Tumblr

Yep, got a Tumblr. Just finding it hard to keep this blog updated. What can I say? I like blogging in shorter but more frequent spurts, which Tumblr is perfect for. I do plan to keep updating this blog when I have longer posts but I'll mostly be using Tumblr from now on. You can check me out here: http://starkersinyeg.tumblr.com/

Smash!

 

On March 21, 2011, Emma and I were in a head-on car collision near Gibbons, Alberta. We were driving to my Grandpa's place,where we were temporarily staying while our lawyers were working hard on making our condo deal was going through (it was supposed to go through on February 15th). Stupidly, we gave notice at our apartment in Oliver for the end of February (expecting that everything would go smoothly) but, alas, life loves to throw its' little curveballs to test your resolve, I suppose. Anyway, here's some photos of my busted up CR-V. Frankly, I'm surprised that we came out the way we did, as that dude totally swerved right into our lane and smashed the crap out of my vehicle. Our injuries are basically: I broke my ankle in 2 spots and tore some ligaments which required surgery and 3 months off my leg entirely plus some bruising here and there. Emma suffered a cut above her eye, a minor break on her nose, a stuck rib which produces some chest pain which she's working on with a physical therapist and generally bruised and banged up as well. I'm just glad we had airbags or Emma and I probably would not have any teeth right now. Also, I'm super impressed that the windshield remained intact, but I don't think I'll ever drive on Highway 28A ever again. Sorry, 28A our relationship is over. Highway 825 and I are now buds. I've never had any issues on that highway. Plus, the last time I travelled on you, about a week after the crash, there were other cars in the ditch and I think I was having a bit of a panic attack. Maybe one day (not too soon) we can patch up this relationship, but don't count on it. Also, it's not like you'll miss me much anyway. I rarely travelled on you as it were, and not having a car will make that even less frequent as I'll have to rent a car when visiting my parents. And I've told them that I will only visit them in non-wintery seasons or perfect driving conditions. Sorry parents, this accident has made me one hell of a paranoid driver and passenger. You've probably already noticed this with my constant wincing, and occasional shouting at other cars, "Slow down, you jerk!" *Note "jerk" is not the actual word used, as I have a the swearing abilities of Al Swearengen from Deadwood (minus all the racist bits, of course)! 

Doctor Who - Series Six Full Length Trailer

Watch the trailer for the new series here:



Doctor Who is one of my favourite show of all time and, yes, I did get goosebumps when watching this trailer. If you are a skeptic who feels that Doctor Who is just some children's show then you are missing out on some truly amazing TV. Yes, it can be lame at times. But that's part of its charm and mostly it's full of wit, fun and a whole lot of heart. Also, a fair amount of genuine creepiness and scary-lite (can't scare the kiddies to badly)! And even though I'm a Tennant fan, Matt Smith is great! A very close second for my favourite Doctor.

Posting this trailer reminded me of something I read on Pajiba, oh gosh...nearly 2 years ago called "Spiritual Atheism: Buffy, Angel, House and Doctor Who". For fans of any of these shows it's an excellent read, and if you're an atheist who has taken the time to consider why you're an atheist and what it means to you, you'll probably enjoy it as well.

For more of your viewing pleasure, a quick mini-sode which reminded me of the "Empty Child" from Series One when Christopher Eccleston was the Doctor.

Naked on Jasper

Just read on Twitter via @GigcityYEG (you can read their article here) that Naked Cyber Cafe and Expresso Bar lost their lease (too many "unwelcome clientele", apparently), and will now have to move (hopefully, they just move and don't close. Also, fingers crossed they find some other cool spot downtown). This makes me pretty sad as not only was it a great spot for artists to hang out and play, but it was the location of mine and Emma's first REAL date (sans friends to act as buffers). And it was a GREAT date. We spent 3 hours there! Maybe even longer, and we were never told to leave or hurry up. We just sat there drinking tea, I think I had a puffed wheat square as well, and chatted all night! That was also the night that I locked my keys in my car and had to ask someone at Wee Book Inn for a coat hanger to try and force it open. Unfortunately, that plan didn't work so Emma got to meet my dad when he dropped off a spare key for me. Add to that the -30 temperature and throw in a couple games of Connect 4 and Guess Who, and all in all it made for a slightly embarrassing but amazing night. I swear it was that night that made me realize that this person was incredibly special and I'd be a fool to pass this by. And I ain't no fool (right, Mr. T)!

Best Birthday Present Ever?!

