While on a vacation tour from Alberta to Arizona in late April to early May, we took a number of photos which represent some small portion of the beauty of the Rocky Mountain and Southwest Desert scenery which we passed through. Here are a few images from April 24th to April 27, covering the trip south from northern Montana to the Grand Canyon. As a point to ponder, it is not possible to share the magnificence of the landscapes in any meaningful fashion in just a few photos, but for those who have not had the pleasure of travelling this region, perhaps this teaser will give some sense of the greatness of the land. The generosity and friendliness of the people should be experienced in person. As a second point to ponder, it has become clear to me that photos lie. For, as much information as one can pass on via an image, there is much that is not captured – or captured imperfectly, perhaps – which the photographer cannot or will not pass along due to message size, clarity, or the risk of boring a viewer. In addition, taking photos while travelling means passing through locations in mid-day ( or mid-afternoon, sunset, early morning, or cloud, fog or haze) which are best viewed in other light conditions. So the images below may not be the best, or the most colorful, but instead were chosen to convey a sense of the journey.

1. The Sweetgrass Hills, Montana – Taken mid-afternoon on April 24, along I-15. This is a photo, cropped to show the horizon and foreground, of the arc of volcanic cones which lie just south of the 49th parallel. These landmark hills provide a fine counterpoint to the vastness of the prairie grasslands which surround them.

2. South of Butte, Montana – Taken mid-afternoon on April 25, along I-15. The weather was being spring-like, with clear skies in the morning and scattered showers moving through in the afternoon. The grassy, sage-brush covered range of the valley floor gives way to pine slopes and fresh snow on the heights of Mt. Fleecer (9436 ft). This photo was cropped also, with the purpose of focusing the viewer’s attention on the landscape.

3. Montana, Late April – Taken afternoon on April 25, along I-15. Taken near the Idaho state line, this view to the south, shows fresh snow on the upper slopes of the Continental Divide that rise without preamble from the farms and ranches of Dell and Lima, Montana. The peak of Garfield Mountain, on the right of the image rises to 10,961 fr, while the Interstate passes through Monida Pass, out of sight on the left, at 6870 ft.

4. After spending the night at Cedar City, we headed east up Cedar Canyon on Highway 14, which breaks the great escarpment of the Hurricane Cliffs. At milepost 19, near the summit pass which crests at 9910 ft, a viewpoint to the south gives us a panorama of the northern part of Zion National Park. (For those interested, the Viewpoint and the Highway are on the dividing line between the Markagunt Plateau to the north and the Kolob Terrace to the south – p. 185, "Roadside Geology of Utah", Halka Chronic)

5. Driving southeast to the Glen Canyon Dam, then south, and west, we arrived at the Grand Canyon past mid-afternoon on April 27th. For all that has been written about this area, the words of the information panels near the Desert View tourist center give the most poignant perspective I’ve read: "Spanish Discovery" Near here in late summer of 1540, soldiers from the Spanish expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado became the first Europeans to see Grand Canyon.

After journeying for six months, Coronado’s army arrived at the Hopi mesas, east of Grand Canyon. From there Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, guided by Hopi Indians, led a small party of men to find a reported "great river". After 20 days they reached the south rim of Grand Canyon, emerging from the forest to stand on the edge of this vast chasm. Cardenas’s party spent three days trying to reach the bottom of the canyon, in vain, then returned to Coronado to report their discovery. "The Discovery Site" The exact site where Cardenas and his men first saw Grand Canyon is unknown. Cardenas described the site as "elevated and full of low twisted pines… lying open to the north." This, along with descriptions of their travel route, places the site between here and Desert View. "How do we know?" Around 1560 Pedro de Castenada, a soldier with Coronado (but not one who saw the canyon) recorded his memories of the expedition 20 years earlier. It is from him that we have our record of Cardenas’s discovery of Grand Canyon. Castenada reported frustration and amazement: "After they had gone twenty days they came to the banks of the river ( the canyon rim)… They spent three days on this bank looking for a passage down… It was impossible to descend… The three lightest and most agile men, made an attempt to go down at the least difficult place, and went down until those who were above were unable to keep sight of them. They returned about four o’clock in the afternoon, not having succeeded…. Thos who stayed above had estimated that some huge rocks on the side of the cliffs seemed to be about as tall as a man, but those who went down swore that when they reached these rocks, they were bigger than the great tower of Seville." This view of the canyon, from near Desert View lookout, shows the Colorado River flowing several miles to the north, more than 5,000 feet below the camera. 6. Near great natural features, one often finds tourists who gather to ponder the beauty at the change of day, whether at dawn or dusk. Here, as shadows lengthen, a group of people gather near Mather Point to absorb the ambience. These people are perched at over 7,300 ft above sea level, while the river runs below them around the 2,300 ft.level.

