hello calgary!

jody st. onge

courtneyjohnston — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 23:09:31 +0000

we came across this artist by chance, her work was hanging in starbucks and we both immediately agreed that we loved it. We met Jody (she works at the starbucks) and contacted her studio. We purchased two pieces and learned more about Jody in the process, she’s a recipient of The Jane Cameron Award for Artists with Down Syndrome.

One of her pieces is below, I’ll post pics of the two we bought when Scott fixes our photos area.

state of the union - calgary update

courtneyjohnston — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:47:45 +0000

it’s been wayyy too long so here’s a quick update:

-i bought new skis this last winter (first time since high school!) and have become a skiier again, i love skiing on the mountains, super fun. But i have discovered that i am much more of scaredy cat than i was in high school. And, always wear your helmet.

-we celebrated scotty’s birthday in style last friday with a house party, scott got over-excited (ahem, totally trolleyed) and was out by about 11pm. we’ll fix the photos section and get it all updated with the pics, they are awesome.

-I went on my first river raft last sunday with my girls Krista and Jackie, basically its one of calgarys favourite pastimes, you get two cars, park them up and down river from each other, put your raft in, bring some snacks and some beer, and off you go! it was really fun, totally relaxing. I plan to do this every sunny weekend!

-Kyla (little sister #1) is due with a baby boy any day now, the nameless one is already pushing 8lbs so he’s going to be a big boy!

-Diana (little sister #2) quit smoking (yay!) and bought a new fancy truck, my niece lizzy turned 2 in Feb and little Greysen turned 1 in May (Sister Sister Heathers baby, i need a family drawing here scott…)

-Critical Mass Calgary is awesome, work is great, weather is so-so, and we are gearing up for the next Stampede and the next CM summer event!

cj’s calgary customer service awards

courtneyjohnston — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 03:32:17 +0000

I thought it might be time (since we’ve been here for a year) that we should offer our humble opinion on our favourite - and most hated service experiences in and around Calgary.

Best Overall Service

Sushi Club, Kensington
The Belvedere, Downtown
The Banff Springs/Bow Valley Grill
Big Fish, Renfrew

Sushi Club! We love Annie, she’s our regular server there, she’s so lovely, she remembers our names and our drinks and our favourite things to eat. And the food there is second to none, hands down best sushi in Calgary. But this is about service, not best sushi, that’s a whole other post.

The Belvedere - fantastic overall experience, the servers and the sommeliers are very helpful and informative - and the food is phenom.

Banff Springs - what to say? They are some of the best trained servers in the province, unbelievably friendly, polite, and they even match the cloth napkins to the colour of your pants! What’s not to love?

Big Fish - always consistent, reliable, helpful, friendly and such a cozy environment it feels like your in someone’s kitchen.

And here’s my favourite part, I really only have one place that the service is so truly atrocious, it warrants a letter writing campaign to the manager and multiple newspapers.

Worst Overall Service

Sushi Towa, 4th Street SW

This place has pretty run-of-the-mill food, but they have one server who thinks he’s got 3 freakin Michelin stars stamped on his forehead. He has the worst attitude, manners, tone, and he is completely oblivious to the very basics of customer service. We simply call him “the ponytail”. We went with a group on Friday night (after a few month of boycotting because Scott hates that guy so much) we heard he got fired so we went back. This was after Scott told the manager HE was the reason we would never return. But, as luck would have it, he still works there. BOOOO. But we gave it a chance, and it wasn’t so bad until the end of the night. We had paid up and we were sitting around finishing our drinks when “the ponytail” asked us to leave our table so he could seat other people. Not cool dude. Not cool. So we are DONE with that place, but not before I tell the world not to go there

one amaaaaaaaazing weekend

courtneyjohnston — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:46:56 +0000

