Life by the Slice

Being an Uncle

My brother and his wife were here last night and brought me up to date on all the happenings with their kids. Tomorrow night my newest nephew will be here and I’m looking forward to babysitting. So this week I’ve been thinking about how much I enjoy being an Uncle.

Having nieces and nephews is great because...

They are little/younger version of your own siblings and its cool watching them grown and take on characteristics of their parents. My sisters kids are spitting images of her and her husband, seeing them reminds of me of what it was like growing up with my sister. And I have lots of fond memories of my brothers and sister as we grew up.

You get to take pride in them, after all they are part of your family. I’ve got four fantastic nephews and four fantastic nieces. I love to brag to my colleagues and friends about them. I love to brag about how artistic they are, how they’ve won a scholarship, how they took a year to serve others, and about how fantastic it is to seem them love God see that expressed in all they do. I take great pride in them and their accomplishments!

Sometimes they do things for you. At a family wedding recently one of my nephews came to me and said he was going to take his cousins to the park as they were bored. What a kind and considerate young man and he was right my kids were bored with the adults who were busy visiting!

Sometimes you get to do things with them, and it’s fun! It’s fun being with my nieces and nephews, they are joy to be around. Each has a great sense of humour and makes me laugh, laughter is a good thing!

Sometimes you get to do things for them, and it feels great! I got to do two things recently, be involved in my nephew’s wedding and help send my niece to camp. It was an incredible honour to be involved in my nephews wedding and it was fun watching him and his bride go through the planning, preparing and execution of the day...definitely a wedding to remember. Britt and I also got to help our niece goto camp this summer and its been cool to see the pictures that Britt’s brother sent and hear the stories. I’d do anything I possibly could for my nieces and nephews and it was a privilege to do both of these things.

The give you reasons to celebrate! When they are born, you get to celebrate, when they reach milestones you get to celebrate (when your around...), and when they get married you get to celebrate. There’s just more reasons to get together as a family and celebrate. And when you live far apart like my family does these days, it just makes things more fun when there’s a big crowd and you are able to get together and celebrate.

So that’s why I like being an uncle. I’m not a very good uncle, but I sure do have great nieces and nephews.

Long Weekend Exodus...I just don't get it

Calgary is a ghost town this weekend.  Coming home from the office on Friday I go across Stoney Trail, one of the major artieries out of town.  Sitting at the light I looked north and the south bound traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see.  Every other vehicle was an RV or vehicle pulling a trailer.  Regularly you don't see Stoney backed up in that direction unless there is some serious construction happening.  So at that point I knew the Long Weekend Exodus was on.

The Exodus was confirmed to me when Britton and I went out on Saturday morning to Safeway.  We pulled in the parking lot.  It was only a 1/4 full, it looked more like a weekday's worth of shoppers than a Saturday.  Inside every til was open as usual on a Saturday but there weren't any line ups. 

Saturday night church a bowridge I saw the same thing.  After the service was 20 minutes in there were still 6 parking spots in the parking lot...unheard of.  There were two complete seating sections that were empty...everybody could have fit in the center two seating sections. 

So, Calgary is half empty this weekend and I have to tell you I just don't get the Long Weekend Exodus mentality.  Here's my perspective on what the Exodus...

