Caching at Weaselhead

We spent today geocaching at Weaselhead Flats. We'd never been to this park before, but we enjoyed what we saw. Jon got to experience some chickadees close up - using a dog kibble as bait. And the ice from the river and reservoir was beautiful, if a little bit treacherous. The ice was to Jon's advantage since it allowed Patches to pull him up the hills and along the flats.

The caching itself was good, its rare that we have such a successful day. But with the lack of snow things were easy to spot, even the micros were no match for us today!

I've moved on...

Friday night is my night at home to do whatever - after I walk the dog of course (3 hours today, almost a dog walking record). This evening I worked on some of my "I can make it cheaper than I can buy it projects". Since I got a new sewing machine for Christmas, lots of these projects involve sewing. After making several new stuff sacks, and some really great travel pillows, I've moved on to more complicated projects.

I've wanted a macabi skirt since I saw them online a couple years ago. However, I wasn't able to justify the $75 USD plus shipping then and I still can't. I was very excited when Ali took the plunge and purchased one, so I could check it out before deciding I really needed one. After looking at it, I decide that I could make something similar at about half the cost. With the help of the folks at Textile Outfitters and a pattern I bought at Fabric Land, I think I've got it.

The finished product is a beautiful orange-red color. It doesn't have all the features of the macabi skirt - its not magically going to convert to "pants" and it doesn't have "self-draining pockets" (by that they mean mesh). And at the moment it doesn't shorten up, but that can always be added on later. But the basics are there.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my skirt. It should do the trick for traveling, canoeing and camping. I'll hopefully get to "field test" it for all those purposes over the summer, but for now its pretty comfortable over my merino long-undies for lounging around.

My next project I think will be a new pair of fleece pants for canoeing/camping, and then a new backpacking tarp.

Vino Tinto

In Ghana, you can only buy wine in boxes and although we never drank any, the quality must be pretty poor since we often saw people mixing it with coca-cola before drinking. We can only hope that our home brew doesn't need the same preparation to make it drinkable.

Today was day 25 in the wine making world, Jon's first brew is about halfway to being usable, if not drinkable. I bought him a wine kit for Christmas and he is happily brewing up a Pinot Noir in our spare bedroom.

We spent the evening transferring wine between the glass carboy and the plastic fermenter for the final stages of what-ever-it-does before bottling in a week or so.

In about four weeks we'll be able to sample the product. If the first bottle doesn't taste good, we'll have about 30 more to try. I'm sure that the more we consume, the better its going to get.

Snowshoeing

Jon and I spent the day snowshoeing in Kananaskis. We hiked up to Chester Lake and then did a quick loop around the Hogarth Lakes. Beautiful scenery, decent weather, very nice all in all. Even Patches seemed to enjoy himself.

View heading up the trail

Back into the flats.

Snow covered peaks.

Jonny on the trail.

Jenny and Patches

Sun behind the hills.

Snow, everywhere.

Mountains around the lake

Across the lake

Jonny and Patches taking a break

Snow-doos.

Patches, looking small and cute.

Sun on the way down

More beautiful mountains

Last night found us at our favorite late night boardgames store purchasing the card version of Settlers of Catan. We have become mildly addicted to the board game, but since there are only two of us in our house (Patches hasn't learned how to play yet) we were thrilled to find the two person version with cards.

After a two hour game (which Jon won) we are definitely just as hooked! Its close enough to the board game to be familiar but has a lot of new options so you don't feel like you're playing the same game only with less friends.

If you

1. like playing boardgames with your spouse
2. like Settlers
3. have an extra $24 in your pocket
4. have accepted the fact that by purchasing two person games at 8pm on a Wednesday night you might be considered weird by some people

you should give it a try.

How it All Changes

We received amazing news yesterday - monthly visits to the doctor and minor tests are all that are going to be required of Jon for the next two years. We're ecstatic, there could be nothing better at this point.

The good news does bring reality back to us though. We can no longer travel for extended periods - but that's a small price to pay for Jon's health. We tell ourselves we can always go on short trips or maybe in two years. But if there is one thing that this has taught us, it's that plans will always get changed.

Disappointing as postponing our trip is, it just allows us to follow a different path for now. We've still got each other and another 8 months to enjoy here in Calgary before we have to decide anything. We can experience something else, which, while not as exotic as south America, might be just as wonderful.

Have you been to GoogleEarth lately? Since the middle of december, they've been partnering with Panoramio to include pictures of locations right in the display window.

Its pretty cool, now you can upload your photos (for free at Panoramio) and people can visit your site and see exactly where you took that photo. I think its got a lot of potential for traveling pics.

The Plan

Jon and I are constantly planning out things. Mostly, what are we going to do when I graduate so that we're not stuck working boring jobs and commuting in traffic.

We've come up with many plans over the last 6 months, and which one we're going to do changes on a daily basis. This morning, while eating breakfast, we came up with the ideal plan. We simply need to save $1 000 000 (or more) before we are 40, invest it wisely as we make it and then move somewhere really really cheap (like India). According to the ING goal calculator, that's just under $5000 a month that needs to go into savings (at 3.5% interest rate).

Thats only 15 more years of a boring (but very high paying) job or one not-even-that-lucky lottery ticket!

The End Is In Sight, If You Have a Pair of Binnoculars

I started back at school this week, for what should hopefully be the last semester of my Master's. Barring any complete disasters, I should be done no later than the end of August (of course, I will actually have to work for this to happen). Its still a long way off, but much closer than the original finishing date of "sometime, hopefully in the next 2 to 2 1/2 years, maybe".

The time between now and then is going to be enjoyable. I've got lots of fun ideas for things to do before I finish up here, but its still exciting to look forward to what I might be able to do once done being a student (for now)!

Laser Pointers and Patches

It began innocently enough with Patches chasing after a reflection from my father in-law's (Gord's) watch when he was visiting at the beginning of the December. A few weeks later, Patches received a brand new laser pointer in the mail. And now he's obsessed.

For Gord's (and anyone else's) viewing pleasure, I've loaded some videos of him here (a little grainy but still ok). They are better without the sound (or you have to listen to Jon and I laughing and talking).

We think its quite funny, but worry about the long term effects on Patches' mental health. He's not that stable to start with.

Good News!

We met with Jon's doctor yesterday to go over some tests that he had done before Christmas and, here's the good news, the preliminary results suggest that the cancer hasn't spread and may have totally been removed! This is fantastic news, and while it doesn't mean we're in the clear (we still have to meet with some more specialists), it is a step in a very positive direction!!

Happy Birthday Patchers!

Its also Patches' birthday today - he's now 2 years old. Hard to believe the little guy is no longer a puppy.

Happy New Years!

Well, here we are, in 2007. We've made it through 2006 which, although it had a rocky start (think breadmaker), treated us well. I'm looking forward to the next 12 months now. We haven't made any solid plans for 2007, but hopefully the following year will include

• Me finishing my thesis, in a reasonable amount of time
• A clean bill of health for Jon
• Travel
• And lots more!

I haven't made any resolutions for the new year. I'm just going to enjoy what I'm given and be happy with what we've got.