van alles en nog wat

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to think up titles for these posts. Life is hard!

Well, first things first. Congrats to my little sister and her hubby on the birth of a baby girl. Welcome Lani! Oh, and thanks Marian for naming her after me. Lani... Andrew... bah! I sure see the similarity, even if no one else does.

What else? It's stinking hot, that's what. A mere 3 weeks ago we were out snowboarding and now there's hardly any snow to be seen. Just the odd dirty pile at the side of a big parking lot. Oh, and in my back yard. I'm keeping it for the memories. Who knows, it may last till June. And if I get really desperate I can pile it up and try to snowboard on it.

But seriously, I ventured outside yesterday and almost died. Enough of this heat. When's winter already? It was 25 degrees out yesterday! And almost as warm today! Of course when I venture outside to check out what people are enduring "out there", I step onto our deck, which faces south, has a glass barricade, and sports black metal sheeting for dividing walls. All of that probably adds 5 degrees, thus reducing the chances of seeing me out there much this summer.

As much as I dislike the heat outside, I still haven't managed a day without my slippers on at least part of the time. Strange...

Not much going on. Carrie is out shopping in Montreal with a friend today. And last week she spent 4 days in Washington DC for a conference. She was all depressed coming back to chilly Ottawa because DC was 25 degrees and had lovely cherry blossoms. Well an entire week later and we've got it too (the weather, no plant life of any kind). Her winter blues are over.

I am actually seeing buds on some of the trees so I guess it won't be long. But for the record, I welcome any snow fall between now and October...

Black Sheep Inn

So there's this little watering hole called the Black Sheep Inn; it's in Wakefield, a wee little village in Quebec right by our usual skihill. We went there last night with a few friends to see a show by some Canadian musician I'd never heard of. Stephen Fearing. Yep, that blank stare was me a few weeks ago.

So anyway, we heard it's good to show up early since seating is limited. Fortunately we got there early since that turned out to be true. We arrived at 6pm and had a burger before settling in for the long wait, since the show started at 9.

It was a nice day out, but not so nice to eat outside since the outdoor patio wasn't quite clear of snow... and it's a little chilly in the shade.


Awwww...


Mmmmm... imbibing some kind of brew.


This young lady didn't want me posting this cool shot on my blog. Ooops! You're welcome for artistic license :P.


Three random dudes. Or not.


... And the man of the hour.


It was an entertaining evening, although the guy's guitar creaked like anything and he needed a new amp. The end.

the latest

Okay, time for another post. Nothing exciting to write about, but then the masses have more often demanded quantity than quality.

For Easter weekend we managed to take a few days off and visit the parents (the closer ones anyway). A mere five hours away, but this is the first time we went (together) to see them. A good time was had by all, and we even managed to stop by in Toronto on Sunday afternoon to say hi to a good number of long-forgotten acquaintances.

Nephew and niece enjoying a meal (they're growing like weeds, by the way)...


And another nephew (don't those stripes make him look slimmer?)...


I've been fortunate to be able to go boarding probably more often than any previous season. And no broken bones! ...although not for lack of trying. I took my camera a couple of times and good thing too, because when something cool happens it should be caught on 'film'.

So my buddy r00b was going along a trail weaving through some trees when suddenly he lost control. He landed exactly as you see him in the picture, and I wondered why he wasn't moving. Then I heard his muffled voice, "take a picture!" So, while killing myself laughing, I dutifully snapped a shot before letting him come up for air. Good times, good times...


Another time that he lost control he mauled a tree before ricocheting off it and narrowly missing two others. The other kind of tree huggers would not be impressed by the tree carnage he left behind.


Yet another time, we decided to follow a small trail in the trees that some other enterprising boarder had previously created, so off we went. Before too long we realized that the trail-maker had ended up some place where he could simply go no further; and like him, our only option was to climb back up the hill whilst arguing over whose dumb idea this was in the first place. Unfortunately, trudging up the hill couldn't be done without unstrapping the snowboards; slightly worse was the fact that the snow was a few feet deep :(.


And yet another outing, with a bunch of us.


One morning I noticed a fancy icicle on one of the plant hangers in the backyard. Not until a couple days later did I notice that the same water source was forming a nice big ice sculpture in the tree above the hanger. The one in the tree got so heavy the branch broke eventually.