Friday, March 25, 2005

Message from the Valley of the Nerds

I didn't think I'd post this weekend, but there's a quiet moment while the runners run before we eat the samosas that we shaped together in the little kitchen from which all good things originate. The ride up was our best ever from about 12 years of doing this. The kids were mellow, my mom knit socks in the front seat, and Dad drives like a bat out of hell, so it took us just over 12 hours even though we skipped the Salmo Creston snowstorm by dropping down to Seattle, driving through Spokane and shootiing back up via the Idaho panhandle. The highlight of the trip was Dad explaining to us the math proof for .9999999(to infinity)=1.0 Believe me, I didn't believe it until he proved it in about 25 seconds, so now I believe it. That was about George (Washington - as in the place where you find the Gorge Amphitheatre). The rest of the way the kids broke out into periodic and spontaneous chants of "point-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine..." When we asked them to stop they'd yell, "We're not finished, we'll never be finished! nine-nine-nine.." You can see why a lot of people just don't get us, and why our family just needs a few days a couple of times a year to wallow in our other-ness. I didn't drive a stitch. Just sat in the back seat and napped and chanted the nine song along with the kids.

Speaking of nine, that's how many hours we all slept. It was delicious. I hardly ever do that. Of course, the cats from Mars woke me up a couple of times. But they're grown up now, so they don't run across your face so much when you're sleeping. When they were kittens they combined to make a cyclone with claws. I'm grateful for the cats, who are comforting homesick son, who doesn't like a change in routine, even if it's fun.

Tonight we're going to a Kootenay Ice hockey game at the Rec. Plex. Mom and Kim (brother in law) and the three boy-children. They boys have made signs that say "Go Ice' and "Camploops is under the Ice". Spelling Kamloops with a C is deemed an insult, apparently. Too bad the playoffs didn't shape up different or we'd have to decide whether to cheer for Ice or Vancouver. As it is, they're playing against the Kamloops Blazers. Should be fun. Sister, daughter, niece and my Dad will stay home and watch a chick flick.

This is a vegan house with ice cream (no explanation asked or required). They relax the rules a bit when we visit, mostly so my kids will be comfortable (we are carnivores). For example, we had lox and bagels for breakfast. My nephew Simon put my homemade strawberry jam on the bagel instead of creamcheese, then loaded on the lox. It must have been good. He had 3. Barb and Kim are the best home cooks I know. We all pitch in so nobody works too much. As it is, Section K, rows 4&5, seats 11,12,13 and 10,11,12 will be reeking of curry. And we'll be a happy lot for sure. Tomorrow we go to our favourite breakfast spot in Kimberley, which also has an excellent and intriguing second-hand everything store, then we'll spend the afternoon in the hotsprings at Fairmont. If we're lucky it will snow while we're up to our necks. That's so much fun.

That's all I guess....

Question - how many zeroes after the decimal, before you get to the one, if the zeroes go on forever?

mompoet - slowing down, hanging around, digging my roots and waiting for the hootenany Saturday night

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