Once reaching Arizona, we moved south from Grand Canyon to Tempe, which is part of metro-Phoenix. Using that area as a home base, we travelled around, to a variety of touristy places, learning the local history and enjoying the food and ambience. A partial summary of our experiences in the Phoenix/Tuscon area: 1. Best evening dinner – Beef Ribs at "Claim Jumper", off I-10 and Baseline Road. We found this restaurant by accident after looking for a Bennigan’s – which turned out to be closed. The serving was abundant and delicious, and the server was most attentive and professional. 2. Best fast food lunch – Chalupas Combo at the Taco Bell near Casa Grande. This restaurant was clean, the service was fast, and the meal was tasty. ( Side-note: Casa Grande – The ruins of a large building built by the Hohokam culture about 1300 A.D., then abandoned about 1400 A.D. Archeologists puzzle about the cause, but one theory, which I found reasonable was that the American Southwest was enveloped in a mega-drought. At roughly the same time, Europe was experiencing the trauma of the Little Ice Age, and the Norse settlements in Greenland were dying. This agrarian culture developed about 1500 B.C., and developed increasingly sophisticated settlements for the next 2800 years. They co-existed with the Ancestral Pueblo, the Patayan, the Mogollon and the Rio Sonoran cultures, and also shared the same fate, as the environment grew too harsh to sustain any population above basic subsistence. The last 100 years of the Hohokam was marked with decline and abandonment of their villages, as they dispersed into smaller, more sustainable units. When the Spanish explored this area in the late 1600’s, they found Casa Grande in ruins and local tribal units of a people who called themselves the O’odham, who appear to be the descendants of the Hohokam. ) 3. Best "regional" treat shop – The "Arizona Nut House", off I-10 near Picacho Peak. The variety of flavored Pistachios was amazing in itself. Annie liked the Mesquite-Hickory flavored ones the best. 4. Most unusual sign – Outside a very small, old, hotel with a corner restaurant named "Brooks Outback" in the tiny burg of Wenden, west of Phoenix: "Hot Beer. Lousy Food. Bad Service. Welcome. Have-a-nice-day" Here are some of the images we found from the evening of April 27 to April 30th: 7. Grand Canyon at sunset, from Mather Point, looking up river. On the far horizon, about an inch, or 25 mm, from the right side of the image, is the Desert View Tower, about 13 miles/ 21 km distant. It is too small to see in this photo, but clear enough in binoculars or with a more powerful zoom lens. Most scholars accept that between these two points lies the place that the Hopi brought the Spaniards of Cardenas’s party to view the river in late September, 1540. Michael Anderson, in "Living at the Edge", writes of that first Spanish expedition to Grand Canyon (P.16): "In all probability, the Hopis successfully pulled the wool over these first European eyes to view Grand Canyon. They knew of far easier and shorter routes from their homes to the Colorado River, which was what the Spaniards sought, after all, not a mile-high scenic view. Even after leading the Spaniards to the South Rim, the guides could have shown them down a variation of today’s Tanner Trail which led to traditional Hopi salt mines at river level. They also could have anticipated the Spaniard’s desire to find a water route to the sea and led them farther west, along the Hopi-Havasupai-Mohave Trade Trail (Moquai Trail) to the navigable lower Colorado River. Hopi leaders very likely advised their men to guide the unwelcome sojourners along an exaggerated path to the highest point above the river and to volunteer no information of value. "If this was the Hopis’ intent, the ruse worked. The Spaniards left the region convinced that a near-waterless wasteland lay west of the Hopi pueblos, difficult to traverse and to no purpose. They could view the canyon only as an impenetrable barrier prohibiting Spanish exploration to the northwest. The party returned to Zuni with these assessments and no Spanish military force ever again approached Grand Canyon. Coronado returned to Mexico City in 1542, discredited for having found nothing of value and bankrupt for having tried."

