Friday, August 29, 2008

Coming weekend

This weekend is in flux. Labor-day fun time.

Kindergarten next week, parents visiting, picnics, friends stopping by and a major clean up of my office that I've not only been putting off, but making worse daily.

Happy Labor day. Another post this weekend... When I find my little camera....

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Bells... The Bells!

Everyday this month, I've woken up with music going on in my head. This isn't the only time I've awoken with a song in my head, however, it's one of the few times that it's been a daily occurrence over so many days. The really BAD part about this, has been that on some days, it's been songs I am not a fan of, so it's like some sort of self torture.

I cant quite tell you why this is the case, but it's been noteworthy that every day I am stuck in the shower with an all 80's and 90's radio station blaring in my subconsciousness. This week, the hit list has been... well unstable at best... here's the list that I recall.


  1. Theme to "Fall Guy" 80's TV show
  2. Teenage Wildlife -Bowie
  3. Thela Hun Ginjeet - King Crimson (Concert influenced)
  4. Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin
  5. "Bonanza" Theme
  6. All the leaves are Brown - Mama's and Papa's
  7. 7 Nation Army - White Stripes
  8. What you are - Audioslave
  9. "Roadrunner" TV show theme song
  10. "Superfriends" TV show theme song
  11. All of me - Sung like Steve Martin
  12. Don't stop believin' - Journey
  13. Gloria / Peace Frog- The Doors
Today on the way to work I inadvertently heard "The Rhythm of the Night" ... I hope that doesn't stick for tomorrow.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Monkeys at the Fair

This weekend, we took the kids tot he Chester Fair in Chester, Ct. we had a great time. The majority of the rides were for the little ones, so Ryan and Connor got alot of rides in and got to see a real live pig race. Other than that we kept a low profile.

This week, we prep for preschool and kindergarten. Drum roll, please.

On another note... we saw this guy by the beach about a week or so ago... it's a Coyote out looking for a morning snack. From the way it was moving, I suspect he had a healthy skepticism about being out in the open and made tracks for the woods shortly after.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

King Crimson

So on my little vacation time, I also took in a concert in NYC last night. It was tiring after driving the entire day before, but a lot of fun to hang out with Gene, and see a show. I saw King Crimson on their 40th anniversary tour. it was a very good show, and I was happy to have gotten a chance to go. Thanks Anthony for the opportunity, and thanks Gene for coming with me.

For anyone concerned, Time Square is the same as it was about 5 years ago, when I went last. Which is still WAY different than it was, say 20 years ago. :)

Update... A Picture from Gene's phone of the stage.

Quebec City

We had a great time in Quebec City visiting Lise's cousin Claude. His wife Louise greeted us at the door with gifts for the kids and huge hugs and kisses for everyone. Dominic also join us and worked as a bit of an interpreter for the group while we waited for Claude to arrive. The kids wasted no time diving in to their goody baskets as we sat down and had a terrific lunch. Once we caught our breath, we spent the rest of the afternoon on a whirlwind visit to Quebec city. We took the long way in... by Ferry across the St. Lawrence river. As we crossed the river, Claude put some perspective around what we were seeing, with information on the geography and some history of the city. He also pointed out the one of the ferries passing us (the Louis Jolliet) was a ferry he rode regularly as a child, when there was no bridge in Trois Rivieres. When I showed this to Marie and Denise, she said... "Hey, that's the Ferry in Trois Rivieres" before I could tell her it was in Quebec City.

We had a fantastic time on our tour of the city and when the kids ran out of fuel, we headed back to the house for an absolutely wonderful meal. After dinner we were joined by Adriane (Claude's daughter) who Ryan immediately had a crush on. (I'm going to hate Ryan's teens). Early the next morning, we met the family downstairs and shared a breakfast together (the kids still ate Lucky Charms) and then we took them to the Aquarium. They needed something just for them. After seeing the animals and getting out picture taken with a a guy in a walrus costume (Ryan wasn't so sure about THIS dude), we had a lovely picnic with Louise and headed back to Three Rivers for a night before we left for home.

