The Rest of the Summer Roundup!

I'm determined to finish off our summer adventures before November starts...so here it is, one last mad dash through July and August!

When we got home from our BC holiday, our friend Jennifer was at our house. She'd been feeding the cats while we were away, and working on recording her second album at a studio here in town. She asked us to join her and a couple of other people to sing background 'alleluias' for one of her songs! Of course, we couldn't say no to a request like that! :) But I was terrified of single-handedly wrecking her CD! Luckily, by the time the producer had us sing the melody and the harmony, and then run it through whatever computer magic, our little group sounded like a huge choir and my voice was indistinguishable from the rest.

One of my least favourite things about living in Calgary is (after the weather) Stampede. I could rant about it, but suffice to say that I don't enjoy it much. But this year we decided to get up earl and go on the morning where you can get in free if you go before a certain time. One of the big things this year was a figure skating show with Salle and Pelletier, of whom I'm a big fan. I was a bit underwhelmed, although that's probably because I'd gotten up early, and had to battle crowds, which is one of the reasons why I generally avoid Stampede. We went on the Ferris wheel, and I 'won' a stuffed minion (from Despicable Me) on the midway. We had fresh squeezed lemonade and mini doughnuts and hot dogs. We checked out the critters and watched the sheep shearing.

And of course we checked out the vendors, where I managed to get away without buying much of anything except some Tupperware, which I'd been looking for anyway. We were getting to our limit of interest, but we took a quick stroll through the crafting displays, and I found this gem of a Harry Potter cake. Pictures cannot do it justice - it was a masterpiece, and clearly created by someone with an abiding love for all things Potter. The detail is incredible!

Later in July we went up to Drumheller to the Passion Play. They have it there every year, and this is the third or fourth time I've been. They change the script up a bit - drawing on different Gospels - and this year was fabulous as always. We took a couple of youth from our church, and camped nearby. It was lots of fun, and we're hoping to do some youth camping again next year.

My post-road trip highlight was attending When Words Collide, a reader-con here in NW Calgary. A friend and I went together, and enjoyed meeting people, people-watching, hanging out with mutual acquaintances, attending panels, and generally being inspired in our literary ambitions. We're definitely planning to go back next year - it was SUCH a fun time.

And rounding off August, we spontaneously decided to go to Global Fest when we were offered the use of a pass. Global Fest happens in Calgary every year - it's about a week long, and each afternoon/evening there's a festival hosted by a different country, including fireworks. The night we went was hosted by the Philippines, and the fireworks were spectacular. They must have gone on for 20 minutes, and they kept getting better and better. If you've never been, I do recommend it!

Now that summer is over and I'm full-swing into midterms, planning a youth retreat that's happening next weekend, co-chair for the district youth gathering happening in July, trying to launch a business, working on an additional project for a conference, and trying to keep the house from falling apart and attempting on top of that to have something of a social life...things are pretty hectic! Good, but hectic. :)