A good day in the badlands

Susan, Benjamin and Natalie took a day trip out to Drumheller, and visited the Royal Tyrell museum, and stopped in the badlands. Everybody's home, but tired.

pix from catville

So, Niko gets into Natalie's stuffie bin, and looks very cute amongst the stuffed animals. And another picutre of kira trying to eat her dinner, but there's niko, pawing at her back from the chair alongside. Silly kitty.

Judy's July Road Trip!

It's that time of year...well, maybe. For the second year in a row, I took the helm of the trusty Scooter, got in touch with my Inner Nomad, and motored forth to my Home and Native Land for a week criscrossing southern Ontario.

I don't know if I'd have felt as relaxed to do this any time but summer for this combination of business and family visiting. As it was, I set a new personal record, driving 1460 miles in five days, including Washington to Markham, Brantford, London, Guelph, Burlington, Toronto, Whitby, Oshawa, Mississauga, Hamilton, Toronto and back to DC.

Mom was my traveling companion on the trip home, and she and JJ's programming of the iPod into the Mini's audio system combined to make the journey lively and pleasant, despite the length of the trip.

I saw Dad, who is indeed as chipper as Karen suggests, and had a great visit with Terri, Diana, Aunt Ann and Terri's boys. K,L,&D will find souvenirs of that trip awaiting you at the farm -- both things to take home, and things to read and enjoy before returning them to Aunt Ann.

-- JB

Climb on...

Here's what Judy spent last Saturday (the 22nd) and this Sunday (the 30th) doing: outdoor climbing at Great Falls -- 50 - foot cliffs over the Potomac about a half hour drive from home.

It's a whole different experience from indoors! I so enjoyed it! It's amazing what you can do with not very much rock. I loved feeling close to the rock face.

Both weeks, my climbing partner Linda Robinson and I were the only two students -- an ideal class size.

Last week, the instructor set up the ropes, and we did eight climbs and /or rappels each.
Today's class was to learn about creating the anchor systems with ropes at the top, and so we did less climbing and more assessing which rocks or trees were good candidates for anchors, and tying the ropes and then using the systems we'd set up to climb.

This is fun, and I hope to do more!

woolley wonderland for the week

HI all
Yes, Lorne just cuz YOU'VE got the easy life, doesn't mean we're not busy busy busy.
Mom and Judy had a good drive to the states after her whirlwind visit
JJ is finished at the think tank
let HIM or JUDY tell you of the NEW posting! ;)
GOOD NEWS that Dad is doing great and enjoying his school. Judy says he hasnt' been so UP and HIMSELF in years.
YEYEYEYEYEYEYE WHooohoooo
Woolley Gran has officially retired as of last thursday.
House is in super packing mode as they ready for the moving truck in 2 weeks or so.

I've been set dressing for the vacation bible school which starts tomorrow.
Lots to do and more to touch up before the morning. will post photos of the sites soon.

Fiona can now do a back and front summersault in the water and continues to amaze on-lookers at the poool and lake
what a fish

Glad Simon's French is coming along. Must be a pleasure for the Grandparents to ahve a chatterbox to teach so much to

Much to do
more soon
hugs from the farm

Where is everyone?

Where are you people? Somebody must have been doing SOMETHING in the last week...
We arrived back in France last night and stayed over in Melun and are heading south to Corinne's parent's in Vergt shortly TO SEE SIMON AGAIN!
We're told he's been doing very well and his french is coming along too. They say he now says fromage instead of cheeze...
Vienna was fun. I have more pictures to post but they didnt' want to post from the hotel internet anymore so I figured I'll wait till we get to Vergt.
Gotta pack and go. 6 hr drive ahead of us....

Green Danube

I spent Monday wandering around, looking for a particular guide book (Top 10 Vienna)whilst getting a feel for the city. I went for a swim on, not in...on, the river. When Corinne and colleagues were done with the conference for the day we went out for Viennese dinner and a local specialty chocolate desert. We got upgraded to a suite so now we have a living room and a second washroom. How quaint. :)
Today I went for a swim and hang out along a tributary of the Danube in town. It was more greeny than blue. A very popular thing to do as the temperature was up in the mid 30's again. Had a soak in the hot tub and a swim before dinner. Corinne had a conference dinner tonight so I went for dinner at a little festival thing at the Rathause (city hall) with the outdoor film festival again.
Simon had an easy trip from Melun to Vergt and is reportedly having a fine time playing and swimming. I'm sure is French is coming along too.

