Unemployed Again

Today was my last day at the Home Depot. Yipee. That place was sucking the life out of me...and gave me the flu (currently) and bronchitis when I first started there, not to mention the other particulate I have inhaled. Oh I can only imagine what that place has done to my immune and respiratory systems.

I start at Theatre Calgary for Christmas Carol on Thursday!

Planning a big Halloween party for the 31st. Very excited. Have a spider theme for decorations and all of the food on the menu has creepy names. Should be fun.

And a cute picture to close. My boys napping.

Names other than your own

Many people have nickname. Most people in fact. Many people go by shortened version of their own name or words that seem to have no connection what so ever.

Some people call me Stace. Not many. I find it a very personal jump to drop that 'y'. Sometimes I mark the progression of a friendship with that leap. And sometimes it comes from the wrong person way to soon. For example, if we work together and speak one or twice a month and you jump to Stace when you want to ask a favour - not cool. If you just met me, it is Stacey. If I don't like you, keep it to my given name please.

There are some people that I remember when they dropped the y. Mr Taylor from elementary school. He was the cool teacher, everyone's friend. I was in Gr. 6 and thinking about running for student council. He called me to his office to encourage me to do so and then as I was leaving he said "Good luck Stac." Mr. VanD in high school was very similar. I was at that school the moment it opened and apart of the student council my whole stay. He was another one of those teachers that really cared. He has certainly affected my life in a huge way. We got along from the beginning. He called me Stace and it created a bond that helped me through high school.

There are other nick names that seem to come out of no where.

There is a gentleman at work who is french and calls everyone baby. Not is a gross kind of way. With his accent it doesn't even sound like baby but his own little word for friend. Guys, girls, doesn't matter "Ok baby". Sometimes he even goes so far as to call me baby girl because he thinks I look so much younger than I am. Today he asked if my husband calls me baby. I said "he calls me lots of things, baby, babe and weirder things like Stac (with a hard c)."

For a very long time now Logan has called me Stac, and then it turned into Stax. This has morphed into many variations of those.

I have two other weird nicknames that are very person specific. My mom calls me Stacer and a friend from elementary school that I speak to only on our birthdays (hers is the day after mine - at the same hospital in the same year). She calls me Slater - always has.

I suppose I shouldn't have told this very kind gentleman this. Now he calls me Stac.

Democratic Responsibility

I hope you all got out there and voted on Tuesday. Though it seemed to be a choice of the lesser of the evils-But isn't it always.

I did my duty in spades. I worked the election. A Registration Officer. I am the person that put you on the voter list if you were not. I did this job many years ago in a federal election while still in Regina. I remember filling out less than 25 forms (I didn't finish one package). I was told that Calgary Nose Hill, my riding, is the third fasting growing constituency in Canada. In anticipation of this they had two Registration Officers hired. We each had four packages of forms. We nearly finished all of them. Busy.

But way to go Canada. Lowest voter turn out yet. I guess most people felt that it was a $300-million dollar game of musical chairs. And what did we accomplish. Some say nothing. The result is the same as it was three days ago. Who am I to say. I just work here.

Thankful

Thanksgiving give you the opportunity to remember to be thankful. With the hustle and bustle we surround ourselves with, sometimes we just need a push, we forget to remember.

This thanksgiving weekend I had Friday and Saturday off and Logan worked. Stef and I went shopping. Halloween decorations for the party (we are having a Halloween party at our house on Halloween night), and Christmas shopping. It went well!

Sunday both Logan and I worked and Auntie Shelley was hosting Turkey dinner. I "accidentally" showed up early for work by an hour (so I was done at 6pm instead of 7 - the supper hour). It was the meal with the works. Followed by homemade strawberry rhubarb pie. Logan even got a chance to swing by for a plate.

Monday I hosted Stef, Auntie Shelley and Uncle Gord for dinner. Ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, salad and pumpkin pie. It was nice. Except that it was a bit rushed for me. Logan worked until 4am so slept most of the morning. He was in charge of much of the clean up of the house (with a lunch time kick start on my break). I worked from 7-4 so hurried home to start the cooking.

