Greetings from the Southern Cone

So it's been a while since we left Calgary and ran away to join the circus. Metaphorically speaking that is, I would never join a real circus. I have clown issues. There was a much needed period of decompression, of embracing the ways of the vegetable. Now we're getting into a daily groove, enjoying the new life we've started down here in the longest country in the world.

I could go into the details of why life is so great (get up when you feel like it, always sunny, walking distance to the beach, cheap and tasty food, free rent) but it would take a really long time and the easiest way to summarize it is to say that we're happy because we're not stuck in an office anymore. We don't have to get up by 7am to clean off the car and warm it up just to spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour in traffic depending on what idiot decided to cause yet one more traffic accident, just to get to work on time. That was hell. Some people can do it. I am not one of those people. E is not one of those people.

So we quit our jobs, packed up our stuff, loaded the dogs into the car and drove across Canada to Toronto. It was the beginning of THE MOST BORING DRIVE EVER. Now to be fair, I love road trips. Love them. I've driven all over on my own, in Europe and in the US. Hell, I used to load the dogs into the car and drive from Chicago to New Orleans whenever I could. 16 hours of speeding, junk food and listening to whatever I wanted. No complaints from the dogs, they loved it too. When I decided to move back home to Canada, I drove too. The US has some beautiful scenery and we saw alot of it on the way home.

Canada is a gorgeous country, but God help you if you have to drive across Saskatchewan and Manitoba. You'll be hard pressed to stay awake at the wheel. I. Kid. You. Not. There wasn't enough junk food or loud music to help. So if you ever drive down that way on the Trans Canada and hear some car blasting Madonna's Like a Virgin and weaving slightly, it's not because they're drunk. It's because they're trying to stay awake and Manitoba doesn't have any bloody lines or markers painted on the roads. Summer = Construction = pain in the ass.

Once we got into Ontario, the scenery got interesting again. No rest stops to speak of (what's up with that, Ontario??) but at least the scenery was pretty. We spent a month in Toronto with Eric's family and meeting up with old friends like Wes, Joyce, Kamran, and Leon. Good times.

At the beginning of October, we flew out to Chile and have been here since. E spends his days playing poker online and I spend my time honing my culinary skills or geeking out online. This is interspersed with exploring the area, watching TV, eating my kitchen experiments, saving lost puppies, napping and avoiding large spiders of the Tarantula variety.