G'Day, Officer

That being said, Garrett almost didn't survive this next bit of drama.

So this afternoon, Garrett was supposed to be out playing in the front yard with his friend. After a half an hour, I go to check on him. I see his friend playing in the front yard. No sign of him anywhere.

"Where is he?" I ask.

"I dunno," is the reply.

He isn't at the park. He isn't hiding in the bushes where the kids usually play. He's not behind the houses by the park. He hasn't come home a different way while I was out looking for him. He's not anywhere that I can see where he would normally play. I'm starting to get a little panicked at this point, esp. since his other friend isn't answering the door.

Just as I'm about to get REALLY worried, he comes sauntering across the parking lot from parts unknown, looking all innocent and saying, "Hi daddy!"

"GET HOME... NOW!" is my only response. As we're just about to round the side of the house into our front parking lot, I point at the three cop cars parked in front of our house and say, "We were so worried about you that we had the police here to help us find you."

He scurried into the house, hanging his head in shame, knowing that he was in big trouble. I, on the other hand, nodded to the officers, who were actually just parking in the empty spots in front of my house while they took care of something a few houses down. They smiled back because they knew I'd just pulled one over on him.

Suffice it to say, Garrett now knows that it is VERY important to let us know where he is at all times OR ELSE THE AUTHORITIES WILL BE CONTACTED!

Oh, and I also found a toy that he really wanted on sale in a clearance bin this evening while I was out. I have stashed it in his room in such a place that he'll only find it if he actually does a proper job of cleaning his room. I'm not going to say anything about it except to remind him that his room is pretty messy.

Now to wait while the Parent Of The Year awards roll in.

Busy March Break (So Far)

We're two days done of March Break and I'm pooped. At least I don't have anything too crazy planned for the rest of the week.

Yesterday the whole family went down to Toronto to visit the CN Tower and wander aimlessly for a while. Kara was super excited as it was her first subway ride and first time up the tower, while Garrett was the grizzled veteran who compared everything to the good ol' days of last year when he got to go with his cousin instead of his stinky sister.

But a good time was had by all and we managed not to plunge to our deaths when we stepped out onto the glass floor a few times.

We also visited the Eaton's Center which has both changed completely and stayed almost exactly the same since I was there last. All I can say about TEC and Yorkdale Mall is that there are FAAAAR too many clothing stores and not nearly enough toy and game stores. Sigh.

I had my 3DS with me for the day and I clocked in almost 13000 steps for the day (which is a fair sight more than my usual 3-4000 per day).

Today was a bit more relaxed, though not without some drama. After walking up to the garage to get my car (it was getting tested for Drive Clean), we drove down to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton. Of course, we had to stop at Pickard's Peanuts on the way (yum) and then we wandered around the hanger for a couple of hours before heading home.

The kids were hurting themselves a bunch today though. Garrett managed to slice his finger on one of the cockpits and also whacked himself in the mouth with a flight control stick in the simulator (don't ask me how he managed to do that). Kara somehow got bashed in the face when they were outside playing 'Fighter Planes' on the runway in front of the museum. Sigh. But both survived.

Tomorrow we're going to build Lego for the library Lego contest and maybe go watch a movie in the afternoon. I'm going to try to rest my aching ankles for a bit!

Movin' On Up

Who's got two thumbs and a new manager position?

THIS GUY!

I had the second interview for the temporary program manager postion today and it went rather well. Before I'd gone in, I'd basically decided that whatever happened, it was a win/win situation. I'd either get the job and open up opportunities and new challenges for at least the next few months OR I wouldn't get it and would be able to go back to my old program and get back to work doing the things I've had on hold since last year.

Well, seems that it's opportunity time! I got the call less than an hour after the interview and am starting in the new role ASAP.

The strange little twist is that in order to keep my hours up, I'm also going to be doing my current job (though only for a fraction of the hours per week) in addition to the manager job. This should keep things quite interesting. In effect, I'm running one house and am second in command in another house. Hopefully my brain won't fracture from the cognitive dissonance and recreate the scene from Scanners!

Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishing from people over the last little bit. This has been an absolutely surreal experience for me as I went from almost not bothering to apply to landing the job in the space of a week. Just imagine how I'll do if I apply for a job I actually want :)

No Fail State

So I'm experiencing something of an existential quandary at the moment. People at work have been bugging me to apply for manager positions when they come up, so I finally pulled the trigger recently when a temporary one was posted in the area.

Today I had the first interview for the position. Now, keep in mind that I don't really want to get the job, though I also think that there are several reasons why it would be a good move for me. If nothing else, the timing stinks as I'm just about to return to 'my' program after being off at another location for the past 7 months.

Plus the number of hours for the position aren't really going to work as far as my income situation goes. I'd basically be taking a pay cut of half my pay, which would be a REALLY bad idea right now.

I did have a great interview today though. It has been about 7 years or so since I last interviewed for the manager position and I think that because I went into the interview today not caring about the results, I was much more relaxed and natural during the process.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess), I just got a call back for a second interview next week. ARG! I mean, I thought I threw up enough red flags during the interview that they'd go with someone else. I think I actually said, "If you've got someone else coming who really wants the job, give it to them!"

So much for subtlety. I need a new strategy for Monday so that they'll have no option but to hire a different candidate :)

All of that aside, if they can fix the hours so I don't lose pay (or at least, only lose a little bit), I kind of DO want to get the job so that I can get the managerial experience... ARG!

Don't Call Us

Seriously, don't call us. Our incoming calls aren't working for some reason. We can call out and the internet is working, but any incoming calls just cause the line to blip once and then that's it. Static.

Odd...

Anyway, Bell will be coming to fix them... on Monday... if we're lucky. Sigh.

Getting My Name In A Game

If you have been following game news this week, you'll be familiar with the Double Fine Kickstarter project. It basically boils down to one mad genius (Tim Schaefer) who wants to make an old-school point & click adventure game. The thing is, nobody makes these kinds of games anymore, at least not here in North America, so despite being one of the best adventure game designers alive, Schaefer just can't find a publisher to back him.

So he put out the call on Kickstarter to raise money from fans to the tune of $400000 by mid March. After 24 hours they've already raised over a million dollars and with 32 days to go, they're closing in on $1.5 million!

Given my love of the genre and the guys making it, I tossed a few bucks their way. Whenever it comes out, I'll be reading the credits since my name's going to be in there as a patron of the arts :)

Plague House

It has been a delightful time here over the past week. A norovirus was making the rounds at the kids' school and while Garrett was spared most of the brunt of the germ, Kara was down for the count for almost a week.

Thankfully they're both more or less back to fighting trim, but it wasn't a terribly fun week for kids or parents in Acton (and we seemed to get off easy compared to some of the families around here!)

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!

Garrett & I spent the day in downtown Toronto at Monster Jam. We got to the Skydome at around 10:30am and the line was already around the building. After a relatively short wait in the cold, we went in to look at the trucks and get a picture taken with the driver of Grave Digger.



We had an absolute blast today. There were crashes, there was at least one truck that fell apart while jumping over cars and to top things off, the Canadians won the Quad race against the Americans! Woo!

The only thing missing was Truckasaurus. Maybe next time...

Ninja, Clean You Room!

I think that this will be my new parenting strategy. Garrett is actually getting much better at cleaning his room and this should put him over the top.



Now to see if I can convince Kara about how awesome (and tidy) female ninjas are.