Yee haw. Another great night last night. We met up with Gavin on Campbell St. around 6:00pm and had a couple schooners before heading over to the korean B.B.Q.. We got the set meal for four but it was way too much food! We ended up leaving most of the seafood hot pot. We decided to stay fairly close to the Westend since it was Gavin's last night and he had to leave early early.
We went to this bar on George St. that caught our eye everytime we walked up that way - 3 Wise Monkeys.(http://www.3wisemonkeys.com.au/). Met a bunch of guys who were on a stag night for their buddy Gav. Partied with them for a bit - they didn't want to leave we were having such a good time but they had to carry on with their stag night - something about strippers. Through feats of strength (way to go Forklift) we met some coal miners from Mudgee. Very fun and funny. One of them looks like Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray. I have to tell you that all of the guys we
met were terrified of Gavin
when we brought them over to meet him (until he put on gav's orange statetrooper sunglasses). There aren't many guys his size out here! They wanted to know if he was our "minder". Another couple of people we met - Clair and her friend (Ummm. can't remember but maybe Scott??). Great 3 level bar with a live band on the top floor playing the requisite '80s rock! We ripped it up on the dance floor for a long time but there are a bunch of guys here who rush you from behind and grab your ass. It was exactly the same as when we go to El Convento Rico at home
so I just used my elbows to shove them off. I don't know if it's Sydney or just this bar but the ratio of men to women was 3 to 1 - the polar opposite of Toronto! That, coupled with our "exotic" accents, made for lots of attention. I think I only paid for one beer all night.

I'm just waiting for the girls to come downstairs and then we're off to the league final at Telstra Stadium! 90,000 seats sold out - crazy or what?! We got our tickets from the produce guys we met at the Orient Hotel. There's a bit of a problem because when we picked up our tickets we were rushing back from Bondi to pack up our bags etc because we have to leave for the airport around 7:00am. When we tore off our three tickets, one of the barcodes was left on Geoff's ticket. However, I called David and it's all cool. They're at the stadium already so two girls will go in, get the bar code and bring it back down to me. Hope there's no problem at the gate!
Okay, so when we got to the gate, we were worried about the ticket thing but as soon as we started to explain that we couldn't scan the bar code on one, the ticket taker said, "You must be the Canadian girls - the gentlemen arranged everything - go ahead." Whew!
Marisha had bought all kinds of purple fan stuff for the game and she was wearing the Dr. Seuss Canada hat. The guys were happy to see us - we were about 20 minutes late. At the half we went to get beer and, of course, attracted a lot of attention (marisha and I were wearing our team Canada jackets). The gentleman in the beer line ahead of us introduced himself as Peter Wynn.
I said, "hey, I was in your sports store in Parramatta last week. you're the rugby guy!" He showed us his photo in the game program - him playing back in the 80s and invited us to the Melbourne Storm's after party at the Albion. too bad he forgot to give us wristbands - we weren't able to get in once we arrived and security wouldn't go find him for us. Julie had arranged to meet Callum, the guy from the bar the night before at half time so we just hung around for a bit. he didn't show but we met a lot of people. A guy wearing a hockey night in Canada t-shirt came over. he ahd moved to Australia from calgary and just wanted to say hi to people from home. We got back to the second half late. Our hosts weren't too pleased when Julie spent 20 minutes yelling into the phone, standing and waving, trying to tell Callum where we were but we finally convinced her to go find him on the 100 level and things calmed down.
The game was so fast and so much fun and coincidentally we were cheering for the right team! The Melbourne Storm won it.
Wow, the Aussies really do things right. Not only is transit to and from the game free with your ticket, when we left the stadium we went straight into a huge area with a stage - after-party times ten! Live band, cheap beer and a party that killed. We met so many people and I gave out my remaining Canada pins which prompted people to buy us drinks since they "had to give us something in return". We were partying with some really fun guys. One of them was the Austral-Asian Marble World Champion - Mark Macdonald who works for Macdonalds and we met another woman, Leanne, who coached the bronze medallists from outrigger worlds. I gave her my email address and said she should come to Toronto for the 'round the island since it's their off-season.
I can't wait for Marisha to upload her photos when we get home!

