Christmas Holidays Update

Well, here we are, at Chad and Leanne's house in Stratford. We just finished a riveting game of Settlers of Catan--Leanne won, no surprise--and are winding down our evening and getting ready for bed and all that jazz.

So anyways, we've passed a quite exciting and enjoyable couple of days. On Friday we arrived in Toronto, at the airport because we flew West Jet, and Chad and Leanne picked us up in the early afternoon. But before our rendez-vous with Chad and Leanne, we picked up our baggage--my suit had been doused in some kind of alcoholic beverage so we got a free dry-cleaning, compliments of West Jet--and then we had lunch at Swiss Chalet, and then we looked around the airport for a dry cleaner. Since we couldn't find one, we gave up looking and sat in a quiet location to wait for Chad and Leanne. Janelle had a nap and I read Anna Karenina.

At two o'clock I woke up Janelle and we started walking to the Rendez-Vous location. Leanne was already there, looking for us, and we quickly got on the road, destination: North Bay.

We arrived in North Bay for a nice supper at Mr. and Mrs. Black's house--that would be Leanne's grandparents--and we had a fantastic time. The Blacks were wonderful hosts and very funny. We spent the night and got on the road to Kapuskasing later in the morning, after we had breakfast with the Blacks and did some Shopping at the North Gate Mall.

I have to say that the drive to Kapuskasing was almost as enjoyable as the time we spent there. Chad and Leanne are so much fun; they're fantastic. We played games and had exciting conversations, and listened to music from Chad's Palm Pilot device. For lunch we stopped in New Liskeard, at Subway, and we hit up the Tim Horton's in Cochrane, but aside from that our drive was uneventful until the roads started getting a little rough near Kapuskasing. We counted four--or was it five?--cars in the ditch between Cochrane and Kapuskasing. Wow.

So we made it to Kapuskasing quite safe. I can't remember if we were in time for supper or not, but I'm sure that if we were hungry, they fed us. After we arrived the storm set in for real and it started snowing and raining for most of the night. Sunday morning was kind of rough too, but we made it to meeting and afterwards had lunch at the Bechards. Robb and Angele were also there, and Melina too. Matt was missing--apparently he had already come and gone; we missed him.

Chad and I were scheduled to preach Sunday night, so as the storm worsened over the afternoon, our hopes that gospel meeting would be canceled increased. Shortly after lunch we learned that the highway between Hearst and Cochrane had been closed and the snow started to fall with increased vigour. Giant flakes coming out the sky--it was awesome.

Anyways, it turned out that meeting wasn't canceled. Chad and I preached. I did a pretty sucky job, even forgot to pray when I was opening with my four hymns. Afterwards Matthew and Kimberley had us over and we played a couple rounds of thirty one and had some great conversation. Because the highway was closed, we had to use the back roads to get home, which was kind of exciting and scary.

Monday, Christmas Eve, we did some last minute shopping in the morning. Toured the mall, Canadian Tire, and Wal-Mart. Especially the photo section. After lunch we went home and Dad, Chad, and I shoveled the driveway. Sophie came out to help for a bit too, she melted a bit of snow with her cigarette butts.


For supper, the extended Labelle Family came over for supper. It was fun, we had a gift exchange game... I ended up winning the "Worst Gift For a Child" prize and was given something else as a consolation, I forget what it was though. The "Worst Gift" was three miniature parachutists and some smarties and stuff like that. I liked my gift and argued that Heidi got the "Worst Gift"--a plastic gorilla. Anyways, that's what it was.

After everyone left we opened our presents and stockings. Wow. Mom and Dad went all-out this Christmas. Crazy. It was very nice. Except that we had been expecting to leave with less luggage than we came with. That expectation was delightfully dashed.

Christmas Day we spent together, Janelle cooked some garlic bread and potatoes; we spent a nice relaxing day. Dad, Chad, and I had a stimulating conversation about perpetual motion, mortgages, Life Insurance, and investments. Uncle Bert and Aunt Chris and Scott, Tim, and Erica came over for supper with Grandma, Aunt Doris, and Aunt Alice. After supper we played Things--Leanne's birthday gift. It was very funny and great.

We left for Stratford on Wednesday Morning. Spent the whole day driving with short stops in North Bay, Huntsville, and Mississauga. We arrived at Chad and Leanne's later that night. Today Chad and Leanne worked, Janelle and I slept in, relaxed, and did our laundry.

Tomorrow we head for Michigan! We miss everybody back home.

(Awesome Camera, Joey!)

Our Chirstmas Apartment

I took some pictures of our apartment decorated for Christmas... we even decorated an artificial tree!

Dear Mr. President by Pink

these are the lyrics to pink's song: "Dear Mr. President":

Dear Mr. President
Come take a walk with me (come take a walk with me)
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep
What do you feel when you look in the mirror
Are you proud

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why

Dear Mr. President
Were you a lonely boy (were you a lonely boy)
Are you a lonely boy (are you a lonely boy)
How can you say
No child is left behind
We're not dumb and we're not blind (we're not blind)
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye

Let me tell you bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh

How do you sleep at night
How do you walk with your head held high
Dear Mr. President
You'd never take a walk with me
Would you 

So, Janelle came home today for lunch, she brought pizza and we had Bacon-feta-hot pepper pizza for lunch with a toblerone for dessert. yummy. I drove Janelle back to work, and went to Little Caesar's to get my schedule because I'm off today. So I was listening to the radio.

The first song that came on was this one. I don't know if it's hugely popular or not, and I don't really know much about it but I object to it.

Right from the start, I'll say this: I'm as anti-american as the next guy, I don't particularly like or dislike George Bush--I'm ambivalent. I make no commentary on him as a person or a president. That's it.

About the song... well:

She starts out promisingly enough, and I like this start: "Let's pretend we're just two people and / you're not better than me / I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly." I like it because it promises simplicity and asks for honesty. I think it's important and necessary to ask for honesty and to be simple and transparent, and that's what these three lines kind of make me feel for.

But then the rest of the song just kind of degenerates into a self-righteous, anti-George Bush preach that tries to blame him personally for homelessness, poor education, war casualties, and high-crime and overcrowded prisons.

I agree that government has to be held responsible for certain things but if I had written this song I'd be embarrassed if anyone heard it. The president becomes a convenient scapegoat when we see things we dislike, like homelessness. But we have to remember that homelessness isn't going to go away if a different president (or prime-minister, seeing as there's homelessness in Canada too) is elected. The same can be said about poor education, war casualties, and high crime.

