Hello from Alberta! It's been a long time since I've been here other than for Christmas, so I am thoroughly enjoying the 25 degree weather with not a touch of humidity.

This weekend was really nice. I flew into Edmonton on Thursday night, and my sister came and picked me up at the airport to drive home, about a 3 hour drive. Everyone else got home on Friday and we had a family barbecque that night, and I got to meet my beautiful little nephew Caleb. He is honestly the cutest thing EVER.

Saturday was busy with my brother's graduation. More family came down for the day, and Mass was at 3:00, the banquet at 5:30, and the ceremony at 7:30 (which took 2 hours!!), plus some dances afterwards. I was supposed to go help my mom chaperone the safe grad party afterwards, but with the time change and everything, I was dead, so I bailed.

Sunday was pretty relaxed, just a lot more of visiting with everyone, who went home either Sunday or yesterday. Today was my first day here alone (other than my mom and brother, of course), so I spent a couple of hours outside in the garden, and some time shopping downtown, during which time I ran into WAY too many people I know. Small towns! Tomorrow I am going to have coffee with a girl from my high school class, and on Friday Mom and I are leaving for Calgary where we'll stay with my older brother for the weekend.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend - me and Caleb, and me and my brother at his graduation. On to June!!

7 months until Christmas! :-)

So this month HAS been crazy busy, as I anticipated. Krista arrived last Wednesday night, and we tried to stay up to watch the episodes of Lost and Alias from earlier that night, but it just wasn't happening. So Thursday after work we got to watch them (Alias was great!), and then I finally packed so we could head down to the bus station for 9:30.

The bus was packed, and neither of us slept well at all. We arrived in New York a little bit late, at around 8:00, and made it over to the hostel, went for breakfast, and then headed up to the Guggenheim museum and arrived just as it opened. It only took us about an hour and a half to go through everything, but it was interesting - I'm not a huge fan of modern art in general, but there were some Impressionists as well, and the building itself is just so cool. From there we walked all the way back down to Times Square (not a small walk!), zigzagging through Central Park along the way. It was raining a little bit all day, unfortunately, but we were determined not to let that stop us. We had wanted to stop for lunch at the Soup Kitchen, but it's closed down! :-( So we went to Ollie's instead, for yummy dumplings and sesame chicken.

We did TKTS for tickets that day, and were planning on getting Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but they only had partial view, and they were only 35% off, so we ended up getting The Light in the Piazza instead. We were in the second row of the mezzanine, and the Vivian Beaumont is a small theatre anyway, so it was a fine view. I really enjoyed the show, and am looking forward to hearing the music again once the cast recording comes out. Victoria Clark is fantastic!! We did the stage door afterwards to say hi to Vicki, and also to get a picture with Matthew Morrison, who's also great in the show. After that, we were both pretty tired, so we returned to the hostel and got some sleep!

The next day we headed downtown to do my regular walking tour of downtown for newcomers to the city. The World Trade Centre site had changed quite a bit since the last time I'd been there. We saw Trinity Church, Wall Street, Bowling Green and Battery Park. It was actually a lovely morning, sunny and warm, so we sat in the park for a while and enjoyed it. Coming back to midtown, we put our names in at the Avenue Q lottery, and then decided that since the Imperial is right across the street, there was no reason we couldn't try the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels lottery too. So Krista stood at Avenue Q, and I stood at Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and we kept an eye on each other in case our names were called at either show. Turned out to be a good thing we'd done so, since we were not picked for Avenue Q, but did get Dirty Rotten Scoundrels! So we were able to see the show from the front row.

I had a great time at this show, it is really funny. Norbert Leo Butz is hysterical, he had me doubled over laughing so many times. I've read some of the criticisms of it, and I can see where they're coming from, but I still enjoyed myself immensely. We tried the stage door for this show, but Norbert was in a hurry and wasn't taking pictures, so we left pretty quickly. For the evening, we tried the Avenue Q lottery again, but still weren't chosen, so we went back to TKTS, where we were hoping Phantom would be up, but it wasn't. Krista was interested in The Producers, and I wouldn't have argued too much (Roger is back in it, after all!), but it was only 35% off, and I also wanted to see Little Women before it closed, so we ended up getting tickets for that instead, and again in the front row!

