My Vegas Story Episode #3

Day Two

We spent most of the day wandering from Casino to Casino checking out the sights. First we wandered South to the MGM Grand. Very large. A lion habitat right in the middle of the casino floor. This guy was right over our heads and there were two little baby lions.

Then we walked over to the Tropicana. They had an exhibit on the Titanic. As some of you may or may not know I am a Titanic buff (not the movie, the ship. I have read many books on the subject and am very interested). They had all sorts of recovered items. And perhaps the best part was the recreations. They had a third class hallway and one room. Then a second class room. One of the coolest things was the ship deck. They had made is cold, there were stars and water and mirrors set up to imply the full length of the deck. And a recreation of what the ship looks like at the bottom of the ocean now. I have since read new literature that gives a new, controversial account of how the ship broke apart - and I know some newer information than was presented but it was really neat to see things that actually were on the ship! A dork like me really loves crap like that!
Then to the Excalibur. The theme of this casino was like a fairy tale. There were dragons and knights in shining armour. It was pretty cool. And we got to see some of the men from "The Thunder From Down Under" half dressed and promoting their show. Attractive, shirt less and aussie accents. I am really not sure why we didn't stay there longer.
Then to the Luxor. This had an Egyptian theme. The pyramid was the casino, with the Sphyx out front.
This photo of New York, New York was from arcoss the street at the Tropicana (you can see the sign for the Titanic Exibit)
New York New York was possibly my favorite place. They were the casino that gets top marks from me for carrying their theme through the entire place. Many of them had their theme in the hallways and shops, but in the casino part - they all seemed the same. This place was really cool! There was a live band, and buildings with restaurants and stores in them - as though you were walking down miniature streets. It really impressed me the most!


We had dinner here. Good food, huge portions and a good price. We did not go on the roller coaster, but it sure looked cool going in and out of the building.
After dinner, off to the Bellagio to watch the fountain show in front. It was very neat. We watched two shows. They go every 15 minutes for about 7-8 minutes. There was music and lights and in the second show fog. It was definitely worth the walk (and standing).

Then we walked way out of our way to go to the Rio. When I was in Edmonton working on Trying, the other show that was rehearsing was Peter Pan. They had hired a man that flies people for a living - that is his expertise. Well, he was telling us all about the flying parade above the casino floor of the Rio that he had worked on. So needless to say, I need to see it. They have four different shows and seven show times through out the day. We made it in time for their last show time of 9:30. Well, how were we supposed to know that the last show was less about flying and more about girls dancing to pop music and slowly taking their clothes off until just in bikinis?
There were huge floats that flew around the casino floor on what can only be called roller coaster track. And on each float were half dressed people pole dancing. Not what I had expected. I wanted to see people flying. Oh well, it was too far out of the way to go back. A little disappointed we decided to walk around before our long trek back to the strip.

Did I mention that Chippendale's was playing at the Rio. Tickets were a little out of our budget - but never fear. Two of the guys were out advertising. We walked by and they started throwing beads at us(it was a carnival type theme). They were funny, shirtless men and we had a good time with - and they did their jobs well - as we did buy the expensive pictures.

We ended our night at Caesar's Palace. We were unsuccessful in spotting Celine - but we sure checked out her own personal souvenir store. Stef and I were a little tipsy from our free poured (almost no mix) drinks from the Rio and were very vocal about how she was Canadian and the music playing in her store was "America the Beautiful".

We walked around, took a peek. Surprisingly enough the dress code for the workers was not togas. We sat down at the slot machines waiting for mom to win it big while we tried to rest our aching feet.


It was a long day of walking - and we certainly saw alot! I am actually tired just thinking about it. I do have to say that one of my favorite parts of each casino was the store fronts/shopping. That is where they really put their effort into their theme (besides the entrances). Above you see the (no idea how to spell the French word so here is it phonetically) trump loy. They have sidewalks and sky and fountains. It really is impressive.

My Vegas Story Episode #2

We arrived in the Las Vegas at 20:16, we gathered up our luggage and hurried off to our hotel - The Carriage House.

This great little hotel is all suites - so we had a fridge, range and microwave. A great little money saver. And was in a great location. It was off the strip by a couple minute walk - between the MGM Grand and the Aladdin. It was close to all of the big casinos and we could walk everywhere. Sure we were tired from doing so - but it saved us big bucks in transportation.

We quickly changed and went off to the Bellagio to see Cirque de Soleil "O".

The show was amazing! It was better than I could have ever imagined! We were sitting very close - fourth row from the front on the house left side. The pool had moving stage pieces to go from pool to stage and different depths of water. It was so good. I can't say enough about the show. The show was great and the tech theatre side was even cooler. We could see the fly system and into the wings. It was incredible.