We can't afford to be self-righteous about these things or try to blame someone else: it's you and me who's responsible. Did you know that for us to enjoy the luxury we enjoy the majority of the world's population HAS to be poor and starving? That means that for me to be able to afford to buy one of Pink's CDs and a stereo to play it on, dozens of kids in Africa have to go without food. And not just in Africa, I'm sure there are kids within walking distance of my apartment who aren't very well fed, while here I am listening to music on my computer and snacking on some junk food. There are kids out there who don't have any clean and whole clothes to wear while we complain that we don't have any 'fashionable' clothes. Half my wardrobe could probably clothe a whole Zambian village for a couple years. What I mean to say is, we're living in luxury at the expense of most of the world's population.

Anyways, what I object to about this song is its self-righteousness. Maybe Pink has gone through a rough time, had to make a bed out of a cardboard box, had to work really hard to get where she is. Maybe, I don't know, I don't know much about Pink. But nothing Pink may have gone through can justify the line, "You don't know nothing 'bout hard work."

The tone of the song totally undoes the beginning: "Let's pretend we're just two people and / you're not better than me," because for the rest of the song what she's saying is: "I'm better than you, Mr. President."

Anyways... I'm just ranting. Don't think I'm saying that you need to send all your food and clothes to Calcutta because I'm not. I'm not living any poorer to help poor starving street kids and I don't really feel all that guilty about it.

Winter Storm ... kinda

We had a major winter storm yesterday... turning to rain and +15'C weather today. Crazy.

We discovered at morning meeting that the Christmas program was moved ahead to directly after Sunday School because of the storm, expected to begin in the early afternoon. Dad and Mom Swan drove down from Truro to be at the program.

So after Sunday School we had a turkey dinner, which was delicious, and then we got ready for the program. I thought Janelle's class was the cutest, but I could be biased. They were dressed up as angels hiding behind sheep and Maggie was dressed up as the shepherd. They were a little uncoordinated, but so adorable.

After the five (or was it six, or four?) classes made their presentations it was "gift time" and everything degenerated into fun and crazy chaos with kids opening their presents everywhere and leaving wrapping paper all over, and people being generally in a hurry to leave because of the storm. (Storms out here and in Toronto are so much worse than in Kapuskasing because it takes a very long time to get the plows on the roads out here.) We drove Dan and Katie home because their car got hit by a snowplow and afterwards Janelle and I went home.

I was working at five, but Colin called at four and told me they were expecting to close early because of the storm. The roads were very bad and people were advised to stay in. Our delivery drivers were off the road. Colin told me to bring boots and stuff and be prepared to spend the night at his place because he didn't want Janelle driving out to pick me up in the terrible weather if the roads stayed bad.

So Janelle drove me to work and then went over to Daniel and Katie's for supper. Gospel meeting was canceled. At work, it had been dead for over and hour, but as I arrived more customers started coming in. Unfortunately they had been expecting to close and had nothing ready so that was frustrating, but we got everything going again and customers were coming in pretty steady for a little while.

We closed up at six thirty and I called Janelle to come pick me up. She came with Dan and Katie and we all went back to Dan and Katie's and had dessert. It was delicious Brown Betty--which is kind of like apple crisp. Afterwards we sat around and talked and then watched "Hairspray." The movie was funny and kind of cool, after I got over being creeped out by John Travolta in a dress and married to Christopher Walken, who's pretty creepy all on his own. It was a cute movie anyway and really funny with a really cool message.

When we left Dan and Katie's it was almost ten o'clock and the snow had turned to rain and everything was slushy and disgusting. So much for a winter storm...

This morning the sky is somewhat clear, it's kind of warm, and the snow is still melting.

Crazy Pre-Christmas Week

We leave on Friday, and are we looking forward to it!

What a crazy week. First, Janelle got a C- on an essay; the first C- in her life! And it was a bad C- too, and mainly because her professor was very vague about the essay's requirements, so that's very frustrating.

To add to that, today Janelle finished her tenth shift in six days! She's been working two jobs since school finished, which is very rough. Meanwhile, I haven't had a day off in two weeks. I mean, I was off last Saturday, but I went to work to collect more hours.

Last night there was a major Christmas party, and we missed it... because I left the lights on in the car when I went to work and the battery died. We spent about an hour trying to find booster cables and when we finally found some, the car wouldn't boost. Dad Swan and Uncle Ken came down today and fixed it, thank God for them! But we had to leave the car in the parking lot at Little Caesar's overnight. We were too tired to go to the party anyway, and went pretty much straight to bed when we got home.

Tonight we got off work at seven and went to do some Christmas Shopping. As we were leaving, we remembered gift cards we'd been given and I ran back upstairs and got them. Then we went to Wal-Mart, had a quick snack/supper at A&W and then went to Zellers and back to Wal-Mart... (I can't tell you what we bought though.) Anyways, we went back home and when we got to the door of our building, we couldn't find our keys. I ran back to the car and checked, in case they fell out of my pocket and onto the floor of the car. Not there. We tried to remember what we had done with them and came up with two possibilities: either they fell out of my pocket at A&W when we sat down or I left them in the apartment when I went up to get the gift cards; if that was the case, then it was possible that the keys would be still in the lock. So we decided that Janelle would wait at the apartment in case someone leaving or entering would open the door for her, while I went to the bank to get the $20 it would cost to have our landlady let us in.

So Janelle waited the whole time I was gone and no one came. One man finally came just as I got back and let us both in. We raced up to our apartment, carrying our packages, and the key was not in the lock... So, we decided that Janelle would stay by the door with the packages and I would go to the landlady's apartment and get her to let us in. So I did, but there was a sign on her door that said that she was off duty and to relay any trouble to another lady, who was managing the building next door. That was so frustrating that Janelle started to cry and I was pretty close too, at this point. Not to mention how dumb I felt for losing my keys.

So we went next door and Janelle buzzed the lady, who called our landlady, who agreed to let us in. We went back and she kindly unlocked our door for us... at ten to twelve. Thankfully, she was very nice about it and not grumpy at all.

It turned out that when I went back for the gift cards, I had left my keys on the dresser. How frustrating.

So we sat on the couch and ate some crackers and pickles... and now we're going to bed.

Goodnight.

I hope this story inspires you: this is what could happen to you if you leave your car lights on and/or forget your keys inside your apartmet.

Christmas is Coming

Hi Everybody. Sorry it's been so long but we've been very busy.

Janelle is now working two jobs. She wrote her last exam on Monday and is working at the Office of Admissions at MSVU and at Little Caesar's in the evenings. I'm still working there too but today I applied for a job at Staples. Hopefully I'll get it.

On Monday we had our Little Caesar's staff party. It was at Putting Edge--a mini golf place. Fun and interesting, albeit difficult. After minigolf, we ate a six foot long sub from Subway and exchanged presents. Janelle got a smelly candle and I got the Walk the Line movie soundtrack, which is excellent. (Thanks Janelle)

Aside from that, Christmas is most definitely coming. We have snow--and lots of it. This morning we woke up to heavily snowed trees. It was beautiful. It must have snowed all night. It turned to rain late this morning though, and now everything is just slushy. At least it's not cold.

I picked up Janelle during her lunch break and we went to get our christmas card photos at wal-mart. That was fun except I was grumpy and spilled water on Janelle's seat, so now she has damp panties. I hope they dry out.

Anyways, take care!

pretty much the best thing in the world

yesterday, patrick and i got dressed up and went to meeting. sitting there, people singing, praying, he had his arm around me and i couldn't have been happier. grateful to Jesus for dying for us, grateful for love, for happiness, for who Jesus is - His love for people, His mercy, His compassion and tenderness for sick and suffering people, His love for the humble, the sinners, the needy. His majesty, His power, His awesome goodness. His creation. the beauty He makes. warmth. snow. salvation. sweet baby Jesus lying in a manger. angels singing, trumpets blaring, gorgeous light streaming from heaven. loving and journeying.
love makes us travel. we're madly in love with our family, and we're going to see them this month. we love each other, so we travel to the store, and come back bearing gifts.
we visit our friends and decorate with lights, with pretty things sparkling and gleaming.
Jesus came down, with light from a Star. His arrival was greeted with singing, with gifts, with traveling, with love.
He brought love, brought gifts, travelled here, shone as the Light of the world, and makes our hearts sing glorious worship, joyous praise.
merry merry merry christmas everybody.

jennifer love hewitt makes the tabloids.

grrr. i'm so upset. if SHE'S fat, what chance do the rest of us have?!!?
jennifer love hewitt goes to the beach, playing with her family, whatever. a normal-person thing that even starlets like to do.
and some lame skeezebag takes pictures of her in her bikini, zeroes in on her cellulite, and calls her fat.
the woman is a size two. TWO!
i'm sure the photographer himself is thin as a rail.
gag.
if someone who is a size two can be called fat, then the rest of us have no hope at all.
i was laughing at the ludicrous statement about natalie in 'love actually' - the other women call her "the chubby girl." hugh grant's eyebrows shoot up and he goes, "oooo, would we call her chubby?" surprised at anyone thinking her to be the least bit chubby. and honestly, she's probably a size nine - maybe an eleven. and she's beautiful. way more beautiful than the woman who called her chubby. it was kind of funny - because it was so obviously ridiculous, the way women think about other women.
it's not even close to funny when it happens in real life. especially to someone who is so so so thin as jennifer love hewitt. it's just gross.
it's gross that we buy into a society that sets a really rigid parameter for beautiful and gawks at those who don't fit its most stringent requirements.
it's gross that, instead of looking for beauty, we look for ugliness. why do we see magazines with zoomed-in cellulite circled in bright yellow lines? why didn't the photographer show jennifer's relaxed smile as she enjoyed a refreshing day at the beach, her gorgeous figure, or her lovely hair?
is it because we want to see one of the perfect ones as less-than-perfect? because if they're imperfect, they have no right to lord it over the rest of us?
well, they don't have that right at all anyway. but we give it to them, we welcome it - we worship the set standard of beauty and close our eyes to the magnificent panorama of loveliness that is everywhere.
instead of tearing down beautiful people for not being skin-and-bone perfect, we need to see that more people are beautiful than we ever thought.
beauty is so so so much wider than we allow.
one guy wrote about jennifer love hewitt: "unless she's pregnant, she's a little bit bigger than i like my starlets to be."
that's disgusting.
he sounds like he's at mcdonalds, expecting his fries to be the same in l.a. as they are in pei. for mcdonalds - sure, that's how we want it - predictable, so we can decide what we like and stick with it.
but people are so much more than fast food. people shouldn't be commodified like that, as if you can put your quarter in the slot and out pops a cookie-cutter movie star according to your preferred and expected specifications.
people are whole-package, one-of-a-kind deals that God makes uniquely. unlike our society, God loves variety. He makes stars of every shape and size and puts them in the sky. He doesn't tell the southern cross to be the north star, or make the whole sky a copy-cat of big dippers. there are thousands of types of trees, millions of different bugs, hundreds of beautiful butterflies, a million changes of sunset. nature is gorgeous. and no two people are completely identical.
trying to squish a whole world of beautiful women into one size and one shape is just wrong.

think of all the beauty we will lose if we succeed.
think of all the beauty we lose as we try to make ourselves into that camazotz-nightmare.

look for it. try to find 'beautiful' in the unexpected. email me or post your replies with what you find. really.

more from little caeser's

Long day today.

I was angry and upset. That made me all mixed up in my head and misfocused. One man came into the store and ordered a pizza. I handed him a bag of crazy bread, and he started walking away. I turned around to go back to whatever I had been doing, and from the corner of my eye I saw him with a bag of crazy bread and thought to myself, "How the heck did he get crazy bread? Didn't he order a pizza?" At the same moment, he turned to me and said, "What is this?"
It was kind of embarrassing.

My night got better later on, when I started having fun on cash with Joanne.

Patrick's Crazy Day

Good morning.

Today was nuts. Well, not entirely nuts. I got to sleep in, which is especially great, considering I even went to bed early last night. So I got lots of sleep.

Janelle got up before me because she had to finish some homework, and she did, but she needed a ride to school. Anyways, because mom and dad Swan used their black accord to help move Joanne and Colin, Janelle and I had Joanne and Colin's car. It did alright driving downhill to get to the university, and I dropped Janelle there and headed home. I started noticing that the car was dysfunctional on the way home when it could hardly make it up the hills. It would rev high, then kick into gear, then kick out of gear and rev high again, gain speed, lose power, slow down, speed up. Very tumultuous. Very difficult. Very slow.

