Reminds me of an old Monkees song.........

Well, a little tardy. Seems I was too busy to blog, let alone work. Did manage to clear the head with a couple of skating sessions. (Yikes, this was way back in January!)

Hmnnnn, how many more times will my southeast view be of our beloved Mt. Baker.

 

My hockey art, using just 2 gloves and a helmet! Hopefully using the gear again soon....

The, have to laugh at ourselves, making sure the dishwasher doesn't leak, for a very good reason, pic.

Less time, more pics of Mt. Baker for the memory bank. (I think I nailed this one, just sayin', considering just using my iPhone 16.)

Another day, another beaut!

Deer Lake in Burnaby, a beautiful chilly January day. Maybe the last time?

Missed! (Hard to get a pic of the lake without Metrotown towers in the background.)

There was still frost action on the shady parts of the trails.

A little chilly, but it was a nice week-end in Parksville all the same.

Yes, we were guests at the Parksville Legion. (I'm actually still a member of the Summerland branch, been a while since I've lived there, hmnnnn.....)

Dang, never gets old.

This pic does not show the beauty of that particular morning looking out towards Baker.

Decided to change it up a bit and find a new Saturday night dining experience. (Sorry Wings in Burnaby, you have slid downhill since I first visited you in 2016.) TugBoat Annie's in Richmond was a great pub experience. (and less than 20 minutes from our place, bonus.)

Outside was Shelter Island Marina.

......the countdown.......

Jeez, there was more stuff in my condo storage than I remembered, time to empty it out.......

......I'm smart, emptied out the condo storage and rented a unit at a storage facility, wait a minute!, Huh?!

So many reasons to celebrate! (We always seem to find a way to hoist a cold one!)

Oh ya, it was my birthday, and we celebrated by cooking amazingly fabulous steaks from Kea's Meats in our recently acquired air fryer. Winner, winner, chicken, I mean steak dinner!

Ok, we're getting good at this. Let's get back on the ferry........

......new horizons?

.....could this be it???

.......we need to eat and think. Ritsue helped the situation with this off the cuff asparagus wrapped in pork, call it what you want, I'll call it a delicious meal.

Do not, (not that you know what the heck I'm talking about) get me going on bathroom fans. This is not the answer, unless you want it to blow, not suck, lol.

Well, if you're going to be oot and aboot, without access to refrigeration, you may need (and we did) to buy an electric, charge in your hotel room or in your truck, cooler, and heater, yup!

Wow, the 2026 Winter Olympics have come and gone. That was in February, now it's April, what??? I was happy to see Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky together at one of the hockey games. Now what?? (The only song in my head was the Monkees hit "Take the last train to Clarksville. Why does that ring a bell???) TBC.........

To be determined.........

 

I knew I had that string around my finger for a reason. Downloaded the pictures some 2 plus weeks ago, and that was as far as  I got with this blog. This was January 2nd, when we got a chance to see the Canucks in game 2 of their record breaking 11 game losing streak. (They did finally win last Wednesday against the Washington Capitals, finally.) (They have lost the last 2 though, just sayin.)

There I am, the lonely long walk down the storage facility corridor. Had to get some things out of the condo to make it look tidy. For? Tbc.

Seems like over a month ago we celebrated Christmas Eve at my sister-in-law's in Kits. Many, many laughs, don't get together often enough.

Ritsue and Joey bonding.

It was time to go home. Junior, Ritsue and I said our good-byes as we headed off on different SkyTrains. When will we see you again, Junior?

As it turns out, less than 24 hours. A great Christmas dinner (mostly Ritsue's doing, with some encouragement from me..) Glad the kids and their better halves could make it as well. What a blessed feast!

Some awesome sunrises in January out on our deck looking towards Mt. Baker.

Another day, another sunrise, ahhhhhhhh.

Even though we are on the 11th floor, we have been getting plenty of visitors.

I couldn't get this pic to rotate when it transferred to the blog, but trust me, this Elk burger on a toasted Italian bun was so tasty and flavorful, rowr!

Waited too long this year to get a Christmas tree on sale at Rona, so it was time for Ritsue's coffee plant to step up and save the day!

Will always cherish and remember that view.

....okay, back to the hockey game on Jan. 2nd, Canucks against the Seattle Kraken. We got there a little early, but the line-up was long. At least we were under shelter, it was raining pretty hard that night.

I think we had really good seats. We were in the corner, could see everything. Sadly we saw the Canucks lose 4-3 in a shoot-out. Overall, it was a pretty entertaining game.

.....better with the naked eye, believe me......

Ritsue wore the Chris Tanev jersey I gave her. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the hardest working Canuck at the time was traded shortly after that. (We did see one other guy with a Tanev jersey at the game, cool.)

The, a picture says a thousand words, my continued quest to make the perfect hash browns, this was my best yet, at my age?, pic. (Phew!)

Where's Waldo? (Aka- where's the goat?)

A fall outing for Junior in the hills above Summerland and Okanagan Lake brought him close.......(you have to look real close to see it, on second look, you can't see it in this blog pic just a white spec.....)

 

His good camera work got him, nice shot!

Yes, I am behind the times, our greeting for the kids in our building on Halloween, pic.

Thanks to Ritsue and Moscrop Secondary school who had a slide show for Remembrance Day. One of the slides shown was of my father who was standing guard at the Cenotaph at Victory Square in Vancouver at a Remembrance Day ceremony so many years ago. (Guessing the late 1940's, hmnnn.)

Having fun messing around with the dash cam I bought for my truck.

Ritsue received a picture from her mother that she took from her house looking at the neighbour's in Hiroshima. (....kinda unnerving...)

Had a chance to finally get out for dinner with the kids, and Aaron. A good time at the Keg in Burnaby, cheers!

My prime rib go to, this pic's for me!

.....rainbow outside our condo pic, better with the naked eye.

A first for me! (not having Gobo root silly, but making a Gobo root pyramid! No, the Sneaky Weasel in the background didn't play a part, well, maybe it did.)

We call him Cheeky, because he sits on our railing and won't share the feeder with the other hummingbirds in the neighbourhood.

Saw a lot of these very pretty, very dangerous mushrooms around the hood this fall while I was out on one of my many retirement walks.

I think I will miss the many, many views I have had of Mt. Baker from our condo over the years. (That's what pics are for, right?)

I had to go to an appointment out in Surrey on a Saturday, so Ritsue and I decided to try and find some authentic South Asian cuisine. Close by was the Brew Estate, and we scored! They had their own craft beer which was very tasty.

Very strong taste.

That's right! (and the food was very good, too, lol. We'll be back!)

Another Mt. Baker sunrise.

Ya, I'll go with that.

Shopping at Langley Farm Market in Burnaby. (and no, this was not on the list, yikes!)