back in the bay... i mean, beside the bay

So I was just in Toronto for a conference this week and I'm back today. The conference was pretty good and it was nice to see some people I haven't seen for a while, but I don't think Toronto's really the place for me. I'm really not cool enough for Queen Street. Ah well. I also managed to set up a few weeks of work for next summer. Eight more months... and I'm done! Crazy.

And on the Griffin front... Current nicknames include Griff, The Griffster, Griffindor, Griffindog, McGriff, Crime Dog, Puppy of Doom and The Little Pooper. Andy is planning to invent Puppy Games, involving a series of obstacles which apparently are going to involve vine swinging, sword fighting and lots of hot lava pits to avoid falling into. (Think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.) It all seems a bit ambitious to me, but Andy's started training Griffin for this; so far Griffin has learned to sit. Sometimes.

hey! pictures!

So I just figured out that I can post pictures on this page. Cool. Here's a recent one of Griffin, who is now 3 months old. He's really a very good puppy. He chews like mad, but pretty much sticks to his own toys -- and he's got a pretty good selection. Rubber, rope, rawhide, stuffed animal, plastic... No shortage of variety here. Housebreaking is going fairly well. He has never pooped in the house (knock on wood) but still occasionally pees inside, mostly just before he goes to bed. However, he digs. Not all that much, but there are a bunch of pits that have been dug out from the side of the house. We fill them in, but he's persistent.

In other news, I just finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, which blew my mind. It's a novel about philosophy, mostly, that was published 30 years ago. So good. Not that I really understood all of it, but it was great.

Going to Toronto this week.

Griffin is 3 months old 

back in the game

So here I am back in Thunder Bay. It was a great summer in Kenora, but it's nice to be home. Let's see, what's new...

Andy moved to TBay to start his masters, which is in prostate cancer research. It's keeping him pretty busy. He started playing hockey in the LU league and that seems pretty fun.

I started playing hockey too. I'm not on the Wolves anymore (actually, most of the Wolves aren't Wolves anymore -- they're Hawks), and since I've been back, my new team (The Wild) is 0-2. But hopefully things will pick up.

And the biggest news... Griffin! He's our new puppy. He's 10 weeks old now, part American Eskimo and part various terrier. Very cute. 7.4 pounds this week, up from 4.6 pounds three weeks ago. Housebreaking is going pretty well, although sometimes late in the evenings he'll run to the door and pee before we get there. Could be worse -- at least it's linoleum. His favourite toy is his rawhide bone, followed closely by his stuffed beaver (read into that what you will). He's learning to play fetch with his ball. Really, he's just adorable.