***This is a post that I wrote on Monday, March 21st  about two hours before Emma and I got into a head-on car crash that broke my ankle in 2 spots, requiring surgery and 3 months of staying off it entirely. Besides that Emma had a minor fracture on her nose, a cut above her eye, pulled some ligaments in her knee, and generally we're just incredibly sore, bruised, banged up, and VERY LUCKY! Any changes to my original post have this beside them: ***

Finally! Today w heard back from our real estate agent and lawyer that the condo that we had been waiting for since late January is ours! *weight lifts from shoulders

Cambridge Lofts here we come! Look at it! Isn't it pretty!?

Now this might not seem like a long time to wait for a new home/condo. I'm sure may people have 60 day waiting periods for houses, but we were not sure that we were ever going to get it as the seller had a mortgage shortfall AND was unable to clear the property title because of a loan that still listed the property as collateral. He said he had it paid off but since it was a "personal loan" the seller had to track down the person he borrowed money from and get them to clear the title on the property. If this were an episode of Property Virgins, it would have been a good one! Because the seller didn't give any indication that anything was going to go arwy for the original possession date in mid-Februrary, so we gave notice at our apartment for the end of February - thinking that this would give us tons of time to move all of our stuff from one building to the next. When the deal fell through we were pretty devasted (being first time buyers we had no idea what to expect) but we extended the closing date to the end of March (right around my birthday) and moved out of our apartment to my Grandfather's house just outside of Gibbons. That's right, Gibbons - the town of my youth. Not that I say that proudly. Gibbons is an okay place, it's just not where I want to be for an extended period of time. Plus, my Grandfather just passed away in December so being in his house without him is still a bit raw. There are so many memories in that house that it's hard to not feel sad when I'm there and he's not.

Also, I'm a city person. I like being in the heart of the city. In fact, when we lived in Oliver we felt that it was just a bit too far from the downtown for us. (yes, I know this seems ridiculous. I've told people this before and they usually just shake their heads and probably think I'm crazy). Plus, Emma doesn't drive and this is the only residential building in the city that has the LRT literally in its' basement. The pedway is also a huge perk - it basically allows us to avoid winter in Edmonton! Isn't that every Edmontonians dream? Minus, when it's a nice winter day and you'd like to go sledding. Yes, we do have to take our dogs out on walks but they are tiny dogs who HATE the cold and we have a massive patio that we can let them do their business on (and then clean it up, of course!). We'll just chase them around the condo for exercise. We've even solved the parking issue at Cambridge. My employer provides a parking pass for the parkade on Rice Howard Way. Done and done! (***My car is a total write-off. Having no car solves our parking issue, I suppose).

So goodbye Gibbons! Goodbye 12-13 hour workdays (I start work early and Emma finishes work late)! Goodbye 2 hours of commuting/day (***a commute that literally could have killed us)! Goodbye 6am wake-ups! Goodbye NOT spending our weekends hanging out with friends!

And hello...5 minute indoor walking commute to work! Hello spending lunches with our dogs since our condo is so close to our jobs! Hello massive patio! Hello hanging out with our dear friends on weekends! Hello finally making a space exactly how we want and envision it! Hello the hustle and bustle of the city! Hello underground pedway that connects to movie theatres, restaurants, our banks, the YMCA and all that other great downtowny stuff!

This will be one of the best birthdays ever! If this deal falls through again in a couple days...well, there will be a post probably along the lines of: I hate birthdays or maybe just a sad face:   :`(      

***Despite being in a car crash my birthday was surprisingly okay - think I was mainly just happy to be spending it in our new condo and with my lovely wife! So, maybe not the best birthday ever but definitely not the worse, either!

It's A Dog's Life

Introducing: Bertie (aka Bertie Bear or Bert the Squirt) 

*wink*

Still playing catch up on this blog (apologies for the tardiness).

In late September we added another member to our lil' family! We adopted Bertie (named after Bertie Wooster of the Jeeves & Wooster novels by PG Wodehouse) from Central Animal Services in Lacombe (they often do trip the the southside Petsmart for adoption viewings, which is where we met Bertie for the first time after seeing her on their website). 

