this and that and the other

It's been a bit, so thought I'd better stop in. Sorry no pictures - I'm actually on Mike's laptop, and he has none loaded on here. It's his day off today, and he's at the gym. (He got a membership for himself a week or two ago, and has been every day since. He's put on some weight since leaving Hamilton, and it's starting to make him feel tired at work.)

Anyway, things are going alright here. Kids have gotten over a strange flu. We think it must have been what we had, but in us, it dragged on and on, but wasn't bad - just annoying. In the kids, it was a 24-hour bug. Joan got it first, then John. The night it hit John, he crawled into bed with us, and was so cold, he was shivering. Then the fever hit, and it was like sleeping with a radiator. He spent the entire day dozing on the couch, complaining that he was hot and cold and everything hurt, and barking orders at me. "Mom, can you move my drink?" "Mom, can you get me my super duper cozy blanket?" In the evening, his fever spiked to 102, but I had nothing to give him, so thankfully, Mike postponed his last job to make a run to the pharmacy for me. Within half an hour, John was feeling great, back to his perky, chatty self. Then had a great night's sleep, and woke up feeling fine. Joan's wasn't even that bad. She felt slightly warmish for a day, but showed no other symptoms at all.

I just have to send a very big, very belated thank you to Mike's grandma - she sent the kids a HUGE gift basket for Easter, filled to the brim with chocolate and cookies and fruit. I had to love John - he was taking out all these sweets, but the first thing he ate was the grapes! All the fruit was eaten in pretty short order, actually. We still have one of the four Easter bunnies left. I actually turned one of the big ones into a pan of brownies, which Mike thought was a horrible thing to do. But they were sooooo good! So thank you so much! You really made John's day. He was so excited when he saw it come in! In fact, he's still taking about it!

We finally went to the library last week. John's usual gym program was cancelled, due to March break, and they have a big library right there, so it became his consolation prize. He really liked it. They had computers pre-loaded with fun little preschool games, with numbers and letters and puzzles. It was very popular - the kids all piled their little chairs around the monitor, taking turns with the mouse, feeding each other the answers. It was really cute. At one point, it was just John and another little boy, and the other kid had the mouse. John kept patting the kid on the back, saying "good job!" and "you're good at this game!"Unfortunately, the other kid didn't speak too much english, but he seemed to understand the sentiment. And of course, they had little tables and chairs and couches, for test driving the books. John would bolt off into the stacks, and emerge with new books to read. In the end, he had a few favourites, so we got library cards to take them home. They charge for library cards here, which is unthinkable to me - $12 a year! But I guess for the value you get, it's pretty cheap. They do run lots of programs - they do a lot of ESL training, and lots of kids programs, like puppet shows and sing-a-longs. They even have a preschool program, which is half an hour without parents, which I think John would enjoy. He needs a break from mom now and then.

That said, if a city in southern ontario proposed charging an annual fee to use the library, there would be riots. But in Calgary, it kind of fits. They're so incredibly cheap here! Did you know that Calgary has no curb-side recycling? They have dumpsters scattered throughout the city, and people save up their recyclables, and haul them to these bins. You can't even just dump it in - everything needs to be flattened and sorted into the proper bins. And people actually do this. If you peek in, everything is perfectly cleaned and sorted. Though, we're getting curbside recycling next year, which will be nice. Speaking of how cheap this city is, I don't think they own a single street sweeper. The streets are still caked in sand and dirt from winter. On windy days, it's like a dust storm rolling down the streets. I really think they just wait for the rain in summer to take care of it.

Then there's healthcare. We just got our first bill - $260-odd dollars, for the first quarter. We had our bill even before coverage kicked in! But I intend to get my money's worth. Joan and I are headed to the doctor tomorrow on Alberta's tab, to discuss some concerns. Apparently, he's the only guy with the power to step up her ECG, so he's the guy I'm going to see. My concern is that he doesn't know that there's a history of big heart problems on both sides of my family. I know some of it is in her chart - a couple members needed pacemakers at a young age, and the pediatrician considered my dad to be very young to have the surgery he did, so both of those are in there. But I know there's more I didn't think to say at the time, that might be relavent. I know I had a great aunt on my mom's side, who was born with a heart defect, and died in her early 20's as a result. It doesn't hurt to make sure Joan will be safe under sedation for the MRI, without knowing exactly what's up with her heart first. I'm sure it's fine - heart defects are the main cause of these strokes, so I'm sure they've dealt with it before. But it doesn't hurt to make sure. I get the sense from the nurses and admissions staff that the departments in this hospital are very disconnected from each other, which is a big concern to me.

John's doing well, but is getting nostalgic for family. He's been asking to go to Dryden for a visit with his grandparents these last few weeks. Some days, he's so insistant, he says he's going to go by himself! Mike's trying to think of a way to get us there - he's thinking he might drive us up on a weekend, then pick us up on another weekend. But we'll see. One of the things John misses is the Walchuk's apple trees, so I'm thinking April might be a wee bit early! John's getting impatient for all his usual summer activities - camping, swimming, picnicing. He's been asking for a picnic with Jeremy's special peanut butter cookies. But it's not quite summery enough for any of those things yet. In fact, we got a little bit of snow a couple days ago - 10 cm, that they didn't even predict. (They can't predict the precipitation here, because of the mountains. Apparently, only Denver is harder to predict.) John had fun shovelling again, but got bored halfway through...so he took off to the park! I turned around, and he was gone! Luckily, there was snow, so Joan and I just followed his tracks, and found him on the swings. It's just across the back ally, so if he's going to take off anywhere, that's the safest place for him to go. But still! Sheesh!

Mike's turning 30 is a few days! It's going to be pretty low-key. He wants to watch Logan's Run, which is what we did for my 30th, too. He asked for a black forest cake, so the kids and I headed out to pick up some whipped cream and cherries so we can make one. John and I are going to try to make ice cream, too, which Mike doesn't know about. John is so excited! he just can't wait for Dad's birthday! I let him pick out the candles at the store - he had a choice of three, and picked the diamond patterned ones. "They're so beautiful!" he keeps telling Dad, even though it's technically all supposed to be a "surprise". John even has a hiding spot all picked out, where he's going to leap from and yell "Surprise!" when dad gets home from work. He's been practicing - he's already started yelling "surprise!" every time dad comes home. It's very cute. I think John is getting way more enjoyment from Mike's birthday than Mike is.

Making the cake should be exciting - I've never made a real cake before, but I've been trying to make everything from scratch now that I'm at home, so I'm getting better at cooking. John's been enjoying it. We've completely given up the grossly overpriced commercial bread here, so every few days, we bake bread together. I let John dump ingredients and punch down between rises, and he thinks it's great fun. I think a lot of people cook from scratch here - we can get neat specialty things that you'd never see in a store down south. Instead of yeast being in a little box on the bottom shelf, it's a huge section, with all different kinds, right at eye level. There's a mill in Olds, and they sell all sorts of neat things right in Safeway, like barley flour, which makes a neat tasting bread we all like. People seem to do a lot of preserving here, too, judging from the giant wall-o-preserving supplies at every groccery store. But I'm not sure what they're preserving - they don't seem to grow produce here. Maybe we'll be surprised, but Mike thinks people must stock up in the Okanogan every summer, then can it for the winter.

Anyway, I should go. I'm tired and rambling, and have to feed the brood. But I'll be back!