Snake hunting at Charleston Lake

Late last week the kids and I decided to head out to Charleston Lake on Saturday for a one-nighter with the tent while mom went out to a stag with some of her co-workers. Come Friday night the weather forecast was still holding up so I loaded the canoe on the van and threw in some camping gear. By 8:30 Saturday morning we were on the road with only one quick stop at the grocery store for some last second essentials - toothpaste, hotdog buns, toilet paper, and Double Stuff Fudgee-Os (which by the way are only available in Canada - izn't dat veird?).

We arrived in good time and quickly scoured the campground's available sites. Weighing all the pros and cons (size, privacy, level ground for the tent, proximity to the field, comfort station and beach) we settled on site 203.



The rest of the weekend was spent searching for snakes and frogs, paddling around the nearby islands, building sand castles, more snake hunting, campfire tales, and cozy cuddling in the tent (it dropped down to 10°C, eh). We had an awesome trip. Oh and yes, we did catch a couple of snakes... well technically Sara did all the catching. One northern water snake as it slithered in the water along the shoreline and one garter snake as it huddled in the back of the vending machine for warmth.






Bring on summer.

St. Pat's Airband 2009

Last year Sara's group won the school Airband competition with Bay City Roller's "Saturday Night". This year (insert drum roll here) her group won yet again, this time with the song "Funkytown" by Lips Inc from the movie Shrek 2.



Emma's trio won the Fancy Footwork award with the song "Mamma Mia" by Abba.

Two of the judges were actually DJs from the local radio station 106.9 Virgin Radio (formerly The Bear). Talk about big time.


NOTE: After watching some of the old videos I have no doubt that these kids would have still went home with the prize had the actual bands themselves entered the contest.

MTN Jam boots

GOV'T MULE: Warren Haynes, MULE with John Medeski, Mule with Karl Denson
It doesn't take long before the tapers throw up their shows for the world to download. Here are the GOV'T MULE shows from Friday and Saturday nights - a total of 6 hours of music. Enjoy.

Gov't Mule May 29, 2009 Mountain Jam V Hunter Mountain Ski Area Hunter, NY Official May 29, 2009 recording available for purchase from mule.net. Or the free bittorrent taped/transfered by Rob Clarke available here. disc 1 (set 1): 01. Kind Of Bird 02. Game Face 03. I Believe To My Soul 04. Banks Of The Deep End 05. I Think You Know What I Mean> 06. When The Levee Breaks> 07. I Think You Know What I Mean 08. Slackjaw Jezebel 09. Thorazine Shuffle disc 2 (set 2): 01. Lucky 02. Trane>3rd Stone Jam>Eternity's Breath Jam> 03. St. Stephen Jam> 04. Larger Than Life> 05. If 6 Were 9> 06. Larger Than Life> 07. Empty Pages> 08. Drums> 09. Drums/Bass >3rd Stone Jam * disc 3 (set 2 cont>): 01. Brighter Days> 02. Like Flies 03. Mule>Who Do You Love>Superstitious>Mule 04. crowd/tuning 05. Cortez The Killer # * w/George Porter Jr. # w/Josh and Clark from Tea Leaf Green

Gov't Mule May 30, 2009 Mountain Jam V Hunter Mountain Ski Area Hunter, NY Official May 30, 2009 recording available for purchase from mule.net. Or the free bittorrent taped/transfered by Rob Clarke available here. disc 1 (set 1): 01. Bad Little Doggie > 02. Brand New Angel 03. About To Rage > 04. Streamline Woman 05. When Doves Cry >Beautifully Broken >WDC >BB 06. Patchwork Quilt 07. Have Mercy On The Criminal 08. Scomule * 09. Goin' Out West > 10. Bang A Gong > 11. Goin' Out West disc 2 (set 2): 01. Morning Dew 02. When The Music's Over 03. All Along The Watchtower > # 04. Devil Likes It Slow > # disc 3 (set 2 cont.): 01. Drum Solo > 02. I'm A Ram > 03. Blindman In The Dark > # & 04. crowd/Warren Banter 05. Long As I Can See The Light * With John Medeski On Keyboard # With Karl Denson On Saxaphone & contains Ain't No Sunshine, Whole Lotta Love teases

Other Mountain Jam V recordings available for download...
Umphrey's McGee
Gomez
The Derek Trucks Band
Jackie Greene
Tea Leaf Green
...and many more

Cheers to all the bootleggers and tapers out there! Living way up here in Canada these boots are often the closest we can get to "being" there.

