The Ouseys in Victoria Page

Weather continues nice and sunny here. So it made for a nice weekend. I went with Dennis for his shift at the aviation museum. They just got a 1914 Fokker recently and it is now on display. It took the restorer 18 years of loving restoration to get it into flying shape. He actually flew it to a show in Oshkosh WI, USA two years ago and won best in show. It still has some of the bugs on the leading edge. It was nice to see. Of course I have photographs, but posting them will have to wait. (see previous blog).

We contacted Jack via Skype and Yahoo yesterday. Mother really enjoys that. She gets on the mike and chatters away with Jack, the joy is in being able to see him. We got it going too late to see Jamie and Andrew, but he had a friend Josie there, whom we got to meet and she got to meet all of us.

Our doors for the motorhome have been delivered to Ken and Helen. Great, thanks for the info Helen. If you would like to check their condition that would be great and we will get them from you once we get together, probably on our way down in Dec. I am sure we can meet up and travel together.

Well that is about it. We had a great visit thanks in very large part to the hospitality of Dennis and Catherine. They are terrific hosts. Like my Mom says, "Don't know what I would do without them". She and we are very thankful they are here for her.

We head home tomorrow, next blog from "drippy" Victoria. Cheers

Weather has been just great. Warm and Sunny most of the week. Might change over the next couple of days though.

We had lunch with Burt and Marion, (the couple who rented our place the last couple of winters). Very nice and interesting couple. She puts on an excellent lunch and we had a pleasant discussion of camping, motorhoming, traveling in general. They will be going to Florida to one of their time shares in January 2006. The other day we might the couple who are using our place this year. They will be coming out for Jan, Feb and March. A very nice couple, Peter and bevy Robitaille, they have a very lovely home and there is no doubt that our place will be in very good hands.

We had lunch on the bridge. There is a new pedestrian bridge across to St. Boniface and in the middle is a Salisbury House restaurant. Quite the location. Carolyn and I remember the Nips and Chips we used to have a Salisbury House. So it was a must. Oh yes a Nip is a hamburger usually done with lots of fried onions. Now if I could only download my pictures I could show you what I meant, but that will have to wait until I get home.

We had Lasagna last night that Catherine prepared, it is her famous Lasagna, delish and afterward had a Jeannies Cake. Another Tradition of Winnipeg. We must have been having Jeannies cakes for at least 50 years. It was decorated for Carolyn's and my Mom's birthday, which aren't until November, but we had to have something on the cake and we won't be here for Mom's. It was fun and good too.

Man am I going to need the Gym when I get back. Ciao!

Here is a school picture of Chelsea. Beoootiful isn't she.


We are having a great visit so far. We just had another Turkey dinner. Dennis, Catherine and Mom missed Thanksgiving this year due to Catherines surgery at that time. So they kept the turkey and waited for us to come in and we had it today. Third one for us. "MMMMMMM". We visited their new trailer up in Gimli yesterday; it is really quite nice. Slide out and 30+ feet long makes for a nice roomy and comfortable living space. It is on a beautiful lot too. Gimli has turned into quite a nice little town with everything you could need. We had dinner, and Carolyn was happy to get a real pickeral dinner. Carolyn has been over to visit her cousing Betty and Aunt Merle too. The fowl supper on Sunday turned out to be so great that there were too many people to do the serving so Carolyn did more visiting than working. There is more details that I needn't repeat in Dennis' blog.

We rented a Corolla, now Carolyn wants one of those. Nice little car, but she lost interest when I said it couldn't be towed.

Tis all for now.

We got to Winnipeg last night after an uneventful trip. Today rented a car, picked up Mom and just finished a very nice meal that Catherine whipped up. Tomorrow Dennis and Catherine are busy all day so we will spend the day with Mom and do some running around town.

Catherine is looking good after her harrowing experience with her surgery. Pretty much back to normal. She is still busy substitute teaching, and marketing Numera cards. They are cards especially designed for teaching arithmetic. That is why she is busy tomorrow; she will be at a show demonstrating and selling them.

More later. Ciao.

Where do the time go. Rachel's laptop died and I have spent several hours over the past week or so trying to recover her files. Which I did, no mean feat since it would not boot up on the harddrive. The method I used to get access to the harddrive was a slow one. However, once I had the data I then worked on recover the drive, to no avail. It is dead, so I ordered a new one and am just now putting it in and installing a new Operating System and some software, etc. Cutting it fine since we leave for Winnipeg tomorrow.

I also installed a Dimplex Electric Fireplace insert. You know the ones that have the realistic flames. It looks quite nice. We really hadn't used the fireplace since it is a wood burner (rather wax log look-alike thingys). So this is really more convenient for instant ambiance. Even comes with a remote control that only has two buttons. ON and OFF! LOL.

Been running back and forth to the motorhome. Since the weather has turned damp, I have been watching for door expansion. Last year 4 cupboard doors had the core expand in the wet weather and they came apart. Monaco fixed this by replacing the doors. Sure enough two of the ones they replaced are doing the same thing. They said they will replace them too, on warranty, even though the warranty period is over. They are being delivered to Ken and Helen and we will pick them up on the way south in December. Otherwise we have been getting it ready.

We had an Ad in the Winnipeg Free Press weekend before last to rent the house and not one call at the time. However, it did work as someone saw it in an old paper and called us recently. We will visit them in Winnipeg, check them out, and hammer out the details. They sound good, and Marion (our last tenants) have been talking to them too, raving about the place, which was nice of her. So we will see what the details are, no doubt they want it, I just got a check in the mail for a deposit. They must be serious.

It doesn't sound like Jack is coming to Winnipeg. His house finally closed and he will be busy moving in I suspect. He hasn't blogged for some time, so not too sure, not email either. Hmmmm Hope all is OK. Must call him when we get to Winnipeg.

