Resolutions 2017

Well, here's to a new resolution for this year - or two resolutions, actually.

1. To work on my plastic canvas projects at least once a week, and to (eventually) scan and post all the patterns here in a new blog (I still have to think up an appropriate name for the blog).

2. To post a new message in any of my blogs at least once a month, preferably once a week (or more if I can manage it).

We'll see how well I do.

  -  Oh  -  and Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas Letter 2016

November 30, 2016

Greetings to all,

This past year has gone by much too fast! I can hardly believe it’s almost December. I hope everyone out there is happy and healthy.

I’m enjoying my car immensely, and have put about 23,000 kilometres on it already. Well... 60 km, five times a week adds up pretty quickly... and two trips down to Vancouver and back, which added about 1650. It is soooo nice to have a reliable car.

I also took out a loan at the bank and paid off my credit card debts, and now just need to pay off the loan – but as it is at a much lower interest rate, it won’t take too long to do that. (Oh... and I’ve discovered I like hot flashes!)

Sylvia is doing well – very well in fact. She has a new boyfriend. His name is Brian Baker and he is a truck driver. Very nice man, smart, and a good sense of humour. They will be getting married on January 7, 2017.  Cheeto, Sylvia’s cat, is quite taken with Brian.  He loves sitting on his lap.

Antoon is very busy in the community. He is on the executive of the Food Bank and the Chamber of Commerce, and he is active as a tutor for the local Literacy and Learning program. During the summer he works at the local Ice Cream Parlour, and occasionally works at Sam’s Pizza and Rib House, delivering pizza’s.

Wim still has his paper routes and is busy with several groups – the Senior’s, Crime Stoppers, and the Chamber of Commerce where he is on the executives, and several other groups as well.

Merina lives in Slocan with her daughter Liz and Liz’s husband, Sam. Liz is very into music and has recorded some. Check out her website - http://akefamusic.com – if you want to hear some of her work.

Robert and his wife, Loretta, still live in Vancouver.  Loretta’s parents are still with us and also live in Vancouver, so they will likely stay there as long as they are still around.

If any of you are on FaceBook - https://www.facebook.com/teragram.nebuoh is my page and you can find links to most of the rest of us under my ‘friends’ list in FaceBook. If you are on it, but aren’t on the list, send me a ‘friend’ request!

Lots of love to all, from all of us here in Canada.

Christmas letter 2015

Here is a link to this year's Christmas Letter.  Couldn't figure out how to upload a PDF to this blog.

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Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

Dreams are funny things....

Yesterday, June 1, was mom's birthday, so I guess it was fitting that I dreamt about mom last night.
The dream started of silly enough (as most dreams do) with me trying to get to the chiropractor's office which had moved to a totally strange place and turned out to be closed when I got there.  Then mom showed up and got in the car with me (with her the driver) and said she wanted to go somewhere special.
We arrived at a location that had some tall, office like buildings and nice landscaping.  One building had what looked like a large bay window showing bookshelves with all sorts of interesting books.  Mom said this was the place, opened up the window (dreams - what can you expect!) and we both managed to squeeze into the small space.  The window closed and the whole thing went down like an elevator.
When it stopped, it opened out to a huge 2-story high room lined with ceiling high bookshelves filled with books of all sizes and descriptions, and lots of people of all ages wandering about.  Mom went off in one direction (probably looking for craft books), and I in another.
I wandered through several rooms, ending up with two that I distinctly remember.
The second to last room was barely lit at all, had a bunch of (mostly) kids in it, and they were about to watch a movie.  In this room the shelves were full, but mostly with all sorts, sizes and colours of bottles.  I sat down to see what the movie would be.  Turned out to be one of the Harry Potter movies.  Having seen all of them... I got up and left through a curtain, behind which was another door to the last room.
Here were the expected books again, but also some commotion, as there was a small dog chasing a cat, and several kids and adults running after both the dog and cat.  I patted the dog, which distracted it long enough for the cat to get away, then looked around to see if  I could find a book to read.
Instead of a book, I noticed a strange object jutting out from one of the walls.  The object was covered in a cloth that sort of looked like a Persian rug, but was very thin like silk.  The object looked remarkably like the snout of something.....  I went over to it to examine it and stroked the cloth (it was very pretty, but now that I'm awake, of course, I can't remember the exact design) and the 'snout' moved!
It turned out it was the nose of a dragon that was behind the wall, and he could only just get his nose into the room.  I awoke around that point, in the middle of giving the dragon a very good nose-rub (and he was purring).
Of course, when I was properly awake, Cleo (my puss) was beside my pillow, purring, so I guess that's where that part of the dream came from.
All in all, a very nice dream - thanks mom, for leading me to a friendly dragon!

