Okay people. Episode three is up and on the air. CLICK HERE if you want to listen to the finest podcast on the internet. Of course it goes without saying that it does not suck.
On this episode Blair and I are waiting in line getting nervous about meeting the 16 time world champion. Yup you heard me right, I got a bit nervous. Just to ease the mood a bit I started a fight with Yukon Jack-ass of the Bear radio in Edmonton. He is a jack ass and I pointed it out to him. That shit is funny.
We also visit with Trev Doroshenko again as he comes to pick me up at the airport. I can make a podcast out of anything. Really I can. So if you have 12 minutes to kill, have a listen. We also revisit the Drunk PJ incident again. That shit is funny.
Okay, so I have episode number two up and running. In this episode of the award winning Podcast that does not suck. Blair and I discuss, again, our strategy for the evening, and then, you the TundraTalk faithful, get an EXCLUSIVE listen to the Nature Boy himself on stage in Edmonton. That's right, it will almost be like the Nature Boy is talking to you.
CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast or just click the link on the right.
Go and have a listen. On the next episode I will have what has become known as the 'Drunk Ass PJ' incident, as well as the fight I started in line for the meet and greet. Stay tuned.
TundraTalk the Podcast that does not suck is finally back on the internet. Part one of a I don't how long series is up and on the air. In this episode of TundraTalk we catch up on the action as Trevor Doroshenko, of the Regina Doroshenkos, drives me to the airport to fly to Edmonton for the Ric Flair show. We also meet up with Blair Stefishin', of the Edmonton Stefishin's as he picks me up at the airport. Man this is compelling stuff.
CLICK HEREif you want to listen, or just click on the link on the right hand side of this page.
Why may you ask am I smoking that Cuban cigar? Well, I have always wanted to try smoking a cigar I just was too chicken to try it because I figured I would do it wrong and puke. In fact when the boys would get together in Green Bay and play a friendly game of poker in my garage, cigars were always present. As you can see in the pic to the right the Nordic Man has one blazing. I wanted to try so bad but never pulled the trigger. Well, that ended Saturday when after the Ric Flair evening, I decided to give it a go as in celebration of the big moment. Yup, it lived up to the hype. Big time.
Let's go back to the start of my trip. I got on a plane in Regina around 9am on Friday. I was supposed to get on at 8:20 but the fog in Edmonton was holding us up. Once we got in the air and close to Edmonton the fog was still there. So I ended up flying in circles around E town for about an hour. Stupid Edmonton.
So I got in around 10 when I was supposed to be there by 8:30. I called up my boy, Blashill, and we got around 48 wings at Kelseys and went to work. It was like I never moved. We got all the gossip out and about just like old times. After that we went out to Rexall to get his new camera so I could be jealous. Then we stopped by the Eskimos locker room for a visit with Dwayne Mandrusiak, of the equipment managers for the Evil Empire Mandrusiaks. Dwayne is the dude who got me the Brett Faver auto'd football. He showed us the design for the new locker room, we told some stories, drank some beer, and called each other names. He could not believe that I came all the way to Edmonton for Ric Flair. He said, and I quote, "You are a bigger loser than I thought you were." Thank you Dwayne, I appreciate that.
I had a great first day in Edmonton, well almost. After living in Regina for over a year I can honestly say that Edmonton traffic sucks balls. When I lived there I hated traffic, but just because traffic sucks. BUT when you come back and are forced to sit in it after going anywhere in Regina only takes 15 minutes it REALLY SUCKS. Of course Blair called me a pussy and soft, as well he should have.
At this point I was still working out what I was going to say and wear to the big day. It truly was a big deal. I had decided that I was going to go with my Tragically Hip concert sweater from the In Between Evolution tour. Which I Marty later said it had wicked irony and not that irony that Alanis Morisette sings about. Cool. I was for sure going to do the four fingers up for the pic with Flair. Blair came up with the idea of pointing at the camera. He noticed that in a picture, his book, and on the DVD he is pointing at the camera. Nice job Blair, way to do your homework. I wish I would have thought of that. Truly original. No one else did that pose.
As for the question, still a bit up in the air. I really liked the question that McCoy gave me. Thoughtful, interesting, and pretty original. I also was thinking about asking him about the Horsemen. What was his favorite line up. Or maybe what is his all star line up? I also was thinking I might ask him to run a promo on me. Tell me how much he was going to beat my ass. That would be awesome. Just depends on how much time we have with him.
