Flashback Friday: March 1990

When I was in college taking a "modern religious movements" class, I put this photo on my dormroom door for awhile. And, you just might recognize the outfit. This photo was actually taken inside the Winnipeg Shrine Temple... from the time I won the Shrine Circus Writing Contest in grade six. You can read the story I wrote here. The girl on the left of me, her name was Mary Ellen. I thought her ESPRIT shirt was cool, but her name was definitely something I was glad not to be burdened with. The girl to the right of me was named Michelle as well, and I had decided she was definitely overdressed. Mary Ellen and Michelle won the short story contest for the grades 4 and 5 sections of the contest. The guy on the left, his name was Chick. I think that was just a nickname. Or at least I hope it was just a nickname. The adults in the photo were all bigwigs in the Shriners organization.

I had just gotten a new 10-speed bike a couple of years earlier, and a ten-speed was definitely way cooler than a BMX, so the prize wasn't all that exciting to me . But I did use the Mirage for shorter bike trips. And my brother used to always ride it and slam it on the road when he was done and he totally scratched up the flourescent paint job.

I remember we had fried chicken and coleslaw at the big presentation dinner, held in the Shrine Temple basement. It was cold in there. It was in a huge old mansion-type house, and the wood panelled walls were painted with gold palm trees and camels.

All of us winners also got tickets for our family to go to the Shrine Circus later on that year, and we actually got called up to go to the centre ring, which was quite exciting. Somewhere my Mom has a photo of it, but it's one of those "my flash wasn't strong enough and I can't tell what is in the middle of the stadium". What I really wanted a photo of was me riding an elephant, but elephant rides were too expensive.

Speaking of elephant rides, I think I'll add that to my life to-do list. I've already got "visit a cult" crossed off. ;)

Chaotic Resolve

You may remember about a month ago I posted a post about how excited I was for the new Plumb CD coming out. In fact, I ordered it that day. I ordered it from a site her MySpace linked to, because they were offering an advance copy, and it was signed, what more could you ask for? Althought, I'd never heard of the company before.

But it was of course an American company and me being in Canada, that made it an "international order", and shipping was an additional $7. Seven bucks! But it was Plumb, and thus fully worth the excessive shipping costs. I had to special order my last Plumb CD at the Briercrest bookstore, and it was more expensive than this one ended up being.

But after two weeks I thought this international shipping was a bit slow.

And after three weeks, on March 17th, I gave them a call. "Oh, because it's an international shipment we have to wait a month before it is declared lost." Oh, okay. I'll call back on March 21st then.

So I did. And the guy said he'd ship out another copy that day for me.

Then this week I got a copy in the mail. Strangely, the postage tape and the customs declaration slip were both dated March 17/06.

So I checked my order status on the website and it said the second shipment was still being processed. So I called the company to let them know I had recieved it, but I just got their answering machine so I left a message.

Then the next day I got two emails saying my replacement shipment had been fixed.

Then yesterday at home "Mark" called to ask what shipment I had received, and if I received any more could I please return them?

Sure I can, but the chaos of it all kind of makes me chuckle.

Suddenly I Feel Very Confident in My Mechanic

So... I just called my mechanic and asked when I could have my car looked at. Because when I took it for an oil change a week and a half ago (to another place, not my regular mechanic), Hot Rod had suddenly gotten very loud and they told me my muffler clamp had rusted through. I'm totally not sure if the two are related, or how serious they are. I hope for a yes and a not serious and a cheap/easy-to-fix.

Anyways, I was talking to the guy on the phone. I asked when I could bring Hot Rod in. So the guy kind of half puts his hand over the phone and says to another guy "When can we take a look at Michelle's car? It's got a problem with the exhaust system and the power steering."

What? I said muffler clamp.

Fungi

I bought six mushrooms from the bulk mushroom bin at the grocery store yesterday. The total came to $3.00. THREE DOLLARS! Three dollars for six mushrooms! That's 50 cents a mushroom! And they're just regular old mushrooms. They had better taste extremely good in my tomato sauce.

