Extended Vacation

An unexpected turn of events has extended my 15 day vacation to a permanent one. You see, my job with the cancer society was a contract position that was to last until January. I found out this week on Thursday that due to restructuring of the office, my position has been eliminated. My last day in the office was yesterday. It is not terrible news and I'm actually a bit excited that it has opened up some much needed free time. The upside is that I will remain on payroll and will continue my benefits until September 5th...nothing like getting paid for sleeping in and going to the gym! Like they say, all good things must come to an end.

Sooooo, Uncle Ray & Charlie Palooza officially began yesterday around 1pm. We kicked it off last night with dinner & drinks with Bill & Lyne and then headed over to the Bowlarama for a couple of games of Canada's very own, small ball bowling, bubble hockey (see video below; Ray dominated all three games!) and the crane game.



There are travel plans in the mix as well. Our flight leaves on Friday the 4th of July to Charlotte, NC. We will be spending a few days at my sister's house and "Pigeon Holler" (actually Pisgah Forest, but Ray can never remember that so this is what it has become) before heading back to beautiful Myrtle Beach. I am really excited that we are going back there. The condo that we stayed is perfectly situated right on the ocean and I can't wait to do some more shopping (Nike outlet here we come!!), enjoy the great restaurants (mmmMyabi!) and hang out on the beach. We weighed all of our options and with the cost of flights and travel these days, this option was by far the most cost effective. Plus, it's kinda nice that we know what to expect by going back.

Great People in New Brunswick!

The number one and best part about living here in New Brunswick are the people I have met since moving here. I've never lived in a place where people are so friendly and welcoming. The two couples pictured above are Kevin & Linda on the left, and Mary & Derek on the right. I met them this afternoon at a dinner reception that was held as part of the 2nd Annual Dave Horsman Memorial Golf Tournament. The golf tournament was held in memory of Dave Horsman who passed away from cancer. Kevin is Dave's brother and Derek is his nephew. I'm not sure if it was because of the cocktails they enjoyed on the course, or they're just naturally entertaining, but it was an absolute pleasure sitting with them. In fact, they will be receiving an e-mail with a link to the blog to check out the picture - Hi!!! It was really nice meeting you today.

The picture below is of Helen Horsman presenting the Canadian Cancer Society (me) a check, in the amount of $1,450.00, raised from the event. Helen did a wonderful job organizing the tournament, which 42 golfers participated, in memory of her late husband. Truly a fantastic family.

Golf in Prime Time

Let's start by saying this, Ray & I think golf should only be on our television as a precursor to a good nap. This brings us to last Sunday. Due to the 4 hour time difference between Atlantic Canada and lovely San Diego, we had prime time golf. And thanks to Tiger, the two of us were absolutely riveted to the drama at Torrey Pines! Literally, we came off the couch more than once with Tiger-like fist pumps of our own!! We were so into this golf tournament that Ray recorded the playoff round on Monday...we avoided all media contact so we could be surprised when we watched...this is where it gets dicey.

This was the US OPEN...that's United States for those scoring at home. Well, we recorded on TSN (Canada's ESPN & in Ray's opinion it far exceeds ESPN)...it seems that the US Open was not the #1 viewing item on the world's agenda...you see, at about the 10th hole of the playoff TSN cut in to inform us that they would be taking us to EURO 2008 for today's tournament action in SOCCER!!! WHAT?!?!?! After not viewing any mediums all afternoon so we didn't know the outcome...BOOM...we get shut out from the dramatic sudden death conclusion of the US OPEN!!! We ended up catching the ending on youtube...another indicator that we are not in the good ole USA....

Scenic Hopewell Rocks

This morning we were sitting on the couch and felt like doing a little day-trippin...so Ray hopped on the ol' computer and found a place called Hopewell Rocks that's about a 45 minute drive from home. Ancient geology and powerful tides created the backdrop of the picture above. Behind the rock formation is the Bay of Fundy, one of the Marine Wonders of the World (or so we were told). The Bay of Fundy sports tides the height of 4-story buildings and a coastline filled with these huge rock formations. We are literally standing on the ocean floor in this picture...pretty cool, eh!?!

This is an uplifting little piece of information prior to walking down to the ocean floor. If you look closely, it says "To avoid being trapped by the riding tide YOU MUST return to the stairs by the time shown here." Luckily we were there at 1:27 and had plenty of time to explore. Certainly worth synchronizing your watches to...I'm thinking the 4-story tides could prove to be quite the treacherous swim.

Relay For Life Moncton Huge Success

Well I have finally been able to breathe a sigh of relief...most of my time and energy for my first 6 months with the Canadian Cancer Society has been spent on making Relay For Life in Moncton successful...and that it was. There were over 200 cancer survivors (yellow shirts above) in attendance, 59 teams, a total of 660 participants, and 3,583 luminary candles lining the track. I surpassed my goal and have raised a total of $175,577.02 from the event! I would like to note that this is the most ever raised over the past 7 years of this event here...so that feels really good to be a part of. Thank you to all of you that helped support this event. It has taken me awhile to write this post because I have been absolutely exhausted from last week, both physically and mentally. I ended up working last week Mon-Thurs until 9pm at the office and then was on-site from 8am on Friday morning until 10am on Saturday morning. I think I shut my eyes for about 45 minutes around 3am. All-in-all, everything ran very smoothly and received a lot of positive comments from participants that said it was the best one yet here in Moncton!

Now I'm on to the next thing. I'm in charge of a few golf events throughout the summer and then curling in November. Ray and I are both taking June 30-July 15 off to relax and hopefully get out of town. No, we still don't know where we will be going - but I'm sure we'll figure that out.

Home Alone

Yep, I'm home alone until Sunday. Ray is off at the draft for his hockey league in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It's a strange being here at home without him...It's so much more fun with him around. Anyway, I'm dropping the dogs off at the 4 Paws Pet Resort on Thursday morning. Since I'll be working a TON over the next 4 days, (Relay For Life is this Friday) it's a much better alternative to having them stay here alone. I'm really excited for the event! It's been months in the planning and I'm ready for it to be here...and to put it behind me and move on to the next one.

Cesar Millan...HELP

Ray and I have often discussed that Champ needs to go spend some time with Cesar Millan at his dog psychology center. The poor guy doesn't act like a dog and really needs to be rehabilitated. Unless you've spent some time with him, you wouldn't understand. Many times he's completely unresponsive and the poor guy rarely plays. Cesar...if you're reading this, Champ needs your help!