I'm off to find some Canada Day celebrations tomorrow...no doubt I will find something to enjoy. I hope to get to some fireworks and hopefully capture a photo or two of the lights. (Fingers crossed)

The plan for this weekend has changed and while you were not in on the original plans which were to hang out in Edmonton you will be happy to hear the new agenda. I'm going camping. Surprise, surprise! Well, maybe not really a big surprise but it is true.

I made the reservations tonight. Two nights at a campground just outside of Waterton Lakes National Park and two nights at Writing on Stone Park. Oh the things I will see and do this weekend--you should be jealous.

The kitchen is currently in a state of chaos as I prepare for the weekend excursion. The dishes that did not get washed after the last trip are finally in the sink soaking. Now, don't get all yuck on me I wash them when I'm out camping but I usually do give them a more hearty clean at home in the sink between trips. The amount of food required for this trip is greater than some of my previous trips and I know that the freezing abilities of my cooler bags is not going to last the length of the trip so I see a trip to the grocery store before I return to Edmonton.

I hate to overpack on everything--food, clothes, other essentials and so I am doing the night before the day before the trip pre-packing. The food, utensils and other related cooking type things all go into an action packer. If they don't fit in the action packer--they don't come on the trip. Seriously. I have some of the food items in the freezer and am planning on some additional water freezing tomorrow. I know that once water is frozen it is frozen but for some reason in my mind the longer I leave it in the freezer the longer it will stay frozen outside of the freezer. No, please do not try and put reason into my logic. I beg you not to burst my bubble. Ignorance is bliss.

This could be the last road trip for a while....LOL. Yeah right, who am I kidding. The next road trip is scheduled for the weekend of the 23rd ish.

I have turned the volume on my tv up twice in the past half hour. The thunder keeps getting louder and is drowning out the show I am watching. This is the third or possibly fourth night in a row we have had a thunder and lightening storm. The days are hot and sunny, the evenings are loud and rainy. Not bad actually, but very noisy tonight.

I tried to get pictures of the lightening the other night but it doesn't come with enough consistency for me to photograph it and I spent about 15 minutes just taking picture after picture. I may try later tonight again when the sky is black but for now I am content to sit and listen to the rain pelt down around me.

The tv is now off and I'm sitting enjoying a book. I love the public library.

Survived another camping trip--but am down a couple pints of blood due to the mosquitos. Met up with my friend from Banff and I think we both had fun. Here's a few pics from the trip...

This is a picture of where we hiked on Wednesday morning...taken from the top of the hill. If you look closely you can see where the river is, just beyond the lighter flat green area in the center of the picture. We hiked to the river and back. The up part was pretty difficult--the very heavy rainfall from the night before turned a lot of the clay into mud. Getting a grip going up hill was um, interesting.

See the 3 deer? I did. They watched us for a few moments and then bounded down the hill in record time into the grass and then disappeared. Awesome!

I was hoping to catch a cactus in bloom but was unsuccessful...maybe next time.

Chicken of course came along for the trip. I thought I had a replacement bear--Bubba, but I think I am going to return him to Walmart as he is a bit too big for putting into my day pack.

Oldish farm tractor found on the side of the road after crossing the ferry.

The first night of the camping trip was a bit wet. Within a half hour of my arrival in Drumheller the sky opened and the rain, thunder and lightening began. And the rain came down hard. Like any good camper stuck in a rainstorm we went to Walmart. After wasting as much time as possible there and walking out into more rain we went for supper...and then the rain stopped. Yeah! The tent and everything inside it was...dry. Yep, no flooding issues. A nice fire was started and some marshmallows eaten. Mmmm, campfire marshmallows.

The hike Wednesday morning was great--about a 2 hour jaunt in total. Followed up with a ferry ride and then lunch back at the campground. We spent the afternoon wandering around downtown and getting laughed at by the locals--as you can see from the pics above we (I) may have been hamming it up a bit.

This is my new apartment...

Remember this?

No. Maybe this...

That was Drumnheller, August 2009. I'm headed back there at some point on Tuesday afternoon and staying until Thursday. Yeah! My friend Kim and I are finally able to sync our schedules and are going to meet up in Drumheller for a couple days of hiking and camping. Whoo hoo!