I made it home, and decided not to use the car any more than I had to. I left it in the parking space and went up the stairs to our building. That's when I realized that I was keyless. I had left the keys in the apartment. Briefly, I was struck with panic, then I remembered that Janelle had the other set, and that I would just have to find her at the University and get the keys from her, after her class. I judged that I had an hour and a half to kill, and headed to Bayer's Lake, to do some shopping.

First I went to Future Shop to check out laptops. As I was looking, this pesky salesperson kept bugging me, so I left. I went to Staples, where I was totally ignored. I looked at their selection and came to the conclusion that, while I could get a relatively cheap laptop at either store, I was not entirely sure what I would be getting, I didn't really know what I wanted, and I couldn't buy a laptop that didn't come with a pre-installed operating system.

I really don't like Windows. Lately I've been using the Ubuntu operating system, and I've found it very, very stable, fast, and reliable. It's got a few problems, but I'm quite satisfied. It doesn't bog down over time, like Windows does, and I don't have to worry about constant crashes and stuff like that -- all Windows problems. Ubuntu runs very stable, and that's the best part about it. Anyways, I'm looking for a computer that doesn't come with a pre-installed OS, so I can put Ubuntu on it, and neither Staples nor Future Shop sell them. Anyways, I left Staples. I don't have enough money to buy a computer right now anyway.

Coming out of Staples I decided to do some preliminary Christmas Shopping. So I went to Reitmans. Upon entering I realized that I had no idea what I was looking for or even where to begin. I couldn't even remember what size Janelle is! The staff tried helping me, and they were very sweet, but I just had no idea so I left. Afterwards I went to the Shoe Company because Janelle wants boots. So I tried looking for boots, but nothing was clicking. I decided I would have to return with, either more information, or Janelle herself.

Then I went to Little Caeser's, for two reasons. Firstly, to kill time, and secondly to find out how much time I had to kill. In other words, I wanted to know what time it was. On the way to Little Caeser's the car gave me more trouble than before. It just wouldn't go above 20 km/h going uphill and behaved even more tempestuously. At one point I was going uphill and the car just wouldn't accelerate and people lined up behind me...

Finally I got to Little Caeser's. I went in and after checking the time, I told Colin what was up. Being the sweetheart that he is, he called up Joanne. They arranged to meet me at the subway near our house for lunch, and then I could go to the University from there. So I tried to go, but the car wouldn't start. I went back and told Colin this, he tried it too, and took a quick look under the hood, and determined that the engine must be gone. It was very hot and there was a lot of fluid. Probably overheated. The car wasn't going anywhere. I thanked Colin, and told him I'd grab the bus to the University and meet Janelle there, and I started walking.

I ended up walking the whole way. Mainly because, as Colin pointed out, I'm too stubborn. It only took about half an hour to get to the University, mainly because it was all downhill. Then I started looking for Janelle. I checked around the SAC, then tried the Saceteria, and then the medical clinic because she had mentioned that she'd be there sometime today. I hung around the clinic for a few minutes then went back to the SAC. After looking around a bit more, I decided that it was more or less hopeless. Why did I even think I could find one person in such a big place? So I started walking home.

At this point I was getting tired. I hadn't eaten breakfast yet, and it was getting past lunch time. It took a long time, walking up hill, to the apartment and when I finally got there I was too shy to buzz the superintendent to let me in. Desperation finally took over and I went to the lobby. As I got there, however, someone else was coming in and held the door open for me.

I rushed in, and climbed the stairs to the Superintendent's apartment and knocked. She greeted me kindly and listened to my problem, and agreed to come let me into the apartment. So, with her little crazy-haired daughter in tow, we went down the stairs to our apartment, she unlocked the door and I gratefully went inside. Relieved, and exhausted.

I drank a few glasses of milk, and filled up on water, being very thirsty, then checked my e-mails and found that Janelle had written me. I wrote back very quickly, then went on MSN and we chatted for the rest of the afternoon. I totally forgot about eating until almost three o'clock. Then Joanne called and said that she would pick me up and bring me to the Volkswagen Golf. So I (remembering the keys this time) met her in the parking lot, and she drove me to where the Golf was parked and we parted. She went to work, and I headed back to the apartment to do the dishes, quickly, before going back to the University to pick up Janelle.

After picking up Janelle we headed to Little Caeser's again for some pizza supper. Janelle picked up a prescription at Lawtons, and then we went back to Bayer's lake. First we checked out moulding at Kent because we want to make a frame for our painting that Vince gave us as a wedding present. Next we went to Michael's for some Christmas supplies.

When we got home, we had lots of water, both being quite thirsty and then I set about installing Ubuntu on Janelle's computer and reading from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Janelle baked some garlic bread and chatted on the telephone with Juaniece. At midnight the garlic bread was ready and we ate some before Janelle went to bed, and I went back to the computer to finish installing Ubuntu and getting it set up. Afterwards, I wrote this blog. And I'm done now, so I'll say goodnight.

Goodnight :)

Tipping in Tylenol

So the other day, at work, it was a terribly slow night. Everything was done by eight o'clock, so we were doing extra cleaning and stuff like that. While I was stocking up the pop cooler, a gentleman came in, he was tall and heavyset, with graying hair, well-dressed. He ordered a pizza, and ate it at one of the tables in the store. I was stocking the pop cooler behind him. He finished eating his pizza, there were still several slices left over, so he turned to me and asked if he could trade me his medium size box for a smaller box. I said, no problem. So I gave him a smaller box, and he tried to give me the medium size box, so I could use it again, he said. I just told him to put it in the garbage. He must have been thrilled with our service because he tipped me in tylenol. He gave me two packages of tylenol ultra. "Is very good, if someone have headache, you know," he said.

The tylenol came in handy, because yesterday, Joanne had a headache and ran out of advil. I rushed to the tip jar and opened it up, and gave one to Joanne. So they really did come in handy.

On Tuesday, I was working with Jenna. We had a big person-sized box. So I cut holes for arms and head and put it over myself. Afterwards I convinced Jenna to wear it while she was working, because she didn't have to wait on customers. (I was too embarassed to wear it while waiting on customers.) Anyways, Kerri has photos of it on her cell phone. Maybe some day I'll duplicate it and get photos for the website.

