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On Monday evening Ann went to her monthly book club meeting at Tribeca Bistro & Bar. This month the book was Fugitive Pieces which Ann liked but did not have unanimous approval from the panel. Apparently it is good if you don't expect a fully developed linear narrative. Ann also liked what she ate, but not enough to remember what it was.
On Tuesday evening Ann and Emily were asked to go for an impromptu sail on our friends Roger and Cathy's boat (James and I were busy at soccer). They sailed out of the Armdale Yacht Club, up the Northwest Arm and into the harbour approaches. There was a good stiff breeze so it was fine sailing and they think that they glimpsed a whale. Emily was especially excited as I have just finished reading Swallows and Amazons to her and James (all about sailing).
James's soccer team, the Rovers, finally won their first game on Thursday evening. They have improved quite a lot over the past couple of weeks since Andrew and I (we're co-coaches) tried a new approach. On Thursday they played well and fully deserved their win.
Thursday also brought Alex's guinea pig, Joey, to us for a few days. Emily is looking after him while Alex is out of town. Not surprisingly Ginger and Louie are quite interested in the giant mouse that has taken up residence in the toy room.
This week Emily finally decided to give paddling a try. Until now she has been content to spend her time swimming while James has been paddling, but now she has joined a paddling group that includes a couple of her school classmates as well as one of the girls on her soccer team. She seems to be enjoying it despite her initial reluctance.
On Saturday afternoon Katy worked her last shift at Sobey's, though she will continue working at her other job until the end of the summer. In the end she found that handling two jobs was just too wearing, even if one of them was only part time.
I forgot to mention last week that our washing machine has died. We went out last Saturday and bought a new front loader, but it won't be delivered until Tuesday. That has required a couple of trips to the laundromat, something that we have not had to do for years except when travelling.
The weekend has been gorgeous: fairly hot (just under 30°) with nearly cloudless skies. We have taken advantage by getting some badly needed gardening done and yesterday I went for a ride down the Trans-Canada trail for a couple of hours. Last night Emily, James, Ann and I set up the tent and camped out in the backyard. This was a trial run of our camping gear in preparation for a camping trip to PEI next weekend.
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On Thursday James turned nine. I took both Thursday and Friday off work to help with the festivities. It started on Thursday morning with our tradition Eggs Benedict birthday breakfast, along with opening of presents. In the afternoon Jim and Valerie and Roxanne and Carl (whose birthday is also on July 20th) came over for some pie and other goodies.
James' birthday party was deferred until Friday afternoon; five boys plus one of Emily's friends. The plan was to have a big fight with water pistols in the back yard but it was pouring down rain (as it has been for the rest if the weekend and all today) and who wants to have a water fight in the rain? So we took them all swimming at the Sportsplex instead. Emily also made them a treasure hunt which was following by a viewing of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie (for the umpteenth time) and a sleepover. On Saturday morning Ann cooked them all waffles (I had the late shift so I got to sleep in) before sending them home with very little sleep.
This weekend I watched the Spingold, one of the main American bridge tournaments, on the internet. Last night was the final and, though I should have been able to write this page while watching, it was so close and exciting that I didn't manage it. One of the teams in the final contained four of six members of the Italian team who are current world champions, and the other team was the US team that the Italians beat in the world championship final. So the quality of play was pretty high. In the end it came down to the second last hand before the Nickell team, the team that lost the world championship, finally won.
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We joined the Banook Canoe Club again this summer primarily so that James could take part in the paddling program, which is is enjoying very much. He, Emily and Ann have been spending a good part of their days there, James paddling and swimming, Emily swimming, and Ann socializing and catching up on her book club reading.
This weekend was dominated by the Dartmouth United Soccer Minifest, a tournament for all the DU teams aged 10 and under. Emily and James had three games each and, sad to say, we lost all six. I expected that James's team, the Rovers would lose most of their games as they are quite weak, but Emily's team has been doing very well in their regular league games, so I expected them to do much better. Actually, though they were flat yesterday, they played very well today and were a bit unlucky to lose. Emily and her team-mate Julia combined to score a very nice goal, Emily weaving past a couple of defenders then making a perfect pass to Julia in front of the net. After the games today Emily, James, Ann and myself went down to the beach at Banook to relax.
