Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to everyone who reads this! I would say Merry Christmas, but since that was a couple of days ago, it doesn't really apply now. So judging from my number of posts, I have been quite busy in the month of december, and I hope to be caught up with everything by the time that school starts again on the 5th (but technically 6th since I don't have any classes on Wednesdays).

This past month has seen me:

• taking pictures of Santa Claus and his visitors at Place D'Orleans, which has been a lot of fun since well I love taking pictures, and kids are a lot of fun to be around. My co-photographers were a lot of fun as well, and I have learned to juggle again, but just need a lot of practice.
• finishing my paper for my Research Methods class, which should have been done on December 9th, but due to the fact that we got an extension to the 22nd, I was really busy with the aforementioned job, and busy with the holiday festivities in general, I didn't get it done until the 20th...which only left me with...
• 4 days to do all of my Christmas shopping, which I managed to do, so that was quite good :)

This holiday season has been quite filling due to the fact that I have a dinner party practically every night, which makes it fun because I get to see a lot of family and friends that I have neglected this past semester while I have been studying and working.

Well, I hope that everyone is having a happy holidays and that you don't have to work too hard (if you are working)...and you don't party too hard (which should be expected for this time of year)...

Hope to see all of you soon!

Geofford and I with Santa

Geofford's Birthday Dinner

Geofford turned 28 yesterday so now he is older than me again...until it is time for my birthday...and then we will be the same age again. I know it's hard to tell because I seem so much more mature. hee hee.... Well, after ultimate last night, we met some of his friends at Bravo Bravo for dinner (because it was close and it has pretty good food).


Geoff's Birthday present...is himself?


The boys at dinner


The girls at Geoff's birthday dinner

It's Snowing!

It's snowing today, which makes me very happy :) Although I got very wet from the snow on my walk to school and I was dripping because it was such a wet snow, I'm happy because it makes it a lot prettier outside and it means that I might be able to go boarding soon. It also puts me in the Christmas spirit (although you'd think taking Santa Claus pictures at the mall would also do that, but it doesn't feel like Christmas until the first snowfall).

I guess the snow this morning put me in a better mood because the past two days haven't been great. Monday was the day that Shanna moved to California with her husband Leigh. Although Shan and I don't talk every day or even every week, she's someone that has known me forever (well at least since we were 8, which is almost 20 years now...) so it's hard whenever your friends move away. But when they do, you realize how much you took for granted their presence. I felt the same way when Rachel moved to Guelph, which wasn't that far away, so I was still able to visit, once in a while. Now that she is out in Thunder Bay, it is even farther to go for a visit. But in the end, it makes our time together that much more special. I can't wait to see both of them in February at Rachel's wedding, which should be a lot of fun.

Tuesday was rough because it felt like we were living a police state downtown. I didn't have class until the afternoon, but I kind of wish that I did, because then I wouldn't have had to walk through one of the Bush protest rallies. There were people with placards and people were shouting. There were media filming the event, and there were police officers everywhere. All I wanted to do was get to school for my class. But I guess the shouting and hooplah drowned out the helicoptors, as I only noticed those on my walk home. The streets had emptied out (although the buses seemed to have problems and were quite backed up, and were even taking detours) around my walk home, and all I could hear were the rotors (is that the right word?) of the helicoptors that were circling overhead. At one point, it looked as if a helicopter was going to hit the DND building it was flying so close. Oh well, it made me really appreciate how lucky we are to live in Canada where this is more an exception to the norm than the norm.

Anywho, back to the snow, I'm glad that it's snowing, even though it makes for yucky driving conditions, but now that I am a student, I don't necessarily have to drive as much, so that's good :)

I can almost see the end!

