Okay, I admit it, I’m cheating a little. I didn’t want to write up two separate posts, so here I am grouping mollusks with action sports.

Last night I wanted to make a nice meal for cheap, so I decided on some scallops. First, I made a reduction by boiling clementine juice, lime juice, lime zest, and some Arbol chili powder for about an hour. Next, pan sear the scallops in some olive oil and a little bit of bacon fat and top with walnuts, bacon bits, parsley, and serve on some green beans for the sole blatant purpose of having some veggies. Serve with rice or risotto for a more complete meal (not pictured).

And yes, all for under $15 Canadian, enough for two! Cheap meal for about 12 Canadian East Coast fresh wild scallops.

Second, I’ve been able to go through a couple of the snowboarding trips… and I’m just working on putting together a video. But here are some photos in the mean time.

Blown over chair at Big White… yep, it was gusty the second day!

Taking in the view of one of my favourite parts of British Columbia, Courtenay and Mount Washington surrounding areas on Vancouver Island.

The group at Big White… yep… Big White out

Having some fun on the Picnic Tables up at Big White.

The group up at Mount Washington! Yup — that’s right, 5 boarder chicks out of a group of 10! Pretty good ratio

Action group photo in Courtenay

Well, I’m back from Apex Mountain and we all had a great time there snowboarding for New Years!

I can’t believe it is 2009 already. 2008 was a year full of ups and downs, surprises, excitement, and many happy moments.

In 2008 I…

… rang in the New Year’s at Disneyland, finishing up an amazing one-month-long surfing, snowboarding, and scuba diving road trip throughout the States to Portland, San Francisco, Tahoe, Death Valley, Mammoth Mountain, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Catalina Island, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Snowbird Mountain, Idaho, Mission Ridge Mountain, and Washington…

… went snowboarding at Big White, Whistler, Cypress, Mt. Washington and Apex…

… parted ways with the first video game company I worked for… and moved to a new, dynamic video game company…

… took a three week trip to Costa Rica for some warm water surfing and travelling…

… went camping, partying, and surfing in Tofino dozens of times…

… caught some seriously large Halibut going deep ocean fishing…

… enjoyed grocery shopping at Granville Island every week…

… traveled to Korea for business…

… and Japan…

… started to learn to skate and play hockey…

… sold my Nikon D80 and got my grubby little hands on a new camera set up with the Nikon D90…

… started working on an HD snowboarding movie project…

… went to Trevor Linden’s retirement night…

… completed my AST-1 Avalanche Training course…

… went to Apex to finish 2008 and welcome 2009!

I couldn’t be happier with how this past year has gone. I feel like I’ve learned a lot, tried new activities, grown as a person, realized how wonderful my friends are, made some new friends, and saw lots of new places.

Plans for 2009:

• Take more photographs of people, improving my fashion and portrait photography
• Grab better, more steady footage for HD snowboarding movie project
• Travel somewhere warm
• Travel somewhere cold
• Keep apartment clean and tidy
• Cook even more
• Do something active at least once a day
• Not worry about what anyone thinks of me!
• Finally finish Gears of War 2 because I’ve been a complete slacker

Thank you to my friends, family, loved ones, and coworkers who have filled the past year with so many laughs, hugs, discussions, activities, and happy moments! I hope you all have an amazing 2009.