Happy 25th Carl and Karen/ Sonic trip to Van and Back on the week-end!

Carl and Karen, Michael, and Ashley

Connie, Ryan, Emil and Annette...sorry for the blur..my camera was on the wrong setting...P.

Annette and her dad's cousin's, Shannon and Kim

From the back left...Wayne, Karen, Rosemarie, Donna,Brian
Front Row: Uncle George, Carl, Karen, and Auntie Sophie

Here's the Kuzek family again, only this time with all the hubbies and wives, and grandkids and great grandkids. I'll let you figure them all out...





And last for this blog:




Carl's thank-you speech ...Click on the bottom left arrow, if the middle one doesn't work. This is a new feature of blogger.

It was a bundle of fun to reconnect with Emil's long lost relatives! They weren't really lost, but for some of us, it had been close to 30 years since we last visited. So it was Carl and Karen's 25th wedding anniversary and all of Carl's 5 siblings attended, as well as their children and grandchildren and of course, Aunti Sophie and Uncle George, Carl's mom and Dad. They and Carl's sister Rose Marie, and his other sister, Donna,all came out from Saskatchewan. I am embarrased to say, that I never recognized Donna at all...but in hindsite, she hasn't changed a bit,except grown lots taller! She is all married now and seems happier than ever!

Rosemarie, hadn't changed a bit and looks like her mom all over again. She is a granma now,since AJ ( her son) has had a little boy, and a two month old cutey little girl, with his wife. AJ has lived out west,but is now in the process of moving back to Saskatchewan...and bought a house there, for under forty thousand...Whew...that about takes care of the property taxes alone, in Vancouver!

One thing about that family, they are all pretty darn close and it shows when a family with six adult children can all be rounded up for one special son and his wife. Last time that happened...4 1/2 years ago, someone said...

So it was wonderful for Emil to chat with Uncle George, Carl's dad, and tho, he has been battling cancer, he seemed to be in great spirits and was even cleaning up the paper plates, at the end of the party! Auntie Sophie did most of the cooking and blessed us with baked perogies filled with potaoe and cheese and dill, and topped with "melt in your mouth, to die for" cream. There were mushrooms in cream to go over the baked Cornmeal, and therewere cabbage rolls and the traditional baked noodles...(called Lapsha in Russian). In any case, they too were delicious. Then there were the sliced cucs in mayonaise...almost had a little extra meat with those, as both Brian and Mike had a try at slicing cucumbers on Karen's mandolin! Chop-chop...lesson to be learned...

The Mandolin don't see much difference between Ukes and Cucs!

The two Boys were sporting look-a-like tidy white bandages on their most important finger!

It had been years since we saw Auntie Vickie and her daughter Kim...and it was an instant bond between Kim and Annette , all over again... and oh yes, our daughter Annette was there...Now that was fun! Thanks to Kim for giving us all a drive up to Vietnamese land... You'll be happy to know that we moved along to Delaneys pub instead, and later cabbed it back to the Hilton!It was a fun night for all three of us, tho Emil was pooping out a little before Annette and I wanted to call it quits... Yep, green around the gills!

I don't want to leave anyone out, but my eyeballs are going down for the count... It was fun to see everyone again, including Karen's parents ,and her sisters and brother and especially to reconnect with all the grown up children..Michael, Mike, Ryan and Ashley, and AJ and once again see KAren and Mike, Brian and Connie, Wayne and Corinne, Terry and Shannon and girls, and Scott and Susan and Kaitlan, and of course, Little Peter and John and Ronda, and even the old ball team, with Chris and Gary and Denise... My goodness, it was like a step back in time... I missed visiting with Auntie Helen and Jan, but they had to run back to the hospital, as unfortunately, their son, Bobby, was back in and is still waiting for a donor liver... so sign up those organ donor cards!

Also a big cheer to Maryanne for getting on the blower to get us oldheimers off our perch. I will say that driving to Vancouver one day, and returning the next, is kind of crazy, but it all worked out fine, and I got to go to Costco!

Near midnight now... I'll load up some pics, but will have to wait till someone sends me the choice ones of Ronda being inducted officially into the family... lets say it involved Black Forest Cake. She took it like a trooper! Welcome Ronda.

Forgive me, if I missed anyone..email me pics if you want to see them on the blog... and Welcome any newcomers!

