mare ad mare

Next time, we turn left at the birdhouse!

2009-09-21T09:03:00.007-05:00

One of the great things about living where we do, is the very close proximity to the Kanata Lakes Trail Network - where you can go hiking or mountain biking, and I'm guessing cross-country skiing in the winter. Well, yesterday we had planned on visiting an apple orchard, doing some apple picking, having a hayride - that sort of afternoon, but after a lazy morning - we didn't much feel like driving for an hour to do that... Instead, we decided to take the kids (minus Rebekah of course) and dog on a little walk through the trails. 'Little walk' being the operative word - you see, this 'little walk' turned into a Gilligans Island-like 3 hour tour!!! Unfortunately, we were not at all prepared for anything more than a 20min walk. Not really dressed for the warm day, no water, no food, no cell phone, no camera and no map - like the one shown below - would have been handy!!!

The trouble with the trail system in this area, is that there are so many little loops and turns, that you can easily go the wrong way - we never said lost - but with 30 km of trails, you can be out for a looooooooooong time, and not see civilization. Luckily these trails are bordered on all sides by major roads - so you're never truly lost - but it sure felt that way at times. I've biked back there a number of times, but rarely gone the same way twice...

Mistake Number 1 (pink star #1 on map below)

We started out ok, made our way in and found the bird feeder intersection and turned right. We cursed this decision for a good part of the next few hours. A left turn limits the area we can go before hitting a big road, and is usually good for a quick tour. But this time, I felt like going right. Like I said, there's lots of little loops and usually you can make your way out pretty quick from that area. After awhile, we did come up to the big pond (missing one out point already), and from this point I was fairly certain that if we continued this way, we would make our way around the pond and come out near Klondike road by the flat rock section.

Mistake Number 2 (pink star #2 on map)

I'm not sure that you can call this point a mistake - as we really didn't see the connections that the map is showing. We really did not have that many decision points. Lots of places have spots that could be trails, but don't look like a main trail. So that could have been the case here - but we didn't see it... If we had seen these connections, we might have been able to get back relatively quick - but we didn't.

Mistake Number 3 (pink star #3 on map)

Keeping in mind the looping, we came to an intersection and had the option of continuing further into the forest, or turn right (which theoretically would have kept us in the direction I wanted - back toward home). Guess which one we chose? Yup the wrong one. If we had gone left, we could have looped around and been back within 30mins or so...

But no, we continued around the lake and finally came to the Inukshuk.

Mistake Number 4 (pink star #4 on map)

I remember having gone past this pile of rocks before (named the Inukshuk), but couldn't remember what to do at that point. Looking now at the map, there's supposed to be another unofficial trail leading off from that point which would have put us back towards Second Line and Klondike road. But again - we didn't see it...

At this point, we were happy we hadn't started the walk at 4! We had already walked for a good hour or so and ~6km. The girls were still keeping up pretty good, but were definitely wanting to get home soon. We were able to keep their spirits up by taking in the scenery, and finding lots of little animals and snakes along the way.

However, not seeing any options at this point, the only thing we could do is continue forward. For the next 15 mins or so, I thought we were close to our exit - but it never seem to come. And once we started looping the wrong way - away from the pond, and further west - I knew that we were on our way to Huntmar or Old Carp road at the opposite end of the forest from where we had entered.

Every once in awhile we would see bikers, or other hikers - thinking that we were getting closer to an out point, but soon after were back to being completely alone and in the middle of nowhere. We did run into one biker more than a few times, and like me, had been out a few times before with friends, but didn't have a map this time, and he wasn't exactly sure where he was either. He did have GPS though, and we could see that we were heading towards Huntmar. Problem is - it's not a straight line - and that part of the forest is some of the most difficult terrain in the area. Lots of rocks, ups and downs - and it was starting to take its affect on the girls.

The joking and minor complaints about being lost, and wanting to get home were becoming worse. They were tired and thirsty - the only one able to drink was the poor dog, who had never been on such a walk - not that the girls had either - but at least the dog could drink from the area ponds.

This part of the trail seemed to go on forever, and just when it seemed to start heading in the right direction, it would turn back the other way. Looking at the map now - I can see that we were on the Outback loop. 6 km of Very hard, technical terrain as listed on the mountain bike map. Every once in awhile the same biker would catch up to us. We'd check his GPS to see that yes - we were getting there...slowly. He joked that his girlfriend was really pissed off from being out this far, was supposed to be back home an hour before!

Out finally!

We finally started hearing cars. I took a path less traveled this time to continue towards the sound of the cars and a few minutes later we were out of the forest, on the rail line about 100m from Huntmar Rd.

While we were happy to be out, we were pretty far from home. I had been at this point on my bike before, and it had taken a good 20mins or so of hard biking to get home. We had been out already for 3 hours over hard terrain, tired, hot, thirsty and with kids ready to drop - although not heavily complaining or willing to take piggy-back rides. They were real troopers.

Good decision #1

At that spot too, was a massive uphill walk to start our way back. By the time we got to the top, they were all ready to drop. I was ready to go ahead and come back for them with the car, but we didn't feel comfortable splitting up. They'd have to sit there and wait another 30-40mins easily. Had to do something...

Emma was just about done. I picked her up and continued down the road. At one of the houses on the road, there were a couple sitting out on their deck with their grandchildren playing in the front, and I could see they saw us struggling along. Knowing that we wouldn't be able to make it without killing ourselves, I walked up to them, explained the situation and asked if I could call a cab. He offered the phone, but then quickly instead offered a ride! PHEW!

10 mins later and many, many thanks to our driver, we were home and completely exhausted after over 3 hours and ~15 km of hiking!

We said that we should never again talk about this hike - but I guarantee - this will be one of those moments that we'll all remember for the rest of our lives.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a nice little gift certificate at the beer store for that guy... he really was a life saver!

(btw - here's a map of the area, the blue line is our path as best as I can guess it...and if you ever think about heading out in this area - bring the map!)

Back to school!

2009-09-02T10:40:00.005-05:00

Just as it appears as though summer might actually make an appearance, the kids headed back to school yesterday.

It's so different from how I remember it - maybe it's because I was in a french immersion program, or maybe it's the new class size limitations - but there weren't 4 different classes for every single grade. We didn't need to wait for the first day to find out who we had for a teacher, or who was going to be in our class... I went to school from year to year, with the same group of kids. We knew who the teacher was for the next grade, and that was going to be your teacher the next year.

In this exploding area of Ottawa however, even with a new school opening up nearby to take a good chunk of the kids - it's still school-yard chaos on day 1. Papers posted on the walls for all the kids to see which class they're in, and for the older students - they had to wait to get into the gym to get their assigned teachers and classes... I can only imagine what kind of crazy the gym would have been for that. It's a brand new school, only a few years old - but they've put an addition on it now, and have 10 or 12 portables in the yard to hold all the kids. Of course they're still building a pile of homes in the area too - where the heck are they going to fit them all?!?! More great city planning Ottawa.

What's more amazing, is the names on the class lists... The ratio of boys to girls is at least 4:1 and the names, like the area, is so diverse. There's a ton of new canadians in the area, from Indian to Russian, Muslim and Chinese - the regular old 'canadians' are the minority here. Where I grew up, they used to have seperate areas in the class lists for Mc's and Mac's on top of the M's. Not quite the same problem here. Meghan said she had a few new boys in her class, one who's first name was Zhang, the other who's last name was Zhang ;-)

But the girls seem relatively happy with their classes and teachers, so here's to hoping for a good year for them!

bummer summer though...

Camping at Voyageurs Provincial Park

2009-08-04T13:40:00.018-05:00

Before the summer started, Sara and I actually got organized for a change (might have helped that I wasn't constantly traveling!) and reserved some camping weekends. One of the weekends/campgrounds we reserved was at Samuel de Champlain, the girls were going to be camping with their grandparents and cousins for the week, and we would go up and spend the weekend with them (and yes, the week at home alone was nice). Samuel de Champlain is a very nice campground, covered it last year so won't go into too many details other than to say - it's great one of the better ones, but at just over 3 hours away - it's not great for a weekend getaway. The girls loved being able to camp with grandpa and grandma though and they called in the middle of the week to say they had seen umpteen turtles, loads of frogs, a loon and her baby, river otters, great blue herons... on one canoe trip! Was a nice weekend for us - other than all the rain, but that's the way it's been this summer.

For more on Samuel de Champlain, check out my previous post.

Park Hunting

In selecting our other 2 weekend camping destinations, we had a few criterias which had to be met, and luckily, the provincial park website is not bad for checking things out and getting some decent information - whereas my parents used to drive in to the park on the way by to see if would be ok, and check out desireable sites - we can do that online now for the most part. It's not

100%, but far better than going in blind!

We wanted campgrounds that were around 1.5 hours away, sites that were a decent size, fairly private, grass covered and close to water... Not too easy, but we did manage to reserve the long weekend at the Voyageurs Provincial Park, near Hawkesbury and the Quebec border.

Camp Setup

We were anticipating the first half-decent weekend of the summer, it's been raining CONSTANTLY, and we're all getting more than a little tired of it...

We got there, got setup, had a decent enough setup too - especially for not anticipating any rain. We had a new dining tent, and lots of tarp to keep us covered if we did get some rain.

By the way - those are Eureka Apex tents, the 2 XTC and 3 XTC. Nice little tents. The fly completely covers the tent, and the tent itself is nice and airy - go up in a flash too. Have never waterproofed them, and have yet to see drop one inside the tent. Having the tarp over the entrances like this is nice though for when it rains - you can get in and out without getting wet and have your shoes outside. We had some nice little straw mats between the two tents too...

We bought a dining tent too, so we could hide somewhere if it rained, or if the bugs got too bad. Had one spec'd out - but Canadian Tire ran out, so settled on this much more economical model. Actually would have loved the 'Northern Breeze' from Eureka, but at $400 I wasn't that in love with it...

Two main problems of this Woods tent, was that there weren't enough trees around to hook up a tarp over it, and it didn't fit the oversized picnic table...

A Perfect Day of Camping!

Saturday was a perfect day of camping. It was mid-20's, sunny with a few clouds and we got in a ton of good camping activities. We went out canoeing and introduced the girls to fishing! Not that they caught anything, was probably a good thing we didn't, they're huge animal lovers, and even though we told them it would be a catch and release situation - if anything were to go wrong, it would have spelled disaster... at any rate, they had a good time learning how to cast and troll. Caught more weeds than anything - but they liked it.

Now - it might not have looked like the nicest of days - but that was relatively early in the morning and was actually quite nice for being out in the canoe (no burning hot sun).

We got back in time for lunch, and put on a fire to have pie-iron grilled cheese sandwiches. Normally, you do pizzas, but we screwed that up... The secret to a good pie-iron sandwich (just like marshmallows) is red-hot coals. Getting a fire going with camp store firewood is near impossible - since it's ALWAYS soaking wet! But we did get it going and got our nice grilled cheese - btw - this is what pie-irons look like:

After lunch, we went on a very lame frog hunt. There were some park guides telling the kids about the lifecycle of frogs, a little info about frogs and then we ALL went on a walk to find frogs. Now anyone that knows anything about frog catching, knows that you have to be quiet, slow, sneaky - so how does parading 40 something kids and their parents through a swamp help them find frogs?!?! Needless to say it was a complete waste of time - told the girls we'd head back later...

We headed to the overly crowded beach after that. Weekends at provincial parks are havens for family get togethers. The picnic areas usually surround the beach, so it's packed too. Lots of 'new canadians' at the park too. Couple of burqa's out too - one in full gear - IN the lake! Never seen that before.

For supper that night - we were tempted by the 3.99 spaghetti offer - but decided on bacon, eggs and beans. We had brought out the cast iron skillet, so we started another fire, got it down to a nice low burn and slapped the bacon in the pan - right on the fire! Tastiest bacon we've ever had - bar none. Perfectly crisp with a nice smokey flavour. Check it out:

Sara on the other hand, got to fight off mosquitos while cooking under the tarp next to the bush...

It was a late supper (we had gone for another canoe ride) so we were able to just let the fire go, and move right into marshmallow country - ending our perfect day of camping.

Then the rains came...

It was SUPPOSED to be nice all weekend, but we were rudely woken by raindrops at 6:30 the next morning. Sara ran out and put away all the things that had been hanging, and then headed back into the tent to wait out what we hoped would just be a short shower. But it didn't go away... and it gradually got worse. One of our bungees that was holding the tarps out over our table and dining tent had given way with the rain, so there went our cover! We decided to head into town for breakfast, get out of the rain for a bit and hopefully wait for it to pass over.

But it didn't. It kept raining and raining. Luckily we had a nice breakfast in Hawesbury, but we couldn't stay all day. Decided to head back and heard on the radio that it was supposed to rain all day. That was it - we decided to pack up and go home. No sense in sitting in rain all day to just pack up in the morning. So I sent Sara and the girls in the tent to play cards, and I packed up. The tarps covered me for at least half the pack up - but as we started to pack up the tents and then the tarps - we got soaked. The tents were a muddy mess and the tarps were worse... but we managed to jam everything in and get away.

Voyageur Provincial Park - The good, bad and ugly
Good:
Close to home (1.5hours), decent sites, pretty good privacy (except when the neighbours feel responsible for providing the music broadcast for the area...and I love Metallica, but NOT while camping) I suppose you could say that the beaches were ok - but I'm stretching for good things here.

Bad:
Close to the highway, you could hear traffic all the time. The water was not great for canoeing, way too many motorboats coming in and out of the Ottawa River into the bays. The park store barely had any supplies, and of course the wood was completely soaked.

Ugly:
Dirty. The bathrooms were not nearly as well kept as some others we've been to, and there was garbage overflow at the cans - because the garbage dropoff was not within walking distance.

Overall - wouldn't go back... but not the worst place by any means.

Maybe next post I'll do a little bit on the amount of crap you need to have a 'nice and easy' weekend of camping!

BOLO recap

2009-07-24T13:28:00.003-05:00

Last night I attended (and read) at Blog Out Loud Ottawa at the Raw Sugar Cafe. A little different for sure - but had a great time doing it. I wasn't really nervous about reading, til I actually got started...

