A great loss

The Rev. Prof. C. Abbott Conway Jr.
(July 9, 1940-August 26, 2007)

A sadness like no other has fallen on my world today. A wonderful Husband, Father and Grandfather passed away suddenly before dawn this morning. No words can fully describe the grief that has swept across my family and I, but have already been significantly touched by friends and family who have shown their love and support.

May you rest in peace Daddy knowing that you were loved by everyone you knew and your memory will live on in everyone who's lives you touched. You were taken from us far too soon and for this I am angry, but I will go on living knowing you will be by my side forever. I love you Daddy, now and forever!

Angel of Freedom

This is the second of two angels I've stitched for my Mum. She's the mirror image of The Angel of Light. My Mum hesitated when I told her I wanted to stitch her because she feared once framed they would always be bumping into one another *ousch*! Lets just hope they don't spend eternity bickering from one side of the wall to the other, it might get a little noisy!! :P

Jess' Move

The end of an era has arrived! No more walking up the stairs to the second floor in my socks and pjs to watch Cops and AMW. No more spontaneous tea sessions or judging Miss Universe pageants... and countless mutual counseling sessions. Jess and I have lived in the same building for 6 years now, two floors apart and we could still spend hours on the phone together. Now she lives in a beautiful townhouse back in the WI, with Jeff and their two cats. The youngest cat has developed this fantastic game of dropping things down the stairs and chasing them down! I'm guessing he certainly likes his new place of residence. It took Jess' parents, Jess, myself and two burly guys: Steve and Mark two loads of the cube truck to get all Jess' stuff to the new place! Once there instead of sitting and relaxing we went out to the movies where the guys saw Superbad and Jess and I saw Hairspray. Then after midnight we came back to Jess' new home to celebrate with Pizza and beer (or Dr. Pepper as the case may be) before all crashing.Tired but not defeated Jess, Jeff and I venture out to Steve's Dad's house near Ottawa for a BBQ on Saturday. We met several old and new friends and got up to our usual silliness, especially with a volleyball! Unfortunately since we were all pretty tired and needed to get back home the night ended earlier than planned, but certainly not without lots of fun!!

Golfing?!

Well it wasn't full on golfing per say... Paul, Kripp and I went out to a Driving range in St-Lazare to find out just how terrible we each were. It was a beautiful summer day, with a slight breeze blowing and perfect for hanging around outside for a few hours exploring our athleticism.
Kripp was by far the best player, but that goes without saying since we were actually using his clubs.Pauly hit his fair share of 150Ys and generally seemed to be improving with each basket of balls. I won the prize for least consistent player with large numbers of both 150Ys and less than 75Ys.As much fun as it was, I don't think any of us is exactly the next Tiger Woods in hiding!

Musical Journey

Last weekend I traveled to Ottawa to be part of the final three concerts of the Ottawa Early Music Festival. Although it was a great opportunity to sing with great musicians, it was hard to pry myself from this gorgeous hotel room! There was a problem with my original booking, but eventually I was happily checked into the Indigo. This chain of hotels is owned by a bigger one, but is completely eco-friendly. I hope other hotels in the future take as much care and consideration towards both the environment and the guests.
Both concerts I sang in, involved not only an incredible level of musicality but we were fortunate enough to work with Nancy Argenta, Jame Bowman, Adrian Butterfield, Matthew Halls and Daniel Taylor. Oh, the power of name dropping! It was a great experience watching these international superstars at work.
On Wednesday I was also part of a recoding session involving most of these musicians. I'm not sure what the CD will be called or when it will come out, but I will be sure to keep everyone informed to the best of my abilities. It has been excruciatingly hot here for the last couple of weeks and I couldn't resist taking a picture of my beached whale lounging in one of the boxes being shipped. I think he thinks he's "helping" by blending in with the box... I love both of my kitties very dearly and will miss their idiosyncratic ways when the time comes for us to part ways.

Teri's Wedding Shower

One of my colleagues at work is getting married on Saturday the 7th of August in Northern Ontario. To help her celebrate, our office shut down for the afternoon to throw her a surprise shower. Each of us was asked to bring a gift that represented a time of day and what she might be doing during that time. I got 10am and (with the help of Pauly) got her some gardening things. I can never turn down a trip to Reno!! My most favorite part of her gift where rubber coated gloves! Here Teri can be seen modeling the special headdress hand crafted for her by Jill of pieces of each of the wrapping we used for the gifts. Doesn't she look delightful :P
These are some of my colleagues waiting for the bride-to-be to arrive. I think the phrase that was going around at this specific moment was "do you think she suspects anything?"
Believe it or not the staff of our entire office fit around this beautifully laid out table. We were welcomed into Linda's home for the party which looks directly over the city and the mountain. Much fun and silliness was had by all!