Buonjourno

We have found ourselves a little internet cafe and thought that this would be a good time to create a new post.

We're having a wonderful time. The weather has been great for the whole week and a half since we've been here. The food is amazing although I think I like the cappuccini in Winnipeg better than here. They're never hot enough.

We finished the biking part of our trip and now our butts (can I use that word on a family blog?) are getting a much deserved rest. We have seen the most amazing sights and when we get back, I'll post some pictures.

The biking was a huge challenge for me. It felt like I did a marathon every day but it was all worth it and I would do it again without a doubt.

I hear Dixie's doing well and the mice are beginning to party at our house so everything is normal. I think Dixie and I will be doing some mouse hunting when I get back.

Wes says (and I agree) that this trip has exceeded our expectations. The only thing missing is those people nearest and dearest to us. Boy would it be nice to have them all here!

Gotta go now.

Ciao

Arrivederci

The bags are being packed.
Last minute instructions have been given to those who will be left behind.
Some laundry and cleaning is being taken care of right now.
We're ready.
One more sleep.

I won't be posting for about 3 weeks, although if I get to an internet cafe and find that I have the time I just may post a thought or two...

Have a great September!

Ciao

Happpy Birthday Wes!

Another year older, another year wiser and better looking each day.

Happy birthday my love!

I wasn't going to post anything else because it would just repeat what I said last year but I had to say something once I saw the picture. Take a look at those sunglasses. Are they cool or what! That's one of the things I love about Wes. He does care about how he looks but is also willing to use what he's got, not really caring what people think. He was proud of the fact that these sunglasses were listed at $12.00 and were on sale for only $8.00!

Thankfully, I was able to convince him to get some new sunglasses.

What a Gift

They told me to be at Michele's at 7:30 and we'd head out from there for the birthday gift from my sisters. The appointment was for 8:00 PM.

They're not usually too secretive but they seemed to want to keep this a surprise for as long as possible. I can trust my sisters so I was pretty sure that they were not taking me for liposuction, or botox injections or an eyebrow lift. I didn't think it was a manicure or pedicure because although that would be lovely, I thought my sisters would want to give me something more permanent for my 50th birthday.

We went to an older area of the city. Not exactly dangerous but certainly a place where I'd probably not want to carry a purse while walking on the sidewalk at night. Some of the houses looked, um, unloved and uncared for but the one we approached actually looked cute, with lights on and lovely filmy curtains in the front window.

We knocked on the door and a pretty, funky young woman answered. She looked familiar to me but I couldn't remember where I'd seen her before. I thought that she had an artistic look about her so maybe that was what was familiar. Michele joked about a Thai massage and we (well, I) giggled nervously. Ha ha. Thai massage. That's a good one. You two aren't leaving me here are you? She seems nice and all but I sure don't want to get naked and be walked on while you guys are watching or leaving. There's a limit.

I still hadn't figured out why we were there so they spelled it out for me. "We are commissioning these people to create a unique piece of jewellry for you."

Wow! I have NEVER commissioned ANYTHING! I felt so...cultured. And honoured. And loved.

It was then that I remembered that I had seen her and admired her beautiful work at the Folk Festival this summer. She showed us what she had, we saw her little workshop and we talked about colours, metals, and the things that I liked. She seemed to understand me and her preliminary sketches affirmed that. We talked about swirls and colours, pinwheels, stars, flowers, glitter, shiny, gold, silver and all sorts of things. And she told us that she has an idea of what she can do. I could just tell that she could see the finished product in her mind although she warned us that these things will often look a little different than expected because of all the different colours, metals and finishes that are put together. I think that is one of the great things about this whole process. You put all the things you find beautiful into something and the artist creates a piece that has never been created before. The finished product is a surprise and more beautiful than what you first expected.

So, in a few weeks, I will be wearing a beautiful, unique necklace and earring set that was created by a gifted artist, commissioned by my sisters, just for me. It doesn't get much better than that.

Delighful.

