A Little Coo

First Smiles

Pants, Smiles, Excitement

I bought some new jeans today. They have a zipper. I hope I don't forget to do it up.

Stephen blew on Felix's face tonight. Felix furrowed his brow and looked confused and then his eyes lit up and he gave Stephen a HUGE smile. Definitely not gas...and such an amazing sight.

So happy to be headed to ON soon...can't wait to reunite with friends and family.

A Letter to Felix

Our back-up doula wrote a little note to Felix and I thought I'd share:

Dear Baby Felix,

You were a little late coming into the world as you were 10 days over-due. In that time you decided to grow nice and big which was a bit of a surprise for Mom and Dad. They didn't expect you to be quite so huge.

I had only met your Mom the day before you were born as her original Doula had to be away. That didn't provide us with a lot of time to get to know each other, but I sensed a very loving Mom-to-be. When your Mom went into labour the next day, I had the opportunity to go over to the house early and meet your Dad as well. They were both very excited and ready to meet you soon.

Your Mom stayed very calm throughout her labour and your Dad was always by her side. At one point when she was about to have a contraction she leaned into your Dad and he said "Come on. We'll do this together". He was very focused on making this the best experience for your Mom that he could.

Your Mom was a strong woman and managed your entry into the world without an epidural or pain medications. You gave her a bit of a challenge when she gave birth to you as you had an arm crooked up by your head. Mom and Dad laughed as they said that this was the position you held during the ultrasounds as well.

After you were born, your Mom and Dad would have little moments of the giggles as they were just so elated by your presence. It was so nice to see. I loved it and feel very honored to have witnessed such a joyful experience.

I know that you will be well taken care of little Felix. I only had a few hours to get to know your Mom and Dad but I saw plenty of love between them at that time. I know there will be lots of love in your life as your parents guide and protect you. Welcome to the world baby Felix!

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

I know we're pretty fortunate to have the little fellow we have...so far he's been a perfect little gentleman and does lots of sleeping, only complaining when he's hungry.

We've been experimenting with dealing with night feedings. I've been pumping a bottle, going to bed around 9pm and letting Stephen take care of the midnight feeding. This means I sometimes get to sleep from 9 until 3am and Steve from midnight until he has to get ready for work at 6am.

Anyway, last night Stephen woke me up around 11 with a crying, hungry, wet baby. He was trying to give Felix the bottle when he realized that he was eating really fast. Turned out the cap wasn't on the bottle properly and he was pouring milk all over the little guy.

Life with Felix

Felix is 13 days old today, and I already can't believe how quickly time is flying.

He is such an incredible little creature, despite only knowing a few tricks. My favourites are how he gets excited when he knows I'm about to feed him and he starts to grunt or when he is finished feeding and falls asleep with a mouth full of milk, too tired to take that last swallow. I love his huge slow-blinking newborn eyes that follow the sound of my voice. Mostly I love watching Felix and Stephen bond.

I was pretty sure that I would like having a baby, but I had no idea how much I would love every single part of it.

Baby

A Country Music Excursion in the Country

I've been harassing my dear ex-TSO colleague and great friend, Josh, to convince one of the many bands he plays drums for to tour through Saskatchewan. He told me months ago that there was a strong possibility that he would be coming our way at the end of November with Joshua Cockerill, a young and talented folk-country artist. I decided that it was Murphy's Law that we would have a newborn baby then and we probably wouldn't get to see him.

It just so happens that between Winnipeg and Alberta they added a concert at Pump Jack Saloon in Weyburn on Thursday night. Steve and I hemmed and hawed for about 30 seconds and then realized that it was only an hour away and there is a hospital in Weyburn so we hit the road after Steve was done work.

We had a great supper at the Saloon (amazing food that surprised me) and a great visit with Josh and Devo (the bass player who we also knew through Josh). I wasn't really sure what to expect from the music, but this 22 year old has some great songwriting talent. We of course bought his CD which features people like Serena Ryder, pretty impressive. Oh and the band changed their name to Joshua Cockerill and The Midwives for that evening...in honour of my current state. Too funny.

The music, food, and the visit with Josher were so great. On the drive to Weyburn I asked Stephen what he would have thought if three years ago someone told us we would be watching one of Josh's bands play in Weyburn, Saskatchewan.

The Wait Continues....

I spent yesterday afternoon in the Fetal Assessment Unit at the General Hospital. Stephen miraculously had one of those "Earned Days Off" - a perk of working life in Regina - so he could keep me company.

We waited and waited and chatted with some other people in the waiting room. There was a nice couple who was 10 days overdue and I loved the girl because she was super positive and kinda like "whatever happens" about the whole experience. There was another couple who were at 35 weeks and the girl was freaking out and loudly whispered to her husband "I DON'T WANT TO BE 10 DAYS OVERDUE" so I had to get my hate on for her. She was also dressed in head to toe Rider gear wearing a "future Rider fan" t-shirt with an arrow pointing to the belly. Everyone joked about how our late babies were probably going to come on Sunday during the Rider game and the hospital would be empty.

We got our ultrasound (only my second time to see Hairy in black and white) and it was looking very comfortable in there with lots of fluid and room still. Hairy is in perfect position for birth which made me happy. We got to see its little hand in front of the face again, a foot by the other side of the face, a long spine, a healthy beating heart, and my always full bladder. We were careful not to look as she did most of the test as we didn't want to accidentally discover the sex.

We then waited for the Non Stress Test for which I got to sit in a huge recliner chair and had two monitors put on my belly, one to take the baby's heartbeat and the other to assess movements and any contractions. They put you on the monitor until the baby has two periods of distinct movements. The lady in front of me took 45 minutes for this to happen and needed all sorts of juices brought in to her. Our active little Hairy took about 5 minutes to achieve this and then we had to sit for 5 more minutes while they monitored the heartrate. It was neat to see it move from 129 to 160 when it got moving and excited.

I was handed a pamphlet on Inducing Labour (sigh...come on Hairy) and we were sent on our merry little way.

On the way home we realized in terror that we had made absolutely no plans for this weekend thinking we'd have a 7 or 8 pound distraction. So...Steve phoned Derek and Sofia to see if they wanted to check out a movie with us. They happened to be planning an excursion to Vibank for the best Mexican food in Saskatchewan and called the very small restaurant which is reservation in advance only to convince them that their very pregnant friend needed some spicy Mexican food to induce labour...and they were able to fit us in. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS, but unfortunately did not induce labour!

We Live in a Small Town

I've been getting a little bit desperate for things to do these days. Yesterday my to do list consisted of:

- Lunch with Mom/Grandma
- Get library card
- Wash car

When I went to get my library card and gave the man at the desk my ID he said...oh that's my old address, you bought your house from me.

40 Weeks, 5 Days

Everything my friends have told me and I've read about being overdue is nothing like this. I know some people would probably like to throw something at me for saying this, but I'm feeling fantastic.

I've been having fun seeing friends and family checking in with me to see if there is a baby yet. The anticipation is very exciting and Steve and I just can't wait to meet our new "housemate"!

