Soccer Update July 8th

Last week's game was rained out, but tonight was a go! Our last two players joined the team so we had a full roster. I suspect that helped gain the 6-1 victory for Galen's team...

Soccer update

Don't you just hate when the other team figures out positions and passing? The game this week as a slaughter, something like 5 or 6 (or maybe 7) to zero. The boys did take is very well, however. Plus, Galen's best friend Remi (on the other team) got his first soccer goal ever!

Daddy drinks for the government

The trouble with eight year olds is that they often make attempts at humour that entirely fall flat. They don't realize they fall flat, but they do. I was dropping Galen off at school this week and as we walked up the the school we were discussing why mom was drinking less coffee and why he was cut off coke for awhile. A bit too much caffeine for both of them lately. So, as I drop him off I mention that I'm going to grab a cup of coffee and then go work for awhile. Thinking he is funny, he yells out "No coffee for you! Too much caffeine!". Parents around me think this is kind of funny, but as he walks away, trying to be even funnier, he shouts, "And no more drinking beer before driving me to school!". Uncomfortable stares abound. Thanks dude, they already all think I'm a bit weird, but now they think I'm an alcoholic.

France photos

A few photos from my France trip are now posted! Enjoy....

wine and cheese and duck, oh my!

My trip to France seems so long ago, but I still have yet to post photos. I will post them, I promise. Trips with my grad students are a lot of fun, and this was no exception. Emily and I spent 4 great but cold and wet days in Bordeaux looking at architecture, learning about Bordeaux history and drinking wine. Much to Andrew's disgust, I ate more duck in many different forms (confit, fois gras and pate being the most prevalent forms) than I have in the combined last 5 years and can report that all was delicious. Highlights of my trip:

1. I found a new dessert wine to love: the Sauternes are wonderful dessert wines from the Sauterne region just south of Bordeaux and they are absolutely delicious. Considering I usually like my wine dry and red, that is saying something.

2. The architecture of Bordeaux is amazing and part of the reason it is a UNESCO world heritage site. My photos don't do it justice and the city still looks beautiful.

3. St. Emilion, a medieval villiage and another UNESCO world heritage site, was amazing with their old cobblestones, the incredible medieval church and catacombs, and surrounding vineyards. Not for the faint hearted, with mobility challenges or wearing anything other than sturdy footwear as the steep uneven streets are a big challenge.

4. Wine, wine and more wine. I picked a different wine at each meal except breakfasts and still didn't find a bad one. My list of potential wines is long and likely completely unavailable here.

5. The cheese room at one local restaurant known for their wines (over 250 types to choose from!) was one of the most incredible restaurant experiences I have had. The restaurant had one humid, cobblestone room filled with cheese and sent you in armed with a plate and knife. I think there were something like 70 or so cheeses to choose from packed into this tiny space and arranged according to variety. The question became which ones to pick? My strategy was to select many but very, very small tastes of cheese in order to maximize the options while ensuring I was still happy at the end of the cheese tasting.

6. The wine tasting at our conference dinner had 120 bottles open. I found the Sauternes there. I think I tried about 10-15 wines over the course of the evening, each one a swallow or two. It was a LOT of wine to choose from and the sommeliers were very helpful at suggesting what to try with each part of the meal. Quite frankly, it was surprising most people were not in worse shape at the end of the evening.

I have been to France several times before and this was one of my most pleasant trips and reminds me what I love about France: good food, good drink, lovely people, pretty cities and countryside, lots to do... I can't wait to go back and Andrew will HAVE to come next time.

EXTREME fishing

I have really, really missed field work and quite enjoyed going out fishing with my students last summer. This summer we have much more extensive field plans. My student, Luke, is out most days locally with an undergraduate summer student. Sampling locally is not always the most enjoyable experience though as we are sampling as sites with high pollution and lots of really gross things floating in the water. Poor Luke has to wade through things that have been flushed down the toilet as we are sampling next to effluent discharge points. Yuk!

So it was with great anticipation that we planned our field trip to the Bruce National Park in Tobermory. It is one of our clean sites, required camping and was supposed to last all week. We'd go out in the morning, collect fish from traps and sample until about 1-2 pm, redeploy the traps and head out for a hike, swim etc in the afternoon. I brought things to read, imagined some quite time with Luke to plan his first paper. Ha ha! We went up on Monday, car absolutely loaded with gear and came home on Wednesday with all of our samples. Apparently, our fish species is WAY more prevalent in Georgian Bay. We caught all of our fish in one day and had one of the most intense sampling days trying to process all of them. We fished at a location suggested by the Canada Parks warden and he was so right - there were LOTS of round gobies. Our traps were very, very, very full. We finished our work and went to dinner at 10 pm on Tuesday and packed up camp on Wednesday morning for the return.

But while we were there, Tobermory was great. Nice weather, nice scenery and nothing floating in the water.....

Soccer Update

Tonight the Green Zombies played an iron man game in the cold rain. Just enough players to play, but no substitutions. It was a great game and held to no score until the last moments, when one slipped by Galen's aggressive goaltending. Did I mention Galen is rather scary in the net? He does not believe in waiting for the game to come to him but instead charges out of the box at the attacking player to cut the angle. He has apparently watched too much World Cup as that is what the professionals do. However, he scares the hell out of the opposing team of seven and eight year olds, I swear some of them nearly pee their pants. Only the experienced all-star players keep cool and try to get around him (which one did). All the others nearly freeze and the ball becomes Galen's. He was only in net about 15 minutes but stopped more than 10 shots and attacks on the net.

Last week's game was a bit more chaotic, not much sense to it. The kids had a harder time with positions, but they certainly were enjoying themselves. They played to a 3-2 loss, but most had a good individual game.

