Power

What a funny thing power is. We take it for granted and don't even think about it until it is not there.

After the last big storm the other day, we lost power in our house. Boy it was cold for those 43 hours. The worst part of it was not knowing when it was going to come back on. On the second afternoon, I pulled out the camp stove and started boiling water for a bath. It only took about an hour to get a half decent amount of water. That was so nice though. Again, it is taken for granted.

We were very fortunate to have only been out for two days. Some places are still without power today. That would really suck.

Kudos to all the Hydro workers and contractors who worked so hard to get everyone their power back. They deserve a big hand! Thanks!

Football Banquet

We just had our last football event of the year. The Spartans Football Banquet and awards presentation was tonight. The four Spartan football teams together for one final dinner.

The food was great. Roast beef with gravy and potatoes and a few different salads. There was also lasagna which was not even close to as good as Susan's, she makes the best in the world according to me but that is beside the point. There was a lot of good desert as well; brownies, tarts, cookies and squares.

After dinner, they gave out a few awards for each team, best offensive player, best defensive player and MVP. Once the awards were done, the building was vacated. Short and sweet.

Soon we will be doing it all over again, watching our boy turn into a football star. I can't wait.

Snow Day

It rarely snows in Victoria. We are lucky if we get some of the white stuff to stay for more than one day per year. Sometimes we get none at all, which is just fine for most of its residents.

The other day we got a huge snow storm and it seemed like it would never stop snowing. I feel like I have been shoveling stairs and walkways endlessly (we live in a co-op so I get out and do my part). The funny thing about snow in Victoria is that the city only has two snow ploughs, so when we get a dump like this, Victoria shuts down.

Last night it froze hard and made everything worse -- black ice. Nothing quite like walking along, minding your own business when suddenly your feet come from beneath you and you are on the ground with your wind knocked out.

I am sure that it will all be gone soon and Victoria can get back to its regular snow-free life. I'm just glad for the memories and for digital cameras. See the picture of my daughter's Snow-lady. This is the first real snow that she remembers. In the blizzard of '96, she was just a baby. You can't really see it, but she has an icicle nose because we did not have any carrots. Now there's ingenuity.

LEGO

When I was a kid I loved to play with LEGO. It provided me with hours of fun for my wide imagination. I had an ice cream bucket or two filled with the stuff. I can even remember having a subscription to a LEGO newsletter.

All of my LEGO is now long gone and I have not played with any for many years. My kids were never interested in it so we do not have any in the house.

The other day on LifeHacker.com, the download of the day was BlockCAD. It is a free program for building LEGO-ish models! I was so impressed that I downloaded it right away. The author only wants payment in one real LEGO block, so I'm going to find one in a second hand store and send it to him.

The nice thing about this program is that you do not have to clean it up when you are done. You can save your model as a .bmp or .jpg and have it forever. No more skinned fingers, trying to take the pieces apart. Most importantly, no more stepping on loose pieces of LEGO with bare feet -- OUCH!

Bond, James Bond

On Friday, Susan and I went to the theatre to see Casino Royale. I went in the afternoon at about 3:30 to buy the tickets for the 6:45 showing. There were only two left after I made the purchase.

The theatre was packed! I have never been to a movie on opening night, but I have been watching everything about the movie since the rumor of a 21st James Bond movie was started so I had to see it right away. I was not disappointed.

It was everything I expected and more. Daniel Craig fit perfectly as Bond. I loved the whole thing. It is the best 007 movie yet. I recommend anyone to go and see this movie. It has lots of action. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Keep in mind that this is a biased review, I'm a bit of a fanatic. I have pictures, games and ring tones on my phone all of the James Bond theme.

I can't wait until it comes out on DVD. There are plans already for JB22. Very exciting!

Lost my pen..........Found again!

I have a pen which was given to me a couple of years ago. It is very heavy and wonderful to write with. It uses G2 gel ink refills. The only ballpoint I will touch paper with besides my Fisher Space Pen (I prefer to use fountain pens). It is always in my pocket. No one uses it but me, unless it is an emergency and I wait until they are done so that I can retrieve it right away.

Because I keep my pen so guarded, I am sometimes surprised to find it missing from my pocket with no clue as to where it may be. This happened the other day and I was very distressed. I feared that I had left it in my white pants at work the day before. To top things off, it was my day off and laundry pick up. If I did leave it in my whites, it would be gone.

