The Garland family left Palm Springs yesterday afternoon. It is not lonely here, but we do miss them. We understand they may have had the flight from hell, because of an emergency landing in Albany, New York and many hours of delay. We believe that door to door they were 12 hours instead of the anticipated 6 or 7 hours, and this with a 6 month old baby. Not a good way to end a week of vacation. We are relieved that they arrived safely. Carol can now return most of the baby equipment to the Toys R Us in the basement of the clubhouse.

We go back to the grind. Did you shop last week? No. Did you try to shop last week? No. Do you plan to shop next week? Yes. (This is loosely lifted from the dialog of Comicus and the Dole Office Clerk in the 1981 movie History of the World: Part I by Mel Brooks.)

Billie brought her parents to Palm Desert on Saturday. She took pretty good care of Kate and Jason all through the flight, not sleeping at all, and keeping her eye on them to make certain that they were not disruptive and bothering the other passengers. Billie received a heart-felt thank you from the crew when disembarking. She has scheduled a photo opportunity with me for a little later today. She brought her Jolly Jumper.

Carol has raided the clubhouse for all of the baby paraphernalia that she can find. The car seat is a loner that we brought from Ontario. The new crib is not in the picture. The house is full of baby stuff.

A glass top has been ordered for the dining table. It should arrive December 21 so that we can have our Xmas dinner on a table. We are now known in the neighbourhood as the couple without chairs, without bar stools, and no table. We are being invited out a bit as a result. When I think of it, it is a pretty good scam we are pulling. Once the glass top arrives, it will likely all end. But for tonight we eat someone else's cooking.

Today was Bronwen's concert. It seems funny not being there. The Festival Wind Orchestra put a lot of effort into their productions and they are very professional shows. Carol and I enjoy it every time. I will be working with the orchestra to make certain that they hold their Xmas concert in June or July in the future.

Carol's sister Sue is not doing too well right now. She is mid-way through her chemotherapy, and this week she took a tumble and broke her arm. She has been hospitalized for the past four days while they get her healthy enough to set the arm. We are holding our breath. Our thoughts are constantly with Dave and Erin.

I partnered with the tennis pro's father (remember the 80 year old money player) against a couple of much younger players yesterday. We lost pretty miserably 4-6, 2-6. I was definitely the weakest player of the four. I think that Leoncio was pretty pissed with my play. Leoncio is not used to losing. In all fairness, I am willing to use the 70 years that our team gave up, as an excuse. It would appear that he is not so inclined.

Where in the wide wide world is Bronwen?

December 14th is the annual Xmas Concert for the Festival Wind Orchestra. See if you can find Bronwen in the photograph below.

Mid September we were joined in Collingwood by Carol's cousins for the annual Stuart cousins get-together. Susan was not feeling well enough to make the trip up from Georgeville, but Sharon came from Ottawa, and Heather from Orillia. Of course, Len and Earl came along to help me listen. I brought out a couple of boxes of photographs from London East and we never looked back. Good visit.

I have finally posted a few photos taken at Erin Ecker's April wedding in the Dominican Republic. It was a beautiful wedding for a terrific couple.

Much of the family made it to Collingwood yesterday for Thanksgiving. Michelle and Tyler were unable to come, but all the other important people arrived. Billie did a good job stealing the show from the adults. She floated from one person's arms to another's for the whole day, finding each new set of arms perfectly suited to her amusement.