Back from the Homeland

I went to Saskatoon last week, for a quick trip to visit family and friends. I was able to fly through Calgary with layovers that let me visit with the Rhondas Tuesday night for supper (can't believe I forgot to take a picture!), and Emi and Erin were very brave to get up for an early breakfast Saturday morning.
I was a little nervous about the flight when I looked out the airport window and saw this pilot waving to the ground crew (if you look, you can see his arm on the side of the plane). I didn't know those little windows were supposed to open!
While is Saskatoon, I visited my Grandma Nora each day,

went to a birthday party at Tim and Jana's new house in Warman,
and visited with Ryan and Lorna Epp, and their new daughter!
Mom and I also shopped a lot, looking for a dress for her to wear to a wedding, and me just looking (I bought a lot of stuff for someone just looking!). Dad was able to enjoy the golf course every day, as it rained only twice, and even then it was early in the morning or late at night. He needs the time on the course, as he is working on killer tan-socks.

I had a wonderful, although short, visit, and am already looking forward to the next one!

A bit of Springfield in LA

kwik-e-mart-la.jpg
Originally uploaded by craftiness

It's silly when you hear about it on the news, but when you actually drive by a kwik-e-mart it suddenly becomes really cool! HaHa! LA is such a great place to get into pop culture.

A little nicer than Hull Estates

Darren and I went to see our first condos this weekend, a little place in the marina known as Azzurra.

According to one of the press releases, Azzura has "luxury residences in an art gallery styled building that introduced the first-ever permanent residential collection of paintings, photography and sculptures from the "LA Art Scene" of the 1960s and early 1970s." The top floor was designed by Andy Warhol, and features a number of his original works. Each of the 15 living floors is dedicated to a different artist, and there is art throughout the lobby and amenities rooms.

One of the things we were worried about most was noise, and there is some in the building, which is not surprising since it has floor to ceiling windows, but it is fairly minimal. Views on the Marina side are spectacular, on the city side not as much. Although we were told that you can see mountains, we went on a very overcast day, and saw nothing. Definitely a place for high rollers (yes Chris, it was very "fancy"), as all guests have their cars valet parked, there is a drive up drycleaner in the parking lot, and 24 hour car detailing, so you can drop your keys at the front desk at night and get in a clean car in the morning (please stop drooling Jamie). We looked at units ranging from 1450 sq ft to 2099 sq ft, and found a nice one with a floor plan that includes a wrap around balcony. There are only 2 units left with this plan, on the 17th and 18th floor. As soon as Darren sells a kidney we'll be able to afford the monthly condo fees. I think for now we will keep looking.

Watching volleyball is easier than playing

the energetic in action.
Originally uploaded by darrenboyd

Everything is easy on the beach, especially when you get to watch other people do the hard part. There are a few more pictures of us hanging out on the beach.

New Hobby, New Toys

Leaving Calgary meant leaving a very well outfitted woodworking shop. More accurately, it meant selling it. Woodworking was meant to be a hobby to get me away from my computer, which I spend far too much time working at to also spend far too much time playing at. Well, without woodworking, what will be the next hobby?

Rayla has been a photographer for a long time (many years B.D., or Before Darren). Since I've always enjoyed using the good camera that she has, I decided to pursue photography as a hobby. It will get me outside, and away from my computer, which is important. It lends itself well to a 'leisure' activity while still providing some mental stimulation which should keep me engaged. Since Rayla is involved, any hardware we buy will be used by her, just in case I don't find myself all that taken with the activity.

So, Saturday was camera shopping day. We found a very well stocked local shop that had the cameras we wanted to compare. Inside, we found an interesting salesman who, besides looking oddly like Crispin Glover in Back To The Future, was also willing to help us. By the time we left, we found ourselves with a slightly lighter wallet and a couple of bags of new toys.

This afternoon we had our first trip out to take some shots. The convenience of digital photography cannot be overstated. It's great to be able to play with different settings and see how it turns out instantly. Here's a couple of shots of the local neighborhood.


This is the street we live on. It's more of a lane, actually. The amount of traffic you see from here is quite usual. Not to far behind me the street dead-ends, so there isn't really any place to go on here, unless you are going home. The shot does give a good sense of the trees and bamboo that are growing around our apartment complex.


There is a crow's nest in the apartment complex that towers over above everything around us (you can see it on the main page of the apartment's website). This is a good shot to the West looking out over the houses along the beach to the typical late day marine haze over the ocean.