Happy Pumpkin Carving!

We had fun this afternoon carving "Winston."

As you can tell from his expression, he was scared when he saw us with the knife!

Be sure to share your designs with us too!

The Boyd Buzz

We are now well into Fall and our schedule has been non-conducive to blogging. But here's a quick update.

Scott's dad did had a quadrupole by-pass and is recovering nicely. Thank you to all that kept him in your thoughts and prayers the last few weeks. He'll be back home tomorrow.

Katie spent last weekend in Vegas with her mom and Aunt from England. She has the shoes to prove it - but got some good deals, so everyone is happy!

Scott is back at school (Masters of Management & Public Administration) and is already a good procrastinator when he should be writing his paper (as you can tell from the EGG-cellent post below!)

We are in the process of building a garage - cement work to be done next week while we still have this amazing Fall weather (+13 and sun!)

We are trying to take advantage of the great weather and commuting to work, but the long hours at work the past few weeks aren't helping our success rate!

I think that's about it...oh, except for some good tunes to pass along to you -- Secondhand Serenade. Great background music/mood music. Scott likes their use of Hyperbole's in their lyrics and enjoys drumming to them in the basement too. Funny how he's been playing the drums more often since school started too...

Enjoy the weekend - it's pumpkin carving weekend - so look for a blog to see our design!

EGG-cellent!

If you know me (Scott) then you know how much pride I take in peeling my eggs. Katie has become accustomed to letting me peel her eggs so I can get practise!

And today my friends it has all paid off! As you can see from the photo, I was able to peel not one, but two hard boiled eggs in the least amount of pieces to successfully remove the egg from its shell.

So many factors went into this success - the perfect amount of time to boil, the temperature of the cooling water, how long they were exposed to the cool water, the height I dropped the eggs from onto the counter, my nimble fingers and my mind being free of any pressure to peel the perfect egg. Today they all came together and I have so many people to thank for making this happen...Katie - thanks for letting me practise on your eggs and your continued support that one day this dream would happen (xo), Sobeys - thanks for stocking quality eggs, Farmer John - thanks for getting fresh produce to the store and finally chicken - well, words can't express the gratitude I have for you and the role you played in this success!

Enjoy your Friday!

Meet Matthew Ryan Boyd

Yeah -- we are Aunt Katie & Uncle Scott again!

Paul & Amanda had Matthew on Saturday afternoon. Mom & baby are both doing great and they are going home today!

8lbs 3oz of cuteness!

Can't wait to see more photos.

Hockey Night In Canada

I have very fond memories of growing up and watching Hockey Night in Canada with my dad and brothers on a Saturday night. We'd race from the tub to the TV where were could watch some of the game and eat some of dad's famous caramel popcorn before having to go to bed!

CBC just announced their new theme music for the show -- an Albertan won and it's actually a pretty good tune.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice. And don't forget the popcorn!

Good Old Texas!

I've been in Houston for the last week doing some training for work. Tonight I was picking up some dinner when I met a very humorous man…I'll call him Chuck. It all started when I went to pay for my dinner…Chuck was talking to the cashier who happened to be an East Indian gentlemen who had moved to Texas about two years ago. I came into earshot early enough to here Chuck say to the clerk "You know what us Texan's call you guys here?" Well you can imagine what the East Indian guy and I were thinking…but thankfully he said "Honorary Texan's!!!" Followed up shortly by…"And you know what the first thing an Honorary Texan should do? Go buy a gun!!!" It took all my self-control to not burst out laughing!


Chuck then turned to me and asked if I had a gun…I politely smiled and said "Nope, I'm from Canada, and we have gun control.". I think he actually felt sorry for me at this point, but it didn’t stop him from telling me that he owned one of every of gun out there…and that he had just been to Outdoor World to buy himself a new high powered crossbow. What do you say to that??? I'll tell you what I said…"I suppose you are a man I should be friends with then". This comment brought us to our next topic…living on his 50 acers of land in who knows where Texas.

Before giving me a lecture on how "city folk" don't know their neighbors and live in little bubbles were they don't interact with each other, Chuck felt it necessary to tell me about how there are only two sheriffs on duty at night in his County. Apparently, this is the real reason he owns one of every make of gun…AND a new high-powered crossbow…sure it is Chuck! Anyway, he went on to justify his guns because it could take up to 30 minutes for one of those sheriffs to show to his property…"and what am I suppose to do…throw frying pans at 'em?!"

Chuck went on a little longer about moving to Texas from Michigan to get away from "Those Liberals", but by this point Chuck was a little more scary than amusing so I made my exit…although looking back I likely could have had a very entertaining conversation with him about the upcoming election!!!

1 Year Ago...

Ah - Tahiti a year ago...

Happy Anniversary, Beautiful!

The Big Apple . . .

We are just getting back from an amazing week in New York City and time in New Jersey with Paul & Amanda! Where do you even start to talk about such a great trip...

We arrived direct from Calgary (4hr flight - how sweet is that?!) And we stayed a few nights right in the heart of NYC. Broadway x 74 Ave, for those of you familiar with the Big Apple. What is means is that everything is close, as long as you are up for some walking. Our first night we hit an amazing Italian 'family-style' restaurant -- huge portions (big surprise, right?) and everything is made for sharing. So good.

We then spent a few days just being tourists -- we did a Broadway show one night (Jersey Boys - highly recommended) We always try and find an on/off bus tour to help get an overview of the Cites we visit and NYC did not disappoint -- the Grey line Tour is a must for your next visit. After planning our attack, we hit all the hot spots -- Central Park, Time Square (both day & night time since they are amazingly different) Grand Central Station, Statue of Liberty (surprisingly small in real life), Empire State Building.

We also hit Chelsey Pier which is a huge sports multi-plex and has one of those multi-layer golf ranges -- so we had to knock some balls off the 3rd floor!! We also got to go to CBS studios and watch Paul tape the Weekend Edition of Inside Edition - fun to see the behind-the-scenes view for sure.

We then spent the weekend in Princeton, NJ with Paul and Amanda. Mandy looks amazing and is expecting anytime in the near future . . .we hoped our visit would prompt a delivery - but no such luck! We really enjoy just hanging out with them, catching up and seeing their beautiful neighbourhood and home. We walked around Princeton University too and were in total awe of the buildings.

And last Sunday we saw the Jets play Arizona -- crazy action!! Very cool that we got to see Favre set a personal and franchise TD record. Paul hooked us up with some sweet-ass tixs on the 40 yard-line 10 rows up -- it felt so very close to the action. You kinda get a feel for it from some of our photos -- a very cool vibe to be in the stadium surrounded by all those people.

Overall we were so impressed with public transit -- no problems with the subway or commuter trains between NYC and Jersey. We loved the brick, fire escape on all the buildings and all the great food!!! We did see rats in the subway - but caving prepared Scott for those sightings.

Probably missed so much - but wanted to get some photos and stories up sooner than later. Oh maybe there will be an entire blog about all the 'crazy people' we encountered on the trip?! Yes!