Thoughts for the day

Embarassing Moment -- At the end of lunch with 7 Bellsouth guys I was taking my vitamins, the embarassing moment was when I dropped one down my shirt perfectly into my cleavage.

Positive Thought Moment -- If Paula Creamer (LPGA youngster) is battling tendonitis at the Evian masters and playing thru the pain, then I shouldn't be ashamed of mine nor let it hinder my play.....

Aspiration for the Day -- Have a golf swing like Michell Wie

another day in the air.....

As I headed for the airport I was filled with dread. My last 3 visits have been terrible, flight delays, huge crowds and the like. What was today to bring. I walked up to the automated machine and tried my luck, BAM! Here comes my boarding pass, and off to the security I go. Hmmm, lucky so far.

I sailed thru security and as I sat at the gate this tall, blonde haired woman approached me and sat down. She struck up a conversation immediately. Obviously not an American I thought. She proceeded to tell me her life story. She came to America from Sweden and ended up in Fort McMurray of all places when she was 21. (Fort McMurray is 500 miles north of Edmonton, Alberta and is a booming oil sands town) This was in the 70's. 10,000 men and 600 women. Not good odds. She says back in the 70's it was a rough and tumble place where women had to learn to literally fight men off. She worked as a construction apprentice for 18 months making $9 an hour.

Next month her and her son are moving to the big island of Hawaii where there is a school near Kona called the West Hawaii Explorations Academy. It sounds like an amazing school. What a treat it would have been as a kid to have snorkelling on the agenda for the day's learning. School's explanation here

After boarding the plane and having a wonderful first class ride to denver, I knew it was too good to be true. As I boarded the plane for Atlanta kid after kid boarded after me. One 3 year old had a melt down right in the aisle by my seat. "Please let you seat be in the back of the plane" I hoped. Sitting behind me were 3 kids and their mom. The little girl threw up both for take off and landing. A lovely cat ( of which I'm deathly allergic to ) made the trip 5 rows behind me. The plane smelled like cat litter and vomit. What a lovely combination. Forunately I made it to Atlanta where it is raining and 82 degrees. It's nice that it's cooler than Los Angeles.

Lake of the Woods Sunset

More on Alberta's "world's largest"

MUNDARE, Alberta -- World's Largest Ukrainian Sausage Built to commemorate sausage making in Mundare, this 42 foot high sausage was funded by a non-profit foundation created by the Stawnichy Family of Stawnichy's Meat Processing. Kind of looks like......poop?











Peter Fidler Statue The statue, of Hudson's Bay surveyor Peter Fidler, was carved with a chainsaw by Herman Poulin as part of Elk Point's 1992 Bicentennial Project and stands 32 feet high and 8 feet wide. Directions: Located at the north end of Elk Point on Highway 41.

My sister's next baby......

Modern technology is amazing nowadays. This is a 3D image of my sister Krystal and Ian's next child. Now you can either get a copy of this 3D kind of image or of the original B/W kind. Pretty darn cool if you ask me. It's a girl by the way.....

Travelling Alberta.....

Well here it is folks, me under the world's largest egg statue. This egg is in Vegreville. It's an Ukranian egg, easter egg to be exact. The bronze, gold and silver designs tell the story of the area's settlers - their strong faith, the good harvest, and the protection received from the R.C.M.P. The Pysanka is also one of the premier attractions along the Yellowhead Highway. Isn't that scary.


This next picture is of the statue my sister Krystal promised me was in Vegreville - a strong Ukranian community. She said that the world's largest pyrogy was there. It wasn't; we got the egg instead. But just because I know a lot of you are dying to know what the world's largest pyrogy might look like, here it is. It is also in Alberta, about 110 km from the egg. There are a lot of the world's largest in Alberta. That is also scary.


Created to attract tourists to the village of Glendon Alberta, the World's Largest Pyrogy, constructed by PML Exhibits of Calgary, was unveiled on August 31, 1993. The Pyrogy stands 25 feet tall, 12 feet wide and weighs 6000 pounds. Directions: Located on Pyrogy Drive in Pyrogy Park. <-- Naturally....

Golf in Canada - lessons learned

As I sit here with a bag of frozen peas on my swollen knees, I find myself pondering the lessons learned over the last 36 holes of golf in Canada. I've actually used my 5 iron. I'd never taken it out of the bag before. I thought that the hybrid was the end all of my fairway clubs, not true. You see, in California where I've golfed, there's the fairway and then there's the "rough" which is grass not more than 3/4" - 1" higher than the fairway grass. No big deal. I can hit my hybrid there no problem. Well in Canada, there's the fairway, then what they call the 2nd cut and then there's the "rough". Well the 2nd cut is grass about 2" high minimum (usually 2.5" - 3") and the rough is grass anywhere from 3" high to 18" high or more likely trees, leaves, bushes, high grass, vines and maybe a little poison ivy thrown in for good measure. So in the rough you do not want to be. My brother lost 12 balls in 36 holes. I'm proud to say that I only lost 2. So a lesson learned is not to use the hybrid in that kind of grass, it's really only good for me on the fairway. I need an iron to get through that thick grass.

Day one was a nice course with many, many mature trees, wide fairways, jack rabbits the size of deer and no bathrooms..... I shot what I think is my best score ever. 107 -- I usually don't even add up the score because I think it's so bad. My family golfs quite seriously. Losing your ball is a stroke penalty per the rules. Stroke penalties are taken seriously. My brother shot a 103 even after taking about 7 strokes. Not bad. He's usually under 100 but the trees ate him up. My brother-in-law shot a 98 and he took about 6 strokes. The 2nd day golfing was at our local course and it was windy as a hurricane all day, blowing our balls all over the place. My dad and I tied again with a score of 115. Not bad considering the wind and a swollen knee.

Well, tomorrow is the 2 day xcountry drive with my mom, sister and 3 year old niece. Wish me luck.

Half way done

As I sit here this morning rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I find myself pondering the first official day of my vacation. It dawns on me (no pun intended) that it's July 5th. The year is half over. Many friends have had birthdays, we've BBQ'd, I've flown all over the USA, and all in a blink of an eye. It seems each day I stop to think about it, another 3 months have gone by.

I wonder if time just seems to be moving faster because I'm older? I remember asking my mom when I was in my thirties if she thought time just flew by, she said it went faster and faster the older whe was. But is this really true? Perhaps it's just because our lives are so much busier that time moves faster. There seems to be less time to just "be" as we rush about getting things done and crossing items off our to do lists. I'm not sure I even know how to relax anymore. Well, I'll be on my way to my gramma's soon, there's nothing to do there, so I guess it'll force me to relax.

Well, I've got to run -- got to rush to the airport.....I'll stop and smell the roses later.....