Saskatoon Road Trip

Here I am sitting in the Riviera Motor Inn in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Jenelle's basketball team had a basketball tournament. In Saskatchewan the age groups are a bit different than in Calgary. The teams here are a year older. So Jamie and one of her friends were invited to fill in for a couple of the girls who were away for spring break - they played for this coach last year.

We left around 7:30 this morning - Jamie, Jenelle, Judy and me plus two other players Emily and Kim.

We were told it was about a 7 hour drive but its really just over 6.

The girls watched first watch High School Musical 3 (thanks to Candi for letting us borrow her laptop).

But most of the trip the girls were like this

We did make a couple stops. One was to get gas and stop for a bio break. The other was to get bottles of water out of the back of the van.

Ironically we stopped to get the water in this ismall town that had an Old Railroad Water Tower museum. Its where trains stopped to get water.

We all arrived safely and went to the school to scout the teams the girls would be playing.

Here's the team (less one girl who was visiting her uncle)

This was a day of firsts.

The first time most of us had been in Saskatchewan.

(I've been here before but have never driven)

It was the first time 2 of my daughters have played on the same team at the same time.

It was the first time 2 of my daughters started in the same game.

Here are Jamie and Jenelle right after the opening tipoff.

(Notice the great position both Jamie and Jenelle have on their checks - too bad the ball was tipped the other way)

Here's proof - Jamie (45) and Jenelle (35) on the court at the same time.

I wish I had some action shots of them playing but there wasn't enough light for my camera.

The game was close until the 3rd quarter when our team took off. They had only scored 15 points by half time. They came to life in the 3rd quarter and scored 19 points.

Another first - two Takahashi's fouled out of the same game.

Jamie fouled out in the 3rd quarter (second time in her life)

Jenelle fouled out in the 4th quarter (second time in her life - first was last week)

There was one call where Jamie actually did foul a player (she says that only 2 were "real" fouls) but the ref gave the foul to Jenelle. So Jamie got some extra playing time - but Jenelle got fouled out with 4 "real" fouls. I wonder if was because they looked alike and they had similar numbers (35 and 45). It reminds me of when Sheila and Sharon played basketball. I remember one game when one was #12 and the other was #21. Sharon was running down the court by the bench saying she had 6 fouls - but the score sheet only said 4. But the scoresheet said Sheila had 2 when she had none. There are rumors that one would take all the foulshots because she was a better freethrow shooter and no one ever caught on.

The fouled out players don't look too upset.

I guess it helps to be 15 points ahead with only a couple minutes left.

After the game - they are now known as the "Takahacki's"

There were family from Saskatoon that came to the game as well.

They came late but in time to see Jamie get her fifth foul.

Michael and Petrea came over to our hotel for a brief visit after the game. We enjoyed visiting with them.

The two hacks

End of Day 1 in Saskatoon.

They play again tomorrow at noon.

Happy Birthday Candi - Part 2!

I just have to give an update on a couple things that happened today.

Remember my report on the cheap glasses from zennioptical.com? Well Candi also heard of another place - clearlycontacts.ca (its the same place that AK mentioned). This place sells name brand glasses for around $40. I used them to get contacts for Jamie once. I ordered them about 3 in the afternoon one day and they arrived at our door by 10 the next morning. That's good service but that's not the story I wanted to tell.

Candi ordered a pair of Joseph Marc glasses from this place just over a week ago and they just happened to arrive in the mail today. An unexpected birthday present.

So what do you get for $40 (actually $38 plus $8 shipping)?

The glasses come in a cloth pouch that is in a nice case. There is also cleaning cloth and an eyeglass screwdriver.

So how does it compare to Zenni Optical? Candi paid $19US (about $23 Can) for her expensive pair at Zenni. With Clearlycontacts.ca she paid $38 Can. These glasses are name brand. The case is nicer and you get the pouch for your glasses plus the little screwdriver. The quality is good for both. I don't think you can go wrong either way. So now Candi has 3 pairs of glasses and she's spent less than $70.

Modeling the new glasses.


Just as we were taking picture of her new glasses the doorbell rang.

It was someone delivering some flowers.

Who are these from?

She found this note.

We were all confused at first. Who is Mary?

But as she read the message again there were hints and she figured it out.

I know who Mary is! Its Savannah!

(you have to check Angie's blog here for the story about Mary)

She couldn't stop laughing and crying

When she finally stopped laughing she had to wipe away the tears.

Thanks Mary.....I mean Savannah

And as an added bonus on her birthday they let her off early from work at the hospital. She was supposed to be there until 10pm or so but was finished around 6pm.

Hope you had a good one Candi!

Happy Birthday Candi!

