In our last day in Dallas, we got up early to go to the Stars practice, so after dropping Stellina at doggie day-care, Jen, Sam and I headed out to Frisco once again! The boys were already out on the ice by the time we got there, but that was okay! We still had an awesome time standing around, watching them practice their drills, their set plays and shoot on Marty and Alex in net. Mike Modano looked really good out there on the ice, but poor Jere Lehtinen looked a little slow. Mike “Skeezy” Ribeiro makes my skin crawl. Seriously, I’ve never felt anything like it! But it was good to see “the old boys” again (Steve Ott, Brenden Morrow, Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen, Stephane Robidas… even Trevor “Ghetto” Daley, who I’d still trade for a Starbucks coffee and a bag of chips!) out on the ice. And it was really interesting to see the new guys, the “young guns” out there too. Guys like James Neal and Jamie Benn, Matt Niskanen and Tom Wandell. And of course, our new “veterans” like Brad Richards and, of course, Skeezy. I say it with a very distant love, I swear!

After practice, the three of us waited in the autograph line to wait for 6 players: Jere Lehtinen, Mike Modano (unlikely spotting as he usually ducks out the back), Brenden Morrow, Steve Ott, Stephane Robidas and Marty Turco.

Skeezy came out of the locker room first, apparently he does that a lot, because then he usually runs back into the locker room “for something” and does the line twice, just in case someone missed him the first time. *Rolls eyes*

Brenden came out first (of our list) and was very happy to pose quickly for a photo. He was smiling, happily putting his arm around each of us and didn’t complain at all, even though the tunnel was bitterly cold with the wind coming through it. A lady who was standing near us got Brenden to sign a piece of paper, which we thought was weird, and then after a few of the other boys came out, she’d gotten Trevor Daley’s autograph. She then came to me and asked who he was! I replied, “Trevor Daley.” She didn’t understand my accent. I even had to phonetically spell it for her! It was rather unusual, and yet hilarious.

Next off our list was Stephane Robidas, who was gracious as always and like Brenden, happy to pose and smile. Jere Lehtinen was next and, well, Jere doesn’t smile, but he was happy to pose for the photo and was then on his way. Otter was next, and happily smiled and posed with us. He’s a real champ!

Marty Turco is notoriously the last member of the team out of the locker room. Whether it be onto the ice for practice or out of the locker room to go home from practice or a game (which is ironic because during a game he’s the first one onto the ice!). In 2006, we had gotten a frosty reception from Marty, which was a little disconcerting as we’d never spoken to the man before. I said to Sam that maybe he was having a bad day, or perhaps he was just in a rush and didn’t want to hang around. We were near the end of the line after all. So, in 2009 we wanted to give him another chance.

Shouldn’t have bothered, really. Marty, dressed in a suit, came out of the locker room last and we politely asked him if we could have a photo taken with him. We didn’t want anything signed, just a photo. He said, “Sure, no problem!” loudly, and then Sam and I turned around and posed. Marty kind of rubbed his hands together and then just stood there while Jen lined up the shot.

Marty muttered, “C’mon, c’mon, just take the damn photo!”

Whether he meant for Sam and I to hear it or not I don’t know, but it was rude and uncalled for. I don’t care how cold he might have been from the tunnel – we’d been standing out there in that cold cement tunnel for an hour waiting for them. The least he could do was be courteous and keep his thoughts to himself. Jen didn’t hear him, but she did say that Marty in the photo wasn’t Marty. Usually he was all over the fans, and they’d had trouble getting him to shut up.

Maybe it was just Sam and I?

Whatever it was, I then said to Jen and Sam that I wanted to leave then and go to the store. I didn’t want to hang around and see if Mike snuck down the tunnel after everyone had left. I didn’t want to chance my heart being broken a second time by a player I adored above all others, after Marty Turco was just rude to us for the second time in 3 years.

We went into the Stars Stuff Store and got a few more things that we wanted (Sam got a jacket and a couple of t-shirts. I got a scarf, and a couple of other things). After we got our loot, we headed to Ulta, a cosmetics store near Jen’s that sells brand names often on sale. She was sure I’d be able to replace what I’d lost through Bella’s washing machine!

Jen was right, they sold EVERYTHING. >From perfume to cosmetics, hair care and even fluffy robes and slippers. A truely pampering place. I managed to get L’Oreal foundation, powder, 3 different eyeshadows, eyeliner, and consealer, and 3 Revlon lipsticks all for $73USD, which at the moment is about $77AUD.  Can you believe that? The lipsticks alone were $3.99 each! Back home, those exact lipsticks are $20.95 each! BARGIN! With the money we had left over, Sam got some cologne from Bvlgari – OMG SO GORGEOUS. I love it!

Then it was time to head home to Jen’s and wait for Jesse and Rhonda, who were coming over after work so that all of us could go to Jen’s parent’s house for Chicken Fried Steak and watch The Hangover. Our friend Julie also came along (she lives in Fort Worth, like Jen’s parents, and she’s friends with everyone – we met Julie through Jen!) which was awesome because we had only seen her twice – at the basketball game and she also came to Stratvos with us and Rhonda’s family.

Jen’s Mum is a riot. She’s so like Jen! While we waited for Julie to get there from work, Rhonda, Jesse, Jen, Sam and I played some weird card game we’d never played before called Skipbo (a game that was created in Texas in 1967), but it was a lot of fun!  When Julie arrived, we’d moved onto Uno and Jen had disappeared from the table. Dinner was old fashioned southern chicken fried steak, veges and gravy, with sourdough biscuits on the side. It was DELICIOUS! After dinner, we watched The Hangover. While it was funny in parts, it wasn’t really Sam’s and my cup of tea. But it was entertaining none the less.

