Random Rumblings

Wisconsin-Illinois Road Trip Part Deux

2012-01-05T16:41:00.000-05:00

When I left off my little narrative, we were on our way back to Uncle Steve for our 3rd visit to the nursing centre, this time armed with a little more information. We met Don this time, Steve's roommate, who apparently never met a conversation he couldn't insinuate himself into, which was a bit annoying, but what can you do.

We then went back to the hotel, where we finally connected with Bill and Kay, who had Steve's keys. We wanted to get his mail, pick him up a few things from his apartment, and make sure everything there was good.

So we had a nice chat with Bill and Kay, and it was awfully nice to know that Steve has good friends to help him out when he needs it. From there it was off to the post office, where I found his mailbox, along with a notice of expiry. I paid for another 6 months for him, then we went hunting for his apartment, and hunting is the right word, because our information was wrong. So I'm trying to open what I thought was his apartment, and failing, when we hear noises inside. A bit alarming, so I ring the doorbell, and am surprised when someone answers.

Yes, I was trying to get into the wrong apartment and I think I might owe the guy some new underwear.

So we went to see Steve again, at least having accomplished getting the mail, and this time got a physical description of exactly where his apartment was. After going thru his mail with him and making sure there was nothing too urgent, we listened to a few more Don stories, then went apartment hunting again. With the right number and Steve's physical description, I found the place no problem this time, even in the dark of night (well after 8 by then).

Steve's apartment was nice, small and cozy, but comfortable, clean and very well organized. His big concern was whether or not he had made his bed, and I was happy to tell him that he had.

We then took the things he wanted, and headed back to the hotel for a hot tub, which was only very warm, but still quite nice, and even better, totally deserted. Of course, by then it was 11, and we hadn't really had dinner, so we found the one pub in walking distance serving food, and it was us and one other guy hitting on the waitress. The other guy, not us. We had dinner - we'll always wonder if he had dessert.

I then foolishly watched Avatar on HBO til the middle of the night, and as a result was pretty baked for the first leg of our return trip home. We went back to Steve's apartment to get the right jacket for him, then back for our final visit, which had to be fairly short as we had a tight timeline to get the keys back to bill and Kay. I got a bit emotional leaving, obvious reasons, right?

We then had to stop at Culver's, for our final lunch in Wisconsin, especially since Bill and Kay gave us some coupons. What an awesome place - I would say its a cant miss when in Wisconsin, or anywhere else that has one.

We then moseyed our way back down to Chicago and the Kindrachuk/Benoit household, stopping only to pick up some Wisconsin cheese for Bill, which was an experience in itself. Gabi thought we were going to be featured on a cheese based reality show.

We had a lovely time in Lisle, getting to visit with Bill, Janice, John, Alex and Charlie. It was nice getting to know the boys a bit better, and we were impressed by all of them. Charlie is particularly interested in cars, wants to open a shop working on high end cars, and needs money for parts for a Camaro he's rebuilding, so I got him to do a much needed oil change on the van. Win-win for both of us, I hope, although he had to get up early and it was freezing out while he was working.

Alex was already off skating (@6am!!!!), as was Janice, and we didn't see John or Dave, but it was particularly wonderful to visit with Uncle Bill. He took us all out for a nice Chinese buffet, which I never mind, and even gave me a piece of family history, which was a fur hat made by my Aunt Mary, which was cut from a fur coat that used to belong to my Baba Olga. We also really appreciated being put up for the night in a really comfortable guest bedroom - thanks, guys!

We're near Lansing Michigan right now, heading to Sarnia. I'm picking up a few replacement displays for Orbitor 1 from Corey, the Ontario Stern guru, and we should be home tonight.

Hasn't been an inexpensive trip, but it's been worth it in so many intangible ways, from catching up with family on Chicago, to Steve's jaw hitting the floor when he saw us, to the expected surprise on the girls faces when we bring their gifts. Gabi and I got a nice break from the routine and a chance to reconnect, which was really tremendous. All in all, a great trip.

Sent from an iPhone.

Neenah, Wisconsin

2012-01-03T13:07:00.000-05:00

Well, I sit here in the American Girl outlet in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We're going back to see Uncle Steve this afternoon, as he does his rehab in the mornings.

We left early New Years Day, not quite as early as planned, but we were on the road for good by 8, with only 1 return trip home for forgotten items. The Ontario portion of the drive was wet but uneventful, once again I picked the wrong border guard, although she went on break right before us and we wound up getting thru very quickly.

Michigan was notable for two things - high winds and road kill. We counted no fewer than 11 deer on the road between port Huron and Flint. A bit of gps time zone confusion, but we eventually made it into Chicago and our very nice hotel downtown. We had dinner at Due pizzeria, which was by far the best deep dish pizza I've ever had in my life. We'd go back in a heartbeat.

We then walked the Magnificent Mile until I thought I was gonna freeze to death, then back to the hotel.

All I'll say about Einstein Bros bagels is if you're considering eating there, don't. Craptastic. We then hit the American Girl store on the mile for the girls, then checked out of the hotel and headed north.

I programmed the gps with a stop in Milwaukee, and we hit Miller Park. For those who don't know, I play simulation baseball, and my team since 1987 has been the Milwaukee Brewers. The stadium, even with the snow-covered field, was awesome. I went a bit nuts in the team store, buying a bunch of shirts, a Brewers scarf (helps alleviate the freezing), and a nice wooden sign for the bar.

From there, it was straight to Uncle Steve. We found him in front of a TV watching the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl, and to say he was surprised to see us would be an understatement. We had a quick visit, then went out to try and find his friend who has his mailbox keys. That didn't work out, so we went back for another visit with Steve, then out to dinner and checked into our hotel.

I'm pleased to report that Steve is doing well, healing up nicely. He turned his bruised face away for the picture, and isn't tremendously mobile yet, but seemed in good spirits, and is certainly animated. I'm pretty sure he was happy to see us - I'm looking forward to going back - we're trying to arrive after his rehab and lunch.

We're having a great trip, and would be outright wonderful were it not for the news we got, which was that Mark Wright passed away suddenly on New Years day. We've been thinking about his family an awful lot, and the horrible start to their year. Our hearts go out to them - he was only 33.

We'll begin our return trip tomorrow, staying one more night in Appleton. Here's hoping the drive home is as smooth as the drive here was, and I'd really like to make Mark's funeral on Friday.

Will try to check in on the road home at some point.

2011, looking back!

2011-12-31T12:08:00.002-05:00

2011 was a good year for me in many ways!
First off, my family. Gabi and I continued to settle into and adjust to the lifestyle changes that came with the new house in 2010, and I've got a little story to reflect how that's going.
When we first started dating, I had a window in my classroom slip open over the Christmas break, the same year Mel Lastman called in the army. I returned to school to find a snow bank in the middle of my classroom, and all my carefully nurtured plants frozen like bricks.
So, to help me recover my plants, Gabi sent me a ficus, which I thought was the sweetest thing any girl had ever done for me. I never took it to school, because it quickly graced our apartment, then our first house. It did well, stayed healthy, and we named it the love tree, cheesy but highly accurate.
However, in the new house, this tree has doubled in size, an unbelievable growth spurt for a tree that had been slowly growing with us for a decade. An apt metaphor, I think! We love life in this new neighborhood!
The girls are doing good, as well, Maya thriving in Grade three, and Chloe thriving at being three. Maya's doing well in school and with her friends, and makes us very proud. Chloe, while a more challenging, stubborn child than Maya ever was by far, is showing some encouraging signs lately. Watching a Dolphins Tale with her this week was a revelation, she got so upset by Winter being hurt. Chloe is a very smart, chatty, confident child, and seems very popular at her daycare, with both students and teachers, which I'll take as a good sign.
Our trip to Orlando was a definite highlight, as well as our WDW moments, repeated Small World rides and heat related meltdowns notwithstanding. Hollywood Studios at night without the kids was fun, and the Aerosmith themed Rock and Rollercoaster was just as fun as Everest in Animal Kingdom. The absolute highlight of the trip for me was, surprisingly enough, our Princess lunch in Cinderella's castle. The girls and Gabi were enthralled, and I absolutely loved the pic of the four of us with Cinderella, sweaty though we were. I loved being down there with my parents and Ter and Jen and the boys, and all ten of us had a great time in our fantastic rental house, especially the pool.
The first part of July at the cottage was awesome - beautiful weather, and good times with family and friends. We're probably going to have to track down a new bunk bed for the 4 kids soon...
I took my first school trip as teacher in charge, and we had a fantastic time in Ottawa and Montreal, so good I'm repeating the experience. The ski trips were good too, although my first attempt at getting Maya on skis didnt work out so well. Hopefully this year will be better - we start lessons on the 16th!
Otherwise work was a mixed bag - I've had two fantastic groups of kids to work with, but admin changes are always interesting. I've wound up the year as co-chair, so we'll see how that goes.
Squash and baseball were good - another year with lots of minor injuries, including hamstrings, groin pulls and a mildly sprained ankle, as well as my current knee injury. I need to change something in my physical routine - to that end, I've joined both squash leagues to help me build up some strength Jan-April. That plus skiing on Sundays should really help...I hope. I struggled big time moving a pin into the house yesterday, and I'm a bit afraid of trying to get it into the basement. Haven't felt this weak in some time.
Cora's health finally improved, although she seems to have some kind of stomach bug right now, poor thing. 2011 was also the year we lost Jake, sadly. Probably the greatest catch and fetch dog ever, in his prime he probably could have played a mean centerfield, if you didn't mind a slobbery ball when he was done. He always loved to jump up on me and give me a big wet face wash. I'm going to miss those, but I sure love Lily, too, Ter and Jen's new pup.
I would be remiss without mentioning my new and rather obsessive hobby, pinball. However, I won't talk too much about it here, other than to say its something I enjoy very much, and have made some new friends through an awesome online community I've been made to feel at home in.
We're planning to possibly make 2012 the year of planning the kitchen, and hopefully make it a reality in 2013, although I think a vehicle purchase will probably be an inevitable budget line item in the next 2-3 years, and hopefully not sooner. I'm trying out Vera's Yaris now - we'll see what comes.
So, without any further rumblings, I'll sign off, hoping that everyone who takes the time to read this will have a good or better 2012!

Fwd: Roberto Alomar (@Robbiealomar) replied to one of your Tweets!

2011-12-03T01:00:00.001-05:00

From: Twitter <mention-jzbebfr=ebtref.pbz-691b7@postmaster.twitter.com>
Date: 3 December, 2011 12:49:39 AM EST
Subject: Roberto Alomar (@Robbiealomar) replied to one of your Tweets

Roberto Alomar @Robbiealomar replied to you:

Robbiealomar Roberto Alomar

@brewmanager @mlbfancave thx a lot man...;-)

Dec 02, 9:49 PM via Twitter for iPhone

In reply to…

brewmanager Walt M

"@MLBFanCave: The greatest second baseman of all time is Roberto Alomar. #MLBFC"

Dec 02, 2:44 PM via Twitter for iPhone

Reply to @Robbiealomar

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Welcome to the Jungle!

2011-12-02T23:50:00.000-05:00

Well, writing blogs is rapidly becoming a rarity in my life. At first I thought that Twitter was useless - who can express themselves in 140 character hits?

You know what? I can...I even like it. Twitter has also become a place where I've discovered a vast amount of information in things I'm interested in...mostly news, and of course, baseball. Doesn't seem to be much of a pinball presence out there, however. Maybe I should copy my tweets in here from time to time...

I've still been writing here occasionally, but really, it's been slipping for a number of years with the advance of Facebook and more recently, for me at least, Twitter.

Maya has been in Chile for just over a week now - missing her a lot, but her temporary absence has allowed us to really focus attention on Chloe in a way she's not used to. With two of us on her like Donkey Kong, we're definitely seeing an improvement in behaviour. She's not terrible or anything - just really stubborn and whiny...but what do we expect? She is still 3....

So I bought another pinball machine last weekend. Went to Chris Benn's and his friend Doug's place on a Saturday night a few weeks ago, and got to play 37 machines between the two houses. Some I liked, some I loathed, and one was so quirky and entertaining to play that it stuck in my head, so much so that I asked Doug if he ever sold his to let me know. He didn't want to currently, so I moved on...kind of. When Chris asked me which machines I liked, I told him, but mentioned how much I had liked this one really weird one. He mentioned to me that Sparky had one.

So I emailed Sparky to find out if he was planning to sell it at some point, and if so, to let me know. I got back a never say never, but probably not kind of email, forgot about it, and moved on.

About a week later, Sparky comes back to me, and has decided to sell. Now, a couple of things about this particular machine. 1. Very rare - Stern went bankrupt with it on the production line - only 889 were ever made, and it's very safe to say that fewer than that have survived. Some blame it for killing Stern, but to be honest, my research into the history indicates that Stern was on shaky ground anyways, and they had a lot more orders for it that they never fulfilled. 2. Sparky is the kind of guy where other people selling their machines use him as a selling point - this was once Sparky's game, so you know it's great. 3. I started the whole process, although I was thinking next year some time, maybe by summer. Sparky, however, was all about now, and I was thinking that if I really wanted to own this machine, and a great condition one at that, that I'd better pounce on this.

So I agreed to the deal, conditional on me selling Triple Strike first. I listed Triple Strike, and we waited a week, before Sparky agreed to do a trade&cash for the new one, which of course is worth way more than my relatively crappy Triple Strike, although it was completely working and looked worlds better than it did when I bought it. Of course, as soon as that happened all kind of potential buyers came out of the woodwork, all regretting not contacting me earlier when I told them it was sold. Never fails...

So last Sunday came, with my place being the hub of Wayne coming from Waterdown, and Sparky and Rob coming from Montreal. We moved machines around between the minivans in my driveway, played some pinball, had a good time chatting and in the end I had Orbitor 1 sitting in my basement beside what remains my pride and joy, my High Speed, which of course proved to have a weak upper flipper when they arrived. All 3 of them being pinball repair experts, they quickly showed me what needed to be fixed...and when they left after an excellent afternoon, I went to The Source and picked up my first soldering iron and some lead-based solder, watched a couple of youtube videos, and surprised myself mightily by repairing the flipper successfully - and a week later the repair is still holding.

Of course, that night Orbitor went all wonky...odds are I caused a short, which took four hours and many emails (and a phone call) to Sparky to diagnose. I felt bad - there's no warranty on 30 year old machines, for obvious reasons - caveat emptor clearly applies - but he was awesome - really helpful, even though I'm sure he had better things to do that listen to me (or read me) rambling endlessly without much clue what I'm doing.

By the end of the night, I'd learned a boatload about pinball machines. It took four hours to find the short, and by it's location made me realize that it'd probably been me that caused it in the first place, making me feel even worse about bugging Sparky.

In the process I'd made a few changes to the machine, some on purpose, some by accident (somehow I set it to 5 ball - something I'm going to be changing next time I'm in there - because it seemed to have changed the 60 second ruleset that is driving me nuts too with the machine.)

Slowly rewatching Star Trek:Voyager. In Season 5 now - you know, it really is too bad they're not making anymore Star Trek tv. Maybe if the next movie is as good as the last one...maybe.

Going to resume squash tomorrow after two weeks off with a really sore knee. It's only a slightly sore knee now - but the only way to heal it is probably to take some weight off, which I really can't do without playing squash. Irony sucks, doesn't it?

So - the title of this entry - I was driving to work this morning, and a GNR song came on with the iPhone on shuffle. My commute is such that I get two, and if I hit a couple of red lights, maybe three songs (I know I'm really lucky on that score) so I'd better pick some good ones. Despite Axl being a racist cracker, the band really kicked some ass - You Could Be Mine was blasting when I pulled into school, and I was having a grand old time. So I started writing this to Appetite for Destruction...didn't last long, some of it hasn't held up well...but c'mon - we've got fun and games.

Pinball Wizard

2011-11-06T22:25:00.000-05:00

I'm not quite sure how I got here, to be honest.

Back when I was a kid, I loved PA days. Hey, I'm sure kids today still love them. Me, not so much, since I have to be P about the A now, no matter what kind of stuff they come up with for us.

From about Grade 7 on, whenever a PA day would come up, I'd set things up with a few buddies, sometimes even a small group. We'd meet somewhere on Lawrence, and catch the 54 westbound, nothing in my pocket but five bucks and some bus tickets. We'd ride that over to the SRT, and head up to the Scarborough Town Centre. Some kids would have shopping, clothing and checking out the opposite sex in mind, but my circle of friends (at the time, at least) was far more into more important things.

We'd head straight to the Cineplex Odeon, and pick out a movie to see. Child admission was only $2.50, which was half the budget for the day, so we had to choose films carefully. I clearly remember that Goonies was one of the films we hit - maybe Jedi as well at one point. No popcorn for us, however. We took the precious change we got back, and headed over to Wizard's Castle. Ten precious quarters, and sometimes hours to wait before our show.

I remember wandering aimlessly up and down the noisy, dark aisles, spending more time looking than playing - had to make it last. The Star Wars sit in cabinet was always a favourite, and Dragon's Lair was cool, but it was 50 cents and always far too quick a play for my limited skills. I was pretty good at Galaga, but it was when they put in a High Speed pinball machine that I found my mecca. That game was just damn cool.

Anyways, fast forwards a decade or three, my group all discovered the opposite (or the same) sex, some moved on, some moved up in the world, and I find myself in Orlando with the family this summer. We spend a day in the complex pool, and are sitting outside the snack bar having a quick bite to eat when nature calls for me. The bathroom is inside another building, and to get there, I have to walk thru...the arcade.

It was pretty simple, three or four vids, no pinball, and a first for me, a coin-operated Xbox in a console. They had Galaga in a multi, so I was kind of interested...but I had no time. I couldn't linger, and I never did make it back in there the entire trip.

It got me to thinking - when DO I have the time for this kind of thing? I used to love them, and still do, to be honest. I don't feel my age when I'm playing them - not a bit, not that I'm that old or anything - but it makes me feel young, gives me an adrenaline rush. The only time I really have to play them - is after bedtime. Since finding arcades is pretty much impossible these days, the only option I have for playing is to...buy my own.

My favourite video game of all time is called Elevator Action. I started out looking for that one. I'd nearly bought one five or six years ago, so this interest couldn't have been a total shock to Gabi - but if she had any idea how much time I spent surfing websites reading about arcade collecting, even while still in Florida, I think she'd be surprised. (not any more though).

At the end of August I actually found a few examples, and was willing to spend a couple of days on roadtrips to pick them up - but again, the time monster got in my way - I just couldn't pull it off, or justify ditching my girls for multiple days to pick up something as frivolous (yeah, right) as a video game.

Further to this, I made an interesting discovery. Video games, unless expertly restored (beyond my skill-set), seem to not really hold up in value. In short, they seem to be a bit like flushing a large part of any money invested down the toilet, unless they're Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga. Pinball machines, on the other hand, seem to mostly hold their value, and in some cases, are rapidly appreciating. They still make them, and once I found the website that seemed to have a lot of people doing a lot of talk about pinballs (and vids too, to be honest, but it seems to be mostly pinballs), I became enthralled at the idea of owning a High Speed pinball to be able to play after bedtime, or even, if the girls got into it, before bedtime.

I got so enthralled, that I made a rather impulsive move. I found an ad for a Triple Strike, relatively close by and within my budget range at the time. I'd been talking about it for a few weeks, so I took Maya with me after her squash lesson (I was still hurt, so wasn't playing) and we drove out to Burlington and Terrence Glover's place, and picked up Triple Strike. In retrospect, I probably wouldn't have done it, although it's been a lot of fun shopping it out. It was working, but a mess overall. I've learned a ton on it, and I suppose in that regard $400 is a lot better than spending a lot more money and messing around with an even more expensive piece of machinery I had next to no clue about.

So I set it up in the garage, and we all played it, having some fun, and I slowly but surely learned how to take it apart to clean it, do what was necessary, and with the help of some fantastic people on Maaca, even solve the little credit switch problem I was having. I can't even begin to describe the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finally got it working, on free-play, 100%. While I'm very good at USING electronic equipment, changing the wiring setup and adjusting electrical switches was a new experience for me. Just today, I adjusted the switch on the right flipper, and it's working much better. Wouldn't have been able to do that two months ago, trust me.

So the plan all along was to finish it, and bring it into the basement to play over the winter. I'd never really stopped looking for a High Speed, and they kept popping up, but always in places like Green Bay or Boston...places I could dream about heading to over the weekend, but not realistically. So I decided to pick up, (after checking it out) a Rollergames, which looked both like an interesting game and a relatively kid friendly game. Then, on maaca again, someone who decided to part with their High Speed saw my quest, and I cancelled my Rollergames appt. I sold all the remaining Leaf tickets I had, and headed to Brockville to meet Bob, who was coming from near Montreal. We swapped some cash for the machine with the OPP watching us conduct our business the whole time (I was waiting for them to bring a canine unit over to sniff the machine).

At any rate, I now have two fully working machines in my basement, and a day where I don't spend at least a few minutes playing one of them is rare. They seem to require fairly constant tweaking, and the ramp is cracking pretty badly on High Speed, so I need to order a replacement, then figure out exactly how complicated the operation will be to put it in. Hopefully not too bad...but really, who cares? It's fun just working on them, if you can believe that.

And for a few minutes each game, I feel like I'm 14 again - without the acne and social awkwardness.

Slow start

2011-10-15T11:31:00.000-04:00

It's 11:30, the boat is out, but we still need to do the dock before we get moving.

Last cottage morning

2011-10-15T09:22:00.000-04:00

Its a bit after 9 am on a Saturday morning in October at the cottage, and the only thing stirring here besides me is the fridge motor and a couple of clocks.

Terry put together a boys weekend, and George and I came up to join him, along with Tony Pipilas, Chris Evanoff, and Mark, whose last name I don't have the slightest clue about.

George and I left a bit after seven, and with the heavy constant rain, took about 3 hours to get here. We played some cards, had a good time, and stayed up way too late, especially considering how our drive up had been spent comparing notes on exhaustion. I happily managed to split the pot on the 2nd poker game, which finally ended my losing streak of nearly a year since I'd won anything - although to be fair I hadn't been playing much.

I spent the night (some of it at least) on the leather couch, and surprisingly the phone only woke me up when Ter lost the "first wife to call" pool. It's a decent day right now - wet, but I see patches of blue out there. I kind of want to get the work done and get home, but I don't want to be pulling a jerk move and wake eveybody up myself.

Hmm...maybe I'll go run the chainsaw for a few minutes.

Paranoid Android

2011-09-16T23:28:00.000-04:00

Man...Radiohead...this song. I could listen to it a million times and still find new ways to appreciate it.

School is off to a busy start, but as expected, that double math load is a lot to handle. I find myself staying after school quite a bit longer than usual to get things done - unfortunately the daycare pickups and making dinner are just gonna have to be a bit later - cause I don't see how we could do any better in the mornings than we have been.

Quite a week for sleeping drama around here. On Wednesday night, the power went out around 11, and the lack of a nightlight woke up Chloe, who then went into a full-fledged night terror. Maya used to have them too - but I don't remember them being violent. More scary and detached. Chloe can be screaming that she wants Mommy - while Mommy is trying to hold her. I use the word trying because while this is happening, she's kicking, slapping, punching...and at one particular bad point, when I was trying to hold her arms, she reared back and headbutted me in the boys. Not fun at all. Got even better when the power went out for good at 3:30. Didn't feel like it, but apparently after awakening gasping for air and tearing off my CPAP mask, I did get some more sleep - but that sleep was rather noisy and didn't help Gabi sleep at all.

So Chloe was in bed early last night (thanks Nonna!), and we thought all was good for a quiet night - when, out of the blue, Chloe comes in complaining both of being hungry and having a hurting tummy. Then - I have to go Blah (our current word for puke in the house). We got her out of our bed in a hurry, and to the bathroom, but just beside the toilet, some projectiles were launched. It was impressive - all over the toilet, wall, carpet, and you just don't even want to know what happened to the magazine rack. A second bout later in our bed, and then general restlessness and wakefulness until 3 am - the fact that I'm coherent enough to write currently is suprising to me - but perhaps when I re-read it later I'll find I actually wasn't.

Went family veggie picking last weekend. Great idea in principle, and we had a great time with Vicki and Phillip, although Chloe, who loved it last year, was more difficult to manage. Should have thought a little more about how insanely busy the week was gonna be before starting all that. My birthday and squash finals (not that I was in them - not this summer - but I wanted the meal and a bit of a run) on Monday, Gabi's fair meeting on Tuesday, my curriculum night on Wednesday, Gabi's on Thursday (which I took Maya to, to meet her teacher), and then tonight, blissfully, nothing. In fact, tonight I finally canned the mild (practically flavorless, in my opinion) salsa I made on Sunday, and am now working on another fresh batch (which is aiming for medium, but since I'm not sure about the hot peppers I bought, could be anywhere from mild to suicide), but I'm starting to lose some of the tomatoes and peppers. Whatever I don't cook tonight I might have to dispose of gently. We'll see.

Now another all-time favourite - Hummer, by the Pumpkins. Why can't Billy Corgan make music like this any more?

I've got another new obsession. I'm starting to wonder about myself - do I just need to have an obsession? What would happen to me if I didn't? I started off thinking about standup, full-sized video games, but after some research I realized that they're a money pit that stands virtually no chance of being an investment of any kind, or at least holding they're value. Exceptions are out there (Galaga, MS. Pacman), but the machine I would want (Elevator Action) has next to no cachet, therefore no chance of being more valuable.

So thru this research, I discovered a website called maaca.org, or Montreal arcade and amusement collectors association, and got kind of fascinated by the pinball collectors. I always enjoyed pinball, but gravitated towards certain machines over others, to be sure. In fact, there's one in particular I'd love to get my hands on. In 1986, Williams manufactured a game called High Speed - if you were ever in the arcade, you'd remember it as the one with the police siren on top. If I was to get a game, I'm 99% sure that's the one I'd want. I even almost bought one off ebay - but it was in Cleveland, and Gabi wasn't too wild about me taking a couple of days to pick up a pinball machine. It also went over my limit, but in retrospect perhaps not as big an issue as the Cleveland thing.

At any rate, I haven't decided what to do. My quest for a working Elevator Action machine did lead me to locate the glass marquee from the game, which is arriving on Tuesday (don't worry honey - it was only $15). I'm either going to just mount it on the wall, or get really optimistic and build a little lightbox for it. Or find someone to build it for me, since I'm ok at big stuff (decks and fences) but not really good at fine woodworking.

I found a beautiful edition of High Speed - but it's expensive, and in Green Bay,Wisconsin. Every time I bring it up, Gabi hip checks me into the cupboards in the kitchen. Subliminal communication?

Maybe she really wants new cupboards first.

Travellin'

2011-08-25T18:59:00.000-04:00

Well, as hard as it is to believe, the days we've been planning for for well over a year have arrived. I won't post these until we return, but will hopefully blog continuously throughout the trip.

We left on Thursday after picking up Chloe from her fun in the sun camp. It was invaluable to keep her occupied and on schedule, and to keep our sanity together. She improved in her behaviour over the summer, but getting back into routine will help tremendously in the fall. The drive wasn't too bad, but we did decide to use the 407. The problems really started at the border crossing. Chloe, who needed a really good nap, woke up on the bridge and was cranky for the next 40 minutes, which was how long it took us to get to the front of the line. Our border guard looked all of 21, and clearly took his job very seriously. It was obvious that the sanctity and safety of the entire country was in his hands, and he searched two cars ahead of us. It was further obvious that I'd chosen the wrong line. He asked us a million questions, some of them over and over again, and after we finally cleared Gabi told me that she'd nearly mouthed off. I let her know that she could have gone for the first cavity search if she had.

So we headed to a Target, still looking to solve our park-based stroller issues, then checked into the hotel and went to the Walden food court for dinner. Is that the crappiest mall ever, or is it just me? A lovely swim followed, and then we went to bed. Up early on Friday, we went to the IHOP, where I think I made an error with all the green money. I was pretty sure I had a $100 bill when I went in, but later I noticed I didn't. I believe the $85 dollar tip probably made someone's day. Ah well - dumb, but at least nobody got hurt.

We then kept on our stroller quest, getting more upset by the minute as we were unable to solve the stroller issue, hitting Toys R Us and another Target, where we actually bought one. We opened the box inside the store, where I was appalled to pull out a wheel, and the handlebars. Being 75 odd minutes before our shuttle to the airport, and me typically setting aside half a day to assemble anything and also ensuring that no children are in earshot (there will be swearing), we owned that stroller for less than five minutes.

Our shuttle to the airport was uneventful, and checkin got a little exciting when my luggage receipt had someone else's sticker on it, but hats off to Delta - they took care of everything. Our big worry was Chloe on the flight, but she was fine, other than the fact that they announced our descent into Atlanta - and Chloe passed out. I carried her off the plane with melted m&ms stuck to her butt, and our transfer went well, except I foolishly decided not to get any food in the few minutes between flights.

Our Atlanta/Orlando leg was a bit more interesting. They were flying around a storm, so there was turbulence, s turns, and no drink/snack service, which by that point I would have killed for. It was a bit of an edgy flight, but the landing was like butter, luggage pickup was no problem, and even getting the rental car was pretty easy. It came down to a Kia Forte, a Mazda3, but we chose a Chevy HHR, which I thought would be easy to see, and satisfy Gabi's liking for taller vehicles. I like it, actually - I'd consider it for a CR-V replacement when the time comes, for sure.

The GPS said our hotel was 15 minutes from the airport, so of course with Friday night traffic it took 50, so we checked in and headed to the hotel restaurant, where they had an asian themed buffet, which didn't have much variety (nothing like Mandarin), and which looked disappointing, but turned out to be delicious. I was so hungry I would have eaten anything at this point, and I was constantly hoping the waiter would take away my bone plate, because the pile of rib and wing bones I was accumulating was getting a bit embarrassing. We then met up with Terry and Jenny and the boys, and had a few drinks in the hotel lounge while being entertained with karaoke saxophone, which Chloe loved.

Up next - Downtown Disney

A great vacation

2011-08-23T17:31:00.000-04:00

I'm on Delta 1176, having just left Atlanta and cruising at 600 odd mph, heading for Buffalo and our van for the final leg home. Sitting next to Maya is a lot more fun than the guy from the first leg, who, while far more noble than I, spent most of the flight railing against our capitalist consumeristic society. He's on his way to India to volunteer at an orphanage for the next two years. Somehow I just didn't feel right raving about our little Disney vacation.

Since I last checked in, a lot has happened. Epcot finished strong, as test track and Soarin were both awesome rides. We missed the obligatory thunderstorm too, and headed home in the early evening for a swim and dinner. This was where I decided to use my groupon to Cici's, which may well be the worst restaurant I've ever had the misfortune to visit. Blah. At least it was cheap.

Saturday everyone offered to hang with the girls so I could take Gabi to the Florida mall, which I found very disappointing, although she went a bit nuts in a necklace store (for a rather long time in my opinion). We did have lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen, which was nice. We came home for a swim, then went for a group dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, which was tasty, but next time I think I might go medium.

Sunday was a day I won't soon forget. The girls wanted to swim again, so Gabi and I were freed up to go visit Universal Islands of Adventure and the World of Harry Potter. Now, my injuries this summer certainly haven't helped me in the waistline department, but I've rarely been as upset about it as I was at this crappy theme park. I tried the test seat at the Hulk, and while it was certainly snug, I felt like I fit. Not so at the front of the line, as I got kicked out of the ride. Embarrassing, to say the least.

We then walked thru the park to get to Harry Potter, where to my dismay there was absolutely no question of getting my butt into the seat of the dueling dragon Rollercoaster. Gabi toured the shops and displays with glee, but my day was wrecked and my mood sour, putting it mildly. Ok, I was seriously pisses off, to tell the truth.

So - the world of Harry Potter. Last chance at redemption, the test seat was comfortable, let's go. Gabi even agreed to go with me, and touring Hogwarts while in line was really cool. So we get to the front of the line (30 mins), and an attendant asks me to try another test seat. Guess what happened?

Crushed, completely utterly crushed, I decided that I didn't want to spend another minute and certainly not a single other dollar in this brutal place, so we left. We stopped in at guest relations on the way out, and thankfully they were reasonable enough to refund our admissions and the fastpass I bought so Gabi wouldn't have to wait so long while I rode all the thrill rides I'd been dying to try. So much for best laid plans, eh?

So just over two hours after setting out, we were back home for a swim, and then dinner out at the Golden Corral, where we befriended a lovely young waitress from Kazakhstan, and then each of us proceeded to leave her some very nice tips, to the point that I think we'd get some unexpectedly nice service were we to ever go back there.

Monday we headed back to the Magic Kingdom, which was a great way to end our trip. Maya and I found Tiana, her favorite princess, and even better, no lineup! The girls both waited for Rapunzel while I crossed the park to get fastpasses for Splash Mountain. I was completely soaked when I got back to Rapunzel-I think Monday was the hottest day we saw. Maya and I used fastpasses to great effect, doing everything we hadn't the previous Monday (except Space Mountain - Maya was cool with the lizard in her bed, but not so much with the dark - and birds, of course). We hit Buzz Lightyear, Stitch's escape, the laugh floor, the speedway, did a run on splash mountain and a couple of turns on Thunder Mountain, then hooked up with Mommy and Chloe. I took Chloe on Aladdin's magic carpets while the others did the tiki bird show, then Gabi and Maya did splash mountain, which was Mommy's only thrill ride the entire trip.

I took Chloe to it's a small world for her last ride before leaving while the big girls shopped, then we sadly left Disney to go for a last family dinner at Chili's, which was excellent. I was deeply upset to find out about Jack Layton, however. His final letter was very reflective of my impressions of him, however.

Terry Jen and the boys had a very early flight, so we didn't see them this morning, but we did get to pack up and close up the house with mom and dad.

In all, it was a super fantastic family vacation, good to spend time with and hang out with everyone, the house was good, except for the crappy mattresses and lack of main floor air conditioning. We had mostly good food, we mostly got along, most of all we did lots of wonderful things as a family. Can't ever thank my mom and dad enough - as usual. They're awesome.

By the time this posts, I'll be home. I can't wait to be in my own bed. Getting turbulence-I'm gonna put the phone away so I won't risk yakking on it.

Shopping realization

2011-08-22T17:59:00.001-04:00

I've come to the inescapable conclusion that the only reason I can stand shopping so much (unless I'm shopping for myself of course) is that my iPhone keeps me very entertained.

No wireless data signal in Florida = extreme shopping boredom. A proven equation if I've ever seen one.

EPCOT

2011-08-22T17:58:00.001-04:00

3 theme parks in 3 days. What the hell were we thinking?

We're at Epcot today, the last of the four parks we're visiting at Disney, and I'm not sure if it's burnout or what...haven't really done anything yet, but Maya and I have a few fastpasses - one for test track, which Im really looking forward to, and Soarin, which is also supposed to be amazing.

We visited the Magic Kingdom on Monday, which was great, although the heat got to Gabi quite a bit. We had a lovely experience at the Princess lunch, which was also a very nice two hour break in air conditioning, and, even better, we missed a rainstorm. Two particular highlights for me were splash mountain, which was awesome, and watching Chloe watch the electrical parade, which she danced to and waved her way thru the whole thing.

We took Tuesday off and did some shopping and swimming, then Wednesday was Animal Kingdom. Chloe's first big girl ride was the Kali River Rapids, and she got absolutely soaked. Maya and the boys headed over to Everest next, which has to be one of the neatest roller coasters I've ever been on. It's frontwards, then backwards in the dark, then frontwards again. Just awesome. Maya and I did Kali again, then got caught in a torrential downpour on the way to meet Mommy and Chloe in Dinoland. Chloe fell asleep on the way to safari expedition, but woke up fairly happily to see the hippos and elephants. We then saw the parade before Maya and I split off again to ride dinosaur while Gabi and Chloe went to A Bug's Life, which absolutely terrified Chloe...poor thing may never go into another movie theatre - ever. I thought Dinosaur was kind of cheesy - but Maya didn't look.

On Thursday morning all ten of us went to the Contemporary Hotel, only my favorite hotel of all time. We had brunch at Chef Mickey's, where we also met Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Pluto. The food was very good, and the kids (and my dad) all had a great time posing for photographs and getting hugs from the characters. All ten of us went to Hollywood Studios, which has been both one of my best and least favorites combined. Least because there were some serious snits and meltdowns, and most because after bob, Gabi and the kids went back to the house for a swim, Mom, Ter, Jen and I closed the park despite the massive downpour. We had a great time, and while the Tower of Terror and Star Tours (and American Idol, to be honest) were all kinds of nauseating, the Rock and Rollercoaster featuring Aerosmith was just awesome.

Here come the girls - I've been on one of my favorite rides - an air conditioned bench.

Auction Hunters

2011-08-05T13:59:00.001-04:00

Now, I was surfing on the TV one night a few weeks back, probably right after the groin injury and came across a show called Auction Hunters, which I enjoyed. That led me to Storage Wars, which was ok, but I prefer the former.

So I started surfing around, and came across a few auctions in the GTA, including one in Ajax this wednesday. I mentioned my plans to Dave, and while I had to talk him into rescheduling a meeting, he definitely wanted to check it out, as did I.

So I hooked up the trailer, picked up some cash and Dave, and we headed to Ajax. Got there before 10, only to discover that the auction was actually at 12. Crap.

So we ran an errand for Dave that required the trailer, Vicki put on a late breakfast for us, and then we headed back.

The crowd was huge - over 100, I think, and it's fair to say it was a huge representation of society. People of all races, levels of income, etc. One guy looked like he thought he was a cowboy, and there were some people of the extreme high mileage variety. Another guy was there with his two sons, and they were decked out in designer everything. It was interesting to see.

The first locker had a chair, some kind of big foam statue, and a few bags. My interest level? None. Went for $55, which was $54.99 more than I would have paid for it.

The second was worse. It had an old microwave, and a small metal couch, with the worst stain I'd ever seen on it. I overheard someone calling it Monica Lewinsky's couch, which was tasteless but possible, I guess. Those were the only two things in the locker.

The price on this one? A buck. Plus $100 deposit, of course.

Just when I thought this was gonna be a total waste of time, other than entertainment value and a good time with Dave, we got to the third locker. A 10x10, it had lots of interesting things. Visible were an oak pedestal table and chairs, a 32 inch LCD tv box, a mitre saw, and a lot of other interesting boxes and bins with potential. Using the things I'd seen on the show, I valued it around $1000, and set my limit at $500.

Before I could even think of bidding, the price was well over my limit, and wound up being $1050.

The last locker was just as disappointing as the first two, and so we trailered home empty handed, but certainly highly entertained. Keeping my eyes open for other ones, although who knows if I really want to get into this. Just for fun, maybe.

Review - 2011 Hyundai Elantra GL

2011-07-28T12:00:00.001-04:00

Since I'm considering buying a car sometime in the near future, I jumped at the chance to spend a day with my dad's new Hyundai Elantra, to take it out for some typical family activities, and see if it might make it as a future family vehicle.

First off, since I first saw the design I thought the vehicle was smoking hot, so definitely open to consideration based on appearance.

It drives really nice too, with good acceleration and smooth, almost unnoticeable shifting. Cornering is quick when needed, although not something I had any occasion to push hard - my girls were all in the car.

Well, not all. I couldn't see where we could possibly put Cora in this thing, were all five of us to have occasion to go out. Observing how much Chloe loves the dog to bits (poor dog), Cora may not actually be my last dog as I'd previously been thinking.

Upon getting in, Maya promptly asked me to move my seat up, an accommodation I tried to make, but I already had very little space for my legs. Gabi felt the cab forward design was making her a bit uncomfortable, which was alleviated by her moving her seat back. In fact, the only one of us completely comfortable is CoCo, which isn't hurt by the fact that I used the opportunity moving her carseat to do a long overdue strap height adjustment.

So - the end result? I like driving the beast, it's peppy and fun. It's losing out big time in comfort and space, and Gabi's feeling of dislike for the car will ultimately trump every other factor. It's nice, and I can tell why my dad likes it, but I don't think it's for us, not at this point at any rate.

Of Kitchens and Wardrobes

2011-07-23T21:11:00.001-04:00

It's pretty safe to say that we love living in this house, after a year. One thing we're agreed upon is that the kitchen is not so much loved as tolerated. Barely. Slightly more since we upgraded the appliances - but only slightly.

So after a year of listening to complaints about the colour while we hip check each other into the fridge, I contacted Sass, our most excellent friend who runs a painting company, about coming in to do our kitchen. While waiting for him to let me know when he could, he had a death in the family, and I could tell it was unlikely he'd be able to squeeze us in. Our condolences to Sass, by the way.

So rather than be patient, I decide that I'm gonna do it myself. Fool. So on Thursday morning we move everything out of the kitchen, I filled the holes while Maya removed switchplates and taped, which went well until Chloe entered the picture and tried to take off a switchplate that Maya had already moved. At this point, Gabi took the girls to a pool party and I went to Home Depot to buy paint, as I was certainly not going to Lowes.

So I painted til 5, then we went out to Jack Astor's at the STC for dinner. An unusual meal. First, our hostess was a former student now in grade 12. A yelp of pain when I touched my fajita hot plate attracted the attention of another former student, who then sent another former student over to say hello. They are all doing well, and the two boys spoke highly of their time at Miner and with me, particularly history. Food was good, and afterwards we continued on our quest for the perfect ceiling fan, but struck out once again.

After the girls were in bed I resumed painting, and quit at about 1:30, too tired to move any further.

So Friday I awoke rather sore, and we dropped Chloe off at camp and went to meet Vera for breakfast. She had some amazing Russian pictures, and gave me a rather cool hat, although I had to ask for a translation. Maya went with Vera for a sleepover, and Gabi and I went shopping, me to buy a new belt and Gabi for the girls. We then picked up Chloe and took her to Baba's, and found ourselves with that very precious rarity, a kid-free afternoon! So what did we do? Wink wink...no such luck. We went to Vaughn Mills, where I absolutely tore it up. I've bought virtually nothing for myself all year, so I needed shorts, my sandals were killing my feet so I replaced them, and the find of all finds for me, a pair of Nikes, $169. Oh, marked down to 139. Then 119. Then 89, 59, 39 and finally, at $9.97, I snapped them up. They look a little weird, but are comfy as hell. We then hit two more hd looking for fans before Gabi finally foundone we

Letter to Lowes Canada

2011-07-19T20:59:00.000-04:00

Good evening,
After viewing an item on the website lowes.com, I travelled to Lowes in Pickering to see if a similar item was available there. Fortunately, it was.

Unfortunately, the price markup was ridiculous.

The item is the Hunter Regalia Brushed Nickel 60 inch ceiling fan. The lowes.com price is $159, and your Canadian in-store price is $228. This is a $69, 43.4% markup.

While I understand that operating a retail network in Canada is more expensive for various reasons, I fail to see or imagine any reason that would lead to that kind of markup. I want to shop in Canada and locally; however, at that kind of markup rate I cannot fathom buying the fan, even though it's the one that both I and my wife would like to install in our kitchen.

Is there anything that can be done about the price of this item in Canada for me?

Thanks,
WM

Let's see if I get any kind of action about this - I get some markup, but 43%????

Car Maintenance

2011-07-18T10:27:00.001-04:00

I knew restoring mobile blogging would help me kill time.

I sit in the office at Bertrand while the poor overused van receives some new fluids and bulbs. In the past two weeks, it's gone back and forth to the cottage 3 times, once with the trailer (and with a very heavy couch), as well as all over southwestern Ontario for Kailey and Dan's wedding.

So in a minor state of anger (ok, rage) I accidentally pulled the wire for my Bluetooth mic, and it pulled some of the interior trim on the a-pillar off. Nothing I did could get that panel back on, so I went to Toyota to find out how much a new panel would cost.

The guy at the parts counter suggested I try a clip first. So I bought two, snapped one in, and tried it. Worked so well I can't get the panel off again to install the extra clip. Thanks parts guy at Brimell Toyota - you just saved me some bucks. The clip was $2.40.

Chloe is at a morning playgroup today. She's been driving us a little bit nuts, just typical three year old stuff, but as is typical with such a wide gap between kids, we forgot what 3 was like. Dropoff went well, and i'm picking her up in an hour. Fingers crossed.

We're thinking we timed the cottage perfectly - it seems to me this might be the best week of the summer to be home in air conditioning so far. I'm going to install my in-ceiling rear speakers in the mancave this afternoon, then try to finish cleaning out the furnace room. I'm also painting the kitchen, but not til Thursday. We're going to do the whole thing white, and hopefully slap up a ceiling fan too, finances permitting. That, and finding one Gabi likes. Always an important factor.

Fingers crossed.

Perfect weather...again

2011-07-17T12:13:00.000-04:00

So I left the cottage mid-afternoon, and made great time down to the city yesterday. 2 hours, 26 minutes, a new best. I got the mail, flaked out for a while, hit Canadian Tire and the library, then headed over to pick up George. He was running a bit behind, so I helped him cover the pool and finish getting ready to go, and we left with barely enough time to spare, arriving 2 minutes before the game. I promptly fouled out as the leadoff hitter. 12 beers. Sigh.

We won handily over one of the best teams in the league, then in the 2nd game we were down by four when I took a 3-2 pitch that I was sure was gonna be short. 24 more beers. Sigh. My first beers in 2 years with the team, and suddenly I owe 36. Unhappy about this.

So George ANSI left the game, got some gas and diet pepsi, and a couple of cheeseburgers, then hit the road. We had a great time on the drive, just conversing and philosophizing in general, and without really speeding (much), I made it back in 2:20. Not an official record, because the clock started at McDs, not home, but still pretty good.

Today was gorgeous. I knew the lake was gonna get nuts, so we did tube rides early, then Pace and I headed into town to pick up some wood for Terry, a few groceries, and rather annoyingly, fill both tanks with propane as someone had finished off what I thought was a full spare tank and just left it under the BBQ. Fifty bucks to fill em both, plus boat gas....it adds up.

We have eaten well, played hard, and even enjoyed some scrabble, although Claudine was not fond of some of the two letter words.

Gotta hit the road - trying to beat some of the traffic, and the trailer is loaded for the dump.

Chilling by the fire

2011-07-14T21:24:00.000-04:00

Well, the kids and women are all inside, and I'm sitting outside by myself supervising the fire as it burns down to embers, at which point I'll probably put it out. It's one of those nights where my feet are toasty, my front is ok and my back is freezing - in short, a wonderful night to sit contemplatively by the fire with some sleeman product and blog.

Cora was lying by my feet until I went in to get my phone - she's had quite a last week. Finally feeling better, but there's been quite a bit of drama - not eating, diarrhea, goopy eyes and what have you. Thankfully, she bounced back yesterday, and today was far more like her old self, but mellowed. I mean, she's nine, so it's not like I expected puppy behavior forever.

I've got my 738 favourite songs on shuffle, and the red sunset is incredible. Am I a lucky guy or what? Blues Traveller, the Who, Hip, Watchmen, Counting Crows, James Taylor....loving this.

Just heard Fire and Rain, and that song always takes my back to 92/93, living with Dan Pidverbny on George St., and a point in my life of serious insomnia, or at least refusing to go to bed at a decent hour. I got to know Andy Frost very well in those days, broadcasting the show Overnight on the Rock Radio Network over the Wolf. It was Andy who told me about the death of John Candy, and then he played that song. One of those indelible moments in your mind, I guess. I was having a miserably lonely year, one that much improved the following year living with John, Ryan and she who shall not be named.

I drove thru Peterborough yesterday, and probably will again shortly after my phone picks up a signal to send this. I miss that town. I'm very jealous of Mike and Mer getting to live there full time. I love everything Toronto has to offer, but the traffic blows.

The Big Rock Candy Mountain...now there's a campfire song.

Wow, what a sunset that was. Spectacular! And now the Pikes...Kiss me you fool - too good to be random...

Alas, I must go in to help with bedtime, even though I really don't want these moments to end...

These might post out of order - for the record, this is cottage blog #2.

Episode VI : Return of the Blog

2011-07-14T20:59:00.000-04:00

Perhaps a bit optimistic, but I've just reactivated the mobile blogging feature, which likely should result in an increased output.

I'm at the cottage, and it's another in the continued string ofbeautiful days. The temperature is perfect, and as an added bonus, there's a perfect breeze off the lake that is keeping the bugs off nicely.

We didn't get here until nearly 8 last night, which wasn't too bad ifyou keep in mind how much we had to do before we left.

I had invited a bunch of people from school up on the 13th, but so few people were able to come that I decided to postpone, and will hopefully try again later in the summer - or not, we'll see. Time is already getting short, Althing that's not such a bad thing - I think Chloe just might adjust well to a return to routine - before we go stark raving bonkers...

I justbrought Owen and the girls back from a swim at the other Morose compound, and they're having a snack atthe picnic table, and the neighbors are blasting Thriller.in short, it's perfect here.

Gotta go - Paces are here.

Hot Pursuit in the Pumpkin Patch

2011-07-11T20:09:00.000-04:00

Well, what a tremendous last few days it's been for seeing family.

First came Kailey and Dan's wedding, out in Brantford Ont. I knew it was a bit of a distance, but I figured leaving 3 hours before on a two hour drive would leave us plenty of time to get there. Just in case, I bailed on my morning squash game (again), took the dog to the vet (where she'd be spending the wedding in her first time being boarded - ever) and we headed out just a little after 10.

My phone had calculated 2 hours and 10 minutes, so I figured we were fine.

Then we hit major traffic on the 401, crawling from just past the 404 all the way to the 400. We did pretty good from there until the base of the 403, where we started crawling again along the QEW. At this point, we were 20 minutes before the start of the ceremony, both girls were melting down in the back seat, and a stop seemed inevitable. So, we hit the Burloak Drive Timmies, got the girls some soup, and then I took a shortcut along Mainway that I found hunting on my maps whilst waiting for the soup to cool. It worked pretty good, got us quite quickly out to Guelph Line, and from there we moved very well, although it was a lot farther than expected - once we were in Brantford I thought we were good, but it was at least a half hour south of town. We got into our seats in the church just in time to hear the new couple get introduced - with Kailey's last name rather than Dan's, good for a laugh.