Have a great week...I know I will.

I'm back. The wedding was wonderful. Very simple but very elegant. And a very comfortable casual atmosphere by all...even the bride to be who got a spot on her white dress prior to the ceremony and shrugged and said 'it's white. I didn't expect to keep it clean." A tide to go pen was found and the dress was cleaned before the ceremony started but I loved her realistic attitude towards the whole thing.

It was an honor to have been invited and to be one of the people involved. Thanks Keith. And congrats to you and Elaine. They leave on Tuesday for thier honeymoon in Europe...yep, jealous about that trip!

No major plans yet for this week. Am trying to arrange a camping trip mid-week but no details as of yet.

Body Works was great too. Highly recommend it if you are ever in a city that is hosting the exhibit. I paid the extra $5 for the hand held audio files well worth the money. It provides further clarificaiton of the exhibits.

Had brunch today (Sunday) with my friend D. It is always great to see friends...and the waffles certainly didn't hurt.


Here comes the bride...

These flowers were found freshly watered in Olympic Park in downtown Calgary. VERY beautiful!

I have no idea why Alberta is obsessed with gophers, I know they are everywhere but...pink ones? With the exception of the pink gophers the rest are from the Gopher Museum in Torrington, Alberta. Well worth the $2 admission.

I'm off in the morning for Calgary--Friday. I even know what day it is this week, though I do find myself checking the calendar a few times a day to make sure. I am attending a wedding Saturday evening and hoping to catch up with a friend (or two) from my trip to India. Should be fun.

I am also hoping to attend an exhibit at the Telus Science Centre in Calgary...Body Works. If you haven't heard of it check out the link that I am going to post...but I warn you if biology was not your thing in school you may find this exhibit a little too graphic. You have been warned...

http://www.calgaryscience.ca/exhibits/exhibits/bodyworlds/

I know it is not for everyone but I have always been fascinated by how the body looks inside and how we are put together. Having lunch with the nurses when they talked shop never bothered me, I wanted to know more. :)

My favorite pink shirt has suddenly developed three tiny holes across the back. It seems odd that all three would suddenly appear at the same time and my theory is that the mosquitos in Cold Lake in their attempt to suck out my blood created the holes. Its a theory anyway. Maybe not a good one but I'm working on it.

A friend from PEI invited me to join an amateur photography group on Facebook. So I did. I don't join many groups on FB but this one seemed fun enough. Each week they pick a theme and people post pictures and then the other members vote on them and provide some constructive criticism. I posted a picture this week and the votes are quite favorable. There are no prizes but it is fun none the less.

Here is the picture I posted:

Have a great weekend!

I love my morning tea. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love my morning tea--the stinky one.

What I don't love it when I spill the tea leaves. The basket that holds the tea leaves must come out of the pot. Sometimes it comes out part way through the drinking and sometimes not until I have finished the whole pot. Either way it comes out and sits on the edge of the hotpad or balances on top of the tea pot. Yesterday I sat it on the edge of the hotpad and this morning I knocked it over onto the floor. What a mess! This isn't the first time I have done this and will not be the last but I kick myself every single time. The issue at the new apartment is where it lands...on a wool carpet....a very light grey wool carpet. I'm would never buy myself a light grey wool carpet for my living room...I know what a klutz I am. The question is who buys a light grey wool carpet for a rental unit?

And the answer is....Cold Lake.

I knew a couple of people would know based on the airplane reference. :)

The wedding of a long time friend is this weekend. I'm looking forward to going and feel very honored to have been invited. This person has been in and out of my life since I was in Grade 9, which, considering that next year is my 20 year high school reunion, (Can that be right?), is a long time.

I am looking forward to the event and found the perfect wedding gift.



Not quite the gift you were expecting is it?

Yes, it is for mounting the antlers of an animal...no it isn't really meant as a serious gift. I'm giving cash for their European honeymoon but wanted to 'present' them with something as well. It is totally meant as a gag gift--something to regift and pass along at the next gag event one of them attends.

For those of you who have antlers hanging in your home I mean no offense. I have said before that I have no issues with hunting. I will help chop up the meat and will greedily gobble it down, I just don't want to pull the trigger. I must say though I don't understand the desire to have an animal head on my wall...but it just wouldn't go with my couch cushions.

