Monday, June 30, 2008

Randon thoughts...

Avenue Road between Wilson (York Mills) and Lawrence sucks! It has no character. Too many nail salons, dry cleaners and not enough family restaurants or destination shops. Geez, there is barely any fast food places on this strip - thank goodness - and it even hosts an army supply store... Odd indeed.

I recommend:
  • More family restaurants
  • Some nice places to sit outside during the summer to have a nice treat
  • Somewhere to eat breakfast or have an afternoon snack besides the bagel place(s)
  • A family friendly destination
  • More fun boutique-type stores
  • At least one nice adult hang-out like a jazz club where adults can go after the kids are in bed to have a drink and a little bite with other parents
  • How about a trendy movie theatre or mini-bowling alley. Nothing HUGE, just big enough for the locals.
  • Tim Horton's! Not the one in the gas station that I can't bring my stroller into, but a full fledged on with an automatic door.

Another thing I would like to see is a lightening of the restrictions and costs to have street parties over the summer. Not only is it a great way to meet your neighbours and get rid of unwanted stuff from your house, but on some of these side-streets, is it really necessary to get a permit (which the city covers in most cases) to block the street? Cars can take the next one.

We'd do one, but it takes so long to arrange and it costs too much. That is exactly why more organized communities have them!

Facebook allows you to "become a fan of..." so you can show your support for various things ranging from political leaders to TV shows, actors to music artists. Today, I saw the silliest one to date, and it had 128 fans...

Someone from my friend list became a fan of the moon. Yup. The fucking moon.

Uh huh.

Too much time on their hands, eh? LOL.

Wait... What does that say about me. Hmmmmm.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Stewie's first haircut...

On Saturday we took Stewie for his first haircut at the ripe young age of 21 months and boy does he look cute! We had Linus' hair cut quite short and together my boys have hair more like me. LOL. Minus the bald spot, of course.


Here is what I did after enjoying a very hot, sweaty 30 minute run on Saturday night...


I managed to find the edge of our bed with my baby toe. As I lay on the floor saying something close to "ouch" - not wanting to yell because the kids were sleeping - my lovely and caring wife lay on the bed watching TV, snickering, trying to find out if we needed to go to the hospital. Once realizing that there was no blood, she immediately gave me probably the same amount of sympathy that I would give to my kids, or to her for that matter, when she told me to, "walk it off". :) Now the bruising is just coming out and I'm wondering if it is going to affect my running tonight... My thoughts are yes. I just wondered if it was going to get worse as the day went on. I think it did. Doesn't really hurt that much, but I can't bend it.


Ever think about someone all day, then at the end of the day after you have passed up your chance to talk to them, wonder why exactly you were thinking of them all day?

Planted a few more tomato plants in the garden today - already with tomatoes on them. They accompany the pumpkin, cucumber and asparagus that I planted a few days ago... More coming tomorrow for our garden and for the in laws.

Either last night or this morning, UrbanMummy and I were watching the boys eating lunch when Stewie became annoyed at something. UM leaned over and brushed his newly cut hair, when he spun towards her, swatted with his arm and said, "Mummy, go way". He he he.

Picture this... You need to write a test to move up in your job and for some reason you wrote this test already for a different job and from that sitting you receive the following result, "You met the minimum requirement but your score was not high enough to be considered for this job". So what do you get out of this? You met the minimum requirement... Meaning, you passed! Yay.

But wait...

The job you want asks you to write this test again and to pass it. But you have. At least that is what the letter you received says. So you ask both parties for a score. Neither one wants to give you one.

You end up being told that the test was different and that your score really doesn't matter. So you don't write it, instead ask and receive a weeks grace, and then find out it is exactly the same test.

Yay.

But wait some more...

So you go back to both parties and neither one seems to want to help you by either finding the minimum score or by caring that you wrote it already and passed it... So you still have to write it, and if you fail this time... No job... Even though you already wrote it and you already passed it...

Nice, eh?

Welcome to my world.


