Sept.-Oct. Update

OK, September and October…off we go!

September started with a bang for us. We attended Wendy and Derek’s wedding out in Langley. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Wendy’s parent’s backyard. The reception was held in a hall and the party was great! Lots of dancing, great food, great friends and good times!




The following week, we had a visitor staying with us. Jane was in from Calgary for a work conference and stayed with us on the Saturday night. During the day on Saturday, Cathy and I drove to Pemberton with Riley to check out the kennel where we’re putting Riley up for the holidays while we’re in Hawaii. It’s a great location and concept. What we both liked about this place is that Riley wouldn’t be locked up in a cage at any point of his stay there. They believe in an open concept and let the dogs roam free in a fenced in area and have couches, beds and blankets for them to sleep on at night. That Saturday night, we hit the Ultimate year end party for some more good times. The venue wasn’t the best, but catching up with everyone is always fun. Sunday morning was beautiful, so Cathy and I decided to go kayaking around English Bay and False Creek (close to Granville Island). We ended the weekend with a nice dinner prepared by Lindy for Cathy, myself and Lindy’s sister and brother-in-law.

The following week started with date night for Cathy and I. Cathy had tried the Sandbar restaurant on Granville Island a few times and wanted to take me there. So we headed there on the Monday night ! The food was fantastic and the view of English Bay and False Creek is beautiful. ..as was the company!! On the weekend, we had our final competitive tournament of the year. I know in the last blog update I mentioned that I would be taking some time off, but that was short lived! I played in the UPA Sectionals on the Saturday while Cathy and the girls shopped in the Burlington area. On Sunday, I wished I hadn’t come back to play! I tore my right hamstring while playing, and I must admit, it was the most painful injury I’ve had. Maybe even more so than when I broke my collar bone.



The following week, we were due to start our fitness course. This is the same course we’ve done in the past where you have different stations and work on core, abs, weights, balance, etc. Cathy went ahead, but I had to head to physio and see how long it would take for me to heal up! Before the weekend started, Cathy ran the Terry Fox run at school. On the weekend, we headed to Vernon for a Co-Ed tournament. I wasn’t able to play so I just heckled from the sideline. I obviously got to the team, because we really didn’t play as well as we should have. All in all though, we still had a great time.





The last weekend of September was just as busy as the others. On the Friday, we hosted a BBQ for many of our non-ultimate friends that we ignored throughout the summer. With all the tournaments, camping, weddings and trips back to Ottawa, we didn’t get to see a few of our friends, so we thought we’d get everyone together and catch up over some drinks and burgers! On the Saturday, my brother was in town for a friend’s wedding. He stayed with us the following night. It was great to see him as I don’t often get to spend time with him.

The first week of October brought us some more visitors. Sonia’s sister was in town visiting, so we hit a pub and then a club on the first Saturday she was in town. Sonia then invited Cathy and I over to her house to celebrate Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful turkey dinner and met some of RCMPat’s co-workers. That same day, Cathy’s University roommate and good friend Andrea along with her boyfriend Ben, finally arrived in Vancouver. They have moved here permanently. Woo Hoo!! We met up with them and Lindy during the week to catch up and see how their cross-country drive went.

The following week we had another great weekend lined up. That Friday night we headed to the Anza Club to celebrate our friend Nicole’s birthday. This little club was pretty cool and relaxed. Ben and I played darts for the most part and got our butts kicked! But we didn’t go down easily, making sure we heckled everyone that dared to play against us!

For the remainder of the weekend, Cathy played in the University National Championship with SFU. The tournament started on the Friday and SFU came in ranked 7th out of 9 teams and finished the tournament ranked 5th! Not too bad for a team that was assembled less than 2 weeks before the tournament! Nice work ladies!
As for me, I headed to Strathcona Lodge with the rest of the Blackfish boys for our season ending party. Lots of drinks, games and good times!

On Wednesday, October 24 Cathy and I celebrated Lindy’s birthday at the Baru restaurant. This was a great little Latin restaurant with yummy food. It was fun to celebrate with her and some of her Vancouver friends and family.

For the last weekend in October, we headed over to the Island to play in our last Ultimate tournament for the year. The tournament name is Pumpkin Pull and we went dressed as cereal box characters. Cathy was the Cheerios Bee and I was Count Chocula. Thanks to physio, I was able to play that weekend. We did much better that tournament than the last one. We made it to the finals, but weren’t able to close it out. We had such a great time that weekend. We were out having a good time both Friday and Saturday night. A great way to close out the Ultimate season!





The last week of October also brought a new project for Cathy and I. We started to look for a place to buy in Vancouver. On the first day we went to see some places, we actually found a place that was perfect and put in a bid for it. Unfortunately, the owners decided to go with the other bid as they had all their financing in place and put in a more solid offer than we could at that time. Now that we’ve got out pre-approval paperwork in place, we keep looking for the next perfect place.

Although, I must say, the house-hunting activities have taken a backseat to what we currently have on our plate…more on that in the next update!

Pat & Cathy.

July-August Update...

Ok…July and August…here we go.

As mentioned at the end of our last post, July started with a camping trip with friends…and from there the month just got busier.

The following weekend, I went away with a group of girls for my friend Lindsay’s stagette party. We rented a huge (somewhat creepy) lodge on a lake a couple of hours outside of Vancouver. We went on a small hike on Saturday morning, spent the afternoon in the water and on the small beach. A couple of girls organized a scavenger hunt for us – which was pretty competitive. Saturday night we made a huge dinner and spent the night in the cabin playing different games (trying to embarrass Lindsay). On Sunday, we spent more time in the water before packing up to head back to Vancouver. It was a great weekend.

The following weekend was BC provincials for ultimate. This is the qualifying tournament for Nationals, so both Pat and I were playing with our men’s and women’s competitive teams. For myself, there were 2 spots available for BC women’s teams and only 2 teams were interested in going, so we automatically qualified and only had to play one game on the Saturday morning. I was able to spend the rest of the day watching Pat’s team play. Pat’s team had to play 3 games on Saturday – and as expected, they finished in 2nd place to Furious George, the top men’s team in BC. Thankfully it was a beautiful weekend in Vancouver (one of the few this summer), so it was a nice way to spend our time!

