David Carter

From the MAKEBELIEVE exhibit, my favourite was the collection by David Carter.

In Vanisher, I was at first confused why there was smoke on the top, smoke on the bottom, and then a smokeless space in between. I could not comprehend how that could be possible! I walked away, perplexed and annoyed. Then I studied Magic Box and I had a EUREKA moment! In Magic Box there are a series of glass plates which break the box into compartments. Combining the two, in Vanisher, the smokeless space is there the vanishee is hiding, as no one really vanishes, it is just an illusion. Also, upon closer inspection, the puffs of smoke are not from a continuous explosion, also emphasizing the creation process of an illusion.
Visually, my favourite piece was Sequel. I find it to be haunting and cold, but warm at the same time, which is strange because the body below is in a coffin, so really, it would not be warm at all.

Sequel follows a piece called Part 1. The full picture is the snowy scene with the severed head. What's neat about these pictures is that the images were created solely by make-up, staging, and set design: no digital manipulation of the images.


There was to be a 5th piece in this display, Presenting, but it was not out. I think someone knocked it over and broke it.

AGA

My trip to the Art Gallery of Alberta was quite nice! Actually, it was a lot of fun!!

I was pleased to see there were more than 5 pices in the Baroque Masterwoks exhibit: 13, in fact! from the National Art Gallery of Canada, and then a display of Baroque pieces that the University of Alberta has in its collection.

I was also surprised by the modern art exhibit that was there: MAKEBELIEVE. It featured Canadian artists, highlighting the mechanisms of distortion & the construction of illusions. I most enjoyed the pieces by David Carter (Vancouver). Until this visit, I never quite understood modern/contemporary art. Maybe I have gained a bit of clarity since turning 30, or perhaps having someone to discuss it with made it easier to understand. (I think it's the latter.) I finally figured out how to appreciate television as an art medium!

(top image: Milutin Gubash; bottom image: Myfanwy Macleod)

Kind Gestures

As a sweet gesture, someone gifted me a magazine (the November issue of Scientific American) but I didn't have the heart to say that I purchased the same issue a few days before! My copy (and the December issue of Psychology Today)got wet in my bag on Thursday, when the entire contents of a bottle of water emptied in my bag on my way to work. :(

Alas, the truth has a way of coming out and my soggy copy was discovered by the gift giver, and now the they are left with the challenge of finding a gift that I haven't purchased myself. The extra magazine was kept by the gift giver, who conincidentally also has an interest in science, and would willingly read it.

IE7

Reasons you shouldn't upgrade to IE7 and there's a Google ad to the right of the list, encouraging you to upgrade! heehee I hate it! It's slow and retarded and I am going to take it off my computer as soon as I can muster up the energy (and time) to deal with the mess that will probably ensue.

click image to enlarge

Listening over & over & over & over

If you only do one thing this year, listen to Rusted Wheel by Silversun Pickups (they are from L.A. and are descibed as being a bit similar to the Smashing Pumpkins (minus Billy Corgan's often annoying voice, in my opinion)
A few months ago I heard the song Well Thought Out Twinkles, and I liked it! Well, I finally listened to the entire album Carnavas and since then I have been listening to Rusted Wheel over and over and over and over and over and over again. I also like Future Foe Scenarios and Little Lover's So Polite and Dream At Tempo 119. (EF - check the server)

Baroque Masterworks

I have been invited (well, I was planning on going earlier today but I put it off so we could go together) to The Art Gallery of Alberta (formerly the Edmonton Art Gallery) to see the a travelling display of the Baroque masterpieces currently in the permenant collection at the National Gallery of Canada (the country’s finest art museum). I'm so excited that some real art is coming to town! I think the only think I miss about living in Texas is visiting the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

The Art Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of 12 precious Baroque masterwork paintings from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada by the likes of Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Nicholas Poussin. Baroque Masterworks from the National Gallery of Canada features Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch and Flemish paintings dating from 1600 to 1750 arising from different social, political and religious climates. As a result of their age, rarity and historical importance, paintings such as these seldom travel. This exhibition provides a unique opportunity for Canadians to see these national treasures.

