My name is Keira and I am....

Hey, I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader....
I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled....
and I don't know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada or America
although I'm certain they're really really nice.

I have a Prime Minister, and a President.
I speak English and French and American.
And I pronounce it 'mmmm', not 'a boot' or 'about' for that matter.

I can proudly sew one of my countries flags on my backpack.
I believe in peace keeping, and policing,
diversity, and assimilation,
and that the beaver and eagle are both truly proud and noble animals
A toque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch,
and it is pronounced 'zed' and 'zee'!!!!

Canada is the second largest landmass!
The first nation of hockey! (except when Sweden takes gold)
and a large part of North America

My name is Keira!!
And I am a dual citizen!!!
Keira's citizenship papers finally arrived, so she's now officially a dual citizen. We're surprised they gave her her papers considering that photo. How can a 2 wk old look so hungover? It must have been a really rough night.

Congratulations Julie!

We're all thrilled that you're going to be an exchange student at UBC next year! Of course we never doubted it for a minute, we knew that you were the best candidate. :) I'll bet Brennan is happy about it too!!!

Brokeback To The Future

For those who haven't seen it...

Brokeback to the Future!

and if you thought that was funny

Check out Tom Cruise!

Why am I gaining weight?

No this isn't the local supermarket....Click on the photo for a larger shot. Believe it or not, there's at least one of these on every floor in each building, stocked daily, and this is only about a third of it or less.

SUSHI!!

So this past christmas I thought it would be cool for me to make sushi for the Rieters one night, as this past summer Shannon and I had made it and it turned out really well...after the first night I ended up making it two nights in a row...which I loved since sushi is one of my favourite foods, and I really started to enjoy making it. Anyway here are some pictures of what turned out:

This was the prettiest of all the rolls...it is a square Kiwi roll.Here are just some simple rolls, salmon maki, california rolls, chicken teriyaki, tomago (sweet egg) roll, etc.These ones I got a little more elaborate again, and in the bottom right you can see some square rolls, which are actually chicken teriyaki in the middle, and salmon teriyaki at each outside corner. The top right has some sand dollar rolls, which are massive california rolls, with avocado in the middle and in each circular corner piece in the middle of it is crab.

Officer Training Corps

Lately I've been meaning to put something up about my goings on in Scotland...and I'm sure you guys have all heard me talking about weekends away with the OTC. So here's my company! Waterloo...this is us two weeks ago at Garelochead training center, it's also a Naval base where they house all of Britains Nuclear Submarines...we could see the sub penns, it was pretty cool! Rumour has it that there is a mountain around here that they've partially hollowed out and in which they keep all of their nuclear warheads. It was pretty interesting. That weekend wee did a CQB course, which is a close quarter combat course, it was a lot of fun! But I don't really have any good pictures of it...but basically what it was was we advanced in two man fire teams up a river bed, engaging targets along the way, with blank ammunition, and I was fire team leader! Next weekend I'll be heading out with some regular infantry, and apparently it will all be live fire! wahoo! Hopefully I'll have some better pictures then, and maybe I'll also finally have a picture of me in my No. 2 uniform, which is the full dress kilt uniform...;) Anyway, I'm having an excellent time with it, and really enjoying Scotland in general. Julie and I are doing really well, and both of us are really looking forward to coming to Mexico for spring break, and hopefully i'll be able to finally meet my niece!
OOhhh! I didn't mention that my Training Major is trying to get me a two day attachment to the Army Air Corps this summer, where I will be able to fly an APACHE helicopter!! Bwuahahha!

Splish Splash....

Hello everyone !

This is Rodric here, Shannon’s boyfriend.
I am happy to report that over the past 3 weeks I have all gotten to know you quite intimately… I am talking about your septic tank at the Lake.
The first time I got invited to your little paradise, the septic alarm went off not long after we got there. We figured out that the only way to solve this was to go take a peek inside, whereby we discovered that the PVC pipe connected to the pump had broken, so we got the pump out and glued the seal. The following weekend we were really excited to have running water again… but it turned out that after assembling the pump, it really didn’t want to cooperate anymore. That’s why we removed the pump again and bailed out 150 gallons with a bucket in order to be able to use the running water at all.
This weekend a new pump was found and assembled by Dutchie (seems like there are a few of them in your family) and upon arrival under a beautiful moon we installed it...
All is running again except the alarm sensor/float, which we are replacing in three weeks when we go back. A new piece of wood has replaced the old rotten pieces to protect the tank from debris falling and so we are nearing the end of this chapter. This weekend was beautiful : got the canoe out, paddled and got more familiar with the area and some of the stories at the lake.
I was going to tell you a bit about myself since I am able to read about you and thought it was only fair-- but Shannon figured this was better ‘cause nobody would read it if it was too long.
Instead a few pics from me included,
Greetings,
Rodric.

Le Grand Fromage

OK, you asked for it Dave... in an attempt to maintain my Good Contributor Award for postings, I shall inform the world of what has been going on in my life for the past few weeks. A miracle has taken place: Shannon has a boyfriend. And as a little pre-addendum for those readers who are faint of stomach, I must inform you that I have become painfully mushy and cheesy and somehow I am now half of one of those couples who used to make me want to vomit because they were so sappy.
I have been struggling to get to work on a regular basis, forgetting to eat, and suffering from spontaneous outbursts of songs, somewhat akin to Mary Poppins combined with Monty Python.
The onset of this ailment has been passed onto me by the ever so good-looking man in the (*another cheese warning*) photos below who goes by the name of Rodric. He informs me that I have caused equal chaos in his life, which is only fair. It would be unfair to disclose all of the information I have about him, but the general rundown is that he is so far the most thoughtful, caring, intelligent and attractive man I've ever met. The facts that he cooks like a chef, has traveled the world, speaks 6 languages, listens like an enraptured child and treats me like a rare diamond are all added bonuses. (My close family will find it ever so amusing that he has also been initiated into "Full Shannon Boyfriend" status because he has officially been down inside our septic tank and fixed our pump at the lake. That's right, laugh your faces off. I don't know where I find them.)
Without further ado, I offer you a couple of pictures. For a personal introduction, come to Grandma's birthday party on February 26th.