As we get ready to write this Joe is washing the harvest from our little Satsuma orange tree. Joe bought the tree a couple of years ago thinking it be fun to have a handful of oranges we grew ourselves. Certainly not something one could do in St. John's! The first year we harvested 3 oranges on Christmas Day. Last year we got only one. Well, some of you may have seen the photos of the street flooding we had with the heavy rains this year. It made our little tree go crazy. There are 148 oranges in our sink, another 40 still on the tree and a few over-ripe ones on the ground. Quite a good harvest for a balmy November Thanksgiving day, don’t you think?

What an amazing year this has been.  Now that it’s cool enough to open the windows and enjoy the air without the conditioning it’s time to reflect on our eighth year in Houston, tenth year of marriage and a long planned “epic” vacation where we got to visit with lots of family. Our kitty family kept many things in perspective too!

In January Lynda started renovating the home library. She was really looking forward to this one – taking down the wallpaper that was on two walls, painting over the muddy green on the other two and ceiling, and adding new carpet to replace the hated pink. The electrician who installed a light box in the ceiling took the old bookshelves (3 for $99) as partial payment, and Lynda headed down to Ikea for replacements. Once we installed the ceiling fan and light Lynda had only to unpack the boxes of books and set everything up the way she wanted. She especially liked putting up some pictures her Mom had painted now that there was room, and being able to set things up to show off the display case that had been her Dad’s. Joe was pleased that the fan had a wireless remote control (he’s easily amused!).

March was a busy month for us both. In mid-March, Joe took the next step in his career by becoming Manager of the Offshore Engineering Department.  Instead of 3 engineers, he was now in charge of over 50 engineers and clerical staff. Quite a change, but a nice challenge.

Meanwhile, Lynda headed to Vancouver for three weeks, making some time to visit friends & family outside of Vancouver for a change. Leah & Ross showed off their new home in Victoria while Rosemary enjoyed (?) the company Lynda and her miserable cold. Dean & Lisa hosted Lynda again with River & Roni also opening their home to her. It was wonderful to spend time with her nieces and Lynda made sure to bring a new book for  Dean’s daughter, Sophie, and for River’s daughter, Ronan, both of whom are delightful. Lynda’s mom was also pleased to have her visit – in an independent living facility it seems you are not judged by your material wealth, but by how much others love you. Being able to say “My daughter is coming to visit from Texas” is something to flaunt, especially if said daughter will come for a meal and visit almost every day. 

When Lynda returned in mid April, she started the last room needing to be done in the house, the dining room. Finally, all wallpaper would be banished from 9327! Lynda tore it off with gusto and began filling holes and priming. Spot, as usual, was quite interested in what was going on and kept an eye on the proceedings – he is helpful at household tasks in a cat kind of way (meaning, “not”). Once the walls were painted, the last of our laminate flooring was installed banishing the pink carpet from the house – finally! Once the chair rail and crown molding were installed there was only touching up to do. Our 10th anniversary arrived to find Lynda still touching up when Joe came home. He had flowers and an anniversary card and there was Lynda, touching up baseboard trim, on her belly, on the floor, in painting clothes –– very romantic.

In May, little Smoke had to be taken to the vet with an injured paw. He dislikes many parts of the vet experience: the carrier, the car, the office, the temperature taking, the poking, and the needles. But for no good reason, he seems to like bubblegum flavour medicine. For very good reason, he hates the Elizabethan collar; the fact that we call him “conehead” probably contributes to that. His brother Spot was terribly mean, hissing at him because he smelled different (mixture of vet and antibiotics). The tables turned a few months later when Spot’s checkup led to a battery of expensive tests for a racing heartbeat and high blood pressure, which revealed nothing more than confirmation that bringing him to the vet stresses him out. In the end, Smoke wound up at the vet twice more before the real diagnosis in November: he gets “indolent ulcers”, which have to be treated with a steroid shot. It's an allergy, but nobody knows the cause. Suffice to say he could be a regular visitor to the Jones Road Animal Hospital, much to his chagrin.

