Little Louie Lucifer (known as LOUIE)

Here is my silly cat (aka: king of the castle). He rules the house and there is no stopping him from doing the things he knows he's not allowed to do. He just waits until you're not looking to do them. For example, take a drink out of your glass of water or dip his paws in the glass, get in the kitchen sink to see if there might be anything to nibble on, have a lick of the water cooler tap (gross for most people - I stopped worrying about it ages ago), or have a snooze on the table or on the dvd/stereo equipment (one of which I'm pretty sure he killed with kitty fur - my brother called it his $800 bed!!). Despite all of this, I love him and he's an awesome cat!

A Great Day!

I don't know about you, but sometimes when I have a great day I find it hard to go to bed because it means the day will be over. Today was one of those days! It began with a Timmys (how else could one properly start the day) and then going to my lovely friend Thene's house to meet up with her and her two kids (and the dog too). We all piled into her van and drove out to Big Hill Springs Park which is a little gem of a place just west of Airdrie. It was so beautiful and lush with trees and waterfalls and a stream. It was just perfect. We went for our walk (Thene's with 30 lbs of little boy on her back - she's a tough mama) and me in control of the energetic lab. Her little girl was the official flower picker of the day! It was so awesome and I wish I could start every day out that way.

Not long after I arrived home later in the afternoon I had a knock on my door. It was my neighbor holding a big beautiful bunch of flowers. She said that a delivery man had come to my place twice and no answer so could she please give these to me when I arrived! I was certain that she just had the wrong house - but NOPE!!! Flowers for me! And, from the S n' N duo nonetheless. Can you guys see how fantastic the people I know are; I'm so very, very lucky! Thank you S n' N! My cat also loves plants, flowers, etc... and you'll see his nose poking in the corner of the picture!

I was still feeling energetic and it has been such a nice day outside that I felt like going for a bike ride so I stuffed my bike into my car and went to Fish Creek Park. I'm sure there was somewhere closer that I could have gone, but that's where I felt like being. It was also amazing and the paths where I entered the park (on the east end) are surrounded by grasses and they smell so fantastic. So, it was just a great end to a great day.

And, did I mention that I cooked salmon for supper - my most favorite food!

What's Up

What's been going on.... well, I've been on a few days off and have wasted much of it - sleeping in too much, watching too much tv and wasting time on the computer. As much as I hate to waste time, really sometimes I think we are all entitled to a little bit of it and I'm not going to apologize for my laziness these past few days!!

What I did do: I read quite a bit. I finished the book, "Turning the Mind Into an Ally" by Sakyong Mipham. I really enjoyed the message and the writing. It is by a Tibetan Buddhist and is largely about meditation and achieving peace, yada, yada, yada. It was very good and I would read another by this fellow. I'm not Buddhist per se, but I do find it very interesting and I think we can take the parts that work for us from various practices.

I usually read several books at a time (not a great way to remember them all clearly, but I can't help it - this is what I do...) and the others I'm reading are: "Inspire! What Great Leaders Do" by Lance Secretan - so far an interesting book on leadership that my mom gave me. "Spontaneous Healing" by Dr Andrew Weil. I've read two other of his books and found them fascinating and this one, which I believe might have preceeded the others I read, is equally fascinating. I not only love the content of his books, but I love how he writes. He writes as though he were sitting next to you and having a conversation. His books are truly the only health books I've read that didn't feel like I was back taking some uni course. I've also been picking away at "Creative Visualization" by Shakti Gawain. I've seen this book numerous times in book stores, but only picked it up a while back at Fair's Fair (fantastic used book store in Calgary) on Suzie Q's recommendation. I enjoy it, but only in small bits at at a time. I guess I am also still reading "The Secret", but can also only read it in small bits at a time - I "get it" but can't help feeling like I am reading the script of an infomercial.... I have been reading "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky which is quite interesting (and sad) because it was an unfinished manuscript by a Jewish woman who lived and wrote in France during the Nazi invasion of World War II. This manuscript had been lost since her murder in 1942, which sadly was at the hands of evil people in Auschwitz. The book was found, edited and translated in 2006. It is very interesting to read this long lost work of fiction which tells a story of various people living during the same era which ended up taking her life. And lastly, I am reading "26a" by Diana Evans. In my own defence, I only started this book because I had misplaced temporarily the "Suite Francaise" and I was in need of something to read!

