Cat got your tongue?

Some funny and not funny things from the past week:

We spent Saturday evening at our neighbor's house for beer and pizza with a little football snuck in here and there. Charles is from Thompson, MB (way the heck up there), and told me that in the winter, he and his buddies would put a bottle of Rye out in the snow to cool it off. Usually it would be out there too long, and at -35C it turns to syrup. You can't pour it into a plastic cup, because it will crack the cup. Use glass. Another important thing is that you shouldn't drink liquor at -35C, because it will freeze your gullet. Solution? Put in a couple of ice cubes from the freezer to warm up your drink!

Sunday we went sledding with Charles and Monica, their twins, and their daughter & Graces's friend, Brooke. There were other families sledding on the hill down to the pond at the park across the street, too. The other guys there all had their piles of beers in the snow at the top of the hill. I wasn't thinking like a Canadian, and had to wait until I got home for a frosty one.

Naturalist: A Canadian who doesn't believe in shovelling his drive. It'll melt soon enough, eh?

We have deer hoof prints in the snow in the front yard. This is a city of 670,000! I bet they live in the fields on the other side of Waverly ave, but it's still strange. Grace and I also followed some prints nearly all the way from our house to her school.

This part's a bit gruesome. Yesterday, Grace made the mistake of licking a sign post in front of our house. I'm told it's a right of passage for children here. She apparently yelled for her mom for a while before taking matters into her own hands. Kristie said Grace came to the front door bleeding and screaming, "I'm dying!" She seems no worse for the wear, though, and ate 5 pieces of French Toast (le pain perdue, or, the lost bread), a strip of bacon (American, not Canadian Back), plus a glass of OJ for dinner that night.


later,

s

Wee Willie Winkle's Wild Wet and Woolly Water World

After lunch today, Kristie took the girls to the Steinbach Aquatic Center for an afternoon of winter fun. It's about 40 minutes down the Trans Canada Highway from Winnipeg, and admission is free for Greta, $3 for Grace, and $7 for Kristie. Cheap! They have a link to photos of the center which are really nice, but it's a big PDF file. Those of you on dialup connections be patient.
Erick wanted to watch football, so I stayed home with him and shoveled snow while he napped before the Cincinnati game.

The swimmers came back exhausted and ravenous at 6. I was ready for them with spaghetti, salad, and home made bread (day old). Kristie says it's weird to be swimming and look out the big windows on the snow covered prairie.

s

Put da Lime in de Coconut

Traveling from Whinny Peg to So Ill or returning takes just a hair over 20 hours to cover 1200 miles either way. This was our first holiday trip down south, so these really were trial runs.

I didn't expect that a simple gas and potty stop would take 45 minutes, nor that breakfast at Perkins would be 90 minutes. McDonald's is quicker but lots more work, Cracker Barrel is slower. The food tastes about the same as Perkins, but Cracker Barrel (one of the great, unintentional double entendres, along with Slim Fast) has the big toy store for the kids to run around in while you wait for a table. You always gotta wait for a table at CB, but they're real friendly about it (please buy something). Any dining stop includes at least two trips to the potty, and sometimes Grace makes Kristie take her right when the food arrives. This causes Greta's bladder to instantly fill, though somehow both girls' bladders are empty again by the time they get to the toilet. Who says miracles are not performed in our time?

The kids can comfortably do a total of six hours in the car per day. Grace starts complaining of boredom at about 7 hours, and doesn't really settle back down until after 9 hours. Watching DVD's on the iBook helps some, but it requires putting both girls in the back seat where there is the possibility of poking, stuffed animal theft, and hair pulling. Additionally, Greta likes to eat the foam pads on her headphones. Perhaps she's trying to comment on our dining choices. (See above.) A steady supply of snacks is also good, though Greta shares half of hers with Mr. Murphy the plush monkey who now wears a diaper, and Grace stashes a good portion of hers in the cubbies by her seat for a little after-Cracker-Barrel-snack. A girl's gotta think ahead, drastic times call for drastic measures, et cetera.

Anyway, about the title of this entry. Kristie came down with strep throat on New Year's Eve and had a full-blown case of it by the time we left Carbondale on the first. She was a real trooper, keeping the kids happy while I drove, but was miserable the whole way. I know, because I caught it right after Greta when we got home. I haven't had strep since childhood, and forgot that it makes swallowing feel like a fishing lure is going down. Finally, our chance to try out Canadian health care!

After a bit of time on maps.google.com and a couple of phone calls, we found Kristie a walk-in clinic about 2 miles from our house. She showed her health card, saw the doctor, and was out the door with her prescription in about an hour. Wednesday, I took Greta. Same deal. The very personable pediatrician asked who Greta's regular doc was, and I told him that the MD we were referred to is no longer taking new patients. He and volunteered to take her on if we didn't mind driving downtown to his regular practice, and he has an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist on staff who will consult on a tonsilectomy after she's done with the antibiotics. Also no charge. I made it to school Wednesday noon, but was circling the drain fast by the time I had to teach. Thursday morning was my turn to go in. I was out the door in just under an hour with my scrip, no questions asked, no co-pay, no deductible. Crazy.
Let's see how it goes with the ENT.

later,

s