2005-11-16

ah PEI

Working Village
For the third time this year, I found myself in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

As always, it was a fun trip. We did a roadtrip day Saturday which was a bit crazy. We got up way too early, and tried to do too much, ending up tiring ourselves and having to crash too early. We have a better plan for next time, stay tuned!

The picture is from Peggy's Cove, NS, which I always enjoy visiting. It's such a picturesque little village. I find most people focus on the lighthouse and rocks though, and less on the town in behind. I don't know, for me, it's the town that is the neatest thing about Peggy's Cove. Well, I took a number of pictures, I'd like to go back another time when the weather is better (though I'm sure that'd mean more tourists...) and get some more pictures.

My most recent PEI trip set is here. Enjoy

2005-11-04

Slacking in Fall

Orange Leaves
Ah yes, I'm such a slacker. Or is it that nothing has really been going on? Some of both I'm sure.

This weekend I'm off to Body Worlds in Toronto, then driving to Montreal for a climbing competition Sunday. The first of the season. I'm climbing at least as strong as I was at my best last season, so I'm thinking I'll do better. Timelines are going to be tight this weekend though, Body Worlds at 1, probably leave there at 3 or 4, then drive to Montreal check into the hostel (same one as Bj and I stayed at on our NB Roadtrip). The competition is at noon Sunday, so I should be leaving it at around 4 or 5. It's going to be a tiring long drive home that night.

Next weekend I'm off to visit Ines in PEI again, I'm quite excited about it. :) We're taking the Wood Island Ferry into Nova Scotia on the Saturday, and driving around there a bit. I will have pictures of course.

2005-09-29

busy busy

Me Finishing
It's been a while since I've updated. I normally have a few spare minutes at work, or in the evening to pump out a post, but recently I've been too busy. My weeknights are usually spent climbing, playing squash, at my art class, or hanging out with friends. Work has been really crazy as well, we're developing and testing a new event driven database model. So that's keeping me quite busy.

What have I been up to recently? Well one new thing that I mentioned is my drawing class I'm taking at Mohawk. It is a lot of fun so far, I really can't wait to see the improvements in my drawing. Next semester I think I'll be taking a watercolour painting class.

Sunday was the 30km offroad Squeezer bike race. I can't believe how much fun it was. The course was very challenging but this time my bike held up for the distance, and I finished in a respectable 494/1149, with a time of 1:54:56. My goal (without knowing anything about the course) was 2 hours, so I am very happy with my finish. I can't wait till next year to do it again, but faster!

Climbing season is fast approaching, the first competition (for fun, not on the tour) is on the 22nd of October. I'm probably not going to that one, but still, that's just over 3 weeks away, so I'm working on getting back into bouldering shape by climbing twice, (soon to be thrice) a week.

2005-09-09

Back to School

Chickadee Golfing
Well, the kids have gone back to school. What does this mean to me?

I can't believe how much busier the roads are while biking in to work, I guess I'd gotten used to minimal traffic over the summer. It's hard to believe the increase is only due to people being driven to school.

Interestingly (to me anyway) I'm headed back to take a course this fall. It's a drawing course for people who think (or know in my case) they can't draw. It's at Mohawk, so I'm going to have to get my butt in gear and get a parking pass and the supplies for the course before it starts in a couple weeks. It's going to be interesting though, for one thing to be back in a class environment after more than 3 years, and taking a drawing course, which will be completely new for me.

I had something else I wanted to complain about, but I forget. If I remember I just may post again!

2005-09-01

ah racism

Randy found this link on a livejournal site.

Anyway, I wouldn't normally comment on US race relations, though who knows, maybe I should, but one interesting thing to me is that it's posted on yahoo. Yahoo bought flickr recently, and I was not impressed. Something about big companies (american) buying out little companies (canadian) and potentially decimating them. Ha ha, though if it had been Google who had bought them, in all my fanboyism, I would have been thrilled! Though in truth, Yahoo's aquisition of Flickr has had no ill effects that I can see, in fact, they were able to buy more servers and keep up with the ever increasing demand of more and more users. The site was getting pretty slow there for a while just before they moved to California. I can't imagine how many terabytes of pictures they have on there now. At least 12.

