The Regina Monologues

Summer 2007: Doin' it up style (Part I)

2007-09-04T15:37:00.000-06:00

September, ie. back-to-school time, used to be third in line for The Most Exciting Day of the Year (with Christmas and my birthday holding on to the one and two spots, of course). But now, without school to go back to, I'm just feeling the end-of-summer malaise. They've pulled the tarp over our swimming pool, dance classes are starting up again, and it's time to warp young children's minds--euh, I mean, provide learning opportunities and spiritual growth at Sunday School. So I'm left with nothing to do but reminisce while the best tan I've had in years slowly sloughs off.

In the wistful spirit of changing leaves and cooling breezes, here's a glance at how we rocked our summer this year.

The main theme of my summer was guiding tours at the "Leg." As a nouvelle Saskie, I spent my summer telling tourists about the history of the province, the state of our government, and our fabulous legislative building. (Looking back on the photos I took on the tour last summer, I was a real jerk tourist.) Guiding the tours was fun and interesting most of the time, with visitors coming from all over the world. Thanks to Little Britian, I was even able to recognize a Welsh accent. By the end of the summer I was pretty sick of my spiel, but stupid questions and crazy tourists usually kept things interesting.

My fellow tour guides and I had a pretty darn good time together. It was a very Heritage Park-esque atmosphere, except we managed to leave the summer with only one acrimonious blowup, which has since been patched over. So mad props to us. We rocked the Canada Day trivia challenge at O'Hanlon's,

went paintballing (which I despised, but everyone else enjoyed. I had a few wicked bruises, including one on a very delicate part of my anatomy), saw some movies, did some wrestling, played Wii and bocce, and generally had a happy-go-lucky kind of time.

We also got to climb up into the dome at the top of the Legislature. It's closed off to the public now, thanks to some guy who decided it would be a great starting point for his suicidal finale. Er, I mean, it's closed off due to fire regulations. Yeah, fire regulations. Anyway, it's pretty darn cool up there--a giant concrete dome with a winding flight of cast iron stairs all the way up into the cupola.

I got to sign my name right next to Roy's!

When my work schedule (which often dominated my summer in the cruellest way) permitted a few days off, we got to get outta dodge a couple of times. Thanks to the lovely lovely folks from church, whose generosity knows no bounds, we enjoyed the beautiful Saskatchewan landscape. First, we went out to Rowan's Ravine provincial park to visit Stacey, Kirby, Jacob and Matthew. We only had about a day to spend, but it felt like a beautiful long weekend. We got to experience s'morewiches, boating on the lake, crayfish shell collecting, a gourmet camp breakfast, and an awesome night of hanging out 'round the ol' campfire. Here we are enjoying our extreme relaxation and a damn fine tent:

We also got to join Chris, Stan, Tim, and two of Tim's friends (and Chris' coachees) at their cottage on Pasqua lake. You may remember our beautiful weekend at the lake from earlier on in the year.
This was also a wonderfully restorative day, featuring unbelievable food, some invigorating (read: freezing) swimming in the lake, and a great evening walk that ended with one of the dogs rolling in the most foul-smelling garbage in the history of smells. At 6:00 in the morning, I bravely joined Chris in another invigorating (read: hypothermic) swim across the lake. The water was rather choppy, and I feared for my ability to continue living. But it was an experience like no other when the sun strained through the clouds and the flock of pelicans in front of us leapt to flight. Ahhhh, wilderness!

Finally, James and Janelle and I were brave enough to try camping on our own. We were cautious and tried only a single-day trip, but now we're confident enough to go for a longer trip next year. We chose Buffalo Pound provincial park for its buffalo-viewing opportunities, and landed a sweet campsite. I just can't get over how awesome the provincial park facilities are in Saskatchewan. It's so easy to check in and get a site, and they've got lots of clean indoor bathrooms, unlimited firewood, and all kinds of other amenities. Loves the Skatch. So, with minimal confusion, we managed to set up our tent.

Despite the 30-degree weather, we set off on a hike to see the buffalo, armed only with a vague sense of where the trail went. We felt pretty intrepid as we enjoyed the beautiful valley
and braved the sweltering temperatures.

After hiking for... well, forever, we decided that we must have missed the trail loop, which was only supposed to be 3 km or something like that. As we dragged our dehydrated butts back to the car, we discovered the fork in the path about five minutes from the trailhead.

See that nice little blue loop there? Yeah, that's where we were supposed to go.

Upon closer inspection of the trail sign, we discovered that we'd taken off down to the end of the orange extreme trail. Ooops.
Thankfully, we had just enough energy left over to hike up the observation tower and spot some buffalo.

They were pretty awesome and intimidating, except for the adorable baby buffalo. Awwww.

It had cooled off a lot by the time we got back, but we still went for a wade in the lake. That is, the girls went for a nice, sensible wade.
James got soaked almost to the waistline. Those were some wet shorts.

We enjoyed a bit of mini golf at the park's bizarr-o course, which featured such family-oriented fare as headless horses.
Using the skills he learned from his mother, James built us an excellent fire. Look at that setup!

and we had an awesome weiner and corn roast,

and played campfire games that involved smearing crap all over our faces which, let's face it, is always fun.

There's a hardcore thunderstorm brewing outside, so I'm going to go close the windows. Part II of our summer adventures to follow.

2007-07-07T01:08:00.000-06:00

Ted got wed!
Here's a fabulous photo journey of the event.

The happy couple after the ceremony

at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Stony Plain, Alberta

The groomsman and the best man

Jimmy and Andrew

Awwwright

Ted and Michelle at the reception

at Muir Lake Community Hall near Stony Plain

Andrew giving the best wedding toast ever, where Candace demonstrated "glazing":

the essential survival skill for those of us who are married to geeks

Four out of the NINE pastors who were in attendance!

We hung out a lot with Perry, the coolest photographer ever. From what we saw, he got some wicked shots, including one of Andrew wearing a bridesmaid's sash around his head, looking very rock n roll.

Dancing the night away at the reception

The chicken dance

The hokey pokey

YMCA

and the adorable flower girl dance

Andrew and Candace getting romantic

and a little brotherly love

There you have it. I'm slow in posting, of course, because by this time they're already back from honeymooning in BC. Congrats, guys!

Birthday to me!

2007-06-11T23:16:00.001-06:00

To make up for the lack of birthday excitement last year -- i believe we were moving that day -- this year's celebration has been doubly awesome.

After a long morning of lounging and french toast in bed, we headed out for the day. There was a package waiting inside the screen door: gifties from Helen and Oliver! I cannot believe how cool these stickers are: facial features you stick on inanimate objects to make them anthropomorphic! In fact, the computer monitor is the first lucky recipient.
Isn't he a happy computer chap?

Before we left, I practiced using the Sunday School button maker:

James had planned to start at Maxwell's amusements (go-karts, mini golf, etc.) but apparently it's not summer enough for them yet, so they were closed. Instead we went to Wascana lake to rent a canoe. It was a beautiful day for paddlin' and we had a lovely time. We even felt bold enough to pull up onto Willow Island, but don't tell anyone. We were distinctly outside the designated picnic area.

We enjoyed the waterfowl immensely, especially the goslings

and ducklings.
The protective mama ducks did some impressive flailing, zig-zagging in front of our boat.

I thought they were trying to look menacing, but James theorizes that they were feigning injury in order to distract us from their young. Fascinating!

We also saw a big ol' pelican and marvelled at his or her impressive wingspan. Those birds are massive.

After our delightful turn 'round the lake, we headed downtown. We thought we might find the hot dog cart on Scarth street, but he was nowhere to be found. We wound up on the O'Hanlon's patio instead.
Reginans will know that that is definitely the place to be, so I felt pretty darn special.

After some shopping around and a slurpee run (it was HOT today), we gussied up and went to the Creek Bistro in the Cathedral district. It was tres posh with a tapas and tasting menu - new to us, but very enjoyable. We sat in the courtyard with fountains bubbling and vines growing overhead.

Just after we'd ordered our wine, Janelle appeared out of nowhere! Party! She and James had rigged this surprise before, and I had no idea. Crafty, they are. We had a lovely meal, if a bit zesty in the price department. (Murray, we'll be brushing our teeth with baking soda until our kids are out of university, too.)

We hit Cafe Orange for some coffee, and I decided I'd better get a slice of birthday cake. A nice chocolately sliver arrived with the biggest sparkler you've ever seen in your life, thanks to the birthday button.

When James and I got home, I noticed that I'd left the light on in the kitchen. No, wait, that light is flickering... it looks like candlelight, but we just got home... oh my god, the house is on fire! James, the house is on fire! And then what to my wondering eyes should appear....

Yes, those two didn't stop at just a surprise dinner party. There was an awesome sunshine and cupcakes cake and Janelle had snuck in to light the candles. Now I understand why they were giving each other worried looks when I ordered the slice of cake at the cafe.

It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day. Yay, birthday!

Fit fit!

2007-05-24T16:44:00.000-06:00

Time to define my self-worth through my possessions!
Here's our hot new ride.

Good ol' grey car worked very hard this winter, but unfortunately it won't pass the provincial inspections to become a true Saskie. So we are the proud new owners of a Honda Fit, the greatest car ever invented. You can fold down the front seats to make one long lounge chair

perfect for picnics and card-playing.

It's peppy and cute and a hot shade of red. Woot!
Oh, and some other stuff has happened in the past few months. We're staying in Regina for good (YAY!) so we're in the process of selling the Edmonton house and finding a new abode in the Queen City. James graduated with his MDiv and a kick in the pants from the Council of Presidents. I finished work at Hansard (best job EVER) and am now a tour guide at the Legislative Assembly. Jo and Chris got married and the wedding was awesome. It's been an exciting time.
More later. Seriously.

Christmas in March

2007-03-08T16:27:00.000-07:00

In the timely manner that is my custom, I now present part I of a Christmas recap.

Christmas around our house was modest, since all our Christmas stuff is in our basement in Edmonton. We did have a tree, though, and Milton had his very own stocking.

He gamely tore right into it

and in the fabulous tradition of Christmas stockings, spent some time wallowing in the sheer excess of his haul of new toys.

We did have some folks round in the tradition of the christmas eve party, and we gorged ourselves on delicious food. I even attempted the famous Breakfast Loaf, and though it didn't puff nicely like Geraldine's does, it was still beautful.

