What I've Found

New Website!

2012-02-11T10:06:00.002-07:00

I'm excited to launch www.michelleedits.ca!

So You Think You Hate Religion But Love Jesus? Or: The Dangers of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and Lukewarm Theology

2012-01-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

Doctrines of faith seem foreign to teens, and whenpolled, most believe in a form of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism;

1.     God exists, created and ordered the world, and watches over humanlife on earth.

2.     God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taughtin the Bible and by most world religions.

3.     The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good aboutoneself.

4.     God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life exceptwhen God is needed to resolve a problem.

5.     Good people go to heaven when they die.

MTD bears little resemblance to the historic Christianfaith...it might be called American civic religion.(Quoting Dr. John Oberdeck from EutychusYouth: Applied Theology for Youth Ministry)

There’s a videogoing around the web in which a young man, Jefferson Bethke, rhapsodizes abouthow he hates religion, but loves Jesus. It came to my attention when several ofmy former youth were passing it around Facebook, commenting on how moving theyfound it, so I watched it. I was deeply unsettled that youth I thought I knewwell would fall prey to Bethke’s smooth patter. I almost don’t even know whereto start with his clearly heartfelt mishmash of statements that are socontradictory and ill-informed that it requires a professional theologian tountangle and thoroughly address. However, as a Lutheran and an English major, acouple of things caught my attention right away.

The mostsignificant and dangerous contradiction spoken by Bethke is that he “hatesreligion but loves Jesus”. In fact, Christianity, the believing in Jesus Christas Saviour, is a religion. What isthe definition of the word religion? According to the Oxford Dictionary,religion is:

Belief in oracknowledgement of some superhuman power or powers (esp. a god or gods) whichis typically manifested in obedience, reverence, and worship; such a belief aspart of a system defining a code of living, esp. as a means of achievingspiritual or material improvement. (www.OED.com)

I am aware thatthe word religion has developed certain cultural context that is not reflectedin the dictionary definition of religion; this is simply because the culture isusing the wrong word, much like the espresso versus expresso debate; a misuseof language. I believe that religiosityis what Bethke is so passionately denouncing. Religiosity is “affected orexcessive religiousness” (www.oed.com) and it is what St. James describes:

If anyone thinks he isreligious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person'sreligion is worthless. (James 1:26 ESV courtesy of www.biblegateway.com)

St. James goeson to explain what religion is:

Religion that is pure andundefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in theiraffliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:26-27 ESV www.biblegateway.com)

My religion isChristianity; to love my neighbour as myself because God first loved me (Luke10:27 and 1 John 4:19) and to not conform to the world (Romans 12:2). Mydenomination is Lutheran; based in law and gospel doctrine, as laboriously andscripturally researched and taught by Martin Luther. I’m not a member of anemergent church movement that believes you can have a perfect life here onearth; be happy, healthy and wealthy by following the Prayer of Jabez, or followingseven steps to success, or by being simply spiritual and letting doctrine fallby the wayside for fear of offending someone. I have come to be deeply, deeplythankful that I am part of a church body that does not ‘politically correctify’the Bible in order to be more culturally relevant or seeker sensitive. Thesetrends in Christian pop culture are dangerous and misleading.

There is no suchthing as a perfect Christian; not me, not Bethke, not Luther. However,Christians with a firm foundation in scripture and a solid theologicalbackground recognize this trend of lukewarm theology for what it is. MoralisticTherapeutic Deism is a dangerous and growing movement, rising from the lack of afirm theological underpinning in the larger Christian church. This lack ofteaching develops young adults like Bethke who “hates religion” and who hasfallen to a MTD-esque belief that he can be spiritual and in a relationshipwith Jesus without being part of a religious body. The Christian church is areligion; there is simply no escaping that basic fact no matter how Christianpop culture may try to spin it.

The mostalarming thing about this video, aside from the flawed theology, is how quicklyit spread. It has well over fifteenmillion views, and it seems as though people were so engaged by Bethke thatthey missed the crucial step of testing this video against scripture. It seemsas though feelings invoked by spiritualityhave become more important than scriptural knowledge.

... solid food is for themature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constantpractice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews5:14 ESV www.biblegatway.com)

For this very reason, make everyeffort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, andknowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, andsteadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, andbrotherly affection with love. (2 Peter 1:5-7 ESV www.biblegateway.com)

Global Christianculture is on a dangerous path, and only a firm grounding in scripture and goodtheology will keep us, and our youth, from being misled by slick marketing andsketchy feel-good pseudo-doctrine.

Check out this video for another Lutheran view on Bethke's video:

http://youtu.be/TbsadOQK_6A

California Dreamin'

2012-01-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

Last week Trevor and I had the opportunity to go to California for a few days. Our church sent us to a youth leaders' conference near LA, and we jumped at the chance. We went down on Wednesday, and had the afternoon and evening to spend at Newport Beach, which was just lovely. After five minutes of smelling the salt and listening to the waves, I was a whole new person; all the stress of last semester just melted away. :) The conference started Thursday morning and went to Saturday lunchtime, and then we went back to Newport for the rest of the day. Sunday we actually took a rare day of rest and headed home in the afternoon. It was excellent! More about the conference to come later...for now, here are our photos!

https://picasaweb.google.com/michelleheumann/California?authkey=Gv1sRgCOOF8rbPxpmEngE#

Another Year Has Gone By

2011-12-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

I've just spent a good couple of hours organizing paperwork - for my self employment, for my education, for my taxes, for my health insurance, and for my youth group, of which I'm the treasurer. I feel very productive, and so I thought I'd update my blog while I was at it. :) I'm feeling a bit like I'm going into the new year with a fairly minimal to do list, which is a nice feeling, especially when you're a compulsive list-maker...

It's been an amazing year - I've gone from working full time to being a full time student, and despite the odd bit of complaining, I've loved almost every minute of it. I have an exciting class lineup for next semester, and we're kicking off 2012 with a quick trip to California for a youth leader's convention, courtesy of my church, which is simply FABULOUS. I'm also really looking forward to the Calgary Comic Expo in the spring - someone who knows me very well gave me tickets for Christmas, and I'm working on a steampunk outfit to wear. I'm very excited that Amanda Tapping is one of the main guests, as the fall of 2011 has been a bit of an AT marathon for me. I just need to get caught up on the last two season of Stargate Atlantis and I'll be good to go!

My biggest project for 2012 is co-chairing a large youth conference in Calgary, and I'd appreciate your prayers for it! We're in the early stages of planning, and we're a bit behind where I'd like to be at this point - youth gatherings are something that mean even more to me than my geekery, so this is pretty major for me. Co-chairing is a big responsibility, and making this a spiritually meaningful event for the kids that come is my passion. SO; very exciting!

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be sharing photos of LA - I've never particularly wanted visit it, but since the conference is there, we're going a bit early and staying a bit late in hopes of doing some sightseeing. There are only a couple of things I really want to see; the ocean, the Griffith Observatory (site of an episode of Star Trek Voyager) and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hopefully we can manage all of that without a car and in the limited time we have. Of course, I research trips as if I'm going to write a masters thesis on the area we're visiting, so I have more information then we'll need for the day-ish we'll have free... :)

Happy New Year to you all!

Passing of an Icon

2011-11-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

Speaking of celebrity influences on my life, I just found out in the last few minutes that one of my favourite authors, Anne McCaffrey, died on Monday. I'm actually crying a bit...I discovered her books when I was in my early teens, and they were my companions through a lot. She wrote about strong women overcoming dire circumstances before it was cool to write strong genre women. I literally have an entire shelf dedicated to just her books; more than any other author in my collection.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/11/anne-mccaffrey-in-remembrance

Sad day :(

Hallelujah

2011-11-15T13:16:00.008-07:00

This is going to be a more personal blog then mine usually are - a departure from the updates on the fun and interesting things that have happened over the last few months. Well, I hope it's still interesting, anyway! :) I've got something on my mind that just won't let me focus on my Hamlet essay, so grab a cuppa (offering a hot bevvy is a social convention, you know!) and wander with me.

In late September, I was looking for a tv show to watch online while we ate dinner. We gave up cable a few years ago because I just didn't have a whole lot of self control when it came to prioritizing my time when the Food Network was calling my name. So now we either watch shows on DVD, or online. I was scrolling through the shows available on the CTV website, and the name Sanctuary caught my eye. I remembered right away that Sanctuary was the show that Amanda Tapping was involved with after Stargate ended, so that was enough of a connection for me to tell Trevor that's what we were watching, and fortunately season one was all available.

I haven't gotten that instantly sucked into a tv show since February of 1997 when I watched my first episode of Star Trek: Voyager, part way through season 3. Now, about 6 weeks after finding Sanctuary, we're about half way through season 3, and should get caught up to the current episodes in season 4 by the end of the month. I'm struggling to slow down so I don't run out of new episodes to watch, but on the other hand, nearly every episode ends on a cliff hanger, and it's driving me mental! Trevor is very entertained by my expressions of frustrated fan-girl-ness.

Sanctuary is set basically in a modern parallel universe inhabited by normal humans, as well as 'abnormal' humans and creatures...think along the lines of X-Men. Tapping's character, Helen Magnus, is a 150-ish year old doctor who runs this Sanctuary organization, and she has a highly entertaining team of sidekicks, and a lovely British accent. I'm not sure exactly what it is about Sanctuary that I enjoy so much - it's a combination of the acting, the characters, the one-liners, the noble goal, the historical nods, the teasing cliff hangers - it's just brilliant.

Since I'm on Twitter now (which is a long story we won't go into in public! :P) I decided to 'follow' some of the actors from the show, just out of curiosity. What is this Twitter? Why is everyone so crazy about following celebrities? And so I figured normal, Canadian, celebrities were about my speed, and since I basically have dinner with these people every night, I was curious to know a bit more about their 'real' lives. I say 'real' because on Twitter of course people are still acting, but it's a different perspective on them.

In the middle of my Sanctuary crush, we took a weekend to run a youth retreat at our church. We had 75 youth and leaders from BC and Alberta sleeping on the floor, playing games, singing (yay Trevor!) and soaking up some really great teaching. The central theme of the weekend was Matthew 5:14, which is basically about being salt and light in the world. The speaker, Jenny (who I just love - I'd never even emailed with her before Friday, but I felt like I'd known her forever almost right away! I love it when that happens) used a refrain of 'you are a unique child of God' to punctuate a lot of her messages.

For me, 'you are a unique child of God' applies outwardly. I'm secure in that I'm a unique child of God - I've never doubted that. But it gave me a different perspective loving on the kids around me, and reminded me of why I got into youth ministry in the first place, almost 15 years ago. So many kids go through life in the church not knowing how incredibly precious and unique they are. I also used this phrase as an anti-evolution slogan in youth Bible study on Sunday, which I thought was really cool. :)

But what really got my attention was something that happened yesterday. Ryan Robbins, who's one of the actors on Sanctuary, Tweeted a link to a video in which he sings 'Hallelujah' by Leonard Cohen. Here's a link to the video: http://vimeo.com/15215209

It totally blew me away. I watched a version of Hamlet recently where David Tennant (Dr. Who) played the title character, and his acting was just so raw and emotional I actually had to look away from the intensity, because his pain felt so personal (he's replaced Kenneth Branagh as my favourite Hamlet, by the way). I felt a lot like that watching Robbins sing this song.

Now, this song always breaks my heart a little bit, because I feel like Cohen was SO CLOSE to discovering the amazing grace of God, but he never quite gets there, and it's just so haunting and sad. It's basically about King David's horribly tainted relationship with Bathsheba, but in the Bible, David was forgiven and his relationship with God was restored, which is what the song leaves out. Robbins' version is the most heartbreaking I've ever heard - he said on Twitter that he'd been going through something at the time, and it's totally obvious.

This verse is the saddest, I think, it's just so hopeless and lost:
Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It’s not a cry you can hear at night
It’s not somebody who has seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

The strangest thing happened while I was listening to Robbins; even though I knew this video was a year or more old, I had the sudden overwhelming urge to pray that he would know that he's a unique child of God. Blew my socks off - I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I actually couldn't sleep last night because it was so on my mind, which is crazy, because I can literally sleep through a rock concert if it's past my bedtime. :)

Is it weird to pray for an actor who you'll probably never even meet, because he was going through something that you'll never know about, when you don't even know how he feels about God in the first place? Or how he'd feel about being prayed for, and by a stranger? It feels a bit weird...but I didn't feel like I could do anything else in the face of such obvious pain. Salt and light, right?

Here's another version, called 'Another Hallelujah', by a Christian artist called Lincoln Brewster: http://youtu.be/uN5_PgtLpRc

It takes this melancholy cry for help and turns it into a triumphant anthem of grace and praise, which is totally what God is all about. Cool, hey?

So, that's the saga of how a tv show, a haunting song, and a youth retreat have all come together today to ground me in my faith in Jesus and give me goosebumps.

And how I just spent an hour banging out 1100 plus words about this when all I'm supposed to be doing is writing 500 on Hamlet... :)

The Rest of the Summer Roundup!

2011-10-30T15:00:00.002-06:00

I'm determined to finish off our summer adventures before November starts...so here it is, one last mad dash through July and August!

When we got home from our BC holiday, our friend Jennifer was at our house. She'd been feeding the cats while we were away, and working on recording her second album at a studio here in town. She asked us to join her and a couple of other people to sing background 'alleluias' for one of her songs! Of course, we couldn't say no to a request like that! :) But I was terrified of single-handedly wrecking her CD! Luckily, by the time the producer had us sing the melody and the harmony, and then run it through whatever computer magic, our little group sounded like a huge choir and my voice was indistinguishable from the rest.

One of my least favourite things about living in Calgary is (after the weather) Stampede. I could rant about it, but suffice to say that I don't enjoy it much. But this year we decided to get up earl and go on the morning where you can get in free if you go before a certain time. One of the big things this year was a figure skating show with Salle and Pelletier, of whom I'm a big fan. I was a bit underwhelmed, although that's probably because I'd gotten up early, and had to battle crowds, which is one of the reasons why I generally avoid Stampede. We went on the Ferris wheel, and I 'won' a stuffed minion (from Despicable Me) on the midway. We had fresh squeezed lemonade and mini doughnuts and hot dogs. We checked out the critters and watched the sheep shearing.

And of course we checked out the vendors, where I managed to get away without buying much of anything except some Tupperware, which I'd been looking for anyway. We were getting to our limit of interest, but we took a quick stroll through the crafting displays, and I found this gem of a Harry Potter cake. Pictures cannot do it justice - it was a masterpiece, and clearly created by someone with an abiding love for all things Potter. The detail is incredible!

Later in July we went up to Drumheller to the Passion Play. They have it there every year, and this is the third or fourth time I've been. They change the script up a bit - drawing on different Gospels - and this year was fabulous as always. We took a couple of youth from our church, and camped nearby. It was lots of fun, and we're hoping to do some youth camping again next year.

My post-road trip highlight was attending When Words Collide, a reader-con here in NW Calgary. A friend and I went together, and enjoyed meeting people, people-watching, hanging out with mutual acquaintances, attending panels, and generally being inspired in our literary ambitions. We're definitely planning to go back next year - it was SUCH a fun time.

And rounding off August, we spontaneously decided to go to Global Fest when we were offered the use of a pass. Global Fest happens in Calgary every year - it's about a week long, and each afternoon/evening there's a festival hosted by a different country, including fireworks. The night we went was hosted by the Philippines, and the fireworks were spectacular. They must have gone on for 20 minutes, and they kept getting better and better. If you've never been, I do recommend it!

Now that summer is over and I'm full-swing into midterms, planning a youth retreat that's happening next weekend, co-chair for the district youth gathering happening in July, trying to launch a business, working on an additional project for a conference, and trying to keep the house from falling apart and attempting on top of that to have something of a social life...things are pretty hectic! Good, but hectic. :)

Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park

2011-10-21T19:20:00.000-06:00

This is one of my favourite places on the planet. When I lived on the island, our church would go camping here every summer, and I have some really special memories of the place. I was really excited to take Trevor there. Again, the weather wasn't all I could have hoped, but the scenery and the beach combing were amazing.

I swear that stump has been in that exact same spot for 15 or 20 years...

Bed of sand dollars at low tide

Up Island - Caving Day!

2011-10-06T11:25:00.001-06:00

The definite highlight of our holiday was, for me at least, the opportunity to go caving at the Horne Lake Caves. They're about a 45 minute drive from where we were camping in Qualicum Beach, but not that far as the crow flies. Most of the drive was on sketchy back roads into a provincial park. The caving operation is run by a company that works in conjunction with the provincial park to take people into a cave that's locked up to prevent vandalism.

If you ever go caving, I HIGHLY recommend tough nylon MEC pants. Trevor's jeans were incredibly muddy, but after a quick dusting off, my pants were totally clean. Also, no matter how warm it is outside, it will be REALLY cold underground. And since you have to wear the helmets they provide, I recommend having your own hat to wear under said helmet if you're squeamish about things like germs and bugs. :) Also, take water and a few snacks in a very small backpack - you will absolutely need your hands free.

It was quite stiff uphill hike from the parking lot to the actual entrance of the cave. When we got to the cave, the guide unlocked the gate, and we scrambled down a long metal ladder like you'd find on a ship. I was surprised by the cave itself - I had expected something you could stand up in an walk around, but it was more like a long sloping tunnel. I expected to hear mysterious drumming from the depths any second....

Cool mineral formation

Some people see a buddha, some people see Jabba the Hutt...and you can see a perfect reflection!

Emerging from the underground

After all of the hiking, scrambling, and hiking, not to mention the long drive, I was STARVING. So we headed to Coombs to see what we could find to eat.

We found goats on the roof, and an amazingly delicious Italian restaurant called Cuckoos, where I had the most incredibly divine bowl of homemade pasta I've ever eaten. And Trevor had a panini that knocked his (dirty) socks off...he actually talked about mingling flavours. It was a perfect culinary experience! Then we had ice cream, watched the goats, and bought some tasty treats in the shop. I wanted island-made blackberry jam, and I also found some imported Cherry Coke, which was the cherry on top of a perfect day. :)

Victoria - Royal Roads

2011-09-28T20:04:00.001-06:00

Well, I can't get into Pottermore at the moment, and since my cold is too bad to focus on Canadian history, I may as well update my blog. :)

One of the big things I had planned for our holiday was a sort of pilgrimage to the suburban area where I lived from 13 to 18. We started with breakfast with a couple of friends at the My-Chosen Cafe, which has been there since before I lived there, and consistently turns out quality meals. It's a great place any time of day - I highly recommend it.

Then we went for a walk on the beach. I love the beach. That beach in particular, Taylor Beach, has my dream house overlooking it. I've never been inside the house, but from the outside it's everything I want, and it's located in a picturesque field studded with sheep and overlooking the ocean. Dream house right there!

This is Hatley Castle at Royal Roads. Royal Roads has a long and complicated history...however, it's main attractions are peacocks that roam wild, incredible gardens, a view of the ocean...and Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. If you watch the X-Men movies that came out around 8 or so years ago, the scenes set inside the castle, with the incredible wood paneling - that's Hatley Castle. It's also Lex Luthor's home from the tv show Smallville as well, but I was more tickled over the fact that last time I was there, I got to stand RIGHT where Patrick Stewart did. We didn't go into the castle itself this time. There was a wedding in progress so part of everything was shut down, but we got into the parts of the garden that weren't for a discount, so that was a good deal!

After that, we went to a pizza place that's been the same spot for as long as I can remember, and had a picnic at the lagoon overlooking downtown Victoria. Then it started to rain; fortunately, by the time we got back to where we were camping, we'd moved away from the rain and we didn't have to camp in the damp. :P

Sunday was actually a day of rest, and on Monday we headed up island to one of my favourite places in the whole world...Rathtrevor Provincial Park. Stay tuned...if you still are... :)

More Victoria

2011-09-19T16:31:00.001-06:00

One of my favourite culinary experiences ever is any sort of 'high tea'. It's a veddy, veddy mahhvellous invention, dahling. We went to the White Heather Tea Room in Oak Bay, as it's a local place, a quarter of the cost of high tea at the Empress, and there were other things on the menu for Trevor to try.

It was most excellent! If you're ever in Victoria, I highly recommend the White Heather!

We did go an park underneath the Empress, partly because it's handy, but largely because I wanted to go to the gift shop and stock up on Empress blend tea, which is actually pretty comparable to grocery store tea, at least in price. In flavour...amazing! Then we set out to walk all around the main downtown core.

"Darth Fiddler", a random busker downtown on the waterfront....Victoria's waterfront is populated with interesting and random things to look at at.

Urban decay

The inner harbour is dominated by the Empress (above) and the provincial legislature buildings. We visited Murchie's Tea room and shop, Roger's Chocolates, and many random and interesting stores. My favourite Chinese restaurant is still beside Fan Tan Alley (is it just my imagination, or does every city with a Chinatown have a Fan Tan Alley?)but we didn't eat there, because we were meeting Trevor's friend Dana for dinner at Fisherman's Wharf. We walked for about four hours - I really wish I'd had a pedometer so I could count how many kilometers it was - I was bagged!

