The Gang (Was) All Here

This post is very much overdue, but I’ve been insanely busy balancing personal writing with my blog, a massive freelance project that has no end in sight, and that thing that eats up the bulk of my days: work. I feel like I’m scrambling to keep up with everything a bit; having guests throws off the equilibrium of just about everything, but that’s a small price to pay.

To that end, yes, we had guests. My sister Gillian and her husband Charlie visited us for a week. As per our suggestion, they came at the tail end of Stampede, meaning they were here for some of the scorching hot weather we’re ‘enjoying’ in Calgary (I’m not one to complain when it’s warm out, but I do take issue with the fact virtually no one has air conditioning – makes it tough to sleep, especially for our poor guests!)

Truth be told Gill and Charlie did a lot of the stuff Jordan and I have done before, but I can give you a quick synopses of their days and ours.

Saturday – Our guests arrived. We took them out to grab a bite at Flippin’ Burger around the corner from us, then we wandered around 17th and Mission for a bit so they could get a taste of Calgary nightlife. Charlie, for the record, lived here till he was about 20, although he noted the city has changed radically since he’s left. Afterward we took them up the hill for a spectacular view of the city, although the skeeters were out like crazy that night so we didn’t stay long.

Sunday – Stampede Day! Jordan and I hadn’t really partaken in Stampede to this point, other than both catching pieces of the parade and attending a few Stampede parties. Gill and Charlie spent the bulk of the day at the actual Stampede, while we joined them shortly before our evening attendance of the Rodeo. Jordan and I tried a few pieces of deep fried grossness, which made me hella sick in the middle of the night…sigh, my last motivation for heading to Stampede is gone. Although I will say the Chuckwagon Races that we caught were pretty amazing. Afterward we headed to the Cowboys tent with our VIP passes to catch Iggy Azalea and Snoop Dogg. Unfortunately the venue is pretty terrible acoustically – I could barely hear a thing – and the VIP section is stupidly on the second level, with reserved ‘boxes’ (we didn’t have one) so we basically watched the show on screens. But still, kind of neat to see both of ‘em – one classic, one new school artist – in one fell swoop. We took off early (Charlie had already long-departed) in order to beat the mad rush of the trains once the fireworks / concert would have been done, a smart move overall.

Monday – I took a personal day to hang out with Gill and Charlie at Chinook Centre. They both commented that it had gotten crazy big since their previous visits (it had been about a decade for both of them). Charlie walked away with some amazing deals while Gillian indulged in quite a few items. That night we took them out for dinner to Briggs, one of our fave social spots, and then to Village Ice Cream (their Toasted Marshmallow flavour this month is disappointing, boo).

Tuesday – I was back at work for the next few days, but Gill and Charlie spent the day trolling around downtown Calgary, including going on a walking tour. We met up for a light lunch at Marcello’s and they spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the mall and so on. That night they went out for dinner to Charcut, which I’ve heard is an amazing place to go if you eat meat 😉

Wednesday – Gill and Charlie spent the day in Canmore, which again, has apparently grown in size. They went on a fun trail ride, ate lunch and came home in the early evening. I ended up making a vegan nacho dip and we just kind of sat around, talked, watched some TV…I’ve gotten Gillian and Charlie vaguely interested in my SUPER guilty pleasure TV – American Ninja Warrior. Gah.

Thursday – Our guests had originally planned another jam-packed day of Heritage Park and the Zoo, but they ended up skipping the latter, in hopes that it’ll be more fixed up during their next / future visit. So they went to Heritage Park instead and said it was pretty impressive – it reminded them of a similar historical attraction in Winnipeg, but on steroids (that’s a pretty common expression here – Calgary is basically Winnipeg on steroids). That night we all ended up going out to Bocce, a new Italian place we spotted on Mission during our stroll on Saturday night. It’s got a cool vibe but like so many new places, it is NOISY. Our pizza was good, but there are other places I like better…not sure I’d return at this point.

Friday – This ended up being Gill and Charlie’s last day as Charlie had to work on Sunday and wasn’t looking forward to a 12-hour drive on Saturday followed by getting up early for work a mere 12 hours later. So they drove the night. Of course, once they left, I picked up a book I’d been meaning to read for some time…it’s about a girl who’s in a horrific car crash that kills her family, and she has to decide whether to ‘stay or go’. Naturally, I had nightmares, but they made it home safe and sound. But to rewind before that, we spent the day at Crossiron Mills, which both of our guests seemed overwhelmed by a bit (it happens. That mall is nuts). I got a few deals on things, as did Gill – the Town Shoes sale was amazeballs – and we finally headed home after a five-hour power shop. Apparently Charlie used to live in Airdrie so we made a pass at trying to track down his old ‘hood, but he was so overwhelmed by the changes there we quickly hightailed it to the mall instead. That night, we ended up having a light meal at The Coup, and shortly thereafter, said goodbye.

In the last week we’ve been playing a game of catch-up since the fam left. This past weekend was actually one of our only ‘free’ weekends of the summer – my parents will be in town for parts of the next two weekends, and then we have some other guests coming in after that. I will note that we actually recently got Passport to Prana passes, which give you a ‘free class’ at 18 different studios throughout Calgary and slightly beyond (hello Canmore). We tried it out for the first time this weekend, popping into a class just down the street from us at Rejuve, which is primarily an infrared weight loss clinic but also includes an infrared yoga studio – slightly different than a typical hot ‘steam’ studio. We took a yin and yang class with a couple of other people, I actually felt really good after, which is saying something – I almost NEVER feel the endorphins you’re supposed to get when working out, but by the end of the class I felt relaxed, rejuvenated and energetic. The studio is pretty bare bones, but at the very least I had a positive experience there – if I wanted to catch a class nearby our home, it’s not a bad choice.
Anyway, enough writing this – I’ve got WORK to do 😀

Downtown Bites

This week has been sort of a weird one. For one thing, the weather has been all over the map, oscillating by about 20 degrees on any given day. While I’m usually burnt out on Fridays to begin with, it’s really impacting me today – my head feels like it’s full of helium and my stomach is all unsettled. It’s possible I’m being beat up because of allergies blooming as well, but I just feel drained.

