waxing on the waning sun...

Sadly, summer is disappearing, as is evident in the chill of the light of both dawn and dusk. The frigid fingers of Fall are wrapping around the longneck bottle of summer, preparing to tip the season upside down altogether, the last drops of a warmer, brighter time of year spilling into the gaping maw of autumn.

sigh...

I’ve started wearing sweaters again here and there, and the hangers of warmer clothing are slowly making their way from the back to the front of my closet. For the first time the other night, I had to wear a jacket to the dog park. All these decidedly un-summery items are hanging up front and centre with the dress clothing, which has also been put back into high rotation now that work has started up for me again.

Speaking of work, it’s going well (easy to say after only a week back at it—I’m still in the honeymoon phase!) It’s a different position than I’ve held before. Less PR, more PR / Marketing, so it’ll be a switch for me to adjust to that, but it will be really nice to add to my skill set with some totally new things. The people in my department are really great, which is always nice. As you can see from the photos, it took a while to get settled into a “complete” office. The materials were a little slow to arrive. Thank goodness my kind and caring coworkers were so willing to pitch in and put together an office space using their own supplies…. The desk is a little small, the pen a bit frilly, and the paper a bit pink, but my coworkers are short females, so what should I expect?



Before work got started, Kate and I were in Kelowna and Kamloops visiting family over the labour day long weekend. Kate’s dad, his partner and her sons (as well as the dogs) and Kate and I had a chance to do some swimming in Lake Okanagan, which was still a lovely temperature. Up in Kamloops, we didn’t have a lake while visiting my parents, but the neighbour’s pool was open, so good enough! The local black bear has been making good use of the fruit trees in the area, and in general making regular appearances in the yards, as evidenced by these pics, taken by my sister, Kari.

Sure, he looks cute, but the droppings he leaves all over the lawn are far from adorable, all full of the remnants of everyone’s fruit that he’s been stealing!

And Finally (last, but certainly not least)Some big news coming out of Kamloops, comes via my brother, Jamie, and his wife, Dina. In true pop culture style, the pair let it be known that they’re expecting a wee one as of March 3rd, 2007! They did so by having us all over for a barbeque, and they presented my dad with a Grandpa Burger from A & W... GROAN!!! ;) My parents are totally thrilled, as are the rest of us. Kate and I are looking forward to the aunt and uncle gig! Congrats again to Jamie and Dina! YaAaAYyYYYY!

on that note, I'll close things off. The thought of new life is a much happier one than that of the end of summer ;)

back on the employment wagon

Let's play Good news/ Bad news once again, shall we? It's been a year
since I did that, after all!

Since last I wrote, I managed to fool someone into thinking I'll be an asset to their organization :)
I'm going back to work! hurray! I'll be going to what was called the Workers' Compensation Board and is now called WorkSafeBC. I worked there doing public affairs / media relations / kid-who-cut-his fingers-off spokesperson work back in 2001/2002, and I'm quite pleased to be going back! This time, I'm going to be helping with some marketing initiatives in the Investigations Division. What do they do? I won't fill in all the details here, but if you feel so inclined, follow this link to an FAQ on the department! the general idea is that they look into the serious accidents or deaths resulting from an incident on a jobsite.
So, I'll be starting that gig on Sept 6th on a six month contract to start--sounds like there's good chance for extension / integration as a permanent worker. It's a junior management level job, and I think my official title will be 'Junior Policy Analyst'. Don't ask me why!

Hey, that's good!

Unfortunately, it may be the case that the dog training gets cut a bit short because of starting a job, and we could use more time to get her used to our being out of the house--not that I haven't been trying to desensitize her as days have gone by! submitted as evidence of her need of help:

Exhibit A: the TV room as it should look...
Hey, that's good!
Exhibit B: the TV room as it looked after three hours of nellie being on her own in there...
Hey, that's bad... (note the pee stains...click the pic to enlarge if you really want to! )

with other more good news, dad had a CAT scan done recently, and his last round of chemo has gone really, REALLY well--his tumours have shrunk 80 per cent! We are all thrilled for him, and it's nice to know that his being under the weather during treatment days has at least been worth something!