By the time the movie was over, it was midnight, and time to head back to Dallas and say our farewells. We said goodnight to Jen’s parents, and then goodbye to Julie in the carpark of the motel where Jen’s Mum is the live-in manager. The hour long drive back to Dallas seemed to take no time at all, and then it was time to say farewell to Jesse, who isn’t into long goodbyes. Leaving Jesse is hard for me, because he’s such an awesome guy and I love him to pieces. Anyway, we said “See you later!” because it’s not a goodbye, according to Jesse, and then he left and went home.

Rhonda stayed a little longer and she and I snuggled on Jen’s couch before it was time for her to leave too because she had school in the morning. Hugs and kisses and fond farewells later, and it was time for us to go to our room and pass out on the bed. Tomorrow it’s time to pack up and ship out… well… fly out. It’s the end of our journey, but boy have we got a ton of wonderful memories to take home to Australia!

Today was a wind up to our leaving Dallas – it sounds a little early but lets face it, we had to get prepared to pack! After six and a half weeks of being on the road, and collecting more and more items, we had to figure out a way to get them all home! So we decided to go shopping. But first, since Jesse had the day off, and Jen was taking the week off, the four of us headed up to Frisco after breakfast at Waffle House (HOMG WAFFLES MAN! They are SO GOOD!), to go to the Stars Frisco rink to see if a) practice was on (by the time we got there, it had finished) and to see if we could see Rob.

This time, when we walked in, Rob was in the hallway watching the end of practice and talking to someone. He recognised us and he and I had a short chat before he had to get back to work. He did tell us that there would be another Stars practice tomorrow morning at 10:30am, if we wanted to get autographs. I told him that we hadn’t expected to be there for a Stars practice so we arranged with a friend to pick up a jersey we’d already bought and he’d kindly got the autographs for us. (I didn’t want to impose on Rob and the gang.)

Anyway, we wandered around the Stars Stuff Store for a while before we all piled back into Jen’s Mustang, Thor, and headed Stonebriar to see if there were any suitcases we could get in our price range. Sam wanted to head to a Super Wal-Mart since he had done some online research and found that Wal-Mart had a special on, but we checked out Stonebriar, just because it was the big-ass mall beside Frisco StarsCentre. We went through Macys and Sears and there was nothing. So we headed back to Thor and went across the road to Target. Nothing. Jen, remembering there’s a Wal-Mart on the way back to her place via the Dallas Tollway, heads south and with Jesse (and his trusty blackberry!)  as her navigator we find the store we’re looking for.

Super Wal-Mart is awesome! Not only did we find what we were looking for (a small suitcase on wheels, with a matching carryon duffle on wheels and a bag big enough to hold my macbook to use as my computer bag) for a great price ($30!), we also found Sam a couple of Stars shirts, also for a good price! Jesse and Jen picked up a couple of things and then we were on our way back to Jen’s to wait for Rhonda to get home from work (school). Before we got there though, we stopped in at Pinkberry, a frozen yoghurt place that sells the most amazing chocolate frozen yoghurt ever! My allergy to dairy didn’t stop me from getting a tub of this one to eat away, even if I did pay for it by scratching my allergy-itched skin for a couple of hours afterwards!

For dinner that night, the four of us headed out to Momo’s! Momo’s is an Italian restaurant that serves very good pasta, and according to Jen, Rhonda and Sam, awesome red wine too! The food though came second to the company for me. These three are the most awesome people I’ve ever met and I can’t believe that in a day and a half I have to leave them! It sucks!

When we got back to Jen’s house from the restaurant, we all sat around and played Jen’s Wii bowling and tennis for a while. It was a lot of fun! And, it turns out I’m as bad at virtual bowling as I am at real bowling! Sam thoroughly got his butt kicked by Jesse and Rhonda. Soon, though, it was time for Rhonda and Jesse to get some sleep as they both have to go to work tomorrow.

Sunday dawned rather early for us considering the late night we had on Saturday night. We were being picked up at 10:15am to hang out with very special friends, while all our “gang” were going to a memorial service for someone very special for them (it was for someone we didn’t know very well so we thought it was best we didn’t go). Jen had very kindly let us borrow her car for our appointment at 5pm, so we grabbed the keys off her before we left with Mickie and off we went.

Mickie and Frederick have been such wonderful friends to us over the years, and it was Mickie who first messaged the Dallas Stars and asked them to do something special for us the last time we were there – which started the whole ball rolling with being the Stars Fans Of The Game, being at the first game early enough to meet Ralph on the concourse, who got us in to see Mike Modano through Rob Scichili… they really were the catalyst for how brilliantly our trip was last time here in Big D, so there was no way we weren’t going to spend some time with them this time around!

Their 14 yr old son Alex plays hockey for a team called the Stars on Sunday mornings (Bantem level I think?), so we were invited to watch him play, and then they took us and Alex’s friend out for lunch. Alex’s game was as the StarCenter in Plano, so Mickie picked us up from the hotel, and with a stop at Starbucks (for caffeination) we were on our way. The StarCenters are owned by The Dallas Stars, and help to build hockey in Texas. They have 2 sheets of ice in the buildings along with a Stars Stuff Store. The Plano SC was overrun with families preparing for and leaving games that had just finished. By the time we got there, Alex’s team was on ice and warming up!

