Its always nice when the symbol of longevity and prosperity sits on the window just outside your door eh? Amy and Erik had just such luck.

Though not for us ... (We still have no clue - any ideas?) Amy and Erik became the proud parents of 6 pounds 1.7 ounces, 19.5 inch baby girl, Madelyn Sara Johnson, at 1:58pm Sept 27, 2004. We got the phone call at 7:30am that morning ... (remember - I am just getting out of bed) ...

Erik: "So, we're having a baby"
Me: "Yea ... I know that"
Erik: "No ... we're having a baby - NOW!"
Me: "oh ... Oh ... OH!"

Needless to say, we (both Melissa and I) got up and dress right away. Melissa dropped me at work and headed straight to the "Women's Center" - a new facility in the Lakewood Ranch area. This is actually the same location that we are planning to visit in several months ... so we figured we would have Amy and Erik test it out for us. (To be honest ... we are their based off their recommendations). The facility is nice built doctors offices, imaging, delivery room, and level 3 emergency all at the same location and without all the fuss of a standard hospital - it is really nice having everything so close ... it becomes familiar and much more relaxing.

While her water broke at 4:30, it was not until much later that the contractions really started. The actual labour went by in minutes (we are talking under an hour here) ... there was no baby and ... ** poof ** .. Baby Madelyn! So now we know what a dream pregnancy is like ... now, if we can only figure out her secret! Heck she was able to even cut 3 weeks off her pregnancy.

Krishen grabbed a nice family photo ... our camera was lent out to allow some 'documentation' of this historic event.

Anyways ... congratulations from both of us. You have a beautiful baby girl. We are looking forward to sharing hours of entertainment, adventure, and learning with her over the months and years to come. [Heck ... we might even get some practice time in before the puck drops]

Click to see pictures of the day.

So as it was, not too long ago, Tropical Storm Jeanne was to head north and visit the great states of North and South Carolina ... but then thought "What? And miss a vacation in Florida ... heck ... they have Disney World!". And so went the roller coast loop that resembled more of a ride at Busch Gardens than a hurricane path. It finally struck the Florida coast just after midnight on Sept 26th as a category 3 hurricane ... making it the 4th major hurricane to strike the state this year, first of such a feat in over a hundred years ... and never in such a short period.

But we over here on the west coast continued to watch ... fully expecting the path to turn north ... but it just wouldn't and she just came closer.

By 7:30am the wind had woken us up and we turned on the news to find she was going to be paying a little visit to our neck of the woods. So we kept our eyes on the TV until the power went out ... at which time we turned our attention to 'non-mind numbing' activities. It was about that time when we heard a distinct 'pop' followed by more in such rapid fire that it sounded more like ripping. "Hhmmmmm ... that is not good" I said as our eyes were both trained on the ceiling (being on the top floor - loosing the roof is something that one actually worries about). So it was off to pull the blankets from the closet and steal the shower curtain from the bathroom ... just enough to make a tent over our quickly gathered collection of electronics and DVDs. Books and pictures were placed in drawers while everything else was cleaned up.

Now our blood was pumping ... what better time to go check the damage right? So, dawning a rain jacket I bounded outside to see how things were fairing. Turns out it was just some metal flashing that had come loose ... not good ... but definitely eased some nerves. But now, since I was already wet, I grabbed the camera and a plastic bag for covering and headed back out into the storm to grab a couple 'action' shots of the golf course - never straying to far from home and staying away from potential dangers.

Once back at home we did a little reading and finally hit the sack ... busy morning you know. That evening we awoke to find that the cable was out -- no TV? So ... might as well head outside (the winds were much calmer by this point - only a few minor gusts were left). So it was off to take some pictures and stretch the legs ... we met up with Krishen and maybe our way down to AppleBees ... about a 20 minute trek (or less) on foot. The gentle breeze that accompanied us on the way there was replaced by a more gusty brother and his rainy friends on the way back ... but it was no worse than my first couple dates with Melissa back in Victoria. (oh ... the days gone by ... that just seem to return, again and again)

Be sure to check out our pictures ... Krishen has some pictures as well for those interested in seeing a few more shots of the day.

