...Happy Birthday to a dearly missed friend.

Tomorrow, September 28th, is my friend, Devonian's birthday. He's the boy in the above picture.

I miss Devon. I haven't seen Devon for over a year now, and that is just wrong.

I met Devon at Glenville State College in West Virginia. He basically came up to me and decided that he was going to be my friend. At first I thought..."Ummm, you're kinda weird, kid." And he was! He had piercings on his eyebrows and lip and he had those earrings that stretched your earlobes out. He also had tatoos and he wore a lot of black and his hair was all asymmetrical, shaved on one side and long on the other and he had a goatee. He also had a foul mouth on him and he didn't shy away from conflict. Definitely not someone I would usually hang out with. To be honest, I didn't really know what to do with him. He kept showing up at my table at the cafeteria, and he would come sit beside me at concerts. The usual people I sat with kinda looked at him strangely and I just shrugged.

And then something strange started to happen. Devon and I started to talk. And talk, and talk. He had a lot to say, and most everything that came out of his mouth made sense. We would talk about politics and religion and relationships and bigotry and racism. I learned that we had a lot of the same philosophies. It was so refreshing to talk to someone that was more liberal than most other people attending Glenville, WV. Before I knew it, Devon and I were pretty much spending all our time together.

Devon would tell me things about his life, and I swear, I thought he was lying. But you know what? Devon doesn't lie. I learned that about him. He always told the truth. He was brutally honest about things. If people pissed him off, they knew it, because he told them. I admire that. His life stories were amazing! And the kid was only 22 years old.

Another thing about Devon was that he was/is a very passionate person. Something would set him off, some injustice, and he would go on these rants. They were very entertaining. I would sit back and watch him go. He would use language that would make a sailor blush, but with Devon, it was just how he talked, and for some reason, it didn't offend me. Others around us would get uncomfortable, but I would just sit there and giggle quietly. He was like pure energy, he was the Energizer Bunny! He would literally bounce off the walls.

Something else about Devon. He was/is willing to do anything for his friends. Here is the best example I have to illustrate why I love the guy. I was doing my oral exam, the one that if you fail, you don't get your degree, exam. I was scheduled to go in the early evening. I was the only one in the building with the two instructors grilling me. After an hour and a half, it was done. Whew! When I walked out the door, there, sitting on the floor, in the hallway, was Devon. He had been waiting for me the entire time. He jumped up, gave me a hug and congratulated me. How sweet is that?

So, my last month at Glenville was totally fun, and it mostly had to do with Devon. He, and my other dear friend, Mary Sue, who deserves her own post btw, made life at Glenville, away from my family, bearable.

So, here's to my best friend, Devon! Happy Birthday! I love you and miss you and hope you are having a good year in Glenville.

My promise to you, on your birthday, is that I will get you up to Canada as soon as possible. I'm saving up the airline points as we speak!

Smooches!

...I have some spare time.

I'm taking the day off work today because I have both a doctor's appointment and a dentist appointment. I find myself with a few spare minutes to post some pictures that I want to share with you guys.

Frank gave me the task of re-organizing our photos to upload to Picasa, so these are a few of the more recent ones that I found.

Cousins Rock!

Sister Rock!

The family gathering for Mama's Celebration of Life.

The food at my Mom's place. No wonder we all need to go on a diet!

Me and My Love

Kids on the Slip 'N Slide at Pau Pau's House.

Goofing around with friends and family at Lynn Canyon Park.

It was an '80's Theme party. Really!

The girls all dressed up in their flower girl dresses for Auntie Rachel's wedding last August.

More of the kids, hanging out during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The Olympic torch in the background, my lovely sister by my side.

That's all for now! Gotta go to those appointments!

Love Tanya

...Mr. Gabe Gibbs

I would like to introduce my friend, Gabriel Gibbs.

I met Gabe in a Statistics class I took when I went back to school last year. Gabe was/is a 6'7" black kid from Detroit. He was on the Glenville basketball team, and unlike most athletes, he was also in the Science program there as well. Back when I went to school and played for the Glenville women's basketball team, I was the only one on both the women's and men's team that was in the science program.

Gabe introduced himself to me the first or second day of class and we became friends. I would think, unusual friends. He was this young, black (I know I said it before and you can see it yourself, but it is kinda unusual for a Canadian), athlete that was over 10 years younger than the returning-to-school, mother of 2, married, 30-something, half-asian woman sitting beside him in Stats class.

