Category: Old-Rainwater

Let’s Go Fly A Kite!

Angela’s most recent project was to build a kite and fly it. She had the choice of making a Scott Sled kite or a Diamond kite. She was being marked not on the actual making of the kite, but the scientific journal documenting the building process and the test trials and her presentation. We started last night cutting out the shape and putting it together.

Kite building

We used some vapour barrier plastic for the kite, some wooden dowels and some yellow duct tape.

Angela and Claudia

Angela decorated it this afternoon with paint and Sharpies. After dinner we headed over to the test field (school yard) for our flight trials. Here is Angela with her decorated kite.

Angela

On the first trial, it got up in the air briefly.

Kite flying

But it needed some adjustments.

Angela

Claudia was flying a store bought kite that Susan picked up at Zellers today. It worked pretty well for $6.

Claudia

Owl kite

After some tweaks, it was on to trial two.

Kite flying

It was staying up a little longer.

Angela

It was up in the air and going pretty good.

Kite flying

Angela discovered afterwards that our vent was upside down, the text book instructions were wrong, but I don’t think it would make much difference.

St Richard

I don’t think it was as high in the sky as it looks in the picture.

Way up there

A nice picture of Gillian.

Gillian

Gillian and her friend Sarah jumping.

Sarah and Gillian


Signs of Spring

Some of the signs of spring around the house today. The lilac bush is starting to bud. Temperature got up to 17ºC today.

Tree buds

Claudia playing catch. Look at the concentration on her face.

Claudia

Ladybug on the boxwood out front.

Ladybug

A little bee in the same shrub.

Fly

Claudia relaxing with Chloe out on the front lawn.

Claudia and Chloe

Spring


Happy Easter Everyone!

The girls looking pretty happy for an early morning photo. I took this one before we headed to church.

The girls

We had the Swan’s over for turkey dinner. Instead of the kids table we added a table at the end, making for one long table with 15 of us.

Easter dinner

Patrick checking his phone for the bluetooth lady.

Texting

An update photo of the Swan-Tanabe cousins.

Cousins

What a difference nine years make, or more like where has the nine years gone. I pulled this one out of the vault. This photo is from Claudia’s first birthday party in 2001.

Cousins


Do Good Things Happen in Three’s?

We all know that bad things happen in three’s, what about good things? This week we went to our local Swiss Chalet on Thursday night for dinner. The host dude sat us in our usual big circular booth, and by usual, I mean we always ask for one if they are available. Most of the tables and booths are made for families of four, not five. We sat there with our menus, and we sat, and we sat, it had to be at least five minutes. I counted 6 staff milling around the bar area and not one seemed in too much of a hurry to come and take our order. Finally when one girl did come, she asked how we were doing, and we mentioned that nobody had come over since we sat down, even though there were so many just standing around. She apologized and took our order, when she came back with our drinks, she said she talked to the manager and that we could have free dessert. We ended up with two pieces of lemon meringue pie for free, we took it home with us because we were stuffed (all the fries you can eat special is still on). Plus the last time we were there they gave us a Customer Appreciation card good for 15% off, we saved an additional $7.00 on this meal.

Today, Claudia, Angela an I went to Future Shop, we bought the new Alvin and the Chipmunks DVD. The shelf price said $18.99, when we checked-out it scanned in at $23.99. After paying for it I went back to the shelf just to double check, sure enough it was $18.99, I went back to the cash and told her and she directed me to customer service. The girl there was going to give it to me for the shelf price, but she took awhile and in that time I was reading the Scanning Code of Practice sticker on the side of the cash register. If a product scans in at the checkout at a price higher than the shelf price, or any other displayed price; the product is free – up to $10, or $10 off if the item is more than $10. When I asked about it she asked another guy and he said yes the price should be $8.99 instead of $18.99.

Just waiting for our third deal. Unless you count the Beer Store special, I bought a 24 of Molson Canadian/Coors Light for $29.95. The guy in front of me bought a 12 pack for $20.05, the Beer Store guy told him for another $9.90 he could get 12 more beers. The guy didn’t go for it.


Crazy Weather!

Hope you got a chance to get out and enjoy the crazy temperatures, Mississauga reached 24.3 °C on Good Friday. Here is Claudia, her friend and Chloe hanging out on the front lawn.

Front yard

Chloe is enjoying the good weather, she has been especially interested in the birds. It must be the Cocker Spaniel in her.

Chloe

We headed out to Mom and Dad’s place on Good Friday. Chloe travels well in the car, her and Angela are ready to go.

Angela and Chloe

Chloe, Angela, Claudia

Sara and Brent brought Pretzel with them, so Chloe had someone to play with.

Chloe and Pretzel

Danny had the kids out at the park playing soccer. Claudia taking a break.

Claudia

Alex.

Alex

Things were going well until Danny stepped on Alex’s foot with his industrial soccer shoes.

Injury time

Here is Chloe telling Pretzel to wait his turn to look out Grandma’s window.

Buddies

Chloe telling Pretzel to hurry up and look out the window.

Pretzel

Hey wait a minute I think there is enough room on the stool for both of us.

Sharing

Chloe doing her wet noodle with Melissa.

Melissa and Chloe


Penn State Site Visit

I was down in State College, Pennsylvania this week for work. University Park is an unincorporated community that sits within the borough of State College. Most of Penn State University is in University Park.

University Park map

We have a monitoring site at Penn State University. I’m suppose to go down twice a year to inspect the site, but usually my schedule only allows for one trip. The site itself is about 7 miles out of town on Pennsylvania Game Commision land. A couple of miles from the site is a shooting range, I drove by it this time, and it’s just bizarre seeing this shooting range with targets set up and people firing their handguns.

Penn State

State College is the main campus for Penn State. Beaver Stadium is home to the Big Ten Conference Nittany Lions.

Beaver Stadium

This was my ride down. With the government logos on the side of the car and my government passport, it makes for easier border crossings.

Vehicle

But it doesn’t make the lines any shorter.

Border


Earth Hour

Did you participate in Earth Hour?

Earth Hour

Here’s how we spent our hour.

Angela

Angela had a couple of friends over from Guides for a sleepover. We actually had the cake before 8:30 pm and they were done before we turned the lights off. I think they played hide n seek in the dark for the hour. There were no bumps or bruises, so I guess it went well.

Angela


Chapman’s Rising From the Ashes

This week I was out near Chatsworth for work, we are installing a new monitoring site at the Kinghurst Nature Reserve.

Chatsworth map

On the way back I went through Markdale, home of Chapman’s Ice Cream. Last fall they suffered a fire which destroyed their main production plant. Here’s what’s the Chapman’s plant looked like in July 2007 when we went to the Markdale Ice Cream Festival.

Chapmans

This is what’s left of it.

Chapmans

Chapmans

They are building a new plant in Markdale, currently they have a temporary mini-plant operating. So far we haven’t had any problems getting ice cream at our local Superstore. They had a good supply in their distribution centre before the fire to carry them through until they started the mini-plant.

Chapmans

This picture is from their website. Imagines rows and rows of ice cream.

Chapmans


Happy Birthday Angela!

The day has finally arrived, after a countdown for the last month, Angela was up early this morning.

Angela and Chloe

This is cake number two, number three will come on the weekend when she has a couple of friends over from guides.

Angela

Angela


Busy Birthday Week

It’s the start of birthday week for Angela and the end for G-ma and G-pa. We headed out to Scarborough for dinner and cake. First up was Grandma’s cake.

Grandma

Then Grandpa’s cake.

Grandpa

Emi having a good laugh.

Emi

And finally Angela’s cake.

Angela

Chloe liked looking out Grandma’s window.

Chloe