Dan's web log

We Have Laundry!

2012-01-26T23:52:00.002-05:00

With the grout sealant completely dry, we were able to finally plug in the laundry machine, wahoo!

Tomorrow, the dryer.

Laundry Room - Plumbing

2012-01-24T23:49:00.001-05:00

Progress on the laundry room is advancing. Maria finished the grout the other day and added sealant tonight.

I finished all of the plumbing on the weekend. The washer drain works well: I connected a water hose directly down the drain and turned it on at full blast without any problem. I doubt very much that the washer pump will have higher pressure than the faucet.

If ever somebody decides to open up this wall, they will find an authentic beer bottle from Beau's brewery circa 2012.

The drywall was not too difficult to place. Was it a coincidence that the half-wall measured 48" by 96"?

Maria has started to place the tile on the wall.

We thought about moving the electrical switch closer to the door but then there would be so many complications, such as having to extend the electrical wire, add some support for the electrical box, and patch everything up.

Perhaps my proudest feat is this tile, which sports an electrical outlet. For the purists, yes, I will exchange the outlet with a white one.

Pond Hockey

2012-01-24T23:40:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, Chris, Jason, and I went to the frozen pond behind my house. Although we had to scrape layers of freezing rain from the rink, we had a fantastic afternoon passing the puck around.

The view was spectacular.

Tom came by to help us clear the rink.

Unfortunately for me, I broke a skate.

A few days earlier, Maria and I went to the canal after work. The canal was in the worst condition that I have ever seen because of the freezing rain. We had fun nonetheless.

We did not go very far.

Difficult to see in this picture are the gouges in the ice.

My only regret is that I do not go skating often enough.

Durocher++

2012-01-19T23:49:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, la famille Durocher increased by one member.

Say hello to Céleste, my new niece. Congratulations to maman et papa for a successful migration to Parenthood 2.0. Sophie now has a lot of responsibility as the older sister.

Laundry Room - Exhausting Weekend.

2012-01-16T23:09:00.001-05:00

Step 1: Dismantle existing laundry room.

We had run out of things to do to prepare the laundry room for the big switch so it was time to cut the cord. I took a vacation day on Monday so that I could have three days in a row to work on it. On Saturday I disconnected the machines. Bleah! There was a lot of dryer lint everywhere, which can be a fire hazard. The picture below only shows the lint that was visible before tearing things down.

Removing the hoses proved challenging: I do not think that these things had ever been turned off and needed a wrench to shut the valve off and another to unscrew the corroded hose. When I removed it, there was black soup that leaked everywhere, indicating that the washer had disintegrated and it was only a matter of time before I had a messy leak on my hand.

Removing the wall proved quite easy; whoever performed these renovations had no desire to use a whole sheet of drywall and cut a box in the middle of the wall instead. By peeling the tape and removing the screws, it was a clean affair to remove the wall. What is not visible in the photo below is the thick lint cushion that surrounded everything in the walls, including the 220 volt electrical box.

Step 2: Disconnect pipes and electricity.

Now that I had disconnected the water and electricity, I could finish clearing what remained of the laundry room: the pipes, the drain, and the electrical wires. In the pictures below, you can see where walls were cut and the vapour barrier was never patched. I tore it all out. The insulation had been chewed up as well.

I placed some valves to shut the water off while I worked. Unfortunately, one of them was not soldered properly and I had to cut it and cap the pipe for the time being.

Step 3: Rebuild―pis ça presse!

With everything out of the way, we began rebuilding. Now that we are without a laundry, we must be quick. After removing the vapour barrier, I removed the insulation that had been damaged and replaced it with the fancy stuff that we had lying around.

Afterwards, we applied a new vapour barrier, though I still need to tape it.

Then came the framing.

And the pipes, though none of the pipes in this picture are fixed in place yet.

Hardworking Wife

Maria really wants this project to be completed before the end of the month and has been working really hard to help out. Here she is helping with the framing.

Pipes

Planning on a computer model is one thing; placing pipes in real life is quite another.

Although this looks like a simple graph theory problem, it is quite complex if you note all of the constraints. Tonight, it is pretty; tomorrow, I solder and it gets ugly.

Laundry Room - Planning

2012-01-13T22:18:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the big day: I will cut the water pipes, cut the electricity, and start building the infrastructure in the new laundry room.

As you can imagine, I have done a lot of planning, especially since I have so many constraints.

The physical constraints are the following:

Drains (this is a graph theory problem)

The drain vent from the ceiling cannot be moved.
Both drains must be vented separately.
The washing machine is on the right of the sink.
The laundry machine requires 30" of straight drain before the trap.

Water Pipes

The sink and washer require hot water.
The sink, washer, and dryer requires cold water.
Water pipes should not be behind the insulation of the house.
The water pipes and drain pipes cannot cross in the same space but must both fit in the width of a 2 by 4.

Exhaust (not shown)

The dryer must go to the right of the washer.
The dryer vent is on the left of everything.
The dryer vent cannot be hidden behind a wall (fire hazard).

The logistical constraints are the following:

To install the pipes, I need to build a second half-wall.
To build a half-wall, I need to remove the existing pipes.
To remove the existing pipes, I need to cut off the supply lines to the existing laundry room.

Thus, for a few days, we will be without laundry. Surprisingly, there seems to be no laundromat in Kanata. I thought about moving my washing machine to the basement, where we already have a utility sink, but this proved impossible: this thing is ridiculously heavy and I am not taking it down from the second floor to the basement.

Tomorrow, the adventure begins.

On Sunday, it continues.

On Monday (I took the day off), it concludes.

Favourite Beer

2012-01-09T00:08:00.002-05:00

And my favourite beer of the week is Beau's Lugtread!

It is de-licious!

Haunted House

2012-01-09T00:00:00.001-05:00

Last night was a good night to observe the moon as it lined up perfectly with our skylight: I could take pictures in the comfort of my own house.

The double-image from the bubble dome is nice.

Speaking of our house, I suspect that it may be haunted. Certain unexplained sounds can fuel an excited imagination beyond rational thought in the middle of the night. My favourite is when I hear the cats running around at 3 AM and I look to see them both sleeping on the bed: fun times. This is why Maria locks the cats out of the bedroom when I am away.

Another fun item is the face on the wall. This face appears on our wall every night and is produced by the street light passing through our fancy front-door glass.

Do you see the face?

Seen from this angle, the light is less scary.

Up close, it is almost scarier.

If we have children, this will never do; I will replace the glass.

And, of course, as I go to bed, my bedroom door is illuminated à la Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Good night, everybody!

Laundry Room - An Update

2012-01-08T23:49:00.003-05:00

Maria has also posted some photos today (here and here).

As I mentioned before, I have a squeaky floor. No amount of screws could fix the problem.

I put in a lot of screws. Here are 3.5" screws awaiting their fate.

The problem, as I suspected, was not the floor but rather the nearby wall. It appears that many of the framing nails that fasten the plate to the floor were not placed above the joists, as you can see from the following two photos.

The wall was basically fastened to OSB instead of joists.

My solution was to fasten the plate to the joists from underneath with big 3-1/2" screws.

The floor groaned one last time and has been quiet ever since; the floor in the office is much quieter as well.

Unfortunately, as I was measuring to draw some chalk lines for the tiles, I noticed a draft on the other wall and decided to inspect the vapour barrier there as well.

As Maria mentioned, we used a plane to flatten some bumps on the floor before applying tiles. This worked remarkably well and was fun; Maria especially enjoyed the pretty wood chips.

And alas, we (Maria) began tiling. Maria's choice of pattern is Herringbone, which is not my favourite because it is impossible to draw guide lines on the floor prior to laying the tile. Every tile inches away from the guide line by the width of the grout. Try it yourself, you will see!

A real man makes his wife work hard while he is out playing hockey.

