Valour

I have just learned that John, a family friend who is serving in Afghanistan, is going to receive the Medal for Military Valour for his role in preventing a suicide bombing from taking out his convoy.

This does not surprise me in the slightest.  Anybody who goes winter camping recreationally has little to prove in the way of courage.

Lois news

Sis-in-law Lois has wonderful news; she got to act as a doula for a birth in Brooks, and everything went swimmingly and she managed to get a dentist to pull two very unhappy teeth, so she’s expecting to start feeling really awesome really fast.  Hugs to Lois!

In other news, I am slowly lining up my sleeping derangements in Toronto.  I’m at Tammy’s on Friday and god knows where for the rest of the time.

VOIP

Dr. Filk won six months of free VoIP so Paul is installing it.  We’re going to keep the land line for the time being – after all that’s the pipeline for the internet, currently – but we’ll be having way cheaper long distance from now on.  So if you live far away, you can expect to hear from me more.

Cousin Gerald shipped me a moose

It’s been bally ages since I posted a decent picture of a moose. This was forwarded by Cousin Gerald. Cousin Gerald is, in no particular order, one of my favourite cousins, a cartographer, a granddad, a tireless scourer of the inertnest in search of cool pix for my blog, and a guy whom I’m yet to meet.

Yes, one of my favourite cousins is somebody I have never met! Can such things be?! Well, if a guy can travel 2500 miles to hook up with somebody with whom he’s been text messaging for 2 years, I guess so. There were four things that Cousin Gerald did that made me love him, even at this remove; he sent me a picture that was nothing but rebuses of band names, which required myself Keith and Kate to review it for about half an hour, as it was one of those puzzles that could only be solved with intergenerational cooperation; the expression on his face in any pictures where he’s holding his grandson; the way he now checks snopes.com before he forwards me stuff (some people never get this, and Cousin Gerald had no trouble….) and the picture he sent me of his workspace. Even if he never sent me another moose pic, I would still smile every time I see an inbound message from Cousin Gerald.

YES this pic is heavily photoshopped. That is indeed part of its charm.

By copy to the Toronto posse, I am COMING. I will descend upon you mid-February for a long weekend of insanity and mayhem, and then flee back to warmer climes.

Keith is one step closer to being admitted to Optician school. There’s only 15 spots so keep your fingers crossed.