It's not like I'm not used to speaking in front of large groups - I've presented in front of hundreds at user conferences and company meetings. And I used to play in front of 10's - sometimes 100's of people when I was singing/playing bass in my punk band. So I shouldn't have been nervous. But this group was a little different from my typical audiences. I had to read in front of fellow bloggers - 95% of them bright, intelligent and talented women - which was more than a little intimidating I have to admit.

I read terribly. I was the last up for the night - was a late addition, so I think I screwed up the closing order a little bit, as I'm sure more were there to hear Dani than me - but I'm glad Lynn let me read.

I read about my last day with my former company - titled 'my not so short goodbye'. And like the title says - it wasn't a short post... I read it and timed it, by the 8 minute mark I had barely finished Portugal - so had to pull out the editing pen. Most of what was cut, was project specific work stories - but I hope some go back and read it all - there's some pretty good stuff in there! It was the end of the night - and I think I tried to move almost too quickly through it - I speak fast enough as it is... But it was a little weird being in front of a crowd, yet having to stare down at this piece of paper and just read. I had to adlib a few times - just to be able to look out and engage the crowd(hope noone would be sleeping or sneaking out). Those were about the only moments up there where I actually felt comfortable! Usually I'll have a slide show, or white board behind me - with only a few notes or points to keep me on-track, where I'll provide filler to keep the speech flowing - but I didn't have that luxury here. Maybe if there's a next time - I'll bring some props or a projector to help me out.

It was definitely different - definitely fun. Some great stories too, and I've got a brand new reader list to catch up on now. Hearing the stories right from the source allows you to get to know that person that much better - know where they're coming from - so it will definitely help me get into their blogs faster!

It wasn't the first time I had performed at a coffee house - but it was the first time I did it relatively sober, without a bass in my hands and have an actual recollection of the night the next morning! Oh - and we didn't wreck the place! Here's a shot of me the last time I played a coffee house... over 15 years ago...

You don't want to see the 'after' pics...

Summer Vacation / Dance Finals

2009-07-22T10:58:00.020-05:00

Well - more Dance Finals than summer vacation really... but not for lack of trying!

The club where the girls dance decided to go to finals this year, and so 2 weeks ago we headed off to Collingwood. Normally this would be a 6+ hour drive from Ottawa to Collingwood, but we decided to break the trip up (5 in the car - plus dog is too much for that long of a trip) and head to North Bay for a night to visit my parents. A couple of 3.5 hour trips later - we were in Collingwood.

The finals were held at the Blue Mountain Resort, a pretty big resort - with a number of condo/hotels and a nice little village to walk around at the center. There's a conference center right there on-site, plenty of restaurants, groceries, a Beavertails and Starbucks right there - so no need to head into town even and it was all walking distance. Was nice that we didn't have to do much driving while there, and could focus a little more on the finals and some relaxing...

The resort itself is a 'ski' resort, although the hill is pretty small. It's reported as Ontario's biggest ski hill - which really doesn't say much for Ontario skiing. There are a number of runs, but the hill is only 450m high with a vertical drop of just over 200m. But we DID NOT GO FOR SKIING - it is summer after all...

We did go up the hill to look around - could see Georgian Bay from the top and all around the area. Nice view. The hill in the summer is used for hiking, mountain biking and downhill biking (which looked pretty fun).

Here's a pic from the top, village below and Georgian Bay in the background.

Rebekah actually joined us for the trip! (I think she was hoping for more sun...) Was pretty bored for most of the week, until she started hanging out with some of the older dancers that she knew from school.

Here is a quick clip of the resort and some of the views from the hill. clip

When we booked, we had hoped to have the first part of the week for dance, the second part for vacation - but the first half extended to Thursday to compete in the overalls - so it was more 75% dance, 25% vacation. Which ended up being ok - because the first part of the week, the weather was crap. We were able to sneak a few swims/hottubs during the few moments of sun in just about 20c weather... but Friday was great, hot and sunny, great for hiking and swimming.

As for the dancing...

Both Emma and Meghan competed. Emma only had one solo, and was done on morning 1. She did her best routine yet, but came up a little short against another girl from Elite. She was very happy with the way she danced - so it was all good.

Meghan did an amazing job on her solo, landing her tripple spin and all of her holds. She eventually won 1st overall in her category and a photographers award for the most photogenic routine - check out some of the pics!

Many of her other routines (solos and groups) did very well, getting high scores and one of the numbers competed in the dance-off. So overall - a great week for Meghan!

Highlight of the week?

I think the girls would agree that the highlight of their week, was their workshops with Lisa from So you think you can Dance Canada! They each had a couple hours with her and learned a short routine in jazz funk - check em out...

Emma with Lisa - clip

Meghan with Lisa - clip

Dance is over!!!

No more dance for the year now... well, there are some summer practice sessions... but last night we found out that Emma has been asked to move up to Meghan's competition group - so she is EXTREMELY happy about that!

A final note - the year end recital for Elite went off well (prior to finals) and the parents number survived the back-to-back nights (with just the appropriate amounts of alcohol). As promised - here is a pic of the Dance Dads in all their glory...

If you can guess which one is me - you get a prize...

6 month anniversary

2009-07-20T13:40:00.003-05:00

I received a nice little note over the weekend from our friends that had moved to town from Germany. I wrote a little about their arrival back in February - New Canadian and since then, they have settled in somewhat and are enjoying our rather crappy summer, but are definitely looking forward to some heat... Hope this week is good, as their kids and ours are on a week long summer camp with the YMCA.

Back to the note... he had wanted to post it on the blog, so I was more than glad to oblige!

Dear Ian and Sara,

Today, I completed my first 6 months in Canada! These months have been hectic and challenging but surely enriching. Even though they are dark clouds in the horizon and lot of uncertainties, we still think that coming to Canada was a great choice.

We enjoyed our very first Canada Day celebrating with your wonderful Canadian family and hope to take pleasure in many more such days in your generous land: Canada.

We thank your family for all you have done to help us settle down and feel at “home“ in this new Country, Continent, Culture and all the things that come along. We have travelled and lived around the world: France, Japan, India, Belgium, Germany (where we first met) and now Canada… We sound like professional travelers? Yet every move is tough and consumes a lot of energy. But this time it has been smoother, and this is thanks to the McMartin family, for their time and goodwill in helping us.

Thank you, Merci

Arabinda and family

I hope that they continue to enjoy their lives here, especially as the 6 month 'honeymoon' phase fades in the rear view mirror... the next 6 months will contain another decent chunk of winter. The first winter is nice, unique - all good, but I guarantee that next winter they'll be cursing the snow, after having shovelled for the 100th time, just like everyone else!

For now, I'll let them enjoy the summer (as crappy as it's been so far) and let them know that we were very glad that we could help them get settled, and we're even happier that they're here to stay.

Canada Day in Kanata

2009-07-13T11:48:00.005-05:00

Just a little late for a Canada Day wrap-up, but it's been a busy few weeks...

We had a pretty tame Canada Day. I took the girls to Canada Day in Kanata to see what was going on, we had hoped to have our shirts on display, but we couldn't work out the insurance details in time... no biggie - we just went and had fun instead.

Carnival Rides

Ah carnies... those barely safe rides that go from place to place, weekend after weekend came to Canada Day in Kanata again this year. The girls like the rides - well, the smaller ones... they're slowly becoming a little more brave with each passing year - but we're nowhere near ready for Canada's Wonderland yet. They took on the Octopus and Scrambler, but I couldn't talk them into the Salt'n'Pepper shakers, or even the Ferris Wheel... too high... Meghan wanted to go, but Emma wouldn't budge! (clip)

There were some bouncy things around the corner, so the girls decided they wanted to give it a try. There were 4 or 5 of these things, so we found the shortest line and 10mins later the girls had a nice little race. (clip)

We lucked out too, as just a few minutes later - we could see the air coming out of it as the whole thing started to collapse. I would have been some pissed to have waited and then watch it fall apart just before my turn!

Beavertails!

Yummy Beavertails - a must have at any Ottawa event, or anytime wandering around downtown - at least for our girls. Beavertails are flat pastries covered in a variety of sauces - but the standard is Cinnamon and Sugar. We snagged a Cinnamon/Sugar and a Maple tail - the girls devoured them in seconds. Called Sara a little later - she had decided to stay home to prep for our guests, but made us bring one home ;-) (clip)

We didn't stick around for the whole day, so we missed whatever fireworks that might have been there and Loverboy... yes, they're still alive... was told by one of Meghan's friends who saw them - that they looked very old, and the singer was looking tired from trying to run around. too funny...

Now downtown Ottawa is another story. Tons of people pack the hill to see Sarah McLachlan and the fireworks

We're not quite ready for the crowds yet, but maybe next year...

We finished off our day by having our new Canadian friends over for beers and a bbq. It was their first Canada Day - so hope they enjoyed it!

Another guest post on The Expat Blog

2009-06-29T14:51:00.003-05:00

Stop in at the Expat Blog to read my latest - trying to keep the memories of Canada alive for those so far away... Happy almost Canada Day!

http://canadianexpatriatesblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/quirky-canadians.html

Anyone else remember The Pop Shoppe?

Canada Day TShirt Giveaway!

2009-06-24T08:52:00.007-05:00

With Canada Day fast approaching, thought I'd put together a little promotion for our new brand of Canadian Girl T's!

We're going to giveaway 5 shirts to the first five to respond to our little challenge...

The Challenge

As you know, our blog is full of us having fun with our girls - showing the world what it's like to be a Canadian girl. Now we want to see what your Canadian girls do for fun! Now this is not only restricted to kids in Canada - because there are more than a few Canadian expat kids out there too (like our girls used to be...) - so your little Canadian girl, having fun anywhere - let's see it!

This blog has readers from over 50 countries - so we are spreading the word.

We'll post the winners on our blog to help us show off Canada and/or our Canadian girls wherever they are - whatever they're doing. Of course we will only post what is sent, so if you don't want to include names or whatever - don't! Please include a picture or two, or even better, a short video - could be links to something you already have posted with flickr or youtube...

Here's a sample of what you could send:

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Schloss Neuschwanstein, Germany

Had the chance to go see the 'Cinderella Castle' or Schloss Neuschwanstein with the family while living in Germany - beautiful place, beautiful day. Meghan and I hiked up to where only few go, to get a spectacular view from high above the castle. Sara was not too pleased that we did it... but it's something I'll never forget.

For those who can't see the video window - here's the link: Schloss Neuschwanstein

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It doesn't have to be a huge thing - just a quick paragraph or two - more if you like. Please let us know which shirt and size you would like - they come in Small (6-8) and Medium (10-12) - don't forget to provide your address!

Please send everything to info@mareadmare.ca

For those who don't make it into the first 5, we will be having an ongoing giveaway - one per month and will be picking from all the submissions sent (and of course posting the winners!). One more thing - we're working on a 'big girl' shirt and will have them soon, so this contest is open to all Canadian girls ;-)

Special note: If you want a shirt, but can't get something together in time for Canada Day - we are providing FREE shipping until Canada Day through iCraft.ca

Thanks and good luck!

(p.s - if you hurry, they will arrive in time for Canada Day!)

So...What to do for fathers day?

2009-06-19T08:18:00.006-05:00

If you're wondering what to do this father's day, other than relax a lot... there are a few things that you could do with those kids that made you the good dad you are!

Since it is father's day weekend, just a quick note from me - then need to get ready for a big dance weekend for the girls - RECITAL weekend, which means a full friday and saturday...then recovery on Sunday - which is a decent way to spend fathers day ;-)

For those of you who don't yet have any elaborate plans...here's a few ideas from things I've done with the kids over the past year:

1. Build a hanging tomato planter.

2. Put together a homemade bird feeder.

3. Popular around here - go canoeing.

4. If you're still in the canoe - chase Loons.

5. If you're still near water (preferably fast water) go river rafting!

Or - you can do what I'm going to do - chill out in my newly finished basement!!!

You can see the whole lifecycle of the building process - along with the finished product - in this clip!

enjoy the weekend.

Bonnechere Caves - School Trip

2009-06-16T08:31:00.012-05:00

Last week I volunteered to accompany Meghan's class to the Bonnechere Caves in Eganville - about 80 mins west of Ottawa. Had another great day for it, not that we really needed it, since we were going to be in caves - but actually spent most of our day outside - so the good weather was a good thing!

I've been on a few of these class trips lately, but this is the first time we rode at the back of the bus. I had completely forgot that that was where you got the worst ride... it was over an hour of bouncing down mostly country roads and was cursing myself the whole way for not bringing my noise cancelling headphones to reduce the screams for the trip.

My crew

Luckily I was assigned to watch over four very nice girls, all friends with Meghan and all kids that I already knew - so that made the day easier...

The history

We got off the bus, and were welcomed by the owner (was a bit surprised that it wasn't crown land) of the land and caves, Chris Hinsperger. He gave us a nice little speach about how the caves were found, marked by a map maker in 1853 by noting 'subterranian channels', and then told us a little about the founder - Tom Woodward. This guy must have been nuts - cuz most of the caves that we were able to explore were completely underwater when he started exploring. He eventually bought the land and blocked off some of the river entrances with concrete, and pumped out most of the rest of the water - and made it a tourist attraction!

Fossils

At the beginning of the tour we were told about the land that we were on, and that it was one of the richest fossil deposits of the Ordovician period (about 400 to 500 million years ago). These were little invertebrates and plant life that should have only been able to survive in tropical climates - says something about the continental drifts doesn't it!

They had a number of fossils to pass around that had been found on site, pretty interesting little presentation, and the kids actually listened...

The Caves

So following that, we got to go in the caves - we were the first of three groups - was glad that we weren't the last!

The caves themselves were nowhere near as big as the Luray Caverns down in Virginia, and since the caves had been pretty much filled with water up until about 50 years ago - there wasn't much in the way of stalagtites or stalagmites. This was pretty much the biggest in there...

But it was quite interesting in the way some of the caves had been formed by having rushing waters flow through them for hundreds of millions of years.

You can even see how the different water levels created layers in the rock - it was like a big wall of razor blades.

