America has had a lot of presidents, some more famous, or infamous than others. But there's ONE, who's claim to fame was, ONE DAY IN OFFICE!                              We all know about this guy. Then there was John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Martin van Buren, Harrison, Tyler and James Polk. Then, there's this guy- Zachery Taylor... ...I'll get back to him a moment. Following him was Filmore, Pierce, Buchanan,  and, the Great Emancipator, Lincoln.  After Lincoln, came Andrew Johnson, Grant, Hayes and Garfield. Then Chester Arthur, Cleveland,  and Harrison. Cleveland still hadn't had enough, so he got in again! He was followed by McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, then Taft and Woodrow Wilson.  Harding came next, followed by, Coolidge, (they named a da... 02/08/2009

A couple of years ago I was visiting friends in northern Ontario and one day we decided to do a little fishing on the lake. Now, Lake Nipissing is huge, as lakes go, about 40 miles long and 16 miles wide. What I didn't know, was that for a lake this size, it is relatively shallow, 14 feet on average, with sand bars and rock formations very close to the surface.                                The day was idylic, and we were cruising along at a pretty                                                                good clip, when BANG, we hit one of the                                                                                 submerged rock formations. Of course, we couldn't get the engine started again-it was pretty much hooped.... ...so we decided to paddle to the shore which wasn'... 02/08/2009

Lots of people while on vacation in some warm clime such as Hawaii, Mexico or the Carribean, take a 20 minute course in the hotel pool and are soon on their very first escorted dive.   A relatively enjoyable experience with lots to see.                                                  The toughest certification I ever got was one for ICE DIVING.   This is not for the faint of heart. You are tethered, (very easy to get disorientated and lost), and of course buddied up with an experienced ice diver. Because of the temperature of the water and lack of plankton,   visibility is amazing! To get an ice diving certification, you need 2 dives the same day. The day I got mine, it was minus 10 celcius with a wind chill factor. The hardest thing about ice dives? Putting that cold, still wet suit ... 02/08/2009

       The first recorded game of golf took place in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1456, and ever since that day millions of hapless golfers have been flaying away, trying to win a game that quite simply, can't be won! The premise is simple enough, hit a ball enough times until you put it in the hole! The person with least amount of stokes wins the round. (A pencil with an eraser is a really good golf accessory).     Clothing is an important aspect of the game. It doesn't actually do anything for your game, but you really look spiffy when you shank one into the water.  The people that design these courses try to make it as difficult as possible. (As if the game wasn't hard enough). They put all manners of obstacles in the way; water, sand, bushes and to make matters worse, the "beer girl" driv... 02/06/2009

Starting with this guy, Charles Ponzi,                                                                                                                                                                                             and ending with the latest installment,Bernard Madoff, can anyone out there tell me how supposedly sophisticated people keep getting sucked in by these guys? ANYONE? In 1920 Charles Ponzi created this scheme, hence the name. We can forgive most of the dupes for falling for it back then;  it was however the first time it had ever been tried. Since then, several others have pulled off the same scheme: Dona Branca, Nicholas Cosmo, Sergei Mavrodi, Lou Pearlman, Tom Petters and Reed Slatkin, to name a few. In all cases fantastic returns were promised, but only a few at... 02/05/2009

If a statue in a park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.  If the horse has one leg in the air, the person died as a result of his wounds later. All 4 feet on the ground meant he died of natural causes. Winston Churchill was not only great speech-maker, his wit was legendary. Nacy Astor, a British MP and angry with Churchill, said, "If I were married to you, I would put poison in your coffee". Churchill quickly responded, "Madam, if I were married to you, I'd drink it!" In another instance, another female MP, upon seeing Churchill intoxicated, said, "Winston, you're drunk". To which Churchill replied, "Bessie, you're ugly. And tomorrow I'll be sober".                  Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physian who set the leg of                 ass... 02/05/2009

My morning regimen is the same every day! Up at six AM and read 3 papers, one on-line, cover to cover, until I have digested all the world's happenings while I slept. There are 3 TV newscasts that also have to digested.....     CTV gives a pretty good mix of world and local news,                   while the BBC is more world-orientated in its coverage.    CNN of course is mainly U.S. news. Who can forget watching John King and his "magic" electoral map? That was fascinating stuff watching him manipulte the different scenarios. I am in touch frequently with several friends in the States. We discuss politics, world events and just generalities. Through the course of these conversations, it was apparant that they weren't getting the whole picture. Subsequently, I turned them on to reading... 02/05/2009