So Blair and I had a great big breakfast at Humpty's so as to not be hungry on the big day. We also tried not to eat anything to gaseous so as not to have the Flair goofy look photo that Marty described so well. Of course Carey, Blair's wife gave us crap all morning for talking too much about it. She will pay. We headed over to the Myer Horowitz theater on the campus of the University of Alberta around 1:30 pm. The show was scheduled to start at 4 pm (doors at 3). At this point there was a meet and greet already going on in the theater for people who wanted only to meet the man. We bumped over to My Mac Dealer and picked up a few things then came back to hang out.
Now, I am going to say this as lightly as I can. Because of course, I was attending the same event as these guys. Wrestling fan is weird. There was some strange ones in attendance at this event. If you want to see the whole group of meet and greet photos CLICK HERE. I will just say, there are some 'interesting' cats. The best ones are on the last two pages of pictures. The guys in the rock show t shirts are crazy. Of course 'That Guy' was there. You know the one, the guy who wears the championship belt like he won it. I know, I have one too, I just don't wear it. There was also this guy who came up to me when he noticed that I had a VIP badge. He wasn't all there. He wanted to know if I would get his DVD signed for him. Me being the nice guy that I am, said okay. I immediately knew this was a mistake. I have been planning for weeks what I was going to say and do at this moment of glory and just before go time I let this a-hole throw me off my game. Way to go stupid. He was of course on of these guys who will not go away AND a close talker. Great, this is just getting better. Eventually I convinced him to get it himself by waiting by Ric's limo. Did I mention that we saw Ric arrive in his limo? Check the limo out... Needless to say I dodged a bullet there. I did not need this guys DVD throwing me off my game.
In what seemed like three hours later they opened the doors and we wandered into the theater to sit in our row two seats. It is almost show time and I am sooo geeked you can't even understand. I got my micro recorder ready to record the whole thing and I got a camera all ready to take some great pics. I went to London Drugs on Thursday and bought one of those new Nikon cameras that Ashton Kutcher is shilling. Oh did I mention that I am taking it back on Monday. Yup, use it for the weekend then take it back. I feel so dirty, like the dirtiest player in the game RIC FLAIR!!!
It is show time and the Nature Boy enters to the greatest theme music in all of wrestling and the crowd goes wild. You can see his entrance above along with some of his opening remarks. Blair recorded some of it on his camera. Oh, and if you want a CD of the show just drop me a line and I will burn you a copy. I will of course have a podcast of the weekend up soon.
Flair came out and spoke for a bit on several things then opened up the floor to questions for the rest of the show. Which I thought would be cool to ask a question but they made everyone wait in line along the back of the theater to ask your question. I paid for row two tickets so I did not feel like standing in the back of the theater for the show so I decided to wait and ask him in the meet and greet.
I do have a great story about the questions and answer time. PJ Stasko, of the camrose Staskos, was there. I did not see him before the show so I had no idea if he made it or not, until, I hear someone on the mic say in an extremely drunk slurring voice, "I would like to firssst give a shoutttd out to a good frrrriend of mine who is the biggessssst wrasslinnnnn' fan I know, Chris Peterssssson." I look over and it is PJ. Oh man, he is hammered. At this point there is an uncomfortable feeling settling over the theater. Flair was nice to this drunk man who then asked about "kisssssingggg girlzzzssss". Hilarious. PJ came over to our seats and gave me a cool Pilsner Beer stein that I proceeded to get autographed by Ric Flair. Sweeet. Nice job PJ. You drunk bastard.
Flair told some great stories about life on the road with the WWF and WCW and getting drunk with the boys. There was of course the times when some dude would ask flair a Chris Farley type question like, "Remember that time you beat up Dusty Rhodes? That was cool." and to Flair's credit he was respectful to everyone in the crowd.
At one point in the proceedings he was telling a story about Rowdy Roddy Piper and decided to call him up. So he then did. He put Roddy on the speaker phone and we all said hi to Roddy. Really cool the guy has the Rowdy Roddy on speed dial.
