Garden Coin Cube

Gardening
Last Sunday, Effie planted spinach. This seemingly simple act instantaneously made this year a better garden year than last year. We spent the entire day down there ridding the place of intruding weeds and fixing up the anti-deer fencing.



Ferg enjoys the part of gardening where you get to dig and dig so we gave him his own plot... outside the garden fence. He is now the proud owner of this pile of dirt (slated for the apple trees) where he seemed pretty intent on planting an acorn although I think he ended up burying it a couple feet down:


Ferg also kept himself occupied with a slug he found and when the slimy guy kept escaping from the various stick houses he had made for him, Ferg then transported him over to the compost for a good ol’ chow down. Effie was notably disgusted by this (she pretty much despises slugs more than anything). Ferg and his (rather large) slug house:


Coin Collecting
Sure, we enjoy the silky smooth arm action and angular stride of Cindy Klassen as much as any Canadian who watches speed skating for two weeks every four years, but if we get another one of her quarters in our change... we may be forced to spend it!

Yes, Effie has been working hard lately on completing her collection of the Canadian Olympic coin series. We started this a bit late which is strange because Effie and I are both interested in collecting coins and have a good starter set of coins from around the world courtesy of Grandpa. In fact, Fergus was the first in our family to start putting aside this latest batch of Olympic quarters and loonies and it was he who spurred us on. Fergus needs another 6 coins for a complete set, but Effie required only one more up until today. Both Eff and I had lost patience doing it “the old fashioned way”, so I completed her collection via a trip to the bank (I had also tried to do this the day before - more on that below).

What better way to surprise her with the coveted alpine skiing quarter than with an easter egg huntaroo...



The Office
Effie and Fergus visited my office for the first time yesterday. Fergus has frequently asked to come into the office and “spend the day under my desk” and they both must have been very curious about this strange place I go to everyday. I’m not sure why they haven’t visited before but I suppose it is mainly because my office is not all that kid-friendly - more people seem to bring in their dogs! I thought it was neat that Fergus did indeed spend the entire visit under my desk, watching his dvd player with his headphones on (one co-worker felt in necessary to point at Ferg and comment that she wouldn’t have let her kids do that, though the three of us did not know what she was specifically referring to and we sent her on her way).

Eff’s impression of her first trip to my office:


My eight-hours-a-day reduced to a water bottle, lamp and desk. Pretty cool, but I think Eff was a bit distracted because after I had picked up the kids from the place where Gillian had her appointment, and before we got to my office, we had gone to a branch of the bank that keeps the Olympic coins in stock but, being Monday, this particular neighbourhood branch was closed. I then explained that I tried to get the missing coins from the main branch at lunch time but that the line-up was too long so I left. So, upon leaving my office after the kiddos spent an hour in my cube, meeting some of my co-workers and touring the building and the grounds, I asked Effie what she thought of it all. She replied: “why do banks close on Mondays”, “how long exactly was the line”, “I wish the main branch wasn’t all the way downtown”...