Weekend in Edmonton

This weekend we went up to Edmonton. Normally, we wouldn't head to the "City of Champions" until Thanksgiving but as I'm not in school anymore, weekends are for fun and not procrastination. We had a few things to do like visit the ringmaker and financial planner. Boy, married life is more exciting than I ever hoped.

Barry, the ringmaker, finally contacted us with the cost of the rings and necklace. All in all, it was very cheap and makes me glad Daorcey knows such a cool guy. We arrive at Jostens and find note which reads "Back at 3." Meanwhile, more people are starting to arrive and they all look the same. Tall, athletic, male and dressed in shirt and ties. We have no idea why such a specific type would gather at Jostens on a Saturday. Then some cameraman and a tv face show up. This is strange. Finally Barry roars up and starts pulling out crudites, pop and beer.

Inside, we finally get an explanation. The U of A Golden Bears are here to get their championship rings which explains the tall, athletic, maleness and dress of the people. We had to wait for Barry and it felt like waiting in a room full of Barskis, and if you were at U of C for the 2003/04 SU election, you can tell how much fun I had waiting.

Barry finally settles down and invites us to his office. Last time we were there, we were blown away by the Oilers memorabilia. This time doesn't disappoint either. While cleaning, buffing and replating (white gold isn't white but gold plated to look white) he told us about some of the photos and being down in Phoenix in Gretzky's place. Apparently, the Great One likes cognac which isn't to Barry's taste. In another photo is Gretzky and Dana Murzyn (sp?) and at the very bottom of the photo you can see Dana's blue jeans. And Dana's suit is Gretzky and apparently he was quite loaded at the time.

I guess we looked bored or something but Barry pulls out four Stanley Cup rings and all of them have Gretzky ethced on the side. They're replicas but Barry is the only person to have them other than Wayne. And Barry is so casual with them. They're just in a regular ring box and he let the hockey team take a gander.

They are ostentacious as championship rings go but it was cool, for lack of other words, to hold them. Carved into the side of each ring was a carrot. When the Oilers lost to the Islanders for the Cup, Glen Sather pulled out a carrot and put it in the locker room where the Cup should have rested. So the four rings have a engraved carrot. When Barry dies, he says the rings are going to the Hockey Hall of Fame but only if they put his name near it. And then he'll finally be in the Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, the hockey guys have been coming in to get their rings resized. Apparently size 13 is too small for their massive caveman hands. It was funny to watch their reaction to Barry's office. They come in saying hey can I get this resized but stop midsentence as they look on the walls. Their mouths are open as they see Barry with one of their hockey idols and they snap back to reality only after Barry hands back the resized ring. I bet seeing Gretzky's rings and Barry's office made their championship rings that much more memorable.

On Sunday, we visited with Wayne, Daorcey's and now our financial planner. He explained financial stuff and he sounds reasonable. But I think I came off as a bit kooky. Wayne asked if there was anything that I wanted to do, like trips or big purchases. Anyone who knows me I like penguins, so of course I would want to travel to Antartica. That's where the big penguins live, duh. I guess Wayne has never even though of that and all he could say was "Oh." Later, I said I have some ethical concerns about where I put my money. Wayne says, "Things like child labour, armament, pollution, what?" And I reply that I don't want to invest in companies who do all those things. Wayne was hoping I'd object to one but not all of them. But what rational person could say I'm concerned about pollution but not child labour? He looked at me like I said I enjoy eating babies.

We did other things too like visit people and play with cats, but ultimately Wayne Gretzky's Stanley Cup rings trump those.

oh, my, chocolate

Yeah, the updates have been slow on DarNat. It's probably because I haven't had time before or after work to update. Normally, I get the urge to update during work, but then I stop myself just in case a coworker notices the timestamp. That, and I have a solid sense of business ethics. You have to if you work in PR. ;)

So last Thursday I run into Karissa's office...

--For those of you who may not know, Karissa is a friend from university. We've had similar experiences with co-op, etc. And when a job became available at work, I suggested she'd be good at it. Fortunately, she is, and now we have offices across the hallway from each other that allows us to either yell across at each other or run...--

... into Karissa's office and give her a giddy look and say "Do you and Ryan want to go to Death by Chocolate?!"

--Ryan is Karissa's new husband. He plays Guild Wars with Natalie and I. For the longest time I would ask Karissa if Ryan was free to play games that evening... now I just call his cell. He likes llamas.--

Not surprisingly, Karissa developed her own giddy look and said "Do I?!" and so we were set for a trip to the Palliser for all the chocolate one can eat.

For the uninitiated, this is not like an extended dessert. Rather, Death by Chocolate is the ultimate vice (at least when we're talking about vices that don't send you to hell). It's the type of "event" that involves preparation in the form of light lunch and breakfast and no snacking. It IS dinner. It's one of those things that I would suggest is just for adults.

To clarify: just for adults means there are no parental figures to stop us from doing it. Like eating chocolate cake or Coco Puffs for breakfast or cheating on your taxes.

So we dressed up pretty and met at the Palliser. I love walking into a place that has a door man. As Natalie and I walked up the stone stairs, the conscierge jogged up ahead of us so he could open the door. Classy.

