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We are the few…

We are the brave…

We are the stylish…

We are the authoritative…

We are the very, very sneaky…

We’s the shit…

We are: TEAM EXTREME PISTOL!

Last week I wrote a post about handguns and my unquenchable desire to fire one. To say that the post received an overwhelming response would be an understatement. As I said before, this is something I can only and will only experience in a safe, controlled environment. That being said, my friend Dan tracked down a suitable gun range that Amy and I can try out just south of the border outside of Bellingham in Whatcom County.

Here’s hoping we’ll make it down there soon for one of their women’s handgun classes (lessons, laws, ammunition and an hour of target practice for $35 for the ladies), but being that we’re girls, you can’t expect us to not have a little fun in advance, can you?

There’s a new Bang-On shop that just opened up downtown on Davie Street, so we trekked there, picked out our tees et voilà! What you see is what you can’t get.

All extreme pistol training photos courtesy of Port Coquitlam & District Hunting & Fishing Club

When I hear those words – “expect the best” – I immediately think of Debbie Hunt in the film Singles. She was looking for love in all the wrong places and finally signed up for a video dating service called Expect the Best. Her quest for a man crashed and burned and this post isn’t about love, but Debbie had the right idea: expect the best.

With the exception of Ernest Hemingway and the odd Jane Austen novel, rarely do I read fictional books. When I wish to escape and be entertained, movies are my ticket. When I read, I read to learn.

Many of the books in my collection are what you might classify as “self help” or educational books, ranging from how to deal with anxiety to facing up to your fears. Someone even suggested picking up something from Eckhart Tolle, but I put it down after two chapters – it wasn’t for me.

While it has been quite some time since I’ve cracked open a book to expand my mind, what I find interesting is that though I feel I learn much while reading the book, I tend to forget or abandon most of the concepts and ideas I learned. Yes, I do wish to help myself, but it’s always easier said than done.

This past week I visited with my counselor for the first time in over a month. Christmas and related expenses can easily get in the way, so I had to forfeit a couple sessions. As I walked in the direction of her office, I thought to myself “why am I even going? I have nothing to talk to her about.” And in truth, I really felt like I didn’t. Things in my life were calm, cool and collected.

As it turns out, I did have things to talk about – a lot of things – and I ended up surprising myself. Self help books are full of great ideas and concepts (and I won’t stop reading them), but they can’t ever take the place of a counselor. After filling her in on all that had happened in my life over the past month or so, she was able to do what no book can: she reflected back to me.

Sometimes when you’re in the middle of everything, it’s hard to see things from an objective point of view. And sometimes when you’ve set goals for yourself and work at achieving them, it’s next to impossible to realize the progress you’ve made when you’re too focused on the big picture. My counselor was able to point out the little things – things that had become lost on me – that were living, breathing evidence of the growth I’d undergone.

Talking with someone has become so key for me. I feel as normal as the next person, but there are definite changes I want to see in my life. Walking away, I felt as though I had a renewed sense of focus on my ambitions. It’s simple and it’s real but it’s to the point: it’s the power of positive thinking. Cliché? Yes. Realistic? Also yes. I have a tendency to expect the worst possible outcome in any given situation, and there’s something to be said for the vibes we put out there. I have seen real and positive change in my life, in doing what’s best for me, and seen the ripple effect that it’s had.

I will expect the best.

Yes, Becky, I stole this from your Facebook.

The first thing I did this morning upon turning on my computer was conduct a Google search. “Today in history” was the search term, and I was suddenly inundated with countless hits – everything from France declaring war on Spain in 1718 to Richard Nixon’s birthday and even a plane crash. Nothing, however, seemed comparable, fitting or even worthy of why January 9th is exceptional.

What all of these Google hits failed to mention is that today is one very special girl‘s very special birthday. (It’s also Schillinger’s birthday – that guy from Oz – but we won’t go there.)

Being that I was unable to find anything fitting or comparable, I took a trip down memory lane and looked to what I wrote last January 9th. It’s funny how the sentiment hasn’t changed and much has stayed the same, if not become even better.

