Go Tobogganing

Go tobogganing
December 7, 2013

I grew up in Saskatoon where it's pretty much always winter.  That's not true.  Summer is beautiful, but it's short and winter is very cold.  As a kid I played in the snow a lot.  I quickly learned that one of my most disliked feelings is snow directly on the wrist... ughh!

When I was a kid we would go to this amazing tobogganing hill that overlooked the river and had a play ground next to it.  That was pretty great!

It's probably been about 15 years since the last time I went tobogganing, so I figured it was time.

We got a lot of snow and very cold temperatures at the beginning of December, so that seemed like the perfect time.  Since Calgary gets a lot of chinooks, I didn't want to risk losing the best chance of the winter.  I have been proven very wrong on this.  Calgary has had record breaking snow falls in the past month and the chinooks haven't been all that effective.  Oh well; better safe than sorry!

The city website showed a few great hills, so I chose the one closest to us and sent out an invite to a lot of people on facebook.  With the short notice I didn't expect a lot of participants.  Even if no one came, hubby and I would have a great time on our own.


We borrowed crazy carpets from my parents (straight out of the 80's) and wore multiple layers.  Luckily, our great friends, Kristi & Mark, were able to join us.  Even better, they brought their 9 year old son.  It was really nice having him with us because he brought a childlike excitement to it that wouldn't have been present otherwise.  That was fantastic!

The hill was shaped like a bowl and there were houses on all sides, so we were shielded from the wind and the sun was shining bright.  We were actually too warm at some points.  The day was perfect!

We were the first ones on the hill, which was nice.  After a bit of time a few other people joined, but it wasn't crowded at all.  There was a dad and his young son whom we interacted with a bit.  They were a lot of fun.  It was nice being around other people enjoying themselves as much as we were!

We had a lot of fun and wiped out a lot... especially me.  I spent a lot of time watching my legs fly up in the air as I rolled down the hill.  The crazy carpet took some practice but, after following Mark's lead, I found that on the stomach was the best way to go.

We were out there for about an hour and then decided it was time for some hot chocolate.  What a lovely afternoon!

Note: watch this silly video:

If you turn the sound up, you can hear me cackling.

 

Donate Blood - 5 of 5!

Donate Blood - 5 of 5
November 26, 2013

And I'm finished my goal!  Donating 5 times this year was easy, with the help of plasma.  Since I could donate as often as once every seven days, I ripped through the last 3.

It's satisfying to donate.  I'm not afraid of needles and I don't mind a little down time afterwards.  Each whole blood donation can help up to 3 people.  Plasma donations are even more needed.

It also helps that they give me a cookie or a cupcake afterwards.  On nom nom...

Needless to say, I will not stop donating any time soon.

If you've wondered about the process, here's a brochure:

Donate Blood - 4 of 5

Donate Blood - 4 of 5
November 5, 2013

I've decided to stick with Plasma.  There's something about the whole process that really fascinates me.  And I feel a lot better afterwards.

This was actually my 20th donation.  I miscalculated when making the list and was actually one ahead.  The great thing here is that I've now hit my 20th donation!

But, the goal was 5 more, so, this is number 4.

I had tickets for the hockey game that night, so I called earlier in the day and changed my appointment to start an hour earlier.

At the 2nd plasma donation, everyone has to see the doctor first for a 'physical'.  What they mean by that is that you have to see the doctor so she can take your blood pressure and look in your ears and throat.  That's fine.  The issue was that the doctor was running behind.

It's a great thing that I changed the timing, because with the late start and the slow process, I got to the game with only a few minutes to spare.

Lesson learned: don't give plasma if you're on a schedule.

Here's a picture of the awesome questions they ask every time.  Can you guess which one is my favorite?

Buy a pair of Christian Louboutin heals (or similar)

Buy a pair of Christian Louboutin heals (or similar)
November 3, 2013

I love shoes.  Especially expensive ones.  It's been my experience, that spending more than $100 on a pair of shoes is almost always a good thing.  The quality is there and they are so much more comfortable.  This is something that, believe it or not, my husband has taught me.

