Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I'm going to run away to the woods, eat turkey and pie and hug my Dad a lot.
I'm going to attempt wild rice stuffing and a pumpkin gluten free angel food cake for my sis-in-law and I'm hoping for some truly tasty nibbles. There will be lemoncello too.
Oh yes.
Can't wait!
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Friday, October 07, 2011
Monday, June 21, 2010
Once 'round the lake Jeeves and then home for tea
I'm back!
Didja miss me?
(humour me...say you did! ;) )
I just spent 9 glorious days off. I was up at the lake with my whole family. All of them. That hasn't happened for many many years. We fished and hiked and walked and quadded and laughed and baked and BBQed and drank wine and remembered and cried together.
All of us.
Wonderful.
We celebrated Mum's life with family and friends. What was to have been their 50th wedding party was still held as a celebaration ofnearly 50 years of love and family. Then we tucked away her ashes and said goodbye together and then remembered and laughed and found we are a family again. We toasted her memory on the lake with pink champagne and watched the sunset over a beautiful lake and I admit that I have not felt so complete for a long long time.
You do not know how much it warms my heart to know that there is joy and love and happiness, and even tho Mum wasn't there in body, she was there in spirit.
Up at the lake I saw 2 bears (one only 12 feet away from me!), an eagle, a moose, zillions of bunnies and squirrels...I ate more food and drank more apple cider than one person should imbibe, but in the end, I am home, sun burnt and happy as a clam.
AND in the midst of all this my sweet man flew out and drove back our moon buggy. He and it arrived late last night and we zipped around by the river in it on a quick little tour. Oh I cannot tell you how incredibly cool it is. Honestly...cooler than I thought it would be...and I thought it was pretty damn cool already!
Pictures of all to come once I recharge the batteries on the camera.
Oh yes.
We now have some of J's family staying with us for a few weeks...Jazz festing and relaxing. It's so good to see them. I have been away from work and school for a glorious 10 days and now I must dive back in head on and try and swim upstream again...eep.
Waterwings anyone? :)
Didja miss me?
(humour me...say you did! ;) )
I just spent 9 glorious days off. I was up at the lake with my whole family. All of them. That hasn't happened for many many years. We fished and hiked and walked and quadded and laughed and baked and BBQed and drank wine and remembered and cried together.
All of us.
Wonderful.
We celebrated Mum's life with family and friends. What was to have been their 50th wedding party was still held as a celebaration ofnearly 50 years of love and family. Then we tucked away her ashes and said goodbye together and then remembered and laughed and found we are a family again. We toasted her memory on the lake with pink champagne and watched the sunset over a beautiful lake and I admit that I have not felt so complete for a long long time.
You do not know how much it warms my heart to know that there is joy and love and happiness, and even tho Mum wasn't there in body, she was there in spirit.
Up at the lake I saw 2 bears (one only 12 feet away from me!), an eagle, a moose, zillions of bunnies and squirrels...I ate more food and drank more apple cider than one person should imbibe, but in the end, I am home, sun burnt and happy as a clam.
AND in the midst of all this my sweet man flew out and drove back our moon buggy. He and it arrived late last night and we zipped around by the river in it on a quick little tour. Oh I cannot tell you how incredibly cool it is. Honestly...cooler than I thought it would be...and I thought it was pretty damn cool already!
Pictures of all to come once I recharge the batteries on the camera.
Oh yes.
We now have some of J's family staying with us for a few weeks...Jazz festing and relaxing. It's so good to see them. I have been away from work and school for a glorious 10 days and now I must dive back in head on and try and swim upstream again...eep.
Waterwings anyone? :)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Leaping Lemurs
I have a confession - I want a pet lemur.
This weekend J and I had a little mini getaway. It was fantastic. We had tickets to see Moby in Edmonton so we made a little romantic getaway out of it. Moby and his band were performing in the Edmonton Event Centre which is attached to West Ed Mall, so we decided to stay in a themed Polynesian room and have a fun weekend. And we did.
