...And a Seed Was Planted...

Well, there hasn't been much to post about lately, but I feel badly for not posting. I think I decided to post today because the last time I posted I wrote about my first cookbook dinner, and tonight I'm making my second! I plan on making a chili that is supposed to go in a bread bowl(which would be yummy), but I don't have bread bowls...I didn't buy any, and it's kind of a last-minute decision to make this tonight. I planned on making a nice dinner for Duane's birthday tomorrow, but I've decided on something else for that instead, and am cooking this tonight instead. I wouldn't want to mess up dinner on his birthday, and for some reason there may be more pressure tomorrow as opposed to tonight. So tonight it is!
Today was spent running birthday errands. It was brother-in-law Joe's birthday two weeks ago, and Duane and I have been slow at sending his birthday gift/card to Saskatchewan...so that needed to be done. I also went shopping for Duane's gift. Thing is, that boy kept ruining everything I planned on getting for him by making suggestions all the time!! Grrr! Every suggestion he made happened to be something I planned on getting him! Now I guess he'll just have to wait and see what I picked out of his "list" of suggestions.
I've also spent time looking for work online today. I really need to find a new job soon so we can start saving for our new house! I don't know who of you who read this blog knows about our impending move. Duane and I are planning a move to Salmon Arm, BC in the near future. We are very excited about this and how it will affect our future! We hope to buy a house right away, but we may have to rent as housing isn't necessarily in our mortgage budget at this time....that is, unless I find work here, temporarily, that pays more and is full time. We also need to talk to our landlords to find out what their plans are for this property, and whether they will be upping the rent at the end of our lease, or if we can stay on another 6 months. We hope to move to Salmon Arm somewhere in the range of 6 months to a year, but possibly sooner if the rent here is going up out of our price range. We'll just have to wait and see!
We are heading to Salmon Arm this coming long weekend for a vacation with Kevan and Leah before work commences in September, and plan to look at a house or two while we are there...I am very excited and have been slightly obsessed with looking at houses online in the last few weeks!
All of this because a seed was planted when I was in Abbotsford in July...hanging out with Stacey, Carene, and Dave...and it was half-jokingly suggested that we all move to Salmon Arm so we can all live near each other again.
What a great seed to plant...even greater that it is coming to fruition!

Conjecture Artist

I'd like to take a few moments to thank Leah for her wonderful blog on conjecturing and introducing me to the wonderful world of conjecturism (I figured if Leah was making up words on her blog I would follow suit!). Conjecturism, for those of you who didn't read her blog, is the same as BSing.

After learning about conjecturism I believe I am a conjecturist at heart myself (a.k.a. a BS artist). It's worked for me thus far and my strategy in this area is to go into every conversation with confidence...people will believe your conjecturism if you believe it yourself, but it you show the slightest bit of doubt in yourself people will pull out the conjecturism flag!

My suggestion, if you're going to practice conjecturism and become a professional conjecturist, work on your poker face and on your self confidence!

Duane

Check out my first cookbook dinner!

Woohoo! Ok, I'm not going to boast 'cause really, it doesn't LOOK worth boasting over. It honestly looks like I cooked worms and chicken over rice. YUCK. But in all reality, I cooked almond chicken stirfry. I love stirfry, and I loved this particular creation(and so did Duane...success!). And it happens to be called almond chicken, but it lacked a key ingredient...namely the almonds. Yeah, I don't really think I like nuts in my stirfry...and I'm not a huge fan of almonds in the first place. Really, I'm not a fan of nuts. Period. In anything, and especially not in stirfry OR ice cream. SO WRONG! Ok, yeah, I'm done ranting. Here's a picture of my first cookbook dinner: Almond Chicken Stirfry (a.k.a. worms and rice) Looks appetizing, eh? *wink* Kinda looks like I added some green grubs in there for color factor...they're just pieces of fried celery...honest.