'Later

Fashion

My favourite part of living in Halifax is watching the ships at Fairview Cove Container Terminal. It's very impressive. One of the things I would Love to do is be a pilot on big, big ship. Then I'd stock up on rum and become a pirate.

This morning my wife and I were looking at an article titled "Last Week's Style Winners and Losers." It's a photo montage of several famous people in fancy evening-wear. Under each photo is a short paragraph explaining what was right or wrong about what this person was wearing. For example, Avril Lavinge was wearing a nice dress but her boots were absolutely garish--as the writer explained.

What is it with our culture of ascribing value to people only based on how they look and dress? I mean, we really, really don't care about who these people are and what they're like. It seems like the only thing that makes people special is that they look "perfect" and we're so jaded that our idea of perfect is totally unrealistic.

pizza woes

yargh. either i'm insane, or the customers at little caesar's are.
i try to wait on customers as fast as i can, being as friendly as i can, giving them their orders and change as quickly as possible.
but for some people, 'hot&ready' isn't ready enough! there's always the ubiquitious toe-tapper, the "excuse me, i ordered before him" interrupter, the "six minutes? that's too long" sayer, or the "tsk tsk, aren't we ready yet?" fake sugar monsters. ugh. it makes me feel really pathetic that i'm pouring out all that i have into serving well, and it's still not good enough. if, with all the effort and grit i can muster, i still can't handle little caesar's, what will the rest of my life be like? yikes.
but it really feels like the customers think they have to fight me to get what they want. don't they know that's what i'm trying like crazy to give them?
i think there should be a sign on the cash:

Dear Customer:
I want you to have a very pleasant experience here.
I want to be as helpful as I can, and I will do my best to get you exactly what you want at the cheapest price possible and as quickly as possible.
I will be friendly, crack an occasional appropriate joke, smile winningly, and wait patiently while you fish for pennies in your pockets. I will admire your babies, talk to your kids, and help old people out the door. I really really really want you to have a good day.
-Employee
PS.Unfortunately, I can't make personal phone calls for you to find out what sauce your family wants again, especially when there are five people in line behind you. Sorry, I can't pick the mushrooms off a Canadian hot and ready. They come as they are. If you want just bacon-and-pepperoni, it will be a six minute wait. Just because you order first doesn't mean your order will be finished first. Some people order hot&ready, that means they don't have to wait. Occasionally, one of us will make a mistake. It's okay, we'll fix it at no cost to you. No, I didn't charge you too much for the pop. It's called a deposit. We recycle. Please don't expect me to warn your kids about pawing through the poppies. You know that pins are sharp.

i know that customers are the same the world over, and the bad customers stand out in my mind more than the good ones. patrick finds women in general more rude, and i think older professional men are the rudest. give me in-from-the-sticks-hillbillies any day: they might call canadians "canadianas" but they say thanks and have a nice day when they leave. moms with little kids are fun - the kids always have things in their pockets they want to show off, and it makes moms happy when you admire them. old people are always happily surprised by the speed of hot&readies, and they love crinkly-eye smiles. they get more polite when they're pleased: i usually get a "thank you dear" or "thank you miss" when i give them their order.
and it's really awesome working with patrick and joey (and everyone else is fun too) and i am grateful to have a job and a paycheque.
i love being able to lift and slice and pack a pizza in a few seconds, then hand it, steaming, to a really happy customer. mmmm. that part almost tastes as good as a bacon, feta, and hot-pepper pizza ....

Hurricane Noel

Saturday morning we drove Stephen to the airport and then I went to work. That afternoon, Halifax, and all of Nova Scotia was hit by Hurricane Noel (downgraded to a tropical storm). It was pretty exciting. Winds up to 140 km/h, and heavy, heavy rain. We had no power for most of the day on Sunday and morning meeting was cancelled.

Monday, after the storm had blown itself out or moved further along the coast and the morning was shining crisp and sunny, I was listening the radio at work. They interviewed one man who was foolish enough to go to Peggy's Cove to watch the storm on Sunday morning. (There are reports that more than one person was swept out to sea by monstrous waves during the storm.) So this man was saying that he parked his car in the parking lot and went down to the rocks to watch the waves. The ocean was very rough, with huge waves. Suddenly, these thirty foot waves rushed the shore and swamped the parking lot. At that point, he got a little scared and decided to leave. He got back in his car and drove away. At one point, though, waves were washing over the road and one hit the car, completely sumbmerging it.

Sounds awesome. I turned to Janelle and said, "Next time there's a hurricane, we're going to Peggy's Cove and filming it."

More Stories From Little Caeser's

I can never remember where I put my car. I can always remember where I put my glasses, but I usually lose the car. I mean, out of the two, I'd think the glasses are easier to lose, but I lose the car most often. Mind you, if I lost my glasses and the car, the car would probably be the one I'd find first. I mean, how easy can it be to hide a red car with Ontario plates in Nova Scotia? Maybe then it's a good thing that I lose my car more often than my glasses.

Ahhh... So I was on cash again at Little Caeser's. By the way, at Little Caeser's they call me Dorothy. Like, Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. I don't know why. Ashlin always teases me about being called Dorothy, so I call her Ugly Flying Monkey, or Stupid Flying Monkey. But it doesn't deter her. Anyway, On Thursdays we have Free Crazy Sauce with our Crazy Bread. One gentleman came in and asked for Crazy Bread and I asked, "What kind of Crazy Sauce would you like with that?" He looked confused so I explained that on Thursdays and Saturdays Sauce is free with Bread and I asked again, "Would you like Donair or Tomato sauce?" Still looking confused he said, "I didn't know there would be a test."

One of our Combos at Little Caeser's is the Family Choice. It's actually the most popular choice of our customers and it comes with one canadian pizza and one peperoni pizza, a two litre pop, some crazy bread, and crazy sauce. The only caveat is that it can't be changed. You can't change the toppings, or anything. So anyways, this lady came in--she's one of our regular customers and she's really cranky all the time--and she asked for the Family Choice with no Bacon. So I told her, "I'm sorry, we can't make any changes to the pizzas." So she repeated, firmly and louder, "Give me the Family choice with no bacon!" I repeated my earlier statement, and a tall graying man who was with her, and who I hadn't noticed until now, put himself in front of her and said angrily, "Boy, can't you speak english! We want the Family Choice with no bacon!" So I said, "Sir, I'd be happy to sell you the family choice, or a pizza with no bacon, but I can't give you a pizza with no bacon at the family choice price." I don't think they completely understood what was going on, because they stalked out and didn't come back. I think they may have thought that I was refusing to serve them.

