Thursday, August 31, 2006
Back on the house hunt
To add the excitement of our fantastic holiday - we drove Stef home with us. Stefanie now lives in Calgary as she started school at SAIT. We gave up looking for a place to rent over the summer because it was getting stupid. Things that were listed were rented the same day. People did not give you time to think before you needed to put money down. Yesterday I started the search again. This time with a little more luck. I have an interview/viewing of a home on 17th ave (a very trendy street) for only $750 + untill, and one for tomorrow for a condo in Kensington (an even trendy-er area)! I am very excited. A little nervous that we might actual move, however, I would really like to help my sister out. And if she is chipping in on the rent she will be helping us out as we find a really great place! Cross your fingers for us. I really hope that one of these work out.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Family Reunion
To finish the tale of our holidays I continue to our family reunion. My dad's mom's mom's family is fairly large and growing. The only original sibling that was missing was my dear grandma, but there were three generations. I am the oldest great-grandchild and there were two babies there that were 2 weeks old! It was very neat. 
It was out at, wait for it... Lutherland at Echo Prov Park on Pasqua Lake in SK. It was a beautiful location with plenty of space for camping, however, my family chose to stay in the "lodge". Which was just a larger building with 14 rooms with sleeping for five.
There was water sports, football, baseball and other fun activities during the day. A camp fire, kareokee, limbo and dancing at night. And the common theme, family fun and booze. We took the liberty of bringing the remaining shooter ingredients from mom's party with us. We had a great time. 
Most of all it was great to see all the people that you don't get to see all the time, or the people that you get to see, but not often enough! 
After the party
No, this is not a post about the hang over I had the day after Mom's 50th bash. Though I do want to say for the number of shooters I had I was in great shape.
Logan and I had thought about spending our holidays on the East Coast. Check out the maritimes! However, after doing some math we realized that even though it would be much cheaper than if I wasn't working at Westjet, it would still have cost us around $1000. That kind of money we can't sink into a holiday. We are grown-ups and have to think about things as boring, but needed, like tires.
So instead of the East Coast, we went camping. We packed up on the Sunday (after the party) and drove out to Deifenbaker on Monday.
We set up camp in a great site. There were hardly any people there! Late Monday (after being lost for a couple of hours) Derek and Chelsea joined us. We spent the night around the fire and Tuesday on the water. We were very fortunate to have the Kotlar's boat out with us. We did have a struggle at first with the battery, and were floating in a boat that wouldn't start. However, that was easily fixed with a new battery and we were on our way.
We found a great beach, with a huge cliff of soft, very hot sand. Chelsea created a fun game of first toboganning down the hill, and then surfing on a knee board.
We spent the whole day in the sun, in the water and on the sand. I even tried water skiing. That is something that I have never done. All of the other water sports, just never skiing. I didn't actually end up skiing, just dragging behind the boat, but I tried!
Derek and Chelsea left on Tuesday night. On the drive out I called Nicole and left a message saying that we were camping and that they should join us, but that we wouldn't have service. To our pleasant surprise, as we were finishing lunch on Wed Nicole and Kenn pulled up! Back on the water! This time, at the same sandy beach Kenn started digging a whole with the soft, rock-less sand. With all of our help we created a huge whole full of thick mud - a mud bath! Out on the water we did the usual knee boarding and skiing, but also brought out the tube.
Camping was great. The weather was fantastic - until the last night when we thought it was going to storm. We hid away in our tent until it passed and then it was calm and clear again. So we restarted a fire! When we finally went to bed we left everything out (after we had already rain proofed things earlier). And of course, it rained. We were up early on Thursday to pack up our wet camp and head back to Regina!
We had a great time! And a very inexpensive holiday!
Logan and I had thought about spending our holidays on the East Coast. Check out the maritimes! However, after doing some math we realized that even though it would be much cheaper than if I wasn't working at Westjet, it would still have cost us around $1000. That kind of money we can't sink into a holiday. We are grown-ups and have to think about things as boring, but needed, like tires.
So instead of the East Coast, we went camping. We packed up on the Sunday (after the party) and drove out to Deifenbaker on Monday.
We set up camp in a great site. There were hardly any people there! Late Monday (after being lost for a couple of hours) Derek and Chelsea joined us. We spent the night around the fire and Tuesday on the water. We were very fortunate to have the Kotlar's boat out with us. We did have a struggle at first with the battery, and were floating in a boat that wouldn't start. However, that was easily fixed with a new battery and we were on our way.
