Not a muffin. :( but NWT

I saw a brown bag. I was thinking it was a muffin from Sweet Potato. They are yummy.  Instead It was full of plasticene things.  Individually I thought the shield there was a face.  I saw the two fish creatures, and mistook the thing in the middle was a mutant starfish or octopus or something and thought. It's Neptune - god of the sea, or Santa, somehow (it's still cold here and snowy).

But after it was assembled.  It is this.
The coat of arms for North West Territories.  For those unfamiliar with anything outside of their country's boundaries (or city boundaries). This is a northern province in Canada.  Where there are some very large diamond mines.
Apparently Kieran did a presentation on this sometime this week.

My Valentine pick me up

This was my Valentine's breakfast.  Actually Kieran's too.
But he ate most of my Jelly Bellys.  I made sure I got to taste all the flavours before they vanished.

Wow...am I ever getting tardy in my posts.  Usually I do these right away.  No more than 1 day later.
But I'm a week and a half in arrears.
I'm gonna get fined or something.  Gonna get caned by some SNG rebel.

Well it's been a busy busy BIZ-ZEEE time.  We got a new-er vehicle. With only a little over 20K on it. It's as new as it's gonna get. I knew it was time.  We had, well I had prepared myself for the inevitable.  No matter how well I took care of our vehicles, I could not stop them from Father Time.

So we got ourselves a wagon.  I love it.  It's gotta be the best Valentines pick me up I have ever gotten.  Considering it's a car.  It is so nice driving a newer vehicle.  Man.  I totally missed 2000-2010 upgrades and went to the next decade.  It's so ironic that my Subaru, I picked up on my birthday, and this car we got on Valentines.  Makes it easy to remember when we got it.

In any case, our new wagon has so much more room.  We can ride in comfort.  Can't wait to do our road trips now.  It's so funny. Kieran didn't want us to get rid of the Subaru, but he prefers the new car now.

Me and mama too.  We are just not used to all the bells and whistles.  And mostly because it's not really that important to us.  We never had it, so we never missed it.
Now that we have it. We still don't really care.
All that I cared about was that I didn't have to worry as much of a possible break down. Especially this winter.  It's been freezing!
I didn't want something to happen with the family in the car.  It just wasn't worth it.  In the 15.5 years I had the Subaru, it had only happened ONCE.  But that was enough for me.
So after a lot reading, getting details from insurance, lending institutions, mechanics, etc.  Analysis of our budget.  Planned expenses.
We got it done.
I had all the info I needed to make a decision if it came to that.  I had been preparing for months. Probably up to a year.  But it became more intense the last month.  Going to dealerships, sitting in cars, checking them out, test drives.  I checked out every car that Tresa had on her wishlist.  It was important to me that she be involved in the decision.  It not about me and what I wanted.  It's about what is right for the 3 of us.

This is our friend Wayne, he brokered this sale.  Pretty much did all the work for me.  Made the sale painless. Took care of all the details.  It was kind of unexpected.  Well neither of us had bought a car in a decade and a half.  So we were out of practice.  And it's just not something we like to do often.  Cars are a money pit.  If we could live without it.  That would be great.  But we can't.  So we have always tried to minimize our vehicle costs as much as possible.
I was pretty happy.  Tresa was a bit in shock, but we know where our money goes. We knew where'd we could redirect our cash to pay for this.  So in the end it wasn't a issue.  It's a bit of a change, but that's ok.  We'll adjust and we always have.  Together, we've always figured out a way.

It was Valentines day and the start of the Family day weekend.  I picked up our car.  Put on the new Yakima rack. Cuz my old Thule wouldn't fit.  I'm quite impressed with the Yakima.  It went on so much easier than the Thule.
The Thule I just knew how it worked, but the setup of the Yakima.  you do it once and it's done.  Pretty neat system.
This car has a panoramic roof.  I wanted roof rails, but I didn't have much choice. It came with everything.

