Tika and me in DC

The end of the school year I spent a day chaperoning Samantha's class on a field trip to DC. It was a cool field trip in that it was focused on the mall but required the kids to answer a list of questions about things in and around the mall. A couple of weeks later myself and Tika spent at Saturday afternoon at the Corcoran Gallery and we talked about the field trip and Tika said that there were a lot of places in DC that she had not been to so we planned a day for just the two of us to go see some places in DC that we had not seen or that it had been a while since we had been there.

Our day started with tea at Teaism, a place we both like for lunch but it was too early for that. After we were caffeinated we headed off to the National Archives - which neither of us had been to. The lines were short early in the morning and we got to spend a couple of hours looking at the collections there as well as the architecture, such as the Rotunda. Since Tika enjoys history, and does well at it (a 5 out of 5 in her AP History exam last semester) she had lots of things to talk about. We saw the Bill of Rights, Constitution and Declaration of Independence but also things like drawings for the initial lunar lander and Shaq's shoe that he gave to the president.

After we left the Archives we walked over to the Canadian Embassy and saw an exhibit of Yosuf Karsh's photography as well as played in the echo chamber before walking up and around Capitol Hill on our way to the Library of Congress. The Library was also a place I had never been to. We were hoping to get to actually go into the library but we found out you need to be doing research to get in so we toured the building, looked into the library through the viewing area, saw the Jefferson Library and exhibits on Gershwin and Bob Hope.

Once we left the Library we were getting hungry so we walked over to Union Station, one of my favourite buildings in DC and had lunch. We spent some time walking through the station, since it is such a beautiful building, before we headed over to the National Building Museum. I guess by now you can tell we both like architecture :-)

After touring the Building Museum we headed back home. We were fortunate not to get rained on but we were also fortunate enough to take advantage of living so close to so many fantastic things to see and do.

I am looking forward to keeping up that tradition.

..... cu

Sam is tonsil free

Last Friday Sam went in to have her tonsils removed. She had been getting sore throats or strep quite frequently over the last few years so we took her to a specialist and he recommended getting her tonsils out. We of course had to wait until she came back from the US National Karate Championships. Sam and Tika went with their dojo, Ichiban Karate and Sam came back with a Gold and Bronze while Tika came back with two bronze medals.

Once she was back and rested she went in early last Friday for the surgery. The doctor was very open about things as were the assistants and nurses. The surgery was less than 20 minutes and she was home about 2 hours after she went in. Her throat has been a little bit sore but she is eating and drinking as best she can. She does not like her pain medicine but she is taking it. The doctor said no strenuous activities for a couple of weeks - which of course she does not like, she would much rather be doing karate and learning new things. So far though she is behaving and that is what she needs to do.

OK - back to work for me ---- cu

First day back to the office

OK - maybe not a full day but I did manage to get into the office for a morning meeting and also a conference call afterwards.

It does still amaze me that just getting out of the house and back into a more usual environment does help get things back to normal. Well I guess back to normal based on what normal has been for the last 3 weeks. It will be nice to get back to exercising and doing the real normal stuff I would do. Another few weeks and hopefully I will get clearance for all of that. At least I hope so - I have a race in October that I would really like to do.

.... cu

What a hard couple of weeks ....

So everyone says that moving is one of those "stressful" events that should be avoided. Well I will safely say that moving is hard but add to that a lady cutting in front of you as you ride at 20+ MPH on the road a couple of days before moving and moving gets REAL interesting.

It has been just over two weeks since I went out for a morning ride when a lady went through a stop sign right in front of me and I slammed into her new SUV. As one can imagine the cyclist rarely gets the better end of that deal and I spent the next 36 hours in various ICUs having doctors, nurses and who knows who else checking me out. They did release me on Saturday evening carrying home with me a small fracture on the back of my skull, two smaller fractures in my left orbital socket, some minor bleeding and at least a couple of weeks of headaches.

I do consider myself lucky in that I am walking, talking and no other obvious injuries. It will be a couple of more weeks before I get back to exercising again, and riding my ride bike will be a lower priority this year, but I am feeling much better than two weeks ago.

I finally got to see my bike again. A lady who was out jogging picked it up for me and took it home and we finally synced up on Friday. The picture does not do it justice and it will be interesting to see what the bike shop says - but the handlebars and left shifter and likely done, both wheels are bent and then of course a good scratch on the frame.

The good news is things are getting back to normal and now I just feel like I have a medium flu bug. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that all else is OK and I am DEFINITELY grateful that I had someone to look after me for the last couple of weeks. I would not know what I would have done without you Laura. I am also thankful that my girls and Darlene were also there to help when they could - again a big thank you.

Hopefully I will see you out running this fall - I d have a 10 K I am planning to run in October :-)

Take care .....

A busy couple of weeks ....

... and about to get busier.

