So Much for Self-Sufficiency

It is that time of year again.  At least for Otto.  He hit the 16000 km milestone (happy birthday, Otto!) about 800 kms ago.  For his birthday Otto always demands new oil and sometimes to change his shoes/wheels.  When physics_dude offered* to show me how to change said oil and said wheels I decided that it was a life skill that I should acquire.  Fast forward to me standing in the automobile oil aisle of Canadian Tire with my Mazda3 manual in hand** perusing the surprising number of types.  Apparently my car is made especially to take the one kind of oil that is the most expensive and one that only two companies offer (and only one in the large-size format).  Add that to the cost of a new filter and the hassle of tracking my own oil changes by keeping receipts for insurance purposes and it wasn't long before I gave in and decided to let the Mazda dealership do it since the cost will be about equal.

Oh well, that still leaves the summer-winter tire swap, right?  Sort of.  After wrangling Otto into a tight spot physics_dude very patiently talked me through the steps of taking out my jack and various tire-related tools, jacking up one corner of the car and removing the nuts.  Thankfully there was some extra power available because whoever screwed those nuts on last time was NOT a femininst.  They were trying to make damn sure I wouldn't be changing my own tires.  And, yes, once tightened appropriately I could wrestle the nuts off myself.  After many instances of success and self-congratulations we went to pull the wheel off the...um...wheel area and it would.not.budge.  Even with kicking.  Whatever dastardly forces were sealing the wheel would not let go and we gave up, defeated.  You win this one, car dealerships.  $130 later my oil and wheels have both (all?) been changed.

Seriously, though.  What would have happened if I had been on the side of the road with a flat?  I would have had to pay $150 for someone to come and fix me up because it wasn't do-it-yourself friendly.  When I left the dealership with my keys this morning I also left behind a few instructions including "easy on the torque".  When spring hits I will be changing my own wheels and the dealership will be getting a piece of my mind if not.

Have you successfully managed to change your own wheels?  Did you hit similar roadblocks and what did you do about them?

*I'm remembering it as he offered.

**A manual that, it appears, was subsequently left behind somewhere in Canadian Tire.  How do I DO that?

Joshua Radin

Ever since a group of SLPeeps watched "Adam" instead of studying for CASLPA I have been hooked on Joshua Radin's music.  And his voice.  His voice is like really smooth crack (if I knew what that was like).  He did almost the entire soundtrack for the film and it just fit so organically.  Now he has another record and he's touring.  Last night he played a packed show at a church in downtown Edmonton that I attended with Shae and ShanWow.  Mr. Radin was just as weirded out about being god's house as I was so it was ok.  The show started with Lucy Schwartz as the opener and A Fine Frenzy sandwiched between the two.  The name Lucy Schwartz didn't sound familiar but I was able to sing along with one of her songs; she lent some female vocals to the Adam soundtrack and is a good performer in her own right.



A Fine Frenzy was a band for which I had high hopes and had to deflate them somewhat to enjoy myself. The singer is a very talented vocalist but her aspartame-sweet and flakey demeanor at the start made her come across valium'd.  As the show progressed and her music picked up the tempo whatever she took beforehand appeared to wear off and it got much better.

Now for Joshua Radin himself.  The whole concert from start to finish was 3.5 hours!  We definitely got more than we paid for.  He played a good selection of his oldies-but-goodies and his brand new album.  And since I purchased his new CD (yes, CD, no LPs for the hipsters in the crowd) and Shae got a t-shirt we were able to meet him after the show. Unfortunately a brief handshake and CD sign was not enough to make him fall hopelessly in love with me.  Good thing Shae was there to help me tone down my big ear-to-ear grin before meeting him; don't wanna be a big fangirl.  His new stuff is good stuff and you should get it!



He is making his way east - Toronto friends, see him if you get the chance!

Shae and me waiting in the cold for the concert

Me and Joshua

No-Gun Thanksgiving

My first Alberta thanksgiving involved shooting.  This time I took it to Saskatchewan for some berries and a little couchsurfing.  It was the first time I had ever driven for 8 hours (8 whole hours!) all by myself.  CBC radio kept me company but when that ran dry in a few places I found out that the most played songs on all radio stations are something by Justin Bieber and Gangnam Style.  I think I learned some Korean.

