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.

Have a Stella New Year!

Happy New Year one and all!!



Photo of Stella McCartney's storefront snapped after leaving the Coach & Horses pub in London, England.

Merry Christmas!!

Just a quick blog to let the world know that we're all safe and sound and enjoying a green Christmas morning.

We wish y'all the most awesome Christmas season ever!!

Hike through the pit

This year November 11th fell on a weekend which left us with a choice of days to go for our annual hike. That said, we hiked twice. Both times in the Gatineau Park and surrounding area and both times with a side search for a geocache. As per usual the core crew consisted of Ken, Mike, and myself but on the first day we were joined by Dave.



Great weather, and as always, good times. Cheers.


(this is an update to a missing 2006 entry)

Curse of the Costco ham

Last weekend, on the advice and praise of Uhrblock, we purchased a Costco ham (Kirkland's Spiral Cut). A real fire sale, $10 off the regular price. We wrangled one into our cart and headed for the checkout.

Arriving at home we slapped that big hamhock on the kitchen counter, opened up the packaged, and wow. This thing is massive. We're going to be feasting on ham for weeks. Well rather than eat 20 ham based meals in a row we decided to chop it up and freeze it. Wait, what's this? A plastic bone button protector thingie? Ok, so this bad boy had a bone. I'm sure I can butcher around that with my Ginzu. Easy enough, right?

Well maybe for a butcher's son. I hacked and I hacked. Blood and juice spilling all over the stove and floor. My wife yelling that she's going to have to disinfect the entire kitchen and me yelling for her to grab the beast before it falls on the floor. Finally, four freezer bags later we get it all organized and stored away for a nuclear holocaust.

Without going into details let's just say that Uhrblock's name was cursed once or twice.




Then last night around midnight I hear my wife shout from the doorway. SKUNK!! Yep. The ham had come back to haunt us. The leftover ham bone was just too much for that poor skunk to resist. I had to chase him away three times before I could convince my wife to come out and help me clean up the garbage that was now strewn all over the road and front lawn. (Note to blog readers, this type of late evening activity does absolutely nothing for the bedroom romance. If you ever find yourself in this predicament, let the animal enjoy it and tidy it up in the morning.)

In the end the ham proved to be delicious. However the pre and post production work involved will make you want to think twice about heading down to your nearest Costco and picking one up for yourself.

A Mr. Solid Halloween

Halloween Night has arrived and thankfully the rain held off and it even got a little warmer resulting in a spooky fog rolling in. I once again donned my Halloween mask and joined the kids on their neighbourhood pillage. The streets were realtively quiet this year and we were able to get through our regular route in no time at all.





As per usual we ended with a stop up at the corner to see the crazy Halloween guy's house. This year he added an antique car to the mix. This guy goes full out. He even climbs up to the second story windows and nails on fake boards to make his house look run down and abandoned. Huge thumbs up to this horror house.



We met up with our old neighbours and chatted it up for a bit before taking off in the van to visit some of our other friends. The first stop required some persistent doorbell ringing as the owner was in hiding after running out of candy. This tends to happen when you purchase the goodies too early and then pack them in your lunch snacks for 3 weeks. As compensation we scored a Mr. Solid Easter bunny. Sweet.




Next stop brought us to my personal favourite Halloween spot as it is here that I snag a beer every year. Last year was a festive Saranac Pumpkin Ale this year was a Saranac Pale Ale. So while my buddy kept adding various chocolate bars to the kids loot bags I enjoyed a refreshing ale. Finally we decided that we had best be on our way when he started handing out muffins, Kraft cheese slices and McDonald's ketchup.

The most unique set up this year was the house down the street that was showing a horror flick on their garage door. The projector was inside their car with the sound running through the car speakers. Thankfully it was rated PG.

Amateur Diet Coke Mentos experiment #1

Some of you may remember one of my earlier posts about these crazy guys in lab jackets blasting coke out of bottles. Well last weekend we decided to give the experiment a shot ourselves...

Let's just say we now know where we went wrong and we will try again.


Run like the wind brother!

Thanksgiving in Ptbo

Aside from the one year when we decided to have Thanksgiving weekend in Algonquin Park with my extended family (Grandma included) I've spent every Thanksgiving in Peterborough. This weekend was not going to be the one to break the streak.

We arrived late Friday night in a funnel of weekend traffic and unloaded our gear including little Maxly the snake who we decided to let go at the farm.




Saturday we awoke to a crisp, foggy morning. I strolled around the farm and snapped a few pics before heading into town with my wife to check out the farmer's market. The sunny morning had brought out everybody and their grandmother. What a bustle. It was busier than Loblaws. Local high school kids were scattered here and there playing guitars, banjos, fiddles, and other various instruments attempting to raise funds for the Terry Fox Foundation. I flipped them some change and left with a short video that I'll later load to youtube.






Saturday afternoon we ALL headed out to the Norwood Fair. The fair was complete with ferris wheel, funhouse, money-grabbing games, the Zipper, horse jumping, and every possible farm animal you can imagine.




Sunday morning was much warmer but the fog was again as thick as black bean soup (yeah, that's even thicker than pea soup). I decided to tour the town and soon found myself alongside the canal staring at a cloudy version of the infamous Peterborough Lift Locks. There was a steady stream of photographers taking advantage of this combination of fog, fall colours, and the 8th wonder of the world (or at least the 3rd wonder of Peterborough after Little Lake fountain and the Pig's Ear). Their digital SLR cameras and super sized lenses were definitely making me feel inadequate. Needless to say I kept my little pocket-sized clicker hidden between shots.




By about 11:30 the fog had burned off and the photo snappers had moved on. I too continued on my tour of the town stopping here and there before finding myself on the back deck of my buddy Twig's place in Ennismore enjoying a Bud Light.



Two hours and many laughs later I decided it was time to head back to the farm and gather the gang for the big turkey dinner at my aunt and uncle's place. The dinner and desserts were delicious my only beef here is that we wouldn't be able to dig into the leftovers the next day. It may be a sin to say it but sometimes a hot turkey sandwich smothered in fries and gravy is better than the actual Thanksgiving dinner.



Oh yeah, we finally let little Maxly go and he slithered away under a pile of rocks. There were some sad faces as we had grown somewhat attached to the little guy over the last couple of weeks. Hopefully he's happy on the farm and doesn't feel the need to slither all the way back to his stomping grounds at Charleston Lake. That would likely prove to be a bad idea. Happy hibernating, Maxly!

Maxly meets dinner

Last weekend we caught a snake just as we were packing up our campsite. As promised, I let the kids take it home to keep it as a pet and look after it for the next couple of weeks. They named him Maxly.

After a little google search we discovered that garter snakes like frogs and worms. Well what with all the rain we've had lately, finding worms has not been an issue. Here's a shot of us feeding Maxly a big fat juicey worm. Yum.



Oh and don't worry, we're going to let little Maxly go back to the wild soon.

Last camping trip for 2006?

Friday we hooked up with some friends in Charleston Lake Provincial Park for what may possibly have been our last (family) camping trip of the year. That makes it 3 weekends in a row this month, certainly a record. Gotta love fall camping.

The forecast wasn't the greatest but after waking up Friday morning and seeing Saturday downgraded from 80% to 30% chance of rain we decided to go for it. Glad we did too, it was definitely a success all around. Here are some pics that more or less tell the tale...



Walking stick, a very rare find. This may possibly be due to it being so extremely well camouflaged. But that's just a guess.




Here's one critter that will sure miss all the campers and the free grub.


Cheers and until next year...



Have a rainbow day.