April 27 Photo: Earth

I spent my Saturday at the Roots and Branches Family History Conference.  What a fantastic day.  22 different classes to choose from which was hard to narrow down to five choices. I attended England- Advanced, Ireland, Organizing Digital Media, Sweden and Descendancy Research.  Thank goodness for the 82 page syllabus with notes from these and all the workshops I wasn't able to attend.  And would you believe the entire day was free.  I have gotten used to the high price tags on conference registrations so the fact that this and the RootsTech conference in January were both provided without cost is amazing.  I have a lot of ideas and resources I need to follow up on now!








It also provided for a great "earth" picture - well - not artistically - but at least it fits the theme. I always park in the back when I come to this building, the LDS Stake Centre on 17th Avenue SW.  And I guess I never look out the front window. I had no idea that the front lawn was ripped out.  There used to be grass and steps leading up to the building but I found out that the front doors were going to be replaced with windows and the front landscaped without the stairs.  But for now, it is an open construction site (repairs were needed to the foundation so the project wasn't as simple as first expected).

LDS Stake Centre on 17th Avenue.

Flickr Friday: The Morris House

Wandering around Halifax, originally uploaded by whistlepunch.

It was a free day on my trip east for TESL Canada 2011 and I spent it visiting the Pier 21 museum and wandering the streets snapping photos and soaking in the misty Nova Scotia air.

I saw this very old home looking very out of place and so I snapped a picture as I passed by. I had no idea I had captured such a historic treasure. This home is 249 years old! It was built in 1764, 15 years after the city of Halifax was founded. (This is over 100 years before any of my ancestors would immigrate to what later became Canada.)  It was slated for demolition but in 2013 after being saved by the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, the home was on the move to its new location to shelter young people who are experiencing housing challenges.

Thanks for Steve-23 who shared this information with me on Flickr.
He also included a link to the news story this past January.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/26/morris-house-move_n_2557759.html

April 26 Photo: Childhood

Like lots of kids in the seventies, I enjoyed Cracker Jack as a kid. One of the attractions was that when you opened a box of Cracker Jack, it came with a surprise toy inside and for awhile, that was a card from a small wildlife set with an optical illusion.  When tilted back and forth, the camel would walk, the blue whale would breach (bottom card in the page above), or the Canada goose would fly.  These "flicker cards" came as a set of 18 and you could send away for a small book to hold the set you collected. I still have my collection and keep it in the small toy box I pull out for special young guests.

April 25 Photo: Life is...

The only picture I took on Thursday.

Life is....

I started the day with this assignment and had no clear plan of how I was going to capture a resolution to this sentence in a picture.  As I drove to work, I considered "Life is what you make it" and was determined to make it a productive and successful day. Within minutes of arriving at work, I had changed to "Life is full of surprises" when the first "surprise" of the day was delivered via email. After spending the next 2 hours dealing with this first diversion (not that 2 hours covered it - it will involve multiple hours/days over the next 2-3 weeks to set this right), number two occurred as I began a task I had scheduled as my main "to do" of the day. And it all went sideways. Somewhere an error had been made and it had had a cascading effect that unraveled my entire work plan. Unraveled but I keep remembering that my job is to take what comes - I can't rely on my workplan being the agenda of the day and that always makes these side roads more palatable.

The day continued on along this vein and my "Life is full of sweetness and light" opportunities were not  appearing on the horizon, so I decided to salvage a bit of this and arranged to meet a friend for Korean food for dinner. Aah, "Life is good. and at times (when I am not cooking) delicious." I should have snapped a picture for the day then but I thought I had done enough food photo shoots.

The night appeared to be redeeming itself and a visit with my hometeaching couple continued to uplift my spirit. I love hearing about how someone found the gospel and their story was wonderful.

After that, I went in to the office full of optimism that I could get much of my marking and personal work completed and after creating a short screencast, I went in to listen to some student audio files but my speakers no longer would work. I didn't panic - just need to reset my default, right? But after 15 minutes of checking connections and fiddling around with the control panel settings nothing was going to work.  I was feeling a bit panicked - I had used up my limited bag of tricks. So at this point I took the one and only image of the day - a screenshot of my audio devices and messaged it to my nephew - who was out celebrating his last exam of his educational career.  He made a quick suggestion by text and while it wasn't the solution exactly, it did unlock one last option I had not tried and when I did - all was well with the world.

