Julie & Keenan's
2003-2004 JOURNAL



August 28, 2004

This wasn't really written on August 28, because we started our week of vacation on Friday night. But a lot happened between August 8 and now, so this is an update of all those weeks. Our vacation week is chronicles in detail at our third year anniversary website.

Christina, David, Meredith, and Ben came over to our place on the 14th and we had a really good time. Ben is VERY curious, especially when it comes to electrical cords and electronic equipment. Meredith was really excited to see our cats, and Pookie was happy to oblige while Bubba hid out in the bedroom. Ben also like the cats, but unfortunately the whole "crawling baby" thing just scared the hell out of Pookie and he kept turning around and hissing as Ben pursued him around the house. Both the kids are pretty active so it is never a dull moment. Christina and David are taking it all in stride and have some good jokes about how their friends should make additional late evening plans because they always have to head home early.

From the 16-18 we were are Christie Lake along with Dale, Fran, and Kristyn. It was a great camping trip (you can read all about it by clicking here. It was also time for Krystin to leave and go back to school in Toronto. We took her out for dinner on Wednesday night, and we hope she keeps in touch, she did an excellent job all summer and on the camping trip.

On August 19 we were at the Renegades game with Julie's dad but this time Keenan's dad came along too. It was a disappointing effort for Ottawa, but it was still a lot of fun.

On the 25th Keenan went with his dad to the Team Canada exhibition hockey game against the US. It was great hockey, and a rare opportunity to see so many great players on the ice at the same time. Canada won! At the same time Julie was with her brother Peter who was up from Toronto visiting with the parents. He's just moved into a new apartment and is doing well as both an artist and as a teacher at York.

On the 26th we were out with the board for a very short meeting and then dinner at Capone's restaurant. A couple of people could not make it, but it was really fun. You can tell it was a good year, particularly in terms of internal communication.

Speaking of communication, the entire week we had "staff visioning" with Fran and Dale and it was very worthwhile. We've got a good plan and came up with some really important decisions about what we are trying to accomplish and how to get there.

It was a great way to finish up what feels like the end of the year in our lives, because September is such a big point of renewal at LiveWorkPlay.

August 8, 2004

Last weekend we had a fabulous trip to Algonquin Park. It was just about perfect. You can read all about it at gokayaking.ca. Just click on Journey 44.

The ACES program ended last week, and it went pretty well. Kristyn (summer staff) did a really good job which meant not too much distraction from SMILE and everything else going on and needing attention.

July 4, 2004

Happy July 4th to our friends in the USA. I guess that's just you, eh Cyndi?

The last three weeks were pretty amazing. The housing project wrapped up with two great events, and open house and a big celebration at the Crowne Plaza filled with surprises. It started with driving the participants in four rented Mustang convertibles and one Cadillac, and then a dinner with lots of fun speeches and roasting activities, a slide show with pictures and movies, and then the biggest surprise of all, musician Dave Kalil who had everyone dancing past midnight.

We tried our best to recover from the exhaustion of the previous two months and get ourselves in shape for interior camping at Opeongo Lake in Algonquin Park. Julie did a magnificent job of fitting all our supplies and provisions in the kayaks. And it was wonderful loading them onto our new Thule roof rack, which has special saddles designed for transporting kayaks.

We spent the night on Sunday at a little hotel in Whitney so we could have a full day to paddle and set up camp on Monday. You can read all about it on our kayaking website, www.gokayaking.ca.

We came back late Thursday and on Friday night went to the Renegades game, which provided a thorough thrashing of the Eskimos, 44-15. As always, the three of us (the other person is David of course) had a blast, thanks in large measure to all the fun people who sit around us.