Oh let's see, a picture just for fun.

2005-08-25

Late Updates

Boat in Field
One thing about going away every weekend to a photogenic location, is that processing the pictures I take starts to backlog. To get 20 pictures up on flickr takes me about 2 hours of downloading, processing, and uploading. One of the things I've done to hopefully aleviate that system is buy a mac. Just a cute little iBook, but it comes with iPhoto, which should do most of the steps of my downloading and processing all in one.

The PEI trip was awesome! Ines was the greatest host ever, and we did a whirlwind tour of the island. I got to see lots of lighthouses, wind turbines, beaches, and potato fields from tip to tip. I took almost 500 pictures, and am still in the process of going through them. I'll have more online within a week or so I hope.

Wes and I's trip to Michigan was also a blast. Camping the night before was funny, we had way too much fun drawing pictures with a flashlight and my camera on long exposures. We're definitely going to have to do them again. The race was awesome. It was very loud, and actually being there gives a much better sense of how fast they are going than seeing it on tv. (300 km/h!!!!) More pictures will be coming from there as well.

2005-08-10

Weekend Photos

Sailing b&w
Alright, Owen Sound pictures are up! This is the first and second pass through them, so at some point there could be some more added.

Leaving for PEI in less than 2 days! Gotta remember to charge the camera, bring cd's to backup on every night, and have lots of fun. Shouldn't be hard.

There are some pictures of the parts for wind generators that they're putting up on the Bruce Peninsula in the latest set. I'm so impressed that we're finally getting them here. Ines tells me there are more in PEI, so we'll be going to check them out at some point. I think it's extremely important that Canada invests heavily in alternative power production. That is all.

2005-08-07

Setting Moon

Setting Moon
What an awesome weekend, it surpassed all expectations of awesomeness.

Highlights include, but are not limited to:

Driving up highway 6 in the afternoon on Friday, ending up behind Wes just as we got to Owen Sound. He was headed to Sauble, me to Owen Sound. Odds of that happening? 12.

Dinner with my Uncle, Bob, and my Grandfather at Montana's.

Seeing Bonnie's artwork (watercolour paintings) and going to an art show in Owen Sound with her showcasing local artists. We saw some really unique and interesting stuff. I bought a painting by Judy Gray!

Family Reunion at Harrison Park, catching up with relatives, playing volleyball, and feasting on an excellent dinner.

Swimming at my Aunt Lynn's cottage afterwards, followed by some drinks and spending the night (we all had tents)

Seeing Inglis Falls with my Grandpa Ted and Bonnie, taking lots of pictures, running into Wendy Bachiu (hope I got the spelling right).

More swimming at the cottage, lunch, then a long drive home.

Lowlights include:

Stupid drivers who drift between 75 and 110 km/h! I know you might not have cruise control, but it doesn't mean you can't keep a constant speed by varying the presure on the gas pedal with your foot!

That's about it, it really was a fantastic weekend! I'll be processing the rest of the pictures this week, for now I have 6 sunset pictures up on my site.

2005-08-05

Big Weekends

Plane by the Steeple
A big few weeks coming up.

Today I'm going to see my grandfather in Owen Sound, it's been way too long since I've been there to see him. Tomorrow we have our annual family reunion. Sunday I'm not sure what my plans are. I'm thinking of maybe heading over to Sauble Beach for some swimming.

Next weekend I'm using my remaining vacation days and taking a 4 day weekend to head down to PEI to visit a friend who just moved out there. I'm hoping the weather will be somewhat better than last time:
(check out the full size picture to see the ice pellets travelling sideways!)

Just kidding, I know it's really nice there now. We're hoping to get to the National Park, and to the Wind Generators (which should make for some fantastic pictures!).

The following weekend I'm letting the sun darken up my neck some, and heading to Michigan with Wes to see my first Nascar race. From what he says it's going to be great!

2005-07-29

Kaska is a Star!

Kaska is a Star!
Pictures from the excellent Rob-Tiffany Wedding are up!