So in the end, Life is an adventure - ups and downs come and go. It helps to let go of expectations (both in the immediate and in the long term). By the end, I could say I had a good day. (I don't think I would have said that at 11:00 am) Instead of my initial "Life is what you make it" I'll say "Life is how you take it!"

April 24 Photo: I Saw This Person Today

I saw "these people" today. I left work early to drive up to Red Deer and present a workshop for the Central Alberta chapter of ATESL. It was a tour of the new atesl.ca website and how social media is integrated.

It was strange leaving without any handouts, notes, digital files etc. I put the content of my presentation on Prezi and didn't prepare a contingency plan if the tech failed.It all worked out and I even had the fun of using a Smartboard. You can see the presentation here.

We had a small turnout but I was happy to meet with them. And thank goodness for clear driving conditions and my favourite tunes. It was a good night.

April 23 Photo: Time

Time, quitting time. At least for today. I've not been as successful as I would like to work my 7 hours between 8:30 and 4:30. Not too late today and the sun is still shining. It feels good to have more of the day left when I leave the office. (Even if I use it to just trade my work computer for my home computer. Tonight it is preparing for a workshop tomorrow in Red Deer.)

April 22 Photo: Blurry

Blurry

Dinner at the Thai Chili Club. Yum! It was a working dinner for the condo board. A nice alternative to our monthly meetings at the property. For all the times I've driven past this restaurant on 17th Avenue, this was my first time to eat here. Loved the coconut ice cream at the end of the meal. Creamy cold coconut delight!

April 21 Photo: Fire

Fire. I had two options. My digital fireplace (DVD that gets brought out every Christmas) or candles. I opted for the candles. I have multiple holders and boxes of tea lights, votives and pillars. They shouldn't be just for Christmas!

April 20 Photo: On Your Mind

"On your mind:  Phrenology model

Ever since I learned that my great great grandfather, David Mulholland, had a phrenology skull reading done, I have been curious about the history of this pseudo-science of Victorian neurologists.

Here's some context of phrenology in Utah at the turn of the 20th century.  Taken from the article, Phrenology among the Mormons. 

In 1904, David Mulholland was one of the many visiting Nephi Schofield for analysis.  If you want to read his profile, the document is available here. You can learn about his practical nature, tendency towards benevolence to his own disadvantage and his unsuitability for business or commercial enterprise. Schofield concluded:

"Your mistakes in life will be mistakes of the head and not of the heart; and Christianity being true, your greatest reward will be reserved for a future life."

( I know this is late. I had the picture a week ago and posted on Instagram but I wanted to include the document and that held up the whole process.  The dam is now broken. Here come the last week's photos!)

Flickr Friday: Three of my favourite people

Three of my favourite people, originally uploaded by whistlepunch.

A month from now and these three will be together again. These are my sister`s kids and we all were touring around Chicago when this was taken.  It was great to be included in their family vacation  which included a trip to Nauvoo after some time in the windy city!

Actually the picture I wanted to share was one I just noticed as I've been sorting out my own digital files and that is this picture of my niece. I told my mom I would share it so here it is. Look at that - two pictures in a row without her pulling a silly face. (The girl loves to ham it up for the camera) She is now hobbling around with a fractured ankle so I won't get to go watch her play rugby. Too bad!!




My cousin is celebrating her 400th post on her blog. Go check it out here (but don`t bother to enter to win chocolates because I am going to win them this time.) But it got me thinking. This is my 276 post on this blog but if you add ALL my blogs together, it adds up to this being my 400TH POST!! She has been blogging more consistently than I have so mine are rather spread out over a longer time period. And if you read it carefully, she hit the target yesterday so the announcement post makes it 401. We didn`t tie after all.  Congrats to you, cuz!!

April 19 Photo: Button

The theme today is Button and while I was at Staples, I saw the easy button. They still sell this! Granted, it is worked, I would want to buy one. The idea is that when you have a problem, you press the easy button and the solution will appear. Presumably a stationary or office supply solution. If only it were real.

Here are the ads that inspired the actual product.  They get progressively weirder.









So if you want to buy your own easy button, you can at Staples. And this is what it will do for you.






