Stiff Man

Lets get motivated!

2012-01-22T01:07:00.000-05:00

Ugh, I wish it was that easy to get motivated.....

A few people have asked why I have not posted shots of the dogs as I have in the past with Karma and Chance. For starters Karm was a real ham for the camera and that made posting pictures really easy, the new dogs are not really into getting their pictures taken like Karma was. But I have got a few nice images of them the past few months.

Belle has been here almost a year now. As for my new best friend Pawlie, it is going on nine months since he has been here. And last but not least is Maggie (I call her "Moo" because she looks like a cow).

Belle is your typical bossy old lady (she is in her double digits) who has a bit of a mean streak in her. She knows I am the boss so that keeps her in line. She is much better at letting us cut her nails and she is getting better around the other two dogs. (just think of an old Curmudgeon).

Belle on the porch last July

Pawlie is just the happiest dog in the world, even for an old guy (I figure he is nine). You would never see Pawlie in a bad mood. His good spirits are quite infectious too. You just can't help be be in a good mood with Pawlie around. He goes nuts (and I mean NUTS) when we get a thunder storm. He crashed through the gate we have at the stairs to the basement one storm. He also barks like a seal when he gets excited (and chatters his teeth).

Pawlie in Cheltenham Ontario last October

Moo thinks she is a princess that we have had since late August. We adopted her from an elderly person who is now in a retirement home. She has peed on the rug a few times, torn a few blankets as well as destroyed a few tennis balls. She has few manners but is learning.

Moo at the Guild Inn last September

So there you go, I got motivated and I posted some pics of the dogs!

We are off to Sint Maarten in March with a day trip to Saint Barths. Only because of the hatred towards snow and cold. And it is a great excuse to soak up some sun, have a few beers and do some plane spotting at TNCM (St. Martin) and TFFJ (St. Barts) airports. Not to mention get a ride on a Twin Otter into TFFJ! Warm sun, tropical beaches, airports and a ride on a Twin Otter? How can one go wrong......

And before I go I have a true story to tell.

As I sat in my driveway getting ready to drive to the rink last week, I got a phone call on my cell phone (from my bank no less).

Here is the conversation...

Gentleman from the Bank: Hello is this, uhhhh, (long pause), Al?

Now I know this guy is calling me for a sales call so I figure I will be a dick...

Me: This is Al. You're not sure who you are calling?

Bank: Oh no sir, this is your bank, we know who we are calling. We just like to keep in touch with our customers.

Me: You want to touch me?

Bank: Pardon me sir?

Me: You said you wanted to touch me? Are you coming on to me?

Bank: Pardon me sir?

Me: I could swear you said you wanted to touch me?

Bank: No sir I did not (he is pissed off now)

Me: Maybe we got a bad line and you should call back?

Bank: Maybe I should (said with much anger).

Then he hangs up! TRUE!!!!

This is "Art"? at Ikea.....

A Hoofprint On My Heart

2011-12-04T21:09:00.000-05:00

Jim Coleman, one of Canada's most beloved sport reporters wrote his book "A Hoofprint On My Heart" back in 1970. I fell in love with that book back in the early 80's when I first read it. The book is a collection of Mr. Coleman's tales from his days spent on the backstretch of tracks across Canada and the colourful characters that he rubbed elbows with during that time period. His tales are from a time long before I ever set foot on a race track but the stories hit close to home with me. Every story he told was one I could relate with. As a race tracker you get to know, and live with, exactly the kind of folks Mr. Coleman wrote so affectionately about in his book.

Shit, I could write my own book really. Many people that know me say I should. Once they have heard a few fables from my former life on the backstretch they just can't seem to get enough of my stories. As one of the many great "track stories" I personally was a witness to, was unfolding in real life before my very eyes, I couldn't help but start to smile. I knew it was an event, no matter how small, that I would remember and tell at a later date. I must wait however, for some people to die off before I write my book. Many of my stories could be very incriminating to a few folks still living. Myself included....

Mr. Coleman tells many stories in his book that include some long forgotten tracks here in the Toronto area. Dufferin Park, Long Branch and Thorncliffe Park among them. Not to mention the Old Woodbine, or "Greenwood" as we called it in my era at the track.

As I did with Greenwood a few years back, I decided to visit the area's where these old tracks used to be. I have no idea why I am so fascinated by where these old tracks once were. Maybe I am hoping to hear the ghost of race trackers past tell me some interesting stories, or maybe I was just wanting to imagine what the race trackers seen back in those days and being there on the former spot helps my imagination.

While standing on once hallowed grounds, I close my eyes and imagine what it would look like back then. Once I look past all that asphalt and brick that now stand in the forgotten tracks place, I can almost see what it was like back then. Almost like I am there, standing track side again. I can almost hear the hoof beats and the horses snorting as they move around the track with the warm moist breath shooting from their nostrils into the cool air as the sun is just starting to rise. My own experiences around the track enhance this vision as you can tell. As well, reading Mr. Coleman's book or hearing stories from my fellow race track brethren help the image come to life again too.

I am grateful that I got to be apart of it before the last of the great Toronto tracks was torn down. So much has changed around the track since Greenwood was demolished. I often wonder if the characters that made the track so great left with the pile of Greenwood rubble that was removed from Queen Street.

I wanted to post a few images from Old Woodbine or Greenwood if you may. My post in 2007 covers it pretty well but I cam across some images at the City Of Toronto photo archives and wanted to share them here with some comparison shots.

Old Woodbine (Greenwood) 1920's

Same area in 1987 (that's me holding Fannie)

Post parade with the paddock as a back drop (1950's?)

And the paddock in 1979

You can see many images of how Greenwood looks these days by visiting my post from November 2007 by clicking HERE

Here are the links to each of the other track's I visited recently. I did some comparison shots so if any of you readers are going past the spot today, you too can imagine in your own mind what it looked like back then. And maybe while you're there you can hear the ghost's of race trackers from the past telling stories. Some of them true and some of them bullshit, but as always they are sure as hell entertaining....

Click on each track name below to be taken to the photo's....

DUFFERIN PARK

THORNCLIFFE PARK

LONG BRANCH

Thank you Mr. Coleman, for sharing your great stories. The next glass of rye I raise will be toasting you Jim.

(historic images courtesy of Wolfe Racing Stable and City Of Toronto Archives)

Dufferin Park

2011-12-03T03:31:00.000-05:00

Dufferin Park (known as "The Dufferin" to race trackers) was open in August of 1907 and closed it's doors in November of 1955. The half mile track was literally in the heart of the city surrounded by homes.

Aerial view of Dufferin Park looking east (1930's)

What was once a track is now where the Dufferin Mall is. The track ran along Dufferin Street from Muir Ave. on the south, to Croatia St. on the north side. The backstretch was adjacent to people's homes on Cobourg, Archer and Chesley Avenues. As you can see one of the homes (marked with an arrow) on Cobourg Ave in the two images below (current image courtesy of D.R. Wolfe).

Rounding the far turn at Dufferin Park 1950's

Coubourg Ave today

As with all the other long gone Toronto area tracks, standing here today you would never have known that their was once a track here. Nothing is left to remind us of what was once here. The still standing Kent school does show up in one of the images from 1910.

Betting in 1910 (Kent School in upper right)

Same area today (view blocked by community Center)

View of what was once looking down the back stretch

I found a great link over at Standardbred Canada with some history and other images of the old place. Click HERE for that story.

Click HERE to go back to the main page

Click HERE to view my Thorncliffe Park page

Click HERE to view my Long Branch page

Click HERE to view my Greenwood page

(historic images courtesy of The City Of Toronto Archives)

Thorncliffe Park

2011-12-02T02:18:00.000-05:00

First open in July of 1917 and the doors closed after harness racing in August 1953.

Thorncliffe Park Track was the former host of some legendary races that are still contested today. The Canadian Pacing Derby and Maple Leaf Trot for the Standardbreds, with the Prince Of Wales Stakes for Thoroughbreds. They all used to call Thorncliffe Park home. Among all the building and strip malls, it's hard to imagine where the old track used to be.

The Thorncliffe Park grandstand circa 1947

And the same spot as it looks today

The Grandstand would have ran from Banigan Drive to where the Coke building is on Overlea Blvd. The start finish line would have Thorncliffe Park Drive run right through the middle of it.

Earl Rowe (R) at Thorncliffe Park 1950's

The track overlooked the Don Valley. The club house turn would have almost touched Millwood Road and the far turn was over where Don Mills Road would now be. The backstretch would have ran up next to the valley. The winners circle would be where the Grandstand Place and Mile Post Place now sit (roughly). The only landmarks that pay any sort of homage to where the old track once was.

Mile Post Place

George McCullagh (L) in the winner circle

The shot above, with former Globe And Mail owner George McCullugh (L) and an unknown jockey (M) in the infield winners circle, is roughly where the two aptly named streets now are. Intersected by Thorncliffe Park drive.

Grandstand Place

Also of note, Jim Coleman was the publicity director of Thorncliffe Park from 1950-52 and then went on to work for the O.J.C. until 1962 under E.P. Taylor.

In Mr. Coleman's other book "Long Ride On A Hobby Horse" he talks about Amos the dog running down to the entrance of Thorncliffe Park Track on Laird Drive. The entrance road is long gone but the Leaside Power Station that it ran beside is still there and a small parking lot entrance in the same spot still lends a view of what it might have looked like in the past when the old track still stood.

Former entrance to Thorncliffe Park Track

Click HERE to go back to the main page

Click HERE to view my Dufferin Park page

Click HERE to view my Longbranch Park page

Click HERE to view my Greenwood page

(Historic Images courtesy of City Of Toronto Archives)

Long Branch Race Track

2011-12-01T03:56:00.000-05:00

First open in September 1924 and closed in October of 1955, Long Branch Race Track was the host of two great Canadian thoroughbred races. The Cup and Saucer Stakes and The Canadian International.

Of all the old track spots I visited, Long Branch was the only one that had anything left from when the old track was there. A plaque marks the spot where the entrance was on Muir Ave, as well an old brick gatepost still stands beside the row of maple trees that were along the road leading to the grandstand.

Long Branch plaque

The brick gatepost mid photo

Long Branch was a one mile track that had the backstretch run along Kipling Avenue. The grandstand would be where Torlake Cres. is now. The entrance to the track was off Muir Avenue to the south (where the above plaque photo's were taken). The north boarder of the track and far turn were adjacent to Evans Ave.

Long Branch infield 1930's

The same view today

It was very cool to see that brick gate post. At least something is still standing, reminding us that a track once stood here. I wonder why they do not have something similar (a plaque for example) at the other areas where Toronto's equine history once stood?

Where the grandstand once stood

Inside Long Branch Grandstand

Tote board inside Long Branch Grandstand

I want to thank my old friend and fellow race tracker Donny for coming on this blast to the past adventure with me. You can read Donny's "Keep Turning Left" blog (about his past life in the racing business) by clicking HERE. It has many great images and story's. Donny and I were pretty pissed off we were late for the late double at Long Branch, we only missed it by fifty six years!

Donny at Long Branch Entrance

Click HERE to go back to the main page

Click HERE to view my Thorncliffe Park page

Click HERE to view my Dufferin Park page

Click HERE to view my Greenwood page

(historic images courtesy of The City Of Toronto Archives)

Leaside Aerodrome

2011-11-27T00:34:00.001-05:00

While out shooting pictures for another assignment today I happened to stop by the birth place of airmail in Canada.

Leaside Aerodrome (yup, Leaside had an airport at one time) was open in 1917 as a Royal Flying Corps airfield during WWI.

The first airmail delivery was on June 24th 1918 when Captain Brian Peck and his mechanic, Corporal C.W. Mathers, took 120 letters and some Eatons packages for an airplane ride. They took off at 10:12AM from Bois Franc Polo Ground in Montreal in their JN-4 Curtiss Jenny and did the six hour and forty two minute trip in high winds and rain. The weather forcing them to stop twice along the way for refueling at both Kingston and Deseronto here in Ontario.

Captain Peck and Corporal Mathers after the feat

The flight was staged by the Aerial League of the British Empire to demonstrate that aviation was the way of the future. Boy they were not kidding!

The field was quite large actually and ran north to south (what is now Broadway Ave. to the north and along Brentcliff Ave. to Wickseed St. on the south side).

The airport was closed in 1931 (a few hangars remained scattered around the area until 1971 they say). And from June of 1942 - March 1944 the area was used by the RCAF as an RDF (Radio Direction Finder) school and was known as "RCAF Station Leaside".

