Unconfirmed but it sounds like Burloak won the burgee at CCA.

Yep, they definitely won but it was reportedly close between them and Banook. From what I heard it was close enough that if Banook had won sr. men's war, the burgee would have been theirs.

McCain's kidding, right? (although considering how the american public bought the whole George Dubya business, you can see why he'd think this would work). The fact that things may be manipulated so they might actually win on this ticket is a sure sign of the decline of western civilization. Here's the Jed Report's take on McCain's ummm ... admiration for this former beauty queen.



The other night I wore jeans and boots for the first time since, I don't know, probably May? I love the boots though so didn't really mind- new Lara's from Browns. My feet, which have been happily free in flip-flops all summer, were not as impressed by the shiny leather as I was.

Paddling has been INSANE these past few days. Huge waves on the lake - it's been so much fun. Last night as I paddled into the 40-60km winds and ridiculous waves it occured to me that my son has no idea what I'm doing. I'm sure he pictures me paddling up the river in a leisurely fashion, maybe wearing a sun hat and gardening gloves. I don't know. Damn, I wish I'd had my camera this week. Anyway, I strapped on my ankle leash, adjusted my headband and headed out into mayhem. The waves were really...disorganized...so I paddled straight out. I met up with Stringer about 3 km out and he yelled something into the wind. I finally got it on the repeat, he was heading in after this run. Conditions were so bad that the fishing boats weren't even out there. Not one. There had a been a few the preceeding days (mostly racing for the port) which is nerve-wracking when the waves are so big. I'm not always confident they can see the outrigger sliding up and down the waves, peaks and valleys. I don't want to get creamed by a cabin cruiser. This night I only stayed out there for an hour but the wind was really ramping up and whipping the lake into a frenzy. I was still having fun but it was becoming a struggle. Once the percentage of work vs fun got to 80-20, I called it a night.

I came home and grabbed some yoghurt. No time for dinner, I had some serious shopping to do - a list that was in my head for a few weeks or months. I went to Home Outfitters and got new linens, a standing mirror, a lamp for my bedside table and then I dropped by Chapters to pick up a Starbucks mocha, some magazines and paperbacks. Last long weekend of the summer, I need reading material! I'd been home just long enough to getthe stuff out of the car, get downstairs with a drink, when the power went off. For 3.5 hours! Good thing I know where to find matches and at least one candle. Actually, I was surprised at how many candles I have around the house. I thought I'd packed them all up or thrown them out. By the time I gathered them all together, I was able to sit and read in the living room. Sadly, they're all scented candles which just tells you what a sucker I am for pretty packaging and smells. My house smells like vanilla-blueberry-musk-lilac-and some unknown scent from one I got at a candle party. Candle parties...now there's a definite sign of the decline of western civilization...


In a blackout you need a couple of things or it's boring. boring. boring. A man and... um...okay, one thing. This was the longest blackout I've had to suffer through alone in years. During the last major blackout, we were all at a db party at Rob's bar, The Underground, having a blast. We were actually sitting on the rooftop of the upstairs bar because the Underground had flooded (or closed due to underage drinkers, I can't remember which).
This time, home alone, no man, no wireless radio...(the wind-up radio/flashlight I bought at CAA last year broke on the first 2 cranks). I walked up to the corner around 11:30 and saw that the lights went out around Jack Darling and were on again around Carrie and Attila’s. Just one straight dark strip from the lake north through Lorne Park. I considered going to a Tim Horton’s somewhere but decided to just go to bed. I sat on the steps for a little while watching the sky. Without the lights, you could see the black storm clouds roiling over Lake Ontario. It looked terrifying and I considered what it might be like to be out there in the waves in the dark.

This is my week of post-Olympic let-down. The games are like a really good book -maybe a trilogy - that you don't want to end because you like the characters so much. As you can see, I replaced the Beijing count-down clock with the Vancouver and London ones. It may seem I'm obsessed but one day you'll want to know how long until more Olympic drama and you'll appreciate having the answer at your fingertips.

I paddled Sunday evening which is always pretty nice in the summer. If it's sunny, there's music in the park across the river so after I finish my workout, I take my time coming up the river and unrigging (de-rigging?) my boat. It's very pleasant.

