I've been so adventurous lately! YAY for me!

It's amazing the difference it makes to turn challenges into adventures in one's mind. It makes tough stuff so much easier to deal with. Every day is an adventure, really.

I was looking at myself in the mirror of a condo in Fort McMurray yesterday in the wee morning hours and it was so surreal. How did I get there? And was I happy with being there? Under the circumstances (losing one's hotel room and just having worked 12 hours on something that I shouldn't have had to do), I wasn't terribly pleased to be there. However, my current adventure had taken me there and I am now employed again and I'm in control of where my adventure takes me next. All good stuff, so, in the end I was totally good with being there with a roof over my head and pillows on the bed which my head was soon going to be enjoying. The next day would be an all new adventure and some sleep would help with that.

So, this time, I'm setting my boundaries. And I have made them very clear to my manager. From here, there shouldn't be any surprises. If there is, I've laid out the consequences of that too. I actually believe that I will have the strength to stick to them as well.

And that's just my new job. So many other exciting things have been going on - other grand adventures.

San Jose and visiting with TUO and R:tAG was awesome. We hung out and didn't get too stressed or rushed about anything.
*Cheruby got his In-N-Out Burger experience several times and now has the t-shirt that he's very happy with.
*We saw Prince Caspian and had a fire alarm go off before the movie started. Very odd stuff, but all just part of the adventure. The movie was pretty good though. It made me happy.
*The temperature soared the day we arrived, after weeks of the locals grumbling that it was too cold. I booked the trip in May to avoid in the insane heat. Good thing the temperatures were still dropping at night enough to cool the house down easily.
*The mist and fog was perfect the day we went to the Emperor's grave. The sprinklers helped at bit, but it made the atmosphere perfect. Did you know that Colma county has more people under the ground than above it?

*Cheruby got his fill of some very funny stuff - two MST3K movies and a Twisted Toyfare Theatre comic. He giggled a lot while we were there, except when he was in a lot of pain due to a tooth malfunction while eating a "Mexican Flag".
*Riding bikes around Los Gatos was fun too even though it was 36 degrees out. HOT! Vascona park by where R:tAG works is very nice. We went to his workplace and got a tour and heard about some cool stuff that's going on. And, of course, we got some awesome swag. THANKS!
*Oh, and we had to hang around at the house the day after we got there to wait for my luggage to arrive. Silly airline didn't have it make the connecting flight we made in Edmonton! But it was all very smooth in getting it delivered to the house.
*The other airline fun we had was getting up obscenely early to catch our flight home, having the flight be overbooked and getting a free night at a hotel and $600 each in flight credits for later use. We had a nap to catch up on some sleep and then headed into the city on the bart which was a 10-minute walk away with an In-N-Out Burger joint smack dab in the middle. Our overbooked airline wasn't the one we booked with and they could only get us to Calgary so I called and got the full return on the original airline quite easily.
*Our free San Francisco day was awesome. We walked all the way to Haight and Ashbury from Civic Station. Had ice cream at Ben & Jerry's on that corner, a beer at an Irish pub Danny Coyle's filled with English blokes along the way, hopped on a bus and made it back downtown, transfer to a streetcar to cruise along Embarcadero to Pier 39, supper at the Hard Rock Cafe, some time looking at smelly sea lions, a walk along the wharf to the cable car turnaround, a ride through the darkening city (an incredible view of the Golden Gate Bridge all lit up while going up the hill) with a charming San Francisco resident holding onto the outside bars on the cable car, and then the trip back to the hotel.

*We had some Italian food from Giorgi's which is across from the Plough and Stars where Cheruby joined a session of Celtic music players. It was good for me although Cheruby didn't know a lot of the songs so he didn't play as much as I wanted him to.
*The comic book convention in San Jose was lots of fun. We met the MST3K guys, Wil Wheaton, and Terry Moore. I got Terry to sign a first issue of his new comic Echo. I'm hoping that the characters will be as fabulous as in Strangers in Paradise.
*Toothache day, we slept late and watched TV and read books and had a relaxing day. We had In-N-Out Burgers for supper, animal style for Cheruby and R:tAG, and played a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill (my first time playing) and I had a pretty good time even though my character died first from a time bomb, TUO's character died from the ceiling falling in on due to a series of unfortunate events, and then R:tAG's character beat the snot out of the bad guy played by Cheruby. The first part of Sweeney Todd came next (and last) before bed.
*We were flagged for extra security which was a funny little process, but only because we had nothing to hide. We were corralled in for a few moments and then told to follow and wait and follow and stand still and follow and sit and slowly given back all our belongings. All was well and we had lots of time until our flight which ended up being late due to high wind velocities, but Calgary was having the same problem so our connecting flight was also delayed which meant we managed to make the connection which we were very thankful for.

I think that sums it up quite nicely.

Of course, as soon as we got home, we were off to Nipawin and Tobin Lake. We looked at the land that we're buying and it was awesome. As well, we went for a long ride on the three-wheelers. The a wiener roast with s'mores for dessert were just perfect for the day we'd had. The other highlight was our very dear little grey stripey cat who came with us on all our adventures. The little one just joined us as far as Nipawin. And all three returned home with us on Sunday in a very nice ride back to the city.

We watched lots of great movies. I highly recommend Juno and P.S. I Love You. Enchanted was a good Disney flick. And I even enjoyed Sweeney Todd even with the excessive blood. I had some retail therapy and bought a three pack of movies - MirrorMask, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal. As well, I bought Juno and The Golden Compass even though I haven't seen it yet. Cheruby and I also saw the new Indiana Jones flick this week. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

And wonder of all wonders, the fat one has become completely okay with the little one. I found him sleeping ON her the other day. Heh.

Oh, and it was a friend's birthday the other day and his cats really enjoyed the box.