This post is based on my e-mailed response to a couple of questions I got from another LiveJournal user who is planning a move to Calgary ( Read more... )

Andrew and I revisited Service Canada and the Alberta Registry today to kick off our second round of dropping off forms to all the federal and provincial agencies who need to know that we and the car have permission to live in Canada for a second year ( Read more... )

Our renewed work permits through Aug. 1, 2009, arrived in yesterday's mail. We each have permission to live and work in Canada until then.

Andrew's permit has always been painfully specific. It states which employer and which position he is allowed to work in, then goes on in explicit detail about how he is not permitted to attend any school during ( Read more... )

It's been happening to me since the first day I set foot in Canada. It's the locks on stalls in public washrooms (they are almost always called washroom here, not restroom or bathroom). Of course, I know how to work one with just a bar that slides back and forth. The problem is with the ones that have a turn dial. Back home, these things function ( Read more... )

This process took place a while ago, but I didn't think to write about it. The information I had from online sources was not entirely helpful in actually navigating the process. At least the real people involved were patient and helpful.

According to the online source, getting a driver license in Alberta is easy for a person who already has one from ( Read more... )

Because I like the smell and feel of sun-dried clothing and because I am cheap and don’t like wasting electricity on the clothes dryer when the sun and wind can do the same job, I purchased a drying rack and have placed it on the patio. We don’t have a way to hang a clothesline here without ruining some vinyl siding ( Read more... )

I think the city library system in Calgary is super. There are about 20 library branches, and a person can take materials from any branch and return them to any branch. Materials can be transferred from one branch to another so that if the branch I find myself at doesn’t have the item I want, I can have it sent from another branch to the one ( Read more... )

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was formed through the merger of The Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada in the 1960s, Canada’s largest bank merger fore or since. The two banks were each upwards of 90 years old at the time.

It’s unbelievable that such an enormous banking corporation could actually provide decent customer ( Read more... )

Whether or not there was a local branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism was one of the deciding factors for Andrew on whether he would accept a job. I’m happy to report that our welcome to the Barony of Montengarde (pronounced mon-tun-guard), Principality of Avacal (pronounced av-uh-call or av-uh-cal) has been pretty warm.

The Barony has an ( Read more... )

The sun sets much later up here. There is still enough light left to read by until after 9 p.m., and the twilight is long. It’s not full dark until after 10 p.m. at the end of July, later in June. Back in Wisconsin, it was already full dark shortly after 9 p.m. at this time of year.

There is plenty of light for us to romp around downtown, so we hop ( Read more... )