Did You Miss Me?

Kimberley Ski Hill

We had a nice little ski getaway this weekend to Kimberley, BC. We have a friend who is a developer at a lovely resort (Mountain Spirit) so we went to visit with her & her family. We had an awesome time. I am not much of a skier but Dewey, Will & Nicole love it. None of them had ever skied at Kimberley before but they all liked it. It's a great family ski hill. They skied for 2 days while Evan and I hung out at the condo. The resort was ski in/ski out so they got to come back for lunch to break up the day. Evan and I got a kick out of watching the skiers out the window. Some of the kids skiing looked so darn little!

Checking out the Ski School. Evan didn't want his picture taken.

There's a better smile!

Evan was running after me throwing snowballs.

"I gettin' you Mommy!"

Our resort & the ski hill.
"I got a GIANT snowball to get Mommy!"

I decided that I really wanted to try snowshoeing while we were there. The Kimberley ski hill offers a guided snowshoeing adventure where you ride up the ski lift and then snowshoe back down to the base. Half way through you stop for hot coocoa and cookies. It was a blast. Our guide's name is Sam and he was a great guide. He took us around to some of the old mining sites on the ski hill & told us a bit about how Kimberley got started. The tour is only offered if there are 2 or more people signed up. I was lucky enough to inquire on the day that a group of 6 was signed up. They were visiting from England and were an absolute riot. We had so much fun. It definitely wouldn't have been the same without John, Joe, Claire, Tamzen, Leigh & Carrie!

Getting my snowshoes on at the top of the ski hill. I had to ride the ski lift (chair behind me) which scares the crap out of me but I survived!

One of the vistas we saw snowshoeing.

Kimberley ski hill/resort area as we returned from snowshoeing.

Playing in the snow is fun but playing in the snow & in the dark is WAY MORE fun!

We can't wait to go back! Kimberley is a bit of a trek for us (5 hours each way) but it was a great long weekend get away!

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Random Musings

I’ve had a lot of “Hmmmm….” Things rambling around in my head lately.  I thought I would share!

·         No matter how many total hours of sleep you get per night….you are really tired if your sleep gets interrupted more than once….definitely if it gets interrupted more than 10 or 12 times.  (Evan’s been sick & he turns into a monster at night.  A snotty, coughing, yelling, hitting monster who only wants Daddy.  Good times!)

·         An overtired brain is a brain that turns to procrastination (not getting much done at work today).

·         It’s Complicated is a freakin’ hilarious movie.  You should really see it.  Everyone in the theatre was laughing out loud.

·         When kids are on a jag of wanting one parent over the other, it is no fun for either parent.  Recently Evan has only wanted me for everything (reading stories, putting him to bed, getting him food, drink, etc).  It was cute at first but then it got really, really old.  Then he got his current cold & now he only wants Daddy.  Now I’m kind of sad that he doesn’t “like” me anymore.  I told him “You’re hurting Mommy’s feelings because you told her to go away”.  He said “Sorry Mommy”.  I said, “It’s okay.  So can Mommy lay down with you?”  He said “No, just Daddy.”.  Look buddy…..I’m your mama so you better start liking me again, pronto!

 

Gotta run! 

 

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My Evan - The Video Edition

Evan is going through a bit of a trying time. He's a bit fussy, a bit hit - y and it's honestly driving us a bit crazy. Here's some videos showing what a wonderful, crazy kid he is & why we love him so. Hope you enjoy them!

First - Any time we try to get him to go to bed he says in a loud demanding voice...."I'M NOT TIRED!"


Whenever we sit down for dinner we get entertained by Evan and his many faces -


Then he serenades us with a rousing rendition of the ABC Song...


After watching Will at Tae Kwon Do, Evan has to try out some moves of his own.

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Linky Love Sunday!

Hi all. Hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was stellar. Last night we had friends over & today we took Evan swimming. Almost more fun than I can handle especially when my hair froze on the way back to the car this afternoon! Good times!

