July 17, 2008 - Lunchtime at Work

Cold beer, hot days, pleasant nights, weekend trips, fresh fruit, bare feet, green grass.  Summer in Ontario is full on and we’ve been loving it!  Ana’s mission is for us to visit somewhere interesting each and every weekend all summer and so far we’re right on track.  Upcoming trips will include Montreal this weekend, possibly my cousin’s Jeff’s wedding in Saskatoon after that, and then up to Mark’s cabin near Kingston to meet Marty, Jen and Leif for the August long weekend.  In August we have Ana’s cousin Nancy’s wedding in Vancouver and a couple other more local trips planned.  It will be anything but boring. 

By aunt and uncle Barb and Gerry were here visiting for ten days and we had lots of fun and plenty of laughs.  My favourite phrase about uncle Gerry is, “the location may change but the jokes remain the same” – fortunately, they always make me laugh, especially the ones that come out after he’s had three beers.  The kids have been asking about uncle Gerry almost every day since he left – they got way too used to his constant attention with wrestling, throwing them around, singing songs, playing games, the best of which was “fetch uncle Gerry another cold beer”.  My dad was also in town for about a week and we all took a weekend trip to Bayfield on Lake Huron, which I think is our favourite region of Ontario so far.

I was back in Saskatchewan in June for the annual fishing trip which was loads of fun as usual.  Marty made it back for this one too which was an extra bonus.  We spent a lot of time on the trip talking about how much fun it’s going to be when Magnus, Leif and Stella can join us, it will definitely add a whole new dimension to the trip.  The main change is we’ll probably have to switch to hard liquor because there will be no room for kids and 16 cases of beer in the boat.  Then again, I suppose the kids could be towed on a raft or something. 

Magnus will be starting junior kindergarten at a French immersion school in September and he’s very excited about it.  It will be a sad day for Stella, though, when her best buddy starts being away from her for a whole day at a time - they really are the best of friends and have great fun together. 

We have had some sad news recently - a dear friend of the family, Grace, succumbed to cancer after a long battle.  She was one of the kindest and most generous people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  Tragically, her husband was killed a few years ago in a tragic car accident, leaving their two daughters parentless.  Thankfully they are both extremely mature, strong, independent and capable which they will definitely need to get through this.  We hope to be able to support them in whatever way we can as they have been through a terrible time. 

Time to sign off.

Kris

April 21, 2008 - Paradise Island, Bahamas

In the midst of the Canadian spring/summer turnaround we decided to take off on one last winter getaway - to Nassau, Bahamas.  Unfortunately it was forecast to be in the low 20's in southern Ontario which robs us of the opportunity to enhance our tropical enjoyment by pitying the frozen folks at home.  But on the bright side, we noticed on the news that Alberta and Saskatchewan were just hammered with a late winter blizzard which does lend us some smug comfort.

Nassau is a special place for us as it's where Ana and I met ten years ago.  In fact, yesterday we took the kids for a walk over to Atlantis and went to the exact spot in the casino where we first met.  It seems that much has changed since then, but many things have also stayed the same - our passion for travel, our love for life and many of our friendships from those days which remain intact.  I had forgotten how incredible the Atlantis hotel is, from the amazing detail of the architecture to the abundant marine life which seems to be everywhere.  It is certainly one of the most amazing man made creations in the Caribbean and not to be missed.

We found a great deal on an all-inclusive hotel called Paradise Island Harbour Resort.  This is our first real experience with an all-inclusive place and we've been quite happy with it.  The best part is not having to prepare any meals and surprisingly the food is pretty good.  The only irritation thus far is the place is full of young college kids from Boston who are on some sort of school break now, and are taking full advantage of the underage drinking possibilities here.  We can't complain too much since it wasn't that long ago when we were that age, though I can't remember my folks having enough money to send me off to a Bahamian resort for a week!

