News and Views   A running log of Leclair life. (To send info for this section, you can Email Doug, or get more info. My Email address is [email protected])
Back to Leclair home page

----Mon Jan 31, Doug
   Got the summary of last year's canoe trip with the girls finished, including 16 pictures. If you've never been on a canoe trip, this should give you an idea of what it's like.

----Sat Jan 22, Yves
   Got a couple of pictures from Yves, including one with 16 of the kids in it. I thought it would make a good puzzle to see if you can match the faces to the names, so check the trivia page  for this one. Also have a picture of 4 young ladies and Bailey, and one of Michell and Bailey. Think I'm going to do some work to get some of our camping pictures into my canoe trip archives. If you like nature pictures, check it out.
   It's now official, all the Elliott's are nerds. Johanne's just got her glasses (mainly for driving) and Lindsey has worn hers for about 2 months now. Nicole's taken to wearing green tinted contacts, just to be weird. Of course, the guy who really needs bifocals - me - hasn't got them yet. -Cheers.

----Sun Jan 16, Kim, Sue & Dan, Nat & Yves
    Here's the picture I promised of Kim's children Mathew (6) and Kassy(3). Is this family full of cute kids or what?
    Nat, Yves & Roch were around to visit about 2 weeks ago. Roch was in fine form, happy as a lark and wasn't quiet for a moment - maybe he'll end up being a "Roch" star. Surprising, considering how quiet his parents are (not).  Yves has since sent along this picture of Roch in the Christmas Nativity scene, and points out that Roch is the one without the beard, in the starring role. He also sent a list of interesting tips, which I thought was so nifty that I decided to add a "Handy Tips" section to the website. Contributions welcome, as always.
    Dan Bonsall Emailed me the first and second pictures of their yet-to-be-born child. Dan claims that if you look really close, you can see a small hand holding a beer bottle in one of the pictures. And Dan's predicting a June 25 delivery.
    Speaking of Bonsall predictions, I got an Email from Dan's parents Bob and Cecile who want to get in on the pool, too. They think the child is going to be born early enough to share a birthday with Dan - June 22. Had to give them a hard time (all in fun) and reject their guess because they picked 8:30 AM, which is not an even hour. Hey, rules is rules <grin>.
    Johanne and Paulette are meeting up with my sister-in-law Karyn in Toronto at the end of next week. They're off to some interior design trade show to "get ideas". Sounds like another excuse for a shopping trip to me.
    I was just thinking of archiving part of this news page, which is getting pretty big again. When I was looking over the older stuff, I realized that our website was one year old on December 12. Amusing to look back and see that we started up with baby announcements and ultrasound pictures - same stuff I'm working on today. I remember being worried that I wouldn't be able to figure out how to put pictures on the website. Now my worry is that we have so many pictures that we're eventually going to use up our available storage. -Cheers.

----Sun Jan 2,2000
   As far as I can tell, everyone had a great Christmas, and a happy new year (with no Y2K challenges.) Lots of family gatherings to report. We had a Christmas day turkey dinner chez Elliott, and managed to get 13 people around the dinner table: Gil, Lise, Alexa & Michelle, Carole, Carol Anne Keith & Ben, my sister Martha and her son Colin, and the 4 Elliotts. As ususal, Alexa & Michelle stole the show.
   The next day, Paulette hosted a post-Christmas gathering attended by: Dan - home from Thailand, Sue and Dan, Neil and Lisa (later heading to Florida), Leo, Christine, John & Hayley, Catherine & Paul, Catherine-Anne and Jennifer, Carole, Johanne, Doug & Nicole. Oh yeah, and 3 dogs, which provided the entertainment: Carole's Sassy, Mentor Elliott, and Chelsey. Paulette thoughtfully passed around a baby bottle for contributions to the baby pool , and gathered  enough to cover the next two pools.
     If you thought there was only one upcoming pool, you probably haven't heard the latest good news: Gil & Lise are expecting their 3rd child in August. Congratulations!
    New Year's eve was fairly quiet for the London branch of the family tree. Did our traditional "last supper" at the La Costa restaurant with John, Catherine and Samantha, Joanie, Carole, Paulette, Johanne, Doug and Nicole. The feathered masks worn by the ladies got a few raised eyebrows and smiles when we left. Some went off to see the fireworks at Victoria Park at midnight, while I went to work to guard against the Y2K boogeyman (who was a no-show).
   And it wouldn't be New Year's day without John & Catherine's first barbeque of the year. Carole, Paulette, Johanne, Doug, Nicole and Patrick enjoyed a feast featuring John's famous burgers as well as a piano recital by Catherine and Nicole.We managed to get in a few card games, too {grin}.
   I see that a picture of Kim's children snuck by me to appear on our fridge. I'll scan it and add it to this site in the next couple of days. And don't forget to send in your pictures for the Millenium Mugshots!

