28-year old record

I remember being surprised one day when i was young, i was at the bank with my mom, and there was a chart on the wall that pitted the Canadian dollar agains the US dollar, and at one point in the mid-70s, our dollar was actually worth more than theirs. It shocked me, as I was always used to paying more for USD when we went to the states for holidays and shopping.

But now, (via yahoo):

"The Canadian currency pushed past C$1.1193 to the U.S. dollar, or 89.34 U.S. cents, to its highest point since June 1978. It has risen more than 40 percent against the greenback in just under four years."

I guess Nov '76 was the last time they were equal.

So, here's the golden question: Do you think the Canadian dollar will once again top the US dollar? If so, when do you think this will happen?

I will give one loonie and one greenback to the person whose guess is closest....time will tell, but you can hold me to this.

Wouldn't it be nice?

Another imminent change in my life is that my parents are retiring.

both of them.

within the next month.

My dad is officially done May 24, but he is taking holidays for his last few weeks of "work", so his last day of actually having to go to work is May 4. Yup, next Thursday.

My mom is working Tues and Thurs for all of May, then that's it. Done.

I wanna retire too. It sounds like so much fun. They have so many plans and ideas and dreams, i think they'll really enjoy themselves. And the nice thing is that they're still plenty young and energetic enough to get out and do the things they want to do.

So what's the first thing on my dad's agenda? Well, getting a new job, of course! Yeah, he's looking into some casual work for about 6 weeks...just for fun, maybe just as a transition from his 30+ year career to not working at all...ease out of it, just like many of us are just easing into our first career-type jobs.

I sure hope that when the time comes for me, i can retire young and healthy enough to enjoy it, and with enough security that if I do work again, it will be because I want to.

Congrats mom & dad! You both deserve it.

Anatomy Lesson

So, this post has been a long time coming, and here it is. There has been something new in our lives lately.....

Anthony and I have been DINKS since after i graduated - Double Income, No Kids. That has changed lately, in a very drastic way.

Now, don't get excited and start jumping the gun here....our news is that we are no longer DINKS, we are now TITTYS...

Triple Income, Teenager, Two Yappers.

Ok, so the yappers aren't technically ours to keep, but we have been dog sitting for two beautiful shepherd-husky cross dogs lately, and will have them for the whole month of May.

As for the Teenager/Triple Income part, well, since late March, we have had a 17 year old boy named Leon living with us. He's not in school right now, but he's working, hence the triple income.

Leon is a really amazing guy.
He's from our youth group, and has had a tough family situation as of late, and needed a new place to live, so we took him in.
He has brought a lot of fun and entertainment to our family. We really like having him around.

And the dogs, well, we have been thinking of getting our own, and an opportunity came up to dog sit for a while, we figured it would be a good trial run. Not sure if Leon is a trial run for other things too, we'll have to see.

Jumping into parenting when the kid is 17 has definitely been interesting, i'm sure more stories will come up from time to time. But overall, he's very well behaved, respectful, caring, helpful, etc.

So there, that's our news.

Alas, it was not to be.

I was so excited (but cautiously so), as just before lunch, the power went out at work. Being that my job is so computer dependent, if there's no power, there's no point to being here.

I took my lunch break, hoping the whole time that (despite the fact that there are final exams right now and they would never let the problem go unfixed) the power would be out for the rest of the afternoon. I even let myself dream a bit of what I would do on an unexpected afternoon off, when the temperature has reached 20 for the first time this year, when the next two days are weekend days with little to nothing scheduled....you get the picture. Pure bliss and relaxation.

My hopes were dashed, sadly, and here i am, typing on the computer, which is not incidentally on battery backup. Sigh.


In other news, exciting news, i just found out that my friends Nevada & Chester are expecting! Congrats! I think that brings the total to 15 or something...friends who are expecting. Oh wait, another friend from church whom I was actually at Briercrest with is also expecting, 16. But with three due dates (at least) in the next 4 weeks, that number should decline slightly, depending on what other news comes in from far corners of the world in the next while, or maybe closer to home....but i won't name names or speculate ;)

Phew!

That was a close one.

Fortunately, Bucky got voted off American Idol yesterday.

This means that i do NOT have to name my firstborn son Bucky anymore.

I made a rash vow in front of my entire small group a few weeks ago that if Bucky won American Idol, i'd name my firstborn son Bucky in his honor. I said this as he was on the chopping block that nite, and i figured for SURE he'd get voted off that night....he didn't. And then he didn't get voted off the next week, or the next, or even the next. But now he's gone.

I guess fate allowed him to stay on for another month, taunting me, teasing me, and almost getting me a bit concerned, perhaps to teach me a lesson not to make rash vows...

Bucky Epp just sounds wrong on so many levels. Glad it won't be.

Happy Easter!

Easter puzzles me. As a Christian, this should be the predominant holiday of the year, but in society, it is definitely second to Christmas, if not other holidays as well.

I've always struggled with how to make Easter important in my life and give it the prominence it deserves as a commemoration. Yeah, i go to the church services, sometimes good friday, always easter sunday, and i do try to engage in them as best as i can, but what else can I do, what else can we do to not only give this celebration the importance it deserves - not in and of itself, but because of what it symbolizes?

How can we put the meaning in our Easter celebrations?

Happy half-birthday to me!

I know i'm a little geeky, but when i was a kid, i would always get SOoooooooooooooooo excited about April 10, as it was exactly 6 months until my birthday.

So here we are on April 10, and I looked at the calendar and it just popped into my head that it is my half-birthday today. So yay for me, i'm closer to 27 now than i am to 26.

I will accept cards, well-wishes, gifts, and cake until midnight tonight.

Nothing much new to report...

I realize my posts have been sparse lately, that's likely due to the fact that i've been so incredibly busy and life has been so hectic lately, with every minute between 8am and 11pm scheduled most days.

But now things are slowing down, and I am grateful for the rest, which has thus far eluded me. For example, saturday night, i was really excited to have the evening to myself, so I took a luxurious bath before supper (tony's night to cook), and was all ready to cozy down and read for the evening, when Anthony found the water in the basement - from all the rain and melting snow, our backyard had flooded, and it was coming into the basement. Fortunately it was in the rooms without carpet, and nothing was damaged, but it did take all evening to clean up and get under control. I am thankful that a couple of teenage boys from our youth group were at our place at the time, so they helped shovel snow away, and even built a moat that protected the house from the pooling water.

So i'm hoping that my weekend of nothingness coming up in 2 days does not get interrupted by a bunch more surprises. I'm game for hanging out and connecting with people though, so if you're around and want to do something, let me know. I've felt disconnected from the people around me lately 'cuz my crazy schedule has prevented me from even calling people to chat. So if you've felt neglected, i apologize.

The other wonderful thing is that because of work being so busy lately, my boss came to me the other day and told me to take a bonus day off, not part of my holidays, just a day off. So I'm now off for 4 days next weekend, don't have to work Easter Monday, so that will be wonderful too! I'm glad for periods of rest among the stress.

I am the Champion!

Anthony & I try to give blood on a semi-regular basis, and every time we do, we have a race to see who can fill their bag the fastest. Anthony ALWAYS wins, i am often a slow bleeder and get the "slow bleeder warning" stickers on my bag 'o' blood, but not this time!

I was done in 4min, 45 sec, while tony took over 6 mins!

Yay!