My Vegas Story Episode #1

As an employee of Westjet I can fly for cheap - but it is standby. So this story begins with three women at an airport for many hours trying to get on a plane. In Westjet's world the bottom line is always that we are a low cost, low fare airline. To keep prices down we do everything to keep costs down. One of these methods is to never have a last minute seat sale - or standby for the general public. This allows for the company to always know how many staff it will need for each flight. We decided to fly to Vegas on Sat night because Friday was sold out and Sat was looking wide open. On Friday when I left work there were 30 some seats available on the flight. Lots of space for the 10 people that were trying to fly standby.

We arrived at the airport over four hours early for the flight. We had some lunch and then prepared to wait in line. A flight does not open for check in until 3 hours prior. After choosing the wrong line and the wrong wing of the airport - we were finally ready to check in. The Agent tells us that they have put a lid on the flight. That means that the 136 seats available will not be full. If the flight has less than 120 people on it they can send 3 flight attendants instead of the usual 4. This saved money in wages because those seats weren't going to be sold - no revenue coming in. So now there are 9 seats and 10 standby people. To make matters worse there is a priority for standby - employees, companions, parents then buddy passes. So for this flight that puts Stef right at the bottom of the list. Once through customs we sit and wait, and stress out for 2 hours. Just 30 minutes before the flight the Agent who checked us in sits down beside us and say that it looks like Stef won't make the flight- we may want to consider buying her a ticket. So mom shelled out the money and Stef had a confimed seat on the flight. All of us made the flight and were finally able to relax.

These are the faces of three very relieved and excited people!

My Vegas Story

We had a wonderful time in Vegas. The weather was great and the scenery amazing. And we got plenty of pictures. I will be posting some, but I have also created a web gallery (mostly for mom to get all of our pictures while we are in Calgary and she is in Regina.)

The link is: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=17fjru6a.169jitmq&Uy=x9nw0o&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=1

You can use my email address and password to take a peak
stacey.kotlar@hotmail.com
password : vegas06

There are alot of pictures - but there are lots of really good ones!

So much to talk about

First - Vegas is awesome! But much, much more on that later.

Second, today was my last day at Westjet. Yeah! No more call center, no more dumb general public, no more faceless hours of talking about boring things to strangers - for now. I start with Theatre Calgary on Tuesday. First Christmas Carol and then Retreat from Moscow. I am very happy to be returning to my career path.

I will certainly miss the flight privledges!

No more count down...Vegas is here!

We leave in a couple of hours for Vegas! Yay!
Cirque de Soleil tonight. And lots of fun!

And Logan had his polygraph exam on Thursday. And passed. Not that we didn't expect him to, but you have to be nervous about every step. And then on Wed is the psych exam. And then, really we are done. He has to have a physical but that won't be a problem. And the last little scary thing is the suprise home visit. But they give you warning and they come to talk to you, not investigate your house. Actually, the visit is for my sake. Which is really nice I think. They want to make sure that I am on board with this decision as it will greatly affect me too.

So that is my quick little update. Mom and Stef are on their way over here right now. I can hardly wait. Everyone cross your fingers that we get on the flight - we are flying standby.

Pulling an all nighter

Well, I am home alone tonight. The alarm at the Bay won't activate tonight so someone has to stay there all night and "protect" the place. I imagine there will be some big screen watching and bed jumping.

The car was fixed yesterday. It was a quick 4 hour fix of the speed censor and $411 donation to the Volkswagen dealership. Oh well. It could have been much worse - the car did stop in the middle of the road. That doesn't usually mean good things. So it is fixed. (But we still need tires, egh)

Big News from Calgary

As you may or may not know Logan has been applying for the Calgary Police. He has not allowed me to record his success on this blog as he/we didn't want to be counting our chickens before they hatched. However, today was a very big success. The application process is huge! I pulled this straight from the web site:

The nine stages of selection are:
Application Package
Written Testing
Screening Interview
Panel Interview
Pre-employment Polygraph Examination
Psychological Testing and Assessment
Security Background Investigation
Selection Committee
Occupational Medical


First it took us, (I do say us because I have certainly been trying to weasel my way into helping with as much as I can) it took us 6 months to finish the written application. Then there were the two written exams (written Aug 19) that test everything you have learned in school and a test to check out your ability to learn, remember and write. We waited three weeks for those results - and he passed with flying colours. Then an interview with a File Manager who will work for you in later stages. All of this has been moving faster than we expected - faster than most who are in the know expected.

