CaptainOrange

A Brief History Lesson I’ve been working at SPL (Saskatoon Public Library) for a little more than 10 years, now. First as a Page for 3 months, then at Cliff Wright for 6 months and then 9 1/2 years in the Children’s Department at FMCL. There have been ups and downs as I took on too many responsibilities as Chief Shop Steward and then Vice President of our union (CUPE local 2669), but the work of the library has been overwhelmingly positive. If you know me even a little, it is obvious just how well suited I have been to working as a storyteller and entertainer of children. Upheaval Currently the library is undergoing a rather large shift from a traditional model of libraries that has existed for a very long time to the much newer concept of Community Lead. You can read all about the details on the  change info page  of SPL’s website. It is a very complicated process and if you don’t care enough to dive into the nitty gritty, the essence of community lead can be summ...

Here we are again. The universe is bigger than ever and that includes Saskatoon—both because of the expansion of space-time and due to the more pedestrian fact of population growth. We must make some plans. The Plan: Saturday, July 14th, 4:15 am at David and Bri’s house (if you don’t know, ask someone). 4:30 am departure. It is my plan to walk counter clockwise. This means no wet river crossing*. Leaving from a new location means that I don’t quite know where the lunch should happen, but I suspect somewhere out past the Shaw Center in the early afternoon. *Stay tuned for late breaking news about direction and/or river activity. I expect you fall into one of the categories below: Accidental Tourist : Google brought me here by mistake... <cough> Observer : You think the Hopefuls are idiots, but you love us anyway. In other circumstances you would consider being on the Support Team but it won’t work this year. You will observe from a safe distance in case our crazy is ...

My coffee woes continued this morning at the EconoLodge. The staff member in charge of the continental breakfast thought that recycling coffee grounds was an okay thing to do. I decided to make coffee in my room, but housekeeping hadn't removed the last used coffee sachet. I don't know how many days it had been there, but it appeared slightly mouldy. Sigh. The good news is that soon after the day began to heat up, we passed a lemonade stand. Leora and Anwyn have had many stands over the years and are always excited when someone from outside the family purchases their lemonade. We paid it forward by giving these cute kids some international customers. Traffic started to look a bit crazy, but never really got out of control and we got into Chicago without incident, aside from a couple of skipped toll booths. I wasn't really sure how they worked and I quickly ran out of change. They'll have to bill me, I guess. It took us a couple of times around the airport to find t...

My sister-in-law was visiting this summer. You may remember that I posted some great pictures of her children as part of my summer update . The visit was not without its tribulations. Teela: There is a bad smell in your basement Me: Yeah, it's your room. The one with the toddler and the baby sleeping in it. Teela: My baby doesn't smell like THAT! Me: If the diaper fits... Note the suspicious looking pipe... Sewer, diapers -- it's all the same right? Two days after the above conversation, we found water on the floor of the guest room. Me: Are we sure this is water? Teela: #$@! We quickly packed our guests off to Liz's house and I tore apart our beloved and oft used guest room. I ripped open the sodden drywall to discover some mold and quite a bit of trouble. The biggest problem was that there was no sign of where the water was coming from. A plumber arrived and promptly chipped a hole in our floor. Plumber's Gift Culprit. I imagine you can te...

Day 1 - Aug 12 I had an early morning. My flight ($157) to Calgary was scheduled for 8:30am. I got to the airport in plenty of time. I was only somewhat put out when my army boots beeped and I was searched (Wen scores points for her foretelling of this event). Army boots? Hello? I thought Harper was all "support the troops". Sheesh. My enthusiasm remained high seeing as how I got to use my iPhone as boarding pass for the first time. Thats right. Got an email confirmation the day before after which I checked in from home. Then I was texted a QR Code that I flashed on my screen at the security station and the departure gate. Practically geek nirvana. I was seated in Row 8 :) The flight was over all too soon -- a little less than an hour. Dave at the trail-head Dave and Suzanne were right there to pick me up from the airport and we hopped in their car for the 1.5 hrs to Athebasca Lake. We did stop briefly for a supply of dark chocolate and chewy things. The hik...

As foretold, Leo, Anwyn and I went to the Ex per usual. The Weather was fantastic. I posted several pictures to Facebook and Buzz, but it's taken me until now to get my Pentax pictures in order and have enough time down off my roof project to put this blog together. Enough with the excuses. Commence with the pictures. First Ride of the Year The girls enjoyed themselves, but I don't think it was as fun for them as last year. They both got more nauseus and were more easily tired out. Yes. Old age. Sadly, it affects us all -- Even ten-year-olds. The super passes that we bought for them still paid off (especially since one of them covered my gate costs), but not by the huge margin of last Ex. It's not always easy to get the sun to go where you want it. On this occasion, it was more accommodating than usual. There were still plenty of laughs and screams to be had. They just have to make sure to take something to settle their stomachs before next year's excursion.

We'll play a little catch-up, here... There is a serious lot of activity here. Take what you will. Things have been pretty busy around my house. Since we've been back from Ottawa and Kitchener , Leora and Anwyn have completed another level each in swimming. They love the pool so much they would have lessons in the morning and then we would take in the "loonie swim" after 6pm. Since the whole family could swim for $2 it seemed like an easy way to kill some time. The below album is from an occasion where we went to George Ward outdoor pool with Erin and her boys Michael and Chandler. Swimming The girls and I managed to sneak away for the day to the Pollard family reunion right at the end of July. It was fun and they wanted to stay longer. As usual, we stopped to enjoy my favourite time of day. Pollard Reunion Jodi and Brad were in town following our excursion. Jodi and I played Rock Band and ate Pizza until 2am. James came over for an hour and rocked out w...