Reminders for myself when I have time to post...

Monday: hangover day - we decided to stay at the Rydges Parramatta for one more night as we were unable to function (pack bags and check out in any decent time). I spent a couple of hours at Westfields Mall. We went to a mediterranean restaurant on Church street. Great food, early night.

Tuesday: took the train to Katoomba. Jorg was on the same train but we didn't connect until we got off at the other end. We checked into a triple at the backpacker's hostel and headed for Echo Point. Climbed down to the Three Sisters then hiked the trail approx 4 hours. Bought some New Zealand beer at the bottle shop ($22. for 6 bottles!) and hung out in the hostel lounge. Headed out around 9:50. picked up Thai take-away since the pubs weren't serving food anymore. Took our food to the Carrington Hotel and ordered beer. Played the longest game of pool ever, then played some local guys in doubles, then the longest game of 501 at the dart boards. Cool though since it was FREE VIDEO JUKEBOX night! endless tunes from every decade but mostly the eighties. Marisha was excited taht Eagle Rock was on the jukebox. HAHAHA. Hard-core eighties fashion. It was very funny!

Wednesday: got up early and packed our bags, stored them at the hostel after checking out and headed back to Echo Point to do the other trail. Starts at the Three Sisters as well but we turned left at the bottom instead of right. Beautiful. After we finished the trail we collected our bags adn while I watched them at the train station, the girls went and picked up sandwiches for the 2 hour ride back to Sydney. Surprise! Jorg met us on the platform at Central Station. He was also checked in at the Legend Has it....Westend. They headed out to the opera (Puccini - love triptych) and I settled for noodle soup and an early night.

Thursday - met up with Gavin. Ran into Suzanne, her sister and some other guy from the senior team. Decided we would meet them for dinner and drinks at the Orient Hotel in the evening. For some reason I'm drawing a blank on what we did this day. Shopping around the Rocks for sure...oh yeah and we happened to pass by the Canadian Consulate so we dropped in and said hello. They had just taken down the item about the world championships but said they would send a press release about our results to Ottawa - took teams names and quotes from coach gavin. We carried onto the Rocks after that, then hit the Lowenbrau bar with our
free beer coupons! Ran into two guy paddlers from the sr team. headed back to the hostel to shower and change then met the crowd back at the Orient. Ate dinner and met some guys who said they could hook us up with tickets for the league final on Sunday. Spent the rest of the night with Stefan from Switzerland. We ended up at a great club called The Establishment.

Friday: Another hangover day. Spent the day and evening at Manly beach. Met Gavin and Suzanne for dinner at a rooftop bar overlooking the ocean. Sipped beer while watching surfers ride waves as the sun set. Ferry ride home presented a great view of Sydney skyline.


Saturday: Paddington Market! shopping, shopping, shopping, Art Gallery of New South Wales, shopping in the gallery gift shop. We'll be meeting up with David and Geoff (the guys with the tickets). I have a bad cold so don't know how late I'll be out. Tomorrow's our last night in Sydney (as Gavin put it in reference to our spending, "Thank God honolulu is free"!)

