And in Saskatoon ...

Thanks for the invite to join. I read over past blogs and Ken, I can't believe I forgot your birthday!! Sorry :( ... I am beginning to preface more comments with " when I retire", so when I retire, we will celebrate one of your b-days over supper.

Ken and Kathy's Brand New Weekend

'We never do anything new', K and K whine to each other, so here's the test. Compare and contrast last weekend with this one -- is this really a boring existence? Or are we doing fresh and exciting things -- but don't notice because we are such bored people?

Friday Night
By good luck Kathy pulled a Propellor beer out of the fridge after work, which reminded us that we had promised Ben we'd attend the Scooter pull later on. Forty eight contestants (more than half showed up, each with a guest) eligible for a spiffy new 49cc scooter -- free beer and munchies while we endured the pull: your name gets picked and you are out. Presumably rising to a crescendo: last name left in the beer-box wins. Mega-beer consumption among the 50+ folk --mostly young, mostly looking like they would make good use of the nifty bike. The draw looks like it is going to be excruciating; the event was to begin at 7:00, and only 6 names had been drawn by 8:10. There are only two acceptable outcomes: Ben wins, or is eliminated early on. It's the latter. Ben's name is the fifth one drawn. We give up our seats to a couple of standing hopefuls, and leave with the silent wish that the mega-muncher next to Kathy, who stops scarfing only long enough to complain that other people are eating all the food, has her name drawn forty-seventh. We had a great time!

A new chair for the Living Room?
Still one old chair in the Living Room, and we have been thinking about replacing it. So began shopping for wing-back chairs on Saturday. Didn't see anything we liked -- but now we are thinking, "Maybe not wing-back after all." That's progress, sort of.

Sheet Harbour on Sunday
Up the Eastern Shore to celebrate Elsie's birthday, dinner with home-alones Wallace and Anna there too. Kathy made an exquisite cheese-cake birthday cake (non-glutin for Wallace) with fruit all over it, and a lovely raspberry sauce we forgot to serve. Lots of family pictures to be seen and tales to tell. Mitchell is two weeks from his mid-term exams (did everyone know that RCMP cadets go to school for six months and don't get paid! They pay for their books! Their laundry! I am astonished). Mitch is apparently doing well: says that some of the older cadets are having trouble accepting the unreasonable discipline, but he has no problem with it. Lindsay is enjoying NSCC; she hasn't begun some of her classes yet, as they are covering stuff she did in high school.
Came home to news that the Metro Transit dispute was settled at the eleventh hour. On the one hand this city needs a good strike; selfishly Ken doesn't need to worry about getting a passel of student assistants home at 11:30 at night.

Hockey Night in Cyber-space
Of course the big highlight of the week is opening night for the hockey-pool season. Finally! Our Matt-centric pool (for non-pool participants, of this blog team Ben, Mathieu and Ken are among the players; unaccountably Megan seems not to have joined. Is it 'cause she won't be able to get near the computer 'til June? Good luck to our worthy opponents!). Even before the season had begun, high-quality trash-talk had begun. Who would have guessed?

That's it from Kathy and Ken

Grandma's Birthday Card

I mailed a birthday card to Grandma last Friday so was pretty confident that it would reach Sheet Harbour for her birthday, which, as we all know, was yesterday. To my surprise, Canada Post deemed my modest card and envelope to be 'oversized'. It took some time, but yesterday -- on the very day I was hoping the card would be opened and read by Grandma -- it arrived back in our mailbox marked 'insufficient postage'.

Mathieu had retrieved the mail and gently broke the news. He has a great way of introducing minor problems as major disasters so that when he eventually comes to the facts of the situation, all I feel is a tremendous sense of relief.

Our friends at Canada Post had decided that I should pay 58 cents to send my apparently misshapen card and envelope. I'm sure it wasn't personal and that the figure resuted from an elaborate and standard calculation. It seems I'd tried to cheat Canada Post of 5 cents, though I can't be sure from the sheet of stamps we bought last week. They have a trademarked 'permanent' designation, which "provides great value since [they] will be honoured at the Canadian domestic basic letter rate regardless of stamp rate increases". This also means that there's no number on the stamps, no reminder of the Canadian domestic basic letter rate for 'standard' sized letters, something I find a little unsettling.

