creativity going on

I'm currently making a new parang (Malaysian machete) because I left mine in Ontario and I need it for pruning the shrubs and such around the house. I befriended a blacksmith named Doug and he's taking me through the knife-making process. He basically does all of the hard work, and I do little bits here and there. It's coming along nicely too, as you can see in these photos. The steel I'm using is from a common wood file, just reshaped in the forge. I did a bit of forge work in university, but forgot how fun it was! Quite tiring too.

This is an identical file alongside my creation.

It's clamped down while I file the blade.

The lanyard ring was Doug's idea: It's the long part of the file (you know, that goes into the handle) and the twist to it is a nice homage to the southeastern Asian influence - it looks Indonesian or Malaysian.

And today Sadie and I made shortbread skull cookies!

We had extra green icing after making cookies for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Erin's class, and I always wanted to make skull cookies....

Cool!

And in case you didn't notice, there are advertisements on the right side of the page now. If you click on them, I get sent money! so click click click away, and make sure you visit here every day!

counter!

Hi everyone

I have no idea how to put this counter anywhere else in the blog so I'll just post it and that'll tell me how many visits I get! There is a new posting with new photos below this, by the way...See ya

At long last - another update!

Well these seem to have come out in the opposite order that I chose them, but I suppose it's all the same. Here's the news, not in chronological order:

This is how Z often sits in the car. He likes to get up on the seat and cuddle with Erin. It's always Erin - he really likes her.

Amy and I went out on Sunday morning before the others got up. We sat in Tim Hortons and wrote letters. She's not smiling here because it's so sunny. I took this from outside.

Sadie's gymnastics class. They're being little birds here, and the hoops are their nests. So cute!

We went to Edmonton for Sherrie's birthday. Here are some pics from that trip:

Amy at the water park

Sadie at the water park

The wave pool

Erin at the water park

Roller coaster

Om this one has a funny story. Turns out Sadie was just tall enough to try the go carts. No problem, says I, as the young guy running it seemed to have it all under control, and he'd be able to help Sadie out. So when it's finally her turn to get strapped in, over comes this older gentleman who doesn't look as energetic as the younger guy. He was replacing him on his shift. So in gets Sadie, and the older gentleman instructs her on how to drive. What a laugh. She got it, but man oh man did she ever not get the finer points of driving. She basically could accelerate, and could stop, but steering was a bit of a problem. She kept crashing! Every time she'd go by, the girls and I would wave to her, and she'd wave back, then we'd hear a thud or a crash, and the poor old fellow would go running by in her direction, to straighten her out. This kept happening over and over and over again: Sadie'd drive by waving, then the crash sound, then the guy would run over to where she was. Over and over again! It was hilarious - like a cartoon.

The bumper cars were a real hit with the girls.

Amy's favourite was the big swinging ship. You can see that there weren't too many people at the fun park when we were there.

This is the girls outside of the Royal Alberta Museum. They had a lovely time there.

This is at the pool at the hotel. The girls had a blast playing mermaids in the pool.

There was a big potluck banquet for all of the girl guides and their families for Baden Powell's and Mrs. Powell's birthday. That's not a real fire in the middle, but it was a pretty cool way to have a campfire indoors.

We still like going for hikes.

Sadie and I took Sherrie out for lunch on her birthday.

Lovely Sherrie.

This is Amy and Sadie getting ready to go down a mighty steep toboggan hill at my friend's house. Amy has nerves of steel man! I was totally afraid to go down myself, and she was doing it head first and was the first to go down too.

My beautiful guitars at a gig I was playing in.

Sadie at Erin and Amy's school. When I go, she goes, and I was teaching a painting class for one day a week for a month.

sunday night

Sorry - no photos today.

I've been a bit out of the picture, so to speak, lately and haven't been up to taking many photos. I've had surgery, you see; Four procedures to be specific, all to do with improving my breathing and letting me sleep better at night, get more oxygen, and hopefully reducing my blood pressure. So far so good; I'm recovering well, have even lost some weight and am definitely breathing better, though my right nostril is still quite stuffy - the doctor tells me that is due to the cold I've got. My blood pressure has been lower, but that could be because of the meds I've been on after surgery. I've got my doc's permission to try abstaining from my blood pressure pills to see how it goes and I'll be sure to keep you informed. Keep your fingers crossed! I'm hopeful that all will be well in about a week. The nasal rinses are really quite enjoyable, once you get over looking at so much blood and mucus coming out of your nose...