Things are starting to shape up. Until the tile is dry, the path to the garage and thus the garbage is a long one. I hope to take Friday off and have three solid days to work on the plumbing and the framing of the wall. Maria does not believe me that we can finish this before February.

Labatt 613

2012-01-06T21:32:00.003-05:00

Labatt has introduced a new beer, the 613. Unfortunately, I cannot find much information other than on the Beer Store website. For those of you not living in Ottawa, 613 is our area code, hinting that this is a local beer.

I was at D'Arcy McGee's the other day and I was convinced by Jeff O'Reilly to try it out. This is Labatt's response to all of the craft breweries that are popping up all over Ontario and, to be honest, I am impressed.

While I will always have a special spot in my heart for La Cinquante (il lance et compte!), I rarely spend money on big beers, opting instead to support the local craft breweries. This was the first time in years that I ordered a Labatt product over Beau's or Kichesippi, or even the new Broadhead.

If I understood correctly, this beer only has four ingredients--what I reproach most of the big beers is that they include too many preservatives and ingredients other than hops, barley, yeast, and water in their beers. This is a big step forward and I hope to see more big companies doing the same instead of buying out craft breweries, such as Creemore Springs and Granville Island, for example.

As I write this, I am drinking a Blanche de Chambly, which is brewed by Unibroue, which is owned by Sleemans, which in turn is owned by Sapporo.

SQUEAK, SQUEAK! (Le plancher qui fait couik, couik!)

2012-01-06T21:12:00.001-05:00

I am having an issue with my squeaky floors. The floors in this part of the house are unreasonably squeaky; they are so squeaky that I would swear that a human is walking around when a 12 pound cat walks over the squeaky part.

As we always do before laying tile, we are screwing in some plywood. In this case, I will have 5/8" of OSB, 1/4" of plywood, and another 5/8" of plywood. Using my fancy new calculator that I got for Christmas, I can tell you that the total thickness will reach 1-1/2" under the tile. To reduce the squeaking, we put in a lot of screws.

In this single piece of plywood measuring 80" by 48" (7.7' by 4'), I put about 300 screws:

(250) 1-1/2" flooring screws (black dots)
(45) 3-1/2" flooring screws in the joists (red dots)
(6) 2-1/2" flooring screws (leftovers)

Despite this effort, the squeaking persists.

Squeak. (The squeak is more like a groan than a black cat.)

When Maria Is Out

2012-01-03T01:09:00.002-05:00

When Maria is out, I do these types of things:

After having washed all of these glasses and then laid them out to dry, what else was I supposed to do?

I like the curvy distortion in the bottom-left glass.

Winnipeg

2012-01-03T01:06:00.001-05:00

In Winnipeg, we wanted to go skating at The Forks. When we arrived, we saw that the rinks and trails were closed.

Fortunately for us, the signs were incorrect and we were able to skate around and enjoy the trails. If I had brought a hockey stick, I could have played pickup with the Winnipeg Jets kids. It was like Le Chandail de Hockey: all of the children were wearing Winnipeg Jets jerseys.

Skating for the first time.

The Forks, of course, has a lot of trains to keep enthusiasts happy.

The caboose is one of my dad's favourite train models.

Laundry Room

2012-01-03T01:00:00.001-05:00

Work on the laundry room has slowly picked up with Maria doing some work during her Christmas shutdown.

June

December

Christmas Break

Maria likes my electric screwdriver.

It is amazing how quiet the new floor is; the squeaks have all gone away thanks to a few hundred screws.

Winnipeg Jets

2012-01-03T00:44:00.003-05:00

As a Christmas present for my niece, I wanted to make another puzzle and thought that it might be nice to celebrate Winnipeg's new hockey team.

The transfer from paper to wood is the hardest part.

Siffler en chantournant!

I must say that I am happy with the final product.

I really enjoyed using the scroll saw; it is now my favourite tool.

Next year: Sens Logo.

Yogurt

2011-12-05T21:59:00.001-05:00

I eat a lot of yogurt—about 2.5 tubs per week—and am quite particular about which yogurts I will eat. Anything that has added garbage in it (sugar-free crap, gelatin crap, fat-free crap, carb-free crap) is no good for me: I will only eat traditional yogurt, which is getting increasingly difficult to find in local grocery stores. Typically, these yogurts will be marketed as creamy, Balkan, or olde style, but never as fat-free. The brands that I like are Yoplait Creamy, Danone Creamy, Astro Original Balkan, Liberté, and some other brand that I forgot about. The other 95% of the yogurts on the shelf do not interest me.

Yogurt is fat; accept it! In my opinion, fat-free yogurt falls under the category of decaffeinated coffee, non-alcoholic beer, vegetarian bacon, and diet cola.

Life, and especially marriage, is full of surprises. The latest surprise in my marriage is that Maria knows how to make yogurt, which she demonstrated last night. I knew that this was possible since my sister has made some yogurt in the past but I had not realized how wonderful this could be.

Not only is the quantity of yogurt produced in one batch impressive, the texture is enough to drive me away from commercial yogurt forever. (I apologize to any members of my family who are employed in the yogurt industry.)

This yogurt is creamy, delicious, and contains no artificial products if I pretend that the milk is pure. In fact, it is so delicious that I will go and enjoy a bowl while Maria is not looking.

Coach Dan!

2011-11-29T22:10:00.001-05:00

I got my coaching jacket today.

It is warm!

Coaching is something that I started doing last year. Most parents are surprised that I would choose to coach without having children of my own but I love it. It has improved my life in many ways and is teaching me a lot about responsibility.

For example, I am no longer afraid to wake up at 5 AM on a Saturday morning―in fact, I enjoy these time slots more than in the afternoon. After the game or practice, I am normally back at home by 7 AM and can make breakfast for Maria. I get a lot of things done by noon and feel much better than if I had slept until nine or ten. Of course, there is the obligatory afternoon nap if I am to play hockey in the evening.

The practices are a real benefit to me: I am getting more exercise―the extra hour of ice per week really adds up―and my own game has improved as I teach kids. As a child, I have never really thought about the why when we were practicing hockey drills. Now that I am teaching those drills, the why is very important.

The best example of this is to bend your knees. Every hockey player knows this. Bend your knees, bend your knees, bend your knees! Coaches are always asking their players to bend their knees. Why?

There are many reasons―balance, stability, and control, to name a few―but the biggest is probably speed. The images below demonstrate how a player will go faster with knees bent.

In the first example, my legs are straight as I move my leg back: the total push from this movement is about one half-metre.

In the second examples, my knees are bent as I move my leg back: the total push from this movement is about one metre.

The same movement gets me more distance, thus, more speed. This is why.

The # 65, Beaverbrook

2011-11-15T18:00:00.001-05:00

I complain a lot about lost opportunities since my camera died but today I was lucky that a great photo opportunity happened close to home and I was able to get a camera and tripod.

The # 65 bus came to a stop after his route and I happened to be walking by. I asked the driver if I had time to run home and get a camera. He thought it an odd request but waited for me nonetheless.

Speaking of home, the tree in front has lost all of its leaves and I can now take a picture of our house from the street.

Bicycle Shelters

2011-11-12T09:22:00.001-05:00

Recently, the city of Ottawa installed sheltered bicycle racks at several transit hubs. You can read about it at WestSideAction.

Though there may not be enough of these shelters throughout the city for the growing number of cyclists, they are just great!

I used one yesterday with my new awesome winter bike:

My new bike is a Raleigh steel-framed mountain bike from the 1990s. This thing is amazing! It has neon coloured writing, humongous tires, 18 speeds, and weighs about 60 pounds. My most amazing anti-theft device is the broken seat.