I have no plans for this weekend... I'm wasting my summer!

2005-07-25

A Wedding and a Funeral

It's a weekend of extremes, first of all, my friends Rob and Tiffany got married on Saturday night. I've got lots of pictures to go through and post, and I promise I'll try to do that this week. The reception was at Liuna Station, a very classy joint. I know at our table, when looking at the menu we thought that we'd have a choice between steak and cornish hen, however, when the steak came on it's own, we realized we were getting both! I was so stuffed after the steak (preceded by pasta) but as soon as I tsted that hen, I made some room. Magnifique!

The other extreme this weekend is that my Grandmother passed away on Friday in Belleville. She had been sick with cancer for a while now, so I know that it's good that she's not suffering anymore. I'll miss her a lot though. I was fortunate to come to McMaster, and have my grandparents literally living across the road from there. I used to rollerblade over from residence with my laundry basket in hand, every week, returning after dinner with clean clothes, and often a loaf that she'd baked.
We spent last night with her sister, my great aunt, going through tons of pictures, some from as far back as when she was a young child. Some of the pictures we found show a completely different side to my nana that I never knew. We made a 5 bristol board picture tribute to her life, and it was quite a life. She was a great person, and I'm glad to have known her for as long as I have.
The funeral is at 11 today in Ancaster, it's going to be tough, but also I find them to be somewhat enjoyable. You get to see family that you don't often see, and catch up with what's been going on. There are always funny stories told about the person who passed. I'm sure this one will be no different.

I'll miss you Nana.

2005-07-18

Chronotherm?

Hot!
Time Temperature?

Shaping up to be another hot week. I wish I had a porch so I could sit out on it, play some banjo, drink some beers, talk with the neighbors as they pass, and complain about the heat.

From what I saw in Forest Gump, Alabama looks like a cool place to live.

I shouldn't complain about the heat. I love this so much more than winter, there is so much to do outside comparatively.

Thinking about it, the summer is already half over. Crap.

2005-07-16

About all we can do...

About all we can do...
What a week this has been. Work has been crazy, stupid quarter close! And the weather has been super humid and hot. What do you do in this kind of weather then? Besides napping like Schrody is doing here, and failing having air conditioning, you have to swim!

We've been swimming now for some time in Lake Ontario from a beach in Burlington. This past Thursday though I ended up getting both ears infected. I tell ya, infected ears aren't much fun. The doctor I saw said I was the tenth case he'd seen that day. I guess it was time to close those beaches down.

I had a friend from Toronto come down last night and we hit up the B&T (vietnamese place) downtown for some excellent food. Then to the Snooty Fox to relive some university locales. Today we went for breakfast at Your Place Family Resteraunt then to see Wedding Crashers. I'm a fan of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson movies, and this one didn't dissapoint. Quite funny and worth it. (though it had striking similarities to The Wedding Singer)

Well, the rest of my weekend should be equally lazy and indoors, hope everyone else is having a good weekend!

2005-07-11

The Rough Life

The Rough Life
The picture is the view off a co-workers dock in Grand Island, NY. This place was like Cottage country here in Ontario. Except they're living this life all the time, this was a co-workers house! It was fantastic to spend a weekend there, at our company weekend party.

Friday night 4 of us went down, got hassled at the border, and ended up partying with mostly NY folk. Very good times. I was even drinking Bud(!) by the end of the night. I've got some pictures of us drinking around the fire, and some other night shots.

Saturday morning was a bit rough, but I figured a quick trip to Timmy's (I was impressed they actually have them!) would be the cure. The guy serving us was named something like Booya, and he was a moron. I can understand maybe they don't know the standard terms that we have here, I ordered a large regular. Had to explain what that was a couple times, ended up with an XL regular. whatever. But when dave had to direct him to the muffins and point out the one he'd already asked 3 times for, that's just stupid. Anyway, the coffee did help, and by lunch, we were drinking again.

