Family Visit

It's been a lovely past few days. My parents and sister were in Edmonton for an overlapping three days and it warmed my heart to have everyone together again. Unfortunately I had to work, but took Thursday off to show them around a bit, have lunch at Daawat (loved their tandoori and coconut naan), and stop in at Canadian Tire (fun fact: the largest one in Canada) to pick up materials to fix my dinged-up car.

dusty work

I'm very grateful that my dad was keen on fixing up my car; he'd been talking about doing this since I scraped it a year ago, and it turned out to be an interesting project for the two of us. We 1) applied Bondo to fill the dents, 2) sprayed on primer, 3) sprayed on paint, and 4) sprayed on clear coat; with lots of sanding in between. It's not perfect, but also not $4000 (what the autobody shop had quoted me), and I think a whole lot more satisfying to have done it ourselves. We were lucky to get a good paint match (well worth going to a second Canadian Tire), which hopefully will look even better with some Turtle Wax (à la third Canadian Tire).

Although fixing the car took a good half day, we got to take a few walks -- to my work, around the university campus, and across the bridge to the Legislature.

one of the old U of A buildings

Alberta Legislature + fountain/swimming pool

And although I couldn't join my sister and parents for sushi on Friday, I've been left with tons of fruit from their garden in North Saanich (even better!).

home-grown grapes, plums, & peaches

All in all we had a really nice, albeit short, visit. Can't wait to see them again for New Year's.