I have many things to be thankful for. And over the past couple of days I got to sit and remember. I have a beautiful home, with a loving (and handsome) husband, the cutest puppy on the planet, and I was able to share those things with my family whom I love and am thankful for. It also reminds me just how far away I am from our parents.

New Low

The Home Depot hit a new low this morning. They called us for "morning rally", which up to this point was just a staff meeting in the morning. Today, the worst happened. After all of the news and sales were announced they decided we were going to start doing cheers. I don't think so. If there was ever any incentive to hide in my aisle and claim to be helping a customer if approached later. There was clapping in rhythm and "drive sales" woo hoo. It was terrible.

Car, carpet and a free storm door

I said that I would update on our new car. We love it.

The screen door/storm door on our back door is bent, dirty, looks like crap and has an every growing hole in the screen that the puppy likes to stick his head through. While Janet was staying with us we checked out the selection at the Home Depot. I was told if I could hold out until Oct I would get a good deal. I watched "the best deals of the year" on doors go by as I held out hope that there would be follow through if I could wait until Oct. It finally paid off to work at the Home Depot. There was an open box door (that was missing one piece, the frame from one side of the door) that is regular $300. They are not allowed to sell this door if it is open and instead of throwing it in the garbage sold it to us for $50. That is right $50.

To sweeten the deal we had found three plumbing pieces (total ~$20) that we did not end up using from our very first trip to Home Depot after taking possession of the house. On the way into the store we returned the items to a gift card. I picked up a towel bar and ring that I had set aside (regular $45 and $35 marked down to $10) and then picked up the door. At the till we gave the gift card for the $73.00 total. She then asked for $2.53. I don't know where the mistake was but I am not complaining.

The door is all glass for a very clean look. But when you want to open the screen you pull the window down from the top and the screen unrolls down. It is very neat. The screen is all hidden away. Giving an uncluttered and clean look!
The day after the door I was walking toward the break room for my last 15 of the day and almost walked into a pile of carpet rolls with green markdown tags on them. "What do we have here?" $20-$50 rolls of carpet. I called Logan to measure the basement and then come into the store to pick me up after work. I grabbed a few hold stickers and put two on hold until after my shift. We ended up getting a further markdown. We got a roll of "Bow River Berber" 12'x14'6" and a roll 12'x 4'. It covers nearly the entire room. We are short about a foot between the stairs and the bathroom, the little nook there. I couldn't be happier with a $40 purchase!
We installed it ourselves. It looks pretty good.
The photo doesn't show where the seams are. The wall behind the chair there is a seam straight across. And then perpendicular to that seam from the middle of the door on the left. $40!

"I love my job, I love my job, I love my job..."

I have been using this as my mantra over the past couple days. Over the past couple of days I have been doing major manual labour. I love my job, I love my job. I spent six hours hauling pallets full of fully assembled cabinets from a trailer in receiving to the other end of the store in search of ONE cabinet for a customer. Six hours and 15 pallets. I found what I was looking for three minutes after my shift was over. 15 pallets, over a hundred cabinets, trouble twice for where I was stashing them all over the store and one very unhappy Stacey. The next day I spent four hours moving the cabinets from 5 rows in 6 bays into 2 bays. Dirtier and sweatier than the day before. The next day I came in to find another worker doing the same thing I did two days before - pulling pallets looking for one cabinet for a customer. For an hour I kept busy to avoid helping - but felt sorry for the buggar. So... I joined in, grabbed a pallet jack and pulled another ten pallets from the trailer. Yesterday, I had help, and took down two shelves (the actual wood and steel) from every bay and filled the shelves with the cabinets I had pulled out.

I had today off (just one day) and am back to work for five. I intend to work very little to make up for the last week of over working.

Hotel Kotlar

I had posted before about my parents being in town for Elton John and Logan's parents for a work conference. Following the check out of Lorne and Janet, Matt flew in from Vancouver. He was with us for a full week. There weren't any majors plans for his stay so it was a very relaxed week of hanging out. Matt checked out Rogues with me, we had dinner at Uncle Gord and Auntie Shelley's (where we had our little photo shoot) and went mini golfing. It was some good old sibling fun.

