21st Century

It's time to retire my old cell phone. It's been serving me faithfully since 1998. My new cell phone is quite a marvel. . . does everything except the dishes! Thanks go out to Brad Jefferson for helping me join the 21st Century.

Media Room

Our Media Room is starting to get set-up nicely. The addition of a 10" Sub Woofer made quite a difference to the overall sound; much better. I've used older large wooden speakers to make up the rest of the 6.1 sound and they work very well; much better than little metal or plastic speakers. Next, I'll install a real good center speaker.

New SONY 6.1 Home Theater Receive

Got this nice SONY Receiver today and will be hooking it up soon. 6.1 and 100 watts per channel - it's going to be nice! Now all I need is some good speakers.

Lesley's Nice Leather Couch

It only took 5 months, but I finally got this nice leather couch I bought from my Pal English Lesley. The darn thing will not fit down the stairs to my basement - for my Home Theater Room. . . double rats! But, hey. . . it sure is nice to lay on!

TV Stand Built

I finally finished building the stand for our Sony Wega 36 inch flatscreen TV. It was quite a task, considering I haven't done any carpentry since 1977. I had forgotten how much I dislike painting. There will be three matching shelves right above the TV to hold DVD, VCR and Sound System. My extensive collection of Video Game Systems will be below the TV, when I'm finished.

Bobby Graduates (Playschool)

They're Graduating earlier and earlier! Oh. . . and it's not Playschool, it's Pre-Kindergarten - thank you very much! Anyway, it is a terrific photo of my little Guy. Way to go, Bob!

Father's Day 2006

As my Children, Angela and Bobby, start to grow up a little - it's a real pleasure on Father's day. Their bright eyes and piping voices make me realize how lucky I am. I think a lot about my Father too. It's been six years since he passed away. I will never stop missing him. So Guys, make these day count and don't waste them. . . we are all mortal.

A Visit With Bob Johnston

I had a visit with my Friend Bob Johnston in Oliver, BC last Saturday, with Catherine, Angela and Bobby. We did get to see Bob's pretty Wife Rosanne later in the night and we saw one of his Daughters to briefly. I had not seen Bob for about 3 years and it was a real pleasure to hang out a bit with him. I had almost forgotten the sound of his voice and his most excellent laughter; this cheered me up a great deal. I was feeling a bit down because of problems with my employer. This visit with Bob was the tonic I needed to pick me up a bit. Thanks Bob!

Chantal Graduated

Last weekend our Family took a trip up to Osoyoos and Oliver to see our Darling Niece Chantal Graduate from Osoyoos Secondary School. Chantal, we hope your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known. With much love from Angela, Bobby, Catherine and Dale. PS: your can see more photos of Chantal at http://www.imagestation.com - just search albums for Mathieu.

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"