May long weekend

For the long weekend we paid a little visit to the land o' grapes. We left on time Friday to miss traffic in Ottawa on one end and in the GTA on the other. Towards the end we made the assumption that the highway past Hamilton was going to be busy with US-bound traffic so we took some back roads. It ended up making the trip longer, but at least we saw something new.

Lily wanted to drive for a while but we forgot to bring the phone book(s).


We arrived well in time for a big party obviously held in our honour; who knew we were that special? I'm sure the festivities had nothing to do with a purported 40-something birthday bash for my big sister.

This particular sister introduced me to something I'd only heard of a time or two: geocaching! This game involves traipsing around the world and using your GPS to find hidden caches, where you can sign your name and take/leave a trinket. Or you can just traipse around your neighbourhood; their abundance in the developed world means there's no need to travel far, unless you live out in Timbuktu. Although if you literally do... a quick check on the cache map at GeoCaching.com shows that there's a geocache even in Timbuktu! Fancy that.

"The cache is right about that way..."


A month or two ago I listed our Senseo coffee maker on Kijiji since we never use it. A lady from the Niagara region responded, asking whether I would ship it out her way. Hoping for a more convenient local buyer, I didn't respond. Well, fast forward to the weekend. We're hanging out at the beach, and I hear my sister's friends introduce her to their other friends. I overhear a not-so-common last name mentioned, and something clicks. I think, "Hey... that Kijiji buyer had that last name..." So I saunter over and oh-so-politely ask "So, who's Jannie?" "Oh, that's my mom", says the guy I've never met. Sure enough, his mother was the potential buyer I so rudely left hanging. I felt bad of course, but my meeting her son so randomly was a fun coincidence.

A sun-free, sand-free beach experience.


First four-wheeler ride.


Princess tells me she'd like her own 5-acre lawn, please.


Too cool for school.


Besides a few nice walks and some beach time (with geocaching side trips of course), we didn't do much worth mentioning. Except pick up some dog ticks. Fortunately most of them were found on the dog...

April

Well, time for my slightly-more-than-annual blog update. Things have been hectic. Carrie has been taking French classes every weekday morning from 9-12 for three months now. I've learned over time that when she's away all morning, it's NOT babysitting when I'm looking after my own kid. I guess it must be true, as I ain't seen nary a dime for my efforts.

Lily has had a couple of bottom teeth for some time now. Just this week, we finally noticed an upper one come in. It's kind of oddly placed and looks like I need to shove it over at some point. For now we lovingly refer to our girlie as "snaggle tooth".

If you look closely you can spot some chompers in that smile.

Lily is eating solid food every day now. She often eats what we eat, albeit in pureed form. The curried lentils this week were a big hit! When her enthusiasm for eating wanes during a meal, out comes the yogurt for every other bite.

Our 8.5-month-old is a tad overdue for her six-month shots. We haven't weighed munchkin in almost three months, but we are pretty sure she's somewhere between 10 and 25 lbs. She sure is feeling heavier in her car seat, but she's still too little to sit directly in the stroller without her bear suit on.

A number of months ago we noticed some discolouring on the living room ceiling. It got quite a bit worse, but very slowly. Then last week I was chillin', watching my daughter practice her sitting, when I heard a drip-drip. I knew right away what it was, and within 10 minutes that corner of the living room was cleared of furnishings. And the fun began.

This bit of ceiling was stripped clear of damage...

...and now looks like this. I still have to replace some rotten framing. It's actually amazing how localized the water and mold damage was.

Directly overhead happens to be the upstairs bathroom toilet. This was removed to discover a broken wax seal... a stinky affair.

And this is the corner with a few tiles removed and the floor ready to be closed up again.

Unfortunately, what I thought were the right spare tiles stored in the basement are actually a few shades too dark. And since the tiles are no longer available in the store... yep, we're redoing the entire floor. What a mess. Oh, and as renters, why are we doing this ourselves, you might ask? Well, it's good practice for future reno jobs in whatever fixer-upper we may or may not buy some day. As was my belief as a 13-year-old constantly "fixing" my dad's computer, it's better to experiment on someone else's stuff first.

