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This weekend has been non-stop action. It started with David's 5 PM soccer practice on Friday. He got home at seven, just in time to get to his racquetball lesson at 7:15. As soon as that was done at 8:00, he and Katy joined the church Youth Group for fun and games at The Putting Edge followed by a showing of Forrest Gump and a sleepover at the church. Ann went to see the movie as they discussed it this morning in their Sunday School class. Katy passed on the sleepover as she had to be at work at the Donut Machine by 7 AM.
On Saturday, Ann got up early to drive Katy to work. Then we picked up David and took him to a trial trumpet lesson. This is because he is taking music at school this year, but is not progressing on the trumpet as well as he should. He is not keen on taking lessons, so there are still negotiations going on about whether he will have to take them and for how long. While he was at his lesson, Ann, myself, Emily and James went shopping for new bicycle helmets at Mountain Equipment Co-op. On the way out we saw Queen Mary 2 coming into the harbour. She is BIG!
At noon James and I went to Shubie Park for the first gathering of the Beavers for this year. This was a joint outing with the cubs and included a ceremony in which several of last year's beavers "swam up" to become cubs. There were also hot dogs and cookies, and we played a few games. The weather was gorgeous (we're having an Indian summer at the moment), so it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.
When I got back from Shubie Park, I left Emily and James with David and went to see a country swing band called Big Blue at Ginger's in Halifax. Chapman and Chris, and Puxley and Jocelyn were also there, as well as our friends Sandy and Thomas from Razzmatazz. We know several of the people in the band, and the pedal steel player, Tex Emery, has been showing Chapman a thing or two about playing slide guitar. Unfortunately he (Tex) is moving back to Saskatchewan in a few weeks, so this was his last time playing with the band. They put on a good show.
Meanwhile, Ann was driving Katy and several of her friends to Graves Island Provincial Park for an overnight camp-out (you may remember that James and I went there back in June with the Beavers). She got back just in time to take Emily and James to their gymastics lessons, and David and his friend Graham to play racquetball. Graham returned with them for a sleepover.
Today Ann was up early again to go the the Early Risers Breakfast at the church; it was her turn to help provide the breakfast, so she went off with a large container of waffle batter, a waffle iron, butter and syrup. I drove the kids down at 10:30 and came back to make lunch as usual. After church Ann went to pick up Katy and friends from the campground while David went to play Dungeons and Dragons with a bunch of the kids from the Youth Group (the Dungeon Master is our friend Mark — I used to play D&D with him back in the mid-1980s — who also leads the Youth Group with Ann). David got back just in time for another soccer practice after which he left immediately for yet another sleepover (don't these kids ever sleep in their own beds?) at the house of one of the other Youth Group members (there is a Professional Development Day tommorrow, so no school). Meanwhile I was taking Emily and James to their swimming lessons.
Are you tired yet? We are! Ann is currently upstairs trying to finish Summer Gone by David Macfarlane, the book that they will be discussing at tomorrow's book club. I don't think she is going to make it.
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At last we have our new furnace and hot water heater hooked up. The furnace is much quieter than the old one and requires much less fiddling with filters and humidifiers. We will have to see how well it does in terms of cost. Our new stove should be installed next week.
Almost all our scheduled activities have now kicked in. Yesterday Emily and James went to their first gymnastics lesson of the season and today their first swimming lesson. David's racquetball starts on Friday. Katy has flute several nights a week. She is in the All-City Senior Concert Band as well as the Senior Jazz Band, for which she needed to get special permission as they normally do not accept flutes, and is also taking flute lessons.
Yesterday Emily and James went to the birthday party for their friend Nicholas (he is in Emily's class at school but is also a good friend of James). They went to the party in the afternoon, then left for their gymnastics lesson, then returned for a sleepover. Apparently the festivities went quite late, so naps were in order this afternoon!
The weather this week has been lovely: clear, sunny and in the low to mid 20s. However, this weekend the last remnants of hurricane Ivan passed over us bringing some moderate winds and a lot of rain. I managed to get a bit of weeding done in the garden yesterday morning, but otherwise we have stayed inside.
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This was to be the week that we converted to gas heat, but, despite Ann's best efforts, things did not go quite according to schedule. We have a new furnace and a new hot water heater, but the gas line from the main in the street to the house has not been laid yet. Thankfully Ann had the forethought to tell them not to disconnect the hot water heater until the gas was connected. If all goes well we should get the gas line in tomorrow and the furnace connected on Tuesday. We will have to wait a couple more weeks until our new gas stove arrives.
We are still trying to get the fall schedule sorted out. Emily is in Brownies again; the first meeting is on Tuesday. James will also be in Beavers, but the first meeting is not for a couple of weeks. Both of them will be taking swimming and gymnastics on the weekends. Katy has stopped her horse riding so that she can work at the Donut Machine on Saturdays; she will probably extend the length of her flute lessons as some recompense. David will be taking racquetball lessons again on Fridays. He has also made the Dartmouth High soccer team. They have had several practices this week, including two today, and play their first game tomorrow. Ann will continue her Tai Chi swords class, but not for a month or two as the instructors, and some of the class, are currently on a trip to China. I still have the weekly Dave Brothers Band practices to keep me busy.