I bought it so that I could ride to the bus stop during off-peak hours without having to worry about theft. When I was at the store, I picked it out amongst the others because it was so fantastically 1990s. I even told the cashier "Hey, doesn't this thing just scream of 1992?", to which she replied "Uh, I don't know what that means; I was born in 1992." and then I felt old.

New Gas Stove

2011-11-08T22:44:00.002-05:00

After having gas in the kitchen for over two years at the old house, we found it really difficult to use an electric stove at the new house.

This past weekend, our new stove arrived and we had gas installed in the kitchen.

The bottom right burner can create quite a flame.

We are really happy with this stove. Being the impatient type, I really appreciate that I can heat up a pan instantly.

The Een of Hallow

2011-11-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

Halloween was a lot of fun this year and the weather was really nice.

My pumpkin

Maria's pumpkin

Maria's ghosts did not look too cheerful. I assure you that the hanging was not the intended look.

Neighbours had a giant Frankenstein's monster on their lawn.

I complained that it was chilly last night but at least there was no snow. Do you remember last year's Halloween?

Maria was carving a pumpkin as it snowed outside.

Some poor cyclists had their cyclocross event in the snow.

Association des Modélistes Ferroviaires de Montréal

2011-10-31T00:11:00.003-04:00

This weekend, we went to l'Association des Modélistes Ferroviaires de Montréal, AMFM, for their last open house ever. Model railroading is a dying hobby and this is the biggest model railroad in Canada so it was really our last chance to ever see a large-scale model railroad.

There were many people in attendance.

I must say that the detail in some of the scenes was pretty spectacular.

I think that if I ever gave my dad a brass caboose such as this one, nothing could ever dislodge me from his good books.

The mountain scenes are my favourite.

They even had a nudist beach!

Their urban scenes were really detailed.

I would like to build a model railroad one day. Chris and I even started, but then life got in the way. However, now that I think about it, we do have an unfinished basement here...

Broadhead Brewing Company

2011-10-28T17:47:00.000-04:00

I visited Broadhead Brewery today where I sampled some of their delicious beer: Underdog Pale, Backbone Standard, and Long Shot White.

Here, I met Head Brewer Guy Josh Larocque who gave me a tour of the brewery and told me the story of the Broadhead Brewing Company.

Their facility is clean and efficient and their production is going strong.

They mostly sell kegs but do also sell growlers. I suggest that you buy some while you can because this beer is already in high demand.

New Beer In Ottawa!!!

2011-10-27T22:35:00.002-04:00

There is a new beer in Ottawa: Broadhead!

This is great news!

Let us list the local breweries:

Broadhead - Ottawa
HogsBack - Ottawa (really Toronto)

Kichesippi - Ottawa (Scotch Irish, Heritage)

Draft Horse - Navan

Beau's - Vankleek Hill

Wolfgang Beer (Skeena) - Perth

Barley Days - Prince Edward County

Church-Key - Campbellford

Republican House - Peterborough

Brew Pubs:

Clock Tower - Ottawa

Mill Street Pub - Ottawa (soon)

Brasseurs du Temps - Gatineau

Old Mill Pub at Ashton - Ashton

Kingston Brewing Company - Kingston

I have updated my map:

View Beers of Ontario in a larger map

Laundry Room Renovations

2011-10-27T19:49:00.001-04:00

As you can imagine, we have already begun our next house project: the laundry room.

A previous owner of the house decided that the laundry should not be located in the laundry room on the main floor but on the second floor, in the closet of a bedroom. This arrangement is not the most convenient for us so we decided to move the laundry back in the empty laundry room. There will be quite a bit of work required to accomplish this feat but we have tackled bigger problems at the old house.

I have already removed the white melamine cupboards and located the water pipes, the drain, the dryer exhaust, and the electricity.

We will then remove the vinyl tiles, the trim, the sink, the power sockets, and anything else that is easy to remove.

Here is an artist's impression of the new laundry room:

My first assignment will be to remove the drywall to inspect the insulation and vapour barrier. I suspect that when this wall was patched to hide the old exhaust and power outlet, it may not have been finished to my liking. I also plan on removing the copper piping that leads to the second floor. I foresee some fun plumbing work in the near future.

If you want more ideas for a laundry room, you can find some here.

The World's Best Stud Finder

2011-10-24T23:37:00.000-04:00

While I love making jokes about "stud finders" by placing the electronic device on myself and making it beep, this is not a joke.

Finding studs on a wall is something that is required of anybody wishing to affix something to the wall, as I have often done.

I recently found a cheap, efficient way to mark the studs on a wall without damaging said wall. The trick is to use magnets.

Most drywall that I have ever seen is either fastened with metal screws or metal nails, which are magnetic. By applying a magnet to each screw, as in the picture above, I can get a good idea of the location of the studs. When I have finished my job, presumably of driving a screw into the stud, I can remove my magnets without leaving a mark.

Wife is happy because her walls are free of scratches, marks, or dents. Husband is happy because the heavy item is properly secured on a stud.

Hubert and Carley's Wedding

2011-10-18T18:47:00.000-04:00

We went to Hubert and Carley's wedding last weekend. The weather was ridiculous for October: blue skies and a high of 30 or so.

Another first dance.

Later on in the night, there was some spectacular dancing.

What's up Ottawa, what's up, what's up?

Heliga Skitsnack, Ikea!

2011-10-07T08:51:00.000-04:00

If you live in the West end of Ottawa, you have probably noticed the construction of the new Ikea.

This thing is monstrous. To give you an idea of its scale, have a look at the Sears furniture store to its right.

Window Frames

2011-10-07T08:44:00.000-04:00

Before the winter arrives, we wanted to fix up the window frames on the main floor.

Maria did a lot of scraping and sanding before painting over the good frames.

I had to completely remove some old frames.

But now the windows look new, yippee!

We'll see how good they are this winter.

Canoe Trip to Greenleaf

2011-10-06T22:13:00.000-04:00

As we try to do every Labour Day weekend, we went on a canoe trip this year.

Before leaving, however, I replaced the yoke on the new canoe, making the portages so much easier to bear.

We did the Grand-Carcajou-Greenleaf-Grand loop with a stop on Clemow.

Much of the weather was cold and cloudy but we did get some sunny breaks here and there.

We saw some beavers who barked and growled at us.

The very long portage from Greenleaf to Clemow was not so bad at all on the dirt road.

The rain tarp was used thoroughly on this trip.

Here we are at the end of the Greenleaf-Clemow portage. Although it was the longest portage that we have ever finished, it was not that hard at all with the new canoe. I rigged a system of ropes that let me keep the canoe balanced without having to raise my arms. In this manner, I could carry the canoe for about 1 km without needing a break. When I did take a break, it was more to rest from the heavy pack than from the canoe.

We saw a bear near our campsite but he never bothered us.

I love my new canoe!

New Toilets!

2011-10-05T22:47:00.001-04:00

In my life, I have purchased ten toilets. Most have been purchased indirectly with the purchase of a house, but this is still quite a feat.

Two of the toilets in the new house were old monsters that wasted a lot of water so we replaced them with fantastic dual-flush, low-flow toilets.

Old:

New:

Old:

New:

Notice the lack of paint behind the tank? Booo!

Most of you probably do not care that much about toilets but these are the best toilets ever! The tank is full again before I have finished washing my hands! No more eternal loud hissing after using it.

Sequoia National Forest

2011-09-14T21:55:00.001-04:00

Before leaving Yosemite, we stopped for a few more photos:

We then drove to Sequoia National Forest where we saw the biggest trees in the world.

Capturing just how big these trees really is quite difficult with a camera.

I felt like a furry creature from Star Wars with all of these gigantic trees surrounding us.

The trees are soft and squishy.

I have hundreds of photos; I could not get over how big they are.

On the way out, we hit some construction and had to wait it out.

Then we drove down the mountain in single file.