Later that evening I was looking for the remote control for the TV. I decided to take a look in the couch cushons and there lay my pen! I guess it had fallen out of my pocket while I was watching TV the day before. What a relief. That is about the third time that I have lost track of it in as many years; pretty good I'd say.

Rain of Autumn

I love the rain.

It seems like it has been raining for most of November and very hard at that. A very wet month. It is so refreshing, cleansing. Washing away the activities of the hot Summer just past. Preparing us for the crispness of Winter and for the rejuvenation of Spring where everything is born again.

Autumn has always been my favorite season. There is something that is so exciting about watching the leaves fall from the trees. The smell in the air. The feeling of the first cold nights, wrapping ones self up in a cozy blanket. The sound of the rain beating against the windows, tap, tap, tapping. The howl of the wind through the trees, whistling through the newly naked branches.

It is a time for indoor activities and large sit down meals. Slowing down from the frantic pace of the Summer events. But, soon it will be time for the preparation of Christmas. Barely over one month away, the malls are already filled with the bustling excitement and commercialization.

On second thought, maybe January sounds like a better time to relax.

First public performance

Above is a scan of a newspaper clipping from Laura's first public viola performance. She is not in the clipping but it is an important event so I included it. She was so excited. Below, if you look closely, you can see her looking towards the camera in the center of the picture.
The concert was held at Mount Douglas High School. There were so many kids there, all of the Victoria School District First-Year Strings and the District High Schools' Festival Orchestra of Victoria. They filled the entire gym floor. All of the spectators were on the perimeter. It was such an exciting time.

The Program was as follows:

Hot Cross Buns

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Open String Blues

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

(With the Festival Orchestra)

Devil's Dream

Ode to Joy

It was a great experience for Laura. She says that she cannot wait until her next performance.

What was really amazing was how well they can play after such a short time. Laura has done performances for us in our living room and she is really very good.

Last Game

We were over in Surrey on Sunday for Kyle's last game. He is #19. Shortly after this picture was taken, it started to pour. It was a rough game but the boys played hard.

We are so proud of Kyle for going out and playing his heart out every Sunday. We bought him a jersey today (#12, Brady, the Patriots QB) It was a reward for finishing the season. So many of the kids quit going to games because they were on a loosing team. Kyle knows that it is not about winning or loosing but about building a team and he says he will be back to play with them next year.

The team was on the 5:oo ferry on the way home but we missed it because they walked on and we had a car. We could not contact him so we called his uncle to come and pick him up. That was very frustrating. Next time I guess we'll make reservations!

Halloween

Halloween night and we had such a good time. Laura was a Turtle and I was a Zombie (I dressed up for work this year) This is the costume that Laura and I made. See she has a baby turtle on her shell.

Trick-or-treating was very profitable for Laura, she got a lot of candy. I will help her eat it.

We did not get very many visitors to our house which is unfortunate. Less and less every year. I think that a lot of them go to the malls. A lot safer that way.


The pumpkins turned out well. I took pictures of them just in time. The boys came home from school and destroyed theirs right away. Laura made Frankenstein (on the left), Eric made a pumpkin (middle), Kyle a dinosaur (top), and mine mad (bottom). We all had a lot of fun.


Hope you all had a great Halloween.

Getting ready

I have been having so much fun getting ready for Halloween! It is such a fun time of year.

Laura is going to be a turtle. We just finished her costume yesterday and it looks very good! I will be posting pictures after the big night. She looks so cute.

Eric and Kyle are too old they say but Kyle said he might put a paper bag on his head to collect candy. I think I better count our eggs on the 31st if you know what I mean.

Susan is going to work as an Angel and I am going as a Zombie. It will be a lot of fun. I have never dressed up for work on Halloween before.

Tonight we are carving pumpkins which is a yearly ritual for us. I also have some bloody skeletal hand prints for our front door.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone.

Submission

No, it's not what you think, I am not yielding to anyone.

I have submitted a story to a magazine. It has been ready to go for almost a month and I have been procrastinating sending it in. Today I finally did it!

