Life: Settling in Finally?

Yeah, there's lots of stuff to do around the house, but people keep telling me that's on par with home ownership. With the the big projects done, and no real pressing need to finish more baseboards for now beyond the aesthetics, I've backed off in an attempt to recuperate and enjoy some time at things other than house works. The window chaulking keeps nagging at me given the wind and rain combinations that keep hitting the west and north faces of the house, so I will endeavour to finish that before August escapes our notice.

The commute to work has proven to be less than engaging. The Calgary transit system is really bad. It takes more than 30 minutes to cover the distance between the Canyon Meadows and University stations. Add the time to get to and from those stations from the house or office and it borders on 75 minutes without needing bus connections. So I've committed myself to an alternate commuter method.

Given my troubles with getting my running to work for me, the best way to use the commute time is to involve some physical activity. Since running to and from the university is a little on the long side, I've opted to do what I've been thinking of doing for a long while: buy a recumbent bike. More specifically, I bought a recumbent trike - a tadpole design with two wheels forward and the drive wheel behind. I got a Catrike Road shipped to me from Gattineau, QC since the guy that sells them in Bentley, AB was a jackass. I even got it cheaper.



I've been very happy with it since I got it put together on Friday. I need to do some further tweaks to get everything dialed in, but it's a great ride. I can't say the same for parts of the pathways I'll be using, but that's a small part of the overall ride. It will probably be at least a 90 minute commute untill I get used to the twice daily ride. I'm a little concerned about the initial mileage compared to my fitness level, but there is still room to take the train occasionally if I don't feel up to the ride.

Overall the cost and benefits of the cycle commute far outweigh any other options I can think of. The bike costs me less to operate monthly and in the long run. There's even a bike collective on campus that will help with repairs and tune ups. I will need to get some new gear like shoes, tire patch kit, a new tire inflation system, and some other odd tools to keep me riding. I already have a line on winter tires that I can get from a local store, but I won't need them for a few months yet. I'll strongly consider getting an extra set of rims and rear cassette to swap them out if periods of the winter remain dry enough. I've also considered upgrading my road slicks to something a little more robust, but I hope I don't have to consider that anytime soon.

My test ride on the weekend was great! So I look forward to even more riding. The physical activity will also help me get some quality sleep again. I've been missing out for too long.

The remainder of the house organization and unpacking continues. Most of the boxes have new homes or have been emptied into their assigned spaces. I have a few things to reorganize in the game space in the basement, and I need to get the garage cleaned up and organized. It'll be nice to be doing my own oil changes. It really doesn't take that much to do given the expense of having others do it for me. The only thing I don't particularly like is doing it myself in the cold. I might just wimp out and pay the guys at Mr. Lube if needed.

So we are all getting into the rythm of having our own house. Ursa's protective instincts have certainly kicked in. She barks at things more often now, but she's not really too bad about it. Most times she stops if you acknowlege her. We've got lots of options for on- and off-leash walks. Things are starting to become comfortable.

I get to go to my first hazardous waste conference in the US in September. It's in Indianapolis, IN. Nothing to get too excited about, but I am looking forward to making some contacts in the business for myself and learning about how different issues are handled in other parts of the US and Canada. Things at work have generally been great. I've had some hard days due to poor sleep, but with the commute change I can say that work can only get better.

Life: Summer Finally Arrives

The seasons have been taking their sweet time making their exit on time. First winter drags into May. Spring finally arrived in June with all kinds of rain. Not that it's July summer has finally arrived with some hot weather. And a few days of sunny skies at the correct time is all that I ask for.

We finally got moved the last weekend of June. It was slightly painful as we got screwed by the truck rental gods again. I must say we have some of the greatest friends in the world for sticking with us to get everything taken care of that day. I was certainly thankful for taking loads of boxes to the new house in the days leading up to the move since it certainly made life simpler to concentrate on the furniture. That's not to say that more and more boxes didn't start appearing, but there was plenty we still needed to take pack that was still needed to live off of.