I don't like beer. Tonight I had a pilsner. Some German brew in a huge green can. I didn't like it. Surprise. :)

Thursday, June 26, 2008

What I did today... by UrbanDaddy

  • Decided to register for Advanced Financial Accounting through my work if, and only if, they offer it in September. If it's later, then I will have to register for it through Athabasca University
  • Decided that for UrbanMummy and my 7th wedding anniversary on July 1st that we should celebrate by spending time in a spa that week. I learned not to leave this to the last minute. I foresee a nice dinner for her and I too. Yum.
  • I decided that no matter how you say it - in jest or not - that the term "Jew" - used to describe someone of the Jewish religion is harsh.
  • I decided that just because someone doesn't like you and decides to tell the whole world that they think you are an asshole, doesn't mean you have to sit down with them to discuss why they feel this way. Fuck them! All of them!
  • I realized no matter how over-qualified I may feel I am, many people don't see it that way, and that tells me that I need to look somewhere else.
  • I like to teach
  • I'm very happy that the Leafs got rid of Tucker, Raycroft, Wellwood and soon Sundin. Out with the old and in with the re-building group. Now I can watch games again and enjoy them.
  • I am tired... So very tired.
  • I need to get my ass off this computer and into my copy of Advanced Financial Accounting to give myself a big head start... I'll need it.
  • I look forward to one day expanding my family
  • I've grown up a lot of the past decade... but I still have a LOT to go.
  • I realized that even though I bought 4 more tomato plants for the garden - pink, green, yellow and red ones, and I still have room for more.
  • I really need to get UrbanMummy her own credit card... one she wont lose this time.
  • I really need to read more blogs!

Monday, June 23, 2008

and so the story goes...

I ended my scrambled post from last night with a comment about the way Stewie was breathing, "like Darth Vader" I believe was the comparison I used. It was midnight and I was just finishing up my post and getting ready for bed. I heard him breathing heavy and wheezing - with the odd sneeze - and figured all he needed was to sneeze a big sneeze or cough up some phlegm... I went and got him from his crib, into our bed and I think I realized at that moment that he was pretty sick when UrbanMummy wondered aloud if we were going to have to take him to emergency because he had a bad version of the croup.

Sure enough, after being up almost the entire night with him, and having him point to his very congested nose and say, "broken", and squirm around like he was in pain, and listening to him gasp for breath, we jumped into action. By that I mean, UrbanMummy jumped onto the computer to diagnose her son.

"Croup", she declared. Here are the symptoms and here is what we do to get him better. If he doesn't improved even slightly tonight, we'll have to take him to the emergency room.

With that, he fell asleep. And we got 2 hours sleep (ish).

Morning came and he was still having trouble breathing so we called the doctor and off I dragged my ass into the office. Once at work I realized my manager was away so I was trying to sort out team issues, deal with walk-in clients and assist the summer students with their queries when my phone rang and it was the number of the doctor's office. I answered, and it was UM asking me if I could meet them in the emergency room as she was taking Stewie there ASAP. I closed up my desk, alerted another manager and hopped on the subway to the hospital. Once there, we were led in almost immediately and within 3 hours, Stewie had received steroids and a mask to help him breathe. He was asleep but not happy. We were sent home and just got him to bed before 8pm even though he slept so little last night or today, he was (literally) running on adrenalin.

UM is coughing and is exhausted.

I'm beat...

Weekend update

Thursday was Linus' last day of pre-school - his graduation, and he was terrible! This kid is over-tired and I had to take him to the car for 15 minutes so he wouldn't be the only kid laying on the grass wailing. I don't know how to get him to sleep longer in the morning. He gets up at 6-6:30 and runs happily into our room, clearly as happy to see us as we are to see him (early wake up and all). I just wish he'd sleep past 7 again so that he would be normal during the day and our nanny wouldn't think he's the second coming of satan. Suggestions anyone? We bought blackout shades for the main window of his room.





Words a daddy NEVER again wants to hear from his 3 1/2 year old boy;

"Daddyyyyyy... ugh, gag, yuck, uck..."

"Yes Linus"

"I got pee in my mouth..."



nuff said.