While the end point was Regina I stopped for a night in Saskatoon to break up the drive Friday and to check out this city that I hear so much good about.  Of course, couchsurfing helps to make the city.  A friendly guy and his group of roommates (4 siblings) hosted me for the night.  In less than 24 hours I met some great people, watched a live beat poetry performance and drank less than a 1/4 of a local beer.  Woops.  I thought I'd just wing it and have a been all nonchalantly.  But it was awful and I felt like vomiting in my mouth with every sip.  Right.  I hate beer.  The magoo-glasses poet was followed by a bearded man sitting on a milkcrate and crooning in his Jack Johson-esque voice to some unexpectedly grunge guitar stylings.  (Google "These Hands" if interested).  The next morning included a communist breakfast with very scrumptious eggs and a trip to the Saskatoon farmer's market where I bought my very first Saskatoon berry pie.

The end of the road was Regina, home of another kind of Barry.  And some cold weather.  I thought Regina was south of Edmonton.  Regardless we kept warm with a fire pit and roasted marshmallows, talked French grammar (they were very patient with me!) and sat around with uncle C on the guitar and sang songs I remember from my camp days.  Basically a picture perfect cheese image of the perfect family holiday sans any football.  There's something to be said about watching Corner Gas in Saskatchewan as well - it lends some...context.  I'm always searching for some Canadiana - other than maple syrup - to bring with me while couchsurfing and I think the first season of the Dog River gang may just be it.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Edited:  The only photo I took the whole time.  A life dream of mine to get sucked into the "vvoyd".  And a void it is.  All the roads were closed for construction and we crawled through this gloomy town for over half an hour. This is usually a blink-and-you-miss-it variety.

How and Where

How did I get here?
Where am I going?

Less than two weeks from now will mark one year since the epic road trip with the parents out to the USA of Canada.  Then I started working and immediately the paychecks started coming and I marveled at my ability to support myself and purchase goods without (as much) guilt.  The plan was to move to Red Deer, complete a year contract at the hospital there, try (but not to hard) to get a job for when the contract was up, move to New Zealand if I didn't find a new job.  Fact:  an SLP with one year of experience in Canada can apply for contracts in Ireland, the UK, NZ and Australia.

So how did I end up living in Edmonton in a full-time, permanent job saving for retirement?  The allure was the stability and the guarantee that these pretty numbers would keep being beamed into my bank account.  The allure was saving and considering retirement by 60 a distinct possibility.  The allure was a bigger city and a more "cutting-edge" facility.  Now I'm 27 and I have all of those things but when did I even decide that is what I wanted?

Once one finds oneself firmly embedded in the rat race it isn't easy to get out.  Or even to know for sure if you want out.  It is a bit of a trap of accumulating things and security.  Now I have my very own apartment and I enjoy living on my own.  I enjoy decorating it and setting it up just as I want.  And tying myself down to one place.  The furniture I bought from kijiji required a lot of thought, effort and patience.  Each piece was picked to match my tastes and the vibe of my apartment.  The stereo cabinet was long sought.  If I moved to another country (or even too far around this one) it would make more sense to sell it all since I would have nowhere to store it.

Is this really what I want or will I regret not living on the other side of the earth for a while?  Right now, I don't know the answer.

My New Chicago Accent

I'm a bit of an accidental accent chameleon.  When I travel somewhere with a regional accent my speech automatically morphs to fit the style.  Embarrassingly so.  I can even tell that it is happening and am powerless to stop it.  The effects are just wearing off now after nearly 24 hours back beyond the 49th parallel.  There isn't anything necessarily *wrong* with the Chicago (aka general midwest) twang except that my A's just generally aren't this nasal or as front.  To get a feel for the difference pronounce "speech pathologist".  When I say it in my "general Canadian" accent the first "o" sounds like the /a/ in father.  In my new found midwest accent that first "o" sounds is much more like the /a/ in cat.  See the difference?  I just went with it this time and enjoyed hearing it coming from my mouth.

