Kara Fall Down, Go Boom!

So Kara fell down some steps at the park in Georgetown while at the babysitter's yesterday. Her leg was bruised up and she was favouring it somewhat last night from all accounts, but she was otherwise her usual crazy self. This morning, she was in tears if she put the slightest bit of weight on it and wouldn't even take a few steps across the room. Suffice it to say, it's a good thing we hauled her down to the hospital.



Spot the fracture!



She's fine now and aside from a few attempts to pull the cast off, she's in good spirits. She didn't really like it when we took the X-rays but she's a trooper. It's going to be tough keeping her off her foot though. She keeps trying to walk around despite the pain.

Anyway, we're loading up on a bunch of Disney cartoons for her to watch and hopefully that will distract her for a while.

Hey! Look Over There!

It has been an interesting time here in Acton with regards to strange sightings. I was pulling into my parking lot today and lo and behold, what's behind me but a horse. A big horse. All brown and horsey-like. Thankfully there was a person on top of the horse to direct it away from my car and back to the track next to us, but still. Not every day you have a horse in your parking lot.

And speaking of things not seen every day, I was driving through Acton yesterday and I spotted a strange car coming around the bend by Shoppers. I had to do a double-take, but yes, Virginia, that WAS the Google Earth Street View Camera Car!

I thought there had been some controversy about privacy or some such nonsense. Now I might find myself on Google Earth in the near future!



This isn't the car that I saw yesterday, but it looked exactly like it.

Awkward Question Time!

I tell ya, Garrett has been on a roll lately with his questions. He's also obsessed with learning about the human body which leads to some questions that are either profound or... delicate...

For instance, the theme of many of today's question were along the lines of this gem:

"Daddy, how do people make people?"

"Um... it's a long and involved process. I'll explain more when you're older."

He was kind of sad that he couldn't "see how the blood gets put onto the bones when you're being made". I explained that you couldn't see that part of the construction process because the babies are in their mommy's tummy. Then he wanted to know how babies get out of tummies. I think he's convinced that you're either pooped out or somehow pop out of your mother's belly button. You have to push hard because "babies have lots of bones inside them." Anything that lies under your skin is what is piquing that kid's curiosity of late.

Of course, he also has to try to deconstruct something as simple as Super Mario Bros. He really, REALLY wanted a straight answer about what was in the holes that Mario falls into. He wouldn't accept that you just die when you fall in the hole. SOMETHING is down there killing Mario and Luigi when they fall down. Now I want to know too!

Beartato!

If you're not following Nedroid comics, you need to. Why?

New Harrison story arc!

Poor guy. At least it's not as creepy as Beartato's journey into space... yet!

Libation Theology 101

I swear, today was a day when I needed to hit the LCBO something fierce. I spent more of my day dealing with stuff that was work related than I did during the 12+ hours I spent there yesterday... and it was my day off today. At least, it stressed me out for a lot longer than anything yesterday did :)

Thankfully it seems to all be resolved, but between minimal sleep this past week, an abundance of overly energetic kids and various things both work and condo board related coming crashing down around me, I'm frazzled tonight.

At least the kids were very well behaved today, unlike Wednesday's shenanigans. Rambunctious, sure, but not the demon-spawn that they were the other day. That said, I'm not taking them to Angel's Diner in Georgetown for a while. It's not their fault, it's just too pricey for the amount and quality of food, esp. compared to the very affordable and kid-centric meal we had at Smitty's a few weeks ago.

Anyway, the kids are in bed and I'm sitting down for once. Good thing I have some chilled coolers in the freezer, waiting for me to partake in them tonight!

Junior Scientist Garrett!

Garrett went down to the lab at Erindale today to participate in a study re: children and singing. He seemed to enjoy it and he even received a cool little certificate that proclaims to the world that he is a JUNIOR SCIENTIST!

And then the day got progressively worse from then on.

We swung by the mall to pick up the candy treats he had earned over the past couple of weeks for his responsibility chart (which is working, though it's no magic bullet). While we were there, we popped into the EB and I found a copy of Nintendogs for $15, which is about half the price of every other copy of the game I've ever seen. I had been looking for the game for Garrett to give him something that wasn't Mario or a variation thereof... and that wouldn't require a LOT of reading. So there I was, being the nice daddy and purchasing the game when I turn around at the sound of a loud THUMP.

Garrett had picked up Kara, spun her around and dropped her on her head. Sadly, that was probably the best behaved he was for the rest of the day. The trip to Bulk Barn consisted of him grabbing any loose munchies left on the top of the bins, he managed to flip his sister a second time while at soccer tonight and it was only through sheer force of will on my part (and Julie giving ME a time out) that he doesn't have a room with nothing in it but a bed and a pillow.

It was just a long, long day... for all of us. We ended the day on a positive note, with a brief Nintendogs session to help pick a puppy and teach it to sit. That was also where I felt Garrett got a taste of what I'd been through all day.

