Confessions of a Reformed Speed-Demon

We all have those little habits that we wish we didn't have. I actually have many. Like my cuticle mangling. And my procrastination. And the fact that I'm always late. But perhaps the one that I'm starting to hate the most is my speeding. Because it's costing me a lot of money.

I started driving late in life. I've only had my licence for 4 years. In all honesty, I think the final push for me to get it was to prove to my ex (during the SECOND time we'd broken up) that I could do it, in an effort to get him back. I guess it worked. Please hold your comments, since we all know how that turned out. Anyway, I'd put it off for years (there's that procrastination again), mostly because I couldn't afford driver's ed, or a car, and quite frankly, I was scared shitless to get behind the wheel of a 3 tonne death machine. But I did it none the less and have since discovered that I frigging love to drive. Seriously. I love to drive. But sadly, the bi-product of someone who loves to drive and is perpetually late is a person who drives WAY too fast.

I come by it honestly. My father dives fast, much to the frustration of my mother. He drives fast, unless I want him to. And then he drives like a damn old lady. But that is neither here nor there. My mother doesn't drive, and since I got my licence in my late 20's, my father had to drive me around for a very long time. Ergo, he was my main driving role model. So I drive fast. I should probably have taken it as a sign though, that even my DAD comments on my lead foot. I am proud to say, however, that I pay a lot more attention than he does. He tends to take in the scenery when he drives. I pay closer attention to the road. 

Now, when I'm NOT running late (which, admittedly isn't very often), I usually only go a bit over the speed limit. Unfortunately, that's never when I get caught. And yes, I have gotten caught more than once. Twice, to be precise. Twice in the four years I've had my licence. I've been fortunate enough to have kindly police officers who have given me a lower ticket than I should have gotten, but still, I work hard for my money and hate giving it away as penance for my stupidity. And so it was, after my second speeding ticket, that I decided to stop rushing through life. And my plan is to extend it beyond just my driving.

Little Lisa came into the world 18 days past her due date. And as my mom says, I've been late ever since. So really, it's not my fault. But I am the one who has to deal with the consequences. I hate that I'm always late, and although a little part of me is convinced that there are some mysterious forces in the universe that conspire against me to make me late, I am deciding to make a change in my behaviour. I'm tired of making people wait for me. I'm tired of being the last one to arrive. And I'm tired of being the one everyone expects to be late. It makes me feel bad. It makes me feel disrespectful to the people I love the most. It makes me look unprofessional. And it makes me feel like I'm always in a rush. No one wants to rush their life away.

And so, I'm adding a new item to my list. It'll be one of the most difficult things I've ever put on there. I am going to stop being late all the time. I want my punctuality to be the rule, not the exception. And as a result of this, I am hoping I no longer feel the need to speed. If I take more time to get things done, maybe I'll enjoy them, and my life more.

Hello Blog Post, My Old Friend

Oh hey there! I didn't see you come in. Have a seat. How have you been? We haven't seen you in a while.

Because I am just awful at blogging.

Not really. I'm just not able to dedicate my attention to all the things I want to do. Last year when I should have been blogging I was crocheting and crafting my bloody FINGERS off because I started a Facebook page to sell stuff. And I did pretty well. I've bought about 90% of my Christmas presents for the last 2 years  with proceeds from the page. I also majorly failed my reading challenge for 2014, reading only 15 of the 50 books I had HOPED to read, AND I pretty much stopped preparing meals at home, causing me to gain some weight and lose more money than I would have liked. I guess I had a bit of an off year all around. 

There were some successes though. I got a new car. I went on multiple dates. I was promoted at work. My sister got engaged and asked me to be her Maid of Honour. I laughed a lot and strengthened many friendships. And I feel like I became a lot better at not letting disappointment and frustration turn me into a negative person.







Typically I like to start my lists of goals on my birthday, but that's six months away and I feel like it's time to jump start myself now. So I'll make a shorter list that I can complete in the next six months, and then on my 32nd (ugggg) birthday I'll make a new big list. Some of the list items will be new. Some of the list items will be brought back from my abysmal 2nd year list. I shit the bed on that one big time. And I'm going to go back and write posts for the items I WAS able to complete from year 2. Lots of fun posts should come out of that!

And so here is my list for the next six months. Wish me luck!

1. Make at Least 3 More Pieces of Clothing: This was on year two's list. And I still want to do it! There are 2 pieces in particular I am looking forward to making.

