Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival

My very first Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival went down last weekend, lots of bands at lots of venues - it was great!

On Friday Greg and I went to see Two Hours Traffic and Rich Aucoin (and another band I can't remember). I had heard OF Rich Aucoin, but I hadn't actually heard his music. It was a nuts-o show, the photo doesn't really capture it - but you can see the screen, that's where various forms of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas and things we are to chant:

There were also many glowsticks and even one of those parachutes we played with in gym class. Definitely a memorable show.

I think this clip sums up the type of man Rich Aucoin is:



And here's another to give you a better idea of his music:



Given that this was my first exposure to Rich Aucoin, he wasn't the main event for me!

That was Two Hours Traffic, who put on a great show. It was a pretty big change of pace from Rich Aucoin but this time I could sing along!

Slightly blurry!

And to be fair, here are a few tunes by Two Hours Traffic:



And you know you've made it when you are on Q and Jian Ghomeshi gives you a nice long intro:



PS. I love that last song!

On Saturday we took in the last little bit of the Grass Mountain Hobos set at a pub in the Tannery. They were a hand-clapping, foot-stomping good time.

Later that day we went to see Gordie Johnson and Kelly Hoppe:

Kelly Hoppe & Gordie Johnson (right)

They are both from Big Sugar and in addition to playing songs these two gentleman wrote by themselves they played a few Big Sugar tunes. It was another great show.

Well done Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, I will be back if I can be!

Kings Landing

Perhaps it was for bonding purposes, but the Faculty set up a mandatory fun day to Kings Landing. It is a historical village set in the 1800's, there are houses that would have existed in a number of decades.

We spent the morning touring the grounds and the afternoon eating and drinking. Despite the cold it was a pretty good day!

There were grapes we could eat,
they tasted like Welches Grape Juice

The Saw Mill - SO NEAT INSIDE!!!

Hanging Onions

Silly Ali

Grazing Sheep

Movable Fences, so when someone's land expands or shrinks
they don't have to make new ones.

More Silly Ali, maybe part chipmunk

MARIGOLDS!

Secret Garden, not a Secret Nerd

Tall Trees

Etsy Love

While on a study break I wandered over to Etsy and stumbled on a few lovely loves:

Chainmaille Bracelet

"Time Travelers Doohickey"

Key Necklace

Technical Additions

Blogger called them gadgets, I call them useful and nerdy.

1. I've added a search function at the bottom of the page
2. After FINALLY realizing how painfully easy it is to tag entries (my problem was that it's not called tagging, but rather labeling) I have started to tag label and a list is generated in the right menu with all of the categories I've created so far.

I've noticed there are a lot of entries about food and pictures, I think that pretty much sums up a majority of my life. Well done blog!

The Smallest Stop-Motion Animation - Ever

Thanks to Greg for pointing me to this amazing feat and to Open Culture for posting it.



You can read more about it on the Open Culture website - click here.

Halifax Reunion

Both a reunion in Halifax and a reunion with Halifax. Oh how I miss that place!

I rented a super speedy (nothing illegal of course) red car on a Friday and was back by Sunday. Here are some photos to bring you (and my memories) back to speed.

After being greeted by Greg and his fantastic tomato basil soup I knew it was a going to be a great weekend. We stuffed our faces and then headed down to the Company House to check out Royal Wood (swoon!)

Endangered Species: My Blog

Oh my, time has been speeding by it seems. I was reminded that we are just about half way through the classroom part of our first term - nuts.

That leaves me with a lot of ground to cover in terms of blogging. So many days since my last true post. I will do my best to try and keep up and prevent a total extinction.

Neglect Neglect Neglect

I haven't become one of those people who hop on the blog bandwagon, post a few and never to be heard from again - I promise!

In actuality, I'm just cheap.

For the first week and a half or so of living in Fredericton, I was mooching the internet off of some kind neighbour who did not secure their internet.

This came to a halt last week when they annoyingly, wisely secured their network. Normally I would not be such a cheap individual, but with student loans and lines of credit racking up my debt sometimes mooching is called for. Ask my parents, they will tell you that my neighbour is not the first to be mooched from since my full time employee to student transition began.

I managed to find the time to head down to Rogers last Thursday to set up another bill for the paying. But really, I couldn't go on not having the internet. I've been cut off from the world, unable to listen to the radio (with any real clarity, it seems Fredericton has sub-par radio transmission), check my email and of course - post updates for you to read.

Life has revolved around school work, cooking and eating. Not really bad things...just boring night after night.

