i have some new pictures of dorrie:)

i forgot to post these earlier in the week when bryce sent them to me.
here she is on one of her daily walks:

i love this action shot:

this would make a perfect cover for a christmas card " our new grand-daughter dorrie wants to wish you the best of the holidays!! "

and finally, a picture of brycearoni with a cowboy hat on !!! isnt HE cute? i dont know why he has such a stern look on his face!?

ok, its sunday night and i actually get to sleep in till 5:45 am tomorrow..wheeeee!! so much better than 4:30! hope this week goes by quickly!! i need to start christmas shopping on friday...yuck!

i graduated!!!

yes, my first part of my training is completed. i passed with the rest of my class. this means that i don't have to get up till 6 everyday. YEAH! getting up at 4:30am has been brutal. ok, im done whining! (/whine-off) monday should prove to be a very interesting day:)
Here is a picture of my class. (please remember, i was the second oldest person in the course)



so my hubby still isn't home from deer hunting, so im sitting here debating weather i should go shopping or sit on the couch for the day.

Its the third week of training

and my head is spinning!! however, I'm learning and managing to keep the majority of the material in my head. hard to imagine at my advanced age:)

not a lot has happened in my life except the fact that I missed the Trews last Wednesday night!! (entersympathyhere)it has been a real experience getting up at 4:30am to get to work by 6:45am. good thing i have a couple of ladies in my current car pool or i would probably be walking into the training room at the last minute.

so my highlights of the month of November happened all in the same day. first off, we had to go to Belleville on Saturday morning and arrived too early so Billy took me to the Tractor Store!!! I was in heaven!!!

then that night we went to Harlys garage and I got my picture taken on Harv's tractor. Wheee...it was a great experience:)


ok, next big event in the future is the Derek Downham show on December 22nd at the Elixir!!!!!!!!!! I cant wait to see D again!

Long time no update ...

Not a lot has been going in our household. The shed addition is almost complete...just a final coat of paint and its complete:)
This past weekend I borrowed the 4800 Nikon from work for a Halloween Party I was attending at the Merchant on Saturday night. Betablokka were playing, so I knew I couldn't miss this!!! I was dressed as the grim reaper and had a large heavy black robe with a matching hood:) My friend Judy was kind enough to offer to do my makeup...as well as lend me the costume. Didn't I look scary???



This costume rocked...Buddy dressed up as a penis:



I even found a few celebrities there...Elvis and Basketball Jones:



My date for the night got totally smashed, and I ended up driving his ass home. On my way home, I noticed that 'someone' had written something on my back window. Imagine my surprise when I got home at 2am and read "I only wish my wife was this dirty!" etched on the dew.

The next day was spent entirely cleaning my car. And taking pictures of the few plants in my gardens that hadn't been hit by frost yet. I wont bore you by posting them here, so if you really have a desire to see them, check out this link:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v294/cchristmas/October%202005/Backyard%20Pictures/

The next three weeks of my life will be spent in a training room, so the internet will probably be the furthest thing from my mind.

A Hunting Bill will go....A Hunting Bill will go

Yes, its that time of year...time to sneak up and scare bullwinkle. Thus causing him to fall down and die of a heart attack. That is how my mind perceives hunting, and I'm sticking with this theory.
Yes, I used to be the type of tree-hugger that never understood what hunting was all about. Just think about the storie's of a friend 'bagging a deer' on the way home. It's merely because this species of animals has over-populated themselves to the point where they have become a nuisance to themselves.
Anyways, before Billy could go away, we had to get to the marina and get the boat out for the season. It was actually a fairy warm day and the sun managed to stay out for the amount of time that I was knee deep in the water. Thak You weather gods! As I waited for Bill to bring the boat around to the ramp, I took some pictures of the guys stepping the mast on an old sailboat. I found it amusing that one of the marina dogs had to put themselves right in the middle of the action:

The people on our dock are diehards and still have their boats in the water:

After we got the boat home, Billy had to go get his new four-wheeler to get ready for the hunting camp. This would be the first time that I had laid eyes on this new toy, and figured I had better take a few pictures of it.

Hey, my cosmos are still blooming...Does this mean that fall still hasn't arrived?

After Bill left, I swept through the house and magically cleaned all dust, cat and dog hair and dirt. Then I went for a drive. I stopped out to check out the progress of my friends Laurie and Jack's new house. They are almost ready to move in:

When I got there I was told that miss dubleberger had gone to the office....so off to Rigney ave I went. I took a side street off of mud lake road and kind of got lost. Naturally my camera had to do some documenting:




After I got home, I went over and had a beer with the neighbour ladies. Cheers !!!

Here's to a quiet week alone!!!

I can handle this....

