Making Feb. 1 the Offical Start to My New Year

I made the usual list of goals to kick of 2010. I went so far as to set Immediate, Mid and Long Terms goals for myself.

With January coming to a close, I must say I am disappointed with the direction things have taken!

One of my short term goals was to get rolling with the remainder of our renovation, hoping that we could have our upstairs bathrooms redone before spring, and the new garage and studio space finished (at least the exterior) by July 1. I set these dates because I didn't want one to interfere with the other, and more importantly because I wanted things to be in place for a party the July long weekend.


You see, Daryl and I will be celebrating 25 years of marriage this year, and I want to have a party :) His parents are celebrating 50 years, so we actually were planning a combined party weekend. Until someone decided to ask the Sr. Burd's for an invitation list. After a bit of mulling it over, they have let us know they do not want a party. Period. :(

We had the contractor that we hired to renovate the basement quote the baths. His quote came in on the high side. Now, if he had been 50% higher than expected we probably would have said, okay, let's get this ball rolling. But he wasn't. His price is between 75% and 100% higher than we were budgeting and expecting. WOW. I don't think the features that I was requesting are really $500 per square foot. Of course I really won't know until I get another quote, but that process will certainly delay my timeline, and make it more or less impossible to do both projects this year, even if I could find the money.

So no reno + unwilling participants = no party.

Another of my longer term goals for this year is to participate in a photography workshop in Alaska this summer. It will require both $ and a level of fitness that I haven't had for a few years ;-). So to meet that goal I am trying to get fit. D gave me a trial at a personal trainer as a gift for Christmas. I had my first session yesterday, and it is a great feeling to be exercising and looking for muscles under all this flab. I am really surprised that I am not at all sore today, and that has me questioning whether I could do more than what the trainer thinks I can. Once again, this service is much more expensive than I had really thought it would be, and so I am again left trying to decide if this is the right path. I have two sessions next week, and then signed up for a 6 week strength class. February will be my month of fitness trials.

There is one short term goal that I made for myself, that I will finish in January. Reworking annmcraephotography.ca is almost finished. A few final touches and I will be ready to start the advertising process to generate business this summer sports season.

So, with January almost done, and my hopes for new baths, a garage and a party all but foiled, I say move along. February 1 can be the start of my new year.

A Walk along the Golf Course

It has warmed up. About -10C at 9 a.m. so we got our new winter clothes out and took the dog for a walk. Headed down the hill to our new favorite walk along River Ridge Golf Course. We were the first humans to make footprints on that path since the snow fell, but certainly not the first beings. The path was full of scents for Kelso and his ears were perked the whole way, waiting for 'something' to run out of the surrounding bush.



Walking in 6 inches of powder snow is hard! Really hard. I was gobsmacked by the difficulty of moving my feet. The clothes are great - neither of us were cold, in fact when I got back into the house I was actually sweating.

Despite the multitude of animal tracks, ranging from very small to really quite large, the only mammal that we saw was a coyote. She ran across the river as we were coming down the path. I didn't have time to get the 300mm onto the camera body before she was across and into the bushes on the other side.

Poor dog needed booties! He had huge ice balls in the pads of his feet and had to stop several times to try to remove them. He was successful with his front feet, but not his back and I actually had to let him off his leash so he could run up the hill, his traction was so bad at the end of the walk.

Spent yesterday Christmas shopping and I was pretty dang successful. Finished shopping for 2/3 nephews, 1/1 nieces, 1/2 sons, 1/1 husbands, and of course we were finished for 1/1 daughters a while ago. Now I have a week to get my head around gifts for parents, in laws and two boys. Should be able to manage that!

I guess I should figure out where to put the Christmas tree this year as my next task.

December 14 Happy Birthday Alex

We had a great weekend, starting with dinner at for the Belec and Co. Christmas Party. Amazing, but honestly I have never had a meal with so much (awesome) meat and so few vegetables.

Saturday I helped at HELP PORTRAIT Edmonton, and was awed by the experience.

Saturday night the SWU 94s played KC 93s at U18 indoor soccer, and played amazingly well. They have not played with intensity or passion like this in a while so this was very nice to see, and very exciting. Got the blood pumping for sure.

