!4 Days to Go

Like Cher, I am ready for my second retirement, with maybe a few more to go after this.

After almost three years, I am ending my current contract on Dec 14th, which means there are only 14 more working days left. It has been a good assignment, and Lori and I have enjoyed Ottawa, but I want to retire while I am still healthy and able to travel and visit our family scattered around North America.

I am also planning another project management course which I think will be in higher demand than my current course. It will be on "Why Projects Fail" and based on the feedback I get from my courses, almost every project seems to be having problems. I have developed a neat Project Health Check" tool to diagnose the problem areas in a project that I think will fit well in the course.

So I will not be in full retirement mode, but Lori and I will still be able to travel and spend our winters in Florida or some other sunny location, go on cruises in Europe and visit friends in New Zealand and England.

I have no pictures to go with this post, so will include this one of a very cute little boy and his even cuter big sister. No prizes for guessing who they are.

And in case my little brother gets jealous, I am including a cute prized photo of him also. Who knew that England had its own Wild West (Bristol)!

Baby Pictures - Round 1

Whilst others may exploit their children for blog material, like some cartoonists (For Better or Worse, so to speak), I have always resisted the temptation to sink to such low depths. However, after going over two miserable weeks with no news to post, I am embarrassed to say that I have finally succumbed and am posting some baby pictures.

To protect the innocent, I will not put names to them, but Lori has provided the captions and you know who you are (as probably also do those closest to you).

Trick or Treat

One Foot Out

Togetherness

I Love Pasketti

I Love Pasketti Too

As you can guess from the title of this post, there are plenty more cute baby pictures where these came from, so you have been warned.

Dinner with Martin

This evening Lori and I met up with Martin, who is spending a couple of days in Ottawa. We went to a really nice French restaurant for dinner near our condo, called Le Panache. Afterwards we went back to the condo and Martin showed us pictures from his trip to New Zealand.

He is an excellent photographer and his pictures of the flora and fauna and scenery of New Zealand were awesome. You can see these pictures on his blog (link added to the "Family Blogs" section).

Back to the Farm

I went back to the Ottawa Experimental Farm and Arboretum today, to see if I could see the lady painter with the bike again and give her an autographed copy of her photo, but she was not there - it was a bit cold to be painting. I also wanted to see the Photo Exhibition of Trees by Richard Hinchcliff that ended today. It must have taken a lot of skill, patience and perseverance to get such beautiful pictures.

I cannot hope to match his expertise, and the day was kind of dull and grey, but above are my attempts.

I am not Blogworthy

I have been accused by certain people (who shall be nameless, but she lives in Texas) that I do not post often enough.

Well, I wake up every day thinking, what can I do today that I can post on my blog, and without any kids of my own here, I do not have the juicy material and pictures afforded to others.

To paraphrase an old Seinfeld episode, I am not Blogworthy. However, I will do my best to post at least once every week, even if it is only a rant like this.

I do like to get all your news (L & Y), so keep up the good work.

Thanksgiving at The Old Schoolhouse

Lori and I celebrated Thanksgiving at The Old Schoolhuse, in Ormsby, about 45 km and an hour away from our cottage. The Old Schoolhouse was built in 1921 and was used till 1964.

I would love to read more about what it was like to teach (and be taught) in a one room Schoolhouse, so if any of you know of any good books on this subject (besides Lori's favourite, The Little House on the Prairie) please let me know.

We had the traditional turkey dinner, with all the trimmings, and Lori chose pumpkin pie and I had the carrot cake (of course).

September Birthday Celebrations for the Vancouver Clan

Back row: Avery, Cheryl, Charissa, Willie, Camille, Mum
Front row: Rob, Glenn, Bailey

My sister Camille sent me this great photo of her Vancouver Clan celebrating four September Birthdays - Charissa's (on the 7th), Mum (17th), Bailey (21st) and Willie (26th).

Missing from this photo by only a few days is Charissa's brand new addition to the Clan - Liam Russell Fergusson, born October 4th at 4:58 am (an early riser not like some of the Crawford clan), weighing in at 7lb 4oz. Congratulations to Charissa and Rob!!