2. Make My Own Ice Cream: Because I love ice cream and it sounds fun.

3. Get in Better Shape: Because sometimes the stairs leave me winded. Not. Cool.

4. Be a Kick-Ass Maid of Honour: I guess my sister will be the ultimate judge of this one. 

5. Go Skating: Hopefully I won't break my ass in the process. 

6. Cook Meals at Home as Much as Possible: That's just common sense.

7. Start an RRSP: Because I need to retire some day and don't want to end up living in a tent eating cat food.

8. Expand My Product Line and Build Up Stock: I planned to do this during my off season last year. But...I suck.

9. Build Up My Savings: Even with wedding expenses, I know I can do this!

10. Cook and Eat a Turducken: Because it sounds friggin' bad-ass.

11. Stop Being Late All the Time: Self explanatory.

And so there it is. I've really missed my list and blogging about it. It's not so much that I need the LIST, it's just that I find it so motivating and it helps remind me to always keep growing and challenging myself to do new and different things. I can't wait to see how it goes!

The Kevin McAllister of Blogs...

I started this post several months ago and never finished it. I suck. But it was pretty funny, so I'll just post what I had (please excuse the references to winter) and continue on from there;

I'm a bad blog mommy. As I sat here tonight, watching 'The Voice' and messaging with a friend on Facebook, I had a scary moment which closely resembled Catherine O'Hara's reaction on the plane to Paris in 'Home Alone'. 

 
"Blog!!!" my shocked mind screamed. Yes, I screamed in my mind. I can't scream out loud. I'd scare my mom. She always comes running to see if I'm OK when I'm cheering for something I'm watching. She's a worrier.

ANYWHO, my poor, poor blog. I love it so much, but I have been so horribly neglectful. It's been a long, lazy winter and I need some motivation to get up off the damn couch. One great way to do that and to make myself accountable is to get back to writing this blog!!







In my defense, while I was sitting on my couch all damn winter, I DID work on fulfilling a list item. I've been making a lot of crafts and have started a Facebook page to sell all my goodies. I've done pretty well, and even sold enough at Christmas to pay for almost all of my gifts. But now it's summer and I have STILL been neglecting this poor thing. I went back and read some of my previous posts and I was so proud of myself. I really enjoyed reading them, and I always enjoy writing them. So I promise to be better.

I feel like at this point we need a bit of an update and recap of last year's list, which was, for the most part, a bust. I am confident in having finished about 6 of the 16 items on last year's list, but I obviously haven't written them up. Blog fail. But I will!

Things in my life have been a bit crazy over the last few months. I got in my first car accident, helped several friends through some very challenging times, had more car trouble and ended up having to buy a new car, was thrown into a tailspin at work, and had a tree fall on my house in a hurricane, which knocked the power out for 9 days. Yes. You heard correctly. I was without power again. Combine with that the fact that 29 and I broke up in March and I have rejoined the dating scene and you begin to get a picture of the chaos that is my life at the moment. Good things have come from it as well, however. 29 and I are still friends, I have become a lot closer to my friends and in June my baby sister got engaged. I'm going to be Maid of Honour :-)

I promise more posts will come soon. I feel like I'm living in a sitcom lately, with all the bizarre and crazy things that have been happening to me. I'm sure you'll get a laugh out of them. Stay tuned. And yell at me if I don't keep up with my posts.

Adventures in Home Remedies

This doesn't really fit in anywhere on the list, but I feel I should share it, if only to give people a good laugh. I will warn you, however, due to graphic and disgusting content, reader discretion is advised. Here is my journey into the land of home remedies.

Immediately following the power outage disaster I started to get those horrible little symptoms that let you know you're getting a cold. I woke up on my first day back to work feeling sluggish and congested, with a pretty nasty cough. Off I trudged to work, however. As the day progressed I felt worse and worse, so I was very happy to get home and relax. And then the power went out again. Fortunately this time it wasn't out for very long, but I didn't want to go to bed until it was back. When I finally got to bed at about 1am, breathing was a real challenge. Between 1 and 5:30 I basically just dozed. Twice I woke up because I'd stopped breathing. So when my alarm went off at 6:50 I called in sick and went back to sleep. 

Now, I'm not a delicate flower at the best of times. I'm messy and often very disorganized. I'm always in a rush because I'm usually running late. And when I'm sick I'm even worse. All I want to do is cuddle up on the couch with my blankie and do nothing. I don't clean up anything until I feel better. There will be piles of kleenex everywhere. There will be dirty dishes on every flat surface. If I cook anything the dirty utensils will remain on the counter and it's rare that anything makes it to the garbage can. I could apologize, but to who? I live alone. Thankfully.

