In which Chorus looks ahead to vacation...

I AM READY FOR A VACATION.

I WANT TO LEAVE FOR VACATION RIGHT-FREAKING-TODAY.

Anyhoo, we are leaving for vacation in a week and I am looking forward AAAAAAAAH WHY CAN'T WE LEAVE TODAY. 

We will be driving across this great and beautiful country and a little bit of the great country to the south of us, stopping here and there and everywhere to play golf.  Our first destination point is Georgian Bay for three nights with my dad and his wife, then we will head to Ottawa for a week with WH's family, then home via Toronto for our annual Blue Jays game.  This year, we'll see the Yankees (Boo!). 

Right now, we are flood watching. We did have a hotel reservation in Minot, ND, but the hotel is right in the middle of the area that is recently evacuated, so we've had to shift our plans a bit. We have a hotel reservation and a golf reservation in Grand Forks as well, so we're keeping an eye there too.

It's a beautiful day today in Prairie City, sunny and warm and MAYBE IF WE CAN'T LEAVE FOR VACATION TODAY I COULD JUST GO LAY DOWN IN THE GRASS SOMEWHERE INSTEAD.

I'm finding it hard to focus on work.  You might have guessed that.

Vegas, Baby!

Last week, I went to Las Vegas with my best friend and her sister for a girls' weekend!  We had a lovely time, and saw a lot of amazing things and spent a fair amount of money! Here are a few scattered thoughts:

• We went to see Ka, the Cirque de Soleil show at the MGM Grand.  Oh, my friends, if you have the opportunity to see this one, you absolutely must.  I actually had a visseral reaction to all the amazing acrobatic work and the jaw-dropping technical aspects of the show.  The experience is simply astonishing.
• The combination of St. Patrick's Day, March Madness and Spring Break create quite an insane atmosphere on the strip.  Whee!
• I bought a red hat and red shoes.
• I don't think we paid full price for anything that we bought because there are so many coupon books and special deals available.  Along that same theme, three words: Premium. Outlet. Mall.
• I saw at least four Elvises. (Elvi?)
• We ate at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.  It was yummy. We also ate tapas. The tapas was also yummy.  
• I did not purchase a yardstick plastic drinking vessel that requires a lanyard to be carried. Aren't you proud?
• We put a tasteful quantity of money into slot machines while we were there and had fun losing all of it.  At one point, we were up $20...  but not at the end point.
• There were a lot of young women on the strip wearing mini-dresses that didn't fit them properly and ridiculous shoes.  I wore capri pants and comfy shoes and was happy.

August Ramblings

It's so amazing to me that August has rolled around again. What happened to July, or to May and June, for that matter?

WH and I are having a really lovely summer. We had a great trip east to visit his family, a trip that included TWO baseball games, lots of swimming, lots of laughs and lots of relaxation. We have golfed a lot, eaten good food and drunk good drink. I can't remember a summer that I've loved as much as this one... and so much of that happiness came from simply sitting in the sunshine. And now we've reached that part of the summer where the mind can't help but start to poke at the things that need to be done before September, the choir to-do list, the last yard work, etc.

In an effort to make the most of the last few weeks of summer, I've opted to take Fridays in August off, which should allow us to get a few more rounds in and to spend some dedicated time on the yard. We'll be digging out a flower garden in the back yard, planting a few trees and replacing the garden space next to our front door, at the very least. We may get around to a few more cosmetic details while we're at it.

I hope that your summer is going well and that you, too, are getting a chance to enjoy the sun!

Horse and Handel

WH and I took a whirlwind road trip to our neighbour province to the east this weekend, arriving home to a newly painted house last night. I have a couple of posts brewing about how much I love driving on the prairie highway, but first, a scene from our drive home for you.

For much of our trip home, we played Horse. If it's not a game you're familiar with, all it involves is calling out for every horse that you see on the trip. When you see a cemetery, you call out DEAD HORSE, and the other person loses all the horses they've accumulated to that point. The person who ends the trip with the most horses, wins.

With about two and a half hours left on the road yesterday, we decided that we'd let Messiah bring us home, so the car ride sounded something like this:

For unto us a child is bo-orn - HORSE - unto us, a son is - HORSEHORSE - given...

And the glory, the glory of the - HORSE - Lord. Shall be redee-ee-ee-HORSEHORSEHORSEHORSE-ee-ee-med...

Hallelujah, Hallel-HORSE-ujah, Hallelujah - HORSE - Hallel- HAHATHATWASACOW-ujah, Halle-e-lu-jah.

