How did I get to have this life? :)

My husband and furfriends missed me I think. :)
I got home quite late last night to a smiling J and 2 very affectionate cats. I had a nice weekend in Vancouver. I learned a lot, had incredible research learning opportunities and then spent the weekend relaxing with J's family. The *cool* auntie :) Added bonus was that both her daughters were there too, which was nice. I get along really well with older daughter, who's had a lot of health stuff to deal with in the last year - like being diagnosed with IBS AND freaking cervical cancer. After a year of surgeries and treatments I am happy to say she is cancer free now. She and I shared a room together and talked until the wee hours and caught up on so much...

I am also convinced J's aunt is a saint - she has taken her younger daughter and her young grandson back into her home after retiring and she and her new husband are trying to look after them both as her daughter goes back to school to try and make a life for herself and her son while the other daughter deals with incredible life sh*t and her husband recovers from a heart attack. I hugged her and her husband a lot because they are fantastic. She's J's second mum really and he misses her and loves her to pieces. I do too. I was sad at times watching mother and daughters together, seeing what I can't have anymore...but then they would take me along, and let me know I *was* family...and for that I am eternally grateful. I missed my mum a lot this weekend, but it was OK. It was all very satisfying. I wish J could have been there.
In Vancouver I was in a hotel near the ocean and managed to go for a sunrise run along the ocean the first morning there. I can now inform you that running along the ocean harbour listening to Burst Generator by the Chemical Brothers while the sun peeks up over the mountains and glistens all over the water is one of THE best ways to start the day. It's official. It increases internal glowiness by 2000% :)

Add to that multiple sushi excursions, a trip to the amazing toy store, the best Dimsum in the 'verse and a trip to the giant chinese $2 store where I loaded up on sushi and bento gear that I've always wanted but could never find? It made the long extended flight home worth it :)
It's good to be home tho. It's been a busy few weeks.

There are exciting prospects with me and work and my MSc project which is turning into an incredible working relationship with a national program for quality control...where (GEEEP!) it is starting to look like my project will be adapted into their national testing program! I get to be involved on all levels. They want me to succeed so they can succeed. It blows my mind. Little ol' me is working to make this kind of testing better nation wide.
Holy guacamole batman!

Yes.
Life is exciting my friends.
Gobble it up before it gets away from you :)

Chill time

I'm a gonna go relax for a bit. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll pop in eventually...
Later taters...

I choo choo choose this life

I had a wonderful trip.
It is good to be home, but what a nice time. There was a flash blizzard (WTF?) in Winnipeg the day I was to leave to come back so roads were HORRID and closed, delaying my leaving until 8 PM...and so I got in this AM ~6. I had a nap and shower and came in to work for the afternoon...not quite the best way to end my trip, but my poor friend Grapecat was stuck all night in Toronto after beginning her trip home, so in comparison, it really wasn't so bad. I got to spend a few more hours there with her and her family and see her off on the plane before my bus actually left for real...not a terrible thing.

This weekend was wonderful. The train ride was GLORIOUS, with a glass domed viewing car the whole way...complete with full dining car (salmon!) for meals and the ability to sip a beer while hearing an old man play the mandolin and watch the countryside go by, reading a book for fun and feeling then tension sink out my toes the whole trip. I'm definitely taking the train again somewhere with J. I bet a trip thru the mountains would be beautiful...

I had a great visit. I was able to help them put on a birthday party for her Dad and catch up with her and her mom...and then head out just the 2 of us for an evening to unwind, eat thai food and sit at a martini bar drinking ridiculous martinis and laughing. It was nice to see her and just be around at a time like this - we both needed to destress for vastly different reasons. I'm not always the best talker, but the company was impeccable :)

It was good to relax and share in another family's time together. My food and alcohol intake were absolutely atrocious (restraint? I know not this word...) but it was what it was - delicious! Maple martinis...and all manner of delicious wine. Life is good...this weekend I have had reaffirmed to me that it is indeed this life thing that we're all muddling through that is the process to be enjoyed in all the bits and snippits we are granted. You never know how much of it you have left, and it's the people you share it with that make it so much better. :)

And now I am home to my love and my cats AND my Dad...ready to jump back in with both feet for another week of my crazy life...what photos I remembered to take are to come.

Cheers! :)

Oh pussy cat pussy cat where have you been?

