Recent Reads and Coffee Grounds

Me: Are you free now?
Bonnie: No I’m still very expensive. But if want to talk to me, I have a couple minutes.

~ *Hrrumph*, the English language

I am a goddess. A marshmallow toasting, VLOOKUP mastering, hot and spicey dish of a goddess. *knocking on wood* It's been a good start to the day.

I've built myself a fort of binders and folders, and the same frustrations from yesterday are still here, but somehow better. Maybe it was all that venting last night. Showed up at Steph's expecting an empty apartment (good for isolated venting), and instead found Steph and Stephen chatting and drinking orange juice. How could one stay angry / frustrated in the presence of their happy auras? (Stephen: "That's me, Mr. Sunshine"). We talked, adopted alter identities, and snuck into the residents' barbeque. We contemplated colours (pink and brown = good? pink and yellow are a match?), what makes a hippie (vs. "Post Modern Hippies"), and how to market a car with entirely recycable parts.

It was with much reluctance on my part to leave them. But there was a meeting at Steeps that I had to adhere to - it's not often that I get to see Kim. And at Steeps on Whyte! Walking into the place was like walking into an exotic locale. The dark walls with painted writings... and dark plush seating. Teas lined the shelves - with prices by weight. They were playing the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack when I came in - definitely a moody place. We pondered the question: Would you want to go to your high school reunion?

My other coffee house haunting this week (this is not usual) was to meet up with Andrea. She is back from her honeymoon! She showed the official wedding pictures and talked about their new place. So exciting! I've volunteered my painting services - though truth be told, I've only really done any painting at Nick's old place.

It's also been a fairly good time for reading, while mulling over things I can't change (as per usual). Here are some highlights:

Professor and the Madman: A Tale fo Murder, Insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary - by Simon Winchester (Book on Tape)
- Learn about the legend and sort through the mystic of how the very official and oft refered to OED was complied
- Realised how difficult it is to define things - the steps: 1. Determine what the word is similar to 2. Differentiate between them

God and I Broke Up - by Katarina Mazetti
- Sixteen and talking to walls... seeing them as being much more easy to talk to since they don't say stupid things back, Linnea deals with the grief and questions "why?" when her best friend commits suicide
- I love this book! I made me cry.

High Fidelity - by Nick Hornby
- Much better than "A Long Way Down"!
- Rob goes through a crisis when his girlfriend moves out, and decides to track down the people who made it to his list of "Top Five Heart Breaks" to figure out why he's being dumped. Sprinkle in lots of music references (he owns a used record shop) and British stuffs, and viola!
- There's the movie version that stays close to the story and made me laugh - Jack Black in a performance I actually liked

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - by Robert Louis Stevenson
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/SteJekl.html
- Figured that since I was still so entranced by the play after this many years - it would be a good idea to read the book
- Explores the idea of the duality of humans, good and bad - a good horror story (and from the editor's notes - "classic gothic")
- Very difficult to explain to Celina and Kevin why this was such a great story, but they did appreciate it for the scary bits.

Time to head over to Steph's - my last chance to cook dinner for her. Handing her back the keys will be painful. Like Chris said "It's like a drug. She's going to give you a little taste of privacy and freedom - and then she'll take it away!" It's been good and I will be sad. But this also means Rem will be back soon! Yay!

Can you believe it's been 100 posts?

A Cabinin' We Go

"Well, what a fellow should do..."

Friday, 23-June-2006

A night of packing, 2 phone calls at work from Angela, and the work day was just dragging. I was overly anxious and all my nails have been bitten down to nothing. Not a lovely site by far. But I could see out of the window that the weather was gorgeous.

Come 4:30 p.m. I jump out of the doors (or as close to one can get to jumping with 3 heavy bags...) and headed over to Steph's. The adventure was to begin! But first - Steph does a quick check of my bags and removes some of the stuff that was not on The List.

We meet Anne's friend Sophie, who wonderfully offered to chauffeur us on this trip. And then... we're off!

It was first to Rocky Mountain House ("Where Adventure Begins"). The drive is about 2 and half hours but felt really short as we talked about music and travels. We arrive at Anne's old home. And no one was there. Hm... they knew we were coming... *zipping images of people vacating the house as fast as possible* No worries, we found what we needed and Anne's dad returned before we completely ransacked the place for provisions.

