The mailman rang twice today!

Making time to post again. We're preparing for gamenight with friends.
Playing trivial persuit and so on from 9 till we go tired but now we are making applepie
and other eatable things.

We had the mailman at our door this morning bringing a parcel from Cowtown Canada!
You've got mail! Yahoooooooooooooo... Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaajay!
We were spoiled! I'm thinking of what to send you guys!
I had some cigars sitting on my desk once waiting to be sent to Sean but at a certain moment
I ran out of smokes myself and took them for myself... Oops!

I took a few pics to show you what made it to The Netherlands.


The parcel sitting on our dining table









The contents of the parcel on that same table.









The Sports socks weren't visible so I took a pic of them.
Anita will be using these because she started 'powerwalking' a year ago and needs good socks doing that.











The front of the postcard that came with the parcel









What she wrote








I already saw a tiny bit of the Canadian comedy series Corner Gas. I think it's a hit!
My sence of humor. The part where they are discussing if Saskatchwan is flat!
That they say the mountains suddenly disappeared! Great stuff!
Skipped through the first songs of Teaparty and that's my kinda stuff too!
Is that your personal music taste too now? Your taste is develloping Sis! Haha!
Or do you still like the gay-sound better? Marc Almond and friends...

We had half a Mr. Big each at teatime this afternoon and my Gawd! That is the shit!
We better move to Canada I guess...

Thanks for the Tees too! I haven't tried them on yet but I hope that I will be able to squeek me into the brown XL shirt. I think you'll need the plus plus grand for me. Haha!

The Yellow shirt is going to Romy 'cause it's to small for Anita to fit in...
But Romy totally wants it!

Thank you very much for all the goodies and the postcard!!

Bigbro

Very busy..although it's my autumn holiday!

Still had to use 29 days (we get 25 days +12 days for the 38 hour working week). I still had 8 days of last year and saved up some hours... So now I took a one week leave and I am busy doing some tooltime, fun things with the kids and the mrs.

If you like you can check our pics of the trip to The Hoge Veluwe National Park and the Kröller Müller Museum.


TTFN,

BigBro

Since I feel to sick to write someting myself...

I've decided to post a letter I got from Canagal back in August 1997...

Hey RDW!!!

Here I sit at home, taking a break from working. Can you believe it? It is 9:30 PM and here I am working!

'Bang on the drum all day!' Had to insert our Friday song!!!

On a Friday as well! Well, I am up for a big promotion, there is talk about hiring me own secretary/assistant, so I don’t mind doing all of this work, so long as I get the raise I have been promised!

How are you doing anyways?????

I am sending you via email your very own NVI player...I am hoping to embed some objects and etc. Into this letter via disk and hence, you will need the software I am using. BTW: could you pretty please (with sugar on top) snail to me the software that will allow one to record from CD to wave format?? Would really appreciate it!

Well, will finish this as later, it is gonna be a “to be continued” letter....

Am back! Am sipping on “Mike’s Hard Cranberry Lemonade”...vodka lemonade. I have it set down on your German coaster...LOL, quite funny, actually, since I have 2 coasters I have been meaning to send to you! Whilst here at the office at home, I am listening to the tape you sent us. Really am enjoying the group Texas. They are very good. Are they from Texas, or do they just love the state? Please let me know all what you can about the group....

Well, now I am listening to “the voice of the beehive”, haven’t listened to this CD since 1990. Amazing, I still know all of the songs since the last time I sang along!

Sean & I really enjoyed the latest letter from you and Anita...I love the length of the letter, holy novel writing, batman! LOL, I feel so dead beat. I have been so very busy these past 3 months at work and as such I have been working quite the strenuous hours. I am also doing a lot of studying, so I feel like I have no time to myself!

But! Next weekend, Sean, Paul, Shirley & I are going to Edmonton for the weekend to party it away to celebrate Paul’s birthday! It will be the weekend to remember. Paul’s family are a riot. They think that I am pretty hilarious, so, hey, I need no better excuse to love ‘em!