Why would I have a Chicago accent?  I was in Chicago, of course!  A quick 5 day trip for a conference, a couchsurf and a hang with the lovely Hi-C.  The famous J.Lo aka Logi (not Jennifer Lopez - J.Lo of the speech-pathology research royalty) hosted a 20-person conference in dysphagia at NorthWestern University Hospital.  This intimate setting allowed for plenty of discussion and revealed that J.Lo is one feisty and opinionated SLP.

Team Canada and Logi (not to be confused with her band:  Logi and the Parkies)

Instead of shelling out the big bucks for a hotel we traveled the awesome way and couchsurfed!  Our host was extremely welcoming and accommodating.  Although his profile says he'll take "only" 5 surfers at a time we found him routinely packing up to 11 extra people into his one-bedroom flat.  And were we ever lucky to score a space in his living room - we found out that he is fully booked until October!  Good thing Hi-C is a keener and emailed him mucho in advance.

As for the city, it truly is fabulous.  The same size as T-dot (the actual city - the great chicago area trumps the GTA by nearly 3 million people) it has a much more impressive sky line and hopping downtown core although I'll still give Toronto wins for food culture and cutesy neighbourhoods.  That great Chicago fire of 1871 really did the city a favour by destroying the crap and setting them up for a well-planned downtown with a great architectural culture.  I have never seen a place so dense with incredible architecture and was definitely worth the hour long boat tour through the rivers.

Highlights of the trip (I'm too lazy to rotate the photos - you get the idea sideways):

Cultural cuisine.  It was the first stop!

Some of that fancy architecture plus the pretty wicked Chicago flag.

Legendary Chicago bean

Me, Hi-C and DeDeb reflectin' our hot selves in said bean

Maturity from Hi-C (Band:  D'Hilary and the SLPeeps)

We took the long was so we could walk under this very apt sign!

 The most amazing view in the city and all I had to do was buy a $7 tea.  Thanks, Hancock Tower.  Still cheaper than the $18 elevator ride at the Willis.  Pssh.

 Deep Dish - of course we had to deep dish.  Unexpected:  they put the sauce ON the cheese (which was about 1 cm thick) and the crust was made with corn meal (hence the yellow colour).  A little dry for my liking but worth a taste test.

If you haven't tried couchsurfing you probably should.  Go ahead, make a profile.  I'll even give you a reference (if you're nice to me).  

Very First Folkfest

It seems like the only thing I have been doing this summer is attending festivals around the theme of food.  Not that I am complaining.  I've tried many scrumptious foods but it was nice to attend something where food wasn't the focus.  There has to be something else to celebrate, right?

There is and that something is folk music.  Not that I have any idea how to define folk music.  A while ago, if you asked me, I would have imagined something with fiddles.  Fiddles = folk music, right?  Folk can be a bit of a general category but, after attending 2 days of festivities, I have no idea what folk music is.  In fact, I'm not even sure what it isn't except maybe pure rock/metal nor top 40 pop hits nor classical music.  I had ruled out hiphop until the last main stage act Saturday night.

Perhaps the point of folkfest isn't music that fits the right definition but music that brings people together and promotes a sense of community.  This definition I found online seems to most closely encompass the four days of music togetherness in Edmonton:  "Folk artists today are experimentalists who dabble in different genres, integrating various musical influences into their narrative songs."

The festival itself is 4 days of music from Thurs-Sunday.  During the day there are 7 stages with various artists and groups of artists playing 1 or 1.5 hour shows and in the evening everyone gathers at the main stage for the "big" names.  This year's headliners were Corb Lund (Thurs), Arlo Guthrie + Family (Fri), Emmylou Harris (Fri), Mary Chapin Carpenter (Sat), Bonnie Rait (Sun).  I made it to Friday and Saturday.

It really is an incredible community.  A huge park packed with tens of thousands of people and everything just worked.  The lines were long, the spaces were crowded, children whined/cried but everyone everyone just respected each other and enjoyed music together.  You just squish in and listen.  The way the festival works is that someone in the group (Thanks, ShanWow!) shows up an a terrible hour, often before 7am, and gets in a giant corral.  Those in the corral are given tickets and a lottery is drawn allowing groups of 50 or so at a time to enter the festival grounds and place a tarp "in front of" in main stage.  By the end of this there are about 4000 tarps bumping up against each other covering all but a few square inches of grass.  The first lucky few groups get the flat land in front of the stage and the rest spill gradually up the hill.  Perceptibly sliding down the tarp is a constant foe during the main stage event.  We're considering velcro pants next year.

