CaptainOrange

Our Modest Christmas Eve Snack It has been an unusual holiday season for our family. We have just finished having Jodi and Brad stay with us for a few days, but beyond that we had no house guests over Christmas. Normally, we expect at least two weeks of company. When added to the mild weather and absence of snow, it almost doesn't feel like we had Christmas at all. That said, I had a great holiday. I've been continuing to study flow ( as discussed last post ) and how it integrates with the Quest. As a result, I anticipate this being the most successful winter of my adult life. Whoa... talk about raising expectations. I know that February is coming, but I think (foolishly or not) that I will avoid my usual slump. Something feels different. Tender, buttery Brioche Anyhow, we had a terrific time planning out all of the goodies that we would bake this year. The girls have trouble keeping to just 5 kinds of cookies and I chafe at the thought of only making 4 types of f...

Alert! Feelings laden paragraphs ahead. If you are hear to read about me being a mad scientist or climbing something, turn around and go back to the site with the fluffy kittens doing what fluffy kittens do. I've been thinking about The Quest for a long time -- something like 21 years now. I've found that as time passes, it has become increasingly hard to hold to some of my own ideals. How do I continue to strive, to seek, to find year after year? One thing that has really bothered me lately is that activities that I once enjoyed have stopped filling me up. I feel bored. I don't care. This doesn't matter. It started out being a seasonal depressive thing (which I do believe contributes to the severity), but this last year, there were elements that stayed with me all summer. I thought it was a failing in my person -- that somehow I had changed for the worse and couldn't make myself feel the way I felt when I was twenty. This kind of thinking has never seemed like ...

I'm old enough to have started buying my music on Vinyl, though most of my collection was cassette. I only transitioned to CDs late in my university career. I kept a number of my records for 20 years after I no longer had a turntable. Eventually, they hit the dustbin along with nearly every cassette I ever bought. Did I ever own those songs? They certainly own my dreams. I feel like the songs are part of me. It doesn't seem right that I have to pay to own part of me. Ah, the success of the RIAA. Oh, yeah. This isn't a rant against the music corporations. This is a celebration of a few albums that I've rediscovered. I eventually became embarrassed with my possession of each of these. Now I've had to pay for them again. I look back and realize that I was lacking in self confidence. I found it hard to maintain or defend any opinion, not just those involving music. Styx: Kilroy Was Here My first album (1982). I was 10 years old. I know I just bought it for the...

Drive-throughs are perennial whipping boys for my ire (along with escalators). Today I walked Leora to school and decided to stop at Tim Horton's for a coffee. Being "time delighted" (as opposed to time obsessed), I ran some tests. I Spotted 13 droids in total. 3 on till, 5 on coffee/sandwiches, 1 on tables/cleaning, 2 in kitchen, 1 passing out advertising for a new product, 1 manager.  The manager told me that Friday and Saturday are busier and the staff may be as many as 15! Time trials: indoor line-up vs drive-through with the time penalty for driving displayed at the right. The most bearded James... Ever!* 3:30-6:04   -2:34 3:52-8:44   -4:52 0:50-6:32   -5:42 2:55-7:10   -4:15 4:55-8:31   -3:36 6:10-5:50* +0:20 7:12-6:51* +0:21 2:00-6:51   -4:51 1:30-6:15   -4:45 0:38-5:31   -4:53 1:01-7:44   -6:45 Notes: Trials run 8:45-10am Wednesday, Nov. 2nd Location: Cumberland and 8th. They have just widened the driv...

A couple of days ago, Wendy bought me a replica of Bilbo's sword, Sting. Needless to say I was ecstatic. The Hobbit has been my favourite story for as long as I can remember. From the time I was 10 years old, I pretty much assumed that one day a great big adventure would walk through my door and sweep me away. It was going to be a hard road and I would resist, but in the end I would wind up growing in ways I couldn't have imagined. When I got married, I began to realize that adventures come in more shapes and sizes than I had at first thought and that opportunities to save the world as we know it were relatively rare (still don't know anyone who has done it). So, we're on the subject of stories... A few weeks ago, I was asked to tell a story in front of an adult audience. This was to be part of my job at the library and I was excited. I've been enjoying the illusion that I am being paid to become a master storyteller. The mundane details of my job are bec...