We then went and tried to go to the hotel, using a google maps printout in reverse, then our iPhone maps, then tried following Terry, and finally we tried using our eyes, because at some point we'd actually seen the hotel. About 30 minutes later than we should have, we checked in, and were thrilled. The hotel was lovely, new, very clean and comfortable - exactly the way you want a hotel - not at all like the Ottawa Travelodge East.

So after a brief respite at the hotel in which Tanya, Cam, Melissa, Owen and MacKenna hung out with us, and Bob and Olivia opened up their hospitality suite, it was off to the wedding. I have to say, this one was unique to my experience. We wound up at the Keresturi farm, which was a beautiful place, and the reception took place in a beautiful barn, which according to my normal perceptions of barns, as well as the fact that many jokes were made about it, looked much nicer than normal. It was a beautiful setup indeed, except for one little thing (because as you know, I always have to nitpick one thing about a wedding if you're a regular blog reader). The bar was to the left, and to the right was the bar. Except the bar to the right was the candy bar. I don't think I can count how many trips I had to make to that candy bar, and hey, it's a wedding, so why not? Why not? Because all that sugar turned Chloe from her regular monstrous self into full fledged Chloe monster.

The wedding had some unusual touches, including the wedding party pulling up on a hay wagon, and Dan driving himself and Kailey up to the reception in a very large tractor. I thought the entry song "She thinks my tractor's sexy" was hilarious too - a little outside my normal musical range, but very entertaining.

My key mistake was, after eating my salad, I took Chloe out of the barn for a little walk, and she headed right for the pumpkin patch and took off her shoes. Oh my goodness, that little girl is getting fast. My normal technique of pretending to leave didn't work - it actually left me far away from her. She was moving.... When I get to the downstairs desktop, I'll post the picture of my shoes after my pumpkin patch adventure. Just a bit dirty...

We partied til the wee hours, or at least almost, until the urging from Chloe, Gabi and Bob prompted us to leave, which was kind of key, since Gabi was driving and Bob was the only one who knew how to get back to the hotel. We got up the next morning, and had breakfast and a quick dip in the hotel pool as we were hoping to possibly pick up Cora before 2 (didn't come close - had to pay for 2 days boarding). We gave up on that goal in exchange for a visit to a farmer's market and lunch in Cambridge, as we decided to avoid traffic by skipping the QEW and taking the 407 from Milton. It worked well, and we had a surprisingly good sushi lunch in Cambridge.

So Sunday night, Adam Johns came over for dinner. It's always good to see Adam, and I decided to cook for him rather than go out as we normally would. We had steak, baby potatoes from the veggie stand, and a fairly simple caesar salad. We then watched the girls play out in the back until he mentioned he hadn't seen HD before, so off to the mancave (and the air conditioning) we went. For some reason, my bluray wouldn't handle Avatar, which Adam hasn't seen, but it would play my Harry Potter discs, which Adam also hadn't seen. We didn't make it all the way thru the movie, but we did go a fair distance into it.

So today, the plan was to take my mom out for her birthday lunch, then go visit Uncle Jerry in the Grace, or whatever they call it now. It will always be Scarborough Grace to me....however, early in the morning, Linda called to say that Jerry had had a setback, and today wasn't a good day.

For those who aren't aware, my Uncle Jerry had a bit of a ladder incident a few weeks back - I got the story firsthand today - he was 20 feet up, trimming a tree branch, he reached out to tug on a branch and managed to pull himself off the ladder, a rather unfortunate situation at that height. So he fractured his pelvis in 3 places, along with his arm. He looked good - better than I was expecting, actually, and I'm not just saying that because I know he's gonna be reading it on his iPad. Better than I would be doing, actually, although my impression is that he's being kind of hard on himself. The girls were all with me, and did well until Chloe got a little freaked out. We were hoping she'd nap, but she was having none of that...We left when a nurse came in with some kind of shot or pill, I wasn't sure which, but I know I'd want the privacy for it.

Ok, after nearly a month off with my hamstring issues, I've gotta go play some squash now. Here's hoping I don't get hurt!

Starting with a bang!

2011-07-07T20:12:00.000-04:00

What a tremendous first week of summer it’s been! School ended with a rather long meeting, and left me a little bit behind in finishing the cleanup of my room – but Gabi came over and helped me and we got it done. Since the kids were both out with Baba and Vera, Gabi and I took advantage and went out for our favourite sushi lunch at Makimono, although our attempts to get out to Salem Road failed miserably when we hit major traffic. We also hit Chapters and the RCSS to get ready for the cottage, stocking up on magazines, books, and beef tenderloin, all important necessities indeed.

So the girls came home, and Maya and Gabi headed for the final spring swimming lesson while Chloe and I hung out with Vera and Mom, before we did something that I’d long waited for. Chloe and I headed over to our local library, Chloe picked a few books and DVDs, and I myself picked a few books and DVDs. We also got Chloe her first ever library card….

So Friday morning, the plan was to pack leisurely and be on the road by 10. Ok, maybe 11 will work. Well, how about 12? Or what about 1:08pm? Yeah, let’s go with that one. We got slowed down by various things, including a neighbour dropping by to get Gabi to fill out an application form for her kid, the first time that’s happened, along with some laundry drama. We then got caught in traffic on the 401. Ok, we’ll try Bayley. Nope. How about Highway 2? Nope? Rossland Road? Ok, that’ll work, at least until we get stopped in Port Perry for 35 minutes. Traffic was ridiculous, and we didn’t make it to Lindsay until well after 3, by which time all of us were ready to eat our arms. Gabi took the girls in for lunch in McDs, and Cora and I did the drivethru, as it was way too hot to even consider leaving her in the car. Darn McDonalds – I can avoid them 99% of the time….but if they bring back McRib…well, I’m weak, I guess.

So we had our first weekend of the summer with Ter, Jen, the boys and Jake, and it was fabulous. We ate well, we tubed, we boated, we swam, we consumed some beverages, we made smores, we played in the sand, we played fetch (a lot), and something I’m rather proud of – I started the C25K training program. I did run this morning, day 3 on the program, but with rain threatening I didn’t really want to run with my phone. For Terry’s birthday dinner, I slow-roasted the beef tenderloin and we had a pretty good cake that came from the Wilberforce Foodland. For a couple of months, anyways, I’m only two months his elder.

So, on Sunday afternoon everyone left, and we stayed. 48 hours on our own up here as a foursome (plus Cora), and we had a very nice time. Went into Haliburton on Sunday night, and just our luck, sitting outside the Rexall next to one of 3 traffic lights in town, when….BOOM. We didn’t see anything, but we sure heard it. Of course, I got out of the van and ran towards the accident. I sometimes wonder if I’m an idiot about things like that, but I wound up escorting one of the drivers away from the accident. I stayed with Pat (the driver making the left) until the firemen showed up and took charge of the scene. Airbags are awesome – both ladies were shaken up, nothing more – or at least that I know of. I left once the paramedics were there, since I was useless as a witness (didn’t see it happen). Now, of the 3 traffic lights, this is the main one where 2 highways intersect, and Haliburton was very quickly reduced to an absolute mess. I know a few of the backroads, so we were able to get around, albeit slowly, get our gas, get some groceries, deposit a cheque (whole reason we went to town in the first place).

So Monday was a family day, and we mostly did the same stuff we always do, some swimming, a boat ride to Elephant, and as always, good eating.

So Tuesday, which also happened to be Baba’s birthday (Happy Birthday Baba!), we were awaiting the arrival of Nonna and Tata. I noticed the garbage was getting a bit fragrant, so Chloe and I (she likes to look for bears) headed for the dump. We were almost there when I recognized the gold Hyundai, and I was waving out the window at them when I noticed the OPP cruiser tailing them. Being the curious type, I decided to forego doing the recycling, dumped the garbage as fast as I could, and hightailed it back to the cottage, expecting to see the Hyundai pulled over around every corner. To my surprise, they never did get pulled over and the cop pulled off into Martinwood rather than follow them all the way to the cottage.

So we had a nice time with Nonna and Tata, and again, we ate well, did a boat ride, some swimming, went into Bancroft for a rather nice picnic, went over to Kawartha Dairy (Marty’s World Famous Butter Tart Ice Cream – Serious Yum!), did a bit of shopping in town, then headed back, where the rain hit hard, and after it stopped, the skeeters hit harder. I took most of my bites in the last 12 hours, including a horsefly who managed to take a nice chunk out of my calf – it cost him his life, but he got me, indeed.

Home today, and I have to say it took a while cleaning up after a week – sealing up the boat, picking up all the toys, bagging up all the scrapbooking stuff, finding all my camera paraphernalia, etc. Gabi and Nonna did a lovely job inside while Tata and I did outside and watched the kids and got bit. You know how it goes.

The drive home was kinda nice – we took it easy, everyone was in a great mood, we stopped in Fenelon to watch boats and let Tata pee, then we hit Chloe’s favourite McD’s in Lindsay, while Cora and I enjoyed a McRib in the car (still too hot to leave her there alone). Unfortunately, I drank a can of DP, two 500ml waters, and a large coke zero, so I personally caused two stops on the rest of the trip home. What can you do?

We were amazed that Chloe didn’t fall asleep, something that we think is a first. Of course, she passed out at 6 on our way to buy shoes for her, so we’re in for a long night.

Other than our rest being way off routine (thanks to those American renters and their unbelievably loud 4th of July fireworks, it was a fantastic start to the summer indeed. In fact, if it’s gonna be this good, I can’t wait for the rest. I worked hard this year – I think I’m gonna play even harder this summer!

A special playlist

2011-06-30T23:01:00.000-04:00

Back when Gabi and I got married, we invested big money in a cd burner and blanks cds, which were just coming on the market. You'd laugh now at an obsolete technology, but that's how it was back in the day.

I don't want to publicly admit to ripping off artists, but let's just say that many people went home with music from our wedding that reflected our tastes and life together.

If I was doing it again, reflecting over the last nearly 11 years, I think some of these songs would make my playlist. Again, a story behind each, and I'm sure many on the list might be vetoed.

The line from Pearl Jam's Just Breathe keeps entering my mind - I'm a lucky man, to count on both hands the ones I love.

I couldn't agree more, Eddie.

Here's the playlist in it's current shape.

Just Breathe 3:36 Pearl Jam Backspacer Alternative 11

Today 3:20 Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream Rock/Pop 10

When It's Love 5:39 Van Halen The Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1 Rock/Pop 9

I'll Be Waiting 4:01 ADELE 21 Pop 5

Landslide (Glee Cast Version) [feat. Gwyneth Paltrow] 3:47 Glee Cast Glee: The Music, Vol. 5 Pop 1

1234 3:04 Feist The Reminder Alternative 11

Soak Up the Sun 4:52 Sheryl Crow C'mon, C'mon Rock/Pop 12

Shiny Happy People 3:46 R.E.M. Out of Time Rock/Pop 12

Lovesong 5:16 ADELE 21 Pop 4

Dance Myself To Sleep 2:15 Jim Henson A Sesame Street Celebration Childrens 12

Lost Together 5:28 Blue Rodeo Lost Together Rock/Pop 18

Love Is Strong 3:48 The Rolling Stones Forty Licks Classic Rock 18

Kind and Generous 4:07 Natalie Merchant Ophelia Rock/Pop 17

Everything Is Moving So Fast 4:19 Great Lake Swimmers Lost Channels Singer/Songwriter 28

Lovesong 3:28 The Cure The Cure: Greatest Hits Alternative 23

Donkey Riding 2:26 Great Big Sea Play Celtic 23

So there you have it....

Unwinding to the end...

2011-06-26T15:19:00.000-04:00

Well, it's definitely nice to have nearly every major thing I have to accomplish this school year behind me. The big one, of course, was the recently completed grad trip to Ottawa/Montreal, which despite a couple or three slight hiccups, worked out pretty well in the end.

Now that I'm home, I'm trying to catch up on everything that has slipped by the wayside over the last few months of insanity during Gabi's course, mutual report cards and of course my big trip.

For example, the Christmas lights came down today. Slightly overdue, but hey, at least they're down. I also cut and weed-whacked the lawn, replaced the screens in the back door, cooked a full lunch, have beercan chicken on the go for dinner, and maybe even might get a personal blog entry done. Oh, and the normal laundry and dishes, etc.

So - my ongoing saga with Rogers seems to continue nearly endlessly. Last weekend the cable was a disaster, so I called Rogers and made an appt for yesterday. Of course, the van door chose to completely seize, and Toyota needed more time to fix it than I had, so I couldn't get home. So the tech came this morning, and basically told me exactly what I already know - the problem is outside my house. I've been waiting since early June for them to come and rebury my line, which is where my signal problems lie. Of course, my boxes and internet were working fine when they arrived, but I still have a very low signal.

I'm thinking it's time to escalate something - Gabi was trying to watch some videos for her course last week, and couldn't. Major inconvenience to say the least - she had to defer a couple of assignments as a result. It's all done now, thank goodness, but it was a major pain and it was something I could do nothing about.

At any rate - I'm feeling good (except for my hammy, which seems to be healing much more slowly the 2nd time I pulled it - I guess I did too much too soon), happy things are settling down, and really getting ready for summer.

I must go and pick up some groceries - chicken by itself for dinner wouldn't really cut it, I think - although that's better than no chicken at all.

Lots going on

2011-05-29T07:15:00.002-04:00

A bit of an understated title, to be honest.

First off, Cora. Cora's rough year continues - she started limping a week or two ago, then I noticed a few bloody spots on the top of her paw, then she started bleeding around her eye again...all reoccurences of symptoms she went thru last year, well before being diagnosed with the demodex.

So Cora wound up on meds over the long weekend, antibiotics designed to get some of her swelling and fever down, and they took a toll - in fact, on Monday, I actually couldn't get her to stir - she was just laying there, not moving - not like Cora at all, if you know her. I was seriously worried, and was planning to get her back to the vet for more attention on the Tuesday.

Luckily, though, she bounced back - ran for the first time in a while, did her patented flying leap off the deck that is being oh so good to the grass, and progressed over the course of the week to the point where she's pretty much back to normal at this point. On Friday, she went in for a followup, and while all blood tests were good, the demodex are back. So it's another round of poison starting Monday. At least we know it works for her, and what's been causing everything. I had to give her a special skin bath on Friday, letting the shampoo work for ten minutes....practically tackling her to keep her in the tub...not fun. She doesn't like baths, and I needed a shower when it was all over.

So that brings us to yesterday, possibly the craziest day we've had in a while.

So, Maya had her squash lesson, and I was supposed to play a game at the same time, but I was in some pain, and it was actually fortunate that both Jeff and E cancelled on me. It was nice to sit and watch Maya's progress, and I made it over to the Superstore to pick up a few things at the same time. My pain? There was an incident in a little collision while I was baserunning, I did my best to avoid running into the 67 year old 3B, and to repay me, while I was trying to get back to the bag, he whaps me in the top of the head with the ball, and steps right onto my bag. I think I know where my cup is - perhaps it's time to think about wearing it again....

While Maya and I were off doing this, Gabi was taking Chloe to the West Rouge Spring Carnival, to show support and steal ideas, followed up by her swimming lesson. We all met up back at the house, but not before Maya and I hit a yard sale in the neighbourhood, where we had a couple of major scores. First off, Maya is tremendously excited for her new Noma Speedracer, which is possibly the coolest toboggan ever made. So excited, actually, that she was wishing for snow yesterday. Secondly, I picked up a matted Star Wars poster for the bar. While most of my bar paraphernelia reflects my baseball geekdom, I am still a scifi geek as well, so I thought it was fitting. I wanted the Pulp Fiction poster too, but since wall space is limited and it is, as well as my mancave, the kid's playroom too, I had to think about appropriateness. $7 for both...gotta love yard sales...

Then it was off to Brampton, where Terry's school was doing their spring fling and we wanted to show our support. We couldn't stay long, but we hit the book sale, and some of the inflateables, and Chloe ate popcorn and the rest of us grabbed a slice for lunch. One of my former students was there making balloon animals, and he's pretty good at it, also nice to catch up with.

Finally, we left the fair and headed to the Hammer, for the 1st birthday party of our cousin Alex. It was a good time, as we saw many of the Redhead Moroses, most of the Sawdyk-Coverdale clan, and it was absolutely hilarious watching many of the young couples I remember from Trish's wedding, suddenly running around with lots of babies. It was like Trish started a trend amongst her friends, because while it seemed like Alex was the oldest, I have a feeling they'll be attending lots and lots of first birthday parties in the near future.

So after all this, Chloe was, to put it mildly, exhausted, and Maya was tired too, although she'll never admit it. We had a full-on whine and cheese party coming from the back seat, so rather than just push straight thru, we decided to make several stops to break up the ride. We went to Bow Valley court to show the girls Vera and Ted's old house, which definitely brought back major flashbacks for me. We decided to cruise the beach to find a spot for dinner, and were a little taken aback by the crowds, when we decided to go somewhere we all love, Pho Metro, which continues to be the best Vietnamese in the east end by far.

Following that, it was home and pretty much to bed for all of us, although the dog still had lots of energy. Needless to say she was the only one. I played online scrabble for a while, as I'm prone to doing, but otherwise sleep claimed us all rather early.

Interesting development of the day - while driving from Brampton to Hamilton, Ryan Marshall friended me on Facebook. For more recent readers, Ryan was probably my best friend in university who I'd lost touch with for quite a while, so it was really nice to hear from him, and I'm looking forward to catching up.

So today was gonna be yardwork (too wet), laundry (machine's already humming), and perhaps pushing towards a yardsale of our own next weekend (less likely by the minute), and maybe, just maybe, I'll write a report card or two....

Musings from the Mancave

2011-04-29T22:11:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm down in the mancave, 8th inning of the Jays game, I've got Tweetdeck humming, which I have to admit is a fabulously more interactive way to watch, and comment on a baseball game than I've ever experienced before in my life. Don't get me wrong - I love my girls, and I wouldn't trade them for anything - but I love baseball too, and I'd love to be able to watch the games and discuss the goings on during them. With Twitter, I can actually do that.

Everyone is asleep upstairs, except Cora, who likes the baseball experience asleep at my feet. I was out at Wilner's last night playing my April series, which I shall never mention again, and didn't get home until about 1 am. Now, since I virtually never go out except for squash these days, I kind of forgot that Gabi tends to stay awake until I get home. So I never in a million years expected to be awakened by the sounds of Gabi and Maya...downstairs before the crack of dawn, watching the royal wedding. I mean, c'mon - what do we have a PVR for?

So needless to say, EVERYONE was really cranky tonight. I include myself in this - on the plus side, everyone was also asleep really early, excepting myself, obviously.

Proud of myself today - after everyone was asleep, I had a huge stack of kids DVDs to return to Markville, so I went in and decided to browse around a bit.

The item that appealed to me the most? A bag of Doritos...

I fled, made a bag of Orville's 100-calorie popcorn, and shared some of it with the dog.

Of course, an hour later, I'm thinking I might make another bag.

Not too thrilled - to combat some soreness, I spent a couple of weeks taking Aleve, then weaned myself off it.

The weaning lasted three days - everything except the left elbow pain came back. Left foot, right shoulder, and left knee. I know I'm getting older and maybe crashing around the squash court is a bit nuts, but I love it, it's amazing for relieving stress, and it is great exercise. The left foot is what is bothering me the most - I'm starting to think I cracked something when I stepped on the piece of hose reel in the garage in the dark, barefoot. Kind of stupid, actually - but it prompted me to clean up the garage.

We've been studying the election in class lately, and today we had our pre-election debate. It was tremendous, completely enjoyable to watch, and I can't wait to see how the vote goes on Monday for Prime Minister of my classroom. Thankfully the Scrabble media attention seems to be quieting down a bit - I don't mind it, but they all seem to want to come at lunch, and there have been more than a couple of days in the last two weeks where I haven't eaten, or been as prepped as I like to be for afternoon classes.

Now, I can afford to miss a few meals, to be sure, but I find that whenever I do, I tend to eat a lot more than I should later. Not necessarily a good thing.

Ok, I'm gonna post this, then focus 100% attention on the bottom of the ninth. Go Jays!

The odyssey of the kitchen appliances

2011-04-24T22:32:00.002-04:00

I personally am not a huge fan of buying kitchen appliances.

However, I must say, in the old house we had good appliances. Everything worked, and we were happy with them.

It was definitely not the same situation when we moved here. Everything was 15 or more years old, and hanging on by a thread. We hated the fridge, the dishwasher made a lot of noise and took some food off the dishes, but not much, and the stove only worked when we lit the burners manually and the smell was less than attractive throughout the whole house. Something wasn't right.

So we replaced the fridge and dishwasher in the fall, and last summer I bought a cheap replacement stove from a used appliance place on Morningside north of Sheppard.

Won't do that again.

Good Friday, Gabi working on her online course, I'm trying to keep the girls at least a bit out of her hair, and I decide to make pancakes. This goes well, and Chloe ate at least 4, maybe 5. For someone who really only eats when she feels like it, it was obvious that she felt like it.

The problem arose when I went to turn off the burner.

I couldn't. In fact, another burner came on at the same time. Nothing I tried was shutting these burners off, and in addition to that whatever was wrong had turned them to high. The only thing I could think of to do was to pull it out from the wall and unplug it. So - do I spend $100 (more than the stove is worth at this point) to get a repair guy in, or do we (literally) pull the plug on this and replace it with something good? Since we're saving for a new kitchen, and the oven was part of the plan, is now the time?

Definitely. I want a high-quality piece to cook on, one that I'm not gonna have to worry about all the time.

So Maya spent the day with Baba and Gogo making easter eggs and cupcakes, and Chloe spent the day with Nonna and Tata making a mess, and Gabi and I went on a date. Appliance shopping. Aren't we romantic? We did sneak a sushi lunch in there, to be fair.

We started at Sears, and Gabi completely shocked me by being willing to go back to gas, something that I thought wasn't an option. I had a few things on my wishlist, being convection, coil top and if possible a double oven. The glass top stoves just don't appeal to either one of us. Sears had a few possibilities, but to get the features we liked we were going to have to go well north of $2000, something I wasn't too keen on. The salesman, however, was terrific, and I actually would have liked to get him a sale for the time he spent with us.

Then we went to Lowe's, where the salesman was so obnoxiously smarmy that Gabi walked away completely offended and I had to phone her to find her.

Finally, we went to the Maytag store in Ajax, where I had found the most amazing price on our fridge - only after we bought it, of course. So I knew their deals were good, and they had something that kind of blew us both away. I wanted to save on delivery by taking it home ourselves, so in stock was kind of an important factor as well.

They had a discontinued Jenn-Air dual-fuel oven (gas cooktop, electric ovens) - yes, you read that right - ovens - it's a dual - with the controls on top so Chloe couldn't turn on a burner in white and at a good price. I'm not sure if it's a great price, but I'm certainly ok with it. The fact that it's discontinued has meant that I can't find the MSRP for it. Thanks to my dad and my neighbour Jeff for helping me get it out of the van, and Gabriel for helping me get the old one out and this one into the house - with the double oven and gas fixtures, it's a heavy sucker. The gas installer comes in the morning, and I'm looking forward to doing some serious healthy cooking.

So - after all this, I still wish I'd listened to Gabi and taken the old stove out of the last house with us - but hey, we all make mistakes. As long as this one works out, I'll be okay with it.

And now, the only appliance issue we have is the washing machine with the case of wanderlust - but as long as you move it back after each load, it's just fine. It will last for years - I hope....

Breaking down the Break

2011-03-20T21:19:00.002-04:00

Well, hard to believe it's come to a close - the girls are almost asleep, and we're all back to school and work (ok, school) for tomorrow.

Can't really remember what went down on Monday, other than that it was my squash finals and I wound up playing in the championship game, although it was absolutely no contest whatsoever - since I just wanted a match, and the guy who was supposed to be playing there had 24 stitches in his arm from going thru a window. Interesting accident - not sure how it happened - he wasn't very forthcoming about it, at any rate. Got my butt kicked, but got a bit of a run, which was nice.

Tuesday was the big day - ever since early January, when Wagjag featured Snow Valley lift ticket and rentals for $28. It was Maya's first day skiing! We got up early, Vera came over to stay with Chloe and we hit the road. It was pretty obvious pretty early that Maya wasn't quite right - she was grumpy, tired, and completely irritable - and that was her high point. We had a lesson booked and paid for, so no matter what, we were going. She wouldn't eat any of her breakfast, and of course, was heating up quite nicely when we checked her forehead, although she told us she was freezing.

So we were in the lesson line, she's completely dissolving, and we make a decision, at least partially based on the fact that someone right in front of us in the line is trying to get a lesson, and we have one we no longer want. I'm not one for just walking away from $75, so it turned into the perfect situation. So they took over our lesson, and that left me with the Wagjags, because there was no time the rest of the week to make it back up to Barrie. So I approached a family just arriving, pointed out my clearly ill daughter in the corner, and sold them the Wagjags. Sure, I lost a bit of money on the deal, but it was better than them going completely unused. So we hustled into Barrie to hit a pharmacy, got some fever meds, and then hit the 400 back to TO. Maya fell asleep in the car, completely out of character for her, and when she woke up she was much better, almost back to normal. So we got home by noon, and Vera was able to leave and make it to the airport in plenty of time to pick up Nadine, coming in to work with Sprockets and get interviewed.

