Thansgiving Colors

This is what Autumn looks like on my street.  We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving on the weekend, and took a break from cooking our turkey and preparing the rest of the fixings to take a set of photos of the Fall colors.  The photo, above, is the trees across the street from our house.  The photo below is of the trees on our side of the street.

The photo below, from in front of a neighbor's house, is something (apparently) called a "Burning Bush", which changes from green to a bright cherry red in the Fall.

+1

Just hang on a couple more days, folks.  +1!

A Paladin In Earnest

Here's the Paladin and the Squire clearing the snow from the driveway.  The snow is coming down in earnest now.  We've had roughly a foot of snow so far with more to come before the weekend.

The driveway in Pineview is half again as large as the prior driveway in Citadel, so putting our son to work on helping clear the snow just makes sense.

First Blast Of Winter Weather

It didn't take long for winter to arrive, after we settled into our new place in St. Albert.  Brrrrrr!

Our new neighbours and nearby relatives assure us that, while the St. Albert winters will be a little longer than the ones weve been accustomed to in Calgary, the summers, here, are also a little longer.  Promises, promises. 

We have to make it through the winter, first, before their prognostications can be proven!

Finally found time to start unpacking my RPG and Appendix N collections over the weekend.  I've been working on plans for three sets of built-in bookshelves  Until those are built everything goes into the old bookcases.  Found a custom bookcase website that has some great-looking custom bookcase examples.  I'll need to wait until springtime to get working on versions of my own.  Here's a sample from the website that I particularly liked, it needs at least two more shelves to accommodate all of my books.

Settling Into The New House

I intended to publish this post several weeks ago, but things have been extraordinarily busy.  There's no particular value in subjecting you to the mundane details behind the posting delay, and we have not yet fully unpacked, but let me share a few pictures of the new house, now that we have finally moved from Calgary to Edmonton (well, to St. Albert, more precisely).

The front entrance, as seen from the second floor

The back deck and back yard

The family room, with windows facing the back yard

The main floor sitting room, at the front of the house

The dining room, as seen from the sitting room

The kitchen, with a very 80's dropped ceiling
 

The second floor sitting room and library (Master bedroom to the left)

The master bedroom...

...and Master bathroom

One of two second floor bedrooms

Part of the basement media room, needs some built-in bookshelves

Basement bedroom

Everyone's settling in nicely, the kids are enjoying their new schools, making friends, and looking forward to Halloween.  Now comes the hard part, making gamers of our neighbors!

Flooding In Calgary

As you may have heard, we had a flood in downtown Calgary that resulted in 75,000 (out of a city of 1 million) people being displaced from their homes.  As I live at the second highest point in Calgary, we were not affected.  Here are just a few photos of the devastation.

That crescent-shaped island-looking bit in front of downtown Calgary is Prince's Island Park.  Or it used to be, before it was flooded.

One of my favorite Chinese restaurants, now partially submerged.

Older, historic part of Calgary.

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Rideau/Roxboro, one of the ritzier neighborhoods in Calgary.  Average family income: $150,000.

Someone trying to save his cat.

Completely submerged truck.

A Paladin In Pineview?

 

 

The home we purchased in Pineview, St. Albert (just outside of Edmonton).  I can't see myself changing the name of this Blog.  But A Paladin In Pineview is much more alliterative that the current title.

 

We have been in the midst of some rather dramatic changes over the last 6 months.  Two of those have been a promotion and a move to another city.  We have finally found a home we like just outside of Edmonton, Alberta (200 miles north of Calgary) and are putting the final touches on the sale of our current home and making plans for the move.

 

During that time, I have been working two jobs, my current one and new one.  It appears that a candidate has been found for my current job, so i'm finally free to focus on the new one, and finish the move.

House For Sale In Citadel

My neighbor (the house on the far left side of the picture) is selling her house, as she is downsizing and wants to move to a house closer to where she works.  Great opportunity for one of you folks to move into Citadel ...

Okay, truth be told, i'm just looking for more gamers to move onto the culdesac.  I was complaining yesterday to Timeshadows of The Grand Tapestry that i'm not getting much in the way of gaming these days. 

Maybe some more die-hard gamers on the culdesac would help!

That's my house, the one the far right-hand side of the picture, with the silver car in the driveway.  Cloudy day today, which is fine by me, it's been a sweltering week and i'm glad of the respite.

Happy Canada Day

In Canada, we celebrate the 4th of July three days early.  Happy Canada Day, fellow DnD bloggers!

Where Did The Snow Go?