Fantastic! The concert was fantastic. Really. Mehee. I got to hear Moby say "thank you thank you thank you thank you" after a song. Squeee. He was very nice guy, performing with his band and two women with the most amazing voices singing lead vocals to most of his songs. Phenomenal pipes on these women. He played a bit of everything - even his old techno stuff! Meep! I got to hear Go live and jump around like a fool. They played a lot of my favourite songs....lots of energy and a real personal cozy feeling to it all. Fantastic show...Loved it. The Ed Event Centre is a great place to see a show - no matter where you are you can see the stage. I was about 5 feet from the stage and could see Moby and his band all very well. Not even the large drunken troll who took up residence near me in the crowd could dampen the show for me - it was great! His opening act, who was also one of his lead vocalists, was Kelli Scarr. She has a few of her tracks to download or free on her website - check her out. Her voice is amazing...
Then it was still a full weekend in a cool theme room with a ginormous hot tub shaped like a rock pool, a nice romantic dinner out, bangers and mash for breakfast (mmmm) and even Where the Wild Things Are in Imax. That movie is so full of imagination...by someone who had an imagination filled childhood. I have never read the book, but J has many times. We both enjoyed it.
West Ed mall is huge with lots of stuff to do and see. They even have lemurs there. You can watch them. Tee hee. Half monkey, half cat critters. Cute and hoppy and furry...and I want one please. Please?
Yes my friends...it was a wonderful weekend. :)
Hope you all had a great weekend too. I'm off to the lab. Things are afoot! :)
This weekend J and I had a little mini getaway. It was fantastic. We had tickets to see Moby in Edmonton so we made a little romantic getaway out of it. Moby and his band were performing in the Edmonton Event Centre which is attached to West Ed Mall, so we decided to stay in a themed Polynesian room and have a fun weekend. And we did.
Fantastic! The concert was fantastic. Really. Mehee. I got to hear Moby say "thank you thank you thank you thank you" after a song. Squeee. He was very nice guy, performing with his band and two women with the most amazing voices singing lead vocals to most of his songs. Phenomenal pipes on these women. He played a bit of everything - even his old techno stuff! Meep! I got to hear Go live and jump around like a fool. They played a lot of my favourite songs....lots of energy and a real personal cozy feeling to it all. Fantastic show...Loved it. The Ed Event Centre is a great place to see a show - no matter where you are you can see the stage. I was about 5 feet from the stage and could see Moby and his band all very well. Not even the large drunken troll who took up residence near me in the crowd could dampen the show for me - it was great! His opening act, who was also one of his lead vocalists, was Kelli Scarr. She has a few of her tracks to download or free on her website - check her out. Her voice is amazing...
Then it was still a full weekend in a cool theme room with a ginormous hot tub shaped like a rock pool, a nice romantic dinner out, bangers and mash for breakfast (mmmm) and even Where the Wild Things Are in Imax. That movie is so full of imagination...by someone who had an imagination filled childhood. I have never read the book, but J has many times. We both enjoyed it.
West Ed mall is huge with lots of stuff to do and see. They even have lemurs there. You can watch them. Tee hee. Half monkey, half cat critters. Cute and hoppy and furry...and I want one please. Please?
Yes my friends...it was a wonderful weekend. :)
Hope you all had a great weekend too. I'm off to the lab. Things are afoot! :)
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Geo...Voyageur!
Just been back one day and already on grand adventures :)
Last night we went on a canoe excursion, complete with delicious food in the middle.
What a way to start back after holidays :)
The Meewasin Valley authority has 2 hour canoe excursions starting from the nearby Beaver Creek Conservation Area that go up the South Saskatchewan river in a 10 person canoe, and stop briefly at the Berry Barn for supper and dessert before canoeing back to Beaver Creek. The weather was sunny, clear and beautiful. We went with some people J works with - they were shooting a segment on the Meewasin valley summer canoe education program. They take non-profit groups, school trips, and private bookings on educational canoe trips on the South Saskatchewan River...and it is a fantastic way to spend an evening.
