Only 1 MORE! Visit to get this finished, I hope!

Another 4 hours on the tat...now the only thing left to do is the clouds,,,in the blue shades then thats it. Now i hope it heals in time for a game of Golf tomorrow...

It's all good!

I had high hopes about a beautiful show of lilies this year. This, the third year, is going to be spectacular! I have so many buds just aching to open and this morning, I wasn't disappointed. The marigolds are showing well for home grown in my little portable greehouse. The only plant in the green urn that I can lay claim to is the pansy...but they should have been all yellow, but they are cute anyways. While I was capturing a few photos, Chow came along and dropped onto the ground for a belly rub! What a ham she is!

I can almost feel the burn!

I actually got a lot more accomplished once I stopped at took a fresh look. My new compact multi-functional room is coming together. I'll have to live in there before I decide on shelves etc.

the workout room has an almost finished BowFlex in it. We got hot & tired around step 9 and thought we should stop before we make a mistake or one of us gets hurt! Tomorrow should be an exciting day...I'll finish up the machine and Joe will get his new tat coloured after work. I'll try and blog a photo before I head to bed...I know you won't sleep well until you see it!!!!! SASS!

Friday Joe golfs for a work function. I'll pick him up afterwards a sneak a peak at the M'ville facility...you never know who may be hiring in the fall!

Saturday is the opening of the St Albert farmer's market....gotta go! We make our weekend menu based on what we find! Sometimes it's pickles & pies! Later we hope to meet up with David and the gang and do supper out...spaghetti perhaps. On top of spaghetti, all covered in sauce...I lost my poor meatball....and I forget the rest of it...help me out someone!

Ah....supper on the lanai

I feel like one of the Golden Girls was I write that!!!! No, say it isn't so! All that is missing is the old lady bubble perm and a blue rinse! :(


Joe had a hectic day of playing Donald Trump...You're fired! and we both needed some down time. We met Lucie at Earl's for a late dinner...cocktails in the a/c'd lounge before heading out to the patio for dinner. The peach bellini was as good as Lucie had promised. The food was good but the service...well, that left something to be desired. picture it...we finally get our food but no utensils! I'm not sure what happened but that's not the Earl-a-tude service we usually get. Never the less, it was a very enjoyable hot night!

A's space

I've been checking out other blogs etc, trying to jazz mine up...it seems so boring with the exception of the odd photo. I suppose I could learn a bunch of technical stuff or pay someone money to design a site just for me but what the heck...it's only time. I'm not sure if it will stand the test of time but stop by and let me know your thoughts. I have nothing to lose by getting the old grey matter working!

From years gone by

This is a photo of left to right, my Aunt Bessie, my great grandmother 'Gabbie' (Alice Statton)holding my Uncle Steven and my Mom looking on. I don't have many photos of my history so this is especially cherished, more so because I found it on a disc the other day and almost threw it out! It wasn't labeled for whatever reason. It's a good thing I wasn't in a hurry to get the trash out!

John's weekend car!

This is what all the excitement was about! The camera wasn't quite fast enough to keep up with the car...John actually lifted the front tires! Watching this sure makes you feel like you are young again...no station wagons or mini vans, just raw power! We were so cool in our early days, all the in crowd had cool fast cars...now we sit aorund and discuss gas mileage and insurance rates!

Another full weekend!

I'll just skip to the punch line...yours truly was asleep on the couch by 6:10 pm! I was that tried, wanted to watch Pirates but I only seen the gifting of the sword!

Friday night was busy...I finished loading the camper just before Joe took it over to the shop to get the scissor legs welded on.

Saturday we were at the races...should I mention Joe drove us there the long scenic route!!!! But we timed our arrival well because John (non electronic) raced about 20 minutes after we found our seats! It was loud, stinky but very exciting. The nitrous cars had to be the highlight getting up to 300 + mph in a quarter mile! I had to hold Joe back...I think he was reaching into his pocket for a chequebook!

Sunday morning was rough...neither one of us wanted to crawl out of bed, but we knew we had people waiting for us. We got to the Red Lodge estates ~ 10:30. Joseph & Alex came running out of the cottage to meet us. I went with Lesley and the boys to feed Auntie Arlene's chickens while Brian helped Joe back the camper into it's spot. Brian & Deb could have as many as 5 RV's by the long weekend, but ours has the best vantage point!

