Winter in Canada: It's For Serious!

The temperatures have dipped below 0ºF finally, so I can say I'm impressed with the weather. I doubt that I'll ever have to live through another cold day like the one Cincinnati got for Superbowl XVI. Remember that? It was January 24, 1982 (I had to look up the date). My mom had the brilliant idea to sell Girl Scout cookies door-to-door that day because everyone would be home. They were, but the temperatures were sub-zero. My brain wants to say it reached -64ºF with the wind chill, but that may have been at night (after selling cookies). Anyway, it's not that cold here, but it's been hovering around 0 for a few days. Cincinnati doesn't get this kind of weather, so I thought I'd "write home" about it.

Took some pictures, too:

This is a shot of the river (it's about half a mile from the house). Not cold enough for ice fishing yet, but if the weather stays this cold much longer, I'll be able to get pictures of that soon.



After the snow but before the really bad cold snap, I took Mister outside. It lasted for less than 5 minutes, and ended with me carrying him back to the house, his widdle paws in my hand to warm them.




This snow fell on Jan. 15th, and hasn't melted yet. I should get pictures of some of the giant snow mountains in the parking lots here. Darren's wielding the Scraper of Doom here.



This is a shot of the driveway and the street we live on. Yeah, I couldn't see them, either.

Congratulations to Lisa and Josh!

We're up here in Canada and couldn't make it, but Darren and I want to offer our best wishes to Lisa and Josh on their wedding day. I hope my family took lots of pictures so we can post them here.

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Also, just a quick update on the blog: I upgraded to the new Blogger format, which is almost exactly the same as the old. There shouldn't be any problems logging in or posting, but if you encounter anything, please let me know in an email or comment. My email address is sarkasmo AT gmail DOT com.

The biggest difference you'll notice when posting in the new format is that you can now put "tags" on your posts. I don't have any categories for posts set, but we can certainly create them as we go along. For example, if you post with news about your family, type (without quotes) "Talmage" or "Strupe" or "Koebbe", etc. If you update with pictures, use the "pictures" tag. There's a field at the bottom of the text box where you enter your post where you can type the tags (now that I look at it, Blogger likes to call them "labels", but it's all the same to me). You can use all lower case, and separate tags with commas. There's no limit to how many tags you can use.

Finally, if you comment on this blog now, I've activated Word Verification. That means that before you can make a comment on a post, you have to look at a picture of a bunch of letters and type them into a field, then click on the Publish Comment button. This is because the blog has been receiving spam comments and it bugs me.

Strupe Family Thanksgiving Pictures

These were sent to me by Mom, so she'll need to fill in the details for you. All the photos can be clicked for embiggenment.

This would be the White House where the buffet was held.

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Here's Beth, getting her RDA of turkey and Saran Wrap.

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I don't think I know this guy, and there's a limited number of blondes in our family - but behind him, I can see Steve, Brandon, and Dad.

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Adorable turkeys. Before clicking on this picture, I thought the turkeys were showing us their butts, but if you enlarge it, you can see their faces.

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The buffet line, featuring Steve, Brandon, Colleen and Connor, my dad, and a line. Is that Helen Koebbe in the back, there?

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Steve and some puppy with ears on its head.

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Here's Chris, showcasing Colleen's senior picture. I hear that background is a dumpster! Whatever makes the red hair look good, right? :)

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Colleen and Connor at the buffet. See what I mean about the red hair?

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Greg at the buffet.

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Finally, Alex and Morgan.

Chili Cookoff Pictures

Here are the rogue photos that wouldn't cooperate with my mom last week. To set the scene, the contest is held in the basement cafeteria of the school at Our Lady of the Rosary. Here you can see The People (judges in their own right) tasting wares (that's Mike's back on the left, Greg's on the right, and Joe Singler is facing Greg):


My uncle Mike won 2nd place from the judges. Here, he's being awarded his prize (a set of potholders, it looks like) and certificate by Dave (a judge):

And my mom, Karen, who seems to always win, is shown here with Judge Dave while she receives her coveted silver ladle and certificate:

Congratulations, Mom and Mike!

Just pictures for Nov. 15th post...I hope.

Okay. Nevermind. The first one (use your imagination) is Mike being awarded 2nd Place Best Chili. The second photo is Karen being awarded a certificate for 1st Place Best Chicken Chili. The third photo is a shot of the cafeteria with Mike, Greg, Joe Singler and a few others.
(stupid blog.)