Merry Christmas and best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous holiday season. I haven’t got the time to write up a big post right away, but wanted to send out Season’s Greetings to all my virtual and real friends throughout the world. Here’s wishing you and yours a great Christmas. I’ll write more later. I promise. Till then, you can check out some of the pictures of my Christmas thus far, with more to come 😉
Well, it’s that time of the year, isn’t it? Office Christmas parties. This year, as a result of vaious things, I’m ‘lucky’ enough to attend 5 different events work-related. First, there was a luncheon at the Keg in the Market for all the employees under my executive director. Decent food and a few drinks, with nothing too outrageous taking place. Second event was a CRTC-wide Christmas party held, of all places, at the Legion over in Hull! The food again was good, and there was a fun band. The odd part about this party was that it is attended by mainly Broadcasting people from the CRTC (95% of the attendees). What does that mean? Well, I didn’t really know anyone, and it was on a work night, so Jody and I didn’t stay too long. Next up was Jody’s work party, which was held at the Rideau Club! Hoity toity, fancy schmancy, say what you will, either way you look at it, Suit and Tie is required. That doesn’t mean they stay on all night though! Like last year, this party turned out to be a spectacle of people getting progressively ‘tipsier’ as the night wore on. Now this is what I call and office Christmas party! I’ve put some of the pictures up on flickr, but some, out of respect for the people I didn’t know, were left out! I had originally planned not to drink too much, since Kev and I were planning to go snowshoeing the next morning. However, all that changed when Jody accidentally knocked a full glass of beer (not unlike the one in this picture) all over my suit! Since I smelled like a brewery, I decided I might as well play the part. Needless to say, we closed the party, and there was much bellowing, singing, and dancing. Luckily, we went home at a reasonable hour, and I got enough sleep to go exercising the next morning.
I’ve got to start off by saying that I’m turning 31 this year. Over the past few years, more and more of our friends are getting married, and more frequently these days, they are going forth and procreating! Congratulations go out to the latest couple to tie the knot, Greg and Alyssa. The actual wedding took place a little while ago in Panama, but not everyone was able to make that trip. As a result, they threw a reception in Toronto, and a good contingent of the Ottawa fiends (yes, fiends, not friends 😉 were invited, and subsequently made the trek. Although the marathon is only 3 weeks away, that didn’t prevent us from partying like the old days! As can be evidenced by the numerous pictures (and several that we haven’t shared), we still know how to get up to no good. I’ve got to say though, as much as I love an open bar, they really slay me. I’m quite sure LI would have fared far better had I not been subjected to the ‘last call’ rush. The result was me skipping my final 32km training run of my program on Sunday. uckily, I’d already done 2 – 32k runs and a 30k run in the past month and a half, so I’m gonna guess I’m good to go. We only went down to Toronto for a single night, so we really had to make it worhwhile. I headed down with Alix and Jody, and once we arrived there, met up with John, Dana, Rachel, David, Kevin and Amy. Our car arrived around 12:30, and we were lucky enough to get checked in at the Delta Chelsea right away, even though check-in isn’t officially till 3pm.
15/03/08
Howdy all! Hope you are all having a great day. I’ve been having a blast since I got off the bike in Christchurch. I immediately set off to book some day trips to get to some spots that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to see while on my train trip heading back up north. The first such tour that I booked was a Backpacker Tour of Hanmer Springs with an outfit called Way Out Tours. They only set up shop this year, and they’re targetting the younger demographic, by enticing us with the offer of Beer School. It was to be their last tour of the season, so expectations were high. Of course, to get the tour started, I had to actually make it out of bed, which proved to be a bit of a challenge, given that I actually didn’t get to sleep until somewhere around 4am! Bars stay open pretty late, and we had ended up at a club called Fat Eddie’s, where the ‘Batmen’ were laying some excellent tunes down. However, since I’d paid for the tour, I forced myself out of bed at 7am to get ready. A quick shower helped as well. Check out the map, and read on for the full details of my adventurous Hanmer Springs Hangover Tour trip.
Well, alas poor Jonah has been undergoing a bit of a bad spell recently. We just passed his 3rd birthday, and until now, all was pretty good. However, this year has been a bit of a rough one for old Jonah. They say that mutts are generally healthier than pure-breds, but I’m starting to wonder. This year, Jonah has gone through ear infections, allergies, and “bum” issues, which I’d rather not get into. The latest problem is a combination of several, and we’re now worried it might be a sign of something worse. As you can see, he’s wearing the cone of silence this weekend, to keep him from chewing and licking himself raw. You can also see his nose growth which materialized in three days. He’s also got another ear infection! Woes me. Lots of drugs and resting for him. Maybe the new couch will help him. The trouble is that we suspect he may have Lupus. Not a great thing if he does. Basically, his body might be attacking itself (auto-immune disorder). For now, we’re trying a cycle of drugs, to eliminate other possibilities. If he has Lupis, we’ll have to do some biopsies, and find out for sure. Unfortunately, that testing ain’t cheap. But he’s worth it, despite his many annoyances, he is part of the family, and deserves our love and care. We’ll keep you posted if we hear more…
