taking no prisoners and working over time.

I don't know if it is me but... people are strange. People exaggerate or stretch the truth somewhat. I couldn't do it. The guilt would eat me alive. Yet I work with people who do just this. On websites, blogs and facebook, their job titles and responsibilities couldn't be further from the truth. Or slightly altered to his or her advantage. I couldn't do it. Why don't they realize they could get called on such facts? I do not know why this irks me so but it does. Tell the truth. What's so difficult about that?


I can see through pretentious people and drives me nuts. I work with a lot of them. Why can't everyone be for real, for real? This drives me absolutely bonkers.

And it's really difficult to pretend you like or even tolerate a person. It must be a talent. One I have yet to acquire.

So I am going to saute some swiss chard for lunch. My good buddy Jean gave me a whole whack of the green stuff yesterday. Now I usually just chop it up and eat it raw or in a salad. Today I am feeling adventurous so I thought I would give it a go. I'll post a lovely picture so you can see my creation later today.

I am sitting upright in bed with my laptop. It's about 9:30 in the morning on a Friday. I am sipping black coffee and listening to the CTV News. Finally a day off to recharge. It's been a tough go. I work next weekend again. All I can say is this trip out East better be worth it in October. I so mentally drained.

I have two friends who are off doing summer things for the rest of the month. I said I would keep a watchful eye on their homes. I don't mind particularly since one friend has a trampoline! I am so excited. To heck with the hot tub. Give me bounce time any time.

Yesterday I nearly had a breakdown because I couldn't find someone's house. Apparently there are subdivisions and rural subdivisions. Obviously I know what a subdivision is but a rural subdivision was news to me. It took me more than an hour and a half to find someone 8 kms away from the office. The damage- 58 kms later I reached the destination. Fortunately work will cover my mileage.

A few pictures from the 2008 Street Performers Festival in Grande Prairie

Honestly I took so many pics this past weekend I don't know which ones to put up.


The English Gents get a little help with a little one.


Vespa lifts a child and gives him a big smile.


Strong woman Betty Brawn from Australia gives us a pose. She ripped a book in half.


Magic Brian from New York easily gets out of the straight jacket for all to see.


Space Cowboy likes to swallow swords and he wows the audience each time.

We've had another shake up at work. Starting after the long weekend, I'll have a new boss. I am really really happy because with this change there will be a larger female presence in the office. And that's always a bonus. Right now I am procrastinating because I have writers' block on a story. Sometimes I just need a few minutes to let my mind wander and wander some more. I tell yah it's tough work being brilliant all the time.

A tall order of what?

I must say it's a bright and sun shiny day. This weekend I am going paint balling! Fittingly enough some of my asshole neighbours were having a paintball fight in my car lot. Fortunately my car was not there. The jerks splattered a white car and the back windows with bright pink paint. I asked a few people from behind the fence which faces my building but they pleaded innocent. Next time I will call the police. I was so busy these last few days that it slipped my mind to phone right away. But if were my car you bet I would have right away!

And so

Thanks for letting me know. Hopefully the link will work now.

I had a pretty good Monday. I managed to get a few calls in on some stories and move forward with my feature for Friday's paper. I still have tons of legwork to do though. I took the night off. I did some shopping and a power walk with my bud Jean.

Okay I have a funny story to share. Actually I don't know if I should tell because I might end up behind bars if I confess to this crime. I'll think about it a little more before I spill the beans. Stay tuned.

A teaser for what's to come

So I worked this past weekend. And lucky me I got to cover the 2008 Street Performers Festival. I had a great weekend where nothing too serious went wrong. Lots of photo opts all weekend. I'll post some more when I get the chance later tomorrow. Some of the good ones were used in a photo essay in today's paper. But I will post some of my favorites over the next few days. Check out the photos at www.dailyheraldtribune.com Look under local news.

You are right. Lucy, you rock my world because you are so smart. Yes it has to do with insects- butterflies to be exact. Great minds think alike or something like that. Have you seen many butterflies this summer? Come to think of it, I don't think I have. Here's another word for you, Luce, PONIARD.

I'll use it in a sentence.

Most days, I discreetly hide my poniard so not to raise alarms in my office. At night when I walk the dangerous streets of Grande Prairie, I carry my poniard firmly in my hand.

