April Pukes!

I've been reeling from a cold or flu or ebola outbreak for the past few days, though it's probably a combination of utter exhaustion from last weekend coupled with the GI bug that has been making the rounds in Halton Hills. I've made it into work for a few hours the last two days but haven't managed to work a full shift. Heck, I slept for about 12 hours on Monday night, so I know something wasn't right.

Well, it looks like I'm no longer alone in my sickitude.

I woke up this morning at around 5:30 to Julie calling me over to Kara's room to investigate whether the stuff Kara had vomited was blood or applesauce. Thankfully it was just the purple applesauce she had for dessert last night at supper, but unthankfully, she hasn't been able to keep down as much as a sip of juice since then. It's a good thing I'm still feeling like every joint in my body has been run over by a truck and that I was planning on calling in sick today!

We knew something was up when the babysitter yesterday said that Kara had been pretty quiet all day long. That's definately not like her.

No April Fool's gags for me today, aside from trying to suppress various gag reflexes around Casa Del Wager.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 :)

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.

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!

The Secret To Irish Stew

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Happy St. Patty's Day!

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...

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!

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.

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!

Best Laundry Tag Ever

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



It's funny because it's true :)

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!!!

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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.

Student Of The Month!

Garrett was named the Tribes Student Of The Month today and honoured in an assembly before the entire school today (along with winners from the other classes). I'd have pictures to show you, but as usual, Garrett got stagefright. He's the most exuberant guy around 99% of the time but put him in front of a crowd and he breaks down in tears.

Poor fella. He did get a celebratory hot chocolate afterwards though. It's just a shame I couldn't have any shots of him in front of the school. I wonder if he would have been fine if he hadn't seen me (or had known about the award).

Oh well. There's always next time!

RUtR Winner's Circle Update #6

Brock: 1 Timmies: 8

11.1% win rate. Sigh.

Grr... I thought at least one of my many cups of coffee today would garner a winner, but noooo...

RUtR Winner's Circle Update #5

Brock: 1 Timmies: 4

Winning percentage is now at 20%. Sigh.

In other news, I was up at 3:45 or some such ungodly hour this morning hugging the toilet in the ensuite and trying not to die. Then Kara woke up and was screaming like a banshee. A tiny, garlic-filled banshee. I think our babysitter gave her something with garlic in it and it really didn't agree with her.

At least the vampires stayed away.

Thankfully the kids were in a pretty good mood after the obligatory freak-out at bedtime (my mom called it the arsenic hour... how apropos...) and all is well in the house of Wager. I got a big burst of energy around 7 or so tonight but I'm tired now. That's what getting up at 3:45am will do to you!

RUtR Winner's Circle Update #4

Brock: 1 Timmies: 3

Grr. 25% win rate now. At least it started out nicely.

I think I'm getting what the kids had. My tummy has been dancing the watuzi all day so I decided to come home around 1:30 just to see if it'll pass. Stupid flu.

I'll leave you with this funny video to encapsulate my mental state...

RUtR Winner's Circle Update #3

Brock: 1 Timmies: 2

My win percentage has dropped to 33.3% Grr. I should have just stuck with that first coffee and guaranteed myself a 100% winning streak.

By the way, Kara's still sick and tired... or at least tired. Who wants to place bets on who will get sick next: Julie or me?

RUtR Winner's Circle Update #2

Brock: 1 Tims: 1

I used my free coffee tonight to get an X-Large coffee and all I saw were the cursed S.V.P.

Oh well. 50% win rate is pretty good this early in the contest. Last year had a pretty high return on investment, as did the year earlier. We'll see how this year goes.

BLARF Pt. 2

Well, whatever Garrett had on the weekend is making the rounds. Kara was boo-bopping around at the Early Years Center this morning but near the end of our stay there, she was climbing up on my lap and laying her head on my shoulder. That wasn't like her at all, so I figured she was just tired.

She ended up sleeping for a good 2 1/2 hours this afternoon, which was a vast increase in nap time from her usual NOTHING. When she came downstairs, she just sat on my lap for a bit while I was playing Noby Noby Boy which culminated in her spewing her lunch all over the footstool in the living room.

Sigh. I got her cleaned up and she sat in her high chair for a good hour while we watched Kung Fu Panda but the glass of ginger ale I gave her came right back up. Looks like someone isn't going to be eating any quiche for supper!

Of course, this now begs the question as to when either Julie or myself will get this bug. The onset is so sudden it's hard to gauge when it's coming until too late.

And can someone explain to me why toddler puke smells just like cottage cheese? Gack...

RUtR Winner's Circle Update #1

One coffee purchased - One coffee won!

That's not a bad way to start the contest. There were quite a few winners at the EYC this morning. I believe the tally was 3 coffees and a muffin so far, plus my winning cup. Not too shabby.

