The Uhrblog

Five years later

2011-06-24T07:50:00.003-04:00

June 10th, 2006

Things change quickly.

June 10th, 2011

Where did May go?

2011-06-05T10:41:00.002-04:00

I know the months start to go more quickly once the summer gets here but May was just ridiculous. We had a busy month including some travel, a fun Mother's Day celebration and some houseguests to round it out.

As well, every second day there seemed to be someone at the house to deliver one of H's new furniture purchases.

The big guy also started to take a few steps and Lil' E started her summer sport, T-Ball.

Here's the rundown in photos!

Lots of time at the park.

The Red!

Houseguests.

A trip to Geneva for work.

In the fishbowl

2011-04-30T12:37:00.003-04:00

For Easter weekend, we were lucky enough to have my sister and her husband in town from Alberta. We had a fun weekend, and celebrated her birthday. Heidi banged out another beauty cake that we all enjoyed...and have continued to enjoy it all this week.

As well, I rented a fisheye lens from Vistek to try out. This is a great if there is ever a lens you want to try; the chance to fool around with a $900 specialty lens for only $25 seemed like a good deal. Overall, this lens would be great for some applications like landscape shots or taking interior shots of tight spaces but it does result in some unflattering results if people in your shots aren't centered. I imagine you would get used to this and find the sweet spots over time. All of the various shots are on my Picasa account but here are a few to whet your appetite:

Noah + Spaghetti

2011-04-12T15:38:00.003-04:00

vive la france

2011-04-12T14:49:00.004-04:00

Upon returning to work last week, it was time to turn my mind to more important things. Namely, when should we take our next family vacation. We have been debating this all winter, finally not bothering with a warm-weather winter destination (a big mistake given this looooooong winter) and watching airfares keep rising with oil prices. We had planned on Spain but eventually could not figure out to balance out my parental leave with proper flight and accommodation times.

Finally, we booked a flight to France for June last week after finding a wonderful apartment for rent on the coast in Biarritz, just eleven miles from the border of Spain. We will fly into Bordeaux and rest for three days there before spending the next ten on the coast. It is exciting to have something booked and time with the family to look forward to.

The best part is, I avoided an all-inclusive holiday for another year. I am still not sure what doesn't appeal to me about them but I found this post from Megnut that summed up their experience kind of touched on some of my concerns.

The kids have proven to be wonderful travelers, as another 11 hours in the car this weekend showed. It almost seems that they thrive by getting out of routine, a quality that sometimes seems lost on adults. Even though they are young and I don't expect that they will even remember these trips, I am certain that they benefit from all the new experiences and know that H and I do as we get to see things through their eyes.

Looking forward to it already.

On work...

2011-04-03T10:19:00.004-04:00

French class officially ended last week, earlier than everyone thought it might, but with a successful result. Now it is back to the real world. No more two and half hour lunches, a return to responsibility, office politics, and an expectation that you will show up at meetings.

Although there was money in the budget at the end of March to fund the project I was hoping to lead at Statcan, that point quickly became moot with the election. We are still hopeful that once this sham of an election is over, the Conservatives will implement an economic statement quickly that will have enough funding to get us started.

However, until then, I was scrambling to find a short-term solution and it made me consider the surreal life of a public servant, with our ridiculous benefits, ultimate job security and incredible sense of entitlement. Despite multiple offers, there is always a desire to find something a little bit better, and I was able to poke holes in the offers that were served up.

While cherry-picking through these and reading story after story online about unemployment, home foreclosures, and job creation issues that are at the forefront of the election, it becomes pretty clear that given our skill-set as public servants, we should really be happy that anyone is willing to offer to pay us at all. With that in mind, I was happy to pick the best of the positions and go forward with it.

It is back in a division where I have worked before, working for a manager I have worked with before, but doing something pretty different. It is a project development role, basically building a survey from the ground up in consultation with another department. I am hopeful that I can put together a couple of good support people to help me along. That will really make all the difference and right now those positions aren't filled, one of the many question marks that came along with this position.

The position will start this week, and hopefully my little side project will also come closer to a finish this week as well and I can settle back into routine for the summer.

End Winter, END!

2011-03-21T23:18:00.003-04:00

Today I spent another fruitless day in french class, waiting for the results of my oral test to come back. Everyone in my class received their results except me, I was offered some excuse that 'sometimes it takes longer to file the form than usual.'

I don't even know what that means.

This weekend we were back in Burlington, VT and had another great getaway. We even managed to set a new time record coming back. We hit some old favorites for grub, Magnolia Bistro and The Tavern at the Essex Inn as well as some new places that we'll be sure to head back to such as Mirabelle's Cafe.

We did some serious shopping, particularly for the kids. H managed to fill up the Thule with an assortment of bags from Carters, Hatley's and some other stores I didn't even know existed. I scored a new suit at Macy's, the most hilarious place to shop as they continue to figure out a way to make your final bill cheaper than the already ridiculously low price that things are tagged at originally. At the rate the lady was going, I was pretty sure she was going to end up owing me money. How that place is in business, I'll never understand.

Kids enjoying the accommodations

Ella actually said this place was great; she may have been joking

Any Wednesday

2011-03-16T15:51:00.002-04:00

If only we could all wake up so happy.

French Class

2011-03-13T21:20:00.004-04:00

With a mere seven months between blog posts, I can imagine everyone with an RSS feed on this thing is sitting on the edge of their seat to read this one.

I have spent the last seven months at work in full-time french class. This week I will finally attempt the oral exam to see if I can achieve my 'B' level. For those of you who don't work for the government, make no mistake, this doesn't mean I can speak french fluently, or even anything close to it. What it basically means is, in a testing situation, I can stumble my way through enough passe compose and futur proche to fill up a sheet with checkmarks that will allow the evaluator to use some mysterious formula to determine whether I can return to my actual job. The 'on the street' equivalent of a level B designation falls somewhere between ordering a coffee and offering directions, albeit probably the wrong ones. There is a mistaken conception when people go on full-time french that the goal is to learn to speak french. It is not; the goal is to be able to pass the test. The administration has no other objective and my only advice to anyone entering full-time training is not to confuse yourself and think there is any other goal than that.

The months in french class have been frustrating and absolutely mind-numbing, certainly the least enjoyable thing I have done at work since my career started. Imagine being in a meeting with the same five people at work that goes for 8 hours a day, five days a week for the last seven months. I talk to somebody at a party for more than 20 minutes and I am ready to move on. I can only imagine how these people feel about me...

That said, at least I knew it had an end point and I will be able to help my kids with their french homework once they start school, or they will be able to help me refresh my levels when I am back in the french centre in five years! And there is the matter of the $800 bilingual bonus I will have tacked on to my paycheque at the end of this....a hilarious remnant of the late '70s that was implemented by every Western Canadian's favorite PM.

One wrinkle with doing my test on Tuesday; as soon as I pass the test, they determine that I have learned all I need to and my class is over, however, I don't have a job to go back to! I have been waiting for the budget to be read before deciding which project to land on and unfortunately, the timing has worked out in the most awkward way possible....unless I don't pass on Tuesday, in which case I will do the test again in 30 days and then will have perfect information before making a decision....hmm.

Maine - a year later

2010-09-06T10:38:00.003-04:00

Last week we decided to take advantage of one of the last weeks of summer and head back to the Maine coast, just as we did last year during the last week of August. It turned out to be a much-needed break, the weather was awesome, and we didn't see any of the rain that was threatened by Hurricane Earl.

