Last installment of people I'm looking forward to...

and this time I'll be taking digital photos!! I discovered I don't have any pictures on file of anybody else: my other cousins, my half-brother. Ridiculous! But here's where it all started.

This is my great-grandparents, their children & another relative (the shortest girl). The man in the back with the moustache is my dad's father (Harald) and the reunion is for all the cousins who are descended from him. He and his wife Marie had 10 children and there were 23 grandchildren. Apparently about 30 people will be at the reunion, including a few spouses. I'm the 2nd youngest of the generation. My one remaining uncle will be there as well - he's 86!

Well this isn't getting any packing done though is it? Never mind that, it's dinnertime...

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing part IV

dinner in meat packing district
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

And of course my buddy Mark in NYC! We've known each other since undergrad days at UBC, were in many of the same Linguistics and Spanish classes in 1979 & 1980. Holy cow do you realize how many years that's been???

The people you find in the library

I just have to tell you about this guy who was in the library earlier this week. Picture Matthew McConnaghy(sp?) with just a slightly different face. This gorgeous young man walks up the stairs, wearing a little tank top & long shorts, very Matthew-ish from People magazine photos, I nearly get whiplash watching him go by.

Quite awhile later he (and his shorter much less interesting friend) comes up to the desk to ask if he can have some Scotch tape. I am once again mesmerized by all those muscles and his blonde curly hair. Then I kind of come to and pay attention to his request. He wants some tape to hold together 2 origami flowers he has made. His Michael's bag is on the counter and I can see he's got their papercrafts encyclopedia inside and he's holding these 2 cute little paper flowers. So I tell him about Andrea's paper petals class and we have a little talk about paper flowers and then off he goes.

Not your typical Greek god...

Making Friends

 
Well for at least one evening Zoe and Timmy got up close and personal - and nobody was injured! The truce didn't last long though.

Looks like we'll have Zoe here till Sunday when I will drop her off at the kennel where she'll be for a week while her mom is away on vacation. If I weren't going away as well we could probably keep her longer. It's funny 'cause we're finding her to be really quite a good dog (although she doesn't really like Greg) and she walks well on the leash etc. which stuns her mom because, as is the case with some children, the dog behaves better with other people than she does at home!

So incredibly busy at work this week - I'm just exhausted and looking forward to the weekend where I have nothing to do except laundry, pack, pedicure & lunch with the MIL and family. Hopefully I will get some quality sleeping done too.

blog tag...thanks to Tara!

5 things in my refrigerator:

1. milk

2. Tazo Chai concentrate

3. eggs

4. something green that needs to be thrown out (there's a few of those actually)

5. apples

5 things in my car:

1. Donna Leon book on CD

2. water bottle

3. clothes to go to dry cleaners

4. dog leash

5. gum

5 things in my purse or backpack:

1. wallet

2. cell phone

3. pen

4. flight itinerary

5. passport

5 things in my closet:

1. purses

2. old toys

3. scarves

4. slippers

5. clothes

5 things in the world I want to see before I die:

1. Antarctica

2. New Zealand

3. Cook Islands

4. Queen Charlottes

5. Stonehenge

Thanks Tara - that was a challenge (especially when realizing we really need to go grocery shopping!!! However not my problem, Greg can do that when I'm gone!)

Zoe

 

No she's not my new dog. I'm just dog-sitting while Zoe's mom is in hospital. You can see that Zoe has some border collie in her and I do often call her Ruby by mistake. She's a pretty sweet dog, and is just beside herself that the cats won't play with her. We finally got them to come in the house and it's just hilarious to see Zoe in front of one of them, down in the 'let's play' position and whining because the cat is spitting at her. Apparently her own cat does the same thing sometimes.

So only one more week of work and it's going to be a busy one (see above hospitalization). Which is a good thing as otherwise time would be going by very slowly as it does when you're anxiously awaiting something. I need to get my act in gear, get some laundry & packing organized. Not leave it till the last minute, which is looking like a possibility right now.

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing part III

Fern & Heidi
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

This is my friend Heidi, whom I met online at the Norwegian Digital Archive website (http://www.digitalarkivet.no if you're interested in Norwegian genealogy at all). She had posted a question about some relatives who came to BC, I did some searching for her, and the rest - as they say - is history!

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing Part II

Holly with Berit in Lillehammer
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

This is my cousin Berit with Holly when we were there two years ago. She is my "big sister" and a zanier person you could never hope to meet.

People I'm looking forward to seeing Part I

This is my cousin Harald Kristian "Haka" famous in my family for having shown up at my parents' doorstep before I was born and my mother exclaiming to my dad "oh he's not bad is he!" in English whereupon Haka said politely "thank you!". My mom was soooo embarrassed.

