Monday, May 26, 2008

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

We spent this weekend with a child who really wanted to eat and drink to the point of having a tantrum if he could not, but then after eating and drinking, would throw up the contents of his little tummy – food not even slightly digested. In between all this was the odd mega-poo’s of the very wet variety seeping through diaper, clothes, towel, bed and whatever else was in it’s way. UGH. I was glad to leave the house this morning so I wouldn’t have to smell poo or vomit anymore… It’s was getting to be too much. It was everywhere! It's true Dads... Mums do have it harder when kids are sick!

Sick kid and all. we trekked up to Green Acres camp for a birthday party of Linus' classmate and had a wonderful time. We petted bunnies, sheep (babies too) and fed the chickens. Me, personally, I hate zoos and farms because quite frankly they smell like shit. I'm not a big fan of ducking poo here and there and watching animals take a dump. I'm still traumatized from seeing a elephant unload a whopper when I was young. It's was nasty and I couldn't eat large quantities of ground beef for months after. But hey, it wasn't about me and the kids had fun. Linus ran off an played on his own which he never does and Stewie wanted to eat. Grapes, specifically. One incident went something like this;

Stewie "Want gapes"

Urban Mummy "There are no more"

Stewie "WANT gapes"

UM "There are no more"

Stewie "WANT GAPESSSSS"

UM "I told you there are no more"... followed by a angry-faced hair pulling and a smack.

UM "Don't hit me or pull my hair"

Stewie "supid, supid, supid, supid, supid, supid"... (Read: supid = stupid)



Nice, eh? Anyways, there was food, games, shovels and buckets and a tractor ride. We all had fun... Except maybe UM whose jacket I left with the gift in the middle of a bench somewhere in the complex. Hope they found it before it rained or the sheep ate it.





Jedi vs Sith – That addictive facebook game! Damn that game!!! I have to finish all games before we leave for our trip (Wednesday) of I’ll lose by auto-win… Noooooooooo! I'm a geek. I know.



Now, for a more serious comment about family. Without getting into it too much, I have three cousins - sisters, that I babysat when I was younger quite a lot and got to know these kids very well. After their parents divorced, we kept in touch with my Uncle, but they went with their mom and we rarely heard from them, except for facebook… recently. Well before UM and I had Linus this cousin had a baby, got married, and I tried to keep in touch, she was now 27, not 7 and I thought as family the cousins should get to know each other, but to no avail. Only excuses. I invited her and her hubby to both brises and to our annual New Years' Day open house and heard nothing back. I did get some pictures for our grandmother so she could see the baby. Anyways, it is with great sadness that I find out this weekend that my cousin - now 30, had another baby - this time a boy, in April. No one in our family knew. She didn't even have the courtesy to drop me an email... Nice. I'm contemplating emailing her or facebooking her sisters to say something because I can. That's my style, but UM and my mother think I should leave it alone. Anyone have any experiences like this, and can offer some advice?


I'm stealing this story from Urban Mummy before she gets to post it. She told me that she was playing the new Barenaked Ladies children's CD in the car for Linus, and she told him as such. When she got back in the car with him after his parent-teacher interview, he asked to listen to CD again, but referred to the artist as the "naked girls". Cute, eh? Asked me the same thing after his last swimming class... "Naked Girls"... he he he.



We are all heading to the lovely US of A for a family function Wednesday and will return by the end of the week. This will be Stewie's (all 1 1/2 of him) 4th or 5th flight. I was 35 by my 5th flight. :)




Now, a new feature and tell me honestly if you like it or hate it, but /I took a few minutes and typed down some insane talk I over heard at the office this morning...

Overheard:

"Before Jesus came they used to sacrifice lambs, and humans to these G-ds, before Jesus came, whomever they are. Then Jesus came and said you don’t have to do that anymore… that is why I have vegetarian blood. You can’t get iron from veg so I’m drinking protein shakes..."

"If you had to take a rocket to the moon, would you not check the gas?"

"We drink cows milk because “they” found something they wanted to sell, so they promoted it and forced everyone to drink it."

"Coffee: caffeine – clogs your system – is the problem – stimulates your heart too much. Dehydrates you. Diuretic. I’ll go to green tea. (other person says: green tea has 4 times the caffeine of coffee)… Well then I’ll go to a lemon drink! Anything marketed is no good. I'll show them! I need more lemons in my diet anyways"

"Problem with blood pressure – is you have high cholesterol and the bad is higher than the good – chance of stroke is high. "They" want you to go on pills right away. "They" don't want to take the time to help you, they get money for the pills and not for helping you. If you're overweight – stressed – blood pressure goes up - must be sick. You're money for "them"."

