Friends of MKTS - The World is a Book

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WHO ARE THEY? - Mary claims to be an island girl, now married and living with her two kids in San Diego. I guess she gets credit for being an island girl since she was born in the Philippines, but in my mind you're not truly an island girl until I've seen a picture of you in a coconut bra and a grass skirt. As closely as I've read her site, I can't recall ever seeing Mary dressed up in an outfit like that. Her husband sure...but we're talking about Mary here.

The Resolutions Revisited

It's December 7th. That means that there's only 24 days left this year, which also means that there are 342 days of this year behind us. That's how much time I've had to work on my New Years resolutions for 2012. It's strange but when you have 342 days ahead of you, it seems like enough time to accomplish almost anything. When the 342 days are behind you though, it seems like you barely had time to scratch the surface of everything you intended to do. Don't let the clock manufacturers fool you...time definitely has two different speeds depending on which way you're looking.

Light Up the Vines

I'm a big fan of Christmas light displays. Not the actual assembling of them...I think I've made it clear that I have no talent at all when it comes to putting the Christmas lights up...but I love looking at the houses that go all out to drain their local power grid and ensure that nobody on their block sleeps before midnight. That's probably why the event "Light up the Vines" appealed to me. The concept, at least as I understood it, was that all the wineries along Bottleneck Drive in Summerland (about 20 minutes south of Kelowna), were going to string Christmas lights around their vineyards, and for two nights the public would be welcome to make the rounds among the wineries to see the displays and, of course, to visit the gift shops for some late night wine tasting and Christmas shopping. It sounded like a fun evening out.

Travel Through the Tree

One of the reasons my wife gives for having to go shopping in every town we visit, is that she likes to collect Christmas ornaments from the various places we go. This is actually one of the (very few) shopping activities that I approve of (like I get a vote), as it's pretty cool to stand there and look at your Christmas tree and think back over all the great trips you've had through the years. 

This weekend, the tree went up in our house, and while I wasn't around to help set it up (Believe me, they plan it that way), I got a chance yesterday to take a look over all the different ornaments hanging on the tree.

Ah yes...the Disneyland 50th Anniversary ornament. That was a good memory. What else do we have? 

The Trek to Layer Cake Mountain

We have something unique to the world here in Kelowna. Other than being the birth place for two of the three MKTS children, an event which the city still hasn't managed to find funds to commemorate, Kelowna is the home of Layer Cake Mountain. This mountain was formed from lava flows a long time ago, but what makes it unique is the even layers in which the lava hardened. Scientists used to think that it was the result of numerous separate lava flows over time, but now the popular theory is that it was just one big lava flow. As for why it hardened in equal layers...well that's a good God question. If you prefer though, and you understand a lot of big words, there's a sort of explanation here.