In a city where good people who are worth their weight in gold are a precious commodity, I have found a friend in Rebecca. Whether in business or friendships or making personal choices for herself, Rebecca is a woman who conducts herself with confidence, integrity and a little dash of sauciness.

Good friends are the family you choose, and as we each become one year older on our birthdays, it becomes easier to reflect on what’s important. Surrounding yourself with people who bring out your best, listen to you, encourage you and are comfortable enough with themselves to allow others to return it back to them are key.

Rebecca, on this – your birthday – you need to know that you are loved and celebrated. I thank you for showing graciousness, patience and understanding. I praise you for being a respectable, admirable and well-rounded woman (with fantastic ta-tas). You have touched many lives in both enormous and little ways, not unlike Tinkerbell with her magic wand. Enjoy everything that 29 has to offer and every adventure that this next year brings your way.

I kinda love you.

(P.S. I promise I won’t ditch out on your birthday for Michael Bublé this year!)

“In the mid-1300s and 1400s, a number of paintings were made in Italy and other areas of Europe showing the Virgin Mary, with little baby Jesus at her feet, knitting away on some sort of round garment. They suggest that, by the late Middle Ages, knitting had arrived in various parts of Europe. Working with four needles – no slouch, she! – the knitting Mary in these paintings tells us that even Jesus Christ wore sweaters made by his mom.”
Excerpted Stitch ‘N Bitch by Debbie Stoller (© 2003 Debbie Stoller – Workman Publishing, New York)

Not long after learning that my brother, Trevor, and Laura were expecting their first child, I decided for some reason (completely unknown to me) that I desperately wanted to make a baby blanket for my first niece of nephew. “Why not knitting?” I asked myself with a shrug, and at that decided to learn.

Lindsay informed me that I had get my mitts (pun intended) on a copy of Stitch ‘N Bitch by Debbie Stoller. She swore it would tell me everything I needed to know, plus was filled with tons of cool patterns to learn.

Debbie’s take on the art of the knit (and purl) is fresh, funny and truly informative. The book starts as a narrative, the story of a girlhood spent surrounded by countless women who knit, sewed, cross-stitched, needlepointed and much more. Before long, however, the fun begins and sooner still, I was knitting!

My mom’s best friend gave me an excellent starter lesson over the Christmas holidays – as well as fantastic bamboo needles and cashmerino wool to learn on.

Um, I may have lost a stitch or two along the way…

My greatest sense of accomplishment so far? Not just that I finished my first “project,” but that I taught myself to cast off entirely on my own with instructions from the book. While I did have to read that particular page three times in order to translate it from knitterish (a.k.a. gibberish – I made that up) to English.

My first real project is going to be a blue scarf for my partner-in-crime, Rebecca. How it will look is to be seen, but at least it’ll be handcrafted with love, and that’s what really counts, right? Right?

While my purple knit strip isn’t much of anything, it totally reminds me of a set of arm cuffs and headband I had as a little girl. I’d dance around with them on while listening to this. I have no doubt my mom surely remembers.

Click here to learn more about the book and find out how you can get a copy for yourself.

While streets, yards and sidewalks all over the South Coast of BC are being washed clean of the fluffy white stuff, there’s one place that the snow is definitely sticking. Despite a slight delay with the opening of the 2008/2009 ski and snowboard season, Mount Washington has been kicked into high gear with a base of over four feet of packed powder, with more fresh stuff falling every single day!

Photo: Mount Washington Alpine Resort – snapped at 10:35 a.m. on January 6, 2009

I’m sad to say I’ve yet to get up there this season, and my snowboard gear is currently collecting dust in my mom’s garage. Fear not, o’ my faithful readers, as yours truly will be strapping on her Forum board, grabbing Miss604 and hitting the slopes on Friday, February 6, 2009 (one month to the day!) for another installment of the Kokanee Day For Dudes [event page].