If you listen to the audio of the event you hear me laughing a lot. It was a really good time and well worth all the time I obsessed over it. But, it is not over yet. The meet and greet is right after the show and that is when the pressure really hits. I decide that Blair and I will wait an go at the end of the line so as to avoid the guy yelling because I am taking too long. Just before we go in for the meet and greet we see PJ again. He is out of his mind staggering drunk and just happy as all get out. He came over and gushed and gooned us again. Hilarious. After we left one of the people who was working the show told us that 'our friend just fell down the stairs on his way out'. Nice PJ, way to make an exit. He apparently walked it off. PJ rules.
We were instructed that we would only get 60 seconds with the Nature Boy and only can get two things signed. Whoa, that completely throws me for a loop. So Blair and I start our scheming on how to get around it. All the while I am getting nervous about the big event. Now I don't usually get nervous about things like this. After all I am the king of the Brush With Greatness photo. Actually Blashill is the king, I am just a knight. Anyway, I am getting nervous and this whole 60 seconds thing throws me off.
I decide to go ahead anyway. We get up there an Blair goes first. He had around 4 things to get signed and got them all signed. No problem. So much for the 'only two things' rule. Whew, I am next. I have been waiting to meet this guy for around 30 years and it is finally going to happen. Whew, sweating my ass off. Hope I don't smell too bad.
Here goes. I walk up to the table, plop down the belt and he grabs the poster to sign. I set down the recorder and he asks me what is that? I tell him it is a recorder so I can record this great moment for ever. He tells me he does not like those and turn it off. I apologize and then realize that he has just spent two hours talking, another three signing autographs so he is tired. I then opt out of the questions and just tell him that it is an honor to meet him and that I have been a huge fan for 30 years. He thanks me and tells me it is his honor to meet me and what is my name. I was at this point a bit in a daze so I did not answer him. He looks at me and says it again, 'what's your name man?'. Oh snap, wake up. I tell him and he signs the poster to Chris. He then signs the mug and the belt and we go for the pic. I had given my (temporarily) camera to one dude and he proceeds to take a completely crappy out of focus picture. Blairs pic was shitty also. Luckily for them, they paid a dude to take pics for all of us. That one (below) turned out great. This is exactly the situation that I was afraid of getting into. Coming all this distance and coming away with a picture that sucks. I was sooo happy that they paid a guy to take pics. I went as you can see with the four fingers up and I beleive that it does live up to the hype. I can frame this one and hang it with pride in my man cave. Plus I got that Pilsner mug plus a great story to go along with it. I am in the process of getting the belt hung on the wall also. Thank you PJ. Thank you Blair. Thank you Ric for a great evening.
I had my meet, it lived up to the hype, and we went out to celebrate with beers at BP's. Jordi Weidman, of the Stony Plain Weidmans, and Greg Donnelly of the Edmonton Donnelly's, came out also and we sat around and told stories, rousted drunks, and called each other names for a couple of hours. Great time had by all.
Thank you again TundraTalk Nation for helping me get through this with your advice. Really came up huge in my time of need. I will be putting the podcast together in the next few days so make sure you check back for that occasionally.
FIRST: Check the video above. WKRP rules. One of the best moments in TV history. Well, next to anytime I was on TV.
Okay lets take care of some paperwork before I get the hate on. First I up got this email from Marty Frey, NBC big whig Frey's...
No more waiting.. It's finally here
DirecTV’s The 101 Network will broadcast the Canadian comedy “Trailer Park Boys.”
The TV series will make its debut on the network on Feb. 5 with two back-to-back episodes. Two new episodes will follow every Thursday night at 10 p.m.
DirecTV has acquired all seven seasons of the show, including 55 half-hour episodes and two specials.
“Trailer Park Boys,” which revolves around the misadventures of a group of trailer-park residents, is created and directed by Mike Clattenburg and produced by Clattenburg, Barrie Dunn and Michael Volpe.
Cool Marty. It is about time that the masses in the United States get wise to the Trailer Park Boys. This is the best news I have heard since Obama won the election. I am sure that Marty had a lot to do with this announcement. Since again, Marty is a big whig.
I did fill out a survey that DirecTV gave me about 6 months ago and listed TPB as one of the shows that I would like to see.. They gave me 3 free months of all the Showtime and Skinimax channels.. Maybe more people put it down as one of the shows they can't get but love.
Nice Job, Marty is the man. NEXT:The video above is very funny also. I don't usually post or forward videos of kids but this one is just funny. A bit of funny before I get my hate on.