Flashback Friday 1991

This was taken the summer before grade 8, on a family trip to British Columbia, for my Grandpa's 85th birthday. This particular photo, of my older sister and I, was taken at a campground in Washington state. It's the campground my family still talks about every once in awhile, because when we were trying to find a spot to park for the night some woman told us to "Slaw down," which made us all giggle. Crazy Americans and their silly accents. (That last sentence will be great for Google search hits I'm sure!).

What you should probably note is most sweet about this particular photo is:

a) My sister's wave bangs
b) My sister's coordinating pink Northern Reflections Shirt and pink pants
c) The fact that she was 16 at the time and was still wearing pink. Trust me, pink wasn't cool in 1991, in case you've forgotten.
d) My cool jacket.
e) My bangs. Yes, I did need a haircut.
f) Garbage can in background ( great picture composition!)

Carpe Diem

I have this problem. I tend not to seize the day. Awhile ago in church I was thinking about this, and these thoughts extended throughout the day and on into Monday.

Monday morning at our weekly staff meeting, the person leading the devotional took us to 1 Corinthians. And in my Bible, sometime, I don't remember when, at the bottom of the page, I wrote "God makes us excellent - with him we reach higher."

This blog, this isn't a place where I tend to get theological. In every day life I don't even tend to get very theological. I wouldn't even say I was very theological in my 5 1/2 years of Bible college and seminary education. I don't tend to be interested in debating the nit-picky details of faith. Perhaps this is to my detriment. I know what I believe but I can't say I'm too interested in amillenialism and premillenialism and Calvinism and Armenianism and the like.

But I digress. Usually in life I don't consider doing a shoddy job. Why wouldn't you do a good job? The thought doesn't usually occur to me. Striving higher, striving for the best, it seems in so many things to come naturally to me. But this often conflicts with my apathy.

In my first couple of years of Bible college I was diagnosed with Graves' Disease, an autoimmune disorder of the thyroid. There are all kinds of signs and symptoms (just reading that Wikipedia article today even listed a few I noticed that I had never been told were a result of the disease!), and what I noticed mostly was the change in my thought processes and patterns.

While I was sick, I had an extremely hard time concentrating and doing schoolwork for any extended periods of time. This is reflected in my college transcripts, which went from barely passing my first couple of sick years, to (mostly) excellent marks in my grad studies.

Today, what I have lingering from this disease is apathy. I want to do the best. I want to excel. It seems so logical. So normal. But sometimes it takes so much effort.

Lately I've been thinking about excellence and passion a lot. How much they are related to each other. I want to be excellent at what I do, but I also want to be passionate about it. But can you become passionate, or is passion natural? Is it inflicted? Does God breath upon us passion for different things?

I once read a book in high school called "Do What You Are" or some such title. It talked about how our career should be directly related to what we are, who we are, what we love, what we're passionate about.

I've been rather apathetic towards my current career. Perhaps that's a dangerous thing to admit on a blog that your co-workers read! I'd like to be more passionate, but how, and is it worth it? It's paperwork. Should I be looking elsewhere? Should I be looking for something that will use my passions and love of Christ and love of youth and my training?

Carpe diem. Seize the day.

Spring Collection 2006

The two purses on the left are still available if you are interested, Orange Pink Lemonade Handbag and Tenth Avenue Retro Floral Handbag. I also have a number of other items now on sale, so please take a look at my Etsy store.

I'm also happy to take custom orders, so please feel free to contact me via email if you would like anything made.

Shocking That I'm Still Single

When I have looks comparable to Ashley Judd, Kristin Kreuk, Aishwariya Rai, Preity Zinta, Rachael Leigh Cook, Kristin Davis, Alizee, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Rachel Bilson, and Eva Longoria. ;)

This comes from the Face Recognition beta program at myheritage.com (found via ysolda).

Curtains? Who Posts About Curtains?

Continuing my theme of mind-bogglingly intellectual and theological posts, here is one on the subject of my new curtains. And my old curtains.

My bedroom has weird patterned carpet, I tried to find a picture of it but alas I do not have a good one. It's a white-ish-grey kind of colour, with darker grey square outlines and kind of snowflakey-shaped things in the middle of the squares. I've never seen any other carpet like it.