The Weather Network - City Weather - Vancouver, British Columbia#st#st#st

The Weather Network - City Weather - Vancouver, British Columbia#st#st#st
This is what I can look forward to... I might have to repack...and bring an umbrella...yuchy.

TGIF

Here is Drink (more)Waters new house construction...Walls are going up. Soon ,we won't be able to see Jim's house at all.

Jim's house...Waterfront (especially during high water)...on the market for $820,000. Yep, no takers so far. We'll wait and see what price tag goes on Bill's when the time comes to sell it...$3 Million maybe? AGHHHHHHH!


Most of this remaining water on our upper beach dried up today.

I hope everyone had a decent Friday once they got over Summer Solstice and the fact that our days will grow shorter now! For me, it was a quiet Friday at work, after a little morning rush. I think everyone was heading for the beach. One tour bus let off five women from Calgary, but they were mainly my age lookers. They liked the shop and the jewellery, s o perhaps they will return tomorrow, once they see the rest of the town.
We are off to Vancouver first thing in the morning, so I am about to head to bed.I'd like to turn on the garden sprinklers for even a half hour in the morning, and water the hanging baskets one more time.
Silk is going to Camp Elli's for her week-end retreat! Thanks Elli!
Time to hit the hay. Emil will up at 5:00 am..or earlier, and that is when I should drag my sorry butt out of bed also. It will be a rush trip , but worth it,and I'll tell you all about it when we return! Have a great week-end...not too many Martooni's now!

"The Creator"

Half past my bedtime

Water is going down down down, and the beach is SLOWLY returning

This is my Watermelon ( I think) poppy from Joyce... beautiful aye?

Another specialty iris from Joyce...Thanks for keeping me in flowers ,Sis!

Now I love this gengian blue little Japanese iris... 2 flowers last year and four this year, but it is getting lost in the foliage of my other trees that are outgrowing their space...anyone need a tree?

More pink poppies about to bloom, but these are not fragrant...

My garden is liking the recent little heat snap..Another zuccini popped out of the ground today and more strawberries are starting to ripen. I had a nice handful for breakfast this morning. Everything seems to be taking off, including the weeds, but I pull a few here and there and try to get the watering done before work, so the whole thing isn't in too bad of a state yet. I boiled up a pot of spinach and ate the whole bunch of it myself in the past two nights. Very good. I abandonned the idea of freezing it, as I still have some floating in the freezer abyss from last year.
On Tuesday night, Emil's staff took us out for dinner to Jackson's Hole...the old Rickabees.. Very nice compared to the last time we were ever there.. Everything was fresh and the portions were generous and all in all it was good. I had the Calamari which was in a light tempura batter and I also had the spring rolls which were hearty in size and tasty to boot...served with a mango sauce. Very yummy. Thank-you everyone for the nice evening out. Nice to not have to cook.
Janice came out and stayed overnight, while Emil drove over to Cranbrook after his dinner,as he had an early morning meeting to attend.

Janice and I had a big blab over a glass of wine, and before you know it, it was bedtime.

Last night I stopped off for groceries...such a drag I forgot to wear my ipod... it is amazing how much better you feel when you block out the rest of the grocery store world .
Okay ,the airconditioning kicked in and my left arm is frozen, and now I have sneezed some ten times or more . How much snot can one have stuck up one's nose? Kleenex #12.
Blow,blow,blow....My ear still feels plugged solid... I think it has gone beyond annoying...sort of deafening:-0

So how many Sears catalogues have YOU recieved? I tell you, my pile ws falling over, under the end table. When I checked the expirey dates...most of them were ceased and desisted many months ago, or were going to be history on JUne 29th. After my little sort job, I have three catalogues. Sort yours now, and save yourself a useless pile of mini catalogues.

I made a rhubarb and strawberry streudal tonight...Yum. Sorry Silk...I was going to bath the poor mutt, but she walked in the lake tonight so that will have to do. Elli will dogsit her on the week-end.
We are headed to Vancouver early Saturday morning and will return late Sunday night... Its called a quick trip... Call us crazy, but we just gotta do it.
Talk to you all early next week. I'll be packing tomorrow.







"The Creator"

Nice Soiree at Rynn and Licks

The men folk sitting around and shooting the breeze...