The cabin is located at Crimson Lake Provincial Park. And has quite a history in Anne's family. Bits and pieces were donated to the cabin over the years, and there was antique iron wood stove, possibly antique tea lights (with Dutch labelling), and coffee cups that were so old that they looked "retro". We arrived there and unpacked. Spiders and other bugs were disposed of. And then it was time for dinner: S'mores.


Saturday, 24-June-2006

Yes! I got to sleep in! Which was needed since there were all these "non-city" sounds keeping me awake. When all the bird calls start sounding like maniacal laughter... how do you identify the loon?

We all lounged on the deck, went canoeing on the lake, and then had lunch. I had a ball taking photos and soon ran low on batteries (visit Anne's for some of those pictures). Which was unfortunate because in the afternoon we headed out to Siffleur Falls for a stroll. Beautiful and practically indescribable. Postcard perfect - so much in fact that some of the pictures I did manage to take look like I had tried to paste our images into postcard backdrops.

We reached the first falls, sat, rested, and dipped our feet into the cold water. Amazing how much calm there can be among all the crashing water. I saw the others' faces relax and soften to the sounds and sights... and there I was thinking about swimsuit photoshoots...

We returned to find Rene (Anne's housemate) had decided to come! He had made friends with the neighbours while we were away and they treated him to an afternoon of waterskiing. They didn't mention the leeches.

It was such a great day... and still there was s'mores :P But before that - glad to report that all the celery was eaten! Yay, for celery!

Rene certainly added an interesting element of... posh? to our gathering. Not only was he the cleanest of us, he also wore a Disel shirt, and bandana to dinner (very fashionable). Later he decided that a water gun complimented his cowboy gear, and used it (loaded with lake water) to chase us around a bit.

The neighbours set off some fireworks (big no-no: illegal), and we decided to go to bed. More awaited us the next day!


Sunday, 25-June-2006

Adventures in the night: Surreal moment where an errant squirrel decides it would be fun to jump on Anne's feet as she was sleeping. Steph eventually chases it back outside. The rest of us slept through the entire thing.

It was hard to believe that there was still one more day left to the weekend, we packed in so much the day before that it felt like it must be time to go. In the light of authenticity, I had refrained from showering. It felt pretty good. Though I was probably not in the best appearance for Sunday breakfast back at Anne's place.

After the blueberry waffles, poached eggs, and tea prepared by Anne's dad... we barely wanted to move. I took a ride in Rene's truck and we watched the forests go by while listening to salsa music (it kind of worked). And when we made it back to the cabin - we brought out the romance novels (not only for rainy days at the cabin) and lay there in the sun reading. Rene decided to brave the leeches rather than take part in this activity - and took a swim.

And soon it was time to go. We packed up, cleaned up, and locked up. The ride back was a bit quieter (I was dozing off again). We became a lot more animated though when it came time for dinner: marshmallows, carrots, and graham crackers. When I did get home - it felt great to take that shower.

So, I am a City Girl - No way am I going to fool myself that camping would be similar (we had electricity, and a toilet that flushed!) But this was a fun little excursion... and if the invite came again, I would definitely go again. I found out that I am indeed allergic to nature, but antihistamines can help with that. And surprisingly, spiders aren't that bad... as long as they're outside. Anne also planted something in my head: Small steps to anarchy. Thanks guys for a great weekend! Now only if I didn't have to think about work...

Given Half-an-Hour

"Post-modern? That's anything that was made in the last 50 years and you don't get." ~ Catherine

Ever notice that the ruins in England look more ruined than say the ruins from Greece? This is especially odd when accounting for the fact that the Greek ruins are thousands of years older. The reason: There's more erosion due to leprechaun migration. Yep, according to Jaclyn, they migrate - just like lemmings!

So the day wasn't going so well. Work was practically moving backwards, but I had to cheer up yesterday when lunch came 'round. Catherine, Jaclyn, and Clara met up with me. Clara had newly returned from her trip to England. She narrated as she showed us her travel journal (yikes, if only I was that organised *nudging the 2 year old photos deeper into a corner*). So what do we get from this? One must "Mind the Gap", don't go to the Warwick Hotel (it definitely does not live up to the brochure), a lot of movies are filmed there (and one can get walking tours). You had to love her photos - she made sure to label the buildings and exactly where you might have seen it ("This is Bridget Jones's flat"). Including an almost "communist" photo of her and Michelle "looking into the light" *laugh* And (extremely envious of this) she caught Avenue Q! It was great to catch up - Catherine also dispelled some of her current adventures at London Drugs, and Jaclyn reminded us of some of the trials of Grade 12 diplomas.

