I was calling around about extending and burying the hose from the propane tank to the PatioFlame. It looks like it's a job for a professional gas fitter, that will cost about $300. I didn't search too much, but I suspect it's also required by code in Ontario. So for now the propane tank will sit as far as the existing hose will allow (about 6'), and maybe build a little table over it. I didn't know this before, but propane is heavier than air.

Last week I had a flat tire at work (at least, the tire was flat after work) (the front passenger side tire had a nail). I didn't want to wait around for roadside assistance to put on the donut tire, and I was in my suit, so I left the car at work and TTC'd it home. The next morning I went in in jeans and changed the tire, and drove over to the new Audi dealership (I had made an appointment first thing in the morning). The service was excellent. They washed the car, packed away all the tire tools properly in the trunk, had free beverages and WiFi access. I had taken my laptop and so just worked away while they put on a new tire. They also did the maintenance that was due in 900km, and checked the other tires (there was a nail in the driver-side front tire which they were able to remove). I was very impressed by the whole process.

It was my birthday yesterday and so I took the day off. My parents had everyone over for dinner (it's my birthday tradition). It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately Heather couldn't make it, she re-injured her back last week. It was the coolest July 20th that I can remember, but quite comfortable. We always have the same dinner: samosas, then Dad's caesar salad, then masala chicken wings, rice, lentils, tomato curry, and Mom's potato dish, and then apple pie and upside-down-pineapple cake for dessert. Mmmm good. Maricar and Robin brought some of their red wine that they made (and had just bottled on Sunday).

We won at Ultimate on Sunday, one of the best games we've played as a team. The offense was working really well. We have some set plays, which if we run them properly are very hard to defend. Our plays rely on us all reading the play the same, and on the Sunday team everyone sees the game the same. It's pretty cool when it works, although maybe not for the other team.

I went to the Home Depot at 427 & QEW to see if they had double-cylinder locks from Weiser. They did have one, but it was a polished brass colour. I had to ask a sales person to help find it, and then had quite the discussion about whether it would fit on a 2'x4'. The specs on the back of the lock said it fit door widths between 1 3/8" and 1 3/4"; and I spent about five minutes trying to convince the two sales folks that 1 1/2" (the width of a 2'x4') was in fact between 1 3/8" and 1 3/4". I gave up.

Well I should get ready for bed. I have to be out in Hamilton tomorrow morning for 9am.

The backyard is coming along. I finished the fence, and the firepit is nearly done.





I'm looking for a double-cylinder lock before I build the gate, preferably a Weiser so I can key it the same as the back door. Our little Home Depot doesn't carry any, and neither does the Canadian Tire on Leslie. Also, I'm trying to find a 15' hose extension for a propane tank so I can put the tank behind the fence. I don't even know if such a thing exists. Ideally I'd like to bury the hose under the flagstone encased in cement.

We had breakfast last weekend at Lady Marmalade. There were eight of us, and we were fortunate to get two tables of four beside each other (which the staff then pushed together). It was quite busy at 10am on a Saturday. Heather and I just missed getting soaked in the rain, it came down in buckets a couple minutes after we arrived. (It's the 2nd time it's rained hard since I disconnected the downspout, and both times I've been out of the house, so I haven't seen how the water flow works. Heather was home the 1st time and said it worked great.)

The breakfast was pretty good at Lady Marmalade. I had the eggs benedict, which they make with bacon. I still prefer the eggs benedict at Leslieville Diner, where they use peameal bacon. They do have a number of healthy options though at Lady Marmalade which Heather liked.

I took a vacation day last Monday and went golfing with Craig, and Jim and Scott from hockey. Jim's a member at Carry Place, a private course up the 400. It was a pretty windy day, which didn't help my driver. I ended up shooting an inconsistent 103, parring a few holes and blowing up on others. After we went back to Jim's place and had dinner. It was a fun day.

I should get ready for Ultimate.

I framed in the fence yesterday. Here's a pic from the office window:



If it doesn't rain this weekend, I'll put up the fence boards.

We decided to stain the fence a darker colour, so that it contrasts with the deck and flagstone. Both the deck and flagstone are / will fade to a washed-out grey / beige, which is what we wanted. However we thought it would look too dull if the fence was also faded. The Home Depot folks said I need to wait till next season to stain the fence, to give the pressure-treated wood a chance to dry out.

We dropped into The Ceili Cottage a few days ago to check it out. It has one of the better street-side patios in Leslieville (on my list, Strat's and B-Side are one and two). The inside has warm ambience -- whoever designed it did a great job. It feels like the place has been there for a hundred years (unlike The Roy which looks too forced). Tried a few things from the menu (they'd only been open for less than a week and didn't have everything yet).

Came up with a new standard joke, to be used on all statutory holidays "I need a holiday, stat".

Anyways I should get ready for hockey. We have a late game tonight, 10:30pm.

Glenn Simmonds' retirement party was this evening, at a restaurant out in Vaughan. I was impressed by the turnout, including John Honderich, David Holland, John Cruickshank, Jagoda Pike, and quite a few retirees. The food was great, the speeches were okay (Al McArthur did a really good job as emcee). Glenn listed some of his mentors during his speech, of which I recognized only a couple names. I have heard lots of stories about the old days at the Star, so was surprised that I didn't know of so many people. They must have been the managers back when Glenn started in the early 70s.

Lloyd and Mina came up to Toronto for this past weekend. It was great to see them, as Heather and I haven't seen much of them since we met. They were here from Saturday to Monday, and most of the time focused on food. We went to Little India for lunch on Sunday, and had far too much to eat at Lahore Tikka. My Sunday Ultimate team had our championship game later that evening, and I was rather full for the game. (We won 19-10!) The four of us had planned to have dinner at Table 17 (they have BYOW with no corkage fee on Sundays), but we were still full from lunch, so instead went to B-side at Joy Bistro. We had enough of an appetite the next morning to try the eggs benedict at Leslieville Diner, but then didn't have room for lunch.

