I am playing outside.

The Renfrew Fair

2010-09-23T19:18:00.002-04:00

Two fridays ago, Darryl and I trucked on down to the Frew for the 156th Renfrew Fair. Alison joined us, and we kicked things off by playing the Grocery Game.

Most people probably have no idea. The Grocery Game is THE BEST. You pay two bucks and get three paddles with numbers. Then once all the paddles are sold, they spin the wheel and the winning number wins a bag of groceries. JUST LIKE THAT! Its a classic and its BRILLIANT! We lost.

The next stop was the Bacon on a Bun booth which is just as disgusting and delicious as it sounds. My mommy and her friends [including Deb shown here on the right] put a team together and worked in there for the night, which resulted in many free and delicious future heart-attacks for me.

We joined some of my friends, and headed to the grandstand where Shane Yellowbird [woo! Albertans!] was performing, then standing there in a power failure, then eventually returning. Good times. I took this picture of the fair while waiting for him to come back.

Alison was sad that she couldn't ride the classic Hampton Combos, which lead us to ask what the hell is a Hampton Combo?

Here I am with some of the necessary fair foods... the bacon on a bun and a piece of fudge. I still have about 1/3 of my fudge left. That's some intense rationing!

The next day, we decided to spend the ridiculous amount to ride all day, so we went to the fair early so it would be worth it. We did the tour of the barns, and just happened to be there when Mel was showing her cow. She was the Reserve Champion. Huzzah!

Here is Kristin overlooking the fair on the Ferris wheel. Good times! Oh how I'd missed the rides in my two-year absence from the fair!

One of the games had Michael Jackson dolls as a prize. Too soon.

Here are Kristin, Rebecca, Darryl and Stephanie waiting to ride the Dizzy Dragons, at which we had a lovely chat with the mayor of Renfrew, with whom we made fun of a carnie. I love Sandy Heins.

We ran into Mrs Brumm, who was a teacher at my elementary school. She's recovering from breast cancer and doing well. She's awesome.

We went on the Scrambler, and it was a really old school shitty one, so it pretty much sucked. The one we used to have was way better.

Then my fucking jerk friends dragged me onto the Fireball.

Here were are, upside down. I think if you look close enough, you can actually hear me swearing. The woman across the ride from me was loving watching me. HAH

Here are Stephanie and I with Mme. Keon, who was our wicked French teacher until Grade 2. She has alopecia, not cancer, and is now crusading against wigmakers for their insane markup, and how they're robbing sick women. She's a fantastic woman.

Here is Darryl with his coworkers, who just happened to trip up to Renfrew for some fun. How random!

Here is my brother Josh on the Ferris wheel. We rode the Fireball a second time and he came with us. I was better with the ride that time, until I realized we'd eaten just 15 minutes before, and I started to get queasy near the end. Upside down and full are never a good combo.

Stephanie and I take a great picture together... even up in the air!

And to cap it all off, we rode the Tilt-A-Whirl about 10 times, because its AMAZING. This was the last ride of the night before the fair rolled away until next year :(

The CanvasPop

2010-09-22T10:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I forgot to mention this. As part of the photowalk, CanvasPop gave everyone who participated in Ottawa a coupon for $50 off their purchase. I'd wanted to try it, but they're a little bit expensive so I couldn't really afford it. But with the coupon, I was able to get a picture I took at the Olympics turned into a canvas, and I absolutely love it and I wanted you all to know.

The great part is that the Canadian printer is located right here in Ottawa, so it didn't take too long to arrive! I was super happy with my canvas, so I wanted to share the love and let you all know about it. It looks fantastic on my wall!

The Photowalk, Year 2

2010-09-21T18:05:00.005-04:00

Think back two months. Its July. When I should have posted this.

On a lovely Saturday morning, I joined about 50 other people in the Byward Market.

To participate in the 3rd annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk.

Which was MY 2nd annual.

The Ottawa walk was lead by my wonderful friend Justin.

The point of the day is to meet other people interested in photography.

And to walk around for a while, taking whatever pictures you want.

Honestly, I didn't have much inspiration for much of the day.

But I think I ended up with some pretty nice pictures.

And the best part was the social aspect.

I met lots of nice people; some of whom I'd chatted with on Twitter.

And we ate brunch and chatted.

And then we hoped our pictures were good.

And I decided that I'll do it again next year.

And see if maybe I can take better pictures next year.

Although I do quite enjoy these ones.

Do you?

The Fourth Wedding

2010-08-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, my cousin Cheryl got married in Renfrew. It was a rainy day, but we made the best of it.

Pre-wedding, post-dressing, Alison and Momma posed for me.

Somewhere along the line, I misplaced my glasses. Gah! My personality is practically missing in his picture!

Darryl got himself a pretty new shirt and tie for the occasion. And I brought my awesome.

I also met Alison's new boyfriend, Bobby. He was nice. But honestly, I couldn't care less what he's like, as long as he's not her horrible horrible ex. A homeless crack addict would be a suitable upgrade, as long as he's friendly. So, good choice here, Alison!

Finally the wedding began, and my uncle Larry walked Cheryl down the aisle. The ceremony was super fast and somewhat hilarious. Three cheers for a non-religious wedding, after three lengthy Catholic ceremonies this summer!

After the wedding, there was much chatting with the relatives, including dad and my half brother Thomas.

Here are Cheryl and James with Cheryl's parents and grandparents [on her mom's side, since our grandparents on our dads' side are gone].

My aunt Celine was here from Calgary, along with Karl who is unphotographed due to his HORRIFYING outfit. [Seriously, he used to be so well put together, but he was wearing a grey plaid jacket with striped pants, a red shirt, a purple tie, and a pocket square in a different shade of red. And some sort of Hitler haircut.]

The wedding cake was delicious and beautiful. Like almost everything, Cheryl made the cake, after just a few weeks in a cake making class. Well done, I say! And the bottle of crème de menthe in the cake didn't hurt things at all.

Alison tried cutting the cake, but failed.

Its interesting what can happen in 7 years. This is literally the exact same location, give or take a few inches.

My neighbours in Ottawa / Cheryl's cousin Briana / her boyfriend/my friend since Grade 6, Greg, were also in attendance, making it the second wedding I've been to this summer with them.

Darryl seemed to enjoy himself, even though it was an older crowd, with less people our age to talk to.

Here, Rachel chases Thomas. Oh, the children.

And here is my step brother Josh holding Thomas. After 6 or 7 years of him being here, I'm finally getting to know Josh a little more. Its kind of nice. Especially since he's treating me like an older brother, asking me for advice and stuff. It feels kind of cool.

Eventually, Cheryl and James cut the cake. Like I said, it was delicious.

And finally, by the end of the night, I got to spend a little time talking to Cheryl. Best of luck to the happy couple!

The Triple Coworker Goodbye

2010-08-25T10:00:00.001-04:00

On Sunday the 15th, I got together with some friends at the Honest Lawyer for a three-coworker sendoff. Which ultimately was turned out to be a bit of a letdown crowd-wise, but the people who WERE there were all fantastic. Also, it was a sendoff for three people, but as of this point in the month, EIGHT FREAKING PEOPLE have handed in their resignation at my store. Some of those people are fantastic, and I'm going to miss them so much. It is also prompting me to finally get off my ass and start job hunting for something better... so if you know of anything full time, let me know!

Sarah is leaving us to go to school in Toronto. She was only around for the summer, but she's one of the nicest people I've ever worked with. She skipped over that whole awkward period of getting to know people... she just made herself part of the cool kids from day 1.

Christine is moving home to Windsor, after some sort of bizarre situation where she wont have anywhere to live in Ottawa, so she's leaving. It's also leaving her higher up position available. The managers want me to take the promotion, but I'd never want to advance at my store. Its not worth the hassle.

Here's a good group... Martin, Sarah, Sam, me and Morgan.

We finally met Martin's girlfriend Quinn, who also works for the company, but not in our store. She was awesome, and after months of working with Martin, I finally got to know him over several drinks. It was great!

Samantha is leaving us for Calgary, where she's going into law school. I will miss her the most, because we started together, and she got more awesome every single day. She came and gave me a final goodbye hug today, and it was sad. She's not a hugger, but this one lasted forever. Still, not long enough.

And here's Morgan and Sarah. Thankfully Morgan is staying, or else I'd have almost no one left. And Colleen is coming back to Ottawa soon, so it will be nice to see her again. But seriously, I need a new job. I've reached the limit.

The Toronto

2010-08-23T19:50:00.005-04:00

The first weekend of August, Darryl and I rented a car and headed on down to Toronto. The car was upgraded to a Chrysler 300 Touring, AND the price was downgraded $20 for no apparent reason. It was amazing. It was also my first time driving on the 401, which everyone makes a big deal out of, but it was easy! [Just stay in the fast lane and you're fine!]

We stayed at the Westin Harbour Castle, which gave us an amazing view of the water and the CN Tower. We went with Hotwire.com which got us a super cheap room. We assumed we'd get a standard room, but instead, we got a fantastic room on a preferred guest floor. Again, the universe was throwing awesome at us!

After getting settled, we headed on down to the tower.

Darryl took us for dinner in the lovely rotating restaurant. It was [A] my first rotating dinner, and [B] the first time I've been up in the CN Tower since I was a child, aka the first time I actually remember. Again, we were kind of late and had no reservations, but they got us a table. Thank you! The dinner was fantastic :)

And even though we finished eating after the building was closed, they still let us stop at the observation deck. I enjoyed being bathed in red light.

But Darryl just couldn't hide when purple came calling...

There weren't many other people out there, but we finally chased down some people to take our pic. Thanks to them as well!

It took me about 5 minutes to finally gain the physical ability to step out onto the glass floor, and that was first accomplished only by holding onto Darryl's shoulders. I just couldn't do it!

Eventually, we were back on the ground. The next day, we went to the Ontario Science Centre, to check out the awesome Harry Potter exhibit, with stuff from the movies. The costumes the kids wore in the first movie were SO TINY.

Again, I can't believe how great our view was from the hotel.

Saturday afternoon, we went to the ROM [my first time]. We only had two hours, and its really more of an all day museum, but we blew through as much as possible. It was fun.

We even saw the Terracotta Army men, which was pretty nifty.

That night, we were at the Molson Amphitheater

Where Lady Antebellum was freaking awesome [I've wanted to see them for a while!]

And Tim McGraw was great for my second time.

On the Sunday, we went shopping on Yonge St., then it was eventually time to head back to Ottawa in the rain. Thank you, Toronto!

The Surgery

2010-08-01T17:19:00.002-04:00

WARNING: The last two pictures (of six) show minor surgery incisions. Either you are into that sort of thing and should scroll right down, or you're not into that sort of thing, and you should wait for my next blog post to read about my life. Or, why not try out the archives!?

About two years ago, I was sitting at this very desk, on this very chair, at a different computer, in a different apartment. As I always did, I rested my foot on one of the casters on the bottom of the chair, and noticed some minor pain. I decided to inspect my foot, and noticed a lump in the arch, underneath the skin. Obviously I assumed I had cancer and was well on my way to death. I also decided to ignore the problem, to see if it would grow or go away.

Months passed, and I woke up one day with my foot all swollen like crazy, and I was unable to walk. Somehow I got to the emergency room, where they eventually gave me anti-inflammatories, and everything went back to normal. About 3 months later, it happened again, and about 6 months later, it happened again. The lump never got bigger, but I was walking slightly on the side of my foot, throwing everything out of line. I couldn't walk long distances, or run, without it starting to hurt.

So I went to a foot clinic. And then again. And again. And again. And again. Each different doctor, stupider than the last. One would tell me they didn't know what the lump was. The next would tell me I'd have it removed, but then my next appointment would just be a new doctor starting from the beginning again. One my last visit, I left the clinic furious, swearing a blue streak. I made a decision to never return there. These appointments wasted a year.

In June, I decided to take a day off work, and see my family doctor in Renfrew for the first time since 1998. He instantly told me a surgery appointment would be set up. Two weeks ago, I was called, and on Monday night, I was on the bus home to Renfrew again.

Tuesday morning was my pre-op, where a hilarious guy named Brad talked me through the surgery (not that its complicated) and helped me find the blood taking clinic, where the lovely woman there took my blood easily and I left immediately. No passing out!

That night, I took this picture of a sunset, which I'm using as filler space just to absolutely make sure people who don't want to see the incision pictures wont see it when they open this post. I'm so kind. Its really not that gross. Don't worry.

Wednesday morning, I went in for surgery. When they put in my IV, I thought I was going to vomit and/or pass out. It was intense, but I called a nurse over and she quickly fixed me up. Apparently that happens to people when an IV causes their blood pressure to drop. It was freaky. But the surgery was easy... They knocked me out, and I was awake in recovery 40 minutes later. I got Brad to show me the lump they had removed. It was white and red and looked spongy and gross. Bye bye!

I got a sweet bootie.

And my toes were all grossly covered with iodine or something. When I woke up, my toes were stuck together and I was like WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?

The next day, I got to take the bandage off. It was gross.

