Catherine had fun!

Catherine had fun yesterday at a wedding we attended (see previous post) This is such a nice photo, I just had to get it displayed.

James & Korina got Married

Catherine and I had a good time yesterday at the Wedding Reception for James & Korina Manaloto. "May God be with you and bless you. May you see your children's children. May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness from this day forward." You can see more photos at imagestation.com - search albums for Manaloto.

Flying a Kite with Angela

Angela flew her new kite on Sunday out at Crescent Beach. The yellow biplane kite above her head has a five foot wingspan. . . so it's way up there!

Master Builder Bobby

Good job for only 4 years old! I have a feeling that we will be sending Bobby to the University of British Columbia Engineering Department in about 15 years.

Twenty Years of Computing

It has been 20 years since I bought my first computer; an ATARI 520ST. Those who knew me at that time thought that I was the least likely person to buy a Personal Computer. Few people had Personal Computers back in 1986. It cost $1,600.00 (quite a lot of money then) to buy. The operating system was on a floppy disk that you had to load at start-up. It had 512 kilobytes of memory - that's 1/2 a megabyte! I could add another 512 kilobytes of memory for only $1,000.00! It had no hard Drive. It had a colour monitor. It was a marvel! My Mom was even afraid to touch it. . . thought it would "take over." I sure learned a lot.

What I didn't realize at that time that PC's were just coming out of Infancy and taking the first Baby Steps; to become Humanity's greatest tool. Every Industry has been changed amazingly.

Remember that we are still essentially at the beginning of the Computer Age. I wonder what will happen in the next 20 years.

Swedish Balls

We finally got rid of the two ugly white round "Swedish Ball" light fixtures in our kitchen. I installed two track lights with three flood lights in each one. We can see stuff in our kitchen now - even some things we didn't even know was there!

Angela and the Cossacks

Angela asked today, "what are Cossacks?" Here's some information: COSSACKS: Centuries ago the forefathers of the present day Cossacks settled in the steppes of the southeastern corner of Europe, bordering on the Black Sea and the Caucasian Mountains on the south, the Caspian Sea and the river Volga on the east, the forests of the Great Russian Plain on the north and the river Dniester on the west. Since the dawn of civilization these steppes had been crossed again and again by the peoples of the Great Migration. The original Cossacks were the product of an intermixture of all these peoples with the previous settlers of the Slavic race. Byzantine writers of the Tenth Century described the Cossacks as a separate people who lived on the river Don, and called them "the brave and strong people." In old Russian chronicles they were similarly described for the first time in 1261. The Don Cossacks fought on the side of the Russian Grand Duke Dimitry against the Tartars in 1380. In all the records of that period the Cossacks were described as a series of independent communities, loosely bound into larger units of a military character, entirely separate from the Russian State.

Later on, the Don Cossacks moved to Canada. They changed their last name to "Charlton" and all became Insurance Brokers. It is well known that they are only bloodthirsty at bar-b-ques. They would rather eat their own babies than part with their money and they are very fond of their babies. They make the very best friends to have, aside from their tendency to kiss you on occasion. They seek out Mates from Transylvania and have lots of babies. Unlike the Franco-Anglo Cossacks, they do not get fat in their old age. Their motto, which is secretly written on the underside of their desks, is: "crush enemies, have them driven before you, hear the lamentation of their women."

Another New Range

Our (replacement) new kitchen range arrived this evening. Hopefully, we will be problem free with this one. I'll quit complaining now. We're fortunate just to be able to get a new stove, have our own kitchen, and have food to cook. Lots of people in the World don't have any of these things. One half of the people in the World have never even used a telephone in their lives! So our Family will give thanks (Catherine's Department) for our many blessings.

Sears came through (sort of)

We went to see the manager of the Sears Appliance Department (Surrey Guildford) today. He still refused to replace our stove. We told him that we didn't want a defective range and we considered having to install a whole new controll panel a major defect and we wanted the stove replaced. The manager repeated that Sears has a "new" policy that they do not replace. . . they repair. I pointed out to him that our receipt said, "satisfaction guaranteed, or money refunded." I said that we were not satisfied, and we wanted our money back. He agreed to refund our money and we are getting a full refund from Sears in about 10 days.

We thanked him and then bought and paid for another new range, exactly the same model and price, as the original stove - right on the spot! It gets here on Wednesday.

It's all been a big pain in the ass, not to mention our bank account. Sears should have farted in their haste to replace our new range in the first place. They did "come through" for us, but only after a few days of wrangling with them.

The ironic thing about all of this is that our original salesman told us that Sears would replace the new range if there was a major problem with it, like the control panel stops working.

The moral of the story; get it in writing!

New Kitchen Range Kaput

Catherine used the self-cleaning feature on our new range yesterday for the first time. The stove quite working afterwards. Sears service came out to look at and said it needs a new control panel and it will take 30 days for the part to arrive. This in a major defect and they said they will not replace the stove, or refund our money. This is a "new policy." They will LET US HAVE a loaner until ours is repaired. We've had this stove for two days less than a month. We're going to see the Sears Store Manager tomorrow. I'm going to show him our receipt form Sears, which says, "satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded." More to follow. . .

ICBC Well Done

Here's a copy of an email I sent to some of my friends at ICBC:

" I've been paying attention to News Reports about ICBC's most excellent claims service to Autoplan Clients affected by the BC Ferry sinking. Well done guys! It a is terrible accident, but the people at ICBC are handling their part with class and deserve recognition and praise. This reflects what we are doing together; providing the best service anywhere. Thank you. Yours very truly, Dale"

Missing Tita Vicki

Bobby says that he misses Tita Vicki and that he wants a photo of her here that he can see whenever he wants. Bobby also wants a photo of Tita Vickie on his juice cup (we'll have to work on that).

Missing Lesley

Angela says that she misses Lesley and wants a photo here that she can look at whenever she wants. Me, I miss both of "My Girls" Carrie and Lesley.

Cave Man Food

The Tangonan Family; Rommel, Lisa, Mariz and cutie little baby Christiano came over here for dinner last night (Krishna missing) I cooked-up a pile of nice big & meaty beef ribs (cave man food) with tasty dipping sause. Oh, it was good. . . hardly any growling during dinner!

New Monitor

Went garage sailing today and found a Samsung SyncMaster 955DF 19 inch Flat Screen CRT monitor for only $10.00 - and it works great! Screen looks nice. Much larger looking than the old 17 monitor.

Goodbye To An Old Friend

Our hearts go out to the Family of Leticia Bayoneta. Leti passed away on March 12, 2006. Catherine went to pay our respects this evening. We're quite sad as Leti was always good to us. "As Long As Hearts Remember."

Bobby got a Haircut

Bobby got a short haircut like Dad's. The Men of the family are sure clean cut, handsome Dudes!

Ed and Desma getting Married

Our congratulations and best wishes go out to Ed and Desma who are getting married on March 22, 2006 over in Scotland. "May joy and peace surround you both, Contentment latch your door,and happiness be with you now and God bless you evermore." (Traditional Scottish Wedding Blessing) With love from Angela, Bobby, Catherine and Dale Poulin.

Bobby's Music Video

Bobby is very serious about watching his music video on the PC. (no chicken pox on face)

Really Short Haircut

Went out today and got what is possibly the shortest haircut I've ever had in my life.