I thought the first anniversary was supposed to be paper...

So as most of you know, Nathan and I like to be different. And as such we also end up having a lot of friends who like to be different. So I really shouldn't be surprised that Heather and Brad gave us the gift of seeing their daughter born on our anniversary. No silly paper thing for us! No, we get a baby! =D

Erin Bridget has a mop of curly dark hair. Her eyes are blue right now, but that could change I guess. I got to hold her when she was all of 20 minutes old. She's a beautiful baby. Just gorgeous. I couldn't be happier for Heather and Brad.

The labour was a bit of a whirlwind. I won't go into all the details, but I'm sure you'll all hear the story at some point from someone. I'll admit though, when I got home I was exhausted and still somewhat twitchy from all the adrenaline. And I didn't do hardly any work at all, comparatively speaking! I had a glass of port and went to bed and promptly did not sleep hardly at all. I still went to work today, but I slept in and came in late. I still feel a bit twitchy today, but that's probably because my mind is not here at my desk. It seems strange to me that the world should not stop what it's doing and acknowledge the fact that this amazing thing happened yesterday. I guess that will wear off with time, but right now it seems absolutely incredible that my friends have made this perfect little person and she will be in all our lives from now on. It seems much too momentous to me and far more important than work.

And as I'm sure some of you are wondering, after having witnessed Heather's labour and Erin's birth, I haven't been thrown one way or the other on the topic of having kids. I don't want one RIGHT NOW, but I'm not vehemently against it either. I have to say that watching Heather go through it and come out the other side her normal self (within minutes really) is reassuring. Just listening to her descriptions I'm pretty sure I could do pregnancy and labour without wimping out, but I have to say it's the mess that gets me. I'm such a neat and tidy person, I can't imagine making that much of a mess and not cleaning it up myself. I mean it would be MY mess! It's probably silly and I'm sure it's the last thing on any woman's mind after they've given birth, but it makes me anxious. I guess I'll have to attempt to be as tidy as possible whenever that time happens to come. =D If that's at all possible....

Anyway, Happy Birthday Erin! Auntie Sheila will see you on Saturday.

And We're Done.... Mostly

So last weekend we finally finished the last of the hardscaping in the backyard. Mostly. We've still got gates to do and some final cutting of wall stones to fit in the places where a whole stone doesn't fit. But other than that, it's done! Go to our Picasa site to see the latest photos.

Looking at it now, I think we were crazy. I can't believe how much work that all was! I'm glad we did it though. I'm really happy with it. Of course, now Nathan says it looks like we're rich so we might have to get a security system. Let's see.... On either side of us, grass and gravel. Further out, weeds, weeds, weeds, garage, weeds. Hmmm.... Maybe a security system would be a good idea.

And just for fun, here's our baby bunny. He's been kind of scarce lately, but we've seen that all the piles of sand have been inspected, so maybe he's forgiven us the upheaval.

I've Come All Undone and Been Glued Back Together Again

A tale of emotional strife? No! This is the story of a young woman's battle with a horrific, knife-wielding onion and the sacrifice her left thumb made that she would live to fight again.

Otherwise known as Sheila is a klutz and cut a third of the way through the tip of her thumb.

I was cutting up onion for broccoli salad last night and didn't move my thumb out of the way fast enough and the wonderfully sharp knife cut horizontally across the tip of my thumb. Much swearing and running my finger under water ensued. I could feel it moving under the water stream and it was bleeding a lot and I was starting to wonder if I'd done myself serious harm this time, when Nathan came home. He decided that it was best to go to a clinic to see if I needed stitches or not.

So off we went, the beginning of broccoli salad shoved in the fridge, me pressing a kitchen towel to my thumb. By the time we got to the clinic, the bleeding had pretty much stopped, so that was good. We checked in, went to Safeway for some panini sandwiches and then back to the clinic for my turn.

I didn't end up needed stitches. It had already started to close with all the pressure I had been keeping on it, so the doctor just put that medical crazy glue on it to glue it shut. Then, just to add insult to injury, I had to get a tetanus shot. In the left arm of course. So today, my thumb hurts and I can't put pressure on it and my arm is all achy from the shot.

It sucks and I'm cranky and don't want to be at work doing computer stuff. I can be such a klutz sometimes. Oh well. I'll survive. The tricky part will be getting my nail to grow out fast, so it doesn't snag on everything....

PS Attempting to finish the broccoli salad tonight. Wish me luck!

Because I'm a big geek....

