Little Known Facts About the Recent Election

Unbeknownst to most Canadians, even among those deeply entrenched in political discussions and who kept on top of every breaking news story in the weeks and days surrounding Canada's recent federal election, there was an underground force responsible for ensuring that Stephen Harper, representing the Conservative party, became Canada's new Prime Minister. Realizing it would be a difficult struggle to obtain enough seats in the House to ensure the first Conservative government since 1993, Harper's strategical team came up with a top-secret list of names of experts who would be able to bring a Conservative landslide to fruition. While the major newspapers of the country did their best to dig out any kind of important or enlightening information about the prime ministerial candidates and the potential MPs in their respective parties, they did not manage to uncover the Conservative's best-kept secret: Arlene Mussche. Great lengths were taken to conceal the support of this powerhouse political activist, and it seems the Conservatives remained successful until the publication of this very blog. Here below is what seems to be the only existing picture of Mussche and Harper, proving a connection between the two political geniuses.


Here in an exclusive photograph, Mussche and Harper discuss last-minute political strategies mere days before the federal election. Mussche is thought to be the main reason for the recent Conservative win in Parliament

For Trade

To a certain member of my blogging audience: there is a particular member of your cupboard-stock which has been missing for a number of weeks and has been residing in cupboards other than your own. He really wants to go home, but unfortunately he's being held hostage. His captors are willing to make a trade: your property for their property. It's up to you...

Times and Places

Nice alarm clock, eh? It's my gift from Staples for being the "Super Person of the Month" for December. There's also an official certificate around somewhere with my name on it, potentially hanging up in a place of honour, but I haven't found that place yet. Not that I've really looked or anything, but if I ever get my hands on the certificate, I'll have to pick a wall in our home to display it on, and perhaps at the same time I'll get my Bachelor of Science diploma framed and hung beside it. Yup, I'll have a sequential display of my Calvin Christian School diploma, my HDCH diploma, my Redeemer diploma, and next in line will be my Super Person of the Month diploma.
I appreciate that my managers appreciate the stress that defined December for me. I think they appreciated that I didn't quit on them.
I like how my new alarm clock tells the temperature. As you can tell in the picture, it was 20.9 degrees in our living room. However, I also took a picture of the thermometer in our bedroom, which reads quite a different temperature:
I think Mike is trying to prepare me for living in Alaska. He was on a bit of a kick for a while, wanting to move to Alaska because he likes the snow. Then we were going to move to BC to a remote (as in, fly in with a helicopter) community in the dense forest, where Mike would teach all the commune children. I believe we were also at one point going to move to Iowa, but I'm not sure what the main attraction there was supposed to be, unless it was the corn. Who knows where we will actually end up settling, but I have a feeling it won't be Alaska, BC, or Iowa.

I Don't Know Why

Those are potatoes. On my floor.
Isn't life fun?

30 Years Later

With the help of the latest, ground-breaking age-projection software, I recently decided to use a photo of my most favourite man in the world and see what he will look like in 30 years. After some thorough research, the first feature I altered was the ears. According to some sources, "on average, ears grow one-hundredth of an inch every year." Other sources disputed the idea that the ears actually grow, citing loss of skin elasticity instead: "Skin loses elasticity as we age, so it stretches. Ear lobes tend to increase in length with age . . . another interpretation may be that big ears predict survival: men with smaller ears may die selectively at younger ages." So whether or not the ears are actually growing or not is besides the point; I can assume that in 30 years, Mike's ears will be larger, and the larger the better if it means he'll live longer.
In addition to the increase in size of the ears, it has also been noted that noses also tend to get larger with age. According to the experts, "nasal cartilage becomes thinner and loses its elasticity as we age, causing the tip of the nose to lengthen and droop." I also applied this knowledge to my age-projection. A third feature I changed was the hairline. Although Mike's family history promises little to no loss of hair, who knows what can happen in thirty years; research also seems to point to the likelihood of hair loss in my handsome hubby: "the first change is usually recession in the temporal areas, which is seen in 96 percent of mature Caucasian males, including those men not destined to progress to further hair loss."
And then, just for fun, I thought a grand old beard would be an interesting addition, although somehow in my tinkering, Mike's beard turned out blue. What do you think? He's a hottie, eh?

Mike at age 22

Mike at age 52 (projected)

Mike at age 52 with a blue beard

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Lievaart!!

Congragulations to Simon and Jodi on their marriage on Saturday!! Both bride and groom looked great, it was a beautiful ceremony, and the reception was a lot of fun. God bless you both richly as you walk down life's path together as a married couple!!

Merry Christmas to Me

I returned to work yesterday after Christmas to find a Christmas present from my managers in my mailbox. I sure got spoiled this year, they must really have blown the budget for the staff.