We found a great beach, with a huge cliff of soft, very hot sand. Chelsea created a fun game of first toboganning down the hill, and then surfing on a knee board.
We spent the whole day in the sun, in the water and on the sand. I even tried water skiing. That is something that I have never done. All of the other water sports, just never skiing. I didn't actually end up skiing, just dragging behind the boat, but I tried!
Derek and Chelsea left on Tuesday night. On the drive out I called Nicole and left a message saying that we were camping and that they should join us, but that we wouldn't have service. To our pleasant surprise, as we were finishing lunch on Wed Nicole and Kenn pulled up! Back on the water! This time, at the same sandy beach Kenn started digging a whole with the soft, rock-less sand. With all of our help we created a huge whole full of thick mud - a mud bath! Out on the water we did the usual knee boarding and skiing, but also brought out the tube.
Camping was great. The weather was fantastic - until the last night when we thought it was going to storm. We hid away in our tent until it passed and then it was calm and clear again. So we restarted a fire! When we finally went to bed we left everything out (after we had already rain proofed things earlier). And of course, it rained. We were up early on Thursday to pack up our wet camp and head back to Regina!
We had a great time! And a very inexpensive holiday!
Video Update
On Thursday, before we left for Regina, I finished (for the most part) my wedding video. I had a couple of things that I wanted to add to my video, but had finished the video that other people would want to see. However, I finished on Thursday and was to leave for Regina straight from work on Friday. So I decided to take my external hard drive (thank you for the Birthday present Logan). Take it to Regina, I would have the finished video there, and burn the DVD from our home computer. It took longer than I thought, and spent at least an hour at home creating the DVD and set it to burn. 3 hours later I received the message "Can't complete final command. DVD error" and it spit the DVD out. I tried again and go the same result.
All that work to meet my deadline, and it didn't matter cause I couldn't leave a burnt copy for anyone. I really don't care though, I am proud of it, and DVD's are cheap. I will be sending a copy to all who might care. If they never watch it, I don't need to know. So if you are on the list of people that might care, watch your mail boxes.
All that work to meet my deadline, and it didn't matter cause I couldn't leave a burnt copy for anyone. I really don't care though, I am proud of it, and DVD's are cheap. I will be sending a copy to all who might care. If they never watch it, I don't need to know. So if you are on the list of people that might care, watch your mail boxes.
It has been too long!
I am very sorry. We went on holidays for the last 10 days. While I was in Regina I did try blog, but on my computer it remembers my password - and I couldn't remember it. Which bring me to the next problem. When I got home it asked me to sign in - and it took awhile for me to recover the password. And our internet was down until right now.
Enough excuses!
I flew home on Friday night (the 18th) and Logan drove on Saturday. Stef and I spent Saturday putting together a party for my mom's 50th Birthday! We had a great time putting it together and an even better time partying! We decorated the back yard up, had plenty of food (thanks to a few great helpers!) and a shooter bar! The shooter bar was my personal favorite.
The party was great fun!
Happy 50th Birthday Mom!
Just for the record, it was the CO-OP bakery that suggested the cake!
Enough excuses!
I flew home on Friday night (the 18th) and Logan drove on Saturday. Stef and I spent Saturday putting together a party for my mom's 50th Birthday! We had a great time putting it together and an even better time partying! We decorated the back yard up, had plenty of food (thanks to a few great helpers!) and a shooter bar! The shooter bar was my personal favorite.
The party was great fun!
Happy 50th Birthday Mom!
Just for the record, it was the CO-OP bakery that suggested the cake!
And there were plenty of people that brought some great gift that reflected the milestone birthday!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Taste of Calgary
Yesterday Nicole and Kenn were in town on their way home to Regina. For supper we decided to try something different. Taste of Calgary is on in Eau Claire this weekend. (Eau Claire is steps away from our place - I can hear the live music right now.) For $15 each we ate so much food, from so many different restaurants. We would buy one thing from each restaurant and split it between the four of us. There was some really great food. One of the more interesting things we tried was the freeze dried ice cream. They were like frozen drops of ice cream that looked like the candy Nerds, then melts into ice cream in your mouth. They also had booths set up by restaurants and liquor suppliers. They would give out 2 - 3 oz drink, new beers, martinis, and cocktails for a couple of tickets. It was a lot of fun.
And then back to our place for more martinis!
