#@vlrny

It's been quite a while since we occupied anywhere, hasn't it! Sorry about that. Don't you hate it when life gets in the way of living? Occupy Wild Rose Brewery last month was a great success. We occupied that patio for a goodly number of hours and sampled some fresh-from-the-cask Seasonal ale.

Next up, the much-discussed, much-anticipated Ironic High Tea. If I had to break it down, I'd wager this occupy is 70% enjoying the occupy experience, and 30% performance art. Read on for more details:

When: Sunday, September 30; 2:00pm until whenever we feel like leaving or the sun goes down and it gets cold, whichever comes first Where: Central Memorial Park, 1221 2nd St SW What: High tea in the park. We're brining fine china and wearing our Sunday best. If you want to go all out and don the Queen's favorite sunhat, have at'er!

Valerie is in charge of providing tea cups, so it's up to the rest of us to each bring the following:

1. A thermos of tea. And cream/sugar, if so desired 2. Delictable finger foods, the likes of which you would find at a fancy high tea. For example, scones with Devonshire cream; watercress sandwiches; strawberry tarts, etc. 3. A blanket to sit on 4. Your camera! We're dressing up and sitting in a park to have high tea. It deserves to be recorded!

Occupy Broken City last Sunday--where we sat for hours, munched on some tasty grindage and played a variety of games--was excellent! Not too hot; not too cool. Goldilocks would have loved it.

Tonight (yes, yes, I know--very short notice, though most of you in the know knew that we were planning something) for a variety of sleep-deprived reasons, we're downgrading tonight's outdoor occupy to a movie night at @vlrny's. So come one, come all (who know where they're going). Bring your treats and crash with an as yet-to-be-determined flick. I promise we'll do it up outdoors again soon before the warm weather flees (stay tuned for next weekend!) but tonight, it's time for a down-home experience.

When: Friday, August 3; 7pm Where: @vlrny's house What: Indoor occupy complete with food and film Who: You (know who you are) Why: Because @shannoetry is too fucking tired

Thanks to everyone who stuck with us amidst changes -- and rain -- to hang out for Occupy Canada Day. After doing our own things for most of the day, we settled on the (thankfully covered) Bottlescrew Bill's patio for a good few hours. Despite it being Canada Day -- one of the busiest patio-sitting days of the season -- Bill's wasn't over-crowded, so it was the perfect spot.

Our next destination is a private event. This Friday, July 13, we're occupying @lyinghere's backyard. This event is a special Stampede Rants edition, so if you can't make it, be sure to keep an eye on the #stampederants hashtag for all the ranty-goodness. so here's the deets:

When: Friday, July 13, 2012; 7pm start until whenever Where: @lyinghere's abode. If you already know @lyinghere, then you're invited. Simply DM him for his address if you don't already have it. What: A BYOBBBQable potluck. Bring along BBQ goodies and a side dish and we'll hunker down and enjoy. It's also a chance to vent your Stampede frustrations -- should you have any. If you're me -- which is not so ranty about "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", then just sit back and watch the sparks fly! When we get @jennashummoogum and @vlrny on a ranting roll, a good night is had by all!

We got a bit rained out for last week's Occupy BBQ at Edworthy, which ended up being a blessing since it meant we could all revert to Plan B -- crashing at @vlrny's! Always the supreme hostess, we had goodies, tea and fantastic conversation. Thanks to everyone who came out: @donnavenzi @kan_ @outdoorphil @lonnietaylor @Lydyzze @kirk_werklund @danellew @mbraithwaite @ASKdesignCSI @xyfir and our non-Twitter friends! We're still planning get out in the sunshine and BBQ during the Calgary summer, so stay tuned for another (rainless, hopefully) occupy BBQ near you!

This coming weekend is Canada's biggest party of the year. Yes, that's right -- it's Canada Day! And we're celebrating it the best way we know how: by sitting on a patio.

Well... first we're hangin' out at the Rosscarrock Outdoor Party and Bazaar. Phase I:

When: Canada Day - Sunday, July 1, 2012; 1pm Where: 4411, 10 Avenue SW What: @Sambaclown is dancing with the West African percussion group, Rythym Method!

The bazaar runs 11am to 3pm, so you're welcome to check it out early to enjoy the goings on. @vlrny will be on hand for Rythm Method at 1 if anyone's looking to join. You can find out more at http://rosscarrock.blogspot.ca/2012/06/canada-day-outdoor-party-and-bazaar.html?m=1

At 3:30pm, join us for Phase II of the great Canada Day plan:

When: Sunday, July 1, 2012; 3:30pm Where: East Village Street Fair -- RiverWalk Plaza in back of (that is, facing the River) of the Simmon's Building; 618 Confluence Way SE What: There's fun, crafts and YYC food trucks along the RiverWalk between 10am and 5pm. We'll meet up here for some yummy food truck-goodness and then plot our next destination. If it's a nearby patio, great!

