mont tremblant, here we come!

So a while back we decided to buy some Mont Tremblant lift passes because they seemed like a good deal. The one problem with this was that we then needed to go out and use them at some point. Two per person, even.

Mont Tremblant, Quebec, is the nearest decent place to go skiing boarding, a little over two hours' drive northeast of here. Being owned by Intrawest, the resort is just another Whistler, but on a much smaller scale.

Anyway, our lift pass deal included 20% off certain accommodations. So at the end of March we and some friends will head over there for an overnight stay in a nice two-bedroom suite with a loft. Party time! (I'll get the hats.)



If this turns out to be a decent outing, maybe we'll have to try some New York mountains next year.

air kilometres

Well, we bought cheap cheap tickets for our trip to Richard's wedding in Edmonton this July. And by cheap I mean there's $4 left to buy him a snazzy wedding present; I wonder if he's still into crayons...

Actually this is probably the least we've ever paid to fly out west (into Edmonton, out of Vancouver), even if it had to be with Air Canada. Now to tell Carrie's family we're coming over...

On an unrelated note, there's a new way to collect Air Miles: the Air Miles Toolbar (for doing Yahoo searches... sorry, not Google). I'm the least likely person to add another toolbar to my Internet browser, but I just added it to a browser I don't use on a computer I don't use, and now I get to do half-hearted non-Google searches and collect air miles. 50 searches gets you 5 air miles, to a max of 30 air miles a month. Not bad at all...

Many people complain that it takes forever to earn a few Air Miles. We've been collecting for a bunch of years and always manage to pull in thousands annually (fewer now than before... thanks tuition!). It's all about being creative... like running every possible purchase through a decent mile-earning credit card. Although... we never go so far as to go shopping with a pocketful of Air Miles coupons, so I suppose we could do even better.

Unfortunately the nice deal with BMO Mastercard (1600 Air Miles or fewer to anywhere within Canada) is now over, so we gave that card the boot; I suppose flying is going to cost considerably more in Air Miles in the near future.

canine canines

So Daisy has been sitting aroung smacking a lot lately, and we discovered it was because she has some loose teeth. A couple days ago she daintily spat one out. It was a nice sharp fang, and it was simply pushed out by another duller one growing under/inside it. So much for having a toothless hag who can't chew slippers for a few weeks!


I even found (online) a suitable coin to leave under her pillow for the dog tooth fairy. It's Gilbraltar currency, part of a coin set featuring various dogs... including ye olde dachshund!

holidays

I guess it's been long enough and I can write another wee post. We went to my parents' place for a few days. The dog came along (and only did one oopsy indoors... note to self: once she starts don't lift her up in the air to discipline her).

We'd given my dad a 4000-piece puzzle for his birthday a couple of years back. It was worked on, but it was a little much to do in one attempt, so Dad had carefully saved finished sections to continue another day.


That other day came more than two years later; we worked on it and didn't quite get it finished before we left again, but they persevered and finished it off recently.


Nephew Levi enjoying yogurt.


On the farm, quail eggs need to be collected daily. On weekends and certain holidays, a day goes by without any collection, so the work is doubled for the following day. I helped out with egg collecting, dropping only a few (give or take a dozen) in the process. I'm much slower than the regular workers, but hopefully it helped. While collecting, bad eggs have to be tossed and oversized or undersized eggs have to be set aside. Here is a range of the egg sizes encountered. Compared to a chicken egg (bottom), only the centre of the remaining three eggs is an acceptable size... but not acceptably clean.


We went home after Christmas. On the drive home, the Burlington skyway was closed due to high winds so it took an extra hour to snake along underneath it. Then the 401 was closed right beyond where we had to leave it for Ottawa, so we were fortunate there.

We picked up Goldie, who is a sister to Daisy from a previous litter. We took over babysitting her for a few days. Daisy was thrilled to have a bigger buddy to pick on; her diminutive size didn't deter her for a minute. She wanted to fight almost constantly and we had to step in plenty of times to enforce timeouts. Poor Goldie...

Goldie could hold her own...


...but Daisy's persistence had her winning often enough.


I have to say, our mutt is a devil... click for close-ups of that face!




Fortunately no blood was shed, so I mostly let them maul each other until it got too loud.