Tuesday, June 30, 2015

I love my kids

I just realized how happy it makes me to see them. We have had a chance for a visit with everyone but Anne in the past couple of weeks, and I had a nice long talk with her on the phone the other day.
We saw Will when we went over to Nanaimo to see Dick, Jo and John. He drive out from Tofino just to see us. It was short, but we were happy to see him.
Grace and Dallyn came to Kelowna for a couple of days while we were there and we had a good time with them. We were going to come back to Rocky but stayed an extra day to go with them on a wine tasting tour. It was a lot of fun. We came home with a case of wine. I am doubting that I can remember anything about any of the wine we bought, but will enjoy drinking it.
Sam and Nancy stopped here on Friday to pick up camping stuff, then stayed overnight last night on their way back. Sam took us out for supper and again we had a nice visit. 
We have seen a lot of Tim and the boys since we got back. Those little monkeys are so adorable. Tim,  Kane and I went to see Inside Out on Saturday, while Geoff stayed home with Grady. Court was away for the weekend.
We had thought of staying in Kelowna until Saturday but went home Thursday. Guess we should have listened to ourselves.
We came home to beautiful weather, so warm and sunny. Spent the whole weekend outside. We had friends over for supper on Friday and it was wonderful to eat and visit outside with no rain or mosquitoes. It started raining yesterday so I suppose they will now be hatching in order to torment us.
Got called into work yesterday afternoon again.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

hot time summer in the city

Supposed to get to 39 today, so of course I decided to mow the lawn.
Couldn't stand it anymore. And it took a long time to cool down after, I'll tell you.
Mom's doing fine in hospital, what a very crazy thing to have happen.
Jude and mom handled it so well though, was actually kind of amazing, considering that her intestines were not where they should be!
Once again, everyone in hospital were super-and as family members we were included all the way along.
Jude went to see mom this am, and we're going this afternoon.
Should've done some school stuff this weekend, but had no ambition to do so.
Committee still suggesting that I take longer to do it, so I gave in and said, fine I'll graduate in Feb. Never doing this again.
Kris was supposed to come this weekend, but is now coming next weekend, which is better considering that Mom is back in hospital.
everything else is going well, work is motoring along and have been doing good work, I think. I have no regrets about changing.
Bought a bed on Friday (we found ambulance in front of Mom's when we got back), so visitors will be happy to know, no more futon! 2nd hand, boxspring, mattress, frame, little sitting thing, and bedside table for $300! I forgot to check for bedbugs, but am sure there are none, as got it from people who our ocd admin person knows.  
Richard thinks having it downstairs so guests have own bathroom is good idea, so we are setting it up down there.

Monday, June 22, 2015

I Have an Old Picture


Friday, June 19, 2015

Happy belated birthday, Jude

Yesterday was busy and I don't have an old picture, but better late than never. This is from Februart 2014.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Tofino Summer

Well, I guess it's not technically summer, but it's starting to feel like it.  The weather has been hot and dry for the last week or so - foggy before that, which was less fun.  However, there's a pretty serious water shortage forecast for Vancouver Island generally, and Tofino in particular.  It was a dry winter without much snow on the mountains, and even in wet years water can be an issue here in summer - all those resorts just suck all the water up!

Allie is here for the summer, working at a whale watching place.  The best part about that is that we can both go whale watching and bear watching and to hot springs for free whenever we want.  Usually locals can go for free, but only one or two per trip as standby.  We get bumped to the top of the standby list, which is great.

On Saturday we we decided to go and watch the sunset.  So we walked down to the government dock, and it was full of tourists.  I was kind of annoyed - I mean, there's a sunset every night, so why were the crowding in on the one I wanted to watch?  Anyway, we found a spot, and I noticed that they were all taking pictures in the wrong direction - not of the sunset at all!  That seemed dumb, even for tourists, so I looked where they were looking - and there were three Orcas swimming around!  We watched them from the dock for about fifteen minutes, and they jumped out of the water a lot.  I've never seen Orcas so close - probably within a hundred yards.  It was pretty amazing.

I also see a lot of eagles from my house - the owner at the sushi place throws out fish heads for them, so they're always around.  Not a great practice, but I do love watching them swoop and dive.  The same owner introduced himself to Allie: "Hi, I'm Crazy Ron.  Sanest guy in town".

I went down to Victoria on Monday this week to see Jeff convocate from his Masters in Education.  At his convocation, Shelagh Rogers from the CBC was installed as the new Chancellor of the University.  That made the ceremony a little more interesting than an average convocation.  I also had really good seats - front row of the balcony - so could see everything clearly.

Today is the 90th anniversary of the United Church of Canada - churches across the country are ringing their bells to celebrate.  We're doing it from 2:30-4:30, which is later than the suggested time, but I figure the United Church is all about ignoring the rules if they don't work.  This way kids can come when they're out of school.  I hope the neighbours don't get too annoyed at us!

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Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Kelowna Visit

Although there is not too much new, the rest of the posters have inspired me to post. I have been here for about a week, and done a little yard work for Mom, however the last few days have been scorching, so a little hard to get motivated. Mom and I cool off by watching the Hockey playoffs, all that beautiful ice!
The big news is that I went to Vancouver last week to see Bette Midler in concert at Rogers arena. My seat was excellent, right in the penalty box, row 2 with a good view over the heads of the people on the floor. There was no opening act and the concert was two hours long. It was just like seeing her concert movie, remember Theresa and Laura when we saw that in Edmonton, Laura and I were living on 105 St. There was even a tribute to Delores del Lago. Laura and I tried to see her on tour in Edmonton years ago, but the concert got cancelled because they were renovating the Coliseum. She did some new stuff and old stuff, and told lots of stories, a great experience. 
Supposed to cool a bit by the weekend, so the Garden Tour will be fun, looking forward to seeing my landlords again.