So this week at work I've been a big geek. BIIIIIIG GEEK! For those who don't know, right now I'm working on the expansion to Chinook Centre (yes, they're expanding again, taking out the Shell station). One of the typical things that we have to have on our mechanical drawings is a detail for the water meter room. This is where the city services enter the building, where the water meter is and all other manner of things. Traditionally, this has been a (boring) schematic drawing that just gets tweaked with each job.

For fun, the project manager and I thought we'd try and do a 3D piping layout for the water meter room, in addition to the plain jane schematic. Well! It wasn't overly hard and it looks fantastic, if I do say so myself! I was so disproportionately happy with it that it was kind of weird. I had to show it off to all my co-workers and now I have to blog about it. I can't help it though! It is so satisfying. I think I have finally come to realize that I'm a big AutoCAD geek and it pleases me to no end when I can do things like this.

Anyway, here it is. And yes, those walls are transparent! Aren't I great? I've got a print out at home, complete with notes, if anyone wants to see it..... =D

More Folk Fest and Yard Work

Okay, so I'm a bit late to report on the rest of the Folk Fest. But better late than never!

It was freaking awesome. That's pretty much all there is to say. I heard a lot of groups that I either bought cds for or their cds are on my birthday list. Great Big Sea was fantastic on Saturday night. They are just the best group to see live. So much fun. It was a tad too hot though, and I ended up with heat rash and heat exhaustion after Saturday. I was still feeling crappy on Sunday, so we didn't end up going at all that day but it was still a wonderful way to spend a weekend.

Nathan performing in a workshop session on Saturday. And I mean the band Nathan, not my husband Nathan. =D

Ahhh.... Good times, good times. That's kettle corn that Nathan's eating. It was a great weekend, even more so because we both got a break from yard work. The yard is such a huge undertaking that we were both feeling a little discouraged and overwhelmed by it..... Okay, it was mostly me feeling discouraged and overwhelmed (not to mention cranky!). But we've made quite a bit of progress since then and I feel better about it. The end is in sight. We should be able to finish the hardscaping before the fall gets too advanced. The problem with home improvement projects in summer, is that there's always something else going on, somewhere else to be, something else to do. Ah well, we'll get 'er done eventually. Go to our Picasa site to see the updated photos.

Folk Fest - Day One

Nathan and I were lucky enough to get 4 day passes to the Folk Fest this year from his Uncle Les (he works for the festival). I've only ever been to one evening before this and I really enjoyed that. So needless to say I was looking forward to having 4 glorious days of folky-ness. This is first summery thing that Nathan and I have done this year. All the rest of our time has been filled with yard work and other such craziness. So even though we have 6 untouched pallets of wall stones sitting in our parking pad, I am revelling in the bliss that is doing nothing important for 4 days. Sigh....

The first thing that I will say about last night was the atmosphere. I don't know what it is, but as soon as Nathan and I had bought our little Folk Fest chairs (worth every penny, BTW) and set them up in the field in front of the mainstage, I felt infinitely more relaxed. There's certainly something about sitting in a field, in the late afternoon sunshine, with a bunch of easy-going people, listening to great tunes. It was wonderful. Soooooo relaxing.

The acts were good. I didn't really hear anything that I didn't like. First up was Lubo Alexandrov and Kaba Horo. They're kind of a Bulgarian, gypsy type band that lives in Quebec. Very cool and fun. I like gypsy music. =D Next up was The Sadies. Despite their awful 70s suits and hair, they were fantastic. Some of their stuff sounded familiar, so I wonder if I've heard it before and just not known who it was. I think I might have to get one of their cds. Next was City and Colour. I have never heard of these people, but apparently they're quite popular. The lead singer has another band, but the music styles are quite different according to Nathan. They were great. Such pure vocals and melodies. There was also just the 3 of them which was neat to see too. Nathan bought me one of their cds. And last, but not least, Rufus Wainwright. I laughed when he pranced on stage in his cute little leiderhosen! So incredibly gay, and he just doesn't give a shit. I love his voice and he's an amazing musician. I have to say though that I'm kind of split on his stuff. Some I really like and others I really don't. His band's pretty cool though too. But he was a good entertainer and he played Hallelujah for his encore.

All in all it was a great night. So relaxing and groovy and just the most perfect way to spend a sunny Thursday evening. And I get 3 more days of it!

Strange days

It's very weird to not have Rowena, Geoff and Gillian around. I keep forgetting that they don't live here anymore. They left Sunday for the mad dash across Canada to their new house in Canning, Nova Scotia. I swear they've just gone on a holiday and will be back in a couple of weeks. I think it will definitely take me (and everyone else, I'm sure) some time to get used to the fact that they're not coming back and that I won't see them on a regular basis. Very weird.

