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Personal News Archives: 2004December 12 | October 23 | September 26 | August 15 | June 27 | May 16 | April 24 | March 26 | February 15 December 12Sad news: Michel Picotte passed away in November, of cardiac arrest. He was just in his 50s; it was something of a shock. Jean and I went to Timmins for the funeral. It's a bit odd how, despite the sad reason, these are often great family reunions! Many of his Mom's brothers and sisters came to town, along with a lot of closer-by relatives and friends. The church was packed for the funeral service. Mike had been in the MNR for many years, and they acted as guards at the funeral home and the service. It was a very nice touch. And, we've kept pretty busy since our return. I went to an author reading featuring Heather Mallick - Pearls and Vinegar, Katherine Barber - Canadian Oxford Dictionary Second Edition, and Linda McQuaig - It's the Crude, Dude. All were quite lively speakers. Heather, naturally, expressed strong opinions on the environment, George Bush, and working at the Globe. Katherine had many amusing anecdotes about Canadian English — double double, tantric sex, and cougar (meaning the prowling woman) are among the new additions. And Linda had strong arguments about reliance on oil, the invasion of Iraq, and Canada/US relations. We also took a little trip to Montreal. Jean had a conference there, and I tagged along. I underestimated how early we actually had to be at the airport for our flight. We made it, barely, but our luggage didn't. That led to an unexpect shopping trip, as I wasn't really dressed to go out for the nice dinner we had reservations for. Oh well, guess there are worse things than shopping in Montreal. Apart from eating some really nice meals with great wine, I got some Christmas shopping done, visited with Jo and Jon and their cats, and saw The Incredibles. Heather Grant was laid off from her job recently. No longer feeling enamoured of the computer programming life, she has decided to go back to university, the ultimate goal being to get into medical school. She was accepted into Laurier for next term, taking two classes, and held a “back to school” party this week to celebrate. Nice to see some old friends there. This weekend we went to A Christmas Carol at Theatre and Company. They did a nice job of it, as usual. Some critics had complained that the actor playing Scrooge was just too young, but that didn't bother us. October 23We went to Timmins for Thanksgiving. Mom was actually in California on vacation at the time, so we visited with Dad and Jean's Mom. Saturday night Dad hosted Neal, Thérèse, Isaac, and Caleb (and Jean). I was pleased that Caleb got comfortable enough with me to sit on my lap. He eventually warmed up to Jean somewhat as well. And we all enjoyed the Dante Club lasagna. Sunday night Dad went to Neal's for dinner, while Jean and I attended the Lefebvre Thanksgiving. At this dinner, all main ingredients are supposed to be “harvested”—hunted, fished, or grown. Our contribution were tomatoes we did, in fact, pick in our yard. (The fact that it's our neighbour who actually planted them is just a technicality.) Other offerings were duck, deer, elk, moose—no turkey, though. We found the drive up a little long, but that was nothing on the drive back. We got stuck in traffic for about 2 hours at one point—very frustrating! Just due to a lane reduction, too. Driving back to Southern Ontario on a long weekend is just bad. Plan is to fly to Timmins at Christmas, assuming we can get flights... Cultural notesWe saw our first Symphony concerts of the year. One was a Masterpiece concert whose highlight was The Red Violin concerto from the movie of the same name. Excellent playing by Stephen Sitarski, though the music was somewhat modern and sounded a bit “strained” in parts. The other was the first Electric Thursdays concert, featuring the music of Freddie Mercury and Queen. This was something of a reprise of a show they'd done a few years earlier, but they did change the line-up for the better, in my opinion, including more complex songs and omitting some of the “plain rock” numbers that don't really benefit much from orchestral backing. A high school choir was featured in the second half, and they did an excellent job on songs like “You Take My Breath Away,” “Somebody to Love,” and of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” They also had a new guitarist that made good work of Brian May's complicated guitar parts. Michael Shotton's voice didn't seem quite as good as last time they'd tackled Queen—not sure if that was a physcal problem or related to the technical issues he seemed to be having—but that's a quibble. The evening was great fun, time seemed to pass in a flash, and the Centre was deservedly sold out. We also went to our first Theatre and Company performance of the year, Metamorphosis. It was a series of vignettes based on Greek mythology. Most interesting was that a full in-ground pool had been installed in the theatre, and all action took place around it. I really enjoyed the piece, as did Larry and Kelly. Jean was a little bored, however. (Turns out he knows nothing about Greek mythology, and that's apparently a factor.) And finally, my hair is now darker than it has been in some time—a more true brown with some red highlights, and no blonde. Seems to be a trendy colour right now... September 26