There was a surprise waiting when we got back. Keenan's parents had stopped by to finish their volunteer efforts in fixing up our front yard. While we were in Opeongo they cleaned out the weeds and added some nice plants to the two front beds. They came back on Friday night and put in a bunch of cedar chipds to keep the weeds down. It looks really nice. June 12, 2004

Oh dear diary, we did again, but with good reason. The On Our Own Together II housing project combined with the usual and the unusual has us working unbelievably hard. We've managed a little bit of socializing with David and Christina, a visit early in May with Sean and Chantal at the hospital (she is doing much better now!) and a few visits with parents, but we haven't had a lot of personal time for writing diaries or doing laundry.

The project is just an amazing experience this year. There have been a lot more serious challenges, but that's because it is more "real" this year and life is full of serious challenges. A really neat young man named AJ Blauer writes a column for the Ottawa Sun and he wrote a terrific article about the project that you can find on the LWP news page.

That's all for now!

May 2, 2004

Dear diary, despite the best of intentions, we've neglected you for an entire month. But why dwell on the past? We'll do our best to retrace our steps from the present.

Today we got a big pile of takeout from Siam Bistro and took it to visit Chantal and Sean at the hospital. It was a gift from the LWP board instead of flowers. Not long after our last journal entry Chantal and Sean and Kelly got hit by a car that crossed over into their lane. Chantal was driving and got the worst of it, basically she ended up holding the engine in her lap. Both her legs were broken, she took a blow to the head, and lots of cuts and bruises all over. She is recovering but she'll be in the hospital for quite a while longer until she can move herself better. Sean had a seperated shoulder and bruised ribs, and although he spent no time in the hospital is still pretty sore.

Thursday night we were with Fran and Wendy at the Women of Distinction awards. Julie did not win in her category, but it was definitely a strong nomination and gave Julie and LWP some nice additional exposure, including an interview on The New RO on the night of the event.

There was a much more important win a week earlier when LWP raised $38,000 at the annual auction at The New RO. It was just an amazing night. Margo Roston at the Ottawa citizen wrote a nice story about it in the Social Page. Keenan had his picture taken with Codi Jeffreys and Julie had a quote in the article.

What else is going on? Both sets of parents are doing really well and we've managed to spend some time with them in the past month. Without even realizing they were going to be there, we ran in to mom and dad Kingstone and family friend Jim when we went to the Civic Centre to see the Dalai Lama. It was a very interesting afternoon with three very powerful songs by Alanis to start it off, and then the wonderful humour and basic (but also very powerful) insights of the Dalai Lama.

Afterwards we met up by fluke with Dale and Elaine who we knew were going as well, and we all walked together. They ended up buying Julie a birthday present at Glebetrotters (yup, more shoes). Keenan's parents got her a bunch of cool clothing for kayaking, while Keenan surprised Julie with a Sting t-shirt he secretly purchased at the concert, as well as a wetsuit and a Denby bowl (to replace one that Julie chipped) and a huge case of tennis balls.

What else happened....oh, we were on Breakfast at The New RO to promote the auction, it was one of the best segments we've ever done together. A week or so before that Keenan was on by himself on the noon show to talk about the housing project, which is coming up real soon!

Around the house we're now using our new "closet room" and also the workout room in the basement, although not much in the last couple of weeks. Just yesterday we worked outside, Julie cleaned up the van (a huge job) and Keenan clean up the front lawn (a huge job) and seeded with white clover.

March 28, 2004

Dear diary, we are sorry to have neglected you! Has it really been more than a month?

Well, following up from the last entry, it would be important to mention that we have been using the basement and have worked out down there a few times. It's a really nice space.

We did finish the work on the upstairs walk in closet space as well. It's pretty luxurious to have an entire room to hang up our clothes, but more importantly it's effective, and has reduced the mess.

Some funny visitors dropped into our back yard. A pair of mallard ducks have been living in the swampy area between the property lines for about a week now. Click here for a picture.

A lot of things are coming up fast at work. The auction is on April 22, so the office is piling up with donations and that's where a lot of the focus is. But the May 8 start of the housing project is also just around the corner, then the Visioning Day in early June, the open house and banquet for the housing project in late June, and then the ACES summer program starts in July. It won't be dull.

