After playing guitar for ten minutes, my fingers are black. Time for new strings?

I'm making a song book for campfires. Any suggestions? Yes, Lauren, I already have Brian Wilson in there (like we need the words) and the Sweater Song for Kate.

Anyway, it's a beautiful day and I have 8km to run!

hungover = homesick

Last night was Marcel's show at Tubby Dog on 17th. Super tiny venue and like 7 guys way too into moshing. Marcel got hit in the face with a mic and his guitarist also got a fat lip, but it was really rock and roll of them. They didn't even stop playing. Pretty cool, actually. Anyway it was a tight set and we had fun. Drank too much beer (on my part, anyway.)

I miss being part of a music scene! Two weeks, baby.

I did end up getting a call from that guy at the Downtown Deli, and I got the job, too! My summer is basically planned out .. new roomie, new piano, new jobs .. three weeks yesterday and I'll be home!

On Friday night after meeting Cory at BP's for pool and $5.50 doubles, we headed up the road to a pub called Ranchman's to meet a girl I know from work. It's the most well-known country bar in all of Alberta, or something like that. Remember on Cool Runnings when they go to the bar and get in a fight with the Swiss team? That's the bar we went to! Outside the front they have the actual bobsled from the movie and everything. Anyway, there were no fights but the amount of cowboys was uncountable, and the dance floor was covered in couples doing the ol' two step. It was a rocking good time, and next time I go back, I'm bringing my pink cowboy hat Nanny's sisters got me in Florida. Yeeehaw

I was under the impression that the Downtown Deli was going to give me a ring for a phone interview tonight, but so far there has been nothing. I guess I could have been mislead by the wording:

"I will call you tonight at 7pm your time. "

Still, nice to get a reply to all the resumes I have been shipping out.

Just ran 4 and a half miles and I feel tired, but great. I might actually end up running this half marathon!

It's Cory's birthday today! We're having people over for a games night tonight. I have bread in the oven and just need to run to Superstore to get icecream for his cake. Yay me!

bad news:

The Simon and Garfunkel has been canceled. Unsure if we are getting a refund or switching the tickets to another concert (aren't they in Halifax at some point?)

good news:

Mikey's a go on the cross Canada trip!

still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest

There are many exciting things happening!

Mikey might be coming to Calgary at the end of next month to drive back his sister's car, so we might possibly be canceling our tickets home and driving home instead (arriving at roughly the same date.) This is exciting because I really want to drive across Canada, it would be the perfect way to end this little adventure of mine, Mikey's sister would be paying for our gas, and come on! Driving with Cory and Mikey and his unknown sister? That's just f-u-n waiting to happen.

That would mean, however, that I would go from driving across the country (let's say May 27th to June 2nd) to moving out with Jill (June 2nd) to Aric's band concert (June 3rd) to driving to Montreal (midnight, June 3rd.) Busy week. Oh yeah, and starting whatever jobs I can convince to wait until June 7th, the day after I get home from Montreal.

!!

In other news, this weekend is Cory's big 23 and we're actually doing things. Friday a friend of Jessica's is playing at the Palamino, Saturday we're having a games night and Sunday we're seeing Simon and Garfunkel!

What a trip.

Florida was so great. The weather was fantastic, and I've never seen Nanny and Grampy let loose like that. Newfie bands at the flea market, one dollar beer, pizza and hilarious RRSP advice from drunken Grampy.. just an excellent time overall.

As soon as I got back, it was time for the CMmys (staff party with awards and stuff). Such a great night. I haven't partied like that in ages, god it was good. Danced all night long and Scottie and I shut down the bar. The day after they closed the office until 10 which meant sleeping in until 9 (I usually get up at 6) but I was still drunk from the night before. Messy.

Makes me want to get home and have some sweet house parties though. Enough of this domestic shit.

one a penny, two a penny

this may as well be an official food blog. I made these hot cross buns for Easter!

We booked our tickets home - May 29th! Party at Mom and Dad's!

tuna sandwich + pickle + chips

it's sunny outside

on the verge of a long weekend

life is good.

Uhh, puppy.

I'm on my third novel in four days. I finished Water for Elephants, which was a great book with a great ending, and I Am Madame X, which was an interesting view of french art, but not an amazing read. Now I'm on Middlesex, but only a few pages in so I really can't say much about it. It seems good, it's about a hermaphrodite so it should be interesting.

Tonight I helped babysit Annabelle, so we took lots of videos of "baby" and after about a minute of each one Annabelle would want to look at the video of the "baby". I don't think she gets that it's just her in the videos but ... still funny to have her on tape going "UHHHH puppy. Puppypuppypuppy."

And just because Lauren likes to hear about my food life, this week I am making potato leek soup and peach basil porkchops with broccoli salad! Should be delicious.

Banff was gorgeous.

After only one day of snowboarding on Friday, I am still too sore to want to climb any stairs. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day, with fresh powder falling in the morning and sunshine in the afternoon. I guess they say Sunshine Village (which is the area we were skiing in) gets some of the best snow in Canada, and I believe it. My rental board ended up being shit but it just makes me want to go boarding more with my own once I get back home.