I thought I would highlight some of the blogs I'm reading lately...some new...some not so new. Hope you will go visit them all & maybe say "Hi!". We bloggers....we love the comments!

• Do you like entering contests? If so, head over to 5 Minutes for Mom for their weekly roundup of giveaways around the internet. If you check out the Mr. Linky you can find even more. Some of the contests are US only or Canada only so check before you enter.
• Are you looking for some weight loss inspiration? Go visit one of my best blog friends, Shan at The Fairy Blogmother. Her husband, Mike, just joined Weight Watchers and lost over 10 pounds his first week. Woooo Hoooo Go MIKE!
• I am a fairly new reader of the MckMama blog. I know, I'm the only person in the world who hasn't read her forever. I must say that she is much more religious than me & she has way more kids (4 + 1 on the way) but I am drawn to the blatantly honest way she writes. She writes about the parts of marriage and babies that I am honestly afraid to write about. Here's an example of what I mean. I think reading her is making me look at my own life with a more honest eye. I'm still not going to write about it but even admitting it to myself is a start, right?
• Is it right that I mention weight loss and the worlds best cupcakes in the same post? Probably not but really, I can't NOT mention them. Go make these chocolate cupcakes from Recipes From the Cookie Jar right now. They are super YUM! Note - the frosting may be really runny. Just put it in the fridge for 15 minutes & it'll be all good. You can thank me later!

Speaking of cupcakes.....I am now going to bid you adieu so that I can go snarfle down another cupcake. Why oh why are they so delicious??????

So, what are you reading out on the blogosphere these days? Leave me a comment with any blogs you think I should check out!

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Saturdays Are For....

Entertaining! I thought I would pop by and say a quick "Hi!" before I go into complete entertaining mode. Entertaining more was one of my New Year's resolutions. I love having people over but it is so easy to forget to ask until too late, think you are going to be busy, etc, etc, etc!

For tonight's menu, I'm making ribs, mac & cheese, salad & cupcakes.

What is your "go to" menu for entertaining? I must admit that I make ribs almost every time someone comes over so I need to branch out.

So please leave any great ideas you have for future menus. I need your help!!!!!

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EA Active Review

I love sharing products that I like with my friends. I haven't been doing it to much on my blog but I do it lots in real life (just ask Erin...I am incessantly telling her about something new that I've tried). I thought I might start reviewing more things here. Please let me know if you like seeing the reviews.

I first posted my review of EA Active over on the Message Boards at Everything Mom. I figured since I wrote it up, I might as well post it here too.

I bought the family EA Active for the Wii a couple of weeks ago at Costco (~$50). I LOVE it!

I used to go to the gym 4 days a week at 6am (left my house at 5:30). When I keeled over from exhaustion, I stopped and turned into a lazy bum. I knew that I needed to be doing something but I wasn't sure what. I couldn't cope with going to the gym at that awful hour.

So I've had the EA Active for 2 1/2 weeks so far. The first week I used it 3 times, last week I used it 4 and I did it tonight. It seems really easy but you can definitely feel it (I do it on the medium intensity). You get your own "personal trainer" to show you the exercises & to keep you motivated. It also comes with a calendar that keeps up with how many workouts you've done, calories burned, etc. With exercises like dancing, boxing and inline skating you don't even feel like you're working out.

There are a few things about EA Active that annoy me. These are annoying but not deal breakers & I still love the system.

1. It's hard to do some exercises while holding the Wii remote, the nunchuck & the weight band.

2. The weightband that came with the EA Active is too easy. I traded it out for another one that we had around the house & now the workout is much harder.

3. Sometimes I get frustrated b/c the system doesn't realize that I did the move that it asked me too & it will hang up. Usually I just repeat the last rep & it figures out what's going on.

All in all, these are just annoyances & the system is still great. It is WAY more fun that doing straight exercise & it totally kicks my butt. I passed 1000 calories burned on the system last night & I was super pumped!