HATE:Okay, I have a few things to hate on this week. Can you imagine, I actually have a hate on the same week I am going to see the Nature Boy? Yup, it can and will happen.
The Super Bowl has come and gone. Some of you may not know, but up here in Canada the lame national broadcasters buy US programming and pretend that it is their own. In the past Global has bought the Super Bowl. This year CTV had the rights. What that means is that they can cover up the broadcast and put their logo in the corner and again, pretend that it is theirs. This also means that they cover up the good commercials. In the past I have always found a way to get the US broadcast so I they can not fu#k with my American right to see the game. You cannot believe how frustrating it is to have a network prop up the big game then take it away from you. Now you might think that they commision a bunch of their advertisers to put together great ads for everyone to see. NOPE, they just run shitty promos and Super Bowl ads from LAST year. they also have the habit of coming back from commercial late and missing whole plays. Global would take it a step further and run promos saying "Hey, tune in tomorrow to our morning show and see the commercials that you missed today during the game." Yeah, fu#k you Global. While we are at it fu#k you CTV.
Not a bad start to the hate.
HATE TWO: About middle of the third, my old man calls me up. Which is not unusual but he was just trying to get me going. He was watching the game in Arizona witha bunch of his retired friends. You know, a geriatric super bowl party. So he decides to put one of his friends on who just happens to be from Minneapolis. Of course this guy is a queen fan. I think they poision the water up there to make them just a bit slower than the rest of the country so they all end up queen fans. Now I could see that this might be funny if the Packers were in it and losing (not that this would happen). Anyway, he starts in on the last falls rap that Number 4 is going to be a viqueen. He says that that is all the media in Minneapple is talking about is that it is imminent that there will be an announcement that Favre will be wearing the ugly purple jersey.
Nice dad, ruin my day. I immediately do a search on the internet to see what I can find. Nothing. Not one article. Which does not mean it is not true, but still. WHAT IS IT WITH THESE MORONS IN PURPLE? Why are you guys so hung up on getting Number 4? Let me just put it this way. I am not ever gonna wish that Fran Tarkenton would have played for the Packers. NEVER. I do not want the guy who used to beat the Pack like a drum. I do not want Daunte CulPOOPer wearing Green and Gold EVER. Randy Moss, get the hell out of Green Bay.
Now I know i did at one time say that I would accept the a-hole number 84 as a Packer. BUT the only reason was is the Number 4 wanted him. If Number 4 wants him it trumps all my wishes. Deal with that. Favre has made a career out of beating the crap out of the queens but all you queenfans do is seem to wish for him to play in your crappy dome. Leave it alone, get over it, move on. Read my lips, or my blog, he ain't coming. Now go polish all those runner up trophies.
HATE THREE: This bit of hate is kind of a follow up to the moron kids hate. The other day as I was driving to work, again by that school. Some moron in the school zone decides it is NASCAR day on Rochedale Avenue. He speeds up and cuts in front of me using every inch that he had to get in front. He then drove about half of the block and then took two lanes and turned into the school.
I really hate a-holes who drive through a school zone too fast. PLUS this asshole is one of those jerk offs who feel they only need to scrape just enough of his window. You know the guy. The guy who feels that he only needs about a CD case big enough space on his window to see. Jerk off.
Oh and might I add, we are in a cold spell, like the rest of the world, the ice on his window was thick. I just want to get out and pummel guys like this. Really, who does he think he is? Whodini? Man, I am not one to point out laziness, cause I can be lazy at times, but this, and the littering idiot, are the epitome of lazy.
That is about all I have tonight, but this weekend will be one for the ages. I will have updates and pics and hopefully a podcast that will have a special guest by the name of The Nature Boy Ric Flair. SWEEEEEEEET.
Still working on my question. If you have some advise send it my way.
I just found this video up top. It is a classic from the WGBA days. Joel Bernell, the dick, was always big into localizing EVERYTHING. There was this dude who was killing people via railway. So Bernell in his infinite wisdom asked if we had train tracks in Green Bay. Uh yeah dumb ass, we do. So Larry Salazar and I were assigned to localize the story. Did I mention that he was caught 5000 miles away. There was no way that he could have been in Green Bay. NO WAY IN HELL.