The next day, a lady came in and asked, "If I order pizza for my daughter's birthday, would they be made fresh?" So I replied with, "Yes." She qualified with, "Or would you just take them out of the box?" (The hot box is where we keep our ready-made pizzas.) So I replied with, "Yes," again, because we would give her the order out of the box, but the pizzas in the box are kept fresh. She said, "What?" and I said, "Pardon me?" and she said, "Why are you saying 'Pardon me?'?" And I replied, "I'm not quite sure I understood the last thing you said." She rolled her eyes and said, "Can I talk to that girl over there?" pointing at Janelle. So I went over and traded jobs with Janelle and she asked the same question to Janelle, which Janelle answered with more clarity. Then she said, "Can that boy not speak english?"

I have to admit that I was being purposely difficult because the lady was being rude and snobbish. I get frustrated with customers who come in and ask for fresh made pizzas when we already have some ready. I generally give them a fresh pizza when they ask for one, but if we gave everyone a fresh-made pizza we wouldn't be able to sell them at the prices we do. Five dollars for a medium pizza is probably the best price you'll get anywhere, and the pizzas we sell ARE fresh! (That price is even better than the price you'll get on a same-sized frozen pizza at the grocery store!) Here I am, ranting...

Anyways. We had a brunch today. Tim and Stef, Kenny and Heidi, Kim, Rachel, Laura, Celina, Janna, and Stephen all attended. We had german pancakes, sausages, coffee, fruit, yogurt, and all kinds of nice things and good fellowship and played Apples to Apples and Bananagrams. It was great! Then everyone went back to their studies and Janelle and Rachel went out.

New Furniture!

Yesterday was an interesting day. Janelle went off to school at eleven o'clock. I spent the rest of the morning writing, and at one thirty I picked up Janelle at the university and we went furniture shopping. We looked up all the used furniture stores we could find in Halifax and some in Dartmouth on the internet while we ate a quick lunch. Then off we went. The first store was a quick decision, we walked in and the first thing we saw was a little mirror priced at $160. So we turned around and left. The second one didn't exist anymore. And the third one wasn't open on mondays. So we went across the harbour to Dartmouth and hit up Angie's Buy and Sell. But we didn't find what we were looking for there. On the way back, we stopped at Colin and Joanne's house but they weren't home. Probably out for pizza or something. So I dropped off Janelle at the university and went to Staples.

After Janelle was done school for the day, we had supper with Juaniece. Cousin Jeff from Vancouver was there too and we had an awesome time with the dog. And the kids.

I bought a nice black bookcase at Staples, and after supper Janelle and I went to Wal-Mart and bought a nice futon. Then we spent the rest of the night putting together our guest room. Then Jeff came over to spend the night and Janelle made some grilled cheese sandwiches and then Jeff and I went out for Donairs. It was almost two AM so King of Donair was closed-ish. All they had left was slices and they wouldn't make us anything, so we went to Greco's and they were closed. So we went to Sicilian's and they were just about to close, but the man offered to make us donairs anyway, so he did, and it was fantastic.

Anyways, I just left a ridiculous message at the Morton's and I'm feeling somewhat embarrassed. And I'm waiting for Jeff to wake up so I can make him breakfast or something. Or maybe he'll want to go out for Donairs again...

longing

Prayer, October 20 2007


I felt the walls closing in on me tonight
A little more,
Middle class blandness.

I could see myself ordinary
Getting older
Busy with children, with work, with food
Only nodding, absently, at God once a week
My heart slowly congealing
My brain settling lower in my skull

I cried out in horror and longing
For the extraordinary

For cars dangling on pole bridges
For hints of death slithering in the grass
For life passed from mouth to mouth with joy
For lightning, for thunder,
For running flat out, for being needed,
For tears and gasps of joy and shouts of laughter.

I have tasted it! I have floated in it!
I must go.
I’m running…

our romantic saturday

this morning we woke up to the sounds of little kids screaming. one of the little girls who lives in the building next to us is a tyrant: she screams orders at the other kids, and they disobey her at their peril. we saw her learning this first hand from her mother ... it was sad.

anyway, we decided that since it was a saturday, we wanted to sleep in. after all, who wants to start their day with the screeching of a pint-sized dictator? we're not living in north korea. i closed the window.

three hours later, we groggily crawled out of bed into the noon sunshine. over breakfast, we decided to go to peggy's cove before patrick had to work at six. it was a perfect day. the sky was high and clear, the sun warm. we bought pumpkin spice smoothies, new batteries for our camera, and set off.

the leaves on the trees were brilliantly red and orange and gold and green. the dark firs and shadows made the leaves in the sun seem to gleam in comparison, and everything felt as joyful as we were. we hadn't been back to peggy's cove since our honeymoon, and driving there together again was incredibly romantic and happy. the curvy, windy road sparked a surprise at every turn - funny signs, red maples flaring by the blue sky, the silvery water, families walking their dogs. houses for sale. we were zipping through a little hollow where the water curled right up to the road when the most delicious smell of fish and chips made us drool. it was hackett's cove - we have to take ashley, joel, willow, and naomi there when they come visit!!

peggy's cove was full of people - not uncommonly, especially on such a perfect day - but the water was weirdly calm. not gorgeously glassy, like in the postcards, but just tossy and ripply.

patrick was standing on the edge of a rock, watching the seaweed float, when a wave just leaped out of nowhere and soaked him up to the knees - then it went back to being still. we thought we heard it snicker as it went. we took some pictures, then decided to go back to hackett's cove for lunch ... which by this time, was actually supper. it was really good, and hackett's cove was pretty pretty pretty.

the radio played sappy music and we held hands. i didn't think it could get any better after we got married. i thought that was the epitome of happiness.

but it just keeps getting better.

Janelle's Birthday Week

It has been about one month now that we've been living in Halifax. It's crazy to think of it because it feels like we just moved here a week or two ago. I still have nightmares about living in Toronto and working at the Super Store.