So when I moved into this apartment I decided it might be best to go with a snowflake-themed decor. Thus, I made this curtain:
The fabric is actually a woman's scarf that I found at Value Village. I folded over the top edge and hand stitched it to go on the curtain rod (a cheapo one from Ikea). The bottom edge I hand beaded on assorted glass beads in various shades of blue and purpley-blue and clear and white. Overall, I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. The large dangling snowflakes on the sides are actually aluminum coasters. I got 4 for $5 at the local "dollar" store that keeps changing it's name.

But, I was kind of getting tired of the snowflakes. And the carpet too, but I can't change the carpet.

So a few weeks ago I was at a fabric store, and found this lovely voile print that I really like, and it was only $3 a metre. So I got two and a half metres and sewed this curtain up:

Here is a close-up of the floral pattern. I love this mossy-green colour:

Afterwards I thought it would have been nice to have two curtains, so I could open them up, but I can't really afford a second curtain, so one is doing well. Overall, I really like the way the new curtain turned out. It's more decorative than functional, but I have a white blind that actually serves the purpose of keeping the light out/in. It adds a nice barrier between me and the neighbours now though, I don't feel like they can see me crafting away any more when I'm sitting at my craft table and don't have the blind down.

Painted Horse

Those of you who worked at Willow Springs last summer may recognize this:
We had a whole big box of these horses donated, in the form of "STEED KITS". This made me laugh hysterically. They were pretty much impossible to figure out how to assemble, so not too many campers actually took a completed one home with them.

However, by the end of this post you will see that I am now somewhat of an expert at their assemblage.

I had my horse kicking around my room for awhile, and then on Saturday I thought "Gee, why don't I paint it?" I hadn't painted anything in a long while.

When my Mom came out from Alberta to visit me last October, she brought out my box of cheapo acrylics... and from that box I selected these colours for this project:

Here it is in process:

A head shot when making sure it was all painted to my liking:

The finished steed:

In situ:
On of my old roommates defined my decorating style the other day as "Ecclectic Novelty." I'm not sure if I like that term, but I couldn't think of anything better!

The Start of A New Era

Last night at 10:15pm, me and Hot Rod started off the 200 000s right by listening to the "Return of the Jedi" theme song.

Flashback Friday: Christmas in October

I'm sure I've posted this photo before somewhere on my blog, but today I wanted to post a funny photo and this is it. October 25, 2003, from the "Christmas in October" that Jodi, Rachel, and I invited some of our friends too. We got all dressed up and went out for supper at the Overseas Restaurant and Christmas shopping in Moose Jaw. I'm not sure exactly whose idea this photo was.

Sometimes I still think how good it would be to go to the Overseas again. I love their buffet. Seriously my favourite buffet ever. Last summer I really really wanted to go there when we were out in Saskatchewan but alas we didn't have the time.

Anyways, back to Christmas in October. It was so much fun. I got "The Brick Game" (a.k.a. fake Tetris) i n the gift exchange we all did that night. I took it home that Christmas and my parents loved it, I couldn't pry it back out of their hands. They still have it.

I think when I was visiting Rachel last August she told me she saw our couch somewhere in town. We had a long piece of wirethat came out of it, and I restructured into a piece of "art" to hang on the wall, we called it "Gift from The Couch." I like how in Caronport furniture goes on and lives forever in the houses and rooms of students all over town.

Sugar Smacks

I saw these vintage-y cereal notebooks at this website recently, and I thought, gosh those are neat.

And then a couple of days later a friend said "I was at Michael's and I got you something." And I said, "Let me guess, a cereal notebook?" And then this week another friend, who didn't know I already had one, got me another one. So now I have both the Sugar Smacks and Sugar Pops ones. I like the colours of the other two, they're fun.

I don't keep a paper journal, so I'm not sure yet what I'm going to use them for. I used to keep a book of lists, and I haven't done that in awhile, so I was thinking perhaps I might use one of them to start that up again.

