I Know This Much is True

Let's try

2011-08-30T16:30:00.002-06:00

I have had a number of thought racing around lately. How to put them down concisely? I'll give it a whirl.....
Last week was a sad one for Canadians. Jack Layton -Leader of the Opposition passed away. The timing is what really gets me. He had just taken his New Democrat Party to a record number of seats in the House. More than 100 in fact. Most of that can be attributed to the stunning collapse of the Liberals ( the Natural Governing Party of Canada) but Jack's no small part of it either. He had a way of connecting with people. He fought for the working class man. But enough of that.
After some thought, I wonder what becomes of the NDP now that they have become a legitimate player in Canadian politics? Well, I will just rail down some of my crazy thoughts on the matter. No particular reason, maybe a little hope, as I have to admit that I am a casual observer, not an expert. I guess it would be time for the left to unite in some way. Much like they did on the right of the political spectrum years ago. The Liberals are in disarray, and might be open to the idea. The NDP are without an obvious successor. Makes sense. The Libs also have some more star power.
So we have young Trudeau..... hmmmmmm. There's Bob Rae but he's hated in Ontario. I really don't know. I can't present any names from the NDP. So in some war room somewhere out East I bet Jean Cretien (a real Canadian hero) is pulling the strings and trying to orchestrate this. Hahaha
But the right-leaning Libs will jump ship to the Conservatives and further strengthen Harper's grip. I don't see them wanting to join with the Socialist NDP. But there has got to be a way to challenge Harper and the Conservatives....... I think somewhere they are talking more and more about joining forces on the so-called left.
Let's just hope they do it in time to save my job at the Post Office.

Another visit to Calling Lake

2011-08-08T15:43:00.002-06:00

We had another chance to head up to Athabasca country and do some fishing over the August Long weekend. This time we were lucky enough to bring Alvin along. The fishing was much slower than last time we were up in mid-June. We kept enough to have a nice fish-fry on Saturday night, and the weather was perfect. We decided to get our lines wet on a blustery Sunday morning and this is what I hauled in before we were rained out. This Walleye was 66 cms long, and weighed about 4.5 lbs. Can't say I've caught many Wally's that nice.... and of course he went back in for next year.

And on a totally unrelated note, the Edmonton Folk Fest is over for another year. Four days packed with incredible music and great company. Uncle Wal, and his buddy Hal came from Seattle on the motorbikes, and my mom and Devyn made up the troops for this year. I don't think anyone went home disappointed. Highlights for me included Sean Rowe, Lyle Lovitt, Tim Robbins (yes that Tim Robbins), Chris Smither, Noah and the Whale, among others. Pictures should arrive shortly.

Does it still matter?

2011-07-20T17:07:00.005-06:00

Sitting here thinking of whether or not to post anything.......
I want to write on this more often. Every so often one of my dear readers will comment that you've seen something you liked, or tease me for not posting more regularly...... but then I think about it, and find something else to do.
I'd like to make sure my uncles and aunts, cousins, and friends can stay informed once in a while. It's cool to look at my uncle's blog and see his boat getting sold, or sailing pictures from some exotic place. I love checking in on Sarah's to see how beautifully she writes. An incredible story-teller.
But I'm too lazy to upload my pictures from my cameras. I guess that's it. A month ago I was fishing at Calling Lake with my dad. It's bound to become our annual father's day fishing trip. Just like last year, we were laughing while throwing 64 cm Walleye back in the water because they're too big! Hahahahaha! Seriously! And catching our limit in 4-5 hours and going back to the cabin to eat fresh fish for supper. I even like the fish up there!
But why no pictures yet? I will admit that we would really be better off with a new computer. This old laptop tends to get a little bogged down when dealing with pictures and things. So I just kind of stopped playing on the computer.
So look out. When I decide to go pick up a new computer, there will be posts galore.
There aren't even pictures of the five-month-old new car yet! And what a car it is! It's beautiful. We love it.
And the yard...... holy cow. I could have pictures of our perfect grass, our huge tomatoes. the lovely garden. There are countless posts just waiting to happen.
So I will try to do more writing on here. I feel it might be a bit old-fashioned. Maybe Facebook and Twitter have changed the old way of thinking. I can tell you in 140 characters what I am doing ALL the time. Does anyone need to know that? I don't use Fb too often, and I have never been on Twitter. That being said, I can see the benefit of using this blog and I am going to continue to update this and put some of those pictures up. And post the new ones of all the awesome things we have been doing this summer. Gotta get out and enjoy the weather while the sun is shining. And we have been doing that!

Have I reached the perfect age?

2011-03-24T15:26:00.002-06:00

I have been thinking lately that I might well have reached THE PERFECT AGE! Could it be? Maybe I had more energy years ago. Perhaps I didn't require as much sleep. When I am older, I might learn a thing or two.
Right now though, things are about as brilliant as I figure they can get. Why this train of thought? I was sitting in the pub waiting for the mechanic to call me to tell me the car was ready to be picked up (a story for another time). I had a seat in the corner of the bar, and a cold pint of Pilsner in hand. I was reading my Maclean's magazine about Harper and whether we would be going to the polls. But my ears were trained on the conversations going on around me. There were three older guys sitting to my right talking about granola, birds, and their toys. Three things I really like. I spend a good deal of time watching the birds flutter around my various feeders. I have also been looking for a really good cereal/granola/flax sort of thing to eat in the mornings before setting out on my walk. And who doesn't like talking about the toys they have or plan on getting?
To my left was a group of young kids. 3 girls and one dude. They were decked out in their U of A clothes, and funny hats. I happened to love hearing the, "dude" or "like" every couple of words. Seems like it is a filler when they use when they don't know what they want to say next. Well, they were talking about music, and snow boarding much of the time.
It all leads me to believe that I have found a balance between the generations where I can understand things like fishing, bird watching, and eating enough fibre. But snowboarding, and top 40 music is still all over my life. Either I am the oldest cool guy, or the coolest old guy. I'll

Holidays

2011-03-10T16:14:00.002-07:00

It's amazing how quickly a week can get away from a guy. Friday tomorrow! It's been a superb week off work, and this picture of the fish I got yesterday is about all I have to show for it! I've not really done much other than drink coffee, visit, watch movies, and hang out. But this was a good chance to get out and drill a few holes in the ice. Luckily dad got the auger going and we were able to get out there. This is actually a pretty nice little fish, that would've made a decent meal, but I tossed it back as usual. With some luck, I'll get another chance to haul a couple more out over the weekend. Cheers to holidays!

What a winter!

2011-02-28T18:58:00.003-07:00

I know the mailman doesn't get a lot of sympathy when it comes to the hours I work. But this has been a winter for all winters. We have had snow, ice, melting, freezing and yet more snow. It has been my toughest winter of the four I've worked at Canada Post. The pictures below will show you the snow banks on the side of my driveway.
But first the most exciting news is my new car!!!! I was able to sell the little red Ford to a friends son, and I am the proud new owner of a 2003 Honda Accord. I just put this picture of the old girl for sentiment. I don't really miss her at all!
Pictures of the new car will have to wait for another day. Thanks to Uncle John for helping facilitate the deal through one of his pals.
But you have to take a peek at the snow. Totally insane!

The backyard must have two to three feet of snow because those railway ties are almost covered with snow. It looks brilliant, but today touched the mid-minus 30's with wind chill. I don't always like to include the wind, but when you are walking outside, it counts! Let me tell you! Tomorrow is March, so hopefully spring is on the way.

Feeling Motivated

2011-02-28T18:44:00.003-07:00

I'm not sure where the inspiration came from tonight, but I have uploaded some more photos. I wish I could ease you in and have some sort of flow, but this is the way the photos showed up on the screen. And we all know what a royal pain in the butt it is to play with the positioning on Blogger.
Here's Alvin and Jason taking some target practice in the garage. Jason bought me this BB gun for my birthday. No, not my fifth birthday....... my 31st! You'll recognize the gun if you've seen the movie, The Christmas Story. It's the 70th Anniversary Edition Daisy Red Ryder.
These pics are from our Christmas party. Notice the festive Santa target.

Here's Devo fooling around with my redneck coat on and the gun.

And then a shot of the backyard as it looked in the fall. As you can see, the grass really came a long way from when we moved in. We had so much fun working out in the yard and doing the suburban stuff.

What is with this guy?

2010-10-24T13:04:00.003-06:00

Wow,

July this time. Well, I have a decent excuse these days. For months we've been having problems with our computers. The tower is toast, hasn't been turned on for months. And the laptop was working only part of the time. I thought it was a pain in the ass to get on the computer and wait half an hour to write something.

But thanks to our wonderful neighbour Troy, who is an IT guy at NAIT, the laptop is back up and running. Beautifully, in fact. So I thought I would go in and look at some of the pictures I had taken in spring of the backyard. Maybe put together a before and after type of thing. So I will post the pics from the spring when the yard was in rough shape.

There we're all kinds of ruts and dips and valleys in the back, most of which we've fixed. And the dead patches have all filled in nicely.

Here's the little garden we dug in the spring. And what a wild success it was. Cucumbers, peas, carrots, lettuce and beans were abundant.

Here's my little Jalapeno plant. The best part is that I actually still have that one so I can show the results. Everything else is pretty well out of the ground now. So I can only show the grass and some leftover results of the garden.

If I were only a week or so quicker I could show what it looks like today. There was a trace of snow this morning so things aren't exactly looking their best.

The best part of the summer in our yard was the potatoes, and we planted those in the front flower bed!!!! They were incredible. Thinking I should dig up some more of the front yard and put in a while bunch of potatoes.

So my plan is to go out and take a few shots when the sun comes out so I can show my legion of faithful readers the yard as it looks today.

Stay tuned for that one.

Floating on the Pembina

2010-07-14T19:26:00.002-06:00

Hahaha, Perhaps I should know how to post pictures more smoothly by now.
Last week after work we hauled out to the Pembina River. It was a really hot day, and it was the perfect thing after work. It's a little more than an hour out there, so being a postie helps me get an early start. And I guess if we think about it, Devyn's working at the bank so we do have time for this kind of thing. The blue tube in the front of the picture is Trevor's. Mine is the same, as you can see. Only yellow.
That's about the deepest point of the river. It's quite shallow for the most part, but a really nice location.

There's my legs with the cooler at my feet. Notice the $7 pair of "aqua socks" I got. I went to Zeller's with Trevor and we got the same tubes and water shoes.

Darn I am so cool! I think Dev was trying to do one of those "arm-extension, self portrait" kind of things. It would be cool to have a picture of Dev once in a while, but clearly she is not too fond of having her picture taken. Have any of my legion of male devotees experienced a woman not wanting to appear in any shots? I think I can recall my grandma, mom and Aunt Martha all avoiding having their picture taken....... anyway, I ramble on the blog as well as in real life I see. Hrmphhh! You can see Dev's brother Brayden in the background of the picture above. He loved it more than anyone I think.

Woops! I spoke too soon! It appears that Dev tried to take another picture of herself. She got my arm in this one. That was the best sumer afternoon lounging EVER!

And on another note all together, we had a beautiful surprise visitor on our cherry tree in the backyard. A Downy woodpecker came over the other afternoon. What a treat! Dev noticed him while she was outside, and called me to have a look - knowing I would be really excited. I got the camera and ran outside to see what she had found. After getting close and having a good shot, I went in and got my Compact Guide to Alberta Birds. ( Thanks mom and dad) It accurately reads, "These approachable little birds are more tolerant of human activities than most other species."

He is only 15-18 cms long. Such beautiful colours for the little guy.

Perhaps I should have cropped the picture a little and made it more clear. But there's no telling how long that would've taken me. I think it gets a lot bigger if you click on it.