The Saskatoon area set up the Meewasin (the Cree word for beautiful) Valley Authority many years ago to conserve the natural and cultural heritage resources of the South Saskatchewan River Valley in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and area. It's a non-profit group has programs and projects in river valley education, development and conservation. Meewasin is based in Saskatoon and runs approximately 60 km along the river through Saskatoon from Pike Lake in the southwest to Clarke's Crossing in the northeast. It encompasses conservation areas, parks, museums, interpretive centres, the university lands, canoe launches, community links, and over 60 km of Meewasin Trail. Including the South Saskatchewan River, there are 25 square miles in the Meewasin conservation zone.
We drove out about 20 minutes to Beaver Creek about 5:30 and after some shooting and interviews we hiked down to the river basin to pick up our paddles and life jackets and hop in the canoes. This year the river is extremely low - it's about 3 metres lower than usual - there has been very little runoff from the mountains this year and not a lot of rain to make up for it, so it was a bit of creative canoeing to get across and down the river to go around all the newly formed sand bars in the river. We had an informative hike on the way there and then a beautiful relaxing canoe ride upstream. It was about a 40 minute canoe ride up to our destination - the beach at the Berry Barn.
I've never been canoeing on such a big river before - as a kid I went on canoe trips in the Qu'Appelle Valley river system and far up up north by La Ronge and Missinipe and Otter Lake through some old friends of my parents ...we have a canoe at our cabin too, but I've never been on such a big river...it was beautiful. It was easy paddling with 10 people in the canoe (9 of us + a guide) - there were 2 boats full of us. We got to see the nests of swallows burrowing in the riverbank, beaver dams and the occasional happy gopher hopping around on the river bank. We also saw a few of the rare slowly extinguishing cottonwood trees on the prairies...since the Diefenbaker Dam was built the cottonwoods have been dying off on the prairies...they need a minimum level of water at their base to produce seeds, and the water levels are not what they once were anymore...so slowly they are dying off. A few remain along the riverbank and there are initiatives to try and get them to seed by altering the water levels in the areas where some clusters of them remain, but it is just another case of man mucking about too much with nature before considering the consequences...it will be a shame to someday not see them on the horizon. The Meewasin authority exists to educate people about this kind of thing...to remind us how to be better stewards of our home.
After our ride up river we stopped at the Berry Barn for dessert/supper...it was delicious. The Berry Barn is a little pick your own fruit place a little ways outside Saskatoon with a "charming" little restaurant and gift shop with beautiful greenspace and picnic areas...the kind of place my parents would go gaga over. It was a beautiful evening...we sat and had yummy food and watched the river. I had cheddar mushroom chowder in a bread bowl...MMMMMM. Some of us had pie or dessert...others had supper. It was all yummeriness. Then after a little walk about, we hopped back in the canoe and paddled back to Beaver Creek.
The way back was nice, as we were paddling with the current. The sun was setting over the riverbank and the colours spread out all over the water and the sky...I can't even describe how beautiful it was. We got back to Beaver Creek to drop of four paddles and jackets just as the sky got quite dark, and we were on our way home by 10. The guides and staff at Meewasin had so much information to give us about the area, their program and even the odd pirate joke here and there to lighten the mood. It was a great evening :)
And sadly - do I have pictures? No. My camera batteries are dead from the camping trip we just got back from. I know - I know. Noone else remembered a camera either...just the progear got shots. If J grabs any stills from the segment they cut together I will post them. If you peek at the Meewasin website there are a few photos, but it doesn't begin to do the area justice. I live in a beautiful place...watching the sunset over the calm river is indeed a beautiful way to end the day...
(Yes I know I've used the word beautiful about 60 times...but really-it was)
And yes, when I can get a few minutes and get some photos off the camera I'll post about my wonderful holiday in the woods too. Oh yeah-it was all that and a cupcake. I just had such a good time last night I had to pop in and say hiya and tell you all about it.