"Daddy, my puppy doesn't listen to me at alllllllllll."

"NOW YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE!"

Let's just hope that we all get a good night's sleep tonight and wake up happy and grinning like fools tomorrow.

Cineplex Air Conditioning!

There's nothing like a heat wave to give me the perfect excuse to go see a bunch of movies. In a weekend unprecedented since the arrival of the kids, I managed to see 3 movies since Friday night.

G.I. Joe was surprisingly good. I went in with very low expectations and it surpassed them all by a large margin. I also loved how they didn't resort to shakey-cam and quick cuts every 5 seconds during the big fights. It's one of the first action movies in years to let me actually see what is going on during a big fight scene. And the chase through Paris was awesome.

Ponyo was adorable and both of the kids loved it. Kara even sat through the whole thing with minimal squirming. The most astounding thing is that Julie came along and at least seemed to tolerate, if not enjoy the movie. I'll get her hooked on anime yet!

Last, but certainly not least, was District 9. I can't say much about it because it's better to be experienced than spoiled, but it more than lives up to the hype and was completely different from what I expected going in. And remember, smiles are less expensive than bullets, so don't shoot aliens.

Now to get ready to head back to work for my second overnight 12-hour in a row. It wouldn't be that bad except I have to go back to work tomorrow evening too... I hate it when I end up doing almost an entire week's worth of shifts in the first two days of the week... and have to keep going back for the rest of the week.

Spot The Spider

I love this slideshow feature on Picasa's web albums. I wish I'd known about it earlier.

Here is a slideshow of a bunch of pictures from our trip to Wings Of Paradise butterfly conservatory near Cambridge yesterday. The kids really enjoyed the day and Garrett's new pet tarantula goes with him everywhere. The only downside of the day? Finding out the hard way that Mongolian Grill in Cambridge is closed down :(

Contrarian.kara

So today was a delightful day with the kids. By which I mean, Kara basically refused to eat all day, did the exact opposite of almost everything I asked her to do and also destroyed another one of her books after a good week of abiding by the terms of her parole (from the library).

Garrett wasn't as bad, though he did end up falling off the top of the playset in the backyard and moaned and groaned until a fudgecicle cured him of his ills. At least he had a legitimate reason to be in a funk.

We also went to the fire hall for our yearly visit and I got to be Sparky The Fire Dog. Of course, I had to do this on the HOTTEST DAY OF THE SUMMER. Even with the A/C blasting in the hall, I was dripping with sweat by the time I took the suit off. The lenses of the mask were fogged up by the time I got to the front of the room and I couldn't see a thing the entire time. Woo.

I'd blame Kara's mood on her traumatic experience with Sparky (she was supposedly shaking with fright the entire time... though a giant dog coupled with the fact that her dad was nowhere to be seen could explain a lot) except she'd already been deep into negative territory on the attitude bar graph before we even made it to the fire hall.

At least I get to go to work tomorrow! It's so hot here I've spent the evening hunkered down in the basement playing the PS2!

Talkin' To The Prez

For those who care, I ended up digging through my old e-mails and found the contact info for the old president of Getgames.ca. I fired off an e-mail on Wednesday or so and figured I'd never hear anything... so imagine my surprise when I actually got a response from the guy!

I'm going to see if he can make some real assurances that I won't be charged for these missing games AND that I won't have to go through the kind of 'Dog The Bounty Hunter' shenanigans to track these people down again if I have a simple question. If he can sufficiently mollify me, I might resubscribe again... I'll keep you posted... all 2 of you who care :)

Sayonara, Getgames.ca!

I cancelled my subscription to my online game rental guys. I checked to see what else they sent me since I hadn't recieved anything from them besides Black a few weeks ago. They hadn't sent me anything else. I'm paying for 2 games at a time and it has been at least 2 weeks that I've only had one.

This was the final straw with these clowns. I have been with them for about 4-5 years since they first started the service and the service has gone from incredibly prompt to completely absent over the past year or so. I used to get e-mails back within minutes from the president himself. Now I get nothing at all except a monthly charge on my credit card.

Well, enough's enough. I canceled my subscription this morning. They claim I have 4-5 games out, despite the fact that I'd already dealt with them about the games that went missing on the way back to them, either through Canada Post's errors or their own. I'm not paying for them, that's for sure, and so help me if they attempt to charge my credit card for the missing games.

I'll be keeping an eye on this and if there are any further charges from them, I'm dropping the Better Business Bureau on them. I wonder if I can call Visa and get them to make sure that no further charges go out to these guys.

The sad thing is that I would have been happy to stick with the service if they had just replied to even one of the many e-mails I've sent them over the past year or so since the management changed. The utter lack of communication is what sealed the deal.

I'm interested in trying out Gameaccess.ca at some point in the future. I've heard decent things about them and they have a system where you can buy the games you rent for a much reduced price, which is something I've wished that Getgames would have implemented. Sigh.