Congratulations, Judith, on your graduation.

Today was Judith's graduation (B.Sc. Kinesiology) from Queen's University. The proud parents took the three-hour drive yesterday evening and spent the night at a B&B that we would highly recommend to anybody, An Enchanted Garden on Collins Creek. We found the place on a Google search for B&B's in Kingston. It was reasonably priced and cheaper than the Holidy Inn :-) Unfortunately we did not have the time to do the place justice.

This morning we drove over to where Judith's boyfriend stays, Mark Dank(theTank)ovich, and with him walked over to Grant Hall.

I'm sorry about the pictures being so blurry and grainy. I was too far away to use a flash, and I've obviously got a lot to learn about taking videos when there are tall people in front of me.

The graduands were led in by pipers.

Judith is at bottom left, just to the left of the guy in blue.

Here is my jumpy video of Judith being "hooded". Unfortunately I started a fraction of a second after her name was announced.

Outside, after it was all over. Ingrid, Mark D and Judith.

Terry, Judith and Ingrid

Judith and Mark

Stephen and Heather in Morocco
The other bit of news is that Stephen and Heather left for Morocco on Wednesday. Here is a copy of the email that we received from them. I only saw it today when we got back from Kingston. It seems like they have a French keyboard.

Hi

Heather and I arrived in Casablanca today after a mostly uneventful qnd only slightly delayed flight. we spent our first day getting lost in the madina several times, checked out the Hassan II mosque which is huge, ate our first of probably many tagine dinners and made friends zith the chef who taught us everything ze needed to know qbout the mosque (it holds 100 000 people), and spent half an hour typing this email because keyboards here arent normal...so email updates zill be kept short and will have many Qs where As should be, and and Zs where Ws should be etc...

Cheers for now

Steve

PS i realiwed I dont have email addresses for everyone so please add those zho are ,issing

Catch-up on Celebrations

On Sunday 2nd May we all got together at Luisa and Mark's place to celebrate Luisa's birthday. Here's a shot of Luisa and Mark talking to her adulating nieces in Winnipeg.

Other than the disappointment of watching India deservedly beat South Africa in the T20, it was the usual happy time together made especially enjoyable with a visit from Sean McKenna - Stephen's closest childhood buddy from playgroup days right through to when we came to Canada.

There was the usual goofing around and, of course, cake and prezzies.

Miriam and Geoff told us that the baby's name is Claire. Everyone took turns with their hand on Miriam's stomach feeling Claire moving around.

Ingrid did a great job cleaning up and repairing some old baby items that used to belong to Miriam - a carousel made by Eileen Lindsay, Miriam's godmother, and a wall hanging made by Oma for Miriam when she was a baby. These will go up in Claire's room.

After we had all eaten too much we went to the school playground across the road and had a game of ultimate frisbee - a first for Sean McKenna and me.

Then, last Sunday, 9th May, we we all went round to Geoff and Miriam's for Mother's Day. After we had all eaten too much there wasn't much else to do except eat some more.

Geoff and Miriam put together a slide show of their snorkelling experience in Mexico. Here we are watching it on Geoff's laptop.

We all wish Sean a great vacation in Jamaica. He left this Tuesday past.

Congratulations, Judith.

The other big news is that Judith has completed her B.Sc, Gen. Kinesiology degree at Queens. She is enrolled to begin another four years of study at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) in September.

Six Month Catch-up - with apologies

Hmmm. It's over 6 months since my last blog entry. How on earth do I pick up and bring you up to speed with what's been going on at Kwa-McCann?

I'll start off with some recent events, some good news and then some big, exciting news that's now so old it's no longer really news (unless you did not know. :-) Then I'll just bring you random news as it comes to me - mostly good news.

Blue Door Shelters Bed Race Fund Raiser
The agency Ingrid works for recently changed their name from "Transitional and Supportive Housing Services of York Region" (TSHYSR for "short" - really! - no bull!) to "Blue Door Shelters." Try shutting your eyes and saying all names from memory. QED. Anyway, Blue Door Shelters aka. TSHSYR put on a fund raiser bed race on Saturday June 14. For reasons too complicated to explain the "kids" and their partners were on one team, McCann Clan Inc., and I was on another comprised mainly of staff members or spouses, The Bluebeds of Happiness. (Have you neva hed of the bluebed of happiness?)
McCann Clan Inc. beat off the other four teams to win the "race" and The Bluebeds of Happiness raised the most money. Not too shabby. You can see all 150 pictures by clicking on the link to my Picasa album 2008 Blue Door Shelters Bed Race. You didn't click the link? Let me whet your appetite by warning you that my team is wearing Tinker Bell wings...

Health Issues - "Come back in six months"
Both Judith (this month) and I (last month) had the same happy instruction from our respective specialist doctors. Judith was told her CAT scan showed no indication of a return of any cancer; my doctor told me that my PSA levels were slightly raised but still way down from when I first visited him and not indicative of the prostate cancer changing type or size. Next time round I will have another biopsy - stings like the blazes for a few hours but totally worth it.

Tada! An Engagement is announced!
In February (I did tell you it was old news) Mark asked Luisa if she would like to wear an engagement ring he had bought her.

Actually, it wasn't quite like that - it was a lot more romantic with hundreds of rose petals and a flight booked to Winnipeg where Luisa's parents and 3 of 4 sisters live. They stopped at our house pretty-well on their way to the airport to tell us the good news. As it happened, this was Ingrid's and my wedding anniversary date, and they are planning to get married on August 15 next year - the same date as Luisa's parents wedding anniversary.

Three weeks ago Ingrid and I met Luisa's parents, Luis and Connie, for the first time. They stopped off in Toronto for 2 days and a night on their way from Portugal (the family are originally from Mocambique) to Winnipeg. We all spent a wonderful few hours on Mark's boat and then Mark and Luisa showed them where they plan to get married (here in Newmarket at St Elizabeth Seton) and have their reception.


Stephen graduates
On 26 May Ingrid, Stephen and I drove down to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario for Stephen's graduation with a B.Sc(mech). It was a very happy occasion; Ingrid and I were very much the typical proud parents. Afterwards we had a celebration dinner and invited a former house mate of Stephen's to join us.

Meanwhile, Stephen's girlfriend, Heather, received the very happy news that she has been accepted to study medicine at Western University in London, Ontario. Congratulations Heather! We are extremely happy for you. I have provided my most recent pic of Heather taken at Sinterklaas last December.




The Weather.
You aren't a real Canadian if you don't talk about the weather, I have found. So I will tell you that we broke some temperature and snowfall records this last winter - a winter that seemed to drag on forever. Today is the first day of summer. Yep; in Canada summer only starts on the solstice - spring only starts on the equinox - and it really is like that. It has been relatively cold with a lot more rain than usual for the entire last three months. Yes, we did have some extremely hot days as well - into the 30s (Centigrade; high 80s F) but there seemed to be many more days with the max in the low teens.

Here are two photos taken after a record snowfall in March. One is of my neighbour giving me a hand with my driveway with his snowblower. The other is my back deck and access to the back door.



Summer Vacation
Next week Ingrid and I are off to Cape Cod for a week - making use of an exchange on our SA timeshare through RCI that we still own. I'll let you know how it goes when we get back - maybe :-)