What else went on this past month? Well, in the world of entertainment, we saw Cats at the NAC, and it was very disappointing. Julie has seen it before, and found this tour not nearly as good. Keenan had never seen it, and having discovered that there's actually no story to Cats, probably would have been disappointed even if the acting and singing were better.

A nice surprise was the John McDermott fundraising concert for Heartwood House. He's a wonderful singer, but you would think mostly of interest to an older crowd...but he was very funny, and there was a good variety of music that made the show very interesting all the way through.

We also saw Sting at the Corel Centre, and he was just amazing. What a great performer. Somehow we had tickets just 20 rows back on the floor, and everyone stood up for about the last hour of the show. It really is a different experience when you feel close enough to the band to engage. The opening act was a big surprise, because when you hear that it is focused on a guy (Chris Botti) that plays the trumpet, you are't sure what to expect. But he was fantastic! Speaking of fantastic, one of Sting's backup singers Joy Rose is unbelievable.

Also in the world of entertainment, we went to see the movie Monster with John, David and Trisha. Boy oh boy, did Charlize Theron ever earn that academy award!

Keenan's parents have been busy with some travelling. We were over there last night to watch W5 with them, because there was a story that included Robert Read from Heartwood House, and his efforts to expose a coverup about gross misconduct at the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong. They are donating some beautiful items for the auction, including some depression glass and a soapstone carving they bought in Iqaluit when they were on the trip they got at the auction last year.

February 22, 2004

Keenan was sick with a nasty intestinal flu from Monday through Friday. Julie got to work as a solo operation with finishing up the basement renovations. This including cutting and nailing the quarter round and other final touches. On Thursday and Friday Keenan was well enough to pitch in a little bit here and there. There were lots of things to be moved from room to room. We've accumulated an incredible pile of stuff, most of which has been gathering dust in the basement.

The non-storage areas of basement are all set now. We've got a huge workout room with a portable stereo system and a small television, the treadmill is down there and set up (it weighs a ton and we had to move it from upstairs).

Where the treadmill used to be is our focus now. It's going to be an office/dressing room. It was also packed with tons of stuff...like spare doors, air conditioners, you name it. We somehow got it all out of there, and starting preparing for painting. We started out using the paint we had purchased for it something like four years ago...we got one wall done and looked at each other and realized that green was not the way to go.

We primed it again and started over with another of the many new cans of paint we have around the house. This colour was perfect...sort of a light coffee. We used the green on the closet door and on the window trim to brighten it up, and it looks quite complimentary. We are just one final coat away from finishing the whole room.

Saturday we raced to clean up from painting, played tennis, and the raced back to get ready for a nice birthday dinner for Trisha at Les Fougeres. We had thought there would be a new Table d'hote available but it wasn't out yet, so we decided to go for the tenth anniversary dinner instead, which is something like 8 courses. Julie and Trisha had it with the wine included, Keenan had food only, and David passed on the whole exercise and ordered off the menu. It was way too much food but it was great.

Sunday was a recovery day, after working a bit too hard on the house. Julie went out early in the morning to take Gryphon out (Elaine and Dale's dog, they are in Vermont) and then we did quite a bit of lounging.

February 15, 2004

Well dear diary, it was almost a month this time. It's not that there was nothing to say! There was so much going on, it was definitely an exciting four weeks!

There was an incredible night on February 6, it was a launch event for this year's housing project. Keenan was stressed to the max (and stressing those around him a bit too!) trying to pull it off, but it was well worth it. Two provincial ministers and another ten special guests...it was really impressive and best of all showed the 15 participants what they are doing is really important.

We'd barely come down from the rush of that event (which was followed by family fun night to boot!) when it was time to pack and get ready for the SMILE trip to New York City on Monday morning! It's a long train ride from Montreal, but the trip was really great. Along with Fran and Dale we weren't able to have a lot of fun of our own because you've got to be on your toes constantly with 16 people with intellectual disabilities, but there were times when we could relax and enjoy ourselves...like when we saw the marvelous play Avenue Q (fantastic!) and the New Jersey Nets game. You could really see the progress from last year's trip to Montreal.

