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DSC_1101, originally uploaded by losi0003.

On Friday night after work, I took a nice nap for a few hours and then Vero showed up and ruined that. 😉 We then sat down and watched some episodes from Veronica Mars. I really enjoy the show and I like how Vero enjoys it as well as she doesn’t care for a lot of the shows I tend to watch. It is difficult for me to go ahead and watch all the episodes when she is not around, but I stick to the plan and only watch them when she comes over for a visit.

Unfortunately, we did not end up going to dinner with Amelie and Daniel. We never got in touch with them so in the end, we had some fish around 8PM and watched a few more episodes of Veronica Mars.

The next morning, we packed up the car and headed out to Deep River to visit Maureen and Shannon. We picked up Duncan and Kristen along the way and we were on the way to an excellent road trip. I was commenting to Mike that a two hour trip is ideal for a weekend jaunt as it’s not too daunting of a drive. Although I do have memories of going to visit Joe in Brockville when he moved into his house and let’s just say someone else had to do the drive home the next for me!

We arrived to see people getting breakfast ready and we chatted with Mike and Mel who spent the night on Friday. Unfortunately for them, they took HWY 7 instead of 17 to Deep River and it took them four hours to get there the night before! That is unfortunate. After watching people eat breakfast (and checking out Shannon’s new toy – a Sirius Satellite radio), we headed to the grocery and beer store while Shannon was packing up the boat. We picked up some corn along the way but alas, we discovered that corn season is a few weeks away as some of the corn were smaller than your average sausage size!

After picking up the necessities, we headed to the marina and got to the dock where Shannon was waiting to drive us over to the Quebec side of the river. There was a giant storm brewing so we hopped in fast and furious-like and and managed to get to the other side before anything hit us but it surprisingly passed to the right of us. There was a gamut of people who had come to the beach…Mike, Melissa, Duncan, Kristen, Vero, Mike, Matt, Karilee, Alex, Holly, Shannon, Maureen, Shannon’s friends Jamie and…ah, I can’t remember her name. Either way, there was a bunch of us and the day was spent in the sun, playing volleyball and I got to test out my new rod and reel that I got last year for my birthday. Jamie had some tackle so I tried it around some weeds offshore and proceeded to snap my line so I tried another jighead which was supposed to navigate the weeds better and it did. A few people tried out the reel but it is a pain to learn if you are not used to the open reel concept as the line can spool out of control if you don’t stop it after you cast. I think we spent more time untangling it then actually using it!

Mike and I mistakenly only brought a couple of beer for ourselves but Mike saved the day when he went on a trek with Jamie down the river to some beer selling facility and arrived with a cold one in hand for me when my mouth was parched. For this, I thank thee Mike. We did manage to have some good sandwiches and salads on the beach and I ended up playing a bit of volleyball against this one team who were really great, but pretty cocky. They were way too serious into the game and didn’t even laugh at one of my jokes!

I also took Alex for some wake boarding on his boat. It’s nice to be able to drive a boat around. I really enjoy it and I also realize that there’s certain things that I don’t think about because I don’t drive a boat all that much. For example Alex reminded me to not go to close to the house boats along the shore as they may not appreciate the wake the boat is creating.

We ended up coming into shore real fast as there was another storm approaching. Shannon loaded up his boat and headed for sure but we decided to stick it out on the beach as we knew we would get caught in the lightning storm coming our way. Vero and I headed to the point of the beach to watch the storm come in and it was quite intense. At one point the wind picked up and we were getting sandblasted. I think a layer of my skin peeled off from the sand hitting us! It then started to hail on us! We saw a poor canoe trying to make it to shore in the storm and I must say that I thought we would have needed to go out in the boat and save them at one point but they did make it to shore alright.

The storm passed and we packed up and headed back to the marina on the Ontario side and headed home. Vero and I husked some corn and commented on the small size of the corn. All was well in the world as a BBQ was prepared and tents were set up and fun was being had. We, unfortunately, had to wait for our veggies to cook which was near impossible with all the other action on the BBQ. We didn’t end up eating until around 9PM and by that time the energy was sapped from Vero’s body. We did have a lovely feed of chicken drumstick which, coupled with the corn, potatoes and carrots turned into the ultimate meal! Success!

