Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Wascana. The weather has moderated and been very pleasant. I have been in training for my new bus run that starts next Tuesday; I feel pretty comfortable with it now. We enjoyed a quiet welcome to the New Year here. The others seemed satisfied to welcome it from the Atlantic or Eastern time zones, and I had to wake Wendy for a New Year kiss at midnight Central Standard Time. Our junior hockey team disappointed us with a fourth-place finish at the World Championships. Congrats to the Americans this time around! The NHL continues to lock out the players, and although there are signs it may be starting up soon, many are finding they don't really care very much about it. It's been another strange week on the markets as the fiscal foolishness in the US moved past their own self-imposed deadline. Then, part of it was settled retro-actively and the rest was postponed! What a way to run a government! In any case, it was a shortened week due to the holiday, and we had three great days and one bad day. It turned out very well as I was able to gain double my weekly quota, but it's hard on the nerves to put up with the bounces. I have increased my portfolio buy-in to 45%. I fell well short of my annual quota last year as I only managed 8.5%; however, most of the shortcoming was due to indiscipline, greed and fear! It is true the markets did not do well as the TSX only gained 4% for the year, but my completely disciplined paper-trading achieved more than my quota, so I need to follow my strategy and keep my emotions out of it! Dad is doing well; he works out daily on his walking with either canes or crutches, and continues with regular visits to his physiotherapist as well. It's an encouragement just to observe his efforts!
Eric/A and the boys had a quiet week in Parksville. They've been busy with relaxation and rest, interrupted by times of slothfulness and with time outs for the occasional nap! They checked out Mount Washington (where I learned to ski) and found where Vancouver Island stores its snow! They may try skiing it as well. They hosted a skating/shinny part for Liam's hockey team—that went well. Eric is on his way back to The Pas this weekend—not a happy prospect.
Kristian has spent most of the week with us. That has been great! He's recovered from his pink eye, and keeps working on his two loose top front teeth. Erin has been busy with an audit at work, but we get to see lots of her as well. Mark is by from time to time, and keeps hammering away at me in Scrabble, so we had a good week with this section of the family.
We've managed to FaceTime a couple of times with Trav & Joanna. The connection has been a bit troublesome, but it seems all is progressing well back in TBay. Gemma and Andrew are completing their school break and will be back in the classroom in the coming week. Trav's hockey time is on an extended break after their most recent victory.
And that's about it for this week.
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