The rest of the company made it up for Saturday afernoon. We all got boat rides in various boats. The one I went on was a bigger boat, and we went to within sight of the spray from Niagara Falls. I went swimming off the side of the boat there, the current was crazy! I'd dive off, end up a few metres out, then within seconds, I was being swept past the boat. Spent some more time swimming when we got back, and had some dinner.

After dinner most company people left, but there were a bunch of us left. We spent time doing stupid human tricks with Danny and Randi, some kids of one of our employees, I couldn't believe how flexible they were. Stupid human tricks inevitably leads to armwrestling, where I beat Danny righthanded, then in an epic left handed battle, lasting many minutes, beat him left as well. Feeling invincible, I took on Randi (she's 12) left handed, and suffered a monumental defeat! Oh the bruised ego! Next up was their father Phil, who beat me right handed so fast, that I think he actually sprained my wrist. It still hurts today.

Around midnight Derek, one of the hosts of the party, took the remaining few of us left to Turners, a bar where you can boat up, dock, and head in to drink. It was also good times, though not as busy as we were hoping it would be.

Sunday morning came, and I know I didn't want to pack up and head home. We got some more swimming in, Brendan, our main host, served us some breakfast, then we packed up and headed for Canada. No hassles at the border this time. A quick swim at a co-workers house, another beer, then I was done. When I got home I napped for a couple hours.

Awesome weekend!

2005-07-06

New Hog

New Hog
It's a beast! :P

This is it, a 1999 Ford Contour Sport, V6, 170hp, leather, cd, power crap, lots of trunkspace for dead hookers, 5 speed, not a bad car, and I got a really good deal on it. So what if it looks like it's a car for a 60 year old man.

Time for some roadtrips. Now I just need to find someone to go roadtripping with...

Have I driven a Ford lately?

Yes. Yes I have. And now I shall purchase one!

2005-06-29

Martin's Tip #1

Whilst biking, you see a can of pop on the ground. Don't hit it assuming it's empty, because if it's not, you get a spray of steaming hot cola all over yourself.

2005-06-27

Loon Stretching

Loon Stretching
I have returned from the canoe trip, and am back at work. I almost hate vacations, for the fact that going back to work is so hard. I need a longer vacation.

The canoe trip was great. We had fantastic weather, only one afternoon of rain, the rest of the time reasonable. I'm not going to go into the details of the trip here, pictures tell a better story. See my pics here, and Dave's here. Note that as of writing this, mine aren't all up yet.

2005-06-17

Mudrun!

Event: Mudrun, a 10km race with mud related obstacles
Date: Saturday June 11th.
Location: Toronto, near woodbine.
People: Wes, Maygan, and myself.
Sleep: Not nearly enough.
Temperature: Bloody Hot.
River Crossings: 2, which most people waded through, we swam and had mud fights and beached ourselves on the muddy shore.
Mud Pits: 1, which we dove into, rolled around in, pulled each other through, and had lots of fun in.
Water: the substance which completely refreshes Maygan for about 12 seconds.
Showers: 3 hoses (noses?) that apparently had ice cold glacier water coarsing through them.
Fun: had by all.



Pre Run Picture



Post Run Picture

2005-06-16

That time of year again

That time of year again
We leave Saturday morning for the Second Annual Canoe Trip. I'm super excited about this years trip. We've lost one person (my brother), and gained two people (Wes and John) so this year we have an even number of people coming. As the stupid chef guy from the Lillydale commercials would say "You caught me working; banquet for 50, it's going to be great!". Ok, maybe that wasn't the most relevant quote.

This picture was from last years trip, I'll have lots more from this year.

Also we're still waiting on pictures from the end of the Mud Run that Wes, Maygan, and I did last Saturday, I'll post them and a summary when they're up.

2005-06-08

My.Horn->(Toot,Toot!)

Humming Bird at Feeder
So this picture was blogged on another site, along with lots of other cool shots.

Check it out:

The Site
Loquor
My Pic

yay!

2005-06-07

BaitCar

Found this site through Overcompensating:

BaitCar

Leaving wired up cars for theives to steal, (gps, remote ignition cut off, cameras, microphones, etc) then busting them. It's such a great idea, and has apparently been decreasing the number of car thefts in Vancouver where this trial is. Check out the videos, they're pretty funny.

