Summer Recess is Over...

Six weeks has gone by, I cannot believe it. I've finished my courses (A+ and C-), started 2 new ones, returned to work, gone on holidays to Toronto and Niagara... and am now gearing up for Fall which includes trips to Vancouver, NYC (!!!), Toronto, and Ottawa. So far. Good thing I got over my fear of airline travel.

While we were in Toronto, we attended a Holland America reunion party with our friends that we went cruising with back in April. Denise, with the help of sous-chef Alastair, prepared a fabulous 5 course meal reminiscent of those we enjoyed on the ms Westerdam ... we pulled out all of our HAL swag for the occasion and even drank buckets of MGD. Bonus points to the hostess with the mostess, for printing out the menus complete with the HAL logo on them.

Belated photos of Victoria

Well, I think I figured out how to make the pictures work. The dimensions might be a bit wonky, but it's better than nothing!

While in Victoria last month, I had the pleasure of spending a sunny afternoon at Butchart Gardens, a huge and very beautiful botanical garden. Very nice place. Victoria in general, from what I saw, seemed quite nice actually. I'd like to go back and explore Vancouver Island a bit more sometime. Anyway, here's some pics.

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

I know I said I would post pictures from Victoria. I still can't figure out what is wrong with Blogger. I'm sorry. I better figure it out, because a blog with no pics is no fun.

We went to the Stampede yesterday, ate some junk, bought tickets for the Dream Home Lotto... nothing too exciting. I don't do rides and we decided not to go to the rodeo again, since we went last year. I sort of wanted to see the chuckwagon races but also didn't want to, because horses are usually fatally injured at some point during them and I'm not cool with that.

2 more weeks of education leave left and I'm done one course and closing in on the other. Both exams are next week. Then back to the grind. Honestly, I won't mind it. I kind of miss going to work and talking to people.

So...

I have a post written about my trip to Victoria but again I am having problems getting the pictures to load properly. For some reason, they upload in HUGE scale and do not display properly on the blog, even though I am using the same camera, procedure, web host, etc. I have to start from scratch and upload again or manually resize, which will take awhile. I'll do it on the weekend, fo sho.

Otherwise, let's see... our landscaping is fully underway, actually it is mostly done. The noise has driven me out of the house all week, so I am 'that person' with the laptop at Starbucks... actually, you can eat and drink at the public library here (weird!) and they have free wifi with the purchase of a library card (also weird, but only $12/year) so I prefer going there. The added bonus is that I can take 'breaks' and read magazines or look for novels to check out.

I was hoping to get down to Medicine Hat since it's Father's Day this weekend, but alas, not going to happen. We'll be staying in town hopefully enjoying some summer weather and not, you know, more hail like yesterday. At least these storms are fast and furious, they come and go within an hour. Yesterday the rain was coming down like it was being hurled out of the sky, mixed with hail, loud thunder, huge lightening. The sun came back out and our fence was actully steaming as the water evaporated. I wish I had taken a photo, it kind of looked like the fence was on fire.

So that's my update. I'll fix up those pics this weekend and post em. Happy Father's Day to the dads out there!

Up Up and Away

So I'm off to Vancouver today. I have a job interview tomorrow (for a job I won't get, but that's okay. I'm giving the interview process a try for a position one level above me, but the actual position is only a 1 year backfill, so it will be filled locally. Kinda takes the pressure off, which is nice.) Then I will go to Victoria to attend a meeting on behalf of my boss, and come home on Thursday night.

The weather is supposed to be, you know, late spring like in BC which is a nice change from the FROST WARNINGS here over the past few days. Oh, and the snow. And hail.

On the upside, it's supposed to be 21 and sunny when I come back. I'll try to take some interesting pics for ya.

Bleargh

It is going to be 4 tomorrow with a chance of SNOW.

Yeah, seriously. It's JUNE.

Stupid Calgary.

Fortunately for us, we had decided to spend this weekend indoors doing some home improvements. New closet doors x 9, and a few other wee projects. I am very excited to get new doors, ours are the original 70s woodgrain look and they look so.dated.

Next week, we'll be getting a bunch of landscaping done. I decided that installing the brick patio in TO gets me out of more manual labour so we are hiring a company to do it. Never mind the labour, we need a new retaining wall and have no idea how to build one. Pay now and get it done right the first time, vs. DIY and eff something up and pay later, that's my motto. I'll post pics when it's all done.

Announcement: New Blog

I started another blog to keep school stuff separate from everything good and fun, which will continue to be posted here.

Check it out, yo.