Well its already blowing ... we are expecting to loose power sometime this evening. While the 3rd time might not be the charm ... looks like #4 will be. Jeanne, our fourth major hurricane this season, has decided to come ashore and is moving west across the state. She is expected to turn north before actually reaching the coast, but then again ... she WAS suppose to head north before even hitting land. Krishen has a great post of the current hurricane track ... as well as the a previous track. I will keep everyone up to date ... as long as I am able. I am just glad I made it home from the game tonight ... would not want to leave Melissa to deal with all this alone.

As for the "Frozen Puck Cup", five teams started the exhibition but only one came out on top ... and that honor goes to Jeff, who played under the Tampa colours. He cruised by Krishen, aka Ottawa, 4-0 in the semi-finals before ousting Darren in the finals. Darren, playing as Toronto, had managed an OT semi-final win over myself, Vancouver, in another hard fought battle (Our personal series I believe sits around 3-2 in favor of Darren ... but only until the next game).

Darren and I also teamed up and to beat Jeff and Krishen in a Stanley Cup game 7rematch (we were Calgary). That I think will end up being a recurring match-up this year ... that and Canada-USA. We will have to do it again, thanks for hosting Jeff.

After searching high and low ... we finally came home with the prize

In a weekend where the rabid fans are taking home the box set of Star Wars ... I pull a video game off the shelf. And after a pleasant Indian dinner, some pie and ice cream, and a few games of UNO ... I head to the rink.

And once I got the feel of the controls it was time to step out on the ice ... as non other than Vancouver of course. Matching head-to-head at home against the defending champions ... Tampa Bay!

The first period was a struggle as I went down by 3. And it was 5-1 Tampa before I started to hit the twine a couple times. After a good effort in the ring by Allen, I managed to end the period tied at 5 a side. With one second to go in the third and the face-off in the offensive zone ... I tried something tricky. The puck hit the ice, Morrison with a quick flick stuck the puck just inside the far post ... 0.2 seconds left on the clock ... to put the Canucks up by 3. Great game boys ... and to think there would not be a season this year :)

Final tallies
Score: Van 9 - Tmp 6
Shots: Van 74 - Tmp 88
Hits: Van 116 - Tmp 72
Penalties: Van 3 - Tmp 3

Latest Florida postcard: not my creation, but it sure is funny ... there were a couple others but they weren't as appropriate

Krishen had a funny posting that had me go check out the current status at sea. It has been a busy hurricane season this year ... Hurricane Isabel was the last storm I heard about last year - at least that I recorded. So, I am keeping my ear to the ground (or sky?) to see just how many get named this year - still building my reference base.

Currently, we have JEANNE while is packing 90mph winds and expected to reach category 2 status as it loops around for another shot at hitting the Florida/Georgia/Carolina coasts. KARL packs a punch at 115mph max sustained winds but seems to be heading straight by the Atlantic - watch out in the Maritimes. Our latest bundle of joy is LISA, still not registered as a hurricane (only 65 mph winds), is moving west though projections have her turning to the north before land-fall. So are we out of the season? Who knows ... there is a 'un-named' storms still brewing out there which make watching the atlantic satellite shots interesting ... all queued up and ready to reek havoc.

But, as I said before, the waters are cooling which should help bring an end to this storm season. We do still have a month remaining (Nov 1st I believe is the official end to the season) so I will continue to watch the news.

Ahh the memories of July ... unfortunately my last days of summer were spent in my cube ... but it is the memories that count ... right?

With the last day of summer upon us ... we are looking forward to the coming winter. This year was hot ... almost too hot. But over the last couple days we have been able to open the windows and doors and turn off the A/C ... so things are looking up.

Last night, Melissa and I headed out for a nice coastal stroll ... the city park down by Marina Jack provided a nice back drop. It ended up being a nice walk under the moon light. And as we walked and talked ... we also tried our hand at more photography.

We would like to also send our best wishes to Grampa Hemphill, who underwent surgery last night. He required a few new "parts" to repair his broken shoulders obtained late last week. I am happy to report that everything went as planned and he is on his way to recovery. We send all our love and best wishes ... make sure you heal quick, you are going to need those arms again soon.

Logo of Hockey Canada

Well, it has been an exciting couple weeks of hockey. As we had done time and time again, we joined Krishen and Darren at the Rose Center for another great game. Squeaking by the Czechs on Saturday, it was time to meet the Finns who fought from behind to over take the US.

The stage was set with pizza in the oven and beer in the fridge ... and within the first minute the 'big' line of Lemieux, Sakic, and Iginla clicked with a nice play to put the Canucks up by one. But typical of the Finns, they came back with an answering goal before the period was out. This was repeated again in the second period leaving it to Shane Doan to place the go-ahead goal past Kiprusoff 32 seconds into the 3rd. The Finns keeps coming ... but this time they were held off the score board by a aggressive Canadian fore-check.

With that Team Canada skated to a 6-0-0 record having never trailed during the tournament. It was nice to see as this young team will be around for some time ... now only if both the owners and unions could swallow their pride we could get on with a great hockey season.

Time for a nice stroll down by the beach

Wow ... is the weekend over already. Sometimes you just seem to be getting into the groove of relaxation and that thing they call 'work' hauls you back in.

We did get to enjoy a Saturday afternoon walk up at Bradenton Beach before heading back into town to catch the big game. And it was a thriller ... though the Canadians were not in top form you have to give the Czechs credit for keeping their heads in the game and driving pucks on the net (the Canadians were out shot 40 to 24). A goal 6 seconds after the Draper put Canada up 3-2 tied the game at 3's and pushed things into OT. But that is where things got me upset ... now that 3 periods were finished the game was over - according to ESPN anyways. They bounced off to College football ... and did not even cut back to give the OT winning goal. Poor poor show ... you are NOT going to win hockey fans that way. I understand the money involved ... but to breakaway and then act as if there wasn't a game on prior to the football game (that was not over) is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. They even left us in a state of not knowing if they were coming back for the OT period ... geeez. We had "watch" the final minutes via hitting refresh on the cbc.ca website since there was no radio broadcast (even online - Man ... they are going to have to solve those licensing issues sooner or later). But the good news was ... we won. And now we take on the Finns ... lets just hope we bring our game to the rink.

And just cause everyone is wondering. Hurricane Ivan has started to drift west. This is good news for us ... all of us. Seems that the colder waters in the norther gulf are expected to degrade the storm quite a bit before it makes landfall on the states. And for us ... we are just on the edge of the projected path cone so things are looking up for the time being. It has been an interesting year, lets hope this is the final attack on Florida this season.

For more info visit: weather.com or noaa.gov

Est. Age: 7 weeks
Due Date: April 27-29
Size: just over 1cm

If you look closely you can see arm buds and a small umbilical cord. We also had the opportunity to listen to the heart beat ... oh the excitement. There is nothing like a little pitter-patter to brighten up your day :)

I would first like to say hello to Eric. An old friend - oldest really stretching back to what ... early September 1979? Anyways, lost contact during the move to Florida and just got a note from him recently. It is always nice to keep in contact with lost folks ... which reminds me ... gotta get an email out to Tash - and Fawn if anyone knows her contact info.

Otherwise, I am happy to report another win by our home team, Canada, at the World Cup. This was the first elimination game (downing Slovakia 5-0) after going 3-0-0 during the round-robin. Now they meet the Czechs on Saturday ... that should be a good game to watch :)

Just a slight recap for those at home ... with Ivan following in Charley's footsteps ... I bring pictures of our latest run-in with Frances ... see ... nothing to be concerned about.

Plams blowing gently in the wind as the storm moves in

We did not see much flooding - but apparently Jeff had a challenge getting out of his complex

Branches fell - though if they came down they needed to (prior to the next storm to come through)

Twigs scattered on the ground

The edge of the storm has finally arrived ... only been 36 hours or so. Last week we were told that Frances would arrive around 2AM Saturday morning ... then it got pushed, and pushed, and pushed again. And due to the slow moving nature of this storm we are hearing about flooding and loss of power across the state. Guess we are still in one of the 'lucky' areas.

While Frances enjoys her saunter across Florida ... we enjoyed a nice walk on the golf course. The windy weather has reminded us of a windy crossing on the BC Ferries, might bring things into context for those back at home. While our senses were heightened when a couple branches broke and fell to the ground there was not much debris being tossed about ... so we continued. The rain drops were piercing against the skin, but otherwise it was a nice stroll - good to be outside. Really, this is nothing we have not been through before - just the temperature is usually below 10 degrees Celsius - here I was wandering around in shorts and a tee-shirt.

The news keeps talking about the impeding wind and rain, we are just starting to see some of the stronger winds but still not much of the rain. Then again, we are still on the south-front of the storm, it will be the backside that will most likely bring the rain. Suppose we get to enjoy this for a few more hours yet!