There were a few smaller caves off the main path, that the kids (and some of the more adventurous volunteers) were able to explore.

There was something like an overall 50m drop from surface to the bottom of the caves, and a temp drop from 24c or so outside, to 10c inside! And since it had rained quite a bit lately, the kids were constantly getting dripped on - so cold and wet, I think they were ok to see the other end of the tunnel and get back out to the nice sunny day.

We had to wait for the rest to finish their tours, so had plenty of time to explore - although they warned us against going off the beaten path - poison ivy. I thought they were just trying to scare the kids into staying put - but I could see plenty of it lying around! The kids got to check out the store and shovel in mounds of sugar that they were able to buy there. The owner Chris said he wouldn't let anyone buy anything until they were done their tour - I think it was a clever way to keep kids relatively calm until being done with going down into the caves ;-)

The river that flows by is really nice, and had this old broken bridge - had to take the shot.

I wasn't looking forward to the ride home, but figured I could maybe sneak in a few minutes nap... Even with all the kids yelling and screaming - literally all around me - I put my knees up, head to the wall, and napped the entire way back! Now that's a good school trip.

Baby steps everywhere

2009-06-12T14:36:00.004-05:00

First off - want to thank XUP for the fantastic (and unsolicited!) post on our behalf for our little family project. From that, I've already received a few sales, some contact information for advertising and a few notes from groups wanting to do product reviews - so hopefully we get on a bit of a roll.

Still trying to get some exposure - I've applied to become a vendor at the Carp Farmers Market, a local favourite of ours, and have attempted to contact the Ottawa Store downtown - but have yet to hear back from either... Contacted the Canada Day in Kanata group to see if I could get in there, pretty last minute - but seems like a possibility. Canada Day seems like just about the best day for people to 'get' the shirts and our message. So fingers crossed!

On the job front...

I had an interview today with a software company out of Quebec City, that is looking to expand in the Ottawa area. They're providing a product for the R&D community to facilitate grants and project work - interview went very well and I hope to hear back on it soon!

The basement

I really need to put the clips together to show the progress I'm making - BEFORE - I'm done... I hope to be done in the next few days! I only have a bit of the ceiling, the floor, baseboards and doors to go - seems like a lot, but I feel like I'm 'this' close to FINALLY being done!

Game 7 tonight! Enjoy!

The Westboro Affair

2009-06-09T07:12:00.006-05:00

We had the Westboro Community Sale this past Saturday, and I had reserved a table to get our new line of Tshirts out into the public for the first time. This was more than a little nerve racking - putting yourself and your ideas right into the public view like that - looking, hoping for their approval, but with the obvious questions 'what if they hate it'?!?! There have been some great comments from some of my readers on the brand and the Ts - and that gave me a good measure of confidence to get out there - so thanks to you for that!

Relatively high hopes
I had some dillusions of having a good day. I was well prepared, the table was setup nicely with well printed signage and holders, free colouring books to handout, a good display of the shirts, I even brought a pile of change to make it easier for people to pull out their $20's. But it wasn't quite the success I had hoped for...

I was thinking that it would make such a great story that I had gone out with my wares (old school like a fishmonger or something...) sold well, and made enough money to buy supper for the family and go forward from there.

Didn't quite happen. I didn't make enough for lunch, I didn't make enough to buy myself a beer... not one sale. Boo.

Not all bad!
While I had hoped to make a few sales, I had to remind myself that the real reason I was out there was to expose the brand to the public and gauge their interest. In that area, it went very well. I had lots of people taking long looks, smiling at the design/text - lots of 'cutes' and 'adorables' - I think the spread showed quite nicely in that way to attract attention. A number of people read the 'About Us' that I had put up and really like the idea, the theme, etc - even had a fellow former expat come up to me and discuss the same problems I had faced in trying to find something nice and Canadian for the girls to wear. She was among a number of people who said they would be back later - but also took cards and colouring books so they could get to the site. Coming back later never happened, but I did leave a little early (I was getting burned to a crisp!!) - and there was lots of other things happening at the Westboro Community Centre that day.

Not quite the right environment...
First off - it was a garage sale, and most kids were more interested in all the old toys that were strewn about... and for others rummaging around, I don't think the mindset was right for what I was proposing. And I mentioned it before, but there lots of other things there to keep the kids busy - a band, activities...etc

I had also hoped to have my chief sales associates (my girls) with me to help bring in the customers. They had a few dance sessions that day, and there was so many people/cars at the event, that it made it impossible for them to get back and forth. If I get into the Carp Farmers Market - I'll be sure to have them there with me!

I'm being tested
Like I said, it was somewhat dissapointing - but I view it as a test. I was rejected - do I have the guts to keep pushing forward? Yes. There were good points to draw from the experience, and I need to build off those. If everyone who has ever tried something new and crazy quit after their first failure - we'd be without a lot of really cool stuff...

Next Up?
I'm going to be heading downtown today, to the Ottawa Store in the Byward Market. I'm hoping to partner up with them, have them be the flagship of sorts for our line. Makes sense - it has lots of Canadian touristy types things, so I'm hoping they see it the same way. With them being right down in the market should have lots of exposure for the brand - keep your fingers crossed for me, I'll let you know how it goes!

BTW - went with Meghan's class to Bonnechere Caves yesterday, will post on that later too!

A new challenge

2009-06-03T14:34:00.014-05:00

I've never been one to sit around and wait for things to happen. Being 'unemployed' for the first time...ever...has given me more time than ever before to look at new opportunities. And really, with the current economic climate, you have to look at anything and everything. I've always wanted to own and operate my own business, and recently I've been wanting to try something a little different that the IT world that I've worked in my whole life. I've also wanted to expand on my comfort zone - work on marketing, branding, accounting, business management, sales, design...etc and I want to produce something that I can touch and feel...more than just 1's and 0's for a change.

With all that said, I'm pleased to announce that I have started my own little company - mare ad mare, which is latin for 'sea to sea' and part of the Canadian motto (check the cover of your new passports). Our goal will be to build a fresh new brand of clothing for Canadian (and wannabe Canadian) girls. I will be using this blog, much as I have in the past - to continue showing people around the globe (over 50 countries now!) what it's like to be a Canadian girl, tracing the footsteps of our 3 girls as we explore more of this great place we call home.

I have built a website at www.mareadmare.ca to display the shirts, provide links to the blog, where to buy and colouring pages. Take a look - let me know what you think!

We're starting the brand through 5 Tshirts, 4 of them representing our 4 seasons. We've taken elements of Canadiana and boiled them down to a fun design and a cute saying. These designs are kid approved, and have been updated through some great feedback on an earlier round of ideas on this brand. Special thanks to XUP, Jenn and others who commented - Hope you like the changes!

The line

--------------

Spring...Finally!

After a long Canadian winter, spring can never arrive too soon! Pull on this Spring Green T and go planting girls!

Summer - Pass the Marshmallows!

Just in time for summer. Summer in Canada is the time for camping, camp fires and of course - Marshmallows! Get ready to go roast some in this summer yellow T.

Fall - Jump In!

A big pile of leaves for you here! As a Canadian summer turns to fall, the leaves change colours and then fall off the trees. Kids rake them up and play!

So go on, Jump into Fall with this Orange T.

Winter - It's not ALWAYS cold in Canada.

How many times have you had to tell someone that it's not always cold here?
Well, sometimes it is cold - but to make your point, grab this little winter blue T and let them know that it's not just snow and ice up here all the time!

A kiss - Donnez-moi un petit baiser!

'Gimme a little kiss' - says it all.
Girls, grab this little white T, and go get your kiss ;-)

In stores near you

We will be looking for retail partners to sell our line across the country, but for those who don't have a retail partner nearby (or are located abroad) - I've setup an etsy shop for the moment.

If you know someone or a store in your town that might be interested - please let me know! (I'm great with kick-backs! )

First showing - Westboro, this Saturday!

This weekend - we will have a table at the Westboro Garage Sale at Dovercourt! Not the most glamerous start, but figured it would be a good opportunity to get out and get some feedback on the shirts, see what kind of success we might be able to have... I hope to have the girls there helping me out (in between dance lessons). We'll be handing out colouring books for those poor kids that had to be dragged out to the garage sale - hope to see you there!

I'm pretty excited to get this going (finally after it being in my head for almost 2 years now...). I'll be updating the blog with business notes too now - hope you don't mind, but it should be an interesting journey. Can't wait.

What's wrong with having girls?

2009-05-29T12:23:00.004-05:00

Being a dad to 3 girls - it hasn't been easy, but it's not the mass disappointment that this commercial makes it out to be...

Hey 'dad' come up with a better answer - and faster next time! You're making me look bad.

As he's bumbling for the words, trying to come up with some pseudo answer to not break her heart - he actually does... Cuz by taking that half second or two, he's said all he needs to, indicating to her that she's really a second class kid to him cuz she isn't a boy. He's insulting himself, and other dads that are more than happy to have girls! And I'm a little pissed at McCrappy's for even putting a commercial like that out there - not that they're going to lose much business from me.

Karma?

My friends say it's karma exacting some measure of revenge on me for not being a little angel when I was younger... but having these kids has changed my life completely, and having all girls has given me a very different perspective. I'm not saying that I don't want to be traveling 85% of the time again when they're all teenagers, but at the same time - I get to learn new things, and not have to try to live my life vicariously through a son, pressuring him to do the things I never got to do... and I'm not going to be forcing any of the girls to be my 'designated boy'. Not that there's anything wrong with boys - we had a name picked out from the beginning - just never got to use it, and I wasn't going to have FOUR girls ...

Pricesses and Divas

And just because they're girls - doesn't mean they have to be princesses or DIVAS (hate that word). My girls get in there, get their hands dirty when they need too. They love to help me out with whatever I'm doing - gardening, fixing the car, working on the rec room...etc They like biking, canoeing, skiing and camping - just like I do, so what's the problem? I guess for big hockey/football/baseball guys - their dreams for producing the next franchise player isn't going to happen - so maybe that's where that McD's dad stumbles for a second...

Of course, my girls are in Dance, and yes - dress like little princesses/divas while on stage - and this weekend they're back at competition. Emma had her first solo this morning, after being selected very late in the season to get a solo - she's learned her entire routine in little over 2 weeks! She did great - so proud that she made it all the way through very well, and ended up with a great score!

Going where no man has gone before...

Of course that's not true - there are tons of great dads out there that will do anything for their daughters - just watch So You Think You Can Dance. There was one dad last night whose chin was bouncing all over the place - trying to fight off the tears! (now that was funny)

However, there are a few things that I probably would not have done in my life had I been the father to 3 boys, instead of 3 girls - like being in the 'Daddy Synchronized Swim' for Rebekah's team when she was younger (yes - we looked EXACTLY like that SNL skit with Martin Short...). And I definitely would not be doing what I will for the first time this weekend - at a competition no less - being part of the parents dance number!

Here's a small hint as to what I'll look like come sunday...

But there's nothing wrong a little fun, and it's a challenge just like any other, and if you're not challenging yourself and having fun - what are you doing?

Victoria Day = Planting Day

2009-05-22T12:54:00.007-05:00

Took a break from the basement last weekend to take care of some overdue gardening and yard work. And as a break from the basement today (making good progress though) - I'm catching up on my blog by writing about the garden...

Victoria Day

Known to most as the May two-four weekend, I had to check up on the actual relevance of the day after the girls asked... figured it had to do with the former queen (why we celebrate this I have no idea), turns out it's for the former Queen (Victoria) and the current Queen. Yiippee.

It's always been the first weekend to start planting gardens and/or prepping the cottage and/or going camping for the first time of the year. Typically it falls around May 24th, and the two-four is for the case of beer that is usually consumed during the weekend. (per person or is that just me and my friends?)

We did gardening - check out the makeover!

The girls love planting vegetables, so we went out shopping at the local nursery (which they thought was going to be some baby place). We picked out some tomato plants, cherry tomato plants, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, beans - and some hops! Was told by a friend that hops grow great up here, and I make beer - so maybe I'll be able to use them...

Hanging Tomato Planters

We wanted to try to use the hanging tomato planters (as seen on TV) but couldn't find any, and didn't want to wait to order - so found some instructions on how to do it yourself. All you need is a plastic planter, some planting fabric, drill (to make the hole) and a place to hang it.

Check it out the quick how-to with the girls!

I'll let you know how well it actually works - later...

4 inches of land... really.

My neighbour came over and pointed out that the garden was 4 inches beyond the property line. I had simply extended what the previous owner had put in, and thought nothing of it. For some reason, he HAD to have this land back.

Now along the side of his house, he's planting a garden that goes all the way to the edge of my propery line, and every time his kids (or unlicensed daycare kids) run-by, they run through our garden! I'm TRYING to be the good Canadian and turn the other cheek... (don't salt his garden - don't salt his garden...) but now I'll have to put something up to stop that.

Isn't it fun living in the burbs?

Some birthday present!

2009-05-17T10:30:00.016-05:00

About 15 years ago, Sara celebrated Rebekah's first birthday - then found a present of her own, she went out and met me! I was out celebrating too - my birthday. Ever since then, Rebekah and I have been sharing birthday parties.

Rebekah is 16!

Except this past weekend... to celebrate #16, Sara and Rebekah went to Toronto to visit a friend, and go shopping! I got to stay home with the other two and work on the damned basement - and work on the gardens. yay for me (no really - it was good!)

You'll like them until they become teenagers...

That's what one of the guys at work used to tell me... He had girls too, and told me - one day you're going to wake up, and you're not going to really like 'em much anymore! (in a heavy southern drawl)

Not sure WHEN it happened, but it HAS happened - probably over the course of the past 5 years, where we dragged her from country to country, all while I was travelling 70% of the time. Being away so much during her formative years, probably didn't help... Of course I still love her - but she makes it very difficult sometimes.

And of course I'm that dad who thinks she wears too much makeup, clothes are too small, has too much perfume on, room is always a mess...grrrrrrrrrrrrr. But i'm slowly trying to adjust... I have two more girls, and will have to do it all over again...so better get used to it.

It wasn't always that way, we spent a lot of time together when she was younger.

