Mic's Blog

It's chocolate time again! Mike and I already have waaaay too much chocolate in the house thanks to the Easter bunny (well, really, thanks to Mike's mom, but you know, it's kind of the same thing). I like chocolate, but I think this is a bit much unfortunately. We'll just have to freeze a bunch so it'll last for months and months.

So, life in the last few weeks. We haven't been up to too much. Got out to play the first pick up ultimate game of the year a while back. I was hurting for a couple days after that, but it was lots of fun to get out and run around on a beautiful day. Unfortunately, soon after that Calgary decided to be Calgary, and it started snowing and being cold again. I've been trying to ride the bike to and from work in the last few weeks, and the snow and ice on the ground has really been hurting my efforts. An inexplicable fear of cars hasn't helped, but add icy roads to that mix, and I go back to walking to work again. Boo... Other things... well we've been out geocaching a couple times. Discovered a really nice park just east of town, out by my dad's place. We found all the caches there though, so it'll be a while before we go back. It was down in the river valley, so we were sheltered from the wind.

Mike's mom came to visit last week. It was nice to have company in town, and to get to go do a few touristy things. The weather did not cooperate at all, getting cold the day she arrived, and warming up promptly the day she went home. Silly city... We went out to the mountains one day, then I remembered why I hate highways in the winter (stupid gravel, grrr). Went down to Inglewood to wander one day, went caching, I think Mike took her to the Callebaut factory one day, I was sad to have missed that.

Next week it's back to normal for me. 5 full days of work, it's going to be tough... Work has been busy these last few weeks, but it doesn't really feel like we've gotten anywhere some days. I'm hoping that'll change soon and I'll start getting all the pieces together soon. That's all for now. I'm looking forward to spring finally arriving. Ultimate starts in a month and a bit, and we've got both teams registered now. Summer plans are starting to be made. Now we just wait for the summer to get here!

Posted by Micaela at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments

Playing with the camera, some altered, some original. The flowers are nice right now. :)

Posted by Micaela at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well, apparently it's been over a month since my last post. Since being sick, I've been pretty lethargic, trying to avoid having to do much of anything. Not sure why, but that's how it's been, and hopefully as the weather improves that will go away.

So, the last month and a bit. Now I have to try to remember what's been going on. Work first. Apparently we've decided to shake things up a bit. Our group has been split in two to allow each half to focus better on what they're supposed to do. This means I have a new director (my manager two levels up). When my direct manager goes away on mat leave later this year, he'll be my boss full time, at least for the year following that. He seems like a nice guy, total new to in-situ oil sands work, but lots of experience in plants and oil and gas in general, so I'm sure he'll pick it all up really quickly. Otherwise, the company has also decided to shake things up a little. All they've really done is move a bunch of VP's around, and create a few new ones. It also looks like they're grooming the next CEO, though it's hard to be completely sure. We'll have to wait and see, but I don't think any of that is going to change anything. Things have been crazy busy at work, and show no sign of slowing down any time soon, so I'm getting used to the busy. I like it better when I have lots to do, but this is pushing even that a little far. 6-9 months and things should calm down a little. I'll just have to wait it out.

Outside of work, well, lots of hanging out at home. A few geocaching trips, trying to get to 200 finds before spring/summer hits and that slows down due to better things to do outside. I'm enjoying discovering all the cool little parks in and around town. It's amazing how much of the city I didn't know about at all. Speaking of the outdoors, ultimate season is beginning to sneak up on us. I'm looking forward to the 2 teams this year. Playing 3 time a week last year was just a little too much, didn't enjoy it any more. I think only twice a week should help, and will keep my knees in better shape. Right now, teams are getting worked out, registration is coming up next month and then a month and a bit later, we get to play!

What else... Well, our hot water heater decided that it didn't like working properly. We ended up replacing a temperature/pressure valve, which seems to have solved the problem. Now we just need to figure out how to replace the anode and we should be good to run it for another 5-10 years. I was just glad we didn't have to replace another appliance this year. Between the fridge breaking, and the furnace trying too, I've had enough. Hopefully nothing else breaks soon.

Think, think, think. I finally got a new bicycle about a month ago. Even though it's just gray (I've wanted a pink bike since I was like 4, maybe next time...), it's a Kona Fire Mountain. It's a lot nicer to ride than my old one (lighter, better breaks, easier gear changing). Unfortunately, the day after I bought it, the big Calgary snowstorm started. I've only gotten to go out a couple times. Soon they should be cleaning up the gravel, then I can ride to work every day!!! Maybe we'll go out for a ride this weekend, if the nice weather holds. I've been missing my bike, so I can't wait to get out again regularly.

We also got a Roomba Scheduler recently. This little guy is basically a robot vacuum. You set him up to clean on certain days at certain times, then he does it. Our floors have never been so clean. I thought at first that he was just going to be a silly gadget, but he actually works really well. I love him very much. His name is Roger.