I've been working on scheduling a "girl's night" with my 2 close friends that I've known since I was 12. Nathan said to me "Have fun going out with the old married ladies!". It took me a while to figure out who he was talking about!! But I suppose it's true, since we're all married now. Thought I think I would argue the "old" part. =D L&A just got back from their honeymoon and H&B are just 7 weeks away from the birth of their first child. Sometimes that kind of wigs me out, but most times I'm excited. I have been known to prance about the house, chanting "I'm going to be an auntie, I'm going to be an auntie!" Nathan reminds me that I already am an auntie (his nephew Caspian). It's funny. Even though I am actually legally related to Caspian, I think I will consider H&B's baby more of a niece or nephew than I do him. Funny how things like that work.

Another odd thing is that all of a sudden I have a couple drafting/design to do for people on the side. Very weird, since both the jobs came up less than a week apart. I wonder why it happened now? Maybe there isn't any reason, but sometimes coincidences are indicators of something more (read the Celestine Prophecy, you'll know what I'm getting at). Really, right now I should be drafting house plans, but I have a hard time forcing myself to do extra drafting at work. I did some at home last night and I was rocking. Today at lunch I was dragging and finally gave up. I think it's the atmosphere....

And on top of it all is the ever present yard work. We're making progress though! That makes me happy. We are planning to stun my dad with how much we got done while he and Mom were on holidays. More pictures to come, I promise!

Anyway, those are my musings for this Thursday lunch hour.

Bad Day

So today is starting out with a bang. The bang is me hitting my head repeatedly on my desk. Since not many people I know are familiar with AutoCAD, I will just say this:

ARCHITECTS ARE STUPID!!!! I'm not spending HOURS fixing their drawings. Do it yourself!! Especially since we've already discussed the right way to do it and now they've gone back to the old, wrong, horrible, ugly way. And these drawings are going out on Monday.

I was close to being very aggressive with my monitor this morning. Now I get to go to site, which is okay, because it's a completely different job. Except part of my lunch hour will be taken by a meeting. A completely unnecessary, useless, stupid meeting that I have to go to.

I'm going to work out like crazy at the gym tonight. Maybe it will get rid of the cranky ache in my belly. I think I might let my uncoordinated self try the elliptical runner.... In the meantime, I will try to keep my snarky tongue in my head and not direct my crankiness at the other people in my office.

My First EVER!

Today I received my first ever bit of corporate swag. Not everyone in the office got one, there were only a couple, addressed to specific people and I was one. It was labeled PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL.

Unfortunately, it was cheesy Stampede bandana from Sizeland Evans (interior designer). But it's the thought that counts! I was so proud. Corporate swag addressed to me, because they like me. Yea me!

Cheesy, but fun! I wonder what I'll get for Christmas....

More yard work

As requested, I have posted some pictures of the yard in progress on our Picasa site.

I must admit, I'm getting a bit frustrated and a bit overwhelmed by the whole process. But if I just think about how far we've gotten already, it makes it a little better. I will be so glad when this part is over and I can think about things like plants. Hard landscaping is just that - HARD! I'm pretty sure they meant the physical and mental effort that it takes - nothing to do with the materials at all!

Anyway, little by little it's getting done. My goal is to have the walls and the patio stones done by the end of July. Then we've still got a month of summer left to relax and enjoy all our hard work!

Yard work

So our yard looks a bit like a war zone at the moment. We're working on it, but the rain and other obligations are cutting into my carefully crafted schedule. We are supposed to be done levelling by Saturday. We still have to dig up the gravel where the trees will be and then refill that and the weeping tile trench with soil. And then we have to level. Yup, that's right, we haven't started. So I have mentally modified the schedule. So long as we're ready to lay paving stones when Nathan's parents come and stay with us, I'll be happy. Rowena loves to lay pavers, so she's offered to do some while they're here. My ultimate goal is to have all the hardscaping done by the end of July. Then in August we can relax and enjoy the summer!

In other house related news, I finally hemmed the downstairs curtains this past Sunday. It only took me two years.... I've also bought a programmable thermostat that I'm going to replace the standard one with. This will be my first foray into anything electrical. Wish me luck! Don't worry, I'll turn off the breaker. I have no illusions about my clutziness.