This week was Janelle's birthday week. For her birthday we got a new couch--that was towards the end of September--and closer to the day of her birthday I got her a new Bible. Also, our car broke down, as I mentioned in previous posts. First we thought it was the starter because the car wouldn't start (we still managed to jump start it down the hill of our parking lot) but finally the car died on us while we were out and we needed to have it boosted (it wouldn't jump start down a hill at all). This led us to believe that there was a problem with our alternator or our battery.

Anyways, this week Uncle Ken heard that our car was broken so he decided to come over and have a look at it. It turned out that our battery cables (the ones that connect to the posts on the battery) were corroded. So uncle Ken scraped off all the rust with a pair of clippers or shears or something, and put the cables back on and the car started like normal. It was almost like magic. Then we went to Canadian Tire and Uncle Ken wanted to buy a new gizmo (I forget what it's called) to replace the rusted one. Uncle Ken even tried to pay for it himself, but I managed to beat him to it. He said, "Bob wouldn't have let you get away with that!" and I replied that Janelle wouldn't have let me get away with letting him pay. Anyways, we went back to the car and Uncle Ken replaced the parts and the car was fixed (for the time being). He told me to pack some grease or petroleum jelly on it so it wouldn't corrode again.

On Tuesday, Janelle's birthday-day Janelle was at school and I worked until six. After work we had planned to go to a Children's Meeting in Dartmouth but I came down with some kind of flu or something while I was at work. I felt very cold while I was at work, and then I had some kind of crazy fever and a headache a very sore muscles. So after work I came home and slept for a while and Janelle went shopping. When she came back I got up and we hung around the apartment for a while and then went to pick up Joanne at work and watched a movie and then went back to bed. I was off on Wednesday but still sick. At four o'clock I went to Mount Saint Vincent University because Stephen Vance was giving a presentation there about the rationality of belief in God. There was a good turn out and Stephen spoke very well. (He's here for a series of Gospel meetings). After that I was feeling very sick so I didn't go to meeting, but after meeting Janelle went to Juaniece's house and I stayed home.

Thursday I worked again, and was still sick. When I came home I had a nasty fever and a crazy headache. Janelle had gone to Scott and Krisha's place to watch a scary movie and it scared her so much that she needed me to go over and walk her back home. The whole way home she hung on to my arm very very tightly while she told me about the movie and it even creeped me out. So we went home and watched a the end of "Becoming Jane" to get Janelle's mind off the creepy movie, and then I had a shower and went to bed. We had to sleep with the light on because Janelle was still scared. Apparently my fever got really bad when I was sleeping because Janelle woke me up a bunch of times to drink water because it was getting uncomfortable to sleep with me (I don't really remember it, Janelle had to tell me about it later) but I was feeling better by Friday morning.

On Friday, Janelle went to Cora's for breakfast with her sisters and that was a rather mixed experience. Then Laurie and Eva were getting their hair done, and then Janelle raced back home to give me a ride to work and I worked from noon to eight. After work I was feeling sick again and had a shower. Then Heidi came over and hung out with Janelle and I fell asleep on the floor. After Heidi left Janelle and I got a movie and after watching it, my fever was up again so Janelle poured me a cold bath and after that I went to bed.

I'm feeling better again this morning. Flus are nasty. Today Janelle and I are going to get some lunch and then we're going to go to Peggy's Cove for an outing! And then I work at six.

Let's Watch For Birds, Ok?

If you read Joanne's weblog at all, you know about the game her kids play when they're driving. They keep a daily tally of how many "punch buggies" they can spot and it's the three kids against their papa.

Anyways, our car broke down. When, at first, it wouldn't start we thought the problem was with the starter so we thought, 'well, who needs a starter anyway?' because we could jump start the car virtually anywhere in Halifax (provided we park facing downhill). So we kept using the car.

Last night Janelle and I went to the waterfront with Daniel and Katie, we parked our car on a hill and after a delightful walk along the harbour, we returned to our automobiles. It was then that the horrible realization sunk in that the problem with the car was in the alternator, or the battery, or the wiring in between. The car started but could get no power. It only made a little gurgling noise. We coasted down the hill and then Janelle and I pushed the car into a parking lot.

Thankfully, Daniel and Katie came back to give us a boost, and an inebriated stranger walking past also stopped to help. It turned out that was a good thing because he got the car started when I couldn't. He wouldn't tell me what he did though, and then he just disappeared. He was probably an angel or something.

Anyways, as a consequence, Colin picked us up for gospel meeting tonight and on the way there the girls played the punch buggy game. I was on Colin's team. As we neared our destination and enthusiasm for the game lapsed, Laurie turned to me and said, "Don't forget to look for punch buggies ... um, I mean birds."

dreaming of sakeji

last night i dreamed that patrick and i went to sakeji. in my dream, janet was showing us around newly renovated dorms, and showed us our room, right in the spot between janette's room and the boys' dorm - in my dream, this space was janet's living room, and she was giving it up for us. we put our stuff down and went back to the main sitting room, where we had snacks and chilled with the staff, and could see the kids playing outside. more and more staff kept coming into the room and i was thinking - oh no, there are so many people here, we should have saved our money and bought tickets when there was a shortage! i wonder if we can return them? but then i realized, having already used the tickets, there was no way we could return them (thinking in dreams is a whole other ballgame). i noticed that the kids playing outside had all become really fat - had all gained a hundred pounds at least and i couldn't recognize any of them, except for busiwa, who was still skinny, sitting by the window of the main sitting room, begging for snacks. margie was trying to share with her, without making it obvious. then patrick and i went to bed, and i actually woke up from my dream, but looking at the closet doors in our new apartment couldn't figure out what they were - my brain was still back at sakeji, and i really really thought we must have actually gone to zambia, and it wasn't a dream after all, and at that moment i must have drifted back to sleep and thought i had a conversation with patrick about really being in zambia, and he assured me that, yes, we really were there.
it was pretty surprising, and disappointing, to wake up for real when the phone rang.
boo.

More From Little Caeser's

I dropped a large pizza on myself. I was trying to get it into a box, but the pan was sticky and the pizza wouldn't slide off it and into the box, so I gave it a vigorous shake and the scalding hot pizza landed on my apron and the front of my pants. ugh. I tried to catch it, save it with my hands, but it was still very hot and the sauce burned my fingertips. It slid down my apron and plopped face-down on the floor, except for a few slices that fell into the box. We get to eat these mistakes but I think that if, every time we make a mistake, we get rewarded with free pizza, the mistakes won't stop happening.

