Going home

I was happy to hear that Kat got her prezzie before Christmas. I mailed it from Key West on Sat morning This is a miracle to me. If I had sent it from Canada it would be weeks until delivery. Merry merry everyone. If we get past the storm we will be home tonight.

Holiday in Key West with friends

After 42 years B finally hooked up with his old roomie and buddy, Ed Whiting. Ed is a singer of fame and repute and a mighty fine guitar player to boot.
We have been hanging with them out on their front porch drinking rum and coca Cola. This seems to be a popular sport for the locals in KW. Front porch sitting that is.
Watching the conch train go by.
Last night we went to one of the new hotels and Ed sat in and sang. His gig at Blue Heaven doesn't start until the night we leave. Damn.
Ed's finer side and beautiful partner is Brenda and she is a realtor here. We all have so much in common, music, food, art. Who knew. Google him.

I Won!!!

I won the election. Wow! I am still amazed that the membership wants me to sit on the Board of Directors.
I only hope I live up the expectations of the voters.

and now as Imelda Marcos said. "After we win the election we go shopping!"

A Bit Hasty?

Okay, so maybe I was a bit hasty with my comments about the election. I am actually looking forward to it, really. I think it will be a worthwhile and interesting path to take in my life.


I was pleased this weekend to help the Legere family raise money to benefit their son who was so badly injured in a fall this summer. Now, a quadrapalegic, Cory was at the fundraiser with his beautiful wife Cory ( yes, they share the same first name).
Lots of enthusiatic bidding on the donated articles and I don't know for sure but I think enough money was raised to help purchase at least one of the important things that Cory needs, like a bed, a lift, or a chair.
It was so heart warming to see so many people show up, in a lot of ways, with their wallets, their time and their energy. Everything was donated including the spaghetti dinner and the wine and the wonderful desserts. (Yeah I did taste a couple).

NOTE: I am now down 15 lbs. No refined carbs. AND I am sticking with it for 1 more month...or life. If I can stay off bread.

Pork Barreling, Stumping, Shaking Babies and Kissing Hands

Day one of my new political career.

There is a 3 week voting period beginning today and the voting is all done by a coded response on a private web site. Not hard and not inconvenient, in fact an easy process if you are a techie nerd. Admittedly you need a pic and shovel to get to the bowels of the Board web site to find the right link.

This morning, I decided to sent out a little note to my old and new office collegues informing them of how to and for whom to vote. I got back a flurry of supportive emails. By 10 am I had replied graciously to about 25 of them, taking the time to thank each one, even inquiring to the health of some of the senders.

Through the auspices of the election committee at the Board I was sanctioned to send a letter via the IT department to the entire membership of 5000. By 11 am I had another flurry of a 100 or so emails that came as replies. I tapped out grateful and pleasant reponses and encouraged them to tell everyone they knew.

 By noon the bing, bing, bing of incoming e-mails sounded like machine gun fire. Some of them wanting my stance on issues I had never heard of. I spent another couple of hours responding in the most light hearted and gracious manner I could muster under the constant racket of incoming e-mails.

I began to see a trend in my responses to what I saw as outrageous demands and self serving complaints and I became aware of a certain level of animosity in my answers. I was, as they say, quite at home to Mrs. Tetchy.

By mid afternoon I began to lose my patience and I stopped responding when my replies became terse and churlish.

Tomorrow another flurry of e-mails will come in as the Board won't send all 5000 at once and will torture me with a constant trickle.

I think I will create an automatic response which will respond to other automatic responses to an automatic mass e-mail.
Ahh politics, such a touchy feely business.
I have had a taste of it now and I hope my worthy opponents win.


A view from the deck to the west. This is an enormous amount of snow for us Calgarians. We had 10 or so cms the other day and now 15 cms on top of that...and more on the way.

 

 

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

My significant birthday

On the weekend I was treated to a wonderful 'surprise' party for my significant birthday....sorry you will have to guess which one.
B took charge and contrary to all of my beliefs he pulled off a great party. He invited my family and friends, and he had it catered right down to the cake forks.
He hired "Nicole' if you ever need a caterer, hire this person...a party genius. The food was magnificent and it all fell within my food program, did I mention that I have lost 14lbs?

Hey, they really are swans

I saw these swans in a pond just east of Shepard AB. Not 10 minutes from my house. I was driving down the highway from Langdon this  lovely Friday morning.

What I did on my one week Fall Vacation

This has been a crazy week.
Firstly I volunteered to do the timing at a horse event adjacent to the polo grounds. My friend Donna was an entrant with her cart, groom and horse. I don't know how many gates there were but my gate was really cool. An over and under bridge with deep gully turns which could cause spills and cart turning. But didn't.

Donna came in first

Then we were invited out to a football party at Walter's father's place, on the top of Cochrane Hill and we took a tour of the property on shank's pony which nearly killed B. What magnificent jaw dropping views.

Erin said, what if we went to the Icefields tomorrow and I said yeah, that sounds like a good idea and so off we went. Just the two of us. Up at the crack of dawn with lunch in the cooler we were at the Icefields by 1:00p.m.

This is a once in a lifetime experience. Mostly because the cost is prohibitive, $100 for two, and the Athabasca field is dropping and the access to the glacier will be too difficult for the huge cats to manage. I don't know what is happening on the mother glacier, the Columbia, but when I google map it,  seems absolutely massive compared to the little finger of ice that is the Athabaska. Note the little line of intrepid ice walkers in the first picture. We were home 12 hours later, I had a terrible case of road buzz and I had to get up early to show properties, take a couple of listings etc.

