundred dollars worth of electronics.
And because we haven`t had a picture of Charlie in a while:

We have hardly any snow at all. This photo is a couple of weeks old. But he loved discovering snow! He really had a good time eating as much as he could. He was locked in the kitchen for many hours that week we had snow. He would stay out there till he was shaking from the wet snow and come in with his skin matted with snow.

Logan and I had Friday off together, which is great fun. We did all those things that you do when you have a day off, dry cleaners, grocery store, bank, etc etc etc. But the real excitement happened on Thursday night. We met Jason, Chris and Jen at Melrose for drinks. Jason arrived first and saw a disturbing disagreement with a big man and the bouncer. As the rest of us arrived and were taking our seats we saw the bouncer attempt to throw the man out. There was some pushing and shoving and yelling. It started to look pretty dangerous. Logan, Jason and Chris were all standing wondering what to do - but there were so many people crowding around by this time that if they wanted to help they wouldn't have gotten very close. It got a little more scary and they pushed each other outside. That is when the scary man who is much bigger than the bouncer beat the crap out of him - pounding his head into a tree - and then the bouncer went down. At this point Logan Chris and Jason were outside. The cops were on the way.

The bad guy took off down the street. After a safe distance Jason and Logan began to follow the bad guy and his two friends. When the cops arrived Chris called Logan with this cell and grabbed a cop that the knew and told him Logan and Jason had a visual on them, and the car went screeching off. Meanwhile Logan and Jason had headed up the block but couldn't see them. Then they heard branches snapping and watched them fall out of a tree. Then they tried to jump a near by fence to get away. Apparently the two guys couldn't push their fat friend over, so they hid in a bush. Logan and Jason could clearly see these large men hiding under a bush. At that point the cops went racing by - Jason ran after them and Logan kept eyes on the guys. When the cops came back around the guys were scared out of "hiding" and the cops pulled out the taser and that was enough to have the guys drop to the ground and scream their defeat. Upon searching the guys they found $5000 and drugs - obviously drug dealers - and were wondering where the weapon was.

The boys filled out their witness statements and joined us for drinks. Some people would think that I would have been scared. But I am proud. No one else was doing anything to help the guy who was getting his head bashed in. There were other bouncers and all the male servers and bar tenders ran to see what is going on - I would have thought to back the guy up - but they all just watched.

Happy Birthday Logan Earl!

Yesterday was Logan's 25th birthday. 25 is a big number. A quarter of a century!

He marked the day with a class to learn about Lateral Neck Restraints - a move that ranges in three stages from getting control over a subject to cutting off the blood flow to the brain so the person could potentially pass out.

Then home for supper with my sister, Auntie Shelley, Uncle Gord and me. I made a roast with mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, and grandma's pea salad. Stef brought over a cake, chocolate with caramel and skor bits with a Dream Whip frosting.

Logan is wearing the pants that I made for him. Soccer print feety pajamas.

Happy Birthday Logan!

Pulling an all nighter

Well, I am home alone tonight. The alarm at the Bay won't activate tonight so someone has to stay there all night and "protect" the place. I imagine there will be some big screen watching and bed jumping.

The car was fixed yesterday. It was a quick 4 hour fix of the speed censor and $411 donation to the Volkswagen dealership. Oh well. It could have been much worse - the car did stop in the middle of the road. That doesn't usually mean good things. So it is fixed. (But we still need tires, egh)

Red Hot Chili Peppers ... are gone!

Over the weekend Derek, Jesse and Josh came to stay with us so they could see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I think that they all had a very good time. Logan went with them to the concert. They all seemed to have a very good time. The only thing I have to say is three extra grown men in a one bedroom apartment makes for squishy quarters.

But they certainly kept me entertained.

Logan the Bank Robber Catcher

This was the write up in Thursday's Calgary Sun

CalgarySun.ca
Thu, August 31, 2006
Police catch alleged robber
UPDATED: 2006-08-31 03:25:48 MSTBy TODD SAELHOF

Tipped off by a security guard, police arrested a 42-year-old city man suspected of a pair of recent bank robberies.
About 4:15 p.m. yesterday, a loss prevention officer at The Bay in Chinook Mall saw a shopper fitting the description of a thief suspected of holding up a CIBC only 20 minutes earlier.
Calgary police arrested the man and charged him.
Further investigation revealed the suspect is also believed to be responsible for knocking off an ATB branch at 2140 34 Ave S.W. on Monday.
Kenneth Michael Griff of Calgary is charged with two counts of robbery.

That loss prevention officer at The Bay Chinook Mall is my loss prevention officer. Logan caught a bank robber. And he is pretty happy about it. He has received a lot of attention because of it.

As I may or may not have been recording - Logan has sent in his application with the Calgary City Police. He has been through the physical, eye exam, 100 probing questionnaire about everything in his past, and most recently the aptitude test. We are awaiting results as we speak. So after this bank robber thing some of the cops that he works with all of the time have been asking when he is putting in his application - he replies that he already has. They have all said they will be writing a letter to recruiting. He even had cops from the Robbery Unit thank him. Yes, he has been quite the hero these past couple of days!

Odd request

I don't know how many of you know this, but... While I was in Edmonton working on a show Logan decided to shave his head. This he did not tell me. I came home for a weekend and walked through the door to see his extremely bumpy head with a tiny layer of stubble.
Yesterday he came home from work with hair clippers. He wants to do this again. I told him this time I would do it - he looked a little stupid when he got drunk and had his drunk friend do it. I thought we would wait until after we went to Montreal and were taking pictures at touristy site. This morning, however, there was a call from the bathroom. "Stacey..." I approach cautiously... Turn the corner and he has already started.
I made his stop - so I could read the directions - and I finished. And if I do say so myself, I did a good job and it looks pretty good - for a hair cut done in the bathtub.