Yay! Hopefully they will have more than 5 paintings. Gosh, am I cynical or what?

Google Documents

I am writing in Google Documents. I read that I can post from here to my blog. I don't know if I will ever use this feature, but I thought I would at least test it out.

Hmmm... all this online stuff, really how secure is it? Can someone hack into the google servers and peek at my personal stuff. Probably. Nothing is safe any more.

Spying on the Quad

I was searching for webcams in Edmonton and I found one that peeks at the SW corner of the Quad on the University campus. (look, it's sunny today! yay! but still lots of snow)

click to spy for yourself!

everyone in the world

What is everyone in the world doing at the same time?
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GROWING OLDER

C.R.A.Z.Y.

I watched a French Canadian film called C.R.A.Z.Y. Patsy Cline's Song Crazy unserscores the film and the title is made up of the initials of the 5 boys in the story (Christian, Raymond, Antoine, Zachary, Yvan). Zac is the main character, having been born on Christmas Day 1960, and dropped on his head by his father. heehee oops! His monther believes he has a gift for healing. His father balks at the idea of his son who plays dress up with his mothers clothes and desired a doll carriage for a present. Anyway, it's a story about the family, and it was good.

I don't get it

The roads are shit today and Churchill Square of all things is being plowed this morning! It's a city block of nothing. There are sidewalks all around the perimeter, why do they need to plowed the entire concrete square? Meanwhile, to cross the city streets you are stepping into 15-20cm (or more, depending on how much it has drifted) of snow.

Tomorrow the temperature is to go above zero, so the snow will be melting and the roads will be worse than today. Then, it will freeze again overnight and the following morning the roads will be horrendous, icy and icy rutts everywhere.

Nerd

So I'm sort of listed on the Hi5 website. I say sort of because I don't really do anything with it. I joined because I got an invite from Michelle and then totally forgot about it until Lorraine sent me an email to be added to her friends list. Then I filled in the personal information, uploaded a picture. Then Michelle slaps me with a NERD high-5.

Ok, so I'm a nerd! leave me alone. I'm gonna go read about viruses that hijack smartphones.

The Song Works!

"Post Punk Laptop Rapper", Mc Lars raps about Ahab and his hunt for Moby-Dick, and his video has him dancing with a bunch of children.

Call me Ahab, what, monomaniac Obsessed with success unlike Steve Wozniak On the hunt for this mammal that once took my leg With my warn down crew and my man Queequeg

Miranda loves the song, asked for me to put it on her MP3 player, and everytime it plays in the car, she asks me questions about the story of the captain and the whale. (What kind of whale, why did he chase the whale? did he think he could get he leg back? how big was the whale?) Today she asked me if there was a book we could read, or a movie we could watch about the story. (Next thing she'll be asking about is who is Steve Wozniak, and then she can learn about the invention of the Apple computer!)

She's six years old, and asking me to read her 19th century classical literature. My little brain-child :) The book is 700 pages long, but there is a children's version that is just over 100 pages, and hopefully I can track down a copy.

She was also asking if I had more songs about whales, so I told her about the song Captain Nemo by Sarah Brightman, a song about Captain Nemo from Jules Vern's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. She hasn't asked about that book yet, but I think I still have a copy of it in the basement.

She Dances

Tap Class:

(Miranda is on the left)


(Miranda is in the middle)


Jazz Class:

(Miranda is on the left, pink leotard & black short pants)


(Miranda is on the left, pink leotard & black short pants)

I'm Dr. Pepper

Which Caffeinated Beverage are You?

House with a red door

The things I do during company time when I'm not at the office:
I build houses out of paper!

It is also posted on the Art Gallery board at the elementary school. I coloured an orange and purple house too, but I still have to cut it out and put it together. (Nov 1st)

I wonder what I will do today!