I had NO idea that Victoria had a Fisherman's Wharf! Or a houseboat community! It was quite the revelation. :) Dana also took us on a scenic tour around some viewpoints and to a local market, which was really nice, partly because it was a great break from trying to navigate for Trevor. My memories of how the roads were laid out was a bit faulty, and lots of things have changed since I lived there, so we had a few hairy moments. It was nice to just be a passenger for a while.

Something else I didn't know is that Victoria still pumps raw sewage into the ocean. Ewww! How gross is that? I didn't actually realize that any North American cities still did that - I thought Halifax had been the last holdout, and they fixed that a couple of years ago. How, in this day and age, with all of our technology, and all the things we know about the planet and pollution and the circle of life, are cities still getting away with doing that? SO GROSS!

More to come...slowly but surely! My goal is to get through our very eventful summer before Thanksgiving comes. :)

Holiday - Victora area

2011-09-13T13:35:00.001-06:00

Having lived in Victoria from when I was 13 to when I was 18, I thought I know most of what there is to know about the area. Well, not only has it changed quite a bit in the intervening years, there were some things that I didn't know about!

We camped just outside Sidney, which is an area that I didn't know well to begin with. The campground was beautiful, and a very short walk from a secluded beach. Oh, beach...woe, landlocked Alberta!

One of the new additions since I lived there is the Shaw Ocean Discovery Center, an amazing museum/aquarium, staffed mostly by volunteers. All of the marine life in the aquarium comes from the waters around the island, and I had no idea that there was such exotic variety in our cold Canadian waters.

Trevor washing dishes at our swanky campground:

One of my must-see sights in Victoria is Craigdarroch Castle. Not really a castle by European standards, but certainly by Hudson's Bay outpost standards! It's a beautiful sandstone mansion on a hill overlooking the Victoria harbour, and it's been restored to the state it was in when the family built it, as opposed to the state it was in after it was a school.

In the lobby, looking up:

On the top floor, looking down:

After spending a couple of hours there, it was time for tea, so we headed to Oak Bay...

Westward, ho!

2011-08-31T19:48:00.003-06:00

Our summer days off technically started with the comic expo, but our holiday didn't really kick into gear until we left Calgary on the Sunday afternoon. We went as far as Golden that day, and took an overnight break in a motel there. Normally we'd at least go as far as Revelstoke in one day, but we'd also normally be leaving first thing in the morning, not late in the day after a weekend of geeking out. And we were planning to have a long visit with friends in Vernon, but still had to be in Penticton by the check in deadline at our campground.

We were blessed with smooth travel, and arrived in Vernon a couple of hours ahead of schedule. We managed to connect with my aunt and uncle from Revelstoke, who were in Vernon with my cousin, and we had lunch with them at Red Robins. I don't think we have any of those in Alberta - they're a great burger joint with probably every combination of burgers and toppings you can imagine. Oh yah - it was HOT in Vernon, which was glorious after suffering through an uncharacteristically soggy Calgary spring!

We spent the afternoon hanging out with our good friends Chris and Kelsey, and their new baby. We were lucky to catch them, as the left Vernon permanently later that week! They took a break from packing to take us to their favourite lake-side patio for some EXCELLENT calamari.

Boys on the patio, waiting to be fed!

Too quickly we had to hit the road for Penticton, as rush hour highway traffic through Kelowna can be terrible. Again we were blessed with smooth sailing, and we made it to Penticton about an hour before it would have been too late to check in. The campground was practically deserted, as we were just ahead of the main tourist weekend. Our site backed onto a lagoon, home to assorted friendly ducks.

It also had an excellent view of the sunset!

On Tuesday we met up with our good friends Scott and Sam, and their two super-cute little girls for some time at the beach. The weather was hot hot and the sky was as blue as it gets. I tried my hand at kayaking on the lake - it's quite a bit of work! My right arm is much stronger then my left, so of course my strokes weren't even and I spent a lot of time trying to stop veering, and to go in a straight line. :)

It was getting on nap time for little girls, so the family went home, and Trevor and I picked up lunch, and headed to the beach on the other lake, at the north side of Penticton. It was quite windy there, and not nearly as hot. There were lots of ducks and geese to watch, as well as some entertaining tourists.

At the far end of the waterfront promenade, past the beached paddle-wheeler, is a beautiful rose garden. Some of the bushes hadn't even bloomed yet, but most of them were at their peak, and it was lovely. They all had incredible aroma, and I had a lot of fun stopping to smell the roses, and take a million photos, while Trevor humoured me!

We headed over to Scott and Sam's for dinner, and I was entertained to discover that they have the exact same Ikea dining room table as us - great friends think alike :)

Wednesday was quite the adventure. It was the first day I was able to register for my university classes, and being the highly organized person that I am (some say OCD, but that's another story :) I already had a timetable mapped out and I was ready to go first thing. Alas, I discovered that not only was the Spanish class I wanted full already, meaning I had to chose a different language option and fit it it, I couldn't actually register until after 12 noon! And we had to leave Penticton ASAP because we had a booking on the ferry that evening. But I was at least able to put the classes I wanted in a 'shopping cart' to hopefully save a bit of hassle later.

So we packed up camp (and it's a good thing we bought a larger car last winter, because otherwise we wouldn't have had enough room - I don't pack light!) and made tracks for Vancouver. The last time I was on a trip in that direction, I was about 13, so not remembering how to get to the ferry, we relied quite heavily on old-school paper maps, the GPS on Trevor's BlackBerry (I LOVE having my own personal computer geek!) and printed Google maps.

I decided that we should head south out of Penticton and take the Crowsnest route, because I'm a big fan of scenic trips, and I'm pretty sure I've never been that way before. I had an anxious half an hour when we got stuck in construction, but we made good time after that. We stopped in Hope for lunch, but sadly got turned around in the ridiculous labyrinth of highways that surround that area, and ended up going BACK THE WAY WE CAME! I JUST about had a heart attack. Fortunately Trevor isn't nearly as excitable, and we only lost a few minutes before we were able to head in the right direction again. Whew!

We made it to Chilliwack by mid-afternoon, and drove through town until we found a coffee shop with free wi-fi for customers. I got tea and something...I don't even remember what...to go along with the wireless password. I was able to quickly register for my classes, and then we were back on the road again, and this time my goal was to make our ferry sailing.

Thankfully we avoided construction and getting lost in Vancouver, and were perfectly on time to check in and get in line for the ferry. We even had a few minutes to check out the shops and get some supper. I don't know if words can adequately express my relief at being safely registered for school, and not missing our boat.

We were even the first car on to the ferry!

I don't ever remember such a windy crossing before, but I loved every second of it. It's been FAR too long since I pilgrimaged to the island!

Dashing Dishes - April and May

2011-08-26T21:50:00.002-06:00

I'm still just LOVING Dashing Dishes. We went for our August session, and we were a well-trained, efficient team: to the community centre, assembled, and home with everything in the freezer in HALF AN HOUR, people! It doesn't get much faster then that. We have a really good system - we get our bag of meat from the girl, go to the station, and one of us works the ingredients from left to right, and the other from right two left. If it's a two-bag dish, we split up and do a bag each. Then Trevor closes everything up while I get the instruction label, and then he takes it out to the cooler while I go get the meat for our next dish. We are an impressive example of teamwork, if I do say so myself. :)

In April we had two dishes with pesto - cavatappi with mushrooms, and scallops. I must just not be a pesto fan, because I didn't like either of them at all. The cavatappi is fun though - a twisty, spiralled type of pasta that I did like. We had Chinese BBQ Pork, cooked in the crockpot that we weren't a fan of, because the meat was too dry. I'm finding that common theme with most of their crockpot pork dishes, so we're going to try to stay away from those, as well as from the Pineapple Chicken, which was simply uninspiring.

We did enjoy the Greek Shrimp, although we left out the cheese sauce that came with it, and the Pizzaiola Pork. My only complaint about the Pizzaiola Pork is that it didn't re-heat well, although it was quite tasty the night we made it.

The big hits in April were the Hong Kong Chicken Drumsticks and the Smothered Roast Beef - both were excellent, and we'd definitely make them again.

In May we had really good results, except for the Maple Glazed Pork, which wasn't a favourite, although doing it in the oven made it turn out better then some of the other pork ones we've tried.

We really liked the Honey and Garlic Beef Stir Fry, the Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops, the Savory Chicken Drumsticks, the Slow Cooker Beef Roast, and the Thai Chicken with Basil.

However, we loved the Zesty Sauced Ribs. Meaty, saucy ribs stewed in the crockpot all day...they were divine. We could have eaten them every day that week!

We didn't do a session in June, because it fell while we were on holidays, and we actually still have one of the July dishes left, which is right now thawing in the fridge for dinner tomorrow. It needs to be baked in the oven for an hour, which made it not such an idea candidate for a work night dinner. So stay tuned for another Dashing Dishes post in a month or so, when we're done with the August dinners we just made!

Calgary Comic Expo

2011-08-15T12:10:00.006-06:00

I picked up a new expression this weekend: "info dump". I've had such a busy summer that my blog updates are way behind, and this is probably going to be a bit of an info dump. :)

Our holiday really got started with our trip to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo the weekend of June 17, here in Calgary.

Friday was sneak preview day, and I went down early to help my friends from Edge Publishing, Brian and Anita, to set up their vendor booth. Trevor came down after work, and we checked out the vendor booths, and then we went to a comedy show put on by a local geek troupe called the 404s. As with all comedy, it was a bit hit and miss, but we had a lot of fun.

They had a game where the audience could submit a line on a piece of paper, and as the actors played out a scene, they would randomly have to grab a piece of paper and work in the line on it. As the MC was explaining this, he pulled out a slip of paper and started to read. We knew right away it was the one we submitted, as it began: "Soft kitty". One of the girls in the troupe was literally beside herself with excitement, grabbed the slip of paper from him, and began to sing the unofficial theme song of the tv show the Big Bang Theory. And in a moment that made this geek girl's weekend, the whole theater began to sing along. :)

Saturday we got there early enough to check out the vendors again, and then get in line for my photo op with William Shatner. I had a noon appointment time, and I was supposed to be in line about 45 minutes before that. Well, it was a GONG show. They had more people lining up then they had room for, so they ushered us all out to sit in the bleachers in the corral. This was appreciated, because at least we got to sit down and watch the Summer Glau panel, which was interesting, because I haven't yet watched any of the shows she's been in, other than her guest spot on the Big Bang Theory. Then it was Christopher Judge's panel, which was the one panel that day that I had REALLY wanted to see.

For those who don't know, Christopher Judge was on Stargate SG 1, which I really like. Unfortunately, it was only about half way through when they took a batch of people out for their photo op, including me! Woe!

The photo op was quite disappointing - literally only a few seconds long, and I wasn't even allowed to touch William Shatner - I thought I'd at least get a handshake out of it. I'm glad that I did it, but I don't think I'd spend the money for a photo op with a big celebrity like that again. His 'performance' later in the day was really entertaining, and when he was listing all the projects that he's got on the go, I could only hope that I'll be that spry when I'm 80!

On Sunday we went to the Tia Carrere panel, which was interesting. She was in Relic Hunter and Lilo & Stitch, so I'm a bit of a fan. But by that point I was REALLY sick of all of this white hat business and this supposed 'vow' that goes along with it. We didn't actually stay for the whole thing because I wanted to go get good seats for the next event.

Jonathan Frakes is very entertaining. He was quite taken with the couch set up for him to sit on, and decided to take the most advantage of it.

The people-watching is always fun - some of the costumes are amazing.

There was a zombie flash-mob, dancing to Thriller.

My costume was one of the less elaborate.

Overall, I didn't find this Comic Expo as fulfilling as my first, which was last year. There weren't as many panels I was interested in, and I felt like there was too much emphasis on shopping rather then geeking out, and I was quite disappointed with the way the Shatner photo ops were organized. But that said the corral was a better, larger venue, and the crowd control was generally much better then last year. I'm not sure if I'll go again next year or not - maybe I'll see about volunteering instead of paying for admission.

Links Update

2011-07-23T21:48:00.001-06:00

I spent some time this weekend updating all of the links down the left side of my blog - general links to stuff I like, some blogs I follow, and some of my favourite authors. Check them out!

VulCON and an essay on Star Trek Voyager

2011-06-11T19:27:00.008-06:00

Disclaimer: If you have a low tolerance for Star Trek and/or extreme geeking out, you might want to stop reading now and wait for me to post another Dashing Dishes review. :)

After living in Alberta for 12 years, and being a Star Trek fan for all that time, I FINALLY made my Trek to Vulcan today! Many thanks to my sweet husband who puts up with my geekiness. :)

Every year since 1993, the town of Vulcan puts on 'Galaxy Days', and this year's special guest was Garrett Wang, who played Ensign Harry Kim on Star Trek Voyager. Voyager is my favourite of the series for two reasons - it's the one that was currently airing when I started watching Star Trek, and Captain Janeway was one of my major heroes as a teenager. Not only was she a female captain, she was strong and decisive but also remained (for the most part) a nurturing and decidedly female character, and stayed feminine and content with her life despite the fact that she didn't have an ongoing love interest. Oh, and did I mention she carried a big gun and was handy in combat with a big knife, as well? She was SUCH a fabulous character.

I love the rest of the crew as well - with a couple of exceptions! When I met Garrett Wang today, he asked me if I'd had a crush on Tom Paris as a teenager, and of course I had a bit of one (note that I married a blond goofball, so clearly Paris was my type :) but when I stared watching Voyager partway through the third season, Paris was already in love with B'Elannah, so as far as I was concerned he was taken! And of course, B'Elanna is a great character - another woman leader (chief engineer)/first female in that role - and I really enjoyed her.

The Doctor is fabulous - as I found out today from Garrett Wang - largely due to Robert Picardo's input into the development of his character. And a fantastic character is it! Robert Picardo is also SUPER funny in person - he and John de Lanice (Q - best Voyager cameos!) narrated a Star Trek concert I went to last year, and they were worth the price of admission. :) I'm not super fond of Neelix - he was pretty annoying in the first couple of seasons, and I'm afraid I've never gotten over that, even when the character developed. I think he was played for some cheap laughs from which I never recovered. Kess, who was only in the first few seasons, was ok, and there were things I liked about her and things I didn't. Jennifer Lien was a great actress - I just never got attached to the character.

Seven of Nine replaced Kess, and I quite like her. I'm furious about the producer's blatant attempt to add sex appeal to the show, but that aside, Jerri Ryan did a great job with the material, and Seven added a lot to the show. I'm not at all happy with the way they settled her love life - in fact, the only love life that I think the show did right was Tom and B'Elanna, so...

Chakotay, Captain Janeway's first officer, was an awesome character in the first few seasons, but in the last season or two he's been relegated to background roles, so I hope that picks up in the 6th and 7th seasons - some of my favourite moments from the first few seasons are his. Tuvok is a great character - I like him so much better then Spock. Somehow he seems a bit more 'human' or accessible, then Spock did, despite the fact that Spock was of course half-human. Tim Russ did some tremendous acting - there's one episode where Tuvok has participated in a mind-meld gone wrong, and he grins just this EVIL grin that gave me the uber-creeps.

Which of course leaves only Ensign Harry Kim...poor Harry, who remained an Ensign for seven long years, and who never got the girl, or at least not for more then an episode! He had some really great Harry-focused episodes, but for the most part, he was the sidekick to everyone else's hero - even in the holodeck. Today, after I'd confessed to Garrett Wang that yes, I'd had a bit of a crush on Tom Paris, he said that I was supposed to have said that no, I'd had a crush on Harry Kim. lol... and I did laugh. But it made me think...why DIDN'T I? Well, the producers had Harry portrayed as everybody's little brother - cute, dependable, never in trouble, always on alert when duty called - but always the sidekick. His character when through several episodes that would have made any normal person's character grow and develop, but at the end of the seven years, except for being more reliable and a bit more assertive, he was pretty much the same. There's one time-warping episode where he's old and bitter, and it made me so sad! But Garrett said that was one of his favourites because he actually got to 'act'. It's definitely interesting to hear about my beloved Voyager from one of the actor's point of view!

The side of the town pharmacy has a mural of all the Star Trek doctors. These are my two favourites, although I love The Doctor and Doctor Bashir as well - I just didn't feel like the mural did them justice. And Doctor Phlox is ok - but not one of my favourite characters ever.

Garrett Wang, riding in a blue Mustang in the parade. Loooove the Mustang!

In Vulcan Alberta, even the cars have Vulcan ears...

Me and the Vulcan Starship

They served cupcakes at the Q&A with Garrett...chocolate with cream in the center...yum!

Garrett Wang signing my vintage 1997 Star Trek Voyager poster...I have the whole crew I collected from the Star Trek magazine!

Garrett's session was worth the price of admission and the long drive - so funny and entertaining - exactly what I was hoping for. I was pretty disappointed with the vendor booths - there were only a couple and there was nothing exciting, and the event didn't have as many people as I was expecting - but I don't think there was a lot of advertising for it. All the people we encountered were friendly, and the people in the autograph queue were more polite then the people at the church concert we were at last week. :P All in all, the day was a blast, and the rain held off until we were back in Calgary!

Dashing Dishes

2011-05-12T12:31:00.000-06:00

Starting in January, I signed up for a monthly sort of cooking club called Dashing Dishes. They have locations in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal, Regina, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Toronto. And as it happens, one of the Calgary locations is in the Silver Springs Community Center, about 30 seconds from our house.

I had to book online ahead of time, and selected 8 different dishes I wanted to make. It was $175 for 8 dishes which have 4 servings each. We left home, drove down, assembled our food, and were home again with everything in the freezer in just over an hour. They do all the grocery shopping, the prep work and the planning - we just had to show up, check in, and assemble each dish into the Ziploc bags provided. Participants are required to wear hair coverings and large aprons, and there are plenty of staff on hand to keep an eye on things. I can't rave enough about how efficient the whole setup is!

They come to Silver Springs once per month, and 8 dishes is about the right amount to take a lot of the stress of meals off my shoulders. With there being 4 generous servings, we usually get a dinner for the two of us, a lunch each, and maybe even one more lunch. What we get from them is a main dish, so by the time we add rice or pasta and a salad or other veggie, it's a really hearty meal. They have a good selection of stovetop, oven and crockpot dishes as well. The first month I had issues, because I kept forgetting that you need to let the food thaw completely in the fridge before cooking, and I never planned ahead far enough. Things seem to take about 48 hours to thaw in the fridge, and I've got the hang of it now.

Some of the dishes have been better then others. There have only been a couple in the last few months that we would rate as a total fail, but the benefits of the program still outweigh the issue of a couple of recipes we didn't like. It's really nice to experiment with some things I wouldn't try normally, without the commitment of having to buy a whole jar of exotic spices or sauces that I then might not want to use.

In January, we had Shrimp Italiano (which was really good), black bean linguine (which was good, but had some different flavours we weren't sold on), Bruschetta Chicken (which was amazing), pot roast with gravy (alas, too onion-y for me!), Korean beef with noodles (we loved this one so much I did actually go out and buy Oyster sauce for future use), Mandarin chicken (just ok), red currant braised pork (sounds better then it was - wasn't currant-y enough), and roasted chicken with artichokes and veg (this one was a fail - watery and flavourless, sadly).

In February, we had beef dippers (very yum!), hoisin shrimp (loved!), honey curry chicken (ok), pork spareribs (I can't tell you how good this one was - we could have eaten them for leftovers all week without getting tired of them, if there'd been enough), sesame chicken stir fry (ok - not a ton of flavour), beef stroganoff (not bad, but I like it better the way I make it), slow roasted pork (this one was not a hit - the meat was tender, but the sauce wasn't very saucy or flavourful), and sweet coconut chicken (we loved this one - I would have never thought of searing a crust of coconut onto chicken before baking it).

In March we had cheesy pasta with peas and sausage (tasty - nice light sauce), crockpot chicken chili (good and hearty - a bit too spicy for my ulcer though, even with me scaling back the amount of spices they recommended), Dijon and herb beef roast (big hit!), honey pecan pork chops (tasty sauce, but the chops themselves weren't that great - a different cut of meat would have been more tender), Hungarian beef (not quite what I was expecting - it was ok), lemon and ginger shrimp (bland sauce), oyster beef (love it!) and pasta with pepperoni and tomato (a bit weird - would classify this one as a fail).

We're working our way through the April batch slowly - I've had a bit more free time to cook from scratch, but I need to get moving with these meals, because I think we have about 6 unused dishes, and only about a week until our next cooking session. We don't have a ton of room in our freezer, otherwise it wouldn't be a big deal, as the dishes will keep for several months in the freezer.

I highly recommend checking them out: www.dashingdishes.com. If you do sign up, be sure to let them know that I referred you! If I refer enough people, I get a deal. :)

Much Excitement

2011-05-03T18:50:00.002-06:00

Well, it's been an embarrassingly long time since I blogged last. Ooops! I got through my first semester of university with decent grades, and am enjoying some part-time off while I look for a second part-time job to fill in the days where I had been taking classes.

