This coming summer I’m hoping that Jo and I will visit Calgary again. You’d think after living there for over 6 months that I would’ve had my belly full and while it’s true that I fell out of love, there were many things I wanted to see there and didn’t get a chance to. One of the things I really wanted to do while we were there was go to the Calgary Stampede. I’ve been in Calgary twice now when this event was being held but both times wound up unable to attend. The Stampede is a huge, huge event in Calgary and millions of people flock to Calgary just for the Stampede itself. One of the things I’m looking forward to is all of the free concerts. I say free but in reality, you have to pay your way into the Stampede to be able to see the free shows. The one thing I did actually get to enjoy was the fireworks display from a park near our apartment in Calgary. It was pretty awesome that far away, I can only imagine how much more fun it would be in person.

When we start making our plans for our trip back to Calgary, we’ll be using a guide - Event Lstings - this way we’ll find listings for affordable hotels like the Sheraton Suites Eau Claire. I honestly can’t wait. There are great things about Calgary but I’m just not a person who can live there. It’s going to be awesome visiting our friends there and attending the Calgary Stampede, finally.

The weather here in Calgary is going to be so nice over the next few days. The temperatures will be dipping down into the 30’s (Fahrenheit) but will crawl up to about 60ºF. This is my kind of weather, the kind that I love. The sun will be shinning and there will be very few clouds.

Knowing my luck though, that will all change in the next day or two. As I have mentioned before, the weather here in Calgary flip flops a lot. I mean, just last week it was snowing. I will enjoy it while it lasts though.

I also hope the weather will be nice for our drive to Newfoundland. I will not mind a little shower here and there but I really hope our drive will be free of any kind of bad weather. As it stands right now, it looks like we will be spending our second night in Ottawa with some of Jo’s relatives. It should be really nice. These are relatives he has not seen in over 10 years and relatives that I have never even met.

I guess I should be calling it a night soon though. I really need to lay off of the caffeine again. It really makes me feel, well … gross.

Yesterday we had snow and today we had a thunderstorm. I thought we had crazy weather in Georgia. Here in Calgary, there are weeks when I can’t figure out what season it is (like this week). I didn’t even realize we were in for more rain, much less a thunderstorm. We were sitting here watching a rerun of CSI when we heard a clap of thunder. The cats took off, as per usual and after peering out of the living room window, we realized there was a storm over us. It looked like it had been raining for quite awhile.

It’s supposed to drop down to about 2ºC (36ºF) but it’s going to warm up to 16ºC (61ºF). Thankfully the rain and snow will be out of the picture for a few days starting tomorrow.

PS; new survivor tonight. Can’t wait!

I just finished watching an episode of “Buy me” on HGTV, which was about a couple here in Calgary who were looking to sell their 19th floor condo. I know I have talked to a few of you about this but the real estate here in Calgary is outrageous, at least to me. This is a city that I could never see myself buying a home in because the prices just seem so out of reach. Well, this condo in this episode was no different. It was definitely beautiful, with a great view but they originally bought it for $600,000 and the selling price was $997,000ish. I could not imagine putting down that kind of money on that place though. Maybe (big maybe) on a large home, sure but a condo.. no, I just could not see myself doing that.

The inexpensive real estate in Newfoundland is definitely something I am looking forward to. None of this $300k+ stuff!

It’s raining, it’s pouring…

No, wait! That’s not rain, that’s snow!

When the weatherman said snow was a possibility, I kind of laughed. Snow, in September? I’ve been seeing the “snowcaps” on the mountains off and on for a couple of weeks but never any snow in the area around us. That all changed today. When we headed out for Jo’s physiotherapy, we were greeted with snow flurries. It was just barely coming down at first but once we started driving off, it started coming down a lot harder. Of course, none of it stuck but it was still pretty. This is the kind of snow I like. The kind that doesn’t pose such a threat to drivers!

It’s still pretty cold out right now. I actually had to put on a jacket. That’s so strange for me - having to put on a jacket when it’s still “officially” Summer. It’s a nice change though. I’d much rather have the colder air verses the piping hot air we had earlier this Summer.

I’ve just started making my rounds to various news websites, to catch up on what’s going on in the world (locally, nationally and internationally as always). I decided to hop over to Calgary.ctv.ca first. The first article is about the construction of a new high rise downtown, which will be causing some traffic headaches. I heard this on the radio today (yes, I even listen to the news on the radio), so I skipped that one. The next article is talking about a shooting at a NE Calgary movie theater. My jaw hit the floor when I read it was the theater that me and Jo go to on our “dates” - at Sunridge.

A man, aged 24 was shot twice in the head outside, in the parking lot. Scary. There are so many popular places in that area besides the theater too - East Side Marios (where we eat occasionally), Chapters, Montana’s Steakhouse and not to mention the Sunridge mall. This is a pretty large theater too. I think it holds 14 (if my memory is correct) theaters inside, which are pretty huge.

The article can be found here - Shooting.

