Vacation Project

We've been on vacation this last week. Of course, what's a vacation without a project. We decided to paint a faux rug on Hans' manroom floor. Well, I made the suggestion, Hans thought it was a great idea. What follows is a series of pictures, step-by-step. We think it turned out great! I can't wait to start the next one.

We put 2 coats of polyurathan on top just to protect it. Now Hans can get on with his workbench and all the rest. He's let me have my fun, now he can hang the sign that says "Girls Not Allowed." I don't mind, as long as he gets at my list of projects soon - - - like the oak bread boxes........ I need two please.

Both Our Girls Are Home!

Jenn arrived Sunday, July 29th and Alia came home last night. Of course, I forgot my camera when picking up Jenn! I'm always so worried that we will be late. Jenn was delivered carefully and safely by Air Canada.

Alia arrived early. Which was a shock, as Alia has been lots of things, but never early.

Sorry that it's such a crappy pictures, but you don't get a chance to take this kind of photo twice.

Courtney came to welcome our girl back home as well.

Both Alia and I are sure that Courtney has grown in height since the last time we saw her. She assures us that she hasn't, hummm, maybe we got shorter? Her baby is due mid October. Lots of babies on the way.

It's nice to have our girls home. First Sunday dinner is this Sunday. Bliss...

Capital EX was Capital Fun

We decided on the weekend that we had better make sure that we got to the fairgrounds and fullfill our promise to Alia to pick up some Oreo fudge.


If you look closely you can see Hans at the bottom of the Giant Swing. We both tried to dare each other into taking a ride, but neither one of us took the bait. This is as close as we got.

This was an interesting "ride"as it was all virtual. These people were just sitting in these comfortable chairs that were bolted to the stage. At the same time they would start screaming or stamping their feet. It was I think more entertaining to watch them then actually participate.
Our first stop was at the Those Little Donuts shop. There are two different types of Little Donuts and this is by far my favourite. That's me, with my $3.50 getting a single bag. From experience I know not to go for the 3 bags for $10. Little Donuts are not good cold. They are just cold donuts.

Hans and I both commented at the same time that we remembered when the Gold Brick was $100,000. Hans said that he remembers when it was an actual brick. You have to remember that he is way older than me.


This is me and Klondike Mike. It's good to see that they have not eradicated all evidence of Klondike Days. There was no panning for gold though. :(
We suddenly spotted this strange guy. I had to run to get a half decent picture. We think he was promoting whoever is in the pavillion this year. Which of course, is alluding me right now.

We ran into Karen and Brian C. once outside and again in the Northlands Agricom. I want to apologise right now to Karen for catching her off guard, but I could not not publish this photo. Look at the woman on Karen's right. It's like she was waiting for someone to come along and take her picture. Don't you hate people like that! They always take a great picture. If it's any consolation Karen, let's face it, other than the perfect smile at the right time, she doesn't hold a candle to you. You are loved!

It took us a while, but we finally found the fudge place. Alia had asked for Oreo. Hummmm. They had every other type except. I assumed, hopefully correctly, that Cookies and Cream is the same as Oreo. However, Hans pointed out that the fudge that we bought is vanilla with chunks of cookie, when Oreo would be chocolate would it not? This is the question that that has been plaguing us ever since.

The chocolate macaroon at the top was my pick. You could probably tell that just by looking at them. I couldn't wait.

On our way out of the Agricom we stopped to listen to the band on the Telus stage. These two girls were dancing in the aisle. It was hard not to at least tap your feet as the music was lively and the musicians were quite good.

Hans was not inspired though. Or so I thought...........

This is Hans dancing. At issue was the bag of fudge. I mean, it's not like you can just put it down. It's fudge.

Luckily for me, I was without fudge. After all we should remember to - Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching.

Big Friday Walk

As life would have it, Richard and I have managed to fit in only one more Big Friday Walk since the last time I posted about them. We decided on a loop more or less, starting at the Muttart Conservatory. If you live in Edmonton or have lived in Edmonton, you'll recognize the path we took.



Our first stop was with the lion guarding the entrance to the new Chinese Pavillion on the north side of the river, it's still in construction mode. Richard would know the name of it. We thought we would be cheesy and have our picture taken rolling the ball in the Lion's mouth.

As you can see, Richard has consented to having his face plastered all over the web. I was going to blur out his face just for fun, but I haven't got that far with Photoshop yet. Welcome to the the masses Richard.