Wednesday was a full day, swimming for both girls (although we cancelled Maya after the Tuesday disaster), the dentist and gymnastics lessons. I wound up taking Maya to the dentist, Gabi did gymnastics and swimming, and Chloe and I spent the evening hanging out while cooking dinner. It was a lovely time.

Thursday, I'd made an appointment with a guy at the home show to come and look at our porch railings and posts, and when he was 40 minutes late, I called him. When I get a response like "That's today?" I no longer am interested in doing business with you. Just so any potential contractors know.... So I headed off for a squash game with Carm, which was great, then over to my parents to help pick up a dishwasher, then I had to be home to get ready for the big date night.

Tina came over to look after the girls, and Gabi and I jetted off to the Rosedale Diner, for which I had a Groupon I'd purchased back in September. We both ordered a variation of duck, not sure why. Mine was duck on poutine, which I'd read about, and now never have to bother with ordering again. Serious Meh. The service was lousy, the chair felt like it could deposit me on the floor at any moment, and Rosedale itself was terrible - full of arty farty stores that I hate visiting. Of course, Gabi loves them - but hey, opposites attract, right?

Then we were off to Billy Elliot, parking in the Eaton Centre. I gave Gabi the parking ticket for safe keeping, and we got to our seats. Now, I remember a few years back in NYC, sitting in the very last seat in the very last row for Tarzan and being miserable because I was so wedged in. Well, in a way this was worse - I was right up against the wall, and we put our coats in the spot I should have saved for my legs, and was so uncomfortable that it was a distraction throughout the entire show, which, for me, was also meh. The cross-dressing bit was funny, but I thought it was a show in serious need of a good editor - at nearly 3 hours, painfully long, and for me, literally painful.

The evening ended on more positive notes, as we lost our parking ticket and got dinged for $30 by the Eaton Centre. At least the kids were asleep when we got home.

Friday night was poker night in the mancave, which of course necessitated transforming it back into the mancave from it's current state as the toycave. So I cleaned it up to my satisfaction, and then Gabi came down, indicating her lack of satisfaction, so we fixed it together while Chloe played on the computer. Poker was awesome, even though I lost every game - can't win em all, but I would have liked to have won one. 9 guys all told, and I hope everyone had as good a time as I did. It went a little late, making Saturday squash a bit hard to get up for, but I managed.

So that leaves us til today, the big one, Chloe's birthday. My little girl is 3, and thank goodness - we couldn't get out of the terrible two's fast enough. Her last 2 year old meltdown was memorable, including twisting herself out of her carseat, running away from us down the street on Fortune Gate, trying to pull the dvd player off it's mount in the van....screaming and yelling and crying....it got so bad I went into Cedar Heights plaza. That's where I had my car accident a few years back, and I try never to go in there, never mind when I have the trailer hooked up too. The parking lot is absolute insanity. Gabi went into Shoppers, and bought her a soother. It cost $10, and it was totally worth it, because that's a small price to pay for your sanity.

So today's birthday party went well, Chloe got some cool gifts and was over the top excited, and despite a few meltdowns when we dragged her away from the computer and took her out of the bathtub, bedtime has gone fine. Off to watch the last ever Big Love now, then sleep and getting ready for school tomorrow!

Our first March staycation in a few years...but it went well, and I got 13 out of 16 things on my to do list done....not bad for anyone, I think. The other 3 I'll probably be able to take care of tomorrow.

Breaking March

2011-03-13T22:00:00.002-04:00

Well, the first weekend of March Break is over.

We headed out early this morning, hit Home Depot to pick up a mirror for the main floor powder room (to do list item #1 of 16 completed), then hit Costco for groceries. We then went to Party Packagers to order Chloe's birthday balloons for next weekend, where I discovered something. If perhaps there is a hell, and I go there, my eternal damnation could be either primary yard duty, or endlessly roaming the aisles of Party Packagers. What a terrible terrible store. Junk, junk, and cheap junk.

At any rate, while there I called Terry about something I needed help to pick up (because it's kinda heavy) (to do list item #2 of 16 completed) and he invited us up to Newmarket for a visit and dinner. So homewards bound, where we made a lightning fast grocery dropoff, packed a quick picnic lunch to eat in the car, grabbed the dog and headed north.

We hung out for a while, then Terry and I headed out to pick up the new square shade/shelter/canopy for the back deck. We had a really good time, even as we had to drive to multiple stores until we found what we were looking for. Gabi asked me why I had such a good time, and I explained that we were just being boys. Thinking about that, it's something I virtually never get to do. I rarely see my high school friends any more, I have good friends at work, but working in education and all means personal behaviour standards must be high (and after my Wonderland experience that I never want to repeat I'm pretty careful), and there just isn't a lot of opportunity for just joking around, especially since Gabi thinks my sense of humour often is inappropriate. Well, it is, she's not wrong...but c'mon. I have to be able to say SOME of what I think some of the time. Main point here, is that I had a really good time hanging out with my brother. I guess when you think about it, who else shared so many of the same experiences with you but a sibling?

My nephews showed us their Xbox Kinect, which was pretty cool, although the fact that only 2 could play at a time lead to a few snits amongst the four children, but otherwise we had a lovely relaxing afternoon/evening. Terry and I picked up some pizza and coffees, and we just hung out. Very nice overall....

Chloe is mystifying us. Her daycare loves her to bits and thinks she's the perfect child. We think she's trying to kill us. No idea which one is the real child. Sometimes I can manage her behaviour, but not all the time. Timeouts aren't really working on her at home - no idea what will. Her latest line? Leave me alone! So I did, which she actually doesn't like much at all. (before anyone calls CAS, I just left the room, not the house or anything).

So there's 14 things left on my to-do list, some big, some small, and I think I can maybe get them all done, or at least 13 of them. To be honest, painting the basement bathroom isn't really a personal priority, even though the canary yellow walls are disturbingly bright when I think more about. At least we already have the paint.

Some really good news on the canine front - Cora is completely clear of the parasite. She's shaved up right now, and except for one bent nail, seems to be in perfect shape and mood. It was hilarious how, since we've left her in Newmarket for a few vacations during her lifetime, that whenever we're there she never lets me out of her sight. I can count on having a dog within 3 feet of me at all times - when I'm in the bathroom, I know she's sitting outside the door waiting for me to come out. Talk about my best friend. Led to her getting stepped on once or twice during the Kinect session, but otherwise was fine. She was probably rather anxious while I was out shopping with Terry though.

I'm hunting around for a batting tee, or something I can use to just see if I can swing a bat before I pay for my baseball team. Maybe when school is back in I'll get a tennis ball and just do a few swings a day in the gym, start building up strength again. My arm is still uncomfortable, although I couldn't help but notice how much better it felt after a few weeks sans iPhone, and how it almost immediately started hurting as soon as I got my replacement. Coincidence? I am, as a result of that possible correlation, trying as hard as I can to limit my phone use. Shows how much of a coincidence I actually think it is.

At any rate, this break is all about coming out the other end of it more organized than I was going into it. So far, so good.

Christmas morning?

2011-03-09T18:35:00.002-05:00

For those of you who don't know this about me, I have a hobby that I have a slight interest in.

I play simulation baseball games.

My league, a few years back, went exclusively back to playing the carded version, so for the last 4 years, I've anxiously awaited the arrival of the cardset. In fact, I anxiously await the order opportunity so that I can get my order in ASAP, as it's a first in first out kind of situation.

At least, it usually is.

This year, apparently Canada Customs put out a new form that was causing some difficulty, so all the Canadian orders got pushed to the back of the queue. I found this out in January when I inquired, as I was hoping to get my cards in Nov/Dec, as I ordered within minutes of the link being available - I mean, I had to be near the front of the line.

So at any rate, after being told that my cards shipped right after the New Year, I finally got a tracking # that told me they shipped on January 21st, an interesting discrepancy, but never mind that now. I'm waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

Last week I got back in touch with the game's creator, and he agreed to send me a replacement set, as obviously mine was lost somehow. So after waiting a few more days, last Thursday he shipped it out via courier, with a tracking number and everything.

I may have figured out the problem when it didn't arrive yesterday, as it was supposed to. I triple checked my order, but apparently they missed my address change on the order, and were shipping everything to the old house.

Thankfully, the rush tracked order got forwarded.

What happened to the original cardset remains an utter mystery. However, if the new owners of my place on Munson order cards next year, I think we might know.

Best news of all is that I finally have my cards, and it is indeed like a 2nd Christmas morning for me, even though I got them in the evening.

At least my daily lump of coal at the mailbox is over - I'm sure the neighbours were starting to get worried as I walked home cursing every day.

Leading by Example

2011-02-25T13:17:00.003-05:00

So yesterday I got another object lesson in why I hate the Calcutta tournament format. I got to the club a bit early, so hit for about half an hour with Raj, who is much better than me, but an excellent warmup and a nice guy. Then I did nothing for about the next 90 minutes, until I creaked my way onto the court for a match with a 15 year old.

It did not go well - but I lost it with my serve, as I hit it out at least 6 times. I can get away with that in league, but not in rally point tourneys.

Finally, an hour later and feeling even creakier, I lost to Magder and went home feeling very bitter. I understand what George says about stopping and starting - I need to be a continuous player, then stop for the night.

So Chloe was quite ill last night, and Tina could only come over for the morning, so I decided to take the afternoon off to hang out with my poor sickie. Yes, she is sick again. She is much better, but I can see why keeping her home was probably best - we're definitely slowing towards naptime at this point.

At any rate, I was downstairs with her, and took SI into the bathroom to check out the article on Freddie Freeman, and Chloe joined me, very excited by the baseball magazine. I got her to sit on the potty and make a pee. She then left the room, then came back in looking rather strange. To this point, she had always waited to have a diaper on to have a #2, although pee has been pretty good. I told her to sit down again, and was thrilled (this will stop being thrilling soon, I figure, but I can see the end of the diaper expense line on the budget in the very near future) when she had her first really successful #2 on the potty!

As we were washing hands and cleaning up, and after much celebrating, I got a "Yay Daddy!" back. Been a long time since I've had that particular activity celebrated at all - maybe FAO Schwartz in NYC.

On the plus side, I'm on top of most things at work, which is a fabulous feeling. I'm never letting myself get to that point again - never ever. Catching up is a lot harder than just keeping up, which is hard in itself. I have a few things to mark, but nothing major. Having a laptop that works well that I carry nearly everywhere with me helps, although I'm deeply missing the net access that my phone provided. I did get 17 emails from Rogers overnight letting me know that my phone order is in process, and hasn't been shipped yet. Nice of them to take that much care, isn't it?

Family Day!

2011-02-20T08:16:00.002-05:00

Well, yesterday turned into Family Day indeed!

I was at squash with Maya, but completely unreachable, which I'll explain. Jenny phoned Mom, talking about how they were in town, and we reached the conclusion that getting everyone together would be nice. Since we're better equipped to handle the four kids here, everyone wound up coming over. Bob cooked most of the food (we made rice - kinda tough), and Mom and Dad brought over their Buffalo purchases, including the new pair of black jeans I'd requested, and we're all good to go.

So I had interviews on Thursday night, and since the last one ended at 9, I drove Kris home (my student teacher) then was driving home myself, listening to music streaming from my iPhone. Out of nowhere it just stopped playing, kind of unusual. I glanced at it, and saw the dreaded connect me to iTunes screen.

Nothing I could do about it on arrival home, as I helped put the kids to bed, but once they were all asleep, I came downstairs and attempted to restore it. No joy. Called Rogers, and together with a nice tech guy, attempted to restore it. Again, no joy. Tried off both the new laptop, and in a bit of desperation, even set up the old laptop and tried. You guessed it, no joy. So the tech guy suggested I go to the Apple Store, so Friday afternoon I walk into Fairview Mall for the first time in years and years, find the Apple Store, and have my "Genius Bar" appt. Some genius. He spent five minutes trying, then told me he could sell me a new one for $240. Wow, a 3 year old model for $240. Nice racket if you can get it, eh? So my warranty is up, and my upgrade eligibility doesn't come until July.

So I leave the Apple Store and head to the Rogers store, where I'm promptly told there's nothing they can do. Getting kind of tired about hearing that there's nothing they can do, I come home and call Rogers, where I'm told that they'll give me a free phone. Great - a smartphone, of course, right? Um, no. What about the data plan I'm paying for? Well, I'm under contract for that, so I'll have to keep paying that. Even if I can't use it. I can get an iPhone 3GS. Great - how much? $330. For more, albeit not quite as much, outdated technology.

At this point I get kind of upset. After expressing my unhappiness in a somewhat polite way, and apologizing for getting upset because I acknowledge that the poor girl answering the phone is in no way at fault for the stupid rules, I get passed along to the next step in the process.

In five minutes, everything is resolved. They're shipping me an iPhone 4 for $160. It may take a couple of weeks to show up, but there's Arturo's old blackberry floating around that I can use in the meantime. Not ideal, but it'll do.

Now I'm just waiting for my cards. I ordered my cardset on August 6th, and it's supposed to be first in, first out on shipping the orders. Clearly it's not, as I still don't have them. The people who live near the mailbox must be questioning my sanity at this point, as every day when I get the mail I leave cursing.

We're making some progress on the Chloe sleep thing. Turns out she likes being tucked in. So last night I tucked her in, she tossed and turned for a bit, then fall asleep. At an almost decent hour, too, a lovely little change.

Maya's skating is coming along too - we're gonna go this morning, if it's not too cold. She is almost past needing the V shaped thing to hold her up, I guess it's a skate trainer? She's got her skating trip this week, so I guess we'll see how she does. It's been impressive to watch her sheer determination. She told me she was really embarrased last year, and it's clear to see - that isn't gonna happen again, even if she has to fall 300 times. I've literally almost had to drag her off the ice each time we've gone.

Ah well, off to deal with another recent family obsession. I'm making WAFFLES!

Awesome....

2011-02-13T14:39:00.002-05:00

It may never happen again, so I thought I'd best write about it when it did.

Gabi is out for sushi, leaving me with the girls. Insanely jealous, but I'll live with it, I suppose.

So Maya, Chloe and I are all down in the basement, and I'm on the computer with Mike Wilner doing my offseason setup stuff while the girls are playing away merrily. The costume bin was getting a major workout, and a good time was being had by all.

Then Chloe came up to me with her arms extended, crawled up into mine, and asked me to take her upstairs. I just told her to close her eyes, and I'd take her up when we're done. To my surprise, she did, and promptly fell asleep while I did one handed typing to finish things up.

Can't remember the last time she fell asleep in my arms - but I'm gonna cherish this one, because it might not ever happen again.

As those fingernails scratching on the hull

2011-02-11T23:45:00.003-05:00

Feeling like a disaster has been averted....it took hours and hours and hours of work, but I did it. I got everything major that had to be done done. I've been up since four, and I've pretty much been busy all day, but I'm feeling a huge sense of accomplishment along with a huge weight off my shoulders. Sleep is overrated anyways, right? At any rate, it had to be done, and it is.

I've spent this evening working to set up a new system to make sure that I'm never ever again in the same boat. Oh, and television? I quit you. You suck anyways. Timewaster....

We actually thought we were going to make it through a whole week without Chloe getting sick. Should've known better, as the sniffles and extreme hoarseness have descended. Still in pretty good spirits, and at least we're getting her somewhat into a routine.

Cora has a messed up back paw, I think from the ice in the backyard. I'm trying not to let her out there too much, so she's getting lots of walks. I love walking down and looking at the lake in the darkness - although when we're below -10, you sure can't do it for long.

I've got a student teacher from Nipissing for six weeks - so far, so good. I got the package on my expectations today. In order to be compensated, I had to fill in an information sheet and send it by Feb 11. Hmm...isn't that today? Good timing on their part, for sure.

Enjoying a Hip kick right now - been marking math tests hooked up to Day for Night for the last hour or so...man, is Nautical Disaster just one of the greatest songs ever recorded, or is it just me? Ok, maybe Gimme Shelter is better...but not by too much.

Continuing to love the new laptop. With the end of 1st term, I officially retired the old Toshiba from active duty - although if it was a soldier, it was now the kind of soldier you keep in the office, the one that can't keep up with anyone else in the troop any more but you can't bear to send out to pasture either. Still - it gave five years of faithful, nearly flawless service....except for the speed, which just got worse and worse.

Spent $400 on brakes for the Honda - those who know more about cars than I seemed to feel that this was excessive. Starting to wonder at what point my trust in my mechanic is blind. Would they really start to screw me when I've been their customer for darn near 20 years? Man, that's a scary number when you think about it....

Really enjoyed the ski trip this week - the weather was fabulous, and the skiing was tremendous for Dagmar - groomed powder, no ice at all - made me think about getting into skiing a bit more frequently. My boots need replacing, however, and I just don't see room in the budget for buying of passes, etc. I'm taking Maya out on March Break for the first time - maybe if she likes it it can be justified....we'll see....

Ok, I've now reached 18 consecutive conscious hours on about 5 hours sleep....gonna try to hit the hay. How was this one for random rumblings?

Little Blue Pills

2011-01-29T21:21:00.002-05:00

Just in case anyone was wondering, the random posts that have been showing up on my blog espousing discount little blue pills are not coming from me. I have changed my password, disabled my mobile posting options, and hopefully put an end to them. Hopefully.

Been an awful couple of weeks, with Chloe sick, then Maya and Gabi getting it too. I was thinking I was doing pretty well, to be honest.

On Monday night, I had my first ever acupuncture treatment after school, which actually went pretty well, I think, and my squash game was awesome - there was hardly anybody there due to the snow, and we just kept playing and playing, and I just kept winning and winning. I felt like a million bucks when I got home.

So the dog woke me up in the middle of the night, and I let her out and came back to bed shivering when she was done. Ok, I got cold, right? Then I woke up and immediately puked. Should have seen the warning signs, but I just thought it was something I ate. I, being the fool that I am, decided to still go to work.

Bad idea. By 11 I was looking for an out, shivering, shaking, nearly sick in my classroom. It was a bad scene. I made it to lunch, and then thankfully someone took over my remaining classes, I came home and hopped right into bed, which is pretty much where I stayed until Thursday.

Didn't eat or drink anything, either, and I didn't weigh in this week, so I have no idea how I'm doing.

I know how I'm doing with report cards, however.

I'm in trouble.

Nothing I can't dig my way out of, but between reports, the ski trip and some grad trip stuff I also have to take care of this week, there's a lot going on, to say the least.

At least I'm finally feeling better - I have no energy, but I'm feeling better....

Oh, and I may be partially deaf now. Chloe got a balloon at the mall today - and managed to pop it right beside my ear in the car. I'm seriously worried about my hearing on the right side right now.

I may have to ask Gabi to switch bedsides with me. :)

Weekundus Interruptus

2011-01-23T20:33:00.002-05:00

Well, this has been the weekend of grand plans that went nowhere.

First, the assessment day at school, where I had a large pile of work to dig myself out from under.

Then, Bob's birthday party, dinner out followed up by cake here.

Finally, we were taking Gabi's parents to Buffalo for a shopping day for Tina's birthday.

None of it happened. Absolutely none of it. I got wrapped up in a meeting that took most of the morning on Friday, then came home to work so Gabi could go in to school and do what she needed to do. The rest of it? Well, Chloe was sick most of the week, only making it school on Monday and being in a total state Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So of course, on Friday morning Maya woke up feeling brutal, and that kind of wiped things out. Gabi was a bit wretched but fought it off, and I feel the beginnings of things, but there's no way I can afford to go down now, so I'm just not gonna let it happen.

I haven't even been able to get thru a movie. Bob and I started Gran Torino on Wednesday and watched the first 15 minutes, Gabi and I watched the first 20 on Friday night, and this afternoon I got thru about the first 90 after Maya fell asleep on my lap. I'm hoping to get the rest in tonight, perhaps while I finish the set of math tests that I've ALSO been trying to get done all weekend. Nothing has gone according to plan, that's for sure.

So we're all a little stir crazy on Saturday afternoon, and we decide to head out to Vaughn Mills, always a nice outing and one we haven't done in quite some time. Of course, the van is out of gas, so while I'm filling it and paying, Maya starts melting down in the car...big time. So Maya and I go home while Gabi and Chloe head out for new boots. What more can you ask for? Just typical of the way everything has been going lately. Nothing serious, thank goodness, but it just seems like it's been constant.

So the other night Gabi and I are attempting to get a struggling Chloe into a pair of pyjamas, and she's decided that there is no way this is gonna happen, and we've decided that there's no way we're letting a two year old beat us.

Then it finally occurs to me - we're Frodo and Sam, wrestling with Gollum and the elvish rope. And every time she's lost it since then (quite often) I'm getting the giggles, and calling her My Precious. Maya thinks I'm nuts, but that's nothing unusual either. It's a pretty good comparison, to be honest!

Arturo, Tina and Gabriel came over for cake, and Arturo let me use his $200 headphones. I think I'm in love. It was like having a stereo on my head - very tough to go back to my official Apple issue earbuds afterwards, let me tell you. If only my Sennheisers hadn't busted....

Chinese Broccoli, and other unexpected surprises

2011-01-15T21:31:00.003-05:00

So I ordered some Chinese Broccoli tonight, my attempt at a token veggie on the table as my Mom, Chloe and I sucked back some Hargow, squid and rice noodles.

Not at all what I was expecting. The last time I ordered Chinese broccoli there was some resemblance to broccoli, maybe kind of like tenders. This was more like bok choy. I liked it, but I was the only one who did.

Now, Chloe and I were on our own tonight as Gabi and Maya had headed on down to the Rogers Centre to see Mickey's Rockin Road Show. I had been thinking of ways to weasel out of this since we first got the tickets - definitely not at all high on my priority list, to say the least. At first Nonna was gonna go in my place with the girls while I was hosting the blowout here, but it went to Magder's instead, putting me back on the spot. Then, thankfully, Chloe got sick on Thursday night.

This was the first real vomiting session of Chloe's that I was kind of thankful for. First, it wasn't on me, or the dog, who proved very difficult to deodorize the last time she got puked on. No, Tina took the brunt of it, along with our carpet, and unfortunately, the cloth couch. Not the leather one sitting right beside it, of course. Even the middle of the night, in our bed, puking session on Thursday wasn't enough to dampen my enthusiasm for this mini-illness, because Chloe never got too bad, and Gabi decided that she wasn't well enough to go see Mickey.

Strangely enough, I volunteered to stay home with Chloe, so Gabi phoned up Claudine and she and Emma joined them downtown. Apparently this turned into quite an adventure of missed GO trains and other unexpected surprises, but I'll leave that one for Gabi to tell.

I had a lovely restful time after getting Chloe down for nap, cleaning up the kitchen and puttering with the laundry, then I called up my mom. For some reason, knowing that I had tons of points left, having not eaten breakfast, a light lunch, played squash and shoveled snow for an hour, I was craving...hargow. Big time. My mom is seldom difficult to talk into going for hargow, so off we went - once Chloe woke up, anyways, which is a challenge in itself sometimes.

However, Chloe was in a lovely mood, even enduring the 20-25 minute wait for our food, even the bowl of steamed rice we wanted for her, and the food was fabulous, with the possible exception of the Chinese broccoli, which was merely passable for me, and apparently inedible to the other members of my little entourage. We then went back to my parent's house, where my mom graciously played with Chloe while I hung out with my Dad watching the Ravens lose to the Steelers, or at least the last 10 minutes of the game. Which take an hour, as usual. I had a nice time - I love his new TV, but getting a 46 inch and not getting an HD box is something I think he should remedy sooner rather than later. I offered to help him set it all up, hell, even to go shopping for what he needs with him. That's the kind of shopping I love to do.

So I went to squash in the snow this morning (the drive, not the squash), then, since Maya's squash and piano were both cancelled and we were in dire straits in many grocery categories, I went to Costco. First time the gas lineup was reasonable, and the store was positively civilized - for a Saturday. I even got a new membership card, as my old one was no longer scanning. Not a surprise, since I've probably had it since 1999 or so. I leisurely walked the aisles, and loaded up my cart to well over the $200 mark, all with groceries - not a single non-food item, which is unusual as well.

So I got it all home, and was unloading from the garage to the front hall, where the 3 girls were helping to put it all away, and Chloe came up with the gem of the day. "You have a lot of food in your car, Daddy!" She wasn't kidding.

So I'm doing very well on WW with the new iPhone app. It's a tracker I rarely put down, and with the internet connectivity to figure out points values instantly, it's very handy too. I haven't not lost at least two pounds every week since I've been using it, and I've been religious with my tracking. Past experience shows me that tracking is the key - it keeps me honest. Nice double negative there - but I can't think of a better way to say that right now....

Now the only thing that remains really out of control, now that I spent most of Friday getting the ski trip all balanced out (a transcription error on the spreadsheet took an hour and a half to find), is my marking. I've gotten some of it done, but it's the kind of thing that's gotten so big that I don't know where to start, literally. I guess the logical conclusion is if you don't start somewhere, you remain nowhere. So I guess as soon as the kids are asleep, I'm going downstairs to get organized. It's too bad there's nothing left online for me to mark. That's the fun stuff.

Merry Christmas

2011-01-07T22:30:00.003-05:00

Today is, of course, Ukrainian Christmas. Have had a really good day, but Christmas Eve was great too.

Picked up Adam (cousin from Thunder Bay, currently in London England) at the Guildwood GO, and drove home in gobs of snow to pick up Gabi and Chloe. Adam had a beer, but I sadly couldn't join him because the thought of driving in snow after drinking even one...not a good idea. We then picked up Maya, and headed north. 95 minutes later (normally 35-40), we arrived and had a grand feast. I'd been saving my extra points, my activity points and had been doing nothing but nibbling all day. I had 105 points available to eat, but managed to give out after just 86. There was just no more room at the inn, so to speak.

It then took another 90 minutes to drive home, once again in gobs of snow, with a few cars in the ditch for good measure. Driving in snow doesn't bother me at all, but driving around OTHER people driving in snow does. I just find that it requires an absolute 100% of my attention - no music, not much conversation, and please turn off the Wiggles in the back seat....please. I try to maintain a pocket of space - means I either go a bit faster or a bit slower than everyone else - and it seemed to work well. I think I'm going to have Goodyear TripleTreds on my cars as long as they manufacture them - the van never slipped or slid once.

It was great to see Adam, who seemed very happy and enjoying his life. He brought some really cool gifts for the kids, which was very thoughtful and I know they all enjoyed them. We normally go out for dinner or lunch on our own when he's in town, but we couldn't squeeze it in this time - it's been kinda nuts. He's flying out today, so there won't be another opportunity until his next return to Toronto.

On the way home, I got some gas and checked my Lotto Max tickets while I was in paying. Would you believe in last Friday's draw I got 5 of the seven numbers in the $50 million prize????????? Two more numbers....almost heartbreaking. I won $123.20, which paid for our gas, another lotto max ticket and lunch today. Much better than nothing, true, but kind of cruel fate at the same time.

So the family took the day off, with the exception of Chloe, who went to school. Of course, since we didn't get home until after 10, and then Gabi and I tried to watch a movie after the kids were asleep, no one really stirred until 8:30. I went to the doctor, a new one who I think I liked better than the one I've been seeing, to talk about my stupid left elbow. I'm going to start physiotherapy next week - it's just not gonna get stronger on it's own. Sure, it only hurts when I carry extremely heavy things, but c'mon - everybody has to carry extremely heavy things now and then, don't they? I'm actually afraid of what will happen if I swing a bat again...and I do want to keep playing ball.

We then met up for our Ukrainian Christmas tradition, all-you-can-eat sushi. Makes sense, right? Following this, we split again to get as many errands as we could done, Maya and I heading to Costco to return a really cool shirt that unfortunately resembled sausage casing when I wore it, and to buy her a new helmet. I then drove her to Vera's house, where we picked up Conrad and Vera and headed to the ROM. They're having a "Night at the Museum" sleepover - but not with the dinosaurs or in the exhibits or anything like that. It took me 15 minutes to get to DVP and Eg, and 45 to get home from there. Traffic really sucks in this city.

The rest of the weekend is gonna be pretty busy - looking forward to squash tomorrow, and a Maya-friend birthday party, and we're going to see someone we haven't seen in quite some time on Sunday afternoon. It will be very nice to get together again.

Oh, and marking. I'm gonna try to get some of that done too. Rapidly approaching a serious crisis if I don't get moving and spread it out a bit.

It's over????

2011-01-02T20:54:00.002-05:00

Hard to believe it's over already, that we're back to routine starting tomorrow.

My alarm went off at normal times today, and all I could do was grunt, shut it off and roll over. Tomorrow morning should be interesting at best.

Hasn't seemed like much of a holiday, to be honest. Sure, we got thru Christmas just fine - it was this week that the rails kind of fell off. Gabi and Chloe both got sick on Tuesday. I don't mean sniffles - I mean prone in bed, moaning, groaning, complaining, crying, etc. They both spiked fevers, hot, cold, hungry, not eating, thirsty, etc. Been kind of brutal to exist alongside with, so I can't even imagine actually having the illness. We wound up doing absolutely nothing for New Years - Maya and I ventured to the video store, and we hung out with some serious screen time, watching the Princess and the Frog (awesome), Christmas at the House of Mouse (slightly less than awesome), and the Great Big Sea/Kardinall Offishal/Barenaked Ladies New Years from Niagara Falls, which was good. Chloe kind of slept off and on in Mommy's arms, but Maya was straight on til midnight.

At any rate, we thought we were doing better, then Chloe spent New Year's Day - the whole day - in bed. Not moving at all. We were planning to seek medical attention if she wasn't better today. Thankfully a bit of a bounce back, she even got up to go with Baba and Gogo to Conrad's birthday party. That freed Gabi and I up to prepare for Wright's Christmas, the last major event on our calendar, postponed from Dec 12 when the 3 of us not named Chloe all got sick last.

I was trying to do a lot of the work, because, as Gabi put it, this WAS my idea.

You see, this whole thing is based on tradition. We've been getting together with them for Christmas for years and years. Can't remember when it began, can't remember when it hasn't happened.

The problem with it these days? I haven't seen any of these people with the exception of Laura since last Christmas' party. So it was our turn to host, my parents letting us know that they weren't interested in having it at their place anymore, and Terry and Jenny doing it the last time the pendulum fell our way.

The point for me may have been made when Maya was relating a story she saw downstairs, about something the man sitting next to Gogo said. No idea what his name was. I also heard Alex talking to Dexter, asking him when Morose Christmas was. Uh, yeah, kid, you're there right now. And I certainly can't blame him for not knowing.

Now, I know everyone has busy lives, but perhaps we need to get together more than at Christmas for there to be any point, so at least our kids know who everyone is when we do get together.

Definitely something to think about over the next year.

Salsa

2010-12-31T23:14:00.003-05:00

I can't believe I forgot this in my list of notable events in 2010, but I did.

In mid-August, we all piled into the van and headed out to the north Schwa, looking for a pick-your-own farm that Chrisa and Kirk had taken us too a few years ago.

We knew Maya would be into it, but the unexpected pleasure was watching Chloe, who we literally had to drag out of each field after we'd picked our fill.

We picked tomatoes, peppers (a Chloe highlight - we actually lost her in the pepper plants for a few minutes as she kept going deeper and deeper and picking more and more peppers), squash and beans.

We then came home and cooked and canned for days. In fact, when we were done, I would have been just fine with never seeing another tomato again.

However, it all came back to me just now when Gabi, not feeling well at all, asked for a salty snack, and I just happened to have some homemade salsa on hand, along with a few nachos I bought for Sunday.

After Myrtle, it was definitely one of the most fun days I had all year.

Oh, and I also forgot to mention my going to see Rain with Fay, Nadine, Vera and my parents. That was a great show - so good we bought tickets for Maya and Nonna to go see it a few days later.

Happy New Years!

2010 in Review

2010-12-30T21:19:00.002-05:00

It seems like everywhere you turn is a year in review, and here at my blog will be no different.

Been an eventful year indeed, and here are a few reflections.

The preparations for selling the house. Oh my goodness, what a crazy few months that was. I was hellbent and determined to get the house for sale in February while the market was still hot, and that meant we had to repair all the little things that were broken around the house, clean out all the crap, and paint. We had a contractor in for a week, (who was totally awesome), his painters in for two weeks (they got the house sold, anyways - but Sass is way better, cheaper, faster, etc). I bonded with my father-in-law as we spent 3 consecutive weekends ripping out carpets and laying new tile in the laundry room. Of course, who can forget the stomach flu hitting each one of us the weekend before we were supposed to be going up for listing?

Selling the house. Well, I'm pleased to say it all paid off. We got over our asking price, thanks to a nicely maneuvered and handled little bidding war. Our agent, Sue Vine, was awesome, sending us a staging consultant, a cleaner, and just general support. I was at the zoo solo with the girls when I got the call that we had multiple bids coming in that night, and it was such a weight off my mind I can't even begin to tell you. Of course, over our asking price was exactly what I'd determined we needed to be able to pull this all off without ending up with our heads deep under water.

Crushing of the thumb. Nothing like getting a hysterical phone call at work from Gabi, en route to the hospital with Maya, who has crushed her thumb in the door of the honda. Two weeks in a cast later, and it turns out Maya was perfectly fine. Taking her to get the cast off was memorable indeed, as the guy in the bed next to her wound up collapsing in the middle of having his cast put on. Quite a scene indeed.

Scrabble. Got a little too into the game at some points this year, but hey, it got me on TV. Two of my kids went to Orlando to play in the National School Championship, and both they and I got interviewed by Rob Leth on Global News. They finished 14th, and I didn't get to go.

Myrtle Beach. My parents, Ter, Jen, the boys and my family all got together in a rented house in the Ocean Lakes campground, and had a fabulous week - quite possibly the highlight of my year. I thoroughly enjoyed everything, except perhaps the trip home. Maya and I golfed Jungle Lagoon, my favourite as a kid, we ate at J Waltons, Cresthaven, and other familiar favourites, and even did Wizard Quest, which was a little cheesy but kind of fun. Just a great trip.

10 years. Gabi and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. I know my parents had Chloe, because she drove them nuts, but I can't for the life of me remember where Maya was that night. Whoever had her, thanks! We had a great night, even if it did start off at Ikea, starting to plan our new kitchen (which will be installed in 2013 or so). We had dinner on Bayview at a pub whose owner I play squash with, then got some amazing gelato, then came home and watched, at full volume on my new home theatre, Avatar, which we hadn't seen yet. Amazing movie, and an amazing night overall. I would also like to thank my darling wife for the best ten years of my life, by far.

The move. After much anxiety about possible buyers remorse, everything closed on time. We had two homes for a week, allowing us the opportunity to get Sass in to paint quite a bit of the house, and I've started working on painting the parts he didn't get done. I also moved quite a bit of stuff myself using the new trailer, which turned out to be a good thing, because our moving truck was packed to the absolute brim. Not another thing would have gone in there. The best part of all was that our movers were fantastic. If you're moving, G&S Moving in Scarborough is absolutely the way to go. Only one thing got damaged, and all I needed to do was replace a screw in the toy chest. That's it. Every possession we had, and every single other thing was perfect, although to be honest, since we have nowhere to store it, we still haven't opened the fine china.

My kids. Maya is an awesome girl, very determined to get things right. We seldom have behaviour problems with her, which is great. We're working with her on reading, but the two of us love to play math games in the car, and I think it's fairly obvious she has a math brain. Chloe kind of has me wrapped around her little finger. I didn't let Maya get away with much, but this little cutie pie seems to be a highly manipulative piece of work. She is improving, however, but we did go through some really rough stretches with her. She is two, after all, and they don't call it the terrible two's for nothing. I honestly don't remember if Maya was ever like this...maybe we blocked it all out, or we probably wouldn't have wanted a second kid. Definitely no #3, however. At any rate, I love these two wonderful girls with all my heart, and woudn't trade a minute with them for anything.

Work. 2010 was a mixed bag at work. I had a very challenging job assignment, and two very challenging groups to work with, and I was completely and utterly consumed by my work getting the house ready, and then prepping the move. Jan-June was definitely not the defining moments of my career, but I've been completely rejuvenated by the group I'm working with now. I love every minute of it, and am looking forward to finishing up the year. This is the first group I'd seriously consider taking to Grade 8, if my new principal (start the anxiety level ratcheting back up) decides to change things up a bit.

Cora. Oh, the poor dog, what a year she's had. First a burst cyst, then an infection around each eye, followed by a complete systemic skin issue. Turned out to be demodectic mange, which took over $600 to diagnose (did I mention I love my vet's BMW?), plus a small fortune in meds. I am pleased to report, however, that she's ending the year in excellent health. I wonder how much was stress and confusion? We uprooted her multiple times, during the painting, during the selling, then moving everything to the new house, not to mention leaving her with Nonna while we were in Myrtle. No wonder the dog had some immune system issues. I'm feeling guilty now, so we're heading for a walk as soon as I post this.

The new house. Love it. Love living here, love the layout, love everything. Didn't love the appliances, and we've now replaced 60% of them, one toilet that leaked into the kitchen ceiling (trying to paint water stains is not fun) and trying to run speaker wire in the suspended ceiling is a challenge for me at best. The aforementioned kitchen could do with replacing as well, as we just don't have enough space for all our stuff. We probably need less stuff, but we got so used to boatloads of cupboards in the old place that it's something we'll likely try to replicate here, when we get to it. Love the mancave, curling up down there watching a movie is just the best. Watched Inception with the fireplace going last night - awesome evening indeed.

Vera's move. Helping Vera move was fun, but best of all I was able to help her out by giving a few treasured possessions a new home. There were many, but the two that stand out for me were her bar/globe, which I'd always admired, and my absolutely favourite, her Westminster clock. That will be a treasured possession as long as I have a mantle to put it on - just love having it keeping time in the house.

Car shopping. The Honda was getting kind of wonky, and I went into car shopping overdrive for about a month or so. Finally, to get the Honda ready for trade, we replaced the catalytic converter, and suddenly it was driving like a new car. Much better for the bottom line. I have, this year, test driven the following cars. Ford Fusion, Mitsubishi Lancer, Nissan Cube (3 times), Hyundai Elantra, Kia Forte, Hyundai Sonata (2007). Got serious about the Lancer, Gabi vetoed it. Could see myself in a Forte, but the truth is I really don't think I've found the perfect car yet, and when the Disney savings come off our budget next year, I'll have the cash flow freed up for something kind of nice, like a 2008 Accord, maybe even a Maxima.

Cottage. Not really a highlight, Maya and I spent a few nights up there in the spring, and then we only got back twice more over the entire summer. The new house was a bit too much like a vacation spot this year. Boys weekend was memorable, or so I've been told. I didn't have another drink until Christmas. Hopefully next year will be better up there.

Mat Latos. Really enjoyed watching this guy pitch all year, and am thrilled to have taken him with the 17th overall pick. Can't wait for my team to finally return to relevance next season after two very down (and very painful) years. Now if only Matt Wieters could really be the next Joe Mauer....

Our parents. Last in this, but certainly not least. In fact, we could never thank them enough for all the help, support and guidance they've given us over the years. Glad they're all healthy, and doing the travelling they love to do. Keep it up, guys!

22 years?????

2010-12-28T20:53:00.002-05:00

Wow...I got an email from Geni the other day that informed me that Dave and Janice Benoit are having their 22nd anniversary later this week. Time flies indeed.

The notable thing for me personally on that trip wasn't necessarily their wedding, which was really good, but all the other parts.

Terry and I travelled to Chicago early, perhaps on Boxing Day although I can't be sure, along with Uncle Ted. A memorable trip indeed, and I thought I'd share some of the stories.

One of my key memories, being 22 years ago, was that I had my 365 (now I've gone and dated myself), and was shocked and pleased when Ted not only let me drive, but he let me drive. And drive. And drive. I was thrilled to be behind the wheel for so long, even though it was probably not legal for me to be running a car in the states. In fact, he only took back the wheel after I ran into my first midwest snowstorm and had the car sideways for a time on the interstate bridge. After we all changed underwear, he drove the rest of the way.

I remember getting to go to a Chicago Blackhawks game on that trip, and bemoaning the fact that every time I went to a hockey game, Dino Ciccarelli was playing, the bastard. Must have been the North Stars....I also remember the very next night, we went back to the Chicago Stadium and got to see Air Jordan beat the Cavs on a buzzer beater. That was tre cool.

The hotel was also another adventure. We got to our room, and it wasn't made up yet. Back down to the desk, and we got a 2nd room. This time, when Terry turned on the water to have a shower, the tap sprayed him thoroughly. While he was still clothed. Outside of the tub. Now, Unce Ted was a master at negotiations with the front desks of hotels when things didn't go well, and before we knew it we had a third room, and this time the hotel got it right.

We had a serious suite on our hands. King beds. The full living room treatment. And a glass dining room table. Worked out nicely, because I remember covering it with my PTP cards, nearly completely.

I also remember the pizza we ordered to the room - real Chicago deep dish, it took us the whole few days to eat it, even when we probably shouldn't have still been eating it. Absolutely awesome, and to this day still the best pizza I've ever had.

The rest of the family arrived later for the wedding, which like I said was great, although I got busted bringing some water during the pre-wedding party to do something to Dave's car by Dave, which I don't think he was thrilled about. To this day I still don't know exactly WHAT we were going to do....

Overall, an awesome trip. I just can't believe it was 22 years ago.

Happy Anniversary, Dave and Janice.

Thanks for a lot of great memories, Uncle Ted.

Uxbridge

2010-12-25T21:57:00.002-05:00

So today being Christmas Day, after our family traditions of gifts, stockings, and a large cottage style breakfast, we packed up our things and headed up to Uxbridge. I think we've only missed two Christmases there, the one where we drove down to Myrtle Beach, and the one where Gabi and I flew to Vegas to spend some time with Vera and Ted.

Uxbridge has been an institution in our lives, one we definitely owe some gratitude to Kim and Karel for keeping going, and of course to Wayne who has continued to open his home in the spirit of Baba Annie.

So it was with mixed feelings today, realizing that that will probably be the last time we'll be in the house. Wayne is talking seriously about selling, since he's off work, nearing retirement, and looking to probably move back to Brantford where his parents are. Makes sense, actually. Just kind of sad, because whatever we do (if anything, who knows?) won't ever be the same.

It was nice to see a lot of family members, particularly some of the ones that I've mostly been communicating with on Facebook. I had a good laugh with Ihor's silicone glove, and my bottle of "lube", in particular. And I hope Uncle Jerry enjoys the beefcake Firemen calendar!

And of course, we left with Chloe approaching meltdown, so I hardly got to say goodbye to anyone. If you're reading this - goodbye!

Actually, I was kind of impressed with Chloe - apart from the gift exchange, she behaved herself really really well. We're starting to feel like we're turning a bit of a corner with her - she's no longer driving us up the wall at every single opportunity - it's now about every third opportunity. The last few times at stores haven't been complete torture either. Nothing like the time she didn't want to leave Walmart, and left marks on Gabi's face as a result.

So I'm busy moving my music collection over to the new laptop. Kind of pleasant, because this sucker has so much power I don't even notice it happening in the background. The old laptop? Start it and leave it - it might be done in the morning. The only real negative to this beast is the fact that I can't stand the trackpad. Luckily, Nonna gave me a Best Buy gift card, and I've already ordered my new mouse. Thanks Nonna!

Christmas morning was a success, I think, even with the outrageously expensive Zhu Zhu pet. I'm really not very fond of them, but for the record - that one I stepped on in the kitchen? Purely accidental - really, I didn't mean to do it. Not after what they cost, anyways.

Gabi and I kept it very low key for each other - this house continues to be our major present to each other. I did try again to buy her a purse. Strike Two. Unbelievable. At least this time I could pin it on Maya, as I took her with me to help me shop. This laptop is kind of my gift to myself, even if I did finance most of it by selling a lot of hockey tickets. Of course, it's not exclusively mine, although I've made it very clear to the kidlets - don't touch Daddy's laptop!!!!

It's kind of nice now that we've cleaned out the office a bit and started using it as an office rather than catchall storage. I'm bringing up my marking tomorrow, and will go at it like gangbusters so I can hand back a bunch of stuff the first day back. I swore this would be the year I'd keep up, and I think I'm farther behind than ever. This room is the key to me getting and staying on track in January.

That's gonna be my goal in 2011, anyways. At least one of them...

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T21:58:00.002-05:00

Well, trying to get the little ones to sleep after our first ever Christmas Eve party here is proving difficult, to say the least. Maya is almost out, but Chloe is fighting it tooth and nail - she keeps trying to sit on the stairs to watch for Santa's arrival.

We had Ter, Jen, the boys, Bob, Olivia, Vera and Uncle Steve over for dinner tonight. I need a caveat here - Bob and Olivia, rather pleased that it wasn't at their house, brought over 95% of dinner, which was awesome. I was particularly impressed with Bob's cabbage rolls. He was taught by Auntie Iris, which was actually my idea, but I couldn't talk my principal into giving me a day off to go learn to make cabbage rolls. I guess I'd have to teach family studies for that one to work.

So now Dad has to teach me. Just thinking about them has my mouth watering - maybe I'll go down and tackle the leftover 3...yes, 3. That's all that was left out of a whole casserole dish.

I got new squash shorts (much needed - I'm sure Jeff and Eric will appreciate that I'm replacing the ones Nadine bought me all those years ago, which have been washed so many times they may be paper thin at this point), an iTunes gift card, and a GPS dash holder. Should come in handy. It was the first time we successfully pulled off trading names without a lot of cheating.

Ok, Gabi needs me to go put Chloe to bed. Later!

Growing up

2010-12-22T22:13:00.003-05:00

Apparently, I've grown up a bit since university.

I just rented The Tom Green show, which I remember as being very very funny.

Like I said, I think I've grown up a bit. Maybe more than a bit - it was just plain stupid. The worst part is that disc 2 is probably arriving in the mail tomorrow - and I don't want it any more. Ah, well, the first disc that won't even make it home.

So I'm continuing to upgrade our struggling technology. This computer is in very good shape, but the laptop, which has served us faithfully for well over five years, possibly seven, has finally been replaced. I went whole hog on this one, wanting to buy one that is near top of the line rather than another bottom dweller that would slow down rather quickly. Our new core i7 sits upstairs. Haven't really been able to use it yet, because it won't pick up any signals from our old router, which has been giving me nothing but grief for about a year. So as soon as I finish this blog, it will be time to set up the new router, which I ordered during a Dell pre-boxing week sale last week. We're going 802.11N, baby. That should work everywhere in this house.

I'm even hopeful that our wireless printer will hold a signal from this router - hey, you never know. The inconsistent ability to print has been driving me rather nuts for quite some time - especially when I want to print something. :)

Played in the Toy Drive Squash tournament tonight. I liked my odds - for the first time, I was the weaker link on the team I was on, and since I'm not that weak, I thought we had a good shot. We dominated our first match, but then came up against Craig, the pro, in our 2nd. Not fair at all, really. Oh well, at least some kid should enjoy the Thomas set.

The kids are getting super excited for Christmas, but I for one am ready to get it over with. Not to be bah humbug, but like my friend Janis said - give me a week to get ready for Christmas, and I'll take a week. Give me two days, and I'll get it done in the same amount of time.

On the plus side - for the first time in what seems like months - everyone here is perfectly healthy - no colds, sniffles, coughs, mange, whatever. Cora has finished her meds, and seems to be in good spirits. We'll need to do one more scraping (at $50 each, this'll be the fourth and hopefully last) and then we'll see where we're at.

Vacation Bloggage

2010-12-19T10:42:00.002-05:00

So I don't know if anyone reads this anymore, since I'm not exactly what you'd call a regular contributor. Won't stop me from showing up once in a while, however.

Went to a Guyanese Christmas party last night, which was a lot of fun. Came home to find the annual street Christmas carol sing rather obviously going on...the old owner of this house had his truck parked in front of it, and he always told us about how we'd see him there. I guess we didn't make the cut. Interesting, because based on the number of cars on the street, it looks like everybody in the world made the cut - I'm just lucky no one decided to park in our driveway. Oh well - another year, perhaps. And if not - just one fewer thing to do during this busy Christmas season.

We got a bit of a scare on Friday night - after having what we can only call the unhealthiest fall our family has ever experienced (more constant illness than serious illness, I should note), Chloe was in bed with Gabi and I watching a show relaxing, leaning up against me, when completely out of the blue, she launched a projectile vomit that had to be seen to be believed - I think it made it 3, possibly four feet in the air.

This of course led to a rather wide spray on landing, and wound up covering or partially covering me, Gabi, our pillows, our comforter, our sheet, and for good measure, some got thru to our mattress pad.

Since we replaced our bed this summer and decided to go king sized, we hadn't really thought of the consequences of having only one set of sheets. I got everything into the dryer around 1 am, but that was it for me - something I hadn't done since university, spent the night on a mattress, with nothing on it. The adventurous and mostly sleepless night led to a loss to Eric Denison, who's a good player but one I can usually beat, on Saturday morning. That's what I'm placing the blame on anyways.

So I'm getting a new principal at work - after 5.5 years of working for Ted, he's moving on. I think if he hadn't, I probably would have in June. Nothing at all against Ted - I think he's a great guy - but change is needed for me, something to light a bit of a fire under me. We'll see if this works, because I doubt I'll ever find a more convenient place to work. My current kids are helping with this too - I have a truly great class this year. My only real concern is that I'm in the midst of planning the grad trip and ski trip, and we'll have to see how that goes with the change in administration.

Haven't seen or heard from some friends for months - kind of odd. Guess the old don't call us, we won't call you seems to apply. What are you gonna do, though? Just the way the cookie crumbles, sometimes.

Emotional day

2010-11-12T22:33:00.001-05:00

First, Chloe completely and utterly kicked my butt this morning. She
didn't want to wear clothes, then refused shoes, then a coat was out
of the question, then she did her human board routine.

You try strapping someone who's made themselves as straight as a board
into a five point restraint system.

It took two of us to do it, then I drove her to school, screaming
bloody murder all the way, then she didn't want to get out of the
carseat, if you can believe. Then putting her down at school was
hard, with her headbutting the teacher. Just an utter disaster. I
fled near tears, which is not like me at all. She just wrecked me
this morning.

So I called when I got to school, and she'd calmed down, but my day
was toast - I never really got back on track after that. Wasn't
feeling all that hot, either, and I had a whole pile of problems to
sort out after my brief absence.

