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Family Bonspiel

December 2, 2012
Rainwater

Today was the Family Bonspiel at the Dixie Curling Club (Gillian’s curling club). Unfortunately 2/5ths of Team Tanabe were not feeling well and in sick bay. Gillian, Claudia and I soldiered on and picked up Marcus as our fourth. We played two games of five ends. Claudia and I did pretty good for our first times.

Our first game was against Team Graham. Gillian plays on the school team with her friend Amanda.

Amanda trying to figure out how to knock out my two best rocks of the day.

The first attempt wasn’t successful, but eventually they knocked one of them out.

Claudia had a good time, she skipped a fun end.

Nova Scotia

December 1, 2012
Work Posts

Spent last week down at Kejimkujik National Park for the annual site audit. The weather was good for most of the week, the snow showed up Thursday night. It was my fourth trip to Kejimkujik this year.

Stayed in Liverpool this time instead of the usual Bridgewater.

I reached Air Canada Elite status with this trip. I have logged 35 flight segments and over 33,000 status miles since January 1, 2012. Next year I’ll have AC Lounge access and priority boarding. This cartoon is like the security line-ups at Pearson, upstairs lines are always packed, but the downstairs lines usually let you walk right up.

Vanier Cup

November 23, 2012
Rainwater

Finally the stars had aligned and in 2012, the McMaster Marauders were going to be playing for the Vanier Cup in Toronto at the Rogers Centre. After watching them win the Greatest Game Ever on television last year, there was a good chance they would be there again this year.

After putting together a 21 game winning streak since week 3 of last season, it would be a re-match with Laval University. Before the Mitchell Bowl was over last week, Stam and I were making our plans for the Vanier Cup. During our years at Mac the best they did was a 4-3 in ’86 with a quick exit in the playoffs. This year they had the chance to repeat!

We started with dinner at khao san road, a thai restaurant on Adelaide Street West. For a restaurant that doesn’t even have a sign out front, it was a busy place. It opens for dinner at 5:00, they don’t take reservations, we arrived around 4:45pm and there were already 6 people ahead of us. They only seat complete parties and by 5:10pm the restaurant was filled.

We had seats in Section 217 on the 200 level. This was our view and unlike the CFL the play on the field is played live on the big screen. And all replays are played, controversial or not.

McMaster taking warm ups.

There was a record Vanier Cup crowd in attendance of 37,098.

It started out slow with a scoreless first quarter, after trailing 12-0 heading to the half, McMaster made it interesting with 2 late first half touchdowns to take the lead 14-12.

The second half was all Laval, their ground game was awesome and no match for Mac’s defence. In the end they outscored Mac 25-0 in the second half.

The final score was 37-14. There were a lot of disappointed McMaster fans leaving the Rogers Centre (early).

Happy 1st Birthday Lily!

November 17, 2012
Rainwater

We headed to Hamilton on Saturday via a stop in Dundas, to visit with Grandma and Poppa and the Sweetness Bakery. Here is Chloe ready to get going. Turns out she was watching her buddy Cooper walking by across the street, that’s why she was looking so intent.

Lily having a little nap before dinner.

Here she is checking out the snacks.

She was painstaking in her unwrapping, one strip at a time.

Lily with her elephant from Uncle Brad.

Giving Chloe a face rub.

Here she is checking out our present.

Melissa continuing to torment Lily with the elephant. Lily would keep pushing it away.

Chloe catching some shut eye through all the excitement.

Call me maybe.

Concentrating with her tongue sticking out.

Singing Happy Birthday to Lily!

Lily with her fingers in the cake…

…and on her face.

Happy Birthday Lily!

Claudia’s Hat

November 12, 2012
Rainwater

Claudia crocheted a hat this weekend. She learned how to do it by watching YouTube. Here she is with the finished product.

A Week On The Rock

November 11, 2012
Work Posts

I spent 6 days out in Newfoundland and Labrador the past week. This trip completed the missing piece to my 2012 Canada puzzle. In this calendar year I have visited all 10 provinces (and one territory) either through work or pleasure. I left Monday for Stephenville, NL via Halifax and Deer Lake.

I was resolving problems at our site in Stephenville on Tuesday morning and then it was a drive back to Deer Lake to meet up with one of our contractors who was identifying possible new sites to replace some of our existing ones. It rained all morning in Stephenville, but started to let up around noon. Do you think this company might have a little conflict of interest? What better way to boost the first part of their business name than delaying the second part of their business name.

Stephenville is the site of Earnest Harmon AFB which was run by the Americans from 1941 to 1966 when it closed. The airport is still operational, but there is no major airline that services it.

My drive back to Deer Lake turned out to be a sunny drive once I reached the Corner Brook area. This is Breakfast Mountain

Legend has it that Shellbird Island, at the base of the mountain is the location of treasure buried by pirates. It is watched over by “The Old Man”, whose features are clearly seen etched in the side of the cliff.