First up on the board

The things I do during company time when I'm not at the office:
I make a Harry Potter witch doll.It was one of the Halloween craft activities at the elementary school
that I mentor at on Wednesday afternoons, and my work of art was the first thing up on the art gallery board this year (Oct 11th).

Miss Witch

Yesterday there was a Halloween party at Sadie's house. Noemi promised her a Halloween party, but they were moving last weekend, so the party was delayed a week. In attendance were princesses, a witch, a butterfly, a couple of goth chicks, a super hero with a third eye, Woody (the sheriff from Toy Story) and like 15 children in all! Lots of noise! The children played inside, built little snowmen outside (I wish I took pictures, but I didn't see the snowpeople which looked like snow mounds since the snow wasn't sticky), played on the trampoline, swung in the tree swing, played music games and danced, ate pizza, built puzzles, and oh! baked muffins. Miranda was excited to be able to have green hair and black nails since we didn't actually have time to do that for her on October 31st.

click to see the photos :

Halloween Party

My First 5km Race

Saturday morning I ran my first race. I was driving to the park at 9:30 and realised I hadn't even had so much as a drink of water before leaving the house. ooops! I had a few sips of water and 1/2 an almond granola bar en route.

It was the wind-up race for the Running Room fall clinics. It was at Rundle Park and they mapped out a new route to run. We started going cross country. It was about -6C, there was 2 inches of snow on the ground (it snowed the night before) and we were having to run on the grass. What a start! Once we were done on the grass, we had to run up hills, and then finally down hills and then up and down another hill.

Nicole and I finished in 00:32:31. Whoever said don't start in front because it's discouraging to see people passing you was probably a little wrong. We started in the middle and had slow people in front of us and it was hard to get around them on the narrow paths. Had we started at the front, we would have (1) been able to count how many people were ahead of us, and (2) we wouldn't have slow people in front of us!

Night Owls

Ana had us over for dinner last night and Miranda and Miriam were up playing until 1:30 in the morning! Ana, Ramon and I were watching a movie (Hide & Seek) and had no idea about the time. Alex came back from Fort McMurray with a moose in the back of his truck. I took a peek at it when I was leaving. I thought about taking a picture, but there seemed to be something perverse about taking a photo of an animal carcass in the back of a truck.

click to see more photos of the girls

Miranda freaked out when she tried to make popcorn in the microwave and this happened. Ana said that it had happened before. It was pretty funny to walk into the kitchen and see the mess. The bag blew out on both ends.

Miranda cried when she had to go home, and was somewhat comforted by the fact that we arranged for a sleepover in two weeks.

What Every Child Needs

What is one thing I believe every child will be all the better for having? A best friend. Someone they can laugh with and fight with and cry with and brainstorm with and invent with and speak their mind without fear of judgment.

child one: Let's pretend we are witches and we have been best friends since college.
child two: No, since preschool.
child one: Ok.
child two: And let's pretend you are the rich one and I am the poor one, but we're still best friends and you help me when I need help.

And someone you can go to the hair salon with on Saturday and swap hair styles! Sadie wanted her hair straight and Miranda wanted curls.

trampoline photos

hair salon photos

Sweeter Than Candy

awwwwwwwwwwwww!


Airport hugs.

He left only a week ago! It seems like it was a lot longer ago.

Canadian Tire Photo Opp

Here we are, posing for the camera in the bathroom department at Canadian Tire.

The funny thing is, I think it's the best family photo we've taken together!

I did it!

Ten weeks ago I started running in a 5km clinic and last night I finished, running 6km, in the dark and on snow and ice, in 38 minutes. Oh did I mention it was my first sub-zero run, a chilly -7C. I could have been faster, but we were running in a group and I couldn't extacly run off ahead. (With walking it was a 43 minutes and 6.3km trip.)

What I have learned about myself - I thought I was a woman who would be content to finish with the top 1/3 of the group, but discovered that I want to be finishing in the #1 spot.

School Photos

The proofs for Miranda's school photos have arrived.


