Fuuny, found this on Kayak Yak (http://kayakyak.blogspot.com/)
If Microsoft Made Kayaks
The Top Ten Ways The Sport Would Be Different If Microsoft Built Kayaks:
10. A particular model year of kayak wouldn’t be available until AFTER that year, instead of before.
9. Every time you wanted to try a new paddle, you would have to buy a new kayak.
8. Occasionally your kayak would stop dead in the water for no apparent cause. No amount of paddling would budge it. You would have to tow it back to the launch site and restart your kayak. For some strange reason, you would simply just accept this.
7. Two people could not both paddle your kayak unless you paid extra for a ‘95 kayak or NT kayak in which case you would also have to buy an extra seat and expensive new charts.
6. A sophisticated marketing blitz would make you feel like a second-rate tasteless slacker for failing to upgrade your kayak. OOPS — wait a minute — that’s ALREADY happening.
5. Sun Microsystem would make a kayak with 70% less hull drag, half the weight, watertight in all conditions and twice as stable. Unfortunately, it could be used on only 5% of the existing rivers.
4. Your Microsoft kayak’s compass, weather radio, and sump pump would be replaced with a single “General Kayak Fault” warning light.
3. The enthusiast press would get people excited about the “new” features of Microsoft kayaks, forgetting completely that they had been available in other brands for years.
2. Microsoft’s inconsiderable owners manual would spawn a whole cottage industry of outsiders who would write hundreds of books explaining how to paddle your Microsoft kayak. Amazingly, we would buy all they printed.
1. If you wanted to go kayaking in a group with your club members or friends (known as Network Kayaking), EVERYONE in the group will have BUY special group kayaking accessories; however, only one member of the group (known as the kaysysop) would have the foggiest notion of exactly what they did and no one else would be permitted to operate them.
I have to warn you this is going to be a long update. March has been a busy month so far. It all started the first week of March with the kids having March Break. They had a week off from school, at any other time this would have been just a week with the kids at home. However now being in New Brunswick, that meant that we could easily go to Quebec to see the family. This was the first time in 20 years that we were able to just pack and go. So on Friday we just packed our stuff and left. The weather was not that good, snow and blowing snow. The only bad weather of the winter had to be on the day that we decided to travel! But we decided to keep on going even if Lucie was not too sure about driving in that weather. We made it fine all the way across New Brunswick. Things got different when we got to Riviere du Loup. The Trans-Canada highway (route 20) was closed between Riviere-du-Loup and Quebec.
To make a long story short, we looked for a motel/hotel in Riviere-du-Loup but everything was booked solid, we ended up turning back and finding a small hotel in the middle of nowhere. To give you an idea, it was the kind of place where 2 letters on the sign were not working. We should have taken that as a sign when the “o” and the “t” were not working, the sign was saying “Hel”….
We took 2 rooms, no other choice really, we had to sleep for the night and that was the only hotel available. To give you an idea, the room were taken from the movie “Psycho”. Perfect setting for a horror movie. Kim was most amazed by the puzzle on the wall… Wind was blowing in through the door, there was a stain on the bed… You get the idea.
We got up the next morning (with all our body parts and we weren’t attacked by any kind of monster during the night) and we resumed our trip. We stopped in Quebec City and spend a night there. We stayed at my mother’s, my sister was gone for the week end. While there I ended up doing a few photos while taking Loki for his walks. Loki stayed with my sister for the week.
On Sunday we left and headed for Montreal. One of Lucie’s goal while in Montreal was to see all the new babies in the family. We saw all of them, Lucie and Kim were able to fulfill their motherly instinct. On their side all the boys went shopping in the big malls in Montreal.
We left on Tuesday and went to Lac des Ecorces to see Lucie’s parents. This was a real vacation, nothing to do for a couple day, sit down and relax.
We took lots of walk, lots of photos
we saw lots of deers.
I always have good time when I stay there for a while.
Then on Thursday it was back to Quebec City to spend few more days with my mother and sister.
We all end up going to Old Quebec for a day, had a lot of fun and again took a lot of photos.
While there we celebrated Alain’s Birthday.
Saturday we returned home, the trip went well. We got back home just in time to get ready to go back to work on Monday.
Upon returning to the office, I had an e-mail waiting for me. The e-mail was saying that they had a position open in Bathurst and that I was a suitable candidate to apply for it. After talking to the family as if I would accept it, it would mean another move to another location. After much talking, we decided that I would apply for it. Lucie and I decided that we would go to Bathurst during the next week end to see what the area is like.
On Friday, while waiting for the kids to come back from school, we went for a nice walk on the side of the Oromocto river, while there we searched for few Geocaches. As usual we took a lot of photos.
On Saturday, Lucie and I left for Bathurst. We played tourist for 2 days. We crossed New Brunswick and along the way found some nice little spots.
Upon arrival in Bathurst, we drove around town for a while, trying to see what the community had to offer. One things that was different is the fact that most of the people there spoke french. The town is a nice size town with all that you could ask for.
During our driving we found a house for sale. Here we are checking a town for possible move and while in there, we found the house of my dream… Not even sure if we will get transferred there but if we do and this house is still on the market we’ll be very interested. It is a brand new house and the backyard is right by ocean. A kayak dream.
On Sunday we got back home and celebrated Vincent birthday. He is not a teenager anymore… Talking about Vincent he left for Newfoundland on Monday. He is staying there for a week and he will come back with his girlfriend for a week.
Upon returning to the office on Monday, I found out that the position for Bathurst had been put on hold until April, until the new budget (money) comes in. So at this point we are not sure what is going on with this.
Last week I had the chance to meet Mitch Dorge, the drummer for Crash Test Dummies. He came to the area and presented a motivational speech to the students in the middle schools. A real nice guy, I had a blast with him. You can see part of his presentation on YouTube at these links.
On Friday, we all went to the movie and we saw Alice in Wonderland in 3d, it is a pretty good movie, we all enjoyed it. We all had a good time. Saturday I went to write the promotional exam, that went well (I think). On Saturday night we had BBQ on my brand new BBQ, quite a meal we had.
Today we were supposed to go for either kayaking or geocaching but it was a little bit colder this morning and I decided to stay in and write this blog while listening to Jack Johnson. I just found him a few weeks ago and everybody in the house is getting tired of listening to him…
As you can see, March has been a busy month so far, too many things to do and not enough time.
Je dois vous prevenir que ca va etre une longue mise à jour. Le mois de Mars a été tres occupé jusqu’à présent. Tout a commencé avec la première semaine de Mars, les enfants ayant une semaine de relache. Ils ont eu une semaine de congé, en tout autre moment, cela aurait été juste une semaine à la maison. Toutefois, maintenant qu’on est au Nouveau Brunswick, cela a voulu dire qu’on avait la possibilite d’aller au Québec pour voir la famille. C’était la première fois en 20 ans que on a pu juste partir. Cela a donné que le vendredi on a paquetté nos valises et on est parti. La temperature etait pas trop bonne, de la neige et de la poudrerie, la seule mauvaise temperature de l’hiver c’est quand on decide de voyager! Mais on est quand meme parti malgré le fait que Lucie n’était pas trop sûre de conduire dans ces conditions. On a traversé le Nouveau Brunswick sans probleme. Les choses se sont gatées quand on est arrivé à Rivière-du-Loup. La Trans-Canadienne (route 20) était fermée entre Rivière-du-Loup et le Québec.
Pour resumer ce qui s’est passé par la suite, on a cherché un motel / hôtel à Rivière-du-Loup, mais tout était pris, on a fini par rebrousser chemin et on a trouvé un petit hôtel au milieu de nulle part. Pour vous donner une idée, c’était le genre d’endroit où 2 lettre sur 5 sur l’enseigne ne fonctionnaient pas. On aurait du prendre ca comme une mise en garde, le “o” et le “t” ne fonctionnaient pas, le signe disant donc “Hel “….
On a pris 2 chambres, on avait pas vraiment d’autre choix, il fallait qu’on dorme un peu et c’était le seul hôtel disponible. Pour vous donner une idée, les chambres avaient l’air de venir directement du film “Psycho”. Environnement idéal pour un vrai film d’horreur. Kim a été tres impressionnée par le puzzle sur le mur … le vent soufflait à travers la porte, il y avait des taches sur le lit … Vous voyez ce que je veut dire.
On s’est levé le lendemain matin (intact et on n’a pas ete attaqué par des monstres, pendant la nuit) et on a terminer notre voyage. On est arrivé à Québec et on a passé une nuit là-bas. On est restés chez ma mère, ma soeur était partie pour la fin de semaine. Durant notre sejour, j’ai fait quelques photos a chaque fois que je sortais Loki pour sa marche. Loki a passer la semaine chez ma soeur.
Le dimanche on est parti pour Montréal. Un des buts de la visite pour Lucie était de voir tous les nouveaux bébés de nos nièces. On les a tous vus, Lucie et Kim ont rempli leur instinct maternel. De notre côté, on en a profiter pour aller faire du magasinage.
On est reparti le mardi pour le Lac des Écorces pour voir les parents de Lucie. Ca c’est des vacances, rien à faire pour quelques jours, juste s’asseoir et se détendre.
On a pris plusieurs marches, et bien sure tout plein de photos.
On a vu beaucoup de chevreuils.
J’aime vraiment passer quelques jours chez mes beaux-parents.
Le jeudi, on est reparti pour Québec pour y passer quelques jours avec ma mère et ma sœur. On en a profité pour aller se promener dans le Vieux-Québec. On a eu bien du plaisir et la encore j’ai pris tout plein de photos.
Dans la soiree on a feté l’anniversaire de Alain.
Samedi, on est reparti pour la maison, le voyage s’est bien passé. On est arriver a la maison juste à temps pour préparer le retour au travail et a l’ecole.
À mon retour au bureau, j’avais un courriel qui m’attendait. On m’avisait qu’il y avait une position de caporal ouverte à Bathurst et que j’avais les qualifications pour appliquer. Après en avoir parlé à la famille, car se serait un autre demenagement, on a decider que j’allais appliquer pour la position. Lucie et moi, on a donc decidé d’aller à Bathurst durant la fin de semaine pour voir ce que cela avait d’lair.
Le vendredi suivant, en attendant que les enfants revienne de l’école, Lucie et moi sommes allés prendre une marche sur le bord de la rivière Oromocto, ene meme temps on a cherché quelques Geocaches et comme d’habitude, on a pris tout plein de photos.
Le samedi, Lucie et moi on est parti pour Bathurst. On a joué les touristes pendant 2 jours. On a traversé le Nouveau-Brunswick et durant le voyage on a trouvé un pont couvert.
À notre arrivée à Bathurst, on s’est promené en ville un peu, histoire de voir ce que la communauté avait à offrir. Une des choses différentes, c’est le fait que la plupart des gens parlent français. C’est une assez grande ville avec tout ce que vous pouvez avoir besoin.
Durant notre promenade en ville on a trouvé une maison à vendre. On etait a Bathurst juste pour voir la ville et on fini par trouver la maison de nos rêves … Et on nù,est meme pas sure d’avoir le transfert. C’est une maison neuve et la cour arrière donne sur l’océan. Un rêve de kayak.
Le dimanche on est reparti à la maison et en arrivant on a célébré l’anniversaire a Vincent. Il n’est plus un adolescent… En parlant de Vincent, il est parti pour Terre-Neuve le lendemain. Il va y rester pour une semaine et va revenir avec sa blonde et passer une semaine ici ensemble.
Le Lundi, c’etait le retour au travail, en arrivant j’ai appris que la position de Bathurst avait ete cancellé tout du moins jusqu’au mois d’avril, jusqu’à ce que le nouveau budget (argent) arrive. Donc on est meme pas sure de ce qui ce passe avec tout ça.
La semaine dernière, j’ai eu la chance de rencontrer Mitch Dorge, le batteur de Crash Test Dummies. Il est venu dans le coin pour faire des presentations dans les ecoles secondaires. Un vrai bon gars, on a eu bien du fun. Vous pouvez voir une partie de sa presentation sur YouTube aux addresses suivantes:
Ce Vendredi, on est tous allés au cinema pour voir Alice au pays des merveilles en 3D. On a passer une tres bonne soiree. Samedi, j’ai ete ecrire l’examen pour les promotions, qui a bien ete (je crois). Samedi soir on a eu notre premier BBQ de la saison sur mon BBQ tout neuf. Ca faisait longtemps et on a eu droit a un tres bon souper!
Aujourd’hui on avait planifié de soit faire du kayak ou bien geocaching. Malheuresement ce matin c’etait pas mal plus froid que les derniers jours. J’ai donc decidé de rester a l’interieur et d’ecrire mon blog tout en écoutant Jack Johnson. Je viens tout juste de le decouvrir et tout le monde a la maison sont fatigués de l’entendre…
Comme vous pouvez le voir, le mois de mars a ete pas mal occupé jusqu’a date, trop de choses à faire et pas assez de temps.
