Parish vs. County

Last night we watched "Runaway Jury" it's an older movie, (maybe 2003?) starring John Cusack, one of our fave actors. And although I have seen this movie before I never noticed that it was filmed in New Orleans! So as John was running down the streets we noticed places that we had been. Very cool! We also heard a term that bugged us for years not quite understanding what it meant. Whenever they talk about areas in New Orleans, they are always called parishes and not counties like seemingly everywhere else.

What the heck does that mean? We have the answer to that question, and you don't even have to do a poll! New Orleans is a very religious place, not just any religion, but Roman Catholicism. Hence, no cemetery tour on Good Friday when we visited :-(

The catholic relegion permeates New Orleans, yes, right down to how they name their geographical areas. Instead of calling it "Orleans County" they call it "Orleans Parish" referring to a county like a church. Churches are also known as parishes. When the seperation of church and state is a very important distinction everywhere today, it is quite amazing that to see this such a display of a church in state domain. But that's New Orleans - a very cool place - every single parish.

The answer to .... how many people sent pics

Of course! The answer is ALWAYS not enough! Thanx again to those who have, here are 2 more pics, 1 from Katieface, and 1 from Marni. :-)

"I don't want to be late for church"

From the Lost Blog files - another taxi theme, this time from New Orleans - our taxi ride to the airport leaving for Washington, DC -

Selena writes from her old school real paper journal in an entry titled Sunday, March 23, Happy Easter:

"We called for a taxi and were picked up - the perfect send off from New Orleans, a veteran Creole, wearing slippers + combing her hair. We were entertained by her stories while she ate bacon crisps + searched her purse for her medication. You see, she'd left in a hurray because she needed to get us to the airport + get herself back in time for church. In between stories, she'd mumble the time + count backwards making sure she had time to change + get to church. We talked food, flood, police all the while going a steady pace toward the airport (she doesn't speed). She was a sweet lady when she pulled away from the airport she honked + waved. Perfect send off."

I am glad Selena wrote that entry down - that was quite a taxi ride. It was the most emotional roller coaster ride I have ever taken in a taxi. The ride went from funny: She wore pink slippers and then said if I had known us folks were comin', she would have brought some crawfish. Then to kind of scary: She told us of how she'd been robbed and that's why she carries a gun in the cab. We never saw the gun but I totally believe that it was there. To sad: We passed a cemetary where she said her 16 year old son was there, he had been shot in a case of mistaken identity. Back to strange: She showed us a tape recorder she uses to record some of her rides to guard against unruly passengers that complain to the cab company about her. Back to funny: The multi-tasking was hilarious, eating pork rinds while digging in her purse to find her meds, while combing her hair, while making perfectly sure we not going a mile over the speed limit. It was a truly great send off from New Orleans and a total fluke that we met her as she doesn't usually doesn't take airport rides on Sundays as she doesn't want to miss church.

So, thanks sweet cab driver lady, we will never forget that ride!

Air Garden

Ok this is one of the coolest indoor gardens I have ever seen!! It was a wedding gift from my wonderful husband! Aww :-) and it is so neat, I thought I'd drag you all thru' the progress with us! The way it works is, you take a seed pod, place it in a water bed, which is auto watered and auto day light-ed and voila my herbal garden is grown! This is after 3 days and we can see sprouts already...

Taxi Killer!

Well, it is a good thing we didn't see this episode of CSI: NY before we visited the city!

This scene is actually pretty cool because it looks like an actual NYC Taxi cab. The "Passenger Bill of Rights" is the real thing as we have got a partial picture of it here to the extreme left:


I can maybe see this scenario playing out at night on a side street somewhere but NYC is truly one of the safest cities in the world and this taxi killer would have been arrested in a New York Minute because there are cops everywhere in NYC - take a look:

The above pic is right smack in the middle of Times Square showing you that New York's finest are on the job 24 hours a day.

(0ver to Selena)

True the cops are everywhere... but... there are so many cabs and people hustling about that I think this scenaio could get lost in the bustle. It's kinda hard to see into some of the taxi's and depending on how fast carbon monoxide works you wouldn't be thrashing that long! Anyway, i'm glad we are home safe and sound now, and even though we met alot of Taxi drivers that didn't speak english... nobody tried to kill us!

(over to Dean)
True - no cab driver did try to kill us. But even if he tried we wouldn't have understood what he was trying to do. Our tour guide was right when he said, "Cab drivers speak over 60 languages here. None of them english". I had a lot of trouble understanding them if they asked a question - Selena was somehow able to translate though...hahaha.

And from the clip Det. Flack uses the correct figure of 11,000 cabs in NYC. We even cited that figure in the post titled "New York Factoids for the Day". It is really nice to know that CSI:NY is using authentic New York cabs, locations and facts in their shows. We like the show even more now!

"No Internet!"