Just like these home made donuts.
No preservatives.
Also, no leftovers.
All gone.
I didn't eat them all.
There were 3 chipmunks that showed up at Sir Sams.
They may get full on food.
But sweets never fills these guys up.

 They can smell sweets even in the middle of winter when their noses are clogged with boogies, and they're on the other side of the ski hill with the wind going the other direction.
They're more like sharks.
Even the little one has razor sharp teeth.
But that's from candy rotting 4 of her teeth.
I still don't know why she wears goggles.  Cuz that's how she wears them. On top of her helmet.


So that's it.
Nope. Not another Subaru.  That's my brother's.  He just picked that up too.  We opted for a Toyota.  It's bigger. And has way more power.  More than I really wanted or needed, but that's ok.  It's there.
I checked gas consumption and it's more about the weight of the car than size of the engine or hp rating.
So after checking out many cars.  I was satisfied with this one.  And one of my friend's said to me.  If it doesn't work out.  I could always sell it and get something else.  And that's right.  It's not permanent.  Use it until it no longer makes sense.  Then get something that does.

I love the hatch.  It is so handy.  Plus it goes up and down on the push of a button.  I love all these frills.  But I also know that they are more points of failure.  What can you do? It's how they make em now.  In any case. I plan to enjoy it for as long as it works.  Cuz I remember getting ripped off on power seats.  I have them again.  And now so does Tresa. And our bums are heated too.
It is awesome when it's -20 deg C.

Sir Sams on Family day Saturday was great.  Wasn't busy at all.  I even got to demo some 2014 skis.  That made skiing through the trees following these kids so much easier.  And less likely for me to wipe out and hit a sapling.

It also made skiing more fun, somehow.  I think because it made it so much easier for me to ride the snow.  Newer skis are so much shorter nowadays.  They are just so much technology in them compared to pre-2000.  Which I think is how old my used skis are.  I didn't think I would become a skier after riding a snowboard for many years.  But it's been fun skiing with Kieran.  I had bought a used set so that it would be easier for me to help him get on the chair lifts.  He's at the point where he's big enough to ride the lifts on his own.

But after following him, follow other kids through the trees.  Skiing has become pretty fun.
I wasn't expecting it.  But I ended getting a pretty sweet end of season deal on those skis I demo'd too.  Not something I wanted to do, but hey. They're slovenian skis.  All the more reason!  DOBRO!

Family Day Sunday.  was a zoo!  I even ran into Sandra and Tim and the kids. We stayed the entire day.  Until it closed.

Family Day Monday was something else.

This video has Raelen heading over that first ramp (on Saturday).
Then Kieran watching...and chickening out.
He never used to back down from these.  Centennial Park has softened him.  Next year we're going to have to sign him up for lessons at a bigger hill, so he gets used to it.
The next day though he was much better.

So long Subaru

After over 15-1/2 years.
I have to say so long to an old trusty friend.
The first new car I have ever purchased and the only car that I've had since my late 20's.  Is finally getting a new owner.

I've sort of had a love-hate relationship with this car.
My previous car was an awesome driving car.  The 94 Ford Probe GT was a great looking car and had an interior to match.  Why did I go with the 98 Subaru Legacy GT?  Cuz I wanted a Subaru.  It looked great. The non-functional hood scoop is cool looking. And there were some issues with the Probe GT that made it necessary to replace it.

I liked it, was sold on the AWD.  I wanted something reliable and Subaru's reliability record was a major selling feature.  I did lose a couple of things.
1. The interior seemed older than the 94 Probe GT I was trading in. It was a disappointment.  Although it did have cup holders.  Which consistently dripped into the radio and when in use blocked the heater controls.  Whoever was the ergonomics designer for the Subaru in the mid-late 90s early 2000's.  That person should be sent out on an updated design course.  I give it a D-.

