Last picture! I should figure out how to post them all in one post. Here's Steve boogie boarding. 

The water was quite rough, with waves up to 5 and 6 feet crashing. It was a little scary for me, but Steve loved the boogie boarding. 

I'm a sucker for a donkey...faux or otherwise! This was in a cigar museum. 

The locals were a little wooden off the start, but we really warmed up to them.  

Taken in the sugar cane fields.  

Just look at this beach! 

A man enters a bar and orders a drink. The bar has a robot bartender. the
robot serves him a perfectly prepared cocktail, and then asks him, "What's
your IQ?" The man replies "150" and the robot proceeds to make conversation
about global warming factors, quantum physics and spirituality, biomimicry,
environmental interconnectedness, string theory, nano-technology, and sexual
proclivities.

The customer is very impressed and thinks, "This is really cool." He decides
to test the robot. He walks out of the bar, turns around, and comes back in
for another drink. Again, the robot serves him the perfectly prepared drink
and asks him, "What's your IQ?" The man responds, "about a 100."
Immediately the robot starts talking, but this time, about football, NASCAR,
baseball, supermodels, favorite fast foods, guns, and women's breasts.

Really impressed, the man leaves the bar and decides to give the robot one
more test. He heads out and returns, the robot serves him and asks, "What's
your IQ?" The man replies, "Er, 50, I think." And the robot says... real
slowly... "So............... ya gon - na vote for the Liberals a - gain?

Happy Birthday Blaine!!

Have a great day!

hola all!

Hi everyone!
Well, after an epic long day on Wednesday, we arrived in Punta Cana to a gorgeous airport! We would have been happy just staying there, it was so nice!

Anyways, it's +32 and sunny every day we've been so far. Lots of lazing around, alternating from beach to pool. Neither is very crowded, easy to find comfy lounge chairs. The food is good, normal every day stuff with a few surprises thrown in (stuffed rabbit...octopus in its own tint) yumm! Our room is close to the beach and the ping pong tables. Important! Drinks are good, no complaints anywhere really, but it would have been nice to have a coffee maker in the room! We'll bring our own next time.

We are missing our Mook and hope that Grandma and Grandpa are giving her lots of cuddles and snuggles. Someone will have to pass that message along, because we didn't get a chance to hook up their computer before we left!

Hope all is well with everyone else...back to the holiday!
xoJessica and Steve

Free Ipods, Holy Cow

It's one of those things that sounds really too good to be true but indeed the facts speak for themselves. All you have to do is click on the link here, sign up for one of the trial offers, and presto-chango they send a free ipod to an undisclosed address in Ottawa.

Romeo and Juliet

I keep searching and searching to see what comments come up about the production last weekend and so far haven't seen a peep!!

Well?? Well??

Time to clue us in about everything. I'll bet you both were tired and just crashed in a corner somewhere.

Or are you helping your mom study for her big test tomorrow? That will be a relief to have that behind her. What a fun way to spend a Saturday!

Pumpkins in the Park!!

We just got back from a walk through Flumerfelt Park where they hold "Pumpkins in the Park", and man was it snowing! The snow started around 10:30 or 11 this morning and is still going strong at almost 9pm! It's heavy and wet so hopfully it wont stick around too long, I'm not done riding my bike yet! Mom and Dad were supposed to leave today for yet another trip to Woseley but..... lucky for us they are stuck! Looks like many more card games to be played!

Poor Diabetic Willow

Well, today we found out that Willow has developed feline diabetes. The weight blight that we unfortunately burdened her with finally caught up to her. She seems ok on the outside, she's dropped about 2kg since this time last year, but she drinks a lot of water. So we're off to the vet again on Thursday to learn about what we need to do to help Willow live comfortably. A change of food is the first step. I'm not sure if we'll need to give her insulin shots yet or if there is another option.

On another note I got an email from CBC News Sunday asking me to read an email comment I made so they can possibly broadcast it during their feedback segment.

Update:I spent about an hour at the vet last night getting all of the info on what we need to do for Willow. She will be getting one unit of insulin twice a day for the next while then we take her back in for testing and possible modification of the dose. The vet did a demonstration with saline on the office cat, a fairly cooperative cat. I tried to examine Willow tonight to get a grip on her skin the way I'll need to so I can inject her and at first got a nasty look then the teeth came out and she was having none of that. It looks like I'll be wrapping her up in a towel twice a day. It wasn't too expensive but this will be a lifetime thing unless someone comes up with an easier way of doing it. Looking on the bright side we won't have to test her blood every day (an unpleasant process of pricking the edge of her ear to get a blood sample).

