MmmmmmMAC

I love Southgate. West Ed is bigger and flashier and has a Sephora AND a Lush, but Southgate has MAC and that's all there is to it. I went to Southgate on Friday to just be by myself for a while and hand out a few resumes (looking for a second job to increase the caaaaash flow) and indulged myself in a visit to the MAC store. I talked to a lovely girl named Allison for a minute (she's interested in moving to Toronto) and then she convinced me to sit down and let her play with my face. I like the results (above).
Friday night my friend Nicole and I went to South Common to take in a movie, but seeing as we had lots of time before the show, we decided to investigate a Japanese restaurant across the parking lot from London Drugs, and lo and behold: SUSHI! Real, raw fish and wasabi and soy sauce SUSHI! I ordered miso soup and 3 pieces of salmon nigiri and was in heaven the whole time I was eating them. I'll have to save my pennies and go back there again to order some real sushi (the place is SUPER expensive, seeing as Edmonton is landlocked).
Nicole and I walked out of the restaurant 20 minutes before our show was due to start and found this hilarious little car. It was of Japanese make and it was hilarious. It had British steering (read: steering wheel on the RIGHT side) and it was built like a box with a speedometer that looked like it had come out of a playskool toy. Nicole was enraptured by it, as you can see. Despite the distraction we headed to the movie theatre, which was PACKED, and we were 10 minutes late for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Oh well. I don't know who I love more, Harrison Ford as a somewhat confuzzled old man or Shia LeBeouf because he's Shia LeBeouf. Great movie, thoroughly Indiana Jones, go see it if you haven't.
Last night I went for my first long walk around the Riverbend neighbourhood; I walked up Rabbit Hill Road and turned into a walking path in a hydrocut, and when I got to Carter Crest Road, I took this picture. If I ever move permanently to Alberta, I'll make sure I have enough money to move into the Riverbend neighbourhood, if only for this view.

I've worked the entire weekend and today I battled some very mixed feelings about Father's Day. They're un-mixed now, and I know I've made the right choice. Tomorrow I work all day as well, and then Tuesday Nicole and I are going downtown on a Whyte Avenue adventure! Stay tuned!

-Laur

Thursday Morning Tea and other musings

Look at this kid. She is too sweet for me. She's got her rice krispie treat in one hand and her juice in the other and she's just as happy as can be. Until Isaac comes over and pulls her hair for no apparent reason. This is Thursday morning tea.

That delightful expression on Rebecca's face would indicate that she doesn't appreciate Shireen spitting mashed banana all over her arm. Understandably so.

I edited this photo with the cookie-cutter tool in Adobe Photoshop Elements. I watched an instructional DVD on the program last night and learned a few things, so now I'll be able to edit my pictures better. I'm well on my way to becoming a champ photographer!

Why not? That's all I have to say. Not much else going on right now. Had a personal training appointment this morning that took 2 hours
and has made jello out of my legs and arms, so that's pretty satisfying. Figured out today that I'm spending too much money, and I think I'll be going out and making a concerted effort to find a second job soon.

-Laur

Continuing plans

I'm trying to hammer out my plans for the rest of the summer because June has begun and once July hits, a lot of my family will be coming to town and I'll need to take their presence into consideration.
I know that Gramma and I are trying to plan a trip out to Drumheller, to the Royal Tyrell Museum, North American's biggest dinosaur museum. Drumheller is almost desert-like, and its badlands have been a hotbed of fossil discovery since the 19th century. I went for the first time when I was 7, and it astounded me, understandably. Again at 14 I was bamboozled by the sheer size of the prehistoric thunder lizards, and this year, at 21, I want to complete the trifecta with a visit, as an adult, to the wondrous museum. We think we'll go over the 17th and 18th of the month because I have 3 days off in a row (my reward for holding down the fort while my supervisors are on vacation). Drumheller is about 300 km away from Edmonton, past Calgary, and considering Gramma's endurance these days we'll probably stay at a family friend's B and B in the nearby town of Rosebud instead of attempting the drive home on the same day.
I also want to go to Calgary this year, preferably for the Calgary Stampede, but I don't know if that will be possible. I would have a place to stay, with my mom's best high school friend, Jane Bourne, but I don't have anyone to do stuff with. Boo! Someone come to Edmonton right now to be my travel buddy. I figure if I do go, I'll go early and arrive in time to spend the day and some of the evening at the Stampede, and then come home the next day, like a whirlwind of cowboys and cattle-roping. We'll see if it actually happens.
Gramma also said something about doing the Jasper/Banff/Lake Louise corridor, up through the mountains, maybe with Auntie Brenda. I would LOVE to go to the mountains, for sure. The only obstacle is getting everyone to agree to a traven itinerary.

