Sunday, March 29, 2009

Pool Table Clearance!

We're starting to get desperate here. We have pretty much cleaned out our storage unit except for the pool table. We were trying to sell it or get a charitable donation receipt for the amount of a month's storage, but we've got less than a week now before we're out and we still have no takers.

If you know anyone who would like a 4' x 8' pool table (not slate) that is in pretty good shape, complete with pool cues, billiard & snooker balls and a score board, let us know ASAP and we can work something out.

The main thing is that it's out of the storage unit by Saturday.

Sigh. I wish we had a room big enough for the table. Alas.

The Golden Goose-Egg... OF DOOM!

This has been a long weekend. One of those weekends where you look forward to going to work so that you can actually get a chance to relax.

I'd worked the overnight shift on Friday night so I spent most of Saturday morning napping that off, followed by a few trips to the storage unit to unload everything except the pool table, my skis and about one load of ladders and such. Right after that got finished, we went out to Guelph to see Monsters Vs. Aliens in 3D and wrapped up the evening with a viewing of Quantum Of Solace, which Julie seemed to enjoy until she fell asleep.

This was a long day as it was, what with the craziness of Saturday behind us, as we had the Annual Meeting at church and didn't end up getting home until about 2:30-3pm today. I'd barely changed into my PJ's and had a chance to flake out on my bed for a few minutes when Julie started calling for me to get downstairs right now.

It turns out that Garrett & Kara decided to recreate Cirque Du Soleil or some such nonsense. Kara had climbed up onto her squishy Backyardigans chair which was perched on top of the exersaucer... and then did a face plant onto the floor.

After watching her for a few minutes, it was decided that the giant goose-egg on her forehead was bigger than anything we'd ever seen, so a trip to the ER ensued. I just got home after 2 1/2 hours and thankfully all is well. She still has a big lump on her noggin but she was her old self shortly after we got done with registering at the nurses' station.

Kara's going to have a bunch of trips to the hospital if her climbing ways continue. I caught her standing on the top of back of the couch the other day and she likes to climb out of her high chair and stand on the tray.

Sigh.

Friday, March 27, 2009

G to the O to the T to the R

As we ventured forth into the sunny morning air, we heard a honking noise coming from above. The kids were looking everywhere to see where the goose was only to find it coming from our roof!

I have no idea how the goose landed on our roof. It's not terribly conducive to weathered fowl landings. It also looked rather ticked to be stuck up there. Eventually it flapped away and honked its way into the swamp, but Kara was pretty freaked out to see such a large bird fly pretty close to her head.

Stupid goose on the roof.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Now That's Service!

I don't think I actually posted anything about this before, but I ran into some trouble with the merchandise I bought at the Videogames Live concert last week or so. It turns out that they billed my credit card in US dollars instead of Canadian... And those shirts weren't cheap to begin with!

Suffice it to say, I wasn't impressed when I found out but I'm shocked at how great they were at giving me my money back. I just sent an e-mail to them and less than a week later I had a cheque for the difference in my hands and back in the bank account where it belonged.

It's kind of sad that I was so geared up to have to bang my head against the wall in frustration when I found out about this. Both Visa and the Tallaricos were stand-up in reconciling this snafu. The fact that this is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to customer service is kind of sad.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Long Weekend

This was a very long weekend for us. Not that we got extra time off work or anything. It just felt very long.

Punk kids!

Anyway, I don't know why I was posting this except to show you THIS!

Friday, March 20, 2009

A Friday Night Funny

I leave you to your weekend with what I hope is a giant grin.

Enjoy.

Big March Break Outing #3

I didn't take the camera today, but we made it over to Mountsberg for the Maple Syrup Festival. It was a very nice day, albeit somewhat cold at times. We had giant pancakes and syrup, got to try some fresh maple syrup taffy and went for a horse-drawn wagon ride through the sugar bush. I think this was either the third or fourth time I've taken Garrett to the Syrup Festival and it's always fun. The sad thing is that I think it was the thing that cost me the most money this March Break!

Tomorrow I get to go to work and relax :)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Big 33

So this was a pretty nice birthday, I have to say. I think I've finally become old, as I didn't really expect any great fanfare for my birthday and it more or less felt like any other day... and that was fine!

