I had such high hopes for this trip, few of which seem to be coming to fruition. On the first day that the weather in Winnipeg was perfect, I developed a summertime cold which caused me to abort my plans to go to the horse race track — something I really wanted to do.
(Not So) Happy Canada Day
Today is Canada Day, Canada’s July 4th if you will. Like in the States Canada uses this day as an opportunity to take a day off from work and party.
Because I expect a load of people to head nearby to what is known as The Forks for Canada Day celebrations I’ve decided to sleep in and leave my rental car parked in the hotel parking lot. The last thing I need is to go out and either not be able to get back to the hotel or not be able to find a parking space if I do. If I’m wrong about this and am feeling much better than when I type this (currently 18:36 CDT on Tuesday night) then I may attempt to head back to the race track for an afternoon of gambling.
Regardless I’m looking forward to, health permitting, a full day of photo shooting with a nighttime of photographing fireworks.
For The Second Day In A Row I Held My Tongue Because I’m A Tourist
As I mentioned yesterday I wound up shopping at The Bay in order to get a shirt which had long sleeves. The downtown “The Bay” store is a magnificent relic (seven floors and a basement) of retail history — think back to the days of Atlanta’s downtown Rich’s or Macy’s. I wound up buying two shirts, each of which was on clearance and had an additional 70% price reduction from the lowest marked price. The two shirts wound up costing me $12 CAD. At the time of purchase I was feeling okay so the plan was to wear one to the race track and one tonight for fireworks.
From The Bay I crossed the street to head to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Why did I wait until the weather was perfect before I went indoors to the gallery? Well, that’s a good question. I wish that I had a good answer.
Before purchasing my ticket I inquired about photography within the gallery to which I was told there was none allowed. I was okay with this and went ahead and purchased a ticket. However I nearly didn’t make it into the gallery since I was carrying what was deemed to be a large bag and that was asked to check it. When my reply (much to my surprise) was “That’s not going to happen. All of my valuables are in this bag.” I was stunned that the woman said “Okay, I’ll just call security and let them know that you are carrying that bag.”
The gallery had a lot of great stuff. However, I nearly lost my shit as I stood in one, very echoing room, trying to appreciate the art and all I could do was hear this young teenage girl blather loudly to one of the security guards who must have been a friend/relative. While I admit that we weren’t in a library it would have been nice if this girl had the decency to keep her voice down, or if the security guard to which she yammered to constantly for at least twenty minutes had told her to keep her voice down. This was another situation that had I been in the US I would have walked up to the yapper and confronted her.
Lest you think that I’m wound too tightly (still) or that I need to adjust my cold medication, here is an example of why I nearly lost my shit. In the rear of this exhibit (which was amazing btw (see today’s Website Of The Day) there was a small room in which a video about the artist’s life was being show. A part of the security guard’s rounds she would occasionally come to the room’s entrance followed on heel by Little Ms. Speakalot. The young girl would continue to talk loudly to the point that I almost could not hear the video.
One other interesting thing about the Winnipeg Art Gallery was that within the confines of their gift shop they have a gallery in which you can purchase, or even rent on a monthly basis, original artwork such as framed paintings and photographs. What a cool idea.
ITP Flickr Pic
Another shot from the zoo. I took a scant few photos yesterday and because of my crappy evening didn’t process a single one.
Some of the animals in the Winnipeg Zoo confused me. A Squirrel? Really? They also had Blue Jays on exhibit. And I waited to see one to make sure that they were the same Blue Jays that I’ve had in my yard for years and not some ginormous variety.
Take Three, They’re Small
I ate at a (horrible) Chinese buffet here for lunch the other day. Inside the fortune cookie, yes they give them out in Canada too, there were three fortunes:
- “Your ability to work in a group will make tomorrow successful.”
- “Soon someone new coming into your life will be a best friend.”
- “Your surrounding friends will take good care of you.”
Interesting, but somewhat disturbing when you append “in bed” to each.
And On The First Day Of The Seventh Month Paulie Vows To Eat Healthfully Again
I feel like a sack of shit. I’d be saying this even if this summertime cold hadn’t smacked my upside the head yesterday. For six months I’ve allowed myself to ignore the simple fact that I am eating myself to complete depression — something I’ve done before. So, even though I’m still on vacation and today is a Nation Holiday in Canada and I’ll get to experience the same one in America in a few days I’m putting the brakes on my poor eating habits.
My month of July is already overbooked so I’m not going to solicit help with exercising — I’ll just have to work that in as best as possible. Starting next Monday (July 6th) I’ll be including daily weigh-ins on the blog to cement the thought that “I am trying to lose weight and need to eat smarter” into my brain.
At What Point Is A Service Fee No Longer “LOW”?
I’ve been doing business with Ticket Alternative. I’ve supported the “little guy” because I have so much disdain toward the fees being charged by Ticketbastard.
On Sunday night I purchased a ticket for The Minus Five at The EARL in September. The ticket’s face value was $15.00 and on top of that Ticket Alternative added a $3.48 convenience fee. Depending on how you do the math, this is a fee of 23% (3.48 / 15.00) or if you want to be generous with the math ~19% (3.48 / 18.48).
Feeling this fee was a bit excessive for a company that touts “LOW convenience fees every day” I tweeted the following on Twitter
@MyTATix: Happy to do business with you (again) but worried that fees are creeping up. $3.48 fee on a $15 ticket to a show at The EARL. :^(
I heard nothing in response to this, and then on Tuesday morning Ticket Alternative posted the following
MyTATixToday (and every day) is LOW convenience fee day at Ticket Alternative!
Meh. I’m calling shenanigans and am wondering how much of a pain in the ass I want to be by pressing the issue further.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – bummed and somewhat ill
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Joe Fafard is the artist currently on exhibit at Winnipeg’s Art Gallery. His sculptures so amazed me that I purchased his book. CRAP! I just saw that Fafard was at the Gallery last Friday! DANGEN!
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – walking yesterday
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 0
Marta Rides – 0
July Goals
– Regain interest in my life
– Not get fired from my job
– Plan and lay a successful Black Sheep trail on July 19th
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
But it’s a red squirrel……. those aren’t as common.
Hey – does The Earl have a ticket office, or do you have buy the tickets online?
I’ve gotten to the point of only buying tickets where I can walk up & buy them, but I rarely go to concerts, so it doesn’t happen very often.
The Earl does not have a ticket office. You can buy tickets for shows there at Ticket Alternative or if you don’t think the show you want to see will sell out you can buy tickets at the door.
The squirrel, and even more so the fact that they had Blue Jays, on exhibit just struck me as funny. Also humorous was that they had a small Prairie Dog exhibit and what I assumed were Prairie Dogs were also everywhere in the zoo because they seem to be native to this part of the world.
I was joking about the squirrel – I think it is totally funny.
Whoops, I thought you were serious since red squirrels are much more rare than their gray counterparts. Must be my clogged passages or my numbed mind.
I just came back from the hotel’s breakfast. I was the only one wearing red on Canada Day. What’s wrong with these people? 😉
you just reminded me, I might have to look for something red/white/blue for this weekend.
Looks like you were the only one reading today Barb. 🙂