I did want to make note of two recent restaurant visits. Like, hella recent. Yesterday I went out for lunch with two of my coworkers because one of them is leaving us shortly. We ended up at Downtown Food, which is a chic little spot on 8^th I believe. It’s one of those places where the portions aren’t huge but the prices are. While everything we had was quite tasty, it also felt overpriced. I had a mushroom pasta that was supposed to be papperdelle (thick fettucine basically) but it came out as basically fettucine. We also split some goat cheese and eggplant fritters that were uber cheesy. Ultimately I probably wouldn’t pay another visit there because the prices didn’t equal the quality or portion size, but I did appreciate they had an entire vegetarian menu. Also I’ll note, this place was in John Gilchrist’s book…I suspect it might appeal to meat eaters  as they had an awesome-looking burger with fries and a mini float that looked adorable.

Today, because of how shitty I’m feeling, I asked another coworker if she remembered the name of a noodle house that I knew was opening up soon in the +15. We tracked it down and sure enough they were open, so we ventured over there with another coworker. First, we made a pit stop at SAIT where I got some sub sandwich buns to hopefully whip up some sandwiches tonight or tomorrow, as well as a vegan brownie for Jordan and a cookie for myself. All of that cost $8, believe it or not.

The noodle house is called Goro + Gun and is located in the +15 en route to Hudson’s Bay, right next door to Purr and across from SAIT. Formerly West (which may still be open on the third floor), it’s been updated with sort of a minimalist yet trendy look. Their specialty is ramen, but they also have a sushi menu, some meat dishes, and a range of Japanese appetizers. I got the mushroom ramen which was quite plentiful and filling – I recommend sprinkling some of the 7-spice seasoning and house made chilli sauce though. I’d actually like to revisit this place with Jordan because then we could get some apps and sushi to try as well. Although we had to wait a bit to get a table, you can easily book reservations online and the service was lightning fast (our ramen came out within 5 minutes of ordering it, at least that’s how it felt).

I really am going to try and make an effort to get out more now that the weather is turning (or is it?) Perhaps even if I don’t, I can at least update with some of the stuff we’re doing around the house. Stay tuned!

The Thaw

If it’s been quiet here since our Disney adventures, that’s because it has literally been quiet. February was COLD people. The kind of cold that makes you hibernate – whether by choice or not, as in our case. When we bought our car in Halifax, it didn’t come with a block heater. When we moved here, we didn’t install one either. So basically when it gets really freaking frigid, we are quite reluctant to try and take our car out, leaving us with the train or walking.

Our one notable excursion during the coldest of cold days was on Oscar night, when we had tickets to Theatre Calgary’s Oscar event at the Convention Centre. The theme was Gatsby (which we caught earlier in the year) which meant a lot of fun sparkly flapper dresses were in the mix. For me, I wore an art deco-patterned dress with a fun fascinator headband, gold and black accessories, and some brand night sheer tights with a seam up the back (very retro). So there I am, teetering on heels in the cold (it was for reals -30-ish) and I ask Jordan to take my hand so I can balance myself as we walk toward the train. Well Jordan’s wearing new shoes that he would normally only wear once at work, not walking outdoors, and he quickly discovers it’s SLIPPERY outside, knocks my feet out from under me as he drags us both down after slipping on a patch of ice, ruining my tights, giving me a pretty sizable bruise on my left knee (still there), and hurting his own elbow and shoulder.

We hightailed it back into the house so I could change my tights (I had luckily bought another pair the day before that I thought would also work with the theme), then teetered back out to the train, much more carefully this time.

The event itself was nice – I appreciate charity events that try and do things differently. It was similar to the Autism Golf Ball in Nova Scotia in that there were various food stations set up around the room for you to visit and bring your nosh back from. The food was not only really good, they had a solid number of allergen-friendly items as well so I wasn’t starving like I usually was at these things. They had I think six big screens (maybe only four?) set up around the room so you could watch the event from pretty much anywhere – although they also had these obnoxiously large centrepieces at some tables which impeded views. Looked great, but didn’t making looking so great. We actually swapped tables (Jordan’s work had two) for a better view about a third of the way in.

The downfall however, would be that when they went to do their live auction, they did it all at once, forcing people to miss a chunk of the ceremony. I think in general the environment of the event wasn’t conducive to a live auction or even a silent one (we didn’t even bother looking at the prizes) – you want to watch the Oscars, you know? Eventually some of the people we were there with decided they’d had enough of the night and we shared a cab back to our ‘hood to watch the bits of the ceremony we missed or were drowned out in peace. I’d consider going to the event again, but I think they need to recognize that the majority of the people that are going actually do want to catch the ceremony and to plan accordingly. Like have the silent auction accessible while people are milling around for the hour before the main room opens. Or only do a few live auction items per commercial break instead of a large chunk. Let people watch the red carpet arrivals on screens in the lobby area. Turn up the volume, crank down the centrepieces, and so on. Still, a different night out that was executed very well.
This past weekend the weather finallllllly warmed up, so we went on a few treks to do different things. I think Saturday would be the most notable, as we had a scheduled massage at Oasis Spa, which is just off of 17th (we won $300 in gift certificates there at Jordan’s xmas party). We don’t go to 17th as much as we did when we lived there (obviously) which is a shame as new stuff is always popping up – as per our experiences that day.

Anyway the spa. Honestly it was one of the best massages I’ve had in my life, to the point where I took note of the massage therapist’s name for future reference. The spa itself was okay. It was sort of like a diet version of Ten Spa, with the digital lockers and steam room and lounge areas. It all just felt kind of generic and slightly dated (although the Egyptian themeing in many spots was cool). Our room was unremarkable and there were no frills to our massage (no steamed towels, no pre-massage foot baths, no eye masks, no choice of massage oil scent, and all the other little add-ons other spas I’ve been to include) but both of us had really good experiences with our actual therapists, which I suppose at the end of the day is what really matters. In a perfect world an amazing masseuse would work at an amazing spa, but to have a really satisfying massage was nice as I’ve had quite a few terrible ones, as documented on this very blog.

