Cold on the outside warm on the inside....

Neil does a spot of sun-bathing.


Then poses next to his piles.

Cosy candle in a jar.

Well it's -24 degrees C. Earlier on today it was -28 and with wind chill......-35 degrees. It's quite odd really. When I left work for lunch today it had snowed quite a bit on my car so I went to get the snow brush out the boot to dust off the layers that had accumulated during the day. The trouble was I just couldn't open my car boot (canadian transaltion: trunk), it was totally frozen shut. Couldn't open it no matter what I did. Well I ended up opening one of the back doors and climbing into the boot to grab the brush. I dusted off the car and left the snow brush in the back footwell for easy access when I needed it later. Well, when I left work to go home later that day I went to open the back door and that too had totally frozen shut. It was like it was glued closed, there wasn't any way I could open it. So this time I had to climb through the front to get the brush. What's worrying me now is whether my drivers door is also going to freeze, in which case I won't be able to get home and I'll freeze to death in the office car park. Hmmm.

Other cold related phenomenons that I have recently encountered include finding ice on the inside of our windows (see photo below) and getting burnt by metal due to it being totally frozen ( it was Neil that discovered that one when trying to fill the car up without wearing gloves.) I also had an interesting experience in a hot tub on Saturday. It was absolutely boiling in the water and I actually felt a bit too hot but at the same time, my hair was frozen solid and felt like it might snap off. Weird!

Ice....on the inside!

Toasty warm feet!

Frozen eyebrows after snow-shoveling.

Friday Night Poker...........Some girls allowed!

Friday the 24th November, -25 outside, what else is there to do..............Yep we had the very first Canadian Poker night with the boys.....OK some girls included!

Mandy and I won the game and shared the profits 50/50! YEAHHHH

Snow day......

Temperature -17 degrees and falling. It's supposed to reach -24 by Saturda....brrrrrrr

Today it snowed a lot. I think it was probably about six inches or so all in one morning. I even got to leave work early as the roads were so bad. It was nice to arrive home in the daylight for a change so I took the opportunity to document our snow piles in some photos. In the pic below you can see just how big our piles have become today. The big lump nearest the house in this photo used to be our snowman. Unfortunately he was buried some time ago.

And here's the view looking down the street, thats one of our piles on the right near the lamp post. Big eh?

Check out our sky-diving videos....

If you haven't already noticed the link to the video clips, it's up on the right. Have a look!

Blog-lag

A very pretty sunset as seen from our back deck two nights ago.

Apologies for not havng posted recently, the enthusiasm left me for a while. I think it's a sign of home-sickness. I think I have been feeling a little sorry for myself since my visitors left. Anyway, let's talk about the weather shall we? Well we've had snow on the ground now since the last week of October, in fact, it all started the day my mum, Winnie and Kate arrived in Beaumont. The temperature has fluctuated between +1 and -20 since then. The last few days have been sunny and warm (+3) but we're set for a drop in temperature over the next few days and by Saturday its supposed to reach -26 (brrrrrr!). Last night on the way home from work I noticed a full dog sled team being mushed along the snowy verge at the side of the road! This struck me as odd but I guess it's probably quite a normal sight in these parts. I've also seen a few herds of dear, some bison and a coyote on my daily commute to work, wonder if I'll see anything tomorrow? Anyway, as nothing particularly note-worthy has happened latetly I've had to just upload some random photos taken over the last couple of weeks......

The last supper. We ate Neil's timpana before leaving for the airport.

And this is the last starbucks. It was at the airport just before we left them there. We even bought mugs to commemerate the occasion.

Here is Doog eating snow off the deck as the sun sets behind him.

This is me sitting at my desk. I have a flat screen. ( I told you these were random photos!)

This is Neil taking Doog for a walk in the snow in about -18 degrees......in his pyjammas!!!

Doog, running down the snowy street. I think his feet get cold.

Doog checking out the pretty sunset out the back of the house, from the upstairs windows the other night.

THE RODEO

The rodeo was on in town......

Zena thought she could enter,

did her best to look like a cowboy.

The cowboys had to ride along chasing the bull, then swing there rope around the bulls head, at the same time another cowboy gets the feet, then yanks his tail and unbalances the bull, when the Bull finally hits the floor the cowboy has to untie the neck, the timer is stopped. The cowboy who does it the quickest wins the round.

