Life

My wife Irene and I went on a vacation together this past week. It was our first vacation as a couple in years: with the animals and so forth, its a real challenge leaving the house for more than a day.

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Its spring here. Actually, its been spring for quite a while, but I think my brain just caught up with that fact. I realized it was spring today when I went outside to have a cup of coffee on our patio. It felt nice to have the sun shining on me, so I came back and set up a lounge chair thing. Then I fell asleep outside on the patio…for about an hour. (more…)

Regulars here will remember last year when I got my new Acura TSX. I was very happy with that car, and with the friendly service I received from my Acura dealer.

But...when I bought my TSX, I really wanted a GPS navigation system. That feature wasn't available in Canada last year, so I went without it. Well, this year Acura released their new model TL, which now includes a Canadianized GPS navigation system. I made the mistake of looking at one...and did something kinda stupid...

Say hello to my new car: a 2004 Acura TL. My TSX now graces my dealer's lot, awaiting a new home.

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Its 2004…and I’m sweating like a horse after the Kentucky Derby. I just spent an hour flexing my manly muscles and managing to clear 6″ of snow off about 30′ of driveway…yay me!

Here is what it looked like when I started…

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There was a major rain and wind storm in our area a few weeks ago. We had something like 6 inches of rain in 24 hours, and winds of around 80 km/h (50 miles an hour).

 This isn’t normally a problem: we hunker down in our house and watch the water fall from the sky. But this time, one of the trees in our front yard suffered a calamity…

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Family is an important part of most people’s lives. My family is pretty big: I have five brothers and sisters, and lots of cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts and uncles. But we don’t get together very often.

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Irene left me!

Well, in truth, it is thankfully only temporary. After flexing her muscles with the cats for a while this Saturday morning, she boarded a plane for sunny Edmonton to visit some friends and family.

While waiting for Irene to clear security at the airport, I witnessed evidence of their new focus on security. X-rays of Irene's carry on luggage were carefully examined, and the inspectors pulled Irene aside to inspect her luggage by hand. Inside, they found this weapon of mass destruction:

I'm pretty sure that humanity is now safer with these powerful weapons securely in my hands instead of Irene's.

As usual, watching Irene board the plane was depressing. I'm not happy when she goes away. Its only been a day or so and I'm missing her already...

For anyone visiting my home in Irene's absence, please respect my sadness. Dancing girls and video game delivery to the front door, booze and take out food to the back door, please...

My nephew, Shane, is a great guy. He’s the sort of guy who, when his most geographically proximal Uncle forgets his birthday, would never be upset. In fact, he’d probably feel all good and warm, knowing that his Uncle eventually did remember his birthday…even if it was only after Shane mentioned eating birthday cake on the day in question. (more…)

Irene and I took a little day trip today up to Cultus Lake and the Columbia Valley. You can check out the photos if you like.

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