So Salazar and I decided to do a Daily Show story along with the real story. That is it above. I hope you enjoy it. Salazar did a great job writing and editing it. I Hope you enjoy it.
NEXT:
I am in need of some expert help. As you all know, on February 7th I am going to Edmonton to meet my destiny. That's right, I am going to meet the greatest wrestler to ever enter the squared circle. The Nature Boy Rick Flair. Yep, Blair Stefishin, of the Edmonton Stefishin's, and I dropped the cache to go and see the man speak. With the purchase of our row two tickets we also get the honor of a meet and greet, a signed piece of memoribilia, and a photo op with him. In a word, I am soo geeked you just can't understand. Or maybe you can.
Anyway, I am going to take my micro voice recorder and try to record some of the show. I am also going to bring it along to the meet and greet. This is where I need your help. I am going to try and ask him a question on the micro when I get to meet him.
What the hell do I ask him? This dude has been interviewed probably around 3 billion times and has been asked every question in the business. Now, there is a thousand things I would like to ask him. If I could do a podcast with him, it would be the greatest podcast ever, but that ain't gonna happen.
I mean really what the hell can I ask him that he has not been asked before? Really? I would love to know where the nose dive in his matches came from but is that really the ONE question I want to ask? Do I want to ask him about retirement? Maybe ask him what he thinks of the Brett Favre situation? I know he loves hockey. Do I ask him about that?
Maybe ask him about the old days and if he likes where the business is now as compared to back in the day when they lived the gimmick. I don't know. That is why I need your help. If you have a question idea, let me know. If you have a subject that I should address let it fly.
I am going to get my championship belt signed and an old PR photo from back in the day of him with a sweet robe on. I am going to get the BEST brush with greatness photo ever. And I am going to get a question. Send your ideas to tundratalk1@mac.com as soon as possible. Don't wait to long. I will post your responses and we will pick the winner that I will ask THE MAN.
NEXT:
I don't want to be that guy who gloats too much about the election and the fact that Bush is gone. Especially back in 2000 when my old man called me after all of Bush's pals on the Supreme Court handed him the election. He called me up and started to sing Happy Days Are Here Again. I did not want to be that guy. But the video above was just too funny to not share. Enjoy.
Okay, sorry, again that this has taken so long to get to. You know all the usual excuses, CHRIStmas rush, work, went to PHX for my dad's 70th birthday, too much TV to watch. You know, the usual things. I need to keep up with this better. I went from around 10 posts a month to two. Not good.
Lets take care of some book keeping things first. For those of you who have been following the Entourage competition closely, you have way more patience with it than I. Oh and Tony Mutzenberger, of the war hero Mutzenbergers, will not be doing a podcast. His and my schedule have not been able to connect so he has bowed out of the line up. Which is too bad because I had some wing dingers to ask him. What does that mean? Well, not much other than Mitch Davis, of the Regina Davis' is up next. Mitch is in the line up for Nepotism reasons and lets hope he can bring his red rage up a notch and give us a reason to consider him for one of the spots.
NEXT: I want you all to sit down. I have some big news. NO it is not we are having another kid because the operation did not take hold. Speaking of that traumatic situation, it did not work. Yup, you heard me right, the OPERATION DID NOT WORK. You might be saying to yourself, "Self how does Chris know it did not work if his wife is not preggers?" Well to not go into too much embarassing detail, lets just say there is a test, I took it and failed. It involved a cup, a brown paper bag, and a mad dash to the hospital. I think that was too much detail. Moving on.
Now some of you will blame it on me. Not really in a position to make a difference on whether it works or not laying on a table with my junk out, so that is not the reason. Some may take it to the next level and blame it on the Canadian Health Care system. I am not going to blame that because I had no problem getting it done and it did not cost anything so I will not blame that.
What I will blame is the dumb ass doctor. The fact that he said 'oops' during the procedure, the fact that he did not know what an iPod was, and the fact that his damn hands were cold. That is what I am going with.
Where do I go from here? I will tell you that back on that damn table is NOT an option. No way, no how. Screw, a, err, that. I think I need to just sit back and relax for a while and contemplate the gravity of this situation. Then decide what to do. For those of you who are in Regina and have this little procedure scheduled. STAY AWAY FROM DR. SOOD.
