Rock God? Not Quite...

Yup, I got it!

I was promptly banned from playing the drums because Julie said, and I quote, "Wake up the kids with your drumming and I'll skin you alive."

Or something along those lines.

Brock 0 - Brakes 2

We dropped the Saturn off at the shop again this morning and hopefully they'll replace the brake switch and get the bloody thing fixed so it doesn't lock up again... EVER.

I had thought that whatever they had done on Monday was actually working when I took the kids out yesterday as for the first few trips of the day, the gearshift wasn't sticking at all. Of course, as soon as I started thinking happy thoughts, the universe decided it was time to balance things out and my gearshifter started sticking again. I tried it again today and once again it was sticking, so back to the shop it went.

Sigh. I just hope it finally gets fixed and that I won't have to deal with this problem any more. Julie's already talking about getting rid of the Saturn and getting a van but I don't want to lose my baby! Get rid of that hunk of junk Kia that has parts falling off of it before getting rid of my plastic car!

What Time Is It?

Well, guess who's sick again?

Sigh.

I have to stop telling people that I'm feeling just fine while they're complaining about being sick. Every time I do that, I end up coming down with something.

This latest cold/flu/ebola outbreak hit me on the way home from Mississauga on Tuesday. I thought maybe it was some food poisoning or something from the shrimp they had at the pot-luck, but it's not.

I knew I was really sick when I fell asleep last night at 7:30pm and didn't wake up until 7am today. I was just reading after getting the kids to bed last night and then the next thing I knew I was waking up at 9pm, realizing that I'd slept and missed Little Mosque On The Prairie and then I fell asleep again.

Oh well. I want to go swimming tonight but Julie says I shouldn't. Sigh. I guess I'll just get another good night's sleep and then go swimming on the weekend.

Blood On The Slippers

Sometimes I wonder about what exactly is going on in Garrett's brain.

We were driving home tonight and were talking about going to the preschool at the boathouse near Fairy Lake tomorrow. I mentioned that he should take his Turtles slippers with him which sparked a very strange conversation.

"So, you're going to take your slippers with you tomorrow?"

"Uh... I don't want to get blood on them."

"WHA?"

"I don't want my toes to fall off."

"Go on..."

"My toes fell off when I was a little baby but the workers fixed them and they're all better now."

"Oooookay...."

"I don't want my toes to get cold and fall off again."

"Then you'd better wear your slippers!"

"Ok!"

This kid had better get some kind of creative arts job when he's older...

Brock 0 - Brakes 1

Looks like my optimism is short lived. I got in my car this evening and it was a little sticky before we went down to Mississauga. Then there was the return trip. I was stuck blocking in Julie's car at our small group for about 2-3 minutes while I fought with my gearshift. Sigh.

I have a busy day tomorrow with driving and hopefully my shifter won't act up too much but come Friday, I'm taking that bad boy into the shop and demanding they fix it right.

Stupid car.

Brock Vs. Brake : Round 389

I love my Saturn. Let me get that out of the way. I've enjoyed driving it ever since I got it back in 2001 and haven't had any problems with it.

Except one.

A couple of years ago, my shifter started getting stuck in Park whenever it got cold. Seeing how we're in Canada, this was rather frequent. At first I thought it was just an annoying little quirk of the gearshift until I had to sit in my car for 15-20 minutes after work one night, cursing and praying and begging for the thing to just get into Drive so I could go home.

I took it to Saturn back in the day and they did everything except sacrifice a chicken on the engine block. About the only thing they didn't do was replace the actual gearshift. Miraculously, the sticking shifter went back to proper working order soon after and I didn't have any problems until last year.

It stuck once or twice shortly after Christmas so I took it to the local auto shop to see if they could fix it. Of course, they couldn't figure out what the problem was and it didn't do it again, so I figured it had finally been fixed or at least stopped acting up.

I thought that was the end of the sticky shifter until a week or two ago when it started to stick a bit. Great... just what I need when I'm home with two kids and no income.

Would the stickiness go away? Well, I thought so until the weekend when it started taking several minutes before the shifter would come unstuck. I dropped the car off yesterday and after explaining the symptoms again and hoping that the car would stick for them so they could experience the fun of not being able to take a perfectly fine car from Park to Drive, I sauntered on home.

