Lunch dates

I took a walk down memory lane today, and had lunch with some old friends that I went to high school with. One of them I had not seen in over 8 years! It has been quite awhile since all of us have been in the same room together, but in a blink of an eye, it was like we were back in high school reliving those old glory days. Its funny, its been almost 20 years since we graduated, but today it seemed like it was only yesterday. Its amazing how the company of good friends can do that.

Let's rock!

After almost 3 and a half weeks on the disabled list (no Frisbee), Hobbes was finally given the all OK yesterday after his visit to the Vet. The sutures under his front leg have finally healed. Look out world, here he comes!

Helio wins!

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Speed trumped Spice in the "Dancing with the Stars" finale on Tuesday night, as Helio Castroneves upset Melanie Brown to capture the show's fifth mirrorball trophy.
"It will look so good between my two Indy 500 trophies," Castroneves said. Later he admitted he was "shocked" by the victory: "I was not expecting it. Mel, she's an incredible dancer."
Indeed, Brown was by far the more polished performer, consistently wowing the judges with her versatility and flair. She and her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, entered the finals in first place, one point ahead of Castroneves and Julianne Hough.
Both couples received perfect scores of 30 from the judges in their final dances Tuesday. But the Brazilian racecar driver's personality and enthusiasm, plus an effortless quickstep on his final performance, earned enough viewer votes to win.
Losing "was a horrible feeling," Brown admitted. "I'm not going to deny it."
courtesy of http://www.cnn.com

Pretty my ass!

The weatherman is calling for snow tonight. There are only two city curbside leaf pick-ups left until next spring. The great debate was on. Leave all the leaves until spring. Make the mad dash to pick-up what you can before it snows and you have no choice but to leave them until spring. Home ownership is a bitch! In the end the leaves won. Now if it would just snow, then I can really say to hell with the rest of them until spring!

Vote for Helio

I personally don't watch the show, but I have been keeping tabs because of Helio. I saw this article in today's Toronto Star and it make me laugh. I'm all for it. Monday I am going to vote for Helio!
It doesn't matter if you're a stock car racing fan, a drag racing fan, a road-race fan or an open-wheel fan, it's imperative that we all come together as motorsport fans on Monday night and vote for one of ours, Helio Castroneves, who's in the finals of ABC's Dancing with the Stars program, seen in Canada on CTV. It's come down to a popularity contest and fan voting is going to determine the winner. So on Monday night at 8, tune into the program and go online to vote for Castroneves. Online polls remain open until Tuesday at noon (eastern time).

We can't let a Spice girl or an Osmond defeat an Indy 500 winner now, can we?

Morning walk

Some shots from our walk this morning.

Hobbes glad to finally be allowed out of the house, contemplates life.Hobbes mugs for the camera.

Hobbes reluctantly lets Calvin in on the fun.

Hobbes update

So there's some good news and some bad news. The last stitches came out on Tuesday, but because of the awkwardness of their location, the incision is not healing as fast as it should. Only walks until NEXT Thursday when the doc checks him out AGAIN. As you can see from the picture, this is going well.

All bark and no bite...

I guess you can't really blame the weather forecasters for sounding the alarm. Better to err on the side of caution and all that stuff. The first storm of the season turned out to be more freezing rain than anything else. Its cold and its icy out there, but come on! This is Canada after all. Just another day in paradise. Here's a shot of what it looked like in my part of the world. Calvin and Hobbes looking for the snow.

And so it begins...

Environment Canada has issued a warning about the first major snowfall of the season that's due to hit the GTA on Thursday.
A system approaching from the Ohio Valley could drop as much as one to five centimetres of wet snow on the city, with 10-15 possible in cottage country and in places like Oakville, Burlington and Hamilton.
Add in some strong northwesterly winds that could gust as high as 50 kilometres an hour at times and freezing rain in spots and you have the making for major headaches and the kind of day where you wish you could just pull the covers back up over your head.
But experts are advising you to get up early instead. The first real snow of the year almost always creates havoc on the roads, as drivers get used to navigating in slippery conditions. But it's not yet clear just how much of this first fall will actually stay on the pavement. The ground is still relatively warm and it's hoped some of the frigid flakes will melt once they hit. Environment Canada believes grassy areas and places in higher elevations will see the longest lasting and biggest accumulations.
info courtesy of http://www.citynews.ca

Finally!

Today is the day! Today Hobbes' last stitches come out and he can finally run and play again like a normal border collie. I found the perfect site to describe how Hobbes must be feeling in anticipation to his trip to the Vet. Check it out:
http://www.nhlcyberfamily.org/special/happydance.htm (if you have speakers turn them up!)

Greetings from South Africa

EXCLUSIVE: My brother Colin finally sent us some pictures of life in South Africa. Not many, but enough ... Colin and his girlfriend, Daniela enjoy a drink on the patio. Now discuss amongst yourselves ;) Enjoy!