I also love the red bottom of Christian Louboutin shoes, but this wasn't the main draw to the designer when I made this list.  I did some research online and generally found that I liked Christian Louboutin shoes more than other high end designers.  They were more colorful and fun.  Yes, there is a time and place for great black shoes, but I already own those... and they're sparkly (yay, sparkles!).  I was looking for something really fantastic.

There's a store in Calgary that sells high end shoes - Holt Renfrew.  I went there in the summer for a quick look around.  I wasn't ready to buy at that time, but wanted to scope it out.

I was sorely disappointed at what they had in stock.  Yes, the shoes were beautiful, but they were almost entirely all black.  The ones that weren't black were nude.

So, I waited for a little while and did some thinking about this (more like day dreaming, really).  I didn't go in again, but figured that I could likely order specific shoes through Holt Renfrew or even direct from Christian Louboutin.  But this made me really nervous.  What if they didn't fit or weren't all that comfortable?  I planned on spending a lot of money and had to make sure that everything about the shoes I ended up with was perfect.

Online, they had a great pair of pink pumps.  They were beautiful!  In the middle of October, I started looking very seriously and found out that they were discontinued and couldn't be ordered.  Holt Renfrew would not be an option.  If they were found at a store anywhere else, that was my only shot.

Conveniently, my mom is a flight attendant and was in a city that had Christian Louboutin stores.  Even more conveniently, she and I share the same shoe size.  I asked her to go in and try them on.  If they fit, buy them.

She got to the store and they did have the shoes I wanted, but she wasn't impressed.  They were satin (which I didn't realize) and the heels were quite high.  She said they weren't comfortable at all.

I was crushed.  Back to the drawing board.

I did some more day dreaming and then did the next logical thing and went to Vegas to buy shoes.  YUP!

YUP!

On November 2nd, my beautiful moma and I flew to Las Vegas with the sole intention of buying beautifully high end shoes.

We got to the hotel and decided to go for lunch before starting the quest.  If you don't know, there's an amazing place in the Cosmopolitan called Secret Pizza.  Actually, I don't think it has a name, but that's what it is - secret pizza.  The 'restaurant' isn't advertised or shown on the floor plan of the hotel.  If you ask the employees where it is, they'll say that they don't know what you're talking about.  You have to know what you're doing to find it.  In my mom's travels, she heard about it and I went there when I was in Vegas in 2012, to find that it was amazing.  Since my mom had never been, she had no idea where it actually was and was excited to go to a restaurant that she'd only heard whispers about.

It did not disappoint.  I believe that the best way to start a shopping trip in Vegas is with a great slice of pizza and a gigantic cup of wine that was poured from a box (it's better than it sounds).

Afterwards we went straight to Caesar's Palace.  They have a Louboutin store as well as many other great high end shoe stores.  We went to Valentino, Jimmy Choo, Burburry, Fendi, Versace, Gucci & Louis Vuitton before going in to the Christian Louboutin store.  Even though I wanted Louboutins I was open to other shoes.  In hind sight, we probably should have gone there first, but I wanted to check everything out before making a final decision.

They had the pink shoes I'd been eyeing up, but my mom was right - they weren't comfortable at all.  I looked around the store, feeling a bit desperate to find something I would fall in love with, but it didn't happen.  Most of the shoes were satin and were very high.  I'm usually fine with higher heels, but at 5'9", it's just not that necessary for me.  Kitten heals are my preference.

One of the reasons I like to spend money on shoes is that I've found that shoes over $100 are usually way more comfortable.  With this reasoning, I figured shoes in the $600 - $1000 range would feel like buttah.  Boy, was I wrong!  Some of the ones I tried on made me want to take them off immediately.

We crossed the street and went over to the Venetian/Palazzo shopping mall.  They also have a Louboutin store, so I figured we'd try our luck there.  We faced the same issues.  Nothing stood out or was all that comfortable.

Well... that sucks.  But, at least now I could be more open to other shoes.

Jimmy Choo

We went to Jimmy Choo and found some incredible purple sequined shoes.  They were comfortable, not too tall and exactly the amount of fun I was looking for.  I walked around in them and a few others for a little while and got more and more excited.

Then I remembered something.  I have a beautiful long dress that I was planning to wear them with for the upcoming Christmas party and sequins would likely rip up the bottom of the dress.  The employee confirmed my suspicions, so I put them on hold and walked away.  