Historic Plaque

All that is here to remind of us of Canada's first airmail delivery is a Heritage Foundation plaque marking the north part of the airfield at Brentcliffe and Broadway avenues.

Leaside Aerodrome circa 1930

So if you're ever driving by the area, give a quick salute to Captain Peck and Corporal Mathers, flyer's of a by-gone era and aviation pioneers.......

(Historic Images courtesy of City Of Toronto Archives)

2011 Breeders Cup Musings

2011-11-03T03:31:00.002-04:00

I would like to salute the fine horse athletes and their humans who make horse racing what it is.

I was a part of the horse racing circus at one time. All those hours and years I spent mucking stalls, bandaging legs, bathing mud from between equine ass cheeks, cooling out horses around the barn and all that picking, greasing and packing of hooves.

Of course, how could I ever forget all those cold mornings I spent out on the track. I swear I still have mud in my eyes and icicles on my brows from those days when I just went around in circle after circle. It is because of these years I spent around those amazing animals and people, that horse racing will always be a part of me after I was a part of it for so long. It is now and forever, in my blood (and in my old bones)....

I was fortunate enough to witness, with my own eyes, a handful of the magnificent animals participating in this years 2011 Breeders Cup event at Church Hill Downs. And I will put my horsemanship and handicapping skills on the record by giving my selections at the end of the post.

For starters I was at the Woodbine Mile here in Toronto a few weeks back and seen Turallure narrowly beat Courageous Cat. Courageous Cat looked a little fat and out of shape in the paddock to me that day. Factor in too that he had been off for over two months that might have left him a little short for the race. Both Turallure and Courageous Cat are in the Breeders Cup Turf Mile event and I REALLY like Courageous Cat to win it. He has been working steady leading up to the big race and looks to be in fine shape.

Courageous Cat at Woodbine

Turallure after winning the Woodbine Mile

Back in August my nephew Brandon and I headed to Saratoga to catch an afternoon of racing at the historic track in upstate New York. We watched Cease win a maiden special weight race by some ten plus lengths that afternoon. He was very impressive and won an allowance race a few weeks later. After a satisfactory effort in the Hawthorn Gold Cup in Chicago he finds himself running in the Breeders Cup Marathon event with a rider change to Garret Gomez.

Cease winning at Saratoga

Now rewind to April of this year when Christine and I went to the races at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia California. We seen Amazombie win the GR2 Pedro Grande Stakes. He raced tough that day and has kept at it all summer. We find him running in the Breeders Cup Sprint event.

Amazombie after winning the GR2 Pedro Grande

And last but not least is a mare I seen race last year at Woodbine in the E.P. Taylor Stakes. Pachattack finished fifth that day and has improved since winning a GR3 race and finishing second in her last two outings that were GR1 events.

Pachattack at Woodbine in 2010

For every win I have had or will have came a few dozen losses before it. With all the downs and the few ups I have always said that a bad day at the track beats the shit out of a good day at work.....and with that here are some horses I circled in the racing form for the 2011 Breeders Cup events.....

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 4th

Juvenile Sprint:
Vexor and Secret Circle

Juvenile Filly Turf:
Stephanie's Kitten

Filly and Mare Sprint:
Switch, Tamarind Hall and Turbulent Descent

Juvenile Fillies:
Candrea and Grace Hall

Filly and Mare Turf:
Aruna and Dubawi Heights

Ladies Classic:
Royal Delta and Pachattack

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5th

Marathon:
Meeznah and Cease

Juvenile Turf:
Finale

Sprint:
Force Freeze and Amazombie

Turf Sprint:
Havelock

Dirt Mile:
Caleb's Posse

Turf:
Sea Moon and Midday

Juvenile:
Drill and Creative Cause

Turf Mile:
Courageous Cat and Goldikova (I REALLY LIKE THE CAT!)

Classic:
Flat Out and Uncle Mo

Good luck my fellow racing fans......

Naked Ladies

2011-10-30T01:08:00.005-04:00

Yup, I am still here.

Still moaning and groaning, drinking lots of rum and eating cooked animals at my leisure. In the grand scheme of things, life is good for this guy who is well down in the "99%" believe me you. Fuck what these occupy "insert city here" assholes have to say. They have no idea what REAL poverty is.......reality is most of us in this part of the world where all this protest is going on have it pretty good.

Enough of that!

I have a few projects on tap for the blog here. Mainly visiting some areas of Toronto where horse racing tracks of a bygone era once stood. Thorncliffe Park, Dufferin Park and Long Branch Race Track once graced the Toronto horse racing scene, that is, until the early 1950's when they were sold off to make way for the "new" Woodbine in Etobicoke. I happened to be scanning the City Of Toronto Photo Archives Site and found some fantastic images from the old tracks and plan on doing a now versus then pictorial.

In the mean time why not enjoy some naked ladies from a bygone era over at my buddy Donny's web site (tasteful images but for adults only), Figures and Facts can be viewed by clicking HERE.

I have a nude shot to share as well. I took this photo in March of 2010. It is a painting that graces the wall at Pepe's Cafe in Key West Florida. No idea who she is but she likes dogs (obviously), has hair on her cooch and some tan lines......enough said.

Nude Woman Painting at Pepe's Cafe in Key West

Al Khali

2011-09-18T23:50:00.001-04:00

I have been following this darn horse (Al Khali) for a while now. Ever since he beat Winchester last year at Belmont in the Bowling Green Handicap he really caught my eye. Not to mention those endurance horses score extra points in my books for toughing it out over the 1 and 1/2 miles on the grass. And I also love horses named Al (Shifty's Big Al, Big Al and so on, go figure).

Al Khali in the paddock

I even went as far as to go up to that god forsaken track Woodbine last year just to watch him run in the Canadian International. Al Khali is the kind of horse that seems to find trouble when ever he races. Yet, with all the trouble he seems to get in he still seems to put on a damn good performance in the process. Good enough to keep you hooked on him for the next time he runs.

2011 Northern Dancer Stake out the gate

Fast forward to this year and today's stake races at Woodbine. The $1 million dollar Woodbine Mile was the feature race today but Al Khali was racing in the under card $500'000 Northern Dancer stakes going a mile and a half on the turf. I had to go, with money for Al Khali in hand of course....

Once the 8th race fled the gate and they hit the half I knew Al had a tough go ahead of him due to the ultra slow fractions (6 furlongs in 1:18 and change for jeez sakes). Shit, it was like the horses were walking around the turf course instead of running. Heck at the 1/4 pole I didn't think he would even hit the board let alone win. Al did manage a fast closing third however, despite the slow pace, and he has me hooked again for the next time he runs (the Canadian International next month?).

Al was also a perfect gentleman in the paddock and a magnificent looking animal, complete with wall eye (I love a horse with a wall eye). If Al never wins again I'm still a big fan of his just based on his good looks, big efforts in the face if trouble and his very classy demeanour.

Al Khali and his wall eye

Another thing of note is our new dog in the house. Maggie arrived yesterday, she is five years young and a perfect little lady. We love her aready. Pawlie treats her like an old hat already and Belle is as crusty as ever....

Maggie enjoying the couch

So until next time, here is to Al Khali. When he runs again this is one fan that will plunk his money down.

To see some more images I shot from today's races click HERE or on the images below...

Upstate New York...

2011-08-23T20:28:00.002-04:00

What a wonderful and historic place upstate New York is. My nephew Brandon and I decided to take a drive there this past weekend with the purpose of visiting two historic places during our very short trip.

Upstate New York

First stop was Major League Baseball's hall of fame and museum in the tiny hamlet of Cooperstown. It's a good ride off the main interstate to get there but a fun drive too that is also very scenic. The reason they placed the hall of fame in Cooperstown is because it was the place where baseball was supposedly "invented". Even a small baseball stadium (Doubleday Field) marks the spot where baseball was first played, in a farmers field (this is up for debate if you look on google). No matter what, the hall and Cooperstown was a great place to visit.

Cooperstown

Next up for us was a trip to the historic Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs. The NYRA race meet moves from Belmont in New York city to Saratoga for forty days each race season. From late July to labor day weekend the top horses and riders in American Thoroughbred racing converge upon Saratoga, a race track untouched by time and looks much like it did some 145 years ago when it first opened.

In the slop at Saratoga

We arrived at the track just as a thunderstorm was approaching, that soaked us and the track. Even after spending the afternoon watching the racing on a sloppy track in wet pants I can say it was pure enjoyment just to be at Saratoga. More so that I got to witness racing at Santa Anita and Saratoga in the same year. Like a history of racing.

They're off...

For the record folks, we didn't make any money at the windows. But if I said it once, I will say it a hundred times. A bad day at the track beats the shit out of a good day at work.....take that to the bank...

To check out images from the trip click the link or slide show images below.

SARATOGA IMAGES

COOPERSTOWN IMAGES

UPSTATE NEW YORK

Now and Then....

2011-08-01T23:05:00.005-04:00

My dear old sister Debbie sent me an email last week. It contained old images from around the city of Toronto (where I live) from the 1940's with some links to other photo's of different decades from the 20's to the 80's.

So with camera in my hand and my better half Christine we headed out to shoot some now images, to compare them to "then"....

The Broadview hotel was always a seedy place as long as I can remember. It still is (it's a strip club for fuck sakes!). Wonder what kind of place it was back in 1945? It certainly couldn't be the shit hole it is now. Nothing against peeler bars (cough), but trust me, this is not a nice one.....

Broadview Hotel Now

Then, in 1945....

The Don Valley and Don Valley River. When I was a kid we would call the bridge in the picture below "The One Mile Bridge". While I am certain now that the bridge is not one mile long I did cross it a few times on foot as a kid. Oddly I have never seen a train go over it but it never kept me from looking over my shoulder as I paced over those railway ties trying not to look at the road and river below. You can see the Don Valley Brick Works in the back ground of both images below (see the smoke stack in both images?)

Don Valley Now

And then, in 1931

Redpath Sugar Refinery is still operational after all these years. You can see it in a few of the older skyline shots further below too...it was one of the few industrial buildings "allowed" to stay on the water front due to the fact it has zero pollution emissions.

Redpath Sugar Refinery now

And then, in 1958

The Queen Elizabeth Way monument, was originally at the beginning of the QEW roadway, this was the gateway to Niagara from Toronto. The QEW as it is known to locals, opened in 1939, by the Queen and King themselves no less. The monument was moved in 1975 so they could widen the roadway but is still fairly close to it's original location, only now in a park adjacent to the roadway.

QEW Monument now

QEW "then" in 1940

The "Richo" Coliseum, as it is now known, is located on the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds in the west end of the city. Formerly named just the plain old "Coliseum" before advertising $$ ruled the world. It is completely different inside as it now accommodates a minor league hockey team complete with arena, among other things. The outside looks exactly the same as it did in the 20's though.

Coliseum now

And then in 1922....

And finally the skyline of our dear city, ever changing after all the years.....

Shot from Cherry Street now

And the same view from the late 1950's

The skyline from the west end beach "now"

Late 60's skyline shot from the east end

You can see more of the old images and photo credits of the "then" images used in this post by looking at the links below....

Thanks to my sister Debbie for the links and inspiration for getting out there to take the images.

You can also see more of my "Now" images from around the city in this photo album by clicking below...

Matching

2011-07-12T22:26:00.002-04:00

As some of you may know I am a fan of the World Air Routes DVD series. I currently have well over 150 in my collection. I am also an avid plane spotter.

During my spotting sessions I have come across some of the airplanes featured on the WAR series. You would think that would be an easy task with the Air Canada and West Jet DVD's. It's not really, for example I have not captured any of the 767-300ER featured on the Air Canada 767-300ER DVD. It is among my favorites in my collection. I also have not captured any of the planes featured on the Air Canada E190 HD DVD or the Air Canada 777-200LR HD DVD.

I do have images of both planes featured in the Air Canada 777-300ER DVD. C-FITU I shot this spring sitting near the maintenance hanger (not a very good image). But I do have a nice shot of each of the other two birds featured on the DVD. C-FIVR that takes us from RJAA back to CYYZ and C-FRAM featured on the trip CYYZ-EDDF.

C-FIVR landing on 24L at CYYZ

C-FRAM landing on 24L CYYZ

WAR has two WestJet DVD's both from 2006. One for the 737-700 and another for the 737-600. Four planes were featured on the 737-700 DVD. I have captured three of them in my lens, C-GWJF from the CYVR-CYXS-CYVR-CYYC route, C-GWSE from the CYYC-CYYZ-CYYC run and C-FWSO that takes us on the CYYC-CYEG-CYMM-CYEG-CYYC route. I also have C-GWSB from the 737-600 DVD with Captain Byl at the helm. We flew CYYC-CYMM-CYYC with him on C-GWSB. The best segment of the DVD in my opinion.