Mountain Jam Festival V

Mountain Jam Festival V
Hunter Mountain Ski Lodge
Catskills, NY
Google map
Festival schedule

This year my buddy Steve and I decided to check out a spring time music festival. Our options were, Summer Camp, Bonnaroo, or Mountain Jam, and after looking at locations and line-ups we settled on Mountain Jam hands down. Located only 6 1/2 hours from Ottawa in the heart of the Catskills it was by far the nearest to home and with the addition of a 3rd night of music to help celebrate The Allman Brothers Band 40th anniversary it was a done deal.

Included in this year's 30 band line-up for Mountain Jam was Umphrey's McGee, The Derek Trucks Band, Gomez, Gene Ween Band, Tea Leaf Green, Richie Havens, John Medeski, Marco Benevento Trio, Alberta Cross, and Michael Franti & Spearhead. And of course the hosts of the event, Gov't Mule, would be playing two shows at 3 hours a night.

Our trip started Thursday night as we figured we'd be too pumped to sleep a few hours as originally planned. We wolfed down a couple of slices of Panormous pizza with my family and then packed up and left. By 7:30 we'd crossed the border and were greeted by a slow moving beaver as it made its way across the highway. (And I thought all beavers were Canadian, eh.)

We made it as far as Utica before deciding to jump off the toll road and catch the end of the band opening up the Saranac Thursday concert series. As luck would have it though the gig had just ended so we stretched legs while I had a pint with the local university kids. Back on the road we took a more direct route to our evening's destination - the Cobleskill Wal-Mart Superstore. Yep, you heard right. Tonight we would be sleeping in the glow of a Wal-Mart parking lot.

The next morning we were rested (but still pumped) as we loaded up with food and beverages before driving the last hour to Hunter, NY. The sun was out (it poured on and off our entire trip so far) and the scenery was breathtaking. Welcome to the Catskills.

Zoom zoom zoom we were through the gates to the Hunter Mountain Ski Lodge and parking up in our VIP section. Ahhh, VIP. Our decision to purchase VIP tickets was definitely the right call (cheers to Mic on that one). We had prime parking, an excellent camping area, VIP only showers, loads of free food, cheap beer, our own lounge area on the concert hillside, and best of all our own front row center stage viewing area. Sweet.

Though we'd both packed for rain, the weekend weather proved to be stupendous - sunny and warm during the day and cool at nights. Overall the event itself was extremely well set up. Security was present at all times (including some troopers), people were happy and friendly, plenty of food options, and the location was... well in the Catskills. All that said, I've only ever been to one other weekend music festival, moe.down, and in comparison moe.down was definitely more rustic. Add showers and flush toilets and any camping festival scene starts to feel like a 5-star.

Here are a few of the photos from Mountain Jam.

[Left to Right: Alberta Cross, Porter, Baptiste, Stoltz, Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule), Gomez, The Gene Ween Band, Richie Havens, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Derek Trucks, Gregg Allman, Umphrey's McGee, Jake Cinninger and Warren Haynes, The Allman Brothers Band (Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks), Haynes and Trucks, Warren Haynes]



The last photo deserves a short story... Friday night between Gov't Mule sets Steve and I got separated. Not a problem. Later that evening around 3am Steve came back to the tent and woke me with some crazy story about stumbling across Warren Haynes on a golf cart, stopping the cart, and getting a picture of himself with Warren. I nearly burnt my retina out staring at the pic in a foggy stuper. It was true and I missed the whole encounter. Damn.