Our weekend of wedding and sailing in small-town Alberta

Quite honestly, there isn't much to post about. Nothing jaw-dropping or awe-inspiring. It was a fun weekend spent with friends...like many other fun weekends spent with friends :) The first stop of our weekend was spent in Three Hills for Angela Bartsch's wedding at her parent's place. It was quite lovely; the weather was great! I think the forecast called for rain, but it's great that it didn't since the ceremony was on the lawn! It was a simple, no frills, super pink wedding. Look at the pics, and you'll see what I mean :) As most of you know, pink is most definitely NOT my favorite color, so to me, it was a bit overdone. Still lovely. The ceremony was short, 20 minutes, and almost without a hitch. Shall I explain? Aside from the bride's aisle-walking music starting about 5 times at the wrong spot, the ring bearer and flower girl didn't know where to walk(apparently the white aisle-runner wasn't obvious enough)! They did eventually find their way down the aisle, and the pink dressed little lady finally did start dropping her rose petals about two-thirds of the way to the front. As the vows were being said, all was going well...until the pastor asked for the rings. Dustin passed his to the pastor and it was placed ontop of the book pages(which the pastor was reading from). Then Ange reached for hers from the maid of honor and placed hers in the same spot. Then the pastor turned back to the front(with the rings sitting on his book). I imagine, all of you being as keen as I know you are, you can all figure out what happened next. Yes, the bride's ring fell from the pastor's book right through the platform they were standing on! Being that it was a gazebo, it made it very easy for the ring to roll through the cracks. Everyone laughed, and after a moment of sheer surprise, Ange removed her engagement ring, carefully placed it in the pastor's hand(after again trying to put it on the book!), and went on with the giving of rings :) I suppose I can't really say that was the only glitch in the day, because at the reception afterwards, which was also held on the lawn...there came many dark clouds, and eventually a storm. A LARGE storm. Torrential winds and rain, hail the size of a nickel, and lightning and thunder. It was quite a scene...all the guests huddled under the canvas tent like a bunch of circus animals at the Big Top. Mind you, it was a leaky canvas tent, so there were many clusters of people all trying to avoid the leaky spots. At one point, the wind was so strong, it knocked out the poles of one of the other awnings set up over the food table(thank goodness there was no food out at that point)! A bunch of guys ran over to take the other poles out, and at that point, weren't sure what to do with it...so they all walked with it over to the canvas tent so as to stay dry on their way back to "safety".(see photo...the sky was really dark, but I had to edit the picture to be able to see the people underneath)
After the hail stopped, Duane and I(along with many others)made a mad dash for our car. Being under a high structure in a storm wasn't really our idea of fun...lightning was a real threat. We decided not to attend the dance that was to happen afterwards, as we were heading to Dalum(near Drumheller)for the night, and didn't want to be out later than necessary driving in the storm. The rain was non-existent for most of the rest of the trip to Dalum, and the sky made for some great photos!
We made it into Dalum safely an hour or so later, and in time to see off the last of the birthday party guests for Mr. Hendrickson. From one party to another! We just hung out for a bit and told of the fast, stormy wedding, played with the kittens and eventually headed to bed. We opted not to attend church in the morning, as the one on the premises wasn't until 11, and the other was 40 kms away and at 9AM! Either way, we wouldn't have had much time at the lake for sailing before all the speed boats and church-goers arrived. We were happy to be there when we were. We had a nice grassy spot right by the shore. The weather was beautiful; nice and warm! Everyone went sailing at least once, but me. I was quite indifferent this time around. I quite enjoyed my time on shore soaking up the sun and reading a good book. I did, however, take some time away(with some convincing)to play with the frisbee and the football for a bit. I also got a bit of a sunburn, even after applying sunscreen...I guess it wasn't enough.
Sailing day didn't really include much for story-telling...it was just a nice, relaxing day of rest.
Though there was something Duane and Leah experienced in the line-up for ice cream, but I don't know the details well enough to tell them. Something about a rude woman buying ice cream for umpteen children and a rude adolescent boy who acted on his annoyance( of waiting in line too long) by butting in line ahead of Duane and Leah. I think the two of them would have liked to wring some necks...or maybe shout some expletives, but thought better of it *wink*
And that's about it.
(I'll add a post of purely prairie photos from our drive...and maybe some from Whitewood...after I size them.)

Annapolis...2 Hours I'll Never Get Back

Tonight is movie review night! Here's another poor film you should NEVER watch

To set the background for the movie, Annapolis is the school that prospective naval officers go to in the United States to develop into the leaders of tomorrow's Navy. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think Navy is ships...BIG, BAD, POWERFUL SHIPS!