Some of the other excitement in our lives over the past few months has been becoming godparents to Jack, going to the ballet, buying a new vacuum cleaner (a Dyson!), joining a sort of cooking club (I'll post separately about that), battling a virulent case of a chin infection in one of the cats, a Ukrainian folk show at the CPO, an old Gilbert and Sullivan musical at the Pumphouse Theatre, Easter and my favourite hymns, loosing a filling and a trip to the dentist, catching Royal Wedding Fever, and writing final exams with a chest infection.

I was on the Call Committee for our church to find a new pastor after our seniour pastor moved to a church in BC, and actually, the first one we asked accepted, which was just amazing. There have been some good visits with friends, and I'm trekking my way through all seven seasons of Voyager, which a very thoughtful friend gave me for my birthday. I'm making amazing time - part way through season five already, which is fun, but kind of sad, because I didn't enjoy the series ending years ago when it was on TV - I'm sure I'm not going to enjoy it any more this time! We took some youth to play laser tag, and I, Skywalker, annihilated the competition on the first round. :) I didn't do so well on the second, but winning one round was enough to make me feel not quite so old!

And of course, my excitement of the last 24 hours has been that we FINALLY have a majority government, so maybe they can get some work done! My mom and my brother worked their tails off for their candidate in NS, but he didn't get in, sadly. And a former coworker was running on the Island, and sadly he didn't get in either.

I am totally upset that only 58% of Canadians voted - so sad that our society takes democracy so for granted! When we went to our polling station, we were the only people there at the time - I'd been expecting a lineup. Sadness! If you didn't vote, I'd be really interested to know why....?

Movie Reviews Part 4

2011-03-06T20:51:00.005-07:00

Alice in Wonderland
The movie is actually based loosely on Alice Through the Looking Glass, which I vaguely remember reading many, many years ago, and being completely baffled by! They did an excellent job with the movie – the casting, the effects, the costumes – they’re all VERY appropriate. It’s quite violent, so not a great cartoon for the younger kiddies, but otherwise really quite watchable. Love Johnny Depp, even with crazy makeup! Watch out for the bandersnatch…

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
I need to watch this one again – it was really interesting, and I feel like it had layers that I missed on the first watch through. It’s not a groundbreaking advancement in young adult fantasy or anything like that, but it was a really likeable adventure with a bit of a spin on ancient mythology. I don’t know if it did well enough for a sequel, but I think that the invented culture has more potential to tap. I need to check out the books for sure!

The Bounty Hunter
This was a fun movie – pretty cheesy, but highly entertaining. Not for minors – there’s lots of sexual innuendo, swearing and violence! A good date night rental though – enough explosions to keep the guys happy, and enough romance to make it not just a blowing stuff up guy movie. Not a whole lot to recommend it though – kind of comparable to cotton candy!

The Lemon Tree
Such a sad movie! I rented it because it’s set in Israel, and likely the only way I’m going to get back there anytime soon is vicariously! It’s the story of a Palestinian widow who has a lemon grove along the dividing fence, which is deemed a security threat when a prominent Israeli politician moves into the neighbourhood just on the other side of the wall. The way he allows his people to treat the widow eventually divides him from his wife, and sparks an international media storm. It was a fascinating movie, but terrifically sad.

Movie Reviews Part 3

2011-01-25T17:55:00.003-07:00

St. Trinian’s
I picked up the movie from the cheap bin at Blockbuster because it had Colin Firth in it. This movie is like a car wreck that you just can’t look away from… It’s got some big names in it, and is set in an English boarding school, but Rupert Everett in drag as Colin Firth’s love interest was just a bit too weird for me! It was hysterically terrible.

Killers
This was a great, fun date movie. Romantic, yet with enough explosions to keep the guys happy. Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl were fun to watch as a former spy and his ‘normal’ wife. Of course, his old spy life comes back to haunt him, and they’re on the run. I would definitely watch this one again.

Karate Kid
Like Colin Firth, I’ll watch pretty much anything with Jackie Chan in it. I was a bit sceptical about Jayden Smith because of his famous connection perhaps buying him premature fame, but he was actually really good. I haven’t seen the original Karate Kid, so I can’t compare the two, but I thought this one was really good, and I liked it a lot.

How to Train Your Dragon
Such a cute movie! This one is definitely on my ‘to buy’ list. Toothless, the dragon, reminded me so strongly of a cat – the animation was fabulous, and the plot was really enjoyable, and I thought it was unique. I highly recommend watching this one ASAP!

Double-Take

2011-01-12T13:03:00.003-07:00

Does this not remind you of an Ewok on a speeder bike? That's sure what it made me think of... :)

http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel/Gallery+Zoos+News/1794451/story.html
Photograph by: Angelika Warmuth, AFP/Getty Images

Me Being a Geek

2010-12-01T18:58:00.002-07:00

They announced today that not only is Jonathan Frakes coming to comic expo in June, William Shatner is coming too! SO EXCITING! www.calgaryexpo.com

I ordered tickets today, and I think I'm going to spring for the extra cost of the photo op with Shatner - you see, just a few weeks ago I ordered a red Star Trek mini-dress from http://www.thinkgeek.com/, and what better use for it?!

Think Geek has some awesome stuff by the way - if you're shopping for any kind of a geek, you'll find something there - Star Wars, Star Trek, science, computers, bacon, Princess Bride, Monty Python...they've got something for everyone!

And check out this cute ornament that I got in an email...

Books!

2010-11-26T15:35:00.004-07:00

I'm not totally sure about the authenticity of the BBC being involved in this, but it seemed like a fun challenge...

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this. Bold those books you've read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.

Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses...

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegge
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Total: 28!

Movie Reviews Part 2

2010-11-14T19:27:00.007-07:00

Quantum of Solace
Daniel Craig as James Bond – he’s good, but since Pierce Brosnan was Bond when I first started watching, he’ll always be Bond to me! But Quantum of Solace rocked. I didn’t really enjoy Casino Royale – it was too tragic for me! It’s the ONLY movie I’ve ever seen where I had to leave the theatre because it was too icky. Quantum of Solace on the other hand (besides having an awesome title) was really enjoyable. The plot was great! Again with the sex and the violence I’d give it an R, but I would have given Casino Royale an RRR!

Dracula - Dead and Loving It
Totally campy Mel Brooks vampire movie – lots and lots and lots of fake blood everywhere! It was pretty funny, and I always enjoy Mel Brooks, but I’m not a fan of vampires at all, so I was pretty creeped out! They make my skin crawl. :P But if you’re a fan of vampires, you’ll probably like it, and besides the one scene with all the fake blood it wasn’t too violent. Mel Brooks is the master of innuendo, which is highly entertaining, but this isn’t a movie for a younger crowd!

Toy Story 3
I actually found this movie to be more then a little disturbing! I can’t tell you exactly why without giving away too much of the plot, but it was almost part homage to horror movies. And I also have waaaay too much imagination when it comes to how my stuffed animals might feel about something (the Velveteen Rabbit was an early influence!) so the movie made me a bit uncomfortable. The Spanish Buzz Lightyear was pretty funny though! All in all, I’d say Toy Story 2 was my favourite of the franchise, and the ride at Universal Studios was one of my favourites at Disney World.

Letters to Juliet
This was a really feel-good chick flick. This American girl vacationing in Italy meets a bunch of ladies who answer letters that are written to Juliet (from Romeo and Juliet). She ends up going on a road trip all over Italy trying to help this older woman find the “Romeo” she lost when she was young. The Italian scenery alone makes this movie worth seeing! I’d give it a PG-13 – it’s aimed at an older audience, but there’s no violence and not much sexual content. It’s been a while since I saw it, but I don’t remember there being much in the way of swearing, either. It left me smiling!

Movie Reviews Part 1

2010-11-13T20:59:00.012-07:00

I've seen a bunch of movies in the last few months, and many of them were really enjoyable, so I'm going to tell you about them! Stay tuned for more....

Easy A
This movie was a lot of fun. It posed some good questions and had a great sense of humour. The lead actress was really great – Emma Stone – I hope to see her in more movies in the future. It’s definitely not for a young audience though – I’d give it a 14A at minimum! My biggest complaint is how they portrayed Christians – either as hypocritical or totally unaware. We’re not all like that that, I promise!

Despicable Me
SO CUTE! Definitely on my to-buy list! My favourite line: “HE’S SO FLUFFY I’M GONNA DIE!” I loved everything about this movie – it was just a happy cartoon with a great message about the importance of family, and some awesome humour. Is it just me, or does the ‘bad’ guy remind you of Bill Gates?

Nanny McPhee Returns
I wasn’t a huge fan of the first Nanny McPhee movie, even though it had Colin Firth in it. But I wanted to see a movie, and this was the best thing playing! I liked it a lot more then I liked the first one – there was only one scene that was so cheesy that I actually squirmed. It’s set during WWII, and has a star-studded cast – I counted four Harry Potter stars in it! The plot line was pretty good, and Maggie Gyllenhaal was brilliant as the over-worked mum.

The Other Guys

“I’m a peacock – you gotta let me fly!” The fact that Mark Whalberg could deliver that horrible line TWICE in one movie nearly killed me! I laughed intermittently for a couple of days about that. He and Will Ferall play a couple of inept cops and they are hysterical. Trevor and I were both really entertained by this movie. But for violence, language and sexuality, I’d definitely give it an R!

New Books to Read!

2010-10-20T10:59:00.004-06:00

One of my favourite authors, Diana Gabaldon, had a guest blogger today who talked about an interesting book series I've never heard of, and I always like finding new authors! It was a fun post because the author, KC Dyer, blogged as if the books' main character was writing. I'm going to add A Walk Through a Window, and Facing Fire to my 'to read' list...

http://voyagesoftheartemis.blogspot.com/2010/10/guest-post-to-entertain-you-as-i-wing.html

Star Wars Fun

2010-10-18T19:15:00.000-06:00

A recent purchase of mine...
http://www.heruniverseshop.com/Products/Empire-Strikes-Back-Thermal-Hoodie__HUN-ESB-THERM.aspx

This is a fun blog I follow....
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/06/sunday-sweets-star-wars.html

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2010/08/star-wars-sweets.html

Recent article....
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2010/10/the-making-of-the-empire-strikes-back-201010?currentPage=all

Watch Yoda and Darth Vader in the recording studio for TomTom GPS...
http://starwars.tomtom.com/voices/index-starwars.php?Lid=1&voice=hansolo

Waste!

2010-09-25T15:06:00.003-06:00

This site has some really neat photos of urban decay, a subject I find fascinating.

http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/index.html

The photo of all those book mouldering away in this old library really irks me though - what a WASTE of books! I'd love to give them a good home... :( I wonder how they came to be left there?

Kid's Books

2010-09-20T13:30:00.002-06:00

Books and reading are my hobby. I've never counted my book collection, although I do have it catalogued, but I imagine that I own hundreds. My www.weread.com profile has 4,374 books on it - and almost 2,000 of those are books I've read! (The others are on my 'to read' list.) I started reading when I was something like 4 , with Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland, and I haven't stopped since.

I've recently started following the very entertaining Cake Wrecks blog, and I discovered this older post that just made me smile...cake tributes to children's books! The Very Hungry Caterpillar is great!

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/05/sunday-sweets-reading-rocks.html

Thoughts on Turning 30 - Pearls Before Swine

2010-09-19T19:56:00.004-06:00

In my case at least my dreams of romance came true! And I've done a bit of travelling, although no where near as much as I'd like to. And I often do spend time on the weekend at Rona...and new windows this year made me very excited.

Any tips on how to rediscover my inner adventurer?! I'm thinking about going to university...do you think 30 is too old? I think I just might get more out of it now then I would have if I'd been in a position to attend university at 18!

This comic is especially poignant because Rat is usually the sarcastic one given to picking on others more then genuine introspection. I love Pearls Before Swine - it usually makes me smile, and occasionally has made me laugh out loud. I highly recommend following it daily...especially if you love a good pun!

Book Trailer - The Exile by Diana Gabaldon

2010-09-18T14:36:00.001-06:00

Diana Gabaldon is a fabulous author who's books I have enjoyed for about 11 or 12 years now. They're detailed historical fiction and the writing just sucks you into another time and place.

WARNING: Parts of the stories are graphic, both violence-wise and sexually. I would call them R rated and not let me kids read them until they were out of high school, if then... :P

This is a trailer for her new 'graphic' novel (haha!) which looks very exciting....

Book Recomendation

2010-09-17T15:08:00.003-06:00

There are many authors I like, and quite a few who's blogs I follow. One of my favourites is Maria V. Snyder. She writes mostly fantasy, and she's got a new book that just came out - the third installment of a trilogy. This trilogy is a spin-off of a previous trilogy, so there are 6 books to explore the fantasy world she's created.

You can check out an interview with her here: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=30706

News from Hippos

2010-09-16T10:25:00.003-06:00

As some of you know, I went to Israel on an archaeology dig in the summer of 2008, and totally left a bit of my heart behind. It was the most incredible experience of my life, and I keep up on the news from the new dig teams at "my" site every summer. This year they found something really cool, and the news articles about it came out today. I WISH I had been there!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100916100503.htm

http://www.newswise.com/articles/goddess-of-fortune-found-in-sussita

July

2010-08-28T15:19:00.002-06:00

So, as per usual, I got a bit behind! July was a busy month, what with going to Edmonton for the youth gathering, Trevor working tons of overtime, and then going to the Okanagan for an extended weekend.

The youth gathering was lots of fun, but pretty stressful for me. It's the first time I've ever been in charge of youth and nothing but (no event coordinating responsibilities) and it kept me hopping. We had 13 youth, and head counting filled up a lot of my time! I roomed with a friend I don't see often, so that was fun, and there were good speakers and good music. AND there was a Tim Horton's right in the same building as the dorms - bonus!

At the end of July Trevor and I went to the Okangan for a few days, and we left in the middle of the week. We spent a night at Buffalo Mountain Lodge in Banff, and went to the hot springs. We got eaten ALIVE by mosquitoes - they were huge and everywhere - I was itching for weeks after!

The Okangan was beautiful as always, and we got to visit with lots of people, eat lots of good food, and hang out at the beach, so it was exactly what I was looking for in a holiday.

I also saw "Despicable Me" during July - such a cute movie - I highly recommend it!

If you're a Star Wars fan, I also highly recommend this website: http://heruniverse.com/
I haven't bought anything yet because I'm trying to restrain myself and not buy one of everything, but I definitely will be getting something soon! 2010 seems to have been my Year of the Geek, what with all the concerts and whatnot I've gotten to go to, so finally spending some money on some fan gear seems like a good way to top off the year!

Star Wars in Concert

2010-07-09T15:58:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago we went to Star Wars in Concert at the Saddledome.

There were costumes

There were big screens

There was an orchestra

And there was great movie footage!

I heart Star Wars...

Final Days in Florida

2010-06-27T14:57:00.001-06:00

After doing the Disney thing for a few days, and on the Friday morning of the Memorial Day Long Weekend, we checked out of our resort and headed for a few days on the coast. My perfect idea of a totally relaxing holiday involves sitting on a beach, and since they're in short supply in Calgary, I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to go to one!

We went to Sanibel, which is a tiny island just off Florida's Gulf Coast, near the city of Fort Meyers. It's uniquely located in the currents, and is known for being an excellent place for sea shell collectors due to this. And it's beautiful!

Lots of shells on the bottom - had to wear shoes or end up with cut feet!

I spent a lot of time doing this, and came back with lots of shells.

We went on a sunset boat cruise, and the first mate got this fluke shot of us, the sunset and a flock of pelicans. Lovely!

We left Sanibel early Monday morning and booked it back to Orlando to catch our flight back to Calgary. Our trip home was a gong show due to a cancelled flight out of Toronto, but we made it! I'd definitely go back to Florida again - it's warm, humid, sunny and surrounded by ocean, which makes it pretty much perfect in my books! :)

Florida Days 6 and 7

2010-06-17T20:25:00.002-06:00

May 26 (Trevor's birthday) was our first day at Epcot.

We had lunch in France - so yummy!

We stayed late in the park for the fireworks, and all the buildings around the lake were lit up. This is the Canada pavilion.

Our second day at Epcot we mostly visited the Land pavilion and the Sea pavilion.

The Sea pavilion was my fave! :)

Florida Days 4 and 5

2010-06-11T21:21:00.001-06:00

Day 4 in Florida (the Monday of the Canadian long weekend) was spent sleeping, resting, eating and shopping.

Yummy lemon filled Krispy Kreme

Day 5 was spent at the Magic Kingdom - hence the Captain Jack impersonator! He was really spot-on.

The Swiss Family Treehouse - one of my first and favourite movies of all time

Florida Day 3

2010-06-11T20:05:00.003-06:00

Our third day in Florida was spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios for Star Wars weekend. Totally awesome.

Nothing says "good morning" like a display of Imperial might

Pretty much the best ride ever. They're re-doing it this summer, for the first time since the original series came out. I'm glad I saw it before it went all Clone Wars.

It's Indiana Jones! Actually, his stunt double, but he's got the hat so it's ok.

Queen Susan, me, High King Peter. The lighting was too bad and the camera nearly dead, so I didn't get a picture of Prince Caspian's armor, but it was there. *swoon* :)

I would have uploaded a picture of the Toy Story ride, which was my absolute favourite, but I was having too much fun to take a picture!

And if you ever happend to find yourself at Holywood Studios, I highly reccomend the buffet at Hollywood and Vine - SO good!

Florida - the first two days

2010-06-08T20:24:00.004-06:00

We had a great time in Florida...this is the first of a series of posts with a few photo highlights...check out my webalbum for more!

We arrived in Orlando on a Friday afternoon, and after checking into our resort (thanks to my in laws and their timeshare!) we headed to Downtown Disney for sightseeing and dinner. On Saturday we drove to the coast and spent most of the day touring Kennedy. We went to church at a Lutheran church in Viera, and finished up the day with dinner at Coco beach. Much fun!

Ogopogo made it all the way from Kelowna to Downtown Disney! With a little help from the Lego store...

The NASA Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Centre

Sunset at Coco Beach

Catching Up

2010-06-04T22:37:00.003-06:00

I can't believe last time I posted was the end of April! Is anyone even still reading this thing? :P

One of the highlights of the past few months was getting brand new windows and outdoor in all the townhouses in our complex. They look really nice and will hopefully be excellent for our resale value. They really perk the place up.

In early May I went to a Jeans and Classics Abba tribute at the Calgary Philharmonic. It was fabulous - Dad said they really sounded and acted like the real thing. That was before my time so I can't comment on that, but it was a lot of fun. I can't recommend the Philharmonic enough! They have a really exciting line up for the next season that I'm looking forward to. You should check it out!

I also went to Stars on Ice, which was a good show. I totally forgot to take a camera, which was disappointing. Virtue and Moir skated, and so did Joannie Rochette. I haven't been to Stars on Ice in about 10 years, so this was a good time to go and cheer for our Canadian Olympic medalists!

Stay tuned - hopefully in the next couple of days I'll write a post about our epic trip to Florida - it was so much fun! If you're dying for a sneak peek, check out my web album for some photos and a few pithy comments. :)

Expo Photos

2010-04-30T20:14:00.001-06:00

"That's ok, I let the droids get away too."

Calgary Comic Expo

2010-04-30T20:00:00.007-06:00

Data - Brent Spiner

Dr. Carson Beckett - Paul McGillion

Lando Calrissian - Billy Dee Williams

Spock - Leonard Nimoy (and Mayor Dave Bronconnier, but we can ignore him!)

Last weekend we went to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. If I could sum it up in just one word, it would be 'zoo'! I spent most of the weekend in lineups, which was a frustrating waste of time, but the people watching was great. :) I was so overwhelmed though, I forgot to take pictures of all the interesting stuff going on. I mean, it's not every day you see a stormtrooper taking the escalator!

Gallery: Calgary Comic Expo (Calgary Herald website)

Apparently 'Spock' is retiring from movies and tv, to focus on his photography....and I hope I'm half that spry when I'm 79! Wow!

Brent Spiner is really funny, and said that he's thinking of retiring too. And then he had this whole conversation with himself where he talked himself into not retiring. He was REALLY entertaining.

And Paul McGillion was super funny too - he had lots of good stories, and switched back and forth between Scottish and Canadian accents all the time. He was born in Scotland but his family moved here when he was a baby, so he's a Canadian citizen, as well as being an Atlantian.

Billy Dee Williams was really disappointing...he didn't have any good stories, and the people asking him questions had a really hard time getting him to talk.

One of the most fun things about the weekend was all the costumes - watching Captain Kirk pose with Stormtroopers was very entertaining. I saw a couple of girls who were dressed as wounded red shirts, complete with fake blood. There were a few Jedi, a couple of Boba Fetts and Darth Vaders, and one Han Solo. There were a few Princess Leias, one 7 of 9, and far too many women wearing not nearly enough in the way of clothing...sci fi really has quite the niche on objectifying women! I didn't see a single Captain Janeway, sadly! She's the best Star Trek Captain ever.

It's funny - I'm enjoying my memories of the expo much more now then I enjoyed the actual experience. I guess I have some perspective on the crowds and lines, and remember the good over the annoying. Most people were polite and patient, but I encountered a couple pushy people who made me really cross. I left on Sunday thinking that I wouldn't go back again, but now I'm remembering all the good stuff, and I probably will go again next year.

