The eastern portion of my travels are over for now, though a return out east, to say Montreal, is quite likely. Last time I posted my sister was about to show up. All happened as planned and they showed up during the finals of the World Cup. Timing could you been better, but what can you do?
My sister, nephew and niece (from now on referred to as "family") showed up from the airport (short a bag Jack left on the shuttle containing his Gameboy and Ipod charger) at the Fairmont Montreal (I wasn't paying for hotels obviously, and actually we were getting friends & family rates at all the Fairmonts, hence the nice hotels). That night we went out to the old port area, found some quick food (kids were ready to pass out) and did a horse carriage ride around the old town. Mel caught up with us and we cruised the streets for a bit before the family wanted to go to bed... so Mel and I went one way (to the Jazz Festival - final night) and the family went to bed. Actually we only watched a bit of music before going for a wander along St. Catherines, admiring all the strip clubs, to a bar for a couple drinks.
Next day (I remember this being a Monday) in Montreal the family went to La Ronde - a Six Flags park with a dozen roller coasters. Uncle David did pretty well on the coasters, though the Sponge Bob 3-D ride did me in (I've got one kind of bum eye which I don't use all that much and apparently forcing my brain to use it causes worse effects than roller coasters). Anyway, it was a very fun day at the park.
Okay, I'll provide some shorter details for the rest of the post...
The 3rd day in Montreal Emma and I took off to the Biodome in the morning (a large indoor aquarium, zoo, etc. etc.). We took the Metro both ways and only spoke french for much of the way. It was a quick early morning visit, but a great time. We were back at the hotel (which was attached to the train station) by noon and jumped on a train to Quebec City.
Besides me, none of the family had been on trains. Crazy! We had a fun train ride to QC with food provided by me (bread, hummus, 2 types of cheeses, some puddings, salami... a very normal Paris lunch that the family enjoyed). QC was quite the change... small, quiet and quaint compared to Montreal. And we settled into the Chateau Frontenac which is litterally the castle on the hill surrounded by everything. Highlights in QC were:
- several nice meals in terraces (patios) with seafood and wine
- several good historical tours / shows / walks detailing the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe-Montcalm, the failed attack of the Americans, etc. etc.
- just the quaint and relaxing feel of the city
- good swimming and hot tub at the hotel (always important)
After 3 nights and 4 days in QC, we again jumped on a train to Ottawa. Ottawa was definitely a slower pace in terms of less tourists. Granted we were staying in a more business oriented area during the weekend, so that was part of the impression. We did several fun things:
- light and sound show at the Parliment Buildings
- amphibus tour of Ottawa (bus goes into the river and motors around for 20 minutes)
- Museum of Civilization and the new War Museum
- IMAX show (Kilamandjaro)
- a day of white water rafting on the Ottawa River about an hour north of town
- a really really good sushi dinner that is worth mentioning
Okay, that's enough boring trip details (I'm in Winnipeg again now), but I thought I'd give the nitty gritties for those wanting to know what we did on the trip.
I'm heading off to the cabin this weekend and then on Monday going sailing with my Dad for 5 days up to the northern part of Lake Winnipeg. I'll be back in Winnipeg for a few days after that and then heading to Calgary for Aug 4. I think plans are finalized now and Mel is flying from Montreal to Calgary for that first weekend... should be fun with a wedding in Kananaskis and then rafting down the Bow on Sunday tentatively planned.
Another recent thought... chariot for Burning Man is seeming like too much effort. Thinking of scrapping it...
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Friday, July 07, 2006
bonjour
Hello from Montreal! Doing the same as usual it seems... sitting in a cafe on a laptop. Actually, I haven`t brought my laptop or cell phone on this trip, but am borrowing a friends. Anyway, here`s a quick update (sorry the ` s are french accent graves or something...).
The time in Winnipeg has been great with not much besides family, family and some more family affairs. Attending roller hockey games, ringette games, making lunches for my sister`s kids (house sat with them for a couple days too), sailing with my Dad, painting the cabin with my brother-in-law, ummm.... lot`s of good quality family stuff, which was priority No.1 this summer! Will be back in Winnipeg for another couple weeks after the current trip to do a cottage weekend with the whole family (parents, brother, sister, and all the associated kidlettes) and a 5-day or so sailing trip up to the north part of Lake Winnipeg with my Dad. But that`s the future...
Spent the July long weekend in Toronto hanging with John & Jocelyn (John`s a friend from SF who moved back home to Toronto, well, actually Etobikoe or something like that for those who differentiate the suburbs from the city... I personally just refer to it all as southern Ontario). We went for a sail on Lake Ontario Friday afternoon and got to see the waterfront from the water side. Then went `out on the town` and saw some live music and closed the place down. I remember once again why switching to gin & tonics half way into the night is not a good idea (or at least I remembered the next morning as John woke us up at 7 AM to go to the cabin). We spent the long weekend at John`s family`s cabin on Georgian Bay. A very nice weekend of sailing, canoeing, boating, and reading (emphasis on reading for me - I can be quite boring when I choose to be). One of the near by islands had some cheesy fireworks, so we even celebrated Canada Day. Actually, we made it back into the city and down to the waterfront for Monday night and saw the official TO fireworks too.
I spent Tuesday at a relaxed pace making it to the train station around noon, then put my bag in storage and wandered around downtown till my 3PM train to Montreal. Was very nice weather except for a crazy heavy thundershower that forced me into the CBC building. This was actually nice since if forced me into the CBC museum which has histories and sets for the Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup, etc. etc. Trains are so nice, but I can`t understand why:
A. there aren`t more of them (you`d think there would be a train leaving every 15 minutes)
B. they aren`t cheaper (TO to MNTRL was $92... how much does an airplane cost)
C. why did my sister make me pay for this... note she`s paid for the other legs of the train trip :)
It had been a while since I`ve been on a train and it was quite nice (i.e., I found a great used book store on Queen St. in TO and bought two books and the train gave me a good 4.5 hour start on the first book - Postcards - which I just finished yesterday by the way).
Been in Montreal for a couple days now. Melanie, one of my `students` in Pinawa many years ago picked me up at the Metro stop and has set me up at her new apartment. I`ve been there for 2 nights (or is it 3 nights, I seriously can`t remember, okay, must be 3) and she`s moving in today (I could be helping, but instead I`m hiding out in a coffee shop... something to do with 2 exboyfriends helping so I`m just making myself scarce. Her and I have caught a couple nights of the Jazz Festival. First night, the night I got here, we caught a tribute to Paul Simon with performers such as Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, Holly Cole, Daniel Lanois (a Quebec artist who I saw in SF last year), and several others. Last night was a more small venues including a stop at a salsa place where Mel made me Salsa and ChaChaCha (it was brutal despite having lived in the mexican area in SF for several years... Mel made me be the women and she led).
Other highlights in Montreal so far... a 13 hour walking tour that started way up north (relatively speaking... Jarry for those that know Montreal) on St Laurent, proceeded downtown, saw the Portugal-France game (city went nuts when France won), checked out a hostel (decided I like my current digs), then to the old Ville & Port, then walked back home along St. Denis. Definitely got my exercise that day. The next day I took it easy and went to the Musee de Beaux Artes (Fine Art Museum). Both these days were very much like a typical European vacation day for me. I can tell I`m on holiday because I can just randomly chat with people. Of course it usually seems to be cute women that I chat to, but what can I say, I have good tastes!
Robyn ( my sister) and Jack & Emma arrive on Sunday. Sunday is going to be a crazy day. First, it`s the final of the world cup. Regardless of the outcome, this city is going to be nuts. There are nearly as many flags hanging out windows and people driving 60 mph up and down streets as there was in Calgary or Edmonton during their hockey attempts. It`s also the last day of the Jazz Fesitval and that`s bound to be a blast. So the new arrivals should be up for a fun day!