Calling Lake

2010-07-04T10:31:00.003-06:00

This is a quick recap of our fishing trip to Calling Lake over the Father's Day weekend.
There was a size limit of 45-55 cms for the Walleye. These two were closer to 65cms. So we laughed out loud as we threw them back in. I don't think I would have ever imagined throwing a 6-7 pound Walleye back. Dad's cooking up the fish here on Saturday night. We had 9 Walleye and one Pike for supper that night. Not my favourite meal, but just two or three hours out of the water isn't too bad really.

The weather was perfect and the company was just great. Me and dad on one boat and Max, Tom, and Barry on the other. Lots of laughs and some major fishing.

This was the rustic cabin we stayed at. The cabin was actually at Baptiste Lake (near Athabasca) and about 60kms from Calling Lake.

Oops

2010-06-24T12:51:00.001-06:00

Well those photos are going to have to wait. I am going golfing, and don't have time to dick around with blogger and the photos. Sorry.

Calling Lake 2010

2010-06-24T12:40:00.001-06:00

Where have I been? Yikes, I have barely thought of posting on here, but should any of my faithful followers check this, you're in for a treat. Run-on sentences and all. On my mom's birthday and father's day I was fishing with my dad and a few other guys at Calling Lake. This is the fishing trip of a lifetime. Honestly, I have never seen fish like this. If you would've told me that I'd throw a 6 or 7 pound walleye back into the water and laugh that it was to big I would've thought you were cracking up. But that's precisely what happened.

Ahhhhhhhh!

2010-03-18T19:51:00.002-06:00

So Dev got a text message from our tenants yesterday saying they had found a house and didn't need to rent our place anymore. What a pain in the a#&!!!!! There wasn't a whole lot of interest, but there certainly was some. We got confirmation from the young couple and even got a security deposit to hold the place for them. I guess we'll be keeping that, but we did lose out on some valuable time if we are going to be able to rent it April 1st.
The money would be nice - that much I know - but there would also be some drawbacks to sharing walls again. I don't totally feel bad because we hadn't even had one rent cheque yet, but we were counting on it coming in on April 1st.
I don't know what we'll do yet, but I am not too broken up about this. The guy is a cop, and I am generally kind of intimidated by the police. So we won't have to worry about that.
But alas, we're back at square one. Gives me a little more time to lay some new tile in the back entrance.......... that will be another story of it's own I am sure.

There's a first time for everything

2010-03-17T19:56:00.002-06:00

If ever there is a time for a post, this is it.
My dad gave me a huge external drive for my computers several months ago and we have slowly been hauling pictures and music and things to the drive in order to keep the computers running as smoothly as possible.
Whenever anyone else gets onto one of the computers here they can't believe how slowly they run. So I figured this might help. It also is nice that Devyn likes to organize and name things. So some of the works was pretty easy for me, but that is beside the point! Anyway, once I got five years worth of pictures and music off of this laptop, I went to type something and the keyboard would not work. Oh oh! This could be a problem..... what did I uninstall that disabled the damn thing?
So I did what anyone else would do and turned off the machine and promptly forgot about the problem.
Fast forward a month-ish and I just turned the sucker on this evening and got snooping around the maintenance and performance sections of Windows. Low and behold I have returned the keyboard to a functional state and here I sit.
I was ready to hunker down for the evening and wait for this thing to tell me what to do. What a pleasant surprise! I even had time to look at motor homes and quads and other things I'd love to waste a bunch of money on!
Now I better lumber off to bed. Happily.

Update

2010-03-09T17:40:00.002-07:00

Woah, I have some things to fill in, but not a single picture to go with it.
First, we got renters for the basement. So we'll have a nice young couple living under the stairs paying a hunk of my mortgage starting at the end of the month. That should help the bottom line somewhat. Even if we aren't crazy about having tenants. We thought we'd better give it a chance though. So here we go!
On another note, I joined the iPhone army last week. My contract was set to expire and I phoned and tried to play some hard ball with the Telus reps. To make a long story short, I ended up with the same cheap plan I got in Toronto, but I had to add some data plan for $25 in order for the phone to work. So they are happy to have another customer locked up for another three years and they soaked me for more $$$. Hmmmmmmmmmm. The phone is very cool though.
The only trouble was that the new phone was my only camera for our fishing trip and I had lots of big plans to text pictures of my monster catch and that just didn't happen.
Me and my pops went up to Lawrence Lake on the weekend to fish with a couple of friends. Max and Tom were already up there. So on Saturday morning after Dink's tux fitting (a story of it's own) we hit the road to Athabasca area and fished Saturday afternoon and Sunday. What a terrific time with some really cool people. I have pics on the new phone, but don't want to start trying to take photos off the phone. I know it's easy, but I am not going there right now. I should get to that just to show a few shots of the cabin. What a place! Maybe I'll get a few pics from my dad if he has any.
And only one final little note is that I went to Kevin's Tux fitting on Saturday morning. I am going to be a groomsman at the September wedding. So we are 6 months early???? I shouldn't be surprised though. The guy has been engaged for a couple of years and his engagement party was easily a year ago! I think the future Mrs. Meghan Savage is a bit of a planner......... Otherwise, everything went just fine and the wedding will be lots of fun.

Will we have a tenant?

2010-02-27T12:35:00.002-07:00

So there's not too much to report. I've been thinking of various reasons to get on here and write a post, but hadn't thought of anything interesting. But I suppose that's a matter of opinion.
When we bought the house we thought there was a good opportunity to make a bit of extra cash by renting out the basement suite. Nothing came of it for quite a few months mainly on laziness, but also a bit of reluctance. Not sure if we wanted to share our walls again. But we've decided to give it a shot, and a few people over to look at the suite.
I think the fact that we advertised it as a basement suite might scare some people away, but it's actually quite a nice place. Anyway, a lady came by first, and she was "middle-aged". Not too crazy about the idea of having an older lady down there. We can imagine any number of situations with a high-maintenance tenant.
The next day a young couple came by to look and they seem quite interested. I am hoping we hear back from them.
It would be nice to have somebody pay half of my mortgage. This young couple would be just fine with me.
We put an ad in the local rag and got some interest, but we forgot to include the price, forgot to say no pets and forgot to mention no smoking. It's been a learning process. I must thank Devyn for taking care of all the "stuff". Sarah wouldn't be too surprised by this. Some things never change with me I guess. Like the time I got Sarah to go buy me a Playboy magazine when we were kids at a garage sale because I was too shy. hahahahah.
Anyway, quite an experience so far. I'll keep you posted.

2010

2010-01-17T15:01:00.004-07:00

Two full months have passed me by since my last post. My legion of faithful followers must be diminishing....... can't say I blame you!
Anyway, lots has been happening these days. Work had been tremendous. Last week I wore only a sweater. Can you imagine a week in January as a mailman, and I wasn't even wearing a jacket. My grandma always says she worries about me working outside in the harsh Edmonton winters, but it's totally fine. And I'll remember this week in the middle of July too.
The house is great, we're having lots of fun making picture frames and hanging some of our Africa photos and sort of just making it feel like home.
I had been somewhat slow in getting these pictures up, and we wanted to make this frame to wrap some fabric we bought in Africa around. The idea came up when we first moved in, and Devyn decided that it was going to get done last weekend at any expense. So she got Jason over here to do the job. I must say that I felt my manly-ness was being called into question, but Jason's an engineer, and I knew it wouldn't be such a big job.
We fired up the air compressor, and Jason brought his nailer, and we had picked up some 1" x 1" cedar for the frame. Within an hour this was hanging on the wall. Not a bad effort if I don't mind saying.
The top picture is my attempt at providing some idea of where we are talking in the house. You'd sort of be standing in the front entrance area looking in for the first picture, and standing in the edge of the living room in the second.
On Tuesday afternoon the Olympic torch came rolling through St. Albert. I was done work early enough to join Dev and her parents down there. It was kind of cool despite the fact that I scoff when I see it come on the CTV news every night. Perhaps I made the national news that day.

The Perfect Game

2009-11-30T20:30:00.002-07:00

This was the sky out back the other evening. Of course I use the term, "evening" rather loosely. I would venture to guess that was at 430 in the afternoon. It's that time of year in Edmonton where we don't get too much afternoon sun.
But the moon was out loud and clear.

And this is some relatively old news, but it was amazing none-the-less. Dev rolled a perfect game of Wii bowling with me, Jason and Trevor.

We've had the Wii for quite a while and this was the first time anyone hit a perfect game. So Dev can rest knowing that the top score will never be topped. We went literally wild shouting and cheering and "high-five"-ing. It was something to behold. Congrats.

Pileated Woodpecker

2009-11-29T12:27:00.003-07:00

Here's a visitor we had to the yard this morning! Dad tells me it's a Pileated Woodpecker. Roughly 40-48 cms in size. It was amazing.
Not sure if the pics will show up too clearly, but they look good when enlarged. I bet I was a bout four feet away at one point.

The move

2009-11-09T15:50:00.006-07:00

Here's the entire gang on our housewarming/Halloween party. Looks like a zoo, but it was really only this crowd for a little while. Dressing up was obviously a bigger thing for some of us.
Here are Mike and Mike. If you haven't seen the Saturday night live skit where Justin Timberlake does this Dick-in-a-box video that is terribly funny. That's what Mr. Rennick and Mr. Barry are doing.
This is a little better shot so you can see what's happening. Too funny. They out some effort into this get-up.
Here's little Kai. Al and Brandy's baby. I put this up mostly because Sarah always has a million babies on her blog.... but he's cool.

Kev had us all in stitches when he called the Wendy's help-line to see how best to clean up a pop spill on the floor in the garage. I do have to admit I was responsible so I couldn't yell at anyone. We didn't really know that this was a gangster/flapper type party with all of Sheck's family etc. Yipes.
We hit the dollar store and bought moustaches for that party and for actual Halloween.
Marc and Alaina came by on the 23rd too. Nowhere to sit yet as you can see. But it was cool to have my dad around that afternoon working with Dev. Then the boys came by, and Alaina. Then Uncle Wal even made it for a beer in the garage on the very first night we had the house.
I think this was on the 23rd also. We get right down to it. Big job, but it's been a lot of fun to be honest.
This would be when Trevor got his big bread truck on Saturday the 24th and dad had burger's ready for us when we were done. Not a moment too soon, but they were awesome.
There's Bobby Harris and his boy. Hadn't had the pleasure of meeting Leyland. I hope that's how you spell it. He was such a cute little guy. This was just a few minutes after he licked the tires on the big truck.
And there she is in all her glory. That was so nice of Trev to help us with that. It wouldn't have happened as smoothly as it did if I didn't have these friends to help with all the stuff. So things have started to settle down and I will try to keep things a little more up-to-date

Oops

2009-10-13T18:37:00.003-06:00

Well this is pathetic really! Not a single post since August.

But what's the point of beating myself up over it? I know those of you who have gone through the process of buying a house will have some sympathy for me. There is so much to do. I bet I've used ten times the daytime minutes my phone plan allows. Calls to the lawyer, the mortgage lady, the bank, the realtor, the cable company, utilities ...... and Devyn has done more than her share of these calls.

I don't look forward to seeing my phone bill next month. But it will likely be the least of my worries......

Anyhow....

The real reason I wanted to finally get on here is because I've finally taken the photos from the Rider game off of the camera.

There was a little storm threatening and we weren't sure if there would be rain or snow. A tremendous rainbow came out.

It's tough to tell from this view during half time. There was a regular season attendance record with more than 65,000 fans. Another quick note about the picture above - those lines of people on the field are 50 years of Eskimo Cheerleaders. There were teams from years past. One of the lines had the cheerleaders from the '60's. It looked walking into my grandmas place at supper time - 200 old ladies with poodle cuts.