Apparently I'm a bit more of a crazed sci fi fan then I thought I was, because I actually SQUEALED when I got a glimpse of Leonard Nimoy sitting at a table signing autographs. Oh, and I almost touched Paul McGillion...actually, I almost walked right into him as I walked out of the bathroom without looking both ways first...I may have geeked out just a little bit at that. :)

I'm going to post a few pictures of fun costumes I found on the Comic Expo Facebook group, since I don't have any of my own to post, sadly. Maybe next year I'll be there in a costume of my own! :)

Did you know...?

2010-04-27T10:18:00.002-06:00

You should read this blog post...I've been following this lady's blog for a while now, and it's been very interesting - her life is so different from mine.

Today's post was really something else...
http://antiquityoaks.blogspot.com/2010/04/chicken-for-dinner.html

I'm more then a little creeped out! I know that the meat industry wasn't so good, but actually seeing deformed baby chickens...well, a picture is definitely worth a thousand words. Maybe it's time to try more organic meat from the farmer's market...

Photos

2010-03-17T12:28:00.001-06:00

Heather and I at Star Trek

Matt Maher at Break Forth

Youth at Grotto Canyon

The past three months...

2010-03-17T12:09:00.003-06:00

The last three months have been pretty busy, as I'm sure you can tell if you've been eagerly awaiting my long-delayed update. :)

We got back from NS without any trouble, and my friend Jenn came to visit. We were roommates in Israel, and it was really nice to see her again!

Heather came for a visit, and we went to the CPO to see "The Music of Star Trek", narrated by the actors who played Q and The Doctor. It was really fun! I enjoyed it a lot. I was expecting a higher percentage of attendees to be in costume though...the most elaborate one was this woman who dressed as Kai Winn, perfectly detailed right down the the paper mache Orb of the Prophets she carried around with her. Talk about dedication!

We went to Edmonton for Break Forth at the end of January. Such a great conference! Maybe the best Break Forth we've ever been to. We are now Matt Maher groupies...if you've never heard of Matt Maher, you should Google him...he's a great worship leader/song writer from Arizona, who's actually originally from Newfoundland. There were so many great speakers and bands, and the info they've released on next year's line up looks just as good. You should go!!

You may have heard that I gave up Facebook for Lent...I haven't missed it much, either! I've been so busy, I don't know how I ever had time for it before.

I spent a fair bit of time watching the Olympics, which I've never done before. I watched both the opening and the closing ceremonies (I LOVE the closing) and most of the figure skating. Virtue and Moir were so incredible - I'm really glad I was able to see them skate.

Last month a few youth and I met up with some youth and leaders from another church and we went hiking at Grotto Canyon. It's out by Canmore, and it's the coolest place. I've been there twice before, but never this time of year. The canyon was basically a giant sheet of ice, and we hiked up it. It was slippery going in a few spots, but coming back down was the worst, because the downhill slant made it way too easy to get going too fast to control. So I ended up sliding down a lot of it on my butt. Lucky I wore my snow pants!

I've also been busy running a youth fundraiser, organizing our trip to the youth gathering in July, helping Trevor with church music stuff, housework, reading, visiting with friends, and the endless round of errands which never seem to go away.

Last weekend we were at Rona, and we got backed into by a guy who "couldn't see us because the sun was in his eyes". There's a huge dent in our passenger side front door, and it's probably going to need to be replaced. My poor baby :( And it's such a hassle! Grrrr...

Today I'm at home keeping an eye on the guys installing our new windows. The whole condo complex is getting them, and about time! The windows we had are original to the building, which was built in the late 70's. They don't slide properly, they don't do a thing to keep out the cold, and a lot of people are having problems with them getting covered in condensation, which then rots the window frames. I'm really looking forward to not having to shrink wrap our windows next winter! Right now I've got the cats locked in the bathroom to keep them out of the way, and they're not happy, poor things!

Ok, time to see if I can get into my kitchen to get some lunch...

NS Part 1

2009-12-30T14:24:00.001-07:00

Mom and sisters - family gathering at my cousin Charlotte's

Kids and cats...

Birthday Cake

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-22T15:25:00.002-07:00

I'm counting down my last few minutes of work...and then I'm not back here till January 7th!

Early tomorrow morning we're off for two weeks in NS - I'm looking forward to it. It's been 2 and a half years since I was home at all, and something like 4 since I was home for Christmas. I still have a lot of packing and laundry to do tonight...and 3:30 AM is going to come awfully early...eeep!

Stay tuned for photos of Christmas in NS - it's been a while since I used my camera, and it's due for a workout.

May you find joy in Jesus, the reason for the season!

Junk Mail

2009-12-17T09:51:00.001-07:00

Did you know that if you tend to get a lot of personally addressed junk mail, you can go here...

http://www.the-cma.org/public.asp?WCE=C=47K=224217

and register to be removed from their mailing lists?

Traffic

2009-12-10T09:23:00.002-07:00

It's been a crazy week for commuting. I am getting very sick of spending so much time in my car! I keep meaning to rotate my collection of cds, but I keep forgetting. So yesterday, during my trip home from work, which took more then twice as long as it usually does, I was BORED.

I usually listen to Shine FM, and between 4 and 5 pm they take requests. I don't normally use my cell phone much while I'm driving, but I was moving so slowly I might as well have been parked, so I called in to request a song. It took a couple of tries, and I was about to give up, but then I got through.

They entered me in a draw, and said they'd try to fit my song in before 5:00 (it was already like, 20 to 5) so I didn't think I would hear it.

Just before 5 they called back to say that I won the draw! I won a pizza and passes to a Hitmen game, and my song was the last one they squeezed in. It was very exciting - I never win anything. :) Although now I have to drive all the way down to the Shine office in the south to pick up my passes, which I'm not even going to attempt to do until the roads are better!

Canada and Freedom

2009-11-25T09:17:00.011-07:00

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Gallery+Soldiers+return+home/2264371/story.html

Whether or not you agree with Canadian troops being in Afghanistan, I'm sure you must agree that the sacrifices the troops and their families are making to do what they think is right are incredible. There's a photo in the slideshow (linked above) of a man who's meeting his daughter for the first time. I got a little teary just thinking about it!

On Remembrance Day, Dad and I went to the service at the Museum of the Regiments. Jim Prentice, an MP and cabinet minister, spoke and if you're interested, you can read his speech here... http://www.jimprentice.ca/EN/community_news/remembrance_day_speech_2009/

It was really good. The thing that stuck out the most for me was that at the battle he spoke of, "More than 27,000 Canadians joined the battle in Sicily and 562 Canadians died and 1,664 were wounded."

There were about 9,000 people at the service, which is their highest attendance to date, and I've been going there for about 8 years now. But only 9,000 out of a million people in Calgary. Fewer people then were wounded in this ONE battle during the Second World War.

It makes me sad that people have such a hard time taking a couple of hours, one day a year, to remember the sacrifices that others have made so that we can live in freedom, and not just us in Canada, because it probably would have taken Hitler a bit longer to get control of North America, but overseas as well. To sacrifice your own life for a nation of people you've never met - that deserves to be remembered.

My boss was in Europe this fall, and she went to one of the concentration camps, and told me about some of the stuff she learned, a lot of which I already knew from all my reading on the subject (I went through a few years as a young teenager where I read every book in the library on the topic) - but they were things that I was surprised to find aren't common knowledge for a lot of people. What do they teach in schools these days?

Did you know that Hitler didn't just have it in for Jews, he had it in for everybody who didn't toe his party line - Christians, people without white skin, transient people like Gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped people and elderly (who he had forcibly sterilized and/or imprisoned and/or 'put out of their misery')? The list goes on. There are suggestions that he wanted to set himself up as a god, and may have believe that he was the reincarnation of Woden, the god of war (who was worshiped by human sacrifice).

The man was a nutter, and without a whole generation of people who were willing to fight him, we could be suffering under severe lack of freedom in Canada. It seems like many people have no idea how good we have it, compared to how oppressed people were under Nazi rule. The scary thing is, the more we forget, the more likely it is that the warning signs of another Hitler rising will be ignored, and the more likely it is that history will repeat itself.

Neighbours - A Rant

2009-11-20T21:52:00.004-07:00

So the worst part about condo living (other then condo association meetings, but those are only once per year) is having to share walls with other people.

On one side of us we have a nice family. Their kids are kind of noisy - playing, stomping up and down stairs etc - but that's normal kid noise so I try to not let it bother me too much. But their dogs! They have two Jack Russells, and they are noisy. Most of the time they have on these collars that squirt them with water when they bark, but when they don't have the collars on, they bark themselves into a conniption whenever we go into our yard. They were so agitated the other night, I thought they were going to try to get through the fence. When they do have the collars on, and they want back into the house, they will spend HOURS banging against the door. I don't know how the owners can ignore it, because it reverberates like crazy all through our house. Thump, thump, thump...pause...thump, thump, thump...for hours, literally. Also, they have a cobblestone yard, and they don't clean up after the dogs very often. GROSS!

On the other side, we have a woman and her teenage daughter, who also have a dog. A white, yippy rat of a creature. It's favourite hobby is to sit by the front window and bark at anything that even thinks about moving. So in the summer I go out to water my garden or even check the mail, and it has a conniption. I open the windows in the living room, someone goes by on the street, and the dog has a fit that sounds like it's in our house. And it will bark, bark, bark for hours when it's home alone. Trevor's mom was so annoyed by it when she was watering our garden while we were away that she sprayed it with the hose and barked back, which I'm very entertained by. And it's not just the dog barking...they have an alarm or something by their front door which buzzes every couple of minutes. The front yard faces south, so early this summer (our first summer in this house) I took my chair and book into the yard for a bit of reading. Between the buzzing and the barking, I went raving mad in about five minutes. I thought I'd try the back yard, even though it's not sunny, but when I went back there, the mom and daughter were having a fit in the kitchen with the window open! Oh, and there was the time I was watering the garden, and the daughter was in the living room on the phone freaking out at someone. I was trying to ignore her and water faster so I can leave, and then she comes over and slams the window shut, and glares at ME! Like I wanted to listen to her stupid phone call! And the mom's boyfriend comes to visit sometimes and brings his big yellow Lab with him, and doesn't keep it on a leash, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. Big dogs can be very dangerous.

So this week we got a new sound system because the old one crapped out, and tonight I watched Dead Man's Chest. Now, there are a lot of explosions, but I had the sound pretty low because Trevor has a headache. So it's about 9:15 (no where near noise curfew time) and they start banging on the wall! I'm really cross, because in general we do not make a lot of noise. Because it's a new system, the bass settings might have been a little loud, but no where near as loud as that stupid dog! Or that door they slammed really loud the other day at about 2am, which woke me up nearly having a heart attack from fright. One movie and they're freaking out! Loud people shouldn't bang on walls, because they might find themselves in a whole lot of trouble from people they've pushed to the edge...a YEAR of listening to them make all sorts of noise is just about my limit! One more button pushed and I'm going to be ready to complain to the condo board about them.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2009-11-03T10:22:00.002-07:00

For Today...

Outside my window...leaves and shadows on the wall next door

I am thinking... about the crick in my neck

I am thankful for... a minute to sit down and breathe after the crazy hour or two I just had

From the kitchen... I need to go get a glass of water

I am wearing... skirt, top, cute brown flats

I am reading... nothing at the moment, but I'm going to start "Between the Plums" by Janet Evanovitch while I eat lunch

I am hoping... that the rest of the day isn't as crazy as this morning was

I am creating... a blog post haha

I am hearing... the server make lots of computer-thinking noises

Around the house... lots of dust kittens! Someone named Trevor needs to vacuum :)

One of my favorite things... sunrises - yesterday's was AMAZING

A few plans for the rest of the week... girl's movie night with Lauren, housework, errands...

Funny article

2009-10-26T10:10:00.001-06:00

http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/comment/article/350308--carving-the-halloween-mangelwurzel

The author of this article hits on a few of the reasons why I don't 'celebrate' Halloween.

Getting old...

2009-09-14T11:16:00.002-06:00

I had my biannual eye exam this weekend. It's only actually been a year since my last one, but my eyes have been bothering me, and I have a new health insurance plan, so I have coverage available. I complained about how I keep having to move my computer screen closer, and the optometrist recommended reading glasses. Reading glasses! Oy vey...granted, between working on the computer at work, working on the computer at home, and reading every spare moment in between, I probably spend 90% of my waking hours seriously using my eyes.

But still - I didn't think I was old enough to need reading glasses...and I bet you anything the next step is going to be loosing one of the pairs somewhere, all the time.
"Sorry, I can't drive - I think I left my long-distance glasses on my desk at work."

In other news, I was thinking it might be neat to go to university sometime in the next few years. I haven't decided or anything, but there are so many study options, and so much stuff I could learn. I could take an English degree, or even study archaeology! My biggest problem is that the university system doesn't seem very user friendly. What's your university experience?

I'm still here...

2009-09-04T16:00:00.002-06:00

Even though it's been about a month and a half, I haven't abandoned my blog - it's just been busy. :)

August went so fast - mostly just with little day to day things, but we did take 5 days and get away to Trevor's parents' timeshare in Fairmont for a few days. I've never been out there before, and it's beautiful.
Photos here.... http://picasaweb.google.ca/michelleheumann

Last weekend my friend Teresa got married, and they had the reception at Heritage Park, which was super cool. They had the ferris wheel going, and the afternoon light was just beautiful. It was a lot of fun to see some people I haven't seen in a while, as well.

Things are work are going well, and we're gearing up for our grand opening open house. The biggest thing happening in September is that the 7th book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone, is being released. I'm quite excited. :)

I'm starting to do research and plan for our Florida/Disney trip in May. If you've been there before and have some helpful hints to offer, I'd appreciate it!

Hello from Kelowna!

2009-07-23T08:12:00.002-06:00

So for those of you who don't know, for the last couple of years I've been on the planning committee for the (deep breath) Lutheran Church-Canada Alberta British Columbia District tri-annual Youth Gathering. :)

After much planning and many meetings we (the committee) are on-site at the University of BC in Kelowna. Right now my youth group, and youth groups all over the district, are setting out to come here - check in starts at 3 pm.

This year we have just over 170 youth, leaders and other volunteers coming to participate in one of my most favourite things ever, and what is definitely my favourite thing about LCC - the Youth Gathering. Seriously, I think this is what heaven is going to be like, but without the two years of planning and work, and the registration fees! We get together, we visit with old friends, meet new people, play games, make music, listen to great speakers and presenters, don't get enough sleep...it's SO MUCH FUN!

Anyway, I've got about another hour before I really have to get up, so I'm going back to bed! (Which, being a dorm bed, is hard as the floor, and the pillow is so flat that even with a sweatshirt and a beach towel for added padding, my neck is still cricked at an unhappy angle. Urgh...)

Dig Nostalgia

2009-07-08T18:15:00.001-06:00

There's a team in Israel right now, digging in my square...well, it's still pretty early in the AM there, so they're probably sleeping at this moment...anyway, I've been following this blogs, and this post made me pretty 'homesick'!

http://blogs.markschuler.com/digit/2009/07/breakfast-on-the-dig.html

Where did the last two months GO?

2009-06-25T14:44:00.002-06:00

I can't believe how fast the time is going. It's been so long, is anyone still checking this thing?!

Last time I updated, we were heading off to BC for a trip to visit some family and friends. The thing that had been in the works for a while, which I couldn't blog about for 'security' reasons, is that the day before we left for our trip, I gave my notice at Foster Richmond, where I've worked for over three years now. Why? To go with my boss and her new business partner to their new firm! It was a big relief to give my notice and hit the road...

Our trip to BC was fabulous - the weather was good, we had a good visit with my aunt and uncle in Revelstoke, and had a blast at Chris and Kelsey's wedding. We saw a ton of people we don't see very often, and got to spend some time exploring Vernon's parks and beaches. And junk stores...we found some good deals!

May was super chaotic - wrapping up our practice at FR, working from home for a couple of weeks while rennos were done on our new office space, and then moving into the new office and hobbling along while furniture, phones and computers slowly got up and running. We also went to a Queen tribute at the CPO, which was a ton of fun, and I saw the new Star Trek movie twice - it's just THAT good! It's definitely on my Christmas wish list. :) I visited my friend Barb in Medicine Hat on the May long weekend, and we had lots of fun just relaxing and watching movies, which was muchly needed after the chaos of leaving FR.

Our new office is beautiful - it's a heritage era brick house in the community of Bridgeland, just on the east side of downtown. We have an awesome kitchen, two porches and a great back yard. It's taking me a bit longer to get to and from work now, but it's totally worth it. I have a huuuuge desk and lots of quiet workspace and co-workers I like - what more could you ask for in a job!?

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on Tuesday - can you believe it? 7 years already!

The youth gathering is coming up so fast - less then a month away now. I'm hoping and praying that I haven't forgotten to do anything I was supposed to, although strangely enough I'm not too worried about it, which is very uncharacteristic of me.

And it looks like spring has finally come to Calgary - my little garden is flourishing and I'm really enjoying having a garden to poke around in again. Life is pretty darn good!

Road Trip!

2009-04-28T08:54:00.002-06:00

April has been a super busy month, but it's finally about to slow down...we're leaving tomorrow morning for a week in BC! We're going to spend a night in Revelstoke with my family, and then six nights in Vernon, and we're going to Chris and Kelsey's wedding. I'm really looking forward to having a break. We've had to cancel our big trip to California, for a bunch of reasons, so this might be the only holiday we get this summer. Hopefully the weather is nicer in Vernon then it is in Calgary! I'm taking a huge bag of books, and I want to spend as much time as I can sitting outdoors and reading, even if I have to do it in a coat with a blanket - as long as it's not snowing!

Go Green, Save Green

2009-04-01T08:31:00.001-06:00

Good book! Written by the wife of the guy who wrote "Serve God, Save the Planet" as a response to people who asked "how?".

http://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/FirstChapters/978-1-4143-2698-6.pdf

Meow!

2009-03-27T10:03:00.002-06:00

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2009/03/25/8874341-sun.html

Black cats not the cat's meow for adoption

By JENNA MCMURRAY, SUN MEDIA

Black cats in Calgary seem to be particularly unlucky these days.

The Calgary Humane Society has seen a spike in the number of black cats -- as well as black and white felines -- at the shelter and is concerned about their future.

"It's unusual to see so many black cats, but the prevalence of them is quite high at the moment," said Lindsay Jones, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society.

"We're concerned they might not get adopted."

The society has about 26 black cats, which Jones said is the highest number of that colour it has ever had.

"Black cats and black and white cats are the least likely to get adopted," she said.

"We're not sure why exactly because black cats are just as loveable as any other cat."

Dark cats still seem to be a last resort for most Calgarians looking for new pets, with light and multi-coloured ones being much higher in demand. "We'll have a roomful of kittens -- one will be black and he'll be the last to go," said Jones. "It may be due to superstition or just that (black cats) don't look as nice as the calico next door."

Quote of the Day

2009-03-25T15:28:00.000-06:00

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."
by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Spring Fever

2009-03-19T13:03:00.002-06:00

A few days ago I was walking home from work, and the sun was shining and the snow was melting and I could hear water running, and it took me right back to spring in NS when I was a kid. Making maple syrup, playing in the creek, hunting for mayflowers, getting cold, wet and muddy and loving it. When spring comes, I always feel like going and splashing in the creek. Sadly, spring comes so fast in Calgary it happens overnight, and there are no creeks in our condo development!

I follow a few blogs about life in the country, and they definitely don't help with the spring fever thing...I'm not a city girl, and reading blogs sure doesn't help. Maybe I should have given up blogs for Lent. :P

I re-read one of my favourite books last month - one that I now realize shaped my childhood opinion of what the season of spring should look like, an opinion that clearly lingers. It's a story of a poor little rich girl from London, and her mother sends her to live with family friends in the English countryside while she goes abroad, and the bulk of the story is set in the spring. It's beautifully described, and I can picture it so vividly it's almost like being there. I'd give just about anything to experience a 'proper' spring for real though! Maybe one of these years...

Enid Blyton

2009-03-06T09:02:00.004-07:00

When I was about 10, I discovered the Famous Five - four cousins and their dog who adventured all over Great Britain, solving mysteries and eating lots. I'm collecting vintage editions of her books written for the 12-ish age group - the Famous Five, Mallory Towers and St. Claire's (British boarding schools) and the Mistletoe Farm series (six cousins in that one!). They're just light, fun, happy stories that make you feel better when you're done reading them. If you're looking to buy books for a child you know, I highly recommend them.

Recent story in a news magazine about Enid Blyton...
Good golly, Noddy’s back!

Posted using ShareThis

Movies and Books

2009-02-26T13:01:00.003-07:00

Recently I've seen Defiance, Passchendaele, Inkheart and Brideshead Revisited.

Defiance was really, really good. I actually read the book it was based on after seeing the movie, and was impressed at how well the movie portrayed the facts. There were differences of course, but I feel like the movie was an accurate portrait of the Bielski brothers and what they accomplished.

