Thank goodness for decent time management skills!

After discovering what it is to be the parent of very active and athletic kids (our kids are both headed to the Provincials in their respective sports) and trying to juggle it all with both hubby and I as full time shift workers, I’m in serious need of a siesta.

And so, I am taking the summer off from blogging in order to spend more time relishing the gifts of my life.  I’m still working through the summer months and because summer leads to some pretty interesting police work I will likely have lots to share when I return to you in early September.

Until then play, train and work hard.  And above all, enjoy your summer and be safe.

Sandra

The solution, for our family at least, was to go with the best features of both PC and Mac.

An iMac now sits where our old PC used to and is the main reason for little productivity on my part as there is a learning curve on the different system.  I’m starting to get the hang of it (it’s been a week and I’m going to take advantage of a one-to-one tutorial soon) and I’m confident everything will get easier as I go.

The plan is to buy a PC laptop with basic internet surfing capability (internet, email, homework etc).  Yes, the Mac Books are very nice, but they do far more than we require of a second computer and we can pick up a decent basic lap top for less than half the price of a Mac Book, even after we factor in the anti-virus software etc.

One huge bonus?  We now have ultra slick photo editing software so once I figure out how to use it I’ll be posting more photos.

Cheers for now, and here’s to wishing everyone has a great weekend!

Those were the first words I heard from my mom when I picked up the ringing phone a short while ago. 

Yes, it is, on the surface.  The content is the same but time had come for an updated look.   Besides, a little change is good for you – it keeps things interesting!

To view the blog, go to www.behindtheblueline.ca and leave a comment on the Free Give Away post – I would hate for you to miss a chance at this great read! 

We’re only one day into this with six days left, so there is plenty of time to get your name in the hat.

Sorry for the confusion…and people ask why I don’t Tweet… 

Police paraphernalia because this is a police blog?  Books because I’m avid reader?  Dog toys/treats because I’m a dog handler? 

Then it was decided for me.  Someone sent me a book (thank you, Priya!), which happens to be one I read about a year ago and loved.  I even chatted it up here on the blog, saying it was a good read for anyone interested in what going deep undercover was like.  Mind you, undercover work, particularly the style outlined in this book, seems totally crazy and I’ll keep my job as a police dog handler, thank you very much.

So in the decision that I would pass on to my readers what has been graciously offered to me, the first give away is going to be a copy of NO ANGEL by Jay Dobyns. 

If you’re in the market for a good read, leave me a comment on this post between today, April 7th, 2010, and 2359 hours (PST) on April 14th, 2010, and I’ll announce the winner next week. 

Sorry, but anonymous comments will be not be included as there is no way to properly identify the participant if an anonymous comment is selected as the winner.  To get around this you can create a Gmail account  with an alias (it’s easy and it’s free) so no one will ever know who you really are – even I won’t know.

Good luck!

• We travelled to Ireland, had a wonderful time and discovered that two weeks is not nearly long enough to fully discover the beautiful country – more to follow
• Policing in Northern Ireland is much different than it is here – more to follow on that as well
• Driving in Ireland is, well, interesting. Actually, I loved it – everyone can drive and be courteous at the same time.
• Hondo is much improved, thanks to my wonderful friend who cared for him while we were away
• I’ve no more time to write much else as our return flight, originally slated to be a flight totalling 13 hours, turned into a Trans-Atlantic journey spanning 36 hours, four airports and just as many planes. Compliments of an airline strike.  At least we were upgraded to business class for the long haul. 

I hope all has been well here, and I should be returning to regular posting within a few days.

As a country we have done so well – from Joannie Rochette with her inspirational bronze medal performance less than a week after her mother suddenly passed away, to the women’s hockey victory with bringing home the gold (personally, I think it’s pretty cool the hockey team celebrated on the ice with a couple of cold ones).  The Ice Dance left me breathtakingly speechless, and I was a bit teary when Alexendre Bilodeau took the podium for our first Gold.  All the other medals leave me in awe of our athletes.  Way to go Canada!

I’m a snowboarder so I can appreciate how insane those runs were – I would not willingly submit myself to the same course.  After watching the bobsledding I thought that would be the uber-cool sport to train for – kind of like driving a police car Code Three but with a much smaller ‘vehicle’ and a much more difficult navigational requirement.  I’m serious.  Either that or the biathlon.  How do you even get started in sports like these??

In any event, Canada currently leads 3-1 in the men’s hockey game  against Slovakia, with less than seven minutes left in the third, and I’ve no more time to spend here as I really must go watch the rest of the game.

GO CANADA!

Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.

Be proud of your beliefs.  Stand up and make your voice be heard.  Gather together, march for your cause, and sing your allegiances. 

But to hide behind the anonymity of a balaclava while wrecking havoc in the pursuit of your cause lessens the cause you are so desperately trying to support.

Here is my first comment about the trip – Las Vegas is a total gong show, as I’m sure many of you know. 

The people watching was a treat (you could fill a book with anecdotes about the weird and the bizarre), the architecture was amazing, and the rides were breath-takingly-scary. First we dangled ourselves off the edge at 866 ft up in the air, and then we catapulted up to 1149 ft on a ride called the Big Shot at the top of the Stratosphere building. I thought hubby was going to have to change his shorts. 

Me?  I screamed like a little girl. 

The thing about Vegas is that people go there to gamble. We’re not gamblers, as can be seen by the cashout voucher on one of our only foray’s into the casinos:

Vegas was quite the experience, but by day three I was more than ready to head home.  Now that we’re home it’s the day before I head back to work and I’m exhausted.  Time for a good night’s sleep in my own bed so I can get up and get my head in the game (more on getting your ‘head in the game’ in a future post).

One thing I did notice was the number of police units with the Nevada Taxicab Authority.  I’m still not sure if they were a police agency unto their own as I cannot find a website, but the officers were armed and drove marked Crown Victoria police cars. 

Too bad they weren’t around when we encountered the one cab driver who was of the sort to give all cab drivers a bad name when he tried to scam us…

‘Tried’ is the operative word in the above sentence.