26.8.06
90 candles
a little while back my quirky half cousin in law in law twice removed in both directions named ann had a birthday party for her mother, affectionately known as nana. this was a big affair with lots of friends and relatives and LOTS of food. being quirky, anne decided that she wanted 90 lit candles on a huge black forest cake. she also decreed that i should orchestrate the candle lighting.
my first order of business was to attempt to convince ann to go with the traditional 9 larger candles as a safety concious standin for a 90 candle fire hazard. having failed that my second order of business was to comandeer a fire extinguisher and then to disconnect the smoke detectors.
after enlisting the help of several innocent bystanders including my lost lost 2nd cousin twice removed named garrett (i'm just making this relative stuff up, i have no idea how to correctly identify how these people are related to me) we lit the cake from the inside out and transported it out the to party. 90 large candles throw off some serious heat and i actually lost a lot of my arm hair. it was so hot that it was difficult to blow out b/c the candles would spontaneously reignite from the heat of their neighbours.
anyways, with a little help from garrett and myself nana was able to extinguish the cake before the blaze got out of hand and we all ate ridiculous amounts of food, blew bubbles and joined in the wackiness.
my first order of business was to attempt to convince ann to go with the traditional 9 larger candles as a safety concious standin for a 90 candle fire hazard. having failed that my second order of business was to comandeer a fire extinguisher and then to disconnect the smoke detectors.
after enlisting the help of several innocent bystanders including my lost lost 2nd cousin twice removed named garrett (i'm just making this relative stuff up, i have no idea how to correctly identify how these people are related to me) we lit the cake from the inside out and transported it out the to party. 90 large candles throw off some serious heat and i actually lost a lot of my arm hair. it was so hot that it was difficult to blow out b/c the candles would spontaneously reignite from the heat of their neighbours.
anyways, with a little help from garrett and myself nana was able to extinguish the cake before the blaze got out of hand and we all ate ridiculous amounts of food, blew bubbles and joined in the wackiness.
25.8.06
My Sispiration!!!
Thank you sistas!
You inspired me to make this . . . .
My sister in laws Shareen, Julie and Carlynne are three great girls! Yesterday I received inspiration to make biscotti and as I was making it I realized that I could attribute one part of the biscotti to at least one of them. I know you are all shocked and amazed, how could that be you say? Well let me tell you.
1. Shareen - told me on the phone about a month ago that you could MAKE (at home!)biscotti. This past weekend her and Julie decided to make homemade biscotti.
2. Julie - Talking on the phone to Julie yesterday she told me that she was in the midst of making biscotti. It sounded like a great idea so she e-mailed me the recipe. I was looking at it and realized I did not have orange zest but really wanted to make biscotti, here is where Carlynnne comes in. (I know you are all waiting with baited breath here)
3.Carlynne - Carlynne was supposed to come visit us the other day after hiking the West Coast Trail but after a bus and ferry fiasco she could not make it. I had bought some cranberries and white chocolate to make scones but I decided to make some white chocolate cranberry biscotti.
So ta da, here is the final product. Mmmmmmmm, tasty!
You inspired me to make this . . . .
My sister in laws Shareen, Julie and Carlynne are three great girls! Yesterday I received inspiration to make biscotti and as I was making it I realized that I could attribute one part of the biscotti to at least one of them. I know you are all shocked and amazed, how could that be you say? Well let me tell you.
1. Shareen - told me on the phone about a month ago that you could MAKE (at home!)biscotti. This past weekend her and Julie decided to make homemade biscotti.
2. Julie - Talking on the phone to Julie yesterday she told me that she was in the midst of making biscotti. It sounded like a great idea so she e-mailed me the recipe. I was looking at it and realized I did not have orange zest but really wanted to make biscotti, here is where Carlynnne comes in. (I know you are all waiting with baited breath here)
3.Carlynne - Carlynne was supposed to come visit us the other day after hiking the West Coast Trail but after a bus and ferry fiasco she could not make it. I had bought some cranberries and white chocolate to make scones but I decided to make some white chocolate cranberry biscotti.
So ta da, here is the final product. Mmmmmmmm, tasty!