They were pretty good! We got some great photos of Alex’s team playing, and of Alex who is a winger. He also got a few penalties – oops! – but he was strong on the forecheck and seemed to have good positioning. There were a few players out there who were just so, so fast! And a few scary parents in the crowd too! But the people we were sitting with were just lovely. I think the couple beside me were parents of another child on Alex’s team, and they were interested in hockey in Australia as well as our trip. Everyone is fascinated with the weather difference. It’s kind of bizarre but whatever!

Alex’s team won 5-3, it was all very exciting because at one stage it was 3-2, then 3-3, then 4-3 so it was rather edge of your seat stuff. After the game, Mickie took us down to the Stars Stuff Store to have a look around. We saw their clearance rack had different stuff from the Frisco rink, so we went at it, buying 6 shirts for $10 each! And I got an Ipod case for my classic Ipod for only $14! It’s AWESOME! We also picked up some car decal’s for our “Dallas” back home, and Sam bought me a Stars bracelet that I liked. All in all, it was a pretty good haul for $140! Plus, on the items that weren’t on sale, Mickie let us use her season ticket holder’s discount of 15%, so that was very generous of her!

Then it was off to lunch at SeaBreeze. We had a seafood basket that had a toasted lobster sandwich, fries and coleslaw (though I don’t eat coleslaw so I just had the sandwich and most of the fries), like Mickie did. Frederick had muscles (I think) and fish, and I’m not sure what the kids had, but it all looked so good. Over lunch, Sam and I gave them a small book on Australian Wildlife, as a very small token of our very large appreciation for what they’ve done for us over the years. Really, there are no words and nothing big enough that could ever compensate, but a little something goes a long way.

During lunch, we mentioned that we hadn’t done any of the things that we had wanted to while we were here, such as the Gallery or the Museum or even the grassy knoll where JFK was assassinated. Mickie and Frederick immediately offered to drop the kids off at home and take us downtown to see it! So that’s what we did!

Elm Street, ironically where it happened, still looks like it did on November 22, 1963. The buildings are all the same, the road hasn’t changed and even has white X’s on the road where the shots hit JFK. It was morbidly awesome! And there is even a tour that you can go on that follows the procession’s route, to the point of speeding up after the grassy knoll and driving to the hospital they took JFK to.

After the Grassy Knoll, we walked around downtown and passed the TGI Fridays we went to last time we were in Dallas in 2006. Good times. By the time we got back to the car, it was time to head to the hotel to drop us off because we had an appointment with Bob Shaw from Shaw’s Tattoo Studio at 5pm. We chatted to Mickie and Frederick in the parking lot of the motel until we had to leave.

We got to Bob’s at 5pm on the dot, and Bob was waiting for us, chilling out and watching the Cowboys game on tv (they were losing to San Diego, 7-10 at the time). After our introductions, and Bob mentioning that he knew nothing about hockey, and me telling him to watch a real sport instead of this padded NFL crap, we got down to business and checked out the designs he’d sketched out. They were exactly what we wanted.

When we had discussed the designs with Josh on Wednesday, he’d mentioned that they probably wouldn’t be able to do the shading on the celtic knots on the sides of my Stars logo. Bob, however, merely shugged his shoulders and said he’d adjusted the design just a little to make it wide enough to do the shading I wanted, instead of having to fill the whole thing in.

Sam went first, because he’s a whiney little girl and needed to go first for fear of backing out – he doesn’t like pain, and he’s terrified of needles. How he’s managed to get three tattoos before is a miracle I’ve yet to work out! Anyway, Bob shaved Sam’s back, lined up the tatt, made sure it was where Sam wanted it, right across his shoulders, checked the shade of green we wanted for the star in the middle – the largest part of shading so it had to be right – and then got him straddled on the chair and set down to work.

Sam’s tattoo took about two hours to do, and Sam spent most of that time calling out expletives and grouching at me when I told him to “Suck it up princess! You’re the one who wanted this!” Bob thought this was hilarious. He was also amused by both of us singing along to Sublime on the playlist he had going through the studio while he worked, and me dancing and singing along to Eminem as well.

Sam kept saying to me, “Just wait until you get yours done, you’ll be crying out too!” Which just made me all the more determined not to say anything when I got mine done, even if it did hurt. Bob thought we were hilarious! At least, he kept chuckling the entire time. By the time Sam’s was done though, Bob needed a break.

When he came back, we got me set up, the tattoo placed on my lower back where I wanted it, got me situated on the chair and then got down to work. Mine took about an hour and a half to do, as it is a little smaller than Sam’s. Sam took off to get us some coffee, and Bob and I talked family, kids and married life. It was kinda cool. He could tell when it hurt, because my back would stiffen a little, but I didn’t complain about the pain until nearly at the end when he was doing the shading on the Star right on my spine. That really hurt. Bob did say at the end though that I took my tattoo like a trooper! I was so proud, really!

After we paid him (including a nice tip), we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some Aquaphor ointment for the tatts, and I found some Dallas Stars pj pants in my size – I was so excited! I picked up a pair that are DS Green with the Stars logo all over them, and a green and white plaid pair with the logo stitched on in one corner. We spent the rest of the night chilling out at our motel, after trying to walk Jen’s dog, Stellina (unsuccessfully I might add – we tried three times!), with some Jack In The Box for dinner. It was a quite night, online and letting our tatts breathe.

We started today with 3 primary things planned:

1. Seeing Rhonda’s kids highschool play / show
2. Watching Jesse play hockey
3. Watching the Stars play the Kings

We hit the hat trick, and went one further with a stop at a really great greek restaurant.  But let me start at the beginning.