I considered the envelope for some time, wondering how to proceed. Should I start from scratch and stick (no more licking!) two fresh and precious sticker-stamps on the envelope? Or should I assume that I still had rights to the original stamp and add just one? Mathieu wasn't sure either. I was feeling a bit rebellious and may have acted rashly -- I decided not to be wastfeul and stuck just one more stamp on the envelope. I was working at the computer and Mathieu very kindly offered to take the envelope down to the mailbox across the street. I won't be too surprised if it turns out not to be the last time that envelope and I cross paths...

Knowing that Grandma wouldn't get her card until some time next week and still wanting to be an honourable grandaughter, I called her this morning to wish her a belated Happy Birthday. As it turns out, several family members had beaten me to it. She said she received a number of cards and phone calls yesterday, including a call from her grandson in Waterloo, which obviously made her very happy. She's also looking forward to hosting some notable visitors tomorrow. You aren't likely to be her most prominent houseguests of 2007, mom and dad, but I think she's looking forward to your visit. Drive safely.

Happy Birthday Ken !

Kathy and Ken's weekend

Our weekend note will be shorter, in keeping with our far-less cosmopolitan adventures. Saturday afternoon to Pictou to visit Steve and Jane -- a quiet Saturday night and Sunday morning eating (Saturday night: succulent steak and all the trimmings; Kathy and Ken made a more modest breakfast for the crew this morning), reading, crosswords and puzzles and a few harshly-contested cribbage games. This afternoon we drove up the shore to Pugwash (maybe 1.25 hours each way) and had an early supper at the Smiley family's cafe. Noreen was in Halifax for Word on the Street and the restaurant was quiet, so we had Greg all to ourselves; he was much more relaxed than the last time we were in, and they seem to be doing much better -- going to open one day a week through the winter, and relax.
Ken glanced in Kathy's copy of Ian MacEwan's "Saturday", a gift from Megan last year I think. The card that came with it read:
"It's Mother's day, Mom
forget about the cooking
forget about the cleaning
forget about the laundry
(and then inside)
just pretend you're Dad!"
(and then in Megan's distinctive hand)
"Don't show him this card"
I'm sure Ken will want to talk soon with you about this, Megs.
But mostly, he can't wait 'til hockey pool ... when does it begin?

Montreal Sejour

I think a short trip to Montreal is a worthy subject for my first -- and somewhat overdue -- blog entry. What can I say? I simply don't consider many things that happen in my life -- or my thoughts about them -- worthy of a written report. Chit chat is different.

We arrived in Montreal on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel: the Hotel de l'Institut on Saint-Denis, across from Carre St-Louis. The hotel is run by the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ – Quebec Tourism and Hotel Institute) and employees are recent graduates or current students of the institute.

Our next stop was, of course, Simon's, which is still my favourite department store. I've been feeling like a bit of a ruffian at work lately, so was in the market for some new work clothing. Simon's -- and Zara's on Saturday -- didn't let me down.

But the highlight of our trip was dinner at Casa Napoli in Little Italy on Friday evening. We've eaten there once before, when we were living in Montreal, and Joan treated us during a visit. It was fantastic and we've long meant to go back. Being both organized and ambitious, we made a reservation. Impressed? Don't be. We left the hotel a little later than we should have, made our way toward St-Laurent to get the bus, and discovered that a huge stretch of 'the Main' is being repaved. The bus was re-routed and so we had to retrace our steps and make some enquiries to figure out the location of the temporary bus stop. We arrived at Casa Napoli about 30 minutes after our reservation but not to worry -- the hostess seemed even less concerned about this than Mathieu (someone has to overreact about these things). I explained our tardiness in French and she brushed me off in English and seated us. That was that. The meal was fabulous and our waiter was quite the upseller -- we ended up having foccacia with our caesar salads, which were made at a cart that was wheeled to our table. Mathieu had Risotto ai Due Formaggi and I had Pennine alla Signorina -- these people don't mess around.

We'd counted on the good food but not the entertainment. As was the case last time, the crowd was entertainment enough. Casa Napoli seems to be a good place for people/character watching. It's a restaurant frequented by couples, friends, and huge families with lots of kids who run around everywhere. Montrealers seems to be determined to incorporate their children into their very adult social lives. We had fun watching a particular pair of little girls make very frequent trips to the washroom. It appeared that their adults had decided that this was something the girls could manage on their own and they were out to make the most of this freedom.

