Earl is doing GREAT!!

I thought I should let you know that Earl is feeling great. He has been going out a little each day and is sleeping when he should. He went to the Delerious concert last night and out for lunch and a movie yesterday afternoon. He will be heading back to the hospital on June 4th for his next treatment.
That's all folks
Debbie

That's All Folks

"All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars..."

- Oscar Wilde

Thank you to everyone who came along over the past 4 years for the EuroRoss ride. Unfortunatly time has come, we go our separate ways from here... safe travels everyone :-)



Update: Thanks to everyone who e-mailed, I cannot tell you how much it means... and yes, as promised I will post the photo slideshow from Australia below later this week as a final addition to the main page. In the meantime please feel free to browse the archives :-)

Cheeri-O

Update 2: Still working on it but within a week or so the vid will be up.

Update 3: Yeah, still no video, you know... busy ;-) For all you asking I finally caved and am on Facebook, use my Rossiroo [at] hotmail [dot] com address

Update 4: Just checking in. Why have my website traffic numbers increased since I stopped blogging?? I guess the public is trying to say something! ;-)

The Future Is Now

Everyone who knows hockey knows that Junior hockey is the most exciting hockey on the planet, when you mix in 35 years of rival history then you've got a storyline for the ages. Russia-Canada summit series reunion, here's how it looked 35 years ago:



Down 2 goals in the final period, Canada pulls together and brings home the series. This time we were down 2 goals in the first period of the first game... but... never... looked... back:



In 2009 the World Junior Hockey Championships are in Ottawa... you're all invited :-)

Electric

I'm starting to wonder about my decision to live in the tallest building in the city. About 10 minutes ago the sun was pleasantly going down, some rolling clouds were rolling in when... BAM!

A thunder clap hit so loud and hard you'd swear blood was coming out of our ears. Within 30 seconds the entire sky was black and the winds were threatening to bust in the windows. Moments thereafter there was a flash of light and suddenly all the alarms in the building went off.

We had just been hit by lightning, one floor up and two floors over is apparently where the brunt of the damage is. Sleep tight tonight everyone... I know I won't!! :-)

Too Days 2 Late to Early

Juli plays my old MBA stomping grounds in Pforzheim this November two days after I leave nearby Stuttgart for Florida and then I leave the sunny beaches two days prior to my Senators rolling into town for a game against the Lightning :-( Too days 2 late to early...

Looks like Juli is mixing in some English collaborations of late:

F1 Rossiter

Travelling in Europe with long trip times and limited access... or maybe I'm just test driving Formula 1 cars now ;-)

Round 2 or is it Round 3?

Hi Everyone,
Earl is taking his chemo treatment very well this time. Dr Wong has made some changes to his treatment, which will eliminate one whole round of chemo. This means that:
1) Earl has only 2 treatments of high dose methotrexate left before surgery,
2) Earl will be able to go to his Graduation and wear his fancy tuxedo,
3) We will get to Toronto 2 weeks earlier than we expected.
We are hoping that Earl will be coming home sometime today. I know some of you have been saying that you haven't heard from us, please understand that Earl is totally exhausted by this treatment. He misses all of the people that are special in his life and we really encourage you to call, visit, comment on the blog...in other words keep in touch with us!

Earl has decided that he would like to be baptized and would like to invite his friends and family to share this special event with him.

The Baptism will take place at the 10:30 service of Whyte Ridge Baptist Church on June 3rd, 2007 The church is located at 201 Scurfield Blvd in Whyte Ridge.

Take Care,
Debbie

Life Begins Every Morning

Don't be afraid that your life will end,
be afraid that it will never begin...

(Grandma gets it in today :-)

Schlossplatz

They finally announced that Stuttgart will bust out the "fan fest" screens from when everyone watched the World Cup in each centre city so fans can watch VFB Stuttgart win the championship this Saturday. That's where we'll be, come join us for a beer and the celebrations :-)

T-dot Weekend Skies

A great weekend in Toronto :-)



Back to the grindstone tomorrow morning...