Despite not doing much running, I completed a ultra just the weekend before - The 48 Hours of Flooring. I spent 14 hours on Saturday installing laminate with help from the brother-unlaw. All three bedrooms and the living room were finished by 10:30pm. Sunday was another 10 hours to get all the old carpet and other crap to the dump and finish the laminate. All that remained was the rec room, but some finishing demolition need to be done on the old lino floor around the cabinets. After that things moved along quickly. Lots of running up and down stairs to take the laminate pieces outside for cutting meant I did a hell of a lot of elevation. My legs certainly felt it along with all the squats getting up and down from the floor. The laminate does look good, and it will be so much easier to clean than the carpets.

With the move complete it was on to the unpacking and other sundry tasks of post-move. The kitchen is looking good after much work by Aerin. It will definitely need a reno, but we'll survive since it's really no worse than the last one. Aerin also did a great job on the bathroom banishing the pink paint. Aerin's mom has gone above and beyond for us with painting baseboards that I've now started installing. With the bedroom repainted now since we had to take out the old closet organizer and three layers of pink flowered wallpaper, I can finish the baseboards and we can put in the new closet organizer with reuse of some of the original bits.

So once the baseboards are done there is plenty exterior stuff to work on. There's the chaulking around the windows that needs doing once I can get a ladder. I haven't decided if I should buy or borrow one yet, but I will need to do that soon. We've also scheduled redoing the garage shingles for the weekend after the long weekend in August, so here's hoping for some good weather. If that doesn't work it's two weeks later to get things done.

And finally a camping trip is on the horizon. Being busy with the house has put a damper on getting out to camp this year. Only the one trip is currently scheduled, but we'll have to get something else in before the year is out. Not sure where or when, but I would like to get away for at least a couple more weekends before the snow flies.

But mostly life is about the house and getting settled in. It doesn't happen overnight, but it is slowly taking shape as our place to live for many years to come... because I don't want to house hunt/move again for a VERY LONG TIME!

Life: Me and My Dog

So I woke up after New Year's Eve and discovered the month is almost a two-thirds gone... I don't what it is exactly that causes it, but I find this feeling of blur unsettling.

Aerin has gone off to Montreal to help a friend undergoing surgery. That leaves me and Ursa to hang out. We started doing some serious grooming work before Aerin left on Sunday to take care of some issues with Ursa's coat getting so long. Being somewhat less experienced with dogs I didn't foresee issues with Ursa's visibility jacket causing matting between her front legs. Unfortunately Ursa has been slightly uncooperative with the process of detangling the matted hair, so it's going to take concentrated bit of effort to get things sorted out there. If it was spring and the weather going to stay mostly warm I would be tempted to trim it short, but there's still two months of wintery weather left at a minimum.

We also ordered, or will be ordering, some new kit for Ursa. Our "little" girl is now 28.5"/72cm at the top of her shoulder. This puts her well past the breed standard of 27"/69cm. And she's not done growing yet! Hopefully she does move growing sideways to fill out her shoulders, chest and hips. So a new crate for unsupervised times, and an actual space she can den, that fits her better is on the way. The thing is enormous at almost 6'/1.83m long plus much taller and wider. Hopefully she'll be able to stretch out a lot more since she's a little crowded even laying corner to corner in the current crate.

Ursa's a pretty smart girl, and we really need some toys that will keep her mentally engaged. It's one reason we don't feed her out of the bowl at home anymore. (What we'll do while backcountry has yet to be worked out.) The plan is to get some wooden toys designed by Nina Ottonson for her to play with. This lady has at least one BRT herself, so it's not a stretch to know that Ursa should be just fine with them.

I sound like some proud parent taking about their kids' accomplishments, don't I?

I've committed myself to making a batch of chili while Aerin is away. I was thinking I'd make it tonight, but now I think that will be on the Saturday menu when I have the chance to supervise it a little more closely while it simmers for the morning and afternoon. I only really make mac & cheese these days when I need something quick and easy to fill things in while Aerin isn't around, so last night I did some with zuccini and red pepper. Tonight is bison burgers and not sure what else. I forgot to get a yam while grocery shopping to do some fries.

In between eating, sleeping, cooking, cleaning and Ursa are my attempts to get more miniatures done. I have started to base coat a bunch of minis I had assembled and primed with the new Battlefront base coat colours. It's a heck of a lot easier than using the air brush for time and consistent colour. It's obvious that a bunch of my America vehicles I'd already painted are a little too green and not enough brown, but I'm not going to stress about it. I also have an US armoured rifle platoon good to go pretty much. I will keep pumping out the US guys for now. I will start to touch up the base coat on all my Soviet tanks so I can start the detailing on those. I have a whole bunch of Soviet infantry to do too, but not nearly so much as if I had to paint an infantry company.