Phew...I have exactly one week left of school - and only three assignments left (each probably weighted about half of my school year...but whatever...only three left!). School has been a lot busier than originally anticipated (which is probably normal), which is why there has been an absense of posts and also contact with most people. For those of you who haven't spoken to in a while, I am also working part-time (but pretty much full-time starting next week) until Christmas taking pictures at the Santa Picture Pavillion at Place D'Orleans which is a lot of fun. My employers are Japan Camera who have been awesome and are a pleasure to work for. Santa is also a lot of fun, and as André (one of the other photographers) said best "Our job is to make people happy." And it's true, working doesn't feel that bad because you are smiling all day and people are generally in a good mood.

Anywho, I can't wait for the Christmas holidays even though my mom will be away in Hong Kong visiting my grandmother who is in the hospital and her brothers and sisters who will be in Hong Kong. Hopefully my grandmother (who is 93) will have a short stay in the hospital and will make a speedy recovery. But other than my mom being away, it will be nice to not have to worry about anything for a week and a bit :)

Shanna and Leigh's Wedding

Shanna and Leigh's wedding was a beautiful day despite the rain. I was really happy to be able to be a part of the wedding party. Here are some pictures from the day. Here are more pictures from the photographer Marilyn Mikkelsen (posed colour photos) and her husband Ralph (black and white candids) plus Shanna and Leigh's honeymoon.

I guess the who "day" was actually a wedding weekend, as the girls (and I guess boys too) went out on the town on thursday night. So that we could accomodate some of the out of town guests (Rachel), we decided to have the stagette on that day, which actually worked out as we were able to get a limo from Griffen's, which was a nice touch. After bar hopping, the majority of us went home to bed, but Shanna brought her maid of honour Rachel out for some fun. They met up with the boys at Zaphoids, and proceeded to have some fun which involved poutine, and coming in at about 7 on Friday morning.

Fortunately I did not go out, as I had some homework to do (as I knew that I wouldn't get any work done the rest of the weekend). Shanna and Rachel picked me up in the early afternoon, and I helped deliver the bridal gown and some of the bridesmaids dresses to our staging area (aka Rachel's parents place) where we would be getting ready on Saturday. After some confusion between Shanna and Leigh, the bridal party (minus Kelly who was meeting us there) drove out in rushhour traffic to Bells Corners from downtown. We ended up getting about 15 minutes of our 45 minute manicure (although Kelly got her full 45-minute treatment, lucky bum!) at the Spa's Nail Bar. (I would put the link, but they were quite rude to us...we knew we were late, and even called ahead to let them know, but we still got berrated even though we paid for the full 45-minute manicure!) After the manicures, Leigh drove Kelly and me to go pick up Patrick and Shanna drove Rachel, Amy, and Nadine to go pick up the candles, and both cars were to rendez vous at the church for the rehearsal. It was funny because our car was racing to see who would get there first, but apparantly, the other car had no clue. The rehearsal went off without a hitch, and then were headed to the Vietnam Palace (I think that's the restaurant) on Somerset for the rehearsal dinner. It was really yummy, and I think that I would definitely return.

Saturday morning, Shanna came and picked me up with Nadine and Amy and we headed to meet Rachel at the Hair Tech Coiffure Inc salon in Orleans (corner of Innes and Jeanne D'Arc) for our hair appointments. Hair was fun, but expensive (sometimes it is difficult being a student) but worth it because I liked my hair and there was no way that I could put in 48 bobby pins myself. After hair, we headed to Rachel's where we snacked (aka pigged out) before getting dressed (well we had to get Shanna dressed first) and all made up. It was a fun girls afternoon, and we all managed to get prettied up before the photographers came to get pictures of the bridal party. After pictures, we headed up to Divine Infant where Shanna and Leigh got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and everyone did their parts perfectly.

Unfortunately the rain didn't hold off until the reception, so we got a few pictures in at the church before the wedding party (minus the bride, groom, maid of honour, and bestman) headed out to Strathmere for the reception. The reception was a lot of fun, they had some very creative ways of getting the guests involved, I think that every table did some sort of activity (chinese fire drill, funny story, sing a song, impersonated other people) to get the newlywed couple to kiss. It was also really nice seeing some people that I haven't seen in a while.