I'm home, cat in lap, coffee in hand, wistfully recalling what it was like to not have any fur on my clothing while wandering with my love through new sights and sounds with no work and delicious food. Once I download our nearly 1000 photos, I'll take some time to blurb a bit about our 10 day 10th anniversary holiday. Catching up with grapecat was truly wonderful... Truly.

Strangely enough, having just flown home late last night from our glorious holiday over the ocean, visiting the wonderful grapecat in her roundel, as well as Paris, Canterbury, Dover and London, I have been struck with the utter paranoia of the United States of America, adding a bit of a sour note to the end of an otherwise deliriously wonderful trip. Not really considering it, we booked our flights with Delta (bleh) which flew direct from home through Minneapolis international airport on the way to and back from the Heathrow airport in the UK. Even though we were in the US only long enough to buy a bit of coffee or a pint and munchables on our way through and back, we had to disembark, get scanned, get our luggage, go through customs (where they can open our luggage and look through it for "our safety" even though we are not actually staying there), get scanned again, put our luggage on for the connecting flight (where they can randomly rifle through your luggage again for whatever reason they feel like)...before we could possibly get scanned *again* and then wander around an airport a bit and reboard to get on with our trip. On our way back I took of my boots 3 times. 3 bloody times.
Thankfully we dressed up a bit for our flights and were our most politely unoffensive white little selves and were relatively unaccosted. Anyone who appeared shaggy or mistrusting, or sadly, of middle eastern descent, seemed to get their fingerprints or retinas scanned or have a full body inspection experience...I wouldn't want to have to get into those new full body scanners....I can't be convinced they're safe.
Heathrow airport where they have actually *had* bombings...*they*were not this paranoid, and just did what was needed without feeling so terribly opressive. Paris? Ditto. Canada? Downright polite and helpful, I must smugly report.
Perhaps I was just tired and tetchy as it was about 3 AM UK time when we passed thru customs towards a few hour wait before we could fly on home, but I must say....the US has a wee bit too much paranoia on it's hands. Like it's feeding on itself...I don't think I'll travel through the US again if I can help it. Just a bit too creepy.

Oh Canada, you make me love you more and more whenever I go away :)

Bears in the Mist

Last week we went away for a week of frolicking in the woods - our yearly bit of outdoor madness - Motion Notion. It's a 4 day electronic outdoor festival in Drayton Valley, Alberta. Always a great time.
This year some friends of ours were in charge of the second stage and we came up a day early to help them with some last minute stage decorations. Mel is a force of nature and can make anything out of her head come to reality...she's the official "Minister of Visions" of the Grumpy Old Men collective from Edmonton - they put on great shows and events. We have gotten to know them pretty well over the years and had many great times with them - they're great. Mel and Bari (and their cat Pasha MD) are great people. :)
After weeks of Mel's weekend work the woods stage went from nothing to look like this:
Then the weekend began.It's always a good time - the event happens on a camping ranch, and there are lots of great places to camp. We were back in the woods by the second stage and I spent a bit of time making sure we were well tarped off in case the rain came...good thing I did! A few times over the weekend it rained hard - once was a full out thunderstorm! We got to listen to the storm in the tent...beautiful...loud. We could hear the thunder calling and answering and hear the rain fall all snug and dry :) I've never been outside in the middle of a thunderstorm before. Having all our new rain gear was great. We wandered about and did whatever we pleased regardless of the weather.
There was a whole day of hot hot hot sun when we swam in the (very high) river and I convinced J to ride down the river with me on an inner tube - haven't done it in years and first time ever for him. The way the area is set up you can hop on at a small beach and float down the river for about 20 minutes to the main beach, where they had a stage set up playing funky music on the beach. Great way to spend a sunny afternoon...
And the DJs at night were great - there were 2 stages of music and some great psytrance and breaks were played. The main stage is draped with UV reactive art, and there was an interactive dance floor, as well as a video projector shone on to a disco ball, sending dozens of images all over the trees...I tried my hand at capturing video on my camera with my new gorilla pod - here's a little taste of what our woods stage was like once the nightly music began:



(this only took 2 h to upload...sheesh) You can't tell to much from the video I grabbed, but hearing electronic music outside is really the way to hear it - no echo, no distortion, just very very loud very crystal clear sound to dance to. My knee gave me no trouble at all so I danced up a storm :) I even remembered a few costumes - one night I had my bellydance gear complete with a furry black vest (thanks Value Village!) and the last night was a dance costume complete with bear head! There were some amazing costumes this year...it's so interesting what people come up with.

