Yay Canada

Got back a week ago from my trip to the USA. A heck of a lot of driving (2000 miles) over 7 days, but that was how our route worked out. Luckily gas prices are down in general, and much cheaper in the US than in Canada. Your govt could pay for the gulf war just by taxing gas like the Canadian govt does!

The main purpose (per DW) was to visit our friends near Charlotte NC. But secretly I had alterior motives to work in a bunch of peep meets. I am so glad to have had a chance to meet Dear Abby, Snidget, Boo, and Bystander. All the meets were too quick (dinner, dinner, breakfast and lunch respectively) but what a great bunch of peeps.

I know there are lots of other peeps along that way that I would like to meet. I used frappr as a bit of a guide, so peeps who weren't on there might not have been part of my planning because of that. For instance, I believe that Scarlett is in the Carolinas, but do not know where. We really need to do a better job of compiling that sort of info!

Okay, now for the reason for the title of this thread. First up, the Canadian Junior hockey team. Yay team for winning the gold at the worlds for the fifth straight year. Being away over the holidays I missed most of the games (the US networks should really get on the bandwagon for this tourney, but I know all they care about is football), but I did see the third period and overtime of the Canada/Russia game in the semis (how close was that?) and about the first half of the gold medal game over Sweden. I have seen Tavares play several times for the Oshawa Generals, and he is a special player. I hope all the crap going on around him goes away, and he can just become a great pro hockey player. It must be terrible navigating all the media attention that he has had over the last few years since being "discovered".







Reason #2. Before Christmas we went to the local church for carolling with the nuns (or singing with the penguins as DW and YYB call it). Sitting in the pew in front of us was a small boy with two men. While we waited we got talking, and it turns the boy is exactly one month older than YYB (about 3.5 years old) and they live a block down the street from us. This was a family sort of event, and we suspected the boy might have 2 fathers (not that that is any sort of issue). This last weekend I decided to take YYB down the street to see if I could find his potential new friend. Luckily I found the right house, and the boy was home with one of his dads. I am ecstatic to have found a local friend for YYB, since most of his classmates live far away! But the real reason for my Yay Canada is the story that Father1 told me. He said that he is the biological father of the boy (through a surrogate mother I assume) and they were the first case in Canada that got both fathers' names on the boys birth certificate. How great is that for the little guy? I suspect this wouldn't happen in the US (don't know that) but it gave me a warm fuzzy for Canada.

Pictures make posts more fun, and since most of you blog readers are ladies, here's a little motivation to help with your New Year's Resolutions...

Marital Crap :)

I saw this on another blog, so thought I would bring it forward to mine...


1. What date is your anniversary? November 21. Crap, that’s next week! :)

2. Where did you get married? In an old mansion in Toronto. Not church folks, so skipped that part. It was a beautiful fall day, warm by Toronto standards for that time of year.

3. Who proposed and how? I did. We were traveling on the west coast of Vancouver Island near Tofino. It is my favourite place on earth. We were hiking along the beach wearing borrowed rubber boots because of morning rain, and the sun came out as we were sitting on some rocks watching the waves crash. It was a very nice setting.

4. How long were you engaged? about 5 months, though I don’t recall the date of the west coast trip.

5. What was your favorite part of your wedding day (and it can't be your spouse)? I have 2 kids from a previous marriage, and they had roles in the wedding. It was very sweet to see them all dressed up and part of the ceremony. It really was a family wedding. My son, who was 8 then, even sewed a pillow in daycare to use to carry the rings. They used material they could find at daycare, so the pillow was orange felt, with a pink ribbon to hold the rings. We were all so proud of his pillow.

6. What would you change if you could? DW always grumbles because I didn’t tear up on seeing her come down the aisle. I guess I was just so happy but not in a tear up sort of way. She says I should have stabbed a fork into my leg to get a tear. I wouldn’t change much of anything, though.

7. What were your wedding colors? Pretty much black/gray and white. The weeding party was just maid of honour and best man. Burgundy and rose.

8. Remember anything special about your wedding ceremony? I had laser eye surgery about a month before the wedding. But being the goof I am, I brought my old glasses (sans lenses) in my pocket. DW didn’t know about this, and during our photo session I put the glasses on for a few pictures without her knowing. It wasn’t until we got the pictures back from the photographer that she saw what I had done.

9. Were you clean or messy when you cut your cake? We went with cupcakes instead of cake. The tower of cupcakes was really nice looking. We fed each other, and threatened, but there was no wearing of cupcake.

10. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Negril Jamaica. We went to a Couples resort there that was excellent. It was fun to be in a place with lots of other newlyweds. We made good friends with a young couple from North Carolina, and have kept in touch. One day we will go back to Jamaica with them!

Halloween Madness

I guess I should get a post in during 2008, eh? And as usual (well, both other times) this post will have a picture. Here's my Halloween costume for this year.

They say it's not over until the fat lady sings, but in this case she rode an exercise bike instead. And not successfully! The costume was a bit noisy (the inflator fan kept running) but at least it was funny. Funny for an adult costume party, but even more fun for taking BabyYoffer out trick or treating. I must have been quite a site coming down the street in the dark.

Here is a better picture:

I've been grumbling about my kids lately, but have come to the conclusion they are just being kids. They need some reminders to be human, but overall they are good kids.

Okay, enough of the world's most boring blog update. No one will see this anyway. I just needed to kill some time today with rtvw down. I hate it when rtvw goes down!!

Until next year...

Picking on the Kids

Yesterday was Fathers Day, and my kids didn't make much of an effort. So I get to retaliate!!

Here is BabyYoffer after a nasty old mosquito zapped him.

Okay, I can't really complain about BabyYoffer's effort for Fathers Day, as he is only 2, and he did give me a kiss.

Now YofferBoy is a little older than 2, and could have made some sort of effort. So I will *whack* him. Here he is after the pillow zapped his mangy coif...

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words. These two pictures are clearly worth more.

I still had a wonderful Fathers Day. Beautiful weather and lots of cottage fun.

So I went to this meet...

...and met some really cool peeps. Actually, I think I had already met many of them. Just never in person. But meeting them in person was pretty special. And introducing my "little computer friends" to my DW was pretty good too. She still thinks I am weird, but not as much for that reason. So about the meet. I looked through my pictures, and realized why I worked so hard in school - a career in photography just isn't going to happen. I have a bunch of pictures of comatose animals at the zoo (heck, it was so hot I was feeling comatose too!) and very few peep pictures. I say almost, because I did get a few pictures. First, there were so many peeps who were not in Niagara but who were with us anyway. This painting at Cafe Tu Tu Tango reminded me of a certain red-head from SF who was with us in spirit...



Okay, finally got that to work. Let's try another. This picture speaks for itself...



So now I am a dead man. Maybe even more than mostly dead. (after all, now Catt has accomplises!)

So before I die, I just want to thank the Niagara peeps. All of them. The 13 OTers who were there, the bunch of family members who not only put up with us, but added to the fun, to the peeps who were there by phone or other (thanks for the candles Bugmeat!!) and even to those peeps who couldn't make it but are part of what makes rtvw such a fun place to hang out.

You guys all rock!

Billy's Blog

Billy's Blog

So this is a Blog, eh?

Hey everybody. Welcome to my dad's blog. I hope he comes back and puts some stuff in here. He's insanely busy these days with work, getting the Scouts through the end of the year, getting the baseball league going, and chasing me and my sibs. AND Tuesday is my first birthday, so lots of planning for that!!

This is just a test to see how this works....