Trip Home part 3

So the next day was not only our longest day of driving, I had to stop every hour to take a picture, or go to a gift shop, or go to the bathroom. I was driving us both crazy. So it took FOREVER.
First we had to stop at White River. I have a picture of me when I was 10 sitting in front of the sign that has a big thermometer stating that White River was the coldest place in Canada at -72C. When I don't know. I have a picture of me when I was 20 in front of the same sign, but this time it said the second coldest place in Canada. So I had to get a picture in front of the same sign, but this time it didn't even say anything about being the coldest anything. And the gift shop wasn't anywhere near as nice as I remembered it.

I am including some scenic shots from the hourly stops we made to take pictures.

We stopped in Thunder Bay and of coarse had to go to the Terry Fox Memorial. When Terry Fox had to stop his run across Canada because his cancer came back, he was just outside of Thunder Bay.
We finally made it to our campsite just outside of Dryden. It was at Sandbar Lake. Our site was perfect, it actually had steps up to a little grassy area where our tent was.

Trip Home part 2

So after we took the ferry across to Manitoulin Island, we drove up to a little town called Espanola. There we stopped at a little fish and chip stand. I love stopping for fries in Ontario, they have these little fry stands on the side of the road where the make fresh cut fries, then you can add whatever toppings you want, like salt and vinegar. Jeff had never been to one of these places before, so we stopped, Bailey could sit outside with us, and the guy gave us a bowl of water for Bailey. It was great:)
We kept going and just outside of Sault St. Marie we saw a little baby bear on the side of the road. No obvious sign of the mommy bear, so we kept going without a picture.
Then we got into Lake Superior Provincial Park. The scenery was beautiful. We got up to the far end of the park and camped at Rabbit Blanket lake.
Well, earlier in the day I was driving and I accidentally ran over a chipmunk. It wasn't on purpose, it ran out in front of the car and I didn't even have time to swerve. I felt it crunch under both tires, and then when I looked in my rear view mirror I saw it bouncing down the highway. We had to pull over and have a moment.(see picture below) When we set up our campsite, there were little chipmunks everywhere. They were trying to steal Bailey's food, and Bailey would chase them into the trees. So we had to put a little bear bell on Bailey so we could keep track of him. Then we even had to resort to putting Bailey into the tent. He was so funny, he would still try to chase the chipmunks, but he would just run into the tent wall. Well one of the chipmunks was plotting how to get the food. It stopped at the edge of our campsite and stared at me, as if to say "Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." Silly little chipmunks.
It was a nice little campground and we even found time to go swimming in the lake.

Trip home

We left Lexington on Saturday morning the 28th of July. We were sad to leave and it was hard to go.
we had to make it to my Grandma's that day, so we drove to Port Huron Michigan. We had to stop on the American side first to "export" our vehicle. After all the stress we went through getting our papers sent in ahead of time, it was not that stressful. We stood in line and watched other people get yelled at for things like going to the bathroom and who knows what else. Then when it was our turn, they just photocopied our title and let us go. I even had to tell them I needed to give up my TN. Then we get to the Canadian side. We walked into the building and they said, "oh well welcome back, we're glad to have you!". No problems there.
Then we went to my Grandma's house. Grandma was waiting for us, and we had pizza for dinner. When we were kids Grandma would always use us as an excuse to get pizza, because she liked it and Grandpa didn't.
Grandma really enjoyed Bailey, and he loved her too, I think he especially loved the table scraps. Now Grandma is getting up there, and she really can't cook much anymore, so when someone is there to help her, she wants to cook. So the next morning I was up at 6am with Grandma starting a roast, making eggs for breakfast, and trying to get Jeff out of bed to help me:)
This is a picture of the part of Ontario where my Grandma lives.
That day we went on to Owen Sound to have supper with my cousins on my mom's side. That was fun:) There were new babies to meet, and lots of catching up to do. And Jeff had to meet my cousins still. And that area is so pretty.
After supper we drove up to Tobermory to spend the night. We were booked on the ferry for the next morning. So we walked around the town a bit, got some ice cream, and checked into our hotel for the night. Tobermory was very beautiful. You really felt like you were in a small oceanside town.
The ferry ride takes about two hours. We had to sit on the promenade deck with Bailey, as that was the ony place you could have dogs. The views were amazing, we got some good pics:)

Saskatoon

We are in Saskatoon. We are working on the house, our moving truck gets here on Tuesday!!! We will write a much more informative blog later. For now just know that we are here.