2005-06-06

I'm no Seinfeld

Friday Evening:

6:00: Wes's place. Drank a beer.

6:30: Another beer, and some chips.

6:45: Dinner, consisting of 2 double beef paddy burgers. I felt crosseyed from too much beef.

7:15: Walked down to register for the Race registration.

8:00: Back at Wes'. Decided not to have another beer, as we have to run a 5km race later in the evening.

8:45: Head back down to Hess for the race. Start planning where we are going to find someone to hold a platter of beer for us.

8:58: See a group of people congregated down George street, decide to see what they're up to, as the race doesn't start for another 45 minutes.

8:59: Apparently the race starts at 9, giving us one minute to stretch, and no time to find people to hold beer for us.

9:00:
Lap 1: Wes and I run together, it is a fairly well paced lap, the uphill back towards Queen wasn't too bad. At the end of the lap, Wes called down a server gave her some cash, and ordered us a pitcher of beer. We found a coupld of cute girls to keep the beer with them and refil the glasses as we ran (Much to the disgust of their boyfriends).

Lap 2: Another well paced lap. The uphill section was getting harder, both of us were feeling heavy, probably due to the beef and beers earlier. Our beers and girls were waiting for us back just before the start finish line. They had poured what seemed to me like a lot of beer. No problem though, we had already missed out on a lap of drinking because we had to buy the beer. The beer did not go down well. It's hard to drink carbonated beverages when you are out of breath. I was a bit slower than Wes, but I got my beer down.

Lap 3: It's also hard to burp while you're running and out of breath, the gas buildup in my stomach was not an enjoyable feeling. This lap was significantly slower than the previous one. We kept running however, and sludged our way up the uphill section. Back for more beer at the end of the lap. It looked like we were drinking full pints, but they were probably 3/4. I am not one for drinking beer fast, and Wes had to help me out a bit near the end of my glass.

Lap 4: We were both feeling very slow this lap. We had to stop and walk a couple times. Things were mixing in my stomach that were never meant to be together. Some bikers (choppers, not mountain) told us that one of their "ladies" was single, Wes almost went back for some biker action. They laughed. I think we may have rolled up the uphill section. I had gone from thinking that our drinking run was a fantastic idea, to the worst idea ever! Drinking the bigger pints in the previous laps meant that thier was not much beer left at the end of this lap. I had serious trouble drinking my beer, Wes helped me out again. A bouncer from the bar came over to let us know that we can't drink beer from the bar outside of the gates. Luckily we only had a bit to finish before taking off again. Wes described me as having a very bad look on my face as I choked down my last little bit.

Lap 5: Very shortly into this lap I had the feeling that the events taking place in my stomach were about to take place outside. I found myself a fairly discrete corner and let'er fly. It was pretty gross. However, I felt much better, and the rest of the lap for me wasn't too bad. even the uphill section. Wes, who keep in mind had more beer in him than me, had some issues so we slowed the pace down.

Finish: Not a spectacular time, 33:55 for Wes, and 33:56 for me (damnit!). We have some ideas of how to make the run better next year, and are also looking for more people to join us. Keep it in mind for next June!

10:00: We changed and stayed in hess, having a few more drinks before heading home for the night.

All in all I would have to say, a fun experience. Now I know that I can't really drink and run very well.

Saturday night was Ty and Laura's wedding. What a fun time that was, it was really great to hang out with people I don't see nearly enough. The open bar ended up being trouble, the live band was great (such a great idea, even though they didn't know any Rage Against the Machine or AC/DC). The food was great, second best steak of my life, nice and rare. After the wedding Cam, Randy, and myself went to The Still (in Kitchener). That was pretty funny, highlighted by a german guy kind of hump dancing with a table? (from what I remember). I drank way too much, and yesterday was pretty much a disaster. I had to get Cam to pull over 4 times on the way home.

Yeah, so like my brother, I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from drinking, probably just a couple weeks. I hope everyone elses weekend was fun!

2005-06-03

It's done

Car is gone, money has been transfered.