This was a few minutes before he had to go to a birthday party with Urban Mummy. He was peeing at the side of the toilet and managed to pee all over the wall, the floor and into the garbage can. Some pee on the seat, some on his hand, shirt and yes... Some in his mouth. I didn't ask. I don't want to know. I told him that we never do this again... unless he's older and its a fetish... you never know!



This same boy that doesn't sleep well anymore is also - coincidentally or not - the same boy that doesn't eat anymore either. For a kid that doesn't eat junk food, his weekend take of cake, ice cream, cookies, marshmallows and juice was as surprising as the fact that he didn't eat anything else all weekend without a fight. It's almost like he was waiting for the junk food... I don't like that!!!

Speaking of weekend... Our weekend was super-busy for the 4 of us and we had a pleasant surprise. We had 2 birthday parties in which UrbanMummy took Linus and they had a wonderful time, and Stewie and I hung out and enjoyed our father-son time together. UM and I had a volunteer event to attend and instead of UM, I took Linus and we both had a ton of fun. Linus and I also bought some more veggies for the garden - asparagus, pumpkin, sweet 1000 tomatoes and cucumbers - we bought a fixture for the garage and 3 20Kg bags of sand for the boys' sandbox. We gardened, played and cleaned... busy and fun.

Definite highlight of this weekend was the wonderful solstice party that we attended on Saturday at the secret home of one Mamalooper (see blogroll). The guests were all really nice, there was a ton of things for the kids to do, and there was a ton of really healthy, yummy food. I, for one, had wonderful chats with some really nice people and although meeting them for the first time, felt very at home. Mr and Mrs Mamalooper put on quite a spread and did not miss a detail. Man did we have fun! Did I mention the tie dye station, the tons of bubble solution or the tray of fresh veggies at which Stewie sat in front of eating as many mini tomatoes as he could stuff in his little face. I'm still getting the driveway paint out of their clothes, so it must have been good for them too...

Now I must attend to a child who is coughing and wheezing and sounds like Darth Vader... Nite all.

Friday, June 20, 2008

It's NHL draft day!!!! Live updates...

Draft day transactions:

Toronto Blue Jays fire manager John Gibbons (and most of his coaching staff) - name Cito Gaston manager in his place!!!
Florida trades F Olli Jokinen to Phoenix D Keith Ballard & D Nick Boynton and the 49th overall pick
Ottawa places G Ray Emery on waivers
Nashville trades G Chris Mason to St. Louis for a 2008 4th round
LA Kings place G Dan Cloutier on waivers
Russian super-league (Continental League) offers F Evgeni Malkin $12.5 million per year tax free
Ducks name David Nonis - Advisor
Thrashers name John Anderson head coach
Flames acquire C Mike Camalleri from the Kings
Canadians acquire Alex Tanguay from Flames
Canadians receive permission to speak to Agent of Mats Sundin (boooo!)


Draft:

1. TB - Steven Stamkos
2. LA - Drew Daughty
3. Atlanta - Zack Bogosian
4. St. Louis - Alex Pietrangelo
5. NYI - traded pick to Toronto (for the 7th pick and 2 conditional picks) - drafts D Luke Schenn
6. Columbus - Nikita Filatov
7. Toronto - traded to NYI - traded to Nashville - Colin Wilson
8. Phoenix - Mikkel Boedker
9. NYI - Josh Bailey
10. Vancouver - in memory of Luc Bourdon - Cody Hodgson
11. Chicago - Kyle Beach
12. LA - traded to Buffalo -Tyler Myers
13. Buffalo - traded to LA - Colton Teubert
14. Carolina - Zach Boychuk
15. Nashville - traded to Ottawa - Erik Karlsson
16. Boston - Joe Colbourne
17. Anaheim - Jake Gardiner
18. Ottawa - traded to Nashville - Chet Pickard
19. Columbus and 3rd round pick traded to Philly for RJ Umberger and 4th round pick - Luca Sbisa
20. NYR - Michael Del Zotto
21. NJ - Anton Gustafsson
22. Edmonton - Jordon Eberle
23. Washington - traded to Minnesota - Tyler Cuma
24. Minnesota - NJ - Kyle Tedeneby
25. Calgary - Greg Nemisz
26. Buffalo - Tyler Ennis
27. Philly - traded to Washington for Steve Eminger and #84 - John Carlson 28. Anaheim - to Phoenix for picks #35 and #39 - Viktor Tikhonov
29. Atlanta - Daulton Leveille
30. Detroit - Tom McCollum

and so the first round ends! 10:53pm.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

For yee of little faith...