Today, Logan had his panel interview. Logan sat across from his file manager and two other cops that put him through an hour long "behavioural descriptive interview" (all the rage these days with many employers). After they complete the interview they discuss and tell you right away if you pass, fail or if they want to defer you for a period of time. Logan was told that only 40% pass on their first try. He was successful!!!!

To add the excitement - they have given him dates in the very near future for his polygraph (Thursday the 5th) and his psych evaluation (the 11th)!

I have been allowed to post this information because this step is the largest hurdle in the process. Well, the hurdles that we have control over. The steps that follow will depend on things that are the way they are - like the background check, the physical etc.

Let this be a warning to all of you that know us - you may get a call. But don't panic - we may get an unexpected visitation!

German cars are weird

We drive a Volkswagan Jetta. Yesterday it started acting weird. While Logan was driving the car just turned off. It did not stall, it just stopped. And then the dash light "EPC" came on. What the hell does EPC mean. I was blaming Logan for this - he was a little weird yesterday. First he got all revved up on coffee without breakfast and he thought that problem was that he didn't turn the key long enough when it started - which cause the problem. Later he did the same thing with the key and it happened again. I just naturally blamed the weird guy for the weird problems. But today, I was stopped at a light and the car stopped.

I called VW and they told me that the "EPC" light warms of electrical problems that don't have their own warning lights and are usually not connected to the engine. We can only take our car to the VW dealership because no one else wants to touch them - to electrical. The dealership told me they are booking appointments to Oct 23rd. But on the up side - he said that a number of people canceled today and that if we got there before 1pm he could fit us in.

I hope that it is an easy problem, the extra money we have is set aside for Christmas shopping (which we have already started to spread the cost).

7 days straight and 2 weeks notice

Yesterday was the first day of a seven day stretch of working. I need to make these trades in order to get the weekend off for Vegas. 6 days and counting.

Yesterday I also talked to my team leader at Westjet and it seems that the longest leave of absence they would give me is one month - no long enough. So it appears as though I have to give my two weeks notice and then when I want to come back re-apply and they will fast track me through a 3 day training and then back to work. So I submitted my letter of resignation yesterday. My last day at Westjet is Oct 15th.

Yesterday's work = today's stiffness

As I had mentioned, yesterday I worked a call at The Grand Theatre. It was supposed to be a lighting hang. Minimal lifting, minimal grunt work. Well, there were three other girls and I on this call and we finished hanging the lights very quickly. So then they wanted our help to set up their transformable stages. 33 pieces of stage that were at least 6' by 3' and were very heavy. Not only did we have to move them from storage in the basement but lift them from the dolleys, put 3' legs on them and set them up. I was a little tired after.

Today I woke up and was wondering how I had slept to create such a sore back. It took me all day to figure out that it was from yesterday's manual labour. I am quite stiff. Well, lesson learned. I am a stage manager. I do paper work.

Have a little work tomorrow

I have my first theatre call tomorrow not at Theatre Calgary. I have the opportunity to go to a lighting hang at The Grand. They have asked me many times before, but every other time has been with only a day notice and I have been working, or I have been working. So tomorrow I go to work. I am little nervous - as I usually am with new things. But this will be a new thing (as I have not worked a tech call here in Calgary before). But this is what I have my degree in so I should be okay.

And, I finally got the days I need off for Vegas figured out. It has caused me a lot of grief. And today it caused a lot of ups and downs, but I finally have it worked out.
The only problem is that I have been watching the flights and there are only 2 tickets left for sale for Friday night from Calgary to Vegas and no tickets left for Monday. So I guess there are no options but to fly out Sat night and return Tuesday night. I hope Stef doesn't mind missing one day of school. Oh well, the biggest deal is over -getting the days off. The next is just to get on the plane!

My new glasses hurt me

So, my new glasses. They are different from my old glasses, so I expected them to feel a little different. No big deal, just have to get used to them. Well, they hurt me. The nose piece sticks to my nose and it hurts to move them. The arms of the glasses are thick as opposed to the wire of my old glasses. At work I wear a headset, and this headset presses my ear onto the arm and then both the side of my head and my ear hurt. Good thing they offer 30 guarantee, I think they need to be changed.
Back to the drawing board!

I had a pleasant surprise

As many of you may know I have been pursuing a career in theatre (with a small hiatus this summer to work for Westjet). I have work lined up with Theatre Calgary for Oct 17 and all was to be great. Yesterday I had the pleasant surprise of getting a call from Globe Theatre in Regina. I don't even think that I have given them a resume. They offered me an apprentice job for their Christmas show. Obviously they had someone else lined up who backed out. But how else is a person supposed to get work in this business if they didn't get a start like that. I was very surprised and happy to receive this call. And even more happy that I could turn them down because I have two shows lined up that conflict with their offer!