What an excellent getaway! Banff is only a two hour drive from Calgary too, so it was just the perfect little roadtrip we needed. After a long day of snowboarding, we headed back to our motel room (cozy, with 6 adults and a baby) played Yahtzee, and ordered pizza.

Yesterday we did a little shopping and went out for breakfast, and Cory and I took the long way home for a little peace and quiet.

Right now I'm in the middle of a batch of bread, and the book Water for Elephants, which I recommend.

the joys of basement living

We have ants.

There was one on the stairs, I smooshed it with my bare foot. It felt great.

and sing your stupid head off to the ones who are not listening

Drinking rum turned into going to Adam's to drink rum, which turned into going to a dub step show and dancing while drinking rum, and then getting lost in downtown Calgary. Where would I be without my incredibly good sense of direction? (answer: probably a ditch, somewhere in Calgary's South West downtown area, 3 dollars in my pocket.)

Friday night really ended my feeling of fleeting, inactive youth and so yesterday Cory and I had a night in with a bottle of wine, nachos, and Slumdog Millionaire. Today I spent re-reading Time Traveler's Wife in our sunny backyard, and I made another batch of bread. A very good weekend.

chop/cook/serve and repeat

It would be safe to say I could expand my resume by two pages by the amount of functions I managed to do this week.

Continental breakfast for 50 on Tuesday. 120 sandwiches, salads, desserts, and veggie trays for the same people on Thursday. Free Italian Buffet on Tuesday for 250 people. (I made 9 large pizzas that morning - not enough.) And of course, the usual daily lunch rush, weekly soup (Japanese Miso) and my special on Wednesday (Greek Chicken with baby red potatoes). Needless to say, I am happy it's the weekend.

Tonight I will be into the rum and we'll see what happens from there.

After spending the better part of the afternoon in a comatose state in my sunny backyard, I decided that I would maybe regret not doing anything over the weekend. So I made bread!

I miss the smell of the ocean.

how I spent the entire weekend

My day started off with a 5am phone call.

Ok, so I was called into work an hour early (6-3 shift, shoot my brains out) but it wasn't a terrible day. I mean, the first 6 hours were. But I went for a run on my break, and everyone loved my salad bar. Cory met me at work and I showed him around, and we walked to a rink downtown to drink coffee (chai tea for me, of course) and watch kids fall down. Marcel came too, and he actually took pictures of the kids until we were like, ok, maybe we should go before someone arrests us for stalking. Then we met up with Rene at his work, and went to the Unicorn for pub food, beer and to watch Canada kick Russia butt. Not too bad for a Wednesday.

you got a fast car, I want a ticket to anywhere

What a gorgeous day in Calgary. We have a little backyard fire pit and today we had our second outdoor fire this month. In February! There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was about 5 degrees. So I guess there are bonuses to living in this silly city.

This morning I went to IKEA with Annabelle, Wayne and Emily while Cory was at work. I wanted to get some art for our bedroom which is depressingly white, but ended up buying another plant. If this keeps up, soon I will live in a jungle.

the old black rum

Lately, I have been in the mood to drink. It's a strange feeling, I don't do it very often considering we don't know many people here, it's expensive, and so on.

So last night we went out and had a few rums at a very interesting pub called the Hop in Brew. It's basically a really old house with taps of beer thrown in at the back. (It actually reminded me a lot of Brutopia in Montreal) Apparently they are well known for their draft, but we tried a few and they were pretty terrible. The rum was delicious, however. We met up with my friend Marcel from work, and a few of his friends. It was a great time! I really liked the pub. It had a very local feel to it, but very different than the usual cowboy-fighting-oil rig sports pubs you find in Calgary. And bonus, it's only a few blocks from my work. Anyway, I would recommend it to anyone visiting Calgary, and we'll definitely be going back.

hippie, hippie, hoorah

Walking around on my break attempting to get some health care, I realized that I really, really hate this city. I mean, living here is not so bad, I could really live anywhere as long as I enjoy my job and have a good yoga class to go to. But the city itself is just a hell hole. Grey.

Right now, I'm listening to some mixed CDs Marcel made for me. He put pictures of Thetis Lake on the front - he lived in Victoria two summers ago and we talk about our favourite spots all the time. Marcel is the first person I have met out west that I actually enjoy. And I wish Jess was here to date him, because for some reason I can't get it out of my head that they would be great together.

Cory's first DJ set is tomorrow at some bar downtown. V exciting! I work at BP, hopefully not too late that I will miss the show. Speaking of which, I don't think BP will last much longer.. I'm getting pretty burnt out.

This is basically how I spent my day yesterday. That's my new mug!

my life is food.

We finally made it to the Calgary Farmer's Market this morning. I got a beautiful new ceramic mug for my tea needs and we all bought pies from Simple Simon Pies. It was a tough decision but after about 5 samples (great marketing) Cory ended up with a chicken curry pie, and I got a mushroom chicken pie. Such a great idea for a market stall - they had about 20 "meal" pies, and 15 dessert pies, all different sizes.. puts me in the mood to make some pastry.

