Posted by (Top)Andrea::1/22/2008 :: 2 Comments:

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“Robert William Service, poet and novelist who lived and wrote in BC and the Yukon, was born at Preson, England, 1874.”

Robert Service lived between 1909 and 1912 in a log cabin on 8th Avenue in Dawson City, Yukon. His relative prosperity allowed him the luxury of a telephone. After he left for Europe, the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (I.O.D.E.) took care of the house until 1971, preserving it. Service eventually decided he could not return to Dawson, as it would not be as he remembered it.
In 1971, the Service cabin was taken over by Parks Canada, which maintains it, including its sod roof, as a tourist attraction. Irish-born actor Tom Byrne created The Robert Service Show which was presented in the front yard of the cabin, starting in 1976. This was very popular for summer visitors and set the standard for Robert Service recitations.
Ill health caused the elderly Mr. Byrne to discontinue the show at the cabin. The show was moved to a Front Street storefront and since 2004 has been held at the Westmark Hotel in Dawson. A local Dawson entertainer, Johnny Nunan, now recites Service's poetry (including the classic "The Cremation of Sam McGee") from a willow chair while visitors sit on benches on the front lawn. Following the presentation, visitors can view Service's home through the windows and front door. The fragility of the house, and the rarity of the artifacts, precludes any possibility of allowing visitors to walk inside the house itself.

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::1/16/2008 :: 2 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Sunday, January 13, 2008

house work

After two weeks of thinking about it we finally took down the Christmas decorations.
The house looks so empty now.

For the last couple of weeks I have been painting these two bookshelves we got from my mother when she downsized.

They are typical IKEA bookshelves, probably over 15 years of age, in great condition made from the melamine something or other stuff. They were white but after 15 years they started to look tired and old so I painted them up and gave them new life.
One I painted white and the other one is the same brown as the trim in our basement.
I sanded them down first basically scratching the surface so that the primer would have something to stick to. I put two coats of primer on them sanding them down lightly in between each coat and then put on the paint. I used three coats of paint for each colour, again sanding down lightly in between each coat.
They turned out great.
I have started using this slightly more finicky paint from Rona called Expressions. It dries MUCH harder and is way more resistant to scratching and peeling. It is perfect for a bookshelf or hard working areas. We used it on our basement walls and have been very happy with it.

The brown bookshelf does not yet have a permanent home so we haven't put the shelves on yet. We have to get some other thing in order before we can use it properly.
The white one has been put into this orange room where our computer is temporally sitting. This room will eventually become a bedroom once we move the computer into the basement. I envision it being a baby room in the future but that is going to need some future discussions with the other half before that will be possible.

So here is the white bookshelf all decked out.


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Starting at the very top is a large tea pot that has been well used. It was hand made by my mothers friend Linda. Beside it are three wine mugs that my sister made in ceramics class in school. The books beside them are photo albums from Japan. The entire bottom shelf (you cant see it in this photo) is photo albums. There is one shelf of all Ian Rankin books. Hmm I think I like his stuff. 'grin'
There is a photo of my step bro and his wife on their wedding day along with another one of hubs tea pots from his growing collection.
One day I should take a photo of his beautiful collection. They still are not all unpacked yet but we are slowly getting there. This particular pot is made of clay and is so well done it actually floats. And when you put water in it the lid seals and there is no dripping. If you put your thumb over the little air hole water will automatically stop pouring from the spout even with the pot tipped. Cool.


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Labels: the new house

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::1/13/2008 :: 2 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Thursday, January 10, 2008

different thinking

I am waiting for Lil'Miss Ji to put her PJ's on. She likes to play games but will eventually get around to it after running like a streaker around the house.
Hub says she is just like a dog after you give it a bath. It is a pretty good comparison actually.

Yesterday at his new job he learned the big difference between Asians and North Americans – Asians work as a group never 'really' bitching to one another about the others work, never really 'outwardly' making it obvious that they don't like a coworker and never telling the boss that a certain coworker sucks; North Americans think of themselves, defend only themselves and look out for only themselves.

This has been a hard lesson for him.

He had a hard evening last night with me describing things to him and helping him to understand this certain 'bitch' lady at work who has taken an instant dislike to him. She has even gone so far as to make mistakes and then point the finger at him.
Hub had a talk with his boss about it. He was very upset when he got home and I had to talk a lot of confidence back into him.
He doesn't like our way but has learned that he now has to accept it and learn to work with it and not against it.
We don't know why this woman dislikes him – there could be so many reasons – but he needs to learn to work with her and with the other people better. He is always trying to prove himself as a very good chef (which he is) and is forgetting that he also has to prove himself as a nice guy who is good to work with. He needs to learn how to make friends and allies and not create jealous people who see him as a threat to their job cause he is a much better chef.
It has been a hard lesson. He has been thinking more of proving himself to his boss. This is a change for him. In Japan and in China you need to prove to the boss first really. Everyone is working together to prove to the boss that they can all do the job. But here he is forgetting that you actually have to prove yourself to all your coworkers first because they will get you fired faster than if your boss sees you do something wrong.

We will see how he handled tonight. He woke up with a good attitude so it should be ok.

(Ok kid is now ready for bed and hub just walked through the door.)

I did tell him last night that working at this restaurant with it very North American ways will be an excellent learning experience for him. The last two places he was at were family run in their own rules with the staff basically working scared. This place is similar to any work place his moves into in the future. I explained to him that the very problems that he is now dealing with there are similar to what I went through starting out at my job.

It will be good.

Gotta go, kidlet wants me to tuck her in and hub is home.



Hub did good and talked to his boss the way I told him to. They had a really long talk about everything and how hub thinks and it was a good. Boss was happy. Good news.

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::1/10/2008 :: 1 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Monday, January 07, 2008

wozers

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::1/07/2008 :: 1 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Sunday, January 06, 2008

romantic or what?

Yesterday was hubs birthday.
33 years young.
hehehe he doesn't like to be reminded of his age.
He worked but when he came home we flopped ourselves down on the sofa and watched "Resident Evil 1".
How is that for a romantic evening together?
Tonight we are watching number 2.
ya.
No chick flicks for us.
For me personally yes but "us" - nope.

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::1/06/2008 :: 2 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Friday, January 04, 2008

written yesterday

Hmm
Not sure when I will post this but I might as well start writing it.
Don't know what I am writing though, just felt like sitting in front of the home computer and typing about basic nothingness.

Lil'Miss Ji is in bed right now reading a book – well reading her way and enjoying it so who am I to complain.
Hubby is at work.

Work is busy busy and getting even more busy. This isnt bad but it does make for a tiring day – mind you I am sitting on my ass the whole time and this has not been great for its size.

Lil'Miss Ji is now complaining to me about the fish or the lack there of. I think I posted about my mother getting her some fish, cant remember.
Well she did about two months ago and I spent one month of hell trying to keep them alive with terrible results. Two fish turned into nine spread out over a month and they all died. I gave up after spending a ridiculous amount of money on fish meds and water conditioners, filter replacer and the fish themselves. AUGH! I packed the tamk up and put it back into the basement. Lil'Miss Ji loves to tell everyone about the dead fish and how I killed them. So sweet of her.

I am having a heck of a time trying to get her enrolled in a swim class at the pool down the road. They seem to think that all parents with kids under five don't work so there are only two classes that she could go into that I could actually get her to. The girl on the phone today said that they book up two months in advance and gave me the heads up to call in next week to register her for MARCH. I cant think that far ahead!

My carpet needs to be vacuumed so I am just going t shift my chair and ignore it.

We have been buying picture frames at the Liquidation store around the corner when we have some extra cash. We look for really nice frames that we can fit our personal pictures into. It feels great to be finally hanging some of our stuff up. There are still about ten boxes behind me in this room that have not been unpacked as we don't have the shelving space to display it all. Slowly working on it. My mother downsized drastically and gave us her old but still in good condition IKEA bookshelves. With high quality primer they are printable. I have two coats of primer on the one right now. I need to sand it down and then buy some paint this Saturday to get that one finished. I forgot to prime the shelves though. That is kind of important. That will Give hubby and I something to work on this weekend.

Lil'Miss Ji's room is basically done except for the desk wood that we need to add to attach the drawers and the bookshelf. She really likes her room now and enjoys playing in it.
She really should be asleep but I am still rambling on.

New Year's Day this year was five years for Alisha. I am doing really well with it so far. You reach a point where you can morne in silence with a smile and just feel numb for an hour or so. Then you snap out of it and return to a sort of state of normality. The memory flame almost seems to grow brighter and her stories and silliness enters everyday conversation even more that it used to. Those that are listening and know are not cringing when I say her name. Not like they used to.

Things are, um, ok that way. Cant think of the correct word to say.

Lil'Miss Ji wants me to read a book with her and crawl into bed.
I will try to remember to post this tomorrow.

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Labels: memories, our life, ToddlerJi

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::1/04/2008 :: 4 Comments:

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--------------------------------------- Thursday, January 03, 2008

Happy New Year 2008

Hmm
Not doing well with my New Year’s Resolution yet.


Happy New Years everyone!


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I hope all had a lovely evening bringing in 2008. Lil’Miss Ji and I spent the evening at our neighbours. She played with their kids and we watched a movie. After heading home and putting her to bed I flopped down in front of our TV and zoned out watching a movie I cant even recall on and waited for hub to get home.
He did one minute after midnight.

Hub has a new job. I don’t think I blogged about it. He had enough with the restaurant that he was working at – crappy pay, over worked and treated with little respect – he had a blow up with his boss and told him “see ya” after he had first been offered jobs at two other restaurants in town.

(It has taken me 4 hours to get this far on this post. Sigh. Sometimes multitasking really doesn’t work.)

So his new job is closer to home, higher class and the kitchen is overseen by a real registered chef. Everyone is clean, the kitchen is clean and it is very professional. He loves it.
He came home last night and went, “I really like it at this new restaurant. I really enjoy working there.”

He is having to slow down and worry more about presentation and less about cooking fast. He is tons more relaxed and his overall manner in general is happier.
It was a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year because of it.

(Another two hours to get here.)

Then there is the potty training thing.
I have basically given up realizing that when she is ready she will do it herself. She can flip right out if I try to push the idea and then you cant even get her into the bathroom to do her hair let alone go pee.
She has also reached this odd teenage stage (at the age of two) where if she is sitting on the toilet no one is allowed in the washroom and she will sit there and read a book to her hearts content and scream at you if you peak your head around the corner.

Last night hub got home early and the three of us were in the basement watching Shrek 3 when Lil’Miss Ji got up and walked upstairs. We didn’t think anything of it. A few minutes later she walked down stairs and goes “I POOPED!!” We were of course very happy and I went upstairs cause she wanted to show us. Now she was great and there were no poo paintings or grossness, just the entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet with that one little pee sized blob of poop. She was pretty impressed with herself.
I flushed the toilet cringing.
No overflows and lots of hugs.

“Mommy are you happy?”

“Hunny I am very happy. “



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Labels: memories, our life, ToddlerJi

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Posted by (Top)Andrea::1/03/2008 :: 1 Comments:

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