2. I had awesome driver power seat in the 94 Probe GT.  Considering this Subaru was badged as a GT.  The seats weren't that great.  And no power seats.  The sales lady was very quick to point out that power seats often fail.  I now know that when I get told something like that.  It's full of BS.  So if you want something.  And they don't offer it.  Walk away.   Whatever the sales person tells you is crap.

However, I accepted it.  Now so many years later.  I feel I deserve more.  And the trick is to find a way to not over pay for that.  Because sales people will sell it to you, but of course it all comes with a price.

I did learn a lot from owning the Subaru.  I was the only owner. I paid a premium for that.  But I had the piece of mind of knowing the history.  And that's a very important piece of info to know when buying a car. Especially used.

After the warranty expired, I decided it was time for me to stop getting ripped off by the dealer servicing and doing the work, or whatever I could myself.  It was time to learn what was relatively easy for me to do myself.  In actuality, a lot of it is easy, as long as you have a procedure to follow or someone has provided a walkthrough.  I enjoyed the satisfaction of doing a lot of work myself, with assistance from my brother and Sam.  Not because I saved money.  But because I accomplished something.  And that's a good life lesson.

But if I can't do it.  Mostly because I don't have a lift or certain tools.  Which makes it easier to work on a car.  I at least have someone I trust.

We thought we would have needed a newer car when we had Kieran.  But the Thule cargo box really expanded our capacity.  This car was my work truck. I've hauled lots of stuff from HD and Rona.  I made it work.  Or more importantly - I made it fit.

The AWD, IMHO is oversold and over marketed.  For city, for Toronto you don't need it.  It uses a lot of gas.  If you have snows. You are good in the worst conditions.  But in 15-1/2 years.  I've gotten stuck 1x.  And that was recently at the cottage and I wasn't paying attention and went into a deep drift.  Good thing we were still at the cottage.  Tresa got the shovel and we dug it out.  And we headed home.

Even with AWD you need snows.  If you don't have snows.  AWD just means four wheels spinning in the winter vs two.  I keep telling people here that.  But some listen and others choose to ignore it.

Our new car has AWD, but it wasn't on my list of requirements.  And AWD systems are not created equal.  Google Subaru AWD test and you'll see what I mean. I know the Honda one is really FWD and provides torque to the rear wheels when it detects spin.  Same with the Toyota.  Subaru is mechanical and they have always had AWD.  It's not new.  When I bought my Subaru, there were basically 2 companies in the AWD space.  Audi and Subaru. Today there are many players.

So today is the last full day we will own the Subaru LGT.
We're both sad it's leaving.  But I'm also excited on the new vehicle replacing it.  I'm excited because I finally got my power heated leather seats.  Also it's a wagon type car.  So it'll enable us to haul some big items and even some not so big items that took some engineering know how to get in the car, plus a kid with a booster.

It's a car we can potentially grow into.  It may not have a 3rd row. But that wasn't a deal maker or breaker for us.  It's wide enough in the back seat to sit 3 adults or teens comfortably.  And I have a hatch.  It's not perfect, but I found lots of non-ideal vehicles.  I simply chose the one that worked best for our needs and it was as close to new as you can get.  And the history was known.  1 owner, off-lease, low kms, interior condition was very good.

And I can put a roof rack on it.  That was important.

Packing Snow

Kieran spent a lot of time on this.  I couldn't help him cuz I was shovelling and then I went inside.

I was sick. So was Tresa.  So we watched him from the front.
On Superbowl Sunday Tresa chiselled the ice while Kieran was outside.  Climbing our neighbours tree. Like a monkey.

That's an old Sun Microsystems hat.  Not sure what he used for eyes. But i'm hoping a raccoon doesn't rip off the nose.

It was a snowy day. Perfect packing snow for making a snow man.

He smoothed everything out.  He likes art.  Spends a lot of time making his work look good.  There's some things he rushes.  Like math and writing, violin practice, most things academia.  But when it comes to art.  He takes his time.