Soccer update

Last week we actually had soccer without being rained on.  Galen's team played to a 4-4 tie and have started to learn their positions.  Raynham had a great practice and first scrimmage.  Here are a few photos...

Kitchen girls are NOT pretty

Ray and I often clash over clothes. She wants to wear dresses that are so short they are really a shirt and I say they need pants. She wants to wear a dress with no tights or shirt underneath and I say its too cold. She wants to wear the pink dress and I say its dirty and she has to wear another.

This morning I suggested she wear this very cute top with pink leggings. Ray said no. Why? "Mom, its not fashion" was the distainful reply. Then she laid out the top with a pair of jeans to show me how it would look with the proper bottoms. Except that the jeans needed to be black for fashion. But the brown ones would give me the idea of why leggings were wrong and jeans were right. Fashion lesson #1 for Mom.

I have decided not to argue over clothes unless absolutely necessary. So, I accepted the fashion correction and offered to take her downstairs to the clean clothes basket to pick out what she wanted to wear. She picked her OshKosh demin overall dress with pink butterflies and after rejecting 5 tops finally settled on the yellow and orange striped shortsleeve shirt ("Not longsleeves MOM!" Fashion lession #2 for Mom). The clothes went upstairs and later she changed. Tears ensued. Apparently, the stiped tshirt with the overall bib front of the dress made her look like a "kitchen girl and EVERYONE knows that kitchen girls are NOT PRETTY!" Huh? Kitchen girl? She means a dishwasher but why can't they be pretty? Its a mystery but Andrew, who does all of our dishes, now knows he can't be pretty BECAUSE he does the dishes.

I'm not really sure how this turned out because I had to leave for work but for all women out here I now have some advice, based on Fashion lesson #3 for Mom. Stay out of the kitchen! Otherwise you won't be pretty. Raynham says so.

First Hockey, now Soccer...

Galen's first soccer game of the season

Tonight was the season opener for the "Green Zombies" with yours truly as the head coach.  The boys played very well and gained a 5-3 victory, with Galen getting 1 goal and 1 assist.  He had a good night, albeit we were all soaked the bone by the rain.

Make my Galen a Triple Triple

Just a sample of how incredibly sweet Galen was last week.  

Monday night.  Joanna is in France and Drew wakes Galen up at 3 am as his sister has raging pain in her ears.  "Galen, we need to take your sister to the hospital, please wake up".  The boy doesn't blink an eye, says "ok", and pops out of bed and gets dressed.  Proceeds to spend the next two hours helping his sister be patient at the hospital.  Turns out it was an ear infection.  When we get home, both kids crawl back into bed.  Raynham sleeps to 10 am, but Galen is up at 7 am.  Instead of waking his tired father, he goes downstairs and feeds/movies himself until 8 am, at which point he wakes up his dad to help get ready for school.  Walks himself to school for the first time.

Tuesday night.  We had planned on going out to dinner with several of Galen's friends and their dads.  A place with good food and lots of games.  Galen goes without Raynham and I as she is still sick, with money in his hand for games.  Wins lots of tickets to exchange for prizes.  Spends half of his tickets to purchase lipstick and a pink plush for his sister.  No-one asked or suggested he do this.

Friday evening.  Major birthday present is a new BMX bike for use at his BMX club.  Specs are different than his street bike, so he'll own two bikes.  Been waiting for BMX for a month.  Very excited.  Can't find one we can afford in his frame size.  Meltdown?  Tears?  No.  Calm, patient, "we'll look around next week", "perhaps I can spend some of my birthday money to help purchase a slightly more expensive bike", "don't worry, I'm not in a rush, we want to find the right one that I like and you can afford."  Nobel prize for sweetness, man.

Something fishy on Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a bit of a bonanza for Joanna.  In recent weeks we have broken a cell phone, our digital camera, and our iPod.  Joanna got new models of all three.  However, the highlight of Mother's Day was our walk to the Royal Botanical Garden's Fishway.  The Fishway is a structure that separates the Cootes Paradise wildlife sanctuary from Hamilton Harbour and Lake Ontario.  Cootes Parasides was naturally separated from Lake Ontario until the construction of the Desjardins Canal.  With construction of the canal, carp were able to invade Cootes Paradise and set about disturbing the natural habitat such that native species could no longer successfully use it as a fish nursery.  The Cootes Paradise is one of the important nursery sites for native fish and the introduction of carp did great damage to Lake Ontario populations.  The Fishway is a man-made barrier that captures fish both entering and exiting Cootes Paradise.  On Sunday, we walked down to watch the emptying of the cages.  Of the fish attempting to enter Cootes Paradise, all were allowed except for carp and goldfish, which were tossed back into Hamilton Harbor.  Yes, goldfish from fishtanks.  When dumped into Hamilton Harbor they do quite well and since they are carp they are not wanted in Cootes Paradise.  Nearly all of the outgoing fish were white suckers, which just finished their spawn in Cootes Paradise.  That and one lovely rainbow trout on its way back to Lake Ontario.  View all of the pictures here.

first hot day of the year

Two new photo sets: Easter and BMX Riding

We had a lovely Easter at home this year. Joanna has been teaching non-stop and we had over two months of full weekends, so it was nice to garden and otherwise do nothing. The kids had a great Easter morning, as well as prior Easter egg making, and then we had the Pelletier crew over for dinner. During the week, we also had an outdoor Easter egg hunt with a bunch of the kids' friends. See all the Easter pictures here.

Galen has also joined Inflow, the local BMX and boarding club.  Contrary to expectations, he is favouring BMX riding over skateboarding.  See some photos here.