Breaking the Ice

Here I am, checking in for the first time in months. I don't have any good excuses, life has been more or less normal.

The holidays came and went, spent mostly at home, heavily infused with hockey & BBC television. We spent much of Christmas day at my parents' home and had a nice visit and too much food. The usual Christmas stuff, though we all felt the absence of our family cat Moocher, who died earlier last year.

For much of December and the beginning of January we got a taste of life as shut-ins. It snowed here in BC (and everywhere else in the country), which utterly terrified and confused us west-coasters. Winter is supposed to = RAIN. Not snow. Certainly not LOTS of snow. But that's what we got, and as we're just not really equiped to deal with it, most people stayed home from work/school/play while it lasted.

We still have snow at the sides of the roads and on the grass, but fortunately the roads are clear. I am so very glad I had the experience of driving in winter conditions in NB last winter. It helped me stay calm(ish) on the roads.

Speaking of snow and roads and all those wonderful things, I think these challenges bring out the essence of who a person is. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, most people are jerks and/or butt-heads. On the other hand, there seem to be just enough people out there who are essentially good (or that were brainwashed by Brownie Leaders to do a good turn) that the world kept on moving along with our snow-bound tires.

Not much of a post, I know, but I'll try post more regularly.

Mad Cow

The cats have gone berserk. But maybe I should start from the beginning...

A week and a half ago, our shipment of cow-ey goodness arrived. I should probably give you a bit of background on that- basically, last spring we agreed to split a quarter of a grass-fed, organic beef with my parents. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line (because my Mom let my Dad do the ordering), wires got crossed, and we ended up with a quarter each. That's 148 Lbs of beef for those of you counting. And yes, that is a heck of a lot of money that we hadn't planned to spend.

When it arrived, I was day 2 into a very bad cold- we're talking plague here- and poor Sean had to bring it all up by himself, but I helped get it into the freezer.

So we have a considerable investment of the bovine variety in our freezer. Then of course, murphy's law kicks in and... we lose power... for 24 hours. Luckily, the freezer is a good one, and we piled some blankets on top to insulate it, so all's well.

Why did we lose power you ask? Well, there was a gigantic fire on the next street over; a newly built condo complex went up in flames and the blaze spread to adjacent buildings... did I mention that we're adjacent? It was very, very scary, I was home sick and ran around packing up a bag of essentials and important documents aswell as trying to get the cats into their carrying cages in case we had to evacuate (by that time phase 1 of our complex had already been given the order to evacuate, so I wasn't even overreacting). We never did have to evacuate, but our power went out shortly after I started to relax again. Take a look at the fire for yourself below.

Anyways, back to the cats, we had some wonderful burgers from our beef stockpile (because thankfully if one has a BBQ & a flashlight, one can still cook dinner!) and the cats were going crazy begging for raw burger. I relented and they both had some, which is weird because Max usually doesn't like to eat anything other than catfood. Ever since, they've been tearing around like maniacs at all hours and I swear, our crazy downstairs neighbour is going to sue us for harassment. I think she probably has mad cow too.

Summer Vacation

Sean & I had a wonderful summer vacation visiting family in New Brunswick. At first, I was a little leery of the legendary heat and the bugs, but as it turned out, the weather was perfect all week. I won't mention the bugs.

We spent 4 days in Fredericton with Sean's sister Jody, her husband Jeff & little cutie Sawyer. Sean & Jeff got little bits of guy time here and there, and Jody even took me out to see the Boyce Farmer's Market in Fredericton. It was the best market I've ever been to, and we had a great time... even if it was 6 in the morning!

We also spent 4 days in Stickney visiting Sean's Mom & Dad. Jody & Sawyer came too, but Jeff couldn't come as he had to work. Boy, did Sawyer keep us busy! Uncle Sean soon became the clear favourite, and slept very well at night from all the exercise he got! We both marvelled at how clever Sawyer is and how much he'd grown since last Christmas. We all relaxed a bit and enjoyed the entertainment.

On the second to last day in Stickney, Don & Susan invited some more family over for a BBQ lunch. I met Susan's sisters Sylvia & Darlene (with husband Dennis), and Don's sister Sadie. I really enjoyed finally meeting them all, matching up the faces with the stories and seeing everyone together.

Our last 2 days in New Brunswick were spent in and around Moncton, Dieppe & Memramcook for a wedding. It was a beautiful and unique ceremony, and Alex & Julie seem like wonderful people. Congratulations to them both!