The next weekend in July it was Pat’s turn to go away. This time it was for the Bachelor party for Moses. The boys headed out for a weekend in Whistler. They played disc golf, had a big BBQ at the cabin and went out for a night of drinking. I am sure there are more details from the weekend, but you can ask Pat to fill you in on those!!

The last weekend in July was Lindsay and Moses’ wedding! The wedding was held in Naramata, a small ‘winery’ town about 4 hours outside of Vancouver. On Friday night we drove to Penticton, to the Lakeside Resort and Casino (a very happening place) where we were staying for the weekend. After a long drive, Pat, Adam, Nancy and I decided to just relax in the hotel room for the evening. Apparently we missed out…there was a hockey party going on in the hotel bar with Pat Quinn, Brian Burke, Dave Nonis and other NHL hockey people…but more importantly, there was the Stanley Cup…and we totally missed it! We were not too happy when we heard about that the next day. On Saturday we had a free day to explore Penticton, as the wedding didn’t start until the evening. We decided to do a very popular Penticton activity. We rented rubber tubes and rafted down the river! It was a beautiful day and a very relaxing ride. After the rafting, we headed back to our hotel and hit the beach to spend the last few hours in the afternoon playing in the sun and water. Finally, we got ourselves ready and headed out to the wedding. The ceremony and reception were held on the front lawn of Lindsay’s family ‘summer home’. It was a great location, right on the water. It was so nice. The bride and groom looked fabulous of course and the weather for the whole night was perfect! I am sure many of you have heard already…but there was one other element to this wedding that made Pat’s day! At around 11pm while we were all dancing to the live music on the front lawn, in pulled…a chip wagon! Of course, Pat is the first one over to the chip stand to confirm that the owner had REAL cheese curds to make poutine. He did. Pat was in HEAVEN! The whole night was wonderful!








The next morning, Lindsay and Moses invited the whole group of friends back to the house for some more fun. We spent a couple of hours relaxing in the water, floating on their raft and just enjoying the beautiful Naramata weather. Unfortunately, the weekend had to come to an end and we were forced to get back in the car and drive home…but overall, it was an awesome weekend!

Moving into August...we start with the long weekend. This was a relatively relaxed weekend for me, a little crazier for Pat. On the Saturday night I had a ‘good bye’ dinner for one of my fellow grad school colleagues. My friend Laura was moving on to her clinical internship at UMass – very exciting for her, very sad for our lab as Laura was a great mentor to many of us newer grad students. Good luck Laura – we will miss you!!



On the other hand, Pat had quite the weekend. The ‘Boys’ were in town for RCMPat’s bachelor party. They headed to Whistler for the weekend and….

Next up was club nationals for ultimate. The tournament was held in Toronto from Aug. 9-12. It was really nice because the fields were very close to Heather’s apartment, so Pat and I were able to stay with her and have a little visit. It was super hot that week (compared to Vancouver at least) and it was 3 long days of playing – and the fields were in horrible condition, but both teams pushed hard through the tournament. The tournament went very well for both of our teams. My team (Crush) finished 7th overall (out of 16 teams) and Pat’s team (Blackfish) finished 6th of 20 teams (they missed a chance for top 4 by 1 point!!).












On the Sunday after the tournament, we drove back to Ottawa for a visit. Unfortunately for Pat, he had to work while in Ottawa – so he was stuck working during the day, but was able to spend time with friends and family in the evenings. As for myself, I decided to take a little time off from school work. I was able to spend Monday – Wednesday at my parent's cottage. It was so nice to be at the lake and gave me a chance to spend time with my family. My little cousins Katie and Evan were up there as well – so I spent part of my time being a jungle gym, but I didn’t mind!

The big event of our time back in Ottawa was the wedding of RCMPat and Sonia on the Saturday afternoon. Despite some last-minute chaos for Pat and Sonia, the wedding went off without any problems! It was a great day! And the FOOD! Oh my goodness…there was so much of it! It was all so good. Thankfully, there was a long night of dancing as well – so it all balanced out. Congrats to Pat and Sonia…and a big welcome to Sonia who moved out to join us (and her new husband) on the west coast!



Finally we were back in Vancouver for the last weekend in August. We had one last free weekend, so we decided to take advantage of it and go camping with friends. We went to a great little camp site at Lillooet Lake. Surprisingly when we arrived, another couple of friends were there that we didn’t expect – so in total there was a large group of about 12 of us! Unfortunately, the bugs were pretty nasty (poor Riley was bitten non-stop!) and the weather wasn’t great, but we managed to make the best of our time there. Card games, cup games on the beach, a great campfire (when the rain stopped), it was a lot of fun. After we went to bed on Saturday night, the rain started to come down HARD. We woke up to a few puddles of water in our tent and Riley was pretty wet and tired (and looked miserable), so we got up early Sunday morning and drove back to Vancouver.





Getting home early on the Sunday gave us the chance to quickly change and head out to another event – a BBQ in honor of friends who were getting married. We drove out to Buntzen Lake to join in the festivities and celebrate the upcoming wedding. The weather had cleared up by this time, so we were able to have a nice afternoon outside. After a couple of hours at the lake, we finally headed back to our apartment and started to dry out all of our camping equipment!

That pretty much takes us to the end of August! Up next, September and October!

May-June Update

Well, as we start every post here lately…it has been a busy couple of months. Seriously. And since Pat is being lazy, it is up to me to pick up the slack (as always!).

May:
May didn’t start off too busy. We continued to watch our Sens dominate through the playoffs and ultimate try-outs were in full-swing. In early May, I ran in the Vancouver Marathon! I guess I should clarify that I only ran the last 10km of the marathon. My friend Laura was running in it (she trained so hard it was incredible) and asked me if I would run the last 10km with her. Of course I said yes. I was super happy to help her push through those last 10km and she ran an amazing race! She destroyed her personal best and beat her time goal. It was amazing. As for me, I was just glad that I was only running 10km and not the whole thing!


The same weekend as the marathon, Pat went to Kelowna for an ultimate tournament. As always, it was tons of fun for him, but he denies that there are any crazy stories from the weekend (not sure if I believe him!).

In mid-May we hosted a large fondue dinner in honour of our friends, Lindsay and Moses, who had gotten engaged during the winter (they were married this summer – but more to come on that later). The engagement party was a little late (about 4 months) but still fun and we had a great meal!


