J&M got Maui'd!

The entire trip was a bit of a blur, but I'll see how much of it I can recall. Our flight out was on Canada day, and I had hoped that the airport wouldn't be so busy since we were leaving on the Sunday of a long weekend. We tried to check in on line the night before but there was a note that aerosol cans were considered hazardous materials, and would not allow me to print off the tickets. So we ended up waiting in line for about an hour before we got our tickets. I found out later that the you need not need to worry about aerosol cans unless they were in your carry-on luggage. Bah! The flight to Punta Cana was fairly uneventful, but the drive from the airport to the resort was interesting. We passed by some gate where there was a guard with an assault rifle. The drive in and the wait for the bus and check in meant that we basically arrived with a couple of hours to spare before dinner. The first night was spent helping the bride and groom unpack, since we had one of their...

Maggie and I are now getting ready for our trip to Punta Cana for Jean's wedding! Everyone's excited! Also it's quite the gathering. It's not often to have the entire clan out (although we are missing a couple of people..). I discovered that aerosols cans are okay so long as you keep it in the check-in baggage. I'll remember that for next time.

My place has been overrun. It has been overrun by bridal shower accessories. It is not even for Maggie's bridal shower, or even related to our wedding at all! (We closed the books on our wedding months ago.) No, we are getting ready to host Jean's bridal shower at our condo. Part of the preparations was to store all of the bridal shower stuff in our apartment. It started off small: a handful of cute teacups and accompanying saucers. Added to them were the handful of teapots and sugar pots, more cups and saucers, plates and trays, various teas, boxes of teacups and saucers, kettles and drink dispensers, buckets (no hyperbole) of teacups and saucers, napkins, more plates, more platters than you can shake a stick at, need I go on? The dining table is completely covered with stuff, the coffee table is completely full of stuff, the countertops are barely usable, the sofa is partially usable, and the flat tops from the containers of stuff we brought in are also getting full of ...

Maggie and I participated on the annual Becel Ride for Heart on Sunday. The forecast predicted rain all morning, so we had brought rain gear/extra clothes to handle the precipitation. The fact that I felt a total of a dozen drops of rain during the entire duration of the ride did not bother me. Riding on a cool cloudy day is probably ideal when you're exerting yourself that much. Allan, Me, Maggie and Megan at the start. In any case, Andrew bowed out as he was worried about getting the electricals on his bike wet, so that left Hoi, Brian, Alan, Megan, Maggie, and I for the ride. Brian was delayed so we started without him. Mind you, he did finish before any of us did, and Hoi and I more or less rode together. Alan came in after us, and Maggie and Megan came in at the end. But we all did fifty kilometers! Very proud of Maggie. Of course she is feeling it now - and probably will for the next few days.. Hoi, Brian, Megan, Maggie, Me, and Allan having food afterward.

This weekend was Doors Open Toronto and Maggie and I wanted to do some exploring of certain sites around the city. First up was Havergal College , which we never checked out despite living so close by. We also wanted to check out Casa Loma, even though it was only the Stables and Potting Shed . I wanted to also check out the Spadina Museum and the Toolkeeper's Cottage which were nearby. I also wanted to see the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant and the Portlands Energy Centre . I never knew we had a power plant still running in the city! We were able to check out Havergal College first but our plans went awry when my motorcycle did not start up. I had left the accessories on for a few days (the concierge informed me about my lights being on a while back) but I had not gotten around to checking out the battery, and it was pretty dead. So instead of driving to some of these sites (which required payment for parking) we went to the Portlands Energy Centre instead (it wa...

Maggie and I organized a bike ride down the Lower Don bike path. This was to train a few people for the Ride for Heart that was coming up in a couple of weeks. We met at Sunnybrook Park, we being Maggie, Hoi and I. Everyone else either did not respond, cancelled, or was going to show up at the Evergreen Brick Works . We spent the next hour making our way down the Lower Don bike path, taking pictures, getting lost, and just enjoying the ride. Maggie on the Lower Don Bike Path Since we were taking a little longer than I had planned, I decided that we should skip the mill and waterfall and head straight to the Evergreen Brick Works , but also in so doing, I took the wrong path. Now I had told myself to put the bike maps into the backpack, but for some reason ended up not doing it, so we had no maps to follow, with just Maggie's internet connection guiding us. Fortunately, it was accurate. Unfortunately, my memory is quite terrible so I had to refer to it occasionally e...

Maggie and I spent the afternoon in the Niagara region participating in the Wine and herb weekends in May . It was her friend's birthday and she had invited us along with several of her other common friends to participate. Being a non-drinker, I opted for the designated driver passport, which was a little cheaper, and I was able to try some juice pairings instead of the wine. I took some notes, but not very many - but I've posted what I remembered from the tastings in the order that we traveled. (Please correct me if I made any mistakes.) Lailey Vineyard Food: Chicken Salad with Taragon in a Potato Bun Drink: MADD Non Alcoholic White Wine The drink by itself had a strange taste - it was not sweet, and it had some strong flavours - but complemented the bite sized sandwich very well. The designated drivers before the wine tasting at Lailey. This is probably why we were not allowed to drink. Inniskillin Winery Food: Confit Pork Shoulder with Potato and Bronze F...