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