ahhh. now that's more like it...

we finally got around to replacing our glider with one that doesn't squeak or creak, and boo was helpful with putting it together.

i love hockey! i love watching it, and i love being able to play it too. i remember playing as a kid in the foyer of our home. i would play goalie, and shoot my orange nerf ball against the front door and when it bounced back towards me i'd make last-minute acrobatic sprawling saves to win the game time after time. i think i was ken dryden or something. and because i didn't have much money to spend on any gear, i'd make my own foam goalie pads and cut out a cardboard face-mask for myself. anyway, i must've spent hours doing that every day after school.

i have been playing pick-up ice hockey for a few years now, and this fall/winter i've joined my 3rd recreational league ice hockey team. i played this past summer as well, and really enjoy the exercise and group of guys (and girl!) i get to play with. i play left wing.

the top picture is most of our team this winter, and in the bottom one i'm at the far left with my head down trying to skate back.

what? that's what it is, a sample of my stool project this week. i was inspired to try making my own decoupage stool after seeing it done on ikeahacker. so after finding a used benjamin stool in good condition off craigslist, i thought about what images to use for my decoupage (something i've never done before, but that looked pretty straightforward).

i found a star wars comic book at the used bookstore next to mayfair news on broadway, and then cut out some of the larger frames that would fit nicely given the stool's shape and curves. i lightly sanded the benjamin down with some 100 grit paper, and then figured out roughly where the cutouts would go before starting. then i used some mod podge to apply the cutouts, and an exacto knife to trim the excess off the edges and curve. i applied about 5 coats, and then sanded some of the rough edges with 400 grit paper before applying a couple final coats of mod podge.

overall, the stool turned out pretty good, for a first attempt anyway. if i do it again, i would be more careful to squeeze out the air bubbles from the cutouts before too many layers of mod podge are applied, as it was hard to do so after initial layers had hardened overnight.

so there you go, my stool sample.

so i've been playing on an ice hockey team this summer, and this weekend was the all-star game. somehow i made the cut for our tier and got to play! i know, right?! anyway, it was a lot of fun and i got to meet some of the other players that our usually our competition. i even scored a goal, but unfortunately it was in a losing 4-3 cause.

the first pic is me in the white (#22) jersey trying to clear the puck away from our goal. the second pic is just me standing around, and the third is both teams after the game (where's kimu?).

i've been coming across some great finds for my toy collection lately, including highly detailed motogp racers and even a very svelte japanese import NCC-1701-D. of course, the star wars stuff remains closest to my heart.

boo was invited to natalie's 2nd birthday party at koko's and had a good time on all the rides...

today i went to the nissan/infiniti club meet in burnaby and saw some nice rides! like this convertible 350z that's had a twin turbo installed, among other things. sweeeet. there were also quite a few skylines and even some 1/10 scale rc cars doing some serious drifting, which looks very tempting to get into. felt like i was on the set for tokyo drift for a while! more pix..

we enjoyed a memphis blues dinner with cousin mims not long ago, followed by some gelato and large shades.