The title of this post are the two scariest words that people hear these days. As an IT guy, it probably ranks up there with the gravest of news I have to give to a client. It drives people crazy to be disconnected. Even in the house here, sometimes the wireless router will go down and it will cause a mini-panic and because I hold the title of House Network Administrator, the panic reports hit my desk first! One time, SOMEONE even let out a blood curdling scream when she was knocked off-line. Haha. Leave it to the brillance of Matt Stone and Trey Parker to perfectly capture what happens when people go off-line these days.

this just in....

another person off my list! Hahahaha Kathy just brought me
her camera to download! bada ba ba ba I'm lovin' it......

thankyou.....

Ok, well, this is working!! People are starting to send in photos!!!
Here is little tribute to some of those photos!! Thankyou so much everyone
who took pix, and special thanx to these 11 people ( so far ) :-)



From Nichole: Nichole took 215 pictures, I have every one of them.
What is special about these, Nichole took these on MY camera so I
didn't even have to chase her!! Lol. but how awesome for her to
capture the day for us!

From Kim Furgason: My view down the stairs

From Mark Cantafio: My neice Isabella, in her beautiful dress!

From Papa John: The hug that made Nana Florence cry

From Uncle Ray: Haha our photograpgher on the
other side of the lens!!

Dean Weinkauf: As far as I know, nobody else took this
priceless pic?After all the cameras were safely tucked away
Dean was still clicking!

From Vicki: me and my bud :-)

From Annebelle: slightly diff view from Vicki's pic, here I can see
Papa John's laugh!

From Brandy: Emma playing shy

From Claudia: Haha, I've known Claudia since grade 8!

From Dale: Aw me and my awesome Maid of honor!

Also, Thankyou AGAIN, Miffy and Todd for taking video for us!!

Well, then... all I have to say is.... :-) keep them coming!

and the winner is...

Well, the pictures are starting to come in, YAY! So far my Uncle Ray wins for sending the missing pictures and making me cry!! Because Dean and I were in 1000 pictures the night of he wedding we didn't realize until after, that we didn't get a picture with.... whoever ( fill in the blank) one of the very important pictures missing was... a picture of me with Dean's parents!? And pictures of us with any relatives. And then I open an email and there we are, !! I was so happy! The other one was of Maddie ( I am seriously in a shortage of Maddie pictures :-( and then my Uncle has a pic of Maddie and my Aunt and Uncle!! The picture of me on the stairs is just a really cool angle, because all the others are close up, this one shows my whole walk! Anyway... to make a long story short, these pictures are priceless to me, so please ( sick of me yet ) send all your photos in. Love to all § and D

what's important to us?

This little number was sent in by Vicki, now, at first glance this may have been a photo
that would get passed up in being sent to me, my back is turned, Dean is hard to see,
but let me list why this is one of my fave's....
1. It shows Annebelle getting right in there, making sure she gets her photo
2. It shows the smirk on Russ's face
3. It shows the deep down, from your gut laugh from Brenwyn ( the officiant )
4. It shows the deep down. from your gut laugh from Nana Florence

Why is this a favorite? Because it was the moment my dad said " She's all yours" and that moment was priceless!!! Thankyou Vicki and also Annebelle for sending this in!!

You just never know what will be important to us, or make us smile.... so send THEM ALL :-)

Lost Blog 2

Sheesh, I musta been asleep when all these blogs escaped my mind!! Here is a great pic I forgot all about!!

Guilty!!

Ok you! I have proof that you are with holding evidence. In this case photos of our wedding! I would like all the guilty parties to step forward... and forward me the pictures!! ( please and thankyou )

Umb-er-ellas

Another lost blog, if you remember us saying the security to get into the base of the Statue of Liberty was very intense, here's what happened.....

First just like the airport, everything goes through an x-ray machine, then you have to go through the blast booth. Air puffs your clothes and hair to check for explosives. So of coarse up to here we were fine, then my purse was taken off the line and scanned again... and again and a third time?? One of the security guards said to the scanner person " what does it look like?" the scanner person says " it doesn't look good!" what the heck was in my purse??? We had already had hidden scissors found in our computer back pack, then our jump drive looked like a pocket knife? so now what.... they opened my purse and found....
2 umbrellas!! I guess with the tube shape and all the crisscrossed wires it looked menacing?? lol oh well, they let us pass through after their thorough investigation.

Lost Blog

You'll have to bear with us as we will be posting a few "Lost Blogs" in the next little while. These are stories that were funny or interesting at the time, but were forgotten ( temporarily ) or half written at the time of the event. So here is just one little one.

Last night we went out for supper and were riddled with questions about our trip. This was an awesome way for us to remember, because there was so much we did, being asked specifics was great!! One of the questions was, "what was the wierdest food we ate", and last night I forgot that it was .... Deep Fried Pickles! We had this little tastey morsel in New Orleans. Niether one of us was sure what to expect, but we were both intrigued. So we ordered.... bit... and both smiled! They WERE great! A nice little surprse from N'awlins.

Kipper...

..is a flat-out Golden God. The Flames should be down 8-0 right now.

Ok Al, forget I said anything!

You may now sit in the dark and enjoy your day end brandy, Mr. Gore. Calgary is back on the Global Warming trail again. Snow gone - all is well in your world again:

That's not snow, Al. It's just white water.

The sun dawns again. Maybe it will cook the steaks!

