Today is my sister Lala‘s birthday! She’s at work – my parents are in their RV – La’s youngest daughter is watching TV and Jake is running around chasing their poor Siamese cat. He’s in LOVE!! We’re finally getting used to the time change – we both slept in until 8am… just in time to have to go home of course.

I wasn’t going to give you a play-by-play of my time here but I have to share with you about my day yesterday in “The Prince”. 🙂

La, our Mom, Em’s & Foo (Her 2nd & 4th daughters), Jake and myself all hopped into her new 1967 baby blue Chevelle and headed into town to do some shopping.

First stop – Mariposa to return a blouse I bought on Sunday that didn’t end up fitting (I HATE HATE HATE trying on clothes in change rooms!). As it turns out…. MARIPOSA SUCKS! And yes I shouted that out for a reason. Apparently they do not do refunds – only exchanges. I wasn’t aware of this. The lady in training behind the counter who could barely key my item in the first place – never said anything. I never shop here and now I know why – they wouldn’t even give me a store credit. I’ll be taking Morg’s there after school today to see if she likes anything from that rip off store. K, venting is complete!

After that fiasco we headed over to the rest of the shopping strip where we ended up spending lots of money – but that’s besides the point… The final stop before heading home – while Ice Cream is melting in the trunk… was my favourite store, Reitmans… although I’m not sure they love us so much… While inside busily browsing all the racks — Foo stood and stared at this beautifully intriguing red box that just so happened to be at eye height for her by the front door. “What is this?” I’m sure she was asking in her head. A few seconds later….. the loudest buzzers were sounding. She had pulled the fire alarm. The store clerks had no clue how to turn it off. The entire plaza was ringing. The firemen came and they couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. We continued to do our shopping. I bought a lovely pair of black Capri’s btw, so did my Mom and Lala. Foo felt so bad – she went up to the clerk and gave a hugely deep apology to which the clerk responded snarly, “You can thank the Fireman for having to come too.” Then she made some comments to another lady about wanting to kill the little girl who set off the alarm. La was standing right in front of her. Foo went and found the fireman – on her own – and said sorry to him too. She was sorry. She was so incredibly sad.

When we got home – there waiting for us was Waawee, my cousin (Mugwumpmom‘s sister) who now lives up here in the North – well… about an 1 1/2 hours away in the “hoof”. She came down for dinner. An hour later my Aunt Marion and her two youngest daughters (my cousins Vic & Steph) came over. They live on a huge – no massive – ranch about 3 hours from here. We had a wonderful dinner together and a time to reconnect and talk and get caught up before they all had to leave. They didn’t have to get back ’cause it was getting dark — it doesn’t do that here! It’s still light enough to drive without lights at midnight!! My Aunt had to get back to put the dogs inside – they’ve had Grizzlies too close to where people are and they can’t be trusted. Some think they’ve been hunting in packs (which is unusual) and have killed horses and cows (which is unusual). The life of real life Cowboys – or Cowgirls in this case.

That’s it for now. I wish I could post some pictures for you. From our family dinner to the tree fort my Dad is building for the girls – that goes with the zip line he’s putting in!!! It’s been a great time with family – I can’t believe it is already half way until I head back home!! 🙁