"Sodium – ratio of potassium to sodium is 3-1. If not 3-1 then high blood pressure. People are taking potassium in their diets to even out the ratio... Yeah!."





Today is Grandpa's birthday and the kids did some artwork and picked out a funky hoodie that I didn't think Grandpa would like but they did and they desecrated - err, coloured - his birthday card... Hope he liked the effort. Those kids try so hard!



Tomorrow... Interview and a trip to police headquarters (details to follow).



Cheers all!!!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Where is the router?

Where is that stupid router? The new one I need to be able to use my lap top in order to read my email, my blogs, not to mention update my blog... Oh, we don't have one yet. Right. Well, I'll continue to squeeze in my time wasters, like briefly reading emails, playing that stupid Jedi vs Sith game on facebook (If anyone wants to try it out PLEASE let me know and I'll send you a request to join and that will make me one step closer to becoming a Dark Lord of the Sith, or Emperor, or something like that - yes I'm a geek!) I don't need to use MSN that much, or prepare for my interview tomorrow for a position within my same job that is a little more my style and less scary on a resume...

... No, we need a router! Urban Mummy, do you hear me?!? R-O-U-T-E-R!

That aside...

... It's friggin cold outside and it's almost June! WTF?!? Good thing I never plant my veggies until June anyways. This years bumper crop of heritage veggies should stand a better chance thanks to the two GTA blogger get-togethers (or getting the "girls" together as I've seen it written), and getting to know the wonderful talents of Assertagirl. I'll make sure to post regular updates of our pre-1900's veggies including tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, carrots (all colours), squashes, and a wide variety of herbs... Yum! Can't wait. Those, plus the raspberries which seem to be growing this year (not the blueberries, though), will make the kids happy. The same kids who took their new plastic shovel, rake and hoe (yes father-in-law... a hoe, not a "straight-rake", or a floozy, but a hoe) and took out half a hosta with it this afternoon while I cleaned out the shed... Thanks!

Still running! Find that earlier in the day (and not so cold anymore) is better than 10 and 11pm. At those time... I get tired. No shit, eh?

UM is not sleeping. She's been getting up before 6am and getting stuff done while I sleep in my coma... That is until she thinks I need to be awake and she lovingly nestles me up... OR ... the real truth, she elbows or pushes my side, saying, "get up, get up"... I do... Not happily though. ?I know you heard a sound, hunny at 6am, that sounded like a person in our basement and the nanny is away for the weekend... Go find out and let me sleep. :) Awww, it's that stupid cat... The one that tried to climb the screening on the window and is the reason why 6 pots of plants were tossed in together and who knows what will grow out of each pot?!? I hate that !!!

Awwww, it's all good. Spent a fun weekend with the family... kids are now sleeping, wife is working and in about 15 minutes after I clean up and put the dishwasher on, I'm going to iron my dress pants for tomorrow, and prepare my presentation for the am... Then it's a bike ride and bed...

May the Force be With you!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Time to re-focus...

It's time! Time to re-focus. Time to act, no more just talking! It's time for the 3-F's to take a more prominent role in my life... Focus, Fitness and Family Fun! (Hmmm, that might make it 4 F's... fuck!) I write this post having just gotten out of the shower after the longest (time-wise and I'm sure distance too) run of my life! I ran for 50 minutes and was not once out of breathe, or out of gas. I was just out of time (I wanted to spend time with UrbanMummy before bed) and out of water! I decided last month that I needed a goal in order to drop the 30 pounds of baby weight I gained with Linus (UM is such a great cook too!) so I set my sights on the Toronto Marathon, October 17th. Originally I wanted to attempt the 5K but I can do that now after a month of running, so I am looking at the 10K with an eye on the half marathon (26K). I have a work colleague who offered to run with me in a few 5K's in order to gain experience. It's all so very exciting considering where I came from - former fatty - herniated disk in my lower back... I feel good!

For focus, I realized I need to spend less time during the day on things that are not productive for me like coffee breaks and chatting with colleagues. I need to take care of tasks, to help me develop to where I feel I should be. Besides being trapped in a position where I have never been given a chance to use my MBA skills, I managed to get myself screened into 3 competitions (the government's way of promoting people), one in HR, one as a manager, and one as a senior manager. I still have hopes of getting into one in Finance and Admin. These jobs require skills and I need to focus on developing my competencies because no one else is going to!