And now I've got this little cut. But its healing really well. I could walk on my heel the first day, then not at all the second day, but I've been walking again ever since. Today its all bruised which is lame. But I've almost completely weened myself of the oxycocet with over half the bottom left. So, err, its up for sale ;) hah

After a week in Renfrew, with lots of friends and family time, I'm back in Ottawa. Off for two more days, then back to work Wednesday for a short shift. Yay!

The Best Wedding Ever

2010-07-23T23:39:00.006-04:00

So last Saturday was my cousin Erik's wedding [to Jenna] in Pembroke. Its been a very long and busy week, so I'm behind.

When we arrived at the wedding, I was all excited for awesome picture taking. I took a few random shots while waiting for the show to start, and then bam. Dead camera battery. The damn thing can take over 1000 pictures... I really didn't plan for this. My extra battery was of course in the car, and the wedding was about to start. Also, when everyone stood up because the bride was coming, my decent vantage point was ruined. So no pictures from the wedding. Oh well.

There was time for picture taking in the hotel, where Darryl blended nicely with the sheets.

Shortly after checking in, the party bus arrived and everyone piled on! The dinner and reception were at my aunt's house out of town, so just like when she and Dave got married a few years ago, they rented a big old bus [two actually!] to pick up everyone at their hotels. Amazing planners, and then there was no drunk driving. Although one bus did apparently smash my uncle Jeff's car, which is ridiculous.

There was much time to spend with my rare cousin Sarah [she's always in some foreign country doing something cool].

There was much mingling, and even more drinking at the all night open bar.

I really like this picture! Its posed, but not TOO posed. You know? You're looking at Jordan's girlfriend Taryn, Darryl, me, Genevieve, her brother Jordan, third cousin Maureen, and my sister Alison!

Tommy and Marie were full of their usual awesomeness. Huzzah!

EDIT: Oh snap. Marie was the old one. This is Tommy's wife Tracy.

And for once in his life, Jonathon took a decent - if not slightly goofy - picture.

In the Facebook comments, Jonathon captioned this picture perfectly:

Have you ever seen two people think, "Oh God, what have I done?" at the exact same time? ahahaha

Hilarious.

Here's a lovely bride photo. There weren't really an unobstructed opportunities of the couple at any time. Very annoying.

Auntie Frances did her mother of the groom speech, while Dave stood guard for some reason. Good job, Dave!

Here, Alison and I are joined by a random who kept making it into the background of our pictures. I invited him to the foreground and this is what he did with it.

Here's Momma, Laura and Ian... possibly the first and last time these three will ever be in such close proximity, due to the odd nature of the group. Huzzah!

This is me with Ian, whose hair continued to rise as the night went on.

And just for fun, here is me with Ian on the party bus to Frances' wedding two summers ago, for nostalgia purposes hehe.

The wedding went late into the night. The last party bus left at 1am, but we stayed until at least 3 or 4 and took a cab back. Then, from the hotel, we walked the half-block to McDonalds to get some food, and the drive thru wouldn't serve us for some stupid reason because we had no car. So we walked back to the hotel, called a cab, and took it to the drive thru, then back to the hotel. Yes, we cabbed half a block. And the reward of sausage and egg mcmuffins was totally worth it :D

Did I mention that the whole wedding was ridiculously incredible? Well it was :)

The Notock Wedding

2010-07-18T10:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to day 2 of the wedding series. Isn't this fun? Now we get to compare the weddings all at the same time!

June 12, 2010. Renfrew.

I grew up with Rebecca. We played soccer together. We went to Sunday school together. My mom babysat her cousins. My cousin worked with her aunt. We went to high school together. And a million other things.

When we met Chris, Rebecca was 18 and he was 23. It was completely scandalous. But he's a great guy.

And then there's these handsome men. Yes, we just jumped from the church, to mom's house after the wedding. that's how this blog rolls, folks.

And now we're at the reception. Please stay with us. This is here purely for the shot of the dress, since I'm sure the ladies out there would like to see that.

They danced. And a man got low on the floor and blew bubbles. It was adorable.

And this Rebecca was there!

So lets clarify. This is Rebecca F. The bride is Rebecca N, now technically T. There you go.

And Kristin. Nothing says classy wedding like imitations of Asian tourists.

And Traci made it from Oshawa, which was nice, since she never comes out. Lame!

And Chelsey was there, which was completely odd, since she had also been at the wedding we were at in May. Maybe we could become a professional wedding crashing team. Something to ponder.

Adorable.

And Greg! We've lived next door to each other for 8 months, but we have to go to an old friend's wedding to actually SEE each other. Ridiculous. But its his fault for not having Facebook. At least we got a lengthy chat in, which should tide us over for a few years.

And that's that. Hopefully I can post Erik and Jenna's wedding pictures a little faster. Depending on how quick I can sober up after like 8 hours of open bar...

The Dickstello Wedding

2010-07-17T10:00:00.000-04:00

Today, my cousin Erik is getting married. It is the third wedding I've been to this year. Ridiculously, I did not blog about the first two because I'm ultra lazy. So today, I shall write about the first one, and tomorrow the second [all hail the magic of auto-posting!]

May 29, 2010. Renfrew.

Anni was a happy, happy bride. Her goal for the reception was to keep a drink in each hand all night long, and not worry about whether or not she made it around to talk to every guest. If they wanted to talk to her, they could go to her. She wanted to have fun. And she did. Props to her :D

This wedding was an awesome one, because it was a family wedding, but my cousin is young, so there were lots of my friends there as well. It was a win-win wedding. For example, Jessica was there, who I haven't seen in forever because she's off living it up in Montreal or Toronto or something.

This terrible picture is of Mr. Groom, my cousin Jonathon. He rocks. Just not in this picture.

After the wedding [which was the long Catholic service, gag] the closer family members [about 30 people] were invited to my house for a BBQ. Classy! Most people changed out of their finery, but my hillbilly cousin Ryan didn't. I wish you could see, but he is wearing a tie with an AC/DC logo on the bottom.

Here's Momma and Darryl enjoying the BBQ fun. Like you couldn't tell.

Here's everybody's pseudo-Mexican friend. He was the first of two unexpected guests to the BBQ. This random guy was clearly unfazed by the family gathering occurring in the backyard, because he strolled on over and chatted forever, gave us several free energy efficient light bulbs, and wanted to install a friggin' low-flow shower head right then and there. We eventually took the shower head and told him to go away and we'd install it ourselves later, but we'd say he did it himself if his supervisor ever called. Ridiculous!

Visitor number two was this random cat, who strolled on over to be the centre of attention.

Back in our fancy clothes, we hit up the reception. Its a very large and difficult hall to decorate, but they did a great job. And there, in all her glory, was Natalie... friends since kindergarten, moved away in grade 8. Every time I get to see her is so random and wonderful. :)

During the evening, Ryan comes up to me and tells me he feels awkward but is sad that he wasn't introduced to Darryl. Since we've been together over a year, I just assumed they'd met. But here it is. Proof that it has now happened.

And here's my fabulous family. :)

And here's Darryl and Genevieve rocking out like there's no tomorrow.

In in celebration of his wedding today, here's my cousin Erik!

Finally, I leave you with a scene from Family Dancefest, May 2010. Tonight, we shall do it up even better.

Tomorrow, you'll get to see the June wedding! I know you'll want to come back and see it!

The Roundup

2010-07-16T20:56:00.005-04:00

I've been somewhat busy lately, and then lazy which results in not blogging. Here's a roundup of my last week!

Bluesfest has been in full swing since July 6, however there aren't a ton of acts which caught my eye [or ears]. On the 8th, Sebs and I [pictured!] went along with Darryl and Phil to see the B-52s, which was joyous. They opened with my favourite song of theirs, Wig. I was in love. And the weather cooled down just nicely, with the show being literally about an hour after the end of a 5 day insane heatwave, with humidex temperatures reaching 45°C at some points. It was brutal.

Here we see the elders of the B-52s rocking out, still sounding exactly how they always have. Huzzah!

The next night, Darryl and I joined Phil, and his friend Glen, and Glen's roommate Stan, to witness the hot mess that is Courtney Love, and Hole. It was Courtney's birthday, and she was [sadly] on her best behaviour. Ottawa isn't exciting enough for craziness to ensue.

Here is Phil, who owns these pictures, in front of the Courtney Love screen. There was rain that night, but it ended just in time for the music to start. Slowly drying off kept us cool. Also, Darryl had to leave partway through Hole's set because his brother's wife had a baby girl! Yay!

After hole, us boys wandered over to the main stage where Joan Jett and the Blackhearts rocked, then sucked for a long boring chick-rockin' time, then rocked again. Then we went to the bar!

On Monday, I had a doctor's appointment in Renfrew, since its easier to get in to see real doctors than in Ottawa. So on Sunday, I got a drive to Renfrew the very long way, through the Southern portion of the valley which I'm not so familiar with. Along the way, we stopped in Almonte for Celtfest where I saw my mom's cousin Anne, in some little place for a little swim, and eventually in Burnstown to heat pizza and muffins at the neat Café, and a stop at the beach.

Along the way, we also hit up this fantastic marble quarry in Tatlock, which I didn't know existed (see: both quarry and town).

And when we got to Renfrew, I showed off the swinging bridge, which I love.

On Wednesday, Kerri dropped by my work unexpectedly, which was awesome. I hadn't seen her since her birthday/going away party over a year ago, just before she moved to Winnipeg for her masters. She's in Ottawa for about a week more, so we are going to do lunch on Monday. Hooray!

Today at work, I was training our newbie co-op students [tons of free labour all summer? hell yes!] and I accidentally used a hanger to slice into my finger. You can't tell from this picture, but that whole little area beneath the nail is just hanging on by a thread. I'm sorry for the disgusting picture, but if I have to live it, you can look at it. Heh.

Tonight, Darryl and I are taking the midnight bus to Renfrew, because my cousin is getting married in Pembroke tomorrow, to a fantastic gal. It's gonna be an epic open bar outdoor shindig and I'm freaking excited. We'll be back Sunday night to see Weezer close out Bluesfest! So much to do! Have a good weekend, y'all!

The Old Navy BBQ

2010-07-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

On Sunday evening, a met up with 10 of my coworkers at our store after closing time. After waiting forever for Sarah to finish counting the cashes, we all piled into a couple cars and headed across the city to her new digs.

Once there, Malaz and I barbecued up a storm, and we all had a great time. Especially since there was a ridiculous amount of gossip flying around. Ahh, coworkers. Here's a small selection of pictures!

Here is the new girl Ana [who tells ridiculous tales about South America], Samantha [who got hired with me... we recently celebrated our first Old Navy Anniversary!] and Konrad [the newest of all the new... and quickly becoming despised by all. I don't know how he got invited to the BBQ].

Here I am with Stacey and Trisha. They rock. No one can ever tell them apart, which is ridiculous.

And here's a good group shot... I love my Old Navy crew! They're the reason I still work there.

The 143rd Canada Day

2010-07-06T21:24:00.007-04:00

July 1. Ottawa. One of my favourite days of the year! And this was the best ever!

This year, Darryl and I headed down to Sparks St. to meet the gang [they are Phil's gang, but I'm adopting them as my own].

This is Phil.

This is Steven.

This is his husband TJ.

And you all know Darryl!

So the gang got together [there is more gang than shown here] and we headed up to Parliament Hill, where they just happened to be setting up a barricade close to where Queen Elizabeth II would arrive. We got ourselves some standing room right at this too-good-to-be-true barricade.

While waiting, I spied some snipers on top of West Block.

I also spied this adorable wee girl behind us in the crowd. Look how cute she is!

So there were are, standing and staring at the exact location the Queen will arrive at, when the band shows up and stands right in front of us!

She arrived to much fanfare, and I glimpsed Her Majesty through the band and over some guy's head, as she inspected her guards.

CF-18s did a flyby. Lots of people remarked that it gave them shivers. I don't quite know why... its not like a war was suddenly breaking out.

And then, miraculously, the band gave up and went home, and THERE WAS THE QUEEN OF CANADA! It made my life.

Also making my life was a photograph with Philip. Good times!

Not to be outdone, the Snowbirds flew over, not once, but twice.

Such form.

Such grace.

Speaking of form and grace, we ran into Ian [who just moved here from Montreal, yay!] and Yanick, as we were headed off the hill.

We did a tour of the market, ate some delicious sandwiches at Major's Hill Park [courtesy of the Chicken Farmers of Canada], and then hit up Rideau St. to see the crowds.

Next, we headed to Kevin's apartment for drinks and bathrooms. Along the way, we came across Dave and his friend who commented about my loud all-red outfit just moments before Dave and I saw each other. I snapped this from all the way across the intersection. Sneaky!

Later, back near the hill and after a costume change, I ran into Colin who was enjoying his first Ottawa Canada Day. Yay!

Darryl and I watched the fireworks from behind the Parliament buildings, along the Ottawa River.

What a great spot to watch the show, and much less crowded than on the hill. There were even kayakers.

The night ended at the bar. It was a fantastic day.

