Adelaine absolutely loves shoes. This is disturbing as she is only 21 months old. Hopefully it fades before it starts to cost us real money.. She tries on all shoes around the house, excitedly saying “shoes! shoes!” Her own, Ellie’s, Daddy’s sneakers, Mommy’s Crocs, and fridge magnets. Yes, fridge magnets.
I don’t think those are going to fit, Adelaine.
The other day I (Naomi) went shopping with my mom, Judith and all our kids up in Red Deer. We hit a good sale at Old Navy, so were busy scouring the racks for deals when I suddenly noticed that Adelaine was nowhere to be found. The store was quite quiet, so I wasn’t too anxious, but I still quickly walked through the racks looking for her bright yellow shirt. I finally found her a couple sections over in the teen girls area. There she was, sitting on the floor completely surrounded by a mound of shoes, trying on a pair of sequined size 8’s. When she saw me, she excitedly gave her excuse for her disappearance. “Shoes! Shoes!” That’s my girl.
Elections are special times in Canada where we, as a nation, can temporarily put aside our politeness and superficial notions of post-modern tolerance. Only at election time can we properly revile each other over our political affiliations. Gone are the usual “Well, you can believe what you want” and “good for you, glad that makes you happy” mentality. Usually polite neighbors can now truly express themselves by saying “How can you vote for that party? Are you stoopid?”
Maybe we take the gloves off because election results can actually affect our wallets.
Anyway, I am a bit of a news junkie, especially for Canadian politics and I will be glued to various news sites and some TV coverage. So, for the next few weeks my wife will once again be an election widow. Thankfully the Canadian election cycle is brief and intense. The American system would put serious strains on Naomi’s patience. Two years is too long for election coverage!
Finally fulfilling a plan we had made almost a year and a half earlier at our fifth anniversary, we took a few days to spend together in the Canadian Rockies. Grandma was kind enough to look after the kids for us for the weekend (thanks grandma!).
Naomi was able to find a really good deal for a few nights right in Banff. Unfortunately, our order for clear skies fell through, so our Saturday was mostly cloudy and we didn’t get to see as much of the mountains as we had hoped. But the Rockies are just amazing, even when they are in the clouds.
Very nice.. This environmentally friendly, solar water heating, solar electricity generating facility certainly soothed my conscience, but it sure hurt my tax paying wallet. Don’t worry about the $1.8 million price tag.. Apparently, it’s energy savings will be fully recuperated by AD 2584. Still.. probably the nicest bathroom I have used in the park.
We did get up to the top of Sulphur Mountain above the Banff town site. Thankfully they have a gondola.
After paying $60 for the ride, we were disappointed that it was a snowing white out by the time we reached the top, but we only had to wait a while for the clouds and snow to clear and were actually treated to a few rainbows that we could see from above. Definitely worth enduring the wet snow.
While on the peak, an elderly couple were suddenly excited by something in the trees near the walkway. I thought maybe it might be Big Horn Sheep that are known to be up on the peak, but it turns out she was simply thrilled to see some snow. My question for her: “You’re not from Canada, are you?”
The view from the top was spectacular as we strolled the boardwalks to the peak. This is the easy way to see the mountains. In between a few snow squalls we shot a panorama from the top.
Like millions of others, the last two weeks of peak athleticism that is the Olympics have inspired us to that Olympic ideal, sitting on the couch and watching it on TV. Ironic, isn’t it?
Adelaine gets bored with TV pretty quick. Ellie, however, is a born couch potato. Since her earliest days she has always been mesmerized by a TV. During the Olympics she would ask at all times of the day to have the TV on so she could watch. Who knows what was going through her head as she watched these various sports, but every once in a while, she would announce to us that “Someday when I get big I want to do dat.” This was usually said while watching the bike races, gymnastics, diving or swimming. Hopefully she never wants to do race walking.. I don’t think I could handle the embarrassment.
Despite her great interest in the sports, I think her Olympic technique is more in line with the professional spectator than the athlete.
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The Chinese government did put on a good show for the rest of the world. It’s amazing what you can do with a controlled economy, total central authority, and a fearful populace. The Opening Ceremonies had many dazzling images that will be impressed in our collective minds for decades to come. But it all falls flat compared to the arguably the best Olympic Opening Ceremonies: Albertville.
Ok, so maybe no one is going to argue for France’s 1992 Winter Albertville Olympics had the best opening ceremony, but it is certainly more memorable than the Bejing one. I was in university at the time and was awestruck at the spectacle. It was just so… bizarre.
Imagine Cirque du Soleil running the Olympics, but weirder, combined with Dr. Seuss on drugs. This over-the-top, freakish cirque nouveau show was perhaps the strangest, most inexplicable thing I have ever seen on TV. The walking snow globes, the suspended drummers and spider dancers, the crazy, acid-trip costumes. Good grief, what were they thinking?