I took a few pics for the paper today. Other than that I don't feel like I did much. I did finish my gas feature in record time. I am a speed demon.

I wonder what it would be like to be a lepidopterist. Go ahead look it up on your trusty dictionary. I am at work now waiting for my coffee to kick in before I start transcribing an interview. Coffee helps at these times. I want to get this done before the end of the day so it makes my weekend easier. I get the scanner tonight- not fun- but that's the way it goes. I hope I can convince someone here at the playground to hold on it for an hour so I can run.

Not much to report in my world today. I am going to shoot a few pics for tomorrow's paper later this morning. That should be fun provided the skies don't open up.

Last night I went for two power walks-one by myself and the second one with my buddy Jean. Just like it is when we run, I was hard pressed to keep up with this super woman.

Anyway it's Wednesday and it feels like it is Thursday. I am hoping this is a calm weekend on the scanner. I can't say this enough. I hate carrying the scanner. I never sleep because of my scanner dreams.


That's Denise's puppy, Nova. Isn't she a cutie? They have another doggie called Kenya.

Summer is dragging on in the newsworld. Not much is happening in terms of city stuff. The schools are closed, and well there's nothing happening these days in the ever changing world of Alberta Health. So there are my two beats. We have a new reporter starting in a few weeks. That brings up the female vote in the office. I hope it will lighten the atmosphere.

I bought a new juice from Fruitopia- Pomegranate and Tangerine. It's a real fruit beverage so I am psyched. I hope it goes well with vodka. I'll let ya know.

Can you have SAD in the middle of the summer? Sometimes I wonder what the heck is wrong with me. I feel like I am in a funk or something. I feel like a ticking time bomb, where the slightest thing could set me off. Let's hope that doesn't happen. I agreed to work another long weekend in August. All these days are adding up so I'll have a good holiday in October. I can't wait. Maybe I should start thinking about writing my speech...Nah...I still have time.

I'm outside the office after photographing a small grass fire. My poor car drove over a field. I just washed my car on Thursday and now it looks like it hasn't been washed in months. I give up.

We were trying to identify this paw print. It looks larger than a dog or a coyote, doesn't it? I don't think it's a bear paw print but it could be. This was somewhere near Fort St. John so a bear print could be plausible. When Skylar and I hiked to the top of the mountain I was afraid a big black bear would be waiting for us as we went over. Fortunately there was not and we lived to hike another day.

I took my time driving back to Grande Prairie. I wanted to take in the beautiful landscape I sped through a few days before. I stopped a few times to breathe the air and marvel at the green of it all. I stopped in Dawson Creek to grab some newspapers. Then in Beaverlodge I stopped to take a pic of the big beaver because that's what everyone does.

Wonderful as it was, four days off wasn't nearly as much as I needed. When you're used to long long holidays it was down right pitiful but those days are over. Sigh! Now its' raining!

Yeah so on Thursday night I decided to take a drive to Fort St. John. Actually I planned on going Friday morning but Denise convinced me to come that night. The drive was pretty seamless until the rain started coming down outside of Beaverlodge. Thankfully it was only momentarily and I continued on my drive. I didn't waste any time because I wanted to get in before it was dark.

We had a good visit. We hiked a bit on Friday (and Skylar and I went very high) and had a few drinks. It was nice to get away from Grande Prairie.

I hate spiders and this one is no exception. We were looking at the flowers and noticed this ugly white spider suckling on this one. It changed colours a moment later (to green) to hide under the leaf. When I zoomed in to take another shot I nearly dropped my camera. The freakly little insect nearly gave me a heart attack.

glorious and free

I volunteered to shoot the fireworks. It was my first time so I was pretty freaked about getting it right. By the time I figured out a good shutter speed the fireworks were over! But I did manage to grace the front of our paper today with one of my shots.

I had an interesting Canada Day to say the least. It all started with a sheet of looseleaf and other random acts of dizziness on my part. I relayed the story too many times today. So much that I don't have the energy to write about it. Check out some of my photos on our website Look under the Local News section for a pdf of our colour spread of my Canada Day photos.

It's been a long much. I am taking tomorrow and Friday off to do absolutely nothing...well....that's what the plan is anyway. We'll see if I actually can sit still for a few hours.