Some gaming to do too. I hope to play a little Flames of War before Aerin's return, and I will start a Napoleon's Last Battle campaign game that might take a few weeks to get done. The Flames of War is to playtest some new stuff a friend and I are working on. The Napoleon's Last Battle campaign is a follow-up to the course on Waterloo I did last fall.

Aerin and I will be celebrating our third anniversary the beginning of February. Since it falls on the Thursday we're planning to celebrate on the weekend with a trip out to Banff for dinner at the Bison Bistro. I have yet to decide what to get Aerin for a present, but no doubt I will decide soon.

I'll leave an update on how things are going with running for another time.

Life: New Year of Possibilities

So begins the 36th calendar year of my existence on this rock hurtling through the vaccum of space. I can't really say that this event holds anything special for me. It's just more of the same. I've had a few years practice with passing the time. I certainly don't like waking up the New Year's Day when Ursa wants some attention, food and a bathroom break way earlier than I'd like. But with the changing of the calendar comes a whole new year of challenges and dreams.

So first on the list is what to do with my running. I'm still not entirely happy with how this is going with continued back problems that don't seem to respond to anything with ongoing positive results. I am running, but not in any sort of volume I would consider truly useful to undertaking much more than a gimpy half-marathon distance if I raced this week. And yet I find myself desiring to lighten my wallet with race entries for a number of events.

I have currently decided I want to run the single lap of the Blackfoot 25km baby ultra since it is the only distance other than the 100km I have yet to run. Since I won't be running the 100km this year it seems a reasonable compromise. My other decision is to enter the Lost Soul 50km again given the disappointing lead up to the race due to the dislocated rib. My hope is that continued progress, however slow, will make for very different race this year.

The chance to run a couple ultras as part of a relay team has presented as a possible option. This is currently in the discussion and exploration phase. The Iron Horse and Sinister 7 are the two I'm most interested in. After some reflection I have no interest in the Canadian Death Race until I'm ready for a solo attempt. If this doesn't quite work out I have alternate plans to do more exploration of the trails in the Canadian Rockies this summer.

There are plenty of shorter trails to run, but I would also like to run some of the Glacier Trail and over Jonas Shoulder. There are some passes that I might be able to transit in a day too. A lot will depend on the kind of mileage I'm comfortable with by the time summer arrives. I'm not particularly interested in unsupported runs of more than 6 to 8 hours unless I think my body is up to it.

And speaking of the Canadian Rockies, there will certainly be more time spent there this year. Ursa will be pretty much finished growing this summer, so we will do some light trips into the backcountry. Car camping and a few overnight backpacking trips will begin the summer. Hopefully this will work out the kinks for a multi-night backpacking trip with Ursa by the end of the summer. Lots of day hiking is also on the menu. With Ursa being up for almost 3 hours of snowshoeing last weekend I think she will do just fine hiking around the mountains for more than a few hours.

And winter has not yet left us, so there is still snowshoeing to do. No doubt we will go out to Kananaskis a few more times before the snow starts to disappear. Some trips closer to home at Nosehill or Fish Creek will no doubt happen if the snow isn't all melted away by chinooks. I have little motivation to run on a cold weekend, but if the chance presents itself I will certainly head for the south side of the river on snowshoes or just shoes with appropriate ice gripping attachments. Either way me, Aerin and Ursa are still getting out lots between our walks and other activities.

Aerin and I are looking into buying a house this year. Who knows if this will actually happen, but we have started discussing our options. Wrangling a down payment and what we would actually spend the money on our the top two house conversations. We have little interest in buying something for the sake of buying since the cost of certain fixes or renos to make things liveable are not an option for us. We really would like to find something we can say we're still happy with ten years later.

We really enjoy our Friday night boardgames with our friends. It is by far one of our favourite events of the week. I am currently organizing a regular Flames of War league at The Sentry Box. I get to play some games, meet some new players, and generally have some good motivation to get things done with my terrain and miniatures. I'm so lucky and thankful that Aerin lets me play my games. We're both going to need to sit down with some paint again to move things along. Thanks for helping Sweetie!

