It's A Bit Like A Party

I hosted my third Virtual Trivia Night last night and it was busy! There were 19 teams! It is a big collection of people: from close friends to extended family, friends of friends and more. I have covered up their names but you might recognize some faces among last night's trivia crew:

Participants for Covid-19 Virtual Trivia Night

Hosted by me on Zoom

March 31, 2020

Quotes From Alberta

As I mentioned before, Jason and I went to Alberta this weekend. We flew out Friday evening and came back overnight Monday to Tuesday. It was a quick visit but I got to see my GeoConnection girls, their spouses, Mike, Aimee and the babies. Here are some quotes from the trip that I found amusing:

----

Pointing out the car windshield...
Jason: Oh God! How cold is Edmonton? Is that a penguin?!?
Me: Huh? What?
Jason: That black and white bird that is waddling.
Me: Oh! That is a magpie, they are like my favourite! I don't understand how everywhere has them except Ontario.

----

(Said at various different times) Coming out from the changes rooms at the resort spa, wearing the hooded plaid bathrobes provided:
ERin: Ooo, I feel like I am at Hogwarts
Matt: Totally lookin' like a boxer here
Anne: Reminds me of Dementors
Sutik: Is this some sort of Illuminati thing?

----

Me: Are you just the cutest thing ever?!
Maya: I'm Maya!

Birthday Kittens

ERin and Anne emailed me this for my birthday. 

Makes me want another kitten real bad.

Sleepovers - Child Vs Adult

I just got back from a quick four-day trip to Calgary. Jason used his Aeroplan points to get me flights out west for my birthday, so I could spend some time with ERin and Anne. (It was going to be during Stampede but got postponed to August.) I thought I would discuss the weekend as a comparison to sleepovers, specifically birthday party ones, I had as a child:

Length of Time
Not just a single night! Since I am in Toronto, Anne in Calgary, and ERin in Edmonton, if we are going to spend time together it only makes sense for it to be a few days. I flew out on Wednesday evening and back Sunday night.

Location
Instead of gathering in the living room or basement of our parent's house, we stayed at Anne's trendy apartment in the Kensington area of Calgary.

Sleeping Arrangements
We don't need to all be in the same room, and our bodies are too old to sleep on the floor. I got the fold-out couch with some awesome memory foam.

TV
Morning cartoons, fun movies, or late night television? Nope! An episode of Chef's Table in the afternoon.

Snacks
No chips, candy, or popcorn, instead we helped ERin by taste testing some new chocolate flavours.

Meals
We traded in the pizza and hot dogs for Anne's fabulous cooking. She made us orzo salad, fennel and zucchini soup, fish tacos with homemade mango salsa, and more.

Dessert
I used to love decorating cupcakes. But this weekend we helped ERin make two different fancy cakes (I was minimally helpful.) We started with the very complicated Pacific Cake that took much of Thursday, and then quickly whipped up a modern version of an Opera Cake on Saturday.

Restaurants
Our choices for a Friday night out on the town were not kid friendly at all. First stop, for appetizers and margaritas, was Anejo, where they make the guacamole and salsa right at your table. For dinner we went to Klein Harris, where I had beet salad and hanger steak. We also made a few breakfast/brunch stops at a pie place in Anne's building - I kept getting the quiche, so good!

Daily Essential
It used to be such a regular thing to visit the corner store, usually for ice cream or candy, during a sleepover, but now that we are older - it is coffee! Made at home or quick visits to a cafe.

Amusement
Hard to remember all the things that I did as a child at birthday parties; swimming, movies, games. In Calgary we went on a road trip to the mountains, visits to ice cream shops and the grocery store, dinners out, dinners in, a cat cafe, and lots of walking around the city.

Conversation
Did we talk about boys? Yes. But also our families, friendships, pets, careers, travel, health, education, and more.

Friendship
I think it gets even better as we get older. It was a wonderful weekend, I love those two so much.

Peyto Lake

Road trip in Alberta with my GeoConnection girls, day trip to the mountains...

Payto Lake 

(totally looks like a cartoon ghost)

Taken by ME with Anne's phone

Our Latin Mottos, Only One In Latin

Talking with my GeoConnect girls a little while ago and they were talking about the motto's are undergraduate universities had.

The conversation started because ERin was encouraging Anne to Surgit!, latin for 'Push On,' which she knew because it was Brock's motto. Anne then mentioned that the University of Calgary motto was in Gaelic. I made a mental note to check out what Carleton's was, anticipating that it would probably disappoint me.

I wasn't wrong, the Carleton University motto is Ours the Task Eternal, in English. I don't even know what that means! Also sadly they didn't bother with using a different language. The main thing I like about Carleton is the great colours, I don't like Calgary's red, gold and black. Basically University of Calgary has the best mascot/nickname and Brock is all around cool. Besides good colours, Carleton is, as usual, a bit of a disappointment.