The younger years...Ottawa

Here we are at the Rideau Canal, getting ready for a skate - I think she was maybe 4!

There she is... at age 5, getting ready for her first day of school when we lived in Vanier. When she was even smaller than that, I used to take her to the parks all the time - and she would play, but lots of times - just sit back and watch the other kids. But she never wanted to leave, and used to throw a huge fit - I'd have to bribe her with gum, just to get her into the bike seat! (something I would never do anymore with other two...older, wiser...)

Always had the attitude though. We'd get called in by the teacher at every school she went to... talks too much, disrupts the class...

But somehow still managed to get good grades.

Richmond, VA

When we moved to Richmond, her teacher had the nerve to tell us her class was full of perfect little angels - til Rebekah came in to disrupt the mix!?!? In a later year, she did a pro-gay marriage report (her own idea) and was lectured by her teacher about why her opinion was wrong! WTF Richmond...

But she always outgoing - went around selling rocks door-to-door our first day there, and helped us get to know the neighbours! I'm not sure how she'll remember of Richmond, other than the shopping.

Germany

Then we moved to Dresden. She was 12. Probably not the best timing... She had new found freedom, and could take the light rail system to school and all over the city - something that you couldn't do in Richmond. We wanted her to explore, and get to know another culture - but she took it a little too far - too fast. Don't need to go into all the gory details, but I can tell you that at one point - I did pull off her 9 foot high double doors to make sure she didn't slip out...

After a little tough love, it finally did settle down. She was able to make some great friends - like Alexandra here, whom she misses a whole bunch, and wants to go back to visit. She was able to pick up German pretty well, and loved hanging out at Subway of all places.

It was a difficult 2 years for us in Germany, but I think she will look back and have good memories of Germany - she liked the euro style of living, don't think she's much for the suburban crap that we're in now.

Back to Canada...

So coming home has been a bit of a challenge. Going to high school in the country (while living in the city ... I don't get it either), has been boring for her I think, after living abroad and seeing/doing so many things. Luckily she was recently accepted to Glebe, so will be bussing it downtown for school - you might think I'd be worried about that - but after what happened in Germany - it's all tame in comparison. Not that I think she's an angel by any means, but I don't think she wants to repeat those mistakes.

I blame living in Richmond for this next video clip. Nobody in Canada (other than the Catholics) does Cheerleading. I still don't get why she liked doing it - seems so out of character for her.

She works a lot now, and isn't around very much when she isn't. Doesn't want to have much to do with us... she has little interest in the things we do with the other two, and I can see why - she's not 6 anymore.

She's 16... and wants to drive my car.

Happy Birthday kid.

READY...AND !!!

2009-05-08T08:31:00.007-05:00

Another report from the front lines of being a Dance Dad...

The girls had a dance competition last weekend, actually - the weekend before last...(i'm REALLY behind!) right here in Ottawa with CANDANCE, and did amazing!

When we first arrived, we had heard some of the scores the ELITE dancers were getting and it seemed we were in for a rough weekend...but it turned out pretty good for Meghan and Emma.

Emma's first competition!

This was Emma's first competition, and was really excited to be going up with her Tap and Jazz group routines. She was the one that got to scream out the 'Ready...And!' to get the rest of her team set to go, and off again. They did really great, bringing home gold awards (btw - it goes bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond) and first place in both, and Emma brought it! Sorry, no pics... or vid... but she had the biggest smile on, and had sooooooo much energy in both routines. So much so, that following the competition, the Studio director offered her the chance to do her own solo at the next competition - which is only a month away - 99% of the time, they start learning the routing in September and have MONTHS to practice... She was very happy, and really excited. She's had one lesson now on the routine , and has been practicing daily. She loves it so much.

Diamond Meghan

Meghan had a great weekend too, racking up platinums and firsts in all of her group items and a few diamonds in the large group routines too. The big one for her this weekend, was her Novice Jazz solo. She was the ONLY ONE in the Sunday morning session to get a diamond award! Later at the overall awards, we were half-expecting her to get an overall award for her routine, only to find out that a 17 year guy had a diamond routine later that afternoon...and he won the overall. Rigged. ;-)

Overall - a great weekend for the girls.

After the dust cleared...

Not the dance dust, the basement. I'm finally making some progress. Had my dad down for the week to help put up drywall. It wasn't exactly smooth - I'm no pro with framing, wiring etc... so found a few things that I won't do next time! Basements are a pain, in that nothing is square.

Different heights, walls are rounded, pipes and ducts everywhere - makes it challenging. But the drywall is 90% done, and I'm actually taking a breaking from the sanding to write - too much dust, can't see or breathe!

Through the magic of me not publishing until I get some new vid ready - here is where I'm at:

Tonight I'm going to head over to a friends to tell him not to do what I did, as he starts work on his basement... Seems in our 20's, we helped each other move every year or two - now we help each other drywall.

There better be beer there...

Puppy vs Salami

One last thing, found another clip I had made awhile ago with our cocker spaniel. I like to - let's say - challenge her at times. No cruelty, just for my own amusement ;-)

You'll see...

Trying to get motivated...

2009-04-15T12:42:00.008-05:00

I need to finish the basement rec room!

After my company graciously provided me with more free time, I got right on it - cleaned it up (which is no small feat with kids stuff everywhere) and got a plan of action drawn up. Put blue tape on the floor to mark where the walls were going to be, so that I could get the go ahead on the project... From there, I ripped off all the old insulation, bought up a bunch of wood, wire and electrical goodies and really went at it.

But now I'm stalled.

I've got all (well, almost all...) the walls done, the insulation is in, it's wired up with outlets, lights (or at least crap lights to get the feel and the wiring done), light switches...etc so moving along pretty good. Take a look.

I shot most of that video over a month ago. I did finish up the lights after that, but it's pretty much the same. If you watched it to the end, you'll know why I'm stalled...

So what's the problem?

Drywall. I really don't like doing drywall... First, I don't have a truck to get it here, so I'll have to get delivery. Then it's a pain hauling the sheets down to the basement - drywall isn't light, and we've got a bad stairway setup that doesn't help. Then there's putting it up - it's not a one man job. So I'll have to bribe someone to help. (anyone?) And then there's the mudding, taping, sanding... lather, rinse, repeat.

Really - it's just one big mental barrier.

Time to get back to it...

I told myself that if I write about where I'm at, it will give me the motivation to get back at it and finish the thing so we can actually enjoy it!

I'll let you know if it does.

Lil Helper

btw - i've had a little helper for some of the work. Emma really enjoys doing things, whether its baking with mom, washing cars, whatever - maybe she just liks to hang out with mom and dad while they're doing things, which is great. Anyways, I have a few outtakes of her helping me on the basement.

Tackling language issues over at The Canadian Expat Blog

2009-04-08T12:52:00.004-05:00

Did another guest post over at the Canadian Expat Blog - discussing languages and their various uses... enjoy. Viewer discretion is advised :-P

pssssst - it's about swearing...

Tried any new languages?

It's Official...I'm a Dance Dad

2009-03-31T14:37:00.022-05:00

That's right - I'm a dance dad.

Not like I have much of a choice Having 3 girls pretty much paints me into a corner. Yes it's absolutely true that girls play hockey, but we haven't always been here and dance was something they were always able to do - and loved.

This past weekend, we had our first road trip competition of the season to Peterborough. Meghan is in full on with competitions this year. Last year she had one dance number that she competed in with the group, this year she has seven! Five group numbers and two solos. Needless to say, it's been pretty busy for her during the week going to all the practices and private lessons...etc, etc... Her dance school, Elite, is really very good. They work the kids hard to make them the best they can be (no they're not the army).

Stupid Highway 7...

Meghan was scheduled to dance five of those numbers on Friday, so last Thursday evening, we packed up her seven tiny little shiny outfits, her sister, a cooler full of food and snacks and headed down highway 7 to Peterborough. I'd like to mention that this has to be the worst drive ever! It's three hours of 80 km/h!!! You heard me, 80. That's like going down some boulevards in the city. And I can hear it now - cmon, 80 is just a suggestion... more like a minimum... Well, first of all - I had no idea it was 80 all the way. I had assumed that it was 90 like most country highways. I was driving my typical 15km/h (or so) over the limit and in the middle of nowhere, passed a cop going the other way. He nailed me for doing 107 in an 80. It was actually pretty funny. I hadn't been pulled over in a looooooong time. Not that I don't speed - I just don't get caught (well, other than the photo radars in Germany...). The officer asked when I had been pulled over for speeding last - I told him I couldn't remember. Honestly, I couldn't - think it was at least 15 years ago... (He didn't need to know about me - legally - going 220+ on the autobahn) He went back to his car, did his thing slowing me down for 10 minutes - then came back with a reduced ticket. He told me to drive 95km/h and no one would pull me over. Ok - done, so our 3 hour cruise turned into 3.5 hours...

Horrible drive aside, we managed to roll into the hotel around 9 and went to bed. Meghan had a lot of dancing to do the next day, and we wanted to make sure she got her rest. It didn't help that someone was insisting on remodeling upstairs and was drilling away - at 10pm - REALLY?!? Luckily Meghan had already fallen asleep - but the rest of us struggled through the night. I would have called down, but didn't want to chance waking her up.

Day 1 - The Mule

Friday was crazy. One of my many jobs as a dance dad, was to stay the hell out of the way, but the other was to be the mule. That meant getting the cooler ready for the day, pack up the car as things were ready, get the coffee/donuts and then drive them down to the theater (then take the car back to the hotel and walk back to the theater to avoid parking hastles!). Sara had to prep Meghan, get the hair and makeup done, get all the days costumes and hairpieces together and know the schedule so she knew what she had to do and when.

Obviously my responsibilities were far greater ;-)

Girls just wanna have fun

Apparently - because that song was played almost every other routine... the other song getting the most play? Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe. Yeehaw, special torture! Since the day was primarily for the wee ones, under 12, there was plenty of 'cutesy, pukey' music.

From about 9am until 9pm that night kids were paraded out in glittery costumes, tons of makeup and boomp-tick-boomp-tick music. Every 2.5 minutes. It gets to the point where you're relieved to here classical music for ballet routines! Sitting in a dark theater, for hours on end, on seats that might have been comfortable for the first 30 minutes - was kind of like flying to China.

Luckily, Meghan or one of the Elite members were dancing every hour or so that day, so I had something to look forward to. But still it made for a looooooong day.
Meghan did amazing. She placed 1st in both of her solos, and her team routines all received diamond awards (highest level). Here are a couple of shots from her solos...

Day 2 - The surly teamster

Saturday was my big day. I was signed up to help with the set for some of the big numbers. It was a bit of a relief to know that I wouldn't have to be sitting all day... I had gone through the process of the stage setup once before for dress rehearsal, and knew that the pieces were big and heavy. They basically had a stair builder create a huge platform for them - but it was way overkill. Massive 2x10 joists on 12 inch centers with 5/8inch plywood on top - they were better built than 99% of Kanata homes!!! So we hauled these huge pieces out of the trailer and waited for a break to bring them in and set them up. There was a collection of about 8 dance dads there, other poor souls relegated to being mules and now teamsters like me... but are all great sports about it.

We got the break and pulled all these things on stage and hooked it up. Our girls all cheered us on as we tried to put up a massive 20 foot wide sign on posts that was to stand 6 feet above the stage. For a mental image - think about the statue of the americans soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima! The dance teams did their thing, pulled in more diamond awards and really did great - including Meghan who had a pretty big part in this huge production routine.

Take down was another thing altogether. We went around back and waited for them to be ready for us. It was beautiful outside, 15c, sunny... I told the guy next to me 'this is perfect biergarten weather!'. He said back 'there's one right over there, saw a few of our guys there already!'.

So not needing any more encouragement, we went for a quick pop and sat in the sun. Much better than trying to stay awake inside watching yet another group of suburban girls try to pull of a tough hip hop routine - wearing fancy scarves no less...

After the pack up, there was nothing left for me for the day. Emma and I headed back to the hotel to go swimming, something the other girls couldn't do - a sore point with many of them. They amused themselves though - and had fun just hangin out.

Day 3 - Almost done
One dance left to go. Unfortunately, it was 3rd from last on the day's sched - and wouldn't be until almost 6. We took as much time as humanly possible at the hotel before heading over for what would be a long day of waiting, a quick dance, then awards, then a lovely 3.5 hour drive back in the dark on that stupid highway.

Again, the dance was a huge Jazz routine with close to 40 kids on stage. It was REALLY GOOD. Meghan again had a pretty big part in it - right up front pulling off some big moves. The awards were then handed out, they got another diamond for the routine - but more importantly - that number received the 'best of show' for the entire weekend. Everyone was very happy with that - a very successful weekend for the Elite dancers.

A horribly painful 3.5 hour drive later in the dark and rain, and we were home. Meghan had racked up 2 emerald and 5 diamond awards, with a 1st in each - and I got a taste of what it was like to be a dance dad.

Sara on CBC

2009-03-25T14:30:00.003-05:00

Sara (better half...) was interviewed by CBC last weekend about ETSY and her stationery shop. She was nervous about it - but did great! It aired at 6:10am Saturday morning, think we were the only ones up to hear it...but you can catch it again here.(click on the etsy link)

To see the rest of her post on the interview, go check out her blog.

My guest post on Canadian Expats!

2009-03-24T16:21:00.002-05:00

Made my first guest post on Canadian Expatriates - have tons of material, but started off nice and easy...

Shirts! (a first attempt)

2009-03-19T12:57:00.014-05:00

We finally received some of our test shirts yesterday.

Quick background....

A quick rewind...why are we doing this? Well, when we were expats, we would come back every once in awhile and of course wanted to stock up on Canadiana - so everyone else wouldn't think we were americans ;-) Problems was, there was little in the way of good canadian girl gear. There was the overly touristy crud that simply said Canada (ooooo imaginitive!) or the Roots stuff, but there wasn't even much in way of that for little girls... not to get off track - but do you remember when Roots was Canadian? It's a glorified Old Navy/Gap now - sporting gear, with Roots plastered on it somewhere... made in Vietnam, or Thailand, or somewhere not being here... I guess that's how they can get those dirt cheap prices now (ala Old Navy). But to get back to the main point... I wanted the girls to have something they could wear, show that they were proud Canadians (with overdoing it!), were slightly clever and of course, had to be cute...