Now the search is on for the next car.

In the mean time, I'm running a 5k road race tonight around Hess. Wes and I are planning to add some extras into the race. We're hoping to find someone to hold a platter of half pints that we can down on each lap of hess. Afterwards there shall be more drinking.

Ty's wedding tomorrow should be good times.

2005-05-24

End of an Era



so I put my car up for sale today, if anyone has a sub $5000 car they want to get rid of, let me know. Preferably a manual.

2005-05-19

Bananas and ciggarettes

Another For Rae
A big bug flew in my mouth yesterday. I spit it out. It tasted like bananas.

Turns out the combination of jalapeno chips and mango sorbet leaves a ciggarette taste in your mouth. Nasty!

2005-05-02

Grow Little Pine Tree

Grow Little Pine Tree
Wes, Maygan, some of Maygans friends, and I planted trees on the weekend with Hamilton city Councillor Dave Braden

I guess there were about 30 people planting at the first site, and probably about 15 made it to the second site.

In all Dave told us we planted 2000 trees. On my flickr account I noted on a google map where we planted. It's neat, you can see some of the trees from the Linc as you're just passing Upper Gage headed towards Stoney Creek.

We did go and drink Friday night, and crashed at Wes' place. It was rough getting up at 6, but we made it, and were only slightly late for the planting (due to some lack of knowledge of where certain people lived and where the tree planting was... not laying any blame on anyone who had planned it... *cough* Maygan *cough* ;) )

Oh and Brad, if you're wondering, I figured I'd planted about 1900 trees, then Wes figured he'd done about 1950... so one of us may have been incorrect. But not both I'm sure.

2005-04-28

Can I Kick it?

Green Buds
Ok, weekend plans:

- Critical Mass Bikeride starting from Hess Village tomorrow evening (5:30 for anyone else interested in joining us).

- Drinking at Hess afterwards and crashing downtown. Shall be good times, anyone interested in coming for that is welcome as well.

- Planting Trees with some Hamilton City councillors Saturday morning. The weather forcast is calling for rain, which in my opinion, is perfect for planting trees. Maybe it's from past experiences planting trees, but it just isn't right unless it's raining on you while you do it.

I think I'll leave Sunday open as a free day.

2005-04-22

pics from the Paris to Ancaster Race

Quick link with pictures of me from the Paris to Ancaster Race:

Here

And Wes and Maygan

Sorry for no picture, but I'm linking to pictures, so that's gotta count for something.

Also, what kind of crappy business model does this place that took the pictures have, when they charge $20 for a jpeg image of a picture, or $24 for a 5x7 print? I know I can't afford those, and I'm guessing that not a lot of other people could either. I bet they get a low number of people ordering prints because of their high prices.

Another Week...

Go West
Good thing it's supposed to be rainy this weekend, as my bike is in the shop. Though I'm going to see if I can get the road bike going tomorrow in case Wes and I decide to do a ride in the rain on Sunday.

Lets see, any other weekend plans... nope, not yet. Anyone up to anything?

2005-04-18

Twisted Derailer

Twisted Derailer
The Paris to Ancaster race was yesterday. It was a lot of fun, great course, great weather, and everyone was nice. The race was a 60 km mixed road and trail ride, so it was everything from pavement to unbelievable amounts of mud.

Around 58 km in going through some muddy areas something happened to my derailer that caused it to explode, and bend in on itself and into my spokes and gears (see picture). I walked the last 2 km after bending the derailer out of the spokes. Wes and Maygan were waiting for me at the finish line, and Wes ended up pushing me across, which should be in some photos somewhere online. I'll have a look for them.

All in all a good race, though my time wasn't great, and wouldn't have been great even if I didn't blow the derailer. I need to get in better biking shape.

2005-04-14

Biking to Work

Biking to Work
Now this is the weather I'm talking about.

I'm biking to work more and more now, as well, last weekend some friends and I biked 50 km. We were outside from about 10 to 5 that day and ended up with pretty bad sunburns. On the plus side I'm starting on my farmers/bikers tan early this year!