January 18, 2004

Happy New Year! How did THREE WEEKS slip by like that? Well, the New Year's Eve party was a success as always, but particularly good this time around. Dale didn't even have to work the crowd very hard to keep the dance floor filled at all times. We sat at a table with Jamey, Fran, Elaine, and Dale (when he wasn't doing DJ duty) and Pennie came and brought a friend from work. There weren't any big stresses the entire night, which made for a fairly relaxing evening, and most of the time it didn't feel like we were working. You can check out pictures and movies from the party by clicking here.

There's little memory of the weekend before we went back to work, but we would certainly have watched all the football games that were on, and probably played tennis on Saturday. Oh, that's some news, Julie is now a full member of the Saturday afternoon tennis league. Diane is injured and asked Julie to take over her membership, so now we are both full members of the league.

The first week back at work was interesting because there have been some schedule changes so we are seeing more of some participants now. We've been with basically the same group for a while now, so it is a bit more challenging when you have to help new people fit into the environment. It's going well.

Last weekend Cyndi was in town, so she and Colin came over to watch the Eagles game. We had a really nice visit and enjoyed a delicious dinner thanks to Julie. It was a classy affair, because we actually used the dining room. Mind you, we were watching the TV in the kitchen at the same time.

It was Trisha's birthday yesterday. We played tennis and then went out to Cumberland for a party with Jennifer, Jim, and John. After dinner David led the boys upstairs for a spirited game of pingpong.

Today we entertained thoughts of going skiing on the fresh snow, but the best we could do was to eventually get outside and shovel it. Along with Bubba and Pookie we spent most of the day lounging, although some laundry and cooking did get done.

December 28, 2003

The last two weeks were such a blur, it's hard to pick out the highlights, but certainly our trip to with Colin to see Cyndi in Delaware was one of them. We didn't actually get to see enough of her, because part of the time her and Colin had to attend a fancy ball, and on Sunday we didn't see her because she's not a football fan, and the three of us had planned to see an Eagles game.

Cyndi seems to be doing well. We brought a video greeting from everyone at LWP and also a birdhouse made by one of the participants in the shop. We got some video of our own, you can view a low bandwidth version of Keenan's re-enactment of a scene from a famous movie (Colin, Cyndi, and Julie on vocals) and get a taste of the Eagles football atmosphere.

And of course there was Christmas. We had a nice xmas eve in Cumberland with John, Peter, Michael, and Julie's folks. There was a ping pong tournament that lasted past midnight. However, despite this and a long drive back through the fog, we were only a few minutes late for xmas morning with mom and dad Wellar. We exchanged gifts (highlights included some original concrete lawn art for them and kayaking skirts for us) and then Tim, Flannery, and Jane came a bit later and we did it again, followed by a great meal. They made quite an effort to accomodate our Atkins-style needs, like the delicious wild rice.

We left after 2:00 and arrived at the Kingstone residence about 3:00 and started on the presents along with Peter and Michael. Everything was opened by about 5:30, and then the cleanup and dinner preparations started, because there were three additional guests coming from dinner, including Michael and Sally and a friend who added a little something by playing the guitar and getting us to sing after dinner.

We got all sorts of wonderful gifts, but the fun was definitely in the giving. We gave David a new television and although we thought he and Trisha knew that we were doing this, obviously they were 100% surprised, which was fun.

When we finally got around to opening our own stuff, Julie was definitely the most surprised. She was pretty sure she was getting the leather coat she had eyed on a shopping trip a few weeks earlier, but had no idea about the diamond earrings. Keenan explained that the earring were the original "big gift" but then when the strong hint for the leather jacket came along, the only way to go was TWO big gifts.

