The Hilton Chronicle

The aroma wafting through the house is heavenly as the Christmas baking nears completion. There's a stack of presents sitting in the bedroom waiting to be addressed and looking at the date I see that it is December 24th. I guess we have made it to another Christmas eve, and one I might add that doesn't seem quite as stressful as recent years. But alas, again I am working evenings tomorrow, Christmas day, and that always puts a damper on things. But otherwise I think we are ready to settle into the holiday spirit for a few hours anyway. We'll be going to the Christmas eve service at church in a couple of hours and then home to a little snack of ham on homemade buns and lots of other goodies. So as we sit around and soak in the festive mood, we'd like to wish all our faithful Chronicle readers a Merry Christmas and the best for the new year!!

Posted 2:43 PM by Jeff

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Christmas Countdown

Here we are into the last week before Christmas and all seems well. We seem to be pretty much done with our shopping which is surprisingly early. Nonetheless it feels good not to be dashing about at the last minute. We will be spending Christmas at home as usual seeing as how I have the pleasure of going to work Christmas day afternoon. We have our white Christmas here also as quite a bit of snow has fallen in the last couple of days but not enough to hamper any activities. Just enough to put that nice glare ice on at all the intersections.
As you can see at the left there is a link to the Christmas Chronicle for 2004 for anyone who didn't get the hard copy version.

Posted 5:50 PM by Jeff

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Winter Wonderland

It's been a busy week what with working every evening and trying to get the Christmas stuff done during the day. I was hoping to get more posting done than this but what can ya do? Anyway, all the outgoing Christmas packages are gone and it's just the kids to buy for now, a walk in the park (ha ha). I'll be labeling the Christmas cards like mad in the next couple of days to get them out this week. The Christmas Chronicle is set to go as well, once I make some copies.
After a couple of scary days of -25 degree weather, it warmed up to a balmy +1 today, however, with that come a bunch more wet, soggy snow, really hard to get off the driveway. Good thing it didn't last too long.
We were supposed to be at our annual work Christmas party tonight but Dianne developed quite a bad case of the flu or food poisoning or something last night and has been in bed all day so the kybosh fell on that outing.

Here's a little shot of how our new "fake " tree turned out.

Posted 9:46 PM by Jeff

Monday, December 06, 2004

Big Dump

Well I guess I spoke too soon on Friday as no sooner has I said it was mild with no snow we got a big dump and the temperatures plumetted to around -15. Sorry, my bad. Oh well, I guess we should be glad it waited this long, we could have been up to our ears in snow since mid October.
What a busy weekend! All kinds of little things including Christmas shopping, fake Christmas tree assembly and shovelling snow kept Dianne and I hopping all weekend. Now I'm back at work and able to spend a few minutes with important stuff like posting to this blog.
Canada is sending 500 observers to the Ukraine for the re-run off of the presidential election there and Paul Martin is volunteering to help Iraq with their election next month. Since when did we have a corner on the election expertice market? I guess the government is anxious to please Mr. Bush with anything as long as it doesn't involve any soldiers, armoured cars, helicopters and especially submarines.
And finally, many happy returns, Mom. Hope you had a great birthday despite the cold.

Posted 5:43 PM by Jeff

Friday, December 03, 2004

Warm Trend

The thermometer outside says +10 and there's no snow in sight. I'm wondering if I went through a time warp on my way back from Cuba to the beginning of October. But just checking the forecast now I see that we may be in for it next week as the temperatures are to drop to the -18 range and there are flurries predicted. So, although they are saying we will probably have another brown Christmas, I should still get out there and look for that new winter coat I have been needing for the last couple of years.
I've been playing around with the video editing program Adobe Premiere 5.0 in an attempt to learn how to use it well enough to build an entertaining slide presentation for Angie & Lee's wedding. So far things are looking good. I'm getting the hang of it and things are working as they should so I am inspired. I may be able to pull something off for the spring. Now I have to try and justify buying a new digital camcorder to be able to digitize our old home video stuff.
The Ukraine supreme court has ruled that the election run off in that country is invalid and must be redone, much to the joy of the Yushchenko backers. Maybe this time they will do it properly and I guess Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew offered Canada's help in efforts to ensure that voting is conducted in a legitimate manner. "Canada will do everything it can to assist in that election," Pettigrew said. "We will want to send a significant number of observers." Maybe they should send a delegation from Florida as well, for good measure.
And IBM has announced that it is unloading it's PC computer business, not to American interests but to the Chinese. It seems IBM is lagging behind fat cat PC manufacturers like Dell and HP but PCs are no longer IBM's strong suit in today's throw away technology industry. Still, its interesting to see how the face of the industry is changing especially when power houses like Big Blue are finding their futures off shore.

Posted 3:09 PM by Jeff

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

You're Welcome, I'm Sure

I guess it's better late than never but three years is a little long as President Bush thanked Canadians for their hospitality during the 9/11 crisis. You're welcome George, but I think that the people of Nova Scotia and the rest of Eastern Canada have felt the gratitude of the American people for some time now. Many a lifelong freindship was kindlled between the passengers of the grounded aircraft and their hosts who willingly opened their homes during those tense days. Regardless of any bureaucratic praise from the chief, I like to think that we Canadaians are just naturally hospitable and would have done the same for anybody.

Posted 10:01 PM by Jeff

CBC News: Author Pierre Berton dies at 84

Another prominent Canadian has left the building with the death of Pierre Berton. Of all the national heroes, if one can call them that, Berton was one of the biggest, at least in my mind. Most of what I know about Canadian histeory comes from watching "The National Dream" on CBC years ago. (I would love to see that series out on DVD, hint, hint CBC) While in Cuba, we learned that the Cubans have many national heroes who they pay homage to in a big way and I got to wondering who, in this country, would be of comprable stature. Immediately one of the names that came to mind was Pierre Berton. He will be missed.

Posted 9:52 PM by Jeff

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