Passchendaele - well, it was really well done, and it was neat to see the scenes they filmed in Heritage Park. But I was super disappointed with the ending. I like happy endings and Passchendaele definitely did not have one of those! I guess that makes it even more historically accurate, but not as uplifting to watch.

I quite enjoyed Inkheart. I struggled when I read the book because it was so very, very dark, and I wasn't sure how the movie was going to turn out. I think the movie was actually less dark and more hopeful then the book was. There was a great cast and a happy ending and lots of fun little tributes to great works of literature, so I was really happy with it.

Brideshead Revisited was another one with an ending I didn't love. It wasn't an unhappy ending, exactly, but it wasn't the way I would have wanted it to end if I'd been the main character, that's for sure. It was a really troubled, layered, Very British drama with only occasional bits of humour and it made me very glad that I wasn't born into an upper class British family in the early 1900s!

For books (other then reading about the Bielski brothers) I've been working my way through a box of Mercedes Lackey books that I got for $30, "The Cat Who Saw Stars", and "Plum Spooky".

Mercedes Lackey...she's got an amazing imagination, and has written dozens and dozens of books. My favourites are re-workings of fairy tales which involve 'elemental' magic and the Valdemar series.

"Fire Rose" is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set just outside San Francisco, involving a rail baron who's been injured in a spell-casing gone awry, and a scholarly bluestocking he hires to be his research assistant. Many adventures ensue, and the story builds to the great San Francisco fire.

I've been having issues with her Valdemar series - some of them are really fun and enjoyable, but this one trilogy I read which is chronologically the beginning of the series is SO dark and the main character SO winy and SO tragic the first time I tried to read them I only made it partway through the second book. Since this trilogy was in the box of books I bought, I figured I'd take another stab at them, but by the time I was done I felt like I needed to clean out my brain with a pot scrubber. Icky!

"The Cat Who..." series by Lillian Jackson Braun is this fun bunch of 'cozy' mysteries about a supernaturally smart Siamese cat and his journalist owner and the murder cases in which they get embroiled. It's light, happy reading that makes me want to move to a small town somewhere, and get a Siamese cat. Which I'm sure Dax would not approve of, and Trevor definitely doesn't, so I'll put getting a Siamese on my list of things to do before I die and worry about it later. :)

"Plum Spooky" is a Stephanie Plum 'between the numbers' book. I've been reading anything written by Janet Evanovitch for a while now, because they're laugh-out-loud-on-the-ctrain funny. "Finger Licking Fifteen" is coming out this year sometime, and these books describe the adventures of Stephanie Plum, America's most accident-prone bounty hunter. I can't even begin to tell you how funny they are - often highly inappropriate, but hysterically amusing. "Plum Spooky" involves a monkey named Carl who plays Game Boy, a deadbeat brother recovering from being shot in the buttocks with a staple gun, a James Bond-like plot by a maniac to control the weather, a FTA resisting arrest in a produce wearhouse, and a mysterious guy named Diesel who calls himself an 'unmentionable'. It's good stuff!

Break Forth 2009

2009-02-02T13:54:00.001-07:00

I was really excited to go to Break Forth in Edmonton this weekend. I haven't been in a couple of years, and now that TEC has petered out, I really wanted a chance to spend some quality time with God. And boy, did I ever... :) I also got to spend a lot of quality time with Trevor, which was really nice. Usually when we go to retreats we end up doing our own thing and don't see much of each other, but this time we had a few electives together, and were able to meet up for all of our meals as well, so that was really nice, especially considering that he left today to go to another conference all week - this one in Texas. (Where it's warm!)

It took me a while to get into the 'retreat experience'. We got there early for a change, and found good seats close to the front, and since there were only four of us together, that made things a lot easier then in the past when I've been organizing a big group. The first speaker was Erwin McManus, and he was a really good, funny, honest speaker. I'm actually not really sure what his overall theme was, but the part that stuck out for me was about dreams and it was really good. We're going to order the DVD to show the youth group. Brenton Brown led worship, but it was a bunch of songs that were all new to me, so it didn't really do a lot for me. Mercy Me did the late night concert, which I was looking forward to, but Break Forth had a new company doing sound this year, and it absolutely blew chunks. The bass was SO overpowering my jeans were vibrating, which was a really strange sensation. If I hadn't thought to bring ear plugs along, I would have had to leave. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it a whole lot!

Saturday morning started off with worship with Matt Maher, which was cool, and the speaker was John Eldridge. He talked about listening to God, and walked us through an exercise right there, involving asking God a question and then just waiting to hear what He would say. I couldn't relax enough to listen but I did ask "what?" As in what do you want, what next, what should I be doing with this year - just what. I didn't hear anything, but I wasn't too worried - God has this habit of popping up in my life and getting my attention when I least expect it. :)

Then Trevor and I booked it over to McDougal Untied, this gorgeous old church with stained glass and fancy pillars and creaky pews for a worship service with Brian Doerkson, which was good. Brian Doerkson has this thing for the psalms, and he did a lot of meditative-type ones. And it was just him on his guitar with a piano and some handheld percussion. It was really relaxing. Then we had lunch with Jennifer and that was cool - we haven't seen her since before she moved to Kelowna, and since we're not going to be out that way till May, it was really nice to catch up a bit. She was telling us how she was going to give up tv for Lent, and I thought that was pretty brave of her. Tv has become a big part of my life!

Then Trevor walked over to Mother's Music to buy me better earplugs then the cheap foam ones I'd been using (isn't he nice?), and I went to a session where they were supposed to be teaching the new songs that were in this year's update for the Break Forth music binder. Sadly, the leader of the session was pretty chatty, so we didn't get through many of the songs, and most of the ones she picked to go over were ones that I already knew. So at least I know now not to sign up for that elective next year!

After that, Trevor went to a guitar clinic with Doug Doppler (who he loooves, partly because Doug was taught by Joe Satriani, who's Trevor's Guitar Hero. :) For my elective I went back to McDougal United for a worship session with Brenton Brown and Matt Maher, which was totally awesome. It was less crowded then Brian Doerkson's session, so I was able to have some space to myself and write a bit. They were really funny guys, and had a good rapore. They talked about the song writing process a bit, and they were just really genuine and cool. They seemed like the kind of people it would be fun to hang out with. Anyway, I was scribbling down some lines for a new song, and Brenton starts praying that the people in the room would be blessed with songs and creativity and all these things, and I'm going "Thanks...it's not the creativity that's the problem, it's the lack of MUSIC skills that's the problem!" From the last 7 or so years I have about 40 songs in various stages of development, and nothing to do with them when they're 'done'. Sometimes the lack of a creative outlet makes me want to stop writing altogether, but like I heard this one worship leader say at Break Forth a few years ago, "When God speaks, you'd better get a pen". So I HAVE to write, but I sure wish I knew what to do with that!

The evening main session was with Paul Baloche (who wrote "Offering", which is one of my all time favourite songs) and the speaker was this guy from Hawaii named Wayne Cordeiro, who was SO funny. To be honest, I don't really remember what he talked about, I just remember laughing a lot.

After that, we went to another worship session with Brenton Brown. It wasn't very crowded, so we got near the front and Trev got some good photos. It was a really good session, and I finally heard God speak to me, and He said to cancel our cable subscription. This is something that Trevor has mentioned to me every once in a while since we got married, but I have my few shows I like that I haven't wanted to give up. But I had just spent all day pondering to myself about dreams and what I want to be doing and how to spend my time, and how to spend more time with God, and tv is definitely getting in the way of those things. So I turned to Trevor on a break between songs and said "God says to cancel the cable". Being very wise after 7 years of marriage, he didn't say anything like "that's what I've been saying for years!", he just said "are you sure?". Yup, I'm sure. The more I think about it, the better of an idea I think it is. It'll give me the time I've been craving to spend with God and write, and more time with Trevor, and more time to read. The shows I really like I can still get on DVD, a lot of them from the library for next to free (a $12/year library card is a lot less then a $60/month cable subscription!) and anyway, if I can't live without tv in my life, that's just pretty sad, especially considering I grew up without it. And so we've decided to save that extra $60/month and pray about how God wants us to spend it, which is pretty exciting. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Anyway, worshiping is about my favourite thing possible to do, so I could have kept singing all night. Brenton was trying to end the session, and people kept calling for more. Finally he was like "You Canadians...you like your winters cold and your worship sets long!" which made me laugh. He has no idea how long I'd like my worship sets! :) It was a lot of fun, and made me feel grounded in a way I haven't felt since I came back from Israel.

Sunday morning I went to a session on small group leading, and it was a real disappointment. The presenter started off by saying "If you don't have the spiritual gift of teaching, don't even bother trying to lead a group, because you won't be able to do it." I thought that was pretty harsh, and it went downhill from there. She talked alot about the way she does things, and her experience and what she thought was best, and talked about how you have to control things as a group leader and that you have to stomp out any spontaneous conversations about anything else, even if they look like they're going somewhere deep. And she didn't have any scripture to back up anything she said, so I was pretty cheezed and glad when it was over. I was hoping for resources and questions and things to help me be a better leader, not be 'law-d' at like she was doing.

Then I went to a really excellent session about making time for God in your life. The speaker (I wish I could remember her name - it was Connie something) talked about six ways to make more time for God, and guess what the second one was? "Turn off the tv"! :) The third one was to spend less time online, which I'm going to work on. Although this blog post alone has already taken about an hour almost solid, so...

The final session was supposed to be with Frank Peretti and Brian Doerkson, but sadly, Frank Peretti is in some kind of life threatening situation. They didn't elaborate, but it's really upsetting. Frank's books played a major role in my spiritual awakening, and while I know where he's going should he die, it would be nice to read a few more of his books before he goes! Anyway, Phil Callaway spoke instead, and he really is QUITE funny. He also talked about having less tv in one's life...are we seeing a reoccurring theme here?! Brian Doerkson did one of his new songs that's going to be in a musical he's writing about the Prodigal Son, and it was really powerful. It had a really driving drum beat, and it was sung 'by' the older brother character, lamenting the famine in the land and asking "how long Oh Lord" with just this really plaintive cry that actually made me think of the Israelites in captivity in Egypt. I'm really looking forward to hearing the finished product.

Then we had dinner with the friends with whom we stayed, and headed home, listening to the new Brenton Brown cd, which has both mine and Trevor's new favourite songs on it. We didn't get in till 9:30, and I'm SO tired, but it was an awesome, amazing, phenomenal weekend, really. I can't wait for next year! Yay God!

And now I really should get back to work...eep! This took way longer then I meant for it to, but I really wanted to blog about it while everything was fresh in my mind...

25 Things About Me

2009-01-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

1. Yesterday was my 10th anniversary of living in Calgary. I moved here from Victoria in the middle of a snowstorm. When I went out the next day, my damp hair froze to my ears...definitely not something I'd experienced in Victoria!

2. I hate 'maple flavouring'. I often don't order pancakes when we go out for breakfast because I can't stand fake maple syrup. When I was a kid in Nova Scotia, we used to make our own, and I guess I got a little spoiled. :)

3. I love tea. Especially Second Cup's Earl Grey and Tim Horton's steeped tea. When I got to work today and opened my Timmy's cup, I realized they gave me a double double coffee, not tea. Sad day!!!

4. I have three floor-to-ceiling bookcases of books, and I have a big spreadsheet where I keep track of them all, especially the ones that are vintage editions. I love books!

5. In general, I don't find movie adaptations of books as good as the originals, but I think I might possibly like the recent Disney version of Prince Caspian better then the book. Mostly because CS Lewis wrote such wussy girl characters - not his fault, that's The Way Things Were, but I liked seeing Susan kick butt in the movie.

6. In 2003 I spent the summer on a VBS team, travelling around Canada on a Greyhound bus. If you ask me if I've been somewhere, often I can remember the bus depot, but not anything about the town itself.

7. My earliest memory is my first Christmas - I was just a few days away from being a year old, and I got an orange plastic tea set. I can also remember my first portrait sitting, but I'm not sure if it was before or after Christmas...I do remember thinking the photographer was crazy! Mom said he eventually gave up on trying to get me to smile.

8. When I was swimming in the Sea of Galilee last summer, a fish bit my toe and scared me half to death. I've never had that happen to me in any other body of water I've ever swam in.

9. I get excited when I think about going to Pearl Harbour, because one of my favourite Adventures in Oddessy episodes was set there.

10. My current desktop wallpaper is a shot I took of two plastic chairs watching the sun set over the Sea of Galilee.

11. I looooove to play Scrabble. Yay Scrabble! I also like Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Taboo and Balderdash.

12. I used to read the Encyclopedia Britannica for fun (the illustrated children's version, but still...)

13. Fruit is one of my favourite foods. Mandarins, pomegranates, kiwi fruit, grapefruit, watermelon, honeydew melon, plums, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, blackberries, cherries, grapes, cucumbers, tomatoes, blueberries, cantaloupe...sooo tasty!

14. My career goal used to be to open a cafe by Parliament Hill where all the MPs would come to eat lunch and gossip about politics.

15. I like to write. I write a lot. Mostly letters with big words for my boss, but also songs and stories. I have several books on the go - they always start out really well, and then I get a new idea and head off on a tangent. Maybe one of these days I'll actually get a book finished!

16. Gravy is my favourite comfort food. Gravy on potatoes, gravy on schnitzel, gravy on spatzle, gravy on bread (with meat!), gravy on meat, gravy on stuffing. Yummy!

17. When I was a teenager, I used to win blue ribbons at the country fair for my baking. My roses and my sunset photography won ribbons too.

18. Also when I was a teenager, I took French classes with a Welshman who learned to speak French in South Africa so he could teach agriculture. There was a lot of "your goat is in my hut"...

19. I parallel parked perfectly on my driving test, and haven't done it so well ever since.

20. I'm on the planning committee for the 2009 Lutheran Church Canada Alberta British Columbia District Youth Gathering. A long title for a job that involves trying to get more people involved so I can delegate stuff to them. :)

21. My favourite spot in all of Canada is Taylor Beach, in Metchosin on Vancouver Island. There are also lots of blackberries there, which also makes me very happy.

22. Trevor and I will have been married 7 years in June. That went really fast!

23. My pink and brown kitchen gives me much joy. When I get home from work, walking in the door makes me smile. I love my house!

24. I suck at Wii. Trevor's Mii does this really annoying happy dance all the time, which doesn't help. I need to play Wii with someone who's worse then me so I can boost my Mii's self esteem.

25. When I moved to Calgary, it was the first time in my whole life I'd lived somewhere landlocked. It still sucks - after 10 years I miss the ocean just as much as I did when I got here. I'm really looking forward to going to California this summer and seeing a bit of the ocean I haven't seen before.

Wow...this was really hard! Hopefully this was interesting enough that you persevered to the bottom. :)

Wild Roses

2009-01-26T08:22:00.002-07:00

I've been watching this new show on CBC that's really growing on me, so when I got this message from the Facebook group, I thought I'd pass it along...

"I've sent this message along to help promote "Wild Roses", a new prime time drama that airs Tuesday nights at 9PM nationwide on the CBC. It's a great new show that is being described as the Canadian version of Dallas.
The CBC is making decisions about whether or not to renew the show for a second season based on the first FOUR episodes numbers so it's crunch time. I would like to help support the show so I'm sending this e-mail to those who I think will enjoy it!
Episode 4 airs on Tuesday the 27th at 9:00PM on CBC!!!
Can you please forward this message on to as many family and friends as you can and ask them to tune in?!
All the best and many thanks,The Cast and Crew of "Wild Roses"
CBC Website: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.cbc.ca%2Fwildroses%2F
IMDB: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt1239185%2F
You Tube: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3D%2522wild%2Broses%2522%2Bcbc%2Bdrama%26search_type%3D%26aq%3Df
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44054161889
P.S. If you liked the show, make sure to let the CBC know!"

Stargate Lego

2009-01-15T08:24:00.003-07:00

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/01/asgard_flagship.php?p=2&cat=undefined#more

Wow...really? I mean, I looove Stargate, but wow...

Although a Stargate Lego game would be super cool! I'm not a huge of of playing Star Wars Lego, but it is really cute to watch. It would be fun to see what they could do with Stargate.

Quote of the Day

2009-01-14T20:54:00.002-07:00

"A pen in the hand is mightier then a bush."

-Oscar from Corner Gas

Don't ask me why, but that was about the funniest thing I've heard all week... :)

A Blustery Day

2009-01-14T13:16:00.002-07:00

Despite the weather forecast calling for only 'light flurries' today, what's going on outside my window is definitely not what I'd consider 'light'! I really wish I hadn't worn a skirt to work, and I REALLY wish I was at home, bundled up with fleece, a book, a cat and something nice to snack on. It's just one of those days...

Trevor and I are planning our 7th anniversary trip...to California! We're going to go to Legoland, San Francisco, and Napa Valley. Have you been to California? Any 'must see' recommendations?

Back to work now...to dream about sunny California while the snow blows past the window...

Year in Review

2009-01-05T19:46:00.003-07:00

I love these things, because they make me think about stuff I might not have otherwise. Here's a look back at what 2008 meant to me...not surprisingly, Israel features quite highly. :)

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Bought a house, went to Israel (which included too many firsts to list!), joined the District Youth Gathering Committee, got the car stuck in a snowdrift, played video games (I gave Trev a Wii for Christmas), hosted Christmas dinner for the family...

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't even remember what they were...probably to eat more healthily and get more exercise, which I did ok with, and hope to keep up this year

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? a couple of friends had babies

4. Did anyone close to you die? no

5. What countries/cities did you visit? Lots of travelling around Alberta and BC, as usual, and ISRAEL! And Jordan...

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? More time with God

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? July 1st...Canada Day in Israel! And September 23rd...the day we took possession of the new house.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Going to Israel, working my butt off in the dirt, and loving every minute of it. Buying a house was a pretty big achievement too - we've been working towards it for over 6 years!

9. What was your biggest failure? Getting sick at Christmas :(

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? See #9...

11. What was the best thing you bought? A house!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? Trevor painted a pink stripe around my kitchen :) He actually worked really hard at doing all the things I wanted done to the house. It made me very happy!

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? That's a pretty dramatic statement...I don't tend to get THAT bothered about things!

14. Where did most of your money go? Travelling and house-buying

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Israel! New house! Having company in the new house!

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? My "Liberated Wailing Wall" cd I listened to a lot in Israel, and the songs from the Prince Caspian soundtrack

17. Compared to this time last year, are you…
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? About the same
iii. richer or poorer? Depends...we're more in debt, but we've got more invested!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Digging in the hot sun

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Not trusting God

20. How will you be spending Christmas? I take it this refers to Christmas 2008...I hosted dinner for the fam, with my mom and bro from NS and the inlaws too

21. How will you be spending New Years? I was still really sick, and sadly I was in bed by 9.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008? With Israel!

23. How many one night stands? lol

24. What was your favourite TV program? McLeod's Daughters

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Nope - hating is highly overrated

26. What was the best book you read? I'm really enjoying the "Cat Who..." series...I don't think I read anything life changing or whatever

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? The Prince Caspian soundtrack

28. What did you want and get? A big trip overseas and a house - two major goals accomplished!

29. What did you want and not get? To work TEC :(

30. What was your favourite film of this year? Prince Caspian

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I had a few friends and some family over and had cake...turned 28

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I don't know what could have made it more satisfying!

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? "Grubby Archaeologist" :)

34. What kept you sane? God!

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Hummm...not really sure...I'm not super into celebrities.

36. What political issue stirred you the most? ARGH! What a year of absolute CRAP! ARGH! Canadian, Israeli and American politics all annoyed the HECK out of me....grrrr....

37. Who did you miss? my friends who don't live in Calgary!

38. Who was the best new person you met? I met lots of cool people in Israel...I met a few cool people in the Toronto airport on the way to Israel, too. :)

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Stop fretting and trust God! We'll see how well that sticks with me this year... :)

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "This home...I've been searching for a place of my own...now I've found it...this is home"

41. Was 2008 a good year for you? One of the best, without a doubt

42. What were your favourite moments of the year? Having Chris and Kelsey over for a really good visit (I love quality time!), swimming the in Sea of Galilee, having Mom and Simon visit, our big housewarming party, house hunting with Trevor, swimming in the Banff hot springs with the youth and again with my family, going to Lauren's wedding with Heather, visiting Barb in Medicine Hat, seeing Petra, touching the Western Wall, moving out of the basement suite in the NE, the first time we walked into what is now our house, eating popsicles on the kibbutz after a day of digging, hiking Grotto Canyon with Trevor....so many of them!

43. What was your least favourite moment of the year? Dealing with the crappy internet connection at the kibbutz while trying to talk to Trevor, dealing with Israeli border security, getting my RRSP statement after the market crash, being sick on Christmas (I missed church on Christmas day for the first time in my LIFE!), Anne Marie telling me she was leaving DPS-ing

44. What was your favourite month of 2008? June to September

45. What was your favourite song from in 2008? "This is Home", I think it's by Switchfoot

46. What was your favourite record from 2008? The Prince Caspian soundtrack

47. How many concerts did you see in 2008? Quite a few...one with Trevor that I didn't love so much, and a bunch at the CPO. The most memorable one at the CPO was Natalie McMaster, although that was also the most recent one. :)

48. Did you have a favourite concert in 2008? My favourite concert is still the Starfield/Third Day/Chris Tomlin one I went to a few years back

49. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2008? Nope

50. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2008? I sure went through a lot of Advil Cold and Sinus! :)

51. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year? I don't think so...although if I did, I wouldn't be likely to post it on my blog...