Gabe was unlike most athletes. First of all, he was smart, not saying that all athletes are dumb, but...they are rare. Second of all, he wanted to get to know me. I certainly was unlike most other students. What made a "stud-on-campus" basketball player want to talk to me? What I came to know about Gabe was that he was/is curious...about everything. He always wanted to know "why" something was the way it was. I guess I intrigued him.

Anyways, over the semester that I attended Glenville, Gabe and I got to know each other. We genuinely liked to talk with each other.

I watched Gabe play basketball for the Glenville team and was quite upset to see him sitting on the bench so much. He was obviously a very talented bball player but the coach seemed to not recognize that fact. Gabe was what I would call a rhythm or pace changer. He would enter the game and things would immediately change. He always came off the bench and he always had an immediate impact on the game. Most of the time he would only be on the floor for about 4 minutes at a time, but in those 4 minutes he would make such a change, for the positive, that everyone in the crowd was always confused as to why he was subbed off and then not see the floor again for an absurb amount of time.

I told Frank about him and asked Frank to come and evaluate Gabe. As background info, Frank used to have a very successful U18 boys basketball program that strove to put boys into post-secondary basketball programs both in Canada and in the US. Frank was often contacted by US coaches to evaluate Canadian players by US coaches who knew him. Frank came and worked Gabe out and concurred with my assessment that Gabe was a very strong and intelligent player. We started talking to Gabe about what he wanted to do after he finished at Glenville. We found out that Gabe still had eligibility here in Canada. So, together, we decided to see if we could find a place for Gabe to play here in BC.

It took some time and Gabe had to go get a passport, but this August, we flew Gabe up to see us. Our entire purpose was to introduce him to some coaches that we know.

Over the week that we had Gabe with us, we introduced Gabe to a whole wagon load of new experiences.

Here are some of them:

Really expensive gas. Actually, 107.9 doesn't look so bad right now as I just gassed up for 115.7 yesterday.

Fresh raspberries. Seriously! Gabe didn't even know what raspberries were and kept saying he would like to grow his own raspberry tree. He called them "exotic".

Sushi! Now that's exotic. And yummy. Actually, Aislinn was the one to take Gabe to sushi. She said that he was wary, but willing. He liked the cooked stuff the best but he did try everything. I like that!


Ha ha! The likeness is uncanny! Once again, Aislinn was Gabe's host for this event. She took Gabe down to Robson street and the spent the afternoon and evening hanging out.

We did introduce Gabe to the coaches we knew and they all loved him and said they wanted him, however, he has to figure out his eligibility status first and perhaps next year we will get to watch him play, nay, dominate here in Canada.

We also took him up with us to Prince George to visit my parents and sisters. That was a revelation for Gabe. We took him out to the ranch and he had so many new experiences that I ran out of batteries in my camera. But not before I snapped these treasures:

Gabe had to learn how to climb through a barbed-wire fence. The first time was suspect and Rachel had to help him get unstuck. But he learn quickly.

Cows, lots of cows! Many, many cows, all around. You should hear his comments about the bulls! And how well endowed those bulls are.

And Gabe also got up close and personal with several horses. For the first time in his life. Also, the very next day, Gabe even rode a horse.

Gabe even went up in the ranch plane for a bird's eye view of the area. Believe it or not, before flying up to us, Gabe had never been on a plane. I know! Crazy!

And, the funniest thing that I think Gabe experienced...electricity.

See this spot right here???? This is where I was going to put this really hilarious video of my friend, Gabe, grabbing an electric fence after being dared to do it by my brother-in-law, Joel. It truly is a hilarious video, but after trying to upload it three times...you'll just have to trust me when I say that it is crazy funny.

For a kid from inner-city Detroit, the whole ranch thing was quite astonishing. He loved it and he says that he plans to come back some day.

I hope that he does. We have so much more to show him.

...she's 7!

Mackendra has turned 7. Why do babies always grow up so fast?

So, we had Mackendra's very first birthday party with friends. Because her birthday is in August she has never had a party with her classmates. This year we decided to fix that.

We went to the local park and the kids played in the wading pool and in the playground.

We had pizza and watermelon and fresh veggies and dip. We also had a very yummy chocolate cake. The kids had a blast and Mackendra was one happy little 7 year old. That's her with the big blue face in the middle.

The next day was even better...we are having a mini heat wave here in Coquitlam and we decided to beat the heat by heading to the waterslides near Bridal Falls. We invited two of our friends and spent the day slipping and sliding. We haven't done that in awhile.

Gotta love Summer!

...hiking is for masochists!

Okay, I know some people love all that hard core hiking/camping stuff. I thought I would love it too. And when I think back about 3 years ago, when Frank's idea of roughing it was not getting extra towels at the Holiday Inn. The idea of us hiking 20 odd kilometers to a campsite was very exciting.

