Finally sunny Calgary

Hello Everyone,

For the past few days, it was overcast for at least part of the day. Today was the first all day sunny day in a while. Lots of wind over the past few days so the garden needed a lot of water.

Thank you all for your support this week. Excited for tomorrow night. Will have dinner ready for Jerry when he gets home and we're going fishing on the weekend. A weekend of relaxing and no real plans. That way he can decompress and review work stuff and I get to spend time with him. Oh - nice thing about Calgary - you can fish the river that runs through the city and the fish are edible. Lots of great trout spots on the Bow.

Have a great day!

A bit better today

Hello Everyone,

I'm still down but it's getting better. I find it's the little things I miss. It's odd since we don't spend all our time together although our communication is regular.

Yep, little things

No kiss "good morning" from him when I stop by his house for coffee. He even gets the coffee ready just right for me. Sugar and a bit of water to cool it down. Yesterday, the door was locked so there was no coffee. Today, his ex-roommate put on a pot so I chatted with him. It's a routine we have. Jerry's roommate puts on coffee when he leaves for work. Jerry gets up. Ex-roommate shows up for coffee. I show up for coffee. I chat as they get their paperwork ready for the day.

No response back to my morning e-mail wishing him a good day. I usually send a cute e-mail (like a note in a lunch bag if he had one) but since it's going to his other e-mail account (this is temporary), it gets lost in the jumble.

No e-mail/phone call to see about meeting up at the park for lunch.

No messaging after work to see how our afternoons went. With the time zone difference, it puts us out of sync. And he needs his evenings for networking.

So, I'm a bit lost when I get home. Mike's enjoying the extra attention. I'm not focusing well. I need to get some housework and schoolwork done. Hopefully I can get myself snapped out of this tonight. I've got things going on tomorrow and Thursday which will help with the long evenings.

And I'm busy at work. Working on changes in processes. Created a new time sheet for my salaried payroll. Looking at possibilities of a new time sheet for my hourly payroll. Creating a procedure for terminations. And, I'm heading up to Nisku (where our operations office is - near Edmonton) on Monday for a meeting. It's the first time I've been invited and I will be presenting the termination procedure, discussing the new time sheets as well as general payroll explanations.

Well, I've got a busy day ahead of me. Have a great day!

A saddish sort of weekend

Hello everyone,

It's been an up and down weekend and wanted to share. Most of it involves Jerry.

And it's not a bad thing - just something different in our relationship.

Among Jerry's business ventures is being the majority shareholder in a courier company in Toronto. It's still a new company and they've run in to personnel problems. There was (and still is) a chance he was going to head out there for an extended period of time. So far, it's at a best case scenario and it means likely monthly visits to Toronto for a week at a time. Jerry got word on Wednesday that he needed to be out there this week. So, I saw him off at the airport this morning.

I think this will be the longest we've been apart since we started dating (I know, a whole 5 1/2 days) so I feel pretty foolish for feeling sad. I did very good to not cry at the airport, even though it looked like both of us were going to at any moment. And I also know this business venture is very important to him. If everything works out, there's a chance he can start getting out of the day-to-day courier business in a couple years. And it means a possibility of a more stable future financially. With the ups and downs of the economy plus the dangerous side of his line of work, I have the stable long-term employment. He didn't even want me to think about considering going with him to Toronto in the event of him being there long term. Silly man - we'd cross that bridge only if it arrives.

So we're trying to make the best of the situation and I've been told hiccups like this can make relationships stronger. We're looking at living situations, financial issues, geographic location and even what both of us want for the future. It's really opened our communication level.

I still miss him though, even if it's been only a day. And he's back late Friday night.

The other thing is Friday was our 23rd month anniversary. Ok - you can laugh about that one.

So we celebrated our relationship but still had his departure in the back our of minds the whole night. We went to the movies (a proper date) and saw Up. Not a kid's movie. I cried within a couple minutes of watching it. Hallmark sad. But a great movie, positive message. Just very sedimental. Which probably started me in this mood.

Jerry completely understands that I cry over stupid sappy stuff. So does his sister. And I was even laughing at myself for crying.

Saturday was getting him ready for his trip. He needed business clothes so he picked up a plaid navy sportcoat to go with a couple pairs of pants he already owns. He also got a couple shirts - light green (complete surprise how well it looked) and cream. The cream has french cuffs so he can wear the bicycle cuff links I bought him for his birthday. He plans to wear this outfit for his first business meeting out there. Also got a colourful tie. It was fun shopping with him and he's actually a lot of fun to clothes shop with. Gravitates toward colour and isn't afraid to try new looks.