ERin
Undergrad at Brock University (in St. Catherine's)
Colours: Red, grey, and black
Motto: Surgit!which means Push On! in Latin
Mascot: (The Badgers) Boomer the Badger

Anne
Undergrad at University of Calgary
Colours: Red, gold, and black
Motto: Mo Shùile Togam Suas meaning "I will lift up my eyes" in Gaelic
Mascot: (The Dinos) Rex

Me
Undergrad at Carleton University (in St. Catherine's)
Colours: Black and Red
Motto: Ours the Task Eternal
Mascot: (The Ravens) Rodney the Raven

My trip to Calgary for this year was originally planned for July so I could go to Stampede but it was postponed and now I am going from August 23 - 27. I can't wait to see them!

Smart Served

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down - A post about my Dad each Sunday, named after a song that he loved.

My parents got their Smart Serve certification so that they bar-tend at Give Me Liberty (the Liberty Village BIA street party that I worked on in 2012, 2013, and 2014.) According to my mom, it was actually at that event that my Dad learned about Shazam.  I don't know if they got much use out of the Smart Serve beyond those few times, they may have found it helpful for yacht club events. I was able to list Mom's as a Smart Serve bartender at my wedding so she at least got one extra use out of it.

Interesting side note: According to Anne you have to redo the certification in Alberta because it expires after a period of time. In Ontario it lasts forever. Teri and I did a course one weekend when we were 18, wrote the test and the end, and are still good 15 years later.

Focus People

Sure, at an overarching level 'all lives matter' but that shouldn't be the global dialogue right now. I want to thank Anne for sharing this comic on her Facebook:

Black Lives Matter - An important growing movement in the US, with various Canadian counterparts, get informed.

They All Are Angry

With friends scattered across the country (actually multiple countries) it is hard to stay in touch. I have tried a bunch of different techniques and lately my GeoConnection Girls (Anne and ERin) are using WhatsApp to chat. This week we tried to determine who had the most angry cat. There was no winner, we just lose; they are all angry and so disappointed in us.

Clockwise from Top Left

Two

"Iz Hate You"

Photo by Me (Toronto)

Iris

"Sooo you feed me now?"

Photo by ERin (Edmonton)

Anne's Mom's Cat

"Not Enough Towels"

Photo by Anne (Calgary)

TB - June 2007

Throwback Thursday - Scroll to the bottom of the month and read up. Or click on the earliest post in the month (to view the post and the comments) then keep clicking Newer Post until you finish the month.

JUNE 2007

This is such an interesting mouth to read. Also, I did 35 posts, my god! I made my first Found It post after losing something and finding it somewhere strange. It seems that I was into writing on Always Standing multiple times a day and making the posts very small. I guess I have gotten more long winded. Last Throwback Thursday I was wondering if  2007 was when I started at GeoConnections. When I read about starting an 'office job' it made me really wonder but I still wasn't sure. I was able to confirm it from the last post of the month where I quoted someone that I know was a co-worker there. So yes, 2007 was the summer that I started at GeoConnections, and I met ERin! (Anne joined us later on.) Then in September I made the decision to only do school part-time and stay working full-time. I am excited to read about all these big life choices that I made almost 10 years ago.

Noted Post: The quote from my brother about telling the truth. I remember being really close to him during this time in our lives. I miss that.

Peru Pic - A Llama And An Alpaca!

This is one of my personal favourites from my Peru trip, not because it is a particularly good photo but because I love llamas and alpacas and this picture features both:

Llama (top) Alpaca (bottom)

Ccaccaccollo Women's Weaving Cooperative

Read Mom's Post about our visit to this village

Ccaccaccollo, Sacred Valley, Peru

Photo by ME

Both of these animals are Camelids from South America but they are different. I think I love them equally.

LLAMAS
Scientific Name: Llama glama
Weight: 300 lbs
Height: 4'
Ears: Long, banana-shaped
Fleece: Coarse outer coat over softer inner coat
Face: Very little hair on a long face
My First Experience: My mother reading Is Your Mama a Llama when I was a young

ALPACAS
Scientific Name: Vicugna Pacos
Weight: 150 lbs
Height: 3'
Ears: Short, spear-shaped
Fleece: Very fine single coat
Face: Large tuft of hair that falls into eyes, furry face
My First Experience: ERin and Anne enjoying an Alpaca Star Wars YouTube Video in Ottawa

Come On, Comment

In the past week, there have almost 100 visits to Always Standing. I know because Google Analytics told me. This visits are from almost 50 different users. So there are a lot of you out there! However, in the past week there has only been ONE comment, it was from my mom saying that I had posted a nice picture of my dad last Sunday. I have been really good about my goal to post everyday this year, check out my stats listed in the archives to the left, 37 posts in March! I had hoped that writing more often would lead to a more dedicated and consistent readership, that would hopefully grow; without spending a lot more time on Google Analytics I can't really tell if that is happening.