Our day started like any other… waking up, showers, etc.  Breakfast today was done over in Jen’s place where Rhonda, Julie and Jesse were still there from last night.  Jen had taken Stellina (her dog) to the doggy daycare place and picked up eggs, sausages, cheese and biscuits (kinda like english muffins, but not) for breakfast so we had a hot cooked meal for breaky.  The raspberry jam was to die for!

Julie and I made a Starbucks run while the others got ready and by the time we returned we all jumped in Rhondas car and headed over to Garland, TX where Rhonda works as a drama teacher.  Her class were putting on their latest show, “Moon Over Buffalo” so we all went to watch.  The show was incredibly good and we found ourselves laughing all the way through it.  It’s always great seeing young talent like this in action and there are some amazingly talented actors in this group!

After the show we all decided to get dinner so went to “Stratos” Greek restaurant.  I’d never had proper greek food before so it was quite an experience.  I can’t remember the name of the meals we got, but it was a lamb type of wrap.  Delicious!  Wendy had the greek lasagne, which she swears was absolutely outstanding.  We also had the flaming cheese thing (can’t remember the name) and pita bread.  The whole experience was incredible and really look forward to hunting down a good greek place back home upon returning.  That’s Italian and Greek we’ve had in the last few days.. how Mediterranean of us

After dinner we went back to the hotel for 20 minutes so that Jesse could get his gear as he was playing hockey.  Jesse is the goalie for the “Hellfish” a local team, and we’d all decided we would go and watch him play down at the Ice Training Center (ITC).  The game was pretty good and chatted with friends there and grabbed some pretty good photos.

After the game we all loaded back into the car and yet again headed back to the hotel where we all planned to watch tonights Dallas Stas Vs Los Angeles Kings game.  We were a little nervous about this game as the Kings have been on a hot streak of late and are pushing for top seeded team in the Western Conference.  Alex Auld was in net for the Stars with young-gun Jon Quick between the pipes for the Kings.  The game was pretty good until the last 10 minutes when we found yet again the Stars were forced into overtime and then a shootout.  Unfortunately for us, the Stars shooters failed this game and Alex Auld didn’t pull out a big stop when it was needed and the Stars ended up losing to the Kings in a shootout.  that’s our 10th overtime and/or shootout loss this season; 10pts that we got for losing.  Saying that, if we’d won all those overtime or shootout games we would be 3pts ahead of the ladder in 1st place instead of our current 8th, so go figure.

FYI, the Kings are now 1st in the West, tied on points with the Sharks.  Ugh!

By the time the game ended we were all pretty tired from the drinks and pizza we’d eaten during the game, so headed off to bed.

Tomorrow: Tattoos!!!!

It’s my birthday and i’ll party if i want to, party if i want to, party if i… we’ll get to that.

It’s day 40, which means we’re in the last week of our trip and on the downward slide to flying home (booooo).  Today I turn the ripe old age of 34. hahaha

The day started pretty sad, as we had to return our rental car to Enterprise.  The rental, a 2008 Ford Focus was a great little car and in the 10 days we rented it, we drove over 1500 miles.  that’s somewhere between 2000 and shitloads of KM’s for those in the metric part of the world.  The focus here is different to that in Australia and is US built.  Unfortunately, while it shared the name, the car itself was nothing on the Australian/English/German counterpart.  It was doing some wiggy noise stuff by the time we returned it, so probably a good thing we did return it today.  Jen was great and drove with us to the airport and then gave us a ride back to the hotel again.

By the time we got back we decided to go down the road for lunch.  There was this little chinese takeout/restaurant type place down on Forest Lane that we decided to checkout, so walked down there.  I had the Garlic Chicken (can’t go wrong with that) and Wendy went with the General Tsao Chicken, which she’d read about.  Turns out, General Tsao isn’t all that nice, and my garlic chicken was overly salty.  The rice was kinda wiggy also, and we couldn’t help but wonder how much MSG was in it (it’s not banned here like back home).  Overall, it was tasty, but dodgy.. hence the name we gave it; Dodgy Wok.

After lunch we went nextdoor to pick up a Starbucks coffee and then walked back to the hotel again to hang out and wait for our friend Leni to arrive. We met Leni on the Stars Forum 4 years ago and she and Wendy are quite good friends. She was even there at Frisco the day that we met Mike Modano in March 2006! Since that time, she’s been collecting Mike Modano things for Wendy, such as posters, mini bobble heads and 503 memorabilia for when Mike broke the record for the most goals scored by an American born player. When Leni arrived, we got to see her newest pride and joy – a volvo convertible (very nice!) and the three of us went for coffee and a wonderful chat about hockey. That’s probably what we love most about Leni – she’s just so good to talk Stars hockey with!

All too soon, it was time to get back to the hotel and get ready for our evening out; a Dallas Stars watching party / birthday part at Val’s house.  The Stars were playing the San Jose Sharks, a team we love playing at the Shark Tank, so we knew it would be a great game. Which meant yet another sad goodbye, an all too common occurrence through our trip!

Jen had promised to “doll” Wendy up for the night, so she took off next door to get all dressed up and stuff while i got ready in our room.  Wendy eventually comes back wearing a jacket… apparently to hide whatever Jen had put her in.  Bit of a surprise ya see.  I was cool with that as it only made for more excitement and entertainment.  We all jumped in Jens Mustang and headed over there with a slight detour at Krogers (grocery store) to pick up some things and my cake, which they made me choose.  Isn’t that just nasty. hehehe

We had a pretty good turnout for the party; Wendy and myself, Jen, Rhonda, Jesse, Adam and Amber (was GREAT to see them), Clay and Harry, Val, Nathan and the kids, Julie and Jeff.  (did i miss anybody?)  We all had sausages and burgers for dinner and I washed them down with some Shiner Bock that Adam and Amber bought me (OMG that’s nice beer!).  Clay and Harry bought me a 6-pack of Shiner Bohemian, which is the the premium stout beer that Shiner make.. and OMG even nicer.  Anyway, back on track.