Otherwise, I've been to a hockey game. It was nice to actually be in the Saddledome for a Flames win. I have a tendency to only see games where they lose (usually to Vancouver, funnily enough). Still doing pilates. I'm signed up for an intermediate-advanced class starting next month. It's amazing how much your body improves at this stuff the more you do it. Hopefully this'll help with the injuries due to ultimate this summer. It's supposed to, but I'll have to wait and see. Well that's all I can think of for now. I'll try to keep up with this thing a little better from now on.

Posted by Micaela at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ahh, I must say I really, really like eating. After 2 days of not doing just that, I've been enjoying myself the last couple of days. So, the last week in a nutshell... We went out for dinner and then discovered another new and fun game on Saturday. The game is Carcassonne, it's another of the style where you build a region and get points for completing various things. A round with 4 people takes around an hour, which is fabulous given my lack of attention span. Mike and I enjoyed it enough that we went out and got the game for ourselves with a different extension so we'll have more to play as a group, but also something to play when it's just the two of us.

Then, we had a great geocaching day with Jenn and Jon on Sunday. Went down to Weaselhead park (I think it's called something like that) which is down near Glenmore Reservoir, mostly on the reserve to the west of it. Lots of people were in the area, but we managed to remain fairly secluded while we were hunting for our treasures. In all, I think we found 12 caches, and only had 1 did not find, pretty good for a day. We even found a couple micros, which is pretty impressive given our group history with them! Exhausted, we made our way home, and eventually over to my mom's for Pad Thai for dinner. It was delicious! My mom is a great cook, and Sunday dinners are always enjoyable, if only for seeing the kids squirm trying to get away from questions about what they've been up to.

Monday was work as usual, and then on Tuesday, the badness ensued. Mike and I both work up feeling somewhat queasy (and yes, it was both of us, for any of you thinking this was some kind of "morning sickness"). We both decieded it must have been something we ate, and went to work, hoping it would improve. After being sick at work, and then generally useless for a couple hours, I decided that I was going to head home. I wasn't home and on the couch more than an hour before Mike walked in, looking like I felt. We both spent the day sleeping and being sick, not really very pleasant. By that evening, we figured we were through the worst of it, though Mike still had a fever...

In the morning, we both woke to find that unfortunately, whatever this thing was, it wasn't gone yet. We spent Wednesday again just sleeping, and by the evening both of us seemed to be on the road to recovery.

Fast forward through a couple days of work, nothing too exciting since it was just the usual stuff. Today (Friday) the cabinet that matches our dining room table and hutch was delivered, minus the glass shelves. The moving guys are now on a bit of a hunt to figure out where those went, but I told them already that I wasn't taking another day off because they forgot a piece, they could deliver at a more reasonable, non working hour time for that.

This weekend should be good, out to some friends places both days. Watching the Superbowl and getting to hopefully eat lots of food on Sunday (I like food, especially after having lost 5 pounds in 2 days missing it!). That's pretty much it for now.

Posted by Micaela at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well, today was the day we got our new fridge. It is just as pretty as I remembered from the store. The adventures of our getting the old fridge out of the house and the new one in made for quite the day. It started out with me emptying everything from the old fridge so that it could be taken to the dump. This was uneventful enough, though I did discover 4 mayonnaise containers, probably a little excessive... Next, the delivery guys showed up. Nice enough guys, I like anyone willing to lift a fridge for me :) We then discovered that the fridge was too wide to fit through the entrance and through the front door (which we has to take off its hinges since the front entrace in our house is a little tight). Easy enough, we thought, just take the doors off. We cut through the water system figuring that the dump probably didn't need a built in water system. With the doors off, the fridge made it out of the house, but just barely. Our next obstacle was at the front gate, which the fridge, even without doors, was too wide to get through. This was finally resolved after many different drill bits and sizes of torque wrenches, by taking off the gate. Mission accomplished. Fridge was at the truck.

Next came the new fridge. The doors were on, and again we ran into an obstacle at the front gate. Too small, even with the gate off. We fixed this by taking off a piece of wood that was needed for the gate to close against, but figured it wasn't really necessary when there was no gate there to close. We made it through the door relatively unscathed, but then realized that the front entrance way was too small due to a doorjamb sticking out 1/2 an inch from the wall. Out the fridge went, and the door to the freezer on the bottom was taken off. After some measuring by yours truly we decided that the fridge could now make it through the entrance way (for reasons that will soon be understood, this could have been a fatal error). The fridge did however make it through, and we finally had it in the kitchen. We went to push it into place, and then realized that it was at least an inch taller than the bottom of the cabinets above it... uh oh (this was when we decided that maybe I shouldn't be allowed to measure things, I had to have been off by like 3 inches for this to have happened, an impressive accomplishment, if I do say so myself).

