Yay Mum!

On Monday Brad and I drove to Medicine Hat to pick up my Mum from the airport (yes, Medicine Hat has an airport...but if no one seems to know that how did I know to check for flights? weird...).
She had travelled all day from Smithers to come see me! We talked the whole way home and then chatted for a bit over some tea in the house. I took Tuesday off from work and we relaxed in the morning before going on a tour of Swift Current. After the tour, we had lunch and strolled around the mall.
I made supper and we talked all evening until Brad came home from his ball game. I'm so glad she's here and am looking forward the rest of the week (even though I have to work)! I predict many gallons of tea will be consumed!

It Has a Horn!

I am officially the proud new owner of a 2007 Honda Jazz scooter in Saphire! Hahaha! I saw it in the dealership and knew it was the one. It's shiny, brand new (3km on the odometer) and exactly what I wanted! Woot!

It's got it's plates and I have a helmet and I'm ready to go! (Now I just need to save up for specialty license plates)

Always in Threes.

Bad things happen in threes. So do good things, but the bad are more noticable and traceable. Yesterday, my number was up.

It was an alright morning, a little butsy, but nothing out of the ordinary. I was hurrying to get everything done so I could go cover an event at the firehall at 9 (it was last minute). I decided to use the washroom before leaving and when I came back to my office to grab my keys and mp3 player and mic, I noticed something out of the ordinary. My desk was COVERED in water. Every paper was drenched, my keyboard and monitor had that wet-electronics smell, and water was dripping from the desk to the floor. I did what any radio person does when something is out of the ordinary: I called Engineering. Jeff came to my office a few minutes later and told me the upstairs toilet had plugged and overflowed and gone through the floor, which also serves as my ceiling. "It's not really toilet water...it had been running for a long time" was what Jeff said to comfort me when I was freaking out at the thought of dirty toilet water all over my desk and chair and belongings. Oh, gee, thanks.

But the clock was ticking down and I had to get the fire hall, so I left Jeff to mop up (THANK YOU JEFF!!!) and ran to my car, completely flustered. I got in, checked the parking spot that always has a car in it and makes it diffcult for me to get out of my spot, saw it was empty and backed out. I shouted bloody murder when I felt a crunch. I pulled forward a couple of feet and got out of the Escape to see a little black pontiac parked directly behind me. The little car now had a new accessory: a mangled bumper. I don't think I have to tell you how stupid I felt, or how sick to my stomache I felt. It was only then that I noticed the car was NOT parked in an actual parking spot. It was outside of the last line in the middle of the lot. Ok, so it's obviously my fault, but I feel like the owner of the car should have felt a little stupid for parking illegally. I ran back to the station, sent Alexis to cover the event at the firehall (THANK YOU ALEXIS!!), tracked down the owner of the car and called SGI. Sigh. There goes my ten years of safe driving. Back to the drawing board.

I spent the rest of the morning cleaning the pee-water off my desk (THANK YOU LYSOL!!) and all of the items on my desk. Then I went home.

I had lunch (narrowly missing cutting my finger while making it), and had a quick nap. I got up and ran a couple of quick errands and was just heading off to work when I decided with the day I was having, I deserved a little treat and swung by Tim Hortons for an ice-capp. I don't know how it happened, maybe the lid wasn't secure, maybe there was some coffee around the rim, it really doesn't matter. The point is that it ended up down the front of my shirt. Staining. Boo.

The rest of the night went smoothly and I went home immediately after work, put on my pj's and went to bed and read. It's hard to hurt yourself or wreck someone's belongings when you're in bed. It was the safest place for me, Calamity Jess.

Tis the Season...

Garage Sale season that is. I know there are many people out there who will disagree with me, but I stand firm:

Garage Sales are a scam.

