Happy Halloween

While I'm waiting for kids to show up at our door (there was a cute family all dressed up as members of Toy Story about 4:00 pm), I thought I'd get a head start on November changes for the site.  This time, the background design is all my work.  Doodads and fripperies are yet to come :)

As are, hopefully, pictures of Toni and Tom's bonfire fun.  We're bringing the marshmallows. Catch you later!

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11:00 pm

As we arrived tonight, Tom was setting off fireworks .. I gotta tell you .. I love BC for this.   When we first settled here, you could purchase fireworks anytime of year and shoot them off .. a bit unnerving for Albertans who've never even seen a place to purchase them.  Nanaimo now has a ban - except for a week around Halloweeen and on July 1st - at least I think it's Canada Day .. a law that was met with much harumphing from our friends and neighbours.  

I managed to get a couple of shots of the bonfire tonight, but no costumes as those were kept pretty well hidden under rain gear.  The bonfire was pretty damned impressive though.   After all, with a former fireman planning the blaze, it can be nothing less than spectacular, right?

Terrific detail of the fire ... hot dog, anyone?

Frank Ney

The mayor of Nanaimo for a great many years, Frank Ney cut a colorful figure.  Apparently, he was known for showing up at community events dressed in one of many costumes, including the pirate outfit in which he became immortalized at Swy-A-Lana Park.  He was responsible for the many, many street names that make Nanaimo unique, for ensuring that Protection Island streets are all named after pirates, and for unabashedly immortalizing his boat with a street name. 

The plaque that goes with this statue reads:

ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET

In 1967, Black Frank helped launch the now famous

Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Race

The colourful pirate costume was worn to promote Nanaimo as

The Sunporch of Canada

Jewel of the West

Bathtub Capital of the World

A LIFETIME OF SERVICE

Mayor of Nanaimo 1967 - 1984 and 1986 - 1990

Member of Legislative Assembly, 1967 - 1972

Freeman of the City of Nanaimo

BC Tourism Ambassador

Honourary Chief First Nations in Nanaimo

Killer Whale - Q-un Lhanumutsun

Active member of many organizations

Notary Public and President of Nanaimo Realty

I'm guessing that he had no hangups with self-promotion ... Black Frank Drive is on my list of streets to check out for you.

Bergen-Op-Zoom

Bergen-Op-Zoom is the name of a town in the Netherlands and I know there is a Canadian cemetery there, but I've been unable to find any specific connection to Nanaimo.  If anyone knows the reason behind this fun little street name, I'd be interested in hearing it.

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October 30, 2010

Kristen dig a bit of digging and came up with this explanation -  found here.  You'll catch some of the signpost names I'll be posting, so I'll warn you, it's a bit of a spoiler.

• Frank Ney gave Dutch-origin street names to an area was called "Dutch Acres." Bergen-Op-Zoom is in a subdivision with names such as Amsterdam, Tulip and Arnhem Terrace.
  
  Frank Ney served in the RAF and RCAF as a pilot during World War II. The naming of those streets was in memory of the Canadian involvement in Holland during the war.
  
  Located north of the Scheldt River near the Belgian border, Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery contains 968 Canadian graves, including 64 from the RCAF. Most of the soldiers buried here lost their lives in the fighting north of Antwerp during the Battle of the Scheldt, as the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, with support from the 4th Canadian Armoured Division, worked to clear the north bank of the Scheldt estuary of German forces.

Thanks Kristen. The "Aunt Maureen" thing still has me giggling.  Does that make you my niece-in-law?

The inner child

When I was taking a shot of this fun bike rack at  Swy-A-Lana Park, Bruce ran over, laid down and shouted, "Help!  I've been eaten by a whale!!"

His inner child still loves to play.  I adore that man.

Battle of the Bay 2010

Tumultuous in the west, summer blues in the east .. these were the skies as I head down to Swy-A-Lana Lagoon for Bruce's second outrigger race of the season.

To the east

 from the west

I arrived just as the Huliguns were headed off for their second race of the day and managed to catch a couple of shots of the race.

Full steam ahead!  We're cheering for the team on the right.

Just crossed the finish line

Marcus, Bruce, Chris
Toni, Cecile, Bev
Battle of the Bay 2010 - Best Hair Under Duress Award

Since I was already there and wanted to share some more of my city with you, I pointed my camera in other directions as well.

Left to right, Protection and Galliano Islands and Jack Point viewed from Nanaimo Harbour

Swy-A-Lana Lagoon

This is the brickwork on the stairs leading down to the water from the Lighthouse Pub where, every Sunday at noon, you can find the Huliguns after practice -- drying off, wetting their whistle over brunch and telling tales of glory on the water. Or wondering if Bruce remembers the time he had difficulty finding the correct turn buoy. *cough*

Updates

I have to admit to feeling a bit listless lately ... can't seem to settle down into one thing and am needing to nap at the drop of a pin.  I've started a post here a dozen times and just had to abandon it .. lack of interesting things to say -- not that that usually stops me, but feeling it more consciously, I guess.  I have to remember that this is my way to stay in touch with family and friends and that just getting started writing will spark the creativity again.  Who knows, I may even get better at this!

I know that energy goes down in the fall when the grey starts to settle into Nanaimo days on a frequent basis, so I've got to fight it.  I'm taking up a boot camp exercise class starting tomorrow, so I imagine I'll be in quite a bit of pain on Saturday.  Hey, if it doesn't kill me, it will make me stronger, right? 

Blizzard is on the cusp of releasing a bright new game module and I'm preparing for it with my guild.  And getting my own characters ready as well.  It's too bad I can't use game guild management on a resumé.  There are about 130 active accounts in my guild ... 400 total characters ... and I oversee their day to day gaming experiences like any manager.

Here are some articles on precisely that subject that are interesting to read.

Wired
Tankspot
Blacksend's End

Bruce in Blue

He was trying to tell me a story and didn't want to sit still for my camera .. but the story got the better of him.  This shot is one of my very favorites of him .. all that denim blue is just soooo Bruce.

Autumn Fog

A shrill and insisting blaring shot me bolt upright at 9:00 am this morning ... turns out that Mr. Neuman needs to retake the Toast 10 class and do remedial work on basic browning techniques.  So I drifted back to sleep and woke up to something other than my normal fog - which can be quite extensive until the morning cup of tea is on the way and my eyes start functioning again.  Tell me, Larry, does that get any better as you get older?  *grin* (gonna pay for that one, I'm sure)

Anyway .. I love fog.  Always have.  Maybe because fog is so rare in Alberta.  I remember walking up the hill to the fields with Laddie on the occasional heavily fog saturated autumn afternoon to bring in the cows for the evening milking - the wet smulch of leaves underfoot, the crisp smell of brightly colored wet woods all around, the hush of the world, like it was holding its breath waiting for that first blazing spear of sunlight to pierce the bubble and return to reality.  The stalwart friendliness of my sable and white collie was important to this scene as he provided safety against the damp boogey men lingering twixt the trees.  He was so brave, he'd take on anything ... and man, he loved bringing in the cows - it was his chance to really shine. 

From my back deck taken around noon

During our first October here, we had five solid days of heavy, heavy fog .. the locals were dismayed, but I loved it.

A close up of the same shot ... I may have to use this for a website header one month. 

Same vantage point, different direction.  Note all the wires.  Took me a bit to get used to seeing them here
... in Alberta, wires are all buried.  Here, it often takes blasting to dig out a construction site.
I'll try to grab a picture of that for you construction readers.

I'll have to admit the Autumn colors here are magnificent. There's a view or two of Rutherford Road I want to share with you ... I'm waiting for the right day to take pictures.  Both of these areas have year round interest and color and I'm simply amazed at how well the developers did their jobs 'back in the day.'

These next couple of shots are the back of The Longwood Brew Pub ... its what we see everytime we go for mail or groceries.

I've been working on a couple of other sites, two to do with a browser game called Shakes & Fidgets and one for my dragon boat team, Bastion Dragons.  Though you might like to have a peek. The top one is mostly being set up for next season and the background will likely change a bit.  We'll see.  The middle one, for My Lil Pwnies (pwn is a gaming expression) is the most active, with a variety of authors and fun goimg on.

Cute as a bug!

