I'm not writing much these days because my father's in the hospital. I don't want to remember this time later so instead I'm going to post about other things.

I went to the TFC home opener last Saturday with Marisha, Sonya (this
was her birthday present) and Ryan. So much fun. It was a great day: friends, beer, sunburn, 1-0 for us. I told Ryan to remind me of that day whenever season's ticket renewal time came around. It is so worth it. For some reason the 7 seats to my left remained empty the entire game. I swear they were the only empty seats in the stadium! I hope it just meant they had found a really good spot along the rail in the beer tent because it would suck to have empty seats beside me the entire season. My new seats are as close as you can get to the fan section. I loved our old section - lots of spirit - but it's way rowdier (= fun) in 109!

After the game, we walked along King Street past Rob's restaurant. Rob's gf, Esther, was outside the Bungalow putting up planters. Even though the bar was closed she invited us in for a drink. Big mistake! She opened the french doors onto King and we sat at the window table. That's all it took for other TFC fans wander in and order drinks. Esther handled it like a pro - calling in Rob and a bartender to pick up the slack. We apologized a million times but she said not to - that it was an unexpected windfall. They're going to get the TFC schedule and make sure they're open after every game!

Afterward, Ryan went off to some bbq, Sonya went home to feed and walk her 18 month old "golden doodle" Fin while Marisha and I hit Burrito Boyz and then went on to Hot Docs. We saw Talking Guitars, about Flip Scipio, the dutch guitar restorer. The film was not fantastic but it was interesting to have Flip at the Q & A afterward. He is a very funny man.

On the training side of things, I've been paddling outrigger for the past month. I still have my C-1 but don't see myself paying a fortune to go to Dartmouth for just one or two races. Pete has been great about loaning me one of his Hody OC-1s. He's been keeping it in an empty slot at the club and it's worked out really well, allowing me to paddle until my new boat arrives this weekend. The weather these past few weeks has been phenomenal. I'm so glad I've been able to take advantage of it. Thanks Pete!

Hmm, there's clearly a dutch theme happening here today. If you're a fan of Rube Goldberg, check out this commercial for a dutch department store. Just click here, let the page load, don't try to select anything, give it a minute and watch what happens.