As time goes by!

As people know, I lost my Mom 2 years ago today, it was a very big loss. Nobody ever has the effect on your life like a mother has on her son.

Mom

I'm happy to say I'm still thinking of you all the time Mom. Lots of times I find myself thinking how I could change the end, how MAYBE I would have stayed home and spent the extra couple of days with you instead of going camping, or to Shannonville. How I could have spent every second of the last couple of months talking and reliving our relationship. I think about the silly things I did to annoy you, always ending with you giving me a big smile and telling me "oh, stop it!", I still smile everytime, great memories!

I think you'd enjoy the fact that I'm getting into photography again(at least a little) it would mean a lot for pictures for you to hang:-). You'd also be amazed at how different Amber is compared to Kyra, talk about the terrible two's OUCH. You also be amazed to know, maybe not, that Dad and the microwave are best friends. I tried to get him to learn to cook, but 60+ years makes it's difficult. Actually whenever Dad asks me about how to cook corn on the cob I laugh. I think you would too, just at the silliness of it.

You are always welcome in my dreams, I always love your hugs, and your smile and laugh always brighten my day.

I love you always

NIGHT, NIGHT!

Your son
Brent

Movie review ...... Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine ........ 88%


Toni Collette
Steven Carell
Greg Kinnear
Alan Arkin
Abigail Breslin
Paul Dano

Usually I don't put to many people as main actors with a link and all, but in this case it's needed.

Loved this film. It a big a ensemble cast in a movie that requires them all to tell their story.


Abigail Breslin plays Olive, a little girl who's dream is to be a beauty queen. She gets here chance when the winner(she came 2nd) in a regional pageant has to pull out. This is a story about the family, and the trip to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California. I'll take this from Rotten Tomatoes, it's the best write-up I've seen. If this doesn't make you want to see this strange, funny, exhilarating film than nothing will.

" No one among the Hoovers quite has it together, but it's not for lack of trying. Father Richard (GREG KINNEAR), a hopelessly optimistic motivational speaker, is desperately attempting to sell his 9-step program for success -- without much success. Meanwhile, the Hoovers' "pro-honesty" mother Sheryl (TONI COLLETTE) is constantly harried by her family's eccentric secrets, especially those of her brother (STEVE CARELL), a suicidal Proust scholar fresh out of the hospital after being jilted by his gay lover. Then there are the younger Hoovers with their unlikely dreams -- the four-eyed, slightly plump, seven year-old would-be beauty queen Olive (ABIGAIL BRESLIN) and Dwayne (PAUL DANO), an anger-fueled, Nietzsche-reading teen who has taken a staunch vow of silence until he gets into the Air Force Academy. Topping off the family is the grandfather (ALAN ARKIN), a foul-mouthed pleasure-seeker recently kicked out of his retirement home for snorting heroin. "

If I can say 1 bad thing about this flick, it's the pivotal dance scene, it runs too long!

This is a PV buy for me, buy I will buy it!

B

Back to the grind

My, oh my what an interesting week off. It sure isn't like most peoples holidays, they tend to get 9-10 days off, 5 work days and 2 weekends. This week would have been longer because of the labour day weekend, but oh well!

It was just my luck that "Ernesto"(?) decided to make it's way up to Canada on the long weekend. I still enjoyed my days camping by myself. Nice weather for the drive. A nice, if a little public, campsite, and some friendly chipmunks made for a fun coupla days

I ended up going to a site called Charlston Lake provincial campground. It was about 50 minutes East of Kingston, and proved to be a well treed and well spread out campground. Initially I planned on getting up and walking a way along a trail to catch the early morning light, but when I checked the trail I wanted to go on, it was a 10Km trail rated moderate/difficult, and I figured people would find me eaten by a bear about 4 KM in. So I enjoyed my couple of days doing little walks here and there, checked out the beach, and did a 2 KM boardwalk trail. I made 1 mistake though, I didn't expect a lot animals at my site ..... first night, 1 raccoon, 2nd night 4 raccoons. I figured they were probing my defenses waiting for an opening. Although I would have liked to train the chipmunks to be my army I figured that the raccoons were here first.



Overall, a nice site but I suggest you bring you bikes and your hiking shoes.

SO, I head towards Fort Henry(whoops, said Fort Stanley before SORRY!), Great place and a good trip for people to see. A 1 hour guided tour run often, and they fire a cannon with full pomp and circumstance every hour or two.

I would suggest this as a trip for everybody. SURE it would have been nice if something actually happened at Fort Henry, the stories would have been "we forced them to retreat using these exact 24 pound guns", instead we are forced to listen to stories about how the forts design was "made to make troups bunch up at this point where a cannister would have been fired, taking out a large # of the enemies troups"

The stories are still good, and the fort is pretty neat.

After that it was onto Sandbanks to meet up with F-M-and D(yes I said D)., I had wondered the whole trip whether they would show up because of the forcast, and by about 2p.m., just as I'm leaving the fort I get a headache, and the rain starts WONDERFUL. I end up leaving the fort at about 3:30, once my headache goes away and end up at Sandbanks at about 5:15. As I had guessed, Fred and the clan had cancelled. It was still a nice drive, and I was in no rush to get home OH Well!

Got home about 8:15 p.m. Saturday, did a bunch of little things in Newmarket on SUnday, spent most of the afternoon Monday with my Sister and her kids at the park, and on Tuesday I went to get a new healthcard in Oshawa(that was a mistake!)

I think I'll take Saturday night off and go to the Uxbridge fall fair!

Overall a pretty good week off. I was really hoping to spend some time with the Fred clan, next year for sure. I'm thinking the beginning of August, a great time to see the persiod meteor shower.

Brent