Emma runs a cold, wet 5 km

The gauntlet had been thrown down by her older sister the week earlier and in true character Emma happily accepted the challenge. Pouring rain and hovering only slightly above zero, the weather was far from perfect but that wouldn't slow down our little footballers. As Emma and her Nepean Storm teammates stretched and hopped on the starting line to keep warm Sparta Cat struggled to get his huge paw around the air horn to sound the start of the race.



Opening the "Share the Power of a Wish/Walk Run" was the National Capital's RCMP Pipe and Drum band. The bagpipes blasting in the pouring rain made it feel like we were in the Scottish highlands but alas we were in downtown Ottawa alongside the Rideau Canal. Coincidentally Sara was exactly here yesterday with her school trying to break another Guinness Bear Hug record. (not sure if they were successful or not)


Well after a mere 25 minutes Emma crossed the line only seconds behind two of her teammates. And yes, she beat her sister by about 2 minutes who is currently in protest as the time was not officially recorded using RFID chip technology and the digital timer at the finish line failed more than once during the race. Alas we'll have to settle for our approximation but I have a feeling we'll have a rematch someday.

Well done Emma and congrats to all the Nepean Storm girls. I'm sure this cardio workout will translate onto the pitch come soccer season.

Skating with ghosts

Another night skating at Ben Franklin. Still cold but not cold enough to scare mom away this time as she donned several layers of fleece and Gortex and joined us for our late night skate.



A fun evening topped off with a round of hot cocoa and a couple of shots of my homemade Dutch licorice vodka (ok that was just for Papa bear).

Note: I googled and discovered that this "Dutch licorice vodka" has already been invented by the Finns in the 90s. They called it "Salmari or Salmiakki Koskenkorva" complete with it's own urban legend about a teenager suffering a heart attack after drinking it. You learn something every day albeit some things are more useful than others (I'll let you decide which category this tidbit falls in).

Cheers... or as the Finns would say, Kippis!

Sun's nice but we want snow!

P15: N45 19.359 W75 43.648
Link to online map of trails in the Greenbelt.

Another weekend with no fresh snow. And to top it off they're calling for rain tomorrow. This is January, is it not?

Between Saturday morning Futsal and Sunday afternoon's OHL game (free tickets eh) our windows of opportunity were small and few. That said, we still managed to get out both Saturday and Sunday for a short ski in the Ottawa Greenbelt. Ok, technically it was to help our daughter put together a short video for her school project on Sara Renner the xc skier who will soon be competing in her third straight Winter Olympics. We had fun (mostly). Check it out...



The trails were icy and fast and with no new snow to freshen them up, they were littered with many small twigs and pine needles. It was nothing to serious though and we remain hopeful that the winter of 2010 is not over yet.




We end this with a message to Mother Nature...



Enough already. BRING ON THE WHITE STUFF!!!

KISS Army Ottawa

Tonight was the night that Bluesfest brought the ultimate glam rock band to town and more than 30,000 fans swore allegiance to the KISS Army. Yes, those infamous painted (and patented) faces and monster armored outfits rocked the stage from on high. The backdrop was a non-stop barrage of classic rock and a cacophony of explosions from fireworks and 40 ft flames shooting from both the stage and Gene Simmons' mouth. Oh, and don't forget the blood, the confetti cannons, the raised platforms, and even a zip-line to carry Paul Stanley over a topless crowd of screaming girls. How awesome is that?!





Earlier in the evening I had a chance to check out The Duhks from Winnipeg and LeE HARVey OsMOND with frontman Tom Wilson. Both excellent shows. We even caught a bit of Good2Go which felt a little like a reincarnation of Blondie only with bigger boots.





After the last chord of KISS' Detroit Rock City and the last bang of fireworks it was a mad dash to escape the Bluesfest grounds. Gates and half fences had been seemingly set up while the fans had been focused on the show and were now being used to herd everybody out of the area in an orderly fashion. Wrong. People just started climbing everything in a half panicked attempt to get themselves clear of the massive crowd that was only a gunshot from turning into a stampede. Luckily my years of fence hopping and avoiding crowds paid off in spades.