Here's the happy couple early on.

I'm not so sure Dev's having as much fun as I was. haha - Really I think it was more the weather than anything. It was chilly, and I certainly wouldn't call Devyn the most devoted football fan. I pretty much begged her to come with me.

And this last pic will show you who won. There were SO many Roughrider fans! I think it would've been close to 50/50 actually. Lots of fun!

Part 3

2009-08-26T20:40:00.002-06:00

This is a little den or office right off the kitchen. The backyard with a huge fire pit. May have to "remember, remember the 5th of November" and celebrate Guy Fawkes night in style in our new backyard.

And these next three images are pictures of a totally separate basement suite. I don't know if we'll look for a tenant right away, but it would sure help to bring in a little extra cash. Needs a little bit of work, but it's actually quite a nice one bedroom apartment really.

Second set of pics

2009-08-26T20:09:00.003-06:00

Ahhhhh, I really wish blogger was a little more user-friendly. It's a royal pain in the ass to upload pics and organize them in any order.
Anyway...... Here's the ensuite bathroom.
A little peek at the main bathroom.

Here's the basement. I think they did a pretty nice job with the colour selection.

Another look at the basement. I know it's hard to visualize the layout, but I am sure you can get an idea.

And my personal favourite - the spiral staircase. Apparently the lady told Devyn there was s salesman that went through the neighbourhood in the '70's or '80's selling these particular staircases. There's quite a few houses on the street with these silly things.

The stairs are right in the front of the house as you walk in the front door. One of those unique little quirks that I think we'll grow to love in the place.

It actually works!!!!

2009-08-26T19:58:00.004-06:00

Here's the place we are in the proceess of buying. Bungalow in St. Albert built 1970.
Here's the living room as you walk in the front door.
Little dining area off the kitchen.

The kitchen. Totally upgraded, with a crazy tap. Not sure if you can really see it.

Another angle of the kitchen.

This property is hereby SOLD

2009-08-26T19:31:00.002-06:00

Well, I'd say it's as close to a done deal as you could imagine. I think I can safely declare me and Devyn home-owners.
Last Friday Dev and my dad went to look at a nice little bungalow in Braeside. They liked what they saw and I went to have a peek on Friday afternoon. We went ahead with an offer and the lady accepted.
So then we needed a home inspection which was completed on Monday. 4 hours later we still liked what we saw. Then the financing went through Tuesday and we released the conditions. This is where I saw the statement, "this property is hereby sold". So I think it's pretty safe to say this deal will go through and me and my beautiful wife will be moving into St. Albert on October 23rd, 2009.
I will look through the info I have laying around on the computer and see if I can't get some pics up on here. Yahoooooo!!!!!!!!!!

Drumheller Part Deux

2009-08-15T17:42:00.003-06:00

This first shot is some kind of wild death pose. The thing dies and it's muscles or nerves cause it to be contorted in this way. I'm betting the person who uncovered this was pretty pleased.
Here I am being a little silly, but those are the jaws of a dinosaur. Yipes!

I loved the look of these things. I sometimes like doing jigsaw puzzles,and couldn't stop thinking about finding these bones laying in the dirt and piecing them together to come up with this. Amazing really.

I am not sure any sci-fi writer could dream up anything as scary as this one. Look at the skull on it!!!! I'm glad I wasn't around to see these dinos running around. We may not be at the top of the food chain if the dinosaurs were still kicking.

The museum had three tanks in this wall. One had a fish we still can see in our rivers called a Sturgeon. They have spines on them and I've often thought they looked somewhat pre-historic. Well these things were some kind of Mexican fish that had legs. Hahahah The name started with an "A" but I can't remember what it is. They are just hideous.

EFMF

2009-08-13T08:37:00.004-06:00

Another Folk Festival is in the books, and as usual it was splendid. I never grow tired of looking at the beautiful Edmonton skyline from the hill. It's beautiful.
We don't get to see each other often enough, but we get lots of time together at the FF. Craig Metcalfe was in town from Toronto. He's seeking shelter under Dev's scarf. Jeff Stuart beside him.

Devyn was worried about a sunburn as usual, butt his time went to great lengths to avoid it.

We also had a great time with Carly. Laughing as always.

And here are the Hawaiian dudes, Hal and Uncle Garry.

The music was wonderful too, but I don't really like taking pics of the bands for some reason. Half the time I can't remember who I was watching. Some highlights were Sam Baker and Gurf Morlix. Tift Merrit, The Great Lakes Swimmers, Old Man Luedecke, Shane Nicholson, Alana Levandoski, Loudon Wainwright III and Danny Michel. Among others.

Hoodoos .....alright?!

2009-08-06T13:41:00.003-06:00

Here are the pics from our August Long Weekend in Drumheller. Funny thing, there aren't too many, and none of Dev.
This was a suspension bridge that took you across the river toward an abandoned coal mine. I was diligent in reading ALL of the plaques and signs.

This is the river that we walked across on the suspension bridge...... also the river that ran along our campground. We bought some really sweet inflatable little raft thingies and they were so awesome!!!! We would float down and walk up along a sand bar, then float down again. It was perfect.

Something is out of sequence it appears. This is back to the old coal mine. It looked like a western movie. I can hear Ennio Morricone and Clint Eastwood in those spaghetti westerns of the 70's.

And Sarah, here are the hoodoos. It was crazy busy so we didn't get any better shots. Oh well.

Woah!

2009-07-29T20:40:00.002-06:00

Such big plans and no action. That seems to be the trend with this blogging. I brought my camera to Saskatoon but didn't pull it out of the car. I would've had some terrific shots of the beautiful Moon Lake Golf Course. Allan has golfed there for ever, and I just think it's the nicest course around. (This is where I should put in a couple of pics, but alas....) We had a great time with the couple he usually golfs with.
I had a legit birdie attempt on a par five hole, and proceeded to three-putt and take a bogey. Such is the game of golf. It was into the 30's and we were roasting out there. Then to grandma's for supper. The soup was incredible. As was the rollkeuken and watermelon. I think I had about twenty of the things and went to lie down on her floor. I was exhausted. So we went out for a couple the cold beers at the Senator, one of our old stomping grounds and ate some more.

As for the earlier round at the Goose Hummock we had a terrific time, the golf was rough, the pics would've been equally pleasant and they don't exist either because I forgot the camera.
So I know some photos would make this far more interesting, but you can use your imagination:)
This weekend look like we'll head down toward Drumheller to look at some dinosaurs.

Late wedding card

2009-07-20T20:04:00.002-06:00

At work this morning people were passing a card around and when it skipped past me I figured someone was up to something. It did not take long to realize they were passing a wedding card around for me and Dev. Several people came up and asked me what my wife's name is. Some simple math in my mind and I knew what was going on. So they called everyone out to the middle of the place and gave me a card and a little cheer. Most did not even know I was married. Others knew it was happening but thought it was sometime ahead. Guess we didn't leave a lot of notice.

So there was a few bucks in the envelope and a really nice home made card one of the ladies made. Most people signed it wrote some funny stuff and it was actually really nice. And pretty out-of-the-blue too. This morning was the first time in two weeks a carried a route after being held inside for various jobs in there. It was really nice to be walking again.

Pembina Extravaganza

2009-07-14T21:03:00.003-06:00

Here's a shot of our fantastic weekend of camping at Pembina River. We got a spot at Cody's Uncle's place. He lives on a ranch right on the river. It's was a splendid place to go. In the shot above you can just see the edge of the hammock on the right side of the shot. The river is to the right, and the bridge is a train bridge crossing the river way above us.

If you turn directly behind from the train bridge shot you see our camping set-up. There's a giant horse arena that is hanging by a thread. When it rained for about three hours on Friday night we holed up in there to stay dry.
We had a tractor to haul our stuff down to the site. I'm sitting on it in the shot above. The Suburban came in handy once again. Why do I need so much stuff for a week-end? On a side-note there were four or five peacocks in the shed behind the Sub.
UFC 100 took place on Saturday night and we wanted to watch it. So Cody ran a cable from the house to the super-sweet motor home. The image is quite small, but there we are sitting in-front of the TV that is plugged into the side of the $330,000 ride. The fights were great, and the RV was incredible. I was only in it for 5 mins, but those were 5 minutes I will never forget. If only my house will look that nice one day. hahahahahah.
This is the inside of the rickety old arena. It was wild in there. We managed to set up a game of poker in there during the rains on Friday night. There were bats in there and we were using a lantern to do a bunch of ridiculous shadow-boxing. The four of us had a terrific time. I will dig though and try to get some pics of all of us and some of the other scenes, but for now that's all I can find. If I can, I will be going back there for sure!

The Ponies

2009-07-06T19:09:00.003-06:00

Well it was a very productive Sunday at the horse races. I didn't win a penny but a good time was had by all.
We even corrupted Devyn's parents a dragged them along. (In fact, they picked us up a brought US there). But whomever was to blame, none of us really complained.
Here's me with the new in-laws trying to pick out the horse we think will make us rich.
Here's the action. Too bad it wasn't a close race where we could see one nose out the other at the finish line. I have no idea which one of the 8 races this is. Maybe that's Cerveza Tom bringing up the rear..... there was a horse named after my own heart.Here's a pic Dev took of me trying to look like I knew what I was doing. All the hard-betting fans carried the program in their back pocket.
They were really beautiful horses.

Try again

2009-07-04T08:17:00.003-06:00

It's funny to think I've neglected this for so long. I guess I've had reason to do so, but I've found an interest this morning after looking through a few things on the computer and thinking of the changes that have taken place in my life recently.

I looked at Sarah's blog and how diligently she's been posting things from her trip back home. I am amazed at the thoughtful inclusion of so many little stories and people who came to see her and Alvin. It was pretty humbling to have those two around for my wedding. I was lucky enough to be there on their big day back in January and couldn't be happier that they were there with us.

So how the hell do I get back into this? I think if I keep it short and sweet and try to do it more regularly - there will be plenty of interesting things to post. I've often wondered why anyone would read this. I'm not doing anything as exciting as living in Zambia..... or enjoying my "mis-spent retirement" with all kinds of trips and adventures like Uncle Willy. (Your Canada Day reflections were really funny)

I have realized however, there are countless things in a persons day-to-day lives that are awfully interesting and there are actually a handful of people who want to see them. Thus I've decided to carry around my little camera when I go golfing with Trevor or Allan. I'll take it when I go to the Canada Day fireworks. I'll take account of our big Wii bowling games.

Thanks for the thoughtful stories Sarah. I'm glad I was able to be with you for most of those parties and visits. Golf, Wii, Dukovac BBQ etc. It was a whirlwind, but I too enjoyed every second.

Let's just hope this isn't like the last post. Big ideas but no action. By the way the Neil Young concert was incredible ;-)

Neil Young

2009-03-07T12:39:00.002-07:00

I got my tickets to Neil Young for his April show in Edmonton. I missed the chance to see him during high school, but have loved him for such a long time. So when I heard he was coming I knew I'd have to bite the bullet and see him this time around.
So I spent $100 and will be sitting in the crowd finally watching the Canadian legend in person. I can't wait.
Otherwise, I have found a renewed urge to roll through the Africa pics again, so maybe there will be a couple more blog posts re: Africa...... but lets not get ahead of ourselves..... I did just download 647 pics from my dad onto my computer a few minutes ago. There's lots of material to look through.

Vic Falls Part Deux

2009-02-09T18:19:00.003-07:00

The above pic is my favourite picture of the 400 + photos I came home with. I can't even say with any certainty which one of us took it....

