Birthday Surprise

As my birthday was approaching, I talked to Laura and asked her if she was visiting me.  She said she sure was.

Then it was my birthday and no sign of Laura.  Barb was out playing pickleball.  I was looking at Facebook and saw some photos on Laura’s page about packing and heading for the airport.  I started looking at flights that she might have taken to Ottawa.  There were some early morning flights but then Laura would have been in Ottawa by now and she wasn’t.

Barb came home and wished me a happy birthday.  I said that I saw some funny posts on Laura’s Facebook.  Barb went out to the backyard and let Laura in the house by the back door to surprise me.

Half Price Half Cooked Hamburgers

Julia and Sarah and Barb went out The Works for dinner.  It is usually so good there.  However, this time there hamburgers were only half cooked.  They sent them back to be re-cooked but they were still raw when they got them back.  Then the manager gave them half price on the half cooked hamburgers and coupon for free hamburgers when they visited again.

Best Laid Plans

Laura had made complicated plans to travel to Montreal and Ottawa on her way to Vancouver to work at the end of the summer.  She was going to go to Montreal for a Metal concert.  Then take the train to Burlington where I would pick her up and take her to my ball tournament in Kitchener.  Then she would come back to Ottawa and go to another Metal concert.  Then hang out in Ottawa for a few days before heading back to Vancouver.

I was supposed to have a meeting up north with Max the week before the tournament in Kitchener.  Unfortunately, they postponed that meeting for a week so that now it feel right in the middle of my ball tournament.  When I told Laura that I wouldn’t be able to attend all of the ball tournament, she cancelled her plans.

Then Max's meeting was postponed again until September.  Now I was able to go the ball tournament.  Unfortunately, Laura told her work that she was available now and they scheduled her to work.  So she couldn’t change her plans back.

Bad Times in the Bathroom

When we got back from Florida, Barb was disgusted with the state of the shower in the bathroom.  She called a company to come and replace the shower stall but they were very busy and couldn’t come until August.  In the meantime, we had to live with the moldy baseboards under the shower stall.  We knew that we had problems when we found a mushroom growing out of the baseboard one morning.

When the guys finally came to replace the shower stall, they didn’t do a very good job.  The first thing we noticed was that they punched a big hole in the dining room ceiling when they put in the drain pipe.  They had to get their specialist to come and cut the pipe.

Then we had to wait for the caulking to dry.  I became the shower tester. The caulking wasn’t done right and they had to come back and fix it.  Then we waited for the caulking to dry again.

Then we noticed that they door wasn’t installed properly and water was pouring out under the door.  They came back and fixed that.

Then it was time to fix the rest of the bathroom.  We got our next door neighbor to put in new tile floor and baseboards.  Then Barb painted the walls and baseboards.  Now she is happy with the bathroom and it should last until we sell the place in a couple of years.

Barb’s Large Frame

Barb and her female partner went all the way to Windsor to play in a pickleball tournament.  It was a big event with lots of sports for seniors.  Barb and her partner won the women’s doubles.  They played in the finals against two sisters from Windsor who had never lost a game.  It was a big win.

At the banquet during the games, Barb was sitting with a group of friends from Cornwall.  Barb was saying that she and her partner had no competition.  The man sitting across the table from her said that Barb could hit the ball hard because she has a "large frame".

Daphne’s Whirlwind Tour

Daphne made some complicated plans to visit Sarah in Deep River for the weekend and then swing by Ottawa to visit Julia on Monday and Tuesday.  Then she was going to leave on Wednesday to visit a friend in Peterborough to play golf on the way home.

Sarah and Daphne hiked and canoed and stayed in a chalet in Algonquin Park.  They did some fishing and caught and cooked fish for dinner.

When Daphne was leaving Deep River, she checked the bikes on the bike rack of her car.  She put her wallet on the bumper.  Then she drove off and the wallet fell off the bumper in the parking lot of Tim Horton's.  Someone saw it and picked it up. When Daphne realized that she didn't have her wallet she went back to the Tim Horton's and looked for it.  She went inside to ask if anyone had turned it in but her wallet was gone. 

So when Daphne came to Ottawa, she had no money, no credit cards, no drivers license or identification.