First Day of School

Then:
Back pack containing pencil crayons, markers, erasers, inside shoes, pencils, box of Kleenex, lunch box (crackers & cheese, fruit roll up, apple, juice box)

Now:
Purse containing cell phone, lip gloss, driver's licence, body spray, make up. Does not contain food other than a pack of gum or a favourite type of candy

The blogging world has been quiet for the last few weeks. I have had such a delightful (I love that word. I'm going to use it more often) summer and haven't felt too inclined to write about it. I've just been enjoying it.

Life is getting back to normal these days. Mauricio, from Brazil came last Wednesday and Medardo, who was here last year, came on Saturday night. They have already been to Polo Park, The Forks and out for a movie. Last night they came home with 2 friends, who are also international students. I don't know where they meet these guys because school hasn't even started yet. There must be something, a smell or sound, that they all emit so that they can recognize each other.

Tim is enjoying his work at Starbucks. It's so good to see him enjoying what he's doing. He was having trouble motivating himself to get to work when he was with the construction company.

Kristen will be starting at U of Manitoba on Tuesday. She too is excited.

Of course, this week will be another full one for me as I am preparing for our trip to Italy. We leave in 6 days and are both really looking forward to it. We will be stopping for several days in the Netherlands and spending some time with our extended family. The opportunity to just "drop in" for a few days is a gift. It will be a great way to end our Italy trip.

Ciao!

Purging and Cleaning

It's strange but it seems like my sister and I end up doing the clean-up/purge/cleanse thing at the same time. She now has a large claw foot bathtub in her front yard. I have 3 garbage bags by the back.

Today, we moved Tim into another bedroom. I just love doing that because the bedroom that he just vacated is now spiffy clean and absolutely clutter free. His "new" bedroom is the same. He was quite willing to dispose of some of his collection stuff which made this clutter-hater happy. In the end, we had 3 garbage bags for the trash and 2 bags for the thrift store.

I just realized that more than half of the bedrooms in this house are dust free and clean.

Dixie had a very busy day too. Tim's old bedroom is on the 3rd floor of this old house and she had to follow me every time I went up or down the stairs, which was often. She also had to sniff everything. EVERYTHING. Now and then she'd sneak something and race down the stairs to get away from me. Most often it's underwear. She prefers Kristen's but is also happy to grab Wes's too. Yuck. And they say dog's mouths are cleaner than human's. Not my dog's.

I'd love it if every room in this house could be clutter free and spiffy clean at the same time. Maybe some day but for now, I've got to take a break.

I just downloaded a new program (Google Earth) on my computer. It may have not been such a good idea b e c a u s e e v e r y t h i n g i s soooooooooooooooooooooooo slooooooooooow n o w.

Sometimes, life gets in the way of our plans

I got a phone call today from my aunt in Holland. Her name is Mies and she and I share the same birthday, although she was born 24 years before I was. It was wonderful to hear her voice and to talk to her.

Mies has travelled a fair bit and lived overseas for a while and as a result, her command of the english language is very good. When she and her husband were here visiting us, I loved going out with them because they seemed quintessentially British, even though they are Dutch. They are delightful people.

Unfortunately, Mies was the bearer of bad news. It seems that her sister, the aunt we were planning to visit in Northern England in a few weeks is not well. Not well at all.

So, we're going to have to change our plans. I am disappointed. One of the things I was looking forward to was having a pint in a neighbourhood pub. To see the Scottish highlands and the moors is also on my list of things I'd like to do one day. I would have loved to spend time with my aunt and uncle but of course, we never plan on illnesses and I know that she would like nothing better than to be feeling well enough to have us visit.

My travel agent (Wes) is on line right now, looking at other options. Perhaps we'll spend a few more days in Italy. We'd love to go to Venice, or spend some more time in Florence. I'm sure there's lots we can do.

My aunt will recover from this illness. It is serious but not life threatening and perhaps, another time we'll find ourselves in Northern England with her and her husband.

In the meantime, we will pray for a speedy recovery.

Who'd a Thought it...

If you would have told me a short 2 years ago that I would be cleaning up my own dog's diarrhea 3 mornings in a row, I would have told you that you were crazy.