So, have you tried it (or one of the other games like it)?

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Roast Chicken

So...are you like I was just a few short weeks ago???? Had you never, ever roasted a chicken in your very own oven???? Had you only bought roast chicken at the grocery store???? Well, I'm here to change all that!!!

Seriously, it is one of the easiest things to cook EVAH! And it is so so tasty.

Roast Chicken ala Merry (I've looked at lots of recipes that give generally the same instructions. This is what I did the other night)

1 whole chicken
Olive Oil
Coarse Salt
Potatoes (spots removed, peels on & cut in pieces)
Carrots (peeled & cut into pieces)
Onions (cut in half then cut each half into 8 wedges)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Put the potatoes, onions & carrots in the bottom of a roasting pan. Make sure the chicken is clean and all the feathers are gone (they often have some left under the wings...just pull them out). Place chicken breast side up on top of the veggies. Brush chicken with olive oil. Sprinkle coarse salt all over the chicken. Use quite a bit. It will seem like too much but it's not.

Bake for 2 hours & then check it. Ideally you would have a meat thermometer. It is the one kitchen gadget I don't have so I use the super scientific method of putting a paper towel under the chicken's cavity, tilting it & making sure the juices aren't pink. This means my chicken is generally a wee bit over done but it still tastes AWESOME. (Ohh....and you might notice that the chicken in the pic had a popup thingee that's supposed to tell you when it's done....They lie! I gotta go buy a thermometer!)

Viola.....you have dinner! I usually make this on Sunday night and then you can use the leftovers for another meal during the week. This week, I chopped up the chicken, potatoes, carrots and some frozen peas & combined them with Patak's Tikka Masala cooking sauce for a scrumptious curry. Steam some rice and viola you have a quick and yummy dinner #2.

Don't forget to stop over at Shan's to see what else is cooking this Wednesday!

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Random Thoughts

I am too tired to write a proper post tonight (sorry!). I thought I would throw some random thoughts/questions out & see if anyone has any thoughts/advice. (Oh, and I totally stole this post idea from Julie over at Thoughts of a Smother Mother. You should go visit her...she's awesome!)

Potty Training - Evan is soooooo not interested. I keep talking about the potty and using the potty but he just looks at me like I'm crazy. He is just 2 1/2 & I know that lots of boys take longer to potty train. Please tell me he won't be in diapers when he starts Kindergarten!

Social Media - So what forms of social media do you participate in? I blog, am on Facebook, on Twitter, I am a Community Writer at Everything Mom and I regularly participate on Chowhound and Yelp. I love it. It's funny, though, because lots of people (especially at work) don't get it & think I'm totally weird for being on any of them. All my social media stuff is purely personal or to push this blog. I don't talk work much though I have quite a few followers on Twitter who follow me because of my work. I often wonder what they think now that they follow me b/c I don't talk about what they thought I would. Just wondering if I'm the only Social Media loving geek out there.....

Well, I did two workouts on my EA Active tonight & my abs are KILLING me. Guess it's time to hit the hay. Thanks for stopping by!

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Garnier Nutritioniste Anti Puff Eye Roller

Okay, girls, I had to tell you about this great thing I got for Christmas in my stocking. It is so cool and wonderful. I use it every morning. It is especially great on those mornings where you are really tired (or maybe a teensy weensy bit hungover). The roller ball is metal and it gets really cold (no idea how) but it feels great on your puffy eyes.



I can't speak to whether it has any real effect on dark circles or wrinkles but it definitely de-puffs. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled program tomorrow but I had to tell you about my new favorite product!

This product was paid for by Santa (or his helpers). I received no products or money for this review.

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Meal Planning Week 3 & 4

I forgot to post my meal plan last week. I was fooling around on Twitter and I mentioned that I was too lazy to come up with a meal plan. Twitter followers to the rescue! @Wfehler is a guy I follow from Calgary. He tweeted that I could just use their meal plan. I said "Sure, why not". Here's what we had. It was super yummy!