We had a mostly fun drive from Ottawa to Waterloo -- we did have to go through Toronto, after all. It was pretty uneventful, but we did stop to have a picnic lunch at a small resort village where we feed some gulls. The place we stopped was quaint and quiet. There was an entire beach made entirely of the best skipping rocks ever. Wendy was sick or I think I would have stayed until my arm was spaghetti. Don On The Job The other reason to move on was the facilities. The place we ate was equipped only with a port-a-potty. Let me tell you, I don't think "Don" was on the job -- despite the assurance. I think I might have been nervous if he was there anyway. We arrived without incident and commenced with the visiting. Anwyn was in the second day of being sick, but recovered with all speed when there was an infant to hold. Max Gutoski (2 1/2 mos) I was amazed at how great the girls were with their new cousin, Max. Gus and Greta's first son will soon be 3 month's old and...

This last QNY Dave off-handedly invited me out to Calgary to climb a mountain with him. I said that it sounded like a summit would be a great place to have a celebratory game of chess. Dave insinuated that should I bring the necessary gear to play chess, the act of carrying it up any mountain he chose for me would make it likely that I would leave the board and pieces on the mountainside out of sheer exhaustion. I didn't take a chessboard, but after five months (and very near the end of my summer holiday) I managed to make it out on a tight schedule (if there is any other kind) to spend a fantastic day with a very old friend. Dave drove out from Canmore to meet me at the Lac des Arcs campground at 7:15am. I was prepared to leave earlier, but Dave assured me he had not planned an overly ambitious hike. I pressed a quick bodum of coffee and we headed into the national park. This is Bow Peak. I had to take this picture the next day after a lengthy debate with Dave over where th...

Our microwave oven stopped working on Wednesday. Actually, it continued to work, but the door wouldn´t open. Something inside the door-latch mechanism seemed to be jammed or broken. I was more than a little perturbed. After all it´s only a little more than a year old. I´m not sure about you, but I am a heavy user of the microwave. It´s primary purpose in my life is to warm the many forgotten mugs of coffee that I perpetually leave around the house. That´s enough of a blow in itself. Of course there are other tasks for which it is suited and, short of baking bread, it is part of virtually every meal I make. Wendy began to get alarmed with how panicked I was becoming over the loss of this small appliance. I felt thrust back into a dark age of wood ovens and feudal servitude. I don´t mind daydreaming about such things, but not over a cold cup of coffee -- especially when the weather has been so dreary again. Rain about 4 or 5 days running and a high temperature today of 14 C. That´s ...

FAMILY There has been a constant flurry of activity around the house, now that school is over. My usual slow paced serentity has been replaced by a frenzy. It's mostly good, but always takes some adjusting. Wendy comes home in full battle-school mode. Leora and Anwyn come home forgetting that the whole world doesn't celebrate summer holidays like elementary school children. Parents, see below... Anwyn - "I thought summer was for totally relaxing and doing what you want." Father - "Right. But between you and your sister being home, that's eleven extra hours of home and yard messing that happen every day." Leora and Anwyn - "Daaaaad!" Father - "I'm only giving you an extra hour of chores per day. compared to your share of five and a half hours of messing, that's a pretty sweet deal." We have now all signed up for a summer chore schedule which takes a lot off of my plate. This is good, because I am taking a lot more ...

A friend of mine emailed me this story. It seemed questy, and I wanted to share it with the my like-minded readers. My friend has a nephew who has recently left the county. I thought since he is now out of the reach of the applicable authorities, I could safely tell this story... Oh, If you open the title of this post in a new window, you get a map of the activities as described. I didn't embed it cause Vin whines is concerned about load times. It's been a long time since I felt like getting into trouble on campus. To be honest, I didn't feel like it tonight. Sometimes I get to feeling like I'm too old to be climbing where I don't belong and like the magic of the night just doesn't do it for me anymore. That may be one of the reasons that I had children. Kind of cliche if it's true. Anyway, mine aren't quite old enough to be this kind of fun... yet. Fortunately, I have this nephew of mine. I'll call him 'David,' in order to protect his ide...

My eyes struggle to open. I've been up a little too late... again. What's my excuse lately? Let's recap on my sleep excuses -- starting from the beginning of summer: -- Cinderella (-- no, not the band, but a fine selection in video... land) Perhaps not the band, after all, but rather the play that I was in. You may have heard me talking/whining about it? I didn't post my show pictures? Well you should really trust me when I say that if you weren't in the show, you probably don't have a strong interest in seeing them. Since there may be those of you who don't listen, or who have lots of time on their hands to sift through pictures of people that they haven't met... here is the link to the album . -- Erin, Colin, James and Brad helped me and Wen and the girls build a fence. It was... educational. Jodi and Brad were my scapegoats for the next couple of weeks. Jodi kept me out to all hours playing pool and even when Brad wasn't directly keeping me...

Ancient CCorner-friend, Simon was flying across the country and decided to stop in and see what had changed in Saskatoon. Thanks to Anita and Facebook, several of us got together at Lydia's for veggie burgers, nachos, poutine, beers and coffee. I invited everyone for the impending City Walk. Let's just say there may have been some 'loose shoes' in the room. I hope some of them manage to lace up for the event. Ani took some photos, which she will hopefully cough up at some point and link for the rest of us. Thanks for the invite, Anita ***update*** The photos have been up for a looonng time now. I've just been goaded into grabbing them from facebook and putting a couple here. Thanks again, Anita :) Geof, Me, Anita, Simon Chins R Us