After our spa visit, we knew we had a few other things we wanted to do in the area. First off, I had a brainwave to do a gourmet grilled cheese night using our fancy pants griddle. We decided to get some fancy cheese to make this happen (although really, the very combinations I chose were exotic on their own). This led us to the cheese shop in the back of Farm (a restaurant we visited with some folks a few weeks back), Janice Beaton Fine Cheese. As an aside, I don’t think I’ve encountered a cheese shop with quite as good an atmosphere as Pete’s Frootique, but whatever. The ones we’ve popped into here we’ve generally left empty-handed because they just feel stark and under-merchandised. We did buy a few cheeses at Janice Beaton, as well as the tomato jam we’d had when we were at Farm. That night I made four sandwiches – apple and cow’s cheddar, tomato, basil, balsamic vinaigrette and goat cheese, tomato butter and a sharper cheese (didn’t work together), and a triple decker with two pieces of pumpernickel with a piece of sourdough in the middle. As an exciting aside to visiting said cheese shop, we discovered they carry our beloved Dragon’s Breath blue cheese – at a premium of course. But it’s nice to know you can get it if you really want it (like say, for a party).

When we walked over to the spa, I had noted a new pizza restaurant appeared to have opened up next to where Roosevelt is (a popular pub), called Bensonhurst. We decided to check it out for lunch and were pleasantly surprised that the place offers not one, but six types of pizza. I mean actual types, like New York style, Chicago style, Sicilian style (which regrettably wasn’t available – turns out this place is THAT new), Neapolitan style, traditional style, and something akin to Neapolitan (which we had), each of which has about six or seven different options for customizing it. I would honestly go back just to try out more of the varieties. Their open kitchen was cool (you get to see them toss the tough!) and the pizza itself was tasty, but I do wish we’d maybe gotten a different variety than we actually did.

Afterward, our last pit stop was to an open house for a property I’d spied online a week or so ago. We’re not actively looking to move, but we are keeping an eye on the market in general. Realistically I don’t think our current home is conducive to raising a family in…even putting a nursery in there wouldn’t be that great from a resale perspective. So I’m trying to figure out where I can find a house that I can imagine having children in that’s still in a location I love. The place we looked at was incredibly pricy (especially compared to a quick online search today) considering the bathrooms needed updating, but it had a lot of beautiful curb appeal and design features, plus a ton of liveable space including a massive third story rec room area and a two-car garage. It was comforting to see that I could find an inner city home that I felt would be big enough for a family (I don’t want to live in the burbs if we stay here), but not at that price tag.

Anyway, big update for not a lot of stuff happening. The upside is the weather is finally warming up (hopefully for good) with temps in the pluses this week, Gillian and Charlie are coming for a visit in July, and hopefully we’ll be getting a tax return soon (as I knock on all kinds of wood). Stay tuned for more life in this blog as new life appears outside.

Root, Root, Root for the Home Team

I see that the last post I wrote was on the day we actually did something interesting – attended a Jets vs Flames game. I was nervous about going as Jordan and I were dressed in our Jets finery (I even put some blue streaks in my hair), but as we walked to the arena from downtown, we spotted tons of Jets fans along the way which made me more comfortable. And in fact, the arena wasn’t particularly full – but WAS full of Jets fans who did the ‘True North’ shoutout during the anthem and screamed when the Jets scored (which was five times I believe). We also had a few comical, very Canadian guys sitting behind us that were harping on about how terrible the Flames were (they were Calgarians). One of the best lines was “I’m going to need a cigarette after that period.” and his buddy saying “Yeah, nothing like a cigarette after you’ve been fucked.”

Altogether it was cool getting to see the Jets play at long last. It would be cooler to see them at home I think, although many Winnipeggers have commented on how cool it is I got to see them play abroad. It was my birthday gift to Jordan and I’m glad we went – I haven’t watched a pro hockey game in person in SO LONG (we commented on how weird it was to watch without an announcer present) and even if the players weren’t amazingggg the energy of live sports can’t be beat, no matter what the event.

Other things we’ve been up to apart from planning for Disney? Last week we went out for dinner with a former classmate of Jordan’s and his wife. Although the plan was to hit up The Coup for veg food, it was predictably slammed so we wandered about 17th Ave for a bit and settled on Farm, which is one of those very popular little gourmand joints that makes amazing, locally-focused food. We shared a divine cheese plate and wine (the restaurant has its own cheese shop in the back that also sells tomato butter a la Jane’s on the Common in Halifax), then moved onto entrees. I got a tasty mushroom gnocchi dish (the biggest shrooms went on Jordan’s plate) while Jordan enjoyed a hunk of salmon. They aren’t the most vegetarian-friendly eatery, but they did offer us some options and customized my dish (which was supposed to be rabbit-laden). Great company, great food – fun night.

We also visited Fair’s Fair, which is a chain of used booksellers throughout Calgary. We had cleaned out our bookshelves awhile back and had a HUGE box of books to sell – they took about half of them. Although we had gone there for cash, we ended up taking the store credit as a perusal of their store revealed pretty damn good selection (and again, they have six locations across the city). I’m thinking next time we want to go book shopping we should consider just going there and using our credit, even if they aren’t the NEWEST of new books (but even then, some pretty recent reads were on the shelves – I picked up two that were released in the last two years).

A sojourn down south took us to Superstore so I could finally update my banking records with my new last name, and we noted Via Cibo (spotted on a past trip) was open so we decided to give it a whirl. I’m unclear as to whether this restaurant has anything to do with Cibo on 17th Ave as they are both Italian restaurants, but this one is one of those trendy quick serve restaurants where you order, take a number, and your food is brought out to you. We shared a plate of Italian fries and a rose pasta with shrimp, both of which were pretty tasty.

We also had a night out to eat some Vietnamese food. It’s been really, really nice here lately so we’ve been able to walk places. I chose Song Han, which is just on Kensington Road, about a 5-10 minute walk from our place. The portions for the prices are amazing and the food is quite tasty as well. Definitely a good place to pop into if you want some yummy Asian food (we have yet to find decent Chinese anywhere).