---Sun, Dec 19, Mike, Doug
    Here are those pictures of Kaileigh I promised: on the way home,  with her dad, and with the greenhorn gramma. Gee, I wonder if grandma the kindergarten teacher would make a very good babysitter? Mike also sent along their baby pool entry, also going against the trend of morning predictions. (And this is the voice of experience speaking)
    Maybe I can sneak in some bragging about my own kids here... a week ago, Nicole's power cheerleading team was in a competition with the top teams in Ontario. (power cheerleading is a crazed combination of aerial gymnastics and dance routines). Despite having 19 rookies on a 25 girl team, they came in 3rd. Lindsey couldn't watch because she was in a school volleyball tournament. They only had 5 players because some of her teammates had a conflicting club tournament, so they called up 4 juniors. One girl had to leave for a piano exam, and another was injured, so they had 1 player on the bench. Lindsey played every minute of every game, they won the tournament, and she brought home a trophy as the tournament "Most Valuable Player".
   Got a nice illustarted newsletter from Renata with news about their trip to Cuba, and life in the Hotel business. It's definitely been a while since I've seen Christopher, who is now a 6 foot 2 teenager. Here's an update on Renata's 4 daughters: Yolanda and husband Craig live in Toronto with their 1 1/2 year old Jacob, Natalie is a school teacher, Anita is in university, and Ursula works at the Toronto Airport..
   When you're taking those holiday pictures, remember to take one for our millenium mugshot collection!

----Thur, Dec 16
     OK, where do I start... Got a message from Bert & Renata, second place finishers in Mike & Sherri's pool. Leo was out their way on a skiing trip, and they gave him a lift from Canmore to Calgary. Sounds like Leo was marketing our website, because we've connected with more of the online family out there.
   Kim sent an enthusiastic update from Calgary, and like most people, is happy to find pictures of people she doesn't get to see very often. She's going to send some photo's of the western crowd, which is growing by leaps and bounds. Randy and Tracey now have two children, Cole who is 31 months, and Paige, who was 5 months old on Dec 12 . Kim and Darrell's children, 6 year old Mathew and 3 year old Kassandra are excited to view all the pictures on the website. If you want to say Hi, Kim's Email address is [email protected].
    Sherri sent me 3 pictures of Kaileigh, but I left the floppy disk I copied them to on my desk at work, so you won't see them until tomorrow. Sounds like all's well with mom and daughter (although Mike's looking a little scruffy in one picture.)
    Nat and Yves sent in their guesses for Sue & Dan's pool. They join the overwhelming majority who think this child will be born in the morning. Roch continues to grow - he was 19.5 lbs and 27.5 inches long at 4 months, and that was a month ago. I calculate he'll be 6 foot 9 somewhere around his 4th birthday.
   Actually, there is one other person, so far, who predicts a birth time in the PM - Paul. He thinks this baby will not only be the family's first millenium baby, but will also share a birthday with our country - July 1.
   It's pretty amusing that I was complaining about having computer problems a while ago. Since then we've bought a new computer for home, I've got a new laptop from work, and just for good measure, I have a new cell phone for Y2K purposes. The laptop has more gizmos than Red Green's workshop, and it'll be months before I figure them all out. It's nerd heaven {grin}.

---Tue, Dec 14, Kim
    I'm very happy to report that  I'm having trouble keeping up with all the news I've received for the website lately. Keep it coming, and I add it to the site as fast as I can. This is a real quick up date to add Kim's email address to the family E-tree and update the pool entries so we don't get duplicate guesses. In the next couple of days, I'll be adding news from Kim, Renata, Leo, Nat & Yves  - Cheers!