Bop kept going for about three weeks after that. Though she never stopped eating, her body seemed to lose the ability to process the food properly. She got thinner, then weaker, and finally only had the energy to take a few steps. More photos of Bob are available at our new Yahoo photos site. All other news is frivolous after that, but I'll report it anyway. The “British Invasion II” show in Mississauga was kind of hokey, but kind of fun, too. I especially enjoyed the segment on The Kinks, Woodstock, and the Queen finale. Last weekend we went on a Gourmet Dining tour in uptown Waterloo. For $50 each, we went to six restaurants for a dish and a glass of wine. Proceeds went to Grand River Hospital. It was great; we met people, and enjoyed some good food at bargain prices. I think we'll go again next year. Restaurants participating this year were Solé (mediterranean spring rolls), Hannah's Bistro (mango salad and chicken saté), Alessandro's Fine Italian Dining (samples of three pasta dishes), Charbrie's (pork with risotto), Joey's Seafood (various seafood items and bread pudding), and the Rude Native (apple martini, lobster bisque, and dessert). August 15As reported elsewhere on this site, we went to Eastern Canada for our summer vacation this year. We quite enjoyed it, especially discovering the Iles-de-la-Madeleine. We're thinking of going back to them next year—maybe for a week this time. Jean is keeping busy with a couple of woodworking projects. He's helping a friend build a violin (a very challenging endeavour) and he's working on a coffee table for our living room. We were thinking of putting in hardwood flooring in the living room this year as well, but I don't know if that will happen. We did add insulation to the basement, to add to the energy savings provided by our new high-efficiency furnace. This coming week we're getting our houe energy use reassessed to see if we qualify for a government grant. Having expanded so many words our vacation report, I can't think of much other news. Guess we're having a quieter summer than a lot of people seem to be. But we are going to dinner theatre (really, brunch theatre) in Mississauga next weekend, and we are thinking of hosting a gathering here, and possibly taking a couple of trips up North. June 27, 2004The afore-mentioned singing lessons culminated in a couple of “events”: an in-class “recital” in which everyone performed, and a karaoke night. I'd spent the week before the “recital” trying to “connect up my chest voice”—and if you're not sure what that means, trust me, I wasn't entirely sure, either. I knew it related to making the sound stronger, fuller, and more solid. In the end, I had learned how to project my “head” voice. Not a terrible, but not exactly what I was after, either. I didn't practice much for karaoke night, since I didn't even know what songs would be available. I ended up selecting two upbeat numbers: Queen's “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and Elvis Costello's “Pump It Up.” I have to say that the whole karaoke setup—CDs with full musical accompaniement, monitor with highlighted lyrics, mics and speakers—was a lot of fun. (One of the people in the class hosted the event. He had a beautiful house with a huge basement.) And apparently, without even realizing it, I managed to connect up my chest voice. So perhaps I've learned something after all. (Jean, by the way, was witness to all this. He didn't participate in the singing, but ended up being happy he was there, especially after meeting someone with experience in building guitars and violins.) Jean's office had a get-together which featured canoeing from Cambridge to Paris, followed by a pot luck barbecue at Kristine's new house. The canoeing went well. We saw a lot of wildlife—many blue herons, ducks and geese, and otters. Jean's site features some pictures. In cultural stuff, I went to the final KW Symphony concert without Jean, since he had a conference in Toronto. Karen Bowyer attended in his place. We enjoyed the performance, which featured a concert pianist performing several pieces by Liszt, and a piece by a Canadian composer who was there to introduce it and actually ended up sitting beside us! Kind of a first. Nice piece, too. The next day I went to join Jean in Toronto. We visited with Michelle, Hugh, and Jackson, and went to a fancy dim sum place (which seems wrong, somehow. But the food was good). When Mom and Dad were up, we took them to a Theatre and Company performance again. Last year we saw the drama Eistein's Gift; this year was the romantic comedy (set in Montreal) called Strawberries in January. It was very well-acted and held our attention throughout. We also went to the final Waterloo Stage Theatre performance, the world premiere of Dads 2. It featured some very funny segments, but I think it could use a little tightening up before its next run. May 16, 2004I've signed up for voice lessons at Conestoga College. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, though I can't explain why. Not like I hang out in karaoke bars or plan audition for musicals. Nevertheless, just like the idea of being able to sing better. It's been a fun class so far, my fears of everyone there being way better than me proving unfounded (only some of them are way better than me). We're also supposed to pick one song (or poem) to work on through the 10-day course. This proved one to be the most challenging task to date—even more than singing in front of other people all be myself for the first time. In fact, it's kind of an amusing story. Details here. Last weekend, we went to Toronto to pick up Mom at the airport and bring her to Michelle's. We of course stayed for a while at Michelle's to visit with everyone (not including Hugh, as he was off to Britain for Lawrence's graduation). We had a nice time, and it was great to see Jackson again. He's learned quite a few words, is walking really well, and looks like he's going to be a tall boy. I wasn't especially looking forward to our last Electric Thursdays concert, “An Evening with Rik Emmett,” but it turned out to be fantastic—Jean declared it definitely his favourite of the year. I had no idea Emmett (best known from his years with Triumph) did such a wide variety of music—rock, jazz, classical. The best bits were the “battling duets” between guitar and violin. I'm already looking forward to next year's line-up, one of which will be a reprise of their fantastic Queen concert. April 24, 2004We took all the cats to the vet recently, for check-ups. Bob and Romey are in reasonably good shape, except for Bob being a little thin and Romey being more than a little not-thin (sigh). Sandy's diabetes still seems under control, but his teeth were a mess. He went in for a cleaning and possible extraction—he ended up needing four molars taken out. Now that he's recovered from the procedure, though, he does seem like a happier cat. We also recently tried out the new Verses Restaurant, on Victoria street. It's a former church that is aspiring to be a fine dining destination. We were impressed with our meal there. While not quite Toqué level, it was actually approaching that—probably the best meal we've had in KW. On the cultural front, it's been a busy month:
March 26, 2004Picking up where I left off—we quite enjoyed the Symphony's Hopeless Romantics, “Sunday Light Classics” Symphony concert. Part of the appeal was the host, who did a good job of explaining all of the pieces. But the theme of romance was also very apt for a Valentine's day concert. We went to Portugal at the end of February. For all the details and some pictures, see the Trip to Portugal page. Jean also took another week's “vacation” this past week. I say “vacation” because he mostly spent it doing various errands for family members. I think he may need to go back to work just to rest. In between those, we attended another concert: the Jeans'n'Classics Band Salute to Motown music. Although of the usual high standards for those concerts, we were kind of in recovery from the travel time shift, and didn't enjoy it as much as we usually do. But I'm quite looking forward to the next one, which will be featuring the music of Eurythmics, Kate Bush, and Fleetwood Mac. One of Jean's employees is pregnant, so he has to decide what to do about covering that maternity leave. In the meantime, he's quite enjoying having a full complement of employees at the office. My work has been pretty busy, as I've been balancing the various releases of the main product. It's still interesting, though. I think they have a good roadmap laid out to really make some strides in radiology and related medical fields. February 15 , 2004We had a good time in Timmins over the Christmas holiday. All the McNair siblings were there with their spouses, making for the first-ever full family reunion. It was slightly hectic, but a lot of fun. We all received fine gifts, but the nephews especially made out like bandits. January and February have been somewhat cold here, so we seem to have done a lot of hibernating. We did get out for a few events, however. In January, Jean had a conference in Toronto. I took the bus after work to join him. We arranged to meet with Michelle and Hugh at a Japaneses fusion restaurant. Although usually a smooth mode of transport, that day the bus left late due to an earlier bus having a mechnical malfunction, and then it got stuck in greater-than-usual traffic. And because of construction, it didn't drop me off right at the Royal York, where I was supposed to meet Jean. We had earlier agreed to just get ourselves to the restaurant if the bus arrived past a certain time, so that's what I did. Though 15 minutes late, I was the first one there! But Jean arrived very shortly afterward, with Michelle and Hugh not long behind. We all then had a very enjoyable dinner. The food was excellent, and the setup was to keep ordering small platter throughout the evening until you felt you'd had enough. We nevertheless managed to order too much, but it was still a neat concept. That ended up being about all we did of note in Toronto, though, other than a quite mediocre lunch the next day. Though I tried to get more participants, Jean and I ending just going together to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Interactive at the Princess. The idea was to go in costume (though we didn't have time after work), and respond to the movie according to a script—much like a Rocky Horror sort of thing. That was fun. Other people did a good job with the costumes, and it's just a fun movie. We also saw Steel Magnolias at the Waterloo Stage Theatre, with Larry and Kelly. I think that was the best-acted drama they've ever put on there. In terms of story, it's much like the movie. Today we're off to see Hopeless Romantics: A “Sunday Light Classics” Symphony concert. See also: News Archive 2003 |
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2004
Saddest
news, of course, was Bob's illness and subsequent death this past week.
We brought her to the vet initially just because of finicky eating and
weight loss; it turned out to be an abdominal tumor. Though not cancerous,
exploratory surgery revealed that it had spread too much for removal.