C-GWSB ready to go 06L CYYZ

C-GWSE landing 06R at CYYZ

I also have video and a few photo's of the 767-300ER featured on the Austrian 767-300ER DVD, OE-LAT on the LOWW-CYYZ-LOWW route. My video can be seen by clicking HERE. The AUA 763 DVD is also among my favorties.

OE-LAT ready to go 06L at CYYZ

This past weekend I did two full days of shooting and got an image of the 767-300ER PH-AHQ belonging to Arkefly and featured on the Arkefly 737-800/767-300ER DVD for the route TNCC-TNCB-EHAM. It was something I was not expecting to catch.

PH-AHQ landing on runway 23 at CYYZ

You can see the full set of images I shot this past weekend by clicking HERE. Among them a Turkish Airlines 777 and a Transaero 777.

You can also check out World Air Routes YouTube Channel by clicking HERE. All of the aboved mentioned DVD's are great but if you can only get one get the Arkefly or Austrian DVD!

Spadina House

2011-06-28T20:59:00.000-04:00

In all the years I have been going to Casa Loma here in Toronto (it's a rite of passage as a school kid to visit Casa Loma) I never once thought of visiting the Spadina House.

Spadina House

Spadina House is another old home right across the street from Casa Loma and just as cool to visit, much older (built in 1866) and much more haunted they say.

I won't go into the details and history of the place, you can do that HERE if you wish. I will say we went to the first annual Spadina House Garden Party and for $5 it was fun to see part of Toronto history and how things were in the 1920's hanging with Toronto's elite upper class in a luxury home.

View from the Garden

I also made a trip to the off limits and un restored third floor of the house and snapped a few images. You can see them and a few others by clicking on the images linked below....

Spotting at CYYZ again

2011-06-19T23:44:00.002-04:00

With the weather so good today the dogs got a trip to the park in the morning and then Christine and I headed up to CYYZ to do some plane spotting.

Air France 747-400

I was treated to some rare sightings there today. Among them a Tupolev 204 built in Kazan, Russia. We do not get to see Russian iron here at CYYZ very often so it was a nice catch.

TU-204CE

I also got to see a couple of Airbus A330's, one for KLM and another for Lufthansa. KLM usually has the 777 or 747 here and Lufthansa the A340. And I also seen an Alitalia 767-300 in the SkyTeam colours which was very neat.

Alitalia 767-300

I had a great chat with a fellow spotter named Emil who visiting Toronto from Germany. He was just as stoked to see the Tu-204 as I was. Emil shoots on 35mm still and told me he has over 12'000 slides in his collection!

Air Canada 777-300

A close encounter with the 777-300 from Air Canada was in order, getting some real good close ups as he taxied to 06L. This is a great spot BTW when and if the police do not run you out of town too early. I got two hours and over 400 shots in this area today.

Air Canada 777 F/O waving

Of note, I have uploaded many images to Flight Aware and have some three hundred different air craft photo's on there.

Click HERE to view my Flight Aware album.

And click the images below to see the rest of the shots from todays session.....

One Less and one more.....

2011-05-15T15:57:00.003-04:00

UGH! Is all I can say.....

As many of my family and friends know we adopted Tawa and Belle last month and had been fostering them for Su Steiner's rescue since mid February before they decided that our home was good enough for them to call their own (you do not adopt a dog, they adopt you).

As much as we love having a dog for a friend it comes with the stipulation that in most cases you out live your furry friend and will sadly have to see them off at some point. It is the only tough thing about having a dog for a friend, everything else about having a dog for a friend is the best experience a human could ever wish for.

Sadly we had to say goodbye to old Tawa (I call him Bee Wee). We knew he was old when he came through our door back in February and we were hoping to have his company for a year or so but his age got the best of him (he was 11). He took ill in the middle of the week and after a visit to the vet and much medication he was not getting any better so we had to say goodbye to him today.

I think Su said it best, she was heart broken at the news but happy he was with us the last couple months of his long life. Being loved (spoiled rotten by Christine) and enjoying a home again. He sure did love his back deck and would spend the entire day sleeping on it.

Tawa in early March 2011

On a happier note we finally adopted Pauile The Collie after fostering him since early April. He is eight years old but thinks he is a puppy. Even Tawa liked him enough to let him sleep on the deck with him. Belle took a little longer to take a shine to Paulie but is coming around.

Paulie

So, we have one less dog friend here in the house that makes us sad, but we are happy to have one more too....

We will miss old Bee Wee, I wonder if, when Tawa got to Doggy heaven, he had a discussion with Karma and Chance about how great the food was here at their house and how comfortable that blanket is in the office doorway? Nah, I bet they are all too busy sniffing all those new smells and do not have time for jibber jabber......

Man Vs Food....

2011-04-29T19:55:00.006-04:00

Man Vs Food is probably an old show to most and I only assume this due to the fact it is on OLN what seems like all the time. Anytime I turn on the television and skim through the guide I don't go a day with out at least once seeing "Man Vs Food" on there.......that being as it is, it's a new show to me as I just recently started watching it.

As much as I think that the show is far fetched (I suspect If host Adam Richman ate half of what he claims on his show I think he would be dead by now) it does give me some great food ideas to try at home (or bad ideas if your trying to lower your cholesterol levels).

A "good food idea" case in point was when Mav Vs Food visited Salt Lake City Utah and Adam makes a stop at Crown Burgers for a pastrami topped cheese burger. They go a little nuts with the pastrami at Crown Burgers but it did get me thinking that would be something worth trying.....so I did.

I prepped my pastrami by pouring half a can of coke into a small pot with lots of creole seasoning and some extra paprika added in and put it on a gentle very low boil. Then I tossed in the pastrami and let it sit for half an hour or so.

Pastrami simmering in my spicy coke

Then I Q'd up some beef patties and toasted some ciabatta buns like I would making any ordinary cheese burger I do, but instead of cheddar cheese I used mozzarella.

Once the burgers were done they came in the house like normal and were topped with some pastrami.

Pastrami topped cheese burger

Garnished as you wish and it was a toss up for me if I wanted BBQ sauce (as I would on a cheese burger) or Maille Creamy Dijon (like I would with pastrami). Dijon won the condiment choice and after eating, what I call, the Man Vs Food burger, it was a good decision as the pastrami came through in the taste more than the cheese burger. The boil in the spicy coke really took a lot of the grease away from the pastrami and gave the spices Man Vs Food burger that extra kick.

Going all the way......

Even my uncle Ken gave it two thumbs up!

Also of note, I got Paulie to sit still long enough to take his picture tonight, so here he is......

Paulie

New Dogs

2011-04-22T14:59:00.004-04:00

Welp the dogs we were fostering are now ours. We adopted them a few weeks back and they have found a home here.

Tawa guarding the fridge....

Tawa (I call him Ba-Wa, my sister calls him Baby Huey) and Belle (she looks like PURE EVIL) are enjoying the new digs and being spoiled by Christine.

Belle, looking PURE EVIL!!

We are also fostering another dog for Su's rescue...Paulie the Collie. He won't sit still long enough for me to take a decent picture of him.

Karma at the park in 2007

And on that note I also have to mention that it would be old Karm's 15th birthday today. I still miss the old girl. So raise a glass to your dog (or dog's), old and new as you couldn't ask for a better friend...

Back in my own bed

2011-04-07T04:54:00.004-04:00

Man it sucks getting older. A vacation does me in now instead of relaxing me. All that aside we had a great time, but are glad to be home and in our own bed.

In a nut shell, Vegas was too over the top and expensive, $11 cocktails? No horse racing from Asia or Oz? WTF! We were not impressed and felt ripped off with everything being over priced. The Hoover Dam though, it was awesome as all hell as was the gun range. We liked Nevada but hated Vegas.....

Then we fell in love with everything about San Diego but Christine and I agree that San Fran is a better destination even though the weather is better in San Diego.

The city of Los Angeles is a shit hole and a blemish to the rest of California really. Shame on you L.A., I did love LAX though. And what can I say about Santa Anita Park? It knocked my socks off, what a paradise that track is....

With that I posted some photo albums from the trip on my Picasa account. Look at them by clicking the images below.

Santa Anita Park

San Diego

Vegas and The Hoover Dam

And if you like planes as much as I do click HERE for my KLAX images and HERE for a combination of my KSAN, KLAS and CYYZ images...

Santa Anita Park

2011-04-04T00:06:00.002-04:00

If I said it once I will say it again. A bad day at the track beats a good day at work any day. So off to Santa Anita we went first thing this morning for the afternoon card at the old track.

Santa Anita in Arcadia California

Opened in 1934, Santa Anita Park is located in beautiful Arcadia California, about 30 miles east of L.A. It sits just west of and at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains and uses them as a back drop to the track that is simply amazing to look at let alone witness races at. It was also home to the legendary horse Sea Biscuit.

Sea Biscuit statue in the walking ring at Santa Anita

Santa Anita has also hosted five Breeders Cup events over the years, and hosted the BC as recently as 2009. Also of note, this year Santa Anita returned to using a dirt surface (as opposed to that awful synthetic track they used in the past). They also honoured Canadian Rider George Woolf with a statue, he was the regular rider of Sea Biscuit.

Canadian Jockey George Woolf

We had a great time enjoying the races at SA today. The track is a throw back to the old track days with people coming to watch the racing, not gamble on slot machines and so on. It's 100% pure racing here, no gimmicky slots or malls.

Three horse photo at Santa Anita today

Most of the top riders were not here today due to the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park near Miami, Christine and I visited Gulfstream Park last year and you can see that stroy by clicking HERE.

While relaxing with the great views and having fun watching the racing action we were not doing well at the windows. Until the seventh race that is, when we hit the winner and exactor of Uncle Sam and long shot Clarke Lane.

And awaaay they go.....

I gotta mentiona that I love track announcer Trevor Denman too. His awesome South African accent and his trade mark "And awaaay they go" call as the horses leave the gate. It was great hearing him in person and I always admire his sense of humor too. He did a spoof of his call for the Simpsons cartoon as you can see in the clip below.

I also had the chance to meet actor and comedian Tim Conway and get his autograph, he did the presentation for the stake race. He was very friendly and is also a race fan.

Santa Anita was a great, and we had a great day playing the races and enjoying the views. The old place still looks like a race track should......

Coronado

2011-04-03T02:43:00.002-04:00

What a fantastic place Coronado is. Even the cloudy cooler (65F) weather couldn't dampen the beauty of Coronado.

Coronado sits between San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean. To get there from the San Diego side you have to drive over the massive Coronado bridge. Coronado is also an expensive place to live with most homes in the one million dollar range, beach or water front homes go in the five to ten million range.

Boat House near Coronado Marina

From the Pacific side of Coronado you get a great view of Point Loma. Following route 75 south takes you on a tiny peninsula with the bay on one side and the Pacific on the other (my good friend Donny rode his bike along here).

Point Loma from the Pacific side of Coronado

Coronado is also home to the Hotel Del Coronado that was built in 1888. While touring around the grounds at The Del it reminded me of the Chateau Lake Louis in Alberta.

Hotel Del Coronado

My friend Sean had a $10 hamburger in The Del last month. He also has some excellent images from La Jolla HERE. I bet the bun was not soggy on Seans burger!!

The Del was a bit crowded so we headed to the main street and had a fantastic pasta lunch at Island Pasta before heading back to the hotel for a nap.

Island Pasta in Coronado

We drove back over to Coronado at night to take some images of the city at Night over looking the San Diego Bay. And finished off the night with take out Chinese from City Wok....

San Diego at night shot from Coronado

Tomorrow we drive back to L.A. for a day at Santa Anita playing the races...

USS Midway

2011-04-02T01:06:00.002-04:00

We visited the USS Midway today, a retired aircraft carrier that seen plenty of action in it's 47 year's of service. It's moored in the San Diego Bay now and is a floating naval and aircraft museum.

On the deck of the USS Midway

It would take forever to write about the USS Midway in one post, but if you click the above link it explains all the operations it seen. In fact, we spent close to four hours on the self guided tour alone and the guided tour of the bridge (AKA "the Island") was another half an hour. The bridge tour takes you to the flight operations tower, navigation room and of course the bridge.

Crew mess hall on the USS Midway

The ship is a floating city really. When in service it had a crew of 4'500 service men (I say men because the Midway never had any women as part of it's crew). You get a great tour and no part of the ship is left out, from the engine room to the bridge it is all very impressive.

