Welcome to markzaugg.com

A note of thanks and memorial

I know I've been terribly out of touch over the past few months. I'm still here. I'm still taking pictures. My family is still wonderful - as are the additions I'm merely going to allude to for the time being.

However, I'm wish to mention a tribute to a person who had a huge effect on my life.

I've been a fan of Babylon 5 ever since I first got wind that it was rendered on my beloved Amiga. As the story progressed, I considered it one of the finest television programs I'd seen.

There is no question at all - G'Kar and Londo were my very favourite characters. The character of G'Kar has given me cause to think on many occasions, and set into action small changes in my thoughts that have brought larger improvements in my life. Significance to one's life comes from inspiration from one's world at large. G'Kar, characterized on a fictional space station in 2257 actually affected my world in - what - 1993?

Andreas Katsulas passed on February 13, 2006. He masterfully portrayed G'Kar, and enriched my life simply by being an actor in a role that I appreciated. I did not know Andreas personally, I never met him, but he was an inspiration to me and others. I'm a very grounded person and I don't subscribe to fan-boy status, but when people have given meaning to my life I believe they deserve to know. Andreas (with the writing of J. Michael Straczynski) helped to shape and mould the man at this keyboard, and to both of them I owe a debt of gratitude.

Let me echo Joe's kind words with my own. Andreas is a man I too will miss terribly.

In my eyes, to honour a man is to acknowledge how he brought betterment into my life and to try to continue his legacy. Andreas need not be a perfect human being, I'm simply grateful he was a man to make me want to strive to be a better person.

In honour, tonight I sing G'Kar's song with his voice in my mind.

  I'm thinking of thinking of calling her right
    after my afternoon nap.
  I'm thinking of thinking of sending her flowers,
    right after Bonnie gets back.
  So many fishies left in the sea,
    so many fishies - but no-one for me...
  I'm thinking of thinking of hooking a love,
    soon after supper is done.

Goodbye, Andreas.

An update! Can ya believe it?

So very much has been happening over the summer... Time to let everyone get caught up.

Sweet Summer of Sassiness.

No, wait, that doesn't work...

Sweet Summer of Sauciness.

Hmm.....

Sweet Summer of Sunshine.

Meh. Close enough.

Point Number One: I had previously said, "I'm not going to be happy until google ranks me on top for the word 'Ratsofrass.'"

I'm THERE baby! I just need to convince Google to rank me again, and I need to get another site in there so I can be on top of the world!

Point Number Two: I still love my car. It's still a piece of junk. But I've found some of the parts I needed. Really, folks, it's FUN when your windshield wiper switch shorts out and you get a small cloud of smoke pouring from your steering column.

Point Number Three: As always, the kids are the light of my life and the reason for the fun that I have.

With luck, everything else will be self-explanitory.

(C'mon, Google. I'm active as of: Aug 31, 2005

Our pictures!

Camping in Babcia's van. The kids slept up top until they realized it gets COLD at nights.
The hangman's gallows await the stuffed duck. Poor Boris. I walked out to the van, opened the door, and discovered that Boris had been hanged. I was horrified. The kids thought it was hilarious. Therapy awaits us all.
Kidsfest 2005
The kids are about to enter the inflatable obstacle course.
A family of tigers
Chasing bubbles in Olympic Plaza
Parachute fun.
She magically holds the wand in her hand...
I was told that *I* had to get my face painted too. Here ya go, Deb. This one's for you!
Ah, the little monkey makes a return appearance
I think she chose this because the colours match her Kim Possible shirt.
Lilac Festival 2005
Our company works with Lilac Festival putting on the stage shows. I wasn't working, but I went down there with the kids and we had a whale of a time! The kids wanted balloon hats made. They eventually popped and deflated as the day wore on. It was the BEST idea ever. Completely worth every dime I spent. The woman in the picture made them.
Mmm... Frog snack!