At the same time, I know that this short "vacation" between the two worlds of working constantly and becoming a mom will be something that I look back on fondly so I'm enjoying it as much as possible. I've checked all of the biggies off my list...but maybe there is time for another manicure or massage.

Due Date

I had a fabulous potential birthday for Hairy, having a pretty strong feeling that there would be no baby.

Went for lunch with mom and brother and then to the Michael Jackson documentary with a friend.

November 11th

For my first Remembrance day spent in Ontario, I was absolutely shocked to have to go to classes. Yes, in Ontario people work on Remembrance Day unless you work in a bank or for the government.

Today was Stephen's first Remembrance day as a holiday. To be honest, we didn't spend a lot of time remembering, but I think of today much like Valentine's day...something you should think about for more than one day a year.

Stephen spent his day helping a friend drywall a basement (it's so nice that he has found buddies here with such similar interests). He then finished installing his automatic car starter in his van (a Saskatchewan necessity), put a timer on our outside light, put dimmer switches in our bedroom and Hairy's bedroom, did some final preparations for the electrical inspector coming tomorrow, and started putting up Christmas lights.

I spent my day preparing food, lazing around online, returning a movie to Blockbuster, grocery shopping, and finishing the grant I've been writing for months.

Yes, it was productive indeed.

39 Week Update

On what may or may not be our last Friday night alone pre-parenthood, we decided to make a robot costume. The purpose of which was primarily to poke a little fun at our friends. We laughed so hard while doing so that it made it entirely worth it.

Productive Husblini

So - the way that I can tell Stephen is excited about something is that he starts to go full tilt on all of his home reno projects. He's been avoiding a few of the less desirable ones for weeks. His least favourite is insulating our attic. Anyway, tonight is his third night of working on it. He's dressed in a full on aesbestos suit because of the itchiness and looking thoroughly miserable every time he descends down the ladder. Normally I would be up there helping him (I'm an expert insulator), but he doesn't allow me to due to my current enormity.

He's doing this project amongst others to improve the heat retention in our house over the winter months. Even though I know he's hating every minute of it, it melts my heart because I know exactly why he is in such a rush to get it done.

I think I better go and bake him some cookies.

Maternity Leave: Day 1 of 365

On Sunday I started to get worried that I would run out of stuff to do this week, despite the fact that I still have a few major items of work to accomplish, so I created a list. It managed to keep me quite busy all day and helped me to procrastinate from the work I have to do.

Day 1 included:
- opening up my work computer and answering some emails for my replacement
- getting H1N1 vaccinated with all of the 6 month to 5 year olds and other pregnant ladies (was of two minds about this but decided to go for it...no side effects at all).
- cleaning kitchen and making lunch
- buying a few groceries in the afternoon with seniors and stay at home moms
- making homemade turkey soup to freeze
- listening to CBC Radio 2 Drive while working on a grant application

Only 364 more days to go....

Baby Deep Fry

I'll try to add some photos in another post, but wanted to give some highlights of our amazing co-ed baby shower last night hosted by the amazing Ash and Ryan.

- 2 deep fried turkeys
- extremely difficult parenting challenges for Stephen and I, Stephen the clear winner.
- Natasha the clear loser at the "car seating" challenge
- 2 adorable babies dressed up as monkeys
- Rock Band set up in Ryan's sweet garage
- 3 bottles of Beck's non alcoholic beer
- popcorn cupcakes
- chocolate peanut butter cakes as a post dessert dessert
- great friends and lots of fun!

I'm writing this as Stephen recovers from his hangover...which should be the result of every baby shower if you ask me.

38 Weeks

Last day of work...now what???

Flying with a Newborn

Part of being married to someone whose family lives across the country from you means some negotiation about Christmas holidays and where they are spent. We decided early on that we would try to alternate between spending the holidays with our families. It hasn't worked out exactly as planned:

2008 - Saskatchewan - Steve had just moved here a month earlier and wanted to get settled
2007 - Saskatchewan
2006 - Italy - Our magical honeymoon
2005 - Ontario - Highlight was an evening of Karaoke with the Thomson side and a NYE at the cottage
2003 & 2004 - Natasha in Sask, Steve in Ont

As you can see, it's Ontario's turn and so last night we took a deep breath and booked our flights. I booked Hairy's first flight under the name Master Tobedetermined which I hope doesn't come back to haunt me Customer Service wise.

37 Week Reality Check

Hmmm...some stuff I've learned. 37 weeks means the baby is full term and could arrive any day. I really can't complain about this pregnancy thing, just a bit of nausea and sore feet from time to time. For the last week or so it's been almost comical...I have to really work to get out of bed to hit the washroom 3 or 4 times a night. Stephen has had to move a lounger chair into the living room because it is too hard to get up off of the couch after lying down. My ribs are bruised from the kicking on the inside so much that I can't lie on one side.

I really would recommend only working until 35 or 36 weeks. I've gone in to work 20 of the last 22 days, many of those being evenings in addition to a full day...it's too much and doesn't leave much time to get stuff ready for a baby. It still doesn't feel real somehow.

Steve and I are going to be parents! My parental model is a single-parent family which makes me nervous...how does this work with two people working together? How will I deal with going from such a crazy work schedule to being home with an adorable (yes, I'm assuming) little creature all day? How will our precious cats react? I haven't changed a diaper since I was a teenager babysitting. Will we lose our zany lifestyle completely?

Pumpkin and Petroleum Jelly?

Last weekend we had a Halloween themed concert at work. One of my staffers came up with the idea of asking local celebrities to carve pumpkins and we would silent auction them off in the lobby.

The project involved some organization such as delivering pumpkins all over the city. My EA did some research and found out that putting petroleum jelly on the pumpkins would make them last longer, fresher. The other staffer told me that he when he dropped off the pumpkins it was awkward because the people answering the door didn't always know why he was delivering a pumpkin.

When they described to me their system in detail I started laughing so hard that I cried. So our Manager of Orchestra Operations was essentially driving to local celebrities homes (people like local Elvis impersonator Rory Allen's house) and ringing the doorbell with a huge pumpkin and a tube of lube in hand.

Too funny.........

Albertan Adventure

I'm sitting in the lobby of the "Service Plus" hotel in Calgary typing this as we wait for CAA. Of course we are having a small adventure.

Steve's Grade 1 teacher's van is filled to the brim with Ikea gadgets, we've had some very successful shopping times. My favourite moment in Ikea was going through the checkout 4 times to take advantage of the 20% we got back in gift cards through our new Pax wardrobe system. On one of those times, we took a frozen yogurt break and Stephen accidentally started grabbing a rather overweight ladies ice cream and she gave him the dirtiest look while he had the happiest "I have ice cream" look on his face. I laughed for about 20 minutes.

We finished the shopping spree at about 1pm yesterday and then hit the road with the van full of stuff to go for a short 3K prego-hike in Banff (it sucked to be there and not have the guts to do a real hike, but it was a beautiful day and enjoyable) and have a romantic dinner at my all-time favourite Banff establishment, Wild Bill's. This was our pseudo anniversary as we couldn't get away during the pre-Symphony Under the Sky week and we had a great 1/2 day of fun.

