Mark Makes Blog Headlines

Mark - an integral part of our lives, whom we love dearly, but for some reason doesn’t usually make the headlines in our blog. Today is his turn.

Several months ago Mark went and put some pot lights in for a lady. Usually his company works on all of their jobs together, but this time Mark had gone alone, and successfully completed the task. She called back recently and asked to have some more work done. “And,” she asked, “could you please send the OLDER GENTLEMAN who come and did the work last time. I believe his name was Mark. He was so kind and courteous, just a real joy to have around.”

Needless to say the guys at work spent the rest of the day searching for jobs that would be suitable for an ‘older gentleman!’

I just want to know how she knew Mark has just picked up his first pair of bifocals!

From the "Totally Unexpected" File

Every Wednesday we take Lisa bowling at the Chesterville bowling alley. She has bowled for many years and is actually quite good, usually scoring around 150. She loves it, and lets the world know when she has thrown a strike with her loud joyous shouts of "Yes! I did it!"

Today when we arrived, our fellow bowlers were all waiting outside. We were told they were filming inside, and would be done in a few minutes. I assumed the local high school's media class was at work.

When we entered I soon realized they were not amateurs. They were a crew from TVO, filming a segment for "Mark's Moments." Never heard of it but, cool. One of the regular bowlers is a young boy who is going blind, and they are doing a show on "A Day in the Life of Palmer." Then it hit me...it's probably TVO Kids...my kids watch that!

I asked Devin if he knew Mark from TVO Kids. His face immediately indicated yes, as he realized why the guy across the room looked familiar. Guess he couldn't place him without the big black box around his head. Devin went over and said "Hi" and had a little chat. We called Brent over, who by this time had started bowling (he keeps Lisa company), and soon he was also star struck, trying to figure out how to have a conversation with someone who was so down to earth, funny, and wore very cool shoes...but normally entered our living room through the TV.

The owners of the alley took a picture and quickly printed it off for us; sometimes technology is just too cool. Mark graciously signed it, along with personal notes to each of the boys. Despite what the sign says over his head (oops...) he was a very responsible young man, GREAT with the kids, and certainly an unexpected visitor in our tiny town!

He said he was going to post the photo on his blog on the TVO kids website. I imagine the boys will have me checking a couple of times a day until he does.

Mark's Moments airs on TVO on Wednesday at 5:55pm, Saturday at 10:20am, and Sunday at 1:23pm. Palmer's segment won't be on until late May or June.



On the way home Devin decided he is going to always carry around his Alfredsson, Heatley and Spezza cards, because "You just never know who you'll meet."

Our Hockey Stars

Hockey season for the boys drew to a close on March 22nd. The "league" that they play in consists of boys from ages 7-12. They play every other Saturday, doing drills for about 30 minutes and then scrimmage for another 30. No tournaments, no fund raising, no parental brawls, no bank loans to cover expenses. We are just thrilled to have this opportunity for the boys.

This was Devin's 3rd year, and Brent after having said he didn't want to play in September, asked if he could join in February. We had been skating at the arena most Thursdays with other homeschoolers and I guess he finally felt confident enough on his skates to join in on the "real thing." (Another benefit of a less formal group; and having mom as the administrator...)
They approach the game with different mind sets, although both are intent on scoring goals. Brent admitted that he was a little frustrated, because when he finally was able to get the puck on his stick, "Suddenly there is a crowd of other players around me, and I can't shoot it at the net!"
As administrator, I decided to take pictures of all the boys, and used my Photoshop to make "hockey cards" for them. I still am discovering how much there is to learn in the program, but am having fun exploring!