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Last updated 6 November 2011
This is Lenair's, the personal website of Cathy and Jean (but more Cathy). See Jean's half of this site at http://www.jean-cathy.com/jean.
And Wordpress blog at http://cathyblog.jean-cathy.com.
| New Pages/Updates Trip to Zion, Sedona, Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas Roger Daltrey presents The Who's Tommy (Toronto performance) Updated Jean and Cathy's Guide to Eating Out in Kitchener-Waterloo to add Conestoga College Bloom, King Street Trio, Bauer Kitchen, and Empress of India, and remove Taka (it's just been too long). Description of our Ontario 2010 Fall Colour trip. First page describing our spring 2010 trip to Langedoc-Roussillon. And now the second page. Fall / winter summary, below there.
Pictures and description of our trip to San Francisco and Area Description of our trip to Quebec City, then to Charlevoix, in June. Latest in Our Lives: Fall and winter 2009 Written 3 January 2010 September 2009 I went to U2's concert in Toronto (the Wednesday one). Getting there was absolutely miserable. RIM had purchased tickets for their employees, so they were further crowding the highways that were congested anyway due to construction. I believe the drive took about four hours. We missed the opening act entirely, and only had time to purchase a veggie hot dog to eat (and it was awful). Now, the concert was pretty good, and our seats were OK, considering it was at the Rogers Centre, which is huge. But I'm definitely getting diminishing returns from seeing them, and not sure I'll go again. But at least the drive back was better. We didn't leave right away, instead opting to get some fries and a drink first. So when we went, the worst of the traffic had cleared, and we made it home in a reasonable amount of time, though it was late for a school night. We also went to the Taste Local, Taste Fresh event again this year. And blogged about it. Later that week, we went to our first KW Symphony concert of the season, the quite good but somewhat sparsely attended Ria Chiarelli concert. And the day, we left for our San Francisco and area trip. October 2009 For Thanksgiving, we went to Macphie's, where we saw Michelle, Hugh, and the boys for the first time in a while, along with the extended Macphie family. It was a nice time. Jean was on call, but managed to stay through to dessert—just. Waterloo hosted a big physics festival uptown, and we visited that. Some interesting exhibits there. I also went to see David Suzuki speak at Centre in the Square, courtesy of Agfa. Apparently we still have work to do on the environment. We enjoyed a couple meals out, at Verses, and at Conestoga College, where the service wasn't nearly as funny as the first time we went. (Sadly, I guess they're learning.) Our second symphony was Nico's Choice, Nico not being the So You Think You Can Dance Canada winner (also sadly), but a young composer who selected the songs for the evening. That took place at the King Street Theatre that the symphony has now moved into. Not the sound quality of the Centre, obviously, but a nice intimate space for a concert. November 2009 Early November was the Roger Daltrey concert I obsessed over beforehand, basked in at the time, and remembered fondly afterward. (And could also rewatch bits of, thanks to my personal videographer.) That was followed by a very nice few days in Orillia and Singhampton, and a great concert back home. Jean got his company car this month, so we took steps to make the Passat sellable. I finally managed to get the H1N1 flu shot. And we enjoyed the PR Christmas party at Grand Bend, featuring Jean's first (and, he says, last) attempt at karaoke. (“Mack the Knife”) And we truly enjoyed the KW Symphony's “Three egomaniacs; lots of drama” concert, where they explained the works of Listz, Berlioz, and Wagner before playing them, so we got a lot more out of these Romantic works than we otherwise would. December 2009 December offered up the first Electric Thursdays: Wednesday edition concert, whose theme was Symphonic Rock. We went with Sherry and Camie, the latter a neophyte to these. It wasn't my favorite of these concerts—just a hazard of my not being the biggest ELO, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull fan, though I did like the Bowie and Peter Gabriel also included. We ate at Uptown 21 first, and that was nice meal, again. Mom came to these parts in honour of my brother-in-law's book launch. We thought we'd all get together at the book launch party, but Jean and I just had difficulty getting there that week. We did see Mom at Michelle and Hugh's the weekend before, but Joanne and Jon weren't able to join us. And, we went to Indiana for a wedding. And ended it with some Pelee Island wine tasting. When we got back, we managed to sell the Passat to someone who seemed to be a really nice fellow. Good to have that out of the way. Christmas didn't seem all that stressful this year. Somehow the presents got purchased. My company just had a small party at the office, in favor of a big food drive. Jean and I did our own Christmas dinner and exchange the weekend before leaving for Timmins. The featured meat was duck, and the gifts exchanged were modest. We took the train up! That takes a long time (especially since we have to add in a bus from Kitchener to Toronto). But it did go well, and is certainly a low-stress way to travel. And, no security checks! We had a nice time in Timmins, where it was unusually mild this year. It was great to see the kids and have the gift exchange with them around. We ate too much, but it was all very delicious. Back on home turf, last week of work was pretty mellow (for me, anyway). We decided on a joint bigger gift of a piano—I've been craving a full keyboard with touch sensitivity for some years now, and Jean thinks pianos look good. We found a pretty good deal on one yesterday, and that will be delivered Monday. And, we had our New Year's dinner. |
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