Aaaand I’m back. Calgary feels lonely and dreary and my apartment seems wee compared to the big pink house at Kingsview Pointe. But I made the most of my couple of days in Edmonton, I reckon. One day was spent browsing Whyte Ave in the company of a gentleman of whom I’d had a much higher opinion prior to this:

Cretinous little asstard beat me at thirteen consecutive games of pool (I think – by the end I was too mad to keep count) and the last three he was playing with one hand to ‘give me a chance.’ Next time I see him I’m gonna kneecap him with a pool cue. And that’s the last time that I assume that someone who likes karate, curling, and fishing doesn’t like city-boy pursuits. It turns out small-town boys play a lot of pool.

The next day was my mom’s birthday dinner at Tropika, where I consumed everything within a ten-metre radius and questioned my mother incessantly about whether I was in the will or not, since she’d had surgery on Monday and, well, I thought her health could go at any minute. Girl’s gotta plan for her future, you know. Then after that I went to my pal Blonde’s house for dinner and cheesecake, followed by ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ (not my usual type of movie, and as predicted I didn’t like it, but she’d read the book and was so excited to see it that I couldn’t ask to see something else).

Then on Saturday there was the Welcome-Back Debacle at Casa Gordon/LeBlanc, which included (as promised) a glass of Goldschlager to celebrate a friend of mine publishing his second book:

So much beard! I’m surprised their cheeks didn’t start a fire.

And so much grope! I’m surprised… actually, I’m not surprised. (PS. I didn’t notice till now that Dave came back with that dark of a tan. You know, New Zealand doesn’t have such an awesome ozone layer. You’ve probably got ten kinds of skin cancer… get a volunteer to check you for unusual moles right away!)

And finally, a picture of ladies. Goddammit, why do these glasses give me such a case of crazy-eye?

Followed by brunch at the St. Albert Inn the morning after. I gotta say, they had some fiiine eats at the breakfast buffet – it can be hard to keep bacon really crunchy in those domed chafing dishes, but they found a way. All in all, a good trip with minimal parental craziness; and Solange, I promise I won’t call you Big Spoon any more. ;-)