Olympic games-sleep deprivation hit me huge early in the week. Stayed in bed until 10 on Tuesday. It felt great until I remembered my manager had asked me to change my holidays at the last minute. I said I'd be back to work at 8:00 that morning. No big deal though since things are still a little slow.

Killed a GIANT spider in my basement. You don't understand! I have a solid rule about not killing anything intentionally. Insects & arachnids tend to be invisible for the most part so I just leave them be or move them outside. This one could not be ignored - it was somewhere between a small tarantula and badger.

Got food poisoning eating some mystery fish (basa) from the Supperworks collection.

Drank one glass of red wine too many, total=2 (I put it down to weakened resistance due to impending food poisoning)

Saw myself on tv and realized I really, really need to lose 20 lbs.

Had a really weird two hour paddle on Monday as the remnants of hurricane Fay wheeled around southern Ontario. When I left the harbour the wind was from the north. It became obvious that the wind was shifting about 2 degrees every 10 minutes. I should have had a great ride coming back in but by then it was coming directly from the south (sidewind). I ran into Larry around the Ridgetown so we paddled straight out for 30 or 40 minutes and had a great return ride.

Got flagged down by the marine unit as I came into the harbour. They just wanted to say they saw me waaaayyyy out there on the lake and were wondering what I was doing. I explained the waves+wind=fun factor but expressed my appreciation that they were lout there. The lake will be getting cold soon and it doesn't hurt to have friends with a motor and a warm blanket out there!

When I came off the water, some dragon boat crew was stranded without a coach because Dustin had either forgotten to arrange a replacement or the replacement forgot to show up. Either way, I made $80 for taking 12 people on the water for 30 minutes!

Do you ever feel like you're in a timewarp? I tuned the radio to Q107 the other day and heard, "And here's a cut from AC/DC's new album...". At first I was curious but right from the first note it sounded exactly like what it was - some old guys trying scrape up the last available $$$ by pumping out a faded version of the sound they churned out for a couple of decades. Bah, whatever. I may not be the best judge since I stopped listening after Bon Scott died.

Check out what these guys have to say, links for Olympic athletes;

Adam van Koeverden
Tom Hall
Gab & Andrew
Mark Oldershaw
Larry Cain
Richard Dober & Andrew Willows
Flatwater Info

What is there to say? The event at BP was, wow, ups and downs for sure. We all felt for Adam. To see him apologize for not winning gold? As if this one result changes how anyone feels about him as an athlete and as a person. He is universally respected, and more importantly, liked by pretty much everyone who has met him. Further, Adam van Koeverden changed the vocabulary of Canadian athletes. "I'm here to win a gold medal." instead of "I'm just happy to be here." (not that any athletes actually feel that way, it's just how Canadians have been taught to express themselves). When Adam said that 4 years ago, an outsider might have thought it was arrogance but Adam is not arrogant. Adam is a professional - confident and consistent. None of us has ever seen him race any other way. All he's done is prove that every person has a bad race in them.
Negative comments can only come from people who don't understand what it takes - have never pushed themselves physically and mentally to be the best. We've never doubted Adam because we have no reason to. Just as we have no reason to doubt that he'll be prepared to put down his best 500m race tonight. Tessa Oldershaw expressed how we all felt, "We're not disappointed in Adam, we're disappointed for him." and Tom Hall expanded on it, ""Adam never will have anything to apologize for in the world of canoe-kayak, that's for sure because he is a stand-alone athlete who is arguably one of the best kayakers in the history of the sport."

I can't help but wonder if Tim Brabants and his coach analysed their previous match-ups at world cups and worlds and decided to change strategy. If that's the case, it sure worked perfectly. Adam usually gets out front and Brabants paces off of Adam, hoping to take him in the final 250. This has worked in the past and the two have swapped gold and silver in the 1000m a few times. This time Brabants got out front with a high stroke rate. None of us thought he could keep it up and Adam would pass him easily in the second half of the race. We thought Adam was trying a new strategy, let Brabants set the pace and burn himself out. However, with 250 to go it started to sink in that Adam was fading. Fast. There was silence as we watched him slip backwards out of the camera frame and when the CBC commentator grabbed him post-race. When he apologized, I heard people in Boston Pizza murmuring responses of "No Adam, don't ." But as soon as he was done, everyone started cheering and clapping for him again. I'll be interested in seeing what Adam has to say about what happened when he's done racing.

