Dickie Dee

Ahh the sound of the ice cream truck! We heard the truck and had our money by the door so we could just run out and get a treat, but the truck drove away so fast that we had to anticipate which way he was going to go. We started walking to the other corner, but we couldn't hear it? Then in the wind every now and then we would hear a chime, but lose it again, then he emerged across the way thru the park, so Maddie and I ran to catch him. Phew, we caught up and got our ice cream. Now we had to get home faster than it could melt.

Times like these I miss the good Ol' Dickie Dee bikes. At least you could CATCH them, if you whistled or yelled he would hear you, and there is NO way he could go 50km!!

The First Internet Hoax I Completely Fell For.

It was 1996. I was employed in the kitchen at Earl's in Medicine Hat. I loved that job. My passion for cooking was born in that kitchen.

When you work in a restaurant you hear a lot of stories. The kitchen manager there was a great story teller. So while I was making a caesar salad on the line, I heard him tell a story about a motorcycle found on a farm right here in Alberta. He said he heard it from a friend of a friend but it was completely true. Good enough for me. The story:

This farmer had an old Harley Davidson motorcycle he wanted to fix up and needed some parts. He phoned Harley Davidson head office and gave them the serial number of the bike and they told them they would phone him back.

The phone rings some time later and it is Jay Leno. Jay Leno tells the farmer he will give him $50,000 for the bike. The farmer is completely shocked and asks Jay why he would pay so much for this rusted piece of junk. Jay tells the farmer to go look under the seat on the bike. The farmers runs out to the barn and follows Mr. Leno's instructions and there it sits, a little engraved plate which says "To Prescilla, Love Elvis"

I LOVED that story. Wow, Elvis's motorbike in Alberta. Cool! So I went home and jumped on this new internet thing. I waited 10 minutes for the NBC page to load (it was dialup and slooooooooow) and sent off an email to Jay Leno himself asking if the story was true. I surfed around the site after that and found a FAQ page. A few questions in, my dreams of Jay Leno sending me an email were dashed. The story was an urban legend.

I felt a little stupid to be duped like that. Sooooo, since 1996, I have been extremely skeptical of any fowarded internet story that comes my way. And I am usually right.

I tell you all this because I was reminded of it by the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Mythbusters, one of my favourite shows for reasons that are now obvious, was doing a thorough debunking of one of the biggest internet hoaxes out there: The Moon Landing Was Faked! Here's a clip - enjoy! And be on the look out for strange stories involving famous talk show hosts and motorbike parts!

Mythbusters - NASA Moon Landing @ Yahoo! Video

Dumb Moments in Traffic.

I didn't have to go far from the house to see this interesting moment in traffic. The morning before we took this photo, there was a police truck with it's lights flashing ahead there by the bus shelter. I wondered why he was stopped there. The answer was staring from me on the road. The City had repainted the lines wrong creating two lanes going toward our house in the direction the car in the photo was traveling. This created complete confusion with traffic and could have resulted in a head on collision. The picture above shows the city later in the day came back and sandblasted the lines off the road and would later redo them correctly. I guess someone at the city did not have their morning espresso!



Selena asks: "wonder if they hired these guys?"

Plan your road trip people!!

Corner gas will be a tourist attraction again!

CBC news states: The neglected Corner Gas buildings in Rouleau, Sask., will receive much-needed repairs, thanks to a local business owner.
Mark Westrum, the owner of a lumber yard, told CBC News on Wednesday he has agreed to cover a portion of the costs associated with improving the look of the former TV series sets.

Westrum said some of the familiar signage associated with the program would also be returned to the buildings, including the Ruby restaurant and Corner Gas station.
As well, boarded-up windows will be replaced with Plexiglas. Security barriers are also planned, to make the area safe.
Westrum said the project should not cost more than $10,000 and he hopes to have the work done by the end of the summer.

All I can say is YAY!!! We are definatley going! I must have my picture in front of the Ruby. The article doesn't state whether there will be any touristy things aside from photos, but hey, thousands of people that drive by even now, can't be wrong! Hehe, the power of the press, the plea from the mayor was in every big paper across Canada, and now there is something being done.