The lunch hour went by much too quickly and soon I was back at work. But not all of the good mood was lost, because afterwork I was to see Chris and Steph! We met up and went to the Upper Crust for dinner (nice and close). And afterwards, took a walk through campus. So many changes and we've only been away for a couple of years. We admired the new landscaping at Business Quad (beautiful). Looked over the "artist rendition" of the Physics building. And of course wondered how Bio Sci came across unscathed amongst these changes. Oh, and confirmed that it does indeed look like a Lego dog (if one was wondering).

More "challenges" at work today. But someone brought donuts and popsicles. Someone stopped me abruptly from reading out loud the caloric information... but I know how bad I was. Lidia's big into alternative medicine, and after effusing so many good reviews about the tea she was drinking - we headed out at lunch to the Roots Organics market to see what else was there. Oh, my. I was very overwhelmed. So much tea. And all organic. And around the corner - chocolate...

I'll leave you with that yummy thought. Must head homeward bound - trip only a day away!

"Oh, that was a close one... Almost there... YEAH!!!" ~ What I thought was cheering for the Oilers, but was actually people encouraging a parallel parker. We should all have a cheer team for that.

My nephew is neurotic. I know: "Pot, kettle..." But I'm not the one pulling out my hair in clumps (waxing aside). He's turning six, not 26, and I'm not sure how I would relate to the troubles of today's children. A couple of hours with him, and I'm revising my statement about having kids (I should not have them now, maybe the right answer is never.)

Well, Friday Feast turned out pretty well. It was a small intimate group made up of Malcolm, Anne, Stephanie, and Catherine. I have a picture of them smiling and eating - proof positive that it was decent! And despite the mumurs of concern as "eeks" came out of the kitchen, and a questioning "Is something on fire?" I felt that they had confidence in me - which made a big difference. Thanks guys! It was a slightly more energetic Friday Feast (as compared to last week), and soon we were up to our old antics: Tickle fight! What I can't stand is that despite the knee surgery and knee brace (and probably painkillers), Malcolm still bested Anne and I *grr*. At least Stephanie got in a couple of good jabs. Catherine was "the bystander".

Started out with a lot of ambition for Saturday - it was time to attack the old scrapbook project. But I was sidetracked (as per usual), and instead joined up with Stephanie to attend "Nearly Normal" a one act reading (?) by Marty Chan. It was very good. By the end of it, we were both sopping up the tears with tissues. The other dozen or so attendees were fine. We're such saps :) We headed back home (um... that would be Steph & Rem's) and picked up groceries on the way. We encountered all these people heading towards Whyte Ave. After a bit of searching, I honked the horn (Darren would be proud). They guys had a guitar and this weird plastic hanger sculpture along with a sign... how could one resist?

Nicolas was in town for the weekend to catch "the riots". Met up with him briefly on Sunday... my how things change. He was doing more moving to Calgary - and is officially living at his own place. Went through the old house and I felt overly nostaglic: Remember that crack in the floor? How about painting those walls? Oh, and the tiling... That's what happens when you spend a summer helping with renovations / redecorating. Happy times.

The sun in shining - both in Edmonton and in Greece. (Thanks for all the updates and pictures, Rhianne.) And less than a week away until I escape to Crimson Lake... can hardly wait.

Delight and Delirium

"This is not rocket surgery." ~ Stephanie, about cooking.

It didn't take long to get home. But I completely discounted the weather. Sure it wasn't raining when I left the office, but by the time I got off the bus, it was pouring buckets. Water everywhere. Within steps I was wet... so... might as well enjoy it :D Half running, half hopping, I splashed among the puddles... canvas shoes, socks, and pants up to the knees all soaking. I was waterlogged, and feeling this amazing lightness inside. It didn't matter that things weren't working out the way I wanted them to. I was getting wet, and I didn't care :)

Having that said, I did have to enter the house at some point. I ring the doorbell and Mom's there with a plastic tub ready to take all my soaking messes. She clucked around that I was going to catch a cold, and really I shouldn't have left the office without an umbrella... but within minutes I was warm and dry again and I couldn't see any harm in it all. And so when she told me that there were little girls outside in swimsuits playing in the rain I thought: Good on you. She thought: Where are the parents? They're getting wet!

