Grand Send Off

TipTip is retiring!  The "Bon Voyage" party combined her love of travel with the new adventure that is retirement. 

The committee that planned it went all out. 

I loved the toy cruise ships that floated in the punch. 

And there were maps from all over and interesting potluck items.

Lidia presented TipTip the group gift and had tears in her eyes when she made her speech. 

Li Found unfurls the handy travel bag. 

And we drink to TipTip's health and happiness in retirement.

Dance and Thanks

It's been a serious dance weekend with workshops, OPDS duty followed by training.  We worked on Latin connection (to be dancing with the other person energy connection point must exist between the shoulders and between the two people) and character... yikes!

Learned also that Danielle swears by a system called "Yamuna Body Rolling" to stay pain free and healthy.  It's a combination of massage and stretching done together with balls and half balls... hm... must look more into this.  Can dance be pain-free? 

Any calorie deficit from all that exercise was quickly wiped out for it's Auxiliary Turkey Day!

(Right: Ken sporting a daper Movember mustache.)

Erik once again prepared a turkey for an uknown number of people.  People brought supplemental side dishes and desserts.  Ollie brought our token furry friend for the evening. 

And it was great.  Erik very kindly saved the neck and various other parts of the turkey for me.  Yum! 

Happy Auxilary Turkey Day!

Tubas Afterhours

To celebrate the success of the concert, the still-un-named-quartet met up for a quadurple-date. 

Paul and I walked from the LRT station toward Padmanadi - half wondering if we'd get the right one (two locations of the same name in the span of 2 blocks?).  Thankfully, it was a short wait in the lobby before others arrived to confirm it. 

Both Scott and Alden had recommended this vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurant - the endorsement seemed even more impressive from two omnivores.  When I looked at the menu though, I was surprised to find it expressly stating no garlic or onions are used in cooking.  (Later realised, it's probably because they hope to be Buddhist-friendly too.)

I left the food ordering to those who had experience, and I kept snapping pictures.  This spurred Alden to  talk about one of his and Arianne's rather strange (but amusing) purchases: A broken digital camera.  The viewing screen didn't work and it didn't have a optical view finder - but "It works fine!" 

They aimed it at something they wanted to take a picture of and pushed the button. At some point they would upload the photos. 

And every time, it would be a suprise!  According to them (well... Alden) it was like the best of film and digital together.

"Tuba quartet is my raison d'etre." ~ Alden

Meanwhile, a sample of Scott's boring postcard collection was making the rounds.  (I knew I should have brought something for show and tell!)  Below: Scott mimed what he thought was the proper response to his infamous collection. 

But instead:

Karen: Are these all the motels you've been to? 










Edmonton's Klondike Days (Bus Depot) made the grade!















Food arrived.  (Below: Spring rolls with Scott's finger for scale.)








I suspect the ingredients might be organic: I found a bug in this curry dish. 

The server quickly wisked away the entire bowl before I managed to take a photo of it.  We were brought a new one.  But seriously it wouldn't have bothered me.  So delicious! 

(Left: Arianne goes in for an ice cube.)

Time for dessert!

 

 

After dinner we decide to go to Scott and Kathy's (rather than back to Churchill Square to try the ziplines - and attempt a modern day joust if there were two sets of them - set up for the Grey Cup celebrations).  We arrive safely despite over-squishing into Chris and Karen's vehicle. 

 

Turns out Kathy likes to play Scrabble.  How about drawing letters to decide the name of the quartet?  (Left: An anagram of Paul's first draw.)

My suggestion to use the highest scoring Scrabble word in a game setting was turned down.  (Guess Kathy and I will have to play another time.) 

 

Kathy brews up hot chocolate (secret ingredients came from various unlabeled jars and bottles). 

Below: Guess Scott collects other things too. 

 

 

Some of the others opt for wine and make some noise with it. 

Scott pulls out another fun item from his shelf - a frog. 

"Someone should play the frog..." 

Sackbut and Serpent, and Not Finding SM

Who knew from following someone on the LRT with what looked like a trombone case, one would be lead to a renaissance revival band? 