Finally, May was a big month for our friends Jay and Stacey – it was their wedding! Pat left for Ottawa before me so that he could join all the boys for the bachelor party weekend. I don’t know too many details from that weekend – which might be best – so you will have to ask Pat for the details if you are curious. I am sure that it was full of craziness, drinking and lots of fun!


The following week was the wedding. It was held just outside of Ottawa at a Maple Farm. It was an outdoor wedding, and fortunately the weather was perfect. The whole wedding party looked wonderful – the flower girls were SO cute in their little yellow dresses – and the bride looked beautiful, of course. We had lots of fun partying at the reception and I think it is safe to say that everyone had a great time that day! Congrats to Jay and Stacey!



May ended with one last event for Pat and I back in Vancouver…the Police concert! What a great concert!

On to June...I started June by running in my first trail race. My friend Kaitlyn had signed up for this race and asked if anyone else was interested. Since I seem to enjoy punishing my body with races I am completely not ready for, I decided to give it a try. It is only a 7-km trail, but there were 4 major trail climbs, and many other mini ups-and-downs. I had never tried a trail run, but I had a lot of fun. You really have to concentrate while running because it is pretty easy to lose your footing along the trail (as evidenced by some nasty cuts a few competitors were sporting at the end of the race). As for my time, I did alright – I definitely didn’t win the race, but for my first race, I think I did pretty well. I hope to try another one sometime, but maybe with a little training first!

A couple of days after the race, my parents came to town for a visit. Unfortunately, Pat had to leave for work for a couple of days at the same time (he seems to have really convenient “work trips” whenever my family comes to town!). The day after arriving, my parents borrowed my car and headed off to Victoria for one night (a present from Heather and I). They had a chance to explore Victoria a bit and even had afternoon tea at the Empress hotel! Once back in Vancouver, it was time for the main purpose of their visit – my convocation. Naturally, the weather was horrible in Vancouver the day of the ceremony – which means it was even worse weather up at school. It was SO COLD! And the grad students receive their degrees first, so we then had to sit through the rest of the ceremony freezing cold! Once the ceremony was over, we headed back to Vancouver for a great meal at our favourite restaurant! It was a nice day (despite the poor weather).



A few days after my parents left, it was my turn to travel again. Back to Ottawa – and Collingwood, Toronto, and Montreal. This was a crazy, hectic trip for me – but fun! I flew into Ottawa, borrowed a car and left for Collingwood to attend Ken (a good high school friend) and Julie’s wedding. It had been a few years since I had seen either Ken or Julie, so I was very happy that I was able to make the wedding. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding – and of course the bride and groom looked wonderful! It was a great day! Congrats to Ken and Julie!!



The next day I drove to Toronto to spend a few days with my sister. I had never seen her apartment, so it was nice to finally visit her and see where she is living. We had a really fun couple of days together. On the first full day, we went shopping downtown and then went to Dave (my cousin) and Kate’s new house for dinner. They gave us a tour of their new house and made us a great meal. We spent hours there just chatting and catching up.


That night, Krista (a close friend of both Heather and I) drove to T.O. and joined us at Heather’s place. The following day the 3 of us went to Wonderland together. The weather wasn’t fabulous, which worked out well because there were no lines for the rides! At around 3:30 a huge thunderstorm hit and the rides closed down, so we called it quits at that time – but we had managed to get most rides in by that point, so it wasn’t too bad.


Later that night we went out for dinner and met up with a couple more friends (Jon, from my high school and James, worked at CU together). It wasn’t too late a night for me, as I had to drive home the next morning – but Krista had a great time that night!

Finally I made it back to Ottawa, only to turn around the next day and go to the cottage with my dad. It is so nice to make use of my parents’ new cottage! I only had to do one morning of work, and I relaxed the rest of the time!

The last part of my trip was a conference in Montreal. Obviously I spent most of the time doing conference-related activities, but on my last night there Guy, a friend of mine from high school, met up with me and some of the girls from my program. He showed us around to a couple really fun clubs and then took us to this great diner with like 20-types of poutine! A perfect meal at 3am! The next day I visited old Montreal with Michelle and Laura – really nice weather for us to just wander around the streets. It was really nice. And finally that night I headed back to Vancouver!


As soon as I landed in Vancouver, Pat picked me up and immediately brought me to our friends Adam and Nancy’s place – where they proceeded to convince me that we should go camping the next day. Now, I love camping, but I was so tired from my trip, I really didn’t feel up to planning anything. Thankfully, Pat, Nancy and Adam took care of everything – so Saturday morning, we got up (a bit late) and set out for a weekend of camping. It was a great weekend. It was a bit of an adventure to get there – a fairly long, windy, dirt road up a mountain (we drove through snow!), but we finally made it and settled in. It was a beautiful site, and it was definitely NOT ‘roughing it’ camping. Next to the campsites was this huge beautiful chalet with all the amenities needed, plus an outdoor hot tub! Although it wasn’t ‘roughing-it’ camping, we were very close to nature (many bears around) and there were some good hikes and trails. It was the long weekend, so we stayed until Monday and had another adventure of a drive to get home. After making good time through the crazy mountain road, we ended up with a flat tire on a road pretty much in the middle of nowhere! Luckily, Pat had a spare tire in the truck and he was able to change the tire and get us home! All in all, a great way to end June and spend the Canada day long weekend!



Adam and Nancy


Leslie and Cam


Riley



So there you have our busy May and June! We will post our July and August adventures very soon (I promise!).

April Update

Well...if I mentioned in our last post that not much had happened in March, the opposite can be said for April! And so it begins, we're gearing up for a very busy couple of months!!

Let's see...where to begin..let's start with the first set of visitors we received in April, Nonie and Cluny. They were in town for a couple of days to visit friends and family and then were heading to the Island to spend time with her Dad. We went out for dinner at Shabusen (our new favourite sushi restaurant!) and they spent the night at our place. It was great to catch up as we hadn't seen each other since their wedding about 3 years ago now!! Crazy how time flies and how hard it is to see each other when we live across the country from one another!! Looks like they make the trek to Ottawa for Jay's wedding, so we may get to see them again pretty soon! Woo Hoo!!

Once we got rid of Nonie and Cluny :), Cathy and I headed to Vegas Baby!! We drove to Bellingham airport to catch a 6am flight and we were on our way! We stayed at the Luxor Hotel on the strip. The outside looks like a big pyramid and the inside looks pretty cool as well.