Sadly, Annapolis is not a movie about the navy, it is not a movie about ships, in fact, it's not really a movie about anything! The premise of the film is a long-shot boat builder gets the opportunity to go to Annapolis to become a naval officer but it's clear that he's not smart enough to be there. Due to his lack of knowledge and the fact that he made enemies with his commanding officer on the first day, he manages to continually get his group doing extra push-up and other forms of "training hell" through his stupidity. One day he has a chance to box with the commanding officer, looses, and at the end throws a "low-blow" while the officer is not looking and gets reprimanded. His punishment, not being able to box in the yearly tournament. So now, about half way through the film we find out that the movie is in fact about boxing! WHAT!!!

The problem with Annapolis is there is very little character development, the idea behind the film is rather stupid, and in the end, our "hero" does not really do anything other than graduate to the next year. Not once did I have any connection with any of the characters, especially the main character, and did not want him to succeed in his boxing quest. One of his "naval" trainers is a young, attractive officer who clearly would not be able to do any of the drills that were being run through the movie, and it was obvious that her role in the film was merely for sex appeal and the scandalous base-romance that neither could embrace due to rules and regulations. I won't ruin the ending for you, if that's what you'd call it, but it was disappointing to put it mildly.

Annapolis, a naval location. A very misleading title for a film where the only ship we see is the one he works during its construction for 3 minutes at the beginning of the film and takes a tour of with his class for 2 minutes near the end of the film! Not once are they on the water, not once do they shoot a gun or blow anything up!

Four final words...Don't Waste Your Time!

D

Talladega Nights: Not the Ballad They Claim

We went out tonight to go see a movie called Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with some friends and it was a real letdown. While it had its moments (there were parts that were genuinely hilarious), there was content in the movie that just turned me off of wanting to watch it.

The film is about a Nascar driver, Ricky Bobby, played by Will Farrel, who believes that either you're in first place or you're in last place. He rises to fame as a great driver, has a trophy wife, two kids, and lives by the seat of his pants. He's not a smart guy, in fact he's an idiot, but he's got lots of money. A driver from the F-1 circut in Europe, a Frenchman played by Sacha Baron Cohen, decides he needs a new challenge and gets into Nascar to race against Ricky Bobby. In their first race together Ricky Bobby ends up having a crash, he looses his edge, and his wife leaves him for his best friend because he's not a winner. As the movie goes on his estranged father helps him get his edge back and he enters the final race of the season against his new European opponent, the Frenchman, who just happens to be gay.

Like I said, the movie has some funny parts but there was a lot of content that did not need to be in there and it was extremely offensive.

First and foremost is the blasphemy when he's praying. It drew a laugh from the group of us when he started but it continued to go on and on, making fun of the name of Jesus and of God. It was not funny the second time or any subsequent time and there were a lot of subsequent times.

Secondly was the gay racer. Ok, pop culture says being gay is ok, and I don't agree with that, but they took it to the extreme in this movie with men kissing passionately on the screen on more than one occasion (including Farrel and Cohen at the end for a shot that lasted well over 5 seconds). It was disgusting and I do not understand why anyone would find that funny based on the movie or want to watch that. There were also other "gay" moments in the film that could have easily been cut out of the movie and would have enhanced it in my opinion.

The third key issue I had with the film is the way Ricky Bobby's children acted. They swore and they had no respect for anyone (including their parents, their grandfather, or anyone else they met) and it was disgraceful. One positive side of the movie is that once the children moved in with their grandmother (Ricky Bobby's mother) after his wife left him for his best friend, she taught them manners and they became well-behaved and respectful kids.

All in all, the movie was a big disappointment. It highlights a lot of things that are wrong with our society and makes it funny so people don't really think that there's anything wrong at all. The previews for the movie excluded the above issues, which is why we wanted to go see it, but had we known what the actual content of the movie was, we would have never gone.

My recommendation, don't support this type of film and don't waste your time watching it.

D

Check it out!

Hey everyone! I'm quickly writing this update post to let you all know that I had some pictures added to a couple of old blogs from when I was in Abby in July. If you'd like to check out the posts called "Demolition Man...er...Woman" and "Shopping Day", I have some pics that go along with what I did that day :) As well, Duane is currently in the other room posting about our last hiking trip, and consequently also our first hike after doing the West Coast Trail. Somewhat grueling...BLAH! Still made it to the summit though! YAY US! And yes, I realize that we haven't yet posted about the West Coast Trail trip...just seems like so much work. Being creative and all that...right. I'll leave it to Duane...just like I'm leaving the movie night we had a couple days ago to him to post about! CRAZY!!
Have a great weekend everyone...we're going sailing!