People bring various kooky puppets, flags and home made crafts posted on ski and garden poles throughout the tarp grounds to help one locate their blue tarp in a sea of blue tarps.  Then everyone leaves all of their things on their tarp for hours and hours and nomadically wander from stage to stage.  I never heard of anything going missing.

The two best things about folkfest:  friends and discovering new music (at least, new to me!).

Royal Wood - a Peterborough native, I saw him twice...partially because he's not too hard to look at.  Plus his music is catchy.  His LP is rotating on my telefunken right now.



The Dunwells - a band that is big in their UK homeland but had yet to set foot on Canadian soil.  They are all very genuine people on stage and played along when Bahamas whipped out an American classic that they didn't know but tried to sing along (the class was "You Don't Know How it Feels" by Tom Petty).



Bahamas - another Ontarioite, this time from Barrie, but with a fabulous mustache.  This guy was the most regular-guy of everyone I saw.  He was more interested in jamming with the two other bands (mentioned above) during the workshop* that promoting his own music.



Andrea House - a local singer-songwriter that couldn't be found on youtube.  She has a very mellow vibe but didn't truly stand out until she pulled out something a little more 50s and upbeat.  Very kindly but perhaps a bit mistakenly, was overshadowed when she opened the stage to her keyboard player to play one of her own original tunes.  Too bad I missed her name because I'd like to see her on her own stage next year.

Valdy - an apparent Canadian treasure that I was unaware I should be treasuring.  It was like Fred Penner but a little nuttier.  But you could tell the over 50 crowd knew the words to his songs.



A few other notable artists were Jayme Stone and his recreation of folk tunes from all eras and areas of earth from 1700s eastern Europe to African folk.  New Country Rehab.  The Barr Brothers.  Lindi Ortega who did a strong rendition of Dolly's song pleading for a a colour TV.

*Workshop is what they call it when they jam 3+ bands on stage together and then let things take their course. 

Heritage Days (Day 2)

After a disappointing first day of food I returned with ShanWow to try again.  I'm glad that I did.

Finland - pirakka - Hoping for something sweet and ending up with something savoury.  A very Finnish treat with rye bread in a thin, soft crust with rice paste in the centre and egg mush spread on top.  Sounds not so great but I'd eat it again.

Serbia - baklava - The serbians definitely know how to create a flaky honey pastry.  Baklava wasn't anything new but a rare treat.

Eritrea - alicha - basically Ethiopian food and therefore the way to my heart.  This was a stew of potatoes, carrots and cabbage on a nice, grey, tangy injera bread.  Some of the best things in life are vegetarian.

Ghana - plantain - roasted in 7 (seven!) Ghanaian spices these were easily the BEST PLANTAINS I HAVE EVER HAD.  A little burnt.  Kinda sticky.  Sweet.  Lots of flavour.  Ghanaians know how to take a lame banana wannabe and turn it into something great.  Plus, they have moves.

A few tents stood out in the marketplace of kitsch.

Scandinavia - I was a bit disappointed that Finland teamed up with Norway, Denmark and Sweden instead of holding its own.  This was made up for by the actual learning taking place in the tent.  They had two exhibits, living dioramas, of life in Scandinavia 1000 years ago.  A woman in (mostly) traditional clothing demonstrating how to make sinew and cook with heated stones.  A man with a plethora of tools actively carving a canoe.

Peru - best original menu. One of the few countries that put in the extra effort to offer things that no one else was offering and that was distinctly Peruvian.  Yes, empanadas are great but does every Latin American country need to feature them?  Peru had their, albeit revolting, mazamorra morada or purple cord pudding (and the juice, too!).  They had their papa rellena and choclo (corn on the cob sort of Peruvian style).  Good effort, Peru!

Israel - good effort at realism.  Festival goers could walk through fake stone tunnels to learn more about Israel with a very realistic heat index 10 degree above the sweltering Hawreluk park.  Minus points for giving out free fortune cookies with only a tourism website inside and no fortune at all.