The Championship Is Here

After winning yesturday coupled with a Schalke and Bremen loss leaves VFB Stuttgart just one home win away from the Bundesliga Championship. The week after they have a chance to add a Pokal Cup Championship, it's going to be a great week in Schwabishlande!!! :-)

Face-off Time: 2pm Sunday May 13, 2007

The "Face off for a Cure" dinner was great. What a great bunch of young men are represented here. Try and make it out on Sunday to see Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Botterill drop the puck or sometime this week! Earl had a great time!

Debbie

Petite Amie

The Whitsunday's have some of the most beautiful islands and coral reefs in the world... and when you're finished a full day of diving and beach life the bars have some great "scenery" as well ;-)

I hate shopping, but when you're traveling with 3 girls sometimes you have to make exceptions. Besides, taking a break from the outdoor heat for the air conditioned stores wasn't a bad idea... I found other ways to amuse myself ;-)



Perhaps some company was in order, so I bought a bunch of these for my buddies back home :-)



Three more work days and I'm back on a plane, there's no rest for the wicked ;-) :-)

Business Quote o' Note

Business quote of the day:

“Too often we measure everything and understand nothing. The three most important things you need to measure in a business are customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and cash flow. If you’re growing customer satisfaction, your global market share is sure to grow, too. Employee satisfaction gets you productivity, quality, pride, and creativity. And cash flow is the pulse—the key vital sign of a company.”

- Jack Welch

Business tech joke of the day:

"VISTA = Virus Inside, Switch To Apple"

Business Visual Funny of the day:

Stuttgart Visions

Just a hop, skip and a jump before I arrive... :-)

Face off for a cure

Hi Everyone,

Earl has another treatment behind him now and he is doing fantastic. What a strong young man he is. He is still at St. Boniface and hopefully will be coming home Friday morning. He has some exciting activities planned for the weekend and then will go back in on Monday evening (provided his blood work is good) to begin his 5-day treatment on Tuesday.

What is Face off for a cure, you may be asking?

On Sunday May 13, 2007 a group of forty passionate street hockey players will attempt to break the current Guinness World Record for the longest street hockey marathon in Winnipeg, Manitoba and in doing so have a goal of raising 30,000 dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society

Approximately six months ago we filed an application with the Guinness World Records in London, England that would enable us to officially attempt the record. Nearly four months of restlessness we were given the go ahead to official attempt the record. The current record for longest street hockey marathon belongs to Conroy Ross Partners and there 30 hours of street hockey madness. Their record has stood since 2004 when the event was held in Edmonton, Alberta. It is our hopes to successfully break and set the new Guinness World Record on May 13, 2007 on the outdoor rink facility at St. Norbert Community Center located at 3450 Pembina Hwy. The entire event will be open to the public.

The above statement was taken from www.faceoffforacure.blogspot.com. There is lots of info there if you are curious.

Earl has been asked to attend the dinner/kick-off on Saturday night as a guest. I am really impressed with the young men that are organizing this event, many of whom are from our community and hope that you will make it part of your planned activities next week.

Keep in touch,
Debbie

Cancer has touched us all and here is a great chance to get involved.

PS3 vs. Xbox

I've been thinking about buying a new video game console to fill those non-existant "down-time" hours (yeah right), but which one? The PS3 or Xbox360 would both make fine choices, but perhaps a cost comparison is in order. For the same $599 plus taxes I can buy either the Xbox360 and beer pile #1 or the Sony PS3 and beer pile #2...



Ah, what the heck, I'll just buy a Nintendo Wii ;-)

TFC - The Beginning

Last week to a sold out crowd of over 20,000, Toronto FC (TFC) started what will become the greatest soccer team in Canada/MLS :-) Having bought my supporter's section season tickets over a year ago it was finally time to break bread in the new stadium. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Toronto FC!! :-)

The promo leading up to the big franchise opener, it's great to watch the game and see the C.N. Tower in the background:



Let the game begin!



