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Monday, August 30, 2004
Miscellaneous Ramblings
Well, the Olympics are over for another four years, we can look forward to 2008 in Beijing. And from all reports in the media it looks like it's hats off to the Greeks who were able to pull it off despite some negative prognostications from the world stage, probably much to their own surprise. We caught a little bit of the closing ceremonies last night and apart from an endless stream of singers and dancers with unpronounceable names, it looks like it was quite the show especially the fireworks which seemed to erupt at regular intervals.
With all the sporadic rain we have been getting lately I haven't been too diligent in my lawn care duties, but yesterday I was able to get out and cut and trim the lawns before another shower came our way. The weather has been markedly cooler lately and we have to keep reminding ourselves that it is only the end of August and we should hopefully have a couple more months of mild weather to enjoy. Lately I have been spending much of my spare time practicing my sax for the Cuba trip and so far the progress has been good. Fortunately for me most of the pieces are ones we have played before so there is some degree of familiarity to them although a wrench was thrown in the works when I was sent the charts for the 2nd tenor sax instead of the 1st which is what I usually play. There is just enough of a difference in them to trip me up on the more intricate licks. Thursday, August 26, 2004
The Toys For The Boys
We are in the process of moving to High Definition broadcasting at work and to a geek like me that can only mean one thing. More neat toys. In fact today I had a look at a brand new 42" Hi Def plasma screen that was just purchased for our master control room. We were watching a bit of a hi def feed of the olympic games and I must say I was very impressed. The drool factor is way up there. Mind you, this little baby only cost about $6000 so I guess I will be collecting pop bottles for some time before one of these gems shows up in our rec room. I suspect, however, that as is the case in most things techy, these things will be less than half the price in a couple of years when hi def tv is widley available and worth the investment. Until then I drool on... Saturday, August 21, 2004
Olympia....!!!
As usual I haven't been following too closely the Olympic hoopla going on in Athens other than the fact that Google keeps running Olympic themed titles on it's home page. (Quite cute actually) But I was browsing through the sports page at work today and I noticed that Canada is not doing too well in the medal standings. We're way down at #32 in this list behind Belarus! I was almost in Belarus once. It's a little ex Soviet Union country next to eastern Poland. I stood on the border in Teraspol, Poland and looked into Belarus and watched people from that country cross over into Poland to stand in the town square for the whole day to try and sell a bottle of Vodka or a pack of cigarettes they somehow managed to get their hands on. The border guards were not happy with us when we started video taping the border crossing. They started waving us off with their Kalashnikov rifles. This is the country that has more medals than us?! I can understand being behind the US and Russia and China and, okay, maybe even Australia, but Belarus? Well, I guess it's not so much about how many medals we get but how we are one with the global community spreading fellowship and understanding to the other members of the human race and all that other good PC stuff. So why is it that the first thing I did was to check how many medals do we have and why are we behind Belarus???
On another Olympic note, I found it a bit amusing that one commentator pointed out that the beach vollyball event was the closest to the attire of the original Olympics. In ancient Greece, if you recall, they did the games nekkid! Friday, August 20, 2004
I Owe, I Owe, It's Off To Work I Go...
I wipe away the tears as I write this. This is my last day off before going back to work after a nice lengthy and extremely enjoyable vacation. I have not darkened the doorstep of the ol' salt mine since July 20, making it about a month of easy living. I must say that I am not looking forward to getting up early tomorrow to trudge off to work. But I guess there is light at the end of the tunnel as I will only have to wait for another couple of months before I am off again on another worldly adventure.
I must admit that the weather has been superb for a vacation, much like it was for last year's two month sojourn. We have had very little rain, although not so good for the lawn, but unfortunately I have not been able to get as much biking in as I would have liked. Always something else to occupy my time I guess. So now it's back to browsing the interweb for tidbits of information to talk about on the blog. And once again, many happy returns, Dad, on your 80th birthday! Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Takin' It Easy
For some reason Blogger is being very pokey this evening. I had to wait quite a while for the post page to open.
Well I've been enjoying my last week of holidays before heading back to the grindstone on Saturday. I have been practising my sax in preparation for the upcoming Cuba tour in October. The music charts arrived while we were on holiday so I've now got lots to practice. The sword has a new home on a wall in the basement. If you don't know what I'm talking about refer to the Road Trip '04 article on the left of the page. Here is a shot of Anduril mounted and all shined up. Saturday, August 14, 2004
New Page Is Complete
The new Road Trip '04 page is up and running and apart from the usual missed spelling mistakes I think it looks pretty good. It's over there on the left under "Adventure Chronicles" by the pulsating "new" sign. You will find the page easy to navigate. For those who just like pictures there are four pages of thumbnails for you to choose from or you can start at the first one and arrow your way through all four pages. Just click on the thumbnail for the larger image. Use the arrow buttons on the screen to navigate and don't miss the captions under the picture. For those who want a blow by blow description there is an abridged journal under each page of thumbnails that you can read at your liesure to find out what some of the pictures are about. And when you have browsed through the site, give us your feedback in the forum at the end of this post. By the way, if you are on dial up please be patient as the stuff loads. They aren't big files but there's lots of them.
Forum: Road Trip '04 Friday, August 13, 2004
Coming To A Web Page Near You
After going through and compiling all the pictures of the trip, a new page is in the making which will give everyone a very graphical look at our recent trip. And for those of you who like to read there will be a journal as well although not a very wordy one. Recent research has discovered that most people prefer to look at pictures instead of reading long words. The candle is burning at both ends in the midnight oil here in the Chronicle office as we put together a little something called "Road Trip '04" coming soon. In the meantime here is a sneak preview:
Congratulations go out today to Angela who wrote the last two final exams to complete her degree. She is now officially finished school! (for now) Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Picture Perfect
I spent today just relaxing and resting up from our trip. Oh...it was so nice to lie in bed till 10:00 and not have to get up at 7:00 to put in an 8 hour drive. After breakfast I puttered around a bit, washed the car and got rid of those messy bug carcasses. Then went through the mail and finally took a peek at our bank balance. Gasp! Can't beleive we spent that much but the stack of recipts on my desk bears it out. Oh well, payday next week.
We all sat down last night and went through all 460 pictures we took as well as some from the wedding in Saskatoon. Now I have to go through them and edited out the duds and figure out a way to present them in an efficient manner. There's actually some very good pictures and I'm thinking that there may be some suitable for putting on the wall in a frame. Monday, August 09, 2004
We're Baaack....
Our two week road trip is over and we are finally back to the beat. We had a fabulous time and saw lots of cool stuff. Getting hold of a computer hooked to the interweb while on the road proved to be a bit tougher than I thought, either through lack of time and/or availability. But we took tons of pictures which I will somehow organize and put together on a bit of a page with some journaling for whoever is interested. Briefly, we headed to Vancouver Island for the first week and had a great time visiting with Mom & Dad and exploring the place with Roy & Sue and family. Then it was south across the line into the states where we spent a few super days along the Oregon coast. After zipping through most of California we spent a couple of days rediscovering Las Vegas. Finally, before heading home, we visited the Grand Canyon on the north side. Now we're back and it's time to catch up on all the happenings since we've been gone, but stay tuned for some exciting photos to be posted soon.
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