Wednesday, December 09, 2009

No More Daylight


After talking with my Nephew Chris, I signed-up on Facebook. Synced with my Yahoo contacts and had about 45 Friends to link with. Plus I invited about 75 more to join Facebook. My God! I'll never see daylight again!

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Poulin Grandparents


My Cousin Denis sent me this photo of a newspaper clipping about my Father's Parents; my Grandmother and Grandfather. It's so nice to learn a little more family history. They had 19 children, not 15. I saw them only once when I was very young, about 4 years old - but I still remember them. This is the first I've seen them when they were young and I can see in their faces a little bit of all of us. (Click on image to enlarge)

Sunday, November 15, 2009

To The Wilds of Fort Langley


Yesterday, we went out overnight to the "wilds" of Fort Langley, B.C. This was to test out our motorhome. Everything went well, except November here is definitily not the best time to go camping. The sound of rain on the roof put us to sleep. I put all our camp gear in the RV, except for our tents. There's room for about 10 times more stuff. I managed to dump the black & brown water sewage tanks without creating a 40 foot fountain (Remember Robin Williams in RV?) It's kind of cool to pull in, hook up and everything works. We had a nice lunch at The Java Planet - a 50's Diner, where Angela met Elvis.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Wrecking Crew

There's a new walk-in shower going in soon, so the Boys had a lot of fun working on the "Wrecking Crew."

Saturday, October 24, 2009

1993 Itasca Suncruiser 34 Foot Class A Motorhome


I picked up our family "Adventuremobile" last Monday. It was quite an trip (See the previous post). Angela and Bobby like it a lot and we'll be heading out on adventures soon.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Marysville Speed n' Custom


I travelled down to Portland, Oregon last Monday on Amtrak, which was a nice ride. I had not been on a train in 40 years. Stayed over-night in a Hotel near Sherwood, Oregon. On early Tuesday morning, I fired-up the 1993 Itasca Suncruiser 34 Foot Class A Motorhome I bought on Ebay, and headed back for the Border. Considering that I had never driven anything bigger than a pick-up truck before and that I managed to hit morning rush-hour in three different cities along the way, I was having quite an adventure. I was about 200 miles into my journey, when trouble started. The motorhome started getting noisy and running rough with little power. Luckily, I could pull into a rest area. Problem: No power at all in the batteries - all three of them! I phoned the nearest automotive shop in the area. (Internet is helpful in these situations!) The Guys from Marysville Speed n' Custom came almost right away. Ken helped to jump-start the RV and I drove to their location close-by. They were super! Within 90 minutes, I had two new batteries and a new alternator and was back on my way back to Canada. Their bill was reasonable. Their service was excellent. They are nice friendly people. I cannot thank them enough. See; www.marysvillespeed.com

Thursday, October 22, 2009

KCTS 9 and Mashed Potatoes



I sent in my recipe for Poulin Family Mashed Potatoes: http://www.lottomars.com/mashed_potatoes.htm to KCTS channel 9 in Seattle, Washington USA and it was selected to be included in the "KCTS Cooks for the Holidays" Cookbook. This is the second one of my recipes that have been published in KCTS's cookbooks. I didn't get to cook anything "on air" - maybe next time!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Little Red Tigers


Bobby and Angela attended their first Karate lesson today and had a lot of fun. Soon they will be big red tigers.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Now we just have to fill it.


We finally got a nice big (21 sq.ft.) stand-up freezer. We've wanted one for quite a long time. No more digging to the bottom of our old small chest freezer to find something.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Angela Graduates Grade Seven


In a nice ceremony at Harold Bishop Elementary, Angela graduated from Grade Seven with her Classmates today. We're very proud of our Angela and know she will do well in High School next Fall.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Life Near The Beginning


It was a pleasure to experience a little life near the beginning. Yesterday, Catherine and I attended the Christening of Zion Philip Dizon. This cute little Guy is the son of our friends Butch and Mae Dizon. It was a nice ceremony with a good Luncheon. Warm congratulations to the Dizon Family.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Tony Poulin "Heart of Gold"


It has been a sad week for the our Family. My Brother Tony passed away last Saturday, May 23, 2009. Tony was only 58 years old. This is a rare photo of me and my siblings: taken with us all together as adults. The photo was taken in 1980 at our Father's retirement party at Indian Rock (Naramata), B.C. Left to right: Michael, Alan, Tony, Dale, Kevan and Danielle.


Any one who knows Tony well will agree that he had a heart of gold. Gentle and true, always willing to help out. Tony, along with Kevan, took care of our Father for many years.