Maddie's Home!

Yay! Maddie's back! She was in Winnipeg for 5 days visiting cousins, and playing at the beach. She had a whole suitcase full of fun new clothes! She gave us a fashion show, this was some of her loot! Welcome home, we missed you :-)

4 minute window...

At 10:26 PM tonight there was a 4 minute window where you were able to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour fly above us. I set my alarm early in the day so we didn't forget, and sure enough, suddenly it was going off! We ran outside looking up, not quite sure what to look for. The NASA sight told us the direction, and that it would look like a very bright star, moving quickly, and it would vanish in 4 minutes. When we saw it, it was one of the coolest moments ever! I got goosebumps! We called Maddie out and there we all were looking up from our driveway. It was so bright it was hard to believe the light would go out, and then just like it said after 4 minutes, it was gone! I took a picture, knowing it wouldn't turn out, but needed an actual pic to blog, that was ours. Then it made it ok , to find a good shot on "google" and show you what it really looks like!

Thankyou Sue for bringing that website to our attention! :-)

Dean: It was one of the coolest sights in the night sky ever. It appeared exactly where the NASA website say it would be. It was quite bright, at first I thought it was a plane. But it was moving way too fast for a plane and planes usually flash. This looked like a star moving through the sky. Then at the end of four minutes, the "star" flickered out and disappeared. Very, very cool!

That squiggle is Endeavour

Haha, brought back to mind the night Dean cried "Eclipse" here's a link to that old blog ...lol

http://deanandselena.blogspot.com/2008/02/moon-drill.html

The Casual Hours

We've been trying to go to this new Ice cream place that just opened up but we got there after 8 and it was closed. Tonight we were there at 7:30 and it was closed again, I was sure the hours were til 8pm so I got a closer look. Haha, I laughed out loud when I read the sign, I don't think I've ever seen hours like that.... maybe in Vulcan. So if we want an ice cream from here we better get there early - ish!

Tim Horton's Takes Manhattan!

I have been hearing much about our National Coffee Shop lately. Canada's pride, Tim Horton's, is returning to it's home in a corporate sense. The corporation will leave it's former home in the USA (it moved there after Wendy's bought it) and return to it's roots here in Canada. Apparently, Canada has a lower corporate tax rate than the US these days.

So today, I was Drudging and I came across an article that Tim Horton's has 12 stores in Manhattan now. They are 12 formerly Dunkin' Donuts restaurants. Congratulations Timmy!

Now New Yorkers will get to experience some of the finest coffee in the world.

Welcome, New Yorkers! Enjoy!

Backyard Bonfire

We bought a firepit awhile back and finally got to try it out this weekend. We had a new recipe ( which is posted on the cookbook blog ) we wanted to try so we invited a few friends over for a BBQ. The temp was record high, so we were waiting patiently for the shade to cover enough of the yard to sit out there. Finally the sun moved, and we grabbed our chance. Then when the night cooled off we had a bonfire. But first we introduced some new players to the grand game of "Pass the Ace" we needed some practice, because we will be visiting my Aunt and Uncle in August, and we will be playing it at the cabin.


Dean, Dale and Evar celebrating the shade!


Todd and Brenda listening to the rules of Pass the Ace

the money pool

Dean cuts an Ace ( that's not good! )

Evar has a KING, ( that's very good )

Everyone else was knocked out, it was down to Dale and Brenda, and now the name calling starts...

Some kewl effects with the sparks

time for hotdogs and marshmallows

enjoying the heat

"Google it"

Ok it may be hard to see on a small pic, but I love my Google! It sounds funny to say " Bing it" It sounds like I'm kinda swearing? lol but when you say " google it" People know! My image changes daily too :-) and I have really kewl Google eyes that follow my mouse around, up coming birthdays are listed, and I always know when the full moon is coming. Sorry Dean, along with my favorite email ( NOT outlook express.... ) I will be always be a "googler" :-)