One of four 52'000HP engines on the Midway

Among the standard things you would expect on a naval ship the Midway also has it's own machine shop, metal fabrication shop, hospital, dentist, prison, barber shop, store, cafeteria, church and pharmacy. My hat goes off to all those men that served on her. I say thank you sirs....

Maj Ly Bung O-1 Cessna Bird Dog in the hanger bay

Then we headed to Ocean Beach to chat with some stoners and have a hamburger. If I hear "I'm going to the beach to smoke some bud" one more time......the burgers were from Hodad's.

Hodad's in Ocean Beach

I know my friend Donny raved about them and they were good, but Hoadad's loses points in my book because of the soggy bun you end up with. It ruined a great burger really.

Eating in the car

I also love that you can actually get a GLASS bottle of pop here. It's pretty common here, not like it is at home.

Tomorrow we head to Coronado.

Old Town

2011-04-01T01:39:00.002-04:00

Went to the zoo parking lot this morning, it was packed full of cars and screaming kids.Christine and I said fuck that and decided to see Old Town San Diego instead. Weather was beautiful, sunny and a warm 75F.

Old Town San Diego

Old town, just north of the down town core is full of historic buildings including the Old Whaley House. Whaley House is listed as the most haunted in the USA. I must admit my senses kicked in big time when I stood in the old court room there. I also love that they have the staff in period costume and the building still looks as rustic as it was back in the mid 1800's.

Whaley House in Old Town

We then set off to Point Loma, Point Loma juts out into the Pacific just west of Carnado. It is also the place to go if you want to see the Point Loma Lighthouse.You get an awesome view of the San Diego Bay and Down Town from the east side of Point Loma, and on the west side you see the Pacific Ocean. You can also see Mexico to the south (it's only 15 miles or so to the Mexican boarder here). Point Loma is a state park and closes at 5PM so we had to find another place to view the sunset. No worries, lots of choices here in San Diego.

Point Loma Lighthouse

We then headed further north to La Jolla Cove (pronounced La-Hoi-Ya) to catch some seals sunning on the rocks and the excellent views.

Seals at La Jolla Cove

La Jolla Cove is a city park and has viewing areas over looking the cove and the Pacific Ocean. Great place to view sea gulls and of course seals....

Watching the gulls and Pacific sunset La Jolla

Going to see the USS Midway tomorrow, loving this southern California weather......to see video of me getting close to the Seals click HERE.

This is your Captain Speaking

2011-03-31T03:06:00.008-04:00

Getting old sucks!

Heck we barely made it out of bed this morning for our early flight back to L.A. And we had a nap once we hit San Diego just after lunch.

When I booked the flights with South West Airlines I was hoping to get a flight on both the 737-700NG and the 737-300 Classic. On the way to Las Vegas we flew on the NG and we flew back on the 737 classic (with added blended winglets) this morning. So that worked out perfectly for me. I also got some great images of the Las Vegas Strip after take off.

The Vegas Strip just after takeoff from 01R

Upon landing at KLAX I asked the crew if I could take my standard shot of the cockpit. It was a classic after all and an older classic at that (no EFIS!!). Gotta love those old style gauges.

737 Classic Gate21 KLAS (notice the blocked out eyebrows?)

After some chit chat with the crew and the captain left to do the walk around I was invited to take a seat in the Captains chair by the First Officer and the SWA maintenance engineer.

Captain Al in the 737 classic

Special thanks goes out to F/O Jim Sorenson (who is also an avid G/A pilot) and SWA maintenance engineer Ben for the great tour of the flight deck, including the reason why they blocked out the eyebrows and how hard it is doing RNAV procedures with no EFIS map.

SWA Mtn Eng Ben and F/O Jim Sorenson

It was great talking about airplanes and flying with a couple of guys working on the line, the crew had to get ready for their next leg to KSFO (San Fran) and I had to meet back up with Christine who waited so patiently for me at the gate exit.....

Once I departed the plane I got a great shot of that Qantas A380 I seen parked here on Monday in full landing configuration this time.......

Qantas A380 landing at KLAX

Off to bed early after stocking up the fridge here at the hotel. Maybe the San Diego Zoo tomorrow?

The Hoover Dam and Guns

2011-03-30T04:35:00.002-04:00

Vegas? To be honest Christine and I are not that nuts about the place. The strip area is too over the top, super tacky, too glitzy and overly expensive. That being said Nevada is an awesome state, all that glitz and tacky decor aside.

Vegas Strip shot I took, at night....

We had an awesome lunch at a little restaurant in the hamlet of Boulder City, Nevada. It is just a stones throw from the Hoover Dam.

Boulder City Nevada

And speaking of the Hoover Dam, what an awesome wonder that engineering marvel is. We did the Hoover Dam tour that takes you 54 stories to the floor of the Colorado river and the hydro electric generators at the base of the dam. It was very cool to walk around in the bowls of the dam too, seeing exactly how they carved their way through the lava rocks. Amazing to say the least.

The Hoover Dam from the Arizona side

The Hoover Dam straddles the Arizona and Nevada boarder. So while walking and driving over the dam your passing in and out of each state and during non DST in and out of time zones too....

Me and a strange black guy in Arizona

And last but not least we went to the Gun Store tonight. Christine took 20 rounds with the Glock 19 9mm hand gun. And I took 5 rounds with the .44 Magnum and another 5 shots with a .308 sniper rifle. Christine and I both agree the gun range was amazing. In the shot below two of my five .44 magnum shots hit the target (barely!) and all five of the .308 sniper rifle were kill shots. Thanks to Bryce our instructor and range master for showing us the ropes....

Me with the .308, my target and Range Master Bryce

To see Christine in action at the gun range click HERE.

Flying back to L.A. tomorrow first thing in the AM. Maybe see Hollywood and then head down to San Diego for an early night..

Viva Las Vegas.....

2011-03-29T01:59:00.002-04:00

Well we made it!

The entire Monday was spent flying and hanging out in airports (and that was ok with me really). First leg seen us going CYYZ-KLAX and then KLAX-KLAS.

San Bernardino Mountains just east of L.A.

Passing through KLAX was pretty neat with lots of exotic airlines to see from all over the world, including my first A380.

A380 at KLAX today

And of course the Encounter Restaurant at LAX.

Encounter Restaurant at KLAX

Then, we were herded like cattle (what do you expect for $20!) onto our South West Airlines flight for our final destination Las Vegas.

Shot I took of KLAS on my way to KLAX

The weather here in Las Vegas is GREAT! Warm (75F) and sunny with light winds. And the forecast looks great for tomorrow too with a drive planned and a visit to the hoover dam, passing through Arizona and Utah as we check out Zion National Park.

It's late and we had a long day, we had dinner, missed the gun range (BOO!) and are headed to bed early. I also lost $40 playing roulette.....the Camero we rented is pretty awesome though.

More tomorrow.

(For those that care, check out the landing I shot at KLAX HERE and KLAS HERE)

Doggy Doggy....

2011-02-28T02:57:00.002-05:00

Christine and I decided to foster a couple dogs from Sue Stainer at the Lotsadogs rescue in Whitby Ontario. The two dogs we have in our care currently are Belle (ten year old Rat Terrier and Lab Mix) and Tawa (ten year old Malamute). Both are enjoying the extra room here at out house.

We are not 100% ready to commit to having a dog full time yet so this was a great way to be around dogs and help out Sue Stainers rescue too.

Belle

Of course we wanted to take all the dogs there home but two is enough for now.

Tawa

Why not have a look at Sue's rescue site and maybe you can help a dog out if you can.

Click HERE to visit LotsaDogs Rescue.

Tropical Fruit

2011-01-30T23:12:00.007-05:00

It's so god damn cold it's gonna snow until June, yeah they're freezin up in Buffalo, stuck in their cars and I'm lyin here neath the sun and the stars.....(Mañana lyrics)

Welp, I'm sick of winter already and cabin fever is starting to set in. Completely normal feelings for me around this time of year, happens just about the same time I start counting the days until April. Sixty to be exact, less than nine weeks for the positive thinkers reading at home.

Also of note and something else I count down towards about this time of year is my annual vacation. Normally some place warm and sunny (not always though).

Only fifty seven days until our vacation in sunny and warm southern California.

While in my miserable anti winter mood I noticed at the grocery store they had a tropical fruit sale. Me being a sucker for any place warm and sunny I took the bait and stocked up on some over priced tropical fruit over the weekend. Besides tricking myself into feeling like I'm in a warmer place, fruit keeps me regular and also goes great in a smoothie.

Pineapple

I love pineapple and even more fun than eating it is getting to cut one up.

Prepared pineapple

After the top and bottom get sliced off you slice off the outer husk until your left with the innards of the pineapple, about 1/3 of the pineapple ends up in the trash after your done trimming it all up.

Serving size snacks

For me pineapple falls under the same reward as eating nuts out of the shell, it taste better when you have to work to get to the good parts of the food......

After it gets sliced into serving size segments as shown above, some of it goes into the smoothie....

Blender time

My smoothie had 100% pure orange juice, strawberry, blueberry, banana and of course pineapple.

Smoothie time

If it was not Sunday morning I would have put some of the best tropical nectar in it, RUM! But me being the wholesome guy I am I refrained from that and went with the healthy version instead.

As always about this time of year I keep playing the Boat Drinks song over and over again......trying desperately to trick myself into thinking I am in the tropics.

Click HERE for a few of my favorite Jimmy Buffett tunes, guaranteed to make you feel warmer...................are we there yet?

Russian Life

2011-01-22T17:45:00.003-05:00

Call this smug prick here (that would be me) a professional now.....

I sold an image of the Atherton Mansion in San Francisco to Russian Life magazine. A magazine for Russians living in the U.S.A., is there really a market for that? Apparently so......

Anyway, here is the shot I took while in San Francisco back in the spring of 2009

Atherton Mansion on California Street

And here is the shot as it appears in Russian Life Magazine with the story.

Scan of the magazine story

To see some more images of the trip to northern California check out my Album..

And Christine's album

As if anyone else cares, we are headed to Southern California for our spring trip this year, Los Angeles and San Diego. With a side stop in Las Vegas for a couple of days....we are looking forward to visiting the Las Vegas Gun Range the most.

Where else can we get the chance shoot a machine gun? How cool is that going to be?

So long 2010

2010-12-31T15:21:00.002-05:00

Another year in the books....(some links included in the text below)

Tonight sees us drinking plenty of rum and/or vodka and eating cooked animals off the BBQ (I'm craving burgers for some reason).

Playing the races from Delta Downs and if we are making any money maybe the new years day card from Hong Kong's Sha Tin that comes on just after midnight here, great way to start 2011 would be to cash a nice ticket huh?

Failing that I'm certainly playing the Aquaduct card on NYD provided I get my ass out of bed on time.....

2010 was mostly a non event year, I suppose when you live the exciting life I do most things seem that way after a while (sarcasm).

Losing my old boy Chance a few months back was tough and made tougher by the fact that no dogs are left in the house. He did make it to 16 years, and that is pretty good for any dog.

Me and Chance cutting the grass on his 16th BD

I did look at adopting another dog but turns out the other dog was a sporting border collie and would not make a good city dog. Maybe in the spring after our annual holiday we will be fortunate enough to have another fur ball beast messing up the house with hair and mud like Karma and Chance used to. Man do we ever miss that (seriously!).

Speaking of holiday's we had a great time in Key West last spring. So much so that we are considering doing it again this spring. But Christine and I enjoy going places we have not been to before and a Phoenix/Las Vegas trip could be possible, even Saint Maarten could fall into the mix. But we loved Key West so much, the tropical weather, laid back atmosphere and so much to see it may sway us over after all....but the Grand Canyon! Hmmm.....opinions please!

Another quick note! I got a recent comment on my blog from a lady named Lauren. It was on my post about the race horse Shifty's Big Al that I did in May of 2008.

Turns out that Big Al is now a jumper/event horse after his retirement as a race horse. When I seen him at Finger Lakes Racetrack a couple years back he was a big gullet and I loved his spunk. Below is a little note Lauren sent me...

He loves his new life, even getting ridden for lessons, and he definitely has it good. He has such character and pizzazz it's impossible not to like him! I would love to see more images of Al that you have. Even though I galloped him as a race horse, I never had any pictures of him during that time in his life. .......He's turning six this year, he is competing in 3'6 jumpers and sprucing up on his dressage for and Eventing debut. He is part of the lesson program for the University of Kentucky Dressage and Eventing teams and is the patriarch of his little herd of my boyfriends horse and my other two eventers. Other than that, he eats a lot of hay and sleeps about noon every day .

