Posted 1:02 AM by Ted
The steepest currency drop in Canadian history heralded our trip south of the border Sunday to spend our increasingly worthless money like crazy. Okay, to be fair, we were actually drawn to the Thompson Park Zoo in Watertown by an entirely free annual event known as "Sundae in the Park". They roll out this trough of ice cream that must be at least 30 feet long and you build your own sundae in a paper cup with the various toppings provided. The kids were thrilled. Ian was particularly impressed by the maraschino cherries. "How did they get the pits out?"

Zoo admission was also free, but only for the kids. It's a tiny little zoo, but it keeps on growing. This year they added the "North Country Aquarium". Amy was having a great time. She loves animals. While everyone else was chasing butterflies in the butterfly tent, she was diligently watching caterpillars inch along and did not want to leave. "He's my friend!"

Of course, no trip to the States would be complete without a thorough supermarket inventory to see what stuff is still hard to get in Canada. We got some Jimmy Dean sausages just in time for our upcoming camping trip. Ian insisted we buy him chocolate chip Poptarts. "C'mon, you get eight in the box. Eight!" (In Canada, we only get six...something to do with the exchange rate, perhaps?) Then there were the usual staples: low fat Bisquick, Snow's clam chowder, and collard greens.

Posted 12:00 PM by Ted
Well, my mother's week-long visit ended in a rush for the train station. I think she had a good time while she was here; though it seesawed a bit, her health seemed to improve overall during her stay, and she was fairly upbeat as we gathered for dinner yesterday.

She spoke of the marvelous time she had at the Yarker Tea Room. One of Ally's co-workers is friends with the "pie lady" there, or we never would have found out about the place. Yarker is a short ways west of Kingston, and registers in my mind as the home of Terry Dickenson, the well-known astronomer (at least as astronomers go) who is editor of Sky News Magazine and has published many books popularizing the subject. Alas, I had to work and I was unable to join everyone for the road trip, but it seems they all enjoyed wandering around. Maybe I can get Ally to submit an entry for once. Oh wait! Here's Ian. He might have something to say. He says, "The Yarker Tea Room has like this two-storey birdhouse outside with eight holes in it and twelve birds living inside!"

Later, they drove over to investigate the Loughborough Inn as a potential future vacation spot not far out of town. It's a lodge on the edge of beautiful Loughborough Lake with cottages you can rent, three meals a day, and recreation facilities. Ian's assessment: "They got two parks, and one of them has a really good climby thing!" (Incidentally, Loughborough is also home to a celebrity: in this case, comedian Dan Aykroyd. Legend has it that the late John Belushi used to visit regularly and the "Blues Brothers" concept was developed as they hung out by the lake.)

Getting back to yesterday, my mother suggested we return to Ally's favorite Cambodian restaurant: the Phnom Penh. We ate there earlier in the week, and despite the spicy exotic ingredients, the food agreed with her and she wanted to go again. Unfortunately, there was very little parking downtown for some reason (it might have had something to do with some tall ships that had pulled into the harbour), so we wasted a lot of time trying to get to the restaurant. This accounted for the mad rush to catch her train. By the time we drove in, the train was already pulling into the station. Fortunately, this is Kingston, so there's nothing to stop you from bypassing the station and running right out onto the platform as long as you have a ticket.

Afterwards, we were just kinda standing around in the parking lot and Ally had this idea that we should take Big Red up to the drive-in to truly break it in. Amy got very excited: "I wan' popcone and soda...and can'y!", so that settled it. We saw the double-feature Stuart Little 2 and Men In Black 2. Amy eventually fell asleep in Ally's lap, which was a problem, since it meant when the shows were over, we had to rustle her back into the car seat and wake her up. She had the worst fit I've seen in a long time. To make matters worse, we couldn't drive straight home, since the Saturn was still parked at my work. Amy wouldn't calm down, and pretty soon, Ally was patting her on the back in the work parking lot. Suddenly, the door opens and out comes Yves; he was still working and it was past midnight! After a few words, he sheepishly drove off, and Amy was still crying her head off. Eventually, I said enough is enough, the mosquitoes are gathering, and we need to go home now! Ian, as usual, slept through everything.