By this time I was ahead of the crowd and felt safe enough to turn and snap a pic as the police tried desperately to control the situation. They weren't proving overly successful but in the end I don't believe anybody lost an eye.

Ottawa Icebreaker 2009

Last weekend was our first competitive soccer tournament. The Ottawa Icebreaker consists of 120 girls teams and 160 boys teams, all U12 and older. This was the 15th annual tournament and the logistics of running this show are insane.

By the end of the 2-day tourney we had played 7 games winning only 2 of our matches but showing some definite team development. More importantly the girls did some serious bonding and had an absolute blast.


Some down time between games.

Luckily the weather was perfect which allowed the parents to enjoy a weekend in the sun. Oh, and no bugs either... always a bonus.

First family ski of '09

The plan was to go for a family ski today. The "where" was undecided until the very last possible minute.

The first plan was to drive out to Gatineau Park but that wouldn't leave us with much time to relax back at home. Plan B was a set of trails along Corkstown Rd (see map of the 25 km of trails) but as we exited the 416 we noticed that there was a new blockade set up to keep drivers from whipping across 4-5 lanes to make the Moodie off ramp. Hmmm, decisions decisions.

Finally as we took the next exit I decided not to cut back to Corkstown but to head down March Road to the South March/Kanata Lakes ski trails. These trails are shared by skiers, snowshoers, and dog walkers but for the most part they are kept in reasonably good shape for us x-c folk.




Turned out to be a good choice too. Sun was shining, trails were in good shape, and the crowd level was near zero. After a couple of hours we headed back home for some homemade soup and pancakes for lunch.

A Saturday Skate

After a couple of indoor soccer games this morning we decided to wrap up the day with a skate. A stretch of the Rideau Canal is open for skating but it seemed a little far given that we only had a couple more hours of daylight. So it was off to the old Nepean City Hall outdoor rink for a few laps.

Round and round we skated. Luckily it was getting close to supper so the crowds were down to just a few stragglers. Most people joining us seemed a little shaky on the blades but there was one man out there that seemed to think he was Kurt Browning on hockey skates.


Over all my years of skating on outdoor rinks I noticed that people tend to skate in a counter clockwise direction. What's up with that? At least on the canal it's straight there and back and on the indoor hockey rinks they actually have a guy blow a whistle every once in a while to change direction. But whenever I find myself on an outdoor rink it's counter clockwise. It's reached the point where I'm now convinced that I've become noticeably less comfortable skating clockwise. Next time I'm out I'm going to have to go against the flow of skater traffic in order to balance it out.


Check out Emma's new method of getting her mitts on under her coat sleeves.
Click here for a list of all the outdoor rinks and puddles and click here for a list of public arena skate times.

Robert Randolph delivers at Bluesfest

The show I was itching to see all week finally arrived. Robert Randolph was in town.



But first I had some time to kill so I headed over to the Black Sheep Stage to see Anders Osborne who I've caught at Bluesfest the last 2-3 years. He hails from New Orleans and can wail like a hurricane on his old beat up strat (likely pulled from the floods).



After Anders I jumped over to the main stage to check out Canned Heat. They played the classics "On The Road Again" and "Goin' Up The Country" and then mixed in some jumpin' blues boogie. Crowd was massive and many were up and dancing.



Leaving Canned Heat early I waded through the crowd watching the show and then what must have been another flood of fans waiting for Sam Roberts on the Rogers Stage. I arrived with about 15 minutes to spare and headed right up to the rail in front of Robert Randolph's pedal steel guitar. Sweet. I killed time by shootin' it with some young guy beside me who was noticeably pumped about seeing Robert after first being introduced to him on Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Fest DVDs.

A minute into the show some guy taps me and those around me on the shoulder and asks us to move so he can see the show from his chair. WTF? First any tit-wank should know that the front area of the stage is standing room only. Sit if you like but don't assume that if you plunk your chair down between sets in front of the rail center stage that you then can expect to actually sit and see the performance. Second, this is Robert Randolph and the Family Band. If you know anything about his live show you'd know that his sole goal is to get the crowd involved. You want him thinking Canada is full of half dead white folk in folding lawn chairs? (which is about right for many of these shows)

Needless to say I told him to stand like the rest of us.