Our first day we took it easy, headed to Burlington and enjoyed touring around Church Street Marketplace in the beautiful weather. Based on previous trips to Burlington, I have compiled a map of some of our favorite spots in the city below.

View A Weekend in Burlington in a larger map

The next day we headed to Portland, Maine stopping off along the way to pick up a new Thule cargo box for the car. (the second child phenomenon....it was either that or a minivan) We headed to the beach in Portland even before the hotel, enjoying Pine Point beach, right at the northern tip of Old Orchard. Portland is a cool city, we hit some awesome food spots including Scratch Bakery, El Rayo Taqueria, and the Standard Baking Company. Before busting it all the way home yesterday, about eight hours, we enjoyed the time at the beach, a quick trip to Freeport, and some touring the old port.

The Church Street cow collection

Pine Point Beach

The Lobster Shack

Corn on the cob...Mexico-style

The last day. Vacation is exhausting.

The blog is BACK! For now....

2010-08-30T16:00:00.002-04:00

What the heck? I'm on vacation; why not sit out on the back deck in the heat and bang out a blog post. I have pretty much given up on the blog as all have noticed; Twitter is just too darn attractive with its ease and instant feedback. There are some things the blog is still better for so maybe I'll try and get back on it for a bit...no promises going forward though...

This weekend we saw a lot of the 401, and during the few brief hours we stopped in Toronto, we also squeezed in the wedding of Heidi's friend Liz. Despite the ridiculous traffic and another sweltering day for a wedding, it was pretty fun, the food was awesome and the little guy was a real trooper.

Noah wore a new shirt; lots of single ladies to impress.

The crew. You have to look way in the back to see lil' E.

New external flash = awesome. H looks good too.

Dan contemplating his first week fantasy matchup. Bride telling stories while he tries to concentrate.

The 'Cuse

2010-03-30T07:07:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we were off to Syracuse, the city that healthy eating forgot, to watch the East Regional. I had never been to any NCAA games, much less in the tournament so it was great. I can see why a lot of people try to go every year. This year we ended up seeing some pretty decent games including an upset of a loaded Kentucky team that will probably have four guys go in the first round of the NBA draft next year.

At our seats in the massive Carrier Dome

Massive food exhibit #1; Heid's Hot Dogs and Red Hots

Massive food exhibit #2; A western sandwich at Stella's Diner

Dinosaur BBQ; we only waited an hour but lots of people were waiting two to get in on these ribs

March Break...now I get it

2010-03-22T06:47:00.002-04:00

Last week we returned from our 'annual' (read: has happened twice) trip to Florida with Lil' E. Again, it was a great time; this time around we stayed in Miami Beach for a couple of nights and then headed over to the gulf side of the peninsula and stayed just off Sanibel Island for a week. Our weather held out for the most part, with seven of nine days being beach-worthy and the other two of them being outlet shopping-worthy. Here is a few shots from the trip. The rest are available here:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/MUhrbach/Florida2010

Ella ready to hit Miami Beach

Room with a view

Lil' E calls for a refill

Captiva Beach

Us and 7000 folks from Minneapolis at spring training

Another great family vacation

More Winter

2010-02-21T16:12:00.003-05:00

The weather here has been so nice that it was impossible to be inside all day today. Dragging the sled down the hill worked well, but by the time we tried to come back the snow had all melted off the sidewalk. Not so efficient.

Lil' E looks more confident in her driving skills than Simone does

Winterlude

2010-02-21T16:03:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we went down to the canal with Lil' E to check out some of the sights including the ice sculptures near city hall. Her favorite part of the day; Starbucks and a beavertail afterward.

Similar to one I made in the backyard

The Basement

2010-02-05T06:54:00.003-05:00

Although we have taken our time, the basement is really starting to come together now. We had our electrical approved and certificate granted and finished putting up the drywall. The pictures below show it at that stage, but since then we have had the drywallers in to do mud and taping and today the guy will come to do the sanding. After that, time to paint. As I have said the last three seasons...I really think we will be ready to watch football down there this fall!

Hockey Day in Canada

2010-02-01T07:02:00.002-05:00

After a January hiatus (who ever knew that January could be so busy?), I am going to try and get back on the blog. There may not be a lot to say, but who doesn't like inane details of someone's personal life?
We had a week of spring-like weather that lasted until last Thursday when a real deepfreeze moved in over the weekend, reminding us all why we would like to move to Florida for the winters. However, it didn't stop us from celebrating Hockey Day in Canada up at Mullins' cottage on Saturday. Every year they are nice enough to have us up, and this year the lake even had some beautiful ice for us to play on.

Personal favorite

Merry Christmas

2009-12-27T10:47:00.002-05:00

We had a nice relaxing Christmas around home this year; not even responsible for hosting any events at our place! The only glitch was coming home on Christmas night and finding our furnace had conked out so we spent a chilly Boxing Day huddled around the electric fireplace waiting for the DirectEnergy fellow to come and replace the part while it poured freezing rain outside.
Today, things are back on track though, and E and I spent the morning out in the snow cleaning up branches that had fallen, shoveling snow and trying out her new toboggan.
Thanks to everyone for the Christmas wishes; hope all of you are having a great holiday season!

Mount Washington

2009-12-21T08:12:00.001-05:00

As per our tradition, the last few years we have always tried to get away before Christmas, even if just for a weekend. It is pretty relaxing and a nice leadup to the actual holiday time. This year, since we aren't traveling at Christmas, we were able to go this last weekend to the Mount Washington Resort in northern New Hampshire. If you ever get the opportunity to go, I would highly recommend it. It is about a five hour drive, but all nice interstate to get there, just a little longer than a trip to the centre of the universe. This year I did a bit of snowboarding while there but I think if we went in the winter again I would be sure to bring my x-country skis since there are over 100 miles of groomed trails that looked like lots of fun. The history in the hotel is awesome too, quite the place as most buildings that have survived over 100 years are. Hope everyone is having a great lead-up to Christmas.

Lil' E having a bit of fun.

Taking down breakfast in the Grand Dining Hall

Cold and crisp

The view from the top

E on the sleigh ride; she was asleep about 1 minute later

Christmas Baking

2009-12-15T10:44:00.001-05:00

...everywhere! This has to be one of the best parts of the year!

Early (mid?!) December

2009-12-12T13:01:00.003-05:00

I haven't been using the blog a lot lately, not that there hasn't been anything happening, but I have just not had much time to sit. Since the last, I've had a trip to Alberta, we've been busy getting ready for Christmas, work has been chaos since we are hitting the crux of the program delivery right now and I have been so busy setting up my new iMac the way I like it, I haven't actually done too much with it. It is just so much easier to throw small things up on Twitter too.

Winter has finally hit Ottawa, snow is on the ground as of this week and it is cold. Now I remember - not sure why this is a surprise every year. Here is a couple of photos of this week's Christmas preparations. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

The surprising popular toy of the season - the nutcrackers

Trimming the tree

Christmas baking

Keep this weather up...

2009-11-16T14:21:00.003-05:00

This weekend, fully recovered from our various ailments we took advantage of the opportunity to relax a bit, start working on the painting in Lil E's new room, get some new tires on the truck and take a hike. We ended up on Beaver Trail just west of Moodie and saw a huge deer with a massive rack...it was pretty cool but I couldn't pull out the camera in time before he scampered away. I also upgraded my Google storage and started the arduous process of uploading thousands of photos to Picasa to back them up.

