Hambabangers

Marc and I just got back from Princeton. Not the university, but the small town in central BC where Marc just did a locum. I want to post some pictures of our trip but our camera is acting up so I will have to wait for it to be fixed. Instead I will post about meat:

Something that I have been wondering about lately . . . hamburgers. Why do they shrink when you cook them? When my mom was here we made hamburgers and I made sure to make the patties extra huge. Growing up my dad would make hamburgers every Saturday night. I do really mean every Saturday. Saturday came to be known was "icky burger" night in our household. (Sorry Dad!) My Dad's burgers were always very small and usually burnt and I always wondered why he just didn't make them bigger. So the last time I made hamburgers (which I don't do very often) I made sure to make the patties extra huge. I was so proud of them and so excited to see the wonderful VERY LARGE hamburgers I would soon be eating. Much to my chagrin when I opened the BBQ I found small blackened (slightly, not burned) hunks of meat in the place of my former VERY LARGE patty.

Why, Why? Where did all the patty go? Was my dad really making very large patties all along?

plans for february

now that niko has found his voice on our blog he has more to say.






kapsowar is a village in the western mountains of kenya bordering the great rift valley. the population of the village and immediate area is ~10,0000. its a 3 hour drive to the ugandan border and an 8 hour drive to nairobi. there is one hospital in the area with 2 kenyan and 3 american docs; it is run by africa inland mission. there are several schools in the village as well as opportunities for kylie to utilize her event coordinating abilities. we will even have a guest bedroom! and dont worry niko, we will come back for you.

tour guides

kylie's mom is in town for the week. today we took her to jones lake and the othello tunnels.






oh yeah, our friend joanna has a new blog from hong kong where she just moved with her new husband kevin.

The floor is yours . . .

Niko has an announcement he would like to make . . .



If you would like to hear the story from someone other than Niko you can read Julie and Lowell's version of the story here .

Bonne Fete a Trois!

Disclaimer: I must apologize to all other members of our family whose birthday I have missed putting on our blog, it is just easier to remember when three people in our families have the same birthday. Hope you all had a happy day everyone we missed! :) (That doesn't really sound like a heartfelt apology does it?)

jones lake

yesterday we drove out to explore jones lake. we had never heard of it... i just saw it on the backcountry map we bought on arie's recommendation. it was amazing though. if a lake like that was 30 min from lethbridge it would be THE destination but this is chilliwack and we had the whole lake to ourselves, although we did see a parked truck. i guess the road up was a little rough. there are so many little lakes around here though, that perhaps all the people are just well spread out. 3/4 at cultus lake and the other 1/4 scattered around the other 50 lakes a little further out or only accessible by 4x4 or hike in. since we bought the 4runner we have also visited foley lake and williamson lake and tried and failed to find the trails to lookout lake and sunrise lake.







find kylie!



on a related note, we have been cushioned from the fiscal reality of owning an suv by the recent low in gas prices. kylie and i were wondering about this sustained dip and we think it is b/c of the US election. the who's who of petroleum pricing dont want the electorate to be too pissed at the republicans right now. like any good theory this one is able to generate predictions which can then be tested. this particular theory would predict that oil and subsequent gas prices will stay at a reasonably low level until after the election at which point they will head back up. i am not the first to make this prediction but i am the first to make it on this blog. if we are right it further underscores my conviction that commodity prices are not quite as much about supply and demand as we have been led to believe. and if the value of such a tangible and practical resource can fluctuate according to the whims of international dictators and intranational moneymakers, how much more flimsy is the value of a corporate entity that has no existence in the physical plane beyond 1s and 0s on a magnet, ink on paper and variously weighted synapses between neurons in the tangled neural networks of the brains of the employees and shareholders? make sure to maximize your rrsp contribution this year. oh, did i mention before that you can purchase christian mutual funds? i'd love to sit in on one of their meetings of moral mathematics.

Randomness

Well recently the random thought posts by Amber, Jenessa and Shareen have been popular so I have taken to doing one of my own.

-I am really enjoying my time off. I know that some people that have an excess of time off get bored very quickly, I am NOT however one of those people. Things I am enjoying about having time off (in no particular order):
1.Reading the entire (or maybe almost the entire) paper in the morning (it is too bad we get the Globe and Mail and not the Lethbridge Herald because reading the Globe is like reading a book in the morning) :), oh and drinking coffee with the paper
2. Baking - yesterday I made creme brule which Marc tastefully toasted with his blowtorch, I made pumpkin pie on Friday and I am going to make cinnamon buns tomorrow mmmmmmm
3. Taking Niko for long walks, enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having of late here in the Wack
4. Spending more time with Marc

-Things I am not enjoying about my time off - the fact that I enjoying reading, baking, walking and spending time with Marc a little too much and all the other things I SHOULD be doing fall to the wayside

-I have noticed that Marc and I are getting old, we have started to lament the smut that is on TV today, the violence in the world and discussing what kind of world our children will live in. We have especially been complaining though about the behaviour of teenagers, especially their driving! We talk about how the youth of today drive so fast and recklessy without due care and attention. Crazy kiddies! We were NEVER EVER like this! (Do not read the post two below if you want to continue to believe this)

-Niko is now officially a dog, or maybe a teenage dog but no longer a puppy. He lays down now! When Niko was a puppy we never saw him lay down or sleep upstairs, he would always go downstairs to sleep and as soon as he heard us he would be awake and ready to play. This morning I took his puppy gate down from the stairs at 9:30am and at noon he sauntered upstairs and then proceeded to lay on our bed for two hours. After I took him for a walk he slept on the landing for another hour. Oh the life of a dog! (I do sort of have the life of a dog right now actually.)

