Hello from deep, dark South Calgary, where we’ve been dealing with floods, exams, the work hunt, and other such fun things.

I’ve got three other posts I’d like to get to very soon — first and foremost, one about meeting some of my extended birth family a couple of weekends ago. I’d hoped to get to writing it last week, and then life (and flooding basements) got in the way.

Anyhow, look forward to two blog posts coming up in the next day or so.

In the meantime, I need to get back to calling the city, the builder (BayWest homes), and some contractors to get an estimate on the fairly serious water incursion problem we’ve been suffering with. We don’t want another flood as soon as a heavy rainstorm comes our way.

Plus, I’ve got a few more resumes to get out today. And, studying tonight. Oh, and for those of you that missed it on Facebook, I got 75% on the first exam last Tuesday night. I should have seen a better result, but I was thrown off my game arguing with the exam proctor for 10 minutes during the exam. Whatever. One down, one to go.

YOUR TURN: What’s been keeping you busy this summer?

Barry and I were lucky enough to win tickets to “Sneak a Peek” at the Calgary Stampede last night, thanks to the Calgary Food Bank! They put on a lovely dinner, and gave us a quick heads up about their current campaign “Put the Boots to Hunger“…

The Food Bank is experiencing its largest need for emergency food hampers in nearly 10 years. This year, more than 140,000 Calgarians will come to us for Emergency Food Hampers.The majority of these people continue to be the working poor. 41% of them are children. It is BD&P’s goal to provide the Calgary Food Bank with the resources it needs to ensure that all Calgarians who need to rely on the Calgary Food Bank can do so.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? Host your event to “Put the Boots to Hunger” – If you are hosting a breakfast or BBQ this Stampede and would like to encourage your guests to show their support for the campaign by bringing a small donation to pass along the spirit of Western hospitality to those in need, please contact Kristen at 403-319-0840 or email kbrown@calgaryfoodbank.com for more information.

Thanks again for a wonderful evening! Here’s hoping many people will take a moment to help out during the Stampede!

Click here to make a donation to the Food Bank!

Howdy from the Calgary Stampede! We are in the Grandstand this afternoon, thanks to John Biehler and the Nokia N97 mini team. Yahoo!

Stay tuned for another blog update later today about last night with the Calgary Food Bank and what great things they are doing for the city!

Giddy up!

YOUR TURN: what are you up to, this weekend?

Okay, I’m really back this time …I promise.

Life has been utterly insane, and stressful, and I have a hard time blogging with nothing positive to blog about, so that’s why I disappear from my site. I subscribe to the notion that if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. Obviously, it’s time to crack through the negative straight-jacket I’ve put on myself, and talk about some positive things… Because, despite the month of hell I’ve had, there’s a lot of great things happening, too.

For instance… in the short time I’ve been in Calgary (realistically, it’s been just over a month since we got back from our marathon honeymoon) I’ve met some super-fabulous people I can already call friends. One thing I can say about Calgary is that the people are really friendly here!

Also, who can be stressed and angry when Stampede is on? Buzz Bishop got it exactly right in his blog post yesterday: Stampede is Calgary’s Christmas (go read his blog post) — Everyone is in an awesome mood, and life seems to shine that much brighter in the Calgary sun. How can you have a frown wearing a cowboy hat, right?

And, let’s not forget the pancake breakfasts, people! It’s a staple! No question that during Stampede, pancakes and beer are their own food group. The hangover can wait until after July 18th!

So… Giddy up! I’m looking forward to “Sneak A Peek” at the Stampede tonight… The Calgary Food Bank has generously handed out tickets and dinner, so some of my new friends and I are off to get an early taste of the cowboy action, this evening! Good times!

YOUR TURN: Have you ever experienced Stampede here in Calgary? What’s your favourite part?

I’m feeling a whole lot better today. For many reasons, not the least of which is my body seems to be healing from a really nasty cold I had this week. And my toe, which I’m quite sure I broke 3 weeks ago, is finally not throbbing anymore.