In Sequoia National Forest, we were just about to sit down on a rock overlooking a nice valley to cut up some watermelon and enjoy the view. Then, just behind us, a group started to scream that they saw a bear. We decided to forfeit our snack in order to get some photos of said bear.

After about ten minutes of searching, we finally found him:

Bears do not scare me when I am in a car.

Yosemite

2011-09-13T22:36:00.000-04:00

After White Mountain, we headed towards Yosemite.

On the way, we stopped at Mono Lake to look at some Tufa deposits.

Tufas are really neat!

DO NOT CLIMB ON OR COLLECT TUFA!

Then we drove to Yosemite where we took our obligatory Half Dome photo:

We climbed atop a little hill before going to bed that night.

The next morning we went on a hike. On the way, we saw some small waterfalls:

Then we saw some bigger waterfalls:

And then Maria humoured me by pretending to surf:

This is not Half Dome, it is some other piece of rock, Liberty Cap, I believe.

And here we have Liberty Cap, Broderick Mount, and Half Dome.

Yosemite was fun, and when we were leaving, there was an out of control fire that was slowing people down at the gates. There was a lineup of cars that was longer than 2 km to get into the park.

White Mountain

2011-09-11T21:09:00.003-04:00

Last summer, we hiked up the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This year, we climbed White Mountain in California, which measures 4344 m.

Along the way, we saw many chippies.

There is some sort of observatory near the summit.

Here is a picture of Maria with White Mountain in the background. The path looks easy from this point but it was quite a lot of work to reach the summit, despite the road that leads to the top.

Here is a picture of Maria on the summit.

I was too tired to perform my standard over-under picture, especially since somebody placed a chair on the summit and I found myself unable to stand up after sitting in it.

The view was quite nice on that day.

Along with the chippies, we saw many of these guys:

Marmots?

This was an excellent hike, especially since we were in California for Dave White's wedding.

Death Valley

2011-09-11T20:40:00.003-04:00

Following our drive through California City, we camped in Death Valley for one night.

Here, amongst other things, we saw some nice sand dunes, which Maria particularly liked.

We also travelled to the a salt desert, similar to the one in Bolivia.

Although, at 85.5 m below sea level, this salt desert was much lower than the Salar de Uyuni, which is 3656 m above the sea level.

Here is a nice view of the salt desert from above:

The temperature outside reached 117 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 47 degrees in Celsius.

Despite the heat, I did not find it too terrible because of the dry air. The cold hefeweizen that we drank at the restaurant in the desert was delicious and refreshing.

We always had plenty of water, some food, and enough fuel in the car in case anything happened.

California City

2011-08-31T23:38:00.004-04:00

We travelled a lot when we were in California and one of the sights that I really wanted to see was California City.

This interesting planned city never grew as much as anticipated. Many roads were built but buildings were never erected on these roads, which are now disintegrating in the desert. They exist on maps, and street signs adorn them, but there is nobody there!

On the way to California City, we saw some airplanes in Mojave.

And we bought some delicious oranges for $6 a box. Sadly, we could not bring them all back home.

These oranges were ridiculously juicy: slicing them with a knife produced copious amounts of juice.

Dave's Wedding

2011-08-31T23:21:00.002-04:00

We arrived in Santa Barbara quite late on Thursday night, or Friday morning for the purists.

On Friday, we all went out to the beach to play in the surf. I did something really risky and bought Maria a bathing suit prior to our trip and it turns out that she liked it a lot.

After the beach, we drove to Solvang, a cute little town with a Danish touch. If you find yourself in this part of California, I strongly encourage you to visit this town.

On Saturday, we walked around Santa Barbara, where the wedding took place; it is an incredible city. The weather is always nice and the beach is conveniently close to the downtown restaurants and patios.

On Sunday, Dave and Sam were married under a blue California sky at the Santa Barbara Zoo.

I took my obligatory first dance photo of their impressive dance.

Here is the cake:

And here is the group shot of the Orphanage:

Thanks for having such a great wedding, Dave and Sam.

California

2011-08-29T21:01:00.003-04:00

We are back from our vacation in California where we went for Dave's wedding.

Maria's dress matched the groomsmen.

After the wedding, we spent a week travelling around in California. The weather was excellent and we enjoyed many sights along our 2900 km trek, such as Death Valley, White Mountain, Yosemite, giant Sequoias, and the beach. The hottest temperature that we experienced was 117 degrees (47 in Celsius) and the coldest was 45 (7 C).

Yosemite

These trees are soft and squishy!

I will, of course, post more photos after we sift through them. I took over 1200 photos and Maria took over 1500.

Canoe Trip to Radiant Lake

2011-08-03T21:00:00.005-04:00

This past weekend, Maria and I went on a joyful canoe trip to Algonquin. Since the manly-man trip was so easy last year, I wanted to try it with Maria this year. Our itinerary was as follows: we left from Wendigo on Friday and camped on Radiant; we camped on Mishe-Moke-Wa on Saturday; we camped on North River on Sunday; and were back to Wendigo on Monday.

For much of the trip, we had weather like this:

This is probably just before Radiant Lake.

Maria was quite happy, especially after our sucky trip last year.

There were humongous frogs this year.

On Friday, after arriving at our campsite on Radiant, we went for a swim. Shortly thereafter, with little warning, the sky turned dark and we quickly prepared for the coming storm.

Maria moping.

It rained quite hard for much of the evening.

Rain should not put a huge damper on the mood of a canoe trip but we still had memories of six days of rain last year so we were quite disappointed, especially when it was still cloudy in the morning.

A rainy morning.

On the Petawawa, we saw the blue sky come out of hiding and by the time we were on Cedar Lake, it was a beautiful day.

Maria approved of the weather at this point.

Last year, when we arrived at Mishe-Moke-Wa, the campsite was not fantastic so we decided to clean it up a little bit. We constructed a tent platform and I built a rake to make the base nice and smooth.

My rake was still on Mishe-Moke-Wa when we camped there this year.

Although the lake is small, the view is nice.

I really enjoy looking up at blue skies.

When we camped on North River, the wind was pretty spectacular. It meant that our clothes dried really quickly on the line but also that our fire burned down really quickly.

The rays of sun in the fire always impress me.

In the late afternoon, we watched as a series of menacing clouds made its way toward us. These clouds kept getting bigger and darker and the amount of lightning increased to the point where it was non-stop for hours in the night. Fortunately for us, the clouds kept sliding to the East and we never felt a drop of rain.

The next morning looked like this for us:

This is probably North River Lake.

There were some serious beaver dams on the North River.

On the way back, Maria went to the drive-through berry picking.

I am really quite happy that we had some nice weather this year. If not, Maria might have given up on canoe trips and I would be sad. At least she saw that it is possible to have really nice weather all weekend.

This loop was not too difficult with two people but we had to work hard on the first two days. The unmaintained portages proved to be quite well maintained and other than some bog patches they were no trouble at all. Our biggest day was from Radiant to Mishe-Moke-Wa. From there to North River was quite nice and we were at our campsite at about noon, which made for an excellent afternoon of guilt-free relaxing.

The bugs were particularly bad this year but we found that mosquito coils worked really well for us.

Manly-Man Trip: Brent Run

2011-08-02T22:33:00.007-04:00

The Brent Run is a common canoe trip where crazy people try to go from Canoe Lake to Cedar Lake and back again as quickly as possible. I believe that the record is under 23 hours but we planned to do it in four days.

Our trip last year was too easy so we wanted more of a challenge this year.

The plan was to camp at Big Trout on Friday, drop off our packs at a site on Catfish on Saturday, continue on to Brent and back, camp on Catfish, camp on Little Otterslide on Sunday, and be back to Canoe Lake on Monday.

We almost succeeded. We could have done it if we were younger and had something to prove but when we arrived at Catfish Lake we were tired and it was later in the day than we had anticipated so we decided to nap instead.

