Takin' the kids "camping" this weekend...

They're so excited about it which is really cool. We're headin' up to Sibbald Point Provincial Park tomorrow at about midday. I'm gonna take their bikes so we can go for a ride around the campground and see more.

Patrick wants to try fishing so we'll prolly take the rods too. I'm not really into fishin'... I think I get that from my dad and that's why I feel like I need to start showing more interest in it so that Patrick keeps his interest up. As long as he's interested, I want him to explore the hobby.

I hafta do some shoppin' on the way home from work and get some essentials... like marshmellows! The boys have fun roastin' marshmellows but the two younger ones tend not to eat them after. I love roastin' 'em but alas, I won't be partaking this weekend... still tryin' to loose the fat. I'm down 25lbs in total now which makes me a featherweight 237lbs. 37 more to go until target. The only break I'm gonna have is when Jim and I go away for our trip but even then, I'll be burning a helluva lot of calories paddlin' and portaging. We're takin' some brownie mix that Jim mentioned in his blog and a cinnamon coffee cafe mix that looks decadent. I can't wait to experience gourmet cookin' in the back country of Algonquin. This trip is the trip I've always wanted to do but ended up doing the "car camping" thing except with a canoe instead of a car.

When we get back from our 'Gonquin trip we'll dedicate some time to building our new website (www.capsizedcanoe.ca), especially with the picture galleries. The scenery up there is absolutely stunning and the sunsets are amazing.

Marie's brother gave us one of those soft-sided pools as he was "upgrading" to a bigger, different model. I spent the holiday weeked with a wheelbarrel attached to my hands as I moved about 5 yards (something like 35 wheelbarrels full) of sand and then I have to level it and flatten it with a lawn roller I rented. I start to put the pool up when I realize that he's not given us the cap to the drain plug. Now, you know when you get a sense that something is not right... it was like my "Spidey" senses were tingling and I did what I don't normally do - I ignored it. Damn. I got in the car and drove with the heavy end-of-a-long-weekend traffic to get it from his house and when I got home, I put the hose in to start the fillin' process. I also attached the filter hoses which I noticed were chewed by a dog he refused to train properly and got rid of it because it was "untrainable"... um... yeah, okay. That was the second "Spidey" sense episode and I repeated the mistake of ignoring it. The next day I got a call from Marie...

"Do you want the good news, or the bad news?"

Being who I am, I figure, take the bad news head-on and recover with the good news.

"Gimme the bad news first"

"There are like, six holes in the pool and they're leakin' water"

Slience.

Small Spidey sense tingle.

"Are they big?"

"Well, we'll loose the water over time and they may even expand when the boys get jumpin' around in the pool."

"Frig. Okay then, what's the good news?"

"The pool hasn't burst and flood the neighbours yards... yet"

Pause.

"And?"

"Well... nothing. I just couldn't think of anything else to say that would be positive"

Hmmm.

I ended up stoppin' at Wally's World on the way home where they had a pool on for $199.00. I picked it up and had my final "Spidey" moment of this farce... why the hell didn't I spend the $200 and save time, money and hassles? I guess this is where I remember the sayin' about lookin' a gift horse in the mouth and perhaps this time I needed to look in to see what I was really gettin... I would've realized that it wasn't the mouth I was lookin' at, it was more like a horse's ass.