Aaaaaaaah

Happy birthday to me....

My dear sister-in-law suggested that I need to write a better post so that she wouldn't have to leave a Happy Birthday wish on my last post (the Funeral one).

Here it is.

It was a wonderful day, with lots of wonderful people, wonderful food prepared by 2 of the best chefs in this city (my dear sisters) and wonderful gifts.

I'll post a bit more later because right now, I'm tired.

Thanks to all who made this a great day!

Playing All Day

I am playing the piano at a funeral tonight. I do not know the man who died but I do know his brother. While this is a sad occasion for the man's family and friends, I am not emotionally involved.

So, today, for much of the day, I am practising. This man was an Elvis fan so I will be playing a lot of Elvis's "religious" stuff. I am having a blast, playing old hymns.

While I was playing today, a thought occurred to me. What if I practised several hours every day and then offered my services to funeral homes around the city to provide live music? That would be a sweet job, I think. Playing piano happens to be one thing that I love and never tire of doing. And I love funerals. They are terribly sad occasions, there's no doubt about that. I know that even tonight, I'll have to keep my emotions in check because I know that I will be moved. I always am.

At a funeral there is no denial. People for once in their lives are real. There's no denying death. There's no denying the sorrow, the pain, and the emptiness caused by someone dying. We cry together. At a funeral we acknowlege that death sucks and we can finally admit that there's nothing we can do about it anymore. We surrender. Finally.

A funeral is a time where we slow down for a moment and take stock of our own lives. We wonder what people will say about us, when our time comes. Will we have made an impact? Will people miss us? How many people will show up? Have we changed the world, or at least, our corner of the world? And what about life after death? What will that look like?

I have been to lots of funerals and at every single one, whether the person was "religious" or not there is a sense that the deceased is "in a better place." Those of us who are still living find comfort in that fact. I always feel bad for the friends and family of the people who have specified they don't want a funeral. There is no opportunity to get together, to laugh and cry and remember the person who died. I think we all need that kind of closure.

Today, I'm going to do my best to help Joe and his family remember the best things about his brother. And I hope in some small way, the music that I play will bring a measure of peace and even serenity during a hard time.

Procrastination

The in-laws are coming for a little visit in a couple of weeks. My house is in need of a good cleaning so why am I posting twice in one hour?

Brandon

As many of you faithful readers of this blog know, we are going on a European trip of a life time in a little more than one month. Part of that trip includes a 7 day biking excursion.

Every time I tell anyone about biking in Tuscany, they look at me and say, "Tuscany's pretty hilly." I've been doing a fair bit of biking here in Winnipeg but hills are virtually non existent in this city-although I can successfully bike up the Chief Peguis trail bridge now, without stopping.


So, knowing that we really needed some hill training, Wes and I put the bikes on the bike carrier and drove west.


Our first stop was Spruce Hills Provincial park. The map showed a biking/hiking trail which was 13 km long. It seemed like a great place to start. As we were getting ready to start, we saw a couple of young women who were just finishing up. I asked them how the trail was and they said it was pretty good, a little hilly and took them about 2 hours. I should have questioned the fact that it took 2 young, athletic looking women 2 hours to bike 13 kilometres but for some reason I didn't. That was my first mistake.


The next mistake was deciding that I could continue onto the third loop of the trail after doing the first and second. My third mistake was forgetting that I had to get back to the starting point. Getting there was tough enough. Going back was hell. I stopped counting my mistakes after the third one.


It was hot. It was bumpy. My butt started hurting. I ran out of water. We went up hill more than we went down hill. There was one spot where there was a sign stating that you had to walk your bike down into the gully. It was as steep as a flight of stairs only it was sandy. It took all of my might to keep from sliding all the way down on my already painful petunia. As I was slipping and sliding down, I tried to keep thoughts of the fact that somehow, I had to get back up, out of my head.