David spent much of the weekend refereeing; six games in all I think, but may be off by one or two. Katy spent the weekend at Acadia with Ben, returning late this afternoon.
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The kids seem to have adjusted quite well to life without school. There have been various play dates throughout the week as well as an outing to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie which just opened.
On Thursday, James and I went to the Rovers soccer practice as usual, but the skies opened up as we were on our way. We sat in the car for a few minutes until it abated, then decided to go ahead with the practice anyway. Eleven of our seventeen players showed up, but there was only one other team, out of ten, that was there. We decided to have a scrimmage amongst ourselves in lieu of the game (each evening consists of a half hour practice followed by a half hour game against one of the other teams). I told the kids and parents that they were free to go home if they wanted, but most of them stayed for the full hour. James and I were both pretty wet by the time we got home.
This was World Cup weekend. Since the consolation match between Portugal and Germany was only on cable, which we don't get, We went over to Ingrid's yesterday afternoon to watch it, followed by a dinner of take-away Indian food. On the way home we stopped in to say hello to Tobi and her two young kids, Jake (17 months) and Erin (6 weeks). Tobi is the daughter of our friends Gavin and Heather and she used to be our main baby-sitter when Katy and David were small. She now lives with her husband Sam in Atlanta, but is home visiting her parents.
This afternoon I watched the World Cup final between Italy and France (this one was on CTV which we can get, so I watched it at home) joined for most of it by Ann with periodic visits from Katy, James, Emily and Emily's friend Keara who was over for the afternoon. David watched it at a friend's house. I was rooting for France but wasn't terribly disappointed at the outcome. It was certainly an exciting match.
HAPPY CANADA DAY!!
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This week was the last week of school. Emily and James had to go on Monday and Tuesday, then had two days off before picking up their report cards on Friday morning. David didn't have to go at all. On Friday Ann took them all out to lunch at Cora's to celebrate.
On Friday evening Ann and I went with our friends Mark and Shirley to see Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth about global warming. It was surprisingly good, though I already knew most of what he pointed out. I have to say that I am not very optimistic that the world will wake up and do something meaningful to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Harper's stance on the issue leaves no doubt that Canada's contribution will be completely inadequate.
Katy worked an evening shift at Sobey's on Friday. She was supposed to be done at midnight, but when I went to pick her up, the place was still a madhouse with long line-ups at every check-out. I went home again and Katy finally called for me to come and get her at 1:30 AM.
On Saturday Ann, Emily, James and I went down to Alderney Landing (the complex of offices, library, theatre and ferry terminal down on the Dartmouth waterfront) for the Canada Day pancake breakfast. It was a gorgeous morning and a very pleasant way to start the day.
Katy was planning to take the bus to Acadia to spend the weekend with her boyfriend, Ben, but the bus schedule was changed due to the holiday, so in the end Ann gave her a lift. She took them both out for lunch and did a bit of shopping at the Gaspereau Winery before coming home again. Meanwhile I had a nap and then went for a ride down the Lake Charles trail before dinner. David left after dinner for a sleepover party at one of his friend's. Ann, Emily, James and I finished off the day back at the waterfront watching the fireworks.
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The rest of our weekend has been fairly restful. On Sunday afternoon Valerie, Jim, Roxanne, Carl, Claire and Max came over for a while to celebrate Valerie's birthday. After dinner Ann, Emily, James and I went for a walk around Lake Banook. Today Emily and James went off to play with friends while Ann and I lazed around and read books (Ann is reading The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim and I read In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith, the latest of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency books to reach paperback). In the afternoon we decided to have an impromptu barbecue with Kim, Scott, Ashley and Brett, and Claire, Paul, Rachel and Max.
June 2006 Archive
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