It think it's been WAY too much candy...

Folks.  I think way too much candy has... passed by MY lips and into my chubby belly.

Ugh.

I'm going to be sick.  At the time, it seemed like such a great idea - forgetting my inability to stop until it's all gone, I am certainly paying the price now.

Someone pass me some water... and an Advil, Aleeve or Tylenol Ultra.

Halloween is a killer for me and I need to find a way around this day of begging and over-indulgence.  Sure, the kids were great, but as a parent, we have to look after our kids teeth and bellies, right?

What really did me in this year was carrying my second child around.  He's just over a year old and he's heavy.  Plus, I ate all the candy that was given to him which I like but never eat. 

Both boys brought in a lot of candy this evening.

The best part of collecting Halloween candy in our house is our policy that the kids trade us their candy for a pre-purchased toy.  Works every time.  The kids do not eat much junk food (we really don't either) but they love toys. 

On the way back to our house we stopped by - as promised - to see Haley-o, Josh-o, the Cheaty Monkey and Rascal. After picking up some much needed candy (lol) I put down the now uber-heavy 1-year-old and he crawled right into their house and disappeared in the family room with the toys. Then came my 3-year-old, and my wife, disappearing into the house leaving Josh-o and I at the door to chat about computers and give out candy together... fun.

After about 15 minutes, we dragged the kids back into the wagon and shleped them home.

No more candy... please...

A very nice weekend indeed...

We actually had an adult weekend of sorts at the UrbanDaddy household.



Saturday morning provided us with an early morning (9am) visitor who brought me my blackberry.

Saturday afternoon we went to some potential new friends for a pumpkin carving event for the kiddies. A ton of fun. Nice people there. Carved us a pumpkin, ate some pizza. I took every ones pumpkin seeds and roasted them with some kosher salt and cayenne pepper. They were yummy!!

Saturday night went out for dinner with 4 other couples from the baby-group to one of my favourite places - Parmigiano - on Yonge Street, just north of Lawrence... YUM. Had a great time, great conversation... A fun, fun day.

Sunday dinner at a Chinese buffet is always fun watching the baby eat 5 x his money's worth... Man can that kid eat.

Monday - back to the grind.

Some sports notes:

Boston Red Sox win the world series - looks like it'll be tough for the Jays to make any headway in that division in the near future.

The day the Sox win, some punk assed bitch (a very talented one), named Alex Rodrigues (A-Rod) opted out of his $72 million dollar contract to become a free agent.. . He's hoping to get $300 million over 10 years... He's already 32... Yikes. Couldn't he have waited one more day?

I guess A-Rod can join manager Joe Torre in LA...

Raptors open the season soon and waived forward Luke Jackson in the process. Keeping some 27yr old rookie named something Moon. Good luck kid... and Go Raps!!!

Graduate School, Parenting, and Work: Can I now complain that I am tired?

I did it!

I just completed my presentation for my Business Strategy class today. That on it's own is certainly not worthy of a blog post, but the way it got done is something I would like to remember in 5, 10 or 15 years. You see I naively began my graduate school MBA program 4 days after my first child was born - way back in 2004. So as 2007 comes to an end, so does my 3-year program.

Along the way came child #2, and a realization that my life had changed forever. Child #2 never slept more than 2-3 hours at a time, and he was (and still is) hungry all the time. Child #1 likes to get up for the day at 6am so I had to adjust to the infrequent sleeping pattern and to getting up so early in the morning.

Add to that my work schedule saw me at the office at 7:30am, working until 5pm, and my grad school study time from 10pm to 2am, and you can see there is not much time for me, even less for my wife, and not too much time at all to sleep.

Is it okay now to say that I'm tired?

So what made this specific assignment so blog-worthy was the fact that I followed my usual schedule (up at 6 with Linus, got ready for work, fed him, fed Stewie, then walked to the subway, all before 7am). Due to my work schedule, I was entitled to 3 days off of work in a month, but I needed the peace and quiet so my employer assigned me a cubicle in the middle of a vacant floor to finish my work, so I then worked straight from 8-4 on this presentation. I even forgot to eat...

By 4:30, I had packed up, and I walked home (about an hour and 15 minute walk), helped with dinner, bathed the kids and got them to bed before my class started. My presentation was the first one of the night and my 20 minute presentation turned out to be the entire hour and 15 minute class! Awesome. I think it was well received. I tried not to sound monotone while going over my PowerPoint, so I added some additional comments, a few examples and room to ramble, and boy did I ramble. There were loads of questions from the class. I enjoyed the process and it's amazing having these types of discussions with super-intelligent people from all walks of life.

Then when it was over, I sat back, took a deep breath and realized how much work I need to catch up on.

While presenting, my Corporate Finance class were sending, like 1000 emails back and forth regarding our final case study project, and we finally submitted it about 1am! Whew.

Then while cleaning up the dishes I got to watch Candice Michelle fall from the top rope during her 2 out of 3 falls match on RAW, and land right on her left shoulder and head. She left on a stretcher... I know wrestling is not real, but this was live TV and boy, she almost killed herself. That injury was very real.