There has been quite a bit more development here since last time, but overall not that much seems to have changed.  We're hoping to meet up with an old friend, Sheldon Johnson, while we're here which will be great.  Sadly, we've lost touch with our other good Bahamian friend Ruthie which is sad as we would have been very happy to see her again.

I am quite sure that yesterday Stella had the best day of her life.  She woke up at 8am in an incredibly good mood and bounded out of the door and raced down to the pool, waving her hands and hollering.  She had a big breakfast then spent hours outside playing on the beach, dipping in the ocean. running around the pool and playing with her brother.  She then dozed off on a patio lounger under the shade of a cabana and palm trees with a strong breeze keeping her cool.  She slept for a full two hours then woke up smiling ready for more action.  She ate a big lunch then hopped on my shoulders for a walk to Atlantis, where she was thrilled to see the sharks, fish and rays cruising around in the giant aquariums.  Upon our return she had a huge supper, then another swim in the pool and stroll on the beach and returned to the room for a nice bath and an hour of Dora before nodding off for a full night sleep.  A great day for the kids always means a great day for us.

The advantage of taking a winter vacation now is that we'll be heading back to the start of a lovely Ontario summer.

Well, better get down for breakfast!

Kris

March 6, 2008 – Home, Dusty Home

The Canadian winter drags on.  And on.  Blah.

We are past the worst of it now but there’s definitely no obvious spring in sight as we just got walloped with another 20 centimeters of snow with another 15 expected for the weekend.  To make things worse I got an early morning phone call from two friends in Christchurch, New Zealand who are enjoying the beautiful summer there.  I didn’t tell them about the weather here – they are not the kind of guys who show sympathy for that sort of thing.  Or anything, really.

We’ve been working madly to get some vacations in the pipeline but they keep getting thwarted for one reason or another.  We do have a trip to Saskatoon planned for Easter which we’re all looking forward to, especially Magnus.  Every time we put his jacket on to go somewhere he says, “We’re going to Grandma’s now!”  Sorry kid, just going grocery shopping again.

With the lack of a decent real estate project at the moment we decided instead to finish our basement, which has put our house in a constant state of dust, at least the basement area.  We tendered out the whole job and Ana’s parents quoted zero dollars, which seemed like a decent price so we hired them.  I did pitch in by doing the electrical work, though you’re never really sure if you’ve done a good job until you’ve connected everything to the panel.  If nothing happens when you switch on the breaker, that’s likely a good sign.  If holes blow through the drywall, it’s usually a bad sign.  I should be ready to flip the switch Saturday morning and you can be sure I’ll be wearing a welder’s face shield just in case.

You may see some changes in the website soon as we are doing a makeover to spruce it up a bit.  Ana is taking an interesting “Ebiz” course which has given her some new ideas to try out.  You may have also noticed we’re working on a book.  The preliminary title now is “The Grand Adventure” and I’ve been having a wicked fun time writing it.  I’ve developed a daily writing ritual that begins at 6 am and lasts until either 7 am or when Stella gets up, whichever comes first!  It is going to be full of travel tips, but not the kind of tips you can find in any of the hundreds of guide books available (travel with a valid passport, drink bottled water, lock your door, la de da de da…BORING), they will be less obvious, more valuable and, best of all, wrapped up within the context of many travel stories.  We’re taking a much more personal approach to discussing travel, focusing on friendships, culture, personalities and even backpacker spirituality.  It’s a chance to relive and relate some of our most amazing experiences, many of which we’ve probably never told to anyone.  We’re hoping the book will be a fantastic addition to any traveler’s library.  Sign up for our distribution list and you will be the first to know when the book becomes available.

That’s all the news for now, stay cozy.