More on this as possibilities develop.

-Laur

Blogging from OneNote

I'm hoping that the problem of pictures will be solved with Windows Vista, but I think it probably won't. Sigh. I'm writing this blog entry through Microsoft Office OneNote, mostly because I'm getting stoked about all the fantastic courses I will be taking come September.

I took a leap today, only half an hour ago, when I realized that the time of my Teaching Geography course had been changed so that the Fine Arts digital photography course I wanted to take was in conflict. It's only an hour, but I can't very well skip the first hour of Teaching Geography all fall semester for a photography class, no matter how badly I want to take it. So I began to look around for other 3-credit courses I could take that would count towards my Arts degree. This is where the leap comes in: I enrolled in "Acting for Non-Majors" part 1. Pretty crazy, eh? I've asked my friend Monica, who took it a few years ago, to give me her thoughts on the whole thing. I hope it's amazing, because I think I could really benefit from taking it. What better way to become a more effective and effervescent speaker/teacher than by taking an acting class?

That's the story so far, morning glories. I need to email the chair of the Visual Arts department and let her know that I no longer need to be admitted into the photography course. I'm still a little sad about that, but you know what? It could be worse.

 
 

On a calmer note, Gramma and I had a lovely day. I woke up, went to the gym (4 days in a row, kids! I think my gigantic butt might actually be gettings slightly flatter), met Kay and the babies and then we all went back to my house (read: Gramma's house) for tea and snacks. We sat on the patio in the sunshine and had a fine time until just before noon, then everyone went their separate ways. At 1, Gramma and I headed to South Common to do some quick shopping. Gramma did groceries at Superstore and I went across the road to buy fake Crocs at The Great 88, a big kitschy dollar store place, and dock shoes at Payless (polka dots, woohoo!), and then headed back to Superstore to find Gramma and ask the PC financial guy some questions. On our way home I tested out my crocs in John and Kay's garden on the Sproule farm, first grooming Shep, who rolled in cow plops the day before and needed to be brushed to get the smell out, and then weeding and breaking up the soil around the long row of Saskatoon bushes alongside the vegetable garden. Grooming a 115-pound Pyrranese Mountain Dog is no walk in the park, especially when he's a puppy at heart and not very well-trained; I have scratches on my legs from his affectionate swipes, but at least now he doesn't smell. Kay worked on removing all the unwanted dill from her herb and flower garden while Gramma tentatively weeded around the vegetable rows.

After the grooming it was peaceful, if not windy, as the horses gazed on from their paddock and Shep, bless him, took a nap in the sun. We had tea on the porch after that, and then Gramma and I came home to do our own thing and then prepare dinner (hamburgers and corn on the cob, YUM!)

 
 

Cheers,

 
 

-Laur

Ceeeeeelebrate good times, come on!

AMAZING! It's 7:00 am in Edmonton and I'm sitting in the den, closest to the router. It's been half an hour since my Fall/Winter 2008-2009 enrolment began, and I'm finished. I got every course I wanted except for a Fine Arts digital photography class, but I enrolled in another Ed elective to make up for it. This is the first year I haven't been screwed by York. I have Fridays off, and in the winter only one class on Tuesdays.

This feels good :D I could even go to the gym now, but as a celebration reward I think I'll go back downstairs and go to sleep.

Nighty night.

-Laur

Evening BBQ

Look at this child. Is she not perfect? What a cuddlebunny! On Saturday night Gramma and I were invited out to Sproule Farm for a farewell BBQ in honour of Luke Marsh, the young Australian guy who has been living at Rachel's house for the last 10 months. He went home this afternoon, back to Calbarra Beach, AU, to his family and friends.