At this point, we let the delivery guys go. By this point, I was of the perspective that they were quite awesome for having put up with all the above mentioned crap, while carrying various kitchen appliances (say what you will about that being their job, you couldn't pay me enough to lift a fridge for a living, they are HEAVY). We then proceeded to stare at our too tall fridge, and come up with a was to fix this. Mairi came home at this point, ooohed and aaaahed at the fridge, and had a bit of a laugh at our predicament. We eventually decided that the way to go would be to take the cabinet off the way, cut 1 and a half inches off the bottom, and put it back up. Easier said than done. Our drill was dead, so Mike had to unscrew it from the wall by hand while Mairi and I held the cabinet above us. One off, I called my dad to find out if we could use his table saw. He, fortunately, has lots and lots of tools and really likes getting to use them. We dismanteled the cabinet (by we, I do mean the royal we, and by that I mean Mike), and made our way out to my dad's. He and Mike cut down the cabinet, redrilled all the necessary holes, and even put it back together. We had dinner, watched a movie, then Mike and I were back home. Tomorrow, we'll put the cabinet back on, and try not to wreck anything. Should be interesting. After today, I'm pretty sure we'll manage to screw something up...

Posted by Micaela at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well, it finally happened, an appliance has died. Our fridge decided to stop making ice a long while ago. The cause of this appeared to be a broken valve, no big deal. Then, some time after the ice maker broke, the freezer decided to stop freezing things, and start melting them instead. Only chicken seems to be immune to this, as it seems to be staying frozen, and possibly actually freezing. Nothing else does this though, only the chicken...

Posted by Micaela at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments

Well, the holiday season is now officially all over. I've had a whole week back at work, and Mike gets home from Ontario tonight. I got to go to Edmonton with my dad and Janice this last weekend to visit the grandparents. Got to eat lots of great food, and made it home with a lot. Pasta sauce, jams, frozen home grown veggies, more potatoes than one person really ever needs, bread, cookies... the list could go on, but I'm getting full just thinking about it. Happily, my grandparents are doing well, and it's always nice to see them. We didn't do any other visiting this time, since we were only actually in town for 1.5 days in all.

In other news, the braces are getting less annoying by the day. My teeth seem to be moving very quickly, and I'm hoping they're doing better than the orthodontist would have expected so that the process will go more quickly. I finally get to meet the surgeon who will be cutting up my jaw in March. These guys are darn near impossible to get meetings with. I got to set up the meeting in mid December, and March was the earliest it got. At least I'll get to find out then exactly what he wants to do, how much it'll cost me, and whether my insurance company will pay for any of it... Here's hoping.

What other news is there? We're currently working on deciding what trips to do this year. Right now it's looking like Nova Scotia and Ontario in the summer. I've never been to Nova Scotia, but seem to know a lot of people who live/lived out there, and would love to see it. Ontario would be nice since it would be another week at the cottage, last year was lots of fun. Other thoughts are trying to plan a trip for Mike's spring break in April. I don't know where, but he has a whole week off, and it would be a great time to travel, not high season like summer and Christmas. Hopefully lots of camping/hiking/canoeing/backpacking will happen this summer to round it out.

Posted by Micaela at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

Phew, made it through another Christmas... It was definitely a busy one. We stayed in Calgary this year, and made the rounds of the various parts of my family. On the 23rd we had Chrismas dinner (turkey #1) at my mom's. It was delicious, but both Mike and I ate too much and felt sick afterwards. Then the next day we did a brunch at my dad's house. Mike had never had eggs benedict before (a Janice family Christmas special), and apparently likes them. I can't say I do, but english muffins are always tasty, and this year Janice made some awesome hash browns too. The next day was Christmas, and Mike and I opened presents at home and then headed out to my dad's. We then came to my mom's for a bit, opened gifts and headed up to my aunt and uncle's to see them for a bit. Last we went up to Janice's dad's house for the big family Christmas dinner there. More turkey, and, again, too much food. I like getting to see lots of people on Christmas, so this was a great day, though a little busy, especially with my dad living east of town... lots of driving.

On the 26th, we had my mom's family over for roast (it was especially delicious for the fact that it wasn't turkey). 12 people seated around our 10 person table in a dining room that is just a little too small. Quite exciting. The food was great, and now my aunt and uncle actually believe that we can cook. Tomorrow my dad and Janice and Robyn are coming over for a pizza night before Robyn flies back home to Nova Scotia. It would appear that the theme of these holidays was really: just keep eating!

Mike is heading home to Peterborough for a few days in the new year. We lucked into some super cheap tickets to Toronto, and so he'll get to visit the family from the 3rd to the 7th. I go back to work on the 3rd (boo), and Mike, the 8th. I hope that everyone has had nice holidays, and enjoyed visiting lots of people, or at least eating way too much (at least we're all in the same boat on that front then!).

Posted by Micaela at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments

Only one more sleep until Christmas. I'm still full from the first holiday meal of the year, a delicious turkey dinner at my mom's. Today we have eggs benedict at my dad's, and then lots of visiting tomorrow. I think in the end I will have gained a lot of weight, but the tastiness will have been worth it.