The weather finally got hot on the first day of summer while they were here. We turned on our air conditioner on June 19th, which is a record for me. It's the longest spring I can remember. Usually it goes from winter to spring for a week, and then straight into summer. I much prefer the cooler spring days.

The Ceili Cottage is almost open! I dropped in on Monday evening (their planned opening night). Talked to Patrick McMurray (the owner), and he said they were just waiting for some paperwork from the city (I guess affected by the strike). I haven't been there since so don't know if it's open yet.

One of my cousins in India (who I may have met when I was little, but don't remember) found this old picture of me and scanned and emailed it:



It looks to be from my First Communion. Check out the cool bow tie and the funky shoes!

Anyways I should get ready for bed.

I finally finished the flagstone yesterday. Good thing too, because I was just about getting tired of it. Here's a before and after from last year and now (from the office window):



I'm about to head out for our Ultimate game. Tonight's the semi-finals.

It was nice weather again this weekend so I was able to work a bit more on the backyard:



I need a couple more loads of flagstone to finish it. The last part is trickier to make all the flagstone fit.

On Saturday was Leslieville Stomp. A lot of stores had sidewalk sales, and there were a number of yard sales. I had forgotten about it, but I had made an appointment with a massage therapist at Advanced Therapeutics for my back, and so walked through the street sales on the way there and back.

The massage therapist was pretty good (I forget which one I had). I think my back problem was related to my legs being tight, especially my IT band. She showed me some stretches to help.

The massage place is right across the street from East End Garden Centre (who I'm surprised have a nice little website). We needed some more annuals for the potters on the front deck, so I bought a variety.

There's a whole bunch of places opening up east of Leslie St. There's another Irish bar opening soon, Ceili Cottage, by Patrick McMurray (owner of Starfish). There's a nice large front patio (right now just a vision), which he's stuck sea shells in the concrete.

Also saw that Pulp Kitchen is opening up in a new location, one of the three renovated spots where All Most Antiques used to be. They're just waiting for their license and then they'll be open.

Meating on Queen (a butcher) was barbecuing sausages, which smelled great so I bought one. It was amazing. Even Heather liked it! We went and bought a couple more today (although we had to barbecue them ourselves, as Stomp was just the one day).

I was at box seats for the Jays game on Friday, for a project we worked on. A couple weeks ago it was looking good, with the Jays in front and the game against Boston. However a nine game losing streak killed a bit of the excitement. Still it was a good time.

Well I should go get ready for my Ultimate game tonight. Hopefully it won't be too windy. It looks like the wind has died down a bit, it was pretty gusty earlier this afternoon.

I had big plans on Sunday to work on the patio and gardens, but tweaked a muscle in my back Sunday morning and have been stuck mostly to the couch since then. Too bad because it was a really nice day yesterday (20C, sunny) to work outside.

Under Heather's care, I felt good enough this evening to try for a short walk down Queen E to Logan. Saw a liquor application at 996 Queen St E (where the former Carlaw Carburations used to be). It's nice to see, as the stretch of Queen between Carlaw and Pape hasn't had the same level of gentrification as the rest of Leslieville. According to the application, it's a bar and lounge that will be called "What are you looking at?". Not my first choice for a name, but what do I know.

Then on the way back, we saw Te Aro, a new coffee shop that opened up (just east of Baby on the Hip) right under our noses! I didn't even see it under renovation! Te Aro has mostly good reviews on Chowhound and BlogTO. It's in an old garage; it's the type of conversion project that Heather and I would like to do one day to live in.

With my back out, we've been getting take-out from the local restaurants. Yesterday had dinner from Spring Rolls; and today had fish'n'chips from B&B for lunch (the guy has fish'n'chips down perfectly) and The Real Jerk for dinner. It's nice to have this amount of variety within walking distance.

On Saturday Heather needed a short break, so we had a little day trip down to see UofWaterloo, where I did my undergrad. Took a long cut down King St through downtown Kitchener and Waterloo. There's a lot of nice old industrial buildings that are undergoing loft conversions; the downtowns will look really nice in a few years. Tried to have lunch at the Bomb Shelter, (the campus pub where I spent a lot of time), but it wasn't open till 5pm. Instead went to McGinnis.

After lunch walked through the DC (Davis Centre) and MC (math & computer) building, showed Heather the C&D (coffee and donut lounge). By fluke saw the old pictures of the graduating classes on the wall near the C&D; searched around for the 1993 math/business class and found me, Roach, Kirk, Doaner, Alain, Mayra and Heaney. Didn't see Panko's pic. Outside, looked around for my tree. Every year, there's a tree planted for the graduating class. Found ours -- it's a big horse chestnut tree. I thought every year had a unique genus or species, but I guess not, as 1981 and 1994 are the same. Walked down to V2 (1st year residences, now called Ron Eydt). Looked at the campus a bit differently; I didn't really remember the stream that flows by the residence being as photogenic as it is. There's plenty of newer buildings on campus, which I've seen in the alumni magazine. The business parks around Phillip St are now all full of RIM buildings.

...

I've hooked up our Dell 1710 laser printer to the USB port on the Airport Extreme. Printing works great from my Mac; but I've been having trouble connecting to it from Heather's PC. I've tried using Windows Printer Setup, and Bonjour for Windows, but neither work. (Both ways allowed me to set up the printer. Print jobs spool somewhere, but where I have no idea). The next step is try to connect the printer to the USB port on the PC and print; and then re-try through the Airport Extreme.

Well I should get ready for bed. Hopefully my back will be okay enough for me to get into work tomorrow.