A FEW MORE MEXICO PICS

The Mexican Oreo! Big Tony, Dianne and Lalo dancing the night away at Zippers.
(There, Di, I fixed it)



















Valentine's at the Rusty Putter

HOME FROM MEXICO, damn...

Yup, we're home, how sad, but it was great as usual. The weather wasn't as warm as past years but was still really nice. Had good fun with Darcee & Chris and Doc & Diane. It was also good to see Al again, he seems really happy down there.
We didn't do too much, managed to get to Cabo one day and wander around and spent one afternoon checking out the shops in San Jose, didn't buy anything. Now that is a surprise!
I did run into an old vendor that I met about 10 years ago. His name is Carmello and he used to carry about a 150 pounds of wooden carvings up and down the beach for 8 hours a day in 90 degree heat. In fact we used to call him over and get him water or a coke (he wouldn't touch a beer), he was just a really nice man. Anyway, there he was! Walking slowly along, selling ladies wraps. As he said, "The wood mucho, mucho heavy!" He's also about 4 inches shorter! So needless to say I bought a wrap for too much money and gave him $5 more if I could take his picture. It was so funny, he knealt in the sand and he looked like I was going to shoot him execution style. Cracked me up. Then he shook my hand and said, "Buenos Dias, Usan."I spent 3 days on the estuary taking pictures of some amazing birds (imagine that eh Linds) only to have my flash card totally crash. I lost all my pictures, so I was just a little choked. Actually I wasn't going to ruin my holiday over some birds that I will get pictures of next year but it really makes you gun shy about really important photos like Kerry & Scott's up and coming wedding. I had another couple of cards with me but no time to get back to my birds. I have been doing some research into the Lexar card that I was using and it seems there is a problem between their cards and certain DSLR cameras, I think just when you're shooting RAW but I'm not positive yet. I haven't had a chance to talk to them yet but will do it this weekend. I was actually hoping that they might have been able to retrieve the images but doesn't look like it. At this point sounds like they will replace the card but I've already gone out and got another SanDisk just in case. Remember all of you to format your cards 'in camera', not on your computer as that can cause errors too.
So, it's cold and raining and one week from now we will be sitting on the runway in Calgary heading to Jamica, I tell you, ain't like rough...

Sunk to a New Low

I've finally sunk to a new low, I bought Calvin a sweater. That, in itself, wouldn't be too bad but as I walked past two rednecks from Alberta sitting in their massive SUV with oversized tires, I realized that Cally's sweater matched my jacket, how sad is that!! But, I held my head high, blocked out their snickers and carried on, that is until I realized that my well dressed little dog had his new green pullover caught in a blackberry vine. So back I went, red faced and red-nosed (I have a terrible cold) and unhooked him. Very embarrassing.
Now I have a explain so you don't think I've totally lost it, the only reason I got the sweater is that I took him to be groomed on Thursday and they shaved him bald and I mean bald! You can see parts on him that have never seen the light of day before! Poor little guy starts to shiver at the mention of a walk. And he is so small, Jim just can't get over it.
I think just for the heck of it we'll take one of the fluffies in and see just how big they are under their 3" long coats.

A Wee Bit of Brass History

MacNulty and Gilmour, The Peoples Store, Banff, Alberta

This was Jim's Great Grandfather's store (on Jean's side). This was where his Grandmother, Sobe, was born. Her real name was Etoile, why she was called Sobe is unknown to me.Actually why she was called Etoile is rather a mystery too. Heather E, aren't you glad the E doesn't stand for Etoile? Can you imagine the abuse you'd get from Jamie!

But I digress. Jim found this picture the other day and I thought some of you might get a kick out of it. As you can see things in Banff have changed just a tad.