Various orders of the day (with external links)

We just got back from driving E & B to the airport, where they are flying to San Francisco for a holiday/business trip. They're going to man (and woman) a booth for their company Solarbotics at a big electronicky techy fair there (you can tell I really understand all of this stuff, hey?) We get to jeepsit for them, as they are lending us the Jeep because.... Our truck is too broke to fix. We've put more money into it than we'd like already this year, and it needs many more repairs. So we're in the market for a new vehicle. We're thinking something smaller and more fuel efficient. Maybe hatchback? Maybe import? And newer. Definitely newer. Volkswagen? Toyota? Honda? Mazda? And we can consider all of this because... My funding came through for the fall! So we can now budget for things, because we have a concrete idea of my expenses and income. Hurray for that! Which means we will (God willing) be making two foreign trips the year because... My research requires a trip to Denmark! There's two archives there containing records that will be helpful for my thesis. So we need to start brushing up on our Danish skills (det skal vi gore) and I have time for this now because... I'm done allllllll of my coursework for my Master's career! I handed in my last paper on Monday! Which means I/we can start preparing for the next couple of things on the go. The first is the 40th Anniversary National Parks Conference held at U of C next weekend. The second is our garden: pruning, raking, fertilizing, weeding, cleaning and organizing. We're in a Catch 22 with what to with the garden this year...we're only here for another year so we don't want to put too much effort in, but we also really enjoy gardening, so we don't want to give it up entirely. And we can't take the perennials with us, much as we want to. If this were our house, we'd make so many changes (read: there would be virtually no grass, just prairie/drought-hardy perennials). At any rate, we need to make some trips to Golden Acres, a local HUGE greenhouse. Third is our trip to England! It's coming up so fast and there are so many things we need to do first. And the craziest part is that we leave only two days after E & B get back, which is less than optimal because... We haven't seen enough of them in the last couple weeks of school craziness and because we have big plans to go see Run Fatboy Run with them. (And we'll need to return the Jeep). So really, it all comes back to E & B. PS. An important wikipedia article.

When Life Gives You Snow, Take Pictures

Today is Tuesday, and it has been snowing off and on since Friday afternoon. Friday and Saturday it snowed pretty hard, covering the roads and making it feel like January again. Now it's just misting enough to put another layer on the sidewalks that diligent shovelers cleared this morning.

And as usual, when it snows, we went for coffee.

It is April 23, two days after the official start of spring and I think the flowers and trees may be permanently scared into submission; they'll try again next year.

But, the robins are out and they are a beautiful sight and sound.

We know a lot of people who have birthdays in April. Happy birthday Dad B, Mum S, and Rachel! (The others we know most likely don't read our blog).

That reminds me, check out Rachel and Trevor's blog for some pictures of what spring can look like, at least in the eastern hemisphere. :)

And on a final note, I should add that the snow really isn't all bad. After all, we had a fire ban here prior to this storm. A fire ban. In April. So bring on the moisture, God, in whatever form.

Just When You Think It Is Over...

... it snows again!

What's Opera Doc?

It's amazing what you can find on Youtube. This was a favourite when my brothers and I were young.