At 3am I went upstairs to have a shower before bed and found my wife and Linus cuddled up and sleeping so soundly in our bed. They both look so peaceful. Cuties!

I'm taking full advantage of this and sleeping in Linus' bed all by myself!

The rest of the week looks to be the same. I have to complete some work on my Business Strategy class, then I have to attend my Finance class tomorrow night, a business meeting Wednesday night and an office "town hall" meeting Thursday - which I love!

G'Nite all.

Sports Snorts...

It's 3-2 Red Sox in the 7th inning. Winner faces the Colorado Rockies in the World Series. Who am I voting for?!?

I loved watching the Chicago BlackHawks play! Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews... Some great young talent. A fun team to watch.

The National Lacrosse League cancelled the season a few days ago. Stupid players... Lose everything. Has no one learned from MLB???

Leafs??? Still suck. No one to score, no one to keep the puck out. A sad team, indeed.

What a week... Shoot me now!

My last post was over a week ago and it feels like this week took 3 weeks to complete. Of course, it didn't help that I was sick this week - caught what the family had.

I had work issues with a colleague who left me as a back-up on his voicemail, due to a 2 weeks vacation overseas, but then I had his family calling me 2, 3, even 4 times a day from overseas enquiring as to his whereabouts... Fearing he might be in harm, I notified all the relevant authorities at the office, only to hear that he called another colleague to find out the progress on an account of his. His mother called the Prime Minister, or someone really high up in the government because I was ordered to take action and contact his family. Hmmm. Not in my job description. But he is due back tomorrow (Monday) and boy am I going to kick his ass.

I had 4 assignments due by this weekend, finished 2, one goes in tomorrow, and I have a presentation tomorrow night that I have not even started... Oops. But this group work is VERY stressful because I have the world's worst group members (a few of them at least)... I let them know going into the weekend that I would not be available until after the kids get to bed because of family commitments and tossed up the idea of working on an assignment worth 15% instead of one worth 1%. They decided otherwise and when the weekend came and the assignment was done, the group became angry that I was not finished the case. They even sent some pretty fucking nasty emails to me through the group. Assholes. Don't they know that MBA's are as much about the information you learn as it is about the people you meed through networking...

On Friday we joined the Happy Boy on his class trip to the Whitimore Farm. It was a lot of fun. Warm weather, loads of pumpkins, pictures of kids on hay, and a huge long slide on the side of a hill. We took in all the sights then went on this slide, which required all kids under a certain age to be in the lap of parents to ride. I took the Happy Boy down it and the second time we got in the tube and layed down and started down very slowly. We got half way down when I heard a noise that sounded like another kid coming down the slide, when WHAM! I was hit hard in the back of my neck/head by the head of some stupid-ass toddler who went down by his self. Instant headache. The slide is like 50 feet long, we were just over half way down and that made it worse.

Needless to say, the kid was crying and his Mom was at the bottom peeking in. I told he what he did, that he should have waited and that is why parents must accompany kids - but she showed no concern. I mentioned to her again that he hit his head, then she took him and ignored me as she walked away. Grrrrr.

So here I sit trying to think about all that occurred this week of note - with 2 canker sores in my mouth - in a lot of pain - looking at angry emails from my group, thinking about how I am going to get through this week. Getting to bed before 2:30am might be nice, considering I've been up by 6:30 every morning without fail.

Oh well, back to work. I have a PowerPoint to do!

I want to go back to bed...

A car almost ran me over this morning and the turnstile at the TTC station rejected my token but as I was zipping through it didn't move and I slammed my head into the glass. Embarrassed, with people behind me gawking (and I'm sure a few were snickering) I put the token back in, grunted at the turnstile, then proceeded to slowly go through.

My head hurts. Can I sue the TTC?


So I email this to my wife, and this is what she responds:

"Giggle"

"Oh, are you going to sue the TTC based on stupidity? I can see you now in front of the judge. Your honour, I smashed my face into the turnstile because my Ipod was too loud and I didn't hear either the gate click open or the token drop back into the tray"

"giggle"

nice.

I could pull it off!

I am so fucking angry...With the Province of Ontario...

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

This province is full of incredibly stupid people. Stupid people that vote Liberal time and time again because they are afraid of the Conservatives. Afraid??? Bullshit. They do this because they are too lazy to formulate their own opinions and are just plain stupid.

-stops to apologize to any readers who voted Liberal – you are forgiven, after all you come here, so you must be closet conservatives. –

Liberal politicians are above the law. They lie, cheat, and steal, and stupid Ontarians vote them back into power.

Hate Mike Harris all you want, but he said he was going to do what he did, and he was elected on it, and he actually did it. He did NOT raise a red book claiming to get rid off the GST – but did not, he did not make his campaign platform around NOT raising taxes, but them DID raise them. At least the PC’s tell you up fornt if they are going to screw you, and then when they do it, no one is surprised, but the Liberals??? See the sponsorship scandal, and Mike Colle the former Finance minister who gave $1 million dollars to a Cricket or Curling club as a grant when they asked for $150,000. He was fired from his post… and re-elected in my riding. Arrrgghhhh. Stupid fucking voters.