Yes, I am a big girl and can deal with the fact that I am aging. So when I found out that I had a grandchild, well, I took it like a trooper. She is the sweetest thing I have seen in a long time and I can fully admit that I am biased. My two cats do not agree with my mushy sentiments, but they have had it too easy for too easy for too long.
Without further adieu, here is Bryce and Dorrie:

I have been pleasantly surprised that she is so well behaved. She sits out on the step all by herself and doesn't bark like the rest of the dogs in the neighbourhood!


And here is Jethro, trying to sneak up on Dorrie and Bryce:

This is how she slept while we had our dinner:


This is what Thanksgiving is all about; being thankful for our blessings. We are just tickled that Bryce and Dorrie will be staying with us till Monday.

Now its October.....

But so far the weather has been great! On Saturday we went do to Confed Basin for the 15th annual chilifest. It was just like summer out but I opted for wearing jeans and sweat all afternoon. We were meeting up with our friends right out side city hall. Mike had an antique car on display, so we all took turns watching it! Isn't it a beauty?


The real reason I went was to see the Chris Koster band. I love this band and will find any excuse to see them play. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was excited to get some pictures of this great band in the daylight for a change.


Before the bands started, I made a trip over to the market with the girls. Everything just looked so bright and colourful; I just couldnt resist taking a few shots:


When we got up the next day, the sun was still shining brightly so we figured it was a great day for a boat ride. It was the second of October and it felt like labour day weekend. As usual, Bill had to find something interesting floating in the water. There was no note attached this time, which was a bit of a let down!

We decided to travel East, towards the 1000 islands as there was very little wind. I have so many pictures of the waterfront, I started taking slanted pictures.

Being brave, we traveled past RMC, into the mouth of the islands and past the Howe Island Ferry. As we were following an antique wooden cabin cruiser, all of a sudden the motor died. GASP! What to do? We thought that the gas at the marina has a bit of water in it as the last 2 times we filled up there, the motor was a bit harder to start. We dumped gas line anti-freeze in it before we left the dock. So that couldn't be it. How ironic it was that our boat stalled in front of a marina. We managed to get the boat started enough to coast into the dock. I felt really ridiculous walking up to a small gathering on the dock to ask them where we were. The Trident Yacht Club, I was told. We called our friend Harly, as we didn't have Rogers cell phone number in the cell phone. Roger just happened to be at Harlys and very kindly offered to come help us. After a few hours of waiting, Roger appeared on the horizon. Now don't get me wrong, it was a beautiful spot and the sun was burning into my skin. We had food and drinks and an offer to use the 'head' in the club house. It wasn't a bad way to while the time away. And the scenery was gorgeous!


Once Roger appeared, it was evident that the problem couldn't be fixed immediately so we tied a few ropes together and started to tow our beastie home. Man, it seemed to take a lot longer going back, especially when we noticed the gas gauge going dropping at a fast pace. We started off towing Billy then we decided that it would be best to pull the boat on its own. Besides, Billy was having far too much fun with the whole situation:

Anyways, around 7 that night, we made it back to the marina as the sun set in the western sky. It turns out that we have to replace the fuel pump, which cost under $300, so that's not as bad as it could be. Not a great way to end our boating season, but it gives Billy something to do during the off season:)

The last week of summer...

Yea, it happened this week...That four letter F-Word arrived. I prefer to use the A-word to describe the season we entered on Sept 22nd. Damn! I must have had too good a summertime I guess! Being able to use the boat for 5 full months was definitely a bonus, especially when we spent the extra bucks to buy a slip for the season. It was definitely money well spent.
On Saturday, we decided to make one of our last trips out in the boat. Naturally we needed gas, and the $1.37 a litre price tag was a bit hard to swallow...but what can ya do? Here is Billy looking for our next boat:

As soon as we left the marina, we swung around the breakwall to this sight...a power boat towing a blow boat. How amusing:

As I sat in the back of the boat, snapping pictures aimlessly, I felt the sun on my face and realized it had been a great season for Billy and I. The time had come for me to face the fact that I had to start wearing long pants again, and prepare for taking the boat out of the water till 2006.
Is it my imagination, or can you almost see the rays of sun descending from the top left hand corner of this picture?

As we started to head back for the marina, we rounded the point by the cottage only to see this sight:

Its not everyday that you see a house on a barge, resting on the shoreline. Apparently this structure was floated over to the island via finkle shore park a few days ago. From this point, they need to transport the house a few miles east. I guess that's one way to move a house:)
Now that the restaurant in the village has closed, we have had to fend for ourselves for the past week and a half. It awful! Anyways, we decided to go to the Red Lobster for dinner. I had a gift certificate that Bryce gave me for Christmas last year, so off we went for seafood heaven. We hadn't had lobster and steak in years so maybe that's why it tasted so good.

After we were done, we rolled out of the restaurant and back home to get ready for a 25th wedding anniversary party for our friends Mike and Johanna. This year marked both of their 50th birthdays as well as their 25th anniversary. It was kind of neat to meet their old friends that they grew up with as well as our own group of friends who attended. Here is a picture of the 'toy' that Johanna bought Mike for his golden birthday:

Nice eh? All I bought Billy was the four-wheeler he wanted for hunting!