On the first day, the battery in my camera was dead so I did not take any photos because the spare battery was too deep in my pack.

Sunrise on Big Trout Lake.

Chris and Jason ready to leave our site on Big Trout.

Chris at the stern.

Jason spotting a moose.

The moose.

Jason napping on Catfish Lake.

Catfish Lake.

Jason at the Stern.

Sometimes, it was quicker to skip a portage.

Probably Big Trout Lake.

We saw a string hanging from the sky near the shore. A strange sight, we decided to investigate the situation.

We found this gigantic spider at the end of this "string". Wow.

This is probably Otterslide Lake.

Water seeped under our tent on the last night, affecting Chris and me but leaving Jason dry.

Some of the portages near Canoe Lake are quite luxurious.

As are the traffic signs.

Chris' car, ready for the trip home.

It was a fun trip but a little too ambitious for us. Our next trip will likely be much easier.

My Camera Is Dying

2011-08-02T22:30:00.002-04:00

My camera is dying. Most of the pictures that I take end up looking like this:

Sadly, impressive events such as the giant tree that collapsed across the Ottawa River Parkway Multi-Use Path go unrecorded.

Some days are awesome

2011-07-16T10:39:00.004-04:00

On my way to a meeting yesterday, I encountered the following:

Nothing makes my day like a marching band!

Apparently, they do this every day in the summer; how have I not known this?

Four Toilets

2011-07-15T18:18:00.004-04:00

I recently posted about owning seven toilets.

I may have been unclear in that post but I no longer own seven toilets. This was a temporary situation when we owned two houses for a brief period. We are now down to a more normal four toilets, which is still a lot but not as much as seven.

New House

2011-07-10T22:05:00.004-04:00

We are settling nicely into our new house and are lucky to have enjoyed really nice weather this past weekend.

Our new house has a lot of trees out front so it is difficult to get a good picture of it.

Last week, we moved some items ourselves before the movers came and learnt that we have a lot more belongings than we had thought. Terri-Lee came by and helped out quite a bit.

We emptied out our storage locker and had trouble fitting everything into the truck.

Believe it or not, everything in the photo below fit into the locker from the photo above.

Moving the fish proved to be quite the experience, one that I never want to repeat.

Moving the cats was another experience altogether. Shakey is doing great but BB is still quite scared.

She spends most of her time hiding under the blankets of our bed, which is really cute but also really sad because she is so scared.

Goodbye, Old House!

2011-07-06T23:17:00.006-04:00

The time has come for us to finally move out of our old house. These past few days have been quite emotional for us; we are happy to move to our new house but are really sad to leave this one behind, especially since we put so much of ourselves into it.

Here is our old street in the morning.

Maria is quite sad to leave her garden behind.

She is especially sad to leave this established bush of raspberries that is just starting to produce ripe berries.

It seems as though the vegetables will be ready to eat shortly, right after we will have left.

We changed just about everything in this house that could be changed, like these outdoor lights.

The basement looks so different when it is empty.

I will miss our red door.

And our kitchen.

The office, where I spent most of my waking hours.

This bathroom was really nice too.

For some strange reason, the rooms look smaller when they are empty.

So here we are: after nearly four years at this house, we are leaving it behind with many memories. Goodbye, first house!

And now, we move to a happy topic: the new house!

This was the view in the backyard on July 1st.

That lilac tree smells really nice, especially on the second floor of the house. I will post more pictures later, when we have unpacked some more.

Seven Toilets

2011-06-27T23:02:00.004-04:00

The beauty about moving is that right now in my life, I own seven toilets.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

Tomorrow

2011-06-26T22:21:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the big day!

In the meantime, our house is a big mess: there are boxes everywhere and we still have more to pack!

How I will sleep tonight, I do not know. Lately, I have been doing a lot of Sudokus when I cannot sleep. Tel père, tel fils.

Cycling in Ottawa - Updates

2011-06-23T23:06:00.003-04:00

There have been many changes to my commute recently.

The first is the opening of the bridge between Lebreton Flats and Commissioner Street. This means that I can now get downtown much quicker and am much safer by avoiding busy streets.

From this bridge, one can view the kayakers as they run through the rapids:

This picture has kayakers:

Here is the view from Parliament Hill:

The detour along the path at Watt's Creek has been removed. Unfortunately, the new section is horrible despite it being just a few days old.

The stone art is back near Tunney's Pasture:

Finally, the bike lanes on Laurier are nearly finished. They have added green paint and the left turn pads. Notice as well that they have replaced all of the traffic lights with a special light that prohibits cars from turning for a few seconds. This gives the cyclists a few seconds of safety before cars turn right or left.

Soon I will use my new lanes!

Fancy Bikes of Ottawa

2011-06-23T23:01:00.002-04:00

Here are some more fancy bikes spotted in Ottawa.

A nice green fixie:

Partnered with a nice turquoise urban bike:

A busker jumping over a colleague:

A fancy tandem:

Packing!

2011-06-23T22:56:00.002-04:00

Our favourite source of boxes for moving is the LCBO where there is an infinite supply of perfect boxes. We now have over 50 such boxes.

I also retained my boxes from my move to Ottawa. Here is approximately 100 cubic feet of boxes:

By now, most of these boxes are full.

Île d'Orléans - Photos

2011-06-23T22:38:00.006-04:00

Here are some photos from our trip to l'Île d'Orléans last weekend.

On the first day, we cycled to Saint-François and back.

Maria was thrilled to stop at the bakery and get some fresh and delicious baked goods. (Petits croissants, brioche au chocolat, miche).

On the second day, we cycled around most of the island. Unfortunately for us, we started the day with quite the downpour.

But the day dried up and we were able to visit many vignobles where we sampled delicious wines and cidres.

Cycling through the middle was fun on the long stretch of road.

We had a delicious dinner au Pub le Mitan, which is above La microbrasserie de l'Île d'Orléans.

The beer wasn't bad but the food was incredible; I had a fresh burger with the most tender beef that I have ever eaten. (Du boeuf de l'Île).

Of course, you can see many ships on the South side of the island.

Chemin Daniel!

Hairy cows:

There were a few érablières on the island.

Of course, on the day that we left, the skies were nice and blue:

On the way home we stopped at Beau's Brewery in Vankleek Hill.

Île d'Orléans

2011-06-20T23:24:00.002-04:00

Maria and I visited l'Île d'Orléans this weekend and had a wonderful time.

More pictures will follow.

Goodbye, Safety Village!

2011-06-13T22:19:00.003-04:00

I am saddened by the news that the Safety Village is getting dismantled.

Whenever I bike to work, I pass an area that until recently had nearly all types of traffic signalization in a miniature setting. I have never seen it in working order and was wondering what the story was and now it has already been dismantled:

This is too bad because it was a great way to teach children about traffic signalization in a safe setting.

SOLD!

2011-06-10T23:37:00.002-04:00

We sold our house!

Hail

2011-06-08T20:41:00.003-04:00

Ottawa had its first humongous thunderstorm today and it passed over me exactly as I was commuting home.

When the rain started, it was pretty hard but I kept going, thinking "I am not made of soap!" When the rain turned to hail, I laughed in its face, ha ha! The helmet and clear glasses protected me from these feeble little ice pellets.

When the lightning got really intense, I got scared and hurried to the only shelter available to me: an underpass.

There were about a dozen other cyclists hiding here, waiting for the lightning to ease up. Meanwhile, the hail seemed to get bigger, and I exaggerate nothing when I tell you that there were pellets the size of marbles. In record-breaking heat, these pellets were quite amazing.

There were fewer cyclists hiding below the eastbound underpass.

I do not fear the rain, nor the hail, but with lightning and thunder less than a second apart, I did not wish to be out in the open where I could become another statistic.