For our first afternoon, we walked the strip, grabbed a drink and went in to all the little stores along the way. We particularly liked the M&M's store. It boasts 4 floors of M&M's stuff including candy, souvenirs, a replica of a stock car, a walkthrough museum and a 3-D movie theater.




We had dinner reservations that night to the Top of the World restaurant which is located at the top of Stratosphere's tower. We get a great view of the strip from above especially when the lights come on!!


Once dinner was done, we decided to walk back and catch the outdoor shows at Treasure Island, The Mirage and the Bellagio. The pirate show at the Treasure Island was by far Cathy's favorite!!


We couldn't catch the volcano explosion at The Mirage, seemed our timing was off every time we stopped but we did catch the water show at the Bellagio. Very cool!!



After sleeping in on Saturday morning (first time we didn't have Riley waking us up at 6am to get fed!!) we were supposed to go bike the Red Canyon but couldn't get half day reservations. We decided to tour the different hotels and shops at Ceasar's Palace. In the afternoon, we caught the Leafs-Habs game at the ESPN Sports Zone Bar in the New York-New York Hotel. What a game!! Not the outcome we wanted but in the end the Leafs didn't get in, so that's all that really matters! After the game, Cathy and I rode the roller coaster in the hotel. It's been a while for both of us since the last time we rode one. What a rush!! Good times!!

After a quick 2-hour nap, we headed to Harrah's to catch their Dueling Pianos show. We stayed for a couple of hours and sang along to the familiar songs they played. The show wasn't as good as the first time I heard it. They were really pushing people to pay to hear certain songs which is something we didn't really like. But the performers were really good and we had a great time.

Sunday was a big day for us!! We started the day at the outlet stores and came back with bags full of great stuff at amazing prices. We got as much as 70% off in some stores. Definitely worth our while! Sunday night we headed to see a Cirque du Soleil show at Treasure Island to catch Mystere. Wow. What a fantastic show. The athleticism of these performers is incredible. We both definitely recommend seeing this show if you have the chance!! After the show, we ate at the Paris hotel buffet. Best buffet on the strip by far!! We then headed to old Vegas to meet up with an old friend of mine who was in Vegas working at the Las Vegas Grand Prix race. Had a couple of pints and then headed back to the hotel. Since this was our last night in Vegas, we felt we needed to gamble just to complete the weekend before we headed to our room. We were both in bed an hour later!! We played some blackjack but didn't fare too well, despite the cheat sheet we used to help us out!!

We spent Monday just walking around before heading back to the airport to catch our flight home. All in all, a great weekend!



Upon our return, Denis and Rochelle were in town as of Tuesday. They spent the first couple of days at our place before heading out to Abbotsford and doing some sightseeing. We then joined up with them in Nanaimo for the UdderBowl tournament. Our theme was taken from the Milk Rappers video that's aired on TV commercials. We went 4-2 over the weekend with our losses being against the 2 finalists. Not too shabby!!





Thinking we might be able to take a break for a weekend after 3 consecutive trips, we instead headed up to Whistler as we were invited to our friend's cabin for the weekend. We brought Riley along as well this time as he hadn't been with us for our last two trips. There was a big group of us that weekend, about 15 and it was retro weekend...which we didn't know about. The purpose of retro weekend is to wear old school ski outfits. Thankfully (depending on who you ask), our hostess had outfits for both Cathy and I. Cathy looked very hot in her 1-piece black outfit that also included a bull horn design and tassles and I rocked out in a silver outfit with neon green and purple patches.



Cathy got some good news just before we left for Whistler. She was awarded a CGS Doctoral Scholarship from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) which is awarded over a 3-year term. Woo Hoo!! Congrats Q!!

Cathy and I are enjoying the playoffs. We try and get home in time to catch the start of the games (4pm PT) which is sometimes hard but manageable. For Game 1 of the series against the Devils, we met up with Cathy's cousin, Elizabeth, who's in town visiting her brother. We watched the game at a pub and had a chance to catch up with her as well.

Coming up in May are tryouts for both Cathy and I as well as the start of Ultimate league. We're also headed to Ottawa in mid-May for Jay's wedding, so hopefully we get to see a few of you! I'll keep you posted in our next Blog entry!!

Pat & Cathy.

March Update

Well, not much has happened since our last post. Nothing really exciting to report since it's been raining like crazy in Vancouver. We had to cancel a few trips to Whistler since the conditions were horrible there.

I had a quick trip to California for a sales meeting. And by quick, I mean flying in Thursday night and then flying out Friday after lunch. Not much time to see the surroundings!

Cathy still enjoys driving Trixie. The freedom it gives ger to get to school and the hospitals was definitely worth it! And it's just a fun car to drive!

Ultimate season is gearing up pretty fast for us. Tryout dates have been set and we have started a conditioning program that lasts 8 sessions. This program is similar to the one we both did last summer. There are about 18 of us in the group, 4 of which play on Cathy's team and the rest being from BlackFish.

The first weekend in March I volunteered at the French Festival again. I was in the Children's tent this year, just like last year. I looked after the performers, made sure all the equipment was good to go and this year I also acted as MC before the acts came on stage. Not to toot my own horn, but my jokes were hilarious! I didn't hear anyone laugh out loud, but I think that's just because I couldn't hear them over my own giggling! I ate lots of poutine and tire-sur-la-neige. Best part of the festival by far!! Although, the concert Cathy and I attended on the Saturday night was a very very close 2nd. Yves Lambert was the featured performer. He is from the group, La Bottine Souriante, which is one of my favorite Quebec folklore group.

This past weekend, Cathy, Riley and I spent the weekend in Victoria. Cathy had a conference there from Wednesday to Friday at the Empress hotel. They extended the conference rate for the weekend for those that wanted to stay so we took full advantage of that! Riley and I joined up on the Friday night after work. On Saturday, we took a long walk along the shoreline for about 4-5 hours. We saw Emily Carr's house, a statue for Terry Fox, a beautiful dog park along the water and the Fisherman's wharf that had a little community of house boats. The weather was amazing and it definitely helped in tiring Riley out which meant we could go have afternoon high tea with Sarah (a classmate of Cathy's) and Adam in the Empress tea room, a tradition observed at the hotel since 1908. Cathy and I also took advantage of Riley passing out for a nice dinner out at Nautical Nellies and had great steaks with a seafood sauce...and a couple of Ceasars as well!