I turned 30 last week and for my birthday weekend Scotty booked me Friday off as a surprise and he & Bern arranged for two of my college girlfriends to fly out for the whole weekend and suprise the crap out of me! It’s been a few years since the fearsome foursome (bern, tan, cj & lo) were all together and it was FAB! We laughed, we cried, we gossiped, we shared secrets, it was fantastic, it was almost like medicine! I’ll post pics shortly. My friends Sara & Brett hosted a joint cj/jackie birthday party at their beautiful house and it was such fun, Pearson (their dog) is a spoiled little devil but I love him! Bernadette also brought us this documentary called “The Secret” and it was pretty neat, all about positive visualization, very very cool. So all in all, a really solid weekend with my most favourite people, so really making it my favourite weekend.

ps: On Saturday night, Lois busted out her own version of the Robot, now called the Lobot, we do have video and I’ve threatened to put it on YouTube but I think she might sue me…

a heavy heart

courtneyjohnston — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:52:38 +0000

We found out today that our missing sister, also known as ‘x’ (or March 30 1979) has declined all communication or contact with us through a veto. This means that we will never meet her or have her in our lives. I hope that she’s happy, I hope that her life is good, but I feel that we’ve lost a little something today. I suppose you could treat it like someone died, I feel all the same things, anger, denial…I even tried to rationalize it by thinking that her parents never told her and they submitted the veto for her. Kyla suggested that those forms have a *yeah maybe one day we can hang out* option�rather than a� *nope, never, no thanks.*

It sucks, and I’m sad. But I’m also twice blessed to have Di & Kys (and Heather doesnt know it yet, but I’m making her our�sister too - she’s Di’s sister) and their families. I’ve been this lucky so far and I won’t take that for granted. But there is a part of me that thinks that she has no idea what she’s missing because MAN we are a fun group of girls to hang out with.

�

msn messenger window offends children everywhere

courtneyjohnston — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:21:10 +0000

I had to post this to tell the world that the chumps running the show for sympatico msn must be asleep at the wheel. You know that little video ticker at the bottom of your windows live messenger window? It’s usually rife with spelling errors and out of date information and I’m tired of it. So today I got pushed over the edge when I caught this little tidbit:

It may be a little teeny tiny cussword, but kids everywhere just learned a new swearword and will repeat it at the playground, get sent to the pricipals office, try to blame the internet and then get suspended, become disillusioned with the education system and adults in general, become a teenager and then steal my car - THANKS MSN. Wake up you slackers.

our first year in calgary

courtneyjohnston — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:19:52 +0000

our first year has come and gone in a flash, hard to believe it’s gone so quickly. It’s truly been fantastic here, and I think we’ll end up staying longer than we anticipated. Calgary has some shortcomings (hello - recycling pickup would be nice Mayor Bronconnier) but the positives definately outweigh them all. Did you know that one of the favourite summer pastimes of Calgarians is grabbing a cooler of bevvies and snacks, jumping in a raft and lazing down the river on a sunny day? Depending on water levels you can actually spend about 3-4 hours floating down the Bow river.

We are one hour from Banff, 3 hours from BC, 2 hours to my sisters in Lethbridge,�1 hour flight to Vancouver, closer to Maui than Florida, and on a sunny day we can see the rockies from our living room : ) We still have much to explore in our western adventure, this summer we plan on going houseboating in the Shuswaps in BC, do loads of camping in the rockies and I’m going to buy new skis and ski boots for next winter and scott wants to learn how to snowboard.

The long and short of it, Calgary is great, our�careers are challenging but fantastic, we’ve met some truly superb friends and I LOVE the sunshine, so please save your pennies for a visit, we have a really cozy guest room (ask bern) just waiting for visitors!

comments are back on

courtneyjohnston — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:59:25 +0000

stupid blog. comments are back on again.

: )

Courtney’s Celebrity Look-alikes

scottweisbrod — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:59:42 +0000

Scott’s Celebrity Look-alikes

scottweisbrod — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:45:05 +0000