Disposal

What's the recommended method of disposal for old cd's? I have a mountain of old technet and software cd's I would like to get rid of but don't want to burden the local landfill with yet more plastic and metal. Any thoughts on what I should be doing with this stuff?

SeatGuru.com - Your Enlightened Guide to Airplane Seating

Here's a little something to help with your flight to the DR. David might find this useful too. SeatGuru.

Dos cervezas por favor...

We booked our holiday today! Wah laloo!

We are going for two weeks, leaving on November 16th. We fly into Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, arriving at 7pm (or so) for our all inclusive, long-awaited vacation. Now to brush up on the espanol!

We'll be staying at the Grand Paradise Bavaro. I'll see if I can find a link...

Like this one? Grand Paradise Bavaro

Happy 70th birthday cake!

Now thats a cake!

Project Porchlight : Change Within Reach

I had an email waiting for me this evening from a local blogger, we'll call him Dan because that's his name, informing me and the rest of the people on his list of a new and brilliant idea [pun intended]. It's called Project Porchlight. The idea is to distribute compact fluorescent bulbs to every household across the country, they're starting with Ottawa South, with the intent of reducing power consumption through conservation. Get this: put one of these babies in one lightsocket in each home across the country and we'll be reducing pollution to the tune of taking 66,000 cars off the roads. As a cyclist this is most appealing. As someone who would like my kids to see polar bears this is most appealing.

I love this idea and can say, proudly, that I recommended to my condo association last year that we replace the many incandesent lights throughout our building with compact fluorescents. And they did!! That's no less than 10-12 on each of three floors and the basement level. We have several in our loft too.

Want more info? You'll want to click on the button below. If you're in the Ottawa area you'll want to head out to the big Giant Tiger on Walkley Road and get yourself a bulb free. Better yet, get your free one then head inside and buy a bunch to replace the rest of the bulbs in the house. You'll want to save the incandescents to be sold on ebay in the future, they'll be museum articles in no time.

Mom and her Birthday Presents

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Hey Mitch! We got her with that wind up butterfly thingy you sent us, i tries to get a good action shot of it, does she look surprised? We just finished dinner and are getting ready for an evening of birthday cards. I'll have a couple of shots of the cake as soon as we surprise her with it!

Jack Layton Siting

While I was standing waiting for my bus the other night after work Jack Layton passed by me on Bank Street headed towards Parliament Hill. I didn't say anything but if I had my camera with me I would have got a couple of quick shots.

Cantabile at SJ City Hall!!

We were on TV around the city hall for the grand opening. Mom took this picture, and a bunch of other ones, but when I tried to zoom in a bit, they got very blurry. I'm in the second row, fourth from the right. Laura's in the first row, second from the left.

www.whereswilly.com

I entered three bills tonight and checked to see what the statistics were. Not good. I've posted 99 bills and had one hit. I think the breakdown was 77 $5 bills, one $50, 4 $100 some twenties and a few tens.

Where's Willy?

Trapline

Has anyone checked the trapline lately? Oh, please don't let there be critters there.

On the road again

I thought i would show you guys what one of the loads we did for Mom and Dad looked like this summer.

Do you see what isee?!!

Are you ready for winter?

Mook is ready fro that bone chilling blast of winter! This is a shot Jess took, trying to come up with an ad for our bathroom advertising that we "try" and do every month. It's a pretty fun way to advertise, you can be a little more care free. it is in a bathroom!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

We're celebrating by going to the Columbus Day Parade tommorow, which Andrew and I are marching in. Should be fun!

Goofy Pet Photo of the Day

Donald Rumsfeld is giving George Bush his daily briefing.

He concludes by saying: "And yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing incident in Iraq."

"OH NO!" exclaims the President. "That's terrible!"

His staff are stunned at this display of emotion, watching nervously as the president sits with his head in his hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks:

"How many is a brazillion?"

David

You are one lucky guy. It still shakes you up even though you aren't physically hit. No matter how careful you are, you have to watch the other driver who can be doing who knows what as they drive. This last one, did she have a cell phone at her ear? How do you not hear a horn honking at you? Maybe she had the radio too high. We don't drive with the radio on while in the city because you can't hear sirens from ambulances, etc.

We just about got sideswiped two Saturdays ago in Regina. The stupid girl switched lanes without shoulder checking. It was at the east end of the city before we got where the curbs are so we had a paved shoulder to swerve onto. I wonder what the driver immediately behind us was feeling when they saw what almost happened.

