The Talens' Tales

So far something weird has happened during play season that really messes up the rehearsal schedule. Usually this involves crazy winter weather which results in no school for days on end. This year however, it is illness. Several members of my play cast have had this crazy fever, sore throat, head ache, no energy illness that takes them out of school for a week. It was tough to hold practice this week due to that. I really hope this taste of spring we have been getting is around to stay. We really don't need a blizzard right now. In other news, I am attempting to start a few plants inside this year for our garden. I had some seeds that I picked up at a school auction for tomato and pepper, which need to be started inside. So, I thought I would give it a try this year. And if it doesn't work, I am really not out all that much. Today I went to a shower for Kara, a former college of mine who now lives in the Cities. It was really nice to catch up with her and meet her family. It w...

(Wilbert's first blog entry) After much searching and much discussion, we've found the perfect truck for our WVO (waste vegetable oil) or SVO (straight vegetable oil) conversion. As Denise has told you all in a past blog entry, my search was getting pretty specific. 1994-1998 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel truck, standard transmission, 4 wheel drive in a specific price range. So what you're looking at above is just that. Unfortunately this truck has been sitting about a block away from our house for the last two and a half weeks with a price tag that was too much for this Dutch boy. Every time I would drive by it would stare at me with, what our school custodian calls, "puppy eyes". After offering to drive 4 hours to purchase a newer diesel truck with less miles, for less money and trade straight up for what is seen above, the kind dealers in our hometown dropped their price. Maybe by now you have a few questions. Where did you come up with the idea for running a vehicle...

We have been searching lately. Wilbert has been searching for a truck. To be very specific a Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 diesel with a 5 speed manual transmission between the years of 1994-1998. Can we be any more specific? There are all kinds of rational for why it has to be this truck, the main one being Wilbert wants to convert it to run on vegetable oil. The sad thing is that there is one right here in lot in town, but they are asking way to much for it. Wilbert tried to swing a deal but they didn't take it. So now it stares him down every time we drive by.

It has been a lovely week, weather wise. Warm, sunny, not to windy. It felt like spring. I love spring. I love sunshine. It makes me happy. But, it is only February. We live in the "Great North" as they like to call it. I check the weather reports just peaking at the page, waiting for the big blizzard that is going to knock our socks off and leave us stranded for days at a time. So, I am just going to enjoy the sunshine today. I will think spring today, but the reality of February will come soon enough.

We don't have a TV in our house. I have lived without a TV for the past five years. And really, I don't miss it one bit. We started working out at the local gym, if you can call it back. When we started one of the perks was that it they have lots of TV and the Dish Network. It was like a little reward for working out. Sometimes, we even went to work out at certain times knowing that a certain show show would be on. But now, I find that I am bored with TV even then. I have a few channels that I check each time, but if nothing interesting is on, I really don't want to watch it. I have now started to take my book along, so I can read if nothing interesting is on. I can only watch people renovating their kitchens and patios so many times or see people cook with ingredients I have never even heard of, let alone purchase at my local grocery stores. My students think I am nuts when they discover we do not have a TV. "How can you survive?" they ask. "When I get my ow...

Some days you really need a good laugh. I am not saying that today was one of those days or anything, but I have been laughing a bit today at these things and I thought I would share it with you. Laughter is good medicine they say. This book is on that I received for Christmas and it is so funny. It is a book of "cutting remarks" that were overheard on PEI. Most of them could be said in just about any place at all. For example: "She's sweet alright, like frosting on burnt cake" or "He's not completely crazy, just a half bubble off plumb." This book is one that I picked up at a library once for free since the library no longer wanted it on the shelves. It is published in 1967 and it really does have some useful things in it that you could possibly...if you had no other option...and no one around you knew who you were. It might coming handy on a deserted island...but would who in their right mind would be caught carrying this book around. Aside from ...

It is strange to think about what life will be like in ten years. Where will we be living? What will we be doing? Kids? All of that stuff. The super nice thing is that we won't have to think about immigration stuff for that long! Yeah! After a long ordeal with a whole lot of paper work, Wilbert received his new Green Card today and it is good until January of 2019! Ten years is longer then we expected his new card to be valid for, so that is a wonderful blessing. So, even though it can be extremely frustrating to work with government organizations, we are thankful that everything came together better then we hoped. Now, we would like the government to think a little more about taking this paper conservation act seriously. We probably sent about 100 pages worth of copies to Immigration Services. Was that really necessary? Maybe in ten years we will be able to save a tree or two.