Seriously, click on that photo. Get a good look. Is there anything more gorgeous than golden pastry? If there is, I don't want to know about it.

It was an adventure flying from Regina to Calgary on Christmas day with Milton in tow. Let me just say that if you ever need to smuggle something through airport security, take an animal with you. The entire security staff was cooing over him while our bags slid unexamined through the x-ray machine.

We arrived in Calgary in time for dinner with my family. Our crackers yielded the usual junk treasures

and we had a wonderful time. All the regular Christmas goodness ensued with both families.

Now, the spectacular that is our annual triumvirate - Chrises gift exchange.
Jo and I spent the day preparing way too much beautiful food under the direction of Executive Chef H. Matsune. We trucked our creations over to Poonwah's hep pad and dined delightfully on our canapes and mini quiche, and Poon's won tons. Witness the splendour.

The remainder of the evening was generally ruled by marshmallows. Tune in next time for the explanation of that little gem.

Bonanza!

2007-02-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

It's over! I have emerged relatively unscathed from my four months as a deskbot. I do miss the great people, but searching a database all day I do not miss. Instead, I'm elated to have had four days of training at the Hansard office, just south of the Legislative building. It is--how shall I put this?--freakin' awesome. So totally freakin' awesome. It just might be the greatest job I've ever had. Working with words and language, listening to the hilarious rantings of provincial politicians, observing archaic ceremony and tradition...it's brilliant. I just have to hope that I passed my transcription test on Friday, and then I'll have some more training/orientation this coming week. I only wish it were full time!

Apart from vast improvements on the employment front, we've had some wicked good times recently. Last weekend, Marky the Slice and Nicky B drove all the way from Calgree to hang out with our bad selves (and Mark's brother, who was in town for a pool tournament). The boys and I rocked out the video games, including guitar hero

and lots of Wii action.
Oh, yes, there is a Wii in our house now. Jimmy carefully saved up every gift certificate and monetary gift he received at Christmas, and put them all together to buy his dream machine. The Wii is a wonderful thing, particularly since you can create little animated effigies of yourself and your friends who actually perform the onscreen actions as you play. Here's me

and here's Jimmy.
If you're interested in seeing the "Mii" we made of you, let us know. We've pretty much done one for everyone we know.

Anyway, the guys had some hardcore gaming time interspersed with excellent Reginan dining. We had to hit the classic '80s relic on Albert Street, but we all paid for it afterwards. Here's Nick's picture to demonstrate:

And as those who know Mark the Slice will agree, gambling is a must when he's in town. We hit Casino Regina, which is built in a gorgeous old train station with many of the architectural features and historical elements preserved. Jimmy and I hit the nickel slots (and lost the entire $5 we put in) while Nick and Mark schooled the poker room. We spent some time betting on virtual horses and, as is becoming tradition, scored the royal flush on the Kenny Rogers Gambler slot machine. On the way out, Mark casually threw down $10 on one roll at the craps table, and walked away with $100. He and Nick absolutely took the casino for a ride.

Nick and James and I also took in a Regina Pats vs. Moose Jaw Warriors hockey game. James and I have been to a couple of Pats games, and they rock the block. First of all, it's cheap. $15 for tickets, and--wait for it--$0 for parking! And $0 for programs! It was so cheap, we even bought a 50/50 ticket--three for $2! Woo. They didn't make a fuss when we brought thermoses of hot chocolate. They have soft pretzels and mini doughnuts. And between periods, they had people in giant hamster balls

(just like Atlaspheres on American Gladiator)

sliding all over the ice. Hilarity. Also, the arena is tiny, so there are basically no bad seats. You get a great view and great audio. Crunch! Slam! And when you yell at the players, they can actually hear you. It's the good stuff. There's lots of checking and fighting, and not a lot of real hockey. Right up my alley. It was a great time, although I think all three of us were wiped by that point.

We had the great times, and Nick and Mark very generously took our poor selves out for dinner, and breakfast, and lunch. We lived like kings!

Now, swim against the chronological tide with me if you will.

You may recall from such posts as that last one that we scored a free trip to Edmonton with our church folk. The highlight was, of course, hanging with Michael and Terri. We had a wicked time hanging out in our old house which looks more beautiful than ever. I do miss that place. Terri made me a gorgeous chocolate martnini

Michael shared some of his marvelous port,

and we played Scrabble (Onyx edititon--oooooo!) 'til all hours of the night.

So, we pretty much rock.

Next time, I might make it back to the Christmas photos which, I promise you, are legendary.

It's like this

2007-02-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

We did some stuff. It was awesome. Perhaps there will be periodic reacaps. In the meantime, though, it's time for me to forge ahead.
We drove to Edmonton last weekend in a van full of church folks. We attended the Breakforth conference, which was weird, scary, uplifting, offensive, inspiring, fun, intriguing, and hectic. The highlights were a) getting to know our fellow passengers better, b) watching Gilmore Girls in the van with my buddy Janelle, and c) partying with Michael and Terri in our lovely little house. They are not only the fun times and wonderful people; they are also the world's greatest tenants, and have actually improved the condition of the house since moving in. Wow. They're among the scads of people who are currently engaged to be married, and they're fabulous together. Our late-night escapades made us exhausted during our conferences sessions, but were completely worth it.
I also dug into the storage room and found my sweaters, which I missed terribly.

I'm currently working on processing provincial exams (be very afraid for the future of the English language, by the way) and have only 10 days left at my current job. On the 20th, I start training at my dream job--transcribing and editing the Hansard at the Saskatchewan Legislature. I am unbelievably excited about this. Too bad it's only part time.

Jimmy is rocking the set as the little vicar who could. We're wishin' and hopin' and prayin' and all that to stay here in Regina. Good Shep is indeed the good stuff.
So, I didn't disappear from the blogosphere entirely; I'll definitely be back with more detail once I'm settling in at Hansard and need to practice my typing!

thorry

2007-01-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been a few months. There's a lot to catch up on.
Thorry.
Here's a preview (postview?) of the recaps to come.

It's pumpkininny!

2006-11-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

Several weeks late, perhaps, but it's never too late to talk about pumpkins.
Thanks to a sweet pattern book (yes, we are guilty of using a pattern) and a nice oblong pumpkin, Milton helped us
to create Surprised Stan over here:
Now for the secrets behind the magic:
Our team of scientists employed the patented Hidden Hatch technique.
Rather than cutting out a lid from the top of the pumpkin, we cut a hole in its bottom. A small hollow was dug out of the bottom piece, wherein a Vanilla Rain votive candle was secured.
The small piece was placed on the jack-o'lantern surface, and the remaining pumpkin lowered over top.
This eliminated the need for reaching into the sticky insides of the pumpkin in order to place and light the candle. Basically, we're geniuses.*

*idea was stolen from a women's magazine.

So here's our star pumpkin showing off some Halloween finery:

We were very proud.

We had exactly 10 trick-or-treaters and a whole lot of candy left over. We enjoyed gummi pizza, breakfast, doughnuts, fries, burgers and sandwiches for a few days afterwards. And, of course, delicious roasted pumpkin seeds. Mmmmmm.

...So I'm, what, a month behind or so? No problem. We'll be all caught up soon enough. I know, I know, you're on the edges of your ergonomic chairs. It'll be awesome. Just you wait.

We still (heart) Regina

2006-10-23T22:26:00.000-06:00

Well, kids, to be honest, I haven't felt much like sitting in front of the ol' home computer now that I sit in front of the ol' work computer all day. But, because our lives are so infinitely interesting, I shall make a great sacrifice and give you a quick li'l update.
Things have been swimming right along, and we're still having a great time in the beautiful city of Regina. I've got a very low-level job with Saskatchewan Learning as a student records clerk, but I'm glad to have something, and government experience is a good thing. Fortunately, the office environment is very positive, and it's fun to have people to socialize with. I'm also taking three dance classes a week, including a pretty hardcore ballet class involving tights and bodysuits and the whole deal. Wheee! I'm absolutely loving it, and I can't believe I'm having fun exercising.
Jimmy is wowing his parishioners with his mad skills, and learning much from them as well. The other night we went over to the home of Gordon and Adeline where we played Rummikub and ate apple kuchen til all hours of the night. I've been helping out with the Sunday schoolers, which is always entertaining. Seriously, how adorable are these kids?
We've been having a lot of time together, which has been absolutely refreshing. We are now the proud owners of a copy of Dance Factory, the game that lets you dance dance to all your favourite tunes. So far, we've danced to the sounds of Weezer, the Ventures, Cornershop, OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Moxy Fruvous, k-os, and Meco's "Star Wars/Cantina Band." It's freakin' awesome.
A very kind parishoner also relinquished her tickets to the last Riders home game of the season, and so we bundled up and watched the Riders win! win! win! (Note, of course, that I remain a Stampeders fan through and through, but we love to cheer for the Riders. And we even rang our touchdown cowbell to cheer for Schulz!)
Warning: the remainder of this post consists of pictures of our cat. I know that other people's pets is the number one worst blog subject, so I apologize. However, I suspect that those who know and love Milton might enjoy this a bit, so please excuse the indulgence.
Lately, Milton has been on TV
has imitated laundry at various stages
and even joined in the dance-dancing. Sort of.
And so our little adventure continues.

Autumn in Alberta

2006-10-09T22:59:00.000-06:00

It's only fall for one or two weeks in Alberta, but during that time, there is nothing of comparable beauty.