Now, here's a little present for those who enjoyed the last few videos:

Everyone needs to beat a ski jumper in a car...

Posted by Micaela at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

It's finally holiday time. I was antsy all week. On Monday I still thought that working all 5 days was going to happen. By Wednesday, I had realized that there wasn't a chance of that happening. I finished up as much as I could, tried to tied up any loose ends that were left, and took off for my 11 days of vacation.

Today, I mostly just cleaned the house. Not the most thrilling thing ever, but we've got lots of Christmas visiting planned for the next few days, and then 12 people coming over for dinner on Tuesday, so I figured now was probably a good time to make sure the bathroom and kitchen were presentable. The house smells slightly of cleaning supplies, which fortunately everyone I live with seems to enjoy.

Plans for the rest of the holidays include lots of eating (2 turkey dinners!!!), visiting lots of family here in town, maybe a trip up to Edmonton to see the grandparents, and sending Mike off to Peterborough in the new year so that he can visit his family out there. Teachers out here are off from Dec. 23 to Jan. 7, a nice long holiday, though much needed in his case. The visit home will be when I (poor sucker) am back at work, and he'll still be on holidays.

All the shopping is done (thank goodness, since it's the 22nd now, and the malls must be bursting at the seams with people), and the tree and lights are all up. I again got inordinately excited about my tree skirt, which, while awesome, probably doesn't merit that level of excitement. Oh well, I like this holiday, probably best of all the ones there are. Might as well have fun with it. Next year, I really do need to work on looking for my very own light up reindeer, just to push the awesomeness level of our outdoor decorations up a little more.

That's it for now. I hope everyone is having (or will have) a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Posted by Micaela at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments

For those who enjoyed the last videos, another one:



Micaela :)

Posted by Micaela at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments

I was looking around at everyone else's blogs today, and realized that I was sadly behind on my own... The holiday season probably won't help, but I can at least try. So life in the last while has been pretty good. The latest I can remember is the cookie making. We made gingerbread, sugar and press cookies. All very tasty, and now all iced as well. The last two days were very productive! Now we just have to give them out before we try to eat them all... That would be a little unpleasant I think. I pretty much finished off the Christmas shopping in the last week or so as well. Still have to get a gift for my grandma, so if anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them... She's a tough one to shop for.

Other things... well, work's been a little crazy lately. They keep adding things to my workload, which is nice because I'm always busy it seems, but I must admit I'm looking forward to the summer when the two jobs I've been covering become one. We're getting a new engineer in our group in April or May, and once she's trained, I get to do one job again. That'll be pretty exciting! The new work is a little intimidating since it's a pretty big step up from the old work, but I think (hopefully!) I'll be able to do it, and hopefully do it well...

Also, well, it's been a while since I posted so we put up the Christmas lights and tree. I'm working on making our neighbours feel guilty for having absolutely no decorations outside by trying to make our house as Christmassy as I possibly can (one day I'll get my light up reindeer and blow up snowmen... one day... preferably on the roof). So far, we've had great (and increasing numbers of) lights up, and no improvement... Maybe next year will be better. I really enjoy Christmas and all the things that go along with it, so this is kind of a great time of year in my world.

Last night we went for a drive in Mount Royal to look at Christmas lights. Boy oh boy there are some awesome setups in that area. One house in particular gives me something to aspire to. They had every part of their house and yard decorated, even the garden. It was amazing. I'm sure Mike thinks I'm a little nuts, but he seems to go along with it, which is a good thing.

On another good note, my teeth hurt a little less now. I'm still not eating normally or quite enough for my liking, but there is improvement every day. One day I'll even be able to bite food I hope. I can already see movement, which is exciting, and I'm going to consult with the surgeon who'd like to cut apart my jaw in March. They even charge you $250 for the pleasure of having them tell you what exactly they want to cut apart... such fun this orthodontia world leads to ;)

Well, it's time for bed now, and that's all the updates I can think of for now. I'm sure I've forgotten tons, but my brain is done thinking for the day. We have an early morning breakfast meet with friends, so I'd better get some sleep so I'm not a grump in the morning. Until next time...

Posted by Micaela at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments

Last Thursday was the big day. The braces went on, and I must admit I'd forgotten how uncomfortable they are. It's been 10 years since the last set, and I guess that is a long time, so that explains how I'd managed to forget that important fact. One other thing I'd forgotten: how disgusting the glue they use to stick the brackets on your teeth tastes. I was sitting there with my lips pulled off my teeth, and the most uncomfortable thing holding my tongue out of the way, and thinking I might throw up as I could taste the glue. Then I got to wondering how I might communicate this fact since I wasn't able to move my mouth at all. It was a bit of a dillema.

So anyways, the braces are on, and will be for about the next 18 months. Then they cut my jaw apart and do a few more months of braces. Sounds like the most fun ever, right? ;)

At least my teeth have stopped hurting from the initial moving. My teeth have definitely already shifted pretty noticeably.