Canada Day we had our party again. Lynda was torn between wishing for rain to be able to stay inside with a/c on and wanting sun so kids can play & run outside. The rains came and with 8 kids under the age of 6 in the house it was a challenge – thank goodness for our Finding Nemo DVD. Spot and Smoke didn’t appreciate all the visitors and spent most of the day under the guestroom bed. Afterwards Lynda headed to Vancouver again staying with Dean, Lisa and Sophie and doing a little doggy-sitting for them while they got away with friends to Parksville. There was plenty of Mom-visiting and a day at the Folk Festival with River, Roni, Ronan and Rosemary afterwards staying with them before heading back to Houston where summer had truly arrived. 

Question: from which tap do you get hot water fastest? If you said “hot” you haven’t lived in Houston in the summer. The cold water tap gushes scalding water for several minutes which has been baking in the un-insulated pipes in the attic. Joe still goes for the hot first, but Lynda’s made the adjustment, no longer going assuming that the cold is bone-chilling – another indication that this place is really becoming home. 

While Lynda was in Vancouver, Joe took a jaunt to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with his boss, to visit the engineers in the Rio office and some of the important clients in Brazil's huge offshore industry.  It was Joe’s first trip to a non-English speaking country, and it was remarkable for many things. Most notably, natural beauty of the mountains and the beaches; most unfortunately, pollution and utter poverty. A real eye opener.

September finally arrived with the long planned and eagerly anticipated vacation. Lynda had been planning this trip since the Canadian dollar was 62¢ US and the price of gas was about the same per litre. Still it had been a long time since we’d seen Joe’s family in St. John’s and there was a wedding to attend in Nova Scotia. We flew into Halifax, rented a car and took the ferry over. It was Joe’s first experience on the Smallwood, a ferry he knew from working on her construction in Quebec in 1987. Once in St. John’s we had a flurry of activities with Lyn & Joe, Nanny and Nathan, Joe’s sister Nicole and her beau David, and even got to see Fay and Geoff as they motored through town in the Targa race. On the day we were scheduled to head to Corner Brook a former hurricane, Florence, blew through and stranded us. How ironic that a hurricane should interrupt our travel plans when we’re nowhere near Houston! Luckily it left us a lazy day for Joe to try to get over his cold (part of every vacation for him) and Lynda could finally learn how to knit those wonderful dishcloths that Lyn makes. A too short visit with Uncle Bud and Aunt Mary the following day and they were back on a ferry (the Caribou this time) to North Sydney and driving to Truro for Joe’s cousin Sarah’s wedding.

The wedding was an event that Lynda had really been looking forward to – after 10 years of marriage it seemed she was finally to meet Joe’s mother’s brothers and their families. Gary and Sandy’s daughter Sarah made a beautiful bride and we were so pleased to get to sit with Rob & Mary so Lynda could meet and Joe could catch up with them. The following day we joined the family at Gary & Sandy’s beautifully renovated house on the shores of the Bay of Fundy for an out-of-town-guests barbeque. We got to visit with Andrew and his wife Sarah (not to be confused with his sister Sarah and her new husband Andrew!) and meet his son, Nanny’s first great-grandchild, Ryan. We came bearing gifts from St. John’s (Joe and Lynda’s cargo run) for little Ryan and also got plenty of time to visit with Gary’s youngest daughter, Jill, a very talented musician with a lovely voice. We thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality, learning the mussel-eating tricks (fish a mussel out of the bowl, take the mussel out of the shell, pinch it with the shell to dip it in the garlic butter, eat, then toss the shell – we'll have to have them here to demonstrate crawfish eating techniques) and partaking of the barbeque feast. We had to head off early though to catch the ferry to PEI.