I was surprised to see that my birthday was being celebrated along with Shannon’s as I was not expecting it at all. Melissa ended up making a couple of cakes and one of them even had a heart with Shanon and my name in it. Awww…thanks Mel! I ended up getting a sweet gift card to HMV which is always welcome and music is my life! The cake was super good too.

The night progressed into some campfire and poker playing while another faction (led by Vero, it seemed) stayed in the living room and played charades all night long. Mike and I were trying out a few new beer that night and I am writing about them here for historical purposes:

Spitfire: Recommended by Dave at work, both Mike and I didn’t really care for it. Like any beer, we won’t shy away from it, but I personally felt that it didn’t have a great taste to it.
Innis and Gunn: I’ve already had some introduced to me by Troy and it’s a great beer, oak aged and it has that great smoky flavour to it. Mike had ended up putting these in the freezer and I didn’t know if the taste would be lost but it actually turned out quite good and I actually prefer it to the warm draft that I had before at Chaucer’s.
Lakeport Red: I had picked up some Lakeport Red a few weeks before and it was decent. However, I don’t know if it was due to us drinking this beer after our palette had had so many higher-end beers touching it, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t the greatest tasting thing in the world. However, the verdict is still out as I have had it before and I didn’t mind it. I will put it through a few more tests before offering a final thought.

The next morning we went for breakfast at the Petro Canada station and had a delicious Clubhouse sandwich. We then packed up the car and headed into town and I had the itch to check out The Dark Knight on the IMAX screen and once again was dismayed at the lineups. I ended up talking to the staff and they said the lineup to the IMAX screening is around two hours long (!!!) but I also confirmed that the film should be in the IMAX theatre for another 2-3 weeks so I will check it out in the future.

Another great time was had in Deep River. Shannon and Maureen are always welcoming in their houses, whether it be with a ton of dogs (which I compared to our eventual children running around the house), a bunch of drunks, or just some general chaos for 24 hours! I always enjoy my visits and I am thinking of heading back out to make a proper fishing trip out of it in the future.

P1060373, originally uploaded by palm0014.

On Thursday morning, Vero and I headed up North to go to her friend’s wedding. Vero was part of the wedding party so there was a lot of work to be done. We hit a bunch of construction past North Bay which was a pain but we made it home in one piece. She kept driving to Hearst and I stuck in Kap for a few days where I can relax and go fishing. I ended up playing Skip-Bo with the family on Thursday night in which Maureen won the game. It’s quite the long game…I think it took us a couple of hours to complete!

On Friday, the weather wasn’t looking the best but we decided to hit up the Kapuskasing River to try our chances at fishing. There hasn’t been too much luck during the summer so far considering there was an enormous amount of rainfall. We went to Rick’s place where we loaded up his boat and then we went to McDonald’s for a bite (bad timing seeing that it was 12:05PM on a Friday!) and finally made it out to the river. The clouds didn’t break all day long but we only had a few drops hit us during the entire time. We ended up getting our limit in a matter of two hours which is great and we spent the rest of the time trying to get a few larger fish, but that was a challenge considering the majority of them were over 16 inches long. If you unaware, in Ontario, you are allowed four fish per day in which one of them can be over 18 inches. So once we had our three 18+, we had to throw a few back which was disappointing!

Let me tell you a story about getting your Outdoors card. First of all, it would have been smart if I had remembered to bring it along with me. Another smart idea would have been to bring my actual fishing rod! I am so used to not having a rod (I received one last year for my birthday) that I completely forgot! It’s a nice open-faced reel also. Anyhow, seeing that I forgot my Outdoors card, I figured that instead of buying another one for $6, I would call the Ministry of Natural Resources, confirm that I actually have a card and get them to issue me a day pass to go ahead without it. They said that was possible and I went to the MNR but then after processing the order, the person there indicates that I should cut up my old card as a new one will come in the mail! What the heck? This doesn’t make any sense? In the end, the MNR cannot help you if you forgot your card. They can only issue you a new one for $6.

We headed back into town and I spent the evening filleting the fish. I found it hard as the electric filleting knife was larger at the handle so it kept hitting the cutting board sometimes which made me not get all the meat from the skin. Also, it was hell with all the flies around me! Argh. I enjoyed it though and felt satisfied after seeing my work result in something we could cook up.