The game went pretty well but gave massive cause for concern when it went to overtime and then into the shootout.  For those in the know, Marty Turco, the Stars goaly has been pretty mediocre (see: crap) in the shootout this season, so the entire rooms energy levels deflated when the OT period ended.  Marty Turco just have known it was my birthday or something, because he was steller today, saving shot after shot.  Unfortunately, Nabby at the other end of the ice was just as good and after 3 shooters the game was yet to be won so more shooters were needed.  It became a battle of the goalies with shooter after shooter going up until eventually Matt Niskanen (Stars defenseman) finally got the goal that won the game for the Stars.  Not only did the Stars pick up the 2pts, but Marty was kick-ass in the shootout through 11 rounds!  Now that’s a birthday present i can handle!

As it was getting late we all had some cake before saying our goodbyes and departing back to the hotel where we collapsed and talked for a bit before finally heading to bed.

Great friends, great company, great hockey… it was a long, but absolutely fantastic day!

We had a nice sleep-in today as had nothing really planned til the evening.  After breakfast and showers we sent Jen a text to see if she wanted to go out for lunch, which we did, so headed down the road to the local Super Target.  Super Target, for those back home is like a regular Target store, but on a MUCH larger scale.  Target here are slightly different though, as they sell food here also.  Wiggy eh?  We were a little disappointed that the Target stores don’t seem to sell NHL gear over here anymore   Sadly, they do sell Dallas Cowboys gear though.  Damn football strikes again!

After Target we figured we’d get a bite to eat, so Jen directed us down to the North Park Mall, just a little south on the I-75.  North Park is a really big mall with a brilliant variety of stores, including it would seem, Build-A-Bear, one of the stores that Wendy and I wanted to find anyway.  A quick lunch first, then we headed down the mall to Build-A-Bear, so Wendy could select, build and buy her very own customised bear.  She chose this cute little brown bear and dressed it in a Dallas Stars outfit, including helmet, jersey, pants, boots and his very own hockey stick and puck!  The bears official name on it’s birth certificate is “Mikey Mo”, aptly named after Mike Modano.

We then went for a long walk around the mall, starting with the lower level before heading upstairs to do the top.  We had the funniest moment when a small boy who was running ahead of his mother tried to run between Wendy and Jen and completely clotheslined himself on the Build-A-Bear bag that Wendy was carrying!  It was absolutely brilliant and had us all thinking WTF while laughing!

Jen found the Michael Kors store and fell in love with a great bag she wants to buy herself eventually.  Pretty cute snakeskin bag.  After the Michael Kors experience we headed into Macy’s to see what they had… and guess what, they had Michael Kors, and a GREAT special, so Jen ended up getting jeans and a top for a fraction of the price she would normally pay.  Made her year i think!! She was sqee’ing all the way home, and then some!

Before we’d come over here I had promised Jen that I would cook for her.  Naturally, it became expected that i’d cook something authentically Australian.  Those who’ve been to Australia would know that there really is no such thing as “Authentic Australian” these days.  Well, maybe damper etc would be, but you know.. nothing really truly Aussie.  So, we figured we’d cook a classic Aussie type meal; Meat Pie, mashed potatoes and veges.  I’d never cooked meat pie before, so after finding a recipe Wendy and I drove down to the local supermarket, “Tom Thumb” to get the groceries we needed.

It turns out Pie is pretty easy to make… it’s just a case of cooking all the filling, adding it to the pastry and then cooking it.  Voila, pie = good   I was incredibly surprised at just how well it came out to be honest, so by 9pm I was serving up pie, spuds and veges for Wendy, Jen and myself, and made sure i kept enough veges aside for Rhonda, who we were expecting to come over a little later.  It turns out, Rhonda had a long night at work and forgot to charge her phones, so she never actually arrived.  No harm done, as the food did not go to waste.

The Stars played the Anaheim Ducks on the road tonight, so we had that playing live on the TV while we ate.  The Stars looked ok and took a great 3 goal lead with goals by Mike Modano and 2 by Brad Richards.  The Ducks pulled 1 back going into the 2nd intermission with the Stars taking a 3-1 lead going into the 3rd and final period.  The Ducks did not sit back however and came out much stronger, forcing the Stars to play a defensive game to stop the Duck onslaught.  Dan Sexton of the Ducks got his first NHL goal in the 3rd period and after the Ducks pulled their goalie in the final minute of the game, Dan Sexton struck again, tying the game 3-3 and forcing overtime.  It was at this time that we all looked at each other, looked at Turco in the net and thought “oh crap”.  It took just over 4 minutes but the Ducks, and Marty Turco did what we expected… scored.  Ducks win 4-3 in OT.  A let-down, but heck, dinner was hella great!

After the game we were all tired so headed back to our room for a relatively early night; just passed midnight.

It seems our blog post yesterday caused quite a stir.  Today, in order to make things much easier, we offer you this  spoon… its curve will provide maximum movement and you will find the handle nicely shaped  for fast and efficient stirring.

Now, on to the events of today.

We decided to sleep in a little today so finally got out of bed at 8:45am, dressed and headed out for our morning walk up to the local Starbucks.  The walk was, as usual, uneventful.  We decided to repeat yesterdays longer walk so we could take a look at the houses along the tree lines streets.  I picked up a Venti non-fat latte, while Wendy had the tall peppermint mocha (a Christmas special drink that is absolutely amazing).

