News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been very comfortable, and I've managed to get over to the golf course several times! I'm trying to get my game in shape for a trip to Dallas in October, where my brother and my nephew are waiting to beat me up! Wendy has pretty much completed upgrades on one side of the door—it's looking promising. I have begun work on my dust management plans for the shop. But now Wendy has decided it's time to add crown moulding in the bedroom and family room downstairs. So, dust control to the back burner; crown moulding to the top of my agenda! We continue to use the hot tub, but it also continues to frustrate as the thermostat works erratically. We'll be shutting it down soon and draining it for the winter. I managed another lawn mowing this week, and look forward to not doing that many more times! We're hearing of snow on the prairies already, so, you never know. It's been another down week on the markets, with weak US GDP data not enough to convince investors of rate cuts. Still, I was up nicely through Thursday, but then, I got Trumped on Friday. He came out with speculation about preventing investment into China! Never mind that the continual complaint of a generation of US administrations has been for China to allow foreign investment! Anyway, Friday was a deep red day, and my gains of the first four days bled away, sigh! The Blue Jays are playing out the final series of the season. There are hopeful signs for the future. The Riders dominated the Argos for an easy win in Toronto this evening. This puts them into a tie for first place in the west. Yay Riders! 

Eric and Erica enjoyed their tours around Amsterdam. Their extensive postings on FaceBook with both photos and descriptions helped us enjoy the trip as well. They have now returned to Prince Albert. Erica writes: "We are back from the Netherlands after a great anniversary trip. This week we took a journey north to see the huge dike, and we went to Haarlem to see the Corrie Ten Boom house. It was a wonderful trip. Now we are working through the adjustment in time zone. This morning we woke up at 4 AM really hungry! Haaken is working on some of his own personal animation projects and trying to figure out how to get them out to the public and gather a following. He also continues with work. Liam has completed some additional vaccinations so he now is going back to the specialist for some new medication. We are hoping this will heal his intestines so he can return to more normal health."

Kristian scored amazingly in his Sunday night bowling. I seem to recall his average topping out at about 70 two seasons ago, and about 120 last year. Well, Sunday night he bowled four games with an average of 186! Wowsers! He had a doctor's appointment to followup on his medical history. The doctor has promised to monitor his thyroid activity since that's often affected by Pendred's Syndrome. He'll need to get some blood work done for that. He missed one day of school this week with gastric distress. But, he got back for Friday and his class trip to the Science Centre. This weekend, he's celebrating his birthday one more time with Callum. Cute story, the boys approached Erin today with a request for cheese pizza for supper. They explained that they didn't want her going to the bother of preparing a supper, and then it going to waste while they ate pizza! Erin has rearranged her living area to accommodate the new cat and her climbing apparatus. 

Dog/Cat Fight in Living Room!

Lucy enjoys watching the Riders!

Trav and Joanna are here most days pumping out the customer orders. They're also back into hockey team photography for the new season. Gemma stopped by one day, so we were able to catch up with her a bit. She's enjoying her classes and feeling a bit more comfortable with university life, and the loss of so many classmates who didn't manage the transition from high school. She's an excellent student! Andrew is needing some upgrading as he starts his pilots course. His high school sciences were not up to muster for the program, so he's taking Physics—math, but all story problems! 

And that's about enough for this week. 

News Update

Another week has passed; the shores of Lake Superior continue to expand in the unexpected rainfall we're experiencing in my hometown. We hear of much rainfall to the west of us as well, and wonder whether the farmers are managing to get their crops off. This week has been more dry than wet, and we've enjoyed that, but it seems to have settled into a rainy weekend, sigh! I did get out to practice golf a couple of times. We've managed some progress on our renovations. Wendy bought a table and stools which we've installed—the table for the kitchenette downstairs, the stools for our kitchen eating bar upstairs.

New See-through Table

Island CounterTop still to come...

We tried out the new eating bar for breakfast this morning, and it worked perfectly. The kitchenette is nicely adorned with the new table down there.