The Proofs

2010-07-04T12:08:00.003-04:00

For the past several weeks, the University of Ottawa has been constantly emailing, and twice letter-sending. They want me to purchase the photos they took of me at graduation. The only issue is, they're fucking garbage. The pictures that my family took of me from their seats in the balcony are better than the pictures the photographer took from 5 feet away.

Whose hand am I shaking here? Is it Chancellor Huguette Labelle, or maybe its Mrs. Claus? We will never know.

And here. Once we got backstage with our degrees, they chose to take a picture in front of a fake background, which is looking up at the ceiling of Tabaret Hall. This is the least natural background possible. How many ceilings do YOU stand in front of each day?

So, good try, University of Ottawa, but I think its time to fire your photography team. No one I've spoken to is buying what you're selling, and your correspondence is a waste of everyone's time.

The Convocation

2010-06-06T22:21:00.005-04:00

May 24, 2005. The University of Ottawa reached out to my mind and wallet, inviting me to learn with them.

May 25, 2010. According to my degree, I officially became a graduate.

June 4, 2010. Momma and Darrell arrived to pick up Darryl and I [have I ever mentioned how odd and confusing that gets?] and we headed to the National Arts Centre. Once inside, I ditched the family and headed on down to the last chance for uOttawa to make the students line up like cattle... A line for your name tag. Then a line for the coat check. Then a line for your robe. Then a line for your colours (white for Arts!). After all that, I headed back out to the very crowded lobby. Then I had the enjoyable idea of going outside in the cool air to take pictures and not die from overheating. Here are those pictures (of Momma, Darryl and me):

While outside, Dad randomly drove by and asked how to get to the parking lot. Of all the people it could have been, the fact that it was the person we were waiting for is pretty random. At 7:00 I headed backstage again, where I crammed into Line 6. I was #37, between a guy named Shawn and a girl named Stephanie. The people around me were fairly hilarious, which made the evening much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I planned on a borefest.

We entered. The fancy people in their funny [see: archaic] hats entered. O Canada was sung. I found my family in the mezzanine.

Alan Rock, president of the university, spoke. He kept it fairly brief, which was fantastic. There was even a joke or two. And his French was good.

Then, Nancy Don't-call-me-Canadian Houston received an honourary doctorate for being an anti-Canadian bitch/author. Her speech was lengthy, horrible, and basically her biography. Nothing to encourage us. I'm very disappointed with her selection.

Then, after lots of mild clapping for others, I rocked the handshakes with the Chancellor and President. Oh my, how I shook their hands.

Next, I was ushered backstage where I received my degree in a lovely faux leather folder, had my official photo taken, was congratulated numerous times, and then headed back to my seat to chat raucously with my seatmates while still trying to clap politely for the other graduates... and cheer for the people I know. It was kind of a trip down memory lane, full of faces I met throughout my 5 years. It was cool.

The ceremony lasted 2 hours, which is a good hour shorter than I expected. I waited in the lobby about 15 minutes before my family finally came to join me. Dad was the first to get there. The man on his cellphone in the background is Antoni Lewkowicz, Dean of Arts, and the first prof I ever had.

Hooray for the parents!

Here's one with me and Momma and Darrell.

Finally, I got a picture with Chancellor Huguette Labelle and President Alan Rock.

Bring on the requests for alumni donations.

The American Embassy

2010-06-05T16:53:00.005-04:00

About two weeks ago, I randomly saw something on Twitter that announced the American Embassy would be open to 500 people as part of the Open Doors Ottawa weekend. I thought it sounded cool, so I signed up. Apparently thousands of people applied that first night, and they had to close the application process almost immediately after announcing it. And since I am writing this blog post, you can probably guess that I was one of the lucky 500 with an invitation when all was said and done!

I've always found the American Embassy to be a bit of an eyesore. The exterior is cold, modern and monolithic, and only mildly attempts to blend with the surrounding historic buildings.

I arrived at 3:15 (I don't know how I wasn't late) as requested. I left my phone, camera, iPod, etc. at home as requested. We met a very tall security guard at the gate, they checked IDs, and they let me in. A quick metal detector scan later, I was given a burgundy card with the number 1 on it. I was the begging of a new tour group! Woo! haha. I was offered the chance to use the washroom. I didn't have to go, but I went just to check it out. It was very clinical and beige. One stall, one urinal, a small bench in front of a full length mirror. Good water pressure and deep sinks, just how I like 'em.

We moved into a little theatre area which is likely used for small press confereces. We watched a short video about Canadian-American relations, and the short history of the embassy (which only opened in 1999). I noticed that The walls are a good 2 feet thick. Between the windows and me, there was a set of blinds, and then thick wooden shutters that could be opened or closed. They clearly have something to hide.

Darryl forfeited his invitation because he went to his brother's graduation, so there were just 9 on our tour. The last of the day! We were on the second floor [which is technically the main floor in terms of the entrance we used, but I won't judge). We stood in a rotunda and stared up at the spectacular atrium which looks like the inside of a blue Faberge egg. Very cool. We learned that the fabric on the chairs throughout the place is Canadian mohair, dyed a purplish blue, with a faint stars and maple leaf pattern unique to these chairs, naturally. They urged us to sit in them, and they were comfy!

They explained how everything was designed to bring in as much sunlight as possible, including wire mesh on the risers of the stairs to let light through, and there are several mirrors in the roof which are repositioned twice each year to reflect the best light for winter or summer conditions. Each of the four floors has an identical layout. The walls are lined with light Canadian maple panels, and all accents are Ontario steel. Its all very art deco-ish.

We moved up to the fourth floor, and got to go into the beautiful offices of the Ambassador, and someone else. It didn't catch it. Whoever the next most important person is. You can Google it. Those offices were all dark maple, and were pretty swanky with leather furniture. the Ambassador has a beautiful globe next to a hockey stick and a curling broom. I think we'd be good friends.

There were a few choice pieces of artwork throughout... nothing too exceptional. Its all fairly barren, but impressive. There was of course lots of information and other things that I don't remember now. But it was wonderful to see how different the inside is from the outside. And the staff seem to love working there.

The tour lasted about half an hour (Ten minutes more than promised! Woo!) On the way out, they gave us all a bag of Embassy M&Ms. Awesome. But then once we got outside, it took 4 guards to eventually get us out because one gate wasn't working. It was a bit hilarious. But it was the first time an American Embassy has EVER let the public in, and it was a great opportunity!

The Pre-Tulip Festival

2010-05-19T20:06:00.006-04:00

With Spring arriving so very early, the tulips in Ottawa were in bloom before planned.

This is an issue for the annual Tulip Festival.

With fears of the tulips being dead by the time the actual festival rolled around, Darryl and I hit up the flower beds way back on April 25.

I'm finally getting around to showing you now!

We did the whole tulip walk, starting at Dow's Lake, then walking all the way along the Rideau Canal to Lansdowne Park, then eventually Major's Hill Park.

Unfortunately, close to Dow's Lake, we encountered a motorcycle accident. The guy was eventually moving, but I'm pretty sure he hit a light standard.

The tulips were beautiful, as were some of the houses.

There was also much wildlife along our tour, including this very approachable goose.

I was shocked by this little island in the middle of the canal. Has this seriously always been here? I've been skating right by it for my whole life, and never noticed trees growing in the middle of the ice? Bizarre!

At Lansdowne, we saw the monument to the Olympic torch, which I didn't know existed. Cool!

Ina little pond off from the canal, in the Glebe area, there were all these huge ugly fish! What are they? Why are they so huge and ugly? And how did they get into this little pond?

At certain points, the canal doubled as some sort of disgusting lawn. That gunk supported large chunks of garbage. Eew.

Close to uOttawa, there was a squirrel!

And this fun picture happened!

It was a nice relaxing walk along the canal back downtown.

We stopped by the locks, which I'd somehow never looked at while empty.

More friendly animals surrounded us.

Apparently I'm non-threatening.

The Ketchup

2010-05-17T01:17:00.002-04:00

Last night, we ordered food. We did not order condiments of any kind.

It must have been a slow night, because we were soon inundated with 53 packets of ketchup. What. The. Hell.

There was so much ketchup that Wall-E got trapped beneath the madness.

Thankfully, Eve was nearby and heard Wall-E's cries for help.

Soon, Wall-E was busting out of the pile, and able to clean it up like the good little waste robot that he is. Of course, cleanup is always faster with friends.

And who better to get a mess all cleaned up than Optimus Prime?

The Grad Pics

2010-05-14T00:03:00.003-04:00

The University of Ottawa has graciously agreed to release its death grip on me three weeks from now. Naturally, there should be expensive photographs to mark the celebration. And now I need YOUR help to decide how I shall remember my 10 minutes with the hilarious photographer girl. So please, PLEASE, leave comments about what you like or don't like :D

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The Olympics: Day 4

2010-04-07T10:00:00.001-04:00

February 15, 2010. Technically day 5, since I got there on day 0, but still, this trip was way too short. Sadly, that's what happens with a student budget!

The night before, I had to go back to the Olympic Superstore at The Bay. It was late at night, making it the only store still open. I needed to buy a new duffel bag. I had too much stuff to bring home with me, especially with the drum from the opening ceremony. While buying my new Vancouver 2010 bag, I naturally had to spend even MORE money on other souvenirs. It just never ended!

So its my last morning. I let myself sleep a little longer, took my time eating the Dutch girl's breakfast, said goodbye to Brian (who I met the night before on the bus, and we chatted for like an hour... he was from the states somewhere, and was there with some Serbian woman who now lives in Ottawa, who was a little odd) and checked out as late as possible. I had a couple hours to kill before my flight, so I reluctantly dragged all my heavy crap, including that new extra piece of luggage, around downtown for a little while. I had pretty much seen everything I wanted to already, and I wouldn't have gotten in anywhere with so much stuff, so I just stuck to the streets and had a nice long lunch. Finally it was very reluctantly time to go to the airport. While waiting in the, er, waiting area, I was watching Olympics coverage on TV along with everyone else. We watched Mike Robertson win silver in snowboard cross, which was freaking cool to watch. I almost cried sitting there, knowing I had to leave. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It was truly the time of my life!

So, a big thanks to everyone who helped me make it happen! Especially to Darryl, and also thanks to Justin for urging me to get a great camera (again, thanks to Darryl). I'm so happy with my pictures, and I never would have been if I didn't get this camera.

Thanks Vancouver! :)

The Olympics: Day 3.3

2010-04-06T10:00:00.005-04:00

February 14, 2010. Victory Ceremony.

I entered BC Place, on the opposite corner from my seat at the Opening Ceremony. Hoping to see the Olympic cauldron burning brightly as a backdrop for the ceremony. Sadly, it turned out that on 1/3 of the stadium was being used for the show (I guess to avoid a logistical nightmare every single day). Again, I had a pretty good seat, although since this was more intimate, I wish I'd been lower, and as close as possible to see the medals being awarded. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, everyone's favourite pre-show host Ben Mulroney came out and announced that Alexandre Bilodeau had just won Canada's first gold medal on home soil. The crowd, again, was nuts. Completely insane. High-fiving and hugging strangers style.

Before the ceremony, the province of BC (a different province each night) put on a show. There was native music and dancing.

There was fiddling.

There was bizarre fashion.

There was even a STOMP-like segment. Apparently BC is eclectic.

Crazy randomness alert! I didn't know until I came home and posted my pictures on Facebook, but the girl on the left in this picture, holding the gold medal, is a girl named Katelyn who I knew as a child. She grew up just a few blocks away from me! What a small world! She even used one of my pictures of her in the local newspaper, which Rebecca is going to be sending. Yay!

Jennifer Heil was awarded her silver medal from the previous day, and it was fantastic!

Look at all those flags!

Champions!

Seung-Hoon Lee of Korea won silver, Sven Kramer of Netherlands won gold, and Ivan Skobrev of Russia won bronze in the Men's 5000m Speed Skating.

Finally, Kristina Groves got the bronze medal I watched her win. It was a very happy day!

The ladies had a blast up there!

After the medals, Nelly Furtado took the stage. It wasn't the most riveting concert ever, since people were there more for the medals and less for the concert (normally people go to a concert because they're a fan). But it was nice, and it was done by 9pm, so I stayed for the whole thing before venturing back into the city for one last night.

I strolled by Alberta House, which was finally in full swing. Live music, food and drinks... nothing cool to see. I just stuck to the streets... that's where all the best fun was!

I did get lured in by the Four Host Nations pavilion though, now they they were officially open. I went inside and they had a TV screen airing the repeat of Alexandre Bilodeau winning gold. There was quite a crowd watching. An interview with him and his family followed, and it brought a lot of people to tears. What an amazing guy... absolutely deserving of the honour!

Sadly, I couldn't stay downtown forever, so I grabbed one last look at the massive flag, and I headed to the hostel.

The Olympics: Day 3.2

2010-04-05T10:00:00.005-04:00

February 14, 2010. Ladies' 3000m Speed Skating.

The competition began! It was exciting! And I loved listening to the guy saying RRRRRRRRRRREEEEADYYYYYY? every time a pair was set to begin. Great voice!

