News Update

We've had a beautiful week of weather on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. Above zero temperatures (three nights even stayed above zero), have allowed the snow to melt away, and we only have the stuff we piled up on the edges of the driveway left on our front lawn. At least we're back into barbecue season. I've broken out the golf clubs and tried a few swings. As is my habit, I try to return to the basics each Spring and rebuild my swing on a solid foundation—that usually results in my first round of the year being my best one, with the swing degrading after that! Grip harder, swing harder!! Women's curling ended on Sunday with Canada beating the US to win the bronze medal. Men's curling started today; I'm expecting big things from Brad Jacobs and crew! They started out with a win over China in the opener. The markets have continued their distracted ways with European (Cyprus) turmoil troubling investors around the world. This marked the end of the quarter with TSX up only 2.5%, while DOW is up 11.3%—my rich brother keeps getting richer (I blame Obama!). I'm only up 3.1%, and falling well short of my quota! Like Boxer, I shall work harder!! Bus driving is going well. Our search for a newer vehicle continues. We've test-driven a few but haven't found one to match both our expectations and our budget! Wendy is starting to think about the renovation projects again. March Madness is producing the best basketball of the year, but my Jayhawks have lost out! 

Erica and the boys flew out to the prairies for Spring Break. Eric joined them in Regina; they rented a fancy, dancy Ford Expedition—great ride, but oh the fuel consumption! They enjoyed catching up with friends and family there. Rich & Sue hosted many for Palm Sunday brunch. During the week, they travelled to Kenora to check on things there and renew fond friendships of family, work and church. Today, they're heading back to their respective corners of the country. Erica, Haaken and Liam are flying to Victoria and driving up to Parksville. Eric is driving to The Pas via Dauphin. The time together passed too quickly! 

Erin and Kristian continue to fight the snow and wait for Spring in Regina. Kristian has enjoyed extra activities at the Y when school is out. He also enjoyed having his cousins from the coast around for a few days. 

Trav & Joanna keep busy with work. The truck is down, so we've been more involved in helping him get around. The coolant leak turned out to be an intake gasket; we hope that it is repaired early next week. Then, Trav will be faced with the question of whether to prolong his agony there, or trade it in on a newer vehicle. This long weekend the whole crew is off to Minneapolis to find the Easter bunny! Trav is revelling in the recent acquisitions by the Penguins and looking forward to the hockey playoffs. 

And that's about it for this week. 

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been nice and the snow is finally starting to sink away. I have begun thinking about golf season! We enjoyed our first BBQ of the season for supper this evening. Wendy travelled home in style as she was bumped to first class for the flight from Vancouver to Toronto. She also got a night at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver, and was privileged to the comforts of the Maple Leaf lounge in both Vancouver and Toronto. I just can't keep up with that! The physical symptoms of my shingles are fading, but the phantom nervous pain continues to be a bother—I hope it fades away soon. The bank crisis in Cyprus has roiled the markets all week and I took a loss as a result. She saw a doctor here about her injured ankle and was assured that it would get better—not particularly comforting! I had two doctor visits myself this week. The first was to see my oncologist who changed our comedy line: this time he assured me that it felt perfectly normal, and I assured him that it felt anything but normal! I also had a six-month followup on blood work to see whether I could improve my cholesterol levels. When they got the results, they called to express their shock and asked me in to explain myself. Apparently my numbers have improved a great deal! I told them about going gluten-free, and they told me to get more blood work in six months and prove it was so beneficial! I've been watching curling all week as the Women's World Championships are on. We lost a shocker to Scotland in the semi-finals, so we're set to play USA for the bronze tomorrow. Scotland and Sweden will play in the final. Our university basketball team lost the national final in our version of March Madness that we actually complete in March! Now, the American college basketball championships are on as well; I've been enjoying watching some of the action.

Wendy started the week with Eric, Erica and the boys in Parksville. She enjoyed taking in Liam's season ending tournament even though they lost the final 10-8. The local paper featured a photo of Liam (p.36). Liam and Erica nominated the coach for a hockey award. You can read his story and vote for him on line. The story was also covered in the local paper. The boys are on Spring Break now and have travelled to Regina where they have met up with Eric and are planning to drive down to Kenora and catch up on events there. Eric has exceeded his goal of 200 counselling hours by spring break—well done!