This is what I mean by saying a machete might have been useful. 650 metres straight down. And it was so hot! Did I mention that it was terribly hot on our trip. I can't understand why I don't get any sympathy from people I tell. I wasn't in Edmonton in January I guess.
We had to cross a creek and I swear it was the only day I wasn't wearing flip-flops. I just didn't give much thought to the creepy bugs that could've been hiding under those rocks. I was like a free pedicure.

Above us in this picture is that big bridge leading to Zimbabwe. To the left of the shot is where the falls are crashing down. It was beautiful down there.
The dude is a Brit we met at the hostel. The girl was from the Netherlands. Both kind of nice. We had a nice afternoon together. Never saw them after, and will likely never see them again.

Victoria Falls January 25-27, 2009

2009-02-09T18:05:00.003-07:00

We stayed at the same place my folks stayed when they were first there. Fawlty Towers. It was a hostel, and wasn't too bad. We had a little private chalet type thing which was nice. I think my days of sleeping in a dorm room style hostel are over.

Here we are at the big falls. Mosi beer in Africa is named after these falls. Mosi-oa-tunia meaning The Smoke That Thunders.

I couldn't get over the beautiful lush forest. Everything was super green and there was lots and lots of water being rainy season and all.

The bridge leads over to Zimbabwe. And you can bungee jump off of there. Needless to say I didn't do that.
And this was certainly the highlight of the trip to Livingston. We saw a sign the said, Boiling Pot 650 metres. I didn't realize it was that steep. And right through the jungle. I could've honestly used a machete. But it was well worth it.

Sarah and Alvin January 24, 2009

2009-02-09T17:51:00.002-07:00

I must say it was a little after two o'clock in the afternoon when Sarah finally arrived, but it was well worth the wait.Amazing flowers.

It was insane how hot it was....

Here I am signing the wedding certificate. Another of Alvin's brother is on the left.

And the whole gang outside the church.

Pre-wedding

2009-02-09T17:37:00.002-07:00

Here's the whole fam-damily together at last! Having a delicious beer at a pub called Smuggler's during Sarah's last day of being a single lady.

Later that same day we had the pleasure of meeting Al's brother Kim. He was the Emcee at the wedding and a real treat to be around. He was so funny, interested in Canada, loud, outgoing, etc. I just loved him.

Dancing at the club the night before the wedding. In the near left is Gabby, Alvin's right-hand man. Another guy I loved to be around.Devyn and Kim enjoying some "street-meat" at an un-Godly hour.
And the morning after the wedding I hopped on a bus with Devyn to see the big falls in Livingston. But first I have to post some wedding pics!!!!

Last one. I promise.

2009-02-06T19:22:00.003-07:00

It was Warthog mating season. As luck would have it, we caught a show, and Dev was ready on the camera.

The guides tried to tell us there were 4000 of these Puku's/Impalas/Antelope in the park. I think it's safe to say we saw everyone of them.

I'm told a zebra can sometimes kill their enemies with a kick. Incredibly strong animals.

The remarkable Baobab tree.
Oh my goodness, I loved these elephants. These were supposed to be quite aggressive as far as elephants go. The guides we very timid and reluctant to get too close.

More Mukambi

2009-02-06T19:12:00.003-07:00

Hyena.

Baboons. All over the road.

Wow. I couldn't get over the actual size of these beauties.

Make sure you are reading the captions in the correct order. The one you are reading now is for the picture of Dev. The last caption was about the elephant. Just to make sure there was no confusion. Although she is a beauty, I know what size Devyn is.

Another beauty. Having Nescafe on the hood of the Land Cruiser. How African of us.

Some more Mukambi

2009-02-06T18:54:00.003-07:00

If you don't adhere, you're likely to be chased by an elephant like our guide was on his way to work. Apparently an elephant can run 45 kms/hr!!!

Here's out Marula tree. The elephant eat the fruit and then drink a bunch of water an they're drunk! But they can make a delicious drink out of it.

Nice restaurant, candle-light dinner, and 4 people! I might add those four people were catching bugs and cremating them in the candles. Again, it was really nice, but the flies kind of scared the appetite out of you.

My delicious Fanta. Best drink ever!

Here's a shot Dev caught as the sun was setting. It was a little brighter to the eye. Really stunning.

Mukambi Safari Lodge

2009-02-06T18:24:00.003-07:00

This was certainly one of the most memorable parts of the trip! We were the only 4 guests at the entire lodge. Thanks goodness my parents were there. I'll never know how awkward it would've been to have 15 staff falling all over themselves for me and Dev.

Here's the sausage tree we spotted. It's the wallpaper on my computer as we speak.

Here's the Lodge from the Kafue River just before we went out for our fishing trip.Turn around from that last shot and this is the view.Here's mom soaking up some sun on the deck of the Villa. Because we were only 4 people (I had booked a tent, and mom and dad a chalet) they moved us into a Villa. It was gorgeous, yet a little sketchy if you know what I mean. There were beautiful twenty foot ceilings and a nice deck on the river --- but spiders the size of a kiwi fruit on the wall. Yipes!

And the first elephant we saw. Not the closest we got, but it was terribly exciting. It was about an hour into the game drive when we spotted him. I could've turned around and gone back to Lusaka after that. It was worth it right there!

Lusaka

2009-02-06T18:03:00.004-07:00

Here are a few shots of the area Sarah lives in. It was really nice although some of the buildings look a little run-down. That just seems to be the way things look there. I guess the weather has something to do with it. *Timid smile as I hope not to piss Sarah off*This is outside of the place we stayed. (Thanks to Sarah's friend and Bridesmaid Kolo) It's just across Great East Road, one of the major roads in town. About a three minute walk from Sarah's. I was amazed at the trees. Everything was so green and beautiful.

Sarah's flat is the one on the bottom right of the pic. You go around back for the main door, and the part you see is a nice little patio. I think there's 4 flats in that pink building.

Here's a little business district called Northmead I guess just a few blocks away from Sarah and Al's. There's a place there (don't think it's in the picture) called Cool Bundy's where we bought many cans of Castle. A market and a great little bakery too.
Here I am "helping" Alvin try to fix the wipers on the Two Coloured Venture. That truck had the bumper sticker from Uncle Ted on the back, saying, "Earth is Full - Go Home". Love it! Alvin loved the Venture because he could fit the whole basketball team in there.
Another of these brilliant trees. There's me and pops hiding out under there to catch a breather. It was incredible how much cooler it was under the shade of those big trees.

First days with Sarah

2009-02-04T06:31:00.004-07:00

So after one night in Washington we were back on track and made it to our destination. Here's Sarah and dad...Our first day there was spent at a zoo/botanical garden called Manda Wanga. Sarah loves this place, and often finds reason to go there for the afternoon. It was really gorgeous, and I was amazed at how green and lush everything is. I hear it doesn't look that way in the hot/dry season, but during rainy season the trees were perfect.
After hours of walking around we found these tables in the shade and had a few bottles of Castle to quench our collective thirst.

There were all sorts of animals here that we got to see up close. The staff kept them in the back somewhere and let them out for feeding time when we were there. So we got a good look at crocs, lions, monkeys, warthogs, cheetahs and all sorts of animals.

We did see some lions on our safari later on, but they were a little far away for a clear picture. It was still kind of neat to see them here. Funny to see cats THAT big!

They're here

2009-02-03T16:10:00.005-07:00

My bags finally arrived at 930 this morning. So it wasn't quite between 3pm and 7 pm, but we got them.
The guy was a total prick and seemed as though I put him out in some way. He wondered why I didn't pick up the phone when he buzzed me at 2 AM (which didn't really happen to begin with). So I open the luggage to find out it had been totally ripped apart at Customs and we lost a couple of little trinkets we had brought back. One of the elephants tusks went missing, and a little stone thing was broken. A hippo lost his legs. They had even opened up Dev's camera bag and we are missing the flash drive, but that will all work itself out in time. Now I am just happy that the laundry machine is purring in the background.

I think I had better start from the very beginning with my pics though. So I will start with Washington, DC just a few days before the inauguration of Obama. We missed the plane to Jo'berg because of a delay out of Denver and had to spend a night in this fancy resort.
The sign on the back of the door said it cost $419/night. Yipes!!!! But I was more interested in the fact that we weren't even in Washington, DC. We were really in Leesburg, Virginia.
I was lucky enough to get up close and personal with the new President.
Would you like the chicken or the beef, sir? NEITHER THANKS!

Slowly recovering

2009-02-02T11:49:00.002-07:00

We made it back without much trouble or delay, but we were without our bags - and still are in fact - but the phone just rang that our bags have arrived in Edmonton and will be delivered between 3 and 7 o'clock this evening. Yay!!!! Now I can shower all my friends in gifts!!! But more importantly I can give my laundry machine a full scale work-out.

I didn't bring too many clothes to Africa, but those that I did bring are certainly in serious need of a wash. Poor customs guys and girls who had to open up those bags.

What an amazing trip! It was a terribly quick 15 days or whatever it ended up being, but slowly everything is getting done. The pictures are being developed as we speak and I will get the laundry going this evening. Back to work on Wednesday or Thursday (still not sure which one) and all will be back to normal.

The wedding was splendid, and we had a wonderful safari with my folks. Livingston and Victoria Falls were incredible, and the weather was HOT! I am still organizing pics and trying to figure out how to show them all off on here. So stay tuned and I will add some shortly.

Christmas Baking

2008-12-23T17:17:00.003-07:00

For the second year running, my place became the sight of a major Christmas baking festival. It's been underway for the better part of the last two days. And the girls just left to deliver the goodies.

Here are a few shots of the party.

I see I haven't got many pics of the finished product. Those will come later... above I am eating delicious perogies that Kristen made. I am sure she made 10 dozen of the little gems.

The marshmallows were for the fudge I think. Not something I eat though. And my poor pots were so dirty. Maybe I should help with the cleaning seeing as I did nothing but eat.....

The two above are shots of the mess, and the mice. The oreos are going to become those funny little mice Dev makes. They have an oreo on the bottom, a cherry dipped in chocolate for the body. A hershy kiss for a head, and the cherry stem is the tail. They are cute.... I'll get a picture of them for the next post.

Headlines

2008-12-22T13:24:00.002-07:00

I spent a good part of the afternoon looking through the paper. It was Friday of Saturday when they have a big fat version. Monday's was about 4 pages by comparison. Anywhoooo, there were several really interesting articles in there.
One was about Edmonton's recycling set-up. They are building a $70 M "gasifier" to make the majority of the waste into gas or steam to create methanol, and eventually a more valuable ethanol. Which would be nice to see some of the corn crops go back to the food cycle rather than to ethanol...... but that's another story all together. Eventually the City of Edmonton will only send a few trucks to the landfill everyday. The only trouble is they're only using residential waste which only makes about 20% of all waste. But we must start somewhere.
Secondly, a story about a circle of ice forming at just the right temperature can make something similar to a crop-circle in the water. They found one of these in Mississauga last week on a pond. It's called a creek circle. I guess it's when some ice forms in the middle of the water, rather than the edges. The little ice shavings will gather together and kind of float there for a while making it look like a circle in the middle of the water. Pretty nice picture.
And finally one of the best headlines I've seen all year. I didn't think you could get away with such things these days, but it said; Two Wangs Make a Right for China.
It was from a curling tournament where two people by the name of Wang must have won their game or something. That is very clever.
Well, it's one thirty in the afternoon and I've finished my day at work already. Luckily it was a light one for me because it is a terribly cold -25 degrees. Brrrrr.

Oilers lose

2008-12-17T16:51:00.002-07:00

If it's goals you like, last nights hockey game was one for the ages. Trouble is, the Oilers were on the losing end of a 9-2 romp. The Chicago Blackhawks made the Oilers look like novice players. Every bounce that could've gone their way did. Deflections and funny bounces ended up in the back of the Oiler goal. And everything the Oilers tried bounced the wrong way.
The trouble with a score like that is none of the excuses really hold much weight. It was a good old fashioned ass-kicking. Not something I have ever seen at a game before.
So clearly, mom picked a good night to stay on the couch with her book.