Well, it is the weekend after the big party weekend...Can you believe it that in a matter of 5 days we celebrated Paul’s birthday 7 times???? Massively huge parties!! When we got to Edmonton on Friday night (we got there at 9:30 PM), a party was already in progress at Paul’s parents place (his brother Phil started the party going for us), we ended up dancing until 4 am (actually, poor Sean & I, it is against our doctor’s orders to dance, so we didn’t). Just had a wild and good time. Had the bonfire going in the back yard and had the tunes going in the house... Phil and I did an encore performance of our “Mr. Bean” dance which we did at Paul & Shirley’s wedding....

Then Saturday night we went out to Paul’s sister’s place to celebrate yet again, there we had a lot of fun once more. From there, we went to this place called “Red’s”, a massively huge honkin place that has bowling alleys, pool rooms, dance floor, bar area and concert area. For 3 dollars you can have a lot of fun. The great thing about this place is it is so huge that the cigarette smoke doesn’t get congested in one place, hence it doesn’t smell like a smoking factory. We were there until 2 AM, dancing to ABBA tunes and etc. Sean & I actually sat out most of the songs, our backs were so sore! But when they played the song “dancing queen” we had to join in on the fun!!!!

Am back, a day later: tis the long dead queen’s bday...and we are celebrating it! I was telling you about our wonderful weekend in Edmonton: well, Sunday AM Shirley and Trish (a friend of ours who accompanied us to Edmonton) woke me up at 10 pickin’ AM!! Can you believe it?? I was completely dead to the world. We met some friends for lunch (to celebrate yet again Paul’s bday) and we ended up leaving Edmonton at about 4 PM. From there, we headed to Sandra’s place (her and Kevin live in Carseland) where we did some more partying....we got into Calgary (Shirley’s parents place, where her and Paul are living) at 10PM (just in time for the X-Files, btw), which we watched (of course!) And then we spent the next 3 hours dying my hair!! LOL, Sean & I didn’t get home until 2:30 in the AM, and the cats were not too happy with us!

So, that was our weekend. No wonder I was emailing you about sleep deprivation, huh? This past weekend wasn’t as bad, but still had a great time! Paul’s brother Phil came into Calgary with his parents and we spent Friday partying (we went to Centenary Park for a barbecue/picnic and then we headed to our homestead) until 3AM. Then Saturday we went to Sandra’s place (not Shirley’s sister, but the gal who was married the summer you were in Calgary) and partied until 2AM, playing pool and etc. And this time we dyed Phil’s hair!! Black with blonde streaks!! LOL, it was too funny!!!! Sunday night we did absolutely nothing (thank GOD!). I just studied and etc. And tonight we are going to the movies with Teresa and her husband Chris. We are going to see Austin Powers.... LOL, it seems like it will be a funny movie!!

Tomorrow it is time to head back to work, and I am not looking forward to that! I have been having too much fun lately to want to work....guess I need to have all of this fun in light of the long hours I have been keeping at work!

Today was nice and quiet. Sean & I just spent time at home. I did the laundry and Sean did the vacuuming with our new vacuum cleaner!!!! We walked downtown for a cup of coffee and then did some window shopping. That is about all......

My parents are flying back to Canada tomorrow. I hope they had an excellent holiday. I am really glad that you guys were able to see Helen and Mom. Helen just thinks the world about you Remco. It was her first time meeting Anita wasn’t it? Usually she plays shy with the first meeting, but after that she is ready to give the person unconditional love! Glad to hear that you guys liked the gifts we sent via the Mom Express. We weren’t sure what to pick out, so we just got a bunch of small stuff for the little one. The hat caught my eye right away. We also bought one for Matthew, but it is still a bit too big for him. Tammi still puts it on him, though, since it is great to keep the sun outta his eyes! I thought the socks were neat. Great for when Romy starts to roam around, since the socks have that grip thingy on the bottom!