Bekki and Anthony picked a great time to get married, particularly considering that their reception was in the glorious Rocky Mountains amidst the fall colours. I'm so glad I had the time to go early and spend lots of quality time in Calgary.
I took the Greyhound (about an 11-hour trip) which was tolerable, but just barely. I had lots of great Mom time, including shopping, aerobics, talking, walking, and watching Gilmore Girls. i got to see most of the fam as well as Toph, although I totally screwed up my shopping date with Christopher (sorry!). In general, it was a fabulous week of relaxation, comfort, and regrouping.
Bekki's wedding was on Saturday the 23rd. The ceremony was held at Holy Name Catholic Church in the west of Calgary. It was a pretty big reunion for Mom, as she'd lived with Aunty Cheryl's family for a year when she was in high school (note that Cheryl and Glen are not actually my aunt and uncle, but we still call them that. So as you can imagine, I've known Bekki as long as I've been alive). The ceremony was shorter than I expected, and it was very nice and touching. Bekki looked AMAZING, like a movie star. She made her own gown, you see, because she knows how to do these things after studying fashion design at Ryerson. Anthony's suit was also handmade, by his father who is trained as a tailor. They are a beautiful couple--both very petite with delicate, striking features. And now, with a name like Rebecca Rossi, Bekki can certainly pass for a celebrity.
After the ceremony we gathered on the steps in front of the church for a group picture, and the Bekki and Anthony rode away on a Vespa. .It was, for lack of a better word, adorable.
We all drove west into the glorious sunshine and congregated at Nakoda Lodge. It's a conference facility/hotel on Chief Hector lake at the foot of Mt. Yamnuska (the first mountain I ever climbed). Mom also goes there with her faculty groups to build trust and communication on the ropes course nearby. The setting was, of course, gorgeous. I'm not the best nature photographer in the world, but I hope I can convey a bit of the atmos.
As we arrived, a piper was playing on the shores of the lake, bringing a bit of the Campbell clan ethos to the day.
We all enjoyed wine and canapes while the bridal party took pictures. They were set up at a weird angle to the light so that everyone's face was in half-shade, which I thought was kind of odd. But even so, it was awesome to have mountains as a backdrop.
Bekki and Anthony eschewed the traditional glass clinking in favour of requiring a poem to be written and read in order to make them kiss. Mom, Bekki's grandma, and Debbie (L-C, whom Westernites will recall) composed an acrostic with the word B-R-I-D-E, and I wrote a little poem alluding to the fact that they are the latest in a long, proud history of Heritage Park-originating marriages. After speeches, a slide show, cake cutting, and a bit of dancing, Mom and I retired early to our room. We skipped the late-night campfire which reportedly continued until 4 AM, but we were in good company: the bride and groom crashed rather than changing into jeans to take in the fire.
The next morning we enjoyed Nakoda's AMAZING Sunday brunch (if you have the chance, you've got to try it. Apparently it's improved immensely over the past few years since they acquired the chef from Lake Louise). There's nothing like warm bannock, fresh salmon, crispy bacon, and all the fruit and cottage cheese I could dream of, not to mention chocolate mousse and nanaimo bars for dessert. Breakfast dessert! Now that's worth celebrating.
After a brief walk around the lake over questionable footbridges and past the evidence of bush parties, we drove to Canmore to meet up with Cindy. She's got a great little condo in the newer part of town, and this is the view from her balcony:

Yes, those are the Three Sisters. From her balcony!
She drove us up to Sunshine Village where she works,
and we walked up to Rock Isle Lake. There was a bit of snow on the way up! We could also see the top of Goat's Eye and the Continental Divide, both of which looked as though you could ski down them already.
The lake was gorgeous; once again, not the best nature photographer, but just imagine seeing this on a warm September day at the top of the world:
Awww, yeah.
It was a great week, with lots of relaxation and fun. I'll leave you with some pictures from my walk in Fish Creek Park.

Gorgeous!

Dragon my feet

2006-09-12T16:50:00.000-06:00

hi folks,
I don't have much other than a slice of life to offer you. However, our life is fresh baked with wholesome ingredients--none of that imitation filler--so grab yourself a slice and a nice cuppa, and enjoy the home-baked taste.
The Labour Day weekend was football, football, and more football. This was a) awesome, and b) wicked good. Jimmy and I hung out, ate popcorn, and rang our cow bell every time the Stamps or Riders scored. Hooray for cheap entertainment!
We also went down to the Dragon Boat festival in Wascana Park (more cheap entertainment). Apparently most Dragon Boat teams do the circuit--there were teams from Medicine Hat and Calgary that we could identify. They all have matching T-shirts, some have fancy shelters and paddle racks and the whole bit. The races themselves were not bad, and the setting was gorgeous.
Unfortunately, the wasps were out for blood, and they swarmed my kielbasa mercilessly. To avoid them, we walked around and discovered the rest of the festival. We made our obligatory stop at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to take advantage of the free slush puppie fill-up that Jimmy gets in his dinosaur water bottle. While there, we visited Megamunch, the very intimidating animatronic T. Rex who screams, growls, and gnashes his teeth at the touch of a button.
In the field between the RSM and the lake, there were several booths from social service organizations, corporations, and the good ol' army. Jimmy chatted up the army dudes, intimating that he was interested in becoming an army chaplain (over his wife's dead body, of course). They very eagerly supplied him with lots of propaganda, including information on the Dash-8 and Sea King. We had a good chuckle over the fact that they're advertising those vehicles, especially since the running joke as Tom told us was that a Sea King is "ten thousand parts flying in close formation." Happily, Jimmy also scored an anchor-shaped Navy tattoo, which could be placed nowhere else but on the forearm:
We tired quickly of the wasps (even after James had fun trapping and drowning them in his water bottle) and so our dragon festivities were short-lived.
These last weeks have involved a lot of volunteering at the church, as I've been busily helping to redecorate the basement, aka the Sunday School rooms. The new superintendent (our friend Janelle) completely cleaned out, organized, and revamped the Sunday School. She and her mom Bev (the church secretary) hauled 10 years' worth of junk out of the basement, and organized 10 years' worth of salvageable craft supplies, posters, and other resources. It was a major accomplishment. I did my part by merrily constructing bulletin boards and signs. I took advantage of my power by posting my hippie-ish messages for all the kiddies to see. First, we have the Buddy-Christ and all his little sheepies:
Then we have the Saskatchewan-appropriate love-the-earth message:
and then, my personal favourite, the multicultural awareness message:
Plus, I even managed to make decent use of the extremely cheesy Jesus pictures they had:
Finally, I sent a subtle message to the kids using the powers of cuteness and a Terrance and Phillip-style illustration:

Besides that, I've had my first tap/jazz class, which was AWESOME. It felt so good to be banging out a rhythm on the hardwood again. It's basic stuff, but I liked the refresher. Not surprisingly, I think the Al Gilbert method that I learned is quite outdated, so I've got lots to learn. My muscles have been screaming ever since, but it's so worth it. At the end of the month, I'll have a ballet class as well. I bought myself some cheap Capezios (they come with elastics sewn in already! The luxury!) and Milton had a fun time playing with the untrimmed spiders.
James has gotten very busy at the church with meetings and retreats coming up. This week he'll be playing some hymns, so I've enjoyed one of the many benefits of living with him: free concerts!
Today I finally had a job interview, and I do hope it goes through. The pay isn't great, but it's a good organization, and the man who interviewed me was exceedingly kind and interesting. The job involves working with Biographies Regina (formerly of the Regina and District Old Timers' Assocation) on a local history book. Anything to be involved in the publishing process! The conditions of the grant that funds the position are that the candidate must be continuing with post-secondary studies, so I've told them that I'll enroll in distance education in January. Ryerson's well-respected publishing certificate is offered via distance, so this gives me a great excuse to start their online courses (which look very exciting and interesting, by the way. And I recognize several faculty names from the Editors' Association.) At any rate, I'll need a job soon, because my student loan goes into repayment next month. So much for living off the vicar's salary!
And Milton continues to be adorable at every turn,
jumping into baskets
and snacking on pudding.
We're never bored with him around.
One last bit of exciting news is that we have a niece! Miss Stephanie Elizabeth was born on Sept. 9. Sarah seems to be doing very well, Tom is taking adorable pictures, and big brother Alexander is already learning to hold his sister. I do hope we'll be able to go west this fall, if only for a few days, to meet our newest relation.
And so life is put-put-putting along. The days are cooling off around the edges, but the sun is still blazing hot at midday. Unfortunately, our cruel landlord has drained our swimming pool already. But my evening walks are getting a bit chilly, which is a welcome change. We were scheduled to go combining (as in, riding in farm machinery) tomorrow, but some family complications emerged, so we'll have to hope that the harvest will continue later this week. If we go, there'll be photos a-plenty for your delight!

Goin' Snakes!

2006-08-30T22:00:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday was a blitz of fun, bookended by two looooong days of driving. Man, this country is big.
Friday morning we undertook the drive to Calgary and arrived at Mom's house around 7:00. We had a delish dinner and great chats, as always. I picked up my tap shoes in preparation for my adult tap/jazz class to start next weekend! Wheeeeee! I can't wait.
Saturday was a crazy day. We hung out chez CRs in the morning and then picked up Michael, who had taken the bus down from Edmonton. (It's great having responsible friends live in our old house...worry-free!) Michael and James headed off to play "championship" mini golf with Cory and pals for Cory's birthday, while I went to the Campbell's house for a work bee. Bekki's wedding will be decorated with all kinds of paper treasures, from gorgeous place cards and table numbers to corsages and pew flowers. Our task for the day was gluing wire to the back of magnolia petals. The flowers turn out to be about 10" in diameter...
they are going to look absolutely stunning on the pews. I was a surprise visitor for Bekki, so it was a lot of fun to turn up and help unexpectedly. There remains a lot to be done before the wedding, but such is the way. It was fun to catch up with Aunty Cheryl, Aunty Deb, and Uncle Glen (none of whom I'm related to, of course). As always, there's a lot going on in that family...not only is Bekki getting married, but Jamie (her older brother) is engaged, and both Cheryl and Glen are retiring. Of course, they're the kind of people who'll be busier after they retire than they were while they were working, but I hear that's half the fun.
After the work bee, James and I drove all over the city in search of Brian and Breanne's wedding reception. (For you Calgarians out there, we drove from Scenic Acres to Rocky Ridge or something like that--the NW city limits--got completely lost, and then eventually found our way to Harvest Hills.) Bri and Bre, as we've been calling them, got married on the beach in Mexico last month, and so they were having a party Calgary-style for those who didn't make it (and many of those who did). It was a lovely, relaxed atmosphere with plenty of good catching up to do.
James also put the engineers to work on his birthday present from Brisket, which featured the most complicated wrapping job ever: a wooden box, glued and nailed shut. Fortunately, Steve quickly identified the best course of action, procured the appropriate tools, and was into the box in no time.
We kept the box to wrap Brisket's next present in!
We took an early leave to head to our next engagement, which was a BBQ chez Brisket and Andrea. The whole gang was there, and we were engulfed with hilarity in no time. James and Cory both have birthdays in August, so there were some great presents being exchanged. Of note were Todd's presents: apparently, he wasn't sure what to get either of them. 'I can't just put money in their cards,' he thought to himself. 'That's what their grandparents would do.... hmmmmm...' and the idea struck. So James and Cory were both presented with money inside "To a wonderful Grandson" cards, as well as a roll of Werther's Original to complete the experience. That's some inspired gift-giving, I think.
I ran off a bit early from there (for you Calgarians keeping track, this was in Braeside) to meet Toph and Christopher, who had been doing the Chinook pub crawl (East Side Mario's, then Moxie's). We had a brief but fabulous chat, and then Christopher and I headed off to meet the whole rest of the gang (seriously, there's no other appropriate word for it) to see
SNAKES ON A PLANE!
It was the perfect environment for it--few other people in the theatre but two rows of us, crammed in together. And when Chris and I walked into the theatre, who happened to be there by sheer and utter coincidence but Poonwah!
Poonwah, who had returned from Afghanistan not one week earlier. I had thought he was still in Edmonton, but there he was! I finally got to meet the famous girlfriend, if only for a couple of minutes. SO good to see him, safe and sound, living and breathing.
And as the capper, there was the movie. Oh man, oh man. Moviegoing experiences this fun are very rare. We killed ourselves laughing all the way through, and we all chanted Samuel L.'s famous new line in unison (and cheered after it was said). If you haven't seen it, GO, but go expecting a hollywood parody. A HILARIOUS hollywood parody. (Or is that an hilarious?)
We celebrated as Samuel L. afterwards:

Finally, Jimmy and Michael dropped me off and then went on to Nick's place, where they and the glorious Columbus Blue Jackets won the virtual Stanley Cup for (I think) the third time. It was a raucous video game party from 1 to 5 in the morning, which was the perfect ending to the day.
(Oh, and if you're still mentally mapping, that was Chinook to University Heights to Edgemont. Not to mention the fact that we'd come up from McKenzie the night before. It was basically the Tour de Calgary.)
Sunday morning was church at Prince of Peace followed by brunch in Strathmore with Mr. and Mrs. Cooley. Great classic breakfast food at Smiley's in Strathmore--worth the drive. The Cooleys, in typical generous fashion, sent us off with armloads of fresh venison sausage. Mmmmmm! Michael and his parents then headed up to Edmonton, and Jimmy and I got on the road. Of course, we bought 99cent/L gas in Strathmore--unbelievable that that's what passes for cheap these days; time for a Smart car--and got on the excrutiating road to Regina.
The great thing about travelling on a Sunday was that Jimmy was still wearing his collar.
When we both went in to the gas station, apparently we left a car window open, because we returned to find a bottle of In Kahoots brand marinade and a bottle of hot sauce, plus some literature, courtesy of the guy driving the In Kahoots truck who had just left the gas station. I guess he saw the 'minister' and decided to leave a free sample! Ah, the privileges.
Predictably, the drive back was awfully boring. We did our best, but we were both stir crazy before we'd even crossed the Saskatchewan border, and that's with approximately 4 hours left to drive. I think next time, we'll fly.

Birthday bash in the Sin City of the prairies

2006-08-19T18:04:00.000-06:00

Pop quiz: where can you find a fun getaway with great food, entertainment, accommodations, and a rich history of prostitution, rum running, and gangsters? That's right, kids--It's party time in Moose Jaw!
This was my second time in the Friendly City, as Mom and I visited the week before. We were so impressed with our tunnel tour that Mom decided a tour would be a great birthday present for Jimmy. So away we went!
Moose Jaw, or "Moozjuh" as the locals seem to call it, has maintained its historic downtown buildings beautifully. They're focusing on the tourist trade and doing a great job of it. There are roaming tourist info people, lots of signs, and free parking for vehicles with out-of-province plates. Woo! Did I mention that before? Well, I 'm just so darn pleased with us for having our Alberta plates actually accomplish something good.
Our first stop was the Western Development Museum, at the recommendation of James' parents who vacationed in Saskatchewan last summer. The museum in Moose Jaw is one of four branches (the others being in North Battleford, Saskatoon, and Yorkton) and specializes in the history of transportation on the prairies. They had a miniature railroad set up, revealing my long-lost Moose Javian relatives:
There were lots of rail cars and related vehicles (like a car converted to run on rails for the fancy railroad higher-ups to ride in, no doubt), lots of cars and trucks and things that go, and lots of airplanes. There was an electric car developed in the early 80s that could go up to 100 kph and could travel 160 kms on one charge! What happened? We need those! I want one! Apparently, it wasn't sturdy enough to survive Saskatchewan winters, but neither can a Vespa. We could think of no reason why that car hasn't been further developed. But anyway, at least we got a chance to do some piloting:

There's Jimmy at the controls, and me ready to jump ship.
From there, we free-parked ourselves downtown, did some tap on the amphitheatre,
and went on the two tunnel tours. Unfortunately, they don't let you take snaps down there, so I have no visuals for you. But we enjoyed both tours very much, even though the Chinese immigrants one was a bit depressing and preachy. It's amazing to go across a street and in the second floor of a building, and then wind up on the other side of the street at the end of the tour. Those tunnels go everywhere! The Chinese immigration one was particularly cool, because we got to see manholes and steam pipes. (Apparently, the tunnels were originally constructed for steam engineers to perform boiler maintenance, and only later were used for such excellent pastimes as stowing immigrant workers and transporting booze for gangsters).
After dinner in a surprisingly hip restaurant (where James had steak and kidney pie--blechhh!) we decided that the mineral spas would be much more appealing if it wasn't deadly hot outside, so we headed for the air conditioning of the Casino Moose Jaw. It's pretty small--just a room full of slot machines and a couple of poker tables. We won about three bucks on the Double Your Monkey machine, but then got run ragged by cowpokes, pirates, and island folk. Jimmy proudly emerged with 3 cents remaining from the $10 we'd started with. NICE.
It's entirely possible that we stopped for delicious gelato and fudge before heading back to our motel.
I admit to a stroke of genius when choosing our accommodations. The Prairie Oasis Tourist Complex is a little slice of wicked awesome. Not only was the room much more decent than I'd expected from a motel-campground type of place, but they also had mini-golf and the best indoor waterslides ever! We spent an hour running up and sliding down and running up and sliding down. It was wicked! Especially good because there were no lines to wait in. Just slide away! Oh, so good. We will definitely be back--especially because we won a round of two-for-one mini-golf.
The next morning I went to meet Mack, which was an inspiring experience.
He's sizeable, that guy! We drove down to Caronport to eat breakfast at The Pilgrim, which is a restaurant run by a Bible college where the menu is cleverly called The Pilgrim's Progress Report. Sadly, though, the restaurant has closed since Jimmy visited there in 2000 on his cross-Canada road trip with his dad. Dejectedly, we went back to the Jaw for breakfast (weird, weird breakfast--i ordered fruit salad which came with ice cream(?!), and James had a Chinese buffet) and headed back to town. The great thing is that travelling to Moose Jaw takes just about the same amount of time as driving across Calgary, so it's pretty darned convenient. We had a great time, and now Jimmy is appropriated feted, birthday-style. Phew!

Le boy du birthday

2006-08-17T22:42:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again--time to shower the Jimmah with a massive birthday haul, make much, eat cake, and go off in search of extreme amounts of fun.

Jimmah's birthday began an evening early this year, with a night-before present in the tradition of the Christmas Eve pyjamas Bjorn and I always got. It starts the excitement early, but also relieves some of the tension in the hopes that you might actually sleep that night. I always loved it, so I thought Jimmy might, too. I presented him with the craft-store storage system I'd devised for his Heroscape dudes. Admittedly, it was a gift for me as much as for him: no more foot-piercing figurines lying around.
He happily played with his armies of vikings, Greeks, Samurai, robots, secret agents, dragons, werewolves, and kyries well into the night.
The morning of, I fixed up his current favourite breakfast (courtesy of the Lea & Perrins cookbook Heather sent for my birthday) and watched as he giddily tore into his massive stash.
Needless to say, he was thrilled to bits with all his wonderful gifties, and has played with/read/worn/drank/watched almost all of them already.

Unfortunately, duty called, so our Jim was off to the office for a hard day's work. Fortunately, his lovely and caring wife slaved over a hot grocery store all day and brought him a nice cake.
Bev (the church secretary) and I sang him happy birthday and enjoyed some chocolatey goodness. Good ol' Co-op.

Seeing as it's impossible to get more work done after one has been eating chocolate cake, Jimmy agreed to let me steal him away on an extended dinner break. After a bit of searching (the addresses in this city follow no greater organizational principle whatsoever) we found the Red Lobster that would serve up some delicious fish and chips to the birthday boy.
Work duties called once again, and so Jimmy's birthday ended with a church meeting (which took for EVER), but at least that meant the treasurer could be hassled into coughing up a paycheque. Not a bad ending to his special day.

But fear not--more festivities were on the way!

Tuesday was technically a work day, but we spent it colouring Shrinky-dinks to send out to the Sunday school kids. In the evening, we met up with Pastor Bryan and his wife Bev (not the church secretary) to catch the summer's final instalment of the Sunset Ceremony down at the ol' RCMP academy.
I'm pleased to report that these cadets were much more on the ball than the ones Mom and I saw parading last week. They have graduated to red-coat stage, which apparently means that they can march in time without tripping. Some olde tyme NWMP folk ran out, hauling a cannon
and then by a very clever rope-pulling manoeuver, stopped the thing, loaded it, aimed it, and fired it! Wooo! That was definitely the most exciting part of the ceremony, which made the rest of it kind of anticlimactic. But we still enjoyed the band and the officers marching in formation, making patterns and spinning in pinwheels.
Dance, RCMP officers, dance for our amusement! The flag-lowering ceremony provided some extremely Canadian snapshots,
but was a tad on the pathetic side, as it took place to the sound of one lone glockenspiel ting-ting-tinging The Maple Leaf Forever. In the end, it was all worth it because we caught a glimpse of what I can only assume to be the RCMP pace car
and scored some wicked paper hats.
The evening concluded with a nice trip to the pub to get to know Bev and Bryan. We just keep getting more and more comfortable here. It's dangerous how much we feel at home! My big excitement of the day came when we got home to find a message offering me my first real editing job.
Celebration time!

