Summer's been a flying....

So i haven't kept this blog very up to date. I'm a lazy fuck.

So here's a quick recap of my summer.

Knowing i had to finish my thesis by the end of the summer, i knew that the summer was going to pretty much suck and i wasna't going to be able to take any holidays or anything like that. So when the chances came up to hit three cottages in three weekends i jumped on the chance figuring this would be my only fun for the summer.

The first weekend was at Heather's cottage with her parents on Lac-des-Iles in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal. It wasn't a super exciting weekend, and the weather was pretty shit, but it was still a good relaxing weekend. Had a few good meals (including one which involved duck, bison, rabbit and escargots all in the same sitting) and got a ton of work done on my thesis because i got Heather to bring her laptop.

Second weekend was in the Thousand Islands near Gan at Brent's cottage. Most of the boys from undergrad came up and we tore it up pretty hard all weekend. I went up early the night before and partied at a HUGE cottage and then got rocked in the Gan and somehow made it back to the island where i woke up with a HUGE headache the next day. The next two days were full of the regular drinking and debauchery. A bunch of Gan locals showed up to party on the dock one afternoon and one night inevitably ended with Matthews getting naked. Was pretty awesome to see everyone though.

The third weekend was CAnada Day weekend and we went up to John and Sarah's place in the Muskoka's on Lake Brandie. Was my first time in the Muskoka's and i was pretty impressed. Very posh area. George, Becky, Gavin, Heather and myself went up and met up with a bunch of John's friends. Was a very OLD weekend seeing as how me, Heather and Gavin were the youngest ones there by a couple of years. We still managed to rock out to the Hip in the sun, play some croquet, and kill two + kegs of beer.

The rest of July i spent working pretty hard on my thesis from my room that i'm subletting for the summer. Its been SOOOO hot that its been tough sleeping at night and i sit in front of the computer all day with two fans right on me while wearing nothing but underwear all day. It was pretty awesome.

I golfed a few times over the summer, but definately not as much as i would've wanted to. Golfed one round though at the new course between Gan and Rockport called Smuggler's Glen. What a place. Nicest course i've golfed for sure.

The thesis flew along alrite and so i got to take the Civic holiday weekend off and me, Heather, Jenny, George, Becky, and recently back from their honeymoon, Sean and Kelly rented two island campsites out at 2nd Depot Lake Conservation Area. Was a wicked spot on this island and they even boat all your supplies out for $10 a load and we rented a couple canoes. We spent the weekend drinking and swimming and relaxing. We did two really long swims, one each day, to the rock cliffs the first day and to the rapids the second day. Each swim was about 30 minutes across the lake. The cliffs were about 25-30 feet and we were told it was alrite to jump so we each went a few times (except for Jenny who's a wimp and only went once and very reluctantly). The rapids were pretty cool too because we found a pool of water between two sets of rapids and because the water was moving it was pretty cold which was nice cause of how dam hot it was. Me, Sean and the kid driving the boat to get our gear almost died coming off the lake as we got caught in the start of one of the biggest storm's i've ever seen. I've never been so terrified of getting hit by lightning in my life.

After getting back from that weekend i kicked things from high gear to overdrive and got my thesis done. It's Thursday the 11th today and i'm about to submit all 5 copies to my examiners. My defence date is set for Aug 30. Since i have some time in between i'm heading home for the next 9 days. Actually, i'm meeting mom, dad and jill at a cottage that Faye rented on the Ottawa and then driving home with Jill on Monday and staying for the week. Then i'm back here for a week, defend, to Heather's cottage for labour day, back in ktown for another week and a half to hopefully finish two manuscripts for publication to scientific journals, and then on the 17th i'm off to Europe! I booked my tickets a couple days ago. The flight leaves TO and i flly into London and then i fly home from London to TO on the 11th of December. Everything in between is up in the air pretty much, but there will be much more to come on this blog about it. THe tentative plan is to fly from London to Rome for a week and meet up with my Aunt Faye who will be there and then fly to Stuttgart around the 27th to spend some time at my German friend Christian's place. My buddy Rob Millman from Queen's is going to meet me there (he's coming from Ireland where he's visiting his bro) and then the two of us are going to travel for two months together all over europe. Not sure where exactly we'll be when, but i'm hoping to hit Amsterdam, Austria, Czeck Republic, Hungary, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland. Some kinda order like that maybe, like a big clockwise loop, but who knows how that will change. Our first week that me and Rob are together will be during Octoberfest in Germany which will be a wicked way to kick things off. I can't wait.

So, next time i write i'll hopefully be a Master in Chemical Engineering and maybe be in Europe.

Till next time....