Also still planning to be in Calgary for Aug 5-15 and then to Seattle for some climbing & hanging with Erin & Justin say Aug 16-20 and then continue the road trip to SF (arriving by say Aug 25) in prep for Burning Man on Aug 28 (just keeping you alls updated with the schedule hoping that our paths will cross).
A la prochaine!! (please no correcting my french! .... I need to practice bad!)
The time in Winnipeg has been great with not much besides family, family and some more family affairs. Attending roller hockey games, ringette games, making lunches for my sister`s kids (house sat with them for a couple days too), sailing with my Dad, painting the cabin with my brother-in-law, ummm.... lot`s of good quality family stuff, which was priority No.1 this summer! Will be back in Winnipeg for another couple weeks after the current trip to do a cottage weekend with the whole family (parents, brother, sister, and all the associated kidlettes) and a 5-day or so sailing trip up to the north part of Lake Winnipeg with my Dad. But that`s the future...
Spent the July long weekend in Toronto hanging with John & Jocelyn (John`s a friend from SF who moved back home to Toronto, well, actually Etobikoe or something like that for those who differentiate the suburbs from the city... I personally just refer to it all as southern Ontario). We went for a sail on Lake Ontario Friday afternoon and got to see the waterfront from the water side. Then went `out on the town` and saw some live music and closed the place down. I remember once again why switching to gin & tonics half way into the night is not a good idea (or at least I remembered the next morning as John woke us up at 7 AM to go to the cabin). We spent the long weekend at John`s family`s cabin on Georgian Bay. A very nice weekend of sailing, canoeing, boating, and reading (emphasis on reading for me - I can be quite boring when I choose to be). One of the near by islands had some cheesy fireworks, so we even celebrated Canada Day. Actually, we made it back into the city and down to the waterfront for Monday night and saw the official TO fireworks too.
I spent Tuesday at a relaxed pace making it to the train station around noon, then put my bag in storage and wandered around downtown till my 3PM train to Montreal. Was very nice weather except for a crazy heavy thundershower that forced me into the CBC building. This was actually nice since if forced me into the CBC museum which has histories and sets for the Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup, etc. etc. Trains are so nice, but I can`t understand why:
A. there aren`t more of them (you`d think there would be a train leaving every 15 minutes)
B. they aren`t cheaper (TO to MNTRL was $92... how much does an airplane cost)
C. why did my sister make me pay for this... note she`s paid for the other legs of the train trip :)
It had been a while since I`ve been on a train and it was quite nice (i.e., I found a great used book store on Queen St. in TO and bought two books and the train gave me a good 4.5 hour start on the first book - Postcards - which I just finished yesterday by the way).
Been in Montreal for a couple days now. Melanie, one of my `students` in Pinawa many years ago picked me up at the Metro stop and has set me up at her new apartment. I`ve been there for 2 nights (or is it 3 nights, I seriously can`t remember, okay, must be 3) and she`s moving in today (I could be helping, but instead I`m hiding out in a coffee shop... something to do with 2 exboyfriends helping so I`m just making myself scarce. Her and I have caught a couple nights of the Jazz Festival. First night, the night I got here, we caught a tribute to Paul Simon with performers such as Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, Holly Cole, Daniel Lanois (a Quebec artist who I saw in SF last year), and several others. Last night was a more small venues including a stop at a salsa place where Mel made me Salsa and ChaChaCha (it was brutal despite having lived in the mexican area in SF for several years... Mel made me be the women and she led).
Other highlights in Montreal so far... a 13 hour walking tour that started way up north (relatively speaking... Jarry for those that know Montreal) on St Laurent, proceeded downtown, saw the Portugal-France game (city went nuts when France won), checked out a hostel (decided I like my current digs), then to the old Ville & Port, then walked back home along St. Denis. Definitely got my exercise that day. The next day I took it easy and went to the Musee de Beaux Artes (Fine Art Museum). Both these days were very much like a typical European vacation day for me. I can tell I`m on holiday because I can just randomly chat with people. Of course it usually seems to be cute women that I chat to, but what can I say, I have good tastes!
