That’s the hill I wanted.  And up I went, and then down I went, with Tasha on board.  Apparently, according to Graham, “You guys sure caught a lot of air when you went over that bump!” I don’t know about that, because we were coming down the hill backwards incredibly fast, and I couldn’t turn the damn thing around.  When we hit the bump, all I knew was there was nothing under me for a long time, and suddenly there was.  I have a bruise on my butt the size of a basketball, and I’m pretty sure I re-broke the same rib I broke a couple of years ago.  Anyway, we moved over to the semi-bunny hill  (safer  for young ones AND old bones)

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more on the next pages…

Ben was born Tuesday morning in Calgary.  (I think was Tuesday morning, Graham called me Monday night to tell me he and Ivy were at the hospital) In any event, photos say more than I could.  Congratualtions, Ivy, Graham and Tash!

There’s more photos on the next page…

Manga, literally translated, means “whimsical pictures”. The word first came into common usage in the late 18th century. (from Wikipedia) Most people think of manga as comic books drawn in the Japanese style. The fact is, they pictures are usually whimsical, even when they depict something as gory as decapitation – a subject that could well be the theme of a manga illustration.

Of course, being somewhat compulsive and obsessive, once a thought strikes me, it consumes me. My life will not have any meaning until I have completed at least one picture.

And it’s a lot harder than it looks.

I don’t want to just “copy” a picture. I want to make one of my own. My first idea was to draw it on the computer. That didn’t turn out so well. The lines were too jerky, and it just didn’t feel like drawing. Then I decided to use pencil and paper. Too many eraser marks and smudges, probably because I don’t know what I’m doing, and because I haven’t done that type of thing for some time. I scanned a couple of pencil drawings and tried touching them up on the computer. That didn’t work as well as I hoped.

So, I sent my feeble attempts to my son (ain’t the internet wonderful?) to ask his opinion and advice.

He pointed out a few areas that might help me out. He suggested I should work work on the eyes and shape of the head, the facial expressions, nose, mouth, body, legs, arms and hands. The hair was a little out, and the clothes weren’t quite right, and I should really consider attaching feet to the legs. And, last but not least, the boobs on the girl were too small.

I realized from this critique, that I was actually pretty close to having it perfect.

So, after deleting all of the old files and shredding all of the paper, I managed to come up with this:

This attempt was drawn from scratch using the computer, and my trusty old Wacom drawing tablet. I’m not a big Photoshop user, so I used the Gimp as the drawing program.

And yes, I know theres no boobs, arms, legs, body, hands, feet or clothes. I’ll get to them eventually.

It goes without saying, that skiing was not on the agenda. Photography (or something like it) was the focus. Maybe there would even be a bear or two this time around.

These animals, as you can tell, are not bears. I think that they are elk. I don’t even pretend to know anything about wildlife, so feel free to correct me if you want. In any event, I’m sure they aren’t mountain goats or long horned sheep. You can click on the thumbnails to see a larger version of the photos.

Definitely not as exciting as a mountain lion or grizzly, but wildlife just the same. They paid no attention to the fact that humans had invaded their territory, as our presence was acknowledged with little more than a passing glance.

more pages (mountain photos)

Happy birthday, Graham (wherever you are in Taiwan)

I know it’s a day late (two days in Taiwan).

Just wondering – what the *@!! are you trying to do in this photo?

I had never used it, but it was supposed to let me take a photo from as far as 25 feet away. So, when someone said they wanted a family photo while we were in Edmonton, I thought it was the chance to try it out.

After I figured out how to make it work (you have to change some of the set-up on the camera to enable it) I set the camera on a tripod and lined everybody up and pointed the marvelous gadget at the camera and pushed the clicker button.

Nothing happened.

So I waved it around (cause that’s what you do with a remote control when it doesn’t work) and tilted it up and pointed it down and aimed to the right and then the left and pushed harder on the button and pushed again and still nothing happened. I moved a little closer and pushed the button and still nothing. About 5 feet from the camera I got a beeping sound, and a red light started flashing, but by the time I got back to where I should be, it was too late.

In the end, one of Ashley’s friends acted as the remote control. Not quite so high tech, but it worked better.

There was some sort of a game going on here. Being old, with brittle and weak bones, I wasn’t going to get involved. I think it was called “bum fights” or something like that. I believe the idea was to try to make the other person fall off the trampoline, or at least lose their balance.

Sounds and looks kind of dangerous, but it DOES appear to be fun. So is sky diving, bungee jumping and race car driving (or so they say) I’m not going to try any of those neither.

Somehow, even though I never understood the rules, I think that Amy was defeated in every round, even though she was obviously the most determined bouncer.

I went to a Canadian Tire store and found a little paddling pool for Natasha (and a red Spiderman beach ball) The water was ice cold, but she didn’t seem to mind at all

Natasha, as usual, didn’t want too much to do with me. I’ve decided that’s okay. It’s one less Christmas gift to buy

Of course, the robins on my front door waited patiently (not really, they are getting pretty demanding and noisy, especially in the morning) for supper. They preferred their worms a little on the rare side…

Some quotes from Alfred Hitchcock:

• Someone once told me that every minute a murder occurs, so I don’t want to waste your time. I know you want to go back to work.
• Television has brought back murder into the home – where it belongs.
• The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
• These are bagpipes. I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.
• I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it.