Three weeks

That's how long I was without a computer.  Hence, no blogs.  DON'T EVER USE THE GEEK SQUAD, is all I can say.  They didn't even start trying to find out what was wrong until a week after I had lugged and schlepped it in!  "Well, it's the hard drive, it's fried," they finally told me.  "I knew that," I practically screamed into the effing phone! 

Where to begin?  So much has happened, but I forget most of it.  A few thoughts do hit me, however.  The first is that the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Perry Bellgarde, wants Canada to declare all 600-ish native dialects "official languages" because "they are dying out".    Now, wouldn't that work well!  We have enough trouble with two.  What Bellegarde fails to mention are the millions Canada spends on preserving such languages through grants, schools and other educational means -- probably spoken by about 200 people in the country.  And by the way, why would Canada declare these languages "official" when natives do not identify as "Canadian" in the first place? 

It's ludicrous.

In reality, Bellegarde is a paid lobbyist funded by....you guessed it.....all Canadians.  His latest move is to slap the gift horse in the mouth by telling natives not to vote for Harper.  Makes me crazy.

After buying a new car, a Honda HRV, we went to a local pub for dinner to toast our brilliance.  Two young men sitting at a table next to us proceeded to bless themselves and pray before tucking into their food.  I nearly fell off my chair!  "I'm going to go and speak to them," I said to B.  "I have to say, I was very impressed to see you say grace before eating," I told them.  "Well, we have to grow the Kingdom," said one of them with a huge smile.  Chatting, I learned he was a dentist with five kids and his recently-laid-off friend had been a computer guy in a large oil company (lots of recently laid offs here).  We shared our faith and stories and it was such a treat to see a couple of western boys observing their beliefs.  "He's my brother in Christ," said the dentist.  You never know out here. 

"What's that?" I asked B, as a gorgeous convertible sped by us on Stoney Trail.  "It's a Cadillac."  I was driving and decided to follow it and speak to the owner.  We ended up outside his front door and I jumped out.  "What a beautiful car," I said to a 40-something guy.  He was only too tickled to show off his beautiful wheels.  A 2004 model, this beauty had retailed at $90,000 new, however he had managed to pick it up for $35,000 a few months ago when he spotted it at a dealership.  It was in mint condition.  "What a chick magnet," I said as I drooled over it.  "Not sure," he replied laughing.  "I'm not married."  Here it is:

Some cars are just beautiful.