Saturday, April 5, 2008

The sea, warmth, sun...don't tempt us, Ronna

My goodness, be careful what you wish for....there would be any number of snow-bound Canadians who would be only too glad to accompany an "iguana" to the Caribbean right at this moment. I'd say that most of us likely have cabin fever by now.

Grace, I totally understand about the driving through here...Hwy. 89, Airport Rd., Co. Rd. 103, 109, treacherous....but I honestly can't remember Tuesday other than I think it was awful. I drove two quilt friends to Guelph yesterday (friday), a 50 min. drive s/w of here and we drove through snow, fog, rain and sleet. Thankfully, the roads were in good shape because it wasn't cold enough to freeze over. I stopped saying that I liked winter three weeks ago...that was on a Tues. so that may be the one you're talking about Grace. It was nature's final insult of the winter...blizzard conditions.

So now back to the cooking of tomorrow's meal...grandchildren arrive, new baby, moms, dads and grand-dog Oliver with his parents. Somehow I'm not prepared and I'm not sure I am at all worried about it...just how I can work Curves into it Sunday morning before the family arrives.

Rosey

Friday, April 4, 2008

Is it just me... or is technology making things more ponderous???

I tried to sign on the other day at lunch time. I was at work. Nothing I did seemed to work to allow me to post something. So I had to look at Google's FAQ page. The things suggested (including resetting my password, turning on cookies-even though they were already on-, and clearing my cookie cache) did not work. So I dug further. Finally, after clicking on a link that said "this did not help and my problem is still not solved" I came to a page that suggested that if I was behind a firewall, I should talk with my system administrator.
**Sigh** Yes, that would be the problem. My work computer is behind a firewall. So no more lunchtime posts for me! I will have to wait until I am home at my very own unprotected computer. Well...maybe not so unprotected. But it is a Mac, and that helps.
So I signed on tonight and voilá.... here I am.
Does anyone speak French fluently? Wanna go on a vacation to St. Martin????? I have a problem. My mother and father owned a 1/3 share of a condo in St. Martin. When my mother died, my father found out that although her will said he got everything, French law does not agree. My father owned 1/4 of my mother's interest of that 1/2 of a 1/3 share of the condo..... and each of the three children owned a 1/4 share of that 1/2 of a 1/3 share. Lost yet??? :-O
For him to sell the 1/3 share of the condo, he would have to get us to sign over our 1/4 of our mother's interest to him. Then he would again have the complete 1/3 share of the condo and could sell it. He even had a buyer... one of the other partners wanted his share. To do this in St. Martin, you need a notaire. A special sort of lawyer who takes care of real estate transactions.
Two years later, my father was STILL trying to get the notaires to do the paperwork. Life there is on island time.... what's the hurry? When he was diagnosed with a bile duct tumor, he knew he had very little time left. So in January, he wrote to them saying he did not have much time to settle this matter. About mid March, the paperwork finally arrived. However, he was really sick after doing some chemo and told Joyce (my recently acquired step-mother) to take the paperwork home and put it on the desk. He would take care of it when he got home from the hospital. As you can guess.... he never made it home. He died on April 1, 2007.
Since he did not execute the documents.... we had to start over! We now owned 1/4 each of our father's share (including his 1/4 of my mother's share). We retained a French speaking attorney and he got all of the paperwork together... even information about Joyce since now she would own some of this too! (What a MESS) There was a prenuptial agreement, but it wasn't clear if French law would honor it or not. Well.... the French speaking attorney left the firm and although the notaires have had the paperwork for 4 months, nothing has been done.
April 1st, I sent out an email to the notaire. I wrote it in French with the help of forum at wordreference.com. I sent that off.... and as you might guess, no reply as yet. **sigh**
So I am running out of tricks.... If I get no reply by the end of next week, I guess I'll have to look for another French speaking attorney and have them phone these guys.
If they won't respond to the phone call, then I will have to go down there and see what I can do in person. Any suggestions?

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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

it sure was some drive

Hi. well we are home again , but just to sort things out and pack for our next big trip.
Sorry Rosey we had meant to stop on our way down to London we we were traveling last Tuesday and that day we did not stop any where on Highway 89 or 23. I have never been so scared in my life as I was that day and I do a lot of driving. We really did not dare to stop and on our way home we marveled at how we managed to make all the right turns.
If you have never been caught in a total white out snowstorm , there are no words to tell you what a world looks like during. The trouble is we left home in sunshine and ended up in London with pretty light snowflakes coming down. It was what happened in between.
It was an experience and we are safe home again. Now I will only travel down to SO in July or August. I know then it will not snow.LOL
In another week we leave for Vancouver Island, so I am sure not getting any quilting done. I really am not getting any thing much done.
Once I get home I will start making definite plans for the retreat in September. I have quite a few irons in the fire so lots to choose from.
Some times I think I should go back to work because then I have more time to visit with you all. the catch words are --sometimes-- because I am having so much fun and great times. So much to do and experience and so little time
Take care all and have a wonderful time. See you in about a month.
Grace

New words: Blogger Buzz

Who would have thought life would bring such new and different terminology as the technological age has done.

No words for the steam I saw rising up from the snow when I put the dogs out this morning at 6 a.m. Thankfully, our snow is not running off all at once although there will be areas in the snow belt where flooding will occur and given the amount of snow we've had this winter, it has the potential for being considerable. We still have mounds in town mall-parking lots that look like ice bergs floating on cement.

High speed internet got inspected and apparently discarded as a possibility for this household so we are still on slow speed and it's enough to drive a person batty. By the time I've downloaded the blogging site I've forgotten what it was that I intended to say.

Rosey

Wow, it sure has been quiet around here. What is everyone up to? The last few weeks have been so busy for us personally so it's not hard to imagine that others are also. We have finally settled into the new home more or less. Just a few more boxes to get here that are in storage and my sewing area to set up in a much better fashion than it is. But not til this weekend at least. We need to go and muck out our other house down the highway and plan to stay for a few days. At least now we have a table and chair set and couch to sit on. Last trip we had nothing and had to find some folding lawn chairs in the shed. I would also like to move the rest of the houseplants but that will depend upon how warm it gets to be.

One of the more pleasant ways of keeping us busy has been the new grandson. It is amazing how fast time flies and is so evident in how much he has grown. I still feel so awestruck when I hold him and am so thankful to have this little blessing here!

Well, the dogs are stirring, the coffeepot is going, but the son who needs to be up and go to work is doing neither, so I best be off to check out that situation before he is really really late.

Joleen, so nice to see your posting...how did the quilt show go??