The chocolate is amazing! We were hungry and went right at it. There was a chocolate fountain, chocolate cookies, bars, drinks... so much that we couldn't even try it all. It was wonderful.

We started at 5:30... we rolled out at 7:30.

As we were preparing to leave, we noticed a set of horn players in kilts walk out into the balcony over the Crystal Ballroom (where Will and Melissa got married) and start playing a fanfare. It was pretty cool. We found out it was for the Southern's (owners of Spruce Meadows and ATCO) annual swanky dinner for people involved in the Masters, which was happening that weekend. So, yes, horn fanfare=cool.

Next stop: Hop in Brew for nachos and drinks.

We weren't crazy, we just wanted to eat something with salt. Although we were totally stuffed full of chocolate, we were still hungry for something with a bit of a different taste.

Yeah, it was a good evening. While I didn't want chocolate the next day, I could do it again soon. That's probably not healthy.

mmmmm... chocolate.

Camping in Jasper

This Labour Day weekend we drove up to Jasper to camp with Matthew and Kim and Brad and Toni. The drive, as always is spectacular. Coming up from prairie to mountains is good and to Daorcey who didn't spend his life an hour from the mountains, the drive is always fun.

We bought a power cord for the iPod because sitting in the cold drains the battery and makes the drive back really boring. So we ended up listening to podcasts from locked-out CBCers. Our two favourites are the Ottawa podcast and Shelagh Rogers, the host of Sounds Like Canada. The Ottawa feed is produced by the morning and lunch hour folks so they have a smattering of news and weather or sports or traffic as they can only afford the one. Then there's lockout news and then some music from a local artist or some other CBC personality. A great one had the resident gardener which was actually interesting and then one of the Arrogant Worms who sang an ode to the gardener. Both of us depend on Newsworld for our news so the lack of coverage of Katrina and other news events is frustrating. Hopefully our CBC comes back.

The drive itself had been beautiful and sunny. When we got to the site it started raining and didn't stop until Monday when we left. We spend the day playing cards and eating and went to bed early which is unusual. Usually, there's a fire and we sit around eating and talking but the cold and lack of fire made us want to head to bed early.

The next morning we woke up at 9, which is late. We had breakfast and set off for Edith Cavell. There's a hike to some meadow and apparently is fantastic. We got out of the car, 4 of us in the back seat, and it's snowing. We bundle up, Toni puts on a plastic bag on her head and up the mountain we go. Matthew and Kim brought their dogs but they weren't allowed on the trail--they disturb the rutting elk--so we headed back to camp. We were planning to hike and then rest our aching muscles in the town's aquatic centre.

To the pool we go and find it's not open for another hour because there was too much chlorine in the pool. To kill time, we ate bad food. My cream of vegetable soup looked like it was thickened straight up with flour. Yuck.

We get to the pool and find the big pool is still closed but everything else is opened. Eventually, the hot tub and slide are clogged with people as there's nothing else to do. However the pool finally opens and we are one of the first to jump in.

Back to camp, we eat a way better meal than the restaurant and play poker. The rain let up a little so we can finally sit around the fire. Unfortunately, it's at someone else's site so we have to tone down the sound.

Next day we pack up and head to Edmonton. Daorcey's family was having a fish fry and he wanted to surprise them. We get to the grandparent's house and they are somewhat suprised to see us. We stuff ourselves with pickerel and 5-clove Ceasar salad. Arone's landlady has kitten so I make Daorcey drive there. I play with the kitty while Daorcey looks at an extra wedding gift from Arone. It's an X-Wing kite but one of the poles is broken so we have to call an R2 unit in.

Then we begin our long drive back to Calgary. We finally arrive at home tired at 11 and don't fall asleep until midnight.

Happy Birthday Albe--oooo...fireworks

'Tis the morning after celebrating the Alberta/Saskatchewan confederation centennial, and I could probably do a bit more sleeping. Oh well, I'll suck it up.

Now, I've seen some nice fireworks in my day and I have to say that that evil, culturally imperialistic corporation Disney has the best fireworks/laser/light/dance show ever. If you've ever seen their Fantasia fireworks program, you know what I mean.

Aside: Disneyland makes money from it's fireworks because of the silly people like me who pay to see them. And, given that the park is full of people every day, they can afford to buy a solid fireworks show for every evening. I imagine they also get a volume discount.

BUT, the fireworks show we saw last night at Elliston Park to celebrate the centennial were pretty amazing. They were an such a greater scale than they every have at Disneyland. The presentation was nice and long, moderately choreographed to music and just so BIG. I'm a big fan of the plain white/gold fireworks and there were points in the program when the sky was filled with them that the whole park was lit. There was a fireworks waterfall, which I had never seen before. And, at the end, it seemed as though they just let off every firework they had left. The effect was so bright and colourful that people had to turn away. It was very cool. So, now we have photos courtesy Anna Chan, who was at almost every fireworks display at Globalfest over the past week taking realllly cool photos.

I recommend going to the fireworks at the next centennial.

Note by Nat: The last photo I think is of the finale. Even tho these are awesome photos, it can't do the fireworks justice.