Pearl Jam at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto !!!

On Monday morning I awoke at 5 as I was so damn excited about traveling to Toronto to see Pearl Jam again. I know that everyone thinks I am some kind of a cougar-groupie, but it is so hard to make someone understand the importance of seeing the band you love playing in 2 cities that are less than a 3 hr drive from you! Especially when they only tour every two years! I could not miss Eddie and the boys, regardless of how I got to the shows. When I bought my tickets to these two shows back in April, I originally only planned on going to the Ottawa show with my friends Louise and Mike. Last time I traveled with them to the 2003 show at the Molson Amphitheatre, I invited my co-worker Robin to escort me. This time I offered my extra ticket to my buddy Shayne. I felt bad that I couldn't get more than 2 tickets per show so Steff (Shaynes bride) to go with us. This guilt somehow provoked me to buy tickets for the Toronto show after asking Robin if he wanted to go. I had made the rule that he was going to drive as I didn't need the stress of maneuvering around in downtown Toronto. Besides, he had been to the ACC a few times, so he knew the way there and the best place to park. For me, this was a win win situation.
So off we departed from work a bit late, and off to smog-town we traveled. It was nice to score some cheap gas on the way there; under a buck a litre is a bonus now a days. Once there, we had a hell of a time finding the will call wicket to pick up our fan club tickets. After walking around in a circle a few times, we finally got the tickets and went searching for a bite to eat before the show. Now imagine this building that is attached to Union Station at rush hour. There were people everywhere, and I swear there was a security guard located on every corner. Before I hid the camera I borrowed from work, I took this picture of a tasty piece of art:

As we stood in the lineup for the pat down before entering the concert, I noticed that this time around, the security guards were actually patting down the ladies. So I had to change my course of action and had to hide the large camera in a more secure spot! After I breezed through that, I felt like screaming HURRAY, but didn't want to cause attention. There were even MORE security guys inside the ACC than there was in union Station. It gave you a feeling of some sort of impending doom. But I am sure that Ed and the boys had requested beefed up security in a city of constant violence.
What a thrill it was to find that my tickets were in almost the same spot as the Ottawa show! We were sitting next to two ardent fans from Bay City Michigan. They were both feeling no pain and an entertaining conversation was started between us and the girls from Oakland California, who were sitting in front of us. We were all trying to figure out which song they band would open with. BettiVedder from California guessed correctly with her choice of Release. Hearing the opening notes of this beautiful song made me cry and I couldn't even hold the camera up to take a picture. It was like Ed had cast a spell on the entire audience. The 6 of us were all high-fiving each other as we all sang along with the opening tune.
I will not bore any of you with a pile of my pictures from this show, but I will show you the one where Ed was looking right at me AGAIN! :)

If anyone wants to see the rest of the published pictures, please go to : http://photobucket.com/albums/v294/cchristmas/Pearl%20Jam%20Toronto/

The rest of the concert flew by in a blur, but towards the end of it I had to go back and delete a bunch of pictures to make room for the guest who appeared on stage. As the band started into Rockin in the free world, I thought I saw Uncle Neil Young take the stage, instead I was delightfully surprised to see Bono from U2. SWEET! Bono thanked Ed for opening for him the night before; and that's when Ed's opening statement started making sense. After the first few songs, he said he wanted to thank U2 for opening for them tonight. Everyone giggled at the time and no one suspected to see Bono, with a white cowboy hat slide onto the stage at the end of the night. It was a very cool sight, especially due to the fact that the lights were up and this rare scene was in plain view for all to see.

I am unsure how many people were at the show, but the sound from the crtowd was almost deafening, even with my earplugs in. Here is a shot of a very small portion of the audience:

Once again, I was speechless on the way home. I crawled into bed sometime around 3:30 am and managed to make it to work the next day by 10am!

In between Pearl Jam concerts....

My hubby took me for a loooong boat ride over to the main ducks islands. It was a weird feeling to be out in the middle of the lake with no land in sight. We had been trying for three years to get over there and finally the winds were favourable for us to make the trip. It took a while to get there and naturally my camera was busy as soon as land was in sight!
Billy used to commercial fish with our old neighbour Gary Bell (RIP) back in the 80's. The main ducks were one of their frequent stops (to pick fish out of the nets) and Bill remembers this dock just after it was built. Apparently the ice has tipped it slightly over the years:

What a beautiful little spot this place is. The water surrounding the islands reminded me of quarry water.

After bouncing back over the waves of the open lake to Amherst Island, we stopped over in the bay at Poplar Dell for a bite to eat. Naturally the winds had died down by then and it was a beautiful time to take some 'end-of-summer' shots:

Hmmm...Well I took about 25 pictures but I will just post the one. People have told me that my photoblog has too many photos:)