Sigh.

We did our outing this morning and after a brief respite this afternoon, we met up with Julie for a yummy dinner at Mexicali Rosa's in Milton. I got a Big-As-Your-Head burrito stuffed with my personal favourite, Texas Red Chili and I ate about half of it.

Don't tell Julie's grandparents, but they bought me a game for my DS. Thanks Bruce & Belle!

Tomorrow I get my final present: The final episode of Battlestar Galactica. As long as there are mucho explosianos, I'll be happy as a cephalopod on a whale.

Big March Break Outing #2

The stars aligned, Venus was in the 6th quarter and the maps were double checked. Today was the day we were able to actually find the Royal Botanical Gardens and see the giant bug exhibit!

I will put the pictures up and rather than put my pithy comments under each of them, I'll just transcribe Kara's reaction to each photo.


"No! NOOOOOOOO!"


"ButtFly."


"Tatch Tatch... Ooooo.... NOOOOOOOO!"
Kara hides her eyes and looks away from the screen.



"Ooooh. NOOOO!"


"Woah! Oooh Oooh! Bug! NOOOOOO!"


"Oooh! Fishies! FISHIES!"
Big grin ensues.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Big March Break Outing #1

Stupid Hamilton.

We went down Hamilton way to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens. Due to the fact that it is nigh impossible to find your way around the rats warren that is the Greater Hamilton Area (coupled with the fact that no street signs seem to exist around the Gardens) we took several wrong turns and ended up at the Hamilton International Airport of all places.



All was not lost. It turns out that right next to the airport is the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.



We decided to have a look at the planes instead of the bugs today and the kids actually had a blast. We spent some time in the gallery which had lots of models and displays about aviation in wartime.



After that, we went out into the hanger, which blew Garrett's mind.



What I found particularly cool about the museum is the fact that not only do they have this huge hanger full of vintage (and not so vintage) fighters and bombers, the museum also functions as a working restoration workshop, with many of the planes being serviced and restored while on display.



The kids even got to climb into the cockpit of one of the planes, which I think they enjoyed the most of everything we did today.



So there we go. We went from being lost and kind of mad that we couldn't find our intended destination to finding a really interesting museum full of awesome aircraft. They even got to pose in front of a helicopter and check out a cool model of an aircraft carrier!





We're going to head back down Hamilton way tomorrow to try to find the Royal Botanical Gardens. This time I know exactly where I have to go!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Spellcheque, Please!

Ok. Can someone tell me if relabeling the Sci Fi network as "SyFy" makes it less geeky?

Yet another bastion of nerddom falls before the corporate marketing tools who want to take what is a niche product and smear it all over the mainstream. TechTV used to be good when it had, you know, TECH programs. Now it just has 1-2 videogame shows and a bunch of shows about eating contests and various other non-nerdy pursuits.

Oh well...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

A Social Experiment

We were invited out for dinner with one of Garrett's friend's parents last night. Having nothing better to do, we decided to go!

Of course, this is one of the first times in a LONG time that we were invited out to someone's house for dinner who wasn't a family member or one of my friends, so I wasn't sure what we should bring. Most of the time it's more of a matter of what videogame or peripheral we should take.

I headed over to get a bottle of wine, since I hear that's what all of the cool kids drink these days. Whilst wandering the aisles at the LCBO, I stumbled upon a bottle of hooch that I could not pass up.

We had a delightful bottle of Cat's Pee On A Gooseberry Bush. The label states that it has has a full gooseberry aroma and a hint of cat. I didn't taste the cat, so that's good. If nothing else, it made for a pretty amusing conversation around the dinner table.

Yup, that's me. Classy all the way!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

VGL: The After Show

I just got back from the Videogames Live show and man oh man... what a phenomenal concert. It was great to hear a live symphony orchestra play so many great pieces of game music and it was a lot of fun to boot. They even played the Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross music, which was their second time ever playing it in concert and it was amazing.

They even had Martin Leung, who played some Super Mario tunes and Final Fantasy music on the piano and was incredible to see. They did the blindfold trick where he plays a rather complex piece with a blindfold on, but if you're as good as he is, you'd better not be looking at the keys when you're playing anyway. That said, it's a good parlour trick :)

Here's a clip from one of the other VGL shows in the past to give an example of what we experienced, box and soldier included...