Alright then - this joke has successfully been beaten to death - my work is done! Time to go enjoy some steaks and watch the some Stanley Cup hockey...

Uh, Sorry Al: Calgary, Another Ten Minutes Later.

Sorry to disturb you again, Mr. Gore, but I think you had better go ahead and call your office. I know you are currently preparing your organically grown dinner over a fire - trying to be carbon neutral for the day but.... another ten minutes have passed and Calgary, based in the carbon emissions capital of the world, is again experiencing the impossible. Snow. More like a blizzard. Selena says it looks like we are in one of those snow globes - the flakes are that big:

Steak is still in. We can't let a little snow get in

the way of that, can we?

The Kia is disappearing again...

Talk to you in 10 minutes!

Calgary...10 Minutes Later....

Cancel that - Al Gore...No need to call your office.


Go back to jetsetting all over the world creating a massive carbon footprint while telling others to decrease theirs by going back to riding horses and eschewing modern luxuries such as cars and electricity. The snow is melting in Calgary and we are back on the road to a 61C Christmas Day.

It is ten minutes later in Calgary and we are back on the path to Global Warming. Phew. That was close!



Selena's Kia: FOUND!

Egg Nog out. Steaks back in!

Steam rises off Evanston View as we return
to our regularly scheduled Global Warming
programming...

An Inconvenient Snow.

As the man always says - Al Gore - call your office.

Actually, quit polishing your Nobel Peace Prize and

call anyone in Calgary today as we woke up to this:

I was thinking of doing some steaks for the

hockey game. Maybe I will make some

Egg Nog now...hmmm.

That's Selena's Kia in the background - not a big

red snowman!

15-20 centimetres fell in a surprise snow

storm. Mr Gore, where is global warming

when you need it??

The Deerfoot can be treacherous when it's

dry. It is unbelievable when 125,000 cars

try to traverse it in weather like this.

Apparently, there is a truck stuck around

Peigan as they decided today would be a great

day to move a house on the Deerfoot. Nothing,

not even 20cm of snow, can stop someone in

Calgary from doing their job! Haha.

There is a saying here in Calgary. It's been around for years.

You don't like the weather in Calgary? Wait 10 minutes.

Here is the forecast for the weekend:

Click to enlarge.

Yes, that says 19C on Saturday and 20C on Sunday. So,

Global Warming is back for the weekend...

...until the next snow storm!

my right arm...

Oh my Gosh!!! I haven't had a computer for about 5 days... felt like 100! lol I guess it felt like my right arm was missing... can you say addicted?? Anyway to make a long story short ( too late ) I am now downloading video from the wedding... so I get to see how it all went down.. It was so fast the day of the wedding, I'm glad Miffy and Todd captured it for us!! So if any one out there is waiting for the video preview it's coming, I am no longer "dark". Also thanx anyone who sent in pictures, I'm putting them to good use! Ok, enough blabbing I have to get back to work, I'm behind...

p.s it's almost our "month-a-verasary" lol I'm such a geek!!

Live From near The Calgary Tower.

The difference navigating through Calgary is the lack of congestion. I was standing on a corner "alone" with 5 other people waiting to cross. I do not remember anytime 11 am or 11pm crossing a street in downtown NYC with less than 50 people. And I was witness here in Calgary to a horn honking incident to which EVERYONE turned their head. It is nearly "silent" here in Calgary as there is no horn honking. In Manhattan, it is so constant, by the end of the trip I didn't even hear it anymore.....
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

(Somewhat) Free Parking!

Like Christmas, sweet discounted premium parking comes at a Shakespearean pound of flesh price here in the Stampede City. So when one gets a deal on parking, it feels like Christmas so I am sharing it with all of you. Impark charges ridiculous rates for parking but all the city meters are full and my clients don't like it when I drive around downtown for an hour trying to find reasonably priced parking. I think Impark is a victim of the Daylight savings time change because their clocks are an hour behind or ahead. Anyway, I punched in that I wanted 1 hour of parking, called my banker got the mortage approved, and poof to my surprise, my parking expires in TWO hours rather than one. Half price! A serious gift! Merry Parking Christmas everyone!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

the pictures are in...

... but you have to wait!! hehe,
also, I need YOUR pictures to complete my set :-)
so email til MY hearts content!
here is ONE sneak peak....

My Favourite Border Clip.

Our many trips to the airport and through border crossings reminded me of a favourite clip of That 70s Show. The show takes us back to a time when crossing the border was funny rather than the less than pleasant experience it can be now. Though, we did have a very pleasant experience during our both our crossings in Vancouver and Toronto. But, if this were a different time and I was a million times braver, I would like to think I could be this funny while crossing the Canadian border...
That 70s show Canadian Road Trip

The difference between girls and boys

Beer and Champagne, sausages and Fruit plates

The Answer to: "Why is New York called The Big Apple"

According to a credible source on the web, http://www.barrypopik.com/ , the term comes from a newspaper column in the 20s. Here is an actual pic of the column courtesy barrypopik.com:

So, the answer is "Named for a newspaper column in the 1920s." All we know is, we love NY! (And have about 6 shirts and two pairs of socks to prove it.)