Urban Daddy

I'm still here.

2010-03-04T20:55:00.002-05:00

Well, not HERE, but I'm still around.

If you have not found me by now, you should look at www.urbandaddy.wordpress.com.

Come by and say hi.

Happy Friday!

2009-05-01T20:23:00.002-04:00

The Toronto Blue Jays are in first place and winning. The NHL playoffs are underway and I'm HATING my former employer. What could be better.

Happy Birthday Linus

2008-12-27T18:06:00.001-05:00

Today you are 4 years old!

WOW.

Only the good die young... Too young...

2008-12-27T08:15:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine passed away Christmas day after a 2-year long battle with cancer. His second time fighting this terrible disease. He was only 33 years old. He left behind a young wife, and 2 very young children.

Him and I got to know each other through ball-hockey. Him and a few of his teammates (including his brother) joined my team. We eventually won a few championships. Over the next 5 years we bonded. He met his wife, I met my wife, both of us married and the team continued to thrive. Along came children and both of us too time off from playing to spend time at home. Our paths crossed again at functions for the children. He was a good guy. Considerate, always willing to stand up for a teammate and he was respected by everyone. He had the job, the house, the wife, and the sense of humour.

We had spoken several times in the past few months just to see how he was doing while fighting this terrible disease and each time he would sluff it off. He was sick, he knew that, and he knew beating this disease would be a hard battle but he was very positive and didn't want to dwell on his illness because it was like imposing his misfortune on others and that was not what he liked to do. Always positive, always considerate of others.

In the eulogy his wife gave, she mentioned the same things. He left them with a confidence that they would be able to continue without him. We all will. But we will never forget him for the person he was. He was a great guy.

Incidentially, his brother chose not to attend the funeral. Apparently old grudges are more important. I also feel sorry for his parents. They lost their son and have to deal with people talking about the poor decision their other son made. It is not about him but he wants people to talk about him, and they did. He's pathetic.

RIP my friend, my teammate. I'm sorry we never got to have that one last ball-hockey game so you could have retired on your terms. Everytime I go to play, I'll remember you and your number 12.

Gone but never forgotten.

I have cross-posted this post to my new blog as well. If you would like the URL for it, please send me an email and I will forward it along.

Snowmageddon

2008-12-20T09:14:00.003-05:00

I survived!

Anyone else have any experiences with the storm that rocked the Southern Ontario / North Eastern USA? Only took me an hour and a half to make it home from the office yesterday... The ploughs made it out at 11pm last night... Nice! It's not like they didn't know it was going to snow, right?

Even had a chance to blog about it on the National Post live blog. Followed it on twitter as it became the top trend for most of yesterday.

Change happens for a reason.

2008-09-19T21:29:00.003-04:00

I've had a hard time posting here because I've had a lot going on, I haven't been feeling myself lately, I've been sick, the kids have been sick, UrbanMummy has been sick... It's been, UGH. I took some time off of work for vacation and decided I really didn't want to go back, so I'm not! At least for now. I've taken a leave of absense.

I have been doing some other writing of sorts on a business blog and on a marriage blog and if you have any interest in keeping in touch, drop me an email / post a comment and that way as things change I can keep you in the loop. Right now I'm going to continue to post privately and find my way.

Enough babbling...

I'll still come visit!

See you soon.

I did it!

2008-09-12T23:48:00.002-04:00

I finally managed to break the hour mark tonight from my run. I really need to find a way to keep all that sweat out of my eyes and off my face.

Now, if I could only stop eating so much and finally start losing some weight... It's getting so bad that my children's caregiver told her friend that I was "fat" because I "never stop eating"... Nice!

Thursday Thirteen

2008-09-11T12:51:00.000-04:00

Thirteen News Stories that have captured the attention of this UrbanDaddy...

1. Body Dumped From Car on 401 - Toronto police are questioning a woman after a bizarre attack where the body of a man who had been shot was dumped from a speeding car on Highway 401 yesterday afternoon, creating traffic mayhem. Now, news is slowly trickling out that it may not be a woman, and that the man may have been getting out as he was shot. Whatever happened, it worries a lot of people and gives a lot of wingdings some crazy ideas.

2. GM to auction off Hummer line of cars - Bout fuckin' time.

3. Kim Jong, Part 2. So some stories out of North Korea stated that their wack-job leader may have had a stroke and was in ill-health. What that means for the communist country, no one knows, but then I hear reports that this guy may have died 3 years ago and they are using body doubles that look like him to come out and wave, and they have old recordings of him they play to make it seem like he is still alive. I have but one question... Why?!? Is there no one in that whole country that can replace him? I mean if he's dead, that stiff from "Weekend at Bernie's" could do the job, no? Is this country really better with him, or the a pretend him in power? I don't know. I guess as Canadians, we kind of had that with Jean Cretien as our PM. He was there, but not really there...

4. North Korea has a massive missle launcher. So with, or without, a leader, some images from satellite's have turned up a massive missle launching base in North Korea which could be launched 4 times a year and could reach North America, I believe. I got an idea... North Korea, Iraq, Iran, the Taliban, Neo Nazi's, those chicken suicide bombers who cover their faces, and all the stupid street gangs can all go party in the mountines of Afghanistan - where Bin Laden is calling home, and all the good countries can blow the shit out of them... Make the world a better place, no?

5. The NDP lured attendees to a rally for their leader Jack Layton by misleading them into thinking that they were attending a presentation on their pensions. Nice. So the place was full there was a lot of noise and the NDP appear, on TV, that they have a ton of support. Well, forget it Jack, you will never be the PM, even if you try to make up shit about your family to impress the province of Quebec...

6. Conservatives agree to cut gas taxes. Yay. Not that I need a reason to vote conservative... Look at the options... Or lack thereof.

7. Liberal leader Dion... errr, yeah. I would vote green first. He talks and talks and talks and half the time I can't tell if he is speaking French or English. That being said, most of what he says never makes sense anyways. I would NEVER vote for him.

8. Jack Layton tells a news conference in Quebec that his Dad and brother created the first hybrid car in the 70's, in Quebec. Ummm, sure Jack... And you'll be the next PM too. See above note about never voting for a leader...

9. Credit Card companies "Sticking it to Canadians" with high fees. I'm shocked. Have they met the scumbags who set gas prices?
How can they sleep at night?!?

10. Theo Tams wins Canadian Idol... Yeah, and... I'm supposed to care? IKE is coming...

11. 9/11 - Sad, so very sad, still 7 years later.

12. A nine-year old boy was hit at a cross walk, while another 9 year old and a crossing guard with a bright orange jacket and 2 stop signs managed to just get out of the way. Why does this not strike me as being a driver who was distracted, maybe talking on their cellphone? Those are the same people who are too distracted to stop at stop signs, notice other cars around, can't change lanes properly because they can't signal... I hate these people and I want the use of hand-held cell phones in cars banned and drivers fined. Now. :)

13. Gas prices go up 13 cents overnight because... because why? Hurricane Ike is heading towards Texas, not there yet, done no damage yet, but on the way, so on speculation the gas companies all agree to raise prices...Fuckers! 13 cents?!? These assholes are the same ones who decided to cut production of barrels of oil because the price was dropping at the pumps, thereby driving up prices again. I really wish there was a way to stop using oil/gas for like a week all over the world to force these guys to compete with each other and lower prices drastically.

