Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! We are having a relatively quiet New Year's Eve this year, which is how we like it. We took the dog for the nature walk this afternoon, so the pictures are from that. We drove around to Popson Park as the sun set, and saw the deer there. As you can see, although we didn't have a white Christmas, we did get some snow in the past week. It likely won't hang around long though. It never does.

Tonight we'll go over to the new house of some friends. They had it built and moved in a couple of weeks ago. We'll only stay a couple of hours, then we'll come home to watch the ball drop with Mom. Tomorrow we're having our neighbours over for lunch. Then on Tuesday it's back to work.

I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve, and that 2007 brings only the best.

Christmas Day (part 2)

Here are more pictures of us opening gifts.


Thanks again for all the great gifts!

Christmas Day! (part 1)

Yesterday Mom & I went to the Lutheran Church at the end of our street for the candlelight service. It was really nice.

We've had a great Christmas Day so far. We got up, had breakfast, then went for a nature walk so the dog could run around. Unfortunately she isn't feeling great today, so she's had some medication and is just sleeping now.

There was a classic chinook arch this morning, so I've attached some pictures of that, above. I was hoping it would all fit across the page so you could see the full arch, but I don't know if it will. You'll get the idea anyway!

It took ages to open our gifts, between the dog getting sick, the phone ringing, etc.
We all got really great things. Poor Mom suffered a bit because she won't get her real gift until they have Christmas at home, so she had only 3 gifts to open. Thank you to everyone for all the gifts, they are all wonderful.

I think we're all going to have a nap this afternoon, and then have a fabulous dinner. John is making prosciutto wrapped turkey breast with mashed potatoes, veg & gravy. I am making sticky toffee pudding with low fat vanilla custard for dessert. Should be good!

We'll be thinking about all our friends and family over the holidays, and wishing we could see you all.

The Tree, Revisited

Mom and I had to go out yesterday, so I picked up some new lights for the tree. Although you're supposed to put the lights on before you decorate, we had do the reverse. Fortunately it still looks better than it did with no lights. Here are some pictures, with the lights, and the presents (and the star finally on top!).

Mom's Pictures

Mom has taken some great shots since she's been here, and here are are some examples. The ball is at the Tourist Centre, and is supposed to represent the wind in Lethbridge. That's the tucky puppy. There's the obligatory sunrise shot, and a picture of the high level bridge with a train crossing. The buildings are all at the University.

Christmas Lights Tour

Mom and I drove around Lethbridge last night looking at the fancy light displays people have put up. Here are some examples.

The Story of Christmas...at the Sheriffs'

Those of you who know me know I like Christmas, and that I usually get prepared early. However, this season I haven't been much in the spirit. Maybe it's the distance from friends and family, I don't know. Mom came out last week to spend Christmas with us, and I thought it would be nice if we got a tree and decorated it together. We didn't get the tree until Dec 20, then when we got it home it turned out I hadn't brought the tree stand with us. We went out to get a new one, and when we got it home, it was missing parts, so we couldn't use it. I went back on Thursday to exchange it, but we didn't get the tree up until today. So we got it in the stand, and all ready to go, and now I can't find my Christmas lights!! Out of desperation we decorated it anyway, so we have a light-less tree this year. Here are some pictures of it, and of a couple of the new Rudolph ornaments that Peter, Denise, Morgan, Mason & Gromit gave me. Oops, it turns out I didn't even have the star on the tree when I took these. Sheesh, this is definitely not my Christmas!!

More on the Wind

We've had a really windy time of it lately. It's regularly been over 40km/hr, and usually higher. Right now the Weather Network claims it's only 37km/hr gusts, but it seems higher than that.

Here's a picture of the poodle one windy morning. It was so bad on this day that she had trouble walking into the wind, and nearly got blown down the river embankment at one point.

Peg Leg Poodle

The poodle has developed yet another health problem. (John interjected that this isn't necessarily a chronic problem, but I laughed at that. Of course it'll be chronic, this is Molly we're talking about!!) She's having trouble with her toes. We aren't exactly sure what's wrong, but they are swollen and sore. She had to have a bandage on one paw for a couple of days, to try to clear up the infection and keep her from licking at them. She now has to wear a sock on the one paw, and if she licks at the other, she has to wear a sock on it too. She had to wear a plastic bag when she went outside with the bandage on, and that seemed to attract some attention. Fortunately she doesn't bother with the sock at all.

Cycling and the Wind

We were warned about the wind when we moved to Lethbridge, but this is silly! When I left for work this morning at 7:15am, the wind was about 15km/hr. When I left work at 1:20pm, the wind was 61km/hr with gusts to 76km/hr! I actually was stopped dead on my bike at one point because the gust was so strong. I had to walk my bike for about 2km because I couldn't ride into the wind, it was just impossible to get started again. Going downhill into the wind, I had to pedal, whereas normally I have my brakes on the entire time. It took forever to walk up the Whoop-Up hill, because I could barely manage to walk against the wind while pushing my bike. Another funny thing is that, the one time the wind was at my back, I wasn't pedalling, but had to put my brakes on because I was going so fast, just from the wind!

According to the forecast, the wind is supposed to die down overnight, so hopefully I can ride more successfully tomorrow. I don't think I could ride against that multiple days in a row.

Catching up

It's been a long time since I posted anything. I've been busy at work, and working out. I have been seeing a personal trainer (highly recommend it), and that seems to have taken up a lot of time. I've been trying to ride to work regularly as well, and that takes extra time each day. I have to leave by about 7:15am to get there in time to shower, dress, etc.

I haven't even done my Christmas cards yet! Hopefully this weekend I can get all ready for Christmas, and clean up the house for Mom coming.

We did get our missing chair, so I'll take pictures of that tomorrow and post those. There are also some houses in our area that have major Christmas decorations up, so I want to take pictures of those and post them as well.

More sunrise pictures

We had another beautiful sunrise today. I can't stop taking pictures of them. We were at John's faculty Christmas party tonight, and I was speaking to one of his colleagues who lives just behind us. He is always taking pictures of the sunrises and skies as well, so I don't feel too bad. He's lived here for 20 years!

We have a pond across the street from us, but no skating is allowed on it. Apparently the chinooks that Lethbridge gets prevent ice from freezing properly, so there are few outdoor rinks in this area.

The Poodle

Molly isn't supposed to be on the furniture, but she sneaks downstairs on occasion to sleep on the couch. You'll notice her bed is right next to the couch, but why sleep on the floor when you can sleep on a big comfy couch!











I have been going to the gym a lot to work with a personal trainer, and Molly doesn't like me to leave. She waited at the door for me one day.











I took this picture this morning. I was taking pictures of the sunrise (again) and Molly just sat down to wait. We let her run around off leash in the park when no one else is around. She was just groomed again, and her head is really puffy. I'll have to take the scissors to that.

New Furniture

Here are some pictures of our new furniture. It's in the "reading room" at the front of the house. I still need a table or corner unit of some kind in there, but I'm still looking around.
It's a fairly small room, and we have the china cabinet in there too, so we decided we needed only a couple of pieces of furniture in it.