Ah, sweet vindication

I am not normally a vindictive kind of guy.  I honestly feel bad when a team loses, even if it's a team I really don't like.  I want everyone to do their best and to do well.

But this week, when the Boston Bruins lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals - and in the way they did - I became just about the happiest person around.  Not just that they lost, but the WAY they lost.  I feel so gratified.

This was the absolutely heartbreaking loss for the Leafs in round 1.  11 minutes left in the game, the Leafs up by 3 goals, then losing it all.

And this moment made it all better as a Leafs fan.  Thank you Chicago.

Proud of my wife

My wife makes amazing cakes.  Seriously, they're incredible. She's an artist.  She's been doing it as a hobby since just before we got married, and I've constantly encouraged her to think about starting a small business - doing something she's really good at, and that she really enjoys.  She's always turned down the idea...until about a month ago when she was at a ladies meeting at our church.  The speaker was asking about taking on new ventures and asked for some audience participation.  My wife stood up and mentioned her cakes, and something clicked.  She felt like God was opening the doors for her to start her own cake business, and she boldly announced that in front of everyone at the meeting.

Here we are about a month later, and I'm super-proud of her.  She's done one cake already, and has two more orders for this Friday.  She's not backing down from the decision.  It wasn't a 'caught-up-in-the-emotion, spur of the moment' type of decision.  She's taking it seriously.  She has a business name (which I can't reveal as she has yet to make her big debut), is getting a logo designed, is starting a facebook page and soon a website, is buying the supplies she needs, and is getting business cards printed.  She's doing her part, and God is blessing her by opening the doors.

So if I can do a bit of promotion for her - if anyone in the Barrie area needs a cake, you know where to go!

As you admire the cakes below, allow me to note that she makes everything from scratch - the cake, the fondant, etc.  She forms/paints/creates every piece by hand.  Again, let me state that I'm not writing this for promotional purposes (although that's a nice bonus), but rather because I am just so impressed by her talent, and so proud of her initiative.  Here are a few of my favourites from the past couple of years:

She was helping at Air Raid 20 and decided to make a cake for the fun of it.  She carefully replicated the  Air Raid logo.

Christmas 2011.  A bunny threatening a snowman with a hair dryer.

Her nephew loves the New York Knicks.  This was the cake for his 12th birthday.

The cake for when Jen Melanson went on maternity leave in October 2011.  No one at the station would eat it because they felt bad destroying it.  A cake is meant to be eaten!

My family was floored when she showed up with this pumpkin shaped (and flavoured) cake for    Thanksgiving, 2011.

I told you.  She's really good at making cakes.


*on a side note, I (re)learned a lesson that sometimes you just have to wait for the right timing.  No matter how many times I encouraged her to start a business over the years, it just wasn't happening...until all of a sudden - through nothing I said or did - she decided to do it on her own, and is now ready and excited to do it.  It's a good lesson that sometimes we can't push people into something, we just have to wait.

Can't believe it's been 6 months already...

I'm sorry, I said I'd never be one of those gushing (annoying) parents...and for the most part I think I'm not. But at the same time, I'm proud to say how much I love my son, and it's fun (for me at least) to share the cool moments.  Gushing?  Maybe.

My son turned six months old yesterday.  Everyone told us before he was born that time would fly incredibly quickly, and I knew it would, but I've realized that you still can't prepare you for how fast it actually goes.  As I was spending time with him yesterday, I was thinking to myself, "Weren't you just born a couple of weeks ago?"

It's been fun to watch him grow over the months, from being a very quiet baby, to finding his vocal chords, to  learning how to smile, then laugh, and now, discovering the world around him - his latest shtick is to stare at his hand for several minutes while he moves his fingers.  (To be fair, he's actually always been a very aware baby right from birth, but it's still cool to see these progressions.)

Well on his six month birthday yesterday, he starts pulling out all the stops.  We've been trying to help him sit up on his own for the past few weeks, but it's been a slow process.  He's started to get it, slowly, but all of a sudden yesterday, here he is sitting with no problem at all (he's not leaning on the drum, just playing with it).

My wife and I were so excited when we saw this, and yet at the same time I automatically felt a tinge of sadness...  He's starting to sit.  How did he get to this stage so quickly?  He'll always be sitting now, the previous stage of his life is done.  A bittersweet moment...

He's also so close to crawling, and yesterday was the closest he's ever been...just needs to move his knees, which he is starting to do...

Three days away from Father's Day, I'm a proud and blessed Baba.  Only one request - time, please slow down a bit.

D-Day

Today is D-Day.  It was 69-years ago today that 160,000 allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy.  It marked the beginning of the end of a horrific war where millions of lives were lost.

I'm a history buff.  I love reading up about this stuff.  I don't have any family who were involved in the wars, but being a proud Canadian, today hits me.  To think of the sacrifices made, the brave soldiers charging the beaches in the midst of enemy fire - and continuing to run forward when their fellow soldiers, their friends, were dropping after being shot and killed while running right beside them.  I couldn't even imagine what that would be like.

I was in France 2 years ago with my wife.  We didn't get to any of the beaches unfortunately as our time was short, but we did get to Vimy Ridge.  The Vimy Ridge anniversary is in April so it's not quite D-Day, but it's very similar imagery - storming in the face of danger.  Standing at Vimy Ridge was one of the most powerful moments of my life.  One of the most proud, Canadian moments I've ever had - standing on Canadian soil in the middle of northern France, knowing our soldiers gave up their lives on this very land, to claim it when no one else could.  I will never forget Vimy Ridge.  Hopefully one day I'll make it to Juno Beach.

The view from behind the monument.  My wife is in the orange raincoat to the left.

We had the entire place to ourselves.  Amazingly serine.  Awe-inspiring to the see the monument tower powerfully.  It was a wet and dreary day - the perfect way to view such an incredible site.

Another Canadian there before us, remembering a loved one.