Author: admin

Not much to write about here other than the fact that I asked Gaetan for permission to marry his daughter.  He challenged me to a bricklaying duel which I barely won, but in the end, I earned his respect and he gave his blessing.

I’m glad I’ve joined up with the volleyball team again. It was a great summer at Mooney’s Bay although I would say that the losses outnumbered the wins. But you know what? Who cares? Each night I get to spend time with friends on a beach during the summer!

Here’s the team after a final game. Mark somehow managed to score some half price pizza that night. It was a shame that Team Captain Mikey couldn’t make it, but boy, that was some great pizza.

It’s due time for another trip down to the Coast and with a good reason…celebrating Nanny’s 80th birthday!

First stop, a trip to Saint-Jacques des Leeds to visit Vero’s grandma and her family. I really enjoy this village as it’s nice to see the rolling hills. Vero’s cousin also bought the gas station in town so it was interesting to chat with him to find out how hard it is to have a gas station in a small town like that. An evening of fun times was had and it was nice to see everyone.

It’s really great to have Saint-Jacques des Leeds as a stopover on an otherwise 12 hour trip to Gaspe! We woke up early and hit the road. Once we hit the coast we realized we were starving and stopped in to a chip stand.

We stopped in and grabbed an epic poutine. In fact, this may have actually been featured on ‘Epic Meal time’. In theory it sounded amazing, but when we saw it, I couldn’t help but have my stomach turn.

It was called La Poutine des Navigateurs and it consisted of the standard fries, gravy and curds but coupled with ground beef, ham and bacon and there must have been other things in there that I couldn’t even identify! The bacon seemed to have hit the frying pan for one second and then put into this concoction. Also, the bottom of the poutine became this interesting soup which consisted of the gravy as well as the grease from the bacon and the ground beef.

In the end, the poutine was finished between the two of us, but there was a mound of bacon left on the side and a sick stomach for the rest of the trip! Please don’t try the Navigator poutine on your way down the coast! Blech!

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. It was raining most of the way and when we showed up to the cottage, everyone jumped at the chance to speak with us. Turns out that it had been raining all week and there was a case of cabin fever coming over everyone!

Spent the rest of the night having a great time drinking some homemade beer as well as playing some guitar with John. I also showed Vero the excellent trailer that we would be living in for the next few nights. Favourite moment of the day was dropping by Eric and Kay’s and Vero says “Wow, you have a nice big deck.” and Eric says “I have a nice big WHAT?!” Hilarity ensued.

The next day turned out to be the best of the week. We brought the sunshine with us! Everyone was excited. Uncle Gerry hopped on the bike as soon as dawn hit and I don’t remember seeing him all day!

Dad brought me up the hill on the ATV. It’s quite the steep hill and I’m glad she showed me the ropes before bringing Vero out on it. I think I would have a lot of fun ATVing around Gaspe. Supposedly there are great trails going for 100km.

That afternoon we went downtown with Maureen and John to see a street festival. It was quite fun but hit legendary status when we noticed some street performers called Papirock (sp?). They dressed up like old people and played music and acted just plain silly. It was amazing. We were trying to figure out how to hire them for Maureen and John’s wedding!

John and I modeling some Lucha Libre masks.

In the evening, we headed to Nanny Ruth’s 80th birthday party at the Legion. I have never been to a louder event in my life! I couldn’t figure out if it was due to the amount of people there, or the fact that 80% of them had hearing aids! Incredible! We had a great time and it’s always great to see Nanny have a good time. I think she is quite like me…loves to entertain and chat with friends.

We headed back to Ottawa with Maureen and John in tow. I had a good laugh when we were commenting on the town names in Quebec along the coast and John said “I bet this town has something to do with either a mountain or a Saint.” Turns out it was St-Anne-Des-Monts!

It was quite the long trip and we decided to take the Northern route over Montreal. Not sure which is the better option to be honest considering there was a lot of construction going on. I think the entire family was happy when we ended up back in Ottawa!

While London burns, I have been thinking of burning something around me.

A nest of yellowjackets.

Last week I spied a couple of holes in the backyard with some flies roaming around it.  Not thinking much of it, I ignored it until a few days later when I got a closer look at it and realized that it must have been more than your average housefly…they were yellowjackets.

Research has shown that yellowjackets tend to find holes dug out by rodents and build nests into the ground.  Not unlike a hornet or wasp, these suckers are meant for one thing…and that one thing is to sting.

I started drowning the ‘jackets hoping that would do the trick but the water just kept going in after an hour…damn drought!  In the meantime, when I went to get the hose, I felt a piercing pain on my left calf.  It got me!

I ran like a bat out of hell from the area and I started to panic.  As far as I can remember, I have never been stung by an insect so I had no idea if I’m allergic or not.  I ran inside the house to get Vero in case I would start losing my breath.  She sat me down and asked “Well, can you breathe?” and I realized that I am not allergic!  She took a credit card to remove the stinger (which we found out does not happen with yellowjackets) and put some ice on it.

Now the plan had to begin to get rid of these pests.

