Thanksgiving Weekend

Despite having already celebrated Thanksgiving in October, we decided it was well worth it to drive down to Portland in order to celebrate with Charlotte's brother and fam at their new house. It was a great four-day vacation! For some reason we didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving Day, but Kari did cook a beautiful and delicious meal. Much of her family also came over, so it was a real party.

The next day we headed downtown to watch the Christmas Parade. Here are Kari and Emma riding the MAX.



After the parade we headed into the Gorge. The Oregon side of the Columbia River has the most waterfalls in a single area in North America - 77! Of course we stopped at Multnomah Falls.



We also took a short jaunt into the woods and saw Ponytail Falls. Do you see John in the picture?


For those of you who are Tony Hawk fans, we also visited Burnside Skate Park. It was built, without permission from the authorities, by skateboarders under the Burnside bridge. This skate park is supposedly one of the most challenging in the U.S. and is featured in the first Tony Hawk video game. Very cool.



Oh, and look who did some shopping on Black Friday!

Just Another Day on the Job...

For those of you who don't know, I'm working as a cook. My area is the forno oven - similar to one of the Italian dome ovens that's heated by wood, often used for cooking pizzas. I make pizzas, roasted chicken, barbecue ribs, cajun chicken, roasted potato salad, spinach dip & flatbread, naan, and desserts. Anyways, most days are pretty uneventful and safe.
Not this evening, though.

Got to work this evening, threw a log into the fire, and grabbed the metal paddle that is used to reach food that's too far in the oven to reach with tongs. To my hand's surprise, the paddle was HOT! My hand let go of the paddle (that had been hanging on the wall), which of course meant the paddle fell, hit my head, and then clamored to the floor.

My hand and face HURT. The manager who noticed me stooped next to the sani-bucket with my hand in it told me I was bleeding, but all I could feel was stinging. Eventually I was taken to the back, shown the deep cut near my eye, given burn cream to rub into my hand, and sent to a walk-in clinic.

The first words out of the doctor's mouth - after I told him what happened - were "You are lucky." He said that three or four more times. "You could have lost your eye."

Praise the Lord for keeping me safe. Yeah, my right palm and fingers are burnt (I'm one-finger typing right now with my left hand), I have two big burn marks on my face, and two cuts that have been glued together (the manager at Earl's thought I was going to need a stitch or two), but I have two eyes that can both see.

Oh - why was the paddle hot? One of the other cooks had cooked something and forgot to take the paddle out. It was in the oven for 15+ minutes. He eventually took it out using towels and hung it up on the wall - not thinking that the next person to come along wouldn't know it was so hot.

Life in Canada

People often ask us what's different about Canada versus the United States. Here are some things we've noticed so far:

1) When we first moved, we couldn't find any store that sold light bulbs, ice cube trays, and the like except Walmart (not a favorite of ours). A few weeks later we were watching TV, and there was a commercial for closet organizers at the store Canadian Tire. It came up in conversation at church, and yes, Canadian Tire is the place to go for those kinds of things. Of course we had driven by it many times, but we'd thought it was just a large tire store!

2) While John swears that he's able to detect a Canadian accent, I haven't been able to hear one and neither have any of our guests. The words that are typically pronounced differently, though, are:

- process, project, and progress - all with a long o whether they're using it as a noun or a verb
- resource - the s is pronounced as a z
- Barack Obama - the rack is pronounced like the word rack instead of rock, and the bam is pronounced like the word bam (now this observation isn't true for everyone we've met, but it is true for all of the Canadian newscasters that I've heard pronounce his name!)

3) Yes, we do hear ay a lot, and we confess, we've begun using it a bit too. Another word used often is right, which takes the place of you know.

4) Kraft Dinner is a big food up here, and what is it? Macaroni and Cheese.

5) No one drives the speed limit. Okay, maybe not no one, but it's not uncommon to have everyone going at least 10 km over the speed limit, and if you're not going that fast, the cars behind you will tail you until you go faster.