Finally managed to get the family photos printed that I wanted to have done for Mother's Day...technical difficulties. I sent them in for printing and unfortunately when I picked up the prints the heads were all stretched. They looked terrible. That was the day before I was to head off for Vancouver and so things didn't get done. Then with the move and chaos that has been my life I still didn't get it done. I found the zip stick I needed last week just before heading out to Cold Lake and finally today managed to relocate it and the pictures and voila! prints. My apologies to my mother, grandmother and sister...Happy Belated Mother's Day. Hopefully for the next round of celebrations I will have my head a bit more together and will actually get things done on time and mailed in advance. Maybe.

Let's play...name that spot.

I am going to post a few pics from my weekend away and you can guess where I went.

Here's a couple of hints...

1. I did not leave Alberta.
2. I did not head to Southern Alberta.
3. I drove about 3 hours to get there.
4. They have more airplanes there than the airport in Edmonton. (Maybe not, but they have a lot.)

Any guesses?

Here are a few other pics from my weekend.

Fence out on Highway 55. Fence posts are covered with boots. I asked why, no one knew other than to say there is one place that has hats on them.

Guess who is coming to dinner? Squirrel meat...yummy. Not. Well, maybe it is yummy but I will never find out. This little guy decided to come and help me with the dishes. He was licking the plate when I got back from one of my trips to the beach.

Great old house on route back to Edmonton.


Some of the things left inside the great old house.


Beautiful flowers found in _____.

And so another day comes to a close. Hope you had a good one. I finally did a bit more re-arranging in my bedroom. Wow, is my apartment small. I bought myself a lovely head board and two new dressers and a new bed last month. They were delivered to the new place and I managed to get the dressers in place at the end of the first week. When you walk in the room the area seemed to lengthen due to the furniture placement...or so the landlord said. I had to agree. I had moved them all a number of times and was quite pleased with the final product. Now I'm not.

The headboard has been sitting in the bathroom in the box since its arrival. Today was the day to dig it out and put it in place. The door won't close. The headboard sticks out about 3 inches into the doorway. Hmmm. This will take some time to fix. And a lot of energy. I'm glad I haven't attached the headboard yet. It will be a lot easier to move the bed without the headboard attached to it. It's heavy and will require a second person to help me properly attach it to the frame. In the meantime it is resting in place held by the weight of the bed. It isn't going anywhere.

In other news...I love olives.

I have twice now purchased olives from Olive Me. It is this fabulous store here in Edmonton--only a few blocks from my aparment. And all they sell is olives. Yummy. Olives are still fairly new to my diet, maybe only in the past 2-3 years. I used to have Greek salads without the olives, now I ask for extra. The first olives purchased were green and stuffed with sundried tomatoes and feta cheese. Yummy. The latest ones are in a brine and have this amazing flavour that I can't seem to describe at the moment but are again YUMMY. She said they last 3+ weeks. I laughed and said not in my house. I'll be lucky if they last the week.

Oh, and there may be a camping trip this coming weekend...yep, I'm almost positive there will be. I just need to get my truck back and do some packing.

A huge yawn just erupted from me so I guess it is time to head into the teeny, tiny bedroom and get some sleep.

Obsessed.

Yes, I think I am obsessed with old tv. I seem to spend most of my tv watching time on the 'classics'. Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Golden Girls, Cosby Show (the early episodes), Who's the Boss, Facts of Life, Three's Company. Love them all. Oh, and Maude. I had never seen it before and really enjoy it. Maude has two of the actresses from the Golden Girls before they were golden. I'd guess 40's, not 50/60's.

I guess summer is a good time to enjoy the classics since there are no new shows on but I wonder if I will be tempted to switch over to the new shows in the fall. Time will tell.

I have seen the odd episode of a few new shows and one I am going to try and catch up on this summer is 'The Good Wife' and 'Lost'. Lost is officially over but I am still a couple years behind. Yep, I'm always behind the times.

We have had a run of nice weather here in Edmonton and I have taken advantage of it. I managed a picnic at the U of A campus the other day. I wandered around the campus, read, and enjoyed my picnic. I spent most of the day outside enjoying the temperatures. (It is now Monday...) On Sunday I had another walk/read/enjoy the sun session. Today the rain has kept me inside...and it looks like rain for the entire week. Sigh.

