Never a dull day

As many of you know, since August I have been having a fairly positive email correspondence with a project team at the University of Postdam about doing a Phd. At the end of last week, the head researcher emailed to say that he wanted to speak one on one with me. We set up a time of 6 am Calgary time (2 pm Potsdam time) for yesterday (Wednesday). Sadly, the news he wanted to pass on to me was that he really liked my application/background and that I was one of the short-listed candidates on his end (good), but that the funder of this particular position had picked their own candidate without going through the University department. They had also shortened their portion of the Phd program from 36 to 30 months, which, as the Dr. said, is a 'sporty' approach to the process. He sounded very frustrated with the situation and I can sympathize with how hard it must be for him to get this project organized with 5 students and a multi-stakeholder funding group who still hold so much power over the project. So, as much I would have loved to work on the project, I am staying put in Calgary for a bit longer. It's a strange feeling at the moment; I have lost something I didn't have to begin with, through no fault of my own. All in all, things are going well for me out here, so the consolation prize is terrific! Never a dull day around here :)

A Great Leap Forward

September was quite a month! I have so many things I want to tell you all about but they will have to be in brief.
I started the month up north in Tumbler Ridge. Then, after just missing the labour day long weekend, I came back. Jeff was bumming around home, loafing between jobs, so when I took the next day, a Friday, off work, we headed to Rossland B.C. for a little mountain biking. OOOHH Boy. Those are some big hills they got there! That weekend I learned something about myself that probably won't surprise anyone; when I am exhausted (from climbing the biggest hill ever), I start to cry when I hear gunshots in the valley. Hunters make me cry. I guess I had over-looked one of the benefits of riding in k-country - there are no hunters. I'm not a fan of hunters.
So, we were back on town to go to work that Monday, and I was back working up north before the week ended. 5 days later I called Jeff from my in-transit hotel room to wish him a happy birthday (I have missed all his birthdays since moving to Calgary - oops!) and good luck on his first day of his new job! That's right folks, Jeff is no longer working with bikes. He is now using his degree, in a round about way, and has a classic Albertan job - high tech in the resource extraction industry. He's working with GPS/GIS combo units in a surveying/seismic implementation; driving big trucks down small roads and talking with smelly men. Second only to ranching. Ah Alberta!
The next two weeks saw me in Calgary (5 hours between flights), Vancouver (for work), then to Victoria (2-day weekend vacation), back to Calgary, off to Lake Louise, a working weekend in Canmore and then it was October.
After this long introduction I'll get to the meat of this update - drum roll please - I turned 30. Ta da! Jeff and I had gone to see Billy Bragg in town the week before and he had some excellent new songs about how just because we are all so much older it doesn't mean we can't still be cool. It was inspirational (if anyone can find a bootlegged version of The Clash Fan Fight Song I would be very interested in having a copy). The day of my birthday, I brought a bottle of champagne to my work meeting - it was Saturday the 30th and I was turning 30, so me and my 10 co-workers ended the days business with a little bubbly. We then proceeded to drink a bunch at dinner and following with my boss buying tequila shots, and I ended up going to bed before midnight, because gosh-darned-it, now I'm old and I was tired! Haha.
That was two weekends ago and then this past weekend I was in Nebraska with my mom, her sisters, my sister, my cousins (who are sisters) and did a road trip tour of the family roots. I met my grandma's sister, her daughter, the daughters of my cousins (who are sisters) and all in all there were lots of women everywhere! Sure there were uncles and husbands and sons, but it was the sisters who made it cool. Isn't that always the case? Haha again.
In all this travelling, in all these airports (btw - I am currently in Toronto), I have been waxing philosophic about what it all means, what is life's goal, what is important about getting older, and so on and so forth (mostly to myself to the relief of my travel companions I'm sure!). Although I am a big proponent of reading a lot, not reinventing the wheel, learning from others, etc., I am fascinated that this line of thought is so individual that we all must truly go through it as our own individual. I don't know what my life will be, I don't know if you all will be proud of me for living it, but I do know that I try to do everything with my eyes open, my heart open, and my mind open. Recently I have talked with so many different people who lead such different lives than mine. I loved hearing about their lives, their mistakes and successes, their passions and frustrations, and it worked to calm me. Not knowing the master-plan makes you free to do what you like, from hog farming to world travelling. Really, if someone could tell me now exactly what my next 30 years will be like I think I would childishly plug my ears - Na na na, I can't hear you!

