Travelling back to Yellowknife.

Well, I'm back up in Yellowknife for a brief visit.. drove to Edmonton via Winnipeg and then flew up to YK on thursday.  It's been a very nice trip so far.  I spent a few days in Winnipeg visiting my seester and Russel - and got together with some of my dear wonderful old friends.. Bud and Dorth.. and Linda and her daughter Andrea.  We went out for brunch one morning and it was just so good to see old friends and "shoot the shit" so to speak..

It's been very cold up here in Yellowknife but today was beautiful and clear so I thought I'd go for a drive and take a few pics.  It is a bit of a home coming for me as I spent 25 years in this city and got to know a lot of people here.  Chris made the comment today that I've been gone for 5 years and still know many more people than he does.  I did see a lot of old friends at the Black Night Pub as well as the Co-op when we went shopping today.

The Noodle House was Julie's first experience with traditional - and I must say Very Good - Vietnamese cooking... We enjoyed many meals here.

Photos above are down town YK and  the other one is the Bowling Green building where we had a lovely apartment.

Photos above are taken on the Dettah ice road... also a few of the house boats in the bay.

Can't visit the north without encountering the odd raven... One of our favorite birds.

And above is the Black Knight Bar which was half a block from our apartment and very .... uhhhh .. handy..

Nice to be back here.. time is zooming by..

Life is Good.

A bit of this and that...

Must admit I have been lax about updating this blog.. simply said, It's been kinda quiet around here.

With the cold weather, we haven't been doing too much.. other than a trip to Milwaukee to visit Julie's new twin grand kids.. and that was wonderful to say the least.. lovely babies.. loving parents... best word to describe it is... "nice".

Isaac and Jasmine... special little kiddos...


Other than that, I've been curling 2 nites a week along with a 1 on 1 league... It's been going fine and lots of fun.. I do enjoy my curling... tomorrow we will play some 1 on 1 games and maybe hang around the club and watch some football (Super Bowl)...

Next week, I'm off to Canada.. will hang out a few days in MB, then drive up to Edmonton and flying up to Yellowknife from there for a week.

After that, a few days in Edmonton visiting Jesse and Nikki and then .. perhaps.. a flight over to Courtenay to visit my girls..

Here's a couple of pics taken lately... one is a COLD shot of the lake yesterday morning.. and a sign that I thought was kinda funny... remodelling the local Burger King takes on a new meaning for the word remodel which in Minnesota, means knock the sucker down and rebuild from scratch..

Anyways.. to those that occasionally drop by to read these updates... I'll do better... in spite of being quiet..

Life is Good.

Home again... holidays almost over.

We had a quiet Christmas.  Decided on a trip into Minneapolis and booked  the Raddison hotel for Xmas Eve and day. Although it was quiet, we managed to be busy for several days including visits with Annie and Greg, Cam and Cassie and the kids.  We visited a couple of museums, ate a wonderful meal at "Moscow on the Hill", and spend a day snowshoeing with Sarge, Annie + Greg, and their friends Molly and Mark.

On the way home.. well sort of on the way, we stopped into Julie's mom and dads to visit with them and Tom. We spent the night there visiting, playing cards, eating.. and just having a nice quiet time.

It was a good holiday..  curling has started again, and we have to decide if we're doing anything for New Years or just staying in as the house is very cozy and baby, it's cold outside!

Life is Good...

Christmas with Julie's gang..

This past weekend we celebrated xmas with Julie's kids... minus Jill and Josh..  and "the girl" and "the boy"... of course.. if we were to take bets on a date for the twins birth.. I'd say Christmas day might not be a bad choice... but we'll see.  It's getting closer and closer..

I took random photos of the gang this weekend...  I didn't get any pics of the Bentlyville excursion... because someone had to volunteer to stay home and look after the house and the dog and since I am a registered and somewhat capable "house carer".. well it had to be me that passed on a fun fun fun trip to take the responsibility...  SIGH...

A fun weekend.. I missed my kids.. my grandkids... but will see them soon I hope..

Life is Good.

Today's view....

A laker sliding into port... cutting through the fog/steam that has been floating over the lake for the past week or so...

Nice.... Life is Good.

Views from the back deck... (cont'd)

We continue to enjoy nature at its best, simply by looking out of our deck at the rear of the house...

The other morning, the steam was rising off the lake and as the sun cleared the steam clouds, it looked like the lake was on fire... sometimes you just have to stop what your doing and enjoy the scenery!

Our neighbor Terry told Jewels the other day that there was a young buck that seems to have taken up residence in our back yard.  I was looking out back as part of my scouting mission to watch for squirrels trying to invade my feeders when - yes - our friend strolled through the back yard.  About 20 minutes later, a young doe wandered through.  Hmmmmm... peut-etre nous avions le petite faon frolicing devant en printemps.

Now... whatever did I do with that wonderful venison stew recipe?

Life is Good!

This almost qualifies me as an artist...

I just finished my second stained glass piece today.  After doing the original beginners class last winter, I decided to re-do the beginners class (B Coz I forget stuff easily) and do a piece that I found that both Jewels and I liked... It is about 10" high and 14" wide...

Soooooo....

It turned out well.. the upper part of the raven is a translucent glass that changes shades depending on the background and angle that you are looking at it..

Me happy with it.. Life is Good!