The next day, the wedding party and family were invited out to Perth to Tony and Lynda's home for a brunch. It was a nice place (that I haven't been to in ages - probably since 2nd year University - my bachelor's) to visit and have the brunch. We also got to see some of the disposable camera pictures, which was always fun.

Overall, I think that the wedding was a success. I thought that this would be last wedding for a while, but Rachel and Clayton are engaged to be married, and we will be celebrating with them on the Mayan Riviera in February. I will definitely bring my SLR and take some beautiful pics of the scenery down there. I can't wait...it should be tons of fun! Now, on to saving money mode...

Thanksgiving

It seems to be a trend to travel to the U.S. to spend Canadian Thanksgiving. This past weekend, I travelled to Boston for two reasons - my cousin Amy's wedding (and all of the festivities), and the UPA Northeast Regionals. It was a very fun weekend despite the long drive.

The weekend started out early Friday morning when Geoff, Damian, Melody, and I departed from Ottawa and started on our adventure towards Boston. Our intended departure time was 7:00 am from downtown, and we ended up leaving Orleans at around 8:00 am, which was only about 30 minutes behind schedule (typical ultimate time). The drive was quite nice, we decided to cross in Cornwall, which put us driving on all of these little roads so that we would avoid the morning rush hour in Montreal. I drove that leg and was quite happy to be done driving somewhere in Upstate New York. Geofford took the next leg and brought us the rest of the way through New York and into Vermont. At our first rest stop (which was badly needed by my tiny bladder) we saw advertisements for Ben & Jerry's so we decided to head to the factory for "lunch". Fortunately for Geofford and I there was a small chip stand where we could get "real" food before our ice cream. Damian and Melody decided to eat ice cream for lunch and save their appetites for the banquet that would occur that night. After Ben & Jerry's we drove the rest of the way to Boston, once we reached Boston we saw a burning car on the side of the road and thought that was the reason for the increase in traffic, but it was just regular rush hour, and due to some poor advice (from the other car) coupled with a lousy map we spent an extra 45 minutes inching through the traffic in Boston. When we reached the hotel, we met up with my mom and Francis to walk to the restaurant in china town to have the pre-wedding banquet with the family at some chinese restaurant. After dinner, we all headed to the Cheesecake Factory for our second dessert. Unfortunately for me, I was stuffed and since we had Regionals the next day (with only four women), I thought it would be wiser to pass on the second dessert. I did take a taste of the cheesecake, and immediately regretted my decision, but was too tired to return and get a piece. We headed to bed fairly early (by tournament standards) because we had to depart from the hotel about about 6:45 so that we could get to the fields on time.

So the 6:45 departure time was actually 7am which was perfect because it took about an hour to get to the fields (in Devens, MA). We got there right in time to watch the other teams all arrive and seeing some familiar faces on Goat. We played our games and the women got really tired because there were only four of us. The guys did a really good job of helping us out, which was greatly appreciated, especially when I got hurt in the second last game, and decided that it would be worse to try and push it the last game. So Deb, Nat, and Mel played ironwomen in the last game and did great.

Although we did not advance on the Saturday, we liked the way that our schedule worked out (we only wanted to play three games on Saturday, either win all three, or lose-win-lose) because it gave Damian, Mel, Geofford and I enough time to get back to the hotel before the wedding dinner (we had to miss the ceremony which was beautiful). We made it just in time and sat down to an awesome feast which included: scallops, crab, lobster, fish, chicken, steak, and many other fantastic dishes. I was ridiculously full after the dinner and was unable to make it to the post-reception dancing which was to occur at the Avalon - one of the clubs in Boston. The other reason for not going was that we had to return to Devens early the next morning for another 9am game :p

On Sunday, we did not play our best 2nd game of Ultimate, but that could be due to the fact that the team was distracted by the Open Final between Goat and DoG. This was a phenomenal game even though Goat lost. After our last game, we watched the end of the GLUM back door final and saw our Master's team advance to the UPA Championships in Sarasota, FL before watching the conclusion of the Goat - Twisted Metal backdoor final. This was a very exciting and nerve wracking game as we saw Goat give up a couple of breaks, and then get them back, and then getting a break, losing it, and almost losing the game 16-14. But Goat didn't let Twisted Metal score, tied the game at 15 and made it a game to 2. Goat ended up scoring first with a huge break and then finishing off Twisted Metal 17-16 in a very exciting game. We were a little glad that we played our 2nd game or else we might not have watched that exciting final.

