This post is going to be about the awesome summer I have been having out east and the new apartment that I am moving into for the fall, but before I get going on all this me, me, me material, I have an announcement to make.

That's right folks, 52 and she can still swing 20 metres into a giant rope net. In other words, she's still got it. In the 24 or so years that I've known her, she's been a pretty amazing lady and continues to surprise me all the time. When she called me to tell me that she would be moving out to Victoria, BC to pursue an opportunity to live on Canada's west coast, I was on a bus somewhere outside of Calgary and couldn't help thinking to myself 'huh, so that's what it feels like'. She does her best to lead by example by going out of her way to try new things and continually challenging herself. She has always been an inspirational role model for my brothers and I and we are all so grateful to call her our very own mum. Happy (belated) Birthday Mom!

Now back to me. Recently I undertook a trip to St John's to meet up with Cam, who was due to arrive on the 9th. Upon meeting up with Cam and his parents, we unloaded his entire car (which I truly wish I had a photo of to show you, because it was so crammed he literally could not drive the thing) and quickly decided that we did not have enough furniture. Over the next couple of days, we saw some of the sights around town, showing Cam's parents some of St John's' highlights and also did a bit of furniture shopping.

Since this was the first time I have been in the situation where a 4 bedroom apartment has had to be furnished almost completely from scratch, it seemed a little daunting. However, after hitting every thrift store and yard sale in town, we had spent $150 on furniture and had come out with a dinner set, sofa, four end tables, two coffee tables, kitchen utensils, a toaster, slow cooker and one gloriously ugly chair, as pictured above.

On top of the impressive haul of furniture we acquired, I managed to find myself a queen sized bed set and Cam picked up a bicycle. We were about 5 minutes late to pick up a perfectly good chop saw for $10 and were pretty close to buying a chain saw that was likely older than we are for $30. One can get a little carried away when yard sale-ing.

In other news, the summer has really blown past. I'm not sure when it suddenly became the middle of August, because the last thing I remember was it being the beginning of July. The weather has been amazing and of late we have been amazingly busy. It seems we get one light day per week. This week, it was today; we had two rafts out and were accompanied by a very generous rain cloud. Last Friday, two paddlers were out. Every other day we have anywhere from 3-5 rafts going out. This is definitely how the summer should be, big crowds out every day, sunny days and big splashes!

Hopefully these sunny days can hold out just a little longer. In about two weeks I'll be heading to St John's to prep for the fall semester and settle back into city life. Going to enjoy these dog days of summer and get the most out of this river lifestyle. Oh and I guess at some point I've also got to finish that damned desk...