Ilana has a serious hit on her hands.   Elsa is in love with her new ladybug raincoat and boots ... and she's not taking them off for naptime, thank you very much.  Just wait ... when she discovers Dora the Explorer, you'll be into Dora everything, Ilana.

Elsa is our youngest niece -- Kent and Ilana's daughter.

Cakes and Toppers

Oh, you didn't think I could just leave it there, did you?  Hee hee ... not a chance!

A little Never Ending Story?

Maybe a country theme?

Perhaps you'd care to negotiate a divorce
settlement from the get-go .. just in case.

How about a cheese wheel cake?

Then you could 'cut the cheese' ... *grin*

Or you could say 'to hell with it all"

Oh, I've got it .. this is the perfect cake topper for you two!!

Hey Samantha!

I was doing a bit of searching out wedding stuff .. I know you're busy and thought I'd offer a hand.  No no, thanks aren't necessary .. I do this for you.  

Cake Toppers:

Now, I know you're Debbie's daughter, so I'll bet you've had a few mornings like this.
What better way to say "wow, what a par-tay!"

Maybe this is more conservative.  A little bit of country, a little bit of getting your kink on.

I'll keep looking to see if I can find something that says "I'll do you" "I do" with a cell phone text message on a cake topper. Stay tuned!

The Associate

From atop his perch on the filing cabinet, Mr. Tippy offers critique and commentary for the day-to-day exploits inside Bruce's office.  Critique most often comes in the form of "you don't pet me enough, stop what you're doing and fix that," or "you don't feed me enough."  Commentary is most likely to be "this post-it note is all wrong for you, let me put that somewhere safe and you can ask me for it when you need it," or "good lord, this tape is fun to eat." 

Without a doubt, this is the sunniest spot in the house.  Rather than fight with cats over who really rules the roost, Bruce surrendered the top of his filing cabinet.  One of his better business decisions, according to the little associate in the fur tuxedo.

A complicated and elegant plan ...

Here at Neuco HQ, we strive to use the most up-to-date, sophisticated technology available. Never satisfied with garden-store variety tools, we manufacture our own to exacting specifications.

To wit ...

Yes, that is a Murchie's Coffee grass-seed spreader.  Gotta use the best!

It was a gorgeous day and Bruce took the opportunity to get our somewhat dented and bruised lawn on the road to recovery.  As I write this, he's out there raking, seeding and fertilizing our Back 40 in anticipation of wetter weather, ideal growing conditions for nurturing new lawn.  I'm pretty sure you Albertans think we're nuts .. after all, planting season is May/June!  Ahh .. in BC .. we do things differently.

I offered a great deal of verbal support for him, even carried a bag or two of fertilizer and fetched coffee.  There are no lengths I will not go to in order to support his dream of a green lawn!  *snicker*  (that was poking fun at myself, by the way)

You can take the boy out of Alberta .. but he'll still wear plaid flannel.

I clicked off a few shots of the garden for you .. not a lot to see right now, so I included the neighbor's sunflower. 

Inspiration

A new month, a bit of a site update.

Blogging on this website has returned to me the inspiration to dig out my PaintShopPro and play around a bit. The wee hours of the night have found me pouring over websites offering free plug ins for PsP, finding and updating old programs, editing pictures, searching for album covers, and reorganizing a quite hefty font collection.

This last bit of work makes me realize how long its been since I created fontwork ... it's a crime how dusty that particular digital shelf had become. I've dusted it off and unpacked the various crates full of alphabets. I'm now afraid that my sorting system is no longer working, so I've got a full scale remodel ahead of me. Since the collection houses more than 10,000 fonts at this time, it will be a while until everything is as shiny as the way I like it. I've added a spot at the bottom of the page with links to the fonts I use.

Sadly, my reading has taken a back seat to this, so please exercise patience with me as the book covers change infrequently.  I'd love to hear about your recommendations too, especially in the speculative fiction area. I know a few people in this family are extremely well read.

I'm interested in changing out the website background as well and am working through the humiliating process of spending hours creating and then garbaging stuff that didn't look good on electronic paper. The good news is that I am ratcheting up the creativity again. Feels good to stretch these wings.