ABIGAIL'S 8th BIRTHDAY
November 18, 2006

Go here to see all the photos at Voxy Lady.

We're home (back to the snow) again, after a great weekend visiting the Grants in Innisfil.
It was hard to leave Alex... what a little doll she is! She's such a good baby - and bright too. (Not to mention beautiful.)
When you talk to her she studies your face very closely and tries to imitate what you're doing with your mouth. She loves to be talked to. I managed to make enough of a fool of myself to get a few smiles out of her... she thinks I'm a crazy old lady, I'm sure. :)

Saturday night, Dave and Tam took us to the Keg where they treated us to a big steak dinner in honour of Burnie's retirement and his birthday (as his belated gift because it happened to fall at a rather inconvenient time this year.) ;)
Alex came with us, and was as good as gold. Tam said they take her with them to restaurants all the time, and she's always perfectly behaved.

Well... I won't bother writing muh more as I don't really have an audience for this blog anyway... but here are some pictures.

"Oh Grampa, what bad breath you have!"

---

Here are some photos I took out of the van window on the drive down. (Just a few of the 200 I took!)

The End of an Era

This is a weird morning for me.
Here I am, sitting at my computer, trying to get my head around the fact that this lunch-time, Burnie will be coming home from work for the very last time ever!

I'm thinking - boy, if I'm having trouble trying to absorb this fact, I can't begin to imagine how Burnie is feeling right now, as he makes the final rounds of all the offices - throughout at least a couple of buildings - saying goodbye to all his workmates... wiping all his pictures & emails from his computer's hard drive... cleaning out his desk.... and writing final instructions for those who will be taking over his dutes.
There must be an overwhelming brew of mixed emotions churning through his gut at this moment.

We went to his retirement luncheon yesterday. The turnout for it was amazing - apparently one of the biggest crowds ever for a retirement do. I felt so proud of Burnie, as the glowing tributes to him flowed freely from each corner of the room.
I know they meant everything they said about him. You can tell when a speech is heartfelt.
There is no doubt he's going to be missed.

But their loss is my gain.
The future is about to open up to a brand new adventure for us. As sad as Burnie must be feeling at this moment, I know that he's been looking forward to this day for a long time.

Lets see... how many more minutes to go? Hmmmm I'd say about 3 hours. That is, if he can tear himself away from the place, when the time comes.
Yesterday I asked some of his buddies if they would please throw him out, if he stays too long into the afternoon. :)

She's here! She's here!

The one we've all been waiting for!

Introducing Alexandra Emery Ruth Grant, who made her appearance at 2:49 a.m., in the wee hours of this morning, October 5 2006. (One day before her Grampa's birthday.)

She's a beauty isn't she? She weighs 7 lb 14 oz and she's 21.5 inches long.

Both Alex and her Mommy, Tam, are fine.
Daddy Dave seems to have come through the ordeal relatively unscathed. ;)

Daddy has more pictures on his Flickr site at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35263305@N00/

Well we just got back from a 4 day weekend in my new favourite place - the Georgian Triangle - namely the Collingwood, Blue Mountain, Thornbury areas on the southern shore of Georgian Bay.

We were there with my brother Neil & his g/f Martine, scouting out retirement homes for us. Burnie & I are both seriously considering moving there! The area is booming right now - condos going up everywhere, & many are still affordable, although there's no doubt the prices will climb as the retiring Babyboomers start moving in. The lifestyle is perfect for retirement, with just about anything a retired person would want to do.

The beaches are amazing. The waters of Georgian Bay are a sparkling turquoise... very Caribbean-like. There are hiking trails through wonderful scenery, golf courses, skiiing (not that I would try that LOL!), fantastic restaurants & pubs (more my field of expertise), and much more. On top of that, the winters are shorter & kinder than Sudbury's.

Collingwood & Thornbury are much closer to London, where Kim, Steve & Gordie live. However, those towns are not too far from Sudbury either, & the drive will be much faster once the 4-laning is finished. If we move there, we'll be making that trip on a regular basis because it will be really hard to leave Abby & the rest of the family here.

But...
Burnie will be able to see Dave all the time, as we'll practically be his & Tammy's neighbours, less than an hour away from them & their little squirt!
Tammy, watch out, I'll be there to supervise your every move as a new Mom... that will be my job as your step-mother-in-law, you know. ;)
Just kidding... LOL!!! :)

Anyway....
Here are a very few of the nearly 100 photos I took of our trip.... mostly the waterfront because I love it so much). Burnie took pictures of the Village at Blue Mountain (a mini-Whistler) but I didn't take my camera with me that day - darn it. You'll have to see the pics he took from the gondola we rode on, up to the top of Blue mountain & down again. That was fantastic. The view from up there was breathtaking.