Lil' E working on her art

Happy to be enjoying the warm fall-time temps

Basement

2009-11-08T19:57:00.002-05:00

Even Little E is trying to speed things along in the basement; she wants that dedicated TV room to watch Berenstain Bears in.

Fall Photos

2009-10-26T21:00:00.003-04:00

Another busy week - and I didn't even get around to posting the pictures from last weekend. Yesterday was such a nice day, so naturally I spent it in the basement banging up drywall. It went pretty well, although with a few mishaps. Ian and I were just hitting our stride when we had to stop for a big steak dinner. The photos below are a combo of last weekend and this weekend.

Another birthday!

2009-10-20T07:26:00.002-04:00

This weekend Ella hit a real milestone, her second birthday! The most notorious things that happen when a child hits this age is the onset of the 'terrible twos' and paying for airline seats. While neither of these excite me too much, it is exciting to see how much she has grown and developed. Her birthday party on Friday was chaos, kids everywhere with adults following behind. H made another awesome cake and it was deemed a rousing success. It was great to have my sister and Anthony able to make it for the party also.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-10-12T14:46:00.004-04:00

It was nice to have a weekend at home, and even better that we enjoyed some sun, got to relax and spend some time together and even have my sister and her husband breeze through on their way to Quebec. H made an awesome roast for dinner last night with some yorkshire puddings that were delicious. This morning we were off to do some pumpkin shopping, spotting Phil Fontaine picking up some farm produce of his own in his $600 italian loafers. This evening it is off to do more eating as we are going to H's parents for turkey dinner.

Go Steelers

2009-10-06T20:54:00.002-04:00

This weekend featured a lot of driving, 1700kms in all, as we headed down to Pittsburgh for the Steeler's Sunday night game against the Chargers. It was well worth the drive as we had great weather and a great time. Pittsburgh is a pretty cool city, I would definitely go back. The trip had a nice bookend when we went to Pamela's Diner for breakfast Monday morning, the same place Obama eats when he is in Pittsburgh, and ran into Hines Ward on my way to the bathroom.

Photo credits go to Chris' iPhone; I took one photo and my battery died.

Heinz Field

Awesome seats

Our seats

Terrible towels

ESPN 30 for 30

2009-10-02T13:32:00.001-04:00

Anyone who likes sports has to be pumped for the upcoming documentary series put together by ESPN. It is going to be awesome, featuring all sorts of topics and some interesting angles on some of the big, and not-so-big sports stories of the last 30 years. It starts on Tuesday with a piece on the Gretzky trade and the larger implications done by Peter Berg. The schedule and full slate of documentaries is available here:

http://30for30.espn.com/

D.C.

2009-09-29T06:55:00.004-04:00

I have no idea where the month of September went. As soon as we got back into routine it was like the month was gone already. Unreal. I spent the past three days in Washington at a conference with some Beltway folks, it went pretty well and I managed to leave myself with a little bit of time to poke around the city also and hit the classic tourist sites.

Washington Monument; self-portrait attempt #3 after cutting my head off twiceReflecting pool; Lincoln Memorial, you probably remember Tom Hanks wading through it in Forrest Gump
The dark Metro system, awesome for getting around thoughArlington
The old Expos; even big 'ol Livan Hernandez was pitching, weighing in at about 320 and 44 years old
Had to eat here obviously, and watch the end of the Lions beating those pathetic Redskins

Heidi's project

2009-09-20T13:20:00.002-04:00

This summer, one of Heidi's projects was to re-paint the front door and replace the hardware. Well, despite some hiccups, it is now complete and looks great.

Is this our summer?

2009-09-20T13:11:00.001-04:00

Our great weather continues in the fall here in Ottawa. The sun has been out all this weekend too and we took advantage yesterday to go for a hike around Jack Pine Trail. Ella had a great time, walking almost the whole way, waving to the ducks, spotting chipmunks and even a snake sunning itself on the boardwalk.

For the rest of the day, we did some things around home, I finished off staining the cedar siding and made an incredible veal marsala for dinner.

On this date....

2009-09-16T13:46:00.001-04:00

in 2002, I started my illustrious career in the public service.

Mad Men

2009-09-16T13:00:00.002-04:00

It is great to have Mad Men back. There is nothing better after going back to work on Monday than firing up OnDemand on Monday night to watch the latest episode. So much great stuff in there! One thing this show really doesn't shy away from though is nuance, so it is hard to keep up on everything that is going on. Luckily, we have the Internet, so we can at least determine what other people think is driving everything and decide if we agree.

I have found three sites of note, all which tackle different aspects related to the show that I enjoy very much.

The first, on Slate, is a pretty general discussion of the show that takes place through e-mails between writers. Here is the link to the discussion going on about episode 5, the latest, but the rest of the series is worth checking out also. [link]

The second is The Footnotes of Mad Men, where he tracks down the historical relevance of all the themes, companies, products mentioned on the show. Very thorough, quite cool. Shows how representative the show is of actual life in the '60s. [link]

The third is more about the creation of the show, what's upcoming, verbatim lines from the show etc. that is pretty comprehensive also. They kind of approach it from a 'fansite' approach. [link]

Infinite Jest

2009-09-14T15:25:00.002-04:00

Tonight I will be starting to read Infinite Jest at the same time as my friend ErinG. We have each tracked down a copy and are ready to go. This is quite a book to tackle, what with its 2.4 pounds, 1100 pages and 300 some odd footnotes. I would love to know the stats on the percentage of people who buy this book vs. those that actually start reading it vs. those that actually finish it. Hopefully I won't just fall into the first two categories.

Selected readings

2009-09-06T15:37:00.002-04:00

I have found myself reading a few books of essays lately. I am not sure if it is just the nature of them that appeals to me right now because of vacation and shorter time to concentrate on a book, but they have been pretty enjoyable. I have knocked off four in the last month.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace

Now I Can Die in Peace by Bill Simmons

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

Paper Trails by Pete Dexter

Of these, I would have to say my favorite was the first anthology by DFW, just a great collection of essays on wide-ranging topics that I enjoyed thoroughly. Another great piece by DFW that I rediscovered the other day after reading it just after his death was a commencement speech he gave at Kenyon College in 2005. It is a short piece I think almost anyone would enjoy and take something from. Available in full format here.

Back to reality

2009-08-31T12:56:00.000-04:00

Well, we are back from our last vacation of this seemingly too-short summer. I am not sure if it was the weather or the activities, being too busy or not as busy as usual, but this summer just seemed short. Oh well, we have lots of activities planned through September and October so we will hope for good weather to continue as it supposed to this week.

Our trip to Maine was great. We took a couple of days to get down there, spent a full week at our house rental with friends, then slammed out the full ten hours in the car on Saturday to get back here.

Some highlights of the week include:

Strolling through Portsmouth, NH

Spending time by the ocean

Enjoying the sea kayaks at the house

Playing at the beach

Our view

Lob-stahs

Lob-stah

2009-08-26T15:24:00.002-04:00

We are spending the week in Maine, eating lobsters at every opportunity. Strange, considering I just finished this essay by David Foster Wallace; Consider the Lobster.

Oh well, we'll get by.

