Another beautiful weekend!

So, what are my plans for the second weekend in a row of great weather? Well, Monday is a holiday in Nova Scotia (Natal Day. No idea...) so I got a half day on Friday and I get Monday off entirely. Nice.

So this morning I went scuba diving with my art director Lisa. We went in a place called Coolen's Beach. It's a cove/bay-type area about 25 minutes up the coast from where I live. I was a little concerned about the cold water, but I rented a 7mm wetsuit and it came with an extra "bib" type piece that covers my torso and thighs. So I had a double layer where it matters most. I also had mittens and a hood. I needed those, but I don't think I needed the extra wetsuit piece. I was quite warm down there. Of course, it was low tide so we were only about 15 feet deep. I didn't have enough weights, though. Learned that the hard way. It was really hard for me to stay down, especially after I burned some air. But, I made the most of it.

We saw a couple flounder, a boatload of crab (in varying sized from tiny thumb-sized ones to one we held in our palm. Gotta watch those claws, of course), a couple REALLY big lobsters (I was told they are breeders, as they are too big for the traps), and some interesting plant life. We also collected a bunch of old artifacts like bottles. I now have 2 very old Pepsi bottles. One is the tall skinny kind we have probably all seen before, but the other was a squat, squarish one that I have never seen before. I'm thinkin it's from the 50's. Maybe earlier. Very cool. It actually has plants growing on it. Yes, ON it. Not in it. I'll see if I can get a picture of it. It's in my bathtub "cleaning" right now.

Well anyway, that was my introduction into diving the North Atlantic. I guess the diving is great here until about mid-October. Then of course there is the traditional New Year's Eve dive that a few of the dive groups here do. I've been invited. We'll see if I'm up for it. Some of them cheat and use dry suits. I am not dry suit certified, so if I do it, it's going to be wet suit all the way. Bet yer ass I'll be getting the double-layered 7mm that day! Perhaps a 9mm if they have one that fits me. I ain't playing around with an ocean-sized glass of ice water. You feel me?

Tomorrow one of the other writers (Jon) and AD's (Mike) and I are going to a cabin of one of the local freelance producers that we work with regularly for some fishing. That'll just be a day trip, though. It's about an hour away. I've got nothing on the books for Natal Day (but I might take in the parade, who knows.) I'll probably need to use that for catching up on some sleep.

Then next weekend Jon and I are going to Cape Breton for some "research" for our tourism client. They have a program where they will pay for one trip for each member of the creative team to go visit some place in the province as long as you bring back a presentation of some sort. Jon and I both love taking pictures, so we're going to do a photo journal of our trip and make a slideshow for the rest of the agency. Good times. Oh, by the way, Cape Breton has just been named the 4th best island in the world to visit by Travel and Leisure Magazine. Bali, Kauai, and Maui are the only ones that beat it. Which makes it also the number one island in continental North America. I'd be happy to play tour guide if anyone wants to come for a visit... I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin. And if you need a memory job, just look at the insert that I sent out a while back. There's a bunch of stuff in there about it.

I'm really glad to be getting out and about now. It took longer than I would have liked, but I'm finally making my way slowly to a respectable social life around here.

One more thing: for those of you following the Barnaked Ladies tales from earlier, I've posted my second mix on their site now. Go check it out! It's for the song "Wind it up".

http://stems.barenakedladies.com/wiu/fileupload/listen.action

I just posted it yesterday so it might take a day or two to show up on there. It's called "Wind It Up (Stoneybrook Mix)".