We made some fundamental errors when calculating our first hiking/camping trip.

1. We way over packed. Note to self: when you go hiking, you will wear the same clothes the entire 3.5 days. All you need is extra underwear and a pair of clean socks to wear when you hike out. You do not need to bring 4 t-shirts, 2 pair of shorts, an extra pair of pants, a jacket, and your swim suit. Also, don't bring enough food for 6 days when you are only planning to be gone for half that amount of time. Also...KD is heavy! Also, maybe invest in a little tent and mattresses. We didn't weigh our packs, but we figure mine was about 60 lbs and Frank's was close to 90 lbs. I couldn't barely lift Frank's. Yah, we could have gone for about half that weight.

2. Maybe don't go for the 20 km hike the first time out. Try the 6-8 km distance first. After a certain distance, I think it was km 15, I almost starting crying. I put on a brave face though. At the 13th km, my hip flexors were hurting so much that I had to try a different gait. Every flat area, I started to jog. Without me knowing it, Frank recorded this for posterity.

Also, wearing running shoes is good for not getting blisters, but they are not so good for giving support in the soles. My feet felt bruised from walking on tree roots and sharp rocks. I saw some pretty nasty blisters on other people's feet and they were hobbling around with moleskin and bandages and dreading the walk out.

3. Don't take BC Ferries, anywhere! I already talked about that in a previous post. It just makes you angry after hiking 20 km out of the bush and then driving 4 hours down the island to catch the last ferry back to the mainland and then having to fork over $73. No matter how much you love the person you are hiking with, you will find them extremely annoying and not want to talk to them the whole ferry trip back.

The campsite was gorgeous, the only thing was that we only got to see it the first afternoon we got there. We arrived at the campsite at about 4pm, proceeded to fall into a coma for 2 hours. Woke up to sunshine and whales breaching in the bay and a glorious view. Around 8pm, while I was cooking 3 dinners (I wasn't going to carry all that food out!), the fog started to roll in and we didn't see a clear sky for the rest of our trip. The fog hid everything!

Oh yeah, and just for the record, those dehydrated hiking food packs you can buy? They're not bad. And they are light. You just add boiling water, seal the package back up for about 15 mins and then you can eat your Turkey Tetrazzini or Beef Stroganoff right out of the bag! Pretty sweet! Oh! And powdered eggs...not bad. We didn't get the apple crumble or the brownies or the ice cream sandwiches...but I bet they wouldn't be all that bad either.

The second day, we had the option to hike out to the very tip of the island and go see the lighthouse. Thinking about the hike out, we didn't take that option. We literally did as little moving as possible.

Oh! I forgot, Tuck came with us and had a great time. He even had his own little back pack. He loved it! He was so excited everytime we put it on him. We would literally be wiggling with eagerness. And everyone who saw him loved it as well. He was so well behaved the entire trip. I love that dog!

So, to wrap it up...it was fun, but physically exhausting and the next time we go these are the conditions that I will insist on:

1. Shorter hike, much shorter. Mayber 5-6 km.

2. Lighter packs. I want mine to be about 30 lbs.

3. Better scenery.

4. Bring the kids to run errands.

5. No ferries.

6. More desserts! Need chocolate.

7. And alcohol!

...this is how we chop the wood, chop the wood, chop the wood...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. The following is a short description on how one would go about chopping firewood for the campfire:

Step 1: Safety is the most important consideration when chopping firewood. To provide the highest level of safety in undertaking this project there are several things you should always do.

Wear quality eye protection.

Wear long sleeved shirts and long pants made of durable material.

First check your equipment for damage.

Step 2: Pick the right type of log to split. Avoid a piece with a lot of knots or twists. Splitting dry wood is easier than wet wood. Choose a piece that is flat on the bottom so you can hit it squarely. You should also use another sturdy piece as a chopping block for ease.

Step 3: Place the log and space your legs apart. When using an axe, swing forcefully and aim for the middle of the piece. Always follow through, without hesitating as any hesitation might cause the blade to become wedged.

Step 4: When you have channeled your energy and you are ready to go....Swing away!

Step 5: Then pose like a lumberjack!

Any questions?

...I did it! I tired him out!

Quick, silly post...

I finally succeeded in tiring my dog, Tuck out. I took him to the park just now and threw the ball for 30 mins without stopping and he...well....he tuckered out. He couldn't even walk straight.

We're home now, and he fell into his water dish and now he has passed out on the kitchen floor.

I never thought I would see the day!