Cursed With Expensive Taste

My house has bare walls. I simply cannot find anything that I both like and can afford. Mind you, Grande Prairie doesn't happen to have the greatest selection of fine art, or even a satisfactory selection of the affordable kind. I did see a picture I really like in one of my decorating magazines. I looked up the artist online and fell in love with her work. The problem is that I seem to be cursed with expensive taste. A sofa sized work by Jennifer Harrison costs between $2000 and $4000 - not exactly in my price range. Any other pictures seem to pale in comparisson. So my walls remain bare.

I have considered taking up painting this year and trying my own hand at creating the art I just can't seem to find in stores. Then Dave may finally have more than blank walls to stare at.

To see some of Jennifer Harrison's (and my favourite) work, visit: http://www.jenniferharrison.org.

An Eye For Annai

This is a movie made by my friend Jonathan Klassen and a classmate while in the Animation program at Sheridan College a few years ago. I enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Oh, and that wonderful recorder music on the soundtrack ... is also my friend Jon. However the jazz music in the middle you may recognize as Louis Armstrong's Jeepers Creepers: Jeepers creepers ... where'd you get those peepers. Jeepers creepers ... where'd you get those eyes ... ;)

If you want to see more of Jon's work visit http://www.burstofbeaden.com

Just A Little Problem Solving

When I was part of the "Gifted" program during school, we spent countless hours doing "creative problem solving" exercises. In fact we even had a one-day problem solving competition called the "Think Bowl" (yeah I was a giant nerd ... WAS, right?!?)

So anyway ... when it came to our recent electrical problem (see previous post), my expertise training kicked into high gear. The solution to my dilema simply involved finding a matching light fixture that would simply cover up my problem - it almost seemed too easy - but it worked! We found a light fixture that had a solid plate on the back and simply copied the shameful wiring job the electrician had done before. Problem solved. No electrician need, no messy dry walling job. Almost first prize at any Think Bowl! Plus it look pretty good too.

Is This Up To Code?

Today I was all excited.

I had patiently waited in anticipation for Canadian Tire christmas gift certificates to purchase a new light fixture for my bathroom to replace the existing one. The current fixture is the kind with the bare light bulbs that get all dusty, and then the dust burns on to the top of them. and they look dirty all the time. Well anyway ... last week I finally purchased the "chosen" lighting I had ordained months earlier.

As I said to begin with ... today I was all excited to get my new lighting up. Dave and I began with all the proper steps.

We:

• went to the breaker box and turned off the electricity to the bathroom
• removed the lightbulbs (without breaking them)
• took down the front of the fixture
• and then ... we were utterly disappointed and confused

Instead of there being a round fixture box in the center of our wall, there was a normal outlet box off centered to the left. Instead of the wiring being pulled through the provided hole in the center of the current fixture, it was pulled through the small hole provided for mounting the fixture to the wall. Why the electrician did this we don't know. There is no stud in the middle of the wall to prevent putting the proper box in. Our conclusion ... well we're not sure what they were thinking!

What now? The fixture we bought (that is perfect for our bathroom & will match the other fixture in front of the toilet) needs the center box and will show the existing hack job. We could get an electrician to put in the proper electrical box, but that means a lot more work and a bit of dry walling to fix the current "problem".

So today I WAS all excited to put up my new light fixture ... until we decided to put the old fixture back up until we had to time tackle a bathroom renovation.

Cartoons Can So Make You Cry

This is a little animated short I found on YouTube a while ago. I thought it was sorta sad and a little inspiring. Dave didn't get it (or at least he pretended not to). Maybe he was just holding back his true feelings (that big softy). Any comments?



For those who want to know more about Kiwi, visit the following Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi

Strange Blizzard Happening

Previously I posted about our recent snow storm a week ago in Grande Prairie. People up here definitely saw some pretty weird things (see our friends' Kris & Mel's last posting at:http://krisandmel.blogspot.com/2007/01/plane-crash-in-blizzard.html ). Its only January and we've already had more than enough winter and snow then we can handle.


Speaking of weird things ... I wouldn't be surprised to spot this guy wandering down the streets of the Peace Country. I think he would feel right at home!

Festive Family Photos

Here are a few family pictures we took over the holidays. Unfortunately, Dave and I do not have a great passion for photography, so if any of our family members have any photos they'd like to share, we'd gladly welcome any you may have.

We had a great visit to Ontario. It was great to see all our friends and family. We miss you all already and wish we could visit more often. You are always in our thoughts and prayers, even if distance keeps us apart!

Far From A Warm Welcome Home

So what better way to say welcome home than with a genuine blizzard! This is a picture from outside our front door this morning. Needless to say, our car has remained parked today since the only guarenteed way to get anywhere is by 4 X 4. The Grande Prairie airport even cancelled all of its flights last night. Why did we leave Ontario?

Oh by the way, Kris drove Dave to work this morning. Tonight's project ... shovel the driveway!

We're Home

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we arrived home to Grande Prairie yesterday afternoon. Thanks to Kris and Mel who had a yummy elk dinner ready to share with us. Other than that all we've made time to do is sleep ... so once we get back into the swing of things I'll let everyone know all about our trip.

P.S. Grande Prairie has a blizzard warning in effect today with an expected accumulation of 20 cm. Why did we leave Ontario . . . ?