That's all I can think of for now. I'm certain the year will whiz by in a blur of barely remembered details - 2009 certainly did.

Life: Ursa @ Home

Time flies when you're having fun - or running after a three and a half month old puppy. Thankfully things have started to settle into a routine.

I won't post the photos of Ursa here, but you can check out the Flickr Photostream here. I have more photos to go through and upload. Of course, there will be many more photos to come. Ursa is kind of hard to photograph well sometimes with all that puppy energy.

The time spent in on the flight was obviously one thing Ursa didn't like all that much. She wasn't at all happy the first couple of night about being back in a kennel or in the dark by herself. Eventually it worked out that I slept in the living room where I was visible from the kennel, and also that there was a little more light coming into the house from the street lights. She's still not always willing to go into her kennel when we need to leave her home alone for a few hours, or even just to keep her out from under foot or safe while unobserved. But she is slowly adjusting.

Our Solstice party was a hit by all accounts. I have no doubt that we will make this an annual event. We had lots of kabobs to grill, so between manning the grill and keeping an eye on Ursa I had my hands plenty full. Thankfully the Blackie temperament put in a stellar show as she was quit calm and at ease despite all the people and activity. She had little reaction to the kids running around or the noisy conversation.

The following weekend it was off to Dinosaur Provincial Park. The drive out was uneventful, and the highway was downright deserted for a Friday evening when compared to the QEII heading to Edmonton. Ursa got to meet many other people and a few dogs during our trip. Everyone was curious about her breed, amazed at how calm she was, and awed by the fact that she was only three months old at the time. Ursa also managed to collect all sorts of dust, grass and tree fuzz in her coat over the weekend. She was downright dirty, and it wasn't all going away without a bath later that week.

Canada Day we headed to Cypress Hills in southeast Alberta before coming back to Medicine Hat for a family reunion with my Dad's side of the family. Again Ursa was a star as people wondered about her breed, amazed at her size and age, and surprised by her temperament. This made for a family reunion somewhat short on visiting because of puppy supervision, but she did well again with the crowd and the kids.

In between the trips have been lots of walks and play. It's downright hilarious to see Ursa's ears flapping away as she runs along beside me sometimes for a block or two. This and her happiness at ear scratches have garned her the affectionate title of "Floppy Earred Monster". Also on the funny side is her penchance for hiccups and snoring.

House training is going well for both Ursa and her owners. No significant accidents to report as of late, but vigilance is still required. We try to take her out every few hours, after meals and after letting her out from the kennel. We are also getting better at reading the signs for the need to make a trip outside. Progress is also being made to train Ursa to relieve herself on command. This will be especially helpful for traveling.

Progress is also being made in other areas. Except for being a puppy and having some lack of focus therein, Ursa does amazingly well when walked on a leash. She will often want to stop to smell or taste things, but can usually be coaxed into moving without to much delay. Ursa will usually 'sit' nicely if you have her attention, but 'down' seems to elude her even when attempting to lure her with treats. 'Stay' is again hit-and-miss dependent on her attention and energy.

Aerin and I both swear you can notice Ursa slowly getting bigger as the day's pass - or even in an afternoon sometimes. Such is the Wway of the Puppy.

Life: Puppies!

Just in case you were waiting for word on our progress towards getting a Black Russian Terrier pup, wait no more! The litter was born March 19th.

We'll be getting a female pup from a breeder in Sweden hopefully the middle of May.

You can see puppy pictures on Aerin's blog. We won't know which of the girls will be ours for a few more weeks.

Our parents will have to be content with the "granddog" instead of a grandchild.

Life: A Dog's Life

So Aerin and I talking seriously about getting a dog - financials, care, training, breed, grooming, feeding, etc. The breed we have zeroed in on is the Black Russian Terrier. This is not a small breed by any measure. They are a cross between Rotteweilers, Giant Schnauzer, Airedales and Newfoundlands. After much reading about Blackies, we've been very impressed with their list of attributes: intelligence, sociable, great strength and endurance, even temperment, protective, and loyal.

We wanted a dog that could do a number of things. One of the first things was a dog that we could take backcountry without worrying her (yes, we want a female puppy) taking off after every little movement. A Blackie is also big and strong enough that we can put a dog pack on her to carry her own food and bed. The sociable aspect is important since we don't want to just leave her in a boarding kennel, so her ability to be around people is a definite plus. Her endurance is also great as a working breed, so I can take her running for exercise too. There's lots of things we want to do in terms of training, so her intelligence is a great plus.

