Forecast

Tannis actually said yesterday that she thought she might be getting burnt out on going to the beach. It's certainly the season, although she and I both spent an inordinate amount of time inside last week polishing off the new Harry Potter book. If you hadn't figured it out yet, this is one of those boring posts I put in here only because I like to look back a couple of years from now to see what was going on.

I don't think we took any photos this weekend. I figured that they're all starting to look the same. Anyway, we hung out with the Duecks a few times while they're in between blocks of vacationing company. Hit the lake twice, did beer and pizza at our place, and yesterday morning Myron and I did some target shooting at his range. It only took 20 minutes to cycle back home from their place.

Last night we stopped for supper at The Gasthaus in Peachland, sitting out on their patio and enjoying awesome burgers and big mugs of beer. The girls were great, which helped us feel like we were on a wonderful vacation. We wandered along the waterfront after eating, taking in the summer scene and letting the girls hit the playground.

Later we toured my folks' new house in Kelowna near their old place on Viewcrest -- it's beautiful, with lots of really nice touches. Then back to their rental place for one last sleepover (they're moving on Friday) and this morning I'm in the office yet again.

Beach Nights

We've been devout beachgoers these last few days, heading down to Sunoka in the evenings with girls, often after Tannis has already taken to the lake earlier in the day. Last night, Tannis even met clients there while we played in the water -- it couldn't have been more beautiful.

• These sisters love the water, although they're often going in opposite directions and sporting different moods
  
• We're finding that water wings buy them (and us) some freedom to wander a bit more. Just in the last week, they've helped Ivy learn to swim...but I wonder how hard it will be to "wean" her off of them later
  
• We attempted a family photo that didn't turn out particularly well, but it's good to have these as a record, I think
  
• Ivy's photos keep improving. She managed to get me to laugh (knock-knock joke) and snapped what I thought was one of the nicest pictures ever taken of me

Weekend Wrap-Up

Meet Lorne and Bill, two excellent Summerlanders I've been spending a fair bit of time with since meeting them six months ago. We finally got out on the Cartwright trails this weekend and explored. The solitude of riding solo is good for me occasionally, but it's more fun sharing experiences like this with friends. We celebrated Bill's birthday this weekend with a couple of parties as well.

The heat finally arrived this week, so we were down at Sunoka beach a couple of times, and had lunch at Dirty Laundry. Tannis doesn't think she's as photogenic as she used to be (as if!) -- Ivy got this cute shot of her up there. She also caught Ella playing in the fountain at the winery (a photographer on our hands?).

On Saturday morning we headed up to Apex to meet some other friends. Tannis did a couple of hours of chairlift-assisted mountain biking runs with David and Michelle (wish I had a photo of Tan's smile after all of that downhill singletrack), and I explored with the girls. We did a little hike, visited the horses, went for coffee, and ran into Gwen, who showed us their amazing cabin up there.

We also managed to get some down-time this weekend, just hanging out and reading and not doing much...gotta do nothing once in a while.

Bike Geek

Isn't this bike a work of art? They've got one called The Jeremy that looks like a mean drag-race chopper.

This reminds me of the ridiculous mountain bike I saw last week -- suspension is great and all, but a 55-lb bicycle with as much travel as a motocross bike? On the same theme (but in the exact opposite direction) Lance Armstrong's climbing bike in the Tour de France weighs about 15 pounds. More in that direction, I saw a guy outside my office riding a new Kona Dew Deluxe -- an incredibly cool commuting bike, for only $800.

Chick Flicks

We rented a couple of movies this week worthy of mention. We've seen New Waterford Girl a couple of times already, but it's still fun -- anyone who grew up in a smallish Canadian town will find things to like in it, I think. We also watched Bend it Like Beckham, which is a bit formulaic, but funny and warm. Both films benefit from a lead actress you can't take your eyes off of, in the tradition of two of my other favourites: Amelie and Stealing Beauty.

CBC Radio 3 Reloaded

I'm slowly getting over my disappointment (oh, the melodrama) over CBC killing their weekly CBC Radio 3 web magazine. It really was fantastic -- should have been the future of CBC's web presence, with Canadian indie bands, fascinating features on interesting people doing cool artsy things all over the country...oh, there I go again. Apparently they're planning to get the archives back online this fall, which is happy news.

For now, they've replaced the weekly web zine with a site explaining their weekly podcast, which is a dumb name for an hour-long radio show in a single mp3 file. Because of my lingering bitterness, I wasn't expecting to enjoy the new format, but it is actually really good -- mostly lots of interesting Canadian independent music in different genres, with some good commentary and comedic touches.

I've been adding new episodes to a CBC Radio 3 playlist on Webjay, so you can listen to any (or all) of them in the music player of your choice. If you click the site link for any individual episode, it takes you to a list of the songs in the show that connects to more info on each band.

TdF

I'm keeping one eye on the Tour de France again this year, partly through these video highlights of each stage and following this excellent blog covering the race.

Nine

This is Tannis on our wedding day nine years ago. Yes, she's just as beautiful now. We've had a great ride along the way, and I'm so glad I married my best friend.

We don't emphasize anniversaries much, but we did a few things on the weekend to celebrate. Friday was wine celebration day, starting with a drive south for a couple of hours of sipping at Hawthorne Mountain, then a stop at Blasted Church. Later on, Lorne and Nada brought an amazing picnic spread for us at the Dirty Laundry Vineyard (the newly rebranded version of our old favourite local winery, Scherzinger.

On Sunday my folks watched the girls while we hit Doc Willoughby's in Kelowna -- we had our wedding party there back in 1996 when it used to be called Kitchen Cowboy. We sat out on the patio and had a few beers with our pub grub, like old friends catching up.

Four

It's blowing my mind this week that I have a four-year-old daughter. Ivy had a fantastic birthday, by all accounts. She was thrilled all week and really embraced the celebration.

• Having Grandma Pearl and Papa Larry here last week was probably Ivy's best present. She had willing playmates and outings to most of her favourite places.
  
• Tannis set up a wonderful party in the park, attended by all of Ivy's grandparents and a bunch of her friends. She insisted on wearing her princess costume.
  
• Of course the presents were also one of her highlights.
  
• Ivy's assessment of a later get together at Rose and Bill's with lots of kids and a grown-up bedtime: "Dad, that was a freakin' great party."