Keenan got all sorts of neat stuff, including a 256mb card for his digital camera, which certainly got a workout over the holidays. This included a little video showing the renovations to the basement. We've been working on all the finishing. There's a lot of painting and patching to do to get it all done. It might not get finished completely by the end of the holidays but it should be at least close.

Last week we had the staff party at Les Fougeres and it was a great choice. The staff and spouses all had a blast, and of course the food and wine was great.

We couldn't play tennis on the 20th because we were in Philly, but we played with the unofficial group of regulars who rented two courts on the 27th, and it was a lot of fun. After tennis we went and visited with Christina, David, Meredith, and Ben. They all clearly enjoyed the Christmas season and we had a lovely time chatting, eating, and sampling some wine. David is becoming very knowledgeable about his wines!

By today we figured out we were a bit exhausted and spent most of the day at home. The cats appreciated it too. The four of us were snuggled in some of the new blankets we got as presents.

December 14, 2003

Good grief, we almost missed a whole month! It's the usual excuse...we've been working extremely hard. ANPAQ started work on our basement. We're ripping out some walls and finishing most of it with insulation and drywall. We'll get a big "workout room" out of it, and best of all no more carpeting anywhere in the house.

Julie has been getting calls to spare in the tennis league, so we've both been playing pretty much every Saturday. Unfortunately one of the reasons Julie is sparing is because Kae has a bad knee, but hopefully it will get better. Earlier tonight we were at a nice party hosted by Sylvia for everyone in the league.

As mentioned we've been incredibly busy, but it was for the most part the "good" form of busy. Keenan was wildly successful with television media in the first two weeks of December, with five segments on The New RO and one on CJOH. It was all very purposeful. For example, the segment on CJOH helped sell out the LWP reindeer, and The New RO has been promoting the New Year's Eve party, which was sold out on the 12th, the earliest ever.

Julie knocked off two solid grant proposals, one to the City and one to the United Way. It was all a big scramble with support letters coming in at the last second and the usual panic, but it got done. The other fun thing was LWP got a $2000 donation from a foundation that wants to remain anonymous.

Of historical note, we should mention that Saddam Hussein was captured this morning. We were down in the basement painting and didn't hear the news until the late afternoon. By the look of Saddam, crime definitely doesn't pay.

There was a very busy family fun night on Friday, and afterwards the staff and volunteers went out to the pub. It was a good time and definitel a lot of laughs, especially the discussion of a certain Savage Love newspaper column.

November 23, 2003

The early part of this week was no fun at all. There was a serious issue with one of the program participants and it was mentally and physicall exhausting to deal with it professionally and appropriately, but we got through it.

As the week moved on, things got more fun. Keenan and Cooper blasted up to Camp Fortune so the Ottawa Citizen could take a picture of the reindeer and sleigh that Dale made at Against The Grain. LiveWorkPlay is selling them as a fundraiser. The Citizen came through with a nice picture and story.

We both played tennis again on Saturday. Julie got a bit of a thigh injury and didn't have as much fun as last week, but it was still good to get out and play. After tennis we met Marnie and family for dinner and some bowling to celebrate Marnie's birthday on the 26th. Then we went to see The Station Agent at the Bytowne (great movie).

Sunday we went out to the Corel Centre to be part of a surprise Community Builder Award ceremony for Wendy. She was definitely surprised, and it was lots of fun being there.

November 16, 2003

It was one of those weeks where Monday-Thursday moved at a snail's pace, but the weekend seemed to move by with just a blink and a nod. Monday started off well with a neat little story on CJOH about how the SMILE participants were preparing to vote. On Thursday Keenan had a "letter of the day" in the Sun, essentially criticizing the 70% of citizens who didn't bother to vote.

Speaking of that, Bob Chiarelli is back as mayor, and there weren't too many surprises in the councillor races, although some people seemed surprised that Little got in again in Kitchissippi.

We've continued our enjoyment of the Bytowne Theatre. We saw a documentary movie about the protest group The Weathermen. It was interesting from a historical perspective, but perhaps the greatest value was in observing how the human beings concerned struggled and continue to struggle to find answers in a complex world.