But since he's not the most organized person, we were up until 4am getting everything ready. We left at 5:50 for the airport (roommate drove) and got there in lots of time for his 7am flight. So, we got about an hour of sleep. After I got dropped off at home, I curled up on the futon with the furry family and slept until 5. Felt much refreshed when I got up. Mike slept on my feet and Whiskers stayed up by my shoulder. Both kept me warm and were cuddly soft.

Oh, off topic - on Saturday we also stopped at a couple garage sales and I picked up a red winter jacket ($5), a white wooden chair (7) and a retro stewardess bag ($4 - as a bike bag). We also picked up travel Yatszi for a donation. Jerry wanted it so we could play while on the train when we travel from Ottawa to Toronto. He's so sweet.

So, I need some advice. How do you handle short but regular separation from your significant other? We've got messaging and e-mail to keep in contact but do you do anything else? Any special routines? What about the emotional toll? Does it get easier after a while?

I'll work on schoolwork this week to keep busy and I know the time will go by quickly. And I'll try not to feel sorry for myself. Have a great day!

Spock Days

Hello Everyone,

So, it was a fun but tiring weekend. We drove out Friday night and camped for the weekend in Vulcan, AB. They had their big Spock Days festival. Here are some pictures:

Here I am in costume. I made it myself since it was next to impossible to get a uniform here on time. It's a red t-shirt dress from American Apparel (super comfy), black undershirt from MEC, boots from Walmart (got last year) and I ordered the patch on eBay.

Jerry and his friends were dressed as tribbles (original Star Trek tv series) and Lara was a Vulcan. Here we are in the parade, and after in front of one of the floats.

Here is the statue in front of the information centre.

Here we are playing dress-up inside the visitor's centre. They also have cut-outs you can get your picture taken with. There is a simulator where you can manoeuver a Starship and lots of fan memorabilia.

They put on a great festival. Free pancake breakfast, long parade, festival activities on Saturday, slo-pitch tournament and a couple dances. The town was very welcoming and I was a bit surprised not to see more weirdo-fans all dressed up. It was relaxing and low key.

And finally, here is a nice photo of us.

le sigh

Hello Everyone,

I'm so lucky to be with such a great person.

So, yesterday I was looking at the forecast and thought, "we really need to get the rest of the garden in". This, after having snow last week. The weather is finally becoming spring and it should be a great weekend. We're off to Vulcan tonight for Spock Days and were not planning to get the rest of the garden done until next week.

But, I got the gardening urge and decided to dig. I knew Jerry was busy and I would have to dig into crappy, clay heavy soil. But I did, my hands are rough and the rest of the beds are done. I created 3 more - 2 are 5'x2' and 1 is 5'x1. Jerry arrived just as I was finishing. We then planted our little seedlings and the rest of the plants.

This is why I'm so lucky - Jerry called me from the garden centre to see if we needed anything else. I mentioned (jokingly) that if he saw some flowers that caught his eye, to pick some up. And he did. He chose 2 poppies that he liked (Oriental and Himilayan), some marigolds (for pest control) and then bought me some cosmos. I had mentioned a couple times that I really like them but they have an uncommon name so I wasn't expecting him to remember. They're such a pretty flower - bright cheerful flowers and feathery leaves.

We only have a couple things left to plant. I need to plant 2 corn seeds and we're going to pick up some cucumber, squash and melon plants (some didn't germinate and the rest were taken care of by Mike). Then we'll be all set.

There's quite a lot - by the time everything got done.

peas
beans - 4 varieties
carrots - 3 varieties
swiss chard
onions
shallots (I prefer them over onions)
garlic
corn
tomatoes (7 varieties)
potatoes
beets
herbs
raspberries
strawberries
rhubarb (there was one plant already there and we also planted a patch passed down from Jerry's grandmother's farm)
lettuce (in my tiered salad bowl)
nastriums (yummy for salad and pretty flowers)

didn't germinate - made me sad :-(
radish
parnip

All are being grown in square foot style, the main bed and trellis beds are raised. The beds I dug last night were not but I put wood around the edge to create an organized barrier. And I won the battle with the potatoes. Jerry wanted to do the tire method and I said that would look ugly. So, the potatoes are in the ground at my place and he will try the tires at his place.

