Sad News this week

Robbie as one of "The Virginians"

Monday evening we received a call from Laura's Step-brother Mark. Laura's step-mom, Mark's mother, Robbie Williams had just passed away. She had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for almost 20 years and after Laura's Dad passed away two years ago Mark had been making sure she was well looked after.

The news was very hard on Laura as it also brought back a lot of memories of not just Robbie but also her father. She stayed on the phone with Mark a good long time Monday night and they spoke again for a long time again yesterday. Some of the memories made Laura smile and others made her cry. As they say you do not get to choose your family and the stories cover a long and sometimes challenging history.

But I also wanted to make sure to give a highlight of who Robbie was. She was born in Maine and like Laura's mother was involved in the music industry. Robbie was first married to Ervin "Wee Willie" Williams whom she met when they were in High School where they had formed a band called The Northern Lights. Willie and Robbie moved to Portsmouth, Virginia where they continued their performing careers with Dave Dalton as the Virginians and DJ'd for a local radio station. It was at this radio station where they first met Gene Vincent. While living in Virginia Robbie and Willie expanded their family with the birth of their daughter Robin. Some time in Richmond after Willie left Gene Vincent's Bluecaps was followed by time in Syracuse New York where Robbie's son Mark was born. Robbie and Willie divorced in the early 80s, after which she met Laura's Dad.

Robbie stayed active, involved with yoga and even teaching classes on cruises. Her challenges with Alzheimer's did make things difficult and as the years went by and it developed into the latter stages of the disease Mark made sure that she was well taken care of. Mark was also very helpful to Laura and her sisters when Laura's Dad had passed away two years ago making sure that things were taken care of properly and for this and his taking care of Robbie so well I know Laura will always be grateful. I also know that Robbie will always be in Laura's memories.

In Memory of Roberta "Robbie" Williams (nee Merrill)

A Diverse Weekend ....

This was one of those weekends that was .... interesting. It was not exceedingly busy but time seemed to fly. Work has been crazy for both Laura and myself so a weekend to rejuvenate was needed for both of us. This weekend we both caught up on reading, Laura even more than me finishing her 4th book on her kindle, and then some time for us and also with the girls.

So Saturday evening we went to an art class. It was a unique kind of class ... a combination of painting and wine called Art by the Glazz. It is a small local company started by a very interesting artist Lisa Jones. She now has classes in 3 or 4 locations and has just started up a version for kids. The idea is for a group of people to get together and paint, chat and share some wine. It was a lot of fun and it turns out that my beautiful wife is also an artist. Of the pictures her painting is on the right. When the girls saw them they all agreed that Laura is definitely the painter in the family ... well outside of Tika of course.


On Sunday myself and the girls headed out for a bit of Chinese New Year
lunch at Mui Kee in Fairfax. The food was really good and had lots of diversity including the standard American-Chinese fare but also things like ducks tongue, fish stomach soup and many other dishes that I could not convince the girls to eat. They did enjoy the meal even if service was a bit slow.

The Girls at Mui Kee

It was a fun weekend even with the coating of snow-ice-rain-sleet that we suffered starting in Friday and all through this morning.


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San Francisco

I just made all my reservations to go to San Francisco in February. It was timely too in that I just was watching The Layover with Anthony Bourdain and he had done a piece on San Francisco and I got some great ideas of places to eat and a few good bars. It also helps that I love San Francisco. Some of my best trips have been to that city on the bay. I always enjoy the food and walking through the city, even when it is raining. I have had some of my most memorable trips there - once going to the Japanese Garden and Alcatraz, a trip I will always remember. This time I am staying at an old favourite hotel of mine, overlooking the Nob Hill Neighbourhood - it should make running interesting.

So the Anthony Bourdain angle is funny - I have been doing a Man vs Food restaurant things where I visit places Adam Richman has been on his show and now with this new show that Anthony is doing it is almost a "I have been there" since he has done shows on San Francisco, Amsterdam, New York, Miami, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, London and Montreal (one of my other memorable trips). But he always adds new thoughts to the cities where I have been so I now need to check some out - so I am looking forward to this trip and going back to some of the other cities with new eyes and to see some of these cities and all they offer with Laura.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart

I know it is Friday the 13th - but for me it is lucky. Today is Laura's birthday. It is lucky for a couple of reasons - the obvious being that it is her birthday and if she did not have one then she would not be in our lives and they would be so empty without her. But the second reason is that it is a Friday and that means I get to create an entire birthday weekend where I can show her how much she means to me and the girls can also show her how much she means to them. I can say the latter because when myself and Tika went shopping for a gift and card Tika looked desperately for a Stepmom card rather than going straight for the generic birthday card. Hallmark take note - you need to get some Stepmom cards.


