Annual Ottawa Excursion

Another year, another trip to Ottawa. Our annual planning meeting took place again this year and once again it happened in Ottawa. I drove again with the mind of staying the weekend after the meeting ended. You may recall the 2016 edition of this meeting when Cheese and Two Glasses of Wine met up with me and we visited Frawnce and the Beer Guy. Well, it was a bit different this time. Firstly, I had to run some errands before and after the meeting regarding some GPS units. Maybe more glaring was that Cheese and 2GW didn't attend. And finally I didn't stay with Frawnce and the Beer Guy this time. With the Young Prince having been born, I didn't want to trouble them. Instead I was allowed to stay with Admiral Bonesaw and Dutchie. The meeting itself was fairly uneventful. Well, it wasn't but nothing that my readers would care about happened so we'll largely leap past that portion. I did get to see the Duffman on one of the nights when he joined my larger team for dinner. It was pretty sweet to see him, it had been months. Friday night saw me arriving at the Admiral's new country estate. We went to a local pub for dinner. The food was adequate, despite some attempted deception by the staff on the difference between jalapeno and banana peppers. The service was markedly mediocre, even for a small town. We went back to their manor and the Admiral forced me to watch the Santa Clarita Diet, a new show on Netflix. We all fell asleep watching it. The next morning, Dutchie was off to her course and the Admiral, Gracey and I went for a walk through the bush. Having not anticipated this, I only had skate shoes, which I learned had a broken sole. Broken in such a way that snow could enter the realm between sole and liner, thus mimicking the feeling of having a growing stone in one's shoe. The moral is that I survived and that I need new shoes. We got back and did nothing of note until it was time to sup with the Beer Guy and Frawnce. The purpose of which was to visit them and the Young Prince while I was in the area. We had a nice time, eating, drinking, and watching the hockey game. Leafs were playing the Sens which put a little extra mustard on the evening. The Young Prince slept for the entire duration of our visit, but not without some excitement. He moves, opens his eyes, and makes noise while he sleeps. A true man! Sunday was mostly uneventful. I drove home, did laundry and the Italian Girl stopped in for a visit. Nothing too crazy happened. It was nice to be re-united with my own bed after nearly a week on the road.