22.8.06
niko is 1
niko turned 1 last week. he has been living here for 11 months now. its crazy to think of him less than a year ago being too small to get up or down the stairs.
17.8.06
Home
Well I was just home for a week visit and I had a wonderful time. I know Marc desperately missed me though. :) I was extremely busy visiting family and friends and ate A LOT of food! Somehow that always happens when one goes home. Eating out, going out, people having you over and they happen to have a lot of food and I just kept eating and eating and I gained two pounds. How come it is so easy to gain two pounds but so hard to lose it? Marc and I did do a run up tea pot hill last night so hopefully my two pounds gained are on their way to being lost. Here are some pictures from my trip. A couple of hilights:
1. Going to Katherine and Chris's farewell BBQ and seeing friends that I hadn't seen for a while and then blacklight bowling!
2. Having a reunion of sorts with my youth group girls! It had been ten years since we had all been together and we have all gone our separate ways in life but it felt like no time had passed! Great idea Lisa!
3. Seeing friends new babies. It made me want one soon. (but not too soon)
4. And of course visiting with my family!
I know this is quite a lot so don't feel like you have to look at them all, there were just so many good ones! (I say this at the bottom after you have looked at them all. Hee hee!)
Kylie
1. Going to Katherine and Chris's farewell BBQ and seeing friends that I hadn't seen for a while and then blacklight bowling!
2. Having a reunion of sorts with my youth group girls! It had been ten years since we had all been together and we have all gone our separate ways in life but it felt like no time had passed! Great idea Lisa!
3. Seeing friends new babies. It made me want one soon. (but not too soon)
4. And of course visiting with my family!
I know this is quite a lot so don't feel like you have to look at them all, there were just so many good ones! (I say this at the bottom after you have looked at them all. Hee hee!)
Kylie
15.8.06
woodlot
so chris emailed me some of the pics we took biking on the w/e. he was disappointed we didnt get many action shots... i wasnt used to his camera so i kept missing the big air. however i still think some of these capture the beauty of the terrain, as well as the work that went into some of the more elaborate stunts. some of the logrides went on forever and as you can see, often there weren't any bridges or planing or other widening efforts, just try to stay on the wet bumpy old log.
it seems hopeful at the moment that things will calm down in israel/palestine/lebanon. the cease fire has been partially kept and israel has actually begun removing troops. however none of the underlying problems have really been addressed yet, and now there is a lot of anger on both sides. as i was mentioning before, it seems like there is no real solution available. my friend shawn made an excellent point the other day that i had not thought about. it involves an interesting convergence of 2 of our sources of angst recently. one being the whole middle east/islam/US/israel situation and the other being our ever increasing environmental disregard despite the recently desperate cries of the scientific community.
shawn's point was that both of these crises could be partially resolved if we were able to give up our reliance on oil as a fuel source. if we could decrease our energy needs, and fill a majority of those needs with renewable and/or nuclear energy we could perhaps limit further damage to our environment, and also remove the fuel (ha!) from the fire in the middle east. if oil was not a major commodity would the US continue to throw their weight around half way across the world? would iran have the funds to harass israel?
hmmm... interesting convergence eh? too bad the earth will be destroyed by the time our generation is able to make some of the decisions... although maybe i give our generation too much credit.
in other news, scientists have recently realized that there may be a lot more planets in our solar system than we thought. either that or they will have to take pluto off the list and have only 8 planets in our solar system. apparently there are a whole bunch of hunks of rock like pluto orbiting in an off kilter ellipse compared to neptune. so the academy of astronomy is now meeting to decide whether we have 8 planets or 20 or 50 or ??? in our solar system. all semantics folks.
it seems hopeful at the moment that things will calm down in israel/palestine/lebanon. the cease fire has been partially kept and israel has actually begun removing troops. however none of the underlying problems have really been addressed yet, and now there is a lot of anger on both sides. as i was mentioning before, it seems like there is no real solution available. my friend shawn made an excellent point the other day that i had not thought about. it involves an interesting convergence of 2 of our sources of angst recently. one being the whole middle east/islam/US/israel situation and the other being our ever increasing environmental disregard despite the recently desperate cries of the scientific community.