Hey, that's Awesome!

Also in the cancer camp, less fortunately, is Kate's childhood neighbour, Gord, who has a fast acting Lymphoma wearing him down at the moment. He's a father figure in Kate's life, and in general more a member of the family than a neighbour. Just keep him in your prayers for us!

Hey, that's no good at all...

But the Good news goes on! just look at these pictures! the garden is putting out a great crop right now. tomoatoes of the cherry, beefsteak and roma varieties, and HUGE runner beans by the fistfull, with bell, Jalapeno, and banana peppers still to come

Hey, that's good!

also, my sister-in-law came back from a trip to Holland and got us all sorts of goodies, and in just a few days, my sister comes home to live in Canada for a full year, after living in England for the past three years as a teacher. It's going to be great to have her around for a while!

Hey, that's good!

And has anyone been paying attention to the weather around here lately? Holy dinah! faaaantastic!

hey, that's good too!

It sure is! and on that note, since the Goods are winning over the Bads at this point, I'll wrap up and just say that overall, life is pretty frickin' sweet.

... Looked up to the Lord above and said "hey man thanks,
Some times I feel so good I gotta scream"...---Tragically Hip, New Orleans is Sinking

Still jobless (and other summer stories)

stardate 11.9.2006: status: unemployed... still

The job search has proved itself an interesting one as of late, garnering me one interview for a handful of applications, and for said interview, I didn't get the job. No matter, it would have meant two and a half months on the road, and I'd rather be at home, I think! (this is what I tell myself to make it all seem okay... >sniff<) But honestly, I am not worried about the job prospects. Of the four other application packages I have 'out there'none of them have even reached their closing dates as of yet. The summer is generally a pretty slow season for the Communications world, as it is for pretty much anywhere one might try to get a job. So, as the Fall draws closer, hopefully prospects will improve!

despite my lack of employment, I still found time in my busy schedule of job searching, housecleaning, going to the gym, and whipping our puppy into shape to head up to Whistler for a few days over the August long weekend. Kate has Fridays off right now, so we even got a four day trip out of it.

The highlight of the weekend--aside from the glorious weather,mountain vistas, shimmering lakes and fresh air--had to be the Canadian Barbeque Championships, which took place in Whistler village over the course of the weekend. Picture it if you will:

two dozen or so competitors gather to cook up their best BBQ'ed Pork, Chicken , and Beef. You, as a spectator / carnivore head to the site. upon paying five dollars which goes towards the charitable cause of crohns disease / colitis research, you're given free access to wander up to any of the competitors tents, and sample of the particular meat they happen to be cooking for the competition of the hour.

First up, the Pork. Forgive me Jewish God, for I have sinned. There was more pulled pork in a plethora of mouth-watering marinades than this here meat eater knew what to do with. More glorioualy succulent ribs on hand than even the most gluttonous of gluttons could hope to gorge upon. There's a little bit of Homer Simpson in all of us, I think. And on August sixth, there was a lot Homer showing up in a lot of people.

After the pork had been turned in for judging, the competitors turn to their chicken recipes, and the process began again, with the carnivores running around like chickens with their heads cut off (pun intended) trying to grab up the samples before they're all gone. And so it went with the beef after the chicken had been turned in.

Yes, my meat-eating friends (sorry to all the Vegetarians out there...)It was every bit as wonderful as I describe, and then some. I imagine it will be right up there with wedding days, and--when they arrive--the birth of my children. Unlike such events, however, the BBQ champs happen every year. Amen.

as pennance for the extreme over-indulgance, Kate and I used up the free lift tickets we had and hiked atop whistler mountain for a few hours the next day, so as to work of some of the meat in the high alpine. Okay, okay, it wasn't really punishment, as the pics below will attest to!

atop Whistler mountain, with a view to Black Tusk in the background


an inukshuk garden, top of Whistler


one big Inukshuk!


flowers in the alpine


a wall of snow towers above Kate



Oh, and if any of you are wondering about the status of the puppy, she's generally been great, though thus far she's chewed through several BBQ tools off our back deck, two DVD cases, a corn husk broom (twice... it was reconstructed, then chewed again)two ant poison traps, a mini football, a leash (an escape technique), and has jumped two fences and leapt from a first story window in order to track us down. Here's a few more pics!

learning to swim!




nellie constantly tries to squeeze in through the space cut for a cat door


Scratch my tummy damn you! scratch it!


until next time, I wish you puppy-tongued kisses and 14 hour slow-roasted pulled pork. Cheers!

WHOA NELLIE!!!!

The happy new addition to the household comes to us via the SPCA. Nellie (formerly known as Athena--but we decided she didn't like that name...) has been in the shelter since May. Her previous owner is a single woman undergoing chemotherapy, and also a mother of a two-year old. she decided she couldn't do all that and own a puppy.


the vital stats on nellie are:

Age: 10 months
Breed: Border Collie / lab cross (less collie temperament, more lab.. hurray!)
Colour: Black w/ white patch on chest
Issues: separation anxiety
Housebroken: YESSSS!!!
Quarterback sacks 2004/2005 season: 14

We spent the last few days building gates on our back fence specifically for the purpose of containing a dog that we figured we'd get sometime this summer, and we're very pleased to have found such a great pooch so soon!




To all of you who expected a baby announcement, don't get your hopes up. Give it a few years, eh?

back in Vancouver for a while!

Hello all, it's been a few weeks since the last update! As it turns out, while Kate and I were away on vacation, the world forgot to stop turning on us, and we had to play catch-up on return. some of the examples of the things that happened while we were away / in the last few weeks.

-Getting off the plane in Vancouver, I was subjected to a violent attack of food poisoning that lasted a few days.
-Most recently, we spent a few days in Edmonton attending a friend's wedding.
-the weekend before that, Kate was out of town for five days being a camp counsellor.
And while we were away:
-Kate's mum stepped down from her high-profile job with the BC government.
-My sister's boyfriend's grandparents BOTH landed in hospital.
-My sister's Boyfriend's brother and wife had their baby.
-the same baby at age three-weeks landed in hospital with suspected meningitis (she's ok now though!!)
-My sister's broken leg didn't heal at all in 12 weeks--she just had surgery to fix it, hopefully it will be okay now)
-My veggie garden turned into a twisted jungle of weeds and unchecked growth.
-A guy I grew up with in Kamloops died in a car crash.
-And his obituary appeared in the newspaper right next to that of my grandfather's, who also passed away while I was 'out and about'.

and I think it's this last bit that I wanted to talk about today. Grandad, also known as James Frederick Chase--or Fred--was in bad shape for the last decade or so. He suffered a stroke back then, and ever since slowly slipped away from us as the man we knew. We haven't been close simply becuase we really haven't been able to. When he died in the hospital a few weeks ago, it was as much a relief to us as it was a sorrow, and as such, it was hard to know how to feel at the time.

But now that we as a family have had a chance to gather and remember him, I'm a little more clear on how I felt about grandad. I also had a solitary car ride up to Kamloops (where we held the gathering) to think about things. My Brother, Jamie, said a few words at the memorial that defined pretty well what I too thought. These thoughts are along the lines that, even though we weren't too terribly close to Granddad, either in the capacity of grandchild or child, we none the less owe our very lives to the man. If he and Grandma never found each other, we never would have been born, not his own six kids, not any of the eleven grandkids, nor the eight great grandkids. Or, had my grandparents met but not moved from Ontario to BC in 1967--which would not have been and was not an easy thing to do--to start life fresh and new, I could have grown up in some other place than this province that I love and call my home.

Grandad served 17 years in the Canadian Navy, so it was perhaps appropriate that we held his memorial on Canada Day. It's thanks to guys like him that we get such a holiday, and for that, I have to be proud of and thankful for my grandad.

The fireworks that night were for you grandad.