Worthy is the Lamb, that was - DEADHORSE - DAMMIT - slain...

The Wheels on the Bus...

Starting at the beginning of August, I'm going to take the bus to work every day!

Primarily, this change is going to save WH and me some serious cash. The commuter bus pass from The Hamlet into Prairie City costs $85 per month, compared to the $105 I spend on a monthly parking pass at Colourful U. And that's to say nothing about the cost of gas...

Taking the bus will also allow me to not have to worry about driving on the highway in the winter when the snow is blowing horizontally across the road and cars are in the ditch all over the place. I'm quite happy to sit quietly with my iPod and have the driving be someone else's problem.

And a good decision for the environment as well!

We knew, when we moved to The Hamlet, that the change in commuting patterns would be one of the biggest adjustments we'd have to make. My commute from The Wee House took about 7 minutes from door to door. To compare, the new drive in from One-Oh-Six takes about 25 minutes. But it's a pleasant commute, and the view of Prairie City is really quite lovely.

I'm kind of looking forward to becoming a bus rider again! We'll see how I feel about it when it's -30C outside and I'm waiting for the bus at 6:45am, but for the time being, I'm content!

Blog Changes

I think it's time to update some of the identifiers on this blog, now that The Move is all but finished.

WH and I have actually moved out of Prairie City into one of its suburbs, which I'll be referring to as Prairie Hamlet. And our house, formerly known as The Wee House, will now be One-Oh-Six.

Fun!

Enjoying the new digs

The big move went well; we had lots of good friends and family give us wonderful help, both in the days leading up to Saturday and on the day itself. So we're in, and despite the relative chaos that surrounds us, we are both very happy with our new home. I'm still on vacation this week, which is great, and gives us lots of time to clean and put things away and make the space our home. But before we do that, we are headed back to the old house to get it cleaned up and move the last few things this afternoon.

Mama Cat and Baby Cat have been adjusting pretty well as well; they've been laying pretty low under the bed and I think are a bit intimidated by the size of the place, but they are gradually spending more time exploring and figuring out their new space.

I'm most looking forward to developing patterns for this new house; getting used to the space, where things are and how the house "works." I feel a little bit unsteady or unsure of myself, which I guess is expected when living in a new space. I don't remember feeling this way when we moved into The Wee House, but maybe I did.

Anyhow, back to it...

(Now that the move is over, I'll be a more regular blogger; I promise!)

Updates, various...

I realized today that I haven't had time to blog for a while, meaning that people coming to my blog have been forced to read about poop for about the last week. Time to rectify that.

(I also realized this morning that that post is the second time I've posted about poop. Might have to have its own label soon.)

Anyhoo, what all is goin' on around here these days:

• We wrote an absolutely ginormous cheque to our lawyer as a part of the purchase of our new house yesterday. Isn't it funny how we lose our perspectives about quantities of money when we're buying/selling houses?
• The house is currently in CHAOS. We're at that strange place where we've done some packing, we have some cleaning and sorting to do, there are piles of things waiting to be packed all over the place, you can't take 3 steps without tripping over a pile of boxes... like I said, CHAOS. But we take possession in just over a week!
  
• The cats seem to still be blissfully unaware of the impending change. I think as more things get packed up, Mama Cat especially will get more needy even than usual. Hopefully it's not too distressing for them. We have come up with the plan for moving the cats, figuring that no matter what we do, they will have to be alone in an empty house at some point, so it's probably better if that house is the one they're at least familiar with. So when we do our big move day on July 11th, we'll cage them while we load the truck and then leave them at the house with their cages, their litter, food, water, and maybe a couple of pillows. After we've unloaded at the new house, we'll take the truck back to the depot and then pick the cats up on our way to spend the first night at the new house.
• Meals are getting weird at our house, amidst the chaos. Last night was smokies and champagne.
  
• We're also getting painfully absent-minded, as evidenced by the fact that I forgot my car at work yesterday. Long story, but at least I remembered before I phoned the police this morning and reported it stolen.
• I had my interview for the new position on Tuesday and I think it went well. I should hear something before the end of the week, fingers crossed.

Have a great day, all!

Various...