The next night Steve packed it in early and I wandered the grounds checking out the late shows. Around 2:30am I was making my way back to the tent when I spotted this guy walking alone up the stairs from the lodge. Sure enough it was Warren and there was no way he was getting past me without a photo. As a side note, I was so surprised by the chance meeting that I started rambling like a freakin' school girl. I think I used the word "awesome" about 20 times.


And yes, when I got back to the tent I immediately woke Steve to show off my new pic. Awesome.

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.

May toofer weekend

Friday night I was out strolling the new Metro grocery store for some goodies that I could spend my airmiles bucks on when my new BlackBerry started buzzing. It was one of the clan McMullan on the line wondering what we were up to for the weekend. Well after some chatting back and forth I found myself making another lap of the store to top up my cart. Yes sirree, the McMullans were coming to town. (read "no more yard work")

They arrived Saturday afternoon in the middle of a thunderstorm and it was at this point that they mentioned that they were so happy to get out of the house as they've been suffering from a little cabin fever brought on by strep throat and a self-diagnosed strain of swine flu. Yikes.

After everybody had a chance to unwind we decided to try something new. We decided to leave the kids at home alone while we, the adults, headed out to Pho Thi Fusion for some supper. The kids were more than happy with the plan (possibly a little too happy?) and we left them with some take-out pizza, pop, and a long list of instructions. This opportunity also allowed the older kids to test out their newly acquired babysitting skills on their younger siblings. Thankfully it worked out quite well all around.

Sunday's plan was to check out Sara's exhibition soccer game against the older Nepean Storm girls and then head down to Dow's Lake to check out the Tulip Festival.




These are the smiles you get when you don't buy a round of fudge and cotton candy.

Surprisingly, given the cold dank weather, the crowds were the largest I'd ever seen. And I swear every third person had a camera (and only half of them seemed to know how to operate it).

After a quick tour through the tulips we zoomed off to our local dog park to run off some of Izzy's energy.




Good times once again.

Rik Emmett plays Clapton

Saturday night we went down to the Centrepointe Theatre to see Rik Emmett. Yes you read it right, the one and only Canadian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Icon Rik Emmett from the classic band Triumph. Only this time Rik would not be performing Magic Power, Rock'n'Roll Machine, or even Midsummer's Daydream. Tonight would be a night of self-endulgence for Rik, a night of showcasing his all-time favourite Eric Clapton tunes. We're talking classic Clapton from Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes, and of course his endless selection of solo hits.


First off, a big thanks to Ken who managed to score us some primo seats well in advance. "Us" being myself, Rich, Pete, Terry, and of course Ken who has been stalking Rik around since at least the early 80's.

Now the Centrepointe Theatre is not your usual barroom or rock arena. As indicated by the title, it is a theatre and as such it is extremely laid back with assigned seating, volunteer ushers well in their 70s, and all shows come complete with an intermission and cash bar. And although it's not the kind of joint where you'd be likely to see Angus Young or the Boss there's not a bad seat in the house and with the right band to match the atmosphere the night can be well worth the price of admission as was exactly the case tonight (and two nights before with the Cowboy Junkies which I've seen here in the past).

My only complaint is that they don't allow any cameras or bootlegging devices. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to roll old school and settle for the memories.

That said, here's a YouTube clip of Rik playing Clapton's Crossroads. Not the best quality but you get the general idea. Enjoy.

Hannah turns two

Little Hannah recently turned two and to celebrate Jason and Christine threw a big gathering for family and friends at the Peterborough Sport & Wellness Centre. Three fun filled hours of friends, family, and food, interspersed with gym time and a swimming pool complete with an awesome slide.


The kids, of which there were many, had a blast. How could they not? Especially when you top it all off with cake and ice cream washed down by coke and root beer.





Happy Birthday Hannah!!