Hard to blog in the heat

2009-08-17T21:52:00.002-04:00

Seems hard to blog during the summer months...spent part of this weekend out on the Rideau River with Dwayno on his boat. Also seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time at the Bridgehead on Albert and Bank with Skip and Stewie. Working downtown certainly has it's advantages, such as fish Friday at the Whalesbone.

Short week, only three days left before another vacation.

Happy b-day Mullins!

2009-08-10T20:02:00.002-04:00

This weekend we actually had a beautiful day on Saturday and spent it at James' cottage about an hour north of here to celebrate his birthday.

Ella was not going to miss out on the cake!

Mullins couldn't get enough either.

Summer fun in Alberta

2009-08-02T09:26:00.003-04:00

After returning from Inuvik, dad and I picked up H and Lil' E at the Edmonton airport and we headed down to Blackfalds for the rest of our vacation. Mom and dad showed us a great time as we saw the whole family at various points, went to Edmonton for Karen's bar call, took in the Bowden Daze rodeo, went to Canmore for a couple of nights, visited the Calgary Zoo and had the best weather we have seen all summer! 30 degrees for 8 days in a row has to be the nicest I can ever remember in Alberta. More than made up for last Christmas when we had -30 for 8 days in a row!

Fields of canola in full bloom.

Perfect weather for the splash park

Karen's bar call. If you need something litigated or contracted in Edmonton, click here.

Hanging out at Bowden Daze Rodeo.

Enjoying the mountain scenery at Silvertip in Canmore.

Fresh produce straight from the Virklund Tree Farm garden.

North of 60

2009-08-01T15:30:00.002-04:00

While it seems like quite a while ago now, this year I tacked on a trip up north with my dad when we went back to Alberta in the middle of July. I left three days before H and Lil' E so we could take a flight up to the arctic from Edmonton. It was a great time, very interesting and very unique. We spent two nights in Inuvik, stopped in Norman Wells, and spent a night in Yellowknife on the way home.

I do know that I couldn't live in as isolated a spot as Inuvik, although the changing technology has made it much more comfortable and accessible. To be in Yellowknife is to be in basically any other small city in Canada I felt, although we stayed in Old Town which has a unique character all of its own. The scenery was very beautiful, since all three towns are right on the water, and the far north was actually not as barren as I expected.

Overall, it was a great trip, fun to spend time with my dad and interesting to see some of the culture of the north. One bonus was that while we were in Inuvik, the Great Northern Arts Festival was happening, an annual event that brings artists of all types together.

The End of the Dempster Highway. And the beginning of the Ice Road of Ice Road Truckers fame.

The famous igloo church in Inuvik.

A view from the top of old town Yellowknife.

Fourth of July

2009-07-07T20:10:00.003-04:00

As has been the tradition for every year of Ella's life, we spent the Fourth in the United States. Last year it was spent in Bandon, Oregon but this year we went to one of our favorite spots, Burlington. We left early on Saturday morning and were in Burlington by early afternoon. Although they had their fireworks on the night of the third, there was still plenty of action in town and it was a fun weekend. As per tradition, Lil' E dropped a bunch on clothes but mom and dad made out alright as well. We checked out a few new restaurants, including Magnolia Bistro, a great spot for breakfast and lunch. As well, we hit some outlets, took in a Lake Monsters game and went down to the waterfront.

Lil E plowing through her pancake at breakfast.

Nothing more American than a ball game! Ella loved the Lake Monster and spent the game waving at him.

Ella showing off her foul ball.

Hanging out by Lake Champlain.

To say we tire Ella out on these trips might be fair. Crashing at the hotel on day one.

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-02T13:41:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we enjoyed a great Canada Day, with traditional Canadian weather; a half-hour of sun, a half-hour of downpour, more sun, more rain.....etc.
In the morning we went to the festivities in Barrhaven; Ella got a maple leaf tattoo and would have spent the day in the bouncie castle. After lunch, we headed up to Mullins' cottage and enjoyed a great afternoon and dinner with friends. Back at it today for a two-day week, followed by an eight week break for Heidi....and to think, I am just excited to have Monday off.

The nine-year old tattoo artist works on lil E's arm

Playing in Lac Champagne

Lil E finishing her 9th piece of watermelon

A Saracen-like arm on that kid

The Big One

2009-06-29T15:08:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm 30 now, and thankfully I don't think that I have been too adversely affected by it.
First off, thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes, gifts and planning. As well, a big congratulations to the Killams and their new baby girl. Even though I was upset she held out until the 28th, I guess it relieves some pressure of trying to live up to having the same birthday as yours truly.

I had a great weekend, going out on Friday night to celebrate Wes' birthday. On Saturday, I woke up to a nice breakfast and gift-opening, followed by Dwayne getting me out of the house in the afternoon for a celebratory ceasar at the Barley Mow. When I arrived home, I walked out on the deck to a surprise party that Heidi had put together without tipping me off. Lots of my good friends from Ottawa were there, as well as my buddy Chris who made the trip up from Toronto. I also figured out why everyone had treated me like such a pariah on Friday night; they were afraid of slipping up and letting the secret out about Saturday. At least that's the reason they gave me...

Ella and I opening presents

Enjoying being 30.

Another great cake by H. Joke explained here.

Father's Day 2009

2009-06-22T15:42:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was my second Father's Day on the 'father' side of things and it only has gotten better since last year. Of course, not lost in that is my appreciation for lessons that I have learned from my own dad and my recognition that I was lucky to have such a good role model. Our weekend was pretty good, except for the unreliable weather forecasts that resulted in much more rain and cloud than anticipated. I had a friend in from Calgary, we bought and installed a new dishwasher, and held a Father's Day BBQ on Sunday night.

Ella started the day making me waffles

Opening some presents

Charleston Lake

2009-06-15T14:42:00.001-04:00

This weekend we did the first of our small summer road trips and headed for a weekend of camping at Charleston Lake. It was really fun, and although we had a bit of rain Saturday afternoon, it was as good as any other weekend we have had this year! This year we had quite the crew, 10 adults in total crammed in to three sites. Ella spent the weekend running around with her bear bell on so we could keep up with her. Our new monster tent worked out perfectly, once again proving that if Costco carries it, you should probably buy it.

Site 268

Playing around

Getting soaked

Three

2009-06-10T07:00:00.003-04:00

Yesterday marked H and I's third anniversary. In some senses, our wedding really doesn't seem that long ago yet it is amazing how quickly time goes and things change at this time in your life. One constant though has been our great friends who were at our wedding and our great relationship together. And another, we are off camping this weekend after our anniversary just like we did three years ago after our wedding!

Roller coaster week

2009-06-07T19:18:00.003-04:00

This seemed like a tale of two weeks. Unfortunately, last Tuesday we had to put down our cat, Max. We are still unsure exactly what happened but he just stopped eating a while ago and never recovered, leading to a liver condition that is very hard to recover from. It wasn't an easy decision to make but he was clearly not happy so it was the best of bad options. Despite my attempts to give Max away on numerous occasions, he was actually a pretty fun cat so we will miss having him around. I am sure he will not miss having Ella chase him around though!

The rest of the week went well after that tough decision was made, we finally saw the sun in Ottawa and I took Friday off work to stay home with Ella since we had nobody to look after her. We had a great day, dropping mom off at work and then heading to Bridgehead for coffees and to the Wymans for a playdate with Emily. The girls took about a half hour to acknowledge one another but then got along really well. After that we stopped in at Costco where Ella took in a variety of samples as her lunch. Once nap was over, we had a snack and headed in to pick up mom from work and head over to O'Neills patio to enjoy the sun and LR's visit from the 'peg.