Week 3 Meal Plan -

Sunday - Spaghetti Carbonara with Caesar Salad
Monday - Perogies, Mild Italian Turkey Sausages and Caramelized Broccoli with Garlic
Tuesday - Slow Cooker Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Broccoflower
Wednesday - Mini Yorkies Stuffed with Roast Beef , leftover mashed potatoes and steamed broccoflower
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Tuna Salad and Crackers (can you tell I was home alone?)
Saturday - Take Out Pizza

This week's meal planning worked out so well, I was inspired to do it again this week. We still have a bit of roast beef and a couple of yorkies left but everything else got eaten. Yay!

Week 4 Meal Plan

Sunday - Roast Chicken with roasted carrots, potatoes & onions
Monday - Chicken Tikka Masala with steamed rice and broccoli (The Tikka will use leftover roast chicken and Pataks Tikka Massala jarred sauce)
Tuesday - Thai Chicken and Noodles
Wednesday - Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Don't know yet.
Saturday - Don't know yet.

Hope you like seeing the meal plans. Do you meal plan? I find that it makes my life much easier in the evenings as I have a very short window of time to prepare meals. Before I would be at my desk trying to figure out what to cook that night for dinner. Those last minute stops at the grocery store really throw a wrench in an evening!

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Show Yourself!

So Delurker Day was ACTUALLY on the 14th but I am following the lovely Fairy Blogmother's lead and posting it late.

I'm not sure that non-bloggers understand the love that bloggers feel for comments. We love, love, love them. It's affirmation that someone is reading the posts that we write with love. I have an interesting situation because my blog republishes over at Facebook. I have a large group of commenters over there but on my actual blog....not so much.

So, "Hi!" good to see you. I hope you stop back by. Feel free to "join" my blog over on the left sidebar (we love that too). If you are reading this on Facebook, could you click through & have a look around...maybe leave a comment. If you use my recipes they are WAY easier to find on the blog as opposed to Facebook.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy it. Any comments or suggestions on what you like/dislike are always welcome!

Oh and you have to comment b/c it's like an official "day" or something. :)

NOTE: Remember you don't have to "sign in" to leave a comment. Just go down to the one that says Name/URL. Just leave your Name in the name blank, leave your comment, type in the word (so it knows you're not a computer) and submit. Super easy.

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Knowing Me, Knowing You January

It's that time again....time to answer the interview questions brought to us by the lovely Fairy Blogmother!

1. Showers or baths?

Mostly showers. I do love the odd bath when I can take my time and read a good book. Since we have a 2 year old running around those times come few and far between!

2. What's your favourite thing for breakfast?

My favorite thing for brekkie is Eggs Benedict from Chez Francois in Canmore, AB. On most days I eat cottage cheese mixed with pineapple and All Bran. It's more about "healthy" than "tasty". I also really like cranberry muffins.

3. What is your favourite George Clooney movie?

You know....I can't even think of one. I really, really liked him in ER and I never thought it was quite as good after he left.

4. American Idol starts on Tuesday folks, how do you feel about Ellen joining the judge's table?

I don't watch American Idol. I'm not really into reality TV. I really like Ellen. She's super funny!

5. Lets say you've got a gift card to Michaels... what would you spend it on?

Oh there are sooo many things. Yarn, beads (for what...who knows?), cooking stuff, paper that I will never get around to using. Ack! This is why I don't go to Michael's very often! I always bring stuff home that I DON'T need!

Want to participate? Just copy the questions to your blog & go sign up on Mr. Linky over at Shan's!

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What's Cooking Wednesday - Crockpot Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings

I served this on two different days:

• Day 1 was roast beef, mashed potatoes and caesar salad (make extra mashed potatoes and keep all the liquid from the roast beef).
  
• Day 2, I carved the roast beef into slices & heated it in the juice from the crockpot on the stove and served it with Yorkshire Puddings and brocolli.