Posted by Micaela at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, the boys of Top Gear decide to take a caravanning trip. You have to watch the first two parts to truly appreciate the third. Enjoy!

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Trust me, it's worth it.

Posted by Micaela at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Just the other day we got the best calendar ever in the mail. It was from Kraft, and came with this month's What's Cooking magazine. Tonight for dinner we decided to try a couple of recipes from it. For dinner, it was beef stew, nothing unusual, but very tasty looking. For desert, we made lime squares. Kind of like happy fun cake, but with lime flavor rather than chocolate. Pretty awesome.

Other news from the week... We got the winter tires on the car last Thursday. When we went to pick it up in the evening something seemed off. Then we noticed that they had forgotten to put hubcaps on, which were supposed to be part of the package. Unfortunately, it was 8:30 at night, and the only person there was the secretary, who really couldn't help us. So, this morning, it was another trek up to the dealership to pick up the hubcaps, which were in stock, but had simply been forgotten in the first place. No big deal, a little funny though.

Second news of the week. It looks like braces are going to go on next week. I'm not sure how to feel, but since I've commited to doing this, I kind of want to get going before I change my mind. It'll be 18 months of braces, then jaw surgery, then another 4-9 months of braces to finish it all off. So, in another 2-3 years this will all be done, and hopefully the teeth will be perfect.

Posted by Micaela at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments

Alright, well it's been a while since I've posted anything on here. I'll try to be better, though I'm not sure it'll really work all that well. So, what's been going on the last couple weeks, you ask? Let me think ;)

Most recently, Mike and I made our way to Walmart to get the last 6 months worth of pictures printed. They must have the slowest uploading machines in existence. 20 minutes later the pictures that had taken less than 2 minutes to load onto the memory card were finally done. Amazingly, despite having over 150 pictures to print, they actually got them finished in the one hour time. I haven't had that happen in a good long time. Usually 1 hour at Walmart means come back in a couple days.

Anyways, on to the madness that is Walmart. There was a pretty constant stream of people going in as we were waiting for our pictures to load, so we were unsurprised when we went inside to find that it was a zoo. People filling pretty much every aisle, lines that filled the area between the tills (not just with one line of people, but with a clump of them). We decided that maybe it wouldn't be waiting in line to purchase anything, and wandered through Marlborough mall for a bit, waiting for the pictures to be ready. After that was all done, we quickly went to Home Sense to pick up some new bath mats since Mairi tried to wash one and made it disintegrate. Not really a normal problem, but it was pretty funny and our dryer is still letting out red lint (it was a really bad bath mat, we replaced it's twin as well to stop the shedding of pink dust all over the bathroom floor).

Okay now, thinking back... Busy week at work. Lots of meetings, some of them were even useful. Incredible really. That almost never happens. On my walk in on Wednesday, I think, the sidewalks were crazy icy. Every bit of sidewalk was covered in a thin layer of ice, you couldn't walk without slipping. I didn't fall, but I witnessed many people sliding, and one or two who took pretty uncomfortable looking spills. I tried to walk on grass as far as I could, and then very carefully when I couldn't.

What else... well, I had Friday off, finally got around to renewing the car license. When I tried to put the new sticker on, it cracked and didn't stick. I think it was partly that it was too cold out, partly that the plate wasn't quite clean enough. There's only so much you can do sitting in a parking lot. Yes, I know I could have gone home, but being so brilliant, that didn't occur to me until after I had destroyed the sticker. So I went inside like the idiot that I was, and fortunately they didn't charge me for a new sticker, just looked at me like I was a moron. Well deserved, really. When the DMV thinks you're an idiot, you know you've done something special.

Lastly, a little rant about stupid drivers. Think about it. Don't change lanes 2 feet in front of someone (i.e. cut them off) when you're going down a hill that is absolutely covered in gravel. They may not appreciate the shower you send their way, particularly when the lane change was entirely to weave in and out of traffic to get somewhere 2 minutes faster, not because you actually needed to be in their lane. Yeesh...

That's all for now. I'll try to update more frequently from now on so that I don't have these marathon rants going on.

Posted by Micaela at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments

We woke up this morning (with an extra hour of sleep, thank you daylight savings) and noticed (not right away, mind you) that there was a whole bunch of snow outside. The first thing to note would have to be that I was probably downstairs 2-3 minutes before I looked out of one of our many windows to actually notice this point. Kind of sad really that it took me that long to bother a glance out of a window, we have quite a few of them. The second would be that while the snow is very pretty, I never did get around to cleaning up the yard, so if this snow doesn't go away the clean-up come spring is going to be a little gross.

It's looking like we're going to have a white Halloween, which is okay, but means that a lot of little kids are going to be out in their snowsuits. Hopefully they all have costumes a few sizes too big. When I was a kid, I think my parents usually planned my costumes around what I could wear a snowsuit under. A good idea in Calgary.