52. What was the worst lie someone told you in 2008? I can't think of anything

53. Did you treat somebody badly in 2008? Possibly...I feel that sometimes I come across as rude when really I'm just quiet, so I might have without realizing

54. Did somebody treat you badly in 2008? Not that I can think of

55. How much money did you spend in 2008? I bought a house and took a major trip overseas...it wasn't a cheap year!

56. What was your proudest moment of 2008? The day I carried two heavy buckets of pottery shards all the way down the hill all by myself, and at a decent pace, too!

57. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2008 and change something, what would it be? I'm not sure that I would change anything. It was a super good year!

58. What are your plans for 2009? Run a youth gathering, go to California with Trevor, maybe go someplace hot for Christmas if it works out, go to Break Forth, read lots of books, write, and cross some more things off the 'house to do' list

Israel Article

2009-01-03T11:23:00.001-07:00

http://www.lutheranchurch-canada.ca/canluth/Nov08.pdf

It's on page 27

Funny

2008-12-19T08:17:00.001-07:00

http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...if you live at the North Pole, anyway...

2008-12-15T09:19:00.001-07:00

The weather here has been insane this past week! Last Sunday it started snowing while we were in church, and it snowed, and it snowed. And then it started getting cold. Last Thursday it took two hours to get to work, when normally it only takes 45 minutes. Friday afternoon it snowed some more, and traffic was backed up everywhere despite warnings to stay at home - the storm hit right around rush hour and it ended up taking people hours to get home. On Saturday we went to Australia (the movie, not the warm country where it's currently summer, unfortunately) and the normally five minute trip took quite a bit longer - either the snow was loose and slidey under the tires, or it was so packed down it was like driving on ice. The movie was pretty good though, and the theatre was mostly empty.

So if anyone not in Calgary is reading this, let me explain what I mean by cold. We're talking between -25 and -35 degrees...so cold that when you step outside and breathe, your nose hairs freeze together. If you try to breathe through your mouth to avoid that very weird sensation, you start to cough because your lungs can't get any oxygen out of the frozen air. If you put a scarf over your mouth and nose to try to help with the breathing, the patch by your mouth freezes and is really just gross as it thaws and re-freezes as you breath out and in. You have to plug in your car (technically the block heater which keeps the engine warm) overnight because if you don't, it won't start. If you're going to go through a drive through, you need to test your window first, because there's a good chance it's frozen shut. I don't open the curtains or the blinds in the house because the windows are so cold you may as well be outside. It's so cold that the switches for the trains freeze up and leave crowds of people huddling in poorly heated shelters while they try to get to work. In short, it's so cold that you'd be in danger of loosing small appendages by the time you got to work, if you didn't go out prepared. (Like the lady I saw at the train only wearing thin leather driving gloves...my down-filled MEC gloves rated to -30 were feeling not quite warm enough...I can't imagine how painful that must have been!)

Have I mentioned how much I love Israel and how nice and warm it was there??!!

My Mom and my brother got here from Nova Scotia yesterday, and it was a beautiful day - the snow was white and sparkling in the sun, and the sky was blue, blue, blue. It was also -30 with the windchill... I was kind of afraid they'd get back on the plane and head home to balmy NS where if it gets to -10 it's a cold winter. But Mom said it reminded her of when she was a kid in central Newfoundland, so they're still here. :) She came bearing seafood, and we had a yummy shrimp and rice thing for dinner, so it's a good thing they did stay!

Now I just have to survive a few more days of this, and then it's supposed to warm back up to -10 or -15, which will be great and we'll all be shedding layers and driving with the windows open. :)

Much Rudeness at the Firm

2008-12-03T12:58:00.002-07:00

It was so weird - my boss isn't here today, so the receptionist called me and said there was someone here about one of our clients.

I went out to the front and this lady was there, and she said she was this client's mother and she came to pay his bill and take his file.

I said we hadn't heard from him in months, and if he wanted someone to pick up his file that was fine, but we needed something in writing from him before we could release his file.

She totally freaked out and started ranting about how she came from Airdrie and had ID (like that proves anything?) and if I didn't give her the file 'right now' we were never going to see our money, etc. She pulled out a piece of paper and said here's his number, call him. So I said I'd go try to call him from the number that's on the file (he lives in China, so I really didn't want to wrack up a phone bill, either), and she laughed and said that he has a new number now. (?)

I was starting to get a little worried she was going to attack me or something, so I said I'd have to go talk to the office manager. Loris could hear everything from her office because of how loud this woman was being and she told me to tell this woman that she could pay, have the client send us a message with the address where he wanted the file to do, and we'd send it.

I delivered the message, and she swore, pushed past me and stormed out. She also stopped to swear a bit and tell the receptionist I was rude.

I'm glad the office manager and the receptionist could hear and witness the whole thing, otherwise I'd be a bit worried that I had been inadvertently rude, but they backed me up really well.

I can't believe how rude she was and how mad she got. She didn't phone, we haven't heard from the client in months…and to go ballistic like that? She seems pretty unstable. I was feeling pretty unstable after that myself...my hands were shaking so badly I could hardly type. I don't do well with confrontation in general, but this was just so totally out of the blue. It's not an unreasonable regulation - any other law firm in the city would expect their bill to be paid and to have authorization to release a file, but this woman seemed to think that I should just kowtow to her. SO WEIRD!

Anyway, I'm very thankful I don't have to deal with that kind of hostility very often, that's for sure. I'm very much looking forward to going home in a couple of hours and having a hot toddy - I think I earned it today!

An Alberta Wife

2008-12-02T08:26:00.002-07:00

Three men from Ontario were sitting together one day bragging about how they had given duties to their new wives.

The first man had married a woman from Quebec and had told her that she was going to have to do the dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple of days, but on the third day he came home to see a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man had married a woman from Manitoba. He had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man had married a girl from Alberta. He told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little bit out of his left eye - enough to fix himself a sandwich and load the dishwasher.

Christmas Preferences

2008-11-28T10:37:00.004-07:00

So I've seen a LOT of those email surveys/questionnaires that go around, but this is the first Christmas one I've ever seen, but since Sunday is the first day of Advent, and my boss isn't at work today, I figured I'd post this here instead of swamping my friends with email. :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Gift bags! They're less hassle, and since you can reuse them, they're more environmentally friendly.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I love real trees...nothing beats the scent of a fresh tree in your living room. And you can get one for $20 at Ikea, and they give you a $20 off a $50 purchase in January-March. Can't beat that deal!

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually around the second Sunday in Advent

4. When do you take the tree down? Epiphany...January 6, which is 12 days after Christmas, in case you were wondering!

5. Do you like eggnog? Sort of...it makes me a bit sick because of the egg yolks in it, so I haven't drunk it in years. Now that I've found a supplement that helps me handle eggs, maybe I'll try it again this year.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I don't know...I always got lots of books and chocolates for Christmas - my family was never into big, expensive presents. I have happy memories of spending Boxing Day eating my way through a box of those seashell shaped Belgium chocolates while I read my way through a stack of books.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Dad and my brother-in-law...neither of them really ever 'need' anything, so that makes it hard. I like to be creative, and I start to feel annoyed when I end up buying wine and movie passes every year!

8. Easiest person to buy for? Mom - we like a lot of the same things, so when I see something that I really like but can't justify buying for myself, I'll often get it for Mom. :)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? I have two - a plastic Veggie Tales one, and an olive wood one I got in Jerusalem.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? When I actually get around to doing Christmas cards, I send them by mail, and I write something personal in all of them, which I why I sometimes don't get around to mailing any!

11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't think of any one thing, but definitely when I get stuff I don't need. And I'm ruthless about STUFF, if I get something I don't need, I put it in the box for Goodwill, not matter how I might feel about the person who did the giving.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I don't have one.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year I started in June, but that's just because I was buying souvenirs in Israel!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Often...

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Gravy with stuffing, and gravy with mashed potatoes, and gravy with turkey, and gravy on leftover turkey sandwiches...

16. Lights on the tree? Is there any other way!?

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Joy to the World" and "I Heard the Bells"

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? I like staying home, but I wouldn't object to travelling somewhere like Australia!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Not a chance

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Right now I have an angel, although I'm open to a star if I find one I like!

21. Open presents Christmas eve or Christmas day? Both...something on Christmas Eve after church, and then everything else on Christmas day after lunch.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The watering down of what the holiday is really about - it's CHRISTmas people, not a winter festival.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love sparkly stuff in blue, white and silver

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? This is a vague question...since I already said what my favourite food is, I'm going to assume the question is "place for Christmas dinner". I'm SUPER excited to have Christmas dinner in our own house this year - my kitchen is so up for it, and we have this awesome dining room table that seats 10!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I have a ginormous wish list of books...they're mostly vintage ones that I look for in used book stores. I also have a few movies and cds I want, but really, it's all about the books!

Tales from the Firm

2008-11-25T14:46:00.002-07:00

I was reading this other blog which had a story that made me think of something that happened to me shortly after I started working at the law firm.

I answer the phone, and there's a very elderly man on the other side who proceeds to tell me that he's a war vet and he needs a lawyer. I ask a few questions and the conversation goes something like this:

"I want to sue my wife" he says.

"I'm sorry, we're a family law firm - we don't handle lawsuits".

"But she's my wife and I want to sue her. She's family!"

"Do you want to divorce her?"

"No - I just want my money back. She opened my mail and took a cheque for $20."

"I'm sorry, unless you want to get a divorce, you're going to need to find a law firm that specializes in litigation."

"Where do I find one of those?"

"You could look in the yellow pages..."

Meanwhile, I'm thinking that if I were billing for that phone call it would have cost $20, never mind that hiring a litigation lawyer is going to require a retainer of thousands of dollars...oy!

Tickets for Sale!

2008-11-03T09:20:00.001-07:00

We bought tickets for a show at the CPO in January, before we realized it fell on the same weekend as Break Forth, so now we're trying to find someone to take them...it's going to be a fantastic concert - let me know if you're interested!

The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra presents Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin hits performed by the Jeans and Classics band) on Friday, January 30, 2009, at 8 pm, at the Jack Singer - $70 for two tickets. Section UCLFT, Row A, Seats 4 &5 http://www.jeansnclassics.com/http://www.cpo-live.com/main/event_detail.php?event_id=363

Pictures of the house in progress!

2008-10-31T09:10:00.000-06:00

Finally...only took me a month... :)

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80772&l=39e9b&id=524866412

Arrrrrr!

2008-10-15T11:18:00.001-06:00

A pirate walked into a bar with a paper towel on his head.

The bartender asked "What's with the paper towel?"

The pirate said "AAAR! I have a bounty on me 'ead."

I hear that Johnny Dep has signed on to do Pirates 4 - wooooot!!!

Well then...

2008-10-15T10:03:00.004-06:00

I have taken a lot of 'before' pictures of the new house - but haven't had time to get them off my camera! Things are coming a lot more slowly then I thought they would, but we're enjoying setting up the place the way we want it. Hopefully I'll have a chance to get some pictures up soon.

I'm really tired today...I stayed up way past my bedtime to watch the election results roll in, and I was pretty disappointed with the result. I held out hope for a majority till about 10:30, and then I gave up in disgust and went to bed. I did feel kind of sorry for Dion - he looked so much like a kicked puppy! Jack Layton just annoys me though - he's like a yippy Jack Russell terrier that just runs around with small dog syndrome, nipping at everyone's heels. And don't even get me STARTED on the Bloc...and the worst voter turnout! What's up with that??!! I sure hope you voted....

Here's a really excellent article I just found...sums things up very nicely.
http://www.huntsvilleforester.com/article/119181

PM Stephen Harper deserves the full support of Canadians
October 15, 2008

Hunting season is a popular time for many hunters in this area, whether it be deer, moose or small game.

However, as our election day drew near, it seemed that Stephen Harper had become the target for many political critics. As I read the recent letters in the Forester, nearly everyone has been attacking Harper and the Conservatives. As I watched both the French and English debates on TV it was open season once again by the four opposing candidates against our prime minister.
I was personally appalled by the accusations, rudeness and vilification of Stephen Harper. An old adage says, “The boat lost in the fog makes the most noise.” There was a lot of noise and only Stephen Harper had poise and conduct befitting a prime minister.

The old rhetoric of Harper being scary or extreme right wing is wearing pretty thin. In two and a half years as prime minister in a minority government he has proven very competent and trustworthy. It seems that some fear-mongers are afraid of a majority government, but this is what traditionally had been used to accomplish the will of the people in Canada.

Since when has having a strong military become extreme right wing? If it wasn’t for the sacrifice of thousands of Canadians in the past we would not be enjoying our freedoms today. When has law and order, moral values, traditional marriage and protection of life (unborn and living) become extreme right wing? These values are not extreme right wing; they are just right.

When hugging trees becomes more important than hugging babies who can’t protect themselves, there is something systemically wrong with out value system. The Bible predicts a day when people will call good evil and evil good. Has that day arrived?

May we return to the values of our founding fathers, who used their freedom and faith to build our political framework and our nation of Canada. On the arches of our Parliament building in Ottawa we read what our founding fathers used as the basis of the name Dominion of Canada, taken from Psalm 72:8. “and He (God) shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”

In the final days before the election, with world economies struggling to survive an economic earthquake, it was noteworthy to hear our Canadian banking system was ranked number one by world economists. Why? Because the Harper Conservatives had been proactive and not reactive like the opposition parties and had taken steps to strengthen our banking regulations. This created stability for our banks and financial institutions which encouraged the Canadian electorate to have greater confidence.

In conclusion, remember this truth: a leader is a person who influences people to accomplish a purpose. Stephen Harper is this kind of a leader and is deserving of our prayers and support as he continues on as our prime minister.

-Stuart Silvester
Huntsville

Courthouse Rage

2008-09-26T11:56:00.003-06:00

ARGGGGHHH! Seriously...if you ever see a headline that says "Legal Assistant Goes on Rampage at Courthouse with Bent Paperclip" you'll know it's me. Some people are freaking unbelievable!

Thankfully house stuff is going much more smoothly, thanks to my Dad and Trevor's mom...tomorrow is moving day though, and we still haven't finished packing. Ooops....

The Brick screwed up big time with my order, and only two things are being delivered, and on Sunday, not tomorrow like they were supposed to... We're getting the washer and the stove, which SUCKS, because the only thing we've been able to actually get rid of is the dryer!!! How's that for crappy timing?

I need chocolate now.

Fall already?

2008-09-10T11:40:00.002-06:00

Where did the summer go??!!

So, the house is ours as of September 22nd. We're busy packing, calling to change utilities etc, having potential tenants come through our suite, deciding on rennos (what we want to do vs. what we can actually afford...) as well as the usual church stuff, regular chores, and trying to squeeze in visits with friends. Busy busy!

We did go camping on the September long weekend - Waterton is absolutely beautiful, and we had a really nice campsite. However, the wind on the second night was so vicious it kept pushing the tent into my face, and when the wind let up, the tent would spring upright again. We ended up 'sleeping' in the car most of the night, and it shook like a boat on the ocean every time there was a gust of wind. It was a very uncomfortable night, and we ended up coming home Saturday evening... I'd like to go back again someday, but to stay in a hotel this time!

What else has been going on? We went to a wedding, and ended up at the 'old married people's table', which was mildly disconcerting! We went to Trevor's work picnic at Heritage Park, which was fun - I won a jacket and our team won "Name that Tune". I bought a really nice antique table at the church garage sale, and I found a butcher block kitchen trolley on Craigslist - both of which are now residing in the middle of the hallway until we move into a place where we actually have room for them! I went to see Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2, which I quite enjoyed. And, I'm an aunt again - my sister just had her second girl, Aidah - middle name still TBA.

My mom and my brother are coming for Christmas, so I'm pretty excited about that. I can't wait to have our first Christmas in our own house! I'll actually have a kitchen big enough to cook a proper Christmas dinner in...

My first tickets of the season for the CPO are this Saturday night, for "Swing, Swing, Swing", so I'm looking forward to that. I also have tickets for a Natalie McMaster Christmas special, a Queen tribute, and the Arrogant Worms, so it's going to be a good season.

Counting down the days now to moving...house possession on the 22nd, followed by a week of cleaning and painting, and then moving on the 27th, followed by cleaning the old place, and lots of unpacking and organizing at the new place. Let me know if you're interested in helping! :)

Big Purchase

2008-08-19T13:29:00.003-06:00

I haven't updated this in a while - I was doing really well there for a bit!

I have a good reason though...we're in the process of buying a house!!!! So exciting...we have a conditional offer in on a place in Silver Springs - the financing is in place, we just need a home inspection and a review of the condo documents. The inspection is tomorrow, and we're supposed to get the documents today - the deadline for all the conditions to be met is Monday, so we're almost there.

It's been so crazy these last couple of weeks, and the next week or so is looking pretty busy too. We need to get everything all squared away before we go on our camping trip for the September long weekend, and then hopefully we'll have a couple of weeks to pack, and then we'll take possession on September 22 and spend a week painting and such before fully moving out of our basement suite in the hood, and into a nice townhouse closer to all our friends and the church.

Hopefully I'll have good news tomorrow or Thursday, and then we'll be looking for good friends to help with the painting and moving... :)

A few random things

2008-08-04T11:06:00.000-06:00

I found this really interesting news article about the son of a prominent Hamas member who has become a Christian..
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1007462.html

He emphases how he hasn't been involved in terrorist activities himself, and talks a lot about how he hopes that one day he'll marry a Christian - maybe even a Jewish Christian, which would really be something else!

Then I found this article...
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=16809

The Israeli foreign minister thinks that giving the Golan Heights back to Syria is going to bring peace. HA!!!! Ok, I was digging in the Golan Heights. I read the book with the history of the kibbutz where we stayed. Syria used to attack the Galilee from the Golan Heights. The IDF took back that very hill where we dug because of it's strategic attack location. If Israel gives the Golan to Syria, that's going to spell the end of the Jewish nation. And I have no doubt that once the Arab nations have taken Israel off the map, they're going to move on to everyone else who doesn't believe what they do. The Arab leaders were buddy-buddy with Hitler during the war - that should give you an idea of where their priorities lie! I just find it so hard to believe that someone who's lived in Israel their entire life can think that peace can be reached with the surrounding nations. There isn't going to be peace there until Jesus comes back, and giving any ground away is just going to make the situation worse. Argh! I'd love to give that woman a piece of my mind...

On to something slightly more cheerful...I so enjoyed Prince Caspian when it came out this summer. I went to see it twice, and I've even joined a forum called Narnia Web. They're starting to film Dawn Treader early next year! Sooo exciting. Anyway, one of the other forum members did up this music video of Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and posted it on YouTube. It's really good...take a few minutes and listen to it! It'll make you think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPKTc2rkmFw

Hope y'all are enjoying your long weekend!

Rant About Things that are Annoying Me

2008-07-29T13:05:00.003-06:00

Warning:

I may seem quiet and mild most of the time, but if you hit on something about which I'm passionate, you could get an earful. Or an eyeful in this case...I'm usually careful about things I blog because I don't want to offend anyone, but there are a few things I'd like to get off my chest. So if you're sensitive about lawsuits, gay rights, abortion, big development, the religious jewelry debate, or infant baptism, you should probably stop reading now!

"Hasboro sees Scrabulous as a Risk to their Monopoly"
I saw this comment on one of the discussions under an on-line news article, and I quite like it. I went on Facebook to make a move in my games this morning, and I got a message saying the application was shut down. Hasboro is suing the two brothers who invented it for copyright violations or some such nonsense. There are arguments for both sides here, but I'm annoyed that Hasboro can't find some way to settle this without pissing off the thousands of people who apparently use the application on a daily basis, including me! Not only is it fun and a good mental exercise, it's put me in touch with some friends I haven't been in contact with in ages. Argh...

My brother made a comment on one of his friend's photos, and it showed up in my news feed. This particular friend was part of the gay pride parade in Halifax, and she took her toddler along. The toddler was carrying a desecration of the Canadian flag - the center portion with the red maple leaf on the white background had been applied over the rainbow gay pride flag. Our family has strong military heritage and we're all quite conservative, and so Simon commented on how while that flag might make some people feel welcome, it certainly offends others. Preach it little bro! It's one thing if members of the gay community want to have their own flag - that's their right, but when you start mucking around with our nation's flag, that's a whole 'nother matter. I have to say, I've never really been a flag-waver, and when I was in Israel and Quinn was marching around waving the flag on Canada Day, I thought he was a little crazy. But having seen that photo on Facebook, I've suddenly become a bit more of a patriot!

