Finally

Well, Miss Maddie is finally alllllll better!! First it was Strep throat then we found out she was allergic to penicillin, so rather than curing her it was poisoning her! But the Dr's figured it out, and now she is back to herself, talking a hundred miles an hour, and not just in her delirium sleeptalk, but real conversations. Since she has rarely been sick in 14 years, and nothing like this, I figure she's good for another 14! So let's see, what happened the last 2 weeks, not much, we've been kind house bound. We found a strange thing in the yard the other day tho.... and oddly enough Maddie started to get better right around the same time... I think we had a visitor, a secret visitor.... named Mary Poppins! ( you know, the whole spoonful of sugar making the medicine go down thing ....)

Tricks of the trade

We have a new thing in the store.... Digital Scrapbooking..... and let me tell ya, it's fun!!!!

We're Sinking That This Is Funny!

What do you sink?

Chalk Walk

To all our bloggers who have been checking in and finding nothing new.... sorry. Miss Maddie, who is never sick, has been out cold for 4 days!!!!!!! She has Strep Throat and since Sunday has slept about 22 out of 24 hours daily.

So... I need to back track to update here. On the weekend Chalk Walk was in Calgary down 17th.

We got there kinda early so the artists were still working on their drawings, there were some pretty cool ones. I'll have to google and see if there are any finished pictures?

We cruised the streets for a bit and came upon a very cool window front. At first I didn't know what kind of store this was, then we realized it was a stationary store. Something tells me the owner has a passion for Halloween.... the whole front of the store was Ghoulish supplies! I, as you can imagine, was in my glory. You'll definitely have to click the pic to enlarge it to appreciate these photos!

Fire Needed...

If anyone knows about fires, it's Evanston! And we needed to put a fire under city council to help us get out of Evanston in the morning, there's only one road! Maddie's school bus is always late, and it took Dean 40 minutes the other day to get down one street! Apparently we were loud enough and it is being fixed tomorrow!! Very cool, our first community coup!!

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080910/CGY_Traffic_Evanston_080910/20080910/?hub=CalgaryHome

Above is the news cast.

Should You Care about the Large Hadron Collider?

No! But if you want to read about it, you can:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/4281928.html

Every two centuries or so, physicists do something interesting - this is one of those times. Kind of.

But actually the Large Hadron Collider reminded me of the reading kick Selena and I got on this summer. We read Dan Brown's three other books - Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress and Deception Point. In case you are a physicist who has been working on the Large Hadron Collider and have been too busy to read or go to movies, Dan Brown is best known for his book The DaVinci Code. If you haven't already, you really need to read Dan Brown's other books. They are addicting page turners. We just could not put them down.

Are you wondering why I am talking about physicists and my reading habits? Is there a point to this post? Why yes, maybe there is.

You should read Angels and Demons, not only do you get an amazing story, you also get a mini-course on just exactly what a Large Hadron Collider is and why so many advanced degreeing smart people are freaking out over this Wednesday's test of this device. The book is awesome and just writing this makes me want to read it again.

Quest for the Muffuletta

So Dean popped into a coffee shop downtown, and was very surprised when he looked up at the menu and saw... a muffuletta!!! So the quest continues. We waited til Saturday when all 3 of us could go and with fingers crossed got into the car and headed South. We were sure when we got there that the menu would have been changed.... but no.. there it was! We ordered 3, fingers still crossed, Maddie's was without meat of course. Then we patiently waited for our order. Once it arrived we inspected it closely... so far so good, no mayo no mustard... the olive salad looked good.. so we took a bite. Yay! we found a muffuletta... now, this is nowhere near the size of them in New Orleans, you have to squish them to get them into your mouth, but the taste was right. I think tho', to get a real one, we either have to go back to New Orleans ( works for us ) or, learn how to make the olive salad. That will be the new quest then. When we do find out how, I'll post it on the cook book blog! Ok off to Google I go. ( to book plane tickets )

This was our Muffuletta....

This is a New Orlean's Muffuletta!!

John McCain vs. Barack Obama........... (with a side of Ronald Reagan)

If John McCain succeeds in November, I pick this moment where John McCain stopped the momentum of Barack Obama's campaign with two words. Obama was off the teleprompter here and it shows. Selena observes that John McCain was probably surprised by the ovation he got by giving a two word answer. But after he watched Obama's answer he definitely knew why:

A classic political moment. Sometimes it takes only a few words
to make your point.

