AMJ Campbell Van Lines

We hired AMJ Campbell Van Lines to move us 2.9 KM down the road from our house into a condo last week (July 30)

Guess what??

They did not complete the move. They left a bunch of stuff back at the house because the truck was too small. At 1 pm they said they would make a second trip. At 6 pm they said they were not going back.

This after sitting in the truck doing nothing for a goodly while.

Albert and I had to go and move the rest of the stuff ourselves. In the car. In the van. In friend’s van. And still had to leave some in the garage for the next day.

All this while the new owners were sitting in front of the house, keys in hand, waiting.

What a FIASCO!!!!

Interesting research shows we are not the only ones http://www.torontodelivers.com/2007/02/balikbayan_box_who_are_you_gon.html

AJ goes back for training

On July 25, Ajax (AJ) went back to the Dog Guides for his real training.

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3on3 Hockey

Not since 1981 has there been such a coach. Carolyne coached again after a 28 year absence behind the bench. This team listened better!!

Organic Produce Box

This summer I signed up for a box of organic produce delivered each week.

We are getting a half share. So far our box has contained asparagus, lettuce, salad greens, strawberries, mushrooms, baby bok choy, onions, and potatoes. Tomorrow we will be getting garlic scapes as well.

This farm, near Flamborough, is a first step towards living local.

So far we have been very pleased with the variety and quality of the produce.

www.planborganicfarms.ca

Carolyne in D.C.

 

The annual Special Libraries Association (SLA) conference is in Washington DC this year. I am here now.

Arrived yesterday, went to a meeting and a tour of the city by bus. We walked quite a bit. Here are brief first impressions of what I saw.

• Lincoln memorial was very crowded and loud. Bathroom were disgusting!!
• Washington Monument is bigger than I thought it would be
• White House is smaller than you think it is
• Iwo Jima statue is. Just is.
• WWII Memorial is big and filled with water.
• Einstein has a cute statue
• Monuments and statues of old dead presidents everywhere
• Smithsonian is huge
• Capitol building is beautiful
• Most of the buildings are so clean and restored that they look like new reproductions instead of historic buildings
• the Vietnam Memorial was surprisingly moving. I have no connection to that war at all, and the WWII and Iwo Jima meant nothing, but the Vietnam Memorial really makes you think and I actually got a little choked up. It means so much on so many levels. The thing that really got to me was the notes, photos, flags, and other items (including someone’s dog tags) left in front of the names.

 

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Guide Dogs Walk

We walked again this year in the Purina Walk for Dog Guides. Raised $1300 for the cause. We borrowed Laura’s dog Dudley. Dudley is half golden retriever and half afghan. In other words, big and hairy. There is still hair all over the back seat of my car.

Victoria Day Weekend

 

Busy Busy

Getting the house ready to sell so we rearranged the family room furniture, hung some pictures, “staged” the dining room and front entrance, pulled dandelions, swept the walk, hired a cleaning lady, and in between, went to a concert, entertained for dinner on Sunday and lunch on Monday.

The concert was nephew Zack’s Ottawa Junior Jazz Band at the Musicfest Nationals. They were held this year in Markham.

Emma’s High School Soccer

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I took the day off yesterday and went in the afternoon to see Emma play high school soccer. She played most of the game. WOSS won 5-1

 

Purina Walk for Dog Guides

 

My family, including our Dog Guide Foster Puppy AJ, will be participating in the Purina Walk for Dog Guides on May 31, 2009 to help raise funds for the training and placement of Dog Guides.

AJ is our second foster puppy.

All Dog Guides are provided to eligible candidates at no cost. Funding for Dog Guide training is 100 per cent obtained from donations and no government funding is received. Dog Guides Canada has already provided their specially trained Dog Guides to more than 1300 men, women and children from ages eight to 88. With your help, more people can experience the mobility, safety and independence a devoted Dog Guide partner brings.

You can help by giving an online gift by credit card by clicking 'Donate Now'.

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My Fundraising Goal

$1,000.00

Raised so far $825.00

More on the Digger

Our little digger

Emma and Albert Paint

An interesting concept. The teacher provides a sketched canvas. She goes over some brief history of the painting and then the students paint it using the original as inspiration.

I found this class via a Craigslist posting, but it is organized via MeetUp.

 

 

   

 

So, tell me.
Which one is Emma’s and which is Albert’s.