Our First Christmas Tree

It took a while, but here is a picture of our first Christmas tree . . .

From now on, it won't be taking quite so long to get pictures up on this site, thanks to the cool new digital camera we got for Christmas from Mike's parents!! Yay!! Quite exciting, to be sure.

It's Been a While

It's been a little while since I've last blogged . . . perhaps not as long a drought as some other bloggers, but for a newbie like me, it seems like a long time. I've been so busy with work lately, it's been quite crazy. At the end of last week, the Staples computer system went down across North America, the result of which was that a whole lot of product piled up in the warehouse over a period of a day and a half, without being received. When the system came back up again Friday afternoon two hours before I was supposed to be done work I wasn't terribly impressed, and this week will be busier than normal because of the back-log. I am SO happy that I have Thursday and Friday off, you have no idea.
On Saturday, Mike and I went out and picked out our very first Christmas tree. It is interesting trying to combine two different ideas of Christmas traditions. I've grown up looking forward to the last day of school, because Dad and Mom would pick us up from school at noon and we would go, all bundled up in our snowsuits and boots, trudging out to the Christmas tree farm (usually Klaas' out by Rockton). There we would spend a good hour or two at least running from tree to snow-covered tree, trying to pick the very best one and then trying to convince the rest of the family that that tree was indeed the very best one. Then Dad would saw it down with the old red bowsaw and we would "help" him to drag it back to the van and tie it onto the roof with copious amounts of rope. Once the tree was set up in the living room with the lights and the decorations, it always smelled so good. Christmas tree scent is, to me, a very important part of feeling Christmas-y.
For Mike, the Christmas tree tradition was a little different . . . I imagine Mom or Dad would announce that it was time for the tree to be set up, and then all the kids would race downstairs and unpack whatever cupboard the tree happened to be stored in. All the parts and boxes would be dragged up the stairs and the tree would be assembled in the living room and then decorated with the familiar lights and decorations, and topped with a lighted angel. No needles to clean up, and no snowy footprints down the hall.
I just can't swallow the idea of having an artificial tree.
We went half-way (well maybe more my way) and chose a live tree from Home Depot. Perhaps a little bit cheating on the tradition side, but I can forget about that and just enjoy the cheery smell of pine tree and the cozy-ness of Christmas lights glowing in our little apartment. I took some pictures with Lauren's digital camera, but they will be a little while in coming as I have to download them from her.
Anyways.
Something somewhat gross and embarassing: I was cleaning out the fridge the other day and I found a small and quite forgotten container in the back corner. Perhaps it would be sad for some people to discard something which has been around for more than half of your marriage, but in this case, I wasn't too upset to throw away the kidney beans and their container, which had been hiding out since August 17, at least according to the label. Four month old kidney beans smell really, really disgusting, in case you were ever wondering . . .
Don't worry, our house is usually fairly clean . . .

What a Tragedy

I have to apologize for making yet another blog about my work. I certainly don't want to write exclusively about my life from 7:30 - 4:00 (or 5:30, or 6:30, or whatever it may be) as I am sure no one is really all that interested, and besides, there is more to life than work. However, I have a tragedy to report. Perhaps it's not really a qualifiable tragedy to the majority of people in the world, and I suppose it isn't even a true tragedy for me, even though I am going to proceed with calling it so. Every day, I receive and open boxes with product. Sometimes, these boxes are very full. Sometimes, they are half empty, and sometimes, it is just one large box with, say, a pencil in the bottom or something silly like that. The tragedy I am alluding to involves the half-empty and almost-empty boxes. To make sure these products do not get thrown around or broken in transit, all empty space is stuffed with stuffing paper or, more to the issue, large, large bubble wrap. This bubble wrap is so big that when you jump on it to pop it, it sounds like someone is having a heyday with a gun in the receiving dock. Just imagine how much fun that would be! Unfortunately, instead of jumping on all the bubble wrap that I come into contact with during the day, I rip it out of the box, slash it with my knife, and throw it away, all in one fell swoop. All this in an effort to be efficient! Thankfully, when I come home, I have so much bubble wrap left over from the attack on my car several weeks ago that I can pop bubbles to my heart's content.
I heard something today which was of note. One of the women I work with has been sick for a few weeks, and although we thought it was the flu or perhaps something slightly more serious, it wasn't the flu. She was diagnosed with cancer, and it doesn't look good. She was at the hospital yesterday, receiving a blood transfusion, and, hockey fan that she is, she was wearing her good old Edmonton Oilers jersey. And who did she figure out was beside her in the room, also receiving a blood transfusion? It was Wayne Gretzky's mother! Imagine that! But it gets better. Who came to visit Wayne Gretzky's mother while she was having a blood transfusion? None other than but Wayne Gretzky himself!! He talked to this lady I know for a while. I'm sure that picked up her spirits a little!!