This Is The Day That The Tim Has Made!

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano or the leaves turning colour in the fall, so too does another annual tradition sneak up and enthrall the population of our fair country.

Yes friends and family members, today is the day.

It's Rrrrrrrroll Up The Rrrrrim time! WOOOOO!

I didn't think it would be possible to have MORE coffee in my system, but we're about to push the boundaries, folks! Now to figure out where I left my Rim Roller.

He's Gonna Be Ok!

Garrett seems to have survived his encounter with the Acton Ebola strain just fine. He was back to his old self today, though he didn't eat a lot and I think he still threw up a bit in the morning while I was at work. That said, the fever broke sometime overnight and he was being as lippy as usual.

And we'll probably be able to save Kara's hand. The rest of her, we're not so sure about, but her hand will be fine :) She was 'playing' with Garrett's Gameboy tonight before bed and ended up clonking him in the middle of the forehead with it. Garrett was not amused.

Sigh... Kids these days.

BLARF!

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. I was really busy all week with work and today was, well, fun isn't quite the word I'd use to describe it.

Kara burnt her knuckles on the fireplace this past Monday (Happy Family Day!) but they've scabbed over nicely and aside from a bit of owies shortly after the fact, she has been toodling around as per normal. They still look gross though, and that's coming from me.

Garrett came down with something fierce today. He was perfectly fine this morning while we were out at the Early Years Center but after we got home, he started complaining about his head hurting. He had a bit of soup for lunch and then proceeded to puke it all over our (free) green chair. Sigh. He slept most of the afternoon but was gung-ho and ready to head to Swiss Chalet for supper. We went and he ate a bit and nothing came back up, which was nice.

I think the Gravol and Tylenol that he had during the afternoon/evening did a number on him though. He had some really crazy bug-eyes going during dinner and after we got home, he pretty much crashed and went right to sleep by 7pm.

Sigh. I hope he gets over it fast and that the rest of us don't get it. Poor kid.

Happy V-Day To All

I was going to get Julie a nice set of relics for Valentine's day, but instead I surprised her with a dozen roses delivered whilst I was out of town.

I also took Garrett to see Coraline. My lord, what a gorgeous movie that is. We saw it on the 3D screen in Guelph and I can't imagine seeing it in plain-old 2D.

Garrett loved it, though he did say it was too scary at the end. That said, he also said he loved it BECAUSE it was too scary.

That Wasn't So Bad...

Well, I managed to survive the most expensive day, EVER.

The cost to replace my alternator? ~$330.

It was interesting too. When I got the manifold replaced, it was a $45 part that required about $400 worth of time to install. The alternator, on the other hand, only cost about $90 labour but was the unit itself cost $200 or so (plus taxes).

The cost of the electrician? Only about $150, possibly a bit less.

The guy came by around 1pm and was done by 3pm, so that wasn't too bad. Turns out that it wasn't the aluminum wiring coming unspooled in the walls. There was a junction box downstairs in the basement that had a morrette that hadn't been tightened properly which caused some arcing.

It was kind of funny how we figured out where the problem was. After pulling most of the plugs in the kitchen out of the walls to test for power flow, he finally gave up in his search for the problem, leaned against the counter in the kitchen and stomped his foot in frustration, which caused the lights to go on. I remembered that the last time the lights came back on by themselves was when Kara went charging through the kitchen the weekend prior, which sent me scrambling downstairs to find that junction box in the ceiling directly below where the electrician was standing.

Thankfully we found the problem before a fire started!

We also got a few other wonky electrical things fixed while the electrician was here yesterday, so all in all, it was worth the $150.

Oh, and I can claim that as a home renovation. I can't claim the $25K we spent on the basement, but I can claim the $150 I spent on electrical work... stupid government...

This Is Going To Be One Expensive Week...

And the hits just keep on coming.

On Tuesday, I dropped $600 to get my car's manifold replaced. Hooray, I thought.

This afternoon, I went out for a little drive and the battery light started flashing and then just stayed on. I knew this was a bad sign, so I took it into the shop right away. Turns out that the alternator is going too. Sigh.

Hopefully this won't cost a fortune and I won't have to repair anything else on the car for a while...

Unfortunately, my expenses don't stop there. The other week, the power went off in our front hallway (and the microwave plug too). I had hoped that it would just be a matter of flicking a breaker but nooo... none of the breakers had tripped.

I tried flicking them all but nothing happened to fix the problem. The next day, out of the blue, the lights all came back on. I thought that would be it, but alas. On Monday or Tuesday this week, the power went out again and never came back on. So I called an electrician and when I told him what happened and where I lived, he said, "Sounds like an aluminum wiring problem."

I REALLY hope that means it's a simple fix... Or that he takes Visa...

