Je ne suis pas mort.

Ok, I cheated and had to look up how to say that. 2 weeks in Calgary and all my french disappeared. I had my first training shift today, and it went ok except when some unsuspecting francophone walked in and was greeted by my confused and helpless smile. Other than that, it went well. Nothing too hard, don't cut yourself, wash your hands, smile, smile, smile. Ah, the food industry.

Trip home was good, too. We were kept busy just trying to catch up with people and spend a little time with everyone. I have pictures, and I've started scanning - remember I still haven't gone digital yet - and I'll post them on Flickr eventually. It was strange, and we both kind of felt like we'd never left. After 3 hours of driving in the black hole that is Westhills, I had all my old road rage back. Highway 2 never changes much, but I'm pleased to tell you they've taken down the Russian Brides billboard, so that's progress. Other, less pleasant progress - we were approached by a very jittery woman in the London Drugs parking lot by our old house, she was trying to sell her cell phone - presumably so she could buy some more crack. That's right. The epidemic has spread, it's no longer contained in the downtown area. Sad days, Calgary.

We were unable to get our favorite sushi, so it will be another year before we get any rainbow rolls. Damn you, Renzo. Damn you and your vacation. No Tubby Dogs either, so I'm seriously considering getting some squeeze cheese and making my own A-Bomb. Successfully avoided my old office, spent a great 3 hours at my old Indigo store, and played a lot of tile rummy. It was sunny when we landed, rained off and on the whole 2 weeks, and snowed our last day. Hence the tired old saying "if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes." It's trite and it's true.

We also played a lot of Wii Fit on our visit and got addicted. So when we got home, we picked on up. Shut up, we're both employed now. I've never spent so much time flipping off the tv. I hate that little wii board. When I made a Mii at my brothers house, my Wii fit age was 43. Holy shit. I am happy to say that I passed all 5 balance rounds in the body test on our machine, so my Wii age is now one year younger than my actual age. So death by tripping is not imminent, and one of these days, I will successfully avoid all the cleats and panda heads.

Gord and I got home last Monday and both had the week off - we just started working today. I had a piddly little 4 hour training shift, and Gord is somewhere in our neighborhood painting a house, I think. Maybe he's stuck up a ladder, scrapping old paint. We had big plans for last week, we were going to go enjoy the sunshine and being back in Montreal, but really all we did was sleep. And sleep. And catch up on Breaking Bad. I reread the old Dragonlance series, which is kind of awful, kind of awesome. I even watched the straight to DVD movie version, and it was also awful/awesome = awfome. On Kelly's recommendation, I'm reading the Death Gate cycle, which he claims is better than Dragonlance. Maybe it's just the fond memories I have of Dragonlance from when I was 12 and read them for the first time, and got completely hooked on fantasy and read very little else for the next 10 years....but one book down, and the Death Gate cycle isn't really growing on me. I have 6 more books to go, though, so I'm sure some literary barnacles will form somewhere.

And that's it. I'm sure more interesting stuff happened in there somewhere, but I need a nap.

Vacation mode

We've been doing liver exercises this week, in the form of beer, vodka and the last of the birthday rum in preparation for our visit home. Not that everyone in Calgary drinks all the time or anything. Just being prepared.

We have achieved bachelor fridge, in that there's only a single lonely onion and a bunch of condiments in there. And enough milk for morning coffees - no one can expect us to make it to the airport at 7AM coffee free.

I've set the Etsy & Artfire shops to vacation mode, and the cats to sleep mode.

looking forward to airline peanuts and in-flight movies starring Kevin Bacon, or maybe Michael Keaton....OOoooh i hope it's Multiplicity.

And with that, it'll most likely be 2 weeks before you hear from me again, because where we're going - we don't need blogs.

First of May

I don't know if it's warm enough where you are, but you can always keep your socks on.