-Recently Found in the Superstore Bargain Bin: A Mighty Wind. New on DVD! Price tag: $4.99.

-Lastly, I have recently discovered that the Matt Good band is really good. hee hee I hadn't heard them in a while (and did not like them too much before) and Marc recently put "Beautiful Midnight" on and I was like Wow these guys are great!

My random thoughts for today and after reading my last line maybe I'm not getting too old, I still totally use like to like describe things.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

What have I gotten myself into???

So after a whirlwind day car shopping in Vancouver we have purchased a 1994 Toyota 4Runner. The day got off to a crazy start as we had been on the highway all of 30 seconds when the Chevette lost power and refused to go any faster than 60 km/hour. After a quick rental car (a Toyota Yaris, fun fun fun) we were back on the road. We looked at about 8 4runners and decided on this puppy here.



It is about the same size as the Volvo and Marc and I can also have an argument over whether this one is green or blue. I think this one is green, he thinks its blue. I thought the Volvo was blue. He says it's green. Some things never change!

When we decided to buy a 4x4 I didn't realize the whole new world of Chilliwack that would be opened up to us. We spent the day today exploring some back country trails and looking for hiking trails to two lakes on the map. We didn't find the trails but we did have some fun back country bush whacking. What I also didn't realize was that Marc now has another toy that he can plummet down hills at high rates of speed. When he is on his bike at least I don't have to experience the craziness. With this new car I can get in on the plummeting. I am not so sure how I feel about this yet. Here are some more pictures of our adventure today.

Marc bonding with his new car.



A rock with moss so thick it was like a bed!

Here is a funny picture from today. I really did not want my picture taken because I wanted to take a picture of Marc but he wanted to take mine first. I was not too happy.


One positive thing about having a 4x4 is that we can get places like Sloquet Creek Hot Springs. After our thwarted trip to Victoria and Sooke last weekend we decided to go to some hot springs with our friends Shawn and Karyn. What an amazing area, it was truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. At night when there were several dozen tea lights lit it was absolutely gorgeous. None of these pictures do it justice but I will give you a little peek. The first night we had the whole place to ourselves. We also brought along Karyn's sisters Weimaraner puppy. Bella and Niko sure kept eachother company!!







It's Senator Bellatrine!

They really were nice to eachother I promise!

let er RIP sweet volvo

it is with great sadness and fond remembrance that i announce the death of our '82 volvo wagon. a car of great courage, endurance and moral integrity, the volvo has provided the bulk of the author's transportation since he was 4 years old. conceived in the demanding and safety concious hinterlands of forbidding sweden and birthed across an ocean in halifax nova scotia this sturdy beast of burden toiled tirelessly in the sole service of the greidanus family.

in her prepubescent chocolate milk brown factory stock phase she provided many hours of entertainment on family trips while riding backwards in the fold down rear seat. waving to tailgaters, pretending we were driving the car in reverse as well as generating a checklist of all the car parts we knew the names of to determine which was the reason for our backwards progress were all regular parts of my friends', sister's and my own repetoire of car games.

the volvo's adolescent years were marked by a radical molting to her mature shade of tahiti green. during her awkward phase she was often made fun of in the school parking lot and quite probably throughout the neighbourhood. in fact the author is ashamed to admit that he was briefly embarassed to be seen exiting the volvo and in fact was initially wary of driving her when he got his license.

the recently deceased reached her prime soon after being sold to the author by his parents for the sum of $1. she acquired a CD player, alpine speakers, subwoofer and amplifier, a new steel front skidplate, multiple decals and several strategically positioned dents in the undercarriage and storage compartements as well as bike tire marks all over the ceiling. she also came into her own athletically as she was coaxed to speeds in excess of 200 km/h on the straight and empty alberta highways and showcased her nimble suspension on the forest service roads of southern alberta and the east kootenays.

in her latter years the volvo moved to the fraser valley in british columbia where she continued her habit of accepting all loads and roads that were required of her. there she could be seen mixing amiably both with 4x4s on vedder mountain and sports cars in the doctors' parking lot.

the swedish pickup that had never once stranded its owner was able to muster the resources to die at the most convenient time and place possible for her. she was packed for a camping trip on the juan de fuca trail and family visit in victoria but on the morning of departure realized that the trip would be too much for her. not wanting to strand her owners and with the knowledge that they had over a week off to make funeral arrangements she waited until they were passing through abbotsford and 100m before the turnoff to her favourite local mechanic she gave a soft thumping gasp and began to spew pure white solid smoke out of her tailpipe. an initially minimal loss of power enabled her owners to abruptly change course and limp into her shop's parking lot where, after noting coolant sprayed across the engine and pulsing out of the block with every shudder she was pronounced dead at the scene. no resuscitation was attempted. cause of death was determined to be secondary to a blown head gasket.

the volvo was survived by her 2 owners, marc and kylie, and their dog niko as well as her adopted sister, a steadfast '79 chevette. condolences are extended to her initial owners pete and bette and their three daughters shareen, julie and carlynne. a memorial service will be held in chilliwack later this week. in leiu of flowers those wishing to extend their condolences are advised to consume a cold beer and spill a sip on a dirt road.

good bye volvo. we will miss your presence and cherish your memory.




our volvo 1982-2006