Cindy Klassen was the first Canadian up. Love!

The crowds were so loud. Louder than at the Opening Ceremony. Louder than at the luge. By the end of it, I lost my voice. It was wild!

And I had a perfect view of the finish line. Go Cindy!

Clara Hughes came out to get ready for her race.

After her run, Martina Shablikova of Czech Republic waved to the crowd with her coach. She would go on to win!

Clara!

Clara!

Clara!

Kristina Groves was in pair 13 of 14. Such good chances to land Canada on the podium!

Her race put her in 3rd place with just 2 skaters left! Unfortunately, those skaters were giving it everything they had, and were well ahead of her time. Then less far ahead. Then just barely ahead.

And with the very last seconds, those skaters lost it, and Kristina Groves won the bronze medal! The place went nuts!

Martina was pretty damn happy!

Kristina received her flowers.

Martina was a jumper.

Along with Stephanie Beckertt of Germany, the winners waved to the best crowd I've ever been in, with their flowers in hand.

To get back downtown, everyone had to walk about 20 minutes along the water, which was beautiful. Along the way, Ocean Spray handed everyone packets of Craisins, and bottles of cranberry juice. Richmond is of course the world's largest cranberry producer! Eventually we all got to the SkyTrain station, and stood in line for a good 30-40 minutes to then pack onto trains and get downtown.

I headed straight to BC Place for the Victory Ceremony! :)

The Olympics: Day 3.1

2010-04-04T10:00:00.005-04:00

February 14, 2010. Happy Valentine's Day! I had enough of those early mornings, so I let myself sleep a tiny bit later. And then I slept an extra bit later, without letting myself. Needless to say, by the time I'd showered, eaten the Dutch girl's breakfast, watched Olympic highlights on TV and chatted with someone in the hostel, I was late for the long bus ride. I grabbed a cab. The most expensive cab of my life. But it was the Olympics, and I'd already vowed to spend as much money as I needed to in order to have the best possible time. That vow was so worth it! [Especially since by now, the whole shindig is paid off :D].

Taking the bus, I would have had to walk for a while. The cab let me off 500 feet from the Richmond Olympic Oval.

Definitely the most wonderful Olympic venue. Its gigantic! So beautiful!

I took a stroll around the building. Sadly, the entire thing was fenced off and much of it surrounded by security and concession tents (the building itself contained no space for concessions, washrooms, etc. since it will be converted to a multi-use sports facility later, and wont need that sort of thing) so there wasn't a fantastic photo opportunity here.

While waiting in line for security, I took a picture of some pretty fish art. The guy beside me was wearing wooden clogs! The Dutch were definitely out in full force for their favourite sport!

Since we were somewhat near the airport, I decided to test my camera's limits. I was impressed.

I got inside and climbed to the top of the stands to get the full effect of the gorgeous oval. My seat was very close to the ice, just a few rows back, in the middle, across from the finish line.

The massive roof made of wood killed by pine beetles was so nice. Well done, whoever thought of using that wood!

I got another poor soul to figure out my camera (really she just had to push the button, but she couldn't even figure that out). I was a sucker for pictures of me under the rings.

Kristina Groves came out for a little practice skate.

A Dutch band called Kleintj Pils (which means Little Beer) came out to play several times. Apparently they travel the international speed skating circuit, playing at all the events. They were fun!

Here I am in front of the ice, and in front of that hot coach with the beard!

Out came the faulty Olympias! Interestingly, while one of them was broken and causing delays, I was too busy having fun to notice!

The band just kept playing all the classics.

The crowd was a sea of red and orange. I should have bought a pair of the orange gloves with the Netherlands flag on the cuffs, but I didn't want to clash! And its all about the red mittens.

Cindy Klassen came out for a practice.

How can you not love her?

The Olympics: Day 2.2

2010-04-03T22:00:00.004-04:00

February 13, 2010. Men's Singles Luge, Runs 1 and 2 (of 4).

Go Germany! Holy fast! Even though the men's start was moved down to the womens' start (in order to slow them down a bit) they were still reaching speeds up to 150km/h. The basic system for taking pictures was listen for them to approach your location (the sleds were roaring), then put the camera close to your face but not quite, so you could actually see the action and know where the lugers were. It worked.

Such a blurry crowd!

Canadian Samuel Edney!

And Canadian Jeff Christie! You can have a blurry crowd or a blurry luger, but you're not getting both!

You could go anywhere on the track, so I walked up toward the finish line for a while to grab some good shots of the lugers.

The sleds were going so fast that they climbed up a long steep ramp between the finish line and the exit platform. It was crazy. The real competition looks so much faster than on TV. This is Latvian Inars Kivlenieks (18th)

Some Latvian fans beside me called him over, and he was happy to pose for pictures :D

After run 1, everyone had to push a big black button once they stepped off the track. After run 2, their sleds were all tested for something. Keeping everything legal I guess!

Ian Cockerline of Canada! (20th)

Jeff Christie again! (14th)

And Samuel Edney! He was so fast, he came up the ramp and stopped right near me. No one else I saw came that far! He was 7th overall. I was so close, I could have touched him. I should have gone for a high five. But I was too busy ringing my cowbell!

Check this out... it was taken literally half a second before

this picture. So fast.

Luge was fantastic. Sadly, there was no winner crowned until Runs 3 and 4 the next day. Everyone was drenched on the long bus back to Vancouver. And they put me on the wrong bus, so I ended up in a strange location late at night, not at the Seabus stop like I should have. But I eventually made it to the celebrations downtown... the city going nuts after Jennifer Heil's silver medal in moguls. O Canada in full force.

And after I got back to Ottawa, I checked my recording... That's me on the right, cheering my face off for Samuel Edney. You can hear me. I was on TV! :D

The Biggest Thanks Imagineable

2010-04-03T15:44:00.002-04:00

When I was 9, my mom sat me down and told me that 7 years before I was born (and two years after my sister was born) my parents had a daughter named Carolyn. Unfortunately, she passed away two months later, never leaving the hospital, due to being premature and with heart complications.

At the time, I found the news to be sad, but it didn't really affect me too much. Since then, its never been discussed much.

Today, my mom suggested that we go visit my uncle and grandma's graves, which I thought was a nice idea. After we were done there, we did a few other things around town, and then we decided to go to the other cemetery and look for Carolyn's grave. I thought that was a nice guesture, and it had been so long and the cemetery had expanded so much that mom didn't really know where it was anymore.

We ended up finding it in a nice shady corner. At first, I thought it was nice, and I was happy for my mom that we found it. But then I began to think about the fact that if Carolyn had lived, I probably wouldn't have. So its been a bit of a tough afternoon to me, and I have to thank my little sister, who would have turned 29 today, for my own life.

Its been a very interesting day.

The Olympics: Day 2.1

2010-04-02T10:00:00.004-04:00

February 13, 2010. I woke up at some ungodly hour, yet again, and grabbed some delicious hostel breakfast. The awkward Dutch daughter of the owner of the restaurant always seemed confused when serving the meals. It was great. There were TVs so I got to catch a bit of Olympics coverage in the mornings as well, which was nice.

The bus stop was only about 5 minutes away. There were usually lots of people there when I was, and seemingly every time I was at a bus stop downtown heading home to the hostel, there was always someone else also going to the hostel. In a city of millions, I kept running into people staying at the same place, and that was WEIRD! This particular morning, I was alone, so it was picture time. [PS. the Vancouver transit system is phenomenal!]

I headed downtown to the Royal Canadian Mint pavilion. There was a quick entry line for the boring stuff, but I got in line (for a good 90 minutes) to see and hold the medals. First, the Paralympic ones, then BRONZE!

AND SILVER!

AND GOLD! :D

These beauties are HEAVY... and proudly made in Ottawa ;)

I also got to see the first ever 1 Million dollar coin. Its like a giant gold penny! Apparently the mint has sold 5 of these guys! Crazy!

On my way to the Olympic Bus Network, I had to pass by the Olympic Broadcast Centre.

Naturally, this facilitated a daylight stop at everyone's favourite fence.

And that breathtaking cauldron. Just being there made you feel good. And the stream of people going to see it were endless. What I'm really happy about is the fact that the same torch that was lit by the sun travelled the world, the country, and ended up in our cauldron. In recent years, fancy lighting tricks have often left the cauldron filled with regular fire, not the official flame. Way to do things right, Canada!

I got to ride the Seabus to North Vancouver, and we passed by the massive LED Olympic rings floating on a barge in the harbour. Soon, they would begin to light up every time Canada won a medal.

After an hour in the rain, 3 hours wet on a bus, then another short trip on a different bus, then a short hike and a security check, I was at the Whistler Sliding Centre. At first, I felt a bit uncomfortable. The entrance to the track is right here at turn 16, right where Nodar Kumaritashvili had died the day before. Knowing that you're about to celebrate in the very spot that someone just died is really odd. But there was a moment of silence to commemorate his loss. This was his event and everything.

Three forerunners slid down the track to make sure the timing equipment was working, and the competition was ready to begin!

The Olympics: Day 1.3

2010-04-01T10:00:00.006-04:00

February 12, 2010.

The cross country showcase started off with Hymn to the North... with a giant bear coming out of the floor! Very cool. We systematically turned our flashlights on and off to create the northern lights. There were also whales spraying from the floor, and salmon swimming upstream.

In the Sacred Grove, people danced around an Emily Carr forest, while Sarah McLachlan performed Ordinary Mircale.

Then everything turned gold, and some of them rose into the sky.

IN the Rhythms of the Fall segment, there was a tribute to the French-Canadian tale La chasse-galerie, and much dancing and fiddling.

Ashley McIsaac joined the party!

There was even fire shoes!

In Peaks of Endeavour, snowboarders and skiers scaled a mountain.

Eventually, skaters began circling below. How the managed to roller blade on the carpet floor I will never know!

John Furlong and Jacques Rogge came out to talk. John Furlong talked. And talked. And butchered the French language. Repeatedly.

A great cross-section of famous Canadians carried in the Olympic flag.

The Mounties raised it.

And soprano Measha Breuggergosman sang the Olympic anthem. It was lovely.

To add some French, Garou (who I totally know, since we watched Notre Dame de Paris like 20 times in Grade 8) sang. I know for a fact that the NBC coverage went to commercial for him. Jerks.

Rick Hansen slowly climbed the steep carpeted ramp into the stadium, carrying the flame.

He passed it off to Catriona LeMay Doan, who is one of my favourites (I love the lady speed skaters).

She gave it to Steve Nash.

Eventually, the flame made its way from Nancy Greene to Wayne Gretzky.

I'm sure you all know that part of the cauldron malfunctioned while rising from the floor. Apparently TV viewers couldn't tell for a good while, but I saw it immediately... it was intense.

But the show went on! And it rocked!

The final torchbearers posed for a picture (on our side of the stadium, since we had the best seats :D) and the Wayne Gretzky went off to light the outdoor cauldron.

After everyone laid claim to the drums and programs that were on empty seats (there were some small blocks reserved for athletes families that weren't used), all 66,000 spectators had to exit through one gate. It was quite the human traffic jam in the rain, especially since pretty much everyone was headed to the second cauldron to check it out. So was half of downtown.

Yes, thousands upon thousands of people were all headed to the same 20 foot hole in the uncovered chain link fence to get a glimpse of the amazing cauldron.

So many people complained about it, but look how well my pictures turned out!

People need a little more patience. Although a larger area for viewing would have been nice (and was eventually provided).

Back at the hostel, I laid out everything I got from the ceremony, including some leaves that fell from the ceiling. It was one of the best days I'll ever experience.

The Olympics: Day 1.2

2010-03-31T10:00:00.000-04:00

February 12, 2010. I was the very first person into my gate at BC Place for the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics! How cool is that!? The volunteers weren't even ready for me!

I walked in and immediately saw the stage.

And then the rings... Several storeys high!

I'd heard so many things about how rundown the stadium was becoming, but the whole place was beautiful!

Everyone had a really awesome program, and a drum filled with things to use throughout the ceremony. So fucking cool! I'll keep it FOREVER!

They kept testing various lights in the stadium, as people slowly filtered in. I imagine it took a long time to process the thousands of people through security. Of course, I got there early so who cares about the slow people? :P

Somehow, the 4 hour wait between entry and start time flew by! I chatted with the people around me. They were all great except for the bitch sitting beside me. She showed up about 5 minutes before it started, and complained about EVERYTHING. 65,999 other people in the stands loved it. She bitched about everything, including having to wear a poncho after spending 800 bucks for the ticket. Has she never seen an Olympic ceremony before? She was also mad that our 4th level seats were so high up. In reality, we were sitting directly above the dignitaries swanky box... Jaques Rogge, Michaelle Jean... right below us with the best seats in the place. It was amazing. We could see EVERYTHING.

I nice lady volunteer was totally patient while I helped her work my camera so we could get this great shot. Thank you, volunteer!

Seriously, look how much bigger the rings are than the people!

Every section had an audience participation leader to show us what to do throughout the ceremony. They were fun.