50% participation… That’s the media’s fault for always stating that the election was over – before it begun – and that the Liberals were going to get a majority government. Hey media, how about covering the facts, asking the tough questions and stop pretending to be Nostradamus. The media, in effect, told voters not to vote because it was a Liberal win, so they didn’t. All media should be ashamed of themselves. Maybe the Liberals are giving you guys some tax breaks or some “grant money”. Grrrr.

As for the faith-based funding… Who really cared. All everyone wants in this day and age is equality. Either stop funding catholic schools or fund them all. If Tory had come out and asked for Catholic schools to stop receiving funding he’d be hung from the highest cross, but instead he offered up equality and that backfired too. Don’t we all just want equality? Anyone who thinks that by now funding Jewish, or Islamic or Chinese schools is going to make a bit of difference has to ask themselves if funding Catholic schools over the last 125 years

I'm angry enough to run in the next election and start campaigning NOW.

I'll be fine in 4 years.

I don't want to hear any bitching or moaning from anyone who voted for the Liberals or who didn't get off their asses to vote for the next 4 years. You lost your right to complain. To talk to your fearless (read: useless) leader.

Face bugs?!? Really?

My son is watching me shave and wants to know what is floating in the sink along with water and shaving cream. I tell him it’s the stubble from by facial hair. No, he tells me, it is bugs and he makes a squishy face. I tell him it really is hair and I begin to describe the process of shaving to him. But alas, he cuts me back off, makes and even squishier face and then proceeds to tell me that in the sink are face bugs. From my face. "Ewww. Daddy has face bugs". And away he walks… Nice!

Tuesday Newsday... Of sorts

1) Ontario Provincial Election - Voting tomorrow. Vote PC. Why? The
Liberals are liars. They can no longer be trusted. A vote for the NDP, or the green party (no capital letter for their name since they are not even allowed to the debates) is a wasted vote. Nuff said!

2) Jason Blake - A player recently signed with the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs has a treatable form of cancer. I wish him well The Leafs also traded for a player on his way to jail and a goalie who wanted to be a sieve in pre-season. All this brings me to one conclusion. The team still stinks and the GM, John Ferguson Jr, had to go!

3) NY Yankees - Are out of the playoffs and a lot of people are happy. Their payroll this year was like $300 million dollars, or slightly more than the economy of Myanmar. Geez.

4) Kind-hearted bloggers - You know when someone offers to do something nice for you and they mean it? I had that experience today with a fellow blogger - not sure if they want their name pasted in here - but I called her, took her up on her offer and was immediately impressed at her sincerity, candidness and professionalism. A giant thank you goes out to you!!

5) My Baby Boy is one year and one day old today... Cutie!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Boy...

Our baby is one year old today.

Most people say to me, "I can't believe it's been a year already".

I can!

It was a long year... very long. But nonetheless, my baby is 1.

Time to start walking and talking and....

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!

Your Daddy loves you very much!

A big, freeking sigh...

Thoughts from the past day and a half...

1) New Nanny in town seems OK. Besides being very tired from the long flight in from Hong Kong via Vancouver, she seems like a really nice woman. Still doesn't help Urban Mummy who feels uber-stressed over this transition so soon into her school year. I know she'd rather be at home taking care of the kids.

2) I found out last night that the blog-famous "Shroom Monkey" is no more. Something to do with a giant vibrator and super-high speeds. Poor girl never saw it coming (pun intended). Sorry to hear that. Her blog will be missed, as will be her entertaining potty mouth and endless stories of sex with rock stars. True or not, this girl belongs on cable TV, or in porn... LOL.
P.S. Laura, you'll be back!! You know you will.

3) I have a LOT of school work to do and I am TIRED. Not good. And now I find out that the textbook I borrow from a classmate who took this course last semester is the wrong volume and I should have shelled out the $166 (plus tax) for the more recent version. Now my assignment due today is wrong and my presentation one week from today is wrong. Fuck!

4) My son - Happy Boy - is at risk of having his online name changed from the Happy Boy to the Bad Boy. He's terrible. Throws things, hits, kicks, makes a really goofy face and talks like a baby, doesn't eat, doesn't listen... OY... I can't go on. He used to be such a big boy, now he's a big baby. The terrible threes are coming. :)

5) I just heard a coughing noise, it came from under the table, so I peeked under and a smiling - almost one year old - looked back at me with a big smile and uttered the following words, "Hi Dada". Giggle. Cute kid.

6) Had a surprise dinner tonight as the Nanny, now referred to as Nanny B made us rice penne with a bolognase sauce (made with faux ground chicken instead of real ground beef/chicken. Had some red wine, tomatoes from my garden and it was super-yummy!

7) Happy Birthday Dr. Andy! You know who you are...