As bad as I felt for Adam (don't know if it's a mom thing or a human thing - you just want to take away their pain), I didn't get that teary feeling. I did, though, as we watched Tom Hall race and it became apparent that he was going to take the bronze!! Another canoe-kayak medal for Canada! He had an amazing, epic race and it looked like he might have pulled something because he was limping on his way up to the podium. I wouldn't be surprised because he certainly put everything he had into that race. So great to see him up there on the podium. It's incredible what he's accomplished this year.



The K4 guys did really well and the C2 was 6th - first-time Olympians all so they should be really proud of their results.




Larry has forwarded his latest blog, posted this morning right after the races...his is the last word, "It proves he's human"

So this is what happens if you don't stock groceries every week. You end up eating dinner at 9pm and have nothing but a jar of pickles and coconut shrimp hors d'ouevres with pina colada dipping sauce. I passed on the pickles but hit the shrimp. Ugh, it tasted good but I feel kind of gross.

Today has been long and interesting. Paddled with Pete and one his clients this morning and then went to work (so boring). Anyway, when I got to the club tonight the waves on the lake were awesome so I was pretty pumped to get out there. Just as I was getting my stuff out of the car, Dave Paskar walks up carrying a garbage can...a really grubby one...and says, "What should I do with this?" . I said, "What do you mean, put it by the door with the rest of them." Then he tilted it towards me so I could see inside and he said, "No, this...this baby raccoon." Aw, so cute. I guess it had gotten into the can somehow but then couldn't get out. Dustin saw us and came over to see what was so interesting in the garbage. He had a bottle of water so we poured some into the bottom of the barrel and he freaked out drinking it. Poor thing. Then, since we couldn't find any other food, we gave it some old dried up cake that had been sitting around the club for a week. He gobbled that up too.

Dave put a call into the animal control who said that there's a good chance the mother's still around and when they get separated from a cub they'll come back every couple of days to the spot they were separated. Dave took the garbage can over to the hill between us and the legion, tipped it over on it's side but the little guy just stayed inside eating his cake. Someone went by later and he was gone.

I'm going to bed and setting the alarm for 2:30am. Jess is coming to pick me up so we can go to Boston Pizza to watch the 1000m final with the rest of the paddlers. Sh0uld be fun!

Just checking results for the 500m semis....WTF! Dittmer didn't make the final for the 500m?? Aw crap, neither did Mark. Or Karen. Or the women's K2 (Mylanie & Kristin).
Adam & the men's K2 (Andrew & Richard) won theirs though. And Gab & A-Russ were third to qualify the C2.

These photos popped up on the nbc main page and stunned me just as much as seeing his name too far down on the results page. They break my heart and I wasn't going to post them but I know paddlers will recognize that he put everything out there in this race and can empathize.

Nice!
Tom Hall won his semi to qualify for the final

Men's K4 - Brady, Chris, Angus and Rhys - came third to advance. So fantastic for this young crew!

Not sure what happened but both the men's K2 (jorens & cuthbert) and the women's K4 were shut out. It's too bad. The women's K4 is relatively young and inexperienced at this level (Kristin, Emilie & Genvieve (Gab's sister)). Karen's the only one with prior Olympic experience.
I'm not sure why the women's kayakers don't get a lot of support from the rest of the community. Although everyone was prepared to excuse the men's K4 for their relative inexperience if they didn't make it through (they did), the same paddlers had no sympathy for the K4 girls. This morning, most seem to be blaming the coach but this attitude has prevailed for decades. Caroline, of course, was exempt from criticism because of her medal record.

Carrie, Jackie and I planned to go to Jane's art exhibit last night but bailed at the last minute. We checked out Blake & Jax new condo - very nice, lots of light and good-sized rooms. It's still under renovation but it's going to be beautiful when it's done. Didn't get to see Syd - she was already in bed.
We took a short walk around the neighbourhood and ended up at Just Thai on Church St. Tasty food and cocktails and the most coconutty coconut rice anywhere! They always find the best neighbourhoods to live in! They are so close to....well, everything at this Church & Carlton location. Not too far from Jackie's university digs at Manulife, strolling distance from Yorkville and basically right on top of arguably the best summer parties and parades in the city.

