Chesterville, ON

I'm out of town on business. I'm currently in the little town of Chesterville in Ontario, Canada. It's a beautiful place and I'm loving it. There's lots of agriculture and farms here, but it's all under about 4 inches of snow right now. As you might imagine, the weather is a bit cold... OK it's really cold. There is snow and ice everywhere and the wind is pretty brisk at times. Luckily I'm indoors most of the time and don't have to deal with it. The apartment that I'm staying in is upstairs from the office that I'm working in. Therefore, the only time I go outside is when I want to run and when I go out for lunch/dinner.

Here's where Chesterville is located:

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I landed early Tuesday morning and have been treated like a prince since my arrival. My host, Birket, is a wonderful host and has taken me to lots of fun events. As soon as I landed, he immediately took me to a great restaurant for lunch where he knew the owners and we got top notch service with some amazing food. I was a special guest at his rotary club meeting. I have got to enjoy the company of some pretty amazing locals. I even got to experience Canadian pub life (hockey et al) two nights in a row. Last night I enjoyed some Mexican cooking classes at his pub and that was extremely fun. I've enjoyed some fine cuisines at various local restaurants. Everybody here has been so hospitable.

The scenery up here is amazing as well. Yesterday I took a 4.5 mile run along the frozen highway and it was a beautiful run. Kind of technical due to all the ice and frozen slush, but beautiful none-the-less. I took off out the door around 4:15 pm and the sun was setting on the horizon. It looked like the entire western sky was on fire. Unfortunately I had no camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it. The weather was "butt-cold" and I had a frozen ice-stache on my upper lip to go with my red nose and red cheeks. I think some of the drivers thought I was crazy, but I really enjoyed the run. I do plan to get in some miles tomorrow before my flight home if time permits... We'll see.

Tonight I went to a nice restaurant with Raymond (an old friend from my Virginia trip last spring) and we had a great evening together. When I got back to the apartment, I had a lot of time to myself, so I dialed up Jennifer on Skype and we've been talking for the last hour or so. We caught up on the weeks events. Apparently we had a showing on our house today. I liked the way that worked out because I didn't have to be there to do any of the cleaning. :) We're pretty sure it will fall through and our contract is up with our realtor in the next week or two. Looks like we ain't goin nowhere. No worries. We'll make it work.

So I have a flight back to the states tomorrow and I'm pretty excited to get back to a normal schedule. The last month or so has been absolutely crazy. Lots of holidays followed by lots of travel. My goal is to get back to the basics and catch up on some projects I've been putting off too long (talking about you Pop!). :)

Here's what I'm looking forward to this weekend:

Jennifer and Lizzie <3