The strangest thing happened right at the start of the game when Cal Nichols (former owner), Gary Bettman (NHL Commish), Bill Daly (VP of NHL) and Patrick Laforge (Oiler President?) came to sit down right behind us. It was hilarious. Eavesdropping throughout the game I learned a lot about buttering people up. I don't think I could handle an evening let alone a career of suck-holing one another like that. I do think there were some drinks had over supper though ;)
When Cal offered to leave with about 10 minutes left in the game for a night-cap Mr. Bettman said it was out of the question. He would NOT be seen leaving early - no matter the score. That's when I finally turned around and said it was likely because Bettman didn't want to miss overtime. The response from both Cal and Bettman was something like, "We'd need three days for the Oilers to catch up in this one".

It was a real treat to watch the high-flying Hawks though. Kane scored a beauty. As did Brian Campbell. Duncan Keith was terrific all night. It was a real lesson for the Oilers. Maybe they'll fair a little better tonight.

Chilly

2008-12-15T15:46:00.003-07:00

After a terribly cold weekend I went to work this morning and the temperature read minus 25 with a windchill making it feel like 35 below. It was meant to warm up during the day to a balmy -18 degrees. After yesterday this should be fine, but I didn't have to work yesterday.
So I rolled in at 6 AM for the voluntary early start to deal with the Christmas mail, and really lucked out. All I had to deliver was the afternoon portion of one guys walk. Not bad at all! I was only out in the cold for an hour and a half. A lot nicer than the usual 3 or 4 hour walk. But with 5 layers on my body, and two on my legs, I went out and really enjoyed the walk today. The cold doesn't really get to you when you are walking around. If I were standing out there it would be a different story.

Also had a call from mom last night offering up her ticket to the Oiler game for tomorrow. So I will be off to watch the Blackhawks and all their high-flying young stars. And Ales Hemsky has been incredible this year. It sure looks like it will be a whale of a game. Keeping my fingers crossed for a good one. The last one I was at a month ago was a real snoozer. You never know what you'll get at the games. But I will NEVER turn down an offer.

This has been in the works for a while...

2008-12-10T18:57:00.003-07:00

At the risk of making you think that there is something profound in this post, I will admit that I've been meaning to get this down for quite some time.
I had a silly encounter with someone while working the other day. And I do see it all. From people reaching their arms out to grab the mail wearing their pajamas in the middle of the day (which might just mean they don't work during the day) to every type of dog you've seen. Not to mention the places some people live.
But what captured my attention last week was someone's name. I had a signature item for this locksmith. I asked for his surname to enter on the sheet and he said McMurray. Ok I thought, and started spelling it out. When I looked up he was pointing to this frame on the wall. He said, "first name's Fort....... My mother had a sense of humour....... the witch."
Seriously. He was called Fort McMurray. No kidding.
Among others I've seen which may or may not be real are David Bowie, a few Cinnamon's, a Harvest Moon, and John Assman. And those are just off the top of my head.
I am not sure if I should put all these names up here, but I had a Marion Friesen. The first name is spelled differently, but that's a name some of us know. There was a Wally Friesen too. Seriously.

On a totally unrelated matter, I watch Horton Hears a Who last night. Cool movie. Made me think of reading all those Dr. Seuss books as a kid. The ryhme or cadence or whatever he had is one-of-a-kind. This one is about an elephant who sees a speck go floating by in the air, and he hears someone screaming for help. Turns out he notices an entire city on the speck of dust on the end of a flower. It's cute. And the best part is it was short so I did not fall asleep in the middle of it.
I do think we are under 40 days until the Africa trip..... yay!!!!

And to my surprise.....

2008-11-16T16:27:00.002-07:00

The tire didn't cost me nearly as much as the clowns at Fountain Tire quoted me. I was in St. Albert on Friday after dropping Dev at work and had some yummy homemade burgers at mom and dad's. When I arrived there, there was a bed in the doorway. Ahhh, grandma wants another bed at her place so she can have a spare room for visitors. Moving more stuff to/from grans. Story of our life lately it seems. But that's ok. She knows what she wants.
After dropping the bed we thought we'd go see if they could find me a new tire seeing as I couldn't repair the old one. After a short wait we determined that my free tires courtesy of Marty last year were discontinued - hence the good deal when I bought them. So they selected a new one that would match and told me they would call when it was ready. So we went and had those delicious burgers and Canadian Tire called. The guy took a measurement of the tread depth on the damaged tire and worked out the warranty for road hazards. Turns out there was 0% wear on the tire and I just had to pay the difference.
$37 later I had a brand new tire on, and the little donut back in the trunk.
I'm just left to wonder if those jokers at Fountain Tire will reimburse me for the $40 they charged to fix the flat the first time (which clearly did not work). At least I know where to take my tires when I need repairs.

Loonie

2008-11-12T19:33:00.002-07:00

Loonie .... yup, it sure is. I have been keeping an eye on the CAN/USD exchange rate, and saw our Canadian dollar take a record one-day drop to settle at 81 cents. It has really been bouncing up and down, but I want to buy some more American money for the Africa trip. Last time I was in I got about 96 cents USD for my loonies. It would hurt a little more to go buy today.
I was hoping to hit 90 again and I'd be happy. Good thing I bought some when we were on par earlier this year. Phew.... but it's sure funny how it can change so fast.

And speaking of money I had a slow leak on my rear passenger tire of my car about a month ago. Finally got it repaired for $40 a week and a half ago. When I went for supper at grandma's on Sunday I left to find the same tire totally flat. When I got the chance to take it in today they told me there was sidewall damage and they could not repair this tire. So my free tire from Marty didn't even last a year. Now I'll have to decide where to get a new one. $150 seems a little steep. Bummer.

And my mom recommends....

2008-11-04T17:28:00.004-07:00

I'm not going to write anything about politics. I'll wait until I see what happens with Obama. I was reading this book called Bad Land by Jonathan Raban. It's interesting so far - a story about the people who settled the western USA. I'd say you can safely include the people who settled in Western Canada at around the same time. And it fascinated me to think it was all happening only a hundred years ago.
There are some incredible lines about photographers during that time who were close to artists, but also close to hardware store owner, or even a doctor. People had to send pictures of the new homestead to their families in England, Germany, Russia or whatever.... Fascinating.

But this little part struck me as quite lovely:

.... and with the character of it's landscape, where nothing got in the way of the newcomer's eye or put a drag on his ambitious imagination. I'd felt it myself. No sooner had I set foot on the prairie than I was having designs on it and thinking big. It was dangerously elating to be able to see so very far under a sky so very clear.

Do I sound much like my mom?

Simon Winchester

2008-10-21T18:59:00.003-06:00

It's a little delayed, but last Friday I had a date with my mom. It was going to be me, mom, and dad until pops realized he would miss another Oiler game. So he drove mom down, hung out at my place and watched the game while I took off with my mom.
But you don't really need too many details of my whereabouts (and my family's) posted on here. The point is the Edmonton Literary Festival.
After my initial alarm at being twenty years younger than anyone else there, we settled in and waited for the clowns to work out some technical difficulties (Mr. Winchester never did get a working mic). He came out and talked about meeting with the folks who were approving new words for the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) just before he came to Edmonton. And the only reason I mention this is that the Edmonton Journal coverage ended there. The reporter must have had a date.
Simon Winchester wrote a few books you may recognize including The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa.
I can't even begin to try and tell the stories the way he did, but he began a journey from Uganda to England, to the troubles in Northern Ireland (making front page on the world papers), to Washinton, DC the day Watergate hit the news (again making the front pages around the world) to London, to New York etc.
He mentioned two things that struck me as a journalist (at least someone who has the training and a little bit of experience, if not the booming radio voice or natural skill). One was a piece of advice he'd received - Never lose your sense of wonder. Isn't that true? A person will be dead if he/she doesn't enjoy the things we see everyday. And the second was the only way a journalist can have any staying power is to write books.
So a series of amazing events occur, and a little book about the making of the OED has now sold 2.5 million copies. The Professor and the Madman is the book.
What an interesting guy, and what wonderful stories he tells.
And it never stops amazing me how my mom comes up with these cool things to do. I'll go on a date with her anytime.
I don't know if this post makes much sense - maybe one of those "guess you should've been there" moments. The thoughts I am trying to convey are that it was terrific to get out to something like that. The stories are almost unbelievable and I guess that's what makes him such a successful author.

Zambia

2008-10-11T10:02:00.002-06:00

There's a first for everything I guess. I delivered a postcard yesterday from Zambia!!! It's the first one I've seen in a solid year. It's a funny thing about my job - delivering postcards from strange places. The back of it had Zambian stamps which look familiar to me - and I flipped it over and saw it was a picture of a lake or big pond in front of the University in Lusaka. I better go check that out for myself in January.
Hope the exams went well Sarah!

One PERFECT week

2008-10-05T18:54:00.003-06:00

What a start to the month of October. And a finish to September here in Edmonton. On Wednesday last week I finished work quite early and piled in the truck with mom and dad and went fishing.

I really thought Sarah would like to see dad's hat - but it was incredible out there. What a splendid evening it was.

The sun was shining so beautifully. And an added bonus on the way out of the crescent when we saw a Canada Postie still working. Ahhh the little things in life. The lady was still delivering her route and I had been home and out to St. Albert and on the way to the lake. (Dad also waved at school as he towed the boat by while staff meeting was on.)

Proof that mom came along this time. In her usual spot up at the front.

That little tiny Jack fish is the only one we saw all day. Dad caught it, and I was skunked. But the hat really does rule!!! Giant Tiger special. He tells me that's what happens when you go fishing and forget to bring a cap along. He bought that one in Saskatoon.

Random thoughts

2008-09-10T18:13:00.004-06:00

My sister inspired me write one of these posts that nobody should have to bother reading. But I was also itching to post something .... anything.... but didn't know what to say. Well, I was thinking of it this afternoon and decided to pop in my headphones and listen to talk radio this afternoon while I was walking/working.
Well, Adler, the guy on the radio in the afternoon, was talking about the upcoming elections in both Canada and the US. What a time for the political junkies... not that would be a huge nut for this stuff, but I like it. They were really talking a lot about the Green Party's leader Elizabeth May being allowed to participate in the leader's debate. Fine with me. But why does it have to be all about gender???? She said something about 5 political leaders (all male) saying NO and four television network exec's (all men) who were conspiring the keep the women out of it. Oh my goodness, I think that's a little bit of a stretch. Oh well, she's got all those donkey's shaking because I think she is likely a pretty good debater. Perhaps she's a bit of a pitbull. Like Sarah Palin.... which also makes me laugh. Could Obama really have been implying Palin was a pig with his "Lipstick on a Pig" remark? I wouldn't think so, but it sounds like the Republican's (some call them hate-filled gas bags right Unc?) are riding pretty high. And the Dem's look a little deflated.
It would sure be surprising to see Obama lose. Lots of Conservatives in the States though.

Finally, I have really put my shredder to the test over the last few days. I have been cleaning up piles of stuff and trying to get my apartment under control after some minor neglect. So every once in a while I shove a new sheet in there, and wonder what I did with all my stuff before everyone started worrying about ID theft and what-not. I don't think anyone would be sifting through the dumpster in my place. That's nasty!

Autumn has also arrived, so perhaps I will drag my camera along with me this week, and get some shots of the beautiful city. It's a splendid time of year I'd say.

