Mission: Accomplished

I’ll start off by apologizing for the reference to Mr. Asshat Cruise. Just what you need for my first post back, eh? Well, dear readers, I’m here to tell you that he can’t be all that bad. I didn’t believe it myself until fate intervened and blessed us with the same wedding song. Yes, it’s true— but I guess that’s what we get for having our kayaking guide plan our wedding for us! (He only knew how to sing the Top Gun and Dirty Dancing soundtracks…)

Anywho, enough with T. Cruise. More importantly: we made it! My body is still vibrating from the sixteen or so hours in the van yesterday, but we are safe and sound, and the best news is: the mural is gone!

The drive to Calgary was pretty nerve-wracking. I have an overactive imagination at the best of times, but the whole way there, I had horrible thoughts about the mural dying a slow and painful death. In one scenario, the ferry would groan and sink, and we’d be clinging to a mural panel to stay afloat, a la Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic (ooooh, Leo!). In another, a nasty collision with a semi truck would crack the mural like a melon (never mind probably killing us instantly—it’s the mural I was more worried about, though!) It didn’t help that the mural was coated with milky stains due to an unfortunate varnish mix-up; basically, the whole way there, we didn’t know if we could salvage it, or if Marty would have to do the whole thing over (NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! That would be even worse than anything my doom-plagued imagination could conjure up!)

Well, the weather cooperated on the highways and a little bit of ammonia went a long way to clear up the face of the mural. We installed it on Saturday, and now we can officially be done with it forever. (That also means I won’t ever write about it again, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief- huzzah!)

Otherwise, the visit to Calgary was pretty rushed. We visited with Marty’s parents, my dad, sister, and cat (Nigel!), and a few of our friends over tea. We hit up some of our favourite places—Cadence and the Diner Deluxe-- and went to our storage to fetch some more essentials. I’m pleased to say that we now have a bed and a couch—yeah, we can now curl our asses into the lap of luxury!

Anyway, I’m still getting re-acclimatized to our life on the coast and catching up on e-mails and blog reads. Tune in tomorrow for another update and the unveiling of a new blog feature!