On Sunday, the weather was a lot chillier but we still walked the downtown village with all the shops. There is so much history in Victoria. The architecture of the houses, buildings and shops is wonderful. Once we couldn't feel our fingers and toes anymore, we headed back home on an earlier ferry and dutifully passed out while listening to the Leafs get trounced!!

Here are a few pistures from the weekend:

Here is Riley in front of the Government House


The Emily Carr house



Along the coast...


Sarah, Pat, Cathy and Adam enjoy high tea at...


...the Fairmont Empress.

We have quite a few activities planned for the next couple of weeks. This coming Wednesday, Nonie and Cluny will be staying at our place and we're going to Shabusen for all-you-can-eat sushi. Next weekend is Vegas Baby!! And then Denis and Rochelle will be in Vancouver, in time to play in this season's first Ultimate tournament. Stay tuned!!

Pat and Cathy.

Yes, we're still here!

Well, it’s been quite a while since our last update. Seems I’ve been starting the last couple of posts that way. I will make a better effort to update our Blog a little more often. Now onto the good stuff. We have lots to cover since the last post. The best place to start is obviously to talk about Christmas.

Cathy and I went to Ottawa to spend about 10 days for the holidays. This gave us the chance to see family and friends pretty much every night. We split Christmas Eve between both our families as we truly believe in each other’s family traditions. It makes for a hectic day and night but definitely worth every minute. The next time Cathy and I are scheduled to be in Ottawa is in May. We are headed to Ottawa for Jason and Stacey’s wedding. My flights are booked, I’ll be there from the 17th - 27th. Cathy is still trying to figure out her schedule, but we’ll post her info as soon as she gets her flights booked.

Boy, this could be a long post! So let’s break it down into categories!

Parties:
Surprise Grad Party: Cathy’s friends from school wanted to have a surprise party in honor of her graduating from the Master’s program. She successfully defended her Masters thesis the day before we left for Ottawa, so that didn’t give her girls very much time to celebrate. Sarah hosted a great little evening in her home for about a dozen of us to celebrate Cathy’s wonderful accomplishment. Coming as a total surprise to her, Cathy did give me the death stare when she walked in and noticed this was not just a dinner between two couples!! Thanks for getting this set up Sarah!

Pat’s Birthday: Well, as most of you know, this year I turned the big 3-0. And Cathy was NOT going to let me forget! Neither was about another 30 or so people!! A night out with friends was planned for the day of my birthday. So, on the 18th, Cathy said we would go out for dinner just the two of us. Seems she’s been taking notes from me on surprises. We get to the restaurant and sitting at our table, trying to hide behind menus, are Tracey, RCMPat and Denis. What a great gift for my birthday! Denis flew in earlier in the week to be part of the celebrations.

The real party, however, was on the Friday night. Cathy booked a section of the Atlantic Trap and Gill downtown. The night was spent trying to get me to forget how I celebrated my 30th!! Mission accomplished! I did manage to have a great time, and I guess I deserved the punishment I got. But I’m not sure I’ve learned my lesson yet! We’ll see…

Cathy’s Birthday: Cathy’s special night was a little lower key! We had a great dinner at our new favorite restaurant, Osaka, and then headed to True Confections for nice birthday dessert. I did offer her to play Phase 10 and take it easy on her, but I guess she didn’t want to ruin her beautiful night with yet another embarrassing loss as she didn’t take me up on it!

This past Friday, Cathy had a girl’s night out to celebrate as well. The night started at Section 3 for dinner and then proceeded at Bar None, where despite the bad music, the girls still danced up a storm!

Trips:
Denis: As mentioned earlier, Denis was out in Vancouver for my birthday, but was also out here about 2 weeks later for training he was delivering. We took the opportunity to go snowboarding at Cypress, a local hill downtown. We are both improved snowboarders since the last time we went together, but Denis still needs to work on his jumps. He kept telling me how good he was on the ramps, but the nasty fall he took, told me otherwise! Oh sure, he’ll try and say that this story is the other way around. Not that he’s good, but that I am the one that’s terrible on the ramps. Denis, if you try, no more sushi for you!!!

Las Vegas: In between visits from Denis to Vancouver, I headed down to Las Vegas for an Ultimate tournament with the boys! We had a great time! And all I can write about this trip is…what happens in Vegas..stays in Vegas!! We stunk it up on the field going 2-5 for the weekend, but we won the party every single night!

Speaking of Las Vegas, Cathy and I are headed there for the April long weekend. This trip is her graduation gift. We’ve got lots of activities planned such as biking the Red Rock Canyon, seeing a Cirque du Soleil show (still TBD which one), hitting the outlet mall, dining atop the Stratosphere and catching the dueling pianos show at Harrah’s. We’ll be staying at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. Can’t wait!!

Big News:
Engagement: Friends of ours, Aaron (Moses) and Lindsay got engaged in Whistler. They set July 28th as their wedding date. They are getting married in the Penticton area of BC. We’ve been invited and can’t wait for this day!

Adoption: Cathy and I have adopted a little girl from Uganda, South Africa through World Vision Canada. Her name is Espérance and our monthly donation gives her a chance for education, skills training, nutritious food, agricultural assistance, health care and safe water. This is something we’d both discussed wanting to do for some time now and we are very glad we followed through with it.

And the biggest news of all: Trixie!! That is the name of Cathy’s new Toyota Matrix. She recently purchased a 2007 Toyota Matrix XR. No more 2-hour bus rides to get out to Burnaby for work!! Trixie is navy blue with a grey interior and she is of course, automatic!! It’s been raining almost every day since we took possession, so I don’t have a nice sunny picture to post just yet. But the minute the sun comes out, we’ll make to get a picture for everyone to see.

Miscellaneous: For Christmas, Cathy and I bought a book for Denis titled, Marley & Me. It’s a book about a couple that details their life and relationship with their Golden lab. We told Denis he needed to finish the book before he left Vancouver. Unable to read the final chapters, he still left us the book for us to read. We read it and laughed, cried and recognized many of Riley’s experiences. For all dog owners and non-dog owners, we definitely recommend this book. And once you finish it, I can guarantee the first thing you’ll do is run over and hug and kiss your pup!