Actually, do you know what is easy? Well, not pie! When some English as a Second Language students were asked to fill in a worksheet that included the line,

"As easy as ________________________________"

pie was not the number one answer.

My favourite answer? Spaghetti! Spaghetti is easy! Pie is not easy! So the next time you are tempted to say, "That was as easy as pie"... finish with a more appropriate response.

"That was as easy as spaghetti!"

It now seems like today's word was "easy". It was not. It was button...which is a noun. You should not say "as button as". So don't. The grammar lesson is now over.

April 18 Photo: Hello!

Hello, Jambo, Buenos dias, Aloha, Zdravei, Hola, Annyeong haseyeo!

This board is located in the reception area of the International Education office at Mount Royal University and represents the diversity of students we have had come through our department. Do you know all of these languages?  Greetings seem so simple but it isn't always what it seems to be. In the same way that the question, "How are you?' doesn't always signal a desire to hear the real answer, every language will present its own  cultural expressions that require more than a literal translation to navigate.

When I had just arrived in Korea and was just getting a basic conversational level of the language, I remember trying to respond with full explanations to the question "Have you eaten your rice today?"
"No, I usually start my day with tofu patties or cereal".
"No, I will be eating later after a few more appointments."
"Yes, I just finished having lunch. We had rice and panchan"
None of these were the appropriate answer to this greeting. It has a similar purpose to our questioning "How are you?" and the only appropriate response is "Yes, I have. Have you?"

(And when you do eat your rice, don't forget your kimchi!)

April 17 Photo: Busy

The classes may be empty but it doesn't mean the students aren't busy. The study areas are packed, every computer in the library is occupied and breaks during exam week may involve a visit to the puppy room, some bouncing in the bouncy castle, or hunting down the exam stress relief snack cart.

But mostly, they are somewhere squirrelled away -busy working.

My good friend has gone back to school (brave girl!) and she was busy - stayed late at work to be on her computer preparing her research paper to hand in tomorrow.

For my nephew, he was busy with his two partners preparing for their final class presentation worth 30% of their grade. Busy until very very late.

And being the amazing aunt that I am  :-) , to help him out,  I picked him up from the train station just minutes before midnight in case he had missed the final bus, brought him back to my place to shower (his bathroom is getting some repairs and so it is out of commission) and dropped him off at home for a few hours of sleep before he heads out very early tomorrow for last minute prep before the presentations begin. I remember late nights like his when I was finishing projects and know that any little bit of help makes the process easier.

Four more exams and he will be done with school. He's worked hard and I'm looking forward to see where his journey will take him!

Dropping off the clean boy at home sometime around 1:00 a.m.

April 16 Photo: Your Favourite Colour

I like bold, saturated colours. The main colours in my home are orange, red, and green. I was tired of living with renter's white for so long.  But now it feels a little like I live inside a circus tent. And I'm ready for some blue.  I've been talking about painting for a very long time. But painting is a project that I haven't had the time or energy to follow through on. One day. Maybe next week. (No, not really, I just fell into the Blondie lyrics)  

The only colour you probably won't see either on me or on my walls is yellow. Never. Not yellow. 

April 15 Photo: Alone

I have the word "alone" on a magnet at my desk at work. I bought a selection of magnets about books, English, and teaching from the Etsy shop 'Beanforest' for Christmas. So many fun magnets! The selection changes frequently.  I shared them with my workmates and have a selection for myself. The magnet below was wishful thinking. I probably volunteer less frequently these days but that is simply because I'm already juggling a full schedule with my professional organization and my condo board on top of work, teaching and church commitments.

That's it for today.

Replay

So after spending one night this weekend hanging out with one of my nieces, I got a text message Saturday from another niece asking what I was doing. She was bored (or so I took it from her next text which declared: "IM DOING NOTHING") and I seemed like her best option to change the situation. I'll take it! But then it was quite a back and forth to negotiate what the plan for the evening would be.

I didn't particularly feel like getting myself up and out in the snow, so I gave her the option to come over and then spend the night so she wouldn't have to drive home later. That seemed like a better plan than doing NOTHING and since it now included one of our traditions, making French Toast Raphael (from the Best of Bridge cookbook or online here) for breakfast the next morning, she was ready to come. The roads were becoming more and more treacherous and so her Dad graciously agreed to drive her over and pick her up for church the next morning rather than make her cancel her plans.