Why couldn't all of these problems have happened after I'd paid off more of the line of credit... or at least not all happen in the same bloody week?

Blowing A Gasket

I took my car in for a check-up yesterday as the guys at the oil change place said there were a few things that needed checking by a real mechanic.

Am I ever glad I did. The strange noises and jerky movements I've experienced in the car lately weren't a result of too much spicy chili. It turns out that one of the gaskets was either blown or on the verge of blowing and the manifold has to be replaced.

Alas, the cost for the labour, parts and the inspection yesterday will come to about $600. On the upside, if I kept driving it the way it was, they said I'd end up blowing even more expensive parts of my engine out. It's sad when $600 is the cheap, preventative option...

Since I don't have a car to use today, I'm spending it cleaning out the boxes of stuff I've brought back from the storage unit over the past few weeks. Tomorrow is BIG GARBAGE DAY in Acton so I'd best get as much out as possible. I'm documenting the treasures I've unearthed in a thread over on Colony Of Gamers, if you're interested :)

At Least Close The Drapes

This is the conversation we had on the way home from Brantford today.

Garrett: "When can I be naked?"

Us: "When you're having a bath or getting changed."

Garrett: "When can I be naked during the day?"

Us: "Never."

Garrett: "When I'm 32 I can be naked all day."

Us: "Um... Wha?!"

Finally... A Co-Op Partner For Garrett

The scary thing is that Kara's winning!

Yoga, Iga,Wega

Yesterday, whilst out and about unloading the storage unit and moving things into my basement, I ended up popping into the local video store to see if they happened to have a particular $9 game that I was looking for. They didn't, but what they did have was a Wii Fit for sale. Knowing how hard it is to find these things in the wild, I bit the bullet and grabbed it.

Here's the thing. It's actually a very good piece of hardware AND software. I thought it would be this gimmicky thing that would gather dust but I have to say, this is the first 'game' that I've brought into the house where I've been the person to use it the least.

Garrett absolutely LOVES the thing. The software is very easy to use as you just lean or run on the pad and while he's still getting a feel for it, it's a great thing to use indoors when the weather is crappy and he needs to burn off some energy.

The funniest thing is that his favourite part is the yoga. He was doing the poses on the box before I even got it open. Check out his Tree pose:



The real clincher on the thing was when I went out with Garrett for an hour or so yesterday and came home to find that Julie had used it for most of the time while we were out.

Julie...
Played a video game...
Willingly.

I believe that is one of the signs of the apocalypse right there.

Heck, she also used it again tonight with nary a prompt from me.

Of everyone here, I've used the thing the least, and that just strikes me as wrong. I need to use it some more so that I can unlock the more advanced skiing courses. It really does feel like you're skiing once you get a feel for it. I did horribly the first run down the mountain but once I let myself sort of fall into the right posture and use the muscles I use when I ski, it just felt right and I was able to do the slalom almost perfectly.

Now to try to turn my big fat Mii into a skinny me!

Having Fun In Bed

This is an absolutely amazing music video using naught but bedsheets, a very pretty actress and a very nifty song.

It's also a pretty accurate approximation of what it's like to be in the same bed as Garrett except for the fact that he swings his arms a lot more and you're a lot more likely to wake up with a bloody nose.

Well, It's One Way To Get Me To Stop Buying Games...

I had a big bucket of cold water poured on my urge to splurge today. I went into EB just to see if they had some old PS2 games that I've been trying to track down. The manager was busy marking games UP. Most were $69... used games, $65. Just wrong.

He was just shaking his head and saying, "I've given up trying to figure out how the pricing scheme works." The saddest thing was seeing some new games for $9 on the PS3 shelf and then other, older games for $55-69.

It's like, "Well, the economy is going down the toilet and people are spending less. Let's jack the price on games up $10."

Suffice it to say, it will be very easy for me to stick to my resolution to not buy games this year if this pricing trend continues. Forget the fact that the games are already stupidly expensive. Half of them take about 6 hours to complete for that price. I'll just go rent most of the hot games this year and wait for them to hit the bargain bins in 6 months at this rate.

Why WOULD Batman Punch Superman?

This is nerdy and game related, but still pretty funny.

Garrett The Cinemaphile

Looking at Garrett's vampire, I realized that it looks a lot like Max Schreck in Nosferatu.



It's uncanny. By which I mean it's totally canny.

Crazy Forts!

I went out with Kara this morning to do some running around. Since the place we wanted to go had no parking and Rogers wasn't open yet, we ended up killing some time in the elitist toy shop in Georgetown. You know the kind of shop I'm talking about. They only sell overpriced toys made from wood and handcarved in Germany.

Anyway, this shop was actually pretty cool. It was still a little too pricey for the most part, but it had some really interesting things and not everything was stupidly expensive. I ended up buying a really cool product that the kids (esp. Garrett) really like.