Before I continue, I have to state a couple of core beliefs in my world:

1) Being Canadian, I fully believe in a little known law of nature: There is a gene called the Stompin' Tom Connors gene.
2) Stompin' Tom, of course, is the truest, most genuine musician to ever grace this country, and by distinction, is probably the greatest musician alive.
3) Hyperbole is good. Tom is better.
4) During the Live 8 concerts this summer, Celine Dion "phoned home" to participate. A DJ in Ottawa made a stand and demanded Stompin' Tom be involved. A online petition was struck. Here's my entry:

Stompin' Tom - The quintessential Canadian. I love Tom's music, I love all that Tom stands for. My children (ages 7 and 4) have known his music all their lives and are equally as passionate about Tom's music as I am. I have seen him play live - he's an amazing performer and to hear the crowd roar as he brought out a piece of plywood made me proud to be a Canadian and a fan. Tom has relentlessly worked in the betterment of causes he believes in, and he makes no bones about standing up for what he sees as significant in today's world. Tom Connors' music is raw and true to the average man and woman, and he is a credit to us all. Tom deserves to play Live 8, Live 8 would be better by showcasing Tom's talents, and I would be much more willing to participate in the concert knowing I am represented by a man who truly wants to participate and do this country proud. Here's to a man who does good throughout all his stompin' grounds! - Mark Zaugg, Calgary Alberta

Tim Hus has more of the Stompin' Tom gene in the heel of his boot than I have in my whole body.
Tim is earthy and real and a gem of a yarn-spinner. I'm as big a fan of Tim as I am of Tom and I proudly would bend over backwards for either of them.

Tim Hus playing Lilac Festival. Tim is also not only a wonderful song-writer, but he's a gracious guy and a joy to be around. We got both his CD's, Tim signed one to Rebekkah and one to Kelley Aric. We listen to one or the other every day we're together.

Standing in line can be fun.
Mmmm... Rainbow.
Dad loves Spumoni! Dad's going to marry Spumoni!
Running about in a park.
Climbing the spaceball.
Of course we swing.
Now if Dad took the picture looking down the spaceball.... That would mean Dad would have to be.. Hmm.....
Yay Bitsy!
Does the Mustang make me look this cute?

Waiting for a streetcar.
Getting her photo taken
Who watches the watchers? You take my photo, I'll take yours.
Running inside Heritage Park
On her favourite horse first time this year.
Riding the Pie Swing with a new friend.
On top of the Ferris Wheel
She got let off first and had to wait for us.
Good ol' 2024 gets a wave
On the teeter-totter. I can't complain when I taught her that, right?
Climb abord!
KA riding on the Pie Swing
I've got a ride stamp. Can I come on?
Love those hot dogs.
Love that boat swing
Love that horsey
Pardner
Dusting
More dusting
We were merciless on the poor ladies at the Colony House this year. It's a darned good thing they're paid to like us.
Bill and his mule. KA got to pet her.

Breakfast not at Tiffany's.
KA still waves to the train while rocking from leg to leg like the train's bell ringing.
We learned ta play Blackjack in the Saloon. Barkeep! Two shots of root beer. Straight up! And cut the cards or I'll shoot you where ya sit.
Oh Daaaaad.
Hunting down those bandits.
Where'd the train go?

Running in the pool.
Race ya!
Sunfest 2005
Our second street festival of the year, this one in Inglewood. It was also fun, although it involved a little workin...
Remote Control Racin'
The volcano and the butterfly.
Play that funky music, Cowboy!
Cowgirl gives the "all clear" signal
Rrrrowr!
Spiderman-girl and her Tiger.
Cute tiger claws
The good, the bad, and the... Eww....
Railway Days at Heritage Park
We love the double-headed trains.
A small train to ride!
Posing beside the train.
The longest tunnel in the world.
We have the geekiest hats in the world, kiddo!
And they called it Craigellachie. On that day in history!
All aboard!
The Disco Paddle-wheeler.
Sittin' on a corner, watching all the wagons go by.
Two trains to wave at!
Jake modelling a new way to wear a Tilley.
How long has it been since I had a picture of a child looking this sweet?
Might as well go for two!
Kiss the spumoni! KISS IT!
I attended the first rave in my life...
This is how it went.