I don't know what we're going to do today, but I'm hoping it doesn't involve having to watch football all day. It's just not my idea of a good time... Can't imagine why :)

Posted by Micaela at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments

Well, it's almost Halloween, which means two things. The first is that it's almost time for the Christmas stuff to come out (yay tree and lights!). The second is that it's time to carve pumpkins. Here are the pictures of mine, Mike's and Mairi's pumpkins.







































I'm not too sure yet that we'll actually be doing anything for Halloween. Chances are no, but that's okay. We can hang around home, watch a movie, and give out candy to the three kids who actually make their way here.

Posted by Micaela at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments

So apparently hiking when you haven't done anything remotely resembling hiking in a couple months makes you hurt. I woke up this morning and mike calves and neck hurt worse than they have in a good long time. I was hobbling around work all day, probably shouldn't have worn heels, but I didn't think of that at 7 this morning. At least pilates made it feel a lot better. My neck turns properly again, and my legs don't ache. At least the next hike probably won't hurt nearly as much.

On the plus side, the mountain was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Nice blue skies are always great in the mountains. Next weekend plans look like pumpkin carving and then a Tragically Hip concert on Monday. Should be lots of fun.

Posted by Micaela at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments

Looking up at the summit of Moose mountain from a false summit part of the way up. The snow was deeper than it looks!



















On the summit of the mountain at a fire watch station.



















Another shot from the top at another angle.




















A mountain range to the west of us. They look so much more impressive with snow on them.




















Mike and I at the top.




















Mike and Jenn looking for the cache at the top of the mountain.




















Patches on the mountain.




















Me in front of the mountain ranges.





















Me on the mountain again.

Posted by Micaela at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Our convoy for the Fort McMurray field trip. They didn't have the cars we had actually reserved so we got these gutless wonders...



















An eagle in a nearby tree.



















Oil sand. Picked up right off the river bank.



















A pretty shot of the river and trees.



















An airplane next to the boat we were getting on. I thought it was pretty cool.



















Another pretty shot.

Posted by Micaela at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments

I think we may have made a discovery today on the best breakfast food ever: cinnamon bun french toast. So bad for you, yet so, so good. I highly recomment it at Nellie's if you're feeling the desire to go out for breakfast one day soon.

Posted by Micaela at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

And finally the week is over! This had to be one of the crazier weather days I've seen in a while. Okay weather, windy this morning, the I look out the window at like 4 and the sky is black as can be. A quick trip downstairs to get a chocolate bar and suddenly it's pouring rain and hailing. Then back upstairs and the sky is blue again. So very strange. It looks like we're going to get more rain tonight, unfortunately, though I'll probably live.

The community art show is on this weekend, always good for a bit of time to walk through. It's fun to see what new artists come out for each of the new shows. Otherwise, it'll be a quiet weekend, I'm looking forward to it :)

Posted by Micaela at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well I finally broke down and did it. For those of you that may not have heard, I had quite the surprising meeting with an orthodontist a few months ago. Something to the tune of 1 minor jaw surgery, 1 major jaw surgery, and at least 2 years of braces and various appliances. Needless to say, about the time the orthodontist was describing the first surgery I started crying. It was pretty impressive. Right there, in the office while he was talking, couldn't even wait until I got out and to my car... So anyways, here we are 3 months later and I've been avoiding calling him back since I really don't want to do this whole braces thing again, and procrastination is a wonderful way to avoid doing things you don't want to (hello fall yard work!). Today I finally broke down and decided that I would get a second opinion, even phoned and made one. So I have officially found a terrible way to use up my remaining vacation days, visits to the orthodontist. Should be fun, next Wednesday is going to come very quickly I suspect. Wish me luck!

Posted by Micaela at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments

I think we may be needing to go on a sock buying excursion soon. I just went through Mike's drawers to throw out the old holey ones when he wasn't looking, and left him with not very many pairs left. It's pretty impressive how bad socks actually have to get before you'll toss them. I know that in mine, there are several pairs with holes in the toes, heels, ankles, some even have all of these bad things in one sock, and I keep them thinking that at least it's match is okay, and I don't want to have uneven numbers of socks, what a problem that would be ;) or maybe I'm just crazy... That could definitely be possible.

Posted by Micaela at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments

The project management training is officially done!!! 6 modules, 2.5 days each (including a Saturday morning each), and a bit more stuff in my head about how project work, and the sheer volume of paperwork that goes in to one - all finished :D

Posted by Micaela at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

Whew, the project management course is almost done. This is module 6, or the last module of them all! It's pretty exciting to be almost done. It's not that the course is bad, just that 2.5 days of listening to someone talk about stuff that seems like it ought to take about a day in total. A lot of stretching takes place. So tomorow morning I go in, write a test, and then get to come home! Then the car gets to get an oil change. It's officially 2 years old now. Pretty exciting day.

