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.