I had a great Father's Day weekend with Maj and Amita June. On Friday afternoon, I spent a couple of hours with Patrick Tanguay to visit potential locations for the incipient Montreal coworking space. We saw a great space near the Provigo on Mont Royal and Clark; there's a definite premium for the location, which has to be weighed against the cost of other places.
Then Maj and AJ and I drove up to Mont Tremblant National Park. Mont Tremblant is a beautiful park in the Laurentides a few hours north of Montreal. It's best known for the large ski resort in the town of Mont-Tremblant, but the park area is a real draw on its own.
We camped in the Lac Monroe area, in the Secteur du Diable (closest to the resort). We spent most of the weekend on the beach at the lake, swimming and wading. Amita June is definitely hitting her stride as a water baby; she wailed like a banshee any time we left the beach.
It was great to stretch our camping legs. Quebec is a great place to live if you like camping. There are lots of good national parks (both Quebec and Canadian) and wildlife reserves. The countryside is a beautiful mix of meadows and eastern temperate forest, and the facilities are of a uniform high quality. Also, the parks aren't particularly crowded, even on holiday weekends.
Downsides? The bugs. There are blackflies and deerflies that leave gigantic welts and sometimes draw blood. We spend a lot of time slathering on highly-poisonous insect repellent and still get really bit up. The other thing is the short camping season; many campgrounds don't open for camping until June and close up in September.
We woke up to rain on Sunday morning, but it cleared pretty quickly, so we were able to leave in the sunshine. We stopped in Mont-Tremblant on the way home yesterday for a nice Father's Day brunch. Amita June obliging fell asleep in the car, and we had a quiet ride home. Yesterday evening, we went to Piknic for a few hours, and had a great time. There was one of those moon-walk bouncy rooms, which Amita loved.
What did I get for Father's Day? Well, the camping trip, of course, plus an IOU for a new BBQ. My old table-top one got a leak in its propane valve during the move, so I'm taking that as a signal to upgrade, and Father's Day is a good time for it.
tags: monttremblant fathersday bbq camping travel quebec amitajune
Bad things happen to good people
I've been following with interest Biella Coleman's trials and tribulations with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Horizon of New Jersey. Apparently Biella had some dermatological surgery, and the insurance company is not paying up, citing a pre-existing condition. I wonder if they pay out on any dermatological work, since probably all of their customers have skin when they sign up.
Biella's extremely resourceful (she doesn't have "healthhacker.org" for nothing) and was able to find a way to put pressure on her insurance company: by filing a complaint with the Department of Insurance. But the most interesting part of the story is that after complaining in her blog, Biella got an email from the Public Relations director of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Kind of interesting to note which companies are keeping an eye on the blogs, and which aren't.
What does it all boil down to? Not much yet, apparently. She's still fighting with the company over whether and how much they'll pay -- although having the PR Director intercede on her behalf has opened some doors. I'm going to continue to follow with interest.
tags: biellacoleman healthhackery bluecross blueshield bluedistinction dermatology
BarCampBlackRockCity
I just read a Twitter message from Chris Messina about BarCampEarth, and I'm thinking: I'll probably be in Black Rock City at that point. Does a BarCampBlackRockCity make any sense?
And then the other side of my head says: no, it does not.
tags: blackrockcity barcamp barcampearth