We went on a walk to the fields near a local golf course after dinner to see how many stray golf balls we could find. The grand total was 31, better than anyone has done in a while, though we cheated a bit because one of the Sproule cousins, a 15 year old named Andrew, slid under the fence surrounding the course and picked balls right off the fairway. Pictured above is the view of the prairie sunset as we were walking back to the farm to roast marshmallows. Pretty stupendous.

These are the two horses that live at Sproule Farm. Neither one of them actually belong to the Sproules; instead, a woman named Sue pays to keep them there. Most of the time the horses do as they please, only going into the barn when they want to and eating all the grass they want. While they aren't friendly, the brown one, Roux (pronounced Roo), came over for a nuzzle and a pet when I called to him.

This is my fantastically perfect first marshmallow. It was delicious. I do love a campfire, and this one definitely impressed.

-Laur

Magical Morning

What a tremendous day I've had. This morning I woke up early to go to the gym as usual, and after my workout Gramma and I were invited over to Rachel Pottinger's house for tea. We had a lovely time playing in the gorgeous backyard, pictured above, and the kids had a great time playing in the stones and sand. Isaac was kind enough to give me some sand to play with, Joanna had a grand time swinging on her playset, and Shireen was just Shireen: perfectly delicious in every way.
It was 25 degrees in the sun today despite the breeze, and I was lucky enough to enjoy an uninterrupted hour and a half on the back deck this afternoon, just reading and soaking up the sun (with sunscreen, of course). Then Gramma and I loaded all her empty bottles into the back of Merc and drove them to the bottle depot, where we got a measly $8.75 for the lot of them. Then we went to Southgate to look at a lot of stores, and thankfully (Mom and Auntie Bren listen up), we found Gramma the elusive bedskirts for her beds. A huge accomplishment!
Now it's after 10 and I work a full day tomorrow. On Saturday evening we're invited out to Sproules'farm for a farewell bbq in honour of Luke, the Australian fellow living with the Pottingers. That should be good, as I think there's going to be a bonfire, which means marshmallows will be involved. Excellent.

-Laur

Photojourney #1- YMCA and West Edmonton Mall

Let's get physical

I don't remember if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I've joined a gym in Edmonton. It's at the William Lutsky YMCA, and I'm really enjoying it. At home when I joined the gym I never had enough time to go, but now that I have a car at my disposal, and no classes to attend or do readings for, I can go whenever I please. It turns out that whenever I please is at 8 in the morning, but that's okay; it's a great way to kick start my day and get everything going.
Yesterday I went to West Edmonton Mall to meet my friend Kaley and her nurse friends to see Iron Man at the Scotiabank Theatre (formerly the sickest Silvercity you've ever seen). I took the bus because Gramma was convinced that the Whitemud Freeway, which is the driving route I'd take to get to the mall, was closed due to an accident with the LRT construction; it took me little more than an hour to make a trip that by car would have taken between 10 and 15 minutes. Ravishing.
Anyways, while I didn't have a lot of time to shop at the mall (thank goodness!), I did see Iron Man and it was FANTASTIC!!! I highly reccommend it to anyone who enjoys a smart, witty, funny and socially aware action movie. That and Robert Downey Jr. just keeps getting better with age. Gweneth Paltrow is also back from quite an absence in this film, playing Iron Man's faithful assistant Pepper; she's stunning, as always, but plays her role, first as an unshakable lady and then as a ruffled and somewhat frightened woman, so naturally it's almost surprising. She is an Oscar-winner, though, so I shouldn't be so shocked. Long story short, GO SEE IT! It's an excellent diversion and a really good time.
I have pictures, but I haven't uploaded them yet. Oh, and guess what? I installed a router in my gramma's house so I am now wireless! Get ready for webcam capabilities and video-blogs, my friends! This should be sweet!!!
Off to work now, pictures after dinner. We bought a wack of ground beef yesterday so I'm in charge of making hamburgers. Yummo!

-Laur

Aspiring Ansel Adams

I've decided to take a photography class, two actually. They're drop-in digital photography safari classes at the City Arts Centre, on two consecutive Wednesday nights in July. I'm kind of excited; I really want to become more skilled than I am. I seem to be doing alright right now, but it never hurts to be a little more knowledgeable.
How do you like my preliminary efforts? These were all taken just at dusk outside my Gran's house. It smells so beautiful here right now.
-Laur