Again, I ran...

2008-09-06T23:31:00.002-04:00

This time I tried something a little different, I slowed down my pace, took a longer route and viola, 50 minutes later I was back at the house, having a drink from my metal water bottle, walking around the block to cool down before stretching.

I've been running for 30 minutes at least twice a week, but I found that I was running at a very fast pace and coming home completely spent. Tonight, however, I came home and was not that tired, so I am wondering if I am getting in better shape or my "run" tonight was just a glorified 50 minute walk/job.

In other news, we went down to the Ol' Spaghetti Factory tonight for dinner - the place opened August 1971, 6 months after I was born, and it doesn't look like it has changed one bit. The food was... good. The place was great for kids, and the parking wasn't even that bad. We walked around after but it was getting chilly and the neighbourhood a little less friendly so we came home.

This morning I took Stewie to his first Sportball session - Dad and Tot - which meant a lot of Dads and no one talking. I said hello to several Dads and some didn't even look at me, let alone reply. I have previously been to three Sportball sessions with Linus, yet all with Moms, and enjoyed that much more. :)

While Stewie and I were @ Sportball, UrbanMummy and Linus were trying out Karate today. Not sure he liked it. Besides the fact that when asked, he never likes anything, he thinks he is going to learn to kick and punch there. Just what we need. This morning he took UM's belt from he bath robe - he likes tying it to everything - tied it into a kind of noose, then proceeded to wrap that around his brother's neck. Joy. He was VERY unhappy when I took the belt away - not because I took it away, but because I didn't say please. OY.

Well so much for being in bed before mid-night. I have the unveiling of my Uncle's headstone tomorrow morning and ball-hockey Monday and Tuesday. Can't wait for the kids to start school on Monday. So exciting.

Go to bed!

2008-09-03T23:00:00.003-04:00

That was me to both boys last night after they combined to wake up 5 times for a total of 4 1/2 hours resulting in me getting a whopping 3 hours sleep. Yet... I'm still up at 11pm. Why?!? Because I'm trying to find a catch title for this post. I found that some of my titles attract more traffic to my site than others so I'm thinking of making all my titles from this day on, pornographic, like "hot sex", "free porn movies" or "hot girls", then I can post about me and annoy all the perverts and get tons of hate comments. Sweet.

But really... I played ball hockey last night and had quite the game. IT was hot in the arena, we were short-handed and this team needs me to eat up a lot of minutes and expects me to join the rush on each play. Doing that, last night, I was able to set up our first goal by planting my ass in front of the next and providing the screen. Oh, I'm playing defense at the time. Oops. I also got floor time at those important times, like the last minute of the game while down two men. We held them off the board and got the tie, and I blocked a screamer in the upper thigh right near... You know, and have this wicked bruise. As soon as that ball hit me I felt my toes go numb. Seriously. I'll try to post a picture as the purples role in.

So for some reason, tonight, I thought I could run, bruise and all. I ran for 30 minutes and the last 5-10 were super-tough as the spot where I blocked the shot began to tighten up. I made it home - soaking wet - showered and trudged my ass down to the kitchen where I type this blog post, half-asleep, unable to move. :)

At least I'm still on vacation!

Tomorrow brings more household errands, like washing windows, cars, and possibly painting... Joy. At least I have not driven UM completely around the bend... yet.

Nite all.

Tonight... I ran...

2008-08-31T12:42:00.005-04:00

... 40 minutes. I really need to start keeping track and running on a regular basis. My 5K run is right around the corner. I noticed on Facebook that a "friend" of mine just rant something like 16K. 16K!!! Geez!!! As if. I get bored driving 16K let alone trying to run that far. But I sure as hell hope that my route is over 5K because boy would I be surprised to find out that all this running is only, say, 3K. That would suck - especially at the Toronto Marathon when I run out of gas after 3K and all these other people are racing by me.

Some thoughts:

Why exactly are fortune cookies, kosher?!?
Does it not seem a little odd that most of us order Chinese food for items that have pork in them, and anyone who is ordering pork really doesn't care if the fortune cookies are kosher. I don't get it! Do you?

119 people drove 50K over the limit on Friday and had their cars seized by the Ontario Provincial Police... why? Are people that stupid, or in that much of a hurry? 50K over? If you really want to speed, try 45 over. Idiots.

This is the question my son asked me as him and I cut some of my neighbour's tree which hangs into our yard; "Why does your tummy hang over your denim shorts, Daddy?" Hmmm. So off the cuff, I told him that when I was his age, I ate bad food like cookies and cake and lots of processed foods and didn't exercise. Nice, eh? He thought about it, then lifted his shirt and said, "Daddy, if you eat vegetables and fruit like I do, you will be like me". I think he gets it. Nice. I remember being skinny... When I was in grade 4.

So now that labour day has come and is almost gone, I can finally look forward to a few items;
- Baseball playoffs - no Jays :(
- Hockey season - Leafs suck. YAY.
- New TV schedule
- Getting to know the kids school and extra-curricular schedule
- A new schedule for me to create to get me more sleep, be more productive and be able to be productive during the day.
- Next month Stewie is going to be 2. Already.

Last, but not least, comes from yet another rapper who would rather make up a name to use, than use the one he was born with... This guy is called P.Diddy, or P. Daddy, or Puff Daddy, or Puff the Magic... Ah, you get the point. Turns out this guys ask "Saudi Arabia" (nice reporting, eh? He asked the whole fucking country, lol) Anyways, he asked the Saudi's for free gas - why?!? Because it's getting too expensive to run his private jet. GAG. Here I thought it was for the poor, or to reduce gas prices world-wide, but nope. For his own needs. Dude... Lose the jet!

Me

2008-08-29T23:46:00.002-04:00

Every now and then I think about me, the kind of person I have become compared to the person I want to be and that bums me out. I really feel like I have accomplished very little and as I get older, it becomes clearer. Yes, I am married to a wonderful woman and we have 2 awesome kids, but I assumed life would include that for me, but there was always more.

Today, I had the pleasure of being interviewed for a former neighbour's Master's thesis on community involvement in the planning process and I was picked because she found that most of the politically active residents at the local level were quite old, and it was slim pickings at my age.

It was during this almost 2 hour long interview when I realized that for as little as I thought I have done politically, I have actually done quite a bit. That led me to thinking about my interests and accomplishments and I realized that I have achieved some things that I had quite frankly put behind me while searching for something else.

So here is a mini-bio about me;

Male 37yrs old
Married 2 kids, almost 4 and almost 2.
Runs - registered for the 5K @ The Toronto Marathon
Plays baseball and ball hockey
Reads - When not textbooks, I like Dan Brown
Runs a promotional business and/or consulting biz, when people come to me
Have a MBA - which I started when my first son was born and completed three years later
Like municipal politics - started a residents organization and have been involved in local events like the community clean-up and development related discussions
I write - obviously - like this blog
I have been working on a reality show concept, a sit-com (Canadian style) and a book.
I like to bake, and would LOVE to take a cooking class, get my motorcycle license and I can drive standard (Thanks UM).

So maybe I need to finish some of these open ends, but at the end of the day, I'm beat. I jump into bed, hoping not to be waken up by one of the kids, ready to begin a new day with a bang. I think if I could get into better shape that would make me feel better physically, and if I could find something to do that was challenging
for me mentally, I could enjoy life and redce my stress to take care of myself emotionally, but then again, what would I have to complain about then???

Tonight, for example, I ran. 30 minutes. Felt good. Now I'm ready for bed as we have a crazy busy weekend - Centreville, the Zoo and a BBQ with the in-laws. But, hey... I'm still on vacation. :)

Nite all.

What exactly is the protocol?

2008-08-27T20:46:00.002-04:00

I just don't know.

When someone posts a comment on your blog are you supposed to email them a reply? Reply to them in the comment section? Or ignore it because, damnit, it's your blog? Or... Are you supposed to then run over to their blog and post a comment?

I have no idea.

I appreciate when people comment, I try to read their blogs and return the favour, but I rarely, if ever email someone a reply because in most cases, their email address is something like "no-reply@blogger.com".

I need your help...

What is the protocol???

Thoughts...

2008-08-26T15:58:00.000-04:00

So you are Air Canada Jazz and you need to find yet another way to save money. You've taken away food, charged extra for baggage, and added a fuel-surcharge... So what next? Some wise-guy decided to save fuel, they need to make the planes lighter and to do that all they need to do is remove the life jackets. Yup. It's not like your going to survive anyways, right? Yikes, Yikes, Yikes!

I'm on vacation and I'm tired and getting fat... What should I do? Exercise more? Nawwwww. I took off my sideburns that I've had for 8 or 9 years, in order to make my face look thinner. Didn't work. I have sideburn tan. Looks silly... and my face looks fatter.

Maple Leafs Foods has been found to be the producer of food with the deadly Listeriosis virus - and Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment has been found to be the producer of a terrible hockey team... Hmmm. Coincidence? I think not.

Stewie got a letter from the tax department this morning - in the US. He's 22 months old. I'm thinking of calling them and letting then send up an auditor to count the money in his piggy (turtle) bank.

I'm also thinking about scheduling. My kids are uber-scheduled, and my wife loves to keep calendars in the kitchen for the family and her own, and my own, and we try to make sure they are properly updated. But what about for us, the adults? One big relationship concern for me - and maybe for you - is trying to find time to spend with your spouse / partner, to actually do something. So I think I have come up with a solution... Every Thursday night from after kiddy bedtime, to about 10-10:30 will be out of the house time. Every Thursday we are going to go out for coffee/tea/a drink/walk either by ourselves or with our friends just to get out and have some adult time.

Any takers for week one? :)

Things overheard on a Monday...

2008-08-25T12:41:00.000-04:00

Just a few more gems for this Monday;

"I bought bran flakes. They good? Lost 5 pounds this week".

"I went through the pantry and threw out 6 items this weekend. Not healthy. Wife bought ‘em and tucked ‘em away nicely, but I found ‘em and threw them away."
(Wont she be thrilled, eh?)

"We are way behind on the nutrition list…"
(... and maybe on the evolutionary chain too)

"I’m starting to make meals that are interesting…"
(Because before today, everything he was was boring?!?)

"They are claiming that leeches are safe to swim… in Lake Ontario…"
(Safe for the leeches, or safe for us?)

"They don’t want them to appear a toxic dump."
(I just write then, I don't say them. Who are "they"? What do they not want to appear as a toxic dump? I suspect they were referring to Lake Ontario)

"I’m thinking of making vegetarian spaghetti."
(Maybe that is what he is calling more interesting?!? Veggie spaghetti... WOW. What a novel concept.)

"It gets harder as you get older- nutrition – yeah, the brain gets slower…"
(Uh huh. Nuff said)

With a sickening thud...

2008-08-24T19:39:00.002-04:00

... I watched Stewie topple, with his chair at the kitchen table, face first onto the granite floor. I thought for a moment that I would be able to get there before he hit, but in reality, there was no way I would even be close. Seconds later - while he was screaming in pain and holding his nose, UrbanMummy appeared to take him and calm him down.

That was 6 hours ago.

Right now he is sitting back at the kitchen table having a pre-bed snack, while again trying to tip his chair (still not on purpose) while fidgeting around to see what is going on. He's either fearless or really dumb, and since all signs point to him having his mummy's smarts, there is NO way he's dumb. He is just intent on being the death of us.

Today alone he already jumped on the bed and hit head to head with Linus, walked into a wall, fallen twice on his face and wiped out at the hands of his brother. This is why he has learned to make "that" face and pinch. It's his self-defense mechanism to prevent getting killed by his brother. He's had a very rough tummy - poo'ed through 5 diaper wraps this weekend, cried a lot, had a low-grade fever and wouldn't let anyone touch him except Daddy.

Now the little dude bites his finger while eating snack. More tears.

OY

Thank goodness he's off to bed, not so much for my sanity, but for his health.

Thoughts...

2008-08-19T20:02:00.005-04:00

So rumour has it that Mats Sundin wants to play for the New York Rangers, eh? Hmmmm. Turn down $10 million a year from the Canucks. I don't buy it.

Why I love my son. Linus knows that we ask him what he did when he goes to see Grandma and Grandpa for dinner. He knows exactly what we want to know and he is usually spot on. Except tonight. Tonight he knew we wanted to know of he had cookies or chocolate while there - a no no, and he admitted to having some and that he liked it! That's new. He also said he had a bath. Liked that too. Then he said he went for a ride... in the black car... in a car seat... with no seat belt, he held it shut. Gulp. He was joking. Funny kid.

Last night at Sportball soccer, Linus actually kicked the ball twice during the game as he took time from sucking on the front of his shirt. I'm SO proud of him. I yelled and clapped and he looked really excited. I don't care if he ever touched the ball (not really) but I just want him to have fun (again, not really). :)

Why am I stressed out? I'm on vacation until September?

Anyone know where I can buy tax books? Like on GST, and stuff like that? Can't get them from a library...

Spent most of the day trekking around downtown Toronto with UrbanMummy looking for jewelry supply companies and silver beads... Found a few, she picked up quite a beautiful haul. Look for some of her fantastic stuff posted here.

What is the best way to get a child into a different school district? I've heard about buying a house in that area as an option, as I've also heard that tears work... Suggestions anyone?

Had my last softball game of the season tonight - and by far our team's best game although we lost due to some HORRIBLE umpiring. I went 3 for 4, my one out was a rocket to deep left field and I threw 2 runners out at second base from the outfield on singles. Made a few catches... All in all a great way to end a season. Ball hockey begins Thursday!!!

Things overheard on a Monday morning...

2008-08-18T15:23:00.002-04:00

Actual snippets of conversations heard by me, on a Monday morning.

On people losing weight;
"Imagine being 600 pounds, eh? Now he’s like 160… He is a walking testimonial."
"Yes, that is true. He’s a star traveller…"

About a woman each one met;
"What about that woman, she was, like 57?"
"She had cold hands. Maybe she’s hypo-glycaemic?"
"She’s nice. Actually, I thought she was pretty cute."
"Oh, I liked her car."

General... stuff;
"People that eat McDonald’s get parasites ALL the time…
(from no vegetables)."

"...Makes your brain get a little bigger…"

"It’s only one part of your blood. Microscopic cellular…"
(not a real description of blood)

"Can I get the hair taken off my back? My backside?
(UGH!!! Too much information!!!)

"I’m just telling you the story of engineering… of education… we’re not even near it… It’s money…"

"It’s all inter-connected… Some of it is inter-connected… It’s way out there…"

Politics;
"Did you hear the one about Harper? Harper the defence guy? It’s all about energy fields and so on…"
(I think he meant Harper the Prime Minister of this country)

"Alien is not the name of a creature, it is the name for something foreign to your mind."
(Believe it or not, this has to do with the assasination of JFK... Read on and you'll see)

"JFK was killed because he wanted to stop the war. He could do that. He was going to tell the world that there was alien life. They didn't’t want that to get out, so he was killed."
(Errr.... Yeah... NOT)

"The Dali Lama’s are fighting all the Chinamen right now… Can’t freedom speak?!?"
(WTF?!?)

Darfur. That’s a problem over there. They are killing each other over economics. Took them 8 years to get people over there. Could have been stopped. It’s disgusting.
(Over economics, eh? Wonder which one... Macro or micro?)

"I had a muffin. A muffin, the other day. A little one… Sugar rush to my head. Sugar is bad for you. Sugar and homogenized milk."
(OY VEY)

We're back...

2008-08-17T12:45:00.004-04:00

After a nice vacation up north of Toronto in a very kid friendly resort - which I will not name - but is in Honey Harbour Ontario. I thought about how to best summarize the trip so as to not bore anyone - and came to the conclusion that a few brief stories would be best. The weather was good, the kids programs very good, the grounds, were not to shabby at all, there was plenty to do - yet at times, nothing to do. The Internet connection sucked as did the kids lunch selection. Do they really expect 3 year olds to choose between nachos, french fries and garlic bread? Some lunch. Linus ate 3 cucumber slices and a bit of broccoli the first day then we got wise and started asking for fruit. Out came a huge bowl of fruit for each kid. Not bad. The dirty looks and glares I could have done without.

But the one thing that I will forever remember about this vacation is thanks to Stewie.

You see UrbanMummy was eating some of the yummy soup that they had available when Stewie decided that he wanted some too. "Stewie eat soup" is usually what he yells. She gave him soup and he ate it on and off through most of the meal. After about 25 minutes, the server came by and asked if she could take the almost empty soup bowl - we said yes and off it went. But... Stewie spun to watch her over his shoulder as she walked about with his bowl, and his face turned into a scowl. He started waving his first finger and he yelled, "Never, never, never, take Stewie's soup away!"

Yup.

So get this...

Every time a server came in our direction for the duration of our trip, he would wave his finger and mumble, "Never, never, never, take Stewie's food away!"... Every time. Whether it was our server or not.

He he he.

He makes me laugh. This 22 month old also got up every morning around 6:30am to poo on the toilet, but always forgot to go back to sleep.

We both managed to head out to the spa, I received a foot maintenance treatment for men, which was really ackward when - in a room full of women - they announced that I was getting a pedicure. Yikes. It was a foot treatment! It was great, but it was in no way a pedicure. :)

All in all, we had fun, would totally go back next year but only if they did something about the kids lunches.

The rest of the weekend was spent at birthday parties. I've eaten 6 meals since we've been home - 3 cereal, 3 pizza. The kids were crazy and I'm preparing for a super-busy / exciting week.

I am tired...

2008-08-10T07:31:00.010-04:00

So very tired.

Why?

This happened last night, not too far from my house.

About 4am.

The house shook. One kid woke up terrified. All the neighbours met in the middle of the street thinking this was a terrorist attack because all we heard for almost and hour was constant explosions. One older woman on my street who lived through the war was having a tough time because it reminded her of her horrible childhood.

Shudder.

Details sketchy at this point. Looks like a propane depot... A major part of the city has been closed, part of it evacuated. This is the first time in my life here in Toronto - I've lived here for all my 37 years, that I have witnessed such an event.

Thank you to Sci-Fi Dad for helping me embed this video. You rock! :)

Live tracker

2008-08-06T18:31:00.003-04:00

Have you all seen my live feed tracker on the bottom right of my blog? Tells me, and everyone else who visits my blog, who was here. Doesn't give specifics, but tells me that, for example I have visitors from Denmark, England, Ireland, South Carolina, California, Texas, NY, and a whole bunch of local ones from Toronto. Even a few just outside the Toronto area - Brampton and Oshawa - who come by every day.

Now, if I could only find a topic that would generate a shitload of comments, then I would have some new blogs to read and add to my blogroll. No pressure. :)

Thank you all for dropping by! I appreciate it.

What shall I post about?

2008-08-05T23:04:00.002-04:00

I can't decide.

Should I talk about our weekend at my in-laws cottage? The kids loved it, we really tired them out. Linus got to drive the boat, Stewie ate, played and did his little "rain, rain, goway" dance on Saturday.

Then again I thought about a post detailing my eating habits at the cottage - 4 bloody Caesars and a shitload of pork. You see, being Jewish, we don't eat pork... unless it happens to be at a Chinese food buffet, or on my plate at a breakfast restaurant in the form of bacon or sausage... But, boy did I eat a lot this weekend. Pork and alcohol... Not me at all.

Or, I could post about my mumbling the word "fuck" Sunday night and Stewie picking it up, no matter how I tried to change the word to fluck, flock, truck, fwock, or flax. After a few minutes he chose fuock and that was his word for 10 more minutes until he forgot it.

I could have posted about Linus' soccer and me yelling at him to play instead he stood beside the goalie waving his arms... Even the goalie tried to send him over to play. I'm THAT Dad. Yikes.

I could post about my 20 minute run tonight and how I really need August to be that month that I lose weight, tone up and run at least 3 days per week in order to prepare for the Toronto Marathon... 5K. I feel gross.

I could post about my softball league - rained out tonight - or that I joined a ball hockey team for September... or not.

I could post about the time I am going to spend with the family, the rest of August as I try to use up some of my banked vacation and continue to look for a new gig... This one sucks and the people are worse.

I should have posted about the great book I was reading this weekend called, "CyberTaxation", but I doubt anyone would care.

I really should post a nice post about a very nice BBQ we had at the house on holiday Monday with Mr and Mrs. Mamalooper and Mr and Mrs Smickoz. We had invited 2 other couples with their kiddies but illness fell upon them, leaving just the 3 couples and man did we have a nice time. Good conversation, the kids played so well together and I burned almost everything which sucked considering just the Friday night before I cooked a blue steak for my mother's birthday. I was so embarrassed.

I really want to post about the crap going on at the office - but it's been quiet recently. Turns out, the whole kerfuffle is all about 3 individuals who are telling a colleague of mine not to "be friends" with me... Yup. I'm 37 years old and this is what I get to deal with at the office. Well, besides telling untruths about me and really being rude to my colleagues, these 3 - of whom I have bought many a coffee for, and had to my house, given lacrosse tickets to, and spent many an hour listening to their problems, have decided this is what they want to spend their time doing... Not working of their relationships, or on advancing their careers, or on being a better person, but they want to talk about me. I'm honoured. I really am. But, I am SO not worth it. I'm nothing like they portray me to be, and those of you whom I have met will have some image of me and that is more accurate. I'm quiet and polite to those I am just meet and in my arena - sports, politics, volunteering or work, I'm an animal. That is all. Nothing evil, nothing fancy... Sorry guys.

I guess I could post about my kids, like Stewie not sleeping, but pooing on the potty at 22 months, or about Linus loving camp and on his own dunking his head under the water while swimming, or the fact my sub-zero fridge isn't working, the kids running around the house in rubber boots Monday, Stewie wiping out on the back deck while trying to grab the hot dogs I was BBQ'ing. He landed on his head but kept a hold of the dogs. I could vent about the jackass I did consulting for who never paid me, or the stupid trees still blocking the sidewalk as I walk to the subway.

But I just want to go to bed.

Stewie will be up soon.

It's midnight.

Good night.

What Daddy's do...

2008-08-01T22:06:00.002-04:00

At 7am, we get called to come to the bathroom by our pre-schooler, and after asking him why, we get the following answer; "Cause I don't want to touch my poo, Daddy. I don't like to touch my poo".

Puzzled, I walk to the bathroom, only to find the pee shield of his potty seat sitting in a toilet full of poo and toilet paper.

He's looking at it.

He's very unhappy.

I look at him.

I look in the toilet.

I look back at him.

I say, "Come on buddy... You have to be more careful", then I reach into the toilet, pluck out the pee shield, then wash them both off in the sink under very hot water.

UGH.

I wouldn't pass this up for anything in the world... Seriously.

2008-07-26T15:44:00.002-04:00

Heard the new song by the Barenaked Ladies? The one called 7-8-9? The song where they count to 10, but omit the number 9, and when asked about it, they sing, "Cause seven ate nine"... It's actually quite cute. We listen to it a lot in the car when Stewie yells, "789. 789. 789" Until we play it. Well... it would explain why Stewie counted for me to 10, like this, "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-10". So I ask him, "Hey, what about 9?". He just looks at me.

It is currently raining and my kids are dancing outside on the back deck. One stripped naked, the other still in PJ's. Me? On the computer. UM? Not really sure. Cleaning she tells me. Sounds like she's cleaning... She's missing quite a show, though. LOL. Brought the boys inside, ran them upstairs and threw them and UM in the bath for a bubble bath. Linus loved it... Stewie hated it. That was fun!

So after spending a busy Saturday with the kids walking up and down the main street, and in and out of the backyard, I figured Sunday might be more of the same, and it sure was. Stewie woke up around 6am, calling, "Daddy... Poo potty... Poo coming... Daddy". So in ran UrbanMummy to get him, but he had already pooed in his diaper. We changed him, gave him yummy-mummy-milk and hoped he would rest in bed with us, but after a few minutes, he tried to escape so we needed a different plan. What seems so long ago now, we got him dressed and I was going to take him for a walk in his stroller, but his yelling work up Linus and then it was on. Both boys were bouncing off the walls and finally at 7:45 I let them into the backyard where they began yelling and screaming, playing and eating raspberries from the plant. Thinking this might not be a good way to get your neighbours to like you, I whisked them inside, had UM help me get Linus dressed and after eating my homemade pancakes, we set off in the stroller for the park.

At the park before 9am, we played in the sand, on the slide and with some of the other kids there, until UM showed up, and we walked to Starbucks for a Grande Americano and some chatting outside on the patio with our neighbours, then home to meet a friend and her son for more play time, this time in our back yard. It wound up being 5 boys in the backyard - which wound down slowly just past 2pm at which point we woke up Stewie from his nap and headed down to the park in mid-town for a cousins 2nd birthday.

At the party, we ate (pizza, cake and fruit), played on the jungle gym and got really dirty. We packed up and headed back uptown to Grandma and Grandpa's for a BBQ with them and some friend they have known for over 40 years. We ate, played and ran inside as it poured just after dinner. The image of Stewie standing inside the door to the deck, dancing side-to-side, signing "rain, rain, go way. Come again 'nother day"... over and over again. It was so funny.

Anyways, we got them home, fed them and got them into bed. I hoped to have been able to go to sleep tonight, like last night, laying in bed with UM, hand-in-hand, watching Law and Order, but instead I went for a run. Managed just under 30 minutes - was dead tired and lets were tight. I needed more water too. Ugh.

Came home, showered, rambled through this post and went to bed. I'm SO beat. Spent like 3/4'rs of the day outside. Yawn.

Looking forward to the weekend... really I am.

2008-07-26T07:28:00.003-04:00

I already feel like I have had a great weekend and it is only 7:30am Saturday morning.

You see, in order to get over my summer cold in the quickest manner, I have been going to sleep between 10-11pm every night. This is early. That way, when Stewie wakes up wailing, I can get up and mostly function. Today, for example, when his stubbornness awoke at 5:30am and would not go to back to sleep in "Mummy's bed" (Hey, you little mutant, I sleep there too!) I plopped him into the stroller and out we went for a walk. Sure we got drizzled on a little and yes, I prayed there would be no one that I knew because my morning breath is enough to kill at 15 feet.

We walked up Avenue Road looking at the closed and empty stores, finally stopping in the Tim Horton's to wow the staff with his generosity as he dumped my change into the charity box, and his waving goodbye while saying "Thank You". We stopped into the bagel place I swore I would never go back into - just like Haley, eh? lol - and picked up 6 bagels for the boys.

We came home to Linus waiting for us, now wanting his walk, which I think we are now going on at 5 to 8. UM looks like she needs more sleep. I agree. We are all much happier when she gets more sleep. .

I think I realized this morning that today was one of the first times that I can remember going for a walk with just Stewie in the stroller. At one point he looked back at me and asked me, "Linus sleeping?" I said, "yes, Linus sleeping". He looked puzzled, then asked, "Mummy sleeping?". I said yes. He turned, smiled and sat back in the stroller. It was neat. My little boy is growing up.

Now only if I could get him to stop biting...

I stand corrected...

2008-07-24T21:26:00.004-04:00

Turns out this head cold is scrambling my brain. I was informed today by a colleague / friend that in fact it wasn't Gabriella that showed me how to embed links into my blog but rather it was this colleague / friend, a fellow blogger whose blog I cannot divulge because she wants it to be kept a secret. I figured that since Garbiella denied being the source, I will acknowledge that I had the wrong person... Until I got home and my wife said that it was her who told me how to do it days earlier... I'm so confused. I blame that on the cold. I give ALL of you credit. Any other tips and techniques I need to know about?!?

Clear as mud?!?

Thought so.

Today at lunch I saw "death wish", but not the Charles Bronson version, but rather, a teenager cycling down Yonge street, no helmet, headphones on and his kick-stand still on. As soon as that dude leans too far to the left... gonzo. Too bad I had to come into the office and couldn't stay for the show.

Looks like the 2nd week in August we are taking a trip up north to stay at a family resort. They look to have a very good children's program. I'm already looking forward to that and... that the week after, taking time off to run around the city alone... just me and my wife. Doing adult things. Of the events I am looking at, I figure the CNE we'll do as a family - with the nanny, and maybe we'll hang out with some other families, but just getting out to play tourist should be a ton of fun and I am already looking forward to that. Fellow Toronto bloggers... Any recommendations? So far I would like to go to the distillery district and kensington market, but there must be so many more sites that would impress my hun.

I just sneezed. UM said "Bless you". If Stewie was here and I sneezed, he would say, "Bless you, Daddy". Cute, eh? If I cough, however, Stewie says, "Thank you, Daddy". How friggin cute!

Loads of new blogs to read

2008-07-22T21:05:00.002-04:00

As a result of meeting some cool new bloggers at my very brief stay at BFF, I have totally re-vamped my blog roll to reflect some new bloggers that I intend on checking out on a more regular basis. I think I pilfered them from Gabriella's blog, actually. LOL. She did, after all, help me figure out how to add a link to someones blog name, kind of like I did with her blog. Thanks Gabriella.

So if you see me lurking around, I wont be shy. I'll post a comment. Nothing to worry about. :)

If you come here but don't like to comment, but want me to drop by your blog, I'm afraid you are going to have to leave a comment with your URL and I'd love to come by and say hi.

I'm sick, so I'm going to bed.

Nite all.

Well, she's gone... and we are back...

2008-07-18T19:59:00.005-04:00

... Actually she is already there in warm beautiful Niagara Falls doing whatever you guys are doing there. Three people have already called for her, most surprised to find out that she is there and I am here... with the kids.

I know deep down she was concerned about leaving Stewie for the night without yummy mummy-milk, but I knew he would be ok. She had nothing to worry about... until she called before bed and spoke to Linus. My cute, very bright little boy told her that he ate, "Cookies, chocolate ones, and ice cream." Nice, eh? I'm sure UM is wondering if this trip was the right idea, leaving me here with the boys. Don't worry hun. He didn't eat that stuff. Just ice cream, coffee and a lot of sugar.

I so wanted to make sure they slept for me Friday night that I took them, and my sister to Pusateri's, for a walk after dinner and before bath to really tire them out. It worked. My sister was exhausted. We did, however enjoy finding bargains in the store like a $2500 jar of caviar, an $80 teeny-weeny box of truffle flour and $125 box of cocoa. The barbarian steaks looked super-yummy but I'll leave that adventure up to my in-laws. They usually BBQ some pretty wicked meat at the house.

Saturday - while UM was still partying with the ladies, and apparently Sci-Fi Dad - I walked the kids over to the Great Canadian Bagel for breakfast with Grandma, Grandpa and their long-time NY/Aussi/Texan friend. We had fun, but the coffee at the Second Cup is SHIT! I hate it! I keep trying it hoping that it will be good, but all I get is under-flavoured, bitter, old swill. Man, if CaraFoods wants to hire me to re-vamp their Second Cup division, I could turn it into the next Tim Horton's, well not really, but at least keep it in a solid third right after Tim's and Starbucks.

After breakfast, we went to see the hairdresser that started cutting my hair when I was really young, like 7 or 8, and I brought the boys to meet them. I figured it would be a nice touch. They appreciated it. We met Bubi and my sister there and then the 5 of us jetted up to the Promenade Mall in deepest darkest Thornhill for a walk through the mall, smoothies, toys, and lunch at the Pickle Barrel. On the way home the kids passed out in the car, and still slept as I carried them into the house and into their beds. By 3:30 we were almost all packed up and ready to surprise the kids by driving out to Niagara Falls to this BFF thing.

2 1/2 hours in the car, lots of heavy rain, being really tired and wondering why we have listened to Barenaked Ladies kids album 12 plus-times (nice touch Steven Page with the cocaine... NOT). We rolled into what appeared to be a very different Niagara Falls than the one I was in 10 years ago for a ball-hockey tournament. It was busy, really cheesy and the tourist area not well laid out at all. It seemed very hick. I was really disappointed. This tourist area should resemble Las Vegas, not Death Valley. Besides being really pricey, it was not fun to drive though, but we made it and the BFF-fun was soon to begin.

Sitting in the lobby with my two boys for a few minutes, looking around, I noticed a gentleman stop, look at us, then ponder whether to talk to us, or not. He did. He said, "Hey! Are you UrbanDaddy?" It was Sci-Fi Daddy! Yay. Of all the blogging events we've been to - both of them, LOL - the only blogger I did not get a chance to meet was him. I like the way he writes, but usually don't comment because I don't want to be that guy who posts a dumb-ass reply to either a serious topic or to something I may not fully understand. Yes, I'm that vain. lol.

We chatted for a few minutes, then more bloggers appeared, each one addressing me by name. I recognized almost all the faces and know almost all the names, but the problem is that a bunch of these gals usually sit together at these events and both UM and I are hesitant to walk over, plop our asses into the action and join the conversation. Kind of cliquey, as I'm sure some of the non-Torontonians must have thought too. Odd thing is that they are all SUPER-nice, but I never get a chance to talk to them.

Maybe next time! :)

So everyone was meeting at the Hard Rock cafe in the Elvis room for dinner and for some strange reason we decided to bring the kids and to drive. It would have been a 15 minute walk, but it would have saved us $15 and a ton of stress trying to find a parking spot, then find our way from the parking garage into the restaurant... Not easy. Another mistake, now the time is approaching 8:30 and over one hour past the kids bed time, was thinking that a place as noisy and busy as the Hard Rock would have food for a pre-schooler and a toddler that was either healthy or tasty. The food, in my opinion, was bland. Nothing special at all. So besides being over-tired, the kids were hungry and by 9:30 led to a major-meltdown by the baby so off we went. I was hoping the toys would keep the kids distracted or the attractions in the room, but all we came away with was that Linus could entertain himself for an hour on the nickel he found on the floor there, and that both kids can now say, "Elvis sucks", when they hear the name. He he he. What?!? He does!

Night-time was touch and go, lots of waking up in a not-so-cold room, inside a smoking hot hallway. The kids finally woke up at 7:10 starving, and me, the provider of food - who forgot to pack enough for Sunday - waiting until UM went into the shower, then I turned on the TV, opened a bag of popcorn and that was breakfast. Please don't judge me. :)

Deciding that we were going on the Maid of the Mist, we ran out of the hotel for a $6.99 buffet that was a nightmare. This shit-hole had ok food, no fruit or veggies, no tap-water (they charge you for bottled water) and if you sit there and don't eat... They ask you to leave. Can't take a seat at a table for 4 where the rest is your family unless you eat. Idiots. This place is called the Country Chalet. Avoid at all costs. I had to ask the waitress for syrup and if it was extra because after UM walked out with Stewie, the hostess said to the cashier that my wife was "crazy". Hmmm. Not nice.
I got the syrup, and the bill, and waltzed over to pay where the line was not about 20 people deep. I paid, then recommended in a loud voice that they post that they will not give you tap water, that you must buy a drink, and that if you sit with your family, but don't eat that you will be asked to leave and then called an idiot, because if I knew we would have never come in. The hostess came over and said, "Sir, I never called your wife crazy". I asked her if she was a mother, to which she said yes. I asked her if her kids had ever kept her up all night and if she just wanted her child to eat and they would not if she would be frustrated, again to which she said yes. Then I said, "So we come here for food and all we get is attitude and bullshit. I will never come here again, and, as part of a group of bloggers, will make sure that it gets posted on the net to keep others from making the same mistake". Well guess what bitchy woman... You suck!

So I met UM and Stewie back in the lobby - they found a Tim Horton's - and we waited for the group to jump on the Maid of the Mist. We were told by 2 Ottawa bloggers (whose blog I will find and post tonight) that they group decided to meet at 11:30 instead of 10:30, so the 6 of us walked over together. Really nice gals, we chatted the whole way and they helped us keep the kiddies in check on the boat and we all took pictures of the fun.
By the way, the way, the only person on this ship not in a rain poncho... Stewie. He refused. He spent most of the ride covering his eyes while getting soaked. He he he. Serves him right.

We left the ship under pouring rain, and headed to the car to go home. A fun filled weekend, tiring, and all with a super-sore shoulder blade I hurt Friday night. Didn't help carrying those heavy kids.

We are home. The kids just in bed by 8pm (1/2 hour after their bed-time) but my in-laws took Linus for a couple hours, fed him dinner and according to him, vanilla cake. He was wild! If it's true, I'll kill 'em. They know better. He goes crazy.

I'm tired, but ready to start another work week without a major thorn in my side, who is off on vacation. I'm hoping this week will be the end of the bullshit, or that I am able to move along to another section or department to get away from the BS. I'm ready. I'm done.

Did I say that I can't wait for next year?!? I'm going to that one so that Sci-Fi Dad isnt the only dude there and maybe we can prevent everyone from referring to the event as having a weekend away with the "girls". :)

She's going to BFF!!!

2008-07-16T19:39:00.003-04:00

She's going to that Best Friends Forever (BFF) thingy!!!

Hooray.

UrbanMummy is leaving on the Mamalooper express on Friday and heading to Niagara Falls for hopefully lots of fun!

The plan, as it now stands, is that I will feed the boys Saturday night, then drive to meet her in the Falls, where we have our own pad - and the kids will be so surprised and excited about this one. Sunday is a Maid of the Mist trip - Linus will just love that! As well, I'm looking forward to meeting some other bloggers, seeing again some that I met here in TO, and quite frankly getting UM hammered and taking her back to the room. Just kidding. They'll be kids present. :)

I am also looking forward to having the boys all to myself on Friday night and Saturday... We're going to hang out, drink coffee, burp and giggle together... It'll be a blast.

It's 7:39pm, Linus is out cold in his bed and instead of sleeping, Stewie is sitting in his booster chair at the kitchen table playing with the place mat, feet on the table (for just a second) saying, "Name Daddy..." Then he says my real name (Which is not Urban Daddy... Are you shocked???). Over and over again. He has been calling me by my name for 5 minutes now, looking very proud of himself. I'm laughing. It's just that funny.

I finally have a cell phone! Yay. After almost 6 months. Look out world. It has a camera. He he he.

That "Shit Storm" has not come... yet. I gather my lack of interest in those who tell you to your face that you are a friend, right after telling someone else you are an asshole, is finally becoming obvious. I use this line often to others... "I have children at home... I do NOT need to deal with them at the office too. " Especially now that I'm busting my ass to get a leg up on some competition there. The last thing I need is children trying to make themselves better by making up and talking shit about me to anyone and everyone that will listen. It really reflects poorly on them! They'll figure that out once the dust settles, I'm sure.

Speaking of talking trash, I have a very dear friend who has been on the receiving end of some bad work stuff and this person, I recommend listening to "I Walk Alone" by Saliva, as loud as your ears can tolerate. It should help you realize that you need to do what is right for you. To hell with what other may think. Do you think they give two shits about you when they go home?!? Hell no. They just need to put you down to make themselves feel better and that really is pathetic. Don't acknowledge. Move on.

I'm still running. Trying to average 30 minutes a run regardless of how I am feeling. I find that my broken toe hurts around 25 minutes, and that has been my sign to head for home. I did manage to put in a very quick 40 minute run the other day. I was surprised with the amount of turf that I covered that it was only 40 minutes, but who am I to complain. If only I could lose weight too... Inches too...

Still looking for something different to do. Taking Advanced Financial Accounting very soon and dreading it already.

Have not decided if I am going to run tonight as of 9:53pm. My head says no, but my tummy says, hell yes!

A shit-storm is on the way...

2008-07-10T23:18:00.003-04:00

... It's coming for me. I don't see it yet, but I feel it.

It's not my fault... Well, maybe a little. I'm a nice guy. We all know what they say about nice guys, eh? I'm caring... Maybe too much about people who do not matter and for some odd reason I actually care what other people (strangers) think about me or those that I love.

Well that is about to end.

For some reason I see a dark brown cloud hovering over my head and it looks like it is about to dump on me, but I'll tell you guys something... I'm getting the biggest fucking umbrella known to man to weather this storm...

Bring it on shit-cloud. Give it all you've got! I'm ready!

Details to follow...

Sleep. Sleep. My kingdom for some sleep.

2008-07-06T14:55:00.005-04:00

It's 2:55pm on a Sunday afternoon and I am just finishing my first cup of coffee for the day and boy am I enjoying it!

This has been a hectic weekend and the beginning of another hectic week. The twist this week, like last week is that the kids are not sleeping their normal reliable schedules and while I may be able to exist on 3-4 hours sleep a night (every night for the past week and a half), Urban Mummy can not. She breaks down and she knows it. This kind of sleep schedule usually results in her getting sick. Me... I pull in a few extra hours here and there until I have more energy.

Last night was especially difficult due to the now regular 12am wake up of Stewie wanting his Mummy. You see Mummy is too tired to go see him so Daddy does, and since he only knows the middle of night Daddy as the one who tells him to go back to sleep, or to transport him to Mummy, he has a 50/50 chance of being happy. If I cannot get him back to bed, like 99% of the time, I bring him back to our bed where he gets Mummy-milk and I get a few minutes of calm pseudo-sleep before either he falls asleep or I take him back to his crib where he immediately starts wailing for Mummy the second I shut the door.

The problem with having either of the kids in our bed has to do with UrbanMummy's sleeping habits. She cannot get a good nights rest with the little furnaces right up against her, and since she believes in the 2/3rd, 1/3rd bed rule, when a child is in the bed, it pretty much means I'm sleeping with one leg in the bed and my head on my night-table.

So after a late night feeding session and both kids being up at an obscene 6am today, we got them fed, ready, UM showered and out to Whitamore farm to meet up with Mamalooper and family and another mutual friend for some pea and strawberry picking. A great time was had by all, and boy did it get hot in a hurry. After the festivities, all three families raced over to have some vegetarian dim sum. Stewie was the only kid of the 5 of them who fell asleep in the car - no surprise considering his horrible sleeping and that he ate his weights worth of strawberries and peas not an hour earlier. Many that kid saw the fields and must have thought to himself, "Yum! buffet". He did manage to pick only the best strawberries and the plumpest peas. He's a natural. :)

Yesterday was my sister's birthday - there are only her and I, UM is an only child so we met them bright and early for breakfast and then went to the mall for a couple hours to walk around and keep the kids busy. Both kids napped which is normally unusual except for their odd sleeping lately and we all had a new weekend after-nap snack tradition by all chowing down on our new homemade air popped popcorn. The kids recently tried it and its a fun, healthy(ish) snack. Later that day we played in the backyard with the pool, water table and sandbox and capped off the night with a BBQ and ate in the backyard. I waited until 10pm then went for a run. It hurt.

