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.

My crazy brother

Who knew that my brother had it in him?

Lookn' good!

You know you are old when...

... your younger brother is graduating from high school. That means that my own graduation was 6 years ago. Wow! He is that same little boy that some of my friends remember singing West Side Story tunes with us.

He is all grown up now - and I am proud of him!

Today he wears the gown and the hat that looks stupid on everyone! And then to the party where everyone is dressed in their best. And my mom will be biting her nails because Matthew has not told her what he is wearing. And has told me that it is surprising! But his date went with him a second time to the tux rental place to make sure that he matches her white dress - so things can't be that bad!

Here is to my little brother - though he may be a foot taller than me, will always be my little brother - Congratulations on your Graduation!

It has been awhile.

Sorry it has been so long. Please don't give up on me. Working full time is a drag. There just isn't enough time in the day. Logan and I have been spending much of our free time on the internet trying to find 2 bedroom places to rent. Apparently the house boom has created a housing shortage. Not only are there too many people moving here a day - they have put a stop to any new building contracts until they catch up on what they are trying to do now. So that means that the 2 bedroom or more places and being snatched up as quickly as places to buy. That, and the people doing the renting don't return calls - because they don't have to. Renters will pursue them - they don't have to call you back. So you have to keep calling and calling.

Today we walked to a place right behind us. The actual apartment looked great. And she assured us that they were renovating the whole building. Right now, it had plastic runners over the forest green, worn out shag carpet, with brown glass hanging by a chain light fixtures in the halls and stairs. Not a great first impression.

It was nice - but didn't blow us away and she said that they were going to be making a decision today so someone could move in July 1st. So, count us out!

I am trying to contact (hound) two places right now. Cross your fingers. One is a duplex with 3 bedrooms, a fire pit in the back yard and a washer and dryer to ourselves (a huge plus for me - I hate shared - there are no rules or etiquette to it and people take your clothes out of the machines and put there's in!). The other is a row house/townhouse bi-level in the area we are in now. I haven't seen it - but if it is the ones I think it is we will be very lucky!!

Misc information

Red Leaf Studios, our wedding photographers, have posted on their website our two large collages they have put together for us. We will be receiving them in 16x20 prints. I think they are beautiful. To check them out:
www.red-leaf-studios.com
at the bottom right corner (under the images) click "client access"
on the second page click our picture
the password is "glass".
Enjoy!



Today is my good friend Nicole Olszewski's 21st birthday!

Happy Birthday!!

As promised, here is a photo of one of the four blankets I made! Two of the others were diagonal line patters and the fourth was blocks of colours.

Emotions got in the way.

Nearly a year after the wedding I am finally sitting down with all of the video I have collected to put it together. When you ask most people if anything went wrong on their wedding day, they will have a story. For me, I had so many great people helping me that it was damn near perfect. My only regret - MY emotions getting in the way when I got to the mic.

I had everything planned and put together, except a speech on paper. It was in my head, of course, but when you get up in front of all of those people that are there because they love you. Wow. Nothing beats that. So, sure enough, I nearly loose it. Logan saved the day with a little humor - but I no longer could put two words together. There were so many people that I wish I would have thanked publicly!!!

To make matters worse - I have been watching the raw footage from our extremely stupid videographer. I am seeing things that I never would have had the chance to see. There were so many people doing things I had no idea were even going on. So here is my short list of thank you's that I wish I could have said in front of everyone while I had the mic.

Nicole: my stage manager. You really pulled everything together. I can never thank you enough. And after watching all that you did - you really were everything I had hoped and knew that you would be!

Alexis, Danielle & Nicolle: You lovely ladies arrived to the dinner and were in there right away to help light the millions of candles that I had laid out and expected one person to light (above all of the other things that I had asked her to do). I thank you. I had no idea.

Jesse, Ben & Jason: Thank you for helping clean up the church! And Ben for helping strike the lights at the end of the night!!!



Uncle Gord & Auntie Shelley: For helping us find our place in Calgary (a GREAT place might I add) and help us feel comfortable there. Especially for making Logan feel not so alone for the 8 months while he was there by himself!




And perhaps my biggest thank you:
To the Zubick Family: You showed up days early. Were involved in making every aspect perfect. From Brad running out to get whatever it was we needed. To Kathleen making those decisions that just needed to be made and getting the job done!! And my beautiful little ones who helped more than some of the big kids! To Patrick for being the best program boy ever (there is a great shot of you on the video doing your thing). To all of you for averting the program crisis when they mysteriously made it back to our house after the rehearsal! And for all of the countless things that I got to see you help with on the video - and for the millions of other things that I did not see. I don't know what I would have done without you guys!!!!!!!!

It really touches the heart to see so many people going out of their way to help make our day the perfect day that it was!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Today's post is dedicated to my dad!

To his birthday (June 7th) and to today (Father's Day)!

I miss you - and I love you!

Cheers ! To my Dad!

My sister is moving to Calgary!!!

I am happy to announce that my sister has been accepted to SAIT here in Calgary, in the Respiratory Technician Program. She will be moving here in August. I couldn't be happier.

In order to assist my sister, Logan and I have been looking at finding a two bedroom place to rent. (At first we were thinking of buying. HA. With house prices rising $1100 a day, the houses are prices three times what they are worth. We can't even afford a condo smaller than our apartment). There are a couple of cute houses posted on the internet that we are planning on looking at. I really hope that we can find a place that is as great as the place we have now.

I love our little apartment. I can walk to the theatres to work, and am really close to WestJet headquarters. We are also really close to the Chinook for Logan. It is inexpensive and all of the flooring, tiles and appliances are new! We are very lucky to have found this place. I hope there is a two bedroom place out there that will rival our current home!

Hey Amanda, how far away is Summerland from the airports WestJet flies into: Kelowna, Prince George , Vancouver or Abbotsford? I would love to come out there and see you guys.

Is there any end in sight?!?

Today is the 3 billionth day of rain in a row. I don't really know what is going on. It is the middle of June and I don't think we have seen any sun. Today looked promising. We got up late, and headed out to check out some places. The sun was shining. Sure there were tiny showers while the sun was out - but it seemed harmless. After hitting up the grocery store (and the liquor store), we came home to enjoy a martini on the balcony. We had a pleasant hour and a half before I headed in to start dinner. It was still sunny and warm as I walked through the door to the kitchen, Logan started the BBQ and headed in to help. Five minutes later there is a huge crack of thunder and the clouds opened. That was twenty minutes ago. The lightning is bright, the thunder is wall shaking and the rain is coming down in sheets. And still our chicken and asparagus cooks away. Oh wait, it is now coming down sideways. This rain has got to stop or it is going to flood like last year. Not that we have to worry - being on the 4th floor of an apartment that is on a huge hill.