Next stop, everyone will recognise as the Legislative Buildings. Or as we used to call them, King Ralphs Palace. But those days are gone :-(. I'm guessing the new guy doesn't like to pass out cheques to us peons.

I have that, "Thank God we are half way there" look on my face. Appropriate.

This is almost the end of the line. Behind us you can see the city skyline and the dove steel sculpture that was erected when the Pope came to visit. We decided to smile and wave or thumbs up to indicate that we were at the end of the walk. Now I can see that we just look goofy. LOL. That's o.k. I know I am goofy. And Richard, well he just looks goofy.

And here is our animal sighting for the day. We spotted this bunny in the park behind the Legislative Building. He was obviously used to being admired. After having his picture taken, he calmly finished his breakfast.

There will be no Big Friday Walks for a while now. My summer helper is on 3 weeks holidays and then after that I get a weeks holiday. Hans and I will scurry out to the cottage as fast as our little legs can carry us. With any luck, we will continue the Big Friday Walks in the second week in August. Then we should be able to get, hummm, two, maybe three weeks in before it snows. Kidding. Really. Cross your fingers.

Loose on the Streets of Bangkok!

So here they are. Mug shots of Jenn and Alia. If you should happen to see them in Bangkok say hello. Jenn has arrived safe and sound. She was sleeping off her long flight when Alia called, but we'll talk to her next Sunday.

I spent the whole evening Saturday night and early morning Sunday counting backward and forward trying to figure out where in the world Jenn was at any certain time. Alia said that she got to the airport 5 minutes after the flight landed. She waited for 45 minutes before she saw Jenn, by that time she almost had her self convinced that somehow she had missed her and Jenn was now wandering the streets of Bangkok by herself. What to do, what to do!?! She burst into tears when she spotted Jenn in the crowd. Really, really happy to see her. I mean, what sort of phone call home would that have been! lol.

Faux Cats

I have come to the realization that I have quite a collection of cats. I'm not sure how this started, but it seems to be gaining since we moved. I love them all, so, I'm not giving them up no matter what. Some were given to me (I remember which from whom, so that says something). I want to share them with you. These first two (above) were gifts. One from an old boss and one from my friend Janice B. I tell you her initial because I have lots of friends named Janice (Janice B. once pointed this out to me). Janice B. also gave me the cat mug below. Janice, you should know I have had coffee or tea in that mug every day ever since I got it. It is the perfect size. Janice B. loves dogs. I believe I have given her the odd dog thing, but not as nice as these, she has a nack for appropriate gifts.

The sugar bowl was given to me by my invisible friend Richard. If you have read previous posts you will know all about him. Or some stuff. He got this for me on a trip to Africa he took a few years ago. I got two sugar bowls from that trip. He couldn't decide which one he liked best? I like them both, and use them both. He knows I collect honey pots (yet another blog topic!), but Africans don't use honey pots, therefore a person cannot buy a honey pot, even if they wanted to. Which Richard did. Sugar and honey are both sweet, so the bowls suit me just fine.

Aren't these little cats really cute? I have no idea where they came from, but the live in my china cabinet. They are very little and very heavy.

I bought these four recently at HomeSense. I am going to admit right here and now that I am addicted to HomeSense. If I were getting married now, I would just ask for gift certificates to HomeSense. Have I said HomeSense enough? I bought the little sleeping one first, she reminded me of our chocolate point siamese Echo who died about 3 years ago. The other three I found about a month later and of course, they match, so I had to have them.

I got this little cat at the store that I am addicted to. She has the words Kitten Keeper scripted on the basket that is holding all the kittens. Had to have it. Had to. You understand. The cross stitch beside the Kitten Keeper was my Christmas gift from my daughter, Jenn, last year. She made it for me. I love it more, but this blog is about cat things. I am trying to stay on topic here.

And here is my last precious cat thing. Or rather two things. I got these two from my girls for Mother's Day this year. Jenn came up to the lake with them and had dinner with us. Alia, when she phoned that night from Australia asked me what she had gotten me. In cahoots with her sister. Whatever, I got two lovely new cats out of the deal. To me they represent my two daughters. Awwwww.

So, it's true. You can never have too many cats. Who said that? Ohhhh, right, I made it up. It was me!

After 1 Feeding of Miracle Grow Ultra Bloom!

I have discovered that I LOVE container gardening! It makes me crazy happy to see these blooms every morning. Crazy happy is a great place to be.

Friday Walks

For those that know me, it will come to no surpise to remember that I have an invisible friend named Richard. For those who don't know me, let me tell you all about it.