Sunday night - we headed back to the hotel after being presented with our final gold medal and the cup for the Women's Division. The other girls had to rush to get ready to go to the IDBF party at the Olympic Park - the bus was picking them up in 15 minutes - but I was able to take my time. Quite a few of us hadn't purchased tickets to the party. Eve, Katy and Clem had ordered pizza so I called Domino's and added another to their order, then headed down to their room for drinks. We were lounging around laughing and talking a singing when the front desk phoned up to ask us, very politely, if we would consider moving our party to the lobby bar as some guests had complained about the noise. The bar was closed but they gave us free rein. We brought our stereo and moved the furniture around to suit the group and settled in for an awesome time. After an hour or so we decided to head to P.J. Gallagher's on some aussie's advice. It was awesome! There was a duo playing eighties tunes and we dropped ourselves into the middle of the dancefloor and ripped it up. K.C., Matt, Kaylynne, Rachel, Clem, Clem's cousin, Sara, Sara's boyfriend Chris, Eve, Chrissy, Jess, me - I hope I'm not leaving anyone out - we had so much fun dancing and singing along at the tops of our lungs along with the locals. The US team had booked a function room upstairs for a private celebration but came downstairs at some point. They were yelling their usual U-S-A...U-S-A...U-S-A and were genuinely surprised when we shreaked back CANADA! I think the locals were just annoyed but it made us laugh.
I got back to my room around 12:30. I was just making some phone calls when one of my roommates arrived with a False Creek boy in tow. Awkward. My options were limited as I had nowhere else to go and I didn't fancy sleeping in the lobby so I asked the boy if he didn't have a room somewhere. He said yeah but not at our hotel...just then Eve knocked on the door and I thought I might be able to scam a spot in their room. Nope. we were still having an awkward discussion of sorts when Chanda knocked on the door. Yet again, no offer of a spot so I told the guy he should consider going somewhere else. He was actually a little rude to the girl but they finally left.
The next morning all the girls said their goodbyes in the breakfast room. We were heading to Katoomba but were all a little under the weather (and not packed by checkout time) so we decided to book our room for one more night. I spent the afternoon checking email and wandering around Westfield Mall. We had a great dinner at a mediterranean restaurant on Church street and hit our beds early so we could catch the train to Katoomba first thing in the morning.

Someone put some work into these videos of the 200m and 500m finals posted on youtube. The angle is bad but it doesn't change the results - gold in both for Canada's premier women.

Day 4 - 500m
I didn't sleep much last night, woke up at 2:39 the same as every other night since we got here. Bah. This was the first morning that I was feeling a little anxious. We had a team dinner at Gavin, Karen & Kev's apartment at the Quest last night. Gavin cooked spaghetti for everyone. It was really nice to have home-cooked food for a change.
This morning, everyone was a little subdued so Clem played Bob Marley, Jack Johnson & other low-key music on the way to the course. As we approached the course she completed the set with Journey's "Don't Stop Belieiving" and everyone sang along at full volume. Thank god for Clem. She knows exactly how to set us up to approach the day with the best possible attitude.
Our heat was at 11:10 or thereabouts (I really should check the website for these deets!). We won it but, as it has been every day, it was close. Because of the 200m the day before, we decided that we had to show why we were the top crew in the world. I'm running out of time so I'll just say we went up to the line and executed our race plan perfectly. 1:58:57. Apparently the video is up on youtube but I don't have the link at hand. I'll post it later.