A heckuva coupla days

2006-08-15T22:45:00.000-06:00

Well! Have I got stuff to tell you.
So there we were, last Thursday. We started the day with breakfast with Karim, 'brown brother' to Bjorn and me. We had a really nice time catching up after three years. We surmise that he is well and happy, which in turn makes us happy.
James then headed off to work and Karim to Calgary, so Mom and I were left to our own devices. We hopped on the highway to Moose Jaw, where we enjoyed free parking thanks to our out-of-province license plate. We went on the excellent tour of the tunnels (character interpretation at its best, as well as its most mediocre, but the tunnels alone are enough to keep you grinning in disbelief. Plus, it's sooo nice and cool underground.) We tried our best to experience the Friendly City, but the heat was absolutely deadly. In the end, we managed to get to a classic small-town cafe before running away from that fiery furnace.

We arrived in Regina just minutes after Murray and Natalie had also arrived. Mom relaxed in air conditioned comfort at home while we did the same at our local Houston Pizza.
Hard to believe they'll be gone for an entire year... Who will we have rousing games of Things with now? Sigh. But we did have some pretty wicked pizza.

Friday our tourism continued. We began the day with the RCMP museum, which was amazingly informative and requiring of more time than we had to devote. I'll definitely be bringing Jimmy there to see the spy gear and Sitting Bull's tobacco pouch. At precisely 12:50 the Sergeant's Parade or Drill or whatever it was began out on the parade square. The cadets marched and marched and stood and stamped and counted off while the cadet band tried to play in time (and even sometimes in tune).
Mom and I giggled and made snide comments as the future members of our venerable RCMP fell out of step, tripped over their own shoes, and generally sucked at turning corners in formation. But they did their darndest, and I didn't envy them one bit as they filed past us, enduring constant reprimands from a seriously intimidating officer.
Go, cadets, go! One day you will earn your red serge.

Then we were on the road towards Saskatchewan's Dirt Hills (sounds appealing, no?) and the Claybank Brick Plant national historic site. It's an old brick factory, built near the beginning of the last century and in active production until 1989. We had a very Markervillian lunch (including delicious, classic Saskatoon berry pie....oh man!) and took the tour guided by a local high school student. I admit to my horrible prejudice, assuming that her tour would be half-assed, but this girl knew her stuff. She joked and chatted with us, and clearly cared very much about the upkeep of the brick plant. We learned about the brickmaking process and about the horrible labour conditions endured by the poor dudes who sweated in its intense heat (maintained to keep the bricks dry). Apparently the layoff - rehire cycle was so frequent that when it was announced that the plant was closing, the workers collectively said "yeah, right" and left most of their effects intact. As such, the place is a ghost town, with jackets still hanging on hooks and tea kettles sitting out. There were even metal filings on one machine, looking like they'd only been there since closing time.
From the smokestacks to the kilns to the rail cars, the whole place had a disconcerting, Holocaust feel to it. But we enjoyed ourselves very much; now, when we see pictures of the Chateau Frontenac, we will know that its central tower is faced with Claybank Tee Pee Moka brick.

On our way back to town, we watched farmers out on their combines kicking up a fine golden dust, and we even had to slam on the brakes to let an antelope cross the road. So very Saskatchewan!

Mom's flight left at a horrific hour the next morning, so she and I went off to the airport at 4:00. Even with the milk-tasting and juice-confiscating restrictions in place, she made it home with no problems.
So that was mom's trip to Paskatchewan--a nice vacation for all of us. But my tourist odyssey continues... you just might have to wait a few days to hear about it. Ohhhh, the suspense!

Milton up a tree and other Saskie adventures

2006-08-09T18:05:00.000-06:00

Note to self:
If you ever consider taking Milton out on a picnic againdon't tie him to a tree. This will happen.
You will try to get him down, but he won't budge.
Eventually you'll have to wait for him to take his own sweet time to get down.

But anyway,
this is our week of visitors! First up: Mom! Hooray! After braving the gawdawfully early morning flight from Calgary, Mom arrived this morning. We headed down to Wascana Park, stopping first at the church to show off Jimmy's grownup office. We explored the Royal Saskatchewan Museum--always fabulous--and then had a lovely patio lunch. We took a tour of the Sask Legislature, which is remarkably opulent (Swedish, Italian, Cyprian, Canadian, and American marble!) and quite large, especially considering that this is a province of only 975 000 or so. We saw all the essential things, like the busts of Tommy Douglas
and Dief the Chief,
as well as a portrait of a stogie-puffing premier.
Important Saskie artifacts are preserved at the legislature, such as the hallowed curling rock
and the ubiquitous sheaf of wheat.
Now that's Saskatchewan right there.
It was quite a fruitful afternoon, as James found a new job as Speaker of the Legislature.
We toured the Queen Elizabeth gardens, yes, wot, I do say, indeed.

The evening will bring a walk in the park and likely some Gilmore Girls. Tomorrow morning we see visitor number two: Karim!

Richard Simmons, armless volleyball, and Crazy Mouse for free!

2006-08-05T20:51:00.000-06:00

In the spirit of summertime fun, we did what all urban Canadians must do: visit the local exhibition. In Regina, it's called Buffalo Days, and is themeless as far as we could tell. It had all the usual stuff--midway, mini doughnuts, B-grade bands on a free stage--but it also had many unexpected treats. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly camera-friendly, so I can't supply any visuals. I will rely on words alone to explain our fabulous tale of adventure!
I think I'd better go chronologically, for fear of forgetting things. Here, in point form for the attentionless MTV generation, is our adventure:
-Arrival, wherein we discovered that small cities rock because parking is only $3 at the exhibition grounds, and you pay your gate admission as you drive in. Smart.
-Exploration, where we sussed out the lay of the land, noting the abundance of Stewie Griffin-themed carnival games.
-"K9s in Flight," which consisted of some guy yelling unintelligible things into a microphone while he threw some frisbees for his dogs, who had about a 75% catch success rate.
-Petting zoo, including the usual goats, pigs, sheep, bunnies, cow, and llamas, plus cages of snakes, and a blue-tongued skink which closely resembled the one which used to reside in one Tony Russell's lab at U of C biosciences and which was named James (after James, of course).
-Barrel racing in the arena where the Regina Pats (WHL) play. Kind of disconcerting to have horses thundering around indoors.
-The North American Sepak Tarkaw championships. This is essentially volleyball played with anything but the arms. Kicking and heading were the most common moves. It's played with a ball made of hard plastic woven strips. It's also the game which murdered Ted's ankle when he was visiting the lower mainland on a Seminary excursion. We had never heard of the sport when Ted tried to describe the origin of his injury, and it appears that we aren't alone in our ignorance. It can't be very widespread, because the athletes at these North American championships, uh....kinda sucked. But hey, they were raising awareness. And it was free!
-Attending a play directed by Aaron Coates, who was a member of my high school playwriting group at ATP. Cleverly, the Regina Fringe Festival runs on the exhibition grounds during Buffalo Days. The show was very good, and I enjoyed being back in a theatre after a looong absence.
-Drenching each other with the water balloon slingshots.
-Midway riding. We bought passes for two rides each, but then fortunately were loaded in a hurry onto the Crazy Mouse rollercoaster, and dude forgot to scan our pass. So on we went to both the big slide and the log ride. Wooooo!
-Munchies from the "Romanian Orthodox Deanery" food booth. What makes you orthodox, we asked the proprietors. Well, they said, we've got two Orthodox priests serving sausages in here. I see! That'll do it.
-The juggler show, where we didn't realize that we were sitting behind the president of the congregation until he and his wife were called up on stage to help perform a card trick. Then he got to hold some spinny plates and balance one on his head. It was the good times. Jimmy also got called up on stage to do that trick where you sit in a square, lean back on each other's knees, and then remove the supporting chairs. It just about blew his knee out, but he kept his cool.
-A trip around the indoor exhibits where much swag was obtained from the Turn In a Poacher booth and the Saskatchewan Environment booth. Magnets and pencils and tattoos, oh my! We also stopped by the Lutherans Helping People booth, where people from our church handed out tracts and leaflets. As James pointed out, it sounds like they're implying that Lutherans aren't people. Time for a name change, perhaps.
-A trip to the beer gardens to watch Captain Tractor. They were quite excellent despite a very sparse audience, But we hooted and hollered, and brought out our best jigs and polkas when they covered the Arrogant Worms' The Last Saskatchewan Pirate.
-Finally, the hypnotist, who hypnotized our dear Jimmy into doing a fabulous Richard Simmons impression, complete with wig and yellow pinny. I proudly observed as Jimmy showed off the moves he'd learned in our aerobics class. It was legendary. So much so that the hypnotist asked James to come back for the all-star show on Sunday night. The jury is still out on that one, but my guess is that he's had enough humiliation for one year.
So that was our adventure in all the itty bitty details. It was great fun and relatively cheap (especially compared to the Stampede).
Oh, and we located Ted after his U-haul adventure, and all is well. This afternoon we had our very official meeting with the Sunday school superintendent (read: beer and pretzels at her place, followed by a BBQ. Yessss.) Now it's time to go help the Jims with his children's message for tomorrow so that the poor kids will stop giving him confused stares.

Landlordy

2006-08-01T23:19:00.000-06:00

This weekend we jetted off to Edmonton to turn our little house over to its proud new occupants. We caught the fabulously convenient 5:30 am flight out of Regina (after almost three whole hours of sleep!) and briefly met with Jimmy's parents for a brief but lovely visit.
Ted picked us up from the airport, and after a stop at Ikea for their famed $1 breakfast (SO worth it if you haven't been. If it's not enough, buy another! Heck, buy 5! It's only $5!) we returned home to the Revenge of the Weeds.
Thankfully the Keith family kept the yard watered (thanks!), so there were zero plant casualties, even after the scorching heat of the preceeding three weeks. Some things had grown with a vengeance, like the clematis which had to be anchored to the garage roof for stability,
the voracious raspberries intent on devouring my compost bin,
and the freakish towers of lettuce.
The biggest garden surprise of all was that the weeds I had neglected to pull from the brick planters had grown tall and were developing flower-like bulbs on the ends. Upon closer inspection, they proved to be surprise sunflowers!
I have absolutely no idea how they got there. Neither James nor I nor anyone we questioned placed sunflower seeds in those planters. Plus, I've had other flowers and new soil in them for two summers running. The sunflowers are a delightul mystery.