Here is my school photo from grade 2. That was one of my favourite blouses, and vests were so cool! Oh the 80's...

Trick or Treating, Alberta Style

Dark! (clocks changed this past weekend)
Cloudy, 30 percent chance of flurries.
Wind northwest 20 km/h.
Temperature -6C, with the windchill -13C.
Smartest thing you can do for your child - make sure their costume fits over top of a snow suit!

There is snow and ice on the ground, but that doesn't stop the children from begging for sweets and treats.
(Jarod & Miranda)

Halloween Party Disaster?

I pick up Miranda after work and am told that she forgot her costume at Jarod's house this morning!

oh nooooooooooo!!! My child was the only one not dress in a costume for her Halloween party at school. :( Thank heavens I at least set out the Halloween themed clothes this morning. She was dressed in a Halloween shirt and black skirt and tights and had black and orange striped socks (and her witches broom) so she was perfectly content to just be having a party with her classmates. She told me she took LOTS of popcorn and ate it ALL.

I am so proud of her for not being upset. Even as an adult, I probably would have been near tears and sulky over an issue such a this. She was just worried that she wouldn't be able to get it in time to go trick or treating. Jarod's mum was home and Miranda put her costume on and went trick or treating around that neighbourhood. End result, she got a lot of loot and had a hoot collecting it. Me, I froze my fingers off because I was still in my work clothes. I had to take her home so I could change into something warmer, then we went around the condo complex.

Cindy Lou Who

Miranda starts her musical theatre class this Friday, and this morning her teacher called to advise me that Miranda is going to be cast as Cindy Lou Who in their production of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Cindy Lou Who is the cute little girl who catches the Grinch in the process of trying to steal Christmas from Whoville.

Happy Halloween!

I'm sitting at my desk, dressed up as .............

an ANGEL! (surprise surprise)

Miranda went to school as a witch.

The department is having a halloween draw and if you dress up your name goes in the draw-bin 5 times. I think the winner gets $300.

Maybe I'll have some pictures to post later. It's 9:26, I have been here for an hour and have yet to do any work. I am this year's candy distributor so that has taken up part of my morning.

Cards

With talent like this
I should never have to purchase a Hallmark card again.
(click for a larger view)

The picture doesn't do them justice.

Nearly lost an eye running

No fancy story, just the facts. I got hit in the eye with a tree branch on Wednesday. It wasn't my fault. I kept on running. I ran 5.5km! yay! Got in to the centre and my eye was all red and I was bleeding from a scratch on the bridge of my nose. Thanks Duane!

(Duane was the running group leader, and I was behind him. He was looking down and hit the tree (it was dark outside but we were on a semi-lit residential street) and I got attached by the whip back of the branch. I thanked him for the warning (none) and he teased me the remainder of the run. At the end of the run there was a HUGE water puddle and he was wearing new running shoes. I totally looked like I faked that I was going to jump in it and splash him, but I didn't. Damn, I should have!

My eye is ok. Just the small scratch on my nose, which will heal, and the lesson learnt to always be in the lead so you can see what's coming at you.

Thingamaboob

I took home a thingamaboob today. What's a thingamaboob? Something that should not be confused with a thingamaboo! I got mine in the rontunda at Commerce Place. The Canadian Cancer Society had their annual Jail And Bail fundraiser and there was a booth set up with the thingamaboobs. They are $5.00, and the money raised will help fund cancer research and provide cancer-related support services.

It's pink, but I really didn't need one. I wasn't even going to get one. I actaulyl went back later in the day to get mine, after learning what they mean.

A thingamaboob - it's more than just a keychain; it's an education tool for breast cancer. Here's how to read the thingamaboob, from the bottom to the top:

- the largest bead is the size of the average lump found by women performing regular self-examinations
- the next bead up is the average size lump found by a clinical breast examination by a healthcare professional
- the solid pink bead is the average size lump found by the first mamogram
-the tiny beads are the average size lumps found by getting regular mamograms
-the yellow flower is the symbol of the Canadian Cancer Society

Do I do regular self-examinations? No.
Will I start to do regular self-examinations? No.
Do I understand the improtance of self-examinations? Yes.
But now I know that if I feel something the size of a gumball then I should have it checked out!

