There’s a couple of things going on that I wanted to document here:
We ended up going to the Stampede on Friday afternoon, even though both Shelley and I hate it. It has its good points, but, with the kids, we’re forced to walk the grounds, going on rides and constantly saying “No” to things. 😉 Ah, the things we do for our kids! Anyway, there was a definate “high point” to the visit: While we were buying our hotdogs for dinner, I was approached by someone saying: “I’m a member of the local media, do your kids like corndogs?” The guy was Gil Tucker of Global TV and that led to Quinn and Austin (his friend visiting from India) getting involved in a “Live from the Stampede: Corndog Eating Competition”. It was just one of those 2 minute fills in the local news, but the kids had fun and got on TV! I have a copy of the “appearance” on two tapes and a TiVO recording, so I’ll get it online when I have some time to play with it. Maybe tonight.
Shelley is currently camping at Pine Lake (the tornado capital of Alberta) near Red Deer by herself, with 5 children! Brave, brave woman! [Update: She just phoned and seemed to be quite happily sitting the beach] A friend of hers (Bonnie) is going up today with 3 more kids and the lot of them will be staying until Thursday. I’m going to go out Wednesday after work, stay the night with them, then help pack them up in the morning. The new trailer seems to be operating well. It’s definately heavier than the old one; you definately notice it’s there behind the car, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’ll update you on the camping trip when they’re back home.
Speaking of the tent trailer, I sold the old one on Saturday for $900. When you consider that we bought it for $1200 and used it for three or four years, $300 for that use isn’t too bad. A nice, older couple bought it and I’m delivering it to their house tonight. We’ll finally have the driveway back!
The house appears to be done, finally. The contractor came at 6:30 this morning to finish up by putting on the eavestrough, and there are a few things I want fixed up before I’ll pay the rest, but for the most part it looks good. Now my work begins…painting the remaining windows frames, new screen door on the front, painting window frames inside, that kind of thing.
Wart Sit rep: Still a few stubborn ones remaining, and they don’t seem to be shrinking…hmmmmm….