With an hour to go, Tamara Taggart and Ben Mulroney came out to host the pre-show entertainment, and go over what to do participation-wise, explaining when to flash your lights based on what colour you had, etc. etc.

The Canadian Tenors sang a couple times too.

Finally, at 6pm PST, a snowboarder came down through the rings, and the Olympics had begun! The RCMP brought in the Canadian flag, and Nikki Yanofsky of CTV theme song fame sang the national anthem.

The four host nations welcomed the spectators and athletes with their cool totem poles that rose from the floor.

The Lil'Wat Nation was closest to me.

Then, nations from all across Canada came out to join the celebration. They probably danced for an hour!

The parade of nations began! Big cheers for Greece!

Lengthy, deafening applause for the Georgian team. It was the most emotional part of the whole ceremony.

Finally, Canada arrived in full force, and to equally deafening applause. Mad screaming. Friggin' incredible!

Clara Hughes, one of my favourite Olympians, carried the flag. Love love love! Also in this picture (more visible in the version I have that was not shrunken down to blogger-accepted size) is that funny speed skating coach with the beard. He's kinda hot.

Who is holding that flag? Oh no one... just silver and bronze medallist Kristina Groves!

And who do we have here? Why, its gold medallist skeleton-er Jon Montgomery holding a camcorder!

Nelly Furtado and Bryan adams sang a tribute to the athletes, which allowed us a great opportunity to use the drums we were given (the song may or may not have been titled Bang The Drum). The show was officially underway!

The Olympics: Day 1.1

2010-03-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

February 12, 2010. I woke up and discovered that I had roommates in my hostel. [It was basically an apartment... you went in and there was a shared bathroom and kitchen, then I had a room with a powerful lock, and they had a room with an equally powerful lock. They looked like a crackhead couple. They also looked a bit dead. We all said "hey", and that was the last I ever saw of them. I was Canada-clad, they were gothed out. I'm sure we would have been fast friends.

I headed downtown, well-crafted itinerary in hand, and arrived at the Four Host Nations Pavilion, only to discover that it wasn't opening on time.

I did get to look around outside, and saw this cool totem pole, which I had previously seen the making-of video for!

There was also this woman practising whatever instrument this is. She was hilarious, so I stayed a little while and listened to her beautiful music / hilariousness.

Also, there were flowers EVERYWHERE. February my ass!

Next on my itinerary was the also closed-rather-than-open-as-promised Alberta House. A sign on the door said it would be opening a whole day late. Come on! They built all these beautiful buildings and they're open for as little time as possible!?

I crossed the street and discovered that the Bell Ice Cube actually WAS open as promised! I went inside, where Sidney Crosby's torch was in the main entrance.

They gave everyone a pair of Bell earbuds, which could be plugged into a variety of cords, screens, etc. to enjoy live footage of the final day of the torch realy, news, and various interactive things produced by Bell.

I only spent about 5 minutes in line, and about 10 minutes inside. I had allowed 90 minutes per pavilion, in case wait times were bad as predicted (they were later in the games, but not that day). Obviously I had lots of time to kill, so I took a walk to an area way on the other side of BC Place where a bunch of other pavilions were. I hadn't planned to go there because they were out of the way, but I had tons of time! On my walk, I passed a group of volunteers who totally clapped for me after I took this picture. The volunteers were everywhere, and they were wonderful!

I walked through this little neighbourhood, which borders the Downtown Eastside. Vancouver is even pretty right next to extreme poverty!

I arrived along False Creek, and got a shot of Science World, which was playing host to Russia House. Sadly, they had very limited hours, so I was unable to go check out their promotion of the Sochi Olympics.

But I got to look across the water to the beautiful Athletes Village.

There were flags!

The Salt Building is a salvaged old building used as the athletes' living room. Cool! And check out how awesome my zoom is!

Canada house!

There were hundreds of little inukshuks all along the shore.

Rumour has it that one guy comes every day and makes some, but I imagine lots of people do it.

I saw Molson Hockey House, which was too pricey for little old me.

I also saw Maison du Quebec, which you could go into, but it wasn't really anything. At night, it would be filled with food and drink and live music, but not when I was there at 11am.

Next up was Saskatchewan, which I was one of the very first visitors to! Unfortunately, its enticing dome was just about the most exciting part. I got a free broken pen, and a pin with the new logo for the city of Regina. That was about it. It was mainly a business showcase.

I then checked out what Ontario had to offer. A very cool building, with cords on the outside that moved in the wind, looking a bit like Niagara Falls. The first part was a small theatre, where a 4D movie made me completely homesick for about 5 minutes, even though I'd been away about 30 hours hah. The theatre sprayed us with mist and snow and bubbles, it even stabbed us in the back. It was fantastic.

I strolled back to my original location, where I grabbed lunch at a very delicious BBQ joint called DIX. It was there I found out about the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashivili [whose name I can spell without even looking it up! :O]. Very sad.

After lunch, and a couple rye and cokes, I still had time to kill, but nothing to do. I decided to see what was going on at BC Place. And that's how I ended up as one of the very first people inside for the coolest event I've ever attended.

The Olympics: Day 0

2010-03-29T15:05:00.015-04:00

February 11, 2010. After working until late the night before, then barely sleeping due to packing challenges and general excitement, Darryl and I were off to the airport at 5am or something. We got there by 6, grabbed some Tim Hortons, hung out, then I headed through security, which was successful. I went through 6 security scans in 5 days. Woo!

I was a little nervous about takeoff because I`d only ever flown once before, and that was within the province (just to Thunder Bay) in 2002. So It had been a while!

But then I saw this big awesome country, and things like this (I assume) Saskatchewan town. Wonderful!

I was seated beside some lame old couple who were doing work on a laptop. Much like I`m doing right now, since Blogger was being stupid on my PC. I strongly dislike laptops. I used my time taking pictures of the landscape. I love geography!

The weather was great, except for all of BC which was just grey outside the windows, which was slightly scarier. Sadly, I didn't get my expected view of the beautiful city. I saw grey, then I saw the runway. Later, I saw this very large Canadian flag on a building! But the first thing I did in Vancouver was rush to one of the ten Olympic stores in the airport and drop a ton of money on even more souvenirs. Awesome.

After checking into the hostel (which was nice), I headed to Robson Square, which was starting to become the jam-packed zone of awesomeness that it would be throughout the Olympics.

Wandering around downtown, I saw the largest-ever Canadian flag, on the Hotel Georgia.

I also found The Bay, which contained the gigantic Olympic Superstore. I only had to spend about 15 minutes in line before getting in, which was pretty good. Some people waited hours.

Their window displays were sexy!

Granville Street was closed off in order to accomodate many art displays, and to allow for throngs of people to cram downtown.

My favourite thing on the street was a lantern forest (this is only part of it) which comprised 2010 lanterns made by children. Who doesn`t love specific numbers of things made by children!?

Later, I was back to Robson Square, since quite frankly its the best place to be in order to find your location and get to somewhere else. The skating rink was pretty. Oddly, I NEVER saw anyone skating on it all weekend. Very weird.

Ooo, Vancouver!

On the other side of the square, I finally found the countdown clock. (At this point, I was still adhering to my strict itinerary, before it turned out that I over estimated how long things would take, and I actually had MORE TIME than I expected!). I got there about 20 minutes early, so me and a group of people just hung out waiting in the rain. Which bothered no one. At any point. Like it didn`t even exist.

It gave me 20 minutes to fiddle with my camera settings, and try to get the best lighting. Sadly, everyone kept moving around, umbrellas kept getting in the way, so my picture of the big moment was just a zoom of the clock itself:

Still, it was incredibly exciting for about 100 soaked people to glimpse that very second when the Olympics were just one day away. After the cheering died down, I turned to the guy beside me, who I hadn't said a word to, and said "Well that was fun" and he replied "no kidding... have a fantastic Olympics" and then we parted ways. That`s how it was. Everyone talked to everyone. Sometimes a few words, sometimes a question, sometimes a long chat. It was the most interesting thing I've ever experienced... Strangers being nice to each other, and interacting in a way I've never seen before. The people made it awesome.

After the clock hit 1 Day, I headed toward David Lam Park, expecting to get in and experience a torch relay celebration similar to the massive one on Parliament Hill back in December. But when I got there, the park was already at capacity, and Pacific Boulevard was jammed with people. Easily 100,000 were there. Again, the atmosphere was amazing. It was the 105th night, and the final celebration along the torch relay.

After finding a good spot on slightly higher ground, I watched the torch enter the city of Vancouver! They did a nice slow entrance, and eventually it went into the fenced-off park. So we crammed up against the fence, and actually watched the celebration through the fabric that was wrapped on the fence. And it was still awesome. There are few times in my life I`ll ever be happy to watch something through a fabric-wrapped fence.

After the celebration ended and the crowds dispursed, I walked up the Granville St Bridge to get a good view of the downtown buildings.

I was also there for the view of Vectorial Elevation over English Bay.

And it was only about to get better.

The Mine

2010-03-25T23:46:00.005-04:00

Oh. Hi. *awkward*

What's that you say? I haven't been posting? Wrong! Those posts were written in invisible ink. You should have known better. Where have you been? I've been blogging like a machine, and you just haven't been here to respond. I've been sad.

Ok so honestly, this whole part time school and part time job, consistently random schedule thing has been a real drag, and I've been really really unmotivated in all aspects of life. I've even been too lazy to blog. But I'm hopefully back! And I know you were totally promised a crap load of Olympics pictures, and I don't want to disappoint, so you'll get them in the coming week :) ... I actually put all of my efforts after the Olympics into [1] watching the Olympics [2] editing the good pictures [hundreds] of the 2,500 that I took on my trip and [3] compiling it all into a fabulous 300 page photo book which should arrive in the mail as early as tomorrow!

This past weekend, Darryl and I rented a car [my first!] and I drove us to Sudbury, and his hometown Azilda which is on the outskirts. It was my longest drive ever, and the farthest West I've ever driven [although I've been on cross-country trips as a passenger, of course]. I got 3 hours of sleep, then we were up early, and drove all day. We picked up the car downtown, stopped in Kanata for breakfast at the Wal*Mart McDonalds, stopped in Renfrew at Tim Hortons, stopped in Pembroke to surprise my mom at work, stopped in Deep River for Subway lunch, stopped in North Bay for gas, and finally about 9 months later, we got to Darryl's house. After a very quick tour and a hello to his mom, I went for a nap. We ate supper and played board games that night, and it was fun!

The next day, Darryl and I went to Dynamic Earth, to go down in a mine. I'd done this in 1999, but its fun. Except for the annoying children, which were in full force since it was March Break. But there were hard hats!

This trip to the mine was more enjoyable, because I was actually old enough to remember it [yes, I've remembered it fondly these past 6 days]. I frequently stayed at the back of the group, or broke away from them, so they wouldn't be in my shots.

Pictures of lights are important. Even if real mines don't actually have lights in them. Shh.

Anyone who hates mesh and rock and incandescent lights should never read my blog ever again. Something I've noted from this trip is that the rails for carts to move around the mine are now almost all covered up with gravel, although they were exposed in the pictures from my previous trip. Odd.

Here I am under the more modern buttresses, made of strong BC lumber, instead of whatever old garbage they could find lying around, during less modern times. I paid attention, dammit!

Here I am beside our snazzy Chrysler Sebring which drove pretty well, although it wasn't as peppy on the uphill as I'd have liked. Darryl managed to get the car and me and the Big Nickel AND the superstack into this picture, which is fantastic. Well done!

Sudbury is a desolate wasteland. Okay, its not. But its no Renfrew!

Next, we went to Science North, which I recall being more awesome as a kid. There used to be a 3D movie. Although this time, there was a butterfly room, which was awesome and a took some pretty pictures! It was so weird... I liked butterflies, and I wanted them to come land on me, but when they'd come close I'd freak out. Oh well!

This picture of the Big Nickel is out of order. It should have been the first picture, but I'm just easing myself back into blogging, so I'm not taking the time to fix it, even though it would have been insanely easy to do so. Since my last visit, the Nickel moved to Science North, then it was refurbished, and then returned to Dynamic Earth and put on a new pedestal. Its nice. It makes my pictures of the same thing different. And I much prefer the updates.

Back at Science North, we went outside into some garden, but being mid-March, everything was dead. So I took this nice dead flower picture, and we went back in. It was chilly.

Ah, the bed of nails. 11 years later, do you think it remembered me? Last time I was there, the "pillow" was made out of K'NEX, so this was freaking luxury!

Afterwards, we drove out of town to some scenic 'waterfall' area, where I took this nice picture of Darryl and birch trees.

And for the first time ever, I got to do that cool long exposure thing that makes water look fake! I love my new camera! :D

It was pretty nice, but there were some other people there doing suspicious things. And it was cold.

We did the family photo thing before we left on Sunday evening. Even with stopped for gas and coffee, and Darryl getting us lost after North Bay, and about 25 minutes of very thick fog, we made it home in like 5.5 hours, which is actually fucking ridiculous. There's no speed limit in the north, right?

