Today Lucas and I took a day trip out into the Canadian Rockies to see how pretty they are now that more snow has fallen. We wanted to see something new, so we went to Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park. It was a really quiet, beautiful lake in the mountains with a small hiking trail and signs everywhere warning us not to feed the mountain goats. We pulled into the parking area and a little family of mountain goats greeted us. We pulled over and got out, and they walked right over to us and started licking the Neon — apparently they love the salt the car has collected from the …

I have become one of those business suit and tennis shoes members of the downtown core.
Over the weekend we had a tiny wave or two of very light snow; enough to dust the ground and cold enough overnight to form little patches of ice on the sidewalk. As proud as I am of the fact that I am quite capable in heels and haven’t fallen or tripped since re-entering the business world after becoming a Permanent Resident, I don’t really want to tempt fate. There’s no sense in ruining my perfect record, right? Heels and ice with as much walking as I do back and forth to work doesn’t sound like a …

I’ve blogged on this topic before, so it’s no surprise I’m bringing the subject up again. Let me first reiterate that I love the CTrain and public transportation in general. Maybe it’s because I grew up not really having it so easily at my disposal, or maybe I’m just more of a tree hugger than I appear, but I am fascinated by the Calgary CTrain, so I was elated that my job allows me to leave the car behind and part walk, part train into downtown and back each day. It never fails; there’s always a wide, colourful variety of people on at any given point of time, so it’s easy to …

I’ve never bought a suit before. In fact, I’ve only worn a suit once that I can think of. I do own a few suits that were gifts (thanks, Putman) but none of them quite fit me properly and we’re attending a wedding in October so I decided it was time to buy something brand new and have it tailored.
A couple weeks ago we went to Moore’s. One of the salesman saw me coming a mile away and was all over me the second I walked in the door, measuring me and firing questions at me about what the suit was to be used for, etc. He led me to a rack and had me …

Yes, yes I can!
That’s right, the next big thing we’ve been waiting on… I got my Alberta teaching certification! After 10 months of waiting on Immigration, waiting a month for the Alberta teaching certification office to examine my Indiana credentials and deem me qualified to hold a professional teaching license was a cake walk. This weekend will be busy as I organize my resume and dust off my teaching portfolio that has been waiting ever so patiently to be needed again. The final step of fully immigrating feels so close to being complete now… there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and I anxiously and happily await teaching again next school year.

Let’s play a guessing game.
First, let’s guess who was charged $112 for a Taebo order on 4/27/2007?
Monday, 4/9/2007, I talked to a “Maria” who not only canceled that ridiculous order but told me flat out when I asked that WE WOULD NOT BE CHARGED. I even got an order cancellation confirmation number.
Now let’s play the guessing game again. Let’s guess who’s getting one hell of a phone call tomorrow? (since conveniently their customer service, that’s supposedly open until 9pm EST and it’s currently 7pm EST, is closed at the moment.)
If you answered “us” and then “Taebo Customer Service”, you are the big winner for today. Congratulations!