Over the weekend, we attended another one of those big ol’ charity events. This one was hyped as a particularly awesome one, but I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed. The tickets were $300 a pop for what was essentially a cocktail party (albeit one with free drinks, but only a small selection of appetizers and no actual ‘food’). While the prizing was pretty impressive, the whole night felt very one note and I got really bored, really fast.

Beyond that we’ve been popping into the movies to see a few of the Oscar contenders. I have to say that Inside Llewyn Davis has very weirdly stuck with me. I know it’s not a contender at all, but I really liked it. It helps that the soundtrack was so amazing. The other films have all been kind of good, but not mind-blowingly so. This year’s race is missing the sizzle factor, I have to say.

Anyway. DISNEY. IN THREE FLIPPING DAYS. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Hibernation

I think, above all else, I miss Halifax’s winters (despite the fact it was stormy there this weekend). I’d really forgotten how brutal prairie winters can be – and Calgary is much, much more reasonable than Winnipeg (which was -51 yesterday with the windchill!) Since we’ve returned to Calgary from Winnipeg, I’ve had a very weird sinus issue that I’m chalking up to the weather rather than an infection. Jordan and I have plans to buy a humidifier to add some moisture to our bedroom (I wake up every morning around 5:30 / 6:00 because I can’t breathe) however those were waylaid this weekend by the terrible freaking weather. Our parking lot is a nightmare to get out of in the winter as we’ve discovered, and after a snowfall on Friday and a severe drop in temperature on Saturday / Sunday we knew it would be too icy (and risky) for us to attempt to get out. Today’s supposed to warm up a fair bit so here’s hoping we can go tonight as I’ve basically had a bloody nose for a week straight.

Enough whining. Although I’ll note that the same set of criteria – cold weather, impossible parking lot – blah road conditions – caused us to hibernate on New Year’s Eve. I think I mentioned it before, but between my flu and traveling to Winnipeg, we were both feeling very rundown and decided to have a quiet evening in with wine, homemade salted pretzels and Anderson Cooper & Kathy Griffin’s NYE special playing. It was nice.

So was Friday, which was Jordan’s birthday. Before we went out for the night, I encouraged Jordan to open his gifts – all cards, except for my own. So he opens his present and pulls out a small gold box and I’m immediately confused as I had on memory of wrapping that. Then he opens another smaller box, and I tell him to stop bugging me and to get to his real gift. Turns out I wrapped the WRONG BOX – I pulled two boxes from storage and tucked his gift into one of them, only to put that box back in the storage room and wrap the empty one. I felt terrible, but definitely a funny, memorable way to kick off the night.

After that we went to Carino, a tiny restaurant on Edmonton Trail that’s earned some accolades as of late, including one of the best new restaurants of the year according to En Route magazine. It’s a Japanese-Italian bistro, as convoluted as that sounds. The restaurant appears to be run (or staffed) by Japanese people; the food itself is generally Italian with an Asian twist. We shared some pretty standard calamari, Jordan had an interesting fondue-esque curry, and I had lobster gnocchi, which was basically gnocchi with two big hunks of lobster and a creamy lobster sauce. Yum.

The plan was to go see American Hustle, however our meal didn’t take that long, which put us about 45 minutes ahead of schedule. We headed to the theatre anyway as going home didn’t make sense either, and opted to pick another movie with an earlier run time – Inside Llewellyn Davis – that we both wanted to see. The movie is quite different for a Coen brothers film, even compared to their more sentimental fare. The music is lovely, I didn’t realize it would be such a big part of the movie, so it was kind of like attending a bunch of folk music shows. Fun. The only critique I have to lay against it is the fact about 95% of what happens in the trailer happens in the first 30 minutes of the film. The bulk of the movie is different than what you see in the trailer, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I appreciate a trailer that doesn’t give away much. On the other, the story felt like it lost some of its momentum after the trailer pieces ended. Still, not a bad way to spend a Friday night.

Honestly the rest of the weekend was spent in lockdown. We ventured out for groceries (on foot) but that was about it – we had a cold snap and neither one of us was in a particular rush to try and go places, even by train, because on the weekends they’re spaced about 20 minutes apart. If you miss one, it means standing outside in the teeth-chattering cold for pretty much ‘ever’.

Can we just fast forward through winter? Please?

Forget December

I’ve been horrible about updating this blog, however December felt like I barely had any time to breathe (and November for that matter). In fact, the whole of 2013 has felt like that. Between being sick more times than normal, moving across the country and juggling a house sale and house purchase, getting married, starting a new job, and keeping busy with my blog, this past year was a bit of an overwhelming write-off. I hesitate to use the word terrible, but many parts of it were. Of course, you have to go through pain to gain, as they say, and I’m happy to be married, happy to be living in a new exciting city, and happy with my new role.

But enough about recapping this past year. Let’s talk the past month where:

–        Jordan’s Christmas party took place at the end of November (just a day after my last post actually). We went to Banff and stayed at an interesting hotel that had a wolf theme. The rooms were actually really nice though – we got upgraded to a two-storey lodge with two full baths and two bedrooms, a kitchen, fireplace, dining room and more. Very swank. Also bonus points for taking home $300 in spa gift certs to indulge in the new year.

–        Ashley – a friend of mine since childhood – was in town that same weekend to audition for the Calgary Opera. We took her to National and Beer Revolution to get a taste of Calgary’s nightlife, hit up The Core and Chinook Centre to do some Christmas shopping, and had a good chatter at our house about what it’s like to live here.

–        The following weekend, Jordan was in Winnipeg to celebrate his brother’s 18^th birthday (although barely actually did so). Apart from a jaunt over to Chinook to do some final Christmas shopping and exchange a top, I basically barricaded myself in my home and powered through the remainder of my seasonal blog posts so I could rest easy for the rest of the month.

–        The next couple of weeks in there are a blur. I remember going to The Core and getting some great deals at Banana Republic…possibly trekking out to Sobey’s for a grocery shop…but really just mostly getting prepped for our holidays at home. I’m trying to think if we even dined out anywhere new and drawing a blank.