The Last Day Of Waiting

2010-02-10T01:56:00.002-05:00

For 2415 days, I've been patiently waiting. On July 2, 2003, the city of Vancouver was awarded the 21st Winter Olympic Games. That day, I knew I'd be going. There was never any other option.

Growing up, I watched every moment of the Olympics with my family... it didn't matter where they were, or what the event, we watched. Even if we were on vacation, we'd linger in the hotel room... just one more race, just one more minute of watching the Olympics. I don't know why, but I absolutely love them, and going to a Winter Olympics in Canada has been my dream since I was little.

I've refrained from posting very much lately, because I could have easily turned this blog into a ridiculous Olympics-fest, and that would have annoyed everyone to death.

But I'm excited. I'm ready to go. I just have to make it through the next 27 hours, and I'll be off to the airport. My excitement has been so great in the past few days that I've had trouble sleeping, and even focusing on real life. Go get a much-needed hair cut? Nah... I'd rather read every Olympic news story that Twitter has to offer, or watch another video for the 100th time.

So I'm ready to stop saying I'm going to the Olympics, and start going to the Olympics. It is going to be AMAZING.

Now, I'll leave you with one of many great CTV Believe commercials. But soon, I'll be back with more pictures and stories than you ever needed. And I guess I'll be taking ideas for a new lifelong dream, because I get to check off the first one very soon.

The 418 Pages

2010-01-27T02:03:00.002-05:00

I had a fantastic day today.

I slept late, which is both good and bad. For breakfast, I decided to find out what an actual serving of Raisin Bran is supposed to look like. Naturally, one cup of cereal does not seem appealing to me, so I topped it off to the halfway point between the Kellogg's recommended serving and the Michael recommended serving. Its all about smaller portions, right?

While deciding what to do for the afternoon, Nathan texted me and said I had to meet him at Subway at 3. I don't put up a fight in these situations, because Nathan rocks. So I met him at Subway at 3... the one by campus that is always packed, no matter what time it is. Awkwardly, the lineup was Nathan, me, a guy Nathan knew, and another guy Nathan knew. We all knew him, but none of the rest of us knew each other. This made for a terrible 3 conversations at once scenario. And the line moved slowly. Thankfully, we didn't eat there, near the others.

So Nathan got his sub [I did not] and we headed across the street for some Starbucks [I got the TAZO Giant Peach juice tea drink thing, which I freaking love]. We took our fine products to the school cafeteria, which I haven't been to in at least a year. The only table we could find was a round 8-seater, which lead to awkward seating. Its too difficult to sit across from each other at a massive table, and no one wants to sit right beside each other at an 8 person table. We had a great chat about our lives since Thursday [when we last saw each other] and I weighed in on the saga that is his burgeoning relationship [I'm basically his advisor, and he knows that I have an uncanny ability to asses each situation perfectly. Its a gift.] Today, I gave him the news that he is without a doubt in a full-fledged relationship. I believe his exact response was "OH NO!"

Next, we took social time to the back of the classroom, where we listened to Captain Treehugger drone on about crap we've been learning in every class we've taken for 4 years. This class serves as the perfect location for our comedy routine. If only we could share the laughter with the others. But we let them spend the class talking to their own friends. I promise you, no one pays attention in this class. Until of course, one of our dumber fellow classmates becomes sceptical of the existence of climate [cli-mate n. 1. The meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region.] Better yet, was the girl who asked why the prof had assigned a 418 page reading to us. She was concerned that she wouldn't have time to read the whole thing and actually take away all the knowledge it contained. Naturally, being a moron, she didn't understand that one chapter in a 418 page book has been assigned. I guess the term "Chapter 1" means "entire book" now. Good to know.

So, after the fit of laughter died from that question, it was time to leave. I went to the Rideau Centre where I met Kathryn. We instantly realized that it had been about 6 months since our last encounter... this was discovered when I remembered she bought a flat of raspberries in the Byward Market, which definitely put that get-together in the summer. We went to Subway [hey!] where the lineup was Kathryn, me, guy Kathryn knows [hey!]. I had actually met this guy once before when we had dinner and drinks at the former [and still under renovation] Elephant & Castle. I didn't speak to him this time.

I got my 'sub' on the new flatbread, which I guess makes it not a sub anymore. It was freaking delicious. We had a nice long catchup chat, then headed to school and found a nice quiet [but not TOO quiet] spot in the law building where she could give me some camera lessons. She taught me some wonderful things that helped me make sense of the new DSLR that Darryl bought for me [because he's amazing]. I've never used one before, but wanted it for the best-possible quality pictures at the Olympics. Even though she has a Nikon and I have a Canon, we were able to figure out how all her functions related to mine, and she was really helpful! Which means you should totally check out her website HERE because she's awesome! Eventually, her boyfriend Dave came and hung out for a bit, then they brought me home. It was a great day!

The Cheesefake

2010-01-23T22:59:00.002-05:00

On Tuesday, [Yes, almost a freaking week ago! I'm so slow] my family came to Ottawa for dinner. They've come before, but this was the first time in 4.5 years of living in Ottawa that they actually came for dinner at my apartment. It was kind of a big deal. And its totally lame that it took so long.

That afternoon, I'd been at the mall and I just happened to go to The Bay to see if there was any possible chance that they had the impossible to find Olympic Red Mittens [which, by the way, have sold more than 1.8 million pairs in Canada since October].

Somehow, after months of searching, I found the mittens. Of course, I already had my pair, which Darryl bought on the second day they existed, but Momma and Alison wanted them too. So I got them for them.

And they were extremely happy!

So we were all nerds.

And did a Red Mitten photo shoot.

Because we're awesome.

NOTE: this apartment has two successful picture backdrops... the bookcase and the map.

So, after all that fun was over, we had dinner. Darryl and I made fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, and it was super delicious. My mom brought dessert... our family's absolute favourite dessert: no bake cherry cheesecake. It is simple and delicious, but it has to be made with the exact right ingredients. Our mouths know.

Over the past year, Darryl has been honing his own cheesecake recipe to suit my needs. The last time he made it, it was PERFECT. There was much rejoicing. So much so, that Momma was all like "mine will still be better."

But when I went to serve it, it was falling off the spatula before I could even get it onto the plates. It was a mess. Then the truths started coming out: She had used Cool Whip instead of Dream Whip. FAIL.

Light Cool Whip. FAIL 2.

And light cream cheese. FAIL 3.

And some random brand of graham crumbs, instead of the HoneyMaid ones. FAIL 4.

And margarine, instead of real butter. Which she had previously claimed to have used. FAIL 5.

I know you may think we were being ridiculous, but we deviated 5 times from the tried and true recipe of champions, and Momma had already been on record claiming superiority. She said she didn't think we'd notice. I guess she forgot who her kids are. The thing is, it could have been fine, but it actually tasted awful. 5 wrongs just don't make a right.

Cheesecake debacle and much ribbing aside, we had a fantastic night. It was awesome. And I hope we do it again soon. However, Alison's really long hug broke my heart when they were leaving... if she'd had the money to come to the Olympics with me, she would have been my #1 choice for travel companion.

And I promise that we will go to the next Canadian Olympics together, no matter what.

The Faulty Wiring Saga

2010-01-14T15:26:00.005-05:00

We live in a good apartment. It is spacious and has just enough storage [we better not get anything else though!] It is in a good spot, close to all the buses, and there are honestly 6 commercial centres within 20 minutes of us, so we're never at a loss for places to go nearby.

But our electrical wiring sucks.

A few months ago, I discovered that the outlet where the microwave had been plugged in had melted. The building replaced the outlet promptly, and it has been fine ever since.

In the past few weeks, the dining room light has been doing a whole lot of flickering. There are multiple bulbs, so its not like the light was dying or something. [This has since stopped, randomly].

But on Saturday, I came home to find this:

Our thermostat had clearly caught fire, while we were out. You can tell on top that the plastic melted a bit.

Maintenance Guy came to check it out, and deemed it to require an electrician to fix it. He left it hanging open, all charred and exposed.

Later that day, we came home and someone had apparently come in and removed the old thermostat, and capped off the wires, leaving behind a mess on our floor.

Yesterday, I was laying in bed when I heard the knocking on the door. Being lazy and not wanting to get out of bed, I just let them knock until they decided that no one was home. The maintenance guy and electrician came in for an undetermined amount of time, and fixed the issue. I chose not to look at the clock, so I didn't lay there counting the seconds they were in the apartment. [I should note that I had nothing better to do]. By the time I heard sawing [which I was not a fan of, because I knew what it meant], I apparently fell back asleep. The cat woke me up when they left [nice of her].

Now, we have a stupid access panel thing below the new thermostat. Random things like this are the bane of my existence. I hate them. I'm such a crazy person that I already disliked the fact that there was a thermostat on the wall, and now it has a friend! Our apartment also has a defunct cable outlet as well as some random covered box low on the wall near my desk, and an intercom near the door from days gone by.

Of course, the stubborn burn marks are still on the wall, and they left an even bigger mess for me to vacuum up. Thanks.

Hopefully, the wiring problems are over, and we'll never die in this building. And hopefully the randomness fairy will come and remove all our weird wall items that I'd like to see disappear!

The 2009 Awesomeness Rankings

2010-01-04T16:02:00.004-05:00

Often, when people do something awesome, I say things like "you get 10 points for your awesomeness". So, in 2009 I tracked every time people did awesome things. I seriously recorded EVERY point awarding, without fail. Of course, the point system is completely arbitrary, as it is based on the number spewed from my mouth. If someone donated a million dollars to chartiy, I could have given then 10 points, while 50 points could be awarded to someone for giving me a really good high five. See how random this all is? Also, some points were awarded in secrecy, while other people found out about their points. Of course, the people closest to me had the chance for more points. I will keep giving points, but wont be tracking them in the future. One year was good enough. So here is the list of awesome people... If their name is clickable, click it to see them in their awesomeness.

415 - Darryl (living with him and dating him may have given him the advantage)

160 - Dave (classmate)

125 - Colin (friend)

100 - Ryan (Twitter friend)

75 - JennyMac (blogger), Davin (friend)

70 - Alison (sister)

60 - Justin (blogger, Twitter friend, photographer extraordinaire), Rob (friend from afar)

50 - Morgan (coworker)

40 - Michel (frenchie), Kathryn (classmate), James (blogger, american)

25 - Me (sometimes people gave me points!), Lindsay (home friend), Roy (friend), Erinn (twitter friend, awesome photographer, male)

20 - Theo (coworker's ex-boyfriend), Adam (montreal-american), Todd (ottawa-renfrew connection), Elyse (friend since kindergarten), Erin (occasional friend)

15 - Veronica (winner of the lil miss twitter 2009 contest)

10 - Michelle (home friend), Kyle (home person that i know)

5 - Ryan (guy from school), Louisa (prof who redeemed herself), Lesley (Lindsay's sister)

Of course, there are people who probably should have been awarded points but didn't. If you're reading this, give yourself 10 or 20 points for 2010, and think about what you could have done to be more awesome. Just kidding! Just think of ways you can be awesome this year. Like by sending me money.

The Spontaneous New Year

2010-01-01T14:08:00.003-05:00

Darryl and I had no plans for New Year's Eve, other than potentially going to find some fireworks [which I don't believe happened, so its good that we didn't try]. I spent the afternoon doing some errands, and getting my hair absolutely butchered by some chick who charged me way too much for a good haircut, let alone a hack job. Darryl later fixed my hair to an acceptable state.

My friends Phil and Seb invited us to dinner at The Keg. I had only ever eaten there once before, when I was like 6 years old in Calgary. We went and had drinks and very delicious food [I had sirloin steak and tiger shrimp with a baked potato], and lots of laughter [especially at the expense of the flaming waiter at the next table].

We had planned to go home after dinner, but they persuaded us to go to their house to drink insted. *cue large amounts of free booze, while watching documentary-type shows about earth's coastlines*

After that, Darryl and I were still planning to go to see the fireworks, but the guys persuaded us [not that it was hard, since we were having fun] to go to their friend's party instead. Which we did. And it was decent. There were some people I sort of knew, and some people who recognized me from Old Navy, and a really old lady. There was also champagne, which we all know is disgusting. I drank as much as I could as fast as I could, and Seb poured the rest down the sink for me LOL

Unfortunately, they turned it to the Toronto countdown. I'm a strong supporter of the ball drop in Times Square, so I was disappointed. I'll YouTube it to relive that missed magic. Phil planned on staying until the wee hours of the morning, but the rest of us wanted to leave, and we did. It was a great New Year's Eve! I hope you all had equally great ones.

And now, the last pictures of 2009. Thanks for reading!

Seb [aka Jean-Sébastien]

Phil [aka Philip]

And Darryl and I!

The Wait Is Over

2009-12-31T11:24:00.002-05:00

This picture clearly suggests that to purchase your Olympic tickets, you just walk up to a cute little booth, pay Mukmuk, and walk home with your wonderful purchase.

Oh no.