Robyn ( my sister) and Jack & Emma arrive on Sunday. Sunday is going to be a crazy day. First, it`s the final of the world cup. Regardless of the outcome, this city is going to be nuts. There are nearly as many flags hanging out windows and people driving 60 mph up and down streets as there was in Calgary or Edmonton during their hockey attempts. It`s also the last day of the Jazz Fesitval and that`s bound to be a blast. So the new arrivals should be up for a fun day!
Also still planning to be in Calgary for Aug 5-15 and then to Seattle for some climbing & hanging with Erin & Justin say Aug 16-20 and then continue the road trip to SF (arriving by say Aug 25) in prep for Burning Man on Aug 28 (just keeping you alls updated with the schedule hoping that our paths will cross).
A la prochaine!! (please no correcting my french! .... I need to practice bad!)
Thursday, June 15, 2006
as the summer evolves...
I'm finally in Winnipeg. Was painful getting out of Calgary (i.e., packing and cleaning up Carole's apartment in case she returns before I do (unlikely, but...) - it took about 3 hours to pack my car. I'm quite disappointed in my friend Paul, who usually helps me pack up!! So I made it out of Calgary just before noon on Monday, meaning it was a long day of driving and didn't get into Winnipeg until after midnight.
One comment about the drive... Saskatchewan is now entirely 4 lane and 110 km/hr (almost, last 20 km under construction)! This makes the trip so much faster! Although I left my roof racks on and with a full load I got the worst fuel economy of my life... I was right up there with an SUV barely getting 30 mpg (Imperial gallons that is, or ~25 US mpg). Anyway...
You'd think my life would be slow and relaxing, but there are so many things to do! (truth and sarcasm, all at the same time!) Day 1 in Winnipeg I sleep in a bit, then get up and just hang with my Dad for about an hour or two (get breakfast and coffee made, you know...), then it's over to my sister's, pick my nephew up at school, lunch with the kids, then off to my grandmother's with my Dad, then back to my parents for dinner, then off to my nephew's inline hockey game, then home to bed. This is a vacation?
Day 2 was less busy, but still involved too much effort. Watching the hockey game with my nephew (Edmonton scored in overtime to stay alive... series is now 3-2 in favor of Carolina, best of 7, and now heading back to Edmonton), playing basketball during the intermissions, and beating him up regularly. Now I'm on Day 3 and I stayed at my sisters because I new it would be calmer (kids are at school and didn't come home for lunch today) and I need to get a report done for tomorrow, which I haven't started because I haven't done any work this week. However, my sister and I got talking this morning next thing I know I'm travelling around Quebec / Ontario with my sister and her kids in a few weeks. I can't complain, because I just got a return ticket bought for me (on airmiles). So, the newest plans are...
I'm flying to Toronto on June 30, spending the long weekend in John either at his cabin or sailing (yet to be decided). Then the following week (week of July 3rd) I'll travel to Montreal, meet up with a couple friends and catch a few days of the Jazz Festival (which runs till July 9th). And on July 9th, my sister (Robyn) and her 2 kids (Jack & Emma) are flying in to Montreal. We'll spend just 1 day in Montreal and then head to Quebec City. The plan is to mak this a bit of a touristy and informative trip for the kids, which isn't hard to do in Quebec City (e.g., Plains of Abraham, fort this and fort that, etc.). After a few days in Quebec City we'll jump a train to Ottawa, where none of us have ever been. Note that I'll be the pretend father throughout all this! The end of the trip will all 4 of us flying back to Winnipeg on July 17th. And all this flying on airmiles (or Aeroplan to be precise) on the exact days we wanted and on short notice... pretty sweet!
Okay, more later, must do some work and make enough money to buy beer.
P.S. I'm looking for places to stay in Montreal!!
One comment about the drive... Saskatchewan is now entirely 4 lane and 110 km/hr (almost, last 20 km under construction)! This makes the trip so much faster! Although I left my roof racks on and with a full load I got the worst fuel economy of my life... I was right up there with an SUV barely getting 30 mpg (Imperial gallons that is, or ~25 US mpg). Anyway...
