Chickens and Growing a Beard in Banff

My weekend was rather uneventful which was fine by me.  I had a brief chance to see my old roommate, Andrew, on Saturday which was lovely.  Other than that, I did a lot of sleeping - which I needed - and relaxing.  As always, Monday came too quickly.

After a not so great morning full of minor issues and forgetfulness, I arrived at work in a bit of a daze yesterday.  I decided to go in the back way since it is hot out and I wanted the air conditioner on.  As I went in the door, I saw something peculiar.  A chicken.  A fairly big chicken (fat) who was tied by the leg to the back door - sort of like when a dog gets tied just outside a store while its owner heads inside quickly.  It was just sitting there, chilling.  Very odd.

Had I not been in such a daze, I would have taken a picture.  I tried to do so again later, but there were too many people downstairs and I didn't want to risk looking ridiculous and unprofessional.

I was given an interesting project to work on yesterday.  It's for a Polo Club in another country.  I met the architect who, as it turns out, lived in Canada for two years.  He told me stories about how he passed through Banff on his way from Montreal to Vancouver and just fell in love with the place - and with a Russian-Canadian artist who specialized in Native portraits - Nicholas de Grandmaison.  Now I'm not sure if he meant love as in relationship love or just love as in artwork/artist love.  Regardless, that's awesome since his work is fabulous and I am always in awe of the personality that he captures in his portraits! Apparently this architect even grew his first beard in Banff.  He also told me about all the jobs he had, including working as a dishwasher at the Banff Springs hotel and as a bartender at a local bar.  Anyway, my encounter with him definitely made my day - even more so than the chicken...

We haven't had internet at home now since sometime between when I went to bed on Sunday and got up on Monday.  This is frustrating because I don't like it when I am unable to talk to mom and Bart.  This is the joy of sharing internet with other people in the building - except it is such a pain when they are not home and able to restart the router or fix the issue, etc.  We have been looking into getting out own internet, which I hope we do soon!

I can't believe it is July this week!  Can you?