–        Finally, the week before Christmas holidays, my office was hit with a pretty gnarly plague that wiped out almost everyone on my floor…including me. I had a cough come out of nowhere on Wednesday afternoon but didn’t think much of it. Thursday overnight I woke up crying (not intentionally) with the realization I hadn’t slept a wink AND that I was frozen. I put on my warmest PJs and tucked back into bed, but still felt awful when I woke up – I still barely slept all night. Jordan chalked it up to the lack of sleep, but after a shower and realizing I still felt terrible, he ordered me back to bed which I did. By the afternoon I was delirious, with a 102.5 degree fever, plus severe aches and pains, all of which wouldn’t quit for about 48 hours. Coupled with extreme fatigue and that nasty cough (which I still have the remnants of) and I was down for the count. Friday was more of the same, but I managed to work from home on my laptop while lying in front of the fireplace to ‘stay warm’ basically, as my fever still wasn’t gone. Saturday I was having breathing issues + insane fatigue and dizziness, paired with my least favourite sick symptom ever, the reverse fever.

–        Luckily by Sunday – the day we were due to fly to Winnipeg – I was feeling better, but the weather systems in the east weren’t cooperating and our flight was delayed by six hours. Luckily we spotted it while we were still at home and simply killed time until it seemed suitable to head to the airport. Unfortunately that meant missing ‘cousin’s night’ at my sister’s place as we didn’t roll in till after 10 PM and we were both pretty knackered by that point.

–        As for the holiday week spent in Winnipeg…it was frosty and busy as per usual. I worked on Monday and Tuesday (remotely) which actually helped ‘ground’ things as I wasn’t busy meeting up with a million sets of friends. I did manage to squeeze in visits with a number of my girl friends as well as pop by our newly engaged friends’ place, plus get in plenty of family time including a trip to the still-under-construction Winnipeg Zoo. They’ve got two young polar bears (four in total) that I wanted to see, plus their snow leopard cubs have been taunting me on Facebook. Luckily the wintery animals were quite active, although the bears were predictably lazy. The snow leopards and their mom were tucked in the corner of their pen, so my dad snuck over a fence to go right up to them (there was still a pen wall between them)…it was only upon returning back to the right side of the fence that he realized the mom had gotten up and was chasing him, which eventually prompted the family to start having play time around the cage. Very cute although sad that they don’t have more space. I also skipped Boxing Day shopping in person this year, owing to Manitoba’s high taxes, and stuck to online shopping instead. Should be fun and interesting to see how everything I ordered actually fits.

–        Flying back our flight was a little delayed, somewhat randomly it felt, so we ended up getting in about 30 minutes later than planned. Then our bags took an insane 30-40 minutes to show up. Then MY bag appeared, trashed, which sucks as it’s not a cheap bag (Heys) and it was part of a matching set I received as a gift years ago. I promptly took it over to the baggage services desk and the WestJet worker was horrified at the state of my bag, telling me there was no way they could fix it (apparently their default action). Instead, he offered me a free bag from ones they have, or a flight credit equivalent to the bag’s value. I ended up getting a $300 flight voucher, and after some research / craftiness on my part, ended up paying $47 for a $400 bag from the same brand as Jordan’s new luggage, basically earning myself $250 in free air travel. Still annoyed, but at least it worked out okay.

–        Beyond that, our weekend was really just spent playing catch-up: putting away Christmas decorations, unpacking, scavenging for food, and giving that pesky furball of ours some overdue attention (he had a sitter while we were away). We also ordered Chinese food from what is apparently one of Calgary’s better longstanding establishments – Silver Dragon or Silver Inn, can’t remember which – which I was kind of ho hum about. Nothing really stood out in my memory unfortunately, so probably won’t order from there again unfortunately.

As for the New Year, or the Eve of it to be specific, I really don’t know that we’ll do anything. I think this year in particular we’re both feeling more burnt out than usual (and poorer too), so the idea of getting gussied up for an overpriced, chaotic night out just isn’t that appealing. Being back at work already, I think we’re both also feeling more than a little sleepy today, especially with the gloomy weather and dark, short days. Here’s to a brighter 2014 though!

Stings Like A B

Given it’s been almost two weeks since my last update, you can probably guess I’ve been busy as a bee. Or B. Here, my life in bullets:

–          Move went relatively smoothly although I was feeling very overwhelmed (and still am to a degree) at the level of stuff we have compared to the lack of space we have. The movers broke a non-fixable mirror and appear to have lost a tool kit (and maybe even a box), but otherwise our stuff arrived in decent shape.

–          We couldn’t really settle in, however, because we needed to haul everything out of the bedrooms over the long weekend so our new flooring could be installed. The upside is the flooring looks awesome now and I’m very glad we did it. Also our new curtains are up in the bedroom and the whole look is gorgeous. The downside is, tearing out carpet and inhaling sawdust for a week gave me a pretty nasty sinus / chest infection I’m working through right now.

–          We made multiple trips to IKEA over the week because we sold all of our dressers before leaving Halifax. Our original plan was to install a wardrobe for Jordan to use as both a dresser and a closet (we only have one real closet in the home and we all know who’s using it). After *struggling* to haul very heavy boxes into the home and up the spiral staircase and putting together the wardrobe with great levels of pain and suffering, we both hated it. What’s ironic is that big hulking pieces of furniture like that work best in big huge spaces that probably don’t NEED wardrobes. So we ended up taking it apart and bringing it back to IKEA and by what I feel was a sheer miracle, getting our money back for it (given it got a little damaged in the car ride back), and instead purchasing a smaller wardrobe for the guest room and an extra dresser for the master. We put together Jordan’s dresser last night (mine is pending) and I like it SO much better than the hulking wardrobe. I just hope the little wardrobe in the other room pans out.

–          Due to a lack of food in our household, we munched on quite a bit of local food. One of the first nights we moved in, we went to Pulcinella, which is Calgary’s only certified Neapolitan pizzeria. It was good – a different experience than Beer Rev or Una, but I love the restaurant’s atmosphere and size. We ended up taking my parents back there when they were in town this weekend and enjoyed a late night meal on their rooftop patio – gorgeous, warm weather this weekend definitely helped!

–          We also went to a pub, although the name is currently escaping me, that I was a little disappointed in. We ordered the nachos, which were decent (although the $3 gauc was not), and fish and chips, which were chewy and bland. Not great.