The girls are great, and are doing very well. Erin's got a bit of a cold, but not too bad. They were absolute angels with one another while I was in recovery and helped take care of each other when I was a bit out of it. Sherrie's been to Calgary last weekend and again this week for three days. It's the first she's been on the road since before the holidays. They especially enjoy going to Brownies and Sparks on Monday nights and gymnastics on Wednesdays. School is going well, and I'm going in every Friday this month to teach painting!

Sadie's really growing up fast; she's much taller now, but still cute as anything, charming people all the time (the other day at the parent link drop-in centre, one of the moms was just chatting her up, asking her about everything. After they were done, she turned to her friend and said "I just like hearing her talk". I was tickled. )

Erin is just the little fashionista these days, modelling and experimenting with her hair all the time, and Amy's just too into her DS that she got for Christmas - at least it keeps her away from the TV! She's actually very good about putting it away when we say she's had enough, but if she could, she'd be on that thing every hour of the day.

I've finally found a band! Well, they've asked me to sit in for their guitarist who can't make the next gig, but it sure is nice to be playing with real people again! It's largely a cover band, with a few originals, mostly country and rock. A very good outlet for me.

Sherrie's doing yoga on Sunday nights and Curling on Tuesday evenings. We're both happy and healthy these days. I'm still sending to publishers, and will let you know if any bites happen.

That's all for now - I'll have photos next time. Take care.

Got Snowshoes

They're really cool. Allow me to walk up the mountain at this time of year. It's lovely.

Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! We're having a lovely time here for the holidays. Here are some pics:

our little tree. It's Sherrie's old one from Hong Kong, and has been our little tree ever since we met. It's smaller than the bounty of presents, but it's our little tree and I hate to think of replacing it.

We did a lot of gingerbread house making. There are scattered gingerbread house photos within today's posting; you'll see them as you scroll down. Due to the large number of photos and vids I'm putting up today, I'm not organizing them - you should see how long it takes just to upload them, nevermind editing! So forgive the mixed up order these are in.

Me at my favorite Peace River restaurant, Boston Pizza!

Sherrie baking up a storm

That's Sadie in her class performance at the Christmas Concert this year. She's seventh from the left, in the red dress.

Sadie's gingerbread house. The little marshmallows are snow.

Erin skating on Christmas Eve.

Our beautiful girls.

The girls went to a pirate-themed birthday party shortly before the holidays.

That's us in Shane and Jody's kitchen. You can see that the kids are all eating in the background. We went there for Christmas dinner this year - had a lovely time. Three families were in attendance: Us, the Kremsaters, and the Wedderburns. Six adults and nine children in all!

Voila!

I'm so proud - had to put in lots of views....

Lovely Erin helped Lovely Sadie by putting the icing on for her while Sadie stuck candies.

Amy doing her house.

Beautiful hiking.

I love this photo. I just had the camera at the right time - it's very spontaneous. I believe it's dinner time on this past Monday night. We were having the neighbors over for refreshments so I had the girls eat at the counter, as the dining room table was all set up with snacks and goodies. I just thought it looked so nice, the girls so happy together, eating together, sitting at the counter together with the tree in the background and Christmas music playing.

Erin's house - I stole my snowman idea from her.

Cookie overload!

My first attempt at a gingerbread house was a geodesic dome, to create a sphere. The main problem with it was that the shapes I baked changed slightly during baking, throwing the entire structure off. I'm going to try again next year, and will use sand paper to reshape each piece to the specifications of the plans before gluing. I'm sure it will work next year.

Sherrie's a dynamo! Bev, you'd be so proud! Those decorations were hand-cut out of maraschino cherries!

I provided some of the entertainment at the Christmas dinner. That's Steve Wedderburn falling asleep behind me.

Amy's gingerbread house.