I've never been one to go to the doctor every time I'm sick. I basically only go to the doctor if I have something serious that I can't shake. I'm also not a huge fan of using medication when I'm sick. I find it only temporarily relieves the symptoms and seems to make my cold last longer. So that leaves either doing nothing, or going with a more natural approach. I'm not a big fan of just letting things run their course, so I decided to spend my day testing some home remedies. Some worked, some didn't. Some I'd recommend, others were just plain gross. I warn you, it's about to get real. Real disgusting.

Home Remedy #1- Vaporub and socks to bed

Raynaud's Syndrome. Yay.

This one grossed my mom out. Not because I had to slather vaporub on my feet, but because I had to wear socks to bed. She's weird like that. I wear socks to bed most nights from October to May because I have Raynaud's Syndrome, which causes the tips of my fingers and toes to go numb and turn white if I get cold, even slightly cold. I usually kick the socks off in the night, but if my feet are cold when I go to bed, I don't sleep. So there, Mom.


For this remedy you are supposed to slather vaporub on the bottoms of your feet, put on some socks and go to sleep. They say that different areas of your feet correlate with different areas of your body and I think the point of this remedy is for the vaporub to affect the sinus area. So I decided to give it a shot.

I didn't personally have any vaporub, but my parents did. It's my dad's go-to when he's sick, and anytime he hears me say I'm not feeling well he tells me to rub on the vaporub. So, like a good daughter/person desperate to feel better, I slapped a pile of vaporub on my feet, and for good measure also rubbed my chest, sinuses and under my nose.







Verdict: Not really sure. I was still pretty congested and phlegmy, but when I skipped a night I DID feel more congested the next day. I'd do it again.

Home Remedy #2- Turmeric and pepper milk

This one was a bit of a gamble. I found it online and the instructions admitted that it was a bit difficult to stomach, but I figured it was worth a shot. 

Now, look at this picture. It doesn't look dangerous. It looks kind of fun. Yellow milk? That's crazy! And it was a pretty simple recipe. One cup of milk, warmed as hot as you could stand, to which you add 1 teaspoon of turmeric, 2 teaspoons of black pepper and honey to taste. Turmeric showed up frequently in home remedies and is supposed to be a wonder food. Honey is too, in its raw, unpasteurized form. Sadly, it's hard to get that in the small town in which I live, so I had to go with the regular kind. I didn't think about the measurements too closely, which I should have, in retrospect. This remedy is supposed to help with itchy throat and cough, but I don't think I actually ingested enough for it to work.



First of all, the creamy looking picture on the right does not show the ominous black pepper that floated aimlessly through the glass. The fact that there was twice as much black pepper as turmeric should have been a warning to me, but I wasn't thinking clearly. All those cold germs in my head clearly affected my judgement. So, I mixed it all up and took a drink. And it wasn't too bad. Until the pepper jumped up and roundhouse kicked me in the face. Ten minutes later I took a second drink. PEPPERED!! And then my stomach started to feel weird. Ten minutes later I took my third and last drink, as my stomach took a huge lurch.

Verdict: No. Never. Horrible. Do. Not. Try. EVER.

Home Remedy #3- Hot water with lemon and honey

This one was pretty straight forward. Once again, honey is beneficial for colds, and so are lemons (probably at least partly because of the vitamin C). There is a debate as to whether hot beverages in general are good for colds, but nothing really makes you feel better than a nice, hot drink when you're feeling icky. All I did for this was juice a lemon (about 2 tablespoons seems to be the best amount), put it in a mug, fill the mug with boiling water and then add honey until it tasted sweet enough for my liking. It was delicious. Like Neocitran without the medicine taste.

Verdict: I like to think it helped. It warmed me up and helped my throat. I'll definitely keep drinking this one, even when I'm not sick.

Home Remedy #4- Steam

Here is where is gets gross. Almost embarrassingly so. If you're squeamish, don't read this paragraph. So, steam. Boil a kettle, pour the water in a bowl (you can add a few things if you want), put a towel over your head and lean over the bowl. I added some apple cider vinegar and honey to mine. This method is designed to loosen up...well, snot, if I'm being honest. So, leaning over a bowl of steaming water when you have a runny nose leads to...dripping snot into the bowl. After a few minutes of this I just decided to go for it. I breathed in the steam and blew out. Yup, I blew my nose into a bowl. It looked disgusting, but I felt MUCH better after I did. My nose was so sore from kleenex that this was such a nice change. I was able to breathe through both nostrils for the first time in days. But this isn't the worst part of the story.

