Brown Belt

Kevin has a Level III Brown Belt in karate.

Beethovan

Derek gave me this for Christmas. I was coming out of my room first thing Christmas morning in the dark and he says "Don't trip over your present." I looked down and sitting on the floor, just outside my room was this dog. It scared the living daylights out of me. I still jump when I walk into a room and it is staring at me.

Kevin

Today is the day Kevin's cast comes off. Woo hoo! His plan is to have a shower immediately after, and tonight we are going in the hot tub. Actually, it was 25 years ago today that I went home with a cast on.

The King Lives!

I can't take credit for the picture. I didn't bring my camera! However, Elvis did entertain us at our staff party.

Oh Tanenbaum

We put our tree up this weekend

It's Party Time

All dressed up and ready to party.

The Thinker

Well, this is my version of the Thinker.

Peek-A-Boo

I surprised Mark with this shot when he was trying to swivel the stool around.

The Dreamer

Is he dreaming about Christmas morning?

Best Friends

Smudge adores Kevin. Every morning she rushes into Kevin's room to wake him up. Thank you to David for doing the touch-ups. Sorry about the shadow, but that will be resolved once I have the proper lighting. I see that Kevin's face looks washed out. However that must be a flaw with the website because in all the programs for viewing on the computer he has good skin tone.

There's No Stopping Me Now

Pity the poor children. I'm just a picture taking fool now.

Merry Christmas

Ok, so we've got 2 weeks to go ... just trying to beat the rush.

Winter Wonderland

Winter has arrived in Thunder Bay. It started snowing yesterday when Jason and Jenn moved to BC and it's been snowing all day today. This reminds me of the story of Demeter and Persephone.
Demeter was the Greek Goddess of the Harvest. In the beginning there was no separation of seasons, just never ending good crops. However when her daughter Persephone was abducted and taken to the underwold by Hades, Demeter was distraught with grief and refused to nourish the earth. Before Hades reluctantly returned Persephone to her mother, she had eaten 6 pomegranate seeds. Because of this she is destined to return to the underworld for 6 months every year. At this time Demeter is unhappy and does not nourish the earth. That is when we have winter.

What Happened Here?

We arrived home about 20 minutes ago and as you can see, Kevin is on crutches. He cracked a bone in his foot. They put a splint on temporarily. The fracture clinic will call us tomorrow (actually later today) for him to come in and get an upgrade.

Meow

I guess I should say that this is our cat Smudge, affectionately known as 'psycho cat'.

Happy Halloween

These are my little hooligans.

Field of Dreams

Mmmmm, Chocolate

Today is a co-workers birthday, so last night I baked her a cake. It's been many years since I've decorated a cake, so I'm a little out of practice.

My Angels

Jason & Jenn

Thanksgiving

It's not often that I get all my children together under one roof. I had to take advantage of that today. Jason and Jenn are moving to BC in December so I don't know when all my children will be together again for a photo op. Here is one of today's pics. I'll be posting more over the next few days.

You Lookin' At Me?

Autumn Gold

More Fall Colors

Is this starting to remind anyone of kayaks?

Bought.

I...

What...

Guess...

More Fall Color

I wish this tree was on my property. It was gorgeous before the leaves fell off.

Fall

This is the view from my living room window. I'm hoping to take the same shot each season. Then I will post them all together.

Joys of Country Living

It's amazing what you see when you live in the country. This eagle was about 6 km from home, resting in a tree along the side of the highway.

Weeeeee!

This was taken the weekend Jason and Jenn came out to camp. Looks like Kevin is having a great time.

Feeding The Birds

In less than 5 minutes Kevin and Mark had the Chickadees eating from their hands.

Dinner Is Served

Jason and Jenn cooked my birthday dinner. Yummy.

Relaxing at the Docks

They spent a lot of time feeding the ducks.

If A Tree Falls In The Forest...

We all heard this dead tree hit the ground.

Seagull

I don't like seagulls (aka shithawks). However I do like this picture. I took this while the kids were feeding the ducks.

Happy Birthday To Me

My birthday was Saturday. We celebrated on Friday with cake (made by Mark) and gifts. My mom gave me a gift card from Future Shop. (I'll figure out what to buy tomorrow.) Derek gave me Tetris for the Nintendo DS. Mark spent several days making me a birthday banner (check out my mom's blog), a Caramilk bar, a bottle of diet Pepsi and a book of chore coupons. Jason and Jenn gave me a wind chime for camp (pictured above). Jason (and Jenn) cooked all day and did the dishes on my birthday. Kevin is going to serve me breakfast in bead next weekend. It was a really great weekend (at least for me it was). If we could have had a campfire it would have been perfect, but there was a fire ban on this weekend.

Full Harvest Moon

Last night (after the storm) was a "Full Harvest Moon". I had the settings at f8, shutter speed 1/1600 and ISO 400. I didn't crop this picture at all. It is also the second closest perigee of the year (357,175 km). The closest was back in February (356,884 km). Next month is the "Hunter's Moon" at the third closest perigee of the year (357,410 km). (November's full moon is called a Beaver Moon. Where do they get these names?) If you want to learn more about upcoming celestial events, check out this website http://www.skyscapes.com/SkyInfo/upcomingcelestialevents.htm
(Dave - I should have bought your tripod off you when I had the chance.)

The Storm

A storm rolled in tonight. The first picture is of just that. I'm almost embarrased to put the second picture in. But with a little practice I should be able to take better lightning pictures.

Norm

Meet Norm the gnome, our new camp resident. (courtesy of Derek)

Female Mallards

Once again we went to camp this weekend. These are two of my favorite photos. I think they are pretty good. Dave, what is your assessment?

Split Rock Lighthouse

We are heading out to camp soon so I won't be posting for a few days. Here is one last shot from our trip to Duluth. We stopped at Split Rock Lighthouse on the way home. It is 187 km sw of here on Highway 61. This is one view from the lighthouse. I wasn't anyplace where I could get a good shot of the lighthouse itself. Maybe on our next trip.

Duck

I don't know what species this duck is, but he/she was at the aquarium.