It has been a while since I updated. The reason being there are quite a few things I'd like to put out there in the blogosphere but alone each is pretty minor for a while post. Therefore I will combine into a superpost.
1. My very small record collection will not be getting any bigger any time soon. I'll never shake the "hipster" label walking into the local myoozik store asking things like:
Me: Do you know where one could get a record player fixed?
Clerk: What make and model?
Me: It's a 1960s telefunken stereo.
Clerk: Try [local business], just bring it in and they could give you a quote.
Me: Oh....it is one of those massive stereo cabinets.
*Face palm* Apparently it is the kind without a rubber-band-thing to be cheaply replaced so the motor is bust. It is going to cost me more (in money and frustration) to fix this than to buy it. But I'm attached!
2. I'm still climbing and still a bit (unintentionally) obnoxious about it. My three month trial membership has run out and I still find myself there 3-4 times a week. It is the challenge that drives me. Without taking photos it isn't easy to explain exactly the differences I'm seeing but there is much more control, my footwork looks like terrified-spastic and a little bit more like the slinky spider I aim to be. I've still been focused on mainly 5.9 and 5.10 boulder routes but they are smoother and some moves requiring actual upper body strength aren't as impossible as they once were. Even the slanty walls that I could barely hang still on I can now traverse with moderate effort. Plus it is fun. FUN. That said, I'm in a hand-sloughing phase where my hard-earned calluses are peeling right off (aka: flappers) and one has been bleeding so I took this evening off hoping to let it heal enough to climb comfortably.
3. The lovely ShanWow had her birthday and we celebrated like bosses. Included in the celebration was our very favourite of desserts: The Duchess Bakeshop. We devoured a duchess cake (green marzipan over soft vanilla cake and some fantastic but unidentified jam and icing filling) and a lemon meringue cake. Made to wait with the cakes before dinner for at least half an hour we may or may not have caved.
4. Serial host: I'm now a more experienced member of the couchsurfing community. Over the last few weeks I've hosted twice (that is 200% the amount I hosted in the previous 27 years). TWICE! The first time was a pair of gentlemen, one calgarian one south african, who showed me that even men in their 30s could spend 3 straight days in the West Edmonton Mall - primarily the water park - and thoroughly enjoy themselves. At least that's where they say they were. In their defense it snowed straight for the whole time they were in the city. Never again will I tell people to skip the mall. The next hosting experience was a 20-something gal from Belgium who happens to be traveling across Canada and hoping to settle in Edmonton to make a bit of cash. She shared stories of her trip to the Faroe Islands. Look them up. I want to go to there. And now I'm hooked. To hosting, that is. Too bad Edmonton is not nearly as hopping in the dead of l'hiver.
I usually gently force Corner Gas on my unsuspecting surfers. Any other CanCon suggestions?