2009.02.12
Posted in House and Home, Travel at 11:58 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I left my iPod on the airplane on a recent trip to Phoenix. I did file a lost and found report with the airline, but I have little hope I’ll see it again.
So, I now own a new iPod Nano.
A few days after I got home from Phoenix, my audio side of the A/V receiver in the living room gave up the ghost. Well, not completely – I had the center channel still. But that was it. A single evening of listening to music on my computer speakers pushed me over the edge and I ended up replacing that piece of hardware as well. The very next day, actually.
It’s amazing that music is such large a part of my life; I didn’t realize how important it was to me until I couldn’t enjoy it anymore.
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2009.01.01
Posted in House and Home at 8:22 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
2009 is off to an inauspicious start for me. While I was cleaning the floors, I accidentally knocked my teapot onto the floor. And in the case of stoneware teapot vs. concrete floor, the floor scored a resounding victory. This is the first dish I’ve broken since I bought my Denby about 4 years ago.
OK, so I just buy a new teapot to replace the one I broke. There’s just one problem with that – my pattern (Smokestone) was discontinued in 2006. They only actually made it for 4 years.
Luckily, I managed to source a replacement online. With shipping, etc. it winds up being a similar price to what I originally paid back in 2004. Still a very expensive little oops to start off my new year. So now I make a new year’s resolution, a day late: I will break no more Denby in 2009.
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2008.10.19
Posted in House and Home at 7:09 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I realized earlier today that I have now lived in Calgary for over a decade. I moved here on Monday, August 31, 1998. At the time, the North Koreans were launching satellites into space, and Air Canada’s pilots were gearing up for a strike.
And Calgary was a different city.
Perhaps the biggest visible changes are a result of rapid growth over the past ten years. Since 1998 the population has increased from roughly 900,000 to over 1,000,000. As a result, the suburbs now sprawl even further than they used to, and there are many new high-rise buildings downtown, with still more under construction.
Beneath the mix of urban renewal and suburban growth, the city has also undergone a cultural shift. As much as we Calgarians love to hate Toronto, it’s hard to deny that Calgary becomes a little more like Toronto every day. The people here aren’t as friendly as they used to be; everyone is in a perpetual hurry; traffic is much worse.
Most interesting of all, we seem to be gaining a bit of attitude about the whole thing. I’ve heard many people accuse Torontonians of believing that Toronto is the center of the universe, but to me, it looks like the shoe may be on the other foot now. Maybe it’s inevitable that once a city reaches 1,000,000 people it starts to develop a stronger identity and thus a stronger ego. Maybe we Calgarians are just tired of feeling like we’re in the shadow of cities like Toronto and Vancouver. Maybe I’m just imagining things.
The past ten years have also changed me. I’m not sure I like all of the changes I’ve seen in the city, but this is now truly my home. It’s as much a part of me as I am of it, and it colors my perceptions in ways I don’t always understand.
In the final analysis, though, while I enjoy visiting many other cities, there are only a handful that I would consider making my home. I live in one of them, and that’s good enough for me.
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2008.07.17
Posted in House and Home at 8:39 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
My company moved offices this spring, and now my commute is a little bit longer. A direct route (if I drive / carpool) is just over 7km each way. Pretty short and sweet still.
On the bike, I take a more roundabout route (to avoid as many crazy Calgary drivers as I can), which runs about 8.5km each way, with a few fun hills for good measure. If all I do is ride to and from work Monday – Friday, that’s 85km / week on the bike. Depending on the week, I’ll sometimes add another 20 – 30km on top of that (a single round trip to Bowness Park is 30km).
And in other news, my gas bill is down, but my grocery bill is up…
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2008.07.15
Posted in House and Home at 6:13 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
While I was cycling home from work today, I saw a car that had a “Cthulhu Loathes You” bumper sticker. That made my day. Well, that and the fact that I wasn’t stuck in traffic, which was very nasty today for some reason.
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2008.05.26
Posted in House and Home, Photography at 8:18 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Calgary is an interesting city when it comes to the weather. Perhaps my favorite weather-related joke about the city goes as follows:
In Calgary, winter is only 2 weeks long. Too bad it happens 20 times per year
In any case, I was out with the camera over the Victoria Day weekend, enjoying the weather. It’s a good thing, since this last weekend was rather wet and gray. We’re supposed to see the sun again sometime soon.
That would be nice. It’s been raining for about a week now. You’d think this was Vancouver or something. Yeesh.