As previously mentioned, I am a slob when I'm sick. So instead of taking the bowl to the bathroom and dumping it I put a cover on it and sat it on the coffee table.  But not until I'd poured the remnants of the turmeric pepper milk into it. I like to condense my mess at least. By this time the pepper and turmeric had settled into a glob of sludge on the bottom of the mug. And when you pour milk into hot water it curdles. So there was that. Soon enough, my mother came down to check on me. And when she saw the covered bowl on the table she picked it up to see what it was. And I shrieked at her. Repeatedly, until she put it down. She asked what it was and when I told her she asked me why. My answer, sick, cranky and PMSing, was "Because". Fortunately, she left it at that and accepted my apology for yelling like a fishwife at her. 

Verdict: This worked really well. I will definitely do it again. But I will clean up immediately. Sorry, Mom. 

Home Remedy #5- Chicken Noodle Soup

Technically, it was turkey soup. Because what else do you use when you've cooked 2 turkeys in one week? So frozen turkey it was. So, the soup. Chicken soup is the general go-to when people are feeling sick. And while watching an episode of Dr. Oz (which I never do because I disagree with a lot of his advice), I found out that there actually IS some validity to the claims of the benefits of chicken soup. Here are the recommendations the show made to make your chicken soup better, followed by what I found out about the truth of the claims.



1. Use dark meat- Most people avoid it because it has a high fat content and more calories, but dark meat actually has more nutritional value than white meat, and 2/3 of the fat in dark meat is unsaturated fat. That's the good fat and it helps you stay fuller longer. Dark meat is also higher in B vitamins, zinc, iron and selenium (and antioxidant), as well as myoglobin, which sends oxygen to your muscles when you're exercising. Not that that is horribly useful when you're laying on the couch moaning, but hey, it can't hurt, right? Here's a link to some more useful info on dark meat.

Dark meat vs white meat

2. Oregano- Oregano has Omega-3s, antioxidants, vitamin K and is a natural antibacterial agent. So apparently it kicks that little cold germ's butt.

3. Drinking broth from the bowl- I guess this goes along with the hot beverages thing. Apparently, hot beverages and soup increase the nasal mucus velocity, which basically means it makes your nose run faster. Yummy. Maybe that's why my steam bowl was so effective...

And so I made a quick soup. Same recipe I usually use, except I cheated and used some chicken broth from Epicure instead of making my own. Lots of turkey, mostly dark meat, celery, carrots, potatoes, noodles and a LOT of oregano. It was yummy, and was pretty much the only thing I ate for 4 days. 

Verdict: Not sure. I think it worked. I didn't stay sick for as long as I usually do. And the soup tasted good, so I'd definitely make it again.

Home Remedy #6- Sleep

Not to state the obvious, but sleep is very important. Your body heals itself while you sleep. Sleep is one of my favourite things and I love a good nap from time to time. A quick, half hour cat nap that is. Not the 2 hour coma from which you awake to confusion over where you are, who you are and what century it is. This was highly touted as a good way to combat illness, so obviously I did as I was told. I am convinced that this helped. I am fortunate enough to be the only one I have to take care of. I have no kids, so I know this isn't as doable for everyone as it was for me, but I really believe that it helped.

Verdict: This absolutely worked. Probably better than any of the other things.

So there we have it. Using these home remedies I was able to kick a pretty nasty cold in about 4 days (for the most part). A week later a still have a bit of a cough and some minor congestion, but it's manageable. I did also take 2 ibuprofen before bed on 2 of the 4 nights because I had splitting headaches. I will definitely continue to use most of these remedies on future colds. I hope I didn't disgust you all too much, and hopefully you'll find something that works for you.

2013 Goes Out Like a Lion...and 2014 Comes in Like a Bitch

To say that the last few weeks have been draining would be best described as a horrible understatement. I had such good intentions, but, as usual, life had other plans for me.

I am fortunate enough to have a job that gives me time off at Christmas. This year, I was looking forward to a blissful 12 days off. In keeping with my list items, I was planning to Take Time to Actually Enjoy Christmas and Sell Some Handmade Items. I've started a little side business on Facebook called Blue Box Creations, and thanks to the fabulous girls I work with I was able to do almost all of my Christmas shopping with proceeds from selling my items. In order to fill all my requests, however, I needed to spend the week leading up to and the first 3 days of my vacation crafting my little butt off. Not that I minded girls, I appreciate the orders! More on that later. 

Then, having finally finished all my orders (with a bit of help from my mom) and gotten ALL my shopping done, I looked upon December 23rd as the day I could relax and really focus on the joy of the holidays. And then the power went out. In the entire town and large parts of the surrounding areas. And it stayed off until 2:25 am on December 28th. And all my plans went swiftly down the drain. In a later post I will describe how my Christmas in the dark ended up very differently from what I expected.

