Thank God for Weekends!!!!

OMG, I seriously don't have another day left in me this week.  I have worked 5 twelve hour days just to try and get caught up....didn't happen.  I have well over 100 emails to welcome me back Monday morning!  UNLESS I win a healthy portion of the Lotto Max 48 Million tonight!  Imagine the freedom!  IF there is any "windfall" coming my way this evening, you can bet that tomorrow I will be in warmer climates!  Like this!

Welcome Home!

Welcome to Daytona Beach

Daytona Speedway Victory Lane

My "hubby" is home tonight....now we get to have a decent conversation, face to face and not long distance.  Sure to miss him when he's gone....feel so alone in the world, especially here.  (Everyone knows how I feel about the HERE thingy)....LOL

Nasa Kennedy Space Center
(he's the one outside the bubble!  lol)

I had a surprise today...a big one....are you ready for this?  I saw the sun for about half an hour after it stopped snowing.  Man, it has been snowing since Monday and guess what, more snow Saturday, Sunday and Monday!  Looks like the first decent day is going to be Tuesday.

Lake Louise, AB.....now covered in snow and FROZEN!
Just had to add the pic, it's beautiful!

Had a wonderful chat with my Big Brother tonight, we laughed and chatted about old times and remembered so many wonderful things. So glad he is feeling better from his hospital stay.

My Wonderful Brother Gerry and his late wife Janet
(what a sweetheart)

Had some good news about our friends in Mazatlan as well....Bill is finally beginning to feel better (again), this is his second stay in the hospital.  Hopefully by Monday he will be back at the RV with Carol.  They still have a long drive to get back to Indiana!

Our final day with Bill & Carol in Mazatlan at Torres Mazatlan (breakfast)

For the last few days I have been daydreaming about the past and the places I've been and wishing I could go back.  Some people that know me realize that Daytona Beach is one of my most favourite places to go.  It is an easy drive from Bowmanville to Florida and we've even done it straight through a time or two.  I miss the beach and the great walks hubby and I would take daily in the water up to the pier.  We met some fantastic people there and miss them as well.  Oh to go "HOME"!

My bully sister, trying to get me wet!
Prince Edward Island vacation

From the top of the lighthouse Ponce Inlet
Daytona Beach, FLORIDA

Our Hotel, Atlantic Ocean Palm
 Daytona Beach Florida

Goofing around in the hills of North Carolina!
YES, I did get my rock!

Well it will soon be supper time here....(ok, maybe a couple of drinks first)....I was too exhausted to go for groceries this week  so that will be tomorrows job, along with laundry and a bit of cleaning. Perhaps tonight will be Chinese from the restaurant next door that I can walk to!

Las Vegas, lunch with Jackie and John near Freemont Street!  Looks Yummy!

Thank goodness work for this Monday is OVER!

OMG...what a day!  Returning from vacation to my employment is a nightmare.  I couldn't find my desk for paperwork!  Once I threw half the crap on the floor I managed to get to my computer and turn it on!  THEN, the emails started rolling in!  I'll add an image here of what would have made today better!  LOL  Asked for help with something and told point blank NO!  Thanks, greatly appreciated!

Cool bottles!

Lees Liquor Store Las Vegas
I could have used a few of these today to get me thru!

Guess what...another NEWS FLASH!  Supposed to start snowing tonight and snow for the next....are you ready for this...3 days! AND more white crap on the weekend!  I am already in need of warmer climates!

Inside the Bellagio Hotel & Casino
NO Snow here!

Caesars Palace

Heading to Downtown Freemont Street

Better half left this morning for Vancouver so I am all by myself for the week.  I'd like to think I would get some stuff done around the house but that's not going to happen.  Will be up at 4:45 AM and to work by 6:00 AM.....  

I miss you already!

Here are more images of travels to Las Vegas and the hotel is booked again for June (Lightfair 2014)....now whether the approval comes from work to go is another story.

Can almost smell the flowers....at the Bellagio 

Road back from Death Valley

Restaurant inside one of the hotels (Aria I think)

Have a great week my friends!

Arrived home from Las Vegas around midnight.....and what a surprise ...it was FREAKIN COLD and SNOWING!  The winter that will never end!  I don't do winter well!

I did manage to see some beautiful sites in Las Vegas...I'll post some of the beautiful flowers and images from my travels.

Love the smell of the fresh flowers!

More beautiful flowers!

Picture of real greenery and flowers!

Managed to get together with some very dear friends, Jackie & John.....enjoyed a fantastic lunch at Gordon Ramsey Pub & Grill....food was delicious!  Wish I knew how he makes the chicken lollipops, yummy.

Wall of kegs!

SOOOOOO delicious!

Rented a car for a day and went to Death Valley.  The Death Valley National Monument was established by President Hoover in 1933 and designated Death Valley National Park in 1994 by President Clinton.  The Park lands cover 3.3 million acres / 1.4 million hectares.  The second highest worldwide temperature recorded was in Death Valley in 1913 at 134 degrees F / 56.6 degrees C.

Death Valley

The highest point in the park is Telescope Peak at 11,049 ft / 3,368 m and the lowest is Badwater which is -282 ft / 86m below sea level. The average annual rainfall in Death Valley National Park is less than 2" / 5cm.

Driving into the Valley...it was 81 degrees F
(and it was MARCH)

I took so many pictures of the mountains and the terrain....difficult to decide which ones to post.  Also went to Ubehebe Crater and this was extremely interesting:

Short explanation of what happened

A little windy at the Crater!

Did some walking while in Vegas...OK, did LOTS of walking in Vegas.  Used the "bus" pass a few times that Jackie & John gave us but for the most part we walked most places.  

Jackie & John can appreciate this...walked from Hard Rock Hotel to Freemont Street!  And YES, we did stop in at the "Pawn Stars"....the show that's on TV that we watch.  They were filming one day and I did get to see Chumley....

Pawn Stars (TV SHOW)

At Pawn Stars...that's US Funds...yours if you can afford it!

A few more random pictures

The High Roller at night in Vegas

Scotty's Castle

Fifty-three miles from the Furnace Creek Resort and within the park boundaries, Scotty’s Castle stands as a tribute to friendship. In the early 1900′s, Walter Scott (Death Valley Scotty) convinced Albert Johnson to grubstake his gold mining expeditions.  The gold never materialized but Johnson fell in love with Death Valley and took a liking to the colorful Scotty. Johnson and his wife, Bessie, built this two-million dollar home with luxurious appointments and Scotty claimed it was his and was building it from the profits from his gold mine.  Owned today by the National Park Service, daily interpretive tours are provided year round.

Now that's a way to make money in Vegas!

The two of us at Scotty's Castle

Outside Little White Wedding Chappel Vegas!

Have a great week everyone!

What's Up with the Weather?

A beautiful day....wait, am I really saying this?  Have I lost my mind???  No, it was a beautiful mild day in Calgary!  (Those of you who know me, know I call Calgary something else but I'll be nice on here, LOL).

Went to Cosco today, Alan got a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 like mine, then to Bed Bath & Beyond and a couple other stores.  Guess I just needed to get out of the house and do something other than going to work!  

Speaking of work, it's been a week from Hell, but I got through it. Four days next week and then off to Las Vegas on Friday.  (I took Friday off, someone else is working but I won't mention any names here). For those who don't know, we work at:  

Westburne Electric Supply

Westburne Electric Supply, a division of Rexel Canada Electrical Inc., is the leading electrical material distributor in Canada.

Westburne our facility

Finally had some great news this week, our dear friend Bill is out of the hospital in Mazatlan and back at the RV park with Carol, his lovely wife.  Bill had a ruff time but is on the mend now and from what I heard, the surgery was a great success.  Speedy recovery Bill!

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Spoke with my nephew on FB this afternoon, apparently he lives close to me.  He and his wife just had a new baby so I am looking forward to meeting up with them for dinner and a "get to know you" night.  I lost touch over the years with my brother and his family but now we are all in contact with each other, what a fantastic month it has been in those respects.

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Alan has finally had all his tests done at the hospital, must say I've been extremely worried.  Had the dye injections twice and stress test and some machine that rotates around you and takes pictures of your heart.  Just have to wait now until the first of April for the results. Not sure what I would do if anything happened....he is my rock and I love him to bits!  He is still recovering from the fall on the ice well over a month ago and now the discs in his back is giving him problems as well.   I must say it sucks to be getting older....things start falling apart and for us women, start falling down!

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Below are some random pics

Scotch Tasting
(OH Chitt!!! gonna miss this when we're gone)
I'll take the glass in back...WATER!
How anyone can drink this chitt is beyone me!

Downtown Calgary

Sculpture Downtown Calgary  

Calgary joins the ranks of London, Dubai, Chicago and Toyko with the installation of commissioned sculptures by one of the world's foremost sculptors, Jaume Plensa, at the foot of THE BOW.  Wonderland, a work by the Spanish sculptor, the sculpture is a 12-meter-tall bent-wire portrait of a young girl's head and is the key feature of the main plaza.

At the AB/BC Line

Hoodoos, Drumheller, AB 

Hoodoos in Drumheller, Alberta - Heart of the Canadian Badlands 

While you'll find Hoodoos scattered everywhere in the Drumheller Valley, here are the details for the official protected Hoodoos site in Drumheller, AB.  Hoodoos take millions of years to form and stand 5 to 7 meters tall.  Each hoodoo is a sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale that is capped by a large stone.  Hoodoos are very fragile and can erode completely if their capstone is dislodged (in other words, no climbing allowed).  The name "Hoodoo"comes form the word "voodoo" and was give to these geological formations by the Europeans.  In the Blackfoot and Cree traditions, however, the Hoodoos are believed to be petrified giants who come alive at night to hurl rocks at the intruders.

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller, AB

The Royal Tyrrell Museum is Canada's only museum dedicated exclusively to the science of palaeontology.  In addition to housing one of the world's largest displays of dinosaurs, the Museum offers a wide variety of creative, fun, and educational programs that bring the prehistoric past to life.

Alan's sister Ann and hubby Stewart!
(Near Banff, AB.....long way from Fenelon Falls, ONT)

Near Radium, BC

Chinook, warm temperatures expected in Calgary this weekend   

Sunday will be the warmest day with a forecast high of 13 C

Chinook winds often called chinooks, commonly refers to foehn winds in the interior West of North America, where the Canadian Prairies and Great Plains meet various mountain ranges, although the original usage is in reference to wet, warm coastal winds in the Pacific Northwest of the United States of America.

Chinook is claimed by popular folk-etymology to mean "eater", but it is really the name of the people in the region where the usage was first derived. The reference to a wind or weather system, simply "a Chinook", originally meant a warming wind from the ocean into the interior regions of the Pacific Northwest of the USA (the Chinook people lived near the ocean, along the lower Columbia River). A strong Chinook can make snow one foot deep almost vanish in one day. The snow partly melts and partly evaporates in the dry wind. Chinook winds have been observed to raise winter temperature, often from below -20°C (-4°F) to as high as 10-20°C (50-68°F) for a few hours or days, then temperatures plummet to their base levels. The greatest recorded temperature change in 24 hours was caused by Chinook winds on January 15, 1972, in Loma, Montana; the temperature rose from -48 to 9°C (-54 to 48°F).

Where Chinooks Happen

Chinook Arch

Temperatures for the rest of the week and into the future are:

Please take note...ALL on the PLUS side of things!!!!

Sunday 13C  Monday 6C  Tuesday 7C  Wednesday 11C Thursday 13C 

I'll post more later today or tomorrow....I HAVE to get out there and enjoy some of these great temperatures.  Have a great day my friends....be safe and catch up with you soon!

Calgary, Alberta

When will this end????

Winter is back with a vengeance.  The sun is shining but with the wind chill today it feels something like -42C (for my American Friends not sure in F)...too cold for this chick!  Had to work until 7:00 last night and then back in this morning at 
7:30 - 1:45....inventory sucks!  But I do get time off later on!  I will take it when the weather is warmer, MUCH WARMER!

One of the bridges in Daytona Beach!  Notice NO WINTER COAT!

Las Vegas....feel a little short compared to these two guys who tried to pick me up!  LOL

In just 13 days I'll be on my way to Las Vegas, 5:30 PM flight!  Sooooooooooooooo looking forward to a week off and meeting up with Jackie & John.  Margaritaville HERE I COME!

Best Bar in Vegas!  Not that I would know anything about that!

Next trip should be in June and attending Lightfair International!  I`ve already advised my boss I wanted to go and tentatively scheduled it into my calendar.

LIGHTFAIR® International (LFI®), the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference, will take place June 1-5, 2014 in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center. With approximately two million square feet of exhibit space, the Las Vegas Convention Center affords LFI 2014 exhibitors and attendees a venue well-suited to the unique requirements of its trade show and conference within its South Halls.  In Las Vegas, the LFI 2012 trade show floor covered a record 206,800 net square feet and attendance broke all previous records with 24,121 professional attendees registered.  LIGHTFAIR International is the world’s largest annual commercial and architectural lighting trade show and conference and is sponsored by the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES).  Last time I went to Lightfair, (Philadelphia)it was with this character!  We found this watering hole and spent a little time there...ok, maybe a little more than that! :) Love Park, John F. Kennedy Plaza, Philadelphia A favorite destination for tourists and locals alike, John F. Kennedy Plaza gets its famed nickname “LOVE Park” due to its famous sculpture. Located near City Hall, LOVE Park serves as the grand entrance to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The plaza, designed by famed City Planner Edmond Bacon, father of actor Kevin Bacon, was originally constructed over an underground parking garage in 1965. The plaza expanded in 1969 with the addition of beautifully curved granite steps and a majestic fountain. Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE statue was not installed until the bicentennial in 1976, only to be removed two years later. Due to its immense popularity, the sculpture was purchased by the Chairman of the Philadelphia Art Commission, F. Eugene Dixon, Jr., and permanently returned to the plaza. ******************************************************* It`s been an interesting week.  Received from news from Jackie & John in regards to our friends in Mexico (who reside in Indiana) Bill & Carol.  Bill has been sick and in the hospital....but continues to improve.  Miss them and hope all turns out ok. Speedy recovery Bill!  Be safe driving in Mazatlan Carol! Our friends Bill & Carol I spent a considerable amount of time talking with my sister this week.  Appears we were both kinda thinking the same thing...Where is our brother!  Well upon searching the internet one evening, I managed to locate him, and his family.  I haven`t spoken with my brother Gerry yet, but you can bet I plan to.  I always knew I was his favourite sister!  I am hoping to have pics soon that I can post on my blog.  I have lots of family now and I am so excited.  Always knew they were out there but didn`t know how to find them. My brother Gerry and his late wife Janet.