• I'm home with a nasty cold today. The cat is sitting on my feet, which is preventing me from doing anything productive with regards to packing.
• I need to start packing because we signed off on the conditions yesterday for our brand new house, seen below. We take possession of the new house in a little less than a month. Crazy!
• Part of condition signing-off day was our inspection of the new property yesterday and it went very well. No significant problems with the place. If I may offer a little bit of advice to other folks who have new buyers coming to inspect their home. I suggest putting your dirty magazines away where the new buyers can't see them. They make the new buyer giggle, and get all distracted. "Naughty Neighbours"... tee hee hee
  
• Back to getting some rest here...
  

Hope you're all well!

Friday Five: Moving!

Sally at the RevGals has posted this delightful (and wonderfully appropriate for our circumstances) Friday Five about moving!

1. A big move is looming, name one thing that you could not possibly part with, it must be packed?

Last summer, WH built a wine rack for our basement that holds 96 bottles of wine. It's the kind of thing that I thought we might be asked to leave behind (it's huge), but we would have said no. Not only is it a project that he's really proud of (and should be), but it's a representation of one of the things that we do together - collect wine!

2. Name one thing that you would gladly leave behind...

You know, I can't think of anything off the top of my head... I tend to purge things that I don't like or don't use, so not a lot comes to mind.

3. How do you prepare for a move

a. practically?

Sorting, packing, throwing things out, planning, cleaning, sorting, packing, throwing things out, planning, cleaning, sorting, packing...

b. spiritually/ emotionally?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a good mover. I get cranky, I get frustrated, I get overwhelmed. I'm hoping to avoid that this time and to do a better job of keeping the goal in mind, and my excitement about our new place at the forefront of my mind.

4. What is the first thing you look for in a new place?

This time, we were looking for very specific things: nice big kitchen, double attached garage, sizeable yard, three bedrooms on the same level, more than one bathroom, etc. I think the thing I notice first about homes I'm looking at is how clean they are. I can't believe that people put their houses on the market and then leave them dirty. It must drive real estate agents crazy!

5. Do you settle in easily, or does it take time for you to find your feet in a new location?

I think the presence of some key things help me settle in quickly. Our bed, our coffee pot, our cats... that should be enough!

The bonus for today; a new opportunity has come up for you to spend 5 years in a new area, where would you go and why?

Oh my goodness, I'm just now getting my head around the new area that I will actually be moving to in a months' time!

Update and a Letter

So we have put an offer on an absolutely beautiful house in a suburb just to the east of Prairie City. Our offer has been accepted, and we are now working on getting our finances set up, and our inspection done, and then the house will be ours! The new house is very different from the Wee House, but it is absolutely gorgeous and we are very excited to get the sale finalized and to move in. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

And now for the letter:

Dear Persons who left their ugly-ass couch in our back yard,

That was SO kind of you! Thank you so much for leaving the ugly couch, and all the crap you piled on top of it, in our yard for us to take care of. We are sooooo grateful. And we totally understand how hard it must have been for you, after you had already loaded the couch and the crap into your truck, to drive the extra THREE BLOCKS to the Eco-station to drop them off there. No, no, that would have been IMPOSSIBLE. We are entirely understanding that our backyard was the most logical choice, and we look forward to paying the junk removal guy $80 to get rid of it for us. Because really, we have nothing better to do with our time or our money.

Forever yours,

WH and Chorus.

PS You're a jackass.

Friday Five: Vacations!

From Mary Beth at the Revgals!

1) What did your family do for vacations when you were a child? Or did you have stay-cations at home?

My strongest memory of vacations as a child are a number of driving trips that were taken across Canada to visit family in Ontario. It's a tradition that I sincerely hope to pass on to my own children. We live in such a beautiful country, and you never really get a chance to see it the way you do from the long highway.

2) Tell us about your favorite vacation ever:

I have two. To celebrate our first anniversary, WH and I travelled to San Francisco and Sonoma. In Sonoma, we took a four day walking and wine-tasting tour of the valley. It was fantastic!

In 2005, my mother and eldest brother spent a few weeks in Italy. EB is an archaeologist with specialization in ancient Rome, so we had a built-in guide and historian on the trip. Italy is amazing. I have never eaten so much good pasta, pizza and ice cream in my life.

3) What do you do for a one-day or afternoon getaway...is there a place nearby that you escape to on a Saturday afternoon/other day off?

If we're looking for a one-day getaway, we're most likely to find a golf course and play 18 holes. I think we're developing a real love of hiking though, so the future will see us doing more of that!!

4) What's your best recommendation for a full-on vacation near you...what would you suggest to someone coming to your area? (Near - may be defined any way you wish!)