LOL...usually what I do when I am around a lot of moms, I start talking about my boys. Like if they are talking about potty-training, I will join in with “yah, it was hard to get jack used to the litter box” Most of the moms look at me like I am strange and derange’d, but hey, I have to put my two bits into the conversation, huh? What is it with most people? As soon as they have kids they suddenly become “too good” for the child-less couples...sheesh....

OK, do I sound bitter? Sorry.

Well!!!

It is now 25/05 and here I am......in my robe sitting at the computer... Been having too much fun lately, when all I wanna do is relax! We saw the movie “Volcano” last Tuesday night. Still not that realistic, but much better than Dante’s Peak which was a total . Last night some friends of ours were in town from Edmonton, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for din-din and then we went to the local pub where I sat like a bump on a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea (translation: I was bored) the place was too loud and too smoky. So, around midnightish we came back to 301 Park Estates and we watched X-Files galore! Much more enjoyable. I paid for last night’s smoky atmosphere, though.....my ulcer in my tummy is totally flippin’ out on me!

So, here I am at the computer, procrastinating, since I should be studying....so p’raps I will get to it.................................

Oh, but before I do: I talked to my Mom on Wednesday night. It sounded like they had an excellent vacation. Mom & Helen were really glad that they could see you, Anita and Romy.

OK. Now I am gonna go study...buh-bye!

Gosh....when was the last time I sat down in front of this computer to write to you?? It is now June 10 at 10:37 PM....listening to Space: spiders been so very busy, both at work and here at home. I feel like I never get any real time to myself. This past weekend Paul’s brother, Phil came to town from Edmonton and we had a blast and a half with him, just whooping it up in a good ‘ol clean sense, but still being wacky and crazy. We went to the Calgary Tower (6 of us in total) and ended up doing some pretty silly stuff. Shirley and I were going nuts and I ended up laughing so hard (at something or other) that I actually was Rolling On Floor, Laughing (literally) and people were walking past me thinking to themselves “why is this girl on the floor laughing??” ROFL...guess you had to be there, but I haven’t laughed like that in a long time and it was great!

We had a wedding to go to on Saturday, but we only went to the ceremony. The people who were getting married aren’t really close to us and I wasn’t keen on spending 5 hours in stifling hot building listening to speeches. They weren’t going to have a dance or anything, so, sigh...why bother when the weather is beautiful outside and the premier of Nicholas Cage’s “conair” was just hitting the theaters?? So, guess what we did? Went to the movies instead. Good choice. Some of our friends who went to the dinner said it was *Yawn* boring with a capital B.

Sunday was Sean’s Dad’s b-day. So, we spent the day with Sean’s family and the evening we spent Marsha-sitting.

Yuppers, that is right. Margaret, Victor & Marsha have moved back to Calgary. Finally!! Yes, I am ecstatic over the fact that my sister is back in town!!! LOL, since my parents have moved to BC, Teresa and I have been calling ourselves the “Left-overs”. Now that Margaret and family are back in cowtown, we have decided to call them the “Take-outs”. Guess you have to hear Teresa and I joking around about it, but it is quite funny, honest!!

Marsha is such a sweety. Very well behaved and the ideal almost 7 year old. My sister and her husband have taken such pains to ensure that Marsha is polite and etc. She is a real joy to be around.

You most likely have received my email explaining how I will be gone for 5.5 days at the end of June. My Tante Gre (from Leeuwarden) will be in BC and I am flying out to see her. Sean can not fly out, unfortunately. In March when we flew out together the hour long plane ride was too much for his back.

His back and his pain has been such a worry for me. I am so glad that they have set a date for the operation. While Sean is being operated on, I know that I will be a wreck! I don’t like the idea of poor Sean being in this pain and having to be put to sleep and operated on in such a serious fashion. What a dreadful thing, this car accident!!!

Today in the mail we received the poster size photo of the Simons Family and the letter from Anita and from yourself. A special thank-you to Anita for the wonderful letter. It was great to read your letter. I can tell from what you wrote that you are very happy. I wish you success with your course and the job you are embarking upon! Remco, your letter, as usual, sent me rippling with giggles! You are too funny, bud for life!

About the calendar: oui, it is imprinte au Canada. I think it is a real keep sake, that calendar, and I am glad that you feel the same way.

Sean & I really love the photo of the Simons Family. Very cute photo. Sean has said that he is going to be framing it tomorrow.

It is has been so hot here. But, don’t worry, I am not complaining! The air has been smelling so sweet. Marsha commented this weekend that the air here smells like Hawaii. Neat, eh? In the mornings it is usually rainy, but by 9AM the weather has cleared and it is hot outside again. No wonder the smell in the air is full of such a wonderful aroma! (And I don’t mean the aroma from the kitty litter box!)

ACK...it is 11PM. I had better trundle off to bed. My eyes are getting heavier as we speak, er type.....

TTFN...


I is back! It is Friday, July 4th.. The beginning of good ol’ Calgary Stampede! Yahoo!!!! I am still on holidays, but I just finished logging off of my email, and I noticed that there is some business to take care of. Once I am done bugging you via the type-writer-computer thingy-also known as MS Word, then I gotta do some phone calls. Yawn! I am so tired! My Mom had me running around every-pickin’-where with my Tante Gre. I usually do not mind that, but I have been so busy at work, that all what I wanted to do was sit outside in the shade and relax with a good book. The days that I wasn’t playing tourist with my folks, I spent time at Mary-Ann’s place, helping her out with the new baby and being Andrew’s playmate. So, I have spent the last three days here at home sleeping, sleeping and SLEEPING!!

Working on a bit of a parcel to include with this honkin’ long letter! Not much of a parcel, unfortunately, but nevertheless, a parcel it is. Guess you will receive this parcel and etc. When you are at home on holidays. (remember: the post man always rings twice!)

Well, I gotta go make those phone calls and then we are off with Paul and Shirley to see the movie “Men In Black”. We are going to the matinee, much cheaper! Talk to ya soon....

Hello! It is now 7/7/97!!

Ooppsss....sphincter is out of control....be right back!!!

Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..........I is back from the toilet room!!! Tee hee....Toilet humour is quite popular with Sean & Paul and I guess it has rubbed off on me!

Well, MIB was quite a funny movie. Very hilarious. No real story line, but, then again, what movie has a story line these days???

On Friday at about 9PM the gang decided to drive out to Edmonton. So, by 10:30 PM we were on the road to Edmonton and were up to the wee hours in the morn gabbing away with Paul’s brother, Phil... Had a great time and were back in town Sunday morning at 2AM. Gosh, I am soooo beat. I spent all of Sunday in bed...missing out on Stampede and everything. I guess I have been so busy, even on Vancouver Island, that my body is saying “slow down, you move too fast, gotta make the morning last” (do you remember that song???)

Well, over the weekend we were able to pick up some more things for the parcel for the Simons family. Hope we will have the parcel ready to go soon. For one of the items we will most likely will have to spend a weekend in Edmonton. The er....equipment that we need is not availiable here...well, it is available here, but we don’t know anyone who has one here...but in Edmonton it will be easy to get one through Paul’s brother, Pierre. Does that make any sense?? Well, once you are reading this parcel and etc. It will make sense because you will see it!!

LOL!!

Sean right now is making supper: we are having burritos (yummy)!! He is a very good cook and we discovered early on in our marriage that it is best to have Sean cook.....it has saved us a lot of heartache and tummy-aches! LOL!!

We have been having awesome weather here. Very enjoyable. It is so nice to be able to enjoy the beautiful sunshine....AHHHHHH.....

Work has been very busy. I came back today from my mini vacation and my desk was awash with papers and etc. A whole entire pickin’ amount of junk! (paper work that is!) We are almost (I mean on the absolute verge) of going public! And tomorrow I have to meet with the audit committee to explain my audited report for the prospectus and etc., Then the prospectus can be filed with the ASE. WOW!! 2 years of hard work finally paying off!! Then I am gonna (to quote the Scottish dad in “so I married an axe - murderer”) get pissed!! LOL...I wont! I will just relax a bit more. I have basically been in charge of the entire JCP for the ASE and it has been one big headache. And, I am not good at assigning tasks to other people. My opinion is if you wanna get the work done properly: do it yourself. Guess it is a good way to head into burn-out city. While in Edmonton I also met with some more investors for the company and have brought in quite a bit of $$$. (Not only am I the accountant for the company, I also wear the hat as “Chief Liaison Officer for the ASE/Yorkton Securities/Ogilive and Company”, and “assistant manager for investor relations”. A lot of titles without a pay increase! I gave up the landman title, and passed that work on, because to tell ya the truth, I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to that, but I still do some of that work over lunch hours....I enjoy accounting a lot more, but doing the land work is a good breather... But that is OK, because I am learning so much and have gained a lot of stock options in lieu of payment. No one is getting a pay increase until we go public so I can live with it. They also got rid of titles on our business cards, since a lot of us [i.e.: Myself] have so many roles in the company)

Enough about work! I already dream about work at night, and wake up early so that I can finish what is on my desk before people come in phoning me with more junk....so I know I am heading towards burnout, but hey it is my personality to be totally anal about getting a job done ASAP and to work my butt off....hence I am always talking about work, or else it is just niggling in the back of my mind.

TELL ME TO GET A LIFE!!

Phone is ringing and I am being a snoop to see who it is....

BRB!

‘twas only Tammi...we are arranging as to when we can come over and visit them. It looks like this Friday we will be over there. Last Wednesday (the 2nd of Juli), was Tammi’s bday (and of course, it goes without saying that her twin, Terri’s bday was on the same day) and there was a bit of a “do” over at Michael and Tammi’s place. Just Michael and Tammi’s friends (some people who we didn’t know) and ice cream cake from DQ and a whole lot of ice tea. It was a surprise party, which was nice, since Tammi has never had a surprise bday before. A lot of people brought their drooly babies along so it was fun to watch and think to yourself “Thank God, Jack (or Josh) doesn’t drool like that!!”

Supper is ready, I shall return. (mcarthur)

Have to fight Jack to get into this room! We do not like allowing the cats into this room, as they have a tendency to knock over everything and wreak havoc in general!! Well, supper was great! We just had a phone call from Paul & Shirley and they are going to be here within the hour. We are going to watch a favourite movie of ours, “A fish called Wanda” “kkkkkkkkeeennnnn”!!! ROFL.....

Gosh! 7 whole pages of babbling so far, brought to you by NKD...also known as canagal.
Sigh, and ho-hum. Hope you have been enjoying this read so far. Want to tell you so much about everything that is going on here and I trust I have been capturing what our life is like within the lines of these last 7 pages.

But, I am gonna go snuggle with Sean before Paul & Shirley come a-banging on our door!

Talk to you soon.......

Well...it is now July 9, 1997 at 3:49 PM. Stampeding didn’t last that long today, and we ended up partying quite close to our condo, so I just headed home. Last night, the Stampede party lasted until 10PM. It is quite funny. I watch everyone else get *totally* plastered and there I am, sober (I only had 2 glasses of wine yesterday, and today I only had 2 bottles of beer...I am not that much of a drinker) watching everyone else fall over everyone and get “fresh” with other people’s spouses and etc. Quite funny. And then, the next morning at work, the way they walk around as if even walking causes a headache. Too hilarious! Yesterday the stampede party was with Centurion Energy International Inc. (I am friends with Jeff Standen, the Chairman and CEO of the company), which was quite good. We went to “Joey’s Tomatoes” and had a pretty good meal. Sean didn’t come with us, he headed to Red Deer to meet a friend of ours who was driving his motorbike down to Calgary from Edmonton. Today, the party was hosted by Quest Energy Inc. (I do a bit of consulting for that company on the side). We went to a place called “Buzzards”, where they are having their 4th annual “Testicle Festival”, where the slogan is “You’ll go nuts” (!) ACK!! Not for me, thank you very much. I don’t eat that Cowboy treat called “Prairie Oysters”. Basically it is bull, sheep or buffalo testicles cooked with a sauce (of your choice). Disgusting! I picked up the little menu they were passing around at Buzzards and am including it with this parcel. Guess you can show your friends and brag about the weird friends you have in Canada! Hopefully the menu will not make you or Anita turn green.

So, if you ever meet up with an authentic Canadian cowboy restaurant in good ol NL, make sure you don’t eat *anything* on the menu that says “Prairie Oysters”.

Ahhhh I is back! It is quite hot outside and it is so very beautiful! I think I am gonna full around on the ‘puter for a little while longer and then I am gonna relax on our “concrete backyard” (AKA: patio) with a good book!

Tot ziens.

Well, I got a call at 6:30 in the PM, inviting me to the 400 club by all of the rowdy party-ers that I left behind at Buzzards! But, I decided not to go...am just too wiped! Well, I really really, REALLY am gonna turn the ‘puter off now and get some shut eye!

At the sound of the beep it is 8:00 PM! Well! It is now July 15, 1997...pretty soon you will be on holidays and I will be at work, working! Do you feel sorry for me?

¨ Ya?

¨ No?


Stampede week has finally left us! Thank God! Never thought I would be one to say that, but, truly, I am thankful that Stampede week is done! My liver is on permanent strike! No more alcohol! No more beer! No more red wine! Actually, to be truthful, I was a very good girl. Didn't go crazy with the booze or anything like that!

On Friday we went to one more stampede party, that was hosted by the Stampede Volunteer Committee. Quite a bizarre party, actually. They had something there called “Chicken Sh*t Bingo”. Basically, a square piece of paper (3 feet by 3 feet) that have a total of 100 squares on it. People pay $2 to play the game, where they choose a square to put their name on. Once all of the squares have been filled, everyone crowds around the square piece of paper (crammed tight beside each other) and the chicken is brought out onto the piece of paper. On whatever square the chicken poops on, creates a winner, hence the term “Chicken Sh*t Bingo”. Quite barbaric.. But hey! It is stampede time. Alas, I never won the pot. If I had known about this game when my Dad used to have chickens, we could have played it while waiting for the food on the barbecue to be cooked!

So, that was the last party to the stampede week. I never did make it back to the office, actually. After the Chicken Sh*t Bingo, we went out for Vietnamese Food and then I went home.

So, here I am at home on a Tuesday. Sean & Paul are out on the balcony and I am here listening to Lisa Loeb on the ‘puter, with work on the second window. I guess I should be working, but I guess the word “burn-out” is beginning to mean a lot to me. I can hear the music pumping really loud in our living room. Paul has turned up the tunes to the Pet Shop Boys “Bilingual” CD.

Ack! Potty break!

BRB....

I is back!

We finally watched the British Grand Prix last night. We recorded it at 7AM Cowtown time on Sunday and waited for Margaret and Victor to come over to our place so that we could watch it together. What a surprise finish! Nice to see a Canadian on the podium and to hear the national anthem. So many drivers who were out of the race who we thought would never be out of the race! Unbelievable. Didn't think that Schumacher would have engine problems! Holy Mama!

Sigh. I don’t know what else to write about. Guess I should go back to work for awhile. But, first, I will email you!

TTFN.....

Well...two days later, and this letter is getting longer! Holy Cow! Major Bible, I tell ya!

I am in the midst of emailing a huge file to Pierre, so whilst I wait for the emailing to be done, I thought I would “bug” you....Groovy Baby! (to quote Austin Powers, have you listened to the soundtrack for that movie yet, have you seen the movie??)

I have junk...oooppsss...I mean work that needs serious attention, but to tell you the truth: I don’t flippin’ care! Marg, Victor & Marsha are gonna be over soon, it is after working hours, so:

Screw work!!
It felt good to say that!!!!!!!!

I am almost done doing the web page for work. It will most likely never compete with the big name web pages (i.e.: Www.ovd.nl, or: www.netradio.com, etc., Etc.) But hey, I am a beginner....