In other news, my battle with the gov't over my 2008 taxes may be coming to an end. You may recall that they had issue with my moving expenses and my Northern deducations. The Northern deductions arguement was settled just after Christmas 2009 and it would appear that they finally get why my ticket went from Iqaluit to Charlottetown and not directly to Calgary. The whole explaination of why my 'stuff' was in storage, proof of storage, etc was involved. I don't have the official documents yet but according to the website it has been re-assessed for the 4th time. Yep, 4th time. It seems to be a 0 in 0 out situation which was exactly what I was looking for.

So it was a good news, bad news kind of day. The good news was the tax situation. The bad news is that the truck needs $800 of work. I need a new water pump put in. Yikes. I was not really expecting that--who ever is? It needs to be done and thankfully this is the first real amount of work that has been done to the truck. And let's be grateful that it happened while I was bumming around Edmonton and NOT when I was crossing the Rockies a few weeks ago.

I may go camping this weekend coming...I hope to decide tomorrow, but you know...if I go I go. The weather is looking good for Friday but this is only Monday and things can and do change in the weather on a regular basis.

The final piece of furniture arrived on Friday--the shelf. I think I mentioned before that it had to be taken apart to fit up the stairs. It took the mover and I a full week to get our schedules synced. So the unpacking is almost finished. Of course I didn't do any unpacking or re-arranging on the weekend due to sunshine. I knew not to waste that big yellow orb in the sky. My skin has started to take on a colour that it hasn't seen since our trip to India and looks so very nice. With any luck (and yes, a lot of sun screen) I will turn a nice shade of light brown by the end of summer. Ah, summer. Do you realize that it has been 4 summers since I have spent the whole summer in Southern Canada? Yep, 2006 I was in Nunavut, minus a trip to PEI in August. 2007 I was in Nunavut the whole summer. 2008 I was in Nunavut until the end of July and again in 2009. I'm excited just thinking about it.

I hope to be a better blogger in the next week I've been writing lots of entries in my red books but haven't taken the time to transcribe them into a readable format online. You are such a great bunch of readers that I know I am forgiven.

Happy Monday.

TGIF.

LOL. I barely even know it is Friday, thank goodness for the calendar on my computer that lets me know what day/time it is. (I just flipped over to make sure it was indeed Friday.) I am sitting on my deck enjoying the sunshine. Ah, sunshine. And I am enjoying wireless--that is truly a gift.

This is the second day this week I have been able to enjoy the heat and sunshine. I certainly hope there are more days like this.

A good friend/advisor suggested I try and maintain a schedule while off work. So I am trying. I try to get up at my regular time, but instead of 6am it is more around the 7am time which isn't too bad and if/when I start working again I am confident I could go back to the 6am start. I shower, have breakfast, drink my tea, etc. The usual am things I did when I was working, then I leave the house. One morning it was to go to the library, yesterday it was for a 'chat' about a job--not an interview. This morning it was to get some groceries. I allow myself to go back home around noonish have lunch and then work on something in the afternoon which lately has been just unpacking and organizing. This afternoon I am thinking a quick trip to the library followed by a hour or two on a bench reading. It's good to not stay in the house all day--every day.

I'm home at the moment though waiting for KD my mover to call. They couldn't get my shelf up the stairs and took it back to their shop to take it apart. We haven't been able to co-ordinate our schedules since last week so today should be the day I get it back. It is the final piece I need to finish unpacking. The last of the boxes should fill out the shelf and then it just remains for me to organize it all.

I am checking the want ads and thinking about where I might end up and what I might do 'next'. I feel as though I am going through a mid-life crisis or something but that can't be possible because the psychics all say I have a long life line and 72 isn't old.

I've written a few blog entries in my red book. I carry it with me everywhere. I jot things down as I think of them, write my 'tod do' list in them, that kind of thing. By the time I get back from my journey they don't seem very interesting or insightful so I don't type them in. Maybe it is just a form of therapy to write. Until 5 years ago I was never a diary person I think the blog has changed that.

If we get some rainy weather in the next few days I will tell you about my advenutres in walking.