----Wed, Dec 8, Sue and Dan,  Paulette
     Paulette has  "officially" confirmed the rumours - Sue and Dan Bonsall are expecting a baby! The first addition to the Leclair family tree in the new millenium is due to arrive on June 27. The Leclairs seem to be pretty good at this parenting thing. In fact, you could say that a lot of them are "grand" parents {grin}. Guess I better go do some work on the baby pool page. You know, I wouldn't have to make so many additions to the pool page if you folks could just control... oh, never mind {grin}.

----Tue, Dec 7,  Mike & Sherri
      Mike and Sherri became proud parents yesterday, Dec 6, at 5:00 PM with the arrival of a baby girl. Kaileigh Nicole Leclair weighed 8 lb, 15 oz at birth, and mother, baby and father are doing fine. Thanks to Catherine for the Email announcement, and the promise to send in some pictures.  Here's something to think about- as one of our girls pointed out, these recent additions to the family tree may be the first to live in three different centuries.
     Guess this means I can't accept any more entries to the pool. The winner was one of the first to submit his guess, from half way around the world - Dan Melancon, our man in Thailand.. The good news is that he arrives in Toronto on the 18th, so I won't have to pay a fortune to ship him his case of beer.
     So waddaya think of the fancy background on the home page? Haven't got much further, but I do have 4 CD's worth of software to load tonight, including Front Page 2000. I hear it does everything you need to take care of a website - even has a button to insert bad jokes.   

----Mon Dec 6, Paul
    If we get a couple more entries in the baby pool, I think we'll have had more submitted after Sherri's due date than before! Paul's got his guess in now, and wanted to make sure I got his address added to the Email page. I wonder how he came up with that Email address - [email protected] ?

----Fri, Dec 3, Bert & Renata
    Got an Email today from Bert & Renata out in the western branch of the family tree. They just got back from Cuba yesterday - bet they're sporting nice tans.   Their guess for the baby pool has now been added, too.  Send in those millenium mugshots! (see below).

----Thur, Dec 2
    Finnally got our shiny new computer, and some new web software, and I'm going wild (when I can get on the computer, that is.)  I hope to have the website overhauled by the end of this weekend. Let me know what you think of the new look.
   Hayley and John sent in their guesses in the baby pool. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute, but I haven't heard any announcements yet. (Actually, I have heard rumours that I'm going to have to start up yet another pool, but I won't make any announcements without permisson.)
   Had a nice pre-Christmas get together at Carole's last weekend, with Mel & Darryl, Lise, Gil, Alexa and Michelle, Johanne, Nicole and I, John, Catherine and Patrick, Neil and Lisa. Carole must have figured we'd be really hungry, because she cooked two turkeys, but we never touched the second one. I think someone got one heck of a care package to take home.
   Let's see, Lindsey won the Spectra award as the graduating girl with best all round athletic and academic record, and has been working on scholarship applications. Nicole's in a power cheerleading competition on the 11th, and isn't too happy that she sprained a finger in practice today. I'm practicing for our Christmas concert on the 12th. Johanne's having problems with her right arm, and is getting physiotherapy for it - all the more reason to spoil her over the holiday season.
   Carole had a good idea - getting together a set of pictures of all the Leclairs, inlaws, outlaws, off-spring, etc. to mark the year 2000. If you can get the pictures to me somehow (via the post office, if no other way), I'll scan them if needed and put them together on a "Millenium Mugshots" page on this website.

----Mon Nov 15, Catherine
    Catherine confirms that her brother John is indeed next "on the chopping block". John and Hayley got engaged in Venice, Italy in September. (I thought proposing in front of the nativity scene in Victoria Park was pretty romantic, but maybe Venice tops that.) They're planning the wedding in Toronto for May 13, 2000.
    And we're getting close to Sherri's due date - if you haven't got your entry into the baby pool , better find a weight that's not already taken, and Email me quick!
    Hope to have a new computer at home in about a week, which will make it a lot easier to work on this website. Keep an eye out for a new look for the website (don't worry - I'll get the girls to approve the colour schemes before I make any changes.) Speaking of the girls, they're keen on the ICQ instant messaging system lately. Anyone else out there using it? Should I add ICQ numbers to the Family Etree page?
    I know a lot of you have been waiting anxiously for details on my canoe trip oven (ya, right) - so you'll be glad to know the details and pictures are in the Tips & Tricks part of my Canoe page. Here's a shortcut . For the scenic way in, follow the Mr. Canoehead link on the home page.

