Tribond anyone?

What do Randy Ferbey, Dale McDougall & Joe MacAulay all have in common?

They have all curled at the Shamrock Rink in Edmonton! As the report goes, only 2 of the 3 actually completed their game! Joe did have fun although he also whimpered as he came through the door. As to when he curls again....let me just say, he hasn't asked for new shoes yet!

ps - for those still scratching their heads...Dale is my ex boss who into that competitive level in which he has had many matches against Mr. Ferbey. It always seemed, that no matter whether he won or loss, Dale was always in a good mood at work!

It shouldn't be this difficult!

We enjoyed a night of Jubilations & board games - Sequence, with our friends Gayle & Steve...had a relatively early night...but by the time David stopped in (overnight stay ) my head was bobbing and weaving. I'm not sure how I stayed awake long enough to eat, do dishes, have tea and apple pie - I think I must have checked out while trying to watch the Amazing Race. I don't remember much of the show. I went to bed after that, vaguely recall David talking to someone...found out this morning it was Heather. It can't be just the adjustment to Daylight Savings time. I think I will try and blame this all on the early arrival of snow...it can't be because I'm getting *lder!

Freecycle games!

The past few days have been frustrating if nothing else. I posted a few things for pick up and got 2 immediate responses. One item was picked up as planned almost to the minute, no snags at all. I even got a thank you note once she got home. The other...well has not been as easy.

Seems that she may be playing the 'I'm disabled ...could you drop it off' game. First she says she bad with directions...I'm the only salmon coloured house in my area...and I do stand out, especially since there are no leaves on the trees! So I send her a nice mapquest attachment...but the game comtinues. Now she says she'll pick it up over the weekend! I want to enjoy my houseguests no wait for her! So there it is...a lovely white Crane bathroom sink...sitting proudly on my front porch for the whole world to see! The only good news about this whole thing...it's not a couple of queen size beds! Poor Les - her neighbours must have loved that site!

Does anyone else Freecycle? I have yet 'win' anything although I've tried. C'est la vie!

Looking out my back door

Despite the early scare of cold wet weather, the past few days have been glorious. And I think today will be no exception. I hope the old adage ' Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red skies in morning, sailor take warning.' applies to those on the high seas.

What is this?

You may see an old Samsonite suitcase, but I see a very special man in my life. This is the suitcase I gave Joe for our wedding. He was giving me himself & a future together, and I gave him the means to provide that future.

When we got married we had little if any money, but I knew that the military would be a huge part of our life together. Little did I know at the time, just how big the travel part would be!

Joe missed our first wedding anniversary - Anne I hope you & Derek can celebrate together! Joe was sailing on the HMCS Athabascan towards parts unknown. At that time, we only had a recording on Ships' movements to let us know what was what. The evening of our anniversary, I got a telegram and if that doesn't stop your heart, nothing will. It wasn't bad news, just a quick note from Joe (on his way to Russia) saying he was thinking of me. Stop.

Anyways, the travels continued - England, Norway, Denmark, Africa, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bermuda, Japan, Hawaii and a few other destinations.

Back to the suitcase. We were cleaning out our cold room and we came across the case and we ALMOST got rid of it. That isn't our marriage, but why can't I let it go? It's a bit on the small size by today's standards...I guess I'll slip it back into the cold room for another day.

I'm not ignoring you

I haven't updated for a few days, I don't think it's blog burnout YET although I have seen others have had that problem around the anniversary of the first entry.


I've been sorting through some of my To Dos, hoping to chnage them into To Das! Not too much success in just a couple of days, but there's always tomorrow. RIGHT! NOT!


We've been getting back into darts, at home. I'm not ready for a team yet! I did manage to tie our in homes games though! And I doubled out! We each have a ton on the board. We have a busy Saturday coming up - Steve Fraser is having a birthday and we are all going out to Jubliations and then they are staying overnight for games in the bar. We had hoped to have the tub going, but we got too cold too fast, so on to plan B.


We got our holiday shopping well underway - in case of an early arrival! Now to just figure out a birthday present for Joseph next month. Joe wanted to look at power scooters, bikes and such...I really think he was looking for Big Joseph!


We are having a date night - travelling all the way to Spruce Grove to catch a hockey game - vs Grande Prairie. This is Junior A, we followed it closely when we were in Cold Lake with the Bonnyville Pontiacs. Season tickets holders too! Should be a fun game, let's hope I don't forget my gloves - these are the small non heated arenas! But at $10 a ticket vs $75+ for NHL, you can't beat the price!

Have a great weekend!

Can you see this?

Joe brought home the first truck outfitted with the new glow in the dark decalled work trucks. This is all part of keeping the service guys safe in the field, far away from the civilized world as we know it. It gets dark fast and for a long time way up north.



This should do the trick along with a little not so quiet advertisement. So which department pays for this - safety, transportation or promotions? BTW - these night shots are with camera flash only. Now if we could only make wildlife on the roads this visible!

Now what?

With only one day of pseudo nice weather...fog & +4'C...we delayed the greenhouse floor and decided to winterize around the yard.


