Our New Puppy

Greetings! We just got a new puppy last Monday. She's what's know as a "Schnoodle," a Miniature Schnauzer & Poodle cross. We had her sent to us from a breeder just outside of Winnipeg. Her name's "Gaby" (it's not pronounced like "baby," in case you're wondering).

The reason for the name is that Gaby was part of a litter that was born on Christmas Day, and we wanted to give her a Christmas themed name. The only name we felt was appropriate was one that is loosely based on the Angel Gabriel, and since Gabriel has only one "b," then Gaby's name should be likewise. Makes sense, right?

Now, since Leanne is currently in Vegas partying with her sisters and her Mom, I've been left behind to care for this poop & pee monster (OK, that was bad!). Anyhow, here's a few pics...

Here's her proud new "mom:"

This is me, her new "dad" (I prefer to refer to us as her new "masters," but Leanne wants us to be considered as Gaby's mom & dad. OK, then...):

This is a little shot of her (kinda) looking at me funny after I made a strange noise to get her attention:

I love this little snap of her climbing onto my leg. Now if only her face was a little more focused....

Anyhow, that's her, our new puppy. If you're interested in doing some research on these schnoodles, just go to: http://www.wildwoodacreschnoodles.com/ and check it out!

Blessings,

Brian & Leanne

Ice House, Eat Your Heart Out!

Here's something that I kinda wanted to do for a while. I always wondered what it would be like to create my own super burger. Seeing as that I love to eat (too much!!), I figured I'd give it a try.

Not long ago, I had an "ice burger" from the Ice House Tavern in Emerald Park. It wasn't bad, but they must've used regular as opposed to lean ground beef; I found the burger a little greasy. Thankfully, Leanne & I have an ample supply of excellent beef from Lisa & Lyle's farm (you guys rock!); their ground beef is quite lean.

The first task was to bake my own bun. I couldn't find any bakery, etc. that could supply my need, so I went about doing some baking (with a little help from a bread mix). After a few cruddy attempts (it's a pain to wait for the dough to rise), I finally created a decent bun.

After I finally got that right, I went about (during one boring night off from work) creating my masterpiece.

Here are 5 strips of the good thick bacon...not the paper thin regular stuff.

This meat patty (about 2 pounds) was a challenge to load onto the grill - not to mention flipping it - but with the help of a dinner plate, it wasn't really too hard.

Viola - the finished product. Note that it takes up almost all of the dinner plate. The other ingredients for this monster were: 1 large sliced tomato, 3 sliced dill pickles, 6 leaves of romaine lettuce, about 1/3 of a large onion (sauteed - yum), ketchup, mustard, relish, and mayonnaise with a some chipotle Tabasco sauce mixed in (yum, again). This picture isn't quite like the ones you see on TV when they advertise hamburgers, but it does look presentable, right?

Here we go! Now THIS is a real man's meal!

Here's a dandy little cross section of this wonderous meal. Note that the meat paddy wasn't quite as thick as I wanted, but I guess you can't have everything.

Sadly, I was only able to finish half of the burger in one sitting. I was looking forward to the challenge of finishing it all at once, but eating to the point of getting sick ain't much fun...which I almost did; that burger was bloody heavy! Leanne was kind enough to help me finish the other half the next evening (yeah, yeah...I guess I'm not that manly, after all ;-).

To all who want to emulate this attempt at a super burger, the best of luck to you! You won't (may) regret it!

100 Years of Heart!!

Wow. Here we are at 100 years as a province. Y'know, considering the fact that I grew up here, and I'm presently married and working here as well, I gotta say that I am mighty proud of this province (as to it's political leadership, that's another story).

Yesterday was pretty much like any other standard Sunday, although with me being on a day schedule during my days-off (kind of a rare thing), it was a little nicer. I was determined to partake in as many Centennial activities that I could...at least in the evening after church. I say "I" because my hunna-bun wasn't feeling all too well yesterday (she was getting a headache), so it sucked that she couldn't join me.



Anyhoo, church was pretty much the usual...the wonderful Holy Rosary Cathedral, as displayed above (beautiful) with Fr. Kubash saying mass (sno-o-o-ore), and with me helping out with the liturgy in some way (helping with the collection and serving the cup). I must say, I'm very attached to that great Church, but (with all due respect to Fr. Kubash), it would be great to see a much more engaging priest saying mass.

