Stampede

I have decided that I hate working in Calgary during Stampede. It's too hot to sleep, and as soon as I do sleep, the fireworks go off. Then I get to sleep again just in time for all the drunks to make it back to our neighborhood screaming. Veterinary clinics do not close for Stampede, and they don't pay their employees to stand around eating pancakes and drinking beer like the downtown workers, which leaves me rather jealous. So as I am self-employed, I was able to decide that I no longer work that part of July. I had my cousin's 13 and 15 year old daughters come to Calgary, and took them to Stampede instead.

We had a lot of fun. Mike and I are old and boring, and I get motion sickness VERY easily, so we set them loose on the rides and had them check in with us at regular intervals. Thank goodness for cell phones.

My inner redneck LOVES watching motocross. There wasn't any there, but there was a fun BMX show. It'll do.



Mike was rather obsessed with eating as many foods "on a stick" that he could find.

He had a corndog, and ice cream on a stick, but his favorite was pizza on a stick.
We all agreed it was quite tasty.


I also enjoyed the pickle kabob on a stick:

My favorite indulgence was the funnel cake. Mike's cell phone camera managed to capture the holiness of the crumbs and powdered sugar left on the plate:

It's a good thing we went over several days. Especially since Davina was on a successful quest for deep fried oreos. That's too much grease for a single visit.

I wasn't sure how a boring couple of people like Mike and myself were going to entertain teenagers. What I forgot is that when I was a teenager, there was no internet! Give them a laptop and they can amuse themselves for hours. Mike was giving free geek lessons. Katie is a star pupil:


Davina and Katie are fun and smart kids, and we enjoyed having them around. I managed to keep the cat allergens in our house from killing Davina by drugging her with antihistamines every few hours. I'm not sure her lungs would have survived a longer visit, though. I sent them home with the first season of Veronica Mars. They of course became immediate addicts and I had to ship them seasons 2 and 3 ASAP.


I wonder if I'm brave enough to do it again next year?