Life is looking up!
Pointing out sea gulls.
Dad, of course I love shrimp!
Hellooooooooooo up there! I can see things are looking up.
Chewing on a blade of grass.
On the boat with his seal.
Also: Do not throw children overboard.
I'm not trying to scare the children, I was clearly worried about the safety of the camera.
Oops, I think I dropped my seal!
Before.
After.
Dad's moved to a new home in Airdrie! Yay!
Let us build a brand new house!

The mission is really coming along.
Steam roller down the hill!
Oh yeah.. Dad goes higher than ever now.
Is he peeking at the ladies?
The dragonboat races!
Let's see 'em paddle with my kids banging the drums!
Yes, I can still tucker 'em out.
The cousins at a playground!
Crossing the bridge over the River Que?
Ha ha!
A photo of Kelley Aric.. WAITASEC!
The happy boy.
Smilin' Dave Weber! He's single and smilin', Ladies.
Happy in theatre blacks. I gotta fix that shine on top, though...
Does anyone else in the world take pictures of old carburators?
The front porch web.
A rainy day dinner.
The girl looks cute, too.
The hammerhead shark at the Lord Fin's.
C'mon, Sharky. Pat your head and rub your belly!
Cuter than a shark any day!
Hanging from the space ball.
Looking good, riding high.
So happy she could dance for joy!
Me? You want a picture of me?
Okay, but don't aim the camera so low next time!
Building cables at the shop.
So you jam a piece of metal here and you get power!
Don't listen to him. Your face gets frozen like this for hours!
And this one time.. I put the camlock in here...
What's for dinner Dad? "Hot Dog Bugs!" A little ketchup made them ladybugs.
Dad! This car is older than Bitsy! And it still runs fine! What are you doing wrong?
Flying on the Pie Swing.
Pointing out the horses.
Ropin'
Ridin'
Eatin'
More eatin'.
He's not afraid to collect eggs. He's just chicken.
Actually, they are gathering eggs here.
I do take note of the search terms that bring people here. I was proud to see someone looking for "Farming with Horses." Here's your photos for this season.
A horse-drawn swather.
Here are the horses pulling it.
Finishing a pass
Turning for another swath.
It's a wagon traffic jam!
Three cowboys and a cowgirl. This is the real deal, folks. These people know their horses.
A quicktime movie of swathing with horses!

A dragonfly
Dad really gets them high this year...
Dad, must you tangle them all?
Who was that masked girl?
SPLASHPARK!
SPRAY!
I'm goona getcha!
Teaming up!
Having a shower.
A cactus?
Of COURSE you have to plug it up!
Is there a "waterwind" class of musical instrument?
Splashin' with Trent
Here comes a hug!

Now that oughtta hold you for a week or two.