Think about it. You visit someone's house where they have all of the crap that either they no longer want, or no longer find useful, or that just plain old doesn't work anymore. You look it over, see the "potential" of said item (usually covered in a layer of dust and cat hair), and make an offer significantly lower than the "ticketted price". Most often the seller takes the offer simply to get the crap out of their yard. Let's be honest, they were actually thinking of taking it to the dump or (best case scenario) the thrift store, but didn't want to pay for the gas or dump fees. So they set up a maze of clutter in their yards, slap pieces of masking tape with prices written in sharpie painstakingly to each item (or box of items) and wait for the masses.

As if the concept of the garage sale isn't bad enough, there are the Garage Salers...those who not only peruse the items for sale, but do it with excitement! They get up at the crack of dawn (which, in the summer is as early as 4:30) grab their newspapers and plot out a route which will get them to each and every garage sale before "the good stuff" is gone (most believe this happens at 6:30 sharp).

It just doesn't make much sense to me.

Garage Saler: "oooh, how much is this box of junk?"
Owner of Box of Junk: "Well, you can take that away with you for 5 dollars!"
Garage Saler: "I'll give you 4"
Owner of Box of Junk: "Well, you sure do drive a hard bargain...but you've got a deal. You can take my box of junk away from my house, leaving me with clean empty space for the low price of 4 dollars. Have fun letting it clutter up your home!"

Ok, so occassionally there is some stuff that is worthwhile, that actually works, that is still of use, and is actually a bargain. Occassionally.

Please knock first

A momentous day yesterday! After roughly 10 months, the doorway to our bathroom is now filled with a door! That's right, an honest-to-goodness big white door with a shiny brass handle and everything! No more must we hum loudly when company is over, no more must we draw the curtain across the opening and yell when someone comes down the hall, no more must we sacrifice our dignity and privacy...ok, fine, it wasn't that big of a deal really, but it is nice to have a door now.

Under the Lights

Tonight the radio station and members of kidsport braved the ridiculous wind to play a friendly game of ball under the lights at Mitchell Field in Swift. I stood by as official photographer
Here are the best pictures:

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(this may be the best picture of the night!)
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~The game was a tie, despite the extra inning. Everyone had a blast and played really well, and there was some expert heckling as well!

Long Weekend: Blessing or Curse?

Oh the May Long Weekend. The first "official" kick off to summer. Widely viewed by teens everywhere as a good excuse to drink their faces off and play around bonfires (sounds like a scenario for Good Idea, Bad Idea to me).
I love a three day break, and actually managed to luck out and get a full three days off of work. Brad and I were dog-sitting Maggie for the weekend. On Saturday she was a nervous wreck that we were going to abandon her, so one of us had to be with her at all times (and by “with her” I mean physically by her side, otherwise she’d lose it and cry and whine and whimper at that shrill decible where dogs on the other side of town could hear her distress). By Sunday she was far more relaxed, and Monday she was a well-behaved dog (mostly). So, while Brad was very productive, I was not. Whatever, I managed to sun my legs a little and finish my book.
Sounds like a reasonable weekend, right? It was. The downside is this: after three days of going to bed late and sleeping in (even if it’s just until 9), and my inner clock is totally out of whack. I couldn’t for the life of me fall asleep last night, and maybe got 2 or 3 hours of sleep...not that nice to begin with, but even worse when those hours are just a compilation of 10 and 20 minutes here and there.
The other nice thing about a long weekend is the short week that follows, which means I only have to worry about getting through four days with a screwy inner clock.

Spare Change, Changes to License, License Stipulations

Yesterday I was running some errands on Central in downtown Swift Current. I was on my way back to the station, walking briskly and with a little spring in my step (it was a good day) and a man approached me. He was unshaved, wearing a navy blue work shirt, and blue jeans that both looked a little dirty. He was crossing the street towards me and called out to me.
"Excuse me, miss." I stopped and looked at him, ready to back up if need be (years of living in Vancouver have left me with an extreme distrust of strangers who approach me out of nowhere..especially if they look like they might not stop outside of my personal space).
"I'm new to town, and I was wondering if you might be able to spare just a few coins for me?"
I was literally dumbfounded for a moment. I frowned and told him I was very sorry, but I didn't have any money on me at all (which was only partly true...I only had bills on me).
He nodded and said "that's fine, you have a great day. You look very nice today."
I smiled and thanked him and walked away fairly confused.
I know I've only been here a year, but I have apparently gotten very used to the idea of not being asked for money while walking around downtown.