Cook up, we did indeed. We had a small fish fry and then I hopped in the shower and headed over to Maureen’s new apartment where everyone was playing Rock Band. I had a few beer, Jeff broke out the tequila and all was good in the world. I even became a more proficient drummer in the process!

The next day I went downtown to get my hair trimmed before the wedding as it was getting a little shaggy around the ears. Dad hadn’t returned by the time I was done so I decided to jog back home. It was little warm in my jeans but so be it. Exercise is not for those only dressed in the appropriate outfits…it’s to be done at a moment’s notice! I did end up running into the Losiers which was a welcome sight as I had thought I would miss seeing them thinking they were at the lake all weekend long.

Mom ironed my suit and I had a sandwich before heading out to Hearst in the parents new Accord. I was pumped as this is a sweet vehicle indeed. I had the sunroof down and AC/DC blaring. I grew tired of AC/DC after half the trip and switched to the other CDs but quickly realized that the rest of the CDs were Johnny Cash. While that’s not a bad thing, I was a little dismayed after getting riled up from some straight out rock.

I rolled into Hearst around 1PM, showed up at Vero’s Dad’s place and we chatted over a few beer. I ended up calling Ryan (Vero’s friend’s boyfriend) and Melissa (her cousin) and made plans to pick them up in order to get to the church by 2:30. While finishing off my beer around 2:10 I realized that I had five minutes to pick up Melissa! Woops! Luckily enough, we were in Hearst so it only took me 2 minutes to drive over there and I arrived right on time. This was a crucial start to the day as Melissa was mine and Ryan’s date for the night as Vero and Emilie were part of the head table. I succeeded in scoring the first point of the day by showing up in time and we headed out to pick up Ryan at his Mom’s place.

All was going according to plan and we ended up at the church with A LOT of time to spare so we hung around in the beautiful sun, chatted and headed into the church eventually to find ourselves sitting on the wrong side of the church and we had to get up and move. It was a nice church and the Priest looked like a jovial fellow. From what I heard later in the ceremony, it sounds like he has been in Hearst for the better part of his life so it’s nice to see the same Priest who baptised the bride be the same person to marry them.

The ceremony was fine, Vero’s hair looked fine (as opposed to her fears of having a ton of hairspray!) and all went well. Nothing out of the ordinary happened other than the fact that I went up to get some bread and Ryan and I wondered if they ever lace it with something like LSD so we pay attention to the ceremony.

Afterward, we headed back to Vero’s parents, picked up the Mazda to drop off at Canadian Tire, hit up the beer store and headed over to Christina’s place for a few drinks before heading back to the reception. It was good to see a bunch of Vero’s friends again as I have only done so at a New Year’s Eve party a few years ago.

We then headed for the Knights of Columbus hall which was quite large and found a table near the stage. There was bottles of wine around the tables which aided us in our quest to seek the holy grail of good times throughout the night. The wedding party arrived, the DJ’s speaker sounded like the teacher in the Peanuts cartoon and we had to fight our way into getting something to eat at the buffet. It was one of those things where the DJ would call out “I need a white sock!” and the first person who brought a white sock won dibs at being the next in line for the buffet.

The buffet was decent. There was lasagna, pizza and salad. Not too shabby at all. I ended up seeing Al and Annie along the way (two persons I met in the Dominican trip) and they were doing fine. Al was into the ‘cuba libres’ already so I knew it was going to be a good night. Speaking about a good night, Vero was nice enough to present me a gift of six beer tickets! Bonus!

There was quite a gap between the time we had supper (6PM) and the time the speeches started (9PM) but I found out from Vero that they were waiting for Amelie’s grandparents to show up from out of town before starting everything up. The speeches were good ones and Vero and Emilie’s turned out to be a hit one. While I don’t agree with the fact that all they did was rib into the groom and not even offer up ONE good quality about him, it still went over well and I enjoyed their back-and-forth between themselves with the speech.

The party started, the lights dimmed and a bunch of people went to the stage where a grand montage was set up so you can take pictures in front of. Unfortunately, I found this to be an awkward setup as the stage is up high so you needed to get on top of a chair to get a decent picture and even then, if someone wasn’t looking towards your own camera (which was the case most times because the professional picture taker (the Chinese food diner owner nonetheless!) then it didn’t turn out all that well.