Last Sunday evening we talked to a breeder over the phone, and she was kind enough to hook us up with someone in Calgary with one of her dogs. So on Sunday morning we get to meet a Blackie for the first time since neither of us has seen one in the flesh before.

And just for fun, who doesn't love video of cute puppies?

Life: Sleep...

I just reread my last blog entry, and it's odd to think I'm writing another one at this late hour due to my inability to fall asleep.

I'm really not sure exactly what it is that's left me with a whole week of poor quality sleep. I've been waking up hungry from any number of stupid dreams. This hasn't happened to me often in the last year since I started taking fibre before bed to fill my tummy up. And not just stupid dreams either, but ones that get my heart rate up and the adrenaline flowing. This just makes it even harder to fall asleep again.

One oddity that has me wondering what's really going on in the dusty recesses of my brain is how I can feel so tired all day, and yet when I finally lay in bed I suddenly feel wide awake and ready to come sit at the computer to write a blog or work on the Flames of War proposal for a couple of hours. I lay down and suddenly all the things I would have liked to think about or ponder during my day rush to the front of the stage with a full orchestra and chorus.

I think about running. I think about work. I think about Aerin. I think about what to do in the backcountry this summer. I think about the future. I think about the past. I think I might just go crazy or have some dangerous lapse of attention at work. Sigh...

Aerin tells me I seem to be doing that a lot lately. The sighing that is. My body seems a bit uptight about something, and is forgetting to breath. Maybe I could hold my breath for a bit until I pass out, and then I could wake up in the morning when the alarm clock goes off again...

Something is there. I'm anxious or worried about it. What 'it' is I won't figure out anytime soon probably. I wish it was something simple like the unfulfilled desire to hold Aerin in my arms for a long, long time while the world goes away. But it's probably something to do with the job, running or my apparent inability to sit down and work on my large stack of unfinished minis. Or most likely at this moment my inability to quickly fall into a deep, restful sleep.

Or maybe I just can't wait to see the first episode of the last half of Battlestar Galactica.

Let me know if you have the answer. 42 doesn't seem to be it.

Life: Welcome 2009!

Didn't we just celebrate New Year's 2008?

I have to say, that from my end of things, the passing of 2008 was definitely NOT slow. I will always remember an episode of Daily Planet a few years back about how a person in 2004(ish) perceives time passing eight times faster than someone in 1904. That would mean we haven't even made it to my birthday before we're celebrating New Year's again. Talk about getting the short end of the stick!

I'm happy to be back on the road to running after few months of nothing much leading up to Christmas. Between injury (not running related) and illness (damned 6 week chest colds and my second this year) I got in little running between October and few days ago. Even a minimal amount of core work hasn't done much to keep me sane or maintain any level of fitness. The stress of moving and lack exercise was a horrible combination. So it's back to building, and I have some time to do that properly and with some enjoyment that was missing from this year's training.

Aerin and I are both pleased with our new place, and invites to the house warming party will be going out to friends in the near future. We'll probably never move into anything smaller than a two bedroom apartment now that we have all this space. Unfortunately I think we may be a little beyond future living area with the items we've purchased to make our place truly functional, but I don't foresee any great need to depart anytime in the near future unless under duress.

I've been doing some life inventory to spend time on the things I really enjoy doing. So there's time with Aerin, friends and family, being outdoors with running and backpacking, and building and playing my Flames of War armies. I'll be spending some time exploring industrial design related classes through Continuing Education, and Aerin and I will take the digital photography course to get the most out of my Christmas present, a Canon Powershot G10 (essentially a professional-grade point-and-shoot). That's all I have on my radar for the coming year. I still won't have as much free time to spend on these as I'd like short of winning the lotto, but I'll be happy to be able to do it.

Another Flames of War player and I are also collaborating on a writing project for a campaign book for our shared interest, but that's still in the development stage. Our plan is to have a proposal submitted by the end of January. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

I'm having a little trouble getting to sleep, but I'm getting closer to sleepy now. I hope everyone had a great 2008, and that you're looking forward to another great year in 2009. I know I am.

