another season ended

yes my friends, the dragonboat season for rgl united has come to a close. i now can focus on stuff other than yelling at my friends for dragonboat. i can just yell at them for fun now! but seriously, i can't explain how much i enjoyed this season. not since my first year of dragonboating have i ever had such a blast. i think in this '04-'05 season my team only had about a handful of o.g.'s (original gangstas) but the newbies made the whole team fit together like tetris. props, you guys.

as for this past weekend, well, kelowna has always been a favorite festival of mine. and getting to meet and host albert's team from toronto was so cool. tempest is a comp team and you know what? i like that. i mean, after watching their first race, the only thing i could think of was "damn they're fast. i wanna race them!". of course people thought i was crazy to think united would even compare (we're rec), but just to be able to see how we fare up against them would be so neat. my dream came true in our second races of the day cuz we DID get to race them. man, it was cool... maybe even exhilerating... they beat the pants off of us. however, WE placed second. i thought that was quite an acheivement for us, especially compared to how we were in the beginning of the season. i know i'm just a caller, but i hope our team decides to be a bit more competitive next season. i would really enjoy it.

aside from festival stuff, things that highlighted the weekend:
- bonding with the girls ("hold my gold!" and "deuce deuces")
- buying fruits at the side of the road
- the gorgeous waterfront property we rented for the weekend
- costco dinner
- meeting and greeting tempest
- team naps under the sun
- hitting up the mission hill winery
- inter-team bonding: eating at the best chinese restaurant in kelowna (dragon inn)
- more inter-team bonding: clubbin at "gotcha"
- getting hyped for our last race by dancing the "team dance" in front of tempest
- seeing a wheelchair with rims (i wish i had my camera!)
- ice cream!
- keeping with tradition: a&w stop in merrit on the way back home

and after not being able to recuperate from the weekend, sleep will be my plan for today.

shout outs to my...

NEO!!
cuz you're my #1 blog fan, i'm sending this post straight out to you. i miss you too, man. and i can't wait to see you either!! and same goes for annie. when you gon come up to canadia and kick it ol' skool witcha homeys?.. we're waiting. :o)
there's a couple pics headed your way... and no, we're not nekkid.
*hugs*
mario and annie