Playing around wtih some photography

I've been dabbling a little in photography.  These are some of my better shots.  Yes, most of them are of Ollie.  What can I say?  He's always around and oh so cute!!

Birthday BBQ!

I didn't realize Brad was having a bbq for me for my birthday until I went inside and smelled potato salad.  Up until that point I thought he had just tidied the backyard, put out the fire pit and put up the gazebo.  But he had definitely planned a bbq for me!  Friends from work and family came by the wish me a happy birthday and help me ring in 30 (though it won't be for a few days yet).

After the bbq, once it got dark enough, we started a bonfire in the backyard.  It was a really wonderful time all around and I was so, so spoiled!

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The scene of the event, before anyone arrived.

 Karlene baked me a cake, complete with cream cheese butter cream icing and fondant decorations!  (Top layer was carrot cake, bottom was a butter chocolate...DELICIOUS)

I so didn't want to cut it!  The owl was too cute!

 And Rob stopped by with Alex who was very interested in my scooter.  I started it for him and let him honk the horn.  He also like to crank the throttle to hear it roar.

Fun and Adventures

It was a weekend of camping, zip lining and rock climbing as we celebrated our Nation's Birthday last weekend (by taking an extra day off! woot!!). Brad and I went camping with two other couples to the Cypress Hills Interprovincial park. It's becoming somewhat of a tradition (does two years consecutively count as "tradition"?) to go camping over the July-Long.
So, as is becoming the tradition and theme of my blog, here are some photos from the weekend:

Ollie was all cuddled up, so Sonny (far left) and Mona (middle) decided they wanted to be lap-dogs too

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 Ollie assumes that because there is a plate at nose level, those sausages should be his.  Obviously.
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Let's go Fly a Kite!

This weekend was the 8th Annual Windscape Kite Festival in Swift. I'm ashamed to say this was the first year we've gone. Seriously. It was amazing! And realistically, why wouldn't there be a kite festival in Swift? There's enough wind pretty much all the time.  So, off we went to the kite festival to see what it was all about.  It was so impressive! We serioulsy had so much fun watching the kite flying performers and demos that we went and bought a kite of our own!  (I suspect I am excellent at stunt kite flying). 

Our kite

 With a little more practice, I'm sure I'll have the dual string mode down-pat!

Things that I've been doing

And, believe me, I've been doing a LOT...I live a VERY exciting life.  Ok, so maybe "exciting" isn't really the right word for it, but I do get up to some fun. 
Over the May long weekend (a month ago?? How did that happen??) two of my friend sna di hopped in the Golf and drove to Edmonton for the weekend. We shopped, played at the water park, stayed up all night drinking wine and spiced rum (not together...respectively) and all around misbehaved in a very wholesome sort of way, I'm sure. Here are just some of the photos of that weekend...though, in all honesty, my camera did not come out very often.

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Lindsay likes to keep up on the great literature of our day
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OBVIOUSLY we went to IHOP!
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 After supper on our last night we found a bar that was giving away captain's hats...so we went in and feeling about 10 years too old to be there we snagged our hats and left very quickly. 
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 I was driving, so this is, honestly, just club soda.  but everyone else got to drink out of pails, so I wanted to too!
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 BEST SIGN EVER.
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 Continuing with my quest to take pictures with the the World's Largests, we had to pull over and snap a shot with these giant shoes and stripey stockinged legs.  Not sure if you can see it, but the shoes even have a detail on them to look like elastic.  Comfort first, my friends!

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 When we heard that the World's Largest Lamp is in Donalda AB, we mapped it out and realized it would only add on about 45 minutes to the drive home, so off we went in search of the great Lamp!  Obviously, this is a good occassion to say "I Love Lamp"! 
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 Major kudos to Lindsay for lining up this shot perfectly!
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I don't know how many times I've driven past here and never stopped, so this time we made the time to stop inMacklin, home of the World's Largest Bunnock.  Yeah...it's as exciting as you think. 

Ode to an eReader

It's been 2 years since I got my first eReader, a Kobo Original (back when it was just referred to as a "Kobo").  This spring I decided to upgrade.  My Kobo has served me very very well, I've read dozens of books on it and greatly enjoyed the experience.  But ereaders have come a long way and Kobo has stopped putting out firmware upgrades for the Original.  It was slow to start up, slow to load a book, and the dictionary was hit and miss as to what books it would work on.  
With Mothers day approaching, Chapters put their Kobo Touch reader on sale for $99!  That's a heck of a good deal (way back when, my original was 149!).  Mum bought herself a touch, but I had my eyes trained on the Sony PRS-T1 Reader.  There really isn't much that's different from the Kobo Touch, I preferred some of the functions and the UI (a fancy-dancy term I learned from my research that means "User Interface").  I really liked the kobo touch, but I just preferred the Sony.  So, after some mighty persistence and haggling I managed to get a really sweet deal on one at Shoppers Drug Mart!  I had a heck of a time finding one because, of course, I just had to be different and wanted a white one, instead of the black units that everyone seems to carry.  But, I did it!  I got my ereader 1 week ago!