I picked up a food magazine on cheap eats in Calgary while we were there too, so I'll be reading that later to find some good spots. Jess and I discussed a possible spring visit so I'll want to be in the know of some cool places to take her to, and eating out is back on the agenda now that Cory is working again.

looong weekend!

Go Alberta and their made up holidays! Thanks to "family day" on Monday, I'm at the beginning of a long weekend. Usually I don't care but thanks to my new job I actually have the time off.

Hooray! And happy valentine's day

robots need love too, they want to be loved by you.

Last night Cory and I saw Dan Mangan at The Gateway in SAIT. It was quite an ordeal to get to the pub (I blame google maps) but totally worth it in the end. He put on a great show and we met him after the show! He was very handsome and Cory said I was star struck.

Yesterday we also went skating on the Bowness lagoon. We took Annabelle's red sled and got hot chocolate afterwords.. it was a great winter day.

free lunch day!

Today was a free lunch at CM. We ordered $3000 worth of food from some Asian noodle house and set it up for everyone to eat buffet style. Turns out we only needed about half of it.

I came home with four take home containers, plus some muffins from breakfast. Love love love my job.

I love the weekend. To expand:

1) I have really come to appreciate a good sleep in. Waking up at 6 everyday will do this to anyone, probably.

2) I have time to chill and do whatever I want - which mostly means playing solitaire/snood and watching Office reruns

3) I can base an entire night around watching a movie, smoking a fatty, and eating snacks

4) I have so much time to cook whatever I want. Today: Potato Leek Soup (best) and a greek breaded chicken, and later, homemade pizza. Maybe banana chocolate chip muffins. I dunno. We'll see.

I'm listening to Jessica's lovely radio show, which you can listen to every Thursday at 10 EST!

It's based on Jillian's holiday calendar, and so far I have remembered to listen to it twice but it's very amusing and amateur and they play great music.

Today was very productive! I went for a run on my lunch break (treadmills downstairs, so hot right now) dropped by BP for schedule/paperwork after and basically got Cory a job, went to Superstore and got a pair of sweats, a tshirt, three pairs of underwear AND a sports bra for 40 bucks! And picked up some leeks to make some potato leek chowder this weekend. It's my soup next week :)

Tomorrow is my first special at work, I'm doing fajitas/soft tacos, and it's Friday. This was the fastest week in the universe.

Oh, and I sold 5 cups of soup today so... took home 2 litres.

her name was lola

Our first dance class last night went very well. We learned a basic step and two twirls. It sounds lame but looks awesome. Wayne and Emily decided to join with us which is great, and has great potential to make Tuesdays the best evening of the week.

I have to make lentil soup tomorrow for lunch, but it's phad thai day here at the CM Bistro and apparently we will be slammed with people coming for it. It's famous around here. On my first day I literally heard about it 6 times, from different sources. It's going to be a crazy day.

On a side note I feel very proud of myself because I sent out mail for all of you! Being of course, Lauren and Kate, Jess, my Nanny, and Brandon. And some forms for the Culinary. That's a lot of mail for one weekend

high and dry

There is many exciting things happening!

-First, my job is sweet. This was the best first week at a job I've had. I know I'm going to love it and I don't ever want to leave! But I have to, because
-I am officially registered for the culinary!
-Also Cory and I are starting Swing and Jive lessons on Tuesday.

In other news, the new episode of the Office sucked. I am way disappointed.

first day

Today was my first day at Critical Mass.

It was very long, and very boring. I had to be trained with two other people who are actually techies, and I had to go through all of the computer training with them. Besides that, it was good. Everyone seems really friendly and outgoing, and all of the bistro staff are cool so far. It's very casual and creative, so I think I'll like it a lot.

I'm also working the 7-4 shift, so a) I need to adjust to waking up super early, and b) take the train for 20 minutes each way during the busiest hours. Poopy.


Also, I am addicted to snood. Again.

phhheww,

well, I haven't been posting because I have so much to post about, and therefore I don't want to post any of it because I am way too busy.

In short:

My trip home was so, so awesome.
Even though Holland College lost my application, I am once again 99% sure I will be attending the Culinary in September.
I am pumped to move home in the spring!
Boston Pizza pays the bills but sucks bad,
and I start my new job tomorrow!

Also last Thursday we went to the Palomino to see Dennis Ellsworth play. It was awesome to see him again and he put on a great show. The bartender (who was terrifying) made drop shots for these girls which included a line of fire on the bar, filling her mouth up with liquor, and spitting it all over me and cory (innocent bystanders) which obviously made a blast of fire. Then she got the girls to help her blow out the fire so they could drink their shots.

one sheep for your ore.

a few days into my trip. I am freaking exhausted.

It's been great so far. I have done lots, seen tons of people, and I'm still in the growing position of wanting to move home.

And eaten FOUR turkey dinners so far in the span of a week! Not even including leftovers. I feel great.

Tomorrow: Farmer's Market, pilates at 11, possibly sledding with Cory and Brandon, dinner at Gram's..