The end stands are filled with all the supporter's clubs. Our club is know as the "Red Patch Boys" referrencing an old army division made up of Toronto locals from back in the day. Not only is our club name a tribute to those that died for our freedom, we have also affectionatly named the supporters stands as "the Bunker" :-)



The view from "the Bunker":



The crazy supporters that hold down the Bunker and lead the cheering for the rest of the stadium:



Wide angle shot of the sold out franchise opener:



Despite the 1-0 loss, the crowd was totally into the game and the team. Great times:

San Fran Freak

If you're a geek you'll get this. If you're not a geek then move along, nothing to see here :-)

Future Society

What future "nature" paintings will look like if the U.K. gets it's expanded surveillance bill approved:



Inspirational isn't it... :-(

Paris Love Lamp

Finally lets end the day with some community creativity and love, coming in the form of a Paris traffic light that hopefully brings a few smiles throughout the day:

Radio Shame

...and now back to evil, this time a radio show host crushes the heart of a cheating girlfriend:



Today is apparently good-bad swing day ;-)

Ice Rose

Because EuroRoss likes to mix the crudety (like the last post) with the sensitive :-)

Low Brow

Warning: this vid is a bit crude. Shows what guys are really thinking, and yes, even your perfect "my man would ever think that" guy is thinking this:

More Crazy Subway Fun

I don't know what it is about the mixture of copeus amounts of alcohol and subway trips, but it works. More "crazy" fun on the subway:






Lip Dubbing: Crazy from Jakob Lodwick

Rollers and Haters

In life there are "rollers" and then there are "haters". Don't be a hater, live life and roll baby!! :-)

Schtuo-gard

How do you get over the travel blues after returning back from Australia? You take another trip of course! I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've last been back, only 2 more weeks until we fix that sitch! :-)

What's Stuttgart like? Here's a view of some pics posted during the time when I was last there:

Downtown sunshine:



U-bahn traffic:



On my way up from Hauptbahnhof, a 2 minute walk away from the best watering hole in the city - CBP (Circle-Beer-Place) :-)



It also rained :-(



Warm up the Schwabish and their livers! I'm almost back! :-)

Worst Day Of My Life

A future PETA member in the making:

Friday Fest

It's Friday and time to party! Looks like some of us, namely David Hasselhof has beat us to the weekend!



Have a good weekend in the sun everyone!

Canada Passtimes

As much as I loved Oz, it's also good to come back home to Canada. I think I'll go play a round of golf ;-)

Manly Hood

The dangerous side of Manly is like snow in the Sahara, you don't see it very often and if you do you're either dehydrated or drunk. Well we were drunk ;-)

Stamp scares from the club the previous night:



3:30 am crash and burn:



I lost a beer cap... honestly! :-)

Say No To DRM

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

If you know what this means you're a geek ;-) Screw DRM.

All is Well

Hi Everyone,
Earl completed his 2nd round of chemo, and made it through with flying colors. He is still in hospital waiting for the chemo med levels to come down. He has experienced very few side effects, the main one being just plain tired (jonked would be a better choice of words.) He will be able to go home once those levels come down (hopefully by Friday) and then will head back next Monday to take on round 3
Keep in Touch,
Debbie

No Worries

It's only been a week since I left the surf beaches of Oz and I already miss it...



Only 11 more months before I get back :-)

Manly Wharf

Only 5 days after getting back from Australia I already miss having a cold beer on the patio overlooking Manly bay. Sigh:



Here's a short video of the scene:

DaVinci Musak

This is even better than the movie, a father and son team have discovered the code from the 13 symbols found at the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland (the chapel highlighted at the end of the movie), this is what they found:

Sydney Snap

Sydney has tons of things to do so one day I met my little buddy for lunch and then just walked around discovering some of the city. Here are some of the things I found:

Still one of the best sights in all of Australia. The ferry we take from Manly goes by here every single trip :-)



Getting culture-ized at the Sydney theatre house:



2 mins outside of downtown Sydney is the botanical gardens, which have a great line of sight at some points going back to the city:



This tree is old, really old (I can't remember how old but I did read it on the sign ;-)



Cool artifacts are littered around the gardens:



Leaving Sydney after a well-done night of partying. A little blurry but the ferry hit some wicked waves that night... and I guess my liver hit some wicked alcohol as well ;-)



Here's a quick video (at night shitty quality) of us leaving Sydney at the end of the night:

NBA Raptors Playoffs

After being in Australia for the past 5+ weeks there are things that I'm really appreciating about Canada that I missed... especially the sport culture and playoffs! (hockey and basketball).

The Toronto Raptors had a great season but are falling behind arch enemy Carter of the New Jersey Nets :-( Come on lads, get it in gear!! :-)