I spent the morning doing the final editing on the story and then I wrote my first cover letter. Very exciting! I am not going to give any details about where I submitted it or what I wrote. I will post again when I am published. (I don't want to jinx myself.)

Now begins the waiting game. I should have word back in 12 to 15 weeks. Now I can continue on and do some more work. I cannot explain how much of a hurdle it was to send this first story. Doing something the first time is always the hardest. Now that it is done, I can concentrate on other writing projects. I will keep you posted.

Journey

I have a mug which I try to use as much as possible. It is not very fancy and average in size. It has a generic design on it, very simple. What makes it my favorite mug is what it says: It's not where or when you arrive -- It's taking the journey that counts. It is a reminder not to rush through my day and to enjoy as much of it as I can. I try to have fun all day long. The only thing that counds is this very minute.

We watched a movie called Click other night. It was funny and sad and had the same theme as on my mug. It was a very relatable movie. Sometimes I want to rush over the bad times or wish that they would end sooner or not have to deal with them at all.

Every moment of every day counts for something in life. Good or bad. It is what we build our character with. Lack of adversity builds a shallow character. We've all known someone who has had everything given to them. How deep of a person are they? Chances are, not very.

So I will go forward and live my life and savour every moment, good and bad. They are what makes me who I am.

Deer

On Tuesday and Thursday during football practice, Susan, Laura and I walk around the Bear Mountain complex. It takes about half an hour to do the whole trail. Afterwards we go to Starbucks for a treat.

During our walk last night we ran into some deer on the golf course. There were about twelve of them. I caught a couple of pictures of them. They are so tame. The deer were more afraid of the geese then they were of us.

Watch your step

Funny thing happened tonight. Susan and I were going out for dinner so I parked the car in the lot of the restaurant we were planning to try. It was too busy inside and the wait was too long so we decided to go elsewhere.

I unlocked Susan's door like I always do and there was not much room between the cars so I went around the front of the car to get to the driver's side. The parking lot was dark and I was unfamiliar with it. There is a cement ledge and on the other side what looked to be a garden. As I stepped over the ledge, I found that there was a two foot drop into the garden and down I went.

It was the strangest feeling, not having solid ground to step on when you are expecting it. I was very lucky that I did not hurt myself. Susan said afterwards that it was comical because I just kept falling.

Pineapple Plant

Here is a picture of my pineapple plant. I took the top off a pinapple and put it in water. After a couple of weeks a couple little roots grew so I put it in a pot.

When you buy a pinapple in the store, the top is tight and the leaves are all pointing up. When I put it in the soil it relaxed and spread its leaves within half an hour. Because a lot of the bottom leaves were dead, i trimmed them off. Now I have a wonderful plant. I don't know if it will ever bear fruit but it is still neat to have around.

I have had it for about six months now. If you look closely at one of the middle leaves, you can see the change in colour. That is how much it has grown since I planted it.

I just thought that I would share this with everyone. I am not very good with plants and our main window in our house is facing NW so in the Summer we only get about three or four hours of sunlight in the afternoon. It is just a fun project and is easy, so anyone can do it if I can.

About ten years ago I took and orange seed and put it in water. It ended up growing into a three foot tree in our house. I think the lack of sunlight killed it though because it died last year. I tried everything I could to save it but my efforts were of no avail.

Movie Night

Last night I took Eric and Kyle to see Trailer Park Boys. It was packed being a Saturday night. We ended up sitting in the third row from the front (ow, my neck hurts) which is kind of uncomfortable in the Silver City Theatre. They warned us when I bought the tickets though, that we would be in the front. Have to go earlier next time.

The movie was great. We laughed through the whole thing. It is the kind of show that is so outragous but makes fun of a lifestyle that is pretty close to what a lot of people can relate to. We've all known people like this.

The girls stayed home and watched Beaches while eating popcorn.

It was a good separate boy/girl night for all of us. Nice to have a bit of bonding time away from the other parent. I liked it too because Eric acually went out in public with me. That is a rarity, believe me.

All in all it was a great success. We all got to do something we wanted, without interfering with the other's activities.

Happy birthday to me...

Monday was my birthday and Thanksgiving all in one. I had a great day. It is so wonderful to have family who loves me. I got some "smell good stuff" (that's what Kyle called it when he was little), some clothes, some candy and a digital camera.

