The Sea and Seafood

1000th Post, wow, that's a lotta posts!

Its been a pretty good week so far at the Cutting resisdence here in North Carolina.
I have been doing some mountain biking here and here. Both were pretty good, legend park has had a lot more done to it though and it longer. Ian, you would have loved legend park though (except for the massive chiggers), it was smooth but with this random technical stuff, rough spots and various user made jumps.

Today we went to Wrightsville beach, and I spent so much time in the water that I am officially pickled. Why? Because the waves were so totally amazing that Anne and I were competing for wave time against surfers, no exaggeration. The waves were carrying us probably 100+ feet on the wave boards. Some were so big, that with Anne on my shoulders, they still were quite a bit taller and hit us hard enough to send tumbling uncontrollably in their surf. So we spent about 6 hours doing that. Maya loved the sand and had a ton of fun when we spashed her in some of the smaller waves too. So much fun.
Then we went to a restraunt called King Neptune's for supper, and it was suculent. Amazing food and great service.
A very good day it was and I had a really good time with Courtney and Kyle.
Tomorrow I think we are just staying around the area, and I think I will finally get the triffle I was promised for my birthday. We plan to leave early sunday morning to make it back to Anne's cousins to stay the night so Anne can to go to her class in Toronto on Monday.

Filling the gas tank 3 times in one day

So yesterday we drove from Toronto to Anne's sister's house. We left Toronto at about 2:30pm and walked in Kathie's door about 4:30am. If we figure about 1.5 hours worth of stops, we made pretty good time.
The trip was pretty uneventful and seemed pretty fast. Maya slept lots and when she was we listened to Stephen Kings "Cell" on CD. We had planned on dividing the driving up pretty equally, but I ended up doing about 11 hours of it which was fine as we tend to fight a lot more if Anne's driving for some reason.
So we are here until Satuday (i think), and will be back in time for Anne's class in Toronto on Monday. I plan on mountain biking and Anne is just planning on hanging out with her sister I think.

Birthday Boy

So today I turn 29. I actually don't really care that much about age, as its quite apparent that it has very little to do with ones mental and physical prowess as long as you are active in both areas. I definately am started to get more grey hair but I have had a lot of grey in my beard four about 4 years so I don't mind that either.
Not sure what I am doing today, as Anne is working and I dno't have a car. Maya and I will probably hang out and do our usually stuff we do while Anne is gone all day.
The proper birthday cake (or triffle in this case as its what I want this year) celebration will probably wait until we go down to North Carolina next week to visit Anne's sister.
I already got my present, which was a new real wheel/rim/cog for my mountain bike so not much going on there either.
So a rather ho-hum birthday for me on a cloudy and cool day, which is just fine with me.

The future is now

This is what living in the 21st Century is all about. Who needs flying cars when you have LED embedded t-shirts. I want to play Counter-Strike on my sleeve when watching Maya play *insert sport here* in a few years.

Adventures in Biking

So a couple of weekends ago my friend Ian came up from Toronto to visit. The itinerary was soccer, mountain biking and remote control airplane flying. Sadly the RC plane didn't work but the rest of it was awesome.
Then this past week I went down to his place for a couple of days, mostly to mountain bike at Albion Hills and just hang out which was awesome. Ian actually races at Albion Hills every tuesday, and it shows as he could pretty much destroy me on any trail. Unfortually my did a lot of damage to my back tire there and will probably have to get it replaced this fall or spring, but I guess I am pretty rough on it so its to be expected I guess.
We also saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which was fun to see with a friend and laugh, but not worth a full theare price (we were glad we went on a Tuesday).

Fair Photos

Category: All Dressed Up
Place: First

Category: Waterscape
Place: Thanks for Exhibiting

Category: Sleeping
Place: Thanks for Exhibiting

Category: Father and Daughter
Place: Third

Good books in unexpected places

So lately I have been reading books from the teen and junior sections at the library. It started when I read the book Eragon and its sequel, which I enjoyed a great deal. I asked on the net and it seems I was not the only one picking books from that part of the library (the same area that houses the Harry Potter books I might add), and some people suggested Garth Nix was a good author to check out. So I just finish devouring The Seventh Tower series which was a lot of fun to read and a great story, although I do wish it had been longer.
I realized though that we had also been going though Lemony Snickets, A Series of Unfortunate Events, which are fun and silly reads as well, but also "junior level" books.
I am not sure why I am reading so many of these right now, but I think its the focus on a good pure story. So many of the books I read are so full of the authors preaching (Sword of Truth is a good example of this) and convoluted story lines (Malazan Book of the Fallen series) that its a nice break to ready a simple enjoyable story with fun characters and not a lot of unnecessary crap going on. I will not stide by the teen reading shelf with my nose in the air any longer. I will peruse its contents like the rest of the shelves from now on.
I have also decided not to read any more books that are part of a series that is not completed. So unless I can read all of the books of a series in one go, I do not want part of it. I seriously have probably 12 differnet sci-fi/fantasy series on the go right now and I don't like it. It takes so long to get into the newest book of a series when it comes out which I think detracts from the over all enjoyment. Especially when there are so many great completed series out there for one to read already. We will see if I am able to keep this promise, but so far so good.

