Local Calgary Movie Rentals While on Vacation

Sometimes the best place to get a movie rental is your local indy (independant) corner store. We love our local corner store. It is only a block and a half from our house (which means it is only 2 1/2 blocks from Art's Place .ca) and is called "Alberta Corner Store".

There is another one called the Black and White which is closer to the Art's Place .ca, but they do not have movie rentals. Both have everything you would expect a corner store to have however, I do understand their prices are more than the Alberta Corner Store.

And, if you are really into the big chain places, or need 24 hour attention, there is a 7-11 further down 8th Street. But then again, they do not have movie rentals.

We like the small town feel of the Alberta Corner Store and frequently encounter people we know, including those people that we know by face and not name who live nearby. We know some well enough to smile and say hello, and in some cases engage in small talk including offering or asking for advice on potential movie selections. A comment on the weather is just a given, everyone in Alberta talks about the weather. You are not from here, or haven't been here long enough if you don't discuss the weather. You will soon know what I mean.

Ocassionally we run into Jenny Allen, a local Calgary folk singer, and neighbor. (We discovered that she lived nearby when we stumbled upon her garage sale a couple of years ago. It was a really neat surprise and we bought some really cool things from her. If you come over, I will show you!). She bought some neat things at our garage sale the same summer, and if you are at her place sometime, I'm sure she will show you. Her boyfriend is a 'found object' artist, and their backyard is decorated with some very clever pieces. My favorite is the phone bench. Sorry, I'm not even going to try to paint a picture of that for you, you have to see it for yourself.

Entertainment: Calgary Movie Theatre: Sunridge Spectrum and Sushi

Today was Art's parents' last day in Calgary, they return to Ontario early (very early) tomorrow morning after spending Christmas vacation here. We went to a matinee, and then afterwards to Art's brother's place for the evening. Art's mom showed us how to prepare sushi rice, and to make sushi. It is not as hard as I thought it might be. Now that we have seen a professional at work, and received her instruction, we have no more excuses. Soon we'll be venturing to the T&T Grocery in Franklin Mall for some fresh tuna and some of the other fixings.

Sunridge Spectrum is one of Calgary's newest mega theatre complexes and is a Cineplex Odeon operation in Calgary's North East. We had hoped to see "National Treasure" but that was not playing at 12:05 as indicated on the advertisements and Spectrum's web-site. So we went to "The Incredibles" instead. Which Art and I have already seen at Eau Claire's Cinemas a couple of weeks ago. But we enjoyed it and I think I enjoyed it even more the second time.

We went with Art's parents as well as his brother-in-law and family. Armed with our coupons from cereal boxes, we purchased iced moccachinos, which I was quite impressed with. The fare at theatres is amazing these days, you can choose from a large variety of high-glycemic fast food varieties, and still get the old favorite theatre standby's of overpriced fountain pop, popcorn with fake butter, candy bars and licorice.

Shopping: Chinatown in Calgary

Chinatown in Calgary might not be as big and impressive as that in San Francisco, but it is still a unique cultural experience. We met up with the in-laws there for a quick little shopping spree to purchase the ultimate rice cooker. Apparently Tiger is the best brand. A programmable 10 cup cooker was the final selection.

Afterwards we went to two different bakeries, Jing Jing for our favorite meat stuffed buns, and a different one, the Golden Happiness Bakery for the best pasteries. I don't know what it is about Chinese bakeries, it is always a wonderful culinary experience. Their pasteries are so light and flaky...

We found free parking along Riverfront Avenue as we had pulled up to a meter that said FAIL on it... FAIL means F-R-E-E in my books. Thanks City of Calgary for that! Honestly, though, we look for meters with time left on them or park where we know that there is free parking and walk to the Calgary Transit's Free-Fare zone in the downtown core, as I begrudge Calgary's high city parking fees.

At all costs I avoid the Imperial and Sterling parking lots. That's another story, and a long one, I won't go there now.