... Tonight in the UrbanDaddy household we celebrate! Celebrate like it's 1999... Or maybe like it's June 1st!

Tonight I arranged for a dinner trip to the Mandarin near our house (it's the perfect place for the family, especially for Stewie who eats his weight in food) in order to celebrate... make that finally celebrate UrbanMummy's birthday.

We've got food, fun, gifts, cards, toys and I'm sure a whole lot of mess, stress and crying.

If it goes over well, I'll post about it. If it flies like a lead balloon... well... read her blog. LOL. It's cold in the doghouse...

Monday, June 16, 2008

Overheard on a Monday... Returns...

The following are actual words and sentences that I overheard on a Monday morning while sitting in my cubicle minding my own business. I typed it and laughed... or maybe banged my head on my desk...

"Do they use cell phones in Dalai Lama-land?"

"If you use one you become a Tibetan monk."


On managing and the fact that a large amount of managers are "senior";

"Nokia...Let everyone go over the age of 35. Look at them. They know stuff."

"Finding a manager is like flying a plane – we’re all qualified but someone has to fly it"

"What if a clerk has competencies to manage? Can they?"

"These [management] tests are so hard, no human could pass them… just aliens."

"That guy (not me) was not smart, he was a phony with fancy cowboy shoes. He was a newbie… talked a lot to confuse people. Didn’t know that much. Or maybe that was just my opinion."


On it being a Monday:
"It’s Monday morning what do you expect…"

"I'm firing on all pistons"

"Did someone tell you that? I can guess too…"

Person A, "I’m in-competent”
Person B, "No! You’re competently deficient"
Both, "HA HA HA HA HA "
Me, Bang, bang, bang... That is the sound of my head hitting the desk

On politics...
"Have you seen the Conservatives ads against the Liberals carbon tax? They are paying taxpayers dollars to attack a policy that doesn’t even make the Conservatives look bad. It’s that Mulroney thing... He refuses to go talk about the slush fund Schreiber thing. It’s a Mulroney Scam. It’s like the Liberal Scam of giving money to friends. I hate the Liberals for all the money they gave the Quebec people to stay in Canada.

On gasoline...
Person A, "Gas is $1.35…"
Person B, "What… a barrel?"
Person B, "I just lost 3 years worth of a pay increase coming to work today."

... and so my day begins... Who couldn't have a great Monday after 2 hours of that...

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Tuesday Newsday

The interesting news stories for another Tuesday according to UrbanDaddy...

More chains pull tomatoes from shelves amid salmonella scare
The FDA is urging consumers not to consume raw red Roma, raw red plum or raw red round tomatoes because they may be linked to a salmonella outbreak in the U.S.
More restaurants and retailers in Canada and the U.S. are clearing their stocks of tomatoes suspected of triggering a salmonella outbreak in the U.S. that has sickened 167 people.
Taco Bell , Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonald's are among the restaurants in Canada to have removed tomatoes from their menus. In the U.S. , Long John Silver's, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Giant Eagle, Trader Joe's, Winn-Dixie and Wal-Mart have stopped making tomatoes available.
Rick McNabb, a spokesman for Cara Foods, said raw tomatoes are no longer being served at Milestones, Montana 's, Harvey 's and Kelsey's.
"As the FDA started to identify more specifically where the affected regions could be, that's when we decided to take the steps as a precaution to stop serving the fresh tomato products right away," he said.
Canada's food watchdog says it will not issue a tomato recall until a definitive link between tomatoes and the outbreak has been demonstrated. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said restaurants are removing tomatoes from their menus as a precaution. No illnesses have been reported in Canada.
This is why we should all be growing our own veggies in the summer, eh Assertagirl? and really why does this never happen to high-fat foods... When was the last time you were advised not to eat, say, a baconater, or KitKat because of some contaminated ingredient? Cause that might help with the obesity issues south of our border. You know there will be people who will swear off tomatoes forever because of this chick, Salmon Ella.


