Saturday, February 28, 2015

Last Day of February

Time seems to be flying by again, two months into 2015 already.  I spent some time in Edmonton last week, Sam gave tickets to the symphony to T&G and me for Christmas, songs from the sixties.  We drove up on the 18th, and met Sam and Nancy, Grace and Dallyn for supper at the Lingnan, very yummy as usual.  Sam and Nancy also attended the symphony, and it was a a really great show, double bonus because the Winspear is such a good theatre to listen in.  Our seats were excellent as well, so had a really good view of the orchestra.

T&G left the next day after we met for breakfast.  They stayed at G&D's and I stayed at Allison's.  I was at Allison's for 3 days and we went to Tony's one night for supper, I had the Clam Linguine which was delicious and leftover chinese for breakfast one morning.  I also went to see The Imitation Game which was excellent.  On the Saturday I moved over to G&D's, though they were not home, they were in Banff  for the weekend, so I had the house to myself.  On Saturday afternoon, Allison and I went over to George and Kay's for a little visit.  Not much new with them, they both seem well and were happy to see us.

Sunday was the first S&B for 2015, kind of late, but even with everyone retired it is sometimes hard to get a date that works for everyone.  As it was Norine was not able to come as she is in Arizona, good to see the group again.

Monday night I made supper for G&D and had a little visit with them after they returned from Banff, then Tuesday back home again.  Tim picked me up at the Petrocan as T&G were in Edmonton for the David Francy concert, then leaving to go to Yellowknife for Barb's funeral.  They will be home late tonight, as their flight gets in around 6:30.  The three of us will have a busy week, Kane and Grady will be here while T&C go to Mexico for a week.

I have booked my flights to California, leaving on the 8th and returning on the 18th of May.  Also the plans are coming along for the Alaska cruise, who would have thought Jim would would  be so on the ball with his deposit.

A couple of pictures from Geoff's birthday.


Sunday, February 22, 2015

Chugging Along and New Project

I'm writing (sometimes more reading and note-taking) on dissertation. Trying to write some every day. That is hard!

The Remand Centre here in Edmonton was looking for a couple of people to run a writing workshop - so I am going to do it with my friend Jessica. In some ways I know it's risky, because of having to finish school. But when I heard the call for volunteers via another friend, and realized that others weren't doing it, and that I *really* wanted to do it, I thought: I'm going to.

It's part of this "bootcamp" thing they have going there, which includes military drills / formation and other exercises meant to give some kind of structure to inmates' days and approaches to their days? So we aren't sure what they'll want - maybe help on how to write a cover letter, or how to work on school, or just creative writing. I'm very excited!

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Monday, February 16, 2015

mid February

Mom's tiny daffodils are almost blooming.
I am almost finished data analysis, then have to start writing.
Still don't have a release date for my present job, hopefully finding out tomorrow or day after.
Better not be too much longer.
Richard is watching the bachelor while I criticize the extremely poorly acted and histrionic reactions.

Nakusp was good.
We are going to the expensive hotel that I won at silent auction, weekend after next.
Mom and I are going to grande Prairie for Easter.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Happy Birthday Geoff

1976

Saturday, February 07, 2015

No January blues

I thought I might get the January blues but so far nothing. Retirement is agreeing with me. I quite like it. There are stil some things to get used to, like it doesn't matter what time it is, and you can get up whenever you like.
I have been doing some sorting out of rooms so that feels quite good.
Geoff has been planning a major trip for us. He suddenly said one day that he wants to go to Greece so got on line to see what he could find. So far he has us booked to London with Icelandair, we will stop in Reykjavik for a few days on the way, then visit Anne and Del for a week. That's as far as we have got to Greece so far. I am leaving it up to him to sort out the rest. We will be gone for six weeks.
We are also. seriously considering a trip to Israel in late October. It is a tour hosted by our minister and another pastor.
And of course we will be cruising to Alaska.
We had a lot of excitement here on Sunday night. I woke up at about 3:30 a.m to a crackling and popping sound. Looked out the window and it seemed as if the garage was on fire. I leaped into action and called Geoff to go check it out. It was our neighbour's garage down the alley. Geoff called the fire department but they had already been called. We went out and watched. There was nobody else there until the fire truck arrived, it was strange just watching it burn. The garage burned right down.
We were supposed to go to the city this weekend to see David Francey but he got sick so the concert is postponed. But James Kelleghan will be at Grandview Stage this week so we are looking forward to that.

January Blues


It was a great weekend very relaxed not much running around.

January was feeling extremely long, so last weekend we decided to go to Edmonton for a mini holiday.  Wilf took Thursday and Friday and the weekend off, me too.  The roads were clear and dry and we got to Edmonton in time to make me and the wool shop happy.  They have such amazing wool at River City  yarns.  I now have 3 projects to get me through the worst of the winter.

that night we went to Jubliations dinner theatre, the food is always  good and singing was great, plot a bit thin but who cares.  We sat with a couple of couples who had never been,they were not sure what to expect but enjoyed it and  said they would be back.

The next day we took the train to southgate and did some shopping then met Henry and Ally at the Shamrock curling rink to watch Henry curl, that was a lot of fun and we must have brought his team luck because they came closer to winning than they have this year!  I did enjoy sitting up and over looking the ice, listening to folks yelling just like they do on tv.

Afterwards we went to the Asian Village for supper, never been there before. The food was great.  When we got in the door there were bagpipes playing and the guy said they were having a Robbie Burns celebration.  Once we had eaten the waitress brought Ally and  I scarfs, they said straight from India and would be warm, we sure needed, it was very cold.  As we were leaving the guy at the door gave us each some haggis, he said Indian Haggis you will love it.  I was the only one to actually eat it, haggis with Indian spices =edible.

Henry had saturday and sunday off so we spent saturday with them.  We went to the burg, for wonderful hamburgers, so good I recommend them.  It is downtown on 104 st and 101 ave.  We checked out the Indiana Jones exhibit, then Raiders at the Imax, both very enjoyable.  Said goodby to Henry and Ally and got up on Sunday and headed out home.

I almost forgot, i stopped in at the Cameron Library on Friday to say hi Allison but you were home sick, the fellow said, so missed you.

I am still at Encana, the last I heard until end of March, nice group of folks, most of ghem anyways.  They are very good to me, the boss said if I wanted to stay it would be great. I think temping is still tempting though.

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

New Job!!!

I got a new job!!
There is an Assertive Community Treatment team starting here, and I applied for team lead and got the job!
I had the interview today, and got the call after work.
I am pretty excited, the team works with people considered to be most at risk, in hospital a lot, serious mental illness and substance use, homelessness, jail, etc.
Am trying to put in hyperlink to Wikipedia, but can't figure out how to do on tablet.
Anyway if you Google it, you can find out more.
I've been kinda looking off and on to see what else is out there, just like the idea of doing something new to keep things interesting and relevant for me.
I do like my job,but have been there quite a while. Jana took a job with the same team, but not as manager, her title is clinical coordinator, and she'll be doing oversight of program integrity.  I was thinking I would probably not enjoy my job nearly as much without her there, and I sure don't want to manage! And I figured that this was great opportunity to do something from the ground up.
So I am super excited!
We are going to Stuart MacLean tonight and to hot springs for long weekend, so a pretty awesome week:-)