You can find more info on the East Village Street Fair -- including location, and the locations of other Canada Day festivities going on -- at this handy-dandy virtual map: http://www.calgarycanadaday.ca/?page_id=47

For more info on the East Village Street Fair in particular, look here: http://evexperience.com/events/apr-20/canada-day-east-village

As always, if you can't find us/meet up with us in time, or to see if anything else changes, be sure to follow @occupypatio on Twitter, and watch for the #occupypatio hashtag.

We had a great, relaxing time hanging out on the Extreme Bean patio on Saturday. It was a beautifully warm, just-breezy-enough day to sip some tea and enjoy some munchables. Thanks to @outdoorphil, @lyinghere and @flamescrazy for coming out!

We're already ready for our next occupy event - Occupy BBQ at Edworthy Park. We're celebrating the return of our good friend, @vlrny! So here's the details:

When: Saturday, June 23, 2012; 6:00pm to whenever Where: Edworthy Park. We'll meet at the lower parking lot on the south end (accessed from Spruce Drive) and scope out our final destination from there. What: A BBQ, of course! What to bring: Some BBQables - either for yourself or to share - and a potluck side to share. You're also welcome to bring along a blanket (or blankets) and summer chair, because you never know. Why: A myriad of reasons, really - it's summer and we want to; Edworthy is nice; after five weeks, our beloved Vlrny is coming home! The usual stuff.

If you can't join us at 6pm in said parking lot, follow @occupypatio to find out where we've landed. You can also learn more by checking out the hashtags #vlrnyreturns and #occupypatio. Don't forget to dress appropriately. Unless it's pouring, we're planning to hang out, drizzle or dry.

We had a great time occupying Main Dish two weeks ago for their Celebrity Burger Cookoff! Some great local celebs were out for the day - including a handful of Stampeder's, the Stampede Royalty, Canadian Olympians, media personality Jill Belland, and the Guinness record-holding charity hockey team of recent fame! Tasty, fire-grilled burgers with creative toppings were plentiful, capped off with a refreshing beverage from the Village Brewery truck. Thanks to @outdoorphil for coming out and inviting one of his many Meetup groups!

Now, a few weeks ago @vlrny suggested we take patio-sitting to a whole new level and do a little good, before we have a beer. So this weekend we'll be taking part in Calgary's 20-Minute Makeover. Join us in front of Good Earth (the outdoor entrance, not the one inside the mall) at Eau Claire Market at 4:30pm on Sunday, June 10. We'll be cleaning up the Eau Claire/Prince's Island area for 20 minutes before heading back to Barley Mill for 5pm.

Now, we're all Calgarians - some of us born here, some of us weren't so lucky - so we're familiar with the changeable nature of YYC weather. At the time of this writing, we're looking at rain. But... that's changed a good three or four times since this past weekend. As with any patio outing, it's weather-reliant. So here's our rain plan:

No rain - meet at Good Earth Eau Claire at 4:30pm and we'll clean up before reconvening at Barley Mill for 5.

Rain - meet at Good Earth Eau Claire at 4:30pm and we'll head on over to Fionn MacCool's instead! If it's packed to the gills, watch the Twitter stream and you'll likely find us at Garage shooting a little pool, or over at Joey Eau Claire. If the rain prevents us from doing our part to clean up, we'll add in our own 20-minute tidy at the next sunny patio event.

Be sure to follow @occupypatio for updates and any changes to the plan because, y'know, it happens. Hope to see you there!

We kicked off our first occupy patio at @vlrny’s on Sunday, May 6. It was warm, with the occassional breeze, but we still managed to get some sun. Why haven’t I “done brunch” more often? Especially on a patio? That alone could be turned into a “thing”. It was truly brilliant, with scrambled eggs, fruit, waffles, pastries and grilled veggies.

Thanks so much to @vlrny for hosting, and to everyone for bringing something yummy and stopping by: @cberkholtz, @Lydyzze, @kirk_werklund, @JennaShummoogum, @outdoorphil, @VE6IBM, and everyone I've missed, both on Twitter and off!

Have you been to Valerie's place before? You have! That's excellent. So you know how to get there! We'll be kicking off #patiosunday at @vlrny's this Sunday, May 6 for a Sunday brunch potluck. Valerie has kindly offered up eggs and hasbrowns and it's up to the rest of us to bring goodies to supplement. Myself, I'm looking into commandeering the BBQ for some grilled veggie goodness.

If you'd like to join us, here's the necessary details:

When: Sunday, May 6, 11am start Where: Valerie's place What: Our first patio Sunday, complete with potluck brunch. Please feel free to bring your fav breakfast/lunch goodies Why: Because life is short, and the summer is even shorter