Anyway, on the drive back to Calgary we almost ran out of gas, but saw a station on the highway just in the nick of time. Stephen noticed that his one tire needed air, but air cost $1 at that particular gas station. He thought that paying $1 for air was a total rip-off so we blasted off down the #1 Highway, did a quick drive around downtown Calgary and determined that Calgary is a "real" city in our Boodlini estimation, and headed back to the Hotel.

This morning we were jumping into the van ready to head back to Regina and noticed a little issue. Our tire was completely flat. I'm sure it didn't help that we have quite a bit of weight in the back of the van and that we didn't pay the $1 for air.

And now we await our friends from CAA to fill our tire...and they just got here...thank goodness for my mother-in-law's annual Christmas present of a CAA membership. It has saved our Boodlini butt's on more than one occasion.

See you back in The Vag.

Exotic Balsamic Vinegar

Thursday nights are pre-natal class nights at the Y. Our instructor begins each class with a roll call, but tonight Stephen remarked at how "white" the names in our class sound. We giggled a bit at that and as I looked around realized that everyone in our class was white and how no one was named Hassan or Giuliano everyone was named Troy or Mike.

Later on, our instructor began talking about foods that might help to induce labour if you are overdue and mentioned balsamic vinegar. She had to stop and tell the class that it was that dark vinegar you get at Italian restaurants mixed with oil for your bread dipping pleasure. Meanwhile my 1/2 Italian husband sat in complete shock and I laughed until it was awkward.

"Traffic"

From our new house, I have two choices of routes to work each morning. All summer I've been taking Wascana Parkway up to College to avoid the Albert Street Bridge construction and the Starbucks enticement. Now that University is back on I've had to switch back over to the Albert option.

It's been 16 months in Sask and I'm already complaining about an additional 3 minutes on my ten minute "commute" each morning. Funny how quickly perspective can change after my old 45 minute streetcare ride/1 hour walk in Toronto...hmmm.

Motorcycle Ride

Because we are such a hip couple, we took the Honda CB750 circa 1980 to our prenatal class tonight. I made Stephen swear to go slow and take the least bumpy roads because I worry about turning Hairy into a milkshake.

It was such a beautiful evening, no bugs, warm...I hadn't realized how much I missed riding with Steve and realized it had been since summer 07 that we had really done so. Time to buy a sidecar for Hairy!

Tree Removal Magic

Marshmallow

Owen comes by for a visit and savours a marshmallow by the campfire.

Pickles

Our cutest neighbour is introduced to dill pickles. She surprised all of us by not cringing a bit.

AC/DC

So...AC/DC played Regina last Monday night and of course the entire province almost lost their mind with excitement. I was listening to a local talk radio station the next morning and they were discussing who the next big name band to play Regina might be. My favourite caller said:

"If the Riders were a band, I'd vote for the Riders"

And yes, one of the many beautiful things about this province is that people come together to support the CFL team unlike any other place in the country. It's nice, but living amongst the Rider pride becomes aggravating when every local newscast leads with a Rider story from May until November, and the Riders are on the cover of the local paper 2/6 times a week.

God I love the Riders...and AC/DC...uh, Toronto I miss you.

Trees be Gone

I'm sitting out on our deck on a beautiful August evening watching my shirtless husband split wood in our backyard. We have to remove 4 trees in order to place our future garage so we hired a guy to do the dangerous ladder climbing tree chopping part (and yes, we feel guilty about having to cut down trees in the first place.) Stephen is splitting the wood which we're going to donate to someone in North Central Regina who distributes the wood to families who heat their homes that way because they can't afford to otherwise. I'm glad this wood will be going to a good cause. And I'm glad that I got to watch my shirtless husband chop wood tonight after a trip to his new favourite Regina store - Peavey Mart.

ikea wardrobe

A shot of our glorious Toronto bedroom.

We are spending the weekend trying to organize the new house. Stephen has quite a collection of clothes (not me of course) so we want to add a fantastically designed custom wardrobe to our master bedroom. We hit almost every furniture store in Regina today trying to find something like what we designed at Ikea for our Toronto Master bedroom. NOTHING! If anyone has any ideas please let us know...otherwise we are seriously considering driving to Calgary.

EYWATW United Nations Evening

Last night we hosted Eat Your Way Around the World, United Nations edition in our back yard. It was a fun mix of the usuals as well as some RSO folks and mom!

I've always had pretty good luck hosting potlucks in regard to duplicates and not having to tell people what to bring. I really had no concerns that with all of the food choices from around the world that there would be doubles.

Here's what happened with our menu:

- Fresh Rolls (Thailand)
- Spanakopita (Greece)
- Macadamia Nut Cookies (Hawaii)
- Enchiladas (Mexico)
- Saskatoon Berry Buckle (Saskatchewan)
- Saskatoon Berry Ice Cream (Saskatchewan)
- Chicken Wings (Jamaica, Asian, Greek versions)
- Chicken Wings (Japanese)
- Chicken Wings (Japanese)
- Perogies (Ukraine)
- Perogies (Poland)
- Perogies (Slovakia) ;)

It was an awesome feast - and really what Saskatchewan resident doesn't love chicken wings and perogies?

Back in Sask

It is so nice to be home and to have a few evenings to relax and sleep in our own bed.

1 More Day

We have one day left of our Ontario holiday and we have had such a great and relaxing time although it's hard to believe how quickly it has gone. We just got back to Caledon East after a lovely week at the cottage and plan to spend a packed day in Toronto tomorrow. I don't have any desire to head home to work and stress at the moment, but it has to happen eventually. Also, I love chocolate peanut butter ice cream.

I Love Toronto

We've enjoyed two days of jam packed fun and visiting with great friends and family.

Highlights so far:
1) Seeing that our house is in great shape and finally getting to see the finished product. Getting sad that I can't live in it for a few more years.
2) Visiting our old workplaces, getting lots of hugs, and eating delicious foods.
3) Yara and Lyle's gorgeous wedding.
4) Bumping bellies with Lisa on the dance floor
5) Amazing times with the girls
6) Drinking one celebratory beer.
7) Borrowing Steve's old VW Golf
8) Realizing again what an amazing life we had here and what great friends we have...it's like not a moment has gone by.
9) Breakfasts with Susan & Jorge & Tiago
10) Riding the rocket like a tourist

Insomniac

There are eight more work days until my summer holidays which will last eight work days. That's a depressing thought.

I woke up at 3:44am, my mind whirling with work. I always thought that being the boss would be so great. You could create the work environment you want, change things for the better, and tackle priorities the way you see fit. And there are many days when it actually works that way.

There are other days when you are broached with HR problems that seem insurmountable. Or when your deadlines and workload is so huge (workloads that only seem to grow during the summer "off season") and someone comes in to complain about how a colleague said something insulting to them and asks what I am going to do about it. Full grown adults, old enough to be my parents...who don't stop to think that their problems might seem ridiculously trivial when compared to the other immediate challenges facing the organization. I understand that their problems are the biggest in their own mind and I treat each issue with the most possible attention I can pay to it, but carrying the responsibility and weight of other people's worlds is weighing down on me.