If I had been in a better frame of mind (or perhaps in better shape, like a 20 year old), I might have enjoyed the wild flowers, the babbling brook and the lovely prairie landscape. However, I was not in a good frame of mind and swore to myself that I would never, ever do such a crazy thing again. My legs were killing me, my heart was pounding out of my chest and I was thirsty. Wes, who was usually ahead of me could hear my grunting, groaning and cursing

But, finish it I did. Good thing I took these pictures because I was in no mood to appreciate the beauty of anything that day. It does look like a lovely trail, doesn't it?

Ha Ha Surprised you!

I haven't been posting much lately. It's not that I have been busy or anything. I just don't think I have all that much to say.

Kristen called from work on Saturday and told Tim to ask me to call her. She had a 24 hour flu thing last week so I thought that maybe she just wanted to tell me that she still wasn't feeling good. Her request actually was that I buy the new Harry Potter book so that she could read it.

Her loving father went out to buy it and she spent 2 days reading it. I could let Tim read it now-he'll have it done in a day or two as well. I haven't started reading it yet because I know that I will not be able to put it down and everything else that I am responsible for will slide. While the hype about this book is a little extreme, I'm glad to see that a book of all things is getting the kind of attention that it is.

We have a beautiful backyard pool. I am so grateful for it. It really helps to make this hot, humid weather not only bearable, but enjoyable. We see the pool as our alternative to owning a cottage; less upkeep and not nearly as expensive. I do love Winnipeg in the summer and I think I would miss all that happens here if we were "at the lake" all summer.

Last week I enjoyed an evening out with Frank, Alisha, George, Yvonne and Wes at the Fringe Festival. It was my first time and I really had a good time. I'd like to go to some more shows this week before it's all over. The Fringe is something that I love about living in the city. It's neat walking downtown at 10:00 PM with the streets full of people having a good time.

The 2 shows we watched were at the same venue. While we were watching the first show, tickets for the 2nd show were being sold. That left us with a bit of a dilema. So Frank, resourceful man that he is, gave someone $60.00 (cash) to buy tickets for us. I was so impressed! This person worked at the pub where the shows were being held but it was a little risky to hand over that cash. The guy came through for us and we ended up with great seats. Yay Frank!

This hot weather is making it tough for us to do a lot of training for our bike trip. Next weekend we'll head out to Brandon for a couple of days in search of hills. While I know that training will make our trip in the fall more fun, I definitely am a "fair weather biker."

I would now like to write a paragraph that will fit all these random thoughts together into a concise, cohesive little piece but I can't.

The end.

Folk Festival Highlights

There are so many memories floating around in my head. I'm just going to write some of them down.

Crooked Still

Cat Empire

Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir
Chirgilchin

Randy Newman

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Ndidi Onukwulu

Ollabelle

That 1 Guy

There are a lot of unique clothes walking around at the Folk Festival. I noticed an amazing skirt, made out of ties and pointed it out to my sisters. As we were looking at the skirt, we realized that we knew the body, inside the skirt. It was non other than Joyce. She is a famous person and it seems that people recognize her wherever she goes.

The pasties. Ugh. I know someone who called them t** stickers. Crude yes. But they were ugly. I hope they don't come back next year.

Finding a great spot to watch a show.

The workshop with Crooked Still, Cat Empire, That 1 Guy and the Dhuks was the most incredible event ever. Words cannot describe what happened there. That alone was worth the price of admission. And seeing my daughter, son and nephews flushed with the pleasure of watching that show was unforgettable.

The food was great! No crappy fast food at this festival. I had a samosa, roti, roasted vegetable pannini, vegetarian wrap and a whale tale (not all at the same time).

Just laying around on a blanket, and when we got tired of that, moving onto a chair, and back to the blanket. You get the picture.

The music. Every band and individual had something interesting and unique to offer.

Every single one.

Tonight...

Tonight, I'm going to a concert at the West End Cultural Centre. The performer is Fred Eaglesmith, an old friend and classmate of mine.

Wes has a dinner engagement so he will be coming later and we were trying to decide how he could find me as it is rush seating.

I told him I'd be in the front, in the mosh pit. Wes found that comment to be uproariously funny.