“Wait a minute – you’re not dudes!” you must be exclaiming. True, but the only thing better than snowboarding is snowboarding with eye candy. So for those of you gents wishing to experience my favourite mountain at a bargain price, head up. $62 will get you a full-day lift ticket, all-mountain ski or snowboard lesson, a Kokanee aprés event, prizes, entertainment and – of course – Kokanee girls! Look for us snowbunnies on the slopes…

(And click here for my Flickr stream of good times to be had at Mt. Washington!)

If you’re like me, there are television shows and movies that you find yourself watching more than a few times. Sex and the City is certainly no exception, and I decided to crack open season one this evening and re-live it all over again – for the fourth time in two years.

As often as I see the same scenes and hear the same dialogue over and over and over again, something new always seems to catch my eye. I just finished watching the third episode of the first season titled “Bay Of Married Pigs.”

Please note Carrie’s t-shirt.

“First time you ever plugged somebody?” Eddie Lee asked Jack Burton after Jack fired a number of rounds into one of the Wing Kong’s henchmen with a semi-automatic weapon. Visibly shaken, Jack composed himself, puffed out his chest and shrugged it off before replying “Course not.”

Big Trouble In Little China has been my favourite movie for as long as I can remember. That particular instant in the film, the first time Jack killed someone, has been seared into my memory since the first time I saw it. My young, saucer-like eyes understood the power of a gun.

It wasn’t until I first saw No Country For Old Men that I actually wanted to fire a gun.

Photo: Paramount Vantage Pictures on Rotten Tomatoes

Early in the film, Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon a drug deal gone really bad and finds a satchel full of cash and a shiny, silver handgun. Upon picking up the handgun, he pulled out the cartridge to inspect his new piece of hardware.

I was in awe. The sound of the cold steel in his hand, cracking against itself, echoed so heavy and so strong. I wanted to feel that gun in my own hands, to experience the weight of it as my slender fingers wrapped around the handle and to know what several rounds exploding feels like against my palms. There’s a fluttering in my stomach right now just writing about this.

Over the Christmas holidays, Amy and Lindsay felt the experience firsthand, and now Amy’s begging me to try. While we were hoping to visit the Pacific Shooters Association in North Vancouver, it appears to have closed down indefinitely due to licensing problems. That being said, does anyone know where we can go to get our shots off? And further, share your gun stories! Good or bad – I’m expecting flack from this post as it is, so feel free to fill me in.

Being that many I know were housebound due to snow yesterday, including Raul, I felt inspired to share my famous enchilada recipe. A batch of ten is yielded, giving you ample food to freeze and re-heat should you find yourself snow-trapped.

Always begin with good music. With the snow falling, I wanted to listen to something snowy, but not Christmasy. The last winter I lived in the Comox Valley, I’d go for walks everyday in the snow with Sam Roberts loaded on my Sony Discman, so that was my record of choice for this snowy evening.

Wash your hands and clean your counters! I’m in love with Method’s all-purpose cucumber spray.

Here’s what you’ll need: 10-pack tortilla shells, 1 pound ground beef, 15oz. enchilada sauce (I prefer Safeway’s brand), 500g cheddar cheese, 11oz. cream of mushroom soup, 14oz. refried beans, small container of sour cream and a bit of taco or fajita seasoning (as you wish).

I should preface this by saying that, were I to live anywhere in BC other than downtown Vancouver, I’d most likely have access to a Superstore and the price would be slashed nearly in half. However, $29 – exactly – is what I ended up paying for all of my ingredients at the Davie Street Safeway. Though even so, it’s still only $2.90 for one meal.

First, grate your cheese block – you’ll probably need it all.

Preheat your oven to 350/180 degrees.

After spreading out all 10 tortillas on your freshly-cleaned counter, dollop about one tablespoon of sour cream on each tortilla and spread it length-wise across the shell.

Real girls use pink pans.

Fry up all your ground beef over medium to high heat until all the pink disappears. Then, add taco or fajita seasoning to the beef (if that’s your thing) before stirring in the entire can of refried beans. It doesn’t look pretty – trust me.

