The Bucket List.

THINGS YOU HAVE DONE DURING YOUR LIFETIME:

() Gone on a blind date
(x) Skipped school
(x) Watched someone die
(x) Been to Canada
(x) Been to Mexico
(x ) Been to Florida
( ) Been to Hawaii
( x) Been to Iceland
(x) Been on a plane
( ) Been on a helicopter
(x) Been lost
( ) Gone to Washington, DC
(x) Swam in the ocean
(x) Cried yourself to sleep
(x) Played cops and robbers
(x) Ran away from home
() Recently coloured with crayons
( ) Sang Karaoke
( ) Paid for a meal with coins only
( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(x) Read one book more than 3 times
(x) Watched one movie more than 3 times
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
() Made prank phone calls
( x) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose & elsewhere
(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(x) Danced in the rain
(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(x) Been kissed under the mistletoe
() Watched the sunrise with someone
(x) Blown bubbles
(x) Gone ice-skating
(x) Gone to the movies
() Walked more than 20 miles in one day
( ) Been deep sea fishing
( ) Driven across the United States
( ) Been in a hot air balloon
( ) Been sky diving
( x) Gone snowmobiling
() Lived in more than one country
(x) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(x) Seen a falling star and made a wish
( ) Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
(x ) Seen the Statue of Liberty
( ) Gone to the Grand Canyon
( ) Seen a space shuttle lift off in person
( ) Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
( x) Been on a cruise
(x) Traveled by train
(x) Traveled by motorcycle
(x) Been horse back riding
( ) Ridden on a San Francisco Cable Car
(x) Been to Disney World/Land
(x) Truly believe in the power of prayer
( x) Been in a rain forest
(x) seen whales in the ocean
(x) Been to Niagara Falls
() Ridden on an elephant
(x) Swam with dolphins
( ) Been to the Olympics
( ) Walked on the Great Wall of China
( ) saw and heard a glacier calf
( ) Been spinnaker flying
( ) Been parasailing
(x) Been water-skiing
() Been snow-skiing
(x ) Broken a bone
( ) Been to Westminster Abbey
( ) Been to the Louvre
( ) Swam in the Mediterranean
(x) Been to a Major League Baseball game
( ) Been to a National Football League game
( ) Been to a college level gymnastics meet
( ) Installed a toilet
() Been the first to say "I love you"
( x) Been to Jamaica
(x) Shot a bow and arrow
( ) Played tetherball
(x) Done a toboggan run
(x) Played tennis
( ) Been to the San Diego Zoo
( ) Been on an African Safari
( ) Been jeeping in Aruba
( ) Won money in Las Vegas
(x ) Lost your "cookies" on a boat
( ) Been white-water rafting
() Driven a tractor
( ) Been to Paradise Island in the Bahamas
() Been 4-wheeling
( ) Been to a Native American Pow-Wow
(x) Sang beside a campfire
( ) Gotten a foreign object stuck up your nose
( ) Been to Senior Frog's in Mexico (Sadly, it's blown away!!!!)
(x) Owned your own home
( ) Driven through the Tetons in the middle of the night
(x) Received a professional massage
( ) Seen a UFO
( ) Seen a David Copperfield magic show in person
( ) Run a marathon
( ) Floated in the Great Salt Lake
() Watched the birth of puppies or kittens
() Piloted a real airplane (with help)
( ) Done a firewalk
(x) Built a snowman
( ) Touched a stingray
(x) Witnessed the birth of a baby
( ) Been to a hot air balloon festival
( ) Been to an ice sculpture festival
( ) Been to an "Oldies Fest"
(x) Had your computer break down without backups
(x) Skipped a rock across a lake, pond, or river
(x) Been canoeing
( ) Been kyacking
() Completed a "ropes course"
(x) Been the first to say "I'm sorry"
() Had a psychic/metaphysical reading
( ) Hit a hole-in-one
() Been to a professional golf tournament
() Attended a Beach Boys concert outdoors
() Ridden the Matterhorn at Disneyland, CA
( ) Driven around the real Matterhorn in Switzerland
( ) Eaten turtle meat
( ) Eaten kangaroo meat
(x) Played on a set of drums
(x ) Been to Germany
( ) Been to Austria
( x) Been to Switzerland
( ) Been to Spain
( ) Been to Africa
(x) Jumped on a trampoline
( ) Climbed a 50 ft. "telephone" pole an stood up on top of it
(x) Been rollerblading or rollerskating
( ) Been inside a real European castle
(x) Caught a fly between your hands
( ) Caught a fly with chopsticks
( ) Been bungee jumping and survived
( ) Avoided a heart attack while watching your child bungee jump
( ) Witnessed an active volcano in person
( ) Made a "cake" from everything in the kitchen cupboard
(x) Jumped off a diving board
( ) Participated in a Drum Circle
( ) Grown a crystal at home
() Fingerpainted with pudding
(x) Got rid of a pain by tapping acupressure points
(x) Camped out for a week or more
( ) Been to visit the pyramids of Egypt
( ) Been to Lake Powell
(x) Played a musical instrument
( ) Ridden in a gondola
( ) Been to Rio de Janeiro
( ) Driven through the tunnel under the Hudson Bay
(x) Used a pendulum
( ) Been in at least 30 of the 50 US states
() Been skinny-dipping in the daylight
( ) Opened your door and was greeted by a wild animal
( ) Tried to catch a bird by putting salt on its tail
(x ) Played a fast, hot game of Ping-Pong
( x) Sold some art that you created yourself
() Asked for a raise and got it with a smile
() Used a lathe or band saw
(x ) Been to the West Indies
(x) Played Frisbee with a dog
(x) Let a dog or cat sleep in your bed, under the covers
(x) Thrown a grape into a friend's open mouth
(x) Caught a thrown grape with your mouth
(x) Played Pictionary and laughed so hard you cried
() Found a $20 bill in the bushes
() Built a tree house
(x) Swung on a homemade swing
( ) Belly danced in a Greek restaurant
(x) Sent or delivered an anonymous gift
() Won a stuffed animal at an amusement park
( ) Been sailing in the Caribbean
( ) Driven through a herd of buffalo
( ) Raced a car on the the salt flats
(x) Run through the sprinklers
( ) Created a sculpture you were proud of
( ) Visited the pyramids and ruins of the Yucatan
(x) Played Poker, with or without $
(x) Eaten vegetables you grew yourself
( ) Seen an authentic crop circle
(x) Bought something you wish you hadn't
( ) Made homemade cinnamon rolls from scratch
() Re-upolstered a piece of furniture
( ) Climbed to the top of a 10,000 ft. mountain just to watch the sun rise