In October 2008, you apply for tickets. You apply on the first day of a 5 week period. You wait and wait. In December you find out that you got some of the tickets you wanted, and your VISA is charged, and you pay it off, and you rejoice. Then you wait.

In June 2009, you try to buy more tickets when Round 2 begins, and you miss out. In November 2009, you try to buy that oh so coveted ticket to the Opening Ceremony, and the sale is postponed by a week, so you wait. Then, by some miracle, you DO buy that ticket a week later. Then you wait.

On December 23, you get an email that your tickets will arrive on the 30th. You sit at home all day not getting your hair cut, or going to pick up your paycheck. Then, at the end of the day, when you still don't have your tickets, you call and say "what the hell, dude?" to a woman named Flo. She says they were put on the wrong truck, and that her company if full of morons [she may not have said that part]. But she is helpful, and says you can go pick them up. So you run to the bus and take it to the end of the line at Hawthorne. You've got about 15 minutes to get yourself to Purolator, pick up the package, and get back to the bus, or you'll be waiting a long time for the next one, in the cold, with no bus shelter. Much running ensues. Its cold. But you get the envelope. Then you run back, and just make it. OC Transpo travel planner suggests that this would have taken about 35 minutes. Well we did it in 15, so take that.

Even though there was almost 15 months of waiting, this story ends very, very happily.

Since my ticket to the Opening Ceremony was purchased a year later, it will be shipped at a later date. Hopefully I wont have to go through all this again. But I will if needed, because it is oh so very worth it. I've been waiting 7 years for the Olympics to start. I only have to wait 43 more. [and in two months, you'll get to stop hearing me talk about them].

The Christmas 2009 Pictures

2009-12-30T15:35:00.005-05:00

Yes, Christmas was a week ago, but I've been busy, what with all the eating and unwrapping and working and trying to sleep.

Dad came to Ottawa on the 23rd to take Darryl and I to Renfrew. That evening, we went to the Crown and Kilt with Jenny and Lindsay.

We stuck Darryl in the corner, beside Jacey.

Rebecca, Stephanie and I rounded out the group. Our side of the table was more fun.

After drinks, some of us went to Wal*Mart since it was open late. Hooray for holiday hours. We STILL find novelty in the Wal*Mart grocery section, so we chose it as a suitable photo location. Thank you, camera timer.

Christmas Eve was dinner at dad's house, with his extended family. It was the first time they'd ever met Darryl, and pretty much the first time there was ever any discussion of me being gay, with that side of the family. It went really well. There were also NO gifts of any kind, and that was kind of nice. Just dinner and family and home time. My loser aunt Christine who is holier-than-thou stayed in the kitchen as to not contract homosexuality from us, and then she left, taking her ugly Christmas sweater and her jheri curl with her. Cue the rejoicing. I didn't even say hi to her. It was a great Christmas Eve.

We started Christmas morning at 8am, which was a reasonable time. There was hot chocolate and Bailey's. Mmm. Alison got this lovely shirt, which fits nicely over a hoodie.

I got Darryl a green Team Canada sweater to match my red one.

It was our first Christmas, yo!

I got Momma this lovely cashmere sweater. She seems to like it. I hope she doesn't wear it out.

Alison was enticed and overcome by the awesome power of Christmas. And the sparkly box from Old Navy.

I got her a cashmere hoodie. Really cashed in on my Old Navy/Gap/Banana Republic discount this Christmas!

Staying Olympic, I got Darryl a little Mukmuk. He got me a Mukmuk blanket. He's like the cute younger brother of Quatchi.

From Banana, I got Darryl this sweater and cologne.

And a Gap sweater. [And some pyjama pants and a watch from other stores].

I got my half sister Rachel a dress from Old Navy.

And Thomas got an old man sweater.

Really, I used the discount on almost everyone. And everything was the right size!

Alison and I split on a new, non-30-year-old golf bag for dad. They have shoulder straps like a school bag now. How bizarre.

And here is a picture of the old one and the young one.

The rest of the week has been all about working lots, or visiting with Darryl's family, which was fun. I got an amazing haul of Christmas presents. Very lucky. What a great Christmas!

The Flashbacks: 2007 pt. 2/2

2009-12-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

Can you believe I've been doing Flashback posts every single Sunday since May? That's a bit ridiculous, and I commend anyone who has read them all for their awesomeness. And look how well I made it last... right until the last Sunday of the year. This is it folks. The last official trip into my past [although I'm sure it will come up for some reason or another in future posts, but not with such magnitude!] ... With this post, a person could technically read my blog from the beginning and have a complete crash course on the life and times of Michael Roesler. And why wouldn't they want to?

Kicking off in early June at the joint Stphanie-Rebecca birthday party. Here's Jenny!

And Bill, with Kristin, me and Jacey in the background. The girls were doing some 80s theme or something. I do not dress up.

Here's me early on in my job as a maintenance man at Best Western. One of my first blog posts ever was about the hatred of that awful place. I lasted 2 months. It was one of my most memorable job walkouts. [I really need to stop doing that! Or stop working at such shitty places!]

I got to escape the city one day in the summer, and went with Andrew to the RCMP trailer park [because his dad was a Mountie... and a douchebag!]. It was relaxing.

Also that month, Sean and I had dinner at the Boston Pizza in Kanata.

With Heather.

And then we all went to see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill at Scotiabank place, and the concert was absolutely stellar. Despite the terrible pictures. Why do people even try to take concert pics?

The next amazing concert of the summer was The White Stripes at Bluesfets, with Mando and Rebecca [and Elyse and Andrew].

The morning of aunt Frances and uncle Dave's wedding party [they got married sur-pri-vately [get it!?] Alison, Andrew and I made lame attempts at being superheros for some reason.

There was a bus from the hotel to France's house, so everyone could get properly loaded at the open bar which we drank dry. We then drank the liquor cabinet dry. Awesome. I bonded with my distant cousin Ian, and it was the first time in my life that I found him to not be a pompous loser. I guess he's all growed up.

These dapper young gentlemen are my cousins Erik and Tommy.

Here's the happy couple, being happy and coupled.

Family photo! Momma, Tommy, Jonathon, ~~Marie~~, Me, Alison and ~~Andrew~~.

Here's Lennie, Creeper, and Laura.

In early August, a great weekend was spent at Laura and Lennie's cottage. "Cousin" Natalie was there for the fun!

We went on a little boat ride.

The folks with their kids, Genevieve and Jordan. If you ever want an amazing time, just go to their cottage. They are the hosts of the century.

We went on another boat ride.

And as a special thank you for reading all of these Flashbacks over the past 8 months, as well as the rest of my posts, you get this rare photo of me in girl pants, after I spilled something on mine.

The Flashbacks: 2007 pt. 1/2

2009-12-20T10:00:00.005-05:00

We're in the home stretch folks! Welcome to almost-three years ago!

I started off the year with a great lunch visit from Matt, who was in my class at the French thing I did in Quebec City in 2004. He is from Newfoundland, and his girlfriend Jessica is from Florida. They met at the same time as I met them, in 2004, and they kept the long distance thing going from 2004 until this lunch in 2007. In fact, as far as I know, they're still together, and she's now in BC [so opposite ends of one country, rather than different ones haha].

One horrible night, I was dragged to make my karaoke debut. The other guy here is my future [at that time] messy roommate, Tim.

Erin was also there for the sing along, and made this stunning face.

For the second time in my life, I was photographed drinking straight from the Crown Royal bottle, while someone looked on in fear.

I rallied [you just KNOW it was totally successfully] against rising tuition, at Parliament Hill.

Every successful rally day ends with a geography pub night, on a blisteringly cold and snowstormy night, at a bar located fairly far from the bus stop. Sierra can be blamed for the location choice.

But who could think about not attending in a snowstorm, when there's an Annalise lime smile included in the deal?

I try to refrain from talking about my brief daliance with fraternity life, since I've very much moved on, but here are some pictures from Krista's sorority formal, which was kind of swanky and totally fun. The swanky part began right after I finished getting changed into my suit in a hotel room jam-packed with already-dressed people. HAH

Mike and Virginia, the ridiculously happy couple, were there.

Heather, the ridiculously broken sweetheart, was there.

Some other night at Zak's Diner, a very drunken Val was so hungry that she couldn't wait for her own meal to arrive in like 5 minutes, so she ate off some Australian tourist's plate from the next booth over. Love the Aussies!

I barely know Meggan and Jay, but I love this picture for some reason.

There was much fun to be had on a random night back home, at Tim Horton's where I belonged.

My first trip on the O-Train [after 1.5 years of living in Ottawa!] was with a guy named Branden. We shared a birthday, he made me try sushi, we bought gummi bears. We had a blast. He was wonderful. He was also moving away two weeks after I met him.

I had a sweet photo wall in my bedroom that year. And some girl named Tia. She was part of a gathering we hosted.

So was Curtis. This is the guy who I worked with for the first 4 days I worked at Patty Boland's, after not seeing him since the night this picture was taken in 2007.

And in June, I was back to Renfrew again to participate in the Relay for Life with the girls. That's the year I drank amaretto with Mrs. Brumm [one of the elementary school teachers] and there was a Tornado warning but I kept walking in the pouring rain while most people were inside.

The Cookies

2009-12-16T01:40:00.005-05:00

For as long as I can remember, my family has had an annual tradition of picking a night in December to make and decorate sugar cookies. Unfortunately, this year I don't have any extra nights in December to go to Renfrew. I didn't want to drop the tradition though, so I got the recipe [posted below!], enlisted Darryl, and we spent Monday night being cookie making machines! [After shopping around at about 7 different stores to buy cookie cutters].

Darryl put the cookies in the oven.

After I put them on the baking sheet.

Aaw, what a sweet little angel!

We ended up with 82 sugar cookies.

I whipped up a batch of icing [that gross looking one is brown. For reindeer. Please don't comment about it. LOL]

I beg to know why the red food colouring in that little 4 pack of colours still comes out so pink, after all these years!?

We came out with some lovely creations. And some less than lovely. These are mine.

These are also mine.

These are Darryl's. He was nervous to start because he thought I'd be mad if he screwed up.

Lucky for him, these cookies are all about creative time. Especially when you run out of all the icing colours but grey-brown.

They are so freaking delicious, and a lot of fun to make. I should stress that it takes a whole night though. It's not the quickest thing to do, especially when you're being creative with the decorating!

-----

SUGAR COOKIES - for us it made 82 cookies of varying size, all fairly large.

1 cup margarine
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder

Cream margarine and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs and mix well. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Divide pastry into 3 parts... Roll out one part at a time until quite 1/4 inch thick (put some flour on the surface, and the rolling pin, for less sticking). Cut into shapes and place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for approx 5 minutes (until just lightly browned). Cool, decorate and enjoy!

-----

ICING - made exactly enough to cover our 82 cookies!

3 large egg whites
3 cups icing sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
tiny bit of milk

Beat eggs until frothy and then add icing sugar (one cup at a time, while mixing) and mix well until smooth and the consistency of paste. Add 1/4 tsp of tartar. Add more icing sugar as needed and a spoonful of milk as needed as well...
you don't want it too runny. Separate into a few bowls and add food colouring as desired.

NOTE: It begins to harden, so keep stirring it during the cookie decorating process, or don't make too much at a time.

The Flashbacks: 2006 pt. 6/6

2009-12-13T10:00:00.004-05:00

For Christmas, I brought Krista back home to Renfrew since she wasn't going to Newfoundland to be with her own family. The poor thing. MegH came over and we partied it up before heading out to the bar. Would anyone like to take a guess at how many of the people in this picture I still talk to?

I chose the popped collar douche look for that night, because making fun of douches is fun. For this picture, Momma told me to put my drink down. I said I'd be fine holding it behind me back. Does anyone want to guess the number of presents under the tree that got coated in whiskey during this process?

Elyse and Lindsay greeted us at Finnigan's.

After sufficient rocking out Christmas style, it was time for the traditional Christmas sub.

Dane, Paula and Susan seemed so impressed.

Christmas Eve with dad's extended family was its regular interesting self. I was clearly enthralled with Alison and my unseen cousin Cheryl's cell phone enjoyment.

Who doesn't love their sibling at Christmas?

Back in Ottawa, we had a wee little New Year's party at the apartment. Here's Tia, Christina and Krista.

I enjoyed some disgusting "champagne".

Wait... no I didn't.

And Vlad was the last one awake the next day... even after Tia and I had both crawled over him to get out of the bed we all shared. What classier way to welcome 2007?

The Olympic Flame

2009-12-13T01:56:00.005-05:00

Today was one I'd been waiting a LONG time for. The Olympic Torch Relay finally made its way to Ottawa! After a pointless 3 hour shift at work, Darryl and I headed to City Hall. We got THREE flags each, and a special metal bottle of Coke. Very Olympicy Coke.

After making our way to the stage area, we ran into Catherine and Dave. Woo! Seeing people I know is always nice! And of course, the torch relay is supposed to bring people together, right?

After some poor attempts at jostling for better position in the crowd, uOttawa student Melissa Brunet entered Marion Dewar Plaza with the torch. YAY! This picture sucks, but I like the little detail of the cut out maple leaf in the back of the torch.