You'd think my life would be slow and relaxing, but there are so many things to do! (truth and sarcasm, all at the same time!) Day 1 in Winnipeg I sleep in a bit, then get up and just hang with my Dad for about an hour or two (get breakfast and coffee made, you know...), then it's over to my sister's, pick my nephew up at school, lunch with the kids, then off to my grandmother's with my Dad, then back to my parents for dinner, then off to my nephew's inline hockey game, then home to bed. This is a vacation?
Day 2 was less busy, but still involved too much effort. Watching the hockey game with my nephew (Edmonton scored in overtime to stay alive... series is now 3-2 in favor of Carolina, best of 7, and now heading back to Edmonton), playing basketball during the intermissions, and beating him up regularly. Now I'm on Day 3 and I stayed at my sisters because I new it would be calmer (kids are at school and didn't come home for lunch today) and I need to get a report done for tomorrow, which I haven't started because I haven't done any work this week. However, my sister and I got talking this morning next thing I know I'm travelling around Quebec / Ontario with my sister and her kids in a few weeks. I can't complain, because I just got a return ticket bought for me (on airmiles). So, the newest plans are...
I'm flying to Toronto on June 30, spending the long weekend in John either at his cabin or sailing (yet to be decided). Then the following week (week of July 3rd) I'll travel to Montreal, meet up with a couple friends and catch a few days of the Jazz Festival (which runs till July 9th). And on July 9th, my sister (Robyn) and her 2 kids (Jack & Emma) are flying in to Montreal. We'll spend just 1 day in Montreal and then head to Quebec City. The plan is to mak this a bit of a touristy and informative trip for the kids, which isn't hard to do in Quebec City (e.g., Plains of Abraham, fort this and fort that, etc.). After a few days in Quebec City we'll jump a train to Ottawa, where none of us have ever been. Note that I'll be the pretend father throughout all this! The end of the trip will all 4 of us flying back to Winnipeg on July 17th. And all this flying on airmiles (or Aeroplan to be precise) on the exact days we wanted and on short notice... pretty sweet!
Okay, more later, must do some work and make enough money to buy beer.
P.S. I'm looking for places to stay in Montreal!!
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Life in Cowtown
Did we all catch the hockey game last night? How depressing!! Up 3 goals in the third and they still lost! And did their goalie in too! Life is unbearable!! Okay, I actually only slightly care, but why let reality get in the way of a good story?
Life is good, with only a few exceptions. Maybe I should start off with the bad things? Well, first of all, my car is a bit of a pain in the butt. I have to get a federal inspection done since I'm importing it into Canada. I already paid ~$350 for the inspection at the border, but there are still additional things. First there are daytime running lights ($176), child seat mounting kit (~$??), french stickers for the doors, airbags, seatbelts (~$???), and some other things I probably don't know about yet... they say stuff like your bumpers may need modifying, but it's an Acura, so it should meet Canadian standards (otherwise I should just ask what their name is so I can name my first child). And the is just for the federal inspection. The provincial inspection is next and this is where I'll get dinged for having too thin of brake pads or who knows. And on top of all this, my clutch is gone. Yes, it's been going for years, but it seems to have waited until my income is at it's lowest in years to finally start requesting action. I'm still in denial and remembering how I used to drive my MGB - double clutch and heel & toe...
Okay, only two more things to bitch about...
Sunday morning I continued the process of backing up my laptop and synchronizing files with my home desktop computer. I had already synched my music, much of my personal stuff and was working on photos. I then noticed I had a couple user profiles that weren't mine on the laptop (from when other people at work had logged onto my laptop). I've always periodically deleted these profiles and did so again. Unfortunately, after doing so, I noticed I had a large amount of free space on my laptop and no icons left on my desktop. Seems Windows also deleted my profile and all files within My Documents - essentially every file on the computer excluding programs including my Outlook PSTs, my photos, and some other miscellaneous stuff that weren't necessarily backed up. Sweet!! I spent Monday with hard disk recovery software fixing my computer. It seems the some files that had been used most recent didn't get recovered including some of the PSTs which were rather important. Oh well.