[Jing Jing is downstairs on the corner of 3rd Ave and Centre Street SE]
[Golden Happiness bakery is 111 2nd Ave SE]

Shopping in Calgary on Boxing Day

We braved the snowy streets today with multitudes of other Boxing Day shoppers looking for deals. I'm not complaining about the weather, it only snowed here last night (Christmas Day evening). So I guess that means that we actually got a white Christmas.

Calgary's weather is unpredictable, we always check the forecast before we go out to see if we need to pack a pair of short pants, an umbrella or a snow jacket. It doesn't matter if it's June or January. When a chinook blows in, in only a few minutes we can go from bitterly cold with mountains of snow, to our streets looking like Venice until the storm drains catch up.

In case you are wondering what Boxing Day is, it's a Canadian shopping tradition, the day after Christmas. The crowds and frenzy can be not unlike the Day after Thanksgiving in the US, known there as Black Friday. The sales work out well for those who celebrate Christmas in January. People start lining up at 3 or 4 in the morning, for deals like $1 for a DVD player and $20 for an MP3 player. (quantities on some things are limited, of course).

Well we didn't exactly make it out that early in the morning, in fact, we didn't make it out in the morning. (Everyone who knows me is nodding their heads). It was about 3, and we pretty much only went to Costco - where we will make a couple of purchases after they send Christmas stock to The Last Chance Trading Company, and Future Shop, and Memory Express. I wouldn't doubt Future Shop was just as busy as it was at 7 this morning.

In the end we came home with a bundle of 100 CD-R's for $16.99 from Memory Express and a DVD movie rental from the Alberta Corner Store down the street.

Entertainment: Eau Claire Cinemas

The closest theatre to Art's Place Guest House is Eau Claire Cinemas, a Cineplex Odeon theatre.

Eau Claire cinema is in the heart of downtown Calgary which close enough to walk if you have a bit of time, and enjoy that kind of thing. (and if the weather is nice, but that goes without saying). Plus there is much more to see at Eau Claire with Prince's Island and its festivals, the ducks and forever hungry trout to feed, and the trendy little mall that always seems to have manager tenant issues. It could be so much better, but still, there are some really neat shops there.

Eau Claire Cinemas has recently taken over the IMAX theatre which is more or less next door to the theature in Eau Claire Shopping Mall. Access to the IMAX was previously from the main floor of the mall when it was independant, but since they are no longer operating and the cinema took over the space, access is from the upstairs near the entrance to the other theatres. It is a bit awkward, because if you want popcorn and snacks, you have to enter the theatres, then leave that space and enter the public mall area, in order to access the IMAX. The neat thing about it is being able to see IMAX films for the same rate as any other movie, not 3$ more like Chinook theatre charges for the IMAX films there. I imagine they will be renovating to so that the access is from behind the box office where you enter all of the other theatres. They need extra staff to handle the current set up.

We saw The Incredibles recently at Eau Claire and were pleasantly surprised that it was in the IMAX (now called theatre 6, I think). The only problem was the temperatre required me to keep my coat on during the entire show.

The other night we saw Spanglish, with Adam Sandler. I'm not generally a fan of his work, but I did enjoy this very cute movie. My favorite character was played by Cloris Leachman, who sobered up while everyone was entagled in their issues, and no one noticed.

And tonight we saw "Meet the Fockers". I'm not much of a Ben Stiller fan, but I do like Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. We go to these things and we laugh, and hope that there aren't really people out there like that.

Dining: Samosa Grill

Our recent "Chrstmas Dinner" with Single Volunteers at the Samosa Grill was excellent. There was about 40 of us in attendance, and our arrangement of the buffet for the evening was a treat to other walk-in patrons. I had never eaten at Samosa before, but it had been recommended several times, and we had spoken with them about having the Single Volunteers do a buffet there previously.

Some of the folks who joined us had been at Samosa before and came out because they knew the food was wonderful (they also came for the great company of the Single Volunteers group!) Of those who who were eating there for the first time, they enjoyed themselves and said they would definately be back.

There were Christmas cards and Ferrero Rocher's for everyone from Single Volunteers. About half of those attending went to a movie afterwards (Ocean's Twelve) at Sunridge Spectrum Theatres.