VS.

Red Hot Chili Peppers ... are gone!

Over the weekend Derek, Jesse and Josh came to stay with us so they could see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I think that they all had a very good time. Logan went with them to the concert. They all seemed to have a very good time. The only thing I have to say is three extra grown men in a one bedroom apartment makes for squishy quarters.

But they certainly kept me entertained.

Yeah Vegas!

Today, my mom, Stef and I did some planning for our Vegas trip. We booked our tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show O. Stef is very excited, it is a synchronized swimming, acrobatics type show. It should be great!

Gonna go to Vegas

While still working at Westjet I think that my mom and sister and I are going to take advantage and head to Vegas for the Thanksgiving weekend! Woo hoo! It should be cheap to fly, and people say that hotels can be cheap to. It should be fun.

Anyone been? Have suggestions?

I feel a little bad

I am trying to finish with the Wedding Photographer. I know, it is way way after our wedding. It is a very long story and not very interesting. So, all we had left was a picture DVD to be mailed to us. I sent an email with our address to mail the picture DVD. When you hear picture DVD what do you think. A DVD with all of the pictures on it, like getting the negatives. When I met with them the first time I asked about negative and the response was they are digital so we don't have negatives, but we will give a DVD with all of the pictures on it. I feel that my assumtion was correct to think that they would be data files. They emailed me back saying it is a pictures slide show - for those who don't know it would be like a video, not files you can use for anything else. I responded with a question like statement something like above. I received three emails today from him. When I opened my email I started at the most recent mail (bad idea) and read the last response. It was a short and sweet email that said he will replace the picture DVD with a High Res. File DVD and mail it if it is okay with me. So I responded - perfect! Not knowing that he had already had an argument with me, and I had won - without knowing it. The first two emails talk not offering High Res. Files available until this year and the next with a copy of the original package stating picture DVD. Weird. But I won without knowing it.

My new glasses

All right, I need everyone's opinion. These are new, but I have 30 days to take them back and get new ones. Glasses are really hard, because it is like a new haircut, you don't really like it until you are used to it. I have had the same glasses for so long it feels weird to see something different. Let me know what you think - honestly. I am not locked into them and I need honest opinions.

(Bad picture of me, but better of glasses)

I broke my glasses

Just the other day Lisa and I were talking on the phone about someone we went to high school with. She commented that he was still wearing the glasses he wore in high school. I retorted that I was too. But that got me to thinking, these glasses are really old. Oh well, glasses are expensive and not on the top of the list right now. That was on Monday.

Yesterday was Saturday. Only 6 shorts days after thinking my glasses were just fine. They have been bothering me a bit lately by feeling out of place. I had a glasses place fix the nose piece for me thinking that would solve the problem. However, they have been slowly feeling more and more slanty. Last night, while talking to Danielle in our apartment I went to adjust my glasses and they felt pliable. I took them off and I was holding the glasses and the left arm in one hand and the right arm in the other. Oops!

So, today, whether I liked it or not, Stef and I went shopping for glasses. Everyone complains about shopping for jean or bathing suits. Try glasses. You have to wear them everyday and with everything. We did find a pair and had them put on hold. I have to see an optometrist tomorrow and hopefully everything will be alright. Sept 10th, I started receiving my benefits from Westjet on Aug 29th. Close, so very close!

I love the Food Network

Right now I work nights. My shifts start anywhere after 3pm and go anywhere up to 1am. Kinda sucky. And because of that work schedule I don't get to watch any prime time tv. People ask if I have watched the last "insert great show here" and most definitely have not. I am finding that the only tv I watch now is the Food Network. Licence to Grill and Chef at Home are my favorites. The only problem is, I watch all these cooking shows and learn neat things - and would really like to try them out - but I work nights. All of my supper hours are spent on the phone booking reservations.

The good news. Every four months Westjet does a schedule repreferencing. So today is my last very late night shift. Starting Monday I will be working anywhere from 12noon to 10pm. Which will be great. Logan likes to work the closing shift at work which his 1:30 to 9:30. So we should be able to see each other a little more!!!