Kris

January 22, 2008 - Madeira Beach, Florida, a balcony overlooking the Gulf of Mexico

I have the perfect life and challenge anybody to top it.  Knowing that one's life and fortunes can turn on a dime, I'm not afraid to love my life, relish it, enjoy it, brag about it and be proud of it.  Picture this.  I just finished smoking a lovely Don Tomas maduro corona style cigar with a Kalik in my hand and Ritmo Latino playing on my computer, sitting on the balcony looking down on a perfect beach and a never ending ocean.  Down below in the pool I can see my gorgeous wife ( a "10" by anybody's reckoning) and her lovely parents enjoying the sunshine.  Inside sleeping are my precious children who are both beautiful and perfect and the loves of my life and who will grow up to be smart and wise and outstanding.  We live in a great country and town and enjoy life every day with many more "ups" than "downs".  Ana and I both work for excellent companies but at the same time are together building an excellent company of our own.  We are healthy, happy, hopeful and have traveled more extensively than almost anybody we know.  We count our blessing and feel fortunate and lucky each and every single day.  I have two brothers and a brother-in-law who are my best friends, parents and "extended" parents I love and learn from and grandparents who have lived wonderful lives and are around to share their memories and experience with us and our children.  I have more than thirty first cousins, each of which who are zany, goofy, successful and exceptionally fun to be around.  We have friends that live all over the world who we love and  see as often as possible.  If anybody out there can beat this, please get in touch with me and we absolutely must meet up for a beer.

Kris

December 6, 2007 - Chase the "Brown Eye"

Our first big snowfall arrived a few days ago, now the Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland and odours of pine are in full swing.  It certainly makes one anticipate Christmas much more when the ground is white - last year there wasn't a bit of snow until January so it made Christmas a bit anticlimactic.

The kiddies are very excited for Santa, especially Magnus.  It seems that 3 must be the magic age where the concept of birthdays, Christmas and presents start to make sense because he sure gets it now.  Our little boy is an incessant hummer and singer and Christmas has given him the opportunity to greatly expand his catalogue of tunes.  His favourite now is Jingle Bells and he hums it almost constantly.  He is also fond of removing all his clothes, dropping to all fours, and galloping around the house at rapid speeds which provides little Stella hours of rollicking fun playing "Chase the Brown Eye".  As you can see, we have built in entertainment at home so we don't go out much.

My mom was in town for a few days while Ana breezed off to New York to meet up with her friend Alana for some well deserved away time.  It was quite a learning experience as mom brought her cookbooks, pans and everything else required for a weekend of baking.  We made heaps of goodies, even Christmas cookies which the kids got to decorate.  We don't do much baking around here so it was a great treat and will provide plenty of snacks for the visitors we'll be having over Christmas.  The "Eastern Canada Olson Christmas" will be happening at our place on January 29th, all Olson-ites welcome.

We did a short trip to Florida to meet up with my dad, brother Marty and families a couple weekends ago.  I love Florida, mainly because you can get Bahamian Kalik beer there but also because it's always warm, everything works, prices are reasonable, and people are friendly.  We were in the St. Petersburg area this time and since we enjoyed it so much we're going back for a full week in January.

I just remembered that it's time to crank out my annual Christmas letter....stay tuned.

Kris

October 22, 2007 - Monday morning

The dazzling autumn colours in southern Ontario are peaking making Paris an especially amazing place to be considering it is engulfed in mature old maple trees.  The weather has been beautiful and we've been making the most of it.  We planted two trees in our backyard last weekend; an apple and a plum, as well as a few shrubberies.  The autumn clear out sales were on at the nurseries so we got an amazing deal on the trees, probably less than a third of what we would have paid in the spring.

Since the last journal entry I have found "gainful" employment with the city of Brantford (a 13 minute drive from Paris) as their JDE administrator.  I had started looking around, mainly for shorter term consulting jobs but when this job came up I decided to apply for it.  Thus far, I have really enjoyed it, and that's telling the truth!  I think I've also realized what a terrible mistake I've made in the past with my approach to the working day.  You see, I've typically had work days which begin at 7am and finish at 5:30 or 6pm.  My new job is based on a 33.25 hour work week which translates into a 8:30 start, 4:30 finish and over an hour for lunch.  Since I usually get up at 6, I have lots of precious "quiet and alone" time in the morning where I can do some business stuff, have a workout, do some reading, whatever.  Though I have to go to work every day I honestly feel like I've had more spare time in the past 3 weeks than I have in the entire past year.  Ana has been spending more time on our property business and holding up that end of things.  One great part is that I work in downtown Brantford which is blocks away from all of our properties, making lunch an ideal time to go out and fix toilets, show apartments, collect rents, etc.  All in, the change in routine is working out well for everybody, including the kids.  We have them with a sitter for two half days a week which gives Ana time for spending focused on her WestJet job.