October is Breat Cancer Awareness month, and the thingamaboobs can be purchased from local Canadian Cancer Society offices only in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

The "visitors" are coming

The visitors are coming tomorrow... the special visitors...

The anticipation (of others, not mine) of this event has made me discover something about myself, because if asked what I think about the coming of the special visitors I cannot keep my opinion to myself. You'd think that the f'ing Queen of England was the special visitor in question, buuuut she's not! I hope the head cheese in the office doesn't ask me because it might be bad if I open my mouth.... Yippeedooshit!

Our office has just been repainted. It was two weeks of dust and 1/2 my desk missing so they would paint the pole. My bronchitis flared up, my allergies flared up. It was miserable. They told us it was because they have extended the lease on the office space for another 5 years, trying to get s thinking optimisitically that we are not being shut down. Then they get new pots for the office plants, and hang some new pictures, and get some new clocks (which, by the way have a terrible GLARE! which I noticed as soon as they brought in the samples. True, they selected the nicer of the two models, but the other one had zero glare and you could tell the time from across the room, but I digress.)

Then they announce the Executive Vice President of North American Operations and the President of "insert the company name here" of Canada are touring all the branches. AHHHH!!!
Please ensure your respective department area is clean and tidy. We have spent an incredible amount of time and money to make this place look good for you, your team and our customers.

How dumb do they think we are?? So that's why they are making the office improvements - not for the staff, but so the head cheese can make a good impression in the President's eye. *gag*

No worries, I will be on my best behaviour for the next two days, short of kissing ass (I lack the skills necessary for brown-nosing). My desk is tidy, I took down more than 1/2 of my photos, I will dress cute and stylish and still within the dress code restrictions, and yay! I get to miss part of the afternoon for the mentoring program!

Mondays Suck

Nothing like waking up to a wet, snowy, dark gray day, and an accident on 82nd Street (not involving me, but I got stuck in the traffic jam that resulted). And I'm not feeling well and I would prefer to be back in bed, instead of sitting in the office, listening to someone declare that eveyone has been eating grumpies for breakfast. I'm not grumpy; I'm being quiet. I'm also not entirely comfortable with the clothes I selected to wear, or more so with my shoes and pants. I think the heels on my shoes are too high for the hemlength of the pants. And the plumber called last night to cancel our appointment for this morning. My bathtub taps are running, not leaking, but running. And I forogot to shut the water off before I left the hosue today. What a way to start the week.

We change the clock in two weeks so the mornings now are so dark.

The snow won't stay, but it would have been more enjoyable if it was falling in blanket of large, sparkly flakes, instead of in a wet, sticky mess. At least wet snow means it is still somewhat warm out, but it's still cold! It was +1C this morning and isn't expected to move from that temperature all day. My toes were cold on the walk to the office (I was wearing my running shoes). I hope Miranda's feet are ok today. She is wearing running shoes, also. Now I need to get her winter boots. Someone, please remind me why I am living in Canada...

Saffron Skies

Michelle lent me a book, Saffron Skies (by Lesley Lokko) and when I finally did start to read it, she forgot she had given it to me - that much time had past! I never thought I would read it, since I was on hiatus from fiction, but I am so glad that I eventually give it a try.

It is an epic novel, covering over 40 years, following the lives of a girl and her two best friends, her brother and their half-sister, her mother and father and her father's mistress, following them in England and Italy, Germany and Hungary, S & W Africa and the US.

The "sorry for nearly killing you" Card

Noemi darling, so sorry for my involvement in your near-death experience today. Some mothers will do anything to get playdates for their children! Let me know if there is anything else I can do. I sincerely hope you get well soon. kiss kiss, Angel.

