It’s December 25th…I’m still wearing my PJs and robe and it’s fast approaching noon- it must be a good day

Christmas has been good to Irene and I this year.  We have each other, and our cats are all healthy and happy at the moment.  We are going over to my Sister and Brother-in-law’s place in a couple of hours, where we’ll have a happy day of time with the family.  Surrounded by loved ones, enjoying food and company- that’s what Christmas is about for me.

Best of the season to everyone reading this!

We had well over 20 cm of snow last night…

It’s still coming down.  And for once the meteorologists had the forecast almost bang-on.  It’s a bit of a shock to go from zero snow, having seen perhaps only two or three days with even light frost, to a “winter wonderland” overnight.  But it is also something you just can’t avoid when you live in a temperate coastal rainforest climate.  Winter means huge moist airmasses smacking into sometimes frigid air- a perfect formula for snowfall.

I’m thinking it was a good thing that I ordered pizza last night- now I have leftovers to survive on…

We weren’t going to adopt another cat.

You know we are in trouble when my post starts off “We weren’t going to adopt another…”.  And once again, it’s Irene who wedged the chisel into the cracks in my steely resolve.  There were feral (semi-wild) kittens, you see, at the rescue shelter where she volunteers.  And one of them was very scared, and curled up and buried his head in her sweater and purred when she was there.  And it was very sad, and very cute, and couldn’t she please bring her home?

This went on for a day or so, and of course I finally relented.  Irene promised the kitten would go to the vet, and there she’d confirm that it was a female kitten since that’s what Irene wanted- another girl to round out our now male-dominated family.  Guess what?  The kitten is a boy.  But by that point, it was apparent that gender is not a good enough reason to reject a kitten that needs a home. 

He was very, very terrified when we first got him.  He basically was playing possum every time a human picked him up: going limp, trying to hide his face, and purring not out of comfort but out of fear.  He didn’t play or do any of the kitten things you’d expect: he basically just hid.

That’s changed quite a bit in two weeks.  He’s still quite nervous, but he will play with all the cute energy you’d expect a kitten to have.  And if you play with him with a cat toy, he’ll let you pet him, and will purr out of happiness.  And if you lie very still, he’ll come out and lay down next to you.  Great progress for a kitten that met his first human just a handful of weeks ago when his Mom was torn out of his life.

We haven’t settled on a name yet, although “Nimbus” (Nim, also “nim nim”) is currently the favorite.  This came from us deciding he looked cloudy: he’s a part-siamese, part grey tabby fellow, with tabby and grey points.  I also thought he reminded me of a certain type of Leopard, but I see now that I have the type mixed up.   I was thinking he looked like a cloud leopard, but he really looks more like a snow leopard. 

Irene and I went to visit my sister Connie today and to see the house she bought and refurbished.  She’s done a really nice job taking an older home that had been used and abused and turning it around.  Lots of TLC has gone into the place, but more importantly it’s her house- and it has a yard!

I really enjoyed our visit- and next on our list was dropping off some doggy items with my nephew Shane.  But when I called, he wasn’t answering, so instead we went to his Mom and Dad’s place to leave the stuff there.  Of course Judy wouldn’t let us out the door without some kind of treat and a visit…so we spent a couple of enjoyable hours there visiting with Bryan and Judy.  Shane came over from his place, and we enjoyed soup, tea, and snacks…like I say, Judy makes sure anyone who comes calling
is well-comforted and fed.

We are back home now, and I’m feeling guilty because we didn’t drop in to visit Mom.  Well…by the time we were leaving the McFarlands’ place, I was wanting to get home- no excuse, just a fact.  Mom will understand- she knows her Son well

Cracking open the vaults of time again….Irene and I celebrated our anniversary back in July (July 14, to be exact).  We took a little 2 day vacation for our anniversary this year, heading to the island on Friday and returning on Monday.  We spent the night in Chemanus, at the Castlebury Inn Bed and Breakfast. 