Well, that is our latest update. I will make an effort to update our blog a little more regularly and keep you all in the loop of what’s going on for us here on the West Coast.

Hope all is well and leave a comment to tell us how things are going!!

Pat, Cathy, Riley, Espérance and Trixie!!

Happy Birthday Jetson!!

Just a quick post for my twin brother from a different mother, Jason. He turns 30 today. Not only is this a big year for his birthday, but also a big year in general as he is getting married in May.

Looks like your 30th will be a memorable one! Have a great time today, make sure you celebrate this right! Sorry I'm not there to steal your thunder as I have in years past! We'll have a pint up at the cottage in a couple of months and steal Matt and Denis' thunder!!

Happy Birthday Dude!!

Congratulations Cathy!/Félicitations Cathy!

Well, it's official! Cathy has successfully defended her Masters Thesis this morning to complete her Masters program at SFU.

Please join me in congratulating Cathy on a job well done. She poured her heart and soul into this thesis, worked extremely hard, spent many sleepless nights and sacrificed a lot to achieve her end goal.

Congrats "Master" Cathy, we're all very proud of you!

November Update/Notre mois de novembre

Well, she's almost there!! Just a little while longer before Cathy defends her thesis to complete her Masters degree. She is set to defend in the near future and has been working hard for the last couple of weeks. OK, she's been working hard ever since she got out here, but she's working even harder the last couple of weeks to get her draft submitted by the deadline. Now comes the fun of prepping herself for the defence. She'll be running mock defences with her peers who've had the pleasure of going through the process. If you have the chance, send her some positive vibes! She doesn't really need them, but they're always nice to have! Good Luck Q!!

Woo Hoo, the holidays are fast approaching, and Cathy and I are on our way to O-town!! We are scheduled to get to Ottawa on the 19th and we'll be staying until the 29th. We look forward to seeing all of you while we're there!

Now, back to November!! My brother was between contracts and decided to come for a visit and spend some time with us here in beautiful Vancouver. It was great to spend time with him since the last time I saw him was almost a year ago at Christmas time. While here, we saw a movie (Borat), went to Ty and Jane's goodbye party (more on them below), went for a few dinners, had some beers with friends and got to see our step brother Daniel, who was here from Montreal for work. We accomplished a lot in just one week! Ben is off on his next contract in the Carribeans. He left Dec. 2 and is on contract through March. He's now working in the excursion department, which is a department he's been looking to get into for a while. Have a great trip Benou!!

Ben left at the right time. A couple of days after his departure, we got a few rainstorms in a row and the reservoirs were overflooded in and around Vancouver, which kinda explained the nice yellow water flowing from our taps. We couldn't even see the bottom of the toilet! The turbidity level was so high that a boil-water advisory was issued which was only supposed to last a couple of days. Two weeks later we were finally able to drink the water from the tap again!! For those two weeks, we bought water at the store to brush our teeth, wash our vegetables and drink. Funny story Cathy heard on the local news channel was a woman proclaiming the following, "It feels like we're in a 3rd world country" as she loaded gallons of water into her SUV!! Gotta love people!

We had roommates for about 4 days, as Ty and Jane moved in with us while they waited to drive to Calgary. Ty and Jane are friends of ours we met through Ultimate. Jane recently got a promotion, but it meant she had to move to Calgary. They sold their condo here in Vancouver, and weren't scheduled to leave until a couple of days later. So, they moved in with Cathy, Riley and I. They were great roomies! They took us out for a great dinner, and even cooked dinner on another night for us. Ty isn't going to Calgary until March and is living with a friend of his here. He will be staying at our place during the time we are in Ottawa and take care of Riley. Thanks buddy!

With all the rain we got downtown, this meant that the mountains were getting a ridiculous amount of snow! I went to Cypress mountain for an afternoon of snowboarding (after playing Ultimate in the morning!) with a friend of mine, Scotty. As of 8am, Cypress had a fresh 45cm of powder on a 245cm base!! I love boarding in powder!

Towards the end of the month, the downpour we had in rain suddenly turned into snow. Downtown was covered in snow and bad drivers! And here Cathy and I thought we'd be getting away from this stuff!! Apparently every couple of years or so, they get a pretty good storm like that. The snow is all gone from downtown now and we are back to rain. It was that kind of month!

See you all soon in Ottawa for those of you that are there! For those that aren't, leave us a comment to tell us how you're doing!

October Update/Notre mois d'octobre

October started with Cathy reminiscing about her soccer career. Some of her former teammates from her Carleton and Ottawa soccer days were representing Ontario for Nationals. We caught a few games and went out for a few drinks with some of her girls. I think the soccer bug bit pretty hard, but it bit even harder when she went to Ottawa for a couple of days.

Cathy spent some time in Ottawa to see her family and finally go to her new cottage. As with everyone else who's seen it (Cathy was the last one to see it) she really loved it and wished she could have spent her summer there!!

Cathy's trip also included a celebration. It was Carleton University's Women's soccer alumni weekend celebration for their 20th anniversary. She was also honored by being named to their alumni all-star team. Congrats Q! Very proud of you!


Upon her return back home, I had organized a team to play in a dodgeball tournament. I wanted to try something different, so we gathered some friends and entered in a dodgeball tournament. We had such a good time!! Forgot how fun that game was! We came in 6th out of about 12 teams, so not too shabby for a first time. Now everyone is harassing me for the next tournament!


October also brought Thanksgiving. Mmmmm...turkey!! RCMPat and Sonia kindly invited us over to their new home for dinner. They bought a beautiful home in Abbottsford. But what makes it so nice are the portraits that hang in every room. Landry, you have impeccable taste!! Sonia made a great turkey with all the fixings. We supplied a delicious desert that Cathy made with my supervision. It was great night, and we can't wait for Sonia to be here permanently!

While Cathy was in Ottawa for a couple of days, I took advantage of a free Friday night to hit the ice for the first time in about a year and a half. It was great to get back out on skates again. I was a little rusty, but I tell you, my aim was still as deadly as it was back in the day. Aim for the top corner, score five hole!!

The end of the month brought my last Ultimate tournament for the year. I played in a tournament in Victoria called Pumpkin Pull. It was a fun tournament where we had to dress up. Our theme was Prom Virgins.

Here's what I looked like.