Sunday, June 07, 2015

Edmonton

I guess I will jump on the bandwagon and put up a post here too. 

We had an exciting weekend sportswise here. On Friday we went to the Edmonton Rush lacrosse game. It was the second game of the final series. The NLL has a 3 game final, and Edmonton won the first game in Toronto, and then won Friday too and won the championship! It was very exciting and the first time I've ever seen a team win a championship so it was lots of fun. Plus the Rush might not be in Edmonton next year, so it was nice to see them go out on a high note. It's too bad too, I really enjoy the games. We went to 4 or 5 this year and had a great time at every one. 

Then yesterday was the opening game of the Fifa woman's World Cup, Canada vs China. The game was lots of fun. There were over 53 000 people there, and you could tell in the hallways. It was ridiculous trying to get anywhere. It was a beautiful day too, so nice to sit in the sun and cheer on the national team with a stadium full of red and white. Canada ended up winning 1-0 on a penalty kick right at the end of the game. Our tickets included the next game too, Netherlands vs New Zealand, so we stayed until halftime of that game too. But by then we were soccered out and went home. 

I'm looking forward to going to Kelowna at the end of the month. I'm in a wedding in Golden on June 27, and I managed to get the whole week before off of work, so we will drive to Kelowna for a few days and then head to the wedding. I haven't been to Kelowna in a few years, and last time was just staying overnight on my way to Victoria with a friend, so it will be nice to have a good visit. 

Then in July I booked a plane ticket to Tofino for a weekend, so I should have my fill of BC this summer. 

We also got our folk fest tickets! Didn't feel as smug as Auntie Laura as we forgot to look for tickets at 3 because we were already at the game, but luckily Auntie Jude sent a Facebook message asking if we had any luck, and we logged on right away and there were still enough left for us. Phew. 

 

GP

It is pretty quiet here but some stuff has happened.  The renovations continue, Wilf is working on closets right now. He made a new one at the front door and is converting the hall closet to a pantry. We are very pleased with the outcome. It looks like a new place. I have not decided where to put up pictures yet, I would to change that a bit, it will take a bit more thinking.  It has been an amazing june so far, warm weather and some rain so very lush. Our flowers are doing the best I have seen since moving here 8 years ago. Those 8 years sure have passed fast.
Jim came into town yesterday, he had to go look at the new roof on his rental. We went out for lunch just him and I. It was great to sit and talk with him, Jim is always interesting. He is also interested in what you have to say.  It was a great time, not just because he bought lunch, hehe.
We saw Henry and Ally last weekend, their new trailer is pretty cute, and they love it. Pretty good buy for a dollar.  They are planning to put up a cottage at Kinuso this summer and have cleared the ground for it already. Henry is in 1st year school and is enjoying it, back to work at the end of June.
I am very happy I was able to get ff tickets, their system worked better this year.  I had our tickets by 3:04 pm and I was feeling smug about it.  Looking forward to 4 days of music and great company.

Saturday, June 06, 2015

thesis

Not too much going on with us.
Kris was here for a couple days. As always a whirlwind. But we have settled back down now.
I don't have anything exciting going on medically, except a UTI, which I got antibiotics for today after waiting at walk in for a couple hours. Though there is a new antibiotic which you only need to take once! That's exciting.
I came home to find Jude cutting our grass!! Thank you Jude! The rain and subsequent heat means lots of growing.
Met with advisor, and we talked about how I can be done by Nov. I am going to  take a week vacation in July to get this friggen thing done. I have to get it in by end July to graduate by Nov. I think it is a university cash grab. One person on my committee said, 'students often want to get things done on their timeline, but the learning is often better if you take longer.' YOU'RE AN ACADEMIC AND GET PAID TO DO THIS. I on the other hand am paying them for the privilege of working on this. AND DAMN RIGHT I WANT TO GET IT DONE ON MY TIMELINE
Enough shouting.
Found out that I got accepted to do NClex review again, in Chicago! Yay!
Nothing else really new, end of year board meetings. Almost quit one, then the meeting went so well that I thought, ok I'll stay a little longer.

Update

Everything seems quiet on the Shared Genes front. Surely people are doing something?
Was thinking the other day that we have travelled somewhere every month of this year so far. June will be no different with our trip to Kelowna.
Went to the lung specialist yesterday to get the results of Geoff's lung biopsy. She said there is absolutely nothing wrong with his lungs. But he still has symptoms so now he will go to a gastroenterologist in case his stomach is involved.
We went to Banff for a couple days to celebrate our anniversary. When we got to our hotel room I had the feeling of being in a familiar place - just because it was a hotel and we were not home. I guess that's what six weeks of changing abodes does. Banff was a good time. I think I have only ever been there once, when we were kids and went on that mountain holiday. It is a nice little town and we found lots to do. Went up the Sulpher Mountain gondola, to the Cave and Basin, to the hot springs and the Whyte Museum. I guess we can take a couple of days away any time we want now. Except we have nothing to get away from.
The weather has been warm here but (I never thought I would have to say this in June) we need rain. 
Sam and Nancy were here for the long weekend and Grace and Dallyn came the next weekend. So good to see them all.
I am still working at The Mountaineer to do circulation an hour a week. Every time I go I realize anew that I am glad to be retired.

Thursday, June 04, 2015

Happy Birthday Allison

2003 Edmonton