Saturday, January 10

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, far from my hometown! The weather has been comfortable, mostly in a tight range from 4 to 10 degrees, so we've been enjoying getting out in that! Most days have had some periods of rain, and plenty of clouds and fog. We saw some sunshine on Thursday only, so we miss that. We started the week in Nanaimo, sitting in our lovely green chairs, and being able to sing for the first time in months as my cough has pretty much disappeared! There are plenty of nice golf courses nearby, and I've visited five so far. One is closed for renovations and green repairs for the month of January, but the others all have nice practice areas as well. I've enjoyed working a bit on my short game, but my rib injury from all the coughing earlier still prevent me from making a comfortable full swing. One nearby club offers month-long memberships during the winter months, so I'm hoping to take advantage of that during February. The markets have opened the year very troubled by the falling Oil price, and the political turmoil in Greece. As a result, all indices are in the red for the month, but I've been fortunate to have made a nice gain, almost up to quota. I continue to hold most of my accounts in cash as I wait for the charts to look more promising. I am not enjoying the 6:30AM market opening out here! The Junior team closed out the World Championships with an exciting win over Russia; that was great! Curling is my main focus this week as the Continental Cup is being contested between Canada and Europe. Canada has built up a comfortable lead, but like the Ryder Cup, there are a lot of points up for grabs on the final day (tomorrow), so it's not over yet. 

Erica has completed her first week at the University of Saskatchewan. She found it nostalgic to be back on campus. The job is good, and the commute is going fine. Eric/A are enjoying the empty nest as Liam is at Briercrest and Haaken back in Qualicum Beach with us. They are trying to get Haaken's website active again as part of his professional portfolio for university; Travis has been helpful on this aspect. Haaken needs to beef up his life drawing and is working on that. Grandma has put in his name for taking inventory, so he may have some extra work later this month. Liam had an orthodontist appointment on Friday, so he's enjoying a long weekend with Papa, Auntie Sue and Uncle Richard. Eric/A headed down to Regina on Friday for a short visit, dropped Liam back at school today, and headed back to Saskatoon to spend some time with Chris and Shelley! A busy weekend! 

Erin and Kristian continue their fight with health issues and winter. In the bitter cold this week, Erin  even found her car refusing to start one morning! We still manage to keep up with them from time to time on FaceTime which is nice. 

Trav's team had a successful weekend in Superior, Wisconsin, returning with the third place trophy. They also keep busy taking care of things in Thunder Bay, in their business and other work. Gemma and Andrew are pushing toward completion of the term at school. 

And that's about enough for this week. 

No comments: