Before I go...

On sunday i visited my adorable niece KLH before i leave the continent for nearly 2 months... i'm going to miss her and all my family and friends - but i can't wait to explore Europe and meet all kinds of people and cultures and experiences!! Back to eurotrip packing...

So myself and the usual suspects decided to take a road trip following Yonge Street from Queen's Quay all the way into Barrie... I was in charge of taking pictures when I noticed this great sign north of hwy 407 =) ... This mini road trip allowed us reason to head to Casino Rama as well. Our first time playing at a casino involved looking for the cheapest card game tables - and the winner was War with a $10 minimum bet... i gained some chips from my second $20 bill to play the cheap BJ tables at $15 minimum bet... that didn't turn out so well so i went back to War to somehow turn $12.50 into $35 to end up -$5 for the day. the poker room was packed as the hold'em tables were all busy - next time, i'll come with the intention to actually play hold'em!

Back from 4 days of camping in Ontario's beautiful Algonquin Park... From the 17th to 19th we camped on a really nice interior campsite on Lake Opeongo - it took a while to finally find this gem as our initial choice was severely lacking. It took 3 hours of canoe paddling to get to our area of the lake - i loved it as it enabled some semblance to the dragon boat stroke and provided excellent exercise! It was a great time being isolated from all the luxuries we're used to, but we were all glad to get back to the rental place on the 3rd day for a warm shower and to eat a delicious meal at Montana's (near Orillia)

I'll never have to see one of these sheets of papers ever again... that's right, I'm now finished at UW and have completed my BMath in CS/IS. Oct. 23 is the official convocation date and I'll be there to pick up my $50,000 piece of paper - of course I'll be framing it in an $80 UW engraved frame...

Kaitlyn is so close to giving her thumbs up for approval!  

So before I write my penultimate final exam at UW, i forgot to mention what i did on the weekend. After writing my in-class exam in my last UW class ever last Friday, I headed over to the gym, packed some laundry to bring home, and then later got onto a Greyhound. I met up with my bro-in-law, Judd, at Union... My family was all surprised at seeing my post-mohawk shaved head... They just need to get used to it because it's already been a couple of weeks and i'm going to trim it again - and keep it that way (indefinitely?). I watched my copy of The Pianist on DVD finally on Friday night and reaffirmed that this is a great film and am glad of my purchase! It makes me wish that i could play the piano well seeing how his passion and the power of Chopin's music helps Adrien Brody's character to survive... So on Saturday night i had a few pints with SP and we caught up on a lot of things - a good time at Friar & Firkin, altho I thought the beer was pricey. We later met up with MS and SS to hit up Joker that night and it was OK - it wasn't as crowded as I expected and that $10 cover was too much, esp. for $5 drinks! I spent Sunday afternoon/evening with family visiting the Hughes and I got to see cute little Kaitlyn - she's grown so much in a month and i can't wait to see her after i move back to TO! I later went back to 'loo on Greyhound with LL and I spent the Civic Holiday checking out European destinations and further narrowed my itinerary. It looks like it'll be 50 days in Western Europe for now....