Landlords, Lenders and Mortgages, Oh My!

So we meet with our landlords on Monday (fingers crossed!) Hopefully all will go well. I've been reading up on mortgages and it looks like they want to see your business track record going back three years. Ugh. If that's the case then we have some more time to put into it. Good news though; my credit rating is stellar! I think Steve's is too, but we didn't get his credit report, just mine.

Wish us luck on Monday!

Attn: Rebeca

Good news about your mom. That's what we were hoping to hear. Being home is much easier to rest and eat when you want.

Are you hitting the books now? I tried to remember when you were to get to it.

I was invited down the block for tea today with two ladies and along came a third so that was very nice. Afterward, one said,"We were going to organize a tea for you but were afraid we'd miss somebody who would say,"I never heard anything about that!'." I told her I was so glad it was just the four of us. I was afraid they might have done something like that but when I only saw one car in her driveway...relief.

The museum dinner for me is on the front page of the local paper today, write-up and picture, and the editor wrote a very nice editorial about us leaving.

Someone I worked with on the Chamber of Commerce met me one morning when I was walking CoCo and said to be sure to come into the store to say good-bye but I told him I might not because good-byes aren't easy.

Happy Birthday David!!

Have a great day!

Looks like January! This is one of Dad's planes in the backyard at the new house. 

The Flagging Empire

This story either makes a lot of sense and is very revealing or opens up a discussion for the wild conspiracy theorists out there. Either way I thought it was something incredible to read, it's long but it's worth the read.

Is it Winter where you are?!!!

Well today started last night with a torrential down pour! iT rained and rained all night and into today.... then at around 3pm it began to open up the snow making machine! It is still snowing now! I have been out shoveling it twice already! Too early i say!

Hmmm?

Any idea why Mom keeps deleting her posts? Mom, what gives?

Got Mook?

For those of you without your own personal slogan:

Enter your name and the fun ensues.
http://www.thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi

Surgery

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you all know that my Mom had her surgery today to remove what was left of her Lung Cancer and all went well. She was in the operating room yesterday, fully prepped with the Anesthesiologist set up and about to start her on the anesthesia when an emergency heart surgery bumped her. They immediately stopped what they were doing and sent her to ICU for the other drugs to wear off, penciled her in for first thing this morning then gave her a room for the night. As hoped they took her in first thing this morning and by 10:30am we heard from the surgeon that all went perfectly. She'll be in the hospital for up to a week depending on how fast she heals up but all looks really good. :)

The Freecycle Network(tm) - Changing the world, one gift at a time.

The Freecycle Network(tm) - Changing the world, one gift at a time.

I expect to see Blairmore added to the list in Alberta in the next while. I think this is the way for me to get rid of all of that software.

Holiday Photos!

I'm still working on descriptions but here are a selection of our photos from our Alberta trip.

Craigslist

On-line swapmeet makes waves on the Net. Suddenly it's everywhere!

Free Software!!!

In my never ending battle to free the loft of clutter and debris I have a few things to offer up to anyone who would like them. All I'm asking for is postage. I can give you computer specs/requirements if you need them. Here's what I have:

Diablo (cool game with lots of beasts/demons/creatures to slay)
Hellfire (the expansion pack to Diablo, gives you a couple of new characters and a whole wack of new spells/tools/beasts)
M1 Tank Platoon II (a pretty good M1 tank simulation game)
East Front (a top down strategy game modelled on the Eastern Front during Dubya Dubya Two)
WordPerfect 7 Suite (just like Word only not :)) I also have a book for this one
Command and Conquer (you heard right kids - The Original!!)
Command and Conquer:Counterstrike (the add-on to the item above)
Command and Conquer:Red Alert (not an add-on)
Dune 2000 (runs on the same engine as the Command and Conquer series but uses the Dune storyline, loads of fun
I also have a stack of old Technet cds if anyone is interested.

Domestic Air Travel Blows!