Africa

2008-09-03T18:23:00.002-06:00

Well the tickets are bought and paid for. I am now officially one of the few North Americans to be heading to Africa for Sarah's wedding. Phew!!! I was worried for a little while that something would get in the way.... like my better judgement. Just kidding!!! It is pretty crazy how much it costs, but this only happens once so I am not at all worried about that. It's a trip to Africa. And one I have been waiting to make for a long, long time.
Dad went and arranged everything with the travel agent, and all me and Devyn had to do was go in and pay. Jan 14th to Feb 4th. Including lots of travel time.
It's really interesting to think that I fly from Edmonton to Dallas, to Washington and then to Jo-burg and Lusaka. I wonder how a 15 hour flight will feel on my ass.....
Can't wait. It is one of the most exciting things in my life. Now I just have to wait 4.5 months.

BBQ

2008-08-31T08:52:00.003-06:00

Things have changed a little around my place. I have a new appliance on which to cook supper. Dad bought a new bbq, and he fixed up the old one for my place. Pretty darn nice if you ask me.

The thing was in pretty rough shape, but dad even refinished the wood on it. Like new! A coat of heat resistant paint did wonders for the old beast.

Here's when he delivered it and turned it on for the first time.

And he brought a giant steak when he delivered the bbq. Kevin came over with a steak of his own. Dad's steak was more like a roast really, but it was yummy!

On a lighter note, I threw some hot dogs on there last night. They were yummy too. No photo evidence of that though.

Folk Fest II

2008-08-18T17:57:00.003-06:00

I guess most of these are the pics that nobody should have to see, but I find it so boring to take pics of the musicians. They are like sitting ducks up there. Not creativity involved. If I could get my hands on Hal's pics, they'd be more interesting. And Unc's pics of the bands are great because of his mega zoom camera. Mine were mostly a green and white tarp with some people crowded underneath playing music. Could'nt make out much else.

Front row centre. Sorry, but I couldn't resist. How silly did I look in Hal's glasses and gran's straw hat from Mexico?
Andrea rubbing ice on her head, Dev with some folk fest juice, and Jeff doing something....
Doesn't Ryan look great? Can't really say much else about that picture... hehe

The last one is from Thursday night. Mike Rennick and his lady Meg. I am not sure why he looks so scared. Or sheepish.

Folk Fest '08

2008-08-16T19:01:00.006-06:00

I am shamed into posting after Uncle Wally drove back to Seattle and put his photos on here. He either spends more time on the computer than I do, or he's just better at prioritizing.
It was a wonderful weekend as usual. The weather was perfect, I only brought my camera on Sunday, and pulled it out once.
Here's Dev on Saturday morning waiting for the chauffeur to arrive. Flipping through the program to see where we go first.

Devyn's checking her pulse to make sure Craig Roberge and Jeff aren't going to give her a heart attack.

Mark and Craig philosophizing in the beer gardens.

Me and Jeff would trade text messages during the workshops to determine the next rendezvous at the beer gardens.

Maybe we were dancing ..... but one thing is for sure.... I think I should've pulled the camera out more often. Perhaps I can find some more from Dev's camera.

August Long

2008-08-05T17:16:00.004-06:00

No pics yet, but we had another successful camping trip over the weekend. Twin Lakes, the chosen destination for this trip. It's only about an hour away. We took Brayden with us this time. He's Dev's youngest brother. He had never been camping in a tent before, so it was quite fun. I hope he had a good time.

The weather was ok. Some sun, some rain, some wind and cloud. Typical Alberta summers. For the very beginning of August, it was damn cold on Friday night.

And now it's a few days of work in between another weekend party. Folk Festival this weekend. Sarah, I wish you and Al were here. It doesn't feel quite the same after last summer. I'd sure love to go meet Al in the beer gardens..... oh well, I'll have to entertain myself with some music this year. No Patties either, so it will certainly feel different.

But mom, Unc and Hal will be here, along with other usual suspects like Car, Ry, Jeff, Dan. It'll be lots of fun.

I was thinking about a post my uncle put up (you can find the link on my page) about Obama. I try to listen to conversations around me when I am sorting mail - I guess it's the right-wing radio show producer rearing it's head again - but it's neat to hear what others are talking about. Obama comes up a lot. (So does the beheading on the Greyhound bus) and I wondered if we Canadians can really get a feel for the buzz (or lack thereof)

So yeah, I bought my first GQ magazine, and I wasn't too thrilled. Unless you want to look at Tom Brady's girlfriend in her underwear, there's really nothing else. The most interesting part was a quick Cole's notes version of Where to get your political news. The tv stuff like CNN, FOX and MSNBC. But also a number of interesting websites. I don't think there are too many people who don't turn to the Internet first. Oh well.
Before this gets any more random, I will go make supper rather than sitting here any longer.

Can't stop playing on the computer....

2008-07-20T14:53:00.003-06:00

I stumbled upon this article on the interweb somewhere. Amazing! I can just see it now.

Boy: "Dad, how was your fishing trip?"

Dad: "Got myslef a 165 lb dying suicidal guy"

Boy: "You got one of those?"

Dad: "Yeah, I sure did. But, the one you had on the line last spring was much bigger"

Or something like that....

Fisherman hooks drowning man, reels him in

By The Associated PressFriday, July 18, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

HALLOWELL, Maine — A Maine angler used his fishing rod to reel in a man who survived a jump from a bridge and was drowning in the Kennebec River.
Bob Greene of Hallowell says he heard what he thought was a cormorant making noise in the distance 4:30 a.m. Thursday as he was having his coffee and reading his newspaper. He says about 20 minutes passed before he realized there was a man bobbing down the river.
Greene says his first instinct was to jump in but a 911 dispatcher told him to throw something to the man. So he snagged the man’s shirt with a fishing lure and reeled him in. The man was in critical condition at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Wonder which bridge? There are a million of themin Portland. I just get a feeling it might've been the one Devyn and me had to cross after a few drinks in Portland last month. I'll include a picture of me drinking one Portland's finest microbrews. Actually it was like a Big Bear. Yup.

Pembina River Night's 2008

2008-07-20T09:11:00.004-06:00

A fantastic time this year! The music was much better than last year, and the weather was perfect. Last year was a little too hot, but we had wonderful weather this time around.

Jeff Stuart and his 6 piece band. They were really,really rockin this time around. I loved it.

Here's Dev fooling around in the farmer's field. Cody is looking for a needle in there.

I was pondering a joke from Fred Eaglesmith, and Carly clearly got it before I did.

Andrea and Carly figured we would cue the cheesy '80's theme song music about four crazy pals at a folk music festival. Left is Michelle, Dev's boss at O'Mailles. And Cody in front. A fellow Lombard Crescent resident from years ago.

Here was are with wheat sticking out of our teeth like real country-folk. What a great time this year. Can't wait for the next excuse to go to Rangeton Park.

July 4th, 2008 Craig and Fiona

2008-07-20T08:56:00.003-06:00

Craig Roberge and Fiona got married two weeks after Craig and Jen.

They were married at the Whitemud Creek Community Hall. Really nice location on the far south west side of Edmonton. And it was a smokin hot day too. Poor guys in their suits.

Craig and his mama.

I had a lot of fun with Craig's dad at both of the weddings. And at the stag. What goes on behind the blue gates, stays behind the blue gates. You got it Clark!

Devyn and Craig. And a giant bottle of tequila.Here's Fiona and Alana with me and Craig.

Summer at my place

2008-07-20T08:43:00.003-06:00

I've neglected to put up any shots of my place for quite a while. Here are a few of the summer downtown.

Dev having a cold one out on the patio.

My Lily a couple of weeks ago. It is growing like a weed.

Dink is rolled up in that Mexican blanket. He had a little too much fun.

Jason's 30th was the reason we were gathered when Kev had a few too many.

And here's Dev's fish from the other week. Started out like it would be a good day. Then as quickly as they started biting..... they stopped. I think we had 6 in total that day.

A few more.

2008-07-20T08:34:00.003-06:00

As luck would have it, the camera was dead, so I've relied on Andrea's pictures. Thanks!

Jeff and Trevor. Trev was a last-minute addition who doubled as a drink ticket salesperson.

Me and Craig digging in for some more food.

That's Trevor and Fiona. Fiona was married to Craig two weeks after this party. That was another good time.

Here are the boys a little later on during the night.

And of course, Craig's mom. I love her! His parents have always been really close with all of us.

Where does the time go?

2008-07-20T08:23:00.003-06:00

Now that I've finished posting holiday pictures, I will add a couple from Craig and Jen's wedding. June 14th, 2008.

Here's Jen getting ready for the toss.As the party came in, I was told to introduce each of them while they were passing out drinks to the guests. Most of you know already seeing as the wedding was more than a month ago, but I was emcee for the first time in my life, and what a great time it was.

This was during second supper. There was a strong contingent of us stationed around the food. Jeff, Trevor Tchir, Craig R, Dan, me and Dev, Mark and Alana. With that crowd, you can be assured there was lots of laughter. See below.

It truly was the most fun I've had at a wedding. This growing up thing ain't so bad!Mark Moran and Devyn.

That's it, that's all.

2008-07-05T16:05:00.003-06:00

Here's Clara posing with her belly after Marty took us for too much lunch.
You can't see the Canada goose that Clara and Dev are trying to fight.
The Spanish Banks or some beach in Vancouver.
Marty having a smoke and playing guitar. Unusual sight.
And here's some sheep outside Japser. We kind of rushed from Van all the way to Edson. But we saw ton of wildlife. What a great trip!

Vancouver

2008-07-05T15:54:00.002-06:00

Some more Vancity.Some cars in Marty's parkade. I know Alvin likes these fancy cars.

Here's a little park, or community garden right across the street from Marty's pad.How about those pink shoes?

Let's finish this already!

2008-07-05T15:41:00.005-06:00

Candra and Marty and Pat and Clara and myself. Devo was the responsible one who documented this meeting for Sarah.

Here's the tail end of the trip. I think everyone's seen the pics already, but some of you want to see.

Alouette Lake, just an hour out of Vancouver. We didn't get very good weather. And we were a little crammed in Marty's inflatable boat. Pearl.

I've got a head of steam now.

2008-06-28T12:10:00.003-06:00

More Seattle.Fooling around near Uncle Wally's.

Nice shot of downtown from a little park in Fremont.And Megan's hubby Chris was nice enough to take me to a Seattle Mariner's ballgame. They lost, but it was a lot of fun.

Technical difficulties?

2008-06-28T11:52:00.003-06:00

We'll try again. I have a little time to do this right now. It's 30 degrees outside today, and I am not going to spend it all on the computer. But like I said, I have the time now. Just another series of pics from Seattle.

This is so dumb!!!! I have been posting on here for so long and I am ready to delete the account. I just hate posting pics on here. It's never easy. You'll have to crank your head sideways to see one of the pics. That one is from a drive Megan took us on one afternoon to Alki. It's a beach where all kinds of people bring their families and dogs. It's nice there, and a view of Seattle we wouldn't have found from the bus.

The hat is one that I looked forward to buying for a long time. These Brixton hats are not easily found in Canada. So I found a few shops in Seattle that sold them. Wrote the addresses and went hunting. My family knows what a drag it is to go hat shopping with Tom. Turns out it was on sale. I paid under $20.

The cupcakes were a special treat from Meg also. What a nice idea..... I shoud open a gourmet cupcake shop in Edmonton. Right in my parking lot. A specialty cupcake market....... hmmm.

More Seattle

2008-06-19T19:01:00.003-06:00

Here's a little more from Seattle.

Farley got more love than anydog I have ever seen. Spoiled rotten.Birthday party with Murray the bartender. Let's say Dev got to be pretty good friends with him by the end of the night.Zig Zag cafe. Thanks for the left Caroline.