So it's Monday afternoon here - late Sunday night for you guys. I'll type as long as my internet access holds out;
DAY 3 - Saturday, 200m: I'm so glad I'd packed my down vest at the last second because I've needed it a few times. It was cold and windy here again. We didn't have to catch the bus to the course until 11:30am so we took the hotel shuttle into Parramatta. Marisha was chatting with the driver and mentioned she was trying to find a copy of a particular Aussie song. Apparently on her last trip here in '82, every bar played Eagle Rock as their last song at closing time and she wanted us to hear it. The driver was a fresh-faced, young guy who politely told her that he wouldn't really know since he had been born in 1989. It was one of those moments, like being called Ma'am, and it brought Marisha up short. She started laughing, "Hey Lynne, this guy was born in 1989!". I hadn't been listening so I wasn't sure why this would be interesting to me until she explained. Poor kid was blushing. Anyway, he didn't hold it against us and agreed to come pick us up in an hour after we'd finished our email. Thanks everyone for the congrats and emails etc.
We did our thing in town, headed back to the hotel and caught the team bus to Penrith. We were all pretty pumped. The 200m is kind of "our race" - we haven't lost since 2002 . The heat went well - we came out a full second ahead of the field which was unusual for a 200m. We knew we had a little more to work with.
It was kind of weird at the tent. Being here as just the women's team means we're more connected with the rest of Team Canada (seniors and juniors) which is great. The downside is that athletes on the senior team were giving us their opinion of what we're doing wrong and how we should proceed. I guess in the past our coaches always acted as a buffer for us - we were the men's and women's premier team and kind of stuck to ourselves. Part of the problem this time is probably due to the fact that our coach also paddles for the coach of the senior team. Now that we're done I can say that I wasn't too impressed by this extra "coaching". I don't know whether or not that guy had any input on things here - our raceplan has been pretty consistent the past couple of years and the lineup of the core never changes much - but I don't like the implications. Our crew was built over the years by our previous coach. We are able to execute our raceplans so well because of that philosophy and that technique.
Back to the 200m final. This would probably be our tightest race and we knew it - 40 give or take strokes that had to be perfect. We blew the other crews off the line but China caught up and passed us in the first 100m. We heard Sheila call up the engine and went with it. I heard later that we were rating about 78-80 all the way down the course. Less than a buoy to go and we heard Sheila call up the engine AGAIN, Clem was yelling Jackie's classic, "I NEED YOU NOW!" When we crossed the line we had no idea who had won. the above mentioned group of seniors were saying that we'd won it by two strokes but having since reviewed video and photos it was more like the last 6 strokes. Whatever. Gold is gold. I give Sheila full credit for this win because, without that engine series, we might not have taken this race. the bus ride home was another celebration but for the veterans there was a slight tension. The implication from the rest of the Canadian team was that we barely won the 200m - that it wasn't difinitive enough to be worthy. It's total b.s. since that's the kind of race you want at a world championship but the atmosphere definitely set the stage for day 4 - the 500m.

Day Two - 2K
beautiful weather - sunny and hot - slight tail wind.
We've never raced the 2K at worlds before. The way they run it here it actually ends up being about 2300m. You line up and the 200m and start about 20 seconds apart. It's not precise though and they're not picky about whether you're at a complete standstill on the line. We were the 6th to start out of 7 and as we approached the line, Gavin waved us over and said we were riding bow heavy. He moved a few people around to level things out a bit.
So much of this race relies on the steersperson and we've got the best! We blasted out on the start, heard the back eight called in and took the first turn. Back eight were called again and we came out hard. We didn't quite catch up to Taipei but we were reeling them in along with Macau who started ahead of them. The back eight were just being called up, "HARD OUT" as we rounded the third turn and we were gearing up to pass those two when something happened. We missed the buoy and came through on the inside. As my paddle hit the lane marker that should have been on Eve's side of the boat, I tried to remember if it was a 5 or 10 second penalty. I was just wondering if this was some crazy strategy Gavin had to overcome the other crews in the straight when the drummer, Gina, said "it's okay, she slipped." I couldn't believe it because the boat never went out of control - how could she recover so quickly...in a corner? Clem's my hero! We picked up speed through the next 500m catching Taipei as the back eight were called up and we came out of the final turn HARD. Their cox steered in on us (not sure if it was intentional) but since the last leg can be finished in any lane we just moved over and barreled past. We reeled in Macau on the final 500m catching them at the finish line. Their men were congratulating them on winning - they had seen Laura slip and thought the penalty would be enough to put them ahead of us. The thing about the 2K is - because of the timing, you never know the results. The judges have to do all of the calculations before anything is for sure.
Missing the buoy was a 5 second penalty and everyone on Team Canada was saying they had timed us as roughly 3-5 seconds ahead. The mood was pretty tense and we all felt for Laura who was taking full responsibility unnecessarily. We don't really have a team cheer but just before we head into the marshaling area, we put our hands center and yell "TOGETHER". Important to remember at a time like this.
We hung around for a bit but the medal ceremony was behind schedule and they were still doing races from earlier in the day. It was dark when the bus arrived to take us home and we decided to wait to hear results back at the hotel. Gavin had a whole, "Shake it off, tomorrow's another day" speech ready for the bus ride but a few of the girls were missing. We were just doing a head count when we heard girls screaming and Karenwas running around the outside of the bus banging on the windows screaming, "We won! 11 seconds!!! We kicked their f***ing asses."
Kaylynne had the video camera going which is good because the next few minutes were a crazy jumble as we tried to find out how they knew, were they sure it was the women's results and not the men's? Where had they heard it? Was it posted? Pretty emotional for everyone and a few tears of relief. It was a pretty happy ride home. Gavin had to rewrite his speech, lots of dedications from the iPOD especially "I Will Survive" for the back eight.
We have a wicked team!