I'm not running a hospital or an organization that deals with life or death issues and try to remind myself of that. But it is an organization that people care so deeply about and if things go awry I will be remembered as the scapegoat for years to come as so many Arts Administrators get blamed for the downfall of their organization when it's a more complicated mess of other factors (primarily a constant lack of funding...and those who take the greatest thrill in the scapegoating have not been spending their spare time advocating for more arts operational grants...and not enjoying the results of special projects grants that are so popular and take up hours and hours of time of already over-exhausted under-staffed organizations for an event that only caters to the elite on one evening)...argh. Am I getting too specific? Ha.

When you run an organization you are so open to judgement from community, audience members, volunteers...most of whom wouldn't be able to start to understand the complexities of running a charity, but are sure from the outside in that they could do a better job and aren't afraid to tell you so. Some of them, very smart who run for-profit companies give suggestions that are so out of whack, "couldn't you just save some money and have a season without guest artists...." Some days I'm really proud of what I've accomplished and fought through this year, but other days it feels like the weight on my 30 year old shoulders is too heavy and it would be really easy to move on to another job that I could do in my sleep. It's so tempting.

And then I switch back and think about everything I gave up in Toronto to take this opportunity. A great job, a fantastic house, hilarious intelligent like-minded friends, neighbours, family, live music, food, people who think going to see AC/DC is funny and not the best thing that has ever happened to their city, TIFF parties, my work spouse, great shopping, six months with my husband, dealing with six months of stress and loneliness on my own (it's amazing how many more events you get invited to when you are a couple again...and remembering how slowly last summer went)...it goes on...was it all worth it for this? I better make it so.

I need that holiday now...I could use some sleep...and a green bin, drivers who don't piss me off, some decent sushi...and an evening of champagne with my girls...sigh. I love living here and there is no place like Saskatchewan (I missed it so much for the 7 years I was away) and yet it frustrates me daily.

I take no responsibility for blog posts written before 7am and blame them entirely on my evil alter-ego.

Hairy's House

Ever had one of those moments when you looked in the mirror and realized..."shit, I really am pregnant!"

The Depot

In Toronto, Steve & I spent an inordinate amount of time shopping at the Home Depot at Keele & St. Claire. It was always packed unless you went in at around 10pm on a Monday night. Renting a tool on a long weekend - forget it. One of the highlights was the Second Cup inside the place and The Harveys. We even had a Valentine's date at that Harvey's once.

The Home Depot on Vic East in Regina is a little different. You can almost always get a spot near the door (in TO near the door was as far away as the furthest spot in the Regina parking lot). We usually had to squeeze by people speaking any number of languages in the aisles to get what we needed. In Regina it almost always seems empty even in the middle of a Saturday afternoon.

In Toronto we knew all the clerks within a few weeks and they remembered us as the young couple that bought all the cement. The plumbing aisle guy was great friends with Steve by the end and planned out all the plumbing in our house. He was used to me coming in and asking if he had pipes in hot pink. Here we have yet to bond with any of the staff - they are often very difficult to find.

Yes, better Customer Service and friendliness in Toronto is not what you might expect...but the coffee is really what I miss. ;)

Pixies - Black Francis

Frank Black of the Pixies played a solo accoustic show in Regina last night at the Exchange, and although not huge fans we thought this might be a cool show to check out. We went with our co-Toronto immigrant friends, Arlynne & Todd, so the company was grand and we got to do some people watching of the Regina alternative elite (everyone else was already at Craven). The music, however, was not meant to be either solo or accoustic. Luckily we have the folk fest to look forward to in a month!

Baby Pool

Take a guess! Let's see who is the most psychic of all....

http://bebepool.com/go/?a=boodlini&view=list

Gravelbourg Has Some Image Problems?

We were fortunate enough to have been invited out to Thomson Lake for a weekend of friends and relaxation. The closest town to Thomson Lake is Gravelbourg, which I was very excited to visit because it is listed on my passport as my place of birth...and I've never stopped there before.

We drove through the town and by the hospital and I re-told my Dad's story of dining in a little French restaurant on a cold January evening while he was waiting for me to be born.

Afterwards, we hit the next obvious tourist destination, the Liquor Board store (in Saskatchewanese - "The LB"). Stephen chose some beer and when we got to the counter the man asked Stephen if he found enough beer (he only had 16 in hand). Stephen replied, "yes, more than enough." When the man started packing the beer into the bag Steve told him that we didn't need a bag.

The man said, "oh yes you do, we don't want that kind of image in town."

Our car was the only car in the huge parking lot, the downtown almost deserted on a Saturday afternoon...hmmmmmmm...image.

Used Regina

Stephen has really been catching on to www.usedregina.com, the craigslist of Regina. Not that we hadn't been avid Craigslist users - we once managed to sell quite a few pieces of driftwood we collected up at the cottage for $5 per foot in downtown Toronto. We really thought we could quit our jobs and become driftwood collectors. Alas, the prices of gas stopped that dream from coming true.

Anyway. Tonight Stephen posted this ad on Used Regina and I am very proud of his natural marketing abilities - his sense of the demographic that uses the website is top notch.

Are you moving? Need boxes? Love cardboard? Need a house for Craven? Why not stop by our place and pick up our slightly used (one move) moving boxes. One box was noted saying, "Save us from the dump!". Please send an email. Pick up any time next week late afternoon but not during Rider games. Love paper for wrapping dishes and glasses? Please see our ad for free paper.

Ultrasound

Yesterday we got a glimpse of the fetus and I still can't get over how cool it was. The best part was when Stephen used a serious tone to ask the rather straight-faced technician if she could tell if the baby was his. She replied, "I'm not that good at this".

A Warm Welcome

We are so happy to be in our new home. One of the greatest things about moving back to Saskatchewan is getting to know old friends again. We've all been away for a few years and returned from worldly adventures and reunited as if no time has passed. Thank you to Ryan, Ashley, Chris, and Brenda - for all of the help and the warm welcome to Whitmore Park!

Altercation

I'm not at my best in the morning. I know that. I've tried to work on it, but until I get a morning cup of coffee in hand I'm pretty much useless...and mean. It's only gotten worse since I've caught a case of the pregnancy.

This morning while I was half asleep in the shower, our doorbell rang 14 times. I counted. I figured it was for our basement dweller and just ignored it. I got out of the shower and heard more banging and ringing and thought that maybe there was some sort of an emergency so I answered the door in my towel. Sexy.

It turned out to be a burly City of Regina roadworks employee. Hot. No, this isn't the start of a porno. The City employee told me I had to move my car because they were re-paving our street in 10 minutes. I snarled and told him I was leaving for work in half an hour and he would have to wait since we received no letter notifying us of this and there has been no signage on the roads...nothing. He was very nice, but told me that my car was about to get grated over. I rolled my eyes and swore and slammed the door.

