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Christmas 2009

2010-01-01T19:16:00.002-05:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE NEW PICS!

Travis' 1st swim!! :)

2009-10-23T19:12:00.001-04:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE NEW PICS!

Photo update

2009-10-12T19:13:00.008-04:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE NEW PICS!

:) :)

Falkirk Wheel

2009-10-11T21:55:00.007-04:00

If you've never heard of the Falkirk wheel (like me), hear of it now....

So what is the Falkirk wheel? To find out, do a search in Google images to get 500 other views of this Engineering marvel!!! It's been around since 2002... how did I miss this up until today?

and for just another hint...

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE JUICY DETAILS!!

Cottage 2009

2009-09-15T00:38:00.005-04:00

Just came back from a great relaxing vacation... just what we needed this year!

Plus I got some amazing pics kayaking in the fog on a 7AM paddle! :)

CLICK HERE TO SEE PICS!

It's a boy...

2009-07-04T14:14:00.003-04:00

Veronica and I are happy to announce that the Lord blessed us with the birth of a baby boy, Travis Gerbrand Hart.

He was born Friday July 3rd @ 4:09 A.M. He weighed in at 9 pounds, 11 ounces and after a long labour (3 days of early labour) both Mother and baby are doing very well. We were able to arrive home just after 11:00 a.m same day which has helped Veronica get some much needed rest.
Gerbrand is a dutch family name - Opa Hart's 1st name and Dad's middle name.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PICS!

Spring update

2009-06-01T22:53:00.004-04:00

Okay, it's been forever. Just some spring pics update:

Spring pics of my garden etc.

Pics of bailey with her morning buddies!

I've always wondered...

2008-10-15T23:01:00.003-04:00

Credit goes to: moistproduction.com

Google it!!

2008-08-31T13:16:00.002-04:00

You won't beleive me but just do it!

GOOGLE this 58 letter name... yes, I said name:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Camping pics 2008

2008-07-19T23:32:00.005-04:00

HERE ARE PICS FROM OUR CAMPING TRIP THIS SUMMER!

We went camping @ Rock Lake in Algonquin Park with the Hart family. Muchos fun. 'nuff said!

Spring & Early summer pics 2008

2008-07-06T13:24:00.008-04:00

NEW PICS ARE UP!

I put some new pics up for all to enjoy!

Bailey & Elvis mixup.

2008-05-15T08:45:00.004-04:00

What do you get when you put Bailey with Elvis?

A drunk singer maybe?

Or maybe two hyper puppies playing together! :)

Elvis is a 'Puggle' - a Beagle / Pug cross. Elvis the puppy is Veronica's co-worders dog, she's about 2 months younger than Bailey.

Click on the video to be INSTANTLY ENTERTAINED!!

Enjoy!

Loose Skin!

2008-04-19T09:07:00.004-04:00

Time to show off Bailey's loose skin... and it's fun to play with! :)

Before!

After!

Great back-scratch.

Update

2008-04-16T21:18:00.005-04:00

I've been slow in the updating of things as our home computer has been down for a few weeks. Looks like we need a new one as the laptop had a miny explosion inside.... apparently. I haven't seen the damage yet. However we need a new computer (cheaper than repair) so we'll be buying one in a month or two. Till then, we'll continue to be slow on the blog updates (and email response times.)

I've had my kayak out (last night! It's beautiful, fast and very comfortable. A PERFECT fit!

Bailey the puppy is doing well. Growing and learning everyday. Housetraining is slow going but going at least. All to be expected methinks.

enjoy the pics!

Veronica's Crepe deserts (for her B-day back in March.)

Neil's cup cake creation for our B-day's.

Veronica and Bailey on the 1st night home.

Giving the pup a bath (she stank like pig barn when bringing her home.)

Aiden's 1st enjoyable haircut... maybe because his Aunt Veronica was cutting his hair?

Going for a spring-day stroll with Eric, Becky and the kids.

Bailey's temporary bandage after cutting her toe-nail too short! :(

Veronica's amazing, yummy crepe creation... kinda like a Quiche! (for my B-day)

Hailey & Bailey. Hailey is M&D Sikkema's new puppy... well hardly a pup! :)

Daring Bailey... Daring!! That's not even your own food dish!

Hailey still thinks she's a puppy!! :)

Bailey posing very well!

"My, what big teeth you have..."
"ALL THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH..."

Sprawled out in the sun!

Awww... here underbite is almost cute :)

Me in my kayak. 1st time out on the water with it!

Beautiful Spring night to go out for the 1st paddle of the season!

New family member!

2008-04-01T13:44:00.006-04:00

Our small family of two has grown to three now! We added the addition of a baby, and she's a real cutie. Furry, timid, doesn't bark... :)

That's right, a puppy. Well, half puppy, half grown up. She's a JUG > Jack Russel & Pug. Her name is Bailey and she's 16 weeks.

Character wise she is more pug than jack russel so we're blessed there! :) Pug's are very timid and very loving dogs. They are also easily affected by the cold so they make a great indoor dog.

She's only barked twice (in a week), and doesn't scratch or bite. Bailey has her hyper & fun playful moments & all together is an absolute sweetheart. She loves cuddling lots! Tons of fun.

I'll write more later.

oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh........ :) :) :) :)

2008-03-15T23:28:00.019-04:00

YAAAAAAA! It's like Christmas for Jay today! I bought my kayak today!!

I found this kayak from an older lady who had been paddling it only a few times on a lake in Waterloo. The condition is virtually mint. I got it for an exceptionally great price (less than half of list) and most kayaks are still worth about 3/4 their new price after even a few years of use. The material it's made out of is very unique too. It has the glossy shine, strength and lightness (weight) of a fiberglass kayak (and two tone color) but the durability and very low price-point of a plastic kayak!

I was worried I might not fit in it because the kayak is geared to small paddlers and women but I found out by small they didn't mean legroom, they meant build, and scrawny ol' me fits the kayak perfectly! It couldn't be better! Out of all the hull designs, types of boats in every which way I couldn't have found a better deal and a better kayak to suit me.

It's perfect for day-tripping, waves up to several feet (so I'm told) and also great for excercising purposes which is what my main purpose will be!

YIPEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Wishing I was leaning into a tight turn on water, not my living room floor! (this is how you spin on a dime in a kayak!)

My car is a little dirty but that's winter for ya!

Look at those lines on the stern deck. Very one of a kind and unique!!

Jay's Paddling Passion - a new kind of paddle!

2008-03-04T22:55:00.011-05:00

Put a paddle in my hands and I'm at peace. Just me, the water, my vessel and the paddle slicing through the water.

Well, theirs been a new paddle in my hands recently. A paddle that I've been wanting to try for many many years (so I've been told.)

The Kayak Paddle. I've always been excited by kayaks and anything kayak related. So this past summer I tried it out a few times, and I absolutely loved it! So much so that I'm going to buy one this spring and use it several times per week, for morning excersice and a few nights or Saturdays for pleasure!

The kayak has been described by others as being the most romantic paddling method, and as being a boat that makes you feel one with the water. As corny as it sounds... it's true. When sitting in a canoe, you sit on top of the water like sitting on a chair. When sitting in a kayak, your legs are acually below the waterline. Very cool! Waves roll over the deck, water drips off your paddle onto the spray skirt keeping you dry, your hands dip into the water on the odd stroke into a wave... ah.... :) Is it spring yet?

So here's a few pics.

This is the Kayak I'm looking at buying. It's a Necky Manitou 14' made out of recycled plastic:

With doing piles of research into boats, equipment etc, I've come to realize that a tonne of research goes into paddles and paddle design, almost more so that boat and hull design!

Here's some examples:

This drawing shows how an asymmetrical designed paddle is smoother and more efficient in the water. The orange half of the blade is the same surface area below the water level as the blue half of the blade. A paddle that is not designed assymetrical would tend to twist in the water as the bottom half of the blade would be taking on more water area than the top half... crazy!

This drawing shows how the cross section of the blade is important for water flow around the blade to prevent turbulance and vibrations but yet maintaining a powerful stroke.

So that's an intro to the Kayaking world. It's a cool sport, lots of cool people out on the water and Ontario is one of the best places to live in Canada for varied water bodies. Anything from large waves in the Great Lakes to ponds to rivers and whitewater. Fun fun! :)

To give you an idea of my dream kayaking trip, see this beautiful online slideshow:

Wicked weather

2008-03-01T22:20:00.008-05:00

I thought this might be a suitable post while we may be enjoying or grumbling about our Ontario winter storms.

For those who have been over to my place you will likely remember this photo hanging up in large print.

This photograph was taken by photographer Jean Guichard! The photo was taken on Thursday 21 December 1989 and is of the Lighthouse la Jument found on the Atlantic coastline of France!

For Veronica and I, having this photo in print at 2 by 3 foot large, it's often a conversation piece with visitors. I've never known the true story so finally thanks to our latest visit from Mom and Dad Hart we looked it up. I thought the story interesting enough to share with you all:

The photograph and the lighthouse:

French photographer Jean Guichard is best known for his explosive ‘Wave’ photograph of a lighthouse, off the coast of Brittany, France, showing a keeper at the door about to be engulfed by a titanic wave. The photograph is truly one of the most recognizable lighthouse photographs in the world.

When first seeing the famous photograph, most people assume that the lighthouse keeper must have been killed. In fact, the keepers had been living in fear of death during the 1989 storm and at one point had taken refuge in the lantern room of the tower. Waves the night before had smashed through the lower windows of the tower, causing the structure to flood, washing away everything in its path including the television, table, chairs, coffee maker and even the refrigerator.

The keepers in fact were waiting to be rescued by helicopter. As Jean Guichard’s helicopter approached the tower he was unaware that the keepers were waiting for a rescue helicopter. Guichard was simply there to take photographs of the waves pounding the structure. The keepers heard the sound of the helicopter and naturally assumed it was the rescue helicopter. One of the keepers opened the lower door of the structure and as he looked up at the helicopter and realized that it was not the rescue chopper, he also realized that a giant wave was about to engulf the tower. He immediately turned about and pulled the door closed behind him. Had he not done so at that second, he surely would have been killed. While all this was happening, Jean Guichard was busy taking photographs as fast as he could click the camera, thus capturing on film the most dramatic action shots ever taken at a lighthouse.

As written by Timothy Harrison in Lighthouse Depot (May 18, 2001), Wells, Maine

For your interest, here is a set of pics also taken by Jean Guichard:

TUFF STUFF!

2008-02-05T20:18:00.001-05:00

Here's some TUFF STUFF for you!

Truck fan or not, you gotta click on the pic above!! That's right, Ford takes an F-150, hooks it up to a Centrifuge machine and spins the crap out of the truck. What's a Centrifuge? Well, it spins the crap out of things, in this case a truck.

Why do you need to spin a truck? well, you don't, but it does prove that by swinging a full size pickup at speeds of over 100 km's per hour and a total of over 6 G's of Force! WOW. That's why?

Click here to see the stunt in the making and 3 other equally impressive ads! Definately worth a look!

Enjoy!

Cartoons of the good ol' days!

2008-01-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

Just reminiscing the days when cartoons where great!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT I MEAN!

Iceland obsession.