Since the last journal entry, we made a long weekend trip to Newfoundland which was most interesting.  That reminds me, I need to get our digital pictures organized and put up a webpage for that (mental note).  We found St. John's to be quite the city and not what we expected.  It is beautifully lush and rich in lakes, streams, rivers, not quite matching the mental picture I had of rocky and desolate.  We did a few day trips around St. John's including a coastal boat trip where we saw enormous fin whales, dolphins and puffins.  The people were, as expected, extremely hospitable and friendly.  Next time around we'll have to stay for longer and venture further into the province.

Off to work!

Kris

September 8, 2007 - A full summer, what next?

This has been one fantastic summer for us.  To begin with, the summers in southern Ontario are long and very hot which makes for a perfect beer drinking and cigar smoking climate.  I must admit, this is a welcome change from the summers in Calgary which, at times, were indistinguishable from the winters.

The biggest news of late is that Stella has taken to walking on her hind legs with enthusiasm.  That gives us a grand total of three bipeds in the family since Magnus has reverted to galloping on all fours as his primary method of travel.  She is still a bit wobbly but is getting stronger, faster, better each day.  We also celebrated their 3rd and 1st birthdays a couple weeks ago which confirms our fears that Stella will probably never have her own single birthday party due to her parents wonderfully efficient family planning and general stinginess.

Our trip to the Azores was excellent, subject to a few incidents of severe toddler naughtiness.  As we've been there a few times now, this trip wasn't a race to see as much as possible by driving all over the island.  Instead, we had a lot of nice walks, beach days, lounging on the patio and going to family sponsored "events" which included vast quantities of food and alcohol.  In fact, Ana's cousin Paul arranged for a nice beer tap and seemingly endless supplies of kegs.  It was, in fact, a "traveling" beer machine as it made an appearance at every single family function we attended.  One afternoon the great man Toddy Van Hees and I spent an entire afternoon on our back patio with the lovely beer machine and we all got well acquainted.

Every time we travel to the Azores we see more and more development.  If I had unlimited resources I would be buying up property like mad there as I expect a huge increase in tourism dollars finding its way there.  There are also a lot of foreigners moving to the Azores which is sure to put even more pressure on property values.  This is quite unfortunate for the locals as there are not a lot of high paying jobs on the island so every day owning a home is further and further out of reach for most people.  I am certain that sometime in the future, we will be spending a lot of time there as both Ana and I find it to be one of the loveliest places on the planet.

We spent the last long weekend of the summer with my brother Marty and his wife Jen in Ottawa for their son Leif's baptism.  I had the privilege and honour of being chosen as Leif's godfather which I am very proud of.  I hope to be a great spiritual mentor to him and also help out with getting his enemies "wacked" when required.

Ana was very fortunate to return to a job with WestJet after her year of maternity leave.  She is working in the same department as before but now in a "casual" role where she's doing 12-15 hours per week from home.  This particular job may only last until December, but at least that gives her some time to explore other options within the company (and keep our travel benefits!).  She really has enjoyed her time there so I hope something works out for her to stay with them.

As far as me, I've been keeping busy with managing and improving the rental properties we've acquired as well as being on the hunt daily for great property deals.  I've also been looking around for a new IT/consulting gig as I feel like I'm not quite ready to move away from that career which has treated me very well over the years.  I think that we will be able to balance our business endeavors with employment, which gives us the best of both worlds - steady cashflow and our "own thing" which will eventually provide for some nice long sailing journeys.

Over and out.

Kris