Weather, wasps and weeds.

As far as weather goes, we've had a record breaking fantastic summer here in PG. Even back in May and June when the rest of the province (including the Okanagan, where we were stationed while Jed was in hospital) got rain nearly every day.

Of course good weather leads to forest fires, smokey air, and campfire bans with million-dollar fines.
Thankfully our portable fire pit remained legal. Camping is just not the same when you sit in a circle and stare at nothing.

Then last week we got our first rain of the summer and the fire ban was lifted. This meant the wasp colony living under Jed's sidewalk could be dealt with. The had burrowed a huge tunnel right under the cement. This of course was my reason for not weeding the flower beds.

Jed dressed in combat gear and filled in the mouth to the tunnel with sand... only his father forgot to tell him to wait until AFTER dark so the wasps would all be inside. I looked out the window just before dusk and there was a massive cloud of wasps hanging over the sidewalk. It was then I realized Jed had blocked the opening and the little buggers were trying to go home for the night.

No stick is long enough for me to consider poking a hole through to a wasp nest. But Jed braved it. And once he got them all settled into bed, out came the gasoline and matches. Now that's how to make a fire!

And now to deal with the 3-foot weed jungle.

165!! Holy Bleep, Batman!

Alb and I will be attending the wedding of Tineke and Len on September 23rd. Including the bride and groom, there will be 11 people in attendance. Not only are we attending, but Albert will be officiating the ceremony. This is very cool as he has never done such a thing before.

They were here last night going over the wedding details.

"Oh yeah," they casually mention. "Even though the location is called a park, it's really more like a hiking trail."

And then, as if it's a non-issue, she adds, "You may want to arrive a little bit early; there are one hundred and sixty five stairs leading up to the location."

 ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE!! Holy bleep!

Well that gives me three weeks to cram in some cardio. Not only do we have to be able to actually make it up the hill, each person there is required to make a speech. I fear I'll barely be upright, much less able to make an eloquent speech.

I stood at the top of my stairs to the basement and did the math: 11 steps. That means 15 times up them will be 165. I shall do this every day.

Somewhere about the 10th time up my basement stairs I was wheezing like I had whooping cough. I did manage to do full 15 flights, but the thought of saying anything more than my name made me want to puke.

I'm sure it'll be a short speech.

My upcoming tropical vacation.

I know I've had a lot of time off work in the past two years, but I told my husband I needed a tropical vacation on an island that has nothing to do with cancer clinics and operating rooms. The solution: I get a 2-week vacation away from Tropical Pool & Spa (my employer) on Vancouver Island. Technically that's a "Tropical vacation" and it's on an island. Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Our ocean side cabin is booked in Ucluelet and our hotel in Victoria is in place as is the Washington/Schultz B&B.  Jim and Barbee will be on Salt Spring Island about the same time and they are going to join us for 4 days in the cabin.

My first thoughts were that I just wanted to lounge around in the sand, drink wine and watch the waves crash in. And I still plan for that to consume much of my time. However I decided we should also do something active. Something out of the ordinary. Something show-stopper. Something to talk about when we get home.

I did some research and found out there's a recently opened Zipline Eco Tour on the island. ZipTrekking at Whistler is on my bucket list, so this piqued my interest. However, I'm not sure I am ready to start checking items off my bucket list just yet. Besides, Barbee is recovering from surgery and there is no way she'd be up for it.

My next option was the Sea to Sky adventure. You charter a whale watching boat to take you up to the north end of the island where you hike in a kilometer or so to natural hot springs whose rock pools overlook the ocean. Ahhh! And then your private float plane comes to pick you up for the return trip. Yes! This is the adventure I was looking for.

I sent an email brochure to Alb, Jim and Barbee saying Please, please, can we do it. Huh huh, can we, can we?

Barbee's response was short with lots of exclamation marks. I can only surmise that the 3-letter answer she gave stood for Who's This For?!!! She's not all that into boats nor planes.

I figure, what's the worst that can happen? They dump us in the ocean and we drown. At least we'd be together. We'd be happy. And a little bit scared. And then we'd go to heaven. It's all good.

But if they don't dump us in the ocean, I'm sure we'll have something to talk about.

iResisted. iPondered. iCaved.

Back in May I dragged my hubby off to the mall to check into getting iPhones. After spending rediculous amounts of time in line-ups and in discussions with both Bell and Telus reps I decided I really couldn't justify them. I really don't use the cellphone I have all that much, and I was off work at the time while Jed was in the hospital.

"We can't afford them. Who knows how long I'm gonna end up being off work." I told my husband as we left the mall. And in a totally unplanned act of impulse we drove directly from the phone store to the Kia dealer and bought my brand new Soul. Okay, I admit financial prowess was never one of my strengths.

Then over the course of the summer, everywhere I turned, something else was pointing to the usefulness of having a smart phone. I began to realize "phone" really has nothing to do with it - people don't TALK on these things! As a matter of fact they use them to AVOID talking ... now we're talkin' my language.

Need a guitar tuner? A flashlight? A GPS? An automatic fart sound generator? Suddenly the six hundred dollar device that comes with a hundred-dollar-a-month user fee is starting to look a little more justifiable. It's no wonder when Apple announced the new 4G iPhone this summer they had 600,000 pre-ordered phones within 24 hours of the announcement. And when the phones hit the shelves in July they sold 1.7 million in the first three days.

It didn't take long once I began feeling flush with Jetta money burning a hole in my pocket for me to put my name on the 3-week waiting list for my very own fart sound generating guitar tuner.

...and I STILL haven't bought any new shoes.  

Here I am!

Here I am!

You probably would not believe the number of times I have logged into this site and sat and stared at a blank blog in the past 6 weeks thinking, "Nothing is funny," then closing the window and walking away.

I recall saying during past discussions centered around blogging that every event in life is a potential story - it's all in the telling. Even with my slack-ass blog entries in the last few months, I'm still getting an average of 25-30 hits per day on the site. This shocks, amazes and shames me.  And so here I go with yet another attempt to become consistent at exercising my exhibitionism while allowing you to practice your voyeurism...

The Jetta finally sold on Tuesday. I say "finally" like I'd been trying hard for months to get rid of it, when in fact I did nothing more than throw an ad in the free Buy-and-Sell and post an album on Facebook about a month ago.

I got enough for it to make me happy - although I sold it cheap enough that the buyer is even happier. My chequing account went into a state of shock when it posted a five-digit balance - however I managed to make short work of that. But I am doing pretty good. I've had the money for 48 hours and I still haven't bought a pair of shoes.