Saturday and Sunday went by too quickly but we did pretty much finish up any major yard projects we had embarked on this year by planting the new front bed. It is great to have the warm weather here.

Snow. On May 31st.

2009-06-02T19:59:00.002-04:00

In keeping with the trend of the last few weeks, I thought I better post Heidi's cake from last Thursday. This week the focus was on roses. Her course has now ended, so unfortunately, my weekly fill may not be as frequent now.

Looks like Lil E is going to follow her mom in the kitchen.

I was away this past weekend, golfing in Halliburton and staying at my friend B-rad's cottage. It was a good time, and he has a nice place up there. We got both rounds of golf done in the sun. Amazing considering it was pouring on the way up there and snowing the day we left. The only downer was a flat tire, but luckily Mullins was there to point out where Marco should put the jack, otherwise we would probably still be there.

Nice little weekend

2009-05-24T21:15:00.004-04:00

This was a great little weekend out here in the Haven. We really didn't do too much, and it was fantastic to relax, hang out with Ella and some friends. Our yardwork, except for that front bed, is pretty much done. I transplanted some hostas, mowed the lawn and we planted some lettuce and tomatoes in our new raised beds.

Amazing

2009-05-23T10:42:00.002-04:00

NBA Playoffs have been killing me this week. Every game starts at 9pm Eastern which makes it end around 11:45, and these games in the conference finals have just been too good to turn off. Last night's capped a great week of bball with this shot!

Second take.

2009-05-22T06:52:00.002-04:00

The end of my weeks are really ending on a high note these days; it's Friday, and H has a freshly decorated cake for us to eat.

Notice anything?

2009-05-19T14:25:00.001-04:00

2008:

2009:

Great Cakes

2009-05-17T08:17:00.002-04:00

Heidi has taken a couple of cake decorating classes so far and seems to be enjoying them. I am just enjoying the results. Delicious.

Yesterday was a cold and rainy one here, but the sun is shining today so it looks like it will only be cold today.

Full-court press

2009-05-14T11:18:00.002-04:00

It seems that no matter what Michael Lewis or Malcolm Gladwell writes these days, it is picked up all over the blogosphere and it goes crazy for a bit. Following Gladwell's article in the New Yorker about underdogs using unconventional tactics to give themselves at least a shooter's chance, this has been picked up everywhere. If you think about it, this theory really makes sense, he relates it in the terms of a girls basketball team without much skill but if you try to extrapolate you can put this into all types of scenarios in life.

Think about the couple that you surely know where you wonder how in the world they got together, the popular girl in high school who ends up with someone you would never expect; my guess is that the guy employed some tactics that set him apart, going against convention, putting on a 'full-court press' of his own that was unlike the typical things she had already seen. Something in there worked...

Anyway, as a huge fan of the full-court press, it is great to read this coverage. I loved running it in high school as there was just nothing better than watching another team panic and cough up easy turnovers. If you haven't read the Gladwell article, I would recommend it, as well as this three part back-and-forth with my other favorite, Bill Simmons. (link)

East Regional

2009-05-08T14:18:00.000-04:00

The other day, I was informed that I had won an opportunity to buy tickets to the East Regional of next year's NCAA tournament which is being held in Syracuse. Since demand for tickets is so high you have to be selected in the lottery before you can even try to buy tickets. So, yesterday at 10am (on my coffee break, obviously) I logged on to Ticketmaster and managed to score two tickets (my max) about 15 rows up, right near mid-court. My buddy Chris was more than anxious to lock on to the other ticket. In the package, we get tickets to two Sweet Sixteen games and then the Elite Eight game that follows on the Saturday. Don't bother trying to book me for the end of March 2010 now. This is my second scheduled event of 2010, luckily it didn't coincide with B-rad's wedding though. 2011 should start filling up soon.

May days

2009-05-07T07:26:00.004-04:00

Last weekend my mom came to visit Ottawa. Although it was a short visit, we had an opportunity to do lots of things and had a great time. We visited the Museum of Nature on Saturday morning since it is one of Ella's favorites, did some barbecuing, visited the Tulip Festival, toured the market, ate lunch at Sweetgrass and even made a raised gardening box for the backyard.

This week I finished off quite a ridiculous book, Dishwasher, by Pete Jordan. It is about this guy's quest to wash dishes in all fifty states. Finally, at about the age of 35, he realizes this is a pretty dumb idea and gives it up so the book kind of just ends. It was ok, wasn't expecting much. Now I am reading Beijing Confidential by Jan Wong, a follow-up book to Red China Blues. It is interesting to read about how much China has changed. The other night Heidi and I enjoyed Crossing Over; man, has Harrison Ford aged. Surprised that he could walk on his own in this film, in fact, I'm not sure he was.
Tonight Heidi is off to her first cake decorating class courtesy of Ella and I. We surprised her with it for Mother's Day although we had to deliver it a few days early because of the start date.

Ella's Favorite Things

2009-05-01T11:34:00.002-04:00

Ella has been changing so much in the last few months, it is great to watch her develop new skills and activities that she enjoys. Here's a couple:

Baking

Tormenting Simone

Eating peanut butter toast, or smearing it all over her face while yelling, 'yumyumyumyumyum'

Relaxing on the deck

Painting

Signs of Spring

2009-04-27T15:32:00.003-04:00

Well, with a 30-degree day today, it is hard to say that spring hasn't arrived, even if it dropped down to almost zero last night. Although I always look around our yard and realize how many things need to be done, this year seems much more manageable since we don't really have any major projects like the deck and shed last year. Gives us more time to just enjoy some of the blooms coming out.

Foodstuffs

2009-04-19T18:59:00.003-04:00

Not sure what the latest excitement here is; it finally seems to be spring so that is sure a nice change. Of course, when spring arrives, it also brings to mind everything outside that I neglected to do last fall. Actually, it doesn't seem as bad this year as past years so I must be getting more efficient, or eliminating some major projects. This week we have been having all kinds of good eats...last Monday I decided to try cooking a prime rib roast on the BBQ. This worked out perfectly, about an 8 pound roast for an hour and a half on indirect heat.

On Friday, the A-Train came over to help me move some stuff out of the garage and also brought some delicious donuts. These were a find that could only belong to him; he stopped in some industrial park south of Hunt Club at this commercial bakery to pick them up. I'd recommend, they were great.

This weekend I whipped a couple of other things including this soup that was used by the chef at the Wellington Gastropub to win some contest. Here is the recipe:

POTATO, BACON AND ALE SOUP

1 cup Double-smoked bacon, diced 250 mL

1/2 Medium onion, peeled and medium diced 1/2

1/2 Leek, white part only, washed and sliced 1/2

1/2 Bulb of garlic, peeled and chopped 1/2

4 Potatoes, peeled and diced large 4

4 cups Chicken or vegetable stock 1 L

2 cups Ale 500 mL

2 tbsp Fresh thyme leaves 25 mL

Pinch, grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large soup pot over medium heat, render bacon about 5 minutes. Add onion, leek and garlic, and sweat them 3 to 4 minutes.

Add potatoes, stock, ale, thyme and nutmeg. There should be enough liquid to cover vegetables by about 2 inches (5 cm). If not, add more stock.

Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, about 20 minutes. Working in batches, puree soup in a blender and pass through a sieve

- -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - --

Today I took a crack at some scallops as well as some orzo salad that I tried out. Worked out pretty well by all accounts.

Easter

2009-04-14T15:26:00.004-04:00

Hard to believe the Easter weekend has come and gone. I love that four-day weekend, and would sure appreciate some more of them. It is a great jumping off point to summer. This weekend we did similar activities to last year, visiting my friend Chris in Toronto and then driving out to Hamilton for the day to see H's grandma. Ella had a great time doing her egg hunt, playing with Chris and taking on the big city. Other highlights included a stop in Belleville on the way and firing up Chris' charcoal BBQ that I had never seen in action.
This is kind of a dead time now; we finally were eliminated from basketball playoffs last week and Hit N Run doesn't start for another month so I guess I have just entered yardwork season.

Virus beatdown

2009-04-02T15:47:00.001-04:00

If it seems like I haven't been up to much lately, it's because I haven't. Last week I fell victim to some horrible bug that kept me home from Wednesday to Friday and I wasn't feeling much better until Sunday. Glad to have that out of my system.
I have been reading a couple of books and watching some TV though. Heidi and I have been entertaining ourselves with the AMC series, "Breaking Bad", another hidden gem.
I read Thomas Friedman's new book; Hot, Flat and Crowded. This is the last book of his I will ever read, just horrible. It is like reading two hundred of his columns that have been bound together, he keeps harping on the same three things and intersperses little anecdotes from his travels. I thought "The World is Flat" was bad, but this set a new standard.
One book that I plan to recommend to members of my China book club was "Factory Girls." It follows the stories of a couple out of the millions of young girls who leave their villages in China to go work at factories on the coast. Very well done, I thought.
Tonight we are off to Boston Pizza to celebrate Jones' birthday. Between two babies, the A-Train and eight others, it should be quite the gong show. The over/under on number of waitress visits before the A-Train decides what he wants to drink is currently at 2.5!

First Cut

2009-03-25T09:05:00.002-04:00

Last night Ella went for her first haircut. It went pretty well, and she can actually see now!

Full Photos of the Keys

2009-03-19T12:47:00.002-04:00

Florida Keys - March 2009

March 17th

2009-03-18T17:02:00.000-04:00

Bahia Honda State Park

March 16th

2009-03-16T20:12:00.002-04:00

Breakfast at Azur

Ella's treat!

March 15th

2009-03-15T21:50:00.001-04:00

Mallory Square Sunset Celebration

March 14

2009-03-14T20:16:00.001-04:00

True tourists.

March 13

2009-03-13T21:05:00.001-04:00

Parrot Key Resort

March 12

2009-03-12T20:00:00.000-04:00

Ready for the day

March 11

2009-03-11T20:22:00.003-04:00

Doral

New lens

2009-02-27T12:39:00.003-05:00

Last weekend, I broke my 'no buying things' streak (like that was going to last...) by purchasing a new lens for my camera from Henry's. This is the Nikon 50mm 1.8D, a real beaut that is referred to as the 'nifty fifty' by other amateur photogs that I know. The beauty of the nifty fifty is that it allows you to take shots in low light without using a flash because of the 1.8f-stop level. Although the autofocus is not supported on my D60, it actually isn't as big of a deal as I thought it might be because the camera has a focus meter built in, I had just never turned it on. I have just been fooling around with a few shots so far of my favorite subject, turns out there really isn't much else in our house to take an interesting picture of. I am happy with the results so far, even in our house that always seems to be dark because of H's fascination with dimmers.

Hungry

2009-02-24T21:43:00.001-05:00

Ella has decided to cut out the middle man in getting what she wants to eat.

Pond hockey...or not.

2009-02-23T20:32:00.003-05:00

This weekend we had some of the best weather we have had all winter. On Saturday, I headed up to Mullins' cottage in the wilds of Quebec to play some pond hockey. Unfortunately, the ice was pretty pitted up and we weren't able to play. However, we found some other activities to keep us busy...

First up, some roof jumping.

Followed by the most intense game of alleyball I have ever been a part of. Here we are trying to determine the rules of alleyball. First rule: there are no rules.

Stewy showing off. Someone from the 1920s stopped by.

26th Again?

2009-02-17T12:45:00.002-05:00

Can you believe it? The Uhrblog doesn't quite make it this year either.

Time Magazine - 25 Best Blogs 2009

Time flies

2009-02-15T19:55:00.003-05:00

You know how it sometimes seems that things don't change at all in a year? Hardly the case here.
2008

2009

From February 2009

We had a nice weekend, on Friday for lunch Heidi and I went out to Benitz Bistro, a new place for both of us that was very nice. Friday night had everyone out at the Heart and Crown for some pre-valentine drinks, hilarious conversation and half a pub grub platter.
I spent the rest of the weekend with my two valentines, enjoying some time around the house and in the sunshine that has been absent for the last three months.

Winter breaking?

2009-02-07T13:25:00.002-05:00

Another cold week here in Ottawa, but it looks like things are finally going to turn around as it is getting to seven degrees today and we have also booked a trip south, so that seems to put a built-in break into winter. This week was a little odd, as I ended up staying at home with Ella on Monday and then again on Friday afternoon. She was pretty busy with chores most of the time so I could take some time to relax.

Goodbye January...finally

2009-02-02T07:19:00.002-05:00

What a month that was. January always seems long, but this one seemed crazy. A few things were working against it this year; the bus strike made every commute just a little longer, that seems to add up and put people at work in a bad mood; the weather just never warmed up at all, despite promises in seemingly every five-day forecast that things were going to turn around; and an inability to book a winter vacation yet that we could at least look forward to. Oh well, on to February....

Currently I am reading a collection of David Foster Wallace's work, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Wow, he had some weird things pulsing through his mind before he committed suicide last year.

This weekend we had my friend Chris up from Toronto and a few others over to watch the Super Bowl. A strange game I thought, with only two real memorable drives plus the craziest swing play ever when James Harrison intercepted that pass and ran it back before halftime. Overall, a nice game and I was happy with the outcome.

Since we had company in town, we headed down to the canal on Sunday morning. For some reason they hadn't done a flood on Saturday night so it was a bit choppy but still decent. It was Ella's first time on the canal and despite how uncomfortable she looks in the picture below, she seemed to have a good time.

Tremblant

2009-01-24T16:25:00.002-05:00

This weekend we are up in Tremblant at a *yawn* retreat. This team is getting far more enjoyable now that we have nothing to do with volleyball.

34 degrees below zero at the top - just how I like it!

Media Roundup

2009-01-15T15:22:00.002-05:00

Now that the doldrums of January have officially set in, coupled with a -35 wind chill over the past couple of days, there hasn't been much else to do beyond reading and watching some TV. Thank goodness for Oscar screeners!

Over the past couple of weeks, H and I have watched the following:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- a marathon in the theatre, almost three hours
- three and a half out of five stars, pretty enjoyable and neat to see the scenery in New Orleans after just visiting

Revolutionary Road
- Perhaps the most boring movie ever, not sure what I expected. I kept waiting for something to happen....but then the movie ended
- Anyone involved with this movie should be banned from film for the next five years

Slumdog Millionaire
- A great movie! Entertaining the whole way through, with some great Bollywood dancing at the end. Not sure what else you would want.