How many have you done???????????????????????

Bittersweet

This coming week is going to be extremely bittersweet for me.

The Elgin CCAC team will be moving back to brand new digs in St. Thomas while I will be remaining in London. I love finally being part of a team. It is wonderful to have other people to bounce things off of and to pick their brains and I dearly love all of the London placement team. I am, however, going to miss the daily face-to-face contact with the people with whom I have worked for the past 20 years.

Somehow the telephone just doesn't have the same intimacy. It certainly takes away from the comraderie that working together face-to-face has.

I am also going to really, really miss my boss. Barb has been one of the most incredible bosses that I have ever had. She is friendly, empathetic and most importantly, she follows up. I have always known that when I needed something, I could depend on her to get it. Unfortunately, my new boss just doesn't provide the same feeling of trust.

On the up side, I DO NOT have to pack up all my belongings again and then unpack them at the other end. I will not be trying to pack and do my job. Most importantly, over the next 2 or 3 months, some of the work that I am expected to do and just simply am unable to do because there are just so many hours in a day will be gradually transferred to the Community Case Managers and my job will become more and more like the London Placement Case Manager jobs - frantically busy still, but I won't feel guilty knowing that there is a stack of things that I an simply unable to get to.

I guess things balance themselves out over time. I will just have to develop new ways of maintaining contact with my Elgin co-workers and create new relationships with the London groups. As for my new boss............ oh well!!

Books - How Many Have You read

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen x
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte x
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling -
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - X
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte x
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell - X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy X
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller x
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier x
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - X
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - X
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens x
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Gahame -
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy x
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens x
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis -
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis -
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne -
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - X
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy x
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility -Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens x
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck x
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy x
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding -
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville x
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker x
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett -
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White -
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom -
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery x
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute X
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl -
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo X

So, I have managed to read 35 of these books.
This will likely remain my lifetime achievement as the only time I have for reading these days I spend reading the non-fiction books that I want to read.

How do you stack up - how many of these books have you read?

