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Big update post
Jul. 15th, 2008 08:56 amPut Lauren on the plane to go home this morning and cried my way out of the airport again. I'm such a sap. It was another good visit and we did some really different stuff this time.
The first week we mostly hung around, played board games and lots of Rock Band (X-Box) and Boom Blox (Wii). We also went to a concert/tailgate party and football game the first week she was here which was a lot of fun. The Esks won in a very exciting last 5 minutes of play, or so I was told, we left early to avoid the traffic. As it was City Employee appreciation night we were able to find out how much longer it would have taken if we'd stayed to the end. We were home by 11:30, the others made it home by 12:30 or 1:00. I'm thinking leaving five minutes before the end was certainly worth avoiding the frustration of an hour trying to get out of there.
Jason and Lauren came downtown once for Indian buffet and we had bubble tea a few times. Also ate Vietnamese food once. Last night we hit Red Lobster, so it's been a pretty decadent week. Must put myself back on some kind of diet now that she's gone. Time to go back to reality and get out of vacation mode.
Speaking of vacation, I did manage to take a few days off while Lauren was here between my old job and my new one. We decided to spend it seeing the Stampede and camping in Banff. We managed to leave so late that we completely missed the rodeo, which I had bought tickets to so that kinda sucked, but it's in the past. The band we were there to see that night (Finger Eleven) wasn't great. The venue was terrible so the acoustics were bad, we could hardly see and there were a lot of smokers. We gave up on the concert after about 5 songs. We did get to see a cutting horse competition, which was cool,
and we wandered through the agricultural arena and petted lots of critters. Also ate some junk food but avoided waiting in line for any of the rides as it just didn't seem worth it. Report on the food: corn dogs were good, the elephant ears were pretty bad (not stretched thin enough), the jello shooters were fun, and I like blue candy apples best. All in all, Stampede was okay I guess, but it kinda struck me as just another county fair. Maybe I'd feel differently if we'd actually made it to the rodeo.
The next day we met up with an old childhood friend, Janine, and "floated". We bought a bunch of booze, dragged a few rafts out to the Elbow river and floated down the river under the sun and a perfect breeze with all the people in one boat and all the booze in a cooler in another boat tied to the first. We managed to capsize the people boat, but the booze had a safe trip the whole way. It was a lot of fun and I think I'll have to go back to Calgary for another float in a few weeks.
After dinner we left for Banff, arriving at midnight. We set up camp for the first night at Two Jack Lake's Main campground. Most of the sites were empty as it was cool and rainy and the middle of the week. Lauren slept in the car as we intended to move sites in the morning. I made crepes in a wonderful dining shelter and then we packed camp and headed for Two Jack Lake's lakeside camping. We ended up in space 32, which the girl at the entrance had nicknamed the "honeymoon suite". It was right by the lake and the most isolated from the other sites. Though all the other sites were in view, they were not surrounding us, so that was rather nice. It was however cold and rainy all day.
We went in to town, saw the Banff Springs hotel, shopped, visited the hot springs and had my cell phone either stolen or lost, which sucked. I did buy a nice pair of shoes though. We spent our evening huddled by a fire in a dining shelter eating pizza sandwiches.
Banff day two was crepes for breakfast again and then an exciting caving adventure. We crawled through tiny spaces, rappelled, slid head first down the "laundry chute" and saw cave rats at the Ratsnest Cave. We didn't take any pictures as I was too afraid to mess up the camera while climbing.
Day three was mostly spent hanging around the lake in a hammock and trying to start a fire that just refused to stay lit (the wood was damp inside but dry on the surface). That evening we headed back into Banff to search for my lost phone, to no avail, and then enjoyed a wonderful meal at Grizzly House. Grizzly House is a fondue restaurant with a pretty hefty price tag, so we came kinda dressed up (as dressy as you can get when you get dressed at a camp site). I was rather surprised both by the tacky decor and the large number of families with children, but the food certainly made it worthwhile. Very yum and I'd highly recommend it as a memorable and interesting restaurant, but I don't think I'd go there on a regular basis even if I lived in the area. We spent the evening playing card games in the dining shelter by a warm fire which was pretty nice.