Mom and Dad came down for dinner and Frank and Cheryl and all their kids came over as well. Dinner was wonderful, there was so much food and it all tasted great. Susan is such a good cook!

After dinner we had cake and sang happy birthday to Cheryl and me while Laura played it on her viola. That was very special. She had to figure out the notes on her own because she did not have the music.

We will be eating leftovers for a while now. Soup tonight. Love turkey!

Everyone tells me that I am 37 years old. I was considering staying 36 because Susan had been 29 for a few years. We'll see how that goes. I don't want to get too far ahead of her.

Anniversary

On September 29 it was Susan's and my wedding anniversary. Twelve years ago that day we eloped up to Qualicum Beach. We had to work the next day so we never went on a honeymoon. This year we did what we should have done then.

We dropped the kids off at their uncle's at 6:30pm on the 29th and drove straight up to Qualicum. We checked into the Sandpebbles Motel at 8:45 and then went up the road to the Shady Rest Pub & Restaurant. It was the only thing open to have something to eat. I had a burger and Susan had Mushrooms Neptune.

We woke up to a beautiful view of the ocean. The sound of the waves rolling up onto the shore and the smell of the fresh salt air breeze brushing against my face was incredible. What an experience. We are so trapped in the city life.

Checked out of the motel and took a quick drive around Qualicum before heading down to Parksville. There really is nothing in Qualicum.

Ate brunch at White Spot and then drove out to Butterfly World in Coombs. That was very interesting. We then stopped in at the little village of shops in Coombs to see the goats on the roof. There were also a bunch of baby bunnies in a hole in the wall at the side of the building. Very cute.

We then visited the World Parrot Refuge and I am so glad that we did. They have more than 400 parrots from 40 different species. Most of them were neglected and are self abusive. So sad. I recommend to anyone, take the trip there and support them. Whether you're a bird lover or not, you won't be sorry.

Drove to Nanaimo and spent the rest of the afternoon in Woodgrove Mall. What a huge mall. Could have spent days in there.

Down to Duncan and had dinner at Romeo's. Mmm, pasta. Got a Starbucks and headed back down to Victoria. Stayed at a Travellers Inn. Fifteen Victoria locations; I guess they bought everyone out.

Got up and had breakfast at the Pantry and then shopped at Mayfair before coming home.

We had such a great time. It was really relaxing and we were not in a hurry to go anywhere or do anything. That was the best holiday we have ever had.

Ouch

Today we went over to Coquitlam to watch Kyle play a game of football against the Coquitlam Chargers. We drove and Kyle went on a bus with his team. They have an hour of warm up before the game and we were early so we went across the Lougheed Highway to the Ikea store.

Let me tell you, if we had more than twenty minutes to look around before the game started, we really could have done some damage. Enough said. What a huge store!

Back to the game we went and our boys put up a good fight. They did not win but they are playing more like a team and are improving with every game.

We got quite a jolt though at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Kyle was running around, trying to get to the ball on a kick return. Someone on the other team clothes-lined him and he went down like a load of bricks. Everyone in the crowd groaned at the sight and the sound of the hit. Luckily Kyle was unconscious so he didn't feel a thing.

I had to stop myself from running out onto the field and so did Susan. It was so hard to watch. He got up much too quickly for that kind of hit but he is okay. Now he just has a big scrape on his cheek and a headache.

Another Sunday of football under our belt. A little more experienced to deal with the game, both from the players point of view and from the parents. It is a rough sport and sometimes kids get hurt. I'm just glad that Kyle is fine now. In a week he will be ready to go out and play again and we will be on the sidelines, cheering him on.

Viola

Laura has decided to play the Viola in her school orchestra this year. She always wanted to play the violin but changed her mind. Last year she heard a demonstration of the stringed instruments and liked the sound of the viola much more. What is nice about that is if she decides to go to the violin, it is quite easy to switch.

She is actually playing on a violin tuned as a viola. They told us that the size of the instrument is too much for a beginner but she will eventually move up to a real viola.

Laura is very excited about playing. We are listening to classical music and watching orchestras on TV. She told me though, that she just can't understand what the purpose of the conductor is.

I really like her teacher. He is very passionate about his music. That should get Laura off to a good musical start. Now she just needs to practice, practice, practice.

