Archive - 2005

We set out from Ottawa this morning just before 10 am, heading for Freddy Beach. The drive went pretty well until just past Montreal - probably 30-40 km past. Actually, just before getting to the tunnel on the way out of Montreal, the check engine light came on in the Protege and the engine starting running a little rough. We stopped, checked the manual and tried turning the car off and then back on (sometimes that clears the problem) but to no avail. We decided that since nothing was open anywhere anyways, we'd just keep driving and hope for the best. We'll get it looked at in Freddy when we get there.

Congratulations to Trevor and Julie Mason on the birth of their baby girl. Here is Trevor's note:

We'd like to announce the arrival of Christine Noella Mason at 19:44 on December 23 at the Brockville General Hospital...a great birthday present for dad. She weighed in at 8 lb-1oz with a length of 21". She was delivered via C-section. Both mother and baby are doing well and hopefully we should be able to head home late on the 25 or more likely on the 26.

I was away in California last time the boys decided to have a poker night. In fact, that was the first poker night we have done as a group ever so naturally I was a little bummed that I missed it. Luckily, I convinced Steve that he should organize another night before the holidays. Dave graciously offered to host the tourney while Steve took care of organizing everything. We had 9 guys playing (Giffen, Robbie, Dave, John, Darcy, Andy, Chris, Kevin and Steve - incidentally that is the order we finished) each contributing $20 to the pot. Steve set it up so that the big winner got $80, second place got $40 and third got $20; he also threw in four $10 bounties that were randomly assigned. The rest of us (seen in this photo) got nothing. Oh well, better luck next time.

Amy and I went to see the house today after work. Surprisingly the front door was open so no need to get creative to find a way in. They have finished all the drywalling in the house. They didn't replace the pancake box in the dining room so that's a bit of a bummer but I'll bring it up when we have an official inspection on Sunday. I guess next week they will be busy mudding the whole place and hopefully that missing window will go in soon. I'd also like to see the tyvek go on very soon but we'll see. I'll get more photos on Sunday.

I created a route on wayfaring for the run this weekend. This is the map that has the route on it. As you can see, not a particularily interesting run - basically just following the trans-canada trail but hopefully we'll be sheltered from wind for most of the run. The run is only a mile longer than last week's run but I'm not looking forward to it. What I'm really hoping is that it warms up a bit before then because running in -20 degree temperatures is about the last thing I want to do right now.

12 miles today. It was Steve, Dave and I. Talk about a beautiful day - at least when we started. I think it was around -2 or so as we set off and the sun was shining. Unfortunately as the day went on the sun disappeared and the wind picked up. Running along the river on a windy day isn't fun...especially when there is snow on the ground. Steve had hoped for 'wind swept' running paths but instead most of the time we were running through snow drifts.

Wow! Did I ever get into the zone at the end of tonight's run. It was just a short 5 miles, but by the time I got to 4 I was contemplating a walking break. However, instead of taking a break, I tried something else. I picked a point straight ahead and ran towards it while counting down the time I had left to run - 8 minutes and 34 seconds or 514 seconds. It was amazing - rather than thinking about how tired I was or maybe how much I wanted a break, I totally zoned out and just ran. I think I could have easily tacked on a couple more miles before taking a break. I'll have to see if I can do that for my long run on Saturday...

Was just perusing the online Apple store and noticed that they didn't seem to be selling eMacs any more. I guess there is no cheaper alternative to the iMac when it comes to an all-in-one computer these days. Sure you can get an mac mini, but then you also have to get your self a monitor...

Wow! What a great flight! I am so glad that Andy suggested we do it. After a short drive up highway 101 to the flying club (Diamond Aviation) we took off from the San Carlos airport which is just south of San Francisco and flew past SFO and then over San Fransciso. We saw all the sites you would expect to see - the tall skyscrapers (none of which I can remember the name), Alcatraz (aka The Rock), and the Golden Gate Bridge (as well as the Bay Bridge and that other bridge).

We made it up to the Monterey Aquarium on Friday as we had hoped to. The weather was quite crappy for the entire morning so it was good to be inside. By the afternoon though it had cleared up and we got to enjoy a bit of sunshine.

The aquarium was pretty spectacular. It was large and we only spent a few hours there so we didn't get to see everything, but I think we saw most of the main attractions. One of my favourite things was the jellyfish.