----Fri, Nov 5, Doug
   Had some Emails from folks from Holtyre who've done a web search on "Holtyre" and found our website. One was Reg Buckley, who left this note in our guestbook:
Hello....I too am from Holtyre...just out of curiousity i did a web search for holtyre and found your home page....I remember the name Leclair...but can't remember the faces to any..I remember Johnnie's name...any how HI!
   Also got a note from Mary Cucksey, who was Mary Crepeau when she spent the summers in the '60s in Holtyre with her grandparents Wilfred and Marie Crepeau. Her parents Roger and Raymonde have lived in Levack for at least 44 years.  Mary remembers chumming around with Carole Allarie, and knows the Lapierre's in ValGagne country.
    If you want to get in touch with these folks, their Email addresses are in the Guestbook  .
   Speaking of Email addresses, I'm updating the Family E-tree page to reflect new addresses for John in London, and Leo. (Leo's got the "wave" cable modem, so he's getting serious about this Internet thing.)
   Denise and Louis were down for Thanksgiving and the week after. Louis managed to transform Carole's pile of barnboard into a pretty snappy shed despite help from me. The Elliott shed isn't doing as well, and we're thinking of subletting shed space from Carole for our wheelbarrow and lawn furniture. Needless to say, there was some pretty serious shopping done as well, with 3 Leclair sisters in the same city.
   Natalie and Roch were here for a visit as well. I'm going on record here with a prediction that Roch will make his mark in the world of athletics - is he ever a strong little guy. (picture below.)
   Dan, our man in Thailand sent me a message a while ago inquiring about marital statuses. As Dan so delicately put it, he's heard that cousin John is "next on the chopping block." Do you think that might be the bachelor point of view? Maybe one of our Toronto correspondents can fill us in on all the details.
    The big excitment in London this weekend is the baby shower for Sherri. Much as I'd love to attend {grin}, I can't due to a prior committment - first concert of the year for my band. You wouldn't believe how good I look in a black bow tie.(with shirt and pants, too, of course.)
   Looks like my plans for New Years Eve are finalized. I'll be spending it in a London Life computer room, doing the Y2K "just in case" routine. Probably an appropriate way for a nerd like me to greet the new millenium, come to think of it.
   Have some pictures to add here. One Carole calls her "Norman Rockwell" picture, of various offspring taken about 10 years ago. As promised, one of the "Roch Star" as well. And a few from our July canoe trip with the girls - sunset canoeing,  boats on the bay, campfire marshmallows, and a beaver dam liftover.

----Mon, Sep 6, Doug
My conscience is killing me for not updating this site sooner. I'll try to do better. (Feel free to nudge me by Emailing me your news.) We had a mini family reunion at Paulette's place on Aug 14th, including Suzanne & Danny B., Neil & Lisa, Leo, Christine, John & Haley, Paul, Mike & Sherri, Catherine, Louis & Denise, Jack, Maureen, Catherine-Anne & Jennifer,  Johanne, Doug, & Nicole, John & Marjorie, Jim & Gislaine Bates & a bunch of Paulette's friends from work whose names I can't keep straight. The work crew lead by Leo & Louis got her deck installed just in the nick of time, and then we put up about 3 acres of precision installed tarps since rain was threatening. As usual, Paulette delivered a real feast, and Danny amazed us all with his watermelon sculpting abilities. Needless to say, there was a card game going most of the day, in the garage this time.
   The next weekend was the London Dragon Boat festival, out at Fanshawe Lake. The team I coach, the London Life Draggin Butts, took the D division title by winning our last race by 36 hundredths of a second over a 500 meter course. Pretty exciting stuff! Our third and final festival of the year is in Stratford next weekend, where 96 teams will compete on the skinny little Avon River.
   For the last weekend in August, we went to Ottawa to visit with my brother Vic's family. While we were there, we picked up Nicole, her cousin Lauren, and Lauren's friend Carly from Volleyball camp, & deposited Lauren & Carly in Pembroke for a 2 day soccer tournament. We also got Johanne out on a picturesque 25 mile bicycle ride along the Ottawa river and Rideau canal. (Her backside ought to be back to normal by October {grin} )
   Almost forgot - we finally got to the bottom of the controversy about Roch's birth length pool. It turns out the official measurement was indeed 20 and a half inches, and Nicole is the winner. Apparently Yves was watching, and thought the measurement should have been 21 inches, but it wouldn't be the first time a male over estimated the length of his 'little guy'. Nicole received the cash equivalent to the beer prize, and promptly spent it during a trip to Canada's Wonderland.
   Speaking of pools, there are still lots of weights open in Mike & Sherri's pool - and less than 3 months to get your guess in!