Happy New Year!

Life: The Holidays Beckon

It's been a couple of very busy weeks at work leading up to the Christmas to New Year's break here at the university. There are labs moving over the holiday, and they all want their 20+ year old chemicals removed from the old labs. And, of course, they all waited until this month to do it. We're still not done with them, and won't get to them until the new year now.

Waste shipments always make for extra icing on a busy week, and with our desire to clear out as much from our building as possible, it meant that we shipped out more than 70 drums worth of waste in two shipments on consecutive Fridays. Thus, last week was a blur as we hurried to process everything we picked up. I can fit a lot into my days, but some days it just doesn't go fast enough anwyay.

I have gotten some fun in too. I got in a couple of games of Flames of War last weekend. I have also had the chance to sort through some more of my stuff to figure out what else I can do in terms of getting things finished on the miniatures front. I hope to concentrate on assembling all that I can over the winter. I have been working to settle on some armies to try, and will fill in gaps as needed to get things painted and playable over the spring and summer.

So now that that insanity has slowed, it's time to gear up for the trip to Edmonton to visit the families. No doubt there will be way to much eating and sleeping, but both Aerin and I are looking forward to some slack time. Tonight we finish getting everything packed up and ready to load into the car tomorrow afternoon. We both have to work the morning, but that will be mercifully short and filled with things to kill time. I will get my pickup stats done between now and then, and do a corrective inventory for our beyond frustrating online waste system.

Christmas Eve dinner with Aerin's family followed by present opening with my family will lead to a late night, and we will both sleep long on Christmas Day. We're having an early dinner with my family, and my grandmother and uncle should be there too. The rest of the day will no doubt be spent eating yet more food and sweets interspersed with games and movies. Boxing Day is presents with Aerin's family and then yet more food, and hopefully some bargin shopping.

The rest of the time is pretty free form. I will be working on a proposal for a game project I am collaborating on with another Flames of War player. There is also some final proofing to do for a guy from Italy that has been patiently waiting for me to finish since August. I may actually get some Flames of War in too.

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year!

Life: Settling In

Two weeks go by very quickly these days. The last week of November is almost a non-existent blur in my memory now. Where did the year go to already?

With the arrival of the freezing cold weather (-40C with windchill) I am very happy that we got our move done when we did. I can't imagine trying to load and unload a truck in these conditions. The people we were going to rent from originally were hopeful they could move before Xmas, but the long term weather looks none to promising for that even though they have a company doing the move for them. When I stopped by to pickup some mail that had made it there before our switch in residence they had all kinds of boxes stacked up waiting to go. I'm glad Aerin and I managed to spare ourselves that fate right now.

Have you ever heard the phrase "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part"? That's the way things have headed the last week at work as everyone that is moving labs over the holidays wants old chemicals and waste containers dealt with before they move. Our team leader's last day was on Friday before his three and a half weeks of vacation, so we're now short handed with more than enough on our hands to keep us busy. We sent out our 9th waste shipment of the year (compared to just seven last year), and we make one more the end of the week to clear our things so they are not sitting around for a couple of weeks unattended. Certainly never a dull moment at work these days, and I'm certainly looking forward to the time off between Xmas and the New Year we get while campus shuts down.

So the last couple of weeks have been busy with work by day and settling things into the new house by night. Aerin has had some busy nights doing shiatsu treatments for clients. We spent the Monday night after our move at Ikea spending a good chunk of our security deposit on new furniture that we needed but didn't have space for in the old apartment. So we got a new bookcase and a kitchen island amongst others.

The living room and dining room here are as big as the old apartment kitchen and living room/dining room put together. Unfortunately the kitchen doesn't have as much counter space or drawers/cabinets as we had before. The kitchen island has helped a little, but isn't going to quite get us there maybe. We'll continue to look at how to deal with that at a later date once we see how things are going for use with the current setup.

I have a room all to my self for my game stuff. I'll be reorganizing a few things in there, but for the most part I can start setting aside some time work on things without worrying about our tripping over everything or having it out for a few days between the time I have available to work on it.

We have a spare bedroom still that is currently a collection space for everything that hasn't found a permanent home or just needs to be sorted out. So we can host a few more bodies than we could before. Our old place was pretty tight with just the two of us; it was downright crowded once you got to three or four people. And it'll hold all our (mostly my) outdoor gear.