Intense (In Tents)

My experience at 24 hrs of Adrenaline ended well. It was the part in the middle that was hard to deal with. I raced on a 5 woman team, one of whom had raced in 2004, and the rest of us were completely new to mtb racing. The mix made for a great group dynamic, with just enough 'of course you can do it!' to off set the 'oh my god what am I doing?!?' with a little of 'if she can do it, I can do it' thrown in. The plan was to have each rider do three laps, and the rotation would give us about 6 hours between rides to eat, rest and recover. Pretty straight forward, right?

Our first rotation went really well. All of us rode our first lap in daylight and we all had reasonably similar lap times. Eating was a hard thing to balance and I felt a little unsettled while riding my first lap but really, I think it was just nerves. Nerves are something I didn't really give enough credit. I had pre-rode the 14.5 km loop on Wednesday, and the technical part on Monday as well, but stick me on a course with dozens of other riders and time me, and I seem to loose perspective. I rested as much as I could before my night lap (scheduled midnight to 1:30 am). Unfortunately I am not an experienced night rider, and I think I just pushed myself too hard. At around 6km I had a bit of a bike accident and lost my meager dinner onto the trail from a hit to the stomach. Not so nice. I sat out at the checkpoint for a short while, but the unhappy prospect of getting back on and riding seemed to greatly outweigh any benefit I would feel at finishing my lap; or so it seemed at the time. So, I quit. Yes, I quit. I got a ride back to the campsite in a pickup truck and we were down a lap.

Back at the tent ranch the few women who were awake made the instant decision that we were just going to keep up with the rotation and not try to send out someone for a 4th lap to gain our place back. I think trying to decide at 1:30 am if you want to ride even harder is a pretty quick process; riding vs. sleep, sleep wins. To keep perspective, I have to remember that the fast racers who are doing 6 or more laps each are much fitter and faster and therefore are probably not necessarily putting out much more effort than us novices. After I was able to keep a bit of easy food in my stomach (5 corn ships) I climbed in my tent and defiantly (selfishly) did not set my alarm for my last lap.

I woke up when I was ready and the woman riding right before me was just getting ready to leave, so I had about an hour and a half to get ready to ride. I was grumpy! But, I knew I at least had to try. Because of my night ride mishap, my team had taken a break just before dawn so that no one would have to do more than one night lap. With this offset, I did not start my morning lap until 9:30. The trick with 24 hr races is that if your rider gets back before 11 am, you have to send one last person out. In light of this, I was tasked with taking at least 1 hr and 30 minutes for my lap as everyone was either overtired or injured and I was the last one of us is any reasonable condition to ride. (yeah, no dinner, no breakfast, twitchy stomach = best shape to ride) I had to stay out longer than 11 am.

Racing with a 'must stay out as long as I can' attitude is really great! I was chatting with the solo racers, not stressing out about the rooty bits, stopping to catch my breath, and having a great old time! With noting in my stomach but a banana, I had 1/2 a clif shot at the top of the first long hill and I think the sugar and caffeine were critical in keeping my mood so great. I finished my lap in 1 hr and 36 minutes, just 5 minutes slower than my first lap and way happier. All 5 of us ended the race happy and accompished.

Jeff was racing too and came in third. He prides himself on having no stories; no technical issues, no injuries, no illness, just great consistent lap times. He was between 50 min and 63 min for all 6 of his laps.

Overall I learned that racing is strange and I'm not a big fan, but it makes you feel awesome when you finish. Even if you come in last! I'm sure I will be convinced to race again sometime, but at the moment I am not registering for anything. Fresh air and friends are what I want when I ride. This weekend I had the fresh air and the great friends and apparently my 6 month rotation on bike injury. Good times.