Soon-to-be: Sliding Door

We've begun the next installation which is the sliding/barn door for the kitchen toward the side entry. I have the hardware installed, and Wendy has begun refinishing the door. We have found a tenant for the extra room downstairs, and the door will provide an extra measure of privacy for all concerned. I had a good week in the markets. I was all set up for a great week, but then Trump happened on Friday—the Chinese trade delegation packed up and went home, and the markets turned south quickly and hard. Still, I managed almost double my weekly quota which helps me catch up a bit. We're in the final third of the season in the CFL. The Riders have the bye this week, and Calgary took advantage by beating Toronto and moving ahead of us. However, Hamilton did us a favour by knocking off Edmonton. It seemed too much to expect Montreal to beat the Bombers tonight, but they came through for us with a last second win! The Blue Jays are playing out the final sets of series of their season. They have now won three straight series which is encouraging, and they've guaranteed themselves to not lose 100 games, yay Jays! Sigh!

The Baileys are off this week on their long delayed 25th Anniversary trip. They are in Amsterdam. They just got there on Thursday and are still adjusting to the time zone change.

Old style windmills are still there!

Their plans include the Anne Frank house, windmills, cheese making tour, Corrie Ten Boom house, Canal Tour, wooden shoes and, hopefully, they can see the dike that holds the ocean away from all this land. There are many stories that captured her attention to Holland as a child! They would also love to see Starry Starry Night, but it’s not on display at the Van Gogh museum. Maybe they can listen to Don McLean's tribute to the famous painting! Liam reports that he is busy with work and touring with RU. Haaken reports he is enjoying work. He got his first paycheque this week. Now he needs to put together a budget.

Kristian was away this weekend at a church youth group retreat at Echo Lake. He got back tonight. Last Sunday, he was ill, so he did not bowl. We hope he's ready to go this week. Erin had Lucy to the vet today to get her second round of vaccinations. Erin still has her garden in operation and is hoping to harvest some more strawberries before the season turns. Kristian lost the last of his baby teeth this week. He had to go to the dentist for a filling, but other than that, his teeth are looking good, and no reconstruction is being considered.

Trav & Joanna continue to be very busy. This week, work had to take a back seat for a while as Minnie went in for surgery and dental care. She is recovering quickly, and appears to have lots of energy. Gemma and Andrew are thriving in their new school year. Their schedules are quite varied and it's hard to tell who's coming or going, or when!

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 dry-wet-dry-wet... all week. Today was sunny and dry, and I was able to get the lawn cut, and practice some golf. We've accumulated a lot of rain this summer, and the Lake is much above normal levels. Wendy has done some experimenting with keto tortillas, and has succeeded in producing some good ones that she then turned into taco bowls, so we enjoyed taco salad a couple of times this week.

Very Yummy!

Last week, I had built a fire in the fire pit, but when we finally got around to having a fire tonight, it was well-soaked, so it took a while to get going. We eventually were able to enjoy supper out on the deck including brats roasted over the fire. I've been working on the crown moulding in the kitchen. We thought we were short of material, but Wendy found a 7' length that had been hiding, and we've made it. I never done crown moulding before, and I have to admit it looks sharp.

Finishing Touch!

Wendy has resumed her barber shop singing with the Sweet Adelines. She took an appointment with her chiropractor on Friday. On Friday evening, we had a meeting with a pilot who is looking for a place to stay while in Thunder Bay. I'm still waiting for the notification of my appointment in Toronto for surgery on my eye. The markets have alternated red-green with the weather! Unfortunately, there were three red days, and I ended up red for the week, sigh! The Jays are down to their final games of the season. They are sitting with 91 losses and trying to avoid the ignominy of a 100-loss season. The Riders hosted Montreal this evening and managed a last minute field goal to escape with the victory.

Eric and Erica are trying to wrap up a few things before they leave next week for a trip to the Netherlands. This included some work on the porch so they could get a coat of primer on and seal the freshly exposed wood.

Railing, Columns are Primed

Liam is back to work at the Tunnels of Moose Jaw and practising with the new RU members who are learning their moves. On the medical front, he has now concluded all his Hepatitis shots and can go back to the specialist for some new medication that will hopefully help him feel better. Haaken has has two weeks of work now and is enjoying it. He also finished an animation project and the customer reports they are happy with his work. He’s hoping this might lead to more animation work.