Believe it or Not -- I actually got Graham to do it!!!!!!

1. I am not a morning person!!!!!
2. I was born in York Minster Nursing Home in York, UK.
3. I was told I was being promoted from the sixth grade to the eighth because I was not trying hard enough.
4. My parents cancelled a drum set I ordered without telling me when I was 16 years old.
5. My best friend died only six months after I left England.
6. I have always loved The Beatles.
7. Two of the three children from my first marriage have unfortunately been persuaded to believe a lot of untruths and I miss them very much.
8. I love Nancy! She is the best thing that has ever happened to me!!!!
9. I love cruising, ballroom dancing, laughing and helping people.
10. I love my Scotch!!!!
11. I love gardening and I can’t wait to finish our back yard.
12. I have been blessed with skills to fix almost anything. (Except motors)
13. I (DoooooH) married a woman in Florida after knowing her for only 1 week!!!!!
14. I lived in Florida cutting grass and waiting tables for almost two years.
15. I bought a 32 foot fifth wheel trailer and rebuilt it from the frame up.
16. My father told me (I would never amount to anything!!!)……he was wrong! I have already seen more of the world than all my family put together.
17. I sometimes trust too much.
18. I like computer games.
19. I used to be a cop…..badge #94 Mississauga Police Dept.
20. I have been a Shoe Salesman, Stock Boy, Floor Cleaner, Carpet Cleaner, Expeditor, Buyer, Purchasing Agent, Purchasing Manager, Warehouse Manager, Sales Manager, Production Scheduler, Machine Operator, Production Manager,
Trucking Salesman, Handyman, Roofer, Siding installer, Re-Upholstery Salesman, House Painter and now all I do is help people become Wealthy or at the least save them money. (What a great job!!!!!)
21. I have always wanted to go to University to be an architect but never did…..perhaps some day!
22. I have surfed in California…..I got up on the board at least once.
23. I Windsurfed, Golfed, Bowled, Played Darts, Played Billiards, Pitched Horseshoes until I got good at it.
24. I once won a javelin competition in an interschool competition.
25. My great grandfather was a Beattie, from Echlefechan, Dumphriesshire, Scotland. The Beatties were border-reivers (raiders) who worked for the highest bidder.

I PROMISE--
To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person I meet.
To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To where a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature I meet.
To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me.
Christian D. Larson

25 Things That You May Not Know About me

I received a copy of this on Facebook and thought that it would be fun to share my "Twenty-Five Things" with my friends and family here.

I am going to try to get Graham to do the same, so stay tuned.

1. I am extremely proud of all 3 of my very special children and of all that they have

accomplished in their lives.

2. I dearly love my 2 daughters-in-law - they are very special ladies.
3. My grandchildren are my pride and joy.
4. I am pagan and follow a shamanic wiccan path.
5. I was born & raised in Streetsville.
6. I moved to London to attend the University of Western Ontarion and I have never left.
7. I am able to answer yes to the two most important questions in life - I am truly glad to go

to work every day because I love what I do and I am also glad to return home to my

husband, Graham every afternoon..
8. I love cruising and would dearly love to cruise South America.
9. I love dancing!
10. I am the oldest of 12 children - 10 girls and 2 boys all together.
11. My parents were divorced when it was something that was taboo.
12. After my parents' divorce, there were parents who refused to allow their children to

play with me because of the divorce.
13. Both of my parents went on to remarry and start new families - most of my brothers and

sisters are half-siblings.
14. My brother, Scott drowned 2 weeks before his 18th birthday.
15. I am the proud "mother" of 2 cocker spaniels - Emma (the devil dog) and Abby (the

terrorist)
16. I love attending live musical theatre and in the past couple of years we have seen Mamma

Mia, Dirty Dancing and The Sound of Music.
17. I really want to see RiverDance and The Jersey Boys - hint! hint!
18. I have a terrible sweet tooth.
19. I have just started a 2 year term as the Secretary of the London-Elgin-Middlesex Crime

Stoppers program.

20. We just returned home from an ACN convention in San Diego - what an absolutely

beautiful city.
21. I am a much happier person since Graham came into my life.
22. I met Graham on the internet - before it was a truly accepted way to meet someone.
23. We meet with 3 other couples every 4 - 6 weeks for a dinner club. I have never in my

life laughed like I laugh when the 8 of us are together.
24. I hate winter and I love summer - I actually enjoy the heat. I would probably do much

better somewhere where it is hot all year round.
25. I an an avid mineral collector.