Erin and Kristian are enjoying having the Baileys in Regina for a few days and the cousins are spending some time together. The record amount of snow that has fallen on the prairies complicate getting around; we hope it will melt soon, but not so quickly that it causes flooding. Parent-Teacher interviews this week revealed that Kristian is surpassing expectations on his progress for the year, so they are raising their expectations. Good work, Kristian!

Trav had more truck troubles this week, so he's back in serious car-shopping mode! I am trying some intensive therapy on the truck! Joanna took my blood for the test early in the week, maybe she switched it with some young athlete! On the work side, Trav returned from his business trip to TO, and this week launched his hockey card service. Joanna continues to be his main employee! 

And that's about enough for this week.

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. It has not been a comfortable week for either of us: I have fallen victim to Shingles; Wendy has fallen! Out at the retreat in BC, Wendy slipped on some wet wood, twisted her ankle and fell onto her back. She was able to hobble through the week of retreat and has now retreated to Parksville where Erica, Haaken and Liam are attending to her every need! She is scheduled to leave there on Tuesday. 

I was diagnosed with Shingles on Tuesday, so the anti-virus meds have had a chance to take hold and I'm feeling much improved already. The affliction was on the right upper quadrant of my head, as you can see, but the lesions are scabbing over now, and the phantom pains are gradually subsiding. 

I was supposed to begin bus driving on Monday, but that has been pushed back at least one day—we'll see how it goes. Markets have been mixed: American markets continued to push forward to all-time highs, but we faltered badly midweek before making a little recovery the last two days. I was able to get some gains, but not up to my quota. Curling led off the week with Brad Jacobs winning the Brier over Jeff Stoughton. Curling also ended the week as Rachel Homan began the world championships with a loss to Scotland in Riga, Latvia. 

Eric made an unscheduled trip home last weekend to enjoy Liam's hockey tournament. That went well, as Liam's team got to the championship final before running out of gas. Erica continues with her busy work in the budget process as well as being full-time mom and chauffeur. School and even education continue apace for Haaken and Liam. Liam's team is in their home tournament this weekend and they're having fun—Erica is busy as one of the organizers. Grandma is enjoying the action. 

Erin enjoyed another week in the record-breaking snows of Regina. Kristian had his first audiometry exam in Regina. According to the tech, it was beautiful! His results mirrored those from his last check-up in TBay, and his hearing aids tested out as working—beautifully! Kiara had promising results from her kidney scan. There is no scarring from the reflux, so we hope she gets off antibiotics soon and can enjoy some trouble-free childhood. 

Trav enjoyed a business trip to TO. This just happened to align with the Penguins visit to play the Leafs (Oh happy Co-Inky-Dink!), so Trav took in the hockey game as well! Joanna had some days off as Gemma and Andrew were on March Break. I am grateful that they chose to spend part of the time attending to a poor, old invalid fellow living in this house! 

And that's about it for this week. 

News Update

Another week has passed and we have returned to the shore of Lake Superior in the Canadian Shield. We drove down on Wednesday; the roads were great and the trip went smoothly. It is good to be home again. I supervised the new driver on Monday and Tuesday; she got stuck once as she failed to make a corner, but we were able to rock it out of the snowbank. I returned to a warm welcome from the bus people here as they've had no success getting anyone to take over my run. They've worked through at least three drivers, and are currently using two guys! However, they made no mention of a bonus for me!! Next week is March Break here, so I'll be looking to start on March 18th. We started the week with troubled markets, but strong economic data overcame other concerns and we had a very good week. The US markets are doing much better than the TSX as the DOW is up nearly 10% already this year while TSX is up only 3.2%. I blame Obama! It's been Brier curling all week. My favourite Kevin Martin struggled with understanding the new rocks and started off 1-4; even though he recovered to run the table to 7-4, it was not enough. Howard, Stoughton, Gushue and Jacobs are in the playoffs which started today with Stoughton beating Howard to advance to the final, and Jacobs beating Gushue to advance to the semi-final tomorrow. Wendy flew out to Regina on Friday and continues her trip to BC today, on her birthday, for a Ladies Retreat next week. 

Eric made a surprise trip home this weekend to take in Liam's hockey tournament in Victoria. Everyone was glad to have him back even though it was a brief visit. Liam's team is having a good tournament. 

Kristian had Thursday and Friday off school and enjoyed being in the Y Day-Camp. He was able to swim and enjoy various other activities there, making new friends and having a good time. Erin and Mark took in more of Eric's hockey games on Tuesday evening and this afternoon. 

It was good to get back in touch with Trav & Joanna. They've done a good job of taking care of the driveway and house while we were gone, and most of the plants survived! Thanks, guys! Trav's hockey team (missing their 50-goal scoring captain) lost out in the first round of the playoffs. Sorry about that! Joanna's soccer team finished their winter season—they won first place! Congratulations! 

And that's about it for this week. 

News Update

Another week has passed—our final week on Lake Wascana in the middle of the prairie for this trip. I have finished bus driving as of Friday, but I will be riding along with the new driver on Monday and Tuesday. She has been riding with me most of this week. Unfortunately, they are not letting her use a flat-front bus, and the longer wheelbase on the regular school bus will not make some of the turns on my route, so we've been working to redesign the route and hope we've made enough adjustments. She's a beginning bus driver, so Monday will be an adventure! The markets have been troubled this week with the Italian election concerning investors at the beginning of the week and the US sequester dropping another bomb at the end of the week. Still, after the whipsawing, the overall result was basically flat and even a little bit to the green side and I made a small gain. The car has continued to have issues; this week, it was a tire that seemed to have a slow leak. I took it in to Kal-Tire and they noted that it had a lump on the sidewall and refused to put it back on! Fortunately this was Kerry's shop, so he rounded up a replacement pair at a good price and we got those installed on Thursday. At least you can't say the car is 'nickel 'n diming' me to death—it's more like $200 at a time! I got in one curling game this week; I was assigned to be skip. I don't think I've done that since I left Earl Grey in 1977! Without the sweeping, it turned out to be cold work, but I had a good game and we won easily.  I have been very pleased to have this opportunity to get back into curling which I haven't done since I broke my left ankle out in the Okanagan. Wendy has been working to justify her new Costco membership! The Brier started today; the big three favourites going in are: Kevin Martin, Jeff Stoughton and Glenn Howard. I'll be cheering for Kevin Martin, with sentimental nods to Brock Virtue of Saskatchewan and Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories. 

Erica has been very busy with meetings related to the new budget; she doubts that she has had a solid hour at her desk all week. However, she also received an invite to a conference where Trevor Linden is a keynote speaker—take that Eric! Eric has been accumulating counselling hours; he's currently at 174.25 on his way to the 280 requirement of his practicum. Haaken keeps at his school work and music lessons. He continues to express his contentedness with the move to Parksville. He is planning to begin doing reviews of TV shows and post them on YouTube. We'll be watching for his debut in the coming weeks! 

Liam has begun working with a tutor twice a week; progress is noted on homework completion and quiz scores, so his academic side may be on the upswing! His hockey team continues to play and practise even though the regular season is over, so he isn't losing his conditioning! 

Erin and Kristian have been over regularly this week, so that has been nice. Kiara and Kori are here this weekend. We went out with the whole crew to a hockey game on Friday night featuring Erin's little brother, Eric, who is playing AAA Midget hockey in Yorkton. Eric scored a goal, but also got hurt; however, they won, so I guess it was all right! 

We have been able to FaceTime with Trav & Joanna, so we caught up a bit on life in TBay. His hockey team is heading into the playoffs now. After the slump, they finished the regular season in third place and now begin the playoffs. Business has been going well; the photography side has really built up and Joanna has been hired on part time (no benefits!). Joanna's soccer team continues to lead the league and she's now looking forward to spring league. 

And that's about it for this week.