----Wed Jul 28, Doug, Paulette
Well, once again we made it back from our Dads & Daughters canoe trip without losing any kids. Some highlights: beautiful hot weather, challenging but fun canoeing through an overgrown, serpentine 4 foot wide channel, crossing lots of beaver dams, finding a beautiful sand beach, the campfire harmonies of the musical Vanier girls, Lindsey talking to the loons (yes, really), marshmallow roasts, the view from the clifftop, chewing on wintergreen mint, enjoying brownies and muffins from my new camping oven, the hanging easy chair my sister gave me... I could go on and on. The only disappointments were a lack of blueberries and fish. Should have pictures in about a week.
    I was sort of expecting to have some Email waiting for me with info on the great pool scandal, but no one's doing any confessing yet. The pool police are undoubtable hard at work on this - more info later.
    Looks like I made a booboo when I added Paulette's entry to Mike and Sherri's pool. It must have been those new contacts - it should have been 7 lb 2 oz, not 9 lb 2 oz.. Bet Sherri doesn't mind seeing the predicted size decrease by 2 pounds. Catherine Jane's in the pool too, at 8 pounds even.
   Johanne's supposed to be out playing tennis with Jocelyn, one of the rowdier soccer moms we see regularly on the sidelines at Nicole's games. However, it's suspicious that there's been a vigourous thunderstorm for the last hour and no sign of her - they probably went straight to a bar and never even saw a tennis court.
   Well, that's it for now. Why not make a note to send me an Email with the news in your corner of the world?

----Tue Jul 20, Doug, Roch
First, some early pictures of the little Poitras dude: With his first sports equipment,  his first 3 stripes (note continuing theme in border), and in deep contemplation (or maybe deep collapse.)
   But the big news is the scandal arising from  Roch's birth length pool. The 20 1/2 inch measurement was relayed from the scene to Carole to Johanne to me. However, a later Email from Natalie (with many witnesses) clearly stated the birth length as 21 inches. Now, Natalie should know, since she was definitely the closest person to the arrival of young Roch. So amid this controvery with hints of deception, corruption, and possible bribery, someone has to ask the questions: Did Carole falsify the data for some unknown reason? Did Johanne deliberately mis-report the measurement to favour her own daughter who stood to win it all? Or perhaps there was a bribe offered by Nicole since she had everything to gain? Or does the story go deeper - did Natalie herself fudge the facts in a moment of twisted generosity? (With the 21 inch measurement, she herself would win the pool.)
    Now that this scandal has been broken wide open, there's bound to be a full public inquiry. Late FLASH: unidentified sources have indicated there may have been some attempt to influence the actual measurement while it was being taken. Details are sketchy at this time, but the investigation by the pool police is continuing.  Oh darn, those pesky National Enquirer people are on the phone again looking for details.(Anyone who thinks that any part of today's update is serious doesn't know me very well {grin} )
   On another pool note, Mike & Sherri's pool is now up-to-date with 9 entries so far. No controversy there (yet).
   Next update will likely be after the girls and I get back from Algonquin next week.

----Sun Jul 18, Doug
Had a great birthday get together at John & Catherine's yesterday. Catherine, Johanne and I started with a hike through the Pond Mills woods, led by Patrick and Nike. Since Nike has never learned to fetch, Patrick didn't worry when he tossed a stick into a pond we passed. However, at just that moment, Nike grasped the concept, and plunged into the pond, which was covered with about an inch of lime green slimy algae. Guess the ride home with Nike in Catherine's car was a little aromatic.
   Luckily, the power was back on at John & Catherine's before everyone arrived, including Joanie, Shannon, Gil, Lise, Alexa, Michelle, Suni, Dave, Cassidy, Jerry, Terri, Robert, Carole, Doug, Johanne, Nicole, Lindsey, Leo, and the locals Catherine, Samantha and the birthday boys John & Patrick. There was enough food to feed about 200 more people, including a mountain of appetizers, John's famous burgers, and Robert's spicy sausage. You know everyone is full when the Cortland Bakery desserts barely get touched.
   It was a beautiful warm day, and despite the thunder rumbling in the distance we only had about 20 minutes light rain which dampened a few appetizers, but not our spirits.
   I'll bet most of the kids were sleeping in the car on the way home. It was non-stop excitement for them between face painting, bubble blowing, splashing in the pool, eating cake and ice cream, and playing Red Rover.
   Speaking of kids, I finally got the ultrasound of the next Leclair onto the site, and there are a few more entries on the pool page
   The annual Dads & Daughters canoe trip starts next Thursday. Seven Elliott's and Vanier's will be heading for the north side of Algonquin Park for 5 days.  (more details on the canoe page. )We're hoping to be able to feast on wild blueberries. If the second verion of my camping oven works better than the first one did, we may have some backwoods baking, too.

