My Excellent Adventure

I've been feeling a bit restless lately, so I took a road trip to spend a few hours in my old stomping grounds.

I miss Whyte Ave in Edmonton. It's a busy street not too far from the university, full of people from all walks of life and some really great stores. I woke up this morning, knowing that I needed to spend a few hours there, so off I went.

First, I went to The Wee Book Inn, which is the best used book store that I've found. It's got a huge selection, is very well organized and generally their books are in almost new state... only they cost less than half what you'd pay for new. I really miss having a good used book store nearby. If you order second hand books on line, you can often spend almost as much on shipping as you'd pay for the book itself. ... Which explains my addiction to Amazon.

Then I meandered down the the Plaid Giraffe, which is purse nirvana for me. It's got a lot of other stuff - jewelry, accessories and gifts too - but it's their purses that I love. I've still got a moratorium on new purses, though, so I didn't buy anything from them this time.

Wandering down a bit further, I discovered a new store, called The Wish List gift store. It's owned and operated by animal lovers, so has lots of pet related gifts and artsy supplies such as funky bowls and leashes/collars. It's not just pet stuff, though. As I leaned in to inspect a collar that I was contemplating for Tallulah, a framed picture caught my eye. I ended up buying it and taking it home.

It took a bit of thinking to decide where this should go. Some might deem it inappropriate to have in the public areas of the house, but I decided not to worry about them. I put it in the front foyer, on the wall opposite the front door. I'll consider it a forewarning. If you're offended, don't come in.

After that, I treated myself to a cobb salad for a late lunch, and then headed off to G & E Pharmacy, which is really more of a pet & animal supply store. They've got great prices that I bought 2 months' worth of supplies and saved $55 on what I'd pay locally.

Finally, I headed over to Ikea, which was total chaos, as usual. I had a couple of things in mind that I wanted, but didn't have much luck. I did find a big woven basket that looks like a crown, which had me convinced it would be perfect to hold the TP. (Get it - bathroom... throne... crown?!?) I managed to talk myself into not buying it, but now that I'm home I wish I did. Maybe next time.

And that was the end of my excellent adventure. Edmonton is quite a bit colder than it is here; and when the blowing snow started I worried about the roads. I'm going to go back again soon, though. When I first moved here, I went up every other week or so. That's maybe too much; but for the last few years I've only made a few trips a year. After today, I think I'll be doing it a lot more often.