We had snow on Saturday, May 5.  And now it's gone!  I love Calgary, one of the few places where you can enjoy all four seasons in the course of several days.

Cinco de Mayo

We are celebrating Cinco de Mayo in typical Canadian fashion: shovelling snow. 

A week ago we hit 80 F (26 C), and the kids were outside drawing on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.  Now this. 

More reasons to love Canada ... eh?

With the wife travelling on business, i've been busy juggling work responsibilities and keeping the household running.  It'll be nice to have her back tomorrow, so I can return to my blogging.

Winter Wonderland

We received quite a dump of snow last night, easily six inches or more. A significantly heavier snowfall than back on November 18.

A drive to the grocery store that usually takes 5 minutes took 20. I just finished shovelling for the third time, so I thought I'd take the above photo of the culdesac.
Here's the snow piled up on the handrail of the back deck.

Winter Is On Its Way

This is the view of my culdesac this morning. Its garbage and recycling day today, so all of the bins are on the street.

Fall In Calgary

The last time I did a weather post was June 5, so it's high time for another one. Here's a photo of one of the two trees in my front yard. This is why I love the Fall, all of the golds, reds, oranges and purples as the leaves change color. The snow will be flying soon, so let's enjoy Fall while it lasts.

What We Did On Canada Day

Since I was Mr. Mom this weekend (my spouse is working on contract and has been away for the better part of the week) the kids and I went to Calaway Park for Canada Day.

Calaway Park is an amusement park roughly 10 miles west of Calgary (towards the Rocky Mountains).

Many summers ago, I worked at Calaway Park. One of the best jobs ever. There was a large contingent of 18-25 year olds, and after the park closed at 10 p.m., we were off to some bar, and on more than one occasion I got home just in time to change and race back to work for my 10 a.m. shift.

Ah, to be young and stupid. But I digress.

Calaway Park has grown substantially since I worked there back in 1985 (it now has 35 different rides). Here is a Park map.

My kids' favorite ride is the swings, called the Dream Machine. It was my six-year-old daughter's first time on the swings, and she wanted to keep riding it, but there were too many other rides, so we had to move on.
My ten-year-old daughter loves the roller coaster, but do you think I can get her older brother to ride with her? We'll have to keep working him over!
Here's a photo, from the top of a viewtower at the centre of the Park. This is looking towards the north. We bought season's passes to the Park, and the drive to the Park is only 15 minutes, since we live on the west side of Calgary. We normally get there at 10 am, when the Park opens, and leave at noon, since the Park gets really busy by early afternoon.

I love Summertime!

You'd think that all I do is listen to music, play Dungeons and Dragons and mow the lawn!

Mowing is actually rather therapeutic, as you get outside, do a little bit of exercize and enjoy the sunshine, and there is a sense of accomplishment and pride in a job well done. Plus, it's a perfect time to wax philosophic on some aspect of Dungeons and Dragons. In this case, I was pondering a couple of topics as I mowed, the importance of systems and three-dimensional dungeons.

I'm currently making dinner, but I promise to get to both topics before mid-week.

Now get out there and do some yard-work of your own!

Happy Memorial Day

We in Canada have only one holiday, Remembrance Day (celebrated November 11) to honour those who fell in battle, fighting for Queen and Country. Happy Memorial Day, to those American readers who are celebrating the first of their two "Veteran's Days".

We spent our two-day weekend cleaning house, gardening and attending a dinner party at a neighbour's house at the end of the culdesac.

As you can see, the weather has improved significantly. Much improved, compared to the last time I did a weather post.

Happy Freedom Day.

Freezy Freezy

So much for the snow melting, and spring arriving.

As Pat predicted, more snow arrived, annihilating my enthusiasm and optimism.

Ah, well, tomorrow's another day.

Melty Melty!

It's been a while since my last weather post, so here is what it looks like on the culdesac today.

Still cold outside, but all the snow on the sidewalks has melted, along with most of the ice on the street. The neighbours across the street have their usual lake forming in front of their driveway, but one or two days of above average temperatures should break the ice-dam and allow the water to drain away.

Spring can't be too far away now!

Mid-Winter Blues

The sky is gray, it's cold outside, and the snow is piled high around the driveway. The perfect prescription for the mid-winter blues!

This coming Monday (February 21) is Family Day, a provincial holiday created back in the early 1990's when the-then Premier of Alberta (your U.S. equivalent would be State Governor) discovered his son had been arrested for drug possession, and wanted to do something to encourage closer families.

Prior to that, it was quite a stretch between the holidays of New Year's Day and Good Friday.

Now, if they could just come up with some excuse for a statutory holiday in March...