Ronald Reagan knew that too. Here is one of my favourite Reagan
moments where just a few words packed a political punch:

Web Designer

It's now official.... I have built and sold my first web site! :-) I am a web designer...

My first, launched, paycheck in hand, approved by the owners Web site. Kewl :-)

here it is if you wanna go see :-)

http://www.okotoksfamilydental.com/

The Perfect Job

So where should a scrapbook lover work??? At Scrapbooker's paradise of course!! I start on Friday :-) It's the perfect job for me, surrounded by ideas! Short drive to work, about 12 hours a week.... and may I just say FUN!!!!!!!! I will update you on this perfect job for me!!!

Muffuletta

So all this talk about New Orleans this past weekend has got our tastebuds craving some N'arlins food. There were 2 great sandwiches there, one we tried was a muffuletta, brought to New Orleans by the Italians. A typical muffuletta consists of one muffuletta loaf, split horizontally. The loaf is then covered with a marinated olive salad, then layers of capicola, salami, mortadella, emmentaler, and provolone. The sandwich is sometimes heated through to soften the provolone.

The second, which we didn't get to try was the Po'boy. It's a traditional submarine sandwich from Louisiana. It consists of meat or seafood, usually fried, served on baguette-like Louisiana French bread.

So Dean did the daily Google search and typed in Mufuletta, Calgary. So, up comes a restaurant on Edmonton Trail and McKnight that serves BOTH sandwiches!!! We counted down the days until we could go. We had our order planned days ahead. An Appetiser of oysters, and then we would split both dishes.

We arrive. From the outside it looks like it is going to be a smokey bar atmosphere. We were pleasantly surprised when we opened the door into a beautiful place! We were seated at a booth, ordered a beer and looked over the menu. The 2 reasons we went there, were missing from the menu!! Both of them!!!! So we inquired, because it was on the online menu. The waitress said it was from the lunch menu, but she would ask if the cook would be willing to make them for us. So we waited for her answer. We didn't like her answer.... they took them off the menu long ago. We sighed ordered our oysters and said we had to look over the menu now. Our waitress said they didn't have oysters.... double sigh. Our attempt at having a New Orleans meal was being foiled!!

Then I dared to ask, if they had Diet Coke, already knowing the answer. I was correct. They didn't have it!

So to make a long story, longer.... we ordered the creole pasta, and the seafood/crab dish. (which was awesome... just not what we went for ) When it came time for dessert, I crossed my fingers and ordered the Banana Bread Pudding that we made at our cooking class.... I held my breath for her answer. "We have that" she said!! whew, so I did get something from the great city :-)

If your looking for Crab or steak go to Monty's Crab Shack. But ask for a mufuletta, maybe we can get them to bring it back!

Where the Muffuletta was supposed to be :-(

The hot sauce was right, although it should have been in a gallon jug!

Christmas Comes Early Twice!

Of course, you know I am talking about the coming elections. In November, the USA selects a President. Exciting! As a added bonus, it looks like Prime Minister Harper will ask the Governor General to dissolve parliament this week and seek a majority mandate from voters. The PM is going to make Stephane Dion go to the people to sell his carbon tax plan. The polls say that most people are not going to buy what Dion has to sell them this election.

Anyway, it is all very exciting because I get to vote!

Selena does not share my excitement about this election stuff and she does not plan to vote. But if I was able to convince her to vote, this is what would happen:



The part about shorting out the voting machine especially applies to her, doesn't it?

Anyway, I have to get going - I have two campaigns to follow now!

Hurricane Gustav

This past Labour Day weekend, we found ourselves glued to the Hurricane Gustav coverage in New Orleans. We found a local New Orleans TV station that was broadcasting on the web so they had an excellent play by play of the event.

We were constantly referring to this map as the coverage
mentioned levees in these areas.


Repaired 17th street canal
This was the scene of a serious levee breach during Katrina. The levees held
and no weakening or failures were detected according
the Army Corp of Engineers.


Our pic of the industrial canal taken in March.
We watched nervously as the waves from the storm surge pounded the levees but they held.

This is what the Decatur Street looked like when we were there.


Decatour street hours before the hurricane hit taken by a live blogger
who stayed in his house. This picture is across the street from the one we took.


He also took "a shot of Bourbon" Street

Grade 9

Well Maddie was up extra early today getting ready for school, she looks cute as a button and ready to take on grade 9!