Ta Da! Welcome to the Pike Street Market.

Anyone want some fresh seafood?

Seattle Part I

2008-06-19T18:42:00.003-06:00

First of all, Happy Birthday mom. Just getting toward the end of the pictures. Only a week and a half after I got home. Or more like two weeks. This is the Seattle leg of the journey.

First thing we did when we arrived was have a cocktail with Hal. What a crazy place he has.

Devyn having a swig of her gin gin mule. It was delicious drink!

Dev had to use the bathroom quite badly by the time we arrived. It is behind that bookcase just to the left of the tv. His place used to be a real garage. It's beautiful.There I am in the sun on Hal's patio. Notice the pool down below. It's so nice in Fremont where Uncle Wally lives.

And Uncle Wal's dog is pretty cool too. There's Farley when Megan first brought him over. We were lucky enough to set up shop at my Unc's condo. Too bad he was in Croatia though. Thanks.

More Seaside and the coast.

2008-06-16T21:07:00.004-06:00

Just a few more quick ones of the coast. Tsunami zone!

Another self-portrait. We were able to find one game of the Stanley Cup Finals in Seaside. Had supper and watched the game. But I've already forgotten who won. Doesn't matter much in June does it?

Some more nationalism. Or maybe it was a little Canadiana flowing over the border. I'm not sure which one.This guy tried to make a sales pitch to us at the waterfront. Wyndam something or other. Sounded like a time-share thing where they would give $50 for listening to the pitch. But he soon figured that he wasn't going to find buyers in us and decided to have fun with us. Partying at the ocean.

Part IV Seaside

2008-06-16T20:31:00.003-06:00

Seaside, Oregon was only 20 miles west - southwest of Astoria. Not quite as nice, but we stayed in a nice place, two seconds from the ocean. It was still cold, but nice to be there.

The funny thing about the hotel was the roof was covered by seagulls. And the resulting mess was astonishing.

Freedom Kids was about he only thing I saw on the while trip that made me think of the supposed Patriotism. That part of the US is not at all like the stereotypical American from Texas or the "South". The pacific northwest is not too different from home.We get to the ocean and we can run out and dip our hands in. Dev's first thought is to grab a giant stick and chase me around. I think we were pent up in the car for too long at that point.

Part III Astoria

2008-06-12T20:33:00.004-06:00

Once we left Portland the trips in the car became much shorter and we spent the days wandering around the coast, slowly making our way toward Seattle.

It was very very cold. The wind, and rain. It wasn't pleasant, but a lovely little town. Nicer than Seaside I think. Only twenty miles apart, but Astoria wasn't quite as tourist-y.

Devyn at one of the docks along the warf.

One of the highlight was when we spotted a seal. I admit he startled me, and by the time we dug out the camera it was too late. However we was hiding under the docks here.

And then we saw that load of logs on a barge being towed by the little tugboat. Funny, it's an everyday thing if you live by the water, but a neat sight if you live in land-locked Edmonton.

Part II

2008-06-12T20:08:00.003-06:00

From Cour D'Alene we went straight west toward the coast. A wonderful ride along the Columbia River.

As we pulled into Portland we decided it was warm enought to try and camp. The only site we found was a parking lot with no fire or anything. Not what I had in mind. So we traced our way to another cheap motel. It wasn't the most comfortable place we stayed but it was next to a bread factory which made it smell really nice. Portland was really pretty actually. Not the best for driving with all the bridges though.

Here we are having a little fun down by the river.

And some more fun being tourists. We were trying to take our self-portrait above and someone was kind enough to help us do it below.

This was a little restaurant/brewery we visited on a sunny afternoon just as everyone was getting off work. A nice afternoon lunch while those who weren't on vacation went about their business.

The first leg of our journey

2008-06-10T21:39:00.004-06:00

Sorry it's a bit delayed, but between trying to get the pics printed off, and planning for Craig and Jen's wedding, and the first week back at work I am having trouble getting this done.

Here's part one: There were some major floods going on in Southern Alberta. We were at Waterton on the first night. Horrible weather, cold, and the Road to the Sun was closed again. So it was a brief stay.

The next day we crossed the border. We were there at 8:30 eagerly waiting. There wasn't another vehicle to be seen. A little stressful crossing with one lady grilling me and a guy searching the trunk. He felt sorry for us with a car full of camping gear and didn't bother to look too closely.

Waterton National Park is on the Cdn side, and Glacier Park on the Montana side. The rolling hills were amazing. I thought I could have some fun in Montana.

Here's a nervous Tom pretending we are staying in a nice hotel. I am thinking this was the one in Cour D'Alene, Idaho. The motel only cost $45 I think, but they must've been the host accommodations for a dog show. I say countless dogs there. I think perhaps Devyn was more comfortable in the dives than I was. They stunk, the beds were terrible, and the pillows way to thin. Beginning to sound a bit like my mom I think. A good thing of course.

And outside the doggy daycare we found our first big photo op. And a Walgreen's across the street. We bought white cheddar flavoured Cheetos. The delicious hard ones. Rather disappointing really. Tasted just like the orange ones. But yeah, back to the picture. How cool?

Holidays

2008-06-07T09:33:00.002-06:00

I am back!!!! Hopefully that means there will be lots of posting going on here. Trouble is, I dread posting the million pics we took. I had a tremendous time though, and it will be fun going through all the pics. Hopefully many of them will make it this far.
Edmonton to Wateron National park the first day. Then to Cour D'Alene, Idaho. To Portland, and then Seaside/Astoria. A quick zip up to Seattle to see the cousins for the weekend, and then to Van to do some more visiting. On Thurs I drove all the way from VanCity to Hinton and finished the route yesterday. Now it looks like a bomb went off as I sort through everything that we brought with us. Some of it used, some not.
So there's a rough skeleton of our trip, 2500 miles and change. I will now try to figure out how to post this stuff. Maybe I day-by-day breakdown with some pics, or sections of our trip..... keep posted while I am posting.

Happy Birthday Dev

2008-05-14T16:20:00.004-06:00

Well, this has been such a busy week. Now it's finally slowed a bit and I am enjoying an afternoon of coffee and catching up on some stuff I've been meaning to do .... like post on the blog.

Dev turned 23 on Monday and we had mother's day the night before. We went out for Greek food for her birthday and then we tried to get out for a bike ride on her new bike.

Pretty sweet ride hey?

And then yesterday David Beckham was in town. He was playing a match against the Vancouver Whitecaps in Edmonton. That was a lot of fun.

Here are the troops heading from my place to the LRT for the game. Mike and his wife Heather in the back, and Mike Rennick in the middle. Kevin needs no introduction. Everyone knows Kevin.

And there's one shot of Becks. We had really good seats and the game was a lot of fun. The camera flashes were hilarious everytime he touched the ball.

End of an era.

2008-05-05T20:03:00.003-06:00

So the last two fish had to be flushed over the weekend. I don't know what it is, but that was not a good experiment. Better take it down and start over. They say the fish won't last very long anyway, but it's too bad. The life expectancy is somewhere around 4 days to 4 months if I can recall correctly. I did have one of those Cardinal Tetra's in the past that lasted me 4 years! Must have been the oldest tetra in history!
There is a good note in all of this though. I don't have to ask Kev to come over when I am on holidays in a couple weeks to feed my fish *evil smile*
The other topic of the day is today was officially the first day I wore shorts to work this spring. Perhaps even the first time in my brief postal career that I've worn them. It's a lot easier to get around without the big coat and thermal underwear and gloves .... etc. I was even sweating as I walked around in the sun this afternoon. A nice Monday, and only two more until vacation!

This is how it works

2008-04-30T19:20:00.002-06:00

So I had to renew my vehicle registration the other week. I get a notice in the mail and they say I can renew online. Perfect, I won't have to leave my place and stand in line at the dreaded registry.
This is weeks ago and I get confirmation and the new pink registration card and think nothing of it. But then I realize I need the stickers for my plates. Where the hell are those? And when are they going to mail me the new ones for '09?
Today my plates expired so I got on the horn and asked someone where the stickers are. The lady told me to pop into a registry. Ahhhhhhhhhh, but this defeats the whole purpose of renewing online. The Internet is supposed to make our lives easier.
I was not too happy, but in the end there is a registry in my parking lot and there was NO LINE! Amazing in itself. So I got it all taken care of in a matter of minutes, but why is nothing ever easy? I'll give one more example. I want to buy something online already. I needed a case for my mp3 player. It's not an ipod so you simply can't find anything in a store. So I go to the Creative website and find the case on sale for $10. By the time I got to the "check-out" they inform me it will cost $40 to ship it here. Yeah, right! So I went to Future Shop and found one on a discount table for ten bucks without the shipping!
Maybe things will get easier, but every time I try to do something on the computer it takes me an extra four or five tries before it works. I've often thought it's the operator and not the machine. Now I am not so sure.

Easy Week

2008-04-26T13:02:00.002-06:00

I've said before that I have the best job ever. This week I was on a Part-Time walk and finished early every day. I even had time for a haircut. I love going to get a haircut, but I don't really think it should cost me $29. I go to a nice salon to see a nice girl who seems to cut my hair nicely. Same place as my mom goes, but I can't go every time. Maybe go to Supercuts once and then to Vaso once.
Anyway, she wasn't shy with the clippers. I told her my hair was left a little too long last time, so she made sure I wouldn't leave saying the same thing. Oh well. She soaks my hair, shampoo's and conditions. Gives me a crazy head massage while conditioning and then cuts. After she rinses again and then "styles". I never look as silly as I do when I leave the barber. But we'll just call it my summer 'do.
Perhaps I will go do something today that gives me reason to take a picture. Then I will have something to blog about.
I should also share with my loyal readers that grandma made a wonderful batch of soup and homemade bread. Lucky I made it in time for supper - Thanks gran!

Jury Duty

2008-04-18T19:29:00.002-06:00

The whole seniority thing at work makes me wonder sometimes, but I can see it's advantages too. I had to pick my holidays in two rounds. Everyone picks their days based on seniority, but everyone still gets a fair crack. So I was only a few months in and I picked my holidays. A two-week block from May 25th to June 7th. Perfect. For the last five months or so me and Devyn have been stuffing money into a peanut butter jar. We've done quite well, and I think we could pay for much of our camping trip through the mountains and down to Seattle.
Anyway, Dev was summoned to jury duty on the 29th of May. Ahhhh. I am sure we can get it sorted out, but what if? I know they'll be reasonable about it, but it gives you a little scare. I guess it's safe never to get too comfortable.

It's because of my mom!

2008-04-16T18:54:00.002-06:00

I was looking back at the previous post and think there's something wrong with the title. Taken off life support...... Sounds like I just watched Bob and Doug McKenzie in Strange Brew. *Take off eh?* (Which is a film I think is quite hilarious) Taken off of life support, perhaps? I'll tell you it drives Devyn nuts if I accidentally correct her grammar. It pisses people off, but how can I possibly be any different? As they say, I come by it honestly. Thanks mom.

But there must be a point to this right? NOPE! None at all. Just thought I should get on here again because I was laughing at myself a few minutes ago. I made supper tonight. I had an assortment of treats including, 2 scrambled eggs, two hot dogs, and a pile of cucumber and green pepper. And a beer. Delicious. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I shall go find something else to do.