Rough couple of days

I have been writing blogs about the trials of finding a place to live in Calgary. I spent hours on the internet and in the paper looking. We went to see a couple. I wrote about the whole Stef and I went to look at. Well, Logan and I found a great place. I don't even want to get into how beautiful it was - except that it was really no bigger than our place right now and we were planning on putting 3 people into it. And then there was the price. Only $1150 a month. I say only, cause when you compare it to everything else I had been looking at, for what we would be getting the price was excellent. But then you have to remember that the cost of rent isn't relative to other places - it is relative to how much you can afford. Even with Stef kicking in for the rent, we would still have to up our food bill and put away a couple hundred dollars every month to cover the months when Stef would be moving back to Regina for the summer. So we turned it down. It was a great place at a great price - but still to much for us. We aren't about to stretch ourselves for rent - maybe if it was a mortgage payment.

So that was Sunday. Monday I had off and both Logan and I felt a little off. Tuesday I called in sick with the flu. Yesterday, I thought I felt better (and who can afford to miss two days of work in a row). I made it through 2 hours before I was sweaty from hot flashes and fever, dizzy and running to the bathroom yet again. I left. So today, whether I am feeling better or not I have to make it through work. And I thought that I would be fine - I sit all day. But talking engages muscles in the stomach, and when the stomach is upset it is magnified. So wish me luck as I try again today.

Actually finished this time

Before, I had declared that I was done my wedding video. Sure I put the disclaimer that I might have a few things to add. Well, yesterday I actually finished it. I burned it to a DVD and gave it a watch last night and found everything worked as planned. YEAH! So now I will set it to burn a handful of discs today before work! I am very excited, and kinda sad, that it is complete. I like watching bits of my wedding every day. But I think that 1 year 1 month and 18 days is long enough after the wedding to have completed the video.

Baby Blankets

Last year was the year of weddings. Leah and Marc Perrault in May, us in July, Lani and Regan in August and Lisa and Curtis Machnaik in October. This year is the year of the baby!




First, Sydney Paige Baisley was born to Lani and Regan on
May 13th.









Then Avelyn Paige Brown was born to Amanda and Steve Brown on July 19th.





Then Owein and Alana Heileger had little baby Alena Zara Heileger on August 4th. (I don't have a picture because we have yet to see that little bundle)


Most recently, my cousins Carla & Marc VanHorne had little Kaeleigh Heather Rose on August 9th.





Many months ago I had decided that the best possible baby gift would be a home made blanket. So before I went to Edmonton (to work for a month, the middle of March to the middle of April) I bought a bunch of flannelette fabric and began making quilts while away. I bought 4 different fabrics, all as unisex as I could find so that boys or girls would be fine with it - even though it ended up being 4 girls. It was a surprisingly long process. The first one was fun, the second one, the novelty wore off, the third was no fun and the last, I procrastinated like it was home work. It seemed to take forever, but they were well worth it as I think they all turned out beautifully.
I would have written about the blankets sooner but I just gave out the last on the family reunion weekend and didn't want to give it away. I could have been smarter though, I gave 3 away before I took a picture. They were all different and two of the four had cotton batting centers for extra warmth and padding. (two had to be mailed so the smaller they would fold the better.)

Another milestone

Life is full of firsts. Some a big, some small, some good, some bad. Today we had another first. Our first pet died. Guy Smiley was a samurai Fighting fish, and he chose to end his life today but jumping out of his bowl and behind the TV. Needless to say I was not impressed when I discovered his bowl empty and knew that there was a dead fish somewhere. Ew.
Margarita, the red fish, is doing fine so far without her friend.

Logan the Bank Robber Catcher

This was the write up in Thursday's Calgary Sun

CalgarySun.ca
Thu, August 31, 2006
Police catch alleged robber
UPDATED: 2006-08-31 03:25:48 MSTBy TODD SAELHOF

Tipped off by a security guard, police arrested a 42-year-old city man suspected of a pair of recent bank robberies.
About 4:15 p.m. yesterday, a loss prevention officer at The Bay in Chinook Mall saw a shopper fitting the description of a thief suspected of holding up a CIBC only 20 minutes earlier.
Calgary police arrested the man and charged him.
Further investigation revealed the suspect is also believed to be responsible for knocking off an ATB branch at 2140 34 Ave S.W. on Monday.
Kenneth Michael Griff of Calgary is charged with two counts of robbery.

That loss prevention officer at The Bay Chinook Mall is my loss prevention officer. Logan caught a bank robber. And he is pretty happy about it. He has received a lot of attention because of it.

As I may or may not have been recording - Logan has sent in his application with the Calgary City Police. He has been through the physical, eye exam, 100 probing questionnaire about everything in his past, and most recently the aptitude test. We are awaiting results as we speak. So after this bank robber thing some of the cops that he works with all of the time have been asking when he is putting in his application - he replies that he already has. They have all said they will be writing a letter to recruiting. He even had cops from the Robbery Unit thank him. Yes, he has been quite the hero these past couple of days!