That is what Pierre is helping me out with: doing the images for the web page...he has tonnes of neat graphics programs, and he is gonna fix up the logo for the company, as our artist could only give me the file in honking huge format black and white...and the photos that I took of our impeller are being scanned and cropped by Pierre. He is quite the computer guru...and a good friend to boot.....

LOL...Pierre makes his own wine...and I tell ya, you have to *strain* it before you drink it, since it is full of massive sediment...and whoa! Powerful wine as well...40% proof. It is more like a flammable barbecue lighter than an alcoholic beverage. Drink some of his wine when you have a cold, it will burn out the infection!!

Am I babbling?? Yes, I think so.......

It is now July 19th, at 7:49 AM....darn cats woke me up, wanting to be fed, and now I am *wide* awake! So, here I sit, in front of the computer, listening to the Austin powers CD and typing away to you!

I have been finishing up the web page for CDMASE.com. It doesn’t have any videos or anything like that....just don't have those capabilities for that right now. After we have done our field test and what not, I might insert a video.....

Now that the JCP has been filed for work, our company is starting on another technology. So, I have been working on the books for that new company. Unbelievable. The accounting package that I use is newviews, and it is basically used by Chartered Accountants only. With this program you have to set up the entire program by scratch. All accounts, balance sheet and everything. No templates, but this is great since then the program is completely set for your needs. It is just time consuming this way, unfortunately.

With this new technology (wish I could tell you what it is, but I cant even tell Sean for a couple of weeks), I have been given 25,000 extra shares. Can hardly wait until we go public! Show me the Money!!!

Talked to my mom last night. It appears that my dad needs to have his eyes operated on (again). His retinas are detaching from his eyes. Sounds painful, doesn’t it?? He has been having a lot of problems with his eyes (and his ears). Poor guy....

Margaret and Victor still have not found a house that they like. Margaret is getting a bit stressed out about it, since she wants to get settled in her own home, with her own stuff and then know that Marsha is settled in school. It is quite hard for Marsha. Being taken away from her friends and coming to Calgary and hanging out with adults only. She comes over with her barbies, and wants me to play with her. . I never played with Barbies when I was little, and now I am stuck playing with them at the age of 26. (!) Yesterday, Sean & I went to the local art store and picked up clay and construction paper and paint and etc. So that when she comes over she can do some creative things. She is quite the artist, and this might keep the Barbies at home. (Please God!)

Last night I met up with Sean at 10:30 PM, and we went out for coffee and the usual girlie-chat. When I got home, Sean was watching late night TV and doing the manly “surf through the channels” sport. He was watching Bull Durham. Never did like that movie, so after watching it (and other channels that were surfed) for about a half hour, I went to bed. Early this morning I woke myself up: I was laughing in my sleep! It was too funny!! The other night Sean said I was talking in my sleep, what is happening to me????

Today we are heading over to Paul & Shirley’s (they are affectionately known as “Paush”), where we are gonna work on the surprise that is accompanying this honkin’ huge long letter!

Well, it is now 8:15, and I am gonna work on the web page for work for awhile, then I am gonna wake Sean up so that the day can be started!!

Talk to you later!

NKD
Well..it is 07/31/97 ooooppppppppppppssssssssssssssssssss it is now August 4, 1997! Today is a civic holiday!!!!

Been quite busy as of late! I started to type to you on the 31st, (as you can see), but unfortunately I was unable to get any farther than explaining what day it was!!!

On Friday (Flyday as the Chinese people say it!) we had Marsha’s birthday party. (her 7th!!) Remember when you were here, it was her 1st?? Had a barbeque at Wanita (Victor’s sister) and Otto’s place. It was a lot of fun. Just the aunts and uncles from both sides of the family. Lots of food and refreshments and a lot of joking around. Had a great time!

Marsha had been telling Sean and me that she wanted a kazoo for her birthday. We had already picked up the movie “Aristocats” for her, but we went on the hunt for a kazoo for her! Man that was a tough job! We went to a lot of toy stores asking if they had kazoos and most of the clerks didn't even know what a kazoo was!! (!!) On Friday morning Sean ended up (still on the kazoo quest, by the way) at a hobby store. He asked the clerk if they had any kazoos, and sure enough they did! You could buy 12 plastic ones for $4 or metal ones for $1.75 each. So, Sean bought 12 plastic ones (for everyone at the birthday party) and a gold plated metal one for Marsha. We all kazoo’d happy birthday to Marsha!

This is quite PIP! Sean turned to me after we had finished kazooing to Marsha and he said “Nance, you even kazoo out of tune!” LOL! Just my luck! I cant make any instrument sound pretty and poetic!!!

Well, it is 9:30 AM and Sean’s parents are on holidays visiting my parents at the coast. As such, we have promised that we would go over there and water their plants and the cat and the grass and whatever else needed watering! (hmmmm....the rug looks a bit dry.... maybe I am getting carried away with the watering thingy!)

And at 4:00PM we have some friends driving in from Edmonton, who will be staying the night at our place.

To that end, I am gonna wrap up my typing job to you for now. We are still working on the parcel that is gonna accompany this honkin’ huge bible of a letter!

Cheers and huggers,

Nance.

Ok. It is now August 7, 1997 and I had some horrible news today. I heard from my Mom that my uncle (Doede) who lives in Bolsward passed away. He is also my godfather. kinda sad. Don't really feel like writing but at the same time, I am upset and it feels good to tell ya that I am upset, (although between you and me, I am really only confiding in a computer). I feel like flying out to attend his funeral, but at the same time, what good would that do? I miss him, I love him, but I cant be there for him and I guess that is what hurts......

Well..it is now 24th day of August. Sean has his operation in 2 days... . I am gonna end this letter on lucky page number 13!! Lucky you!! Hope you enjoy all of the goodies in the parcel. We thought that we had better make Romy a Calgarian, hence the Calgary flames T-shirt!! We were gonna add one more thing into the parcel, but we just didn't have time to work on it properly. It would have involved us going to Edmonton and working on Pierre’s puter (he has a CD burner). But, we have had so many things on the go (my sister in town visiting, Sean’s aunt here from England, etc. etc.) that we just didn't have time to put that extra special surprise in this parcel! so sorry!! :-( next time it will be included and I am gonna keep you on the edge of your seat by not telling you what the surprise is!! Haaaahhhaaa!!!

Everything in the parcel is clearly marked as to who it goes to. So, enjoy!

Love and huggs to all,

Nancy & “soon to be sliced and diced” Sean!

:-)

So damn tired!

I am not a OK at the moment...
I could really use a week of sleep. Got a cold (it's 20 degrees at daytime in October!)
but only 8 in the morning when I ride to work.

My night stopped @ 3:45 AM
Splitting headache, nose and the rest of my head filled with G knows what.

But I almost never call in sick so why start doing so now?
In 2 weeks I have a one week holiday. The 'herfstvakantie' (autumnvacation).
We will be Tooltiming then so not much of a holiday but I guess it's somehow relaxing too...

OK, I have a meeting coming up so I'll start preparing.

Toodles

Back in the land of the blogging!

Well, finally I am entering a blog again.We went from party to party as from Wednesday so I really couldn't find the time to keep you posted...

Wednesday it was my mom's B-day. She turned 59
Thursday we had a wedding of one of Anita's relatives
Friday to the movies - barely time to eat and off we go
Saturday morning I went swimming with my bro because we couldn't on Wednesday
Saturday afternoon - Sleep tight!
Saturday evening we went to Anita's parents for dinner because of their upcoming weddingday
Sunday - slept till 11:30 and woke up at 2 PM (walking around like a zombie). I am not good at sleeping in!
Sunday afternoon and evening it was family time.

In the afternoon we went to Rhenen - walk along the River Rhine (Rijn).
At night we watched The Dukes of Hazzerd 2005 which was pretty much OK for the Sunday night.Not that great a movie but I got to watch it for free since I DL'ed it from the Internet.Downloading music and movies is legally OK in the NL, downloading software isn't.

I am now officially asleep again (still at work - 3:23 PM)