So while Joe changed the snow blower oil and got it all gassed up and ready to roar, I did a final lawn mow and got the remaining leaves all mulched. I tried to run the mower out of gas, like the 'books' say you should before winter storage, but after it running for 25 minutes, I gave up. We'll face that issue in the spring.


So planters are tucked away as are the deck chairs & picnic table. The only thing on the deck is the BBQ and the small coffee table that Chow likes to sit on in the sun.


The big discussion of the day was the hot tub. Yes Joe should be around this winter, but we thought with a new grandchild soon arriving, why should we hang around the house on the weekends.


So with that, we drained and winterized the tub. Over the next few months, we had to source out a replacement cover. Our genuine naugahide vinyl has begun to weather split and it isn't pretty! Rumour has it a new cover will run us ~$300 or more! Ouch! Oh well, a small price to pay for the enjoyment we do get when it's up and running. I need to go back in my calendar, but I think it was going late March...which is a fine time, just before all that back breaking spring set up around the yard.


So with no tub to ease our sore muscles last night, we eased on down into the bar for some refreshments and a best of 5 Sequence games. Yours truly came out the victor!


So today we are going out for a spin on the Anthony Henday extension...can travel from the QEII to the Yellowhead with only lights at the Stoney Plains crossover. And we may stop into IKEA, just because I don't get to that part of the city very often.


Hope the party goers have lots of pics to post later today...can't wait to see the wedding outfits!


ps - yesterday's weather matched the performance of our football team! So with that ending, I shall be backing the Roughriders, cuz -

win or lose, they have BOOZE!

The Rolling Turd!

Seems that HL had so many laughs when she watched RV with Robin Williams that she highly recommended it to us. Well Joe had a hectic week at work and we needed a little Friday fluff to calm down, so we rented RV.

I can see the whole movie as funny but what has me concerned is what parts of the movie truly reflected our journey back from the Maritimes with HL in the back seat! I don't call any toilet woes but they can happen and let's face it, poop jokes are funny, expecially when it's someone else's mess! Perhpas it was the part where the Mom sings badly off key - I can definitely relate to that!

No matter what, we enjoyed the movie and we certainly enjoyed our holiday camping trip this past summer. Oh where did the time go by? We are already planning next year's adventures and Les & Aaron have the camper pencilled in for their family re-union in August. Hmmmm where Joseph & Alex are concerned , you can be sure there will be some potty laughs coming our way!

13 brings good things

Yup, it's Friday the 13th of a short work week. I just wished I worked so I could stop, if that makes any sense.

Good things happen on the 13th. Joe was born on the 13th and Les & Aaron got married on the 13th. I wonder if Jonathan will make his debut on the 13th! Heather arrived the day after my birthday...that was mostly my fault...I didn't want to share my birthday...I thought it would be important for HL to have her own special day.

Hope everyone has a good one - please add your experiences and perhaps we can collectively debunk that age old superstition.

He's still the 1

Joe presented me with flowers as he came through the door. They are gorgeous, some lilies, carnations and other things that I can't seem to grow. The house has that spicy aroma now. We headed out to dinner in St Albert and then on to the Northern Jubilee for the Comedy Show. Us and about 2500 of our closest friends! Yeah right, we didn't see a soul that we knew! Oh well, the seats were perfect, the laughs were great, even if they kept us up past our bedtime! It was nearing midnight by the time we got home. We don't often see our downtown core that quiet!

Today I'll have more time to check out the lovely gardening gifts Joe got me...as if I needed more! I'm now the proud owner of a combination clock, thermometer & hygrometer for my greenhouse! And I get to wear a new sweatshirt in case there is a chill while I record my successes & failures in a 10 year gardening journal! Now if I needed more pressure to produce a great bounty next year, it's a huge journal! But I that I've been eyeing for a while. Thanks Mr. Jones, you are the bestest.

The thrill of victory & the agony of defeat!

Well, I do exaggerate! We had everything we could want for in a long weekend - great weather, company, food. Today our temperature plummeted to +2. I had to wear a toque while outside doing my chores! Do you know where your snow shovel it? I do! And the word is the flu virus continues through the family. The TV gang are definitely under the weather and the northern gang has some twinges of discomfort. At least we aren't left out of the loop! Here's to returning good health and fair weather. Pass the Pepto.

Another awesome family gathering!

We had 13 for Thanksgiving dinner at Lesley & Aaron's home. Lesley certainly had a great brain wave when she managed to borrow a foldable table for the overflow crowd! I'm not sure how Joseph decided who sat where, but we pretty much sat where we wanted to. I think Joseph took his job at Henry & April's wedding very seriously, and decided to mix the place cards up Sunday!

Dinner was stylishly late, Aaron was working as was LeeAnne. But we all sat down to the traditional turkey dinner with sweet potato, stuffing and what we like to refer to as the works...potato,gravy,carrots, cranberries, black forest ham oh and a tray of cabbage rolls in for good luck! To say the tables were groaning from all this food would be an understatement.

