At the end of April, Jakob successfully completed his Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technician program! Here's the diploma which we were all pretty pleased to see (I found it sitting on my desk one day), however, I couldn't manage to get a picture of him holding it. But here it is all framed and ready to hang. I also hoped to post a short video of one of his final projects -- an Arduino powered skittle sorting robot -- but that didn't happen, either. So, congratulations to Jakob in his first post-secondary experience and let's see what happens next...

Kristin is set to begin the next leg of her journey, as she enters the Master of Forest Conservation program at University of Toronto.

On Thursday 11 June 2015, at the five hundred and forty-fourth Convocation for conferring degrees at McMaster University in Hamilton, four years of hard work came to a close as Kristin Ann Clements received her Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Earth & Environmental Sciences (Minor in Geographical Information Systems). That's her above, shaking the Chancellor's hand after being hooded.

After the official ceremony, during the reception, Kristin pointed in the program and said "did you see my star?" Yes, I said, I saw her star of distinction (aka "summa cum laude"). "Did you see your award?" I asked.  Kristin said she did not win an award, but I flipped to the back of the program and said "Isn't that your name there?" Yes. Yes, it was.

After coming and going to Hamilton for the past four years -- picking up, dropping off, moving in, moving out Kristin -- we have come to really love Hamtown. Or, as some call it, The Hammer. It really is a great place. Unfortunately, we waited until the very end of Kristin's tenure at McMaster to check out the Art Gallery of Hamilton. It's a great gallery: nice spaces, nice collection, not too small, not too big, staffed by typically-friendly Hamiltonians.

Plus, it has this thing: The Bruegel-Bosch Bus.

After seven years, we made a third trip to Sanibel Island. Located in the Gulf of Mexico, near the southern end of Florida, Sanibel is a family favourite.

Since we were last here, it seems to have gotten more crowded. Apparently people can spend up to two hours to get on the island for the day, and we witnessed the traffic jams leaving in the evening. Good thing we had our own condo on the beach, so no problem there.

Somehow we managed to miss this event for the first eight years of its existence, but this year we made it: Nuit Blanche, the dusk to dawn contemporary art event. And wow, I hope we don't miss it again!