Anyway... there's too much for me to tell you here with my snail's pace typing.

Hope you enjoyed your shower & got all the gifts that you wanted, Tam. Sorry I couldn't make it but we had been planning this trip with my brother all summer, before I was told when the shower would be.
We've had just about everyone else in our families (other than the BC gang) spending time here with us this summer, so I only had time for one of my brothers till now. (That was when my youngest brother Andre & his wife Sharon came up to stay with us for a few days.)

I've come to the conclusion that summer is too short to fit in everyone from all the different families! Geez... well at least we finally managed a trip up to Elliott Lake to see Ralph last month! He's been asking us to go up there for years!
But then, it's not like we never see Ralph... he comes here often, in fact he stayed here with us for a few days in July too.

Once Burnie retires, & we move from this big roomy house to a dinky little place, we'll be visiting everyone all the time instead of having everyone here.
Watch out, you guys... your Dad retires in November. Get those spare rooms ready because we're going to have lots of time to spend visiting! :)

The Thornbury Marina 

A waterfront park at Collingwood 

Neil taking pictures on the beach at Collingwood 

Rocky beach & waves at Collingwood 

Gulls on the rocks at Collingwood 

Rocky shore at Collingwood 

Water's edge at Collingwood 

See the boat on the horizon? 

Steps down to beach in Collingwood 

Neil on the beach in Collingwood 

Collingwood waterfront 

"John & Marie's Emporium" in Creemore 

Burnie, Neil & Martine at the river in Creemore 

Neil, Martine & Burnie in Creemore 

Creemore Downtown 

Creemore Downtown 

Thornbury Downtown 

Thornbury waterfront 

Thornbury waterfront 

Thornbury waterfront 

Thornbury waterfront 

Has it really been 4 months since I last posted?

Hey there! Yep, I'm still alive. I've forgotten how to use this blogger thingy though.
I have some brand new photos of handsome little Gordie, who was here for a visit with his Mom & Dad yesterday, but I'm not sure how to post them up here.

Let's see if I can figure this out. Here goes:

Well, it seems this blog has a mind of its own when arranging photos. Believe me, this wasn't the way I was trying to do it! LOL!

Oh well, we had a wonderful day yesterday. Steve, Kim, & Gordie arrived about 8 a.m. just in time for breakfast. We had a good visit with the 3 of them until it was time for Steve to depart for his business trip, later in the morning.

After that, we played with Gord & yakked with Kim, until later in the afternoon, when t'other Kim & Lyndsay arrived with Sunny Bunny (aka Beans). Gordie turned on all his charms for his aunties... I think he's going to be a lady-killer when he grows up.

It was a great day!
I only wish Abby had been here too. She would have loved to have seen Gordie, but she's gone to visit her father & his family until the end of August. It seems strange not having her around. We miss her a lot.

My dream is to, one day, get all the grandkids together, but it doesn't seem too likely - not for a very long time anyway - with Kayley & Erika so far away.

This weekend we're off for a little vacation with my brother, Neil & his g/f Martine. We've been planning this since the beginning of the summer. I really feel like I need the break away from here before the weather turns cold again, when I'm stuck inside here for weeks on end at a time.
We seem to have had an unusually busy summer, with lots of things to do & a lot of guests as well.

We're going to check out possible retirement places, especially around the Collingwood area. We had planned to go as far as Pelee Island, but it's too far for just a few days' trip. We'd spend the whole time driving.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it, although I do feel bad about missing Tammy's (non-surprise, so I can mention it here) shower. Unfortunately, our plans were made before we learned that the shower would be this month.
I'll make sure my gifts get to you anyway, Tam. Hope you have a lovely time... I'll check out the photos to see what I missed.

Well, I'm such a pokey blogger that I've taken a couple of hours doing this. I'd better get to bed. :)

My vacuum is shot....







...... it's held together by Burnie's most liberal application of carefully layered duct tape!
And despite all his best & cheapest efforts to attain a smidgen of operationability...

The thing still falls apart in your hand. The sticky stuff off the old duct tape is like 8 years old at least!
8 YEARS!.....
8 YEARS....... of build-up of this stuff - that's how long the vacuum has been broken.