Now that was a good joke... Dick is laughing his head off...

Peter and Anne having a serious discussion...

Emil found a little buddy...

Anne having a blast...Whahoo!!

Sunday turned out to be intermitantly lovely...rain shine rainshine rain shine rain shine,shine rain, all day.
Peter and Elli and Joanne all came over for breakfast, which was running late , due to my inability to get the Blintzi to look like they are supposed to. Too much baking soda or not enough flour or something...maybe it was all just too much... needed more eggs...who knows? Lets say that several hit the ditch before the right formula was arrived at,so that each one could be made in less than a minute of cooking.
With four breakfast hopefuls sitting at the table, I was in a hurry to get them out of the fry pan and into the plates. All in all, they turned out fine enough with their huckleberry and strawberry or peach fillings, to make everyone full, and then we sat around an blabbed for an hour over coffee.
Eventually we migrated over to the boat and got it winched up out of the water and Emil and I put on the new name decals. Emil called her "Annie" in memory of his dear sweet mom, who always wanted Emil to have a boat.. now it is here when she is not...bittersweet, once again.

After five more weather changes , and having made the black bean salad, Emil and I drove over to Lynn and Ricks, where he had a golden crispy brown turkey being BBQ'd ...The smell was like Christmas in June! Yum. All of the neighbours brought delicious additions to the meal . Marlene and Bill made their famous baked beans and they also brought a beautiful cheesecake topped with peaches..to die for...Yum! Ann did up two of the best pies in the world...she sure can make a pie crust! One was apple and raspberry and the other was Apple! Elli brought stuffed mushrooms and a beautiful green salad and I contributed a black bean and cilantro salad and a plate of chocolate iced brownies... Yum again! The meal was fab with the turkey and gravy and stuffing, and within an hour the food was nearly all inhaled!
Meanwhile, I could hardly move,as my hips were giving me hell...probably from climbing in and out of the boat, the day before. We left a tad on the early side and called it a night! I went home and ran a jacuzzi with a scoop of 2nd Nature Muscle Soak in it. I don't know what the magic ingredient is, but the joints felt 100% better when I crawled out of the tub!

Well,Ithink it is time to hit the hay...the longer I sit, the stiffer my hips get...
I'll try to upload pics tomorrow,as two trys tonight only created an BX-t4589 error message...right... and good night... I'll have to tell you about Sonia's birthday trip to Vancouver to connect with her old friend, Lynn .

"The Creator"

Happy Birthday Sonia!

Its after midnight, so I can officially say "Happy Birthday Sweety!" I hope you've been having a wonderful week-end abroad, catching up with old friends and finding new ones... HAppy Birthday! I baked some Birthday brownies in your honour! Love Mom

"The Creator"

The Big Fishermen

The Captain, driving his boat today!..All Smiles!

Emil and his fishing buddy, John, on Thursday

John, Also known as Minnow Man!

This was John's fish. Actually, he won a buck from Emil for having caught the most fish... We ate the rest, but he took this rainbow home for Aunt Ethel!

Water going down,down down...yea!







"The Creator"

Big Fish

We took a little tour into Pilot Bay...very secluded and lots of moore buoys to anchor up to. We might plan an overnighter there sometime. Looks a little different than after an hour long hike into it, like the last time I visited Pilot Bay!

Silky has found her place in the boat to feel at home.


Here's big Bessie coming out of the water... I scooped it into the net! Carefully, carefully!

The proud man with his super sized rainbow...actually it is MY Supersized Rainbow!



OOOOOHHHHHH SOOOOO FINE! OH SO BIG! So Damn Long! It was about 15 lbs, but was somewhere around 34 inches long...