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. Father's Day of course - which was a great weekend - myself and Tika spent Saturday at the Corcoran Gallery in DC. We had been wanting to get there for some time but every time we went there they were closed so with their Summer Saturdays program we knew we would be able to FINALLY make it there. Sunday myself, Kris and Sam went out for barbecue and then hung out and played some board games - it was a lot of fun and a great way to spend Fathers Day.

This past weekend myself and the girls headed down to the Folklife Festival on the Mall in DC. It is an annual event that highlights two or three cultures and you get to learn about all aspects of the culture from education to food to homelife. The primary culture this year was Welsh which allowed us to learn of one of the world's longest town names .... Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Try putting that on a post card.

We also made a quick stop into the National Museum of Natural History to see the new Oceans exhibit and the new Bones exhibit and then a run over to the National Gallery for the Royal Armour exhibit - which was INCREDIBLE.

We metro'd down and back, which was a challenge on the way back due to the crowds. As you can tell from the girls they were less than excited to be waiting in a crowded metro station for 20 minutes - but once we got on the train it was ok - crowded but OK.

Of course with tomorrow being Canada Day I am looking forward to getting together with some friends down at O'Sullivans in Clarendon. This will also be a special Canada Day as it will be my first Canada Day with Laura so I am looking forward to not only sharing with my friends but sharing with her as well.

Then there is moving day which is rapidly approaching. I have yet to start packing. Thankfully I am not moving far and I do have a pile of vacation time I have yet to take so that should make it easier - but It is still a process. Hopefully after the move we can get into a nice relaxing period - the occasional BBQ and relaxing weekends.

I hope everyone has a great CANADA Day and hopefully I will have some pics of it to post the end of the week :-)

.... cu

Late posting from last weekend ....

It has been a busy week so I did not get a chance to update everyone on last weekend. It was a busy weekend as well. On Saturday myself and Tika went to DC to work on her AP History project. She is working on it with two other class mates and she needed to do some video that would basically be "News story-like" on some of the top events of the 2000's. So off we went.

We started at the new Pentagon Memorial where she did a brief piece on 9/11. Neither of us had been there before so it was a nice opportunity to see the memorial itself. It was also tough in some regards as we saw the name of someone born the same year Tika was born and then realized that not only was she lost but also her Dad and step-mom. We then drove up to Arlington where we did a brief piece on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not the most cheery start of the work but it had a flow. We did have a challenge filming in Arlington as planes would take off every 60-90 seconds out of National Airport and fly overhead - but we managed.

Back in the car and across the river where we filmed a piece in front of the Federal Reserve on the financial crises of the decade, the tech-bust and the recent recession; a piece in front of the White House on the Obama election and finally off to Capitol Hill where we filmed a piece on the changing landscape in the Legislative branch.

I had a lot of fun. Tika was very professional when filming and we had a great time just talking about the different aspects of politics, things going on and school.

On Sunday myself, Kris and Sam picked up some food and headed to River Bend park for a hike down to Great Falls. It was a good day for it, not too hot and not raining for a change. The trail was a bit wet but not too bad. It was obvious from the Potomac that we have had LOTS of rain. As you can see in the pic - the water was pretty fierce.

We did get to see some wildlife. On the way down there were two beautiful deer on one of the peninsulas near the falls. They were hidden in the woods but we got a very good look at them. On the way back we saw this Salamander, or I should say Kris saw this Salamander (myself and Sam walked right by it). Kris is great on the detailed stuff. We had a great hike, got a little muddy, but it was fun and the girls did not complain too much about the few miles we hiked.

I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I will get out for a bike ride tomorrow morning down to Lake Accotink and then have a relaxing afternoon. Sunday morning will be breakfast with the girls as they have a graduation ceremony to go to in the afternoon. One of our family friends has their son graduating from High School - Congratulations Cole.

Have a GREAT weekend.

.... cu

PS Go RED WINGS!!!!!!!

Sam's Field Trip

Today was Sam's 7th grade field trip. It is an annual event at BEMS where they take the 7th grade class to the National Mall for a scavenger hunt. Of course it is an educational scavenger where they have to find the answer based on clues - like how many states were in the US when Lincoln was president (hint - count the columns on the Lincoln Memorial).

I chaperoned on the trip and it was a great time. I had 4 kids with me - Sam, Alec and Sam's friends Melika and Kayla. We were dropped off at the Smithsonian castle and headed West down the mall to answer questions about the Mall itself, the Washington Monument, the White House, World War II Memorial, Vietnam Vets Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial and then ending up at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The picture on the left, of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial was taken by Sam.

Sam did not limit herself to pictures of memorials and monuments however. She also was pretty busy taking pictures of her fiends and "SQUIRREL". Sorry, that was another UP reference. She was very good though at taking pics of memorials as well, as can be seen from the picture of the Lincoln Memorial.

The kids all did well answering the questions and the rain held off so all in all a very good day. She now has to pull together a project with her teammates which will be displayed next year at the start of school.

Next time you need a guide at the National Mall maybe Sam can help.

.... cu