Zimbabwe - thank you for showing up.  This was another country offering something different from other booths however it scores as one of the most disappointing because their food wasn't ready for lunch so I never did get to try any.

Surprisingly missing:  Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Spain (I see a trend).  If little dudes like Bosnia, Borneo and Sudan can do it, so can you!

Heritage Days (Day 1)

This is one of Edmonton's BEST festivals.  And a euphemism for "eat yourself around the world" or "78 countries to obesity".  But what a glorious way to go.  Not too many other countries could drum up a festival with over 60 countries represented in a city of less than a million people.  This festival was MASSIVE.  I even used up all my tickets the first day only half way through in desperation because I thought that it had to be over by then.  Nope.  I had to go back a second day for Africa.

Sidetracked.  The festival is hosted in a large park (Hawreluk to be precise) in the heart of Edmonton.  Countries set up anywhere from 1-3 booths and sometimes a stage.  The booths sell food, souvenirs and sometimes even educate patrons about said country/culture.  The stage features dancers, musicians and martial artists specific to that country.  Let's be honest, though, it is all about the food.  Many of the Muslim countries were kind enough to serve all of us while continuing to fast for Ramadan.  The cultural information was generally a bit lacking (with some notable exceptions), there was a definite push to sell tacky objects of little usefulness and smothering crowds.  And smothering heat.  But it was all worth it.

What was a bit disappointing the first day was how difficult it was to find foods or cuisines that I had never really sampled.  No, I hadn't really had Nepalese cuisine before but it was very similar to the Indian food I am used to.  Most middle eastern countries served the same general dishes and the Eastern Europeans pulled out the sausages and the croatian/romanian/serbian do-nuts, Latin America represented with tamales...you get the idea.  Perhaps I am just too cultured ;)  So the first day was a bit of a bust but not entirely.

Day 1:
Philippines - Halo Halo - a schizophrenic concoction that starts with beans (red and chickpea), add coconut jellies, syrup, shaved ice and topped with vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!  It was not unpleasant.  Not recommended to anyone who has texture aversions as you never quite knew what you would get.  Definitely one of the most unsual and unlike-anything-I-had-before items of the festival.

Nepal - chicken curry - basically a chicken tikka.  Nothing new but also not disappointing.  I love Indian food so I could definitely love Nepalese as well.

Nicaragua - nacatamale - this must translate as the mother of all tamales.  It was huge and, ultimately, a big waste of my last tickets.  A big glob of bland corn mush with a chicken leg cooked right inside.  A few hidden gems of peppers or an olive but overall boring and bland.

Where day 1 lacked in food it made up for with entertainment.  A barefoot, crooning grandmother at the first nations tent, some traditional Romanian folk dancing and Irish folk dancers who stole their wigs from a drag show.

OMG, I'm a Hipster

I was minding my own business, listening to an original LP of Billy Joel while sipping some rooibos and wearing some moccasins when it hit me:  holy Christ, I'm a hipster!

It wasn't something I saw coming.  Hipsters are annoying. They're pretentious.  They aren't quite sure what irony means but use it ALL.THE.TIME.  And slowly, without realizing it, I've become one of them.

The evidence:

1.  New glasses.  No explanation required.

2.  A 1960s telefunken stereo cabinet to play some sweet LPs (that I pick up a a thrift mall and garage sales).  It fits with the decor of my apartment which consists mainly of teak from the 60s and not a single couch yet.  ShanWow is an awesome friend and helped me fetch this from a random person's house.  My record finds include Duran Duran, Elton John, Billy Joel, U2 and Boney M (Rasputin!) to name a few.

3.  Kicking horse coffee and a french press.  Did I mention that you have to grind the beans yourself???

4.  Card-carrying member of the NDP

5.  A mustache tattoo on my finger. I'm not even sure where it came from.*

6.  I subscribe to The Walrus magazine.

Evidence against:  No iphone/instagram, no clothes from American Apparel, no beer drinking (craft or otherwise), no converse shoes

For good measure I took some extremely reliable internet quizzes and all say that I'm hipster.  How can this be???  All of the music I listen to is mainstream - you would have heard of it all!!!

So what do you think - is the evidence for or against me being a hipster?

