A surreal opportunity...

Where to begin.
Most of you know of my friendship with Wayne McGee. We were in a band together back in our senior year of high school and just after, I became a piano tuner and he a missionary. After many years in Africa he and his family settled in London and Wayne became a gem merchant, an interesting transition that is a whole other post.
One passion that Wayne and I have always shared has been fishing. Me fishing small American lakes for bass and such, Wayne leaning towards...well, 100lb Nile perch to 1500+lb Sword fish of the coast of Senegal. Throw in many Salmon trips to Scotland and Alaska and you can defiantly say that Wayne is an exotic fisherman. So where do I come in on all of this? Wayne belongs to a group of guys that are all exotic location fishermen. They live all over the world and are meeting in Norway to chase Sea trout and Atlantic Salmon above the Arctic circle. The host? The inventor of a new type of fly rod, Zpey. With a chance of Wayne marketing the rod in the States they decided they wanted this trip documented. They all chipped in to pay my way to video and photograph this trip. What an amazing opportunity seeing as I have never been out of the country (Canada doesn't count). With a passport in hand and my hard drive cleared off, I am ready to leave on Tuesday.

(an interesting side note to this trip is that the town we are going to up in the arctic circle was mostly destroyed by the Nazi's in 1940. So this is also my first WWII battle site visit)

Stepping up...well done Christ the King Parish!

What an unexpected day!
Some of you know I made friends with Father Tony Cortesi who operates a Hospice/Orphanage down in Haiti. On a day to day basis he deals with more heartache than most of us experience in a lifetime. He sees the face of Jesus in every dying child he takes in to give the most comfort and dignity until it's that time for them to pass. What a compassionate man. He had no web site to promote his cause so I conscripted Lonnie to set up a blog to look like a website. Holyangelshospice.org was born.
Father Tony came to town to raise some support and stayed with us last night so he could speak over at Christ the King in Lombard where Kim goes to church.
Being tough economic times, I didn't hold out much hope for much money being raised.
Kim arranged for Father Tony to speak at all four Masses this weekend.
My oh my...The good people of this conservative, aging parish stepped up and opened their hearts and checkbooks. Let's just say in this one weekend Fr. Tony raised enough money to pay for food, pay the rent AND pay the staff...

Well done people....well done!

The three wee ones...

Got the new camera...

Got all three of these tonight.

Baby Elle...

Decided to join us at 6:41 on Aug 3rd. Weighing in at 7lbs 2oz. 20 1/2 inches long.
She did a great job...
I wasn't there but I have been given the task of trying tell the events of the past 30 hours (or so). Laura had been one miserable pregnant lady and was reaching her wits end from passing her due date by only a few days. She read online that castor oil would speed things along. Sunday she went for it. I didn't hold much stock in this technique but along comes 10pm Sunday night and her water breaks. Timing or oil?
An epidural to ease the pain gave her some relief throughout the night.
By 6am I get a ca from Kim that she should start pushing within fifteen minutes or so.
I then get another call by 6:45 saying that Elle was born. I ran from the bar to the kid's condo to spend the night with the girls so that Kim could be at the hospital.
Not much sleep and an emotional day make for one tired Doug...