Picture courtesy of my bro!

Beach sunrise

November sunrise at the Beach.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my buddy, Tony's birthday. Its hard to believe, but we have been friends since grade 9. So with that in mind, here is a picture I dug up of Tony from the summer of '86. Check out those crazy sun glasses! Happy birthday, have a couple for me.

Still on the disabled list

Bad news for my buddy Hobbes. Our trip to the Vet last night didn't quite go as planned. Hobbes was supposed to have all his stitches removed, but it turns out the incision under his front leg has not fully healed yet. As a result the stitches have to stay in for a few more days. We will now have to wait until Tuesday, before all of his stitches are removed. Which means back to no walks and no playing with Calvin until Tuesday. On the plus side, the stitches on his leg and on his chest came out, and those areas are healing well. Here are a couple of pictures of Hobbes' trip to the Vet last night. Even when his injured, Hobbes still has it with the ladies ... that's my dog!

The Angel...

Hobbes has been confined to the house since his surgery one week and one day ago. He did not require the dreaded radar dish collar. He simply did not lick or scratch at his stitches. He went out in the yard to do his business then straight back in. He has been incredibly good. No playing with Calvin and no exercise for a week straight. The hardest part by far has been leaving him behind in the mornings when I take Calvin out for a walk. He does not like that at all. Tomorrow night the stitches come out and normal dog like activities may resume. He will be able to run and chase squirrels again. And I know for a fact, another border collie is going to get whats coming to him for being a general pain in his butt while he recovered from his surgery.

...and the Devil (AKA the Puppy Diaries)

Since we brought this bundle of joy home, he has destroyed:

2 sets of MP3 headphones
2 power supply cords for the laptop computer
3 kitchen carpets
1 Persian rug
2 pillows from the couch
-eaten a hole in our linoleum floor in the kitchen (3 times!)
-destroyed every toy we have ever given him (we have to hide Hobbes' teddy bears)
-eaten a hole in the screen door at the cottage
-chewed the plastic cover right off the seat belt in the back of the Golf

Theres got to be a good dog in there somewhere right?!

Racing News: Power takes second straight pole for Champ Car season finale

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (November 10, 2007) - Putting aside lingering effect of a broken wrist sustained just three weeks ago in Surfers Paradise, Australian Champ Car star Will Power (#5 Aussie Vineyards Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) claimed his fifth pole position of the season.

Power clocked a best lap at 1:23.558 (119.515 mph) to shatter Sebastien Bourdais' (#1 McDonald's Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) day-old track record.

Power shares the front row with four-time Champ Car champion Bourdais, who secured his 10th front-row starting spot of the season by leading Friday's provisional qualifying session with a lap at 1:24.698 (117.906 mph). The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver will make his final start in the series on Sunday looking for his 31st career Champ Car victory. Bourdais is also the defending champion in Mexico City.
Doornbos posted the second-quickest time of final qualifying at 1:24.152 (118.671 mph) and will start third in the Minardi Team USA machine.

Oriol Servia (#22 Pay By Touch Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) earned his second top-four starting spot in as many races with PKV Racing with a fourth-place qualifying performance at 1:24.324 (118.429 mph).

After posting the second-quickest time in provisional qualifying, Wilson slipped to fifth on the final grid with a lap at 1:24.365 (118.371 mph).

Paul Tracy qualified 8th.

courtesy of http://www.champcarworldseries.com, pictures courtesy of me

In Remembrance

With each Remembrance Day, their numbers are fewer.
Just as the passage of time inevitably took the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who served in World War I from us, so it is now rapidly diminishing the once great numbers of those who served in World War II.
And so, each year on this day, on Remembrance Day, it becomes more and more important for those of us born after the two great wars of the last century, to pass down to our children and our children's children, exactly what it is we remember today.
The two minutes' silence that will be observed at ceremonies across Canada this morning at 11 a.m., marks the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 89 years ago when peace was formally declared ending World War I.
At the time, they called it "the war to end all wars." Sadly, it was not.
Today, we remember not only the 60,000 Canadians killed in World War I from 1914 to 1918, but the more than 40,000 who died serving in World War II from 1939 to 1945, the 516 who died in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, the more than 70 who have died serving in Afghanistan since 2002 and the 114 who have died on UN peacekeeping missions since 1956.
We remember that each of them, in addition to making the ultimate sacrifice for Canada, was also a beloved grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin, friend.
And we remember not only them, but the loved ones they left behind and all those who have been maimed and wounded by war and all those who loved them and continue to love them today.
Remembrance Day is not about glorifying war and indeed, if you talk to them, you will find that war veterans are our greatest living ambassadors for peace.
For unlike the rest of us lucky enough to have lived our lives without knowing war, our veterans know what a brutal and horrible thing it is and that war must always be the last resort in the pursuit of a just peace.
Finally, by remembering their fallen comrades on this day, we honour all those who fought in Canada's wars in the past, and who continue to fight for her in our name today.
And each year on this day, we thank them in the only way we can and in the only way that really counts.
By promising we will remember them and we will teach our children and our children's children about the enormous sacrifices they made for us.
And finally, that the reason we are a strong and free nation today, is that they paid the price freedom demands, and that sometimes, the price freedom demands, is blood.
courtesy of http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/Commentary/2007/11/10/4646770.html

