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Sunday, April 05, 2009
Back Home Again
We just returned home from Alabama today and apart from the airline loosing Dianne's luggage in Calgary everything went swimmingly. We had a lovely visit with Chris & Nikki and although the weather in Alabama was a little cooler and wetter than we had been promised we had an enjoyable time exploring the place. Nothing too hectic, mind you, as there is not all that much to see there, but quite a pretty little city with some gorgeous countryside as well. We also ventured into Georgia and I had Ray Charles on my mind as our flights in and out were from Atlanta. We had to stay overnight in a hotel there last night as our flight was at 6:10 this morning and we had a high school volleyball team or something running the halls to all hours making a racket so we didn't get much sleep. But after all we made it home safely and were disappointed to still see snow on the lawn. Monday, March 30, 2009
...With My Banjo On My Knee
So, obviousley a little time has passed since our last post, but we have spent the last couple of months just working and getting through winter. It's now the end of March and still spring is nowhere in sight. We have deep piles of snow everywhere and the temperatures rarely get above zero. It seemed like a good time to get away from it all for a while and that is how we find ourselves here in Montgomery, Alabama. The temperatures are quite a bit warmer and there is no snow in sight. We are here to spend a little time visiting with Nicole and Chris and seeing what their life is like here in Alabama. We arrived on Friday morning after an all night flight via Toronto and Calgary and we spent the rest of the day resting up. On Saturday we did a little shopping and touring around the neighbourhoods looking at the interesting houses and various sights. Yesterday was Sunday and so we went to Nikki and Chris church, Fresh Annointings where we enjoyed the service and I was even able to play my sax during worship time. We then went out for an afternoon lunch with the pastor and his wife and spent some time getting to know them. Other than that we have been just relaxing around the apartment, visiting, watching movies and just chillin' out. It's kind of nice not to have much of an agenda and just spend time doing nothing. It's great not to have to go to work. We have kind of a loose schedule for the rest of the week and will mostly play it by ear until Saturday when we have to drive back to Atlanta to catch our flight home early on Sunday morning. We have booked a hotel near the airport and will check in there sometime Saturday afternoon. Our flight leaves at 6:00 am so we will have to be at the airport by 4:00 am and should arrive back home in Edmonton around 3:30 pm local time, probably to a batch of newly fallen snow. Sunday, January 25, 2009
Visit Home
We are back in the deep freeze after a few days of luxurious above zero weather. The roads were getting nice and dry with the melting during the day and now it's nothing but ice everywhere. We had a nice visit from Nicole and Christopher and their friend Pastor Fred last week. They were here for only five days and we were only able to visit with them after work in the evenings. Nonetheless, we had a chance to get together with the family and a few of Nikki's friends for a meal on Thursday night. Then they were off, their flight back to Alabama leaving at 6:30 Saturday morning. It was a short and sweet visit but it was good to see the kids again as they have not been home for two years. Saturday, December 27, 2008
Total Geek
Taking technology geekdom to a new level I sit here typing this from my living room couch on my new iPod Touch, a Christmas present from Dianne. And for a device I realy didn't think I needed or wanted, I sure have had a lot of fun playing around with this thing. It is quite an amazing piece of technology, if I do say so. We went out yesterday and bought a wireless router for the computer network so that I can now go online with not only my laptop, but also the iPod which has built in wi fi. I can now surf the Internet from anywhere there is a hotspot such as an airport or Starbucks and can make Blogger entries from anywhere. While all this is fabulous I still have yet to come up with a practical use for this. But now, at least, I have somewhere to store and listen to my meager music collection, and what may be an even better deal is that I can store videos on it and use it for business purposes to demo my wedding videos at the drop of a hat to anyone who is interested. So that may be the justfication I needed to buy this rather expensive toy. Christmas was rather quiet around the Hilton Homestead again this year. Angie, Lee, and Chris joined us for supper on Christmas eve before we went to the Christmas eve candlelight service. Then on Christmas morning we waited until Angie & Lee came over from his parents and we opened gifts and then had our Christmas turkey dinner, which was scrumptious as always. We have been taking it easy since then, just watching a few movies, doing a bit of shopping and eating more turkey. Angie & Lee flew off to Pheonix on Christmas day to spend a couple of weeks vacationing at Lee's parents place down there. We just had a couple of Chris' friends over for supper last night for more turkey. It has been so nice having all these days off, it's given us a chance to relax a bit, although I'm still chugging away on a long overdue video project. So, between doing that and playing with my new toy, I've had an enjoyable few days. Merry Christmas to all and all the best in 2009. Friday, December 19, 2008
Freezin' It Off
Cold! Real cold! I guess because we didn't ease into it gradually but just plunged into double digit minus temperatures we are in a just a wee bit of shock. Just a wee bit. We are expecting the same kind of weather for most of next week, -27 as a high. As a HIGH! AArgh! Well I guess that's what being a Canadian is all about, being able to survive in a huge walk-in freezer and love it. Is it just me or did someone change the rules? More and more these days I see people making left hand turns through an intersection from the left hand lane into the right lane. People this is illegal! Or is it? I'll have to check. Maybe they did change the rules. You have to watch them. If you are in front making the same turn, the right way, into the left hand lane and then signal to move into the right lane, sure enough here comes one of these guys scooting around the back of you doing it wrong, right into your path! Really bugs me. Sunday, December 14, 2008
Winter Wonderland?
We have been reminded once again why we hate winter here in the Frozen North and again we question why we insist on living here. The temperature has dropped to -30, well -28 to be exact but for the purpose of dramatic impact saying -30 is more...well, dramatic. So along with the snow we got last week we can officially say we are into our Alberta winter. Of course we are not used to it at all and having that extra month of great weather doesn't help, but it was sure nice. Nonetheless, it's here and there's not a thing we can do about it so we must just get on with life and wait for spring. We're getting into the Christmas mood here. The tree is up, the Christmas lights (new LED ones) twinkle outside every night on the timer. The out of town gifts and Christmas cards are mailed out and all we have left is to clean up the house, get the odd one or two things for each other and the kids and we're done. Dianne got her Christmas present a little early this year in the form of a new desk for her office which we put together yesterday. She was so envious of the nice red mahogany desk I got for my office that she decided she wanted one for herself. Hers is a little smaller as she does not have as much room in her study but it looks very nice and beats the old white desk thingy she had in there. And speaking of Christmas songs, can somebody tell me since when did "My Favourite Things" have anything to do with Christmas? I hear this song ever increasingly around this time of year and I wonder why somone thought that this song from "The Sound Of Music" was Christmasy or even Wintery. I can see "Winter Wonderland" or "Jingle Bells" as being kind of appropriate, although a bit of a stretch, but each one talks about stuff to do in winter. But talking about "dog's biting" and "bees stinging" is a long way from "visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads". Seems kind of odd, that's all. Thursday, December 04, 2008
Winter Arrives
Winter has come at last here in the frozen north. We had a small snowfall yesterday that put a nice icy glare on all the roads and the temperature dropped quite a bit. So it is finally here to stay, but we are so grateful for that extra month of mild weather with no snow. The editing suite is working quite nicely now that I have installed the upgraded software and have had a chance to get used to the changes. I just completed a wedding project and have just started the last one of the season. Hopefully I can take a little break after that and do some housekeeping projects in the next little while before the 2009 wedding season hits. We already have a wedding booked for July. However, I do need to put together a demo reel for prospective clients and also create some sort of web presence so that will be something I will be working on. So for now we are getting ready for Christmas, doing the shopping, getting the Christmas cards sent out with this year's Christmas edition of the Chronicle, which is still being written and the typical hectic rush.
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