Art by Jonathan Glass

We had a very serious photo shoot while Matt was in town.

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Glass
Where's Matthew?

We had a good time. And I think with a little help from Photos Shop we should have some really good pictures for you mom.

We are new car owners!

We have a brand new car. Brand new. 231 kms. We leased a 2008 Nissan Rogue. There is no worry of repair and large expenses. It has more safety features than you can shake a stick at. And a list of technological tricks that we may never notice but will be very grateful for (including headrests that will respond to breaking to help prevent whiplash).

We are pretty excited. There are no pictures right now as we picked up the car, drove to Auntie Shelley and Uncle Gord's for supper and then drove Matt to the airport and now home to bed (I work at 7am).

More to follow.

Charlie - Super Dog?

Charlie hardly ever barks. He makes monkey type noises when he plays, he arfs at passing dogs, but hardly ever full on barks. Last night Wiggins and Charlie were running around with pieces of the raw-hide bones they were chewing on. They were in the kitchen, out of sight, when Charlie started barking. He continued barking as they ran by us and up the stairs. Charlie returned to the landing and marked at me. After checking on the dogs we figured out that Wiggins had swallowed his bone piece whole and was having problems with it being stuck in his windpipe. Charlie was trying to save his new friend.

So now we feel that Charlie is a gifted little Lassie. However, as we were all getting ready for bed upstairs Logan and Charlie came down to lock everything up for the night. As Logan was about to head back upstairs Charlie jumped onto the love seat, faced the front door and barked. Logan felt that he was looking at the door and looking back at Logan and barking as though he was saying "Fix it. What is it? Don't you see it?" Weird.

Those two puppies had a good week. Charlie especially. He wanted to play with Wiggins every waking second. Wiggins was not so interested. But there were moments.
While we were at Ikea Janet bought each of the pooches a new stuffed toy. Wiggins got a size appropriate mouse and Charlie a cat.


It has been a good week of company. Mom and Dad Thursday to Sunday and Lorne and Janet from Sunday to today. But it is not over yet. Matt (my not so little brother) flies in today for a week.

Little things

Just in case you haven't checked Amanda's blog lately - she has had the baby. Jolie Grace Very cute.

Back in Calgary, we went to Ikea today. I left with $80 of little things today and am disappointed in the selection of several items. Namely bathroom towel bars and the like. There were three very commercial/industrial options of $20. I can get them for $20-$30 anywhere. And they had nothing large enough to keep Charlie's dog food in.

Speaking of Charlie's dog food there is a little hole in his bag of food. Mouse adventure number 2. I was up for breakfast yesterday morning at 5:30 (I worked at 7am, and had to ride my bike). As I was sitting on the couch I saw a shadow move under the TV stand. I sat up and had a terrible sense of deja vu. Adventure #1: I was sitting on the couch watching TV in the evening and saw a fuzz/lint ball roll down the stair. I sat up and watched a mouse run back up the stairs. This time he ran out from behind the speaker, around the pony wall and into the kitchen. I paused for a second and ran up the stairs to wake Logan. I opened he door, "you may not want to know this right now but there is a mouse in the kitchen". He didn't move so I slowly closed the door. He was up very quickly investigating. In adventure #1 we put out a trap and had him dead within the hour and half when he checked the trap again. Yesterday, they checked all day and it still wasn't caught when I came home from work. Over night we changed the bait and were successful with peanut butter. Another crisis averted.

(We hope that the common thread between these two mice was the back door being left open. Both times we had the screen door propped open during the day for extended periods of time. And these are the only times we have done that, and both times have gotten a mouse. Logan has also put steel wool in two places he thinks they may be getting in from the outside. But both times there has been very little poop found. And last time we couldn't find anything that he had gotten into. This time he chewed a hole in Charlie's dog food.)

The one, the only

My parents drove into town on Thursday night with concert tickets. Tickets for 4 to Elton John. Mom, Stef, Auntie Shelley and I we to see the diva at the Saddledome on Friday.



It was great fun. I am pretty sure that Stef and I were bringing down the average age of the audience - if you don't count the front three rows of young gay men.