It's called Crazy Forts and it's something so simple I'm kicking myself for not inventing it. It's basically a giant set of balls and plastic sticks that interlink like tinkertoys. You make them into a fort or tunnel or what-have-you and then toss a sheet on top and voila. Instant fort.

I'm still experimenting with them to find the most sturdy formulation but while the more vertical forts have been a little wobbly, the kids love making spaceships or tunnels out of the set we've made.

Hmm... it looks like you can buy them from Indigo online but they charge $50 for a set. It was $40 at the toy shop, so go find them local if you can.

Oh, and supposedly the guy who invented them lives in Georgetown (or at least in the local area).

I think my next project is to see if I can make a buckyball (or at least a geodesic dome) from the supplied parts.

My Timing Sucks

Of course... Of course the government brings in a tax credit for doing renovations a couple weeks AFTER we finish ours...

Grr...

World's Cutest Vampire

Garrett is obsessed with drawing vampires for some reason. Here's his latest oeuvre.

The Emerging (from the sea) Church

This is just an awesome bit of satire. Enjoy.

I Should Have Seen This Coming

Ever notice how your kid's parentage changes depending on what he or she is doing?

I got a call from Julie yesterday when I was at work which went along these lines.

"Hey, want to know what YOUR genius son got up to today?"

"I don't now..."

"He was microwaving drink boxes while I was doing laundry."

"Oh boy."

Of course, if he'd cracked the cold fusion formula, he'd be HER genius son.

I guess I'll have to postpone my Tin Lighting: Metal In The Microwave demonstration for a few more years...

A Waste Of Time

The guy from the city called me yesterday and after a brief parlay, we came to the conclusion that fighting my ticket would be a waste of my time, his time and the court's time. So he threw it out.

Yay!

Of course, if I get another ticket (in the same area) I'll have to pay it, but I'll know for next time.

I also found $10 on the sidewalk the other day, so this week has actually been pretty decent, all things concidered.

To top things off, I finally found a store that had Apples To Apples in stock, so I bought it with my parking ticket money. I'm hoping to play it a bit at work on the weekend or next week. We need some fun things to keep us from getting cabin fever this winter!

Dad's Doppelganger

So I was watching the Rick Mercer Report last night and in the first segment, bammo!

There's my Dad! (Go to about 45 seconds in.)

Actually, it wasn't, but by Odin's frosty beard, the driving instructor that Rick talks to may as well be my dad's identical twin. I've seen that segment a few times already and I still have to do a double take.

It's The Most Depressingest Day Of The Year

So today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year.

Arnall developed the semi-serious formula — 1/8W+(D-d)3/8xTQMxNA — to calculate the gloomiest day of the year in 2005 at the request of the British travel industry.

In the formula, W is weather, D is debt and other money (d) due in January and T is the time that has passed since Christmas.

Q is the period of time before individuals decide they have failed to stand by their New Year's resolutions and M stands for low motivation levels. NA then represents the need to take action to change the situation.

So anyway, I was actually having a pretty good day until right before I went out to go to work today. I had moved my car onto the road so that the plows could clear out our lot and since the only spot to park was in a no parking spot, GUESS WHO GOT A TICKET!

Sigh.

The upside is that a) it was only $30 and b) there's a chance I might get off and not have to pay it. When I stopped in at the city to pay the ticket this afternoon, I gave the lady at the clerk's desk my sob story about having to park on the road while the plows were coming and that there wasn't anywhere else to put my car except the no parking spot. It turns out that you can contest the parking tickets and write a little essay about why you should be let off. I did so and hopefully I'll hear back within a week about whether they buy my reasons for having to park where I did.

Again, worst case scenario, I'm out $30. I'll definately never move my car onto the road unless I can either find a legal spot or see the plows in the lot...

At least the rest of my day was pretty good. Tomorrow we get to go sit in on Garrett's class for a little bit, so that should be interesting!

Happy Birthday Julie!

It's Julie's birthday today! Hooray!

And as always, Phineas and Ferb have a song for the occasion (esp. this weekend, as the kids both seemed to have taken an overdose of crazy pills).

Old School Guitar Hero

This is pretty funny. I remember playing this back in the 80's...

Death By Black Hole

This is a very cool lecture by one of my favourite scientists of the day, Neil Degrasse Tyson, who talks about what it's like to die via black hole immersion.

I need to get a copy of this book. It sounds awesome.

Garrett The Playa

Garrett just informed me that his friend Emily was coming over for a sleepover so that he could show her the basement. When asked when this sleepover was happening, he said, "SIXTEEN MINUTES!"

I'll keep you posted...

Where's My Stuff?

