CaptainOrange

I've spent the morning sitting in front of my homemade sun lamp and getting creative and inspired. I usually look inward for this kind of activity, but today I thought I would check in with the rest of the world. I tried googling "things I haven't tried." It didn't get me too far. It did yield one site that I think I'll follow via RSS for awhile AND this eery and inspiring video. The music really makes it. Later on, I came upon a host of Bucket List (wikipedia) sites that tried to tell me the 10-150 things I could or should do before I die, or if I had 24 hrs to live, etc... I learned a few things as I looked through these lists. Foremost among them was: make your own damned list! the number of people who just copy and pasted was ridiculous. Don't mistake me. I think that a lot of people share common interests and sometimes we need to be inspired by others, but when "eat jellied eels from a stall in london" yields 4090 results in google, th...

In a lot of ways my life is a mantra about trying new things, but I don't often think about it and I certainly don't put pressure on myself to perform new things on a particular schedule. This was a hard week. I found that I had put a lot of pressure on myself. Not only to try 'new' things, but pressure that the newness in some way be special. I found myself pre-judging everything as too mundane, (even though I apparently said something about that in my last post) or too close to something that I had done before. I believe Wendy thought I was an idiot much of the time as I struggled with finding something suitable. It's a good thing that she was around, though. Twice I was in the final throes of desperation. It was approaching 8 or 9 pm and I hadn't chosen a new thing to do, yet. Wendy's stellar memory would recall several things I had done that day. "But, I wasn't trying  to do those things," I would whine. Yes, I can be a whiner -- and sadl...

We've already discussed how February is a terrible month . We need not get into the details again. I do want to add that, as you might expect, it's not entirely February's fault. I guess it's been a case of shooting the messenger. Things start building up all through the winter. I distract myself and deny, but by February, I can't maintain the illusion that I'm happy and it all goes down-hill from there. So the shortest month gets the short stick, or short shrift, or something amounting to "up yours." I know--I can be cruel that way. I'm really my own enemy. And, I've been improving how I handle things during the winter, but I'm still not able to manage it with any real grace. I can't shake the feeling like I'm faking it. Volleyball was one of the activities that I typically engage in to get some exercise (which helps a lot). Unfortunately, I felt compelled to withdraw from the team that I have been on for the last 3-4 years. Anoth...

The clothes-line that I installed this spring was a great success. There was a certain art to finding enough sun this year, but we managed to run our 70s era dryer only a precious few times during the summer and fall. You might have noticed that it's gotten rather cold outside. Cold enough that hanging our laundry on our spiffy new outdoor line has become impossible. Happy Days of Summer... Sniff Now that we've gotten used to not running the clothes dryer, I just had to find a way to continue the energy savings during the winter. We already had a stand model that we've used off and on since we were married. It looked like this thing on the right. Well... almost. Ours was rusted in several places, two of the bars had fallen off due to failed welds and the piece that bridges the lower middle part had mysteriously gone missing. So, yeah... it falls down a lot--especially when you have two cats. Clothes don't dry too well on a concrete floor. a clever disguise Afte...

5 sec exposure and an inactive crowd made for a cool shot Although I have been a bit down for the last couple of months, it isn't as though there haven't been highlights. A big part of my coping with the bad weather of summer and the stress of putting on a new roof, guests and plumbing turmoil is diving into frivolous asthetic pursuits. fireworks over the Broadway bridge In early September there were some really terrific fireworks on the riverbank, just off Broadway Ave. I knew I needed to have a little fun, so I put on my Quester's robe, pulled up the hood and did a little climbing. Of course I took my camera gear. It was quite crowded and I enjoyed my strangely visible anonymity as I scaled the brickwork to my perch. If you've played Assassins Creed, you'll have a vague inkling of how cool I felt. As a side benefit, I got some nice pictures. Album:  Fireworks Leo's Favs... OAK! In the following weeks, I enjoyed more sun than we saw all summer. It...

My sister-in-law was visiting this summer. You may remember that I posted some great pictures of her children as part of my summer update . The visit was not without its tribulations. Teela: There is a bad smell in your basement Me: Yeah, it's your room. The one with the toddler and the baby sleeping in it. Teela: My baby doesn't smell like THAT! Me: If the diaper fits... Note the suspicious looking pipe... Sewer, diapers -- it's all the same right? Two days after the above conversation, we found water on the floor of the guest room. Me: Are we sure this is water? Teela: #$@! We quickly packed our guests off to Liz's house and I tore apart our beloved and oft used guest room. I ripped open the sodden drywall to discover some mold and quite a bit of trouble. The biggest problem was that there was no sign of where the water was coming from. A plumber arrived and promptly chipped a hole in our floor. Plumber's Gift Culprit. I imagine you can te...

Facebook causes you to come into contact with people you haven't seen for a long time. The consequence is you are often confronted with 'friending' a person that, for all intents and purposes, is a total stranger. Old-school as I am, I do not just click "confirm" without any sort of confirming process to go along with it. Last week required one such confirmation where (as I often do) I turned to my stack of yearbooks. I have them all from 7-12. They have sat on various bookshelves gathering dust for more than 20 years now. As I flipped along, looking to see if I even knew the person who wanted to be my friend, something grabbed my attention. Writing in the margins and over some of the pictures. Sarah, my serious high-school girlfriend, had written some things by photos of herself (mostly self deprecating) or me (glowing praise). There was another hand at work on those pages. It wrote "nice hair," on some outrageously tall dos, made fun of a kid who pla...