All praise the funk master. The funk master is our master of funk. Josh, from work.
"You go right ahead and push Dad." Expect more shots from this tire swing in your near future.
At least you know they're having fun.
Headwear used as a flying disc. I can't call it a Frisbee, because that's trademarked, right? Oh well. You'll note the purple in her hair that she's immensely proud of.
It's a toitle! Wanna guess which burger joint it came from? I downloaded a bunch of Three Stooges sound clips and threw the mp3's on a CD I carry in my car. We've been saying "Soitenly" and "Toitle" a lot for some strange reason.
It's a rhino! It just doesn't work the same.
Cute as a button on a... HEY! GET DOWN FROM THERE!
A model, coming out of a model of a tree root in the Science Centre.
Waiting for the movie to start
Oh, this is a story!
We love riding the C-train. Public Transit. It's like a subway, only above ground. Or something. I've never been on a subway. Anyways, the kids absolutely love riding on it. In Calgary, you get to ride downtown for free, and given that a lot of our activities have been centered at or near the downtown, I'm happy to take advantage of the free parking, ride the C-train to the other side of downtown, and I enjoy being a tightwad, the kids get a ride on the train, and we're all happy as can be.
Well, the kids wave to the trains as they go by, they run beside them "racing" them (Rebekkah won once, and she'll never let me forget it) and generally being excited about the trains when we see one.
Well.. Today was the day. The driver of the C-train asked how far we were going. "City Hall," I said, the other side of downtown.
"Oh, that's too bad. If you were going past city hall I'd let them come in the front with me."
All of you parents just noticed how bad of a mistake THAT was to say. Keeping a long story slightly less long, the kids rode in the front of a C-train and...
They got to push the buttons. I'm sure someone got fired after that. He's my hero.
Waving goodbye to the C-train.
And here's my girl racing it to the corner.
Daddy's birthday cake - a week early. Ah yes, if I can't have lemon merangue pie (hold the merangue, please), then you better get me an angel food cake with non-descript fruit and frozen yoghurt. Don't ask why I spell yoghurt like that.
How to eat your cake and have it (on your face) too.
Showing the flowers they picked.
Admiring their display.
Can you see what's about to happen here? Girl exits tube. Boy goes "BOO!"
As punishment I made him pull this rope.
Why are children so tiring? Because there's really four of them.
And they conspire against you.
They will never rest until you are in their clutches.
Running over an arch.
Dad can make 'em strong enough that we don't break our necks! How cool is that?
Hot diggity dog, I sure like my hot dog.
"Rebekk! I sure like my hot dog!
They sure do like that tire swing.
Not that an ordinary swing isn't fun, too.
Her natural camoflage makes her impossible to see in the swingset. Look carefully.
Now that is NOT how I taught to you sit on a dinosaur.
THAT is how I taught you to slide down a dinosaur.
I'm going to get you!
The tigress pounces!
Alas, I am caught.
As the rest of the pride comes in for the kill.
KA learns how to run the faders. It's no surprise. We know he can check microphones.
I hope you can read this. "Buy me the World Food Store." Look down and to the left of the window. "No food or drink."
Uhh... kid? I think the balls are supposed to go in there.
We rushed straight to emergency after this photo..
Where they said, "Stick out your tongue and go.. Ewwww!"
Rebekk opens her gift. Nothing says class like birthday gifts wrapped in butcher's paper.
My daughter asked for a sword for her birthday. Bless her soul. She didn't get one.
Even KA was eager to see it.
Here's the best (and still crappy) picture I got. A replica of Harry Potter's wand. I had spells cast on me the rest of the day. I call that success.
Mother's day I worked at the Forzani's Mother's Day Walk and Run. Dave tried to sneak a picture of me, not knowing I had my camera ready.
What a great event! Here's the crowd at the start line.
Rebekkah doing that voodoo she do so well.
"What's so funny?" he says, laughing uncontrollably. Look for the tea cup inside his water glass. The folks at Huong Viet Noodle House must be very proud. Of course, they are getting a plug and if you're in Calgary I highly recommend them if you're near the Westgate, so it can't be all bad.
Okay, I take it back. I wholeheartedly apologize to Huong Viet Noodle House. It's a great place to eat, I hope they'll let me back in soon.
CHORUS LINE TIME!
Start spreading the news....
The shady side of ice cream sales.
Ta-daaaa!
The rules are to dance until Rebekk says to stop. Then whoever moves is out.
This is here because KA and I are arguing over who owns my frog. You'll note my bias in the previous statement.
Princess!
Somehow the kids have figured out they can put their drinks at the window and they're held in by the seat belts. SEE? I knew Mustangs have had drink holders since 1980!!!
I have no idea how to spell it, but they're playing quiddich here. Harry (Rebekk) just caught the Golden Snitch. I think it looks kinda silver, but that's just me. I also suspect that they're playing cribbage. But again, that's just me.
Zipping across a playground zipline.
KA is exceptionally good at climbing fossils. They're not rocks. They're fossils.
I suspect he's a budding Bonaparte.
Life is looking up at my children.
Just look at that girl spin on that thing!

And that's your update. Hope the next one won't be quite so distant in the future.

Life is fun when your soul purpose is to create as much silliness as possible along the way and then post it to your personal web site so that I can skew the results of search engines as much as possible.

So what have I been doing to avoid updating for the past month?
Well, Bitsy and I have been spending some serious quality time together.

