Katalijn in Canada: Birthday and time off

I really should write my blog more often, because now I risk writing too much, generating too much text and becoming boring...
Remember that freak storm we had last week? Here is a picture of it rolling in:

So last Thursday was my birthday. It was also by far the hottest day of the year! We got up to 37 degrees, and just under 50 with the humidex. Pretty hot indeed. So what do you do on a day to celebrate but where you also want to stay cool? Indeed, you go to the Diefenbunker! The Diefenbunker was built during the cold war to create a safe haven in case a nuclear bomb would be dropped on Ottawa. It was actually quite interesting, also since everything was left in the state of the late eighties, when they left the building.

The rest of my birthday was special as well. Of course my parents were still here, and I got spoiled rotten by both Nolan and my parents. Nolan bought me a new office chair, and my parents gave us money for a new digital camera!! (The rest of the pictures below are all taken with our new camera.) All very nice. And to top it off, East Sides Mario's for dinner! Maybe not the most exciting place, but the food was good, and the beer was even better!

Mom and Dad at East Sides

Nolan and I at East Sides (after a beer or so...)

On Friday Nolan and I went for a long bike ride, which was really nice. It had cooled down a bit, but it was still pretty warm to go for a run. A bike ride proved to be a great alternative!

Nolan

Me adjusting my helmet

On Saturday we dropped the parents off down town, and Nolan and I went on a date and saw The Lion King! It was very, very impressive and very well done. We both really enjoyed it. Afterwards we met up with the parents again and first went to Darcy McGee's for a beer (really, we're not alcoholics...), and then went to Royal Thai for dinner. It was delicious. Good thing I had the vegetarian pad thai; all the other dishes (with meat) were a tad to spicy for me.

Sunday was pretty quiet with a visit to the Agriculture Museum in the morning, and Nolan and I went for a nice run in the Greenbelt in the afternoon.
Monday we had planned to go to breakfast, but when we woke up we found out that my parents had been rebooked onto another flight after their original flight had been cancelled. First we thought they were booked onto an earlier flight, but it turned out to be an earlier flight the next day! So I made some phone calls, trying to get the airline pay for a hotel, since we couldn't really drop them off on Tuesday due to work commitments. After talking to several people, I was able to get them on a direct KLM flight that same evening! So it took a bit of determination, but it all turned out for the better!

Now our lives are back to normal. Work is still busy and interesting and the weather is still gorgeous. So really, we are very happy and lucky people!!

To end, here are some photos taken with our new camera!