So on Tuesday, I will have the internet! Sadly I have a class on Tuesday night so the posts won't be flowing quite as readily as I'd like, but they are on their way.

Sit tight!

Virtual Musical Chairs

Do you remember Pandora?

It was that site where you could listen to whatever music you wanted and then other songs were populated in kind of a playlist based on your current musical selection. You could either give the songs generated the good o'l thumbs up or down to help tailor your musical experience.

This was all rainbows and sunshine until suddenly you had to live in the US to use it. Good o'l copyrights!

Baking Brain Break

School this year will be more challenging than anything I've ever experienced to date.

That's pretty much the message I was sent on day one of orientation, and the mounting pile of work since that day (just last Thursday) is pretty good evidence that it's true. At least the school was up front about it!

To relieve some of my reading/group work/journal entry crazies this evening I made some cookies...they really didn't turn out how I thought they would but I was able to make them in about 30 minutes. So I'm going to call them brain break cookies.

There was just enough time for my poor o'l noggin to just focus on one thing - following a simple recipe!

Yea, that's a little bit of brown on the bottom, probably more
than should be there :)

I definitely taste tested the cookie on the far left, yum!

You might be thinking, these are very flat cookies, and it's true. They are flat, pancake flat. BUT they are super tasty, with organic, fair trade dark chocolate chunks, coconut and pecans. I think I will throw in more random things next time...oats? Peanut butter?

Pole Poster of the Day

Spotted while wandering in downtown Fredericton:

Eeep?

I spied this on my walk to the mall on the weekend.

I think it was taking place and some sort of convention centre next to the mall. Regardless all I could think of was the Wayne's World line:

"A gun rack? A gun rack, I don't own A gun let alone many guns that would necessitate and entire rack! What am I going to do with a gun rack?"

To refresh your memory:



 Oh Wayne's World - it's been too long!

STU At Night

I had an evening class yesterday so after a long day of classes is was nice to be greeted with such dressed up trees:

Pardon the large shrub in the foreground of the photo. I think
my post-class sleepiness affected my ability to frame properly

Best Store Ever!

Maybe this would be more convincing if I actually went into the store to verify that it's the best store ever.

But I am basing this by its name alone!

Hurricane Earl Aftermath

A Greg Entry:

I have been invited to be a guest blogger on this prestigious blog and I humbled by the request. Although I must admit, as with most things I do in life right now, I am only doing it so I can put one more thing on my resume as a skill set. I think "web page manager and content expert" has a nice ring to it.

Because Ali has moved she didn't get to experience Hurricane Earl like we did here in NS. Mainly that experience consisted of having no power for at least 24hrs. and cleaning up lots of branches and leaves from your yard for a day afterward. So I guess those of you not living in NS really didn't miss out on too much. Being that I was raised in rural NB my curiosity about happenings in my neighbourhood and why my neighbours kids just sit on their front step smoking all day often get the best of me. So of course once the hurricane had subsided a bit I had to go for walk and survey/gawk at some of the damage.

Here are some photos I took on that walk:

You can see a badly damaged limb in the
middle of the frame

This is the same tree and the house the
limb is poised to fall on

Some gentlemen cleaning up the debris from a
rather large tree that came down

Another large tree down in the park
between Chebucto and North

North St. closed while power lines are
repaired and debris is cleaned up

Rainbow!

After the rains stopped on Saturday I snapped this from the front window of my apartment. It was pretty bright, the picture doesn't quite do it justice. But hooray for rainbows and nice big windows to view them through!!

Half Birthday!

Yesterday marks this blog existing for 6 months now! Yes I just realized that now and that's why I didn't have a happy 1/2 birthday post yesterday, but I believe strongly in the better late than never mentality. So...

 HAPPY 1/2 BIRTHDAY BLOGGY BLOG BLOG!

And thank YOU, whoever you are, for continuing to read the very random things that I post about!

Chez Riz

On my first night out on the town as a resident of Fredericton I hit up the local Indian and Pakistani restaurant (Chez Riz) with the excellent company of Sarah and Dan (also new to the city):
 

Hooray for vision impairments,
I just noticed we all have glasses!

 Although the service was a bit lack luster the food was great! I had chicken tikka masala with these spinach paste/potato yummies. The portion sizes were a bit big, so that meant more food for me today (hooray!)

A little dark at the bottom, but the silver plate
is full of the yummy spinach potatoes

More Walking, More Photos

This is one of at least two doors that enter to a very uncommon looking apartment building. When I walked by, as you can see, the sun was setting and based on the condition of the door and the fact that it was a pretty old looking building I thought it was unused.

