Visitors, birthdays and a new member

Pam & Shaun from Edmonton.

Pam is the daughter of Val & Greg, our Okanagan neighbours. The last time I saw Pam was in 1985. Shaun's parents live on the island, and the kids (?) were kind enough to stop by my office on their way home to Edmonton. It was great to see her again, and meet her fiancee. Family birthday season again! ChrisNess were over for the July 1st weekend; my sister invited us to their place for the birthday dinner. Joanne, Sveinn & Ness being serenaded by the enthusiastic, though somewhat offkey family as we celebrate with the communal birthday cake. As per tradition, it is Angel Food WITHOUT icing (long story....6 year old girl, used to store-bought Cinderalla cake was offered angel food without icing....not a happy girl....fortunately for us, she has adapted to the tradition and quite enjoys it now). The 2 boys - Evan on left, Anders on right, are the offspring of Signe (J&S youngest) and Simon.

Simon, Signe, Sveinn (opening his birthday present), Joanne & Anders.

Bob, Vanessa (opening her birthday gift from aunty Joanne with the help of Anders) and Chris.

Bob enjoying Angel Food cake with just a little dollop of whip cream --- or is it the other way around?

Birthday cake # 2 at mommy and daddy's house. Evan & Anders joined us along with Signe & Joanne. Simon & Sveinn were at home working on the boat so they could go fishing.

Bob....the man in green. He loves those caribbean colours mon, he tink dey look nice.

And he be right. My mon, he look good in dose bright cloes.

He's listening to his IPOD....he stopped into the office supply store to buy me a blackboard, and came home with a new toy. (He forgot to buy the blackboard!?)

He be a 'appy mon.

I be 'appy when de siding go on de outside of de 'ouse.

The bald eagles are plentiful in our area. They swoop down through our yard regularly. Bob snapped this one that was perched just a few feet away from us. Majestic!

A funny thing happened on the way home from town last week. We stopped into the local store and as usual read the bulletin board.

We shouldn't have stopped.

Shouldn't have read the board.

And definitely shouldn't have called the number that we jotted down.

Why, you ask?

Well, Cleo is pretty much agreeing to the above paragraph. I think you can read her expression pretty clearly....let me translate for those of you who don't understand felinenglish.

Aw, s*** what the h*** did they do that for? I finally got the 2nd one trained (that would be Chile who succeeded Bo) and now we've got this thing running around at 100 MPH. What's wrong with these people? Why wasn't I adopted into a house that was a dog-free zone?

Announcing the arrival of

BEAR, who is a 3 month old, 18 lb furball of wriggling wolf/husky. Thankfully Chile tolerates him. Bear has been teaching Chile to play like a dog. He has no choice. Bear tugs on Chile's tail, ears, mane, back, leash etc.

Bear is the total antithesis of Chile. He lives to eat, doesn't like walking away from the house, but acts like he is pulling a sled on the way home (genetic?), chews on anything, steals the recycling paper & pop cans (very noisy) from the bin, chases anything that is tossed and BRINGS IT BACK! He answers to his name and comes bounding back to the caller (for now....we'll see if that remains true) and melts our hearts.

The one thing they do have in common is their talking. Chile must have some husky in him, because they both whine, yip and talk. If you close your eyes you can almost believe you are in the far north & the team is getting ready to hike, gee and haw.

Bear is alot of work right now because we have to watch him ALL the time. The wood furniture is very inviting to a teething puppy.

We are exhausted.

We are also thinking we should go to the clinic to have our heads examined.

We are on holidays next week and will use that time to teach Bear that he doesn't need to wake up at 5am unless we are going to work (do you think he'll grasp that concept?). Bob is on holidays the following week, but will be running away to go salmon fishing with Sveinn.

I'll definitely need that head exam by the time he returns!

How could we resist?

Asleep at last!

At least we'll know who is shedding the most; the blonde & red fur will contrast each other.

Although Ness is really wanting to come over and meet this little guy, I have already apologized to Chris, who has an aversion to pet fur. But I think Bear will make a great 4 legged pal for their hikes, bikes, runs and who knows, maybe he'll be a surfboard riding dog??