Friday, August 11, 2006
The countdown is on
I have a new deadline for my wedding video. We have a family reunion on the 26th ish of Aug. That is my new deadline to finish the beast. I think I can do it! At least, I hope I can. I really don't like missing deadlines - especially ones I have set for myself. No time to blog - I have work to do.
Stag/Stagette - check
Getting Ready - check
Ceremony - check
Dinner - check
All that leaves is a bit of stuff between the ceremony and dinner, and the dance. But our videographer buggered off for a couple hours during the dance, so I have about 5 min of video. This is do able.
(ps - Day 2 as a broken record was way worse than Day 1. Day 1 was more of a shock and awe effect "did that really almost happen again, we will do anything..." Today "does that ban mean me?" - Yes moron, it does!)
Stag/Stagette - check
Getting Ready - check
Ceremony - check
Dinner - check
All that leaves is a bit of stuff between the ceremony and dinner, and the dance. But our videographer buggered off for a couple hours during the dance, so I have about 5 min of video. This is do able.
(ps - Day 2 as a broken record was way worse than Day 1. Day 1 was more of a shock and awe effect "did that really almost happen again, we will do anything..." Today "does that ban mean me?" - Yes moron, it does!)
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Broken record
If you have watched the news at all today, or for that matter any TV channel, you will know that another terrorist / plane plot was discovered before anything actually happened. This caused a chain reaction throughout the world as the various Transportation Boards created bans etc. So today, 8 1/2 hours of "and just so you are aware Transport Canada has put into place a ban on all liquids, gels and creams. That means...... And we are asking you to arrive at the airport 2 hours prior to the fight to get through security - as we are expecting long lines." That is all I did today. There were three times that my screen saver turned on because I hadn't touched the computer for so long. But the lines were jammed. People were calling all day! I do not look forward to another day of it tomorrow!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Money is all relative
The real estate in Calgary is out of control. There is no one around here that is going to tell you that the house across the street from mine that is probably 1000 sq ft, is very run down but in a prime location is worth $400,000. Someone will buy it, but no one will tell you that it is actually worth that. Money is relative to everything around it.
When I first moved here there was a block of condo's that were selling around the $100,00 mark. They were newly renovated and very nice - but very small. At that time we hadn't looked at anything else and there was no way that we thought you should buy something so small for that much. Especially when we were fresh from Regina and you could buy a house for that. Today, those people are reselling those itsy bitsy condos for at least $200,000.
To make matters worse, there is a row house that went up for sale really close to us. It looks beautiful. I called to get the details, just for fun. It is huge, 2 bedrooms up, 1 or 2 down, 3 bathrooms, a 2 car garage etc. It is selling for $385,000. Logan and I both responded to that unimaginable price with "that's not bad"! It is all relative!
(Just for the record $385,000 divided by 20 years of monthly payments (not including any of the huge interest) is well over $1400 a month. The house across the street that is much smaller and dingyer is renting for $1400 a month!)
When I first moved here there was a block of condo's that were selling around the $100,00 mark. They were newly renovated and very nice - but very small. At that time we hadn't looked at anything else and there was no way that we thought you should buy something so small for that much. Especially when we were fresh from Regina and you could buy a house for that. Today, those people are reselling those itsy bitsy condos for at least $200,000.
To make matters worse, there is a row house that went up for sale really close to us. It looks beautiful. I called to get the details, just for fun. It is huge, 2 bedrooms up, 1 or 2 down, 3 bathrooms, a 2 car garage etc. It is selling for $385,000. Logan and I both responded to that unimaginable price with "that's not bad"! It is all relative!
(Just for the record $385,000 divided by 20 years of monthly payments (not including any of the huge interest) is well over $1400 a month. The house across the street that is much smaller and dingyer is renting for $1400 a month!)
Monday, August 07, 2006
Just wanted to tell a quick story
The Beatty Golf Tournament.
The first year I golfed was two years ago. I had heard that it was fun, but had usually chosen to take part in some Calgary shopping with my mom and a couple aunts, rather than wander around in the hot sun chasing a little white ball. But that first year changed my thinking. I was on a team with my Uncle Ron , party animal cousin Jared, and my cousin's boyfriend.
Things started off a little weird when after we teed off we drove just out of sight of the marshal and both carts came to a stop. We needed to have a drink before we went any further. What a way to start a day. I want to let you know that that is pretty much how the rest of the day continued. If we ran into an other team, there were shared and traded drinks. If we made a good shot, made a bad shot, were thirsty. There any and all reasons for drinking. Needless to say little Stacey got back to the club house after 18 a little loaded. We then leaned that we had won - so we had to have another round of drinks. Then there were drink with dinner. And then back to an uncle's place for drinks.
