Rylie Brooke Latimer...

Yahoo.... another beautiful grand daughter born on July 2nd. Rylie Brooke was born on Saturday and I can't wait to get out to Vancouver Island to see my newest grand kiddo.... Glad to hear Shaya is happy and proud of her little sister.

Congratulations to Wayne and Jill and Shaya... she is a beauty...

Life is GrrreaaaaaAAAAATTT

holidays have officially started!

Driving out from Erickson on June 23rd to Winnipeg to catch a flight to Yellowknife the next day. It was raining a bit.. as usual and I was struck by the huge impact the continuous rain has had on the poor farmers of Manitoba. I stopped at one spot between Gladstone and the #1 Highway and took a couple of fotos that said it all. Looked like Lake Manitoba across the fields and there is no way this will dry up in time to save crops.

The next morning, I flew out of Winnipeg and of course, never took my camera out of my truck so I had 5 days in Yellowknife.. really nice glorious sunny days but no photos. I saw a lot of friends.. played the sand covered golf course (won 9 skins on one hole the first day there) and had a great time attending my friend Surly Bob's wedding to the most wonderful lady you could imagine (waaayyyy too good for Bob).. Deborah...

I stayed with Chris and Ev.. who took off to Edmonton to attend Fred's retirement party from Norterra.. so Popeye and I bonded over a couple of days. I saw scads of people during my visit and had a wonderful time.. but I must say that I felt good to be leaving after 5 days.. In spite of a lot of good friends and memories, I haven't found "home" yet.

Flying back into Winnipeg on the 29th, I was again struck by the magnitude of the water laying across the fields as we approached our landing into Winnipeg. So very sad for the farmers.

Upon landing in the city, I decided to drive out and stay with mom overnite. May not see her for a couple of months so probably a good move. The next nite I drove into Winnipeg to attend a retirement party for my cute little sister. Russell and Dorothy are now both officially retired and ...damn.. no photos of the party. Anyways, a good time was had by all and after I left, I had planned to stay over nite, but anxious to see Julie and get her moved to Duluth so off I went for Zumbrota. I arrived at 730AM and promptly went to bed for a few hours. Over the next few days, Julie and I packed up all her stuff and moved it to Duluth where I know she will be sooooooooo happy. It's a great city and so pretty. More on this to follow but my next post will feature photos and information on my second beautiful grand daughter ...

Life is Good!

YIPES!!

Another month has almost passed and no updates. So, when in doubt, find cute photos of my grand daughter and upload them.. We can never EVER get tired of pics of Shaya. Jill has been using her as a model for her photo shoots for her classes and it looks like we have a budding super model in the family.

Jill and Jesse are both almost finished their terms and the classes that they are taking. Jills photography class can't finish too soon as her new baby girl will be born very soon. Jesse is finished in mid July and I talked with him tonight and he just wants to get a job of any kind for now.. hopefully in the construction field where he can make a few bucks .. he is tired of being a broke student but has done very well with his course.

I hope to add more news soon. I'm off to Yellowknife on the 24th to attend a friend (Surly Bob's) wedding. I'm back to Winnipeg on the 29th and then down to Minnesota to help Julie with her new move. She has applied for, and been accepted for a new position in Duluth and I'm sooooooo happy for her. Home at last. Life is Goooood!

Memorial Day in Minnesota

Monday was the Memorial Day long weekend day. Memorial Day is a day set aside to commemorate those who served in the military and gave their lives serving the country. As with most US Holidays, this is a big event with lots of flags and parades etc. It also serves as the official kick off for summer with people getting out and doing all sorts of things preparing for the summer days ahead. Lots of prep work for camping and cottaging, lawn and garden work and if lucky like we were, just finding a way to soak up the sun.

Julie and I went out to the Zumbrota golf course and played nine holes in the heat. We decided to walk the course and .. note to selves.. make sure you carry water on the next outing as not all courses offer a beverage cart service; even on the extra hot days.

I took some photos of the flag ceremony setup at the Zumbrota Park and then a few pics of ... uhhhh.... what not to do on the golf course. Actually, my little princess did very well considering that she had not been out much over the past summer and I must say, her form was quite good - especially the photo of her teeing up the ball...

Life is Good!

A couple of fun days in Minnesota.

I drove down to Minnesota on Friday and Julie and I had a very nice weekend. As usual, it involved quite a bit of "DRIVING" but of course, I am used to that so it was fun. On Saturday, we took a drive into Wisconsin for a scenic trip around Lake Pepin. I posted some photos of this area last winter when we did a similar drive and some of the pics of the overlook at Alma are reproductions of the same photos last winter. You can tell the winter photos cause they have snow in'em!!

