Thursday, August 30, 2012

Picnic in the Park

Today I spoke to an art gallery downtown about getting some of my artwork on display. I walked around downtown and did a little shopping and then had a picnic in a park.


Yummy picnic food included a cheese stick, fruit leather, and carrot sticks.


I wore my barefoot sandals to avoid getting yelled at by security.


Downtown streets turned the bottom of my feet black.



Oh look, yummy picnic food in my lap!


And then Peter poked my foot.


Still trying to figure out my timer on my camera so I can get decent photos without help.


Dirty feet!


Next time I go downtown, I'll remember to take some wipes with me.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Painting house

My in-laws rented their house out to a guy that kind of wrecked their walls. Now that he's out, we're repainting.


Since I'm so nice and tall, my job is to get the corners and tops of the walls that everyone else can't reach.


In the process of painting, I must have stepped in some paint.


Poor chair.


These are my favorite pants. They do wonderful things for my booty.


Bad news: I got paint on my fav pants. Good news: The paint is water based, so it came off in the wash.


Had to scrub pretty hard to get this paint off my feet, but it too eventually came off.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Walking on broken glass

On Saturday, our friends moved to a new house, so an army of helpers, ourselves included, showed up to assist them in their move. When we were done, we played around outside their house.


We didn't get any photos of the actual move, but here's some pictures of me posing instead.


Yay.


The side of their house is really interesting. It's got pebbles and broken glass embedded in the stucco. I decided to walk on it.


Awesome.


It was fun!


Here's a closeup

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Whyte Ave job hunt

My retail job at the little hippie store in West Ed didn't work out all that well, so I'm looking for a new job! We walked Whyte Ave handing out resumes.


This was the first place I applied.


I love the random murals in this part of town. Knock, knock, anybody home?


Sweet brick crosswalks


There was a giant puddle in the middle of the sidewalk, so I walked through it just for fun


It was kind of cold. Very nice and refreshing for such a hot day in the sun.


I was able to rinse off my feet.


They're clean now.


Yes, the bottoms of my feet are asymmetrical.


Take 3 steps and pose!


I started to attract funny looks from passers-by. Mission accomplished.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting

I had my first of 10 mixed martial arts classes today. I totally underestimated the amount of energy it takes to perform these sweet moves. Also, they only let people who are actually in the class on the mat, so my wonderful husband waiting in the lobby and took pictures of the video feed from the classroom just so you all could see what I learned today!


This is me punching a pool noodle. We were working on "double tap" punches. Punch twice, once with each hand, in rapid succession.


The guy in black is the instructor. The guy in white is in my class.


We took turns doing two minutes of punching the noodle and two minutes of kicking the noodle.


Holding the noodle is very important. It gives you a chance to rest after those really intense two minutes!


Whenever my mom is mad at someone, she tells them to take a flying jump at themselves.


I think this is what she means.


This move consisted of going in to kick the noodle, then jumping as we kicked so that we would kick with our shin. 


Halfway through my two minutes and already exhausted.


My legs are still burning.


Next class is on Thursday!


My luggage and laptop are finally back!

Sorry about the lack of updates. Really, it's not my fault. For this, I blame United Airlines.

You see, I have a particular type of bad luck. It's the type where the more stressed out you are, the more bad things happen to you. For example, last month we wanted to take a roadtrip, but my husband's vehicle was deemed unsafe to drive by our mechanic until certain repairs are done. That kind of sucks, but no big deal, we figured, we'll just take the ultimate housewife vehicle: our minivan. So we start driving it and not even 10 minutes in to the trip, all of the warning lights come on. We take it to a mechanic, but because it was a weekend, he couldn't get the part for 3, maybe 4 days. Roadtrip cancelled.

For my trip to Florida, I was already stressed from travelling. I love travelling by airplane, really I do. It's the TSA that gives me major anxiety. Every time I fly, they've come up with new rules, new "security" measures, new ways to invade my privacy and control my life. At least they force everyone to take their shoes off at the security clearance, so I didn't get weird looks for being barefoot. That aside, they make me nervous. To make things worse, I had to go through customs at the Calgary airport. More rules, more restrictions, more reason to be nervous. I got through ok and made my flight on time. I had a connection in Chicago which I had a one hour layover for, so I wasn't too worried about making that flight either. However, when I landed in Jacksonville, I found out my suitcase was still in Chicago. Awesome! Since this is a pretty regular occurrence for me, I got smart after the first time it happened and back a 3 day survival kit as my carry-on bag. Score 1 for me. 2 days later, my suitcase showed up at my door. Technically they only have 24 hours to get the bag back to me, so I was a little annoyed, but whatevs. I had my clothes. I was happy.

On the way back to Canada from Florida, I got to the airport 5 hours early for my flight. Due to weather delays, it didn't take off until 8 hours later. I ended up missing my connection in Chicago. No big deal, I'll just go to customer service and have them put me on the next flight. What's that? You're going to Canada? Our next flight isn't until tomorrow morning and all the hotels are full. There's a bench over there that you can sleep on. Here's a few crappy blankets that aren't sufficiently warm to keep you from freezing to death from our ridiculously cold and completely unnecessary air conditioning. Use you backpack as a pillow.

After sleeping on a bench in Gate C18 of Chicago O'Hare, I had a standby ticket to Calgary and a krick in my neck. I made the standby flight by some miracle and arrive in Calgary around the same time my husband had to be at work. I'd let him know that I had made the standby flight and what time I would be arriving and he assured me he was on his way. When I landed in Calgary and turned my phone back on, I had a few texts from him saying his work was not going to let him leave to come get me. Apparently when you work for your family, saying you have a family emergency isn't an acceptable excuse. So I was stranded in Calgary without enough money for a ticket to Edmonton. I was already extremely angry and stressed as I deplaned. Teary-eyed, I walked to the baggage claim to collect my suitcase. An hour later, I found out it was still in freaking Chicago! Congratulations, United Airlines, you have done it again! Don't worry, we'll have the bag back to you by tonight and we'll make sure it will go to your house in Edmonton. Dad, can you please pick me up from the Calgary airport? My mother-in-law left me stranded.

I waited in the airport for 4 hours for my dad, then we made the 3 hour drive to Edmonton. Mother-in-law pretended like nothing happened and my suitcase still wasn't there. It didn't show up the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. Finally, after emailing and calling customer service like crazy, someone called me to say that my suitcase had finally showed up in Edmonton, but it was missing all its tags, so could I please give a description of the suitcase? I finally got it back around 8:45 last night, a full five days since I left Florida. Am I angry? Oh, yeah I'm angry.

Now that you know the reason for my lack of photo updates, please excuse me for my first martial arts lesson. I'll be back with pics later today.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Dang, you's a sexy beach

I had another photoshoot! Melissa is super talented :D We went to the ocean this time.


Jumping around in the waves! Awesome!


Pretty sand.


Wow, my legs are freaking paler than the bottom of my feet.


Oh my gosh, best photo of me ever!


Pretending to be a pin up sexy Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition model lady person.


Except I'm cooler than Sports Illustrated models because I don't wear shoes ever, never.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Biffle's first barefoot

My biffle agreed to go on a barefoot walk with me today so long as her face didn't end up on my blog. By the way, biffle means Best Friend For Life or BFFL turned into a word as biffle.


Here's some people's feet instead of her gorgeous face.


Yay excited for our barefoot walk!


Here's our feet.


And here's her loving on some pavement with her bare feet. Yay!