A little addendum to the basement being finished:

Kara went running over to where the Art Cart usually is (it has been moved downstairs) and the look of utter confusion on her face when she realized that it wasn't there anymore was priceless.

IT IS FINISHED!

Mark January 13, 2009 on your calendars, folks. Today is the day the contractors took the last of their stuff out of the basement and we moved things down there. They did the final inspection yesterday and the plumbing inspector popped by to take a look at the last little thing they'd asked for and as far as I know, the permit is now closed.

Hooray!

And now, a little tour of what 3 months of work and about $25K will get you!


Kara gets her stair-legs.


Here's a look down the hallway and at the cubby under the stairs.


This is the laundry room and freezer spot.


Here's my little workroom aka The Man Cave.
I plan to work on models and listen to podcasts on my little iPod radio thingy.


The bathroom is a little small but it is big enough to do what you've gotta do.


The giant closet is Kara's favourite place in the basement so far. Sigh...


We still need to go out and get a lot of stuff for the basement on the storage side of things but here's a look at the playroom.

So... that's about it. I've got a few little video tours that I need to pop up on Youtube or something but until we make another trip or two to Ikea, what you see is what you get. It was just a great feeling to actually get a lot of the stuff that has been cluttering up the living room moved downstairs.

And just to give you a sense of how far we've come since the latter half of October, take a look at how the basement was before we started!

Tastiest Game Of The Year

Last week I picked up a little cartridge for my DS called Personal Trainer: Cooking. It's essentially a digital cookbook and I'd heard good things about it.

I perused it during the week and decided to take it for a spin this weekend. On Friday, I made my first ever batch of rice pudding and I have to say that it tasted pretty yummy, though I'll have to tweak it a bit the next time I make it.

I made a couple of other recipes at work today for the guys. I made some cheese pancakes for breakfast and gnocchi with gorganzola sauce for supper. I didn't get a chance to actually try the gnocchi, but I did taste the sauce and it was pretty yummy. The pancakes were sweeter than I expected but a welcome change from the usual sunday brunch menu.

If you've got a DS and $20 and want to expand your cooking, I heartily recommend this program. Even Garrett was getting into it. There's a recipe for banana brownies that he wanted to make but since I had the DS at work, he couldn't wait and ended up making some other kind of brownies. Ah well. He did help with the rice pudding on Friday though!

And it's not a game. Julie even said so and if anyone would classify one of my purchases as a game, well, it'd be her.

This Post Contains 35% Of Your Daily Recommended Chair News

Behold the throne of Brock!



Considering my old desk chair is something I got... oh... either in high school or university... aka longer than I've been married... well, it's high time I got a new one.

Time to try some games on the ol' PC while letting my butt interface with the new chair.

How I Wonder What You Are

Watching the moon twinkle like frozen stars on the crisp snow at midnight is near zen-like after a long week of working nights.

Eat Your Heart Out, Hussein Bolt!

Let it be said that it is possible to roll over, look at the clock, see that it is 8:14am and still manage to get up, get dressed, get two kids moderately fed and bundled up and out to the bus stop for 8:40am.

I never want to do that again...

It's Great To Be Home

Well, we've finally made it back home after our sojourn to the Greater Sarnia Area. It was a lovely visit with both sets of grandparents but it's really nice to be back in Acton and, more importantly, our own beds.

Kara demonstrated her ingenuity over the past week by being able to climb out of her playpen and open the door to her room, which meant that during the week I was home and Julie was in Corunna, Kara didn't sleep until the wee hours of the night.

I spent most of the past week sitting in front of Kara's door holding the door shut with one hand while surfing the net on the lappy until she finally fell asleep. The sad thing is that last night, after yet another round of 'Lock Up Your Daughters!', I went into the room once she'd stopped crying and pulling on the door handle to find her asleep in her playpen.

Of course, that was last night... the last night we were in Corunna. Sigh. Who knows if she'd have stayed in the playpen tonight, but I like to think that she would have.

It's Our Anniversary!

Yup. Today is the day we celebrate 10 wonderful years of wedded bliss!

And what better way to pronounce my love for Julie than with a clip from Phineas & Ferb :)



By the way, don't ask people at People's what the gift for the 10 year anniversary is. They're clueless. (Psst. It's pizza!)

Giant Steam Sale!

If you've got a PC and want to score some really cheap games, go on over to Steam and take a gander at their year end sale. It ends tomorrow, but it's well worth checking out as they have some fantastic deals. I mean, you can get Bioshock for $5!

There's someting for everyone. I've been spending a lot of evenings this week playing Bookworm Adventures Deluxe (which is like Boggle and an RPG had a baby... a beautiful, beautiful baby) and Peggle Nights, with some Strong Bad episodes thrown in. And may I heartily recommend World Of Goo. You'll thank me for it.

Happy 2009 Everybody!

