Weyburn, Saskatchewan

This is my favorite picture of Weyburn.  I hope it makes you smile.

Say WHAT Again?

Today is my great Aunt Noonie's (Louise Baker) 89th birthday.  To that end, my mother kindly reminded me of the speech impediment I had as a child.  I had difficulties with "s".

The story goes that once, while

Noonie was down at my grandma's (her sister's) house, this must have been late 60's early 70's, while my grandmother was

folding her bra and I asked her if it was the ones  that "lifts and heperates".

Mom also tells me I once told her I had a "whore on my thumb". :-)

The story that I know Noonie loves to tell about me was that when I was a baby, I was so small, they could put my bassinette on top of the TV, and I was happy as a clam.  Guess I always wanted to "be on TV."  Try doing that with today's flat screen TVs.

I Saw The Whole Thing

Here's a little story from my childhood.  This story is so legendary in the family, that the line "I saw the whole thing" is short hand for the story.

The scene: We lived in an old farm house. Upstairs, I shared a room with Tim, my younger brother, who is 4.5 years younger than I am. The doorway to the room opened down a short hall. At end of the hall (4 steps from the doorway, then 90° left turn) was the 13 step stairway, that ended at a door. Not to code, but there was no code when this was built. Shallow steps and no midpoint landing, the last step was smack against the door, which had a knob and latch, which my parents would often shut when we were playing upstairs.

I'm 8-ish, and sitting at the desk, reading. Probably something like THIS, when I look to my right and see my little brother at the head of the stairs. Sitting on top of this plastic, injection molded tractor. He looked over, smiled at me, and then...

HE WAS GONE!!!!!

I heard a series of thuds and thumps and then a whack as he and then the tractor crashed into the door at the bottom stairs. This was followed by some serious squalling.

This was one of the funniest things I had ever seen, so naturally, I'm laughing my fool head off when I get to the top of the stairs and look down and the crumpled mass below.

And then my parents open the door, and he fell out at there feet.

Crying.

And I'm standing up at the top of the stairs.

Laughing.

Before they could ask, I blurted out:

"I saw the whole thing."

To their credit, I was not beaten half to death. My brother confirmed my version and "I saw the whole thing" became a family catch phrase.

She's A-Cora-Ble

So, for those who know and for those who do not, I am now dating a woman named, 'Cora'.

She's a few years younger than I am, lives in Seattle with her daughter, and is a full time nanny.  She's smart, and funny, and spontaneous, and a huge Harry Potter fan.

It's been a while since I've had a regular girlfriend.  About 5 years or so.  My last girlfriend lived about 40 miles away out in the suburbs.  That's just a hop, skip, and a jump compared to the 2,000 miles / 4 hour flight between Chicago and Seattle.  Since we've started dating, we've been doing the "fly once a month" thing.  It's working pretty well for us so far.  I've gone out there once, and she's come here once (and is coming back on Friday.)

"How did you meet someone who lives in Seattle?"

We met online.  Not through a dating service (sorry Mom, that was a little fib).  No, we kind of met thru mutual friends.  We met thru our blogs.  Yes, both she and I have our own blogs.  No, I'm not going to give you the address, and I'm going to ask that you don't go looking.  And we both run analytics, so WE'LL KNOW.  If you want to know what's going on in my life, this is the place to be.  If I knew that you were reading the other blog, I would probably have been more reserved, and not as willing to flirt with that cute redhead up there.

So, that's Cora.  That's how we know each other.  And we're glad you're going to respect our privacy and not go Googling us.

Thanks,

Eric

The "Big Fight"

Here's a little bit of family lore. And also the last time my mother cut my hair.

I was probably in 6th or 7th grade, and I was in the kitchen getting a haircut. Karin was at the table eating the LAST bit of the dessert from the night before. It was a Jell-O salad with a pretzel crust then a strawberry Jell-O middle (with real strawberry slices cut up into), topped with Cool Whip. I forget the grade, but remember the food, SHOCKER!

At the conclusion of the haircut, I got a bit melodramatic about how awful the haircut was, and how I should just wear a bag over my head. That's when Karin lips up from the table, as she's about ready to savor another bite of the Jell-O that I so wanted, "I've wanted to do that for years."

With the speed of a ninja, I sprang from the hair cuttin' stool and snatched the food off her plate with an overhand claw motion.
 Despite my all consuming rage, something told me that grinding it into her face would be a VERY bad move. So I stood there, frozen for a second or two, then casually walked to the bathroom (in the old farm house, it was right off the kitchen) and in full view of everyone, I flung it down the toilet and flushed it.

"No" I didn't trouble. While I'm not sure if mom ever made that dessert again, she's gotten a lot of mileage out of the story.

Getting Started

I've been thinking about doing this for a while.  Something between an email and a Christmas newsletter.  Somewhere where you can tell a story about what's going on now or a story about what was.

So I decided on a blog.  While I'm the Admin on this blog, I really think that this is OUR blog.  Once this gets rolling, I will open it up for other people to post, but for now, please email any news, stories, pictures, etc. that you would like to post.

I strongly urge you to click on the 'Follow' button over there and/or the 'Subscribe' so that you can get updates when new posts or comments are posted.

So come on in.

Pull up a chair.

Make yourself comfortable.

Tell me a story.