No Kangaroos Here

I could have sworn there were supposed to be kangaroos in Austria. Oh well. We'll have to make due with Mozart wannabees everywhere instead. Almost over jetlag. All the stores are closed Sundays here so we mostly wandered around the parks etc. The hotel is ultra funky modern. It's still silly hot though, hitting 37 today. We miss Simon. :(
He's having loads of fun with Mammy, Pappy and Tanti Marie and cousin Thomas in Vergt.
Corinne started confernece things tonight and I went to a sort of outdoor concert in the park with an outdoor movie to go with it. Just now watching the rerun of the end of the Tour de France on the big ass flat panel tv in the hotel room. There ends the day....

a year in a week

So, just to get people in the spirit.
Since we've not seen family from out west for a while, my idea is to have the whole year blow by in just a week.
NEW YEAR'S DAY will be Sunday when Dave, Sue and the kids arrive!
Tuesday is EASTER with an egg hunt and ham dinner
Thursday is HALLOWEEN with costumes and trick or treating
SATURDAY is Christmas with the whole family

this way, we can exchange gifts (IF YOU'D LIKE TO PARTICIPATE) and enjoy the thrill of giving and the joy on the faces of the person recieving. PLUS we don't have to ship to calgary ha haha.
We'll decorate the tree, have a fine lamb dinner

and Sue, It's CORN SEASON here! ymmmmmm

Grandpa is working on his visiting time with Nana to perhaps co-inside with all the grandkids here at once. perhaps on xmas day!

what do you thing of our flurry year idea?
we will do crafts and make things for some presents. Mostly dinner type celebrations so we can do summer things in the day. I have bins of decor we can haul out and play to decorate a small area of the house. the porch area perhaps.

comments welcome!
woolley mum

Hello there to the whole Bradt family. You are viewing the first entry and wich was completed only with a lot of assistance from David.

The little Shitszhu puppy in this photo, was mine to baby-sit for a week and it belongs to Arlene's in-laws, in Kitchener. These dogs are smart as heck and it was a good field-trial for me. (No dog needed here, yet!:))

Maybe within another month, I'll be brave and smart enough to publish another pix.

Love,

Dad

grampasfirstpost

Over the fence.

bonjour!

We arrived in France only an hour or so late after a delayed departure. The flight wasn't bad. Simon was a bit fussy while sleeping but overall ok. It is beaucoup hot here, pushing 40C. Simon will be with his aunt and Corinne's parents in Vergt for 4 days while we're off to Vienna. we'll get some pictures up eventually.

But what's he called? NIKO!

So this little boy came home last night. Cute as a button. A bundle of mischief. Kids met him, and all are in agreement with the name.

He's a seal mitted Ragdoll.

NFB for Free!

I stumbled across this link: the NFB ha smade 50 of its films available for on-line viewing. Certainly takes us a long way from the 16mm sources we've reflected on lately. What I dont know is if the files can be trapped and saved locally, instead of just streamed. Lorne, if you can trap them, let us know.

Titles inclued
"The Cat Came Back", "The Big Snit" "Blinkity Blank","The Street". Sadly, not "Hot Stuff", "Evolution" or "Cosmic Zoom".

http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/index.php

Biovail Volleyball

Last weekend we were in a 2 day Volleyball tournament at Woodbine beach. It was one of only 2 beaches open in the city. Packed and hot but good days to be at the beach. The team placed somewhere 9th - 15th out of 75 teams. Not too bad.
We also went to the Woolley's for the final pool party before they move.

The most impressive pic of the day...

This is pretty much the best looking picture of the day. Yes, that's really me.

TKD in the park: a good day for a test...

Today it was finally time for me to take my next grading for Tae Kwon-Do. I received my Red Belt in May of last year, and was well over due for my test: November through March I was out with the flu & Pneumonia, then work kept me away until I realized it was goofy to ignore my exercise in favour of a project that was going down the toilet. Anyway, it was time to test. I've been cramming for a couple of weeks, spending all the time I could memorizing the stuff I needed to know, and practising until the neural pathways go used to the motions. And trying to remember to lean more, to get the kicks higher.

So in the park, where we hold classes on nice Saturdays in Summer, I took my test. All went very well. My overall mark as 90.7%. Which means that to date, every test I've taken has been between 90 and 95. which has been enought to "double" each time, effectively skipping a level in the belt progression. The rules for black belt are clear: no one may double (or triple) to black. You MUST take the black belt test from the black stripe. This meant that there was no pressure at all to get a high mark: only a pass, which is 70%.