It seems like just yesterday when mom went to the hospital when she was expecting you. It was a false alarm and they sent her home but not before I could cause some excitement at the hospital. They had a big reclining chair (like an executive chair) on wheels that I was sleeping in. I guess I leaned back too far, the wheels started rolling and the chair fell right back on the floor making a loud crash. Nurses from miles around came to see what happened and if mom was okay. (By the way - I was fine). A few days later we returned for the real event and what an exciting day that was. We welcomed you into our family - and life has been exciting ever since.

I can't believe all the pictures that Angie, Alana and Erika have already posted on their blogs today. Where do they get them all? There are some classics in their posts. I'll try to post some that haven't already been posted.

With Grandma and Grandpa T and "twin brother" Michael

Like Alana mentioned in her blog entry, Candi has always had a sense of fashion.

She was on Facebook before it was "in".

Skiing in Whitefish. Another example of that fashion sense.

She really can ski. I think Grandpa is holding her on a leash. We should have kept that leash.

She really is an outdoorsy kind of person. Fishing at Duck Lake

She loves the glamour of Hollywood. (actually at California Adventure)

The excitement of the real Hollywood. They worked as a team to get some paparazzi shots. Below is actually what they were watching.

That's really Uma Thurman and John Travolta in that car. They were filming the movie "Be Cool".

Always a good big sister. You can see how much Jenelle and Jamie enjoyed the fireworks at Disneyland. (it also looks like they are trying to look up at John Travolta)

Another fashion statement (are those your $10 glasses?)

Yet another fashion statement. She's tough enough to wear pink. (When we all worked for ENMAX)

Happy Birthday!

(at her pre-birthday celebration this week - She has to work at the hospital today - Jenelle did the lettering on the cake)

Snow day - in response to a comment in Wilma's Blog

I was reading Wilma's blog and realized that I'm one of those relatives sitting somewhere in Canada who can't empathize with her regarding the spring snow.  Its now officially spring but we woke up on Sunday morning to about 30 cm (or about a foot) of snow.  That almost broke a record for a one day snowfall in Calgary for March - the record is 38cm.   The  average snowfall for all of March is 21 cm.  And the forecast is for more snow this week.

I had early morning meetings on Sunday.  I went to my first meeting (6:30am)  and only 3 of us made it - there should have been 7.   The roads were a mess.   Just by our house the bus couldn't make it up the hill and was blocking the road.    I just about didn't make it.  I didn't make it up the last hill to the Stake Center.   I went back down to try again and got stuck.  Luckily a nice young man in a pickup truck stopped to help push me out.   We were the first ones there and there was a foot of snow on the sidewalks so our meeting consisted of shoveling snow.   We do have a snow blower at the church and I went to get it out but it was out of gas.  Luckily there was a 5 gallon gas can there - no wait - it was empty too.   We didn't want to go get gas on Sunday - plus with the roads the way they were we didn't even know if we could get out and back in our cars.    No one showed up for the 7:30 meeting because of the snow.   Some people couldn't get out of their driveways or out of their neighborhoods.   I heard of one of my friends who took 3 hours to dig out of his place.   At our 9am start time, there were about 10 people at church.   The ironic thing is that at least 3 of these were single senior sisters.   People showed up all through the meeting.  

We should have had a snow day.

I took this picture as Judy as she came home from shopping Monday afternoon.  You can see that the pile of snow on our lawn from shoveling the sidewalk and driveway is still about 4 feet high.  Its never been like that in Calgary since I can remember.  In Calgary we have chinooks - warm west winds that melts the snow in hours.   There are stories of the temperature going from -20C to +20C in an couple of hours when a chinook blows in.  The record for a one day temperature change due to a chinook is from -48C (-56F) to 9C (49F).  Usually when we get a heavy snowfall within a week or two a warm chinook will come and melt all the snow.  This year we haven't seen these extreme chinooks.   We've had snow on the ground since December.  

Just on Friday I was commenting on how the snow was finally all melted from our deck.   Here's what it looks like now.

I'm not complaining - okay maybe I am a little.   Why do we live in a place where you have to spend hours shoveling snow to get your vehicle out of your driveway only to drive somewhere that takes an hour (instead of the regular 10 minutes) only to get stuck or slide off the road so you can spend a couple more hours digging out so you can spend another hour driving back home?  

I can think of a few reasons.

1. Cockroaches and rats don't like it either so they don't hang out here.
2. We enjoy the summer more (winter is like hitting your head against the wall - it feels so good when it stops).
3. We're crazy.

On a totally different note.   People wanted to see pictures of my new glasses being modeled by me.

These are my $23 glasses (I referred to them as $27 glasses in my last blog entry, but that was with the $4 clip-on sunglasses).   I'm also wearing a Columbia shirt from NPS.