Invasion

Our canal during yesterday's snowfall.  

We've had a couple of weeks of temperatures below freezing, so the canal behind our home is frozen.  It snowed while it froze so the ice is not good for skating, much to the dismay of the locals.  I had my fill of skating in Lake Louise so my disappointment is limited.  

This guy spent an hour eating in our yard

The frozen canal has allowed the deer from the neighboring Canadian Ambassadors estate to invade our yard.  They must be tired of the Canadian's vegetation because they have spent the last two weeks munching on our landscaping.  It's like a whole new buffet to them.

The Canadian Ambassador's Home.  

Many of you may be wondering how the deer are able to sneak into our yard under the nose of our ferocious golden retriever, Graber.  Well, the frozen canal also offered opportunities for him.  Last Saturday, he was spotted sprinting down the ice in chase of a bird.  He has no sense of direction so once he gets out, he's gone.  Luckily Lori lured him back with a squeak toy and promises of cheese.  After that incident he has been sentenced to inside living except for supervised (and leashed) potty breaks.  The deer quickly picked up on his absence and escalated their raids after that.

The prisoner fulfilling his sentence.   

Alas, today Holland famous rain has returned so the snow and ice will be gone soon.  Hopefully, the deer will be on the right side of the canal when it unthaws.

One of the downsides of owning a white car in the winter -- it really shows the grime.  

A new home construction on our street, as viewed from the canal.  The Dutch build homes to last several hundred years so it usually involved steel framing and cranes.  

The small lake in our neighborhood where the kids skate (except for the day I was taking pictures)

O Canada

Kate requested that we celebrate with a white Christmas this year, so we packed up our parkas and headed to Banff, Canada where it was certainly white and even more certainly cold.  Christmas morning we awoke to temperatures of -30 degrees C, which translates to -20 degrees F.  Both numbers are cold.... real cold.

Like all good winter resorts, Banff had a number of sporting goods stores, so we supported the Canadian economy and stocked up on additional cold weather gear to reinforce ourselves.  Plus Kate brought along an economy pack of hand and foot warmers, so we were able to survive and enjoy all the winter activities.  The condo where we stayed had a heated outdoor swimming pool.  A number of people went swimming (probably Canadians) but we weren't up for the frigid dash between the pool and the changing room.  

Dog sledding was probably the highlight of the trip.  Everyone got a turn at "driving" the team, which sounds fun until they tell you that you have to run and push when the sled goes uphill.  In fact, the guide's quote was "the dogs will look back to make sure you're pushing too.  They really appreciate the help".  Running through the snow in full gear pushing a sled uphill is pretty taxing, but who wants to disappoint a dog.  The other downside of driving was that you're fully exposed to the elements, while the other two people are toasty warm, wrapped in blankets in the sled.

Luckily the dog sled place rented snow boots because Kate's were in her missing suitcase.  

You know it's cold when even the sled dogs where coats. 

Lori getting ready to drive the kids, who are well protected.  

The view from the dog sled trail

Now it's Lori's turn to bundle up

Thanking our dogs for a great time.  

One day we drove over to Lake Louise for high tea at the Fairmont Lodge, followed by ice skating on the lake.  Everyone did well, no serious spills or thrills.  An hour of ice skating was enough though.

The view from the dining room at high tea.  

Although it is hard to tell, this is Grant laying on top of the lake with snow piled on top of him.  

It was a similar story when we went skiing.  No injuries, but one day satisfied our skiing appetite.  The ski resort also had a tubing hill, with a lift to take you back up the hill.  Unfortunately, the lift was broken so what had originally sounded like a fun idea didn't sound so fun anymore.

They look kind of like Star Wars characters, don't they? 

Most of our thrills were limited to traveling.  Lori, Grant & I flew from Amsterdam to Chicago where we planned to meet Kate and all fly to Calgary together.  Unfortunately, Kate's flight to Chicago was cancelled.  The next flight arrived too late, she missed the connection and spent the night in United Airlines Service Center lines and an airport hotel.  Between the cancelled flight and overnight stay, she got $40 in food coupons from United so she spent the next day sampling all the O'Hare Airport food offerings.  Even at airport prices, $40 is a lot of food.

So Kate arrived in Canada one day late.  As did one of her suitcases.  Her other suitcase -- which contained her winter coat and the winter coat that we'd ordered for Grant -- didn't arrive until two days later.  So we made a few more trips to the sporting goods store.