NEXT: Here is the meat of what is going on right now. Why may you ask is Ric Flair atop this paragraph? Well I will tell you. Ric Flair, as most of you know, is the greatest wrestler of all time. Hands down. No discussion, no debate. He retired last year at Wrestlemania. I have been watching this man on TV for around 30 years. Every time he hit the ring and I was anywhere near a TV I had it on. I am as you say a HUGE FAN. I own the action figures, the championship belt, the DVD's, and the program.
No one conducts and interview better than this guy. No one. I have been quoting this guy's catch phrases for years. The only thing I did not get to see is him wrestle in person. I saw him at Wrestlmania IX come in and do a run in on Hogan and Vince. I also once saw him in Edmonton do a run in on Chris Benoit during a Raw show. Never saw him wrestle. I once drove from Green Bay to Fargo for a Thursday night Thunder show on the rumour that he was going to be there. I saw something on a website that said he might be there so I got Nick to get tickets and took the day off so I could be there when he came back. Nope, did not happen.
Ric was, and I guess still is to some extent the guy who 'lived the gimmick'. Back in the day before Vince told everyone that wrestling was rigged, I will not say fake because these guys get hurt way too much for it to be fake, the guys would live the character. Like for instance, the night Nick Chase and I sent a beer over to Mr. Perfect. He looked over from the bar, gave us a dirty look and then drank the beer. Bad guys were bad, and good guys were good. Now people like Kane act way too nice outside the ring for me to even believe anything he does inside it.
Ric was the playboy wheeling, dealing, jet flying, limo riding, Kiss stealing, space mountain son of a gun. He said it on TV, he lived it in real life. I thought that was way too cool. Everything he said was cooler than anything I would ever say in my life. I wanted to meet Ric from the first day I saw him on TV back in 1982.
Fast forward to February of next year, and that dream comes true. Blair Stefishin, of the Edmonton Stefishin's, sends me this email...
The time has come. What time you ask? The time has come that the greatest man in history, the man who has shaped the world as we know it today, the man that IS the man has named E-town as a stop on his pilgrimage to spread wisdom as only THE man can. Who could this great prophet be you ask? My children, I speak of the one, the only, his holyness the Nature Boy; WOOOOOOOOOOOOO! When, you ask, will he spread his great gospel to us lowly servants of The Man? February 7, 2009; that's right, 1 night only to have the opportunity to be in the presence of greatness. You say you would give all your worldly belongings to be a part of this great pilgrimage?
Well, my children, that is an awesome show of devotion, though you need only sacrifice a small fee to have the opportunity to hear the words of his holyness. However, if you purport you are righteous enough to stand to the right hand of true greatness, a vial of your life essence and slightly larger fee is all you need renounce for VIP seating (first 2 rows), free autographed memorabilia, and the opportunity to meet, greet and lay your hands upon his holyness.
Thank you, my children, and may The Man bless us all. WOOOOOOOOO!
Wooooooooooo, is right. Ric is doing some kind of spoken word legends of wrestling tour and it's only stop in Canada, so far, is in Edmonton. I am soooooo going. Of course there is no way that I am NOT going to sit in the first two rows and get that meet and greet. This is going to be huge. There will probably be a tremor in the force. I bet that the security threat level (you remember that don't you. Bush used it to get re elected) will be raised to super red. There may be press there to cover this event. Two legends together in one place. Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
I cannot wait. Of course I will have full reports with photos and I hope some audio from the event. Blair and I will provide team coverage that no other multi dollar semi important blog site will have. Believe that. Now there is also the situation that I promised Donna that I would retire from wrestling if I got to go to Wrestlemania IX in Seattle. I checked the contract and I found a loophole that allows me to attend this show. Since there will be no wrestling, per se, it does not qualify as a wrestling event. It is a concert or a lecture. Nick is a good lawyer, look him up.
I will leave you with one last Ric Flair moment to get your humpday going...
I am sorry that I have been neglecting the blog a bit as of late, but I had a party to prepare and organize for a 5 year old and it took some time. Not only did Donna and I have a big party planned but as a gift to my VERY active 5 year old I built her a play house. Whaaaaa? Did I just say build. Yup. This coming from the guy who barely made it thru Vo Ag in high school. Building that stupd little box was just too much for me. Which I still have that box. McKenna uses it to store her girl stuff in. Good thing they had us build that box, it would have been tragic for McKenna not to have a box to put her fake princess jewelry in. Those guys teaching Vo Ag really knew what we needed.