I helped Lesley load up her van with the extras we brought down....the small climber slide - which I totally forgot about the week prior, a carry on tote for their flight, and the stepper for someone's workout. I enjoyed using it but I just don't have the round tuit these days!

By 1pm we were back on the road home again, and we even had supper before 6pm! Now please excuse me...because you read the first line, you now know that I must go and do up my last night supper dishes!

I'm sorry but I had to give up!

My days lately seem to be so crazy, partly because I do have a lot of projects going on all at the same time. I'm trying to keep on schedule BUT...today even my best worked out plan didn't exactly come off the way I had it figured out.

Picture this...Joe has a full size truck, I have a compact station wagon. There has been a very large cardboard box, about the size of a truck bed (cuz that's how we got the box in the first place!) sitting by my garbage can waiting to go to the recycle depot. It's been sitting there for ~ a month. Today I got sit and tired of looking at that and cut it down into bite sized pieces and loaded up my car.

I also planned on dropping of my pop bottles at the depot. They have been sitting there since yesterday when I went out...couldn't drop them off because the depot was blocked by the transport truck that clears the depot. I hope you follow so far. Of course there was the odd beer bottle in the garbage bag, so yes, my car now stinks!

So I go and get rid of the cardboard and a few other small things. I run to the post office and get a shipping price on a needlepoint I'm freecycling to a woman on the other side of the province. Things are looking good. Now to head to the bottle depot, where they will sort your bottles/cans for you.

I pull into the entrance and there are a couple of vehicles in front of me. I can't see around the corner of the building but hey, these people are fast at their jobs, I shouldn't have to wait long. I sit, and sit and sit...nothing is moving. Now this is a bit odd. After 15 minutes of not moving, I get out of the car and walk around the corner of the building. You will never guess what I see!

There is a truck with a very large horse trailer stacked to the top with garbage bags of bottles and it's still half full! I stood there and after the woman brought in 8 bags, and it taking ~ 5 minutes to sort...I knew it wasn't my day/week to do a bottle run. Just as I was trying to decide what to do, a retired looking guy walked over with 1 garbage bag on his little walker seat thingy. It only took me a second to decide to ask him if he would like to cash in my bag along with his. At first he didn't understand, he wanted to know where to meet so he could give me my money...I said no, if he was going to do the task, he would keep the money. I think I made his day as he sat on the walker seat with a great big grin. In reality, you, my new friend, YOU made my day! Thanks for the awesome timing!

A gift for you

The fragrance lingers in the hand that gives the rose.

Now how did THAT happen?

June has been an extremely busy month in our household. June 3rd was Dad's 80th birthday celebration in Medicine Hat. We also dropped off Cody @ Heather's because the following Thursday we were off to Jasper for a 4 day work retreat. Then June 13 was Joe's 50th birthday and we had a quiet celebration at home with the Bachman Cummings concert the next evening. Friday afternoon, we were driving south to Calgary to celebrate Joe's milestone with Heather & Jeff, and Lesley & Aaron...Japanese Village style with games afterwards. We also dropped off Joseph's new to him computer, and the small climber. Back home Sunday with Cody.

Monday arrives and I'm really looking forward to a quiet week and Joe is excited about his Tuesday appointment for his new tat. Well we then arrive at Wednesday.

Joe calls me from work, all excited...his boss has tickets...do I want to go? Well we had been tossing around the idea of attending the Esks vs Stamps game Saturday night if we got back from dropping off the camper @ Red Lodge. So I said Yes to the tickets, we'll drop the camper off Sunday instead. Apparently these are good seats and everyone in the office was jockeying for them.

I pick up Joe after he drops off the truck for an oil change, we go shopping etc and are on our way home when I asked where we will be sitting...under cover would be nice in case it rains. Well he glances over at me with an odd look...somehow I mis-interpreted the free tickets as football tix...but instead I am going to be spending the whole DAY at the race track! We are going to watch Joe's boss, John, drag race! OMG! I better bring sunscreen, ear plugs, lots of water & snacks and a book! Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy some racing, mostly on the oval where's there's lots to see...quarter mile drag isn't my thing...8 seconds of racket and 5 minutes or driving around and setting up for the next heat.

I guess I should learn to ask the right questions! See you at the track!

Corners of my Home

Corners of my Home

I've seen this mentioned on a few of the random blogs I check out...and decided to add my own special corner to today's ramblings. This contains almost all my favorite things...family photos, lush plants, nice wood and of course...some great books to read.

ps - does anyone know how to add links? I had to edit 3 times before it would work.

