Sunday, June 22, 2008

Halfway through our trip

Today marks the halfway point of our Eastern Canada trip. We are currently recalculating our trip plans because our ferry to Port-aux-Basques, NF was canceled due to ferry malfunctions. We could have gone on a later ferry that is planned for 5 this evening, but that wouldn't give us enough time to drive across Newfoundland to St. John's for our ferry back to Sydney on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Actually, the ferry I reserved from St. John's back to Sydney was canceled as well. So yeah we're not going to Newfoundland...I guess we'll have to plan a whole trip for Newfoundland and Labrador next summer. So now we're going to be able to spend some more time on Cape Breton Island today and then continue on to get back to New Brunswick a little early and do some more stuff around there. Today we're going to try and go to the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site here on Cape Breton Island and then we'll drive around the Cabot Trail on the northwest section of the island and possibly go on a bird or whale tour. For more details about each day of our trip so far, check out the link in my previous post or on the side of this page.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

East Coast Trip

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we're taking off on "The Quiring's East Coast Trip 2008." Although I originally planned to blog about the trip on here, I found out about an ongoing contest that VIA Rail is sponsoring when I was looking at train information on their website. Apparently, every three months VIA Rail picks one winner from all the people who write about their Canadian train travels on canadatravelblog.ca and the lucky person wins $300 towards their next VIA Rail trip. So, after reading up on the contest, I decided to get a Canada Travel Blog in order to both document this trip, and possibly be a winner. I know you all will want to keep up with what the Q's are doing for the next two and a half weeks, so whenever you want to know where we are or what we're up to, just click the ehq_Travels link on the side of my page. Enjoy the blog and pictures!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Captain Canuck Retires

At 11 a.m. today, legend Vancouver Canucks forward, Trevor Linden, officially announced his retirement from the NHL, exactly 20 years after being drafted 2nd by the Canucks as an 18-year-old. I knew as well as any other Canucks/Linden fan that this day would be coming soon, but the news still managed to send a wave of shock through the province. Like most Vancouver fans, Linden has always been my favourite player, not only on the Canucks, but in the entire league and the thought of all the Vancouver players arriving at training camp in the fall without Linden there doesn't seem quite right.

With Trevor Linden now newly retired, there is a second hole in the Canucks lineup. Two weeks ago tomorrow, rookie Vancouver Canucks defenseman, Luc Bourdon, was killed instantly near his hometown of Shippagan, NB in a head-on collision involving his motorbike and a transport truck. Hockey fans across the country and North America were shocked and saddened by the 21-year-old's sudden death and, with Canucks fans still coming to terms with the fact that they will never get to see Bourdon become a star NHL defenseman, the news of Trevor Linden's retirement was disheartening for many. Linden has been a fan-favourite NHLer, not only for his effort on the ice, but also for his hard work in the community. Since relocating from Medicine Hat, AB to Vancouver, he has whole-heartedly dedicated his life to helping others, from reading to kids at local elementary schools, to visiting the Vancouver Children's Hospital, to raising money for Canucks Place hospice. The Canucks website was ready this morning with articles and features to publish as soon a Linden officially told the media of his decision at a press conference. One feature portrays the 16 (his jersey number) most memorable Linden moments throughout his 16 season with Vancouver, while another tells of his achievements off the ice. Numerous videos, much like the one below, were also uploaded to Canucks.com.


Thanks for all the memories Trevor!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Eye Troubles

The three of us younger Quiring siblings have temperamental eyes. Our eyes will cooperate for months and months and then, just when we think that they won't give us any more problems, eye issues pop up out of nowhere. Bryn's eyes have been hurting her for a couple of weeks. She thought that it was because she needed some new contacts, which she got last week, but her eyes still mysteriously bother her at times. Last week Ty's eyes also started hurting and when he went to pick up his new glasses, he was sent to the ophthalmologist to get his eyes checked out more thoroughly. It turned out that he had an eye infection and was given prescription eye-drops to clear up the infection and Eye-Stil drops to keep his eyes from getting too dry.

On Saturday afternoon, when my parents and I got home from potluck, I curled up to read a book, but ended up accidentally falling asleep for three hours. I woke up when Bryn and Ty got home from their quick grad trip to UCA. My eyes really hurt, so I took out my contacts right away and my eyes started to feel better. All was fine until I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Sunday to say good-bye to my dad and Tyler who were leaving to catch their flight to Montreal for a week long 20-20 training session. I found it impossible to fall back asleep because my eyes were extremely light sensitive and even with my blinds down, the five windows in my room were letting in enormous amounts of light. I ended up stumbling to the other side of the house where I crashed in Ty's one-window room for a few more hours. When I finally woke up from my fitful sleep, I showed my mum my eyes and soon after, holding a dark, wet washcloth over my eyes for protection from the bright outdoors, we headed to the walk-in clinic. After sitting beside a cranky mum with a sick baby and an energetic three-year-old for at least half an hour in a waiting room filled with open windows, my name was called and I went to see the Dr. He was an idiot and did absolutely nothing for my eyes...he even insisted on keeping every light on in the examining room. I was beyond annoyed. The Dr. told me that my eye pain was either from my contacts or was an infection that I might have caught from my brother. I had already gathered that much. I asked if I should see my optometrist or my ophthalmologist on Monday, but he said that that wasn't necessary and just told me to make sure my vision didn't change during the next 72 hours and to come in right away if it did or if there was any discharge from my eyes. When I got home I took a T1 and thanked my lucky stars that I was back in Canada, a land where T1's can legally be bought straight off the shelf, without a prescription. After that, my eyes started to feel better and I spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on a chair with a dark blanket over my head, listening to shows on TV. By night I could stand to actually look at the TV screen again and Bryn and I watched the CBC late night movie, "Happy Gilmore." I went to bed confident that my eyes were healing and would feel much better the next morning. If only...

This morning when turned off my alarm and opened my eyes, I was happy to find that they felt much better. I got up and went to shower. That's when I found out that my eyes weren't 100% better yet. They hurt almost as much as Sunday morning. I dreaded going to work and having to stare at a computer screen all day, but I went anyway and managed the pain by shutting all the lights off and closing all the window blinds in my office. Bryn and I even worked out a system where I would tell her what to input into the database and then she would do the computer work. We got pretty fast at updating FoxPro using our system. At lunch my mum took me to the optometrist appointment I had made as soon as I got to work and from there I was sent to my ophthalmologist. It's always an interesting experience going to my ophthalmologist because he mostly does cataract surgeries for people quite a bit older than myself. I was the youngest person in the whole office and all his other patients waiting with me were over 70. It's definitely a very different situation, but I did hear some interesting gossip while I was waiting! It turns out that my eyes have a mild form of keratitis due to lack of oxygen to my eyes which, of course, was a result of falling asleep with my contacts in. So basically I'm using a lot of Eye-Stil and GenTeal drops to keep my eyes from getting too dry and I can't wear my contacts for a few more days...oh and I for sure can't fall asleep wearing my contacts again. I'm really glad it didn't turn out to be an infection or anything even worse! Hopefully my eyes will clear up in time for Friday when we fly out to Winnipeg and start our eastern Canada tour.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

HNIC

A highly controversial news story, published early this afternoon by CBC.ca, revealed to hockey fans across the country CBC's intentions not to renew licensing for the much-loved Hockey Night in Canada theme song. This shock came a day after the Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup. Thousands of Canadians watched what turned out to be the last broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada for this season and, apparently, the last time the popular theme song could air with the program. As of right now, the online story has 415 comments, almost all of them very negative about CBC's decision to drop the current theme that, for so many Canadians, is considered to be a second national anthem. Only hours after the first story, CBC.ca published a contradictory article to the first one, reporting that a new deal with the theme's composer is still possible. It will be interesting to see whether next season's first HNIC broadcast will use the traditional theme or feature a new, and highly unwanted, one. I, of course, can't imagine tuning in to watch HNIC on a Saturday night without hearing the old, familiar tune.

Watch a HNIC intro that first interviews star Canadian players from the six Canadian teams and then goes into the highly-revered song.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Olympic Update

This afternoon, Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie was granted a conditional placement on the Olympic team. Later, Canadian gymnast Kyle Shewfelt was also conditionally placed on the team. In honour of their almost assured spots on Team Canada for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, here are the clips of both athletes starring on the Rick Mercer Report. Laugh along as Rick learns to dive and tries on an Olympic gold medal!



For more wonderfully entertaining Rick Mercer videos, click here. The 5th season starts June 10!