On Vacation

...for the last couple of weeks.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

A week in Montreal, seeing old friends and old sights, and then a week back in TO, taking Bethany for her last week of chemo (woohoo!) and building a lean-to on the side of the house.

Montreal, for all its construction/traffic headaches, is still a great city with awesome food all over, lots of history, and beautiful women everywhere (sorry TO ladies). 

It's starting to show its age a little though, now that the bridges and overpasses have caught up with the roads as being the crappiest in urban Canada.  The state of the overpasses (boarded up and caged for reinforcement) reminded me of the concrete ceiling that collapsed in Boston just after the "Big Dig" and new tunnel was finished, which ended up killing a woman.

Props to Archemdis and his blog for chronicalling this and this photo:
http://archemdis.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/montreal-quebec-is-literally-crumbling-into-dust/

Oh, and not only did Beth have her last 5 days of IV chemo last week, but she also got her PICC line taken out on Friday (double woohoo!) and we're hoping the CT scan on August 2nd just confirms the progress.  Meanwhile once the wound from her line heals she can go swimming again, with the help of a swimming earband like this:

and Doc's Proplugs as seen on Survivorman (don't ask, I've never seen it):



Oh, and we also got her the puppy she's been wanting - a "bichon-poo", and she broke it off with her jerk "boyfriend", so I'd say that's a fair trade.

I actually feel more sorry these days for our other daughter Maggie, who didn't seem to mind all the attention Beth was getting when she was more sick and in danger, but now feels a little left out and jealous I think.  As a middle child myself, I can relate. 

Especially now that she also has a younger brother and a puppy competing for the "cute and helpless" spot in the family.  She doesn't stand a chance. 

Gary and Greg

So, another week of chemo completed, and off the missus and I went to Niagara Falls for the Canada Day-4th of July weekend.  Can you say "tourist season"?

It was ultimately quite fun and relaxing, though.  We booked some inexpensive rooms at a small motel down the parkway, upriver from the falls, and we picked and chose the sights we wanted to see.  Gary, the owner of the Niagara Parkway Riverview Inn, was a great host:

Tough running a motel pretty much by yourself, as Gary described, with just a little handyman help from his dad.  But the rooms were clean, the pool was clean and heated, and Gary makes everyone feel like they're staying in the guest room of his own home.  





Niagara Falls Lessons Learned:
     1) If you leave early enough (7:30-8ish), you can beat most traffic in either direction, but any later than 10 and you're screwed.
     2) Staying in any of the establishments in-town is a crapshoot; I heard tourists talk of cockroaches in better motels than ours.
     3) There are inexpensive hotels just up the QEW in nearby towns like Grimsby that are less than 20 mins from downtown Niagara.
     4) Dinner at the Skylon Tower was worth it, for the food and the view.  The dinner show at the Greg Frewin Theatre wasn't, for the food or the show.

Maybe it's my age and having seen too many magic shows in my time and/or maybe we were just sitting too close so the tricks became obvious.  But I got tired of the variations on disappearing people, even when the lion and tigers started appearing.  Sorry, Greg.

On the other hand, I did like the close-up magic, the sleight-of-hand stuff.  And the dancers were entertaining - worth sitting up close for!  Plus the lion got loose backstage and didn't want to go into her cage, so that provided a little nervous excitement for everyone for a few minutes.

I guess it must be tough being a magician these days, with your trade secrets being revealed regularly on TV, competing with Harry Potter and special effects, and live crowds being overall tougher to impress.  Kind of like Gary and his inn, competing with the chain hotels and online reviews by anyone who wants to dis your business.  Two middle-aged guys, putting themselves out there for public scrutiny doing old-fashioned jobs in a hi-tech world - it's gotta be tough.

I actually had to make extra noise at Greg's show to get my section clapping and cheering, otherwise it could have been a much tougher room.

Sorry, no audio of me doing my Homer Simpson "woo-hoo"s.