Rattlesnake

Went to my parents property in Tobermory on Monday with the family. WE have always known there rattlesnakes up there but have never seen one.
Well on monday I was heading over to the "beach" from the lot, hopped up on a rocky part you have to go over to access teh shore and instantly heard a buzz, sort of a rattlely buzz. As As I am looking down I see sort of a rattle and a snakey shape inches from my foot. I yelled and leap back. The snake I just about stepped on was curling up into a defencive shape and rattling it tail at me.
So everyone came over too see and the snake slithered into the spot you see in the picture and stayed that way for the rest of the day, rattling away at anyone who came near. We just took a different way to the shore.
It wasn't very long, shorter than a big milk snake, but it was really thick, like 8 times thicker than a garter snake. Very interesting to finally see one in the wild.
We will be a little more wary in the future I guess, and apparently this is a pretty crazy year for rattlesnakes in the area and there have been a lot of bites. 

Daft Punk

I enjoy listening to Daft Punk. Althought their last album isn't their best, the rest of their stuff is amazing. Anyway after seeing this video, I am definately going to see them when there are playing in Toronto or close by.

Its just amazing the lighting and how they mix their different songs together.
This some more here that all show what an amazing live performance they do.

Duathlon

So tomorrow is Anne's Duathlon. She doesn't thing she is ready and claims to not be feeling well. I think its just nerves and I think she will do great. The race is only 3km run, then 12km bike and then 3k run. She runs and bikes more than that lots of days. Once she is out there she will do great!

I am not ready- Not enough trainning- specificlly the bike. Several injuries. I have some endurance but no speed. Also gastro x 1 week. Bloated, gasy, have not been eating correctly. It is going to be hot, hot- and I do not do well in the heat- hense no I do not think I will do well.

Trekkie in the house

I thought this video was funny, I would love ot have whole episodes of Star Trek done like this:



Click here for a few more.

Anniversary

So Tuesday was our 8th anniversary! No gifts or anything were exchanged yet, but I am working on a video and Anne said she was working on something.
My mom looked after Maya all evening, so we went to the movies and watch Pirates (the first is better), and then went out to dinner. Nothing fancy.
To me I guess it feels like we have been together for longer than that, especially since Maya was born, but I think 10 years will probably be something that I will feel like it worth having a big celebration.

Playtime for the two new addtions to our family!
we have been on the lookout for two orange kittens for a while now and Anne found someone just outside of town that was giving them away. The seems pretty nice so we brought them home. Maya was been very good with them and hasn't casued any permanent damage yet. She laughs a lot at their antics as well. 

 
This is Carrots. 

 

This is Mango. 

Uhhhhhgggg...so very sick

I seriouly have never felt so sick in my life.
Yesterday I felt kind of lousy, but good enough to go mountain biking at the Brant Tract while Anne was jogging. It felt great and I did about 12km or so, I though "that's all I needed" and we headed back to my parents for supper.
Then I got hit by a freight train, during the meal I started shivering and started to feel like a oozing lump of molasses. We left shortly after and by the time we got home I was shivering so badly I could hardly stand, but I collapsed into bed and didn't move. I have never not been able to control my own body before, and this episode certain knocked my ego down a notch or two. Obvously I had to watch the hockey game so my loving wife brought the TV upstairs and I watched the game in a stupor; it was a great game.
I had horrible dreams all night and was walking up every 20 minutes fighting my way back to reality. My temperature was 39.5C at one point and is still pretty high.
Today I am not quite as bad but for a splitting headache and a body that will only shuffle along at an old man's speed, but I should be better tomorrow I hope.
Anne and I have been arguing if I am more sick than she was last weekend.

Vacuuming your lawn

So the lady across the street (affectionately called crazy lady) is vacuuming her lawn. Does anyone else think this is crazy? ITs one of those rented dealies for the express purpose of lawn care. Its just goinging over the edge as far as lawn care is concerned IMO.
But maybe thats just us.

More Rally

The rally I am going to in a week and half is shaping up to be the best rally ever. Because this year the ESPN X-Games have added rally to their lineup and whoever wins this rally gets to go, most of North Americas top drivers found on this side of the continent are attending. The will get to race against 11 other drivers including Colin Mcrae (yes the one in the video game and WRC driver). So last year where there to maybe 4-5 top drivers this year there are 10+!!! This is going to be awesome. Here's a little clip I made from video we took the last 2 years.

Soccer

Soccer season is upon us. Over the winter I have been playing indoor soccer (Futsal) and the season is now over.
The people that organized that league have started an outdoor one for the summer, and both Anne and I have joined.
It took at bit of coercion to get Anne to agree to play, but I am sure she will enjoy it once we start. We are on different teams to make looking after Maya bit easier.
Playing will take place on a full field with two 40-minute halves and full Fifa rules except of slide tackling. We start this Sunday and I can't wait.
Last Saturday I played for the local 30+ team as they were short on players and had a great time. I got an inordinate amount of ball time and made a good accounting of myself. I am quite confident I will do well in with the Saugeen league once it starts. So much fun!

Job Interview in NC

Sorry for not posting in a while, we suck.
Anyway, we had a good time checking out the Wilson Medical Center, but have decided not to take the job. There were a lot of pros and cons to weigh, but in the end we decided that it wasn't worth an international move and a number of unknowns regarding Annes job. We are just too Canadian at heart I suppose.
I was probably a once in a lifetime experience though and we quite enjoyed it.