The show was great. There were a couple of song off the top that I didn't know. But the rest of the songs were loved classics, Rocketman, Tiny Dancer, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

It was just him at the grand piano, a keyboard players, drummer, percussion, bass and guitar players. The stage values were small (if you count at least 50 intelligent lights small), but it is Elton John. Somehow I expect more extravagance.

He wore a jacket with tails and blue embroidery on the arms that went onto a huge, abstract face of a woman with beautiful hair (which is what the rest design over the arms was). With that an electric blue dress shirt with matching cravat. When I searched Elton John I was hoping to find an image of him in the outfit he wore. This one is very close - if not the same. Including the blue tinted sunglasses.

I was able to find many images of him in similar but different coats and looks.There was no opening act, just two and a half hours of Elton singing. There was hardly any talking besides short introductions between a handful of songs.

When he left the stage before the first and only encore Stef and I expected a wardrobe change. He did not deliver. Oh well, the music was stupendous. (though I was not impressed with the sound mix - Elton was muffled and his voice was often competing with his piano playing). It was a great show - thanks for the ticket mom.

Preserves

Previously I had mentioned my garden and my garden update. About a month ago already (my how time flies when you work at a crappy job) we returned from Regina to find that the heat had cooked our peas and that our carrots were ready for eating.

So we picked a couple carrots from each row which were different seeds, and all of the peas. I made a pea salad but the peas were woody and past their prime. I think that because the weather was so crappy for the first month they were in the ground it pushed back their prime time. But the carrots were delicious.

On the weekend of the 1st of September I spent the rainy Saturday in the kitchen making Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam. The strawberries were a purchase but the rhubarb I had harvested in June, chopped and froze.

On the Sunday, Stef and I made a dozen jars of pickles, a few more than a dozen jars of pickled carrots and two ziplock bags of fresh parsley (pulsed into usable pieces by the food processor) for the freezer. It turned the kitchen upside down, stopped being fun after awhile - but was successful.

One large jars of carrots didn't seal so the next day I had to re-process them. All of the cucumbers seemed to have worked. The jam has not set to the consistency I would like - but that is fixable. All in all - a good thing.

Sunday Surprise

We both had Sunday off. That doesn't happen anymore, at all. Sunday is a very different day than any other in the week. As it was Sunday Auntie Shelley and Uncle Gord invited us over for dinner. We headed over shortly before 4:00. We started a drink, chatted a bit and then their phone rang. The caller ID said ADT (I felt that I knew what it was about), Auntie Shelley answered anticipating that they were soliciting. They asked for Gord, Auntie Shelley joked "he is watching the Rider game right now, it might be tough to pull him away." They said okay and that was the end of the call.

Shortly after that Logan's cell phone rang, it was Jason. "Hey, ADT just called, your front door sensor is going off. Where are you? Can you get home?"

We hit every red light - but made it quickly - passing (at high speeds) a cop car parked just outside our circle. He followed us to the house - where the front door was open.

The single cop and Logan checked out the exterior of the house - just the front door was breached. The cop checked out the front door and saw that there was damage - he yelled in to make his presence know and there was no movement inside. We waited outside the house for the Sergeant to arrive so he and the responding officer could clear the house. It was at that moment that I realized that this could be more serious then I thought. The two officers entered our house with guns drawn. They cleared the house and there was no one there and no signs that anyone entered the house.

Poor Charlie. We pen him in the kitchen when we leave the house. From our front yard you can see through the window beside the door to the kitchen. Little puppy was sitting/crouching at the gate with his ears back, shaking.

In the end we have no idea why it happened, nothing was taken. We have had a detective to the house to checks on members events like this. But I think it was just a weird, flukey thing.

(oh, on a side note, ADT performed very poorly. The only thing that happened according to the plan they outlined was that the alarm went off. From that point on every step has something I need complain about. Including that I called to reset the system and told them it was a false alarm. They heard an earful.)