Half way there, I think!

It took an hour just to draw out the outline pretty much freehand... then 3 hours to get the outline completed..now next Thursday the crayola box comes out and we get to colour it in...So far looks like, 2 roses, one purple other one yellow... and a blueish dragon fly,reddish rhino beetle,and green grasshopper.

The old classic one will also be re-coloured. Now add a few clouds, sunshine, imagination,and a few hundred bucks...Voila, another Big F$%^&* Tattoo...

Not to be left out

Today is Joe's turn in the tattoo chair. He has been talking, thinking and finally breathing this for a couple of years now. I don't really care for them personally but that is just me. If that's your thing, go for it but I prefer my artwork on the walls so I can change it at my every whim!

I hope that everything goes well for Joe...Lesley had her appointment changed 3 times...and when we stopped by the shop on the weekend to review the artwork...Andie wasn't there, she had called in sick. I think that may have meant she didn't have the artwork done. Good thing I took a couple of pictures of the initial sketch on Joe's arm before he cleaned it off. He has that with him just in case there are questions on what was discussed. There were 2 roses to represent Heather & Lesley, a couple of bugs for Joey & Alex and we were still discussing what TicTac's symbol would be. Joe was also going to get the old part re-coloured. I hope that today works out the way we want it to. After all, these things are permanent and they aren't exactly cheap.

Will post photos and comments once Joe is home with his new ink.

Thoughts of my Dad

One of my earliest yet most vivid thoughts are of my Dad coming home from work (Wilroy Mines, Manitouwadge, ON). At that time, I was the youngest and I had the priviledge of taking Dad's lunch pail when he came in the door. In the kitchen I would open it up and see what treasures were there for me, just me. Sharon and Mark were older and already had their turn at the lunch pail. Sometimes, I would get a new rock for my collection but on those special days, there would be half a jam sandwich, all wrapped up in waxed paper! I had hit the jackpot! Of course it spoiled my appetite for supper, but I didn't care, I ate it anyways. But later I had to sit at the dinner table for hours until I ate all my potatoes! Yuck! To this day, I don't enjoy them, unless they are homemade french fries!

Another memory of Dad was his coin jingling in his pocket. He always had enough change in his right pants pocket to make that magical sound. It would drive my Mom crazy though because he always had a pocket hole that needed to be mended! I've noticed that Joseph also likes to have change in his pocket. He's not shy about filling any empty pocket from Nannie's dish of change by her front door. Now Alex, on the other hand...he likes foldable money! We paid hom the 20 bucks he talked about on his Elmo phone last week. Papa made sure Alex got it folded just right so it would fit into his piggy bank!

How rich we are in memories which will last longer than the money in a pocket or piggy bank!

Hockey Finale tonight!

I'm sure Whyte Avenue will be on the national news again tonight. Joe's friend John Tilner was interviewed after Saturday's game...looking good John!

A special thank you to Jeff for sending me the Oiler Prayer, I'm not sure it will help but it won't hurt!

I hope there isn't a palimony fight!

Heather was joking around about keeping Cody aka Zodie! Seems we went through this a few years ago with our dear friend Rob. Rob even went so far as to send us pictures of him and Zodie camping & fishing, just to prove his palimony rights. It was a stressful time, with Cody getting lots of pats, walks and ball tosses. But at the end of the day, I know who she'll curl up with - ME!

So we are off to Cowtown to visit with the girls and family. Japanese Village tomorrow night for Joe's birthday dinner. He'll get to wear the kimono and wig while a bunch of non English speaking sumo sized men try and sing Happy Birthday to him. It should be fun and I hope someone else brings their camera...I'll be too busy trying to eat my dinner with chopsticks!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Rocking after 50!

Last night was Joe's birthday concert. Last year it was his idol Willie Nelson. This year - Randy Bachman & Burton Cummings. What a show it was.

We arrived early so we could get good parking in case it was pouring down rain. It wasn't, so we went into the lobby to check out the merchandise. It was wall to wall people...mostly our age or older. The women were crowded around the 'stuff' and the guys were huddled around a couple of TV's tuned into the big game. We didn't need to see the screen to know it was a good close game. We went up to the first balcony where our seats were, and could still hear the roar of the crowd.