Kristian had his first evening of bowling on Sunday. It seems they're bowling four games each session this year. He seemed to run out of gas, as his fourth game was not up to expectations. He is enjoying his second weekend of birthday celebrations; I thought it was only we old folks that celebrated so long! There are rumours of a third celebration being planned for next weekend.

B-Day2, with Omarion,
Cake saved for B-Day3!

Kristian had an appointment with an ENT specialist this week; he is being referred to a surgeon in Saskatoon so they can start learning about the process for a cochlear implant.

Travis and Joanna keep busy. We enjoy having them here regularly. There seem to be a lot of orders in advance of the hockey season. Joanna got new tires on her car this week. Gemma and Andrew are through the introduction to their new classes.

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 variable with sunshine one day and rain the next. I haven't managed to get out for golf despite there being several nice days. I've been working on the hot tub controls, and have finally managed to get the high temperature switch to work effectively, so, we continue to enjoy that. I'm now having to build my own bonfires, so that activity has slowed down. I've managed to get the lawns mowed again, and both are pretty much back into shape. Wendy has continued to develop her plans for the new kitchen, gradually adding shelves and moving more of our supplies and equipment into them. We enjoyed company on Wednesday as Dave & Heather stopped in to overnight with us on their way east. On Friday, I had my followup appointment with the local ophthalmologist. He has confirmed a diagnosis of bilateral pterygium, and is sending me to another ophthalmologist in Toronto for surgery to remove at least the one that is obscuring the vision of my right eye. The one on the left eye is not bothering my vision so far, but is obviously a concern for the future. Wendy did an exchange on the flooring for the back entry. It's now a brown colour instead of the grey. Naturally, since this is new material, the time clock on acclimatization has been restarted! And since it's a new colour, Wendy is reconsidering the stair nosing solution—another project onto the back burner! The markets have turned onto the "Good News is Bad News" scenario again. We got bad news on Tuesday showing the USA factory activity contracting for the first time in three years (now what happened during the last three years to slow down factory output?!), but that turned to good news for the market since it should push the FED to drop interest rates soon. Likewise, we got great jobs numbers here on Friday, but that was seen as bad news since now the BoC will not reduce rates. The USA jobs numbers on Friday were weak, so the markets took off on this confirmation of the need for a rate cut—sigh! As a result, the TSX did not have a good week, and, while I was in the green, I fell short of quota once again. The Riders won the Labour Day classic, and today they played the return engagement tagged The Banjo Bowl in Winnipeg. A two-game sweep was not to be as the Bombers completely dominated them in Winnipeg. The Blue Jays are playing out the string and featuring their September call-ups—not seeing much of that ballyhooed talent so far! A special Canadian memory this week as Bianca Andreescu won her first major championship at the US Open over Serena Williams. 

Highlight of the week for the Baileys—Haaken got a job! He has been hired full time with Tim Hortons—a job to pay the bills while he works on his animation. He has a project he’s working on and hopes that will lead to more opportunities. Liam’s back with RU and has a busy schedule this fall with that and his Tunnels of Moose Jaw job. For the first time in many years, they have no one going back to school! Eric/a are back at work and home renovations. In line with her scheduled surgery this December in Germany, Erica has refreshed her GoFundMe page, LINK There is no charitable receipt with GoFundMe. But their church is accepting donations to go toward that surgery. If you want a charitable receipt, you can mail payment by cheque to: 

First Baptist Church Prince Albert Benevolent Fund

1351 28th Street East 

Prince Albert SK  S6V 6T4 

Memo line: Surgery Fund

Kristian has started back to school.

Back-to-School 2019

There have been complications working into a new classroom, and new teacher. The FM system is not working, so his ability to hear the teacher has been further compromised. However, while the sheer effort of it makes him quite tired, he is enjoying it. He notes that his brain is adapting to the new hearing realities, and that the situation is getting better. He starts bowling this Sunday evening, and has declared his goal of a 150 average this year. Go get 'em buddy! Today, he got a new pet kitten for his birthday!

Happy 14th Birthday!

Introducing: Lucy

Travis and Joanna remain busy. Joanna had the extra activity of a colonoscopy this week—never first choice for a fun activity! They also got a new bird.

Introducing: Mozzy

Gemma and Andrew are back at university and college; they posed (reluctantly) for the obligatory back-to-school photo! 

Back-to-School 2019

And that's about enough for this week!