When I got to work I wrote a nasty email to the city...then I had a coffee...and I hope they still fund the Symphony.

The No Dad Club

Stephen and I, our siblings, and some of our friends are already card carrying members of a really dumb club. We don't want any more members for another 20 years or so. Our thoughts are with our friends who joined the club today, much too early.

Riders

It was our Annual General Meeting at work tonight and I left Stephen to enjoy the delight of painting on his own. The meeting went quite quickly because we were competing with a Rider game and many of our members were eager to get to the game before halftime. I decided to drop by the house after to see how things were going. As I walked inside, I heard the Rider Game blasting on the stereo. I thought to myself how impressive it was that Stephen was taking such an interest in his new culture and listening to the game. Well...not quite, Ryan was over helping him paint which led to the choice of radio station, but I'm quite pleased with the influence on Stephen and know that soon he will be transformed into a good SK boy.

Just Another Arggggggggggggh...Monday

Ever have those mornings where your bed is so deliciously comfortable, your shower is so hot and luxurious, your breakfast is so delicious, and you just want to sit around and drink warm beverages and read books all day?

Yeah, so I lured myself into work with the promise of a latte from Stone's Throw.

I had a couple real barn burner meetings followed by a two hour lunch meeting which drained all energy. So I headed in for more comfort. Another latte from Starbucks...I know I know...supposed to be cutting down on the caffeine, but I really really needed it today. I treated myself to a couple of quick phone calls to Kate and Karen. Karen gave me the best Orchestral come-back line of all time, "Why don't you stick your bow up your...and lube it up with some rosin..." Oh dear.

Post work, I dragged myself to Sobey's to "make supper" which consisted of "Ukrainian Meal" (heats up in only 2-4 minutes in your average microwave) and "Greek Salad". Then I drove ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way over to Whitmore Park and taped around our trim for about an hour. Ate supper with Steve. Primed trim while Stephen painted it. Just painstaking work, but it got better when we started singing along to Kenny Rogers' greatest hits and as I ate 3 popsicles...yeah, that helped.

We are so not in to renovating this house. It's great, but we don't love it like our other house. I hope it can't sense that from us. It's hard to believe we'll be moved in less than a week...particularly since we haven't started packing yet.

Where did my positivity baton go?

Pride Weekend Regina Styles

Last night Stephen ended up doing sound at The Club, Regina's only gay bar, for one of my favourite Regina bands, Jeffrey Straker and the Handsome Strangers. If you don't know him, you can check him out here http://jeffstraker.com/ and note that his song/video Hypnotized just hit #6 on the Much More Music Countdown.

It was a fun and intimate concert with lots of singing along, clapping, snapping, and included a game show in the middle of the concert with pride week trivia. The highlight of the evening (other than the fabulously mixed sound) was when Jeff commented on the heat in the room and encouraged the audience to remove articles of clothing. No one took him up on the offer other than his bass player who stripped down to his briefs...and his dancing just got so much better as he freed himself from the restraints of his jumpsuit.

...what a night!

Father's Day

It's hard to escape the fact that tomorrow is Father's Day. "We're Related" on Facebook keeps sending me emails to tell me that I should send my Dad some love on Father's Day by inviting him to their application. Home Depot tells me as I enter its glorious four walls that I have come to the right place to buy a Father's Day gift. A friend forwarded me a beautiful article about a son realizing through his own children that he hadn't said "I love you" to his Father since 1983. Last night our new neighbour was telling Steve and I about taking the morning off and going to his kid's school for a Father's Day celebration.

Having a Father is something that I only got a small taste of on weekends and a few weeks each summer. In many ways I was lucky because I always got the best of him - anticipated and planned weekends packed with fun and attention. Strangely though, I can't remember one actual Father's Day with my Dad, but the day itself isn't the point. Father's Day makes you think about your Dad. Since he died in 2001, I'm usually able to either ignore the holiday or it grates on me for the weeks leading up to the holiday until the tears come pouring out, usually waking me up and surprising me in the middle of the night...like it did about an hour ago. Grief can be so vivid even years later.

Yesterday afternoon, we were working on our new house and Stephen called me to the front window to look outside. The view was of the most stereotypical moment between father and son - our neighbours were playing catch in the middle of our street. We were both touched by it and I think we were both envious of the bonding we were witnessing.

Stephen's Dad passed away of cancer just weeks before Stephen turned 16. I love the stories that his family tells about him and I have tried to piece together an idea of what my father-in-law was like, but it makes me sad that I never got to meet him. It makes me sad that he never got to see the many amazing things Steve has achieved since he was a gangly teenager.

Back in March, as I stared in awe at the results of my home pregnancy test and after showing it to Stephen and seeing the huge smile on his face, it made me ache how much I wished I could tell my Dad the news because he loved children and would have been so excited to become a grandfather...it suddenly hit me that our child would not have any grandfathers. And then, I realized that there was something else to look forward to, that by June 2010 Father's Day would finally be a happy day that I could celebrate because Stephen was going to be a great father.

Creep

Dear Diary,

Maybe I'm a dirty old pregnant lady, but when I leave the office for my lunch break I always see a number of middle-aged shirtless (whether they should be or not) men prancing around Wascana Lake. I can't help myself from counting them and chuckling to myself. Is this weird?

Obsessed

Purple Haze

Real Estate Tycoons

There's nothing we love more than collecting houses. Here are some shots Steve took of the new place.

As you can see, the previous owners ran across a great amount of green paint. I've gone a bit wild (as usual) with the planned colour scheme - a deep dark purple and a dusty blue in the living/dining area. Bold and wacky colours make me happy and a little bit more ok with owning a bungalow!

We plan to renovate the bathroom over the winter (there is another perfectly fine one in the basement).

I'd love any ideas on how to update the kitchen cabinets. The appliances are awesome!

Quebec, Toronto, Regina, Chicago

It's been a wacky 3 weeks. Here's what has happened.

1) A trip for a conference in Quebec City. You can see a photo of me in the pouring rain in front of my hotel, the Chateau Frontenac. Good conference, bad weather.

2) A trip for a conference in Chicago. The two pics of my free morning with the shiny bean.

3) The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the best place on earth.

4) The Chicago Symphony Orchestra ain't bad either.

5) Pedicure. Art.

Quickie to Saskatoon

On Friday I found out that I had an important meeting that I had to hit in Saskatoon today. This really made my day, seeing as this meant that I would have to put in at least 4 hours of work on Sunday as I'm off to another conference tomorrow for the rest of the week.

Anyway, I jumped in my lovely little old car and hit the road cranking the tunes as I drove through sporadic rainshowers. The nostalgic fool in me came out again and I have to share some numbered memories of driving this route.

1) Age 15 with my fresh learner's license, driving to Saskatoon with my Mom for the weekend.
2) 1989 - driving up to Saskatoon with my Dad to take in the Canada Games
3) Age 17, heading up in my 1989 Pontiac 6000 with a car full of friends to check out a Tragically Hip Concert
4) A few short years ago, driving back from Saskatoon with Stephen stopping at every little town along the way to explore, thoroughly enjoying our summer holiday.