Tory Burch

It's too bad!  That would have been so nice to have found the perfect shoes so quickly after moving on from Louboutin.

So, we milled around and went into a few other high end stores at the Palazzo.  There were some extremely comfortable black shoes at Tory Burch, but they just didn't have it...

We went to the Wynn to see what they could offer.  There are some really incredible, high end stores in that mall.  We're talking about a mall that doesn't allow strollers.  I had a good feeling about this.

Oscar de la Renta

So, we went into Oscar de la Renta.  They don't have a lot of shoes, but what they do have are beautiful!  I found a gorgeous pair of blue kitten heals with gem embellishments.  There were only two downsides: they were satin - I was very worried about them getting ruined in the snow - and they were a few hundred (!) more than I wanted to spend.

So, we put them on hold and walked away...

Kate Spade

We checked out a few more great stores and then ended up across the street at the Fashion Show Mall.  They have a few department stores with high end shoes, so we had a look, but came up short there.  We did, however, find some beautiful silver shoes at Kate Spade... but I was still hesitant.

So, we decided to take a break and go for a quick supper and to see Cirque du Soleil's Love.  It's the second time I've seen it and it is incredible!  Seriously, if you're in Vegas, see this show. 

Prada

After the show we walked through the Bellagio and found that the shops were still open; it was around 11:30pm.  We went in to Prada and found some gorgeous print pumps.  They had a neat design and were pretty comfortable.

But, it was late, so we put them on hold and went back to the hotel to sleep on it.

It was a long day with a lot of walking, shopping and excitement.  I loved the options that I had put on hold, but none of them seemed like the right ones.  So I felt a bit discouraged.

Luckily, we were there during the daylight savings change over, which meant an extra hour in Vegas!  We got up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to spend a bunch of money.

First, we went to my favorite brunch place.  It's not actually a brunch place, specifically, but I've only ever been there for brunch.  It's called Bouchon and it's in the Venetian, up in the suite towers.  Of course, I had a strawberry champagne cocktail!

Afterwards we walked around a bit and ended up at Aria which has another high end mall.   We went in to Gucci and then Fendi.  At Fendi they had some beautiful light blue pumps.  They were pretty comfortable and seemed like classics that would go with a lot of my clothes.

Again, they were put on hold, much to the chagrin of the sales assistant, and we continued on our treck, stopping in stores like Louis Vuitton, Prada & Tom Ford.

Then we went to Dolce & Gabbana and met Edgar.  This is where everything changed.  Edgar is the man every woman has dreamt of buying shoes from.  He had a nice Columbian accent and was very charming.

Edgar - I mean really, you can just see how amazing he is!

They didn't have many pairs of shoes, but there were a couple that sparked my interest.  One that I loved was black with jewels on the toe.  They had a few negatives though - they were satin and the heal was awkwardly low.  I mentioned to Edgar that I would love them if they were just slightly higher and to my surprise, he presented a higher version of the same shoe.  Now they were just a bit too high.

The moment I put them on, Edgar said, "Oh, look at her calves!  I love women's calves in high heals."  Seriously, he was perfect.

Dolce & Gabbana

They were beautiful.  Yes, they were black, satin and very high, but I fell in love.  The negatives were easy to look past when they made me feel so good.  And then it hit me - I had found my shoes!  And I became emotional.  I don't really know why, but the relief of finding them and the excitement of what they were just hit me.

And to top it all off, I was going to buy them from the most perfect shoe salesman ever.

I told Edgar that I would take them and I reconfirmed the price.  The rate I thought they were was just a bit higher than I was comfortable with, but I didn't mind.  At that point, Edgar realized that they were another $100 over what he had originally told me.  He had gotten them mixed up with the lower heal rate.

Another $100... on top of 'just a bit out of my comfortable budget'...

I was crushed.  I looked to my mom for an answer.  Should I stretch it even more?  We were running out of time.  What if there weren't any other shoes that made me feel that way?  What should I do?

And she knew what to say, of course.

I put them on hold and left the store with a heavy heart.

We sat on the bench in the mall and pondered what to do next.  Obviously I needed to keep looking.

At that point I realized that I was looking for something with an embellishment on the toe.  I don't know why I hadn't seen it before, but that's what really stood out about my two top favs (Oscar de la Renta and Dolce & Gabbana) so far.