The band topped off the atmopshere: a tall, blond, elegantly dressed Italian songstress and her not-so-impressive bass player, who together regalled the audience with a cheesy repertoire of English and Italian songs, Wind Beneath My Wings, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and Mambo Italiano among them. I can't offer the names of any of the Italian numbers -- but our songtress sang both the female and male parts. A space between some tables in front of our musicians became a temporary dance floor for a few inebriated dinner guests during a few songs. Their dance moves attracted some attention, as did the singer's trombone playing in the resturant and on the terrasse during Mambo Italiano. As you might imagine, Mathieu and I were a bit mystified by all of this and did our best to seem engaged in serious conversation whenever the musicians came around to make small talk with diners and to ask for requests. At one point we even tossed around the idea of asking for a discount for putting up with all of this but we ultimately decided that it all made for a most memorable experience.

Having indulged so much at dinner on Friday, we weren't all that hungry yesterday. We did some more shopping, went to the fabulous Jean Talon market, and then wandered around our old neighbourhood. I wish we'd made the market a part of our Montreal routine. We became more than a little nostalgic walking along Saint Viateur, Parc, and Laurier, reminiscing about the things we did do in Montreal. We made a nice, long stop at the Renaud Bray bookstore. Mathieu cut me off, though, when I made nostalgic noises as we passed our old laundromat. He was having none of it. So we went for gelato, hopped in the car, and made our way back to Ottawa. The end.

Now back to laundry and Watership Down. The Home Based Learners Network book club I lead at the library is meeting to discuss this tome on Thursday. Our last meeting was in June so I've been putting this one off for a few months now and still have more than 150 pages to go. I find myself getting into certain parts of the story but for the most part, it's slow going. Very descriptive and, all in all, a story about rabbits.

Welcome, Jessie

The girl may be too busy to post much, but all hands should know that Jessie joined this blog last night. I hope she can find a little time to fill us in on her Life and Times -- 'cause from the phone conversations, she's having a real adventure. With the anticipation of much more to come. Kathy and Ken, by the way, are on our way to the Pictou area for the weekend ... we will be putting our feet up with Steve and Jane (and maybe sneaking in a little French 'revision').

Jane Austen

Ken, Joan, Alfred, and I all thoroughly enjoyed The Jane Austen Book Club film last night. We ran into our in-law family in the line up and saved their seats. We expected the movie to start at 9:30 as listed in the fim festival catalogue, however, the tickets stated 10:00. For some of us staying awake past 10:00 is a challenge in itself. I know I only dropped off once and that was not reflective of the movie in any way. I think that Alfred laughter throughout indicated his pleasure with it. Light, funny, well written, interesting photography. Ken even gave it a 4/5. Quoting Ken, " At the end of it you were just happy for them. All the characters who were supposed to be in love were, and the one who should have been dead was gone and buried, and all the males were reading Jane Austen ." (I missed the dead and buried part!!!! That must have been when I closed my eyes for "a minute".) Love to all, Kathy

The challenge goes out!!!

Well I wonder what's keeping some people from joining in on this modern means of communication. Maybe they don't feel there is anything worthwhile happening in their lives. We haven't heard from Miss Flinn yet....then again...she is probably home cuddled up with something soft and furry. Come on, Lindsay. Ken said he had a great chat with you at the library. He was, in fact, very happy to see you. Of course, there's also Megan and Mathieu. Surely there's a wise comment or two waiting to be made. Don't let's forget Miss Jessie out there in the far west. Jessie is working hard and otherwise busy travelling to majestic sites "on the border" (so to speak). Come on Jessie, tell all. With only the best intentions, Kathy

Ben's Reluctant Blog Post Count: 1 (Also my first attempt at a witty title - which seems to be a characteristic of blog titles, no?)

Well, shit. Here I am. Sucked into a realm inhabited by those who precede my era. That's right, I think Blogging is officially a sport for those in our sphere who can't quite find themselves comfy using facebook or msn. Yes, Megan, parents, anyone else, please, take offense. I've quit facebook, I leave my computer at home during the days, but yet again, I find myself consumed; minutes are dwindling, pages neraby remained unturned. Well, so be it. We'll give it a shot anyhow. Below you'll find a more positive entry (hopefully, that is (i haven't even written it yet).