And Lauren sent me a shot of Al in action at his new job...

With that, these shots I took below are for Lauren and other Big Al fans (shot in May 2008 at Fingers Lakes Racetrack in NY state)...

Lauren give Al some carrots for me and my friend Donny and thank him for coming in for us that day!

Happy new year everyone!!

Lunar Eclipse

2010-12-21T03:12:00.007-05:00

Call me a nerd.

I have always been fascinated by the things beyond our own mother earth. It has and always will boggle my mind, pondering how vast the rest of the universe is, and with no known end to it as far as we can tell.

How can that not fuck with your mind?!?!

Anyway, the lunar eclipse took place early this AM, or late at night for those like me who work the night shift. And on the winter solstice to boot (been some few hundred years since that last happened).

Eclipse just starting

The earth passing between the sun and the moon, casting it's giant shadow onto the lunar surface is not that rare of an event. But with the sky clear it was a great chance for a nerd like me to get some half ass rare images.

Neat shot through the trees in our yard

As soon as I got home from work, out came the camera and tripod and then on to the back deck I went.

Half way gone....

I got some great images as you can see and even Christine and my Uncle Ken came out to brave the cold with me and watch the eclipse take place. It helped motivate me to brave the chilly night and get some images so thanks to both of you.....

3/4 of the way with the stars included

To the naked eye the moon while eclipsed looked like a spent tennis ball hanging in the sky. Like something my dogs had played with , that I still find in my yard....

The photo's here are much clearer than looking at it with the naked eye.

Full lunar eclipse

Even though in the shot above it may look like it has not hit the full eclipse yet, it has. Again I was amazed at how it looked one way to the naked eye and such another way through my camera lens......

Fridge....

2010-12-12T05:44:00.000-05:00

A few years back I did a post on peoples work stations, as a persons work/computer area says very much about them.

Click HERE for that post.

You can tell plenty about a person from their fridge contents as well.

Then I got to thinking how much I love looking in other peoples fridge's. Think about it, it's like a treasure chest in a sense with lots of goodies inside. So out went the call and in came the fridge pics......

Wanda and Barry

My cousin Wanda in the UK will start us off. I know living in downtown London is cramped and apparently so are the fridge's! How in the heck do you get in and out of that one guys? LOVE the Maille mustard! Notice it is front and center for ease of access.....priorities!!

Our Fridge

Ok so I like chocolate milk! Christine and I make frequent trips to the grocery store so we never stock up too much, thus the reason for a fat guy like me having a fridge that is looking pretty sparse. NOTICE my Maille mustard and the rotting raspberries, never mind the mess on the floor as I sometimes gorge myself at the fridge door.

Dave and Sabrina

My nephew Dave in Edmonton sent me this and wanted to know if he had the most yogurt. YES! You win Dave! Or is it Sabrina's yogurt? Redbull and Yogurt? Like the rotting cucumber too! It's a nice touch!

Donny

My old pal Donny sent this one in. You got enough stuff in that fridge Donny? The old saying goes, you can take the man away from the farm, but you can't take the farm away from the man. Donny says he just can't break the habit of stocking up from his days on the farm. His basement looks like a food warehouse (TRUE!!). If we ever have an apocalypse I'm staying with Donny at his distribution warehouse. We could last ten years there for sure. YES Donny has a jar of Maille mustard!

Shelley

My sister Shelley's fridge looking so neat and tidy. Nothing cool in there though like Maille mustard. Just plain Jane stuff. Hey Shell where are your taste buds!?!? Must be all that lemon juice you drink. And for the record, the lemon juice in our fridge is not ours but Shelley's!

Deb

My old friend Deb sent me this. Coffee mate? What is with that? Your grandma stay with you or something Deb? I do notice a jar of Maille mustard though!

Rob and Dion

My buddy Rob (AKA DOG) sent me this. Love the sippy cup and of course the beer close at hand. Rob said he wanted the HP sauce to be front and center, notice the 57 bottle trying to get in the shot too. Rob and Dion must think they live in London too, the fridge looks packed tighter than a nun's....uhhh...a streetcar at rush hour!

JM and Jenny

This shot came from my nephew JM in Fort McMurray. Must be fancy living in the great white north with TWO kinds of milk! Those Red Bulls really stand out and I love the dog dishes next to the fridge. Great to see you guys sharing the kitchen with your furry kids too.

Hmmmmm

JM's wife Jenny sent me this one and says that this is what she sees in her fridge when she opens it. JM jr jr going for some beer or redbull no doubt. I wanted to get him a book on beer for xmas but Christine wouldn't let me (TRUE!!). We can only hope Jenny that JM jr jr (my nick name for my great nephew) does not figure out how to get into the liqueur cabinet when he is sixteen!

Marjy

My cousin Marjy on Vancouver Island sent this shot to me. I was figuring with Marjy spending half of her time in Inuvik that her fridge would be pretty empty and was surprised to see so much stuff in her fridge to be honest. I love the bottle of Hobgoblin! The beer with a chocolate taste (TRUE!!). I wonder if they need fridges in Inuvik? I bet they do just to keep the polar bears away. I'm betting if I looked at the expiry date on some of those jars they would be well past the due date. Let me know Mary!

Onur

My friend Onur sent me this shot all the way from Istanbul. I was thinking we would get a look into an exotic world and how the eastern half lives. Onur lives on the Asian side of Istanbul so that just barely qualifies as the east in my books. I was waiting with great anticipation for this image. Much to my disappointment it looks like any damn fridge! Ketchup, Coke, Danone and eggs. I can get that stuff here! Haha... I hope you were not expecting the west fridges to give you some excitement Onur! As far apart as we are, we all get the same stuff it seems. WHAT is in that stainless steel pot?!?!

Rob and Melissa

My oldest friend Rob (from grade school) sent this image from the B.C. main land. Ok Rob, who is the ketchup fanatic? You or Mel? Two big bottles? Oh BTW, pick up some milk on the way home as your almost out! I know Rob is a fancy kind of beer guy but I do not see one fancy beer in that fridge! You got a beer fridge Rob? I was hoping for some fancy beer when I looked in your fridge!

Matt

My nephew Matt in Edmonton sent me this shot. Left over city or what? And not one peanut butter on whole wheat sandwich (it's our little joke)! Love the big ass jar of maple syrup.

Todd

And last but not least is a shot from my dear cousin Todd, who is like a brother to me. Todd keeps it simple as you can see. Coffee, pop, beer, bread and butter! Nothing more, nothing less.....(is that a roll of toilet paper next to the beer?)

Thanks all for sending me the shots. I got way more than I expected and look forward to your comments.....

Canadian International

2010-10-16T23:29:00.005-04:00

It is the race that put Woodbine Racetrack here in Toronto on the world racing map 37 years ago. Mainly because back in October of 1973 the great Secretariat ran in the Canadian International, the final race of his amazing career.

Secretariat (AKA Big Red) was probably the best thoroughbred who ever set foot on a race track according to most people, me included. Not many would dispute this claim.

My uncle Ken attended Big Reds final race back in 1973 on a cold and wet October afternoon, he kept his racing forum and program as well as two win tickets for a souvenir of the big event. Ken says it was like a movie star came to town when Big Red showed up. Thanks to Ken for lending me the souvenirs to take images of.....

Big Red Souvenirs from 1973

I am a horse racing fan to say the least, but I hate the way Woodbine is now to be honest. For example say you want to watch the horses get saddled in the walking ring and then go make your bet and watch the race from the grandstand. Well after they saddle you would have to take two sets of escalators to go up to the second floor and then another two sets of escalators to get back down to ground level on the other side. You spend most of your afternoon riding on escalators. Thus the reason I never go to Woodbine. It is more slot machine friendly than it is horse racing fan friendly.

So even with my distaste for the way Woodbine is I decided to attended this years $2'000'000 Canadian International because I loved a horse in it named Al Khali trained by Bill Mott.

The Canadian International is also a Breeders Cup Challenge race (win and you're in the BC!). This brings in horses from all over the world to race over the E.P. Taylor turf course. As a further enticement for me to attend the races were the $1'000'000 E.P. Taylor Stakes and the $500'000 Nearctic Stakes on the under card. These other two events were also running on the turf and were also Breeders Cup Challenge Races. Not to mention the world class horses and riders converging on Woodbine for these big races today.

The 8th race was the $500'000 Nearctic Stakes at 6 furlongs on the grass with a field of 12. I liked the Irish horse Balthazaar's Gift with Luke Morris up but the other Irish bred Serious Attitude (Garret Gomez up) spoiled the day.

Serious Attitude winning the Nearctic Stakes

You can catch a replay of the Nearctic Stakes by clicking HERE.

I actually mentioned to Garret in the walking ring for the 7th race that I would forget his ride in the Kentucky Derby on Looking At Lucky if he punted Gunfighter home for me. Only to have him reply with a smile on his face "I forgot about him a long time ago!" MEH! I didn't Garret!

The 9th race was the $1'000'000 E.P. Taylor Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on the turf with a field of 10. I liked another Irish horse called Contredanse with you guessed it, Garret Gomez aboard. My uncle Ken liked the UK horse Reggane and it payed off for him as Christophe Soumillon punted Reggane home.

Reggane, winner of the E.P. Taylor Stakes

To watch a replay of the E.P. Taylor stakes click HERE

The 10th race was the $2'000'000 Canadian International at 1 and 1/2 miles with a field of 9. As I said, I really liked Al Khali with Alan Garcia up to win this event. Al Khali won his last start at Belmont in the G2 Bowling Green Handicap beating another really good turf horse called Winchester, who came right back to win the G1 turf classic.

2010 Canadian International out the gate

But at the 1/8th pole Al Khali was checked hard and had to circle out wide only to finish fourth beaten 3/4 of a length for it all by Irish bred horse Joshua Tree with Colm O'Donoghue aboard.

Joshua Tree on his way to the winners circle

To watch the 2010 Canadian International and see Al Khali (#5) get into trouble in the stretch click HERE

You heard it from the Stiffman people, keep your eye on Al Khali in the Breeders Cup Turf. He will be my best bet of the day!

I had a great time even though I lost some money. But as I said in the past, a bad day at the track beats a good day at work!

Be sure to check out my other shots from today by clicking HERE or looking below.......

A day of plane spotting at CYYZ

2010-10-03T22:01:00.000-04:00

Been a while since I did any spotting at CYYZ (Toronto) so off I went today with my scanner and camera in hand.

I stopped at the airline collectibles show on the way up to CYYZ and actually got an Air Canada domestic route briefing notes booklet. It covers airport info and so on for the ACA flight crews. What weather and gate numbers to expect, as well as preferred runway use and so on for all the domestic routes they fly (including the USA and Caribbean). Only $5!

I also got some Miami Air International Airlines notes pads for $1 each and a DVD version of the movie "Reach For The Sky" made in 1956. It's the story of Douglas Bader played by Kenneth Moore.

KLM 747-400 Taxing to 06L

I was shooting at CYYZ for about five hours total and I got some of my best shots from the 06L/R area late in the day. It was breezy, cloudy and cold for most of the day. And the last couple hours the sun decided to pop out.

I also shot from some areas that I do not normally shoot from trying to get some different angles. Such as the shot below....

Glide Slope Antenna

I was also treated to seeing an Icelandair 757-200 with winglets. Shots in the gallery linked below. The sun was setting so the shot's I did get were not so great really.

Of course I got some video too....

KLM 747-400 takingoff

Air Canada A330 Landing

And a JetAirways A330 takingoff.....

For the full gallery of today's shots click below.

Would love to hear some comments.....

Noctua NH-U12P SE2

2010-09-14T22:16:00.005-04:00

In all the years I have been building my own systems and all those systems later. I was never one for buying fancy coolers for my CPU. I would usually get an extra case fan or two and cable tie all the cable's and wires together to get some good air flow through my system. It always seemed to do the job well.

Keep in mind that I am not over clocking my system. We are talking stock speeds here.

All this was fine until I built my I7 system this summer. The I7 runs hot, real hot! Under load, say in FSX, it gets up to 80C. That is nothing....

(For my full system specs click HERE)

I used a benching program called Prime95 to torture test the CPU. It is a simple little program that puts the CPU (and all of the I7's 8 cores) under 100% load, it works on any CPU to boot. A great way to see if your computer is up to snuff.

Overclockers swear by it as it is a good way to see if your over clock is going to be stable. Or just how hot you can get your CPU.....

Stock I7 cooler...

With the stock I7 cooler after three minutes under Prime95 torture test I was hitting 100C! At this point the CPU has a built in safe system that starts to under clock the CPU on it's own to save it from frying up.