It has become more than useless. It has become a gall-darn sticky niusance that requires the application of baby oil to remove the gooey muck off your hands after every attempt at house-cleaning.
Forget even expecting to actually pick up some dirt!

I mean... what can be worse than when you (as much as you despise cleaning in the first place) are unable to keep any kind of a grip on the handle, or even make the on/off switch do anything?

Ok.... so..............

I'm into eBay these days... everyone who knows me knows this.

And........

I need a vacuum part.

There's this guy in Abbotsford BC who sells parts to my vacuum system cheaper than I've seen in Ontario,

so.......

I order a kit from him on Feb 28. I pay him immediately via PayPal.

Great.
He sends me an email confirming my order along with a Canada Post tracking number (which guarantees a 3 day-delivery).

He has great customer feedback, & I don't put any blame on him, even today...

IT'S CANADA POST!!!!

I don't want anyone to think I'm going off the deep end here.
I mean... the parcel, with its much needed vacuum parts, appears to be on its way here...

Ummm... well... except for the fact that it....

KEEPS CROSSING & RECROSSING CANADA!!!!

8 TIMES SO FAR !!!!!!!!
FROM RICHMOND BC TO MISSISSAUGA ON... TO RICHMOND BC AGAIN....
.... back & forth, back & forth, back & forth, back & forth, back & forth......
.... 8 TIMES SO FAR AND COUNTING!!!!!!

AND.... it is on its 9TH trip across the country as we speak!

YEAH!!! It's true! I'm not making this up! This thing IS on its 9TH trip across Canada!!!!!

It just keeps traveliing back & forth... back & forth.... back & forth.... back & forth.... back & forth.... back & forth................................................
....for more than a month now, & probably forever........

Hmmmm.... maybe it will still be yo-yoing across the country decades from now.

Luckily, my eBay seller said he would send me another kit. I hope this one takes the less scenic route. :)

I want you to see the screen shot I took of Canada Post's tracker today... even though I believe it's going to get even crazier than you'll see here. Click on the picture to see it enlarged so you can read it.

Much to my surprise...

When I decided to log in here today, who knew there actually would be replies to my posts?!
Heck if I'd known there were going to be responses, I would have looked sooner, and acknowledged them long before now!
Sorry if anyone thought I was ignoring them. I'm not what you would call a regular blogger. I have enough trouble staying up to date reading other people's blogs. (Now that the whole fan damily is writing them!)

Thanks for the input guys!
And I'm very happy to make your acquaintance, Lyndsay #2! I've been a fan of your blog comments for awhile now. ;)

Anyway... I thought I'd better bring you up to date on the name issue.

Turns out the little fella knew his original name all along. I did a test "call" the other day.
I waited until there was no sign of him around, then I went into the bathroom in the centre of the house and called him.
As soon as I shouted "Gerry! Here Gerry!", I heard a thump somewhere in another part of the house, and then the bump bump bump of his big clodhopper paws plodding down the hall & into the bathroom.
(You should see the size of his paws btw... which, as we speak, I have to keep peeling off the keyboard!)

Turns out he answers to Gerry. I hadn't expected him to know his name at only 4 months of age, but he does seem to be a smart little gaffer.q1woi <---- That last bit was Gerry's comment.

It's Gerry with a "G" rather than a "J", as Lyndsay has pointed out to me. That's how it's spelled on his adoption papers.

Gerry is the equivalent of a hyperpactive 4 year-old boy. He only stops moving when he's in a deep sleep. He's into everything - almost simultaneously, as his attention span is even shorter than that of a 4 year-old boy with ADD.
I've had to clean soil off the den floor from the big plant everyday. He gets in there - as you saw from the photos - and throws the dirt into every direction. He's recently discovered the joys of climbing that tall plant, too.

With his way-too-long lanky legs, & huge, snow-hare-like paws, he's a clumsy as a bull in a china shop. He falls down from things regularly, either because he misjudges distances for jumps & lands on the floor, or he skids across desks & other surfaces & shoots off the other end - and lands on the floor.

He & Cleo are showing some minor signs of beginning to accept each other, but there are still lots of scuffles, which, I think sound nastier than they really are.

Yesterday, they discovered a mutual interest - cardboard boxes. They actually had fun playing the "poking-the-paw-through-the-hole" game with each other for awhile, until they remembered that they don't like each other.

Today, there was another momentary lapse of hatred when they learned how much fun it is to peek-a-boo each other though the slats of the laundry basket.

Well... enough boring you with my kitty tales. Things have become ominously quiet. I'd better go check upstairs. :)