Football

We are in the second season of football with Kyle. He is number 47 in the picture, about to make a tackle. We are so proud of him, he has really found himself in the game. He is an incredible player and plays for the Colwood Warriors as Slot back although he does play some other positions very well.

I go to all of his practices to watch. It is so exciting. Games are on Sundays and they have played two so far. Their third is this week against Vancouver and next week they travel over to Coquitlam.

They have not won a game yet but they are a good team, they just have to come together. All of them except for three are first year players so they have that against them. Kyle does not care, he just loves to play. With a little more experience they will be unstoppable.

Graveyard Shift

It's 3:00pm and I just woke up! I do not work today but I did last night from midnight until 8:00am. What an unnatural way to live. I cannot believe that I used to live that way for so many years. Okay, I'll stop whinning now. I just got a little cranky this morning. I only have two more shifts, Sat. and Sun. and then I will be back to the land of the living.

I do love the work though of the baking graveyard shift. Dough mixing is my favorite baking task. I wish that we could do that during the day shift more often but that is impractical.

I have a lot of news to post but I have been so busy. I will try to get it all out in the next couple of days.

Saanich Fair

Summer wrap up once again for the Aird family. Every year we have a tradition of going to the Saanich Fair on the Labour Day long weekend. We tour the fairgrounds, eating and playing games. It is the last family activity of the Summer.

We visited the rabbits, our favorite animals. We love the Flemish Giants and the English Lops. We also visited the birds. Saw some baby African Greys which were very "baby bird" looking; bald spots, big eyes and pin feathers all over. I love the birds though, one day I'll have a parrot of my own.

We don't go on the rides, no one is interested in our family. We just go for the atmosphere. It is a really fun time. One thing that we always have to get is the mini donuts, it's tradition.

Now it's back to school and the beginning of another year. Time to start the cycle all over again. I can't believe how fast the years go by.

Bookmark

In the early 90's I bought a book by Clive Barker called Imajica. I originally bought it when it came out in paperback. It was a large volume and on the back cover there was a detachable bookmark. The next printing of the book divided it into two volumes. I was glad that I had the original. Unfortunately, I gave it up in a garage sale like so many other books I have enjoyed in the past. The chances of my re-reading a book is slim but there is that chance. I always regretted selling that book.

When I read a book, especially a paperback, I never open it completely. I do not want to break the spine so that it looks almost new when I finish reading it. This is so that the book has a longer life and also so that if I do go back to read it it will not be falling apart. It drives me crazy when I see a book lying open on a table, print down with the spine breaking down the middle. Or watch someone open a book and stretch it wide open before starting to read it. I have read second hand books that have literally fallen apart while I was reading.

I was in a used book store and I saw the same printing of Imajica as I had let go at the garage sale. I grabbed it right away and paid the four dollar purchase price. Originally it sold for $8.99 and I probably let it go for 50 cents. Talk about bad business on my part. I did not care though, I finally had the book back.

When I got it home, I looked it over carefully. It was in great shape, just as I like to take care of a book. I started to think that this might be the very book that I had sold at the garage sale, it was just too perfect. My suspisions were supported when I found the bookmark in the back of the book, exactly where I had left it! That is too much of a coincidence so I have to say that it is my original book. You know how the saying goes; it came back so it's mine.

Music

What do you listen to?

Regular radio is so boring and unoriginal. They are always playing something that you don't really want to listen to. They have annoying commercials to try to sell you things that you don't want. It is nothing more than background noise and is worth exactly what you pay into it for.

The other music format to listen to is CD's or MP3 players. That is a little better than radio in many ways but you still only get out of it what you put into it. Also, changing CD's is a pain.

I would like to introduce you to an online site which has ten different stations for your listening pleasure. Something for everyone's taste. I came upon the site by accident one day and now it is just about all I listen to on my computer. I like that most of what I hear on Soma is new to me. The themes for the different stations make it enjoyable for listening as well.

