The weekend started out to be a bit of a bust - I thought my brother's gf was coming to Toronto this weekend so cancelled out on a couple of things only to find out it's next weekend - but it ended up being a fun weekend anyway.

Friday night I ended up doing nothing but watching Hellboy (1994) so now I'm set to go see Hellboy II next week! I thought the first movie was decent (I'm a huge fan of Guillermo del Toro & Ron Perlman) and can't wait to see what the director does with The Golden Army. His creatures these days are much more sophisticated and imaginative than in the original Hellboy (proof: Pan's Labrynth).

I got up early to go for a paddle on Saturday morning only to find Port Credit covered in heavy fog. I went down to the club anyway trying to motivate myself to do something...anything. K.C. was there and we decided to do weights (well, she did - I just sat on a bench and talked) when all of a sudden Duke walked in! I didn't even know he was back in the country. His dad had to have surgery so he returned early from Europe. The surgery was successful and his dad will be okay but they're just waiting for some tests for the definitive word.

Eve and then Attila turned up next - everyone else was at Beach Regatta on Toronto Island - and since the fog had cleared up on the river, everyone headed out on the water.

Visibility on the lake was basically zero - I paddled out to the Ridgetown to check things out. When I turned around I couldn't see shore so decided it was pointless (and dumb) to keep going on the lake. Fog is so weird because you lose all your sensory landmarks. As close as I was to shore, I ended up about 50m west of where I thought I would be when I paddled back in. I did a workout on the river, grabbed a Starbucks and sat on the club deck for awhile watching the learn to row program before going to meet my son for the Supperworks party at 1:00.

Supperworks is a great business idea - they provide the recipes, ingedients, utensils and containers and all you have to do is combine the ingredients to create a dozen meals in less than an hour. Actually 14 meals because we each received a free entree which split into 2 more! And cookie dough. It was really great to get together with Ryan, Jackie, Rebecca and Carrie but honestly, you're so busy going from station to station it's not a huge opportunity for chit chat.

Kyle Smith's band, False Idols, was playing at the Reverb that night so Jackie, Carrie, K.C. and I decided to make a night of it. The band is really talented (and I'm not a hardcore \M/ fan) but they didn't get to play nearly long enough. It was one of those showcase events with a half dozen bands on the bill. Still, it was awesome to finally see them perform and afterward we just hung out and had a beer and tasty snacks on the patio at the Rivoli.


Sunday morning I woke up to the alarm at 7:00am with a sour stomach and the feeling that I was late for something. A bunch of us were meeting in Pickering at 8:00 to go biking.

Even though I grew up in West Hill, I haven't spent much time there in the past few decades. I was impressed with how much that area around the nuclear power plant has evolved from the wasteland it used to be. We rode through this cute (but contrived) little village along the east side of Frenchman's Bay and did a 32km round trip. It was a lot of fun just cruising along the lakeshore checking things out. It had rained most of the morning so there
weren't a lot of people on the trail until we turned around. The sun had come out by then and it was pretty busy. Cat and Doyna provided a great brunch at their place (they are the best hostess and host I know - it's a dying art - and they have everything you could possibly want) and Darren's and Keith's wives and babies joined us there.

Cat insisted we get a photo at the local "beauty-full spa".