Ladies getting dirty in Golden

Summers are bad times for blogs; updates are few and far between. Since the July long weekend I have been doing the usual stuff - hiking biking, reading and sleeping (oh yeah, and working too). For the August long, a friend from Vancouver was visiting and most of our big adventure plans got sidetracked as she had developed a bad infection. It's funny though how catching up on each others lives can make a long weekend fly by! Jeff was away for the Transrockies race so it was just us girls.
Jeff did not race Transrockies this year and I did not take the week off either. From chatting last night once we were both home, I think he was quite happy to not have to wake up in the rain and start racing.
This past weekend, myself and four Spin Sisters (a local MTB club) went to Golden to ride. It was originally going to be many more of us, but the difference between 'interested' and 'committed' to going turned out to be quite big. In the end it was great to have a smaller group. A friend in Golden agreed to lead us on her favorite trails and ended up organizing many more women to join in the ride. Here is what I posted as a summary on the Spin Sister's site:
"On Saturday, my friend and guide organized an excellent group for a long ride up the canyon creek trail. We were a little nervous as a few of her friends were joining us, visiting from Nelson, and were sporting downhilling rigs and full face helmets. What were we getting ourselves into?! Luckily, that's just Nelson style, and once we got to the top of the canyon it was a satisfying 'blue run' all the way down and out with a few small stunts near the end (easily avoidable). We had a few seat height adjustments and a busted chain to contend with (totally do-able!) and only one injury. Unfortunately it was our guide! She popped her shoulder out, got it back in and rode out, but our Sunday plans were certainly changed."
"The next day, we all learned a valuable lesson - do not got to a beautiful gourmet brunch before riding! Hoping to get our bikes on the lifts we headed to the ski hill for the brunch special at the top of the hill. Unfortunately the bikes were a no-go, so after brunch we did some old-school cross-country following the ski trails at the bottom next to the hill. There were no set trails and lots of bear poo, so we wooped and hollered and had a grand old time dodging fallen trees. No incidences and no injuries, but some serious overeating regrets."
Good times were had by all.
This weekend is my first race - the 24 hrs in Canmore. Yikes! What a way to start racing eh? I promise I will post a run down of that adventure as soon as I can next week. One crazy thing is that Jeff is racing too. He's racing with a capital 'R', really wanting to place well. Personally, I'm going to be super proud of myself if I; a) don't back out last minute, b) ride my three assigned laps without over sleeping for the night ride, and c) don't get a concussion! I'm an easy girl to please...

Redneck Holiday

Lo and behold, a miracle happened on Canada Day Weekend - Jeff had all three days off work! To celebrate, we finally rented a truck and drove the Trunk Road (and others) up to Jasper. These are roads that I drive for work, so I was more than happy to let Jeff man the wheel. Friday night I ditched book club (sorry!) and we went to Burnt Timber Prov. Park, just over 100 km from town. Of the 7 campsites there, 3 were empty - and this is just over an hour outside Calgary on a holiday long weekend! Where does everyone else go? It was nice that the parks we stopped at weren't crowded (until we got to Jasper), but what is wrong with people these days?
Saturday we stopped for lunch at Ram Falls, just south of Nordegg, then continued north up the Trunk Road until we turned left to follow the Cardinal River. Although the route wasn't packed with people, every river and creek we passed had one or two trucks next to it with people standing in the river. Not a river was left empty! I had no idea that an Albertan's definition of fun is standing in a river - and a surprizing minority of these people had fishing poles.. what were all the others doing?
Late Saturday afternoon we tried 'green lane'-ing to get to a campground but got the rental truck into a bit of trouble. Luckily Jeff maneuvered well enough to avoid causing any visible damage and we headed back to the Trunk Road, amounting to a small 3 hour detour. Sunday we partook of Jasper tourist fun (hot springs, waterfalls, black bears, glacier walking) and poached a camp site along Abraham Lake. On Monday we quit the dirt roads and took the highway the 4 hours home. All in all, the 5 hour drive to Jasper took us a good 2 days and left us with a very very dirty truck. Good times had by all :)

Catch up with last week's fun

For all of you holding your breath, I did not do the Castle Mt. traverse; the leader was sick and cancelled the day. But I met a great woman from Zurich in the parking lot as the group disbanded (she was one of the group. No, I don't go picking up women in gas station parking lots at 6 am on Sunday mornings - haha). We went to Mt. Indefatigable and meant to scramble up to the south peak. We go onto the 'wrong' trail, but it was great anyway. Passing through a bowl and tarn (snowmelt lake at the base of a mountain bowl) we hit the east shoulder and there was a scramble either up to the north peak or a slightly lower east high point. We went east; I like the mountains, but I'm not really a peak bagger yet! We had great weather, great views, and we beat the weekend mountain rush by starting so early.