Click Pic for full album Wendy tells me it has been a month since my last post. What can I say? I've been busy. I've been posting images online, but just mentioning them in Google+. I find it a much faster way to get things out than feel the pressure of creating a post about whatever it is. Okay, that's a bad excuse. I've been trying to do more writing lately... hmmm. Since my trip to Canmore with Dave, I've been doing some work for Summer Players, helping to get their current show ready. It's called A Grand Night for Singing (and it finished in town, though you could catch it this weekend in Rosthern ). It's fun and full of singing. 'Nuff said. I also... Dirty and Hazy Shot pictures in the fog... Shot some absolutely crazy pictures of wasps, spiders -- plus other odds and ends... Mike-meta The list goes on. The point being, I have not been idle. Were you concerned? But today, I want to show you my latest creations. In addition ...

doesn't look like much from space. By now, everyone I know is aware that I went to Canmore again this summer to see Dave. If you read his blog  (which I highly recommend), you would already have all the details AND they would be presented in a woodsy, mountainish way that indicates a depth of knowledge in what he is talking about. As usual, I will not attempt to indicate that I possess any technical know-how with respect to the wilderness or mountains. The only thing apparent to me is that I know how to choose good friends and that I don't let a little discomfort get in the way of a good time. In case you don't get over to his blog, I've stolen one of his nice maps to show you the route that we took during this multi-day trip. The adventure started a little early this year. Heidi N. had been staying with us in Saskatoon while she visited with Teela. She has been doing this for many years now and it is a visit to which I look forward. Last year we drove ho...

obligatory site photo We managed to sneak away to Waskesiu for a few days before our guests began arriving in earnest. We didn't really have enough time to go anywhere too remote, so we opted for the Narrows. It's a little busier than we'd like, but its the camp sites are pretty large and the people that camp there are relatively no nonsense. We didn't have to put up with anything more than a barking dog from our neighbours. Leo and Anwyn are both getting to be good campers. They set up their own tent, build fires (I still chop the wood), and cook some of the meals. We (by which I mean Wendy) are working on canoeing skills with them, but they still have a ways to go in terms of endurance. Moss Monster Now, if you are looking for performance and melodrama, Leora and Anwyn have endurance to spare. The weather on the first day was spectacular enough that I was able to forgive the ferocious mosquitoes that accompanied it. Good thing we got some canoeing an...

Wendy's 20ish year old cousin, Douglas has been here for a couple of days visiting between other obligations. He is young and foolish enough to not just indulge, but actually encourage me in some of my crazier antics. The girls helped him warm up with a pool noodle war. Then he was ready to take on something a bit more substantial. Don't know if I mentioned it before, but I picked these swords up last fall (I think) from The Cutting Edge, in Saskatoon. They have, perhaps, the worlds most pathetic website  -- but it is a great store. They in turn purchased the swords from this company (coldsteel.com). So, Douglas has a couple of inches reach over me and, though my age gave me some wily advantage, he is 15 years younger than me. It wasn't long into our combat session that I was thoroughly exhausted and he had to keep waiting for me to catch my breath. I'm still running 4-5 times a week (and just today did 12k and a 6k cycle) so that may give you an idea of how much...

We recently hosted Tim, Sherry and their boys, Ben and Jonah, for a couple of hours. We just began to become good friends as they left town, but we were excited to hear that they plan to move back to Saskatoon after one more year in Regina. Our kids are close enough in age to enjoy playing together and in so many ways we are kindred spirits (sorry, we just watched Anne of Green Gables last night and it makes me a little more romantic than usual about such things). Their visit was too short, as usual, but I consider it a good warm up for all the company that we have planned. There are a couple of pics of their sword wielding children here . Speaking of warm ups, Tim is one of the valued people in my life who is willing to pick up one of my dueling katana's and try to give me a whooping. I was positively out of breath from our brief, but aggressive, swashbuckling session. My summer is looking to be pretty busy (I can sense your shock as you read this). Our visitor ro...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... There was Father's Day. Some time much, much later, I posted about it... I did a crappy job of honouring my own father this year. I guess that's part of the reason I've been reticent to make this post. Every time I think of how great my kids were I just can't start to type. Oh, well. Keeping it in just doesn't work for me. Dad, I'm sorry I was a jerk this year. I hope, with our long history, you can give me a pass on this one. Sour Cherry Crepe Don't let the disclaimer above take away from my fatherly pride. Leora will be 13 soon and Anwyn is 11. They have some mad skills in the kitchen. They are both talented (I compare them to myself at 25), but on this occasion, Leora made the crepes and did composition (she certainly has Wen's eye for design). Anwyn created the filling and acted as the prep cook. In the picture below, Leora shows her level of tolerance for my preoccupation with photography while...

I found this super industrious guy wandering about recently. He hauled this caterpillar up and down blades of grass in my lawn for half the morning. I must find some way to encourage this behaviour. Could solve all my pest problems.