I finally found a few minutes to look through some papers my mother gave me a while back. Here is my father's 1949 T4 slip. I have removed his name/regimental. He earned $2,485.50, had $110 deducted for income tax, of which he paid $19 and had $91 refunded. Unreal.

Strawberry capybaras. OK…it did make me smile…

And here's some more truth. That NEP sure did a number on the American rotary rig activity...

Danielle Smith also claims that the wages in AB are the highest in Canada. Not if you are a minimum-wage earner... From the Retail Council of Canada...

A few days ago lovely friends gave me a bag of Haribo dinosaurs gummies to give my husband who is in hospital. A bit of a joke. While we were having a quick coffee we noticed the following label, which was affixed to the Haribo product by an Edmonton importer of European food goods. Yikes! /2

More than 40 years ago, a friend gave me this English woven bookmark. It’s showing its age (as am I), but I still love it.

From RBC Economics. RBC suggests that the decline is due to a change in US tariffs after the American courts struck down the current tariff-applying framework/regime/excuse/rationale...

A friend made this beautiful quilt for me. It's edged and backed in black, the back having inset squares of equally colourful cats.

In-laws’ new dog. Labradoodle and Bernedoodle X. They don’t get much cuter than that pup. Look at those white fangs!

The website www.wtrg.com is an excellent source.

I love watching Knowledge Network, Canadian province BC's public broadcaster. I have been watching rail adventures, tonight an episode about rail travel in Portugal. The Douro valley, the coast...At an artisan ceramic tile studio in Aviero (or Lisbon), this tile was displayed. No kidding.... /2

Here’s our formerly feral tortie. She’s 14 now. We trapped her 13 years ago and promised local rescue that we’d pay her vet bills and try to domesticate her. It took a while. Now she has hyperthyroidism, but is on the mend. She loves her polar bear buddy…

Exciting morning. Tortie kitty has anal gland issues, so to the vet for clean-out. We had her wrapped like a sausage roll. On came the proctologist glove, ha, ha. Feared a real battle but she was as good as gold. No fuss, not a peep, but she was very glad to be home.

Belated Caturday. Our late Gorgeous George. I miss him so much.

2/ They trusted the experts. I remember the then fear of polio. As a child, I knew that it weighed on my parents and that they were overjoyed when I could receive vaccines in 1955 and 1956. JFK Jr. and the dimwitted anti-vaxxers can GFT. They are stupid and dangerous.

Here’s George a little looped after playing with his new Christmas present, the pink catnip mouse. What a guy.

He looks so much like our late George, who was also a big cat.

I know I’m not a dog (as if!) but I’d send my favourite comfort dog toy to Kevin if I could.

This bar chart shows size of US deficit as % of GDP and cyclically adjusted relative to other advanced economies. US 7%+, Canada less than 1.5%. Canada is clearly not broken.