Both days got big thumbs up from Dewey. This will definitely be added to the rotation.

Sliced beef in gravy on Day 2

Mushroom Slow Cooker Roast Beef from allrecipes.com

1 pound brown mushrooms, sliced
1 onion cut in half & then sliced
~1.25 kg roast (I used a Cross Rib Pot Roast)
1 envelope dry onion soup mix (I used Knorr)
1 can of beer

Put sliced mushrooms in the bottom of the crockpot. Add onions. Set roast on top of mushrooms and onions. Sprinkle with onion soup mix. Pour can of beer over everything.

Set Crockpot to low and cook all day (I cooked mine about 9 hours).

Right Out of the Oven

Yum!

Yorkshire Puddings recipe from @wfehler on Twitter

4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
pinch of salt

Bring eggs to room temp before making the recipe. Preheat oven to 450°F.

Beat ingredients together in a bowl. Beat well. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Heat 1 tsp of canola oil in 9 cups of a 12 cup muffin tin for 10 minutes in the oven.

Remove muffin tin from oven and immediately fill the 9 muffin cups almost to the top with batter.

Bake for 20 minutes. Watch closely. Let them brown on top but not burn. They will rise like crazy and then fall once out of the oven.

Don't forget to head over to Shan's to see what else is cooking this Wednesday!

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Tackle It Tuesday - Christmas Decorations

Well, I finally did it. I finally tackled the task that has been haunting me for weeks.....that's right...I took down the Christmas decorations. Yes I know that it is January 12th and that Christmas was almost 3 weeks ago but I just kept putting it off. That is until Sunday when, still in my pajamas, I turned to Dewey and said "Bring up the bins. I'm taking this crap down!"

You can see my little helper on the left edge of the picture. He "helped" alot.

Bins Bins Everywhere!

Now the tree is bare. It stood like this for a day b/c Dewey wanted to buy plastic to wrap it in to store it. He never made it to Rona so back in it's original box it went.

It felt so great to get the house back! I even remembered to put the stuff back that we had put away to make room for the Christmas decorations. Last year everything got put back half way with lots of things missing. Evan was very glad to see one of his favorite toys reappear. It is much loved after it's 2 month disappearance!

Head over to 5 Minutes for Mom to read great articles and participate in Tackle It Tuesday.

What did you tackle this week?

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Winter Gala or The Party is What You Make of It

This past weekend was the Winter Gala at my work. It's kind of hard to get excited about a Christmas party in January especially when your like me & totally forget to buy a dress. Doh! After a super quick shopping trip Thursday at lunch, it was decided....we were definitely going. We were carpooling with another couple that live near-ish to us....or so I thought. Dewey plotted with yet another couple and we split a limo 3 ways. I was mortified when I saw it pull up but after we finally got on our way it was pretty cool. Oh...did I mention that it got stuck in the melting snow in front of our house? Yep. High class all the way here!

The party was smaller than in past years. Not too many people dancing. Thankfully, my group of close friends were almost all there. The dancing queens, Colleen and Justine, hit the floor early. Pretty soon we were all out there. We had a BLAST! My super cute heels which were the most uncomfortable shoes EVAR were soon thrown by the wayside so that I could dance some more.

Kyla & Justine. So Pretty!

Steve & Jeff. Such goofs!

Colleen and John. Such a cute couple!
Me & Dewey. Had to be a full length pictures to show off my shoes since I'm not convinced I will ever wear them again. Not sure my toes have recovered yet!

Time to dance!

Anyway, long story long....there may have been fewer people at the party, lots of people may not have danced but dammit...we had fun!

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My Little Boy the Chipmunk

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Fondue!

Here's the last of the Christmas pictures. We decided to have chocolate fondue for desert on New Years Eve. Chocolate fondue is so easy and it is definitely a crowd pleaser. I think I could drink the stuff!

