I’m sitting in a hotel room, in Kelowna. We arrived here early Friday morning, in advance of a surprise birthday party for my aunt. Which, we are pleased to say, we didn’t spoil by saying something like “we are here for a surprise birthday party – and how are you?”

It’s not like that wasn’t an extremely likely possibility. Even after rehearsing our cover story for over two weeks, I made comments within fifteen minutes of arriving that might have blown the whole deal right there. And, of course, there were many more occasions – which I almost rose to.

However, after all was said and done, the big event arrived last night, and the surprise had not been blown. We had a blast, and our aunt had been completely taken by surprise, hence the description of the style of festive ambush carousing.

Now, with that delightful event concluded, we are left to spend the last few hours of our visit sitting in our room, waiting for the clock to tick down. Sunday morning television is a bit frightening – how did Bob Saget manage to stay on the air for so many years with his pathetic hosting job on America’s Funniest Videos? Even his own mother had to have told him THAT effort was lacking a visible skill set...

We’ve tried unscrewing the plasma TV from the wall here in the room, but they sure make access difficult. Our room is at the end of the hall, close to the stairwell, and we haven’t seen any noticeable surveillance cameras – but I doubt we’ll get at that third screw, in the middle of the wall brace. We’ll probably have to settle for a few hand towels.

For our transportation here in Kelowna, we rented a small car, knowing we wouldn’t be doing that much driving. We were assigned a Toyota Yuris, which I think is Russian for “teabag”. Considering we’ve owned bigger dogs, it seemed rather spacious. I was often able to keep both arms inside the cabin, even if one needed to be tucked back behind my shoulder blades. And here I thought I had lost most of my Olympic gymnast flexibility…

So, I hear Mrs. That Dan Guy starting to get ready, which means we’ll be leaving as soon as her preparation ritual is over (2.4 hours). We will bid a fond adieu to Kelowna, and return to the land of cowboy hats and oil wells.

Hope it didn’t snow while we were away…

Chow for now!!