Toms shoes, aka, tiaras for my feet

I've been wanting a pair of Toms for a little while... Banana wears them, and I learned from her that when you buy a pair of Toms, another pair of shoes is donated to a child in need. Not every 100 pairs, or even every 10 pairs. Every pair. I wanted flats, I wanted plain, I wanted Toms.. but all I could find were fakes. Nothing in my size except one lone pair in Market Mall.

They asked me if I would like to try them on for size, so that I could put another, less sparkly, pair on hold.

Well. You can guess how that ended. (ps: I had to turn the flash off so that the photo would not actually hurt your eyes when viewed.)

I totally love them.

If you

Do this:

And go here.

You could have this while sitting outdoors:

And you would see part of this mountain, right in front of you. You wouldn't even have to crane your neck or sit up tall or.. move:

And I think you would agree that life is better when you get off the couch.

To celebrate 7 days of no carbs

(well.. there was that one giant cookie), today for lunch I went to Thi-Thi and got myself a beautiful peppered beef vietnamese sub. Ya baby... and I washed it down with a coke.

It's been one of those super exciting days that demand carbs.

Through sad circumstances I acquired a trip to Sock Summit in the place of C-MAC. She just wasn't able to go, and asked me if I'd like to. Hell yes. Yes, I would (though I wish it wasn't in adverse circumstances). That was yesterday afternoon... sometime in the evening I discovered that my passport was missing. I spent the next bunch of hours tearing the house apart, and never did locate the passport. Today started with trip upon trip upon trip to get pictures, signatures,forms notarized, false starts, false endings... and then finally some success. A coupon at least, with a claim that possibly, even probably I will have a passport by noon tomorrow. Not a moment too soon, since the plane leaves at around 2pm.

This is my second emergency passport. In 2008, 22 hours before I was to depart to New York, Marilynnie discovered that my passport had expired. 3 hours later, I had a new one in my hand. This time will take longer because the passport is actually lost. Serious indeed.

I'm willing to bet that it's in a knitting project bag, and that I will find it this evening when I pack. I will not relocate the $250.00 it took to replace it.

Maybe it's worth it though... that passport picture really was horrible. If it weren't for a sudden downpour this morning, I would have had a chance at redemption.

So, that's my story... I'm going to Portland to knit, buy yarn for the store, meet people, eat off of food trucks, and go to a sock hop (in an 80's costume).

I think.

You're never going to believe this.

You'll never see this again, I guarantee.


Shocked?

Amazed?

Thrilled?

Confused even?

YES. An entire wall of Addis.

I'm not even going to say the word again until next year.

The Continental Divide.

I'm trying to blog here, but I keep losing my place, deleting text... think I can create anything from this stuttering start?

I was in the Vermillion Pass on Sunday, and by complete fluke I ended up at the Continental Divide. It would have been an excellent place to go intentionally.. to share a picnic.. to have a break; but I was driving to Castle Junction to drop off Mug, realized that there was no cell service, and wondered how I was going to manage to meet up with BFML, when.. boom.. I see him passing me in the other direction. There were roadside turnouts on both sides of the road, so we both screeched to a stop and I crossed over to his side. Instant awesome destination.

The kids enjoyed being in Alberta, BC, Alberta, BC, Alberta, BC, although I hear tell that Anna nearly fell off of Alberta. I had lots of big hugs from BFML, and he was in his funny drama mode.. dancing around doing mosquito victimization impressions and being goofy. I think we benefit from a break now and again so that I can remember that the man is mostly a boy and that is one of the things I most appreciate about him.

I also saw one of my favourite mountains (who is lucky enough to have access to so many mountains that they have favourites?)... it reminded me that I hadn't been in the Rockies in a long time, and that I should take advantage of my surroundings more fully.

It was one of those crazy days full of moments... the whole day seemed like a million snapshots. Mug, asleep in the car, smelling like corndogs (ok, ewwww); dreaming about her paycheques? An elk, dead on the side of the highway, head towards the ditch. A small fire off the highway as we went West turned into a huge, dangerous valley full of acrid smoke on the trip East. Absolutely perfect light at 8:02, 8:12 and 8:30. Perfect. All of the colours of the mountains, flora, fauna were turned up to high. There was a split second when all traffic slowed to pass an emergency airlift; a helicopter thrumming above us. A field of lavender flowers. An emerald green stream. Suspicious flash as I passed through a small tunnel... will I have a speeding ticket in the mail a few days from now? Some very, very happy dogs when I arrived home, 3 hours late for their dinner schedule.

I prayed a lot when I realized (coming down the pass on 93) that the brakes were not working well, and I would not be able to do a sudden stop in the next 2 full hours. More prayer when the car started to jitter every time I drove over a hole or bump in the road. BFML will tell me that: it needs attention. Ahem. Yes, it does.

And finally, so tired when I got home that I neither knit, nor c'worded. Didn't spin. Didn't dye.

I just sat and thought about snapshots.

Tomorrow.. Knitting. I promise.

It's OVER over.

Here you have BFML messing with his iPhone and taking a funny stampede picture of himself. I had to take a deep breath when I saw it, because I felt transported into a HeeHaw script. He's good that way, the BFML... he doesn't care what he does to his face in photos; it's all for the love of art. Or something. Perhaps it's just for fun. He makes me smile every time, but that particular photo made me laugh out loud.

But it's OVER. Stampede I mean. When I arrived at work this morning, I was was met with this big pile outside of a nearby office. I can still smell fireworks (well, not really, but you get my drift), but it's time to get.that.crap.outa.here.

I can remember working at Nova, and being so thrilled to wear jeans to work. By the middle of the week I would be wishing that I could stop dressing up as a cowgirl, and just get back to 'normal'. I think the dudes down the building from me had that same exact feeling when they arrived at 8:00 and had the place ditched out by 8:15. Cowboy hat and all.

Following you will find Mug's new normal! She worked for 11 days at the Stampede, selling corndogs and lemonade. I have to say that the corndogs were horrible (I'm glad to say that she didn't prepare them), but the lemonade was fantastic (Proud to say that she did!). Mug received a cheque for her first 3 days, and she was quite delighted. Me too. I've very proud of her. As you can see by her photo, she was very, very thrilled to discover her mother in line taking pictures of her.

I think that I'm going to try to get back on track with blogging. I miss doing it, and often imaginary-blog in my head. Since my computer crashed, I just haven't had the energy to make a new situation work. So.. let's see how it goes.

Soon I'll talk about knitting, and then everything will get back to normal!

It's official!

I've left The Knitting Room to spend the next month working on The Loop!

Yarn and accessories are starting to arrive, the painting is almost done, and we're starting to work on a logo and graphics. We hope for a grand opening near May 1, but starting this Thursday we'll be hosting knit nights! It'll be a jobsite, but we'll be there knitting.

See you there!

Ps: In my wisdom, I forgot to include the address! You can find The Loop at 1978 Kensington Road NW, in Calgary. Our phone number is 403-457-3020 (and should be hooked up tomorrow afternoon)

To answer a few questions...

If you are hoping to see anything beyond an empty green room, you'll probably be better off waiting a little while! There are no retail products (or even shelving) on site at present. If you'd like to knit in the midst of chaos and dirt, well come on down! You'll be welcome after 5pm. We currently have about 10 chairs.