Trip to BC - part 4

Part 1 - Vernon
Part 2 - Fraser Valley
Part 3 - Smithers
Part 4 - Vernon

Back in Vernon, things looked a little different: no more snow! It looked a little bit like spring, which was taken advantage of with some outdoor work.

Another sign of spring was the birds. Robins abounded, as did some annoying percher that pecked the side of the house every day. It was too smart for us, try as we might to stalk it with a shiny new pellet gun. Oh well, not my problem now!

We spent the last few days relaxing with the in-laws and trying to make them sick of Lily (easier to part ways then, you see). It probably didn't work.


A very cute hat knitted by mom and lined by grandma.


She's fascinated by the art of drinking like a big people. Caught on quite well herself too.

So right toward the end we wake up one morning to a very white view outside. Suddenly it looked like winter again; good thing the yard work had been done the day before. We decided to take a drive up to Silver Star, the ski resort nearby. Driving around the chalets, it wasn't hard to see where this year's snow all ended up... crazy amounts up there.


Going for an uphill walk somewhere in the resort, after some snowboarders whisked past us we soon realized we were actually walking up a run rather than a trail. Oh well, good time for a picture.


And thus ended our little excursion out west. As you can tell, these posts were more about the pictures than the tales. Deal with it.

Trip to BC - part 3

Part 1 - Vernon
Part 2 - Fraser Valley
Part 3 - Smithers
Part 4 - Vernon

After nearly two weeks down south, it was time to head to the Bulkley Valley after a five-year absence. Lily had taken this particular month to decide she no longer depended on her soother. This was not a welcome development, but we soon discovered the band-aid solution: biscuits! They're effective only for as long as it takes to eat them, and they make a huge mess, but that's better than nothing!

We left on a Friday, allowing Saturday for travel as well, in case munchkin decided not to cooperate. We took the borrowed car as far as Kamloops (a little ways off the main route), where we picked up a rental. Oddly, rental cars don't come with winter tires unless you specific request them... and pay for them of course. Our full-size car was a super cheap deal (thanks, random discount code on the Internet) so paying the $75 for winters wasn't the end of the world.

As it turned out, Lily did very well indeed and we decided to finish the trip in a day; this is made all the more remarkable by the fact that she got her first tooth that day! (She has two now: the bottom front ones.) The weather did turn brutal toward the end, and our snazzy tires paid off right there. Total time: 14 hours, including detour through Kamloops.

The last time we visited Smithers was in 2008. We stayed with my sister Martine in Telkwa that time, so this time we stayed with Karin in Smithers, as her much-expanded house can now accommodate us easily.

Cousins did plenty of bonding.






Carrie wanted to do some local stuff, so the sisters took her cross-country skiing.


Other than a few visits to see friends, the only other major outing was to fulfill one last wish of Carrie's: go snowmobiling! So some all-important pallets were acquired and we three families headed to the "farm" (thanks Jeremy!) for an afternoon of bonfire and sledding. Oh, and thanks to Hofsinks for use of the numerous trails in their back forty. Quite the network... signs with trail names and everything!

The staples: some mountains (if only for the backdrop), some Suburbans, some trucks, some sleds, some snow, some family. Some fun. Only one Suburban got stuck during the shindig, but that's why you need a second one to pull the first one out.



Lily's first snowmobile ride! I'm sure she'll remember it for a long time.


Cool dudette.


Winter picnic. Somewhere atop one of the trees in the background hangs a model rocket that we fired 1200 feet into the air; too bad it descended only 1150 feet.


"What, not warm enough?" <Tosses on a few more pallets>

The outing was a great way to end our very short stay.

We did pop into Houston one afternoon to say hi to a few friends and visit Carrie's uncle and aunt. Normally we spend a fair bit of time there, but not this time around.

We drove back to Vernon in a day, with a quick rendezvous with another uncle of Carrie's; we caught him at the end of his 15-hour shift hauling logs. Oh, and I got only one speeding ticket! It's been many years since I had one of those. I haven't had many, but one of them was actually acquired about a dozen years ago, while visiting the Bulkley Valley and driving a rental car! Talk about déjà vu...