*Haha, joking.  I would NEVER do that.

If you Lead, I will Follow

8 weeks into the Aspire climbing class and we've finally fallen.  They've been building us up to lead climbing - we are now all certified to belay for top-roping.  This is when you tie yourself to a rope, the rope up to the top of the wall over a beam/through a chain and then back down to the belayer.  Lead climbing is when you take the rope with you up the wall and clip it in as you go.  Why is this different?  Because, for the first little bit, you aren't attached to anything (ie. if you fall you hit the ground).  Obviously the first clip can't be THAT far off the ground - maybe 8-10 feet.  But it also means that if you clip to the wall and then make it to the next clip but miss it and fall you fall below your last clip - sometimes 5-10 feet before the rope/belayer catches you.  You gotta trust that person holding on to the rope.

They take it pretty slow with us but this week was the big fall.  And you know what?  I had no problem letting go.  And it was fun!  Kind of a rush and over before you know it.  Honestly - the part I don't like is the first 10 feet where you aren't clipped to anything!

Difference between top rope and lead falling

Lead Climbing - Learning to Fall

Tasty Edmonton

Edmonton is a city of festivals and some of them are very tasty festivals indeed.  The square outside of city hall becomes a showcase for the city's restaurants.  Each participating establishment sets up a tent and offers two selections from their menu in miniature portion for a fraction of the cost.  Eaters buy tickets and exchange them for food.  So, basically, you take money and buy their money and then buy food.  It is all too easy for ones eyes to become larger than one's digestive system.  And all too easy to part with this "money".

The variety was decent - a little Thai, a lot of Chinese, Vietnamese, some Italian, some Mexican, Caribbean and good ol' Canadian.  I took the chance to try Hungarian along with a little sauerkraut and it wasn't bad at all.  There was freshly squeezed lemonade and deep fried pickles with fresh tzatziki.  Mini cappuccino chocolates to get rid of those single tickets.  The hardest to resist are things I haven't tried so the white tea vanilla ice cream caught my eye.  The white tea flavour is subtle but a great undertone to a fabulous treat.  With a few tickets left I plan to try the local vegan restaurant and some tacos.

John Frieda (the company) had a booth set up to market their frizz-ease products and, let's be honest, those words are always music to this girl's ears.  Since there was no wait ShanWow, DIW and I decided to volunteer ourselves for a little up-do right there on the square.  Justin, a stylist from Montreal, gave me a mini Snooki bump.  ShanWow left looking even more elegant with her side swept bangs and DIW ended up with a spectacular braided up do.  Plus we all left with goodie bags.

Hungarian tetrapod sausage and sauerkraut

ShanWow engaging in her favourite summer activity

White tea ice cream

Kelowna

It is official - I have finally been to Canada's westernmost province and can put my total at 6.  The east continues to elude me.  Living out here does have some perks.  I always thought the first place in BC I would explore would be Vancouver; from what I hear, a city after my own heart.  But Kelowna is an 11 hour drive away and Vancouver is 15 so on taking a 4 day weekend still meant that Kelowna was more reasonable in the car.  Otto joined the adventure along with former-red-deer-roommate and another friend.

The drive through the mountains was beautiful.  Even if I napped for a small portion of it.  The long highway is full of attractions to entertain the weary traveler including a mining ghost town, a dairy farm with 30+ flavours of ice cream, a creepy enchanted forest and, the best attraction of all, goats on a ramp.  Unsuspecting travelers are lured to the Log Barn with promise of candy and beef jerky.  Little did they know they would end up spending their quarters on goat feed.  When the goats see humans anywhere near the gumball machine corn dispensers they climb up a ramp to await the treat.  The corn goes in a cup and the goat must turn a bicycle tire attached to a pulley to bring the treat two stories up to its trough.  Brilliant goats!