I can heartily recommend the Castlebury to anyone wanting a uniquely enjoyable stay with someone they love.  We were pampered, and the rooms we stayed in were extremely imaginative and comfortable.  Here’s a photo of Irene and I taken at the end of our ride in a horse drawn carriage that night…click it to navigate to the picture gallery for our mini-vacation 

Back in the olden days (June, 2006), my best friend Chris came out to the coast for a vacation. We visited, and I posted some pictures from one day of the time he was here.

Well, here it is, nearly two months later, and I’m getting around to posting a picture from our trip to the Britannia mine…

Chris can be seen here trying to pan enough gold from the mine’s interpretive center to pay for his vacation. Unfortunately, all he got was a pan full of dirt, which the airlines don’t accept as valid payment. You can see about 65 gajillion more photos from our expeditions in the gallery.

I haven’t been posting here for a loooong time: over a month, I think.  So, what’s up?

In the past month, I’ve been doing the following things:

• spent a lot of time exploring Second Life
• caught and started recovering from a really bad cold.  I’m still sick, but gradually returning to normal
• worked
• took a weekend holiday with Irene for our anniversary
• posted some pictures to the gallery here from when my friend Chris was visiting

Nothing amazing or fantastic…nothing to suggest why I haven’t posted here.  And no guarantee that I won’t disappear again.

Irene has been aquasizing for a couple of months now as part of the recovery process from her hip replacement operation.  She’s going an amazing five or six times a week, and it really has been helping her: she’s walking better and better, and has even been able to go on some quiet rides on her horse Spirit. 

When Irene started going to the Y we bought a family membership, and I started going a couple of times a week to run on the treadmill and use the fancy gym equipment while Irene takes her class.  I’m pretty much a walking blob of flab- my strength and endurance are way down from where they were a couple of years ago when I was regularly working out using our Bowflex.  But the sessions at the Y seem to have been helping me a bit as well…I’m feeling a bit more energetic (barring the occasional bout
with IBS), and I’ve even started feeling like joining Irene once in a while on her walks with the dog.

We just got back from such a walk… its a warm day here, I’m guessing heading for the mid-20’s celsius, and sunny- not a cloud in the sky at this time at any rate.  Despite my slight increase in energy, I’m happy here in my cool dark little cave.  Something in my personality craves the mental distance…I imagine in the old days I might have been a scholarly monk, or a hermit in a cave somewhere.

The sun hurtses us, it does….yesss, my preciousss, it does..

Irene and I met my friend Chris, his girlfriend Billie, his Mom, his brother Rick, and two of his Mom’s friends for a walk through VanDusen Gardens.

We had a good time- Irene got her one to two hour walk that her surgeon wants her to get regularly, and I took a bunch of pictures. And we finally got to meet Billie, which I’ve been looking forward to for a while.

It was a good day- the weather held up well, and the gardens were quiet. We had a brunch/lunch sort of thing at the Shaughnessy restaurant at the gardens. That started out interestingly- the reaction from the restaurant staff when eight of us showed up without reservations was somewhat comical (”Oh my god, walk-ins!”). One of them actually came back to lecture us on how we shouldn’t arrive with such a large group without reservations…okay, gotcha. Make the customer feel small- that’s good customer service. But the meal was good, so I shouldn’t complain too much, I suppose, and the folks that actually served us at our table were nice.

I was over on Ensellitis’ blog today catching up on what he’s said during the past few weeks. He posted a collection “Stupid Links” a week or so ago, and I hate to say it but one of the links wasn’t so stupid

The link pointed to a single page set of instructions explaining how to fold a fitted sheet. If you ever looked in our linen closet, you’d find that neither my wife nor I have never mastered this. We hate folding fitted sheets. Our attempts look more like we sort of wadded the sheet up and flattened it by jumping on it a few times. We try- really we do. But it never quite works out.

Now we have instructions…I somehow doubt it will help. The part about having a “table” to fold on is a fantasy in our house: all flat surfaces are covered by cats or cat hair, so our folding takes place in mid air. But the approach is intriguing, and with the existence of instructions comes both hope and the realization that, since someone made the instructions, then perhaps we aren’t the only folding-challenged people on the planet.