Ann's brother-in-law, Thom, dropped in after dinner on Wednesday. He was in town briefly on business. He stayed long enough to be entertained by the Dave Brothers Band during their weekly practice.
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It has been over a month since I have updated this page as I have been away from home for most of that time. On Thursday August 5 (seems a long time ago now) Ann, myself, David, Emily and James went to Mahone Bay to stay with our friends Jocelyn and Dave while attending the Lunenburg Folk Festival. Katy stayed behind as she had to work. The adults went to the evening oncert while the kids stayed behind with David in charge. On Friday we had a lazy morning, then went into town to go to some of the workshops. Ann went to In Harmony while David and I went to Banjo Heaven and Happiness is a Warm Guitar. In the evening Dave, Ann and I went to the evening concert, but Ann had to leave a little early to drive David home so that he could work on Saturday morning. She returned on Saturday afternoon with Katy as well. On Sunday it was my turn to leave early (around lunchtime) to get ready to leave for St. John's in the evening (more on this below).
Each year we go to Lunenburg we see people that we have never heard of before but whom we really like. This year I was most impressed by Dave Clarke, a fantastic guitar player who plays in the group Steel Rail. We also liked Ken Perlman, Suzie Vinnick, and The Wailin' Jennys.
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On Sunday evening I flew to St. John's for a week-long conference: the 25th Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, one of the major conferences in my field. I gave a paper on Tuesday (on the flow past rotating propeller shafts) and learned a lot about the work that is being done at other labs. On Wednesday afternoon we went for a tour around The Colony of Avalon, an archeological dig at Ferryland, about 45 minutes south of St. John's. This was followed by a lobster dinner in Bay Bulls.
I flew home again on Friday afternoon. On Saturday we loaded up the van and headed for Ontario with our friends Nancy, Josie and Lauren. They live in Barrie but had been in Halifax visiting for the previous two weeks. We left Katy behind to finish the last couple of weeks of her job. Since David had to work his shift at the Donut Machine where he has been working most Saturdays during the summer, we didn't leave until about 4 PM and only made it to Fredericton that evening. The next day found us in Drummondville, then finally Aurora on Monday evening.
We stayed with my Mum and Dad until Thursday. On Tuesday there was a small party with my brother Simon's family to celebrate Dad's birthday which had been a couple of days before. We spent the days quite lazily, playing soccer at the local field in the mornings and making use of Simon's swimming pool (especially enjoyed by Emily).
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On Thursday afternoon we drove to Sarnia to stay with Ann's parents for a week. This too was a fairly lazy stay. Unfortunately the weather was cool so we only went to the beach once; however, we did manage a picnic in Canatara Park with Ann's brother John's family, a birthday party in Merlin for Ann's Aunt Carole, a soccer game featuring our nephew/cousin Michael, and hot dogs and ice cream under the Bluewater Bridges. Ann and I also found time for a dinner for two to celebrate our 20th anniversary (a couple of days late).
We returned to Aurora on Wednesday afternoon staying with Mum and Dad again until Sunday. On Friday evening we had a rousing game of Liar's Dice, a game we played often in my youth, but which I haven't played for about 30 years. Ann and David were new to it, but David liked it a lot (the highlights of his stay were Liar's Dice and the fact that, whenever he passed the kitchen, Granny would ask him if he would like something to eat; apparently he starves at home). On Saturday, Simon and Linda had us all over for a barbecue dinner.
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On Sunday morning everyone except Dad went out for Sunday brunch at Milestones in Newmarket. We left on the long trek home immediately afterwards. Unfortunately it rained for pretty much the whole journey. The first day was particularly bad. On 401 somewhere near Brockville, the three cars and a semi truck just in front of us were involved in an accident caused by the drivers following the car in front of them too closely. Ann, who was driving, was more sensible and managed to stop safely. Luckily no-one was hurt, though a van was damaged badly enough that I think that it will be written off. The delay meant that we ended up driving through Montreal in the dark and the rain. We stayed in Brossard, just the other side of the Champlain bridge. Monday was wet again, but not as bad as the previous day. We went as far as Grand Falls, New Brunswick. We finally arrived home in the late afternoon last Tuesday. Mysteriously, Katy had not really missed us; apparently two weeks alone in a quiet house was such a novel and pleasant experience that she was in no rush for it to come to an end.
School started again on Thursday. James is in Grade 2, Emily in Grade 3, David in Grade 10 (the start of high school here), and Katy in Grade 12, her last year. We have spent the long weekend trying to get caught up (a hopeless task). I spent much of today in the garden hacking through the jungle of weeds that have sprouted in our absence.
August 2004 Archive
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