Archive: April 2007

A week ago I was starting to help snow melt by moving it around.

Today, I look outside and I see a new layer of snow. April is supposed to be warm according to the farmers almanac, but the prediction for this week is COLD...

Hoping our week in Fairmont will be warmer...

Watching Al Gore's video.

Surely we, as a global community need to do something. The question is "what?"

What will reverse these trends? Are they even reversible? 

Al Gore sounds like a doomsday sayer, but where are the answers? 

I have tuned up the comment display so the original post shows. A bit more meaningful, I think.

Let me know what you think. 

The nice weather today caused a lot of snow to melt in my northern faced backyard. Helping it along with a hose is gratifying also.

It seems spring is late. Some spring bulbs are actually forcing themselves through ice and snow. Through snow I have seen before, but not through ice...

Being gone next week, I expect all snow and ice to be gone from the backyard when we come back on the 22nd. 

We are again taking Brenda and Doug's spring spot.

I am thinking of investigating these timeshares. Ideas are most welcome. 

After 9 hours we finally made it to the Fairmont Vacation Villas. Traveling with two vehicles and a 4-month old takes a bit longer than the normal 6 hours.

Drove all the way myself. Two years ago Cecile and Vincent took turns. What a difference between 1 year after surgery vs. 3 years after surgery. Although I have my doubts at times, I must be getting better...

Once we turned south onto highway 93, it started raining intermittently. Still saw lots of deer in Kootenay National Park. Also some bighorn sheep in Radium.

Picked up some groceries in Invermere. Cecile cooked some spaghetti and the adults had a glass of wine to wash it down.

Now I'm pooped. Time for bed!

Woke up to lovely sunshine. Going up to around 13°C today and then a bit cooler every day with some sun, some cloud, and Friday a projected 6°C with some rain and/or wet snow. Saturday warming up again as we drive home.

Haven't seen Duncan yet, but it's only noon...

No idea what we'll do yet today. Shopping for sugar, I guess. Had to borrow a bit from Alicia.

While Duncan and Monica were getting ready, Alicia was doing homework. We took her out of school for the week, but she still needs to do homework. We had Gabe for a while. Mr 4-month old is getting noisy. He discovered he has a voice and is now using it. So he was talking, smiling, drooling and spitting on us for a good hour.

When the gang was ready, we took the Westside Road to Invermere and walked around for a while. Browsed in some shops, bought some candy. A chilly wind started to pick up and that made it a bit less pleasant. So we hopped back in the van and drove to Panorama. It was the last day of skiing and they were closing for the season. We passed bus after bus leaving Panorama. Alicia counted 10 of them. You have to picture the narrow, winding mountain road, full of turns where you have to slow down to 30 km/hr and then passing those huge tour buses...

When we came back from Panorama, we had dinner at the Black Forest Restaurant. We took our time and spent a nice 2 hours wining and dining.

Back in Fairmont, Cecile, Monica, and Alicia went for a swim. I thought I was going to take a nap, but watched The Good Shepherd instead. Good flick about the beginnings of the CIA.

Today was going to be our "do nothing" day. I had not planned anything and Duncan and Monica and gang were going to the hot springs.

About 2pm Alicia asked if oma was coming with them to the hot springs. That was ok with me. I could go for a walk. So, about 2:20pm we got to the hot springs pool and everybody but me went for the water.

I walked down the edge of the creek, taking photos, but about half an hour later it started to rain. Determined not to go back the same way, I continued the trail and went back on the opposite bank of the creek. Sure was a workout for my heart. I had taken the nitro along, just in case, but not needed it.

Rain and hail did not prevent me taking photos of prairie croci, sometimes growing on the edge of a cliff. Will post a pic later.

Picked up some South African white wine from "Two Oceans". Very nice!

We're having bean soup and chicken today. I find the bean soup not great but will wait and see what the rest of the gang says. 

The bean soup hardly got any comments, good or bad. Going to have to find a new recipe...

Slept fitfully as none of my painkillers helped against the back/hip pain. Sure overdid it on that otherwise nice walk. I would have gone slower uphill were it not for the rain.

Went to Invermere to do some grocery shopping and picked up Robaxasil. It helps a bit better.

The weather was cool and a bit windy. Not great for any outdoor activity, so we watched movies, had tea with the kids, and entertained ourselves with Gabe. 

Even on vacation, one cannot escape the real drama and the media circus about this tragedy. It seems the only channel that has nothing to say about it is the weather network.

I wanted to comment on some discussion I've seen from some European sources who are obviously anti-American. Not that I am pro, anti, or whatever. Americans are my southern neighbours, some are obvious idiots and some are real good friends.

Comments like, sadly from people in my home country, "it was inevitable, with their gun laws"... 

Dutch people seem to think it can't happen in Holland. That's the reaction I witnessed in 2002 when Pim Fortuyn, about to be elected the next Dutch premier, was gunned down. "What? This kind of thing only happens in America..." How ignorant can a person be, and how ignorant can a country's attitude be, while condemning another country. These are the countrymen I used to be proud of.

Went for a walk with Cecile and Monica. Duncan stayed with Alicia, because she had not finished her homework. The walk was only a short one because I wanted to loosen up my back, but not aggravate it further.

Took Monica up the ski hill for the view. She was hoping to see bears, but no luck. To be perfectly clear, we DROVE up...

Duncan cooked some nice steaks and Monica had potatoes on the BBQ, garlic bread, salads and other veggies. Polished off a nice white wine from Mission Hill. Then we just sat around enjoying each others company and Gabe's antics.

Later Cecile and Alicia went to the pool. When they came back, we watched Tom Hanks in The Terminal. Different... 