2008-01-08T21:49:00.000-05:00

So recently I've been urges to want to 'get away from it all'. Maybe it's the stress @ work and lack of business. I love my job on a good day... problem is... good days used to be a LOT more frequent than as of recently.

Wanting to 'get away from it all' has lead me to want to see somewhere remote... and just a vacation doesn't feel like it would do justice... move might be more adventurous. Veronica's not impressed. She doesn't even like me to think about it. I can't blame her.

So where is away from it all. Well, to me I've been craving to see remote canada, which has led me to obsessing over Iceland.

Iceland is a land for the crazy, the crazy people who are insane enough to want to see some immense beauty on this earth!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT I MEAN! I found this album tonight on flicker. This photographer uses a method of photography called HDR which is an effect using photoshop to merge multiple exposures to create one incredible shot with high intensity and depth.

See what I mean!! This is Gullfoss, a majestic waterfall in Iceland.

Here is something else amazing that has come out of Iceland. A band called Sigur Rós! Click here for their new video. Brings me warm fuzzy feelings when the one band member talks in his icelandic accent about 'this strange feeling to want to go home.' The icelandic accent sounds very much like a dutch accent, as the language is so similar. Perhaps that's what gives me the warm fuzzies.

Oh, and one last thing about Iceland. (I'm really not that obsessed but I did start this post off by titling it an obsession so now I feel compelled to hold true to my original title.

Here is a video of what probably got me hooked on Iceland. Cool stuff happens in places when there is at times little to do. Ok, and here too. This one is for my nephews! They'll love it.

December 07

2008-01-01T23:36:00.000-05:00

HERE'S SOME NEW PHOTOS OF OUR HAPPENINGS IN DECEMBER 07!

Not much new to right about. Had lots of fun parties, ate too much and made some cool new changes in our apartment that cost under $75. Cool how much you can change a place with some cheap but cool artwork and paint!

Enjoy.

Winter Fun and Salon Grand Opening!

2007-12-03T21:57:00.000-05:00

Hi all!
So Martin Cooper, the salon i work at, has expanded in the last month. We moved across the hallway into an area that is twice as large as our previous place. We then opened a barbershop in our old location. It took a lot of hard work and patience to get it all done in time but we did it. When it was all finished we hosted a grand opening. We had the mayor, councilors, and Cogeco TV come out for the ribbon cutting ceremony. It was a great evening to host and feels like all that hard work is behind us and now we can concentrate on the job that we are actually there for. :)

Click here to see some new photos! The pics are of our new salon and our latest downfall of snow!!

If Apple started making cars....

2007-09-12T17:37:00.000-04:00

If Apple Inc. started making cars... is this what they'd look like?

Well... maybe not exactly. But the attention to detail part yes!

This is the Citreon Cactus Concept just revealed across the pond. The great part about apple is they don't come out with concepts to test the feild... they just produce and we instantly fall in love. It would be interesting to see if they made things the same way if they built cars.

Maybe a bit much but the whole flower & butterfly them in raised white and cutout green, is everywhere... the steering wheel, the floorboards, the doors, the seats etc. Kinda cool!

The white plastic just made me think that it looked like an imac of not so long ago!

Some older pics from a friend...

2007-08-15T23:55:00.000-04:00

Here's a few pics taken by our friend John Vanderwoerd when we went Kayaking with him and Twyla in Parry Sound earlier this summer.

The amazing rock formations on the Georgian Bay!

Cool cliffs while taking a break.

Beautiful clear waters in one of the countless inlets along the 30,000 Islands in the Georgian Bay!

Alberta Trip Videos are up!

2007-08-10T22:31:00.000-04:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE A FEW OF OUR ALBERTA TRIP VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE!

Alberta trip!!

2007-08-07T21:35:00.000-04:00

Hi all! We're back from our Alberta trip!

What an amazing place for breathtaking nature!

We started the trip by flying into Edmonton on Thursday. Friday morning we drove into Jasper and stayed in and around the town until Sunday noon. Then we drove down towards banff stopping @ the icefields and the Beautiful Lake Louise. We then spent Monday in Banff and Tuesday in Calgary and Lethbridge.

Wednesday till Monday we spent in Edmonton doing lots of wedding stuff for Jeremy Vandergaag and Tanya Aasman's wedding. We also spent a good chunk of time spending quality time with friends out there both from Ontario and Alberta!

The trip was incredible! I think the best holiday (and longest holiday) I've ever taken! Here's a link for pics of the Jasper and Banff portion of our trip!

Keep posted for pics of the wedding that I'll be posting later on this week!

The pictures say it best, much better than words but at the same time don't even come close to doing the scenes justice. The mountains are about 100 times bigger in real life than they look in the pics! So majestic.

Also the wildlife was incredible. We saw more bighorn sheep and Elk than we could keep count of. We also saw two black bears at different times, a coyote, several deer, and tonnes of small critters.

Keep posted here fore updates with wedding pics and for videos that I'll post later on Youtube.

Click here for pics!

ALSO, CLICK HERE TO SEE A MAP VIEW SO YOU CAN SEE EXACT PINPOINTED LOCATIONS WHERE THESE SHOTS WERE TAKEN!! It's amazing, you in hybrid view on google maps you can see a top view and the photo I took of a mountain at the same time! Very cool!

ENJOY!!

Kids & Big machines!

2007-07-22T19:59:00.000-04:00

Here's two of my nephews watching the HUGE combine harvesting the winter wheat. We had lunch today @ Mom & Dad Harts and this was our view while having coffee. The kids loved it!

Dutch rollers!! :)

2007-07-22T19:58:00.000-04:00

Kayaking Video!

2007-07-08T22:44:00.000-04:00

CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO OF OUR KAYAKING TRIP FROM LAST WEEKEND!!

The video is a bit shaky but gives you a good idea of what even a calm day is like on Georgian bay... especially when you come out of hiding behind sheltered islands like in this video!

ENJOY!

Kayaking in Parry Sound

2007-07-04T13:11:00.000-04:00

Veronica and I along with friends John & Twyla went Kayaking this long weekend. We rented kayaks in Parry Sound and went out in the Georgian bay among part of the 30,000 Islands. What a beautiful trip.

Click here to see the pics!

We kayaked approximately 12 km's in the Georgian bay. We headed out from Snug Harbour, ON which appeared to have less than a dozen buildings in total (aside from cottages.)

Due to commom request here's a link of where we paddled to.

The Coolest Hotel

2007-06-27T23:50:00.000-04:00

All I can say is Crazy, Cool, and I would love to see this concept come to the Elora Quarry!

This Hotel is set to be built in a Quarry near Shanghai! WOW!

What do you think... Elora Quarry next... maybe 2015?

Click here for the details!

www.ferguswheels.com

2007-06-19T23:11:00.001-04:00

Oh ya... I forgot. Old news (1 month old) and I haven't shared yet... duh.

I have a new website up and running, to try and help promote my job selling cars. It's to aid me in showing people that there are good salesmen out there working in honorable dealerships selling great cars.

Check it out!!

My buddy Kurt took some pics for me, one is found on the 'contacts' page. Also, here's a pretty cool pic that he shot and edited that wasn't used on the website.

Let me know what you think. Car sales can be a tough business and I hope I'm doing the right thing with my website! :)

Cleopatra

2007-06-19T08:23:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago Veronica came home wearing her hair in braids... making her look quite different. Then this past saturday she was @ work and she called me to see if I could take some pics of her for some 'head shots' they wanted to take of all 4 gals working at her salon (Martin Cooper).

When I came down to the salon, I hardly recognized her. One of the girls working there is receptionist / amazing makeup artist. So here's the shots of Veronica... (Pics of the other 3 gals coming in the next few weeks.)

CLEOPATRA VII (?)

<

ORIGINAL PHOTO

The Spring Sizzle

2007-06-10T23:06:00.000-04:00

The spring sizzle... that's because this spring has felt like summer and with a blog updating you about our new deck, BBQing etc, wanted to calll it the summer sizzle but can't yet. So 'The Spring Sizzle' it is then.

Make sure you click here to check out our latest pics!

So yup, we're still well. We've been throroughly enjoying this warm weather, especially with our beautiful new and improved deck. We're loving the glass railing as well. It offers a great view but cuts back on unnecesary noise. Not that we're complaining but the Grand River is loud and having people staring up at our deck saying "Hey honey... look up there, doesn't that look relaxing" is nice to no longer hear thanks to our glass railing!

We also got a new shower after the old one kinda collapsed. Water got behind the nasty old brown tiles and there is now a much cleaner, much brighter white insert shower stall in place of it.

Other than that not much new.

Don't forget to look at our pics! There are some nice nature spring shots as well!

The Purple-Festooned Atelopus Toad.

2007-06-09T13:08:00.000-04:00

Introducing you to the Purple-Festooned Atelopus Toad. It's a new species of Toad found in Suriname, South America.

Just thought I'd share that with you! :)

Stubborn Dutch Guy!

2007-05-24T19:21:00.000-04:00

Ok... this one will really make you laugh!

Out of all the posts I've made, this one takes the cake! Absolutley hilarious!

Turn on the speakers, and click play. (sorry to anyone still on dial-up internet.)

I don't know who to credit for this... other than... some Stubborn Dutch Guy.

Hole in the head.

2007-05-12T08:41:00.000-04:00

So I had a doctor send me to get my brian checked out...

Ya, there really is no way to start this one.

In a random MRI scan to search for a very slight brain anerism that could be previlant in Jay Harts around the world, the doctors said that I'm fine. (long story... checking into a thing just as a precaution becuase of because of etc. etc.... so really nothing minor.

So yes, that inititial scan... was fine.

However the doctors looked at the MRI and said: "Hey, what's that spot in the background of this MRI?"

So, second MRI.

Then 2 months later I got word that... things look normal for Jay Hart... but we want to send you to a Neurologist who will charge you a $100 bucks if your late for your appointment, and who's opinion we respect.

Yesterdays visit turned out to be adventurous. He was quite the nice Doc. and quickly confirmed things for me:

He performed about 50 checks (walk the line, touch your nose, follow my finger, say ah, breath, repeat after him etc.) which he raced through in about 2 minutes. It was humerous that most humans would have taken about 10 minutes to perform.

Anywho... he came up with this BOLD statement in the end:

"WELL JAY... YOUR FINE, NORMAL AND HEALTHY... BUT YOU HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR HEAD... ABOUT 1.5 CM IN THE LEFT BRAIN... SO WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO ABOUT IT?"

Nice doctor... he made me laugh!

I replied: "Well that makes sense, my parents always told me I had a hole in my head!"

Doc responded: "I guess your parents new something you didn't then!"

'Tis true I guess!

So I've got a hole in my head and I'm not going to do a thing about it... apparently that's normal for 5-15% of humans!

I Feel lopsided! Like my left side is asleep and the right side is having a hoot. (just so you know the left is the 'worker bee' side and the right is the 'play' side!) Kinda like this pic.

More funny stuff.

2007-04-19T23:12:00.000-04:00

SO TRUE!!!

Wow, I love Canada!!

2007-04-02T23:25:00.000-04:00

I love Canada, and Canadian winters! This is crazy... go, click, watch! INSANE!!!!!

Yes, that is an INSIDE door covered in snow.... watch to find out why!!

Laughing and whistling!

2007-03-25T23:26:00.000-04:00

Laughing and whistling... try it... I dare you!

Ha ha haaaaa!!!! :)

Has it EVER been done?

What has 4 legs & lives in a house!

2007-02-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

Nope, not a dog. But a coffee table... a new coffee table for our new pad :)

Ok, how excited can people really get about a new coffee table? Well, if your Jay and Veronica, it's the highlight of your week. (yup, for those of you with kids... that's what life was like before children came your way.)

Well, the biggest reason we LOVE our new table is cause Dad Hart made it... and he did an amazing job! Thanks so much Dad... it's perfect and looks GREAT!!

Table look familiar to anyone? (harts?)

Funny funny funny!!!!!!

2007-02-21T22:58:00.000-05:00

Wow, this is the funniest Mac ad ever!

Happy Anniversary Blogit! Some blogit stats!

2007-02-19T12:58:00.000-05:00

From Blogit - To Blogit.

Wishing myself a happy anniversary / birthday of 2 years of blogging.

This blog was started 2 years ago on February 14th, 2005. With just two posts for the 1st month, the month of February 2005, it was small and simple. 2 years later with the month of February not even over, this post marks the 10th post for the month of February 2007.

I'm someone who loves Statistics, so here goes!

BLOGIT

66 posts in 2 years.

24 months in Service

Average of 2.75 posts per month

4017 hits since Spring 2006 (approx. 10 months)

WHAT WHERE THE 66 POSTS ABOUT

7 Posts about: Cars *

10 Posts about: Gadgets

25 Posts about: Our lives, things that we do

22 Posts about: Points of interest / Cool stuff

* See, not that many were about cars!

3 TOP MONTHS AS RANKED BY NUMBER OF POSTS

#1.) February, 07 (10 Posts)

#2.) July, 06 (8 Posts)

#3.) May, 05 (6 Posts)

The future of internet?

2007-02-18T23:00:00.001-05:00

If this is the future of blogging, browsing and all internet related viewing... I just can't get used to this.

I must admit though, this is a very intriguing website. Clever and creative.

HUGE THANKS!!!!!!

2007-02-17T23:47:00.000-05:00

Hey all. Veronica and I just wanted to say a HUGE THANKYOU to all of you who were able to make it for our very awesome, very cool surprise house warming party! It was an absolute blast and surprise parties are so much fun. It was so great to have friends and family together, young and old. What a hoot! We hope you had as much fun as we did, and that you had safe drives home.

To those who couldn't make it that heard about it, I know you were there in thought, and those in distant lands, our doors are open when you make it up to Fergus next!

God bless you all!! What a blessing it is to have so many loving friends and family!

Thanks again!

More sucking news... :)

2007-02-17T23:38:00.000-05:00

Ok, as promised! Here are the pics of the Electrolux vacuum being used as a blowdryer etc. Very funny. Our vacuum has the reverse hole to provide blowing air, though it's not as old as the one pictured here from a 1950's brochure. Very cool!

Oh, and I just found these off the internet. After seeing these pics below, I feel like I got jipped on the electorlux that I ended up buying. They didn't tell me I could get a model that shot fire / laser beams! :( Phoey.

Lousy Electrolux.... All it does is vacuum and blow dry hair. :) (joke)

An Oldie but a Goodie!! :)

2007-02-16T23:22:00.000-05:00

So what exactly do Jay & Veronica do for fun on a Friday night? Well let's see, oh ya, tonight it was go Vacuum cleaner shopping. Whoohoo! The joys of married life. Yup, that was our valentines date out to each other. Pretty special huh? All you unmarried folk out there, you now have something to look forward to... :) ha ha ha!!!!

So I had a personal issue with vacuum cleaners, which I'm not sure were it started from. It's with the build quality of the machines. I mean, a kids toy being built out cheap flimsy plastic that squeeks, rattles and breaks easily is fine. But something that moves, operates, and gets banged around a bit should not be made of flimsy plastic.

So in my quest to find the perfect machine, my quest quickly settled upon the 'Big name' jobies, the Big Joes, the KING OF VACUUM's! Yes I'm talking about Vacuum World All Stars (V.W.A.S.) such as 'Electrolux' and 'Tri-Star'. Yup, these kings were the reigning champions from near the beginning of the invention of the vacuum cleaner!

But then there was the price issue. Eek! $1,399 for a sucking jug on wheels that I pull around behind me as I wave a majic wand over the ground to suck the crap out of my carpets? WOW!!

So Veronica and I went the way of the Dutch!

We decided to buy an "Oldie but a Goodie."

It seems with Vacuum cleaners (or so told by today's Vacuum Retail experts,) the manufacturer's 'FORGOT' how to make a good vacuum from around the age of the new millenium and onwards. So We got ourselves and Oldie but a Goodie. A.K.A. a ten year old Electrolux canister vacuum. It looks like it's part of an oxegyn unit for a martin spaceship but hey, looks don't count. The art of Vacuuming is meant to be done alone in privacy, and never with guests... so who sees it anyways.

Oh, and the most hilarious part of the particular unit we have, it has a reverse suction hole on it. One feature to be used is if the hose gets clogged, the hose can be put into this second hose and it will blow air out instead of suck it in. The main purpose of this was to blow air for day to day purposes such as:

Hair blow dryer
Light duty air duster
Heater / defroster for ice in a freezer chest

No joke... I'll try update this blog with real pictures straight from the brochure!

Crummy modern Vacuums, all they do is suck up dirt, they can't even be used as a leaf blower or hair dryer in a Salon.

Well, Veronica twisted my arm when she found out it could be used as the largest hair dryer she has ever owned... so we bought it! (JOKE!)

So that's our story about Vacuum's!

Oh and P.S. We found out that 99.9% of vacuum cleaner retail staff are either:

A.) Weird
B.) Creepy
or
C.) All of the above.

We found that 0.1% @ Guelph Electrolux Canada where they had one, and only one, 'Oldie but a Goldie' with our name all over it!

P.S.S. if your really good, I may even include a 53 minute video of the unit @ work. ( No serious... I'm really kidding! :)

Thanks for listening!

Winter Apartment!

2007-02-14T22:38:00.000-05:00

Winter & New Apartment

Well the move is over, huge thanks to many friends and family! It was a giant move... ok, not so much in distance as you can see the by the pics! But the stairs sure were murder... thanks guys!

Now that Veronica and I are settled in, we love the place! At first we were excited, but now that we're in... we love it here! The size of the new pad didn't hit us until we had all our stuff in place!

Now that Fergus has been laden with a foot of fresh snow, and the sun came out this afternoon, I got the chance to snap some pics of Beautiful Fergus in the winter and our new cozy pad from the inside & out!

Click on the above 'Goofie Newfie' to see our pics!

Thanks for listening... now go check out the pics if you haven't already done so... and come back to drop a comment!

Just had to pass this on!

2007-02-14T21:01:00.000-05:00

World's best lifeguard! :)

Parkour - the moves

2007-02-13T22:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I was wrong, a really really great Parkour video can be set to country music. Ok, not full out country music but the song in this video definately has a western twang.

But the video... unreal moves... gotta check it!

Parkour - the unreal is real

2007-02-13T21:22:00.000-05:00

To some this may be old news, but if you haven't seen or heard about "Parkour", otherwise referred to as "Free Running", get watching this video!

If you're not into the music, turn the volume off, but keep watching!

Basically, the concept of Parkour / Free Running is described by some as getting from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, using obstructions and obstacles as a tool (ie. going over them) instead of going around them. This is a new wave sport were Gymnastics, Martial Arts, Kickboxing, and Urban running come together into one sport.

Methinks warming up and phenominal physical shape is mandatory for this one! :)

Here's another video in case the last one didn't convince you that this is one of the most mind blowing 'freestyle' sports. Oh, and the music is a bit better for those not into the 1st video... but no, it's not country music hits... that just wouldn't go with the flow of Parkour!

Crazy humans, thinking up crazy sports like this for us to watch in awe on YouTube!

... and yes, I wish I could do just one of these moves... :)

Hide & Seek - London Style

2007-02-13T12:48:00.000-05:00

I'm back... yes I know. I guess I've done some hiding lately with all the moving and such. But I'm back and this isn't what this post is about.

I fell in love with this performance while watching it on the TV show "So you think you can dance." (yes, Veronica got me hooked!) It took me a while to find out who the songwriter was but I tracked it down.

From Eastern U.K., Imogen heap is a very different artist. Perhaps not all of my blog - readers' style, but see what you think. I don't really know how to classify what kind of music this is, and the dance performance is cherographed perfectly! Very cool!

Check it out here: HIDE & SEEK by Imogen Heap as performed by finalists from 'So you think you can dance'

If you like that, another favourite, but this time a music video is:Gnarls Barkleys' hit: CRAZY!

Yes, pics and update about life and the new pad are coming soon! Keep posted, many new posts coming to 'blogit' soon!

Life... as we don't know it.

2007-01-19T18:42:00.000-05:00

Humans were created for life on land. THough we can swim and hold are breath... were pretty wimpy at lasting longer than a minnute under water. So here it is... life, as we don't know it.

The undersea world is just as absolutely gorgeous and beautiful as our the mountains and forests we are used to seeing on a somewhat more frequent basis. (more frequent for those who do nothing but hide indoors and watch movies).

I found this website a few months ago and forgot to share it with you all! This scuba diver has mastered the art of Underwater 360 degree panoramic photos. Absolutley stunning! Be sure to click on the pics and visit the website. On his website you can click on the underwater scene to see it larger or you can click on the quicktime or other two buttons beside to see the real (and much more stunning) true visual effect of a 360 panoramic photograph!

These works of art remind me of another stunning underwater masterpeice that Veronica and I saw a few months ago as well! It's the movie, Deep Blue! If you haven't seen it you just gotta!

mmmm.... water! Water is the best!

....and then there was little left.

2007-01-14T19:37:00.000-05:00

Vast sections of Fergus is looking like a war-zone these days! The old high school is currently being demolished! WHAT??? Yup, but thankfully not the old stone section that is one of the countless landmarks for Fergus. No word on what is to happen with the remaining building or the HUGE empty lot that will soon be bare behind it!

Across the road the best gas station in town (our one and only Esso) is now gone and four of the small houses around it are all gone. Out with the old and in with the new apparantly. Then right behind the esso station was an old farm which is now being overun by countless houses.

Also, any day now, digging may begin across our huge Zehrs store for an even bigger Grocery store in town.

Sorry I'm not bitter, just crazy for smallish town fergus to see so many changes all at once!

Here's some pics for my blog readers that are familiar with (or once went to) the old CWDHS!

Sync My Ride!

2007-01-10T17:28:00.000-05:00

>> Geek Factor... HIGH

>> Practicality Factor... VERY HIGH!!

>> Coolness Factor... THROUGH THE ROOF!!!!!

Apple iPhone!!

2007-01-09T19:18:00.001-05:00

WOW!!

Coolness. Finally a phone that is stunningly beautiful, very powerful (can almost walk your dog), and just as easy to use as my mac!

mmmmmm.....