Posted 9:32 PM by Ted
Today was something of a day of recovery (at least for us adults) after Ian and Amy's combined birthday party on Saturday. The normally secluded and peaceful Grass Creek Park filled up quickly with the boisterous hollerings of 15 kids, followed by their support staff of 14 adults straining under the weight of the picnic supplies. As I was assembling the two portable grills, some of the other parents set up the T-ball stand, and things were now well under way.

Ally took over for the cooking, and soon I found myself setting up the crocket field with my dad. Unfortunately, I think he got intimidated by the writhing mass of six-year-olds brandishing crocket mallets, and left it to me to orchestrate the game. Too bad...it's always fun to play against a master like him. I have my moments, but my dad is consistently good. His absence did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the young 'uns, however. They loved to play, and one of the triplets showed some serious talent as he quickly broke away from the pack. My dad, meanwhile, was hitting it off with the triplets' dad. I think they must have been trading stories about raising twins.

Before we knew it, we had moved on to bashing the pinata and eating the two birthday cakes. Amy seemed a little intimidated by everyone singing Happy Birthday around her, but Ian took it in stride. She perked up later, however, when we brought out the squirt guns. She sort of faked a limp and asked me to sit down to look at her foot. Next thing I knew, I had a face full of water and she was running off, tittering to herself. The boys were much more direct in their assault. They broke up into two teams: children versus adults. Alas, I was the only adult with a squirt gun, so you can guess how that went....

So that was Saturday. Today, we went to see Dawn, Jessy, and Lily off on their way back to Montreal, but not before swimming in their hotel pool first. That was nice! Then we basically lazed away the rest of the day at home, but went downtown to meet John and Kristen on their way back from Ottawa, and we ate dinner at one of the Indian restaurants (Curry Original). The Kingston Buskers Rendezvous was winding down, but we got to walk past some of the live musicians and stroll around the marina before piling back into our cars. We saw my dad off at the train station since he has an appointment with a specialist tomorrow morning, and that's pretty much it.

Gotta go now, as Ian is begging me to read him "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" before he goes to bed. My voice hasn't quite given out, and we are approaching the dramatic conclusion!

Posted 10:55 AM by Ted
Speaking of Ally, I think I had better amend my entry from a couple of days ago before she gets on my case. We got $875 for the Geo, not $850 as I had mentioned earlier. She was very insistent about that yesterday when we were showing off "Big Red", as she now calls the new car, to the guys at work. As expected, after a cursory glance at the vehicle, they immediately wanted to look under the hood. Yves (my boss) remarked that the car uses a very lightweight oil (5w20 I think it is -- I'd have to double-check) because it has an aluminum engine which runs cooler thanks to the higher thermal conductivity of aluminum. He went on to say that we should avoid gasoline with high sulfer content, which means Esso is definitely out. Where does he get this stuff?

Then he showed me his latest toy: an OBD II reader, which can hook up to any new car and obtain all manner of diagnostics from the on board computer. He hasn't quite figured out how to use it yet, and has been reluctant to test it on his BMW for fear of wiping out some memory he might come to regret later. Happily, the new Ford truck at work has the interface, so he's got his reluctant guinea pig. Have fun, Yves!

Posted 10:53 AM by Ted
Friday's Quote of the Day:

You look good in the new car, Ted. I'll look better. :-P

-- Ally

Posted 5:33 AM by Ted
Hey, we just bought a new car! How did that happen? It's a Ford Focus SE Wagon.

What initially kicked us into car-buying mode was the panic which ensued after the Saturn dealer fed us this doom and gloom speech about our head gasket going, among other things ($2000-2500 repair). A second opinion from the guys at work revealed that yes, there is some oil leaking externally, but it is not mixing with the coolant or vice versa as feared, so it's something we can live with in a ten-year-old car. (The car is actually leaking a fair amount of oil, but most of this apparently comes from a rusted oil pan, which is much easier to replace.)

Despite the false alarm, we went ahead and bought a new car anyway, but we traded in the old Geo Metro instead. Somehow, we managed to squeeze $850 out of the Ford sales rep. for that aging pile of scrap metal. I credit Ally for doing most of the haggling. She seems to have a talent for it (at least relative to me!) I first learned about on the streets of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, but that's another story.