Click here for the rest of Quebec City


In Trois Rivieres, we had another great meal with Celene, this time at a restaurant. I think we all enjoyed the meal very much and fell asleep pretty quickly after we arrived home. We left the next day... there were some muffled tears but we promised to see each other soon, and headed out to the highway at 9:00AM

We stopped in Vt for a lunch break and once again in Northampton Ma to see my uncles, but because of extenuating circumstances, we didn't meet up. We'll be by again though. With our stops, it took us until 7:00PM to get home. Ryan and Connor told me they were "not tired".. however, I know two boys who fell asleep before I left the room. :)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Quebec City

I'll post more tomorrow night.. until then... we are having a great time.
--Mike

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Canada's House

On Friday when we arrived in Canada, we waited at the border for about an hour. During our wait in line, Connor kept asking the same thing over and over again, but it was hard to figure it out. Finally I heard him loud and clear saying ¨Are we at Canada's house yet?¨ Since then, he has asked if we're at Canada's house yet another dozen times and when we visited Gigi's home town... he changed his montra to ¨Are we going to visit Gigi?¨

Yesterday we visited with Lise's cousin Pierré who lives in his mother's home in Trois Riviéres. He was a wonderful host for a man who was about to go to the hospital for a CAT scan. From there we had a little walking tour of the old city (Vieux-Trois Riviéres). It's a beautiful place and a great mix of old and new. During our walking tour of the city, we stopped at the Cathedral in the center of town. This is the church where some of Lise's relatives have been married, but it is a place where my family also attended and my great-great-great-grandparents on my Mom's side were married in this church. (weird, huh?) Below you'll find some of the pictures for our walk about, as well as the pictures of our evening meal on our arrival.
Trois Riviéres

Today, we went to Ste-Cécile, where Lise's Mom was born and rasied and her grandfather Despres also resided. We stopped and took pictures of the Despres house, and then the first house Marie-Paul's family owned. It was run down, but gave us an idea of where she lived. Down the road, we stopped again in front of the infamous family farm that I had heard so much about from Marie. It was in great condition and Céline explained that the fields across the street were once all attached to the farm house. We turned around and Céline pointed out the Garage that was once a blacksmith that her Uncle Charles owned. Charles was handy (much like Lise's sister, Louise) and changed to a garage once enough vehicles began breaking down. After our drive we stopped for some pizza and visited some goats in a roadside farm. Connor loved it and Ryan was in spirits.
Ste-Cécile

Now we are getting ready for yet ANOTHER great meal. I'm going to pack up here and get my dinner.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Canada Day 2 and 3

We had a great day yesterday with Francine and Jacques. We visited old Montréal and had a lovely lunch at an outdoor eatery in the historic section of town. After a good walk to clear our heads, we came back to the house and the boys and I went to the local park. Ryan had a great time, but Connor was completely out of steam.
When we got home, I had to keep him up through dinner, and he and Ryan slept like the dead. :) (and then we were able to as well). We had a fantastic dinner, as Francine is a great cook and got ready fo the next day when we met with the rest of Francine's family. Daniél and Lyné and Michel with Suzanné came and we had a great time. Lise practiced her French the whole time, to prepair for us to got to see Céline, as her family speaks more French then English.
Montreal


When we arrived at Celine's house, we were met at the driveway with such love. It is wonderful to see Lise with her family. They love her so much and they are so accepting of her children and husband who can only speak enough french to embarass her. :)

I've posted some photos and will do my best to put the names in. I am writing on a french keyboard, so I might have to fix the spelling later... Or at least, that's my excuse this time.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Canada

Last night we arrived in Canada. All is well (except for sharing a room with Ryan) and we are enjoying our time with our first hosts of the trip very much. Francine and Jacques have been so wonderful to us. We are here on Sat & Sunday. On Sunday we leave to see Lise's cousin Celine.

I will post some pictures if we have some time tonight.

On the way up, we stopped at a Truck Stop called Betty Beaver's Truck Stop.

The food was wonderful, but the sign had some strange hold on me and Ryan. To this day I dont know why. :)

As I said we arrived after about 8 hours of traveling and about 6 hours of actual driving... the border was an hour and so was lunch.)

Ryan and Connor were a bit crunchy when we arrived, but ice cream soothed everything. :)