Happy Birthday Canada and Brenda and Dave!!!

Wow what a List of Birthdays.

Happy Birthday to Dave and Brenda. Another year older and wiser, not any better looking but hey 2 out of 3 aint bad.

Last year I was in Belleville for Canada Day's and it was fun, then we went to Niagra Falls that same weekend and it was a lot of fun. we did the African Lion safari in Cambrdige along the way. We had a really good time.

This year I'll be celebrating in the Miramichi. Yep leavin the big city to go check out Miramichi for Canada Day's I am sure they will have amazing celebration parties.

Instead of the Falls we can go to the Miramichi water park. Instead of the Lion Safari we can take a drive through Bellefond and look at all the critters there.(Don't roll your windows down...there are some dangerous ones there).

Anyone else planning some cool Canada Celebrations?

In the words of Wayne and Garth: PARTY ON!

NED is Correct :~o I am a horrible updater!!!!

I must agree with Ned. (Jeremy to most people but always gonna be Ned to me. Don't know why that's just what I've always called him.)

Anyhow, I finally did it and got my name changed as well as Meaghan, Michaela and MAdisons all to the Correct Spelling of MacAulay. Of course the NB government not wanting to admin there mistakes still charged me 100 bucks for all of us to have the change, but that was much less than what they first wanted and while I would usually enjoy a good fight, I just wanted to get on with my day.

Reason (although not a great excuse for not updating quite as often asI would like) is that I have been busier than ever in my life. It's all the little things that have me going straight out. Unino President decided that all members should have a Union email address(Which is a great and cool idea). however it means me adding 8000 new email addresses at approx 90 seconds per account. Worst part is my day is already so busy that this new task is all evening at home work. So in doing out all the math it equals about 200 hours of overtime worked to complete this project. but the extra vacation time and money comes in nice especially with a wedding coming up soon. :~)

Next project was a suggestion I had in September of 2005, 90% of the people thought it was a great idea but my direct manager at the time said it wouldnt work and not to work on it. So of course I didnt. The union President told me last week that she has already toured the province telling everyone about the great new system in place for the Annual General Meeting this year. So now I am creating an Attendee tracker Application that will allow me to have a barcode associated to any one of our 8000 members. As they walk through the door they must Scan there card which will be a check in and upon leaving they scan for a checkout. For voting purposes the application has to determine how many voting delegates are in the room at vote time, and how many are absent. The logic behind it was easy, but now I have to make it work. Where my day is already busy and my evenings are filled with creating email addresses I am now into the early morning hours of application development. So whats another 100+ hours of overtime. Oh well when it's slow it is really slow and when it's busy it is super busy, it takes an adjustable lifestyle and we do it quite well.

I also have a new hobby which has me smiling and giggling. I have become a Wine maker. I am trying my hand at home brew and I am having a blast with it. I just finished bottling a Zindafel Blush Today. I was supposed to get 30 Bottles from it but Cliff and I decided to taste test first last night. Didnt wanna bottle anything that wasnt good. And I was happy with the 22 bottles I was able to cork. My White wine will be ready for bottling July 16th and my next batch of red(pinot noir) will be ready on the 25th of July. So far I think I have been extremely successful in good wine creation so next week I am aiming to start on my first beer batch. Not sure if I will do an Ale or a Bitter. I enjoy a nice Stout now and then too but I am not sure if I'd try my hand at it yet. I'll give the others a try first.

Anyhow, Wedding is getting near and has us freakin out just a wee bit. If you are reading this and havent yet gotten your invite please send us a note through the RSVP form on the website:
www.thefatman.ca
It is probably just because we havent got your address or we may have sent it to an old address.

So between all the craziness of our lives I am proud to announce that Meaghan will be going into Grade 5 and Michaela will be going into Grade 2 next year.

Anyhow thats it for now. IF I can get April into updating maybe tings would get done a little more, but she's not quite into the writting of blogs yet.

Later all.