I started to feel a bit anxious.  We had come all this way and were due at the airport in only a few hours.  What if I went home empty handed?

We decided to walk north again and ended up back at Caesar's Palace, where it all began.  The first time we were there, I was so sure I was going to buy Christian Louboutin's that I barely looked at anything else, so it made sense to give it a second look.

 We went through Fendi, Jimmy Choo and a few others pretty quickly and then ended up back at Gucci.  To me, service is hugely important and we had had bad service at a different Gucci store, so I didn't really give any of the others much thought.

This time I decided to look more closely and found a few beautiful pairs to try on.  The sales girl came over and grabbed the pairs I had requested.  She was no Edgar, but she was sweet and I liked her right away.

She brought out gorgeous purple shoes.  They were leather (check), had a platform so the heal didn't feel so high (check) and weren't simple black (check).  They were promising.

Gucci!

And then I put them on and they felt like buttah.  They were the most comfortable shoes I had put on that whole weekend.  It was incredible... but I couldn't get those Dolce shoes out of my head.

So, we stayed in Gucci for a little while.  I took the shoes off and put them back on again.  I walked all around and couldn't believe how great they felt.  The floor was all carpeted, so my sweet sales girl let me walk around in their store room to see how they would feel on the tiled floor.  They were amazing.

The longer I wore them, the more I loved them.  I was starting to think that these were my shoes.

Finally, I looked at my mom and said, "What do you think?".  I thought she might tell me to put them on hold, but she didn't.  She said she thought I should buy them.  She was right.  I should buy them.  They were incredible.  They felt so good and looked even better.  I was still a bit weary, because I didn't have that same emotional response as earlier.  Was I making the right choice?

I thought for a moment and then made the logical decision that I was.  They were everything I was looking for.  So I followed my sales girl up to the counter and handed her my credit card.  And that's when it happened.  I welled up and I felt even better than I had at Dolce & Gabbana.  These shoes were perfect and so was the experience I had just had!









She packed the shoes into a beautiful bag and tied a ribbon around the strap and handed them to me.  And I hugged her.

I was so relieved!  It felt so great to finally have exactly what I had been searching for. 

We had about an hour to bum around the Strip and then back to the airport.  It was a whirlwind weekend and it was so much fun!  My beautiful moma was the perfect shopping companion!

In the weeks that followed, I wore the shoes around my house a bunch of times, which freaked out the cats and I'm sure made the neighbors unhappy.  It was so tempting not to wear them to every outing I went on, but I had to wait.

Three weeks later was my husband's company Christmas party.  I had the perfect long dress and the shoes were just the icing on the cake.  We were standing on concrete the whole night.  Yes, my feet were sore by the end, but not nearly as bad as any other heals would have been.

It was like I had this little secret on my feet all night.  I fell in love with them even more.

We learned so much about shoes that weekend.  The most important being that I should have a driver to drop me at the front door everywhere I go.  That way I won't have to worry about whether my shoes are satin because they won't get mucked up in the snow.

That came up at more than one store... I'm not joking.

Walk in the Alzheimer's Marathon

Walk in the Alzheimer's Marathon
October 13, 2013

The Alzheimer's Foundation is very close to my heart.  For years I've thought about being a part of their Thanksgiving Memory Walk & Run, but I hate to run.  I realized that there is an option to walk, so it was a done deal.

Alzheimer's scares me. More than most things.  My grandma & grampa were incredible people who were perfect in the role of grandparents.  My grampa got Alzheimer's and, at a young age, I watched it rip out the beautiful person that he was and replace him with a confused man.  Shortly after he passed, my grandma developed dementia.  It was extremely hard to be a young teenager whose grandparents didn't recognize me.  It's even harder to envision how they felt.  The confusion and unknown is heartbreaking.  Can you imagine being married to someone for over 50 years, but not recognize them sitting right next to you?  Almost 20 years later, it still makes me cry.  I believe that we would have had a very strong relationship as I grew older and we missed out on that.    These awful diseases claimed two incredible people in my life.

Alzheimer's is believed to be passed down genetically through the same sex (of course, amongst other things).  As I get older, and so do my parents, I worry about my dad more and more.  He's so healthy and strong.  He takes great care of himself, but there will always be the lingering thought of 'what if' - and that is terrifying.  