And, for those of you who remember, I found my birth family a few years ago? The rest of my birth mother’s family has been told of who I am, and that I’ll be coming out to Gimli next month for a family reunion. There’s a LOT of family. I’m quite overwhelmed, but in a very happy way… I can’t wait to meet many of them while I’m there for a weekend in July.

All of this recent activity on that front has had me looking back at the path I took to get to where I am today with them all… I’m so, so lucky that although my birth parents have decided not to be a part of the journey with me, the rest of the family has been quite amazing. I never would have imagined that I would be so welcomed.

I really have much to be thankful for.

I’m also deeply saddened that one of my uncles is too sick to make the trip out to Manitoba this year — Barry and I are hoping to drive down to see him this weekend, instead.

If you’d like to be reminded of the story behind me finding my maternal birth family, click here.

YOUR TURN: What’s your plan for this weekend? Are you looking forward to anything fun?

Hey all… I’ve never been this quiet in all my years of blogging. I very much miss writing here, but haven’t had any time to set aside each day to share what’s been up. Today, unfortunately, is no different.

I’ve been sick for a couple of days now, so now I’ve got a ton of stuff to catch up on. I’m hoping tomorrow will bring a brighter day full of inspiration and empowerment. Being sick in bed yesterday was no fun at all.

What I can quickly share, is that I’m the luckiest girl in the world — my guy is awesome! He’s been so helpful during this time of upheaval and change, and I couldn’t have asked for a better husband.

Oh look… The sun has come out. Perhaps I’ll continue my tasks for today outside on the deck.

YOUR TURN: What’s new with you? Did you do anything fun to celebrate the first day of summer, yesterday?

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

Hey guys! I’m back!

This will be a short post for now, because I have study and looking for work to do… Which is what I’ve been busy with since we got home — it’s been crazy times here trying to catch up with everything, and get settled into our new home.

And, let’s not even get started with the name change hoops I’ve jumped through! Or, car insurance issues (I still don’t have car insurance!!) because there are gaps in car insurance in BC, despite coming from a 43% discount there. #grr

But! We had a fabulous wedding and honeymoon, and I can’t wait to share all the details… I may have some time later today after the books, so check back. my guy and I will be doing a few “he said, she said” blog entries, as well, which should prove to be a fun way to hear about our adventures!

Big apologies for no blog updates while I was away — I had hoped to have internet connectivity on board the Celebrity Eclipse, but instead had a very frustrating experience trying to get connected. It’s a brand new ship, and they’re definitely working out some kinks. If you are a Facebook friend, at least you saw my txt updates in 140 characters or less! I’ll see if I can easily copy those to my blog for those that didn’t see them.

I’ve SO MISSED my friends, readers, and family! How has your month been while I was away?

ps: iPAD, iPAD, iPAD!!! My husband gave me an iPad for an early birthday gift!!! OMG! *heart* LOVE it so far…

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

I (Raul) will be liveblogging the wedding (starting around 5:30pm PST – the actual ceremony is at 6:00pm). This post is the placeholder. You can start reading the live-tweets below (I had to use CoverItLive because ScribbleLive isn’t working properly). I will also update this post with little snippets and quotes, as well as photos. If you take photos and put them up on Flickr please tag them “netchickweds” as well so I can find them easily. It should be a great day!

UPDATE: 9:45 am – I am testing the CoverItLive liveblog. If it doesn’t work well, I’ll just update this post as I’ve done in the past with other liveblogs. Can’t wait!

UPDATE: 4:30 pm – I need to be at the wedding location in 30 minutes, so I’m just publishing the post right now!

UPDATE: 6:00 pm – The Bollwitts (Rebecca and John), the Biehlers (Stacie and John), the Millers (Airdrie and Derek), Catherine Winters, Gus and Russ are all here. We are aboard the boat and waiting for the groom and bride.

UPDATE: 6:15 pm – The bride and groom are here!!!

UPDATE: 6:30 pm – I will be ustreaming so I can’t liveblog while that happens. Will update soon!

