no YOU’RE so vain

I like some old Carly Simon music.  I think she’s alright.  But when I read on the CBC news website that Carly Simon is suing Starbucks for crap CD sales I thought, STEP-OFF Carly.

Not that I’m trying to defend Starbucks.  I worked there for a long time, I loved the people I worked with, my blog is even named after the way one of my customers ordered his coffee, but I wouldn’t necessarily jump to bat for them–part of the reason I quit was the generous 4 cent raise they gave me.  Ouch.

Legally, I can understand why Carly Simon would sue if they failed to meet their end of the contract, but according to the article, Starbucks claims they met their obligations.  Only my hairdresser knows for sure.

But the point of this post, and my favourite thing about this debacle, is a user comment on the CBC article page:

TRUTH! Carly.  GroovyGreta holds nothing back.

I love it.

Vivid Print

I’m sure most of you remember Gary’s blog post from last year where he documented his trip to Vivid Print.  If you don’t remember it, you should go read it.  My favourite part of the whole thing is how Gary scammed a free upgrade by claiming the poster was for school, then confessed the truth on his blog, and was discovered.

Vivid Print found his blog and commented on his confession.  It was amazing.

Well, a year later, Gary has moved from Edmonton to Vanouver, Vivid Print has moved from Garneau to Whyte Ave, and now it’s my turn to write about them.

When I was walking on Whyte Ave yesterday, I noticed a cool black and white print in the Vivid Print window so I popped in to check it out.  I like the shop—it’s nice and open and there’s plenty to look at.  I wandered around for a bit and wound up buying some prints (only $10 each) that I gave to my parents.

The best part of the visit was the transaction.  The guy helping me out was super friendly and we quickly segued from general banter to politics, economics, and Edmonton related stuff.  I wasn’t planning on staying long but in Alberta, when you find someone who shares the same opinions you do, you talk to them—it doesn’t occur that often when you’re a lefty.

The point of all this is that Vivid Print is awesome.  If I need any printing done in the future I’m going there, and so should you.  I know more and more people who are tired of crappy impersonal service in big box stores and I’m arguing that getting crap printed at Staple’s yields nothing but frustration and shitty prints.  I know from experience.

So while Gary unintentionally scammed them and fled the city in embarrassment, I’m here to stay and I plan on going back.  Vivid Print, if you’re reading this, feel free to comment on my blog and then head over to Gary’s and confront him for moving to Vancouver.  Tell him you’re sorry and that he can come back—it was all a misunderstanding and we’ll go for beers at the Empress to work things out.  Let’s all be friends.

TRUTH!

U of A – Day 2

My learnings thus far are as follows:

Lululemon is the official dresscode of Nutrition 100–and douchbaggery is the official comportment in the business atrium.

I like being back in school.

No Frills Strikes Again

As you know from previous posts, I’m a big No Frills enthusiast.

On my way to Radium, Bobby and I took Highway 27 through Olds where I was happy to discover an Alberta No Frills.  Since then I have also been informed of a No Frills in Fort Saskatchewan.

No longer is the discount food industry relegated to those in the downtown Vancouver area.

Vive la maxidiscompte!

Stolen Groceries

I’ve been trying to avoid reposting memes and other anecdotes but sometimes I just can’t help it. The Africa video was a recent example, and now this:

It’s brilliant, just brilliant.

Month in Review

Man I haven’t blogged in a while.  I don’t feel like there’s been any lack of blog-worthy life; I went to Vancouver, I made awesome brunch, I went to the folkfest, I’ve been dealing with the (maddening) U of A and my enrollment, I’m going to Radium this weekend.  See? Lots of stuff.

Instead of posting full-on in-depth posts, I’m going to do a bit of a month in review post.

Here goes:

My Vancouver trip was phenomenal.  How can an impromptu vacation be anything but?  I took this photo as I walked from Gary and Fallon’s pad to 3rd beach where I met Natalie, swam in the ocean, and developed a dashingly handsome tan.

One of the first things Gary and I did when I arrived in Vancouver was hit up the No Frills.  No Frills, as you should be aware from my previous post, is the greatest grocery store ever and is, incidentally, Gary’s favourite thing on earth next to British Big Brother.  It is so cheap.  I’m still adjusting to Alberta’s ridiculous grocery prices after my experience there.

I discovered that Gary’s a big rule breaker.

I also discovered the awesomeness that is Oliver Pool.  It is literally right outside my front door.  I walk in a straight line out the door of my building and in about 15 seconds I am at the entrance to the pool. It is AMAZING.

As is tradition, I spent August’s 2nd weekend at the Folkfest.  Admittedly, the music was less than stellar this year, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless.  My highlight for the weekend was Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.  If you’ve never seen or heard of her, she is amazing.  She’s 60s R&B and soul but IN MODERN TIMES!  Look up some video of her on youtube.  She’ll be sweaty, excited, and belting out a lot of noise for such a small lady.

At the Folkfest, Christine was crocheting up a store.  She made many of us our own beer cozies.  In the same vein as wine-charms, the cozies helped distinguish whose beer was whose.  Mine is the beautiful rainbow cozy pictured above.  It became known as the pride cozy.

Since Rachelle’s been in town, she made her way down to the festival where, in good form, she proceeded to spill beer all over her crotch.  Amazing.

I saw what I thought initially to be a bag, but then I wasn’t so sure.

And I posed for many awkward group photos.  This one highlights the awesomeness of the folkfest hill at night.

