road tripping from rolling hills to spectacular mountains / impromptu history lessons of how a mountain destroyed a town and it’s inhabitants / cinnamony bakeries on the side of the highway / heartfelt chats with the music of our high school years filling the background / sun-shiny sun / a winding road up the side of the mountain to a condo on the edge of a ski hill / stories and much laughter / mobster madness over peanut-buttery goodness / afternoons spent on the beach watching children play in the sand until they fall asleep right where they sit / screaming as we skipped across the lake in a tube behind the boat / the cutest cub-a-lub legs squished into a blue bumbo chair / train rides through underground mines and back out into the brilliant sun, followed by crazy face photos as we wait for a mechanic to fix our ride / terminator 2, 1 and 3 (in that order) / an almost settler’s win / the hot hot sun turning my skin to a golden crisp (and my forehead/scalp to a brilliant shade of red) / sipping on iced caramel mochas while strolling the “platzl” to the sound of obnoxious yodeling / reinventing the s’more / dutch blitz played by an overtired, sun-soaked group / cd mixes consisting of barbie girl, mary poppins, lola and the copacaban… and who knows what else (you’d think i’d have it memorized by now) / the search for an open ice cream shop / a heritage town nestled in the mountains with old building after old building that requested i take their pictures / full memory cards / an enormous green truck in the rain / the return to the rolling hills and a much needed good night sleep

view it all here

do you know how long it takes to edit, crop and upload 365 photos?  me either.  i’m still waiting for the final few photos to finish doing their thing.  my lanta, i’ve been working on it since i walked in the door.

did you know that it was even possible to take 365 photos in five days?  me either.  part way through our last day a beep in my camera informed me that my memory card was full and as a result i spent the next few minutes walking absently around a heritage town cleaning out the older photos on my camera.

did you know that even after you repeatedly dump out every bag from your holiday you will still find sand in everything?  me either.  my laundry basket now has a fine layer of sand covering the bottom of it.

details of the sunny weekend in the mountains to come… as soon as i can find my way though the piles of laundry and sand… and as soon as i get caught up on the latest episode of the bachelorette (i’m ashamed to admit that i’m even watching it, but seriously i’m hooked!  and i have my fingers and toes crossed with hopes that she picks the right dude.  is anyone with me?  please say you are…)

more here

twas a night of good food, much laughter, an increased knowledge of the chucks (sorry no photos of the actual races, we were much too focused on locking in our votes for the winner.  she chose based on the horse, i choose based solely on the color of the wagon.  technically she won more races than i did… but mine were prettier), and some entertaining (yet odd) bull riding rodeo action.

they had watched those crazy looking bikes drive around all weekend. you know the ones where two people sit side by side and pedal here there and everywhere, all over your favorite lake side town. they would admit that a time or two they may have laughed at the people riding them, they may have even complained at how those crazy bikes held up traffic while trying to find a parking spot, but deep down secretly they wanted to ride them too. wanted to look like the summer holiday camping fool pedaling here there and everywhere while licking a dripping ice cream cone. and when one finally voiced her desire to ride such a bike the other two agreed that they too wanted a ride. and so sheepishly they picked their bike rental place, paid the fee, and rented the crazy looking bicycle. they worked out a plan, the two on the outside would pedal while the middle person would relax with the only responsibility of steering the contraption. before long the three of them were riding that crazy looking bike around their favorite lake side town laughing hysterically like three summer holiday camping fools. they rode here, they rode there, they rode everywhere when they discovered the hill at the far side of town (the side with the best ice cream shop). and because they were feeling like three summer holiday camping fools they rode as far as they could up the hill at the other end of town, pedaling inch by inch, motivated by the thought of the coast down the hill. when they could go no further they turned their crazy looking bike around and speed, wind in their hair, laughing hysterically, down the hill. the locals relaxing outside their cabins, visiting with neighbors while enjoying the warm summer sun laughed as the girls zipped by. most saw the fun the girls were having, some just shook their heads at the foolishness of the three girls in their 20’s who were acting like they were back in junior high. when they reached the bottom of the hill they decided that they must do that again. and they did, over and over and over again until their legs were too tired to pedal up the hill anymore. they returned their crazy looking rental bike early, giddy as three summer holiday camping fools.

two and a half years ago i sat in an office on the 6th floor of my soon-to-be new job. i sat, politely chatting with my soon-to-be dept supervisor, as we waited for my soon-to-be dept manager in order to conclude the 2nd part of the interview process. while we chatted i ask about the parking arrangements for my soon-to-be new job and came to discover that my soon-to-be new company did not provide parking for their employees.  gasp!  so i politely questioned the average price of parking in our just south of downtown area… and that’s when i fell over and died.

and so in the days after i accepted the position i came to realize that i was to either be a poor poor girl with her car parked in the parkade lot across the street, or i was going to have to take public transit. and because i kinda like having a little extra money i bought myself a monthy pass for the train.  after a month of parking in the far corner of the timmy’s parking lot (because finding parking the the actual c-train parking lot in the early morn was enough to make a girl have a metal breakdown), waiting for trains, walking through the rain and the snow and the ice, i began to complain (just a little) about the people on the train, and their germyness sneezing all over me, and the lack of room to breathe, never mind find a spot to sit at the end of the day, and the never ending “step away from the door” from the grouchy train drivers (or are they called conductors?). it was at that time that the girl who was doing my training suggested that we car pool.  i thanked her kindly and then reminded her that i did not live in the city, but 45km to the south. however she insisted and we worked out a plan to split parking, take turns driving and to leave my car across the street from her house on the days i did not drive. it was splendid. i got to sit in a warm car all the way downtown, and almost every morning when we’d stop and wait at the tracks for a train to pass i would laugh at all those germy people crammed onto that frigid box moving down the track. 

