it is snowing. i am moved in. i have a new address, a new city, a new home. a different routine. i have a full kitchen. i cannot wait to cook my next meal(s). how fantastic. i forgot how it is to have an entire to work with. and an entire kitchen with my things in it. it's snowing. Hammer is upset with me; he didn't move for 28 minutes after i put a sweater on him. ha ha.

on the road again

gary comes into edmonton today and we're off to Red Deer for a weekend of music and beer/rye/gin/russian bombshells. maybe hitting the World of Wheels in calgary; although the bike area isn't as impressive as it could be, i missed the International Bike Show so this will do just fine.
made it home from Vancouver Island without a hitch; just a long layover in Calgary international. it gave me time to catch up on Cycle Canada's latest mag.
missing gramma already; i called her when i got in and had yet another good talk with her.... that's niiice....heh heh. i'm missing the wonderful weather there, the green grass, the crocuses blooming, the company, the atmosphere .... sigh. i have to make it back into the real world sometime soon i guess.
looking at finding a place to rent in Red Deer with a garage, only nothing has come up quite yet. i've got my fingers crossed, and so does my girl i'm moving in with.
mail. wow do i have mail to open. scads of it from the year i've been away. not to mention the filing and sorting to be done at the same time. all my belongings have to be moved because the girl storing them is moving. my bike has to be moved. i need my teeth cleaned. i need my contacts fitted. my negatives have to go back to the camera shop to be redone. they told me 400 exp. film would be best overseas, when in reality 200 exp. film would've been best. a lot of my pictures came out overexposed. i did get them all sorted into albums at gramma's, and i'm not sure i want to do that over again if i get them all developed a second time. such a time consuming process.
i think i'm packing an extra 5 lbs from eating at gramma's. it was to be expected though, with all that good food there! brownies and ginger ice cream ... m'mmmm! kalmata olives. tomato, avacado, and bacon sandwiches. spaghetti. oysters. red snapper. salmon. tuna. YUM!

well the weekend turned out to be a bit of a runaway ... any surprise there?! friday was victoria, saturday was nanaimo and sunday was a recooperation afternoon with the superbowl in the evening (thank god paul's clothes didn't come off). sunday's drive from nanaimo to qualicum was a bit messy; it was snowing and the roads were full of heavy slush. i guess the only road to victoria shut down a half hour after the gang headed back .... lucky them. monday was what gramma calls "an eraser day" .... made you forget altogether about the previous day. it was a bright sunny day and the snow was gone. we went to the brown property in qualicum; a 17 acre area of land that was saved from development and now holds trails throughout. we walked around for at least an hour beneath massive trees that blocked out all the sunlight. the fallen trees were decomposing and covered in lush moss; it was so beautiful there. i took a few pictures and hope that they turn out. my time with gramma is ever so precious to me ... tonight i went through the end of my laos journel, and into my northern thailand journel. i managed to get into dubai (just) before gramma said she needed to head to bed. i could see that though; i knew she was tired. she made a cake today for her sister's birthday bash this weekend. i went downtown and mailed klk's valentine's day care package and bought gold candles for the cake. i was going to make peanut brittle tonight but we forgot to get corn syrup at the supermarket yesterday. tomorrow i guess. i think i should be writing in my journel on a daily basis. or scratch the physical journel and just keep this. but then i guess all my personal thoughts wouldn't get out ... i dunno. about this book thing i dunno either. got to do some talking to gramma's sister when she comes back from tofino ..... she wrote a book about her father and i've been leafing through it. i think when i move in march i'll look into some more writing workshops. it's been a few years since i've done that and i want to.