Farmor

I will remember many things about Farmor. I will remember her laugh, which, when I was little, I thought was the most joyous sound in the world. I will remember her smile and her teasing my dad, her baby boy. I will remember her singing, by far the best singer of all her children. I will remember my dad, curled up on our couch with his head in his mom's lap as she knitted. I will remember her asking for us to bring her Canadian Club when we would go to Denmark.

There are so many wonderful things about Farmor that I could even begin to tell them all to you. I admire her greatly. I always think to myself "That's how I want to be when I get old". She lived on her own, in her own little apartment right up until she passed away. She was supposed to be moved to a long term care facility today, but I guess she had decided that that wasn't for her. She had strokes, broken bones, lost her eyesight and still she just kept on trucking. She altered her activities to deal with her new limitations, but she never stopped living and she hardly ever complained.

Now she's gone and I am entirely without grandparents. It's a sad feeling. Even though I didn't know them all that well, it's still a hard thing to deal with. But I have to remember that all of my grandparents had very full lives and they were all ready to pass on.

I will remember them fondly and with laughter, as that's really all I can do.

People are weird

So the strangest thing happened on Sunday night. Mom and Dad were over for supper and cards and we were a hand or two into our game of canasta, when all of a sudden Dad says "What's that guy doing?".

There was some random guy standing on our lawn, examining our tree (which is completely covered in lovely pink flowers). Then he reached up and took the tag off the branch, which I had specifically left on, because I knew I wouldn't remember what kind of tree it was. Then he walked away, our tree tag in hand.

Dad was all for jumping out the door and calling him on it, but I wasn't overly offended, just perplexed. Our curtains were wide open and I'm sure he could see us all sitting there and he still proceeded to steal our tree tag.

Speculations abound. Did he like the tree so much he wanted one and so, needed to know what kind it was? Does he have one and have no idea what it is? Was he just trolling the neighbourhood for tree tags? There are lots of our kind of tree on our street, but I guess we were the only ones to leave the tag on. You'd think that alone would have given him cause to pause before stealing our tag. If we're the only ones with the tag on the tree, surely it must be there for a reason.

People are very strange. Anyway, I remember the kind of tree: Makamik flowering Crabapple.

France

Well, here's my promised post about France. Only a week or so late...

The trip was sensational. This is what I say whenever anyone asks me. It was sensational. Not good, not great, SENSATIONAL! I mean we had our rainy days and day where my stomach rebelled, and near the end I was getting a bit tired of living out of a suitcase and doing my laundry in a bathroom, but for the most part (the part that counts, anyway) it was a perfect trip.

I have to admit I was especially enthralled by all the architecture in France. It's quite overwhelming. Everywhere you look there are fantastic old buildings, all with their own unique personalities and quirks. Churches galore, mostly similar if you don't look hard, but they are vastly different if you take the time to walk, stand and admire. I did a lot of this. We'd be walking somewhere and I would just stop and stare for a while. I was on sensory overload for the first few days!

My particular favourites from the trip were Mont Saint Michel, Normandy, Nogent-sur-Seine and Parc Asterix.

Mont Saint Michel was the most organic structure I have ever seen. It was incredibly moving and peaceful. I could have quite happily spent days there and I probably still wouldn't have seen it all. I'm glad they're working on a project to eliminate the causeway and parking lots that are blocking the bay from encircling the mont at high tide. They will have parking on the mainland, and a bridge for tour buses and foot traffic across the bay.

I really enjoyed Normandy as well (Mont Saint Michel is on the border between Normandy and Brittany). I especially liked our tour of Juno beach. We went with a tour company called Battlebus that does tours in minibuses (like a minivan but boxier). They specialize in English-speaking tours and our guide was a Brit. He had a marvelous little flip book with pictures of the towns and of different soldiers that he would show us when he was telling a particular story. The tour was really well done, I highly recommend it. I always find history much more engaging when there's a personal aspect to it and this tour certainly had that.

Nogent was a pretty, sleepy little town with a contrasting nuclear power plant. I think that for a vacation it's much better to be more often out of Paris than not. Paris is such a huge city that moves very fast (except from 12-2pm), that I could definitely feel myself gearing down when we were outside of it. Don't get me wrong, Paris was great and full of things to see and do, but I really enjoyed our time in little towns.


And then... oh and then! Parc Asterix! I could wax poetic about this goofy amusement park for hours! It was like living in a cartoon. Goofy soundtrack, goofy actors, goofy buildings and puns and jokes everywhere! It was completely awesome. If you plan on going to France, read one Asterix book before you leave and then go to this park. It's really great. I was grinning like an idiot and giggling for pretty much a whole day. The perfect thing to do on our last day in France.