My only regret is that I've listened to a LOT of arranged game music over the years so it wasn't as fresh as it could have been for someone who has only heard the bleeps and bloops of a Ms. Pac-Man game or the Super Mario theme. It was still great and worth every penny. We're already planning on going again next year if it's back in the area.

Oh, and the YOUTH choir that supported the symphony? My lord, were they ever impressive.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Less QQ, More Pew Pew

To paraphrase Baljeet from Phineas & Ferb, "I'm going to the concert! I'm going to the concert!"

I'll be in the great city of Kitchener (that's probably the first and last time I'll ever use the words great and Kitchener in the same sentence) tonight for the Video Games Live concert at CENTRE In The Square. Come down and laugh at the nerds while we soak up some 'culture' that isn't in a petri dish.

Can't wait! I even have my Megaman t-shirt and everything!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Best Laundry Tag Ever

I saw this over on Failblog tonight and had to post it hereabouts.



It's funny because it's true :)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

He's Just A Little Gigalo...

One last Garrett story and I'll go to bed (before I have to stay up all night).

I was giving Garrett a good-night kiss at bedtime and, as he is wont to do, he stuck out his tongue. He did this a couple of times before giving me a nice chaste kiss. He then informed me that he didn't stick his tongue out because he was trying to burp on me.

What a charmer.

I told him that he'd better not do that if he ever wants to have a girlfriend, at which point he said,

"Faith is my girlfriend."

Yesterday he came home from school with what he said was an invitation from another girl at school to have a sleepover at our house. Great. He's got a girlfriend at school and other girls are inviting themselves over to our house for sleepovers. And he's not even 5!!!

So it begins...

Vitamin C

Garrett was asking us what one hundred was yesterday, so we informed him that it was the number after ninety-nine. He then informed us that he could count to twenty.

Well, that meant the gloves were off. We told him that one hundred is a lot bigger than twenty so he decided to start counting to one hundred.

I'm proud to say that he made it there with minimal prompting, though it took him a while to get the hang of the nomenclature on the x10 numbers. That said, it was kind of funny when he got to eighty and declared that eighty has an eight in it. It might take him a while to get there, but he'll figure things out eventually.

Now if only I could convince him to count to a google...

Something Strange In My Neighbourhood

This day has been just plain weird.

It started with Julie telling me, at 6:20am or so, that the power had gone out 13 minutes earlier (at least, according to the flashing clocks elsewhere in the house). The power seemed to be working just fine, so I got up and hopped in the shower. Just as I was getting out, bam. No lights. So that was delightful.

We all got dressed by flashlight and I stumbled downstairs and out the door to make my way into work. I had 10 minutes before I had to be at work and it takes a maximum of 5 minutes to get to work, so I figured I'd start my day off with a cup of coffee from Tim's if the power wasn't out everywhere else in Acton.

Thankfully it wasn't, so I made my way into the drive-through and waited... and waited... and waited...

I don't know what the guy at the front of the line had ordered or why it took so long to either pay for it or have it made for him, but I must have sat there for a good 3-4 minutes just waiting for the cars to move up one length. Sadly, I was pretty much committed to the line at this point and couldn't have escaped if I wanted to. Grrr...

So I got my coffee with about 4 minutes to spare to get to work. No biggie, I thought. I can still make it.

Then I got to the intersection in the middle of town. I was starting to call down the wrath of God on the idiot who was half-blocking the turn lane until I realized that there was a car with 4-way flashers on. There was also a truck that was basically blocking the intersection from the opposite direction, so I figured there must have been an accident or something and I'd have to find another route to work.

Again, no biggie, but here's where it gets weird.

As I went past the intersection, I looked over to see about the accident but I didn't notice any cars banged up or anything. What I did see was even stranger. A lady was lying face down in the middle of the north-bound lane. There were two guys next to her wearing bright flourescent yellow jackets, so I assume the proper authorities were involved, but I don't recall seeing an ambulance or cruiser or anything indicating what the heck was going on.