Rouleau Community Garage Sale

We decided to spend our Saturday searching for some deals for our new house and checked out the ever-popular www.usedregina.com (more popular than craigslist here) to find a list of sales. We ended up heading to Wascana View and then took the thirty minute drive to Rouleau, SK (aka Dog River) to check out their community garage sale.

Our shopping list included:
- furniture for the basement
- futon or bed for the guest room
- lawnmower
- sandwich maker

We ended up purchasing:
- one MEC backpack ($20)
- two matching orange chairs ($10)
- sandwich maker ($1)
- pick axe ($5)
- 60s era light fixture ($4)
- stovetop coffee perculator ($1)
- leaf shaped plate ($2)
- 8mm movie camera ($2)
- 2 cheeseburgers ($8)
- 2 chocolate chip cookies ($1)

The Dears at The Distrikt

One of our most beloved Canadian bands, The Dears, played in Regina at The Distrikt (formerly known as The State). I have been waiting to finally share a small Regina concert experience with Stephen, because they are so much more intimate and filled with energy that Toronto shows.

The Distrikt (yes, unfortunate spelling choice) is about 1/8th the size of the Mod Club, but it is the Toronto venue that it best compares to. Our tickets cost us $12 each. There were 3 bands - Black Diamond Bay (4 band members), Jets Overhead (5 members), and The Dears (7 band members). There were just over 100 people at the concert. I'm not sure how the math could possibly add up to make this show feasible.

The Dears started their set when the lead singer came and grabbed a chair at our table and started singing from the crowd. Most of the audience didn't realize that the show had started until he flipped on a flashlight that was at the bottom of his mic. His band then walked on stage and did some backup vocals as he walked around the crowd. Very cool way to start the show.

It just got better from there as they played songs from No Cities Left and Gang of Losers. Suddenly a very sterotypical Saskatchewan bar guy (baseball cap backwards, very drunk, very friendly) sat down at our table and started talking up Steve.

Guy: "Have you ever seen The Dears before?"
Steve: "Yeah, we've seen them"
Guy: "Do you know the Tragically Hip? I thought they were the best Canadian band ever until I heard The Dears live."
Steve: "Yes, I know the Tragically Hip..."

It went on and on and although we appreciated his passion for The Dears, we decided to vacate our table and move to the front of the stage to sing along and enjoy the rest of the concert. We then saw another stereotypical Sask guy jump on stage during a very low key song and start dancing away with the band. The five or so male friends that he was attending the concert with thought it was the best thing ever and were dancing away together. The lead singer referred to it as an "American Pie moment".

I was a curious about Hairy the Fetus during the show because it was the loudest thing it had ever been exposed to. As we were standing there swaying to the music and listening to the show I started to feel little flutters in my lower stomach. I'm just so proud that Hairy can recognize a good concert when it hears one.

Pitchfork Fondu

In other news, I'm home alone tonight because Stephen is busy attending a Pitchfork Fondue through his new work. This is one of those amazing Saskatchewan treats that I was really hoping he would get to experience.

Don't you think this would make a nice catering idea for our housewarming?

http://www.mervspitchforkfondue.com/index.html

There Is A Living Entity in The General Area of My Gut

It's true. Or so the medical professionals tell me. The general sense of nausea and the sore boobs seem to confirm. The growing belly is another good sign. I'm still awaiting photographic evidence. I was told that I look pregnant today from three different people so it must be true.

I had a suggestion that I start to write about this impending baby thing although it takes me away from the theme of this blog, but why not - it applies to our life in Saskatchewan and probably wouldn't have happened so soon were it not for the long cold winter.

We've had a very difficult time naming the fetus. We started out with Ziggy the zygote. Stephen already used up his favourite "Cletus the Fetus" on what was to become young William. One night we were having supper with some friends who suggested that Harrison would be a lovely boys name (and I agree that it would) but then I said out loud "Harry Carlini" of course thinking "Hairy"...and it made us laugh and "Hairy the Fetus" was named.

I'm certain that Stephen and I have no idea what we are in for in five short months, but we are really excited to start our family.

Lawnmowers & Paint Chips

Tonight we hit Home Depot to pick up some paint chips as well as price out some front loading washing machines and lawnmowers. It felt like home and we're so excited to have a project again.

One Year

I have a lot to write about. My head is buzzing with ideas and energy from my conference in Quebec City and my joyful reunion with Toronto hosted by the wonderful Lisa, Chris, and William.

Instead, I think I'll save that for another day and talk about how happy I was to see the beautiful prairie patchwork quilt of fields from the airplane this morning as I flew back in to Regina.

It's been a year since we drove all of our stuff across the country in a big yellow truck and started this blog. A year since I started my job, and a year since we began our 1/2 year of apart which also means that Steve has been in Sask for 6 months.

Workaholic Husblini

I had hoped that moving to Saskatchewan might slow down the pace of our lives a little bit. In fact, I was almost certain it would seeing as we both had very full-time jobs with full-time renovation side jobs and Stephen and a full slate of real side job clients that seemed to be growing by the week in Toronto. Often he would be put on nights and we might pass by each other for an hour or so in the morning or right after work.

And so, for the past 5 weeks Stephen has been working the most ridiculous shifts since I've known him. Today was 6:30am-3:30pm and then again from 8:30pm until 1am or so. I worked from 8:30am-5:30pm, and then again from 6:30pm-9pm. Tomorrow he starts at 6am, but he does have time to drop me off at the airport at 5:30am.

It's just silly. Instead of saying "see you later" to each other we've started to say "see you in the bed...if I roll over". It is, however, way better than living two provinces away from each other.

The Milky Way

The Milky Way is one of the best little non-secrets in Regina. It's a tiny hole-in-the-wall ice cream shack on Victoria Ave. It is a seasonal walk-up type of place and there is always a line-up on the sidewalk there as soon as it opens in late April.

We decided to head there tonight after supper and thought that we could avoid the usual line because of the rain, but sure enough the ever present line was there, but well worth the wait for the amazing number of choices of ice cream related treats. I love most of all that it is not a chain restaurant, which is rare in Regina amongst the Applebee's, Montana's, and Tony Roma's.

A Tiny Bit Home(?)sick

Growing up in the West, Toronto is heralded as all that is evil in Canada. A friend of mine even once called it "Our Nation's Asshole". The stereotype is that people don't talk to each other, are too busy, and anyone who lives there is only interested in making money.

When I decided to move to TO, I was pretty much convinced that I would hate it having been raised as a relaxed and laid-back Westerner. What I found there, was completely different than my expectations.

I immediately met a group of very open minded, arts loving, friendly people. Everyone I met was so open to new friendships and inviting new people into their world, that it was so easy to fit in right away. When I met Stephen, and moved from school to work I found another group of people that were instantly welcoming and accepting. I don't doubt that those people will be life-long friends no matter where in the world we live.

When we bought our house, we were nervous that we wouldn't have friendly neighbours as neither Steve nor I grew up in the city. What we found were people so happy to make connections within a city where people supposedly don't talk to each other. Our neighbours were such a varied and talented group of people from so many backgrounds from around the world, and we were all so happy to be living on our little street off of Roncesvalles.

I'm heading back to Toronto next weekend for a quick visit and so I threw an email out to my friends and colleagues to see if they wanted to meet up for lunch. I was so amazed to get an immediate excited response from so many of them. I feel so lucky to have such a close group of friends there that I can't even start to express it properly. Sometimes you don't realize how great you had it until you've taken a few steps back, and I can't wait to get a taste of it again next weekend.

Saskatchewan Speech Template

From time to time, because of my job, I'm asked to make impromptu comments or a speech at events I've attended. This is fairly new to me, but after a year on the job I think I've finally figured out the key messages.

1) Talk about how happy you are to live in Saskatchewan and how much it has grown and changed since you last lived here (mention the historic life-altering Rolling Stones Concert of 2006 or the upcoming AC/DC).
2) Make a disparaging remark about Toronto (traffic, cost of living, price of houses usually work well) or simply refer to Ontario as Onterrible.
3) Make a joke about the horrible Winter.
4) Most importantly, always end any public speaking appearance with "Go Riders"

Milk - Boxed, Jugged, or Bagged?

When Stephen and I moved in together in Toronto, we started buying four litres of milk every week-ten days. It was the perfect quantitiy that would satisfy Stephen's cookie & cereal habits and my latte requirements. In Ontario, you can buy reusable plastic milk bag holders that you insert your bag of milk into. The delightful thing about the system was that you ended up with a few plastic bags for the garbage and the bag that held the milk could be used as a lunch bag.

I'm not sure why, but if you know please spill (but don't cry over spilled...waa waa): in Sask we can only find 2 litre boxes of milk or 4 litre plastic jugs. Stephen hates the jugs because they take up so much room in the fridge. I hate the boxes because I usually end up at the corner store in the middle of the night to buy a box to avoid Stephen's whining about not having milk for his cereal. His sobbing wakes me up in the morning.

We are really having trouble with this adjustment so we decided to get pregnant so I could produce our own milk...uh...ok, not really. Was that going to far?

Dread

Alright, I'm still awake because I am so dreading my day at work tomorrow. It's filled with meetings and mayhem that I don't really want to deal with, but know that I must.

To be as vague as possible, it has to do with one of the Saskatchewan issues that I was least looking forward to dealing with when I moved back. Everyone knows everyone else and the interconnections between business, social, family, family friends, etc...it's well...incestuous.

In Regina, there is no such thing as a "business decision" - one that is purely made out of the best interests of the company you represent. You have to constantly think about who you may or may not upset because their second cousin twiced removed is on the Board of another contractor that you have decided it best not to work with anymore. Or someone important's great grand-niece is doing a masters in piano performance in Halifax so you should obviously hire them as a guest artist.

Yes, that's the way it works here sometimes...and it pisses me off.

An Old-Fashioned Family Get-Together

We drove down to good old Alameda, SK this afternoon (259 km away) to attend a joint 50th birthday party for my Uncle Murray and cousin Jamie. Suitably enough, the event took place in the local Senior's Centre.

We had a little bit of a roast for the two of them, my mom put together a power point of memories, and we ate delicious Saskatchewan delicacies.

Saskatchewan people love dips. Fruit dip, veggies and dip, chips and dip, salsa and chips...dipping stuff is awesome. The other fun Saskatchewan treat were the "matrimonial squares" known as "date squares" elsewhere.

It was a fun afternoon of visiting with family, playing balloons with the kids, passing babies around, and over-eating.

May Long

It's the May Long Eve, finally - the start of summer! Because I'm a nostalgic fool, I thought I'd recount some of my favourite May Longs of the past:

1) 2004 - My first May Long with Stephen. We stayed in the city, basking in the glory of our new apartment and walked down to Ontario Place to check out an Imax flick. It turned out to be a 5 hour Bollywood extravaganza on Imax. We left at half-time and had to walk home in the pouring rain due to no cabs.

2) 1999? - Hosted May Long at my Grandparent's cabin at Whitebear Lake. All of my Luther Girls and their assorted guests had a huge weekend long sleepover. It involved a few evenings at the MooseHead, losing Rick, and Ashley making me lunches for work each day.

3) 2007 - Aliza & Kenny's wedding! Kate/Karen/Stephen/Ella and I having a huge sleepover in Kate's mom's basement in Mississauga...and enjoying the animals...and the curried goat.

4) 2006 - Taking my mom to the Carlini cottage for the weekend and getting eaten alive by Blackflies, but having fun nonetheless.

5) 2008 - Spending the entire weekend working on the house and packing for the big move to Saskatchewan.

What will 2009 bring? Thus far - a lack of plans especially now that the offer on that house fell through!

Multi-Taskers

Stephen and I are notorious for biting off not more than we can chew, but when we decide to take a bite it's a huge massive bite.

For example, we decided to buy our first house 48 hours before leaving the country on vacation. This lead to trying to find $10,000 for our deposit, getting witnesses to sign stuff (an emergency 11pm trip to Roy Thomson Hall to find someone in Toronto we knew would be awake), etc.

We decided to completely gut and begin to renovate our first house 7 months before we got married (two weddings in different locations across the country).

I decided to take a job in Regina while Stephen stayed in Toronto to finish the house while working...good times.

So the latest is that we are buying our 2nd house in Regina and will be closing one day after I return to Sask after a conference in Quebec City and the same day that Stephen will start a new job. Oh yeah...I'm knocked up which adds a completely new level of responsibility...I can't drink copious amounts of wine to get through this one unfortunately!

Video Games Live Pics

Sweet Emotion

I try to avoid posts about work which is hard because it pretty much consumes my day, dreams, toothbrush time, driving time, free time, etc.

The only way I can describe the past year of my work life is completely and utterly bipolar. I have had to deal with some of the most difficult HR issues I could imagine coming across, negotiated a master agreement that I was told would be all wrapped up by the time I took the job, and yet have had some amazing glorious moments of success - tonight was one of those.

As soon as I started this job, I knew I wanted to concentrate on introducing a new younger age demographic to the Symphony. We started a discounted ticket programme (blatantly copied off the TSO's tsoundcheck programme) called The Classically Hip, started doing some online marketing, and I looked into this Video Games Live show.

I knew that it would work here, but the cost of the artist fee vs. the ticket prices that the Regina market is used to wouldn't cover the show unless we sold quite a high percentage of the seats. I decided to approach our Venue to see if they wanted to do a co-production. They agreed quickly and we budgeted and started working together on marketing. At the very last minute before signing the contract, they backed out. I had to make a decision at that point - go it on our own with our massive 4 person staff who has never put on a "Rock Show" or give up on the opportunity. The night before I signed the contract I was up pacing for half the night, but I decided to take a deep breath and go for it.

Ten months later - tonight - was concert night. The show was so well done and professional. The Orchestra was very excited to play this concert and sounded fantastic. The audience was only tickets away from being sold out and extremely enthusiastic. It was a huge party and the VGL crew had a blast with the prairie hospitality.