I signed up for the walk in May and had my inspiring friends, Jenn & Kristi, join my team.  We came up with the goal to raise $500 between the three of us.  Jenn was going to host an event and shave her head!  I wasn't worried about this three person goal, so decided to set a personal goal of $500.  This seemed a bit daunting, but hey, it's worth it!

Right away, I posted online about the walk and that I was raising funds and two wonderful women, whom I'd only just met a few weeks earlier, donated almost immediately.  I had high hopes. 

Then nothing, for a couple of months.  That's alright; I didn't really pursue the funds.  On September 18th, I posted again online about raising funds.    One of my husband's colleagues at the office in Montreal saw the post and shared it amongst her coworkers.  Donations came pouring in, mostly from people I had never met.  Some were from people that didn't even work for the same company as my husband and his colleague!  It was so touching.  In that one day I went from $80 in donations to well over $400!

I continued to post for the remaining few weeks and ended up raising $710.  I was blown away!  The generosity of those around me is incredibly touching and it will be forever in my heart.

The morning of the walk, I was excited.  Upon arrival, we checked in and received t-shirts as well as a bag of goodies (fitness magazines and other excerpts).  We had a breakfast sandwich and then decided to scope it all out.  The event took over all of Eau Clare Market, so we took a stroll around.


We went over to 'Memory Lane', a fantastic set up that they had at the beginning of the walk & run path.  They had clips and string for people to post pictures and messages that pertained to why they were participating.  I had asked all of the people who donated if they would want something clipped up in their honor.  A few people did and it felt great to pay tribute to their loved ones on their behalf.

 

While checking out the Memory Lane, we were approached by someone from the foundation and asked to do video interviews, which Jenn & I were all over.  We each did an individual interview and both became emotional.  I remember saying that, "I am not just here for my grandparents.  I'm here for my dad, mom & sister as well.  Even though we weren't the ones with the disease, we all went through so much because of it". 

 
The warm up was set to begin fairly soon, so we went into the main area to prepare.  While standing around chatting, Kristi noticed the mayor walk past.  I'm so glad that she did because I've been wanting to hug him for a while now (sometimes you've just got to hug the mayor!). 

  
I approached him and politely said excuse me.  He turned around and greeted me with a huge smile and a hand ready to be shaken.  I asked for a hug instead and he said, "of course".  It was lovely.




The next thing he did was spot my sticker that read who I was there for and said, "tell me about Bob & Olive". He sincerely thanked me for being there.  I was touched.  Here's a man who I was in awe of, thanking me for being a part of something when all I could feel was thankful that he was there.  His presence gave us all such a boost.  That was pretty special.  

I think it was at that point that it really hit me.  This thing that I was a part of was bigger than the money that I had raised or my past and it was especially bigger than me.  I was a small part in something incredible. 

The warm up started and we were right at the front (much to Kristi's chagrin).  They had a few speeches and everyone was really excited to get going.


They started with the 10k runners, then the 5k runners and last but not least, the 5k walkers.  Of course, Mayor Nenshi was standing at the starting line giving as many high fives as possible.

We started walking and people all around us were cheering.  There were dogs and kids walking, too.  The energy was incredible!

We walked towards the water and then followed the Bow River Path Way to the Center Street Bridge.  I love that bridge.  The architecture is really neat.




Along the way, volunteers were dispersed to direct changes in the path.  We cheered at them and Jenn made sure to give every single one of them a high five.  Because she's awesome like that! (No, that wasn't sarcasm.  She is awesome like that!)

We crossed the bridge and walked west along the path beside Memorial Dr.  We made friends with the ladies in front of us and rode the high of the energy. 

At the half way point, the volunteers had a water station and port-a-potties (ew).  We stopped for record fast peets (seriously ew), but made sure to catch up with our new friends again.

We took the Memorial Dr. path till we reached the Peace Bridge.  This was my first time on that bridge.  Yes, it's over priced, but it was really cool! 

After crossing, we were back on the Bow River Path Way and in no time at all we were walking through Memory Lane and at the finish line again.  The walk took a little over an hour, but it felt like only a few minutes.  That's what great company will do!  It was so nice to spend that time with Jenn & Kristi.  They're such wonderful and inspiring women whom I'm lucky to have in my life.