Oh! I almost forgot - Sarge and Marie are pregnant! Sometime last night Sarge changed his Fb status to "Rob Sargant is glad that Marie chose a 9 month career in baking." Nice! Can't wait to meet baby Sarge.

Ironically, at the same time women's canoe appears on the Olympic schedule, the CBC posts this interview with Sara Lawlor, Jenna Marks and Jeff Houser on why there are no Olympic events for women’s canoe…click for a listen...

Put the stoke back into storytime... Finally, you can get your own copy of Chris Walton's new book ALphabet Surf. I can't go but if you're in Australia, Perth to be exact, drop by his book release party! Very cool Chris, congratulations!

Jess found this on the CBC Olympic schedule. It's clearly a goof but hopefully a sign of the times. Women's C1 final at the Olympics, dare to dream girls.

Day 2 at Shunyi

Adam won the opening heat in this morning's 500m event in 1 minute, 35.554 seconds, shaving .076 seconds off the world record he set in Poznan.

Mark was 2nd in his heat, Karen was 7th in K1, Mark and Richard were 4th in K2, Andrew & Gab 5th in C2, Kristin and Mylanie were 4th in K2.
All boats qualified to move onto semis.

So a quick rundown of the first day of canoe-kayak;

Adam won his heat to qualify for the final
Tom came 4th, qualifying for the semi in a tough heat that had him lining up against both David Cal and Andreas Dittmer (click his name to see his breakdown of the race)
A-Russ & Gab did an awesome job and qualified for their final, coming 3rd in their heat.
The men's K2 and both mens and womens K4s were last in their heats and will go to their respective semi-finals.

The CBC published Larry's lowdown on the paddlers this morning and he was pretty much bang on with the initial outcome.

This morning in Beijing, just as Canada garnered not one but three Olympic medals, the press asked Adam Van Koeverden for his opinion on Canadians griping about our athletes performance to this point in the games. As usual he cuts through the b.s. and addresses the real issue;

“I’d like to ask the people who are complaining about our results are
they playing Xbox or are they playing sports? Are they going to (amusement parks) on the weekend or are they swimming? Do they do swimming lessons? Are they encouraged to play sports at school? Do they have phys ed at school? Most kids don’t and that’s a real cultural issue in Canada.

I encourage Canadians to look a little deeper. These athletes have earned your gratitude. They are the best Canada has to offer. To complain and be ungracious about them when they are doing their absolute best, it’s not part of the solution but it is part of the problem.”

Speaking of kayakers... Larry’s latest blog entry is up.

Aw sick. This is not what the sky should look like at 8:00 pm in August. The white spots are raindrops and you can't tell but there was a crazy thunder storm rolling overhead when I took this pic. We've bascially been sitting under a thunderhead for the past 4 hours.
I went out on the water at 4:30 as usual but, even though it was sunny, there was something odd about the atmosphere. I went out about 3 km then decided to stick close to the harbour. I paddled parallel to the Ridgetown and had just decided that the sky was too weird for being on the lake when a huge flock of cormorants in the next bay suddenly took off. Just then a bolt of lightning hit somewhere in the vicinity of the park. Holy crap. I was still about 1500m from the harbour, 2km from the club...I counted seconds to the thunder and it was about 10. But just when I thought I had a margin to make a break for it, there was a huge flash and crack of thunder right overhead. I just laid out on the paddle. Once in the harbour I stuck to the wall but the storm became pretty active. I considered paddling into the yacht club but it really wasn't much closer so headed for the club dock. Of course, once I'd taken my boat out of the water and unrigged it, the thunder and lightning stopped (albeit briefly). It didn't matter, I wasn't about to head back out onto the lake.

Carrie and I decided to go shopping. Oh man, we are a bad combination! I bought a scarf in French Connection (not yet sure if I'll give it to a male friend or keep it for myself) and a long, silver jacket in Lululemon. Carrie was looking for a particular shade of Chanel nail polish for Dom's wedding at the end of the month so we dropped into Holt Renfrew. They had the "Blue Satin" colour she wanted and I found a fabulous gold from the same collection. I had a pedicure a couple of days ago and made a baaaad colour choice! Ugh, it looked so different in the bottle. Anyway, I decided to switch Coral-Hidioso for Gold Fiction in support of Team Canada. That's right. Nail polish is affecting the Olympic outcome. I said it.




Ummm oh. toes are weird.

