Hat Party

This past weekend Christina's friends Dayna and Grant were celebrating Grant's 40th birthday. To celebrate they were throwing one of their infamous, according to Chrissy, Hat Parties. I managed to weasel my way in.

The general premise is Dayna and Grant have a 'tickle trunk' full of weird and wacky hats. Add booze and you got a party.

Some pics - they do most of the talking.

 The Medusa hat was a fan favorite and was generously passed around. 

 Scary

My favorite hat of the night. The Milkbox missing child. Christina modeling it with the birthday boy. 

  Important nutritional information. Christina, 80 calories a serving.

 Christina with her friend Dayna.

 Christina and I in a self portrait.

The shindig was a great time. I'm already looking forward to the next Hat Party.

Edmonton Opera - La Boheme

As mentioned before here, and here I am a member of the board on Edmonton Opera: encore!, the young professionals branch of the Edmonton Opera. This past weekend marked the beginning of the new season. The first opera of the year is the much loved La Boheme. The night before opening night the encore! group got an on-stage and behind the scenes tour as a membership perk.

The stage was set with the bedroom of the opening scene. My favorite part was the effects done to the 'dirty windows', they were really just screens with extra plaster and perfect lighting that gave them the slightly abused look.

  The centrepiece of the 2nd act: Momus. This eventually is expanded into a huge set piece that

takes up the whole stage and is a marvel to see. 

 The technicians took some time to explain all the different lighting options they can do at the Jubilee Auditorium. Christina got the stained glass spotlight here.

 

I don't know why but I was completely enthralled by all the rope.

 Some really well done props to add authenticity to the Paris streets. 

 

I've been in the back of the Jubilee a few times and every time I see this wall of posters I just sit, stare and admire all the great pieces of art.

 The dressing rooms are pretty small, they must be just packed pre-showtime. Not good if you're claustrophobic. The costumes themselves are quite impressive; feather caps, heavy tapestries, and personalized wigs.

This Thursday I'm going to the show with the encore! group and I can't wait to see the spectacle of it all.

Christina in Fall

As many of you know Christina is my BFF so she often gets to be the main model in most of my pictures. Here are a few of my favorites from this fall.

Golfing while cold Christina dons a stylish blanket.

 What follow through

A good little Pollack. Carrots from her garden.

Modelling at the Devonian Gardens.

Having fun on the 'rollers' slide

Modeling in her 'Mom' jeans and outfit

In her new office

First Snow of the Season

I woke up October 25th and found about 2.5 inches of snow outside waiting for me and my walk to work. I chose not to shave my weekend beard and ventured forth into the arctic wastes of Edmonton.

It wasn't so bad really - all the high traffic areas and asphalt lost their snow and ice quickly.

I'm actually a little excited for winter to come. I plan on making use of the many outdoor rinks this year. I'm guessing that after this little burst we don't have any real snow till mid December.

Saskatoon

Over the last few weeks I've been able to get back to Saskatoon the last few weeks. It's always nice to get home (wherever Mom is I consider home).  My first trip back was specifically for the Arcade Fire show; which was awesome. However, I was lucky enough to get to see a couple of my nephews football games. Being an idiot, I forgot my camera back in Edmonton. So I had to take a couple of snaps with my blackberry.

My nephew Matt is #35. He plays LB for the Bethlehem Stars. They lost this game by a huge margin to Holy Cross but he had a great game.

 The next day Liam had a flag football game. Liam was probably the fastest kid out there by a large margin.

Even his hair looks a little streamlined.

 Steph, Gerry and Liam at the park - Sonia who is in grade 11 ran away as soon as she saw a camera came out.

Unfortunately I couldn't get any worthwhile shots of the Arcade Fire concert but it was stellar. The band sounded really tight and it's cool to see them switching instruments in between songs. If you ever get the chance do yourself a favor and check them out.

My next trip back was for Thanksgiving. Stephanie and Gerry were in San Francisco and Randy was on his way back from Toronto so Mom's house was full of kids.

The kids were in full imagination mode and with Grandma's help they developed a 'train'.

A great little outing with the kids was a trip to the Forestry Farm - The Saskatoon Zoo.

We went in the middle of the afternoon so many of the animals were sleeping, but those animals that were up and about put on a show.

These Grizzly Bears were playing around with each other standing on their hind legs and play fighting. Here's a shot of them taking a break afterwards.

Another cool big attraction are the lions. This male lion was feeling a little agitated and was pacing back and forth along the perimeter scoping out children that he could hopefully eat.

Another really cool experience was watching the Mountain sheep. When we came upon them they were lounging really close by the fence.

 Next thing you know the 2 male sheep all of a sudden stood up, made eye contact, and then charged each other cracking heads. They did this only about 5 feet away from us. It was awesome.

 They sat there with there heads against each other for about a minute. The female sheep was not impressed. She drunkenly staggered away from the males as they looked on. 

Eventually the males unlocked heads and kind of looked back and forth from the female to each other. It was a classic gender situation. What's it take to impress a damn woman?

Thanksgiving supper was, as usual, fantastic. I put on about 5 pounds from the Thanksgiving weekend alone.

Indian Summer / Autumn

Most people considered summer in Edmonton this year to be brutal. When it wasn't raining, it was cloudy and or windy. We barely had any true hot summer days. As a dude who doesn't really like the heat, I wasn't complaining but I understand other folks complaints.

I think everyone can at least agree that Fall this year has been absolutely awesome. I think we had more nice weather days in September than in both July and August combined.

The following pictures are my favorites that I've taken this year showing the colours and sights of autumn, both here in Edmonton and from my trip to Quebec City.

 The good old Maple Leaf

 That's patriotism stuck in my teeth.

Christina's towering sunflowers in her garden. 

 The view from the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on a lunchtime walk.

 Christina sunning herself in the river valley. 

 View of the downtown from the pedestrian bridge near Louise McKinney Park.

 My street in Edmonton. It is a bit of a treat to walk down here after being stuck in an office all day.

 The leaves are almost completely off the trees now. I'm hoping for an early snow.