Under normal circumstances your CPU would never endure this kind of loading though. For example, running FSX it would max out at 80C. And FSX is pretty intensive on the CPU. Prime95 is only pushing the CPU and RAM to the maximum to test stability.

Comparing the I7 temperature to my Dual Core E7500 with the stock cooler under Prime95 (that is over clocked to 3.3ghz) the CPU temperature never gets above 67C.

After the shock of seeing 100C on my I7 I knew I needed an after market cooler. I started to do some looking around and seeing what guys were using. The Noctua NH-U12P SE2 kept coming up as a great and inexpensive alternative to the stock I7 cooler.

Noctua NH-U12P SE2

$55 later (plus shipping) my Noctua NH-U12P came in the mail today. You can click the link for all the details on the cooler, so I will not go into them here. I was a bit intimidated at first as I have never added anything like this to my system before. That is, something that was not the stock part, especially on my CPU. Adding screws, backing plates. And of course I have five thumbs at times....these old fingers are not as steady as they used to be....

It's a massive heat sink as you can see. Great for pulling off all that heat. I checked to see if I had clearance in the mother board for the heat sink and a two fan configuration before going ahead. It was going to be a tight fit.

I added the back plate and mounting brackets as pictured below.....

Mounting brackets around the CPU

Yes it would have been more than ideal to add the Noctua while building the system. But that was not the case for me. My Antec VSK2000 case has a hole in the back plate to make room for after market coolers backing plates and screws. So all I had to do was take a row of screws off the board to get the backing plate on. Saved me from removing the main board entirely. The instructions are also easy to follow with some great diagrams and even diagrams showing you the wrong way to put it on, with a red X through it in case your still unsure....

Heat Sink mounted

It was actually quite easy to install and took me less than an hour from pulling everything apart to getting up and running again. If the fan clips were not so tough it would have been 30 minutes. Getting the fan clips on were a pain in the ass as once the heat sink is mounted with the fans it is very tight as you can see below. Getting your hand in there to pull the clips on was very tough.

Fully loaded

The kit that comes with the cooler is great and even came with some premium thermal grease, two fans, that I hooked up in a push/pull configuration sending the heat out to the rear exhaust fan, and even it's own screw driver...

Now the results you ask? Was the $55 (plus shipping) worth it? Was the extra work entailed worth it? YES!

After ten minutes of Prime95 torture she never got hotter than 75C. A full 25C cooler than the stock fan. Correction, with the stock fan it took less than 3 minutes to hit the TJ Max of 100C on the CPU (the point where it starts to slow down to spare it from self destruction). So in closing the Noctua clobbers the stock fan and it's a move I'm glad I made......

Now HAL_I7 is ready for some over clocking. Would love see it running at 3.5ghz as the I7 is an easy CPU to O/C.

Also of note. I used RealTemp to measure the temperatures during my tests. As they measure them from the core and are actually much more accurate than using the mobo tool (such as Easy Tune or Asus Probe).

Flying solo...

2010-09-07T09:08:00.005-04:00

I had to say goodbye to my co-pilot Chance yesterday.

He had a stroke on Sunday morning. With him being sixteen, his age it seems had finally got the best of him. I never dreamed he would live to such an age to be honest.

Chance At Riverdale Park July 2003

I was with him the entire time during his short ordeal and he went to sleep comfortably in my arms. He was never alone and I was always by his side. It's the least I could do for him.

Chance At Home October 2007

A dogs life is his duty and devotion to his master. Unconditional love and fidelity, dogs live for it. A person can be so lucky to have a dog.

As your dog ages though it needs you. It is a masters duty to see their dog to the very end in the dogs time of need.

The dog never expects this from you, he is still willing and trying to give to you instead. He does not want you to know he is sick or in need. It is a dogs duty to make his master happy no matter what the circumstances are.

But as a dogs owner, you know that you at least owe them this help in their time of need, for all of that love and devotion that they have given you unconditionally.

If non dog owners do not know what I'm talking about, dog owners do know what I'm talking about.

It's part of the unwritten bonding code you have with your dog.

I have been fortunate enough to have a few great dogs in my life other than Chance. He and I shared a best friend in Karma, who we let go last year. And even before that was old Harley.

So here is to the dogs in my life. A salute and thank you. More so today to my old boy Chance who was tough as nails making it to 16. And a damn proud dog in the process.

Below are a couple of clips of Chance in action. He was not one posing for pictures (like Karma was) but he did like his making his movies as you can see below.

And Another video of Chance chasing the shovel.

Of course you can watch every one's all time favorite video he did back in 2004...

BUN!

Click HERE to see it.

Christine and I are going to miss you old boy!

My Old Boy

2010-08-19T21:41:00.006-04:00

Never did I think that my old boy Chance would make it to 16 years of age. And he is feeling it mind you, but none the less, he is 16 tomorrow (August 20th)!

Now that he is on the brink of 16 he said he wants his drivers licence (I did promise it to him when he was 10).....

Chance, shot today in the yard (August 19th)

His old bones are pretty rusty and he can't get around like he did even six months ago but we love him and are giving him extra cookies and hugs for the big event tomorrow. Not sure how much longer his legs can carry him but he has had a great life and never seen a bad day yet. Gotta love his stamina and determination. And I do.

OK, now on to HAL_I7......

My flight sim friends are wondering what the hell has happened to me! I have not done a flight in over 30 days so I need to get checked out again before I can fly.

In all seriousness, I upgraded my PC recently and had to wait three weeks for my new video card to arrive. And of course it's tweak this and tweak that. I need to have the sim running perfectly or I will not fly. Yes I am anal....it just has to be set up the way I like it.

So below is a shot of the new GTX460 card before she went into HAL_I7 last week.

EVGA GTX460 S/C EE 1024MB

I promise a flight (or two) is coming this weekend......HAL_I7 is almost fully operational as far as flight sim goes.

You know how it is, installing the addon's, configuring the scenery files, messing with the settings, adding that certain AFCAD and then configuring the joysticks and so on. If it's not 100% I will not go. Thus the reason for no post over there on the other side.

Now I have to add one last thing.....

We had a wicked T-Storm last Sunday night. I grabbed the camera in hopes of catching some of the lightening. And I did. It's not the best shot but a neat one to add to my collection....

Shot from my front porch at 12:30AM

So there it is...

Happy birthday to my old boy Chance! We call him fish lips due to the fish oil stain around his lips there.....(he eats lots of sardines!!)

Intel I7

2010-08-03T13:33:00.003-04:00

Well I took the plunge. After three years with a dual core system and a secondary quad core system I upgraded to an Intel I7 930. My older quad core finding a new home with my sister Shelley....

I have always been one to build my own systems. Do you really want a clone? YES!! Much better for customizing your needs and for me that is Flight Simulator.

So here are the specs of my new system...

Intel I7 930 Quad Core (2.8Ghz) CPU
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Mobo
Patriot Viper II Sector 7 Edition 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
NVidia GTX 460 1024MB
2X1TB Seagate Barricuda Sata2 HDD
Blu-Ray/DVD-RW Samsung
Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit
Antec VSK2000 Case
Antec EW 750W PSU

Bare bones, PSU and MOBO installed

All the computers I build get named HAL_XX, after the computer from the film "2001 A Space Odyssey". For example my P4 system was called HAL_P4, my dual core was HAL_DC.

Even my laptop that I got from Gateway got the HDD format treatment as soon as I got it to erase all that bloatware crap Gateway put on it. After a fresh Vista 64bit install I made that lap top my own and it got named HAL_LT, LT for "Lap Top".

So the Intel I7 system gets the name "HAL_I7", it's only fitting....

Inserting HAL_I7's brain, the 930 CPU

That is the processor chip I'm holding in my hand in the above photo. The actual processing chip is inside that wafer, it is even smaller than what you see here (that is also the plastic anti static cover too, removed before inserting on the mobo of course).

System with CPU and RAM installed

I love my cable ties too. I wrap up all the cables to help the airflow. I have fans at the front and back of the case. Notice too in the shot below that the HDD's are apart and not stacked on top of each other. Helps keep the heat down as the I7 can get up around 80C under load.

Everyone on board now?

That card in there is not my GTX 460 as it is on back order (it's my old 1024MB GTS 250).

The 460 got rave reviews and came pretty close to the 480 in benchmarks. And considering it is less than half the cost of the 480 series, consumes much less power and runs much cooler it is a hot item right now. It is even beating the 285 in a lot of cases....

All packed up

I put that home made filter on the side to keep the dust out (and dog hair). I know my nephews love those cases that are see thru and glow different colours but I'm much less fancy. It's what is under that hood that matters to me boys!

BTW, the Blu-Ray is mind blowing!!

BRATS

2010-07-17T18:39:00.004-04:00

Everyone loves food and it seems a popular topic here on the blog (who would have figured that from a fat guy?). It's also great to share ideas on food and cooking.

One thing I love is Bratwurst sausages, or as we say here "BRATS" pronounced "brots".

They have to be Johnsonville brand to be excellent. Others will do but something about those Johnsonville Brats is special.

I have a special way I cook mine. Get the grill heated up hot and then get the knief out.

Chop up an onion, couple cloves of garlic and your going to need a couple of beers and a pot.

Concoction beginning to boil

Now pour those beers into the pot and toss in the chopped onion and garlic (add spices or even peppers if you wish). Let the beer and the chopped onions boil and once at a rapid boil reduce heat to medium and toss in the raw brats.

Boil the brats until they turn an off white like the photo above. Your done with the stove.

Strain out the onions and brats (save the onions!!)

Now go turn the grill down to LOW heat and grill the brats a few minutes on each side. The key is low and slow cooking here and use TONGS. You do not want the brats to break open and lose all that juice.

Brats cooking low and slow

I tried Onurs advice from my last post and got some sunflower oil and did some fries again......

Golden brown in the sunflower oil

GREAT advice Onur! I love talking cooking with other people just for this reason. The fries came out great (Christine cooked them).

And a note to Sean and Shelley I will try the oven baked method once things cool down here a bit (still hot as hell!!). I bet they taste great too.

A little sea salt on those fries and a toasted bun with those beer soaked onions you saved (add a little Dijon mustard) and you have a great BBQ meal....

Brats and fries

Of course you can top off your meal with some fine Caribbean rum. I got this bottle of Cruzan this past spring while visiting Key West. It's made in St. Croix and goes great with loads of fresh lime, ice and cola.....

Rum and Coke

FEELIN THE HEAT!

2010-07-07T21:31:00.003-04:00

Wow first heat wave in three years. Goes to show how shitty the past few summers have been around hog town. I won't complain too much because I know my buddy Sean reads this and they live in Texas. Sean says that they treat summer in Texas like we treat winter in Ontario. Always inside where it's cool.....or in our case where it is warm.

I actually love the heat over the cold. Here are a few things I have heard today..."At least you can dress for the cold", "It's not all that heat it's the humidity".

WTF? I bundle up when it's cold (I work in an ice rink for fuck sakes) but no matter how much I bundle I still freeze my ass off after a while. Plus I have all that bulky shit on. No thanks, I'll take shorts and a tee shirt with my sweaty balls any day of the week over cold toes and fingers. And for the record it is the heat not the humidity. If it was 12C and 80% RH we wouldn't be hot.

For the record it has been in the mid 30C with a humidex well over 40C.

Now on to something glorious....FOOD!

A nice steak sandwich I made a couple weeks back. Complete with grilled peppers mixed in (it was left over steak and grilled peppers from the BBQ). Chopped up steak and peppers, re heat. Toss on some onion and Swiss cheese. And of course that is toasted sour dough bread.........

Steak Sandwich

No I did not forget to do some home made french fries to go with it, done in olive oil and sea salt.

Golden Brown

And on another note (yeah I know I am all over the place here). I got the writing table below at the Guild Wood garage sale at the end of May for $25! Ok maybe it was $35? I really can't remember at this point (seriously). It has a nice leather top. If anyone who was here that day can recall what I did pay please remind me.

Even though it is a "writing table" not much writing gets done on it.

My new writing table

And finally old Chance got a new bed today. He loves it as you can see and of course I put it right in front of his fan that he loves so much. No matter where I put the fan he sleeps right in front of it, and he is always in the office door like that so I put the fan and his new bed there to make him happy.

It's much deeper than his old bed (that was really a thick blanket). So when he gets up to walk off it he is still learning how wobbly it can be.

Chance on his new bed cooling down...

Stay warm or cool my friends!

My addiction

2010-06-06T21:30:00.009-04:00

First of all, here is to those guys and gals that helped save our collective asses on D-Day 66 years ago today.