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In other news, I have now got my motorcycle learner’s license! That’s right, I can now legally ride a motorcycle on public roads! Hahaha! Don’t fear though, I’m going to stick with scooters. The test was fairly easy. There were three written parts; one portion similar to the learners license test, one portion on road signs, and one portion on motorcycles. I got a couple of questions wrong on the first section, but I attribute that to it being 10 years since I first took the test, and it being a little different for Saskatchewan. (Nothing major though, don’t worry). I only got two questions wrong on the signs portion, and they were just silly mistakes. And, for someone who has never even looked at motorcycle beyond noticing the color, I think I did pretty well on that portion! The questions about bikes that I got wrong had to do with things about motorcycles, like which hand controls the front brake. I have no idea. I remembered glancing at that in the handbook, but I didn’t really put much into memorizing it. Would have been easier if I’d actually looked at a bike before. But regardless, I passed. Now I can get my scooter! Where, I’m not sure, but I can go ahead with it! Yay!

The downside of the whole thing is that I need to get prescription sunglasses. After the learners test I had to have an eye exam and we discovered I can’t read the little notes without my glasses, so I now have a restriction on my license. Sigh.

Credit Where Credit is Due

I feel the need to clarify something here. When blogging, the addition of random photos is akin to my insatiable need to put tacky clip art onto reports for school projects. The photos/clip art come from a simple google search. I choose the photo/clip art that best suits my mood/blog entry. Rarely do I explore the source of said photo. After my last blog entry, however, in unexpectedly stumbled upon the origin of the scooter picture. It turns out it was on a blog from a guy in Vancouver. Since my discovery (which came of reading his review of his scooter) I have started reading it occassionally. So I feel under these circumstances, I should credit the picture.
Visit: http://www.jerkwithacamera.com/

(this scooter pic was also found on the blog)

Fundraising: Charity and Personal

Let's brush the dust off of my poor neglected blog and get going here.

Charity:

I'm fundraising. I don't often get involved in fundraiser events, but Vassy and I decided we needed to get a team going for the Relay for Life in Swift. If you're not familiar with the event, it's a 12 hour relay (7pm-7am) that raises some fairly big bucks for the Canadian Cancer Society. I've never done this before, but I've heard nothing but good things from people who do it every year. So now, I'm collecting pledges! (shameless plug: click HERE to donate to the Swift Current Media team...I'm the only one registered online so far)

I sent out an email to literally everyone I have in my address book and didn't really expect many people to go use the link, but was plesantly surprised when, within the first hour I had already received two donations! So thank you so very much to everyone who has made a donation! I appreciate it so much!

Personal:

Ok, so while I'm not exactly fundraising for this, but more trying to figure out if I could get the money. I want to buy a scooter. Yup, specifically a little Honda Jazz. Take just a minute to really get a mental image! Ok, now take another moment to stop laughing. I'll wait....

Better? Seriously. I'm pretty sure this is one of the best ideas I've ever had! (and there have been some doozies!) Gas prices have hit 1.31/litre and that's just too damn expensive. I went to the dealership in town yesterday and talked to the salesman about their 2008 Jazz model which I could pick up for $3000. He said I could probably go all summer on a tank of gas as it gets between 60 and 100 miles to the gallon, depending on how it's driven. That sounds pretty damn good to me! Plus then I'd be the coolest kid on the block! So, the question now is where can I get a 2007 model for a little less, and where can I get the money?

(ps, I love the above picture of the scooter...it looks like it's pretending to be an antelope hiding in the grass! haha!)