FAMILY DAY AT OUR HOUSE

It was a great day to have Terry, Natalie, Anton, Amber, Tracy and the 3 munchkins over for dinner. The kids loved the double switchback luge run that I had made beside the house. With Anton giving the sendoff, they roared through the curves, and enjoyed a couple spills. A number of birthdays are close together so we all came together for a nice ham dinner and ice cream cake. I took the opportunity to get more pics of the grandkids using my new studio lights, hence the current blog entry. Click here to see more pictures of the grandkids antics.

Take My Picture

Just sitting around with our sweetie and she says "Take My Picture!". How can I resist?
Allan

Lying Down

Our Little Sweetie

Tracy and Frank took the boys to the Maple Leaf's home ice in Toronto with the NHL mascots on the ice. They were too far back to get their jerseys autographed, but it sure was a fun time for young hockey fans just the same. What an awsome experience for those boys. Lexy stayed overnight with us and that of course gave us an opportunity to take her picture in the new studio. We read books, played with her dolls, made banana bread ... in short a very nice visit with the grandparents.

TERRY'S NEW DIGS

We spent Wed and Friday at Terry's new house in Oshawa helping him to get it liveable. In the pictures on the link, you will see the God-awful burnt orange colour that was prevalent in every room on every wall. We had to use a 5 (US) gallon pail of primer to kill that strong colour so he could sit with sanity in his living room. At the same time, he removed a wall from the kitchen to make it a more open concept. He has his work cut out for him, but from what I have seen so far, he seems to have the situation well in hand. It will be truly beautiful when he is finished. He has a large pool in the back yard and it is located in a very nice mature neighborhood. Click here to see a couple more pictures of the reno.

Moving Day

Today is the day that a couple of unique houses were moved in town. Our Historical Society had identified them as of a particular unique architecture in the village so they were spared demolition and moved to new locations down the street. There was quite a crowd watching the move, and some ooos and ahhhs as the mortar cracked in several places in the block wall.  Quite the show for Newcastle.

BOY WITH GREEN LACES

It is hard to get up for an 8am game when you have been out late at night with Papa at an Oshawa Generals game. Little wonder he lacked his normal zip today. Here he is against the guy that he usually faced off against - a bit taller than Aiden he is. Still Aiden made a few good runs and shots on the net but no goals today.

I Don't Want to be Goalie Anymore

Well, he had his turn between the pipes and his opinion about being goalie has changed. Mind you, this is probably the fewest goals that the opponent team has scored, a team which has beat the top 2 in the league, so Aiden should not feel too bad about it. You could see that he was not happy being stationary while his buddies were dukin it out at the far end. He would be skating back and forth the width of the arena and skating circles around the net while the game was on. He did some great saves but in the end, they had too many shooters that got through.
Last evening Aiden and I went to see an Oshawa Generals game with his hockey team. It was really exciting for two reasons. 1 - we were sitting in the 7th row just 30 feet from directly behind the net, and 2 - they came back from being behind 2 to 5 and won it with just 18 seconds left 6 to 5. He was a tired monkey asleep in the car on the way home.

UPDATED PICTURE OF ME

I rarely get to put a picture of myself on the blog, because as you might have guessed, I am usually on the other side of the camera. So today, I arranged my studio lights and shifted them to and from - had a long conversation with the client (myself), about how to pose. This guy is one of the most difficult that I have had to work with. Well, this is the end result.

My Christmas Present

No, Wenda is not my Christmas present, silly. The studio strobe lights are my present and this is the first picture that I took with the 3 strobe setup. The background is actually a white material, but I have a blue filter in front of the strobe that is shining on the background. I can now practice more of my photography indoors during the winter. Thanks Santa, you're the best.

2 GOALS

The coach put Aiden on centre against a team that we had only managed to tie in a previous engagement. "But ... , I really need you to cover defence as well so be prepared to drop back and help out", the coach said. Aiden was good at the face-off and kept back a bit. However, when the opportunity presented itself, he was off like a bullet. He certainly got his groove and scored twice and had one assist. If you look closely, you can see one of the shots go in net. Click here to see a few more pictures from the game.
Sunday 8am in the morning and another game but we were not as lucky this time, as the team lost 7 to 3 with Aiden scoring 2 of the 3 goals while on defense.

Hurricane Hair

The boys had just finished their hockey practice session when they noticed this 'Star Trek' like transporter device in the lobby of the arena. It simulates a hurricane with winds of up to 80mph.
Well I could see they were a little sweaty from the workout. ... So I put them in the machine and Wenda dialed in 'hurricane force winds' .  After the full dose, they came out nice and fluffy. I should have thrown in a couple sheets of 'Bounce'.
Allan