–          We got cupcakes at Crave and I died and went to cupcake heaven. Also, their peanut butter cookie sandwich. Wow. I definitely prefer over Buttercream on 17^th.

–          We also popped into the two candy stores that are on 10^th. Gummi Boutique is more in line with Freak Lunchbox although lacks some of the atmosphere of that store. Its biggest pro is the soda fridges in the back where you can pick up real cane sugar sodas with unique tastes – I’ve sampled the caramel root beer and the blue cream soda and both were delicious. The Candy Kid is more…upscale I guess? It specializes in sort of handmade / old-fashioned candy, with a huge display of saltwater taffy (I sampled nearly every flavour) and glass cases of classics like Turkish delight. If you’re looking for a bag of random candy or a chocolate bar, I’d say Gummi Boutique wins out.

–          My parents came into town on late Saturday night as I mentioned, so we started with a tour of the house and then dinner at Pulcinella. On Sunday we sort of took them on a mini tour of Calgary’s greatest walkable hits; showing them my walk to the office over the Bow, splitting six donuts at Jelly, perusing 17^th Ave and pointing out where we were living, zipping over to the Core where we all scored a new item or two, and then winding up at Julio’s Barrio, which I hadn’t tried yet, for lunch. First of all, their freebie salsa sampler is amazeballs and worth a visit alone. You get six salsas to try, each with a different level of spice and flavour (the hottest being way too hot for any sane human being). The food itself was generous portions – I’m glad we all split entrees – and was pretty tasty, despite having the trappings of sort of a touristy, family joint. We also popped over to Village for some ice cream, where I sampled their new ice cream sundaes, a welcome addition to the menu even if it meant delaying my date with a salted caramel ice cream bar yet again.

I’m hoping not too many things have fallen through the cracks in this recap. I’m honestly in numb disbelief that my wedding is less than two weeks away and I’m traveling to San Francisco in five days. I had a bit of a breakdown with Jordan at one point when I reflect on the fact I have bruises all over my body from the work we’ve been doing, my hands and nails are shredded, and of course, I’m sick. It really sucks to have that anticipation building up to your wedding overshadowed by all of the other chaos in your life, and instead of being excited, I’m feeling anxious. Big, crashing waves of joy will hit me every now and again – after many years of dating it’ll be great to tie the knot once and for all. But I kind of wish I was there already so I could forget about all of the stress I’ve yet to face in the next twelve days. At the end of the day, I’m very excited to be getting married, but I’m also feeling more and more like I could have done without the fuss. Here’s hoping a few days in a glorious city with the people and man I love most in the world will allow me to finally take a breath and just enjoy myself for the first time in half a year or so.

 

Stranger In A Strange Town

Oh it’s been so long since I last updated. I kept on telling myself “you need to update” but truth be told we’ve been a little busy and a little displaced. It’s crazy to think it’s only been a week since I was allowed back into our rental condo. But let’s rewind.

After my last post, Jordan and I went for pancakes at a Perkins-esque chain of restaurants in town called Ricky’s I believe. Actually Jordan just got sweet potato fries like a chump because they weren’t yet carrying the *advertised* cinnamon swirl pancakes he wanted. After that, we picked up the cat and decamped to our friend’s place sort diagonal from the Signal Hill area (further south, further west than where we live), where we would end up staying for nearly a week, crashing on his semi-bed-like couch. Obviously we were very grateful for the place to stay, but I think both of us felt guilty the whole week long at taking up anyone’s space like that – although we managed to mostly stay out of one another’s way and enjoy some fun when we did cross paths.

Because Jordan was eager to give our roomie some space, we ended up going out *a lot* last week. Too much so, really – I felt really gross after dining out one too many times, and going to the movies a few times (This Is The End – very funny and more coherent than most Seth Rogen films, Monsters University – sweet and funny and nice to look at but lacked the substance of earlier Pixar films, World War Z – surprisingly good and interesting, VERY different from the book, reminiscent of Contagion).

That being said, three notable meals out (two at new places) over the last week and a bit. First, we had tickets to see Les Miserables for free on opening night (Broadway Across Canada is touring the show right now). I did some research and chose Dairy Lane Cafe, a cute boutique cafe located in a residential neighbourhood. Like many Calgary restaurants, they have a great relationship with local suppliers for almost everything they serve – including the lip-puckering lemonade I sampled. We tried out their homemade guac and tortilla chips (good) and Jordan got one of their *three* veggie burgers while I got a basil / tomato / spiced gouda grilled cheese. Not vegan, but very tasty.

Les Miserables was at the Jubilee Theatre, which is located on the SAIT campus. We had a tight turnaround to get there after dinner, ONLY because Jordan was in need of some ‘work clothes’ for a volunteer gig to help clean up after the flood. Upon arriving at the theatre we realized we had no idea where to park, so Jordan dropped me off at the doors…with his ticket. Totally pointless. I was pretty close to tears as the minutes counted down and the lobby emptied – there was literally, I kid you not, 30 seconds before they closed the door when he appeared, huffing and puffing like a maniac. We were the *very* last people in the theatre before the lights went out (you could watch the first 16 minutes on screen in the lobby and be let in at a convenient point otherwise) and man was it worth it. I have vivid memories of seeing Les Mis as a child and it’s remained one of my favourite musicals throughout my life. I could warble you a few lines from almost every song in the show, and man, they certainly stick in your mind (I was just singing one of my faves, ‘A Little Fall of Rain’, while getting ready this morning). The coolest part of seeing it on stage again – particularly after the movie adaptation last year – was the revised sets. It really didn’t feel like a touring show with the amount of diversity they had with the sets, and perhaps coolest of all was the incorporation of a digital screen featuring sketches by Victor Hugo himself. They were able to convey movement and scene changes and mood changes in an instant. It was really neat.