We have:

sucked
gassed out others
redesigned her emissions control system
discovered new and interesting parts of her emissions control system
removed redundant parts from her emissions control system
repaired her emissions control system
sucked on parts of her emissions control system
read a manual on how her emissions control system is supposed to work
pulled apart her emissions control system and started over
discovered a chapter in the shop manual dedicated exclusively to her emissions control system
learned entirely too much on her emissions control system
finally got help from a mechanic.

Seriously, I should put a posting up on my website into how the EGR system works in a 1980 Ford Mustang with a 3.3L (200 cubic inch) inline-6 with a 1946-V Holley Carburetor. Unfortunately, I'd probably be the only soul in the world interested in the information I post..

If there's someone else in the world that also has the 3.3L inline-6 with the 1946-V (NOT the California model), please, PLEASE email me and send a picture of your emissions diagram.

Just an evening at dinner together

Hellooooooo up there! I'm above him taking a picture as he leans out the "Ice Cream Shoppe" window.
Dad, when will you quit asking for Spumoni Ice Cream?
Here's your ice cream!
Monkey monkey monkey...
Honey, I think you're supposed to sit on it... Aww, nevermind.

Easter at Babcia's

Okay, it was actually a week before Easter. Sue me.
The Easter Bunny mailed a package?
Making their own sugar Easter Eggs
Follow the road of candy flowers...
It was also a music club night. I'm a fool, I should have tried to take a picture of the kids with the Ennis Sisters. Instead here's a picture of Rebekk examining one of the four CD's we bought. The kids (okay, and also me) loved the Ennis Sisters. Best of all, they're all very nice, and some of their songs hold a very personal meaning to me. Awesome singers, terrific musicians, and I hear some rumour that they're also "easy on the eyes." Don't ask me what that means, I'm too busy sucking emission gasses out of my car.
Back to the Science Centre on Sunday. Can you imagine they're back at the puppet booth?
Rebekk back on the gyro. Are we getting predictable?
My baby's got BIG hair.
Corbin's birthday party. We all need hats.
Ooooh, now I see how this works!

Another Science Centre Day

This is me, Dad!
This is me buried, Dad!
This is me on a bed of nails, Dad!
This is my nose, Dad!
I love you with all my heart, Dad!
I started building a wall with foam bricks. It started off with ME on the inside. Then the kids wanted to get in.
Another parent came up to me and noticed I didn't put in a door.
Best... Idea... EVER!
All in all you're just a..
Collapsing it is half the fun.

A weekend in Okotoks

Posing at the Big Rock.
Climbing on the stones
Look, it says 'push here.'
Rebekkah, don't goose step on your brother!
Climbing on another rock.
KA's showing off his red car. Malibu... Malibu... OH MY GHOD! THAT'S A CHEVY!

First picnic of 2005

The weather was 18 degrees, we finally got some beautiful weather to enjoy. Naturally we had a picnic.
On a see-saw. Or is it a teeter-totter?
Splashing in the pool. Even if the water isn't there yet.
Jump right in.
No running on deck!
Another Artistic photo by Dad. (Or am I just saying that I was joining in on the fun?)
And.... Action!
Swim! Swim like a fish!
He's turned on my flashlight, and he's shining it on his foot. He is so completely my son... Poor kid.
Little hoodlum on a tire swing.

Huzzah!

I have a major announcement to make.

I know some of you will have a very good idea what I'm about to say, others will be taken completely by surprise. I'm very, very happy.

I'd like to tell you all officially that I have a new lady-friend in my life. Now, some say that she's antique.. I know she's been around the block a time or two, but dammit, I'm in love and I simply won't have that sort of nonsense get me down.

Like all lovely ladies, she's going to need some extra-special TLC for a while - possibly (and quite probably) for the rest of her natural life. As every fine sweetie that's passed through my life for a moment or a while, she's amazing and worth it all and more.

I'm always hesitant to compare the past and the present. What I've had before was special in her own right and cannot be diminished by the current glory of my world. None-the-less, I feel I've made a HUGE step forward and simply cannot deny that something special has happened to me today.

And with that, I'd like to you introduce you to:
Me and my sweetie!
Sweet, sweet lovin'