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Here is a comparison with my Kobo

Then came the search for a cover.  Most of the covers available on the market are for the Kindle Touch or the Kobo Touch, which are conveniently exactly the same size. The Sony, inconveniently, is not.  It is about a cm taller and a cm narrower.  So finding a case that worked well was a big challenge.  Yesterday morning, however, Mare randomly emailed me a link to a page on Amazon with the caption "u need to own this."

 

I looked it up and realized it was exactly what I was looking for!  The Kindle Fire size case is a bit big, but since it zips all around, it works quite well.  I put express shipping on it and it arrived today!

 

WOOT!  (or should I say "HOOT!) 

Bedpans, Vasectomies and Panic Buttons?

This weekend I took the charm bracelet I was given at 16 in to the jeweller to get some of the charms soldered on. I've seen people wearing Pandora charm bracelets here and there and they got me thinking how much I like charm bracelets and so I decided to once again bust out my bracelet.  Dropping off my bracelet made me start to wonder what kinds of charms are out there, so I started looking.  The first I saw was this:

The silver charm, by Rembrandt, is called Vasectomy.  Yup.  'nuff said. 

I started looking around further and was exploring the "profession" section and saw this:

Can you guess what this one is?  Yes, it sure is.  A Bedpan.  Who would want a bedpan hanging from their bracelet?  Or necklace?  That being said, I understand they are able to make any of the charms into cuff links, and I know a few guys who would probably enjoy some bedpan cuff links.... it still makes me wonder about the person who designed this one.  Also, I know some people who I might buy this for as a gift...

And then there's this:

 Panic Button.  I can't actually say anything bad about this one. I would totally rock this charm.  Who doesn't want/need a Panic Button??
These are all on http://www.preciousaccents.com/ and I did order one actually:

Surprised?

Walk to Fight Arthritis

This year I was asked by a coworker to help organize the Swift Current Walk To Fight Arthritis.  I agreed to do whatever I could to help with the fundraiser.  I'll be doing the walk, but also looking after some of the organization aspects of the walk.  Arthritis is a bit of a big deal to me.  I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was 3 and finally went into remission 13 years later.  While I'm still in remission, I do have some residual flare ups and issues, but as someone who accessed the services of the Arthritis Society for years, I know how important this organization is to the people they serve. 

So, the walk is on Sunday June 10th.  So I'm using my blog to gather some support.  If you are able to make a donation to my walk this is the link to my donation page.  But, if you live in Swift Current, it would be even more awesome if you could join the walk yourself! Here is the link for signing up for the walk: Register.
Thanks for your support!

Easter Long Weekend

Easter long weekend was especially long for me when I took an extra two days off, turning it into a 6 day weekend! Why did I do such a thing? Well, 6 day weekends are awesome for one, but more importantly, it was because we were expecting house guests! Mare, Jeremy and Thomas came to visit! They arrived on Thursday night which was earlier than they had originally thought because of the impending blizzard that was supposed to be coming across the prairies (we got a bit of snow, but nothing terribly severe, so I guess the panic was for naught) and stayed until Wednesday morning when the left for Calgary on their way home. 

In Walmart, a must for any Mare and Jess day.  Thomas is wearing the toque that I made him.
Yes, it has ears. :D
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Making perogies as part of our Ukrainian Easter meal which included borscht, cabage rolls and perogies.  Needless to say, we ate till we were ready to die.
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 Thomas playing with the teddy bear I knit for him
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 On Monday we drove to Moose Jaw to go for a dip iin the mineral pools.  So relaxing and lots of fun.  I have yet to see a sad baby at the mineral pools, and Thomas definitely enjoyed himself.
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Mare and Jer wanted a picture by the Swift Current sign, so we drove to the most accessible sign I knew of which is next to the property of a bed and breakfast in town.  If Jer looks distracted it would be because there was a 4 foot tall goose making some very angry goose noises being joined by a turkey who was also making some moderately angry turkey noises.  We took off pretty quick after this photo.
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 The weather went from blizzard and cold and snow to beautiful and sunny,so we took advantage of the sun and went for a walk on the Chinook pathway. 
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Ollie wasn't terribly sure of Thomas.  Probably because Thomas liked Ollie and would get excited and wave his fists which occassionally bopped Ollie in the nose.  Also, when he would try to pet him, he would actually grab a mitful of fur and pull a little bit.  Ollie is a bit of a wimp when it comes to this sort of thing, so he pretty much kept his distance.  He was still very curious about Thomas though and would get as close as he could while still feeling like he was a safe distance from those little hands.  Also, Thomas had great toys as far as Ollie was concerned...and he often had crackers and cheerios at his feet, so Ollie definitely became more adventurous towards the end of their stay.