After walking home we checked the internet, and wow, what a shock we were in for.  It seems that within 5hrs of yesterdays blog going live we had comments from Hutterites pretty much verbally crucifying us about a segment of yesterdays blog update.  Oh well, life goes on.   I am curious as to how the blog was found so quickly after it was posted.  Hell, most people don’t even think the Hutterites have the Internet!  Anyway, you’ll notice that the blog post from yesterday has since been edited.  See, we are respectful

Right, back on track we go… after our experience with the angry Christians we decided to head out to Market Mall, which is a shopping mall here in Saskatoon.  Many of the locals call it the “Gerry Mall” due to its close proximity to the nursing homes, and the fact that the vast majority of the people who shop there are elderly.  To any elderly people reading this we mean no offense, please don’t stone us.

Lunch was a quick stop at A&W for a burger and fries.  Not our first option for lunch as we usually prefer to avoid the greasy food, but the rest of the places in the mall looked incredibly dodgy so A&W won out.  The burgers were actually pretty nice.  Wendy had the “mama burger” and I had the “Uncle sirloin burger”.  Clearly A&W like to keep it “in the family”

After lunch we went down to this great little sports memorabilia store.  It’s actually a fantasy gaming type store (Magic the Gathering) that has a load of hockey and other sports memorabilia.  We picked up 4 packs of random hockey cards, a mini Dallas Stars Zamboni and a replacement collectors puck/card holder for Wendy’s Modano card which broke a few years back.  The store is incredible and has some absolutely awesome stuff, including a full McFarlaine hockey rink which you can use to set your hockey figurines in a game-like manner.  The rink and players would cost a load though, so it stayed there.

A few stops through Zellers and Safeway, before we headed over to McNalleys books where we ended up drooling over all the hockey books… there are a LOT of them.  We’re going 2nd hand book shopping again before we leave and have a list of books we want to keep an eye out for.

When we opened the hockey cards at home we found a fantastic card for a guy who plays for the Saskatoon Blades; Jyri Niemi, an Islanders draft pick.  We’re hoping to get the card signed by Niemi before we leave here.

We ended up having a quiet afternoon and evening catching up on email.  Bella cooked a fantastic Shepherds Pie for supper that was simply scrumptious.  Right now we have NHL hockey on TV (Blue Jackets @ Senators), so it’s another good night for TV.

Tomorrow we have a treat that Terry arranged for us… but you’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s update to find out.

ETA: We were just watching the NHL and heard that Brayden Schenn has been signed by the LA Kings, and will be playing in his first ever NHL game tonight Vs the Canucks.

According to the official Kings website:

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings have signed center Brayden Schenn to a One-Day NHL Regular Season Amateur Tryout Agreement and he is expected to join the Kings today in Vancouver, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced today.

This means that Wendy and I possibly had the pleasure of watching Brayden Schenn in his last ever WHL game last weekend down in Moose Jaw!   Wendy and I wish Brayden Schenn the best and hope he does incredibly well in the big leagues!

I’m writing this up now so I don’t forget anything!

This morning was the Jensen and Jared GOLD TICKET Breakfast. We got down to the ballroom on the lower level at 8am and were ushered in to find our table. We were served (well… buffet breakfast) food and allowed to eat before the main attraction arrived for a 15 minute QnA and monologue session. Jared came in first, wearing jeans and a checked shirt, while Jensen was in jeans and a black sweater – I think it’s cashmere (it’s really soft.. I’ll get to that).

The boys were on fire this morning. They talked about filming this season, and told a story of Samantha Ferris who plays Ellen Harvelle, a now hunter, when filming the episode that airs next week. Samantha isn’t as adept at the guns as the boys are as she’s not in every episode, and as the guns are filled with blanks, in the middle of shooting a scene her gun wouldn’t work and she just stopped and started swinging it around going “Mine’s not working!” and the boys are all dodging out of the way screaming “PUT THE GUN DOWN!” It was just SO FUNNY. SERIOUSLY. HILARIOUS RE-ENACTMENT.

Jensen said he’d do season 6 if it goes ahead. He spoke about The Curious Case of Dean Winchester, saying that all he thought of when he read the script was “WOHOO! Four days off!” Jensen talked about making Lazarus Rising and how they used crushed up oreo cookie for the dirt for when he punches his way out of the coffin, and how he’d forgotten to put in his ear plugs, so he was getting crumbs out of his ears for days. Jared couldn’t stop fiddling with the microphone, which was causing static noise and annoying Jensen who smacked him.

They answered a few questions, and spoke a little themselves but it was pretty short, because we had to get ready for the Jensen solo photo ops. I had a ticket for a Jensen solo photo op and a Duo photo op with both Jensen and Jared.We were herded into the ballroom to line up for the photos in rows and I was sitting next to sisters and we just started chatting away. They were really sweet!

Finally we got called, which is when the butterflies started, and we went into the lobby to line up. The line is moving pretty fast though, so that was awesome. When I went in for Jensen, he was nice and said “Hi,” after I said “Hi Jensen, how you doing?” He read my chest – which I know sounds … sleezy but I’m wearing a Dallas Stars t-shirt, so he just started GRINNING and put his arm around me for the photo. I said thanks and he said “You’re welcome!” and I walked out.

Then we went back to the ballroom to line up for the duo photos. When we went in this time, Jensen was on the left, Jared was on the right and I was in the middle. When it was my turn, I grinned and said, “My turn with the Texas boys!” and Jared read my shirt and said, “Dallas STARRRRS!?” all Texas twang. SO GOOD!