However, I also hoped that it would mean more comments. I hate to complain when some people are so good (Teri, Taylor, Anne, Anna, ERin, etc.) about saying something, even if it is just a 'Hello' like Linds' and her 'This is here' that gets left sometimes. I want to coax out some of the others who stay in the shadows and rarely or never comment - who's out there? Say hello! The easiest way to do it is to use the Anonymous user to comment and then leave your name, nick name, or initial in the body of the message.

Specific call out to my boyfriend: I wish more people would engage with the site, for example I am pretty sure that Jason reads Always Standing daily, but I don't think he has ever left a comment. We live together, it would be weird to leave a comment when he could just turn and say whatever he is thinking right to me. But he never says, "Oh I read on your blog today that such and such." or "I really liked that last post." I would have no idea that he even checks if I didn't see it up sometimes on his screen.

If you are looking for something to talk about, let me know:
- How often to you visit the site?
- What do you most like to see (favorite types of posts)?
- Want me to stop doing anything or adjust something?
- Wish I would give an update about something previously mentioned?
- What do you want to hear more about / see more of?

Turning 30

It is Steph's birthday today! She is turning 30, and is the first of my friends (not counting Jason, Jeska, James, or JennD) to do so. Okay, so she is the first of my friends who I think of as 'the same age as me' to do so, and who's name does not start with a J. (Sucks to be born at the start of the year sometimes.) She is calling it her 29+1 birthday, which is a bit like Anne saying she is 5'13". On her blog she did a bit of a recap of her year and included a photo collage, which Jason and I are a part of! (We are the kissing couple in the sparkler heart.) I hope the Steph had an amazing birthday and the her 30's are as great as her 20's were.

Happy Birthday Steph, I love you!

Great Diet Advice

I was talking on Facebook with Anne about my upcoming trip to Paris:

Me: Just keep me away from the bread and croissants, man. I am doing so well with my weight loss, Paris might wreak it.
Anne: Have one when you arrive and one when you leave. Paris will be with you in between.

Not Every Day In 2013

Reviewing my New Years Resolution from 2013 about blogging and I did not fulfill it. I had decided pretty early on that instead of trying to blog every single day in 2013, I would do 6 days a week and allow myself to skip one day. Well that would mean about 312 posts last year, and if you look on the left-hand side, I only did 234. It was a big improvement from the previous few years, but it still isn't up to pre-2010 standards and I have yet to ever have a year that Always Standing has more than 365 posts. If you look at the breakdown, like all resolutions, I start strong and then have a weak June and off and on weak months after that.

So, I am trying again - My resolution then is to BLOG EVERY DAY IN 2014 so that the number beside it reads at least 365 by this time next year. And again, this will hopefully, up my readership, mean more comments, improve my writing, and better document my life. (A reread of last year's post and it says "document this amazing year that I plan to have" and this time I am not going to make near as bold a statement.)

Speaking of blogging...
Remember to regularly check out the two blogs listed in My Links:
- Mom's Travel Blog - She recently did a great post reflecting about her first year of blogging and I really agree that it becomes more about doing it for yourself than for others - however, I am still the type of writer that lives for the comments. Unless she is travelling and using vicarious travelling as a daily diary, then mom is posting a little more than once a week.
- Steph's Photo Blog - She has always been good and seems to be getting better and better! With Stephanie Beach Photography taking off the way it is, I was worried that Steph's blog would become less personal, but it hasn't. She posts about once a week, a combination of client shots and personal ones.

Also, check out the funny writings of my GeoConnections' Girls:
They don't quite post enough or consistently enough to show up on My Links yet, but when they do bring something to the internet it is always amazing!
- Generic Blonde Musings - ERin's blog started back in the summer and follows her life back in Edmonton. She spent a couple of years in Ottawa but has moved back west again.
- Whispering Swede Nothings - Anne's blog to document her time in Sweden as she works on her Masters. She has always had the funnest posts, even previously on her personal blog. Also Sweden seems crazy. It looks like Anne is posting about twice a month or so.

Canada's Cold

It is starting to get pretty cold in Toronto. I know this from my eyebrows. They are so bushy (they look okay, I just got them shaped, they are just very thick). When I wash my face in the morning, my eyebrows hold in some water, which I never notice until I go outside in the winter and the water instantly gets cold and I have to rub it out. I know I am in pretty much the warmest city of all my friends, so I shouldn't really be complaining. (I will do another post later on about the humidity factor in which I will do some complaining.)