The reaction to the bear head was great as always...convulsions of laughter, photos, people wanting to wear it - so much fun. About 1 in every 30 people were really weirded out by it - I find it funny that a yellow cartoon bear head could weird someone out, but I guess it takes all kinds. I got to practice my poi and dance like a monkey - the bear head is the warmest hat imaginable...the perfect thing when the night cools off :) As the sun came up on the last night J and I went for a walk and stumbled across a great little clearing full of mist, sparkling as the sun came up. We took some great pictures...like this one...

Yes - it was a good time.
We stayed overnight and helped tear down a bit, and then it was (*sniff*) back home to unpack and spend a day being lazy and napping and barbecuing and unwinding before we had to go back to the real world. It just wasn't long enough...just a few more weeks and then it is time for Shambhala.

What are *your* plans for your holidays?

A Hog's view

It's groundhogs day. The day the fate of our spring (and sanity) is held by a furry little guy...named Evan.

Our very own groundhog Saskatoon Evan (I didn't name him) has declared his decision for the year and he says it'll be an early spring. I think he's just being hopeful like the rest of us. Nevertheless, he's a pretty accurate guy as far as local weather goes. Our little Evan's prediction accuracy is recorded at 49% for local weather while the other groundhogs average a mere 39%. (Take that Punxsutawney Phil...)

I tried to find a photo of the little guy, but all I could find were photos of Evan Biddel, a local who won Canada's Best Designer (who is a cool guy, don't get me wrong. I actually know him...want a cool outfit and he's your guy, but as for weather...eh, not so much)

Here's the "Hog's View of 2009 Groundhog Springtime Predictions" from about the globe (courtesy of Wikepedia )- for what it's worth:
(ahem)

French Creek Freddie - Early Spring

Buckeye Chuck - 6 more weeks of winter

Saskatoon Evan - Early Spring

Balzac Billy - 6 more weeks of winter

Malverne Mel - Early Spring

Woodstock Willie - 6 more weeks of winter

Jimmy the Groundhog - 6 more weeks of winter

Octoraro Orphie - 6 more weeks of winter

Staten Island Chuck - Early Spring

Wiarton Willy - 6 more weeks of winter

Shubenacadie Sam - 6 more weeks of winter

Punxsutawney Phil - 6 more weeks of winter

Dunkirk Dave - Early Spring


Good luck with your local hoggy weather witchcraft. Go watch Groundhog's Day and think of spring.

Me? I'm just happy to be feeling well and back at life. I'll take that for starters...:)
Happy Groundhog's Day !

Perogy Party

So it's the night before I head off for 10 days to dance in the woods...

I'm baking up a storm and making sure our gear is all here. 

I'm also making the best damn perogies I've ever eaten.

My buddy Magnus has had it in his head for a while to make some gourmet perogies...he wanted to use ground steak, basil and drunken goat chees, and make another with marscapone and a few other cheeses and roasted garlic. Not to be left out I wondered what capicolla mixed with potato, onion, cheddar and roast garlic would taste like.

Today, instead of packing for my holidays, we finally got round to making them.

In the words of Homer: "heaghhhhhhhhh!"

They were delectable. The ones with steak in really were the best of the 3, but they were all delicious. I found a recipe in the interweb for someone's grandma's polish perogy dough recipe and we used that.

Perogy dough:

4 1/2 c flour

2 t salt

2 T melted butter

2 c fat free sour cream

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

2 t oil

You mix the dough together well and then let it sit covered for 20 minutes. Then you roll it out as thin as  you can on a floured surface, a minimum of  1/8 inch thick. Use a glass to cut out the circles and put about 1 t of whatever filling you like in them and wet them a bit and pinch hem shut, setting them on a floured surface. Apparently you can then freeze them, but we just cooked them all...and then ate them. Considering that it made nearly 5 dozen perogies that officially makes us gluttons I believe. We made the fillings before hand - all the meat was cooked and all the spices and things all mixed together and ready to go.

To cook the perogies you just boil water and drop them in in small groups, about a dozen at a time and cook until they've floated to the top and stayed there about 1 minute more.

I don't usually freak out too much over perogies... But I have to say, these were the best perogies I have ever had. It was a few hours of work, but so very worth it.

YUMMMM. 

And of course...I forgot to take pictures...sorry.

Now I just have to bake bout 5 dozen cookies and I can go to bed :)

If I forget to pop by again, have a great week.

I'm off to monkey dance in the mountains...