House hunt a bust

Yesterday Stef and I went on an adventure to see a house. It was listed as a 2 bdrm house on trendy 17th etc. We drove down 17th for a very long time. The trendy part of 17th stopped at least 5 blocks back. But still not bad, a nice area. We pull around the corner, quality starts to go down but still not bad. We are looking around and can only see apartment blocks. Weird. Start walking down the street. "Oh, there is a house". We couldn't see it cause it was overgrown with bushes and trees. We walk through the forrest to see a house that couldn't look more run down with bare wood showing everywhere, unpainted for a least 10 years and the shingles were falling off. And then we see the sign on the top floor saying "For Rent". So... it is not a house but a suite in the house great. We have pretty much ruled the place out by this point. So we get to the door and I ring the door bell, but there are two, so I ring them both. A very friendly but slightly dodgey looking fellow opens the door. He is the main floor tenant. He says that he will give the landlord a call and tell them that we are here. After a couple minutes (of Stef snooping around the side of the house) he comes back to say that it has been rented and the guys it not coming. How rude. Was I just supposed to guess that it was rented - thanks for the telephone call!

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.

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!

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.

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!

And there were plenty of people that brought some great gift that reflected the milestone birthday!

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!

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!)

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!

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!)

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.

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 little video

I have been spending time at the computer again, working on the wedding video. I don't know why I love doing it so much. I get frustrated and upset when it doesn't work, it takes hours to put together a very short piece, and no one really appreciates all of the work I have put into it. And still I love it. I love that I can be the perfectionist that I am - and no one is around to judge me. Sadly, I did not make my own deadline. I had hoped to have it done by my anniversary, but since I had to re do everything that timeline had to be thrown out.

My birthday present from Logan was an external hard drive for the computer. We have now added 300 Gbs of space. Now that may sound like a ridiculous amount of space, but yesterday I moved all of the video and photos I had on the computer to the new drive. We now have 48 Gbs on the computer again. That is huge. Video takes up so much space and makes it move very slowly. So everything now runs smoothly, making the editing move faster and me just a happier camper in general!

I like my sparkley ring

I love my beautiful engagement ring (and wedding ring too!). Especially when it freshly cleaned and it glitters in the lowest light. Today I stopped by People's for my twice a year inspection of my setting. What a weird little ritual. It makes sense, the diamond is only being held in by four little prongs and you wear it everyday. Hit it on one to many things, the prong moves, the diamond falls out and People's has to buy you a new diamond. But what are they really learning from the 30 sec they spend looking at it. At least they clean it!


I was at the mall for a doctor's appointment. A physical to be exact. That is another weird little ritual. So I have a new doctor for the second time in my life. A female for the first time. However, my doctor is on holidays so I got her "sub". A nurse asks you to get naked and a stranger will walk in to touch you in all the places you don't really want a stranger to touch. I do have to say having a female doctor is much different. If felt a little more comfortable because with the male doctor it gets a little awkward at "please lie down with your legs spread and I'll call the nurse. -Buzz- Shirley can you please come in here". And then Shirley comes and stands at your head to make sure everything is on the up and up, but you now have to make awkward conversation with two people who aren't naked with their legs in the air!

But everything is fine. I'm right in the middle of the goal weight, for people who are at my height - which also happens to be in the middle of average. My blood pressure is right in the middle of average etc. It seems that I am just an average person in every way. (by the way we are very happy to see that my blood pressure is normal, as the last two times it was near low!)

On the up side of the physical she did not require me to give blood this time as she did not feel it necessary. That makes me very happy, as the smell of those small, sterile rooms makes me dizzy and nauseous. And no pee in a cup. Just the pap for me today! Yeah!!

Our 1st Anniversary! *updated*

It really doesn't feel as though our wedding was a year ago. In my mind, it could have been yesterday. But the calendar doesn't lie - and here we are - at the end of July.

But to celebrate our first anniversary we took advantage of my flight privileges (and hotel privileges) and took off to Montreal for three days. It was great! The city is beautiful, the weather was not bad and we had three days to spend together (which is pretty big, with this new job we have been seeing each other very little every day).

- Logan looking out of 24th floor window.










We flew out on the red eye and arrived in Montreal at 7:01 am their time (5:01 to us). We were very tired
when we got there, but our room was ready for us, so we had breakfast and then a nap. It was in the perfect location.





We walked everywhere.
Old Montreal was right on our doorstep -
no more than 2 blocks away.






Notre Dame Basilica was beautiful. (blurry but you get the point)
They had a sound and light show every night - which we both of course were interested in. It was really neat!
We did a boat tour of the port of Montreal and learned a little of the history of Montreal.

