Heading To The Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

I'm heading to the zoo on Thursday with Garrett's class. I'm afraid... very afraid...

At least we'll be able to say hi to Kara's Monkey Mom and Monkey Dad. We're trying to convince her that we picked her up at the monkey cage the last time we visited :)

Inside Garrett's Mouth

This comic over at Penny Arcade is likely what's going on in Garrett's mouth. Why will he never brush his teeth? Sigh.

Ghibli Minecraft

As a huge fan of Miyazaki's body of work and all of the excellent films that Studio Ghibli has put out over the years AND as someone who has spent a fair amount of time tinkering around in Minecraft, this just blows me away.



The sheer amount of time needed to make all of that architecture blows me away, not to mention the attention to detail for most of those sets. Lovely stuff.

Good Thing This Couch Is Comfy

Sooooo.... I picked up an iPad 2 today. I was heading home from a day of writing protocols in Kitchener and had seen that the Guelph Future Shop had them in stock. I figured I'd pop in just on the off chance that they had some and lo and behold, there were 3 left.

Now, I've been having my eye on an iPad 2 for some time. It basically did everything that I'd hoped the first iPad would do but didn't, plus I'd heard a lot of good things about the improved battery, faster processors, etc. Of course, finding one in stock was pretty much impossible and I was broke, so it was a moot point.

But we just got our tax returns back and it was a pretty hefty one this year, so I put aside enough to cover the cost of the iPad should I ever find one and put the rest towards paying off the basement and a few other bills. I just anticipated having a few more months of idly checking Best Buy and Future Shop stockrooms before I'd luck across one of the units!

Suffice it to say, I'm really enjoying the thing so far. Granted, I spent most of tonight setting it up and futzing about with the app layout and synching it with my phone data and such, but it is a very nice piece of tech. I've only just started to plumb the depths of the thing, but I'm shocked by how much content even something as simple as the Weather Network app has packed into it.

But Julie, on the other hand, is none too pleased with me (hence the lovely couch I may be sleeping on for the next while). Granted, I think she'll change her tune once she starts fiddling around with it and watching TV on it, etc. Right Julie? RIGHT?!

Garrett: Roughneck

After a few years of having minimal communication from Garrett's teacher, we were greated with a novella in his planner today. Unfortunately, it seems that Garrett's been a little rowdy on the playground.

He insists that he accidentally pushed a kid down who was walking backwards, blindfolded, while on roller skates, in a snowstorm... I'm trying to say that I'm not sure whether to believe it was an accident when the details shift around more than a stack of bowling balls in an earthquake.

Hopefully it's just your typical playground shenanigans and Garrett will keep his nose clean. He does tend to hang out with a lot of the meaner kids though, so I'm hoping they're not rubbing off on him. He's such a sweet lad :)

A Spoonful Of Yogurt

Kara came down with an ear infection last week and is now on some antibiotics to help get her back to her usual spunky self.

Unfortunately, the medicine tastes like liquid death with a pinch of distilled horror to spice it up. I thought Kara was exaggerating about it being disgusting until I tried a little drop that was on the counter and had to scrub my tongue down to the bone* with a chunk of pumice to get rid of the taste.

After almost having to do a restraint to force the medicine down her throat on Sunday, we've decided to take a different tack: bribery and disguise. The bribery thing is easy: she'll get a little Polly Pocket doll and/or outfit each day that she takes the medicine. She's also able to have one or two chocolate eggs from Easter, which is fine as we have tonnes of those lying around.

We're also mixing the medicine in with apple sauce or yogurt. It still tastes nasty, but it's somewhat diluted by the taste of the snack that it's mixed in and she is able to take a lot of swigs on her juice/water glass to help wash down the vile poison.

So far it's working, though Kara is still not a huge fan of medicine time. And I don't blame her!


* I know that tongues don't have bones :)

BLARF!

Kara is sick... again. She was sick on Thursday and now she's sick again. She hasn't had to throw up since about 4:30 or so, but man, the poor little thing!

Hopefully it's yet another 24-hour bug. At least she has a doctor's appointment tomorrow so we'll see what's going on one way or another.

VGL Wrap-Up

Well, Garrett was very impressed by Videogames Live the other night. The seats were awesome (front row, middle of the balcony) and there were a lot of great performances through the night. I was very impressed by Martin Leung (the videogame pianist) and blown away by the flute skills of Laura Intravia (aka Flute Link).

I'd love it if the show came back to the area again next year. There is a lot of stuff that is the same but they do have enough new content to warrant repeated viewings. And it's just a great concert regardless.

Also, the winner of the costume contest was a guy dressed up as a Lego minifig. The costume was amazing.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Grant!

I did send the guy a message but was out most of Friday, so in case he happens to stumble by here, happy birthday, little brother!

Now if only we could figure out why he keeps moving further and further away from the rest of his loving, caring family :)