As well, I have read a couple of pretty good books. Red China Blues chronicles Jan Wong's experiences in China over the past forty years, from her time as a devoted Maoist in the early 70s until now. This book was lent to me by LR as part of the China book club.

The second book I just finished was Another Bulls*it Night in Suck City. This is a memoir of the author that examines his relationship with his homeless father as he works for a shelter in Boston that his father also makes use of. Usually not my type of thing, but I found this book awesome. Can't recommend it to enough people...

Currently, I have just started The Bridge, by one of my favorite authors, Gay Talese. This tells the story of the building of the Verrazano Narrows bridge that connected Staten Island to Brooklyn in the 1960s. Talese spent countless hours on the bridge as it was being built and chronicles his experiences and the stories of the men who built it.

Chilling out...literally

2009-01-13T06:39:00.003-05:00

Well, back for a week now. These first few weeks of January are the definition of 'the grind.' The weather hasn't turned bad yet, but all these five-day weeks in a row kind of get to be a bit much. Later this week the minus 35 won't make getting out of bed any easier.
We had a great weekend of just relaxing. I seemed to watch a lot of TV but I guess that is what the winter is for. On Friday night, I finished up Season 2 of Dexter while Heidi went out with some friends, then Saturday night we watched possibly the worst movie ever, Revolutionary Road. The other big news on Saturday was that I finally shoveled our driveway for the first time this year. Four-wheel drive has done the trick until now.
With football on both Saturday and Sunday, I could hardly resist. On Sunday, Dwayne and A-Train sat around the house for hours on end with me watching the games as well. We also tried out the newest pizza delivery in Barrhaven, Dominos, and it was pretty solid. Definitely knocks out Toppers, but probably still a step below San Marino.

There have been some complaints that I no longer post what I eat on the blog. To satisfy those requests, here is my meal from Saturday, a beautiful piece of cow.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T11:59:00.002-05:00

After a great vacation in Alberta, we are back in Ottawa, and back at work. (or daycare, as the case may be) We had a fun time in Alberta despite the cold, and the change in temperature makes this Ottawa weather seem positively balmy. My sister and her husband came down to Lacombe for a few days, then we returned the favor and visited Edmonton later in the week. We also saw some old friends around Lacombe and the grandparents tried to keep up with Ella running around the house exploring new things.

Virklund Tree Farm

Practicing carols

More gifts!

Skating on the pond

Sleigh ride

For the rest of the photos, click here.

Canada Wins

2009-01-06T06:45:00.001-05:00

Another one.

Festive Special

2008-12-24T07:12:00.002-05:00

Last night we continued a long-standing Uhrbach tradition of going to Swiss Chalet for a Festive Special. When I first moved to Ottawa, I really embraced this tradition by having about 7 or 8 Festives each year but this year we almost missed it.
It was pretty fun, I even drank the shirley temple that came with Ella's kids meal. Haven't had one in about 20 years but it was delicious. Of all the Swiss Chalets in all the world, in a coincidental twist we ended up being seated right beside the Beefys, after two weeks of carpooling in together we didn't have too much left to say.
Did Ella like the Festive? This picture says 'yes'.

Christmas happenings

2008-12-23T13:52:00.003-05:00

For lunch today, I visited the most-talked about deli in Ottawa. I am not sure what is more controversial, the smoked meat at the Grand Central New York Deli or the OC Transpo strike. Both sides of each issue seem to have pretty strong opinions. See the link for my awesome comment. Hopefully Jacko finds this review also.

Other things happening around here; Heidi and I watched Taken the other night. Hands-down, best action movie of the year when ranked on the unintentional comedy scale. Liam Neeson is unstoppable. Hilarious.

I am done all my Christmas shopping and have been for a while so that is nice not to worry about. I had Francois this year in our Christmas draw, and think I picked out a heck of a gift. We'll see. I think that was supposed to be a secret that it was him I am buying for, but I will see how much time the folks at Nortel have on their hands.

Oh no. Apparently sports fans eat junk food and fast food more often and also drink more alcohol in a sitting than their peers. I think this can mostly be blamed on Detroit Lions fans.

Not sure if this will be the last blog before Christmas; if so, Merry Christmas to all the Uhrblog readers.

Snow-maggedon

2008-12-21T11:37:00.002-05:00

What a great headline, I think the Sun has been using it for the past four days. The snow continues to fall here in Ottawa, much like it is across the country I guess. Sure glad we are not traveling at our usual time this Christmas, otherwise we would be stuck right in the middle of this.

It is the season for Christmas celebrations, and although this year has seemed a bit quieter than most, we have still managed to get together with quite a few friends. On Thursday, it was Dwayno's birthday, not to mention a decent NFL tilt, so we all got together for some San Marino pizza and a pile of desserts at our place. This was my first experience with a San Marino pie although it is apparently a staple of Old Barrhaven. I have to say that I was pretty impressed with the San Marino Special.

Last night, we were at Heidi's friend Nat's for a Christmas party. It was a good time, Ella was hilarious, mingling through guests with reckless abandon, sitting at the bar with dad, emptying out bins of toys and eating anything that was handed to her. Followed up with an interesting football game, it was a good night. Although I am hardly a Cowboys fan, I kind of want to see them in the playoffs for sheer entertainment value so last night hurt the chances of that.

Boston Globe; Year in Photos

2008-12-18T09:43:00.003-05:00

The Boston Globe has published online a collection of some of their the best photos from 2008. Some of these shots are really amazing, some very beautiful and others very disturbing. This is a three-part series, with part one released yesterday, with part two and three coming today and tomorrow.

Part One.
Part Two.
Part Three.

OpA!

2008-12-13T16:09:00.005-05:00

Last night it was our friend Ben's 30th birthday. These 30th birthdays keep coming along fast and furious...I was pretty happy to figure out that mine will be one of the last of the people I know.

To celebrate the occasion, there was a group of about 15 of us that went out to Aroma Meze, a greek restaurant in Ottawa that is down on Nepean Street. I had never heard of it, and certainly had never been by, but it is in a cool old house that is broken up into different dining areas.
The dinner was a tapas-type small plates experience consisting of about 15 courses. It was crazy, the food just kept coming, and it turned into a great four-hour dinner. It was hard to pick a favorite dish, many were so delicious. Unfortunately, I will never be ever to remember any of the names so will never be able to order them again. It was a great night filled with opas, dish-smashing and jewish music.

In addition to celebrating Ben's birthday, it was great to see LR back in the capital again, if only temporarily.

New Camera

2008-12-07T19:28:00.005-05:00

From December 2008

Last weekend in Burlington, one of the new toys we picked up was a new SLR camera. The model we went with was the Nikon D60, both it and the similar Canon model are very well-rated so it didn't seem we could go too far wrong. I haven't had much time to fool around with it yet, and haven't even cracked the manual yet but it seems that there is a bunch of really cool stuff to do with it. So far the best part has to be the quick focus and shutter, hardly any lag at all. It is so much easier to capture those shots of Ella since she never sits still any more. Some of my new shots are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/muhrbachblog/december2008

This weekend we picked up a Christmas tree on Friday, I went out last night for the Statcan recruit Christmas party, my seventh year in a row! Today we decorated the tree and put up some more decorations. The weather blew in today, it started off beautifully today with a big flakes of snow but quickly turned into a cold, windy day. Looks like the week might continue like that.