In a saucepan, whisk together the can of cream of mushroom soup with the jar of enchilada sauce over medium heat until smooth and bubbling. Spray the sides and bottom of a 9″x13″ casserole dish with cooking spray before coating the bottom with just enough of the mushroom/enchilada sauce to cover it – about 1/3 cup.

Scoop the meat and refried bean mixture into 10 equal portions on the tortilla shells.

Follow that up with a bit of cheddar cheese – a little bit on each, but you can decide how much or how little you want.

Roll all ten shells and squeeze them into the casserole dish like piggies, seam side down.

Pour the remaining mushroom/enchilada sauce over the enchiladas, covering them as best as you can.

Sprinkle all the remaining grated cheddar cheese over the enchiladas.

You can prepare this the night before and bake it the next day if you want. If that’s the case, you’ll need to bake the enchiladas for longer (maybe 20 minutes). Being that I just prepared them and I’m putting the enchiladas directly into the oven, only about 10 minutes is necessary – until the cheese gets melty and the sauce becomes bubbly.

Et voila! You could eat just one and garnish it with some shredded lettuce or tortilla chips and guacamole, but I was super hungry so I dove into two.

Scoop each remaining enchilada onto a sheet of wax paper or cling wrap, roll it up and put them all in a Zip-loc freezer bag for each dinners next time Old Man Winter decides to surprise you.

Toothpaste, toilet paper, potato chips, bubble bath, Kleenex and even tampons were among his purchases. Well, the tampons were promptly returned to the shelf. Anyone who’s within my age bracket (and grew up in Canada) must remember Joey Jeremiah’s infamous shopping trip to Shopper’s Drug Mart.

Photo: Playing With Time Productions Inc. through Epitome Pictures

During the second season of Degrassi Junior High, Joey misinterpreted “sexy” signals from the new girl in school, Liz. He assumed that an after school study date was an invite for sex – hence the impromptu shopping trip. As can be assumed, Joey was in the wrong and Liz promptly kicked him to the curb. That detail, however, is moot to this post.

For as long as I can remember, “use condoms” has been drilled into my impressionable head. It was a lesson taught to us by the kids of Degrassi, through our schools’ sexual education programs and, hopefully, something our parents were comfortable enough to be frank about. If abstinence isn’t the choice, safe sex is the only option.

What I have noticed in the last year or so – and what is completely surprising to me – is how the idea that condoms are a non-negotiable has been completely lost. While the situations are different for everyone and alternate methods of birth control are perhaps more desirable given varying circumstances, it is altogether amazing to me at how many people I come across on nearly a daily basis who’ve waived their right to rubber.

Photo: trec_lit on Flickr

Quite recently, I asked a girlfriend of mine in a fairly new relationship – less than two months – if they’ve discussed using just the pill. She quickly informed me that her and her new boyfriend never used condoms from day one. I was shocked! At 28 years old, I can truly say that since becoming sexually active, I have only had one partner I trusted and communicated with enough to forego condoms in favour of only the birth control pill.

This fornicating phenomenon doesn’t seem to end in real life. Just the other day, another girlfriend of mine seemed somewhat taken aback by this potential topic when I mentioned it to her. Only hours later, while watching Young People F*cking, two of the main characters got busy on a first date without a condom. “Trust me, I’m clean. And I can just pull out…” is all he said – while he was already presumably inside her.

For an idea that was thought to practically be doctrine as I grew up, the concept of condoms seems to have left the building a long time ago. Friends don’t encourage friends to use them (I won’t hesitate to shove a condom in a friend’s pocket if need be) and mainstream media shuns sheaths for more “glamourous” sex. While I could fill this page with more stories, I digress.

This is where you talk to me: have you noticed a drop in condom use, generally? And further, what is your overall take on sexual health and protection?

To learn more about contraception and sexual health, visit SexualityAndU in connection with The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

And just in case you forgot, click here (NSFO).