After the folkfest, Robert flew off to Vancouver to do a lot of clothing buying for Gravity Pope.  He brought back the above card from the airport.  While it is copyrighted by Recycled Paper Greetings, it is too amazing not to share.  Puns and cats: two of my favourite things.

Aside from all this craziness, I’ve been prepping for back to school.  I’m not terribly excited about it.  I discovered that I’m more credits behind than I thought.  So much so that I need to do an entire extra term.  If I cram in a lot of spring and summer classes, I should be okay.  It just means that my move-to-vancouver plan is delayed.

Oh.  For those of you who don’t know, my current two year plan is to move once I finish school.  It’s not because of my recent trip to Vancouver, it’s because I’m a little tired of my friends moving away, of friends getting slurred walking down the street, and of winter.  But this plan is two years away, we’ll see what happens in the mean time.

This weekend it’s off to Radium, maybe I’ll have more to share after my sojourn there.  I imagine so.

Brunch Photography #2

Here we have the second photograph in what has unintentionally become a series of English muffin breakfasts.

This one features a tomato concassé with white wine and purple basil and a from-scratch hollandaise sauce.  Now, my butter clarifying skills are somewhat under-practiced so the butter itself became slightly browned.  Luckily it wasn’t so much so that it muddied the hollandiase’s bright flavour.

All around it was a delicious impromptu brunch for the Friday I didn’t know Robert had off.

Africa

I’m mostly posting this for Gary who, if you don’t know, is a huge fan of the new Fox show, Glee.

Glee is about a teacher who wants to head-up the glee club at his school but who needs to contend with the ‘uncool’ image of being in glee to be successful.

Anyway, this video reminded me a lot of that show so here it is:

But does it have a River Valley?

Hey  All,

I’m in Vancouver.  When I finished work early yesterday, I went home and tried to puzzle out what to do for the rest of the day.  A few people were out camping and I considered crashing their good-times, Emmanuel and I were possibly going to go to the Muttart as it is newly reopened, but instead I bought a ticket to Vancouver and left on a plane several hours later.

It’s probably the most impulsive thing I’ve ever done.  It worked out really well.  I found cheap flights and had some help paying for the fare.  Needless to say, deciding at 2:30 to book a flight then arriving in YVR at 5:30 is a strange experience.  Incredible, but strange.

Last night Gary took me to his new favourite grocery store, No Frills, to show me how cheap Vancouverites shop.  Can I tell you that it is AMAZING!  Chicken Breast was $6.95/lb.  Do you know what that means? It means the $12 pack of three breasts in Edmonton is $4.50 in Vancouver.  AMAZING!  Also, we got a phenomenal pizza to cook for the next day’s lunch for $3!  AMAZING! It was both cheap AND not crap.  On our way home from No Frills we stopped at the corner produce market and bought a bag of five bell peppers for $0.99! I don’t think I need to tell you what that price is, but I will: AMAZING!

I’m really into the price of groceries.

This morning we had our coffee at the beach, later today I’m heading through Stanley Park to meet up with Natalie, and tonight we’re going to watch a free screening of Ghostbusters in David Lam park near Yaletown.  This mini-break has been phenomenal.

I have my camera and will eagerly post photos soon.  I’ve got sweet shot of Gary at No Frills and the Mexican Sauce he bought there.

Look forward to it.

Capital Ex Parade 2009

Sally hates parades and has a full-time job, so I’ve charged myself with the noble task of reporting on Edmonton’s great mediocrity–the capital ex parade.

I debated riding down to the parade to get actual photographs and even spoke with Sally (by spoke I mean ‘texted’) to ask if she wanted me to go down.  Verdict: Parades are lame.  Translation: I’ll watch it on TV–for a minute.

I can’t help it.  I get bored easily.  I can only handle seeing so many trucks, shriners, and marching bands.  At least with the pride parade you get drag queens, semi-nudity, bright colours and dance music.  With the capital Ex you don’t get any of that.  You get a barrage of navy, black and grey.  Fitting since those are the exact colours of the city busses here.

Here, for your reading pleasure, are some highlights of the few minutes I spent watching the parade, complete with actual host commentary.  I spare no expense for theEdmontonian.

11:22am -- a GIGANTIC CLOWN READY TO TAKE OVER YOUR FARM

11: 24am -- Nothing says PARADE like miniature horses and someone's grandpa

11:25am -- Some models doing what they do best: walking and holding a sign

11:26am -- This model loves parades as much as I do!

11:28am -- HOST A: "and here we have the County of Leduc. Leduc has a skilled and educated work force." HOST B: "It doesn't get any better than that."

Doesn’t it? Maybe that’s Alberta’s problem: loooow expectations.

I thought this float was going to be somewhat contentious. It turns out that it only represented the EIA, not the ECCA. Come on ECCA, for an institution that loved this city a week ago, you sure didn't invest very much effort today.

Other favourite quotes from the commentators:

11:20am

Hrycun Fjords “and their horses are used for duty”

Ha ha ha, doodee.

11:34am

HOST A: “go green or go home!”

HOST B: “I like that.”

HOST A: “Ha ha, yeah it’s a good motto.”

Well, if the Shaw TV coverage is any indication, I’m glad I stayed home to report on the parade.  I’ll leave you with this pilfered interview and two girls who were a little more enthusiastic about the event than I was.

Yes that’s right folks.  I thought the second girl was going to say she thought the parade was crap but she turned it around and gave a glowing 20 OUT OF 10.  Incredible.