UPDATE: 7:11 pm – Tanya and Barry are now husband and wife!!!

UPDATE: 8:22 pm – We just finished dinner, and at some point I’m going to roam Flickr to find photos tagged #netchickweds.

the wedding

Free TV Show from Ustream

TUNE IN TOMORROW AT 6pm (or sooner, if we can) for the start of the video stream!!

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

Good grief! Ever since last Thursday… A week ago today, this bloody volcano has been the bane of my existence.

And, to think it’s located where my ancestors came from! Too bad I can’t go over to Iceland and kick it in it’s nether regions. Maybe one day.

Because of the volcano and flight upheavals, the skirt that is a part of my wedding dress has been MIA. Let me explain… The skirt needed to be altered, because when I tried it on over a month ago in Vancouver, it was too big. The designer sent it back to Vancouver, from London, last week. Sounds perfect, right?

Wrong.

Something went sideways in customs, and the skirt was sent back to the UK. Last Wednesday.

And, was I told about this mix-up? No! What is it with suppliers not returning phone calls? This is the fourth issue with wedding stuff… time sensitive stuff that I received no return call. This is after I called them four times before I received a return call. I wanted to yell, but I didn’t. Other suppliers lost my business because they simply didn’t pick up the phone and call me back.

And, in more volcano news — I guess I should be happy that the huge blow happened last week, and not this week. Our honeymoon would have been cancelled, without any way for us to get the money back.

Let’s all just keep our fingers and toes crossed, that it stays somewhat calm until we fly out to London a week Sunday. I don’t care if we get stuck over there… I want our honeymoon!!

Our Vancouver wedding is coming up in two weeks, so I thought I’d talk about our wedding venue. We chose a dinner cruise with Accent Cruises on the Vancouver waterfront over a traditional hall, or restaurant — Mostly because we wanted an intimate setting, and one unique to the Vancouver area.

What better, then, than a dinner cruise? After much calling around, and harrassing the local options, I found Accent Cruises. They were able to provide a private vessel that would accommodate our 65 guests, with a buffet dinner, a dance floor, and the perfect environment for Barry and I to tie the knot in style.

Was it inexpensive? Not exactly — but, when you factor in all the costs you don’t initially consider when planning an event like this: the table linens, plates, ability to bring your own wine (for a small fee per bottle), and other odd rentals including the venue hall itself, not to mention the food… It becomes a good value. And, let’s face it, where else would give us the view that we’re going to have for four hours all to ourselves?

We were initially booked on the M.V. Eloquent, but because our numbers were a little larger than initially planned (doesn’t that always happen with weddings?), we’ve been moved to the M.V. Carousel II — A larger boat that can accommodate up to 100 for dinner, with a separate dance floor. It looks like a fabulous boat, but once again, I’m a little nervous as I’ve not yet seen the boat first hand. Talk about flying by the seat of our pants, hey? I’m sure it’s beautiful.

If all goes according to plan, we’ll be live video streaming and blogging the wedding (or, more precisely, Raul has kindly said he’d live blog the evening here) — I’m going to do some test runs in the next week or so with my laptop and iPhone… Keep your fingers crossed!

YOUR TURN: Have you ever experienced wedding dinner cruise?

I’m getting married in two and a half weeks. We’re moving into our new house in two and a half days. The logistics of it all are simply a little overwhelming.

I have to say, the stress of trying to plan the finer details of this wedding from a distance is starting to add up. Quite frankly, had I known how hard this would be (or how expensive the bills at the end of the day would be) I might have happily taken Barry up on his idea to elope. Those little curve balls that happen with every wedding, are certainly keeping me on my toes… I was firmly against running away to get married, because look where that got me, the first time? I wanted this day to be special and shared with those in our lives that we care deeply about.

So, rather than running off, and having quick “I do’s” on some far-away beach, I’m stressing about things like… my wedding dress. I had it custom made, from the UK. When I went for the fitting before we moved to Calgary, the skirt was too big, and had too much extra fabric. That meant, I had to have it sent back to London to be altered, and there would be no final fitting before the big day. ARGH! Now, the store that is handling it all isn’t calling me back. ARGH! STRESS! I’ll be leaving them a more frantic message this afternoon.