How is your weekend going? On the bright side our planes didn't once go off the end of the runway. One has to wonder what kind of "plan B" the airlines have when a storm hits Toronto and air travel all across the country is thrown into a fit. We sat and waited in Calgary for our flight (Calgary has nice big comfy leather chairs hidden away in quiet areas) and overheard some flight attendants discussing a big storm in Toronto and how it was shaking up some of the flight schedules. Ok, no big deal we think since we still have several hours to go before we get into Hog Town. We get on the plane, fly to Toronto, and the nightmare begins. We sit for two hours on the apron in a hot stuffy Airbus waiting for the gate to clear so a plane in front of us can offload its passengers then allow us to get off our plane. While we're waiting we learn the flight to Ottawa has been cancelled. Where are our bags? Well, the baggage people seem to have unloaded the planes then dumped the luggage into a giant dryer then randomly are sending the bags up on the carosel for the waiting passengers. We did not find our luggage. We opted not get a hotel room since it was 2am and our flight to Ottawa this morning was going to be at 7:15am so we'd barely have time to sleep. I'm not sure that was a good call as our second option was to take advantage of the foam rubber you see the poor slobs sleeping on whenever Pearson Airport has a problem. Sort of the airline version of people sleeping on beds in the halls of the local hospital. We were up and back in line at about 5:30am to get to the gate and the flight to Ottawa was delayed again. Someone's bags got loaded then they didn't show for the flight. Hang on everyone while we dig through the cargo hold to find the unclaimed luggage. Anyway, we arrive in Ottawa this morning and only one of our bags comes up from the plane. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Turtle Mountain

Today we took on what can truly be called an oddessy journey to the top of Turtle Mountain. Jess, Rebeca, Steve, Marpho, Coco, Mook, Bella, Ruffles and Mitch all packed our bags with beverages and a snack and strapped on our most worthy climbing gear then headed for the trailhead. It was epic! Crazy, dizzy heights and lots of sharp and jagged rocks but we made it most of the way up. You could see all of Blairmore and off towards Coleman and off the other side you could see Frank and the remenants of the slide. It was tough slogging but we had a good time. We took loads of photos and got a whole wack of exercise, extreme exercise!

The Under Bird

We made it! Arrived safely in Calgary and drove to Red Deer to spend time with the Ironsides and have a private viewing of their new house. Everyone is well and enjoying the last few weeks of summer vacation, although it sure didn't feel like summer, brrrrrr.

After a few days there we travelled along the Cowboy Trail to Blairmore and are currently enjoying the fantastic hospitality of the Atkinsons and visiting with assorted Spragues (Mom, Dad and Marpho!). Marpho travelled with the dogs, Bella and Ruffles, who enjoyed the swank and luxurious comfort of the Under Bird, patents pending.

I passed my driver's test!

You could make up to 15 non-critical errors, and I made 5. I'm going to go pick up Laura in a few minutes-- I think she'll be surprised!

Commercial shot in CNP

Here's a link to the goofy commercial shot in Coleman a couple of months ago. It's a viral ad that is circulated by internet only, so you won't see it during a break in Corner Gas.
www.milkandcookies.com/links/32416/

It's for AXE deodorant spray. Their ads are usually kind of risqué, so this one is a little tame, but fun just the same.

Do Not Drill

"There are over a hundred species of birds with soft downy feathers, perfect for soaking up oil spills." Go sign the petition.

Speaking of birthdays.....

That cake was a super deelux, home made(by Jess of course) ice cream cake! She baked the cake, cut out the centre, and filled it with icecream, then put a cake bottom on it and froze the whole thing! It was Yummy! I think Laura had some for breakfast the next day!

Happy Birthday Laura!!

Have a fabulous day!!

I walked past Willow this morning when she yelled "I'm trying to sleep here, can you pull the blinds please?" 

The crazy Traffic after the Fire work show!

These shots are from our front window looking out onto the main street at about 12 midnight. There is a Ford pick up truck in the upper left shot that did'nt move for about an hour! Can you imagine being stuck in traffic in small town Blairmore! I'm sure glad we get to walk everywhere we need to go! There is also a Midway in the background which was the first year that they came for Rumm Runner Days! They sure made our week extra busy, they showed up on the Wed to set up and started coming in to get coffee and use our washroom. Then they ALL came in for the whole entire weekend! Breakfast, lunch and dinner! Don't think I'm complaining but we were busy! Better get off to bed, my one day off was more like another day of work, I moved out one of the ovens in the store and had the electrician run 220 line into the store and hook up our new oven we bought a long while ago! Then I took the one i took out upstairs to our place and the oven that was upstairs out and down to Mom and Dad's new place! Three ovens in one day! I did manage a ride though, all before this crazy work thing happened! Catch ya later kids

Just a couple of shots from the Thunder in the Valley display!

I started out watching the fireworks from the roof of our building, then relized that the street lights wreak all hopes of pictures, so i hurried down off the roof and ran down the street to get as better vantage point and here is some of what i got!I missed the ground show which was supposed to be awsome, I'll get it next year for sure!