Yamnuska Hiking Adventure...How an Easy Trail Can Become Difficult

It was our first hike after doing the West Coast Trail and we decided to go out and run up Yamnuska with Kevan and Leah. We left Calgary at about 1pm, arrived at Yamnuska, and were hiking by about 2:30pm. For those of you who have never climbed this particular mountain, it starts out with a pretty good up-hill push until you get to the "base" of where people do a lot of rock climbing. From there you're above the treeline and it's all mountain hiking.

Our first stop for photographs was at this point where there's a nice outcropping of rock that has a beautiful background of mountain valley and behind it, the open prairie. Karyn's had her picture taken on this rock before but we got a "group" shot here as well, courtesy of Kevan Wilkie Photography.While we were taking pictures we found a couple of habituated "chippies" as Karyn likes to call them. They were very friendly so they came up nice and close. Upon further examination we found out that one was a tripod, not a quadropod (is that a word???). If any of you know Karyn, she loves to take pictures of small rodents so she snapped about 100 of Tripod for everyone to see.We deviated a little from the trail once we got above the treeline to hike on the side of the mountain for some spectacular scenery and photo opportunities. Leah, as per norm, was WAY ahead of us (the woman is a machine!) and blazing a trail for the rest of us though the rocks.If you look closely in the picture below you can see the rock that Karyn had her feet dangling off...Good thing she's not scared of heights!!!On Yamnuska there is one point I like to call the crux move. It involves a chain and some free climbing (if you want). I knew approximately where this was, but apparently not it's exact location as we got to a spot where it was impassible. There was a group just across the way climbing up what looked like a little chimney and they were yelling at us "use the chain!" I was thinking "Thanks captain obvious! I've done this mountain...TWICE!" I had always remembered the chain being a little lower so I figured it was just a little below the place we were so we climbed down about 50 feet (back-tracking of course!) and I ended up getting onto a ledge and did some scouting...It ended in a 50 foot drop-off and no chain. Not the right spot. So, we went a little further back looking for the trail with little to no success. I ended up REALLY backtracking, dropped about 100 feet in elevation, found the trail, and we hiked back up to the spot we were at originally. Lo and behold, there was the chain about 10 feet above where we were standing! Urg!!!We summited the mountain and took a couple shots. Yamnuska was Karyn's first summit but we didn't get a picture that time so we made up for it this time!Now, what's best about Yamnuska is the scree. There are few mountains where you will find such wonderful scree skiing as here you get to drop well over a thousand vertical feet basically running straight down, bouncing this way and that (for those of you who don't know scree, think lots and lots of little tiny rocks on the side of a mountain that you would sink into about 3-4 inches when you step on it. Now think of that on a slope and what would happen!).

We went down a little far on the first section of scree and ended up doing a little trail-blazing (across rock...ooh, adventureous!) to get back to the main trail. The sky was a magnificent blue and made the contrast against the mountain something that was truely photo-worthy.The hike ended with another good scree slope and some very sore knees! We went back to Airdrie for some dinner at Kevan and Leah's, some beer, and some good times!

Until our next adventure!

The Best Sloppy Joes Ever!

Wow...they were the best?! He told me they were really good...but the best...sweet! I even forgot to drain the grease off the meat after I fried it...EWW! *LOL* They were pretty good though.
Here's the recipe if anyone cares:(from a dear family friend we call Grandma Hazel)

Cook 1 1/2 lbs. of ground beef with a chopped onion, 1 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper until meat is brown. Don't forget to drain the grease!
With a fork, blend in 3 tbsp. flour. Add 1/2 tsp. worchestershire sauce, 1 cup ketchup and 1 1/2 cups of water. Simmer and stir for 20 minutes.
Serve over dinner buns(or hamburger buns...whatever works!)

And tonight, I plan on trying something new...cooking out of a cookbook! YIKES!! All these cookbooks expect me to have things like coriander, sherry or water chestnuts sitting around the house! Oh yeah, and a lot of the recipes ask for oyster sauce...what the?? Gross. I'll fill you in on how dinner turned out!
I also really need to post about our recent mountain hike...where we met a friendly little fellow we fondly call "Tripod".

