Carla trained hard for this (she has the 6 pack abs to prove it).  I know all the mornings she got up early to go and swim before work.  She ran with me at lunch time.  She paddled on the river after work.  She and her friend Shelley got together often to work out.  She is a very determined lady.

It paid off.  Carla won 6 medals!  2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze.  The team came in 2nd in the pool events, 2nd in the beach events and won 1st overall.  What an achievement.

Rescue 2010 is in London England.  I think Carla is planning on going to Ireland after that.  I wonder if I’ll have to step in at the last minute for that leg of the trip?  Probably not.

Well the cabinets are installed and look great (although we are missing 3 doors still).  The granite has been measured.  We can now move in and use the kitchen.

Dave spent last evening installing the dishwasher and stressed me out completely when he said it didn’t fit and we need to redo the island.  In the end it did fit and I survived.  Heck there’s always stress to come, right?

Today he was installing the sink.  He did.  It leaked.  Our friends arrived and we decided to just stop and enjoy the company.

So I made a few trips to the bathroom to wash vegetables.  Not exactly a nice way to have friends over but since they are good friends they just laughed along with us.

We sat outside for a while and then came back in to eat dinner.  We managed without it all being in place.

Next time I’ll have my act together and I’ll make sure to prepare something extra special.

We sat outside and admired the new fence Jean had built recently.  Dave and Jean are both handymen.  We always compare renovation stories when we get together.

It was nice to get away from our “Garage Kitchen” and have someone cook a wonderful meal for us.

They are definitely good friends, keepers in fact.

We were at Tremblant for the weekend so we ate at a nearby hotel called Le Rustique.  It is owned and run by a young Montreal couple.   They are both Italian and they make really delicious food.  J&H are regulars there.

Next year is the big 30.  There’s talk of going to Quebec city for a mini-vacation.

Congratulations!

Shelley broke her foot while training and is no longer able to compete or do a strenuous Greek vacation. Although Carla can still compete she had lost her travelling companion.

That’s where I come in.  I decided to fill in the gap.  I’ve always wanted to go to Greece and this seemed like a chance I just couldn’t let slip by.

I leave on July 28th and arrive in Athens Greece the morning of the 29th only 5 minutes behind Carla.  How is that for planning!

We come back on August 7th.  It sounds like an action packed vacation.

I really need to read up on Greece now.

We walked along the celebrations and watched the snowbirds do their fly-by.  They go by so quickly and then it’s over.  I wish they would do more than a fly-by.

We stopped at Memories on the market to have lunch at their outdoor patio.  Service was extremely slow but the food was good.

That evening we went to Paul & Carla’s.  They do family fireworks at the nearby park.  When we got there several other groups were also letting off their fireworks.

Carla buys the fireworks and organizes the event.  Their group’s fireworks were by far the best.

The fireworks went on for at least 1/2 hour.  I’m definitely going next year.

I babysat Andrea for 6 months and then Val decided she wanted to be at home with her.  I wasn’t sorry to lose the babysitting job because I gained a really nice friend.

We haven’t seen each other much over the last few years.  We moved to Alta Vista and they moved to Stittsville.  Recently Val joined Facebook and found me.

It was the perfect time to renew our friendship.  We had dinner tonight and ended up staying at the restaurant for over 4 hours chatting.  It seemed like we never lost touch (though our kids are much older now).

I think this time we’ll make the effort to see each other a bit more often.

It was a beautiful day and it was not crowded since most of the schools were on their last day.

We had a couple of races down the Pro Racer slides.  I foolishly decided to try to beat everyone down a face first slide.  I won but I ended up banging my face in the process.  I spent the next few days with scabs on my chin.

Sometimes I act like a 12 year old.

Terri’s days of working at the school board are almost up.  She is retiring at the end of the month.  She really deserves it.  No one has worked as hard as she has.

I’m also glad for selfish reasons.  She’ll now have more time to spend with me!

I had a couple of good holes and putted amazingly well.  I was “Mrs. Two Putt”.

Some days the putting works, some days the irons work and some days the driver works.   One of these days I’ll string a few of those together.