Now....back to the lab. :)
Have a great day :)
Last night we went on a canoe excursion, complete with delicious food in the middle.
What a way to start back after holidays :)
The Meewasin Valley authority has 2 hour canoe excursions starting from the nearby Beaver Creek Conservation Area that go up the South Saskatchewan river in a 10 person canoe, and stop briefly at the Berry Barn for supper and dessert before canoeing back to Beaver Creek. The weather was sunny, clear and beautiful. We went with some people J works with - they were shooting a segment on the Meewasin valley summer canoe education program. They take non-profit groups, school trips, and private bookings on educational canoe trips on the South Saskatchewan River...and it is a fantastic way to spend an evening.
The Saskatoon area set up the Meewasin (the Cree word for beautiful) Valley Authority many years ago to conserve the natural and cultural heritage resources of the South Saskatchewan River Valley in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and area. It's a non-profit group has programs and projects in river valley education, development and conservation. Meewasin is based in Saskatoon and runs approximately 60 km along the river through Saskatoon from Pike Lake in the southwest to Clarke's Crossing in the northeast. It encompasses conservation areas, parks, museums, interpretive centres, the university lands, canoe launches, community links, and over 60 km of Meewasin Trail. Including the South Saskatchewan River, there are 25 square miles in the Meewasin conservation zone.
We drove out about 20 minutes to Beaver Creek about 5:30 and after some shooting and interviews we hiked down to the river basin to pick up our paddles and life jackets and hop in the canoes. This year the river is extremely low - it's about 3 metres lower than usual - there has been very little runoff from the mountains this year and not a lot of rain to make up for it, so it was a bit of creative canoeing to get across and down the river to go around all the newly formed sand bars in the river. We had an informative hike on the way there and then a beautiful relaxing canoe ride upstream. It was about a 40 minute canoe ride up to our destination - the beach at the Berry Barn.
I've never been canoeing on such a big river before - as a kid I went on canoe trips in the Qu'Appelle Valley river system and far up up north by La Ronge and Missinipe and Otter Lake through some old friends of my parents ...we have a canoe at our cabin too, but I've never been on such a big river...it was beautiful. It was easy paddling with 10 people in the canoe (9 of us + a guide) - there were 2 boats full of us. We got to see the nests of swallows burrowing in the riverbank, beaver dams and the occasional happy gopher hopping around on the river bank. We also saw a few of the rare slowly extinguishing cottonwood trees on the prairies...since the Diefenbaker Dam was built the cottonwoods have been dying off on the prairies...they need a minimum level of water at their base to produce seeds, and the water levels are not what they once were anymore...so slowly they are dying off. A few remain along the riverbank and there are initiatives to try and get them to seed by altering the water levels in the areas where some clusters of them remain, but it is just another case of man mucking about too much with nature before considering the consequences...it will be a shame to someday not see them on the horizon. The Meewasin authority exists to educate people about this kind of thing...to remind us how to be better stewards of our home.
After our ride up river we stopped at the Berry Barn for dessert/supper...it was delicious. The Berry Barn is a little pick your own fruit place a little ways outside Saskatoon with a "charming" little restaurant and gift shop with beautiful greenspace and picnic areas...the kind of place my parents would go gaga over. It was a beautiful evening...we sat and had yummy food and watched the river. I had cheddar mushroom chowder in a bread bowl...MMMMMM. Some of us had pie or dessert...others had supper. It was all yummeriness. Then after a little walk about, we hopped back in the canoe and paddled back to Beaver Creek.