I made her a card, which I will take to her tomorrow with my crutches and her child (I kept Sadie overnight so Noemi could rest and recover).

We were out walking in the cemetery early this afternoon. Noemi was jogging a bit (I was walking as I didn't have running shoes with me) and as we were leaving the cemetery, I suggested we stay on the grass. I didn't say it out loud, but my reason was because Bo (her little dog) was running off-leash and it makes me nervous when he runs by the road, so staying on the grass inside the cemetery would have given us a little bit longer away from the cars. This split second decision changed the course of the day's events in a way neither of us could have predicted.

She caught her foot in a hole and fell. Her ankle swelled up instantly. We determined there was no way she could walk back to the dance studio (some 5 blocks away) so I ran off to fetch my car to rescue her. It took me 15, maybe 20, minutes and in that time, she laid on the grass, with one bare foot, her sock, shoe and handbag strewn beside her, a wrote-iron fence and sidewalk keeping her in plain view to the cars passing on the street (and stopping since there was a street light RIGHT THERE), and NOT ONE person attempted to see if she was ok.

Long Weekend, Little Sleep

Friday seems like it was so long ago...

Saturday night I went to the new Sidetrack. It's not like the old Sidetrack. :( Gone are the wooden tables (and that hockey table thingy with the dome) and now there are marble tables and the bar top is all marble. Don't get me wrong, it looks nice and new, but it reminds me of an upscale lodge, with the quasi-rustic pictures on the walls. And the dance area is much smaller. A funk band was playing, they call themselves The Superband. They sounded good, but it's just not my kind of music.

We were sort of an odd bunch of people - Noemi, Jennifer from the dance studio, Jenn's friend's husband, John (who owns the Blue Plate Diner), his brother-in-law Adam (world traveller born in AZ and grew up in YK now lives in NYC), his friend Kory who has been living in Germany for years now but actually grew up next door to Tyler, who I dated in high school, (when they were kids, Kory threw a toy car at Tyler's older brother and left a nasty scar on the ex-NHLer's forehead) Jenn's friend Tracy from BC and she's moving back to BC, and me.

It probably wasn't even midnight yet when we left the Sidetrack and walked down the street to The Roost. I think Adam and I were the only gay-bar virgins of the bunch. It was, um, interesting! I have always envisioned The Roost would be more farm-like in appearance, with white picket fences. haha! They played some great music, and upstairs they played some awesome rave variety music. It was surprising that I even had gay men wanting to dance with me. Half of us nearly shut the place down and we sat up drinking tea and talking at Noemi's until dawn. It was after 6:00 by the time I got home.

With it being a long weekend, I went out on Sunday, too. It was low-key but I saw a good cover band playing at the Druid. Another late night, I was home after 4:00. I sat on the couch for a while, listening to music, and dozed off. When I finally climbed into bed, I just had to get up again to turn off the alarm clock since it was Monday morning and usually a work day.

It was one of the best Thanksgiving weekends I can remember. And I didn't even have a turkey dinner! My step-mum called this morning and cancelled our dinner plans. I didn't know if I should be happy or sad. Let's just say I wasn't sad. Mirnada had a turkey dinner yesterday so she wasn't missing out on anything, and today we had a fun afternoon with our friends!

I am thankful for...

Today is Thanksgiving, and if anyone actually needs a day to remind themselves of what they are thankful for, then they are probably not appreciative enough (in my opinion). My family cancelled the Thanksgiving dinner today, so I didn't get to share my list with my family, but at least my friends listened. I made a nice card, but didn't give it to anyone. I guess I will save it for next year, or send it to someone south of the 49th parallel later next month. Here is my TOP 5 LIST

1. I am healthy (relatively speaking, I don't have a terminal or life debilitating disease)

2. I am a mother, and my daughter is healthy and happy (again, relatively speaking. She wasn't too happy when I told her at 8:05 that it was time to leave Sadie's house and they could play again together next weekend.)