One day I'll surprise him.

The Bike Trip

On Sunday, we biked for one and a half hours (25 km), up hills and down (Manitoba style hills).



Boy do I have a lot of training to do.

The two high school students who live here have finished their exams and are livin' the easy life. In just over a week they will be heading back home-Mexico for Medardo and Brazil for Leo.

They are doing what teens do, sleeping in till 12:00 PM and then staying up till about 2:00 or 3:00 AM. Last night, they kept me up. The floors in this old house squeak and the doors make noise when they open and close so even if someone's being quiet, it can sound really noisy at 2:00 in the morning.

I guess I better talk to them today. They'd be horrified to know that they kept me up last night but I need more than 4 hours of sleep a night. I really don't want to be a stick in the mud but I'm gonna be a little cranky if tonight's the same.

By my calculations, there were about 4 years in my life as a parent when the kids didn't get me up or keep me up at night. The two youngest kids didn't sleep through the night until they were 8 or so and then a few years later, the oldest started going out at night and I would lie away until he got home.

And now, Medardo and Leo, enjoying their last week in Canada before heading off to their homes are keeping me up. They won't have the freedom with their families that they have here. One night, just for fun they went to Tim Hortons for coffee at midnight. I would have loved to do that as a teen and I don't think they'll be able to do something like that when they get home. So I want them to have fun, enjoy this last week together. They have become good friends and except for a planned visit by Medardo to Brazil next January, they won't see each other for a long time. I think they are creating memories and I don't want to stand in the way of that.

But I need my sleep so I think the memories will have to be created before midnight. They'll be fine with that and I will get a few more hours of sleep.

Yawn. I'm going to try to have a nap this afternoon.

The Canoe

As mentioned in my last post, the canoe is one of the 7 wonders of Canada. That reminded me of a funny story.

We were camping one summer in Northern Ontario. We had a tent trailer, 4 children, enough bikes for all and on top of that, we also brought along a canoe. We are notorious for taking EVERYTHING along when we camp.

I'm not sure just where the canoe came from. I seem to remember that someone gave it to us. And no wonder. That thing weighed a ton! But it was a gift and we were camping in the great Canadian north so we had to take it along.


Tim and Kristen must have been 4 and 6 at the time and very excited about going in the canoe. In fact it was all they talked about as soon as they learned that they could "have a ride." They were none too patient as we set up camp and were disappointed that they would have to wait until the next day before their inaugural paddle.


There was no way all 6 of us could fit into the canoe so we asked some friends who were camping with us to watch our two older children while we prepared to take the 2 little ones out. First, we had to drag the thing (remember it weighed a ton) to the water's edge, all the while trying to keep Tim and Kristen in our sites at all times. If there were walls to bouce off of, they would have. They were beside themselves with anticipation. As a matter of fact, there were quite a few campers watching us; Wes and I grunting and groaning, Kristen running around us like the Tazmanian Devil and Tim bouncing along like Tigger. We made quite a spectacle.


We got to the water's edge, put the life jackets on and proceeded to enter the canoe. We had to remind the kids that they couldn't jump because if you've been in a canoe, you know they're pretty tippy. Wes held it steady while I helped Tim in and then Kristen. Then I hopped in.

That was when all hell broke lose. Kristen grabbed the sides of the canoe with a screech. When Wes let go of the canoe and hopped in, the screaming began in earnest. Both kids were terrified. "We're gonna tip! LET ME OUT OF THIS CANOE! I DON'T LIKE THIS DADDY. LET ME OUT! People left their campsites and rushed down to the riverbank to see what was going on, concerned that we were drowning our kids. We tried to shush them but there was no way they could stop. They were pretty hysterical and tried to climb over each other to get to me. Of course, that made the canoe even tippier and caused them to scream louder.

Wes managed to paddle about 4 metres or so before we headed back to shore, dragged the canoe onto the river bank and hiked back to the campsite. I seem to recall that the whole excursion lasted about 4 hours.

We left the canoe behind. Never even took it home.