The Focus is an impressive car on paper. The base model with no extra options still comes with air conditioning, keyless entry, security system, roof rack, etc., and you can fold the back seats down completely flat by moving the seat cushions out of the way. It's a much quieter drive than cars I'm used to, and I was amazed to find it can easily pull a U-turn on a residential street. Also, Ford Canada offers three-year 0% financing with a 90-day deferral on the first payment. On the negative side, the first year model (2000) had numerous recalls, but things seem to have stabilized in subsequent years. Knock on wood!

At any rate, we pick the car up Friday afternoon. I am relieved all the dealer-hopping is finally over.

Posted 9:10 PM by Ted
Came across a hilarious new comic strip today called True North. It's about this poor American who wanders up north to be with his Canadian wife, not knowing what to expect. I wonder which paper carries it? At any rate, I think it will become required daily online reading along with The Joy of Tech.

Posted 11:39 PM by Ted
Canada Day 2002 proved to be a hot and humid day, and we didn't even leave the house until 6 pm when Ian had T-ball. I was looking forward to watching a whole game for a change, since I usually show up halfway through when Ally hands off the kids to go work. This time, I brought my camcorder to catch some of the action.

Thanks to it being a long weekend, only two kids showed up from the other team, yet Ian's team was in near-full attendance. They split off some of Ian's teammates to round out the other roster, but fortunately, Ian and Kevin (Ally's godson) remained together.

The tape started rolling as the kids took to the field, Ian being the only one with his baseball cap on backwards. (Anyone who knew me when I was that age would recall that I always wore it that way also, so maybe it's in the genes.) As the inning wound up, I looked around and was surprised to see Ally and Amy missing. Apparently, Amy had actually asked to use the potty, but got cold feet after seeing what public washrooms in parks look like. I can hardly blame her!

Ian and Kevin were, as usual, first in line for the post-game snack: this time, extra long freeze pops. Due to the low attendance, there were many left over, so Amy lucked out. It was incredible to watch her eat the thing. She'd suck on it so hard her face would start trembling, then let go with a deep grin and say "Aaaaahh...dat's GOOD!" Then she'd start at it again.

Next we decided to drive over to a Japanese/Korean restaurant called Sapporo to celebrate my birthday. Ally ordered soft-shelled crab for the first time in her life. She mentioned something about having seen my brother order one once back when we were still dating and being intensely curious about them ever since. As it turned out, the crab was quite good. I had a bite...it's almost sweet, with none of the bother of having to remove the shell. It's sort of like the seafood equivalent of seedless grapes, I suppose.

It was getting dark by the time we left the restaurant, so talk came around to whether or not we should try to view the city fireworks. We had already seen the smaller neighbourhood display the day before, so it was not compulsory. As we approached downtown, we drove past throngs of people converging on the waterfront, so we decided to try our luck again with the secret spot. In past years, the fireworks were usually set off near Confederation Park in front of the city hall, but across the waters of the Rideau River lies a peninsula with an excellent vantage point of downtown Kingston. This peninsula is part of the RMC (Royal Military College) campus, and we'd sneak in there to watch the fireworks.

Alas, this time we were met by a sentry who turned us back, suggesting we try the view from Fort Henry, which is on the other side of the peninsula. Ally figured they must have increased security since September 11. I wasn't so sure about Fort Henry since it is far from downtown, but it is up on a hill so maybe we could still see the fireworks. Apparently, other Kingstonians weren't so concerned, as there looked to be at least a thousand people dotting the hillside. We climbed up as high as we could and looked around. In the distance, we saw the light from the fireworks at Lake Ontario Park silhouetting the many boats that were gathering in the harbour. Some of these appeared to be setting off their flares in celebration. Either that or there were people drowning...it's hard to tell.

Suddenly, the night sky lit up as nearby fireworks boomed to life. Seems this year they had set things up at the tip of the RMC peninsula, so we had a very good view after all. Ian and Amy were suitably impressed, and so ended our Canada Day.

Posted 4:25 PM by ally_in_canada
Hey this is cool to have a joint log. I'll try to be good and add a little about the kids & their doings on a daily basis. Today is Canada Day, and mostly we're just cleaning the house. Later we'll go to Ian's t-ball game and then out to dinner to celebrate Ted's 36th birthday (a week late!) and maybe see some fireworks if the kiddies are still awake. Anyway off to do more laundry :)

Posted 1:34 PM by Ted
Happy 135th Canada!