We had a great time. Not only playing Ultimate, but also because it was Cam and Kieran's 30th birthday. We (OK, mostly me) decided to pick on the twins and make it a memorable birthday weekend for them. The outcome? A few headaches and 2 more people coming after me for my 30th!! But it was so worth it!!

Happy birthday to Lindy who celebrated on the 24th! I owe you a Ceasar with extra celery from the community garden!

And that was our October!

September Update/Notre mois de septembre

After a busy August, it was nice to spend the September long weekend together. We spent an afternoon in Stanley Park biking, playing badminton (destroying rackets), reading, caught Little Miss Sunshine at the movie theatre (which we both definitely recommend to everyone), went for a long walk along the beach, Cathy did some work, just a really nice weekend together.

September also brought 3 Ultimate tournaments to the table, 2 of which Cathy and I had been training for since early May. Both our teams, BlackFish and BlueBombers, participated in the UPA Series, which is the North American championship series for Ultimate. In the first tournament, sectionals, both our teams made it through to the next series, but not exactly with stellar records.

For the sectionals tournament, both our teams played up to our potential finally. In BlackFish's case, we finally came together as a team and played some of our best ultimate all season. For Cathy, they played their final game on Sunday with no subs and crushed an Edmonton team which was great to watch. Now the off-season training for next summer starts in the new year! Which is coming way too fast. Check the BlackFish video link on the sidebar and see if you can spot me!

In between these 2 UPA tournaments, I played a fun tournament in Vernon with friends. We had a great time and made sure to make it a memorable weekend for Adam as it was his birthday. Chalk up another person who can't wait for my birthday to come around!!

Some good news to pass along that we learned in September...Jay and Stacey are engaged! Yes, of the boys, Jay will be the first to get married. None of us predicted that when we were in High School!! Congrats to you both! Some added good news, I was able to bribe my way onto the wedding party! Jay and Stacey have set May 26th as their special day.

Lindsay and Greg will be welcoming a new addition to their family. They are expecting a second child in March. And being the good friend that I am, I would allow them to use Gats for their baby's name. I know it's big of me, but that's just how I roll.

Happy Birthday to Heather who celebrated on the 28th. Enjoy your spa day!

That was pretty much the extent of our September!

August Update/Mais août est passé notre été?

It’s been over two months since we last updated our blog with our west coast adventures. Not much happened in August really... besides visits from Heather, Krista, Annie, Lindy, Denis and Jen, doing the Grouse Grind, walking Stanley Park, eating out, hosting a BBQ, traveling to California, starting a new fitness program, winning an Ultimate tournament, Cathy going to Ottawa, great news from Jay and Stacey, great news from Lins and Greg, more Ultimate tournaments, pretty much your typical summer months!

Let’s start our recap of August with the visitors we had. In our last update, we had mentioned that Cathy’s sister, Heather, and their longtime friend, Krista, had just arrived. It was great to see them both and host Heather at our place for her time in Vancouver. It was unfortunate that I had to travel for work during the week she was here, but it gave the sisters some time to catch up and some well deserved rest without me! The weekend before Heather left, we did the Grouse Grind on the Saturday and had dinner at the Keg. The Grind was quite the experience! I’ll let Heather tell her side of the story, but we had a great time, and definitely enjoyed the beverages atop the mountain! That Saturday night, we picked up Denis and Jen at the airport.


On the Sunday of the long weekend, we picked up Annie, who’s one of Cathy’s soccer friend from her days at Carleton, at the airport in the morning and then headed to watch an exhibition game that Cathy’s Ultimate team was playing against the Women’s Juniors team that represented Canada at the World Juniors Championships, which they won with no subs. (The canadian team lost in the finals against the US) That afternoon and evening, Cathy and I were hosting a BBQ at our place to introduce everyone that was visiting to the friends we had made since our move. We brought Heather to the airport (3) in the afternoon for her return trip and then partied the night away at our place. For those of you that received a “late night” call, I apologize on Cathy’s* behalf!!

For the holiday Monday, we (Annie, Denis, Jen, Cathy and I) headed to Stanley Park for the day. We started with a nice and “cheap” lunch downtown and then headed to Stanley Park. Denis and Jen, ever the fitness nerds they are decided to rollerblade the Park while Cathy, Annie and I walked it. It was a beautiful day (as they all have been this summer in Vancouver) and lots of people were out as well. We had to hurry back home as Cathy and I had an appointment for pain at 6:15.

Yes, we are also fitness nerds and suckers for punishment, as Cathy* had the bright idea that we should enroll in a 4-session fitness program. Well it kicked our butts that night and didn’t stop for the other 3!!

Wednesday, we had to bid adieu to Annie, as she was headed to a wedding which was the secondary reason she was in Vancouver! It was great to meet and get to know her, although I don’t care too much for the taunting while playing cards. As most of you know, it is not something I would resort to if I were beating my hosts at cards!! We still love you though Annie!.....and we threw away the scorecard!!....OK, we burned it!!

That upcoming weekend, Denis and Jen went up to Whistler to see Yamina. I took my friend Adam to the airport (4) as he was going to Halifax for the Canadian Ultimate Championships. (more on that later) Cathy took advantage of having no guests in order to get some of her work done.

Denis and Jen got back on the Saturday night and we headed to ImprovSports at Granville Island. It was a GREAT show! They were quite funny so we decided to stay for the later show as well, which was a little cruder, but just as funny! Definitely a show I can see Jay enjoying or even performing!

The following week, Denis and Jen were slated to head back to Ottawa on Wednesday morning. Always a gracious host, I offered to take them out on Tuesday night to help them relax before their flight home. We headed to the Atlantic Trap and Gill for “Acadian” night. That’s right, a night full of French tunes and a beer or two or more…and then up at 4am to send Denis and Jen along their way for their 6am flight to Ottawa. Good times!!

The week Denis and Jen headed back was the same week the Canadian Ultimate Championship was being held in Halifax. This is the first time in 4 years that I have not played. My team, Blackfish, did extremely well and placed 5th out of 12 teams.

The following week, Lindy stayed with us for a couple of days before heading to her sisters. And why was she here? Mooching, as always! Lindy, I kidd, because I love! Actually, Lindy has recently made the move here to Vancouver. She has settled in a nice place and is looking for a full time teaching position. In the mean time, she works as a substitute teacher. Welcome to Vancouver Lindy!

To end August, I spent yet another few days in California for additional training with my new company.