8. A pair of sightseers pondering the morning view, west of Yavapai point. One thing that I had not absorbed, prior to visiting Grand Canyon, is the height of the Coconino Plateau, from which one stands on the South Rim. At Mather Point, the elevation is 7118 ft, while the river runs at about 2300 ft, giving a vertical section of almost 4800 ft.. The sensation is akin to going to visit a rugged mountain area, but looking down, rather than looking up. Walking a skyline trail in the mountains is a real pleasure, but one limited to those who are fit enough to cope with the hike to the top. At Grand Canyon, tourists – many of them with physical handicaps – can arrive at the South Rim in cars or buses, and after a journey of a few dozen yards, share the experience of viewing a magnificent vista.

9. Palo Verde in blossom near the Tonto National Monument. The desert in late April is full of color, with yellow being a common color. Mesquite and Creosote bushes also have yellow blossoms, although one variety of mesquite has a bluish/purple flower. Many cactus blossoms are yellow as well, but we saw a variety of other brilliant colors. The warmest temperatures were in the Phoenix area, generally in the mid-90’s. Moving southeast to Tuscon, or north to Sedona, the daily high temperatures were in the 80’s.

10. Apache Trail Overlook. Northeast of Apache Junction runs highway 88, to the Theodore Roosevelt Dam, and the recreational sites of the reservoir behind it. The highway is a nice, winding paved two-lane road for about half the trip. At the top of Fish Creek Hill, the asphalt ends, and the road descends down a narrow, treacherous trail to the desert basin beyond. The last 22 miles are dirt. This is the only numbered U.S. highway that I can recall which is not upgraded beyond single lane bridges and a scattering of gravel. Theodore Roosevelt wrote: "The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the Glory of the Rockies, the magnificences of Grand Canyon, and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have. To me, it is the most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful panorama nature has ever created." While Roosevelt obviously had a reason to talk up this locale, seeing as how a dam bearing his name was at the end of the road, the scenery has a rugged, challenging makeup which provokes the eye. Originally an aboriginal route to the valley where the Salt River ran, the road was constructed so that supplies could be hauled for the construction of the dam at the end of the road.

11. Sunset on the Superstition Mountains. Mesquite and Saguaro stand in front, as darkness flows over the landscape. This location is near Dutchman’s Trail, just outside of Apache Junction.

Enjoy, for your contemplation, Jim Szpajcher

n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

“I’m just a poor old man. … My legs are grey. My ears are gnarled. My eyes are old and bent.”

– Matthias, from Monty Python’s Life of Brian

“At my age I do what Mark Twain did,” said British astronomer Patrick Moore, on the occasion of his 76th birthday. “I get my copy of the daily paper, look at the obituaries page, and if I’m not there, I carry on as usual.”

University President: “Why is it that you physicists always require so much expensive equipment? Now the Department of Mathematics requires nothing but money for paper, pencils, and erasers… and the Department of Philosophy is better still. It doesn’t even ask for erasers.”

– Told by Isaac Asimov

“Well, of course I would never use a preposition to end a sentence up with, because it might be difficult to make sense out of, and, after all, what would I want to use a preposition to finish a sentence that you cannot make any sense out of up with for?”

– From It was a Dark & Stormy Night: The Final Conflict (Penguin books)

Me: Would anyone like the last cookie?

Nathan: I can’t take the last cookie on principle.

Dave (reaching for cookie): I was raised by wolves!

aquadextrous, adj.: Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet on and off with your toes. — Rich Hall, “Sniglets”

boy, n.: A noise with dirt on it.

fairy tale, n.: A horror story to prepare children for the newspapers.

furbling, v.: Having to wander through a maze of ropes at an airport or bank even when you are the only person in line. — Rich Hall, “Sniglets”

ignisecond, n.: The overlapping moment of time when the hand is locking the car door even as the brain is saying, “my keys are in there!” — Rich Hall, “Sniglets”

pessimist: A man who spends all his time worrying about how he can keep the wolf from the door. optimist: A man who refuses to see the wolf until it seizes the seat of his pants. opportunist: A man who invites the wolf in and appears the next day in a fur coat.

tact, n.: The unsaid part of what you’re thinking.

Technicality, n.: In an English court a man named Home was tried for slander in having accused a neighbor of murder. His exact words were: “Sir Thomas Holt hath taken a cleaver and stricken his cook upon the head, so that one side of his head fell on one shoulder and the other side upon the other shoulder.” The defendant was acquitted by instruction of the court, the learned judges holding that the words did not charge murder, for they did not affirm the death of the cook, that being only an inference.

“Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.”

– Cicero

English Law prohibits a man from marrying his mother-in-law. This is our idea of useless legislation.