The ladies at Central Animal Services were great and even let us hold Bertie for a very long time to get a feel for her personality. This was vitally important as Mr. Buns has certain "challenges" (i.e. he kind of clashes with most dogs, especially if they are too friendly, dominating, make louder sounds than he does, are bigger than him, try to sniff his butt, try to play with him, pay him any sort of attention whatsoever, or vie for our attention - you know, basically exist).  He needed a buddy that would allow him the freedom to be independent and get to know him in due course. And gradual it was...it took Mr. Buns about a month to even allow Bertie to get within 2 feet of him. She was very patient yet persistent. She was ever-waiting for the moment that he would let her come just a little bit closer to him. Once Mr. Buns got over the fact that Bertie was here to stay, he suddenly was her biggest fan (the fact that she was in heat didn't hurt - luckily, he'd already been snipped). Within 2 months they were sleeping right beside each other and he would try to kiss her face repeatedly (what can I say? He's a lover, not a fighter). It was around the 2 month mark that Bertie seemed to get a boost of confidence from her newfound friendship with Mr. Buns, and her personality really started to blossom. 

Initially, when we first adopted lil' Bert she was a terrified mess. She would constantly hide in our closet and wouldn't eat anything (except a bit of water) for the first 2 days that we had her. We were scared she was going to starve herself out of fear. Luckily, we noticed that she would eat small amounts of food while we were out of the room, so we'd leave her in the closet with a bowl of food and within minutes she'd scarf it down. Bertie, much like Mr. Buns, has some unique challenges due to their unfortunate circumstances and the potential abuse that occurred before we adopted them, but we are constantly working with them to try and help them overcome these issues, and together they are a perfect pair.

Since adopting Buns and Bertie we've received several comments about how Emma and I chose "the weirdest" or "the most difficult" dogs - unfortunately, what these commenters fail to realize is how bloody rewarding it is to see the progress that we have made with our "special" dogs.  And we are lucky to have them, quirks and all. I'd never buy a shiny, new, custom, purebred puppy from a breeder - not when there are so many homeless and unwanted animals out there already, who need and deserve loving families. Please support your local animal shelters and adoption agencies! Here's a quick list of some in Alberta:

www.canadasguidetodogs.com/abrescue.htm

You can also search for rescued or homeless pets on petfinder.com - it even allows you to filter search results by size or age (but don't discount those older, wiser and often house-trained senior doggies - they need and deserve homes, too!).

Two dogs makes for better family photos, too!

The Move Back To Edmonton

The move back could be summed up as "the worst move ever". And I don't think I'm exaggerating on this one either. This is basically what happened:

We couldn't fit all of our stuff into the u-haul we had rented. Had to leave my scooter behind (which I never even had the opportunity to ride while we were in Toronto). It's still sitting in Emma's parent's garage. For the record, 3 people's stuff in one small u-haul trailer is too much stuff, which we learned the hard way in Kenora, Ontario when the hitch tore from the underside of my Honda CR-V, effectively rendering my vehicle worthless - it can't tow anything ever again. Which meant we had to rent a massive and expensive u-haul truck and tow my car the rest of the way. We stopped just outside Winnipeg at a campsite and had to sleep in the back of the u-haul. We would have slept in the car but the battery was dead from towing it and it smelt like gasoline. We were afraid that with the u-haul door completely shut we might run out of air or not be able to get out in the morning, but with the door slightly ajar we were nervous for our safety AND it was FREEZING! Like 2 degrees (Celsius) outside. However, we still slept better than the previous night in our motel in Thunder Bay, where a bunch of cretins stayed up all night partying right next door to us. By 4am, I had had enough and we hit the road...which lead to Kenora and all the excitement (sarcasm) that followed. At this point we were about half way there, at least, distance-wise. The rest of the trip was significantly slower, as one thing about massive u-haul trucks is that you tend to have to drive them slowly and fuel them up often. And, as we had "splurged" in Kenora on the truck, we were tight on monies and opted to park and sleep in a Safeway parking lot in Saskatchewan.

All in all the move back was: expensive, stressful, vehicle-destroying, tear-inducing, freezing, uncomfortable, exhausting and something I never want to do again. So I guess this means we're staying put - and since we both have jobs we actually enjoy and potentially a condo downtown (still waiting on the deal to go through), I suppose this means we're setting down "roots" here now.

And that doesn't seem as bad as it did nearly 2 years ago. In fact, it doesn't seem bad at all.

Photos from Toronto

I got to say Toronto has some really great graffiti art and paintings on the sides of buildings. One thing I wish Edmonton had more of. It just makes a place feel more vibrant. Also, the back alleys in Toronto are decent and not scary. We'd always take Mr. Buns down our back alley - it was a good way to avoid people. He just loves to bark at people. Such a curmudgeon, he is.

Halloween on Church Street (apologies for the poor quality - my blackberry is mediocre at best in lighter conditions):

The crowd

I caught H1N1 that night...for a quick photo-op, that is! 

And here's some other photos from around the city.

