Happy Birthday Anders!

Unfortunately, I can only give a written account of this past week's festivities as Eric has ALL of the photos. Sorry! What fun is a blog entry without photos?

Last week we went to the Toronto Metro Zoo to celebrate Anders' second birthday. We had lots of fun and the boys particularly enjoyed the seal, elephants, hippos and giraffes. Afterwards, we had dinner at the Chaggares home in Newmarket. It was nice to see Jen. She's due to have a baby in a week or so but she is oh-so-lucky. Her belly is probably less than half the size of mine towards the end. Ah well.

We also enjoyed a couple days at Grandpa and Grandma Jakob's home. I spent 4 hours making a birthday cake. It was a Raspberry Lemon Cream Cake - absolutely delicious. The eggs needed to be whipped for 10 minutes, bake the cake for an hour, prepare the cream on the stove for 20 minutes, cool for an hour, then mix the cream with whipped cream and assemble the cake. THEN it was supposed to set for 4 hours in the fridge. I will never make this cake again.

During our road trip back home on Thursday, we raced the monsoon blowing in from the west. We stopped at several warehouses to visit Eric's clients (actually, we were in the car while Eric visited), ate lunch at Frankie Tomato's and visited Viceroy Homes in Port Hope. Meanwhile, the monsoon was gaining ground on us. In Port Hope, it overtook us and due to a pit stop in Kingston we didn't regain the lead until we were nearly in Ottawa. Ah well. It rained for a good 24 hours on Friday anyway.

A Delayed Tag ... But I'm not Passing it On.

Places I worked...
1. Babysitter Extraordinaire
2. Chinchilla Farm
3. McDonald's
4. The Arthritis Society

Movies I can watch over and over...
1. I do like Pride and Prejudice...
2. I
3. don't
4. know.

Places I've lived...
1. Codrington
2. Toronto
3. Hamilton
4. Ottawa

Favourite TV shows...
1. So You Think You Can Dance!
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Lost
4. The Office

Places I've been...
1. St. Charles bridge in Prague
2. bull fight in Nimes
3. cabin on Galliano Island
4. green, leather couch in a hostel in Utah.

Favourite foods...
1. sushi
2. good salads
3. fresh veggies and berries
4. chocolate.

Majors I've considered...
1. law
2. engineering
3. international development
4. peace and conflict studies

Places I'd rather be...
1. asleep in my bed
2. in a clean house
3. in my garden
4. Morocco

There! I don't think this information is very revealing, though. Random information that most people would guess to be true anyway. I won't be challenging anyone to do this. I make it a point to NEVER forward chain emails... or anything like that. Instead of bringing bad luck on myself, I feel I am improving the world by de-cluttering e-mail inboxes.

Does God Live Further Than Space?

I haven't done the 'Question from Konrad' segment for many months. Here's another question from the mouth of Konrad. Does God Live Farther Than Space? and within the same breath, he told me that God's mother is older than him. This kid is intense! I do know some things but - how do you explain the precise domicile of God without making some part up? And how much can a 4 year old really grasp? Obviously a lot.

The French Conclusion...Really.

And THEN we rented a car in Monaco and drove all over France. Really. We drove to Bourges (where the cleanest public toilets were - the smell of bleach was strong and it was super-clean), visited some Chateaux Chambord

and Chenonceau,

then drove to LeMans to stay for the night. THEN we drove to Mont St-Michel,

visited the monastery,

drove to Caen and stayed for the night. THEN we visited Juno Beach Centre along the Normandy Beaches. That's where we lost Eric's camera - very sad. Thank goodness we didn't lose many pictures. From Normandy, we drove to Paris in record time. The speed limit is 130 km/h and we were pushing it to make the deadline to hand in our rental car at Place des Invalides in Paris. Anyone who knows where Place des Invalides is, knows that we also had to drive through Paris. If we were in the Amazing Race, we would've come in first place. With Jessica's directions and my driving, we made it on time. I was actually quite proud of myself - I drove like a true Parisienne. It was a fun challenge. We spent the weekend with Sister Janet Stone who was the most hospitable hostess. We truly felt like we were at home. We shopped for... 6 or 7 hours. I bought some nice shoes. We went on a touristy boat ride and took lots of funny pictures of other tourists falling asleep.



We had lots of fun, lots of good food and lots of good memories. Thanks Jessica for being a great travel partner. I appreciated your calm when I had a few moments of anxiety (ie. lost camera, lost Bed and Breakfast in Bourges). And then I came home and was in a car accident within half an hour. Bummer.