I grinned as I put one arm around each of their waists, (Jared put his arm around my shoulders, and Jensen put his arm around my waist) and said, “Seventeen years a fan, man!”

Jensen said quietly, “Oh WOW!”

Jared said, “I’m a fan of the Stars! Have been for years. Ever since they won!”

I laughed as I moved away and turned back and said, “I’ve been one longer than that, dude!” and then the security guys were all, “You need to move along ma’am!”

I laughed again because Jared had opened his arms wide and called out, “What about the Cowboys?!” SO FUNNY. Jenen was just watching, looking between us and at Jared like “Why did I bring you?”

I didn’t answer, just walked out of the room, grinning. Now I’m looking forward to the autograph session! Jared will hopefully remember me. Jensen too, probably.

I’ll edit to add to this post later, but I just wanted to write this up before I forget it!

ETA: J&J Panel, Julie, Rob And A Crappy Lunch!

So after the photo ops, we went back into the Jensen and Jared QnA panel, which was just awesome. Again, I’m not going into a lot of details because not a lot of you on here really want a play by play. But I guess the main points were that the boys were very comfortable being up on stage together for their full allotted hour (usually they do 30 minutes solo for one, then 30 minutes together and then the other does 30 minutes solo but not this year for whatever reason – I didn’t care, as long as they were here, that’s all I cared about!). They answered questions – some of them were the same as what was discussed in the morning breakfast VIP session. They answered questions from the audience. Jared joked a lot and Jensen has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humour!

They have astronomical chemistry together. Seriously. And Jensen honestly is just amazing. He’s just … I have no words. Really. Jared is a giant goofball. I have some notes put aside that I need time to go through and really just sort through them and edit this post – more for my own memories than anything else – at later time. I’m running on 3 hours sleep and it’s been a seriously long day, so my brain isn’t working too well right now.

Anyway at the end Jared auctioned off his Season 3 watch from Supernatural to help raise money for his mother’s students in San Antonio, Texas, for them to compete in a national scholastic and theatre based competition that Jared used to participate in when he was a student at high school. Jared started off the auction but Jensen just took it over and really did a spectacular job as an auctioneer. I honestly wish I had it on video because it was just impressive. The watch was sold for $3500, and Jared not only gave the lady who bought it the watch, but also the shirt off his sweaty back too! He was just humbled and stunned at the generosity of the fans.

So then the boys did their autograph lines, everyone went to Jared first, then Jensen. Neither of the guys were personalising, because it just takes too long, and I think they had a flight to catch back to Vancouver this afternoon because they were filming tomorrow. Anyway Jared grinned when he saw me again, and signed my t-shirt at the top exactly where I wanted Jensen to sign it.

I said to him, “Sign it anywhere up here, but please leave enough room for Jensen to sign it too.”

He grinned and said, “Pffft Jensen.” And then gave me the shirt back. Then he signed our John Winchester Diary book for us and we thanked him and headed over to join the end of Jensen’s queue which was going a lot slower. When we got there, we said hi to Jensen and he smiled and signed the shirt with the largest autograph on it.

I giggled and said, “Nice, that’s the biggest autograph on there! Awesome! Thanks!” and he looked up and grinned at me, giving me a wink before he signed my book for Sam. We said thanks again and then moved away from the desk.

We then decided to go for lunch. Big mistake. We were shown to Maxie’s the sports bar and grill of the hotel and suggested to try the Jared Burger or the Jensen Penne Pasta – a special they were putting on because of the Con. Anyway it took at least TEN MINUTES for us to be seated. Then our waiter either didn’t understand English or didn’t speak it – I’m guessing BOTH. We ordered drinks. Sam ordered a Sam Adams beer. I asked for a scotch & coke. Simple right? Apparently not. We also ordered two Jared Burgers.

Fifteen minutes later, a barman came over and asked how I wanted my scotch. Frowning, I replied, “In a glass?” The girls at our table said maybe he wanted to know if I wanted ice or something. I told the barman I wanted scotch, then coke, and on the rocks. Sounds easy, right?

I got scotch. On the rocks. I looked at it. And then I asked, “Where’s the coke?” There was no coke. Cynthia ended up buying me a coke to go with it and I mixed it myself because I didn’t trust them to get it right.

Thirty minutes after we ordered our meal, we still didn’t have it. They didn’t ask us how we wanted our meat cooked. We had to go back to the Con because Julie’s panel was starting, so Cynthia went up to cancel our order, and it was then that it arrived. The waiter had “medium well done burgers”. We said, no thanks, no one asked us how we wanted our meat, which was well done not medium well done, and we had to go and our order had been canceled. We ended up having our drinks given to us complimentary because the order was wrong, and we were given a voucher for 2 more complimentary drinks and a complimentary appetizer meal.

So, lunchless, we went to Julie’s panel, which had already started by that time, and made our way to our seats. Thankfully the ballroom was half empty. We didn’t get a lot of Julie’s panel and she had such a soft voice that we didn’t hear the other half so it was a little bit of a shambles really. But she seemed really sweet and beautiful. Someone did ask her if she could rate Jensen’s kissing ability out of 10, and she replied that it was rather technical because there were 30 people in the room when you’re half naked, it’s awkward and completely unromantic and just really not … it was like asking her to rate the entrance for scene 4. She couldn’t do it. That made me laugh that people just don’t get it. It’s not fun. It’s not really hot. It’s only supposed to LOOK that way.