That was the end of our Fall seVen team, and now we are preparing for indoor so that we can get ready for next summer and our pursuit for Perth in 2006.

Sectionals in Geneva

Our ultimate travelled to Geneva, NY yesterday to compete at Sectionals for Upstate NY. I have posted the details on our seVen blog. We won the tournament, which is the first tournament that we have won, which means that we are competing at Regionals in Devens, MA.

The Fall seVen team after winning!

The trip was long because we drove down on Friday night and stayed at a Econolodge in Canandaigua, which was just east of Geneva on another of the finger lakes. It felt like a really long journey even though it was only 4 hours, I think that the wait at the border added to the time. We learned that to avoid getting harassed by the border crossing people it is best to have a passport or a birth certificate to prove that you are a Canadian citizen. Geofford was the only one in the car without such identification and the guard didn't seem to approve of that too much. Fortunately for us, he decided to be nice and didn't completely search the car, although he seemed to want to. It was funny though, because we paved the way for Nat Massé's car (who was also driving Tina and Glenn) as he was joking around with them saying that he had another car (us) that came through to play Ultimate Frisbee.

Once we got to Canandaigua we met up with Keith's car (which also included Batch and Luke) and Damian. Fortunately for us there was a back door, and we were able to fit everyone (all 11 of us) in the two motel rooms that were inter-connected. Once everyone had arrived, we relaxed and enjoyed some beverages (I really liked the Rolling Rock beer)...we were happy to learn that the Wegmans which sold food and beverages and was open 24-hours a day. We also discovered that Luke forgot his cleats in Ottawa and after a bit of quick thinking, we made a few phone calls and arranged for Pat to pick up some cleats from Geofford's house before continuing his journey to Geneva.

The next morning, we discovered that the directions to the field were a bit flawed thanks to the online mapping tools used, even though we used 3 - Yahoo Maps, Mapquest and Maptuit. We eventually got to the fields and discovered that the tournament was running on Ultimate time, which was good for us. By the time that everyone got there, the games had not started yet even despite the start-time getting pushed back by 1/2 an hour. After winning both of our games, we met at a rest stop along the thru-way to have lunch at McDonald's and Ben and Jerry's. I wanted the New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream, but it was soft so I had to settle for the Chocolate Fudge Brownie Frozen Yogurt which I guess was more "nutritious". After lunch, Damian headed back to Waterloo, Pat and Deb headed to Portland, Maine to participate in the Clambake tournament, and the rest of us headed back to Ottawa.

I have discovered in the past week that Epson Salt baths are super good to relax muscles, so I took one of those and headed to bed....now I must face a mountain of school work, but I guess it will be worth it eventually, well, that's what I keep telling myself :)

Spirit

seVen has competed in our first Fall Tournament - Spirit, and we made it to the finals which was very exciting. On the other hand, I hurt my shoulder AGAIN during the semi-final so I had to stand on the sidelines watching. Apparantly the commentators (the final was televised) were making fun of me because I only had one arm, so I am quite interested in watching the replay on Rogers. The women did an amazing job as we were down to three women after Kindha had to leave, and then when I got injured we only had 2. Sully and Nat Masse played an amazing day of ultimate. After playing against the juniors twice (Oddjob) - we were able to add two of their women to our finals Roster: Alex and Anne who played really well despite their reservations before the Final. We also picked up Miriam who had to give Dave Milks a ride. Dave was supposed to be their all day, but fortunately showed up just before the final, to give our guys an extra sub. The guys also played a really good day of ultimate - Pat, Geofford, Evan, Luke, Denis and Jon played a solid day of offence and defence.