So I had a few errands to run at lunch, and while out, Chloe's school
called to ask me to pick her up - she'd been crying off and on all
morning. Thankfully Nonna was available to go, but that took some
coordinating in itself.

So we've decided to buy a car. We've now made a few attempts to buy a
Cube, and they haven't worked out. I've got a line on a lancer
sportback gts, but Gabi's not wild about it. The Hyundai Elantra
keeps floating in the back of my mind, too.

Then, finally, we were all home. Chloe asked to go to bed, gabi took
her, and Maya and I watched the Hannah Montana where she told her
secret. Maya broke down completely, and it even got to me a little
bit - with little girls, I've watched a lot of Disney channel, let me
tell you.

I'm gonna blame it on illness, exhaustion and stress.

The proverbial dog

2010-11-10T19:03:00.001-05:00

As in sick as...

So I'm sitting at gymnastics, which has evolved into my gig. I shop
sometimes during - groceries, take out dinners, cars - but sometimes I
just wait. I had an appt at a ford dealership which I kept, but
surprise surprise - the numbers I got sure didn't match the numbers in
the paper. My heart and body wasn't really into it anyways.

A 5 year old and her mother, near the candy machine where I was
sitting to avoid coughing on anyone, had the following exchange.
Quotation marks are being omitted as I'm using a phone to post.

Mom, I want some.

No.

Please?

No.

Pleeeeeease?

I don't have any coins.

Mom then gets on the phone, ignoring the child who continues to whine
and beg repeatedly.

As mom hangs up the phone, to my horror she gets out her purse and
buys the kid the candy.

In for a world of hurt with that kid, lady. Hope she never winds up
in one of my classes.

I was floored.

Buying a car?

2010-11-06T19:43:00.001-04:00

The Honda is getting up there, both in years and necessary work. I
haven't been much for driving my cars into the ground - only twice
have I taken a car on it's final drive, and that was with my first two.

The fact that I hate it isn't a factor at all either. Not one bit.
Probably.

So we've been looking at a series of small cars. I like the Lancer
Sportback, the Elantra touring but Gabi likes the sedan, and we both
like the Nissan Cube, weird as it is.

We almost bought a cube a month ago. We walked over $5 a payment,
which in retrospect may have been foolish, because we certainly didn't
get anywhere close to that today.

This isn't absolutely necessary. We're not desperate for a car by any
means, and while using less gas is the goal, I'm questioning myself
all the time about what we should do here.

In fact, I'm driving Gabi a bit nuts. I feel kind of bad about that,
but what can you do? I have an obsessive personality, I know. This
is just my current obsession.

My obsession for her is well over ten years old - and counting!

A good month

2010-09-25T08:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I sit here at the cottage a little before eight in the morning,
the annual boys weekend. It seems to be getting harder and harder to
get people up here, not sure why - where else will I buy you a t-bone
steak?

John Redman can't make it, Scott mcdowell can't make it, which is too
bad as they're both regulars up here. Derek mcdowell is coming, as
far as I know. Terry is here, Tony Pipilas came up around 11:30, and
I'm not sure what time Dan got here, but he is here. I tried to stay
awake, but didn't make it past 12:30.

The drive up was a little hairy, as I was pulling Terry's leather
couch. We wrapped it on Thursday night, which was an adventure in
itself. He had planned to seal the plastic with painters tape, which
really didn't work. Luckily, Barry and Heather, jen's parents, had a
staple gun, duct tape and packing tape. The couch stayed wrapped to
home, to Peterborough, but somewhere around Apsley everything came
loose.

I resealed it up right as it started to rain, a good move as the rain
quickly switched to monsoon conditions.

It only wound up a little bit wet, not bad at all really.

Had a really good start to the school year, a few interesting things
to deal with, but nothing I can't handle. Maya is doing great in
grade 2, Chloe got off to a great start at her nursery school, and
gabi is doing well, although new administration always makes things
interesting.

Here's hoping the good times continue!

Time flies

2010-08-02T14:23:00.002-04:00

when you're having fun.

Been a great long weekend - we invited a lot of the arts adventure camp participants and their parents over on Friday night, and it was a great time. For the first time, we are starting to kind of trust Chloe around the house, at least with lots of other kids watching her. Of course, just now, while falling asleep, she pulled some metal pails into her crib and was banging away on them. You know how it goes...Hopefully she didn't hurt herself - I guess I'll find out for sure in 20 minutes when I go to wake her up.

At any rate, we had 12 kids playing in the basement, and 10 adults conversing on the deck, and we realized - this is a great entertaining house. Now to keep it clean so we can entertain at any point. I bought a BBQ bible, and am scoping through it for good recipes, and watching for good specials on BBQable items.

We then had Gabi's friend Christine and family over last night. A little dismayed to realize that all the Sleeman product I purchased on Friday is gone...and I can't recall anyone else having any of that particular brand, although my Miller and Stella got a working over. Going to have to watch that that doesn't become a habit. Today is gonna be a beer free day, at any rate.

Bought a new bed, being delivered this week. Did one of those mismatched box springs deals, which is a good thing considering what full retail for this mattress is. It reminded me very much of the mattress at the Sheraton, which has definitely become our hotel of choice (when we get one, since we use Priceline often we usually don't).

Also, the boat seems to have sprung a gas leak. I'm going up later this week to take it in - hopefully we'll be in good shape for later in the summer. I think I'm just going to do a day trip - up and back in the same day, as deliveries, anniversaries, etc, are making this a rather busy week.

500th post

2010-07-26T14:47:00.002-04:00

Can't believe this is the 500th time I've taken up writing to this, and I'll try to make it as true to the title and my original intent as I can.

I sit in the passport office writing this. I could have done this the last time, but I would have had to cut and paste it into the blog, and I don't have to this time. When done, I press send and it's as good as posted.

Gabi invited two neighbour girls for dinner last night. I made BBQ chicken strips, pyrohy and Caesar salad. From the looks on their faces, you'd have thought I was trying to feed them rat poison. Priceless. Maya and Chloe set right to, with lots of yummies. I think they're picky sometimes...guess I'm a bit wrong about that.

Just ran into Adrian Hill while gassing up the car. Nice guy, haven't seen him in years...

It's funny the little things we miss about the old house. The ceiling fans were all whisper quiet - Bob bought us the good ones. I missed the digital thermostat. I miss the half dead lawn that didn't need as much attention. I miss the neighbours. The new ones are fine - just haven't built the same relationships yet - and probably never will have another one like we do with the Duncans.

Fell out of bed the other night. I was dreaming about playing squash, jumped up for a ball, and woke up on the floor, knocking most stuff off my night table along the way. Gabi was awakened by the thump and was freaking out, to put it mildly. I was totally ok, but it was a bit jarring and very tough to go to sleep afterwards. We were both zombies the next day.

Went to Scotts birthday party on Saturday. Having a tough time figuring out how it's going with most of the music crew people. I get the sense that some stuff is going on that we're not getting called to. Oh well...friendships evolve and change throughout life, I know that well - but we've been such good friends for so long that it would really be a shame for that to change. Most of them are coming over in a few days, so I guess we'll see how that goes.

Uncle Bill

2010-07-22T16:53:00.002-04:00

Uncle Bill popped by for a visit today!

A great guy, he lives in Chicago and came to town for 2-3 days, hitting Sarnia on the way home to see his brother. Maya was at camp at Mowat (we rode our bikes there and back this morning, much easier back as it's downhill slightly on the way home), so Chloe, Bill, Cora, Gabi and I walked over to Port Union Common, the nearby park. While Chloe played in the river, Bill and I walked down to the lake, chatting all the way. Thankfully Cora stopped at 2 dumps, which was the number of bags I brought.

We then all went to Imperial, as I remembered Bill's fondness for Chinese food. I'll always remember the Saskatoon trip in 1994 or so, where we ate at a Chinese restaurant that had opened up in the very building where my Gido Fred once ran a cab service out of. I told Bill I'd very much like to join him the next time he goes back to Saskatoon, as I want to learn all the old family history and places. It's funny how much being a history teacher has increased my interest in things like that - I think I'd ask a lot more questions if I get the opportunity to travel there again with him. He mentioned next summer as a possibility.

He also showed me his research into the family tree. He's connected with a genealogist in Saskatchewan who has traced an ancestor all the way back to 1795. I'm the 7th generation removed from him, and of course he lived in the Ukraine. My one surprise is that my major claim to fame, being related to Orest Kindrachuk, turns out to be false. Ah well, it was a good story, and I honestly THOUGHT it was true.

So it turns out I don't have a relative who was one of the Broad Street Bullies. So what? Do you?

Life moves pretty fast

2010-07-18T12:20:00.001-04:00

If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.

I was in the basement yesterday, watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off (in
HD, I might add - love it!!), when I heard the rain from the
thunderstorm rolling thru. Very loudly. Took a few seconds for me to
realize it was raining inside the house, in the furnace room, right
underneath the load of laundry I'd started before coming down.

I holler upstairs for gabi to turn off the washer, and the next thing
I hear is a scream and thud, as she went charging into an inch of
soapy water. Shaken, but thankfully not stirred, and her clothes did
soak up some of the water quite nicely.

So I picked her up, Maya brought every towel we had in the house, and
I learned a few things about the laundry drainage system in the
house. Everything seems to have dried out ok, but I guess we won't
know for sure until heating season starts - the AC is fine, at any rate.

I went back to the stove place yesterday, where they gave me a 2nd
oven rack and a replacement for the smoking burner, and we seem to be
cooking with gas...in an electric sense of the word.

So I bought a new bat...the Worth Mayhem Hybrid. With my first swing,
I ripped a single down the 3rd base line. With my second, I ripped
the flexor muscle in my left elbow (popping to 2nd in the process).
Since Kyle and John were playing at my request, and I was Kyle's ride
back to his car (not to mention beer guy), I had to stay and wait even
though I was done. Still am, although it feels much better today.
Not sure if I'll try to play squash tomorrow - I cancelled on jeff
again yesterday. I have definitely not been improving my fitness
levels like I'd hoped to.

So with this arm that really really didn't want to bend, I was off to
Vera's yesterday to pick up her desk. After mulling over downsizing
for a while, she has bought herself a much smaller condo in the same
building. The trailer just keeps on coming in handy, let me tell
you. To my surprise, I got Vera and Ted's globe bar unit, which I'd
always really liked, and which I thought that Terry had previously
claimed. With help from Fay, Nadine and Vera, we managed to get
everything into the trailer, which is where it remains, at least until
I have two good arms to move it in.

On that note, if any of my few remaining readers are looking for a
really nice dining room set, china cabinet and buffet, my aunt is
gonna be selling hers after she sells her condo. Just ask and I can
send you a few pictures. Beautiful, real wood stuff and a motivated
seller. Just wish I had the space for it.

I hate waiting

2010-07-14T15:24:00.003-04:00

Well, just awaiting the 2nd service call of the day. It's so limiting - I have work to do in the backyard and basement, but with the doorbell working spottily (it's the next thing I'll purchase when I get to Rona next) I'm afraid to get too far from the front door.

It's the gas fitter coming next, after the alarm guy. I'm not sure we need an alarm around here with 7 or so neighbours all knowing where Sass worked when he was here painting, but it was paid for until next year, so may as well have it monitored. The fire alarm is coming in the very near future - and that should, barring any other surprises, be the end of them for the next little while.

Chloe is proving herself to be a very willful, stubborn little girl. She's testing her limits, for sure, and testing them CONSTANTLY. Here it is July 14th and I'm checking how many weeks of holidays left...that's how testing she is. We carried her kicking and screaming all the way back from the park last night, because Gabi told her she was going home if she took her shoes off...

Hopefully she learns something from this - because constantly having to stick to our guns to get our point across is not easy. Maya was a lot easier - or at least, that's how it is in my memory.

Don't get me wrong - I love both my girls to bits, but Maya isn't anywhere near as frustrating - at least until it comes time for swimming lessons. She's doing a half hour a day this week, and apparently missed half feeling "tummyaches". That better not happen again - I don't know what happened to this kid and swimming, but I'm gonna have to ban her from the boat and tubing if she doesn't shape up. It won't be safe to take her into deep water. It'll probably turn out to be my fault in counselling later....

My favourite thing about summer? Mid-morning grocery shopping. Went to the Milner Wal-Mart with Chloe this morning, and they actually had everything I wanted, it was fresh, and it wasn't insanely crowded. Chloe even behaved really well, although it was tough to leave the toy section of the store...but once she calmed down, I got her to sit in the cart. I bought Maya's birthday gift, a little iPod boombox since she is "sharing" Gabi's that hasn't seen the light of day in months, and the perfect little game for our budding gymnast and all her little friends on the street - Twister. It was on sale, and I thought it was a good idea. I guess time will tell.

Now if only this gas fitter would show up so I can go on with my day. 2.5 hours remaining in his/her window of arrival times...1.5 down so far...

Of cooking appliances

2010-07-13T21:17:00.001-04:00

Back when we were listing our house, Gabi suggested keeping our stove,
as we both loved it. I talked her out of it, insisting that the new
house had a Jenn-Air gas stove, and we'd love cooking on it.

Today - $91 for the declined repair estimate (an additional $300 or
so). I then bought a used Frigidaire electric for $259. Tomorrow the
gas fitter comes to disconnect the old stove and cap the line. $135.
$485 total, plus whatever I owe George for his help in moving the new
one in.

Me admitting to Gabi that I was wrong? Priceless...

Thunder Rolls

2010-07-08T22:35:00.000-04:00

Well, a thunderstorm rolled thru here just after five, finally
breaking the insane heat. Not much rain, but at least being outside
was tolerable again - now just to get the inside cooled down a bit...

We're heading for home tomorrow - and Terry and I installed the ugly
couch, which is actually quite a bit more comfy than the old one. As
long as it has a slipcover, anyways.

I'm a bit worried about Cora - she's limping again, and after her
dinner she threw up...so I might be making a vet appt real soon. Her
leg got better, but I guess she aggravated it here. She hasn't left
the property in two days, a clear sign that the wanderer is not
feeling well at all.

Bedtime hasn't been easy here for Chloe, but she's gotten better over
the few days, and hopefully even better when we come back later in the
summer.

The boat is running a bit rough - Terry and I are trying to decide if
we should take her in for a bit of a checkup now, or wait until
something actually goes wrong. It's not that easy to get her going,
but she can still really move once she's going - had her up around 37
mph, which is more than fast enough for me. A lot more exhilarating
than putt-putting little kids around on tubes...in fact, I think that
might be more stressful on the engine than full throttle running.

I think I'm gonna watch a movie now...

Space Station

2010-07-07T22:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, that was kind of cool...

On Cam's tip, Terry and I were out on the dock to see the ISS orbit
very brightly overhead.7

Sure, we got eaten alive, and I'm gonna be itchy for days - but it was
worth it...

Ask me again in a couple of days though.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

2010-07-07T22:33:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting under a ceiling fan, with another blowing slightly cooler
air in over the kitchen sink, and even the supposedly cooler northern
air isn't doing the trick. It's hot, man. It's funny - but I helped
out with a bit of drywalling in uncle Jerry's basement garage, and it
was the coolest part of my day.

I've been here in this kind of heat maybe twice before...and all I can
say is thank god bob installed all these ceiling fans...the funny
thing is I'm voluntarily away from my air conditioning.

At least I'm away from the smog.

Terry and the boys joined us this afternoon, and for some weird reason
I ran totally out of steam, skipping the campfire to sweat on the
couch instead. Good to have the cousins together though...

I've read two books so far, Ten Good Seconds of Silence and Finger
Licking Fifteen. I enjoyed both, but I still don't get the title of
either. The second had so many lol moments I think I'm gonna have to
pick up some more of her books - it was that funny and enjoyable. I'm
glad some books were left up here...trying to decide what to tackle
next.

Going out to try to see the space station now...hope it works - and
that it's cooler out there....

I live here now

2010-07-02T21:44:00.000-04:00

I honestly can't believe how quickly we've settled into the new
house. Even Cora, who wouldn't let me out of her sight at first, is
starting to settle in nicely. As long as there are no fireworks, at
any rate.

So moving day was absolutely killer, and we had movers. I can't
recommend Greg and Sons moving enough - they busted their backs all
day, actually getting upset when I forgot about taking the bannister
off to get the freezer up the stairs. Surprising, since they were on
an hourly rate. The biggest surprise was that neither of the couches
fit into the basement...

Tina, Gabriel and I finished up at the old house, and Tina and I had a
good cry in the driveway...while this place is awesome, there was no
shortage of good times there either.

So we're adjusting slowly...we've got the main floor in pretty good
shape, and the girls bedrooms are shaping up nicely. No real rush -
we'll get it all figured out eventually, and we've got the whole
summer to set things up. Not sure how much more home depot/Rona/lowes
is gonna make off us, but they aren't complaining yet. The taps in
this place are mostly awful, so we're starting with shower heads
tomorrow and going from there. The kids are having trouble with the
vathroom taps as well, so that might need to be a priority.

And the grass - my god, the grass. The lushest, greenest lawn I've
ever seen - I think it even beats Rick, my old neighbour. I've
already cut it twice this week. I'm hoping that's just the rain we've
had, cause I'm gonna start to hate it. Hope not, cause it looks
awesome...but I may have to upgrade my lawnmower...

Gabi and I went to Cirque du Soleil at the ACC this afternoon,
followed by dinner in the distillery district. That GO train station
is very convenient, although i think I'm gonna miss the economic
splendour of the subway and not being beholden to a schedule- I kind
of hated eating with one eye on the clock.

Hmmm..what should I unpack/assemble tonight?

Thank you!!!!

2010-06-24T23:45:00.001-04:00

It just wouldn't feel right for me to go to sleep in the new house
without saying thank you to everyone who helped make the last six
months possible!

From feeding us to taking care of all our girls to taking us in to
hanging every picture known to mankind to tearing up carpets and
laying new tile to filling and then emptying a storage locker to
helping move stuff to helping buy my trailer to cleaning and packing.

Please know we are incredibly grateful to each and every one of you -
we could not have pulled this off without your help.

Gracias!

We love you all!

Gabi, Walt, Maya, Chloe and Cora.

Take care,
Walt

A long strange trip

2010-06-17T20:44:00.001-04:00

On Dec 24, we started a journey that we really hadn't thought out
properly.

Tomorrow, we close on our new house. We spent the better part of the
afternoon with the lawyer, signing our lives away. The rest of my day
was yardwork, as I really don't want to have grass to cut in two
places. We have both homes for a week. It'll involve some gradual
moving - I figure the more I can do myself, the less our movers will
cost us. Our recently acquired utility trailer should help with that...

So in 8 days, we'll be fully in the new house with this one gone. If
you'd told me a year ago that I was going to do this, I think I would
have laughed in your face!!!

We're going to do a bit of painting...and I may have to paint the bar
area, with all his stuff gone it looks rather barren.

No shortage of stuff to do, in other words...

It's been a strange, stressful trip - but I'm looking forward to
reaching the destination!!

21 minute post

2010-05-22T17:47:00.001-04:00

I have 21 minutes to write this before Maya's birthday party ends, and
I must gather child, loot bags etc and head home to pick up the rest
of the family. We're going to dinner at the Mango's house, something
I'm looking forwards to seeing.

Still too much to do and not enough time. That just is typical of
life, I think.

Played some good ball last night, including what I thought was a great
sliding catch of a low line drive, and some good hitting. When I took
over at ss things went awry. I caught everything hit in the air, but
missed a hard grounder, bobbled a soft one, had a terrible throw on
one in the hole that the runner beat out, and nearly got mh face fixed
by a bad hopper. 5 for 7 with a couple of doubles at the plate, a
good night for me for sure!

Funny how I seem to have time left along with absolutely nothing to
say, isn't it? Ah well, what are ya gonna do?

Sent using a mobile device that tends to do strange things while
correcting my typos. Please forgive any in the message.

Testing Dragon

2010-05-19T23:56:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time there was a man in Baltimore who decided to go to the
mall to buy it

Shoot once you get a fair there was a frog in this shoe store the frog
said to kiss me and I will turn into a beautiful princess

So the princess decided to go to the gym and get a working she decided
to play squash which was her favorite team very strange that it was
not the Blue Jays this story has been record using dragon naturally
speaking by phone at iPhone at I actually don't think it's very good
he's made a lot of mistakes

Written using the Dragon Naturally Speaking iPhone app. Not very
good, IMHO.

Sent using a mobile device that tends to do strange things while
correcting my typos. Please forgive any in the message.

Insane in the Brain

2010-05-19T21:49:00.002-04:00

It's been an insane time around here lately, and I doubt it's going to get much better leading up to next month's move.

However, we've put the moving issue to bed, dealt with closing dates, recalcitrant buyers (remorse my FA), mortgage issues, etc. We may come out of this whole situation with nobody particularly happy with us, but hey, I think I've long accepted the idea that I can make some people happy some of the time, but everybody happy never.

So I've been thinking a lot about our vehicle situation. You see, I really hate Gabi's car. As my "year off" comes to a close (man, if only I'd known, I would have found some other way for sure) and I start to look forward to my new and improved job assignment for next year (double math is slowly but surely killing me - I'm an English/History guy, and a damn good one - math can be done, but I have so much trouble with it that doubling it up is cruel and unusual punishment - for me and probably the kids too).

I have so much to do, both at work and at home, and with Chloe's sleep issues (serious night owl) and Gabi's illness (minor, thank goodness, but she's been miserable for well over a week now, and we all know how everyone else is when Momma isn't happy), I just can't get any of it done. In fact, I'm downstairs doing laundry and whipping off this quick blog between cycles while Chloe lies down with Mommy upstairs. How much do you want to be that only one of them is sleeping, and that it isn't the one with the age in single digits? I need a healthy Gabi back quick, or this move just isn't gonna be possible!

Anyways, I started about the car, then lost my train of thought. I was thinking we'd hold onto the van, which Gabi could drive, then I could get a small little runabout for myself. Yesterday, I rethought the whole thing for other than financial reasons. I got a ride home from the GO station in John Wistow's Civic. Apparently, if it weren't for the sunroof being open, I wouldn't have fit. Maybe I ought to recalculate just how damn comfortable I am in that van. After all, while I hate her car, Gabi loves it. I guess as long as I don't have to drive it, we can live with it. Much easier on the pocketbook anyways.

Oh, and Wistow's wedding celebration on the weekend? Awesome time indeed, but I'm once again off the sauce for a little while. Sunday was rough, man. Rough. Really rough. I chose to sit indoors marking on Sunday afternoon when it was gorgeous out rough.

Blog neglect

2010-04-25T15:09:00.001-04:00

Clearly guilty of some serious blog neglect lately. I'll try to fix
this over the next while.

Cora's doing all right - she had a small lump on her back, on Thursday
I noted that the bump was quite a bit larger, and on Friday night, it
burst. Kind of oozy and bloody, not a nice sight at all. The vet
squeezed us in before closing on saturday, and it turns out Cora
needed to have a cyst cleaned out. Cora never really compained about
it, except when the affected area was being handled. Her appetite and
attitude have been fine so no real worries - other than the bill, of
course. I should have been a vet...I love his car.

Got the same basic job assignment next year, which I was expecting but
not really thrilled with. Job postings were even bleaker, so we'll
have to stay put at least another year. I think moving houses is
enough life change for this year, thanks.

Speaking of that, we're getting on track for June. Hired movers,
emptied the storage locker (unfortunately back into the house), and
still trying to consolidate items. If anyone wants some bookshelves
or a nice coffee table (could use refinishing, but it's that enormous
square one) just let me know when you want to pick it up.

I'm also looking to get rid of my BBQ - the new place has a natural
gas hookup, home depot had a 20% off sale, and I had a rental
trailer. Those circumstances all combined to result in my beautiful
new Weber currently sitting in the living room. I nearly herniated
myself getting it into the house, but I managed...somehow. I will
clearly need help to get it out of here, however. Might even let the
movers do it, although it wasn't on the estimate. One of the moving
companies let me know they liked the new house - they did an estimate
for our sellers as well.

I've joined a new ballteam, the Dodgers, an over 40 team - I'm
apparently their exception. They've appointed the rookie as "beer
guy" - lucky me. Oh, and I'm playing right field. My neighbour made
a snarky comment about my range. I think I need to get Rick onto a
squash court to show him my range!

That being said, I am definitely upping my conditioning and leg
strength. In fact, when gabi and Maya get home, I think it's time to
resume my running.

Definitely - no excuses today!

Global News

2010-04-07T23:09:00.001-04:00

Made the news, for a good reason this time.

Check out the video here.

Peking Chinese

2010-03-20T18:01:00.000-04:00

If driving on route 19 thru West Virginia and you get the urge to eat
dinner at Peking Super Buffet, all I can say is - don't.

Road tripping II

2010-03-20T12:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I learned a valuable lesson this morning.

The steak and egg bagel at mcdonalds is greasy enough to replace
everything that leaked out of my car. Never ever again. Gabi is
driving us-220 to give me a break, and we're heading home after a
fantastic week.