I hope everyone had a good New Year's Eve last night. I had a good day with Garrett out at the toboggan hill but I was cranky during the night. I blame the fact that I slipped on some ice and banged my back and the back of my head on the ice for my foul mood.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Oh, and my dad and I called the Chicken Cannon target of the year for the Air Farce NYE show.

The Most Awesome Parent Ever

I need a set of these flashcards, stat. Also, watch until the end of the video for ultimate cuteness.



I swear, this is not a home movie. That said, I think my kids could probably ace it.

On a related topic, Garrett got a cheapy Transformer 'iPod' for Christmas that picks up radio stations. I realized how many podcasts I must listen to with my iPod when he asked me if my iPod played music like his. Sigh.

Bountiful Boxing Day!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas yesterday and, if you were so inclined, got a good deal on some high-end electronics today.

Alas, I did neither. Well, Christmas was ok, given that I am home alone. Unfortunately, I got stuck working a double as I'd neglected to schedule anyone to cover the overnight shift. Go me!

So today was pretty much a write-off. I just slept until 2:30 this afternoon and then have been packing, cleaning and checking my e-mail. I was going to try to go home this afternoon but the Weather Network has been calling for freezing rain through London and Kitchener and I'd rather just wait until tomorrow when it's going to be 11 degrees and wet.

Well, time to go finish tidying up in the kitchen and make myself some food before I get the last of the stuff packed for tomorrow's sojourn to the Greater Sarnia Area!

Keeping Dry(wall)

Here are a few more pictures of our basement. It's not terribly exciting, but you'll see that there are walls. The next batch of pictures should be of our completed basement!





I might take a video of the basement as it is now and post it. That will give a better sense of what the basement looks like.

Ho Ho Ho!

Hey, don't forget to follow Santa before he gets shot down again this year.

Looks like NORAD is using Google Maps this year. Woo!

Bachelor Daze

Julie gave me the nicest Christmas present ever... an empty house for a few days. I'm stuck working Christmas and Boxing Day, so she took the kids to Corunna on Monday and I've been left to my own devices ever since. Today was the first real 'home alone' day though, as I slept through most of yesterday and then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening driving around, doing grocery shopping with some friends and having all-you-can-eat Japanese food at that Fuji place in Guelph (which was amazing... thanks for the recommendation, Jenn & Doug!)

Unfortunately, I was also driving all over the countryside in the blizzard that smacked into town late last night and it wasn't enjoyable. I think I might be cured of my yearly apprehension of driving in the snow though. I'll just take it slow and somehow I'll make it through.

I was also able to show off our nearly completed basement to my friends who raved about it. It was nice to have someone come in and see the place who hasn't seen it in progress. I think this basement might be a good move :) It looks like we'll have a completed basement ready for us when we come home from the holidays next week. Woo!

'Tis The Season

I had a nice experience today. I was out stocking up on coffees for the next day or two while Tim Hortons is closed for Christmas and when I got to the drive-through window, the girl at the window handed me my coffees and then said, "You don't have to pay. The lady in front of you paid for your order. Merry Christmas!"

I was flabbergasted. I'll have to do something nice for someone now. Crap...

OEYC Christmas Party

We had the annual Christmas party at the local Early Years Centre last week and were finally able to snag a good picture of Garrett & Kara with Santa.



I also got a rare shot of the two of them engaging in somewhat constructive behaviour. Marvel as they each work peacefully to build something rather than destroy things.

What A Couple Of Bums

Automated Response

So I got through to someone who could help me with that card problem I had.
But they got it backwards. They transferred the $0.78 I have (had) on the card that actually exists onto the card that was destroyed. Now it has $18 or so on it and the card I hold in my hand RIGHT NOW is empty.

Sigh.

I Hate Automation

Grr...

You know how Tim Horton's has those Quickpay cards? I have had one for the year and love it to death, though I spend far too much on coffee and tea biscuits with it.

Anyway, when I was at the Acton Timmies yesterday, they swiped my Tim's Card and it snapped in half. No real biggie. They just transferred the balance over to a new card and that was that.

I had my Tim's Card set up to automatically reload when the balance drops below $5. It tops the card up to $20. Now, when my card snapped, it had $2 or so left on it, so it was slated for refill. Since it hadn't refilled at the time of snappage and we could still see it sitting there with $2 on it on the website, I just deactivated the card yesterday morning with the intention of setting up my new card with the reload.

Here's where the GRR comes in. Mid-afternoon, we get an e-mail saying that the OLD card has been refilled. Of course, we don't have the old card information (well, we do, but the last 4 digits are X'ed out on all of the documentation we have) and when I called the Tim Horton's Help Desk to see if they could just look in their records and transfer the money, they were less than helpful. Now I have to go back to the local Tim's, have them dig through their records from yesterday and hopefully not be out $15 or so. So help me if they tell me to call the help desk...