The next morning we packed up and were out of the park at a reasonable hour, but we dawdled through breakfast and didn't make it to Calgary until 1:30 or so. We got to spend a few hours with Janine and Carol (her mum who was visiting and who is my mum's best friend) walking around the more charming areas of Calgary's downtown and then headed back to Edmonton
around 4:20. We were delayed in Red Deer by both weather and a detour (accident maybe?). And picked up our doggies pretty late.
Monday morning was my first day at the new job, and of course I forgot to set my alarm and slept in. I still made it in only half an hour late, but I really wanted to be on time. Ah well, this is also in the past now. I was on time today. Day one in the new job was a bit of a blur, mostly spent meeting people (and immediately forgetting their names) and playing with Visio. Today looks like it will be more of the same. Interestingly, because he was unable to meet my salary demand, my new boss came up with the brilliant compromise of making me perm-term, so I get three weeks of vacation and after three months I also get benefits! That's great news for me and I think I'll stop the job search for a few months unless something really sensational comes up.
Big shake-ups at the old office in the week I was gone too. One of the interns left for greener pastures (I think they were only there a month or two) and Candice is on leave because her Uncle passed away, so poor Una is utterly swamped. I wish the timing of my departure had been a little better. I haven't heard from the girl in my old, old job yet to know if evil-harpy-boss granted her permanent status or is holding her in probation. I think her three months was up yesterday so it may take a few more weeks for that to shake down.
In other employment news, Jason got the interview in Austin and they have graciously agreed to buy a plane ticket and fly me out too! Poor doggies have to go back to the kennel for a few days, but I get a mini-break on someone else's dime! Woot! I'm really, really excited about the opportunity of trying out a new city with a warmer climate and maybe owning a house so I hope they make an offer good enough to allow us to move down there.
The first week we mostly hung around, played board games and lots of Rock Band (X-Box) and Boom Blox (Wii). We also went to a concert/tailgate party and football game the first week she was here which was a lot of fun. The Esks won in a very exciting last 5 minutes of play, or so I was told, we left early to avoid the traffic. As it was City Employee appreciation night we were able to find out how much longer it would have taken if we'd stayed to the end. We were home by 11:30, the others made it home by 12:30 or 1:00. I'm thinking leaving five minutes before the end was certainly worth avoiding the frustration of an hour trying to get out of there.
Jason and Lauren came downtown once for Indian buffet and we had bubble tea a few times. Also ate Vietnamese food once. Last night we hit Red Lobster, so it's been a pretty decadent week. Must put myself back on some kind of diet now that she's gone. Time to go back to reality and get out of vacation mode.
Speaking of vacation, I did manage to take a few days off while Lauren was here between my old job and my new one. We decided to spend it seeing the Stampede and camping in Banff. We managed to leave so late that we completely missed the rodeo, which I had bought tickets to so that kinda sucked, but it's in the past. The band we were there to see that night (Finger Eleven) wasn't great. The venue was terrible so the acoustics were bad, we could hardly see and there were a lot of smokers. We gave up on the concert after about 5 songs. We did get to see a cutting horse competition, which was cool,
and we wandered through the agricultural arena and petted lots of critters. Also ate some junk food but avoided waiting in line for any of the rides as it just didn't seem worth it. Report on the food: corn dogs were good, the elephant ears were pretty bad (not stretched thin enough), the jello shooters were fun, and I like blue candy apples best. All in all, Stampede was okay I guess, but it kinda struck me as just another county fair. Maybe I'd feel differently if we'd actually made it to the rodeo.