Last thing to bitch aobut... when is someone going to clean up Carole's condo and put away my stuff? I find I still have a lot of stuff, be it clothes, climbing gear, shoes, junk, computer stuff, etc. etc., yet I don't really have anywhere to put it. I need to get my clothes widdled down to just a couple suitcases instead of 3 duffle bags and 2 suitcases. Unfortunately the CD rack fell over onto and into my clothes bags about 4 days ago (one of the tall towers that I set up when I got here) and I've yet to muster the energy to clean up the mess.
So in the big picture now, not really that much to complain about. I've been doing a bit of work, but not much as the work hasn't been really coming in until yesterday and I haven't been searching it out. The computer thing came at a bad time because there is work now so tomorrow I will have to be productive for a change. I had I think my biggest paycheck ever nearly 2 weeks ago... the reward for doing 12 days straight (12 hour + days) of fieldwork netted me nearly a months pay... SWEET! That will cover my clutch, all my car problems, and still leave me enough money to live on for the next month so I can't complain too much.
Life in Calgary is good too. I've mostly been hanging with friends and just catching up. There have been more BBQs and dinners at friends houses than I can count. I went over to Stef's tonight and had dinner with her and her sister tonight (and Chloe too, she's 11 months). Her hubby Pat is out of town, so we just sat around after dinner for several hours and chatted. This is a pretty typical night. There have definitely been a few nights of partying, but for the most part just hanging with friends. I also caught up with Ted last weekend who is a bestfriend from literally from preschool who is now living in Calgary (I'll be back in Calgary in early August for his wedding).
I wish there was more deep and meaningful stuff to say right now, but the past couple weeks have been purely unwind moments with general hanging out and accentuated by a few moments of excitement. I've been climbing at the gym a couple times, played squash once (again tomorrow), walked a bunch, and sat on many a patio. Well, I must say something else besides bitching and boring details... ah yes... I've wondered about lots of stuff (yes, I have way too much time on my hands). Here are some random thoughts...
- Calgary is now the largest city in Canada that allows smoking in bars. What's up with that? What makes it even stranger is that you can't smoke on patios, but you can smoke in the bar. Ummm, excuse me, I want to have a cigarette so I'm going to go inside. The people who made up this law must have been smoking more than a cigarette!
- Calgary is booming right now in terms of money. But people here also seem infatuated with money. House prices went up 40% last year alone (which helps me feel better about paying my $1600 house tax bill this month) and show no signs of slowing down. I can't remember any time in San Fran when we went out and discussed stock options, mergers, etc. Yet it's the #1 talk here. Maybe if I had 35,000 stock options and my company was about to be bought out at $45/share I might be more apt to talk about stocks :) But to me, people in San Fran seemed pretty well grounded and happy without being as concerned about money. Granted, no one could afford a house but....
- Good friends are worth a lot. I've been lucky enough to make some really good friends in all the places I've lived. I'm more the person that makes a small handful of great loyal, long-term friends than the type of person who makes lots of acquaintances. San Fran was funny this past year in that a group of friends that hung out together for the past couple years was dissolving... Justin & Erin moving to Washington, Sam moving Colorado (?). Usually a friend comes and goes, but this kind of seemed like the entire group dissipated. Well, there are others in "the group" and I don't want to be exclusionary, but you know what I mean. Actually, San Fran is very transient and I therefore made many good friends that moved on... just the nature of the city. It's nice to come back to Calgary and find that many of my good friends from years ago are still here! But even this is not going to last. Looks like, for example, the Aussie is going to Thailand, Welshman is going to Holland, and the Frenchwoman is just never here (but I'll visit her elsewhere!). Anyway, good friends will always catch up sometime, somewhere.
