Advertisement
Published: July 23rd 2007
Annie:
We had a fantastic day yesterday, visiting the Barnes family in Whitby near Toronto. Roger, Deb, Courtney, Devon, and Taylor. My, have the girls grown up! Last time we saw them, they were girls, now they’re beautiful and smart young women. Time flies, but funnily, other than the growing up thing, everything was as before. Roger made his famous chicken with Brava sauce, that Greg had been looking forward to for a long time. (Too spicy for me). Dave and Maria, Tianna and Spencer, you would have loved the Brava sauce. We missed you guys. Joey took the opportunity to immerse himself in teenage culture. He frolicked with the girls in the pool and had a great time. Then Devon and her boyfriend William came home, and Will’s first words were his confession to Mother Debbie:…. “Boy, we got so drunk last night!” The next ten minutes were taken up by Devon’s attempts to extricate herself from this statement by saying things like “I didn’t drink, Mom, believe me , it’s all his fault….” While Will was grinning and winking at Debbie in a way to say “Yeah, sure, don’t believe a word she’s saying.” (Dave, are you reading
this?) All this while Joey was hanging over the pool railing with big eyes and huge Dumbo ears to make sure he wouldn’t miss any of this excitement. Debbie took it all in stride, with good humor. With 3 teenagers in the house, this kind of scenario might play itself out a few more times in the next years??? And who knows, maybe Will was just pulling Debbie's leg... Roger has a book displayed prominently in a certain room ensuring maximum exposure to all, that is titled “8 simple rules for dating my teenage daughter”. He’s probably hoping that Will “finds” this book and studies it at every opportunity. Will is actually a really nice, funny guy who magically seems to fit right in with the girls. I thought teenage boys are supposed to be all geeky and shy around girls. Aside from the fact that Joey has the same first name (officially, his name is William), he had a field day with Will, who is a military man. Joey got to ask all his burning questions on weaponry and strategy. (Joey is the grandson of my dad, a Prussian soldier). So, Joey has always had an immense interest in
battle games and such, even before he was aware of his Opa’s lifestory. Must be genetic. At first Greg and I were concerned, but then realized that Joey was quickly able to learn to build whole civilizations from scratch, managing natural resources, manpower, education, and yes, also defense. Then we just accepted it as part of his interests, and let him explore these things under our supervision. His internet handle is "Admiral". So, anyways, he started to “pump” Will with questions, but as Will is just starting his training, Joey will have to come back to talk to him again in a year or two. When Will wasn’t busy throwing the giggling girls around, he played air hockey with Joey and a game cube game on snowboarding. While all this happy madness is going on, the house is teeming with animals: Toby the “God” (dog, that is), who is getting really old but is still sweet and beautiful; Cheetah, the big cat, who kept trying to hide from Joey who was chasing her to pick her up and cuddle her (her favorite hiding place is the chair under the kitchen table, where she curls up and looks like an old
sweater); Bailey the budgy and Lenny the cockatiel in their cages, shaking their heads at the going-ons at appropriate intervals; Molly and Maggie, the invisible cats; and Zeus and Hera, two bunnies who were safe in their cages upstairs in Taylor’s bedroom. (I think it’s Taylor’s, I might be confused). Apropos Zeus and Hera. The day before yesterday we were driving through Toronto and looking at boring street names like Elli’s Road, John’s road, and such. So I said to Greg and Joey, why don’t they give streets more exciting names, like based on Greek mythology, like Achilles or Hera. So yesterday, the first street name I bother to look at (sitting in the back seat, with Joey being the navigator), is “Achilles”. Then we come to a place called “Ajax”, and the bunnies are called Zeus and Hera. That’s so cool. I think the universe and I are in sync. I love it when that kind of thing happens. Coming back to Lenny, the cockatiel. He is white with a yellow feather crown on his head. There's a story that goes with Lenny. Roger and the family were watching a ball game at a local park when this weird-looking
