Denise and Colin Ward

We're still excited over seeing a real live tigress, "Qadesh". Her owner, Bill Frazer, told us that the 440 lb. Qadesh eats a mixture (mostly horse meat) prepared especially for "large domestic" cats. The "tiger farm" from which Bill got Qadesh told her that there is an urgent need for more owners. We had this and another Polaroid (see below) taken of us patting the "little kitty cat". If you click on Qadesh's picture you will be taken to her web site at http://www.qadesh.com. There are some very interesting facts there about Qadesh and exotic pets in general.

Here are the puppies gathered around their mother and peeking out from their litter box. Don't they look like puppets in a show? Ours is the little cutey, second from the left. Cora's mother, Rub had six in the litter. There were 5 more in the next litter; Cora's cousins. As rambunctious as Cora is, these cousins were said to be worse! Click here to see more pictures of little Cora and her family, and for some interesting facts about Corgyn (the plural of "Corgi").

Karen Traa here is holding four of our puppy's siblings. When this photo was taken, ours was off doing battle with a broom, dismantling it straw-by-straw like a little "Donna Quixote". The puppies here were distracted by the sudden appearance of their mother. Dinner time! And these puppies don't miss many meals! This propensity for eating has since turned into gourmet tastes. Colin found Denise cooking Chicken Kiev and Pate de Foie Gras. Expecting royal company, were we? "No," said Denise. "That is for Cora. Your beans are in the microwave!" My beans?

Lest you thought the Ward men had all the looks in the family, here is our niece, Jill, posing for a shoe advertisement. The company that she works for, John Fluevog Shoes, chose her to model for them.

Jill is not the only member of the family to have stepped in front of a camera. Our uncle (albeit by marriage), Art Halroyd, took up modelling and acting after retirement. He appeared in numerous ads, and was an "extra" in the movies "Class of '44" and "Intersection".

Gardening:

Denise's garden yielded a bumper tomato crop.
Colin's watermelon was a disappointment again.

Literature:

Colin is flattered by the attention that online editors and readers have paid to his literary fiction, In the Shade . One such critic described it as "an intriguing story about a guy who thinks he's human". Another summarized it as "an intricate blend of The Celestine Prophesy and HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy " (we think she meant this as a compliment). Particularly laudatory was the comment from one source that this was "the best book never published!"

If nothing else, the story is provocative. It will be of particular interest to those who enjoy language, philosophy, lyrics and, of course, humour. Mystery fans from around the world have enjoyed debating one of the questions that this tale leaves us with: Who contacted Jim? Indeed, it is rumoured that a woman in Edmonton is so intrigued that she has offered a $1000 reward for anyone who can solve the mystery for her!

Colin has been writing humour and technical non-fiction for decades. But because In the Shade is Colin's first venture into writing fiction , he has had difficulty finding a publisher to read it. Most of the larger publishing houses simply won't look at works from new writers. Until and unless Colin finds a more accessible outlet, In the Shade will be available only online. And, of course, plans for a sequel have been put on hold. Oh, well, at least this will save some trees!

If you do not have time to read it online, click here to download SHADE.EXE, a self-extracting file containing SHADEWP5.BOK (the Word Perfect 5.1 word processing version) and SHADE.TXT (the plain vanilla text-only version).

If you would like to sample it for now, you might try reading Chapter 11: Solstice, which is based on a wonderful story that a Toronto garbage collector (sorry, "sanitation engineer") told Colin some years ago. Hope you enjoy it!

Bridge:

Colin still plays with his two favourite local (some might use the word "loco") partners, Bill Treble and Ray Hornby, and with his original student-partner, Mary Kuldanek (from Rainy River, Minnesota), on the Internet (OKBRIDGE). Indeed, due largely to Mary's encouragement, Colin is now giving Bridge lessons over the Internet. Feel free to email Colin with any questions you may have in this regard.

Colin is currently working on a home page that teaches people how to play bridge. Please CLICK HERE if you would like to go to: http://www.firesides.net/lesson1.htm now. You may also check out his Tutorial site, his Bridge site for intermediates/experts or read about his old Riko Ladder team, The Space Cadets.

Colin continues to contribute to the rec.games.bridge and rec.games.bridge.okbridge newsgroups. He is very encouraged by the response to the "Three Gadgeteers" article and to the "Bridge at the Corners" and "Session From Hell" humour series.

Acquire:

Colin still plays Acquire (an Avalon Hill board game which is an interesting mixture of Monopoly, Dominoes and Mahjongg) on Monday and Thursday nights. He completed his MS-DOS version of the game, ACQUIRE.EXE, last year. Interested? CLICK HERE to download the ACQUIRE.ZIP shareware program to your hard drive.
Colin's brother, Terry, has completed the Windows version. It is available in two parts: Disk1.zip and Disk2.zip.

POETRY

Dark Neighbourhood
So proud of their angry dismay
As they prowl through this dark neighbourhood
These loud voices with nothing to say
Will all need to be misunderstood

Talus and Scree has just published 2 of Colin's poems.

SONGS

Colin insists on playing his guitar despite the catcalls and requests (to stop) from those within earshot. He's heard all the jokes: "Play tenor" (i.e. ten or twenty miles away), "Play solo" (i.e. so low we can't hear you), etc. His "singing" voice makes Tom Waits sound like Pavarotti. Tone deaf, his reluctant audiences often wish that they themselves were stone deaf. Colin couldn't hold a note in an envelope. At left, the great John Stewart.

While we're on the subject of music, you should be hearing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" right now. If not, and if you are viewing this through NetScape or Internet Explorer, you are missing the LiveUpDate and/or Crescendo plug-ins. You may click HERE to go to the LiveUpDate Web page and download them now.

In early August of 1997 the papers had a story about a group of warehouse employees in Toronto, Ontario who were "terrorized" by a tiger walking into their warehouse. The frightened workers barricaded themselves from the big cat. As the tiger nonchalantly spread out for a nap the horrified onlookers used a cellular phone to call the police. The gendarmes arrived just as the errant feline's distressed owner showed up looking for it.
We read the newspaper articles closely and, sure enough, it was Qadesh! Fortunately, no harm was done and no charges were laid.

Reaching us:

You can snail-mail Colin and/or Denise at:
685 Pritchard Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
CANADA ... R2W-2K6

Please email us with your comments.

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