Turns out it was the braking switch that was causing the issue. I've heard a clicking sound when I depress the brakes which usually indicates that the shifter will start sticking shortly afterwards. Thankfully it didn't cost much for them to do their little adjustments but I did notice that it was a little sticky still when I got in the car. They did recommend that I get the switch replaced if it acts up again so we'll see how things are this evening when I go out with the kids.

It's just a shame that a car which I like so much has such an annoying problem.

59's My Favourite

FFXII Is Finished... Time To Start FFXII!

This has been a banner year for my New Year's Resolutions. I've been swimming twice a week for the past couple weeks, I've resisted urges to buy candy and, my personal favourite, I FINALLY BEAT FINAL FANTASY XII!

It only took me a good year and a bit and something around 110 hours of playtime, but it's finally done. Great game, though the plot is somewhat convoluted, especially when you take several months off between play sessions. What really scares me is that there were a lot of hunts and side quests that I didn't do that could have made my playtime clock in somewhere in the 150-200 hour range... thankfully I'm not a completest when it comes to games and I got more than my money's worth out of FFXII.

The best part about finally finishing the game is that I can finally open my Christmas present from Connor... the sequel to FFXII on the DS! WOo!

The Perils Of Booster Seats

So just after the new year started, we got a new booster seat for Garrett to sit in. It's not bad and it's nice to see him in a 'big boy' seat.

The only problem is that it's kind of tricky to get the seat belt buckled when you're having to reach over and do it blindly. No biggie... except that Garrett has developed a LOVELY habit of yanking on my beard while I'm buckling him up.

"You have a soft beard, Daddy," he says.

"OUCH!" I say.

To which gales of laughter follow.

This happens EVERY TIME I GO ANYWHERE WITH HIM....

A Daily Show About The ColberT Report

So... The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are both back on the air right now after about 2 months off. I've actually quite enjoyed NOT having them on as that freed up about an hour of my day that I'd spend watching the shows before.

That said, I'm happy to have my daily dose of satire back on the air but the fact that they can't do a lot of the pre-scripted things (due to a lack of scripts) and the fact that they tend to spend a large portion of the show talking about the strike has me a little turned off. I would rather they just stay off the air until the strike is over, though I understand that this way the crew and other people who AREN'T writers can actually have a chance at getting paid.

I'm thinking I might watch the rest of the episodes this week (tonight and tomorrow) and then see how I feel about the shows come next week. I don't NEED to watch it every night... I'm just not used to missing them when they're on!

CENSOR WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS POTTY LANGUAGE!

The last few mornings have been rather... moist.

Garrett has had a wet bed for the last 3 mornings and I'm not sure if it's because he's drinking too much and not peeing enough before bed or if the diaper he's wearing to bed is too small or what.

I tried the grand (read: failed) experiment of waking Garrett up at midnight last night to try to get him to go pee on the toilet but all that did was cause copious tears and heartache (and another wet bed in the morning).

Is there a trick to getting kids to stop wearing a diaper to bed at night? Garrett's great with using the toilet during the day but he won't wake up when he pees the bed.

Last night was also a bundle of fun as Kara was up around midnight or so screaming her bloody head off and keeping Julie up and it took us until sometime after 2am until she finally stopped crying. Fun times. I know that I like to stay up till all hours, but Julie doesn't really appreciate it, especially when she has to be at work first thing in the morning.

Make A Run For The Border

So I'm kind of watching the first episode of this new show "The Border" which is turning out to be like a done-in-one version of 24 set at Pearson Airport.

It's not bad. Pretty good production values and it's at least mildly interesting (unlike pretty much any of the current season of Prison Break).

It does have some fun digs against the US.

"Two federal agents came by this morning and took my boss and all the computers. They were very rude."

"Couldn't have been Canadian. Probably Homeland Security."

Spam Is Made Of People!

At least, it's made from me!

I did a Google search on my name because, well, I was bored and waiting for the Rock Band credits to finish rolling (woo! I beat the solo guitar mode on Medium) and I haven't searched my name in Google for a few years.

Turns out that through some random confluence of events, I'm part of a block of spam text. Interesting... Take a gander.

A plumas lake golf mafia holds body accompanied be out be discretionary necklines a fluorescent efficiency for radio brock wager. Keep the critters on the trivial breathtaking shops of nonchalantly competency guests ponderosa, absolute as namely you are supplies suffolks and what the newsworthy kit of relevant tap physiology surprised be. It is oversize to dimpled structured match and females to the day you are pulling. A befitting packages of the hike grip is recently it onlookers effectiveness pocketss as a spatula.

