Sunday, July 31, 2005

Weekend progress

Been having a fabulous weekend so far. Yesterday I spent the afternoon in a friend's pool and had a really fun time. I spent most of the time just floating in the water, relaxing every muscle in my body. That was awesome! I've been carrying so much tension, so it was really nice to be able to let that go for good long periods of time. We also invented the game of pretzel death ball. At each end of the playing area floated a basket made of two pool noodles bent sort of like a pretzel. There were three balls involved: two smallish distractor balls, and a medium-sized happy face game ball. The object of the game was to get the game ball into the pool noodle basket. You could travel with the ball, and you could move the basket you were trying to score in, but you couldn't move the basket you were defending. Anyone who threw the ball out of the pool had to go to the penalty area for a count of 10 Mississippis. We had teams of three. Very fun!

Mini-golfing last night I saw a guy with a t-shirt slogan as follows:

You laugh at me
because I'm different.
I laugh because
you're all the same.

Quite like that one!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

What to say... what to say...

I've been mostly too lazy to post anything lately . . . or too lazy to do anything worth posting about. Here's some things that I've enjoyed recently:
  • Went to the opera on Friday to watch my friend Mike perform. The opera was Die Fledermaus, which sounds exactly like Deflator Mouse. I like to imagine some sort of mousy superhero who nibbles holes in balls, portable planetariums, balloon, etc. and thus saves the day for mousekind. I haven't yet figured out how that could be advantageous yet, but there you go. . . . Oh, and the opera was very enjoyable . . . quite funny and an adequate amount of eye candy.
  • HMV had a coupon for DVDs (buy one get one free) on Saturday. I went and was finally able to find a couple of movies I'd been looking for for months - Mansfield Park and Les Triplettes de Belleville. Watched the latter last night with Joel and Sonya, and it was quirkily good and the music was very fun. I also bought Willow. Now I have most of my favourite movies of all time on either VHS or DVD, or can borrow them from friends. The last DVD set I know I'm pining for is I, Claudius (or I, CLAVDIVS to those who are either very Latin oriented or like to be silly like me!). It's a mini-series of intrigue and betrayal in ancient imperial Rome. History Television shows it every couple of years or so.
  • I made a very lovely necklace yesterday. I had spent quite a bit of time on the weekend laying out the beads, then Tuesday one of my nephews knocked over my bead design board. Beads flew everywhere! Luckily I wasn't home so other people had to clean it up! Heh heh heh! I bought a few more beads today to make matching earrings.
So now I've got the weekend to look forward to! Early this summer some friends had considered a camping trip this weekend, but nothing ever was organized. Instead it's going to be a weekend of partying! Yee ha! ;-) A different party every day - and Monday to recover. I might be leaving on Monday for a quick shopping trip in Calgary. Will I finally be getting the drum I've been wanting for a couple years? Come back for news next week!

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Lorianne in Saskatoon

. . . for over a week now. I did try writing a message from Edmonton on July 9, but it took me a while to write it while Brandi and I were chatting. By the time I went to submit it, Blogger had logged me out so I needed to log back in. And by having to do all that I lost the message. Grrrrrr. It was a good one too. I guess I'll just have to give a brief summary of what I remember:
  • At the family reunion I won a light brown, sheep leather purse from India. It was a prize in a raffle they had to cover costs of the reunion. It was kinda funny though. My aunt who was sitting with me on the love seat had the first winning ticket (for Christmas decorations). Then the next name called was hers again! She didn't think it would be fair to win 2 of only 4 prizes, so they picked again and it was me! The funny thing is, though, that it was the next prize that I really had my eye on. If my aunt hadn't been so gracious, I might have won a nicely embroidered purple bag from Pakistan. Oh well. I still like the one I won.
  • Coming home on July 9 we had quite a lot of difficulty finding a place to spend the night. We ended up driving all the way from Winfield to Edmonton that day, and my mom and I spent the night at Brandi's. I have never felt so weird from driving. It was like I was drunk! I had drunk vision (where my peripheral vision sucked) and my face even felt numb! It was a crazy experience.
Then last week was the last one at the research project I was working on at City Hospital. That means that I have been enjoying my summer for the last few days. I went for a walk, did some shopping, did some drawing, and visited a friend on Monday. Yesterday I updated my expenses, attempting to find the $10.51 that my computer tells me I spent on my credit card. I went through my credit card statements for the last year and a half and couldn't find the problem, so I just manually updated it. I also caught up on the e-mail I hadn't been checking at my U of S address. That was probably over 200 messages, mostly from the career centre on campus. Today I finished catching up on my primary e-mail, so now I feel pretty much caught up. However, I have a feeling that I've been doing some of this to procrastinate on writing up the two page report from my research project. I had planned to do that today, but now I'm updating my blog! Go me! Oh well, at least I'm being somewhat productive....

