R&R

A great deal of R&R is required.  Mr. Lina and I spent this past weekend camping, I have the mosquito bites to prove it.  Not me-made anything here, but this is essentially how I spent the weekend.

I really should find a pattern to make a copy of that shirt.  I bought it maybe 2 years ago at Real Canadian Superstore (grocery store), it's Joe Fresh.  I love that it has longish sleeves and buttons right up so I don't have to worry about getting burned (although my forearms still ended up with more of a tan than I'd like) but it's the thinnest cotton so the breeze blows through and I feel cool.  Cooler than in a snug tshirt I suspect.

Work has been so busy I've even fallen behind on reading blogs, sigh.  I think the silk noil will just have to wait until we return from Manitoba.  I have laundry, packing and house cleaning to do.

Wednesday morning we're off to visit my in laws - parents, brother, grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, plus friends of ours and his parents.  Lots of visiting.  I thought this was a good time for a geography lesson and my fine map making skills (that's sarcasm because this map is truly half assed before I head to bed).

We will be flying into Winnipeg, from Toronto it's about 2-2.5 hours in the air.  Grandma and various aunts, uncles and cousins live in the outskirts of Winnipeg so we'll stay there for the night.  Then we're off to "The Lake".  Now I have labeled Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg where they are fat, but they each extend pretty far north.  To say they have a "cabin" (I would call it a cottage) on Lake Manitoba really doesn't mean much because it really is a long lake with many inlets.  Mr. Lina's great-grandparents came from Ukraine and they settled at Fisher Branch.  This is called the interlake region because it's between the two lakes (smart, eh?).  His great uncle and aunt still own that land but he is on dialysis and the medical resources there are not up to caring for him anymore, he's moved into Winnipeg.  Normally, we'd stop in on the way between Winnipeg and "The Lake".  Even if it was 11am when we arrived, Uncle pulls out the rye and the only question is if you want Sprite or Coke with it.

Depending on how the weather is and what there is to do, we may just stay at the lake for the whole trip.  I suspect we'll end up in Brandon for a couple of days myself.  I like the time there and at the lake for different reasons.  The cabin is between cell phone towers, there is no cell service, no internet.  Mr. Lina can put his crackberry down for a while and truly disconnect from stresses of home.  But Brandon has some lovely friends I would miss if we don't see them.  In particular, Hawk, the man of many names (seriously, he had mail show up addressed to Joachimp Small Dee because his last name starts with a lower case d, I'm not sure where the chimp part came from) but I just call him Hawk.  He will be visiting us in September so it's not too much longer to wait, but still, of all the Manitobans who still live in Manitoba, he is my favourite and he always finds time for us.  He keeps us in the know of all the Brandon gossip.

I tacked on two scale bars.  The highways in Manitoba have a speed limit of 100km/hr and I get the impression they are enforced more than they are in Ontario.  So look at that bar as about an hours driving time.  I spend a LOT of time in the car with my in laws. 

Well, off to bed for me.  One more day of work to go.