Julie got called as a spare for tennis which was a lot of fun. For the first match we played together, and won a close one - on the final point Keenan's forehand bounced off the top of the net and dribbled into the other court for the victory. After that we had to play against each other, and then the last two matches we played with other people. Julie went 2/4 on the day, while Keenan was 3/4. But after the matches were over we both had a blast playing for 30 minutes with James and David, because a court was still open. We were all blasting the ball and having a good time.

Sunday Julie was up early and accomplished a million things. When he finally got up, Keenan helped out. We went off to the Kingstone's to watch the Grey Cup and had a nice dinner. Edmonton beat Montreal, which was good, because we'd all decided to cheer for the Eskimos. They've got a lot of older players who came from other teams and had never won before.

November 9, 2003

Apparently two weeks went by! Today a terrific article appeared in the Ottawa Citizen. It took up almost an entire page in the front section of the Sunday paper. More importantly, it covered all sorts of interesting issues, although the article was essentially about how SMILE participants have been learning about the municipal election so they can get out and vote tomorrow.

We also had a great dinner with Christina, David, Meredith, and Ben tonight. The meal was just awesome, and they made a great effort to keep it relatively Atkins friendly. We've both continued to lose a small amount of weight, but we probably aren't going to make many more changes in our diet, so from now on it's really about getting more exercise if we want to get healthier.

Cross-country ski season should be a big help, but we are also looking forward to having room to exercise in the basement. Last weekend we spent most of Sunday cleaning the basement to get it ready for some renovations, which haven't started yet.

On Saturday the 1st Keenan slept in and didn't do much until he had to get up and go to tennis at 3:00. Julie did well to get up and do some major reorganizing of the bedroom. But we were both pretty exhausted from the previous week, which included preparing and then supporting the Halloween Family Fun Night, which was right on the 31st this year.

The party was covered on The New RO and was also featured in some of the community newspapers. It was the most incredible week for media! On Monday, Keenan and Laura (from SMILE) went on The New RO at Noon to talk about the election, and then on Thursday they came back and did a story to coincide with a visit by councillor Peter Hume. Then the Citizen came and did an interview with Keenan, Jennifer, and Cooper (from SMILE) for publication on Sunday. And CJOH is supposed to come tomorrow. Wow!

Last weekend we went out to see mom and dad Wellar. We had a good visit but Keenan was not feeling too well and pretty much fell asleep. We got to see the plans for their new grassless front yard, and its pretty impressive. An incredible amount of plant species, and it should look great this spring.

Yesterday we went out to O'Connors in Kanata. Not a normal hangout, but Fran and Jamie suggested we (Dale and Elaine too) go out there and see this band called "Popjoy." They feature a female lead with a pink mohawk, and they play mostly 80s covers. It was pretty fun. The lead singer came over to our table selling their CDs. She already had one, so we all threw in a toonie and bought her the other.

October 26, 2003

It's a boring rerun, but boy did we work hard this week. It's amazing how just one or two squeeky wheels can exhaust you while everyone who really deserves your attention gets the shaft. Sometimes the answers aren't there and you just have to suffer through it, reminding yourself that in the grand scheme of things, one day it won't matter a bit.

Julie also had a cold all week, and then Keenan got a nasty virus after being out with Journeys on Friday night. He managed to drag himself to tennis and won 3 of 4 matches (claiming illness denied him a 4th victory) but was downright frail by the time we got out to see mom and dad Wellar that night. They showed us the landscaping plan for their front yard (which is going to be "grassless") and it looks pretty amazing.

Sunday was a sad day because it was time to put the kayaks into storage. But at least they have a nice home! They are hanging from the rafters of mom and dad Kingstone's garage. We also got a delicious turkey dinner, which Keenan devoured after two days of eating almost nothing.

October 19, 2003

Where did the time go?