The point of this post is to explain how I'm feeling as I embark on the journey that will be 2014. I'm automatically a bit nervous every time an even numbered year pops up on the calendar. Maybe it's psychological, but I do NOT have a good track record in even numbered years. In 2000 my grandmother died. In 2002 I ended a close friendship I'd had all through high school. 2004 seems to have been fairly uneventful. 2006 my ex broke up with me for the first time. 2008 I ended friendships with TWO best friends; one of 10 years and one of 24. 2010 was a doozy. My cousin died in April, my 15 year old cat died in June, my uncle died in July and my ex broke up with me in August. For the second time. 2012 was the year that began this whole Valancy Stirling journey, the year that my ex broke up with me for the third and final time. So yeah, I hate even numbered years. But I'm trying to think about how those years helped me grow and to be positive about the year to come.

So I am nervous as the year begins. And the lack of rest and relaxation over my "vacation" has left me feeling exhausted at the thought of going back to work tomorrow. And I've gained just enough weight that my clothes aren't comfortable. And my face is rebelling with huge breakouts AND dry patches. And I have a cold. And I've been eating crap so my stomach hurts. And I'm basically just miserable. But I'm determined to snap out of it. Soon. I promise.

The Valancy Stirling Project Year Two

I survived The Valancy Stirling Project, and my 30th birthday and here I am on the other side. So far my 30s have been great. I don't think I've ever been more comfortable with myself or happy with the way my life is heading. I still have lots to improve on and lots of goals to achieve, so I've decided to make another list for this year to help me do that.

Ok, so admittedly this is very late. Year one ended in July and I am just now getting to my list for year two? Yes. Life has been crazy. I'm very sorry. This post won't be very long, just a quick note to let you know what I plan to do this year. Some of it I've already done, some will be done soon, and some will be projects for over the next year. So, here it is, The Valancy Stirling Project, Year Two.






1. See One of My Bucket List Musical Acts in Concert: There are few acts that I want to see before I (or they) die; Phil Collins, Lady Gaga, Mumford and Sons and the Goo Goo Dolls. Read the post to see which one I saw!

2. Make My Own Ketchup: Inspired by one of my favourite movies, "Meet Me in St. Louis", I have been wanting to do this for years.

3. Meet One of the Twelve Doctors: Only a week from now, and this will be complete!

4. Sell Some Handmade Items: Who wouldn't want a bit of extra income?

5. Make My Own Ice Cream: I don't have an ice cream maker, so we'll see if it'll be better with or without one. 

6. Make at Least 3 More Pieces of Clothing: I have patterns and fabric galore. Now to do something with it...

7. Complete My Reading Challenge for 2013: I already had to reduce it from 55 to 50, and I'm still 4 books behind. MUST complete this.

8. Help My Mother Clean Out the Attic: Remember last year when we did the craft room and the basement? Yeah, that all happened because we started cleaning out the attic. And we haven't finished it yet...

9. See a Movie in IMAX: Soon!!

10. Get in Better Shape: Not necessarily to lose weight, just to be healthier. If I lose weight in the process, I won't complain :-)

11. Continue to Nurture My Doctor Who Obsession: Because that's what it is now; an obsession. Lots of great events coming up to help this along, and you'll get to hear about them all!!

12. Go Skating: I suck at skating and I haven't done it in a long time so I'd like to get out this year at least once.

13. Take Time to Actually Enjoy Christmas: Last year was so rushed that it felt like it was over before it began. 

14. Do Treego Again: Maybe try the Moncton course this time.

15. Cook Meals at Home as Much as Possible: This will help me save money and eat healthier. Time management will become more important though.

16. Cook and Eat a Turducken: This has intrigued me since the first time I heard about it about 10 years ago. I am going to make one!

And so that's my list! It's shorter than last year, and things aren't quite as big, but they're things that will help me as I continue down this road of living my life to the fullest. I'm sure I'll have more great things happen throughout the year that I will write about, but this is my start. Here's hoping I can escape The Curse of the Even Numbered Year that has plagued me for the last 13 years. More explanation on that later. Happy reading!!

Stampeeeeeeeeede!

I'm throwing out a disclaimer here. The spacing in this post is NUTS. I tried and tried to fix it, but I don't know what's wrong with it, and honestly, it took so long to write that I don't even care anymore. I also use the word "here" a lot, so bear with me and don't judge me. Just enjoy the post for what it is :-)

This list item was one of the ones that I was most excited about. And it almost didn't happen. Thanks, Mother Nature. But in the end, it all worked out, and it was one of the best times I've had in my life. Here's the story of my journey to The Calgary Stampede.