In the end I was blitzed for 12 hours straight. And my family still reminds me about it. But I had a good time. And it seems to be the way we initiate people into the tournament!
Just thought I'd supply a little back story about the tournament before you heard what I did this weekend.
The first year I golfed was two years ago. I had heard that it was fun, but had usually chosen to take part in some Calgary shopping with my mom and a couple aunts, rather than wander around in the hot sun chasing a little white ball. But that first year changed my thinking. I was on a team with my Uncle Ron , party animal cousin Jared, and my cousin's boyfriend.
Things started off a little weird when after we teed off we drove just out of sight of the marshal and both carts came to a stop. We needed to have a drink before we went any further. What a way to start a day. I want to let you know that that is pretty much how the rest of the day continued. If we ran into an other team, there were shared and traded drinks. If we made a good shot, made a bad shot, were thirsty. There any and all reasons for drinking. Needless to say little Stacey got back to the club house after 18 a little loaded. We then leaned that we had won - so we had to have another round of drinks. Then there were drink with dinner. And then back to an uncle's place for drinks.
In the end I was blitzed for 12 hours straight. And my family still reminds me about it. But I had a good time. And it seems to be the way we initiate people into the tournament!
Just thought I'd supply a little back story about the tournament before you heard what I did this weekend.
Way to many days have past.
I must apologize. This has been the longest span I have had without a blog. My excuse. My mom was in town, then my entire family, all the while I was still working until 12:00 or 1:00 am.
My mom, grandma and grandpa drove to Calgary last Monday and we spent some time together. Mom and I went shopping - and she was nice enough to buy our groceries. And might I add it was one of the largest shops I have ever had for myself. So we should be fully stocked for quite some time.
I was lucky enough to be given a three day weekend this week, so mom and I had all day Friday together. Then Logan joined us for some dinner and then for drinks at Auntie Terri's.
On Friday my dad, sister and brother drove up as well. Friday night we had a full house as the whole family stayed in our one bedroom apartment. Made no matter to me though, I was the one with a bed. Saturday Stef, Matt, Logan and I floated down the Bow River in a couple rafts with a few of my cousins. The weather was nice - the wind a little cold - but we had a good time. *Pictures to follow*
And yesterday. Yesterday was the Beatty family annual golf tournament. To tell you a little about this requires you to know my family a little. It is large: 2 grandparents, 14 aunts and uncles, 14 grandchildren, 10 grandchildren significant others, 11 great grandchildren. This familiy is loud, likes to have a good time, and likes their drink. So we take over golf course for a day and have a good ole Texas Scramble. Where winning is not the main goal, but rather which team can drink the most. It is always a good time. This year I was with Rob (an uncle), Todd (a signifcant other of a grandchild), Auntie Terri, and I. We had a blast !! And as a bonus we WON!! I believe our final score was 5 under par! Go team!! I won a rain coat.
I believe that a great time was had by all!
My mom, grandma and grandpa drove to Calgary last Monday and we spent some time together. Mom and I went shopping - and she was nice enough to buy our groceries. And might I add it was one of the largest shops I have ever had for myself. So we should be fully stocked for quite some time.
I was lucky enough to be given a three day weekend this week, so mom and I had all day Friday together. Then Logan joined us for some dinner and then for drinks at Auntie Terri's.
On Friday my dad, sister and brother drove up as well. Friday night we had a full house as the whole family stayed in our one bedroom apartment. Made no matter to me though, I was the one with a bed. Saturday Stef, Matt, Logan and I floated down the Bow River in a couple rafts with a few of my cousins. The weather was nice - the wind a little cold - but we had a good time. *Pictures to follow*
And yesterday. Yesterday was the Beatty family annual golf tournament. To tell you a little about this requires you to know my family a little. It is large: 2 grandparents, 14 aunts and uncles, 14 grandchildren, 10 grandchildren significant others, 11 great grandchildren. This familiy is loud, likes to have a good time, and likes their drink. So we take over golf course for a day and have a good ole Texas Scramble. Where winning is not the main goal, but rather which team can drink the most. It is always a good time. This year I was with Rob (an uncle), Todd (a signifcant other of a grandchild), Auntie Terri, and I. We had a blast !! And as a bonus we WON!! I believe our final score was 5 under par! Go team!! I won a rain coat.
I believe that a great time was had by all!
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