Oh, there were some hiccups, to be sure. A few subpar restaurants,
the most disgusting BBQ known to mankind, every couple had a snit and
every kid had at least one meltdown, if not more. Chloe behaved
perfectly at every restaurant until the last night, where she
inexplicably refused to eat or be quiet. Still, I'm very proud of how
well my little two year old has done on this trip. She's been
awesome. I will not miss her being my roommate, however, although I
suspect she might miss me - very daddy centred right now.

Yesterday was awesome beach weather - I took the girls down while
everyone else went shopping (fools) and we had a nice time, although I
didn't notice that Chloe was grossly overdressed (leading to the major
snit in my coupling), then we had lunch on the deck followed by
chloe's birthday cake.

Got buried in the sand by the kids, leading to massive amounts of sand
in some very unusual locations. Took Maya and Conrad wave jumping,
which was a chilly hoot - they loved it and so did I...

Gabi is tired, being up with Maya a lot last night - time for me to
take the wheel back! Later!

Sent from Walt's iPhone.

Whew...

2010-03-18T10:29:00.011-04:00

Well, I've been going to the same mechanic for years and years. I'm
suddenly getting afraid they're starting to slip.

They lost my wheel lock key, so I had to go buy new lugnuts to replace
them.

So my oil leak?

I went and got an oil change after school on Thursday, and it turns
out they forgot to tighten the drainplug on the oilpan. I probably
dripped my way across Ontario, new York, Pennsylvania, west Virginia
and the Carolinas, not to mention all over ocean lakes. Nothing like
finger-tightening such a critical part - at least the potentially
disastrous engine failure was averted.

At any rate, it cost me $20 and a large chunk of my day to discover
this. So while it's a relief, I'm still a little annoyed.

Maya is minigolfing with her cousins, gabi is chopping chopping
chopping while Chloe and I are waiting in the car, not exactly an
unfamiliar scenario. At least sitting here no longer hurts like it
did on Sunday - amazing how sore you can get driving.

Bob took us to K&W cafeteria for dinner tonight, and we dined in
economic splendour. The food was ok, not great or anything, but the
price sure was right.

Hard to believe that Chloe turns 2 this week. The little munchkin and
I have been sharing a room - not sure if that's leading to my
generally awful sleep so far this trip - really my only complaint now
that my oil leak situation is resolved.

The beach house continues to be awesome - I love it!!!!

Road Tripping

2010-03-18T10:29:00.010-04:00

Well, last August I had an idea. This was supposed to be my year off
on my four over five plan. I was originally hoping to go to the
Olympics, but since that wasn't gonna happen I thought I wanted a
monumental march break trip.

So I started hunting around the Internet, decided on Myrtle Beach,
discovered that Ter and Jen and my parents were interested, and before
you could say hello I rented a house for the break.

So on Friday, I left school about as quick as possible, and we were on
the road by 4:26. About 4 minutes faster than I had realistically
hoped, to be honest. We did great until we hit Hamilton - what a
traffic black hole that place is - it cost us an hour at least. The
border crossing at the rainbow was amazingly smooth, and we rolled to
Angola where we had dinner - around eight. The girls fell asleep, and
we did pretty good until just before Pittsburgh, where they both woke
up. This was problematic because when we got a hotel room (2nd
attempt) Chloe was wired, and Mommy and Daddy weren't. To put it
mildly. It took a while, but Mommy finally wrestled her into bed and
sleep.

The power in our hotel went out just after seven, which served as a
nice alarm clock and a jarring shock for me, as my sleep machine
unexpectedly cut out my air supply. We got on the road in a constant
driving rain, breakfasted at mcds in fairmont, had lunch at bluefield
or something like that, then kept on trucking.

Gabi took the wheel on I-73, which would have been ok except the gps
took us onto us-1, two lane winding thru a swamp road that had us
increasingly worried as w&d ventured deeper into the Carolina swamps.
We did eventually come out, but not before I took the helm, swapping
in a rather scary rural driveway that had me imagining all the
shotguns probably being pointed at us.

So we wound up getting some dinner at 8:30 in Conway, which is just
outside Myrtle. I highly recommend avoiding the BK drivethru there-
it was a total mess. Got to the house just after nine, and it was
much better than I ever imagined. More to follow.

Sent from Walt's iPhone

Building the bears

2010-03-18T10:29:00.009-04:00

We decided that Chloe, who turns 2 on Saturday while we're driving
home, would celebrate her birthday here in Myrtle. So we took all the
kids to build a bear in Broadway at the Beach. Of course, only one
kid wound up building a bear. Chloe is insane over cats right now, so
we welcomed Meow Meow into the family, along with Fluffy the panda
bear, complete with high school musical outfit.

The boys, on the other hand, are boys after all. And being boys, they
of course built dinosaurs. They're both named Dino.

This was not an inexpensive outing, but it cost about the same that
throwing a party for the Chloe would have.

It was a lot of fun for the kids, too, although I'm not sure Chloe got
it.

We followed it up with lunch at the Great American Steak and Buffet,
which was good and under $70 for the ten of us. I particularly
enjoyed the spicy wings, very yummy.

We did a little shopping ($8 jeans!!!!) then came back to the house,
where we fried some burgers (the grill was the first real negative
about the house, after opening it we kind of decided that nobody
really wanted to eat anything off it anyways) and most of the adults
started some work with Captain Morgan.

The weathers not too great today, so we're thinking of a swim followed
by a visit to the aquarium.

Oil leak

2010-03-16T12:49:00.003-04:00

So the beach house has been tremendous. Bob and Olivia arrived after ten on Sunday, and ter, Jen and the boys beat us here on Saturday.

We've been having an awesome time, and it brings to mind the Calvin and Hobbes maxim "the days are just full". We've gone swimming, mini-golfing, shopping, to magicquest, out to dinner, to the beach, golfcart tours of the resort (rented one), and it just goes on and on and on. Bob, Terry and I breakfasted at woodhaven yesterday for old times sake, and we all went to J Edwards for dinner last night.

This house is beatiful, quiet and right near the beach. I'd recommend it, except I think I want it again next year.

The only real negative besides lack of sleep (thanks, girls) has been an oil leak in the van. We hit something on Friday night on the way down, no idea what.

Took the van to Toyota this morning, just waiting to hear what 's wrong, and keeping my fingers crossed.

Rough Night

2010-03-09T19:45:00.001-05:00

Sleep statistics for 08 - 09 Mar (Tue).

Went to bed / woke up: 12:47 AM / 6:09 AM
Total time: 5h 21m

Analysis made by Sleep Cycle.

My sleep graph for the entire night:

Sent from Walt's iPhone.

Night Photographs

2010-03-07T08:28:00.003-05:00

When I was a little kid, my family spent a week up north. I remember this very intensely because it was the week I flipped my sled on the Skyslider in Haliburton, taking off most of the skin on my arms and legs. Not fun, to be honest.

I also remember it because my dad was crazy into sunflower seeds, and managed to train a chipmunk to feel comfortable enough around him to eat out of his hand at the dock, or at least take them out of his hand.

This was rather cool, but not cool enough for me. I decided to try and catch one of these chipmunks. I'd always wanted a pet, you see, and moving was rather painful for the rest of the week.

So I devised a box trap with a grocery box, and sure enough, managed after many failed attempts, to catch a chipmunk.

Of course, my plan had some flaws. What do I do AFTER catching the chipmunk? Little lessons in planning ahead you pick up when you're young.

At any rate, I remember how abjectly terrified the poor chipmunk was when I peeked inside the trap, breathing rapidly and shuddering up a storm. Luckily it managed to quickly escape without doing harm to either of us.

I mention this because Maya is going thru a bad bout of night terrors at the moment, and she reminds me a bit of that squirrel, rapid breathing, shuddering, etc. She makes quite a bit more noise, however. So far we've gotten to her pretty quickly, but she's added sleepwalking to her routine, and we've found her in Chloe's room once, which meant we had not one but two screaming girls in the middle of the night.

Poor Maya - it's gotten worse since she saw some news reports on the Chile earthquake, and I'm not sure but I think she saw some of the looting too, which in a weird way affected her more deeply. Last night her dream was obviously about Chloe, since she was yelling something about "Don't hurt my sister!". Nice thoughts, but man....

So they've been taking place every night for the last week, like clockwork between 10:15 and 10:40. We usually bring her to our bed to calm down, she wakes up and I take her back to her bed. She has no clue as to where or why she is there - in fact, last night when I took her back to bed she was quite upset that Maya-Bear was wet. I told her that she'd probably been crying, and she rationalized that it was more likely that she'd been sweating. Ok, honey, I'm not gonna argue - but trust me, it was hysterical crying.

At any rate, I'd heard all the stories about the terrors I had as a child, and Maya seems to be following the same pattern, so I'm not too worried. I mean, I turned out fine...right? I think so, at any rate. At least she hasn't tried to escape the house yet. Unfortunately I can't put the gate back up at the top of the stairs - it would be far too much of a pain in the butt to repair all those holes in the wall yet again, not with us moving in a few months.

Gabi, on the other hand, didn't go thru anything like this as a kid, and is much more worried. I just figure this is payback for all the disastrous nights I put my family thru when I was little. I'm sure I deserve it - Gabi doesn't, really, but she did marry me after all.

NYTimes: Building a Better Teacher

2010-03-06T21:40:00.001-05:00

From The New York Times:

Building a Better Teacher

There are more than three million teachers in the United States, and
Doug Lemov is trying to prove that he can teach them to be better.

http://s.nyt.com/u/9ot

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

Selling the Drama

2010-03-05T19:50:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I blogged, mostly because I've been both trying to decompress from the real estate time and get all the end of term stuff finished. I can't remember a term ever ending this early in the year, and to say it snuck up on me would be an understatement.

Well, to the important stuff first - we sold the house. Woohoo. It was on the market for 6 days, which was the plan all along, although it wasn't looking too good at first. Very little activity had us more than a little concerned, although there was one repeat visitor during the week.

The open houses were a different story, however. The house was in the Mirror along with a website, and hopes were high for a few visitors.

I was at the zoo with the girls, and I will always remember my time in the north American pavilion. Chloe was enraptured by the beaver continously swimming right where she was standing, and Sue called me to tell me there was going to be an offer. It went a long way towards
putting my highly anxious mind at ease, let me tell you.

Speaking of Sue, I sure can't say enough about her. If you're thinking of selling, go to www.susanvine.com . She was incredible at both ends of the transaction, buying the new place and selling this one!

So the zoo? The open houses were zoos as well. 38 families on Saturday, 40 on Sunday. By mid-afternoon, we knew there were going to be 2 offers, which turned into 4 by 7 o'clock. Two turned out to be lowballs, one met our price with every condition known to mankind, and one was slightly under but with no conditions other than that the house has never been a grow-op.

Sue then gave a second chance, at which point the two lowballs dropped out, the one meeting our asking went up by 5 and dropped some conditions, and the one with no conditions went up to become the top offer.

It was a no-brainer, really. And while it all sounds very exciting, it took over 3 1/2 hours and was tediously angst filled, if you catch my drift.

It was wonderful to move back home, even more so to enjoy our clean and nearly empty house. We've decided that much of the stuff in the storage locker will be making the journey back here only for the yard sale and nothing else. Probably April 10th, if you're not busy.

The olympics - wow! Tremendous fun to watch, it would have been awesome to be there, but I can't complain about how everything turned out. I think my favourite moment remains Jasey-Jay Andersons gold, although I was tremendously into the curling for some weird reason -
mellowing with age?

Chloe is into watching a Rolie Polie Olie video that Maya loved too - in
fact, I'm supervising her playing and watching in our new and lovely wide open rec room with the fresh paint and totally cleaned up.

The funny thing is I think I would actually be fine with staying here now if everything fell apart - it probably hasn't been this nice since we moved in, and possibly never, since there is no pink and peach colour scheme like it was at first.

A Treatise on the Strength of Family

2010-02-16T23:23:00.002-05:00

I write this lying on a bed in the room where I grew up, from my crib to the bunk beds my brother and I shared until I moved across the hall. My eldest daughter slumbers peacefully next to me, but sleep, as it often does, eludes me tonight.

Our house went live on MLS today, and showings are already being booked. It is the culmination of just over 60 days of sheer insanity in our lives. On Dec 12, 2009 we wrote a new house wish list - now all we need to do is sell the current one.

Of course, this would not have been possible if it was just Gabi and I working towards this goal. The support we've received from family and friends has been unbelievable, certainly far beyond what we have any right to expect.

Here's just a short list of the kindnesses we've received.

1. Childcare. I can't say enough about this one, particularly nonna and baba but others as well. Thank you for looking after my precious girls so frequently so we could get this accomplished.
2. Dogcare. From Vera taking Cora for walks to Ter and Jen taking Cora this week, even after Chloe piker on her and she stunk (my hurried bath between pukes obviously didn't cut it).
3. Food. As the kitchen has gradually shut down, or cooking time has run short, our parents and Vera have stepped up to the plate, so to speak. A little too well at times, as my appearance and overly tight jeans (not in a sexy way) can attest, but the food has been so damned good!
4. Moving stuff.
Terry and George come particularly to mind here, but bob and Gabriel get props too. In fact, I had probably my best laugh of the whole experience when George, after helping me move the piano to where the stager wanted it, looked around and said "you're hiring movers, right?" with a wary look in his eyes.
5. Advice. We didn't always take it, but we received lots, from sage real estate veterans to expert decorators.

6. Flooring. My father-in-law and I really bonded as we ripped out all the carpets and replaced the laundry room floor. Even the transfer station was kind of fun as we both chucked away our shoes at the end of things as well.
6. Repairs. Hey dad, you know that light switch? I'm sure my dad will never want to hear those words again. He and his buddy Gerry Sullivan have been all over the place, replacing the outdoor light fixture I broke in 2002 or so, replacing broken switches and outlets, and just getting the place electrically perfect.
7. Storage - so much of my junk is in my parents basement, it boggles the mind. What's scarier is I have a lot of stuff at my inlaws too, plus a storage locker. Can you say garage sale, boys and girls?

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. Besides, I think sleep is finally ready to claim me, and my parents have shut off their tv. I don't remember them watching it that loud when I was little, but as almost always, I'm the last one awake here tonight.

I love my family and friends. The most amazing part is that not even close to the number of favours I owe will get called in. But I'll be ready if you need me!

I could never say thank you enough.

Opening Ceremonies

2010-02-13T00:59:00.001-05:00

I doubt I will ever forget tonights opening ceremonies.

This has little to do with the actual ceremonies, and everything to do
with what was going on here.

I was in the basement playing with Cora and Chloe, the dog in the
middle of a little wrestling match, when Chloe suddenly exploded with
projectile vomiting. While I got well covered, and some made the
carpet, the poor dog actually took the worst of it. After I got Chloe
changed and cleaned up, called mommy home, put some non-puke covered
clothes on, and had to give the dog a bath, never her favourite
activity. In fact, I almost always leave it for the groomer.

So the ceremonies were cool, I think my favourite part was kd Lang,
just an awesome rendition. Chloe kept puking and falling asleep, then
waking up and puking some more. Maya passed out on the couch around
11 - she was anxious for her baked cheetos, our Olympic treat of choice.

Oh, and for the first time I'm grateful I'm not in the ski patrol for
the olympics - that luge accident is exactly the kind of thing I was
getting worried about being involved in. Scary stuff if you've seen
the video. I just hope he went quick.

Lining up to dump

2010-02-09T20:01:00.001-05:00

So I'm sitting 4th in line at the transfer station. I got here far
too early, forgetting that they opened at 8. I went to Leons to
wander aimlessly and kill time - the odds of painting trim happening
tonight are increasingly slim, especially since I want to watch Lost
in a semi-coherent mode.

So I'm at leons, and I hear the next available furniture salesman
paged to appliances, where I happen to be looking at ranges and
dreaming of bidding wars, and watch in bemused horror as seven or
eight grown men in suits appear out of nowhere on the run, including
the nice guy who'd been answering some of my questions.

Had the first ski trip yesterday, and it went quite well overall,
some minor injuries and one ambulance ride that turned out to be
precautionary only, as far as I know at this point anyway. Absentiism
was high today though - I think a lot of kids were quite sore. One
comment was made to me at the end of the day that I've been stewing
over - I'm gonna have to address it tomorrow before I let it fester
into anything worse.

Ha - people in front of me are starting up, like they think this place
is gonna open right at eight.

I'll be damned - on the nose. Is this Toronto still?

Sent from Walt's iPhone.

Getting on my sciatic nerves

2010-02-06T20:41:00.001-05:00

So I've been dealing with some mild sciatica for the past week or so -
if you've seen me right after getting up it takes me a few strides to
get loose, but I can get to full speed rather quickly still.

However, tonight I decided to paint the trim in our bedroom, along
with the window frame the painters outright missed (but to be honest,
I missed it too inspecting their work).

So I got the 3 window frames and 2 door frames done, and somewhere
along the way tweaked my back to the point where I am currently nearly
immobilized. Of course, this has led to sitting still long enough to
write this, as blogging has been something that has gone by the
wayside as we continue to work towards listing the house. We've got
about a week and a half to go before we're ready, or at least before
we're planning to go. I suppose we can delay if we must, but I really
don't want to - I already lie awake most nights fretting about owning
two houses.

The other thing is that after all this work, the house is looking so
damn amazing that I'm thinking maybe staying would be all right.

Of course, that won't be happening. The decision has been made. One
way or another, we are moving.

Painting

2010-01-30T21:28:00.001-05:00

Well, I know a guy who runs a painting company, and even though his
estimate got beat, I mean, that's what he does for a living!!! My
contractor did such amazing work that when he told me he had a guy who
painted the least I could do was listen to them.

Turns out they were a couple of sheet metal guys who paint on the
side, the estimate that they initially made wound up being raised, and
since I'd already bought the paint I felt kind of trapped. It took
them eight days, and while I'm pleased with the end results, the
process left a few things to be desired.

At any rate, between that and laying the new laundry room floor, the
house looks absolutely amazing. I almost hate to leave it now. I
mean, I no longer hate being in the basement...amazing what paint and
vinyl can do.

Bruised, Battered AND Bloody!

2010-01-17T00:23:00.002-05:00

I hit the wall this morning.

Quite literally - I went in far too hard for a ball in the front corner, tried to spin to avoid the wall and managed to nail my left leg to the wall quite hard. That's the bruised part, near the ankle.

As for the rest, the renovations continue apace. Regan, our contractor, finished up today, a 1/2 day beyond his original estimate but since I added two jobs to the original estimate, I thought it was more than fine that it took longer. I also paid him a bit more than originally agreed upon, but only a bit and it was my offer, not his - based on the few extra jobs. The guy was good - I am more than pleased with all the work he did, and my major beef is that quite frankly the house has never looked better. I had some stuff fixed and replaced that needed to be done when we bought this place, never mind just when we're selling it. That is in addition to the stuff I broke during the ten years of ownership.

My father-in-law came over and helped my tear up the next section of rug, this time the landing and stairway leading upstairs. The stair risers need paint quite badly - but the stairs themselves and the hardwood at the top is just as nice as it's been throughout the house. I'm very happy. The funny thing is that the newest wood (the bamboo I installed) is the wood that is most likely to need refinishing.

Then Nonna stayed with the kids while Gabi and I went to Rona to buy the vinyl tiles for the laundry room floor. Our water meter blew a few years back, nothing major except for the stick-on floor tiles not really sticking anymore. The only way to remedy this is to stick on new ones. Since only about 1/6 of them are coming up, I'm basically slapping another layer of tile on top, and replacing the ones underneath that are too loose. It's working out great, and looking terrific too. I'm not particularly looking forward to getting to the point around the freezer however. That sucker is gonna be quite tough to move - we're trying to eat our way through the contents before June. I'm not allowed to buy any meat whatsoever. If we want protein, it has to come from the freezer.

Oh, the bloody came from trying to roll up a piece of carpet with staples in it. The series of 5 cm scratches across the back of my right hand feels absolutely fabulous.

At any rate, I figure it's gonna take five boxes of tiles (how many I bought, anyways) and I've used almost two, so not quite half done. Gonna finish that off tomorrow then hopefully do the last carpet, followed by a severely overdue transfer station run. Getting quite the pile of garbage in the carport, can't be helping property values around here.

If I work this hard on the new house, it'll be quite the showpiece!

Moving Right Along

2010-01-14T21:54:00.003-05:00

Things are coming along - the contractor (who is wonderful, by the way - if anybody needs one I'd gladly provide a reference) has been here the last couple of days, working quite hard. It's amazing what a difference having the entire bathroom done IN THE SAME TILE makes. Once we get it painted, I'll hardly recognize the place. I have another painter coming for an estimate soon, had one in today and had Sass in on Saturday. I got his estimate, which I think was good, but we'll see when I get the others. Gotta cover my bases. I took up the edge of some carpets under the window which is being repaired, and luckily the damaged drywall didn't extend to the floor. All good to go there.

Other than that, he's just patching some holes in the basement that some idiot drilled to run wires (hmmm...who would have done something like that?) and fixing the connector between the bamboo and tile in the kitchen. He actually complimented me on my choice of glue - it probably would have held if Maya hadn't started dragging her high chair across it constantly. Apparently what I didn't do was add a few nails - that would have done the trick...

The ski trip is in full flight at school. I'm a bit annoyed because there's a discrepancy in what I THINK I've collected and what I've actually collected. It's a small amount, but I was being so careful it makes no sense whatsoever to me. Ah well...not sure it'd be enough for me to lose my job over were I a cashier...but you never know. It's a staggering amount of money to take 150 kids skiing - I never had even close to this many going at my old school AND the prices for buses and skiing are much higher...so...what are ya gonna do?

I got rid of a lot of shelving in the basement - we're nearing the end of the monstrous piles of STUFF. Hopefully we never do to the new house what we've managed to do to this one as far as filling it up.

However, if we do - it's gonna be the girls problem, because I'm NEVER EVER EVER moving again.

Happy Birthday Conrad!

2010-01-10T09:14:00.003-05:00

So our Saturday mornings have been going like this - I get up early, and hit the squash court at 8 with Jeff, who lately I've been splitting matches with, me taking the first and him taking the 2nd. I was pleased to take both yesterday, especially since I missed my regular Wednesday game due to Ukrainian Christmas, and couldn't find an opponent for Thursday. What are ya gonna do?

I then race home, pick up Maya and take her to the club for her lesson, during which I shower, then play Scrabble on my iPhone. I have gotten so much better at the game, and am enjoying it so much that Gabi got me some Scrabble books for Christmas. Then, yesterday, it was back home to meet Sass, who is giving me a painting estimate (the repairs start this week, the painting sometime in February) which I can then compare to the estimate I'll be getting from another painter this week. Here's hoping Sass' price is good - I'd like to go with him, but you never know. He's got to figure travel into the job too, being from Cambridge and all.

Following that, it was off to Conrad's fifth birthday party. It was at an old church in Aurora that is now a community centre, and it was great - they had people there to run it, it had a pirate theme, which I guess is cool as long as you're not boating past the coast of Somalia. I had to keep driving with Chloe for the first 40 minutes or so, as she feel asleep 5 minutes before the party, but she rallied and was pretty good. We went back to Ter and Jen's afterwards, then out to the Newmarket Swiss Chalet, where I swear they had to hunt down, kill, pluck and THEN cook the chicken. Considering that Swiss Chalet is supposed to be fast, this was anything but. The amazing thing was that Chloe managed to stay in her high chair for well over an hour before Baba had to walk her around the restaurant.

Anyways, today we're taking out the carpet in Maya's room, so I shouldn't linger here. Progress continues to be made - I'm now feeling confident that we're gonna be able to finish. This house should be for sale by mid to late February. I want snow on the ground, to be honest - the back grass is a mess, and there's no way I can fix THAT before June.

Dismantling

2010-01-03T08:30:00.002-05:00

Well, the dismantling of the house continues apace. Value Village continues to do well off of us, and my parent's basement is starting to fill up as we purge towards a pristine showing.

Last night, Gabi started bugging me about tearing up the carpets upstairs, something I'd been reluctant to start for, oh, six years or so. The "plan" as I'd been describing it had me starting in Chloe's room, so we could see the condition of the floors in the smallest room. So at around seven, I went upstairs to see what I could learn.

At 9:50, the carpet was gone, the bed was out in the shed awaiting the move to the guest room, and my daughter has excellent, nearly pristine (one slightly bad spot, one scratch) hardwood floors in her bedroom. To say I was astonished is an understatement - I was HOPING it might be okay, but for it to be that beautiful was totally unexpected.

The plan is to do Maya's room next weekend, then ours the following weekend, and then finish off with the hallway and revinyl the laundry room floor. That, coupled with the contractor I hired to fix the bathroom and drywall issues around the skylight, and we should be good to go sometime in February. I would definitely like to take advantage of the hot market for selling this place, so the sooner the better. Oh, and paint. We desperately need some paint.

I've been sick nearly this entire vacation - needless to say, I'm sick of being sick. I guess I'm feeling a bit better, but I really want to be feeling good again. It's mostly at night that I'm having trouble, but the sinus headaches are a real pain - I've been downing tylenol like they're going out of style, and as you know, continue to face repercussions for missing midnight on New Years...although they are abating.

So I brought home a boatload of marking to do this holiday, and haven't touched it yet. I suppose I should sign out of this and go get started....if I have at least SOMETHING to hand back, it's gotta be better than nothing, right?

Right.