I think that if you're coming to Prairie Province, you can't not go to the Rocky Mountains. Skiing in the winter, camping and hiking in the summer, incredible breath-taking views all year around.

5) What's your DREAM VACATION?

I really hope to do more wine-touring in my life, similar to what we did in California. I would love to tour some wineries in South America and Australia, to say nothing of Europe. I think it would be fantastic to pair some of that touring with opportunities to see some great concerts in famous places.

And of course, there is my dream Baseball Tour...

So many vacations, so little time!

And I'm Back

Landed in Prairie City early this afternoon after another uneventful travel day. Happy to see WH and the kittehs again and to have an afternoon to get re-settled at home and plan for the rest of the week, which includes a Chamber Choir dress rehearsal and concert.

WH is at a rehearsal this evening, and Mama Cat is asleep in my lap. Good to be home.

And the experience of witnessing the U.S. election last night? VERY cool. I did a lot of grinning.

Lovely things purchased in City with Lots of Roses:
-a black turtle neck, a black cardigan, a grey jacket
-a new pair of nylon-tipped tongs from Williams Sonoma, where I had to resist the urge to buy ONE. OF. EVERYTHING. Also bought a bottle of sauce. Resisted the table linens.
-a bottle of wine for our fancy-schmancy wine collection
-a couple of presents for CR, which I can't reveal because I haven't given them to her yet!

Quick Check In

Hi all!

I'm in City with Lots of Roses, and things are going well so far! We had good travel experiences on both flights here (with the exception of a little bit of turbulence) and have spent our first day here getting familiar with the downtown and doing a little bit of shopping. I finally found the black cardigan I've been looking for all these months!

The hotel is just fine, and all the conference events are right in the hotel, so I never have far to go. I went to the pre-conference workshop today, and that was valuable, if not as interactive as I would have liked. I'm just about to head downstairs to the opening speaker and reception, and then the conference kicks off in earnest tomorrow morning!

Take care, all!

Chorus

Happy Halloween!

Thanks to Jan for this fun link! You can carve your own pumpkin!

I'm off to this conference tomorrow and am not sure if I'll get a chance to blog in the meantime. If not, see y'all on the 5th.

fridayFridayFRIDAY

IT'S FRIDAY!

And I have a whole bunch of little miscellaneous bloggy thoughts to share with you today!

• I wasn't home for the game last night, so can't really blog about it in much detail. But I was happy to see that BJ Upton had a better night than he did in Game 1, going 2-4, which helped the Rays pull out the win at home. I would have started to doubt my prediction if the Phillies had won both games in TB, but I'm sticking with the Rays in 6/7.
  
• I wasn't home last night because WH and I went to see the Orphei Drangar, or the Sons of Orpheus, which is probably the best men's choir in the world. They come from Sweden, and are touring North America as a part of the farewell tour of their long-time conductor, Robert Sund. The concert was FANTASTIC. The choir has an incredible range of styles in which they are experts, singing everything from Schubert to an arrangement of Shenandoah, and all of it beautifully.
  
• I am going to be in the United States for the election. I'm travelling to City With Lots of Roses next weekend for a conference and don't fly home until the day after America votes. It will be an interesting experience to compare to our most recent federal election.
  
• Last thought about the election... when candidates say things like, "God will do the right thing for America," it turns my stomach. This means you.
  
• I look at my schedule for next week, and it makes me want to cry. And I think about going to this conference, and I don't want to go. And then I think about getting to go shopping at Macy's, and I do want to go. And then I think about the Canadian dollar, and I don't want to go again.
• I get to babysit two of the most lovely babies in the whole world tomorrow. CAN'T WAIT.
  
• WH gets his stitches out today.
  
• We are going to spend most of the weekend marking scores for the upcoming performance of Solomon. WH's hope is that if we can get all the orchestra scores marked beforehand, that will save him MAJOR time in the orchestra rehearsals. But somewhere between the publisher and Prairie City, one-third of the orchestra scores have disappeared. We have all the upper string parts, but no bass, no winds, no timpani, no harpsichord. Aie.

And that's about it for today!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody!

Friday Five: Business Trip

Today on the Revgals Friday Five, we are invited to share our experiences with the exciting, challenging world of business travel....

1. Does your job ever call for travel? Is this a joy or a burden?

The only travel that I've done (and will be doing) for this job is related to attending conferences. When I worked in student services I attended provincial and national conferences, and now I have a big Pacific-region conference that I go to every November. While I like travelling, I find conferences really lonely. I'm not much of a schmoozer, and the pressure of being sociable and outgoing and friendly all day long makes me very tired.