Bumping fists with a lion:

Rich Terfry

I wonder if they have the Cream of Sumyungai special?

Honestly, I thought I had more photos of our time in Toronto, but I do remember that for the longest time I couldn't even find my camera. So I guess I'm lucky that we even have these. Next Toronto trip I'll play tourist and snap away. 

I did get to act all touristy at the Devil's Punch Bowl, though. Here's a couple of shots.

Emma was not impressed when I keep trying to get closer and closer to the edge. 

That cross in the background would light up at night. It was massive and pretty cool - and, as an atheist, I generally disapprove of such large displays of faith.

Also, in Hamilton (make that Stoney Creek) they have a drive-in theatre! It kind of had a 50's vibe to it, and they'd always play a double-feature. Luckily, when we went to see District 9 it was playing first. I wish I could remember what was playing after it. I do remember it was something terrible - probably something with Kate Hudson.

Edmonton used to be the drive-in theatre capital. I say it's time it came back. At least one outdoor theatre somewhere in this province. For nostalgia's sake. Or at least more outdoor movies at Churchill Square - like twice or three times a week. I'd pay for that. And not just kiddy movies. After 12am - no kiddies allowed, time for the PG-13 and up movies!

Nearly 2 years...

It's been nearly 2 years since my last post...I feel bad for neglecting this blog. But a lot has happened in that time. We moved to Toronto. Enjoyed it, but missed all of our amazing friends here in Edmonton. So we moved back. And we're loving it back here - in fact, we're in the process of buying a condo...just waiting for that to go through now. More on that later. But here are some highlights of our 9 months in Toronto.

Driving through Saskatchewan (not a highlight per say, but certainly made for some nice photos).

Welcome to Sheho. Heheheh!

We cruised through Manitoba and the first bit of Ontario because it was raining the whole way and there were tornado watches everywhere. Figured it was best to not stay anywhere too long. We did stop at The Forks in Winnipeg for some amazing samosas.

Mr. Buns still didn't seem to mind that he had been cooped up in a car for nearly 2 days. What a trooper!

I don't know if it was all of the rain or exhaustion from driving (we drove straight from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Marathon, Ontario - 16 hours. And quite the Marathon, it was. Hah!) but we started to play car games. Car fever, perhaps? Our favourite game: Spot Night Danger!

Half way through Ontario, and we're exhausted at this point, even Mr. Buns:

Also, my ankles swell up from constantly driving. I have car cankles! We finally make it to Toronto! Hooray! But first, we must stop in to see Emma's parents. To Hamilton, we go!

After a major job search, I find a job with Front Door Organics, an awesome organic home delivery service full of wonderful people! We'll miss that place. Hopefully, when visiting Toronto we'll have the opportunity to stop in and visit everyone again.

As we still haven't found a place to live in Toronto yet. I'm commuting from Hamilton to Etobicoke. 1-1.5 hours in the morning and 1-2 hours in the evening. Not fun.

Our friends, Kerry and Glenn, graciously let us stay in the spare bedroom of their amazing place in the Beaches (now referred to as the the Beach, for some silly reason). While staying with them we attend the Fan Expo.

Storm Troopers!

Anya from Buffy! Spock! Linda Hamilton! And Mr. Bruce Campbell!

Emma was determined to get Bruce's signature and have it permanently tattooed on her. Here's a before shot of Emma's shoulder:

And here's a shot of Bruce Campbell signing Emma's shoulder. I love that he added "Ash" below his name!

We quickly ran off to the nearest tattoo shop. We stopped in at Adrenaline Tattoo on Queen West, because they were the first shop we could find. They looked, however, more like an overpriced hipster clothing store, and the only tattoo artist available was some preening, puffed-up prick who blew literal smoke in our faces and figurative smoke up our asses by claiming that the autograph was "too small to tattoo properly". Ugh. So we called around and found an awesome place on Church Street called Passage Tattoo. When asked if the signature was too small to tattoo, Handsome Mike practically laughed at us for asking such a silly question, and proceeded to tattoo Emma's shoulder. Phew!

By October 1st we found a place on Markham Street. Which is one block from College and Bathurst and where you'll find Sneaky Dee's (and their excellent vegan nachos).

Also, our place is just south of Mirvish Village. We end up frequenting Suspect Video and Honest Ed's a lot!

While living in Toronto we got to see The Hidden Cameras, Gentleman Reg, Gossip, The Wild Beasts, and several amazing burlesque shows by Skin Tight Outta' Sight.

(More on our time in Toronto to be posted soon).