Just having fun:)

Wouldnt be surprised if there was an angela ave,str, rd, in every town but i still had to take a picture!!!!

Cloud 9

So Ive had my week away from the store, i managed to spend it very well. Nina hosts curry night once a month or so and i decided id help her with the prep.I can say i now know the secrets to curry, indian food. I put my hands together for her- i didntrealize how much work it was! We were cooking for a good 6 hours.That is to feed alot of people but still.

On Sunday i made my way to Nelson with a fellow die hard rider (well, Tylers a skiier) and we arrived late at the whitehouse backpackers lodge(totally cool hostel)after a really fun drive. I have never been to the Kootneys but now i know im determined to spend alot more time out there. Everything about the place is cool. Its a calm, slower paced type place, from what i saw,going to yoga class and all,people are who they are. Outdoorsy, happy, relaxed natural type. I know i cant really speak for absolutely everyone who lives there. Maybe its just because i felt more like myself there. I was surprised to see how big nelson is, walmart and all but still seem to fake the small town thing just right.

At the hostel it was only me and one other girl and the rest were guys (which is fine by me;)) I guess not as many girls would travel to ride.I actually was quite surprised even on the hill how many more men than women there were.And how many skiiers! especially at red mountain.I was a total lamo! Skiiers still managed to rule out boarders but in the afternoon i noticed more riders that managed to get their asses out of bed.

It was great to get out and ride a new mountain! Went to whitewater and i really wasnt all that impressed. It is about the same size as manning.I did have quite a few good runs and we were very fortunate to have good days every day for riding. At red where we were the next few days it was like spring skiing!!!! love it! i enjoy that slushy loose snow feel.One thing im not use to is how vertical alotof the runs were- i sure got some butterflies before going down. I didnt managed to injure myself at all though which is nice.

After boarding each day i would go to yoga at this wonderful, beautiful studio.It was really cool to take lessons with other styles, teachers. One of the nights the teacher had us working real hard- she would get us into warrior 1, then 2 then get us to hold our hands in prayer off the the side twisting out bodies for a good 2 minutes.downward dog,push up plank, upward dog and repeat.bah. love it.sweat was dripping onto the matte!haha. It was really cool and interesting to be taking a class in a completely full room, knowing no one, and all seem to be peacefully dead silent at the same time during shavasana and it feels completely comfortable.really cool. also cool to have so many men in class.ive never seen that before. on my side of the room there were more men than women.

Really cool to spend time with Erin and Kevin (abacus beads) they took us out to a really cool pub called mikes. Also great to spend some time with Joanne.She came down from Kaslo and spent the night with me at the hostel,went out for amazing indian food, drank lots of wine.She showed me a really cool coffee shop called oso, lots of interesting people walking in and out of that place.

had some really cool people staying at the hostel, one guy from field-there to get away from his menopausing wife-sucks to be him.it was cool to hear everyones stories- think thats half the fun of staying at a hostel.new zealand, aussies, belgium,france, spain. one guys from new zealand was driving just out of town, stopped, and a moose hit him,no, he didnt hit a moose, the moose hit him.what a story to go home with.I guess the moose lost control on the ice and slid into his front hood leaving moose drool and a small dent.bahaha.then it fell onto the pavement and couldnt get back up.bahaha.man, why dont i get to see that type of cool shit.

So Ive come to conclusion that im in love with rossland.what a cool little place.Its a small town, but you dont need to go out of town to get the basics. the views up there are amazing, people seem to be very interesting and friendly,all the buildings are very beautiful and old,and its a very artistic community.Im planning on heading back out there april to absorb it all again.Hopefully ill still feel the same about it. Next time im going to make sure to check out kaslo and ainsworth.

Really glad it didnt kick in until the drive home, but i managed to pick up a bug somwhere, lossed my voice for the day, nasty head cold-just in time to get back to work.hehe.

'Carla is god on a snowboard' -intoxicated Tyler.

The new place

This is mostly so Angela (and whoever else)can see the befores and afters of renovating the new store! A month and a half of 12 hours days later, viola! There is still more of this and that to be done.Enjoy!

These pictures are actually after my dad had taken a huge load of junk to the dump and I painted the ceiling black -this really isnt the full effect deal, but you get the idea.

Do you guys sell googly eyes?.........................

ITS DECEMBER!!!