In case you know of some “foreigners” wanting to come here………

Regarding the 12 NEW rules for entering Alberta:

1. Bring your own house.

2. If going to the Oil Sands, bring your own house, school and hospital.

3. If going to Edmonton, wear your flak jacket. This is the murder capital of Canada.

4. If driving to Edmonton, it is also the auto theft center of Canada.

5. If you are bringing drugs, head to West Edmonton Mall, the drug capital of Canada.

6. If you are looking for work, look no further. Minimum wage is $5.60/hour.

7. If you work downtown, parking costs $5.00/hour.

8. If you are able to buy a house in Calgary, why not spend the money on a 15 year holiday.

9. If you drive a Hummer, look out. We have the highest gas prices in Canada. The Alberta Advantage.

10. In Edmonton we have 5 hospitals. 10 years ago we had 7. Don’t come here sick.

11. In Calgary the population has exploded. The last road was paved 12 years ago. Calgary is a no parking zone.

12. Remember Roy Rogers etc. beating the Indians? It is payback time. They own all the Casinos here.

We even have a hockey team that was so bad this year that they took out a full page ad in the paper apologizing. No tickets were refunded.

It has been suggested that Millie and myself should start a contest asking members to write in with their most interesting Mensa experience. The weirdest, wackiest TRUE story wins a prize.

The old adage says that there is a fine line between genius and insanity. In my 19 years as a member these are my weirdest experiences:

1. Getting a letter from an inmate from Bowden penitentiary who liked my profile in the Mensa membership register. I sent him a Xmas card detailing my plans for Xmas with my boyfriend and never heard back.

2. Discovering one of the executive of the Calgary chapter, who I hosted at my home for various meetings, was an accused murderer whose case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. I never heard the verdict but swear he was the nicest, sweetest guy one could ever meet.

3. At one stage I finally was able to pass the proctor and treasurer roles to an eager member who suddenly turned manic, accused me of irregular improprieties in the books when I am a professional accountant, personally insulted the Calgary Loc Sec and Newsletter Editor via emails cc’d to various Mensa Canada Board members.One memorable night this manic maniac kept faxing people till all hours of the morning. The Loc Sec had to get up and turn off his fax printer in the middle of the night to regain peace. This guy lasted as proctor and treasurer for a grand total of 3 weeks.

4. A lovable former Loc Sec often used to phone me and ramble on almost incoherently. We invited him to a local quiz night trying to harness all that Mensa brain power when we found he was rolling drunk and couldn’t answer any questions. Staying conscious seemed to be a challenge. He passed away shortly after that quiz night.

5. I attended a huge regional gathereing in California which was almost a trip back to the flower power days of the 60s. I met the leader of the Sacramento based Sex SIG. He said his meeting were well attended followed by hot tub sessions but he grossed everyone out the evening he showed videos of people into genital self mutilation.

6. One particular member of Mensa Calgary was a regular at our various activities when he was in town. One year we scheduled Mensa Calgary’s AGM on a weekend when Mensa Vancouver was holding a regional gathering. This member insisted we change the date of our AGM so he could attend both events. We declined. This member went into a tirade against various local board members and resigned from Mensa Calgary presumably to enjoy privileges as a member of another chapter. He made it very clear he wanted no further communication from any board member of Mensa Calgary. We all obeyed his wishes except for the manic maniac from number 3 above.

7. I have performed the proctor task for the better part of 10 years. My most memorable testee (I love that word) was a woman who showed up 10 minutes late for the testing session which a number of people had already commenced writing. She started one written test but then decided to write the untimed pictoral test instead. She took one and a half hours to complete the test when 45 minutes is the recommended timeline. She asked me a question during her test which is a strict no-no. When she received her results she did not qualify for membership. She called me insisting I told her she could rewrite a different test for free. She kept phoning me, harassing me, telling me I was dishonourable. One night after a harassing phone call ended she kept trying to call back but I refused to answer the phone. She must have tried to call me 20 times that evening. After that she contacted Mensa Canada insisting another person proctor the test for her. Our Regional Rep. called me but when she heard about the story of harrassment decided that this woman be refused a rewrite.

8. Many years ago, a member aspiring to be President of Mensa Canada personally sent campaign letters to every Mensa member in Canada. He was elected president, attended a Mensa International meeting in Spain and resigned as President after a 4 month reign.