The temperature right now at 9pm
Toronto/Oakville/Paris: -6
Ottawa/Barrhaven/Grafton: -8
Edmonton: -19

I would like to briefly mention that Anne is in Stockholm and it is 6 there, so she is technically in the warmest city right now.

Game For My Commute

I am too groggy most mornings to read on my almost hour-long transit commute to work. (I always read on my trip home, which sadly is shorter, and then seems even shorter because I am reading.)

Before she traveled over to Stockholm to do her Masters, Anne visited Toronto for a little while this past summer. One thing she said she noticed (besides the fact that Toronto smells, which is unfortunately true most summer days) was that there seemed to always be sirens going and emergency vehicles rushing around. She would point them out to me as another fire truck, EMS, ambulance, or police car drove past and I kept saying, "It is strange, I swear it isn't usually this bad."

I realized though, that maybe I had gotten used to it. In Paris, we lived a couple of blocks from the train tracks; I got so used to the light window shaking and noise that accompany the trains I could even tell you how many passed during the day/night. Perhaps it had become the same with the noises of Toronto.

So, I now play a morning game with myself - Can I make it to work without sirens? Well, turns out for the most part, I can't. They seriously happen all the time. I get excited if I am a couple of blocks from work and haven't seen/heard one - then in most cases I see cops rush past (we have a station near work.) So, near work it is usually police and closer to home it is fire trucks, either way there are a lot of sirens happening in this city! But I want to start winning the game more!

Alberta Trip - Animal Sightings

While on the our recent trip to Alberta, Jason and I saw the following (most while in a car):
- thousands of Colombian Ground Squirrels who would chirp warnings way too often
- a Coyote acting a little strangely on the far side of a field 
- bunch of Bighorn Sheep up on a cliff at the side of the road
- one Black Bear, though it is was brown in colour 
- Red Squirrels that are tiny and cute
- lots of Magpies which I really like
- a Little Brown Bat on the road during a hike, it was probably sick
- Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels that are easily mistaken as chipmunks but are really fat
- herd of Bison at Waterton Lakes in their Bison Paddock Loop Road
- a couple of Mule Deer, including some with a fawn or two
- Chipmunks but hard to tell which of the five or so types that are native to Alberta
- mother Grizzly Bear and two tiny cubs, SO CUTE! (The best sighting ever!)
- big waddling Porcupine
- so many Elk (or Wapiti), including one with an epic set of antlers
- some White-tailed Deer, a few with decent antlers too

Sadly, Jason and I didn't see these animals, but I have seen them in Alberta during my other trips there:
- Bald Eagle (saw two once while driving to Canmore with Anne)
- Moose (pretty sure there was at least one sighting when I went to Alberta as a kid)
- Wolf (once saw one running along the side of the road, I was in a Greyhound bus)
- Mountain Goat (we missed Greg's sharp eyes, who spotted when Teri, him, and I went to Banff a couple of years ago)

Thankfully, we did not see these animals, but were warned by various nature parks about them:
- Black Widow Spider
- Cougar, though we saw some warning signs about one on a hike we did
- Rattlesnake
- Scorpion, though Jason says he saw one on the road while driving but I missed it

Trips To Alberta

Jason and I got back from a summer trip to Alberta last week and it led me to think about how often I have visiting this amazing province.

As a kid...
August of 1999 during a large 'Out West' camper-trailer trip
Time in Alberta: A couple of weeks
With: Mom, Dad, and Mike 
Saw: Dumheller, Royal Tyrrell Museum, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Waterton Lakes, Banff, Lake Louise, Columbia Icefield, Jasper

Part of a road trip...
April of 2009 to help a friend of Teri's drive her car out to Vancouver
Time in Alberta: A couple of days
With: Teri and K
Visited: Aimee, Mike, and ERin
Saw: Edmonton, Jasper

On the way around the world...
July of 2010 at the start of my BIG summer trip
Time in Alberta: Two weeks
Visited: Anne, ERin, Aimee, and Mike
Saw: Calgary, STAMPEDE, Canmore, Edmonton, Jasper

A couple of years ago...
July of 2011 to do Stampede and Banff with Teri and Greg
Time in Alberta: About a week
With: Teri and Greg
Visited: Anne and Mike
Saw: Calgary, STAMPEDE, Banff, Lake Louise

A great birthday gift...
July of 2013 to visit Alberta and Stampede with Jason
Time in Alberta: A week and a half
With: Jason
Visited: Anne
Saw: Badlands, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Calgary, STAMPEDE, Waterton Lakes, Banff, Lake Louise

Alberta Trip - Calgary

Pre-Scheduled Post:
As per our trip itinerary (bar any issues/changes/complications etc.) 
Jason and I should be ....
Visiting Calgary!!
Jason and I will be enjoying Stampede for the next few days in Calgary. While we are here, we will be staying with Anne.