In a post that leads with the words “Goodness, retired people can get quite confused” my mother posted this photo of my Grandfather Alder Gilbert Elton and his twin sister Evelyn. I really love old photos of my relatives and the lives they lead. I feel it gives me connection.

Further to that, my cousin John Tomkinson in Alberta, his wife Melissa and his 3 (and counting) kids are erecting a family sized teepee. That is right folks, custom made and ready this summer, this handsome accommodation will essentially sleep the whole extended family. My little tribe will be visiting them in August to try it out. It is currently under construction. See here the poles being prepared for deployment.

On the front of the entrance flap of the structure, shall be painted our best approximation of our family crest. John and I agreed that the crest pictured here would be most fitting.
The next thing to do I guess is to go out to the barn and strap on some armor, get a lance and have a go at bashing each other over the heads with pointy things. Ahh, the good old days…

Or how I learned to suck it up and write something for my web-log after being lazy and overwhelmed with other things.

Firstly dear reader, we are proud and excited to announce the future arrival of a new member of our family. That’s right! A new baby is my first news of the new year! Briana and I are due to welcome our new squirmie on May 15th and we are deep into the traditional pursuits of determining baby names, finding neat modern parenthood gadgets (we simply must have if we want to hang out with the cool moms ad dads) and worrying about the myriad or controversial mommy-baby health topics (where some one is almost always compared to Hitler predictably). Boy , girl, we don’t know and the white coats won’t tell us (no matter how much we try to stick it to the MAN) but whatever baby chooses for its birthday suit, this is the perfect time for us to add to our family and Briana and I could not be happier.

This Christmas and for the first time, Briana and I hosted the season’s festivities. With lots of help from family and friends we had a great time over five days of revolving door visitors, dinner parties and house guests. I just loved it and I learned (thanks mom) how to make a killer turkey and awesome gravy. As for seasonal swag, I scored an awesome black coat as a gift from Briana. Its funny! We both got each other pajamas, a coat, and kitchen gadgets.

While I have not been blogging myself to any meaningful extent, I have been fluttering around the bloggosphere like a geeky butterfly getting to know other blogs and enjoying old favorites. This activity is a lot of fun for me and responsible for countless hours of inactivity and over use of the scroll wheel on my mouse. On this subject, I announce a new series on Willbop: Wherin I review some blogs I am reading and what I like and don’t and other bloggie stuff.

Those Crazy Blogs

No one rerally takes me seriously but I really do want some ordinance one day for Christmas. Like these two small field pieces in the Amsterdam City Museum, setting up for a bit of artillery can be a wholesome family activity on a bracing winter morning. What more do you need to give you a spring in yus step than the deep chest feeling of a dissapating shockwave? What gift could more say “titings of comfort and joy” than a canon no longer used in bellicose employ? Naught, says I.

Blogged with Flock

Blogged with Flock

This city is at the same time very livable and very hard to live in. It is a beautiful city with great people but part of what makes it so interesting, also makes it, well, unnerving.

Their are bicycles everywhere. They are strapped to every tree, locked to each lamp post and crouding every intersection. The handsome (and beautiful) Dutch whizz around the city silently with excellent posture as they make thier rosy cheeked way to their final destination. The other side of this eco-pefect reality (enjoyed by young and old) is that if you are a pedestrian or a motorist, you are either constantly worrying about hitting a quickly moving cyclist or being slammed into by one of Amsterdam’s silent, two- wheeled assasins.

The Canals are perfect. I love them and the presence of water traffic and the possibilities for exploration and transportation are fully exploited. Further, the canals beautify the city and divide the different sections of town from each other so it is all a tidy series of connected worlds. The need for canals on the other hand, combined with the many cyclists and cars (mostly parked) means that the pedestrian is constantly squeezed out of what ever space was available and has to resort to leaping from 1m x 1m brick islands between bike paths and traffic lanes to avoid being hit by one of the aforementioned land hazards of Amsterdam. Add to this the Metro stations and the tram lines and the adage “spoilt for choice” becomes “too many cooks in the kitchen…”. With so many well thought out transportation modes to participate in, the limitations of space and the mutability of human life impinge on the full enjoyment of getting around in this city.

