After a very nice afternoon with Mandi, her sisters and parents we had supper and birthday cake and then Scott opened his presents. It was a wonderful day. After dark Eric, Dez, Scott, Mom & I headed over to the neighbors on the west side of the point where it was less windy to launch some fireworks.
This was a first for all of us, and a first for us at the lake and we all had a great time. I think a new tradition has been born, fireworks at the lake to celebrate your birthday, There are already plans for the next “event”.
Posts
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Fireworks :Lake
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Treasure hunt update
This morning Eric, Dez, Scott and I went hunting for treasure. Dez found the first two, Eric found three more, I found a couple to save myself some $s and unfortunately, Scott didn’t fine any. Good thing it’s his birthday!
Happy Birthday Scott!
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Memory
It’s interesting how memory works.
When I was about 12 my parents took my sister and I on a fabulous road trip to New York City and Washington, D.C. It was quite a memorable experience. Lately I’ve been thinking about one of the stops we made on this epic trip.
As part of the trip we spend several days on Mackinac Island. This portion of the trip was a GWL convention location for my dad and as kids we were all over the place with pretty much unlimited access to food & fun. The strange part is that all these years I thought the island was in Canada! Well, not so. Its an island in the Great Lakes but clearly in U.S. waters close to where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron join, and the Mackinac bridge spans the water with the worlds third longest suspension bridge.
We stayed at The Grand Hotel and had a great time. After looking at some of the website and remembering the fun I had as a child, I think I’ll put this on our “must visit” destination list. I’m not sure we’ll be staying at The Grand at $330+ US/night, but somewhere on the island. And for sure we’ll being the bikes, as no cars are allowed, very cool. Just bikes, hourses & walking. That will slow you right down.
Technorati Tags: Mackinac, “Grand Hotel”
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Changes in Kenora
It’s the first summer weekend at the lake and we stopped in at Safeway to pick up a couple of things that were forgotten at home and some things are changing.
For many years not too much wold change in Kenora from year to year, but then things started to happen. A new Canadian Tire on the waterfront, Tim Hortons, and then a Wallmart and a bigger Canadian Tire. This year it seems to be Safeway’s turn.
As we pull into the parking lot the outside of the store is getting a make over and it seems to be pushing out a little farther. On the inside, they are getting the same Safeway look that came to stores in Winnipeg last year. But the best change is just in side the door, it’s the Starbucks kiosk!
That’s right, thanks to Safeway, Starbucks hits the little town of Kenora. A couple of years ago a place called HoJoes
opened on the main drag, and we thought a good cup of coffee had finally come to Kenora, after all Tim Hortons can’t really be called coffee. But despite the free internet access and the nice atmosphere the HoJo coffee is still awful. Granted, Safeway ambience is lacking quite a bit but you can step out side and across the road and gaze out over beautiful Lake of the Woods.
I think I’ll need to do more grocery shopping this year, and Safeway makes a nice biking destination for a 20km round trip for a cup of jo
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What’s in a name?
Find out how your name ranks over at The Baby Name Wizard’s NameVoyager. “Garry” was a big hit in the ’50s, how appropriate.
In February 2005, IBM researcher Martin Wattenberg created a Web-based visualization applet, the NameVoyager, to help call attention to his wife’s first book, The Baby Name Wizard, a guide to American baby names. This effort to support his wife’s project swept the Web and became a hot topic of conversation – for those searching for the perfect baby name and for others. Without any advertising, the applet drew more than 500,000 site visits in its first two weeks. It has been downloaded more than 900,000 times as of mid-April. Also in April, Google found more than 11,000 references to the NameVoyager.
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Got Backup?
An updated tool from IBM to help us backup up our laptops. I thought I’d give it a try but backup up over the network doesn’t seem like a viable option. Check the bottom right hand corner.
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Treasure Hunt
I’m initiating a treasure hunt, complete with rewards. But, you’ll need to be family to participate. Here is the deal. Have a look at the map. There are 8 objects to be found. Please don’t move them. Each one, when you are the first to show it to me is worth $20. So all up, there is $160 to be won for a little bush wacking.
Good luck treasure hunters. Of course if I find them first, well no money for you!
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Hot Wheels for Rent
You can rent one of these from Hertz in Las Vegas for a mere $150-175USD/day. Not bad for getting an opportunity to drive a legendary car.
Shelby Automobiles, Inc. – NEWS
Palm Beach, Fla. – April 1, 2007 – Lightning has struck again, the Ford Shelby GT-H “Rent-A-Racer” program from Ford Motor Company, Shelby Automobiles and The Hertz Corporation has returned with a special run of convertible versions of the performance-modified Ford Mustang GTs for rent exclusively through Hertz. Unveiled and sold for $250,000 on the block at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in West Palm Beach, Fla.,., the companies announced that approximately 500 convertibles, a first for the GT-H program, will be available through the Hertz Fun Collection at select airport locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Hawaii, later this year. Proceeds of the sale will benefit the Carroll Shelby Children’s Foundation and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
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Smells
Smells can really trigger strong memories. Occasionally I’ll catch a wiff of something and it will instantly take me back 30 years to a very specific time and place. Sometime, I’ll smell the perfume my mom used to wear and a flood of memories will instantly come back to me. It’s quite an experience.
Wow, that was a little of track from how I thought this would go. A couple of days ago while riding to work in the morning I was really hit by how much closer to life you are on a bike vs. a car when moving around the city and it was the smells on the ride that gave me this thought. As I went up the street there was a freshness in the air, a smell that would be hard to describe, a spring quality. To me it was as if I could smell the “green” of the grass.
Well, at the top of the street the relaxing and refreshing scent of spring was quickly swept away by a VW TDI diesel exhaust stream. We’ve been looking at a new vehicle and the TDI has caught my attention mainly because of it’s incredible mileage, but I’d forgotten about the exhaust and diesel smell and the clanking of the engine. This car was almost out of site and I was still sucking in the fumes.
From there it was back into a brief reprieve of fresh air on a bike path and then into the fragrant mix of heavy rush hour traffic downtown. Actually, this is the most fun part of the ride as I get to pass most of the cars, weave in and out of traffic and try not to get hit or be too obnoxious, but it is a bit of a rush. I’m certainly awake when I roll into the office.