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2008.05.08
Posted in House and Home, Technology at 7:29 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
For a number of reasons it was long-past-time to upgrade my copy of Photoshop Elements. I was running version 2, and I upgraded to version 6.
I should have guessed from the download size, but wow is version 6 ever a behemoth.
Version 2: 186MB
Version 6: 2.5GB
Ummmm….. Good thing I’ve got (or rather I had) plenty of free disk space. Yeesh. And bear in mind this is Photoshop‘s Little Brother.
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2008.04.15
Posted in House and Home at 9:32 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
It was time for a spring tune-up, so I took the bike into the shop, and got it back today. As I was picking up the bike, it started to snow.
This wouldn’t be remarkable, except the exact same thing happened last year. I picked up the bike, and had to ride home in the snow. Though last year the snow was heavier than this year.
At least this isn’t as spooky as the whole Thrice Three thing that happened to me two years ago when I flew to Fort Myers, FL. I guess we’ll see next year…
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2007.12.04
Posted in House and Home at 1:46 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I had last Friday off work, and I’m also off all this week. I’ve been taking advantage of being home during the day and running my errands then instead of in the evenings. The difference is quite shocking.
On Friday, I took my car in for an oil change, picked up the last of my Christmas gifts, and also picked up some Rubbermaid containers to reorganize my linen closet (oh yes, I sure do know how to have fun). I was able to do all of that in about 2 hours. On a Saturday or Sunday, that would have taken at least 4 hours.
Even more noticeable was the errands I ran today. I went to renew my vehicle registration, and there was no line up. None. In and out in about 5 minutes. And, the coup de grace, Safeway on 10% Tuesday.
On the first Tuesday of every month, Safeway gives you 10% off your entire purchase as long as you spend at least $35. The downside of this is that the store is absolutely nuts. I normally avoid shopping on 10% Tuesday since the $7 or $8 I save is more than offset by the fact that it takes forever to get through the checkout lines. Nope, sorry, I have better ways to spend my Tuesday evening than standing in line at the grocery store.
But going before 11:00am was a totally different experience. The store was nice and empty. And, there was no lineup at the checkout. I just walked up and the cashier started ringing me in. Nice. I’m sure I would have hated it around 6:00pm.
Running my errands during the work day has been a good reminder that there is a definite downside to working a 9-5 type job. I do like having evenings and weekends free since those times are when my friends are also off work, but running errands definitely takes longer than it does during the day.
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2007.07.31
Posted in Board Games, Friends, House and Home, Parties at 8:34 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
In mid-July of 2006, I took possession of my condo. Just over a year later, I finally managed to have a housewarming party. Though I’m not sure it can still be called a housewarming party since it’s a year later.
In any case, it was a fun evening. A total of about 20 people showed up during the course of things, and somehow I managed to end up with more liquor than I started with. Funny how that happens.
The evening started rather routinely. Collin was already here, and Jason dropped by around 5:30 so we could get a bite to eat. My choice of a black tank top proved to be very poor given the stifling heat. I nearly melted by the time we got to Thai Thai, and it’s only a few blocks away. The bubble tea helped to cool me down a bit, and after we got back to the condo, I set about doing last-minute preparations (mostly dealing with food). Dave called at about 7:30 to say he would be late, then showed up at the door at about 7:50, which was technically 10 minutes early (the party officially started at 8:00). I had just gotten out of the shower, and Jason and Collin were playing Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation while I finished up with the food prep. Dave started playing against Collin after that, and they finally put the games away only when about 12 or so people had shown up.
The majority of folks showed up fashionably late around 9:00 or 9:30 (as I expected), and by 10:00 the place was pretty full. For my part, I spent the evening showing people my place, trying to keep tabs on food (thanks Collin and Jason for doing this), and trying to socialize with everyone. I invited a number of different groups of friends, many of whom had never met each other before, and it was interesting to see how people mixed.
A few things about the party stand out in my mind still:
- We went through nearly 1kg of trail mix,. Some people (I’m looking at you, Michael) were picking out the Smarties and leaving the rest. Others ate only the cashews. So at the end of the night I was left with 200g of peanuts, raisins, and almonds.
- Almost nobody ate the veggie dip, but the veggies themselves went quickly.
- Coffee flavoured beer is disgusting (yes, Brian, it really is).
- A new cocktail was born. Kristi has dubbed it “Blue Steel”. I have to say it was quite tasty.
Thanks to everyone who came by and shared in the fun.
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