3. I live in a free society, in a land of opportunity and advantage, with electricity and heat, and clean running water. Technically, this should probably be #1 because if it wasn't for this fact then I might not be so fortunate with my health or with Miranda's, or more likely we'd be struggling just to stay alive. eek!

4. I have people who care about me (this was the year for solidifying some good friendships, and then of course there is my family)

5. I am intelligent and beautiful!!

We spent the afternoon (and evening) with Noemi and Sadie. I took the girls to the park and Miranda and I swung together on the swings. Then we went to see the place Noemi and Sadie are moving into next month. We all bounced together on the trampoline (not safe, we told the girls to never bounce with more than one person without us there). Noemi fed us dinner and I love going to her place because she cooks vegetables that I never buy, like squash, and this time it was sweet potatoes. I want to get a place down the street from them so we can spend more time together... that would be nice.

I've created a monster

Now Miranda wants to take Musical Theatre. The Winter session runs for 6 weeks starting the beginning of November. For $75...can I really put a price on my child's dreams of singing? And she would benefit fromt he performance experience... I still have a few weeks to decide.

Flowers - 09/24/06

in the front yard


in the back yard


at my mum's

Copper and Blue

It's that time of year again! The city is is copper and blue as the Oliers kick off the 2006-07 regular season tonight at Rexall. Half the people in the office are wearing Oilers shirts and jeans, as are a lot of the people I see out in the elevators, rotunda and mall. Miranda wore her pink Oilers shirt to school with a denim pleated skort and white tights with pink hearts. She looked so cute and sporty! heehee Go team, go!

Wanna lose weight?

Want to lost weight - Norwalk it off! The Norwalk virus, now avaialbe at the U of A... (joke I heard Garner Andrews Show studio usher Teddy Peterson tell on Sonic this morning) hahaha

Actually, they are not certain it is Norwalk, but there is an outbreak of some sort and Capital Health is advising students to remain at home if they are feeling ill, to stop the spread of the virus. LIstaer hall has brought in bottled water and laundry soap and provided free laundry services, and increased proceedures for cleaning common areas and public washrooms to help stop the spread. Wow! I'm impressed has the U of A has gone above and beyond the call of duty in dealing with the outbreak. In my second year of university there was a flu strain going around and for the first few weeks of the term all classes had 20% of the population out sick. It was brutal!

Expensive Parking & Another Murder

I was running late this morning so I had to park closer to the office. The lot by the Greyhound station used to be $4.50/day. Two weeks ago it was $5.50/day. Today it was $6.50! WTF is going on?! Maybe because it is getting colder out they figure people will be parking closer to the city centre?? I didn't listen to the morning news, but this is something I just read about the area where I usually park my car. Parking there is $2.00/day and has been since the start of July.

Homicide investigators were called to the down town area last night around 10 o-clock. When they arrived they found the body of a man hanging out the window of a third floor suite at walk up apartment near 95th Street and 102nd A Ave. One man was taken into custody. Police found the suspect sitting on the third floor ledge outside of the Apartment, not far from where the body of the victim was discovered. Charges are pending. (taken from the Sonic NewsflashBlog)

Chickadeedeedee

Miranda and my Mum have this thing they do when Miranda spends the weekend with her. They go to the park and feed peanuts to the chickadees. Last weekend I met up with them and they showed me how it is done. I am impressed that Miranda will stand still (and reasonably quiet) for so long!



Miranda likes to put a few nuts on her head, so the birds will also land there. They are soooo fast, it is hard to get a picture of them!



We walked around the lake, fed the ducks, geese and chickadees. I have a hundred photos of the ducks and geese which I still have to upload.

Alone on an Autumn Walk

Miranda went to play with Sadie for the afternoon, so I went for a run on one of my favourtie paths in Kinsmen Park. It's through the trees, has hills, and it's not paved. It was about 11C with a bit of wind, but sunny (the sun makes it so much warmer). After my run, I went for a walk at the Legislature grounds, and took some photos. View the album here, especially if you're missing Edmonton. ;)