Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

Guess who's heading out on a wilderness adventure?! Yep ... Scott & Rachel are going to be sleeping in the dirt again. This time we're embarking on a 100-kilometer wilderness canoe trip. The trip is right around the corner and we're buzzing with anticipation.

Bowron Lakes Canoe Adventure

Bowron Lakes Canoe Circuit: A 116-kilometer canoe circuit that encompasses a rectangular-shaped chain of lakes and interconnecting rivers through the wild Cariboo mountains in the heart of the British Columbia interior. Outside Magazine ranks this canoe trip as "One of the top 10 canoe trips in the world".

The food dehydrator has been running for five days straight, as we prepare six or seven back-country suppers. We're starting to get excited, because we're fobbing Alex off on grandparent's in Vancouver, and taking some "grown-up time" - heading off on another wilderness adventure!

Like most people, with gas prices so high, we're setting our sights on a "local" destination. We're also doing a trip that's a bit different than anything we've done together - we're embarking on a multi-day canoeing trip. The place we're headed is about a nine-hour drive from Vancouver, into the interior of British Columbia - Bowron Lake Provincial Park.

According to Outside magazine, the Bowron Lakes canoe circuit ranks among one of the World's 10-best canoe trips. It's a different way of traveling for Scott, that's for sure! (Rachel has done the trip before, when she was quite young, with her family. Still she remembers little, so it's as if we're both going for the first time ever).

To learn more about Bowron Lakes, get a detailed topographic map of the Bowron Lakes Provincial Park and view a video, which will wet your appetite for adventure ... read on.

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When it comes to finding which websites link to your domain, or to a specific URL within your domain, Yahoo!Search beats the pants off of Google search. Find out why.

Who Links to Your Internal Web Pages?
Why Yahoo Search Soars Over Google

One measure of the relevancy ("success" or contribution) of a website, is to find how many other people reference (link to) its pages. To answer this question, until now anyway, I've headed to the search engine I usually use - Google.

By typing link:randsco.com into a Google search box, it spits back a list of sites that link to this domain. (Instructions for this - and other - advanced Google operators).

Doing the above yields about 200 results and going down the list, one can see which sites link to our domain. Unfortunately, many of the results are actually randsco webpages or they are sites where I have placed a link (e.g., comments I've made on other blogs, newsgroups or forums). It sure would be nice to eliminate those and see only other people linking in. (Particularly useful tracking down folks violating our copyright policy, by using our CSS techniques and PHP scripts for commercial purposes and bypassing the "donation required" step).

Step aside Google, because this is where Yahoo beats the pants off of your - very simple - "link:" search. Yahoo!Search is more powerful, more accurate and more comprehensive.

To learn about the power of Yahoo's inbound link searching and how to stretch your link-searching muscles .... read on ...

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Yesterday, we returned from hosting our first visitors at the floating cabin, in the Barkley Sound. It was a success! The weather (for the most part) cooperated, the boat didn't break down and we even remembered to bring the cabin key this time! We did encounter a few SNAFU's however

Bruce & Michelle / Langley, B.C.

Lunchtime Break: Michelle and Bruce take in the views from our kayaking lunch stop, at the northern tip of Alma Russell Islands. It was a perfect cove for lunch, affording views northeast and east, protection from offshore winds and even some decent beach combing. It took us almost 4 hours to paddle most of the way around Alma Russell Islands, from the cabin.

This summer season seems to be all about the floating cabin, as we're trying to find the best way out to Julia Passage (in the Barkley Sound), work out some kinks and make sure that the boat, "Blue Yonder" is reliable and seaworthy. We were eager to share our love for the outdoors and the unique wilderness experience at the floating cabin, but we were a bit nervous about having our first visitors.

It's fitting that they were Bruce and Michelle, because they were also our first guests in Edmonton, showing up within a couple of weeks after we'd moved. They also like the out-of-doors and have recently gotten into kayaking. They were visiting Vancouver Island for an anniversary vacation and when we found out, we invited them to the floating cabin for a few days.

We had a great time, even though there were a few mishaps: an overloaded boat; a swarm of vicious, stinging bees; and the loss of eight crabs to determined seals. It seems that every trip to the cabin brings up 'interesting challenges' that turn into humorous and memorable events!

To read about the adventure of our first floating cabin guests .... carry on (the narrative is in their own words, as transcribed from the cabin guest journal) ...

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Rachel reviews "The Time In Between", an award winning novel by David Bergen. A

(Fiction)Review of "The Time In Between"
an award winning novel by David Bergen

The Time In Between: A Vietnam veteran is still suffering depression, night terrors & panic attacks, decades after his service in the war. He reads a book by a North Vietnamese soldier - whose experiences seem to mirror his own - and he goes to Vietnam & then disappears.

The 2005 winner of the Giller Prize, David Bergen’s novel, “The Time In Between” is about a Vietnam veteran, Charles Boatman, who returns to Vietnam to face some of the demons that have haunted him for decades after serving there. When he goes missing, his son and daughter, Jon and Ada, travel to Vietnam in search of him. While Jon soon emotionally abandons the search for his father, Ada continues to follow any clue that might lead to her father, becoming entangled in the lives of those she meets. The novel unfolds, moving between past and present, father and daughter, as the two main characters each weave their way along an emotional journey. The strength of the tie between father and daughter is developed in the section of the book covering the years prior to Charles' return to Vietnam and then as Ada gains insight into her father's trauma as she continues her search for him.

Click "Read Full Story" to continue reading the review of "The Time In Between".

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IKEA Svala Checkerboard Table Project: Alex got an IKEA "Svala" table from her grandparents. Most IKEA furniture must be put together and a finish applied. This was no different. What was different, however, was that Scott turned it into a checkerboard. (Step-by-step instructions, tips and photos are included for other do-it-yourself project types).

IKEA Svala: (Starting Point) An un-finished children's table that comes with two chairs, which was given to Alex by Gran and Grandpa Pilley. (First thing 4 year old Alex did? Scrawl on it with Crayola crayons! The project started with a fair bit of sanding).

DIY Project for an IKEA "Svala" Children's Table
(or any other unfinished table, for that matter)

I had the idea of doing something special with an IKEA TRIVIA: What Does IKEA Mean? The popular Swedish home furnishings retailer - IKEA - has 282 stores in 36 countries (and plans on opening about 23 more stores during 2008). It was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad (17 at the time). The company name combines the first letters of the founder's name and the village in which he grew up (Elmtayrd Agunnaryd) ... hence: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd! Now you know! Just remember it for the next time you play Trivial Pursuit!  table that Alex got from her maternal grandparents, as a gift. Sure, I could have simply stained it, or applied polyurethane, but I wanted to try my hand at something slightly more fancy.

Final Svala Checkerboard Table: Here's the final table and chairs, in Alex's room. A fun project, it provides Alex with a game table, in addition to a table for tea parties and a surface upon which she can color. The polyurethane finish makes it impervious to spills & stains.

By adding a checkerboard playing surface, Alex could use the table for more than just tea parties and coloring sessions. The only question was, "What's the best way to add the checkerboard?"

The project languished, partly because of other chores and a busy schedule, but also because I was couldn't decide on the best way to proceed.

Ultimately, I flew by the seat of my pants, using a combination of spray paint, wood stain and polyurethane. I tried to add an 'antique touch' to the finished product and all-in-all, I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

I thought I'd share the steps (plus a bit of what was learned along the way and things I'd do differently) in case someone else out there wants to take on a similar project.

For step-by-step instructions and photos ... carry on brave DIYs!

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