The most surprising part of this story is that my mom shared her opinions on good-looking men with my father!!

Countdown begins

Well with less than a month to go I guess I should start doing some thinking & planning for my trip. I'm taking a milk run to Oslo for my cousins' reunion (søskenbarn-treffet in Norwegian) on September 1st. Since I was planning to go to New York this spring, and had already booked my Aeroplan flight before hearing about the Norway thing, I'm combining both holidays. But it means I'm spending the day of Aug 28th flying from Kelowna-Toronto-New York (arriving around 10 pm) and then turning around and flying out to Oslo at 8:15 the next night. I arrive in Oslo nearly 48 hours after leaving home!!

But then I have a week in Norway, flying back to New York on the 6th (the day after my birthday) until the 12th...no way was I flying on September 11th! I'm sure I will have a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing all my cousins again. But maybe once I turn the calendar to August it will all seem a bit more 'real'!

Canine-less in Kelowna

I did go to the SPCA at lunch on Friday, visited the dogs. Buddy is cute but he's definitely a border collie through and through and he's also pretty young, and very focused. Obviously too much work for this family! Many other cute dogs, including Humie (pronounced 'who me') who is lovely but can climb 6 foot high chain link fences. Furry (formerly advertised as 'Fury') is a shepherd/lab cross who I've been kind of interested in for awhile and Friday I actually got to meet her briefly while she was on her way back to her kennel. Mike, the kennel guy, thought she might be a good match for us - she's a pretty low maintenance dog. So today I got Greg to go the SPCA with me and had another look at her. But you know, it was the same impression that I got the very first time I saw her: she just seems to be in her own little world. You call her name - she ignores you, she doesn't come over to the door when you approach (virtually all the other dogs do) and just seemed kind of zoned out. So I declined the invitation to visit in the quiet room with her. Maybe I'm foolish but I think there has to be a spark there right off the bat. So I'm okay with that. I will continue to look.

Stayed up till 1:00 last night reading Harry Potter! Very tired today but it was a great read. I can't say anything else obviously but I liked it a lot and didn't cry too too much. So then it was Holly's turn and I'm shocked that she's not that interested in reading it asap. We left her home today so she could read (she starts a 2-week day camp tomorrow) but she only made it through about 70 pages before moving on to something else. However I read a couple of chapters aloud to her just now and she enjoyed it so we may have to do it that way. That's all right, I kind of wanted to re-read it immediately anyway!

Doggie Anxiety

OK I was just cruising through the SPCA website as I do every couple of days and - gasp - today the last dog on the list is a young male border collie named Buddy. No photo at the moment but the description sounds very nice. I practically have heart palpitations! I know Greg really doesn't want another dog; too much work is his opinion which is very valid. Holly couldn't care less, she's a cat person. And the idea of having to walk a dog twice a day in 35+ temperatures doesn't appeal to me either. But still... I get an hour & a half for lunch tomorrow so I may take a drive to the SPCA. See if they know if Buddy likes cats...

Modern Times

 

Greg brought home a new laptop a few days ago for me to try out but after 24 hours I've decided to stick with old faithful here (a Toshiba). The new one was very shiny, had a 17" monitor but I like this one better.

Then I thought I would like to be able to get pictures off my cell phone & onto my laptop. The guy in the Rogers store said emailing them was the best way. I just found some bare bones instructions and it seems you can only send them right after you take them. I couldn't find any way to get pictures currently stored on the phone to email...too bad, there were a few Artistry pictures on there I would have like to see in bigger than 1x1 format! Anyway I took this one of Greg and thought it came out not too bad for so few pixels.

And today (thinking I would actually scrapbook something) I printed some pictures directly off my memory card in the printer. That was impressively easy! But have I done anything with them? Nooooooo!

My Precious

A while back I had my status on Facebook as "relieved". This is the story behind it.

A few weeks ago I was home sick and thought since I was home feeling crappy I would fill in an extended health care claim form. I was searching for a particular receipt and couldn't find it. Looked all over the house with no success. But I did find an old Costco receipt in the bedroom (specifically from December 23, 2000). The last thing on the receipt was 'diamond earrings $200'. WTF?! I never got no diamond earrings... so I'm laying (or is that lying, I always get those mixed up) on the couch feeling like crap and fretting. Greg bought diamond earrings and they weren't for me?! oh dear. This goes on for awhile. Then I have this sudden flash of memory, opening a pair of heart-shaped earrings with a little diamond chip on them and him saying 'they're real diamonds'. oh right, I remember now... go look in the jewelry drawer. No such earrings to be found. Oh shit. Because...