Green Tomatoes

I love Fried Green Tomatoes. Not just the movie, but the food. Living down here, I have gotten pretty good at making them too. On Saturday morning I went to the farmers market and bought some good green tomatoes, and that night we went to a Canada Day / 4th of July party at my friends house. I made a nice little Canada day cake (I'll post the picture later). We had a little BBQ, and then later on came the tomatoes. You cut the tomatoes nice and thin, dip them in egg, then batter them in Jiffy corn muffin mix, you can add some sugar, and if you want salt and pepper. Then fry them in olive oil (as Dana says "ol"). I like to eat them with apple cider vinegar. Some people eat them with ketchup, although other people think that's blasphemous. Jeff and I had them again today too. When we get home we will have to plant some tomatoes in our yard. I don't think the stores in Saskatoon will have a whole display area of green tomatoes in the summers like the stores do here.

Possesion Date

Today is our possesion date. So we now officially own our home. It doesn't really feel that different, mainly because we are not there, but also because I've had a key to the house since I was in Saskatoon a few weeks ago. But it's still a special day. And it's Canada Day!!

Clarify

Just to clarify, it is Karen that will be home this week, not Jeff. He can't come:(

Coming Home

Well, I will be home on Wednesday this week. Let me know if you want to get together. I'm all stressed out because I've never bought a house before, I and really don't know what I need to do! And I'm only there from Wed to Wed, so I don't have much time to figure it out!
I am looking forward to going to the riverbank, maybe stopping by a pool, going to Amigo's, Saskatoon Asian, oh there are so many places. And I get to see my new house in person. That will be fun!
Message me on facebook or call me at my dad's. See you in a few days!

Hockey

We're watching the game right now. And what a good game it is. I'm fairly indifferent to Ottawa, but they are a Canadian team that I will root for, unlike Calgary. I am an Edmonton fan, not a Calgary fan and that's the way it always will be. Anyway, I always thought the Ducks were a joke team named after a movie. I mean come on, the ducks? So of course I would root for the Senators.

WE have been hockey deprived while living down here. The games are on a cable channel you have to sign up for special, and I never know when the playoff games are. Do they advertise them, no. I've been reading all these articles on canoe.ca and canada.com about how the hockey rating in the US aren't as high this year. Well when there are no commercials, no reminders, then you don't know that the game is actually going to be on. And just like last year, NBC only shows the last couple games of the series. I really don't think the first two games were on NBC, I tried to figure out when they were on, and I couldn't find them. I finally found that NBC would show games 3-7. It drives me crazy. I miss CBC. I can't wait to be in the know again.


And while I'm at it, it really disappoints me when people in the media, like a certain Saskatoon radio personalities, say things like, well they lost the first two games, looks likes that's it for the Senators. You know, they are still in it, as they proved tonight, and maybe if people would back them up as Canada's team and not poo-poo them because historically if you loose the first two games you loose the series, well maybe they would play better knowing everyone is still behind them.

Garage Sale

This weekend is the neighborhood garage sale. So since we are moving we are going to participate. It's kind hard going through your house figuring out what to sell. Hopefully it goes well.

House

We just bought our first house. We will be moving home in late July to early August:) 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1180 sq. feet, full basement.

Saskatoon

Hi it's Karen here. Once again Blogger won't let me log in under my own user name. I will be in Saskatoon from June 13-20. I will be busy visiting with family and getting everything ready for our move. But please call me and maybe we can go for coffee, drinks, lunch or dinner:) I will be at my dad's, 374-4658.

House Shopping

So we both have jobs in Saskatoon starting in August, so we are trying to buy a house. With the way the Saskatoon market is right now, houses are selling 1-3 days after being listed, they are selling for like 30,000 more than asking price, and the average price of a house went up 20,000 in the month of April alone. So we are a little stressed about it. So what we have to do is look at pictures online, tell our realtor what we think we like, send our parents to look at the house and then decide if we want to make an offer or not. We made an offer on one house, it was listed for 219,000, we offered 255,000, and it sold for 277,000. So we didn't get it. Yesterday we get a phone call from Jeff's parents about a house, and we had two hours to decide if we wanted to make an offer or not as they were accepting offers until 6pm. We didn't go for it that time. So really, this is not a fun house shopping experience at all. I am soooooo stressed out about it, it's driving me CRAZY!! But something will come up and in the end we will have a house, and we will move home and all will be right with the world again:)

May Long

I am so jealous of everyone back home. I'm reading on facebook about all of you going to the lake and such. Well it's not even the long weekend here in the States. Next weekend is memorial day weekend, and I work on the Saturday night. So once again, no May long weekend for me!!!

Natural Bridge

Last weekend we went hiking at the Natural Bridge State Park. It's a pretty steep climb up, but the view from the top is definitely worth it. This is a picture taken from the bridge of the Lovers Leap ledge, which we continued to walk out to.

This is the actual bridge.


This is us on Lovers Leap.

Kentucky in Spring

We went for a drive and took some pictures of the horse farms. This is why people say Kentucky is so pretty.


This is the time of year when all the baby horses are out, and they can't even stand straight on their legs yet.