The second memorable meal was at The Keg. To say I’ve had a rough go of things in Calgary so far would be an understatement. My work was feeling particularly bad after my evacuation situation (to elaborate – we didn’t have power from Friday till Thursday, hence why I couldn’t be at home) and gave me a few gift cards for The Keg. Kind of ironic given there is little on the menu I can / would eat, but we decided to dine there before the Stampeders game, which we had free tickets to. We ended up dining on seafood (which we allow ourselves every now & again) and still not spending close to everything I was given. Afterward we walked over to the Stamps game. General thoughts – the stadium is really old and has a pretty terrible sound system (a giant speaker suspended over the field with cables). The fact they do fireworks and have a real horse prance around the stadium for every touchdown is a nice touch; very Americana. Aside from that it was a pretty typical CFL game. We didn’t win the 50/50 ($30,000+) and the Stampeders creamed the Lions. Too bad I strongly dislike the Stamps (they’re my second least favourite team).

The night was made particularly interesting because Jordan and I were debating what offer to put in on a house we’d seen the day before and loved. Unfortunately the douche owner of the place decided to set up a Winnipeg style bidding war on it, and we didn’t end up winning (shocker). Saturday was a particularly glum day when we heard the news as I think Jordan and I were just reaching our breaking point when it comes to our life in Calgary here so far. Between some ridiculous house happenings in Halifax, being evacuated, and not getting what would have been a perfect home for us, we were both kind of spent. We picked out our wedding rings (in a rather frustrating maelstrom of customer service) and visited the Farmer’s Market (lots of yummy produce plus more stuff from the vegan place), and pretty much called it a day from there.

The other notable meal of our week was on Canada Day. Jordan wanted to go to a movie (World War Z), so we decided to dine at this heritage-looking restaurant, the Barley Mill Neighbourhood Pub. It’s a nice independent restaurant amongst the chains that dominate this city (I have to say, Halifax is very un-chain-friendly) that serves up a range of pub grub. Having not really eaten that day, we sampled their Boston Pizza rip-off cactus cut chip thingers, and I had a giant and tasty salad loaded with veggies and a sweet vinaigrette while Jordan got a veggie sandwich (although afterward we both realized they had a falafel burger!) It’s really just a neat atmosphere – this old building and a second level patio, it was nice. After the movie we hung around downtown in the sweltering humidity, fighting off mosquitoes, taking random strolls, and finally the show began around 10:30 or so. It was pretty good…it didn’t have the artistic flair or ‘storytelling’ that you might see at an Assiniboine Park or Natal Day show, but we saw a lot of fireworks I’ve never even seen before, so that was cool.

Not much to say about the last few days, other than Stampede started this morning! I saw plenty of people camping out on to get a great seat for the show, and my coworkers and I spent a good portion of this morning watching bits and pieces of the (quite long) parade. It was more or less a typical parade with a few impressive floats and PLENTY of ponies! In general, I’m not sure how I feel about Stampede. It seems mostly like an excuse to get drunk and dress up like a skanky cowgirl (I’m not being facetious), and while it likely would have been fun if I were much younger and single, it just seems a little…pointless and tacky. The entire downtown has random hay bales and wooden posts and cowboy hats in the windows and murals of random cowboy things. I can see why tourists might get the wrong idea about Canadians being hicks…but I don’t want to be too judgemental. I’m interested to experience Stampede for better or worse!

And with that, the weekend.

When It Rains, It Pours

On Thursday, Jordan and I were both feeling pretty miserable. The offer on our house was pulled, our financing options to purchase another house weren’t great, and to top it off, he was being asked to go to work early the next morning because of some possible flooding. We commented to each other that we would just love ONE good day, with some good news for us at long last. 

Friday morning, Jordan woke up at 4:30 in the AM and went to work. I got up at that point to so I could use the bathroom. When I finally rolled out of bed a few hours later to be on my way for work, I first of all discovered work was cancelled, and that my power was out. Jordan and I were in close contact that morning because of the crazy flood that has consumed Calgary. Of course, as I begged him to come home, he stayed at work until such point all of the bridges that would allow him to get back to the SW where I am (he works in the NE) were closed…leaving me essentially stranded. 

Frustrated and miserable I eventually trekked out to 17th Ave (which is not what’s pictured above) in the *pouring* rain to pick up some supplies at Shopper’s Drug Mart. All the flashlights were out, but our iPhones have a handy and rather powerful flashlight app. I bought some candles, drinks and non-perishable food items and then trekked home with my heavy load of goods. Then I headed back out *again* because on my journey I noticed that Clive Burger was open, and I was fixin’ for a hot meal. I came back home with my veggie burger and fries, scarfed them down and resumed my day of really doing nothing – I finished a book, napped with the cat, did a bit of a workout, and that was about it. I also noted how quiet our building had gotten as the day wore on.

Jordan finally got home around 7 PM and after some debriefing on each other’s days, we decided to go for a walk and possibly grab some dinner (the only real ‘meal’ I could craft at home was some peanut butter & honey bagels). As I’d noted in my walk earlier that day, 17th Ave, literally a block west of us, had power. We went to Moxie’s for a couple of appetizers, and picked up some cold drinks at a convenience store on our way home, where we used the last bit of daylight to read, played a by-dark game of Catchphrase, talked, and eventually went to bed. 

This morning the power still wasn’t on so we’ve decamped to Jordan’s office to charge up the laptop + our mobiles + just enjoy some artificial light again. It’s sunny in Calgary today, but downtown is closed off and we took quite a detour to actually get to his office at all (yes, I’m a tad worried about the fact we left Scotch cat behind). Anyway in looking at a more detailed evacuation map, I’ve realized our building is *RIGHT* on the cusp of an evac zone, which is why our power is out. I have no idea when it’ll be back on at this point – apparently downtown may remain closed till mid-next week. If the powers’ not on when we go home in a few hours, we’ll probably relocate to our friend’s place for the evening, Scotch in tow. 

Of course, I’m quite grateful that we weren’t in any immediate danger. Obviously I was really scared yesterday when I was on my own and my building appeared to be emptying out (with no official request to evacuate as far as I can tell, mind you), but I’m glad our home wasn’t flood specifically. Our food is probably all ruined that was in the fridge, but because we’re all nomadic right now anyway that even isn’t all that much. But to put things in perspective, the flooded area known as ‘Mission’ is mere blocks away from us, and that Humpty’s in the photo above is about a five-minute drive away. So yes, things could have been a lot worse than they currently are. 

