Monthly Archives: August 2007

Aug 4 2007

Two Chapters Draw to a Close

Yesterday was a big day for two Dearlove boys, as A and I both marked significant milestones.

For A, it was his last day at daycare (the picture is from the graduation ceremony they held a few weeks ago). A was only 16 months old when he started at Pinocchio – just a wee lad in diapers with a limited vocabulary. It’s been amazing to watch him grow over the past three years and develop strong friendships with some of the other kids. He’s become especially close with Myles and Sebastian, we’ve gotten to know their parents, and I hope we’ll all stay in touch despite the fact they’ll be at different schools in September.

We really lucked out with the boys’ daycare. Pinocchio is a city-run daycare at the old Ottawa city hall, which is a pretty cool building. The teachers are great, it’s a nice facility, and the boys love it. One of the biggest sources of stress for young parents is finding good child care, and we were really fortunate that spaces were available when we needed it.

As for me, yesterday marked my last day as orchestra manager. I spent part of the day talking to musicians from the National Youth Orchestra about my experiences over the past nine years, the audition process, and issues facing orchestras today (I think I may have gotten a bit evangelical at points). I certainly didn’t know what I was doing when I took the job, and hopefully I gave them some concept of what happens behind the scenes.

So, I’m on vacation now for the next 31 days (wow, that sounds like a long time). On September 4th, A and I will both start new chapters as he’ll start Junior Kindergarten and I’ll move into my nice new digs.

Aug 1 2007

Got The Itch


I thought I’d post a picture of the effects from my close encounter with poison ivy. It’s been really itchy, but I got off lucky – there are some really sick pictures on the web of people with really bad cases on their face, chest, breast, neck and head.

Aug 1 2007

The Camping Trip

B and I took the boys on our first family camping adventure over the weekend. Despite being in close contact with nature for three whole days, we managed to return to the comforts of home in one piece (more or less).

Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time. Aidan loved watching Grandpa Doug make a fire for hotdogs and s’mores, there was a swimming pool and a playground, and the boys are still talking about catching frogs. We weren’t far from Peterborough, so we did a couple of trips into town to visit the zoo and the lift lock (boats go up, boats go down, boats go up, boats go down…)

Sleep was a little hard to come by. Aidan stayed up pretty late and couldn’t decide where he wanted to rest his head – in the trailer with Nana Sue, in the big tent with Aunt Meillyn, or in our tiny tent wedged between Mom and Dad. Of course he chose the last option, then woke up with the sun at 5:15 am. I was ready to chloroform him, but unfortunately I had left the bottle at home.

Regretfully, I wasn’t that careful when I was looking for a stick for roasting marshmallows, and I’m pretty sure I brushed up against some poison ivy. Whatever happened, the back of my hand is covered with about 45 itchy red bumps. It’s pretty gross, and B has asked that I not touch her until the disfigurement goes away.