December 6, 2006
Good lord, where does the time go? I had uploaded these pictures on Sunday night and just hadn't gotten around to do the actual blogging...
FRIDAY (December 1)Friday night was the highly anticipated photography exhibit at Abe's house (a.k.a. Gallery 828?), showcasing 22 of the 8,000 photos that Kenny had taken on his travels when he had
traveled over land from Barcelona, Spain to Capetown, South Africa over a period of 8.5 months. For those of you who had a chance to drop by and check it out, I'm sure that you weren't disappointed. The
photos looked fantastic, particularly due to the effort that both Abe and Kenny had put in during the week to make Abe's pad into a great venue for the evening.
I'm buying this bad boy, it was one of my favorites.
It was great to catch up with a variety of faces that I hadn't seen in quite a while. There was a good crowd and next thing I knew, it was late o'clock and Will and I had to stumble up the hill...
SATURDAY (December 2)
Part of the reason why I didn't want a super late Friday night (d'oh!) was that I was catching a flight to Calgary in the early AM of Saturday to Calgary for a "quick and dirty" trip back home.
The reason for my 30 hour trip home was to celebrate the 60th birthday of my grad school supervisor, Don Woods. A gaggle of grad school alum was heading home for this event and I couldn't say no. Especially because in addition to celebrating with Don, I was going to get a chance to catch up with some good friends from grad school, particularly Mary, Paul, Shauna, Rich and Marina.
I flew into Calgary around noon and Donna picked me up for some quality hanging-out time before I had to go to the party. It was quite chilly, especially for a Cali-weakened Canuck like myself. I had to dig out my toque and gloves...
We headed to the good ol' Canadian restaurant chain, Earl's, which I had really missed. It's pretty good for a "chain", but boy, the website is cheesy. Donna's friend, Ace (short for Aislinn) joined us for lunch, and it was good to catch up with her (she's quality). After lunch, we hit one of my favorite stores on 17th Avenue, Purr, where I picked up some fun accessories and Donna picked up a hot holiday dress.
From the 17th Avenue core, we headed to Donna's hood and stopped off at Mountain Bike City so that I could pick up a new pair of skis that Will had ordered through his friend Tyler (who conveniently is a co-owner/manager of MBC). Tyler also outfitted us in our sweet mountain bikes a couple years ago...he's so nice...
Donna dropped me off at the Inn at Crowchild in the late afternoon to meet up with Mary and Paul, who I was crashing with. The hotel was conveniently located 1 block away from Don's house, so it was perfect stumbling distance away. We got ready and had a pre-party cocktail in the hotel lounge before braving the cold for the one block walk.
The folks in the lab got a bobble-head made for Don, how fun! Bobble-heads for presents!
The party was a blast and it was so great to see a bunch of faces that I hadn't seen since school (long time!). I was glad that I had come back, it was definitely worth it. Don and his wife, Pam, had the event catered with yummy nibblies, so it was easy to nibble and chat all night. There was plenty of wine flowing and stories embellished.
Mary, Paul and I headed back to the hotel sometime around 2 am, just late enough for me...
SUNDAY (December 3)
We all slept in, and got up by check-out time.
I said adieu to Paul and Mary, and Donna picked me up for some more coffee time and shopping. We bought matching army camoflage jackets! We then headed to Chinatown to meet up with my parents for dim sum at Harbor City Restaurant. Donna had never had dim sum before (...I know, strange!), so it was a big treat for her.
From Chinatown, I headed of with my Mom and Dad to run errands. My mom and I had a chance to catch up with my good friend, Sonia, for a quick coffee catch-up before I had to head to the airport in time to clear customs and security.
Alas, it was a super-short trip, but well worth the effort. Apologies to any folks that I missed on my "secret" trip home. It's hard to fit more in during a 30 hour trip...but I tried.
Will and I went for the classic Surf and Turf daily special, with two little lobster tails and filet mignon. It was very tasty and went down pretty easy.
Wendy and Amanda had the signature dish, the chicken marsala, which was very good as well with the sweet marsala and mushroom cream sauce. Ashley had the salmon, and I can't remember what Abe had. Kenny and Shaun showed up a little later for drinks and dessert.
Here's Shaun reading a hilarious letter that Amanda's new neighbor wrote to her (she just moved into a new place), welcoming her and chastising her for storing her cleaning supplies in the back hallway at the same time. We need to meet this guy.
Shaun ended the evening with some wonderful freestyle walking that resembled scenes from a Bing Crosby musical.
