Mark on the move

Mark will begin his 4th position at Innocon (subsidiary of LaFarge/Holcim) next week as a manager of two plants in the west side of Toronto. We'll see how the experience to oversee about 40 employees at those plants will go for him. So far, so good. He needed a new challenge. Cheers to his success!

Opa Vandenboom 91

 

Mary's father celebrates his 91st birthday today. Together with Susan and Ralph we visited the retirement home where he lives. It was breakfast time for all the residents so we walked these signs along all the windows to everybody's enjoyment. Susan also delivered a big cake which will be served as dessert today for their lunch. My father would have turned 101 yesterday were he still alive; he passed away just before he turned 96 five years ago.

Falls in the winter

After two weeks figuring out piece by piece, I completed what has been my most challenging puzzle so far: a map of the city of London. The time frame for managing this was sped up by the fact that I pulled a muscle in my back and we had a couple of windy & snowy days, resulting in me not leaving our house for 4 days straight. Today was a beautiful sunny (yet chilly) day, so I took my car - which has been sitting in the driveway for 3-4 weeks and still with gas in the tank of 5 or 6 months ago - for a drive to Niagara Falls. Made a nice walk of an hour along the river to the falls. Below a few photos of the views along the way...

In the distance the so-called "Horseshoe Falls" which form the border between the USA and Canada along the Niagara river. The photo below is on the other side what we call the US Falls and the other photos are closer to the Horseshoe Falls in the winter wonderland.

Puzzle challenge

Last week I started what turns to be the most challenging jigsaw puzzle so far. Sue & Ralph gave me a box with four puzzles of 1000 pieces each. They depict city maps of London, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome. I started with the one of London and boy, these pieces are hard to find. I had to develop a new strategy and basically going one piece at a time for all the pieces for the many streets on the map. But it is good to keep the brains sharp and focused, piece by piece.....