Breaking has been my nemesis (no Lorne, not Nemasis, as in "Nemasis and MacBeth". You think we'd forgotten?) I've been stonewalled in two of the last three Stampede Parade demonstrations, missing my breaks and wounding my ego. And the last test day, I missed my big flying side kick over people into boards. The fact that I could get a ZERO on my brekaing and still pass my test kept me from being disillusioned. However, I persisted, and got the knife hand through 2 boards, the side kick through 3, the flying side kick through 2, a palm heel through one, and the back kick through one. I missed the jumping front snap kick through 2, as it is, well, impossible.

Here's the series of the more spectacular flying side kick:
And in the end, I received my Black Stripe, and got a great pile of firewood, split by brute force! Admittedly, I'm tired.

Today.

Today I drove to Trenton to sell a boat to a guy coming from Ottawa. His friend came along and convinced him not to buy the boat. Grrrrrr....

I Love Paris in the Springtime!

I Love Paris!
Especially in the Springtime!
It was quite magical turning the corner after getting off the bus....and there it was! The Eiffel Tower.
A cold day in April, but amazing to actually be there. Pascale was with Tamara and me, and we saw many sites and took lots of pictures.
The big red bus gave us a wonderful tour of tthe city.
It might be fun to take the Toronto double-decker tour and see the city as a tourist.

I love a teepee

Fiona visited our local native reserve for the first time. She really loved the teepee and ran around inside it.
we saw many totem poles, some newly carved, some well weathered,
Inside the gallery were stuffed bears, deer and moose heads too!
found cool sox for aunt judy
and daddy too.

berry fields forever

Season for picking red things is still here.
We caught the first of Raspberry days and the final Strawberry days too
Missy is here showing her berry outfits. Day one was all red, day 2 had her red suede shoes on!

Ya-Hoo!

A day at the Calgary stampede. The Kids and Susan enjoy them sugary mini donuts. And Me and the kids check out the Budweiser Clydesdales. Yes, that one's named DAVE.

Does anybody really win...

when the game is decided by Penalty Kicks?
The goalies didn't even touch the ball!

Bailey D. Buffalo

The annual CBC Stampede Pancake Breakfast was this morning, and Sue and the Kids went to
the Calgary CBC studio parking lot and joined the rest of the hungry crowds for breakfast. Attending was a tame Bailey D. Buffalo, who you can find all about here.

Today's the beginning of Stampede, so we grin and bear it. I'm in the pre-parade tomorrow with my TKD group, so you can look forward to pix of that!

Welcome to the Scritcher Hotel

After the little rodent managed to bust his way out of his cage by pushing on the undocumented "escape hatch" we now have an upgraded cage for the hamster. 4 floors of fun, plus a removable penthouse.

as found underground in Alberta

July 2nd's kid day in Ptbo also had a neat reptile show. Meet and Greet after has Safari Jeff with Toro the Bull Snake - sans pigment. Ok, so he was born in a zoo, but the show was great, as was all the kids entertainment. Juggling, puppetry, songs and dancing with Al Simmons ending the show with fireworks.

Children's Day in Ptbo

after an exhausting Canada Day, we continued the weekend celebration with a kids festival
One of Fiona's highlights was this GIANORMOUS bouncie maze and slide in the pirate theme.
Here's Alyssa Komel with her at the entrance. And what has Fiona's attention?
why the shark of course, cute and cuddlie!

Beach Boy

The fireworks Canada day were kinda rained on so we passd.
We spent Sunday at Sibbald Point on the south shore of Lake Simcoe. It was packed but fun none the less. Simon loves playing in the sand and eventually got used to floating around in the lake too.

Happy Birthday, Sue!

For Susan's birthday, we all went about an hour north and west of Calgary to a Place Called Saddle Peak Ranch, and took a 90 minute trail ride. Fun for the whole Family! We all had a good time, and are saddle-sore to varying degrees.

Nothing Like Mounties on Canada Day!

So a trip to the mountains brought us to Canmore for a Parade, and to Banff for a great view of the mountains. This is Bow Falls, and a couple of nice Mounties who I'm sure were working overtime to contribute to thousands of Kodak Moments for the throngs.

Great Weather in the mountians.

Allez les Bleus on Canada Day!

They did it, Brazil is out !!!
And Simon is happy: Happy Canada Day and Allez les Bleus !