Henry

Home Again

Hey everybody,

My week in Aruba is now over. I was extremely happy to get home but I also enjoyed my stay in Aruba. What I enjoyed the most was getting into the real culture by working with the locals.
I have eaten some stuff I wouldn't normally eat. Raw Tenderloin Sandwich..mmm sounds good doesn't it.
Because it was a work trip I didnt have a lot of time to go out and have fun, but I did get to see a sunset on the beach...Which was amazing.

The Water was totally warm, every day the temperature was the same(Perfectly toasty28-38 degrees)

Got to see lots of Coconuts and Cactus growing everywhere. The resort was top notch. My in town experience was different but it is mostly because I am one of those fella that would find the worst place in the country to be and then go there to check it out.

I have heard About Carlo's and Charlies bar and the all so Famous"Yard" drink. It is a Drink of your choice that comes in a 28ounce yard glass that you get to keep. And when the siren sounds be ready to chug Tequila till you drop.. There is a fella that is fully energetic and runs around with a sombero and poncho. He places the Sombreo and poncho on you then tilts your head back. He then begins to squirt Tequila in your mouth via a large squeeze bottle. Once you stop him he moves on to the next random personwith the same sombrero and poncho. The person that empties the bottle in the end gets to keep the hat and poncho. cool part is they do this about once an hour and it is free, what a way to get wasted on tequila.

The other thing that makes it well known is that it was the last place that Natalie Holloway(from the USA) was seen alive.

I had fun at C&C but getting there and leaving there was a little freaky. C&C is kinda like at the end of a dark alley and there are many Drug dealers along the way try to score some sales. I've seen more Cocaine in a 5 minute walk then I had seen in my lifetime. Offers of an 8ball for 400 bucks. Problem is if you are alone they will get you in the center of them as they work in groups and try to intimidate you to purchase. I was my usual stuborn self and told them to bugger off and I kept going on down to the bar in hopes that they'd be gone when I left.
Luckily there was another way more lighted and more people so when I left I chosse the new path just to have my new buddies waiting. I was actually starting to get a wee bit scared but told them straigt out that first I wasnt interested in buying at any price. (mind you the price for an 8ball went from 400 down to 150) So I just kept walking and then was told I should just pay them to have them leave me alone. I got pissed at this and told them to go F*** themselves, and step aside. Lucky for me they backed off, and yes I did check to make sure they werent following me back to my resort.

No more than 15 mins after this occured I get approached by a well dressed(Stylish) Columbian man. And of course the first words out of his mouth were "Hey, my friend you wanna Cocaine."
OK, so like when I was in my 20's still I've experimented a bit but did that leave a big sign on me somewheres...Could they smell it in my blood after all these years?

My response to this man saved me a lot of hassel, I looked him in the eye and said "Honestly look at how big I am, does it look like I do Cocaine." His response was."Your a very smart man my friend. have a good day."

I jumped the next cab and got outta town. I would not let that experience hinder me from going back, and I will be going back for many more business trips but not just Aruba, also Brazil, Suriname and a few other spots too.

I can appreciate how easily someone could go missing in Aruba. 15 miles to Columbia and they treat and sell women as if they are slaves. I was very shocked by some of this. It isnt Aruba that buy's and sells women but the women do work in the "Escort Business" on the island as a means for survival. I have heard of them being sold as young as 12-16 years old. This gave me a very sickening feeling. Some would wonder how I know so much info about this...OF course like I said if there is a bad part of town or shaddy people I will find them. My cab driver was also a partner in the "one happy ending escort service" he explained to me how other agencies were not so good as his because he guarenteed age 18-25...and new girls from columbia every 3 months. Of course he was trying to aquire a sale and that just wasnt gonna happen....

Overall rating on the trip:

I missed April and the girls 100%
the course went pretty good after I got my luggage
Will I go back ;;;Heck yeah
Was I good enough to be invited back...Heck yeah
Will I go back into town..Without a doubt--but not alone.
On an experience level overall the trip was 100% a good trip and I would consider going there on vacation but before my girls are old enough to drink, and they will never be allowed to go on there own.

I will have some Pic's up later

Henry