Hi blog - time to get reacquainted!

Yesterday I bought the "new" Stars album - In Our Bedroom After The War released in 2007. It's also a 2008 Polaris Prize nominee. It's also been on many Radio 3 podcasts.

Sometimes I take a while to catch a hint.

This album is epic. Pop made orchestral with hooks the size of ham hocks. It's got a touch of easy listening thrown in. Flutes - yay Flutes! Sure, you could just buy the singles - Take Me to the Riot for instance. Then you would be missing out on a true album experience. Buy the album. iTunes Plus for less than 10$ (9.99$ such a penny of savings and so much psychological goodness in that penny).

Just try not listening to this twice in one day.

I also bought the older Black Mountain album (hey, it was music catalog back-fill day) and it is also very good. Not as accessible as the newer album but very good in it's own right. The newer album has a bit more fullness to it with some better vocal interplay by McBean and Webber. Get that one. They are amazing live though; as witnessed at this year's Dawson City Music Festival - the rainy year. I should scribble about that soon as well...

We just got back from the hospital with a reel of baby ultrasound pics in our hot little hands. We are not sure of the gender but the little bugger sure didn't want to have their picture taken and they took a lot of angles to try and get some keepers.

Super cool to see that the little person has the proper number of limbs and such.

Click on this link to see the images!

Another day, another update.

I am leaving NWTel as of July 10th to begin a new life as a consultant/contractor. I have decided that I like constant challenges and new environments to learn and grow from. I think this is representative in my career that I have not stayed at any one position for a prolonged period and that each job had a very minimal connection to previous.

This is a big leap and full of new challenges and new experiences. It's a lot bit scary in some ways but it has huge potential in many more ways.

Let's see what happens now...

Red Banjo - Remastered.

That was the name of our team for the Kluane-Chilkat International Bike Relay - a.k.a the Haines to Haines for the locals. 240km of riding by our 4 person team.
This year Red Banjo consisted of: Evan, Rachel, Ryan and Bernice. We smoked through the race and Ryan wins the prize for having the only flat tire as well as getting the most wet. His hands were all prune-y at the end.

We also came back home with fresh dungeness crabs. I will be posting pictures of the relay and the cleaning of the crabs when I don't need the internet bandwidth for other uses.

In the interest of continuity I am not using the original post title: "Land of the Midnight Son/Daughter". That would have been great but a bit too laden with pun. I also love continuity.

Those of you tracking this site will be the N'th people to know that Rach is 15 weeks pregnant now. All those times that I was asked and said no, I was lying. It was an enjoyable pastime but as we are into the time where one can tell people about this I can reveal the mystery behind the curtain. Things are going swell (ha!) and I will try to resist the posting too frequently on baby things; we will see how that goes ....

Beware big wide world - something descended from me will be coming in mid-late December. I know I am waiting with occasionally rushed breathing ...

Recently we planted some green things in 25+ degree heat. The Yukon gave itself a smack and has returned to the normally scheduled 18 (sometimes) degree heat and the things that were green are now less robustly green. Some things are mottled. Some of the basil just didn't make it and the tomatoes are retreating to the indoors. However; the spinach is kicking butt, the turnips are cranking and the beets are missing in action. This may put a serious kink into the 100ft borscht this fall - GO BEETS!

Walter (the Guardian of the Potato Mausoleum +5 Death by Kitsch) has ensured that we have 7 of 42 potato plants appearing so far. I hope to get 40lbs.

Oh, and on a not green note the poppies are popping - lovely yellow. I will take pictures on a nice day when they are not being buffeted by 25km/hr winds and are more ready for a photo shoot.

Garden blogging is just my pace - updates once a week or less! Garlogging? Glogging?