Finally the warm up act starts..Serena Ryder who has a very powerful voice but comes across as a cross between kd lang and Neil Young. Once she finds her nitch or we just get used to her, she will be a name in CDN music history.

But the main draw. the legends direct from good ol' Winnipeg were awesome! It was like they were back in the 70's...giving it all they had. It was so nice to hear the favorites from the Guess Who days along with the hits of BTO.

Of course they couldn't help but see some of the audience decked out in Oiler jerseys and they gave the crowd score updates which only raised the frenzy in the auditorium. Burton walked back staged for a quick break while Randy was wailing on his guitar, and emerged a minute or 2 later sporting an Oiler jersey himself. The crowd went crazy. Before the end of the night, Randy was also wearing one. 2 standing ovations later, with arms around each other, the concert closed. But we left with some great music in our souls and another home game of hockey to look forward to.

Fort 101

Hello Everybody down there!
Is this safe? Any spare parts Dad?
Hey, I can do this all by myself!


I just realized that I never added my 2 cents after the fort build. It was a huge undertaking but, once you know the Beck Boys, you soon realize that this was probably exactly what they needed. They play hard all day long. What a difference from little girls but I wouldn't want to change a thing.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

My garden is doing very well considering the amount of winter kill I had. I divided and transplanted some iris ane they are just starting to come into bloom. Our bleeding heart continues to impress me with all those pink blooms, looks good beside the potentilla.

Our apple tree has gone crazy. The branches are covered with masses of baby apples, much like a cherry tomato plant! I think I may have to do some research about thinning them out...or...we are going to be freezing a lot of apple for winter pies!

And a very fine day it was!

Doesn't everyone drink Dom Perignon on their 50th birthday?

Sorry girls, it was calling my name!

Nature walk around JPL

This is very typical of what you would see on the grounds. I must admit I felt better after the sun came out on Saturday and revealed that Yes, even the Jasper Park Lodge, has dandelions!

Happy Day Joe!

Welcome to the 5-0 Club Joe! What took you so long???

Lots of Love - peep peep

Some 'friends' who share a birthday on June 13!

Fly fishing in Jasper

One of Joe's early casts - looking good!
Still at it, trying to work the current.
The river we were fishing.
Yours truly trying not to get 'hooked' again!

Everyone could choose an activity for Saturday. There was horseback riding, nature walk, golf, white water rafting or fly fishing. We choose the fishing because we had never tried that. Our instructor liked to break it diown into things we could remember. Stab the sky, I love redheads and chop the chicken. These were aids for us to get our timing right so the line wouldn't tangle between the back cast and forward cast. After the initial class room work, we all moved outside for our dry runs without hooks! Good thing because some of my casts were ugly and Joe caught a tree! After our picnic lunch we were bussed down to the river. Between scouting out the location on Thursday/Friday and Saturday afternoon, the river rose and was running very quick. However armed with our new knowledge on how to read the water and see the textures, we all set with hooks and high hopes.

Over the next 2 hours, we tried streaming & dry casting as well as the wet flies. It was a good thing we were going to the gala dinner, because no one caught a thing! I did manage to win a fly rod, reel and case...not sure if it was because I caught myself with my own hook or if it was because I sleep with the guy who awarded the prizes! Either way, I'll be practicing at the local trout pond as soon as I get my local fishing licence and some wooly bullies!

Our Jasper accomodations

- This was our group of lodges.
- My little visitor, chatty fellow!
- Our main view. There are walking trails everywhere along the water.
- Our little patio.

Our room faced the main entry to the Main Lodge whish was the meeting place for all activities. We found the king size bed too big...poor Joe had to roll over 2.5 times before he could cop a feel! Out the back of our room, we had our own little stone patio facing the water and a mountain. It was a nice quiet place to watch the wildlife and have a refreshment or 2. Just off to the left was the 17th green. Little visitors were everywhere...even inside the main lodge running around the Emerald Lounge bar! I wonder if they just charged things to the room, too?

Arrival at Jasper Park Lodge

Our trip got off to a very wet start. we were driving down the Yellowhead, when something Joe said sparked a big scare in me! I had thought he said he had packed his pills for the weekend when I realized he had NOT! A quick pull over to the side of the road to discover that indeed he had not BUT there in his shave kit were the 2 pills from the weekend before! So what pills did Joe take that weekend...well he had a secret stash of 2 from who knows when...so we continuted of our way knowing that as soon as we arrive home on Sunday, Joe would have to take his pill.