6) Cream of mushroom soup is very popular here. We had it as a feature soup at the restaurant I work at, and it was ordered quite regularly. It's also one of the main soups at Tim Horton's, a popular fast-food restaurant that specializes in donuts. Cream of mushroom soup is regularly eaten with grilled cheese sandwiches and ketchup.

Fillin' Up the Tank

Sounds like the gas prices have been going down in the U.S. We've seen falling prices as well, but not anywhere near the fall of other places. It sounds like BC has the most expensive gas in all of southern Canada at the moment. And no - that's not $100.8 per gallon or $1.008 per gallon. It's $1.008 per liter. Canadian gas stations have their permanent decimal point there, because until the last few years, a liter's price has always been in the cents and not over a dollar.

Anyways, that's not what I meant to write about. Filling up the tank here is very similar to the States (none of the pumps have automatic shut-off devices, so you have to hold the handle while filling up - I know, we're really roughing it out here), but what is different is the posted price. When you drive by a gas station, you have to ask yourself, "Is that the real price or is the real price the
posted price minus 3.5 cents?"

That's right. The Chevron gas stations are always 3.5 cents cheaper than the posted price, and I've started noticing some Esso "On the Run" gas stations that have the same deal. These stations have signs like the one to the right posted 10-15 feet in from the road. Other gas stations have signs out by the road that say, "Street price is the same as the pump price."

So I hope this helps all of you British Columbia visitors when searching for the cheapest gas.

Lights and License Plates

Our electricity wasn't fixed until this morning, but everything went well last night. We found an outlet in our kitchen that worked, so we simply moved a floor lamp into our kitchen. It was still dark in our apartment, but playing Cities & Knights was still possible, so everything was good :)

After church, we went out to a Chinese restaurant for lunch with friends. At the end we were standing outside saying goodbye and John heard a six year-old say, "Look! Minnesota! Land of 10,000 Lakes!" He was extremely happy to see our license plate. Then John saw and heard a man speaking Spanish very animatedly while pointing to the license plate. I'm glad our car can provide such excitement.

Back to the "Dark" Ages

This afternoon John plugged in a second space heater, and our apartment went dark. We blew a circuit. Normally it would be no big deal, and at the time it wasn't a big deal. The circuit box for the lights is in our landlord's garage. She said she'd be home in an hour or two, so we said no problem. We'd wait. The lights in the bathroom, the study, and the laundry nook still worked, as well as the light above the oven. Plus, our nice big window over the kitchen sink and the other window in our bedroom were providing light, so it wasn't really a problem. John continued to study and I started cooking.

It's now 2 1/2 hours later. The sun set awhile back, and it's DARK down here. I've been feeling like a woman from the pioneering days with my "lantern" above the stove - washed the dishes using my sense of touch to make sure they were clean! Ironic how I was making Parmesan potatoes and chicken pot pie for dinner; those are dishes that have definitely been around for awhile - perhaps made by pioneers. The living room is currently covered with clean clothes, as there's light in the laundry nook for folding them but no light in our bedroom for putting them away!

Am I complaining? I sure hope it doesn't sound that way. It's been pretty fun. However, I do hope our landlord comes home in time to flip the switch so that we'll have light when our dinner guest arrives...

Wisconsin Visitors

We had a great weekend with John's dad and his wife. We spent a lot of time wandering around the area, ducking into little shops, playing cards, and enjoying being together. It was supposed to rain all weekend, and while we did experience rain, the sky often cleared at just the right times!



Lynda treated us all to fresh spinach & ricotta rigatoloni and yam gnocchi (both smothered in a creamy pesto sauce) from Granville Public Market. Are you feeling hungry? Was it ever delicious!



Here's an interesting part of the weekend. Friday we were walking around and noticed that not only were the employees all dressed in costumes but the stores were closing early for Halloween. Then we went to Steveston for a walk along the pier and fresh fish & chips, BUT everything was closed or closed at 6 p.m. because it was October 31. It was just amazing to see how big Halloween has become. Restaurants closing at 6 p.m. on a Friday night???

The downer of the weekend was the Packer's loss...but we're proud of Aaron Rogers!