I want to have fun with my family and to do that means getting out with UM! I need that. Now. I'll probably wait until after our family trip to NY/NJ at the end of the month, but I think it would help my sanity!

Well off to more stretching and hopefully book and bed!

G'nite all.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Tuesday Newsday (an urbandaddy original)

The news of the day according to Urban Daddy...

Swirsky leaving Toronto to take job with Bulls.
It was a family matter, Chuck Swirsky said of his decision to suddenly resign this week as the Toronto Raptors' television voice to accept a job in Chicago calling Bulls games for WGN Radio.
Damn! That really sucks for fans of the Raptors of listeners of the fan590. I liked the way Chuck called games


Premier McGuinty admits he 'screwed up' on Ontario pesticide ban
Premier Dalton McGuinty admitted Tuesday he "screwed up" when he said municipalities could enact tougher anti-pesticide rules than the province.
McGuinty made the mistake two weeks ago when he announced Ontario's proposed pesticide ban on Earth Day with Environment Minister John Gerretsen, who remained silent on the premier's error.
"I think what happened - in fairness - is that I gave an answer which was wrong, and I think the minister was unduly deferential," McGuinty said.
"I've spoken to him about that and I say, 'If I make a mistake in public, you should correct me right away so that we correct the record."'
Municipalities will be forbidden from enacting tougher bylaws than the provincial standard once the new ban takes effect in 2009.
McGuinty's error is just another sign that he's ill-prepared to answer questions about his government's major plans, said Progressive Conservative Peter Shurman.
Didn't I just praise this guy for doing something rigjt? Well, looks like I was right in the first place. Vote John Tory come the next election.
Note: I "owned" Mr. Tory in the facebook application buy your friends (oh yeah, he is my friend) for the total of one week until someone else bought him from me.


Study: Breastfeeding for longer may lessen weight troubles later in life
Nursing mothers who breastfeed for longer amounts of time may be helping their babies avoid weight troubles later in life, according to research.
Results gleaned from 17 studies over the last 39 years suggest an association between the number of months babies are breastfed and the risk of being overweight.
"One month of breastfeeding was associated with a 4% decrease in risk (of being overweight)," concludes Dr. Thomas Harder and colleagues in the study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. "These findings strongly support a dose-dependent association between longer duration of breastfeeding and decrease in (the) risk of (being) overweight."
Investigators analyzed numerous studies dating back to 1966 up to 2005, looking at overweight rates for children who were breastfed and those who were exclusively fed with formula. After nine months of breastfeeding, the effect on being overweight plateaued, the researchers found.
This is good news indeed, especially for baby number 2, Stewie, still going strong breast-feeding at the ripe old age of a year and a half. Linus, breast-fed for 7 months before stopping should be ok, considering he's in the 20% percentile for height and 50% for weight, we'll need to keep an eye on. Stewie is in the 90% percentile for height and also 50% percentile for height. Yay boobs!!!


Josef Fritzl: I deserve credit, I'm no monster
Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while keeping her imprisoned in his cellar, has complained of receiving a bad press and not being given credit for keeping his dungeon family alive for more than two decades.
Fritzl, 73 claimed that media coverage was “unfair” and “entirely one-dimensional”, given the fact that he did not kill his daughter and the children he produced with her during 24 years of sexual abuse in a subterranean bunker in Amstetten.
“I am no monster,” Fritzl said though his lawyer Rudolf Mayer, according to the German tabloid newspaper Bild. “I could have killed all of them, and no one would have known. No one would have ever found about it.” Fritzl locked his daughter Elisabeth, 42, beneath his house and fathered seven children with her. Three of the children – Kerstin, 19, Stefan 18, and Felix, five – had not seen sunlight until they were released by police last month after Kerstin was taken to hospital with an undiagnosed illness.
“Kerstin would not be alive today if it wasn’t for me. I have made sure that she gets to a hospital,” Fritzl said via his lawyer, according to Bild.
Oh yay! He didn't kill them. What GREAT Dad. He is totally right. The media is so unfair to parents who hide children under their house and abuse them and have children with them. He's a great Dad.
NOT.
Who talks to this guy? Why interview him? He's obsessive and crazy. Try him. Find him guilty, and lock him away somewhere for the rest of his pathetic life. He does not deserve press. The last thing the world needs is a copycat who thinks this is a great idea. Geez.