These are Bradford Pear trees. They bloom white flowers for about a week or two before their leaves come out.

Bailey's new hat

I got Bailey a new hat. He loves it. When we put it on him, he tried to paw it off, then he just stood still, and then he laid down.

Duma

Many of you will remember my cat Duma. We got Duma in 1990 when we still lived in Illinois. We moved to Saskatoon with him, and he's been a huge part of all of our lives for 17 years. Duma has always been a little scardy cat, it was only in the last few years that he would venture outside to the garden, but that was as far as he would go. Some of you may have only seen him running away from you, because he didn't like strangers.

Duma has been sick for the last few years, and it's gotten worse in the last few months. So last week my Dad took Duma to the vet to be put down. It was a very sad day for our family. Duma is in kitty heaven now, with lots of people to pet him, and stretch him, and give him lots of cat nip to roll in, and I'm sure he's not scared anymore.

Our other cat Walter is a little lonely. He is craving attention, poor little guy. They didn't like each other the first time they met, but then they became best buddies.

Montreal Game

So Tim came down for a weekend and we went up to Columbus to see the Montreal Candiens play. It was a very exciting game, and they broke their loosing streak and won the game!!! IF you go to my brothers blog you can get a more complete rundown of the game, and some of the people at the game. We were so surprised by just how many Candiens fans there were there. I took some pictures of them to show you. I would say there were almost as many Candiens fans in Columbus as there were Blue Jackets fans.

Indy

Look at this little guy. Don't you just want to pick him up and hug him? Well who wouldn't really. I can't wait until I live closer so I can see him more.

Blogs you should read

This is Karen, I can't sign in under my own name for some reason, so I'm using Jeff's account. My brother has been busy blogging about his trip down here last weekend, so you should all read about it. Either click on the link on the right of the page or click on this www.schizzo.blogspot.com

CNC working

Here is a video of my CNC machine on one of its first test cuts. The machine is running a sample program that comes with the control software. The software running the machine is called EMC and is free. The router is a Hitachi and the bit is a 1/8" straight bit.

My CNC

Well it has finally arrived. It being the CNC machine I have been dreaming of for quite a while now. The machine has arrived along with all the other parts needed to make it work. This "desktop" machine is three feet long, two feet wide, and two feet tall. The machine weighed over 100lbs before I started adding all the cables, motors and router. The router mounted on the machine is a Hitachi MV12. The machine has a working area of 14 inchs by 25 inchs by 5 inchs. Its not the biggest machine in the world, but it will do everything I need to do. This machine can cut a variaty of materials including aluminum with the proper set up. The machines main use for me will be cutting prototype electronic boards. At present I'm wiring up the stepper motors, encoders and other bits. I'm hoping the machine will be moving by this weekend. I still need to cut a MDF table top for the machine but I will worry about that once the wiring is done.

Kleenex

Bailey loves Kleenex. We have to hide it from him when we're not home.


Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Snow

We had the most snow since I've been down here the other day. So Jeff and I went out to take some pictures of horses in the snow. Here they are.

More Pictures

Indiana with Uncle Tim Indiana with his new football

Indiana in his Bumbo seat

Sitting with Uncle Jeff and Auntie Karen

New Indiana Pictures

Alex is holding him up, but photoshop makes it look like he's standing by himself
Using Chopsticks
Drooling
Out for lunch at Saskatoon Asian
Shopping with mommy and Auntie Karen