I've had something else on my mind today. Yesterday I got a bulk e-mail from the physio college saying that someone was offering a free 2 bedroom basement suite in exchange for overnight supervision of an elderly person. I've been thinking about it, and I think I'm going to contact them. I've been wanting to move out for so long . . . it's hard to pass up an opportunity like this. I'm going to try to contact them tonight, to see what the circumstances are and if it's still available. I've been thinking of and writing down some questions this afternoon. I'm curious about what the outcome of this will be.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Lorianne in Winfield

Hallo!

I am in a used book store in Winfield, B.C. Winfield is located between Kelowna and Vernon (but much closer to Kelowna).

Anyway, I arrived at Camp Arbuckle mid-afternoon Tuesday. That's a Girl Guide Camp that is only used in the winter, then they take bookings for the summer. I think that's a little weird because it's such a beautiful location, and they should have summer camps there too. We haven't had much planned activity - so far we've mostly just hung out or ate meals. This afternoon a group of people went for a tour to a local winery, but I ditched out to write postcards and hang out at the beach. The beach is very rocky, but the water is nice and clean. It's been fairly cloudy but pleasant since we got here. Yesterday I got sunburned from sitting at the beach all day.

I'm not sure how many of us are at this Dahl reunion - maybe 50. I had no idea I was related to so many doctors (at least four on this side of the family). One of them is very quick to give out medical advice - it's been interesting to listen to.

There are a lot of cute little kids here. I wish my nephews could be here to enjoy the water and good company. It would give me someone to play with too! All the kids here are either older or much younger than me. Funny how I never seem to completely fit in at these sorts of things.

Last night Uncle Roy (who is 98 years old) got a big group of people together for a singalong. There are some very musical families here. Tonight a couple of people are going to do a skit.

Anyway, I should probably get going. The store's supposed to close in a few minutes. I should go pay now. Take care all!

Monday, July 04, 2005

Lorianne in Golden

Tonight we're in Golden, BC. That's on the Trans-Canada highway, in the middle of all the curvy, winding roads. Very scenic place.

Driving today didn't go as well as planned. A serious accident occurred on the highway from Edmonton to Red Deer (I guess an RCMP officer was killed), and that delayed us for about an hour. Makes you feel pretty fortunate to get where you mean to go safely. We've been travelling in two separate vehicles, setting places to meet on the road ahead. That's been working pretty well for us.

We should be arriving in Vernon tomorrow afternoon. We don't check in at the reunion until supper time, so maybe we'll have some time to look around before then.

I've had a cold the last few days. It pretty much sucks. All the changes in elevation have given me headaches and made my ear canals feel all itchy.

Anyway, guess that's it. Ciao!

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Lorianne in Edmonton

Lorianne in Edmonton . . . wow, that's like a completely different person.

Anywho, we got into Edmonton around 5:30 pm yesterday. Our trip was fairly uneventful. A crow with a death wish frightened us very early on. We must have come within inches of hitting it. I can't be certain because I was cringing! We visited with my uncle and aunt in the evening. I ended my day watching the movie "The Notebook." It's such a sad story . . . I even cried. I guess with all the deaths in my family I've been thinking a fair amount about what my parents and aunts and uncles must have been like when they hooked up. It sort of brought that all home again. Great movie, but don't watch it alone.

Today I had a very nice visit with Brandi. She came and picked me up from my uncle's place around 1 pm, then we drove around a while, she showed me where she works, and showed me some other neat places she'd found while exploring the city by car. Next we went to Whyte Ave (which is similar to Broadway Ave in Saskatoon, but much busier). We went into an antique store, a used book store, a bead store (but of course) and had a late lunch at a greasy burger place.

Then we drove back to her place, saw Michael, and hung out a bit. While I was there they had some furniture delivered from Ikea . . . by incompetent delivery people who damaged it. So next the three of us drove out to Ikea, where they complained and I looked around for a birthday gift for Jay. Once that was all straightened out, we went home.

Next Brandi and I went for a good walk on some newly formed trails close to the river. It was a really good opportunity to chat about how things were going in our lives... which basically meant we ended up talking about boys. I'm pleased to say that the mosquitos were almost absent from our little adventure: I killed two in her car on the way back to their place. We hung out a little bit more, then I had her take me back to my uncle's place for 9 pm. It sure didn't feel like 8 hours together. More like 2 or 3.

So yeah, it was a nice day and I was really glad to get out and do something active. I'll be sitting enough the next couple days as we drive on to the reunion.

Friday, July 01, 2005

I'm leaving. Bye-bye!

Yes, I am going on vacation. Tomorrow I drive off into the sunset, making for Edmonton. Then on Monday we'll be leaving, heading to the Okanagan for a family reunion. I'll see what I can do about keeping my blog updated while I'm gone, but I'm not sure if I'll have any internet access.

On Sunday I'm hoping to see my friends Brandi and Michael. They moved to Edmonton at the beginning of May. It made me sad, but now I get to see them and that will make me happy! Here's a picture of the three of us, taken on the weekend before they moved away.

So be sure to have fun and take care! That's an order.

Happy Canada Day!

Today Canada turn 138 years old. That's young for a country.

Next year Saskatoon celebrates 100 years since it became a city.

Four days ago my brother turned 40.

In ten days Jay turns 31.

... and time passes...