We were also a short 10 min walk from Saint Catherines Street - which is the big shopping hub of the city. We took in the mayhem that was that. And also experienced their vast underground - which connects most of downtown with Metro stations, hotels, office buildings and more shopping. It was also neat- a little uneventful - but neat.

We took in the Fine Art Museum (and was reminded that Logan finds no merit in any sort of Modern Art). However, we both found things of interest in there, and some things that were weirder than you can imagine. We had some great food, saw some great things, and even had the opportunity to see a HUGE demonstration about the crisis in Lebanon. It was huge - and one of the only times I really wished that I could speak French - it took us a really long time to figure out what they were saying!


On our anniversary itself - Sunday - we slept in really late. We walked up the street to a place that served crepes and enjoyed some French cuisine. We walked around for a bit and then headed back to the hotel. Logan wanted to go for a swim. So we did. It is our anniversary, we can do what we want to. Then we got all dolled up and headed back into Old Montreal and went looking for a neat restaurant. We found a great one on a side street. I really felt like I was back in Europe - only this time there was no price difference for eating inside or out, at a table or not. So we chose a nice table outside, pretty well on the street.

We had a great dinner, did a little more sightseeing and then made our way to the Just For Laughs Festival. It was crazy. And we went to a very funny show. The comedians name was Tim Minchin, he is from Australia and his bit involved musical comedy- he writes funny songs. It was awesome! There was a baby grand, a guitar and him! It was cabaret style with little round tables and candles in the middle. And to add to the fun two young Aussie tourists sat with us. We had excellent conversation, great laughs and a great anniversary. (And Logan saw Colin Mockery - from Whose Line)

Odd request

I don't know how many of you know this, but... While I was in Edmonton working on a show Logan decided to shave his head. This he did not tell me. I came home for a weekend and walked through the door to see his extremely bumpy head with a tiny layer of stubble.
Yesterday he came home from work with hair clippers. He wants to do this again. I told him this time I would do it - he looked a little stupid when he got drunk and had his drunk friend do it. I thought we would wait until after we went to Montreal and were taking pictures at touristy site. This morning, however, there was a call from the bathroom. "Stacey..." I approach cautiously... Turn the corner and he has already started.
I made his stop - so I could read the directions - and I finished. And if I do say so myself, I did a good job and it looks pretty good - for a hair cut done in the bathtub.

Birthday pm

To follow up on my whiney birthday blog - Logan came through like the good husband that he is. When I got home from work there were flowers and wine waiting - as well as birthday presents to open.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Today is my birthday. And it is reminding me how difficult it is to start a new life in a new place.
Logan works from 7 am - 7 pm. I work from 7 pm -11 pm . We are to spend the whole day apart, and I don't exactly have friends of my own that I can call up and have them take me out. So here I sit, on my blog.
I did have a good weekend though. Friday Logan had off, so the two of us lazed around together. Saturday we went out to dinner and as you have read - went to Phantom.
And yesterday Nicole and I spent nearly $700 at Staples with her grant. It was the most fun shopping I have ever had. We were like little kids in a candy shop - only with pens, highlighters and post-it notes. (Then I called in sick for work.) Jen and Craig came over and we had a BBQ and then went to one of the other security guys houses for a fire. Though I was bored with no one to talk to at the security thing, it was better than being at work.
So my three day weekend was good- not very birthday like - but good. It is just that today is the actual day - and it sucks! And you know what, it is my party and I'll cry if I want to.

The first step

Last night I took the first step in undoing years of brain washing. Nicole and I went to Phantom of the Opera. That is right, all Do It With Classers, I have now seen Lloyd Weber's work live and in person. And I have to say that it was good. I still hold to many of the principles we were taught. The music was extremely simple, the melodies were a repetitions of a couple of notes and he chose to replay all of the songs at least four or five times. (I understand one needs musical themes in a musical to identify people and events - but how many times can a person hear it without feeling like they could stand up and sing the score themselves.)
All in all though, it was a great spectacle. Even though I know that it was a scaled down version of the show. After years of theatre classes affectionately called "Story time with Uncle Bill", I have heard many stories of the inner working of that show - and was waiting for them. Some did not happen. But I enjoyed watching and allowing myself to be distracted by the technical aspects of this very tech heavy show, and know that I would not be missing any story line.
Thank you Nicole for asking me to go with you!

Just another day...