I'm almost tempted to delete this last paragraph - I think it makes me look kinda crazy, like I have some sort of personality disorder which doesn't allow me to focus. (Pingcat - any comments!!!) Oh well, I do eventually finish books and when I find one that I LOVE, I generally don't read any of the others. A good example would be "Eat, Pray, Love" which I finished a week or two ago. Really, one of the best books that I have read in a very long time. My cousin Angie gave it to me and she had loved it as well. It was just the book I had been in the mood for.

Anyway, what else. My brother has been renovating the basement. This has been going on for a while now, but that is how he does things. He never buys things on credit (unlike myself...) and patiently does things properly as he has the cash and the time. I'm more of an instant gratification kind of person unfortunately! He has little (actually none) experience at mudding so that is taking some time! I'll post a picture of what he looks like at the end of every evening! It will be so great to have another room in the house, although I'm not sure that I will be allowed down there - he hasn't said so, but I suspect it will be "his" room. I hope he takes his stupid "UFC" obsession down there with him! It is pretty bad when some UFC show comes on and I've already seen it and know who wins...

Today I went for a hot stone massage - can I just say that there is nothing quite like it. This was a gift from the fabulous S n' N duo. I say to them, Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you!!! They had given me one another time and I swore at the time that it was probably the best single hour of my life. Today was a repeat of that experience! If you have never gone for one, I would highly recommend it. We gave my mom one for part of her Christmas gift and she loved it also. Who wouldn't. I wish I could go for one every day!!!

Tomorrow, for my final day off, I am going to help my friend work on the books for his company - very exciting... I am going to a meditation class and hopefully if it is nice I will have time to get my bike out and go for a ride somewhere - Fish Creek park maybe. I was supposed to go camping with my friend for a couple of days this week, but he had some family thing come up and had to cancel. That's more important stuff so we'll try again another time.

Oh, and can I just say that I LOVE George Stroumboulopoulos on The Hour. I think he is most brilliant.

Well, that is about it. Cheers!

Thunderin' Calgary

Last night I was on a medevac shift and checked in for work a bit before 18:00 and checked the weather for southern Alberta. Heavy thunderstorms were forecast/reported over many areas of the province, including the Calgary area. My co-worker, his girlfriend and I hung around the office for a while watching a big CB to the south develop and move closer and closer to the airport. I say big CB, but really it was MASSIVE! After some time, I decided that I better go home and close all the windows that I had left open, and it was just in time because the wind and rain had started. A few minutes later we were having the craziest thunder and lightning and this went on for a couple of hours at least. I took some video and pictures of the gigantic cell as it moved toward the airport, but it doesn't do it justice since you can't see the entire cell on one frame.

Lilac Festival

Last weekend I went down to 4th street to check out the annual Lilac Festival since I had never gone to see it during the six years I have lived in Calgary! I must say that it didn't start out so well...have you ever tried to find parking down there on a regular day, let alone when most of the city has also decided to park down in that area. Initially, I was going to take the train, but to be honest I didn't get up early enough to figure out how to get from the train station to that area. I don't often use public transit in Calgary so am not very familiar. Anyway, so needless to say I drove around for probably close to 1.5 hours in search of a lone parking spot. I drove near and I drove far as I was willing to walk. But seriously I found nothing. So after this amount of time in my non-air conditioned car driving around packed streets I decided that I did not need to go to this festival after all and decided to head for home. That is precisely when I saw a car pull out of a spot and I slipped right in. And, it was on 7th street so only a few blocks away! I could hardly believe my eyes. In fact, I triple checked for signs which prohibited my parking there for I feared that I would return later to find my car towed away. But, nope, no signs!



So I walked around the festival for a couple of hours just checking out what was there. It was much like traditional outdoor markets that have crafts, clothes, food vendors and lots of great music. I couldn't believe how packed it was; I swear everyone in Calgary was there! It was nice, despite the shoulder to shoulder walking but I must say I saw very few lilacs! Here are a few pictures of the festival.