And the bedroom is quite nice too. We got the blackout blind hung yesterday, so that helped me sleep a little better last night. The street light is pretty bright through the existing blinds, so it was nice to have it a little darker for sleeping. I just have to remember to close the spare bedroom door if we plan to sleep in since it's across the hall and lets in a lot of light.

As a bonus we can now have a proper house warming, or even just have a few friends over, since we now have actual space to host people without sitting in each others laps. The house warming will happen some time in the new year.

Time to get some things done here. Cheers!

Life: Move Complete

So the big day arrives for the move. We've got a lot of boxes loaded with stuff, and could have loaded more if we'd actually had space to put them.

So Saturday started out spectacularly. Apparently a reservation with Budget for the truck isn't actually a reservation - it's a go to the front of the line, first pick that expires if you don't show up immediately upon opening. When I arrived to pickup the truck, there wasn't a single one in sight. I talked to the guy at the desk, and was informed that since I wasn't there at 8am my truck was gone. Needless to say I was pretty mad and used a few choice words.

The thing that steams me the most is that even when I said to the guy I made the reservation with on the phone that I needed it for 9am, all he said was the reservation was for 8am and didn't mention a single thing about it being 8am or nothing. Needless to say I will be writing a not very nice letter to Budget about their policy and inability to communicate that policy.

After a call to Aerin, she quickly had a new truck lined up from Discount. I had to go back to the airport to get the truck, but I can't say enough about how much better my experience was with them. And I saved at least $60 over Budget's gouging. We could have gotten a bigger truck since we couldn't quite fit in all the furniture, but it was a short trip to get the rest moved. In the end it took a little longer to move with the late start and second trip, but we were done in about 4 hours with the help of our friends and co-workers.

So a big thanks to all that came out to help!

Life: Not Homeless

So last night Aerin and I found a place to live, so we are moving this Saturday.

It's a house in Parkdale at the foot of the hill below the hospital. Aerin would have liked me to dicker on the price when our new landlord was open to an offer, but I was too damned tired and excited to have found a place for my neurons to fire in that direction. At the very least we are not paying more than we are now. I am happy to found a place, and I doubt it will be a problem to go back and talk to her about lowering the rent some after we've not driven up the utility bills for a couple of months.

The house is a quite old, but in good shape. It's hardwood floors throughout the house. Three bedrooms. A big living room, and space downstairs too. Gas, water and electricity are included in the price. I'll try to post some photos once we get moved in.

Life: The Bachelor, Week 1.4

Well I can say that it really blows that Aerin is still away. I think I would be much happier if it had only been a week, but two weeks is getting to be a really long time. I'm pretty sure I'm suffering withdrawl from the lack of hugs and kisses. A large dose of chocolate chip cookies can only take you so far.

Last Sunday was the Gear Swap at the MEC store. I didn't get rid of everything I took, but I got rid of most of it and made $260 in the process. I really would have liked to have sold my Salomon light mountaineering/heavy backpacking boots since they don't fit anymore. I certainly didn't get many miles on them before I needed a larger size. Oh well. I hardly splurged either since I got groceries and some salad rolls from the nearby Vietnamese place and still had plenty left over for the coming weekend. Of course there is more gear in the future, but not yet.

What else...

More packing is complete, but still plenty to go. More empty boxes will no doubt return with us from Edmonton this weekend. I really don't want to bring back anything else that I will have to just move again in a few weeks.

I had a great visit with Raj (our soon to be new landlord) on Sunday afternoon. It's really great to be forming this new relationship, and I really look forward to living in a great new place too.

I've started to do some work on another Flames of War writing project. This will be a joint venture with another Calgary player. I've also dusted off some files of mine for converting some old pulp science miniatures into Flames of War.

I'm having dinner with Mike and Angela and the twins tomorrow evening. No doubt Aerin will be thrilled with the opportunity to house sit a little since it usually involves a nice soak a much larger tub.

Time to get some food before class and finish up a couple other things.

I hope you enjoy the Thanksgiving Weekend if you're in Canada.

Life: The New Bed

The new bed was delivered yesterday, but the delivery guys didn't go for my suggestion to just chuck the old one off the balcony to save them from having to carry it back down the stairs.