After mass, I decided to check out the festivities at Wascana Park. I was intending to hook up with either Rich & Susan (couldn't get a hold of them on their cell), or some in-laws (they didn't arrive in time for the fireworks), but I ended up being all by my lonesome. Which wasn't so bad; after all, I walk kinda faster than most who walk with me. I caught the tail end of Colin James' concert. Y'know, for such a pip-squeaky looking guy, he sure can rock!

Then came the fireworks. Wow! A cool thing about this musical fireworks show is that it was simultaneously launched in Regina, Saskatoon and 13 other communities all across Saskatchewan! And it was 30 minutes long (nice and long). Some of the coolest fireworks included these ones which, after they exploded, produces these little green or blue lights which scurry away from the explosion like little insects. And these other ones which produced these streamers of light which rose up, descend a little, then rose higher before they faded away. Apparently the province got these fireworks from Spain. I dunno, I guess Canada musn't produce fireworks that are good enough, hey?

Needless to say, the crowd was enormous. Wall-to-wall (uh...what walls) people all around the perimeter of the lake. But since I was by myself, I was able to butt in amongst the crowd close enough to get a super-good view of the fireworks. Being alone CAN have its advantages at times.

Well, that about does it for my third blog entry. Happy b'day SK, and God's blessings to us all!

Oh yeah...and the Riders won, too (yay).

The Saskatchewan Summer Star Party - Cypress Hills Prov. Park

Just last weekend, Leanne and I went to Cypress Hills park for an annual star party weekend (where astronomers look at the sky at night and have cool talks and presentations on Saturday). Astronomers from all across the country take part, although most of them are from around SK and AB.

I went to this star party for the first time back in '98 with my good friend, Fr. Lucian Kemble, OFM (this is my second time at the party, & Leanne's first). For those of you who've never heard of Fr. Luc, he was one of my dearest friends whom I considered to be my first and only real mentor. He passed away in 1999 of heart failure, and he is still sorely missed by many, even by many of those in the astronomical field.

Leanne and I stayed in a nice but somewhat grundgy cabin near the park hotel, but we were comfortable enough. Much to my chagrin, Leanne flatly refused to sleep in a tent! But hey, our actual accomadations were only a small aspect of this awesome star party weekend!

For any of the viewers of this post who are courious about this star party and what goes on during the weekend, the next one is Aug. 24 - 27, '06. Check it out, if you like!

I totally had to get a pic of this. Come to think of it, I don't think that a lot of my poos are all that leisurely!
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A little plaque at the lookout point, describing the geological forces which created the land that the park is on.
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My honey-bun with the sprawling prairie behind her.
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Her honey-twit, likewise!
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Having a nice little mansion on the top of that hill would be so-o-o-o cool!
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No trip to Cypress Hills park is complete without at least one pic of the prairies taken from the lookout (I took a few, of course).
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A pic from the lookout point (Maple Creek is just above that little lake on the horizon).
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This is one of the better pics from the lookout point.

Here's Leanne standing beside my humble little reflector telescope, given to me by my step-mom. It paled in comparison to most of the scopes there, but I got it to work just fine (whew!).
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Nightime is coming quickly.
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Another pic of the campground (I was kinda hoping to see my ballerina shadow pose in this pic ;-).
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Here's a nice Dobsonian scope.
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This Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope is kinda like the one Fr. Luc used to use at the retreat centre near Lumsden.
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Another pic of the campground (night is approaching fast, judging by the length of the shadows).
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I never got a chance to see the monster scope under that orange tarp. Crap!
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Here's a sweet little reflector scope (kinda like mine, but nicer, and probably a fair bit more expensive).
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Some of these scopes need some pretty high tech devices to provide a little physical support.
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This Dobsonian (just a name for the design-type of the scope) has some tarp on it to protect the primary mirror from dust.
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Here's another pic of the same place.
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Here's a picture of the campground that was used for astronomers to pitch up tents and telescopes (the Meadows campground). This pic shows only a fairly small sample of the number of people who were using this campgound for observing.
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This is Ivan Semenuik who, up until recently, was the astronomy columnist for the "Daily Planet" show on the Discovery Channel. He gave the key-note talk titled "Seven Worlds In Seven Days - A Tour of the Body Celestial." The talk described the origin of why the days of the week are named as they are. It would have been cool to meet this fella and pick his brain, so to speak.
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The most twisted movie ever!!

Last night, Leanne & I watched "Team America: World Police," and man, was it demented.

My First Blo-o-o-o-og!!

Here's my first blog. I'm sleepy and I'm going to bed. OK!!!

Dozy B!