----Wed Jul 14, Mike & Sherri
Ever get one of those Emails when you can tell the person typing it was so excited they could hardly get the words out fast enough? I got one of those from Mike Leclair the other day...
  There is great news at 6582 Lisgar Drive. I am proud to announce that there will be an addition to the Leclair family. Sherri and I are expecting a baby on November 27, 1999. Here's an ultrasound of the baby taken at 19 weeks and four days - mother and baby are doing fine. We are so excited about the arrival of our baby! That also means that I will have some more jobs around our new house.
   Congratulations, that is wonderful news. Having children has got to be one of the greatest experiences in life. Well, maybe not the actual process of having the children, but you know what I mean. And this from a guy who has two teenage daughters!
   I can see this baby pool thing is going to be a tradition. {sound of a lifeguard's whistle} Everyone back in the pool! There's another case of beer (or equivalent) on the line here - hmmm, if this generation of Leclairs is as prolific as previous generations, I could be making a lot of trips to the beer store. Email me your guess on the baby's birth weight  in pounds and ounces (note that we're doing WEIGHT, not length this time). You should probably check the pool page to see if someone else has already taken your guess- first come, first served. And don't bother guessing 7 pounds 10 ounces - that's my guess!.
  Catherine and John "Burger King" Leclair, already famous for their Jan 1 "first barbeque of the year" tradition are having another exotic one this weekend. Sounds like John's taking care of afternoon tea and pastries, as he's arranged a tea-off at pie-not. Patrick and Nike will be tour guides for a 90 minute hike, and for the little ones there'll be face painting by Samantha, bubble blowing, and a sprinkler to run through. The barbie will be lit at 3 PM, and uncle Doug will probably be lit by 4:30. Sounds like a good time to me.
  Lindsey got back from a visit to Ottawa a couple of days ago where she went white water rafting with my brother Victor's family. In one set of rapids ,4 people got thrown out of the raft including Vic, his daughter Lauren, and his brother-in-law. They fished them all out no worse for wear. The guide let Lindsey steer for a while, (not in the rapids) and now she's thinking about trying to get a job as a guide next summer.
  Well, that's about all the excitement I can take in one website update - I'll type at you later.

----Tue Jul 6, Yves, Nat & Roch Paul Marcel Joseph Poitras
At 5:36 AM this morning, Tuesday July 6, another branch was added to the Leclair family tree. Well more like a bud I guess. Hey Nat & Yves, this bud's for you! The new addition is a boy, by the name of Roch Paul Marcel Joseph Poitras, who weighed 9 pounds and 10 ounces on arrival. Everyone's doing fine.
   Oh, yeah - Roch was 20 and a half inches long on his very first birthday, which is a week before Nicole's birthday. So, for having the closest birthday, Nicole wins the baby pool. Just kidding - although Nicole was the one who picked the right measurement in the baby pool, so she is indeed the winner. Just not sure what's she's won yet.
   Congratulations, Nat & Yves & Roch - and take lots of pictures ( hint, hint <grin> )