Last weekend we overdid things a bit with mom and dad Kingstone. Drawn by Shaw Festival, we neaded down to Niagara-on-the-Lake on Friday morning. After a full day of driving and checking in to a B&B within walking distance of town, it was off for a lovely meal at the Epicuria and then across the street to the theatre for a production called The 20th Century, which was a musical about a train that ran between Chicago and New York some 80 years ago. It was quite excellent!

Saturday morning we had a nice breakfast with a fun couple from Cleveland who were escaping their two children for the weekend. Then we marched downtown for a full day of taking in the shops. Keenan wasn't planning to buy, but ended up with a beautiful 3/4 leather coat. We had a good lunch in a diner type restaurant on the main drag, and then after a bit more shopping and walking headed back for a quick nap, and then off to dinner at the Oban, which despite good reviews was an overpriced disappointed to all of us. But the play that night, which dealt with the story of Lizzy Borden, was truly exceptional. The staging, the acting...everything was excellent.

Sunday morning brought another breakfast with the Ohio couple, and then towards the end of the breakfast hour a couple from Syracuse joined us. And then off we went for a full day in Niagara Falls...we ended up on the Maid of the Mist, which was truly a blast. Then we checked out a bit of outlet shopping, everyone picked up a thing or two. We each got a pair of Echo shoes at about half the regular price. We drove back along the parkway and hung out at a lookout along the river in an area known as the whirpool, where the Niagara comes firing into a large bay, creating a spinning current before it continues on downriver. The dinner that night at a cooking school restaurant based in a winery was exceptional.

After two incredibly good plays in a row, we hit a stinker on Sunday night, so we skipped out at the intermission and started the drive to Brighton, a small town a little more than halfway back to Ottawa where we had reservations at a small motel. We made it in not long after midnight. We hit the road the next day with the goal of making it back in time to drop Trisha at home and then head off to the Renegades game at 1:00. They won!

The most recent week was a bit of a nightmare, in terms of personal time. We had something to do at work every single evening, and then on Saturday we helped out with the Heartwood House lost and found sale, so it wasn't until Saturday night that we finally had a chance to relax. We went to the Bytowne and saw a great movie called Camp. We are definitely developing a habit of going to the Bytowne and can't figure out why we haven't been doing so for years. The films are great, the theatre is great, and the price is right.

On Sunday Julie took the lead in promoting the idea of a final paddle of the year, and we ended up at Meech Lake and had a glorious couple of hours, most of it in the sunshine. There was only one other boat on the water (a lovely cedar strip canoe). We were a bit chilled unloading the kayaks when we got back, so Keenan got a roaring fire going and Julie started on a wonderful dinner of rainbow trout.

October 5, 2003

It was a very productive week. We had a great meeting with The New RO about this year's auction, got three funding proposals in the mail, got off to a great start with the first Friday night outings of the year, and had enough time on the weekend to do some laundry and even enjoy a Sunday evening in front of a crackling fire.

September 28, 2003

It was an exhausting week at work, as there were meetings to attend every night of the week. However, it was time well spent with SMILE parents and participants.

The weekend was also quite exhausting. We enjoyed a thrilling Renegades victory with dad Kingstone on Friday night. On Saturday we were at a small private golf club near Lachute to celebrate Bob and Wendy's wedding. Keenan played golf with Colin, Pennie, and another guest while Julie went to a shopping outlet with Fran, Jamie, and many other guests. Colin and Keenan ended up playing 23 holes of golf. Dale and Elaine had arrived a bit late and played with other guests, but Dale hooked up with Keenan, Colin, and two other guests to play an extra five holes before dinner. Some excitement was added thanks to a tree which broke in half and knocked out the power. It was kind of fun hanging out under candlelight, and the food was prepared on barbecues so there wasn't really a big problem.

Saturday night Keenan met Sean and Chantal at Barrymore's to see one of their favourite bands, Big Jeezus Truck. It's sort of a mix of country punk and traditional heavy rock. They went to the Dominion afterwards for another band (name unknown) and then off to a friend of Chantal's for some late night takeout.