Stupid Flying

So yesterday Jeff and I flew back from our wonderful vacation in Saskatoon. WE were on seperate flights because of a mix-up with the people who book the flights at Jeff's work. So plan A was that Jeff would land in Lexington at 430pm and pick up the dog and then drive 90 minutes to Cincinatti to pick me up at 605pm. We both flew out of Saskatoon at about 7am.
Moving on to plan B. AirCanada's system crashed nationwide, so although Jeff got onto his Northwest flight on time, my flight to Toronto was delayed. We took off about 45 minutes late.
Moving on to Plan C. I get to Toronto, go to Immigration to get my work Visa, and I walk into the the room and one of the officers is screaming at this poor guy about his paperwork. Then this woman officer starts yelling at me and everyone else who walks in the door to get our fingerprints and picture. And I do mean yelling. SO I finally sit to wait and thank goodness it was the quite person who got my file. I wouldn't necessarily say shw as nicer, but at least she didn't yell. So then I go to pay for my TN, and their credit card machine was broken, so I had to be escorted out to the bank machine, and then wait in line to get to the room so I can pay. So now we're not sure if I have missed my plane or not. So the nice customs guy walks me over to the desk to re-book my flight. Well that lady says I missed my flight and books me on the next set of flightw out and changes the tags on my bags. Then I go through security and get chosen to be the person who gets the "thourough" screening with the pat down and everything. Then I look on the board ans realize my origional flight hasn't left yet. So I go to the counter to see if I can still get on it. Since they already re-routed my baggage, I can't. So now I'm stuck in Toronto for an extra 3 hours. In the meantime I call Jeff and he got into Detroit early and should be boarding his plane at 2pm.
Moving on to Plan D. Jeff calls and they had boarded the plane in Detroit, sat on it for a while, while it got de-iced etc., then there was a mechanical problem and they went back to the gate and everyone got off. Then the flight crew had too many hours for the day, so they were waiting on a new flight crew. Then my flight from Toronto to Chicago was cancelled, so I got 2 more hours in Toronto. However they told me that if our flight was on time, most flights leaving Chicago were running late so I could probably still make my connecting flight, but I couldn;t get a boarding pass for it.
Plan E. After a five hour wait in Detroit Jeff is finally in the air going to Lexington. I board in Toronto, and sit on the tarmac for 2 hours. Miss my connecting flight and I don't have a boarding pass for the next flight. So we finally take off for Chicago, we land and I run to the next gate. They were already boarding the plane and I begged and got on the last flight of the night for Cincinnati. I call Jeff to tell him I will be in Cincinnati at 11:14, it's about 10pm and Jeff has just gotten into Lexington and is on his way home to get the dog. So I land in Cincinnati and no big surprise, my bag didn't make it. So I file a claim, Jeff picks me up and we go to a hotel with the dog and all three of us crash until 10 am.
Now it's 5pm and I just got a call saying my bag is on it's way to our house in the next few hours.
When I was a kid and we came back from Kenya I rememebr telling my cousins we had been travelling for 24 hours. That included driving time and layovers. It took me 19 hours to get from Saskatoon to Lexington. That's ridiculous.

Here's to my Grandpa

My Grandfather passed away on Sunday, he was 84. I was lucky enough to get there in time that Grandpa knew I was there and talked to me. I was also there when he passed, and it was very peaceful in the end.
The past week has been a bit of a blur. I have seen my entire family from that side, and we have spent many hours catching up with each other and sharing happy memories, and I think Gramps would be happy with that.
Some of my fondest memories from my childhood are from my grandparents farm. We spent a lot of time there while growing up. It was like one big playground. There were the horses, the barns, silo, the cellar, the chicken coop, the corn crib. And of course Garndma and Grandpa. Grandma would always make the best pies, and I hate meat loaf and roast, but I love my grandma's meatloaf and roast. My grandpa loved kids, he loved playing with us, and we loved playing with him. As we got older he loved to hear about our accomplishments. When he met Jeff I will never forget the look of pride on his face. He was so happy to meet the man I married. He also loved horses. Jeff and I would buy Grandpa coffee mugs and comemerative plates from the horse park and the Kentucky Derby Museum. They are still displayed proudly in the house.
So I'm sad, but I'm happy that I had such wonderful grandparents and that I had my Grandfather for so long. Keep checking back to this entry for new pictures as I download them.





This is my two cousins Nikki and Danielle when they were pregnant, and my Uncle Lou and Grandpa who are not pregnant.

What a cutie

Yet another cute picture of my nephew.

Merry Christmas!!!

We had a pretty good Christmas today. We've been keeping ourselves busy. I've been doing Christmas baking. We went looking at Christmas lights two nights ago, yesterday we went to the Christmas Eve service at church. Today we opened our gifts and then had eggs benedict for breakfast. We've been talking with family all day, and missing everyone. And we've been watching lots and lots of movies. Here are some pictures.

We went to the "Southern Lights" at the Kentucky horse park. Nothing says Christmas like a bunch of cowboys and cactii around a campfire done in Christmas lights. Bailey stood up by the window and was looking at the lights like it was the neatest thing ever.



Bailey was very interested in all the wrapping paper, and then we gave him his stocking. He especially like his little "greenie". He ate it in like 5 minutes. He got a little doggie collar with bells on it, and he's been wearing it all day.






This is Bailey's present. He was very interested in the wrapping paper. But once he saw his new doggie dishes, they were empty so then he wasn't interested anymore.

Passport Woes

I am in the process of re-newing my passport. I had to mail it to Quebec, it's a little more annoying of a process to doit from down here. Anyway, it won't be ready in time for Christmas. So we are spending Christmas alone down here.
We plan to go skiing in Ohio one day, we may go up to Louisville on Saturday to hang out and eat Vietnamese food. On Christmas eve we'll go to church, and then on Christmas day we'll spend the whole day watching movies and eating. So we'll be ok. I think tonight we are going to look at Christmas lights. There is a huge drive-through display at the horse park, so we'll take Bailey out for a car ride to look at all the lights.

Stay tuned for Christmas pictures.
Feel free to call anytime:)