----Sun Jul 4, Doug, Dan
There's a feeling of suspense as the 'ma tantes' start to gravitate towards Timmins - a sure sign that Nat will be having her baby soon. Details will be posted here as soon as I hear them (although we might need some sort of official confirmation on the baby's length, for pool purposes <grin> ).
   Got an Email from Dan in Thailand on July 1. He wished everyone a happy 122nd, and admitted that although he went to work that day, his heart wasn't really in it.When his holidays roll around, he hopes to see everyone. (Wenzat, Dan ?)
  Did manage to start riding my bike to work. I reaaly look forward to the ride along the river, and I feel better already. The weight's not exactly dropping off, but at least the scales are changing in the right direction.  While I'm being self-centered, I went to get evaluated for laser eye surgery. It's pretty complicated, but as usual, I'm a borderline case, this time because my cornea's are 10% thinner than normal to start out with. I'm wearing contact lenses at the moment, and am not really sure what I'm going to end up doing.
   It's been hot and humid in London - going up to 34 tomorrow, with humidex well over 40. I'm a little worried about our air conditioner which is making strange noises and a pond around the furnace. Made a nifty dike with a bead of caulking on the basement floor that's contained the flood, but I guess we'll have to call in the experts tomorrow.
  I'm feeling guilty that I'm not updating this site very often, so I've come up with a plan to nudge me into updates. I'm looking for volunteer 'regional correspondents' to gather and forward me news news in their area:
      Tales from Timmins
      Toronto Tidbits
      London Life
      Outside Ontario (incl. B.C. & Thailand, etc.)
So if you want to help out, and keep the information flowing, please let me know. News is always welcome from anyone at any time of course.
  Oh, yeah, I was going to do a trivia question on birthdays. Better get to work on that. --Cheers.

-----Sun Jun 13, Doug, Carole
Yes, I'm still alive, in case you're wondering. Our  home PC's still not healthy, but I'm going to trudge ahead and do an update. (I changed the background colour on this page to make it readable in 16 colour mode, which is what I'm stuck with - no complaints about the colour, please <grin> ). Carole sent me a note a while ago about Hogan, her ill-fated canine companion, which follows:
  Wanted to let everyone know that I tried “rent-a-dog” for a week. His name is Hogan; he is a Jack Russell Terrier, fiesty and active. A neighbour told me that this dog needed a new home - and that it would probably be given to me. I tried him out for a week. He was so cute! However, during the week I was informed that he would love to stay with me for a small price of $300.00! I fought with the idea, then realized that $300.00 was a bit steep for my budget. I decided to bring Hogan back to its owner, vacuumed my car, (it shed like nobody’s business) and tearfully said goodbye. As it turns out it was a very good decision; not just because of the money I saved but because I realized at 4:00 a.m. the following night that I was allergic to it. He had jumped in to bed with me the night before. I had an asthma attack.
  What do you think Paulette, should I try a poodle again? He-he-he!
  I know. I should just give up.
          Love you all, Carole
   You may have noticed that our website now shows up if you're doing a search on the web. As a result, a few more people are seeing our site. Got a fascinating message from Suzette Leclair, who came across our site this way. She has done research on the  Leclair family tree, and figures we have common ancestors back a few generations. She kindly sent the info she has, which I'll add to the history page. Since Paulette seems to be the family expert on our roots, I've asked her to help figure out where the trees come together - I'll report back on the outcome of the detective work.
  Got back from my second canoe trip of the season on Tuesday night. Going on a "low maintenance" route in Algonquin paid off in wilderness solitude - didn't see another boat, person, or occupied campsite for the entire 5 days. The fishermen were happy - lots of out of season bass to practice on, and enough trout for two fish feeds. (We ate pretty well, but not as well as the mosquitoes, black flies, deer flies and horse flies did.) I'll be updating the canoe trip archives, reachable via the Mr. Canoehead link on the main page.
   It's been really hot in London lately - generally around 30 degrees. The families that have pools suddenly have a lot more friends. Speaking of summer pools, isn't it getting close to the time when we find out who wins the baby pool?
   I better quit typing & get to bed - I'm starting to ride my bike to work tomorrow, and I'll need all the energy I can come up with. If this site hasn't been updated in a week, send someone out to search the bike paths for me. <grin>.