Lastly, I guess I'll give a quick update on the plans for those who A. Care B. Are planning on meeting up with me somewhere or C. Want to know when and where to avoid me. My latest intent is to go to Winnipeg this weekend, be there for nearly 2 months, but fly to Montreal / Toronto for 2 weeks sometime in those 2 months. I have to be back in Calgary for an August 5 wedding (someone else's) and I'm going to babysit Branan (Paul & Sue's son) the weekend of Aug 12 in appreciation for Paul helping me move back up to Calgary. Then ~Aug 15 I'm on a roadtrip down to San Fran (maybe through Washington to catch up with Erin & Justin?) needing to be at Burning Man late August or early September? I could look at a calendar, but... After that there are several friends I'd like to catch up with in San Fran and the surrounding regions if they'll have me on their couches. Then after that I'm thinking much more seriously about Africa now. Time to strike one of the last continents off the list? Okay, I've only been to Costa Rica, so that probably doen't count as South America, or does it? Central America isn't a continent, is it? So if it isn't, where does that put Costa Rica? If CR is in SA, then Africa is my last continent (I'm just accepting the lack of desire and resources as eliminating Antarctica from the realm of likelihood). There's some possible work opportunities that have popped there head up recently for work in Ethiopia, but even mentioning this is way ahead of schedule.
Okay, essay over. Off to bed (or maybe I'll stay up for the Daily Show... which I get even without cable... sweet!!).
Life is good, with only a few exceptions. Maybe I should start off with the bad things? Well, first of all, my car is a bit of a pain in the butt. I have to get a federal inspection done since I'm importing it into Canada. I already paid ~$350 for the inspection at the border, but there are still additional things. First there are daytime running lights ($176), child seat mounting kit (~$??), french stickers for the doors, airbags, seatbelts (~$???), and some other things I probably don't know about yet... they say stuff like your bumpers may need modifying, but it's an Acura, so it should meet Canadian standards (otherwise I should just ask what their name is so I can name my first child). And the is just for the federal inspection. The provincial inspection is next and this is where I'll get dinged for having too thin of brake pads or who knows. And on top of all this, my clutch is gone. Yes, it's been going for years, but it seems to have waited until my income is at it's lowest in years to finally start requesting action. I'm still in denial and remembering how I used to drive my MGB - double clutch and heel & toe...
Okay, only two more things to bitch about...
Sunday morning I continued the process of backing up my laptop and synchronizing files with my home desktop computer. I had already synched my music, much of my personal stuff and was working on photos. I then noticed I had a couple user profiles that weren't mine on the laptop (from when other people at work had logged onto my laptop). I've always periodically deleted these profiles and did so again. Unfortunately, after doing so, I noticed I had a large amount of free space on my laptop and no icons left on my desktop. Seems Windows also deleted my profile and all files within My Documents - essentially every file on the computer excluding programs including my Outlook PSTs, my photos, and some other miscellaneous stuff that weren't necessarily backed up. Sweet!! I spent Monday with hard disk recovery software fixing my computer. It seems the some files that had been used most recent didn't get recovered including some of the PSTs which were rather important. Oh well.
Last thing to bitch aobut... when is someone going to clean up Carole's condo and put away my stuff? I find I still have a lot of stuff, be it clothes, climbing gear, shoes, junk, computer stuff, etc. etc., yet I don't really have anywhere to put it. I need to get my clothes widdled down to just a couple suitcases instead of 3 duffle bags and 2 suitcases. Unfortunately the CD rack fell over onto and into my clothes bags about 4 days ago (one of the tall towers that I set up when I got here) and I've yet to muster the energy to clean up the mess.
So in the big picture now, not really that much to complain about. I've been doing a bit of work, but not much as the work hasn't been really coming in until yesterday and I haven't been searching it out. The computer thing came at a bad time because there is work now so tomorrow I will have to be productive for a change. I had I think my biggest paycheck ever nearly 2 weeks ago... the reward for doing 12 days straight (12 hour + days) of fieldwork netted me nearly a months pay... SWEET! That will cover my clutch, all my car problems, and still leave me enough money to live on for the next month so I can't complain too much.