Day one of racing - 1000m
Cold and rainy, cross wind (left to right)
Wow, we had a really tough 1000m heat and final yesterday. The Chinese and British women are FAST. We had the faster heat, coming second to China, but it was enough to put us directly through to the final (no semi). It was a wake-up call though. We knew we had another gear but so much relies on strategy and fitness in the 1000m. In the final, we took it off the start but Canada, Britain and China were together all the way down the course. Suddenly, with about 50m to go, the drummer (Katie) who had been yelling "it's neck and neck - do you want it?" screamed, "OH FUCKING CANADA" and we knew we were ahead. Pretty sweet to win the gold against such talented competition. Hopefully we'll get to see the footage since there's a camera crew here doing a documentary on the crew.

Yesterday we had an earlier practice and beautiful conditions (no wind)!! There were quite a few more teams at the course today. It was kind of weird that some guys from the German team were taking photos of us but I guess they remember us from years.

A lot of the girls had planned a trip to Manley beach on wednesday but Gavin said he wanted everyone to stick close to home and focus on racing - good advice - so we planned our trips for today (Tuesday). Chanda, Katie, Eve, Julie, Suzanne and I decided to go to the Featherdale Wildlife Preserve.

I was really just looking for something to do but it turned out to be fantastic! The animals are accessible and you would think they were performing! You know how at the zoo they are usually sleeping in their burrows and don't respond to humans? Not these creatures, the wallabees and kangaroos (with babies in pouch) were roaming around free and you could feed them, we got to pet a koala bear (you're only allowed to hold them in Queensland, which is against the law here), the laughing Kookoboora laughed, the barking owl barked, the peackocks spread their tails and the wombat woke up and came out of his burrow when we talked to him. They had a flock (?) of Little Penguins that were swimming in a pond and a bunch of animals we'd never heard of before - like the quoll at right.
Oh, and the Tazmanian Devil was freaky. Apparently they like to keep moving and it ran endless figure eights around a couple of trees in it's encolsure.

We got to see a ton of venomous snakes, including the Taipan.

We were there for hours - it was so great. I'll hopefully have some photos to post soon.

We took the train back to Parramatta. I had missed lunch so ordered and Angus steak for dinner. The beef tastes slightly different here but it was still fantastic (even though it cost $27.00!!). Everything is ridiculously expensive here but I guess it reflects their incomes. Again, I was in bed and asleep before 9:30pm. I keep waking up at 2:30am which is a problem as I'm not always able to fall back asleep.

Practice this mornign went well And hooray - Clem is finally here! She had an exam to write so couldn't come before. Damn, I've used up another hour of internet time...more soon.

After two days of jet lag I finally felt normal this morning. Marisha and I left Toronto on thursday and 24 hours later arrived in Sydney - on Saturday morning. We checked into a hostel in the Haymarket and immediately went out to see the sights. What a beautiful city! Everything is perfect - the weather is fanatastic and they even have amazing coffee. I can't tell you what a priority that was the first couple of days! So we toured around Sydney harbour where Marisha posed for photos with some aboriginal musicians, High Park, some other park and then the other OTHER park. They've really protected and nourished the downtown greenbelt. Around 3:00pm we were heading back up into the downtown core when I hit the wall. Marisha had to lead me to a corner bar, in what we later learned was Soho, to have a couple of pints of VB and a chat with a group of estate agents. We both felt much better and started to make plans for which pub we would hit on our last night before meeting up with the rest of the crew. We got back to the hostel, checked email and never made it out. We were both asleep by 8:00pm. I slept straight through until about 8:00 the next morning.

After hitting starbucks, we checked out of the hostel and stored our bags. We went to Darling harbour and jumped on the ferry for the trip around the harbour. I am stunned by how beautiful the Opera house is. No, really. I've always admired it, thought it was stunning but in real life? Even more! They've done wonderful things with their waterfront. We had been planning to take the train out to Parramatta but discovered there was a ferry we could take. We opted for that since it was such a great day and we had spent enough time trapped in metal tubes. It took about an hour and was well worth the $7.
The hotel is nice after the hostel. we looked out of our room window and saw we were surrounded by nice suburbs like Port Credit or Guildwood. We were overlooking the back yard of a house and Julie pointed out a really weird looking dog. Which turned out to be a goat. Oh and there was a sheep.

We met up with the crew around 6:00pm for a team dinner. Those poor girls were so jet lagged and the only restaurant close by was (I'm embarrassed to tell you) Hooters. Yep. Training table contains nachos, quesadillas and titties. We did our best with salads and whatever but it was tough going.

When we woke up around 6:00am in the morning there were thoroughbreds being walked through the streets. As it turns out we're right across from the Rosehill Racetrack. It's closed right now due to an equine flu. They're not even allowed to transport horses on the highway the quarantine is so tight.

We didn't have to practice until 1:00 today. Lots of time to explore Parramatta and find an internet access point that doesn't cost $27.00 an hour - Kinkos. Afterward, jumped on the team bus to the course in Penrith. So exciting to be at the 2000 Olympic racecourse! The wind was HOWLING! Unbelievable but they assure us that this is the worst conditions we'll experience. Carrie, I can't even imagine what it was like for you guys in K4 let alone the singles. I remember watching Caroline warming up and huge waves washing over the bow of her boat.

Well, I left Toronto yesterday, Thursday afternoon and woke up in Sydney this morning, Saturday. The weather is beautiful here - spring and I'm guessing low 70s. I basically slept the whole way and woke up feeling fantastic. Didn't mind the long wait to get off the plane while they sprayed everything down with their "non-toxic decontaminant", and the long time it took to pick up our paddles since a bunch of surfers had just returned from a competition in Bali. They got all of their boards off first. We're staying at a hostel in Sydney for the night and will meet up with the rest of the team tomorrow in Parramatta. We have internet access here but not sure what we'll have after this.
We ran into a bunch from the men's crew in vancouver. We know some of them and recognize others from the race-off. A nice bunch of guys. Anyway, I'm really happy to be here and will try to keep updating. Thanks to everyone for their good wishes!

PM update. We've been all over Sydney today. My feet are sore but it was great checking out a new city! People here are super friendly and it's easy to meet people when you have an "exotic" accent. The sales girl in the Billabong stre was particularly excited to meet us as she's heading to Canada in 2 weeks. She said she was going to toronto to do some skiing and we didn't want to disappoint her by saying there wouldn't be any snow. She said later that she was heading to B.C. so it's all good. We're heading out to a pub we passed earlier. Will see how long before jet lag brings me down - I've been licky in the past since it usually only hits me on the return journey.

Bugger.

Andreas Dittmer and assorted other olympians were scheduled to be down at the club this morning and I couldnt' be there.

Balls.

I'm excited for the kids at the club though. It's unlikely that, short of going to the Olympics, any of us will get a chance to watch paddlers of this calibre race together so it's pretty disappointing that our departure to Australia coincides with the Mazda Knockout event.

However, I'm going to Australia and Hawaii so I can't complain.

I've attached an old photoshop I did of Dittmer for Chrissy.