Happy New Year!!! - a time of reflection and change.

2007-01-01T18:52:00.000-05:00

With the new year rung in, we now are into day one of seeing if we can pull off our New Years Resolutions!

One of my resolutions this year was inspired by something veronica said the other day! "You know"... she said (as I recall), "did you know that 80% of what comes from peoples mouths is complaints?" Well it sounded so true I thought it was a stat she had heard the other day. Well, myth or not, I'm going to try change that one person at a time... starting with myself! Wether I complain or not is irrellevant, but whatever that amount is, I'm gonna do my darndest to change that this year! (should be a good year of bloggin' eh?)

Below are the pics I promised to get up from our December trip to see Brian & Alanna! Enjoy

Life on the Edge.... or something!

Canadian War Museum Videos

2006-12-22T13:58:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I went to Ottawa to visit family, and celebrate my brother Brian's 30th B-day with a Huge surprise party! I hope to get a post up and pics about the weekend soon, but I'm changing the location of where I post pictures. It that may be a day or two though before I get pics up of my cute Neipheces!

Saturday a bunch of us family went to the Canadian War museum in Ottawa! Great Museum, very interesting and mezmorizing! (sp?) Click here for videos of the War Museum! Very very interesting... the miniture displays where extremly realistic

What car should you drive?

2006-11-30T23:06:00.001-05:00

Do this online, and you'll see this isn't bias to any specific make and model. But for me, the Ford salesman it made me laugh, and yes, very true! My two most favourite cars in our showroom!

1st selection:

You Should Drive a Ford Shelby Mustang Cobra

You have an extreme need for speed, even when you're not in a hurry.
And while your flying by, you don't want to look like every other car on the road!

What 2007 Car Should You Drive?

2nd selection:

You Should Drive a Ford Explorer SportTrac

Tough and supercharged, you have some rather extreme driving practices.
You've been known to intimidate a few drivers. You rule the road.

What 2007 Car Should You Drive?

Fun, made me laugh! Whats your results?

Oh, Veronica's was a SATURN!!!! GRRRRRR! Stupid Saturn Sky! Flimsy little junky sports car wannabie....

She's sleeping on the couch tonight :)

Craziness, or is that Crzanises!!!

2006-11-30T22:36:00.001-05:00

>> If you can read this, your brain is 50% faster than those who can't!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe tuo fo 100 anc.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

>> Comments... please? :)

2006-11-17T19:14:00.000-05:00

Worlds Largest Super Soaker!!!

Craziness.... utter ooper Craziness!!

I don't understand a word they are saying on this video... probably because it's in Hungarian!

However, I do know is what www.gizmodo.com taught me.
To quote them exactly:
"removed the gun turrets from an old Russian tank, replaced them with 2 turbines from a MiG-21 fighter jet, and injected the whole thing with gallons of water. The result is the first ever jet-powered fire extinguisher."

Enjoy. Leave a comment!

Tubs, I love 'em!!

2006-11-08T22:42:00.000-05:00

Tubs are great! There, it's out, I said it! I love tubs!

Any shape or form, they are simply relaxing, soothing and downright enjoyable. Now I must admit, I'm not the 'master tubber' in this household as Veronica likely enjoys more than double the 'tub time' than I do, but when I do get in.... aaaaaaaahhhh!!!!! :)

Well here it is: THE DUTCHTUB! I'm Dutch, I like tubs, I like Campfires, and I like Portable! This tub is slick! Downright cool! Ya, the dutch are the best!

But it really is Baths, and Bathing in general we're talking about here. From taking a dip in a calm Ontario Lake to using the 'highest-of-tech' to enjoy the soothing effects of water, I'll take it all!

Read on Bath lovers, read on...

Introducing the Whirlpool BodyBox concept!

Laundry, Folding, Shower, Steam Room, Sink, Mirror, it does everything 'Bath' related, all with an onboard computer and screen! Everything bath related that is except shave for you! Uber Coolness!

And then you get my style tub! Surround sound with speakers specially mounted inside this tub, a flat screen TV to play videos of relaxing images (like Penguins freezing their butts off) and a 'moat' around the edge of the tub to have floating candles and even rose pedals in to Romanticize it up for the odd occassion.

But then, does anything beat the real thing?

When a Lambo' just doesn''t cut it....

2006-10-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

Ridiculous? Absolutely! But you gotta let a man dream. I've got 14.4 years left to go until my mid-life crisis.... :)

The Red TVR at the top is quite simply a rocketship on steriods and not a care for what anyone thinks of it's styling cues.

The Silver and Orange Koenigsegg is quite simply the fastest production car on the world and but also hasn't forgotten what style and posh means!

Ok, but to be realistic and in true budget format: This is my more likely mid-crisis ride!!

The majestic and very precise Ford GT! 'nuff said!

ok ok... REALLY REALISTIC THEN! My mid-life crisis will likely be involved with coming home every night to a large dutch family... aka kiddies with da wifey... DOH!!!

OK, this is realistic then:

Sniff... tears gone. Wonder what Fords future 'people mover' will do for 0-60 mph?!

Comments anyone?

Sniff. my old banshee!

2006-10-17T23:39:00.000-04:00

Here's a video i dug up from the archives from my old banshee. Sniff... I miss that thing... it was fun!! This is me on a very very wet day... Veronica didn't want to join me... I wonder why not?

Cruzin'

2006-10-17T20:43:00.000-04:00

Here's a video of the boat we got to use at our Holiday this summer! Very fun!! Very fast!! For some reason I couldn't get the sound to work, but doesn't really matter for this video.

'Neipheces' & the divorce boat

2006-10-10T22:30:00.000-04:00

New pics added here!

For Grandparents, their Grandsons' and Granddaughters are reffered to as Grandchildren. For us lowly Uncles and Aunts, what can one word can we use to call our Neices and Nephews? Neiphchildren? Well I call them our 'Neipheces' (Neices and Nephews)

What a great weekend. Hanging out with all our Neipheces, seeing our siblings and our parents, and eating two entirely different and two very excellent dinner! With the Harts, Dad treated us out for a deadly combo of Thanksgiving Dinner and his 75th Birthday bash!! He chose to take us to a small and very nice Bistro in Mount Pleasant called Devlins Country Bistro! The Steak was definately the best I've had the great fortune to eat!

The following day we were able to celebrate the season with a classic and absolutely smacking turkey and a whole bunch of other grub made by Veronica's mom... Yuuuuuuumy! She worked her buns off in that kitchen and to our taste buds it was all worth every bit!

Monday Veronica and I went Kayaking again. We loved it so much last time in Tobermory, we thought we'd try it again, but this time on the river. Well River kayaking is very different! We went with a tandem kayak again, but this time it didn't work so well. They call the tandem kayak "THE DIVORCE BOAT". Well we were strictly warned when we set out in Tobermory last holiday but returned with big smiles and never once had a squabble! We absolutely loved it.

Well with river kayak's, they are designed to turn more quickly. Thus they are not long boats which go straight, but short boats which turn relatively easily. They also don't have a rudder so steering is done entirely with the paddles. The problem came in the fact that with the river kayak we sat much closer to each other and thus our paddles would connect if we didn't follow each others rythem, unlike the Sea Kayak used in Tobermory!

Now other than the difficulties in steering, we had a very scenic paddle and very enjoyable. Another thing is this time we didn't get spray skirts, bad thing! Thanfully we didn't need to wear our coats that we brought along so they acted as spray skirts over our legs... and they were soaked by the end of the four hour paddle.

After this we drove up to Tara, had a great home-style burger and poutine at one of the local restaurants! We carried on from their, zig-zagging along various gravel and paved roads, some one-lane roads, across the northern sections of Grey County. Through the hills below Meaford and Owen Sound it was definately the most Scenic road trips I've taken! We have some beautiful country here in Ontario and Veronica and I really love just going out cruizing in it! Though I must admit, my truck from work made the trip even more cozy and gave a great vantage point over fields!

Be sure to check out all of our pics!

Bundle of Joy!

2006-10-05T20:55:00.000-04:00

Veronica's Parents just got a new puppy... wow, what a bundle of fun! They named her Shadow. :) Black with white socks.

It's a Black lab cross, and everyone thinks the cross part is Border Collie. Sure I'm partial to family members' pets, but this dog is smart. Of course every parent thinks it's kid is the next Einstein and every Uncle and Aunt thinks the same of their Neices and Nephews. So kinda in the same way our opionons (Veronica and I) are a tad bias of Veronica's parents new dog... but Really! This dog is insanely clever for a very tiny pet.

The best example I can think of is two nights ago Veronica's mom told shadow only a coupla times to leave a pair of socks alone on the ground, and got her to play with her toys instead. These socks were white socks. Last night there were a pair of black socks on the floor (from a different owner, so perhaps even a different smell) and Shadow never once touched them! No ok, adult dogs may do this, but for a young playful pup that wants to bite and play with everything... I thought she was pretty smart.

Anyways, the dog is adorable because, well, it's a puppy!

Enjoy the pics!

Really missing out!

2006-09-28T20:25:00.000-04:00

Ok, anyone who is remotely even slightly interested in humour (and fun, stylish, gorgeous, fast, incredible or just all of the above AUTOMOBILES) you really must check out Top Gear!!

Do yourself a REALLY BIG FAVOUR, and drop onto www.youtube.com , and type in: "Top Gear" and playtime commences!

No really, an introduction to just some of my most favourite videos: from ice hocky and soccer with small cars, to beautifuly made and designed supercars, racing a bobsled team down a hill with a car, seeing how far a mini can ski jump, trying to kill a toyota pickup, racing a 1,000 horsepower icelandic jeep across water, out-smarting and outracing a full fledged tank with a Land Rover and shooting old cars off cliffs and shooting them down like clay pigeons!

"Out-smarting and out-racing a full fledged tank with a Land Rover" I say! Why yes!

Tank VS. Land Rover! ...hmmm! :)

1,000 H.P. JEEP on Water!

Please leave comments, I'd love to hear who else is enjoying this overly humorous show as much as I do!

New itch and urge...

2006-09-06T20:32:00.000-04:00

New pics added here!

Over the years I've been having the itch and urge to try out Kayaking! I've rather enjoyed canoeing over the years, even got my official A, B, C's in canoeing (actual certification class). However as beautiful as a canoe is, there was something lacking. I just liked the idea of Kayaking and didn't know what it was.

Recently Veronica and I have been thoroughly enjoying spending time discovering what Ontario has to offer and what a beautiful province we live in. Though we don't have many free days to do such things, we've been doing small trips on long weekends.

Naturally, when it came time to think of what to do this Labour day, I thought to finally try Kayaking! Wow, what a Great sport!!!! We had a HOOT!

We went up to Tobermory, on the point of the peninsula that cuts between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay! We chose tobermory because of it's rugged coasts, sea like experience, ship wrecks etc.

We chose to rent a sea Kayak because the Bay experiences bigger waves. A recreational kayak would be suitable for calm river runs and a short stocky whitewater kayak would be suitable for well duh, whitewater of course!

THough a long narrow, wedge shapped hull Sea Kayak with a rudder to steer sounds like a lot less fun than whitewater (though it is and I can't compare) it was a blast. The winds were a good 2 feet high in the open and swells up to 4 feet high came when the Chi-Cheemaun went past! Though this doesn't sound like much, when your Kayaking its a bit of a rush, especially for 1st newbies like us!

In a Canoe, your entire body sits above the water level, and it is a whole lot more tippy than a kayak. In a kayak, your legs all the way to your waist sit flat. You sit in a chair... with a backrest!! From your waist down you are under the water level, so your eyes are only about 2 1/2 feet above the water! Very cool feeling. As the fellow at the rental office described, "in a kayak you have a level of intimacy with the water that you just can't get with a canoe." Cheesy, but very true and well put!

Ya, you just gotta try it! We already have a few couples interested in joining us next time we go. We rented a Tandem kayak, meaning, two people, one boat! We were warned that we may come back hating each other, in fact it did the opposite with us! Weird! The nice thing about a tandem kayak is if one person takes a break paddling, the boat keeps moving while the other one paddles, and hey, there's less arguing over direction... at least we found.

Wow, that's far too much blabbing about kayaking!

We 1st checked out a ship wreck at the end of Big Tub Harbour right in Tobermory! Very cool. See pictures for our shots of it! The wreck is just before the shallow section of the harbour, and is laying just below the surface, marked off by buoys. VERY COOL!!

We then headed out for the open water and toured around the various Islands! We headed in early afternoon as the winds tire you out quickly as well. We enjoyed walking around Tobermory, and then headed to the Grotto, a local section of 'sea caves' as they're called, right on the shoreline of Georgian Bay!

Also, on the pictures page is photos of Anson & Leah's new baby girl, Niobe Rashene Sikkema. Very cute little girl!

Enjoy the Photos!!

Cottage pics

2006-08-30T23:31:00.000-04:00

Wow, great Holiday. Short, sweet, got to get to know my family better... especially my sister-in-laws and all my cute Nieces and Nephews... all 7 of them!

We went to Chesly Lake which is near Sauble Beach in Western Ontario. Click on the above link to see a really close Google Satelite map of the Cottage. It is the third driveway from the left on the map. It's pretty cool because you can even see the shallow spots in the lake!! Thanks to the VanHuisstede's for use of their beautiful cottage!!

We had a blast there! Great weather, Great food and most of all, Great company!

Click here for pictures.

You can even see the Golf course when zooming out on the Google map. The course is located across the lake at the Campground, very enjoyable time Golfing in the wee hours of the morning!

Enjoy!

Gone on Vacation!!

2006-08-19T00:30:00.000-04:00

Back in a week!

2006-07-31T22:39:00.000-04:00

Windows Vista Speech Recognition

I just couldn't help myself.... Windows is supposedly coming out with their new 'amazing' new operating system to replace windows... In fact it's gonna do such a good job they just.... had to keep the name windows and add 'Vista' behind it?? Well, windows vista is getting a lot of criticism, even and especially from avid Microsoft users. Ah, when will the world learn to all buy macs.

Very funny video!

Toyota Hilux!! Can't kill it... I mean really!

2006-07-27T23:43:00.000-04:00

Ok, here's the video, absolutely worth watching! The audio seems to lack some finesse, and it falls off at the end, but most of the video (the important part) you can hear the narration.

WOW!

Top Gear.... the best show on earth! UPDATED!

2006-07-27T23:32:00.000-04:00

Ok, go do yourself a really big favour right now... and click on THIS LINK! Give the video 23 seconds to get into the swing of things!

Being in video mode tonight, I must admit, I'm happy to announce that I speant nearly an entire evening, well at least 3 hours of it, watching Videos from "Top Gear" on youtube.
Now sure I'm a huge car fan, so naturally this makes watching these video's... well irresistable. But even to a none car fan, even some of my sister's (through marriage) I sincerely beleive they would get nearly as many laughs, pleasure and jaw drops as I do watching these videos.
These English speaking blokes' with the greatest accent on earth, bring humour to cars, and to one of the greatest filmed and scripted tv shows I've seen.
Take the Ford GT video attached. Ok, this is likely the most humour free video from 'Top Gear', but I simply couldn't pass this video down. I mean, asside the fact that I'm a huge Ford fan, this GT is one of the most incredible cars on the roads today. Even Jay Leno, known for his exotic garage, finds this car to be one of his ultimate top favourite cars, for handling, power, looks, comfort and all allround uniqueness. I for some reason feel compelled to agree whole-heartedly. And when one of my customers came out of a V6 mustangs (not V8) she exclaimed: "Jay, that is better than chocolate... simply better!" :) :) ... and that was only a Mustang, and just the V6! Add, 300 more horsepower, more style and more vigour!

Ok, back to 'Top Gear'. Do yourself a favour, and drop onto www.youtube.com , and type in: "Top Gear" and playtime commences!

I do Promise, the audio is much better on the other vidoes, just can't be helped that my favourite two videos (toyota truck and Ford GT) have the worst sound... likely because they have been watched the most by millions around the world, guess you can wear out the sound on a digital video... :)

From racing an Aston Martin DB9 against a bullet train from england to france to playing soccer with a team of Toyota Aygo's VS a team of VW Fox's. From Taking a classic Mini and jumping it off the ski jump in lila hammer, to racing the fastest rally car on a snow track, against a winning bobsled team!
And then there is the ultimate, my all time favourite Top Gear episode. In fact it is so good, it almost makes me wish I sold 1980's's Toyota trucks. They take a Toyota Hilux truck, and do everything possible to destroy it... I mean everything. From driving it like crap, to dropping a wrecking ball on it, drowning it in the ocean... and... well, you'll just have to watch it.

Ok, I'll post it next time for your easy convenience!

Amazing Wave Surfing!!

2006-07-27T23:17:00.000-04:00

Ok, I've got absolutely no relation to surfing let alone big wave surfing.... but you really gotta see this video. Methinks either this surfers potty training went down the drain on this day (no pun intended) or he's born without feelings... feelings of fear!

did i say WOW yet??

When there's nothing to discuss....

2006-07-26T22:10:00.000-04:00

So in speaking with some customers today, I was reminded by something funny that us humans do when there is lack of conversation.

For whatever reason, when we run out of things to speak about with someone, or when we are looking for the perfect ice-breaker to start talking with someone, we often look up to the skies... to the current weather conditions of course.

"Nice day today eh?" "Looks like you brought in the sunshine" "wow, what a storm today" and all the usual, often dorky 'weather comments.'

So I figured in my often lack of writing in this blog frequently, (or as frequently as some of you may wish), I leave you my new 'weather report' box on the sidebar to the right of this most recent post. Now I know that this 'post' being my third post this week makes for a record on 'blogit', don't count on this becoming the norm.

I don't think you'd be too interested in hearing about the latest Ford I sold, and how we can't keep plants alive in our apartment, and what we ate, and what we watched for tv. 'cause for Jay and Veronica... that's usually our life! :) Ok... it's a whole lot more exciting than that, but exciting to you and exciting to us may be two entirely different things... ya?? :)

So I leave you all with the weather to discuss, in advance, for my future lack of blog posts. So when you check my blog for any updates on the life and times of Jay and Veronica and find... nothing... you have the weather to discuss.

Inside of this weather 'box' I even included the five major cities nearby my most popular blog- readers. Just click on the 'cities tab'.

Wow, two posts in less than a day....

2006-07-25T01:11:00.000-04:00

Just a few comments. I wanted to point out some exciting things, ok, what I find to be exciting.

I realized that a few of the links on the right side of my blog where somewhat out of date. I've slightly upgraded my buddies list, though the list remains short. Either Veronica and I don't have many 'buddies' or our 'buddies' don't blog!

The cool addition is that my 'top 3' list has been altered and updated to my 'top 5' list.

This top 5 list has some of my favourite things on the internet to date. Being a Rather large Apple fan and a Ford fan, I felt more than a need to put these to on my top 5 list. Apple is a very innovative company, they make a bullet-proof product and I swear by their lineup! Ford I've come to respect and appreciate in counteless ways as a business. I stand behind all of their vehicles and in the way I am sold by their 'built-ford-tough' mentality, and being the best-selling trucks for over 25 years, I have become a full believer in the same quality and comfort in their latest and greatest car and crossover (CUV) line-up.

Two very interesting websites to do with Ford is www.fordboldmoves.com - on the rebuilding of a major company, and www.thetruthabouttrucks.com - self explainatory. Very much worth spending 5 - 10 minutes checking out when you get a free moment.

Now onto less sales-pitchy things, "We Feel Fine" is one of the COOLEST online projects I have ever seen, let alone one of the coolest projects ever!! You can see the feelings of thousands of others around the world, type in moods, feelings, sort by gender, age, weather, all in seperate categories or all together and see the different results. Very easy to play with, and very fun. DEFINATELY WORTH A VISIT, and easy to spend lots of time on... especially for my buddy Marcel the phsycologist! Really cool!

Gizmodo, as I've commented on before keeps me in touch with the latest in gadgets, (often several dozen new inserts daily)

Restaurantica is one great tool for those who love dinning out the odd time. Though we try to conserve money as much as possible to pay off debts quickly, we seem to constantly get money from relitaves to "go out eating". No complaints in this department! Veronica and I truly enjoy a good dish the odd time... speaking of, we still have two more "dinner outs" waiting to be used at a restaurant of our choice thanks to relatives... !! :) Restaurantica, here we come.

Resort to right hand panel of this blog to see links for the above mentioned websites.

I hope you enjoy these sites as much as I do!!

Go Big or Go Home!!

2006-07-25T00:11:00.000-04:00

My latest hobby has found me being a pin-pusher. That's right, a PIN-pusher, not PEN-pusher.
The thought crept up on a me a few months ago when I kept looking at a rather vast, empty wall in our apartment that deserved more than just a few small, wimpy looking pictures hanging on it. Thanks to our lofty ceiling, the wall looked so open and felt like it needed a rather large painting or some sort of art-peice, but it had to be large. Being a firm beleiver of the expression, "Go big or Go home", I set right to work.

Having a bit of a background in the arts, but having no skill whatsoever in painting etc, I thought about setting out to make a rather large painting. Reallizing I really have no talent at all.... I thought of doing some sort of modern art, splash of paint kinda thing, perhaps somewhat representing a sunset or so, might look kinda funky. Do-able, but not sure if that's what I wanted.

Then one night I dreamt up the idea to do an artpiece out of carpenters nails, driven right into the wall, and make a Massive pointillism type drawing, but with nails. Hmmm... but we rent our apartment... that would be a problem. When it comes time to moving from this apartment, Veronica would be doing the moving, and I would be removing the nails for a week! Not so cool. So I thought about hanging a board of sorts and doing the nails in that. So I decided to us Foam sheets (inexpensive) and black push-pins (also inexpensive). Lightweight, cheap, and readily available.

I wanted to maintain a look, that the image was done right on the wall. As a pointillism drawing is pencil or ink dots on white paper, I wanted to keep the monotone look and have the black pin-heads on the yellow wall. So I painted two 4X8 sheets of foam the same yellow paint as the walls, mounted the sheets together, and then touched up the seams and mounting screws with paint.

So I wanted the image to be something scenic, I was thinking something outdoors and nature related as we don't get much of a view of the outdoors from in here. The Common Loon has always been one of my favourite creatures on earth. Since Veronica doesn't seem to have any sort of fears of loons, I didn't think she'd mind a rather large representation of a loon in our place! So I projected a sketched image of a loon onto the wall using an LCD projector hooked up to my laptop, poured my bulk order of black push-pins into our large salad bowl, and well, less than 20 hours later I wound up with this.

Any guesses as to how many pins?? Really, I'd like to see what your guesses will be!

The winner gets this artwork when Veronica gets sick of it... :) :)

Click on the images for a closer look!

Long long weekend fun! -Update #2

2006-07-11T23:07:00.000-04:00

Update- July 19. The pics are now up. Click here or below on the link for photos!

--------------------

Update- July 13. Pics to come soon. Trying something new, and not much time to spend on it. Too get pics up soon though!
_______________________

This canada day weekend was some good times and some good fun for us. It started with a canoe trip, and ended with joyous sunburns... and the mark of my one year anniversary at Reliable Ford. Yup, I'm pretty happy with that.

Veronica and I took a few days to ourselves and joined our College and Careers Bible study group on a Canoe trip. We drove to the top end of Georgian Bay were we canoed out to crown land just south of Killarney Provincial park. We camped on the mainland Wednesday as we arrived around midnight there. Thursday morning we went the the Sportsman's Inn which is located right on the docks in Killarney. Great breakfast served there and they even let us take our coffees out on the docks while we waited for breakfast to be served!! Now Killarney is quite the town! It's a 68 Km drive in from the main highway, and until you get only a km or two from town, there honestly can't be more than a dozen driveways coming from the one road into Killarney. The sign welcomes you to a population of 500, something I couldn't get over. So I asked our friendly waitress at breakfast, and she said "...actually no, Killarney's population is only about 250, the other half is the surrounding areas." WOW, that's smaller than most church congregations that I know!!

Anywho, after breakfast we canoed out the the islands, and due to some storm clouds rolling in, we chose to setup camp in a more sheltered island rather than the more scenic islands that offered a superior view. Beautiful scenery there, the islands, colour (not clarity) but color of the water and surrounding scenes reminded us of Cuba. We still had a good dosage of sun and fun, swimming, canoeing and lazing around. Canada is such a beautiful country!! See pics of the weekend here.

The above link to pictures also includes the rest of the weekend. So Saturday we ended our canoe trip around noon. As our 10 friends from C&C study group went back home, we drove on, through Northbay, and on to Ottawa to see Brian and Alanna and their children, to see Lucas again (who's getting cuter and more like a little boy every time we see him,) and of course to see their new little one, Zacharey Hart. For a newborn he was adorable. The drive along the Ottawa river (border of Ontario and Quebec) above Algonquin park was simply beautiful. Stunning landscape there! The visit in ottawa itself was short but very sweet and great the see the Ottawa contigiency of the Hart family!

The Monday consisted of more sunburning at Sable beach, which is always a great way to spend a holiday monday in the summer! One of our favourite past-times and some great Frisbee, Football, Soccer, and all the usual beach stuff!

The last few pictures you'll also see another little one, that's Anna Hart, new addition the the Eric and Becky family. We got to see her just after the long weekend ended, and of course, another cute hart baby. This was another short and sweet visit, and again, good to see the Brantford sector of the Harts.

Among all this excitement was some not as fun-ness however. We had to say farewell to two very good friends. Jeremy Vandergaag left us on Monday morning to leave for Alberta to see his girlfriend and live closer to her. We also just recently had a farewell party for other good friend, Sara Plantinga who also leaves us for the west, for her it's Winnepeg to teach. We will miss them both and their departure has definately left holes in our hearts. We wish them the best and our good Lord's blessings in their travels and future plans. We miss them already! :(

In all, it was a refreshing weekend, and though we drove about 2,000 km's in about 5 days, it was a great holiday and nice to get 'away from it all' for those few days!

Plus... laying in our double hammock in open air northern Ontario is what really made it all worth it!!

Apple Shrine?

2006-05-21T22:46:00.000-04:00

So Steve Jobs and his mastermind team are at it again.. and this time I believe to take over the world.

Shortly after revealing some new products, Jobs was happy to unveil his newest creation. A 24hr, 7day a week, 365 day per year store! Insanity, maybe.

Now the coolest part about this store is that the entire store is underground. Above ground rises this glass cube with a hovering (and glowing by night) apple logo. Beside the cube is a water fountain (of course, also square in shape.)

The stairs is the most beautiful feature. A solid glass stairs held up by more panes of glass!! What an incredible feat of engineering!!

Even more incredible is rising up from the middle of the stairs is an elevator that simply rises from the ground on a round pedastal!! Wow.

Now here is the interesting part. Somewhere amidst looking at all the a pics of people crowding around, a thought struck me. This isn't just another apple store, STEVE JOBS HAS JUST CREATED AN APPLE SHRINE!!

I did some research and this new Apple Shrine is only mere feet smaller than the Large Shrine found at Mecca. Where people pray in the direction of Mecca, and flock in thousands towards it, I beleive once a year, now there is the apple shrine where people flock towards it. Now a bizzare twist is that to reach the store, you have to descend into the earth! Weird thought!

Wanna know another twist... Before the Apple Cube/Shrine was completed, it was covered in black adhesive paper, much to the look of the Shrine @ Mecca which is covered in black silk! Coincidence... I think not!

People descending into the earth to kiss and worship the apple products?? I'm sure it's happened hundreds of times since the store opened just days ago...

Thought I'd share that insight!

Quintippio Mega Shave!

2006-03-21T00:11:00.000-05:00

So the mystery marketing scheme of more blades is better has always puzzled me! I always thought, more friction, more irritation, but according to the guys trying to make money from our morning routine, that's not the case. Lies!
My favourite is the recent commercial ad by Philips featuring the Quintippio Mega Shave!

Right! That puppy should do the trick. Well as the commercial goes on, Electric is better. Plus, the wife claims a razor gives a closer shave, but when I take the time to shave with the old school 3-blade, she doesn't even notice!
My thoughts are summed up exactly in this graph!

By 2100 you Razor fans should be using a 14 blader, and I'll be content with my at that point 16 year old Philips!

Read on about the Moores Law for Razor blades here at gizmodo.com

Life on wireless

2006-02-09T21:57:00.000-05:00

Hey folks, We're back.

So ya, loving my work at Reliable's, loving it 99 percent of the time so I really can't complain! The people I work with are absolutely awesome, cool, fun and easy going folk. Quickly to feel like family. Finally I find myself at a job where it actually feels like a lifetime carreer. One that I enjoy as much as designing and photography, but also one where I don't have to struggle and fit for 'freelance work'. The challenge never ends though, always on the hunt for customers, and new promo's etc.

Veronica's work is going well. She enjoys "doing nothing all day" (and that is honestly a direct quote from her.) She is actually keeping busy though, two jobs, plus looking after her baby of a husband, cooking for him, cleaning, etc. ok... maybe not that bad... but close too it. She's getting quite a few return clients, so things are looking up as the first few months for both of our jobs are definately more difficult than the future days.

That said, life is Jolly much more than not. We get to see each other quite a bit, even have lunch together a few days a week. Not to boast but there is absolutely nothing better than both of us living within five minutes drive from work! Our schedules are quite similar as well, so good or bad, we spend a lot of nights, staring at each other, or the TV! Only complaint is we are both in industries where we can't get away from weekend work.

So now here we sit, on the couch... yup that's right. Typing this blog, from the couch! Like I said in the title for this blog, life on wireless! GRAND!!!!

In a decision that I no longer need my huge powerhouse of a computer which was used in my designer life, and with the want and need for a portable system at work and home, I thought it be best to do an even trade. A used powerhouse of a tower for a speedy used mac laptop. And man is it sweet!!

As dorky as it sounds, it's so nice to be wireless. I've been able to cruise the internet and check emails at my leasure anywhere in the house (mmm... don't even have to get out of bed on an off Saturday to check the weather, emails etc. Even better yet I can even take my tunes anywhere with my in the house. Sweet. I also can choose to play my entire music collection wirelessly to remote speakers up in the loft.

As a bonus, I also got an ipod thrown into the deal. Not as usefull as I would have found it to be walking everywhere in Toronto, it is still a beautiful unit to have. I have used it a few times, walking home from work for fun and such.

Received news of a new nephew the other day. Kris and Karin Sikkema had a baby boy, Brennen Kurtis... and 8 pounder... about 90% of that weight is in his head and feet... man are they huge. That said, he's actually a really cute kid with dark hair. Sorry, no pictures yet. Also good friends Jerry and Nancy Vink are expecting a kid any day now as well.

And to end off, what worse news than to hear someone get their liscence. Yup, that's right. Remember those days when a sibling got their liscence and we all pulled out the usual jokes about clearing the roads etc. My new sister (through marriage) Rosalie just got her G1. Anything like her sister and... better not say anything, problably a better driver than me.

CHeers!

We have a WINNER!!!!!

2005-12-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

You wouldn't beleive what happend the other day at work!! :)

Ford's latest promo is called Vehicle-a-day-giveaway. (This promo comes every year at this time of the year) Long and short of it is, a customer can win his vehicle purchase or lease (their choice) for free, or anywhere from 1,000-10,000 off the price, (or the obvious) nothing.

So yes, short of it is, I had a winning customer in my office this past Saturday morning!!! Very exciting, felt really cool!!

I met the customer as he was roaming our showroom waiting for service to be done on one of his vehicles! It was him that asked me about our signs regarding this promo. So I told him it was exactly that, Ford is giving away a vehicle a day, everyday of the promo... 50 in total!

Then I asked him "Do you have 3 minutes to find out if you can win?

"Sure" was the reply

"Do you have a valid drivers liscence number" I asked?

"yup"

" Can you pick a vehicle in my lot that you would like to win" was my last question.

"yes... but don't waste your time... I never win." was his reply

"Oh, come in, we are both doing nothing in particular, and you agreed to my last three questions"

"Ok fine, says the customer, still politely insistant that he is not going to win."

"It's worth a shot" is my final response!

WELL.... upon being prompted to hit 'pound' (#) 3 minutes into the phone call to the hotline, a pre-recorded message tells us if he is a winner or not..."

Normally I hear "Sorry... blah blah blah"

THIS TIME... we didn't here what one would expect. No 'congratulations', or 'you win...' instead my customer and I hear, "We'd like to verify some information" Well to be honest with you, the message went on for another two minutes, after verifying some info.

In less words than we heard, it basically said, "YOU WIN the FULL purchase price of the vehicle entered!!!!!!!!" That's right, my customer won a $48,778 (after tax) F-150 4X4 extended cab pickup in it ENTIRETY!! All of it, for FREE!!!!!!!! Not even a dime out of his pocket!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Customer and I just looked at each other, mouths agap, jaws on the floor! We both couldn't beleive it, but I kinda had to believe it because at that point he kept asking me if I was kidding. So I had to act as proffessional as possible without asking him if it was real! I still can't beleive it! Seriously, it's quite an amazing feeling to be the one who called for the customer, who won him a vehicle. It's not like being the lottery cashier ringing in the ticket, cause I had to drag him into my office a bit against his will just to make the call! Not to say that it was any of my doing however! He thanks me for dragging him in, and I thank him for inquiring about the giveaway promo, and for agreeing to the three minute call! WOW!

How cool isn't that eh?

See for yourself! Very happy for this man. Plus, as a bonus he is a very faithful customer to our dealership and service department over the years! Plus he has the gift of gab so Reliable's name will be out all over town... best advertising one could ask for... positive word of mouth!

That's my latest!

Dreamer...

2005-11-21T20:35:00.000-05:00

So recently, thanks to a Time magazine article, I have been browsing countless sites of the latest Cool!

And wow, this world sure is full of cool! What amazing talents God has given us humans! There is some pretty unbelievable things in this world.

Just I found one of my latest favourites... If only I had the heart of a rich man... (or is that pirate) I think I'd look pretty cool in this craft!!!!! WOW!!!! Click on the "power" tab on the left, then click on the 118 wallypower. (Don't worry about upgrading to flash etc.) Website and products are impressive enough!

My favourite sites to hit now are:

The Cool Hunter

Josh Spear

off to dreamland...

See you in a year! :)

2005-10-27T23:56:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I asked for a lot of photos of my wedding... I guess I got it.

1279 of them to be exact. Between four photographers and more than 6 cameras every single angle of our wedding day was captured. The good the bad and the ugly. Many thanks to Matthew Barnes, Cornelius Broersma, Kurt Brown, Alisha Vanspronsen, (and Dianne Jager, for loaning her camera to me for the day).

1280 official images, that's raw, unedited images!!!! That would have been about 53 rolls of 24 exp. film!!!!!! So as the title says, I figure I can manage to edit and sort through approximately 25 images per week... yes that's about a year of work!! :)

And that's not even mentioning the 5.5 hours of video I get to sort through and edit!!!

Thank you digital imaging! In case getting married didn't do it, printing 1200 images just to view them from negatives would have made me beyond broke!!

Ok, so you all might not be able to wait a year to finally see me or any images of my wife and I from that day a month and ten days ago. So here they are!!! Some edited, some not. Some pretty some not. I hope you take the same pleasure in viewing these snaps as much as Veronica and I do!

Once again, thanks to the many people involved in just the media end alone! Wow, feels like we are talking about a movie production.

1200 images... I still can't get over it. That's not even including the images that all our friends, families and enemies took of us. I know for myself, I wasn't even the bride and when I came walking down the aisle, there still must have been 20 camera's zooming in on my mug! No wonder Veronica shed a tear... I woulda too... she must had about 50 camera's zooming in on her... very intimidating!!

Ok, I'm done!

Apartment pics

2005-10-13T23:59:00.000-04:00

Just to let you know, I've posted pics of our happy lil' home! Click HERE to view our snaps.

Veronica and I are very happy with the turnout. I guess you could say, that as artful creatures, we had a bit of fun with this project.

Let us know what you think.

Give a buzz for a visit! We'd be happy to have you.

Pics are up!!!!

2005-10-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

Hey Folks.

Here are wedding and hooneymoon pics! (is that really how you spell that word... or is it honeymoon.) I guess I could look it up but call me lazy at 11:30 on a Sunday!

I've split the wedding pics according the the photographer who took the pics. My 'Official' shots are not yet up as I have not yet received those from my bud, Matt Barnes. Keep posted to see those. However I think that these three galleries gives you plenty too look at for now!

Click on the below links to see that person's pics.

Cornelius Broersma, our unofficial photographer, became very official indeed, especially in covering the whole Ceremony, and did an awesome job! Thanks dude!!

Jay Hart, my pics were taken with a friend's borrowed camera that I kept secret in my tux pocket.

Kurt Brown, a great buddy from college, just loves snapping so much that he felt compelled to contribute to capturing the day for us! Thanks man!

Don't forget to also check out our Hooneymoon pics!

Enjoy!

We're back!

2005-10-08T15:15:00.000-04:00

Hey Folks. We are back... to reality, to life etc. Ah, home internet at last!!!!

After some crazy months of wedding planning we are finally back to normal life. WOW what a summer!

Of course marrying my beautiful bride was the best part, but apart from that, the Lord has blessed our lifes SO richly over the past while!

Now that wedding planning is outta the way, our apartment is setup and work is falling into place, it's back to blogging, emailing and hangin' with friends... and yes, I have missed it!

I won't go on and on about the wedding, but I think that was indeed the best day of my life. Everytime I see friends again, hear their stories, and see their pics, It makes me smile all over again. I'm so happy to hear that so far everyone thouroughly enjoyed our wedding and had just as good a time as us!!! Though we planned out our day exactly how we wanted it (how selfish eh? :) Our biggest goal was that everyone else could enjoy it just as much as us!! Goal achieved!

Our Vacation was equally amazing! Wow! We got hit by Hurricane Rita very quickly into our week. The storms came in on monday already and the actual Hurrican hit us on Tuesday. Though a small hurricane at CAT 2, it still packed in some fierce winds! (pictures to come!) The next two days clouds and storms kept over top of Cuba. As the hurricane kept moving west, Rita also grew tremendously in size as it rose to a CAT 5 storm. This kept the outer edge of Rita hovered over us. Rita was one of the largest hurricanes to hit the earth (on official record) but that was only on the water. Thankfully for those in Texas, it dropped in force and speed the second it came close to land!

Our three day tan in Cuba was worth it. In these three days of sun we thoroughly enjoyed the resort. For 12 Paso's we took a 2 hr. scooter trip (both ways) to a large cavern with stalictite's & 'mites. The scooter trip was actually the highlight of the package! We also took advantage of scuba lessons and on Friday went out to the open water! 14 meters down I even say a family of spiney lobsters in their cave, and an octopus among the coral and brightly colored fish. I can hardly wait (already) to go diving again!! :) Amazing experience!

So now back to reality we settling into our quant yet beautiful apartment! It's like a cool nest up in a tree house! Yes, it's up a whack of stairs, but worth the climb! The apartments are brand new, completly re-done within the shell of an old building!!

Now we are faced with the truth of an ailing car, and looking into getting a new car. Being in car sales right now helps that out a lot and makes the buying decision a lot easier.

Veronica is currently looking for work and has some positive leads and interviews. We are keeping our hopes up that God will take care of us as he always has!

Pictures of our recent adventures to be posted soon!

Tornado

2005-08-22T21:04:00.000-04:00

Hey all! It's been a while.

Just thought I'd post a quick blog about the Tornado that just whipped through my new homeland (Fergus) just recently.
It seems as though when we see images, the pictures never do the scene Justice. That fact is more than true in this case! I can only describe my drive through the tornado stricken areas as horrific and sureal. It was like driving through a war zone. Click on the links for photos and Video.

The first few seconds of the video is the site were two cars were picked up. They were sucked up, flipped over several times and then dropped in the fields. The house (about 10-15 seconds into the video) is a family from the church. Their shop which had a piano repair business running inside of it is completly gone. The two men inside, hid under a grand piano. The only thing left standing afterwards was the grand piano with two men huddled underneath. That was it. The house was picked up and set back on the foundation, only mere inches off it's foundation. The curtains in the bedroom where sucked out of the window, and where found stuck between the house and the foundation. The piano lid from that grand piano the men hid under, was found several hundred meters away in the tangled forest. Not a single sole was taken in this wicked storm. Among all the wild animals lost, their were only three cattle killed from the farm seen in the end of the film! What a miracle!

Some mechanics at work had their homes destroyed in the path. One mechanic came home and couldn't find his car. It was completely buried in trees and rubble. He dug it out, and had it cleaned up at work. To all of our amazement, the damage was very minimal considering what it had gone through. Only small dents and scratches, nothing a body shop and insurance can't take care of! Amazing!

May non of us ever have to go through such a horrid storm!

Our daily Commute!

2005-08-03T22:51:00.000-04:00

Inspired by a recent blog by Irene, I felt compelled to share with you the joys of my history of commuting to work. I'd like to devote this blog to the fact that much of our life is spent commuting.

Over my short and enjoyable lifespan in the money making end of life, I at times like to beleive (in my usualy bold headed manner) that I have had the most vast and unique commutes to work. Let me elaborate for you.

I have had various since the age of mid teenager, including the following: Picking and selling berries, picking and sorting corn, working with plants in a nursery, a photo studio, a brickyard, several photo retail stores, a computer store, self employed (home office), freelance assisting, photo retouching, and now car sales.

So in my experiences I've had the following interesting commutes, things happening during commuting etc.
Like many of us, I've had the chance to walk across the yard to my work as starters. I've taken a tractor ride to work in the odd scenario, and I've had many rides... but one ride stands out. It was a rainy day, one of these torrential downpours unlike most rainstorms. We left the plant nursery early and got rides with one another. Unfortunately for the girl I received a ride from, her hood flew open while driving because moments earlier when rushing to stay dry and get in the car, she had popped both the hood and the trunk latch, and only succesfully closed the trunk. The hood caught the wind as she drove in the blowing rain, and the hood came up so fast, it creased the hood right down the middle, and it almost smashed into the windshield.
Working at the photo studio I ended up in a collision where someone pulled out in front of me. I than had the not so fun opportunaty of driving a heavily battered civic for a week to work before my body shop guy had a chance to look at the car.

Working at the Brickyard brouhght the BEST COMMUTE ever. Let me describe! In an effort to release myself from my partial cause of ultra high insurance rates, and to also release myself from ever rising gas prices, I looked into every option of saving a buck that I could. I ended up taking a risk, and sold my car, trading it in for an ATV. This ATV was one from a co-worker at the brickyard, an 87 Yamaha Banshee sport quad, with a rebuilt engine from 2000. And might I say, this was indeed the ULTIMATE ride to work. It only lasted a week, as the police had the easy task of following the sound of a two stroke cat howling down the side roads, ditches, fields and gravel shoulders, at 120 KM/hr at times, and with Heavily treaded rear tires to boot! It then came to my reliazation that maybe I should have bought the ATV insurance. I took the risk and got caught sooner than I had hoped, but so it was. To save insurance, I wasn't going to buy other insurance, so I took the risk. But I must say, those 5 days were the best commuting days of my life. Flying through dew drenched fields at 7:00 A.M. with the mist rising off the Grand River, merly feet away from my speeding rocket, deer scattering in the way, ducks flying through the air above the river bed, was simply the most exhilarating experience of my life.

Now that I've described the ATV commute, the rest pale in comparison. I did have many new experiences however when I moved to Toronto. I was given the opportunity once again to walk and bike to work, with the additions of rollerblading, taking the taxi (only once), streetcar, subway, and GO train!

Currently I BIKE to my CAR sales job at the dealership. But I also get to take cars home, already I've driven half a dozen different vehichles home in just my first few weeks of work. Not to mention number of cars, call me a nerd, but until my car dealership job, I had tracked the different vehichles that I have driven in the past 7 years of driving, and they were just over 50. Now that I work at a dealership, I can cheerfully say that this number has increased hugely, and might I add, the 2005 Mustang GT has been placed on the top of that list. It is my hope that this vehichle might be the one that drives me to my wedding, and is the first vehichle that my new wife and I may drive in together... but that's pathetic, it's just a car. Shucks, even today alone I drove about 30 different vehichles, no word of a lie!

