...and their "new" grandkid

Grandpa, Grandma, and some grandkids

Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Danaka, and Mitch

Grandpa Johnson and Grandma Schindel

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving to all my American friends. If you're one of my friends and you're American, be assured I have been thinking about you today.

BTW, this picture is of the McCrae memorial at Eileen Donan Castle in Scotland. It lists the McCraes who died in WWI and on the bottom it says:

We are the dead, short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunsets glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Here's my Grandpa. He would be turning 80 today.

Attention! Attention!

The young gentleman wishes to be introduced. This is my little brother Anders. He's the 2006 model, best we could find. Best, in fact, of all the models this year.
















Now that he's introduced, I'll just say I probably won't be updating much for a while. Until things get sorted out and I stop falling apart. However long that takes. I hope it's not another year and a half again.

Oh Canada!

Happy Canada day! I know it's rather late, but I haven't had a chance to post until now. Yesterday I saw an older gent wearing a shirt that said "I'm not only perfect, I'm Canadian!"

My family (minus Rauchelle because she was working) and I drove into town to watch the parade with a "few" of our friends. Just two other families adding up to 6 parents and 17 kids. We had fun. Before the parade started we were entertained by a group of cloggers dancing to a variety of music styles...celtic, North American fiddle, country ("going once, going twice, I'm sold to the lady in the second row...blonde hair, blue eyes and I'm about to bid my heart goodbye!"), honky-tonk, and...African! The lady calling out all the steps was so amusing, the way she matched her voice and the timing of her words to the music.

One thing I always wonder about when Canada Day and the parade comes along is, Why are we so quiet and undemonstrative? Maybe it's just here in my hometown, but though everyone turns out for the parade they're pretty quiet as it marches past.

Anyhow, I'm generally proud to be Canadian.

A tramp down to the beach

I like to 'bush-wack', so I take the path-less route down to the beach. Gives me the best of two worlds: the woods and the ocean. But I think I like the woods best.

My beach is rocky as far out as you care to walk. Funny, because my house is just across the hi-way and sits on a lot that is 40 feet deep of sand. Nice beach sand. Maybe it used to be the beach?

There aren't usually starfish on this beach, but every once in a while you'll find one. One time the beach was just covered in them. Mostly just purple and pink ones like the one in the picture.



If you walk along far enough you just might find a very small sandy patch like this one. I sat here thinking about everything and nothing, watching the pattern of sand flowing from my hand to my bare foot until rain began to fall. Fortunately some friends of my parents were staying in their RV at the campground that day, so I hung out with them until the rain stopped. They told me all about their recent trip to Israel, I told them a little about Morocco, and some how they ended up giving me all sorts of advice on dating and boys. *grin* One of their biggest complaints seemed to be that most of the guys who woo their future wives on the dance floor quit dancing once they get married. So guys? Go ahead and dance in the kitchen when she wasn't quite expecting it. I saw an older couple recently who were dancing on the beach.

If any of you tall people ever wondered what the view was like from down here, well, here it is. Dad used to laugh at me because I would insist on blowing out the candles mounted on the wall myself, but I had to climb into the window in order to do it. Stools wouldn't be quite high enough. *grin* Amazingly, though, my feet do reach all the way to the ground!

Four Dolls Held Hostage and Tortured. Police Suspect Foul Play

Jane Doe #1























Shelly






















Jane Doe #2























Sam

INTRODUCING...

The one and only Jen Miller!

This music (particularly the song "Hold On") never fails to make me think of Scotland. She's gonna be famous someday.

left to right: Saida, Jen and Amal in Essaouira.

Scotland

Welcome to Scotland! On the right we have a picture of Edinburgh that DOESN'T feature the castle, though it can be seen in the background. I never got much closer to the castle than this. I came more to check out the art galleries.

Below we have Eileen Donan castle which unfortunatly was closed while we were in that part of the world. Still, we did get to walk around the outside. John McCrae was a Canadian, but I don't recall ever seeing

postcards here with his "In Flanders Field" poem. I found them in the gift shop for the castle. Apparently Eileen Donan is in McCrae clan territory and they appear to be proud of their poet. There's also a Clan McCrae memorial beside the castle.

Morocscotlanders

Proof that we actually were in Marrakech.

Moving clockwise from the bottom left-hand corner: Laura, DW, Adam, me, Stefan, Mike, Jessi, Jen, Lori, Hillary