Snow?

Yes, snow on the ground last night, but it shouldn't last for now, but it will be time to put the snow tires on very soon, that is for sure. Luckily the idiots drove up and down our street at high speed because snow driving is the same as dry pavement, right? I look forward to almost getting wiped out by one of these rocket scientists.

Rhys continues to work on reaclimatizing to this new time zone we are in (Daylight Savings), but at least he is not waking up at 6:00 AM these days.

The weekend looks quiet for now, but I am sure things will change quickly.

Final Game together

Em and Kate played their last game together on the Merivale High team (ok they will play again in Florida, but this is in the Merivale gym). The team played well, but came up a little short. The team played very well this year and were entertaining to watch.


The two of them after the game.


Yes they really were on the court together


The Team itself.


Rhys just before he got bonked on the head with a ball, oops!

Getting Colder

Now the days start with some light, which is nice, however at the end of the day it is dark when I get home, which is part of the depressing part of the fall. Snow will fly soon, which means even more fun and games at work, as one of the parking lots closes when it snows, leaving even less parking spaces for folks, but luckily OC Transpo (the bus company in Ottawa) is raising the bus prices by 10%, not that I would take the bus.

Rhys continues to try to adapt to this new schedule, but he isn't managing it too well right now (up really early and crashing early as well). Hopefully he'll get into a groove soon, and if not it's going to be a very long winter.

A few more Halowe'en pictures

Just to make life that much easier, here are a few more pictures from Halowe'en and Emily's birthday.

Emily's cake from the Independant Grocers, needless to say there wasn't much left after the party. The Green witch is a nice touch, I think.


The front of the house decorated by Emily, and friends (with supervision by Rhys).


Rhys and Kate pumpkin carving, note the eye, very impressive.

Halowe'en 09

This year's Halowe'en while many fewer kids came to our door, still had much more frivolity and fun with a teenage party in our basement. Rhys did go out twice (once with his party peeps and then once with his old man). Last year he didn't "get" the trick or treat thing, but this year he really got into the spirit and got a fair amount of candy.

I am writing this piece still flying from some of the sugar in that Candy, and the stuff left by only having 20 kids show up at our door. At least we didn't buy that much candy this year.

Oh and here are some pictures.


Emily as the Paper Bag Princess, and Rhys as the Dragon, very good costumes I must say.


No that is not makeup that is Kate's eye which she got last Monday from a basketball game, quite spooky really.


The two pumpkins carved in front of the house. One looks very Japanese, with the two wooden skewers in place to make sure the lid didn't drop INTO the pumpkin (two "Gifted" kids did that one).

Stricken!

To quote a character from the Goon Show, STRICKEN! I seem to have picked up a cold or something, oh well, it's fun to see folks RUN in the other direction from me whenever I cough (into my HAND, not my ELBOW). I suspect if you read this you'll need to use hand sanitizer in case you catch something from it. Oh well, I suppose I should take a day off work and rest.

More importantly Emily turns 15 on Saturday, so I'll need to be rested to deal with the Teenage rampage due that evening (although rumor has it she will be going trick or treating with her brother). This should make for some good picture possibilities.

Wet and Cold continues

I also seem to be fighting off something like a cold or the flu as well, really kind of a blechy kind of week so far in terms of weather and such. Nice to see the girls team win yesterday, and Kate does look quite mean out there with her black eye. Rhys got his hair cut yesterday as well, guess I'll need a hair cut soon as well.

Susan seems to be enjoying her new phone (we replaced her Bell phone with a pay per use Telus phone), all I need to do now is figure out if Bell is still charging me for her old phone (even though her phone number has moved to her new phone). Stay tuned this might get very interesting.

Cold and Dark

That is what it is in the mornings these days as Autumn takes firm grip of Ottawa. I knew I was in work early when it was dark for an hour after I'd got into the office, but that was OK, at least it was warm in my office. It's that awkward time of the year where it is not really cold enough for the furnace to be running often, and not warm enough outside to feel warm, so you just always feel cold.

It's always nice to have lunch with old friends and catching up but yesterday I heard a team rule that I hadn't heard before on any team that I knew of. This parent has a daughter who is playing University Hockey and the rule in question is "No dating your teammates", which amused me to no end. I don't think they have rules like that on many other teams I know of, but then again, who knows? It's a very different world we live in today that is for sure.

Nice Shiner

Luckily Kate had her graduation pictures done for school Monday morning, because in the basketball game that afternoon she got quite the black eye in a very rough game. Emily got punched in the stomach and threw up outside of the gym (good for her, she got her mouth guard out in time as well). Rhys didn't have any such issues, hopefully Rhianna did not have such a rough day at school as well.

Me I got the garbage out and made sure I returned my books to the library. These kind of days I am glad that I got the garbage out.

Rhianna was lamenting to me on the weekend that her time was not hers, I said, "Welcome to Adulthood", hopefully she won't have any delusions that once she graduates life will become simpler. Kids never realize they have more control of their time when they are young and lose control exponentially each year of the rest of their life. All I could tell Rhianna was, "Sorry Kiddo".

Riding Up and Down on the Railway Line

Rhys and I spent an exciting afternoon to go for a ride on the O Train (the pilot Heavy Rail project in Ottawa). Now this is nothing like going from Fenchurch Street to Westcliff-on-Sea and back, it was a 30 minute ride round trip (with a lot of stopping in stations), but Rhys seemed to have a great time riding on it (for $2.50 not a bad ride). Rhys jabbered throughout the journey, but had a great time none the less. It was a nice sunny day, and a few of the stretches were quite picturesque (riding over the Rideau River was very nice), but again, a few short journey, that is for sure.

We went to University Night last week (for Ontario) and we sat in on Guelph and Waterloo. The Waterloo presentation was funny to me, in that they did mention the Clubs on campus but did not mention the two largest clubs (GLOW and The Chinese Students Club). The Guelph presentation was interesting, but they didn't mention that Guelph is actually the sound a drowning dog makes, which I thought was an oversight. I did pick up the RMC brochures, but for some reason Kate is not interested in going there. We shall see where she chooses.

Happy 80th Birthday Mum

Happy Birthday Mom and Grandma

Friday Ahead

Friday and another week finishes, and hopefully a quieter weekend ahead.

Mom turns 80 on Saturday, hopefully a quiet day for her and Dad.

The girls don't seem to have as much activity this weekend either, which might be nice too. If the weather co-operates we might be lucky enough to get the garage in a state where the Van might actually go in (it is mighty chilly in the mornings these days).

Early Birthday Greetings Mom, hope you have a great day!

He wore a hat!

Rhys' pictures from school came back and surprisingly he posed for many different pictures and he even wore a hat! Rhys seems to have figured out that pictures are worth posing for, which may mean more posed pictures of him soon. The girls pose for Passport photos on Friday, and then I have to fight my way downtown to get the Passport applications in (for their basketball team trip to Florida near Christmas). The girls are also posing for pictures for the Program for the tournament they will be playing in, while they are in Florida.

Susan and I are not planning on posing for any pictures in the near future, that I am aware of.

More pictures from Thanksgiving

OK, so I found some more photos from the Thanksgiving weekend, but first we found out that our Dentist thinks that Emily's tooth is save-able but there is some work to do on it, which we will do the day after my Dental benefits turn on! Whoo Hoo! Benefits!

OK on to the pictures

Susan actually looks good in this picture, the rest of us look foolish, but Susan looks good.


Well, some of the subjects look ok in this one, however, I think Kate's expression does kind of steal the show.


Not sure what Robert was doing with Rhys here, however, it is an interesting shot.


A fairly good picture except for me winking in the picture