• I'm dying to get away for a weekend to some nice peace and quite, stress free relaxation. So, I decide to go to the mountains or go camping.
• I pack up our camping gear and get the family in the van on Friday afternoon and set out.
• I hit traffic trying to get out of Calgary, what's usually a 15 minute trip to the highway turns into a half an hour.
• I'm on the #1 highway headed to Kananaskis.  It's bumper to bumper, RV's trudging along and young people in their sports cars loaded with camping gear zipping in and out passing everyone along the way.  The traffic adds another 1/2 hour to the trip.
• Hit the highway into K-Country.  It's single lane and bumper to bumper again with the guy in the lead doing the speed limit...stress level is going up.
• The kids are in the back asking when are we going to get there.  What's normally an 1 hr and 1/2 trip has just turned into 2 1/2 to almost 3 hrs. 
• Ahhh, we hit the first campground, Mt. Kidd...oh its full, okay we'll head down the highway some more
• Second campground is full, third too, fourth, fifth...stress level is definitely high...Britt and I drive in silence while the kids argue in the back because somebody touched somebody elses seat (not them, just their seat).
• All the campgrounds are full, its either overflow or back home.  We chose overflow.
• We get set up have dinner at 8 o'clock.  Ah life is good.
• 10 o'clock.  Our dumb neighbours are having a party.  Kids' can't sleep.
• Saturday, we get into a campspot...bye bye overflow.
• Our new spot has groups on either side of us, great, we are in party central...the previous tenants got kicked out for noise violation...

You get the picture?  And I haven't even mentioned the fun of trying to get home on Canada day!  I'm sorry, I just don't get it, sure I'd be in the great out doors, but my stress level sure wouldn't be lower.  I'd probably come back needing a vacation!

So, I choose to stay put and spend the weekend in a city of a million that currently is half empty.  Actually, Calgary's pretty nice when half the people are missing. 

Have a great long weekend!

Mutant Monster Pastor on the Loose

My son got a new game this weekend, but it's not really knew because I remember playing it in the arcade when I was a teenager.  The game, Rampage.  In it you pretend to be a mutant monster and wreak havoc on cities, destroy helicopters and airplanes, and eat helpless citizens.  I played a round with him on Saturday before church and now all I can think about is playing another round with him.  I haven't gotten into Guitar Hero 3 or any of the other games he's gotten, but I could really get into this one. 

After a long day at the office what could be better than turning into a mutant monster pastor and destroying some buildings.  Okay, so its not quite what Jesus meant when he said "Go and make disciples", but its still fun and it's only pretend...plus its time with my son.

Performance Management vs. Performance Enhancement

I spent Friday and Saturday of this weekend attending a course at Mt. Royal College.  The course was on Performance Management and was taught by Janice Sharlow, a expert in HR and Organizational Development Consultant with the Cancer Board. 

It was a fantastic course, very thought provoking  and exactly what I needed in order to improve RockPointe's performance program.  I thought it was going to be about how to do performance reviews, but it Ms. Sharlow who is a new prof with Mt. Royal decided to take the course in a different direction and talk about the theory behind performance management and how the HR industry is beginning to focus on enhancing employee performance by focusing on building strengths and talents rather than on correcting weaknesses. 

Some of the key learnings or "a-ha" moments that I had this weekend from this weekend were...

• Diversity - we studied the landscape of the workplace in 2008, specifically the diversity among the generations.  For the first time we have 4 generations working together in the workplace and this greatly impacts expectations, values, communication and work styles and habits.  One such problem that is being faced is that the Boomer generation (46-60) are huge in numbers and occupy the senior level positions in organizations.  Gen-Xers (35 to 46 - me) are much smaller in number and have been patiently waiting for their turn to lead.  Boomers though have become fascinated with the Echo Boomers (17 to 35) who have entered the workforce over the last ten years.  The Boomers see incredible potential in this generation and want them in key leadership roles.  The result, the Xers who have been waiting patiently for their turn are being overlooked and forgotten, which leads to frustration and "checking out."  We will have this diversity for at least the next decade.  To learn more about generational diversity in the workplace, check out a presentation by Linda Duxbury
• Personality, thinking styles and learning styles - I'm a big fan of using Myers Briggs or some sort of temperament analysis with a team to help the team know how to relate to each other.  This weekend we looked at Herrmann Brian Dominance and Kolb Learning Styles.  This was a real eye openning for me.  I once had a staff person who I had a pretty good understanding of how she thought and could I could figure out how best to relate to her, I learned this by having the team we were on take a Myers Briggs test and then talking about our differences.  What frustrated me though was that when it came to improving performance, I could figure out what she was thinking and what was going through her head, but I could not get her to learn in order to enhance her performance.  Then this weekend when we talked about learning styles and thinking styles I had an a-ha moment, things clicked.  I need to understand how people think and act so that I can talk about performance issues, but I need to understand learning styles in order to help a person improve.  Seems simply now in retrospect.  To find out more about Kolb and Herrmann check out BusinessBalls.com
• Another really fascinating discussion centered around X-Y Theory and the differences in the managmeent styles based on this theory.  Theory X is the way the majority of work places and managers use, however today people desperately want Theory Y and I believe the organizations that operate on Theory Y principles will succeed and last, while Theory X organizations will be like the dinosaurs...become extinct.
• We spent Saturday talking about what a program should look like for employee performance.  The idea that we heard was that a program should include performance assessments, continual feedback, and strengths development.  We also heard from the professor how the Cancer Board is trying to address this in her organization.