so this is goin slow, and i'm really not so concerned about it ... this font looks unusually large .... is it? i'm reading up on olive oil because i read today that it's suppose to be the best thing out there health wise for an oil to cook with. i maybe knew that. Homer (and not the simpsons dood) called it liquid gold. i am fast becoming a kalamata olive addict, however, and they aren't cheap. a container that lasts 3 days for me is like $5 canadian. i wonder if kalamata olives are healthy for you .... i did ask gramma but i think she said they have a lot of fat in them. fantastic. while i'm at the olive oil thing i guess i should look up kalamata olives and see how healthy they aren't for me. i never got around to putting pictures into my new photo albums today because gramma and i spent the afternoon at the supermarket. we sat upstairs, drank starbucks coffee and watched the consumers below wandering back and forth. watched the tsunami relief concert on tv tonight, the one in vancouver. how much money do we think we need to donate? obviously it's a good thing that we're assisting, but does anyone else out there think we should take care of our own as well? are we going overboard? we don't have adequate homeless shelters in our big cities, and then there are the smaller cities .... (i don't have the patience to wait for pages to download about olives; first they aren't available, then they've moved, the next are all recipes, so i think i'll not worry about it til later) okay i've found what i'm looking for .... "The Government of Canada has committed up to $425 million over five years for the international relief effort," (http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news.asp?id=381). maybe, just maybe, we could've spent some of that cash on our own first. gramma's listened to me gripe about this for the past week. maybe if i write it down i'll be able to shut up about it. not likely. okay, gotta get some sleep. i'm suppose to be up at 8:30 am for coffee and out with gramma for 9:30, and it's ten to one. heh heh.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

got invited out for beers last night. got stood up. nice. went to bed around 3 and up at 5 to leave by 6 to be at the airport for 7 for an 8 o'clock flight. showered, dressed. found out the roads were closed and my flight cancelled. ate some eggs and toast and the roads opened so off i went. the 8am flight was changed to 10am. it got delayed until 11am. from edmonton to calgary, where i had to sit and wait from 12 noon until 4:30 to board the plane to vancouver island. bought a pack of smokes and nearly smoked a half a pack. ooops. had a couple of ceasers bought for me by a nice boy from abbotsford. ate a sandwich and then boarded the westjet flight to the island. fell asleep nearly as soon as i boarded, and awoke just as we neared the island, so at least i caught the good view. got picked up and had a fantastic fish dinner with salad and (YUM!) kalamata olives. ginger ice cream for dessert. wow is that good shit. gonna want to eat that stuff again. like tomorrow. gramma's always got good food on the go here. i'll be lovin it for the next few weeks....

Jon, Jonas, Kobe, me, Sebastian, Nemil and Bobby (!?)

Roger and I - Koh Chang, Thailand

so i went down to red deer and got completely annihilated for the weekend. came home wasted too, and am right now as i write this. i really want to go to a pub but there aren't any around here. sigh. goin to gramma's to dry out (:P) for 3 weeks. meetin gary when i get back :D. cheers. oh yah and i got antibiotics for being sick and drank every night i've been on them : what a runaway .....

Finally ...

so the dr. appt is tomorrow and i am hopeful for antibiotics although it may impair my nightlife for the weekend. i'm getting my contacts refitted and hopefully going to physio for my jaw on monday (another reason why the dr. appt. is necessary).
kyro etc got the bar all rebuilt at tonsai beach in krabi and they celebrated the opening night last night ... well past when the generator ran out. just like old times, only with a new stereo that probably doesn't cut out. i miss it, wish i was there to help rebuild things. i miss p'dang and naa and bow, my 3 favorite thai girls. i keep emailing and sending my love along, but somehow, it just ain't the same. seeing kyro's pictures online makes me smile wistfully ...

Tonsils

so while infidel works on code hell i sit here contemplating whether or not this blog thing was a good idea, given that i don't know all so much about computers anyhow. the later it gets the more sore my throat gets and i am tempted to begin spitting into a glass instead of swallowing my saliva. and alas, i have to wait until thursday afternoon to see my dr. since i no longer live in the same city. this means i'll be back in the city for the weekend and more than likely on antibiotics which will mean no drinking. sigh.

LINKS

http://lrpelkey.home.comcast.net

Setup

11:42 pm on Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Setting this up with assisstance kicks ass ... thanks Infidel! Hopefully in no time Kyro and the rest of the Viking Crew gang will be able to view my pics online.
My tonsils hurt. I hate being sick. This has lasted too long.