I like it when the car goes in to the dealership. It always comes out nice and clean. That's pretty much it for this week. Thanksgiving was good. Lots of turkey with both sets of parents, and my dad's now off travelling around Europe. Lucky guy! I've decided the best part of Thanksgiving dinner is definitely the cranberry sauce. I know many may disagree, but it's just so awesome :).

Anyways, that's all for now.

PS. I just noticed that today was Friday the 13th. Scary stuff ;)

Posted by Micaela at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments

I was flipping through some pictures my dad had on memory cards that needed to be wiped, and thought this was a nice one of Mike and me from a wedding 2 summer's ago.

Posted by Micaela at 5:30 AM | Permalink | Comments

Getting mail is awesome. That is all.

Posted by Micaela at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments

It's almost Thanksgiving, mmm turkey and cranberry sauce. I'm definitely looking forward to a dinner at my mom's this weekend, and maybe we'll try to cook something up at home one of the other nights, depending on how stuffed we are.

In other news, I've got another trip up to Fort McMurray tomorrow. I'm presenting a talk on SAGD at an internal conference. Should be exciting... I'm not the biggest fan of public speaking, but this is what I've done for the last couple years and I know it, I just don't like having to talk in front of crowds.

Last of all, our furnace decided to stop working a couple nights ago. Well, it probably started not working long before that, but we only noticed when it got freezing in the house. The bed was like an icebox! It turns out that not only was the filter disgusting (which I knew, but had been too lazy to fix until today - trips to Home Depot are always fun), but something had overheated and caused a wire to burn and short out, bringing the entire furnace down. I took the afternoon off today, and a furnace repair guy came, and we now have heat! Now we can look forward to at least some parts of the house being above 60oF.

Posted by Micaela at 9:49 PM | Permalink | Comments

Mike and I got to go out for lunch with my dad and Janice today. It was Janice's birthday last week, and we finally managed to get together for that. Went to a place called Wildwood in Mount Royal, and the food was amazing. I had a bison burger and then we shared a chocolate desert, something made with Callebaut dark chocolate and raspberry sauce, so it's really hard to go wrong. Definitely a restaurant we'll have to go back to...

Now it's time for a bit of cleaning I think. Not the most exciting thing ever, but it needs to be done, and Mike's out at a hockey draft, so it seems like a good thing to fill some time.

Posted by Micaela at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, I don't know why, but some weeks just seem like they just won't end. This last one, unfortunately, was one of them. Lots of good things, it just seemed like it was about 20 days long with all that went one. Monday to Wednesday morning I was in Fort McMurray for a field trip. Saw lots of outcrops of McMurray oil sands... was was probably the neatest part was the fact that you could actually see oil seeping slowly out of the sand. Gives you quite the visual about what goes on when we put steam in this stuff 300m underground. Had a couple great dinners, the Keg the first night, then a place called the Fish Place which has something called the Crab boil. Basically they bring large piles of seafood and other good stuff and pile it up in the middle of the table. Then everyone eats. The place is run by a family from the east coast, and despite my confusion as to where they get fresh crab in Fort McMurray, the food was delicious. Both ways we got to fly on the sunjet, which has been upgraded from the old 11 seater to a new 50 seater plane. The fact that you can sit up straight and use the bathroom is pretty fun. I haven't actually seen anyone use said bathroom yet, but it's just nice that they figured it might be a good idea.

So Wednesday morning we fly back and I race home and then to the office where I have meetings booked all day. One of the true joys of working ;) We also had a united way event planned for lunch that day, a 5km run/3km walk in which I had signed up to run. I haven't really run in a year, at least not on pavement, and boy was I stiff the next day. Won't be doing that again anytime soon! So after lunch, more meetings, then home quickly to get the car and out to pilates. The week already felt like it should have been over at this point, but sadly, wasn't. I do like being busy at work, but this was ridiculous!

Anyways, Thursday I got to go to Pump School, put on by some Schlumberger reps. It was a good presentation, and helped me understand the pumps we use and some of the challenges they face in providing them. The afternoon was filled with yet more meetings and then finally Friday came. We got to have our monthly floor birthday cake, always a fun time, and I spent the rest of the day in, you guessed it, meetings. I'm starting to take on a new role at work, while still doing my old one for the next 6-8 months, and this new one involves a lot of discussion with people from other groups to make sure everyone is on the same page.

All in all, not a bad time, just busy, but I suppose the alternative is much much worse. Trying to fill 8 hour days when you have nothing to do is one of the dullest things ever. I'm happy to report the weekend hasn't been nearly as packed, and I'm looking forward to yet more craziness next week...

Posted by Micaela at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments

Some cool pictures from Global Fest 2006. Thanks to work for the free tickets.

Posted by Micaela at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, the ladies at work started a book club. Month number 1: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I finished another Margaret Atwood book a while back, while we were in Ontario, and loved it, so this one should be a good read as well.

This all got me thinking that I have some books on the shelf that I'd like to read, as well as some others that we talked about tonight that sounded really good.