Robert's live performance is simply something one has to experience in order to fully appreciate. The "Family Band" consists of his brother on drums and his cousin on bass who takes lead on vocals from time to time. Oh, and there's some white dude on piano - technically not part of the immediate family.



The show is high energy and in some ways spiritual. Once in a while Robert would break away from his pedal steel to either dance or sing from atop his rickety old wooden chair.



At one point in the show he broke out a square shaped guitar and jammed out a tribute to Bo Diddley. The crowd loved it.

After a couple of warnings by organizers to wrap it up, Robert winked as his bandmates and kept right on rockin'. Crowd loved that even more. When he finally thanked everyone and left the stage I turned around to see a sea of smiling faces and not a single person sitting. True dat.

After the show I wandered over to the Roots Stage to see the end of David Maxwell's show and then The Power Hour with Tony D. Tony brought two or three Bluesfest artists up on stage but no Robert Randolph as I had secretly hoped. Around 10:30 I headed back to the River Stage to catch the end of Don McLean. Turns out I timed it perfectly as I caught the infamous "American Pie" encore. The nostalgic crowd was singing right along at the top of their lungs.

Another great year for Bluesfest come and gone. Looking forward to hearing next year's line-up.

The Black Crowes with Luther Dickinson

The Black Crowes rocked the Ottawa Bluesfest last night. It was also a chance to see and hear Luther Dickinson wail on the guitar as he has joined the Crowes on this tour. For those of you not in the loop, Luther is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi All Stars - yet another awesome blues/rock band that has yet to hit a Bluesfest stage. (hint hint)




Anyhow, Mike and I managed to worm our way through the crowd about half an hour before the show and ended up about 10 people back from the rail. We enjoyed a clear view of the stage as we found ourselves behind a couple of vertically challenged girls that kept their heads bent over their cell phones typing away for nearly the entire show. Yet another example of how technology can control the minds of the weak.



The show started off incredibly loud with the bass providing what I can only describe as a defibrillator like effect. After about the third song Mike and I managed to shuffle closer to the center of the stage where the sound seemed to balance out. Or more likely, we were semi-deaf by that point and didn't care anymore.

The show was filled with a great selection of tunes and plenty of opportunities for Rich and Luther to jam it out. Again my only complaint is that it wasn't an hour longer.

Hailstorm hits Ottawa

It was just after 6pm today when BLAMMO! We were hit with another spring hailstorm. It lasted about 7-10 minutes which was a long time in comparison to other hailstorms I've experienced. (For a clearer picture, go to youtube and click on "higher quality video" under the word "Views").

Throwing caution to the wind, I opened the front door and starting videotaping the freak storm. The hailstones were bouncing and ricocheting all around me and right inside the house. One that was nearly the size of a golf ball just missed my head. Yikes.



I know what you're thinking, serves me right for opening the door in the first place. Hard to believe it was 20°C when this storm came a calling. What's up with that?

A skate on the world's largest ice rink

Sunday morning we gathered up some snacks and our skates and headed down to the Rideau Canal for some fresh winter air and exercise. Before leaving I was sure to check out the ice conditions to make sure we had a green flag. Ice was rated good to very good and better yet the sun was shining and the temperature was a perfect -10°C with the wind chill.



From Pretoria Bridge, we skated south as far as Dow's Lake and then back north again to Pretoria and beyond. It was still early enough that the crowds had not yet been released from Sunday church so we had no problem finding open ice which is not always the case during Winterlude.



The Beaver Tail line-up at Fifth Ave was a mile long but that was no surprise seeing as I'm sure it's the only reason about 90% of the weekend skaters come down here. Here's a link to a Beaver Tail recipe in case you haven't found the time to sharpen your skates yet.




At the end of our journey we opted for the Royal Oak pub over the Beaver Tails which we'd already enjoyed earlier this month. At the pub, we enjoyed the classic eggs, sausage, toast, and home fries breakfast. Always a hit on a Sunday morning.

Finally here's a map for those of you wanting to plan your skating route. Enjoy.