I lent her some cash and Daphne started the process of cancelling her credit and bank cards.   

 

Daphne and Julia went on an bike ride adventure downtown.  They did yoga on Parliament Hill.  Then took a tour of the Parliament Buildings in French but skipped into the English tour part way through.  Then they went to GoodLife where Julia had a free pass for a “person and a guest”.  Apparently, neither of them needed to be a GoodLife member.

While Daphne was in Ottawa, the lady who found her wallet phoned Truman in Pike Lake and Truman emailed Daphne to tell her that her wallet had been found.  Unfortunately, Daphne didn’t see the email in time and had already started the process of replacing all of her cards.  Once the process was started it couldn't be stopped.

Sarah went and picked up the wallet from the lady in Deep River.  Then Sarah brought it back to Guelph later in the month to give to Daphne.

Daphne and the girls had a good time even though it was a whirlwind tour and there was the mishap with Daphne's wallet.

Impromptu Trip to Deep River

I was listening to my radio station and the DJ said after a song that the band that had just played was going to at Riverfest in Deep River this weekend.  I told Sarah about it and she asked me if I wanted to go.  I said “yes”.  So I started making plans.  Sarah was volunteering at Riverfest and playing in a beach volleyball tournament.  Barb had never been to Deep River.  So she thought it might be fun to go too.  Sarah said that Barb could join them in the beach volleyball tournament.  Barb contacted our friends from Florida who had a bed and breakfast in Deep River.  They were excited to have us visit but they had a family reunion that weekend.  They said that we could still come and use there guest house.

So we drove to Deep River on Friday night.  When we arrived Sarah was out volunteering at the Riverfest fireworks.  Barb was spooked out by the Convent residence that Sarah where was living.  We settled into the guest room at our friend's house.

The next morning Sarah picked up Barb and brought her to the beach for the volleyball tournament.  I came by in the afternoon.  Then in the evening, Barb and I went to the concert.  Barb really liked the guys who were the masters of ceremony.  They were called "The Arrogant Worms' and sang funny songs.

We sat in our lawn chairs beside another couple.  The lady said that Barb looked familiar.  It turned out that the lady was the daughter of the lady that Barb played pickleball with in Dartmouth, the same lady that Barb met at city hall during the pickleball demonstration last month.

We went up to the front for when "The Mounties" came on.  Sarah who was working the cash box in the beer tent came up too when she finished her shift.  She brought all of her friends from the residence.  Sarah said that Kevin was just like me.  Always reading self-help books and listening to books on CD.  He had seen Barb on Facebook and said that Barb’s hair looked better in real life.

The next day we had breakfast with our friends from Florida.  Then Sarah took us on a long drive through Algonquin Park to walk on the trails and see a cliff and then a lake.  It was hot so Barb and Sarah went swimming in their underwear.

Then on the way home, Barb and I saw a black bear on the side of the road.  After we drove by the bear nonchalantly crossed the highway.

It was memorable weekend.

Barb Email Challenged

Barb was watching the pickleball channel on Youtube.   

Then for some reason she wanted to look up how to spell “bachelor”.  Somehow she sent an email to the pickleball channel with only the word “bachelor”.   

They were nice enough to email back saying they didn’t understand her email.   

Barb is email challenged like I am text message challenged.

Pickleball Coincidence

There was a reception at city hall for Ottawa sports month.  Barb met the mayor.  She and her pickleball friends were shown up by the roller derby ladies who came in their roller derby uniforms.

Later that week, Barb and her friends did a pickleball demonstration outside city hall.  There very few people who came out to see them.  One lady who did come out said she knew about pickleball because her mother played.  Barb asked where her mother played.  The lady said Dartmouth.  Barb asked her mother’s name.  It turned out that Barb had met her mother the day before when she played pickleball in Dartmouth while we were visiting Laura.

Laura’s Eastern Canada Pole Competition

Laura decided to stay in Halifax this summer primarily to compete in the Eastern Canada Pole Competition.  She was working hard on her doubles routine with a boy from Atlantic Cirque.  She was very excited about competing.  Unfortunately, at the last minute her partner dropped out on her.  He said he had a family emergency and had to go home on the weekend of the competition.  Laura figured he had to go home because the family cat had died.

