May 11^th, 2003:

Happy Mothers’ Day, Mothers! It was a happy one for me, and I’m not even a mother. Marg, Aaron and Danny came down from Hudson Bay and took us to the Smorg at the Cove at noon. Then we went for a little drive to Jan’s Friends & Neighbors Greenhouse over at Marean Lake. We visited awhile with Jan and Pat, and Louise and Leonard Sonstelie came in so we visited some more.

We stopped in at the Marean Lake Golf Course but they aren’t open until next week. Then Doreen cracked the whip around home for awhile, and we took them to Lil’s Beach Café for supper. We held ourselves down to the salad bar, but after three trips to the dessert tray I feel a bit overfed. Nice to see Tennille Sonstelie back, but she says it’s just for the day; she goes back to Saskatoon tomorrow.

The Beach Café is open from now until Labor Day; her hours are from 8 AM to 7 PM Monday through Thursday, and 8 AM to 8 PM Friday and Saturday. Poor Lil is really hobbling around - she broke her ankle last winter and I suspect she is barely off crutches.

Beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky and very little wind, but the temperature did drop down to –6° last night. After a nice day or two, we tend to forget that hard frosts are almost a sure thing until into June.

Last weekend was a good one. We loafed our way to Prince Albert on Saturday, stopping at the Relay for Life Flea Market in Tisdale, a garage sale along the highway, and another in Star City. At that last one, we met Mrs. Stead, who used to have a cottage a block from ours, so had a nice conversation.

At Prince Albert, we stayed with Cathy and Ted. Cathy is a member of the Watsonaires, a ladies’ singing group. They put on a concert every year, and we like to go, if at all possible. This year, it was held in the Olive and John Deifenbaker Theater, in PA’s brand-new Centre for the Arts. The theatre has a capacity of about 600, the acoustics are great, and there are no bad seats. We were impressed!

In addition to the Watsonaires, there were other singers, pianists, violinists, and, of all things, a girl who played the overture to Phantom of the Opera on hand bells, and did it beautifully!

To make the evening even better, we met Gladys and Bill Skomorowski, friends from our Wynyard days, Wanda (formerly Brooks; I can’t remember her married name) who had a cottage here just a few doors from ours, and Doris and Murray McLaren, friends we met on our tour bus last fall.

One little downer: a neighbor phoned Ted about 7 AM Monday to say the car in front of the house had been broken into. Sure enough, someone had kicked in the door window on the driver’s side. No sign of attempted entry, and nothing was missing. Half a block down, another car had the same damage done. I guess that’s fun for some people.

But then another upper: I took my three-year-old Makita cordless drill (my right hand!) to Makita’s depot in Saskatoon because the chuck was jammed. When I picked it up, it had a brand-new chuck and there was no charge - the man said the old one was defective! I live for these little surprises! After that, nothing could faze me.