The next day we met up with an old childhood friend, Janine, and "floated". We bought a bunch of booze, dragged a few rafts out to the Elbow river and floated down the river under the sun and a perfect breeze with all the people in one boat and all the booze in a cooler in another boat tied to the first. We managed to capsize the people boat, but the booze had a safe trip the whole way. It was a lot of fun and I think I'll have to go back to Calgary for another float in a few weeks.
After dinner we left for Banff, arriving at midnight. We set up camp for the first night at Two Jack Lake's Main campground. Most of the sites were empty as it was cool and rainy and the middle of the week. Lauren slept in the car as we intended to move sites in the morning. I made crepes in a wonderful dining shelter and then we packed camp and headed for Two Jack Lake's lakeside camping. We ended up in space 32, which the girl at the entrance had nicknamed the "honeymoon suite". It was right by the lake and the most isolated from the other sites. Though all the other sites were in view, they were not surrounding us, so that was rather nice. It was however cold and rainy all day.
We went in to town, saw the Banff Springs hotel, shopped, visited the hot springs and had my cell phone either stolen or lost, which sucked. I did buy a nice pair of shoes though. We spent our evening huddled by a fire in a dining shelter eating pizza sandwiches.
Banff day two was crepes for breakfast again and then an exciting caving adventure. We crawled through tiny spaces, rappelled, slid head first down the "laundry chute" and saw cave rats at the Ratsnest Cave. We didn't take any pictures as I was too afraid to mess up the camera while climbing.
Day three was mostly spent hanging around the lake in a hammock and trying to start a fire that just refused to stay lit (the wood was damp inside but dry on the surface). That evening we headed back into Banff to search for my lost phone, to no avail, and then enjoyed a wonderful meal at Grizzly House. Grizzly House is a fondue restaurant with a pretty hefty price tag, so we came kinda dressed up (as dressy as you can get when you get dressed at a camp site). I was rather surprised both by the tacky decor and the large number of families with children, but the food certainly made it worthwhile. Very yum and I'd highly recommend it as a memorable and interesting restaurant, but I don't think I'd go there on a regular basis even if I lived in the area. We spent the evening playing card games in the dining shelter by a warm fire which was pretty nice.
The next morning we packed up and were out of the park at a reasonable hour, but we dawdled through breakfast and didn't make it to Calgary until 1:30 or so. We got to spend a few hours with Janine and Carol (her mum who was visiting and who is my mum's best friend) walking around the more charming areas of Calgary's downtown and then headed back to Edmonton
around 4:20. We were delayed in Red Deer by both weather and a detour (accident maybe?). And picked up our doggies pretty late.
Monday morning was my first day at the new job, and of course I forgot to set my alarm and slept in. I still made it in only half an hour late, but I really wanted to be on time. Ah well, this is also in the past now. I was on time today. Day one in the new job was a bit of a blur, mostly spent meeting people (and immediately forgetting their names) and playing with Visio. Today looks like it will be more of the same. Interestingly, because he was unable to meet my salary demand, my new boss came up with the brilliant compromise of making me perm-term, so I get three weeks of vacation and after three months I also get benefits! That's great news for me and I think I'll stop the job search for a few months unless something really sensational comes up.
Big shake-ups at the old office in the week I was gone too. One of the interns left for greener pastures (I think they were only there a month or two) and Candice is on leave because her Uncle passed away, so poor Una is utterly swamped. I wish the timing of my departure had been a little better. I haven't heard from the girl in my old, old job yet to know if evil-harpy-boss granted her permanent status or is holding her in probation. I think her three months was up yesterday so it may take a few more weeks for that to shake down.
In other employment news, Jason got the interview in Austin and they have graciously agreed to buy a plane ticket and fly me out too! Poor doggies have to go back to the kennel for a few days, but I get a mini-break on someone else's dime! Woot! I'm really, really excited about the opportunity of trying out a new city with a warmer climate and maybe owning a house so I hope they make an offer good enough to allow us to move down there.