My favorite is Secret Agent Radio. I turn it on and I am brought into a different world.....
a smokey bar where I am about to meet a contact. They have information which I need about a top secret file. The retrieval of the file is imperative to my mission's success. If I fail, the leader of my organization is in grave danger. There have been whisperings of an assasination attempt and the file holds the key to stop the attack......
Bond ordered a double vodka martini. He drank it half down. He felt wonderful. Suddenly the last four days, and particularly last night, were washed off the calendar......*

Whatever I imagine when I listen to Soma, it is something different that is not available in many other places. It is a valuable mood setter for me, especially when I am writing. If nothing else you will be exposed to something a little different than what you are used to listening to. Variety helps the imagination to expand which is something that we could all use considering the time we spend in front of the biggest imagination sucker ever invented (TV).

To visit Somafm.com, just click on the link at the top of this post. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.

* from FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Summer End

With only a couple of weeks until school starts again, I have to wonder where it went so quickly. Time seems to fly when you are having fun. Busy is more the word I think that fits into that phrase. Time seems to fly when you are busy. I look at my planner and I don't have a thing written down in it, so was I really that busy? Yes as a matter of fact I was -- I have never been a big planner user. Work is the main thing which takes up the most time it seems. Next comes sleeping, writing, reading and eating. Football practices, shopping, cleaning the house, cooking, tending to the animals. This list keeps getting bigger. You get the idea though. Everyone else is in the same boat I know. We are all busy all the time.

Remember when everything was closed on Sunday? Everyone went to church and visited friends or went for a Sunday drive. No one was in a hurry. No one worked. The only place where you could buy something was at a little corner store. That was how they stayed in business. Now with everything open almost 24/7, there are no little corner stores because everyone just heads to the big ones or the Mall. Whoever is not shopping is probably working so that everything can keep running. Everything was closed on holidays as well. Thanksgiving was a family day. Now you'll be lucky if half of your family is not working.

This is kind of depressing; sorry. I didn't think this article was going to go this way but now that it has, here is something to think about: We make everything happen in our society! That is a fact. How many of us are disgusted that grocery stores are open on Christmas day or that every year, more and more businesses are open 365 days. Now, how many of us who are feeling that way and feeling bad for the people who have to work in those places, how many of us have acually shopped or grabbed a coffee? I would think probably a lot more than would want to admit. If no one shopped on those days, it wouldn't be practical to be open--but we do so they are. This creates a vicious circle. We remain busy so we become busier. How far will our society go?

Dinner

My eleven year old daughter Laura got a new book of easy cooking recipies for kids. The other night she cooked dinner for us. She is a wonderful little cook.

When I got home from work she asked me if we could go to the store. She had a shopping list written out for the dinner that she had planned. When we got to the store, she pushed the buggy around, picking everything to buy. It was very sweet.

After arriving home, she got busy preparing everything for dinner. The main dish was marinated chicken, onion and red pepper on skewers, grilled in the oven. She also made bbq chicken wings, corn on the cob and a greek salad. What a wonderful treat. I was there to help with a few things which she instructed me on and to supervise if she had any questions. She did all the real work though.

Laura has a real passion for cooking and she is good at it too. Any morning that we do not have to work, she is always asking to make us breakfast. She can make eggs and toast, hot cereal, french toast, pancakes - just about anything one would want for breakfast.

All of this cooking comes from a café which she started in our house when she was very little. It is called "Martha Bear Café" and is her secondary income on top of her allowance. Her café originally consisted of candy she would buy at the store with her allowance and then sell back to her Mom, Dad and brothers at a profit. Quite a little business owner. It eventually grew into things she made because she could make more money and charge more - especially if she could use her parents kitchen and food!

She has full plans on owning her own shop - or chain of shops - when she grows up. With all her practical experience I know she will do it without a problem.

First week of work and first day off!

Yesterday was my first day off since I went back to work. Five days! I have to say though, I went back to work relaxed. Even though I was busy on my vacation, it was a good, real holiday. What happens most of the time when I have a couple of weeks off is I start to get stressed out about going back. The stress usually starts three to five days before I actually go back to work. By the time I finally have to be at work, I am a miserable basket case -- at work and at home. This vacation was very different. I had every day planned from the very beginning and each of them was busy so I did not have time to get worked up about going back to work. The resulting first week of work turned into a very good week. I suppose that the key to a good vacation is to keep busy.