We are looking forward to seeing Dennis, Catherine, and Mom. Apparently we are getting some turkey again. Their Thanksgiving was interrupted so they save the turkey for when we get there. Hey this will be a 3rd thanksgiving dinner, Cool.

Take care of that feetsies Dennis, see ya tomorrow. Next blog from Winnipeg.

Special effects Pencil art Rachel and Chelsea.

Thanksgiving day went very well, despite the fact there was no Turkey. Friday night Noni and Chelsea were over to pick up the salmon and Chelsea was so upset that 1. that there was not going to be a Turkey and 2. that Grandma and Papa were not going to be here for Xmas that Noni promised a Turkey for Monday (Thanksgiving). On Sunday, Rachel too missed the turkey as did David "What no turkey!!!". Tradition, tradition. The Ham was great and so was the Salmon. Everyone seemed as stuffed as a Turkey would have been. Unfortunately Tena had to work so was unable to attend as was Chris. Rachel's boyfriend Juan, was sick and couldn't make it either.

Monday, true to her word Noni did a turkey and all the trimmings. So we got to have two Thanksgiving dinners to be thankful for. There were only five of us at this feast, us, Noni, Chelsea and Noni's friend and Neighbour (husband at sea), Michelle. Excellent feed. Now I won't have to eat for a week. Right!

Rachel was having fun with her Camera.


Ben, Rachel, Megan and Chelsea, having fun with Rachel's digital camera on Thanksgiving Day.

Hey Helen, did we go to the same RV show??? We saw the same rigs as you it seems, though I am sure if you had seen the same Itasca Suncruiser as Carolyn did you would be raving about the kitchen too. It also had, as had a couple of other Rigs, the slide out counter space; Carolyn was in love.

Well our thanksgiving weekend is here, and Carolyn is busy prepping foodstuffs to take with us tomorrow to Lyn's and Alan's. She is doing a Ham and we have two Salmon that Mike had given us (Sockeye - I believe, Thanks Mike) that Noni will prepare for tomorrow. No turkey this year, always messing with tradition. The rest including pumpkin pie will all be the same though. We are looking forward to it as pretty much everyone (except, unfortunately, Mike, Char and family) will be there. I think I'll take some pictures - no kidding!!!! Kind of a cool, maybe drippy (POP 30%) weekend for this, but we will be indoors, unlike Kathie and Andy and the camping crowd out at Mary Hill. We didn't go out this year, since we won't be home for Christmas, we are making Thanksgiving our big family weekend.

Time for a snack, I have to practice for tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving All.

'Twas the night of Thanksgiving, But I just couldn't sleep; I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep. The leftovers beckoned - The dark meat and white But I fought the temptation With all of my might.

Tossing and turning with anticipation. The thought of a snack became infatuation. So, I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door, And gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes, Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes. I felt myself swelling so plump and so round, 'Til all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.

I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky; With a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie. But, I managed to yell as I soared past the trees.... Happy eating to all - Pass the cranberries, please.

May your stuffing be tasty, May your turkey be plump. May your potatoes 'n gravy Have nary a lump, May your yams be delicious May your pies take the prize, May your Thanksgiving dinner Stay off of your thighs.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Just back from my bi-monthly Lions meeting, nice ham dinner. Found that the Kermode Bear (Spirit Bears in the city) Lions Society project is a go. The Orca project made $840,000.00 last year and they are expecting much more this year. About 200 Kermode Bears will be distributed province wide for local artists to paint or otherwise decorate. The site above has more info if your interested.

MTC presents "Crowns", sounds good Dennis, unfortunately, Carolyn is already obligated to go to a Fowl Dinner with cousin Betty that same night, however, I am available. If you can get one ticket that would be nice.

I see that snow hit the 'Peg today, not only that Lake Winnipeg got its expected high water, wind and waves that overtook the sandbagging they did earlier. There will be a lot of "I told you so" expressed. Hope the fall weather moderates for our arrival.

I am just about over my cold, but it seems Carolyn has it now. Just as well she got it early, she can get it out of the way before we go. It was a fairly mild version. Her naturopath gave a thumbs up. According to her Carolyn is doing most everything right, she did make some minor suggestions to tune up her diet.

Goodnight, sweet dreams.

Adventures looking at motorhomes we can't afford.

Well we are back from a nice weekend with Kathie and Andy looking over the RV stuff at the Tradex RV show in Abbotsford. The show was better this year with more used equipment besides the fancy new "really" expensive stuff. Some very nice rigs. We also visited some of the RV dealers in the area too. A couple of nice dinners, nice weather lead to a great weekend overall. Unfortunately, I came back with a cold, which I have been nursing for the last two days, thus the late blog. Carolyn did fall in love with a 2006 Itasca Suncruiser. It had the "perfect" kitchen, and I must admit the rig was quite nice, however, at $192,000.00 we won't be seen in one to soon if ever. At those prices, one has to start thinking Diesel pusher.

Carolyn is off to see her naturopath and we will see what she has to say when she gets home, which should be soon. I had a Strata meeting last night and have a Lions Meeting tomorrow night, other than that it is a quiet week.

I just changed ISP to Shaw cable internet. Much faster than ADSL for the same money. Thought that was not the only reason. Pacificcoast.net got taken over by Uniserve (a much larger company) so, as expected, service declined. While Shaw on the other hand has been improving over the years. They had a good promotion to switch so I did. Better Web space, better speed, less money equals good choice.

So anyone looking at my old web pages will find them relocated.
My gmail address doesn't change, but my pacificcoast.net one is gonzo.

I need a cough drop, later all.