I spent the morning sorting out my banking. Nothing major, just closing unused accounts and dumping low interest-high service charge accounts for higher interest ones. Dealing with money usually takes away my appetite but I was totally craving a chicken burrito - spawned by this photo I saw on a friends Fb this morning. ...mmm... Burrito Boyz..

So onto the good, the bad and the fugly - Olympic stories...

Olympic rings...Kerri Walsh (beach volleyball team U.S.A.) lost her wedding ring in the sand during a match against Japan. The match was at 9 am but they weren't able to look for her ring until the end of the session at 3 pm. They used the slo-mo replay to view the trajectory of the ring as it flew off her finger but by then the court had been raked numerous times. It was eventually recoverd by volunteers with metal detectors.

Well, thank god no one saw a bootlegged tape of the opening ceremonies before...uhh, Korean tv what?
There's been a lot of press about how tight security is at the Beijing Olympics. Sherraine Schalm has commented on how difficult it is getting her swords into the fencing venue because the security guard deems her sports equipment as "weapons".
During the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony, security was reportedly very tight around the Bird’s Nest. So tight, that when a performer fell from a piece of scenery, she lay in agony for 50 minutes while paramedics were barred from entering. She is now paralyzed.

Move over Milli Vanilli.
Yang Peiyi, the 7 year old girl with the "flawless" voice who was set to sing the first song of the opening ceremonies was dumped at the last second.
The musical director felt he had to come clean with the world and told a local radio station that, "The main consideration was the national interest. The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression.
In the matter of her voice, Yang Peiyi was flawless, in the unanimous opinion of all the members of the team."
She was replaced by Lin Miaoke who lipsynched to a recording of Yang singing and then lapped up all the praise for her wonderful talent as she did interview after interview with all of the major news organizations.

Michael Phelps is keeping me awake at night! (they need to come up with a better nickname for this guy.
Thorpedo? Money. But SOUP?? I know they're calling Phelps Sup for Superman but when it's spoken, it's just lunch.

When I arrived at the club this morning, there was a U-Haul truck taking up all the curb parking and this suspicious character was lurking around. Today is Tommy's moving day and he was just getting the last of his stuff from the club. Just like that, il est un Québécois.

For those who haven't heard, Tamas and Steph got engaged about a month ago. They'd already bought a house in Trois Riviere which they've renovated with the help of family and friends. Tommy will be working at the new Sports Complex there. He's been practicing his french but I expect that having to speak it day in and out will give it a huge boost!

Tamas getting engaged is contrary to what's going on with a lot of other people we know. There have been a lot of people becaming single this summer, breaking off engagements and relationships in wholesale fashion.

There's a huge downpour going on outside. I guess our late afternoon plans for tanning by the pool at the Boulevard club will have to be modified. That's okay. It's been awhile since Eve, Marisha, Karen L. and I have had a chance to get together - it'll be a good time no matter what.

How can I go to bed? Records are getting knocked over like dominoes at the Water Cube in Beijing and Phelps just scored his second gold medal in the 4 x 100m freestyle. The U.S. came in at 3 minutes 8.24 seconds, smashing the world record by nearly 4 seconds!
Canada also did well, knocking 4 seconds off their previous time and coming sixth. Brent Hayden broke the Canadian record as the lead-off swimmer in the relay (his 100m time counts as an individual record)and says his decision to scratch the 200m freestyle semi earlier today was a "pick your battles" decision. Clearly he made the right choice.
The racing has been unbelievable and now I'm too wound up to sleep.Thanks goodness there's round the clock Olympics!

The north-west end of Toronto has literally been shut down since 4:00am this morning. A massive explosion and fire at the Sunrise Propane Industrial Gasses facility rocked the Keele & Wilson area where it is located. The explosion forced the evacuation of some 12,000 residents to Downsview air force base and York University. One firefighter is dead, an employee at the plant is unaccounted for and one resident suffered a broken ankle. There are no other reported casualties which is amazing considering that shrapnel from the blast is being found more than a kilometre away. I gather from news reports that there is still a risk of explosion from the remaining tanks so the surrounding area, including the 401 and part of the subway, remain closed.





There's a lot of outraged talk along the lines of how-could-they-allow-this-type-of-facility-in-a-residential-neighbourhood but really, I think it's fairly common. I live a couple of kilometres from the Imperial Oil plant on Southdown Road and residents of Pickering and Oshawa live in the shadow of the nuclear power plant.