Life in Calgary is good too. I've mostly been hanging with friends and just catching up. There have been more BBQs and dinners at friends houses than I can count. I went over to Stef's tonight and had dinner with her and her sister tonight (and Chloe too, she's 11 months). Her hubby Pat is out of town, so we just sat around after dinner for several hours and chatted. This is a pretty typical night. There have definitely been a few nights of partying, but for the most part just hanging with friends. I also caught up with Ted last weekend who is a bestfriend from literally from preschool who is now living in Calgary (I'll be back in Calgary in early August for his wedding).
I wish there was more deep and meaningful stuff to say right now, but the past couple weeks have been purely unwind moments with general hanging out and accentuated by a few moments of excitement. I've been climbing at the gym a couple times, played squash once (again tomorrow), walked a bunch, and sat on many a patio. Well, I must say something else besides bitching and boring details... ah yes... I've wondered about lots of stuff (yes, I have way too much time on my hands). Here are some random thoughts...
- Calgary is now the largest city in Canada that allows smoking in bars. What's up with that? What makes it even stranger is that you can't smoke on patios, but you can smoke in the bar. Ummm, excuse me, I want to have a cigarette so I'm going to go inside. The people who made up this law must have been smoking more than a cigarette!
- Calgary is booming right now in terms of money. But people here also seem infatuated with money. House prices went up 40% last year alone (which helps me feel better about paying my $1600 house tax bill this month) and show no signs of slowing down. I can't remember any time in San Fran when we went out and discussed stock options, mergers, etc. Yet it's the #1 talk here. Maybe if I had 35,000 stock options and my company was about to be bought out at $45/share I might be more apt to talk about stocks :) But to me, people in San Fran seemed pretty well grounded and happy without being as concerned about money. Granted, no one could afford a house but....
- Good friends are worth a lot. I've been lucky enough to make some really good friends in all the places I've lived. I'm more the person that makes a small handful of great loyal, long-term friends than the type of person who makes lots of acquaintances. San Fran was funny this past year in that a group of friends that hung out together for the past couple years was dissolving... Justin & Erin moving to Washington, Sam moving Colorado (?). Usually a friend comes and goes, but this kind of seemed like the entire group dissipated. Well, there are others in "the group" and I don't want to be exclusionary, but you know what I mean. Actually, San Fran is very transient and I therefore made many good friends that moved on... just the nature of the city. It's nice to come back to Calgary and find that many of my good friends from years ago are still here! But even this is not going to last. Looks like, for example, the Aussie is going to Thailand, Welshman is going to Holland, and the Frenchwoman is just never here (but I'll visit her elsewhere!). Anyway, good friends will always catch up sometime, somewhere.
Lastly, I guess I'll give a quick update on the plans for those who A. Care B. Are planning on meeting up with me somewhere or C. Want to know when and where to avoid me. My latest intent is to go to Winnipeg this weekend, be there for nearly 2 months, but fly to Montreal / Toronto for 2 weeks sometime in those 2 months. I have to be back in Calgary for an August 5 wedding (someone else's) and I'm going to babysit Branan (Paul & Sue's son) the weekend of Aug 12 in appreciation for Paul helping me move back up to Calgary. Then ~Aug 15 I'm on a roadtrip down to San Fran (maybe through Washington to catch up with Erin & Justin?) needing to be at Burning Man late August or early September? I could look at a calendar, but... After that there are several friends I'd like to catch up with in San Fran and the surrounding regions if they'll have me on their couches. Then after that I'm thinking much more seriously about Africa now. Time to strike one of the last continents off the list? Okay, I've only been to Costa Rica, so that probably doen't count as South America, or does it? Central America isn't a continent, is it? So if it isn't, where does that put Costa Rica? If CR is in SA, then Africa is my last continent (I'm just accepting the lack of desire and resources as eliminating Antarctica from the realm of likelihood). There's some possible work opportunities that have popped there head up recently for work in Ethiopia, but even mentioning this is way ahead of schedule.
Okay, essay over. Off to bed (or maybe I'll stay up for the Daily Show... which I get even without cable... sweet!!).
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