The recipe I used was:

340 g of Toblerone (chopped up)
1 cup heavy cream

Heat the heavy cream in a heavy saucepan until almost boiling (but don't let it boil). Stir in the Toblerone pieces. Stir until melted. Transfer to a chocolate fondue pot.

Serve with pieces of banana, strawberry, small oranges (like mandarins), sugar cookies, marshmallows, etc.

Yum!

Nicole loves chocolate!

It's a family affair!

Evan makes the funniest faces!

Will likes his sugar cookies without chocolate too!

More funny faces!

I think we need a washcloth!

So....do you fondue? If so, what's your favorite recipe & things to dip?

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Am I Becoming More Canadian?

Tonight will be a light blogging night because I'm watching the NCAA National Championship football game. Since I went to school at Alabama I am DEFINITELY pulling for them!

Now....for the question that is the title of this post... Canadians are known for being very apologetic. They often feel bad for beating the other team (especially if the tournament rules dictate that they run up the score....an example was Canada vs Latvia in the World Juniors Hockey Tournament).

Now in the US, we don't usually feel bad for the other guy. In fact, we are usually super happy that they're losing!

So I'm questioning why I feel so sorry for the Freshman Quarterback of Texas. Their normal quarterback got hurt really early in the first quarter. The second string quarterback is a freshman. You can tell that he never had any thoughts of playing in the National Championship game this year. He has made some mistakes and you can see that it is just killing him.

No matter what happens in this game, I hope he realizes that it's not his fault that he's not ready for this game.

Poor guy!

Roll Tide Roll!

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Sledding at Nana's

I know it's Wednesday but The Fairy Blogmother is taking a few weeks off from What's Cooking Wednesday. I promise that I will start posting recipes as soon as she starts back up.

Until then....more pictures from Christmas. Today I'll post the pictures for tobogganing and then Fondue pictures tomorrow & then we're done.

Going Outside!

Even Nicole is pretty excited!

Almost ready! Good thing he still wears diapers b/c this would be the moment he would say "I gotta pee!"

Evan's not REALLY sure he likes this.

Well, maybe it's okay.

Santa and Rudolf are lined up to see what's going on.

Yep, the quad came out to pull Evan around the yard. Thankfully Dewey went really, really slow.

Evan LOVED it!

A beautiful winter scene (which I witnessed from inside the house....are you kidding me....it was freaking cold!).

For more winter tobaggoning fun, you should head over to check out the video on The Coswan's blog. Hilarious!

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Christmas With the Kids

Well, as you know my pictures of Christmas Day got eaten by my memory card/card reader. Here are some pictures from our visit to the Farm once we got Will & Nicole for Christmas (on the 28th). We went for dinner on the 28th and the kids couldn't wait to open their presents.

Evan pretending he can't walk. Crawling is SO FUN for him for some reason.

Will loves the Lego.

Will and Nicole hanging out with Nana.

Nicole believes that you can NEVER have to many Webkinz. Not sure what she decided to name her new llama. We suggested "Spitz", "Como Se" and other names that she declined.

Nana loves her some cookbooks!

Nicole with her new watch.

Grammy (my mom) got in on the gift fun too!

Papa Don with the crazy book my mom bought him. He almost got taken out for wearing this shirt. Since we used to live in Austin he has a Texas Longhorns shirt. I explained to him that he couldn't wear it b/c Alabama and Texas are playing in the National Championship but he thought I meant just the day of the game. I think he may have worn it just to bug me. With him you never know. :)

Nicole and Dewey figuring out Nicole's new keyboard. She is quite the piano player these days. This keyboard will stay at our house/Nana's house so that she has something to play when she's here.

These are some of the first photos I edited with Photoshop. What do you think? I didn't do anything fancy to them just fixed color, light, red eye, etc. I still have a ton to learn. I will post more pictures tomorrow of the kids playing out in the snow.

Until tomorrow....how much photo editing do you do? What do you use? Did you take a class? Inquiring minds want to know!

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