Olympic Games Beijing China 2008

OMG, opening ceremonies!!

Well played China...

Well, that was some great flag-waving, Adam. Definitely one of the most animated of the flagbearers and so enthusiastic when he was interviewed by cell from the floor, calling it "the best experience of my life...so far".

Trivia;

I liked the footprints theme - 29 fireworks "footprints" moving through the sky from Tiananmen Square to the National Stadium aka the Bird's Nest - as well as the paper floor laid to gather each athletes footprints in multicoloured ink as they paraded through the stadium.

I might have missed some of the countries but I counted at least 6 canoe-kayak athletes chosen as flag-bearers for their countries.

I'm fairly indifferent to the Canadian uniforms but, holy crap, is South Africa wearing lime green Crocs?!?

Country order for the parade of nationas was determined by the number of strokes in the first character of each country's name in Mandarin.

Dorothy Jamieson asked Adam to pass on a "hello" to her nephew, one of the CBC commentators. He was stunned that Adam went to all the trouble of making sure he got the message, considering he had his hands full with race preparation, flagbearing etc....

Okay, having now seen some still photos of Team Canada in the parade of nations, I'm liking the uniforms more. They look good as a group. The television coverage didn't really catch that.

Hi Roger, Happy Birthday! PS, you're hot.

Yau Ming and young boy from the quake zone lead Team China

...well played indeed.

Check out this photo of the racecourse at Shunyi from my fb-friend Michele Zerial, taken by his girlfriend. Adam is on the extreme right, Michele (Italy) is second from the left. The pollution is unbelievable. I was there in 2004 during sandstorm season so it was pretty bad but I don't remember it being this bad. The Gobi desert is not that far from Beijing (and getting closer every year). It was interesting to see the "squeegee" kids there - they had mops instead of squeegees because the sand would pile up on the windshields (and in your eyes...and nose).

I just got home from the canoe club. I completely forgot it was the pep rally tonight. I was having a good time, learning about Amanda's new american boyfriend and the latest advances in beauty (false eyelashes that stay on for 9 months!!) when there was a kind of disturbance by the rail that we sit on overlooking the river. Wow, Nina's mom had stepped down from the wall or something and had broken her ankle. She was basically in an upright fetal position jammed between the Jim McGowan war canoe and the rock wall so at first I thought maybe she'd hit her head. Dean moved the war canoe to give her some room, Tommy called 911 and Dray sent the kids to gather weight room mats and a blanket. I didn't want to see how bad it was but when someone went and got her husband he walked up, looked at her ankle, turned white, covered his face and had to walk away for a minute. A few people told me that her foot was basically backwards to where it should have been. Ouch. She was wearing kitten heels which don't do well on flat surfaces let alone the uneven pavement and dirt at the club. It seemed like a good time to leave. I'll have to wait to find out about eye and lip-liner tattooing.

Aw crap, I have to change my blog clock because the Beijing countdown clock has been removed.

Oh, I almost forgot...Larry’s latest blog is up (warning; if you're a paddler it'll bring a tear of pride or nostalgia to your eye.)

In case you missed this...McCain campaign ad compares Barack Obama to Paris Hilton. Paris responds...

Yesterday was the Olympic Send-off Party at Burloak. It started at 11:00 but I didn't get there until 12:30-ish, just as the speeches were finishing up. I was congratulating myself on good timing until I ran into Larry out on the lake this morning and he told me they started the event with a war canoe full of former and current Olympians. Wish I'd been there to get a photo of that.

Anyway, lots of paddlers were there to give Chris, Brady, Adam and Mark a proper send-off (and no, I'm not giving preference by highlighting Adam & Mark's names - click on them for their blogs). It was great to see everyone in one place since I've missed all national team trials this year and won't be at CCA.

They were giving out a poster of Adam that I like because it shows what he really looks like at the end of a race instead of the more common pretty-boy image shot minutes after the race has ended. I think all athletes will identify with the signs of exertion and effort in his face. Anyway, I grabbed the poster and lined up behind a 7-year old for Adam to sign it. Haha, groupie. 10 years ago I wouldn't have done that but now...psshht.