Fire the feds, Hargrove tells unionists
Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove says Canadians should "fire" the federal government over the state of the country's manufacturing sector.
Hargrove said Tuesday the government should be held accountable for failing to do more to control gasoline prices, the soaring loonie and unfair trade.
Speaking at the union's national bargaining and political convention, he also criticized the government for not stepping in to help workers at a General Motors pickup-truck plant scheduled to close in Oshawa .
He said the union's actions against GM – including a blockade at its Canadian headquarters – is a prime example of how the CAW will fight back against what it considers unfair treatment.
Only Buzz and the NDP would protest and pressure a company to continue employing people in a money losing operation. Buzz… Buzz off. GM is losing money. Either they cut jobs or they go bankrupt. It’s because of unions like the CAW that has resulted in wages being so high that causes problem in the first place. The employees are not being abused or taken advantage of. If they feel that way, they can always go get another job like the rest of the world does. Would the situation be better for these workers if GM went under? Then NONE of them would have jobs. Fire the whole Federal government, then all the unions.


Satellite atlas reveals a changing Africa
A new atlas charts Africa 's changing landscape over recent decades, highlighting the effects of humans - both positive and negative
Article history
Damietta promontory, River Nile, Egypt, 1972
The glaciers in the Rwenzori mountains straddling Tanzania and Uganda are fiercely disputed as the source of the river Nile , but a new series of satellite images show how they have shrunk nearly 50% since 1993 as a direct result of climate change.
Their rapid retreat, echoed on Mount Kilimanjaro, threatens not just the livelihoods of the 2 million people who depend on the melt water, but increases pressure on the gorillas who live in the nearby Virunga park, according to a new UN atlas of the changing African environment.
The atlas, launched today by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa , charts the march of cities over the countryside, protected areas shrinking as farms encroach on city boundaries and the driving of roads through forests.
Before and after satellite images, sometimes spread over decades, show Dakar , the capital of Senegal , expanding from a small urban centre to a great metropolitan area of 2.5 million people spread over a wide area. They show falling water levels in Lake Victoria, the loss of forests in Congo DRC, and the decline of plant varieties in South Africa.
Yup. Let’s keep abusing the environment… It’s just a joke, right? No more SUV's, toxic waste or Lindsay Lohan... Save the world.


Lackluster prospects for job applicants: Manpower
Facing economic headwinds, many employers will add fewer new workers to their payrolls during the third quarter than they did a year ago, Manpower Inc. says.
Manpower's top executive said this should come as "no surprise" in light of current economic conditions around the world. "The employment picture in the U.S. is slightly weaker than three months ago, with the construction sector continuing to struggle," said Jeffrey Joerres, Manpower's chairman and chief executive, in a statement.
U.S. job seekers "should find ample opportunities" in the services sector, he added.
"Employers in all of the G7 countries are expecting to hire at a slower pace from July through September than they were a year ago," Joerres said, referring to the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries.
He added that employers surveyed in France , Germany , Italy and the U.K. plan little changes in their hiring, with Canadian employers indicating "slight improvement" in their hiring plans.
Oh, for fucks sake… I can wait tables!


In the News feature
I take 10 people in the news, according to Google, and tell you why… UrbanDaddy style…

In The News
Steve Jobs – Iphones coming to Canada July 11th... Fucking expensive too.
Ken Griffey Jr. – hit his 600th MBL home run
Dominik Hasek – retired. Didn’t he retire last year?
Hillary Clinton – supporting Obama cause she wants power!
College World Series – usually has 17yr old kids with phony birth certificates showing them as 12yr olds. So much for fun and games
Xbox 360 – analysts realized it only moves 340 degree, not 360
Red Wings – have won the Stanly Cup
Seattle Mariners – suck.. Really suck. But they beat the Jays last night
Kung Fu Panda – a new kids movie - time to make kids scared of panda bears...
Social Security – much nicer than anti-social security

Monday, June 09, 2008

What's wrong with people?

Have you ever wondered why people talk about you - say bad things about you - maybe in a work environment - possibly to people who either know you or around others who will make sure it gets back to you?

Have you ever wondered when your work environment became high-school all over again? Possibly why you are so important that some people need to talk about you in a setting in which they really should be paying attention to... I don't know... work!

I need some loser-be-gone spray... LOTS of it!

What can you do?

Seriously...

Monday, June 02, 2008

I am an idiot...

...For not preparing to have a card and gift for UrbanMummy's birthday yesterday! For some reason I cannot figure out I decided I would get both said card and gift in New Jersey where we were from Wednesday to Sunday. I did not predict there would be 2 vomiting kids and one very ill wife to look after. Not an excuse but rather further reason for me being an idiot for not planning ahead of time. Duh! I bought cards today and she politely and as expected rejected them. Help! I'm such a knob.



One funny point from the trip occurred as my son turned 3 years, 5 months and 1 day old when he officially became smarter than his daddy. Our hotel room did not have a fridge or microwave and each night before bed he likes to have, "Milk in a sippy", that gets warmed up for 20 seconds. He has this every night. We after not having it for a night he asked for it the next night and I explained to him that we had no milk, no fridge, no microwave and therefore no milk before bed. Well, he said to me; "Oh, Dad, I know. Ask the manager! He will get milk for me and warm it up". I laughed and told him that was not possible. Well... I went down to the front desk a couple hours later and found out they have a fridge and microwave and they would be able to put it in our room ASAP. Then, I was told this; "Sir, if you needed warm milk in a glass, we would most certainly be able to get that for your son. Whatever it takes."

Damn.

He knew that... and I didn't.

So... You think you're smarter than a 3 1/2 year old??? Nope! :)



Another thing I found funny was when Linus and I were talking about him eating sweets. I told him is was making him crazy and he needed to wait a little longer before trying them again. He said, "OK Daddy, I'll wait until summer". I said, "Buddy, it is summer", to which he threw me a look and said, "No Daddy, its not summer yet... It's only spring"... Nice!


I just finished a great book, "Demons and Angels", by Dan Brown of "Da Vinci Code" fame and it was awesome! Loved the numerous twists in the ending. I recommend it. Today, I just started reading "Digital Fortress" also by Dan Brown... Hope it's good. :)


Go Pens!


So today I signed up for the 5K run @ the Toronto Marathon. I started running 2 months ago and while I have lost only 2 pounds, I have tightened the fat that is my body and lost a few inches here and there. Problem I have is I need a water belt and I need to drink more fluids during the day to keep me hydrated for the runs late at night.


I try not talk about my work because I don't want any conflicts of interest but so far in the past 2 months my MBA has been absolutely useless there as I have been passed over for 3 positions, 2 of them managerial and one of their helping to train staff. You know. I've been taking classes in brick and mortar institutions and online for what, 8 years in a row now... What could I possibly know about educating my peers...



Last item has to do with baseball. I joined a gentleman's league, mainly for the networking and going out after the game. I hate baseball. Can't stand hitting. Love throwing the ball (I have a great arm) and I love catching (learned to scoop anything near me) but hitting... UGH. At almost 6 feet tall and around 230 pounds you'd think I'd have more power, but I can hit that ball hard, usually on the ground between 3rd and short. First season in the league I hit (yes it's real) .863. My teammate hit .967. Then the herniated disk problem and now I'm a little hesitant to swing the bat. First at bat this season and I struck out. The catcher dropped the ball, I got to first base safely. Stole second. Got to third on a single and was stranded there. So far I'm 0-2 but I've been on base twice. I hate this game.