Richard is a retired social studies teacher that I met years and years ago (Richard could tell me what year) at a walking club. The walking club was located at Kinsmen Recreation Centre in the valley. I started going with a co-worker, Anna, but found out pretty quickly that I wanted to walk with Richard, 'cause he was at the front of the class. I like being at the front of the class. Richard and I discovered we had lots in common and became friends. Years later we are still walking. We left the walking club behind after a year or so (Richard would know). Now we meet in the winter at Millenium Place in Sherwood Park and in the summer we meet at various parking lots adjacent to the river valley trails.

Friday walks are different. In the winter, we usually have time for an hour around the track and 20 or 30 minutes in the weight room, 3 days a week. In the summer, generally we meet on my days off, and do a loop of an hour or so. But not so on Fridays. Fridays we go for the BIG WALK. We plan walks that are 14 km or more. The first was a trip to the zoo, from the Kinsmen parking lot. We had done the zoo walk before, but now it's officially part of the Summer Friday Big Walk.

That is a french fry that I am holding. Our reward for walking to the zoo. Richard brings his camera on these Friday walks, takes pictures and then sends me the pictures by email. When I told him that I was going to do a blog of our walks and use the pictures, he was visibly uncomfortable. This is why my picture is here and Richard's is not. This is part of the reason why my kids call Richard my invisible friend.


The second Big Friday Walk that we took was just last Friday. We started at the Strathcona Science Park parking lot and walked to Wayne Gretzky Drive. We stopped at an outlook bench on Hardisy Drive. I think I'm o.k. publishing the following picture. I mean, this could be any one. But let me assure you, it's my invisible friend, Richard.

Our Summer Big Friday Walks usually include some animals or birds. On this walk, we encountered some geese and the baby geese (Richard would know the correct terminology). The zoo walk had other animals. Mostly zoo animals. No pictures of them.

If it looks like these geese are running towards us, that's because they are. They obviously were expecting a little more than a smile and wave. We didn't have anything in our backpacks that we could share, so Richard took a quick picture and we took off at a brisk walk.


The Summer Friday Big Walks are a lovely way to end the week. My knees usually do not like the walks, but generally I ignore their whining. I mean knees are only a couple little parts of a big whole. A couple of Advils and an evening of rest usually does the trick. I am hoping for a long warm summer. Many more Big Friday Walks ahead to look forward to.

It Rained All Night!

We could have cared less about the weather at the lake this weekend. We have mastered the new wood stove, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Not really. We did have a lovely time. Got a bunch of little stuff done. I did ALOT of supervising. ALOT. Just look.

We just need to do a little grouting and the backsplash is done. Hans also got to work on the wainscotting in the hall. Three quarters of the pine was reclaimed from our demolition. We'll only have to buy a couple of packages to finish off.

We even salvaged enough chair rail so we don't have to buy any. I was supervising really well on this one. Well, I did get up to take the picture. I also managed to finish one whole book and start another. Hans (on his breaks) is reading his cousin Rainer's book about touring Europe on his motorbike. It's must be good, 'cause Hans has broken into a grin several times and once or twice laughed out loud. I'll never get to read it though, it's written in German, and even though I know how to ask for a little cake and coffee, I never did master the reading part. I'll have to settle for the odd translation. He didn't finish his book though. Not enough breaks?

The cats enjoyed the weekend as well. Ninja comes willingly, she doesn't even go hide when her carrier comes out of the closet. Phoebe can read a calendar as every other day of the week, so comes down from her closet perch at around 3pm, but on Friday, she doesn't budge. After I wrangle Ninja into her carrier, I have to get out the ladder and climb up to the top shelf in the laundry room and physically take her down. This time she grabbed her blankie and would not let it go. It's a large blanket, she sleeps on it up there. You can imagine me trying to undo each claw out of the blankie so I could push her into her carrier. It's a battle that I always win, but she tries every time. Once she is in the carrier, she promptly falls asleep while Ninja stays awake for the whole journey, huge eyes starring at us from the back seat.

Once there, they really enjoy themselves. Well, they do what cats do best. Sleep.

These are Hans and my chairs, by the way.

Ninja was awake for part of the day though. She kept us amused as she always does. This is her finding a hiding place on the couch. It's so cute that they forget about their tails.

After she was "discovered" under the cushions, she had that mad look that cats get. You know, they lay down their ears, back on their heads. Either they are mad, or are thinking they are great hunters when they get this look. She was mad at me after for pulling the cushion away. She put her ears back and refused to look at me. She did catch a couple of bugs though. So that makes her a great hunter too.