I shot this photo of the Canadian Warplane Heritage B-25 at CYHM a few years back. It's painted in the D-Day markings (all the allied planes that took part in D-Day had these black and white stripes).

CWH Mitchell B-25 in D-Day markings

Now, I admit I have a little addiction. No it's not booze or whores (I went through that in my early twenty's and it is well out of my system now).

It's World Air Route DVDs.

What are WAR DVDs you ask?

Well, they are airline cockpit DVDs that show line pilot's in action. Kind of a ride along with the crew if you will.

Boring to most people so I never subject any guest's to them. I wouldn't go showing them my addiction out in the open just like that.

WAR DVD cover

Of course those family and friends that are very close to me have been subjected to forced viewing of WAR DVDs. Just like an alcoholic drinks in front of the people closest to them and does not care if family and close friends know they have a problem. You let your bad habits show to the people closest to you.

And of course to fellow addicts as well, you know who you are.....

I have 131 WAR DVDs in my collection now. I also have many more aviation related DVDs.

From Sporty's, ITVV, Aero Presentation and Viking Aviation....to name a few others. Not near as many in those collections as in my WAR one.

Anyway, here is a list of the WAR DVDs I own for those wondering.

LINK

ROTATE!!!

Victoria Day

2010-05-24T13:32:00.002-04:00

Victoria Day. The unofficial start to summer here in Canada and the first of the summer long holiday weekends.

That means BBQ's and public fireworks shows and plenty of alcohol to be consumed.

Nothing beats vodka and cooked animals on a hot afternoon!

Canada is a former colony of the UK and we have a semi hard on for everything British, hell it took us 100 years to get our own flag and we have old Elizabeth Regina on our money too. Many things "Canadian" stem from our British beginnings....

Take the province of Alberta, it was named after the Princess Louise Caroline Alberta. The daughter of Queen Victoria. And they also named the little hamlet of Lake Louise after her.

I took the shot below, of Lake Louise, in July of 2007 from Mount Whitehorn. I was at about 6'000ft when I took the shot. It is directly across from Lake Louise. In behind the lake you can see Mount Victoria, shrouded in cloud cover but you get the idea. The mountain is of course named after the Queen Victoria....the view is breath taking there as you can see. Queen Victoria on the other hand....(YIKES!)

Lake Louise mid photo, Mt. Victoria behind it

OK enough about that, on with the BBQ! It going to be warm all week here with temperatures in the mid 20's and low 30's.

Even old Chance got in on the out door action today and decided to hang out on the deck all afternoon.

Chance on the deck

Now back in the winter my friend Hughes Dog was talking about BBQ's and so on (he is a great BBQ master as well). And he mentioned how he enjoys grilling his peppers. It is a great idea that I had forgot about for a long time so I started doing it again. Everyone does them different but here is how I do mine (having a Vodka and Lemonade before hand is optional)....

Start with your fresh peppers

I use green, red, yellow or what ever I can find. I hull them and cut them into quarters as you can see below.

Pepper quarters

Next I put them in a dish with some spices (today I went Cajun!) and a little olive oil to coat them. Then shake the shit out of the dish and viola!

Ready for the grill....

Grill on low heat until they are tender enough for your own taste. I like mine with a little bit of crunch left in them.

See what happens when you talk BBQ with another BBQ fan?

Another year got behind me

2010-05-17T14:22:00.002-04:00

I'm another year older today and I can certainly feel it. But if it was not for the feeling old days in our lives we would never know what feeling young was like. I do feel young now and again, does that make sense?

I wanted to post this shot of old Chance too. It is a trick I taught him. To play dead...

Chance playing dead

Hehe, he does a great job huh? Actually that is how he sleeps. Usually in the doorway to my office so I can't get in or out with out him knowing.

Last spring we had a Robins Nest in our spruce tree by the dining room window. And I think we had another one this year until the wind storm we had last week that knocked the eggs out of the nest. One of them I found on the ground and took a picture of it.

Robins Egg

I see an empty nest too. And upon further investigation we also have a morning Dove living in the tree too. We have yet to see her leave the nest though.

Dove sitting in her nest.

It's like a bird condo out there!

HEY! Happy birthday to me!

Back in the day....

2010-05-09T12:52:00.004-04:00

After watching Lewis Hamilton crash out at Spain in the F1 race today I decided to play the races at Belmont. I like Posner Girl to win the first race just for the record (she finished out of the money)

With all those years of hooking up a jog cart or a sulky to a trotter (and a few pacers) behind me. Not to mention all that mud I scooped out of my eyes and the frost bite scars on my ears. I happened to recalled that back in the day, I did work with runners at one time (a slang term we used at the track for Thoroughbreds)

So a picture from the archives is in order....that is me in the red sweater...

Me holding Quite A Breeze

Also of note since I was speaking of F1. Yesterday marked 28 years since we lost the most exciting racing driver ever, Gilles Villeneuve. On May 8th 1982 Gilles died in a qualifying accident at Zolder for the Belgium Grand Prix. I still recall how shocked I was when the interupted CBC sports with the news.

The Zamboni Man.....

2010-05-02T18:40:00.004-04:00

Plagiarized by yours truly....a little gag tune I have been working on for the guys at the rink.

To be sung to the tune of:
The Pony Man
by Gordon Lightfoot

The Zamboni Man

CHORDS:
/ G - C G / - C G - / - - C G / - C D G /

When it's midnight at the rink and the nets are in the shed
And the ice shavings tell a story at the window by my bed
If you listen very closely, be as quiet as you can
In the yard you'll hear him, it is the Zamboni Man

We're always there to greet him when he rumbles into town
He brought a string of Zambonis some are white and some are brown
And they never seem to stall or skid, they only want to go fast
They run on cotton candy instead of liquid propane gas

And when we are assembled he gives a soft command
And we climb aboard our Zambonis as in a row they stand
Then down the ice we go and across the rink we fly
And soon we all go driving off into the midnight sky

And as we gently ride along atop a freshly resurfaced pad
There's Tom and Dick and Sally and Mary Jo and Chad
The Zamboni Man is leading 'cause he's done this before
And he gives a whoop and a holler at the players dressing room door

And then we stop to rest a while where the edger machine stays
Up to the rink comes a team dressed in pink to ask us if they can play
And the Zamboni Man's the boss and we are the maintenance crew
And we go in search of pucks and tape and laugh the whole night through

And when the Zamboni is filled with snow and the water tank is through
And the benches piled high with asshole hockey players just like you
Then down the ice a whirring so swift our Zambonis fly
And then we're safely in our beds again when the water freezes dry

When it's midnight on the rink and the nets are in the shed
And the ice shavings tell a story at the window by my bed
If you listen very closely, be as quiet as you can
In the yard you'll hear him, it is the Zamboni Man

More FLA images...

2010-04-26T13:14:00.003-04:00

Christine posted some pictures she took from our trip to Florida.

Similar to mine but some different ones too....worth a look for sure.

Click The Image Below To View Her Album.....

Florida

Here is to Karma

2010-04-22T15:30:00.006-04:00

I cannot help but remember my old girl Karma more so today than others. It would have been her 14th birthday.

She was always a ham for the camera and I wanted to post this photo of her.

Her photograph was a regular thing on my blog here due to her candid poses (she used to try and talk, no really she did!).

Karma trying to talk in March 2008

My sister was looking at one of my books last night and she reminded me of an old RAF saying (it was printed in the book she was looking at).

"May the skin of your ass never cover a banjo"

Here is to the memory of Karma! We are still thinking about you old girl!

Florida Trip Album Posted

2010-04-07T12:12:00.003-04:00

I posted a photo album of our trip to Florida on my Picasa account. You can click HERE or just use the slide show below.

Of course have a look at my other albums on there, like the Horse Racing and the KFLL & KMIA airplane album as I have added many shot's from the trip to those albums as well.

(I only put a couple airplane and horse racing shot's in the actual Florida album).....

Spotting at KFLL Fort Lauderdale..

2010-04-04T11:04:00.005-04:00

On my recent trip to Florida I did some plane spotting at KFLL. I want to give a big thanks right now to Mark Lawrence for his excellent KFLL spotters guide page at NYC aviation. You can find it by clicking HERE (they also have many other airports covered).

Mark also has some great photo's of his shooting sessions HERE.

I spent about an hour shooting the planes coming and going from 09L.

Air Transat A310

You get two choices shooting at KFLL. The spotters area near the BRAVO taxiway at the 09L threshold. And shooting from the top of the Hibiscus parking garage. Both great spots.

Jet Blue E190

The spotters area is excellent and even has a loud speaker with the tower on it. You do have to shoot through a fence though. So bring a ladder or keep your shot's in tight. There is also a problem with heat haze (haze vapours rising off the pavement). You can get some great shots as they line up for takeoff on 09L but once it starts to get hot the haze ruins the image.

NWA 757-300

I seen many of my familiar airlines from home there. WestJet, Sunwing, Air Transat and of course Air Canada.

Delta 757-200

Also some new ones to add to my photo collection. Spirit airlines and Allegiant. I actually got the new and old paint schemes of Spirit Airlines.

US Airways 737-400

I also got some Jet Blue images as well (as you can see above).

Allegiant MD-80

A few of these I shot from inside terminal 2 at KFLL while waiting for my departure back home. I just walk around and shoot pictures out the window.

Comair CJR-200

I did get to see a Capital Air Cargo 727-200 land and many 757's are coming and going as well.

APU heat haze on the 757-200

I also seen a FedEx MD-11 in the cargo ramp area. It was too far for me to shoot though.

Another Delta 757-200

The image of the Air Canada A320 below was my ride back home.

Air Canada A320

I also uploaded a couple of videos.

This is the really heavy chop we encountered on our way in to KMIA when landing...

And this was our takeoff in rainy wet weather out of CYYZ. It shows us breaking out VFR on top...

I will add all my spotting images to my Picasa photo account as well I will make a Florida trip album. Once I load them all up to Picasa I will post the albums link here on my blog.....

The Loop road Swamp

2010-04-03T16:08:00.006-04:00

Well we made it home. I was too tired Thursday night to post images from the last day of the trip so I figured after being home and unpacking I could sort through my images on my main PC here in the office and post some shots from the last day.

My sister Shelley held down the fort here at home and took care of our old boy Chance while we were gone. DOONKA SHELLEY!!

Thursday started early, before the sun got up even. This was so we could snap some images of the sun coming up over the Atlantic Ocean on Hollywood Beach. We were treated to a great show by the sun and met a few dogs and dog walkers, as well as a fisherman while there.

Sunrise on Atlantic Ocean at Hollywood Beach

Then we did some plane spotting at KFLL (Fort Lauderdale). I'll post some images tomorrow from my short but great spotting session.

I had planned on doing a one off flight lesson in the 172 but the timing was bad and I would have to go mid afternoon if I wanted to fly. Thus it would have ruined the whole day's plans so we nixed it and headed west along route 41 to the Gulf Coast to catch the sunset.

Route 41 has a dirt road by pass about half way along the route called the loop road scenic drive.

It is a rustic rough and dirty dirt road moon shiners used to use. It runs straight through the everglades swamp and it is so back woods and uninhabited you have some great chances to see some wild life there.

Loop road

Loop road is 20 miles long and is full of large puddles and gigantic pot holes. Not a great road in a 4X4 let alone a Mustang! I never got the car above 15MPH and the 20 mile drive took over two hours! As scary as it was we did get some great shots.

Crane in the Florida Everglades

Alligators galore on this road. Even laying on the road. I almost ran this guy pictured below (he was sunning himself). I tossed an M&M at him and he still wouldn't move (no I did not get out of the car for the shot).

Alligator on the Loop Road

A rare site was next, the Wood Stork is on the endangered species list and we were lucky to spot and photograph one. The bird is very large and it's wing span is massive (like a small airplane!). The one we shot was very shy too....

Wood Stork hiding in a tree

We were actually a little frightened on this road. If your car broke down you would be there a while. We only passed maybe four other cars coming the opposite way. Then to make matters worse, we seen a Vulture...(my friend Sean who lives in Texas has these in his back yard all the time).

Black Vulture

Most of the road was covered in brush with little pockets of open areas. This is where we seen most of the wild life. You had to be careful as Gators sit on the edge, hiding and very still. Hoping to snatch something that is unsuspecting in their jaws. So being careful it was not my arm or leg we did manage to get some great photo's. It also crossed my mind that we could come across a Florida Panther. Those are very rare so I was not too worried.

White Heron

One guy told us he was feeding the Gators marsh mellows. Who would have figured they would like them? I bet they would eat my watch if it was attached to my arm now that I think about it. So they can't be that fussy. We did see many Alligators in many different places. In one spot there had to be ten swimming around in the swamp.