One photo, the first one was of a deck on an old building that just killed me. I guess I thought it was funny cause even a non builder as I am recognized this as something that looked so very scary dangerous.

I also included a couple of photos I took at Como Park in Minneapolis on Sunday. Julie and I drove down to the cities to spend a day with Cam, Cassie, and Finley. We had a nice day at the park and zoo and the met Cassie at IKEA for a bit of shopping and then a nice dinner at the Olive Garden.

All in all, a couple of quiet nice days.. Live is Good!

Just back from a quick trip to Edmonton.

So, the main reason for my trip to Edmonton was that I had a job to do for my buddy Bill at Larga. His parking lot in one area was sinking or settling and as a result, every time it rained a huge puddle occured and it was quite inconvenient for parking and getting in and out of vehicles. Bill asked me if I could do an overlay over the whole area to level it off and make sure the water was draining in the right direction. I told him, OF COURSE I can fix it although I have never done a job like this before. It started with an estimate of how much asphalt I would need to overlay the whole section and my guess of 7 tonnes of product turned out to be quite accurate - much to my surprise!

I was very lucky that Jesse and Nikki were around and they were a huge help in shoveling up the asphalt and moving it around and spreading and tamping and on and on. It was very good for me as I have come to realize that I must be very careful not to take on more that I can chew (so to speak) and this was about as big of a job as I want to do. It didn't help that Edmonton set a record for the date (May 21st I think) where the temp hit +31.8C.

So the photos above show the progress we made to do the job. I actually had to rent a large roller compactor and was quite proud that not only the lot got leveled properly but the fences were all still standing after I was done.

I got home yesterday afternoon and am washing my laundry tonite as I'm off to Minnesota tomorrow to spend some time with my hunnie.... WhooooHooooo Life is Good!

It's been a while since I've updated this site!!!

I was sitting out on my deck this afternoon sipping on a glass of wine, reading the Globe, and just relaxing after a nice game of golf at Clear Lake and it was soooooo nice! The birds were chirping so I took a few pics of them at the feeder and, well, Life is Good!

I'm feeling a bit apprehensive because I decided a couple of weeks ago to list my house with the local realtor ... just a bit of a fishing session to see if I got any bites. Well, it looks like I got a nibble as my realtor called to tell me that she will have a written offer tonight for me to look at. Now, this probably is good - even considering that I do not have an option as to where I will live - at the present moment. But as Jewels and I often say, what's the worst that could happen.

I have been busy lately with a bit of work ( did a couple of small jobs in Winnipeg) and I've been touring MB doing some visiting as well. A couple of weeks ago, I journeyed down to Manitou and visited with one of my elementary teachers (from grade 5 or 6).. Miss Magnusson, known now as Haraldine Mangusson Webb, who had the horror of teaching myself and my croonies a "few" years ago. It was so very nice to touch base with her, and Bob, and have a visit and discuss the old days.

From there, I went into Winnipeg and had a lovely couple of nites with Russel and Dorothy. Russ and I had ...uhhhh.. several beers one nite and then off to the golf course the next day. The courses are all open now and most have wintered well. Then, off to Victoria Beach for a couple ove nites with Dennis and Landa... damn.. I have to get better at taking my camera out of the bag and doing some pics. Anyways, had a great visit with those guys as usual. Then last weekend I went out to Mom's and spent a nite with her to celebrate Mother's Day. Dennis and Landa showed up there as well so now we are officially sick of each other and never want to visit each other again.. well, that's probably how they feel anyways.

Finally, I was in Winnipeg the other day to do a little job with Canad Inns and touched base with Darlene and Ron Peterson. What a nice visit I had with them. Haven't seen those guys for a visit for about 25-30 years and it was just like yesterday. Ron and I played a round of golf at ??? River Oaks?? course in St Norbert. We had a lovely barbeque after that so all in all, it was a great visit.

OOOPs.. forgot to mention that prior to all the above visiting, I managed to get over to cousin Doris and Asgar Sigurdsons for coffee as well. I'm so happy to be able to visit people that I have not seen for ages. Everyone is getting a bit older... but like me.. wiser as well.

I'm off to Edmonton tomorrow. I have a job at Larga to fix up some of the parking area and will get to visit with Bill and Pat as well as Jesse and Nikki. Then, on the 24th I'm off ot Osoyoos BC to meet up with some of the vagabonds from Yellowknife who are down for the week for a golf trip. Should be nice to get a visit with them and possibly a chance to take a few dollars off them as well.

Life is Good, isn't it?!!!