So today at work, I was working my way through what seemed like a million and half calls, each only seconds in length, feeling like the day was never going to end, when I got what started as an ordinary call. I was just making a booking, like I had done so many time that hour. The guy was conversational and witty, so I joined in the banter. At the end of the call we have a lot of things we have to say, including policies and information, flight details and finally the confirmation number. As I was nearing the end I stopped and said "it doesn't sound like you are writing this down". He replied "I am not". "You probably should so that when you call us back and the agent says 'do you have your confirmation number" you don't have to say ' that nice girl on the phone read all of that stuff to me and I didn't bother to write it down.' "
-okay, here is the highlight
He said, "I guess I am just a mean guy", and I said "I doubt that" and he said
"do you watch TV"
"yeah"
"do you watch Canadian Idol?"
"yeah"
"you know the mean guy, did you notice the email address (it was his name), yeah, that's me."

Talked to a real live celebrity today - and I don't even feel that I came off like a total looser at the end. I actually feel that I was pretty witty. (unlike the time I met Great Big Sea... big time looser Stacey!!!)

Choices...

I am sure I am like most people when I try to not work on my birthday. It only makes sense, it is your day and you don't want to spend it at work. And now, I also have an anniversary to try to not work on. We want to try and do something for our first anniversary.
What the hell was I thinking when I arranged for them to be 6 days apart. I am gonna struggle with this for the rest of my life. This year my birthday is on a Monday and my anniversary on a Sunday - and yes I am schedule to work them both. So at work I posted for someone to take my shift on our anniversary. Well, she will take it, if I trade to work the weekend before - my birthday weekend. Decisions.

So I said that I would trade - which will give me three days off for next weekend. Logan also starts another week of holidays at that same time. So we have decided to go to Montreal for a couple of days.

(as a side note, Logan's next week of holidays are in Aug. I happen to have gotten the same week off. So we are gonna hit the east coast for about a week, and then go home for our (my) family reunion.)

The mysteries of technology

It has been a while since I posted anything. But I have a tragic tale of whoa as my excuse.

Not so long ago, I mentioned that I was re-editing my wedding video. I have spent all of my extra time on the computer - importing video, watching, cutting, adding effects and transitions and the like. Two days ago I devoted the computer to rendering my finished video of the ceremony (I have also finished the getting ready stuff). The rendering took 4 hours of computer thinking. Yesterday I created a DVD to give it a whirl and make sure it worked before removing it from the computer. It finished burning - and it didn't work. I realized that I burnt it on the wrong disk (who knew there was a difference between DVD-R and DVD+R, okay, I did but that is not the point here). So I burnt another copy and could not have been happier when I put it into the DVD player and my menu jumped up on the screen. My arms shot up into the air in celebration. Logan heeded the warning, "don't get too excited, they usually don't work the first time for you."

Whether he doomed me to failure with his pessimism, or I just have to learn everything the hard way, I don't know. But the video worked, except that it was a teeny, tiny square on the TV. You could have fit 8 of my videos on our TV. I nearly cried. Hours and hours gone.

Okay, no bid deal. Just go find out where the problem is. 6 hours, 1 glass of wine and a lot of frustration later, Logan, our friend Jason and I came to the conclusion that the program I used to import the video can only import in an analogue format. The brand new, super fantastic editing program I use is digit. The imported video is just smaller in size than if I could get it straight from our digit video camera.

It is at this time I would like to once again curse our STUPID videographer. If he would have just given me the source files from the raw footage video he gave me, all would be well. But no. "I'm Luke, I'm dumb, I'll give you your footage in a file type your computer won't read!"

So, now I get to start all over again. And the worst part is, I have spent all this time teaching myself how to use this professional quality editing program, but I won't be able to use it.

Back to square one!

July 2nd Celebrations!

On July 2nd - Lisa (pink hat) celebrated her 24th birthday!

and

Amanda and Steve Brown celebrated their 4th anniversary! (wow)

Happy Day to Each of You!

Short Weekend Home

I went home again this weekend. It was great! I flew home Saturday morning and spent the day with my family. A dinner out, drinks on our deck and then out to the Canada Day fireworks (which were not bad!). Sunday Mom, Stef and I went out shopping and my mom bought me way to much for my upcoming birthday (not that I am complaining). Sunday night was supper at grandma's. Gotta love suppers at grandma's!!! And to cap the weekend Stef and I went to Lisa's for cake and snacks!

I had a lovely weekend, and love going home!

Now I am back to work, and back to trying to find a place. This morning I found at least 20 places that peaked my interest. After making calls to each, 15 have been eliminated, and the remaining 5 are still around because I left messages for the contact. This city is crazy. I am really glad that we love our current place - because if we were looking because we had to move - or because we hated it - I don't think that I would be very happy right now.