The way back was nice, as we were paddling with the current. The sun was setting over the riverbank and the colours spread out all over the water and the sky...I can't even describe how beautiful it was. We got back to Beaver Creek to drop of four paddles and jackets just as the sky got quite dark, and we were on our way home by 10. The guides and staff at Meewasin had so much information to give us about the area, their program and even the odd pirate joke here and there to lighten the mood. It was a great evening :)
And sadly - do I have pictures? No. My camera batteries are dead from the camping trip we just got back from. I know - I know. Noone else remembered a camera either...just the progear got shots. If J grabs any stills from the segment they cut together I will post them. If you peek at the Meewasin website there are a few photos, but it doesn't begin to do the area justice. I live in a beautiful place...watching the sunset over the calm river is indeed a beautiful way to end the day...
(Yes I know I've used the word beautiful about 60 times...but really-it was)
And yes, when I can get a few minutes and get some photos off the camera I'll post about my wonderful holiday in the woods too. Oh yeah-it was all that and a cupcake. I just had such a good time last night I had to pop in and say hiya and tell you all about it.
Now....back to the lab. :)
Have a great day :)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Exactly right
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. "
Walden or Life in the Woods
- Henry David Thoreau
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. "
Walden or Life in the Woods
- Henry David Thoreau
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The Eggman
Well...I'm having a lazy weekend with J and family. My neice Elli and I had a long chat about the Easter bunny last night, and she's quite excited about the egg hunt she gets to go to today: "auntie - it's like a treasure hunt... only for *eggs* filled with *candy*!". We put a lot of thought into just where a rabbit might hide candy...for a 3 year old there is nothing more exciting. She has a rainbow raincoat and yellow wellies and is all set to go tromping thru the mud on an egghunt :)
And so I wish a happy easter to you all, a most warming solstice and a most fine day. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Now go find some eggs.
Go on - be off with you!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Poor chap lost his head somewhere in Polynesia...
It's a sunny family day. In my PJs in the afternoon with an obsenely cream filled cup of coffee...grand.
We've just returned from a lovely weekend holiday away out west to Polynesia...land.
OK, so it wasn't quite the real thing, but there was a giant rock tub with loads of candles and wine and cheese and loveliness and a cheesy fake boat catamaran bed to float down the cheesy fake river on...all near to an IMAX, perveyors of fine bubble tea and a pub with oatmeal stout on tap.
And even tho I'm back home all safe and sound, I'm still not at work today.
Nyeah.
I'm sipping java in my PJs...
*tee hee*
We've just returned from a lovely weekend holiday away out west to Polynesia...land.
OK, so it wasn't quite the real thing, but there was a giant rock tub with loads of candles and wine and cheese and loveliness and a cheesy fake boat catamaran bed to float down the cheesy fake river on...all near to an IMAX, perveyors of fine bubble tea and a pub with oatmeal stout on tap.
And even tho I'm back home all safe and sound, I'm still not at work today.
Nyeah.
I'm sipping java in my PJs...
*tee hee*
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Quite undeserving. Quite happy.
Ah...today I have the day off and I love it. It's been ages since I've had this much time to myself.
J is back at work, but I have off until the 3rd of January, and altho I should do a few things over the holiday, it is a morning all for myself and I just can't bring myself to do much of anything except drink coffee just yet. The holidays were nice and not too rushed this year. Christmas eve was fun and Christmas day was a nice day spent with J's family nibbling food and playing games. It's fun having a 2 year old around at Christmas...it really makes it a lot easier to remember what makes it so magic when you get to see the magic played out right in front of you. And yesterday, well J and I just hung out together and relaxed, nibbling on food made in my new wok and watching Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. I hid from the real world for a few days and it was lovely.
It was all so very nice...altho I have learned this holiday season how incredibly unobservant I can be. J left out a surprise present for me Christmas morning...which I totally somehow missed and didn't see until boxing day. So I recieved it then. And couldn't figure out why he was so mopey on Christmas day (oops). When I *did* finally open it I was brought to tears...he has replaced my galilean thermometer with a beautiful new larger one. It's 50 cm tall and measures 18-28 degrees...I feel blessed and ever so silly. Only I could totally miss a shiney wrapped present over helf a metre high. Luckily the man loves me a great deal and was patient enough to wait for me to recieve it. And it is beautiful...