And now that I've been thinking about cereal I've been thinking about Chocolate Crackles, which I haven't made in a very long time. They're kind of like Rice Krispie squares or puffed wheat squares but made with Corn Flakes and syrup and cocoa and other nutricious ingredients like sugar. Now I'm hungry and it's still an hour and a half until lunch!

Office Crafts Volume 2

Susie and I decopaged this sweet lamp this afternoon. It says "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BIG CHEESE" on it. It's not perfect, but we had to make do with the office supplies that we could find. It does however include vintage pictures of our boss on all four sides.

The Great Unknown

"p.s. does marriage ever freak you out because you can't imagine ever living with someone for the rest of your life. because anyone you have know your whole life you would never want to live with forever." (from an email)

Someone else asked me a few months ago, "Don't you ever worry that you won't meet a nice boy?" (BTW, this person always uses the term "nice boy" to refer to the Great Future Someone.) Anyways, I said no. "Why not?" the aforementioned person said. "How can you be so confident?"

I said "I am trying to think of some Bible verse to insert here, but I am coming up blank."

"Even with all those degrees?"

But anyways, every guy I have ever liked I thought (at the time) "Gee, I could spend the rest of my life with this guy." Except for this one guy, but we won't get into that. ;) But those thoughts were just adolescent infatuations and the excitment of the possibility of "maybe he could be the one." I think you know what I mean.

There is this line in the movie "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken" where the guy writes in a letter to the girl, after he has written her letters for like forever and hears nothing from her and assumes she is getting the letters and reading them and isn't convinced that he's totally the one or whatev (and really in reality the guy's dad has been stopping the letters from reaching the girl) when the guy says "You know Sonora, there was a time in my life when I couldn't imagine wanting to spend the rest of my life with someone else. Now I can't imagine spending it without you."

That's what I imagine it will be like. Like you will love the person so wholeheartedly that you will be unable to imagine life without them. Like things will fit and they will be the completion of you. The great "other half." Or whatever people say.

I know that is probably the most cliched answer I can give, but it's all I've got. Truth is, I've never loved anyone like that. I imagine it's goodness, but I've never experienced it. I'm as excited about it as the next Christian girl, but I'm willing to wait it out too... I'm not willing to go jumping into relationships I'm not confident in.

I was talking to someone yesterday about a talk they gave about their reasons for going to Bible college and someone said to them, "What, you didn't come here to find a husband?" She replied that going to a small Bible college to find a husband was kind of like going to the convenience store, or even the vending machine, when you could go to the supermarket instead! I suppose the world is a big supermarket. Does that mean I'm waiting for a good sale? Or one of those specials that only comes around every once in awhile? Maybe it's not the best analogy. (But it is funny).

Anyways, that's all I've got for thoughts today. Probably tomorrow, or tonight on the drive home, I will think "What was I thinking putting that on the internet?"

Close Call

I had a friend whose car was crushed by a fallen tree limb a couple of summers ago. A lot of the time when I now tell locals where I live, they say "Oh, you mean the house that the tree fell on a few years ago?"

This is what I woke up to this morning. Note to trees: Please do not crush Hot Rod. Thank you.

Who Doesn't Like Squirrels?

I love cordouroy and I love squirrels. I don't like writing captions or descriptions, but I think I did okay on this one.

Look at That Snow Pile

That's Hot Rod at the grocery store beside their big pile of dirty melting snow. What you can't see in the photo is the oh, 5 or so Tim Horton's cups that were melting out of the hill. Sometimes I chuckle at all the Tim Horton's cups I pass on the side of the road and in parking lots and etc., but most of the time I think "Why can't people throw their Tim Horton's cups in the garbage?" I mean, I know that one guy did and then totally regretted it, but everyone else (after you've rolled up the rim to win), THROW THEM IN THE GARBAGE.

Brown Squares Tote

I did a bit of sewing this weekend, finishing up a few projects that I've had on the go for awhile. This bag is available at my Etsy shop.

Flashback Friday: 2004

I've been playing around a bit on Photoshop lately, and thought I'd use this photo for this week's Flashback Friday. You can see the original photo here.