Laura had worked so hard on her doubles routine that she had neglected her solo routine.  Suddenly, her solo was her only routine and she had to develop her routine from scratch.

Barb and I flew to Halifax for the weekend.  We rented a car at the airport and drove to downtown Halifax.  We dropped in to see Laura at the studio.  When we got off the elevator and we were surprised to see Laura right outside the door.  Laura couldn’t talk to us long because she was working on her routine with an instructor.

We met Laura after leaving her studio but Laura had to work on her costume.  So we dropped her off at a friend’s house.

The next day was the competition.  Laura had to be at the casino, where the competition was being held, at noon.  So Barb drove her there in the morning over the bridge from Dartmouth to Halifax in hurricane winds.  Laura checked in and got her instructions about the competition.  Then she went to buy hair dye and makeup.  She dyed her hair in the washroom of the casino.

We went to the casino in the evening for the show.  We really enjoyed the pole dancing, the music and the lights.  There was a comedienne as a master of ceremonies who was very funny.

Laura was the very last person to perform.  She was in the professional division of the solo group.  We thought she did a terrific routine and she looked great in her costume and makeup.  It was funny that she was using the same music as another competitor but we didn’t notice.  She came fourth so was just out of the medals.  We didn’t understand what the judges were looking for.

Barb took some good pictures with her iPod.  I put one as the screen saver on my iPod as a memory.

Impromptu Trip to Halifax

Laura wanted us to come to Halifax to see her pole competition.  We thought about driving and realized it would be crazy to drive all that way for just a weekend.  So we booked a last minute flight on Porter Airlines.

Laura was busy rehearsing when we arrived.  So Barb and I went sightseeing.  The hills of downtown Halifax are crazy.  We parked at the top of the hill and walked down to the harbour where we had lunch.  It was a lovely warm day even though it was very windy.  There was supposedly a hurricane hitting Halifax that weekend.  We finished our sightseeing but Laura was still busy.  Since we were parked close to the Citadel, we decided to walk up to the Citadel and take some pictures of the hills down to the harbour.

Laura texted us while we were at the Citadel saying she was finished.  She asked where we were.  I am not good at texting and Barb didn’t have her glasses.  So I tried to text her back saying we were at the Citadel but only sent the word “The”.  Barb and I laughed and laughed.  Laura said "Nice Dad".

Laura was living in Dartmouth in a mansion of a house.

On Saturday, Laura had her competition.  So we didn’t see her much.  But in the evening after the competition Laura and I watched Moneyball.  Laura thought it was just like the way I study fastball.

On Sunday morning, Barb went to play pickleball in Dartmouth.  In the afternoon, we all went to see the Tattoo at the Arena.  Afterwards, we went down to the harbour for dinner.  Then we spent a long time talking to a lady with a great dane.  We hung around outside the Jazz Festival talking to Laura's good friend Benham.

On Monday, morning we drove around Halifax and Dartmouth to see all the places where Laura had lived.

We dropped into Tour Tech where Laura worked full-time.  We met her big boss.  He was a really interesting self-made man.  He said Laura was doing a great job with her lighting.  Laura showed us around the place.  There seemed to be a large number of eccentric people who worked there.  So Laura fit in well.

Then we went next door to see where she does acrobatics with Atlantic Cirque.  There was an awkward moment when Laura saw her pole partner who stood her up at the pole competition.

Before we left to come home, we went to the old NSCAD building to see where Laura did her art.  It is a really neat old building with a lot of sneaky passageways.   

Then we drove to the airport and dropped off the rental car.  Laura and I had icecaps and Barb had a café mocha’s at the Tim Horton’s in the airport.  By the time we got through security, the airline was calling our name to board the plane.  We were that last people to board the plane before they closed the gate.  Our seats were also at the back of the plane.  So everyone on the plane saw us coming in late.

Honesty in Oil Changing

Barb was very impressed by Mr Lube.  She took the car in for an oil change.  The man at Mr Lube gave her a newspaper and a coffee.  He checked her oil and told her she didn’t need an oil change yet.  Usually, the men at Mr Lube try to sell her things she doesn’t need.  They must be turning over a new leaf.