Let's Be Optimistic and say "Winter is Ending!"

This is a view that I saw while touring new listings in the Rosemont area of Nelson.

View from the Osprey 2000 as we entered the West Arm of Kootenay Lake.

I am completely convinced that, even with the extra (leap) day this year, February is going to fly by, so I thought I would get my newsletter done early.


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This one was taken from our Uphill neighbourhood.

Lawyer Laughs
The following questions from lawyers were taken from official records nationwide:

1. Was that the same nose you broke as a child?

2. Now, doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, in most cases he just passes quietly away and doesn't know anything about it until the next morning?

3. Q: What happened then?
A: He told me, he says, 'I have to kill you because you can identify me.'
Q: Did he kill you?

4. Was it you or your brother that was killed in the war?

5. The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?

6. Were you alone or by yourself?

7. How long have you been a French Canadian?

8. Do you have children or anything of that kind?

9. Q: I show you exhibit 3 and ask you if you recognize that picture?
A: That's me.
Q: Were you present when that picture was taken?

10. Were you present in court this morning when you were sworn in?

11. Q: Now, Mrs. Johnson, how was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?

12. Q: Do you know how far pregnant you are now?
A: I'll be three months on November 8.
Q: Apparently, then, the date of conception was August 8?
A: Yes
Q: What were you doing at the time?

13. Q: Mrs. Jones, do you believe you are emotionally stable?
A: I used to be.
Q: How many times have you committed suicide?

14. So you were gone until you returned?

15. Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None
Q: Were there girls?

16. You don't know what it was, and you don't know what it looked like, but can you describe it?

17. Q: You say that the stairs went down to the basement?
A: Yes
Q: And these stairs, did they go up also?

18. Q: Have you lived in this town all your life?
A: Not yet.

19. A Texas attorney, realizing he was on the verge of unleashing a stupid question, interrupted himself and said, "Your Honor, I'd like to strike the next question."

20. Q: Do you recall approximately the time that you examined the body of Mr. Edington at the Rose Chapel?
A: It was in the evening. The autopsy started about 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Edington was dead at the time, is that correct?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy!

*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*

One day last week the snow clearing equipment was out in force. It made me realize that we are fortunate to have such great service in our community. Many places just have to wait for it to melt.

In just a couple of weeks, it will be Valentine's Day. Here is an article I read on some fun facts for this time of year:

Valentine's Day Fun Facts

• About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in US each year. That's the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.
• Women purchase 85% of all valentines.
• In order of popularity, Valentine's Day cards are given to teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.
• About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.
• Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are the biggest holidays for giving flowers.
• Worldwide, over 50 million roses are given for Valentine's Day each year.
• California produces 60 percent of American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine's Day in the United States are imported, mostly from South America. Approximately 110 million roses, the majority red, will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period.
• 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
• Men buy most of the millions of boxes of candy and bouquets of flowers given on Valentine's Day.
• In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
• The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.
• Richard Cadbury invented the first Valentines Day candy box in the late 1800s.
• The oldest surviving love poem till date is written in a clay tablet from the times of the Sumerians, inventors of writing, around 3500 B.C

A reminder for those who are seeking for real estate related news, to please check out my "in the koots" blog-site. Recent articles have touched on strata changes and a local real estate forecast.

Thanks for reading. Your comments and feedback are always welcome.

Lorne & Drew

The Skiers Are Ecstatic

This morning I attended my Rotary Club meeting, as I normally do on a Tuesday morning. I was amazed at how many of our club members were decked out in their ski wear, planning to drive to Whitewater right after the meeting to set "first tracks" into the 14 cm. of fresh snow that fell there overnight. Here in the downtown area we got enough snow that I had to shovel this morning (after breakfast), but not so much as other areas around us. It is very peaceful, but then I don't have to drive any distance for at least a couple of days.

Now that I have mentioned Rotary, I want to promote a project that our club has taken on, in support of Rotary's world-wide effort to eliminate polio once and for all. Many people may have forgotten about polio, now that it is gone from this part of the world, but it was not so many years ago that it was everywhere. Now it remains in only 4 countries of the world, and one of those countries (India) has just celebrated one year without a new case being reported! If this holds for 2 more years, then India will be declared polio-free, and there will be only 3 countries where the wild polio virus remains.

What is our club doing, and how can you help? We call the Program PEEC (Polio Eradication Exercise Challenge) and it involves a small contribution (we suggest $2) every time you exercise (we hope you are doing that 3 times a week). If you participate in this, by the end of April, you will have raised $100 for the cause. It's tax deductible, and you can find out more about it Here.

We Are This Close To Ending Polio

Do You Know A Buyer For This Home?

This 3 bedroom, 2 bath double-wide manufactured home is located in a quality park at Six Mile. It features a gas fireplace, sundeck, carport and shed and is in very good condition. Now available for quick possession. Featured Property $139,500

Mastering The English Language

The English Plural

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of "odds and ends" and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speakingEnglish

Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship...
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway..
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing..........

If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop.????

Are you old enough to remember the '50s? If not, are you curious? Check this out - A White Sport Coat

Memory Clinic
1. Two elderly couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, "Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?"
"Outstanding," Fred replied. "They taught us all the latest psychological techniques: visualization, association, etc. It was great."
"That's great! And what was the name of the clinic?"
Fred went blank. He thought and thought, but couldn't remember. Then a smile broke across his face and he asked, "What do you call that flower with the long stem and thorns?"
"You mean a rose?"
"Yes, that's it!"
Fred turned to his wife.
"Rose, what was the name of that memory clinic?"
*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*

So, that's it for another month, and so the year begins. If you're looking for more real estate related news, please check out my Business Blog. Recent posts there have included statistics for MLS (r) sales during 2011 and also some information about your recent property tax assessment.

Thanks for reading.

Lorne & Drew