So those are some highlights for all of you. Whenever you happen to see Nathan and I, we'll be sure to show you the full range of photos and tell you all the stories.

And Nathan's right about the La Vie En Rose music box. It may be cheesy and totally aimed at the tourists, but whenever I hear it played I can transport myself back to Paris, walking by the Seine, hand in hand with my love.

New Look

Hi all,

Nathan and I have just gotten back from France, and somehow this led to me deciding that the blog needed a new title and look. As you all know my poor SBV ipod died recently, so I thought a change was in order. Stay tuned for a France post and some pics. Now it's off to get a pedicure!

I figured it out!

I think I've figured out the secret as to why the French people are not plagued with obesity like the North American populace.

It's the stairs.

Stairs up and down and up and down to get to the metro, stairs in the churches, stairs in the hotels and apartement buildings, stairs in the double decker trains and buses. Stairs everywhere! And not only do they all take the stairs, if there happens to be an escalator, they walk up those too. Or run.

My right knee is protesting a bit at all the stairs, but I think it's getting used to it. At least that's what I tell myself. It also helps that I get rewarded with panoramic views of Paris from Notre Dame or Monmarte, or creepy views of ossuaries in the catacombs of Paris. I think the stairs are worth it. I also think my butt is getting skinnier....

Bonjour all!

Hello to everyone from Paris!

After a very long flight we arrived in Paris tired and hot and sweaty. We didn't have any problems navigating Pearson or CDG, but we were a little confused about which trains we needed to take to get to our hotel. We were so hot and tired, that our brains were totally NOT working, so it was a little difficult to navigate in French. We got on one wrong train, and ended up walking up and down so many flights of stairs in the subway that we were even more tired and hot. At this point, I was thinking that this might have been a mistake. I was so cranky and confused and overtired and over heated, that all I wanted was to be back in Calgary. But we finally made it to the hotel, which is great. Our room wasn't quite ready, but they fixed it up quick for us. We had showers and then naps and then we went to have dinner on the patio of a nice French restaurant. That's when I started to enjoy myself. Nathan had duck confit and I had cheesy mashed potatoes with a sausage. Yummy!

Yesterday was Notre Dame, Sainte Chappelle, the crypt under Notre Dame and the Medieval Museum. Lots of walking and lots to see. Today we're off to walk up the towers of Notre Dame and then to the catacombes.

This place really does have a certain Je ne sais quoi!

T-minus 75 hours and counting....

Do you think I'm excited? No, of course not...

I can't wait to get on that plane and go. It's going to be such a nice trip. The weather in Paris the past week has been holding steady at about 23-26C, either partly cloudy or full sun. This is going to be so awesome! I also phoned my first French person on Saturday. One of the hotels that we wanted to stay in doesn't have email, so we had faxed a request to them. By the end of last week we hadn't heard back, so Nathan convinced me that we had to call them. I wrote out what I wanted to say (in French, of course) and then I dialed. A man picked up the phone and said 'Allo?'. Not 'Allo, Hotel de la Gare'. So I had no idea if I had the right phone number and of course asking that question was not part of my script. So I said 'Bonjour...ummm....'. And then he said 'I speak English, madame'. Apparently I was quite obviously not French. Oh well, at least I was prepared to make an effort. =D

Now all I have to do is attempt to accomplish things at work in the next three days. Not that I have a lot to do, but I can't just sit here and stare at the clock. Well, maybe for a couple of hours every day I could do that...

I have shoots!!!

I am so incredibly happy with myself! I have grown plants! Of course, they're bulbs that I just put in the ground and now, lo and behold, I have little shoots coming up! Look, look!


The green ones are crocuses and the purple are tulips. Of course, there are a whole bunch that aren't poking they're heads through right now. These are just the early risers I guess! More pictures to come as my little babies get bigger!

I'm cured!

I think the last 4 days have cured me of wanting a pet. Thank goodness! I was getting perilously close to being desperate for something furry and cuddly to cuddle. Not that there's anything wrong with Belal and Turtle, but the days of house/pet sitting has reminded me how much work a pet is and how much it restricts your life. All in all, it was a pretty uneventful 4 days. There were only a couple of wigging out episodes. =D I won't go into all the details of my irrational irritation with the pets. In any case, I'm extremely glad to go home to my own little house and my own bed and my own stuff. And my slippers. I miss my slippers.

I can't wait for the 3 day weekend! Lucky Nathan gets 4, since he never works Mondays anyway. At least we'll have 3 days to putter around together and relax in a pet free, fur free, slobber free, soft cat food free house. Ick.