Here are the scores from the day:
The results of the day:
Game # 1: Lunchbox 4 vs seVen 3
Game # 2: Weapons 4 vs seVen 10
Game # 3: Ragin 0 vs seVen 8
Game # 4: Oddjob 2 vs seVen 12
Semi-final: Oddjob lost to seVen (can't remember the score)
Final: Lunchbox beat seVen by 2 points (can't remember the score)

I just hope my shoulder gets better before next weekend so that I can play at Sectionals next weekend!

Dinner in Toronto

It is my parent's 30th Anniversary this year, so they organized a big dinner in Toronto to host their family and friends. There were about 30 people in attendance and it was a wonderful time. I am in the process of posting up pictures, but will include the link when I can.

A New Chapter...

Now that I am back in school, I feel that I should post more on my blog :) Well, I am supposed to be doing homework, but as usual I am procrastinating, so I figured I might as well do something somewhat useful by updating my blog.

Hmm, let's see what I have done since I have returned from Vancouver...

The first week back I basically slothed around my apartment and my parent's house. There was one day where I went to Kanata to have lunch at the Texas Chophouse with my old co-workers (it was actually my good-bye lunch, but due to vacations this was the best time to have it). It was nice seeing everyone again, they even gave me presents which I didn't expect. I received a wonderful pink Bratz backpack with a non-electronic PDA (aka pad of paper) with extra memory (aka extra pink sticky notes), an assortment of stylii (??what is the plural of stylus?? - aka pencil crayons), a PDA stylus holder (aka Barbie pencil case), and a gift certificate to buy some clothes at American Eagle. I was very surpised to get these gifts and was a little sad when I had to say good-bye to them. There is a chance that I will go back to Alcatel for a short contracting stint if they need people and it fits into my schedule. It would be nice to get the extra cash and see all of the old gang again, so who knows...

During the weekend, on the Saturday we (Amy, Kelly, Nadine and I - the bridesmaids) hosted Shanna's bridal shower which was a lot of fun. I got to see some people that I haven't seen in years too, so that was quite nice. It was a lot of fun planning her shower and helping to host it. I can't wait until the stagette as well, that should also be quite entertaining. On the Sunday, I spent most of the day at UPI watching or playing Ultimate (surprise, surprise). It was Wednesday Playoffs and we couldn't have worse weather. At one point in time, the rain was falling so hard that it was difficult to see the disc. Fortunately we (GYA) won the first game over Rainbow Trout and were able to go on to the Consolation Final for Tier 5 (game for 5th place). We had to wait out the rain and by this time were cold, hungry, and thirsty - the winner of this consolation final won 14 beer tickets (which could also be redeemed for food!) so we offered to split the beer tickets with the other team, which seemed smart for us because we only had 7 players. The other team decided that they would rather play, so we went out and played and beat them 15-2. At half-time, their cheer was asking us if they could still split the beer tickets....what do you think our answer was? So it was nice sitting down with some beer and some food watching the Tier 1 finals, which was quite entertaining.

For the rest of the week, I spent more time doing nothing - watching a lot of TLC - I'm not sure what I am going to do when I move - with less TV, I will have to do more homework...which I guess will be good.

During the long weekend, Geofford and I travelled to the Georgian Bay to spend time with his family. We stayed with his Mom and Dad at their house right on the bay. This was to be my first time at their house when there wasn't snow on the ground, the bay wasn't frozen, and it wasn't pouring rain. The weather definitly did not disappoint and I was able to spend most of every day out on the beach. It was nice because everyday the water was a little bit different - so I was able to do different things. I even played in a kayak for this first time, which was quite fun. As usual the food was amazing and there was a filling Turkey dinner at the Seaborn cottage next door on the Saturday night.

When we returned home on Monday, reality set in. I was to begin school the next day. My first day of school for my Masters program was September 7th. That was almost 3 years to do the day that I started my first full time job (September 5th, 2001). I definitly felt a little bit out of it as most of the people in my classes had some sort of human kinetics, kinesiology or physical education educational background. All I had was an interest in sports and an engineering degree.

As it turns out, my classmates are a lot of fun, and despite the heavy workload, I'm thinking that we will get along great and have a lot of fun along the way.

Vancouver continued...

We had such big plans for walking on the Tuesday to start preparing for our tournament, but due to the rain and then humidity, we decided only to walk to and from lunch at a local sushi place. The sushi was good, but not as amazing as other sushi that I'd had before. After lunch, we headed to UBC via downtown, checked in and then went up to meet up with my friend Jethro and his fiance Lisa. After a nice dinner, we went back to the residence to watch the Olympics and wait for the rest of the team to arrive.

After an afternoon practice at UBC with the whole team, Geofford and I went to go meet up with my Uncle David, Aunt Ruby, Cousin Evelyn, and my Aunt's family. We went to Isami Sushi in Burnaby. This restaurant had some amazing sushi.

Nationals was again an amazing experience. We ended up 12th overall in the Mixed Division and I have posted on OCUA's website a description of our results. Here are the official results from the CUC website. I am super proud of the team and I hope all of them had an amazing experience.

The party on Saturday night was a lot of fun, but I guess the tournament really took a lot out of me as I couldn't party into the night as I normally do, which was a little disappointing. But, we ended up getting up early to go back to Coquitlam to meet Seryna and her boyfriend Shawn (or is it Sean or Shaun?) for brunch at the IHOP. After brunch we headed back to UBC to watch the Mixed Finals. Unfortunately Bombing Madd Fatties lost to Team Fisher Price, but it was fun watching your friends (and people you've played against) in the final. After the game Geofford and I drove around the English Bay, Stanley Park and headed over the Lion's Gate Bridge before heading to King's Chinese Restaurant for dinner with all of my relatives in Vancouver. It was a little banquet, with lots of food, and it was a little too loud to talk, but it was nice seeing everyone. We then headed to my cousin Tullia's house to stay for the night.

After dropping off the car, we went to Dim Sum with my Aunt Stella, Uncle Eric, Damian, and his girlfriend Melody. After Dum Sum we headed to the airport an hour early, but apparantly not early enough as we got rushed to a separate line. I guess because we checked in so late, we weren't able to get seats together, so Geoff and I sat apart, which was probably better for him because I sat at the back of the plane again, which meant no reclining seats. The plane on the way back was much newer and we even got a hot meal so that was nice.

My trip to Vancouver was a lot of fun, but it was really nice to come home and sleep in my own bed...

Vancouver

Geofford and I have made it safe and sound to Vancouver. We arrived last Thursday in Vancouver after an extra-long flight - or so it felt because my earphones didn't work -> fortunately the nice man in front of me allowed me to use his sound so that I could watch the movie - 13 going on 30, which in the end wasn't that great of a movie, oh well. My Uncle William and Aunt Stella came to the airport to pick us up and we stayed with them night.

The next morning we went to pick up our car and I was a little disappointed when we had to drive a Corolla instead of the Civic that I asked for. In the end, the little car was good enough for us as it had air-conditioning - more on that later. After a little bit of shopping and breakfast, Geofford and I set off for Kelowna to meet his best friend Seryna. Since we were not in a rush we decided to take the Crow's Nest Highway instead of the Coquihalla (which was faster) - it was a beautiful, impressive drive through the mountains. I was only scared once when we were rounding a turn and we slowly started skidding into the other lane, but the little car held and we didn't hit anything (or as Geofford told Mehmet - it could have been a lot worse since we were skidding towards the cliff instead of off the cliff - with that perspective I guess it wasn't that bad). Other than the drive was quite pleasant - especially since we had a/c and the outside temperature according to the dash temperature gauge was holding steady between 34-36 degrees Celsius.

Once we reached Kelowna we met up with Geofford's best friend Seryna. She was super nice and was a lot of fun to hang out with. Since it was so hot (I think it got up to around 38 with the humidty) for most of the time we were there - we ate and sat around just hanging out. On Friday night we went to dinner at Kelly O'Brien's which was the irish pub - so lots of fun. After being terribly ambitious Saturday morning with a run and some plyometrics, we visited Summerhill Pyramid Winery - which was pretty fun.

On Sunday we returned to Vancouver - or more specifically Coquitlam via the Coquihalla Hwy, which was pretty fun - there was a lot of downhills, which I got to drive. I think there was this one stretch that was 8% for 17km. I think it would be more fun with a car that I knew better - I was a little worried about the brakes on the car, but we got to Coquitlam safe and sound. In Coquitlam, we stayed with my Uncle Sammy and Aunt Winnie (#10 on my mom's side) and they had a bbq for us and my Aunt Hannah and Uncle Thomas (#5) and my Aunt Betty (#3) also came over. As usual there was too much food, but we were able to run it off the next morning before we set off for Squamish on the Sea to Sky Hwy. That was another gorgeous drive - hopefully our pictures turned out.

Now I am beginning to get super excited about Nationals. I was a little disappointed when a few of our players were unable to come for various reasons - and then I found out on Friday that another of our players broke his arm at practice on Thursday. But hopefully everything will turn out and everyone will play their hearts out.

First Real Post

Wow, I have been a big slacker over the past 8 months....But I guess, now that I have some more free time I will have some more time to post.

Let's see, I have been playing lots of ultimate, in March, Geofford and I with 7 other crazy people decided to go play at an outdoor tournament in Hamilton called Divine Nines. This tournament is 5-2 tournament, where you only bring 9 players. It was cold and rainy, but a lot of fun. Other than touring with Seven, Geofford and I also went to Parlee Beach, NB to play in the Parlee Beach Tournament. I could see how the tournament was fun despite getting kicked out of our campsite Saturday morning, the pouring rain, the cold, the lack of a party, the pouring rain, the cold, and the insanely long drive. BNG and the Swamp Donkeys was a fun, spirited team, and I hope they invite me back next year so at least I can experience the party that everyone has been telling me so much about.

Since April, I have been quite busy with Pat, and Steph planning and preparing for our new ultimate team Seven which is an OCUA sponsored Mixed (aka Coed) team. We have travelled to a few tournaments (TUT, Layout for Life, Gender Blender, Northern Flights, Comedy of Errors, Coed Jamboree) and are gearing up for Nationals in Vancouver. At all of the tournaments that we competed at so far, we have either kept our seed or beat it, so that is pretty good for a first year team.

Let's see, besides Ultimate, this summer has been mostly about weddings. I was invited to Sonia and Andy's wedding on June 19, but was unable to attend due to it being a tournament weekend. I was able to make the pre-wedding BBQ and Shawn's house where the boys roasted a lamb which was very tasty, and I was able to see the gang from Waterloo. I was a bridesmaid in Waleed and Kathy's wedding on July 3. There should be some pictures for the wedding on their website soon, otherwise you can see their lovely diving pictures. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding in Waleed's backyard followed by a chinese dinner downtown. I also attended John and Erin's beautiful outdoor wedding our her parent's farm near Tillsonburg. It was an amazing setting and it was really nice to see all of the Waterloo people.

I guess seeing all of my University friends really inspired me as I am returning to school, a different one though to study a different degree. I will be studying at Ottawa U for my Master's in Human Kinetics starting in September. This means that I will be ending my career here at Alcatel earlier than anticipated. It has been a fun three years here, and I have met a ton of awesome people - but I truely believe that this is the career path for me. So it will be a day of mixed emotions when I leave Alcatel on August 12 to begin a new chapter in my life.

Wish me luck at Nationals!