So based on those ideas, I came up with the 'canadian butterfly' as a logo of sorts... played with that forever, and finally got around to creating some supporting designs. The seasonal designs made sense, as I wanted to reinforce the point that it's not always cold in Canada like everyone other than Canadians seem to think... So, these are some of the designs that I've been playing with, and the girls have been giving me their design inputs - colour combinations, what colour for the shirt, what brand, patterns... We picked four, and had them test printed - here they are...

- Fall -

My thoughts... I really like this design, it really reminds me of fall around here with all the colours in the trees. But - the test print wasn't the best. The brown didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, and I'm not sure about the burnt orange coloured T. I like the American Apparel cut, but might have to change if I can't get a better orange.

- Winter -

It's not always Cold in Canada

but it is today ;-)

I like the way this came out, and the girls love it too. Shows up well on the shirt, and think it will look even better when screenprinted. Like the colour of the shirt, and the long sleeves (helps keep her warm in winter!)

- Spring -

Spring...Finally!

Not all that happy with this one. The green is too deep, hard for the design to stand out - even with the bright colours. That's something else that doesn't work - the butterfly over the flowers - red on hot pink... not so good. My wife was the first to tell me that it didn't work - but of course I didn't listen... The girls loved the design from when they first saw it - but it doesn't quite work. I've already made adjustments, and the new Spring design is basically the new blog header - tell me what you think... The girls like the new flight path of the butterfly over a few rows of tulips (honouring our local tulip festival).

- Un Baiser -

Donnez-moi un petit baiser!

I wanted to have a few shirts that were not seasonal - something they could wear throughout the year. This little phrase is something I say to the girls all the time to get a kiss, and it reflects on our other national language.

I'll probably put some of these on etsy, and maybe try to distribute some to local tourist shops and see how it goes from there...

Let me know what you think! Cute? Retarded? And let me know if you have an idea for what I could do for the summer... I'm thinking camping, marshmallows...something along that line.

Spring - FINALLY!

2009-03-17T08:53:00.009-05:00

It's about time... without a season's pass for downhill this year, I've been very blasez about the whole winter thing. Sure, we've gone out skiing, done some skating, toboganning but now we're ready for spring - get this white crap out of here!

Here are our favourite (and not-so-favourite) parts of early Spring...

New Bikes!

The best part of springtime, is getting the bikes out. For the girls, we knew that at least one would need a new bike. Emma had really struggled to keep up last summer using her little 16inch pink bike. No gears on it made it really hard for her to keep up. She'd peddle like mad to stay out front, but simply couldn't keep the pace for more than a few minutes making longer trips a pain. So she had to get something new - now the question was, would Meghan need to step up?

We pulled out Meghan's 20inch bike (that we bought last year), and Emma was able to ride no problems - but Meghan was wondering why Emma would be riding a bike the same size as hers... maybe she needed something bigger. So being a beautiful sunny Sunday, we hopped in the car and headed for Kunstadt (nice German named place...). There we saw a girl about Meghan's size getting a 24inch bike and figured - yeah it was probably time for Meghan to step up in size. So we ended up getting her a nice new turquoise bike, 18 gears, nice handbrakes and seat - will be great for her. Now both the girls have new bikes - and hopefully I'll be able to take them for some trail riding later in the spring - after most of the ice is gone...

They were so happy to get riding again - they've spent about 4 hours on the bikes in the last 2 days, even though it isn't the warmest just yet... about 5C, so you'll notice the mittens on these little kittens in the vid.

The worst part of Spring? The Meltdown!

While later in Spring, we'll get to see the grass growing, leaves on the trees, flowers blooming... right now, we're in the melt-down phase. For those of you not living where snow accumulates, it means that all the snow from the winter is going away.

This is ugly because everything is dirty, mucky, wet, garbage from the winter is revealed - and the worst part - all the dog poo comes to the surface...or the snow melts down to it... whatever, it's ugly and nasty.

I think this year, we'll be using a service. Last year - Rebekah needed some fast cash, so she got to have all the fun. I know this isn't the nicest way to show Rebekah for the first time here, and I'm sure she'll hate me for it - but it's sooooooo funny... you have to see it. I promise I'll do something nice of her next time.

Spring Cleaning

No, not that kind of spring cleaning - but some online spring cleaning has been done to the blog header and to the mareadmare.ca page. Emma is featured on the front page for the Spring season. Check it out, and let me know what you think. We should have some new shirt designs printed soon and the girls are looking forward to modelling them!

The Strategy...

2009-03-03T15:33:00.006-05:00

Wanted to update everyone on my status and strategy for the next little while. As you know, I was recently put into the position of 'looking for work' by my former company - which shall no longer be named, it does not deserve any free press!

So how am I looking for work? What am I doing all day? Here's what I've been up to...

The Job Search Strategy

Of course, I had already been watching the job boards, Monster, Workopolis...etc, getting daily emails - looking for the perfect job. I had known that the company was not in good shape, which is one of the main reasons we left Germany. I had been VERY close last year about this time, ready to move into a pre-sales position with another company who should remain nameless - but it fell through when there was a merger. Since then I had been mostly working on side projects - still waiting for the right position to come along.

A couple of weeks before 'The Perfect Day...Almost' I had decided that it was really time to move on, no more procrastinating... so we drove around the area, a high-tech part in Kanata, with tons of companies - and started writing the names down. There was at least 60, 70 names on my list now of places where I could work - nice and close, short commute, right industry (for me). So day by day, I went down the list and searched their job boards and applied to what looked reasonable, and if they didn't have anything available, I sent them a generic note with my cover letter and resume asking them to keep my information on file in case something opened up.

Now this might seem like a quick and easy task, but for each 'reasonably close' position, my cover letter and resume had to be tailored - getting the appropriate information highlighted for the hiring manager to take notice (hopefully!). Other companies had forms to fill out. They took in the resume, and tried to automagically complete their forms - which NEVER worked... This process was the longest and most painful. Having to cut and paste, cut and paste - lather, rinse, repeat - pretty much sapped whatever energy was left for jobsearching for that day... And then some even wanted to select from a skills matrix, put your whole life in order of what you know and how long you had done that particular skill (ie: C# or team lead or whatever...) Because the resume contains none of that (rolling eyes). I understand why they do it - it allows the HR people to quickly do searches based on skills, as if it is actually meaningful and accurate for everyone.

After taking almost 2 weeks to get through the list, I started looking at consulting - doing contract work. I found the Canadian government index for applying for contracts merx.com (yeah - not merx.ca for some reason...) In it, there were listed 'preferred' vendor lists. Meaning, if the company at the top can do it, don't bother applying - because the guy doing the hiring, and the biz dev guy from that company are going golfing together every weekend. Yeah - that's how it goes everywhere - I get that. But by gathering these lists of 'preferred providers', I found another 50 companies with whom I could apply. So I went through the same process as indicated above with these companies.

Right now I'm at the point where I believe that contract work is the best way to go for me. I'm a little worried that if I get a regular desk job with some company, that I might not be as challenged as I need to be - but I remain open to anyone who will dole out cash!

I no longer think of myself as unemployed, but as a contractor looking for his next gig.

At the same time, I have a few side projects going that *could* turn into something - keep your fingers crossed with me. I'll tell you more about those, as they become more formal.

Everyday stuff

My everyday begins a little later than Sara's, but once she's ready for coffee (just before 7am) I'll join her downstairs - have a coffee with her and send her off shortly after. Rebekah is gone at 7am, so two down - two to go. Emma is usually up first, and she and Meghan will watch some TV and eat their breakfast. I catch up on my morning stuff - job postings, then check into my google reader for all my info. Right before 8, I'll get the girls lunches ready - and then yell at them to get their butts upstairs to get dressed and teeth brushed.

Next up, I have my morning workout on our Aero Pilates. My shoulder has been screwed up for the longest time, and I can't do a pushup or pullup at the moment, but this machine has been great for building up the muscles around the problem areas without aggrevation. I'm almost at the point where I can resume some pullups - so can't wait for that - but don't want to push it... 20 mins on that, good little cardio and some resistance exercises.

I usually have the girls get their things together, and then send them out with the dog for a quick walk - maybe 10mins or so, before they head off for the bus at 8:40ish.

A quick shower and change, gets me into 'ready for work' mode. Since I had been working at home for awhile, the morning routine hasn't changed all that much - and I prefer to keep the routine - to keep me going.

From there I'm busy looking for work.

I have a few other things going on around the house too - so that gives me a nice distraction every once in awhile. I'm finishing the basement, putting in a rec room. I did my office (I have some video of that if you're interested) last summer, and hope that I can get this done in the next few weeks. The exterior walls are all framed, insulated, bagged and wired. I need to finish the wiring for the lights (almost done) and finish the partition wall before drywalling the whole thing... might do a tiled ceiling though, want to dampen the noise that we'll be making down there.

And after all that - I've been doing pretty good at doing some of the cooking. No one has died yet... so not too shabby. Need to find some time (and warmer weather) to do some work on the car... plenty to do, but hope it doesn't last too much longer ;-)

doing alright.

Family Weekend

2009-02-19T16:38:00.012-05:00

Took a little while to recover from that last post... a nice long weekend with the fam at home is pretty good for that (yes - a week behind...). Didn't help with the job search, but that can wait a few days.

So you think you can Dance?

For those of you that know us - you know that the girls are dance CRAZY. They are members of the Elite Dance Studio here in Kanata, and practically live there... They were very happy to find out that So you think you can Dance - was going to be doing a Canadian show, and watched religiously. Being typical canadians, they didn't pick their favourites - just liked them all. They were even happier to find out at the end of the season, that they'd be going on tour and that they would be going to Scotiabank Place. Sara went online almost immediately to snag tickets - heard they sold out a very short time later.

Getting the arena and finding our seats - geez... 40 bucks doesn't get you much of a view! You can see in the vid - pretty much the view we had. I didn't have my video camera with me to zoom - so it's pretty representative.

Despite the view - the girls had a great time. And I was SEVERELY outnumbered, it must have been at least 10 to 1, girls to guys... 20 years ago I might not have thought that too bad ;-)

But pretty much all around us, and particularly directly to my one side - there was group a french girls just gushing over Nico - this seasons winner. I guarantee that not many of them were able to speak the next day after all the screaming they did that night...

Winterlude

The next day was family day in Ontario, and with Winterlude going on - we thought it was the perfect chance to finally see it... Going to school in the Ottawa area, I never attended - I believe that we referred to it as 'Wienerlude' - some dorky thing for tourists and families to attend. Well, guess what... we kinda fit both those categories now - so off we went!

Against a pretty nice backdrop of the parliament buildings over in Gatineau, was the Winterlude park. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for it - just hovering around 0c with the sun shining. Good weather is quite necessary for the kids to actually enjoy themselves! There were snow sculptures, tube rides down a snow hill, ice slides, snow mazes and of course food... Since we went on the monday, none of the 'exhibits' were open - but those are pretty much only advertising venues - so not really missing too much.

As you'll see in the next video - the girls got to enjoy the tubes and the ice slides, but didn't get to taste the Beavertails...

We had a hard time convincing Emma to finally go down those ice slides. She heard that someone had been hurt and was unconscious after going down one of the slides. Didn't help much when that person had to be dragged out on a toboggan by the medics! But she finally warmed up to it and we all went down together. After that she didnt' want to stop!

All in all, a pretty good weekend. But that was over a week ago! I'll write something up in the next day or so about the job search and my strategy...

My not-so-short goodbye...

2009-02-13T09:13:00.014-05:00

This is my last day with Qimonda/Infineon.

It comes without celebration, without handshakes, without the sympathy smiles of those left behind - and without 'the walk'. No goodbye lunches, no drinking til dawn to reminisce... I am missing out on all the best things about leaving a company. I even had to mail in my badge yesterday...

I guess for me it's somewhat fitting that there is no big goodbye at any one site. For me, my life at Qimonda/Infineon was nomadic. Even when at my 'home' sites - I was never at home - well until recently when I 'formed' Qimonda Canada ;-)

While there is a lot of anger aimed at the company for its collapse, I would prefer to remember the good times. This company gave me the opportunity to travel to many places, and meet so many great people - friends - many of whom have already left the company... all I want to do right now, is remember the extrodinary times.

I know that this note would really be the only fair way to say goodbye.

Rough start

One of the best stories I used to hear, was from Bussey. He was the manager that was hiring me. He called up one night, and Sara answered and told me who it was - now the way Bussey tells it - she yelled down to me 'It's that guy with the southern accent from Texas!'. In one sentence, she managed to offend him twice ;-) One - he doesn't claim to have an accent, everyone else does and two - he wasn't from Texas! Now to be fair, the hiring agent that we were working through WAS from Texas, so probably got them confused... nice start to a new job!

It was all good though, and he still remembers that to this day.

A few weeks in to the job - it was February - Richmond, VA. A little snow was falling... I thought nothing of it of course, having just left 6 feet of it - but everyone was at the window watching it fall. I joked about it with Peterson, the IT manager, a northeast guy, but snow in Richmond was serious stuff. Schools and government agencies would close in advance of even the threat. Bread and milk were the first off the shelves in all stores, and the local news would be sitting at the airport - literally watching the sky - for the first snowflake to fall!

The guys...

I got to know the guys in my team a bit better, and you'll have to indulge me a few inside jokes in this little section... The 'warroom' became a bear's den of sorts for us. My shoeprints might still line the wall in one little area. Chris was/still is - the butt of most of our jokes. Over time, we built up a nice little arsenal of quick jabs on Chris, and he never helped himself... 'clean water', 'pitt stains', 'colour blind', 'and I'm g__!?!' to name but a few. In the first two years with Infineon - there were times where we had WAY too much time on our hands, had a lot of great laughs - some great trips to Germany with lots'o'beers involved - but that all came to a crashing stop one day in September of 2001.