The travel woes didn't stop there.  The 1.5 hour drive from Banff to the Calgary airport ended up taking us three hours due to an accident (not us).  We missed our flight from Calgary to Houston and spent the night, 4 to a room, at the Calgary Airport hotel.

Christmas Dinner at the Post Hotel, Lake Louise

Kate and Lori with a friend

On this trip, we retired our playing cards.  We bought them for our trip to Southern Africa in 2007 and have taken them on every family vacation since then.  As you can see, they are a little worse for wear.  And what you can't see is that Graber recently ate two of them.  

Happy Birthday Lori

Lori had a milestone birthday this year so we opted for something a little more special than the typical store-bought cake and a card that says "Fijne Verjaardag".   As part of our Christmas holiday trip, we swung by Houston and hosted a party at one of our favorite restaurants.  The cake was still purchased, but at least it came from a professional bakery.  It was great to see family and friends again.

Now there's one lucky fellow

Lori and her parents, Don & Joan

Two sisters

Kate & Doug

Birthday girl with her loot

Happy Birthday Graber

Graber celebrated his third birthday in October.  He continues to be a great dog who is always happy to be with us or any other person who happens to be around.  He loves people.  Grant worked with him this summer so that he is pretty good at catching a frisbee.  Unfortunately, his physical development continues to far exceed his mental maturity.   Our little seven pound cats who don't even have claws  can chase him down the hall and stairs when he invades their room.  Then he goes right back upstairs to do it again because it's so fun.

Since he always destroys any soft or squeaky toys in about 5 minutes, the list of potential presents was quite limited.  Lori brought him some dog treats, including a bone shaped cookie that said happy birthday.  My gift was a spa treatment.  He thought that sounded great until he realized it was just a fancy name for taking a bath.  Then he put on his normal response of refusing to go upstairs.  Lori and Grant had to fireman carry him up and put him in the tub.

Happy Birthday Graber!

Waiting patiently for his birthday bone cookie.....

....Which he immediately takes to the foyer rug -- the standard spot to eat all treats.  

Lori and Grant carrying a reluctant Graber to his spa treatment.  

Haarlem 10k Run

My office has a running club that gets together every Thursday night for training.  I think it's a good idea, but I never attend.  They also participate in some of the local running events, so when one of those events was a 10k (6 mile) run in Haarlem, Lori and I decided to go.

Haarlem is a historic city that I've always wanted to visit but just haven't found the right time.  The city has been around for 900 years; it's church was built in the 1400's.  The church houses the Muller organ, one of Europe's most famous with three keyboards, 68 registers and 5000 pipes.  It is about 100 feet high.  I learned all this from a book; we didn't have time to go inside the church.  The book also states that the organ was played by Handel and a ten year old Mozart.

The run turned out to be quite fun.  The city of Haarlem really turned out to support it; there were lots of people lining the streets to cheer us on.  We headed out of town, ran through a large park and retuned to finish by the church.  The weather was cool and cloudy (it was Holland after all) so it was a pleasant run.  And we got medals just for participating.

This gives you some view of the church

Note the official Jacobs jackets.  You just borrow them for the race.   Afterwards, we had to wash them and bring them back.   You can also see Lori's medals.  

Photo of our team before the run when we still had lots of energy.  

Construction Project

The coots at their new home

After living in the canal in our backyard for two years the family of coots decided that they needed an island.  I don't know what drove this decision --perhaps it was like Noah building the Ark.  Once decided, the entire family dedicated themselves for a week to the task.  They grabbed any stick, piece of grass or leaf and began to pile them at a shallow point in the water.  It truly was non-stop.  Within a day they had broken the surface.  By the end of the week they had their island.  
  

In the beginning.....

Bringing leaves back to the spot. 

Success!  A new home in less than a week.  

Per Wikipedia, a coot is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls often given at night.  David Attenborough of Princeton University adds that "Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food. They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging and starves to death. If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed."  Let that be a lesson to our younger readers who pester their parents for snacks.  

Once it was built the other birds, ducks in this case, used the island as well .

The heron liked it too.  

This picture doesn't have anything to do with the coots.  I just like the reflection in the water. 

More reflection

The construction supervisor at work.