Linguistic Relativity

Language is culture! In Edmonton, for example, we have 40 words for snow should f*ck off already this is spring.

Support

Up here around 30, everybody needs a little support on their birthdays.

Good Habits

It's surprising how much work you can get done in a couple of hours at the Garneau. It's less surprising how much non-work you can get done there afterwards.

That's a good day

Watching a game, eating a burrito, highing some fives....

Spruce View Day Two

We were going to ski more today, but me and T's bruised knees and sore muscles needed some recovery time:

And Chris' parents made me Danish birthday cakes!

And then there was this improbably awesome sequence of words:

Retreat

Chris drove us to his parents' house this weekend. I repaid his generosity by posting this Wesley Crusher picture of him for you.
You can cross-country ski right out from his driveway onto a river:
Those of us who grew up only near cross-country skiing trails, rather than on them, had a bit more trouble than he did:

Good Eyes, Chris C!

Andrew seems to be on national television more days than not, but not on Archival footage:

You can't really see T in this clip, but she's had her share of stock-photo-walking fame.

Moral Support

Everybody was exhausted from a long day of phonology, so my 30th birthday gathering fit twice the uninhibition (?) in half the time.  Thanks!

Special Teams

[T loves NFL football, but doesn't totally understand it yet]

T: Why do they keep showing that guy sitting there with the evil face?

P: That's Peyton Manning!

T: Oh. There are lots of Mannings in the NFL, right?

P: Yep.

T: But the Colts only have one?

P: [Laughing]

T:

It was worth it

I think the 5 of us took Sally's call for a no-talent show a little more seriously than the rest of the department.

I lost

Which means fate is about to conspire to get me a hair cut, apparently.

You can take the kitchen out of the party, but...

Man, this Euro-party sure turned into a Canadian-style kitchen party right fast

Maybe it's just because RPATT, KSTEW and TLAUT weren't there

Honestly, Edmonton, I'm disappointed. The teenaged girls screaming for the stars of twilight looked like they only numbered in the hundreds, and everybody else there looked kind of bored.

ROBO RALLY!!!!!!!11!!!!11!!!!!!

I GET SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS GAME IT IS SO FUN! Maybe because I've won every game I've played in Alberta, or maybe because IT IS THE AWESOMEST!!!!!!!!!!!!

Culture

Gabriela Montero is outRAAAGEously good.  T says she hasn't heard Rachmaninoff played better, even in Moscow, and I got so scared during Night on Bald Mountain that I almost had to run away.  No wonder she's so popular.

Grass Roots

Tundra or no, they manage to farm Potatoes in Edmonton:
For now, at least. They say the city is thinking of rezoning it for housing development. To get the word out, one of the farmers decided to let people come pick 50lbs of their potatoes each and take them home for free. It seems to have worked.

Thanks Wonderland

Cheapass Games (R.I.P.) could probably have charged more for a game I can play with a pendant, a Russian nesting doll, a box of dental floss, and a packet of silica gel. 

What sort of apartment would be suitable for Lauren and Vinai's first home but a turret?
And where else, but in the Happiest place on earth?

Magic

Back to Ontario.  T finally got to see Centre Island:
And I think I convinced her that lake is nearly as good as sea

Local scene

Mary took us to two free media-only previews of Fringe plays tonight.  She's somehow more tapped in to the Edmonton arts community than we are, despite my being here about 46 times as long.  We try to make up for it with chammomile tea and free 90's sewing magazines.