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After the nice weather of last weekend, we have gone back to normal: it has poured all weekend. James' soccer team, the Rovers, did manage to get a couple of practices in this week, but it's already looking dodgy for Emily's practice tomorrow and Tuesday is supposed to have showers as well according to the forecast.
David finished his exams this week, so he is effectively finished school until the fall. He had a some of his friends over on Friday evening to celebrate. On Saturday evening the church Youth Group hosted a dance in the church basement, chaperoned by Ann and some of the other parents. It was not very well attended but those who went had a good time. After the dance three of David's friends crashed at our place, surfacing this morning at about eleven. I fed them pancakes before they all went their separate ways.
On Friday night Emily's friend Darien came for a sleepover. They spent all day Saturday playing together, including swimming at the Sportsplex with Ann, James and a couple more friends, then went to Darien's for another sleepover. Emily arrived home again today in time for supper but she promptly fell asleep. We woke her up (not without some difficulty), got her into her pajamas, made her eat a bowl of cereal (dinner wasn't ready yet), then sent her to bed. Heaven knows how much sleep she actually got over the past couple of nights.
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As I predicted last week, soccer was cancelled again on Monday and Tuesday of this week. On Wednesday Emily's team, the Whitecaps, did play at at last, winning a good game 2-0. Unfortunately for James, Thursday was pouring once again as we got the aftermath of Hurricane Alberto, so he has yet to play.
On Thursday evening Puxley and I went to see Fred Eaglesmith at the Parkside Bar and Grill in the north end of Dartmouth. I saw him there last September and could not get a seat, so this time we showed up early and got good seats with a clear view of the stage. Fred put on a great show, highlighted by the electric mandolin playing of Willie P. Bennett.
On the weekend the weather finally got nice again. Ann, Emily, James and I went shoopping for some annuals to put in the garden; I planted them this afternoon. The weather stayed nice today for the annual church picnic at Shubie Park. A few families turned up for sandwiches and hotdogs, some frisbee throwing, face painting, a little soccer, and some games for the kids. The water balloon toss deteriorated into a free-for-all water fight with all the kids and several of the dads (but not me) getting completely soaked.
Since we don't get cable, we have not been able to follow the World Cup on TV, but friends of ours went away for the weekend and left us their key so that we could watch some games at their place. I went over yesterday afternoon and saw the second half of the Czech Republic vs Ghana game (very enjoyable with Ghana having lots of great opportunities and finally winning 2-0) and all of Italy vs USA (very scrappy — three red cards! — ending in a 1-1 tie, though Italy scored both goals, one into its own net). David showed up to watch the second half of the second game. Of course, I also stayed up to cheer the Oilers on to their 4-0 victory. Let's hope they do as well tomorrow night.
(You can see a couple more of the photos I took of David's ultimate tournament a couple of weekends ago at the Halifax Ultimate Recreation League Web site. I actually like those ones better than the one I used on our page, but since they were not of David I didn't use them.)
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As you might glean from this week's picture, our recent weather has not been of the best. Soccer began for Emily, James and myself this week, but both James' practices and one of Emily's were cancelled due to wet weather. Moreover, on Wednesday, the day that Emily did have a practice, she had her final violin concert to go to instead. So to date neither Emily nor James have played at all and I, as the coach and co-coach of their teams, resepctively, have only been to one out of four possible practices. Since it has rained solidly for the past few days, I suspect that the fields will remain closed tomorrow and perhaps on Tuesday as well. A slow start to the season.
Katy's beau, Ben, was here for most of the weekend, joining us for Sunday lunch today (Ingrid joined us as well), then helping Katy, Emily and I to solve several sudokus, including one devilishly hard one, and participating in a rousing game of Boggle. It was a pleasant way to while away a rainy afternoon.
David, Katy and Emily all attended birthday parties this weekend, but other than that there is not much else to report this week. Katy has been working hard at her two summer jobs: one delivering food to restaurants around the Halifax area and sometimes as far afield as Lunenburg, and one as a Sobeys cashier. The rest of us have been busy at our normal occupations.
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Monday was Ann's birthday (we're not saying which one) so Emily, James and I were up early to make Eggs Benedict, our tradition. After she opened her presents, everyone was packed off to school or to work. Ann missed her birthday dinner because David had a concert with the All-City Senior Jazz Band at Doolittle's Pub. This was the end-of-year extravaganza, so all of us went to watch. They played very well and Ann was presented with a pot of petunias in recognition of her efforts as band liaison. Actually I had to accept the petunias on her behalf as Ann, not knowing that there would be a presentation to her, had left early to take Emily to a talent show put on by her Girl Guide troop. Emily played the recorder and also a piece on the piano that she had worked out herself.
Wednesday turned into another busy night, though I thought at first that it would be relatively peaceful as I had no Dave Brothers Band practice (a regular Wednesday night fixture). Ann went out for dessert in Halifax with Ingrid and Marg, so I agreed to get David to and from a soccer refereeing job in Eastern Passage (about 20 minutes away). Just before I was to leave to pick him up I found out that we were having a band practice after all (I had got the dates wrong that Chapman was going to be away). When I got to Eastern Passage, the games David was refereeing went 45 minutes overtime, so I ended up being over an hour late for our practice.
For the past couple of weeks Ann has been taking a canoeing course at the North Star Rowing Club. She was at it on Thursday evening and tonight as well. It will go for a couple more weeks before it is done.
On Friday Katy went to Acadia to visit her beau, Ben. She returned by bus just before dinner today.
On Friday evening the church Youth Group, including David and Ann, had another movie night. They went to see the Da Vinci Code then went back to the minister's house (his kids are in the Youth Group) to discuss it.
This afternoon David played in an ultimate tournament with the Dartmouth High Team. For those of you unfamiliar with ultimate, it is similar to touch football but played with a frisbee. The tournament was held on the artificial fields at the Mainland Common in Halifax. It seems that the weather is always cold, windy and wet when David goes to play there outside (there is also an indoor soccer field). Today was no different with some thick fog thrown in for good measure. The wind was strong enough that all the goals were scored at the downwind end of the field. As the players switch ends after each goal, this meant that whoever got first possession of the frisbee (decided by a coin toss) would either win or tie. Dartmouth High proved to be poor coin tossers and did not do very well. Emily and I went and watched a couple of the games. We had to warm ourselves up with hot chocolate afterwards.
May 2006 Archive
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