Dessert was served after the kitchen was cleared, dishes loaded and food put away. Lesley set up her chocolate foundation with a nice selection of fruit and some of us also drizzled some chocolate over the carrot bundt cake, with whipped cream. Yup...I think Heather was in the best shape of all of us, with her stretchy Joey Tribiani turkey pants! We certainly had a lot to be thankful for this year.

Saturday was spent busy in the new nursery. We didn't get the trim painted...there's an excuse for another road trip!...but the walls are done and the nursery is well on it's way. Heather picked out a nice colour and we also got fabric for curtains. I will leave the details up to Heather to blog about.

Ahhhh, cold turkey sammiches and a hot cup of tea! What a life!

Roundtuit List

I'm not sure if this is helping me stay on track or not! It's more fun to cross things off the list than add! Oh well, I won't be crossing much off this weekend! Heather should be able to though!

We are heading south with some supplies - bucket, tsp, rags etc...all the things you need to wash walls in preparation for painting a nursery! I read the good news this morning about Jeff having moved all that furniture by himself yesterday. I hope he isn't too sore, but it'll make tomorrow go a lot faster. We may even get to buy paint! Happy Day!

Sunday will be the big dinner at Lesley's. We'll go over earlier and get the turkey stuffed and into the oven. Lesley has the head count set at 13, but you never know, someone else may pop over. We have yet to run out of food!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We've joined the club!

Yup...long weekend coming and we have had our credit cards compromised! So they have been cancelled, the bad guys/gals didn't get anything! I'm not sure if our accounts are scutinized more than others because of someone's extensive travels & shopping habits or not. But I am glad that Big Brother was watching out over us...but this should never have happened in the first place. Would it be a good thing to know the details of this, probably not. We have narrowed it down to 1 of 3 places and they are all big names...just little people.

In a test kitchen

When Joe sprained his ankle, we swapped emergency medical attention from Kate for a carrot cake for her wedding. So I had the brilliant at the time idea of doing some test cakes before hand so she could taste and select what she likes. I don't know why, but I can't find the old faithful recipe I used when the girls lived at home. So I've been searching for a new one. Poor Joe, he's been trying to eat the one I made last week, but it is so heavy. This morning I whipped up one of Martha's recipes and you know, it's looks light and it baked in the time she said it would. But I haven't tasted it yet...have to take it to Les's tomorrow so she has it for her Ladies night the following week. Now to whip up some icing!

Wordless Wednesday! NOT

I just couldn't do that, post an image and not add my 2 cents worth! In our house, we have a running joke about only working half days. That doesn't mean from 8 to noon, it means from 8 am to 8 pm - 12 hours! Reflecting back on why we are so tired these days, I realize that some of it may be from the lack of natural light. Joe leaves for work shortly after 6:30 and returns about 6pm. Soon he will leave in the dark and return in the dark. Perhaps I should up the light bulb wattage!

Is it 10:30 yet?

For some unknown reason, we can hardly keep our eyes open and it's barely 8:30! Joe thought it was closer to 10 and it was barely 8! Next out of his brain comes the comment that when the time changes later this month, he'll be right on schedule. That's when I had to burst his bubble and tell him, "No, it will only be 7!" Five years ago, we would start to watch a movie at 9, now we are sound asleep. Is there any hope for us?

Greenhouse Info

Brenda, I know you've shown an interest in this, not sure about anyone else. Here is a nice source for commonly asked questions about the new product we selected. RION Greenhouse

Wanted: Doors & Floor

We made the right choice of stopping Sunday when we did. After Joe got home from work and changed into work clothes, we set about lifting the roof unto the side walls that I had put up during the day. The roof was as heavy as I thought but a whole lot more awkward! We had to lift it above our shoulders and lower it onto 11 posts that still had quite a bit of wiggle room. I thought I would drop my side at one point but then, everything just nestled in the way you would want it to. With only ~ 2 hours of light we didn't get the doors hung. Tonight's job. After that, we just need to do the floor and carry the shelves in.

I must say, we are very impressed with this unit. It included 2 roof vents with automatic temperature guided openers and a back wall louver vent window. Everything short of a heater....which I already have as well as a propagation mat. Thanks Joe for the wonderful gift of gardening! Let's get growing - but I will have to wait until spring. In the meantime, I have lots of reading about ventilation, humidity and pest control.

Progress and sore muscles!

Well I have to own up to MY goof - we had a modular plastic frame base included and didn't know it until after we built the wooden one. However, looking at the plastic stuff, I'm much happier with the weight and substance of the beefier foundation. This will NOT blow away.




Progress was a bit slow, lots of pieces to locate in 3 big boxes, and then to get them installed in the right order and not lose patience. Everything is held together with little plastic pins that have to be manually installed with a glorified allen wrench. If you have ever built some Swedish furniture, you can relate to this. There are 320 of those little pins to install! And we aren't done yet even thought we worked through lunch. A bowl of cereal with a banana @ 10 am just doesn't hold a person to 7 pm the way it used to! Anyways, we have the roof arches all built as well as the top glazing panels installed. The next part is lifting the roof onto the wall posts and we were just too tired to do any more. Stopped for a soak in the tub with a cold drink, lasagna and salad for supper and then the Amazing Race. Tomorrow is another day.