birds swoops down and lands a few feet away from Roger. So he goes over and stretches out his hand, and the bird hops on it. They put it under a laundry basket they have in the van and drove it home. They try for months to find out who lost him, but no-one comes forward. Then one day it turns out that it's the bird of the Vet's secretary! And she didn't seem keen on having him back, so the girls got to keep Lenny. Cool story. So, dinner was delicious, including the home baked pie Roger had made. (Greg graciously let me had two tiny nibbles of it. I would have had the whole thing by myself, if he’d let me. But he’s on to me. His eagles' eyes don't miss a thing, and I swear he has some in the back of his head too, and to boot he can look through walls.) Then we had a really nice walk along the beautiful seawalk in Whitby, with the purple horizon in the setting sun. We took great pictures. More frolicking in the darkening park by various teens, Joey in their midst. Courtney was fascinated by the many
bats who were out in force in the park, emanating in flapping clouds from a large tree, swooping and zig-zagging about in pursuit of their hapless victims, which were pesky little bugs biting us. So the bats were our allies. I think of Courtney as the “Batgirl” now. But she’s right, bats are fascinating. Upon our return to the house, Roger showed us some of his favorite jokes and funny videos on the computer. It was hilarious. Will and the girls wanted him to go to Youtube and see something called “the evolution of dance” but we had to leave, because it was getting late. So we’ll have to catch up on that on our own time. No doubt it will be less fun without the “gang” there. It was great there. I don't know how Debbie keeps everything so clean and tiny with her all her family and the zoo they have there, but their house is so beautiful and warm and homey....and clean and tidy. Wow. Well, enough for now, it’s check out time at the hotel, and we’re looking forward to visiting Linda, Verne and Grammy today in Peterborough, Ontario (Dave’s mom, dad and grandma). It will
be so nice to see them again. -----------------------------------------------------
Well, it's some time later since my last note. We did get to see Linda, Verne and Grammy, and Linda and Verne's grandkids Becky, Brittany and Ryan. Joey was off for a chase and hide and seek with the kids, while Greg and I were treated to a lovely welcome with hugs and kisses, and then an awesome lunch. I really loved the Sobeys Meat pie that Grammy had brought for us. Linda had made a lovely pie, which I was at least allowed to look at and smell. Yummy. It was so much fun catching up on things. They had been at our house a couple of Christmasses ago, and Grammy had played the piano so beautifully... She still plays the organ at church functions and such, and is a powerhouse of a grandma. I wish I had half her charm and energy. In German we say, "She'll put you in her pocket", meaning she can keep up with you with anything, and even can outdo you. It was great to see Linda and Verne again, too. We got to see Verne's music station with piano and drum sets, and even
saw an old poster advertising his band playing in 1965. I must say, he's hardly changed. We also saw posters of Dave, of course, and read an article on him in Fame magazine in the July 07 issue. I had already seen that hanging up on Devon's wall, but Greg hadn't seen it yet. We all loved the picture of Dave. Great photo, Ryan! Greg told Linda and Verne what a talented photographer you are. He says your work has now surpassed Nick Seiflow's.
Grammy says hello to Jeanette, and says she really loves the potholder you gave her that says,: Don't treat me any different than you would the Queen!". Grammy actually looks like the Queen and dresses up as her for community functions. She also says to tell you that the roll of quarters you sent her for Bingo made her win $30. She was very happy about that. Then Grammy had to interrupt herself to chase after Brittany who had snatched Grammy's dinner, which was a big chickenleg. When Grammy returned from the chase triumphantly, a bite had been taken out right from the middle. So Grammy stands in the middle of the kitchen brandishing the chicken
leg like a sword and yelling (good-naturedly), "stay away from my dinner!" It was so funny. After lunch, Linda and Verne showed us the famous Peterborough Lift locks, which are two huge platforms that lift and lower boats between two levels of the local waterway. We didn't get to see it in action, but it's impressive. Peterborough is a beautiful town with a strong British flare to it, and we loved the houses. This is where Dave and Maria went to school and grew up. It was neat to know that. All in all, it was a wonderful visit, too short, but sweet.
Now we're in Quebec, and off for a nice long sleep. Greg will post pix tomorrow.
Annie
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 7; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0419s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Taylor
non-member comment
Hello!
Hey Andersons! Wanted to say we had a great time, and we hope the rest of your journy is good. By the way, Zeus and Hera are Dev's bunnies, and Cheetah is a male, though his feminine meow can easily confuse ;). Hope to see you again! Now you are only a very long drive away, vs a plane ride!