The next day, I went to ride the lower Powderface loop with two friends. This is my new summer loop. Last year I rode one Jumpingpound loop 4 or 5 times over the summer and it was great to judge my learning curve. I figure lower Powderface will do for this year's training track. There are some serious climbs and a few good water crossings, neither of which I'm any good at so far...

Then last week my mom came to visit! On Wednesday, two of her PhD students joined the two of us for an afternoon trail ride. If you are looking for a trail ride in the foothills I strongly recommend AnchorD, the horses were very well behaved but without seeming like depressed trail ride horses. Three hours in a saddle is definitely all my muscles can handle - what a weird feeling! There was a lot of walking, some trotting and once or twice a little canter. The scenery was beautiful, the conversations lovely and our guide keep signing bob marley; a relaxing adventure. I have pictures from mom's camera, but I do not look lovely on the back of a horse, so you may never get to see them... I'm thinking it over.

Weekend Warrior it seems

This weekend Jeff and I were planning on renting a truck and driving up the Forestry trunk road all the way to Jasper for a little sightseeing, camping and hiking. Unfortunately, Jeff's schedule changed and he has to work on Saturday. So, with a weekend day to myself I started to cast around for activities in the mountains. With bear activity and whatnot, people recommend that you have a group of 6 or more to do any of the hikes between Banff and Lake Louise. Sadly, that would be everyone I know who likes hiking to all be free on the same day! I asked around, but wasn't surprised when that wasn't the case.

I decided that if I didn't have my own friends, I'd have to pay for some - Haha. Really though, I checked out the trail hikes, scrambles, traverses and glacier hikes listed for this weekend at the University of Calgary Outdoors Center. After getting to the top of Yamnuska on the long weekend, I've been really excited about testing my limits with more technical scrambles. I'm not really sure if it was the right decision, but tomorrow at 6:00 am I am leaving to meet a group for a traverse route of Castle Mountain in Banff. We're having lunch at the hut - http://alpineclubofcanada.ca/facility/castle.html

I am very happy that I am not trying this on my own. There will be 5 of us with a trained guide and I think all of them are more climbers than hikers. The weather forecast is for cloudy with sunny spots, high of 14C and no rain. Hopefully perfect weather - no bad sunburn, but not too cold either. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Most likely. I will bring my camera and post the proof on Sunday.

Yam Scramble

I would like to post more often, but I seem to have hit a short dry spell when it comes to adventures. But on the Sunday of the long weekend I did do something fun. Just north of the trans-canada right when you hit the mountains is a fin-like high ridge called Mt. Yamnuska. This peak dries out fast and catches little last season snow, so when it's a sunny day on the first long weekend of summer (or almost-summer) it's packed. Luckily it wasn't so crowded that we didn't need the trail - there were just enough people to find ahead and behind on the upper scrable to keep you going in the right direction.

The first photo is me posing where the trees end and where a rock chute is the first obstacle of the scramble. We met up with more than a dozen hikers turning back to go down to the parking lot. I went with my co-worker Jenna and her brother's friend Stacey, both from Ontario and it was nice to have some like-minded people beside me. By Ontario standards the scramble is high and steep! We were heading to the peak from the east side, and about halfway up there is 'the crux'. There is a short section of a very small ledge and a cable bolted into the face of a section of cliff. I did a quick glance at the bottom of the face to judge the sucess of those who had gone before me - haha. As it was all clear below, and I could see a dozen people or so on the slopes ahead, I figured classically, If they could do it So could I. Being the first time I had done something like this and feeling very unsafe (pining for a quickdraw hanging from so many hikers packs) I took my time and many deep breaths later I was around the corner and on 'safe' rock. Lucky for me my partners were also scramble novices and were freaked out by the cable as much as I was! Somethings are just hard to learn in Ontario... After we all made it around there was no going back and we took our time using all 5 climbing limbs - 2 hands, 2 feet, 1 bum - to get down another rock chute, across a loose scree slope, and up to the peak.

