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!

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!

Honeymoon - Day 5 & 6

For our final two days we tried to get in a fair bit of antique shopping. We headed to the Curious Cat Antique Mall on both Friday and Saturday (as it's so bloody huge and full of a ton of great stuff). We ended up finding a Father's Day gift for Emma's dad, a salt and pepper shaker with a holder made in 1960's Japan (which goes great with our red chrome kitchen table), a wall hanger with a sexy French pip-up lady on it and a cute juice glass pitcher with cherries on it! 

After Curious Cat on Friday we met with my cousin, Grahame, at the Ship & Anchor for some drinks and food, before heading to the Fairytales Film Festival to see I Can't Think Straight. For anyone who may want to see this movie, DON'T. It's atrocious. Unless you're like us and enjoy the atrociousness of things sometimes. The acting is beyond bad and the movie can't decide if it wants to be a comedy or a dramatic social commentary piece. It fails at both. Methinks, it would make for a great drinking game, though.

On Saturday, we went back to the antique mall before making our way back to Edmonton, and just in time to miss that bit of snow that Calgary got on the weekend. As we were heading back, Emma received a call from Miles at Lucky Strike Tattoo asking if she could make it in earlier. I figured since we were going to be a bit early anyway, I might as well step on the gas and make the appointment an hour earlier so we could get home to see our doggy. We made it from Calgary to Edmonton in just over 2 hours. We grabbed some Wok Box (best fast food in Edmonton!), ate in the car and made it to the appointment in time. It ended up working out perfectly. We even snuck in some Rockband later that night with Tonya and Adina.

Blogger Time!

I figure it's about time for a "real" blog (can't do Livejournal from this damn phone, not to mention the useless posts from LJ communities) Also, there's not much to do out in the middle of nowhere, and when Emma and I move to Toronto we have to keep the Edmonton folk updated on our big city adventures. So here we go.