Travel blog.

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For those who read this blog, I am starting a new one! Mostly you- you know who you are! :-)

Taking advantage of Summer

I think I have taken advantage of the summer in more diversae ways this year than before. ANother list of some of the things I have done

- Camping twice
-Toronto twice
-winnipeg once
-Nashville
-2 weddings
-Bluesfest
-Chamber music fest
-Jazzfest
-Busker fest
-Chamber music fest
-Bike Rides
-Lansdowne Market
-Many patios

Camping Adirondacks

HIghlights

-Busch beer
-Flooding tents
-Chasms
-Having propane to cook with
-very cool but short hike, with 1100 feet elevation change.
-missign the turn off to duty free
- Not being able to swim
-Katy *swimming * anyway
- chilling by the dock

Nashville

Highlights

Nashville- Babershop Harmony Society International Championships.
- First being in Chicago for 2 days with the parental units. Great town, great pizza, lots of walking. Museum of Science and industry was cool.
-went to the the wrong hotel in Chicago first, oops, found the other one.
-Seeing crazy car culture first hand in Merrilleville, Illinois. (20 minute walk....really, took us 4 minutes)
-Indianapolis, state legislature. Speedway (HUGE), just strolling a beautiful downtown.
- Honkey tonk bars everywhere in Nashville
- Craziest fireworks ever on July 4th
- Grand ol Opry
- The actual compettion was amazing. To perform in front of 9000 people was an extraordinary feeling! We sung well, but placed low. no worries.
-watching the rest of the competition was great, some amazing acts.
- Just haning out with the rents was a lot of fun.
- Getting kicked out of a bar because my mom didnt have ID.
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First Camping '08

The First camping excursion of the year is over. It was awesome. Went down to Murphy's point which is an hour and a half southwest of Ottawa and is quite beautiful.
HIghlights include.

- Awesome rendition of Bohemium Rhapsody by queen in the carride up
-Swimming twice saturday.
-The silent hug line......do not ask.
-Wildlife spottings: Deer, hawk, snakes,
-AMAZING food.
-Great company
-Hammock
-Friday night hilarity playing poker.

Books

I have been firing through books recently: Here are some short reviews reviews on some of these books

Sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs- Chuck Klosterman: Hilarious pop culture book exploring various subjects as cover bands, pornography, and everyhting in between. The critique I have is I am not old enough to understand many of the references he makes or some of the bands or TV shows that he refers to.

The Third Secret- Steve Berry: Dan Brown style novel with religious secrets and religious theory. This particular one talks about apparitions of Mary and the effect they could have on the church and the next conclave. Very good, page turner, not as much action as another of his books (the Alexandria link) but it explores the characters and relationships in more detail. Not high literature by any means, but very good and entertaining and does give some information and stuff to think about and chew on.

Various books by Clive Cussler: Action books all the way. Plots are not super well developed but workable, main character almost dies several times but survives, usually based on legends and theories (much like an Indiana Jones movie is). Basically, it moves quick, there is almost nothing to think about or chew on ( except you might want to research the legend they talk about on wikipedia afterwards) and there are impossible action scenes every few pages. You really have to be in the mood to read this type of book and like mindless action, but if you like these things, then totally awesome. I have read 3 or 4 by him now and am taking the break, because although they have different themes, they all end up having very similar plots and scenes.

The Paradox of Choice: why less is More- Barry Schwartz . Neat book arguing how the abundance of choice in our lives is actually detrimental to our happiness. It includes strategies on how to avoid choices, and make choices easier and such. For me, it was an interesting book, but not overly helpful, as many of the problems he outlines did not apply to me. I certainly see people everyday that could use his strategies and that was interesting to me as well. Either way though, it is a very interesting book that argues compellingly that these wonderful choices we have to make our lives better sometimes have the opposite effect.

The Night Watch- by Sergei Lukyanenko : This is the first vampire-ish book I have ever read and devoured it very quickly. I say Vampire-ish because it is mostly about the Others and vampires are only one part of the others. It is about one character who is on the night watch- which is an orginization charged with making sure the dark others (Vampires included) do not break any laws of the twilight. It is translated from Russian, which at some points is obvious with the choices of words and turns of phrases used. Sometimes because of this and because of plot developmenet issues, it is a little slow going, but the author more than makes up for it with neat storylines, and an awesome main character who you grow to empathize with throughtout the different stories.


wow: long post. This is not all I have been reading either. I have aread a couple of mystery novels, read the tipping point and a book called Pro Logo, in response to Naomi Klein's No Logo. Myabe I will talk about them soon

Flying Fun

So my luck on flights continues and I still love flying, but dislike Air Canada.

here it is in a nutshell.

1- Plane in Ottawa has engine problems, grounded
2- Get on next flight to Montreal, told that I will make my connection without any problems.
3-Arrive in MOntreal with 20 minutes before my flight to winnipeg.
4- Rush over to my gate which is a fair jaunt, arrive with 15 minutes to spare.
5- Greeted by very confused AC staff.
6- Told that they did not expect me in Montreal until the next flight and so had the winnipeg flight leave early
That is right folks, an Air Canada flight left EARLY! and I was supposed to be on it..........bad service once again although at least this time, I got a hotel room, meal paid for, and executive class the next morning.