Boys Oakville 3on3 Bantam HL B

 

We are Teal

We are Ice

I am the coach :)

First game was Friday at 6:30 pm. By Wednesday evening we did not have a coach and no one had contacted anyone on the team to tell them times, places, etc.

So, I did it.

I figure three years of coaching the Chemical Engineering intramural team for my class (1978-81) is all the experience I needed.

We lost ICE 4 @ PANTHERS 12

Keep track of us here  http://3on3oakville.goalline.us/schedule_team.php?team_id=97490&league_id=7182

Meeting Lawrence Hill

Lawrence Hill who has written many books, his most recent, “The Book of Negroes”, or ,as it is called in the states, “Someone Knows My Name”, spoke last night at the CFUW Oakville meeting. Mostly he did a short reading from two of his books and then answered questions. Good questions, and good answers.

Lawrence (Larry) is Dan Hill’s brother. I saw Dan Hill perform at my high school in the early/mid 70s. This is a very talented family!

Carolyne, Albert, Emma, Andrew and AJ will be walking the the Dog Guides Walk

 

Carolyne, Albert, Emma, Andrew, and AJ will be participating in the Purina Walk for Dog Guides on May 31, 2009 to help raise funds for the training and placement of Dog Guides for Canadians with visual, hearing and medical or physical disabilities. We need your help, so please click the link below and help me make a difference.

 

http://walkfordogguides.com/personalPage.cfm?ID=3772

The Purina Walk for Dog Guides is organized by local volunteers and is truly a grassroots effort. Everybody is welcome - all ages and abilities, with or without dogs. It's an outdoor, feel good start to the day.

I hope you can join me in supporting this wonderful event that will help provide mobility, safety and independence for Canadians with disabilities. If you would like more information about Lions Foundation of Canada and the Purina Walk for Dog Guides, please visit http://walkfordogguides.com

Jersey Boys

 

Went to see Jersey Boys on Saturday with a few of the ladies from my book group. Albert tagged along. The show was at the Toronto Centre for the Arts in North York. It is a very nice theatre. Very modern but with details and windows that were reminiscent of old art deco theatres. A very beautiful blend of old and new.

The singing was very good (only one wrong note and it surprised us all), great energy, great day out.

Sent us home to listen to some old tunes and drive the kids mad by singing “Sherry”

Oakville Hornets Midget/Intermediate League Champions -- Pink Elephants

 

On Sunday afternoon, Emma's hockey team won the season championship game.

Emma scored the first goal of the game and it was the winning goal.

Strawberries after 5 weeks

What should strawberries look like after 5 weeks in the fridge?

Something black and red and wet and fuzzy perhaps?

Not with those green produce bags. We were quite surprised. The strawberries were still firm and red. However, I am not sure that I'm willing to eat them.

The bags we got were cheap ones from Giant Tiger.

Winter hockey for Andrew is over

It is with mixed feelings that I report that hockey for Andrew is over for now. His team missed out on the championship finals game by one goal. They had the whole playoffs to win one extra game but it came down to one goal in the last game. Andrew’s teammates all voted for who would be captain for the last game and assistant captains and Andrew got to be an assistant. Congratulations to Andrew.

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This is a test

I am now speaking into my microphone. It is typing these words for me as I speak, Emma is watching. Emma thinks it is really cool. The program needs a little bit more training to recognize everything I say. But it is working fairly well. According to the documentation I should be able to speak in a normal tone and it will figure out what I'm saying. At the moment I'm talking slower and then it does type what I say. If I speak at my normal rate it doesn't seem to pick up everything. I still have to figure out how to get it to put in periods without actually saying period. I also have to figure out how to get it to type the word “period” when I want the word. So here goes a paragraph without any corrections:

Emmett is doing a project for school on the dog guides of Canada we have a dog guide his name is AJ. He is the second dog we had. The first one was named Casper area they are both white standard poodles. AJ is now nine months old. He had puppy class yesterday. Either to heal. The guy doing the training at the dog guide said that AJ respected them and do what she said. He seems to not not always. He has a tendency to jump up on the furniture he thinks he's allowed to not treat had a supper yet but it's not bothering me about it so I take them out now and then it's off to bed.

 

I am now speaking slower. You can see from above if you're not careful your sentences do tend to run on. You actually have to tell it the period. I only ran one training on it so I guess I'll have to run more training later. I'm not exactly sure who's being trained me or the software. However since it's doing this paragraph way better because I'm speaking slower, I think that I will have to give it a really good shot. Because it is cool.