Canadian Sports Journalism

2008-12-05T11:10:00.001-05:00

This is classic Canadian sports journalism, copying their American counterparts. This annoys me every time I hear someone copying a Jim Rome or Bill Simmons line on the TEAM radio or hear the Canadian version of 'The Reporters' copy a take verbatum from the ESPN version of 'The Reporters' that has aired 30 minutes earlier. Glad someone finally was 'officially' busted.

Sportsnet apologizes

The following message was recently posted at the top of Sportsnet.ca’s “columns” page:

“Portions
of freelance writer Chris Landry’s columns published recently on
Sportsnet.ca contained verbatim passages from columns that were
previously published on nationalfootballpost.com. Mr. Landry’s columns
will no longer be published on our site. Sportsnet.ca apologizes to
our readers and to nationalfootballpost.com.”

We
at the National Football Post appreciate Sportsnet’s inquiry into this
matter, their acknowledgment of our work being copied verbatim on their
site and their apology.

Tradition

2008-12-01T19:22:00.003-05:00

This weekend we headed down to Burlington, Vermont to deliver our own economic stimulus package to the Americans and by the looks of how packed our truck looked on the way home, we did well. This is the third year in a row that we have headed to Burlington on Thanksgiving weekend and it is always a fun time.
We stayed at our regular place, the Courtyard Marriott, about a block from Church Street, the main walking and shopping street. It was great as always; free parking for the second time in a row as well!
Ella got to order off the kid's menu for the first time while we were there. She picked a cheeseburger; I told her she could never go wrong in life with that decision. Another highlight was breakfast at the Penny Cluse Cafe, that will be a new regular place for us.
Despite the 'recession', it sure wasn't slowing anyone down in Burlington. Restaurants were packed and the shops were pretty busy. The headline on the USA Today said that the average shopper this weekend shelled out $373, a 7% increase from last year! Hard to believe.
Back to work for what is essentially a three-day week now; I have my divisional Christmas party on Friday, bowling and lunch that will take most of the day.

Ella and I on Church Street; Ella is prepared for the blizzard that never came.

The Big Easy

2008-11-27T11:48:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was spent in the south as I headed to New Orleans with my buddies Chris and Dwayne; unfortunately our fourth had to bail out at the last minute but we had a great time regardless. It was a last blast of summer as the weather was perfect. We ate a huge amount of great gumbo, creole, jambalaya, po' boys and fried chicken. Fantastic.
We hit the standard spots, Café du Monde, Emeril Lagasse's restaurant and Bourbon street while also managing to take in a Saints game and a Hornets game. The home teams were on fire as the Saints put up 51 points and Chris Paul managed a triple double. All in all, a great trip, even though it is hard to be away from home for that long any more.

This could be New Orleans' city motto.

The taste plate at Coops. Delicious.

Chris pays the bill, New Orleans style.

No Drama for Obama

2008-11-13T19:08:00.002-05:00

I know that I certainly have never been as engrossed in a political campaign as I was in this US Presidential Campaign. I just found it fascinating, trying to ignore the Huffington Post for more than half an hour at a time was killing me come September and October.
This week the New Yorker has a great pair of articles contrasting the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain. It is really interesting how the two camps differed throughout, with McCain's camp flip-flopping about, trying to reinvent their candidate and eventually just making him into a parody of himself while the Obama camp stayed on message the entire time. There are also links to the New York Times Magazine piece from a couple of weeks ago that dealt with the same topic and a link to a mammoth 7-part Newsweek piece from behind the scenes of the Obama campaign.

New Yorker: Obama

New Yorker: McCain

New York Times Magazine: McCain

Newsweek: Behind the Scenes of the Obama Campaign

Read it later...

2008-11-08T09:26:00.003-05:00

It seems like I have not been reading a lot of books lately, however, with my new Macbook I have been doing more online reading than ever before because of the portability. I think the U.S. election also led to a huge amount of stuff online that I was curious to read. One great firefox add-on that I have started using is 'Read It Later'; a simple extension that allows you to mark webpages for future snapback. It also creates an RSS feed, so if you would like to see what I have found on the web that I will be reading, you can subscribe here:

http://readitlaterlist.com/users/Uhrblock/feed/all

One book I did recently manage to get through lately is Stephen Lewis' Race Against Time, a summary of his lectures addressing the need for change in Africa and the failure of the United Nations to meet their Millenium Development Goals.

ESD

2008-11-07T06:37:00.002-05:00

This week my dad is in town for one of his frequent work trips that brings him to Ottawa. We met him last night at the Elgin Street Diner where I downed a huge poutine and then had to help out Heidi with her huge meal also. Nobody attempted to take on a milkshake also, Killam-style.
It was good to get together since although I saw him less than a month ago in Victoria, these circumstances were much better and much more relaxing. It also gave him a chance to see Lil' E who figured out a new source of milk, creamers.

In light of the election tomorrow....

2008-11-03T16:14:00.002-05:00

Ahh, a country with a less representative electoral system than Canada....how refreshing.
- - -- - - - - - -

There are likely many benefits of an electoral college voting system, but I would still like to see it dead. Because this is just crazy:

The presidency could be won with just 22 percent of the electorate's support, only 16 percent of the entire population's.

That is, you could lose 78% of the popular vote and still gain The White House! Is that even correct? This seems insane to me.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T10:55:00.002-04:00

Wow, November. Now that we are both back at work it seems that the weeks just fly by. Last night, Ella celebrated her first Halloween when she was able to enjoy the holiday. Last year's orange sleeper and toque that we called a pumpkin not withstanding....
Before Halloween though, Ella still had more birthday presents to open. It never seems to end...wish I was a kid again.

You can see that the cupcake card was the real hit of the gifts although she now seems to have figured out the shape ball as well, with a little help.

Last night was the nicest weather I can remember for Halloween in my lifetime. However, it sure didn't help the number of kids who came to our door, when we left to go visit a couple of friends in Bhaven at 6:45, nobody had even come yet! Later on a few came by, and we probably ended up with 30 or so....
The theme for the cousins seemed to be bugs this year. Simone went as a butterfly and Ella as a ladybug.

End of an era

2008-10-20T21:14:00.001-04:00

Today, for the first time in fifty-five weeks, Heidi and I both went to work.

Fabulous at One

2008-10-17T11:02:00.003-04:00

Well, there is no doubt this was a tiring week, flying to the west coast and back within three days. However, it was pretty fun to get home yesterday for Lil E's first birthday. It is hard to believe that it has been a year already, although she has progressed so far and changed so much that in other ways it is hard to believe it has only been a year.

Last night Lil' E opened her presents and thanks everyone for all the kind thoughts and gifts.

Birthday cake

Quite a success.

Nicer than our summer....

2008-10-06T18:53:00.002-04:00

It seems we are getting a bit of Indian summer here in Ottawa which is really appreciated while I am off. This weekend was a relaxing one around home, we really chilled out although did manage to slip in a dinner at Swiss Chalet on Saturday night and a hike on Jack Pine Trail near our house on Sunday.

Oh, and watched lots of football and baseball to top it off....this time of year has to be the worst for getting to bed at a decent hour on the east coast; last night I stayed up through the exciting finish of the Jacksonville/Pittsburgh football game and then flipped just in time to see extra innings start in the Angels/BoSox game; well, who can turn that off? And tonight, off to BPs to watch some MNF!