Thank You

If you have a Canadian $10 bill, look at the back right side of the bill and you will see an old veteran standing at attention near the Ottawa war memorial.
His name is Robert Metcalfe and he died last month at the age of 90. That he managed to live to that age is rather remarkable, given what happened in the Second World War.
Born in England, he was one of the 400,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force sent to the mainland where they found themselves facing the new German warfare technique - the Blitzkrieg.

* He was treating a wounded comrade when he was hit in the legs by shrapnel. Enroute to hospital, his ambulance came under fire from a German tank, which then miraculously ceased fire.
* Evacuated from Dunkirk on HMS Grenade, two of the sister ships with them were sunk.
* Recovered, he was sent to allied campaigns in north Africa and Italy.
* Enroute his ship was chased by the German battleship Bismarck.
* In North Africa he served under General Montgomery against the Desert Fox, Rommel.
* Sent into the Italian campaign, he met his future wife, a lieutenant and physiotherapist in a Canadian hospital.
* They were married in the morning by the mayor of the Italian town, and again in the afternoon by a British padre.
* After the war they settled in Chatham where he went into politics and became the warden (chairman) of the county.

At the age of 80 he wrote a book about his experiences and on his retirement he and his wife moved to Ottawa. One day out of the blue he received a call from a government official asking him to go downtown for a photo op. He wasn't told what the photo was for or why they chose him.
"He had no idea he would be on the bill," his daughter said.
courtesy of http://www.freddiep.ca/

Blast from the past

I was going through some old photos to post on Facebook (yes I am on Facebook!) earlier today and thought I would post these shots of me in "my younger day", enjoy.

I call this one, "Too cool for this photo", New Years Eve circa '89

A shot with me and another classmate at my college graduation, (Circa 94). What is up with that lady over my shoulder?Seneca College Televsion Broadcasting Class of 94.A shot of a skinny me at my first job in TV. CFPL circa 94

Show and Tell

Hobbes went to the Vet today for the results of his X-rays and to check his stitches. Everything is healing well, and his X-rays were fine. Now the fun begins. No walks or playing with Calvin till the stitches come out NEXT Friday. We will see how that goes. Here are a couple of snaps of his battle scars, enjoy.

This is where the IV went.

This is his ridge on his left rear leg where a small lump was removed.And this is where the golf ball size lump was removed. It goes all the way around under his right front leg. There was also another small lump removed from his chest.He is doing well and is almost back to his old self. Another day or two and I'm sure he will be driving everyone crazy. He doesn't like being cooped up in the house for very long, without exercise. This should be fun.

Hobbes update

Everything went well yesterday. Hobbes had surgery to remove four fatty growths, one under his front left "armpit" the size of a golf ball, two small ones from his chest and another from his rear right thigh. Lots of stitches and bare spots, looks like he got into a fight with a pit bull. Still very quite, but eating and drinking and going to the bathroom, which is all very good. Tomorrow we head back to the Vet for a check up and the results of the X-rays. Hobbes thanks everyone for their concern and kind wishes.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my mother-in-law, Mannie's birthday. Happy birthday, hope you have a good day.

Big day for Hobbes

Today my trusty side kick goes in for X-rays and surgery to remove some lumps. He has a growth under his left front paw that has grown to the size of a golf ball. And because of where it is, it may be causing him some discomfort when he walks or tries to jump and catch his Frisbee. The Vet tells us its just fat deposits, so we are not too concerned. We have already gotten our first bit of news since I dropped him off at the Vets a short while ago. Er, Mr. Thomas, your dog has fleas. What?! That's, right, loaded with fleas. Which means, knucklehead sitting beside me here scratching away also has fleas. Great! Anyway here are a couple of snaps of Hobbes getting dropped off this morning.

Hobbes waits patiently for his turn.He still has it with the ladies.Hello friend.

Birthday Surprise

We had a surprise birthday party for my Aunty Verna this past weekend. I'm not sure if it was a surprise in the end, but I do know that a good time was had by all. Here are some pictures from the festivities. Enjoy...

Aunty Verna arrives .... Surprise!

The food is out, Time to eat! Barry says a few words in honour of Aunty Verna's 60th birthday.Aunty Verna cuts her cake.Opening the presents.the two sisters....Enjoying the festivities, did someone say beer?The clean up begins. Hey, where did all the men go?