My sister and her boyfriend came home for a visit the week before I went out to visit them. They flew back to Calgary 3 days before I did. Their trip to the East Coast was a bit more hectic than they'd planned, since neighbourhoods very close to them were being evacuated. Why, you may ask? Because in June and July of 2013 most of Alberta was hit with torrential rains, causing flooding and massive damage in many regions, including the stampede grounds. My list was in jeopardy.

Now, my sister's boyfriend is a bit of a news hound at times, so we were kept pretty up to date on what was going on. I was determined that everything would be OK, even when things looked their worst. My mother kept telling me that it would be OK for me to cross it off the list, even if Stampede didn't happen because I'd planned to do it and only a natural disaster had stopped me. I just refused to believe that it wouldn't happen. My motto became the same as the city of Calgary and the Stampede itself; Come Hell or High Water. With a lot of hard work and many, many volunteers, they got the grounds in order and the Stampede went on.


It's easiest just to take my trip day by day, and it'll be mostly in pictures. I flew out at 5:40am on July 4th from the Saint John airport. I live about 40 minutes away from the airport, so I was looking at a pretty early morning, and so was my dad, who was going to drive me. Luckily for us both, 29 offered to let me stay at his place and drive me to the airport. After less than a month together. What a great guy, huh?

So anyway, with the 3 hour time difference, I landed around 11:30am. My sister was working and her boyfriend and his friend were on a hike, so I was left to my own devices in the Calgary airport. I survived and got a cab to my sister's house, where I promptly got a snack, turned on the Food Network and took a nap. Once everyone got home we packed up and headed to Ranchman's, a local bar where my sister's (1st place!) softball team was having a party. This was my first glimpse of just how much country music and cowboy gear I would be experiencing over the next 11 days. Have you ever seen the movie "Cool Runnings" about the Jamaican bobsleigh team? You know the bar where they get into a fight? Well, that was Ranchman's. They've even decorated to commemorate!



I met some of my sister's Calgary friends and even picked up some free swag! Yup, that's right, a free Fireball shot and some Fireball lip gloss, which tastes surprisingly like the real thing, minus the booze.

Double rainbow all the way!! What does it mean?? It's so beautiful!













 
The next day we all woke up early, dressed up in our western wear (I even had a cowboy hat, thanks to my sister and her boyfriend) and headed to the Stampede parade.

The square dancers did a few demos along the way. I have a special place in my heart for square dancers because my grandparents used to square dance. And yes, you DO see the word "hootenanny" on the side of that float. 

Ok, so I forget where these guys were from, but the guys were dancing around barefoot, shirtless and in their underwear with nothing but these little loin cloths in front. In the back they were open. Most of the guys wore boxer briefs or briefs, but the guy on the left here, he wore a thong. Jogged down the streets of Calgary with his butt cheeks hanging out. THAT'S dedication.

This is Harry the Horse, the Stampede mascot.

The guy in the front waving is parade marshall, Chris Hadfield, Canadian, astronaut and pretty good singer.

I loved this.

It's a friggin' stagecoach, straight out of "Calamity Jane"!

It's the Staypuft Marshmallow Man. And some other characters who seemed to have missed the memo that this float was for characters from BOOKS, not movies. It was for a library for God's sake.

Official Stampede float.

It's Bonhomme!! For those of you who don't know, he's the mascot for the Montreal Winter Festival. He's big in Canada.

It's Astar. He can put his arm back on. You can't. So play safe.

It's the Calgary Tower. Yup, they have a plush costume in the image of a national landmark.

The float from the town of Vulcan, Alberta. Apparently, they petitioned to have the North American premiere of JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie there. They even had Leonard Nimoy endorse them. Would have been great, except that there's no movie theater in Vulcan, Alberta.

The driver of this tank was nuts. He kept swinging the gun around like crazy. It was a bit unnerving...

Dude is riding a bull down the street.

These giant puppet things were creepy. They kept coming into the crowd, trying to shake peoples' hands. The worst part was when they realized they were way behind their float and had to run to catch up. They kind of lumbered down the street with their long creepy arms flapping. Nightmarish...

After the parade we headed to the Stampede grounds to look around at the exhibits. Here we have a model from the agricultural college which helps students learn to help deliver calves. It was weird.

Here's a view of the grandstand, full of people from the side.

 Sheep!!!

 Interesting sheep facts!

 Baby pigs!

Baby chicks. Born the day before. Cutest. Thing. EVER.

 Donkeys. They wouldn't turn around. They were asses.

Goats. They had a goat show. There were 4 goats. 2 were lively, 2 were sleeping. So, naturally, they dragged the sleeping ones out to do the show. Very logical.

 Alpacas. Very fluffy and kinda cute.

 Llama. He was kinda snobby and wouldn't turn around.

Baby sheep. So cute! They kept leaping around. I almost couldn't handle it!