So, some books to read:
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies (along with the other two books in the trilogy)

And some that I really liked:
I was a Teenage Katimavik by Will Ferguson
The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood
Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson
pretty much any girly book there is :)
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
About a Boy by Nick Hornby

Not exactly the most academic of lists, but an enjoyable one. I'll keep posted on the book club thing and how it's going...

Posted by Micaela at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well, it's really windy outside right now. I'm a little sad that summer has come and gone. The little bit of snow yesterday and the day before was a bit of a shock to the system. Now we're looking at winter tires, and I must say, they're both really expensive and really confusing! The consensus in the world of Mini seems to be the Pirelli 190 Winter Snowcontrol, unfortunately we can't find anywhere in Calgary that stocks them at the moment. Should be some fun shopping...

Posted by Micaela at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Micaela at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

Before:



After:

Posted by Micaela at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments

Opened up the newspaper today to see that a friend from high school is a main character on a new TV show. Crazy...

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/entertainment/story.html?id=18cb9b60-e430-402b-a9ed-48c9d81e8a23

Until later :)

Posted by Micaela at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Micaela at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well, apparently you shouldn't try to add 5 pictures two times... makes the whole thing come crashing down around you :(. Here are the rest of the pictures (added 1 at a time, this blog thing needs to work on ease of adding pictures... yeesh).








A tree in Kingston.



















Monarch butterfly. Not usually too interesting I suppose, but we don't see many of them at home.












One of the nice sunsets we got.



















Another sunset picture.














Mirror in the lake.










A cool picture of the water.













Another cool sunset, another night.












Loons on the lake. Saw them quite a few days.













Lilypads.












Yet another sunset (seeing a theme?).













Well, that's it for now. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Posted by Micaela at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments

Looking out at the lake.












Raccoon at the cottage.
















Light on the cottage. Playing with the camera is fun :)
















Mike and Colin playing on the canoe.















Just a cool picture of reeds on the edge of the lake.

















Mike diving into the lake.
















Danielle, Colin and Mike by the lake in Kingston.

Posted by Micaela at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments

The first week back from holidays is usually either absolutely insane, or incredibly dull. Sadly, the later applies here. Most of my floor is gone on vacation or out of the office for various reasons, leaving me with not a lot to do. When I went away, I'd pretty much managed to tie up any loose ends I needed to, so now, well, I guess it's blog time. I'd consider going home, but people have been setting up 1 important meeting a day, and with everyone else already gone, I really shouldn't be too... seems like a bad plan to have no representation from anyone in our group.

On to other things, the week in Ontario was nice, lots of time spent sitting by a lake and reading books. I finally read one of the Margaret Atwood books we bought at the Calgary Herald book sale a while back, I think it was The Blind Assasin. It was pretty good, must have been considering I made it through 600 pages in about 3 days. I'll have to take a stab at some of her other books now. Maybe that'll be a good winter time project... We did a bit of canoeing, went swimming, even got a chance to go into Kingston for a few hours. There are a lot of new buildings on campus! The new ILC building is pretty cool, with all the cutouts in the floor and walls to show how it all works and the new buildings where the old chemistry buildings were have gone up. They must have kept some limestone from somewhere to match the rest of the buildings, the new ones fit in really well. Mike got a new Queen's t-shirt to replace his old on that had way too many holes in it to keep. The next step will be convincing him to throw out the old one, and I don't like my chances there...

Otherwise, all is well, and things are starting to wind down. We get to go the fireworks show this weekend. I've heard it's pretty cool, so I'm looking forward to seeing it for myself for the first time.

Posted by Micaela at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments

Looks like our time at the airport tomorrow should be interesting...

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20060810%2fairport_delays_060810&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V2&showbyline=True

Pretty scary happenings, definitely doesn't make you want to go out and get on an airplane tomorrow. Hopefully they've actually caught most of the people who were willing to blow themselves up in this round.

Anyways, we're off to Toronto tomorrow, so I hope everyone has a great week!

Posted by Micaela at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments

On our backpacking trip in Kananaskis, I think Mike and Ricky were a wee bit tired.

And I think I know why... Our packs might have been a little bit uneven...

That's all for today. We're going to go cut down a tree in a little while. Should be exciting!

Posted by Micaela at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments

For some reason, the site doesn't want to let me post another picture. Kind of annoying, though it's possible that it's my computer's fault. Not sure what's going on, but I'm going to bed, so the funny pics from our backpacking trip a few weeks back will have to wait. Boo to that!

Posted by Micaela at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

Some pictures from camping and the Burgess Shale hike in Yoho last weekend:

Takakkaw falls: pretty impressive!



A mountain view on our hike.


Lunch time on the hike.


At the Burgess Shale site, lots of cool fossils:




Mike and I at the end of the hike.


Group photo.


Some wildflower pictures I thought turned out well.


That's all for now!

Posted by Micaela at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments