Virgin Mobile and Perfect Day, Part II (or should I say perfect weekend?)

Well, this post was going to just be about the outstanding customer service at Virgin Mobile, but then I had Part II of the perfect day, which basically turned it into the perfect weekend, so I figured I'd throw these together.

First off...

Dear Virgin Mobile,

You have been nothing but wonderful to me since the day I met you.  Your affordability, excellent customer service, ridiculously short wait times and sympathetic customer service have me swooning.  I will recommend you to everyone I know.  

Love, 

Bb

Seriously guys, they are amazing.  My cell bill is always low, they fix everything pronto, wait times are like 30 seconds when you call with an issue, and the person on the other end always treats you like they have a personal vested interest in making sure you are satisfied with you service.  It's almost disconcerting, but we love them for it.

And now, part II of perfect weekend.  You know how yesterday we were going to go to Sugarbowl but then we didn't?  Well, we went this morning instead and ran into our favourite Dieters!  Kevin and Reba just decided to bring little Mabel out for a trip to the sugs and didn't call us to join them, although they claimed they considered it.  So, there we were enjoying our breakfast when our Dieters walked through the door.  It just so happened that the big table was free (when does that EVER happen at Sugarbowl?) so we all moved over there and had breakfast with them.  Amazing.

And then Joel and I went glasses shopping and found him some cute nerdy sciency hipster manly glasses to replace the ones that must have been rolled up into someone's quilt at quiltfest and have not been seen since.

To top it all off, I called Virgin Mobile about a mediumly minor issue with my phone and they were all "sure we'll fix it for free because we love you and want you to be happy".  And that's why I wanted to post about their wonderfulness.

A perfect day?

My fabulous non-obligatory cousin friend came for a visit this weekend.  She is also my second bridesmaid (other than sister Kaeli).  Usually, we have a great but predictable weekend.  Shopping, Sugarbowl, drink, shopping.  This weekend, for some random reason, we ended up doing slightly different things and having pretty much a perfect day.  Reagan-ing, if you will, for those of you who watch 30 Rock.

When she arrived on Friday night I was in my bed fighting off a nasty headache, so Kaeli, Joel and Mel made nachos and caesaers while I lay there being pathetic.  I managed to get up and we had a nice evening anyways, but then the next morning I slept in while Kaeli and Mel cleaned my kitchen from the night before. 

We almost went to Sugarbowl for our traditional breakfast, but we called Joel and he was all "hey what about the Elm Cafe and the Christmas market downtown?".  So we went to the teeny tiny Elm Cafe and were about to order breakfast sandwiches but then the owner, Nate (who is also going to be our food-master at our wedding in June and we are soooo excited), told us that they had lunch sandwiches that were about to be put up on the board and one of them was a pumpkin sandwich and the other was pulled pork.  Delish, and pretty much created with Joel in mind.  So we tried them and stood along the bar (there are only two stools along the window bar).  It was so crammed in there with the four of us that the fun conversation we were having was echoing off the walls and amplifying to be a DOUBLY FUN conversation.  Joel chatted with Nate about food plus science, which I think they both liked.  I never thought another Edmontonian could have a similar fascination with the chemistry of food as Joel does, but I think he's met a kindred.

*shit, I just lost my whole post with only three minutes to spare.  Part I of perfect day will have to suffice for now. UPDATE: I rewrote it to finish the post below but left this in to mark the spot where it changed...

Then we dropped our vehicles off at Joel's house so that we could go to the winter market at Churchill Square, but first we went into Joel's house to pee and had a nice/hilarious conversation with Nay-Nay, who hadn't seen either Kaeli or Mel in a long time.  Then we walked over to the square to check out the market.  It has been so wonderfully and unseasonably warm and dry and I have been appreciating it.  It's like a little reward for the not-so-warm summer we had this year and that early bit of crap weather this fall.  Yay Edmonton. 

At the square we came across the Eva Sweet waffle truck at the square and Joel bought some waffles for the ladies. If you go to their website, you can read that "The story of Eva Sweet is a story of international intrigue.  It is a story that involves love, drama, family, loss and a dream coming true.  It is a tale of crossed borders,  migrant workers, secret meetups, family tragedies, forced separations, and bittersweet reunions. More importantly, it is a story about waffles.  If you yearn to know more, we just might tell you over a waffle and some coffee."  And it's totally true.  The guy gave us free coffee and told us how he was the top waffle seller in Brussels (think delectable Belgian waffles) and moved here when he married a Canadian woman, although the waffle truck is named after his sister Eva, who passed away and whose son works with him in the waffle stand.  This guy's legit and his waffles are great.  Go buy a vanilla one and talk to him.

After that, we browsed the market and bought a bunch of great stuff.  Joel's backpack was so heavy and stuffed with frozen meat that it was hurting him on the walk home.  And as a bonus, the market's also in City Hall so I saw Mayor Mandel getting on the elevator.  He looked sheepish, or at least like he didn't feel like being recognized.  Ha.  

Mel and I split off for some hard core craft supply and thrifting shopping after that.  We found everything we needed so that Mel could make a Christmas wreath, and had some EPIC thrifting luck.  We found great stuff at Goodwill and Value Village, but also came across a legit thrift store where every single item was $1 or less.  I found some awesome vintage metal milk crates.  For a buck each.  I was buzzing from the thrifting high.  Seriously. 

Then at the thrift store we ran into Heidi (my sister in law) who invited us over for dinner.  They fed us and Mel got to see their house and the cuties (niece and nephew) and then we came home and crafted up a storm.  LOVE IT. 

Thank you Mel, Kaeli, Joel, Heidi, Thrift stores, Edmonton, and basically everyone, for a GREAT weekend.

Back alley chairs

Joel loves mid-century modern chairs.  He has been collecting them at every opportunity lately and often manages to acquire them in creative ways.  I think he sort of looks at is as a rescue mission for under-appreciated iconic chairs. 

A few weekends ago we finally decided to tackle the crowning glory of his mcm chair collection...an Eames-style lounge chair found in a garbage pile!  He caught a glimpse of it as he was driving past and sent his dad on a recon mission to get it the heck outta the garbage and the rain, and into the safety of the shed. 

It might be a knockoff, but it definitely screams Eames with its curved wood shell, so we decided to relieve it of its hideous 90s upholstery and give it a new life with some buttery white vinyl. 

All it took to take it all apart was a few tools, some good tunes, and a whole lotta patience.  There were tons of staples that had to come out.

Below you can see the top pieces of the matching cordurouy ottoman.  Ewwwww.

The cotton and foam underneath was clean but it's still gross to touch old cotton and foam that used to belong to someone else...

And here's the vinyl!  Our friend Dawn helped him pick it out.  She's a designer with excellent taste.

It's not done yet, but there are in-progress pics to come!

A temperamental artist and a small lap dog walk into a bar...

November and December mark Natasha Lawyer's third art show at The Sugarbowl in Edmonton.  Aside from being a favourite friend, she is also a favourite artist of mine even though she turned American and moved away and left me here to eat chicken caesar salad alone.  She drove from Seattle through the night (maniac) and showed up at my house around noon on Saturday with tons to do before we hung her show at 6:30 a.m. the next day.

We ran around trying to find a place that would do a rush print job on watercolour paper of some last-minute prints for the show.  Tash ended up calling the guy at one place a pointdexter because he was being letter-of-the-law and refused to print them for her.  Don't cross Tash when she's tired.  Below you will see a picture of her smiling like she would never dream of calling anyone a pointdexter.  Don't be fooled.

While she was in Edmonton, she thought "why not pick up a puppy?".  Well, actually it was slightly more intentional than that - her sister Melissa decided to fulfil Tash's dream of having a little yorkie friend as an early birthday present.  So we went and picked up the tiny, hypoallergenic, and fabulous PENCIL. I proceeded to take a series of glamour shots of the two of them and gross Tash out by referring to her as Pencil's mom.

Then we had a pricing bee on my kitchen table.  Tash (with a little help) had collected about a bajillion vintage frames and painted them all white to frame her illustrations.  Her show this time around is crazy different than the last one.  It's very architecturally inspired and has some amazing paper weaving and metallic thread details.

My kitchen was so full of art, and is not very big anyways, so I had to improvise when I was dishing out the CCS (chicken ceasar salad) for our dinner.  If you look below you will notice a plate of salad sitting inside of an open drawer.

Pencil likes art.  These are the aforementioned typewriter prints on watercolour paper.  They are adorable and come in 9 different colours!  Awesome!  They are framed and selling for just $45 each, so they would make an excellent Christmas gift. The text on the paper in the typewriter says "I want to take you to all my favorite places".

Joel liked Pencil and came to help us with some last minute framing.  I think he was sort of enjoying scaring poor little Pencil too.  He was mostly nice to her but couldn't resist pushing her timid little buttons.

And then we went to bed at like 3 - which was actually 2 thanks to daylight savings time - and had to get up at like 6 the next morning.  But we slept in a little and ended up being late and leaving poor Megan at the Sugarbowl alone. Here is the classic temperamental artist shot with Tash scrutinizing the placement of the pieces.  She wasn't actually very temperamental, but it still is fun to tease.  Or maybe I'm just adjusting to the temperament.  Anyways, this picture shows off how sharp the white frames look on the brick wall.

Because of us being late and her being early, Megan was already pretty perky by the time we got there.  No fair that she looks so cute.  Here is a glamour shot of her hammering a nail.

We had breakfast at the Sugarbowl after the show was hung and then went to my house for a nap.  And then we finally got to hang out and chill out.  We took tiny Pencil out for a walk in the ravine by my new digs, and she kept running in between our legs and getting kicked by us by accident.  She seemed unfazed but I felt awful.  Right after I snapped this pic she ran between my feet and I almost crushed her little four pound dog body.  It took some fancy footwork to avoid it.  Worth it for the pic?

Overall, fantastic weekend.  Tasha's show is up until the end of December so GO TAKE A LOOK.  Pieces have already sold. 

We're still high fiving and I want to keep it that way

I haven’t really blogged about much to do with my wedding yet. I am (we are) finding the planning process to be pretty fun (with dashes of stress here and there). Lots of times, weddings seem to spin out of control and become stressful.  So, one of my main goals is to make sure that as much as possible, this process remains FUN for us and focused on creating an end result that is a meaningful day topped off by a superduper party. What's the point in planning a wedding together if it makes you want to claw each other's eyes out?

We've already had a couple of spontaneous high fives as we were chatting about planning. One of them was in a cande-lit corner of Culina Mill Creek. Not exactly a high-fiving kind of atmosphere, but it didn't matter because there was just too much awesome to not high five. I believe the other high five happened early on in the planning process as we were riding our bikes down the middle of an empty street late at night and chatting about wedding stuff. That's right people, we can ride bikes and high five at the same time.

We're just over 3 months in to planning and we have almost all of the big details in place: church, officiant, reception venue, caterer, flowers, photography, an almost-finalized guest list, my dress, his suit and a few other things.  We'd be patting ourselves on the back if we weren't too busy HIGH FIVING EACH OTHER. Just sayin'.

Anyways, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we are able to keep things fun (I know life's not entirely about fun, but I think that a very large chunk of it should be) most of the time. Oh, and also that we won't buy in to the ridiculousness that says we have to spend our life savings and take out a 2 million dollar loan in order to have a nice wedding.

Bahn Mi

Two years ago in Calgary, a friend took me to Thai Tai for a vietnamese sub, also known as Bahn Mi.  It's just a little chain fast food restaurant but it was so delicious.  Since then I have been wanting to eat it.  All the time.  But I didn't know where to get it in Edmonton until recently.

Before, the places you can get it here are a little more authentic instead of being a chain and, therefore, are not always as easily accessible unless you know what you're looking for.  Evenutally we found a couple places, and then a couple of months ago a little place called V Sandwiches opened up right next to my work in Rice Howard Way.  Awesome.

I recommend the beef satay.  It comes on a toasted baguette with cilantro and spicy mayo and pickled carrots.  But, if you are feeling even a little bit adventurous, then I recommend trying to make it yourself.  It's not that hard and the ingredients are pretty basic other than a few specialty things for the sauces.  I found a fun recipe that I tried the other day and it was easy.  You can link to the full thing with pictures here, or I have put the directions below...

For the chicken:
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2lb chicken thighs
1/2 cup coconut peanut sauce (see link or recipe below)


In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the lime juice, sugar, salt, and olive oil. Add the chicken and toss until well coated. Set aside to marinate for 20 minutes.


For the pickled carrots:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/8-inch match sticks


In the meantime, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a medium mixing bowl until dissolved. Add the carrots and toss until combined. Set aside to pickle for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

For the sandwiches:
2 baguettes, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon siracha
1 bunch cilantro, bottom of stems removed

Brush a  pan with olive oil and heat. Grill the chicken in batches and then toss it together with the peanut sauce (see recipe below) in a medium mixing bowl.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise and the siracha. Season with a sprinkle of salt.

Toast the bread on a cookie sheet under the broiler for a few minutes until crusty. Spread mayo on bread. Add the chicken, then top with the carrots and a handful of cilantro leaves.


And for the peanut sauce...

Peanut Sauce
Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients
½ teaspoon oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ginger, minced
½ teaspoon chili-garlic paste
1 cup low-fat coconut milk
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
juice of half a lime
 

Marcel the Shell

I had a great weekend.  My friend Natasha was here from Seattle to hang her show at the Sugarbowl.  I might post about that tomorrow because everyone should go see it and buy something.  Other highlights included my sister returning from the west coast (YAY) and hanging out with a four-and-a-half pound dog!  Cute cute and more cute. 

 

Last night, we wrapped up the weekend with a yummy dinner made by the newlyweds Megan and Joel.  Conversation circled around whether they were officially grown ups now that they are married and have a nice place to live and can cook dinners for people together.  But then we started watching youtube classics and all of a sudden it didn't matter whether we were grown ups or not. 

 

If my friend Megan was a youtube video, I think she would be this Marcel The Shell (with shoes on) video that she showed us last night...

 

 

She is shockingly good at the voice.

 

Watching this youtube inevitably sent us on a revisitation of a few classics from this past here, so I figured it was worth sharing links to a few faves.  Two funny, and two cute.  Shane Sings 5 Octaves stands out head and shoulders above the rest though...

 

• Shane Sings 5 Octaves on the Piano: wherein Shane tries (and dare I say, fails) to sing five octaves. On the piano.  Worth it for his strained facial expressions alone.
• Double Complete Rainbow: I thought everyone had seen this but Megan saw it for the first time last night. 
• Happy House Lamb: oh my gosh.  I want a happy lamb. 
• Baby Bunny Eats Tiny Flower: Exactly what the title says it is.