shawn's point was that both of these crises could be partially resolved if we were able to give up our reliance on oil as a fuel source. if we could decrease our energy needs, and fill a majority of those needs with renewable and/or nuclear energy we could perhaps limit further damage to our environment, and also remove the fuel (ha!) from the fire in the middle east. if oil was not a major commodity would the US continue to throw their weight around half way across the world? would iran have the funds to harass israel?
hmmm... interesting convergence eh? too bad the earth will be destroyed by the time our generation is able to make some of the decisions... although maybe i give our generation too much credit.
in other news, scientists have recently realized that there may be a lot more planets in our solar system than we thought. either that or they will have to take pluto off the list and have only 8 planets in our solar system. apparently there are a whole bunch of hunks of rock like pluto orbiting in an off kilter ellipse compared to neptune. so the academy of astronomy is now meeting to decide whether we have 8 planets or 20 or 50 or ??? in our solar system. all semantics folks.
14.8.06
battleaxe phantom, bad temper tantrum
i would just like to say that the fine folks at battleaxe records rock!
for those disconnected from the west coast hip hop scene, battleaxe is the production company set up by mad child from swollen members and they saw through all the cheese and have given me express permission to use a song by sweatshop union in my homemade video (not to mention replying to my email within a day). so now its back!
i now have to reissue a warning that this song has 2 prominent swears in it, so those of you with sensitive ears may want to loudly sing your favourite hymn at about 0:13 and 2:10. i didnt realize this until after i had put about an hour of work into editing. while i am issuing warnings, i should also warn anyone who is prone to motion sickness to close your eyes for virtually any scene with me in it. matt is the first to admit that he needs to work on his camera skills.
for those disconnected from the west coast hip hop scene, battleaxe is the production company set up by mad child from swollen members and they saw through all the cheese and have given me express permission to use a song by sweatshop union in my homemade video (not to mention replying to my email within a day). so now its back!
i now have to reissue a warning that this song has 2 prominent swears in it, so those of you with sensitive ears may want to loudly sing your favourite hymn at about 0:13 and 2:10. i didnt realize this until after i had put about an hour of work into editing. while i am issuing warnings, i should also warn anyone who is prone to motion sickness to close your eyes for virtually any scene with me in it. matt is the first to admit that he needs to work on his camera skills.
13.8.06
copywrite woes
man, i just realized that my video totally violates copywrite law, so after all that work i should take it down.
if you want to see it you can come to my house and watch it with the album in the same room.
if you want to see it you can come to my house and watch it with the album in the same room.
my time
i seem to be able to do a lot more of what i want now that i am in charge of my own time. i have gone biking more in the past 2 weeks than i have in the previous 4 months.
yesterday chris and i had an exhiliratingly grueling day at the woodlot. pictures will follow when chris emails them to me (kylie has our camera).
today after church i was invited to my pastor's house for lunch. patty made beef dip (i think she used her prophetic gift to determine my favourite meal) and chilliwack corn. after lunch me and (their son) matt tried out my longboard on a steep hill for the first time. we were having so much fun we decided to videotape it. this is my first attempt at video editing so its far from perfect, but it was super fun so if i can get my hands on a camera you can expect to see more.
VIDEO DELETED
after risking our lives i had a quick dip in the backyard pool with their 5 year old son james (throw me again marc... AGAIN!). all in all a great weekend... oh except for the fact that kylie is in lethbridge... don't worry, i miss her desperately and thus am trying to keep as busy as possible with outdoor activities! ;-)
oh, i almost forgot... niko was mr. guard dog this morning! i had assumed that he would be a terrible guard dog as both malamutes and golden retrievers are super friendly and accepting of anyone. however this morning at around 6:00 i was woken up by loud barking and growling. in my sleepy stupor i thought, "that cant be niko, it sounds way too mean and niko is a nice puppy" then i realized that it was extremely loud and our neighbours were camping and thus it couldnt have been their dog. i got out of bed and went downstairs to see what the problem was. niko met me on the stairs and led me to the back door where he stood bristling and growling and barking and acting all tough. i put his long leash on him and let him out. he instantly raced around the corner and picked up a trail and started tracking, only to be stopped by my hand on the end of the 50 ft rope. i then looked up and saw my neighbour putting his kitchen window back together...
