History

I don't think there is a picture specifically of the models but I'm pretty sure one or both can be seen in some 70's shot of the kids near the tv in the basement.

The Forrestal has an interesting history.  You've probably seen the footage of the '67 fire on deck.  Google 'USS Forrestall' and 'wet start' and you'll find there was an interesting pilot at the controls of the plane that was at the heart of this massive conflagration. Odd how you don't hear too much about that incident these days. Or try Googling the term 'reverse ace'.  Interesting stories. Who know's what's what anymore.  If it's on the internet it must be true...

and along related lines, Michael Moore's new 'movie' is out yesterday.  And it's FREE viewable or downloadable of the internet.  It's like an hour and a half of him patting himself on the back claiming to have single handedly brought in the youth vote for the Dem's in the last election.  It's a bit much even for him.

Good questions...

I remember that guitar. Aptly named, indeed. As I recall, those models stayed with Dad, probably in storage, given that the weren't on display in Brandtford. I don't know if there were any pix of them. Any of them.

Whatever happened to...

Whatever happened to the Harmony, AKA 'Finger Killer'?  Also the USS Forestal and the rocket under glass? (no we didn't shoot them up).

more houses, and rejuvinating more music

So here are the new homes for Jasper and the cats:

The cat run is accessible via my office window, which cats can come and go at thier leisure. The outside door is one-way-in only, so that if Niko is out, he can always come home. If something else figures out how, we may have squirrels or raccoons in the house some night. But I doubt it.

Jasper's house is 2x4 construction, R12 insulated and fully vapour barriered, has the standard ante chamber and main chamber in side. It stands over 5' tall, and is VERY heavy. The roof lifts off for access.

Last but not least, I've been meaning to re-string Grampa's mandolin for quite a while. The tuning gear was a bit of a disaster, so I replaced that too. I knew it wasn't a very valuable instrument, and it probably got played in its time. But the frets are, sadly, not semitones apart. Makes for very curious chords. And the frets themselves are in serious need of re-dressing. But with the new tuning gear, and new strings, it certaily makes music. C, G and D are playable, and only take two fingers each. We can jam at Thanksgiving!

followed her to school one day

Only 6 days old and she followed Fiona to school. Ok, so mum and dad drove Llama to school for a visit. Fiona told her class all about Sue Pajama Llama and we toured the primary classes for an hour before rescuing her back to mama llama. A hit for sure

dinosaur dens and firehalls

Fiona's at her first piano lesson with the Music for Young Children
(MYC) program. with any luck, I'll pick up some theory and playing too. There's hope for me yet.
I DID take out the autoharp the other day!

and Dave .... lovely wall ornaments, especially since they come down for a visit on a daily basis!
You're an inspiration.

back to cleaning closets!

PS: that's one BIG dog, no wonder the wonderhouse is as big as you say!
and lovely home too!
and one tall son! man oh man!
The scary part is that Fiona is tracking taller then Ben at the same age!!!!

'bout time I cleaned that closet

I KNEW I had this in the house somewhere. Just buried in a bin of special saver clothes, not in the dress up collection after all.
also found 4 slide reels and a projector from grandma and grandpa. some slides from a DC trip in 77, or so says the listing on the outside.

Happy Birthday to Judy!

As we go into the final year when we are all in our ... 40's?!

We keep feeding them, they keep growing...

So, here's what's been happening over the summer.

First, here's Benjamin back-to-back with Susan: Another 3/4 of an inch, and he'll be taller than his mother.
.

Meanwhile, the "puppy" has grow a bit, too.

Amazing what 4 months can do.

Long over due is a picture of our house.
Here's the establishing shot, followed by our close up, Mr. deMille.



And you may have heard that I've purchased a Dobro. For those who don't recognize the name, here's pic of my banjo and dobro, hanging on the wall of my office. Always good to have them in reach.

W. Lorne Addition

The Plynth has been added.  New trees coming soon.

