top5s online

I just finished volunteering for the World Men's Curling Championship , and what a wild ride it was! How did this come about? Last spring I saw the announcement that my hometown was getting the event, and then sure enough, a couple days later I'd agreed to be the Director of Ceremonies! Unlike last time I was a Director for the 2013 Brier, this one involved way more meetings, way more work, and way more stress, but also way more fun! For the six months or so prior to the event, we had monthly meetings with my Director Team that also included Banquets and Patch Game Day. Besides all the Ceremonies (and the dreaded MC scripting) work, I had to sort out and schedule a small crew of 20 volunteers, although in the end it turned out to be a lot more volunteers from all different areas! The big show kicked of with an Opening Ceremonies and Banquet rehearsal, aka chaos. I have to say, I was ready to quit at that point. i even had an offer of a ride to Mexico. But the very next day, I w...

When they announced this year's lineup, I was super disappointed. No big names. No Quebecois band. No one I loved. Heck, very few I even sort of liked! In fact, I almost didn't go. It's such hard work and quite stressful, but one of my music people really wanted us to be there for her, so go I did. And I don't regret it. Because while the music was meh, the people were awesome. I love my tarp family, and cherish the moments I get to spend with them. So much so, that despite the lineup, I'll be there for 2017 too. But here's a Top 3 nonetheless: 1. The Year of the African Bands I always try to see an African Band at the folk fest, but this year was their year and I had all the time for them. Friday's second session with Daby Toure, Black Umfolosi, Joel Fafard and Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar was probably the best jamming session I saw. Joel Fafard, Black Umfolosi, Daby Toure and Samantha Martin et al. I took in Black Umfolosi's concert and it was as jo...

Interstellar Rodeo handily won over the crown of my most favourite music festival. Civilized. Relaxed. It was a fantastic venue for spending time with my favourite music family. Here's my top 3 of 2016: 1. Marty Stuart I knew I'd enjoy him, because my dad used to play his 'Tempted' cassette tape all the time, but I was surprised he was the top highlight of the festival. The music. The showmanship. The voice. The outfits. And he capped it all off by shaking fans hands as he walked off the stage. A set can't get much better than that! 2. The Strumbellas You gotta love singing along, knowing all the words, dancing in your chair. They are a great live band. 3. Kathleen Edwards Since she's technically retired, it's always a privilege to see her in concert. She was high-larious, with her own brand of self deprecating humour, and the songs are as always fantastic. She brought out Luke Doucet to play a few songs with her too. Honourable Mention: Henry Wagons only di...

Recently, I blogged about a knitting book I had taken out of the library that was full of roller derby patterns. It then occurred to me that I've never blogged about roller derby! Which is crazy, because it's been a big part of my life for the past couple years. Why wouldn't I archive my involvement on my blog? Admit it, you're all sick of hearing about curling anyway. Years ago, like years ago - 2008 maybe? - I went to my first roller derby game. I think it was one of my classmate's birthday and a group of us went. I had no idea, no idea how awesome of a sport it was! One game in and I was hooked - derby is the best mix of fast, loud, violence, and girl power. I didn't grow up watching the banked track games of the 70s, but flat track roller derby in Edmonton became a staple in our lives. For a couple years, a rotating group of friends and I would attend local games semi-regularly. We had our favourite teams and our favourite players. They were like rocks star...

There's still one more week of March, but I pretty much quit this challenge right after I started. I barely made it a few days before breaking the March rule: only buy food from locally owned businesses. I don't think this was a waste of my time though, as I did learn a few things. First, I value convenience over all - over price, over time and over location. Second, it's easier to find locally owned restaurants than it is to find locally owned food marts, at least in my neighbourhood. Third, chain grocery stores trump locally owned stores in terms of variety (and in one case, lack of expired chocolate chips!). Fourth, I live in a food desert, and I'm mostly too lazy to go beyond my neighbourhood borders for groceries, though I'll go farther afield for restaurants. Pretty sure I'll keep trying to eat a locally owned restaurants. I feel that's a mostly manageable and sustainable goal. Groceries though, well I'll keep going to my chain supermarket for dair...

Oh wow I suck at this... Groceries On Thursday evening I needed to grab cookies for work on Friday and vegetables for Roller Derby Officials Rules Night BBQ. I was halfway done my shopping when I realized I was at Safeway and wasn't even allowed to be there! Major fail. I totally forgot. Safeway is just so damn convenient! Sure I could've gone to H&W , but then where would I have gotten the cookies? Two stops. Sigh. Oh the guilt. Saturday though I only needed fruit and bread so it was H&W for the win! Restaurants I didn't eat out at all this week. Miscellaneous I bought some vitamins from Optimum Health , which is a local chain of health food shops. And I bought some delicious natural sausages from them too. Random thing to have in a vitamin store! So yes, I failed again. But it did make me realize something: I value convenience over everything else, over time, over location, over money. I've still got two weeks left in this month, and though I'm pretty sur...

Week 2 was somewhat less eventful than week 1 , but annoying nonetheless. Groceries So annoying. For my weekly shop I needed fruits/vegetables, which I happily got from my local green grocer H&W  - they were giving away a 10lb bag of potatoes if you spent $30, but since the deals are so good I never spend more than $10, I didn't have to lug home a bag of potatoes to eat for 2 months. From there I went straight to Elsafadi Market . Last week , I went to Safeway first, felt guilty, then went to Elsafadi and found everything I needed there anyway. This week was the opposite. I only needed beef, almond milk, butter and chocolate chips. That's it. They had butter, but it was kind of smushed. They miraculously had chocolate chips, but they had expired 3 months ago. And they didn't have almond milk. Ok, so I could go back to regular milk, but they didn't have that really either - they only carry 2%, 3% and homogenized. Um. No. Not drinking full fat milk. So I walked out. I...

My first week of buying food from local vendors turned out mostly good, with minimal guilt! Groceries I was near the southside location of Earth's General Store  on my way back from the airport last Monday, so I stopped in to get my weekly groceries. I'm pretty well stocked at home so only needed fruit and a few other ingredients. Earth's General Store is a locally owned organic shop with huge environmental leanings. I've shopped there on occasion for years for various things like my stainless steel Klean Kanteen water bottle, natural and chemical free shampoos and soap and other health supplies, and it's my go to place for bulk soaps etc to fill empty containers. But I don't usually shop there for food, mostly because the southside location is not convenient, and while the downtown store is closer, I'd have to really plan a trip on my bike properly to haul stuff home. Their fruit was more expensive than my local H&W produce market , but it was good qual...

I spend about two weeks a year working curling events around small city western Canada. While I'm there, I always try to visit local restaurants - I'd much rather give my money to a local, small business than a mediocre big box chain restaurant. Some of my favourite curling vacation eateries include Eats Amore food truck in Kamloops, the Gallery Cafe in Moose Jaw, and most recently El Norteno for tacos and Grande Prairie Coffee Company for sweet treats while in Grande Prairie last week. In Edmonton, of course my regular favourite place for lunch around campus is Filistix  - I make a weekly pilgrammage out to building nine for their solid coleslaw and tasty entrees. The guys have been really good to us over the years, and part of the reason I love going there for lunch is because they remember our names and treat us like friends instead of customers. But that's it. While I often profess my hatred for chain food, I don't make that much of an effort to eat out at more ...

I came across a tweet asking for volunteers for Tour of Alberta 2015. I'm an avid cyclist, but will admit I know little about bike racing. I did watch Tour of Alberta 2013 downtown when it was in Edmonton, and I intended to watch this year. But I'm perpetually drawn to volunteering, and am glad I clicked submit on that volunteering application because it was awesome. I had to attend a short orientation held at City Hall the week before. I signed in, got a spot, and learned a bit about the tour. I would've like to learn more about my volunteer job, but received a handbook via email right before the event that helped. I was still a bit unsure about the whole day but I'll do anything for a (florescent high-vis yellow) free t-shirt. (Also a free sandwich and snack which was a nice touch.) The most unclear part was the timing. I was given a time to sign in, but really, it was 2 full hours before the start so I just stood around for 2 hours. I get that you want all volunteer...

There are few volunteer gigs I like better than selling 50/50s in our big arena. Last year, I signed up to be a volunteer for the Northlands crew so I could sell 50/50s for the Canadian Finals Rodeo each November. As part of the crew, I get notices for volunteer opportunities throughout the year, which unfortunately due to timing and other commitments I could never participate in. But, I figured I ought to make a special effort for K-Days  in July - Edmonton's annual fair and exhibition, and Northlands biggest event. There were a number of opportunities to choose from, but I chose 3 shifts of Gate Welcome Ambassador, one at each of the 3 gates, although on one of my shifts either I got confused or the person who sent me out got confused and I ended up at the wrong gate but oh well, no harm no foul. As for all big events, I had to attend an orientation night. I got my updated volunteer ID, and a free bus ticket in case I couldn't ride my bike. It was very nice of them to offer f...

Oh Interstellar. What a pleasant venue. What a lovely festival. It was another great weekend of music at the year's Interstellar Rodeo ! It's so easy to attend this festival. The line up is low stress. There's chairs and shade/rain cover. The food is fantastic and the lines aren't very long. And even though the bathrooms could get messy at times, there were indoor bathrooms with plumbing! It's hard to not want to go to this festival, and that's not even considering the music! Of course the best part was hanging out with my music people. It really was a lovely 3 days of chatting in the line up, in the stands, over a meal, and on breaks as we walked around the lake at Hawrelak Park. My people are awesome - they shared their food, cleaned gum off my bum after I sat on some and didn't even laugh when I dropped my knitting and it rolled down the aisle! Spotted this little dude on a walk around the lake. Isn't he cute! But the music! The lineup was good this y...

Oh Edmonton Folk Music Festival . Where the side stage music is epic and the main stage is crap. But the view. Always love the view. Seriously. Apparently they're trying to appeal to "a younger demographic" and I noticed it more than ever this year. The main stage act were all women who sounded the same, and showy hipster bands. Where is the folk? Where were the men? Where were the actual generation transcending big names?And why do they bring fantastic world bands from half way across the world to throw them on a side stage or plug them in during lunch when no one is listening? I swear I'm losing patience with this festival. Yeah, I know they're not trying to appeal to me. And I know they don't care about my opinion/money because they'll sell out anyways. And yeah I know I'll keep going as long as I get tickets because there's those 3 bands out of 80 that I must see. Dammit. But the view... But it was worth it to see the few bands I love and to sp...

The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup has come and gone. Just like last year's FIFA U20 Women's World Cup, I volunteered as a guest services team leader . This experience is right up there with the 2013 Brier , the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championship , and the 2011 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship as the best sporting event volunteer experience ever! Since I had volunteered last year, the sign up process was super easy. Basically, I just said yes I'd like to come back and that was that. I was notified of a volunteer orientation evening, which was less than exciting but I did get to meet with our supervisors and got briefed on being a team leader. I also attended the accreditation/uniform pick up night. Weird, so last year my uniform was too big so I went down a size on my volunteer profile account. Turns out last year everything was unisex, but this year it was all mens/womens, which meant going down a size screwed me. I was super anxious everything was going to be...

Delhi 2 Dublin . Never heard of them? Think Bhangra meets Celtic Techno Dance party. I love this band. I've seen them half a dozen times at least. They bring out my best dancing fool self. Their concerts make me happy. Listening to their music makes me happy. They rock. Take a listen . The first time I saw them was at Kaleido Festival in 2010 . It was an epic good time. Then, surprisingly, they came back to the Kaleido Festival just a year later in 2011 ! And imagine how happy I was to find out they were playing the Kaleido Festival in 2014! I've seen them a couple times at the Starlight Room here in Edmonton, and they were at Folk Fest in 2011 and 2013. Plus they're coming back to play The Arden next spring! I never ever use the video function on my iPhone. I never take concert video. Except I apparently started a tradition in 2010 and have since take 3 Delhi 2 Dublin concert videos of each time they've come to the Kaleido Festival. Did you miss their latest outing in ...