Christmas pictures

Here are some Christmas pictures. I will start with some from before Christmas. As many of you know, Zenon has started a tradition of growing a Christmas beard every year. He shaves for the last time on Remembrance Day and then not again until Christmas. This was my first time seeing it in person. This year, sadly (and that was sarcasm), Zenon had to shave his beard off early as they were using some sort of breathing equipment at work and he couldn't have any facial hair.

Here is Zenon just before the shave:


Now for some truly Christmas-y pictures. You will see how much better Zenon looks sans facial hair. This is our tree surrounded by presents in the living room:


Zenon and the presents:


And, finally, me and the presents:


These also show you a bit of our living room.

That is all I have to say for now. Z and I don't have any big plans for New Year's, as our friends here are all either working or in Newfoundland. We will still have a good time, though, I'm sure. We are thinking about going out for dinner and then watching movies all night. We have come up with worse plans in the past, none of which I will detail here. Happy New Year's, all!

Obligatory Christmas post

Christmas went well here. I had 4 days off of work (well, actually about 4 1/2 since I got off at 10am on the 23rd) and Zenon is off until the New Year. We still don't know a lot of people here, so it was a quiet Christmas. Our housemate Kyle went home to Saskatchewan, so Zen and I had the place to ourselves, which was nice. Z and I bought our groceries for the holidays on the 23rd since I was home early, and then vowed not to do any shopping on the 24th because the grocery store was a madhouse.

On Christmas Eve we tried to see a matinee at the cinema, since I owed Zenon a movie, but both cinemas in town were closed that day. We came home after our fruitless movie search, and low and behold, Zenon cracks and lets me open one present of his choosing. It was the animated Grinch movie, which I had been missing. This is the one movie that gets me into the Christmas spirit above all others, and we didn't have a copy of it. So, we watched it in front of the fire, both of us dozing off before the end. Luckily, I've seen it before. Then, while we were on a Grinch roll, we watched the Jim Carrey version of the Grinch, which I had never seen and thought that I would hate. It came as a great surprise to me that this movie not only didn't suck, but I can see myself watching it again sometime.

Christmas Eve is when my family back home traditionally opens all the presents. My Mom called that night to ask me if I had opened the ones that they'd sent out earlier. I hadn't, so I did while I was on the phone with her. I got a very very nice and very high-tech new winter coat from my parents. Zenon says that I look very good in it, and I have decided to believe him. I also got a major burst of homesickness from their present. Until that night, I hadn't felt too bad about not going home for Christmas. I think that it's because being here is just so foreign and I've never spent Christmas here before, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything. Does that make sense? I just mean that I have nothing here to remind me of home in that way. If I were in Ontario, living in Waterloo, it would kill me not to spend Christmas with my family, but being here has no connection to either Christmas or my family, and is still so unfamiliar, that I was doing OK. I was, anyway, until I opened my present from my Mom. She made me a scrapbook called "A Book of Recipes and Memories" filled with the family recipes that I've been missing and with just about every family photo there is of me, and various other family photos. It is so gorgeous. It almost made me cry.

I had to pull myself together for church, though, as I decided to accompany Zenon to Christmas Mass that evening. I wanted to go to Midnight Mass, but Zenon objected because the service would be in French. I told him that he knew what they'd be saying anyway, and that I would translate for him, but he wasn't having it. So, we went to the evening mass at 8:30pm, which is not nearly as exciting to report. 8:30 Mass just doesn't have the same ring as Midnight Mass. Anyway, we went. It was good. It was made both better and worse by the presence of a number of children in the congregation. Kids are funny. This conversation happened right behind me:

Priest (in pulpit): And the joy of the Lord will be in your hearts tonight.
Child: Why?
Mother: Shhhhhhh!
Child: (whispering) Why?

I almost lost it here, but hid my tides of laughter in an attitude of solemn prayer. After church, Z and I watched The Polar Express, which we had rented earlier. It was quite good, though I didn't like how the children seemed to keep getting rewarded for disobedience. I am just an old fuddy-duddy, though.

Christmas morning involved lots of present opening, of course, since we each had lots of presents. Zen went overboard with me. What's wrong with this guy - does he think he's made of money? Highlights include a necklace with a lovely pendant, a gift cerfiticate for the spa, pajamas, Corner Gas seasons 1 and 2, March of the Penguins, and a mystery novel from the "Home Repair is Homicide" series, which includes "Home Repair is Homicide" home repair tips scattered throughout the story. I started reading it last night, and although I'm only on page 40, I have already learned what tools are essential for even the most basic toolbox. At this rate, I'll be joining Zenon on the jobsite before long.

On Christmas afternoon Zen and I went for a walk to return our movie, and when we got back Brad was here for a visit, so I started dinner. We had a lovely, though low key, Christmas dinner of lemon roasted chicken, mashed potatoes à la Zenon, and vegetables, with Mom's truffles from home for dessert. After dinner we cracked open another present from Zenon to me - the board game Hoopla. This is the funnest game that I have played in a long time. It is like Pictionary Plus. It is from the Cranium family of games. When we tired of the game, we put in some Corner Gas season 1 until Brad needed to leave and Zenon and I got sleepy (which happens a lot faster in front of a roaring (albeit fake) fire).

On Boxing Day we once again tried the cinema, this time with better results. I have fulfilled my part of the bargain and have seen King Kong with Zenon. He now owes me one new penguin movie that is coming out in the fall. KK wasn't too bad, actually. It was a lot better than I was expecting - entertaining and all that. Yesterday we braved the crowds and did some shopping and errands. Zenon had to exchange the hammer I got him for Christmas, and he didn't get a wrestling movie that he was really hoping for, so all of that needed to be rectified. I, on the other hand, knew that Bluenotes was having a huge Boxing Week sale, so I took the opportunity to buy myself some more comfy clothes for home and work. Interestingly, the book store is on the way to Bluenotes. They were also having a huge Boxing Week sale, so I picked myself up a few things. I love books.

Today it was back to work, but I got off at noon, so that's not too bad. I wore one of my new comfy outfits. I looked sleek and mysterious in a black fuzzy jogging suit.

And now you're up to date at Chronicles of Acadia.

I enjoy a good bit of postmodern irony

I'm The Internet-Addict Test!

I love in-jokes, especially if they help highlight the marvellously geeky cultural differences between my internet clique and the rest of the world.

Click here to find out which test you are!

Test-stravaganza

i am open-minded!




How indie are you? test by ridethefader

You're pretty knowledgeable about music in general. You like indie music, sure, but that's only part of it.
You'll listen to any old shit as long as it sounds good to you. You're not snobby about music at all, you
just like what you like. How boring. Curiously, this makes you popular with the opposite sex.

Kiss me I'm rabid

Which Horrible Affliction are you?
A Rum and Monkey disease.

Decomposing composers

If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Considered the leader of the 19th Century Composer group "The Mighty Handful," I am indeed the teacher among them. My orchestration skills are superbly colorful, and are explained in my book on the topic, but works like "Scheherezade" explain my mastery better. Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test

Love and hate

Why I love Fort McMurray:
1. My first temp job involved me getting paid $13/hr for reading my book for 3 days.
2. My current job just paid me $18/hr this afternoon to sit in a boardrooom eating pizza and watching TV.
3. It doesn't snow very much and there are on average only 2 days/year with whiteout conditions.
4. Laid back employers.
5. Lots of Newfies.
6. Everyone gets a ride to work.

Why I hate Fort McMurray:
1. Christmas is coming and I'm very far away from my family.
2. Rent is higher than in Toronto.
3. Vacancy rates are zero.
4. The sun rises at 8:30am and sets at 4pm. Most days I don't get to see it.
5. No salt trucks.
6. The bed gets really cold at night.
7. Black ice and lots of it.

I guess everything balances out in the end. I can't wait for summer and the midnight sun and for how beautiful the middle of nowhere will be then.

List of random things

1. How I feel about my new job: Good. I like it.
2. Startling realization I had the other day: I am happy here. I love living with Zenon, and only wish that we had more time together, and my new job is quite enjoyable.
3. Preferred taco seasoning: Old El Paso. I tried mixing the PC brand of taco seasoning with sour cream last night, and it just wasn't as good.
4. Plans for the weekend: A trip to Edmonton and the West Edmonton Mall.
5. Happy thing that happened today: I got paid!!!!
6. Most startling recent change in perception: -11 is now "warm".
7. Number of plants I own: 4
8. Days until we have TV again: 1
9. Time I get off work tomorrow: 2pm
10. Other startling realization I had recently: It no longer feels exotic to be in Alberta. I'm starting to feel at home here.
11. Not-so-secret desire: To have our own place. Zen and I want to get an apartment. Sharing the house is a little stressful.
12. Secret confession: I'm running out of things to put on this list.
13. Favour I'd like you to do for me: If you see Billy Peddle, tell him I want tea!

Tease

I also meant to say that I installed Civ IV onto the computer last night, but I don't think that our video card will support it. What a frustrating tease. The game, or what I can see of it, anyway, looks like it will be great.

What I learned today

So, what I learned today is that while I always thought that I'd seen the entire series finale for Degrassi High, I had in fact only seen the first half. It is possible that I was young enough when it first aired to have a bedtime, and thus missed the final exciting moments of the series. Rest assured, dear readers, that this oversight has now been corrected. Not only that, but I have spent the last two days catching up on Degrassi: The Next Generation episodes that I missed while in Nova Scotia and here (since the satellite for the TV here still isn't hooked up). While an entire weekend spent in pajamas may seem like a lazy one, or one with a lot of wasted time, it felt damn good to do it.

In other news, the new job is going OK. I think that I'll like it enough once I'm fully trained. There's no part of it that seems terribly horrible, although carrying the after hours cell phone all the time is annoying. For those of you who are wondering, I am working as the Shell Administrator for a fuel distribution company.

What else can I tell you? I was infected with my first bit of Christmas spirit this morning. I was laying in bed eating clementines and chocolate while watching Degrassi episodes, and it suddenly felt like Christmas time to me. It made me realize how much I am still a university student at heart, as it was the idleness of just being able to watch TV like that without thinking of other things that I should be doing instead that really made it feel like Christmas. For the first time since I got here, I regretted not continuing with school. On the other hand, I get my first paycheque in over a month and a half on Thursday of this week. I have been counting down the days. Being able to actually afford things is a treat that I'm really looking forward to.

Not much else to say right now. I feel like I should have a lot more to tell you, but I have been feeling un-wordy lately. Perhaps it is the atmosphere up here.