It was a great class, very interesting and made me think and make notes about how this could affect RockPointe. Now comes the hard part, putting into action what I've learned.

Cruisin'

Is it wrong to post a blog about my car?  I don't care, I love my car.

It's a 2006 PT Cruiser Touring Edition.  We got it in October and it's awesome to drive. 

I drove it out to a retreat in Kananaskis in March and it was a blast.  I loved zooming through the mountains, winding through the curves.  Music blaring.  It was awesome.  I had such a blast that when I got to the retreat center I phoned Britton and thanked her for letting us get the car. 

I haven't love a car this much since we had our Tracker back in the 90's. 

I saw a commercial tonight where a guy says to his friend, "nice car, can I take it for a test drive?"  The guy who owns the car turns around and throws his keys off the parkade roof where the car is, then he turns back and says, "I can't find my keys right now."  Love it, that's how I feel!

Anyway, that's enough praise for my car...I just had to share.

Regina and Back a Cowman's Tale

We went to Regina over easter and I finally downloaded the pictures I took from my cell phone. It's great having a cell phone that takes pictures...but then you have to remember to get the pictures off the phone.  Oh well, better late then never...

On Good Friday we set out early in the morning for Regina. Here's Britton and my youngest daughter as we crossed the Alberta into Saskatchewan.  The other two kids were in the back playing the PS2 and watching movies. 

We had supper with my nephew Lann and his bride to be Amy that evening at Houston Pizza...we are all sick of Calgary pizza so we were looking forward to some good old Saskatchewan style pizza.

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We spent Saturday morning with Nanna and Poppa (not pictured) and then went over to Chuck E Cheese.  Even though Calgary has a Chuck E Cheese we prefer to go to the Regina one as it isn't even half as busy as the Calgary one. 

Here's Britton and my oldest daughter chowing down on some pizza.

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Still at Chuck E Cheese's, here's a picture of my very determined daughter.  She played game after game and mastered the Ski Ball game.  Here she is in front of the highest score in the family, 28,000.  I came in second place with 26,000.

After lunch we then went over to Grandma and Grandpa J's and the girls went shopping with Grandma while my son and I went back to the hotel to waterslide and take it easy.

The girls and Grandma and Grandpa came to the Hotel for dinner.  We had Houston Pizza once again!  For the record that was pizza 3 times in 24 hours. 

Our niece Tyra also came over and went water sliding with our kids.

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We went to Tim's the next morning for breakfast and played the Canada's favourite pass time...Roll up the Rim.  1 Tea and 3 Hot Chocolates and we one a free coffee.  Britton really wanted to win the boat. 

Then we headed off to Rosewood Park Alliance Church for their  Easter Service.  It was a great service.  They had a special group sing some songs, an upbeat worship team and Pastor Weekes preached a great message.  The service wrapped up by celebrating communion. 

It was nice to see a big crowd in attendance, my guess would be around 300 people.  From the sounds of things, the church is doing well again.

