Winter is here

Chicago!

Papa and Gramma have left for Chicago today to visit Aunt Kristine, Uncle Jim, Reilly, Emily and Jimmy. They be gone for a couple weeks.  Every second year your cousins come to Ottawa for Christmas, this is not one of those years and Papa and Gramma visit Chicago before Christmas the years they don't come.

Your cousin Jimmy's birthday is coming up.  Gramma brought her tablet to Chicago.  She sent you Skype requests so please accept her request so that she can call you and your cousins can talk to you.

Cookie Day

Black Sabbath

Its not definite, but it looks like for Christmas I might be getting a ticket to go see Black Sabbath with your Uncle Pete and possibly Bryan (he's undecided at the moment).  The concert is not until April though.

Logging

I took this while on the highway downtown.  No I wasn't driving!

One thing I noticed living in BC,  and not just in Powell River, because I used to live in Victoria as well, is that people don't realize that Ottawa was historically a logging town, a mill town.  In fact at one point in history Ottawa had one of the biggest lumber industries in the world.  There are still a few mills active in and around Ottawa - not just one!  I think people in BC think logging only happens in BC, but Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick have quite a few mills.

Ottawa's logging/lumber history was actually captured on the old one dollar bill (see below).  That's the Ottawa river used to move lumber in behind the Parliament buildings.  The old Ottawa football time was named the Ottawa Rough Riders as a tribute to the lumbermen who use to walk around on the logs in the river.

Can you see it?

I took this picture in late August.  I've been meaning to post it for a long time!  However, I know its a pretty crappy picture.  You have to look real hard to see the skunk!  Yep, that's right, there are skunks that wonder around here.  Do you remember how bad they smell?

The picture is crappy because its actually late evening when I took the picture.  The sun had gone down but it had not quite gotten black out - it was a very low light situation.

Homemade Chips

Gramma has figured out how to make awesome homemade chips!  They are better tasting than what comes in a bag AND better for you.  

Games I got recently

I got some new games for free recently.

On the 3DS, I got:

• Super Mario Land
• The Legend of Zelda (the original NES version)
• Metroid 
• Dillon's Rolling Western
• Kirby's Adventure 3D Classic
• Steamworld Dig (I think you'll all like this)
• Gunman Clive
• Super Little Acorns
• Sakura Samurai - Art of the Sword

These are all games downloaded through eShop.  Over half of them I got through Club Nintendo for FREE, the others I got using an eShop card I had from my birthday.

On the Wii, I got:

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I used Club Nintendo to get this one for free just the other day.

Here's the thing:  there are plenty of good cheap games available on the Nintendo eShop.  Though I don't know how good the games are on the WiiU I know it has a similar eShop.    Unfortunately for Christmas this year I will only be able to get you guys something small.  I was thinking an eShop card like I got for my birthday.   You can then decide to put it on the 3DS or your WiiU.   How does this sound?  I'm going to need to know soon.

Its snowing!

And its not too cold either!