Hmm ... now that was a fun gust of wind (we have the siding doors open enjoying the breeze while I sit here typing this). Oh well, guess I am rambling a little ... the cabin fever and boredom is setting in. Hope everyone back home is enjoying labour day weekend - I know the theme parks down here aren't.

Sorry there are no photos ... there isn't much to take pictures of from the house, and I don't really want to take the camera outside until the rain stops.

[Oh, I should note that Canada beat Russia last night. ESPN was busy with football, so we enjoyed it by hitting the refresh button on our web browser]

So ... the first rain bands have entered out area. The gusts have started rolling in ... and we ... we are heading out :) We are going to clean off the deck and head to Darren's place to watch the hockey game - hoping of course there is going to power!

I will update you more tomorrow - but we are expecting winds for most of tonight and right through tomorrow. Moving at 5-6 mph, Frances is taking his time ... and thus we must be patient.

Hurricane Frances is still churning out in the Atlantic ... 2.5 million people have left the eastern coast heading for safety - the largest evacuation in Florida's history. This slow moving storm, currently moving north-west at 9 mph, has suffered from some of its own power. SNN was reporting that the heavy winds and slow speed of Frances was stirring up the ocean - this ends up exchanging the warm waters that feeds the fans with cool waters for the ocean floor. Thus, the winds have dropped in strength ... the eye has collapsed, and wind shear has started trimming the storm. The thought, at the moment, is that the storm will have a hard time getting re-organized ... which is good news for residents of Florida

The news gets even better as the Fri. 11:30AM projected path moved us almost completely out of the hurricanes trek. Now, this is still a big storm of category 3 strength ... and as we have seen in the past they can do strange things at the last minute. We are still looking to see at least tropical strength winds sometime Saturday night or Sunday morning ... so we will have to continue this waiting period.

Now ... the bad news ... Ivan is brewing out in the Atlantic and expected to be hurricane strength by Wednesday.

Just hope I can still see the upcoming Canada vs Russia game Saturday night.

Visit weather.com for continuous updates

What was it ... 2-3 weeks ago that we found ourselves bunkered in and now we find ourselves suffering from a very similar "impending doom". True, this one is ALREADY a category 4 ... and it looks to be about the same size of the entire state.

So ... what are we doing ... well, once again the office is 'closing' to allow for everyone to take the required precautions. We will head out tonight or tomorrow and grab some more food and tape ... then we will watch the forecast, play crib, share foot massages, and generally enjoy the day (true ... I do have to take the laptop home and do work ... but hey ... I am at home). Too bad for Krishen who is trying to get out of town this weekend before the storm hits.

Now ... fear? ... I am a little more relaxed about this one. First, this is coming in off the East (other) coast so I am expecting a turn north before the heavy winds get to the West coast of Florida. Second, if it does cross it likely will be loosing strength and be down to a cat 2 or less by the time it reaches Sarasota. But ... that is no reason to be not concerned, I am just not feeling the bulls-eye pressure of last time. We just have to remember that the areas pegged for damage got "nothing" while those on the outskirts got more than a 'glancing blow'.

WOW ... all this excitement as my wife "comes of age". Happy 25th Melissa! Guess this now means its time to grow up (Pissst! Don't take your example from me). So ... dinner and dessert tonight (if she is feeling cool - preggers and all), last night I took her out to see the Canada 5 - Slovakia 1 game ... what more could a girl want?

As in times past, last night Melissa and I made our way through the slush and sludge to everyone's favorite sports complex "Rose Center" (aka. Darren's house). Up on the big screen was Canada vs USA in this the 2004 World Cup ... and what a game. As Krishen mentions, at first Canada looked like it was going to run away with the game. However, Sakic's goal to put Canada up by 2 seemed to be a wake up call to the US squad. They started getting a little rough, running Brodeur ... little more stick work ... and a nasty little hit from behind late in the 2nd. Not all infractions were called and it inevitably push Canada off its game. To the point where Mario even stepped in after the goalie abuse was pushed a step too far.

Canada picked it up a little more in the 3rd and was able to hold off numerous chances for the US to tie. By the closing 5 minutes the US was back to being frustrated as Canada was again pressuring. Robert Esche played on heck of a game, with the the number of chances the Canada had throughout the game it was a wonder it was not a complete blow-out.

Tonight ... Canada vs Slovakia ... though they will be playing without Canucks star Ed Jovanovski who is out due to a "lower body" injury.