Wooohooo!!! Back on the air!!!

Hey Everybody!! So its been 2 months since my last confession, er, post. Many things have happened, some of which actually did affect my ability to use the Internet and keep you all posted on how Donna and I are doing. I am probably going to forget a whole bunch of things, but I will try and remember the most important, interesting, funny, and useless things. I am not actually sure where to begin, so here it is, chronologically.

Thanksgiving.

Donna knew that I was feeling a little crumby at my lack of work, so she said she was going to make me Thanksgiving Dinner. I got really excited. We were going to have people over. Donna was going to make turkey and all the trimmings. I was going to eat much, much more than was good for me. Then we found out that Jason and Flora were going to the states for the weekend and needed someone to dog sit for them. Sounded like fun and we could dirty their kitchen instead of ours. Plus we could do a bit of laundry since the washers and dyers at our place were broken. Then we also found out that Donna's friend Tanya was coming up for Sunday morning brunch. Needless to say this put a damper on our turkey dinner plans. Oh well, not a big deal, I will just have to consume more turkey at Christmas.

I made the Wife-Saver Breakfast for the first time when Tanya and Wilson (her fiance) came for brunch,and despite a few missteps, it turned out really well. The dog sitting was not as successful. Lai-Fu, Jason and Flora's Sheba Inu, is a handful. Let's just say that Donna is thinking that a cat might be better for us. It ate her scarf, several of our socks (we stayed the weekend at their place) and her brand-new shoe's (which she had just bought with birthday money from her Mom and had only worn once).

And I did get poultry for Thanksgiving Dinner. I had a delicious 1/4 chicken dinner at Swiss Chalet. I kid you not... I actually cried a little bit inside afterwards.

Camping.

One of the attendings Donna works with was nice enough to invite us up to his property for some camping one October weekend. Donna wasn't sure she wanted to go as it was getting late in the season, nights were getting a little cold, and she was the only female going. I talked her into it, since it was the last chance to get away for the weekend for awhile. It was a little cold, but it was totally worth it.

We had a great time. 4 other Dr.'s came up at various times for various lengths of time, so there was always company around. Lots of very marginally healthy food and drink as well. Turns out Dan's wife Angela came up the next day, so Donna was happy at the injection of estrogen to the campsite. Their property is amazing to say the least. Apparently it is impossible in Canada to actually own water, such as a lake. However, Dan and Angela have purchased 120 acres of land that completely surrounds a lake, essentially giving them the lake as well, for a total of 180 acres of relatively private bliss. They are in the process of developing it, and when they do it will be one heck of a property. We canoed the lake and hiked the area, and best of all, Donna didn't freeze.

Birthdays.

So Donna and I each had birthdays in October. We went out for dinner with her friends to the best of the local Chinese restaurants. It's not bad, for white-bread Chinese. Yes, there is a buffet at lunch for $6.50, but does that necessarily mean that it's a bad place to eat? In this case no, particularly since there is not really anything better Chinese-wise in the downtown area. It was pretty good, and since we hadn't had Chinese for awhile, it was pretty good. For my birthday, some of us went to one of the better local pizza places, Woodenhead's. Slippy, if your reading this, (probably not since this is way to lowbrow for your self-proclaimed towering intellect) we did not have the famous Coconut Shrimp, but we did dine on some delicious wood-oven pizza and fresh salads. I got Donna some new flannel sheets to help ward-off the now present winter chill, and Donna got me the new Halo 3 video game, perfect for an out of work bum with nothing else to fill his days.

Rugby.

For the months of September, October, and the first part of November, rugby was pretty much all consuming. I didn't have much else to do, so it was actually pretty good. We ended up getting through the regular season in first place. We thumped Trent in the first round of the playoffs 99-0. That's right, 99-0. We actually had chances to get to triple digits, but missed several kicks that would have put us over the century mark. The following week, we beat heated rivals 18-13 in front of a great home crowd. The bleachers were packed, and they even put up a beer garden and food tent for the game. It was a very hard game, with several close plays that truly tested the Queens Players. The guys played very hard and were both technically sound and mentally tough against Western. This confirmed a spot for us against Brock in the finals at Fletcher's Field in Toronto.

The weekend of Nov. 10 we travelled to Toronto, getting there on Friday evening so we would have time to get a run in before it got too dark. Along the way we stopped at Luke Follwell's parent's farm for lunch, that's right, the whole bus load of rugby players were fed by two of the nicest people ever. I am not sure I would want to open my house to 40 hungry rugby players, coaches, and trainers. That's a lot of food. It was delicious, and a nice team bonding activity.

The eating didn't stop there. A Queen's alum, Rick Powers (great guy), took the team out to dinner. Pasta, salad, and bread... lots of carbs for the guys. Then he took the coaches and trainers out for "real dinner." So after eating a healthy portion of pasta, a few hours later I was treated to ribs a fries. Let's just say I ate way too much that day, especially since I got up the next morning and ate at the breakfast buffet.

All that eating didn't get us a win though. It was a close game, and Queens had several chances to put the ball over the try-line, but we couldn't capitalize on our attempts. We lead at two points early in the game, thanks to Bryn Davie's kicking, but it was not enough. It was a great season, and the guys should really be proud of themselves. I had a great time working with them and I can't wait to get back to it next year.

Toronto.

Donna drove down after the game and we spent the night in Toronto, doing all the good Toronto things that Kingston doesn't offer. We ate and bought a car load full of Asian groceries and socialized with several friends of Donna's doing rotations in Toronto at the time. It was a nice time. Thanks again to Donna's cousins for letting us stay with them.

Employment.

So I was beginning to get a little depressed with the lack of work. September went by without a sniff, although I applied to a few jobs. I managed to get an interview for an occasional teaching position (TOC or substitute for all you Vancouverites) at the beginning ofOctober, and I thought it went pretty well (I also thought my interview at Alpha 3 years ago went well, but I found out later that it wasn't my best effort). Later in October, on my birthday no less, I got a call telling me I had a job, and that I needed to go to an orientation meeting on 5th of November. At that meeting I found out that I could expect to be getting calls starting November 19th. I actually got a call before that because they were extra short people, but I worked only 3 days in those first 3 weeks. 3 days of work in over 4.5 months. How's that for unemployment?

Anyway, I got a really good break the other day. I actually have semi-permanent work for the next few weeks, which will see me through to the Christmas break. It isn't quite full time, but they are really good about trying to get my workload topped up when other people are way from the school. It's in Odessa, which is just a 25 minute drive from Kingston. Its a great school and the staff is really nice.

To get back and forth from school, I decided after much deliberation to get snow tires. Good thing. I had them put on and the next day in dumped a whole pile of snow. How do these Ontario people put up with this? It also dropped to -20 today, turning much of the roadways into skating rinks. Nice eh?

Computer.

Almost done...just a little more patience required. So I haven't been able to post because my computer packed it in. I hate computers. After some research and a little bit of luck, I have secured myself a new computer that is working just fine. But I do hate Windows Vista. It is not total crap, but it is definitely not a drastic improvement over XP. My biggest itch right now is that I can't get Windows Live Messenger to work. I like using messenger. I want this fixed. Somebody help me.

OK. That's it. Regular up dates and hopefully some more photos will come soon. If I don't freeze first.