Raven's View

The mashed potato extravaganza turned out great - and a 5 quart casserole of it was definitely more than enough for 10 at Christmas dinner. So - I went over to a friend's last night for dinner - and brought the casserole. We had generous helpings, but there's till some left, so we will be ready for any other dinner invitations over the holidays.

I put my mom on the plane yesterday, she had a great visit. We went out a few times but mostly kept it low key. She's slowing down a bit, but needs to be reminded that she IS 91, so can't expect to be as active as her younger years - like her 80's. She's glad to get back to her own place I think, and her routine. She usually heads off to warmer climes in late winter - Mexico for many years,  and then Victoria. But she has found that health insurance costs keep going up, and the logistics of traveling are getting to be more onerous.

Time now to do some odds and sods around the house -  and get out and walk off some of these Christmas calories. We finally have snow, so there's another opportunity for exercise. Leisurely of course - glad I don't have to leap out of bed and shovel in a panic before rushing off to work.

I heard a news item today, that wasn't actually new, being from August of 2005. Apparently a huge chunk of the ice shelf at the north end of Ellesmere Island  broke off - but nobody was around to notice when it happened. It was finally picked up on a satellite scan. To give an idea of scale, the newscast described it as being the size of 11,000 football fields. Because that's something we can all visualize - not. Later reports added that is was about 66 sq km, still not much help. Then they added it was about 4 km wide, and started with a crack about 15 km long - finally something I could grab. 15 km is a couple of hour's worth of jogging, a fair distance. Especially up there, wearing insulated boots.