Birthday - Yay

To anyone who cares, my birthday was on the 3rd. It was a good time; in fact the whole weekend was full of good times. Irene and I went down to Brockville and Merrickville which are two quaint small Ontario towns. Brockville is on the St. Lawrence and is defined by the river. It seemed to be full of American tourists. One guy thought we don’t have cream cheese in Canada and I didn’t bother trying to correct his ignorance. We found a good place to eat though.

Merrickville on the other hand is one of those towns defined by artists and the tourists drawn to them. It is full of glass-blowers, painters, nice restaurants and old expensive hotels. I would think it attracts a lot of Montrealers. It kind of reminded me of Old Montreal. It is a town that caters to tourists with money so we didn’t buy anything. You can read more details about that trip on Irene’s blog.

Irene also got me a new electronic toy. It is a GPS locator which I had been talking about for the past few months. It will probably lead to some more travelling adventures. Now I just have to get the detailed maps to put on it. I think I am turning into a GPS junkie. Oh well, its better for you than crack right?

The weekend was rounded off with party at my in-laws and sailing on Labour Day. Definite good times.

Gnome vs. JimBob

As I have mentioned before, Irene's sister is expecting a baby. This will be my first nephew/neice so it is really exciting. Maybe it's even more amazing when you are closely related. So here is a picture of an ultrasound from a few weeks ago. See if you can figure out where the baby is. It took me a while but I saw it eventually. The picture is of the baby's head from a couple months ago (check the date on the picture).
Currently Mike and I are rooting for a boy. I immediately named 'him' JimBob and Mike, being the father, changed it to Gnome (he likes garden gnomes). He says he might still change it after the baby is born. For the kids sake I hope he does. Mike has till late December to think of something else....

Pilate @ the SuperEx

We recently went and saw one of my favourite bands, Pilot Speed (formerly Pilate) at the Ottawa SuperEx. There wasn't that big of a turnout but most of the people there where huge fans. It was like a real indie show. They played their collective hearts out and on a few songs ripped out mine. The falsetto on those sad songs gets me everytime. Man do those guys kick some serious butt. In a better venue they probably would have sounded even better. It wasn't the best concert I have ever been to but it was up there. I tried taking a picture or two but I can't control shutter speed on my camera so they all look somewhat like this....

Incidently we also came across a one-man band doing a great cover of The White Stripes Seven Nation Army(You would have loved it Joel). I should have taken a picture of that.

Josh & Dina, Greg & Shelagh

Recently I attended two weddings. The first was my good freinds Josh and Dina. It was your typical Can. Ref. wedding (i.e. like mine). It was great to see a lot of my high school friends again. Good times were had by all. To show you what I mean here is a picture of Josh and Dina throwing cake at each other. Clearly it was good times.

Joel also had a great speech involving throwing a binder the size of the Ontario Building Code.
And here is some guy doing an impromptu flyby with his motorized parachute. I don't think he had anything to do with the wedding but I could be wrong.
The second wedding wasn't so typical. I went through college with the groom, Greg. We bonded because we were both dutch-canadian (oh how I hate hyphenated nationalities) and we were both Christian. He went to a non-denominational church which believes you must be born again and disagrees with infant baptism. You can't argue with his faith life though. Greg is a great christian guy and I respect him for showing it. For me the highlight of the wedding service was when it turned into a praise and worship christian rock concert. Usually that kind of music turns me off but it was pretty good in this situation. Sure the 'message' could have used some more substance but it was good to hear something different. If nothing else it helped reaffirm my faith.

Here is a picture of Jason (another dutch-canadian-christian-technologist), Greg and me.

A Touching Elephant Story (Its True!)

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air.
The elephant seemed distressed so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and found alarge thorn deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the thorn out withhis hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him. For several tense moments Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away.
Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later he was walking through a zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turnedand walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing.
The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe and lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man. Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure.
He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one ofthe man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.



thanks to Irene

Camping = Good Times

To all who went camping with me at Guelph lake, thank you for the killer time. It was probably the best trip to date for some of us. Here are some pics that should be self explanatory for anybody who was there. For those who weren't, I'll fill in the gaps.
Look its a homemade Lakeport. Just when I thought I had run out, Jocelyn whipped it up. Why is there a donut on top of it?

Here is the neighbour kid with the shirt sucking wedgie. This is the type of picture you get when people borrow your camera.

Tim taking a pic. We did that a lot.
The guys shooting things. We did that even more.
See.
Mmmm donuts.
Devon is grabbing yet another Busch. Dude, you should have stopped then.
Jocelyn and a girl whose name I forget.
Josh doing TWO bad things the week before he gets married.
Joel having a good time. He had a good time the whole weekend.

Thanks for the good times people and I'll see y'all next year!

Pilate = Excercise

The latest cds I have been enjoying for the past month are:

1. Stephen Fearing – Yellowjacket
A great disc I picked up on the spur of the moment after reading something in the paper about his 'intimate' performance at the Tulip Festival. It is essentially a pop album but his great voice, interesting lyrics and unique sound keep it different enough for me to enjoy. He is one of those Canadian artists who will never achieve huge fame (a la Micheal Buble) but keep on trekkin because of their love of music and it shows.

2. Mark Knopfler and EmmyLou Harris – All the Roadrunning
Who would ever think I would end up listening to a country album. I guess it was bound to happen after listening to copious amounts of Folk-Rock from Iron and Wine and Bright Eyes. I have never really cared for either Mark Knopfler or EmmyLou Harris on their own. Singing together brings out the best in each while leaving out the annoying country twang and classic rock guitar solos. It’s a solid disc that I have listened to over and over again. Plus, Irene likes it too.

3. Pilot Speed formerly Pilate – Sell Control for Life’s Speed
One of my favourite bands, and another Tulip Festival performer. These guys know how to make a solid album. This album is not straying from the sound of ‘Caught By The Window’ but that is definitely not a bad thing. The melodic angst ridden music reaches a high on a track called ‘Turn the Lights On’. It’s a sad song and I am a huge sucker for sad music. It sounds a lot like Starsailor or a slowed down version of Muse. All in all it has got me hooked like only a good cd can.
Check it out.
On a side note, I think they had to change their name because of legal issues in the USA due to the similarity of their name to the excercise routine....