9. A friend of mine moved from Calgary to New Orleans and became a board member of Mensa USA. She resigned after 3 months because the Mensa USA board members kept sending vitriolic emails insulting one another to all board members. My friend decided to quit before the emails turned against her.

10. I moved to Australia in 1998 and 1999 and joined Mensa Australia. The Brisbane members I got to know were very nice but had a beef with the President of Mensa Australia. They all decided not to renew their memberships. Surprise, surprise, expiry of membership was indicated on the back page of the Australian national newsletter and a red dot was attached if your membership had expired. These people formed a sub-group called the Red Dot Society.

Why am I still an active member after almost 20 years? Because no one could possibly make up these stories and I kind of enjoy eccentrics.

Just because the known weirdoes didn’t renew doesn’t mean there are not new weirdoes waiting to take their place. We have seen an array over the years.

Here are 2 more:

1. Back in my younger, hotter days I went into a bar in Calgary and had a guy pounce on me and try to impress me. His line went like this:

“Unlike most men you know I don’t have to work for a living. I own x hundred square feet of real estate space in this building. I’m a Mensa (sic) and my son is a Mensa (sic).”

Being Loc Sec at the time I couldn’t help retort that wherever he was a Mensan it certainly wasn’t in Calgary because I had the membership list and his name wasn’t on it.

You could almost see this guy’s tail retreat between his legs as he skulked away and scowled at me from a distance the rest of the evening. Come to think of it, that may explain why I’m still single!

2. At a famed Calgary Second Tuesday back in the 90s it was a particularly brilliant warm evening. The crowd convened in Catherine Ford’s back yard and included a young good looking first timer. The peace of the evening was shattered by a neighbouring kid shooting hoops and dribbling balls in the back alley. One of the Mensans was of the Wicca faith and decided to cast a spell on the unsuspecting basketballer. Habitual members know to expect anything. Guess what, that young good looking first timer never showed up at another Mensa event. I think the witchcraft spooked him.

——————————

From another member,

I think there’s something about high IQs that makes some people particularly arrogant. We’ve had similar membership problems to those you’re having. Apparently the mothership and local office are used to itI A couple years ago when I’d just started as editor, I suddenly realized partway through the summer that 2 of the local executive hadn’t renewed. And then they told me they weren’t going to.

And we have a 69 year old man who comes to all the events dressed in women’s clothing. He’s not attractive in either gender.

Ann Rule’s “Five Best” True-Crime stories. Of course, she doesn’t include “The Stranger Beside Me”, her own account of Ted Bundy.

Ann Rule also wrote a spooky crime novel, “Possession”, which gained some notoriety for being a break from her “True Crime” format.

FIVE BEST

1. “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote (Random House, 1965).

Writing on true crime requires a capacity to deliver a kind of psychological autopsy of both the dead and the deadly. Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” about the murder of a Kansas farm family in 1959, superbly exemplifies that skill. In a classic true-crime story the central question is not the how but the why–why did this happen? The case must be complex, the characters–including the detectives and prosecutors–unpredictable. Capote’s mesmerizing book, which I read when it was first published, was the inspiration that led me to try, on my own, to get inside the mind of a murderer–which is how it happened that I did my study, 15 years later, of Ted Bundy, poster boy of serial killers. Despite latter-day criticism of Capote’s ethics and technique, he continues to be the author whose singular work represented a new way of getting at the truth of so dark a crime.

2. “Blood and Money” by Thomas Thompson (Doubleday, 1976).

Thomas Thompson wrote about what may be the most compelling and complex case in crime annals: the story of doomed Joan Robinson; her husband, Dr. John Hill; and Joan’s father, powerful old Ash Robinson, relentless in his quest to avenge his daughter, who had been poisoned by an éclair injected with bacteria. Thompson’s uncanny skill at evoking a sense of place still had the capacity to shock me years after I read “Blood and Money.” In a taxi in Houston, my neck prickled when I recognized a neighborhood I’d never visited. When I asked the cabbie where we were, he informed me that I was at “River Oaks”–the scene of the crime in this remarkable work.

3. “Bitter Blood” by Jerry Bledsoe (Dutton, 1988).

Jerry Bledsoe’s deft, engrossing take on arguably the most dysfunctional family ever to inhabit the South ranks high on my favorites list. It has everything any true-crime writer might lust after: sex, suspense and wealthy, educated, slightly incestuous characters with upper-class social standing. It also has five murders–a rich widow and her daughter in Kentucky, and another rich widow, along with her son and daughter-in-law in North Carolina–that are followed by four more deaths before police, who discover a family connection to the killings, can make an arrest. In the hands of another author, such an abundance of material could have ended up unfathomable, but Bledsoe–who covered the case as a reporter for the News-Record in Greensboro, N.C.–pulls it off with admirable élan.