After much reading, I discovered the trick is to go out at night when they are all in the nest sleeping.  So Friday night Vero and I bundled up in all manners of clothing in case they tried to sting us.  I didn’t really know what to expect.  The day before, there were dozens of ‘jackets flying around when I was hosing them down.  How many would there be at 11:30 at night?

In the end, we assaulted them with some hornet spray AS WELL AS some foam which is supposed to kill the nest.  I think I may have seen ONE ‘jacket in the grass which I sprayed.

That was that!  I was surprised at how easy it was.

The next day I spied from afar our handiwork and realized that there were two gaping empty holes where the foam had done its business.  Mission accomplished!

Later on in the day, I decided to get proactive and dig out the nest as I had read that if you leave the nest, other yellowjackets can fly in and make another home.  So I figured I would quickly grab the shovel, test the ground and fill it in.

Of course, here I was in the plain daylight with my flip flops and shorts not thinking there was any danger.  There was no activity around the area.  I dig a little here, dig a little there and no problems are encountered.  I was smart enough to grab the remainder of the spray cans.

Lo and behold, I decided to move my shovel a little to the right and I hear a crunch.  In an instant a swarm of yellowjackets erupts from the ground willing to go in for the kill.  That kill was me!

Armed with the spray, I unload the can in 2 seconds (guess there wasn’t much left!) and foam the suckers!  However in the meantime they manage to sting my ankle as well as crawl up my shorts and sting my thigh!  Argh!  I’m in pain, Vero is coming out to ask me something and I’m warning her to stay away.  In the end I admitted defeat as I had run out of foam and it was just too dangerous to stay.

A couple of days later I spy into the hole and I don’t see anything moving.  I’m not falling for this trick again so I foam the hole again just in case.  I wait until dusk and take the shovel to the hole ever so gently but in the end, nothing happens.  I guess the rest of the foam I unleashed on this swarm killed them.

My only fear now is that there are still a few yellowjackets roaming the area after I scared them out of their nest and then subsequently foamed it.  With nothing to return to, they may very well try and find another home…hopefully not around the house!

That was my first adventure with yellowjackets and it wasn’t pleasant at all!  But I hope I got the best of them.

iplaying – Here Tomorrow Gone Today – Lifehouse (Smoke and Mirrors)

Saturday and Sunday were tons of fun as we had family descend onto the area.  Aunt Lois and Uncle Gary showed up first around 2PM and we sat and chatted and toured them around the house.  They are on their way to Gaspe for Nanny’s 80th birthday party where Vero and I will be heading on Thursday.  Later on Maureen and John showed up as well.  Our first mission was to go to Chile Chile’s, only the best hot sauce store in the Ottawa area.  John and Maureen proceeded to purchase 12 bottles of the spicy sauce!

We had an excellent feed of BBQ goods and the night descended into fun in the hot tub, some beers and Maureen’s friend Emilie visiting for a bit.  It was nice to chat with everyone and it’s a shame we don’t live closer to one another!  I had a good laugh when all I could hear in the discussions was wedding talk.  If I were Maureen and John, I would hope that the wedding will be over soon so I could get back to talking about other things!

The next day, I didn’t feel bad at all sleeping in while the others got up and left around 7ish to go to Gaspe.  Here’s to hoping there weren’t any sore heads on that drive down!

After cleaning up the place again, we awaited the arrival of Anne-Marie and Steve with 2-year old Evan in tow.

I’m not going to lie, babies don’t do it for me.  They are hard to interact with.  But a two-year old entering the house?  Now that is the cats meow.  Here was Evan walking all over the place.  We played ball with him for a few hours (we had to…he would cry if we went back up on the deck!) and we gave him a Mr. Potato Head and a Spidey car.  I had a good laugh when he set all that aside to play with a tray of pebbles on our coffee table…taking each pebble out, and then putting them back in!  Kids don’t need toys, they just need anything they can get their hands on!  I was quite excited when he got a hold of the digicam and started taking pictures.  That kid is smart and one for the gadgets.

It was nice to hang out with Anne-Marie and Steve for the rest of the night, although the visit was too short, much like the night before.  Being a stopover is too short of a time!  Anne-Marie and Steve rented a cottage in the Laurentides so that should be fun for a few days.  They’ll be coming to our house on Friday but we won’t be around unfortunately.

Thanks for everyone dropping by!  Fun times were had.

– Take pride in throwing a killer party
– Make people feel comfortable in any situation, even if it makes you feel uncomfortable. People feel awkward in life.
– It’s alright to smile or say hello to a stranger. If they scowl, just laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation!
– Love isn’t something you can make by mimicking others. Go your own way.
– Always try and quote music lyrics.
– It’s fun to have inside jokes with yourself.
– It’s alright to be crass once in awhile. The shock entertains.
– It’s alright to stretch the truth for the sake of a great story.
– Always try and be a gentleman. Note: Being crass and a gentleman doesn’t mix well. Thrive on those opposing forces.
– Singing is the best medicine.
– Try and not stare at your feet while walking or cycling. Look around. Marvel at everything.
– It’s alright to read comics on the bus. The era of geek has arrived.
– It’s not ok to procrastinate and you should never be comfortable with it.