The initial impressions from the showroom held up once we got to try it out again at home. The one thing that Aerin isn't quite happy with is the height of the mattress and box spring. Our night tables turn out to be a fair bit shorter compared to our old bed, and we got the standard nine inch box spring without thinking this would be a problem. I don't have a particular problem with the height of the bed, but Aerin seems concerned about taking a spill and the position of the lamps for reading. So it might be that we exchange the nine inch box spring for a six inch box spring to lower it a bit.

On the comfort side I had a really good sleep last night, and I hope for more of the same tonight. Aerin was awake most of the night with stomach pain, so hopefully she gets to enjoy a good sleep tonight.

Life: The End (of August) is Near!

The end of August has certainly snuck up on me. The car registration is due. Our last backcountry trip of 2008 is this long weekend. We bought ourselves a new bed that has to wait another week and a half to get delivered. And we found ourselves a new place to live in Calgary, but won't get to move in until the end of October at the latest.

The hot weekend weather for most of the month has made training runs on the weekend hard to take sometimes. About the only thing I could do that would make it tolerable was to slow right down to a fast walk. I also haven't been putting on as many miles leading up to Lost Soul since I have either been feeling very run down and tired, or I haven't had a particularly great time scheduling training runs with all the other stuff we've managed to do this month.

The next couple of nights are dedicated to tidying up before this weekend and getting the gear packed for another trip out to Kananaskis. The one thing that would appear to be lacking for this trip is the heat and snow pack. I don't know if this is pushing our luck, but we will drive out after work on Friday to pack 8km into Forks CG that night. The next day will be a little easier with the climb to Turbine Canyon, and then Monday will require us to hike out all the way. I am looking forward to a few good nights sleep though.

It would seem this weekend is to be about the best sleep I will get until the new bed arrives. We had our doubts about the bed surviving the move from Edmonton last year, but when test driving new beds turned into a purchase it was all too apparent how bad the bed had become. We are both eagerly awaiting the delivery day.

Last weekend was our practice move now that we found a new place here in Calgary. Aerin's Parental Units moved out of the house into a townhouse condo further west in Edmonton on Sunday. As one of the designated "strong, young men" I got to have all the fun with the heavy appliances. In the end things went pretty smoothly and we were done in about five hours. My back was kind of stiff, but it's been good since.

Which leads me to mention that I must be getting old since I managed to tweak my back somehow the weekend after the long weekend this month. I was cutting up styrene sheet for miniatures terrain when I stood up and had a bad muscle spasm in my back. It was the same spot where I had trouble last fall, but the dying bed has countered the exercising and stretching that would help it out more. So things are stable, and I hope getting better when my back gets better support from the new bed.

That's it for now. It's time to clean up and start packing. Cheers!

Life: Waterton Vacation and Stuff

On Monday we got back from a five-day vacation to Waterton National Park. It was great to get out to the mountains again, but the morons that can't follow park rules, and the staff that wouldn't enforce them, were driving us nuts by the time we left on Monday.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time right now to go into all the details, but I will when I get some free time. Right now Aerin and I are busy taking care of a few home matters before we maybe head to Jasper this weekend so I can run Skyline Trail.

Lots to do...

Life: Calgary Folk Fest

This weekend was the Calgary Folk Fest. With some other things I needed to do, I only went to the evening mainstage show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The acts have been quite enjoyable.

Saturday night's Blue Rodeo show was very good to finally see since I have never got around to seeing them live. I am not entirely sure how to describe Calexico's sound, but I really like their music. Aerin was already a fan, and was very happy to see them live finally.

Since I was mostly their for the main stage, I didn't see a lot of the side stage action. There's lots of different music to pick from certainly, but I haven't gotten to listening to that broad a mix of music to really have any favourites there. One thing I did find slightly annoying for the couple of side stage performances I attended was that some were a little close together, or not directed away from each other enough, for the music to overlap. It makes it hard to listen to something a little quieter when the next stage is playing loud and thumping.

The rain on Saturday also made for some exciting times. It never rained very heavily, but the thunder and lightning to the north hinted at what might have been. I hadn't arrived yet on Sunday when a good rain with some hail went through the festival area.

Overall though I had a great time listening to plenty of good music. Aerin was very happy that I was willing/interested to come out to the festival with her.