Holy crap i haven't posted in a long time. Maybe it had to do with me renovating and moving the store, trying to get in some hiking, dog sitting from hell, and trying to have a life between. And with all this, i have been feeling super lazy on my days off,eating way too much junk.I have also acquired a taste for reading and have become almost obsessed with CBC radio1.These are both very new things for me.

Strangely enough i actually really miss Goose,Daisy and Jake. I was told i was a good influence on the dogs, especially Daisy.She hasn't crapped in the house since i left(not house trained at 2 years old)

Unfortunately i didn't make it down to California to see my bud but it just wasn't in the budget on top of buying a brand spank in new Santa Cruz snowboard!!!! and forum bindings! I'm absolutely twitching to get on the hill now! All i know at this point, is how to work my snowboard that i have owned and road since i was 14. Should be interesting to see me get off the lift in the 'new digs' whatever.Ill make sure to film it.ha ha. Snowboarding is pretty much all i talk about at this point.

I did the ever so flat but beautiful Lightning Lake chain. Couldn't have asked for a better day, crisp and cool being the first weekend in November but the sky was clear.There were barely any people out either which made it that much cooler.(Monday in November)

Deeds had a blast! I'm starting to see him age,he doesn't really run anymore and is usually absolutely trashed the days to come after hiking. I think the 5 hour walk was beyond his limit.I hand fed some birdies, ate an awesome lunch, and had some good laughs and ski/board chats with my friend Tyler.

Also managed to get out and do some geocaching with Jake(the dog) and Clayton a couple weeks ago. That was really cool!I have never done it before and couldn't believe how many of those things there are hidden just about everywhere. Clayton was kind enough to let me do some of the navigating which was really cool.We found two and the third one up at Foley Lake, which happened to be his dads box seemed to be impossible to find.Also did a quick hike up to Lindeman again.

- i met a real life bible reading cage fighter today.Come on, does it get any cooler? really?

I cant get enough of that lake!!!!

seattle with a kehler is cool!

Anglea looks pretty with the flowers at pikes place:)

The cheescake kicked my ass.But it was soooo good.

Me and Angela wishing we had enough money to buy these beautiful noth face jackets for a few minutes.

On September 15th and 16th, me and Angela headed down to Seattle to hang out for the day and for her to catch her flight to Virginia in the morning.I wont see her for over a year,its ridiculous.....but needs to be done. SHE LOOOVVVEEES her lover.

Getting across the border was interesting.We waited in very hot line up for almost an hour and when we were almost to the front a border dude came out with his 6 month old lab which i guess was their drug sniffer dog.They decided to search my vehicle.You know us untrusting young canadian girls................

Angela didnt really like the way the guy talked to us.He was like turn off your car, get out and stand in the dirt.

allllll righty.

obviously their doggie didnt find anything and we were good to go and the guy that was at the border booth let us through no problem.Its just always funny how even though you know you are innocent, somehow they seem to make you feel like you did in fact do something terribly wrong.welcome to america...................

Everything went well.Saw mama mia.girls, i recomend.I also had my first hostel experience.Its kind of weird there.Everyone is in their own little worlds. I felt so much more alert and uncomfortable than everyone else.I guess one would learn how to make their space bubble alot smaller when travelling.Also surprised with the age groups.I had a man that had to be in his late 70s eating breakfast next to me in the morning.Most of the travellers were in their 20s though.The only thing that sucked was that it was soooo hot in there and the bedroom window was on the side of an alley and there were all sorts of things going on in that alley all night.Construction was also just half a block up so needless to say, my sleep sucked.Also woke up with the worst cramps i have had yet this year.I felt ok by about 2 though.

in conclusion, Angela kicks ass, sucks that she left but we had a very awesome couple of days together:)

'hey,ill do this guy in the ass right now for $20!' -crazy seattle bum

World class chainsaw carving competition 2008

' How'd he do that?'

Well, he had a log and took away everything that wasnt a bear.haw haw haw.

'Is that made out of plastic? it must be plastic.'

uhm.........................................yes..............

Chainsaw carving competition was sooo great this year. Awesome carvers from all over the place and amzing glory for my FAJA. 3rd PLACE!!!!!woohoo.Now he prounces around and is all proud of himself saying'im a world class carver carla didnt you know that?' just kidding.well, not really.The wood ofcourse was a little bit mickey mouse but besides that,everything went really smoothly.

I guess that wasnt really an adventure....but i still had to post these photos.so proud.

soon to come:

CARLA SWOPE WITH A CHAINSAW.....probably a small one.