I'll have pictures next week and will keep you posted with our progress. Have a great weekend!

Backyard photos

Hello Everyone










So, here are some photos of the backyard. My new outdoor furniture.















And some of the garden. I have salad and container carrots growing in the 3 tier planter.

And our raspberry bushes.

This is the set-up for the waterbarrel. And Polly.

Birthday present drawings

Hello Everyone,

I got frames for Jerry's presents and wanted to share them with you.

The first two where drawn by someone named Silvin. S/he drew the first one but didn't like it so drew the purple one. There is a little guinea pig in the basket.

I took 2 photos of the other drawing from different angles since it is a very light pencil drawing. I think it's very pretty and it is a nude of a woman on a bike. Jerry said it reminded him of me as he likes to think of me as pear shaped (which he says is appealing to him - extra bonus points for liking my curves). I can't make out the signature well enough to say who drew it.

Photos of apartment

Hello Everyone

So, here are some photos of the apartment. It's not complete since I didn't include the kitchen yet. When you walk in the front door, you go directly into the kitchen. The storage room is on the same side as the main door. You then enter the living room.

This is the view from the kitchen. You can see my kitchen table in the bottom right corner. Gilbert is in the corner and you can see Mike in the window sill.

This shows the rest of my livingroom. My computer/office area is in the corner, behind the futon.

And here is the other wall of the livingroom. This wall has the kitchen cupboards on the other side. The door leads to my bedroom.

And here is my bedroom. I have no closet.

You reach the bathroom by going through my bedroom. Not too pleased with that set up but there was no other logical way to get to it. The closed door lead to the bathroom.

I have no bathtub - just a shower. But Jerry has a tub and he was nice enough to draw a bath for me Sunday night when I needed to relax my muscles. I soaked while he made dinner. I'm spoiled terribly.

So, it's smaller than my previous 2 apartments but the storage room is great, the floors are easy to clean and it's a great location. It works well for 1 person. This weekend, I'll try to take pictures of the kitchen and the backyard.

A busy weekend

Hello Everyone!

So, super busy weekend. Jerry's parents came up on Saturday to celebrate my birthday. I did a mad rush cleaning of my apartment since they've never seen it before. They said it was very cute and were charmed by the furry family. Jerry and I did an Ikea run in the morning and I picked up an outdoor dining set and a bed.

Wasn't expecting to get a bed but they had Malm beds in the As-Is section for $30. They're regular $189. The only problem is that the headboard is "oak" while the side and end are black. But, there are black tones in the "oak" anyways so I couldn't care when it came to the price. My bed was just on the metal frame and no head/foot board. It rattled and moved around and since I toss a little when trying to get to sleep, the noise kept me up. It was ok on carpet at my second place but my first and current places had the locking wheels still moving around. I've now got a little more storage height under the bed and everything is much sturdier.

So the main purpose for the Ikea run was for the outdoor set. I'll take a picture tonight. There's a perfect spot in front of the garden that's sheltered from the wind and gets shade from mid-afternoon onward. It's a wooden set for 4 with 2 chairs and a bench seat. Very comfortable and half the price of the ones I saw at Home Depot. The table can be easily broken down for winter (although with oiling it, it can stay out year round) and if I have a dinner party, I can now have food on the table, rather than just the dishes.The chairs are a bit harder to break down since there are a couple screws in them but I have enough room to store them.

Had a nice visit with Jerry's parents. They watched me build the set and then we all relaxed in the shade. Went to The Keg for my birthday dinner and I thought the portions were huge. I ordered a classic T-bone and the salad was a full Caesar salad as well as a full plate for main course. And then they brought out a slice of ice-cream cake for me. Overall quite yummy but way too much food.

Sunday was the Lilac Festival. I ended up working at a sausage stand with Jerry. His friend owns the business and he needed a few extra helpers. I was cashier. It was long, hot and tiring. I did get to see a bit of the festival but I was too tired to really enjoy it. Got some cotton candy though.

My road rash is healing quickly. Some bruising showed up yesterday but the skin is recovering nicely. I still look a bit worse for wear and I have to watch my knee since that's the one I usually kneal on but I'm back to riding Polly again.

Since I cleaned my apartment for the weekend, I'll have photos to share. I'll post them tonight since Mom reminded me last week that she hasn't seen the place since I moved in.

Have a great day!