On our way home from Brantford last night, I am pretty sure that my wife Jenn, and I drove through the tail-end of the tornado that was reported going through our area.

I have some video which shows what happened to us on the way home. We were driving down the 403 when we saw what looked like a wall of rain coming our way. Sure enough, that is what it was…we went from bone-dry to a freakish about of rain, hail, wind, and thunder within about 3 seconds. The only thing I could think of was that this was the tail end of the tornado which was being reported on the radio as we drove home.

I made the decision in all of about 5 seconds to pull the car over, as did most of the other drivers on the road, however it didn’t take long (another couple of seconds) for us to decide that maybe we should move on, as the wind was really picking up, and we were not in any position to brace ourselves for the wind of a tornado (being in the middle of a highway, surrounded by trees).

Although the storm was beautiful in its own way, we agreed that it was better to dash home, especially since we were less than 15 minutes from the house at that point.

For those who don’t know, Brantford is where they filmed the movie Silent Hill. If you haven’t seen the film or played the video game, it is your basic run-down town, overridden with Zombies, kind of movie…and if you have seen downtown Brantford, you know why they filmed it there.

That being said, the city has done quite a bit of late, determined to bring Brantford back from the dead, including a beautiful new Harmony Square which hosts concerts during the warmer months, and ice skating in the winter. The water fountains fill the square during warmer months whilst it is not in use. This new addition to the downtown core, as well as the repairs and upgrading that are slowly but surely coming to the shops that adorn the main streets are a welcome addition to the city, and I hope that they bring shoppers downtown on a regular basis.

My wife and I visited the Harmony Square Grand Opening this past weekend, which was very similar to London’s SunFest, but on a smaller scale. Local merchants and artisans adorned the main streets, showing off their works of art, edible or not. Tickets for drinks and food were available in the center corridor of the area, and were very reasonably priced – a dollar per ticket. You could get a meal for $5 quite easily, or simply sample some of the downtown restaurants menus.

We went on Sunday, which was the finale of the opening, and had the opportunity to see Brantford-born Debra Brown, Emmy Award Winning choreographer Cirque du Soleil, teach the crowd of young and old alike, a Cirque du Soleil dance routine. Once the participants had some practice, she presented the routine to the crowd at Harmony Square. It was absolutely fascinating to see people of different backgrounds, ages, and religions, participating in something together. I took some video of the performance, and will post it below. I hope that you enjoy watching it as much as I did.

It seems that everyone these days is trying to cash in on a Guiness World Record, and Firefox is no exception. I was “Googling” a few Silverlight tutorials today, and happened to notice that Firefox was going to try to set a record for the most software downloaded on a single day, on the release date of Firefox 3.

I have to say that I have looked at Firefox 3, and found that it really is amazing software, and a true update in the software world, as they estimate about 14000 improvements in all. Take that, Microsoft!

I have to say that if they can really make Firefox faster and more secure than it already is, I will be singing its praises from the highest mountain, and forcing all my friends to update it as soon as possible.

I look forward to helping Firefox set this record – they have truly written some excellent software in the past, and I don’t see this release being anything but spectacular. Click the banner below for more information on Firefox Download Day.

A bunch of my friends and I went went golfing on the Victoria Day long weekend, and I have to say that it was possibly the longest golf game in history. There were 8 golfers, and it took more than 6 hours to play 6 holes!

Earlier that day, I reached into my wife’s suitcase to move something around, and found her razor – well, needless to say, my finger found itself with 3 nice cuts in it from the 3 blades of the razor, and I was unable to golf. I was a “terrific” caddy for those who golfed though – and had a great time.

The video below is my homage to the day.

How Exciting!

Oh what fun it is clean the house! It’s unbelievable to me that there so much that can and should be cleaned. That, coupled with the fact that my wife are – let’s say not the neatest people around – makes a grueling couple of days worth of cleaning when we decide to get to it.

I guess I should mention as well, for those who don’t know my wife Jenn – she is a procrastinated who is easily distracted. Two qualities which do not help one bit when trying to clean the house. While I just go to it, scrubbing, vacuuming, dusting, etc., Jenn finds things to play with, finds reminders of yesteryear (which she just can’t put away), and other things to do that are simply not at all conducive to cleaning. Don’t get me wrong, I love my wife very much, and truly love her childish spirit, but it can drive a man crazy sometimes – especially when all I want to finish cleaning.

That being said, when she does get on a roll, she is a cleaning phenom! She finds things to clean that I would never dream of cleaning, and scrubs her little heart out when it comes to making sure that something is clean. It puts me to shame!

Why are we doing all this cleaning?

Jenn’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece are coming for a visit in about a week, and well, the house really wasn’t suitable for visitors…just not enough room to move around. I hope they appreciate the fact that I scrubbed my knuckles bare trying to get this place habitable.