After dinner, armed with an umbrella I head out to pick up the ingredients for cake (the most important being cake mix ;) ). I parked far a way from the meter deep pool that was forming in the middle of the parking lot. But witnessed big cars driving back and forth through the pool. They were playing! I imagined the drivers daring each other to go through and see if they would get stuck... Faintly reminded of last year's big storm, I was heading home from dance class and saw people canoeing on what would have been a sidewalk.

Returned home without much adventure, did a little bit of plotting for tonight's feast, and continued to read Nick Hornby's "A Long Way Down." Depressing novel. Which is to be expected: Four people, each with the intention of committing suicide on New Year's Eve, meet on the roof of a popular jump site. They distract each other from the actual act. And things go from there. I'm done reading now, and there are some good moments, but in the end... I don't get it.

Oh, well, back to today and tonight. Must get into cooking mode. *rubbing hands together*

Let there be cake.

"Ra-oooooul" ~ Steph and Darren, after much chocolate cake

June seems to be a very popular birthday month. Just had cake this morning (with ice cream no less) for Tip Tip's birthday. Not exactly celebration feelings here though. Already almost a week of rain and gloom, and everyone seems sluggish and ready for the weekend. Feeling bad that my big task for Pablo today is stamping statements. A potentially fun task for me... but not exactly stimulating work for most people.

Had a tough time getting out of bed every day this week. The results of having too much activity on the weekend. So much for resting days.

I left off last time leaving the office to head out for Friday Feast... and that was a challenge. I couldn't leave! Security finally had to come and help me lock up. Wish sometimes I wasn't so bad with technology. So, about an hour late, I show up at FF to see Anne in a flourish of activity and cooking. Boy, she moves fast! Soon we were enjoying the 6 different Morrocan dishes she had prepared. Super good job, Anne! (Pictures of Anne and the dishes here when / if blogger is fixed.) Malcolm was there sporting the very fashion forward leg brace. We were all bushed and we contemplated a group nap before dessert... hm... nap. We don't quite make it there, and in this state of half-lucidness, Jen contemplated the gender of Polkaroo, and we had these types of exchanges:

Stephen: It must be nice to be little.
Ben: Yes, with all that singing...
Stephen: No, I meant the bus.

Perhaps it was after cake. We finally got a little bit of energy for shananigans, before heading out one by one into the night.

Woke up Saturday not too encouraged. The sky looked dark, and I was due at Borden Park for Corporate Challenge. Thankfully it didn't rain, and our rendition of "Achy Breaky Heart" (scavenger hunt item: 15 people singing a top hit from 1992 - also the year for "I'm Too Sexy") garnered requests for encores. Darren was there on behalf of his company and took part in the "Power Pull" event. While hanging out at the tents, I came across a big secret... Patches is played by a man! *shocked* O.k. so not exactly a tabloid expose. And someone wrote about it before, but still a surprise to me. Team members had to shield the open tent area - though some kids did manage to sneak a peak, and I heard: "Mommy... that's not Patches..." Ah, the fragile state of illusions.

It was turning out to be a sunny, gorgeous day. I took a nice walk to Roxy Theatre and then met up with Catherine for her long past due birthday celebration. We caught NextFest's "Superhero Live" at Happy Harbour Comics. Billed as part comic book, part musical, we witnessed the birth of "Superhero" in what I would have thought was radio theatre... that we watched. It was so much fun! Kind of makes one wish sages with guitars would follow one around. I love radio theatre.

Small fix of Argentine Tango on Sunday at the UADC workshops. You know who let out a cheer when Vince announced that the next song was by Gotan Project. I eventually got home after the class... and recontemplate children. I do think I need to have them some time soon, because karma would dictate that I would "deserve" children like myself... and I don't think I could handle that if I was say... my parents age.

Brain is starting to shut down, which means I should probably go home. And since tomorrow is Friday... and it's guest chef day... must think about cake.

