Way to Go, Canada!

With the end of the hockey game, the Olympics have come to a close. It was a momentous game, and Canadians from coast to coast to coast and around the world are celebrating our place on the top of the hockey world. But it was much more than that! These games (They are only games!) have captured the imagination of Canadians like never before, and we have emerged from our carefully maintained shells to celebrate our nation. This was our third opportunity to host the Olympic games, and going in, one of the challenges was that we had never won a gold medal on our native soil. Alexandre Bilodeau took care of that shortcoming, but other medal contenders were falling short.

Our sports leaders dreamed of Owning the Podium—we might not get the golds, but darn it, we were going to win more medals than the other guys. Well, by the end of week one, our leaders noticed the lack of much of a collection of medals of any colour, and, in good Canadian fashion, they began apologizing for our audaciousness. However, our athletes didn't get the memo, and the medals began piling up, a bronze here, a silver there, and then gold, and another gold, and more gold! Soon, we had almost as much gold as anyone! Wowsers! What a party! Oops sorry, we shouldn't party so much! Sorry about that! Celebration so unseemly, don't you know—not Canadian, not the Canadian way at all.

Then we achieved the twelfth gold medal. No host nation had ever achieved more! Could it be? Were we as good as others? We were tied with Norway and Russia! And then a thirteenth, no one was better than that as a host nation! Finally, when Crosby scored and gave us that wonderful overtime victory in hockey, we were the greatest! No host nation, no visiting nation, no nation anywhere had ever gained fourteen gold medals! Stand up and cheer, and never mind the tears!

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We have been well-occupied with Olympic watching, but have managed to fit in a couple of other adventures. I have closely followed the curling games, and was disappointed to see our women settle for silver when we had two shots to win gold! On the men's side we got the result we craved as Kevin Martin defeated Norway to take the gold. The other crucially Canadian sport is, of course, hockey. Our women did us proud by winning the gold, taking a hard fought win over the US. Our men are in the gold medal game against the US tomorrow, so we'll be cheering! The weather has continued very mild, and we're enjoying that.

On Friday morning, our attention was suddenly diverted to the topic of hot water as our water heater quit. This has occupied plenty of time and effort yesterday and today, but thankfully we now have the new one installed, and hot showers are once again available. I haven't had much success on the investing front this week as I couldn't seem to figure out what was going on, and only managed 0.1% gain to 7.1% for the five months I've been working this program.

Wendy got some great news this week as her medical tests came back with much improvement in both her blood sugars and cholesterol. It appears her regimen of diet and exercise is paying great benefits. And I've lost a lot of weight also! (NOT) She continues with her other programs of activities as well, so she keeps busy.

Erin keeps pretty busy with work and Kristian's activities. He had a great week with firefighters and skating as special features.

Trav continues with work and contracting. He is also doing some training in more website design techniques. His hockey team is in the playoffs now, so the season is nearing the end.

And that's the kind of week it's been.

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has continued to be beautiful. We had a bit of snow on Sunday, but the strengthening sun soon melted that away. Since then it's been a sunny-blue sky week, and we've enjoyed it.

Watching Olympic events has been a special feature lately. I've tried to catch as many curling and hockey games as possible, and we're doing well on both fronts as our teams remain undefeated, and seem certain to win medals. We just hope they win gold medals! Women's hockey will be a tough fight with their arch rivals from the US. Men's hockey shouldn't be a problem if they get down to work, but this week's overtime game with the Swiss shows that any team can defeat you if they outwork you! In curling, I'm a little concerned about the women's team. They're playing too conservatively, too safe—sure it keeps the risk low, but it also keeps the game close, and anyone can make a lucky shot to win a close game. You need to put pressure on your opponents to make a lot of good shots. Anyway, I look forward to watching how it all turns out.

On the investment front, it's been another good week. The markets have turned positive and the new strategy continues to show signs of success. I managed 0.4% gain to 7.0% total. Travis and Dean continue to work with me each morning, and that's helpful, too. And, I often manage to meet my brother on-line, so we chat and commiserate!

Wendy continues with business as usual taking care of the details of our lives. She's had more meetings, another teeth cleaning appointment, and regular workouts this week. We also had the treat of a visit with Erica as she was in town for a conference.

Erin and Kristian are doing fine. She keeps very busy at work. He keeps us busy with his activity level. He wants to talk about almost everything, and we understand part of it!

Trav's hockey season is coming to an end. If they don't win their final league game, they'll miss the playoffs, so it could be over soon. He continues to keep busy with work and the odd contract for graphic art or website development.

And that's about it for this week.

News Update

Another week of beautiful sunny weather has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. We hear of snow throughout the US mainland and wonder how it continues to miss us! Not that we're complaining, but we may be wishing for higher water levels next summer! And I won't be wishing for higher rainfall during golf season, so, just saying... We started the week watching the women's final in curling, and we end the week as the Winter Olympics begin, so TV will occupy some hours for the next two weeks, as well.

On the investment front, my prayers continue to be answered. With markets that continue to fluctuate wildly between -150 and +150 per day, we have been developing some new tactics. I have paper-traded our trading-range play successfully over one hundred times (Actually 256 times in the last four weeks, but who's counting?), so this week I put it into practice. It worked! For the first week in a long time, I was able to meet my target as I gained 0.5% to a total of 6.6%. And Travis came up with another ploy, so we've started paper-trading that one also.

Wendy keeps on the go with her various activities, classes and attending to several friends. Grandma's taxi continues to run regularly, and mom's laundry, meal and snack service is also in demand! We both continued with dental cleaning at Con College, and we still have at least one more appointment to go. It's more time-consuming working with trainees, but the difference in cost from $500 to $20 makes it well worth it!

Kristian has been fighting a cold for the last while, but he continues to attend school and day care. This week was a busy one with Valentine's Day parties. Erin continues to be busy and happy with her work at Budget.

Trav's team had a successful hockey tournament last weekend as they only lost one game. This weekend they're in another local tournament.

And that's about it for this week.

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The clear, sunny weather has continued to make for a pleasant winter with very little snow.

Investment work continues to occupy our mornings. My prayers were answered as up days early in the week allowed me to sell my bad investments from last Friday at a profit. Then things went south, and perhaps I was also blessed with wisdom to avoid making any buys in that environment! As a result, I managed to gain another 0.2% under difficult circumstances, so we look forward with fresh courage. I've also been watching the national women's curling championship, but our local team lost out in the semi-final this evening, and our other sentimental favourites from Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories lost out earlier.

Wendy keeps busy visiting several friends and organizing our lives. Grandma's taxi provides frequent rides for Kristian back and forth to daycare as Erin's schedule calls for long days. We have also begun a series of appointments to get our teeth cleaned at Confederation College, so that's quite a cost saving. She has also been busy with laundering and mending the jerseys for Trav's hockey team.

Trav had a good weekend in Albert Lea MN with his hockey team. The team did well, and a highlight for Trav occurred when he sang our national anthem for the hockey tournament crowd. He is in another tournament this weekend here in Thunder Bay. Again his team is playing well, so they're in the playoffs segment of the tournament now.

Erin keeps busy at Budget, and at various school, daycare and speech therapy appointments with Kristian. He is talking more and more, and often comes up with little phrases we haven't heard before.

And that's about it for this week.