Only 7 Days Till Christmas!

It's frightening how accurate this is... only I don't use Twitter.

Santa Rock!

The kindergarten classes at Garrett's school put on their Christmas Concert tonight. It was pretty cute except for one thing. Garrett is either in training to be a ninja or the girl who stood in front him was bound and determined not to let him get his picture taken. No matter what angle I tried to film/shoot him from, he was always behind this other kid. It was driving me batty, esp. since he's so freaking tall.

I'll put some pictures up tomorrow after work. I've got to go work the overnight shift tonight (nothing like putting in 20 hours or so at work over a 24 hour period) so I'm going to try to catch a little shut-eye before I go in at 11!

Reno News!

Just so that everyone knows, the renovations are going along at a pretty brisk pace now. Of course they had to wait until just before Christmas to actually gain momentum. Sigh.

We've got walls and ceilings down there now. There's a good chance this could be finished before Christmas, if not shortly thereafter. We basically just need the electrician to come back and finish wiring a few potlights and plugs, the walls to be plastered, the floor to be laid down and everything painted and installed. Otherwise, we're in the home stretch.

WOO!

January will be "Clean Out The Storage Unit" month. Expect many great deals!

Oh, Bush...

I saw this over at Extralife and it made me laugh. No wonder all of the comedians are going to miss the guy.

I Need More Sleep

You know you're a (tired) parent when:

You find a big brown spotch on the ground, stick your finger in it, sniff it and then taste it to make sure it actually is chocolate.

Not my proudest moment, but hey, free chocolate is free chocolate.

Brrrrr....

While the temperature dips ever lower, take a look at what is in store for us.

Behold: The Ghost Towns (and boats, and such) Of Antarctica!

Our Parent-Sense Was Tingling

So Julie and I woke up at 4:45 this morning. I don't know why... Julie said she heard Garrett cough. Then we heard the puking.

Suffice it to say, we've been up since around 5 this morning and Garrett was puking until at least 9ish. No matter what went into him, it came right back out. Oh, and there's nowhere to buy Children's Gravol in Acton at 6am.

Now that he's had some Gravol, some sleep and some tiny dribs and drabs of toast and ginger ale, Garrett seems to be on the mend.

At least Julie was home (sick) from work today. She and Garrett vegged this morning while Kara and I hit the town.

Garrett hasn't had a good last couple of days. Today was, well, you just read about it and yesterday morning, his best friend threw a giant chunk of ice and hit Garrett in the eye just before the bus came. Amazingly, he didn't really get a bruise or black eye, though he might need a new best friend :)

Have An 8-Bit Christmas

This Christmas, why not warm up to a few classic carols, NES-style?

There are a couple of cool Christmas 'albums' out there this year that use the NES chipset to crank out some pretty cool tunes. Check out 8-Bit Jesus and The 8 Bits Of Christmas. Sure, they're nerdy, but it beats listening to Mariah Carey yowl for the umpteenth time.

No Pants Tuesday

Kara is really taking NPT to heart.

During the night, she had managed to take off her pyjama pants and diaper and wet the crib. Julie remedied the situation and put her back to bed.

When I got her up this, there she was, naked from the waist down and grinning ear to ear.

After I got her dressed and gave her breakfast, she spent a chunk of the morning taking her pants off, to the point that I had to put her snow pants on to ensure that she couldn't disrobe.

This evening when she came home from the sitter's house, I was sitting in my chair when she walked next to me, gave me a sly grin and proceeded to pull down her pants. This resulted in a 5 minute Keystone Kops-esque chase around the kitchen with her laughing her head off while I tried to corner her and get the pants back on before the diaper came off...

Ah, good times. As long as she gets it out of her system now as opposed to in college, I'm happy.

You Know You're A Parent When...

Your kid gets a new game/toy and you have absolutely NO idea about the first thing about it.

Garrett has recently been yammering about Bakugan toys. Being the otaku that I am, I know that there is an anime about these toys but I have never watched it and have not the slightest clue about what it is or how you play with them.

We picked up a Bakugan toy for Garrett today while we were out and while it's kind of cool (it's like a little plastic marble with a magnet that will make it pop open if you roll it on metal) I still haven't any idea about how the game is supposed to work.

I decided to take a look on the Bakugan website tonight to see if it made any sense. I challenge anyone to read these rules and explain them in a way that an adult can understand. Yeesh. If a 6 year old can master that minutae, they can probably find a way to balance the budget and make chocolate fall from the sky.

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!

Is this a real demolition derby or an awesome stop-motion video? The answer might surprise you!


Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

8-Bit Prognostication

This is a nifty thing I've found.