And then I was on my way to Spruce Meadows,to meet my sis and her gang and my friend L.
The Sun Newspaper Photographer was there and when he saw Gwennyth he HAD to take her pic. Several shots and poses later....she made it into today's Sun Newspaper on page 25.

Finally on the last day of the week.... I had been called to jury duty and sat in the court room at the crack of dawn with 200 other people waiting to be called for 12 person jury for a MURDER trial.
You can imagine how thrilled I was. Yeah I know, I have my civic duty to do as a member of a free society and all that. But, I didn't really want murder in my head for a month. Yes, the judge said that it would be a very very long trial. (It was a particularly grizzley one and the accused dude was sitting in the dock watching us.) The judge wouldn't accept my plea for exemption because I make my living from commissions, so I waited to be challenged by the crown or the defence and the defence objected and I was sent back to sit with the rabble in the back of the court. Whew! However we all (except the 14 selected) have to go back to the court for another 6 jury selections of 6 people. These trials may only last a week. I won't know anything until I get there.
I will keep you posted.
My family is amazed that they would consider me, judgy judgerson with my libertarian beliefs. I will wear my 'hang'em' tee shirt when I go back. No?

This hare is chillin'

Hot august night or early evening and everyone is belly down in the grass. Best place to be. Just had to be sure to dodge the golf balls. This hare is a baby, the grass is still green all around and the carrots are growing in the garden. Life is good. I don't care who eats what now. The crazy designer carrots seeds I put in this year were a disappointment, they were only to grow to the size of a marble but the package didnt say that they were also as hard as a marble. Bunnies don't care.

Family connection

partytime getting ready for the party

Gwynneth, Bethany and Shelley



a feast that worked out surprisingly well

Jason and Bethany...she was quite alert for a while.

Little Miss B. This was her first big party. At least the first one that she told she had been to

Bethany getting a cuddle from Erin

Walter hiding behind his pink cupcake phone.

Sanding the patio. Hey we had to get the labourer from somewhere so we put her to work.

Me and Some Friends of Mine

At Ptarmigan on the Highwood Pass

Maggie going on 30.



Endless wrestling, these two were deserted by their mother and have ingratiated themselves into the human domain.
Couldnt be becaused they are so darned cute.

He looks so much like my Ginger.

A day with the Girls

It was a sunny hot day and apparently the hat was essential

Until the new skirt appeared and hat was off

This series of pictures cracked me up. She was watching her first Disney Winnie the Pooh and Tiger movie. I am glad no one photographs me when I am watching a movie. So much emotion,,



The trestle bridge

Quite a wonder trip. The weather is wonderful and sunny

Tonight we may get lucky and see the stars on our eay back to Melfort. Right now we are at Bennys bistro in Nipawin. Wow are we impressed. Fantastic food. B is eating baby back ribs and enjoying himself so much he wont look up from his grub.

Our wonderful city on a summer night

I have never before had a camera that would take pictures as amazing as these from the distance that I was from the event and through the hazy moist light conditions that I shot them. It was just a a simple Point and Shoot Nikon Coolpix S9100.
The event was the Calgary Stampede Fireworks show which this year was coordinated with music and lit from 5 locations across the city providing a view to every resident. Well sort of. If you didn't have a deck or a window facing the right way then you had to drive somewhere that did. However we did and from the distance of Heritage Park to Douglasdale and a lucky break between the trees I had this view on 22x Zoom. Amazing. The only thing I had to do is move my finger at lightning speed.

yahoo bull riding

Both definitions of the word 'yahoo' apply.

1. 'Yahoos'--- Drunk fake cowboys attending the bull riding contest held at the Ranchmans' saloon parking lot behind their building which to our good fortune adjoins our office building. Dangling from the structure of the bleachers, rowdy enebriated office drones leered at the women and roared at the bulls and drank way too much beer. We watched the event from our rooftop. I could only stand so much before I left.
2. 'Yahoo'--The only word that doesn't sound slurred when the speaker is drunk.

Serious cowboys. The winners of this event will go to Las Vegas  for the National Bull Riders events after the Stampede.

This is the 100th year of the Calgary Stampede. My family have been going to it for over 90 of those years according to my aunt. Not consecutively but on and off since it began. Both for entertainment and for agricultural shows.

The best score I heard before I left was 84.5

They cynched this bull too tight and his front ankles buckled. They took the ropes off and fooled around with him but he was taking the night off. Eventually the gate was opened and he watched the event for a while lying down and when his friend bucked off a rider, Animal or lazy bones got up and sauntered out with him.

Under a tree

No birds visit for a drink. But maybe the rabbits and squirrels will

Whale watching

Off of the point in Yachats Oregon. We had just had a lovely Italian meal at Heidi's and while walking the dog we spied a whale. Camera shy as all whales are it was hard to get her on film but she obliged somewhat.

Later at our very quaint mid century motor lodge on the water, we shared a beer and a glass of wine some snacks and some sharp cold wind. In our room there was a very quaint metal efficiency kitchen. I thought it was really cute and charming. Louise thought it reminded her of the tiny little kitchen her mother turned out the family meals from in Holland. One picture is the kitchen closed and then the next open to reveal a fridge, stove, cook top, sink, and storage. I think this is where Fisher price got the idea. Even the round glass shower was retro and very mid centry. Built in 1947 and hardly changed. The horse shoe pit and outdoor bowling lane awaits. Great location on the ocean. A fabulous beach.