haggaret.com

Dave, Meg, Darcy, Grant and I took advantage of the beautiful weather on Saturday and hit the canal for some skating. The ice conditions were pretty much perfect – definitely a hundred times better than the last time Grant and I went (a few weeks ago). The weather was pretty much perfect too – bright sunshine and temperatures around minus 4 degrees celcius. It was busy, but not overly so. We skated the whole thing, from Dow’s Lake down to the Rideau St bridge and back. We also hit Patterson’s Creek along the way and then up towards the locks in the experimental farm at the end of the skate. I got a chance to practice stopping and skating backwards, and Grant did his old trick of shooting the duck. By the way, photo is courtesy of Dave and the rest of his photos can be found here. It was a great day and I hope to be able to get back out at least once more this winter.

Seeing as today is the last day of Winterlude, or at least I think it is, a bunch of us decided to head over to Jacque Cartier Park to check out some of the fun activities they have over there. For me the highlight was definitely the big slide they had constructed. JK and David, Trev and Christine, and me and Liam made multiple trips down the slide. It seemed like my control over what happened during the slide got worse every time and by the last time we went down I ended up on my back sliding headfirst with Liam on my stomach. Good fun! Amy got a video of it, but since I haven’t really figured out a good way to share videos yet (don’t really want to put them on youTube) I guess it’ll have to wait. While there, we also checked out some snow sculptures, went though a snow maze (pretty lame) and of course had a beavertail and some hot chocolate. You can check out all the pictures we took over at flickr. After our winter fun, we headed to the Kean’s place for lunch. We had high hopes of all the kids going to sleep so we could enjoy some board games during the afternoon, but it was not to be. As a result, we are back home already. Still – definitely a fun day. Thanks for the grub Keans!

In case you hadn’t heard yet, we are expecting our second baby sometime in August this year. The photo to the left shows an ultrasound of the little guy / girl at around the 12 week mark. Amy and I are excited, but also scared out of our minds about this one…now that we know what to expect, having gotten to this point with Liam. We’re not quite sure how we’re going to be able to manage two, especially considering how high energy Liam is, but since we’re not the first to attempt this, and surely wont be the last, I’m sure we’ll be ok. Here’s hoping anyways… :)

This pregnancy seems to be a bit rougher on Amy, and DEFINITELY rougher on me. Last time nothing really changed for me (during the pregnancy), but this time I have to chase Liam around while Amy isn’t feeling well. I certainly hope she starts feeling better soon, and not because I think it’ll benefit me, just cause I hate to see her suffering.

Looking at the picture to the right, it’s pretty obvious that Liam was in need of a haircut – for the first time in his life. This past Saturday morning, he got one. Amy and I took him to First Choice Hair Cutters, in a little mini mall close to our place. Liam was very good during the entire haircut, not shedding even one tear. We were a bit surprised. He did keep the barber on her toes though, frequently turning his head unexpectedly. I didn’t manage to get a picture of him at the barber shop, you see the damn batteries in the camera died before I could get a picture, but I did manage to do a couple of videos before the batteries died. I’ll need to re-encode them so I can post them on here. Or maybe I’ll just take a picture of the new haircut at home and be done with it.

As I mentioned in a comment on a previous post, I decided on which TV to buy and went out and bought it. Here’s a little post about the buying experience, which was less than enjoyable.

I saw this deal at Future Shop for the Samsung LN-T4661F and after doing a bit of research, decided it was a decent deal and the TV was about what I was looking for. BTW, in case that link dies, the deal was $1799.99 for the TV, plus you could add a ‘home theatre package’ to it for an extra $200. The home theatre package was basically an amp / DVD player combo and 5 speakers. Sold on its own, it’s $499 so I thought an extra $200 was reasonable.

Anyways, I headed into the FS in Kanata and started looking around to see if I could find the TV on display. After a short while, I found it, with no help from anyone. I stood around for a while, watching the TV, making sure it performed ok, etc. After a short time, I started looking for someone to help me out, but unfortunately this was difficult to find.