The second photo posted is on the way down with the face up to the left (where we were) and the parking lot off to the right (where we were going). We walked along the talus slope there and just off the photo, down the trail, you just pick a spot and turn to face downhill. I've heared it called 'scree skiing', but what you essentially do is make little rock slides under your feet and ride them like a very dusty escalator. You have to keep a lot of space between people and call ahead whenever you start to send a large rock towards your friend in front of you, but the run down was long and fast and FUN!

After having such a great time, I went straight to MEC and finally bought some good collapsable poles for my next adventure. Unfortunately this past weekend was raining non-stop and next weekend I'm heading to Tumbler Ridge. I'm hoping to get to the mountains on Saturday if the field schedule doesn't change and the weather is passable. That said, I am not without my excitement. Tomorrow I am heading to the Canmore Nordic Center with the SpinSisters and am still trying to remember to hold my speed while on the mtb. I'm going to try to ride a few more of the stream crossings in the coulee beside my house tonight for practice. All in all though, May was a quiet month.

Books and Bikes

After beautiful weather last week in Calgary (and the obligatory freezing day on the weekend) the buds are busting out today. I'm sad that we don't yet have a backyard to lounge in; it's still just a pile of dirt. Luckily though the empty lots beside us were preped for sod last week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have a good sun-lounging/book-reading spot soon.
On the book front, I'm reading Mordecai Richler's St. Urbain's Horseman on the bus these days. I can't believe it was written in the mid-sixties. I'd like to say not much has changed in Canadian literature, but I think it may be heading a bit downhill. Although I may change my tune after I finish the book, I would currently place St. Urbain's Horseman well before many of the latest G.G. award winners. Then again, I have always liked the cranky/awkward men characters and authors (see previous posts) so maybe it's all just my personal preference. Whatever it is, it's an excellent redeemer to follow the Nick Hornby.
On the activity front, I'm finding it very difficult to get into running up these hills. In Winnipeg, I ran along the river. In Guelph, I ran a few hills next to the river, but pretty much along the river. Last year in Calgary, I ran along the Elbow River, hitting one small hill every now and then. Now - up down, up down, up down! Whew! And living at the top of a hill doesn't help. But I have promised myself new running shoes if I can keep up with a good running schedule for a month, and hopefully by then I will be laughing. Also, the mountain bike club I rode with last year starts up this week and I am nervous but happy to try it all again. But I do have an excellent shiny new helmet!

The never-ending novel

This weekend I read 'A Long Way Down' by Nick Hornby. This book is one of the reasons that I am a library addict; I'm glad I read it, but really glad I didn't buy it. I would say the ending takes about 50 or more pages. It just goes on and on and on. Geesh! It strikes me as a publisher contract sort of book - i.e. he had to make it X number of pages. I guess I'm not surprised. Nick Hornby isn't exactly Nobel Prize winning, but even if this book gets made into a movie like most of his others, I don't even think it will be good at the box office. The characters are interesting and the story has merit, I didn't find myself wanting to skip/skim pages, but it sort of felt like a waste of time. And I do love a pulp/trashy novel as much as the next guy, so I think this is the harshest review I've posted this year. If you find this book on the floor of an airport, pick it up. If you are thinking of putting down cash for a paperback, there are zillions of better ways to make yourself happy for $15.

Do what you love...

Everything with the house is going smoothly. This weekend I will try to muster the courage to put holes in my walls to hang pictures and curtains - they're just so smooth and clean right now! Our long weekend plans also include Jeff and I 'rescuing' lumber from the construction dumpsters nearby to build workbenches for the basement. Their garbage is my treasure! Another exciting house-related event is that I now have a porch and am getting organic fruits and veggies delivered every other Wednesday. Last night I came home to a blue rubbermaid of goodness on my porch. Because you never really know what you are going to get, it actually becomes quite an adventure - anyone have tips on what to do with a dozen radishes?