After church we had lunch with all of the Regina Cowman's and then had dinner with Britton's family.  Lots of fun! 

Monday morning we had Brunch and Nanna and Poppa's and then set out for home sweet home Calgary.

We didn't meet up with any hobbits, elves or rangers, we just had lots of fun. 

Go Flames Go

Last night my son and I went and saw the Flames play the Oilers at the Saddledome.  We sat in the Sportcheck section of the Saddledoame, which is located about as high up as you can go in the Saddledome.  We were four rows from the top, any higher and we probably would have gotten altitude sickness.

The game was dubbed the Battle of Alberta and we had a fantastic time cheering on our Flames.  It was a great game, right up to the end.  When the Flames scored the place went nuts.  Unfortunately the Oilers also scored...not once but twice.  We had a group of Oiler fans around us and they had no qualms about cheering load and proclaiming that their Oilers were better than our Flames. 

The score was 0-0 for most of the game, then we scored and the Oilers followed that up with their own set of goals.  30 Seconds before the game ended there was hope that we could tie it up.  The stadium roared and all the Flames fans were on their feet as we thought that the Flames had scored. Unfortunately the refs ruled that the puck never actually went in, but just came really close.  So, we sat back down and the Oiler fans got up on their feet and cheered.  In a stadium there of around 30,000 people, there were probably about 100 Oiler fans and believe me they were all standing and cheering.

So we lost, but my son and I had a fantastic time.  Groove to the music, screaming and clapping, eating licorice and popcorn and just being guys together.  My son, who is always enthusiastic, said it was the best day ever!  I'd have to agree.

Easter in Regina

We are celebrating Easter this year in the sunny, balmy oceanside Regina, Saskatechwan.  Okay, not quite.

After a busy couple of weeks with our oldest daughter competing in the Kiwanis Music Festival (she was robbed!), Liam's Food Fair, Youth Conference, Parent Teacher interviews, lots of overtime for Britton and some hectic weeks at RockPointe for me we have abandoned Calgary for a few days for some RR&WS (Rest, Relaxation and WATERSLIDE.

Also hope to catch up on my reading and blogging over the weekend as I've fallen a bit behind.  So stay tuned for some thoughts from Regina.

24 Wishes

So, I read today that Fox has delayed Season 7 of 24 until January 2009 to comply with viewer wishes. What? Which viewer?

By delaying 24 until 2009 they sure haven't been listening to my wishes. If Fox was listening to me they would start the show tomorrow and run it through the summer. Or if they didn't want to run 24 during the summer, which I can understand, then if they were respecting my wishes they would start the new season of 24 in September.

Fox is certainly not complying with my wishes by waiting to January.

The Strike Over So Now its My Turn

Well the WGA strike is finally over with a 92% acceptance by the writers.  So I say, get to work!  Start pumping out 24!  These rumours I'm hearing about 24 being delayed until January 2009 better not be true.

In searching the net for some sign of when my favourite shows will be back I just became more upset.  Not only is 24 probably not back until next January, I've read that Heroes won't have new episodes until Fall, Journeyman is gone forever, Chuck won't be back until fall, Life won't be back until fall, and a bunch of my other favourite shows from this season are gone on won't be back till fall.  So not only did we have to suffer through a strike now we have to suffer through boring TV until fall.  Give me a break! 

 

One thing I find interesting about the strike and the resolution was that I heard one of the considerations about ending it was because the writers and the studios had missed the Golden Globes and didn't want to miss out on the Oscars, the last of the award shows this season.  How self centered...let's go back to work so we can shower honours on ourselves...it's not about their art in the end or their rights its all about not wanting to miss out on a party.

So, with the strike over and the timing of the resolution being suspect in my mind I've decided that it's my turn to strike.  So, I'm boycotting the Oscars.  So go ahead and make yourself feel good, but I won't be watching. 

Let this be a warning Fox, if you don't bring back 24, I'll boycott your channel next!