Monday, March 30, 2009

Working on the sports shooting...

It's a bit difficult getting enough light to those long distance zoomed shots... need to learn to adjust the shutter speed accordingly...

Milan came out and joined us as a ringer... that was great!.. and I have the feeling this may have been Adam's final game ever.





Great ball handling...


Milo making a strong move to the net.




Teya reading aloud...








Julie Doiron at the Horseshoe


http://blogto.com/music/2009/03/julie_doiron_sings_in_the_saddest_of_keys/

I missed the show, but apparently it was a good one.

Toronto's best used book stores?

http://blogto.com/toronto/the_best_used_bookstores_in_toronto/

Seems like the author spit out the first 15 book stores he/she knew.. anyway, there's a good one on the south side of bloor, down the stairs, about 1/2 block east of Sushi on Bloor...

edit: It's there on the list.... Seekers Books.

What am I thinking? I’ll give you three guesses



Precious, precious, you’re too precious.

Congrats to Joel Plaskett for putting out a fantastic triple album! Complete with female background vocals, horns, whistling(!) and love. Apparently released only in Canada.

Updated reviews:
http://www.eyeweekly.com/music/ondisc/article/56266

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/joel-plaskett/Content?oid=1091968
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/blog/2009/03/23/joel_plaskett_tuesda.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090324.wplaskett0325/BNStory/VideoLineup/

Driven Mag drives the car

The Mighty Herohill

The Most that is the Coast

The Post that is the Post

The Chronicle Heralds it

Adam is reviewing the album for Eye magazine this week... he also agrees it's a 5/5.

Back from Chicago

Well, it's nice to be back, but it was definitely a good trip. These guys, friends and coworkers, have settled down a bit, and it was actually a productive, balanced, good business trip. Tired now, and back to work Monday, but ready to bounce back. I'll leave the rest of the trip (other than previously described) to the pictures below... there are going to be a lot of pictures and all unedited straight from the D40...


Breakfast at a very local, Polish restaurant before starting the day... Patrick, Arek, Robert, Darek.


Went to the airport to check out the local scene.


There's an entire 5x5 block neighbourhood next to the airport taken over by O'Hare airport... the nieghbourhood is a ghost town, completely empty. The airport bought out all the owners, businesses and houses and are preparing for expansion.


Went to dinner with Arek's family that night, at a Polish restaurant we ate at 5-6 times while we were down there (You will / may recognize it from the first night pic.. at least the colour). The food was / is amazing, and several favourite dishes were had... This is Kristina, Arek's daughter. Bubbly.


Arek with his son Patrick. Patrick is 5 and saved up to purchase his own laptop... Arek and his wife have fantastic, fun kids.


The family, minus his wife, who's just to the left, left out of the pic...


Tatar... mmmm..


At Arek's garage... Last time we went down to Chicago spent entirely too much time there, at least for me.. this time, I brought my bike down and made a conscious choice to take some control and not spend every evening there... I'm not really a car / hanging out in a garage type guy... there was a good balance this time around.


Next day... took off for downtown.. That day I biked over 90 kilometers... from the suburbs of Chicago to in and around downtown. Bike performed great, and the weather was good enough. Such a great way to start to get a feeling for the streets, directions, etc... got lost on the way, but always managed out of it.


Deli, bakery and liqour. And Polish.






A phone number at the Dairy Queen.






I took North Elston downtown, which has a bike lane all the way down from Irving Park Avenue. Added benefit; riding through a Polish community.








So yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to catch the Critical Mass downtown, which met at Daley Park at 5:30 on the Friday... unfortunately meetings went late, and I only got a chance to go downtown around 5... after biking from the suburbs I figured I missed it but still decided to bike around downtown myself.. As I was weaving, I ran into the Critical Mass... such luck!












Reminded me of the Blues Brothers chase...






































On the ride back west...


Meeting up with the others back at the garage.. bike over 90 km and felt good...


Hungarian placeck from the Polish restaurant brought back for me..


Next day, presentation 2 of 3... this one was pretty big, and went well... Each presentation / meeting went better than the previous one.. with practice. This one was recorded for tv and I'll try to get a copy to post here.. maybe in a week or two...










Interview afterward with the school bus district heads and a camera crew... I have no idea what is going on with my hair these days.


On the drive back..






That night we stayed in and watched the F1 race... a sample of our accomodations at Arek's... awesome.




Today, the day we left, we were in the snow.


What bike lane?


Outside our restaurant for one last meal there... delicious. Robert and Darek.






The drive back.