Now I know things like this happen everywhere and no community or city is immune, but at the same time it really makes me want the comfort of the smaller, tight knit communities that I’m used to.

While we were out running some errands and paying some bills today, we noticed a few funny things.

First - Security from one of the malls escorted a couple all the way to the bus stop across the street from the mall. I’m not sure what the reasoning for that was - if they’d stolen something, surely they would’ve been arrested or something. Either way though, it had to be embarrassing to be escorted out there during rush hour.

Second - After seeing that couple escorted, the light turned red. Shortly after the light turned red, the train was coming, so the lights were flashing the warnings. About the time the warnings started, a lady pulled up beside me in a fancy Mercedes. Someone pulled up right behind her and I happened to notice that the crossing barriers were coming down right on top of that Mercedes. It bounced on the roof of her car for a bit before the person behind her backed up, allowing her to back up. I wouldn’t have laughed if it had been me but sometimes you can’t help but laugh.

Third - After paying our monthly payment at The Brick (furniture store), we noticed a sign for the furniture store next to it, which read - “Buy a queen or king mattress set, get 2 free pillows”. I thought to myself, staring at the empty lot “I bet they’ve got folks standing in line for those..”

So, the Calgary Flames are out of the playoffs. Yep, the Redwings won game 6 here in Calgary last night in double overtime (which was sudden death overtime). The game was pretty intense! I was really hoping we’d pull through with the win.. at least one more win but it just wasn’t meant to be! There’s always next year though!

It’s finally clearing up outside. I can barely see the mountains, so I’m hoping within a couple of hours it will be cleared up enough that I can walk over to the park and take some shots of them and hoping to take some of the city skyline at sunset and possibly at night! We shall see!

I bought the reseller. I originally went with a different reseller provider but realized I read the description incorrectly and there wasn’t as much space with it as I’d thought. So I went with Resellerzoom! I’ve read some great reviews on them, so I’m hoping things work out nicely! I purchased the domain for the group photography blog, it’s a domain me and Stacey had before called “photographygirls”(dot com). That is why it’s for “girls/women” only! Get it?! lol

I will also be moving this domain to that account, to give Nicole her space back.. I cannot thank you enough for hosting me the last couple of months. I haven’t had a single bit of downtime, to my knowledge! I couldn’t have asked for a better host! :]

I really need to figure out some ideas for 365 days. I’ve got a few brewing right now.. but it’s going to take some warmer weather to do them.. haha! If you have a flickr account, add me! herbrokentoy via flickr.

I’m going to scat now! Just wanted to give a quick update!

It’s official. I am not cut out for snow! No way, Jose! We woke up this morning to a blanket of the white stuff on the ground, on our vehicles and best worst of all.. on the roads! I’m not sure if it’s that the Flames one won (oopsy haha) the game last night (3-2 by the way, yay!) and the road crews didn’t make it out early or what but the roads were horrendous this morning! I’m so not used to driving on ice and snow, heck, dirt roads in the rain scares me. hahaha! There’s no way I’m going out in that stuff today!

It’s April.. not January! Ugh. haha!

This is what it looks like from my apt window! My poor truck and poor Calgary Flames flags. lol

Edit; How neat! My 365 days photo for today - day 5 made it into “Explore” on flickr!!! I went to make my little “poster” thingie and noticed I had 3 other photos that made it into Explore and I didn’t even know it! haha!

I have the most horrible kink in my neck right now! It’s so bad, you can literally feel the knot and see the swelling! I’m also coming down with a bit of a cold, which is probably from going from warmer temperatures to much colder ones with rain and snow showers!

I didn’t sleep well at all last night! I was so stuffy and congested and for some reason, having some crazy dreams! The first dream was weird! It was like in real time, like I was in bed with Jo beside me and the cats sleeping between us. At some point, I tossed and turned so much that I was upside down on the bed. Like, my head at Jo’s feet! I kept getting short of breath during the dream and waking up to find my head, locked between Jo’s legs. LOL! How crazy! It happened several times throughout the dream before my mom appeared and rescued me from the mean grip of Jo’s legs! I did wake up once gasping for breath! It’s amazing how dreams have that kind of effect on a person! I know I’ve woken up from emotional dreams in the past, where I’d been crying and my eyes were filled with tears! Weird!

Tonight is game 4 between the Calgary Flames and the Detroit Red Wings! I hope the Flames play like they did Tuesday night! Like I said, it was an awesome game! I hope we come out with another win!

So, I purchased my reseller along with a photography blog domain, as Stacey mentioned I should! It’ll be for girls (or should I say women lol) only, which is mostly due to the name I purchased! If you’re interested in joining, let me know here or by emailing me at herbrokentoy [at] shaw.ca! I’m thinking of having no more than 7 people join for now, so besides me and Stacey, there’s 5 slots open!

I need to find a “working” plugin for flickr. The couple that I’ve tried just aren’t working, it’s driving me nuts! Guess I’ll keep looking and keep trying!