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.