So last year I added a room in the basement. Not only did I add a room, I added a Green Bay Packer Room. That's right, painted Packer green, with a great Packer border (picked up from the holy land and sent to me by the Nordic Man), and the bed has official Green Bay Packer sheets. As Bubbles would say, deeeeee heeee eeeecent. Notice the Ross Verba jersey and photo of the renovated Lambeau on opening day in 2003. I really outdid myself. Oh, and as I have said before all of you, the TundraTalk Nation, are welcome anytime to stay in the Packer room. Especially all of you viqueen fans. Especially you queen fans.
Now to bring us up to date I got a bit cocky and one day spewed out to McKenna that I thought I would make her a play house for her birthday. Well, if you have a 4 year old you know, that if you say it, there is no way to take it back. I was stuck. But I felt confident that if I just put my little mind to it, I could make it happen. I am the awesome creator of the Peterson Family Packer Room so I can do it.
So since here in Edmonton the snow doesn't officially go away until May, I had to start building in the garage. I scoured the internet for play house plans and all I found was eleborate designs for play houses nicer than my House. So I was on my own. I sat down and planned out the size and shape. Blair Stefishin, of the Edmonton Stefishin's, looked at it and told me how much wood I would need and I went to Rona and loaded up.
After I brought it home I went to the Used Architecture Warehouse and bought a coulple of windows. Then I started to build. I got really cocky and built all the walls in the garage. Thinking that when the weather cleared I could just go and put it up, in theory. Notice the purple door. McKenna picked the color of the door and I let her paint it. It is going to be a very effeminante shed when she is done with it.
A week or so later the snow cleared and then I could start my build. I put down some gravel and started to lay out the floor and the front patio. So far so good. It was all coming together. My vision was starting to take shape. As the late great George Peppard said on the classic show the A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together!" I loved that show. Notice I had to cut a tree back to make room for the house. I got to rent a chain saw. I love man tools. After the saw I went and rented a wood chipper. Oh yeah, I am a man. A man who loves power tools. I kept thinking of Steve Buciemi in Fargo as I was stuffing wood into the chipper. Loved that movie.
Anyway, I was nervous and excited as I started to frame the walls. Of course it was a hard hat area so I wore my hard hat with pride. If McKenna was not careful she may have a Packer themed play house. They all fit together perfectly suprisingly enough. Of course after I had it all framed and was getting ready to go and buy some plywood to put the walls up a neighbor came over and pointed out that my house was not up to code. Well, duh. I built it. He said that it has to be at least 3 feet from an existing fence. Wha? Who the hell would put a shed that far away from the fence. That is stupid. Who cares, the city can take their thee feet and tell the story walking. Too late to move it now.
I managed to get the plywood up on the walls then right on cue, the weather takes a turn on me. Rain for about 5 days straight, AND two nights befor the party, you guessed it, SNOW. May 4th and we get snow. Only in Alberta.
Of course I did all the easy stuff up until now. The roof is the hard part. I tried to do one rafter after another but it just did not work. I did not want a 6 foot roof but I wanted it too look okay. Cory Blashil, of the Edmonton Blashil's, came over and power builded a roof for me in about three hours. That guy can build like no one I have ever seen. He measures then cuts. I have to measure about three times, sit and think about it, measure again, then cut. Anyway, the roof went up and then I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Rain kept us from painting for several days so we would run out and paint whenever there was an opening in the weather for a few hours. We were running out of time but we got a break on the Saturday before the party and we had about 6 hours of no rain and we painted as much as we could. We got the walls and deck painted and put up tarps to keep it somewhat dry. It worked and on the Sunday of the party we put the final touches on it and it was ready. I put up the window shelf, put in some carpet (that was donated by Jordi Weidman), Donna painted the window frames, I put up the deck rail, and Donna painted it. Done.
Party time came and McKenna had about 15-20 friends over and it was a huge hit. Garner, of the Radio Sonic Garner's, brought his kids Dora Bouncy House over and it was all good. Plenty of fun, sugar, more fun and more sugar. So that is why I have been away from the blog lately. I will leave you with this video that I saw again last night on a SNL show. Funniest TV moment EVER. Chris Farley, dude, I miss you.