Everything came together tonight, and I had one of those amazing moments sitting in the audience tonight knowing that this show wouldn't have come here without me...and it almost didn't because of the huge risk, but it turned out to be completely worthwhile and a massive success.

Motorcycle Ride

After supper I convinced Stephen to take me for a little cruise around Regina. We hopped on the Honda and headed over to take a gander at our new house. Still have to do the home inspection, but I think we found a place with a good amount of potential and not too many renos!

Stephen then took my on a tour of the industrial part of town. The motorcycle graveyard and scrap metal yard were really sad, but pretty as the sun set over the gleaming rust.

Mexican Food in Vibank

Our Eat Your Way Around the World club trekked to Vibank, Saskatchewan tonight; about a thirty minute drive from Regina. One of our members produced a segment on a local tv show about this restaurant and suggested it to the group.

It's called The Grotto and is owned by a 1/2 Mexican 1/2 Canadian couple. Friday nights are Mexican nights and you have to reserve at least two weeks in advance because the place is so small and everything is fresh and homemade on this fixed menu. The food was spectacular and I want to go back next week.

Customer Service

You know those long anecdotes that people tell about what poor customer service they had and then they usually end with the person getting their way or getting something free? Yes, those are boring.

It's a busy CS time at work right now as people are buying their tickets for next season. We've had some interesting people come in, but some of today's people really made me laugh:

1) DON'T YOU EVER ANSWER THE PHONE, someone should always answer the phone even at night. (the aforementioned person did not leave a return number on their voicemail).
2) WHEN I PLACED MY ORDER ON EASTER MONDAY WITH THE GIRL AT THE DESK SHE SAID IT WOULD WORK THIS WAY...(we weren't open on Easter Monday, turned out he ordered a week before Easter from the same girl he was talking to).
3) SO YOU GET FLOWERS and then don't even put them into a vase (a lady referring to the lone tulips that an office supply place had dropped off for "admin professionals day")

I could go on, but I don't want it to get boring...sigh.

Massive TV

One of the first things I noticed when moving back here is that whenever I went to visit someone's house I would notice that they had a huge flat screen tv. Very few of my Toronto aquaintances had bothered to get one, I'm guessing because most of my friends were more interested in spending money on going out to live events than watching movies indoors.

I suddenly learned why this winter. We were stuck inside almost every night because it was so cold and the idea of warming up the car again to go out became overwhelming. This same reasoning led Stephen to buy an xbox after getting his first paycheque.

The problem with having a lovely new xbox and a tiny 24 inch tv is that you can't even read the subtitles or instructions on the games. So, as an early birthday present for Steve, we went out and bought a massive 40 inch tv...just in time for summer.

Pizza

Yes, one of the greatest topics ever.

Saskatchewan pizza is unique and completely different than pizza in the rest of the world. Residents of SK love pizza, there are more pizza restaurants in Saskatchewan per capita than anywhere else in the country. (I learned this handy little fact over the jumbo-tron at the "Rogers Centre" while watching a Riders-Argos game in Toronto).

Start with a thick, greasy, delicious crust then add a healthy serving of tomato sauce. Generally there is a THICK layer of meat, often thickly sliced ham. On the top is the cheese...ok, on the actual top top is a nice layer of grease.

Stephen first experienced Sask pizza when we attended a University of Regina alumni event in Toronto a few years ago where they "flew in" Western Pizza and Saskatoon berry pie. He could hardly handle the grease and the placement of the toppings vs. cheese. This was made particularly difficult for him because of being so lucky to have been raised amongst authentic Italian cuisine.

Today, some of the guys Stephen was working with brough up the topic of pizza. One of the gentlemen said, "you must REALLY love the pizza here - I've never been able to get pizza like this outside of Saskatchewan." Stephen tried to tell him as respectfully as possible that he doesn't actually love Saskatchewan pizza.

A few weeks ago, Steve made me laugh hysterically by calling to order a pizza and requesting 1/2 the usual amount of cheese and to place the toppings above the cheese. His technique worked and we received a pretty decent pizza. I've become a fan of the Copper Kettle Spinach and Feta over the last few months, but have to admit that I really miss Amatos, Vesuvios, and any number of places on College where you can pick up a nice, thin, delicious slice of pure delight.

Walking

It's suddenly the middle of April and most of the snow is finally gone. I decided that because it was a rather warm, but rainy day yesterday that I would walk to work. It's a nice 20-25 minute stroll through Wascana Park, by the Science Centre, along the Broad Street Bridge, and back into the Wascana Centre to the Conexus Arts Centre.

I have really missed walking home from work since moving here. I used to do the 60 minute almost daily walk from King & University to Queen & Roncesvalles. You never knew what you were going to see. People yelling at each other, great clothes in window displays, an old friend, lightening in the middle of a snowstorm, or maybe you would even experience a rare moment of quiet until a screeching streetcar rolled by.

The Never Ending Winter

It will never end.

Back to Back Road Trips

My mom finished and brought up a quilt for baby Isla last week, and Steve suggested that we deliver it to the Ursu's in person. We left on Saturday morning nice and early and made the 5.5 hour drive up to Lloyd. It was nice to get out of our house and Regina and to hit the road. Jolene & Ian & Isla took us out to their favourite Greek dining establishment. It was delicious. We were all exhausted and full of delicious food and cheesecake so we sat around chatting on the couch and had a nice lazy quiet night. Ian made everyone a delicious Sunday breakfast and then we hit the road again as we had to get back in time for Eat Your Way Around the World: Ethiopia.

This weekend was the RSO's first Centennial Run-Out concert and we took The Oscars programme to Swift Current. A packed Sky Centre at the new casino enjoyed the concert and there were plenty of smiling faces in the audience. I had the fun of driving out with Victor who taught me a lot about how to speed effectively without getting caught as we listened to his favourite classical station on Sirius.

The Weather

Today was the coldest March 11th in the history of Regina (at least the coldest since over a Century ago when they started to keep track).

There have been 60 days between December and February that were -30 or colder. It's been called the coldest winter in 30 years.

Last night when I got home Stephen told me that he can't take another Saskatchewan winter. When I ask him questions such as, "How was your day" or "Do you want to go shopping" the answer is usually "I just want it to stop being so cold."

I feel for my poor, wimpy, Ontarian husband.

Car

Another readjustment to living in Saskatchewan has been driving. I have been more-or-less without a car from September 2001 until June 2008. I was lucky enough, at age 17 to have been gifted an old car named Phyllis. Phyllis and I went on trips around Saskatchewan through my high school and University years, and even a couple of trips to the Rockies.

When I lived in Toronto, there was no need. I could take the TTC, greyhound, via rail, or cabs anywhere I wanted to go...or just mooch off of friends. When I met Stephen, he had a car and I could continue the mooching.

I knew that living in Regina without a car would be a challenge and Stephen was kind enough to find me a cute, red, reliable, Honda Civic that I haven't named. The other morning I slid my darling Civic into a hard icy snowbank and smashed the grill. I miss not having a car to worry about.