bonnie, bodacious banffite

yes, it's me again! long time no chat, so i figured i'd make a post and reassure deb that not only is noah alive, but that i am, too.

i hesitated for a second writing "banffite". not because i'm doubting my 'allegiance' to banff or anything, but because i recently found out that people who live in our neighbouring town in the bow valley, canmore, are called "canMORONs". seriously. now i'm afraid to ask what people in banff are called. "banffdiots"? who knows.

anyway, things are going well for me! i'm hitting my 6 month anniversary at work come march 5th, which means my long awaited probation period is over, and i'll get an extra $1.50/hour. on top of this, we just voted in a new payraise, and i've just applied for a slight promotion, so hopefully i'll almost be making as much as i was with my government job!

the promotion that i applied for is a combination of the job i do now (program coordinator) and the addition of desktop publishing. we have been looking for someone for this spot since november... but back then i was a bit too overwhelmed. i was a green 3 months into a new job with a new company, doubling my workload with 3 people having quit in a 1 month period, and effectively becoming the "most experienced" program coordinator responsible for training the new people starting the next week.

with the new job, i would have 3 programs to run (instead of the 8 i have now) and 3 programs to desktop publish-- which is the formatting and styling of all printed materials that are sent to a course. this appeals to my nerdy, computer-loving soul in ways that are kind of embarrassing, and even if it were for that reason alone, i hope i get it :-)

in other news, i've started working out 3-4 times a week as i'm trying to get my asthma under control without a silly little puffer... so i've started swimming. the first week, i could only do 1 front crawl before i had to switch to a rest stroke... and now i'm up to 7! i also just finished a 6 week spin class (bikes with weights), and it was pretty intense. glad i'm done, but at the same time, wow was it effective. i might sign up for the next one, which runs in april. i don't really know that i have a goal, "numbers wise", but i do know that i would like to be able to do a few simple scrambles with noah this summer without having to fight my asthma every hundred feet.

other than that, things are status quo. i'll finish up the post with a few pictures from the "Arthur Family Murder Mystery" that noah and i participated in a few weeks ago. noah was "Norm Boring, sleazy agent to the stars who mysteriously was carrying a gun and could identify bombs". i was "Beebee, pop singing sensation that everyone wanted a piece of... but no one could be That dumb for real... could they?"

Jupiter belongs to earth now!

Gorgeous, clear night and a great view of tonight's total lunar eclipse from my little basement job (ok I also went outside and looked)

Couple friends and I were watching it out on the sidewalk and one of em says "It looks like jupiter" and then another says "Take that jupiter! You belong to earth now. hyah!"

Cool stuff

Proof!

Over Christmas, we gave Jenni a picture of Castle Mountain. She asked if it was just some random, pretty mountain, or a mountain that we actually saw regularly.

As I said, everytime we drive to Lake Louise (or in this case, to Jasper), we see the mountain. It is absolutely unmissable from the road. So Jenni, if you're reading this, here's the proof!

Back from a winter getaway

Over the weekend, Bonnie and I took a quick trip up to Jasper. For those unfamiliar with the area (I'm assuming most of you), here's a map!


View Larger Map

The road up is called the Icefields Parkway and, I'm told, is one of the most beautiful roads in the world. Unfortunately for us, it snowed the entire drive both ways so, we didn't see that much. However, the drive was still beautiful. It's a small, 2-lane highway that travels along - and across - the continental divide. It's an amazing road through mountain valleys and across peaks (reaches as high as 7,000ft), and even across the tip of a Glacier at the Columbia Icefield (hence the name). The pictures don't begin to do it justice, what with the weather conditions and being taken from a car, but I'll post a few anyway.

The average look of the highway. If it didn't look like this, it looked the same but with tighter trees and/or mountains


At the Columbia Icefield. Weather conditions just like we were on top of a mountain (oh wait, we were) - windy, cold, windy, windy, and formidable



One of many. We even saw a couple people climbing a couple of them. Looked fun! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_climbing



And finally, who wants to go camping?



My good friend Dave works at the Fairmont (Banff Springs) here in Banff, and he hooked us up with a room at the Jasper Park Lodge. It was something of a mix between some kind of kids camp and a ranch resort. Single main lodge with a whole bunch of surrounding buildings, each with a couple hotel rooms (and a bunch of cabins for rent for families and groups or extremely rich people). We had a room not too far from the main lodge. Nothing too fancy, just a nice hotel room.

Most of the trip was spent relaxing. They had a great lounge with a huge picture window out into valley and a large, roaring, real-wood fireplace. We spent a long time in here playing cards, board games, and, of course, drinking cocktails.





And here's Bonnie standing on the deck just outside the window



What time we didn't spend in the bar, we spent walking around the town (which is MUCH smaller and quieter than Banff, largely due to the fact that it is 4 hours from the nearest 'real' city or airport), or enjoying other amenities at the resort:

Ice Skating:


Outdoor Pool (yes we actually swam. this sign is just pretty funny, we thought)


As we were leaving, we learned that you can also rent some snowshoes, which we would have loved to do but learned too late. Next time, I guess.


And for some final shot at breathtaking scenery (which this blog NEVER shows :p), here are some pictures of Athabasca Falls in Jasper. We made a brief stop on the trip home.