We had a very exciting and pleasant morning today...up at the crack of dawn ( Emil was) and then out to the boat by about quarter to eight. The lake was flat and calm and even Silky was finding it pretty okay in her hidey hole down in the cutty cabin. We first took a spin over to Pilot Bay...just a bit south of where the ferry docks on the Riondel side. A few years ago, Annette and Sean and Kaleigh and Maddie and I hiked into it from that side. It was a fairly easy going hike that took us right down to the lake in Pilot Bay at a site of what appearred to be an old sawmill site, as the beach ws mostly wood chips. As an extension to that part of the hike we continued to the other side of Pilot Bay where we could see many sailboats moored out in the bay> There is a little Picnic site with washrooms ,on shore, but when we went ,we never discovered the picnic tables until we already picnicked! Too funny.
Today , from the bay view, we could see all the picnic tables on the opposite beach and we could see where the potential is for a nice overnighter sometime, when Ann and Dick want to take their sailboat out.
We cruised out of the bay and headed down towards the mouth of Crawford Bay. This is where we had our first action...A ZINGER! Zing went the line, but when Emil tried reeling it in, the fish had escaped... whahhh
Ten minutes later, the rod bent right over and once again, it was a miss... Whahhh!
The all of a sudden a loud ZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG and the line was reeling off Emil's rod . He grabbed the rod and started to reel it back, then handed it to me to play the fish while got the net ready and stuff prepared for the great landing of "the fish". I had fun reeling in line, then letting the fish run with the line ,then reeling it back in. "Keep the Tip up!" Emil shouted And again I would reel in more line. He finally couldn't stand it any longer and took over the finer details of bringing Bessie to the boat. Once we saw it in the water, we knew it was a biggy! All I wanted to do was take pictures, while Emil was worried about getting the fish in the boat... He kept saying... "It's not a fish, until it is in the boat!"

When he pulled it out of the water, I could see that it was the longest fish I ever saw him catch! Whew! Him and I were both as excited as ever...lots of "ohhing and awwing" going on, but we both agreed it was the longest fish in our history! So that was our big catch of the day...
Now it is in steaks in the freezer. The tail part is going on the BBQ for tonight's dinner... Yum. Lets see...between the kokanee fish fry and John's incredible smoked salmon, I think I have consumed fish every day since last Sunday... Hows that for all of those essential oils???
To top it off, I cooked up the fish head and tail, strained the broth and made apot of fish chowder with bacon bits in it and tomatoes and milk and celery and carrots and potatoes. Yum.
Ever since making that Mexican fish soup, I do feel it needs some hot sauce, or jalapenoes, so we'll see how I feel about it closer to dinner!
Well, Linda called and is going to pop over to return some books. I think I need to sweep the crumbs up or something... and drink my tea.
Have a great week-end... so far, so good on our end...




"The Creator"

Café Glam: Looking Youthful with Universal Style

Café Glam: Looking Youthful with Universal Style
Lots of useful ( Youthful) tips for you women over forty???? Check the sidebars for previous posts.

Good Morning!

Thanks Eva, for the cute photo of your "Butterfly Princess"

The receding waters

Night one's catch of panfries...Yum!

Sunrise this morning... I think I miss most of the pretty ones....well, maybe we haven't had too many these days with all of this rainy weather.

The water has dropped considerably since this two day old photo. Water is still flooding our upper beach,putting it about a foot under water, however,at this rate, we could be seeing sand by the weekend. As soon as it is low enough, Emil can bring his new boat home to moor.

Forgive me for not blogging this week...Seems like time is short when you have a full fishing derby going on in your own house. Emil's fishing buddies, John and Wayne were fishing up a storm all week-end. When they weren't actually fishing, they were talking all about fishing,s o you can imagine the fish and fishy stories! Wayne left late Sunday night and then their were two...but that didn't diminish the yarns about the size of the fish! There is an ongoijng wager for who catches the first, the most, and the biggest fish.. So far it is a tie. They have come home with a delicious mess of Kokanee and yesterday John caught a small rainbow... All except the rainbow ended up in a big fish fry last night...complete with left over perogies... and that is why I can't blog at night...too full!

So John gave me an excellent tip when one is making a rhubarb crisp. ( He is an excellent chef).

Before you put the fruit in the bottom of your pan, line it with one layer of graham wafers. This soaks up some of the excess juices and provides a little stability to the base of the crisp.

So how is that for a good idea? He should have mentioned that BEFORE I made my rhubarb crisp on the week-end!

Okay, time to head for the shower and get ready for humpday at work. There is one more grad, up the valley ,s o we still have people looking for grad gifts....keeping us busy. Chris and Caro leave for a trip on the week-end, so I'll be manning the store with Niki's help for a week, on my own. Have a good week...I plan to!

"The Creator"

Flooding on the Skeena

Derrick sent me these photos taken on Thursday or Friday... Note where the highway is under water...

"The Creator"