Heading into Deer Lake.

On Wednesday it was out to the Grand Falls-Windsor area to look at some new locations. This was north of Bishop’s Falls at the water treatment plant. The beaver dam had flooded the road.

Again we had great weather, but knowing we were headed to snow in Goose Bay.

Heading back to Deer Lake after a day touring central Newfoundland.

It was an early flight from Deer Lake to Goose Bay via Halifax and St John’s.

Landed around noon and got off the plane to 24 cm of snow on the ground.

Most of it fell as wet snow and was still clinging to the trees.

The temperatures were around -5 most of the day.

The bridge crossing the Churchill River, this the Trans Labrador Highway.

Looking across the valley towards the old Pinetree Radar site.

The Churchill River.

On Friday there was another 10 cm of snow, wasn’t sure if my flight would get out. Looking out my hotel room around noon.

I had a late flight which left 5 minutes early but arrived in St. John’s 30 minutes late, due to de-icing and the head winds.  I spent about 7 hours in St. John’s, before I had to be up and back at the airport for my flight to Halifax.

I arrived in Halifax to sunny skies. A plane going through de-icing. My flights were on time and I was home by 11:00 am on Saturday morning.

WLU/UWO

November 3, 2012
Rainwater

Susan and Gillian went out to Wilfrid Laurier University on Friday to visit the WLU Open House. Then on Saturday, we went to the University of Waterloo Open House to see their Science programs. She has her OUAC number now so she can start the application process. She thinks she has her top three figured out. In a couple of weeks we’ll go to the University of Guelph for their Science information session.

Happy Halloween

October 31, 2012
Rainwater

The girls left the carving of their pumpkins until the night before.

Angela was carving Perry on her pumpkin.

Gillian was doing Ferb.

And Claudia did Phineas.

Claudia was a cowboy and Angela was Alice.

This year Gillian walked around with the girls.

The girl and shaggy Chloe.

Here is Claudia’s pumpkin.

Gillian’s pumpkin.

Angela’s Perry pumpkin.

 

uOttawa

October 26, 2012
Rainwater

Susan and I took Gillian to Ottawa on Friday for the uOttawa Day. It was an opportunity to hear about their Science programs, tour the residences and campus. We drove up Thursday night and came back Saturday morning. We enjoyed an extra day of sun and 22°C that went through Mississauga on Thursday.

The University of Ottawa campus is right downtown, next to the Rideau Canal and only a few minutes walk from Parliament Hill.

After a busy day on campus, we headed over to Parliment Hill for a walk.

Chateau Frontenac.

Angela and Claudia stayed home and Grandma Swan came down for a couple of nights.

Looking back towards Wellington Street.

Gillian and Susan in front of the Peace Tower.

Some of the detail on the Parliament Building. The front entranceway.

A beaver gargoyle.

Looking west towards the Supreme Court of Canada building.

Looking across the river to Gatineau and the Museum of Civilization, soon to be known as the Museum of History.

The Parliament Library.

Gillian with Emily Murphy at the Famous Five Monument.

We didn’t stick around long enough to see it lit up at night.

Heading towards the ByWard Market for dinner.

We ended up at the Heart and Crown for dinner.

Next week it is Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Waterloo.

Fort Smith, NWT

October 19, 2012
Work Posts

After 10 years in this job, I have finally made it to the Northwest Territories. This past week I was in Fort Smith, NWT to locate a new monitoring site in Wood Buffalo National Park. Fort Smith sits on the border with Alberta and the National Park straddles the border with the majority of the park in Alberta. Our new site will be on the NWT side.

It was more of tramping through the bush marking trees that will be cleared for a new site.

In the existing clearing, the wood bison are frequent visitors as noted by their calling cards. The white stuff is snow.

This vehicle was along Highway 5, not sure what the story is behind it. It looks like it either hit a wood bison or a moose. The bison graze at the side of the road, but they don’t move that fast, so it’s hard to believe it was a bison that was hit.

We only saw four wood bison, but I think 3 and 4 were the same. The wood bison harvesting (hunting) had just finished the past weekend, so they may have been deeper in the bush.

Here is a close up of the wood bison as I drove past.

Not often you come across warning signs for buffalo.

Wood Buffalo is the largest National Park in Canada and has the world’s largest herd of free roaming Wood Bison. There are over 5000 in the park, along with about 5000 wolves to keep them in check.

It was looking like it was going to be a nice day when we were leaving, although a little chillier. I was flying Northwestern Air from Fort Smith to Edmonton.

My flight out of Edmonton to Toronto was late 30 minutes leaving Edmonton and then as we approached Toronto we must have circled about 4 times, resulting in us arriving 50 minutes behind schedule.