The craziest looking chicken I've ever seen. She DOES have a head. She just wouldn't hold still for my picture.

 Check out the size of this horse. Taller than me!

 Look at this beautiful horse! No, he's not wearing a hat.
















The poor, soggy Saddledome. It was flooded up to the 14th row. 

We took a break from the grounds and had supper at National. It was delicious! But more on that later.

We headed back to the grounds to check out the midway at night. They have this lovely ski lift type ride across the grounds. That's my sister and her friend in front of us. I was in the lift with my sister's boyfriend, and I was just a bit nervous. There's no lap bar and I was pretty sure I was going to fall out. I was assured I wouldn't. And I didn't.

Here's a view of the midway from above. Very pretty. I was also quite sure that I was going to drop my phone over the side. Once again, I didn't.

Ferris wheel!

I got this sweet bruise on my shoulder on a ride with my sister. Stupid centrifugal force pushing her against me for a very long time. It was a lot of fun, though!

Back we went the next day, heading to the rodeo. Here are the entry gates.

 On our way into the grandstand!

Pretty cool stunt bike show. Evil Kenevil's son was one of the riders.






Woo hoo!
 



















That guy in the middle is the rodeo clown. He was hilarious!

Here's me in a cowboy hat!

The next day my sister and I went downtown for some shopping and sightseeing. Here's the Calgary Tower!

Here's the elevator in the Calgary Tower. Notice the floor number. There aren't really floors, just the bottom and the top, but still.

Here I am on the glass floor! My hands were sweaty because I was so nervous.

I was pretty sure the floor was going to give out and I'd plunge to my death. But I didn't.








 

Here's a view of the Stampede grounds from the top of the tower.

The next day my sister and I headed to the mountains. I love taking pictures of the mountains.

Here is beautiful water in Lake Louise. I love it there. This time we walked down the path beside the lake, which was a lot longer than we'd expected. I love Lake Louise.

Here I am!! I know so many people who have this identical picture. In retrospect, I should probably have sat down, and I probably should have worn a different shirt.

Here is the Banff Springs hotel. We went inside to check it out. It was pretty fancy.

This is Calgary Olympic Park. It was the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics. It's still used in the winter as a practice site, and in the summer they turn the ski jump tower into a zipline and open the bobsleigh track for rides. I did both and lived to tell about it.

This isn't me, but it'll give you an idea of what it looks like to drop down three stories. Kinda scary, actually, but only at first.

Again, not me, but this is what it looks like to go down the bobsleigh run. A professional driver steers you down. I ended up straddling my sister's friend (whom I met the day before) with the driver straddling me. We got down the hill in something like 84 seconds, which was one of the best times of the day. It was all over very quickly and I only cracked my head once. Thank you, helmet!

Here we are at the Sam Roberts concert. That's hi on stage on the left. These are free concerts, so they're usually pretty crowded. We ended up moving to a different spot after this. It was a really good show!

 Even Sheriff Woody showed up!

Unfortunately, it started to rain on the way back to the car. Luckily I had the sweet $5 ponchos I bought for my sister and I a couple of days earlier. I think they're quite fashionable!

The next day we headed off to the chuck wagon races. We had standing room only tickets, so we were right down by the action. Here's the mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, waving his cowboy hat.

After the chucks were over they started the grandstand show. Here is a picture of the Young Canadians performing. I was told they were horribly cheesy and hard to watch, and I wasn't disappointed. The singing wasn't too bad, but the acting was atrocious, the choreography was bizarre and the costumes were out of this world ridiculous (and borderline ethnically offensive at times). Good for a laugh, though!

This part of the show was kind of cool. While the Young Canadians (unfortunately) sang Heart's "Barracuda", a pair of acrobatic twins did a routine in which they swung around the stage on a rope, sometimes with one holding the rope and the other hanging from his brother. It was very impressive!

This was SO cool! A team of Chinese acrobats did a routine where some held poles and others climbed the poles and then leaped from pole to pole. At one point, as you can see in this picture, the pole holders were standing on giant rubber balls. Crazy, but amazing to watch.

This is a scene from the Alberta Ballet's Elton John show. Not sure who came up with the concept, but here we have a baseball team dancing to "Benny and the Jets".

This was also really cool to see. They had wires strung from the top of the grandstand to the top of the stage (on which cowboys had flown in during the rodeo), and this amazing sculpture walked across the sky. There are two people in there, one at the front and one at the back, controlling the legs of the moose. 