So, Jimmy dutifully pulled the weeds
and I did some last-minute cleaning. Michael and Terri arrived intact, but their truck had been running on not much more than luck since about Ponoka. All was well, though, and so we celebrated with a bottle of REAL champage, hand-delivered from France by Michael two years ago.
That champagne had been biding its time until the appropriate moment, and boy was it worth it. Man, it was delicious! Needless to say, the evening progressed to fun, hilarity, and board games. Murray and Natalie came by, and we all enjoyed a perfect Edmonton evening on the patio.
Having taken care of all the necessary legal details and leaving the house in half-decent condition (with Michael and Terri gamely agreeing to chuck out some of our junk...thanks guys!) we turned the place over to our tenants (hee!)
who are both happy as could be to move away from Montreal to the land of Albertan opportunity.
Jimmy and I drove Ted's car back to Regina (sans Ted, because--surprise, surprise--U-haul screwed up his reservation and didn't have a truck ready for him. NEVER RENT FROM U-HAUL.) and were greeted by a super-affectionate Milton. We're still waiting to hear from Ted to see if he U-Hauled safely down the Yellowhead. Ted? Ted? Where are you, Ted? ...Hopefully, we'll have our new neighbour soon.

Rider pride!

2006-07-24T12:44:00.000-06:00

Saturday we took in a Riders home game--my first, Jimmy's second. We opted for the cheapest ticket option we could find: $25 each for:
-a seat in the Western Pizza party zone;
-transportation to and from the game;
-a beer
-an order of dry ribs
Well, not bad, we thought! So we snagged the last two tickets from our local Western Pizza.
Apparently, transportation to and from the game means $2.00 to take the bus. I kid you not! It is the football express bus, but it certainly doesn't leave from Western Pizza. AND bus fare is $2.10! Swindlers.
But the seats (like every seat at Taylor field, I hear) were great. We were in the notorious bleachers, surrounded by drunken university students. Our view of the endzone and most of the field was stellar:
but when the action was down at the other end, it was definitely hard to sort out what was going on. The general gist of the game was easy to follow: the Riders played terribly. They did, however, deliver a massive hit to one Argo just before the end of the second quarter, which left him injured on the field for the duration of the halftime show. All the little mini cheerleaders bravely danced around him while he received medical attention!
An ambulance even had to negotiate its way through the field full of five-year-olds to tend to said Argo.
As the second half began, we elected to order our precious free beers. Turns out, our coupons were only good AT Western Pizza. Same for the dry ribs. Boo!
But we were entertained by the fans around us. Some especially good heckling was going on--of the hometown team. When Joseph threw a pass that sailed quickly out of bounds, one guy yelled, "To who?!" And when a Riders receiver made a ridiculous fumble, he yelled, "You have to catch that! You're being paid!" Ah, too true. The green-to-the-max girls at the front were trying to lead us in the Riders fight song (I caught the first two lines: "Green is the colour/Football is the game." How creative.) and we desperately tried to start the wave, but it barely seeped into the grandstand.
The hardcores took to razzing those in our section who left early, chanting "Part-time fans! Part-time fans!" They were definitely suckers, though, because the last minute was the best part of the whole game (ain't it always the way with the CFL?). The Riders scored two impossible touchdowns in a row, and turned a sound beating into a real squeaker. Pinball was sweating bullets at the end, but the Argos managed to retain their lead. All in all, a great time at the game in the 30-degree sunshine.
After the game we returned on the sauna--that is, city bus--to Western Pizza to claim our beer and ribs. As we walked in, there was a family from church was arriving too. They very kindly invited us to their giant family dinner. We sat at the kids' table and had a hilarious time. Their sons are so very, very funny, and one of them has a Forrest Payton-like gift for storytelling. Unfortunately, our beer had to be a Molson product, so I choked down a Pilsner, but at least there were people around to eat the dry ribs I didn't really want. Yay!
A great way to spend a Saturday.

Sunday was a big day, too. Jimmy preached in the morning, and had to deal with an usher taking a massive spill at the front of the church--collection money everywhere! In the afternoon, we travelled out to Moose Jaw with an ex-pastor, his wife, and the district president for Schultz's ordination. It was a grand ceremony with all the proper rite and ritual, and some very touching wishes and wisdom for Schultz's ministry. I'm a fool for not having a camera. Unfortunately, the music was a bit on the synthesizey side, but I guess that's the way they do it in The Jaw (hee--can I call it that?). A massive potluck dinner followed which was nothing short of delicious. It was awesome to see Regan and Jason (as well as Regan's sister who had gamely attended our Grey Cup party last year and proved to be one heckuva cool chick). That makes two friends whom we can officially address as "Reverend"! They'll be travelling to their new parish in beautiful Oliver, BC, sometime in the next couple of weeks. What a shame it'd be to visit them there!

We love a parade

2006-07-20T19:45:00.000-06:00

Let's all take a moment to recover from the horror that was Canada's Next Top Model, wherein the best girls got picked off first, and the ugliest were left til last, with the winner being the hideous headcase we'd all like to Canada's next top throttle. Unbelievably disappointing. As those who know have pointed out, we expect better from Jeanne Beker.
Breathe.
And thankfully, in the real world (where we can all take heart that we are prettier than our Top Model, boys included) there is much fun to be had. Example: last sunday, after being taken out for Smitty's by the lovely church secretary et family (which, incidentally, includes the coolest chick we've met here so far--we've already been for beers, hurrah), Jimmy and I caught the Royal Saskatchewan Museum centennial week kickoff parade. It consisted of exactly four things: a marching band with some very short members:

some old cars:

some Metis and some RCMP:

There were even one or two spectators. The parade wound around to the museum, where the official opening ceremonies. We got mildly lost on the way there, but paused to take in the beautiful Queen Elizabeth II gardens at the legislature
and the very moving Saskatchewan war memorial
before we finally found the opening ceremonies.
They went like this: Boring speaker introducing another boring speaker, then performance; repeat. The performances we caught were a hoop dancer, who was pretty rockin', and the high-larious Saskatchewan Express

which is a low-rent Saskie version of the Young Canadians. It was at that point that we opted to tour the museum.
The underwater exhibit in the prehistoric area was super-cool.
And whoever painted the exhibits was incredibly talented.

It was small, but fun and engaging. The holy-crap-the-world-is-ending enviro exhibit at the end even managed to challenge us without being preachy.
A long walk back around Wascana Lake was a lovely ending to our day.

Back to life; back to reality

2006-07-16T19:44:00.000-06:00

Well, the rest of the Davenport/Chicago travelogue is just flying home, so we'll skip those fascinating details. And then there was some time in Edmonton. There was a lot of packing, and then some moving. Milton really wanted to make sure he went with us:
And after a long, hot drive full of mishaps, we arrived in Regina. Time to launch into my new life here in the land of living skies.
Let me begin by saying that Saskatchewan is the promised land. Sure, the mountains are nowhere to be seen, but we're used to that now. Instead, we've got glorious sunshine, scads and scads of urban park, accessible bike trails, football fever, NO traffic, and, Saskatchewan's famous export, friendly folks. We've been welcomed and made to feel at home already. We've been invited out for drinks and meals, taken to football games, and recognized at the grocery store. We've met our friendly neighbour (next door; the upstairs neighbours are more of the party-til-3-am ilk, which is fine except that the ONE night that we have to sleep is Saturday). We've settled in to our little condo and enjoyed our POOL! And no, it's not a wheat pool. It's an outdoor pool in our little quad, and we love it so.
Ready for a speed update of our Reginan times so far? Okay!
June 13: Move-in

June 14: Jimmy starts at work

June 16: Attending a fair in a Zellers parking lot (like old times!) and winning a stuffed hippo by legitimate means, we swear

and then some Edmonton time (mostly spent at VoicePrint which I miss dearly).
July 1: drivin' across the country with our Canadian flag flying, while Tony, Geraldine, Helen, and Oliver travelled in from Calgary.
July 2: A visit to Rouleau, SK, to see the set of Corner Gas

This included seeing Corner Gas, the Ruby, the Dog River grain elevator, and the Foo Mar. Tony and James were checking out the local real estate, ready to capitalize on the tourist boom:
July 3: A wonderful day at the beach! Regina Beach, about half an hour north of Regina, is like a little piece of BC transported to the plains. We played with badminton and jai-alai toys,
sunned ourselves, picnicked, and generally had a lovely time. From there, we went to a mini-golf course
which, like everything else in Saskatchewan, is in the middle of a field. It was a surprisingly functional course--the windmill blades were actually turning! Amaaaazing!
Since then, Jimmah has been going to work
and I've joined him for the fun parts. I rewrote the terrible scripts provided for Vacation Bible School, which Jimmy then gamely acted out.
I generally had a great time with the rugrats, and I even crawled through camo nets and shot arrows at the closing games.
Milton has made himself at home in every Milton-sized space he can find

(top of kitchen cabinet)
and all is well.