Going for Walks

Every so often, I'll go along with Antoon and Wim when they walk the dogs.   Here are a few pictures from a few of those walks....

Nearing the end of a walk, Charlotte takes a break in the shade while the rest of us (me, mostly) catches up.

Wim, picking up a stick to throw for the dogs, who are both watching intently.

Charlotte - posing nicely for the camera.

Snow Storm - Jan 4-5-6, 2015!

Wow - what a lot of snow!  Kamloops is just centimetres away from breaking the record for most snowfall in a single event... and the snow is still falling!

It started Sunday, and was quite heavy at times.  Going to work wasn't too bad, but it had only gotten started at that point.  By 7pm Sunday night, when my shift was over and I had to drive home again, it was a different story!

Driving home was a little nerve-wracking.  The plows had hardly done anything yet, so the snow was thick on the road.  The posted speed limit is 100 kmh, but my top speed was 60.  Didn't dare go any faster.  Luckily, the plows hadn't blocked off Lilley Road to badly, there was one lane's worth relatively open for me to get down my road and then into the driveway.  When I got home I called Sylvia to let her know I was home safe (she worked the same schedule as myself on Sunday), only to find that even though she lived just a few blocks from work, she had to drive back to the store, park there, and WALK home.  The snow plows had plowed the highway (#24) and blocked her street off with a waist high mound of the stuff!

Today I worked at the Star/Journal, and on my way to work I took the following pictures:

 
My car is the one half under the trees.  You can see it has some more snow on it that fell during the night.  Wim's car is the one buried.  The path just to the left of Wim's car is the path he just shoveled for me to get out to the road by (in order to get to the Star/Journal office).

There's Wim, digging away. (He is such a nice brother!)

That's my left hand - held out at about waist height - even with the top of the berm of snow that the snow plow left all around the block where the office is... it was tricky getting in!

Armour Mountain... it looks a little hazy because it was still snowing as I was taking these pictures.

The big tree in the middle is hiding most of our house... you can just see it poking out on the right of the tree.
Tomorrow, Wim and Antoon have both promised to help make sure I can get out of the driveway in time to get to work.  My shift starts at 8:30am, so, given the road conditions, I need to allow for twice the usual time to get to work.  So instead of leaving just after 8am (it normally takes 20 minutes), I want to leave about 7:30am.  (It's supposed to stop snowing some time tomorrow.)  Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I'll go.........

Drive safely, everyone!

Christmas Day (2014)

Well, Christmas Day was lots of fun.  Sylvia and Gary came over to have Christmas Dinner with us.  Here is a picture of the table loaded with good food:

in the centre - brown rice with raisins and apples, then clockwise around from the bright orange dish on the left... yams, caramelled carrots, roasted cauliflower, gravy, roast duck (yum!), a tropical fruit medley, waffles, and roasted squash.

Before dinner, Wim and I walked the dogs, Kidu and Charlotte:

Kidu is the one closest to the camera.

Then, while Antoon finished baking waffles...

the rest of us played some Ramsey's Rage and Aggravation, and snacked on a cheese and meat tray (and almost spoiled our supper... but oh it was yummy!).

Puss (Cleo) had a good day too, sitting on Wim's lap briefly (Sylvia got a photo of that with her cellphone), and even letting Gary pet her!

We ended the evening with taking a group photo.  Here it is, Wim, Antoon and I, standing, with Sylvia and Gary sitting.