Last night to celebrate our third year anniversary I took Jenna out to Lux Steakhouse and without a doubt it was the best meal of my life. I have eaten a lot of good food in my day but last night was epic. In a no holds barred feast I enjoyed a 9 oz. $30 fillet mignon and Jenna and I split $12 lobster macaroni and cheese. I have been to the Keg a few times and always left pleased but Lux beat it hands down.

I also judge restaurants by their bathrooms and Lux one that battle too. There were ice cubs in the urinal. At first I was disturbed but soon found immense pleasure in this. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend it. The rest of the anniversary was grand too but that steak was divine”

In my last post I mentioned I have had a few mis-adventures using public transportation. My concern (or fear if you will) started when Mother and I went to Montreal back when I was in Junior High School. Our plan was to go to the Museum of Civilization from our hotel via the buses. I was on watch duty and if I saw the Museum, pull the chord and we’d get off at the next stop.

I never saw the Museum. And once we had been on the bus for an hour it became apparent that the museum was not where we were. The plus side of this was that we were able to get a nice country side ride through the rural scene. But when we had to figure out how to get back with a French speaking bus driver I was a little concerned. In the end we were able to get back in the right direction and actually go to the Museum, almost two hours later than expected.

Since then I have always been a little hesitant of buses and their train brethren. When I started dating Jenna I didn’t have access to a vehicle so I would bus over to the University campus and then bus back to NAIT. On our first date the bus I arrived on (#140?) stopped running almost an hour earlier. So I took the LRT to Rexall Place (then known as Skyreach) and waited for the #109 (or #9?) to appear on 118th Ave. It didn’t, and I waited for over thirty minutes. I decided to walk the thirty-plus blocks back to my apartment and not once did a #109 / #9 bus go by me.

Every date after that when I was making my way back to NAIT posed a challenge. The next time I took the LRT to Corona, then caught a bus that took me somewhere else and was hopefully close to home. This route was given to me by Nora. The other time I took the LRT to Northlands and walked to NAIT. I did a lot of walking back then when I was unable to navigate the late night labyrinth. After that I was able to use a vehicle and never had a problem with ETS but I am still uncertain of taking it. Especially if I have to go alone because I always think back to Montreal. It’s like my bad experience with E.T., I just can’t shake that initial fear no matter how much time has passed, perhaps that will be for another day as well.

When I went to Vancouver in April and August this year I had to rely on public transportation a few times and based on my prior experience I was very worried, especially when you consider there are different zones and multiple ways to get around (SeaBus, SkyTrain and regular buses). But once I did some research I had no problems at all. The system is great over there with clear routes and on some stops the ETA for the next route arrival.

In fact I found it easier to use than Edmonton’s and would gladly take public transportation in Vancouver but would look for alternate options if I had to do so in Edmonton. Thanks to Corine I have seen the bus map she uses in Japan and the ETS doesn’t seem that bad at all but I would probably still end up riding one line all the way until the end never seeing my stop. So there you have it, those are the public transportations woes of a small town boy trying to get around in big city Edmonton.

Update: I used the more” link for this post because it was kind of long’and I wanted to see how it turned out. If the margins were wider on this theme then it may not be an issue. But seeing as I like to write a lot maybe it’s a user problem.

Today is the 18th. For most people it means that the most recent installment of the Harry Potter movies is released. November 18th is a pretty special day, a few interesting things went down on this day in history. In 1307 William Tell shot an apple off of his son?s head. Ontario passed a law making seatbelts mandatory and lowered the speed limit to conserve energy?that was thirty years ago and oddly enough I don?t think either are followed that closely these days. And in 1883 standard time zones were established by railroads in US and Canada.

Interestingly enough, there is some Harry Potter history tied in with 11/18. Did you know that it was 18 years ago that 31 people died at the King?s Cross station because of a fire? No mention on which platform it was, but I think 9 3/4 survived. Of course there is one bit of trivia you won?t find online about November 18th, it marks the day that Jenna and I went on our first date.

We were setup by a mutual friend (I went to High School with Nora, and Jenna was in Nursing with her at the U of A), and around the end of October we started talking over email and eventually progressed to phone calls. After a few more phone calls the date was set where we would actually meet, because up until then we hadn?t seen what the other looked like.

After a bus incident (I am still uncertain of buses in Edmonton and Montreal, more on that another day) and walking by each other once we had some hot chocolate on campus and then walked to Emily Murphy Park where we got to know each other more. We became acquainted with the couches in Education and the taste of campus food from Wendy?s. After a few more transit experiences and exploring of the campus hallways in the evening we were a couple. Fast forward three years later and what started out as a quasi-blind date is going better than I could have imagined.

So, this is for you dear – thanks for the laughter, the great memories and being my best friend. Love ya!

A few weeks back I talked about the hierarchy of organization in our house. Well in the last week there has been some dramatic improvements and it seems that hierarchy is about to be reworked. Once we removed the fridge it was down to business for Dad who got a start on cleaning up the mess.

Let’s break it down and do some math on this.

We went through one of these in the week, filled three of these and in the end gave me this. That’s right folks, you are looking at two exposed walls in our basement, something that we have only dreamed of. Due to some crazy health and safety regulations I’m unable to show you any before pictures of the basement – I think seeing the mess would have turned you to stone or something, but you can knock yourselves out by looking at some more pictures of the trailer and the newly cleaned out basement.

Trailer 1, Trailer 3, Trailer 4, Trailer 5, Basement 2, Basement 3

It’s amazing what you can find in the basement. In Basement 2 the brown box standing on its end to the right; that’s vintage Louis Vuitton dated about thirty years back. We also have an old one-armed bandit that Dad picked up for cheap probably around the same era.

We have a lot of stuff but some of it is pretty neat. There is an unopened vintage Coke bottle downstairs (that I almost broke), which would probably go nicely in the old Coca-Cola cooler we have as well. Although I think in order to get neat stuff, you need to have a pretty high quota of junk.

I have been playing a lot of NHL97 on Sega the last few days and it’s a blast. The scrolling-image problem only seemed to occur on the 65″ TV as it doesn’t happen on the Wega in my room. I am still terrible at Mortal Kombat, there was a time I knew the finishing moves (or any special moves for that matter) for most of the players but now I just hit the pad and hope for the best.