Was she dead? Asleep? Drunk? Did a car hit her while she crossed the intersection and tossed her a few yards down the road? Did she trip on her shoelace?

I have no idea, but I'm assuming that it'll be a pretty splashy front-page story in the local paper tomorrow. Supposedly there was yellow caution tape up when Julie drove through there with the kids about 20-30 minutes after I'd gone past, so Garrett got to quiz Mommy about what the tape was doing on the road.

Strange stuff...

Of course, this basically set the tone for the rest of the day. There's some super-bug going around at work, so half of the staff were calling in sick and to top things off, I just finished working a 12 hour shift and I have to go back in at 11pm to cover the overnight shift. Hooray for lack of sleep!

The only upside is that I can basically rest and recuperate tomorrow and be rarin' to go for the concert on Friday night! WOO!!!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Delicious!

I think I have my meals planned for the next few months thanks to this delightful site. Funeral notices will be issued once I've made my way through the first page or two of 'food'.

If nothing else, I've found my birthday cake!



Meat Cake

Meatloaf with potatoes and ketchup for icing.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Kara: Television Critic

Kara was having a freak-out tonight at bedtime. Nothing was calming her down.

Not stories.

Not hugs.

Not soothing music.

Nothing.

In frustration, I turned on the TV and flipped to Fox so I could see if the Nascar race was on since I wanted to make sure I could watch Simpsons tonight. Instead of Nascar, they were showing Hole In The Wall.

All of the sudden, Kara stopped crying and stared at the TV. She was transfixed by the silly people in silver jumpsuits getting knocked into the pool by a giant wall of styrofoam. Within minutes she was laughing at the TV and then said, "That's funny."

We're getting pretty impressed by her vocabulary of late. She'll just start saying things that are either words we've never heard her use or nearly complete sentences (or at least declarative statements).

Oh, they grow up so fast...

Of course, by watching Hole In The Wall, I got off on a dissertation about how the Japanese versions of these crazy game shows are always better than the Americanized versions, which led to me trying to explain how awesome a North American version of Quiet Library could be if done right. Julie just gave me a funny look and Kara laughed at the people in the pool some more...

Sunday, March 08, 2009

A Fundamentally Deep Post

This is a very spiffy illustration of scale and how things look when you get down the nanomolecular level. Yes, I just made up the term nanomolecular. Nobel, send the check here.

Seriously though, it's a pretty cool way to visualize how things on a very small scale look when magnified. I've dug down most of the way to the bottom of the car headlight and it's fascinating.

Make sure you click on the british flag though.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Monsters and Their Rescuers

Garrett said that he's really looking forward to the episode of Wonderpets where they go to a haunted house to rescue a zombie. Once they do that, they'll take him back to his daddy, who happens to be a vampire.

I shudder to think about what the condition of the celery would be...

Day of Dreams

I have the day off tomorrow (today?) since I'll be doing the overnight shift on Thursday. Since the kids would be at home all day, I got to thinking about what we could do as the Early Years Center isn't open on Thursdays and I'll be damned if I'm going to stay home all day while the kids go crazy.

So, while I was at work tonight, I came up with a brilliant plan which would see us out of the house for a large chunk of the day, seeing wonderous sights and experiencing life in ways unbeknownst to mere mortals.

Then I walked in the door and remembered that Garrett has school on Thursdays, which effectively ended my rapturous reverie and dashed my plans upon the rocks of Disappointment Bay.

I guess Kara & I will just head over to the comic shop in the morning and wait for the bus to come home in the afternoon. Sigh...

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

RUtR Winner's Circle Update #8

Brock: 1 Timmies: 17

I think I'm actually paying for other people's prizes this year. This is probably the worst year for my wins in a long time. For the past couple of years, I was getting a winning rim for at least every 2-3 coffees. Sigh.

I am counting the hot chocolates I get for Garrett in my tally. I'm not THAT jazzed up on caffeine. He was telling me today that the hot chocolate melted the ice in his tummy... the ice that he was eating while he was playing outside at school. Urk...

Monday, March 02, 2009

RUtR Winner's Circle Update #7

Brock: 1 Timmies: 13

Grr. If I don't get another winning rim soon, I'm going to be sad. My win percentage is so low now it's not even worth calculating.