We both enjoyed Little Women, but it didn't blow either of us away. While I would definitely see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels again, I don't really feel the need to revisit Little Women. Still, Sutton Foster was really terrific as Jo, and there were some very nice moments in it. After that show finished, we headed down to Culture Club for the night, but only lasted about an hour and a half before the day took its toll on Krista, so we went back to the hostel.

We were up very early Sunday morning, checked out of the hostel and were in line at the Shubert by 6:15. We were the second ones in line, but the line didn't really start to fill out until well after 9:00 - guess we could have stayed in bed a little longer! Still, it was worth it to make sure we had tickets for a sold-out show! Now, Krista enjoyed Spamalot the most of any show of the weekend, and although I preferred Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, I definitely had a great time at Spamalot too. My favourite parts were definitely the parts where they spoofed other musicals, and David Hyde Pierce's number in the second act was the highlight. :-) So I won't be upset if it wins Best Musical, but I really hope it doesn't win Best Score - something like the Drama Desk results would make me very happy.

After the show we walked around Midtown some more, visiting Fifth Ave, Rockefeller Centre, St. Patrick's, and then going up the Empire State Building, before grabbing our stuff and catching the bus back to Toronto. It was a lovely weekend, though the weather did not really cooperate, and of course, it just made me want to go back again.

Okay, I have to get ready to get to work, so I'll finish this off for now. Just have to add that last night's season finale of Smallville was quite interesting - although Clark and Chloe STILL haven't talked about his secret, I have faith it must happen in next season's premiere.

Here's one pic from New York, this is me in Central Park on Friday. More later!

Sorry for my absence from this site - I ended up getting sick last weekend, and have been feeling under the weather ever since, so most of my spare time has been spent in bed. Today is better, though still not 100%. At least it happened now, and not in the second half of the month, which is going to be very busy.

At the moment, I am very upset and stressed over the results of Tiger's vet visit today. :-( Apparently he has a heart murmur, which means the valves of his heart aren't functioning exactly right. It might not be a big deal, but on the other hand, it could be a huge deal. To find out which it is, he's going to have a series of blood tests done next month, and then he'll need to have an ultrasound of his heart to see what shape the walls are in. None of which is going to make him very happy, and none of which I can afford at the moment. :-( Today he had his microchip put in, and his UK rabies vaccination, and he was not at all pleased with that - they had to put a cone on his head to stop him from biting the vet. Poor kitty. :-( :-(

I am going to try not to freak out about it until we have some kind of diagnosis, but of course I'm very worried. And what's worse is that it might be my fault - the murmurs can sometimes be caused by a build-up of bacteria related to poor dental health... which he has had for several years, and I haven't done anything about yet. The vet today again told me that his teeth are bad, but she's much more concerned that we do something about his heart before worrying about his teeth.

This will make it difficult for me to get into much of an excited mood before the trip to New York, but I will still try! Krista arrives on Wednesday evening, and then Thursday night we are taking the overnight bus to NYC. We decided on the bus rather than driving because, with only two of us going, it turned out to be nearly the same price, and by taking the bus we get an extra 10 hours in the city, which is always a good thing! So we are going to visit the Guggenheim museum, which I've never been to, as well as seeing four shows, hitting Culture Club, and doing a couple of my intro-to-the-city walking tours, since this will be Krista's first time there.

We'll get back Monday morning, Krista goes home on Wednesday, and then I go home on the Thursday! So like I said, this month is going to just fly by.

Anyway, I have a million things I should be doing before Krista arrives. If everyone can send some good thoughts to my kitty, it would be much appreciated!