I heart touristy gimmicks

2006-07-07T21:35:00.000-06:00

Our second-last day together began with a breakfast at Kari heaven (a coffee chain called Panera--you can infer the bountiful breadliness from its name)and a quick jaunt into the public library. The outside architecture alone was striking:
and inside, it had its share of the requisite beautiful marbleyness of all Chicago public buildings.
Our day's object, though, was the Art Institute of Chicago.
More of a mecca for Jo and H than for me, it was still a remarkable place to visit. Are you ready for some famous names? Try Degas, Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat, Pollock, O'Keefe, and many others. The two paintings we were most excited to see (American Gothic and H help me out with the name of the oceany one) were not on display, which was highly disappointing. Nonetheless, we marvelled at the magnificent classics, were challenged (or irritated, in my case) by the contemporary art, and thoroughly entertained by the Thorne miniature rooms.
After a lengthy stay in the gift shop, we tried to make a dent in our leftovers before heading out to the sprawling Grant Park.
We started our tour at the Buckingham (Jo, is that right?) fountain--remember it from the title sequence of Married with Children?--and, much to my excitement, were swarmed by a gaggle of Segway-riding tourists!
They were highly ridiculous in their fluorescent vests, cruising the streets of Chicago. And yet, secretly, I wanted to be one of them...
We continued through the park (in the deadly, sweltering heat, might I add) with Millennium Park as our goal. Now, I can be as curmudgeonly as the next guy about postmodern architecture and ridiculous buildings trying to make some kind of a statement and just looking like crap in the end, etcetera. But the new Gehry structure in Millennium Park is genius. You approach it from a curving, metal-bordered boardwalk.
Its shape changes as you snake up the walkway and into the park. It's a tangled mass of steel, completely in conflict with the rest of the skyline; where the surrounding towers are straight and sharp-cut, this building is curved and endless. It tumbles fluidly into itself, a little torrent at the base of the stone and glass giants.
The contrast, which I expected to find irritating, was very engaging. It has done its duty as a meeting-place, drawing people towards it. It helps, too, that it's well-designed and functional, with a concert stage and lighting grid over the field in front of it.
The touristy fun, though, starts across the plaza at The Bean.
According to the tittle of the sculputre, as I recall, it's supposed to be a cloud. Instead, Chicagoans and tourists alike call it The Bean. Personally, I think it's more like a red blood cell, but whatever. The point is, it's so cool.
It's shiny. It's seamless. It's neat.
Next to the bean fun, we found the mercifully cooling splashy part of the park. There are two towers with water tumbling down them, stationed at either end of a splashy area. On the towers are projected the image of a face; it's not still, but it's not changing position or expressing any emotions.
We noticed that the kids were all lining up in front of the face towers, but we couldn't figure why. Suddenly, though, the face projections pursed their lips, and out came a stream of water!
(Sorry for the poor focus of the photos. I'm still getting the hang of my camera.)
We so enjoyed the humorous, cooling public art. Plus, the faces projected are images of 100 ordinary Chicagoans--pleasing to tourists and residents alike.
Reluctantly, we left the splashy park and headed for some mercifully air-conditioned shopping. Then, we crossed the river to the other half of downtown and immersed ourselves in pretty buildings. Some highlights:

Back on our side of the river, we did our best to get rush seats for a production of Assassins. We sat glumly in the lobby as the house filled up, and eventually, the FOH manager declared it full. Once again, our lack of big city savvy left us out of luck.
Not to be disappointed, we celebrated our last night with a hotel-room feast. Witness the splendour:

Yes, that is a bag of T.G.I. Friday's mozzarella cheese sticks.
And, additionally, also, as well, we ordered ourselves a genuine Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. It was a ton of rigamarole (since when are big city pizza joints closed at like 10:00 on a Saturday night?!) but when it came, it was magnificent. Once again, behold:

Ah. The majesty.
A great Chicago day.

Chica-go

2006-07-06T14:31:00.000-06:00

Chicago deep dish pizza. Chicago franks. That's what I was looking forward to.
Off we went, back through the cornfields. There were very few landmarks, save this one:

Aurora, Illinois.
Yep. Somehow, I always thought that Wayne and Garth lived in Aurora, Ontario. But of course not. I am often dumb.
So as we approached the Big City, we could see the famous Sears Tower.

That was what distinguished the city as Chicago for me, as I knew very little about it (apart from the aforementioned food associations). As we came in to the city, I felt a bit surprised that it wasn't busier. I was expecting extreme hustle-and-bustle and had been mentally putting up defenses, but it was relatively manageable. Of course, I was glad Jo was driving, because she's got the traffic-dodging skills. But all in all, I felt a lot more comfortable than I'd anticipated.
When we came into downtown--or,what I thought to be downtown but was actually only half of it--we headed straight towards the water (lake resembling ocean, as all the Great Lakes do) and parked ourselves at the Navy Pier.

Navy Pier is what Eau Claire dreams about at night when it's all alone in its bed, thinking, 'I coulda been a contender.' Not only are there indoor market stalls, an IMAX, a food court, and outdoor food vedors, but there is also a carnival,

yacht tours, a children's museum, live entertainment, etc., etc. Unfortunately, when we were there, the place was CRAWLING with children, strung out on sugar and roaming in large groups, which makes one's shopping experience decidedly aggravating. We found refuge outside, staring into the foggy lake:

But eventually the fog burned off, and we had a cool view of downtown:

Most importantly, though, Jo and I had Chicago hot dogs. YUM. And we tried our hardest to get ourselves a deep-dish pizza, but the goofs put the vegetarian one on a flat crust!
Sigh. Well, some Ben & Jerry's lifted our spirits.
We drove back to the hotel, passing one of Oprah's residences on the way (it's big and black and curvy, har har har). The hotel was decidedly weird, but had a classic Chicago view from the window:

After some chillin', we strolled over to Marshall Field's, Chicago's big fancy department store. As it was Memorial Day weekend, they were celebrating emphatically:

The store is amazing, with all its little niches from 'flea market' (overpriced exotic-looking knickety-knacketies) to the gourmet fudge shop(pe, I assume) to the unbelievable candy store. We found some appropriately-named dishes in the housewares department

and then took ourselves upstairs to the designer floor. Yes, designer--like real designers. Not your garden-variety Liz Claiborne or Bianca Nygard; no no, dear readers. We're talking Stella McCartney, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, and (my favourite) Jean-Paul Gauthier. For real. And those are just the names I remember! Much to H's chagrin, Jo and I had a fun time gawking in horror at the prices (I seem to recall a garment pushing the $10 000 range...do you remember more accurately, Jo?) My inner Jeannie Beker was having an absolute field day. A Marshall Field day, yuk yuk yuk.
After carefully selecting our hoity-toity chocolate treasures from the candy counter,we took the El train to N. Clark street in the Lakeview district where we found delicious delicious shopping. Unfortunately, the amazing shoe stores were closed early, but we did find a great store to toodle around in, whence came the best flip-flops ever:

and an amazing bag, bought by H, coveted by me, and subsequently sent to me as a birthday presnt. Hooray!
We found our way to a restaurant that Jo had visited on one of her previous Chicago trips. Leona's: an italian family restaurant with an organic food philosophy and an extreme gift in the delicious department. We ordered way too much and left with a grocery bag full of leftovers. We were also lucky enough to enjoy the presence of the wackiest Cubs fan in the known universe. I mean, I know Cubs fans are devoted, but seriously. Dude was a little excessive.
The purpose of our trip to Lakeview was to catch Southern Culture on the Skids at Schuba's. Sadly, we are small-town folk and didn't have the presence of mind to preorder tickets. We caught a glimpse of the posters showing the many amazing bands who played there (reminds me of the scene where Lane's band gets booked at CBGB but no one shows up, so they get sent back to Stars Hollow). We made the best of it, though, by making a pit stop at 7-Eleven for some hilarious American "candy bars" for Bjorn, as well as a massive copy of the Tribune and some Slurpees.
Back at the hotel, much chillin' ensued.

ah love mair ca part 2

2006-06-28T21:52:00.000-06:00

America:
Okay, so then? we like went? to like Target. It was, like, AWESOME.
Seriously, it was consumer heaven. Of course it was, because it was a SUPER Target!

Bridal:
Across from the Target we visited the mecca of bridal magazine readers, David's Bridal. I won't go into too much personal detail, but suffice it to say that Jo looked soooo pretty and H and I had fun trying on bridesmaid's dresses (and forcing each other to wear pink and frills just for the fun times). It may be cliched to say so, but there's something about a wedding dress that transforms a person into a glowing, fairy-tale version of herself. Ah. These are the privileges of friendship.

America:
We had a surprisingly generous amount of time left after our bridialities, so we executed the most American of evenings in celebration of our last night in Davenport. As you know, Davenport is built on the shores of the magnificent Mississippi river. Also, a relevant fact is that our rental car was a Chevrolet Cobalt. Combine these facts, and what do you have? Yes, dear readers, we drove our Chevy to the levee. And along with that, we did in fact eat apple pie (the kind you buy from the corner store) and, to top it all off, we went to a baseball game.

Seriously, how quintessential is that?

We saw the Quad Cities Swing play the... uh... help me out here, I totally don't remember who they played. But it was a wonderfully small-market event. In fact, the announcer was a man of the people, not five rows in front of us:

On the advice of Nicky B., I indulged in cotton candy-flavoured Dippin' Dots. They came in a plastic batting helmet, and I loved them.

(for the uninitiated, they're freeze-dried ice cream pellets. they stick to your tongue and are actually somewhat painful, but the pain is delicious.)

In the end, I think the Swing even won. But I wasn't really paying attention. More important was the Ball Park Frank i enjoyed and the fact that we got to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame in the seventh inning stretch. I realize this isn't a strictly American thing, but it felt pretty Yankee-doodle at the time.

Yee haw, and shoo-eee, and Yessir.

Ah love mair ca

2006-06-24T21:30:00.000-06:00

This was America Day, Museum Day, and Bridal Day.
America:
We began the day with breakfast at the Village Inn (the word on the street is that IHOPs are disappointing, so we opted to skip it) where, if they don't offer you a slie of pie at the end of your meal, then it's free. That's any meal, no matter what time of day. Naturally, then, a couple of us indulged in breakfast pie. God bless America.

Museum:
While Jo finished up some Palmery things, H and I decided adventurously to check out the Museum of Chiropractic History, which is a temple to the bizarre. It's housed in an old Masonic lodge:

And yes, it does say "Let there be light" above the door. Humble folks, the Palmers.

The exhibits ranged from the silly to the thought-provoking. My favourites:

Hilarious ads from the '20s:

The spine segment parade:

The very scientific posture queen contest:

The names of chiropractors who went to jail for practising medicine without a license. (Some states took until the '60s (?) to recognize chiropractic as a legitimate form of health care):

I'm glad we went, and I particularly appreciated the air conditioning.

Museum/America:
Then we hit Moline's biggest tourist attraction: the John Deere museum! We learned about combines:

We saw a statue of a, uh, Deere:

And though we didn't ride it, we saw their cute little tourist transportation wagon:

At the immense and fabulous gift shop, I picked up a John Deere cowbell for James, which, incidentally, he took to the Riders game this afternoon.

...part 2 to follow

Davenportant discoveries

2006-06-24T16:17:00.000-06:00

Though we had spent the previous day at school, this day taught me quite a bit, too.