After the storm, the wind was pretty strong and the ride home was painful. This is a nice contrast to this morning's fantastic ride where I pulled two cyclists and beat my morning record under a clear blue sky.

Stop, Hammer Time!

2011-06-06T23:33:00.005-04:00

Work on the segregated bike lanes on Laurier is moving along quite quickly.

This morning, there was a truck placing the concrete lip on the segment of road East of Lyon.

STOP, Hammer Time!

At lunch, all of the pylons were gone and I got to ride in the lane for the first time. By the afternoon, the pylons and yellow tape blocked the lanes once more. Perhaps tomorrow morning they will be open?

The intersection of Lyon and Laurier is now 100% bike-friendly.

Day #1 of the concrete lip and there were already skateboarders. I must say that they were quite skilled at jumping the lip. The jump in the picture below resulted in a perfect landing.

On my ride home, I saw a huge turtle trying to cross Watt's Creek path.

I stopped traffic and ensured that he got across safely.

Turtles are hilarious when they scuttle about.

Bike to Pinhey's Point

2011-06-05T11:59:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, Maria and I made the bike trip to Pinhey's Point.

While it was but a short trip, we had many adventures along the way.

Maria hit 1000 km on her bike.

And did a little dance.

Earlier, while I was standing on my pedals on a steep, sandy downhill at Pinhey's Point, I slipped off my pedals and landed sharply on my seat. As I lay there crying in the grass, immobilized by the pain, a little girl watched me, probably wondering what was wrong with me.

This is one of the worst signs to see as a cyclist, especially one who is now very weary of bumps on the road.

We encountered this sign on March Valley Road which, contrary to Google Maps, is not a thoroughfare.

It would be quite impossible for a regular automobile to cross the train tracks.

Even if the car could get across the tracks, the concrete barriers and dirt mounds might pose a problem.

We had originally planned on taking March Valley Road to Riddell Drive but when it seemed as though it would be gravel for its entirety, we reluctantly opted for March Road, which added 3 kilometres on a dangerous stretch of road.

On the way home, we saw that March Valley Road was paved at Riddell so we tried it and found that only 2 kilometres are in gravel: from the train tracks to Klondike. Now that we know, we can do this ride again without having to go on March Road.

More Wind? Yes, please!

2011-06-03T21:19:00.003-04:00

This has been a week of crazy wind; the wind yesterday and today was incredibly strong but was a side wind for most of my commute, which does not affect my speed, apparently, only my morale.

The waves on the Ottawa River reminded me of our trip to Opeongo last year.

In the evening, the skies were nice and blue but the wind was just as strong.

Volleyball was somewhat of a challenge that night.

Here is another fixie for the list.

I believe that this one was parked on Kent.

In the commute game, one of my favourite levels is near the end, on Watt's Creek between the two train tracks.

I have often cycled in the rain or in the wind and it seems as though this segment is always nice and serene.

Wind!

2011-06-01T19:59:00.002-04:00

We had another crazy wind storm today. I find it funny that these wind storms have caused more damage than the earthquake last summer yet it is the earthquake that left a bigger impression in my mind.

There were many fallen newspaper boxes in the city.

This photo has not been edited in any way: these are some trees on Albert at Lyon. Yes, it really was that windy.

Lucky for me, I had taken the bus today and did not have to fight this ridiculous wind on my bike. I did manage to take some photos of the poor cyclists on the River Parkway multi-use path:

That could have been me! I hope that tomorrow is calmer.

The Ottawa River

2011-06-01T19:55:00.002-04:00

Marcia was visiting these past few days and she joined me for lunch by the Ottawa river yesterday where we spotted the Lady Dive.

We also enjoyed some nice patio weather before the volleyball game at the beach.

I love summer!

Cycling in the City

2011-06-01T19:42:00.005-04:00

The Laurier Bicycle Lanes are nearly finished from Bronson to Lyon, as you can see.

And East of Lyon, construction has already begun, wahoo!

I have a habit of taking photos of interesting bicycles that I see. Yesterday, at work, I parked my Sentiero beside another Opus; what a rare event! This particular Opus was a Classico.

There was also another interesting bicycle in the cage: a fixie.

Many fixies are nicely decorated, such as this black and red model that I spotted on Laurier last week:

and this Steelwool (website is down), possibly on Kent or Bank:

My bicycle is sleek and shiny, otherwise I might also consider painting it. As long as it keeps looking like this, however, I will never paint it over: I like it too much!

Maria's little friend

2011-05-30T22:38:00.004-04:00

Maria was really distraught the other day: she found a little friend in her clematis.

The poor little guy was lost and had somehow climbed up to eye level.

We tried to feed him but he did not seem interested and had left us by the afternoon. Maria was really worried for him, the poor little guy (or girl).

Hot Bike Ride

2011-05-30T22:33:00.002-04:00

What a hot day it was today, and what nice blue skies we had!

I must be careful and rehydrate during my commute or else I will encounter some difficulties as the weather gets warmer.

I really like my bike.

Bike Lanes on Laurier, Wahoo!

2011-05-25T21:16:00.003-04:00

You may have heard already that Ottawa is placing segregated cycling lanes on Laurier from Bronson to Elgin. This is fantastic news! Often, when I hear about a project like this, I am happy but do not expect to see any development for five or six years. Well, I was delighted to see that they have already begun the work, as you can see on this strip of Laurier Avenue just West of Bay street:

Looking West

In the morning they were working on the Eastbound lane.

Looking East

In the afternoon, I saw that they had also begun work on the Westbound lanes (no picture).

While many people are complaining about these lanes, I think that this is a step in the right direction and am happy to see these lanes, even if they do not connect to the NCC bicycle paths.

Today there was a celebration station for Bike to Work Month.

There was free coffee and juice and plenty of happy people.

I also saw one of the new Bixi stations:

And all of this under a clear blue sky.

Cycling Collision

2011-05-24T22:07:00.003-04:00

I was involved in a bicycle collision today, my first ever with another bicycle. It happened at one of my least favourite spots along my commute: the stupid bridge by Corkstown Road (Satellite, Bird's Eye).

As you can see, there is a sharp "S" curve with a wooden bridge in the middle, and this bridge was quite slippery this morning.

While my bicycle accident was way more spectacular than Alex's, my injuries are nothing in comparison; he would laugh at me and my scratched knee.

On another note, my ride this morning took exactly 60 minutes.

Spring seems to have finally arrived. Compare these two photos, taken nearly at the same spot.

The first was taken on April 28^th of this year:

And the second one was taken today, May 24^th:

This past Sunday I participated in Bikedays with Boj-n-Boys. I recommend this activity to everybody in the Ottawa area; cycling on the open road without any vehicular activity is a fantastic way to spend the day.

We all had fun and the boys learnt how to change a flat tire. Chris learnt that he could change a tire whilst getting big hugs from Owen.

More Paint

2011-05-20T22:53:00.002-04:00

We made the decision to paint the living room. This was a difficult task, not only physically but also emotionally; we both loved the red faux-finish.

Before:

After primer:

Et voilà:

Our poor dumb-dumbs had to be locked up for the duration of this project and you can see that they were not pleased.

Cycling in the Rain

2011-05-20T22:49:00.003-04:00

On some mornings, it is raining and I do not feel like cycling. On those days, I really need to push myself to bike to work instead of taking the convenient bus.

When I get to work, I can be completely drenched. (I wonder how much weight I gain when this happens).

Usually, however, I am rewarded in the afternoon with blue skies and calm winds, as was the case on Thursday:

What a ride! I would have regretted it if I were stuck on a bus.

Delicious Weiss Beer

2011-05-09T20:28:00.002-04:00

When Steph was in town a little while back, we ate at Pub Italia where we both sampled Muskoka's new beer for the first time: Muskoka Summer Weiss.