*Replace Cathy with Pat!

Camping

In our last post, we mentioned our camping trip. Well, it was even better than we were hoping for!! Kudos to Jon and Lori for their recommendation!

We left early Friday morning to grab the 7am ferry to Swartz Bay. We then grabbed the 9am connection to Fulford Harbour on Saltspring Island. Our ride back on the ferries was a lot more exciting! (more on that later)

On our way to Ruckle Park many of the neighboring farms have stands with fresh vegetables, flowers, cookies and lemonade. It works on the honor system where you just leave the cash for what you are taking. Pretty cool!

Once we got to the park, we chose our site close to the water. It had some nice shade at the time we got there, but it soon disappeared as the afternoon rolled along. Oh well, we tried!!



Notice the nice soft patch of grass we got to set up on!! Despite packing all ingredients to make the World's most delicious Smores, we couldn't have open fires. Boooo!! Shelled peanuts just don't taste the same when you can't chuck the shells in the fire either. We'll just have to go out again!


Once our stuff was set up, Cathy relaxed by reading by the water and Riley and I walked along the rocky shoreline to explore what was around. Despite the heat, the water was freezing! Didn't stop Riley from venturing in though! We also broke out the badminton set and I proceeded to teach Cathy a lesson on how to play. The games, not even close!!!

We got to try our new MEC camping toys for dinner though, woo hoo!! After realizing that Cathy forgot (I mean, all she had to do were a few all-nighters during the week leading up to our trip!!) to fill the propane tank for our little stove, we rushed to the nearest convenience store and were lucky enough to find some fuel. It's a neat little toy and the pre-packaged pasta we bought at MEC was quite good!

The next day we decided to go for a hike with Riley along the property. They have designated trails along the property that overlook the water and take you along the farmland. Before we left, a few more games of badminton, but same result!! The walk was nice. Cathy started to talk to me again after about an hour!! Here are a few pictures we took along the way...




On our way back from the hike, we stopped at Grandma's Beach for a quick peak. It's a really nice area, and Riley was all over the water too. Good way for him to cool down from the hike.



Once we got back to our site, Cathy tried to beat me at badminton yet again, but fell just a little short!! After waking up from my concussion for making fun of her, we had dinner and got the cards out for our last of camping. On the ferry ride back home, we saw pods of killer whales. It was the first we'd seen some in the wild, and it was really cool to watch. Just as we were saying that it was too bad they were far, 3-4 of them came up just in front of us close to the side of the boat. Very neat!

It was definitely a weekend we didn't want to end. A great time for us to relax and spend together without a frisbee!! We can't wait for our next trip!

Our influx of highly anticipated visitors has begun. Cathy's sister, Heather, got to Vancouver on Sunday night. She's staying with us for about a week. Once I heard that, I made sure to book some meetings in California!! I made my flight in the nick of time after waking up from my concussion for the last comment.

Yes, it's true, I have been in California from Tuesday night through Friday. I had to be there to meet the new bosses and the rest of the Sales team from North America. I got to meet my new bosses and make some new contacts with my new peers.

Krista, Cathy and Heather's friend, is also in Vancouver. She is staying with her sister while she's here. Denis, Jen and Annie will be here this weekend. Cathy and I are having a BBQ on Sunday so that everyone can meet our Vancouver friends and have a few drinks for the long weekend.

We'll keep you posted on how the weekend went!

Pat & Cathy

We know...it's been a while...

Well, it’s been quite a while since our last update. This will be a very long post as you all finally get to hear about Cathy’s trip and a few other things. So grab you coffees (or beers), get comfortable, read on and don’t forget to leave us a comment on how things are going for you!

Alright – so here is the update about my trip….finally. Sorry for the delay in posting this, but I have been trying to catch up on work since I got home. All the work I have to do now is only a small sacrifice – the trip was totally worth it. I had a great time and came back feeling refreshed and ready to work again. I will try to keep this short and just point out the highlights of the trip.

Amsterdam was great, but unfortunately I did not have the chance to see as much as I would have liked. As Pat mentioned, we missed a flight. Our flight from Vancouver to London was delayed, so we missed our connection in London. We ended up staying in London Gatwick Airport on Monday night (not recommended – not a lot to do in that airport!) and flew to Amsterdam on Tuesday morning. Tuesday was originally meant to be a day of sightseeing for me but by the time we got to our hotel in Amsterdam I had enough time to shower, grab a bite and get out to a meeting. The conference started the next day, so I was busy with that during the day. At night, we had a pretty good time checking out the nightlife in Amsterdam. On the Wednesday night I found a pub showing the Edmonton hockey game, so I met some other Canadians and we watched the game (Game 5 – where Edmonton won in OT). That was a lot of fun – but a late night since Amsterdam is about 9 hours ahead. On Thursday I had my presentations and they were really well received. A lot of people were interested in my research and I made a number of good contacts. On Thursday night my supervisor arranged a boat cruise for current and past SFU students and staff, and invited a number of international researchers that he works with. It was a great opportunity to meet prominent researchers from Scotland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. After a dinner, our tour guide took us for a walk through the Red Light District. After our tour, the girls from my program went back toward our hotel and found some pubs and bars to go to there. Another fun night of dancing! On Friday we decided to try to see some of Amsterdam!

We went to the Anne Frank House (excellent, but sad) and to the museum district (although we decided to not go through any of the museums). That day the Netherlands were playing in the World Cup, so Laura and I went to the ‘square’ – a large open square with pubs on all sides showing the game – and watched the game with everyone else in Amsterdam. It was awesome!


When the Netherlands scored it was a crazy party and everyone was singing and jumping around. I guess it is kind of similar to when Canada’s hockey team is playing! That night we had another dinner with our supervisors and a few other researchers from different countries. Another crazy night out – and soon the sun was coming up and it was time to get to the airport to fly to Greece. Overall, I wish I could have seen more of the Netherlands, but I definitely thought Amsterdam was a great city and would love the opportunity to go back there and explore some more…oh, and the conference was great too!

Next was Greece with two of my friends from school – Laura and Michelle. We managed to make all of our flights and arrived in Athens on Saturday evening. We immediately took a bus and travelled to Piraeus – the city that is right on the coast so that the next morning we could get our ferry to the islands. The first island we went to was Ios. We stayed at a place called the Far Out Village and it was great.