karey and i have developed a sunday ritual. we eat lunch after church and then we grab some pillows, karey's jean quilt and my book bag and head down to our neighbourhood park. we lay in the shadow of one of the pretty maples and read Tuesdays with Morrie, and talk and nap and i do crossword puzzles, and we watch the neihbourhood kids who come there to play. we've come to know who some of the regulars are and have our own names for them. today the park was pretty dead when we got there but we finnished the book and then we were talking and i was doing some crosswords. a young asian dad and his little toddler came to the park. she was so cute. she was wearing a cute pink sun hat. she had a blue ball. she was quite taken with us from the moment she saw us. at first she would only come part way over to us and then she would toddle back to her dad. she took his glasses and when he put his hand out for her to give them back to him (she was twisting and bending them) she turned from him and went a little ways away and grabbed a handful of grass and gave it to him instead. eventually she got brave enough to come right up to me. then she would just stand there and swing her arms and stare at me. then she would give me a handful of grass. i must have received at least five handfuls of grass and a ball and a yellow piece of plastic that was drifting by in the wind. then she got brave enough to grab my fingers. she was so cute.

izzy has turned out to be a dizzy izzy. she falls off of window ledges when she falls asleep and off of the book case shelf that she has claimed for her own. it's like when she sleeps she's dead to the world. today she was napping on the shelf and started falling and karey was coming to her rescue when she had a case of diarhea. the smell was basically the impetus karey needed for us to leave for the park. we thought she may have just been scared but then elicia said she had it again when we were gone, so we hope she's ok. i'm taking them to the vet on wednesday for their checkup so i'll tell him about the loose bowels then. i'm going to use that phrase--loose bowels.

last night we went on the sa cruise. it was allright. i was feeling really gross because of the heat and i didn't much enjoy my outfit or my hair which had an effect on my comfort level. we drove to cambie and took the bus from there to plaza of nations. on the bus everyone was sitting on the non-sun side and karey and sarita took the last of those so elicia and i were forced to sit on the sun side. it's been over two years since i've taken the bus. it all comes back to you though. it's like riding a bike, i tell you. the seat in front of us had a pool of some non-descript liquid on it. it kept people away.

we got to plaza of nations early and sat around, waiting in the heat. there was nary a breath of wind. the hot cement baked our bottoms. we got tall bottles of water and i fairly guzzled mine. on the way to the shop to get some water we saw a group of olders and sarita was like "i bet you anything those are lds." it was then that i recognized sister grieves! sister grieves for those of you who don't know, and katie may be the only one, was the mother of a girl my age when i was a teenager in surrey. i didn't talk to her. i'm bad that way. we all got on the boat and staked one side of the upper deck as our territory and all of our friends as they arrived gathered around us. it was excruciating waiting for them to start. the sun was beating down on us and there was no wind. we baked.

finally we left and in high spirits, waving at everyone we passed. we cruised the burrard inlet. it was lovely once we started going and it was such a beautiful night. we kept close to the shore of west vancouver on the way out and i kept an eye out trying to see if i could find gram's old house (well where she lived taking care of hazel and kyle). i was in the lineup for the salmon bbq when i think i spotted it. but i can't be sure. it's been a long time. those were some golden summers we had with gramma at that house.

there were a lot of oddball types on the cruise. that's the nature of sa, i guess. one of them named faith, who always calls me sister clarke because she knows the family name from dough or john days or something, was standing in line behind us when these ladies who had been dwadling came by complaining that we hadn't had any yet so we let them in front but there was near confrontation between faith and the ladies. karey and i kept elbowing faith to keep her big mouth shut. both sides were being quite rude. then there was the crazy mom of a cute guy from the ysa. when we realized she was his mom, he suddenly became less attractive, if you know what i mean. we mostly kept to ourselves. we saw some beautiful homes and the sun set was gorgeous. we didn't get back until 11 at which point i was completely done. i told heather that my bum was even more of a pancake, but with a line in it. she liked that description.

anyways i've been hogging the computer long enough. it's kare-bear's turn.