I was sitting in the basement watching The Hour (George!) season's premier when I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. A giant cricket was making it's way across the floor. As soon as I turned my full attention to it, it took a giant leap, disappearing into the shadow under the wall unit. I'd barely moved my body! I wasn't too disturbed since it was just a cricket, but then I saw another making it's way to the piano at the opposite end of the room. I jumped up and yelled, "bastard" just as it got to safety. Damn. WHere were they coming in from?? I scoped around the room and saw another backing away from me into the most impossible of gaps between the sliding doors. They must have been driven inside by the thunder storm. It makes me wonder though - what goes on in my basement? I don't spend much time down there. I know Gavin did while he was living here but he moved out a few days ago. And most of the time it's quiet and dark. Have the insects taken over? I did see a huge spider on the stairs about a week ago. Yow, there could be a whole ecosystem in the crawlspace! Anway, I'm happy to share the space as long as they restrict themselves to the tv room and the jungle in the backyard - two floors away from me!

Actually this might be good preparation for the trip to Australia and Hawaii. I hear the insect life in both places can be pretty surprising. I just don't want to wake up with some humongous spider plopped on the pillow right by my face. Gah. I wish Jessie hadn't told us that story when we were in Ottawa.

I was randomly looking for paddling photos and came across Steve Giles' Canoe Technique blog. I've added the link at right.

Only a few more hours before I leave for Australia. I haven't even started to get organized but that's okay. I've had a lot of stuff going on.
It was my son's birthday yesterday so we met for dinner and then went to see Superbad. So funny. I was supposed to meet him at the theatre but at the last minute my stupid Nissan Pathfinder caused a problem. The power window stopped working while the passenger window was open. This has happened before and while it will randomly start working again, there's no way to predict when or to force it. It's not a fuse thing, it's a known issue with the power window motor. Since the movie theatre's in a sketch area and I didn't want to leave my car wide-open there, I had to ask Ryan to pick me up.

So tired. We raced at GWN this weekend but also had our traditional send-off party at the Underground Garage on Saturday night. Yesterday was a beautiful day and it was perfect for having a little dedication celebration for Jackie and Blake's commemorative tree at Marilyn Bell Park. There's a point long the wall where the promenade has a sort of "balcony" over the water - that's where you'll find their tree.



Champagne...

A certificate and a photo from when they picked their tree (a norwegian maple)

And the few of the girls who love them!

ugh. You can tell how busy I am by how rarely I post to my blog. I've had lots going on this month but you'd never know it.
I'm trying desperately to get together with my son before I leave for Australia. We were able to have dinner last week but we've really wanted to go see Superbad, Knocked Up and Transformers together. Oh yeah and the Simpson's Movie. Anyway, no luck as we live so far apart and have crazy work hours. I definitely would have taken him to more movies when he was an infant if I'd only known how difficult it would get later on.
Also, I've realized that I may just possibly, maybe, don't bet on it yet but could happen, think about getting a puppy when I get home from Australia and Hawaii. Maybe I should qualify that - IF I come home... It would just be like my mid-life crisis (this is number two for those keeping track) to convince me that throwing away a government job and pension and selling my house is a GOOD idea.
Anyway, I've been sort of seeing someone but this is the worst possible time since I'm so busy and often don't answer the phone or return calls or emails because I'm too tired to talk. We've actually only gone out a couple of times and I've indicated that things will return to normal in about a month but I'd be surprised if we make it to that point. And FYI, it's not George S but I'm still waiting for THAT call....
For those paddlers who are far away, I'm going to get some photos of what's going on on the river. They started construction on the 3rd rail while we were away at CCA. It isn't wide enough under the bridge for two sculls to pass and the water flow between the dock and the trestle is bizarre. I'm not sure how much that is to do with how shallow the water is though. It's supposed to rain this weekend but I don't know if it'll be enough to make the river deeper.
My CCA pics are up on Facebook for those hold-outs (what is so objectionable about FB to some people?)I've attached another slideshow....