The Sound of Music

Last Saturday we journeyed to Toronto to see The Sound of Music at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. On our way we stopped in Brampton for brunch with Jeannie, Carissa and Isabella.
We had a wonderful visit together as well as a good meal.

We left Brampton an hour before showtime - HUGE mistake. I cannot believe Toronto traffic!!!!!! The Gardiner Expressway was backed up to Kipling and we crawled along at about 20 kms/hour all the way to Spadina. How do you people tolerate that mess every day????????? I just cannot picture dealing with that kind of traffic day after day.

Luckily we found a parking spot right in front of the theatre, however, we were late and had to wait to be seated. At least they provide video footage for you to watch while you're waiting. We had awesome seats and soon were really into the story. At the end of the play, I looked over and caught Graham wiping away some tears. We both enjoyed the play more than we expected to - it was really very good.

Since Ryan, Deb and the kids were busy, we headed straight back to London to have dinner with some friends of ours and to "rescue" the dogs. It was a very busy but wonderful day spent with family, good friends and great entertainment.

We Have Fallen in Love

We arrived back in London this morning at about 4:00 after a very long day of travelling. They practically had to drag us kicking and screaming from California - what an awesomely beautiful state. San Diego is a warm, inviting city that we all absolutely fell in love with.

The convention was a wonderful motivator - full of useful information and amazing success stories. We were especially moved by the story of one gentleman who appears to be in his mid-30's who was being promoted to Regional Vice President. This man grew up on the streetswhere his family lived out of a car. He became involved with a gang at an early age. He was shot once and was not expected to live; he was stabbed 15 times and was not expected to live. Now here he is, earning at least $25,000.00/ month as an RVP. His father was with him to share in this amazing day in his life.

Sunday's keynote speaker was a leadership trainer named John Maxwell who has written several books. He was full of helpful information and was extremely entertaining in the process. It was announced on Sunday that our next convention will be in Charlotte, North Carolina at the end of June. Charlotte is the world headquarters for ACN. The keynote speaker for the convention in June was also announced - Donald Trump. Please make sure to watch the Sunday, March 22 episode of Celebrity Apprentice as it features ACN and our video phone.



















The 4 of us that went together had a wonderful time. On Friday night we took a wonderful 3 hour dinner cruise of San Diego Bay. Saturday night we were exhausted and it was pizza and drinks in our hotel suite. After the conference was over on Sunday, Graham and I took a 3 1/2 hour whale watching cruise. We did see 3 california gray whales. Unfortunately, they didn't do much more than "blow" and arch their backs from the water. We did see a very large school of dolphins and I did manage to obtain some wonderful pictures of them.

On Monday we left San Diego early so that we could drive back to Los Angeles by way of the
Pacific Coast Highway. Again we were able to obtain some marvellous pictures.







Especially delightful were the pictures that we were able to get of these precious little ground squirrels which burrow all over the cliffs along the beaches.

San Diego

Tomorrow, Graham and I are off to San Diego. There are 4 of us going together - we are flying out of Detroit and landing at LAX where we have a Jeep reserved. We are making the drive from LA to San Diego mid-afternoon and are driving along the coast. We hope to get some spectacular pictures. We have become involved in a telecommunications company. This company is endorsed (for free) by Donald Trump and will be featured on an upcoming episode of Celebrity Apprentice.

We will have The remainder of the day Thurs and Friday morning to do what we would like to do. On Saturday the convention only lasts until 6:00 - giving us time to investigate San Diego's night life. The convention ends on Sunday at 2:00 and our flight out of LAX doesn't leave until early Tuesday evening.

Keep your eyes on the blog for (hopefully) some awesome pictures in the very near future.

The end of Trucking!!

I didn't realize just exectly how long it has been since I posted here until Ryna asked me yesterday id I'd given up on the blog. The answer was a resounding "NO" so, I thought I should bring everyone up to date on our lives.

Since Graham went back to work at Taylor as a company driver, he had been doing 2 loads a week with backhauls - work that would have been great as an owner-operator. The reality is that the company makes more money from the company drivers and therefore make sure that they get the majority of the loads.