So that's it... and in case you weren't either bored or worse, here's the raw breakdown. I am quite proud to say that I have had the following unique modes of transportation to work:

Foot
Bike
Car
Tractor
ATV
Streetcar
Subway
GO train
Rollerblades
Rolling-out-of-bed-into-office-chair :)

yet to come?:

airplane
helicoptor
canoe
boat
space shuttle
hovercraft.

Thanks for listening!

WOW!!!

2005-07-29T00:02:00.000-04:00

After just viewing my great pal's newly revised website, I feel compelled to share it with you all!

I was fortunate enough to capture Mathew Ian Barnes' friendship in the last few months at Sheridan College as we both finished our studies in photography. Unfortunately we have both kept very busy and have not been able to see much of each other on a regular basis. Since I have moved from Toronto, this has been increasingly difficult.

After seeing his new work on the site for "the spot productions" (click on the above link), I have fallen in love with this dear friend all over again! Matt has this incredible and magical ability to turn virtually anything into the most beautiful image your eyes have ever rested upon. He has found a way to make the mis-judged beautiful. He brings the ugly, the unsightly, the vile, the unwanted, and the unimaginable, into the most vivid, beautiful and sureal light. He simple makes the most stunning images I have ever seen.

Matt is a man who doesn't take no for an answer, and will push through whatever he needs to, just to get the shot. He has endured many trials and has sacrificed many things just for his art. I wish my dear friend well, and sincerly hope that he can turn a nearly impossible career, into a position that he may grab the attention of the world, and provide us with gorgeous imagery of the unimaginable, the unexplainable, and the uncharacteristically bizzare!

If there is one website that you will look at this week, may it be www.thatsthespot.com

May God bless your work Mathew Barnes, may you find a way to bring happiness to the world, your loving family, and to God!

Big Life Changes

2005-07-06T23:38:00.000-04:00

So it's been some time, and some big changes in life.

So I made the move to Elora where I did settle down with my good buddy ol' pal Jeremey V. (Germs) It's been an absolute blessing living with him. So great to be so much closer to friends, we even have campfires a few nites per week, and go out and play frisbee in the park, or watch the Scottish pipers practising for the local bag-pipe festivals! Amazing!

The Lord has been very good to me recently! I also found a job fairly recently. I was presented with a few opportunaties, some which appeared better and some worse, than the one I ended up with. All the job opportunaties, every single one of them other than the one I got, ended in a dead end of sorts. This pointed me into this job. I am working at Reliable Motors, a Ford dealership in Fergus, Ontario where I am sales man number three! Yes, only three, a very busy dealership for us salesman.

I feel that God pointed me in this direction in that all the other job opportunaties didn't work out for many various reasons. I have no immediate plans for my future for I know that God will take care of me now, as long as I put my trust in him. (big lesson learned. Though I feel that it was just as necessary for me to do my work in the arts and in Toronto, and that this door will never be shut!) I feel that this new Sales job is a good direction for me as I enjoy sales, and enjoy self direction and working more as my own employee, which is why I'm loving my new office.

Veronica is succeding very well in her carreer. She recently was signed off by her boss to be able to go write her exam to obtain her liscence in Hair Styling etc. It's a big deal as one normally needs 2,000 hours and Veronica only had about 1,200!! Her boss absolutely loves her, and it helps that she's quite good at what she does if I can try say that without a bias! :) She's now in the process of studying and will perhaps write the exam by end of July. If she passes, she will be fully liscened which means, more money, better jobs, and better time getting jobs for when she moves to Elora! Yup, that will be coming up soon too. We have just started our search for an apartment to live in, which she may live in for the few weeks before our wedding! That will give us time to get moved in over time, paint if necessary etc. It will also be a really great time to be able to enjoy some of this busy summer together a bit more than just on weekends!!

That's all for now, I'll keep you posted on further changes.

God bless you all!

Mike and Dee's wedding

2005-06-16T16:22:00.000-04:00

On May 21 my dear friends Michael Broersma and Dianna Buist married in Ottawa. It was a beautiful wedding and though it did rain, it didn't seem to keep the smiles off there faces. In the end they were still able to get outside for their wedding photos. I tagged along as assitant and candid photographer for their official photographer and my good friend, Cornelius Broersma. See the candid shots here!

Knee surgery-Part 2

2005-05-28T13:32:00.000-04:00

Less than 24 hours ago and the knee is doing well. Surgery went ahead at 3:00 as scheduled and I awoke at 3:50 in the recovery room feeling rather happily sleepy and wishing for a large meat lovers pizza to land in my lap. Wow we are a spoiled generation because I found that 16 hours was a long time to go without food! I was happy to awake in good spirits and with no feelings of nausea! I wasn't happy with the fact that I couldn't leave the recovery room for quite some time, when all I wanted to do was see Veronica! I said to Veronica who was perhaps a tiny bit concerned for my surgery, that I was more concerned for her as I was in a controlled situation with lots of doctors, and she was out on the road for the afternoon. I laughed good and hard when she told me that she almost schmucked into a bus!!

So all is well now. I'm at home, feeling virtually no pain as long as I'm taking pain killers. I'm using crutches for support but I can virtually walk on the operated knee, though I've been taking it easy still. The doctors say I may only be on crutches for a few more days. Sitting here makes me feel sorry for those who have to get a cast on a broken limb, because just one day with this wrapped up leg, and the itchyness is getting annoying already! That comes off tommorrow leaving only two small bandaids over the incisions! I find it amazing how something as incredibly complex as operating inside of a limb joint can become such a minor surgery! Wow, how technology is amazing!

Moving out and moving on!

2005-05-25T19:13:00.000-04:00

It's official now. Jay Hart is moving out of his Condo and moving on from Toronto life.

It's a sad task to move, but the market has been horribly slow. I've been working as a retoucher, and enjoying the sights of my work going up on billboards. I have also enjoyed the hectic life in Toronto and all that it has offered me. However the market is very slow and like every other artist currently in Toronto (photographers, retouchers, illustraters, designers etc.), the work is slim pickings! I don't see this as an end to this carreer, but rather a redirection of my life path. The Lord has blessed me so richly over the past 7 months in Toronto, but I feel the Lord has chosen a different direction for me. I will never put this work behind me, as I feel another window could always open in the future allowing me to still work as an artist.

May I say that I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Toronto, and parts of life here I will miss! The Lord has been good to me in teaching me and I have been able to learn a lot of valuable lessons. One is that Family, Friends and Church are very important!! I have missed these three being further from them all.

I plan to move to Elora, Ontario where I will be near the majority of those three. Unfortunately I will not be closer to my direct family, but I will be closer to Veronica's family. I hope to live with my dear friend Jeremy V. for a few months, and then settle into a place of my own where Veronica and I will be able to make a home after September 17. I trust that the Lord will keep watch over me in the future and guide my ways as he has so much in the past.

Ol' Cowboy

2005-05-19T00:55:00.000-04:00

Check it out on Videos.

The Ol' GO transit cowboy lives!

P.S. turn on those speakers... you wouldn't want to miss out on some Johnny Cash!!

Enjoy!

Knee Surgery-Part 1

2005-05-18T15:15:00.000-04:00

As some of you know, I am scheduled for knee repair on May 27th. I've titled this section part one as I'm sure I'll write a parts 2-? after surgery giving you updates (as I will not have much else to do but read and write blogs.)

The surgery is to repair and or remove a meniscal tear in my right knee joint. A meniscus is a soft 'C' shaped ring that sits between the knee joints (I like to think of it as a rubber seal like in an engine) for layman's terms. The idea of a meniscal tear is best described here!

I am not sure at this point what specific type of tear I have, but I have an idea that it is an outer or inner horn tear (on the end) causing a loose flap of meniscus to 'hang out' (in a not so cool way) in the knee joint. As to the cause of the tear, this type of injury is often sports related, usually in pivoting or slowing down a run in a standing sport. The best thing that I think could have caused my injury is kneeboarding as seen here! I thoroughly enjoyed kneeboarding and my family still enjoys this sport in the summer. However I'm left questioning the saftey of this sport especially if kneeboarding the redneck way as seen here!

I had my first concerns with the knee about 5 years ago. At that time my family doctor suggested that I not go for surgery as any form of surgery has risks and could make matters worse. I wasn't impressed with his treatment at the time as he did not look further into it. My knee started acting up more frequently and finally after about a year of research, doctors and studies, my newly appointed knee specialist sent me in for a magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI) which provided the necesary info to schedule my surgery. The MRI is quite a unique feeling because as pictured in the above link, you are strapped to a flat board which slides into this large hollow unit which whines, hums and makes lots of noise. The cool part is they give you headphones, let you put in your own cd and you fall asleep the hum of this machine that seemingly threatens to eat you alive! :)

I am to have arthoscopic surgery done on my knee which is to leave only two small cuts around the joint. One opening for the camera, the other for the tools. Though it is surgery in something as complex as the human knee joint, it is only a day surgery, and one where within 1-6 weeks I should be back on my feet, and back into a fully active lifestyle in half a year. The thought of surgery also doesn't concern me much as I have a very good doctor who was just able to help out a friend, Carolyn Bartels, and this form of knee surgery has been practised for several decades.

Video is here!

2005-05-09T17:05:00.000-04:00

The first video is up. I can't get it online with sound yet. The way that the video gets encoded it doesn't seem possible to keep the audio embedded into the file when getting the video prepped for online delivery. The video is far cuter with sound, but for now you can look at the clip itself here!!

Enjoy!

My Tiger has arrived!

2005-05-06T02:14:00.000-04:00

So what's all this excitment about tiger? The new operating system for the Mac! And wow it is beautiful, sleek and handy. Spotlight is a new search engine that finds everything. I type in the word "sony" and it comes up with everthing in my computer called sony. It pulls up an old email to do with sony video cameras, an email to my bro brian telling him which camera I bought, a calendar item that says what day I bought the sony camera on, my folder where all my digital pics are kept, my web browser history bookmarks, and even credits from a movie, and the word sony found in a pdf document! WOW!

And what's cooler, is Dashboard. Its handy, funky, gorgeous and nerd techy all at the same time. You really have to check this out!!

These are Widgets, part of Dashboard! Widgets are small mini applications (software/programs) that run in the background. At the touch of a button, the widgets pop up! From clockwise: top right is the countdown to my wedding!! Next is the time, yes, I am up that late... and yes it is raining, but this makes the rain look pretty cool! Following is, This day in history, Hula girl, Word, Quote and Joke of the day, Bible passage, Mini Address book (contact) info, and Mini Calendar. Than the so cool all in one wikits (digital post-it notes, as many as you want all organized together.) Then you can ask any question and get an immediate online answer. Below is the dictionary and thesauras, to the right is the calculator and than bottom row: language translator, Conversion (any thing to anything- measurements, currency, etc.) and lastly, my audio controller! Wow, that's a crap load of tasks that normally would take many programs and websites do all of that. Now it's all there, at the touch of a button. And as more widgets get developed, I can drop them on my screen. And oh, did I mention that this is a screen shot from only one monitor? :) The other monitor is filled with other widgets!