Welcome and hello from Carlene and Andre Paquette!
New toys for Andre and Carlene: A bike and a telescope!
In case you were wondering,
here's what we look like
when we're cleaned up
(Catena Christmas Party,
December 2000)
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If you need to reach us our email addresses are as follows:
Andre at home: andre@paquettefamily.ca
Andre at work: andre@astrogeeks.com
Carlene at home: carlene@paquettefamily.ca
Carlene at work: cpaquett@ciena.com
History of happenings:
September 2002: Cottage
Vacation
June 2002: Godparents to Devon Spencer Williams
June 2002: Baptism
of
Jenna and Alexa
June 2002: Visit with Baby
Pierre
and
family
March 2002: Nephew Pierre
Daniel Paquette is born
October 2001: Halloween
Fun
More-or-less current versions of our resumés can be found under:
Carlene's Resume (Last updated
December 2014)
On to more interesting things...
Carlene has her own web pages
that you can view. Andre used to have his own web pages, but they
are so out of date that he finally broke down and removed them.
We still have a few things in common and have included some of
them on this page. These include:
Rocks and Minerals
Ah yes, we love our rock collecting. Carlene is into
fossils, crystals, and just about any rock or mineral that catches
the eye. I'm into more esoteric things, like fluorescent
minerals, radioactive minerals, metallic ores and such.
Every so often, we take a trip specifically to collect
rocks. Some common destinations include Bancroft,
Quadesville, Wilberforce, Bear Lake, Temagami, Cobalt, and New
Liskeard.
In the summer of 2001 we vacationed in Harcourt and stayed at the
Martinwood.
We weren't too far from Bancroft
and Wilberforce area and attended the Rockhound
Gemboree for the first time. We bought a few specimens
and we also did some rock collecting at Bear Lake and had fun
digging and sifting for crystals. The best meal we had
during the entire vacation was at the Brides Gate Inn. It
was a very nice place.
Some interesting specimens we have found:
- I found a big honking gastropod when I was a kid up in New
Liskeard. Sure, a gastropod is just a snail -- but this is
a 6" wide, 450 million year old snail, and in excellent
condition.
- Carlene found a really nice crystal of black tourmaline from
Quadesville. Its about 4 inches long and has the lovely
black ridges typical of tourmaline and is also partially
terminated.
- While in Wilberforce, I found a rather large chunk of
pitchblende that sent my geiger-counter off the scale. At
first it scared the willies out of me, but now I keep it under
my pillow (not!).
- Carlene found a cool piece of kyanite (a fairly rare
pale-blue mineral) while we were near Kaladar.
- I found a large (4 inch) crystal of apatite (a bright green
mineral, and yes, thats a real name) at Bear Lake.
- Carlene found a small piece of native silver while we were
rooting through the mine dumps in Cobalt.
- Near Rock Glen, I found a very nice trilobite head and a
crinoid flower.
I also have a fairly decent collection of fluorescent minerals and
radioactive minerals, most of which I purchased or were given to
me. I have a geiger counter that I purchased at a surplus
store in Toronto and I have several UV lights of varying wavelength.
For those of you in Ottawa, we have found a few sites worth
visiting:
- Great mica sheets can be found along the trails north of
Richardson Side Road, off Goulbourne Forced Road here in
Kanata. From the 417, get off at Terry Fox in Kanata (turn
right onto Terry Fox). Keep going (north) until the road
ends and you hit Campeau Drive and turn right. At the
first lights, turn left onto Castlefrank Drive. Keep going
on Castlefrank past where it makes a hard left turn and becomes
Richardson Side Road. Shortly after this, turn right onto
Goulbourne Forced Road (a gravel road). Drive until you
come to a parking area and (guess what?) park there. Go
onto the trails to the west of Goulborne Forced and go back as
far as you can (past the hydro lines). At this point (if
you look carefully) you should start seeing some fairly large
mica sheets. Poke around and you'll find more.
- Cool concretions can be found in some of the ravines in
Queenswood Heights in Orleans. Some of these concretions
consist of several nodules (and are really neat looking) or have
shells embedded in them.
- A fair bit of graphite can be found off of Castlefrank Drive
(north) in Kanata. Near the housing development to the
east of Castlefrank are many large piles of rock that remain
from the blasting. If you poke around these piles, you'll
find a whole variety of minerals, including quite a bit of
graphite.
Here is a nice Rock and Mineral site worth visiting: Mineral Gallery
Can you say, "Crystal Envy"?
Computer Games
Instead of watching TV, we often play video games. Here are
a few of our favorites:
Babylon 5
Julia, Steve, Tyler, Devon, and Andrew Williams
Jason Bellchamber