Busy like yesterday. I woke up at 9:00am -- it was nice to sleep in -- and did some reading and writing before cleaning the house. In the afternoon, the girls (Laura's cousins had a sleep-over) wanted to go swimming at the pool. Kyle had a football game with his friends to attend in the afternoon as well. I spent hours, it seemed, running a taxi service; dropping kids off and picking them up again. It was worth it though because everyone had a good time. The last taxi run was to pick up Kyle from his friend's house. Susan was home by then so she went for a ride, stopping at the grocery store to pick up hamburger fixin's for dinner.

By the time dinner was done and the kitchen was clean again, I finally had some time for a little writing. I am finding that I really have to force myself to write a lot of the time. It will be for the best in the long run though. My typing speed has almost doubled and it seems that words flow out of my pen with a lot more ease. I just have to remember that to be a writer, I have to write and write and write some more. If I am not writing then I am not a writer. What a concept! What a day!

Camping at Manning Park

We reached Manning Park sometime in the afternoon on the 16th of July. We set up camp right away and then went for a walk after having a little snack. We walked almost half way around Lightning Lake and by the time we got back to camp, everyone was really hungry so I cooked some hamburgers.

After dinner we went down to the lake for a swim. It was c-c-cold, but we all went in up to our necks except Kyle who dove in. It was great though, because there was no one else in the water.
We went back to camp and got into some dry clothes. Laura and I then walked over to the campsite amphitheatre where they were having a discussion about trees and nature in the park. It was very interesting and we learned a lot that we did not know before. One interesting fact was about all the dead trees all over the forest. They are lodgepole pine trees and they all die from the pine beetle. It is actually a natural cycle of life in the forest, just like forest fires which help to keep the forest healthy. The only problem is that the winters are not getting cold enough to kill the pine beetles so they keep killing the trees.

After the forest lesson, we headed back to camp to roast marshmallows - roasting them is one of the best parts of camping. Because of wood rations ($6/small bundle) our campfire soon went out so we went back down to the beach to look at the stars. It is amazing how many stars one can see without the light pollution of the city to obscure the sky.

In the morning I cooked bacon, eggs and hash browns - a good camping breakfast - and then went down to the boathouse to rent a canoe. Departing onto the lake at 11:30am, we struggled our way up the lake against the wind which had picked up considerably. We stopped once to have a drink and put on more sunscreen, then continued on our way.

We went as far as we could go and then I talked the kids into a 0.5km portagé to Flash Lake. We found a place where we could put the canoe back into the water but once we started paddling, found our way was blocked by logs which were lying just under the surface of the water. We were not about to mess around anymore so we just headed back to Lightning Lake; what a great adventure!

Once we were back in the main lake, we found a little beach where we stopped to have some lunch and skip some rocks. Everyone was exhausted from the portagé, so we started back to the boathouse. Along the way we saw a Loon with two babies, an eagles nest and a duck with seven ducklings trailing behind her. By the time we got back to dry land we discovered that we had been paddling for over four hours and boy our arms were sore.

We roasted hotdogs over the campfire for dinner and then marshmallows until we ran out of wood (I should have just bought another bag of wood.) Laura and I then went back down to the amphitheatre to watch another discussion, this time on fungi and again, very informative and educational. When we got back to camp, everyone was tired from the day of adventure so we turned in early.

In the morning, we all woke up early - everyone a little homesick - and packed up camp. We were out of there just after 7:30am. The last thing we did on our way out of the park was to stop at the west gate to take pictures of the kids standing on the Manning Park sign. The sign has a large carving of a Hoary Marmot, which we originally thought was a Beaver. See the education we received from going to the campsite amphitheatre.

Gramma's in Penticton

My holiday is broken up into two sections. The first two nights we stayed at my Gramma’s apartment in Penticton and the next two nights were spent camping in Manning Park. The first installment here is our time in Penticton.

We made it up to Gramma’s house at about 2:00pm, quite a long trip. It was fun though. Laura talked non-stop for about half the trip, the first half. We stopped at the Hope Slide; I had to stretch my legs. Once we got through Manning Park, we really noticed a temperature difference. Hot!

Gramma made us hamburgers for lunch when we got to Penticton. After that Kyle, Laura and Gramma went swimming in the pool. I sat by the side of the pool and Eric stayed in the apartment and watched television. Laura and Kyle swam for almost two hours. They had so much fun together. We had roast for dinner and watched a football game. I also cleaned up Gramma’s computer for her.