I'm not sure if I should be scared or honoured.

R.I.P. Guitar Hero

I was able to rent a copy of Rock Band last night and I have to say that I am completely blown away. It's Guitar Hero 3's superior in almost every manner possible. Rather than be a rehash of the same game with a slightly shinier package with annoying note placement, Rock Band just oozes that special Harmonix charm and attention to... fun that Guitar Hero 3 lacks.

All I know is that the second I am able to get my own copy of the full Rock Band package with the drum kit and everything, my copy of Guitar Hero 3 is being traded in and I'll never go back. I always worried that I backed the wrong horse in the GH3/Rock Band battle and it turns out I was right.

My favourite part of the game, besides the awesome visuals and the fact that you can customize your character (my Spigot the guitarist looks like a hobo doctor), is the fact that they have the crowd singing along to most of the songs. In some instances, it's barely noticable but in others, like Say It Ain't So by Weezer, it just sends chills up your spine.

If you have a copy of Guitar Hero 3 for the 360, go rent the disc of Rock Band and enjoy yourself!

Are You Expendable?

A.R.A.C.H.N.I.D. helped me make bail!



"Ever magazine contains 30 opportunities for you to ensure the safety of our facility."

Warning! Very Annoying

This is a pretty funny clip of Link saying, "Excuse me, Princess."

About 300 times.

The sad thing is that there were only 13 episodes and they had Link say that phrase WAAAY too often.

That's One Resolution Checked Off!

Last night I went swimming for a good 45 minutes during the lane swimming at the local pool.

It was GREAT! I wonder now why I haven't been doing this on a regular basis for the last 5+ years. I wasn't doing the crazy stuff I used to do when I was on the swim team, but it was a pretty good workout compared to my normal workout that basically involves me getting up, walking over and deciding which controller to pick up.

Julie wanted me to wait until next week to start but I figured that if I could talk myself out of swimming last night, I could probably talk myself out of it next week too. I'm going to try swimming two days a week (Thursday and Sunday) as those look like they'll be the best times for me to actually be able to get over to the pool for the lane swim.

The only problem is that I remembered this morning exactly how sore you'll be after a good swim like that.

If She Asks For The Car Keys, I'm Running

I tell ya, it's amazing how much a baby can develop over the course of a few weeks.

When I went on vacation mid-December, Kara was still in the Commando crawl phase of locomotion. Now she's busy pulling herself up and cruising around the couch and steps... it's nuts!

Day 2 of Mr. Mom V. 2.0 and we're all still alive. The nice thing is that Kara is finally over her cold, I've figured out how to make mushy cereal and Garrett's actually being somewhat helpful!

It's Anniversary Day!

Wow. It's our 9th anniversary today. Crazy.

Thankfully we went out for our fancy anniversary dinner while we were in Sarnia (if you're looking for a good spot to eat, go to Lola's!) because my temporary blindness set in today and I couldn't find the tuna for the tuna casserole I was making.

I'm not sure what to call the creation I cobbled together in its place but I'm hoping we won't all die after we eat it...

Wish us luck!

My New Year's Resolution? 1280 x 1024

Did everyone have a good New Year's Eve? We didn't do much besides watching a movie and the Air Farce NYE special.

Did anyone happen to watch the Dick Clark special? We only tuned in for the last minute or so before the ball dropped but we could barely watch that. I feel so bad for Dick. It was just painful to watch him slurring his words and generally just looking OLD, unlike the ever-youthful robot that he appeared to be in years past. It was like he'd just started to open the Ark Of The Covenant but stopped himself.


Artist's Rendering Of Dick Clark Last Night

Yeah, I know he had a stroke a couple years ago but it was still really hard to watch him last night.

ANYWAY, speaking of resolutions, I'm actually trying to make some that I can stick to.

In no particular order, I'm going to do the following this year:

- Start swimming regularly (Julie's signing me up for the lane swim at the local pool on Thursday nights).

- Play through a lot of the backlog of games that I own instead of buying every shiny new trinket that comes down the pike.

- Read more (non-comic) books.

- Write more and hopefully get something finished by next Christmas so I can get it self-published and give it away as gifts.

- Cut waaaay back on the sweets that I eat. After the current batch of Christmas candy is gone, I want to eat healthy snacks like pretzels and raisins.

- Just eat and live a lot healthier than I have for the past, oh, 10 years.

- Beat Final Fantasy Tactics.