apparently he had been woken up by niko and came down into the kitchen in time to see a guy crawling through his window! he had climbed up on our adjoining balconies and was about to gain entrance. dan confronted him and he slid back out onto the balcony and jumped down and ran away. i'm assuming he stayed away from our place b/c of the big black snarling guard dog in our basement! anyways, niko saved the day! go niko go!
yesterday chris and i had an exhiliratingly grueling day at the woodlot. pictures will follow when chris emails them to me (kylie has our camera).
today after church i was invited to my pastor's house for lunch. patty made beef dip (i think she used her prophetic gift to determine my favourite meal) and chilliwack corn. after lunch me and (their son) matt tried out my longboard on a steep hill for the first time. we were having so much fun we decided to videotape it. this is my first attempt at video editing so its far from perfect, but it was super fun so if i can get my hands on a camera you can expect to see more.
VIDEO DELETED
after risking our lives i had a quick dip in the backyard pool with their 5 year old son james (throw me again marc... AGAIN!). all in all a great weekend... oh except for the fact that kylie is in lethbridge... don't worry, i miss her desperately and thus am trying to keep as busy as possible with outdoor activities! ;-)
oh, i almost forgot... niko was mr. guard dog this morning! i had assumed that he would be a terrible guard dog as both malamutes and golden retrievers are super friendly and accepting of anyone. however this morning at around 6:00 i was woken up by loud barking and growling. in my sleepy stupor i thought, "that cant be niko, it sounds way too mean and niko is a nice puppy" then i realized that it was extremely loud and our neighbours were camping and thus it couldnt have been their dog. i got out of bed and went downstairs to see what the problem was. niko met me on the stairs and led me to the back door where he stood bristling and growling and barking and acting all tough. i put his long leash on him and let him out. he instantly raced around the corner and picked up a trail and started tracking, only to be stopped by my hand on the end of the 50 ft rope. i then looked up and saw my neighbour putting his kitchen window back together...
apparently he had been woken up by niko and came down into the kitchen in time to see a guy crawling through his window! he had climbed up on our adjoining balconies and was about to gain entrance. dan confronted him and he slid back out onto the balcony and jumped down and ran away. i'm assuming he stayed away from our place b/c of the big black snarling guard dog in our basement! anyways, niko saved the day! go niko go!
7.8.06
katherine wins
a little while ago i mentioned my disgust with the CBC's "the one" on our blog and stated that i felt their radio programming was deteriorating. our friend katherine took issue with this and published a rebuttal extolling the virtues of cbc radio. this weekend we have made several trips into vancouver, leaving our mountain home and entering the realm of radio1 accessibility, enabling me to further test my theory of decline.
we listened to quirks and quarks and learned about deep brain stimulation as a treatment for depression as well as how to apply penguins' waddling skills to decreasing fracture rates in seniors. we heard good, balanced news coverage of the war in the middle east and i heard an interview with an extremely droll vancouver accordian virtuoso named geoff berner. i also heard a great new raffi song about the middle east which is available for free download.
long story short - katherine wins - i guess the reason i was so ticked about the cbc was b/c i value it so much and i am scared that it is in danger. i have mentioned before that i really value friends who are willing to undercut me and challenge my wild pronouncements. as a side note, you can get quirks and quarks as a podcast and listen to it at your leisure (it accompanied my breakfast sans globe and mail while we were living in golden bc).
the reason for my vancouver trip on sunday was that i went biking with my good friend chris at WHISTLER!!!
a good time was had by all as i revived my sleeping downhill skills. sorry i do not have any actual pictures of biking as whenever we had our bikes we were screaming down the mountain. maybe next time we will actually take the time to stop and get some nice shots.
i would like to leave you with a paragraph from the book "wicked" by gregory maguire that i just interpreted for kylie. i havent read it yet (aside from the occasional clarification for my spouse), but i am sure i will love it. check this out.