Our inner geeks are really quite satiated after this holiday...I now have a fully operational Muppet Labs with Dr. Honeydew and Beaker and a robot rabbit. J has a motion control Tardis with lots of whoops and wheezes.
Merry Christmas again to all of you.
I won't be in much over the holidays but please have a wonderful holiday time and eat lots of cake and hug lots of people and generally have a nice time off relaxing doing whatever it is you enjoy...at least for a bit.
Me? I'm off to read a while...
J is back at work, but I have off until the 3rd of January, and altho I should do a few things over the holiday, it is a morning all for myself and I just can't bring myself to do much of anything except drink coffee just yet. The holidays were nice and not too rushed this year. Christmas eve was fun and Christmas day was a nice day spent with J's family nibbling food and playing games. It's fun having a 2 year old around at Christmas...it really makes it a lot easier to remember what makes it so magic when you get to see the magic played out right in front of you. And yesterday, well J and I just hung out together and relaxed, nibbling on food made in my new wok and watching Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. I hid from the real world for a few days and it was lovely.
It was all so very nice...altho I have learned this holiday season how incredibly unobservant I can be. J left out a surprise present for me Christmas morning...which I totally somehow missed and didn't see until boxing day. So I recieved it then. And couldn't figure out why he was so mopey on Christmas day (oops). When I *did* finally open it I was brought to tears...he has replaced my galilean thermometer with a beautiful new larger one. It's 50 cm tall and measures 18-28 degrees...I feel blessed and ever so silly. Only I could totally miss a shiney wrapped present over helf a metre high. Luckily the man loves me a great deal and was patient enough to wait for me to recieve it. And it is beautiful...
Our inner geeks are really quite satiated after this holiday...I now have a fully operational Muppet Labs with Dr. Honeydew and Beaker and a robot rabbit. J has a motion control Tardis with lots of whoops and wheezes.
Merry Christmas again to all of you.
I won't be in much over the holidays but please have a wonderful holiday time and eat lots of cake and hug lots of people and generally have a nice time off relaxing doing whatever it is you enjoy...at least for a bit.
Me? I'm off to read a while...
Friday, December 21, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Pre-holidays
My Mum and Dad were here.
It was so great to see them - a bit of an early CHristmas of sorts. We gave Mom her little, easy to use digital camera that we kids got her for Christmas. Now she can see if she's cut off our heads or put her finger int he way before she develops the film roll! And it's pink...she's quite happy. We gave our Dad a year's subscription to Wood magazine so he can make things and tinker out in the shop. It's nice to give people things they will use and enjoy...they'll think of us often just like we do them...:)
We went out for dinner (and I had a piece of halibut that was good enough for Jehovah) and then hung out at my brother's and played dominos and drank hot chocoalte and laughed and talked until midnight.
I'm sad they won't be here at Christmas time, but it was great to see them, even for just a bit.
It's nice to be tired for a good reason :)
PS-if anyone wants to feed Frobisher, click more to toss him a fish. He's a good little penguin. I like to keep him happy.
It was so great to see them - a bit of an early CHristmas of sorts. We gave Mom her little, easy to use digital camera that we kids got her for Christmas. Now she can see if she's cut off our heads or put her finger int he way before she develops the film roll! And it's pink...she's quite happy. We gave our Dad a year's subscription to Wood magazine so he can make things and tinker out in the shop. It's nice to give people things they will use and enjoy...they'll think of us often just like we do them...:)
We went out for dinner (and I had a piece of halibut that was good enough for Jehovah) and then hung out at my brother's and played dominos and drank hot chocoalte and laughed and talked until midnight.
I'm sad they won't be here at Christmas time, but it was great to see them, even for just a bit.
It's nice to be tired for a good reason :)
PS-if anyone wants to feed Frobisher, click more to toss him a fish. He's a good little penguin. I like to keep him happy.