This photo is one that either Holly or Jodi took in February 2004. Holly had flown out from Ontario to visit, and we went to Moose Jaw to take some fun photos. This is me getting some good angles of a neat old church, I unfortunately can't remember which one.

Since moving to Ontario and entering the working world, I unfortunately haven't had much money to take and develop real photos. I miss using my Pentax MZ-6. Most days now I use my digital Olympus Camedia D-595, but it's not nearly as nice!

This weekend I'll be working on my March Hometown Six photos. I haven't yet taken any pictures of the churches in the area, so I'm looking forward to it. Neely has hers up already if you are looking for some inspiration.

Muskoka Woods

I'm posting this photo mostly for Jodi and Holly, who requested more posts about my "love for extreme sports." This is as extreme as it gets.

The other day the Outdoor Ed team from the camp that I work at went to Muskoka Woods, the camp where all the rich movie star kids go, to partake of their wall climbing wall. No, we did not see any movie stars (I know, I know, they would have made a better photo if we had). Afterwards we went out for supper in the little local town of Rosseau, which I had never been to before. I think we might have seen some movie stars' cottages along Lake Rosseau. Unfortunately I did not take any photos of those. Maybe next time. ;)

But I Don't Imagine It Would Taste Any Better With Regular Teeth.

Susan: Michelle, have you ever had a Big Turk?

Michelle: (Looks at Big Turk packaging). Uh.... no. I thought maybe for a second it was an Eatmore, and I had one of those when I was 4 but I haven't had one since.

Susan: Oh. Well, would you like to try it? I'll break you off a piece.

Michelle: Why is it purple?

Susan: It's turkish delight.

Michelle: But why is it purple?

Susan: It's turkish delight.

Michelle: But what is it? Is it nugat?

Susan: No, it's more Swedish Berries.

Michelle: Oh. (takes bite). Oh. Ew.

Susan: You're welcome Jerk!

Michelle: (thinking "Tastes disgusting with the dental work I just had done.")

Log Pot Holders

My Gramma still uses an old wood stove to cook on, so I have many memories of being at her house and cooking and baking with it, the ever-present "woodbox" that is a permanent fixture in her kitchen, and going out to the woodpile out by the barn to bring in wood. For her birthday she asked for potholders, so I made these. I found this great fabric last fall at a going-out-of-business fabric store... I wish I had bought more because I really like it! I've used it for a couple of purse linings.

The centre of the potholders is 4 or 5 layers of flannel. I stitched through all the layers on my machine for a slightly quilted look. I love the way they turned out.

Thrifty Searching

Over the past year I've evolved into a thrift store shopper. I mean, I did do my share of Value Village clothes shopping back in my college days (although originally I thought Value Village was gross), and still have a college full of some pretty sweet wool sweaters that remind me of many trips with good friends to Regina.

But in the past year I've expanded my shopping horizons to the non-clothes items, and my closet and dresser are full anyways. I look for dishes and furniture and craft items and things that can become craft items and fabric and things that can be cut up and sewn and etc. And our local thrift store has a cruddy clothing section from what I've observed. I have found a lot of good sewing supplies and fun dishes. The green teacup I keep pins in, the blue one holds bobbins currently.

One of the local towns around here has a big town-wide yard sale every June, and a lot of people I know look forward to it every year. The town is packed with cars travelling from street-to-street in search of deals. Last year I went with a group of friends at something ridiculous like 7:45 in the morning (but you have to go early to get the good stuff before everything is gone!), and we went around until about 12:30 and still hadn't seen everything. I spent $11 and got all kinds of good stuff. The find of the day though was about 8 working colour televisions for $2 each.

I was reading on a craft blog a couple of weeks ago "strategies for thrifting", of which I don't know that I have any. I do keep a mental list of things I'm searching for, which currently includes the following:

CD holder racks: my CDs are mostly in a CD book because when I flew out to Ontario in May/04 for the summer (which turned into "forever"), that's how I brought them. But at my parents house I still have all the original jewel cases. And the CDs I've bought since coming to Ontario I have in a pile on my armoire and I'd much prefer to organize them in a rack.