Julie had headed home for a good night's sleep as she planned to be up early and complete an application for HOPE volleyball, which she did. While she went out to run some errands, Keenan checked it over and made a few small edits but it looks really great.

We finally got a chance to relax on Sunday evening. We watched most of Something About Mary, which we've already seen many times, and then switched to Law and Order: Criminal Intent and Nip and Tuck, two shows that we intend to watch throughout the TV season.

Dad Wellar is recovering nicely and hopefully he will be back playing hockey this winter, better than ever.

September 21, 2003

Dad Wellar went to Toronto this week for hernia surgery, and they found an extra hernia that required a second day of surgery, so needless to say he wasn't feeling too great. The ended up staying in town through to the end of the week as more recovery time was required.

We finally got organized to go to Signatures, the cordon bleu restaurant, with Christina and David. We had a gift certificate that the parents from LWP gave to us at the visioning day in June, and it almost covered the entire evening for the two of us. It is very expensive but it is of the highest quality and the service is very attentive. It really was a "dining experience" instead of the usual "here's a big plate of stuff now wolf it down" that is the mainstay of Canadian dining.

The Friday night programs are up and running again. It makes for a long Friday, but its definitely rewarding. We're hearing more and more good things about how much people are benefitting from the programs.

Saturday afternoon we took part in a conference on inclusive housing hosted by the Social Planning Council. We even made a presentation about last summer's housing project. There were only a few people in attendance but they really seemed to enjoy it and we even got two emails from people telling us so, which was very nice.

We are back into the full swing of things at work and its starting to show. The work is stretching into the evenings and between trying to prepare properly for our SMILE sessions and keeping track of the finances, applying for grants, meeting with parents, returning phone calls etc and so on, there just aren't enough waking hours. If there's an answer to this challenge, we haven't found it yet!

September 14, 2003

Friday was the LiveWorkPlay Annual General Meeting, and it was a pretty great night. We had to work all day to get everything together, but it went off pretty smoothly, except for the sweltering temperatures. We have a knack for picking the hottest day of September each year.

With the help of Jim Mullins and Dale, we pulled off a nice surprise on David when Jim stopped the meeting and presented him with a plaque recognizing his five years as chair of the board.

The other excitement was that Moe Atallah became our first ever Honourary Chair. Moe is an incredibly hardworking volunteer and philanthropist who just happens to run a very busy restaurant and catering business as well. And we got three dynamic new board members with Stephen Heckbert and Dean Roy, and of course Colin. Moe, Stephen, and Colin all came our way as contacts of Cyndi, so her legacy lives on!

A bunch of us went out after the meeting, so we were pretty tired and slept in a while on Saturday.

September 7, 2003

It was a great first week. We enjoyed watching the US Open as much as possible. Keenan shed a few tears when Todd Martin went out, whereas Julie was none to pleased to see Andre Agassi leave the court. But there was lots of great tennis. The best we saw was probably when Henin beat out Capriati in the semis.

Much more exciting was the Ottawa Renegades second victory in a row on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Frank Clair stadium. It's a bit hard to believe, but thanks to a loss by Toronto on Sunday, the Renegades are now second in their division and if the season ended today, they'd be in the playoffs, and hosting the game here in Ottawa! Wouldn't that be something.

It was the first week back for the SMILE gang, who came in on Thurday for a full day of individual meetings and group discussions. We mostly went through the calendar for the year, because a big focus this year is going to be on helping the participants with "self-management" - knowing for themselves what they are doing and when.

Julie spent some time preparing for the volunteer meeting at our place on Friday night. It was a good time with a great group of people, but there were also some really important discussions. It was a pot luck, so of course we ended up with tons of food, and there were a few small diversions from the Atkins nutritional plan, but nothing too serious.

Keenan is handling the job coaching duties vacated by Jen, who is now volunteering on Friday nights, which is nice. Keenan's first big job is getting a new client settled with a job in food services, and also doing some bus training that is going very well.