Lynda was not about to be so relatively close to Green Gables and not make the journey.  She certainly realized how large Nova Scotia is on this trip, as we drove over 3200 km in our rental car (tip: rent off Newfoundland for the unlimited mileage!). Our time on Prince Edward Island was short, so we spent the night in Charlottetown and headed to Cavendish first thing in the morning. Lynda was not disappointed – there was lots to see and Joe was very patient as she was determined to see everything before they took the Confederation Bridge back to the mainland. He stayed amused by using his iPod to repeatedly play “Bud the Spud” by Stompin' Tom on the car radio. The fresh cut fries on the Boardwalk in Cavendish were scrumptious and we savoured them as Lynda wrote postcards to mail at Green Gables post office. We’ll be back one day, we hope.

After a relaxing few days at a wonderful B&B in Prospect, NS, Joe and Lynda played tourists and drove all around St. Mary’s bay and went to Lunenberg (where the Bluenose should have been but was in Halifax instead) and Mahone Bay. Lynda managed to write a bunch of postcards to mail from the post office in the lighthouse in Peggy’s Cove where our camera died. Then off to spend a couple of days with Rob & Mary outside of Halifax. They really took care of us, making sure we were able to deal with our camera problem and even taking us to return the car at the airport and then to the train station for the next part of the journey – taking the train to Quebec City. At one point Joe heard a train whistle, and thought to himself: “ooh, a train” before remembering where he was.

Québec City on a Sunday morning is pretty dead, but luckily we could drop our bags at our hotel and get a bit of breakfast at one of the only two 24-hour restaurants. Once the train station shops opened we found a bus tour to get ourselves oriented to the city and out of the rain. Well, sort of – we did need to get out in the middle of the monsoon to find a bathroom and the high water mark on Lynda’s jeans reached mid-calf. Joe quickly discovered, and was reminded a few times, that his French accent make Québecois eager to speak English. The old city was gorgeous, and we walked ourselves weary, marveling at the way the Chateau Frontenac dominates the views. Our calves re-discovered stairs too (ow, ow ouch!), and Joe reminded Lynda that killing him by “touristing” him to death would be better done in the new year when his ABS life insurance goes up.

Next it was a train to Ottawa, and an all-too-short visit with Lynda's cousin Bruce, his wonderful wife Kim, and youngsters Will and Marika. Joe saw many changes to his old stomping grounds, including the new War Museum that is truly spectacular and very thought-provoking. Though we’d never stayed with Bruce and family before, it was as comfortable and enjoyable as if we’d been doing it for years. We managed to while away many hours just chatting over one of Bruce’s delicious meals that he just threw together (if only Lynda could cook so effortlessly). We can’t wait to return the favour by having them bed down in our guest room. All too soon it was time to board a plane back to Houston and ‘real life'.

The end of October brought Joe kicking and screaming into his forties! Too bad he was traveling for work, making a quick trip to Victoria (thanks to Leah & Ross for making a birthday dinner & Chocolate pie, and a truly professional doppio espresso!), followed by a journey to New Orleans, and then home. A couple of days later it was off to Oslo, Norway for a week. It reminded Joe of Newfoundland in many ways, with its hills and fjords. A very expensive place to live though: $10 beer was a big shock!

In November, Lynda took a job at Barnes and Noble where the pay is awful but the discount is good, especially on employee appreciation days. She’d forgotten how exhausting lugging around books for 8 hours can be and Joe was worried that we would owe more than she made, but so far she’s been pretty good. She’s still doing her textbook buyback in Alvin three times a year as well and volunteering at NAM once a week or so. 

Now we’re getting ready to wrap presents to get them in the mail in good time for Christmas arrival, digging out the cards Lynda bought (at Barnes and Noble!) and recovering from Thanksgiving day – our friends the Tremblays put on quite the feast! The scrabbling on the laminate floor indicates it’s “chase your brother time” for Smoke & Spot as they tear around like the little maniacs they are. But they always make up for it when they determine that it’s “kitty-lovin’ time” and they cuddle and purr, head-butt and snuggle for a little petting and scratching from us – it’s very rewarding and makes us forgive anything. It’s never dull at chez Rousseau. Sorry for the unbridled length of this letter, we were couldn’t restrain ourselves from sharing the wonderful visits we had on our trip with you. We hope that we get to see you soon and if not may you and yours have a very merry Christmas and all the best in 2007.