A cotton chenille bedspread: preferably white, but I'd probably settle for another colour too, I generally like any of them that are one-colour). When I was a kid my parents had one of these that we used to drag outside to make tents out of. I don't want to make a tent out of it though, I want to use it for a bedspread.

A bobbin holder: Since becoming a more voracious sewer, I've amassed more bobbins than the little 4-bobbin holder built into my sewing machine will hold. So thus, the blue teacup holds bobbins, but it doesn't do a very good job. So I'm on the lookout for a good bobbin holder.

Assorted thread: Thread is expensive. Thread that people don't want any more is cheap. And I often find that old thread is better quality than new thread. And usually you get such bizarre colours that it's kind of humourous.

Vintage fabric or sheets: For sewing. Some of my favourite purses have been created out of old sheets and duvet covers. Shh... don't tell anyone.

Vintage metal cannisters: These things are invaluable. I keep all sorts of stuff in them, beads, sequins, ribbon, etc. etc. etc.

Grindley "Laburnum Petal" dishes: My Gramma has a couple of these pale yellow scalloped-edge dishes, I love them. I've seen them in antique stores for outlandish prices. And you can even get them in pale green and pale pink. They're hard to find.

Paint-by number paintings: I have a collection of ones of trees, and one of a barn. My Mom did one when she was younger that's always been hanging in my Gramma's attic. I think that's probably why I like them. Anyways, I totally love them.

Other tree paintings: Last year at a local thrift store that has one of those auction things where you bid on stuff leaving your bid in a book, and whoever bids the highest after two weeks gets the thing, I bid on a really neat little tree painting. But I didn't bid high enough because I never got a call. But, at the big town wide sale I got a great tree painting. I asked the lady in the yard how much it as for and she said "Five dollars. But if you really love it, I'll give it to you for $2.50." I told her I really loved it. And I do. Generally I like trees. And tree photos. And tree paintings. And tree art.

Old linens: As in tablecloths, napkins, etc., for sewing and decorating. I should have a good story about old linens, but I don't. I did use an old cherry tablecloth that I got from my Gramma for a curtain for a long time in my dorm room at college.

Small filing cabinet: I have one of those plastic accordion-style filing thingies, but it's getting too full. A small filing cabinet, or one of those filing box things, they would come in very handy for filing papers of a million kinds. Second hand would be a lot cheaper than new I'm sure.

That's what I have on my mental list for now. But often I find things that aren't on this list that I can't pass up buying. :)

What I Forgot to Ask About the Oscars

Was that a cat on Charlize Theron's shoulder?

Postcard Wall

I have a big bulletin board on my office wall that I'd like to redecorate with postcards... so send me a postcard. Or a photo or something. :) Right now I only have four old postcards that I've had up for forever.

I'll send you one in return, or some other sort of mail goodness.

March Hometown Six Challenge

It's the sixth of the month again, and once again it's time for another Hometown Six Challenge. For those of you new to the challenge, the idea is to, over the course of the year, take a variety of photographs in or around your hometown. Each month involves a different list or challenge of six photographs to take.

This month's challenge involves taking six photos of places of worship. You can be as simple or as complex as you'd like to be with your photos. You can focus on the entire building or on the same part of every building. Or different parts of different buildings. Or you can interpret "places" in a new way.

Please let me know when you have posted your completed entry. Before next month's challenge is up, I will write a post with everyone's links in it.

Have fun!

Hometown Six February Round-Up

My February Hometown Six challenge involved taking photographs of the following places/things in your hometown:

1. Town Hall/Village Office/City Building/etc.
2. Main Street
3. Local Transit/vehicle mode of choice
4. Shopping Complex
5. Cultural Centre/Theatre/Something of that sort
6. Local Police/Police Station/etc.

Here are links to February's participants for your enjoyment:

Sullivan, Missouri: Michael
North Platte, Nebraska: Robert
Beverly, Massachusetts: Rebecca and Peter
Huntsville, Ontario: Michelle
Montreal, Quebec: Neely

Let me know if I've missed anyone, and I'll update this if you post your photos at a later date as well.