Moments of grandness throughout the night:
Seeing Anne-Marie and Steve and having Steve invite me out in a ride in the cruiser the next morning. Unfortunately, that never happened as he got called away but still, it’s the thought of me in an OPP vehicle that was good enough.
Posing/sneaking into a photo of all the girls. This was quite funny in my mind but I guess the girls didn’t care for it too much as I was hauled out of the photo by one of the other guys.
The garter belt toss. Actually, this wasn’t much at all considering I did not get to add one to my collection. 🙁
Chatting it up with Kevin about his self-sustaining, off the grid, house which is 20 clicks away from Hearst. It was quite neat to hear that he powered his house through solar and windmill energy.

All in all, the wedding was fine. Actually, in hindsight, it was probably better than expected considering I still don’t know a lot of Vero’s friends well. There are a few that I tagged along with during the night to keep me company but there was one time where everyone disappeared for awhile and I had no idea where they went.

Oh yes, another comment. The only beer on hand was Bud Light, Sleeman Clear and Coors Light. I am definitely not complaining considering I don’t mind the Bud Light, but I thought it was odd to only have light beer as a choice. Is that the new norm at a wedding? That’s news to me.

At the end of the night, I started cleaning up the place to help out and a tear came down my eye every time I had to throw out a perfectly full beer into a bucket. I was wondering what the concoction would taste like (wine, liquor, beer) but luckily someone showed me the sink to dump it out in before I could experiment! In the end, we didn’t even have to stay and clean up…turns out that the hall staff does that and it’s included in the price!

Unfortunately, Vero had rolled her ankle while dancing at one point so she was in no shape to go out to the bar so we dropped Ryan and Emilie off and got home. Another unfortunate incident was the fact that all the doors were locked! That was strange! In the end, Vero was trying to climb through the kitchen window when Danielle woke up wondering what the heck was going on!

The next morning, I awoke to some sunlight streaming through the window and laid there for awhile. I showered, got dressed and called Canadian Tire to see what was going on with the car. They balanced the tires and said I got 25% off the price because it was the grand opening of the store that weekend! Great! I picked up the car, it seemed alright (in hindsight, the steering wheel shakes a little cruising around 100km/h) and drove it back to the house and tried out some Blue Magic polish on my rims that Rick had suggested. It worked wonderfully. Better than any other polish I’ve tried before on the rims. I’ve fought a losing battle on those rims and the brake dust.

We were in the middle of washing my car when Steve showed up with Vero’s grandmother in the cruiser. Anne-Marie soon followed and we settled in for a great brunch out in the solarium. Everyone was slow moving that morning and I couldn’t get enough liquid into me. Vero and I then packed up and headed down to Amelie’s parents where they had a BBQ for everyone and a gift opening. Considering Vero mentioned that they had 300 people show up the night before, I was surprised to see the utter lack of physical gifts. I guess money is the new thing to give (which…I have an issue with). The BBQ was fine, the couple was fine and the weather was fine.

Vero and I then headed back to Kap for supper with my parents and Maureen and John. We had some good pizza (wango tango style!) and headed over to Maureen’s place for a bit to show Vero their place. We then went back home and chatted with Mom and Dad for awhile before hitting the sack.

For those going up to the North, a word of advice. If there is a road that bypasses HWY 11 from North Bay to New Liskeard (which I have heard is true…Dad said it adds another 25 minutes), TAKE IT. The construction is horrible and we arrived into North Bay an hour later than expected. This is not cool when there is a 10 hour drive ahead of us. We did drop into Swiss Chalet (a pale, pale comparison to St. Hubert) for some lunch and had a nice drive back home.

We did try and get to the theatre to see The Dark Knight and it was sold out (and subsequently sold out the night after as well. I believe I shall wait until next week to try and see it) so we went back to Vero’s place for supper with Vero and Mel.

All in all, a delightful weekend back home. There’s quite a few miles being put onto the Mazda, but it’s worth it considering I get to see the family a little more often.

Congrats to Amelie and Daniel on a wonderful wedding.