The Week's Recap

Well, It’s been a fairly eventful week!

Last weekend, Brett and I headed out to Jasper to do some hiking and camping for a night. We arrived in Jasper and found our great campsite, except for all of the mosquitoes. It was a walk-in site for tenting, so it wasn’t crowded at all and it backed onto a path leading straight to a river bed. After setting up camp, we were off to the Valley of the Five Lakes, a 9km hike just south of Jasper townsite. It was a perfect afternoon to go, with it being sunny, but never too hot that we were uncomfortable. After hotdogs, an epic card game of War, an uncomfortable sleep and pancakes made on the fire, we headed back towards Edmonton and more specifically, showers.

Upon returning from camping, I was filled with anticipation for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to be waiting at my door. I was ready to sequester myself away and finish it as soon as possible. However, the only thing I returned to was a message from Amazon saying that they had shipped my book on Sunday. I went a little cooky during the week as my friends all finished it before I had even received my copy, but then Wednesday came and at long last, it was mine. My own… My precioussssss…..

Ahem… anyway….

24 hours and 400 pages later, my mind was starting to fry and I decided that it would be good for me to put it down for a while. So when Brett suggested heading to Capital Ex, I thought “perfect!” However, before I went to bed on Friday, it was totally finished.

Anyway, that brings me to Capital Ex, CapEx, K-Days, CapE, Capitex, whatever you feel like calling it. It’s close to the same old thing it’s ever been, but here are the rules I have gathered for myself over the years, with a new addition this year:


1) Watch the people. You have no clue how many unattractive people live in Edmonton until you attend this thing. I even contemplated starting a tally of how many people I saw that I couldn’t tell what sex they actually were.
2)Watch the fashion. I saw everything from see-through pants, to fanny packs, to hordes of sluttily-dressed teenagers.
3)The games are always a rip-off. Who wants a 4 foot tall stuffed spiderman that smells like carnie, anyway?
4)*NEW* Anything can be deep fried. Just because it can, doesn’t mean that it should. The deep fried coke seemed nothing more than deep fried dough with coke poured on top. Cheesecake is rich and good on its own. Why deep fry it? That’s my main question with this trend: Why?

Anyway, that’s all for this week, folks. I’ll see you on the flip side!

1991 Toyota Corolla

It’s the end of an era. Tuesday evening rolled around and I returned home after a long day at work and some drinks with the girls. As I walk out my back door to leave again, there is a car missing from a spot that is always full. It takes me only a half second to realize that the corolla, the car that symbolized my teenage years, is gone. I had scheduled for the Kidney Association to come and pick it up, so it wasn’t any kind of surprise, but there was still a little strain on my heart when I realized it was no longer in my life.

The car was never that great; it was never that bad. It gave me freedom in high school and reliability all the way through university (not to mention a few fights over sharing it with a certain sister. Haha!). It saw me through so many events and trips that I can’t help but be sad to see it gone. It’s kind of like losing a friend; a friend that you never actually liked all that much, but you got so used to having around that you feel a little empty when they are no longer there.

Goodbye old car. Trusty old corolla. Thanks for getting me out of that ditch and all the good times. I’ll miss you and I’ll always remember to ‘Mind the Gap’.

Birthdays and Laziness

Okay, so I've been a little lazy with the blog lately, as one or two people may have noticed. I blame it on a combination of it's too hot to do anything, my life isn't very exciting right now, facebook taking over the planet (and my mind) and lack of inspiration as of late.

But my life hasn't been all that boring lately. Last weekend was my birthday and I had a really good weekend. My birthday party was nothing if not memorable as we went and played at the space and science center before going to see Lazer Floyd. That's right, Pink Floyd's The Wall set to a laser show in the star theatre. Imagine the Window's Media Player graphics taken to epic proportions. That's what it made me think of. A little odd, but a one of a kind experience.

Anyway, after learning about dinosaurs, the human body and space travel, playing a floor piano and developing a slight case of ADD, we all headed out to Burger Delux. You should all go there. Like now. Stella Artois battered onion rings. Served in mini shopping carts. The thickest burger you'll be able to find in the city. Cotton Candy served instead of an after dinner mint. It's fantastic and delicious and my mouth is drooling just thinking of it.

Oh and we also solved a mystery that night. Remeber the ball machines that used to be strategically placed around West Edmonton Mall? The ball moved through a giant glass box hitting xylophones, going for loop-da-loops, setting off wind chimes, teeter totters and a hundred other things some bored mechanical engineer came up with. They were things of wonder and a kid could stand there for a half hour entranced by the motions of a small little ball. One day they were no longer present at the mall. What happened to them? Well, there is one located at the front entrance to the Telus World of Science. It wasn't running when we saw it, but it made me happy just to see it again and to know that it did, indeed, still exist.

Wow.

What an awesome weekend crammed full of great music. So much happened that this entry would be pretty damned long if I told it all, so here are the highlights in bullet form:

- We drove to Calgary on Friday afternoon, talked guitars and White Stripes the entire way and were picking songs that we all wanted to hear live. We heard almost ALL of them over the course of the 3 shows I saw.

- The show in Calgary kicked ass with one song that has never been recorded and that they rarely play live. We had met up with Camille before the show so she and I rocked out dancing behind the main crowd on the floor to all of the songs. We were able to hear Meg on vocals for A Cold, Cold Night and I was pleasantly surprised by a set list that included a balance of songs off of all of their albums, not just the more recent ones.

- The drive home was epic as we listened to all 6 white stripes CD's in a row. That was some serious dedication. We drove through the craziest freaking rainstorm I've ever seen then came within inches of hitting a deer. Sean literally got out of the car to check if there was any hair caught on the light.

- After all that, I would never have guessed that Friday would only be the warmup to Saturday. What a day! With Sean being the super-sleuth that he is, we were some of the first in the city to catch wind of the Free Secret Surprise Show that they were playing at a youth centre down in Beverley. We had less than an hour's warning, so we busted it there as fast as possible. 100 people, 2 performers, 10 feet from Jack White. The image of how fast his fingers were moving during the guitar solo in You Don't Know What Love Is, You Just Do as You're Told will be permanently etched into my brain.

- By this point, I had seen 2 WS concerts in about 16 hours. And I was about to make it 3 in 24.

- The Edmonton evening show rocked my socks off then kicked my ass all over the room. If I remember correctly, they played 5 songs off teir first self-titled album. And they played 7 songs off of the White Blood Cells album. That might be crappy for a casual listener, but it's freaking kick-ass for a hardcore fan. They played a version of a cute little song called Little Room that they have, but turned it into the most Led Zeppelin experience I've ever had live. Their encore was 9 songs long. 9!!!

- The crowd in Edmonton was amazing compared to the Calgary show. In fact, Jack thought the crowd was so great that he let us sing an entire verse of I Can Tell That We are Going to be Friends. In Calgary all he did was let us yell out the main line.

A little exhausting and a tonne of fun. This long weekend is one for the books.