To say that this beer is delicious is an understatement: I could drink pints of it, especially on a hot summer day.

It comes in nice colourful bottles too, which are reusable if you are making your own beer.

If you have a chance to sample this beer, I strongly encourage you to try it.

Summer Cycling

2011-05-09T20:11:00.002-04:00

Cycling today was truly wonderful with the skies looking like this in the morning and in the evening:

It is rare to enjoy two nice rides in one day.

Another fantastic aspect to today's ride home was the tail wind that followed me for the entire trip, even West of Moodie, which is where the wind usually shifts. Along with green lights throughout downtown, this was a ride to remember.

Ice Cream

2011-05-09T20:06:00.003-04:00

Today I was delighted to find a tub of ice cream in the freezer. With Maria out, I could indulge without her knowing.

To my surprise, Maria had a security system in place that prevented me from eating the ice cream:

Coffee is delicious, yes, but I like my coffee to taste like coffee and my ice cream to taste like something wonderful, like caramel, chocolate, or even pralines. Coffee? No thank you. Then again, Maria did order garlic ice cream at the garlic festival a few summers ago. This is in line with jalapeno cookies or mustard pie.

As The Water Rises

2011-05-04T23:38:00.002-04:00

While I am somewhat fascinated by this rising water, I learnt today that the level is controlled and that the water can rise rapidly if they open the gates.

This morning I was greeted by a gate that discouraged people from walking through the water.

On the way home I rode right through it and did not find it too bad, though I will go slower next time.

Here are two pictures that I find impressive:

2011-05-04

2010-06-17

Both were taken nearly at the same spot. I doubt that the level of water will fall this much by June 17^th of this year.

That Poor Bicycle - Conclusion

2011-05-03T20:45:00.002-04:00

Tara told me that the poor bicycle was gone. I went to have a look and it was true, it was no longer there: either somebody cut the lock or the owner felt that the frame was too expensive to leave behind.

That Rising Ottawa River

2011-05-02T23:24:00.004-04:00

Water seems somewhat high in the Ottawa River these days. Here are a few photos that I took today.

Mud Lake

The train bridge.

The water seems to have risen during the day:

Photo taken roughly here on 2011-05-02 at 8h52.

Photo taken roughly here on 2011-05-02 at 18h18.

And here is a comparison with last summer:

Photo taken roughly here on 2011-05-02

Photo taken roughly here on 2010-08-13

This video shows just how much water is flowing:

That big water project is going strong.

CN Ride for CHEO - 2011

2011-05-01T13:57:00.004-04:00

Today was the CN Ride for CHEO. Since we were not able to take the bus last year, we did not even bother with it this year. Fitting two bicycles on this rack was somewhat of a challenge; I cannot imagine fitting three.

We all arrived with plenty of time to spare and with a wonderful day ahead of us.

As much as I can remember, the skies looked like this all morning:

The 35 km loop passed near my usual commuting route along the Ottawa River, though this time I was up on the parkway instead of on the bicycle path.

They used the Parkway in both directions this year, which we all appreciated as it gave us much more room to maneuver.

This was Chrispy's first ride.

Here is Team Awesome 2011:

Tom had a good day today.

As did Maria.

The Team Awesome poster.

Tom took the camera for a couple of photos.

We went by the Parliament near the end of the loop.

And so we had a wonderful ride without any incidents and our team raised over $1200 for charity. Thank you to all of you who made a donation to our team.

Sunny Weekend

2011-05-01T13:25:00.002-04:00

The weather this weekend has been incredible. On Saturday, the skies looked likes this all day:

So we spent a lot of time outdoors. Maria tended to her little tomato grow-op.

She also did some weeding of the yard.

We enjoyed the first piña coladas of the season.

And we also had our first BBQ of the year.

I love summer!

Crazy Wind

2011-04-28T20:49:00.004-04:00

Today was an interesting day for cycling.

To begin, the city is undergoing humongous water works and they have now progressed to Britannia Beach. This means that cyclists, like many commuters, must face construction delays on their way to work.

Here is the Pont Champlain:

And my favourite bicycle:

This afternoon we faced some incredible wind that wreaked havoc in Ontario. I noticed that a few trees had been knocked over:

And there was much debris on the path that was not there this morning:

I complain a lot about the late spring that we had this year but this is ridiculous. Compare these two photos, taken nearly one year apart:

This photo was taken here, 2011-04-28.

This photo was taken here, 2010-05-04.

Do you notice a difference?

That Poor Bicycle

2011-04-28T20:40:00.003-04:00

This is like watching a cow being devoured by ants.

What will go next, the rack or the pedals? Probably the rack because it is easier to remove.

Cycling to the Pub

2011-04-26T22:26:00.002-04:00

We went for lunch at the Cheshire Cat yesterday and it was my first official bike ride of the year.

I was hoping that Richardson Side road would be open for cyclists and it was! If it had not been, I would have taken Kanata Ave to Terry Fox since it now connects to Richardson, although it does not on the map and the detour is a long one.

Richardson Side road - a delight for cyclists until you reach the war zone at the bottom of the hill.

This is Terry Fox, looking North.

This is the danger zone at the bottom of the hill on Richardson.

And here are some more cyclists enjoying the car-free Richardson.

The Cheshire Cat Pub has many microbrewery beers on tap and I was delighted to try some cask ale for the first time. It was delicious and I cannot wait to have another!

Cycling to Work - 2011

2011-04-26T21:56:00.004-04:00

The time has finally come for me to start cycling to work. The CN Ride For CHEO is coming up next weekend and I had not yet been on my bike (outdoors) in 2011 so I promised myself that I would bike to work after the long weekend even if it rained. We are doing the 35 km loop.

Speaking of the Ride for CHEO, please donate to me or to my team if the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario is on the list of charities that you support.

And so, an incredulous wife woke me up this morning to tell me that my alarm was making a funny noise and that if I were really serious about getting on my bike, I had better get up.

While the weather was somewhat wet this morning, it was relatively warm and there was no wind so my ride was quite pleasant. Pleasant, that is, until I ran out of energy and decided that an hour was enough and I took the bus the rest of the way. I should have stayed on my bike because the bus ride ended up taking as long as cycling would have taken.

The Ottawa River is quite high this spring.

These trees are not usually immersed at the base.

The ride home was also nice with the tail wind pushing me the entire way. The rain did manage to soak me thoroughly and I was grateful to come home to a warm house.

It was much brighter outside but the picture makes it look really dark.

First Bike Ride!

2011-04-21T22:06:00.003-04:00

While I know that I am quite late this year, I tried my bike for the first time on Tuesday. I took it to the store for its seasonal tune-up and biked 2 km home from the bus after work.

Why did I not bike the entire distance to and from work? I am somewhat ill these days and such a trip would have finished me off quite quickly.

Next week, however, I plan on going to work at least twice, especially if the temperature ever rises. This exceptionally cold spring is no fun at all and has prevented me from starting my cycling season sooner.

That Wind

2011-04-18T23:03:00.005-04:00

This past weekend, I was in Kingston which is, if you have never been, a windy city.

Wind is not something that you can see but this video is as close as I will ever get to seeing wind.

That Bike

2011-04-18T00:43:00.006-04:00

As you know, I am following a poor abandoned bicycle (1, 2) that is locked up behind my work. It appears that some more components have now been removed. I believe that I will call the city now and have it removed since the owner is obviously not going to retrieve it.

This is a sad ending for such a nice bicycle.

More Painting!

2011-04-04T23:40:00.002-04:00

Here is what our front hall looks like now that it has been painted.

This is a lot of caulk in lieu of a screw:

This last picture pretty much sums up life at our house for the past few days:

Stucco ceilings drink up paint; I seem to use enormous quantities for the first coat. The second coat uses much less paint.