This was the day we were having our final meeting in Richmond, with Brooks representatives and colleagues over the phone in Portugal, Germany and Austria. Presenting our case as to why we were cancelling the 40 million dollar software deal... Tim received a page and left the room, over the phone one of our Portugese colleagues Joao, interupted the session by saying that the World Trade Center had been struck by a plane. Moments later, Tim came back in and shouted that 'we are under attack', that the second tower had also been hit by a plane.

I have no idea how that actual meeting ended - other than the fact that we were able to get out from under that contract. But that day, that event - affected us all forever.

International Business

We did manage to resume 'normal' business again, and soon we were on our first major international project. It's the thing that not many people understand about these international business trips - you're there to work. Not tour. We don't get the time to really look around and take in the whole experience. I was luckier than most, and was able to go back to many of these places time and time again, get to know the people, and have them tour me around - to really get to know the places as the locals do - for the great places that they really are...

Portugal

Our first implementation was in Porto, Portugal. Now I have had many, many trips to Portugal in the meantime - but these trips, during this project, left us with a not-so-good impression of Portugal. Long workdays meant meals in the factory and the hotel, and the general consensus was that Portugese food was bland food 'cum ovo' meaning with egg on top... We spent plenty of time joking about this with our Portugese colleagues, but over time I got to love it there. They got tired of me bashing them, and so I told them - show me Porto! I had a great day in downtown Porto on a walking tour with Tiago and his wife. Augusto took me with his wife and son, to a fishing village in the north and his favourite restaurant and introduced me to vinho verde and a special crab dish - fantastic. Joao took a few of us to a place where they had his favourite bacalhau (codfish). One night, some of the DC guys took me for an evening out on the town to show me the Portugese nightlife.

A few things that I got to know and love about Portugal. My hotel - right across the street from the ocean, and the beach bar - bar de la playa! Franciscina (sp?), a hot sandwich with all sorts of stuff on it... The Brasileirao, a Brazillian steakhouse - drool... and Portugese wine. My favourite region is the Alentajo.

China

I don't have near enough time to describe all my experiences in China. I've spent almost a year in total in China helping get the factory up and running (through many, many long trips), and got to know Suzhou quite well. It almost deserves a chapter to itself - and I will have to write about it all some day. But I'll highlight the good, the bad and the insane work...

I'll remember the insane traffic, that almost seemed to work for them. The seemingly never ending number of high-rises going up. The overwhelming pollution that prevented us from seeing the sun through the summer. The absolutely wonderful food - provided you knew where to go ;-) The shopping and bargaining with the locals and my portugese colleagues that managed to turn it into a sport... The beautiful gardens (on the odd day that we were off). Tom's Bar (I have the shirt!). The hot as hell, sweaty summers. The circa 1984 VW Santana Taxis - blue if you wanted the cheaper ride, but safety and A/C were optional - or gold, for the 'nice' ride with A/C. The Indian restaurant that we found on our last trip, and were there almost every day (yeah - you do get tired of chinese food after having it at EVERY meal). TEA! Found a love for tea there - still have some leaves. Last but not least - the singers. The ladies from the Phillipines that entertained and tortured us each night at the hotels, restaurants and bars...

Crazy Insane Suzhou Project 1.

We had spent months preparing for an upgrade. Friday afternoon, 4 days before the go live, we found a problem (which should have been detected by their testing - but I digress). Tiago and I stayed in the office working through the problem for 40 hours from Friday night til Sunday night where we finally found the fix! That was the weekend that introduced me to Portugese swearing! We had our Austrian colleagues bring us beer and pizza to the office - that's right - beer! We got about 6 hours sleep TOTAL that weekend. Stood outside waiting for a taxi from 4am to 6am after we couldn't think any longer... Then Monday morning came, we arrived did some work and went to lunch. Came back only to be told that they were cancelling the upgrade.

We got up. Walked out. Went drinking.

Crazy Insane Suzhou Project 2.

Another major upgrade months in the making - I inherited partway through, all came down to the last 3 weeks somehow. 14 hour days, we worked 16 of the 17 days there (the Irish Ian actually worked all 17) and narrowly made it... Even the night of the rollout, the mgmt team was not confident and tried to cancel. I stretched the truth saying how long it would be to fall back - just so that we could continue and successfully complete the project - WHICH WE DID!

The best night though was on day 14 - after having worked 14 days straight - we finally had 99% of it done. I told the team to take the next day off - we were walking zombies... We arranged a team dinner, and then went to Karaoke! I piled in the beers, and everyone had a great time. Enrico singing Christmas songs and David brought his fancy dance moves ;-)

It was a great way to release some misplaced energy over those long days...

Sick in Austria

One of my worst trips ever, a short week trip to Austria to work with the team there. I wasn't feeling well, but decided to go anyways. My head was clogged by the time I arrived at the airport - and once in the air, the pressure on my head was immense. I still think that trip screwed up my hearing in my right ear. (not the punk rock band...). At any rate, I attempted the first day of work, but felt the fever ripping through me. Stayed home the next day - could barely swallow - was officially the worst I had ever felt. Slept for almost 24 hours straight - came out of it STILL SICK AS A DOG. Couldn't eat/drink/breathe... finally called in a doctor who got me some meds and back to health. But that was my worst week ever - without a doubt.

Luckily, the winter Olympics were on the TV - better than having to sit through Austrian soap operas!!!

The Richmond project

This was the most hectic time of our lives. Years of work to fully automate a semi factory - that will now be closed.

This project was absolutely BRUTAL on all of us. I'll try to avoid the bad stuff - you can add whatever you feel appropriate later if it helps you vent...

I'll remember the fishbowl. We jammed 30 people in there to work together and get the project rolling. I remember the flip chart, where I wrote our first list of code snippets we needed to have delivered from our Porto DC. Making the daily calls to prioritize, and then trying to establish some sort of process. Having to introduce this offshore development process to a team in Richmond that was used to writing their own code... building the UTP process for requesting changes. Fighting with Applied for fixes to their horrific system... a system we finally were able to help them make somewhat useable in the end - I guess their new customers will appreciate it - but they'll be one customer short in the near future ;-) The clown in the corner, that the guys used as a punching bag when things got really bad. The UML model for how to operate the coffee maker, a clever distraction blurring the lines between our overwhelming workload, and our brief escapes... and Marcus... how he barely escaped being strung up by the locals.

For me, the project was shorter than for others - as I was asked to move to Germany (well actually Austria...which turned into Germany a month before we were set to move!).

Dresden, Germany

We lived in Dresden for 2 years. These years were the most challenging of my life. I was to setup an Integration Center, a test and deployment group for our product set. My problems in Dresden are well known, and I don't need to get into that. But I did have some great times there too... I was lucky enough to have another Richmond guy with me - to help me through it, someone to drink with non-stop at times...Gene had to go through the same thing, and we both endured the ups and downs - but came out stronger for it.

Upon leaving Dresden, I did a bike tour and wrote up some blurbs about the different aspects of life in Dresden, and the parts that we will look back on fondly. Please have a look at this entry for more on that.

Setting up my team was very interesting. Half the team was local German guys, and then the rest was a mish mash of foreigners. I had hired an American, a Portugese guy and an Irishman to balance the team. These guys helped me through our many projects, I couldn't have done it without them - and couldn't have been happier with having to go through it with them. Winding down my time in Germany, the 'band' started to fall apart. I left the team and headed back to Canada. Ian followed close behind, was nice enough to last through the last crazy project in Malaysia before leaving. John's contract wasn't renewed and now poor Tiago is the only one left.

The Dresden Project...

This project was doomed from the beginning. Despite our best efforts, we never did get the buy in from the user side - and that never ends well... They delayed, made changes, kept the target moving long enough to burn through 30 million+ euros before it was finally cancelled.

But again, there were good times mixed in here. Living in Dresden, we were able to host a number of foreign colleagues for evenings out, or dinners at our place and show them around for a change.

Malaysia

My last major international project was in Malaysia. I was living in Ottawa by this point, and had to make the 35 hour trek to Malaysia a few more times than my back would have liked! This was a site still being built when we got started. There were stories of robberies and rapes, abductions - heard that it was not near a city, but in the middle of a jungle... all sorts of crazy things were being reported to us out of that part of the country. Of course, most of these stories were coming from the Singapore team - who were accustomed to it being a little more comfortable and safe ;-)

We did finally go - and no, it wasn't the best of work conditions... no working bathroom for the first day, and chairs and desks weren't available for the first few days. Witness the evidence:

But it was hardly dangerous or scary. We stayed at a nearby resort - that had a pool (would have been nice if we could have seen it during the day!) and golf course. I even got to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road here! (Barely survived a road trip to Kukup for our celebration dinner)

I was also able to go into Singapore for a short tour the one weekend. Goh Pei Boon, gave me a great walking tour - unfortunately while wearing my work gear... I was sweating so bad - that I had to ring out my shirt at the end of the night!

I have a few videos posted about this trip to Singapore and Malaysia - please have a look.

Romantic Weekends and odd dinner dates?

It wasn't always work though. I had a few rare occasions that was not quite business as usual... like the weekend in San Francisco with Andreas.... Or the Valentines Day dinner with Ricardo in Porto... The weekend in Vienna with Fui-Lian Liow... Mike almost kicking my @ss in Villach... beer tastings at Separ's...BBQ's at Meredith's... and certainly Andreas' wedding in Vegas with Marcus and Gene. - to name but a few.

The actual goodbye...

I watched a tv commercial this morning - saying that everyone should have one extraodinary chapter in their biography - for me, this will be one of them.

Please help me add to my memories of Qimonda/Infineon - by adding a short note in the comment section of an interesting (good/bad/otherwise) time we had together.

Thanks - and good luck to all of you.

Homemade Bird Feeder

2009-02-09T15:37:00.012-05:00

As you may know - I have a little more time on my hands lately, and thought that I'd get a few edits done and get some more Canadian Kids related posts up...

Meghan and I made a birdfeeder awhile ago out of a few things we had lying around.

What you'll need:

empty peanut butter jar (plastic - duh) if you are not in north america, and don't have access to a peanut butter jar, try Nutella...
old coat hangers (not plastic!)
pliers
birdseed
some bacon fat (not absolutely necessary)
Bamboo skewer (or reasonable facsimile)
masking tape

Step 1.

Untwist the coat hanger, use the pliers here if you're not superman with the hands. You don't have to straighten it, just get it apart.

Step 2.

Poke holes in the Peanut Butter jar. Positioning of these holes is the key... if it were laying on it's side - the hold should be just above halfway to the top, and just over halfway to the lid.

This allows it to stay upright - but allows for movement so the squirrels aren't able to stay on it.

Step 3.

Put the coat hanger through the two holes and then twist it back together so it looks like a normal coat hanger. (that's how you hang it!)

Step 4.

Cut hole in lid. Just big enough that birds can get in.

Step 5.

Poke hole in lid, just below opening - for the bamboo skewer. Something for the birdies to land on.

Step 6.

Fill with birdseed.

Step 7.

Nuke the bacon fat. Then pour it into jar with seeds. Give it a good shake.

Step 8.

Put the lid on.

Step 9.
Put a little tape on the hanger, on either side of the jar. Stops it from falling to one side or the other...

Step 10.

Hang it.

Now just a warning... I tried this at first without the bacon fat. The squirrels figured out that they couldn't stay on it, but could knock it over a bit, and spill some of the seeds out. That's why I went for the bacon fat... The bacon fat (not too much - don't want to weigh it down!) holds the seeds in - no spillage.

Here's how I found out that I needed to add the bacon fat...

And here's what it looks like in action! A birdfeeder... feeding birds!

My next job...?

2009-02-06T10:02:00.003-05:00

So I got a little taste of what my next line of work might be...

With Sara working, and me not so much - I was put in charge of dinner last night! And before we go any further down this path (cuz I can feel the comments coming already) just want to be clear in saying that I enjoy cooking. But Sara likes to cook, and doesn't like me to cook - unless it involves the grill...so there.

Anyways - I climbed into the freezer - to see what we had, many frozen meats that I wasn't exactly sure what they were - and then found some chicken legs.

Went online to find something interesting to make - and found this recipe for Firecracker Fried Chicken Drumsticks.

I gotta say - TASTY! The whole family enjoyed it - really they did... and I did a pretty decent job of cooking it up. Even made a salad to go with it.

Check this out - it's like looking in the mirror!

I dunno - I could get use to this... ;-)

A Perfect Day! (almost...)

2009-02-04T17:02:00.017-05:00

Yesterday I went downhill skiing with Meghan's school as an outdoor activity class. With not much happening at work lately, thought it was the perfect excuse to get away for the day and just enjoy (and we were advised to take some time off...). Got up nice and early, crammed the skis into the car and headed off for school. I was put in charge of a small group of kids - was more of a symbolic post - no real power;-) In all, there were almost 200 kids going that day! We were all sardined into 4 regular old yellow school buses and driven over an hour away to Calabogie Peaks.

Once we arrived - the kids and supervisors were given little in the way of direction - it's lucky most of them made it on the hill... But we did make it. Meghan had to go for a quick ski test, and then had a 1 hour lesson. I took advantage and headed up the hill.

It was an absolutely beautiful day for skiing. Clear sky, warm sun on the face, little in the way of wind and around -10c. There weren't many at the hill - it was a tuesday after all - mostly retirees and the school kids. The lifts take a little while to get to the top, but getting into the lift on my first trip up, I got to ride up with a retired couple. Since it does take a bit, there's lots of time to chit chat, and downhillers are among the nicest out there. Friendly and chatty. Any given day, you could hear a hundred different stories. Who they are, where they're from, line of work, kids, other ski hills and of course the weather... every story is unique. They're usually surprised to hear that I have 3 kids, have lived in the U.S, Germany and worked in so many different places. Have to admit, that feels pretty good.

And then there are the times, when you get to ride up with just your thoughts. Just look around, take it all in. There's a great view of the Ottawa Valley, the local lake and river, the hills of Quebec can even be seen from there. And there's lots of time to think...

Of course, I'm thinking about the company issues, where I should apply next... but really being quite content at just getting away from it for the day. Relaxing. Having fun. Enjoying life. I'd only come to find out later, that while I was trying to forget about it all - it was happening anyways. But more on that later.