Alligators, see the guy sunning on the log?

We were happy to get off the Loop road after a couple hours driving very slowly on it. The loop road boots you off back on route 41 in a town called Monroe Station. It's a dead little town and former southern head quarters for Frank's Pickles.

Former Frank's Pickles HQ

We then headed west to Marco Island and south Marco Beach. Just south of the tiny city of Naples on the Gulf of Mexico. It was a great beach and we were treated to a great sunset and a spectacular show by the local brown pelican's. Diving after fish in the shallow waters near the shore and swooping around in front of the setting sun.

Pelican's in the sunset on the Gulf of Mexico

After the sun set people gave a large applause and were cheering (like you would after watching a great performance by an entertainer). Hell even we were clapping. The sun did put on a great show. Only thing about the sun is it will never change it's show times under any circumstance...........

Seeing the sunrise on one body of water in the morning and then seeing it set on another body of water in the same day was pretty amazing. I have to admit, I do like the sunset's much better!

Feeling tired but then I got inspired...

2010-04-02T00:12:00.003-04:00

...and I knew that it wouldn't last long.

So we had a full day again today. And I am pretty bagged. I did plan on adding another post before we head home in the morning. But it is late and we have to get up early and we still have bags to pack and so on.

So, when I get home I will do my last post and share some great images (prolly on Saturday afternoon).

In a nut shell here is how the day went......

We got up REALLY early to shoot the sun rise on the Atlantic coast and got some amazing images. Then we went to shoot some airplanes at KFLL (Fort Lauderdale Airport), well I did at least (thanks for coming baby!).
Then a drive along route 41 and a side track cut off along the loop road scenic drive through the everglades (many wild life shot's including alligators). The road was an adventure on it`s own taking two hours to drive 20 miles! But some great shots as a result.

We ended up the day on Marco Island in the Gulf of Mexico to shoot the sun going down and we were treated to a spectacular show by both the sun and a group of pelican's.

Keep an eye on the blog, I will do one last wind up post with pictures and all the details. As well I will throw up a photo album later in the weekend and link to it.

Spirit Airlines A319 at 09L KFLL

Big Al went to the dogs....

2010-03-31T21:34:00.007-04:00

As I said last year, a bad day at the track is better than a good day at work. So off to south Florida's top track we went today, Gulfstream Park in Hollywood Florida.

Elvis Trujillo on Super Girlie

Now I love a hunch bet better than anyone. And I will chase one if it catches my eye. Just like on my 40th birthday I bet Shifty's Big Al at Finger Lakes. Big Al is something many people have called me in my life. My name is Al after all and I am a big guy.

Now today I was looking through the Racing Form and a horse called "Big Al" was racing in the sixth race going a 1 1/16th on the turf. So another hunch bet was in the works.

Big Al in the paddock at Gulfstream

Big Al punted one home but didn't pay much $7.20 to win and $4.80 to place (I had $10/$10 on him)

Elvis Trujillo (L) and Paco Lopez (R)

So we lost $40 and like I said, a bad day at the track is better than a good day at work. Gulfstream is an awesome place and we had a great time.

After the day playing horses at Gulfstream the day went to the dog's. Literally.....

Hollywood dog racing track at Mardi Gras casino is also located in, you guessed it, Hollywood Florida!

When I lived in Chicago I used to go to the dog racing in Wisconsin on a regular basis. It's fun watching the grey hounds whip around the track.

Post parade at Hollywood Dog Track

And to see a video I shot of the dog racing action click the image below....

Cayo Heuso....

2010-03-30T22:50:00.011-04:00

...Spanish for "bone Isle", the gringos pronounced it Key West and we all know winners of wars write the history books.

We were "spose-da" spend a couple hours in Key West and head back to Fort Lauderdale but we ended up spending the day here in Cayo Heuso because we thought it was such a neat place.

Breakfast started early at Pepe's Cafe on 525 Caroline Street. It's the oldest restaurant in Key West and a favorite with locals and celebrity's alike, including President Harry Truman who spent winters in Key West while in office.

Excellent food, expensive, but it's Key West and your paying while your here. The fresh squeezed OJ was awesome.....

Pepe's Cafe 806 Caroline Street

I decided to get my picture taken on Caroline Street too....

Am I goin crazy?

Then we checked out various spots around town. Some popular and others not so....

Hemingway's Compound in Key West

We planned on going inside to see Hemingway's diggs while he lived in Cayo Heuso but the line was long so we said fuck it. Too popular I guess.

And we decided to check out a few places that are long forgotten and not so popular.

We went down the the Snake Pit (at 208 Duval)..... the real name for "The Snake Pit" was "The Old Anchor Inn" but it's long gone and now the "Red Garter Saloon" takes it's place.

The Old Anchor Inn, was AKA, "The Snake Pit"

Then a visit to 109 Duval and what used to be Howie's Lounge (now it's an "Everything for $5" store)

Howie's Lounge

After that I stopped at Fausto's on 522 Fleming for a chocolate milk (really I did!!)...

Went out to Fausto's to get some chocolate milk...

My two favorite Jimmy Buffett albums are A1A and Havana Day Dreaming. When Jimmy wrote A1A he lived at 704 Wadell street. The green window to the left of the door used to be the door to the upstairs apartment that JB Rented.

704 Wadell Street

The cool part about all the places along Wadell is they back on to the beach and Atlantic Ocean, being only 90 miles from Cuba (and a block form the tourist magnet "southern tip marker").

This beach that is in the back yard at 704 Wadell was where Jimmy sat on his beach and made up that song, "Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season"....

Next door to 704 Wadell was and still is "Louie's Backyard" restaurant and Bar. Of course we stopped in for a beer and some sunshine. It's just two steps and a fence hop from 704 Wadell that is now a tourist resort hotel.

The photo for the album cover of A1A was shot in this very spot where I am sitting pictured below, in the "Back Yard" part of Louie's. With a great view of the ocean as a back drop.

Me in Louie's Backyard

Then of course we visited the Key West Lighthouse. Built in 1849 it was a good enough reason for us to shoot many pictures of it. Not as cool as Point Reyes Lighthouse but still.....

Key West Lighthouse

We spent a lot of time on the beaches getting our feet wet today too. The water was warm enough for swimming in so it was a pleasure this time around.....I was wishing I had put on my swimming trunks.

Me and Christine on the Beach near Louie's Backyard

We are in Fort Lauderdale now. Hoping to get my ass up before dawn and get a shot of the sunrise on the Atlantic and then drive over to Naples on the Gulf coast to get a shot of the sun going down.....

Key West

2010-03-29T20:42:00.006-04:00

Key West Florida.....

Those who know me well also know I am a Jimmy Buffett fan. I love his older music the most (from the 70's). Songs he wrote while living in Key West Florida. So going to Key West is more than a visit to the tropics for me. Key West is only 90 miles to Cuba after all. And it's the place I have heard Jimmy sing about for all those years...

Base leg over Miami Beach for 26R at KMIA

After leaving Toronto in the middle of the dreary 3C night Sunday and catching a 6:30AM flight from Toronto to Miami on Monday. Add to it the arrival route to KMIA was littered with thunder storms as we touched down hard in Miami to some humid and hot 26C weather.

Changed into some shorts and then we hopped in our rented Mustang. Driving south on US1 through the Keys to the very end, Key West. About a four hour drive with a couple short breaks.

A1A and US1 meeting spot, Key West

Duval street is the place to see while here in Key West. It is a mix between Lundy's Lane in Niagara Falls and Niagara on the lake, if that seems possible. It has it's mixed bag of characters here, from beach bums, the very wealthy to plain old bums. Trendy shops to shady looking establishments. All in all it is pretty fucking neat down here. You never know what your going to see.

Shady spot just off Duval Street

It's very tourist oriented here as most of the folks are here on Vacation. The town is also very old and has many of the original old buildings still hanging around.

Mixed bag along Duval Street

One strange thing we seen was stray roosters and hens every where. They are protected in Key West and wild like pigeons for some strange reason. You can just be walking along the street and a bunch of roosters and hens are walking along like they think they are pigeons....pecking and cocka doodle dooing.

Stray Rooster near Greene Street

You gotta love the warm breezes and palm trees here. It is like being in another world. I know it can get real hot here in the summer. Not to mention the hurricanes. We drove through one down pour neat Key Largo where I could barely see the hood of the car. People were pulling off the road it was coming down so hard. And then ten minutes later it was sunny again.

Christine under the palm trees

And how could I go to Key West with out stopping into Captain Tony's for a scotch and soda. It's a dump but Hemingway used to hang out there when he lived in Key West during the 30's, as did Jimmy Buffett in the 70's. It's quite a unique place with a tree growing in the middle of the bar and going straight through the roof (that tree on the left is actually inside the place!)

Capt. Tony's

I tried to get a shot of the tree inside the bar but it was much too dark in there.

I went out to Captain Tony's, to get out of the heat....

Of course I had to see Caroline Street too, the street made famous by Jimmy Buffetts song "A woman going crazy on Caroline Street"

And we decided to have dinner at Caroline's patio (located on the corner of Duval and Caroline)

Carolines Patio

We had salad and cajun chicken pasta, I give it a six out of ten, make it a five for making me sit on plastic chairs.

Cajun Penne Chicken (MEH!)

We drove down here with very few stops so we could get here with day light to spare. Tomorrow we plan on making our way around town and then heading north to Fort Lauderdale, stopping in the other Keys along the way. Among them Key Largo and the spot where they filmed the famous movie.

More pictures of Key West and the rest of the Keys tomorry....

HEY! You fellow plane buffs can catch the video I shot of the landing at KMIA by clicking HERE, complete with a nice view of the north cargo area of KMIA.....

HIDEY HO!

2010-03-20T15:41:00.004-04:00

Hey there! Time for my monthly state of the union address.....

A simpleton such as myself can become amused over the simple things in life. Take the weather we had this week here in Hog Town (Toronto's nick name). It has been 15-18 Celsius all week and even today is not that bad really. Got as warm at 6 Celsius but over cast and grey. This kind of weather can make anyone feel giddy. Almost like it is spring time in mid March (we don't get those temps until late April).

So today I got out the camera and was going to head up toi CYYZ for some spotting but with it being cooler and windy I decided not to.

But the day did get started with a breakfast of coffee and fresh fruit, as Donny would say. "A fresh breakfast is a great way to start the day" maybe he worked for the egg council at one time? I dunno but here is to you Donny (and you too Hughes, wink wink).

Fresh CAFFEE.....

I also noticed that the tulips are starting to poke their heads out around the garden beds here due to our April like weather. Before you know it I will be chasing my lawn mower around again. But before that Christine and I are headed to sunny FLA for a few days to end out the month.

Flying into Miami and then driving down to Key West. I figure we will check out Hemingway's old haunt (Sloppy Joe's, now called CPT. Tony's) have a drink in Hemingway's honor. Then catch some sun rays and breath in that thick salt air. Take a few photo's and come back home.

Sprouts....in the garden

While we are gone my sister Shelley will be minding the fort and taking care of my old boy Chance. he is pushing 16 years old now and spends most of his time eating sardines, dog biscuits and sleeping. Farting and pooping too....

Chance in his favorite position

I tried to get him to chase the tennis ball around in the yard today (he used to love that almost as much as eating and sleeping). But he wouldn't have any of it. I did get him to pick it up in his mouth but he spit it out just as quickly as he picked it up.

He is a little spoiled, even more so since Karma left us.

Christine brushing Chances hair

So keep an eye on the blog around the end of the month and early April. I will try to post some pics of the trip every day or two while we are away.

This is comedy.....

2010-02-12T17:33:00.005-05:00

So, I think I am funny. Just you watch....

And if you did not find that funny just make up a batch of Gin Tin's...then drink it and watch it again.
Gin Tin's you ask? Well I found this little drink mix in the news paper and decided to mix it up.

Your gonna need:
A) Strawberry's
B) Gin (or vodka or rum)
C) Lime Juice and a couple of lime's
D) Ginger Ale (or 7UP)
E) Sugar

Got booze in the blender.....

OK add your 1/2 quart of berries (top removed) to the blender, then two tea spoons of sugar, 1/4 cup of lime juice. And a cup (8oz) of Gin (or vodka or rum).

WHRRRRRRRR, blend the shit out of it! Next pour into a martini glass with a couple of ice cubes and a splash of ginger ale (or 7UP if you used vodka or rum).

Garnish with fresh lime and a strawberry.

Viola!

And soon it will render......