Oh wow ... what a great night of pumpkin carving ... you have to check out the pictures from the evening. Still trying to figure out what we are going to do tomorrow night ... but we are looking forward to it none-the-less.

Joe and Jordan watch the action from the side lines

This weekend was the UPA Championships and once more we were right there to catch the action.

Furious vs Jam in the semi-finals

For the third time in four years, Furious George (of Vancouver, BC) took top spot of the "Open" division. The games were all hard fought with strong winds blowing out of the east. It was funny, for a while I thought ... these guys are good but not "that" good ... then we tossed the disc around ... ouch, I suck!

Last chance to enjoy the sunny weather

This morning we put Grandma and G. Grandma back on the plane heading home and wished them a good journey. It was so nice having them come to town and, wow, did Joe learn a lot from Grandma ... thanks to her we have started child-proofing the house.

The trip was full of excitement

The trip did not come without its usual dose of excitement ... this time in the form of Wilma. Pleasantly, this gave us two more days with them ... which was so needed. Joe bonded so well with Grandma (Mom) ... it was nice to see the two interact.

Joe: "I am going to miss you so much!"

Joe was never worried

The sky is blue and the sun is once more shining ... the storm has passed and now we have to figure out how to enjoy the rest of the day. Work gave us the day off since the building was going to be closed until 1 PM - and what can you really do in 4 hours on a Monday afternoon ;-)

The details: the storm hit just south of Naples (about 130 miles or 210 km south of us) at about 6:30 AM this morning. The rain started just as we left Auntie Rose's, dumping pretty good on our way home, but the wind held off until about 2 AM not really picking up much strength until just after 5 AM, just before the storm made landfall ... and in 4 hours it had pretty much crossed the state. The was a cat. 3 storm on the west coast, falling to a high cat 2 by the east coast and the Atlantic ocean ... so it was a decent sized storm. We were protected by the low pressure system that is now bringing the clear skies and colder weather ... ahhh ... how refreshing!

Mom and Grandma (or should I say Grandma and G.Grandma) have been enjoying the hot humid weather down here in the sunshine state. Friday we enjoyed a day trip to Mote Marine before enjoying some dinner and a movie at Christopher's.

Today we enjoyed a trek through Selby Botanical Gardens with Jae and Cynthia (and of course Jordan). Unfortunately Joe has been feeling under the weather this week so he and Melissa stayed behind and enjoyed a quieter afternoon - he has been such a trooper even though he has been sick. Makes a dad proud.

And for the other excitement spinning down on us, Wilma is just passing the Cancun and Cozemel area. The track is still heading a little south of Sarasota but we are still in the probability cone - so we continue to watch the updates. The storm has been downgraded to a cat. 2 at this moment, however, at its worst it logged in as the strongest storm on record. For those concerned family members you can keep up-to-date at the Hurricane Center. In prep we managed to convince (oh is was hard) Mom and Grandma to stay a couple more days ... now leaving Wednesday morning, they will be getting in 2:42pm Wed. Calgary time. Joe is happy!

Today was spent enjoying the typical Florida sunshine. While I went to work the ladies and Joe slept ... ok, so Joe was up early (6:30 early) and woke the house up ... but he was excited Grandma was here - can you blame him? After a nibble they all returned to bed for another several hours ... lucky them ... I went to work!

After lunch, they headed downtown to see the sights and shop the shops. And when I got out of the office we all headed to Lido to catch the sunset and enjoy Settimi's ice cream ... oh, it is sooo good ... Joe even snuck some of Great Grandmas (or was she helping ... hmmm)!

Anyways - it was a great first day in Florida.

Joe woke up when we arrived home - just to say hi!

Grandma Pat (or mom to me) was to arrive last night ... and she did with a pleasant surprise in tow. MY Grandma - Joe's Great Grandma - joined her for the visit down here. What a great idea (though it seems I was the only one not informed) ... this is going to be a extremely fun week ... oh what to do ... what to do :)

After having a stuffy head and runaway nose all week we had a quiet games night at our place Friday with Patricia, Hugo, and Krishen. Jenga started things off ... but then we moved on to Clue ... fun fun!

Joe tries out his new seat - now he can see out the windows!

We got up nice and early, pilled into the car, and headed out to a community garage sale to see what treasures were there for the taking. Melissa and I came home with nothing special, but Patricia was able to snag a great deal on plates and silverware. Krishen also picked up some great swing CDs from the big band era. The morning ended, after several driveway searches, at First Watch ... our favorite breakfast restaurant.

It was a long morning for all of us!

That evening we headed to Jae and Cynthia's to help prep for tonight's halloween bash ... oh I can't wait ... Joe has tried on his costume and it looks good ... Melissa did a great job putting this one together ... but I will leave you in suspense.

Opening night ... click for picture of the big game

So ... last night was a dream come true for me. Something I had been looking forward to for over a year. Hockey has returned and with it was a chance for me to catch opening night ... oh man ... and it was good. (Big thanks to Darren who snagged the tickets and treated me ... even if I was a poor substitute for a date)

The night started with a bang ... Lightning scored less than 2 minute in and had complete command of the game. And the changes seem to have worked out quite well. There was a lot more open ice and cycling play. The clutching and grabbing was replaced by strong stick work, blocked shots and passes, and quick passes. While there seemed to be more goals, it was not due to more shots ... but likely just better changes. The 'no-go' area for goalies allowed the dump-and-chance play back into the game, and the two-line passes gave way for a couple long break-out passes ... though nothing really significant. I once again have to thank the league for bringing back the touch-up offside ... it so improves the game!

So ... while there seemed to be a lot of obstruction and interference penalties in our game, the Canucks went 4 penalties aside in their opening match. The players and officials with both learn the new game ... I am thinking this is going to be a good year.

Officials made one oops, from what I saw, an icing by the Lightning should have denied them a line-change ... but they snuck one anyways. I think the ref noticed ... but too late, the entire new line was out and setting up for the puck drop.

So ... other games of mention ... Canucks won 3-2 over Gretzky's Coyotes, Flames fell 6-3 to the Wild, and Toronto and Ottawa duked it out to a Senators shoot-out victory (that would have been a good game).

Oh baby this tastes good

Ahh ... time marches on. We have been on rice cereal for almost a month. Joe has been getting REALLY good at eating, sitting up straight, and taking full bites. And we have found he loves drinking from my water bottle ... not his ... mine. Oh, its great being dad.

Today we moved on to Avocados ... yummy ...

Sucking it back

Maybe I should leave this to mommy and daddy for now