December 2007
You are currently browsing the articles from Review and Things written in the month of December 2007.
This year like every year around Christmas the Calgary Zoo has Zoolights.
Zoo lights doesn’t show you any real animals but the zoo is decorated with all kind of cool lights in all kinds of shapes. You can see all kind of animals move around but now all made out of Christmas lights.
Next to a lot of Christmas lights there is more of course. For the kids the are all kind of games like building an Igloo or bowling snow mans and lots more to entertain the kids.
All over the zoo you will find fires to keep you warm if you get called and there are people singing.
But there is more this year your kids can talk to Santa live from the North pole and they can see him on a HUGE TV.
So if you are looking for something nice to do one of these evenings then think of a visit to ZOOLights at the Calgary Zoo.
Written by George on December 21st, 2007 with no comments.
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Everybody needs a grocery store to get there daily needs. Ok i may stay in a fancy Hotel in Banff but that doesn’t mean that everything you need is here.
So this morning i decided to go to Safeway to look for something to eat like a croissant or something. I was surprised by how empty the bread section was and that while it still is early morning (10.15 am). And this meant to me no bread 
Then i wanted some fruit juice and of course they had that but the package that cost like 1.79 in Calgary (maximum price) was here 2.19 and that was on sale! I noticed some other insane prices to i guess that in a place like
Banff you can charge anything
My advice bring you stuff when you get to Banff and spend it on something more fun that groceries 
Written by George on December 12th, 2007 with no comments.
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OK I did it again I went for some fast food at McDonalds but this time I went to the one on Mainstreet in Banff.
The restaurant looks nice and even has a nice fireplace where you can sit in front when you eat your food.
I got to this MC Donalds at 7.45PM and it was not busy at all the person that helped me was nice and friendly. But just a shame that between the staff they all spoke a language I could not understand that always makes me wonder if they are talking about me or my order 
The food was OK it was not that warm but when you are hungry it doesn’t matter that much.
One thing positively surprised me. Today the tray where my food was on had the nutritional values of all the product on it so now i know what i ate and in my case nothing to worry about
My conclusion if you need a fast snack check this MCDonalds out it is easy to find and you get served quickly. But if you have time i would say try some of the “better” restaurants in Banff.
Written by George on December 11th, 2007 with no comments.
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I am very happy with my Ipod Nano and my Jeep but they didn’t realy like to work together. OK my carradio has an aux but still my Ipod doesn’t get charged and is just lying around.
So when i got my hands on the Canadian Tire flyer this week I saw the sollution and Ipod Navigator. It’s an holder, Charger and FM transmitter all in one and it was priced at just under 10 dollars.
The Navigator fits snug in the cigarette lighter and that makes it strong so that it can’t move to much. The Ipod Holder is a bit big for my Nano (3rd generation) but you can adjust the sides so that it doesn’t go any where but there is a lot of space on the top (for bigger Ipod’s i guess). On the side of the holder there is a switch to select the fm transmitters frequency. And then of course there is a little cable coming out of the bottom to connect to the Ipod.
The clue is to get a frequency that is free and doesn’t get to much interfere with different signals. I tried two the first one was not the right one but the second one was clear and strong.
It is nice to see that they really thought about the product. For instance it sets it’s own volume level and that way your personal settings are save.
My conclusion is that this product is great it works like it should and it fits great in my Jeep so now no loose ipods and cables any more and my ipod gets charged to. Great buy for my Great Ipod Nano 
.
Written by George on December 9th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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I normally really like the Dollarama stores because you get great value for you money. But now i bought this little Train Set for around our little Christmas tree. And on the box it says it’s battery operated but someone forgot to put the engine in.
And of course that makes me feel cheated even if it is just for 1 buck.
If you stated multiple times on the box that it is Battery operated and that it needs an AA battery that is not included that i expect a train that drives on it’s nice track all by it selves instead of me needing to push it around.
And Dollarama always stated that you can’t get a refund so i don’t expect that they will do anything about it if i would go complain. But anyways going there to complain will cost me more in gasoline the the train is worth.
My advice if you want this train to go on it own then check before you buy one. I expect it is easy to test by turning the back wheels of the locomotive if they turn more difficult then the front wheels then there will be mostlikly an engine in it.
Dollarama also sells an High speed version of this set so be careful with that one to!
Written by George on December 6th, 2007 with no comments.
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With winter knocking on our doors i thought it was time to see if i could do some extra insulation.
My office where i type my little stories it gets pretty cold and because i don’t want to put the heating higher just for one room i decided to give a window film a try.
A window film is basically a piece of plastic that you secure with double sided tape to keep it in place. The Kit i got comes with two pieces of film (64″ x 42″) so enough for two windows. First you apply the tape and on that you stick the plastic with a couple of cm overhang. Then when that is secure you get the hairdryer out and start attacking the creases if you do this slowly and from side to side you really see them disappear and after a couple of minutes you get a fairly smooth surface and you can hardly see that there is a film in front of the window. And because there is air between your window and the foil your room should get warmer and that means you will save energy to heat it.
My first impression is that it feels warmer and it looks great. I didn’t get all the surface as smooth as glass but it takes a trained eye to notice that the film is there.
I would say give this product a try if you want an simple and easy way insulate your window.
Written by George on December 5th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Help the Environment and Products and Reviews.
OK Winter is definitely here. Calgary is cold but doesn’t the snow look nice
With temperatures going to -20c or lower you probably want to start using you block heater. I try to find out as much as i could and my conclusion was that to use the block heater when temperatures go to -20 or lower. And you don’t have to use the block heater all night 2 to 4 hours before you leave is more then enough to keep you engine going.
And one other thing with modern injection engines it doesn’t make a difference to start the engine way before you leave. 30 seconds is more then enough. The engine will get the rest of it warming from driving. And this will definitely save you some gas
Written by George on December 3rd, 2007 with no comments.
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