Aleen and Michael’s Blog

Aleen and I went to see the new Bond film tonight.  We were really excited for the opening but sadly we both came away pretty disappointed.  I own all the Bond films on DVD and they’re my favourite movies. 

I sort of always liked the suave and charming Bond character as well as the glitz and exotic travels that go along with each movie.  The girls aren’t too bad either, but this film just seemed to be different and tried too hard to fit into today’s mould of other action films.

I never considered Bond films to be true action films (the Bourne series fits that genre better), they were more spy based, simple, maybe the odd time unrealistic, with the odd fight sequence and witty humour, but this film is super crazy when it comes to fight sequences and action scenes.  So much so that it actually leaves you tired at points.  Also, it is probably the shortest Bond film ever coming in under 2 hours, which also was a disappointment.

After Casino Royale, which I enjoyed thoroughly and have watched several times, maybe I expected too much from this film.  Yes, I understand that Bond was trying to seek revenge on those that killed Vesper, but I found the plot too difficult to follow and the characters never really made a presence enough to understand them. 

Don’t get me wrong it still has some entertainment value and Daniel Craig did a great job again, but it just feels the rest of the movie didn’t fit the typical Bond mould, and me being a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to Bond films, had hoped for a bit better.

I can’t say I will rush out and add this film to my DVD collection when it comes out.

Our first real Christmas in the new house and Aleen has been so excited to decorate.  She’s spent the last weeks gathering ornaments and decorations.  We bought a tree 2 weeks ago and she spent the last few days decorating the house and putting the tree together.  It’s a friggin’ light show in our house.   I’m going to put up the outside lights after our honeymoon.  But, I must say she did a great job, it really looks good.

We went today to our photographer to get a CD with all our wedding proofs.  365 pictures and we have to choose 200 to get printed out for our proof album.  Then from that we can choose the final pictures for the various albums and singles.  A daunting task indeed, bit one Aleen can’t wait to do.  Thank goodness I have her for things like this.

Anyhow, our photographer (Cupido Photography) took some real good pictures and he’s put an online album together online on his site.  So click here to take a look.

After living at home all these years, I never have done anything to get into the Halloween spirit as my parents were not into that sort of thing.  The other day Aleen and I were at Costco as she so badly wanted to start looking for Christmas decorations go figure. 

Anyhow, while walking through the isles we noticed some orange lights and this big pumpkin that can also light up.  We want to give out candy this year too, so we thought we’d spruce up the porch a bit and we bought these items.  When we got home we set them up right away and they don’t look to bad, the photos don’t do them justice.  So if you are ever in the neighbourhood come have a look!

At our wedding we played three videos, a slideshow, a love walk and a comedy of Aleen and I playing tennis.  All the videos were great and got raving reviews.  Our video guy was Eihab from Philio Video Studios, who we highly recommend for anyone looking for a video person for their wedding.

He posted the tennis video on his site under his samples, so I’m posting it now on our site so others can see how good it turned out — play video now.

Last week my parents helped us plant our plants and flowers in the front.  For the past week we started to slowly collect stones to put around our flower garden to spruce it up.  Today, my Dad came back into town and helped us finish the flower garden.  It was boiling outside today too, but my Dad worked hard digging and finely laying all the stones ensuring that each block was perfectly level.

Aleen and I had to make a few more runs to the stone place just around the corner to pick up the remaining blocks as we slightly under-estimated.  Overall, we needed about 80 blocks to finish it off.

The corner pieces proved to be the most difficult but luckily my Dad brought the stone saw and with a little creativity we made it look pretty decent.  In the end, the stonewall looks great!  We already are getting compliments from the neighbours.  They want to hire my Dad to do their landscaping too, ha.

The picture doesn’t do it justice as the stones are still wet after a watering, but trust us, it looks good.  

Now we just need to add some more topsoil to fill it out and then add a few solar lights and then we should be good.  Now our place can have some curb appeal!

Finally, no more dust and dirt!  It’s been six months now since we moved in and last Friday we got grass in our backyard.  Today we got grass in the front and wow does it make a difference.  We actually have colour surrounding the house.  But, with that also comes more work as for new grass we’ve been out everyday making sure it gets the right amount of water.  You’re suppose to water in the mornings but in order to get it the right amount we’ve been waking up early, like 6am, to ensure that both the front and back get at least 1 hour of water.  We have then small patches of grass in between the houses that we do by hand, but otherwise the sprinkler and hose Mattamy gave us has been doing the trick.

Also, with the new grass, on Saturday Mattamy had a flower/plant day.  They gave us $150 to spend on whatever we wanted.  We ended up picking up like 5-7 plants and a few flowers.  My parents came by on the Sunday and we made a nice flower garden in the front of the house along the porch.  Then we put two plants in the backyard for now, where we also want to setup a flower garden eventually.  It really gives the house some personality now.  For the front we just need to find some stone to build around the garden.  Hope to do that in the next week.

We’re so happy that finally our house doesn’t look like a construction site anymore!

With it being nice and warm for the first Saturday night, Aleen and I decided to go to this place just up the street from us called Timbercreek (http://www.timbercreekgolf.ca/).  They have a driving range, 2 mini-putt courses and a batting cage.  It’s quite the place with lots of fun stuff and decently priced.

We first tried out the batting cages.  We did slo-pitch first then slow hardball.  For $1 you get like 15-20 pitches.  Then we played a round of mini-putt.  Well maintained and revolving around lots of water, it was quite fun and probably one of the best mini-putt courses I’ve been to in the GTA.

After that all, we had to finish it off with ice cream and frozen yogurt, which they also serve.  A nice night and definitely a place we’ll go back to.

For those who have sent best wishes, thanks.  My leg is doing much better again.  It’s healing nicely and I can walk again.  I can take full showers and have almost full mobility back.  Aleen and I played tennis on Friday and it felt good.  No more sliding during baseball that’s for sure!

Seems no matter what I always find a way to get injured in some way.  Monday night we had baseball and we were playing a tough team.  I hit a single and tried to extend it to a double and while racing into second base for some stupid reason I decided to slide into base with shorts on, on a gravel/dirt mix infield.  Ouch!  That ripped part of my shin a bit but it was reasonable.  Then, the next inning I got caught turning first base too much, so I had to race back into base and again I slid!  Ouch!!!!  That one hurt and my shin was ripped open pretty good and bleeding nicely.  I didn’t even think about the slides, I’m just so used to competing and doing whatever to get the job done.

Anyhow, it’s about a 6 by 2 inch open wound on my leg and it’s pretty painful.  I have been home from work ever since.  I had to cancel 4 tennis matches this week, including the first Inter-County match Aleen and I were suppose to play together.  I even had to give up my TFC tickets for Saturday because I just can’t walk properly.

The pain was bad still mid-week so I went to a nearby walk-in clinic as my doctor is on holidays.  He said it looked fine and it just needs time to heal.  He also had to give me a tetanus booster shot as I hadn’t had one for 15 years.  I didn’t know you needed one ever 10 years!

Because I have been walking with such a limp, I started to get pain in my groin on Friday.  It was terrible, I couldn’t move the leg, I was getting worse.  So in the evening Aleen and I went to the hospital and got things checked out.  The wrapped it nicely and explained to me how to properly take care of it.

Now things are getting better.  The groin pain is gone and I am slowly trying to walk properly.  There is still pain in the shin around the wound and there will be as it continues to start scabbing up.  Right now it is still an open wound and weeping.  Hopefully, within the week things will be better, but for sure no baseball or tennis this week.

Lesson learnt I guess.