We didn't see much scenery along the way, what with the wiper blades on full speed. We were greeted by the bell staff at the Jasper Park Lodge and went to check in....Hmmm...no reservation for us! Seems we weren't booked in until the following day! While we were standing around waiting to see if they could squeeze us in, Joe's big boss arrives...he's very confident they will find us accomodation and off he went to get settled. Sure enough we got a very nice room in one of the long lodges half way between the main lodge and the golf house.

After we drove around looking for parking, we parked and dragged our bags to our room. By this time it's about 7 and we are hungry...back to the main lodge where the restaurants are. A quick perusal of the posted menus...lamb kabobs, bison burgers, salmon, peasant...no cluck, moo or oink for this little girl! And the prices....$34 for the kabobs! Ouch! So we walked back up to the car and head into town. Ahhh Earls! Salad for me and curry for Joe.

We get back to the room, unpack Joe's clothes for his 8am meeting, set the alarm clock and for some unknown reason, Joe put in a wake up call for 6am. Good thing...power went out sometime through the night! Sometimes things work out whether we plan it or not.

It seems I'm having trouble posting my pictures, so I will try again later!

Here's Papa & Joe on the new bench

Look at these 2...you know they are up to something...I just can't figure out what!

I love you both! I just don't know if it's because of that or inspite of that!

Papa aka Grampy's 80th Birthday 3 June 2006

We couldn't have ordered better weather! We almost had a small glitch with the birthday cake, which I pre-ordered for pickup just before the festivities began. For some reason, they didn't do it, but the bakery folks jumped right in and decorated another one just right...so in the end...we had a very nice cake! No candles...a resident snuck into the kitchen and walked away with them while we were getting Papa settled out on the back patio!

Joe & I gave Papa a park bench for the back patio, so all the residents and their guests can enjoy the lovely back yard. Heather & Lesley gave Papa a couple of golf shirts, navy with white strips and white with burgundy...very sharp looking. Lynn and the boys gave Papa a nice cologne, a game of checkers, some goodies - cookies, maple fudge like candies, and a few other things which escape my mind right now. Papa did supervise the building of the bench and we all sat on it afterwards...gave it the true stress test. I'll post the pic of Papa & Joe in a separate blog....this one wouldn't let me add any more pics! Oh well...It was a great time!

They don't come nicer than Jo!

We have such a fantastic neighbour, Joanne...she is everything you could possibily want. She watches over the house and Chow when we go away, she calls me if she hasn't seen me out in the yard for a while, we even share wine back and forth over the fence.

Well she surprised Joe with an early birthday cake and the biggest bottle of homemade wine I have ever seen! When I say homemade wine, I should clarify that statement and say home crafted! Jo puts so much take and attention and herself into each batch...you know it will taste great because it's made with love!

Our house is priceless because we have such a nice friend just over the fence! Thanks Jo!

We aren't home free yet!

My computer woes continue today when I installed my security program and uninstalled the trial version that came with the initial operating system. Seems a little bitty bit/byte of whatever didn't go bye bye and was preventing me from checking email and surfing the internet. I'm so glad I had a good tech that I could understand and who spoke non-technic! An hour and a half later, I was back on IE....I think I may still have a wee problem with Outlook, but tomorrow is another day.

Thursday we head to Jasper for Joe's work retreat. He works Friday morning, plays company golf in the afternoon...I get to lay in bed, eat bon bons and read my book! Friday night is a meet & greet with the Americans, Saturday fly fishing, then the big dinner and awards...Sunday more work before checking out....whew...I'm tired! Gotta run, Joe is moving my telephone line......bye!

Did you miss me

It has been 8 days since my hard drive on my new computer crashed and burned so to speak! What a stressful time ever since. I must say that the tech folks were very helpful, and I received the new hard drive Thursday evening. But I was tired and not in the right frame of mind to even consider the install so I put it off until the next day.

Wouldnèt you know it...I ran into a snafu and had to leave everything to go pick Joe up at work for our Calgary Med Hat weekend. As you can see I have a small snafu with my language...no punctuation marks...But with Joe s help, we got the new hard drive installed, rebooted, done the recovery discs...yadda yadda and here I am with a ton of stuff to get caught up on...so give me a day or so...then we leave for the weekend...Jasper here we come...then a birthday, a concert...who am I kidding...I will never catch up.....Drop me a line on what I have missed...Later everyone!