Well, Paul might have had and inkling of this when he started speaking to Norm. But I was simply suprised.  (And regretful, to forget my camera at work again!)

The Edmonton Sackbone Express is a group of musicians who decided to pick up the renaissance instrument, the sackbut* (a precursor to the trombone), to perform pieces of that time frame.  Yesterday, they were in the lobby of the Winspear Centre opening for the night's ESO performance.  There was even an additional special treat: Someone brought out the "Serpent" (supposedly a precursor to a euphonium, but to me looks almost like a woodwind) for several pieces. 

As we watched, Paul recognised more people from the music community.  I half wondered then if he was meant to be attending this concert...

Our plans for the night were fairly flexible, only asking the question WWSMB? (Where would Stephen Mandel be?) for our next destination.  But after the Sackbone Express performance, we were too hungry to really quibble and went to Double Greeting.  (He wasn't there.)

A copy of The Tomato (what used to be City Palate) helped me to come up with a few more potential names for the tuba quartet, but "Crostini", "Greenwoods", and the flip-and-point-with-eyes-closed choice "Hit Red", were all dismissed. 

WWSMB? 

We go to the Second Cup (still cold, but not as cold as before) and indulged in some cheesecake.  This time while eating, Paul told me about his current read: Gödel, Escher, Bach.  From the title I thought it was about music, but he told me it asked and tried to answer the question"What is awareness?"

We wait for the bus, ready to go home now.  And, proving again that he knows more people than me, find the Safewalk person waiting with a client was actually a student in his class.  Small world.  But then there were a lot of people down town... oh, right the Saskatchewan Rough riders were in town for Grey Cup festivities (I'm so out of touch with sports). 

So... maybe SM was just around the corner...

* Apparently "sackbut" means "conical shape", the juvenile me just thinks it sounds vaguely rude and thus funny.  Another tidbit: Turns out the University of Saskatchewan has a stash of them.  Think maybe they've come to see the instruments?  :P

Birthday Be-Bim-Bop

It's cold enough outside that Wendy decided to stay close to office for her birthday lunch.  We gather in Ga-ya for Korean food.

The restaurant is small and doesn't take reservations, so it was good that Paul was early to grab us a large table. 

Purse hooks came out to protect the nice purses. 

Camera shots start flying. 

But then the food appears and people got to work mixing their Bee Bim Bop in the hot stone bowls - effectively cooking the raw egg and creating crispy fried rice at the same time (depending on which bits stay in contact with the bowl longest). 

 

I'm the only one who didn't order the dish, instead going for the spicy tofu soup.  But I also have to do a little bit of work, namely figure out how to properly eat it.  Rice into the soup or soup into the rice? 

Whether it was done properly or not, it was delicious.  And no kimchi or beanspout salad (with seriously addictive seasame oil) went to waste.

 

Happy birthday, Wendy! 

The Unnamed-Quartet-of-Big-Horns: In Concert

"He's letting you carry it?! Woah, he doesn't even let me touch it!"
~ Alden, on how Paul must really love me (eventhough I can't actually lift the tuba onto my back with the backpack)

... Four Strong Winds... Heavy Metal... Tuphonium... The Bell Bottoms... Edmonton Pipefitters... The 50 Foot Tubas*...

Despite all the great audience suggestions submitted at their first big gig, the Unnamed-Quartet-of-Big-Horns, is still not officially named. 

(Right: During the intermission, deliberating on the submissions.)

So much for their "It might be a bit game-showy, but that's just how we are" statement. 

Still, they put on a great show.  Chris showed again that he's got fingers.  Paul gave us some background on fugues.  And then they sent us off with a folksong: Tetris! 

It was a pretty cold night and the Holy Trinity Anglican Church was not warm. 

We kept our coats on and stayed bundled up.  But Steph had a second way to keep her hands warm. 

(Below: A page from the church's guest book, documenting a royal visit.)

 

* The euphonium is apparently a tenor tuba and 50 feet is supposedly the approximate length of all their instruments tubing combined.