4. “The Corpse Had a Familiar Face “ by Edna Buchanan (Random House, 1987).

Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Buchanan spent 15 years as a crime reporter for the Miami Herald after going to work for the paper in 1970; this is an intriguing memoir of her days and nights at crime scenes trying to unravel the truth. Along the way she memorably evokes the witnesses, families and cops that she encounters. Some of the crimes are comic–a jilted octogenarian tosses a Molotov cocktail into his girlfriend’s house but is nabbed by police after she recognizes the label on the container he used: his favorite brand of prune juice. Other crimes are horrific and will haunt you for weeks. Buchanan, now a successful mystery novelist, is one of a kind, both brazen and sentimental, and her stories are captivating.

5. “The Wrong Man” by James Neff (Random House, 2001).

In 1954, an Ohio jury and much of America quickly accepted that Dr. Sam Sheppard had killed his pregnant wife, Marilyn. James Neff, revisiting the much-reported case almost 50 years later, presents another suspect and a new view in “The Wrong Man.” The book is rich in forensic detail, and it taught me things I never knew, thanks to Neff’s close attention to the way blood had been sprayed and dripped at the crime scene. Blood evidence didn’t really come of age until the 1990s. That’s why the forensic data available at any 1954 crime scene are horse-and-buggy stuff compared with what Neff had access to when he wrote on this case–and he made the most of it. His research is monumental and a shining example for any true-crime writer.

Ms. Rule is the best-selling author of two-dozen true-crime books, including “The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy.” Her latest, “Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal,” will be published by Free Press in June.

Membership in MENSA Canada as a whole is down from past years by a few hundred people. This is almost expected at this time of year because all renewals haven’t been processed yet and some people just join to take the test, prove something to themselves and or their friends and are never seen again. The current numbers are:

Our numbers are where they were last year, BUT we still do not get participation from many of you for various reasons.

http://www.prevention.com:80/braingames/hneuron_landing.html?cm A game page to keep your mind active.

by Tag and Catherine Goulet, FabJob.com

Have you found the one you want to stay with, or are you just passing time until something better comes along?

We’re talking about your job, of course!

Here’s a fun quiz to help you identify whether you truly love your job. For each statement, decide whether it is more True or False for you.

1. I feel happy when I think about my job.

2. I look forward to going to work each day.

3. I enjoy telling my friends and family about all the exciting things I’m doing at my job.

4. I miss my job when I’m away from it for an extended period.

5. The good things about my job far outweigh any things I want to change about it.

6. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my work that I forget to take breaks.

7. I would want to do my job even if I weren’t being paid.

8. When I’m away from work I check my emails or phone in to see how things are going.

9. I feel fortunate to have my job.

10. I work overtime because I want to.

11. I feel energized when I’m at work.

12. The hours fly by quickly when I’m doing my job.

13. I don’t check job ads or otherwise look for new opportunities.

14. If I lost my job I would feel heartbroken even if I wasn’t worried about money.

15. I can imagine staying at my job for years to come.

Give yourself 1 point for each statement you answered True and 0 points for each one you answered False.

If you scored 0: Your job isn’t giving you what you need to be happy. You know you deserve better.

If you scored 1-5: There are things you like about your job, but it may be just a fling. Keep looking around for something else.

If you scored 6-10: There are a lot of things you like about your job. You can be happy with your job for many years — or you may be able to find another job you’ll be just as happy with.

If you scored 11-15: It’s true love. You and your job are meant to be together. Just don’t lose yourself in this relationship. Remember to take some time off now and then so that you’ll return to your job with even more to give it.

Tag and Catherine Goulet are authors of Dream Careers and founders of FabJob.com, a publisher of career guides offering step-by-step advice to help you break into your dream career. Visit www.FabJob.com

Millie and I hope that you had fun doing this.

Opineon and Cal-Amity. Millie Norry and Peter Walker. April 2007

The Mensa International Photo contest is under way with deadline on July 31, 2007. The rules are at http://www.canada.mensa.org/photocontest07en.htm

If it takes 30 seconds for a clock to strike five, how long does it take to strike ten?

As at July 5, 2007, how many moons did Saturn officially have?

Is it true that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce?