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.