"And now respectable unionists are going in droves over to the pleasure faith," said Frex, snorting, "or even tiktokism, which hardly even qualifies as a religion. To the ignorant everything is spectacle these days. The ancient unionist monks and maunts knew their place in the universe - acknowledging the life source too sublime to be named - and now we sniff up the skirts of every musty magician who comes along. Hedonists, anarchists, solipsists! Individual freedom and amusement is all! As if sorcery had any moral component! Charms, alley magic, industrial-strength sound and light displays, fake shape changers! Charlatans, nabobs of necromancy, chemical and herbal wisdoms, humbug hedonists! Selling their bog recipes and crone aphorisms and schoolboy spells! It makes me sick."
hee hee hee! i love it!
we listened to quirks and quarks and learned about deep brain stimulation as a treatment for depression as well as how to apply penguins' waddling skills to decreasing fracture rates in seniors. we heard good, balanced news coverage of the war in the middle east and i heard an interview with an extremely droll vancouver accordian virtuoso named geoff berner. i also heard a great new raffi song about the middle east which is available for free download.
long story short - katherine wins - i guess the reason i was so ticked about the cbc was b/c i value it so much and i am scared that it is in danger. i have mentioned before that i really value friends who are willing to undercut me and challenge my wild pronouncements. as a side note, you can get quirks and quarks as a podcast and listen to it at your leisure (it accompanied my breakfast sans globe and mail while we were living in golden bc).
the reason for my vancouver trip on sunday was that i went biking with my good friend chris at WHISTLER!!!
a good time was had by all as i revived my sleeping downhill skills. sorry i do not have any actual pictures of biking as whenever we had our bikes we were screaming down the mountain. maybe next time we will actually take the time to stop and get some nice shots.
i would like to leave you with a paragraph from the book "wicked" by gregory maguire that i just interpreted for kylie. i havent read it yet (aside from the occasional clarification for my spouse), but i am sure i will love it. check this out.
"And now respectable unionists are going in droves over to the pleasure faith," said Frex, snorting, "or even tiktokism, which hardly even qualifies as a religion. To the ignorant everything is spectacle these days. The ancient unionist monks and maunts knew their place in the universe - acknowledging the life source too sublime to be named - and now we sniff up the skirts of every musty magician who comes along. Hedonists, anarchists, solipsists! Individual freedom and amusement is all! As if sorcery had any moral component! Charms, alley magic, industrial-strength sound and light displays, fake shape changers! Charlatans, nabobs of necromancy, chemical and herbal wisdoms, humbug hedonists! Selling their bog recipes and crone aphorisms and schoolboy spells! It makes me sick."
hee hee hee! i love it!
3.8.06
Visit
We had a really good visit with my dad over the past three days. We enjoyed showing him the sites around Chilliwack and Niko sure enjoyed having someone else to give him attention and take him for runs in the morning. I am getting more used to him with less hair although I have not been appreciating the comments that we have been hearing as we walk him.
"Mommy look at that dog, it looks like a giant squirrel."
"Wow, your dog sure looks like skunk!"
Someone did mention this morning that he was really cute though. I'm glad he had high self esteem and can handle the comments. :)
Here are some pictures of the last couple of days. The lilypad is at the golf course where we did the putting course. I beat my dad on the front 9! Who hoo! It was only because of his advice though.
See if you can spot the wildlife in this picture from our balcony. I'll give you extra points if you can tell me what it is.
Last but not least, this article was in the globe and mail today. Apparently Niko isn't the only dog with an appetite for destruction. :)
"Mommy look at that dog, it looks like a giant squirrel."
"Wow, your dog sure looks like skunk!"
Someone did mention this morning that he was really cute though. I'm glad he had high self esteem and can handle the comments. :)
Here are some pictures of the last couple of days. The lilypad is at the golf course where we did the putting course. I beat my dad on the front 9! Who hoo! It was only because of his advice though.
See if you can spot the wildlife in this picture from our balcony. I'll give you extra points if you can tell me what it is.
Last but not least, this article was in the globe and mail today. Apparently Niko isn't the only dog with an appetite for destruction. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)