In just three days, I'll be heading to the airport again on what will undoubtedly be a great tour of North America. I'm meeting Luciana in Toronto, and her and I will slowly make our way via train to Québec City. From there we are going to head back to Ottawa for a weekend, then off to Banff, Lake Louise and hopefully Jasper. After a brief stop in Vancouver, we're going to head down to San Francisco for some San Francisco Giants baseball action, and hopefully a few winery tours. Driving in the Canadian Rocky Mountains Many of the places we are heading to are places I haven't spent much time ...

Here's a shot while descending into Ottawa last time I was there: ...

Someone back home just forwarded me this email that was recently sent out by Chilliwack's member of Parliament, Chuck Strahl. In it, he talks about his views with regards to what is happening in Ottawa right now. I'm posting this for informational purposes, not because I agree with everything he's saying in it. Last week I sent around an update on Canada's economic situation, with the observation that it wasn't a very enjoyable subject to write about. Unfortunately, this week it appears that our economic woes are morphing into a political crisis of sorts, at a time when we can least afford it. ...

Not much new to report. Work is going fairly well, and I've met most of our Ontario company now. Derek and I hit "downtown" Kanata and hit a few local establishments tonight, which was actually a lot of fun. I have two more days here, and then I get on a plane and head to Toronto for Matt's concert. I'm actually getting pretty excited about the whole ordeal. I talked with Tony briefly tonight and he's in the same hotel as me, which is cool. The next time I probably blog will be in Toronto, a few hours before the pre-show meet-up. ...

The plane ride was fairly uneventful. I haven't flown West Jet for a while, but thankfully everyone on board still had a great sense of humour, and the flight was nice and smooth. I was pretty happy to see that new Harry Potter on the in flight entertainment, since I haven't had time to see it and I had really wanted to. On West Jet, you have to pay if you want to watch a movie, but I figure I can kill a paperback in about 4 hours or so, so paying $5 to watch a movie isn't that bad a deal. The rest of the time I spent messing around with my new iPod, and I have to say, that thing is really slick. ...

Last night I met up with John and Rebecca to watch the hockey game down at Fogg 'n Suds. I'm not super familiar with the Canucks line anymore, so being around super hockey Canucks people is a bit intimidating. That being said, I did manage watch some of the game and to lose myself for a time in the high-ball fishbowls that they were serving there. John and me, hanging out at John and Rebecca's house - not sure why we put hats on I'm smack in the middle of packing for my trip, trying to figure out what to bring and what not to bring. As the first leg of the trip is work-related, I have to make ...

Slight change of plans. I was originally going to go to Toronto on the 26th, but I'm going to go to Ottawa the week before for work. So, I'll be bouncing into Toronto on the 26th, but instead of coming from Vancouver, I'll be coming in on a flight from Ottawa. That will put me into Toronto several hours earlier, which should take a bit of pressure off with having to get downtown from the airport. I'll be staying out in Kanata in a really great hotel called The Brookstreet Hotel, which just happens to be owned by Terry Matthews (whose company recently merged with ours). Apparently Terry and/or ...

I managed to convince the hotel staff to give me a room at around 10:30am yesterday, which meant I could finally grab a few hours of sleep. I woke up close to 3pm, which meant I only had an hour or so before I had to head down to Manotick for the wedding rehearsal. I did a quick tour of downtown Ottawa with the time I had, took a few photos, and then got picked up by Alison. Afterwards, we all headed down to Collenade Pizza about one block from where I used to live in Ottawa. Thirty of us proceeded to catch up on lost time, eat lots of pizza, drink beer, and in general have a really great time. ...

Well, I made it. I got to the hotel at around 10:30am and prompt went to sleep. I just woke up, and feel a bit more energized now. I'm going to go take a few quick photos and then try to find the group. ...

Well, I'm exhausted. I can rarely sleep on planes, and this trip was no different. We landed about 20 minutes ago, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and have a nice sleep, but unfortunately I have to transfer plans in a bit and head to Ottawa. Normally I'd find a chair and try to sleep, but given that my body is about 8 hours behind on sleep now, I don't think it's a good idea to close my eyes, since I probably will sleep right through the boarding call on my plane. The flight out here was rather uneventful, although I have to say flying in business class kicks some major ass. Not only ...

In exactly two weeks from today, I will be getting on a plane (business class -- fuck you Air Canada), and heading out east for some time in Ottawa and beyond. I'll be taking the red-eye, (which I swore last time I'd never take again, since I rarely sleep on planes, and that's basically the whole point of the red-eye) and will get into Ottawa sometime early in the morning on the 24th of August. From there, I imagine I'll head to my hotel, which is only a few steps from the Supreme Court of Canada and Parliament Hill, and probably grab an hour or two of sleep. And then, I'm gonna wake up, have ...

In less than four weeks, I'll be getting on a plane and heading to Ottawa for my friend Rob's wedding. The last time off I took was basically back in February, and I spent that walking around rainy Seattle for only a few days. This trip, however, promises to be a lot more interesting, and hopefully more relaxing. The only real things that I have on my plate are my friend's wedding, a trip down to Toronto to see a few people, and then a visit to Quebec City (since I never spent any time there when I lived out east). I'm pretty sure I'm going to bring a suitcase with some dress clothes in it, and ...