A few weeks prior to that I'd received an email from a librarian who was organizing a fundraiser for the SLAIS Alumni (UBC's library school) - donate your old unwanted jewelry to be sold to raise funds for the school. Boy I got really into that and went through all my jewelry and packed up a huge bag of stuff that I hadn't worn in years. Including apparently one pair of what turned out to be very expensive diamond earrings. Now you have to understand that my husband does not buy expensive gifts...ever. Except for this one Christmas 7 years ago.

So (did I tell you this was going to be long?) I had taken this bag of jewelry to BCLA with me in April to donate. But by this time I can't remember exactly what it was in aid of or who had organized it. I made a couple of phone calls, nobody seems to know much about it. I go through my old inbox and find the original email, write back to her. No response. Turns out she's on vacation. So I write to another librarian I know at VPL to see if she happens to know anything. Yes the jewelry was actually sold at BCLA, Corinne's away but she'll check with her when she gets back.

Meanwhile I've ransacked the house several times over, looking everywhere I can think of, old purses, makeup bags, etc etc. Weeks go by, Corinne is back from vacation so I write again. She doesn't remember any such earrings but will check at home. Another couple of days go by and I write again, thinking I will put out an appeal to the listserv & find whoever bought them. But then the next day she emails me, she found them!! In the bottom of a box at work. They meet the description, hallelujah! (This is when I became relieved...) I'm going to Vancouver in a few days so will meet her to pick them up.

Thursday Holly and I trundle down to VPL, meet Corinne & she pulls out this little bubble-wrapped package and gives it to me. I open it, look at at them and go...

I don't think that's them.

Seriously - how many pairs of earrings like that would you expect to find at this thing? But these just don't seem to be quite the way I remember them. However, we decide what the heck, I'm taking them. I will take them to my jeweler friend & inquire as to their value and then just put the whole episode out of my mind. Greg would never know anyway (and he doesn't read my blog!) and it makes a good story. But it just goes to show that expensive gifts are wasted on me after all and I should quit my whining when birthdays come along...

I'm baaack

Well that may be the longest I've been away from a computer in quite some time! 250 junk mails in 6 days - wow!

Holly and left for Vancouver last Wednesday night. We stayed four nights in Steveston at our favourite B&B, which won't be in business for much longer so I'm glad we went. Thursday we headed downtown and went to VPL, where I had a couple of people to see. Then we took the Skytrain out to Burnaby for Holly to shop at the Crystal Mall under the Hilton Hotel in Metrotown, home of all things Asian & anime. She picked herself up some Naruto stuff and then we went back downtown for awhile before heading back to Richmond. That bus ride was the only time it rained while we were there which was amazing.

Friday was R&R - we did next to nothing, wandered around Steveston & generally were lazy. Got to watch all the TV shows we don't get to watch at home (heavy on CSI & What Not to Wear).

Saturday morning my friend Marjory came out and we went out for breakfast to the Steveston Hotel. She then drove us into Vancouver to A-M's place. We went down to Granville Island for the afternoon, spent too much money at I'm Impressed, and watched some very funny (but very long) street theatre.

Canada Day we left Steveston (and did not go to the parade, shame shame) for A-M's place. Wandered South Granville a bit and went to see Pirates of the Caribbean which was better than I expected.



Monday we went down to A-M's pool and the sun actually came out! Later in the afternoon James & Richard picked us up and we went out for dinner and to the Casa di Gelato for dessert. Fantastic ice cream!

Afterwards we went back to their place and watched an Eddie Izzard DVD called "Dress to Kill". OMG we laughed & laughed...in fact I did actually laugh so hard I spit red wine on myself (and am hoping it'll come out of my shorts!)

Then this morning we flew back to Kelowna. So there you have it - it was fairly low-key but we had fun.

A-M and I had fun while she was here - got her onto Facebook although she hasn't actually done anything with it yet (have you???). Tons of shopping, a little bit of scrapping, and only a couple of glasses of wine. Where did the time go? (By the way there was no wine involved in this photo!)

I've been trying lately to get in shape & lose some weight - going for walks in the morning (with my new MP3 player!) and watching what I eat (lots & lots of salads) and I am feeling better. My goal is to lose 10 pounds before I go on my trip at the end of August. It's a pretty meager goal & should be entirely do-able don't you think? And if I could lose 20 that would be even better.

Unfortunately I guess it's the cotton or whatever in the air, but now I've started to get headaches again - this seems to happen a couple of times a year but lasts for ages. Sinusy kinds of headaches. I've tried Reactine & Claritin but they just make me dopey. Sudafed doesn't make me dopey but doesn't work that well either. Bought some cool allergy mist at Saje the other day which is lovely though. So anyway I had a headache all day yesterday and it came back in the night so I'm still sitting here in bed, finished my chai & should really get up & moving. No walk today...