Taken off life support

2008-04-11T08:41:00.003-06:00

Another one is gone down the pipes. From the original 8 fish, one of the Cardinal Tetra's had his/her tail eaten off and was thus sent to a better place. He/she was trying to hide behind the Egyptian head I have in the tank and it was just too sad. The area where the tail had been chewed had this cloudy little jelly-like thing around it so I decided he had to be put out of his/her misery.
It's looking pretty good for the tank being empty by the time I leave for holidays in late May! I don't know if I want to arrange for Kevin to come over every couple of days to feed two little fish. Like I said before though, the first tetra I ever had lasted four years. Maybe one of these is a fighter. I think the life expectancy is more like four days.
It's my last weekday off today, and I don't really know where the time went. I had a delicious day yesterday going out for lunch and getting my grocery shopping done. Checked out a new camping store which was rather disappointing, but I wasn't working. This weekend should be very nice so I will try to ram as much fun into it as possible, and get back to work on Monday. Should be interesting to see how out-of-shape I can become in one week.

Lots of fun

2008-04-10T17:20:00.005-06:00

Had such a good time. I drove out on Monday and stayed two nights. Rode on Tuesday. There was NO ONE in Jasper. I had the whole hill to myself. When we walked around town we could've blown a cannon down main street and not hit anyone. What a treat compared to going in peak season. I just love days off in the middle of the week! And that pool was nice too!

Devyn sitting by the giant totem pole in the lobby. Swanky treatment at that place.

Here are the grain theives caught in the act. The car must've been full of grain and there were about twenty elk sniffing around.

Jasper Trip

2008-04-10T16:28:00.010-06:00

Here's the bear in Hinton I think. Can never remember whether I'm in Hinton or Edson. It's welcoming us to the mountains.

Found a good deal at the Jasper Park Lodge which was beautiful. Our room was 100 years old I am sure, but the grounds and pool were nice. The room was pretty tiny and simple. You're never really at the hotel for very long though. There's the outdoor heated pool.

This is the tiny patio. The whole thing was quite hilarious. When I tried to check in, the hotel staff threw down their jackets for me to walk on so I wouldn't get my shoes dirty. I needed ice and they brought it right over with a smile "Mr. Dukovac" And, "would we like a ride on a golf cart to the swimming pool?" made me a little uncomfortable.
Getting out on the hill for the first time in two full winters. It felt amazing. Certainly rusty, but it doesn't take long for the body to remember what it's supposed to be doing. I ran out of steam pretty quickly, but had a beautiful time ripping down the hill.

We saw a million elk and a few goats, but once again I seem to have a lot of trouble seeing any "cool" animals like Grizzlies or big sheep. It's neat to see these things walking around two feet from you though.

Another one bites the dust

2008-04-07T08:53:00.003-06:00

Well my loyal readers are now subject to trivial updates on the state of my fish tank. And it's not looking good. Two more died overnight. And one got sucked into the filter and I can't find him. So we are down to three cardinal tetras and zero neon tetra's.
I'm glad three or four of you got to meet them over the short time they were with me.
Did I mention again how much I hate adding pictures to this stupid site? I've had tips from a few of you to make it easier but every time I add something or click anything the damn things get deleted and then I have to add them and reposition the photos. I'll have to figure it out by the time I return from my little jaunt to the mountains.
Look at the pathetic post from yesterday. It started with three pictures and all the writing was nice, now the words are cut off half way through and it just makes me furious. I'll leave it and play with the html code when I have stuff to add from my trip.
This free week off is going to be so nice. I got a free lift ticket, and a really sweet deal at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge so it will be nice. There are benefits to having days off during the week!
Who knows if I'll have any fish left once I return.

And then there were ......

2008-04-06T10:12:00.005-06:00

Three of my neon tetra's have been flushed already. It's heartbreaking. The bigger Cardinal Tetra's seem to be feasting on the little one's tails. So I find them twitching in the filter intake unable to swim because they have no bums.

They're a little hard to see, but the tank is cool. I am glad it's up and running again. The fish really are kind of pointless, and I didn't even have a chance to name them, but it's nice to have them.

Otherwise my place has become the occasional venue for poker nights. It's fun, but I make far too many mistakes. It really is a fun game to get into, but don't worry, I haven't taken to watching it on tv.

Here's my best impersonation of Phil Ivey ...

But alas, it's usually Devyn chomping away on her winnings.

Tomorrow I am off to Jasper for my first day of snowboarding in two winters. Just in time as the hill will be closing in a couple of weeks. I have the surprise week of holidays and decided I better go while I have the time off. Even going to stay at the Jasper Park Lodge. High-rollin! I'll have more exciting things to post in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

Where does the time go?

2008-04-03T16:57:00.002-06:00

It's now been another month since I've been on here. The thing is, I am finding so many things to do that sometimes I feel I don't have the time to sit down at the computer.
What's the news? Well, I am officially under the 200 lb milestone. After hitting an absurd 229 the week before I started walking for a living. Now I am down to 197 or something. Pretty amazing that I get paid to do it too. I think I have the best job in the world. Seriously, now the snow is gone and it's warmer. Should be a fun summer.
Now that the vanities are out of the way, I can talk about the new additions to my place. I finally bought fish for the tank I've had running for about a month now. I bought 5 neon tetra's and 3 cardinal tetras. They're three days old now. They are supposed to be the most durable ones. Last time I did this when Sarah first bought me the tank the very first tetra lasted 4 years. Should be interesting to move the tank when I decide I have to live somewhere else.... (I just finished hanging my first picture up in this place though) Seems to me the blog is in need of some pictures. I have a week off next week, so that should make lots of time available. I will make it one of my "projects".
And the final order of business is the Oilers. Final game of the year tonight, and what a great year it was. I know they missed the playoffs and all that, but it really was a lot of fun. Certainly a better finish than last year. The best part is I must've been to ten games this year. I am looking forward to next year. I'll have to watch the playoffs until June to keep my fix filled.

What a day!

2008-03-01T12:15:00.003-07:00

Sometimes things just feel right in my world. The weather is beautiful, I'm well rested after a two-nap Friday afternoon. And things couldn't be much better.
I dropped Devo at work this morning, took a right out of the parking lot. I found myself face-to-face with a Saturday morning Canadian ritual. Tim Horton's. Trouble was I hadn't had a coffee this morning. So I went in and found out it was Roll-Up-the-Rim time again. Double trouble. I waited in line anyway, only about 5 or ten minutes at the most. Got a coffee and hit the road back toward my place. I remembered my cousin giving me a Rim-Roller last time the contest was on. It's a wonderful little device they made to cut the coffee cup and "roll the rim" to see if you've won. An amazing little tool. Really. It's impressive. But I hadn't used it since the last Roll-Up-the-Rim. Where in the hell would I find it? It's got to be in the car somewhere. Where else do I ever take a Timmies coffee? After a few minutes, because there aren't many places to look in my little Ford, I found it. Second place I looked, in the ash-tray. YES!!!! I was elated, even though my cup said please play again. I will, I promise. I will.

Spring Break?

2008-02-15T19:30:00.002-07:00

Last time I was compelled to write on here was because of the weather. Well, today felt like it was spring. It smelled so wonderful outside, and I even saw a fly. I have no idea how that can possibly be, but I saw it alright. Next there will be mosquitos in February. Oh joy!
Today was a brilliant 10 degrees above zero and one hell of a nice day to be a postman. But it's Friday and I don't work for two days, so enough "shop" talk.

There was a moment earlier this week on the way out to help mom and dad move furniture where I NEEDED my camera with me. We were moving new furniture into the other room now that the pool room is definiately NO MORE. It's gorgeous in the front room. (I guess we have to call it that now.) Or living room, but we kind of already have one of those.... I think I'll continue to call it the pool room - it was just that for a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, back to the original thought Tom.....
I was driving down the trail to help my folks and I saw some guys hanging a new billboard on the side of the road. I huge one. And they were still there kind of peering over the top of the thing smoothing out the sheet ......... and the sign was upside down!!! I think that is what a blog is ultimately for - capturing something at the right time and putting up there immediately. It was hilarious.
Well, now the fun has worn off because it's still upside down. A radio station trying to generate some conversation. I am no longer being a sucker for the marketing. Enough said. But I plan on taking a picture anyway so you can imagine why I was laughing.
Another moment where I wished I had my camera was when me and Dev went to the casino for some (harmless) fun and I put $5 in the loonie slot machine and spun it about three times before hitting three lovely 7's. Paid me a $100. Thanks for the free bottle of Pilsner and unlimited sports select losses for at least a month! Woo hoo!

It's SOOOO COLD!!!!

2008-01-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome Winter!!!! What a blast of cold we are in the midst of right now..... Dad says his truck read 31 below zero and the radio tells us the wind made it feel like minus 46. All over the west is getting pounded too. We were hardest hit by the wind I'd say. Work was a wee bit harder than usual.
I wanted my camera to take a picture of myself. Toque and my Ed Hervey mask, scarf, all caked in frost. A parka, several layers underneath, pants, thermals, two pair socks, and my pants tight around the ankle to keep out the snow. I was trudging through snow drifts that were easily up to my knees. It was strangely exhilarating.
I had a route where I spent half of the day driving to businesses and the afternoon portion delivering to houses. I guess I was walking for almost two hours in the afternoon. On a normal day I am out walking for roughly4 hours so perhaps I got off light.
The beauty is that they told me I'll be on it for two whole days..... very rare for me. That means I'll be off in plenty of time to join dad at the Oiler game tomorrow. So mom decides to stay home because it's too cold. Hmmm, maybe the cold isn't so bad after all.

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

Ok ok, I must make this a more common occurrence this year. It seems that I have so much on the go,and nobody ever hears from me. I am having a blast I can tell you that. This post is simply to update some of you on my place. I still call it my new place but I guess I have been here for 2 months already.

Kind of like Stephen Harper still calling his government the "New Conservative Government". It's almost as bad as listening to an interview with a hockey player.

This is "Betty" in all her holiday glory.

And there has been some baking going on at my place. That's Dev and her friend Kristen. They had a few holiday coctails, or by the time I got home from work they were called fauktails. Festive cocktails I think.

Then there was Christmas. I have a few new additions to my kitchen. Look at my square plates. And look at the leftover ribs. Thanks mom. They were yummy the second time, and the third. They are on the left side. World famous I'd say.

And then there is MY first Christmas tree Sush. This one belongs to Devyn, and her mom won't let her set it up at their place because the decorations are too tacky. And there is a few of the ones my mom bought for me over the years.

Of course I can't igure out how to rotate it, and the picture is out of focus, but my patience is running thin. I am beginning to think I should upgrade from my "Lite Speed" internet. The stupid thing is so terribly slow. But this is better than nothing.

I have a million other things to say, but they seem to escpape me right now. As a result I will have to go take a shower and get on with cleaning or something. Maybe a nap......

Nice

2007-11-28T20:47:00.001-07:00

Check this out...... Merry Christmas Tom!

We (me and Dev) decided the little tv was simply not going to do in the new place. It's a 32" Sharp Aquos.......ohh la la.

One of our friends helped us out by using his Best Buy employee discount. Thanks!

And you'll notice the Rider's are hoisting the chalice in the shot....... Yay!

The New Pad

2007-11-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots of my new place and what seems to go on in this new place. Huge pantry to the right of the fridge.

Kevin has the swiffer out cleaning the floors. It really didn't need it yet.

I'm going to buy a TV "this" big.

As you can see, that tv I have up there looks a little bit silly.

I can't seem to arrange the pics in the manner that I would like to, but you get the point. And anyone who is reading this also knows what a pig this site can be for posting pics.

Nice location right downtown where I have always thought I would like to live.

It is also nice to see Kev more often. Later that same evening he ended up climbing into the fridge.... because he could.

I had to go out and get tenants insurance. She asked if I had 20, 30, 40 thousand dollars worth of stuff. As you can see, I told her $20K. And that's being generous.

The job is going very well. I am somewhat surprised that I love it so much, but the weather is still incredible. Last week I went out in short sleeves one day. More from me later.