The boys slept on the balcony and Laura and I slept inside on the couches. Eric got up in the middle of the night and was lying on the kitchen floor because it was too hot outside for him. Gramma found him and gave him a blanket and some cushions to sleep on.

In the morning Gramma made us bacon and eggs for breakfast. Everyone was up before 9:00am if you can believe it. My teenage boys usually sleep until noon. After breakfast we went out to the pool to swim for a couple of hours.
In the afternoon, Gramma took us for a drive down the main strip in Penticton, giving us the city tour. We saw the beach on Okanagan Lake and then had lunch on the balcony of a restaurant behind the casino. It was a great lunch. Gramma and Laura shared ribs, Eric and I had burgers and Kyle had a steak sandwich. On the way back to the apartment, we stopped in the mall to shop around – Laura was having withdrawals. When we got back to the apartment, we went for another dip in the pool and I took pictures this time.

Gramma made chicken for dinner and then she showed Laura how to make fudge, Mmm. I finished tinkering with her computer and then Gramma went to bed around 9:00pm, (I think we were wearing her out.) The kids asked me if we could all walk down to the 7/11 so we went for a pleasant evening walk.

In the morning Gramma made us pancakes for breakfast. They were so good with real maple syrup! She then showed Laura how to make chocolate fudge while the boys and I got things straightened up around the apartment.

I went to the store to get food and supplies for camping. We then packed up the car and thanked Gramma for letting us stay with her. It was such a good visit!

First Camp

I have to say that I live in the most beautiful place in the world. Vancouver Island has it all; rivers, lakes, ocean, wilderness, forest, and you don't have to drive very far to get to any of them.
We ended up camping in Chemainus and not Goldstream as I had originally planned. We had the best time. The weather was mild and the river was warm. It was overcast for most of the time but it only rained on us for a minute this morning. It was a perfect prelude to our longer trip later this week.
One story that I want to tell here is about my daughter in the river. She was having fun, swimming around and I was on the shore watching her. She yelled out when she saw something that looked like a lobster. I later told her that it was probably a crayfish. She thrashed around a bit and quickly regained herself but her sandal was floating down the river. She called out to me so I started the race to try and catch it.
I was running as fast as I could down the side of the river. I was keeping up with it but I was running out of shore. I had my cell phone on my belt (can't get too far away from technology) and I didn't want to fall in with it. I also didn't want to get my leather sandals wet. I knew how upset my daughter would have been if I didn't catch her shoe, so I decided to chance it and waded across the river to the other side, where I had more room to run. The water only came up just past my knees. My sandals now were very sloppy and squishy and I had lost sight of the runaway sandal. I quickened my pace to reach a slow moving part of the river and sure enough, I spied the sandal floating along lazily. I grabbed a stick and dropped my phone on the shore. The thing with slow moving parts of a river is that they are a lot deeper than the fast moving parts. I managed to snag the sandal and save the day! She was so grateful and I'm so glad that I caught it. What a great adventure!

Camping

I am on holidays. Along with that comes...CAMPING! Yay! I am so excited. We, my three children and I will be camping for three whole days along the shores of the Goldstream river. Next week we will be driving to Penticton to stay for a couple of days and then off to Manning Park for a couple of nights. Everything is scheduled around my son's football practices which are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I will have one day at the end of it all to rest before I have to go to work. It will be so much fun. I am really looking forward to it. Last year we did not end up camping at all because it rained for my entire two weeks off. Such is life I suppose.
We are getting everything ready right now. I have drawn up a budget for the entire holiday so that I know what we are going to spend. Camping is not cheap!
Off I go now, I will post when I come back to tell of all our adventures.
Wish us luck.

Voice Test

My first blog

I've finally done it, I've entered the wonderful world of Blogging. Everyone is doing it so why not me. I don't have anything witty or brilliant to say today, it is just a start. I will woo you all later, in future posts.
But seriously, there are so many blogs out there right now and it seems that they are all competing for readers to bring them into their lives, no matter how boring or mundane they may be. I am not saying that what I have to say will be any different than what anyone else has to say, but it will be what I have to say. (Probably what everyone else is thinking.)
Don't love me or hate me, I don't even know you!
Always remember what Martin Luther said, "How soon not now becomes never."