The Red Light District lends the otherwise meticulous Dutch an air of excitement in an otherwise visceral-free zone. Stimulation in the rest of the city will tickle your brain and your purse, even your creative juices but for true excitement, go directly to the amygdallic brain-stem people: the Red Light District. While possibly not visited by choice by Dutch over 25, the Red LightDistrict of Amsterdam is busy, vibrant and, well, full of smoke and, well, windows. The smoke is emmitted by visitors of a youngish demographic and the windows are the dwelling places of sex workers (or tourist landmarks) displaying a wide variety of genetic variability and generally trying to look sexy and bored at the same time. From a citizen’s point of view (and Amsterdam is a city of its citizens) the clientelle this district attracts (think frat boys and soccer hooligans in particular) effectively excludes a portion of the city from use. If I lived in Amsterdam, I would probably never go there.

There you have it. My 2 Euro cents on the subject. Hello to you all from the City that the Dutch took back from the Sea.

A beautiful day in Holland means beautiful pictures in Amsterdam. Here, close to the flower market, a residential building shows off its many windows over the canals in the center of the city.

Blogged with Flock

I have become 29. To celebrate, you get my photo.

Yes, I know 29. I once used to say “but I still feel 16!” Now I say “but I still feel 26!” But to be truthful, I have felt 45 since I started high school.

No No, that is not true. I have felt like I am my own age, but in the 50s, since I was in highschool. “What are those crazy kids up to now?” I would ask the unhearing occupants of a lowered Honda Accord with more decibles than horsepower. In my day the kids all drove jeeps left over from the war…

So I am not really surprised that I am about to enter my 30s. I have a sweet sweet wife, one sweet son, am excellent puppy and a condo. I even have something to do each morning, fulfilling the need for marine appliances all over the world! But there is so much to do!

Wm Ernest Henley dis not say ” I am the Third Mate of my fate/ I am the bosun of my soul”. No! He said he was the captain. I am promoting myself to Captain from now on. Captain Wm. Tomkinson of the Indiaman “Hubris”. Stand-by to reef topsail halyards! Beat to quarters!

Well I’ll let Briana be the skipper sometimes too. We are in the same boat now you know.

I have found this picture on Wikipedia and I think it is beautiful, so here it is, right from Arizona,

Briana will be having her eigthh birthday tommorrow! Yay! She will be a whole quarter of a century old. New Husband, Puppy, Job, Condo; so much change and so much done for my dear spouse. Charge your glass! Hoist your arm! Cry cheers to Briana and her wonderfullness that even the deaf shall hear our joyful noise!



Huzza!
Flickr Photo Download: DSCF1652

Blogged with Flock

Alright everybody, it is time to pay the piper. We have posted photos and anecdodes of our wedding and our honeymoon. It is your turn now. Lots of you took pictures at the wedding and we are really looking forward to seeing your photos.

Email them to one of us at our gmail accounts with your best shots. I bet they will be awesome. If you don’t have our address, leave a comment here and we will mail it to you. Also, if you have a funy story about the wedding that you think we may not have heard, post it here.

Awesome guys. Thanks.

So here is a story about the very first day of our honeymoon.

Bree and I enjoyed a very entertaining ride to Abbotsford courtesy of friends Nathan and Kristina (engaged and lovin’ it) where we got on our first plane on a trip that would find us in Lisbon. Abotsford Calgary London Lisboa: that was the plan.

Moments after we had reached cruising altitude, the airline pilots made an announcement “We have recieved a report that the Newly-weds Briana and Will are on board this afternoon enroute to their honeymoon destination in Lisbon.” or somethig to that effect. The flight attendant brought us wine (on a little commuter jet, that didn’t even have peanuts of pretzles, that is a bigger deal) and we tinkled our glasses over the Okanagan as a celebration of our new life together, at 20,000 feet. Every one clapped and cooed. It was awesome.

But who is responsible? Mom (Leah) who was there at the airport? Aunt Marlin and Ralph? The “most helpfull Air Canada employee I think I will ever meet” guy at the front desk at the airport?

It could have been any of these but I have a hunch that it was none. I have a hunch that my cousin John, an air traffic controller in Edmonton radioed the flight crew to tell them the news. So fess up whoever you are, and, thanks. That was nice.