Spring is starting here in Calgary and I think this weekend's activities pretty much sum it well. Tomorrow (Good Friday) I'm heading up to Lake Louise to go cross-country skiing with a friend visiting from Victoria. Then Saturday, I'm heading out on a reconnaissance 60 km road loop with another woman who has just begun road riding. Maybe Sunday I'll go for a snowball fight, and Monday I'll get a tan!! What a place, this mountain/prairie limbo...

Moving to the edge of town has hopefully opened up a whole new world of good roads for biking. Last summer I didn't use my road bike much as I a) was trying to learn to mountain bike in the mountains, and b) was living downtown and got frustrated trying to get out of traffic. This year I'm excited to go back to my cycling roots and rekindle my love for my road bike. And anyway, my mountain bike and I are having spat, or so it seems. Haha.

On the book front, I recommend 'Being Caribou' by Karsten Heuer. I haven't read it, but on Tuesday night, said friend from Victoria (Kristina) and I went to see him speak at the Public Library and it was seriously inspiring. It wasn't so much that it made me want to hike with the Porcupine Caribou herd for 5 months (his adventure) but that when you do what you love and are passionate about, you will find happiness and success. The book/documentary/talk was about his and his wife's experience with the herd and the journey involved in a calving season. Some of the focus was on the fragility of the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain and why gas extraction and caribou calving just aren't compatible activities. My friend Diana (who works in land reclamation) came out of the talk feeling the need to change jobs; that she hadn't trained in biology to sit behind a desk. Whereas I came out of it really wanting to go back to my desk (with long weekend hiking trips!) to try to devise any possible way of making extraction more sustainable and less disruptive. Not for the Arctic Refuge (that's just too fragile/pristine to even start), but for so many of the stunning systems across Alberta and BC. We are, fundamentally, resource users, and though I am all about reducing our resource use/wastage, we are going to be building, extracting, refining, combining, emitting and we have to be responsible for it to the very best of our abilities. I don't need to go out and experience the majesty of Caribou, I like it at my desk, whittling away tiny tiny chunks, making my little smidge of a difference. I really recommend reading his book, the excerpts he read were very well written.

Go Big or Go Home

True to my nature, my enthousiasm outweighed my experience in Moab. First day, first ride, just after the first hour, bam! my face hits the rocks. And not only that, but my face actually gets sort of sandwiched between the slickrock and my handlebars leaving me with an award winning shinner, a bloddy nose and a mid-range concussion. I think this was my best crash to date, or at least the one with the most injury. Thanks to the experience with my wrist last New Year's down in Kalispell, Jeff and I are pretty smooth with using our out-of-province extended health insurance cards. I got off the trail thanks to some slightly drunk 4x4 drivers and Jeff took me straight to the hospital to get my eye checked out. Retina, iris and cornea, intact and healthy - check! Awsome. My eye was swollen shut for most of the remaining days in Moab, but I still got out and hiked up a few of the trails Jeff was riding. I must have looked pretty funny hiking with no depth perception (I stayed far back from 'viewpoints'!), and I came home with a square outlined by sunburn on my face (from the patch), but all told it was nice to get out of town for a while.

Fortunately or not, on Saturday when we got home I was hit with a bad cold. I think it was maybe tied to having hurt my sinus, but having a runny nose with a still sore face was a challenge! I say 'fortunately' because I stayed home from work yesterday sick and started packing up our stuff. I feel like I worked pretty steady all day but I only got about a 1/4 of our stuff packed up... for a small apartment, we certainly have things stuck in every little spot! Some field work has come up for this week (starting tomorrow) but with my eye, I'm really not comfortable driving long distances yet. So for all my threatening to ditch out of moving, I'm really quite happy to beable to stay and get it done. It's a much bigger job than I remember...

Tomorrow we get the keys and start the van train. The next picture of the house I post will have us inside it! The 4 to 5 months promised has become 9 months, but the house looks good and the weather is much better for moving than it was around Christmas. It's finally Moving Day!