Meghan and her friends had a great time. Had lunch at the chalet, and then a full afternoon of skiing. Took a little longer than expected to get everyone back, as the buses were running late, but all in all - it was a great day.

On my way back, I received a text from Sara that 'the sh!t had hit the fan today at Q' - doh, that didn't sound good. I had already agreed to help our friend pick up his new car that day - so was running late for that, but had this news looming overhead. He was happy to finally get his RAV4, the bus strike had been a huge pain for him just arriving and not having any mode of transportation... We were going to hit Canadian Tire for a shovel and a few other things, but I asked him if we could skip it for the day - I had a few other things to take care of...

Got to the house, rushed downstairs to check my voice mails, sure enough I had one from my boss. Uh oh - that's not good. Tried to login, as the first that happens when you're laid off - is that your account is removed. I was able to login, good maybe I'm not quite done yet... Spoke to my boss a little while later, and he broke the news.

Well - it wasn't exactly like that...but you get the idea. They had announced it earlier in the day (ironically while I was busy trying to forget about it all going up the lift!) that the factory would be closed, and that I had two weeks left. I wasn't really surprised. The company had been on life support for sometime, and I had been looking around - but didn't quite start looking soon enough I guess.

Luckily - it won't be a complete break. There won't be any severance package - but they'll be paying out a few things at least... we'll be ok for awhile, but I won't have to chance to be as picky now. It's the kick in butt I needed - time to try something new.

So, that's how you have a perfect day...almost.

New to Canada - part deux

2009-01-29T13:53:00.005-05:00

Continuing the tale of our 'New to Canada' friend, we went house hunting and car shopping last weekend. He was looking for a home to rent in our area - so the kids could go to school together (ease the impact a bit).

Managed to see a few places on both Saturday and Sunday - some weren't in the right area, others not available just yet, but then we managed to look at a place that was perfect!

It was the right size, in the right area, the right price and AVAILABLE! We were very lucky to find one so quickly - but glad it worked out so well.

I took him to the local Toyota dealership, and we looked at a few vehicles. At first, we looked at the Cienna - but seeing it up close, it was huge! At least to a guy that had just arrived from Germany, where the biggest cars would be considered average at best here... After speaking with the Rep, we started to look at the Rav4 - was a decent size, and had the option of a 3rd row of seating. Also had 4wd, a nice option for someone not used to driving in the winter here.

For a break - we took him to Tim Horton's! It's basically a religion in Ontario and most of Canada... It's about as Canadian as you can get with coffee and donuts as the main attraction. It was one of the places we used to always insist on visiting when we came back from overseas! Of course it's not quite the same as it used to be - it's owned by the Wendy's burger chain now, but we choose to ignore that point. They just about lost me forever with that stupid Tim card - no longer accepting debit etc... they say it's for speed, but we know better...

For you expats out there - what's the furthest you've taken Timmies? I've smuggled some in my car down to my work friends in Virginia...

Anyways - thought I'd grab some video of the 'occasion'. He seemed pretty pleased with the day, and the treats.

BTW - Peanut Butter is VERY uncommon outside North America. You can find it - but you have to really look, and it's not that good either...

Yeah - sometimes it is cold...

2009-01-27T16:02:00.005-05:00

Now that I've set everyone up with the niceness of winter... the skating, toboganning...etc time to bring you back down to reality.

It gets cold here. And it snows here. Last year was ridiculous, but Sara will always remind me that I was away for the big storms and that she had to dig them out... which is partially true ;-)

It hasn't been horrible this year - but lately has been pretty cold. And while it hasn't snowed in a week or so - it appears to be on the horizon - so, thought I'd share this little edit...

It's not really that bad - it's good to make me get out of the house and get some excercise every once in awhile!

But there - the awful truth is out. It does get cold here...

So what do you do for fun in Winter???

2009-01-20T14:09:00.006-05:00

In my last post, I told you about touring around a new Canadian - one of his many questions was -

What do you do for fun in Winter?

Skating

So, I told him about our outdoor arenas where kids can skate and play hockey. In fact, I had my girls out just the other week for a skate.

They haven't done much skating in their lives... I could probably count the times on one hand. Living in Virginia, U.S.A and Germany, not too many chances really. But I can remember skating and playing hockey on the outdoor rinks almost every day when I was a kid... The outdoor rinks provide one of those primieval sounds, that whenever you hear it - it takes you immediately back to what you remember about growing up in Northern Ontario. I used to walk to the rink, and the second I stepped out of my front door I could hear it... the cutting of the ice with the skate blades, the crack of the stick slapping the puck and the thud of the puck hitting the boards. It's nice that we're back now, and I can take the girls to share the same experiences that I had growing up.

There are so many outdoor rinks in the Ottawa area, and you can pick up used skates fairly cheap at places like 'Play it Again Sports' making it a very economical winter activity.

Tobogganing

In case you're not familiar with the term, check out wiki's definition for tobogganing. Basically, you find a hill you can walk up, take a piece of plastic - or the old school wooden toboggans, sit on them and race down the hill. Some people also refer to it as sledding...but at the same time, some people say sledding when they mean snowmobiling...

Here's an edit of the girls toboganning in North Bay at Christmas time.

There are hills all over the place in Ottawa, and pretty much everywhere in Canada... and it's another cheap and easy fun winter thing to do...

What else? Well, there's cross country skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing, sledding or snowmobiling, ice fishing, hockey, ringette, curling - there's no shortage of ways to stay busy.

With winter taking up a decent chunk of the year - Dec-Mar, it's better to get along with winter than to fight it!

New to Canada

2009-01-20T09:52:00.014-05:00

I welcomed a new Canadian into town yesterday. We had met him and his family while we were living in Germany, and he has recently accepted a position with a local company - so is brand new to Ottawa, and Canada...

Having just arrived, and not receiving much in the way of help, I was only too happy to assist. We ourselves had gone through this same life-altering move a few times, and so we know what it's like - and it would have made our lives a little easier (and our time more enjoyable!) when settling in those places if we had had someone to guide us through the process and introduce us to our new surroundings a little better.

It is sooooooooo important to get off on the right foot, and not make those first few decisions bad decisions that end up haunting you...

He had been told that our public transportation system was quite good. I don't know if I'd go that far - hello light rail system... but of course, right now there is NO public transit thanks to our 40 day old strike! It's pretty much impossible to get a car rental or lease now... So I offered to take him around to get a few things done.

Checking out the area

I picked him up from his new workplace yesterday afternoon, and gave him a whirlwind tour Morgan's Grant, Bridlewood and Kanata in general. Also got him up to speed on some of the local customs. He mentioned having read 'How to be a Canadian', but I guess didn't cover everything...

So many questions!

Obviously he's interested in some key things - house or apartment, rent or buy, car - lease or buy and those things we can take our time with - you should not rush into those decisions.

But as I showed him around Morgan's Grant, we discussed townhomes, semi-detached, single family homes... coming from Europe where most people don't buy and sell their homes as we do in North America, there's definitely a different approach. Going from a 100 square meter flat (about 1000 sq. feet) to a home in the area that would be at minimum 1500 sq.ft (plus a basement) is a big change.

The sun was setting, but with the streetlights on, I was able to take him by some of the different types of homes, showed him the schools, some of the parks, talked about the local bike trails, skating rinks...etc It really is a nice area to live and raise a family. And in this neighbourhood, you don't have to worry about feeling like a minority - the minority is in the majority here! So close to the tech park, there are people from all over the world living right here. I can go to the park any day of the week and hear ten different languages!

Shopping

After that little tour, he needed to get setup with a few things - namely a cell phone and laptop, so I took him to our Canadian based electronics superstore - The Future Shop.

I was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get setup with a phone without a bank account or permanent address, but we managed to go through the options with the sales agent, and he ended up with a Koodo phone, which allows him a little flexibility later, but gets him a phone quick. He also managed to get a nice laptop to stay in contact better with his wife and kids back home. He found it strange to see the staff being so helpful, but quickly realized that as they introduced him to new possible items - the totals very quickly rose!

As we needed to wait for the laptop to be setup with everything, I introduced him to our supermarket - Loblaws. I also had to inform him that he wouldn't be able to get beer, wine or liquor and the supermarket - which gave him a bit of a surprise. So then I had to show him one of my favourite stores... the liquor store...

Still needing to kill some time before picking up his computer, we stopped into Chapters - the Canadian equivalent to Barnes and Noble I suppose, where he picked up a few city maps and some books for his kids. I had to recommend some Robert Munsch books to him, being new to Canada - he's lots of Canadiana to get caught up on - and for kids, Robert Munsch is the king of Canadian kids books. His books are great, and if you get the chance - have a look at this vid - he's slightly crazy, but that's the great thing about him - and when he reads his stories, he's so animated very fun to listen to and watch.

And that was pretty much it for the night... he was starting to fade - jet lag setting in!

If there are new canadians out there looking for tips...just ask!

Hockey Night in Germany?

2009-01-05T15:10:00.010-05:00

With the World Junior Championships going on locally, and Canada having taken it to everyone - including Germany - I thought I'd share our experience going to a hockey game in Germany!

We lived in Dresden Germany for two years, and knew that there was a local team - but were just not that motivated to see them. There was a Canadian player on the team, who had kids at the same school, and he mentioned that he was one of those bruising type defensemen - but that you couldn't hit in this league! He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do... After we heard that, our desire to see a game was really low. However, feeling the itch for anything hockey - I finally decided to take the girls to see the Eisloewen's.

Right off the bat, we knew it was going to be different. They basically had the equivalent of what we might call 'tailgating', but it wasn't in the parking lot - it was in front of the arena. A number of beer and bratwurst stalls - and happy customers - surrounded the opening, concealing the ticket counters. It was so crowded, I was just about ready to go home because we couldn't figure out where to buy the tickets! But the girls wouldn't let me... Finally found our way, bought our tickets and headed inside. The tickets didn't have seat information, so we weren't exactly sure what to do... We did our best to fit in, so bought a couple of pretzels, some hot cider and a nice big beer and went for the seats.

There was absolutely no one inside. And no seats - just benches, going about 20-30 rows back on our side, while the other had maybe 10 rows and were mostly 'boxes'. Place probably held a few thousand, so close to a major junior sized arena I suppose... Since we had our choice of seats, we snagged front row and watched the players warm up.

A big siren went off - which I guess meant to everyone else that it was just about time to get started, as people started to pour in... Our front row seats went from great to crap as apparently they're able to stand at the boards and smoke! The house lights went off, and a big rock'n'roll entry show with screaming announcer, cheerleaders (of all things), entry lights...the whole ball of wax to introduce the teams to the ice. And in the stands - they were lighting off fireworks and flares! Not exactly what we would expect going to a game in Canada, and it through me a little off guard.

The smoke from the flares hung over the ice, as it had nowhere to go in the building that was maybe 3-4 stories high... The players had to carve their way through a fog through to the end of the second period before it started to clear!

Don't believe me? See for yourself!

The action was like watching a rec league game - without hitting... 90% of the 'action' was one man rushes and the odd shot. Even more infrequent, was the passing. And the passing was so poor - I could see why they didn't bother...

After the first period ended, I had no interest in sticking around to watch more - but at that point, I was there for the experience.

I look back on it, and shake my head at the very strange combination of cultural habits that was on display that night. On one hand, the fireworks going off indoors - seemed very unsafe and disorderly for the Germans - but I do know they love their fireworks... (a story for another time). On the other hand, the absolute spotlessness of the floors and seating - given they were smoking, eating, drinking...etc. everything that was brought into the arena was brought out and disposed of in an orderly fashion. Now that's the Germany I know...

So, after witnessing this strange dichotomy for an entire two periods - as well as the generally poor showing on the ice - the girls and I had had enough - and went home... never to return.

Was interesting enough though - once ;-)

Just...can't...wait...

2008-12-22T22:36:00.005-05:00

The girls were up before 7 this morning, and after their morning dose of family channel (their version of coffee) and cereal - they were up and circling the tree.
We put out all their presents last night, and they were desperate to figure out what was in there! They spent almost 2 hours squeezing, shaking, sizing and... taking notes! They put together a list! Who it was for, how big it was, was it cushy like clothes or something else...
It was too funny - so went to grab the video camera and of course, paused when it should have been recording, so other than a pretty boring view of the floor - the best we had was this...

Oh well - can't win em all... the girls thought this was a pretty cute edit of the dog.
Day off tomorrow - need to post some material!

Their tree...

2008-12-22T22:27:00.008-05:00

The girls were anxious to get the tree up this year. With us having shifted to the 'fake' last year, there was no issue putting the tree up in early December.

They wanted me to take pictures and video of the tree, but they were having fun with it - so let them run the show. Here are some excerpts...

Nice tree girls!

Colouring Pages!

2008-12-22T11:29:00.010-05:00

Hi all -

I used to travel - a lot - anywhere between 25 and 80% of my time... and sometimes that leaves some free time at night. On one of my last trips, I decided to make some colouring pages for the girls, based on some great photographs. More recently, I've created some new designs - taken the colour out of them and put here to colour!

Check the side of the blog for the link - but if you're as lazy as I am... here's it is!

Colouring Pages!

I just printed out a few of these for my girls - they're watching Christmas shows and colouring... and I have a new request in for some winter pictures!

Get 'em workin!

2008-11-26T09:49:00.006-05:00

The earlier you start the better off you'll be...

Snow is fun. Winter is fun... if you have snow. November is a terrible month around here - reminds me of our winters in Richmond, Virginia or Dresden, Germany... coldish, wet, grey, windy... I'd rather have snow any day.

Like I said, snow is fun for the girls, so getting them out to have fun for a bit - and to help a little with the shoveling the walk or brushing off cars is good for them.

First Real Snow...means first Snowmen!

2008-11-25T14:01:00.009-05:00

Yup - finally arrived, the first real snow. It might last, it might not - but it's that time of year where it just might stay. Nice heavy, packing snow fell overnight - maybe 10cm. The girls were up early and raring to get out and make a snowman. But what's fun for the girls means a little work for me...

