I'm not sure if these are Alberta things or just Peace River things. Maybe it's applicable to the entirety of this half of the country - I don't know - but I feel compelled to share a few findings with you all about the people here:
- No one says "eh" at the end of a sentence. MANY people, however, say "hey" at the end of a sentence, in the same fashion that we all expect "eh" to be used.
- Hot dogs aren't hot dogs. They're smokies.
- Many many people keep their cars running for long periods of time. This could be attributed to the cold on some days, but now that I've been here for a while I'm seeing cars left running at the grocery store and such in just minus five degree weather. There should really be a program put in place by the government here to educate people about just how bad that is. I made the mistake of telling someone they left their car running once, thinking they did it by accident. I was stared at like I had two heads. Weird.
- Anyone who comes over for coffee says 'cream'. I'm wondering if I'm insulting them when I pull out our 1% milk...
- Ok this one is great and is specific to Alberta....CKUA. Yes, it'a a radio station. you simply have to check out this station - my god what a perfect thing. It's one of the major contributors to my love of this place. Completely ecclectic, you never know what they're going to play, and the djs program their own stuff! They go down to the vaults and pull up whatever they want before they go on, kind of like WKRP. Amazing. The djs' taste is excellent too - Michael Frente, Etta James, The Band, Tom Waits, lots of Canadian and local talent, lots of folk and blues, you name it. There are many excellent regular programs too, like Baba's groove, Roy's Record Room (I'm listening to now - a two hour special on Buddy Holly!) Mulligan Stew (remember Terry David Mulligan from City TV and Much Music? He's been hosting this two hour show for many years now) and so many more. I HIGHLY recommend you check out this station if you can. Apparently they're online as well. I am sure I'll never find a better radio station anywhere.
And now for some photos:
We had a great weekend. We went to a fun fair at a local school, a birthday party, a hockey game and swimming. Threw in a couple of late movie nights with the projector in the basement for the kids too (our projector is now permanently on the ceiling in the basement and shoots an approximately eight foot image on the wall down there. Great for having friends over). These two images are from the hockey game on Sunday, which we were able to walk to from the swimming pool. Apparently we have a good team, but they lost the two games we've seen.
Amy decided to get her ears pierced this week too. She was very brave. You can see the desire to cry in her little eyes in this shot though. It's after the first ear was done and she's about to have the second one done. She's now very happy and so proud of herself. They look great too!
These next shots are from the family fun fair at a local school. Amy and Sadie and I went to it, while Sherrie and Erin were at a birthday party. 
Oh and I threw this one in really just to bug Sherrie - a few of the parents from the toy library came over with their little ones today to play Scrabble and have lunch. There were six kids here (including Sadie) and it was a madhouse. It was really fun though. I know I should have been cleaning or something, but this was great!
That's all for now... I have to go tidy.
