THE EAGLE HAS LANDED!

Cottage season 2011 has finally gotten underway!

On Friday, Handy Dad and Sewing Mum launched The Waketania III, their pontoon boat. (Waketania II was Dad's old 500 lb concrete* canoe that we now own. I don't know if he's aware that I'm naming his boat for him, but tough beans. I don't know what the Waketania I was...)

Once afloat, they puttered over to the island to see how things held up over the winter. Originally my main concern was whether the flooring had survived, but after the windstorm at the end of April I was more interested in learning whether the cottage was intact and that none of the buildings had been crushed under a falling tree. I guess sometimes it's good not to have a lot of trees at the cottage.

Upon arrival, the first thing that they saw was that the two sections of our neighbour's dock (installed Easter weekend) had ripped out and were semi-submerged and wedged on either side in front of our cottage.

(click for close up)

and here's another

and another

Dad was able to dock and get in to check out the cottage.  The cottage itself was unscathed by the wind or trees, and better yet - the flooring was in good shape! Calloo Callay!

Fortunately, our own docks were dandy fine.

The wee bird house was still standing

(better than our poor neighbours with the docks)

And none of my ungrouted shower tiles had popped off over during the winter freeze.

According to Dad, the cottage looked like we closed up yesterday, and best of all - no stink! We weren't sure how it would smell after shutting up all winter with the composting toilet. I guess it was just fine. (Yay!)

Dad and the captain hatched a cunning plan to return the next day and install our docks while the princess and I attended our last dance competition of the season. Perfect timing!

---

*no, not really.

Proud mumma

WARNING: this post has nothing to do with the cottage. 

You've been warned.

This past weekend was our penultimate dance competition. It took place at York U, and was held by the Ultimate Dance Connection dance competition. It was a tough, tough weekend. Most of the routines we saw received a Gold mark, which is a very average dance score, if you're not familiar with dance competition scoring. It's about as exciting as a B- on a term paper; you're relieved it wasn't worse, but it's nothing to crow about.

The princess danced in two numbers each day; First Tap

and Hip Hop

then Acro

and Jazz

Finally, on the Sunday, they held a competition within the competition, specifically for Ballet. They had ballet experts as judges for the ballet portion and separate overall high-score trophies available for ballet. Ballet is a notoriously tough discipline. It's technically exacting, judges are harsh, and you almost never see an overall awarded to a ballet routine as a result. That they created ballet overalls for this competition was a pleasant change from the norm.

The girls started out well earning a diamond (one level up from Gold) for their tap number, but everything else managed no better than gold. Stellar routines at our studio that have won overalls at numerous prior competitions received gold and no further recognition. They were pretty demoralized.

On ballet day, their group of eight received a gold, and it was so close to being a silver that I was biting my nails about the princess's ballet solo which was next. The junior girls (the age group above the princess) from our studio received a silver for their routine. She was competing against 3 other girls in her category, some of whom train at a ballet-only dance school.

She came on stage like a pro, danced elegantly, and when they accidentally shut her music off part way through her routine, she kept going. When the music came back on, she hadn't missed a step in her choreography and was perfectly on time. The other girls in her category danced after her. And then we waited. Two long hours we waited for the ballet awards ceremony to take place.

As the awards ceremony got underway, I quietly hoped she at least got better than silver. The fourth place girl was announced. She received a Gold. Yes! Better than a silver! The third place received a diamond - and it wasn't the princess! I knew she was in either second or first, and had at least earned a diamond score. Hooray! When second place was announced and we realized she took first place in her category I was overjoyed and so immensely proud of her and all of her hard work.

Once the individual awards had been handed out, it was time to announce the overall awards for high scores. When they announced that she had the highest score amongst all of the 9 and under age category ballet solos (both novice and experienced dancers), I was dumbstruck. Finally she had a trophy of her own to bring home after watching her friends clean up at the earlier competitions.

Her instructor was overjoyed and all of the dance moms and other dancers offered her heartfelt congratulations. She radiated happiness and kept asking her friend to pinch her, "If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up!" she told me.

She now sleeps with her trophy.

♥

We later learned that the studio came 2nd overall (out of 13) in the whole competition, and a massive trophy now adorns the waiting room at the studio.

Crud. I might need this too...

Dang it, Ana. How am I supposed to keep up!?

Ana White has posted another fantastic set of plans to her website. This time for a picnic table.
I need to upgrade the picnic table at the cottage...

But, there's a twist!

When it's not being a picnic table, this puppy morphs into benches! Isn't that cool? I would double it (extra long table, or 4 benches.)

I love multi-purpose items at the cottage.

Get your snorkels out...

The docks are still partially submerged at the marina; most importantly, the one at the boat launch ramp.

Dangit.

Dock near the boat launch. (blub blub!)

Looking back towards our slips.

 Our dock.

Boat launch and submerged dock.


Thanks to Handy-Dad for these excellent pictures.

Elvis has left the building

...actually, That Damned Boat™ is finally out of my garage! Woo!

I can get at stuff without shimmying sideways or mounting a sherpa-led expedition over mountains of kerrap.

Inching closer to the cottage every day.

Happy happy happy. 

Also, I have only 3 more days of dance competition left for this year. Yessss!

Wind storm

Yesterday we had a wind storm blow through with sustained winds of 30+km/h and gusts as high as 100 km/h. It also hit Rice Lake. I've been trolling the web for photos of what the lake was like in the middle of all that wind. Here's what I've found this morning:

This photo was shown on the Cow Island facebook page. Scary.

And these were shown on The WeatherNetwork page for Peterboro. 

The quality is poor but in this one you can see the docks at the end are torn apart (the support legs are sticking up out of the water).

Knowing the direction that wind was howling, our dock would've been pounded. I'm really glad we didn't put it in last weekend.

♫ I went shopping! ♫

I mentioned a recent trip to Port Perry (♥ Must go back again soon).

Here are a few of the treasures I picked up.

#1: Some seashell dishes. They're not super big, but I thought they'd look sweet sitting on the end-tables in our bedroom at the cottage. Big enough to hold coins, rings, and whatever else you turn out of your pockets at night.

Won't they be cute in here? The captain's won't be cute, though. It'll be a very manly seashell.

#2 TP holder. This one is for the bathroom. It's quirky (like me!) and just the right dark red that I wanted to introduce into the room for a little bit of colour.

Added bonus: the tan lid of the TP holder matches the shower curtain perfectly. It also looks cute with the recently acquired prints. One more red thing (maybe a clear red glass dish?) and that oughta do it.

Lastly,  some containers. I loved the look of this little metal shelf. I haven't decided yet what purpose it will serve, but it is also earmarked for the bathroom. Needless to say, it is unlikely that it will contain soaps, salts, or soda.

That's it for now.

Still biding our time until we can get back out to the cottage. The waiting is so frustrating.