First snow, means first snowman and first shoveling... Let me tell you - if you're not one of those guys with the snowblower - go out and get yourself a scoop!
I killed my back several times last year, with the massive amounts we had then, and finally got a scoop near the end of the season - where it was impossible to really use because of the 6 foot snow banks! But if you start out with a scoop, you can push that snow anywhere you want and not have to do any bending or breaking.

Back to the snowmen... Emma and Meghan each made their own today. Displaying impeccable technique for only their second real winter.

Just like in the Frosty cartoon - everyone knows the head is the hardest part:

Finishing touches...

We nabbed some carrots for eyes, nose and mouth and some twigs for arms... and VOILA!

As the snow was wet, and some wintery mix was in the air - their mitts got soaked before school so had to make a quick change before running off to school. But they had a great time with it - let's see how long those snowmen last. The first of the season rarely lasts 'til the end...

Snowman Homicide!

The first snowmen of the year came to a cruel and horrible end... they fell not of natural causes (warm weather and melting) but, were taken down by one very close to them!
See the gruesome scene...

Dresden, Germany - Memoirs

2008-11-19T20:22:00.010-05:00

So I didn't do so well keeping up with our activities in October. I spent a number hours working on a sort of memoirs of Dresden, describing some of the highlights from our 2 years living in Dresden, Germany.

At the end of our delegation, I had some time to myself to close things out, and had this new website - Rimrocked - that a friend was working on - integrating GPS with social networking - so I took this little tracking device and my little Sony Camera on a bike tour to do some BETA testing...

This little bike ride around Dresden was a way for me to remember the good things about living there and wash away all the bad memories...

To see more of what comes with the trip - click on the pointer bubbles. That will show you pictures of that area, and any journals that might be associated with the spot!

However, in some of the write-ups - some of the bad stuff bubbled up - but helps with the process too... This isn't done - I have lots left to say about our time there. But this should give you an idea of what it was like to live there, and I wanted to have something that the girls could read when the get older - to help them remember.

Check out the various points, most have pictures and journals with them - so you can see what it looks like in the different parts of town and how we lived day to day. It's quite a bit different from life in Canada...

enjoy.

Crazy Weather

2008-11-19T20:02:00.008-05:00

We get some pretty crazy weather in Ottawa in Octobers... Some days can be nice, some wet, some cold, some snow...the whole thing.
This October - we were worried about our Hallowe'en! 3 days before Hallowe'en we got whacked with 15cm of snow! And the following week, it was near 20c!

Lucky for the girls, it didn't last - and warmer weather was on the way. By the time the girls were ready to go trick-or-treatin, it was 15c and an absolutely perfect night for going out and getting candy!

Ottawa River - Boat Tour

2008-11-19T19:16:00.011-05:00

October is a terrible month for us... We love the weather, but rarely get the chance to enjoy it. Meghan and Emma have their birthdays, I'm usually travelling, we have our wedding anniversary and Hallowe'en gets in there too.

It's our second fall back home, and wanted to take advantage of the nice weather we had been having... We found an afternoon between birthdays and decided to head downtown to take a boat tour on the Ottawa River. We had heard some really good things about the trip, especially in the fall with a all trees turning colour.
It was a beautiful day - 20C, sunny and we figured there would be plenty of others wanting to do the same, so we went down early bought our tickets and walked around the canal for a little while.
The Canal was built after the war of 1812, to provide a path other than the St.Lawrence River between Montreal, Ottawa and Kingston. There were no boats moving through on this day, but the girls have seen the locks in action before, further up the canal (it runs for 200km!). In the winter, we'll come back and enjoy the worlds longest skating rink!

We finally boarded, and got some nice seats on the side so the kids could have a good view. In the video footage, you can hear the tour guide of course speaking in English and French - attempting the same bad jokes in both official languages. We started up river for a nice wide look at the Parliament Buildings, the Chateau Laurier and the National Gallery. Not too far upriver before we had to swing around to head back down on the Quebec side. We passed the Museum of Civilization on the way to mouth of the Gatineau River. At this part of Gatineau it looked like a little riverside town, with an old school church, small marina and an eclectic mix of homes.
As we entered into the open waters of the Ottawa River, the boat stopped for a few minutes to allow us to look around before heading back up the Ottawa side. The colours on all the trees - the red, the orange, the yellow, the browns lined the hills. It was really nice to see. Too bad it only lasts a week or two... We turned back right around Rockcliffe Park, and for those who don't know Ottawa, Rockcliffe houses many historic homes and foreign embassies, not to mention the Prime Minister and the Governor General. Up on the hill overlooking the river, you can see the Prime Ministers house. Not too shabby...
Heading back to the dock, we got a great look up at the Ottawa Canal locks. Looks like a series of steps heading up into the downtown. As it was approaching 6, and the sun was heading down, the girls were happy to see that it was coming to an end - it was a little cool in the open air deck without the sun to warm them up.

We finished the evening with a walk in the market, and dinner downtown.
Pretty good day for us in October!

Camping

2008-09-21T18:05:00.018-05:00

My girls have always loved to go camping. There's just something about camping and being in the great outdoors that keeps people back. I love the smell of the air, the sounds of the trees, the picturesque lakes and being able to leave it all behind and just relax.
Even when we were living in the U.S - where it was hot and muggy - we tried to go camping. That experience was a bit of a disaster. Emma was just a baby and Meghan at 2, it wasn't easy, but the heat was unbearable. We spent more time in the air conditioned van than anywhere else. Worst of all must have been those deafening cricket sounds at night. After that experience, we gave up on camping in Virginia - and went back home to camp in the summers.

Fitzroy Provincial Park
This summer we went camping a few times. Our first trip was to Fitzroy Provincial Park, about 30 mins from Ottawa. The whole family went, but it was a bit of a short trip. This summer was not the best in June and July - raining soooo much, and this week wasn't any different. We were tenting, and everything got soaked. Not only was it wet, but it was muggy and when the afternoon's rolled-around the bugs came a calling... We found out there was supposed to be huge storm rolling in later that day - so we decided to pack it in, better luck next time.

Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park
The following weekend, I took Meghan and Emma to go camping with Grandpa and Grandma at Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park. I stayed for the weekend, and they got to stay out for the week. It wasn't a long stay for me with them, but we packed in the activities.
We had a great site, one we've stayed at before - nice and close to the beach and a playground. And it's a great beach. Water is nice and warm for swimming, and the beach is great for making sandcastles. Just off to the side of the beach there are some marshes, and the girls will wander around - hoping to find some frogs to catch!

Tents vs Trailers
The girls got to stay in the trailer, while I tented. Tents are for the purists - but not the most comfortable or dry - especially if it gets wet outside. Trailers are kind of like a mobile cottage, they have many comforts of home, but you get to live out in the forest. It all depends what you like, and what you can afford ;-)

Campfires
At night, the girls are always hoping for a campfire. There's nothing quite like watching a fire. The flames flickering and dancing - I guess that's why people keep putting fireplaces in their homes. The girls get into their PJ's (to cover up from the bugs!) and cozy up to a nice fire, and then wait for the marshmallows! They like them roasted with a nice and golden brown outside, so you have to wait for the fire to burn down to get those red hot coals, perfect for marshmallows. Another campfire treat is pie iron pizza's. They're basically iron skillets on sticks that you put right down in the coals to cook. You put a piece of bread on either side, and whatever you want inside, then close it up and into the fire it goes. It toasts up so nice and hot - it's the original pizza pocket! mmmm...Tasty.

Rafting
The next day was going to get really hot, so we decided to go rafting down the river. The Mattawa River at the campground has a great set of rapids to run down, and with all the rain we had had, the river was running high and fast - perfect conditions for rafting. My parents had bought a couple of rubber dingy's for that very purpose, so we got them all blown up, put on our lifejackets and headed out. Grandpa and Emma started down the river, Meghan and I tried to follow - but ran into a big rock right off the bat! The dingy popped and we quickly sank into the river. Luckily, it was only meters from our start point, so we headed back to the car to get the air mattress - and it was great for shooting the rapids. The river was warm, and the sun was hot as we slowly glided down the river. It was so relaxing between the rapids, I could have napped. The rapids were fast and high, splashing and bouncing us all over the place, but we managed to stay on. At the end, we jumped out of the river and ran back part way to do it all over again. Meghan and Emma absolutely loved it.

Canoeing
No camping trip is complete without going canoeing. I pratically grew up in a canoe while camping, and it was the highlight for me to go out and catch frogs. We didn't have any luck finding frogs this trip, but got up close and personal with some turtles and had a unparalleled experience with a mother loon and her baby.
Paddling in the marshes and through the fallen waterlogged trees, we saw a number of turtles out sunning themselves. We were able to sneak in and get a better look at a few, but they'd dive in as we got closer. One though, decided that he didn't want to get out of the sun and Emma decided that she wanted to try to touch his shell. We got up against the edge of the tree, she reached way out and was able to pet him a few times. Of course, he got tired of it after a bit and jumped back in the water starttling Emma a bit - but she was happy to have been able to get that close.

Following that encounter, we saw a few loons out in the middle of the lake and decided to go in for a close-up. Loons are a water bird with an , and rarely can you get very close to them with scaring them off. This trip however, a mother bird was out with her baby, and couldn't exactly take off. We were able to get within a meter of them - with the video camera on! She called out with that haunting loon voice as we approached, to ward us off. I was a little worried when we got so close that the mother would attack us. We finally gave way, and veered off - but it's something I'll never forget and hope the girls will always remember.

It's something no Canadian, or visitor to Canada should ever miss the opportunity to try. Camping has even caught on with the new Canadians, who seemed to have embraced it. I was almost surprised to see so many multi-cultural campers, but I suppose it's very different - the great outdoors, from the busy, bustling cities of where they came from... I know - I've been to some of those places, where the people are shoulder to shoulder, loud and pushy - it's no wonder they like it!

Summer Wrap-Up

2008-09-06T21:32:00.007-05:00

Summer in Canada is THE BEST!
The days are long, the sun is warm and lakes are everywhere. Summers in Canada - at least where 90% of us live - go from late May to early September. The temperature can get up to 35C and more, but most of the time is between 25C and 30C, which is very comfortable. Humidity is reasonable and we rarely need to turn on the air conditioning. It cools off a bit at night and that makes it great for sitting outside and enjoying those nice long days. The best thing about summers in Canada, is that we are outside enjoying it - not hiding inside from it...
There's so much that Canadians can do in the summer, from camping to going to the cottage. Canoeing and Kayaking, biking and hiking, swimming and scuba diving - the possibilities are endless. The worst part about it? It never lasts long enough.
Starting this blog a little late for summer, but I'm going to cover a few of my favorite activities with the girls this past summer.

Intro

2008-08-25T21:27:00.009-05:00

For those of you that don't know us yet, we're the McMartin's. We're a family with 3 girls. We started early and gave up on boys after 3 straight girls...
Rebekah is now 15, Meghan is 8 and Emma is 6.

For the past 7 years, we've been living and traveling abroad. We moved to Richmond, Virginia in 2001 - just before Emma was born. It was a very interesting time to be in the U.S. Just over six months after our arrival, 9-11 happened. Despite that chaos and the philosophical differences, we did manage to survive down there quite well for almost 5 years. But after those 5 years in the U.S, we were ready for a change. At that time, we were given the opportunity to move to Germany (No, I'm not with the military...I work in IT, and up until the month before - we were supposed to have moved to Austria!) This allowed us to introduce our girls to a whole new culture and way of living. People ask what it's like to have lived in these places, and my answer (leaving out the details) has typically been that the U.S is pretty far to the right, Germany is pretty far to the left and Canada is sitting somewhere in between quite nicely. The important point in all this, is that for the majority of their lives, my little Canadian girls had very little idea as to what it was like to live in Canada. Aside from a few summer trips (to get away from the horribly hot and sweaty Richmond summers), they had hardly even seen it! After 7 years away from home, we knew it was time to go home - so here we are, finally back home!

So what is 'mare ad mare'? First of all, it's latin and it's pronounced 'mar-ay ad mar-ay'. It's part of our national motto and it means Sea to Sea. My goals with this little family project are to educate my girls about Canada, let other Canadians find out new things about the different parts of Canada and to show the rest of the world what it's like to be a Canadian girl. We're also going to be selling t-shirts to support our activities. I hope to involve our girls heavily in that part, that they can become more familiar with the business world.

I was feeling guilty for taking my family away from their family and from Canada. It's not like it's a third world country that we're trying to escape! I had been lucky enough as a kid to take long vacations with my parents to the east coast and the west coast - getting to see so many different parts of Canada. This activity was going to be my launching point for re-introducing Canada to my girls. Now that we're back at home, I want to show my girls what it's like to be a Canadian. So I'll be taking trips, doing special things with them every week and writing about it here. I hope that this catches on, and others Canadian parents contribute their own stories about what it's like for their Canadian girls. That way, my girls can see too! This is a pretty big country...

Having traveled quite a bit for my work through the U.S, Europe and Asia, I have found that knowledge of Canada is pretty limited. Most people are quite surprised when they hear that I'm Canadian, anyone speaking english but without 'an accent' is assumed to be American. The question or statement is usually 'isn't it cold?' But there is genuine interest from them about Canada. To many, Canada is a special place. They hear great things about it, know that the people are nice but other than being cold - they know nothing of it. I hope that having this site/blog will let others see more about Canada that just cold. If we don't tell them about it and show them - who will?

What else? The shirts! Being away for that long was making us homesick. I'm very proud to be Canadian, and rarely miss the opportunity to tell people about it. I wanted to get our girls some Canada shirts. Looking around there's very few cute Canada shirts for girls. Most of them have a big moose or beaver, and some horribly obvious 'EH!' written across it. So i designed my own shirt for them, created my 'Canadian butterfly'. Initially it was pretty rudimentary, having carved it from coloured construction paper, then glueing it down and scanning the image. Their first shirt was an iron on - it needed work. I started developing the current image on the computer shortly after, and finally came to an image the girls and I were happy with - so after we got back home, I had a few shirts made to start us off and now we're working on the next set of designs. Hope you like them!

Check in next week to catch our first Canadian outing - it's nearing the end of summer, and I already have a couple of stories to catch up on ;-)