74th Whig Standard Bonspiel

Can you believe it? I got an invite to compete in another curling tournament with the same team as last year. This makes it Whig Standard Bonspiel #2 for me. They obviously didn't invite me back for my curling skills. Having said that, we did win one game keeping last year's streak alive. Yahooo!



The win came in our third match on the Friday night. The game was our usual 3 hour showdown ending at 12:30am. What a blast. Turned out we were playing against an old university buddy of mine that I hadn't seen in about 17 years. Slick aka Greg Miller. Unfortunately by winning that game we were bumped up into a higher caliber slot for the playoffs. Need I say we didn't win Saturday's match against the skip who put together this entire weekend event?

Again the question remains, will I get another invite in 2008? Hope so, it is a recipe for a fun filled weekend.

(sorry no pics... bachelor party rules apply here)

x-c ski in the GAT

It appears as if the snow is here to stay and I finally managed to find a day to head up to Gatineau Park for a ski.

Mike arrived bright and early Monday morning and we were off. We hit the P16 parking lot after a quick side trip to check out the covered bridge and then circled a couple of times before finding the perfect parking spot. Ok, actually we did a couple of donuts in the completely empty lot to celebrate the start of what we knew would be another great GAT ski day.

After a quick trip to the go-hut we headed off down, or rather up, the trail from P16 in the direction of Herridge Chalet. As per usual Mike climbed straight up the hills with his waxless skis while I left behind a nice herring bone pattern in the fresh snow. Bastard.

The trails and the weather were perfect - sunny and about -10 with an overnight dusting of snow to cover the rocks.



After a few ups and downs we finally found ourselves at Herridge. The maintenance man was just leaving on his snowmobile to groom some more trails. But not before shoveling some refreshingly nice smelling chemicals into the outhouses to cover up the stank from those yuppie weekend skiers. Yuppie crap really stinks, something to do with the faggy spandex they insist on wearing while skate skiing through the forest.

We then scooped up a nearby geocache (GCPZ48) and headed in for some grub.

Inside the cabin, the woodstove was roaring and we slapped our tinfoil wrapped sandwiches on top to warm up. It was a rare moment of solitude as we had the entire cabin to ourselves. On the weekends this place is normally a packed sweat lodge with the only available seat being in the upper level where the steam from everybody's sweaty socks and sweaters floats up creating a sauna-like effect.

After lunch we decided to just ski back to the parking lot rather than continue on. I didn't want to injure myself before my upcoming annual Kingston curling weekend. Ahhhh, but that's next week's blog.

Cheers blog readers.

Mike skiing down the hill to P16.

First person view of the ski down to P16.

Skis for everyone!

This weekend I bought both the kids used x-c skis from Tim's Sports on Wellington. Skis and boots came to about $50 each and then I scooped a deal on brand new poles from Bushtukah for only $5 a pair.

The next day we all headed back again with mom and scooped her an amazing deal from Bushtukah skis, boots, and bindings for only $153. And you thought my friend Urblock got a deal after reading his blog, didn't ya?

Sunday morning we all headed out to the nearest x-c ski trail to test out the kids' ability to handle long sharp pointed objects while balancing on two thin strips of wood. Well they did great. Mom was there walking beside us at the ready with the first aid kit (her new skis won't be ready until next week) but in the end she was only there to cheer us all on as we skied up and down the hills (0.2% grade).

Note to fellow skiers: With only a mere 5-10cms of snow on the ground the wipe outs can be a little painful. No hotdogging, try to stay upright.

L’Aquàrium de Barcelona

Some video and photos taken during a visit to Barcelona's Aquarium and Oceanarium. The glass tunnel with the sharks swimming overhead was way cool. And the looks I received when I pretended to "swim with the fishes" were amusing to say the least.



The Port Vell marina on the Mediterranean was fairly quiet today but then again it was December.

View from Park Güell in Barcelona

A December stroll in Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain. Video is not exactly high quality but you can still see how everything appears to be out of a children's fairy tale. Antoni Gaudí's use of bright colours and smooth curvy architecture results in a calming effect. If it wasn't for the lions and sea serpents you might believe you were in the middle of the best acid trip ever.

Coyote or wolf?

Ok blog readers, you get to decide. Is this a wolf or a coyote in the photo? Post your comments and we'll tally up the vote and make the call.



Photos were taken in the Ottawa region (near Bruce Pit).

I'll save my vote for last.

No Fouling

Whoever came up with the design for this sign definitely has a sense of humour. The immediate assault on the nostrils after seeing the steaming pile of dog poo is a testament to the artist's skill. Well done.




Photo taken outside the Kensington Palace gates.