I managed to locate a few treats to round out the evening's movie snacks including the homemade chocolates from Christmas that were lost in the freezer, a happy surprise.

We attempted to watch a movie on Netflix, but when we were almost an hour in and had only seen 20 minutes because of constant buffering (although the Roger and Ebert style analysis between clips was entertaining) , we gave up on the wifi connection to the BluRay player and moved upstairs to the office to watch the rest on my computer.

Breakfast was a hit in the morning. The key is to make sure the dish puffs up and to cook until the middle has set.  Next time though - we can't forget the bacon!!

A fun weekend of time with two of my nieces.  I could do this every weekend!

April 14 Photo: Water

Another lack of inspiration for the theme so I am pulling something out of archives once again.

Sunset over the Mediterranean Sea - taken when returning to Alanya from the ruins in Perge, Turkey. 

Birthplace of Aphrodite, Pafos, Cyprus

In the foreground, you can see the Saracen Rock and in the background, Petra tou Romiou or Rock of the Greek. This is where legend tells that Aphrodite arose from the sea.

Last year, we had a challenge for "cold" on April 10 and I obviously didn't have the cooperation that the weather would have been today because I ended up with a picture of a glass of ice water, which you can revisit here. The only other water around here today was frozen into snowflakes so I hope these pictures make you think warm thoughts!

April 13 Photo: View From Your Bed

While the view doesn't even include a blue sky, what I am most sad about is that it no longer includes my beautiful tree. I no longer will hear birds chirping in the branches just outside my window.

When I first bought my place, my tree was in full spring bloom. A gorgeous deep pink blossom. And there was no need for curtains with the tree all that I could see from the bedroom window.

The springtime view from the same bedroom window 2009.

Another view of the tree from upstairs. This is in 2009.
The fireblight hit in 2008 and this was the first spring I noticed a change in the tree. 

 But after the fire blight took over, the once beautiful tree slowly wasted away.  The crown had completely died and a good pruning a couple years back couldn't save the tree from the disease, which continued to consume branches and eventually left the tree in a completely weakened state, sending shoots up all over the yard in its distress.

So just a few weeks ago, the arbourists came and took it down. The yard seems so empty and the exposure is a shock after having this dominant feature providing interest, a resting place for so many types of birds and shade to all the rooms of my home.

Anyone with some landscaping advice? It feels like a very blank canvas and I'm not sure what to do with the space. I just know that it will be a very different this year without being able to see the seasons through my tree.

April 12 Photo: In the Middle

Banana cooked "in the middle" of the pancake at the Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus.

I didn't mean for this to be another food picture. I have my niece sleeping over tonight so that I can drive her to her theatre class in the morning and we ended up a the Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus for dinner (I gave her lots of options and it was the one that appealed to her the most.) After hearing John Gilchrist talk about the restaurant on the CBC this morning, I wasn't unhappy with her choice. And when the waitress brought out  (this is only HALF a serving!) our dessert pancake - chocolate and banana, we realized the banana was not sliced on top like I expected but cooked into the pancake. Yum!

We had to sit and wait for a knife and fork, watching the whipped cream begin to melt away so to resist the urge to just abandon cutlery and go for it pizza style, I decided to take my picture for the day. 

We came back home to watch the Bollywood version of a classic, "Bride and Prejudice". It's silly but I think she enjoyed it. My favourite scene is the "Dola Dola" a dance done with sticks. (if you watch this clearly unauthorized upload of the clip, ignore the Darcy/Wyckham drama and enjoy the dance!)  It looks too complicated to pick up quickly as a couple of the characters appear to do, but really looks fun.

I'm adding this photo now but it may come down later - I need to clear it with my niece. She ended the night all tucked in with a teen magazine. She liked the room she was going to sleep in. My "garden" green apple reading room with lots of flower pictures/paintings and a big bookshelf of family classics to read. She may not get to lights out for a while. It was fun hanging out with her tonight.

Flickr Friday: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Again, using my addition formula, this time with 4/12/13, I chose this picture for Flickr Friday. Also taken on my trip in 2011 to Nova Scotia.

First person to leave a comment and a number between 1 and 543 will determine which page of photos I share from next week!