The (in progress) 2009 Christmas Gift Guides

As I have written before, my awesome husband Jordon does most of the Christmas shopping at our house.  He also has written some excellent Christmas gift guides that are being uploaded over the last several weeks.  So if you are looking for the right gift for the special person, check out these links. 

• Christmas Gift Ideas for Tween Boys
• Christmas Gift Ideas for Geeks and other Gadget Lovers
• Christmas Gift Ideas for the Emotionally Distant Father
• Christmas Gift Ideas for the Accountant Who Works Across the Hallway
• Christmas Gift Ideas for the Sports Fan
• Christmas Gift Ideas for Jordon

Apparently he still has some more to come and you can find them all listed in his Christmas Gift Ideas category.  Best of luck with your Christmas shopping!  You can also follow Jordon on Twitter.

Surviving in the Canadian Arctic (and other places)

I cross posted this to my personal weblog but I thought I would post a version here.

Jordon posted about Survivorman and Les Stroud a couple of weeks ago and he got an email from Les Stroud Productions and an offer of some Survivorman DVDs. He accepted the offer and on Friday a signed copy of all three seasons of Survivorman came in the mail.  Of course this is what I was going to get Jordon for Christmas but there is always Les Stroud’s book, Survive! to get Jordon.

Today we are sitting back and watching a couple of episodes of Survivorman as a family.

I really understand why Jordon, Mark, and even Tiger Woods really gets into the show.   Les Stroud is pretty funny with a dry wit and you can’t help but be impressed that not only can he survive with no food and no water but he manages to do a fantastic job at filming it all.  It’s a great show to watch as a family.

What is also pretty impressive is that by changing up the scenario and location, each episode has a much different feel to it while at the same time he manages to gross me out by what he eats (the above episode has him eating raw seal meat – although so did Canada’s Governor General and later a seal’s eye ball).  The other great part of it is that not everything turns out as planned.  “A crappy igloo” that falls apart, cutting himself while having monkey’s toss things at him in Costa Rico add a lot to the show.

Mark is pretty excited to try out what he learned next summer at the lake.  He according to this post by Jordon (and confirmed several times by Mark), he plans to eat some grasshoppers this summer.  I’ll let you know how that turns out.  I have a feeling an emergency hospital trip could be in Mark’s future.

10 Reasons to Visit Powell River

Margy has written a great post on why you should visit Powell River this winter and even rent on of those great floating cabins like the one she lives in.  If you live in British Columbia or planning a trip there, it sounds like a great place to visit.

Family Thanksgiving at the Lake

Jordon finally posted some of our Thanksgiving photos from the lake to Flickr.  Despite being the middle of October, it was cold out.  When we got to the cabin, inside was at freezing and with four heaters, it took around 5 hours to warm up to 20 degrees Celsius.  Once night came the heat dropped down to about 18 degrees but that was find with us.   We have a radiant heater that we direct towards Mark and Oliver at night and sleep as comfortable as they do at home.  Jordon and I hunker down under a big pile of blankets and rely on the dogs for some extra heat as well.

Jordon and Mark went for a long walk along the beach and throughout Arlington Beach.  Mark was walking along the beach and fell into the lake.  We aren’t sure how that happened and even Mark was laughing at the idea that he fell into the lake.  He got his feet wet but that was about it.  Oliver and I stayed inside.  It was too cold and I didn’t want him to get sick.

On Sunday, we drove to Regina and ran some errands.  I am the world’s worst packer and had to run to Dollarama to get some stuff. The good news is that they had yoga pants for $2 and I found a pair there that fit me as I forgot to pack enough pants for me.  As you can see the from the video, we ran into a train on a very, very quiet prairie highway on the way back to the cabin.

Later that Sunday, we headed over to Kinney Memorial Lodge for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with about 200 of our closest friends.  The meal cost us $16 per person but it was worth it as it was a great evening.  There was turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, yams, turnip puff, and a lot of salads and desserts. 

We sadly closed up the cabin that weekend for the winter and headed back to Saskatoon.  We hope to be back in early April.  Hopefully the weather agrees with us.

The World’s Best Pancake Recipe?

Jason Kottke has said that his wife has found the world’s best flapjacks recipe.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, whisk, set aside:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp fine salt

Combine the wet ingredients in a second bowl, whisk:

• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 beaten eggs

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until just combined. Fry in a pan with butter. Top with maple syrup and devour.

He has some more comments about the recipe on his blog but I thought I would post them here so I remember the recipe for when we are up at the lake.

Bland No More

Michael Penny of House and Home redoes a bland apartment on a very tight budget.

Here are some of his ideas

1. Use psychedelic yet gorgeous vintage wallpaper to cover a sheet of plywood from The Home Depot and lean it against the wall. Most apartments won't let you wallpaper the walls, so this way you get the impact — and it’s portable! I created a pair of panels facing each other in the dining room and behind the writing desk in the living room.

11. Layer up your $120 Craigslist.org dining set with $1.50/yard burlap and an H&M pashmina.

Black Rock Powder Co. Crate from Cabelas

Take a look at these dynamite shaped fire starters from Cabelas.

Invented in 1866 by Alfred Nobel, dynamite's cylindrical shape perfectly fit down the drilling holes used in mining operations. When the charges were set, the now-famous phrase "fire in the hole" was cried to warn miners of the coming blast. Though the contents of this sturdy wood crate will not move mountains, they will start your fireplace. One look at the realistic "dynamite" crate will have family and friends looking twice. Each cedar wood crate contains 20, 8"L x 1-1/4"W, fire-starter sticks. They are made of paraffin and sawdust for a long, hot burn. Each stick will burn approximately 30 minutes setting ablaze even the most stubborn wood.

Tabletop Radio for the Lake

 
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a big part of summer at the cabin and all over Saskatchewan.  We were at Arlington Beach several times this summer and missed out on the action because we don’t have a television at the lake and we realized that we don’t even have a radio as we generally just bring up a iPod along.

After missing out on several games, Jordon decided he wanted a radio up there to listen in on the action.  He wanted a tabletop radio like the one above but he wasn’t willing to shell out almost $100 for a simple AM/FM radio.  What ate away at him was Office Depot sold some for about $20 a couple of years ago and he never got one. 

In the end we paid $25 for a small boom box that we can plug our iPod docking station into.  It allows us to play some CDs, listen to our iPods, and of course catch some Saskatchewan Roughriders game on the radio.  We took it out on Thanksgiving weekend and it worked well.  It’s not as cool looking as a retro tabletop radio or have the sound quality of the Bose Wave but that’s okay since the price was a whole lot cheaper.

We thought our search was over but yesterday Jordon was at Wal-Mart when he saw a ONN Tabletop Radio for $22 that looks like the above Sangean but also includes an input for our iPods.  He didn’t think twice before purchasing it and the summer of 2010 will have music, mindless football commentary, and some interesting stories on CBC Radio.  I can’t wait.

Technorati Tags: Memorex,Sangean,audio,ONN,tabletop radio

Green Line Architects Tree House

 
 
 

What a great series of images dug up by Kent at the Tiny House Blog.  I had a great tree house as a kid but it pales compared to this.  I think this thing has more square feet than our house.