Musing on Mortgages

(i'm back to the green template - oh the indecision!) Tomorrow I'm heading on vacation! Jeff and I are heading to Moab for the week, and we are leaving Friday as soon as we can get out from work. There are many reasons for this vacation - 1) we got our tax returns, and though I know it's not true, it sure does feel like free money... 2) yesterday we went to the lawyers and signed our mortgage, certainly a watershed moment worth celebrating, and 3) yesterday we signed the mortgage - so now the waiting is feeling intermitable! Oh yeah, and we're bringing our bikes so there's that fun stuff too :)

Signing the mortgage really did seem like a big deal. With all my attempted bad-assedness of my early 20's, it was my first time in a lawyers office (I wasn't much of a bad-ass). Kevin (the law-man) took his time and explained it all and I'm starting to actually understand about owning property. You hear and read all about the realestate market, the benefits of tax-free income, and flipping houses, but without experience it's hard to get a handle on it. Our, or at least my, house-buying motivation mostly came from personal perceptions of space, of greedily wanting to stop sharing with the 2 a.m. vacumer above me, the stinky meat-fryer down the hall, etc... I have a bit of a family history of 'wise investment' in land/houses and I think I've been rather stubborn against giving it any attention. I'm not saying I've begun down a complex road of tax-shelters and market prospecting, but I think I've started to understand how people can see it as a realtively safe road to happy retirement. Once again I realise how far the gap is between knowing something and understanding it!

So, we are off to the desert for a little fun under that big sky and happy cappucinos after a frosty morning ride. Riding with Jeff is daunting, but he's a great and patient teacher, and I am clinging to the hope that you truly never forget how to ride a bike - it's been months since I rode, and my last ride left me with a black eye on the eve of my company christmas party. Biking and I did not part well for the season... finger's crossed for an accident free week!!

Time for a change

Thinking of posting today, I was looking at this site, and it was just too green for my liking. I have nothing agaist green, but I figured it was time for a change. Nothing big to report today. Although I do feel rather proud - I think I have actually got the next month of house/legal/paperwork organized to be on my schedule! Because Jeff's work life is so seasonal, it occurred to us that if we don't take a vacation before April 1rst we will likely not have a chance to until the fall. So, on top of closing on the house and moving, we are taking off somewhere for the week of March 20th. Not really sure where, but it's got to be cheap! Stay tuned...

A little too green...

This weekend we went inside, with permission, to check out the progress. Jeff took a bunch of photos, but true to my roots, the only one I think is interesting to put up here is the kitchen view! The colour we picked for the walls has turned out a bit greener than expected, but I'm sure we will get used to it. I like it against the maple cabinets. All that is left now is the flooring, tiles and the plumbing.

A good surprise was that they painted the whole house the same colour. When making the building plan, the painting was to stop at the upstairs hallway, leaving three bedrooms and three bathrooms unpainted. So, I have been spending the last three weeks stressing about paint choices and finally picked a palette. Walking around the house on Sunday, I was relieved that we don't have to paint the bedroom immediately before we move in so that there is something on the walls, and I think we can live with a greenish stony colour for a while. Painting has now moved to a weekend project per room, if necessary.

The bigger news in my mind involves our friends and new neighbours Noel and Dana. Noel and a very pregnant Dana came with us to tour our house on Sunday and all was cheerful and nice. I hadn't seen Dana since November when Jeff was in Costa Rica, so Sunday I finally gave her the baby quilt I had made (#5 for me) and checked out her big belly. Lucky I did, because unknown to Jeff and I, Dana was starting labour. The whole account is posted on Noel's blog and it's great! Just like all babies look the same and yet are completely unique simultaneously, I find birthing stories fascinating! This is their first kid and they went with the mixture of doula and doctor. It sounds like an excellent combination. Happily and excitingly Molly Rose is in our world :)

Move-in Revenge

We have our possession date - March 30th. I have been threatening to take any and all field work jobs around our move-in date, and now there actually is a good chance I really will be away! As some of you may know, when coming out west here (Fall 2004) I drove the u-haul across country and unpacked all by my lonesome. My then-pregnant friend Luka provided snacks, encouragement and door-holding, but the move-in was pretty much a solo show. I vowed revenge on Jeff then and there!