These Girls are amazing, they ranged between 8 yrs old and 13yrs old. They are trick riders, I cannot believe that they hang upside down when the horse is doing about 20 mph!!!

Check out the picture can you see two girls?

Then the best bit, the smoke is actually some kind of chalk, so they can grip real good.

We haven't Updated for a while as we have been busy entertaining the Out-law, weeves and Kate. In plain English that is Sophie's mum,Winnie (weeves) , and Sophie's sister.

Whilst they where here the weather changed got very cold and snowed quite a bit, I had to work as did Sophie so they spent the week days at home. I think having that much snow and not being used to driving in this country was a wise decision to remain in the warmth and comfort of my house!

Here are some pics of what we got up to.....

Just before the pics I must say that Firstly as you know we went to the mountains, pics down below, on previous post.

We did see some wildlife that we captured. This wildlife is called a SASQUATCH.

See The similarities!

We named IT WEEVES.

This Sasquatch was my slave for two weeks before we released it back into the wild.

Then After we caught this beast we moved on to better things and decided to have a great Halloween.......so we placed Weeves out on the porch to hand out candy, it worked a treat!

Didn't have to spend money dressing it up, it didn't get cold, and was pleasant to the kids. Sweet!

>>>>>>>>>Click Here<<<<<<<<<<<<

Birthday.....

Last Thursday was my birthday. It was my first birthday in Canada and my first ever snowy birthday! Unfortunately I had to work and got up early as usual. I was most surprised when all my visitors also got up early to wish me a happy birthday and give me presents and cards before I left for work. Thank you everybody for the lovely cards and presents! It was especially nice to get a card from my good friend Caroline ( and Dan, Millie and Buddy) and some lovely pressies from Neils mummy, my Dad and my bro Dan. Thank you all so much! Oh and thankyou to Erin at work for decorating my desk with balloons, banners and confetti!

I had balloons and everything!

My sleepy mummy and katarina after waking up early to see me off to

work on my birthday! Ahhh! (notice Kate's holding the coffee grinder....err yes I think they were in need of it.)

My present from Neil was just what I had hoped for.....a new and very spangly camera, (Canon EOS rebel Xti) WOW!!!

Here is my first photo of Doog on the new camera.....

Here is my smiley, happy sister Katarina! I'm so happy she was here for my Birthday!

Here is Neil with the lovely "fat lady" sculpture, a present from my mum and Winnie.......

After work we headed into Edmonton for a lovely meal at "Wild Tangerine", I tried to test out my camera from the car window on the way into the city. The results weren't quite what I'd expected but hey, I like it!

Here's our friends and Neighbours Mandy and Kelly who, along with little Hunter, joined us for the birthday meal.

And here's me and Katarina.......

Holloween

Halloween we realised is a big deal here is Canada, soooooo we decorated the house. Most people that came round had said our house was the best decorated in the street whoo hoo, not bad for the first effort.




Meowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (then the cat hisses but i dont know how to spell that)


All these pumpkins where carved by Kate, she sustained and injury to her finger, a deep cut. I think it was well worth it.

A house with a scary grave yard in the front surrounded by metropolitan police tape. Where did I get that from...... mmmm

Two cool kids from across the road, they looked good , scary and freezing.

Close up of a pumpkin carved by Kate. Cool eh?

Back from The mountains

Well we have come back from the mountains and as you can see the snow is rising! The news is that more snow is on the way. The temperature is slowly dropping and my testicles are slowly rising! Wow it is cold. Sophie keeps saying it is not that cold and I should stop exaggerating, but when the thermometer says -18 at night I think that is pretty dam cold. Right now I am sitting here in my warm cosy den typing away and outside is snowy and -6, Its cold, don't listen to hard nut Sophie.
Here are a few additions to the pictures that Sophie had posted as i would like to show you how stupid i looked! I didn't even realise that my fly was open, no wonder my bits where freezing!


This was just before we made the snowman, Sophie looks cold eh? HAHHAHA not cold my a**

OK OK she seems to be dancing now, maybe she is right, I am a baby, look how unimpressed I look while Sophie sings and Skipp's, WEIRDO!

Oh One last photo, Have a look at what I wanted to run over...... they look tasty, although the Trunk/Boot was full of suitcases so I let them live.

Not really for all you vegetarians out there, I was JOKING, Well i am not joking about them tasting good, but I was joking about wanting to run them over. These guys where just standing in the middle of the road staring at the cars as they drove on by, we had to stop and take some photos.