Pictures in Ottawa

2011-04-04T00:25:00.004-04:00

It seems as though the owner of this bicycle has either given up or is unaware of this bicycle's location since it has not moved in quite a few months.

I was at the University of Ottawa the other day and the view was really nice:

Lastly, would you believe that there are beaver panel cars still driving around?

Painting

2011-04-04T00:10:00.004-04:00

We have finished painting the second floor hall and are happy to be able to move around freely once more. Unfortunately, my fantastic chin-up bar is no longer available.

The only picture of my chin-up bar that I seem to have is one with Bumblebee sitting on it:

We have also mostly finished painting the first floor, though I do not have any pictures yet. Here is Maria painting in the stairs.

Now we have started preparing the basement for painting, which is probably the biggest job yet.

To reward ourselves for our hard work, we went out for ice cream after dinner tonight and it was everything that I had hoped for.

Josh in Ottawa

2011-03-28T22:27:00.002-04:00

Did you see Supermoon last week?

If I had a better camera, this picture would be incredible.

Josh came to visit for a few days and took us to the Sens game.

It was one of the best Sens games that I've ever attended; they played really well.

Home Renos

2011-03-28T22:17:00.003-04:00

We are doing some more house projects these days. Here is Maria painting the "Yellow Room". What will we call it now?

If your name is Alex, surely you use this type of caulking? If they sold caulking named Dan, I would sure buy it!

To paint the bathroom, I thought that it might be better to remove the toilet tank to paint behind it. Was I foolish to think, once again, that this simple job would be easy?

In theory, this is easy: turn off the water, unscrew some nuts, unscrew the water intake, and remove the tank. Be sure to flush before removing the tank or enjoy a wet surprise.

My problem was with the first step: I turned the valve and felt quite a bit of water dripping into my hand. It is not unusual for a seldom-used valve to spring a few drops of water when you turn it on or off but this was ridiculous. Oh crap!, said I. I had better turn this back on!

By now it was too late: either on or off, the valve was leaking quite a bit. I turned off the water to the house and discovered that two washers had disintegrated. One quick trip to the hardware store and I was able to remove the tank without any problems, as you can see in the picture above.

Winter Renovations

2011-03-14T23:22:00.002-04:00

I replaced the kitchen faucet the other day (with the help of Alex and Rachel).

And I must admit that the new one is much better: we should have done this years ago!

Notice the reflexion of the flash in the base plate on the wall?

Now we are painting all of the doors in the house. We have a system where I will remove all of the hardware from the doors and hang them in the basement.

When they are in the basement, Maria will apply two coats of paint.

The result? Now we must paint the door frames and the trim in all of the rooms to match these bright white doors. We knew that this was coming and are planning on painting the rooms as well.

Alex and Rachel in Ottawa

2011-03-14T23:15:00.002-04:00

Alex and Rachel were in Ottawa for a week and stayed at our house.

I am happy to report that Alex and I played a lot of Civ 5 while he was here. Unfortunately, you cannot save a multiplayer game in Civ 5 so it is unlikely that the game will go anywhere in one sitting, as we found out.

Here they are at the airport:

Apparently, I am not the only one who thinks that the Ottawa airport is the best in the world:

My #2 would have to be Vancouver.

Although I cannot really understand this investment: $35,000,000 for 850 new parking spots.

This corresponds to $41,176 per parking spot. Am I missing something?

Freeze-Thaw, Yippee!

2011-03-07T00:31:00.004-05:00

We have had many blue skies recently, days where I wish that the temperature were thirty degrees warmer and I could hop on my bicycle.

Unfortunately, the temperature has risen nearly that much and then dropped back down again. This creates wonderful puddles of water that cannot always drain properly in the still-frozen ground.

These puddles freeze up and create patches of ice that are incredibly difficult to remove.

Speakeasy

2011-03-07T00:26:00.003-05:00

Charissa's birthday was a theme party where we all dressed up in costumes from the 1920s to the 1940s. Maria dressed up as Rosie the Riveter.

Chris was probably some sort of corrupt liquor inspector.

And boy did he ever find a lot!

Many of the gentlemen wore hats:

Surprisingly enough, I do not have a photo of all of the women at the party.

Last Skate

2011-02-26T21:37:00.003-05:00

On Friday I went for what was most likely my last skate on the canal for the year.

The Canal recovered quite well from the big thaw last week and the ice was wonderful; I wish that my mom could have skated on it in its present condition.

They have modern chalets this year.

And here is my obligatory Parliament photo.

Melty Canal

2011-02-21T22:00:00.002-05:00

While we had one of the coldest days of the year this week for the protesters on Parliament hill, the weather heated up quite a bit and we enjoyed a tropical 10 degrees on Friday. Sadly, the Canal does not do so well in this kind of heat.

Lucky for us, however, the mercury got right back down below zero and the canal reopened on Sunday. My visiting parents were very happy about this change in temperature because my mom got to skate on the Canal.

I often feel as though we waste all of our clear, blue skies in the winter and leave none for the summer.

These are some seriously blue skies.

I really hope that we will have some blue skies for our canoe trips this year.

At the aviation museum, I saw an airplane with a canoe: I approve.

Butter tarts

2011-02-21T21:57:00.002-05:00

Maria made some delicious butter tarts this evening, to be shared with our volleyball team tomorrow. I was amazed when they came out of the oven, they looked like this:

But then, a few minutes later, they deflated and looked like this:

Can you believe it?

Before:

After:

While they remain delicious, I am saddened by the loss of ballooning.

More Winter Fun

2011-02-16T23:18:00.002-05:00

The colder it gets outside, the warmer my office becomes. I keep two separate thermometers at my desk and the temperature is usually at 26 degrees for most of the day. In a type of protest, I dressed up in my Hawaiian shirt last week. I was not cold at all, even though the temperature outside was 20 below 0.

Despite the winter, I keep seeing cyclists in the streets. When I do see them, I wish them well and hope that they survive their trip home.

Winter is not really that dangerous for cyclists: people driving automobiles in the winter are dangerous for cyclists.

It warmed up quite a bit on Monday and the snow turned to rain which could not drain through the frozen ground. I can shovel snow quite easily but I cannot shovel water.

As I feared, it all froze the that evening into a fantastic piece of ice. Lucky for me, Maria got home and shoveled most of it before it froze beyond hope. The driveway is still a mess.

And on Tuesday, when the mercury went back down to about 20 below 0, these young ladies planned a protest on Parliament Hill.

I did not care for their protest but they sure got my attention.

I wonder how this protest affected their health. I was wearing four layers below my jacket, my ski pants, and my fur hat, and I was cold. I cannot imagine how cold they must have been. I wonder where they went after their protest: they did not appear to have much in the way of warm clothing to warm them up afterwards and there is nowhere to warm up on the hill, except maybe by the Centennial Flame.

New Canoe

2011-02-16T23:04:00.002-05:00

I have been meaning to introduce the newest member of our family:

Last week, we purchased a red canoe, similar to the one above, and on one of the coldest days of the year we brought it home.

And we stuck it in the garage.

While it is apparently bad for a canoe to sit on its side, this will have to do for the moment.

The canoe is a 16 foot Prospector from Beach Marine. They manufacture their own canoes out of Hamilton. Our old canoe weighed 85 lbs and this one weighs 49 lbs, which will make a big difference on long portages. It is also slightly wider and should make it easier to drop in our big bags after a portage.

I am extremely happy with this canoe and cannot wait to try it out. It is made of Kevlar and is adorned with aluminium gunwales and comfortable mesh seats and is capped at each end by a metal plate that ensures strength when it is lifted or tied up. The Prospector is definitely my favourite model of canoe and this one sports three keels, a rarity among Kevlar canoes.

As soon as the ice is cleared from the Canal, we shall have our inaugural spring paddle.