Nissan

We went out to look at a second car; the Nissan Rogue. We really liked it. We liked it so much we took out two different Rogues. One was an all wheel drive, the second step up - SL. There was also a demo model that they would lease us that had 10,000 km - the SL with the Premium package. The demo with a few more features was $3 more a month than the new one. We told them we would come back when we had sold our car - they wanted to look at a trade in. We knew that they couldn't possibly give us what we still owe on the car - we were right. So we will have to wait a bit, sell our car, and then go back (probably).

We like the look of the side and back - but Logan is not so keen on the front. I have been reading reviews on the vehicle and it seems to be a common complaint.The interior gets big points. The seats were very comfortable and there was plenty of leg room. And the back seats were also comfortable with lots of leg room.
The SL has heated cloth seats and 16" alloy wheels.
And the back has a cool fold up divider to help keep those couple bags a groceries in place or what have you.

Mitsubishi

As a Police Officer Logan sees things that most of us hope to never have to witness. A growing concern for him is car accidents. He sees many vehicles smashed up and passengers in various states of survival. A very noticeable theme is car vs. any other vehicle. There are so many vehicles on the road that are larger than cars (buses, vans, SUVs, trucks, construction vehicles etc). In all of these scenarios the car is the looser. Because it is lower, the people are lower, the danger level is higher in these loosing situations. This has caused Logan to reconsider our vehicle.

We currently drive a Jetta. It is a 2001, silver, four door great car that we bought in September of 2005. We financed over 5 years - that means we are just at the three year anniversary of our payments. I really like this car. It has served us well and has some great options (heated cloth seats to name the most important). But in the last year and a half we have invested a large chunk of money into it. More money than I expected for a 2001. Just before Logan drove to Regina for Kendra's Wedding he took it in to be serviced - another $700 hit. This past winter we put $1000+ into it (maybe more, we had to take it in 3 times to have it fixed completely), and last spring/summer another $1000. And that is what I can remember off the top of my head. It is running well right now - but for how long.

With safety in mind, and the timing right for the car (I mean it is in working order and repairs are up-to-date) we have started talking about selling the car and leasing a new one.

Ah the Lease vs. Buy debate. After many conversations Logan and I have come to the conclusion that you don't make money on owning a car. After owning it for years you are lucky to break even. Also with older cars you are always wondering when it is going to break down and cost $1000. Not even older cars, ours is 7 years old and costs money every time you turn around. At our age and place in life we are thinking Leasing is the way to go. With a 4 year term we pay the same amount we pay for our loan payment with the protection of a warranty. I think that 4 years is a good time line for us right now too. When the time comes we can decide if the vehicle is still working for us, or if we need to consider something else.

I have done my searching on line (mostly JD Power website).

Today we drove through the auto mall and stopped and Ford to look at the Escape and Edge. And then stopped at Mitsubishi to look at the Outlander. Brochure Image




It was very nice. We really liked it. It has lots of options included, as well as a 10 year warranty, so if we did buy it out at the end it would still be covered. 4 wheel drive, seating for 5 with additional 3rd row seating for two little people (I thought it made sense but the brochure says the 3rd row is not meant for people taller than 160 cm (5') tall or kids in rear or front facing child seats. Don't kids sit in those seats until they are in school. So you have from kindergarten until they reach 5' tall to have people in the back - seems dumb) It was a really neat vehicle and is on the list.

Comfy interior, 6 disc MP3 changer, Blue tooth buttons on the steering wheel.

The seats are really easy fold and tumble flat.

Both the 2nd row (the regular row) and the additional weird 3rd row fold down to create a huge amount of space. The tail gate opens in two places. It opens up in a regular door but the bottom bit sticks up 9"ish. This is meant to protect your bumper if you need to have cargo sticking out the back, it also folds down (you can see the line in the foreground of the photo - which is the inside edge of the bottom bit). The bottom fold down is stable enough to sit on and creates a flat cargo bed.

Kendra's Stagette

Saturday, August 9th

Jill (bridesmaid) House

Martini Party

We played a video newly wed question answer game, Wedding Family Fued, and Dirty Drink name game. As gifts everyone brought a martini glass for Kendra to keep. There is a great collection. With no planning there is a set of four, a set of two, and the rest are individual and beautiful.

Very late in the evening we headed off to LaBodega. I barely remember things from this photo on.