She held it up for a photo op.

And she lit the cauldron so quickly that my slow camera just couldn't keep up, especially in the cold.

Mayor Lex Luthor gave a surely impassioned speech.

Dave, Darryl and I love Lex Luthor.

As a former Ottawa resident and Olympic Gold medallist in figure skating at the 1948 Olympics in St. Moritz, Barbara Ann Scott was trotted out on stage, decked out in red. Considering she is/was Canada's Sweetheart, you'd think she could have gotten to speak for a minute or two. Just sayin'.

Next, VANOC CEO John Furlong spoke. So did about 9 other people, including John Baird, who looks angry even when celebrating the Olympic flame, and Max Keeping, Ottawa's lovable old news scamp who thinks he's allowed to retire after 37 years on CJOH. Come on! [For the record, his chanting of "Go Canada Go" was the most annoying thing I've heard on repeat in quite some time].

After a little break, it was time to say goodbye, as Torchbearer 096 took the flame back down the red carpet.

I really like this picture! They were tough to take, with police swarming the guy. I must say, between the police and the media in the way, it wasn't the most spectator-friendly event. But it was great.

The four of us decided to warm ourselves at Second Cup with some delicious warm beverages, where we saw the actual relay run by on Elgin St. [along with the ridiculously large convoy accompanying the flame]. Then, Darryl and I headed home for about half an hour which was just enough time to put on some long johns for the night session.

We arrived at Parliament Hill just 62 days before the Opening Ceremony. There were videos, singers, dancers, speakers, a painter, fireworks, and fellow crowd members who were either awesome or ultra annoying.

Finally, Joé Juneau, silver medallist in men's hockey at the 1992 Albertville Olympics, arrived on Parliament Hill to end the relay for the day. Even harder than taking pictures in a crowd during the day, is taking pictures from more of a distance in a crowd at night.

After the lighting of the capital's Christmas lights, and a performance by Tom Cochrane, they put the flame back in the miner's lantern, where it will illuminate a hotel bathroom overnight, ready to start again tomorrow [it will run through Renfrew!]

We went around the stage to see the Christmas lights, and then it was time to head home. I saw so many red Olympic mittens today. Apparently they have been so popular that they expect to sell 2 million pairs by the end of the games; double the original estimate. I also learned that giving everyone multiple flags to wave in the air makes crowd experiences less enjoyable.

But it was a wonderful day :D

The Flashbacks: 2006 pt. 5/6

2009-12-06T10:00:00.005-05:00

In November 2006, some of the girls I'm friends with [from home] did a weekend get together in North Bay. Many Facebook photo albums ensued. Obviously, this meant that Mando and I had to outdo them. On December 6, we had the most jam-packed, best day ever! Here is that day.

We shopped at Value Village [and IKEA] and then got gas.

We grabbed some Subway and ate it at Mando's place.

The parking lot outside set the scene for the pure awesomeness of me finding this homemade shelf which we picked up for me and I've used ever since!

We then drove to Renfrew and did a full town driving tour. We saw the Renfrew Bakery, which is no more.

We saw my old job at TeleTech, which is no more.

We saw the tiny little restaurant with the outdoor bathrooms called Esther's Place, which is no more.

We saw our high school, which is still there. But ugly now that they added blue siding crap around the new, smaller windows. Poor RCI.

Next, we swung by Momma's place to surprise her. She had photos for me to look at. I was silly and wore oven mitts and her hat. Because hello, we needed an awesome album of photos for Facebook!

Momma was baking cranberry cookies for Christmas!

And I even got to help her decorate the tree!

Then, we got Momma into the car and went to surprise Mando's Momma.

We took the Mommas out for supper at Finnigan's. Although I'm sure they probably paid.

After taking the Mommas home, we swung by Rocky Mountain House to see Alison at work.

Next, we were off to Cobden to visit the animals at Logo's Land.

And to stand under

The gigantic Christmas tree, which is the tallest in Canada or the world or something.

Then, we drove home, stopping in Arnprior for a town tour, then we went to Parliament Hill to check out the Christmas lights in the rain, before finally heading home.

What a good day.

The Piles

2009-12-05T01:39:00.009-05:00

I apologize for talking about my job all the time, but well, its all I do now, so its all I've got to write about.

As you all know, Old Navy is an immaculately organized Zen escape. Unfortunately, the location I work at has fallen from grace, with one or two items out of place, as noted in the example of the girls section here:

Disgustingly, the entire store became a hazardous wasteland, and I wasn't having any of it. I confronted the manager and told him it was time for change, and that meant overnight cleaning shifts. He agreed, got the district manager's approval [she's been visiting weekly and has obviously not been impressed]. We came up with a small team that would be good at helping to turn the store around, and we pounded out some top notch work over the course of 3 nights. It was fun. There was good music. There was a lot of laughter. There were no customers.

The first night, we worked as a group in two sections of womens... I spent 5 of my 9 hours creating a clearance zone and organizing it by size and colour, which is the unrealistic expectation. It was gorgeous.

Night two, everyone took their own section so we could finish with the womens clothing. I tackled the slippers, pyjamas, tank tops and various odds and ends of the Lounge section, and it was gorgeous.

Night three, we were only a group of three, as two people called in sick. We didn't get as much done as planned, but we got some of the mens stuff cleaned.

First, I organized this selection of t-shirts, adding some body forms to show people what they're looking at, so they didn't have to rip everything apart anymore.

The rest of the night saw me tackling this wall of khakis. I'm the so-called Denim King [and yes, there's a Jean Queen] so I easily parlayed my jean folding skills to khaki folding.

Apparently, elves came in and cleaned up the kids and baby section, and by the time I showed up to work today, I was absolutely stunned by how in one week, we turned the store from absolute disgrace, to probably 80% organized.

Also today, the district manager came for her weekly visit [I'd never met her before] AND she brought along the regional manager. Apparently she had briefed the regional manager on the way to the store, that its likely to be a huge mess. But her jaw literally dropped when she walked in and saw our progress. Progress that I initiated. And she thanked me.

The Flashbacks: 2006 pt. 4/6

2009-11-29T10:00:00.004-05:00

With just 5 weeks left before school started, I was in Ottawa pounding the pavement. It was the hottest day of the year. The radio said people should stay at home and inside. But me? I was up and down the streets of Sandy Hill, learning firsthand the reason for the Hill part of the neighbourhood's name. Finally, I stumbled upon 39 Steawrt St. After meeting my future roommate and her two best friends, and them sharing popsicles with me, I was officially destined to live with

Krista.

Her friend Jeff became my new best friend in the whole wide world. We were attached at the hip for the next 18 months before we just kind of stopped :(

The blue water tower of Renfrew welcomed me home for Thanksgiving.

So did the always sweet and sassy Tabitha... a town legend that can't be rivalled.

Momma and I enjoyed a sweet and sassy moment of our own, under the maple in the back yard.

After a bar night in Ottawa, I ran into my cousin Jordan and his then-girlfriend Michele in the doorway of Zak's Diner. This is one in a series of MANY similar pictures that Michele took. Such awful awful pictures.

Through Krista, I met Tim: my next roommate/messy disaster.

Basil and Sarah didn't stick around too long on my 19th birthday, which was probably smart, since I started hitting people with the wand they taped into my hand. Oh, to be drunk again...

Jeff and Justin were the instigators of intoxication that night.

Another night, Cowboy Mike graced our apartment with his hillbilly presence.

Then, I was treated to a birthday treat of homemade brownies and frozen hot chocolate

Courtesy of Lisa, who is completely awesome, but I sadly never see/saw enough.

The Darryl

2009-11-28T10:00:00.001-05:00

Monday was Darryl's birthday [its a busy month]. He is pretty awesome, for the fact that he does anything I want him to for a good photo op.

Someone gave my mom this awful hat at her birthday party, so I made Darryl wear it.

When he blew out his birthday candles before I had a chance to get a picture [jerk!] he went along with me re-lighting them and getting him to do it again.

And when his students gave him a gift with this bow on it, he posed, knowing that it was going to happen whether he wanted it to or not.

So, Happy Birthday to my life sized Ken doll!

The Surprise Party

2009-11-27T14:23:00.002-05:00

A week ago, Alison came to Ottawa to pick up Darryl and I. The three of us headed so far South in Ottawa that no one has ever even been out there, and the maps are wrong because new roads exist due to the city's love for expanding. We arrived in extreme suburbia, to pick up Momma's 50th Birthday cake.

I had to hold this deliciousness all the way to Renfrew. It smelled like marshmallows.

We spent the afternoon decorating a pub. We also got super hungry, and ate some chocolate bars, because we needed the fastest available sustenance. Then, we drove out to Alison's place, changed, and drove back into town to greet the 20 or so guests we invited to the dinner. At 6:30, Momma and her boyfriend came in the back entrance, thinking she was going to a lovely birthday dinner for 2.

When she saw Darryl sitting at the end of a table, she freaked out because she knew I was obviously there, and not at work. She was incredibly surprised, which is awesome, because we thought grandma was lame and ruined the surprise. Grandma is usually lame like that.

We had a great dinner, and she assumed that was all the fun. But then the band she has recently fallen in love with came in and started to set up, and she freaked out about that too. They're an Ottawa band called Deja Vu Acoustic, and they are quite good. This is completely unrelated to this picture of Alison, our cousin Cheryl, and friends Leigh and Diana.

And my friends Rebecca and Lindsay were there, because over the course of the night, 60-70 people showed up to celebrate Mommma. She absolutely loved it.

There were former coworkers like Emmylou, and family like Cecil and DonnaLynn [we got most of the two-namers into this picture, for your reading pleasure].

We made Momma wear an cammo patterened birthday badge, because I thought it was her birthday as a 5 year old boy. I was mistaken.

The pictures all turned out fairly terribly, because I let Leigh take my camera around, but you can tell in all of them that it was a fun night, regardless of the fact that the bar staff was the WORST. [see: My "Manhattan" was a shot of whiskey and a shot of sambuca. very very wrong. But closer to right, after the bartender asked if I wanted my Manhattan to be vodka or gin based. FAIL.]

Finally, Momma use some wussy little steak knife to cut the cake, and it was extremely delicious.

By the time we went home, we were all dead.

The Flashbacks: 2006 pt. 3/6

2009-11-22T10:00:00.001-05:00

Summer adventure brought us back to Victoria Public School, which closed after our Grade 1 year. I needed to rekindle my childhood and climb the snowman.

And play on the dinosaur, while MegH looked on.

Of course, it was probably warm out, so some time spent testing the furniture at Liquidation World was necessary.

Quite upsettingly, the snowman, the dinosaur and Liquidation World are all now gone. Quite a difference 3 years can make!

That night, we told Back Seat Mike that we were coming to Glasgow Station to pick him up. He does what we say. We decided to go to Ottawa to the Wal*Mart that is open sort of late, and we got ice cream at McDonald's. Because we could.

In August, I spent 17 magical days working at TeleTech, after No Frills was too douchey to stay at. I loved TeleTech [see: things that have since been torn down, item 4]. Jessica didn't like it so much... probably because she wasn't in my group.

But Dustin was.

And so was Kyle.

August 29 changed the way I looked at Geography forever. Field Camp I was dreaded by the ~80 students involved, and the bus ride there was not a happy one, but that was quickly all forgotten. The weeklong course at Camp Awacamenj Mino on Lac Isabel near Low, Quebec, was fantastic experience of drinking, researching, canoing to class and getting to know the people I'd spend the next 3 years of school with. People I grew to love. Here we've got Mandy, Sierra, Mary and Kerri.

And Phil! With Sierra!

Its also where I met both Rich [appalled] and Crown Royal [delicious].

There's Dave on the end beside me! The great thing was that this picture wasn't actually posed. We were just like this. Good times.

Javier, Sierra and Brian. Sierra loves getting into pictures even though she hates pictures of herself. In the end, we were sad to leave. But in March 2008, we did return, AS YOU MAY REMEMBER.

The next night, we were joined by more of the gang... Chris, Rebecca F., Me, Rebecca N., Felicia, Kyle and Michelle.

The Flashbacks: 2006 pt. 2/6

2009-11-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

With a year of university under my belt, I was back to Renfrew for the summer.

Kristin and I took an insane amount of pictures together at Lindsay's place.

I really like this picture.

That was the night I totally pissed off Gavan's girlfriend Margaret. Its not my fault her mom's name is Sexy Pam!

Even though we were going to the bar, Lindsay was for some reason in pyjamas and stuffing her face on the floor.

Obligatory Traci picture.

Somewhere along the line, I came into possession of Gavan's jacket. And Calvin was a little off...

When Steph came to visit Renfrew, we took her to the museum.

Jacey sold us some Corn Flakes for cheap.

I got married.

Jacey and Steph put on their sexy reading glasses.

The we went to the Sex Park.

I hit my head on something :(

The next Subway trip was even more successful. Brandon was there.

And Calvin normal-ed himself up.

Hell, even Lori Anne and my mom were there! Subway is the great equalizer.