The chase: I went to the Laundromat today, and I fell in love (Lindsay, in the odd case that you find yourself on this Clare family travesty, I fell in love with no other person, just machinery. and some noise). As I was saying, yes, the laundromat: a perfect combination of humming washers and dryers; the constant buzz of people folding what would in any other situation be deemed as their unmentionables and other such forths and hence worths. Indeed. I haven't been able to think so clearly in weeks - I should have been brainstorming about my thesis, father, you're right. Anyhow, I also managed to clean my clothes for the first time in two weeks (an added bonus of the laundromat).

Other mentionables:
- I haven't spoken to Jessie in weeks now. Does anyone care to post her phone number? Are we even supposed to call her?
- I mentioned to a few of you that Ryan (Lindsay's brother) broke his thumb at training camp in Edmonton - which really doesn't help him too much. I learned from Lindsay today that he won't be playing for six weeks. On the up-side, the team assigned 14 or 61 odd players to other teams today (essentially cut 14 players) and he wasn't one of them. He must have impressed in his first few days.
- I should go now, the lundromat is closing, and I'm out of quarters anyhow.

Ben.

Highlights from the weekend

We had dinner at Cliff's on Friday night. Lee was in town and extended the invite to us, Steve& Jane, Judith, and Robach. Tasty meal with perhaps a tad too much wine for some. We had breakfast in the morning at Fred's. Another tasty event. Quiet evening at home watching Mystery... an Elizabeth George, Lynley and Havers. I am currently reading Pride and Predudice which I am thoroughly enjoying. I have to laugh at the time spent pondering everyone's love life.

The traditional Sunday afternoon drive in the Maritimes:
I want you all to know that my parents always went for drives in the car on a Sunday afternoon too. It seems to be a senior thing to do. Anyway after a healthy, but hearty breakfast, gas, and cash, we departed at 11ish, stopping off at Mathieu's to deliver the house keys!!! Declining an offer for tea, we did promise to bring apples back for Joan. They are planning on being in town to visit a niece and her new baby? do some stuff at the office and take in a film festival event, and will drop in sometime in between. The valley was our destination and our first stop was at the Jost Winery where we checked out their wines on display. Unfortunately, the tour wasn't until later in the afternoon. We taste tested a dry red wine ( Foch reserve 2005) and purchased a bottle. We then proceeded to Wolfville, had a light lunch at the Just Us cafe, and browsed a second hand bookstore. Remembering the original reason for our journey we headed off to Elderkin's market to get some apples and other produce. We actually ended up stopping at three markets. It was a great afternoon. Sorry you couldn't be there to share it with us. Love Mom

Four for the Blog

Megan, Ben, Kathy and Ken
These four family worthies have signed up so far...Ben reluctantly, as (what he's afraid could become) undisciplined internetting is not high on his list of validating human activities.
Jessie doesn't have access as consistently as once was the case -- grand change, n'est-ce pas, Jess? -- so even if she wishes to clamber aboard, it will probaably take a while. Of course we do wish to hear from that precinct, so if you get a chance to get on board please do so, girl.
Other than this good start nothing special to post, so we'll shut up.
This one from Kathy and Ken

Welcome to the Clare Family Blog

A little experiment.
Anyone in our extended family should feel free to join in: post your news, share your thoughts, tell us all what we're missing by not being you -- the song's you're singing, the people you've met, the places you've been, the books you've read. The many things that are making you happy right now, and occasionally the smaller things that make you feel blue.
Write once a week, once a month, or once a year.
In this way too this form is democratic: if people write it works, and if they don't it doesn't. Either way it's all good.

Clare Family Blog FAQ
Q. Do I need to be a Clare family member to share in this little enterprise?
A. No. When we say "extended", we mean ultra-elastic . To the companion of the progeny of the last lost third cousin twice removed: welcome.

Q. Do I need to be a Maritimer?
A. A harder question. Can we put it this way? You may not be a Maritimer, nor want to be one, but it will help if you have a sympathetic understanding of the unique charm that we bring to the planet.

Q. But suppose I pine for the Jays or the Leafs?
A. Even then we embrace you, though like life it's not always going to be easy.

Q. Do I need to be able to write?
A. No, but it always helps if you try to spell.

Q. What can't I write about?
A. Nothing. Conversely, you also can write about nothing.

This first one is from Kathy and Ken