Monday, July 30, 2007
It rained and now I have soggy areas
Note to self:
When going camping for the weekend do not leave half your raingear at home because the weather forcast says sunny skies.
Bad weatherman. No cookie for you.
Yup, I jinxed it - it POURED rain saturday night and all our gear is currently in the back drying out...we got very wet! BUT we also had a fantastic time, if a bit soggy at the end. I had a splitting headache for a the first half of the weekend, but thankfully it went away just in time for the rain...but really, all in all, a good time.
Just mother nature reminding us who's boss.
And reminding us to pack the raingear...:)
When going camping for the weekend do not leave half your raingear at home because the weather forcast says sunny skies.
Bad weatherman. No cookie for you.
Yup, I jinxed it - it POURED rain saturday night and all our gear is currently in the back drying out...we got very wet! BUT we also had a fantastic time, if a bit soggy at the end. I had a splitting headache for a the first half of the weekend, but thankfully it went away just in time for the rain...but really, all in all, a good time.
Just mother nature reminding us who's boss.
And reminding us to pack the raingear...:)
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
T-1 and counting...
Ah. I love days off. I ran and then baked all the goodies...now I have to keep from eating them!
6 scotch eggs, 2 dozen bacon cheese biscuits, 2 dozen pumpkin muffins, 2 pans of cookie bars and 4 dozen granola bars...plus some pudding and fruit and cereal and juice and tofu dogs. I never know if there'll be a firepit where we are so I make lots of food that can be eaten cold or warmed up on a stick. Our water is frozen so instead of buying ice or icepacks we just use the frozen water bottles to cool off the food that needs to be cold and drink it up. The bottles are refillable. And I always end up giving away half of my food, so I make lots. It's actually kind of fun going around the last morning giving people muffins and granola bars for breakfast. I have no concept of portions so I'm sure I made way too much, but oh well. I like to share :)
Tonight is gather up gear and pack up and tomorrow morning we're meeting up with our friend Ken in Edmonton and heading out to Motion Notion.
I can't wait. The new location this year is on a ranch, sNow I just have to dig out our camp gear and find my bathing suit...I found this neat camping thing with a plate bowl and cup and spork (I love that word) that all packs up small, so we'll ahve something reusable to eat out of. AND we found a big screened in awning that is larger than our tent wo we can set it up over it for shade and have a place to tuck away our gear righ near the tent. Nifty.
And did I mention I have a bear suit? :)
I predict a fine time...
See you all in a while :)
6 scotch eggs, 2 dozen bacon cheese biscuits, 2 dozen pumpkin muffins, 2 pans of cookie bars and 4 dozen granola bars...plus some pudding and fruit and cereal and juice and tofu dogs. I never know if there'll be a firepit where we are so I make lots of food that can be eaten cold or warmed up on a stick. Our water is frozen so instead of buying ice or icepacks we just use the frozen water bottles to cool off the food that needs to be cold and drink it up. The bottles are refillable. And I always end up giving away half of my food, so I make lots. It's actually kind of fun going around the last morning giving people muffins and granola bars for breakfast. I have no concept of portions so I'm sure I made way too much, but oh well. I like to share :)
Tonight is gather up gear and pack up and tomorrow morning we're meeting up with our friend Ken in Edmonton and heading out to Motion Notion.
I can't wait. The new location this year is on a ranch, sNow I just have to dig out our camp gear and find my bathing suit...I found this neat camping thing with a plate bowl and cup and spork (I love that word) that all packs up small, so we'll ahve something reusable to eat out of. AND we found a big screened in awning that is larger than our tent wo we can set it up over it for shade and have a place to tuck away our gear righ near the tent. Nifty.And did I mention I have a bear suit? :)
I predict a fine time...
See you all in a while :)
Friday, May 18, 2007
Going on a holiday....gonna have a good time.