-----Wed Apr 28, Doug
I noticed the other day that it takes a long time for this News page to display. After thinking about it, I realized that it was all the old news that we'd already seen that was slowing things down. So, I chopped off the old stuff, and put it in a separate page, with a link to it so you can look at it if you get nostalgic.
   I haven't done a good job of gathering birthdays for the next trivia question. Missed a golden opportunity at the shower, but here's how I'm going to recover. Email me your own birthday, and anyone else's you know. Should be interesting to see who responds and when - a little check to see who's looking at this website {grin}

-----Sun Apr 25, Paulette, Doug,Catherine(London)
Louis and Peter, it's your fault that I can hardly stand up straight today, you know. Using barn board to make a shed is a great idea, but it's contagious {grin}. Now that you've left town, Johanne & Carole like the idea of a backyard shed, and guess who has a van and a nice new power saw? Spending yesterday out at the farm on a gorgeous day wasn't that bad, especially since we got to feast on Robert's cooking again. And being hunched over like this helps me see the keyboard better anyway.
   Got a nice Email from one of the "Community Leaders" at Geocities. She gave us the award in the top right corner of this page in recognition of the quality and effort put into our website. Nice to see that someone who actually knows what they're doing likes our page, too.
   Also received a couple of nice E-pictures from Paulette the other day (She calls them Northern Exposures). One has Kristy and Eric grinning as if they'd just done something really naughty. The other shows how Suzy's dog Chelsea has adapted to the northern climate by growing a layer of wool, and learning to walk sideways on snow mountains. 
   A cartoon from Catherine in London was quite descriptive of my Thursday night. Went in to work to do what was supposed to be a 5 minute network change at 1 AM, and didn't get home until 2:30 PM. As in the cartoon, I was wiped!
   And last but not least, here are 2 pictures from Nat & Yves' shower. One is a porch full of young babes, and the other is a porch full of younger babes.

-----Mon Apr 12, Paulette
Got an Email today from Paulette with an overview of the information she's gathered about the Leclair family tree. The details aren't all there yet, but it goes all the way back to back to the 1600's (so far). I'm putting up a new page for this info called the Leclair Legacy, which is reachable from the History & Trivia page, or via this short cut. If any of the bilingual people out there have some spare time, you could explore some of the French Leclair (or Leclerc) websites on our Links page to see if someone else has already explored part of our family tree. (I find this kind of thing fascinating - I'll probably be up all night searching the web for branches of the Leclair tree.)
    I also have some pictures from Nat & Yves's shower - should have them scanned & on the site in a day or two.

-----Tue, Apr 6, Doug
A quick update - I added some stuff on the Links page related to tracing the Leclair family tree. Didn't see any connections to the small portion of the family tree I'm familiar with, but maybe someone else will recognize a distant relative. As well, here are some pictures of what happens when you let Louis & Peter loose on your barn:
  Peter up to his waist in barn planks
  Louis & Peter planning their attack on a hefty beam
  the barn-busters celebrating success - Louis, Robert & Peter
  curly, larry & moe at the scene of the crime

-----Sun, Apr 4, Doug, John
Finally got around to registering John (as in Jean-Marie) in the baby pool. He's predicting the kid will be walking tall, since his guess of 22.5 inches is the largest so far.
   Had quite the crowd chez Carole for Nat & Yves' shower, including: Nat & Yves (duh); Carole, Robert & Vanessa; Gil, Lise, Alexa & Michelle; Melanie & Daryll; Johanne, Doug & Nicole; Denise, Louis & Peter; Christine & Catherine; John, Catherine & Patrick and Paulette. It seems it's almost impossible to avoid saying the word "baby" at a shower, as was proven in the game involving those little lacy basket thingys. I thought Daryll looked quite fetching with three of them pinned to his shirt {grin}. He's also thinking of putting up a website for his family - glad he hasn't been discouraged by my bad example. The jumble games were won by Catherine (Jane) and Vanessa. I'll put the 2 jumbles, and the answers, up on the trivia page.
    Yesterday we had beautiful warm spring weather ideal for a baby shower, but today we're having another type of shower - rain showers. At least it's not cold enough for the snow that was predicted.
    The Fortins headed back to Timmins early this morning with a pickup full of barnboard and a pocketful of Elliott money. Between Louis and Denise, they managed to win all 3 games of "65" at the Chalfont Casino.
    I'm going to scan in a couple of pictures of the demolition of Robert's barn in the next couple of days, and we should have some from the shower soon (including one with Louis & Natalie comparing "profiles"). Hmmm, since Lindsey's off in New Orleans her city volleyball team, I can give her a computer makeover without any objections. What do you think of this one?

To make the News page come up faster, I'm putting "old news" in separate pages. If you want to have a look at the old stuff, click on the appropriate entry in this list:

-December 12, 1998 to March 29, 1999,  the beginning days

Back to Leclair home page