The Hilton Chronicle

The bags are packed and are cluttering up the living room. Each person has two checked bags plus carryon. I can't believe we are hauling so much stuff. Hopefully we will be a little lighter coming back.
We are continuing to track Ernesto which is now being forecast to veer up the eastern coast of Florida, missing the Crestview area. My only concern right now is that we can get in and out of our connection in Orlando before the storm hits. It's only a 23 minute flight from Orlando to Pensacola and would be ridiculous if we were delayed at that point. I can't believe they routed us that way as Orlando is south of Pensacola and means we will have to backtrack.
Everybody in Florida is ready for us and excited to have us coming. We are staying with friends of Chris and they are planning all sorts of showers and dinners for the wedding. We will still probably do a bunch of running around, but that's to be expected. At least we won't be having to shelter from the storm...hopefully.

Posted 11:49 PM by Jeff

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Getting Nervous

Just a couple of days to go now before we are winging our way southward. We are in the midst of packing, or at least I should say Dianne is in the midst of packing as I am sleeping most of the day as I complete my midnight shift. There is some stuff of Nicole's for us to take but not as much as was expected so perhaps we will not need quite as many suitcases. We shall see.
We are getting a bit nervous, however, about tropical storm Ernesto which seems to be heading towards the Gulf coast. Needless to say we will be monitoring that situation closely especially later next week when it is expected to come ashore. But it looks like our plans to go deep sea fishing are all washed up.
Preparations for the wedding are pretty much done except for a few last minute details which may or may not be ironed out once we get to Florida. There seems to be so many little things that have to be considered and agonized over, but essentially by this time next week it will be all over. Nonetheless, whatever happens will happen and we'll just have to go with the flow.
Lee and Angela are proud of a new member of their household. They have just bought a 1999 Volkswagen Jetta in immaculate condition and are looking forward to enjoying their new wheels. Lee is selling his Chevy truck and keeping the Toyota truck but will probably drive their Honda most of the time. Always seems to be lots of vehicles in that family.

Posted 1:45 AM by Jeff

Saturday, August 19, 2006

In The Can

I have spent the last week getting the wedding video completed and "in the can", which is why I have been a bit lax on the posts. I am happy to have the project over as I now have to go on midnights for the seven days before we leave and didn't relish having to put in long hours editing while trying to maintain consciousness.
Now that mid-August is here, the weather is markedly cooler and the evenings chill right out. We finally managed to have a fire in the remodeled firepit last week and when the flames died down it got downright nippy.
We leave for Florida in just over a week and we are starting to think about packing. I guess everyone will be hauling two suitcases down to take stuff for Nicole but I certainly can't think of what she needs that will require so much room. However, I'm sure the girls will manage to fill every one of them.

I took a shot of this little guy who was running around on the fence and sitting in the yard while we ate breakfast outside this morning. He sat still long enough for me to sneak up real close and get a few shots of him. We also believe we have a family of Peregrin falcons living in our fir tree. We're not sure they're Peregrins but they are a hawk like bird nonetheless. They have been flying around in a pack making quite a racket and one of them flew into our bedroom window. He was unhurt but a little shaken up.

Posted 2:40 PM by Jeff

Monday, August 07, 2006

Wedding Pictures

I have posted some pictures of the wedding over to the left. There's not many as I was busy shooting video for the wedding and Dianne was in charge of the stills.
I was back at work today after our holiday and found it very restful. I went on the bike and as usually it was as refreshing as ever. This evening Dianne and I went to visit our neighbour who was in the hospital after suffering a stroke about a week ago.

Posted 11:03 PM by Jeff

Sunday, August 06, 2006

A Busy Weekend

Just had a rather busy few days with all the activity surrounding Devon & Catherine's wedding. With relatives coming to stay on Wednesday we had to spend some time cleaning up the house and yard. Then on Thursday there was lots of visiting and running around doing last minute things. Friday turned a little ugly weatherwise and we had a some rain and cold temperatures which forced the rehearsal party that we were hosting in doors. At one point there must have been at least 25 people in the house enjoying barbecued chicken, deer sausage and smokies. But a great time was had by all, despite the weather, to the point that the wedding party was almost late getting to the rehearsal. Saturday dawned sunny and warm, a perfect day for the wedding. Devon and Catherine's was the middle ceremony of three being held at St. Theresa's that day, so as we rolled up the first wedding party was leaving and as we left the third bride had shown up in her limo. The wedding went off great after a slight delay by the bride not arriving on time. Nothing serious though and things proceeded smoothly from there. Later in the afternoon we arrived at the hotel for the reception which went on till after we left at 12:30 am. It was good to see all the relatives and catch up with their news as well as meet some new people from Catherine's side of the family. I will have a web album up shortly as soon as I get a chance to put it together.
So the weekend is over, at least for me as I have to work tomorrow (holiday Monday) and of course the vacation is over too, although the second week did not seem as much of a holiday as the first. But it's back to work now, and on to the next project, which is Nikki's wedding, now less than a month away! I have to get cracking and finish the video which at this point is only about half done. But it's the harder half and with a couple of days off this week and an evening shift next week I am sure I will have it completed on time.
I took Lee, Angela & Chris to Costco this afternoon to get passport pictures taken and the plan is to go down to the passport office on Thursday and get them handed in so that they can be processed in plenty of time before we leave. I realize that it is not yet necessary to have passports to get into the states until January, but we all feel it is better to cover all the bases, considering how finicky we have heard the customs people can be.
After all the visiting and wedding excitement of the last couple of days, I decided to take a little alone time this evening and went for a 31km bike ride into the river valley. It was so beautiful. The wind was calm and the sun was still warm making it a very pleasant ride. At least the going part. The coming back was a little tougher as it appears to be all downhill from Millwoods to the river valley, so I had to do a little climbing to get back. Plus, the fact that my legs were getting a little sore also added to the challenge.

Posted 10:49 PM by Jeff

Thursday, August 03, 2006

It's An Apple World

What started out as a simple clean up ended up being an all day landscape project yesterday. I went out initially to trim the weeds from around the firepit and between the patio blocks and one thing led to another. By the time I was through I had redone the firepit using some left over paving stones and rocks. It looks quite a bit cleaner now, but it means we will have to make the effort to have some fires there to make the effort worthwhile and to justify the sunburn I got doing it.
Another sign of the times. This article talks about how new car makers are designing cars to accomodate the iPod making it easy to intergrate the music device with existing car audio systems. You can tell when your product has hit the mainstream when other products are being designed around it. Of course that only helps increase dominance, in this case for Apple, in the marketplace.

Posted 10:40 AM by Jeff

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