All of this to say…I guess that ‘good news’ day will have to wait. 

 

Life’s A Zoo

It was late afternoon on Sunday when Jordan commented we had barely been him this weekend, which is pretty true. We were skipping all around town the last few days, which while adventurous, was also kind of exhausting. In a nutshell:

–        Jordan is actually sick right now with some cold / flu bug I’m magically avoided (so far). It’s going around my office and his, so I’m hoping I’ve built up some obtuse immunity to it. Anyway he requested spicy food to help clear out his nasal system and we ended up walking down 4^th Street to a place called Mucho Burrito, which is basically identical to Halifax’s hole-in-the-wall Burrito Jax, only a fair bit bigger and with a more expansive menu. I OD’d on the spice a bit – I couldn’t even finish my small vegetarian burrito.

–        On the stroll back home we popped into a place called Kruffs (which is also a farmer’s market vendor at one of the markets in town I believe) which sells cream puffs. We split a small vanilla puff with chocolate filling and it was quite good, if a tad messy. I can see them being a big hit at weddings or charity events – two bites and you’re done.

–        On Saturday, Jordan wanted to check in at two radio remotes his station was doing. I didn’t partake in the first one, but the second one was held at a mall on the outskirts of town; Crossiron Mills. It was posited to me as an outlet mall in the style of Albertville in Minnesota, and while the thing is MASSIVE, it’s not exclusively an outlet mall, nor is it an outdoor market-style mall like Albertville.

Really though, it’s hard for me to emphasize how GIGANTOR this place is. A good number of the stores are outlet stores, and a good number of them have sales on top of their discounted prices. I particularly liked the Nine West outlet where I got a pair of silvery shoes for Gillian’s wedding (still kicking myself that I didn’t bring my pair from last summer) for something like $60, regular $130. All in all we stumbled across a few sales throughout the mall which softened the blow on sort of must-buy purchases, like a new suit for Jordan in advance of Gill’s wedding (again, another packing regret on our collective behalf). If someone were an avid shopper that makes three malls to take them to at this point. Although as I noted to Jordan the nifty thing about living in Calgary as opposed to visiting it is we have the time to visit all of these places and make our judgements; the average tourist will probably make it out to Chinook and call it a day.

–        Jordan and I haven’t been to the movies together in months and months. Blame it on shitty movie releases or the fact we just haven’t been in the same city with a lot of spare time on our hands, either way, we decided it would be fun to check out Baz Luhrman’s Great Gatsby. I went in with lowered expectations; even without seeing the reviews, I knew a thing or two about this weekend’s release date and that it probably spelled out doom, but the truth was I really liked it. It was a visual feast, the performances (sans Tobey Maguire) were all spot-on, and the modern interpretation of Fitzgerald’s story was true to the book yet relevant to today’s audience. My main feedback is this: if you are a Baz Luhrman fan, you will like and ‘get’ this film. If you are not, you’ll be scratching your head but think the visuals are gorgeous.

–        I should mention, we actually walked up to a little old movie theatre in Eau Claire to attend the movie. It’s in a kind of sadly emptied out mall filled with little stores…something about the whole little complex reminds me of The Forks in Winnipeg for some reason. I will note that there are a couple of restaurants there that have great massive patios – the entire vibe of the place somehow magically channelled the Deep South in the way it was quietly tucked away near the river. I really do love Eau Claire…sigh.

–        Because it so flipping nice on Saturday we resolved to have a day out in the nice weather on Sunday. A short round of brainstorming brought up the zoo as a possible destination, however we also recognized it would probably be busy because of Mother’s Day. So when one of us woke up (me) the other one got up, and we were out the door by 9:15 (the zoo opened at 9:00) and in the park by 9:30. It really was an ideal day and time to go. The animals weren’t exhausted by a blistering heat yet it was still quite pleasant out – just clouds blocking the sun. We actually got to see almost every animal be quite active (save for the lazy lions). Highlights were the male elephant tossing a giant tire around, some teenaged tigers on the prowl, a snow leopard with a giant tail, and three red pandas clambering about their enclosure and generally looking stupidly cute. The zoo as a whole is quite big, although some parts are much nicer than others. I’m glad to hear the zoo is putting money back into refurbishing it for coming years. Also, going first thing in the AM = wise choice. By the time we left around noon, it was already streaming with parents and tots.

–        We decided to park in Inglewood and go for a stroll up and down the main drag there to find a restaurant for a late lunch / check out what’s there in general. I’m not really sure how to describe Inglewood. Jordan noted it reminded him a bit of Osborne / Corydon in Winnipeg, but neither of those feels quite right. There’s something Wolesley about it, if Wolesley had a high street. It’s also a little reminiscent of Queen Street W, with a bunch of funky boutiques, furniture shops, antique shops, and little specialty stores like a spice merchant and a kitchen supplies place where we picked up applewood smoked salt to make vegan coconut bacon with. Also a tasty bakery where we snapped up some amazing bread, if I do say so myself having eaten it with last night’s dinner + for breakfast this morning. Inglewood also has tons of little cafes. We ended up at a place called the Fine Diner (of course, the only one with a line-up) which serves up slightly elevated diner food with a cafe twist. Jordan got a grilled citrus salad and I got the veggie burger. Both were decent, although upon my toddler-sized neighbour getting a stack of blueberry pancakes, I realized I’d go back there if only to try the pancakes for myself – they look insane.

–        There are a few other little odds & ends to our weekend, but they mostly revolve hanging around the home for breathers between all this romping around town. Again, we’re living in a point / counterpoint kind of state, where I’m sure this upcoming weekend will be much calmer. After all, going out isn’t much fun unless you’ve got the dollars to fund it, and we decidedly don’t at the ‘mo.

–        Last night we popped into one of the first Target’s to open out west – located in Chinook Centre. I was a touched underwhelmed because the store was heavily picked over and was quite small compared to what I’ve come to expect in visiting big box versions over the years. Also they didn’t appear to upgrade some of the fixtures (like the carpet) so it still felt Zellers-y. That being said, I did peruse the shoe department and manage to find two cute pairs for $30…so there’s that.

 

Anyone want to buy my house in Halifax?