It's official. Everyone in the family (except for me) is now a debater. Teenage battles are coming, and I am beginning to be afraid. This weekend, we went on our annual trip to Hitchcock's Hideaway (our previous trips here and here ). We saw Tim and Sherry and the boys as usual. Below, Ben and Jonah are engaged in a deadly battle at sunset. They are boys after my own heart AND I didn't even need to supply them with swords! Who says the education system is failing our children? This year marks the first time that the girls participated in all the events as advertised. Previously, Wendy helped run the workshops and we just messed around. This time, I was left to my own devices while everyone else did debate. The results are typical... So far, I don't appear to have hurt myself, though I was precariously near a sand cliff doing dive-rolls in the twilight. I've been really enjoying playing around with over-exposing some of my photos. If the look bothers you,...

Day 1 - Aug 12 I had an early morning. My flight ($157) to Calgary was scheduled for 8:30am. I got to the airport in plenty of time. I was only somewhat put out when my army boots beeped and I was searched (Wen scores points for her foretelling of this event). Army boots? Hello? I thought Harper was all "support the troops". Sheesh. My enthusiasm remained high seeing as how I got to use my iPhone as boarding pass for the first time. Thats right. Got an email confirmation the day before after which I checked in from home. Then I was texted a QR Code that I flashed on my screen at the security station and the departure gate. Practically geek nirvana. I was seated in Row 8 :) The flight was over all too soon -- a little less than an hour. Dave at the trail-head Dave and Suzanne were right there to pick me up from the airport and we hopped in their car for the 1.5 hrs to Athebasca Lake. We did stop briefly for a supply of dark chocolate and chewy things. The hik...

As foretold, Leo, Anwyn and I went to the Ex per usual. The Weather was fantastic. I posted several pictures to Facebook and Buzz, but it's taken me until now to get my Pentax pictures in order and have enough time down off my roof project to put this blog together. Enough with the excuses. Commence with the pictures. First Ride of the Year The girls enjoyed themselves, but I don't think it was as fun for them as last year. They both got more nauseus and were more easily tired out. Yes. Old age. Sadly, it affects us all -- Even ten-year-olds. The super passes that we bought for them still paid off (especially since one of them covered my gate costs), but not by the huge margin of last Ex. It's not always easy to get the sun to go where you want it. On this occasion, it was more accommodating than usual. There were still plenty of laughs and screams to be had. They just have to make sure to take something to settle their stomachs before next year's excursion.

We'll play a little catch-up, here... There is a serious lot of activity here. Take what you will. Things have been pretty busy around my house. Since we've been back from Ottawa and Kitchener , Leora and Anwyn have completed another level each in swimming. They love the pool so much they would have lessons in the morning and then we would take in the "loonie swim" after 6pm. Since the whole family could swim for $2 it seemed like an easy way to kill some time. The below album is from an occasion where we went to George Ward outdoor pool with Erin and her boys Michael and Chandler. Swimming The girls and I managed to sneak away for the day to the Pollard family reunion right at the end of July. It was fun and they wanted to stay longer. As usual, we stopped to enjoy my favourite time of day. Pollard Reunion Jodi and Brad were in town following our excursion. Jodi and I played Rock Band and ate Pizza until 2am. James came over for an hour and rocked out w...

Leo and Anwyn have been spoiling for a good back-yard fire. Between travel and bad weather, there have been precious few opportunities. Since there was only a little rain today I thought I'd take my chances as they lay. We invited Matt and Molly over for a couple of hours and stuffed ourselves with puffy (sometimes recently flaming) confections. Everyone seems to have their own way of enjoying marshmallows, but there is a certain... inevitability that Anwyn has managed to capture perfectly. Sometime after our discussion of the dangers of " chubby bunny ", Wendy noticed that there was a certain discrepancy between Leora and Matt that shouldn't go undocumented. Vampires vs Werewolves Before dropping my niece and nephew off at home, I decided to share my love of sunsets with them at one of my favorite viewing spots. The kids played Matt's latest made up pen & pencil game while I indulged myself in three of my obsessions; photography, sunsets and childr...

One of the big events that we had planned for our visit was a trip out to what we like to call the Gutoski land holdings. A number of years back, Gus' father, Tom, managed to get a sweet deal on a hundred acre wood of his very own. Greta just wouldn't shut up about how great it was. Wendy was so excited about it that I couldn't sleep the night before. That last bit is entirely fabricated and only and excuse to segue into my next story. I called my nephew, David, up and asked him to give me a midnight tour of the University of Waterloo campus. He was nervous that he couldn't live up to my expectations from some of our previous adventures. "Can Bri come, too?" he asked. Naturally I didn't mind if his girlfriend was there. I don't know Bri well, but she puts up with David's weirdness, so she gets a BIG benefit of the doubt. I went over to their apartment to pick them up. Bri gave me a hug. Strange. After a struggle to find parking near campus, we ha...