I'm Turning Into A Wimp

Well, it's been a long couple days as Wednesday evening I was at the doctor and he suggested I get some blood work done. It was about 6pm and when I was finished there he told me I needed to fast for 12 hours and then go in Thursday morning to get my blood drawn. Well, I was pretty hungry already so decided to eat and then fast and get the blood work done in the evening on Thursday. So Karyn made me the best sloppy joe's ever and then I fasted...and I fasted...and I fasted. For those of you who know me, I'm the type of person who likes (and needs) to eat or else I get tired and cranky. Well, it was a long day at work yesterday and by the time I got home it had been over 12 hours since my last meal. On the way to get the blood work done I was reading the back of the form and it said fasting for a minimum of 12 hours and a maximum of 16 hours...I was going on 17.5 hours so when I did get to the lab we basically went right back home because it was too long. All that fasting for nothing!

This morning I went back in for the blood work by myself. I got the blood drawn and right as the "nurse" took the needle out I felt flushed. This happened when I watched Karyn get blood drawn a couple months ago. I was fine until I saw her blood squirt into the vile and then I had the same reaction. That time I went for a walk to get water myself and that was a really bad idea. This time I told the nurse that I'd need about a minute or two and kindly asked her to go get me a cup of water...and then another cup of water! Two minutes later I was just fine and dandy.

I had a revelation when I got home. Usually at night I have trouble falling asleep. When I had my blood drawn all I wanted to do was sleep. Connect the dots here people...I should get a vile of blood drawn every night just before I go to sleep and then I'll have a nice peaceful rest without having to lay there for 20-30 minutes before I konk out! Perfect!

Anyway, that's my story. I hope none of you think me less of a man!

D

Why won't this thing show my post!

My computer is doing freaky things. Really. Won't recognize my camera, therefore I can't download my trip pics, won't post my new entry on the main page but shows it in August archives(what?!), and won't do a multitude of other things. Duane thinks it is close to death. It will be a very sad day. I don't have money for a new one, and Duane keeps his laptop at work with him all day...so I can't really use it when I'm home and he's not. And if he is home, he's more than likely using it! Blah! I'm really only writing this to see if it will show up on the main page or show up with the other one in August archives...weird.
I honestly will get around to posting about our trips as soon as Duane and I can get to it together...we'll have to use his pics and his computer to do it since mine is being stupid...

Still learning...

I've learned a few things about my husband in the last couple weeks. By no means does that mean I am anywhere close to figuring him out, but who really does completely figure another person out? I did learn, however, that his feelings get hurt and that there are things that I do that bother him! Who knew?! There were a couple blogs awhile ago that kinda upset him. I feel terribly that I wrote about things he'd rather I didn't. I honestly didn't think it'd upset him like it did. So if anyone else took the emails the way he did, that's why I'm writing this post. I want to apologize for making my husband sound like a cheap control freak and that I can't do anything without his permission. That's not the way it is at all. He also told me that it bothers him when I call him "cheap". I don't mean it in a bad way, it's just the way it comes out, and I guess the way I posted it makes it sound negative. I need to call him "money conscious" instead of "cheap". I sometimes forget that I'm not Paris Hilton or Ivanka Trump who have unlimited amounts of cash to spend at IKEA, etc. ...though I don't think that either of them would ever shop there! HA! But yeah, I need to be more conscientious about what I post, and a little more thoughtful too...when it comes to writing about my dear, caring, thoughtful, brilliant husband!! We are blessed to have what we do have, and I need to remember that instead of always searching for more :)

It's a GIRL!

I'm happy to report that my dear friends, Karen and Graham Murison, have a baby girl! I am not so happy to report that I was leaving town when she was born...beautiful, stubborn child! :) Karen and I talked about that...the fact that she'd probably come after I left town. Funny enough, we also talked about how embarassing it would be to have your water break in the grocery store...hmmm...that also happened! Though not as embarassing as we had discussed, it still happened. I'm quite glad, for her sake, that it didn't happen as we described it, 'cause that really would've been embarassing..."can I get a wet clean-up on Aisle 12?" Dang, that'd suck. Since you're all wondering, here are the details: (and mom and baby are doing great!)
Name: Ava Grace Murison
Time: 6:07 am
Date: August 3, 2006
Weight: 7lbs 8oz
And she's flippin' cute!! Lots of dark hair, just like Graham :) I guess that's all for this post! Here are a few pics.