But when I walked back past it, the sun had set to reveal a myriad of nice apartments units. I also noticed that on the side I wouldn't have caught on going downtown, that the building was an old Shoe Factory (potential picture to come). That makes these apartments even more interesting. I wonder how they turned a factory into apartments? Maybe it still smells like new shoes, the residents can only hope.

Lesson: I shouldn't be so quick to judge, even buildings have feelings too!

More Than Meets The Eye

Okay, so I didn't see Transformers today - but I did see something else that's potentially neat!

I spotted a pile of seemingly abandoned fire hydrants on the side of the road on a run today. I had never thought about what was below the ground when it came to hydrants, I just assumed they were hooked up somehow to the water pipes and when firey fires happened things were hooked up and ready to go.

They are more sturdy than I thought:

On my way to dinner tonight I made sure to take a photo of the hydrants - who knew that there was so much more to them - you, you probably knew, but now I do too!

Fredericton Market

I had my second Fredericton Market visit ever today. The first was back in 2007. Two lovely friends (Nicole & Andrew, who turns out read my blog so I'm not just saying lovely because they read it) picked me up and we spent some time walking around inside and out despite the hurricane-fringe weather.

There is much more to see, eat, smell and purchase outside of the market than in Halifax. I think this is great since more people are able to sell their goods and outside is typically nicer than inside. Today made for a little soggier than ideal conditions but that's what flip flops and a raincoat are for:

So many vendors to choose from

I picked up some local veggies and fruits and made fast friends (although I'm sure he doesn't know it - yet) with one of the older gentleman vendors. I went to buy an onion, it came to $1.50, and he then just asked me to pay $1.25 then just asked for $1.00. All the while I didn't say one thing - I will now be a faithful customer, all for saving 50 cents, this man has a good business sense! Maybe he sensed I am now on a student budget?

One of the most important things at this market (I've learned over the years) is their samosas.  I love things that are only 90 cents and are REALLY tasty!

OM NOM NOM!

My market fresh picks: yellow plums (AMAZING), apples, a sundried tomato chicken sausage, corn, my $1 onion, garlic and homemade pesto. I think I paid about $15 for this, hooray for the market!!

Dear Market, I will be back next week to buy more of your tasty, local treats!

Moved In Apartment Post

It seems my move to Fredericton might have affected my creativity for blog entries - hopefully it will pass.

Things are much more settled in now, with most of my things having a home. I don't really have a place for one of my two wooden (put it together yourself type) bookshelves or really stuff to put on it so that's probably not a bad thing.

So lets take a tour shall we...

When you come in the door, to your left. I'm
not sure about the hook for my purse/keys, but
it's better than loosing keys all of the time.

Due to a lack of a desk/table I have been using my stability ball and patio furniture chair (note: I don't have a patio here, they were just the best chairs to fit in the van since they folded).

The main space, those windows are HUGE! I had to get 3
panels to actually cover them, no complaints here!

The same wall the door is on. I have bunny ears, but they sadly
do not work in Fredericton. So I just kind of have a GIANT
paper weight on the table, oh well!

Another one of the main room, very little furniture, a whole lot
of floor.

One last one, I mean I DO only have one real room!

There are two nice big windows in the kitchen as well. When I get my table I'll be placing it direcly under them, I'm hoping for a perfect fit:

The main room loops into the kitchen which is a HUGE step up
from my last kitchen!

My spices/baking things have a proper home!! These shelves were made for them (or I'm going to think that way at least):

Cute and functional shelves + Kurt Halsey = top notch kitchen

Now the window is at my back,
CHECK OUT THAT COUNTER SPACE!!!

One last peek at the kitchen. I really like the
floors (they are ceramic tile).

I left my percolator at Greg's place (silly forgetful me) and it seemed like a waste of money to buy a new one since I'll be able to pick it up just next weekend. So I bought this french press to get my through:

Precious, precious coffee provider

This makes me feel like I have turned a part of my place into dressing quarters, complete with a mirror,  dresser and fully stocked closet:

To the left when you enter the door (the kitchen
is to the right of where you are looking)

Land of the Clothing!
Complete with a light in the closet - amazing!

I am very impressed with the bathroom, it was recently renovated and has ceramic tile on the floor (and on the walls around the tub which I thought was interestly nice). There is also a window in here, which is something I haven't had in 4 years. I just need to be careful of creepers while showering - eep!

I really like the sink!

In fact, I like the sink so much you'll get a better photo of it, that includes me and my thumbs up for approval:

So there it is. My home for the next year. I have a few more things other than the table to bring from Halifax but eventually I will be 100% moved in!