Let's get this parting started

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Pictures: breakfast in Laguna Beach with the Roaches; Gabbi's Girl Scouts troop; Peter and Anya; Gabbi and Lovisa; Reuben and Alexander; Knut and Susanna; looking over the hills of Monaco (2); Italian family portrait; Italian coast at night; swimming sibs; "one more" 10k loop of the marathon for Tim; Taylor and Alvand


It's hard to believe that we've been here almost two years and we'll be heading back to Ontario in a couple weeks. We certainly have enjoyed our time living in California and look forward to spending more time here in the future.


Here are some things I'm looking forward to with our return

• spending time with friends and family


• running hills (ok, not really). Davis is extremely flat (really)


• attending two weddings


• seeing a friend's new dog after having met it on skype


• driving highways where people use the left lane for passing, not for driving 100 km/h


• a more spacious kitchen for Cam to cook in

And of course there are things I'll miss from our life here:

• riding my bike for just about everything I need


• fresh produce and the Davis farmers market


• hot weather without humidity


• our new Blue North office in Sacramento


• eating frozen yogurt


• all the amazing day trips we can so easily do


• friends that we've made. Yes we have some friends, even good friends, even ones that are having babies

It's been a few months since I last blogged so here's what we've been up to:

• my brother Peter and his wife Anya visited us for a week in April


• Gabbi finished up a fun year in her Girl Scouts troop


• Cam and I saw two fantastic concerts at the Mondavi Center: Buddy Guy and then Lara Downes


• we spent a weekend in Laguna Beach and LA, spending time with Jeff and Priscilla Roach and their girls


• Blue North bought a quaint old house in midtown Sacramento that has a main floor office and we're renovating the lower level to accommodate Blue North out-of-towners


• we spent two and a half weeks in Europe visiting friends in Sweden, spending several days in Italy and connecting with friends from Toronto in the south of France. A big highlight was watching the Nice IronMan in which our friend Tim Rowley competed. I never knew an IronMan could be so exhausting...as a spectator


• our nephew Taylor Shapansky and his friend Alvand were here for a couple nights as they passed through Davis on their cross-America-road-trip.

Seeing as we'll be crossing America soon ourselves, I guess I better go and start packing. See ya.

It's rainin' again

SF Giants mural with three guys on park bench; Yantzis with Alcatraz in the background; Bryan Moyer Suderman; dining in Mexico; walking on water; Jay and Marg Strom with Gabbi and Reuben; Cam, Tim and John; Joyce and Tim; fun in the snow.

We've just come through a solid two weeks of rain. We've been feeling a bit housebound and lazy. While we get rain, the Tahoe area gets snow. They got 150" last week, yup that's over 12 feet. There's a 60' base of snow there currently. A skier's paradise. We spent a day back in February enjoying the snow. Our area has gotten 22.5 " of rain, 3" over the annual average. Good news is, we're getting sunshine and warmer temps this week.

Life has continued on as usual since I last wrote: winter visitors, rain, getaways, work, school break, rain, spring break coming up, more visitors, more rain. We've had a number of people make the trek to Nor Cal. Jay and Marg Strom came in December for a few rainy days. Tim, Joyce and John Snider came for a long weekend of hiking, Napa Valley wining and just hanging with us. Bryan Moyer Suderman stopped in on his tour and did a concert at our church. Andrea, Jim, Steffan and Claire Yantzi were just here for a week - the rainiest week any of our visitors have experienced. We're looking forward to having my brother Peter and his wife Anya come in mid April.

In February, Gabbi and Reuben had a week off school. The Monday was Presidents' Day and then there were four furlough days (a result of cuts in the school system). We were able to get away and enjoy a fantastic week in Mexico at my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's condo with our friends the Hiffs from Cambridge. I've decided that's where I will retire, like next year... Mexico, not Cambridge. It was a relaxing week full of great food, beaches, swimming, exercise, cooking and friends.

Some of you know I experienced some difficulties a few months back - the shortage of OB tampons. Like Debbie in the following article, I was stricken with panic after I raced from store to store only to find their shelves bare of OBs. I knew something was up and I was worried they had stopped making this one-of-a-kind feminine necessity. Thankfully, my stock has been replenished and I don't even know if there's still a shortage. My friend Marianne brought 300 of them to Mexico. I guess the shortage didn't affect Canada. Maybe I'll sell some on ebay. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ob-tampon-shortage-somen-upset-paying-premium/story?id=12648760

It seems our time here is winding down. We plan to return in August...with mixed feelings. It really has been a wonderful place to live and work for almost two years. We had a slow start on the Blue North (South) front, but people now are in place and there's a good vibe going on. We know we'll be back in some way or another. In the meantime, we're going to enjoy the last four months and take in more of everything we love about being here.