In three of the past 4 weeks, however, he has only been getting one load a week. This past Thursday, he headed off to Windsor to pick up the very last load that Taylor Transportation would be shipping - the company has closed it's doors and the remaining drivers are now without work. For the second time this year already, Graham has had to clear out his truck.

Fortunately, in the past 3 weeks we have started to become involved with a telecommunications company named ACN. This company sells a video phone - you can actually see the person that you are talking to. This is great for grandparents/ grandchildren as we tried to convince Ryan and Deb yesterday. The phones are digital and have a screen the size of the screens on the portable DVD players (7"). The picture clarity is amazing. We have decided that, if Ryan & Deb get one, then naturally Deb's parents will also need to have one as will all of the aunts and uncles..... etc., etc., etc.
This phone is endorsed by Donald Trump and will be featured on the upcoming Apprentice series.

So, we are truly hoping that this business takes off so that we can be a 2 income family again - will keep you informed!!

Camera Club

So........................... this morning, in the frigid, arctic-like temperature, I ventured forth on my first "photo shoot" with the Camera Club.

I spent 1/2 hour getting ready to brave the cold - 3 layers everywhere, 3 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants, 3 tops (plus my coat) - I felt like the Michelen Man. I was NOT going to be bending any time soon.

Two of us went out together from the camera club. Diane and I work together at the CCAC and she is the one who introduced me to the Camera Club. We went to a wonderful park within the city- a friend of Diane's lives near the park and was our tour guide for the day. Our mission was to get five specific pictures - an evergreen, a fence, parallel lines, moving water and a favourite photo.

It was actually a lot of fun. Despite the -14 degree temperature, we all managed to stay relatively warm for the 2 1/2 hours that we were out for. The best part - Tim Horton's afterwards.

Instead of adding the pictures to this post, I've added a slide show of some of my better shots. They are unedited and I haven't converted them to black and white yet.

The New Year

Well..........................................so far so bad. Because of the tanking economy, the trucking business has been slowing down to a crawl. Since mid-October, Graham has only been getting 1 load a week (usually). Frequently there is no backhaul. With truck payments, insurance, fuel and tolls we finally figured it out and it was actually costing him money to drive as an owner-operator. Last week he quit driving as an owner-operator and turned the truck back to Taylor Transportation. Out came the resumes and the applications to other trucking companies. Despite several calls of interest, when Taylor's offered him a company driver position, he immmediately accepted. So, he gets to continue driving the same truck with no out of pocket expenses. Obviously, the pay isn't as good as it can be as an owner-operator, but, it is better than nothing and it's way better than a deficit. The major benefit is that if the business starts to pick up again, he can return to being an owner-operator.

As for me, the first week back to work after 2 weeks off for Christmas has been extremely hectic. January - February is usually "outbreak season". That's when the LTC Homes have many residents with respiratory and/or gastro-intestinal symptoms and it means that I can't admit anyone to the homes in outbreak, nor can I transfer anyone from a home in outbreak. The season is just getting started, but, I do have one home in complete outbreak (totally closed) and one more with one wing in outbreak. To top everything off, I started the week with 15, count them.............15!!!! empty beds. Most weeks I have maybe 7 or 8 beds to fill. On Monday when I returned, my phone was full of messages and it never stopped ringing all day - I'm still trying to return calls from Monday. Oh how I hope next week is better!!!

For those of you who aren't aware, our St. Thomas office was closed down while we were on our honeymoon for health & safety reasons. (The building has a flat roof and has always leaked, however during this summer there were 2 catastrophic downpours inside the building.) The landlord replaced the roof and.................................it still leaked, so the decision was made that we would not return to that building and the hunt was on for new office space. In the meantime we ended up scattered all over the place. I ended up working out of the London office and initially was quite adamant that I couldn't wait to move back to St. Thomas. During an office reorganization in the London office, I ended up in the same work-space as the London Placement team. I so love being part of a team that does the same work as I do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Being a one-person team was very isolated and I didn't realize just how isolated. To make a long story short, a position came up in the Placement department in London and I applied for it. Not because I really wanted to leave my job, but because I didn't want to go back to the isolation of St. Thomas. Apparently they really like my work in St. Thomas and while the London job was mine if I wanted it I was offered a perfect compromise. I will continue to do my St. Thomas work, BUT, I will be doing it out of the London office permanently - the best of both worlds as far as I'm concerned.

How's that for an eventful start to 2009. Happy New Year everyone.