Well...it's a long weekend here thanks to the Queen, so J and I are taking off as soon as we can to go up to my parent's cottage at Little Bear Lake for the weekend and staying until Monday night. I"m all stressed and wigged out by the hecticness of life lately, and like Earl over to my left there, I need a holiday before I start to wig out and see flying flaming skulls and all that sort of thing.
It'll be nice to get away and relax...maybe do some canoeing or fishing. I'll get to jog up there, which I've always daydreamed about doing, so I'm excited about that. It one of my favorite places in the world to be - I relax as soon as I get there. My brother will be up there too, so it's all good. Even if it rains all weekend I'll curl up in an old blanket by the fire and read trashy garage sale novels all weekend while drinking hot chocolate and nibbling on popcorn. Jay needs a break too so I'm looking forward to just veggin in nature...maybe hiking...who knows?
I made my Dad a bunch of wine labels to bring up for him for his latest batches that he just bottled before they went up there- I hope he likes them. Most of them are classyish ones, but one is his face photoshopped onto a guy in a vineyard holding a bunch of grapes labelled Dave's Finest Vintage. I think he'll get a kick out of it...I giggled like an idiot while making it, so I hope so.
Anyways, I'm bloody exhausted and have a whack of stuff to do before I can creep off to start the 3 hour drive, so I'm off.
Have a great weekend all you blogopeoples out there!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Stoopid monkey
Aaaaah.Nothing like 4 days off to make you feel human again.
I have inhaled enough paint fumes to make me think I was Groucho Marx while painting my room in the basement (terrible fake accent I'm afraid...planned my painting and waved a paintbrush like a cigar and talked to myself, gesticulating wildly muttering things like "Yeaaaah! Yeaaaah! I'll put that over there, seeeee!"), but I'll be done in a few more days. I went and made it all really complicated with many colours and designs, but it's my hidey hole, and things must be right. I am fussy about the oddest things...J was amused that I had to paint the closet (including the ceiling thank you very much) to match the room. It's just one of those things. I do have a general comment to the world though - if you have a small daughter who has her very own room to decorate and she says "Mum can I take a small monkey stamp and put it on the walls of my room" say "NO DAMMIT - PUT THAT AWAY!". I say this, as I tried my very hardest to paint over some monkey stamps on the room walls...6 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint later and you can still see it through the paint a bit - *sigh* - I give up. The monkey has won. I'm trying to find some sort of deep reason why a monkey would want to be a part of my life that badly. Anyone know any monkey based legends or happy monkey tales? I could use one to justify the monkey business.
Other than that...a family meal of ham and cabbage rolls and entirely too much dessert and lots of lazing about with my love. I got to go shopping and be girly with my friend Heather and have some new duds to wear. We went out for fantastic beer, fish and chips and went out with friends to see Grindhouse on Sunday - and all I can say is HOLY CRAP it was good. I do so love old schlocky horror/action movies (think Army of Darkness) that don't take themselves seriously. This was a GREAT set of movies: cheesy, full of gore and strange acting, gross evil creatures, evil drivers, women that kicked ass, and a freaking cool woman with a machine gun for a leg. There were even a bunch of gag trailers in the middle. I mean, "Hobo with a Handgun"? It doesn't get cheesier than taglines like "It's a fast train to hell...and he's riding shotgun!". Rodriguez and Tarentino don't always do it for me but this time - they got it right.
At any rate...back to work - although it's only a 3 day week, as I get Friday off too. Smee hee. I was going to learn how to use a fancy schmancy laser dissection microscope today but that was postponed so I have to go and find something else equally smartish and scientific to do before my brain slacks off.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Happy Easter
Happy Easter everyone.
After work today, I'm going into hiding all weekend to hang out with J and get a lot of stuff done. We both have 4 days off...at the same time....with no real commitments...*joy*.
Happy egg day to you all.
After work today, I'm going into hiding all weekend to hang out with J and get a lot of stuff done. We both have 4 days off...at the same time....with no real commitments...*joy*.
Happy egg day to you all.
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