And, then there’s things like the table decorations, runners, gifts for the guests, and the decision of whether or not I’ll be getting a floral bouquet? I’ve already decided that if there’s going to be any cut flowers, there’ll only be one bouquet, and that’s it. It’s too expensive, and too much work to get the flowers to the boat when we won’t have a vehicle in Vancouver. So, I ordered much of what we needed from an online wedding supply store, except, I can’t take deliveries while we’re living with Al — The enterphone goes to his cell. So, we almost lost all the decorations back to the US, because there was a mix-up in the pick-up at UPS, after I called them three times telling them I’d be picking it up. ARGH.

How did I get to the point of creating a traditional wedding with all the trimmings? This really isn’t what I had in mind… I just wanted to have a party with my family and close friends, and not worry about all these logistics, and yet somehow, I bought into the “traditional” because “that’s how weddings are done”.

I guess I’m now being a typical bride. I never thought I’d be “that girl”. Don’t mind me as I curl up in a fetal position and and rock in the corner over here.

UPDATE: Thanks for the support guys. And, thanks so much Miranda for the call. I couldn’t have picked better for bridesmaids (Maids of Honour) — Miranda and Monica have been lifesavers.

Hello, my name is Tanya, and I love poker.

I love the social aspect of playing it in person, and I definitely enjoy the psychology of the game. I love it so much, that we are putting a custom table into our new basement! It’s all Barry’s fault, really. I barely knew how to play the game before he came along.

Tonight, we’re heading out to play poker at the Big Slick Tour in Calgary (we used to play the Vancouver league) — I’m really looking forward to playing a tournament and meeting some new people! The best part of the Big Slick league, is that there is no buy-in involved. I don’t mind playing for a little cash in a home game (just to make it interesting) but I am not a fan of putting in $60 plus dollars in at a casino if I can help it.

Unless, of course, we’re playing in Vegas… Or, on a cruise ship. Heh.

So… confess… Do you love the game of poker as much as I do? How’s your game?

Barry and I have been incredibly busy since we got here with furniture shopping, weekend road trips to Banff and Edmonton (and Radium next weekend), and getting used to the new city.

So… What are my first impressions of my new home city? Allow me to put them into point-form:

• Calgary is a city of neighbourhoods. There must be 150 of them, if not more… And everyone seems to expect me to know where each is. Most of these developments are perhaps 200 houses! Thankfully, Aurburn Bay, when the building is complete, will be 6000 homes… Which is significantly more than most areas we’ve explored so far.
• The urban sprawl is crazy here! Almost no one lives downtown, unlike Vancouver, which has a ton of residential towers… And, almost everyone I talk to says the “downtown core is boring” and they never have a need to go there. I’m sure I’ll meet plenty of people in the future that work there, but so far, I haven’t yet.
• People here are different — And, I don’t mean that in a bad way. The mindset is definitely more “family-oriented” (thus the suburban culture here) and Barry and I are definitely in the distict minority having chosen not to have children. Again, I’m sure we’ll find plenty of friends that won’t have children, but I can already see that the majority of people we surround ourselves with, will. I can say, though, that people in Calgary are very friendly… And unlike the Yaletown scene, people on the street make eye contact with you, and smile. That’s going to take some getting used to!
• I’m looking forward to getting to know people in our neighbourhood — It sounds like everyone on our street is very friendly (according to the current homeowners of our new house, whom we’ve met a couple of times) so it’ll be nice to know our neighbours for a change. Unfortunely, the timing isn’t going to allow us to really settle in, before we’re away for a month for the wedding and the honeymoon, so our housesitters will probably have more of a connection than we do when we get back in late May.

So… There’s my first impressions! I’m sure I’ll have many more in the coming weeks, once we’re moved in and a little more climatized.

Your turn: Do you know your neighbours? When you moved to your current home, how long did it take you to settle in?