The Order of Canada - again, not something I've ever really thought a whole lot about. Until this announcement was made...
"Henry Morgentaler, Member of the Order of Canada
For his commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations."
"Health care options for women" my butt! Baby killer, more like. I know there's a strong camp out there that says it's a woman's choice to do what she likes with her body. To that I like to quote my old youth pastor, Jerod. He used to say that you have the right to swing your arms around all you like, but the moment your arm comes in contact with someone else, that right ends. So yes, you have the right to do whatever you want to yourself, but when that right infringes on the right of an innocent baby to have life, your right ends. There was a picture of me in our local newspaper when I was about 6, walking a picket line with Mom, outside the hospital where my brother and sister were born, yet were babies were being killed. There were a lot of things I didn't understand then, but I understood that babies like my brother were dying, and I wanted to help. I still do...I sent letters to my MP, Art Hanger, to the PM, to the Governor General, and the committee that appoints the Order. I've heard back from all of them - a fairly personal email from Mr. Hanger, a form email from the PM's office, and a mass email from the GG's office, but nothing from the committee. Interesting, hey?

Trevor and I go to the Calgary Farmer's Market in the old Currie Barracks a couple of times a month for brunch and a little shopping. The lease the farmer's market has on the old hangar is expiring next year, and the company that owns the land is planning to tear it down and build a development there. I've written to my alderman and the development corporation asking them to save the farmer's market - it's important for a whole bunch of reasons and it shouldn't be ground to dust under the wheels of big business because they want to build expensive condos or some such nonsense. Urban sprawl is out of control!

I read a news article today about a Sikh schoolgirl in Britain who goes to a school with a 'no jewellery' policy. They're only allowed plain ear studs and watches - makes sense to me because it means no one is bringing expensive jewellery to school to show off or get stolen, and makes everyone a little more equal. This particular girl has a bracelet that she wears as part of her religion, and kicked up a fuss when they told her not to wear it, so the family took the school to court and won. The girl said "I'm so happy to know that no one else will go through what me and my family have gone through". Oy! But my burning question is would the Christian girls who go there be allowed to wear their crosses now? Or is it just freedom of religion for non-Christians, which is so often the case? Thankfully we have a religion that is based on one's inward appearance, not symbols which we wear!

Heading off to youth group tonight to talk about infant baptism...a subject which I feel much conflict over. If I had a time machine, I'd go back and ask Jesus to be a little more specific about exactly what He had in mind when He commanded that we baptize all nations!

Back to work...I also have a rant about people who come to work and don't do anything, so I should do my best to avoid being the topic of my own annoyance. :)

My Boss

2008-07-28T10:27:00.003-06:00

I don't know if I've blogged much about my boss...her name is Carolyn, and she's awesome. We work really well together, and I like her a lot. Which is good, because some days I talk to her more then I talk to Trevor. :)

She's on holidays right now, or is supposed to be...she just emailed me to say her mother-in-law died last night. Her health wasn't good, so it doesn't come as a huge shock, but that doesn't lessen the impact either. I don't think any of them are "church people", but I'm praying for them anyway - that some good will come of this sad situation. if you could as well, I'd appreciate it.

Yay for Friday!

2008-07-25T15:40:00.003-06:00

It's been a long week...I still haven't even finished unpacking! Somehow I feel like putting my suitcases away will really mean it's all over. :(

Actually, my biggest fear about the trip did come true...I was really worried that Israel and archaeology would get under my skin and I'd have this burning desire to go back again...oy...

We talked to a mortgage broker this week - it looks like we're going to go ahead and try to buy a house in the NW in the next few months. The market has changed quite a bit in the last few months, so we're going to try to get in while we can. Things could still change, but for now that's what the plan is. And my mom and my brother are going to try to come out for our first Christmas in our own house, which would be super cool.

The trouble with that is if we buy a house, that's where all of our money is going to be going, and the odds of me being able to gallivant off to Hippos for another season are pretty slim. And I want to go so badly! But I also really want to buy a house...argh... I know that if I'm supposed to go again, it'll all work out, but easier said then done!

Can I just say (maybe again!) that I LOVED my experience on this trip? It was fantabulous, and it's definitely changed me. I can't really put my finger on what exactly, but something has changed. Maybe it's because after the stress of border crossings in the middle east, the c-train ride feels like a picnic? :)

Anyway, on the agenda for this weekend is a whole lot of housecleaning, brunch with a friend, hopefully a hike on Nose Hill and I'm going to see Mama Mia with another friend. Should be fun!

Oh, we went to see Get Smart this week - SO, SO funny. There was one really, really, really gross scene that I really could have done without though - I seriously thought I was going to loose my dinner right there in the theatre! Aside from that though, I had no complaints.

Have a good weekend!

Major Update Part III (or Homecoming Musings)

2008-07-21T09:05:00.002-06:00

So I’ve been home almost a week now, and on one hand it feel like only yesterday that I was climbing the hill before dawn, but it also feels like years ago. Flying is a funny thing – it always distorts my sense of time, like my internal balance can’t keep up with moving that fast.

I dozed for most of the first leg of the flight from Tel Aviv, just from sheer exhaustion, but after a few hours I was wide awake and my head was spinning with everything I’d seen and done in the last few days. I wanted to get out my lap top and blog, but the seat I was in didn’t have a power plug. So I thought maybe I’d read, but the reading light above my seat was burnt out. So I tried journaling a bit, in the dark, which turned out to be surprisingly legible when I looked at it in the morning! But it was a very long flight, and I got a little stir crazy.

When we got to Toronto, we had to go through customs, which was super straight forward, pick up our luggage and then check it in again on the other side of the terminal. Our group was down one after customs, as Jenn was driving home to southern Ontario from the airport. We prayed together, and then we were down to a group of 7. Once we were closer to the gates, everyone else went off to the Edmonton gate, and I went on alone to Calgary.

I found I was very lonely all of a sudden. After spending the last two weeks living and working and touring with the same bunch of people nearly every waking moment, it was almost disorienting to be all by myself. We’d gone from a group of 30+ to a group of 10 in Jerusalem, and then 2 left us to fly to the States, and from there we just got smaller. One of my concerns about going to Israel in the first place, without Trevor, was that I would be lonely. I’m very thankful that wasn’t the case, but it made that last few hours of solo travel very strange indeed.

By the time I got to Calgary, I was exhausted. And if you’ve known me much at all, you know the more tired and hungry I get, the more emotional I get. By the time I came through the security doors and saw Trevor, I was in tears over missing the group. But they were partly happy tears too, because I was coming home to Trevor. And then I saw that he had flowers and my Tim Horton’s steeped tea, and that really did it. :)

Thankfully all of my luggage made it, and we headed outside to the car park. We went out the door, and it was so incredibly cold, I started shivering right away. After weeks of 30+ weather, which was hard for the first couple of days because of the humidity, but which I got used to and enjoyed after that, coming home to a temperate half that was quite the shock. And it’s been rainy and gross ever since…brrrrrrr… I’ve been pretty jet lagged too – I did something at work on Friday that was so incredibly stupid I knew it was wrong even as I was doing it, but I was so dazed it was like watching someone else hit the button. (I did manage to fix it, but it took ALL afternoon…oy…)

I’ve been trying to digest everything that happened, and I’m not sure that even four days of reflection is enough time for that, and since I love making lists, I thought maybe a list or two would help in this situation.

Things I miss:
seeing the sunrise
the early morning hike up the hill
being warm
swimming in the lake
being grubby
fruit breaks
the excitement of finding something cool
living in community
devos by the lake
pottery washing
experiencing new things
the thrill of looking at something and having a corresponding Bible verse pop into my head
the humidity
watermelon
the fresh air
the view from the hill
lazy afternoons
tomatoes and cucumbers
the laid-back kibbutz lifestyle
seeing a photo wanting to be taken around every corner
the sense of accomplishment as I get physically stronger
the turkey schnitzel

Things I don’t miss:
the wonky internet connection
not getting enough breakfast
the hike back down the hill when I’m super tired
missing Trevor
not being able to put anything white in the wash for fear it will come back in worse shape
Touring at break-neck speed
Being too tired to stay up and see the sunset and the stars come out
Seeing all the poor starving kitties
eating a bajillion granola bars
always checking for my passport

Dr. Chambers sent those of us who went with the Concordia Edmonton group a little questionnaire he wanted us to fill out for their future reference, if they ever decide to send a group again, so I figured I might as well share it with everyone, in case you’re thinking of going now! :)

What were some of the highlights of the overall experience (the dig, the kibbutz, the various tours, etc.)?

Tel Dan was my favourite place we went. It was really cool to see an Old Testament site and try to fathom how long ago that all happened. It was so lush and green and different from any of the other places we went – I probably could have spent a whole day there, exploring.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere at the kibbutz, and how safe it was. It was a fantastic place to stay.

Other then enjoying finding large chunks of pottery, my highlight of the day at the dig site was always the fruit break. That was the best fruit I’ve ever eaten – not sure if it was because of the fruit itself or because of all the hard work, but it was one of my favourite things.

What did you enjoy, or grow from, the most?

I think most of my growth was physical – it was like one of those boot camps you see on tv! I came a long way in two weeks of digging – I still couldn’t haul a full wheelbarrow, but I could walk up the hill without needing a break, and I could carry two buckets full of pottery down the hill at the end of the day. I could also walk over 15 kilometres, when just a year ago I couldn’t walk more then 5 without extreme amounts of pain.

The thing I enjoyed the most was the feeling of community, safety and acceptance. I also really enjoyed being dirty – such a switch to get up, not shower or do makeup, and just pull on old jeans and a tshirt and be out the door. At home, getting ready to leave in the morning is a major production which involves finding clean clothes that match, struggling with pantyhose and makeup etc. It’s really freeing to not have to worry about all that stuff!

What in particular made these such rewarding experiences?

It’s very unusual for me to go somewhere and not have something I’m in charge of or responsible for. It was so, so nice to just be one of the crowd for a change, and be told what to do. It left me free to really relax and enjoy all the new experiences and things that were going on, and let someone else do all the head counting and worrying! I really appreciated that.

What parts of the overall experience did you find the most challenging?

Before I left on the trip, my biggest challenge was my own fears and worries about what might happen. But by the time I’d gotten to Toronto, I’d been able to leave that all behind me.
The humidity was also a challenge for the first couple of days, but because I grew up on the coast, I was able to adjust fairly quickly.

Were the greatest challenges you faced physical, spiritual, emotional...

Definitely physical! Working a dig is a million miles away from sitting at a desk all day, but even that wasn’t as hard as I’d feared. I think I was expecting more of a driven work ethic on the site, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out about water breaks and that the professional archaeologists realize that not everyone works that hard all, or even most, of the time.

What could be improved next time?

The only thing I really wished someone had mentioned was that we needed a different currency for the Jordan trip. I got so much information and so many lists, I didn’t think about the fact that I might need something that wasn’t included in there anywhere. It ended up working out ok, but not having any dinars did cause me some stress.

Sometimes the speed at which we toured was exhausting, and I'd almost rather see just a few things well then try to see everything quickly.

What words of encouragement and/or caution would you want to give to someone who was considering joining the dig in a future year?

I don’t think I would have any words of caution, unless they had some kind of physical ailment that was a concern, or major dietary restrictions.

What would you say to urge them on, if they were hesitating about committing to the trip?

You’ll regret it more if you don’t go!

What would you tell them to be prepared for, that you think they maybe wouldn't foresee?

I’m not sure if I have an answer for this one…everything went really smoothly, and other then the dinar thing, I didn’t wish for anything that I hadn’t packed. But then again, I brought everything except the kitchen sink with me. :)

Major Update Part II (or How Much of Jerusalem Can You See in One Day?)

2008-07-17T19:43:00.005-06:00

The morning after our whirlwind trip to Jordan, I got up shortly after 4 am to wave goodbye to the bus as the remaining diggers set out for the day. I was very sorry to see them go off without us, and if I could have given up the Jerusalem trip for two more weeks of digging, I would have!

The bus came at 6 to take us to Tel Aviv, and on the way we stopped at a gas station/café, and I got the most delicious croissant I’ve ever had. Flakey and buttery…oh my!

We got to the airport just outside Tel Aviv on schedule, and then had to find the luggage storage to drop our bags off. I was expecting something fairly high tech, with bomb sniffing dogs and lockers or something, but it was basically just a big room where we piled all our stuff. There was also a sort of gift shop there, with a big sign on the door that said “sale” so we were wondering if our bags would still be there when we got back!

Then we found the shuttle stop, and caught a bus that would take us out to the main highway where we could catch a bus to Jerusalem. When one finally came, it was totally full, so we had to stand in the aisles, packed in like sardines, for the half an hour or more it took to get to the central bus depot in Jerusalem. It reminded me of being on the C-Train in rush hour…

When we got to the bus depot, we had to go through security to get out, and then at the top of the stairs we saw a McDonald’s! It was a happy moment, as that croissant hadn’t really been very filling. I got a McChicken, and while the fries tasted exactly like home, the burger was a bit different. It had two chicken patties with white meat, not a single patty with processed meat, and it had a tomato sauce instead of mayo, and tomatoes instead of lettuce. It was different, but still very good.

After the food stop, we went outside to find taxis to take us to the top of the Mount of Olives, and then we would walk down from there. We were in a hurry, as it was after 10 am already, and lot of churches and sites close from noon to 2 pm. There were only 10 of us – 8 Canadians and 2 Americans, so Dr. Chambers approached a couple of taxi drivers who were standing around and asked for a price. They said we’d need three cars at 70 shekels per car, and he tried to haggle a bit, but they wouldn’t come down, so we went and got in the cars. At this point, some kind of altercation broke out between our taxi drivers and another guy who was standing there – it seemed like maybe he thought that we should have gone in his cab? I’m not really sure what happened, but there was a lot of yelling and shoving and fists swinging, and then our driver hopped in the car and took off like nothing had happened…and he drove like a maniac, but apparently that’s the way everyone in Jerusalem drives…

Our first stop was the Chapel of the Ascension, which was a really small, simple domed building…built over the rock where Jesus left his footprint as he pushed off into heaven…there’s not really too much I can say about that! :)

Next we went to the Church of the Pater Noster (Latin for “Our Father”), which was pretty cool. They have tiles all over all over the wall with the Lord’s Prayer in something like 60 or 80 different languages, and our group said the prayer together in this neat underground cave that was part of the church.

We stopped partway down the hill for our first good look at the temple mount. I have got to say, being a Christian and just a wee bit of a Zionist, I have a really hard time seeing a mosque in such a holy place. Aesthetically speaking, it’s a beautiful building, but spiritually speaking, it gives me the creeps! Anyway, it was super cool to see it in person after looking at so many pictures of it over the years. It was a lot bigger then I had thought it would be.

We were really running out of time before noon and siesta time, and we made it to Gethsemane just in time. They don’t let people in after 11:45, and we just squeaked past. The building was very beautiful – lots of gilding and mosaics. I pictured the garden of Gethsemane as a place where I could go sit in the garden and meditate, but the garden belongs to the church, and when the bells began to ring the noon hour, we had to leave. I was kind of vexed by that, but I guess I’ll have to try going there again sometime.

We walked over a bridge across the Kidron Valley, and along the road that runs parallel to the temple mount. In the valley and all down the slope of it is a huge graveyard – we were told that people believe Judgement Day will occur at that location, and they want to be buried there so they’re handy when it happens…

From the road there you can also see the outline of the original City of David, which also includes Hezekiah’s Tunnel and Warren’s Shaft. I need to go back there and wade through the tunnel – I think that would be a fabulous adventure!

The road curves to follow the curve of the wall, and we went through security to get into the Western (or Wailing) Wall. Men and women have separate security lines, and separate sections of the wall to pray at. I was a little miffed to see that men have about ¾ of the wall, and women only have about ¼, and there were way more women there. There was a Bar Mitzvah happening on the men’s side, and there were a few women standing on chairs, looking over, so they could be a part of what was going on. Crazy, hey?

Anyway, I managed to find a gap in the people crowded around and get close enough to the wall to touch it. And that’s when it really hit me that I was actually there, and I started just crying. It made me think of Simeon, when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple, and Simeon said:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."
And it made me really sad, because I wonder how many of the people who were also there praying believe that the Messiah has already come? How many of them are living under the law because they don’t know any better? One of the organizations I support is called “Jews for Jesus” and they exist to reach Jewish people with the news that the One who fulfills all the prophecies is Jesus and that their Messiah has come. The prayer that’s been on my heart a lot recently is “That all may see and know”. We didn’t have long there because we had a lot of ground to cover, but I’ll definitely go back there, someday.

We went outside the temple mount and into the old city for lunch. We ate from vendors in the area, and sat inside what was once a Crusader-era souk. It was right outside “The Burnt House”, which a museum of the last building to hold out against the Romans after the Jewish revolt in 70 A.D. It’s a really sad story, but I’ve read quite a bit about it, so it was cool to be there, even though we didn’t have time to see the museum. Another place I’ll have to go back to…

After that we walked through the souk (which was actually really clean, and not too crowded, as it was the middle of the week) and along part of the Via Dolorosa to the Basilica of St. Ann, who was apparently Mary’s mother. I’m not convinced of that fact, but it was one of my favourite places from the trip. The grounds were beautiful, and have extensive ruins from several different periods, and they appear to have been excavated thoroughly. It was the location of the pool of Bethesda, where Jesus cured the man who had been waiting for a miracle. The church is the oldest in Jerusalem, and is very plain and simple, free from all the gilding of the other churches we saw. The acoustics were amazing – one woman was sitting there singing very quietly when we went in, and it sounded like a whole choir of angels.

From there we went back along the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It doesn’t look like much from the road – just a doorway with a small sign above it. You go through the doorway into a large courtyard, down some steps, and in through a small door. The first thing I noticed was an overpowering waft of incense (it was many hours and a Coke later before I cleared the taste of it out of my mouth) due to the large number of pilgrims anointing a large marble slab just inside the door, which is believed to be the place where Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus’ body to prepare it for burial.

Further down the hallway and under the large main dome is a small chapel – a building within a building – which covers the place where they believe the tomb was. Also nearby is the rock on which they believe the cross was set. I’m told that there is evidence to prove that this likely is the location of those events. However, I had a hard time picturing it! The chapel over the tomb is falling apart, and due to the fact that there are three groups using the church and they never agree on anything, nothing is being done to fix it. I thought it was all very silly. Here’s a link to a book that was written hundreds of years ago by a man who feels the same way I do about it. The section runs from near the end of page 170 to near the end of page 172.

http://books.google.com/books?id=SsK97I9huRIC&pg=PR3&dq=Incidents+of+Travel+in+Egypt,+Arabia+Petraea,+and+the+Holy+Land+(1838)&ei=B_N_SOSHNKLgtAPnuqXwCQ#PPA170,M1

Happy to be out in the fresh air again, I set out to climb the spire of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer – apparently the view of the city is amazing – but it was 3:30 and they had closed at 3…

I crossed the street to get a bottle of water, and noticed some wooden nativity sets in a shop. I had sort of hoped to get one, so I counted my remaining shekels (200, plus 50 for supper and snacks) and when to look closer. The shop keeper invited us into the store and I mentioned that it was my last day in Israel, and I needed to get something small because I didn’t have much room left. He showed me one I liked, and when I asked how much it was, he said he would give me a good price because he likes Canadians, and that it was 480. I just about had a heart attack, and said that was too much, thanks anyway, and turned to go, forgetting that he would take that as an opening to haggle.

He asked how much I wanted to spend, and I told him honestly that I had a budget of 200 left. It was his turn to practically have a heart attack, and went on about how he needed to make a profit, and did I want him to have to eat bread without cheese? I was desperately trying to extricate myself and get out of there, and the closer I inched to the door, the lower his price came. Finally he was down to 270, and Jenn decided to grab that bargain for herself, because that was definitely the best price we’d seen anywhere.

But no matter how good of a price that was, I really didn’t have that much money, and I told him so. After he finished ringing up Jenn’s nativity set, he said to me that because he liked me and it was my last chance to get one, he’s let me have it for 250. I did actually have that much cash, so I took the deal. I felt pretty good about that – less then half price! I did tell him that I might not get supper though… :)

Next came our top-speed march through the city, trying to get back to the central bus depot in time to catch a bus back to the airport before the luggage storage place closed. We went out of the Old City through the Jaffa Gate, and I don’t know how many kilometers we walked, or how long it took, but after a full day of walking, by the time we got there, I wasn’t sure if I could go any further, my feet hurt so much! We had to go through security again, and then we had just enough time to restock our water supply before the bus came. With a little creative wrangling (Israelis don’t treat line ups the same polite way Canadians do) we all managed to get on the bus and get seats together.

We made it back and got our bags with about half an hour to spare, and then went and freshened up, repacked our bags, etc. My nativity set wouldn’t fit in anywhere, so I ended up carrying the package in my hands all the way from Jerusalem to Calgary!

I had meant to do email and update my blog, but by the time we got organized and got dinner, it was time to start going through security, which was quite the ordeal. We were standing in the first line, a baggage screening process, when some security people came up to us and started asking questions. They collected all our passports, and took Dr. Chambers aside to ask him some questions, and did the same thing with another member of our group. Thankfully they gave us back our passports and let us go through to baggage screening. They ran our luggage that we were checking in through an x-ray, and then pulled most, if not all, of us aside for a manual baggage search. They wanted to know what I’d bought, where I’d gotten it, and how many jars of honey I had. They were particularly interested in the things I’d bought in Jordan, even thought I hadn’t yet said that’s where they were from, which I thought was interesting.

Finally they were done with that and we got to go check in with the airline and get our boarding passes. Then we had to go through another security checkpoint, although I can’t remember what that one was for – they’re all starting to run together. I think that was comparable to regular Canadian carry on screening. Then we went through passport control where they stamped our passports, and then through another checkpoint where they checked the stamp we’d just gotten.

By this point we were only a few minutes away from boarding, so I still didn’t have time to update my blog! It was quite the time consuming ordeal…

I had a good seat with lots of leg room, even though I was separated from the rest of the group, and I was so tired I was asleep before we left the ground.

Speaking of tired…it’s now past my bedtime and I’m exhausted. More to come in Major Update Part III (or Homecoming Musings).

http://picasaweb.google.com/michelleheumann

Major Update Part I (or Much Adventure in International Travel)

2008-07-16T02:49:00.004-06:00

We left the kibbutz on Friday morning at 7:30, and drove to the Israel/Jordan border crossing. We got there just after 8, and waited to be let into the compound. Then we had to go through Israeli passport control, and while I was walking into the building, I heard a loud popping sound, and jumped so violently I banged into the person in front of me. I was sure I’d heard a gun shot, but it turned out it was a bird cannon…

Other then that, I cleared passport control ok, but they had to run some kind of extra check on Jenn, which took quite a while and was kind of scary, but eventually they gave back her passport and let us go.

However, that took so long our bus driver who was supposed to shuttle us across the river to Jordan passport control had gotten tired of waiting for us and left! So we had to wait for a public shuttle and pay 4 shekels for it. Once we finally got across the river and met our guide, we had to go through Jordanian passport control, where they kept our passports until we’d gone through the baggage check. Once they’d cleared our baggage and we got our passports back, we trekked to the bus, and then they stopped the bus at one more checkpoint where an armed guard got on the bus and checked everyone’s passports before they let us out of the compound. By this point it was pushing ELEVEN am. Oy!

The landscape around Jordan is totally different from the more lush landscape around the kibbutz. It’s very arid and dry, and there is not much in the way of agriculture. The cities are crowded, noisy, run down and dizzying. Our first stop was the ancient decapolis city of Jerash, which in itself was pretty cool, but partway through the tour the Moslem guy in the tower started preaching and wailing over the loudspeaker, and it was so overwhelming. I didn’t enjoy it much, although the structures they’ve uncovered there are very impressive. We did happen to run across a Moslem full-fledged fancy dress…playing Ode to Joy on the BAGPIPES of all things! That was quite entertaining, I must say.

Then we went up to the top of Mt. Nebo, the site where Moses stood and overlooked the Promised Land before he was taken into heaven. It has an amazing view – you can see the Dead Sea, Jericho, and on a clear day you can even see Jerusalem from there. Unfortunately it wasn’t a clear day, but it was awesome to see the Dead Sea.

After that we went down to this church with a map of the Middle East in mosaics on the floor around the altar. We hiked really quickly through the city from the place where there was room for the bus to stop to the church, had a quick tour and then booked it back to the bus. By this point, because of the delay at the border, we were running a couple of hours late and we still had a three hour drive to our hotel just outside Petra.

You should have seen the hotel décor…it was called the Silk Road Hotel, and the lobby looked fairly normal, but as we started heading down the stairs to our rooms, the walls were all painted bright purple. Jess commented that it was like Alice in Wonderland…when we got to the landing, even the chairs were squishy purple velvet. Our room was entirely purple, too. It was pretty crazy.

On Saturday morning we set off for Petra – we walked the few blocks to the park entrance, and from there a few people rode horses to the entrance to the Siq, and some of us walked. We hiked down the Siq, and it was amazing. It was cool and shady, and there were a ton of neat rock formations. It was so beautiful, and when I got my first glimpse of the treasury, it was everything I had imagined it would be. Unfortunately after the first minute or so of stunned awe, a really noisy crowd came in behind us and kind of changed the atmosphere a bit. I could probably have sat there for much longer and just looked at it, but there wasn’t time.

Near the treasury there is a lower level of tombs that have been partially excavated, making a pit, and then it was covered over with bars to keep people from falling in. I went over and aimed my camera between the bars to get a shot of the tombs, but as I pulled away, my lens cap caught in the bars and the elastic strap came loose, and the cap fell into the pit. What a pain! But a little part of me will now always be in Petra. :)

We hiked down to the other end of the park, had lunch there, and then some of us tackled the 800+ steps up to the tomb known as “The Monastery” at the top of a mountain. Near the end, I was NOT sure I was going to make it – hiking up a ton of slippery limestone steps covered in donkey dung in the middle of a hot desert afternoon is a lot of work. Dr. Schuler kept saying “we’re almost there” and waiting for me and the couple other people who were lagging. It was kind of like being herded by a sheepdog, and I probably would have given up otherwise! I was surprised to find that I’m likely to push my limits more if I have encouragement to do so…interesting, hey? I’m not sure if the Monastery itself was really worth the hike, but I was pretty proud of myself for doing it in the end.

Hiking back down was also an adventure – while it wasn’t nearly as difficult as going up, the slippery steps were even more treacherous, so I took it pretty slowly. Once we were down, we started the looong walk back to the hotel, avoiding the myriad of offers for camel, donkey or horse rides. (Says the kid leading the donkey “Taxi miss? One dinar!”)

That was the thing I enjoyed the least about Petra – the descendants of the Bedouin who originally lived there now live in government funded housing just outside, and run all the shops etc in Petra. They really have it down to a science – snagging tourists. I managed to avoid getting hooked by anything, but Ian almost landed in some trouble with a kid who asked to be in a picture with him. Once the picture was taken, the kid expected Ian to give him a dinar! I just really did not enjoy being hassled when I was trying to soak in the sights.

After supper at the hotel, we were talking to our guide, and he estimated that we walked between 15 and 20 kilometres that day! I was stunned that I had done that – it’s all due to two weeks of hard labour on the dig site, I’m sure – there’s no way I could have done that three weeks ago. Yay! :)

We did a little shopping before bed, and then in the morning we set off for a whirlwind tour of Amman, the economic capital of Jordan. The actual political capital is in a different city, but most of Amman is fairly western, and there are quite a few Roman-era ruins there. Something about the Middle East: they don’t seem to be big on crosswalks or pedestrian right of way, so while our guide is booking it on ahead, we’re all trying to keep up without getting left behind or run over. It was quite the adventure…luckily our armed “Tourist Police” guard earned his pay by holding up traffic for us a couple of times.

So after the mad dash through the souk, apparently just to get the flavour of it, we went to the old Roman theatre and the little Jordanian culture museum that was there. Then we went up to the old citadel and the museum there, which has some fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls on display – that was worth the price of admission right there – SOOO cool to see, even if having parts of the Bible on display in a Moslem museum was a little weird.

Something else that was weird about Jordan was tipping in the bathroom. I can understand maybe tipping in store where you just go on for that purpose and don’t buy anything, or even tipping for a particularly clean one, but we went to a few where there wasn’t any toilet paper, soap, paper towel or a working blow dryer, and they still had someone standing there collecting tips. What a racket!

Our last stop on the way back to the border on Sunday afternoon was at a traditional Jordanian restaurant for a “bbq” lunch, which has nothing in common with a North American bbq except for the cooking over open flame part. It was hands down the best culinary experience on the whole trip – I ate till I thought I was going to burst, and then finished off Linda’s watermelon as well! They brought a round of little salad-y things with pitas and olives, and then brought bbq’d lamb and chicken with more pita and then two kinds of melon for dessert. I really thought I’d died and gone to gastric heaven – and they only charged us 10 dinars each – about $15. If I went somewhere like that at home, with that many hovering waiters and that much food, I would have expected to pay at least twice that. It was amazing.

Our goal was to be back at the border crossing by 4 pm so we could be back at the kibbutz in time for supper at 6:30, so our bus driver is booking it down this bumpy road (I’m sure way faster then he should have been) and there was this huge jolt and a block later he pulled over. Turns out he blew out one of the shocks and they had to call for a repair guy. Thankfully he came quite quickly, especially by Middle Eastern standards, and we were only delayed on the side of the road for an hour. It could have been much, much worse!

We cleared Jordanian customs and passport control with a minimum of fuss, and got back on the bus to be shuttled across the bridge. I looked at my watch at that point, and it was just coming up to 5:00 and I figured that would give us lots of time to make it for supper. Well, I guess the Israelis didn’t like us crossing the bridge in a Jordanian bus, and decided to hold us on the bridge for about 45 minutes before someone came out to talk to us. (This was very excruciating for those of us who had to go to the bathroom, let me tell you!)

Finally two people came over and Dr. Schuler went out to talk to them. They asked him a ton of questions about who we were and what we were doing, and then picked one person randomly off the passenger list to haul out and ask the same questions, presumably to see if the stories matched up. Once they did that, they came on the bus and asked us all if we were carrying any weapons, if someone in Jordan had given us something to carry across the border, and if we’d packed our luggage ourselves. Finally they let us go, and once we got off the bus, we still had to clear customs and passport control, and several of us were searched.

Once that ordeal was over, we emerged to find that once again, and despite Dr. Schuler’s two or three phone calls to say we’d be late, the Israeli bus driver had gotten tired of waiting for us and taken off. We eventually got back to the kibbutz two hours later then supper. L Then we still had to finish packing to go home, have Sunday church and say our goodbyes to everyone. I didn’t get to bed till very late!

It was so sad to say goodbye – when I’d been planning for this trip I’d thought a lot about what could go wrong (thankfully none of those things happened!) but I hadn’t thought much about what kind of people I might meet. I was very blessed to work and tour with an amazing bunch of people who will always be very special to me.

After I was mostly done all my running around, I walked down to the lake one last time. It was well after 10 pm, and I don’t think I’d stayed up that late the entire time I was there…so I got to see a beautiful sky full of stars, listen to the waves, and just soak it all it. I could have stayed out there all night, but I knew I needed to rest for the next day and our big trip to Jerusalem.

More about that to come in Major Update Part II (or How Much of Jerusalem Can You See in One Day?)

Crossing the Jordan

2008-07-13T12:42:00.002-06:00

What a weekend....we're safely back at the kibbutz, three hours later then we'd planned. Many adventures - too many to write about now, as I have to finish packing and get to bed ASAP. It's 9:45 and the bus to Tel Aviv is coming at 6 am. From there we're going to Jerusalem for the day. We'll be at the airport in Tel Aviv for quite a few hours tomorrow evening, and they have free wireless there, so I plan to post a big update then.
I'm heading down for one last walk along the lakeshore, and I'll finish packing and go to bed.

Last day of digging :(

2008-07-10T12:34:00.005-06:00

Sad day!!! I have to confess, I got a little teary a few times this morning. It's kind of like leaving summer camp, and I never did like doing that. It's literally been a mountain top experience!

Here's our A square after two weeks of digging - we've moved a lot of dirt, and I've made a lot of progress physically. Everyday this week I've managed to hike all the way up the hill from the bus without having to have a break, and today I carried down TWO full buckets of pottery without needing Nancy to rescue me. It was a really good feeling - now, how do I keep this up at home??!!

I did breakfast duty today, for the second time this trip. I enjoy it...gives my back a break at least! Here's what the breakfast set up looks like...usually there are tomatoes and cucumbers, bread, jam, chocolate spread (like Nutella, but not quite the same), hard boiled eggs, pickled fish, cheese, coffee, and usually one variable item - some days it was pastries, some days it was pudding, and today it was tuna...icky!

After breakfast Dr. Schuler took us on a tour of next year's dig site. For the last few years he's been working on the North East Church, but it's pretty well uncovered now, so he's looking at digging up the church in the area they believe was the domestic quarter of the hill. The location has an amazing view, and would be fantastic to come back and work on. The potential problem is that the Israeli government owns the hill, and they hold the dig permit. After next year, the current permit expires. They're in negotiations to renew it, but because no synagogues have been found at Hippos yet, the site isn't a big priority for the government, so we shall see what happens with that.

In this first picture, you can see the team standing in what would have been the main part of the church.

This second picture shows what was probably a paved narthex area - we can tell this because there's only grass there and no trees or bushes.

Tomorrow we head off on our trip to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. I won't have internet access until Sunday night, so all my loyal readers are going to have to live in suspense until then. :)

Winding Down

2008-07-09T12:06:00.002-06:00

It's just after 9 pm here in Israel, and waaaay past my bedtime. It's been a super busy day - I was helping restore the mosaic floor in the 'sacristy' area this morning, instead of back-breaking digging work, which I quite enjoyed. It was really neat to plaster the little tile squares back into place, as they were damaged during the earthequake 1500 years ago, and ponder about the person who laid them in the first place. It was a pretty cool experience, and I'm glad I asked to help out there!

Thankfully the bus was on time today, and after a quick swim I spent the afternoon doing chores - hand washing laundry, writing postcards, organizing the souviners I've picked up, checking my 'to buy' list, and visiting the kibbutz gift shop to find something cool for my little brother! Then we washed pottery, had a really good devo about faith in storms, a quick meeting about the Jerusalem trip on Monday for the people leaving Monday night (yay - we're going to Jerusalem after all) and then we were late for supper. We dashed from supper to a really good lecture about the dig history of Hippos, and then came back to the room to do email and such before bed. I'm so tired!!!

Tomorrow is going to be busy as well - we're leaving early Friday morning for our trip to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and won't be back till Sunday evening. Then we have to finish packing, as we're leaving Monday at 6 am for Tel Aviv, where we'll store our bags the the airport, take the Egged (public transit) to Jerusalem for the day, and then bus back to the airport before the baggage storage place closes. From here on out our lazy afternoons around the kibbutz are over, and I'm really sad about that.

I'm surprised at how hard it is to think about leaving this place. I realized earlier this week that while I never had a moment of "wow, I'm really here", I feel very at peace and less stressed then I have in a very long time. The serenity of this community has snuck into my spirit and Israel has gotten under my skin in a way I didn't expect it to. I thought this would be a very emotional experience for me, but it's actually been really calming. If I didn't have a husband patiently wating for me in Canada, I just might stay here! I sure don't want to leave...

I've really got to go to bed - it's super late and I don't want to fall asleep on our last day of digging!

No news

2008-07-08T10:48:00.002-06:00

Not much to report today - it was a hot one - about 41 degrees, the hottest so far. We found lots of rocks, and spent a pleasant hour or so bobbing around in the lake.

I get a news email everyday from Israel Today, and this is today's update:
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=16548

'Pray for rain,' urges Israeli water official
A senior Israel Water Authority official on Monday said that Israelis better start praying for an exceedingly rainy winter because the nation today stands on the edge of a severe and protracted drought.
Water Authority official Shuli Chen made those remarks to Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper shortly after checking and confirming that the country's main fresh water reservoir, the Sea of Galilee, had dropped below its lower red line.
Chen said that five years ago the Sea of Galilee, known in Israel as Lake Kinneret, had dropped even lower, but only at the end of a very dry summer. This time around, the lake is at its lower red line and summer is only beginning. At this rate, experts expect the Sea of Galilee to reach its "black line" by mid-October, at which point irreversible damage will have been done to the quality of the lake's water.
Already damage is being done to the Sea of Galilee's water quality, former Water Authority chief Dan Zaslavsky told Israel Radio on Tuesday, noting that when the lower red line is reached all water pumping is supposed to stop.
The problem is that if Israel stops pumping water now, the nation will suddenly lose some 30 percent of its fresh water, necessitating draconian rationing policies. Israel is also obligated under its peace treat with Jordan to provide its neighbor with some 50 million cubic meters of water every year. Without the Sea of Galilee, Israel would be unable to meet that commitment.
But if the black line is reached, Israel will be unable to draw any more water from the Sea of Galilee as the national water carrier's pumps will be exposed and no longer under water.
In the face of this dire situation, the Water Authority on Tuesday put forward an emergency plan that restricts the use of water for private gardening and demands that the government accelerate plans to construct additional desalination plants. The plan also calls on the public to voluntarily practice greater water conservation by taking shorter showers, washing cars with buckets of water rather than running hoses, and taking greater care to use less water when washing dishes.
If these measures and the coming winter rains fail to alleviate the problem, Zaslavsky warned that Israelis will begin to experience sporadic water supply to their homes.

So while you're praying for the peace of Jerusalem, please pray for rain as well! We're drinking liters and liters of it - in this climate, fresh drinking water is an absolute necessity. Oh, that does remind me of a story from today...

For some unknown reason, the bus that is to pick us up from the dig site everyday was half an hour late today. It was HOT and there was no shade. It was so hot that my water in my bottle was literally warm enough to make tea in...not very refreshing when you're baking in the sun!

This girl from the international team (not one of our Lutheran group) comes up to me and asks for some water. I was a little distracted by what she was wearing - a skimpy red crop top and about the shortest shorts I've ever seen - that it took me a minute to respond and by that point she was impatiently demanding to know if I spoke English.

I reached for the water bottle hanging from my backpack and asked her where her water bottle was (meaning to pour some of my water into her bottle) as it clearly wasn't concealed on her person! She replied with "I don't have a water bottle. I'm Russian". This has to be the most memorable non sequiter I've ever heard, but I kept reaching for my bottle. I didn't really want to have some stranger drink my water, but I figured I could wash it later. Thankfully someone from her team saw my deilema and gave her their disposable water bottle.

Anyway, the Russian girl went on to say that "We're Russian, and we can't deal with this heat. Our winters get down to -30, you know." Unfortuantly for her, she was talking to a group of Canadians, so she didn't get much sympathy! I couldn't believe it though - to go up on the hill for a full day of digging without a water bottle. We're supposed to drink 2 liters inside of three hours, and then they come around with jugs to refill our bottles from. I haven't been drinking quite that much, but pretty close as I have no desire to die from heat stroke. Sometimes I really wonder about people...hopefully she's not sick tomorrow!!!

Playing in the Dirt

2008-07-07T07:01:00.001-06:00

What a day! We shifted a TON of dirt. We're now working three squares in the A section, and out team has grown quite a bit. Other then uncovering a lot of rocks, we didn't find anything interesting except for a small section of mosaic by Liz's Wall. Here's a shot of all three squares, although the original, A0 is dug so deep you can't really see it.

Here's a shot of my favourite tools of the trade...gloves are an absolute necessity, and who could resist pink ones? Not me! The brush is for tidying up and defining the outline of walls, or rocks that could possibly be part of a wall. The small pick and the trowels are also used for the delicate work around walls. That's my favourite part of the job, and this is the section of wall I was working on today. We also use a tool that's a cross between a shovel and hoe, called a turrea, but I don't like it enough to take a picture of it - using it makes my back hurt!

And this is me at the end of the dig today. With so many people working in such a small space, the dirt was flying like crazy, and I emerged from the pit dirtier then I've ever been. I thought that was worth documenting, especially given the heckling I've been getting for staying clean!

At lunch today, still all grimy, having only washed my hands and changed boots for flip-flops, I was contemplating how much work it was going to be to get clean. I'd have to go back to the room, gather up towels, clean clothes and toiletries, wait for a shower stall, shower and rinse out all my dirty clothes, get dressed again without dropping the clean clothes on the wet floor, haul all the stuff back to my room, and hang out the wet things.

Jenn and Katie, my roommates, as well as my pit boss, Arnie, were sitting with me, and I said something to the effect of "I wish I could go through the dishwasher". They all looked at me like I'd spent too much time in the sun...

But the dishwasher here is super cool - you scrape off your dishes, and load it all onto a tray on a conveyer belt, and it runs it through the dishwasher. If I could take a ride on it, I'd be clean, and my clothes would be clean too! Sounds like a pretty good idea to me...

I should tell you about what happened last night...I did the stupidest thing I've done in a very, very long time!

I took my camera down to take some shots of pottery washing on the lawn, but got caught up in it, and then talked to some people, and went back to the dorm to wash for dinner. As I was leaving the room, I went to grab some shekels to buy a Coke at dinner (yes Mom, I know it's bad for me... :) and realized that I'd put my money belt (including my passport!) in my camera case, and that my camera was still sitting down by the lake.

Panic doesn't even begin to describe what I felt...I sprinted all the way to the lawn to find everyone from the group had gone, and so had my camera case. Literally in tears I went back to my room to see if it was there and I'd missed seeing it, but it wasn't. I trudged over to the dining hall, not knowing what else to do, and what did I see but Ian standing outside, waving my camera bag. It took a couple of hours for my heartbeat to go back to normal!

Then this morning on the bus up to the hill, I was dozing off, and the next thing I know Ian (who was sitting behind me) had leaned forward and said, practically in my ear "So did you dream about loosing your passport last night?" I nearly jumped out of my seat...thankfully I didn't scream, as I've been known to do when startled! He swears he didn't mean to scare me, and seeing as how he's not one of my youth boys, I suppose he probably means it. :)

Now I'm off to join Jenn on the lawn beside the Sea to read for a bit before pottery cleaning...and I'm leaving my passport safely locked in my room!!!