Book club tonight - I kind of feel like I'm going to be apologizing for this book tonight. I have a feeling a lot of people aren't going to be too impressed. But hey that's what book club's for right? Force you to read what you wouldn't normally look at. (No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. It's being made into a movie by the Coen brothers and McCarthy just won the Pulitzer for The Road. And was just on Oprah for only the 3rd interview of his very long career!)

Holly and I are off to Vancouver in 2 weeks, taking a long Canada Day weekend. Also going over to Victoria for the day at least and see the Titanic exhibit at the Museum. I'm not sure what else we'll be doing, I'm sure I'll have to suffer through Science World yet again.

where have all the bloggers gone

Well it seems everyone's deserting their blogs and spending all their time on Facebook instead. I blame my addiction on Vivian - when she invited me on there a couple of months ago I said, no no I'm not interested, let's just stick to email. But of course at the time I had to register to see what she had written to me. So then one of Greg's nephews found me, we chatted, and the next thing I know I'm addicted. (so addicted I didn't realize I'd already posted about this!)

In other digital news, Askaway wasn't half bad today. Still busy busy but not so bad that I had to send out calls for help. The kids were all polite and there were even a few interesting questions. One really funny one, there was a class I guess who were doing an air band, and this group was being Diana Ross & the Supremes. This one kids wanted info on them which I sent, then s/he suddenly said 'oh I remember they turned into the Temptations and 2 of them were shot'. Riiiiiggghhtt. Sorry kid I think you've gotten confused there.

Speaking of music, Holly has an English assignment where she has to find a song, bring a recording of it and the lyrics to class & discuss the poetic devices in it. She's doing Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire".

No picture-taking, no scrapping, but I did go for a walk this morning. Going to try to get back into that routine. Otherwise things are pretty boring. Think I'll go to bed early...

This 'n That

Found this odd article, must remember for my NY trip which is definitely going to include shoe-shopping.

So this Facebook business is just too weird, I notice most of us in a certain circle are spending all our time on Facebook and none at all on a certain message board. I REALLY didn't want to get into the whole Facebook thing but that's not exactly working out and I've been impressed to find all manner of people - relatives, co-workers etc. I'm not sure how long I'll stick with it but it is fun.

Holly and I collided with each other last night and I think I broke my toe, or close to it anyway. Good thing it's sandal season! We were walking her friend Sam home at the time and we ended up staying at their house for a couple of hours and it was quite a bizarre evening. First time I've met Sam's mom...

A-M's coming up in a couple of weeks so I'm looking forward to that, she hasn't been here for quite awhile. We'll try to cram in as much stuff as we can while she's here and hope that the weather is good.

Well time to try to wake up Holly again. Greg I'll leave alone, he didn't come to bed till nearly 5 a.m.

One word answers

One Word.

Thanks Heather for the tag.

One word answers only... no explanations.

Yourself: discombobulated
Your Partner: different
Your Hair: uncombed
Your Mother: dead
Your Father: dead
Your Favorite Item: laptop
Your Dream Last Night: Facebook (yes really - oops I cheated)
Your Favorite Drink: cosmo
Your Dream Car: hybrid
Dream Home: nice
The Room You Are In: scrap
Your Fear: sickness
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: happy
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Monique
You're Not: thin
One of Your Wish List Items: flooring
The Last Thing You Did: peed
You Are Wearing: pjs
Your Favorite Weather: Fall
Your Favorite Book: interesting
Last Thing You Ate: banana
Your Life: ok
Your Mood: ennui
Your Best Friend: A-M
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: toe
Your Car: Accord
What Are You Doing At The Moment: computer
Relationship Status: married
What Is On Your TV: nothing
What Is The Weather Like: cloudy
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: yesterday
This is a new game of tag. Let me know your one word answers.

Scattergories

I saw this on somebody else's blog and thought it looked like fun:

SCATTEGORIES:
The rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up!

Your Name: Fern

Famous Singer: Frank Sinatra
4-letter word: gee hard one... f^&*
Street: French St (where my grandparents used to live in Vancouver)
Color: fuchsia
Gifts/Presents: flowers
Vehicle: Fiat
Things In Souvenir Shop: flags
Boy Name: Fred
Girl Name: Fiona
Movie Title: Free Willy
Drink: Frappucino
Occupation: Flamenco dancer
Flower: forget-me-not
Celebrity: Fergie
Magazine: Flair
US City: Ft Lauderdale
Pro Sports Team: Flames
Fruit: fig
Reason For Being Late For Work: feeling forgetful
Something You Throw Away: flattened flies
Things You Shout: See #2
Cartoon Character: Fred Flintstone

Holy cow that was hard!