Halifaxin it up...

My daughter Maeve had her first plane ride a couple days ago. The red-eye from Edmonton to Halifax. It was actually the shortest flight I've ever taken to Halifax as well, lasting a mere 4 hours! We left at 11pm Edmonton time (Mountain Standard) and arrived at 6am Halifax time (Atlantic).

Maeve slept about an hour and Shanda and myself got little to no sleep, but we knew upon arrival we'd be able to rest all day if we really wanted to, so we tried not to stress too much and just tried to keep our 20 month old monkey from kicking the seat in front of her too much.

I've actually never seen so many babies on a plane. Everyone had the same idea - if we take a red-eye, the babies will likely sleep. Everyone came to the same conclusion on the plane... These babies ain't sleepin'.

Anyway, so Day 1 (Monday) we hung out with my mom and Jim and got to see their awesome house for the first time. Their back yard is a slanted English garden with natural rock protruding through the grass and plenty of different types of shrubs, trees, and plants... they've obviously spent a lot of time on it and to hang out on their deck and enjoy the yard is very relaxing. Very private too. We filled an inflatable pool that looks like an Alligator in the morning and after we had a nap Maeve enjoyed the pool and it's built in sprinkler for an hour or so. They happened to have some leftover Lobster from the night before so I had a cold lobster tail for dinner. We mainly just hung out and talked for a while and before too long we all hit the hay.

Day 2 mom and Jim went to work so Shanda and I watched Premonition in the morning and Norbit in the afternoon. We had a great grilled marinated chicken dinner with tossed salad, corn on the cob, and BBQ'd potatos. After dinner we went to the local park so Maeve could go on the swings and slides and stuff...

Today we slept in a bit and met my mom for lunch downtown. We had some GREAT fish and chips, calamari, and Haddock Tips on the Harbourfront (which has become our tradition every time we visit) and we walked around with Maeve and looked at the boats/ships/tugs/etc. Afterward we walked around some more and Maeve fell asleep on the drive form downtown back to the house (which is really only a 15 minute drive). Shanda and Maeve are now napping and I was gonna watch a movie but thought I'd update my blog with some personal stuff since most of it has been band related for the last while.

Tonight we have no plans so we might get my mom (who Maeve calls Oma) and Jim (who Maeve calls Yim) to watch her while we go see the simpsons movie! I wanna see Transformers too while I'm here. Movies are only a nickel here because the economy is so bad. That's a joke.

Things on my personal to-do list are: catch up on some movies, check out the busker's festival which starts tomorrow and lasts until we leave (that's all on the harbour), go on a tour of Alexander Keith's brewery, take Maeve to Fisherman's Wharf and a beach, and go to the Blues Festival in Dartmouth on the weekend. Other than that I'm just goin with the flow and will likely finish reading Angels and Demons while I'm here as well.

On a lucky note, I just found out that a $250 microphone I thought was stolen at an event I videotaped was recovered - someone grabbed it thinking it was theirs and they actually returned it to the venue (who knew it was mine). Sweet! Shanda was mad at me for that one - but I kept saying I think it'll turn up, and it did! Good ol' positive thinking.

As a related note, don't ever argue over hypethetical situations... In the case of something that may be lost or stolen, it's always best to give it a grace period of a week or so before you scream at your spouse. Which, is exactly what I told Shanda! I said, let's wait a little while, and if it doesn't turn up, then you can yell at me. Now that it has, all I can say is PHEW. If you've ever had Shanda yell at you, you know what I mean... haha (I'm just writing this cause Shanda never reads my blog, and when she finally does, she'll say HEY! and I'll say "if you loved me you would've read it months ago"... That's where we're at in our marriage. She used to read my blog every day. I'M KIDDING!

So there, you just killed five minutes. Have a good one.

Did you buy Nucularboy yet??