Yeeeehaaaaaw!

On Wednesday, Murray and I popped down to Calgary for a few days to visit the fam and check out the Stampede. Truth be told, my intentions were not quite that pure - I wanted to check out Corb Lund who was playing a free show at the Stampede.
On Wednesday night we went to Ryan, Krystalle, Ben, and Mollie's place for a feed of BBQ ribs and a visit. Ben is getting bigger all the time - we just saw him a couple weeks ago and he has changed so much!

You know, there is nothing quite like the Calgary Stampede! The sights (some not so bad, some which shouldn't be in public), the smells (some delicious and tempting, some like the back end of a bull), the shopping...(what could be bad about shopping?!)
After a delicious stampede-style breakfast (at noon) of pancakes and bacon on Thursday, Murms and I headed to Anderson station to catch the C-Train to the grounds. I tell ya, public transit is the way to go.
First stop: the Indian Village. Pretty cool - nothing I haven't seen before, but I have always loved the amazing, detailed costumes - especially the bead work. Apparently, "Indian" is PC again. I'll never be able to keep up.
Then we headed up the midway to look for some freaky carnies. Unfortunately, we mostly saw clean-cut college age kids who were more than happy to take your money to play a game that is physically impossible to win. Stewie Griffin (the delightfully evil baby from "the Family Guy") seemed to be the prize of choice - every game kiosk was giving him away in various sizes.
We checked out the rides, and murms found one that suited his tastes perfectly:

(luuuuuv yuuuuu)
We decided to try out the "skyride" which is somewhat like a horizontal chair lift that allows you to go from one end of the grounds to the other in about 10 minutes. Nice view from up there - even the carnies look harmless:

Skee Ball is my favourite game. I'm quite deadly at it.

Drifting high above the crowds at the top of the skyride, we could see where the people were hanging out. Not surprisingly, the biggest lineup was for those 'lil donuts. We didn't partake because my arteries were hardening just thinking about them. We actually did go on one legitimate ride. I don't remember what it was called, but probably something along the lines of "spin-you-around-and-make-you-stick-to-the-wall-till-you-upchuck." It sure was fun. We checked out the action in the ag barns and discovered a tent full of Budweiser Beer Clydsdales. Man, those things are massive! I have pics, but for some reason Blogger is being difficult right now and I can't seem to get them in. I'll try again later - keep an eye out. After a little shopping, more walking around, gawking in awe of the number of people in line at the Nashville North tent who were lined up to see April Wine, chowing down on a burger, and walking around a little more, we decided to head over to the Coca Cola stage to stake out a spot for the big show. On our way over, we noticed a kiosk selling the coveted "dippin' dots" ice cream treats. (again, check back for pics). They are tiny pellets of flash-frozen ice cream. We both opted for the 'cowpoke' size (as opposed to the larger 'buckaroo' size) of the cookies and cream variety. Delicious, but very cold and hurt my teeth - not as creamy as real ice cream. I think I'll stick to Ben&Jerry, thanks.

The main event, the whole reason for all this, was fantastic! Corby and the boys ("the Hurtin' Albertans") did not disappoint. It was pretty cool too because most of their music is settling-the-west-riding-and-wrangling kinda stuff. Well done.

On Friday night we had a great visit and another feed of BBQ ribs with all the Stampede-style fixin's at Murray's mom and dad's.

The rest of the story is a little anti-climactic. We headed back home on Saturday and waxed the floors at the sem today. Wax on, but not wax off.

Enjoying Unemployment, or: "I'm between jobs right now"

Yikes, I suppose it has been a while since I've updated...We spent a lovely week in Calgary and Banff doing all my favourite things: hanging out with the whole family (including our niece and both our nephews!), meeting up with Jocey, shopping, going to the mountains, making massive purchases at the candy store, riding gondolas, and 'lunch-ing' at the Banff Springs.

Dixie stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while we lived it up at the Tunnel Mountain Resort in Banff for 3 nights. We finally figured out why they call it Tunnel Mountain (since there are no actual tunnels in it...) It goes back to the days when the railroad was being built- they were planning a tunnel through the mountain, but decided to go around instead. And why wouldn't you? When you see Tunnel Mountain from the top of the Sulphur Mountain Gondola, it's really not much of an obstruction - you can easily go around on either side. Except the side with the river and the golf course.

I love the Banff, I really do! I think it is my favourite place in the whole world.

After that lovely bit of time off, I finished my last week at Riverbend. The congregation had a going-away lunch for us complete with cake and a gift basket full of baking stuff! I decided to try out my new industrial-quality cookie sheets a couple days later. They cook beautifully, and burn the flesh on my arm quite efficiently, too. I suppose that was my fault.

Dixie and I have been taking advantage of the above-average temperatures by sunning ourselves in the back yard. I finished reading The Catcher in the Rye in about 24 hours...that book reminds me of summer, even though it is set at Christmastime. It was a favourite for reading on the beach. Murray and I have also been using this free time to make some plans for the 'big move' which isn't really so big, since we're just packing up the car and heading east. Actually, Murms, Dixie, and I will be heading south to Calgary first, then west to the Okanagan for a few days, then back to Calgary. After re-loading on clean laundry and kissing our sweet kittee good bye we'll head east to Regina. Then northeast to Fort Qu'Appelle, then southeast to Glenboro, MB for a couple of nights. From there we'll cross the border and head south (and a bit east) to Minneapolis. As I was surfin' the 'net for things to do in Minneapolis, I came across advertisments for the Mall of America! The second biggest mall in the world (and who's counting that the biggest mall in the world is right in our backyard...that's just West Edmonton -this is the Mall of ALL of America!)

This trip just got a whole lot better!

From the mall...I mean, Minneapolis, we'll head south and east to Chicago. I hear they have the good pizza, and a Frank Lloyd Wright house/museum. We'll spend a night in Chicago and pray that the cow doesn't kick over the lantern like in that song we used to sing... (my mom is probably the only one who gets it.) ANYway, we'll head to Detroit and then cross the border to our final destination of Windsor. We're aiming to be there on August 17 so Murr can start work on the 20th. I'll be starting as the part-time DPS at First Lutheran in September. Hooray for being gainfully employed!

All this excitement doesn't happen for another few weeks though...we're heading south (but not east) for Stampede this week. Corb Lund is playing on the Coca-Cola stage, which should be a heck of a lot of fun! I caught the last 20 minutes of the Stampede Parade on TV this morning (it was a re-run from yesterday morning). That was about all I needed for the old Stampede memories to come flooding back, and now I'm pumped to show Murms what being a Calgarian is all about! Cowboys, corndogs, and cotton candy here we come!