So I of course have some plans but I am not going to over plan things and I am going to let Laura decide what she wants to do on her special birthday weekend. We will make sure it is fun and relaxing.

We all want you to know that you mean so much to us. I think you can see it when you come home and Kris is here - how she jumps up to greet you - and today how excited Tika was to give you your birthday gift since she would not see you tomorrow.

We love you sweetheart and we want you to have a very special birthday.

Your Charming Canadian


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Some Mixed News

So the last couple of days have been ... interesting. We did get some sad news yesterday when Laura found out that one of the people that she had worked with at PATH had passed away. John Sellors. Laura will tell you that John and Atilla, her former boss, were the people that started CareHPV and it is their legacy that she is carrying forward. Laura had worked with John at the start of the work that she is doing now and always had interesting stories to tell about him. She was always very positive about who he was and what he accomplished. They had a very nice piece in the paper remembering him.

At the same time we had this sad news we also got some good news - my Dad went to the hospital last Friday with pains in his chest. They decided to keep him over the weekend to keep an eye on him but thankfully he was cleared by his cardiologist and went home yesterday. I know my Mom is also happy that he is home - she never sleeps well when he is away.

I also got some uplifting news. As you know I have been running more - and it seems to be paying off. Besides the obvious weight loss my resting pulse and blood pressure are doing great and I am told I am sleeping better - or at least less noisily. According to Laura the plan is to keep me running, keep me eating healthy and cut back on the evening chocolate to make sure I stay around a long time.

So stay healthy and pay attention to the little things so you all will be around a long time as well - and while you are around take note of people like John who did positive things for the world and did it with a positive attitude.

Happy Birthday Sammy!

So I guess I can no longer avoid feeling old. Sammy, or "Spammy" as her big sister calls her, turns 16 today. Sammy is unique in many ways, as each of the girls are. For Sammy she has always been competitive and athletic. I think the competitiveness is why she wanted to be the first of the girls driving. She is also very good with money - especially when she wants something. I expect she will be job hunting soon and will beat her sisters at that too.

 I have always been proud of all my girls and today I am proud that I get to celebrate Sam's 26th birthday with her.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Love Dad & Laura



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FINALLY!

I am not sure if anyone has noticed but the tag-line "Posted using BlogPress from my iPad" has been missing from posts for the last couple of months. In fact the reason for that is also part of the reason why there has been limited posting on tridentityideas over the last couple of months. The issue has been BlogPress on my iPad has not worked effectively (or at all) since upgrading to IOS 5 until an app upgrade today. I am thankful that it is back but the next time I have to go months without access to an app will likely mean I will be changing my blog site. Hopefully that does not happen as mobile blogging is when I do most of my writing. I guess the new update and renewed access mean that I can now officially kick off the new year with some more serious work on my blogs. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy New Year

So it is the new year and myself and Laura just wanted to wish all of our friends and family a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.

For a quick look back on what 2011 had in store for us just click on the link on the right hand side of our page for our 2011 review.

Be safe and be healthy

Gary & Laura

Finishing off 2011

2011 was an interesting year for running - I started the year with the Cherry Blossom Race but then was derailed by Lyme Disease (again) and a stress fracture. This was a bit frustrating ... to start so well but then to get sidelined. Well August saw me get serious and to focus on my eating and when I restarted running in November I was already a bit lighter and then November-December helped me lose a couple of extra pounds so that from the beginning of August to the end of the year I was able to strip off about 15 lbs.

When the end of the year started to approach I started getting notices about the Ringing in Hope race. This is one that is hard for me to ignore as the start is a couple of hundred yards from our front door. The race is a 3 mile loop around our house - and I mean literally around our house - so again - little excuse to ignore. The coupe de gras is that it supports local charities - so count me in.

Race day was Saturday. It was sunny and warm. The starting line was a bit crowded - about 1500 5K and 10K racers lined up. The 5 K runners would split off after the first 3 miles while the 10K runners would do another loop. The course is relatively flat so it was a nice run.

My results would depend on which electronic device you trust more - my Garmin watch said I ran the 6.35 miles at a 7:55 pace - while the official time said a 8:05 pace over the 6.21 mile course. Either way the official results had me finish 132nd of the 624 finishers of the 10K - well within the top 25%. My 7:55 is also my best 10K pace ever - so I was happy.

Now to take a couple of days off before I start training for the 2012 Cherry Blossom and a fun running year in 2012.