Last night I waited on a lady who wanted two sets of wings. Generally we only keep one set of wings ready in the hot box (at least, as far as I know) so I neglected to check and told the lady that it would be a five or six minute wait for the wings because they needed to be prepared. This upset her because she didn't have five or six minutes (to me, she probably would get stuck in traffic on her way home and lose at least that much time anyway, but that's inconsequential). She pointed to our sign that advertised Little Caeser's Wings as Hot and Ready, complaining that it was false advertising. I thought of explaining to her the economic reasons for keeping only one set of wings Hot and Ready, but instead I apologized and offered to let her talk to my manager about it. She said, "Just give me my money back," which I did.

Later Joanne told me that there was actually two sets of wings in the hot box. I guess I learned to make sure and check every time instead of assuming.

We had a fund raiser on Wednesday and the store was packed out. It was crazy, Kerri and I were on cash, taking orders. For the whole two to three hours I had a stiff panicky sensation in my gut. I was SO glad to be finished.

Colin and Joanne are Awesome

I was working an afternoon-evening shift today, from two to ten. It's pretty long, but we were busy pretty much the whole time and even exceeded projected sales by three hundred, which is a rare occurence.

Anyways, it's pretty common knowledge among the staff of Little Caeser's that our delivery company, Niteflight, is terrible. Joanne says they're evil. They lie to us all the time, and they're always late.

Tonight, just about the time when Colin was leaving, a Niteflight driver arrived to take a delivery but he wanted to carry the delivery in a Swiss Chalet bag. Colin wouldn't allow it, so the driver angrily returned to his car to fetch a plain red bag. He dropped it on the counter and said something like, "Is this one okay?"

"Yes, it is," Colin replied. "Why didn't you bring that one in the first time?"

The driver just said, almost shouted, "Just give me the food."

Colin doesn't take attitude from anyone. He pointed to the door and said very evenly, "Get out of my store."

The driver put up a bit of a fight, but Colin insisted, "Get out of my store."

"Come on outside, then!" the driver said.

The man just wouldn't leave the store, he kept asking Colin to come outside so they could fight it out in the parking lot and Colin kept asking him to leave. Finally Joanne came around the corner and pointed to the door, "Get out, just get out!"

When the man resisted, she said, "Get out or I'll count to five like I do with my three year old!" And the man left.

Did I mention that there were customers in the store? A lady remarked that Colin and Joanne handled that very well.

Colin and Joanne are Awesome.

Earlier this evening a lady came in while Kerri was on cash and told her, "You guys need a serious attitude adjustment; you're so rude to your customers!"

We get all kinds of weirdos.

Little Caeser's

So, Good Morning.
I now work at Little Caeser's Pizza and it's quite the trip. For the past week or week and a half I've been learning how to run the cash register. I can't say I enjoy it but it makes time pass pretty fast and I get to see all kinds of people.

My funniest experience was on my first day when three greasy men came in together and the first came to the counter and put in his order. Before I could take it in, the second man came behind him and started ordering too. I said, "Wait, is this all for one bill?" and the second man said, "No, he's paying for his own," gesturing to the first man dismissively. "Well, I have to take the orders one at a time," I said. "But you already took his," the second man whined. I laugh about it now but it was crazy at the time. I ran back to Joanne: "Can you come help me?" I wailed, "I'm really confused and I don't know what to do!"

Joanne is really helpful and great to work for. She likes showing me how to do things and that's pretty awesome. Colin is helpful too, he likes to show me how to do things too, but something tells me that he's mainly just showing off. He's a little bit crazy. But in a good way because yesterday the store had an inspection and we scored 99%. The inspector said that's the highest score he ever gave out. Colin was dancing around the store for the rest of the night.

One day Marcella and Laurie were there and poppa was going to let them make their very own pizza. How exciting! Laurie looked proudly up at Janelle, smiling like a little nut job, showing the massive gap in her front teeth, she said, "We're gunna make our own pista!"

So anyways... maybe you've noticed the small changes to our blog system thing. I've added two blogs: Janelle and I have consolidated our 'deep thoughts' into one blog called "Thinkings by Patrick and Janelle." I've also added a blog that I will update whenever I am inclined to, on which I will post, for your pleasure and criticism, whatever I happen to be working on. This post is called: "A Work in Progress."

Have a good one.
-Patrick

september 11

finally, after much dashing around, i registered for classes and went to two of them! (at first i thought i couldn't attend this term, turns out i can, so i registered late). it's so nice to be back at the mount, hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones - this is a happy, friendly school.
i just got out of a class called contemporary moral problems. i'm interested already. my prof isn't a proponent of moral relativism, for which i am truly thankful. i just couldn't handle a year of swallowing (or debating) that. it's so ridiculously unsupportable.
the staff in the registrar's office are so nice, i hang out up there just for fun. the ladies always decorate it, have dishes of candy, and share their jokes. i'm so so happy to be here.
last night, a bunch of us got together to listen to hell's best kept secret - it's a great message, easy to download and listen to ... it really helps you know how to share the gospel, the relevence of the gospel, and to focus on the core of the good news - we're saved from our sins! not saved in order to get a happy life, emotional fulfillment, and no hard times. Jesus came and provided salvation because when our sins are judged, we'll go to hell without Him. if we have Him, He took the punishment already, and we're forgiven. it's a really great message - ray (the preacher) is funny, and realistic. we snacked afterward - katie and daniel brought yummy crackers with crab & cream cheese dip, and laura helped me decorate a cake. esther donated apple pie and nachos, sniech brought ice cream ... mmmm yummy. it was a great night.
well that's the latest!

we're back!

we've landed in halifax, nova scotia and moved into a nice little two bedroom apartment near the container terminal and mount saint vincent university. we're loving it. (the second bedroom assures we have room for visitors!)

our apartment is on a hill overlooking halifax. we can't really see the ocean from here but we do have a fair view of both the macdonald and mackay bridges. we can also see some construction on the waterfront and a stack from the oil refinery across the harbour. aside from that, almost everything else is trees. it's a very nice view.

janelle will be commencing classes this fall at msvu while i upgrade my high school diploma, since i'm now eligible to graduate from lakehead university with a degree in english. i'm also working at little caeser's pizza with brother-in-law colin.

that's all for now, i will post more later.