And now, I present you with a special section called "The Food I Ate at the Calgary Stampede". Some of it I ate at restaurants, but I included it here because I am always amazed by the quality and diversity of the food I eat in Calgary. The food on the midway is almost an event in itself. I didn't even get to try a portion of what I wanted to try, but if I'd eaten everything I wanted to I would have been broke and fat. But, here is what I DID eat.

This wasn't at the Stampede, it was on my sister's deck, but it was delicious. Mmm, ceasar.

Pretty sure they put some kind of addictive substance in this lemonade, because if I was on the Stampede grounds, I HAD to get a lemonade from Lemon Heaven. Just lemons, ice and a little bit of sugar water. I tried to recreate it when I got home. Not as good, but passable.

Lobster poutine. Delightfully rich and cheesy. We got this at the restaurant I mentioned earlier, National. I highly recommend it!

Seafood chowder, which was also delicious. Both dishes were really rich, so I ended up leaving most of the fries with their amazing cheese sauce. Wish I had them now...

This is a ham and pineapple pancake at Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus. It was sweet and savoury and HUGE, so I took half of it home and ate it the next day. Just as good the second day! If you want more info on the restaurant check out Season 1, Episode 25 of "You Gotta Eat Here" on the Food Network.

This is the menu from Tubby Dog, which makes fancy hot dogs. "You Gotta Eat Here" also featured it on Season 1, Episode 22. Hopefully you can see the list of toppings. If not, here are the ones my sister, her boyfriend and I ordered. Their friend ordered the Slaw Dog, which was basically a hot dog with coleslaw on it, but I didn't get a picture of it.

This is the PBJ, which my sister's boyfriend always gets. It has, as you can imagine, peanut butter and jam, and your choice of cereal. His choice? Reese's peanut butter cup cereal. It didn't appeal to me at all, but it's his favourite.

This is my sister's hot dog, The Harlow. It has bacon, cheese, mustard and relish. I thought about getting this one, but I don't like relish, and I was intrigued by...










...the potato chips on the A-Bomb. It has all the same topping as the Harlow, but it has the chips and ketchup instead of relish. I was expecting just plain chips, but there were also barbeque, which I'm not a huge fan of. We decided to take our hot dogs back to the house to eat, and this lovely picture was taken before I dropped my hot dog on the floor of the cab. RIGHT outside my sister's house. I cleaned it up as best I could and yes, I still ate it. It was a clean cab and I really wanted that hot dog.

This is a delicious chicken taco I got from Naco, a food truck on the midway. It was one of the healthier choices I made.

Cherry lemonade, just to try something different. It was good, but not as good as the original.

I got this ice cream at Village Ice Cream. It was hit by the flood and only re-opened a couple of days before we went. Apparently it's usually quite busy, but when we went there were only a few people there. All their ice cream is made on site, and they use local products in a lot of their flavours. I had vanilla (on the left), which had little bits of real vanilla in it and salted caramel (on the right), which was amazing. I'm glad I paired it with the vanilla because it was quite rich and I don't think I could have eaten a whole dish of it.

Chicken and waffles. Probably the best thing I ate on the grounds. The waffle was nice and fluffy, with tasty syrup on it, then a few pieces of an amazingly crispy and flavourful fried chicken topped with white gravy. Soooo good!!

Chocolate covered frozen banana. Yes, I know what it looks like. Is this not the longest banana you've ever seen?? All in all it wasn't that good. Sadly.

Deep fried Snickers bar. They deep fry EVERYTHING here. One stand was even selling deep fried bubblegum and DEEP FRIED BUTTER, which basically just ended up being a buttery hollow dough, or so I hear. I didn't attempt those one. This Snickers bar was ok, except I don't like peanuts. So basically, this Snickers would have been better if it was a Mars bar.

Probably the best candy apple I've ever eaten. I think it was probably because, since the Stampede is so busy, they make them quite frequently so it was nice and fresh. The apple was crunchy and delicious and the candy was perfect. My sister and I debated with her boyfriend over which was better, candy apples or caramel apples. We voted for candy, he voted for caramel. Clearly, we are right.

Cotton candy. Nothing special here, just a bag of pure sugar, which is always good.

This is a delicious hot dog from the grandstand. I didn't take a picture early enough for you to see the whole thing...

Last, but not least, a special Stampede edition can of Bud. This was my sister's, not mine. I didn't drink that night, because I was driving. Yes, that's right, I drove in Calgary. Hooray for me!










So that was my trip! I obviously have a lot more pictures, but since this post took about 8 hours as it was, I think there's enough here that you get a pretty good idea of what my trip was like. I had so much fun, thanks to my fantastic tour guides. So if you ever get the chance to go see the Calgary Stampede, I highly recommend that you do, and take in some of the other sights in Calgary and surrounding areas. Yahoo!!!!