Wow it has been a long time since I worked on my site. Much has happened since I last put pen to paper. First and foremost the Girls are back at school and are now eagerly awaiting the Christmas break.

I must admit I am a bit remiss in many things and one in particular is that I have yet to even begin my Christmas Shopping. I will likely wait until the 11th hour and powershop to get it done. Fortunately Karin gets most of the presents and all I have to get is hers.

If anyone wants to know what to get me. Well that is an easy one. I can always use money but what I really would like is a better flash for my camera. I have taken to snap all kinds of photos from people to places and architecture. Just about anything that catches my eye. I will have to post some of these pictures online to give you an idea of what I have done so far.

I continue to make some artwork and now Heather is beginning to use the computer to create some anime. If she lets me I will post one on this page in the next couple of days. She is really talented and I encourage to develop her muse. Aside from drawing on the computer, she is also a crazy sculptress. She has a collection of over 75 Dragons in plasticine, modelling clay and Sculpy clay(bakeable). The family room has been taken over by them.

Well that is enough for now. Pictures and graphics will be coming and I will post them as I get more time to compose but it was definitely time to say something else that is a little more up to date.

Till the next time.

 

It seems like forever since I last updated the site, however all I can say is that I have been busy over the last couple of months. The month of July saw us taking our holidays and it all started when Karin's sister and her husband stopped by on the way to see relatives. They came all the way from Nova Scotia and kidnapped out willing kids to go off to see their grandparents. That left Karin and I alone in the house for a whole week. Wow! it was great...almost like not having any kids. We could act like newlyweds so I can't describe what we did here. ;)

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Alas that was to come to an end and we had to head off to Niagara to retrieve our progeny. That was not too bad as the plan was to visit Canada's Wonderland for a couple of days. We spent likely the two best weather days in July there, the first day at the park on all the rides and the second at the water park. What a blast. It was really refreshing. We managed to take a number of pictures which can be seen by clicking the thumbnail below.

As August came upon us, we were preparing for the annual Puppy party at Acaciagold. I purchased a new camera so that I could take some really spectacular pictures. You can see these on the Acaciagold website under the picnics link. As usual Pat and Tom were fabulous hosts and I was really pleased to see such a Golden turnout. Buddy really likes visiting there as we have to take the Ferry to get to the island. Seems it's something to do with the water. Given my website skills, Pat has now asked me to manage her kennels website. This can be seen by clicking the link here or selecting the Acaciagold Kennels link under the Golden Retrievers menu on the side.

As I said I got a new camera. This time I decided to go whole hogg and get one that I could grow with. So I got a Nikon D80 DSLR with an 18-200mm lens. It takes some fantastic pictures and I am looking forward to learning all the things that I can do with it. Plans are to take some photography lessons to learn more about lighting and the intricacies of the F-stop. Some of the pictures that I have taken are available by clicking the thumbnail below. Some of these are of the Poker Run which took place the same day as the Puppy Party. An exciting photo day for me an Heather, who took a bunch of pictures herself.

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This also came in handy last weekend as there were a number of events that I took part in or spectated at. First was a golf tournament with a bunch of friends. Even though we did not do as well as we hoped, the event was great. Right after the golf I was off to a Lob Ball tournament. and over the three days, wound up playing 6 games. (Talk about sore arms). Of course what good is a tournament unless you have a party afterwards.

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To top it off, Heather had her end of season Soccer tournament. So of course as the ever doting dad I took her to the field and proceeded to snap hundreds of pictures. There are unfortunately too many to post all of them here so I have selected a limited number of them. Click on the thumbnail to see them.

Well that should be enough for now. So Lob Ball is over, Soccer is over and of course what is set to start up in September but School for the girls and Hockey for me. Woo! Hoo!

But before all that, I can't wait until Thursday when I get to take part in a premium Scotch tasting dinner. Looking forward to those three premium scotches.

2008

Since the last entry, there have been some interesting things that have happened. First of all I attended the final exam for our scotch tasting society and lo and behold I came out on top. Grand prize for the dinner was a 17 y.o. bottle of Balvenie. I managed to sample it last Saturday and boy was it good.

Of course the kids are now off school so that is something in and of itself. That is not all that has transpired though. Heather and I became the unofficial photographer of a bunch of friends taking part in the Dragonboat races. I managed to capture some great shots especially of a small rat snake swimming in the river. It was a good thing that some of the ladies on the team did not know of the snakes in the water. There as some pictures posted here. ( I will post them soon)

Also, Heather and I participated in a Ball tournament in nearby Brockville. It was the first time that our team actually got together and played a game. All in all we did not do too bad as we came second losing only by a few runs in the finals. Unfortunately the first day of the tournament was not all that pleasant. We were drenched after the first game but went on to a beautiful day on the Sunday. Sunny and warm. The rainxlouds held off until we were done and back on the road. The skies fortunately cleared for the evening. A good thing too as we were heading down to the city center to watch a free concert featuring "Trooper". They put on a pretty good show for a bunch of old rockers.

It was nice to have the Monday off too as I needed a weekend to recover from the weekend. Fortunately Karin was off both the Monday and Tuesday (Canada Day) and we were able to make the best of it. First thing in the morning Buddy went for a birthday swim. Man does he love that water. Of course returning home with a soggy doggy he was promptly relegated to the basement when the rest of us dissapeared downtown to first see a movie then share a nice meal at one of the local restaurants and finally topping it off by taking in the 1st of July Fireworks.

For all of you out there, a happy Canada Day and for our neighbours to the south happy Independance Day.

Golfing in Virginia Again

Well, I got a great head start on the golf season again. I and a bunch of guys hopped into two cars, well vans actually, and hit the road to Massanutten, Virginia for another week of fun on the course. Complete with Skins games and evenings filled with watching the Stanley Cup playoffs...if we could get them...and rousing rounds of Texas Hold'em, we managed to kill a few cases of beer, eat some great food and oh ya...managed to get a couple of rounds of golf in too.

I managed to snap only a couple of pictures of the trip this time(I will try to post them soon) but the weather was great, save for one day when it rained. Well it could have been worse. Further to our south the state was reeling from a number of devastating tornados. Fortunately for us we only experienced a little rain. Still managed to golf in it though.

April 8th, 2008

The Girls see Avril Lavigne in Concert.

Tuesday the 8th of April, the girls and I went to the Avril Lavigne concert. Both of them really enjoyed the concert especially the opening act. Boy Like Girls. As with all teenage girls they like their rockstars and the boys of Boys Like Girls were no exception.

As for Avril. It was the first time that she returned for a concert to her home neighbourhood. She has not done too badly for a girl from the little town of Napanee.

I took a number of pictures of the concert, her as well as the Boys Like Girls. I have placed a selection of them on the website as well as some of the others on a Webshots site.

Quebec City (February 2008)

I just returned from a trip to Quebec City. Unfortunately I did not get to stay over Carnivale, but I did see some of the works of Snow and Ice art that were made in preparation for the big event. Considering that the city is now 400 years old you will see that a good portion of the ice sculptures have the 400 in them. You can check out some of the pictures that I took by clicking on the graphic below.