Edmonton set new temperature records, the coldest it has ever been on these dates. Sunday it was the coldest place in North America and the second coldest place on earth.

Despite the cold, we met mom, dad, Rob, Heather and Tori for dinner to celebrate Alex's and Dad's birthdays. The meal was good, the company great. Tori has grown quite a bit, and it is looking more and more like I will really be the runt of the family.

Tori is having surgery today, and we are hoping all goes well. And my thoughts are also with my boss, who is having hip replacement surgery today.

In honor of Alex's birthday I have made Sugar and Spice cookies. What better way to spend the daylight hours on a brutally cold December day?

Southwest United 1994 Boys Provincial Champions!

The boys had a great season, with 16 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie. They made great strides as players and came together as a team. This weekend was provincials, in Calgary.

The weather sucked, rainy, cold, cloudy, windy. The fields sucked - clover, not grass. Puddles. Standing water and actual mud puddles.

The boys played Calgary II on Friday night and came away with a 2 - 0 victory, easily handled Ft. Mac Saturday (6 - 0), played West Warriors (Edmonton II) this morning and won that 3 - 1, and finished the tournament by playing Calgary I to a 1 - 0 result.

Congratulations, boys and coaches. Well done!

A Most Spectacular Fall

I am a fairly clumsy person. If you know me you know that. Two weeks ago yesterday, I was barely awake, and quite possibly pinging, when the carpet guys arrived to do Colin's room. They didn't like Kelso so I got up to get the dog, tripped over either my camera bag, a USB cord or the battery that was lying in the middle of the floor. In any case, I knew I was falling, but there was a chair right beside me, so I grabbed it. Thought I would catch myself. Instead, I continued falling and dragged the chair over as well. Slid across the hardwood floor until the wall stopped my head from going any further. The first intense pain was my face and my thumb. And then I realized I had badly bruised my left forearm and right thigh. How? I don't know. The bruise on my thigh was epic! At first it had a very phallic look to it, but it grew to be more watermelon like. If you know me you know my thighs are not small, so a bruise that covers my whole thigh, all the way around, is big! The bruise is mostly gone, but there is this hard piece in the center of it, getting smaller, but still there and occasionally still sore. Weird thing is that my thumb is still very swollen and very sore.

In any case, a fall like this highlights the fact that I am not as young as I used to be. No more picking myself up and dusting off, and getting right back to what I was doing.

We are still waiting for the final installations downstairs - cupboards, sinks and counter tops are supposed to be here Monday. Fingers crossed.

Why does everything take so long, jaques?

So the painters arrived Tuesday afternoon and spent Tuesday through Friday prepping! Gawd! I just wanted to grab the brush and roller and do it myself! By Saturday the back portion was finished, and we were able to install the new washer dryer! (Thanks mom and dad), get much laundry done, and get the shelving set up for the pantry.
We had bought IKEA 24" wide pantries, which would have been beautiful. But once the space was finished, it was 2" too short for their 80" of height, and modifying them would probably have ruined them. So they went back to IKEA, and we replaced them with Bestra units. 75" tall, 48" wide, but only 15" deep. Now, will this cause us grief, or to be less pack-rat-ish?

And, I just really want to test this new SmugMug feature!

w00t! Isn't that the coolest!

Happy Birthday to DRB today too! Bike ride time!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Quiet Day. Started with a bike ride bright and early, since we don't have to herd kids to school these days. You would think that an early ride at the end of June would be good - avoid the midday heat. Well, I nearly froze! It was about 9C at 8 a.m. today, with a light drizzle and a not so light wind. We changed the route up a bit - went Windermere Drive to Ellerslie, then in through Langdale and Ambleside and then home. Not sure if that is a different distance than our usual or not. After the ride, DRB went to the office and I puttered around, working on photos, cleaning house. Cleaned the locker room of evidence of Ginger, so we can now figure out if Spot is destined for the same fate or not. CB and KT both worked, Alex had training with Benfica. We had fajitas for supper, and I just finished work.

Not really a big party for the anniversary! But a good day, without trouble or strife. What more is there to ask for!

On a different note, the painters did not show up today. We are so danged close to being finished, these sorts of delays are getting to me. I am planning, in detail, all the finishing touches, and I am growing weary of waiting!