The Weekend

Last night Michelle and I visited with Byron and Amy, and Amy's sister Carly. We had a good time but Michelle went home early because she had to work at 5 am. The rest of us went and played pool for a couple hours. Byron and Amy's puppy, Jackson is training well and has learned to shake with both paws. Michelle has been appointed to be some kind of safety person at work, and is preparing for the big safety meeting next week. I think she should try to make everyone wear pink hard hats, but she won't do that. I am doing an open house this afternoon and the seller said she would feed me lunch, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Jackson the dog

Byron and Amy

Amy and Carly

Useless facts

In 1911 according to the census 206 people living in Canada professed to be socialists under the religion column. There were 26,027 people who claimed no religious affiliation. 79.53% of males 10 years or older living in Canada were gainfully employed. 14.31% of Women were employed. In 1911 if you were born in the British Isles and a permanent resident, you were considered a citizen. Out of 752,732 people not born in the British Isles 353,588 had acquired citizenship. Between 1901 and 1911 the population of Canada grew by 1,835,328. 5,347 of those were born in "an unknown place in the British Empire" or at Sea. 839 men claimed to be divorced, as opposed to 691 women. In 1911 four Canadian cities had a population of more than 100,000, Montreal(470,480) Toronto(376,538) Winnipeg(136,035) and Vancouver(100,401).

I would like to thank all those who took part in the 1911 census for helping me to compile this information.

You drive that?

Duke point looking at Nananimo
This morning doggy and I went for a walk at the park out by the duke point ferry terminal. He behaved well and didn't leap into the ocean like he would have in his younger years. He's not fond of riding in the car anymore, I guess he put on too many miles when we were trucking. At work today I mostly did follow up stuff, but I did show a house tonight and I organized a business networking group that meets for the first time tomorrow. Most of the people I invited sounded positive but I'll find out how interested they are in the morning. Michelle wanted me to mention that if anyone happens to see her filling a gas station, please don't ask if she really drives that truck. Yes its true girls can drive trucks. I can shift gears too but I don't have the patience to do her job. Real estate is far less stressful. I had a costumer ask me to inquire about a commercial property today, and when I called the listing agent he asked me if I specialize in commercial real estate. I tried to think of something witty to say but nothing came to me so I just said "I'm pretty new at this, so I'll sell anything I can." He said oh, Ok, good luck. Probably not the best answer, but sometimes the truth works. I don't really care what they think, as long as I don't get the "son let me give you some advice" thing. I don't mind advice as long as its genuine and not condescending. Michelle has the day off tomorrow and I think she's planning something for dinner. I told her I have to show houses from 6:30 to 8:00, but we should be able to have an early dinner. I'm hoping these people are serious buyers, I've showed them a bunch of stuff and they don't seem excited about buying. I think maybe they just haven't found what they want and when they see it they'll make the decision. We called the lucky winner of the DVD player from the home show, and he's coming in to collect his prize tomorrow afternoon. I told him we wanted to take a picture and he asked if his fiance could be in the picture. Sounds good to me.

Its Monday!

Michelle has one more day till the weekend. She took doggy for another walk and he's all pooped out. I looked at condos all day, and wrote an offer on one of them this afternoon. I hope that works out. Ken had a root canal today so I didn't hear much from him. It was a nice sunny day and even though its getting cooler I wonder what's going on with this weather. (not that I'm complaining) The people I did the open house for on Sunday have a ferret, I thought that was a strange choice of pets but it seems friendly enough.

Michelle making lunch


Doggy

Doggy walk

I got to sleep in today, then Michelle and I relaxed and had coffee till about 11:00. Michelle took Doggy for a walk to "the hill" and I showed condos. I was walking through this vacant condo with my clients and a guy just walks in and starts looking around. Then anouther guy walks in, I guess they thought it was an open house. I got one of the guys phone numbers and he wants to look at more places but the other guy said he already has an agent so I told him to take a hike. After that I did an open house and the guy across the street came and talked to me and said he wants to buy a house. Gus is all tuckered from his walk and Michelle is working the late shift so I'm by myself. (minus one sleeping dog) My client liked one of the condos but wants to see a few more before she buys anything.

The hill

Parkway trail



Foggy morning

A day in the park

Well... Today we had great weather, sunshine all day. Michelle had the day off today so she took Doggy for a walk, and rode her scooter. We went for lunch at the Acme restaurant and the food was good but the service was a little slow. In their defense it was very busy. Michelle learned that you will get a ticket if you park a scooter on the sidewalk, luckily the parking police came by and told her before it was too late. I made phone calls in the morning and chased clients in the afternoon, and managed to find time to go for a walk at Sutton-maffeo park. It seems I lost the free condo in Vancouver for the Canucks game I'm going to next month. Apperently Ken had already promised it to his Mom so I guess I'll have to stay at the Sandman or someplace like that. My brother's birthday party is next week, but Michelle has to work that day so we probably won't go.
Michelle needs her coffee

Just a rainy day

I got my real estate blog up and running last night, and I think it looks pretty good. If you would like to see it theres a link at the side of the page. Its damn wet out there today, it poured all night and its been drizzling all day. I've spent most of the day chasing after clients trying to get paperwork signed and taking pictures of houses. Ken thinks instead of drawing names from the show last night that we should just rent the flying club building for a day, have a pot luck and take everyone flying. Sounds good to me. We seem to be getting pretty busy at work, there was a ton of new listigs this week and there seems to be more serious buyers than there was a month ago. I have been trying to get ahold of the vet to get my dogs test results but so far we're just playing phone tag.
Thats my office.

Michelle at work

Today Michelle took the camera to work so we get to see what she does all day. The offer I wrote yesterday was accepted, I showed a nice lady and her son some houses and I attended the Home Based Business Fair. The fair went well and I met a lot of people who run small businesses. The 7-10 club were there selling pasta, soup, pie, and other tasty treats to raise money for the soup kitchen they run.
Michelle on her scheduled lunch break.(yeah right)

Port Alberni at the pulp mill

Guard shack at the mill

Thats the pump that unloads the mud

It was a beautiful day today. I wrote an offer on a house and it looks pretty solid. I signed up for the home based business show and if thats even a fraction as sucsessful as the home show I'll be very pleased. Michelle has agreed to take the camera to work tomorrow so we should get some good pictures of trucks and pulp mills. I took a few pictures today as well.

Departure Bay from above the college

Gabriola Island on the right and Protection Island on the left from College Dr

Well it was an interesting day today. Ken (my business partner) and I were suposed to draw the names of the lucky winners of the contest we held at the homeshow this weekend but because of unforseen circumstances its been delayed till tomorrow. I'm sure the winners will forgive us. I think the homeshow was a great success for us. We met a lot of people and hopefully a few good customers. Michelle has to work early again so I'm trying to type quietly. The weather was improved today after a rainy weekend but it seems to be getting colder even when the suns up.
Doggy usually doesn't beg but when it rains he doesn't know what to do with himself Thats me watching Deadwood Thats my homeshow booth. We only had two days notice so I think it looks good considering.That was Saturday. Pretty dreary