BBBBQ

"JFGI!" ~ A geek moment at BBBBQ

Football fever is alive and well. Productivity has hit an all time low at work. What started as morale booster (football pool) has maybe gone a little out of hand? I was training Pablo, when all of a sudden Lidia rushes into the office asking "Pablo, who do you think will take the cup?" "Argentina, of course." And then they proceeded to talk about the teams, and look on the web for a live commentary. *shaking head* It could be worse. And people do seem a lot happier (especially after the not so ideal Oiler's loss).

I managed to miss all that hockey craziness on Wednesday by heading over to Leva for gelato. Yum. Here's a picture of the lovely Cheryl, who treated me to some lemonade in bubbly stuff that went down especially well after eating gelato (well, this is where her photo will be when blogger gets fixed and I can start posting pictures again). That was my dinner. It was fun to watch Ben across the way sculpting his cup of cream and sugar goodness (breakfast) into: a mess. I think I'll stick to mashed potatoes as my medium of choice.

Yesterday was his birthday. Hence: Ben's Birthday Barbeque. And a lovely day for it too! The rain was coming down in buckets. We migrated inside and enjoyed relative dryness. We listened to Neil Young, and some cool jazz. Steph showed up on her bicycle! She's definitely hard core now. Malcolm who joked he would be bicycling after knee surgery, did manage to show up, but with crutches. He spared few details in telling us about the operation. Including that he now "had a new spring in his step" (courtesy of some bloke). There were many geeky moments - the things that make parties great! I think I now know what "pedant" means, and if I don't, I know who will correct me ;) It was only too bad that Taiga couldn't join us.

Rem's also away. It's been putting a bit of strain on my day (not to mention Steph's day). Not only are there the same frustrations - I no longer can zip off to the "Razor free zone" or the "Guilt Free Space"... where even the chalkboards were telling me I needed to move out :P But I do think Steph is holding out all right in the food department. Friday Feast will be guest hosted tonight by Anne. Yay to the weekend! Everyone else is gone... so I get to lock up. Wish me luck.

Retreat! Retreat!

Trying to wrap my head around the new situation. Grace (our last temporary person) has been gone for about 2 weeks now, and today we have Pablo. Feeling quite bad that aside from me trying to train him, all we have ready for him is filing... and he came all the way from Argentina. No, he doesn't dance. However, his grandfather wrote tangos :)

Would have maybe, maybe been a little more prepared for this new addition (and be quite happy to pile on the work), if yesterday the office wasn't away at the Union Bank Inn for the Annual Retreat. Of course I was distracted by the decor... it was lovely inside. Catherine had also told me that one of the washrooms was haunted. I don't believe in that kind of thing (at least not today), but it still makes the whole experience a little more interesting. No noticeable super-natural activities to report.

What came out of the retreat was pretty surprising. It felt good to hear that other people were feeling same things that I was feeling... and maybe a little concerning that these feelings don't go away with more years of experience. I think we were all encouraged by the end of it though, having voiced opinions, and actually brainstormed solutions (that were beyond just throwing more resources into the mix - though that would help). And we all managed to survive Human Synergistics' "Subarctic Survival Situation." The scenerio: Your team are the surviving members of a plane crash in subartic Canada. What should the team do to survive? Number from 1-15 from the items listed in order of what is most essential for survival.

So we argue to stay or go... we generate scenerios and number the items... and do a little bit of math. In the end, the whole idea was to show that our combined effort, gave us better results than any of us working alone. Aside from maybe Cameron, who did his Phd studying polar bears.

Went home feeling pretty good (and greatly stuffed). Angela's last day before heading back to Calgary. We spent some quality time together: she taught me how to use the new sewing machine. Very glad that the deconstructist look is still "in".

Ballroom & Boxing - together at last

"So, religion is good for nothing..." ~Mark's condensation on how religion brought about the concept of zero in math... very funny... maybe you had to be there?

Friday Feast was another success - fresh vegetables with bread and cheese, followed by doughnuts and ice cream - perfect for what turned out to be a very, very hot day. Anne got second looks with her skull print tank top (most people's first reactions: "I thought they were flowers...") Micah beat me to the dishes, so I settled for the less theraputic "drying" duties.