Actually now that I think of it, I've asked Adam for his autograph a few times starting with the silver medal he won at the Worlds in Atlanta, 2002. He had a bunch of posters made to thank his sponsors and gave me a handful. Chris Pellini wanted one and I told him I'd get one signed for him. I didn't see Chris for a long time - I think he left for university and then switched clubs - so I probably still have that poster. Now I'll be asking Chris for his sig!

The autograph I remember most was just before the Games in 2004 when I asked him to sign the Athens Olympic print I'd purchased at one of Jane's "See You in ..." fundraisers. I was fixing Adam's laptop and when he dropped by to pick it up, I pulled the poster off the wall and handed him a Sharpie. He said he was too embarrassed to sign it. I couldn't tell if he just didn't want to look silly in front of the girl he was with or if he thought it was defacing the Olympic print or due to some personal superstition (it was just a month or two before his first Olympic Games). Anyway, I told him he had to sign it. He laughed as he made a few false starts trying to find the perfect angle and location, saying he had no idea how to "autograph" something. I made an offhand comment that he'd better get used to it. Who knew!

That winter after he'd won gold & bronze in Athens we were all at a party at their place and he had boxes of promo photos. Everyone was grabbing them and asking for signatures so I picked up a few of those. To be honest, I have no idea what I'll do with most of them. The Athens print is on a wall but the others aren't mounted. I had one stuck to my bulletin board at work to inspire me for CCA and Worlds but took it down when I moved my desk. Ah well, when his acting career takes off (that's my prediction), I'll have some cool memorabilia that my grandchildren will probably steal to sell on eBay or something!

Anyway, as the Send-Off event wound down, Mike suggested we go over to the power boat club for a beer. He was annoyed that they wouldn't let him in the VIP area where they were giving out free Steamwhistle beer to the press and immediate family of the olympians. Larry was MC for the event and got Toby in but everyone else was getting turned away at the door by Geoff's mom, Noreen. (funny that they got the smallest person at the club to do security!).

I had a drink with Brandon, Duke, Mylene and Mike and then headed out to go shopping in Oakville.

So random, after seeing so many old friends, I walked into Lululemon and there was Lesley Naumowich standing right inside the door! She was in town for the weekend and had arranged to meet a friend there. She's moving back to Toronto in the fall so there'll be lots of chances to get together.

Mark Oldershaw & the Drake laugh it up. RUBE!

Is anyone else affected by extreme weather? I used to get migraines from stormy days but it's been awhile. This past week, and especially today, we've had crazy, sudden thunder storms followed by bright sun and blue sky. I've been edgy and anxious for no real reason. I have a theory that it's because I'm not racing this year. I still train about the same number of hours but since my goals are...um... less focused, my workouts are less intense. And without the constant distractions (and physical fatigue) that I would normally have at this point of the season, I'm suddenly hypersensitive to the minutiae of my day to day.

Ugh. It's driving me crazy.

Anyway, Jeff posted the photos from the TFC Friendly against Argentina's Independiente a couple of weeks ago. Ryan had to work at the last minute so we had a little trouble finding someone to take his seat. In the end Jeff's buddy, Steve, picked it up.

Jeff brought his SLR camera in a backpack and had a couple large lenses in there. When they searched his bag at the gate, they only found one of the lenses (which he had to leave at guest services) so he had a telephoto on his camera for some great shots of the game. I should note here that you're only allowed lenses smaller than 72mm or something.

At one point he was standing down by the field taking shots when a security guard tapped him on the shoulder and said, "You know, with a lense like that I'm going to have to take you someplace". Jeff thought he was going to get turfed from the stadium but instead the guy showed him to an empty front row seat so he wasn't blocking anyone's view!

The game wasn't the best I've seen. The TFC presented a weakened line-up of reserves and Independiente were slightly less than friendly, what with their players faking injuries and then waving away Toronto players who reached down to help them up, kicking the ball away from TFC throw ins and free kicks and shooting into Toronto’s goal well after the whistle had blown for offside. I think we lost 2-0 but whatever. The games are still entertaining as hell!

We missed the Go train home (it pulled out of the station just as the game ended) so we took a walk around Liberty village. We ended up at a Loblaws Superstore where Chrissy and Jeff found a firetruck buggy. After a little fun (and a little embarrassment when the store manager came out and gave us crap) we decided to head back to the Go station.