This weekend Wes, Maygan and I are biking a 60 km race from Paris to Ancaster. I can't wait, it's going to be lots of fun.

I hope everyone is enjoying the great weather.

2005-04-01

Grandmothers Rose

Grandmothers Rose
Wow, I see that posting fewer words and more pictures sure is helping the frequency of posts here... *cough*


*tumbleweed*


Anyway, I need better incentive or something at updating...

2005-03-14

Chateau From a Different Angle

Chateau From a Different Angle
Ok, I've been behind on updating this page. Hopefully what I'm going to do, is start posting more pictures here, and less words. Maybe that will be incentive to post more often as I have to write less. We'll see.

Bj and I's roadtrip was excellent. We took a week off in February, rented a car (Thanks National for being the only rental company we could find with unlimited kilometers!), and drove down to visit our friend Ali in Fredericton. While there and on the way there and back, we visited Montreal, Quebec City, Fredericton, Charlottetown, and St. John.

For the most part the weather was great. We had a blast, spent too much, drank too much, and ate too much. It was just what I needed for a vacation.

I'll stop there, and continue soon with Amy and Mike's wedding and climbing competitions in Ottawa and Montreal.

2005-02-10

Febtober

Dead Barn?
Heading out for vacation time after work tomorrow. I really need this time off. Work has been really busy lately, and I need some time. So my friend Bj and I are driving to New Brunswick to visit our friend Ali in Fredericton. I believe it shall prove to be a great time. I'll have lots of pictures from there on flickr sometime after the trip.

Speaking of trips, my brother is in the air right now, headed for Australia. How cool would that be?

2005-01-24

What a weekend

Me Playing
I smartly did nothing Friday night, in anticipation for a busy strenuous weekend.

Saturday I drove to Vaughn (North of Toronto) for the next tour de bloc bouldering competition at The Pad. It was a very nice gym for bouldering, with 3 large freestanding structures to boulder on. The comp was a lot of fun, I'm not sure how I placed yet.

Getting there was interesting. The snowstorm was in full effect and driving was quite hazardous. Getting home was even more interesting, because added to the blowing driving snow, it had accumulated quite a lot since the morning. I made it all the way to Stoney Creek (in about 2 hours) only to get stuck turning on to our block. 20 minutes of digging got me going again, only to get stuck once more pulling into our developement. Luckily there were a couple nice guys that saw me this time and came over with shovels and helped dig and push me out enough to get my car off to the side of the road until the plow came by later and cleared the road enough to allow me to move my car to my parking spot.

Sunday Wes, Maygan and I went cross country skiing at Hilton Falls conservation area. I had to rent skis (and the boots ended up giving me massive blisters on my heels). The rental skis were crap, they were the non waxed kind, they had scales of some kind on them, and they were slow as hell. I'm definitely getting my dad to bring me some up next weekend. Anyway, the skiing was a lot of fun, the day was beautiful, I got lots of cool pictures (which I'll be posting more of on flickr as I process them). After skiing, we went back to Maygan's place and made dinner. I forget what we made, but it was some kind of indian food, and it was fantastic. We finished the day off by watching Napoleon Dynamite. A great movie.

Today I'm unbelievably sore, but still plan on climbing tonight.

An excellent weekend.

2005-01-20

Snowy Drive into Work

Snowy Drive into Work
Let's see, what has been going on lately.

I turned 26 last weekend, and did not get to party it up. I was however sick all weekend, which is almost as much fun.

Amanda came down on sunday and brought me a cake, that was nice.

Keith and I are going to a bouldering competition this weekend. I'm going to be entering in the middle category this time instead of beginner like I did last time. It shall prove to be an ass whopping of monumental proportion. It is all in good fun though, and I enjoy the competitions a lot.

2005-01-10

Neuter Day

Trogdor is Content
Today is the Day Trogdor and Schrodinger lose their manhood. I feel sad for them, but better that than them marking territory all over the house.

Have I mentioned that Flickr is the greatest photo site ever? I encourage anyone who takes photos and is reading this to get a free account there, and post lots of pictures.

Do it! Do it!