TIFF Star Power

Day 4 of the Film Festival is now over, and we've used up 9 tickets, and have another 3 for tomorrow! Busy days, since we have 24 movies to see. There have been many fine films, with directors and stars in house for the Q&A. List so far: "Passchendalele", "RocknRolla" (director Guy Ritchie was there), Plus tard, tu comprenderas" French director was there), 2/3 of a Polish film, "33 Scenes from Life" (because the bus and subway was late on a Saturday morning, so we arrived late),


"Lovely, Still", (with Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn, who were there, as well as the director, Nik Fackler, a sweet young man, who wrote and directed the film, and he's only 23, and wrote the story when he was only 18! Someone to watch for in the future. He was having a great time!

Josie had fun being in a photo with the director and Adam Scott, a movie star.),


Today we saw Christopher Walken in "$5. a Day" funny, and sad at the end, "Ghost Town", with Greg Kinnear and a British stand-up comic who were excellent, very funny, and finally "Is Anybody There" with Michael Caine, who was there with the Director. Seems like most of our choices involved death of some kind, and lives and living of old folks. At least the old stars are getting work! Three more slated for tomorrow, so we'll see how many we tally up at the end.

family funny foto

this one cracks me up
baby and mama doing fine
whew!

cousin Paul has a super farm adventure

Glenn's cousin Paul is over for his first Farm visit and he got more than he bargained for.
here's the woolley plus one looking out "woolley wonderland channel" the top barn door.
and the wee CRIA - baby llama born this am.
Paul was right in the middle of things as we moved the mom in the trailer, dragged the brother llama away, played Soccer with fiona and ate lovely lamb chops for dinner.
so far, quite fun!

what do you call ....

Ok, what is the term for the birth of a baby llama?
Better know what a baby llama is called first ....

That would be a CRIA
so. the answer: criation - honestly.
Meet Sue
named after the Sumac trees she was born under today.
her full name is sue pajama llama and has very similar markings to Kusko
after 2 strange llama days this third was a good one.
Thursday, I was in my office doing PR stuff and the dogs bark and a horn toots in the driveway. Mama and Kusko have been hearded up the driveway by a passing truck - who hoped he found the right farm. Glenn had left a gate open the night before.
They got home safe and sound.
The next day, vile Mr. Prince, who got merged with all the critters when some critter knocked down the fence and the sheep are all running together again
well. mr. vile was attacking Mama and Kusko and they were shrieking! the noise was horrid and it took a while to get them apart. Kusko hopped the fence to get away and mama was lamed from his biting and attack.
I got him out and penned off. but the other two were hiding in the Sumac
SO
today, when I went to see how her leg was, BOY, WAS I SHOCKED to see a little one
I thought she had miscarried and that was all. BUT there was a tiny baby, all dry and healthy.
so Blessed we are and a baby Cria we have.
We had to moved them in trailer to the barn. Can't wait to post those pix as glenn and I had a parade float of llamas.
more pix later.
hugs
woollier that ever ones

Retirement Plan

Chloe did her first photo-shoot today.  Modeling a christening dress for next summer's Sears catalog.  Look for it in February '09.

She did great. Gave them exactly what they needed in a few min.

Such a patient little girl while they set up the shot.

A few thousand more jobs like this and we can all retire!

September notes from Aunt Ann

Diana and I thoroughly enjoyed the Cirque du Soleil performance at Copp's recently, although we were quite high up, but with my opera glasses, brought the stars up close. I'm so glad I jumped on the opportunity to go with the gracious help of the lady I met working at the Board of Ed that day. Diana was very tired by the time we got back to her place. She said she is ready for bed by 9:30 p.m. as her energy level is zip by then; she starts work at 8 a.m.

Chelsey got all settled in on Saturday at U of Guelph, among many tears. Diana is fully aware that Chelsey will be fine but they are a very close knit family and this is a huge loss even though geographically, its only an hour away. The plan for her first semester is she'll catch the GO bus Thursday after class and meet Diana at McMaster, returning Monday morning in reverse. Zarkey's (her part time employer in Gr 11 & 12) have offered her Sunday shifts, 8 am to 5 pm so she's happy about having a little income.

I've texted and emailed her but no response. No doubt, lots going on. The 6 girls each have their own bedroom in the 'pod' with full kitchen, 1 full bathroom, 1 powder room and living room on the 12th floor. It has a balcony which is secured with 'no access allowed'; needless to say, Diana was pleased about that restriction. Chelsey opted out of the meal plan as she feels she can pick up groceries nearby; being quite adept in the kitchen, and save the $400/month cost. She has a little bar fridge in her bedroom.