2. How about that of your spouse or partner?

WH travels quite often to do adjudicating and examining at various festivals and competitions across Canada.

3. What was the best business trip you ever took?

Hmmm... nothing springs to mind as being truly exceptional, but I enjoyed my conference travel last year, which represented my first ever trip to the United States! It was at a time when the Canadian dollar was in particularly good shape [looks at current state of Canadian dollar... sighs], so I got some good shopping in!

4. ...and the worst, of course?

Again, nothing specific comes to mind, except that I'm always ready to come home about two days before conferences are over. I miss my hubby and my cats and my house and my routine. At last year's conference, which was at a beautiful city in the middle of the mountains, my view from my hotel window was a brick wall, built about three feet from the window. It was awesome.

5. What would make your next business trip perfect?

Good weather, good conference sessions, maybe some shopping, down time, good food...

Back to reality...

Reality being laundry, mostly, and work again on Monday...

But we had an amazing time, and accumulated many, many happy memories, including:

• many wonderful animals at the San Francisco Zoo, including baby tigers playing together;
• going to a Giants/Cubs game at San Fran's beautiful new ball park;
• Alcatraz, which was very powerful to see up close, and hear an award winning audio tour of the cell block, narrated by former prisoners and guards;
• Pier 39 with it's many beautiful and unique shops and restaurants, where we saw celebrations of July 4th;
  
• City Lights Bookstore, where I bought a copy of "Howl"
  
• The San Francisco Farmer's Market in the Ferry Terminal - a most amazing gathering of wonderful food and drink;
• The Golden Gate Bridge, which we wouldn't have seen except for one beautiful clear afternoon;
• Our rental convertible, which we drove to Sonoma for our trek, and then back to San Francisco via the coastal highway;
• Incredible trekking through Sonoma valley - this really is the best way to see the California countryside;
• tasting, talking and learning considerably more about wine than we did before, and meeting many humble and kind people who were eager to share their gift for wine-making;
• Twelve beautiful bottles of California wine brought back across the border to be the start of our wine cellar.

Two Interesting Incidents

WH and I had to go in to the police station this afternoon to get a security check for him for a new position he's starting next year. Ahead of us in line at the station was an elderly couple who had come in to report an email-related fraud. It was an interesting conversation between the police officer and the gentleman, who was certain that there might be a reason for him to answer junk emails that promised him money. And the cop wouldn't let him leave without a stern lecture about answering this kind of mail. "Sir, there is no reason for these people to email you unless they think they can get money out of you. Nobody has ever emailed anybody promising free money and it not been a fraud. Please, please, PLEASE, stop answering these emails. Just stop. Because I don't want to have to write up the report when you've lost your life savings and your house. Just stop."

And the gentleman said, "Funny how you know something that I don't..."

Even when the conversation was over, you could tell that the old man didn't perfectly believe the officer, and that in all likelihood, more money would be lost before the lesson was learned.
--------------------------

Later this afternoon, we headed off to the local Science Centre to view the controversial Body Works exhibit, featuring plasticized real human cadavers and body parts. The exhibit was a fascinating combination of science and art, and was very moving. If the exhibit comes to your town or city, I recommend taking it in!

And tomorrow, we're off to California, so I'm on a bloggy break now! See you all in a couple of weeks!

Three days of work to go!

I continue to face conflict between how much work I know I need to get done before we leave for California, and my strong desire not to do any of it, and just think about California.

We are keeping an eye on the wildfires in Northern California... so far we're ok, I think, though I read today that there is some smoke in the San Francisco Bay area. No active fires in Sonoma though, which is a relief. I will email the folks from our trekking company tonight just to confirm that there's no risk that we won't be able to go on our trek.

I did the pre-trip major house clean last night, at least half of it. We still have some work to do in the basement, but we want to come home to a nice clean house, so that's the goal. I have discovered that it takes me one Handel's Messiah to get the upstairs totally clean. I know that by the time Worthy is the Lamb starts, I should be putting the mop and broom away. If I'm not, I know that it's been too long since we last cleaned, or I got distracted somewhere along the way.

I talked to the Paternal Unit on the phone last night. Please have good thoughts for his wife, L, who received some worrisome test results this week and will be going in for a follow-up biopsy. And while you might be thinking thoughts of good health, perhaps one further good thought for the Eldest Brother's friend I, who is facing scary surgery too.

I hope that you're all having a good and fulfilling day.