"It's going to be an out-of-towners' Grey Cup," predicts sports nut Pete Koziol, who hasn't missed a Grey Cup in 20 years. "Vancouver's very depressed about the Lions being out of the game. It'll take the locals until Saturday, I expect, to get back in the celebratory mood.

The core Edmonton gang - Spirit folks like Bruce Keltie, Deb Lauren, Perry Lewis, Jean Jewell and Rhonda Hjorth - filled Vancouver's Loose Moose Bar Wednesday night to watch the Oilers game.

It was their last chance to relax. They're now working like dogs in the Spirit room by night and at Saturday's Spirit Breakfast, not stopping until the B.C. liquor laws insist they must early Sunday morning.

Only the Spirit of Edmonton goes every afternoon and night from yesterday to Saturday. "The Spirit room is massive," reports Pete. "It holds 900 people, way more than in Edmonton at the Chateau Lacombe in 2002." Let the party begin!

Next Wednesday, after 6 p.m., some of the town's better known "swingers" - ex-Eskimo Tommy Towns, Lyle Best, CTV Edmonton's Joel Gotlib & Erin Isfeld and Oiler Steve Staios's wife Susannah, will be gliding around the Fantasyland Hotel Ballroom's dance floor.

Heads upright, elbows cocked, in the arms of their dance teachers, the contestants will vie for a first place dance competition award of a trip for two to Las Vegas.

Inspired by Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez in the movie Shall We Dance and the success of TV's Dancing With The Stars, Edmonton's Sunrise Rotary Club figured a celebrity dance competition/gala would be fun to watch and raise some bucks for Kids With Cancer.

They asked me to be a contestant. When Mrs. Six finally stopped laughing, I tactfully declined. Instead, with the Sun's Mindelle Jacobs and two dance pros, we'll judge.

Giving dance demos will be Edmonton's Delphine Romaire & Dominique Lacroix who were actually in Shall We Dance. In a memorable scene, they crash into Gere. Another dancing couple is being showcased: Sarah Watkins and Luis Dettling are world-class dance competitors. Tickets are $100, including dinner ... and dancing. Call Kids with Cancer, 496-2459.

The Edmonton Opera's Filumena, tomorrow, Tuesday and Thursday at the Jubilee, will be all those things, promises opera manager Mary Phillips-Rickey.

- Way to go. Standard Radio's the Bear and EZ Rock in just two days of the First Annual Help Kids Hope broadcast this week, raised a total of $300,000 for Stollery Children's Hospital cancer treatment and research.

- Northlands assistant GM Rey Wosar is writing off his free time for the foreseeable future. He's been appointed president of the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions.

- Bruce Barker, morning host of Camrose's new Big Earl 98.1 FM has a new co-host. Erin Bateman comes from the Cat Country network. The first co-host lasted seven weeks.

- Moving sideways is Al Anderson, former Newcap Radio Alberta boss (CFCW, 96X, K-Rock, and smaller Alberta stations). Al's now running out-of-Edmonton operations and is quarterbacking NewCap's new radio licence applications.

- Back in the hotel game after a three-month sabbatical is Dean Morrow. The former GM at the Courtyard Marriott is director of food and beverage at the Mayfield Inn & Suites.

- Kudos to CityTV anchor Jennifer Martin. In addition to charity appearances, Jennifer sits on the Christmas Bureau board, and has taken on the challenge of chairing the Edmonton Grand Prix Gala next summer.

- Grinning from ear to ear was Cathy Hogle of the CTV Hogle clan. She'd joined daughter Kirsten Hogle's 18th birthday party at the Canadian Brewhouse, when the waiter asked for Cathy's picture ID. She's 46.

- Cathy's father-in-law, the long-retired Bruce Hogle, is still the "face" of CTV Edmonton's Good Neighbour Fund, which held its annual Poor Boys Luncheon (wieners, beans and sauerkraut) Wednesday at the Fantasyland Hotel.

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