As for the city of Kelowna itself - it tries hard.  It sits on a lovely lake, has a few trendy little shops and has a significant number of public sculptures/art pieces.  Even with all this the city lacks character, something hard to overcome by newer centres.  Oh well - people aren't going to Kelowna for the town they are going for the 38 degree weather, sunshine, boating and, of course, the wine.  Not that I really like wine but there are tours of wineries every day with tastings.  A few of them are a little hinky.  For example - Summerhill Winery differentiates itself with a 1/8th replica of the Cheops pyramid in Egypt.  The belief is that the sacred shape of the pyramid channels positive energy so they store the wine inside.  Their claims include that people in a blind taste test choose, at a rate of 82%, the wine stored in the pyramid against the exact same wine stored in their "normal" cellar.  Of course, my first questions would be about the storage condition of the control
 wine.  But I digress.  I could have stayed inside that pyramid for hours but that was likely due to the temperature differential and not the result of the massive quartz crystal on the ceiling.  Besides the hokey pokey I also learned that I like gewurztraminer and reisling - so I prefer the Germans.

We also did the apparently obligatory tour of the Mission Hill winery, one of the largest in the region.  The wine here was also stored underground and included the personal pottery collection of wine holding vessels as old as 5000 BCE.  In a group of about 12 people we ranged from a snooty quebecois man who really knew his wine and engaged in all of the less flattering wine tasting practices.  For those of you not in the know, it is acceptable to slurp wine and also good form to spit it into the pail provided instead of deigning to actually drink any.  On the other side of the spectrum were two couples from (of course) Edmonton.  The wine tour must have been a last minute decision because the females of the group (somewhere in their mid-20s) were wearing sandals with thick, colourful fuzzy socks.  One member had taken what used to be a skirt with an elastic waist, hiked it up to her chest and tried to pass it as a dress.  We may have been fooled if the slit didn't hit near her belly button and reveal her "juicy" underwear.  At least the dress partially covered the naked woman tattooed on her chest because that would have been tacky.

Other stops on the Kelowna tour included Carmelis goat cheese factory.  A small place on someone's property with over 20 flavours of goat's milk gelato.  And all you can eat waffles at The Jammery wasn't so bad.  But one of the best parts of the trip, since I was out-voted for couch surfing, was visiting with some locals who happened to be the aunt and uncle of one of our troop.  We sat in the backyard for hours and consumed cherries right off of their trees.  Cherries RIGHT. FROM. THE. TREE.  That's the life.

Climbing Update: The Dangers

Short story:  This is really hard!

Long story:  I'm enjoying myself but worried that I may be falling behind the class.  I've said it before and I'm saying it again:  this girl is not naturally athletic and definitely not naturally coordinated.  Having either one of those things in place would probably help.  Being at the bottom of the class I've been going twice a week between classes to practice.  Practicing alone usually means bouldering (ie climbing routes that go across or up only a bit because you are not harnessed in) which I never thought I would like and found out that I very much like.  I tend to go late in the evenings at about 930 or 10 and climb until it closes at 11pm.  This is because I hate crowds and I hate people watching me climb.  Oh, and the endless birthday parties are worth avoiding as well.  

The way climbing works is that you can just jump on the wall and climb however you want OR you can climb a pre-set route.  The benefit of these ready-made routes usually marked by tape is that most require the use of at least one technique (often 2+) in order to complete it without cheating and these can help you get a lot better.  One of my go-to warm-up routes is a bouldering route called "Backstepper's Walz".  It is funny how you can show up one week nail a route or a "problem" (a very short route requiring a specific technique) and then go back a few days later and have to start all over again.  Bouldering can also be fun because the climbing community is generally full of friendly people who will offer tips and suggestions of what foot hold to try or what maneuver to use.  Last night I ended up out for pizza and beer (well....sprite for me) after finishing at 11pm with some MEC workers getting tips on the effective use of bear spray.

But this means I haven't been practicing top-roping (climbing UP the wall with the harness and ropes) because I need a partner to do that.  Perhaps as I get to know more people at the gym this won't be such an obstacle.

Also, as fun as it is, climbing has an unfortunate effect on my knees and makes wearing knee length skirts to work less appealing.

 

The Big Reveal

The proper title for this post may actually be "the-slightly-underwhelming reveal" as there is still barely a stitch of furniture in my place so the paint colours are all I have to show for myself.  It was mostly done about a week ago but then I took my sweet time with taking all the tape down and putting the light switch covers back on.  The colours are intense and, to be honest, it took me some time to be sure that I had made the right choice.  Now the place needs some art and some furniture.