and so was our first parking spot. it was 4 blocks from the office, with one of those blocks taking us through an icy “park” where the homeless liked to hang out and the occasional drug deal went down, and down a back alley that gave you the creeps in the dark and turned into a lake when it rained. but it was cheap ($55/month!). cheapest you’d ever find in the area. after about a year of parking there, we got a notice that politely told us to “get lost” as the apartment we were renting the spot from was being reno’d into condos. and because it’s absolutely impossible to find parking in calgary, we were forced to park in the parkade lot across the street. parking spot number two, a mere 1/2 block from the office. splendid right? well at $17 a day, it wasn’t so splendid.  and the lot was more like a giant pothole that would swallow you car whole if you weren’t careful than it was a parking lot. we stayed there for about three months until one of the waiting lists we were on called us back and gave us the good news that we would have a spot that didn’t cost $17 a day. it was outside, but covered (yeah for not having to sweep snow off the car! or get our in the pouring rain!), and a nice 2 blocks from the office, with a not so scary back alley. twas good. and we parked there, in parking spot number three,  happy as clams until just a few months ago, when we got a phone call kindly advising us that the parking lady had given our spot to someone else who apparently got dibs cuz he lived in the building we were renting the spot from… but we could move inside, underground for just $50 more, which was followed by a notice a few weeks later that parking prices were conviently going up.  another $50.  the other thing?  our now underground ridiculously expensive fourth parking spot sucked.  when parked properly between the yellow lines i could not open my car door.  when parked slightly on the yellow line to the right i managed to squeeze out of the car without smashing the driver’s side door on the cement post to the left.  it’s a wonderful way to start every morning.  however parking slightly on the yellow line to the right caused angry calls from the parking spot to the right. (i only ever saw a car there twice in the entire four months that we parked there).  so in return we complained to the parking lady and tired to convince her to give us a new spot.  after a few months of this, she finally listened (or got annoyed with us?) and assigned us a new spot.  my car pool buddy and i just about cried we laughed so hard that first monday morning in our fifth new spot.  it was ginormous!  you could fit two small cars in it.  and it was conviently located three feet from the stairwell that we took up to the street.  and did i mention that it was ginormous!  suddenly paying thoes extra dollars didn’t seem so bad… until this weekend when our spot got moved again. apparently some dude with a truck that used to park outside felt the need to park inside and steal our spot out from underneath us.  we now squeeze our way between a cement pillar and a cement divider wall while desending a slight ramp into the ackwardest parking spot know to man.  yes there are not cement posts to smash my door on, however i’m waiting for the day that i smash the entire back passenger side of my car into the divider wall while trying not to smash the front driver’s side bummer in to a cement post while backing up and out of parking spot number six. 

and this is what we pay $200 a month for.

we’re next in line on the waiting list for a spot just down the street.  our fingers are crossed…

why are we inspired by another person’s courage?  maybe because it give us the sweet and genuine surprise of discovering some trace, at least, of the same courage in ourselves

laurence shames, author

it has rained here, for what feels like weeks and weeks on end. yes there has been the occasional sunny break, perhaps a day or two that we missed out on the wet stuff falling from above, but for the most part the rain continues to fall. i carry an umbrella with me wherever i go, and i keep another one in my desk just in case i’m fooled by the temporary sun and leave the first one in the car in the morning. i’m tired of rain.
in the last few weeks i’ve been learning a small tidbit of the art of mennonite cooking and i’ve come to realize that not one recipe has an exact measurement. not a one. while i stood beside my grandma in the kitchen, observing the process, i quickly scribbled down measurements and notes for future reference. later, when i reviewed my notes i realized that more that half of the measurements were listed as a good half, a full cup, approx 1/4. a few days later when we learned to make these i asked how you know when the dough is right. the response was “you’ll just know”. i think they have far too much faith in my cooking abilities.
tomorrow, we have one more lesson before my grandma returns home and apparently she’s decided to turn it into a contest. things could be interesting. i’ve enlisted my sister to document the process with her photo taking device…

… like the insurance company you work for, randomly giving you items completely unrelated to insurance, such as coffee with a coffee scoop (?) 

the grandma: “b, you should find a boyfriend for you auntie so that she’ll get married and you can be in a wedding”
the aunt: “yeah b, you told me the other day that you wanted to be in a wedding and wear a pretty dress”
the girl: gives me a look that drips with as much attitude a five year old can posses, then looks at the grandma (her great grandma) and sighs like she just been asked to walk to the moon and back
the grandma: “come on b, don’t you think you could find a husband for your auntie?”
the girl: “no!” again with as much attitude as five year old can convey
the grandma: “why not? don’t you think we could work together as a team?”
the girl: “gg, i’m just not into that.” said like she was five going on fifteen.
the grandma and me: hysterical laugher