We then played a game called Apples to Apples. The game involves 2 sets of cards: one set of adjectives, another set of nouns. Each player gets 7 noun cards. A player draws an adjective card and gets to judge which noun card the other players have played is most fitting. And the object is to use any means to convince the judge that your card exemplifies the adjective... um... make sense? Maybe again, you had to be there. It was great fun (if a little American)... just examine some of the combinations we came up with (and what won*):

- Dysfunctional: Marriage* (by Rem)
- Painful: Stubbed toes*, exorcism, the Superbowl, the Industrial Revolution
- Dirty: The Little Mermaid
- Pure: My Mind (Micah), X-Ray Vision*
- Rare: kilts, babies (as opposed to Well-Done, by Malcolm)

My powers of persuasion were incredibly lacking (Steph had to help me defend), but I did get an ego boost when for the card "Sexy" I won with "My Body" over Simon's "My Body", "Clint Eastwood", and Ben's "My Hair"! At one point Stephen declared: "I know I wasn't going to get it, but I just wanted to offend people." It's that kind of game.

Next day it was off to Albert's special boxing class for ballroom dancers (and friends) at Panther Gym. The place is located near the old Food Bank location and looked "gritty" (as Colin put it). It definitely had an air of authenticity - exposed pipes in the ceilings, dark lighting, punching bags, and a ring in the middle - what the movies tell us a boxing gym should look like :)

So can us ballroom dancers fight? Can they survive a boxing class? After threat of pushups, we were pretty good at keeping our hands up in position. But even the most toned and fit of us were panting after the first 10 minutes (excluding Albert of course). The abs exercises followed by pushups... agh! We ended the class by using our newly learned skills to go a round in the ring with Albert. Grace, Anne and I decided to do it by tag team (30 seconds each until the 3 minutes were up). I'm sure my hands were hurting more than any of the punches I managed to throw, and I'm sure at some point I hit myself in the backswing... and the pain (oh! the pain!) waking up this morning... The main things is that it was a lot of fun and many people said they would return (Shaylen will be working on his 6-pack).

Should head out now - early Father's Day dinner. Not dreading it... eldest sister Angela, always has a way of making Mom and Dad's fighting seem like childish bickering. A nice change to have someone around who sort of understands my eye-rolling.

Forgoing Science

"I thought Chanel was trying to kill me." ~ Keith, on the intent of the perfume empire

It's been several months since I've seen Riel. He didn't look well. Dark circles were under his eyes, his fingers were bandaged up. Yet on our chance bus meeting, it was him who was trying to comfort me. Strange how things turn out that way. He held my hand, gave me a hug, and kissed my head. And he told me his new take on life (inspired by Sherrise): Things may suck - but do not turn to the bottle. "Yes, Riel..."

Almost 2 days without the cell phone and it's only a little sad how little I seem to be missing without it (I *will* remember to charge it up sometime this weekend). Only regrets was not having it available "just in case" when I... um... ditched my own event.

The Quirks & Quarks live taping was yesterday, and I was fully intending to go... but the only RSVPs I got were from people who could not make it. So after work I headed over to Steph's thinking I'd hang out for a little while before going over to the Timms Centre. And didn't quite make it past that. At the apartment I met Keith and Lisa (Rem's friends from BC). My mental image of a BC person (hippie in a good way) was completely blown out of the water. They were fun loving… but definitely not hippies.

I ended up going to dinner with them and Steph at the Upper Crust. We ate good food, talked and laughed, and shared our stories. Lisa headed out and the rest of went to Leva for some gelato. Cheryl was working that night, and she spoiled me by letting me sample her iced favourites: cinnamon, pistachio, and lemon sorbet. Yum… definitely will be back for more. Here are some pictures of the cafe that someone very nicely posted on their blog. And this is a picture of the adorable girls sitting outside the café who were also enjoying some treats:

After, we took a walk to help burn off some of those great tasting calories. It was a warm beautiful night. Steph and I did partial renditions of Feist’s Inside+Out, and Simon & Garfunkle’s Cecilia, and got them firmly lodged in Keith’s head. Keith imparted some important advice: avoid men (boys) who used velcro wallets, and or wore white socks to dress events. We walked past the Timms Centre… Then it was back to the apartment… and then time for me to go. One last thought before I left: Kate, Remeka, Steph and I off to Cuba…