Wow...

2010-01-01T12:32:00.000-05:00

The year ended with a splitting headache for me, one that Gabi
attributed to drinking (I had 2, possibly 3 drinks max) and I
attributed to the ongoing sinus trouble I've been having the entire
vacation. Regardless, it drove me to bed just after 9:30, and I
missed all the festivities at midnight.

This also led Gabi to be somewhat less than thrilled with me. Can't
blame her, to be honest, but I needed some dark and quiet. I didn't
even mind my Chloe tailing time during the little get-together, as it
helped my head. Was it my first migraine? Hope not, but I can't
honestly recall a worse headache in my prior experiences.

Celebration went well, but hurricane Chloe was certainly a force to be
reckoned with, culminating in her breaking the ceramic baby Jesus in
the nativity scene. Anyone know where I can get a new baby Jesus?

So I weighed in this morning. I am now exactly 8 pounds under my ww
starting weight. Not good, it means I've gained 47 since Chloe was
born. Atrocious. I knew it was gonna be bad, but c'mon.

So between cleaning, fixing and selling this house, I've got another
project to work on - myself.

Anyways, Happy New Year to all - I hope everyone has a great one!!!

2009 in Review

2009-12-31T13:47:00.003-05:00

I do this almost every year, and despite not really being able to take the time to do it well, I'm gonna procrastinate long enough to get something up here anyways.

My principle highlight has to be my family. I really enjoy all of my girls, watching Maya take first steps out on her own (drop-off parties, reading her own books), to watching Chloe just taking first steps. In fact, the way she runs around the house now it's hard to believe that in August she wasn't walking at all. Late, perhaps, but catching up fast I think. There's certainly nothing late about her head - 3 and 4 word sentences are already showing up. Gabi had a certain adjustment period, first in going back to work, then in being off in the summer, then back to work again, but I think we've all gotten used to everything. Cora's been doing well too, although some more bumps like we had removed in the spring have shown up. I haven't taken her back to the vet - they don't seem to be causing her any pain or discomfort, her appetite is fine and she's as happy to go for walks as ever, or at least chase Chloe around when she's carrying food. If any of that changes, I'll move on it.

Our New York trip is clearly the highlight of the year - our trip down was smooth sailing all the way, Maya was awesome in the Big Apple, having an amazing time with Mommy at American Girl, and I absolutely loved my trip to Yankee Stadium for the ball game. Really, I think it almost made me a Yankee fan. I actually didn't mind this year when they won the Series. It'll be a while before the Jays do anything for me again, especially with Doc gone now. So go Yanks go! The Jays will always be first in my heart, however. The trip back was less than smooth, but still fun to travel with my family.

Lots of stuff broke around here, which we replaced with newer better stuff, but the gadget of the year hands down was my iPhone. I can't imagine how I functioned without it, although I did. I forgot it at home the other day, and felt positively naked without it in my pocket. Funny how quick a want can become a perceived need, isn't it?

A downside to 2009 was friends. Not that anything really went wrong, but I've found that I hardly saw anyone all year, and virtually no one since September. So, if you're reading this and I haven't seen you in a while, please don't take it personally. I still like you, and hope to have some time to see you in the near future!

Another small one for me was injuries. In March I popped a hamstring, and that pretty much ended my fledgling jogging career. In trying to play squash thru the injury, I just kept making it worse until I had to shut everything down for a few weeks. I came back, and was playing very carefully, when I managed to pop the other hamstring. ^*^&^^. It was mid-summer before I really got going again, and just before the NYC trip I pulled an oblique. Between Gabi's wipeout in NYC and the fact that I couldn't bend over to tie my shoes, NY was a health adventure for sure. Luckily Maya was fine and could pick up stuff for us whenever we needed it. I am, finally, completely healthy now, and have been playing squash three times a week for the last month or so - I've even shed my tennis elbow brace, so with the loss of my ankle brace, am brace free for the first time in years!

Of course, all those injuries plus extra Chloe demands (she's at the stage where you have to watch her every single second - I lost her for 20 seconds the other day and she scooped a butcher knife off the counter during that time) meant...dum dum dum....weight gain.

Yes...most of the good work I did at Weight Watchers over two years has been wiped out. Not all of it - I can still fit into my favourite skinny jeans, but I imagine they've looked better. Not happy about it, but with all we've got going forward into 2010 I imagine it'll be summer and near the new trails before I can really try to do anything about it.

Work was fine this year - my last class was awesome, my current class is shaping up to be not bad, at least a lot better than they were in September where I'd leave banging my head against the wall every day. I've been hearing good things about the next crop of grade sevens, so maybe one more year. Besides, moving houses AND schools in the same year? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me, maybe a bit too much all at once.

So - in conclusion - I'm happy, love my life and wife, love my kids and dog, looking forward to the new house (if not the new mortgage) and poker games in my new man-cave, enjoying my work and playing good squash. What more could a guy ask for?

Packing it in

2009-12-30T08:45:00.001-05:00

We'd been discussing it for quite some time, we had a two year
framework in place to accomplish it, and were ready to slowly start
moving on things.

Of course, if you know Gabi and I, you know we rarely move slowly on
anything.

With Maya at birthday parties near her school all the time, and nt
many friends her age nearby (except Daniel, who we've rarely seen this
fall), a move was starting to look like a good idea. Of course, there
was a lot to do to the house first, and saving up some money first
would likely be a good idea.

Then we came across our dream house.

Private sale, six month close. We put an offer in, and after four
days of insanity laced negotiations, we got it on Christmas Eve.

The home inspection is today, and I'm looking forward to getting in
and taking some pictures. There are some things I just can't remember
about the house.

So the cleaning, packing and renovating madness has begun!

Setting Goals

2009-12-06T10:56:00.002-05:00

Last night, I saw a photo of myself taken at Maya's 5th birthday party.

Damn. I looked good.

I don't currently, at least I don't feel I do. The hamstring and oblique injuries I battled most of the year are my pathetic excuse, but really, how much I've been eating is the major culprit.

So I've set a new goal. Last October, I ran the 5k in the Toronto Marathon. This October, I could only walk it.

Next October, not only am I going to be running, but I'm going to be running in the half-marathon. I've got just over 10 months to train for it, but no excuses.

I started this morning, not running, but I'm not going to make the mistake I made this spring, which was jumpstarting everything at a rapid rate and getting hurt. I'm going to build things up slowly to the point where everything is easy. The 3 games a week of squash are really helping as well, I have to say. For the first time all fall, I feel strong, I feel healthy, and I'm winning games again, with a little bit of jump in my legs getting to some balls that surprise even me, never mind my opponents.

And if along the way I can break out the garbage bag of "skinnier" clothes that I was forced to depressingly hide away recently, so much the better. I also wouldn't mind looking like I did in that picture again.

Oh yeah...

2009-11-25T23:28:00.003-05:00

Had a revelation tonight.

I had made tentative arrangements to get together with John last night.

Completely forgot about it until right this minute.

At least we hadn't set a time or a place - then I'd feel even more the fool.

Truth is, at 7:45 last night I was pretty much asleep on the couch - that random burst of energy from Monday more than long gone.

I didn't get to sleep until well past 3 am Monday night, and when that happens, 6:20 comes awful early.

The worst part about being nearly asleep on the couch - I was the sole supervisor for Chloe at that moment. It was such a fight to keep my eyes open and on her, I couldn't tell you. So when Gabi came down from dealing with Maya, I quickly called George (who I was supposed to FINALLY finish our series with, after cancelling Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings), said there was no way, and went to bed.

Where, of course, I couldn't sleep.

This was not helped along by the rapid arrival of a screaming toddler, who quickly got herself so worked up that she was in a complete state until past 11. I finally had to do something with her that I haven't had to do in months.

I took her outside.

Chloe loves being outside more than anything else. Give the girl a tree view, and she calms right down. Worked like a charm last night, too. We went out on the porch, looked at the fog, looked at the trees, stuck our hands off the porch and felt the rain. We said goodnight to the trees, went back inside, had a bottle (her, not me, sadly - all out of bottles for me) and she fell asleep in my arms.

It was funny - the scenario almost immediately shifted from a "Damnit, why won't you sleep?" to a much more relaxing, enjoyable bonding moment outside in the fog. It was quite cool, actually.

Chloe will never remember it.

I don't think I'll ever forget it.

And John? I'm writing the apology email next. Hope we can find another good night soon

Relegation Round

2009-11-23T23:17:00.002-05:00

You know, I never understood what that meant.

Since I failed to make the squash playoffs, I had a relegation round match tonight, against Vuk. A super guy, but someone who I usually manage to beat.

I didn't realize that there was something on the line, though. Failure to win would mean I would drop down a level. This might not necessarily be a bad thing, because I can't win the 3.75 as it's currently set up, but I could probably get another championship down a level. I'm starting to think my previous 3.75 win was a fluke, because ever since I went up to 4.0 and then back down, I haven't been playing well. Pretty much coincides with my ceasing regular workouts, strangely enough.

I wonder why on earth that is?

#1 song in this household right now?

You'd never guess.

Not in a million years.

Alice in Chains, Check my Brain. The opening dischord hits, Chloe goes nuts, Maya sings every word, and even Gabi is humming along with the chorus.

I just never really got into dressing grunge - I think I've always been grunge at heart.

That song kicks serious butt though - you should check it out if you haven't already.

Just back from Walmart - always an interesting place, even more so at 11 o'clock. Needed some TP...for my....well, if you remember Beavis and Butthead, you know the rest.

I'm not Cornholio though.

I'm definitely going to have to double check that this is my personal, and not my class blog.

Strange, hyper mood tonight, to say the least.

I'm gonna be up for hours (always am after late squash), so I may as well stream some consciousness. Haven't done it in a while.

I hope I'm not a person who complains about how busy I am too much. I think a lot of people are quite busy, with work, kids, etc. What good does complaining about it do? (Answer - if you're complaining to me, not much).

Empathy. A strangely difficult concept to pin down. My class is complaining about how they've had it "shoved down their throats", yet few seem able to tell what it is or how it applies to them. I asked them to write about a time they showed empathy; a few chose to write about some appalling behaviour towards less than favored teachers in their past. I can only thank goodness that I'm not disliked - I think my life could be rather miserable if so.

Forgot all about the dog - had let her outside when I got home. At least she wasn't barking at a skunk. And she really wasn't out there that long. Now she's whining for water. And you know what? She's a pretty low maintenance dog, I'm just a bit wiped out from an hour of running around the court. Water time.

I gotta say, now that report cards and her winter fair are over, it's super nice to have Gabi back on board full-time. Not that she ever wasn't, but it's more than fair to say she's been a little bit...distracted...by all she had going on. Welcome home, honey.

Maya is coming on strong in Grade 1. After a rocky start (multiple failed spelling tests, etc) her results have taken off lately. She just got her first perfect last week, and I can't believe how much her reading has improved. In the book she read me tonight, the only word she couldn't get was squeek. Very very happy. She's also happy because squash got moved a little later in the morning, and they're adding a girl to her class. She was thrilled. Nice change from nearly quitting last week.

I read an article about how Stephen King's new book, Under the Dome, was preselling on Amazon.com for $9. I thought it must be a typo, but no, it wasn't. Sure, it cost me $8.50 to ship it here, but considering the cheapest price I found was $24 here, still a good deal. Over 400 pages in, and I can't really say I care for it yet. A little bit like Tommyknockers, detailing what happens when a small town goes strange. My mom lent me Grisham's The Associate, and I started it tonight, and will probably finish it before I return to Chester's Mill. I guess I started to get into it a bit last night, as I read well past midnight.

Since I'm likely to do that again tonight, seeing as how it's already quite close, I foresee the need for some caffeine tomorrow.

In fact, I'm off to read now. Or maybe watch Heroes first - I'll decide when I stand up.

Now.

Friday afternoon Blahs

2009-11-21T12:15:00.002-05:00

It was last period Friday afternoon, we'd worked hard to finish our podcasts, they'd written a math quiz and assignment, and I was trying to teach them about Loyalists in the thirteen colonies.

No matter how far behind in the history curriculum we are, there was no way on earth anything I said was going to stick.

So we played a trivia challenge game for the last 30 minutes of the day. A lot more fun, they were all engaged, and we even learned a few things, albeit things like the Simpsons home address, etc.

So Maya, who has been doing the Jr squash program with me on Saturday mornings, has been talking about quitting all week. Since this is the last week of the current cycle, I was prepared to let her, albeit reluctantly, as we've invested money, she's pretty good, and she always comes home happy.

So I finally decided that if she wanted to quit after today's lesson, she could.

I was so happy (and relieved) when she decided to stay in.

At any rate, report cards are in for both of us, so the sense of relief around here is palpable. We're doing laundry, working on recovering the basement so it may actually be usable during the holidays, and getting ready to hit the Schwa in a few hours. Be nice to finally meet Cyrus, the newest schwa addition.

I was just about to head out last night to rake up the last few leaves and add em to the bags at the curb when the darn truck showed up. Never fails - I'd planned to do it on Thursday but the rain was pervasive - no chance at all, at least not a dry one.

George wound up coming over, and we caught up for a while, then polished off 3 of the 5 outstanding Scottsdale games. 2 to go, then I'm caught up - if it was still October, that is.

I feel like we're breathing easier for the first time in weeks. Weeks and weeks, actually.

It's kind of nice.

Letter to Santa

2009-11-17T17:36:00.001-05:00

Ah, the report card deadline is fast approaching.

Of course, that means it's time for my annual letter to Santa.

Needs

I continue to be a fortunate man. I have everything I need, and
really one can argue far more than I need.

Wants

A different story, as always.

I really think I'd like a blu-Ray player this year.
HBC Olympic clothing

Other stuff I can use

Double yellow dot squash balls
iTunes gift cards
Books

Other than that, I think I'm pretty good.

Oh yeah - a Cadillac cts-v. I've been really good this year.

Backseat Blogging

2009-11-15T22:05:00.002-05:00

Well, blogging has certainly taken a backseat for me lately. It happens, but I was going so strong for a while.

My kids are amazing.

I took Maya downtown today to see the Santa Claus Parade. We drove to Kennedy, took two subways to Queen's Park, and managed to stake out a spot on University, just south of Gerrard. We had a camp chair, and we set it up in one of those concrete elevated flower beds. We had to get there rather early for this, about 11:40 or so, and the parade didn't get to us until about 1:20. At that point, Maya and I had gone for some street meat and Doritos (health food day), I'd bought her some cotton candy, and the parade started with a bunch of clowns throwing candy.

This bunch of clowns included one particular young clown who was trying out his throwing arm. If I wasn't wearing glasses, I have a feeling this candy cane could well have been sticking out of my eyeball. I still have to check and see if he chipped my lens. At any rate, Maya and I had a great time, and I really wasn't looking forward to going - it was Gabriel who suggested taking the kids off our hands, and then backed out. Everything worked out, though.

Chloe is doing amazing - compared to Maya, she is so communicative and mischievous. My home theatre receiver will likely never be the same - I have no idea what combination of buttons she pushed to get the settings the way they are now...all the while looking at me and saying "No, No, No!" with sheer glee in her eyes. Her movement concerns are, for me at least, a thing of the past. She can get to just about anywhere she wants to, whenever she wants to.

She actually disappeared on us the other day - in the house. I was in the front, and Gabi was in the back, and Maya was back and forth, and I told Gabi that Chloe was coming her way. It was a few minutes before we realized she wasn't with either of us. She decided to play hide and seek in the front hallway - without telling anyone. She's a real sneaky little monkey - we didn't need half the babyproofing we had for Maya compared to how much we need it for Chloe. She's into absolutely everything, given the chance, and a climber to boot.

You wouldn't think a 20 month old could get on top of a piano, would you?

Gabi was a big part of running her winter fair at her school, culminating with a final week of hardly sleeping and rarely being home. We all went yesterday, and it was amazing - she pulled everything off very well - and I have to say, it'll be very nice to have her back. Today was definitely not her most energetic day ever, to say the least, but I've had a great time with the girls soloing.

However, my hat absolutely must go off to single parents. How you do this by yourselves on a full-time basis absolutely boggles my mind.

So we were all set to put the boat at the farm this weekend, and get it out of the driveway.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, they sold the farm. Do you freaking believe that one?

I'll be calling John tomorrow night to see if his offer is still good, otherwise I think my carport will be out of commission for the winter.

On the plus side, at least if another tree falls on it, I'll know about it sooner.

Work has been wild - but I'm pleased to say that either my class has started towards meeting my standards, or I've lowered them, not sure which. I think I'm finally ready to try a field trip with this group. Should be educational.

Hmmm...should I head to the 24 hour grocery store to get the dinner ingredients I was planning to get after bedtime, or should I just go to sleep myself now.....

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Pork bean stew

2009-11-11T19:18:00.001-05:00

2 pork tenderloins
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
4 carrots peeled and sliced
2 onions chopped in large pieces
3 celery stalks chopped
5 potatoes peeled and chopped
Rosemary to taste
5 pieces sundried tomatoes finely chopped
1 tetra pack low sodium chicken broth
1 can white beans

1. Brown the pork tenderloin (chopped into bite size pieces) together
with the onion and Italian salad dressing.
2. Place all ingredients except the beans in the crockpot, mix, and
cook on low for 8-10 hours.
3. In the last fifteen minutes, add the beans.

Enjoy!

Just wondering...

2009-10-24T22:28:00.001-04:00

How wise it is to take a 19 month old on a roadtrip?

I'm sitting a few hundred feet from the Niagara River, but I can't see
it or anything. Gabi and Maya are sleeping, and I'm anxiously
awaiting Chloe to join their ranks. She napped in the car on the way
back to the hotel so probably not anytime soon.

It took us over 4 hours to reach the border - traffic was terrible
beyond belief, along with a driving rainstorm. The border, however,
was wonderful. Only one car ahead of us.

Anyway, we're having a good weekend, although the Chloe is wearing us
out - I thought gabi was gonna break down in Target, and if you know
how much she loves target, you know that's really saying something.

We replaced most of the window coverings in the house this week,
including shutters in the front room. Not only do they look amazing,
but I can finally watch playoff baseball the way god intended. Should
I choose to, of course.

Best news of the week. My brother, who got me to bring the boat all
the way home so we could store it in the barn on Steeles, found out
that the barn at Steeles isn't available. Isn't that just frickinv
wonderful? I tried to stay calm, but I think I'm gonna haul it up to
Newmarket and leave it in his driveway.

It would have cost us some money to store it, but it would have been
done and over with. Now it's nearly November and I've got nwhere to
put the damn thing.

Anyone got any extra space?

Sent from Walt's iPhones

Wow...

2009-10-06T21:30:00.001-04:00

Wow...

Extra game, now extra innings. Unreal - really enjoying this Det-Min
game...whatever happens, this has been a true classic.

It kind of reflects what's happening to me as a ball fan. That Yankee
stadium experience this summer made me rethink things a bit. I mean,
I'll always love the Blue Jays...but it's gotten kind of hard lately.
Yankee Stadium and the whole New York experience kind of rocked my
world.

In short, I don't want to live anywhere else in the world - I just
want more real baseball fans in this city. I think they exist - game
1 of the WBC was an experience to rival any other games I've been to...

Man, Delmon Young...glad I traded him...not a smart play.

Work is kind of wild. I think things are coming together...but it
sure is an interesting bunch I've got.

Sent from Walt's iPhone.

A whole lotta everything going on

2009-09-26T12:46:00.002-04:00

Today, right now, is about the first real quiet time I've had this month.

Now, there have been some really good times, and no really bad ones, but it's just been a constant level of busy. Been a bit stressful, really, especially after such a relatively nice relaxing summer.

Maya has started piano lessons, gymnastics (and so has Chloe!) and squash lessons. Squash is a nice one for me, as I book the court next to her lesson and play with one of the other dads. I went to my first gymnastics this week, and my goodness. Chloe basically learned to walk on or around my birthday, and I still think gymnastics is a bit of a stretch for her. However, they didn't say no to our money, and at least she gets a solid hour of exercise and a guaranteed no problem bedtime. It was a bit of a stretch for me, too. I have to wash the shirt I was wearing ASAP, because man, was I sweating. Chasing her from side to side of that trampoline was a bit of an adventure to say the least. Only the balance beam was a total writeoff - the kid still has no real balance to speak of.

Last weekend was boys weekend, moved into September so that the water wouldn't be TOO cold and so that more people could come - October was getting a bit problematic. John, of course, was there - still Mr. Consistent. Scott made it up this year, and Dan was a first time participant. Disappointing lack of arrival from D, who had said he was going to come, and Terry, who ran into childcare troubles but I think still could have made it late Saturday and had a good time anyways.

So Dan and Scott came over after Maya's first squash lesson (she absolutely loved it, by the way) and we headed out to Pickering to pick up John. Our first stop was Wendy's, our 2nd was Leahy farm for some corn (good batch this time, unlike last time), followed by Young's Point variety, as Scott needed some mix. We got there, and quickly tore the cover off Blue, and headed out tubing. Only Scott and I wanted rides, as John was worried about his bad shoulder, and Dan doesn't enjoy it. I'll say this about John - the man can drive a boat. I haven't had a tube ride like that since I told Andrew he probably couldn't throw me back in Scugog. (He could, but it wasn't easy.)

Following that, we relaxed, had some beverages, a great steak dinner, played some cards, and eventually all drifted off to sleep. We were up for breakfast, and had quite a delay waiting to take Blue out of the water while we were looking for someone to unchain the boat launch ramp. Apparently people were sneaking their boats in and out at night and at dawn to avoid paying the $5. Sad, sad world, isn't it? The dock was a breeze, although someone who shall remain nameless (Dan) had driven a few new bolts into her that required us to take one piece out whole, which was easily the most difficult part of the whole operation.

After cleaning, we headed over to Martinwood, where I quickly remembered (it usually only takes a few holes) why I rarely play golf. It was a lovely day to be out there with my friends, but I really hate the game. I mean, I really hate it. Ok, I don't hate it, but it's very frustrating. Luckily, I only lost about half a dozen balls, including 3 on the first hole, so I guess I got better as I went along. When I told everyone that I shot a 117, they're like...oh...bad game. For a golfer like me on a difficult course like that, that's actually an awesome game. However, the course took a very long time to play, and adding that to the traffic we hit in Oshawa, we didn't get back to my place until after nine...ridiculous late. Next year we arrive on Friday, golf on Saturday and get back to spend at least part of Sunday's with our families.

School is kinda wild - with gym out of my schedule, I spend virtually my entire existence in my classroom. It's kinda lonely up there, and my group is a bit challenging. This is my third consecutive year with the same assignment - I think I'm ready for a change next year. It's also my fifth year at my school, which makes it a bit tough - I do love it there, the people I work with are great - but I said I wouldn't be anywhere more than five years again...so now I have to see what to do. The job postings may make it a moot point anyways. Only time will tell.

I really enjoyed going to curriculum night at Maya's school this week - it was fun being there purely as a parent, in comfortable clothes, rather than my usual tie. I also didn't want to be one of those parents bugging the teacher with incessant questions, so we made a fairly quick escape after Maya didn't seem to have anything else she wanted to show me. Gabi's lead-up to it was a bit crazy - things seem really wild for her at work this year - but she did fine.

One of my kids gave me a book this week that kind of shook me up a bit - The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. It opens with the murder/rape of the main character. While I recommend it highly, be prepared for a gut wrenching experience reading it. I'm having a hard time recommending books for my class this year - I've got some highly advanced readers who have read even more classics than I have - and yes, I have an honours degree in English, I know.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Random Rumblings

Wisconsin-Illinois Road Trip Part Deux

Neenah, Wisconsin

2011, looking back!

Fwd: Roberto Alomar (@Robbiealomar) replied to one of your Tweets!

Roberto Alomar @Robbiealomar replied to you:

Welcome to the Jungle!

Pinball Wizard

Slow start

Last cottage morning

Paranoid Android

Travellin'

A great vacation

Shopping realization

EPCOT

Auction Hunters

Review - 2011 Hyundai Elantra GL

Of Kitchens and Wardrobes

Letter to Lowes Canada

Car Maintenance

Perfect weather...again

Chilling by the fire

Episode VI : Return of the Blog

Hot Pursuit in the Pumpkin Patch

Starting with a bang!

A special playlist

Unwinding to the end...

Lots going on

Musings from the Mancave

The odyssey of the kitchen appliances

Breaking down the Break

Breaking March

Christmas morning?

Leading by Example

Family Day!

Awesome....

As those fingernails scratching on the hull

Little Blue Pills

Weekundus Interruptus

Chinese Broccoli, and other unexpected surprises

Merry Christmas

It's over????

Salsa

2010 in Review

22 years?????

Uxbridge

Merry Christmas!

Growing up

Vacation Bloggage

Emotional day

The proverbial dog

Buying a car?

A good month

Time flies

500th post

Uncle Bill

Life moves pretty fast

I hate waiting

Of cooking appliances

Thunder Rolls

Space Station

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

I live here now

Thank you!!!!

A long strange trip

21 minute post

Testing Dragon

Insane in the Brain

Blog neglect

Global News

Peking Chinese

Road tripping II

Whew...

Road Tripping

Building the bears

Oil leak

Rough Night

Night Photographs

NYTimes: Building a Better Teacher

Selling the Drama