Woke up to rain and low clouds. I'll add a picture later.

Cecile wanted to do some more shopping in Invermere, so we went there around 2PM. Duncan and Monica were going to meet us at the bakery, but we never saw them.

Bought some nice wine (same as we enjoyed yesterday) to take home, an orange/vanilla smelly candle, and a tile painting for our hallway. Enough holiday spending...

When we came back I went to soak my back in the jacuzzi tub, while Cecile went to the Hot Springs. My bath was a tad too warm so my glasses started to fog up, and I could not see my solitaire game any longer...

Cecile came home after 7PM. Turns out Alicia joined her at the Hot Springs. Turned out to be a great day for that, 13°C and no wind.

BBQ'ed some burgers. Nice, considering that Edmonton had snow only yesterday... ;-)

Off to do some packing for the trip home tomorrow.

The nonsense one can find on YouTube is baffling. I would be embarrassed to show myself doing some of the idiotic scenes that one can find without looking very hard.

Take for example this Dutch version of American Idols, aptly called Dutch Idols, or this horrible song... Not my idea of quality entertainment.

Was up at 4:30AM, waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in. Went back to bed at 5:30 and slept fitfully until 6:30. I had planned to get up at 6. Talk about a restless night...

We checked out at 9:30 and drove to Invermere to gas up. Duncan wanted to use his Petro Canada pass to get a 5 cent discount per litre. Hmmm... That must have been a whole $2 or $3 savings...

10AM we left Invermere toward Radium with sunny breaks. As soon as we hit the Kootenay National Park, we were into fog (low clouds), light rain and some light snow. This lasted for about an hour. Monica was driving the other vehicle and not enjoying it.

After turning onto the Trans-Canada Highway toward Banff at Castle Junction, it stayed dry but cloudy. Not until we left the Bow Valley Provincial Park, did we see sun again. We were beginning to see evidence of the major snow storm Alberta had while we were in BC. Beautiful snow scenes, but this is spring, right?

A little before Red Deer my lack of sleep was catching up and Cecile drove the rest of the way home. Duncan and Monica were going to have "lupper" (lunch/supper) in Red Deer, so they went off by themselves. I must have dozed about 10 minutes when I noticed the dark clouds blocking the sun. Somewhere between Red Deer and Ponoka it started to rain lightly, but the effect on the snow was noticeable, it was almost gone!

We got home about 4:30PM. Unloaded the van, got most of the gear put away and pretty much crashed for the evening.

People have been linking to images on my site without permission.

The idiots will now see an image they had not expected. I am tracking the dumb buggers! 

Google is introducing a new service called Gmail Paper. From their website:

Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.

A New Button
Now in Gmail, you can request a physical copy of any message with the click of a button, and we'll send it to you in the mail.

Simplicity Squared
Google will print all messages instantly and prepare them for delivery. Allow 2-4 business days for a parcel to arrive via post.

Total Control
A stack of Gmail Paper arrives in a box at your doorstep, and it’s yours to keep forever. You can read it, sort it, search it, touch it. Or even move it to the trash—the real trash. (Recycling is encouraged.)

Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe
Google takes privacy very seriously. But once your email is physically in your hands, it's as secure as you want to make it.

More...

Last night I downloaded "Lightroom" 30-day trial version. So today I am playing with it. Some observations:

1. I like how it handles. Rather intuitive, I have not yet needed the help file or the manual.
2. Created a web gallery and slide show of my Fairmont photos. It took about 45 minutes to create 4 sizes of 178 photos (thumbnail, small, medium, large). That's over 700 transformations of good quality, about 15 per minute, or about 4 seconds per image. Not bad if you consider the input images are in Nikon raw (.NEF) format and filters are applied with changes.
3. Either the flash or the JavaScript is doing something strange in Firefox. All other apps are fine, but FF does not refresh all parts of the screen. Could be a FF issue as I've seen that with some PDF documents also.
4. Lightroom does not recognize any Capture NX or Capture Editor modifications so you can't use both. It will interface with CS3 though, and the 2 programs know about each other's changes.
5. Flash seems more suited to smaller galleries. If you want a larger web gallery, I'd choose an html version.

Adobe sent an email with tutorials so I'll look at them next. If more comments are warranted, I will post more.

Spent several hours outside today, enjoying the nice weather. It's windy and sunny, and the plants (and weeds) are growing like mad.

All the martagon lilies are up, except the species. L. Henryii citrinum and some asiatics are up too.

Walking outside, getting a sense of peace, I focus on things I have not completed lately. Have not finished my tax return yet, just found items I needed to send out last year, some web updates have not been done... Hmm......

I'm concerned about forgetting things. My "chemo brain" phase is almost over, yet I am still plagued with forgetfulness at times. Is there a lasting effect to chemo damage, or am I just getting older?

From Wrong Diagnosis:
Loss of memory is a common symptom, particular in the elderly. Memory loss may also be associated with concentration symptoms. Many people fear a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease but many other possibilities exist, including simply the normal deterioration of memory function with aging. Other possibilities include the side effects of various medications and other medical conditions such as depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, certain brain conditions (e.g. stroke or brain tumours) and various types of dementia. Any memory-related symptoms need prompt professional medical advice to determine the correct diagnosis.

They list "Causes of Forgetfulness" and the most likely culprit in my case would be tiredness.

I'm not going to worry just yet. Just keeping an eye on possible symptoms, if I don't forget...

Finished my taxes today. Both Cecile and I are getting money back.

My refund will go toward renovating the plumbing in our house. We have leaky taps in the bath and the downstairs bathroom, and the upstairs toilet leaks when it's flushed. The house is about 30 years old, so some fix-ups are needed.