9 to 5

I was talking with a friend of mine last week about jobs and work and what to do and things like that. We talked about the pros and cons of certain jobs and what would be better. He has options, what a grand thing.

Sure, money is always good, but so also is satisfaction. And the ability to and the feeling of making a difference. And how is "ministry" different than a "regular" job? Is ministry a job? What about "calling"? What does that mean and how does it fit in?

And what about the whole "the best job for you is the one that doesn't feel like a job at all" thing? I love it when I hear about people like that. People who love their job. Their job fits. Because when you have a job like that it is like you never go to work at all.

When you're a kid one of life's biggest excitments and biggest torments is the age-old question "What do you want to do when you grow up?" But I found in college and university circles not too many people who had yet begun to grasp the full extent of the meaning of that question. And here in the working world, I still find most struggle with what they're doing and even a lot of the time not knowing what they want to do. More times than not feeling we have no options rather than too many options. Being trapped.

I've been thinking alot about such things lately. Employment. What it is. What it should be.

It's 12:16pm and I'm emotionally ready for the work day to be over.

Flashback Friday: 1990

This lovely picture is from a cross-country skiing trip that my class had the option of participating in back in Grade 6. I was a keener and had received my own cross-country skiis that year or the year before for Christmas, so I was of course an expert.

However, what you will note from this photograph is not my great skiing ability, but instead my great jacket with a matching useless scarf and permanently rolled-up sleeves. My Mom bought me home that jacket from Wool-co (this was in the pre-Wal*Mart days). It had the smallest neck in the world and I could never zip it up all the way. And the scarf was bizarre and purely decorative, but I always wore it no matter what.

That kid in the background with the white jacket and the flourescent orange hood, that's Stevie Peters. I remember wondering who on earth would want a white jacket, I just had white rolled-up sleeves and they were always dirty. Stevie always borrowed my racoon markers and that was, to me at age 11, the most annoying thing on the planet.

But, my favourite person in this picture is the kid behind me, the one with the red earmuffs, the kid who doesn't have a clue how to ski at all. :)

Thanks to Megan for the flashback idea.

88 Strong

Today is my Gramma's 88th birthday. And in three days I'll be the exact age she was when she got married. I always thought as long as I got married at or before the same age she did (almost 28), I'd be safe and normal.

But anyways, this post is about the wonderful woman my Gramma is, and not the fact that I'm not going to be normal any more. ;)

Many of my most vivid childhood memories are from, and one of the things I used to look forward to most as a kid, was the week or two each summer we would pack up the van and take the day's drive to my Gramma's house and farm for a visit/vacation. Visiting her was always like a step into the past full of memories and stories and wonderful fun things that grandmothers and grandchildren should share together.

She is a strong valiant woman whom I've always looked up to and always hoped to be like. One of my greatest regrets about leaving the west is the fact that I'm no longer a day's drive or two away from a wonderful visit with her.

Thankfully telephones have been invented. And that she still has her old rotary dial phone to answer.

It's March

Happy March 1st everyone. I decided it was time for a new template. I'm not sure that I'm done tweaking and modifying it yet, but here are the details:

Template basis from: Blogger Templates, "K1"

The design factors I wanted to incorporate were:
- Top logo
- White background
- Plain font
- Blogger comments-enabled
- Post-page enabled

This template seemed to have all of the features that I wanted, and only required minor tweaking to get the look I wanted and fix up the sidebar.

There are a few issues with this template that I'm not sure how they will play out:
- The Blogger nav bar at the top has been disabled with this family of templates.
- The comments have to have everyone enabled to comment on. In a spamming world, I'm not sure about this.

Overall, this template has a lot more "gibberish" than the other templates that I have worked with in the past, so figuring out how to change things on some parts has led me to make do.

Also, as a result of installing this template, the titles for all of the posts below this one are no longer visible. Also, you cannot comment on any of the comments below this one on this page for now as the Haloscan comments are not linked on this template. If you would still like to comment on them, you can go to the February Archive Page and that will allow you to comment.

Anyways, I'm trying this template out. Let me know what you think.