  In golf parlance, I'm playing the back nine; I learn a couple of new medical terms each year,  and, I tend to reflect more these days.  I was going to do a blog on actuaries and getting old, but I decided to lighten up.... Not really though..... I have the type of mind that won't let something go once it's germinating in my head. Normally, people don't want to talk about getting old, but I shall, and get it out of the way. I WAS going to do one blog on actuaries, then one on old people and finally, one on dying; you know, all the cheerful stuff. Then it dawned on me; it's all inter-related, so I decided, let's do one blog and get it out of the way.    Note, the taped glasses and bowtie; this is a sure sign of an actuary. Actuaries can best be described as someone who wanted to be an a... 02/04/2009

   Now, don't get me wrong; I'm a dog person, and always have been. If you've done your job right, they will actually listen to you and do stupid dog tricks.   They are also quite high maintenance. They have to be walked, daily, sometimes twice daily, it matters not what the weather is. Most days, I stand by the window in my warm house, hot coffee in hand,  peering out at  dog owners bundled up and walking their charges  through the snow and rain and cold- all carrying that ubiquitous little, (depending on size of dog), plastic bag. None of them, (the dog owners), appear particularly happy; the dogs on the other hand are wagging their tails and have their tongues hanging out with that goofy expression on their face they all seem capable of. This bag of course, is for picking up after yo... 02/03/2009

Most people, I think, when looking at an atlas, see 2 countries stretching east to west, or, (west to east, depending on which end you're standing at).                                                                     NOT ME! People in British Columbia, Washington state and Oregon have a lot in common, we, however, have very little in common with the other Provinces and the other States. And absolutely nothing in common with Newfoundland. (That's that funny bit of land way out east in the ocean). It's a place that every knows about, but nobody particularly wants to go there. They have funny expressions there. Such as, "Stay where your at and I'll come where you're to". (Whatever the hell that means!) And their clocks are always a half hour behind everyone else. And they do a dance ca... 02/02/2009

                                                   The other day I was talking to an American friend of mine about politics in general, and specifically about the latest events on both sides of the border. Have you ever tried to explain to an American what a minority government is? He had no concept of what a minortiy government is; come to think of it, neither do I! For the most part, Americans have a 2 party system, unless of course when some fringe individual decides to crawl out of the woodwork and run as an independant. But for the most part, it's a 2 party system, where a winner is declared in every case at the end of a 2 year election battle. (Unless of course there is a problem with chads on the ballots, then it could go either way).                                              ... 01/31/2009

                                                                                                                                        NO, IT'S NOT A "MOO-COW" TYPE OF FARM. In real estate speak, a "farm" is a geographical area of houses, (usually based on postal walks), where a realtor chooses to specialize. Because I live in Mission, I chose a farm of about 1450 homes in the immediate area where I live. Every few weeks, my farm gets a mail-out from me with timely real estate information;  interest rates, real estate trends in this area and general real estate tips. Weather permitting, I periodically walk the farm and try to meet as many people on as I can.  I prefer not to "cold call"; I've been on the other end of these calls and I prefer the face to face method. The whole point of ... 01/28/2009

Ah the other day, my boyfriend Brendan and I were out walking our dog, Belle out by Ruskin Lake, Mission. The snow was melting away, but the path still had about 6 inches of snow! Now it didn't look as if the snow was packed so we didn't want to be trudging through 6 inches of snow without boots on. We noticed a groove on the path that seemed as if someone created it, packing the snow, so we are trying our best to walk in it and not to slip and fall. Our dog is in the ditch walking through the water (you know how dogs are). Shortly we met a couple who were walking their dog, a Beagle, so we stopped and chatted. Funny how dogs are so curious; the little beagle was chasing our big dog, as she was hiding behind me. Anyway, the friendly couple were telling us about a man that was running ar... 01/26/2009

Just SOLD this home in Mission. Visit our website to view more listings in Mission     12/08/2008

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Scott Leaf and Brian Lamb are the "Go to Guys" for Silverdale Development Property.Scott & Brian specialize in helping neighbours assemble their parcels of land and marketing them to Property Developers and Investors.  We are as optimistic about the future of Silverdale as you are and we are here for the long run!Call us today 604-839-8239 or 604-328-5262 03/17/2008

01/21/2008