Because our possession date is March 30th, it doesn't give us much time to paint the bedrooms before moving in. Luckily we are paying the builders to paint the first floor, stairwell and upstairs hallway. Currently these spaces are all the same colour, pretty much because I'm such a design novice, I had no idea where to get them to stop the colour with an open floor plan! Over the next month I am accepting all tips and tricks regarding choosing paint colours. I'm finding it oddly stressful... :)

To end, I extend the classic moving invitation - I will provide beer and heartfelt thanks for all volunteer painters, packers and/or movers. Come one, come all! (though don't help Jeff too much - he has to pay for the solo u-haul cross country trauma! haha)

House Update

Nothing too exciting at the moment. We are supposed to get a call today or tomorrow to get our 45 day notice. But this is after I called two weeks ago to check on how the schedule is coming along, and they let us know that we were on the list to get a call later that week. Of course, that didn't happen and I called them again last week to remind them to call us. I got the same speech - "we will be calling you shortly". Then last Thursday, they called to tell us that they will be calling us before the 7th. Gee, thanks.

On the winter front, things are strange in Calgary; same as last year, but strange to me nonetheless. On both Saturday and Sunday, Jeff biked up to the new house. A bit windy, but dry, clear roads and above 0 degrees. At the same time, I drove out to the mountains with my cross-country skis and found almost a meter of snow base right off the road, more as you went up, and around -5 degrees and snowing. So here I was, bundled up and skiing through woods and there he was riding his bike. Strange, yes?

From biking up there, Jeff's house report is that our ceilings have been 'textured' and the drywall has been all taped and plastered. Cabinets, floors and paint to go. This means that we now have to finalize our appliance choices (well, they were finalized before building started, but we can change them before delivery). The main undecided factor there is the washing machine. Anyone have a favorite brand? We also want to upgrade the fridge we picked last summer, but we want to profit from the scratch and dent section of the appliance store which means that we need to pick it out less than a week before delivery. It will all require some coordination.

It looks like I'll be back north by the end of the week. I'll post my first book reviews of 2006 then. That first job in January got me started on a good foot - five books so far! Keep the emails and comments coming, I love hearing from you all.

Colour Schemes

Also on Saturday, I took this picture of the mostly completed siding. The exterior colour scheme is mushroom-y ("harvard slate") siding with sky blue ("pacific blue") roof trim and eaves and white-ish ("winter mountain") trim around the windows. As of our visit yesterday, the blue trim is on the little porch roof too. It's sort of prairie camouflage...

The 'inside' scoop

Well you asked for it! An inside shot. This now proves that I was tresspassing as we are technically not allowed in until we take posession, but it was unlocked and we really really wanted to check it out. I hope none of you will turn us in.

This image is looking from the dinning room to the living room. For those of you living in houses of your own this may look small, but those of us moving from small apartments will gasp at the huge spaces - ha! The little half-wall on the left is the kitchen island-to-be. We are super excited about that fireplace-as-room-divider.

This photo was taken this past Saturday when I got home from the oil patch. We went by yesterday as well and peeked in the windows with our headlamps. I'm happy to report that the drywalling is all up (no longer in piles on the floor as I show here). It does look smaller with the drywall up, I'll admit.

Zoe goes to Tumbler Ridge

Well, I'm up north again, and just got finished a week at one site. Today I got the news that the next job (supposed to start yesterday) has been delayed until Monday, so I have a weekend 'off' so to speak up here in Tumbler Ridge B.C. (google it!). I have a new guy with me that I'm showing the ropes to, and because most of the action of this job happens with the nightshift (crazy stable meteorology) I've been pawning them off on him. You know, so that he can learn... I have to say though, dayshifts are great! All in all, he doesn't seem too resentful (he does have to make the more critical decisions this way) and it's nice to know that in the future there will be more people on staff for these field jobs. I remember thinking that people were crazy when they said that someday I would get tired of jobs involving fieldwork and undetermined schedules, but here I am thinking they may be right... 2006 will see me turn 30 and maybe I'll just want to stay home. (30! am I old? am I young?)

Second topic - yea commenters! I love hearing from you all and I'm sorry I haven't emailed you all long heartfelt messages. Sitting in the middle of nowhere is no real excuse, but it's all I've got to cover my laziness. heehee.

I guess there is no real point to this post, but I'm working (sort of), it's late, I'm tired and have an internet connection available. This makes me feel a little less isolated. Thanks!