Someone is doing a deck of Tarot cards but in the style of 8-bit videogames. It's worth a look just for the aesthetics, though they MIGHT be able to tell you if you will beat that game you're working on too.

Emulsification For The Nation

Sooo....

Somehow Kara was able to get a bottle of baby oil into her crib and proceed to pour it over EVERYTHING, yet somehow avoid getting any on herself. Gah.

I feel so slimy now. I just spent about 15 minutes wiping half of her room and the contents of her crib and now I can't get the oily sheen off of me.

Blech.

He's Got A Point

Let me just point you in the direction of Andrew Coyne's essay about how things have played out with Parliament prorogued until January. I don't always agree with everything he says, but I think this sums up the current situation nicely. Oh, and I called it.

But don’t take my word for it. Two polls out today show that the coalition has backfired on its two main participants — hugely. Ekos has the Tories ahead by twenty points, 44-24, while Ipsos Reid puts the margin at an astounding 46-23. This is after the Tories had supposedly disgraced themselves by the “provocation” of cutting the political parties off the public teat, and by failing to provide adequate “stimulus.”

Ipsos numbers show, further, that 60% of the public opposes the coalition, 62% are “angry” with it for trying to take power, while 68% support the Governor General’s decision. The Grits can read the numbers as well as I can. There is no way they will return to this well.

Ottawa, Shmwattawa

Tim had a short but sweet little post about the shenanigans in Ottawa today that I felt the need to rebut. So rebut I shall.

Ahem.

If the Opposition parties are going to bring down the government and try to snag power, I'd rather it be over something worthwhile, like, oh, THE BUDGET, than whatever has stuck in their craw. Yes, Harper stirred up the hornets nest by trying to pass that funding cut, but the Opposition fell right into his trap by reacting the way they did. Hell, the fact that the funding cut was yanked so fast just shows that it was the bait.

Beyond bailing out the auto industry, which I've already said I'm against, please tell me what this slap-dash coalition would do to benefit the country (as opposed to the political parties involved) and why, after only TWO WEEKS back in parliament, the minority party in power is the evil which must be destroyed.

I think that we need the break until Parliament is resumed in January for the MPs to a) cool their jets a bit and b) go out and see if their constituents, WHO JUST WENT THROUGH AN ELECTION, think that these machinations are what they really want. I didn't vote Conservative. Hell, I've voted Green and NDP over the past two federal elections. That said, I'm a fan of some governmental stability. I know that minority governments can fall and don't last long. This is not the way to go about it.

If the government falls in January over something legitimate, like a budget or Harper growing a tail, fine. But by pursuing the course of action that they have, the Opposition is setting themselves up for a major drubbing at the next election and they have nobody to blame but themselves. Dion and Layton might finally get a brief taste of power and keys to the PMO, but it will be a bitter pill for their party faithful to have to swallow over the long term.

What I've Been Up To

I mentioned a little while ago that I was doing an ACTUAL GAME REVIEW with an ACTUAL GAME from an ACTUAL COMPANY on an ACTUAL WEBSITE!

Well, I finished the game the other day and got the review up on the site. If you're interested to see where some of the game related yammering I used to dump on here has vanished to, go check out Buttonmashing.com and Colony Of Gamers. I've written a few reviews over at Buttonmashing, truth be told, but Mirror's Edge is the first one I've done with an actual review copy of the game as opposed to just renting/buying my own copy and writing something.

I also write a weekly column at Colony Of Gamers about overlooked and obscure games that deserve their time in the sun. I just realized that I've done 28 of them already. That's over 6 months! Yeesh. Not too shabby for something I started on whim.

The 80/20 Rule

Just a quick little request for any prayer and/or hard liquor you could send our way. Work has been rough for the past little while and we (as a team) could use any prayer you feel you could spare us.

I'll keep the hard liquor for when I get home :)

In the words of a wise man, 80% of the time we can't believe we're getting paid to do what we do and 20% of the time there is no way we're getting paid enough to do what we're doing.

Suffice it to say, we're in the 20% right now. We'll get through it, of course, but if I have a few more wrinkles in my brow and a lot of gray hairs, you'll know why.

Oh, and while you're tossing up the odd prayer or three, I'm applying for a promotion and could always use a little divine intervention!

Ka-Zap

Just a little reno update: We've had the electrician in for most of this week and he's pretty much finished downstairs with all the wiring and so forth. I think he has a tiny bit left to do tomorrow and then we'll be able to get going with the drywalling and flooring part of the reno, which means we could conceivably have a usable basement in as little as 1-2 weeks!

Just having switches and lights downstairs right now is going a long way to making me feel like this is worth it. Julie's not quite as magnanimous, but we keep chanting the mantra: "It'll be worth it when it's done..."

How Much Snow Can You Blow?

That's the view from our front porch at 1am on Dec. 1, 2008.