They had pizza for everyone and prizes were given out right away. 

And then it was over.  All of the people left and the day went on.  It felt sudden, but satisfying.  I went home and had a great kitty snuggle (as I do).



 

I didn't realize it at the time, but this is the most significant item on my list.  Writing this blog entry took a few days and a few tears.  It's been 16 years since my grampa passed, but he will always be in my heart.  I'm so happy to be able to honor him and my beautiful grandma in any way.

Why did I wait so long to take that walk...

Fly in a Hot Air Balloon

Fly in a Hot Air Balloon

October 12, 2013

Have you ever looked up at the sky on a beautiful clear morning to see lots of hot air balloons and thought, "How do I get to be that lucky guy"?

I have.

So, I decided it was time to be the lucky guy.

There are two companies in Calgary that provide this service (other than the realtor balloons, etc.) and I really liked the website for Rainbow Balloons.  They're a local family owned company that has been in business for about 34 years.

I called them at the beginning of September and scheduled the ride for Saturday October 12th.  They said that they would call me in the morning.  If the weather was good, I'd have an hour from the time they called to get to the Blackfoot Inn.

Luckily they called and said we were clear to fly. I phoned my dad, waking him up, and he picked me up about 45 minutes later.

 
We arrived at the Blackfoot Inn and they drove us over to the Glenmore Inn, which is where they start the tour.  There's a field just down from the hotel.  The other company (Sundance Balloons) was there as well.  




They unloaded the basket and the envelope (the balloon) and started filling it with air.  They filled it mostly with cold air first.  It took a while and was really neat to watch.  There were two other people flying with us: a young man and his dad.  Once we got into the basket, they blew the heat up into the balloon and we were off. 

Lifting up felt really smooth and comfortable.  The height of the basket walls was tall enough that there is almost no way you could fall out.  It felt completely safe.

We went south over the Glenmore Inn.  There was hardly any breeze, so we moved pretty slowly.  There was a perfect view of downtown and it was beautiful.  From that height, everything below us looked like tilt shift photography, which is amazing!

It was so calm... we slowly drifted over the hotel, then a field with a pond, over Riverdale & the Quarry Park shopping area.  We drifted over the river and got a good view of the bike path we had taken in June (see: Ride a bike from one end of Fish Creek to the other).  Parts of the path were still completely washed out from the floods in June.  Another reminder of how lucky we were to have done that before the water tore apart Calgary and so many of the paths that we needed.



The flight was about an hour and they had the van following us the whole time.  We landed in a park and the team deflated the balloon quickly and drove us back to the Blackfoot Inn.

When we arrived, they pulled out a table, crackers, cheese and champagne and we had ourselves a little champagne breakfast!

It was a surreal experience and one I'm really glad I was able to have with my dad.  I sure do love that guy!

  

Donate Blood - 3 of 5

Donate Blood - 3 of 5
October 8, 2013

There's a pretty large gap between donation number 2 & 3.  This is because I tried to donate blood in the summer and was disappointed to find that my iron level was too low.  I couldn't donate again for an additional 56 days. 

It was too bad, but it wasn't all for not.  While waiting to test my iron, I overheard one of the employees talking to a patient about donating plasma instead of whole blood.  I don't know why I didn't know about this before... well, I mean I kind of did, but I didn't know the specifics of it.

Donations can be done every week.  Only certain blood types can donate (not sure who can't but I'm in!).  Women can only donate if they've never been pregnant before.

Because of these things, the need for plasma donors is pretty high so that's what I'd do next time.

The process before the donation is pretty similar.  They test the iron, ask the naughty questions (very specific about 1977) and there are forms to fill out.

The process of actually donating is quite different.  They put one needle into your arm, just like normal, but it goes into a machine instead of a bag.  The machine takes out the whole blood and spins it.  Red blood cells are heavier than plasma and the centrifuge separates the two.  The plasma is transferred into a donation bag and the red blood cells go back through the tube and into the arm again.

It took a while, but the whole thing was really neat to watch!  I pretty much just stared at the machine the whole time.  Sometimes I feel pretty woozy after donating whole blood, so this seems like a better fit for me. 

Also, plasma looks like beer.  So there's that.