Her program is Child, Youth and Family for her first year then she can branch out into her chosen field with teaching being a possibility after her BA. Apparently, the U of Guelph has one of the most highly recognized Psychology programs.....what do I know?????

Nicholas starting Gr 10 and hockey practices soon to begin. He's an avid player and Grandma loves attending his games; lots of excitement at his level.

Terri brought Brandon back to his Aunt's (his dad, Wayne's sister who lives almost next door to him). He is looking forward to his second year at McMaster and hopes to maintain his honours standing. Terri said he studied hard last year with little social life. It's paying off for him. She said he hopes to join a hockey team and play for fun with a few of his long time friends who live on the west mountain. Depending on his course load. I think he's majoring in Philosophy again. He hopes to return to Whitby next summer with the same employer. He worked nights zone-painting and enjoyed the challenge, plus he now has his driver's licence. (what a coincidence; your Grandpa inspected hundreds of miles of highway zone painting with Department of Highways as it was called then).

Terri plans to come for lunch next week so we'll have time to catch up.

Her youngest son, Mikael went off to Grade 5 yesterday morning, happy with his new duds and backpack. He gets the school bus almost in front of their house so that's a relief for Terri. Son Greg has found much happiness with his sweetheart, Stephanie.
Tuesday I worked at Truscott, Brown & Dwyer, my funeral home location (across from Gage Park) my switch day, with our new manager, Richard. He seems very nice and asked me to help him with an inventory assignment which had to be done that day; it all worked out well. New blood is a good thing; I've had a more comfortable experience working with a male manager; they just have a different approach and tend to not get 'chummy' with staff. I hope we work well together.

No word on the election training sessions yet; should be soon as the formal announcement has to happen before they call us. I hope I can do some data inputting this time.

I loved reading all the postings and beautiful photos of our family. When I figure out how to upload photos from my new digital camera, I'll join in that venue. Love to everyone. Aunt Ann

A New Year

Simon's first day full time at Petit Chaperon Rouge (and last year).

Home again Home again

We made it back last weekend.  Everyone is well.  

Eventually I'll post a gallery somewhere as we have beaucoup photos.

Lorne doing a Michael Phelps imitation...

Simon, Chloe and cousin Thomas in Melun

Look there's Toronto on the map Chloe!

Castles in the sand at Kelso for Labour day.

and we're OFF!

Yesterday at the beach was fun. We got there just after 9 and began building the largest castle-cake that I ever attempted. 2 hours later is was 3 feet tall and not wanting to have much of a second layer. Fiona jumped on it in the afternoon to make it mush.
She hung out with friends and we played frisbee and splashed about. A nice way to end the summer. Bath to wash off the sand and bed by 7:45 was a good plan. I caught her up at 8:30 sorting dixie cups in the bathroom, looking for all the ones with penguins on them. JUST a little excited about school!
Fiona's convinced that day one of school = fall.
and today is that day. She was up at 6 ish and snuggling with us by 6:30. Ready for the bus 45 minutes ahead of schedule too.
New backpack, lunchbag and all ready. She wanted to wear her Anne hat to show her SK teacher.
Bright-Eyed and bushy tailed she's on the bus and now ... to the long list of to-do's for me.
Moppet pr mostly as th programs only kick in next week (2) and then one additional one for the following 2 weeks until I'm up to 4 mornings a week. Hope to get a routing down before too long to get all I need to done, and then tackle the want-to list.
happy september all!

happy First day of September

As holidays come to a close, the temp in Lakehurst is supposed to TRIPLE by mid day. It's about 10 degrees now and we're planning a fun Holiday Monday.
First, breakfast (done), hang laundry (done), pack car (next), head to the beach for the day and play in the sand and water.
Daddy's working till 5
Went for a long canoe ride yesterday after dinner and it was fun says missy.
She's looking forward to her first day in Grade ONE tomorrow. Bus comes at 7:49 am at the end of our driveway.
oh, and we're hopefully getting hi-speed. We looked at the map of the range Rogers's has and we're SOOOOO on the fringe of it. It should work though.

have a great fall. leaves are turning here
the woolley gals!