I froze the Champagne

In order to cool the champagne I just put it into the snow, outside. And yes at minus 32 it freezes up real quick, so now we have champagne-ice. Hopefully it will melt before midnight. We have build a fire and at these temperatures that is not an easy task. Fortunately we have scouts in da house, so no worries there. Click on the photo for some more pictures of this endeavour. We managed to get the fire going and together with some gluehwein it's pretty doable out there.

Fireworks

This is what are going to shoot tonight. These are just your average Canadian fireworks you can buy yearlong. No ludicrous storage requirements, just in the open. But using it to the welcome the new year is not usual here. We will probably be the only ones using it this evening at a fore-casted -32 degrees. Permit required? Who knows.

01-01-2010: All tough the package looked vicious, as always it disappoints a little. The expectations were too high. We like to hear loud bangs but it were more like farts. But the colors and sparkles with very nice. That compensated it slightly.

The Mixed Blessing Of Bitumen

Here is a nice article on the Oilsands, in the Edmonton Journal of today. The picture shows a open pit mining facility, nowadays the emphasys is on SAGD, Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage which claims 80% of the bitumen can be harvested or taped if you will. And of course the environment needs to be taken into the equation, and it will be there is no other option. But the bitumen will also come out, one way or the other. Oil sand projects will fuel, :-), the economy and are a great job and tax revenue creator.

Xmas 2009: Serving The Turkey

Xmas: 2009: Setting The Table

Xmas 2009: Cooling The Wine

Xmas 2009: Preparing the Turkey

Immigration Medical

Tomorrow we, Joka-Marco-Joost-Emma, will go for our immigration medical. We do not have the go-ahead from the embassy, unfortunately. But as Joost is here I took the educated risk to go for the medical. Probably it is much cheaper over here and the 4 of us can have it done in one go. No scattered files, from Canada and Holland. Practical thinking. We have been told to take the medical prematurely to speed up the process a little, still we are waiting almost for 3 years. It is valid for a pretty long time, so we should be good to go. Blood-testing, chest X-ray and a lot of questions most likely. No problem getting an appointment, call today and 2 days later you could go. Only downside about this medical is you could run into a problem, which duplicates itself on discovery. But like Donald Sutherland says in "Dirty Dozen" as the always stoned tank-commander: "Positive Waves, man!"

12-23-2009: It took 2 hours to complete. All balls, the four pairs of them, have been inspected and approved. A lot of questions and a summarization of your hospitalizations later we were sent to the lab for blood-samples and the chest X-ray. All in all it set us back $1500, but we are done and if all goes as planned we have shortened the wait with 2 months. And that was my intention.

"Aircraft forced to return"

Read the KLM flight tracker on KL681, the one Joost was/is on. WTF? Flight#1, ReturnedIndex#1 and Flight#2 stated the tracker (looks like a bloody Java program exercise I once did at the HU), for a while I had no clue. All kind of strange scenario's start to pop up. 911, a technicality (light or severe) and what not else. Keeps you on the edge for a while. It turned out to be a drunk s.o.b. Anything can happen, right. Luckily about an our later as planned they took off. In the meantime he has arrived at Vancouver airport and I am chatting with him, thanks to free WiFi at YVR. Cool technology, eh. Probably he is boarding now and shortly departing for Edmonton where he is welcomed with a Tim Horton's English Toffee Coffee; tooth cracking sweet stuff but every once and a while very drinkable.

Outperformed by Dutch Snow

I was thinking we had a lot of snow. To my surprise Holland is covered with a thick layer, 30-35 cm, of snow as you can see on these photos, at nu.nl. Most likely it's going to be the first white Christmas since 1981. And that's a long time ago. Don't know where I was that year, doesn't matter. I even don't remember that white Xmas.

Ditched!!!

We, Johan and I, were gone shopping and on the return trip we explored a shortcut to avoid Leduc Centre. Going around a corner a truck came the opposite way slipping and sliding another corner. I had to deviate in order to avoid a collision, into the deep snow. We did not collide, but we were in the ditch. I tried to drive out of it, it's a 4x4 right, but that made things only worse.  We just slid down the sloped shoulder. The f***** causing this just looked backward and drove on. I was on the phone to Ford Roadside Assistance, when a SUV stopped: "Looks like you boys need a tow, I have a truck and be back in 10 minutes". Well that's what I call a real nice guy. A while later a Dodge RAM3500 Welding Truck arrived, owned by Mathew it turned out, lifted with pretty cool huge Toyo tires. He shovelled a pathway, as to not damage my truck. Very thoughtful. It was like easy peasy, for that RAM3500, to pull my F150 free; his tires did not even slip. "It's a light truck" he said; see I need a F350. For events like this you need to be prepared here in Canada, clothes- and shoe wise. You never know what will happen. Minimum throw in a pair of snow boots and a warm coat, maybe even a snow shovel. A winch would be nice too, to pull yourself free. Only if a tree or something is present of course. So our grocery shopping turned in to a nice endeavour, and thanks to Mathew, one with a happy ending. My big 4x4 looked very small down there in the ditch.