Lesson 1:
America is hot.
Like, deadly hot. Humid and oppressive and thank God for air conditioning. This day was 38 degrees with the humidex, which for us was a special kind of torture. Being outside was unpleasant and even vaguely frightening as our two-minute hike up a hill made me feel ill. I know it was just another day for the initiated, though, because most of the Palmer students were walking around suited up in their clinic gear (business casual clothes with white jackets over top) like nothing was the matter. I suppose it's adjustable to-able, because Jo had better heat survival skills than H and I did.

Lesson 2:
Small communities can be quite fun.
H and I discovered some of the touristy things Davenport has to offer on our trips downtown, like
-Riverboat casinos on the mighty mighty Mississippi:

-The outdoor bandshell and monument to Jazz musician Bix Biederbecke:

-The modern skybridge which leads from downtown to the river which, for a modern touristy grab, was actually pretty cool:
(it lights up in rainbow colours at night, which is a bit much)

-The pretty historic buildings and the impressive modern museum building:

We also benefitted from the fact that in small communities, like-minded individuals can often find themselves more easily, and gravitate together. We visited the natural foods store with the BEST delicious whole-food treats ever, and witnessed a pretty continual flow of people who were obviously grateful for this institution in their community. Of course, a chiropractic college town has a disproportionately high number of holistic types, so this store could thrive more easily.

Lesson 3:
Even when you don't want to chat with, say, the crazy owner of the antiques store, you might as well.
The immense antiques store stretching through three (?) buildings was quite an experience. Room after room full of treasures, from printer's typesetting blocks to a spinning wheel to a carousel horse, sucked us in for a good couple of hours (over two visits). And when we finally selected our treasures to buy, the overly talkative, generously proportioned man in the unfortunate v-necked t-shirt talked our ears off about the weather, told dirty jokes, and finally got to dishing the good stuff: turns out he was a draft dodger and lived in Ottawa, just around the corner from where H lives now!

Lesson 4:
You can live until you're 25 and not know you have a spine disorder.
Hey, doctors, how come you never noticed that my spine is crooked? Fortunately, it seems that Scoliosis doesn't cause any problems unless the angles are more acute. My wavy backbone hasn't caused any harm that I know of, but I'm sure anxious to see how muscle re-education can begin to correct it. Maybe I'll gain some height!
Anyway, we returned to the Palmer clinic for our adjustments (and to log some clinic hours). Thanks, Dr. Jo!

Lesson 5:
You should see silly high school movies once in a while.
They might have Rufio in them.

Learnding is fun n stuff

2006-06-21T20:16:00.000-06:00

Wake up in the morning
Gotta shake this feeling
Gotta face a day at school...

Well, actually, I was really, really looking forward to our day at school. It started with an official tour by an official Palmer tour guide who just happened to be Jo's friend Ann.

She apparently knew her audience well, because she focused mainly on the places on campus where you can get cheap or free food.

She told us all about the quirky Palmers (quirky doesn't begin to describe it... maybe eccentric? Idiosyncratic? Insane?) We saw some wonky spines which are displayed in cases throughout the whole campus:

We also saw the jelly people the students use to learn radiology technique. Some are fabricated, but some o' them bones is real!

After a fun turn through the bookstore buying hilarious American chocolate bars like Caramello and Whatchamacallit, we went to a big pretty lecture hall

to hear the brilliant and down-to-earth Sue Brown talk about quantum physics, success and identity, and changing the world with the power of your minnnnnnd. All this, of course, relates to the fabulous system that is chiropractic. I had never learned about it before, and was even quite suspicious of it. But boy oh boy, did Sue tell the chiro gospel that day. That, combined with the top-notch care we would receive from Jo the next day, has made me a chiro convert!

H and I took a stroll downtown while Jo finished up some clinic-y stuff. Whooo, that might have to be a whole other post all about the Davenport. After our stroll we went to a weird, weird grocery store where the sassy cashier asked for our ID so that we could buy our $4 wine--"You got the yuuung look, hon"--and we headed home to listen to the *sniff* hockey game *sigh.* H made us a gourmet dinner: Kraft dinner, two ways.

Seriously, click on that photo for the close-up. It's a beautiful thing.

never mind

2006-06-19T21:19:00.000-06:00

Let's change the world through quantum physics

2006-06-19T19:23:00.000-06:00

We interrupt this travelogue to say
GO OILERS GO!

Cross-border (health care) shopping

2006-06-09T00:31:00.000-06:00

What do Canadians do when in the States? Why, they shop, of course! We headed out to Menard's (the aforementioned hilariously organized hardware store) as well as Lowe's, famous from all those American decorating shows. We scored the materials necessary to lash Jo's basil plants to her balcony rail, and to construct a net which would allow the merciful breeze to blow through the doorway without the kitten escaping. Ah, yes, the kitten; here she be. She likes to drink out of non-kitten-oriented containers:

Monday evening was clinic day, where Jo got to show us her doctorly prowess. Here she is in her cute white coat. Looking pretty sultry for a chiropractor.

So H and I got all assessed and got to do fun things like have our reflexes tested and lie on weird tables. Who knew that chiropractic school consists of learning how to tease your patients from all different angles? We had the fun diagnostic times and enjoyed our cross-border health care shopping, whilst providing Jo with valuable clinic hours towards the completion of her degree. Yay!

So, hooray for chiropractic and everything, but man, that was a long appointment. We were starved by the time we emerged from the clinic, so we headed to the Asian grocery fun land, and H provided us with a delicious dish for dinner, inspired by a fancypants restaurant in Toronto. We ate happily and conked out for the evening.

Feast Day

2006-06-03T00:19:00.000-06:00

The pretty burg of Davenport is a pleasant place to stuff oneself full of food on a sunny Sunday in May. We awoke in Jo's lovely hillside apartment

which is verrry close to the Palmer campus. That's it at the top of the hill, as seen from Jo's balcony:

(Those are the basil plants which we lovingly transported outside, after a trip to the world's most bizarre harware store, Menard's. Need a mop? Here they are, next to the light fixtures. Need a memorial grave marker? Look near the BBQ sauce!)

Sunday morning was church, at the coolest church ever. (Sorry, Lutherites). Coffee during service? With cinnamon flavoured creamer? Hook me up! Jo sang beautifully, and H and I enjoyed our back-row table. I particularly enjoyed the loft-style setting in the historic (or historic-looking) downtown building.

After service we headed to a greazy spoon called Johnny's which served such classics as biscuits and gravy, patty melts, and your typical eggs-toast-meat breakfast. The waitress called us "hon" and poured some solid diner coffee. (Note to hapless Canadians like me: in the States, the distinction between breads is "white" or "wheat." Apparently, to them, all bread is brown.)

Replete with Midwest goodness, we headed to the enormous supermarket to nab the ingredients for the monster cookie dessert we'd be bringing to the Palmer student council barbeque. Back at Jo's place, H crammed choco-skor-chunk dough into a pizza pan and made a dessert-themed CD for the ride over (including Louis Armstrong's enduring rendition of "Cheesecake," which features the following lyrics:

Cheesecake
Gobble, gobble
Cheesecake
Gobble, gobble
Cheesecake
Gobble, gobble
Cheesecake
(cheesecake)

Cheesecake
Munchin' on the
Cheesecake
Munchin' on the
Cheesecake
Munchin' on the
Cheesecake
(cheesecake)

I iced the word Dessert on the cookie with Palmer purple icing, and away we went. Barbeque is a sacred thing in the Midwest; even more so than in beef-lovin' Alberta. In the faculty advisor's spacious backyard, we sipped our "soda" (Pibb for me, thank you) and watched as "Doc" tended not one but two grills with scientific meticulousness. We filled up on delicious salads, including the best barley dish you'll ever taste. (If you're really nice, I'll give you the recipe.) We enjoyed some chats with the friendly Palmer folk and heard a child use the word "y'all," which is highly adorable.

From there, we had to cut out early to meet the worship team from CrossPoint for dinner at Applebee's. Cool folks once again, interesting coversation, but all I could think of was how totally massively full I was. From there, we tumbled home.

The evening quickly devolved into an oven mitt fight. This is the sign of a good time being had.

Arrivals and Davenpartures

2006-05-31T11:57:00.000-06:00

Nothing better than seeing a smiling friend when you walk out of an airport gate in a strange new city. Already amazed at the sheer size of the city's footprint, I was even more thrilled to hear about H's airport exeriences so far, and to see O'Hare's funky future hallway:

We quickly and excitedly met up with Jo, found luggage and our rental car (the Cobalt--not a bad little ride! Nice and peppy, good on gas). Then we hopped the El train to downtown. (For those who, like me, might take a really long time to figure out why it's called the El, it's because much of the train's route is along an elevated track, built about one storey in the air. Like an old-school skytrain.) Along the way our eyes were innundated with the brick, brick, brick Chicago has relied on since its great fire in the... oh, I forget... 1870s maybe? Historians, help me out here. Anyway, the buildings are crammed together, sprouting up one on top of the other, buzzing with urban energy. The train dove underground for a while, and when we emerged into downtown, here is the first thing we saw:

The pic doesn't do it justice, but it was damn cool.

After some strolling and noshing, we checked out the Chicago Cultural Centre. Sorry, Center. Gorgeous! Mosaics, engravings, marble, illuminated dome ceilings--ah! Beauty. We perused the mildly disturbing and oh-so-funky Soundsuits exhibit (not the Nick Cave, but cool nonetheless).

We hopped the El to Wrigley Field. Now, I'm not normally all that interested in baseball--it ranks somewhere above golf and soccer in the ranking of boring sports--but this is one hell of a place. Gotta love the historicaliness of it, the thick ivy on the outfield wall, the blind devotion of the fans (despite the Cubs sitting at dead last). We got to see the organ, the bleachers (from which you can see the manual scoreboard), the visitors' clubhouse, the dugouts, and my favourite, the press box:

Of course, Heather was aglow the entire time.

After obtaining some souvenirs for the Cubs-obsessed coordinator at VoicePrint, we headed back to O'Hare to nab the car and get on the road to Davenport. Gotta love the toll highways, with their reflective lane markers and shoulder posts; kind of a pain to be handing over the cash every few minutes, but there is the fun challenge of chucking the coins into the toll bucket. Three points for Jo! We stopped midway at the "oasis" before ghosting past the dark cornfields on the way to the Quad Cities.

Iowa time

2006-05-30T01:27:00.000-06:00

Time for vacation photos--with commentary!