Between Julie’s panel and the next one, we ducked outside while the last no-minimum bid auction was on, and took a look at the merchandise. As we didn’t overspend yesterday and infact under spent, we had enough money to buy a t-shirt each! So we did. Sam got a white long sleeved one with skulls and crosses and SUPERNATURAL written on it, and I got a black long sleeved one with Dean and Sam on the front, and SUPERNATURAL on the sleeve. AWESOME!

Rob Benedict was next, and his panel was really interesting because it was just like watching the Prophet Chuck at the Supernatural Convention on The Real Ghostbusters. It was Rob’s first convention and he was a little nervous at first. Actually it was kind of EXACTLY like watching it happen. But he was great! He talked about his other acting roles, most of which he couldn’t remember but the audience could, and his band, and answered some questions about Supernatural and said he didn’t know the answer to others.

But it was great. Once his panel was over, it was time for the photo ops and the autographs for both of them, which we didn’t have because you had to buy them separately. So that was it. The convention came to the end.

It was a very long day. Once the Con ended. We walked down to Pine Grove for dinner, came back to the hotel and got our complimentary drinks (Sam got a purple nurple as seen in the Tall Tales episode of Supernatural in season 2, which was the first episode to feature Richard Speight Jr, and I got a Dean-a-rita – GO TEQUILA!). Sam went upstairs to get the computers, but I stayed down to find my photo ops for Jensen and the Duo.

They are just MAGNIFICENT!! I can’t scan them in until I get to Bella’s place in Saskatoon, but Sam photographed them with one of the cameras we have and he’s placed that on the gallery. They’re not great, but they give you an idea of how they look, which is just AWESOME by the way!!

Anyway it’s now 12:30am and I’m running on fumes so I’ll sign off now and go to bed!

Today originally started out with plans to visit the Vancouver Aquarium, but time, and a pesky memory card changed the schedule, and instead we decided to hit the pavement on foot and explore Vancouver Downtown, specifically spotting locations used during the filming of “Supernatural” (The CW in the US/Canada, but Channel 10 in Australia), which is filmed locally here in Vancouver.

Our first stop was “St Andrews United Church” which is just around the corner from where we’re staying, on the corner of Burrard and Nelson Streets. This church was used during the filming of “Houses Of The Holy” (S2 Ep13). The church was founded in 1758, so has been standing longer than both New Zealand and Australia have been countries! It really is a pretty amazing building. We were unable to go inside as there was a film crew there setting up to film scenes for a brand new TV series coming soon to Fox, called “Human Target”. According to the PA we spoke to outside the building, it’s set to air after “American Idol” on Fox in the 2009/10 season.

After the church we headed down to the “Vogue Theatre” found at 918 Granville Street which was used for both the interior and exterior shots of the episode “Criss Angel Is A Douche Bag” (S4 Ep12). The Theatre was being renovated and was closed so we could not get a look inside. The Vogue Theatre is in the night-life area and is surrounded by clubs and theatres.

We then headed directly down Granville to find our next location set, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) building found at 685 West Hastings Street. Those who are fans of the show will remember this as the episode where Ron, the dude who coined “Mandroid with the laser eyes” was shot by the SWAT team. The bank was used for both interior and exterior scenes of the show, and although we could not go inside, the outside of the bank is pretty cool.

Directly behind the bank is a parking building which was used in the scenes at the end of the episode. We did get exterior photos of the parking building and will be uploading them to our photo gallery once we get full internet access to our laptops.

We headed back up to Timmy Ho’s and Starbucks on West Georgia Street to get a coffee and have a 30min break to rest our feet. Wendy had the Timmy Ho’s (though we both tried a Timmy Ho’s Boston Creme doughnut which was just as delicious as we were told they were), while i settled for the Starbucks, a decision I later regretted when the coffee was really pretty bad.

Our next SPN stop was the “Coal Harbour Seawalk”, which was a few blocks away, so we took our time and did a bit of exploring through “Gastown” an older part of Vancouver Downtown near the docks. The architecture here is amazing, and the streets are awesome to walk down. We really enjoyed the area and took loads of photos of both the streets and the harbour. Wendy is just obsessed with maple trees and has taken dozens of photos of them. I’m certain there’s medication out there to cure her of this, I just don’t know where to buy it!

Our last SPN location set is from one of the funniest scenes from season 3. Sam and Dean walk up a path and the Impala is missing, and Dean pretty much freaks out. Heck, who wouldn’t if their classic ’67 Impala was stolen. Turned out, it had been “liberated” by Bela. The location, for those interested is on Coal Harbour Drive, down by the yacht club.

We followed the seawalk back around to the Convention Centre. Along the seawalk is this awesome park right on the waterfront – very small version of the botanical gardens in Brisbane. Kind of. Anyway here’s a photo of the Coal Harbour Park.

We then started our long walk back home to the hotel. By the time we got back it was 3pm in the afternoon, 6hrs since we headed off that morning. With sore feet (6hrs of walking will do that) and plans for some Stars hockey this evening, we spent an hour at home checking out our photos and resting up with a cup of coffee.

The Stars played the Calgary Flames this evening, so we headed down to the “Shark Bar and Grill”, as we’d heard it was a great sports bar. It turned out, the place was packed with baseball fans watching the World Series. They did put hockey on 1 TV for us, so we watched the first 2 periods while enjoying Northern Hallibut and Chips for dinner washed down with a pint of Molson Canadian. They lost the game at the end of the 2nd period, and instead of putting it back on when they got it working, put the baseball on instead, so we quickly got out of there and headed back to the hotel to catch the last of the game. Unfortunately the Flames beat us in Overtime while on a powerplay from an incorrect call by the Refs. Thems the breaks, as we say in Australia!