Tony fell off a ladder about a year ago and broke his ribs. He didn't see a doctor right away and developed an infection in his lungs. He went to the hospital later in bad shape and then caught that superbug infection: Staphlycoccus aureus that is highly resistant to antibiotics. He was in the hospital for a couple of weeks, treated and released. Three weeks ago, Tony had a stroke and was back in the hospital. The superbug infection had come back and had got to his heart, liver, kidneys and brain. Tony went into a coma and never came back to us. He died peacefully in his sleep late that Saturday night.

I love my Brother and will always miss him. Tony has gone to join our Mother and Father, and our Brother Alan.
Video attached January 4, 2010 "Long Ago and Far Away." This is a little video (Turn your sound up) I made with some old super-8 clips and photos of Tony and other loved ones not with us any more; Mom, Dad, Alan and my old girlfriend Holly. There's video of Jason's Mom and Dad (Before he was born). My Brother Alan... is Christopher's Dad. Some of us in the video are still around and still going strong! Some of you have seen this before and some not. It's for us to enjoy and remember.


"Good Times" Video

Friday, April 10, 2009

Lottomars is Back!


The venerable and fantastic Lottomars domain: http://www.lottomars.com/ is mine once again. I started this site back in about 1995 and had a lot of fun with it. But I had let the domain slip away. It was picked up by others who pointed it at some less than savory destinations because there are so many websites that have links to Lottomars. In fact, Lottomars was in the top 5% of the Web for having the most links that lead to it. I felt that I had lost something that belongs to me. A few days ago I noticed that the domain was free again. With the help of Tajh at Blaze Telecommunications - http://www.blaze.ca/ - I was able to acquire my old favorite website again. Thanks Tajh!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Holly McFadden


Long ago (1977) and far away from where I am now, I dated Holly McFadden. In fact, we ended up living together for a while. I let her slip away from me, as I was a bit of a rambler back in those times. I still remember her well and with affection.


I only recently learned of her terrible death and don't wish to say anything about this. I also remember Holly’s Family; Her Mother, Father and two Sisters. They were all very nice to me and treated me well. My heart goes out to them all, as I know they will miss her so much. Most of what I remember about Holly I will keep to myself. I will tell you that she was very beautiful, highly intelligent, and strong willed. She was the type of woman who makes a man out of a man. This is the only photo I have of Holly. She is with me and my Mother and Father. I cannot remember where it was taken, but I’m glad the photo includes her smile. I think that if this photo is here, somehow her Family will get to see her "back then." I will always remember Holly McFadden.

Video added January 5, 2010. Two short Super-8 movie clips from back in 1977 of Holly when we were at a Bellyflop Contest at the old Coachhouse Hotel in North Vancouver. We had a lot of fun that day.

I may have found Holly's sister Gail. I sure hope she and her sister Coral get to see this post.

Sammy on The Wall


Thanks go to the Guys from ConnectPro who installed Sammy up on the wall. An excellent job and just what I wanted.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Sammy Arrived


Our new TV arrived today. It's name is Sammy (Samsung). Sammy is beautiful, tremendous, big and fantastic. 52 inch, 1080p, 120 hertz and so real, it is freaking me out. Sammy cost a lot of money, but worth every penny. It will be mounted on the wall next Saturday.

I hooked up an older PC to it and Sammy is now effectively a 52 inch computer monitor too.

Thanks go to Gurmeet at Future Shop in Burnaby for a good deal and excellent service. The Delivery Guys were super. They moved my old TV upstairs for me (Thing weighs 248 lbs.)

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Angela Egyptian


Angela likes to write her name in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Fifty-seven going on Forty-two

I was almost always tired and sleepy, especially when driving. I would fall asleep after about 30 minutes when watching TV or reading. I would get headaches almost every day and some nights. It was sometimes like I had been drugged. I snored very loudly too - I was famous for it. Also and perhaps the worst thing was that I was frequently grumpy and irritable.

I finally told my family doctor and he had me tested for sleep apnea.

"The Greek word "apnea" literally means "without breath." There are three types of apnea: obstructive, central, and mixed; of the three, obstructive is the most common. Despite the difference in the root cause of each type, in all three, people with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer."

The test clearly indicated that I have sleep apnea. So, for the last two months, I have a machine beside my bed that pumps air into my nose when I'm sleeping. I have to wear a mask over my nose with straps around my head. My Wife and Kids laughed when they saw me with it on. It's quite intrusive, but well worth a little discomfort.

I don't snore now. I have not had a headache in over a month. I'm not tired all the time anymore. I'm not "Mr. Grumpy" at all. If fact, I feel better than I have in the last fifteen years.

If you have the symptoms that I had, go and get tested. . . don't put it off.