'Militairen Afghanistan willen gevarengeld'

Ben ik nou gek of hoe zit dat. Militairen die gevarengeld willen. It's the nature of the job. If you feel the job is too dangerous; go find one that is not. To follow the analogy: I want more pay for the fact I have to type the keyboard every day. Bullocs. You picked and choose the carreer, live with it, you knew you could get shot at and that it is not a safe 9-5 job. It's the same as accusing a soldier of murder when he fires a bullet that kills, and yes that happened too in the past.

Fresh Snow @ minus 2

What a difference compared to a week ago, only -2 this morning. And fresh snow is falling, quite a bit. Joost will love this. He can put his snowboard to use at Rabbit Hill or in the Whitemud area. White mud only when it's thawing of course. Not much happening lately. Everybody is Christmas shopping ("Are you already done shopping?" is a question often asked this time of year). Christmas is big in North America, and many people are lightning their homes and it looks good I must say. There are a lot of presents under our, artificial, tree too. Oh and by the way Santa's postal code is H0H 0H0, so you know.

Minus Fourty One

But look at Friday!

Just took a walk outside, my nostril hairs immediately froze solid, feels like horizontal pins.

10:35PM - Minus 43, it's so f******* cold you have to cough every time you take a breath. But I've got what I wanted: -40 and below.

12-14-2009: Edmonton Breaks Cold Record, Saturday night only Siberia was colder with -48

Almost tropical...

Currently we have an Arctic wind blowing thru Alberta. Temperatures will drop this weekend to -39, according to the forecast. Argh... still not below -40. There is also a wind chill warning, to make things even worse. As you can see the scale is off at the bottom side. But next Friday they expect +2, can you believe it? Temperature range of 40 degrees in a couple of days. Joost is lucky, although it would be nice for him to experience it close to -40. I'm sure he feels otherwise. You cannot snowboard in temps like those. Too cold, chances of frost bite are almost 100%. Funny thing is, you get used to the cold. -15 to -20 is not bad at all actually. Like Dave, fellow PC, says: "I consider it cold only below -20, then I change my spring jacket to a winter one". For me that is a bit too much still. But I am getting winterized. I really like the cold. So different.

More Christmas Crazyness

Photograph by: Greg Southam

From The Edmonton Journal:

"Bob Fedina's 70,000 festive lights twinkle only one month of the year, but ideas flicker in his mind all year round for additions to his Christmas display."

Read full story here.

The Greatest Christmas Decoration Ever!!!!

"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down:

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost got wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder, almost killed herself putting it against my house, and didn't realize he was fake until she climbed to the top. She was not happy! By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up into my yard."

And did we get some snow.....

Take a look a the pictures listed here or on the photo. We are on our way to buy a snowblower. I was thinking to save some money, but as you can see it is necessary. Not doable by hand, once finished you must start all over again. On the other hand is is a good exercise. No too cold. At least 10-12 inches fell the past 24 hours. Joka had to plow thru the snow on RR234 this morning, with her Jeep Wrangler 4x4. And by the looks of it the snowplow has not arrived @ RR234. Luckily our cars have enough ground-clearance, I'm hoping.

12-06-2009: Added snowthrower pictures

Here we go......Blizzard in the Prairies

From the WeatherNetwork:

Snowfall is expected to begin Friday morning throughout most of Alberta, including Calgary and Edmonton, giving a widespread few centimeters during the day on Friday.

Snowfall will intensify Friday evening for much of Alberta, with sustained winds approaching 40 km/h at this time. This combination will likely result in widespread near-blizzard conditions for Friday evening and through the overnight. Local heavier bursts of snow could result in near-zero visibilities and very hazardous driving conditions.

Snowfall will ease through Saturday morning, with the exception of extreme Southern Alberta. Winds and blowing snow will continue to be an issue through Saturday, diminishing Saturday night.

Total snowfall accumulations: 10 to 20 cm, higher totals in snowdrifts and heavier bursts. Windchill values will approach -20C for Friday night through Saturday.

update 12-04-2009: And did we get some snow!! 6-8 inches! And we are very very happy to have 4x4 vehicles. The engine really has to work, hard. Great fun slipping and sliding, being a macho 4x4. Rear wheel powered cars are virtually useless in this kind of weather, and they have no ground clearance. So a 4x4 truck is a must have. Best you buy a F350, RAM3500 or HD3500.

Never Run Over A Matrass On The Highway