As this hot, humid Sunday winds down, I see that UM might have some sun-stroke (I told you, you need to wear a hat), the kitchen looks like a hurricane hit it - the more I clean it the dirtier it looks, and I still have to bathe the kids and get to at least one of my 2 baseball games tonight (doubleheader) in Concord (ugh) at 7 and 9pm. Tomorrow I have to be downtown to write an exam for a different job at 8:30am. I'd like to spend at least a few minutes preparing for it, but I suspect a few minutes is all I will get.

I'm watching the kids eat even more strawberries and having moved them away, find that eventhough one child can 4 pints of berries in a day, there is always room for more. UGH. I don't want that poopy diaper on Stewie. Thank goodness Linus has been potty-trained for over a year. All I am responsible for in his case is the wipe.

It's quiet. I'm worried. Gotta run.

Update: Got about 3 1/2 hours sleep - up at 5, left by 7, downtown for 7:40. Got my large double double and headed over to the company to write the test , scheduled to begin at 8:30. Needless to say, I was still in the lobby at 8:25. Test finally started just before 9 and finished just before 1pm. Besides being very tired, I had a wicked tummy ache (we can talk about these things right?) I barely made it through the exams. Finished, walked up to College to clear my head, then into the office to look after the charges. After work, I witnessed the fire on Yonge Street at Sheppard, then I melted home to get ready for Linus' first soccer game. He was CRANKY but he had a great time. UM, Stewie and I sat on the sidelines watching them play. When asked what Linus' favourite part of soccer was, he replied, "When I threw the ball at the instructor's head. I was so funny when he fell down". It's ok. They all threw the ball at the instructor and he pretended to fall. No instructors were hurt in the creation of this blog post.
I wanted to get to bed by 10pm to get some sleep before Stewie gets up at 12:30am, but it's 11:35pm and I suspect tomorrow is going to be a tiring day too.

There is something wrong with the world today...

2008-07-03T07:55:00.000-04:00

... I don't know what it is.

Really I don't... But I have my theories. :)

Seriously though...

I've been giving a lot of thought lately as to why I blog. I don't blog for other people, at least that is what I tell myself when it looks like no one reads it due to the lack of comments. Then, once upon a time I added the Google analytics and found 100 views a day of my blog and thought... why? Am I that interesting?? No. Is this a destination blog like some that I lurk through? Maybe. Are people coming here by accident? That has to be it. :) But then I wonder if people come to read but don't comment (and that's OK... believe me) is it because I do not write comment-worthy posts or because once people finish reading one of my off the top of my head, rarely proof read, doesn't make sense posts, they are too busy shaking their heads to comment, or, more realistically, after reading UrbanMummy's wonderful writings people are comparing the 2 blogs and are laughing as they leave. I'm OK with that too. I don't mind entertaining. :)

What I really found was that when no one posts comments I almost feel more free to post what I want and not worry about what others may think. That being said, I do know some people that read my blog and will never post and I try to make sure that I don't post anything to offend them or to start rumours. I hate to have my own thoughts and feelings used against me. I really try to keep my office life away from this blog, only posting situations which are general in nature and happen to me either on my way to and from the office or at the office - but not work related. I'm finding more and more that there is a poison atmosphere at my office and its becoming a problem. I need to stay out of it. It stresses me enough just going there every day. The last thing I need is for my personal life to become a topic amongst people who take great pleasure in bringing other people down.

That being said... I came across some articles that I wanted to highlight here.

Ontario has new legislation as of July 1st which states that anyone caught driving while under the influence of drugs may no longer refuse to be tested and can, on the spot, be required to provide a blood test, saliva sample, urine sample or Breathalyzer test. Hooray. That, plus the upcoming ban on driving while using handheld cell phones might actually allow drivers to pay attention to the road. Stop at stop signs, and signal. Oddly enough while walking home yesterday I was crossing the street at a four-way stop, a few houses from my home when a car decided that stopping at the stop street was for others and just as I passed the front of the vehicle, it zoomed past me. WAY too close for comfort. So I glared at the car (my headphones in my ears) and raised my arms in that classic "What the fuck" pose, as I continued to walk. Well... He stopped, pulled over, made a u-turn , then made a left turn onto my street - I presume to yell and scream at me for glaring at him after he almost ran over the back of my legs, and for driving like an asshole in an area that has a ton of kids. By the time he turned. I was waving to my wife and kids who were in the front window of the house. He wisely drove by. What was he going to do?? Lecture me on walking too slow? Fucker!

The second article was about the Journal de Quebec which finally settled their labour dispute over a year after the staff walked off the jobs at the request of CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees). The reason for the strike... Because the employer wanted the staff to go from working 32 hours a week to 37.5. GASP. So now these guys don't work for 400 plus days, don't get paid, and I'm sure whatever they received in their settlement was no where near the year plus lost wages. Why? Why? Why? I mean sure they claimed to have been locked out - this from articles I read - and they decided to print their own 5 day paper in Quebec (loyalty?) but come on?!? If these guys really didn't want to work the extra 5.5 hours they could find a new job. Why try and bring down the employer? If there was no union, I'm sure the employer would have just fired all the complainers and continued with day-to-day operations like most of the businesses in the rest of the world. I just don't get the need for unions in some environments in this day and age. Sorry.

Another odd thing that happened to me occurred on Wednesday morning on my daily walk to the Lawrence subway. I was stopped by a guy, who had his truck up on someones lawn, asking for help getting an item up into his truck. He said it was too big and heavy for him alone. Turned out to be an old bathtub. Probably cast iron. Thing weighed close to 500 pounds. He wanted to turn it end over end into the truck, but I decided that since I was in work clothes and didn't want to hurt my back that we should just pick it up and toss it into his truck. So we did. Then he offered his sleeve up by his shoulder for me to wipe off my hands... UGH. How gross. I declined and walked on to the subway, washing my hands very thoroughly as soon as I got to the office.

Happy 7th Anniversary...

2008-07-02T01:04:00.002-04:00

UrbanMummy,

It's been 7 years to the day that we've been married and 8 years to the day that we met. I knew the moment I saw you that I wanted - needed - to know more about and that one day I would marry you. I also made you a promise that I have yet to fulfil. I promised you that by November of the year we met - 2000 - that I would have a job that I loved and that I was proud of. I have let us down. You sense my misery and I know that you want it for me like I want it myself. It's only a matter of time that someone will overlook my current employer and take a gamble on a hard-working MBA / level 3 CGA or need some consulting http://nowconsulting.blogspot.com and that big stress will be removed from both of us.

I realized over this weekend that there are times that I feel like a hamster on a wheel and the more I think about what is important in my life, I realize that after you and the kids (and some very immediate family) I have nothing else. I feel like I've been goofing around, taking tasks lightly and taking way too long to get things done. I dislike my disorganization and am going to do something about it, starting today. I know what I have to do, for me, for you and for our family and these are tasks long overdue. I will complete them!

We have some big changes to the family coming and we need to be settled before all of it happens. Slowly but surely we are getting the inside and the outside of the house organized, but we also need to get the rest of our priorities straight so we are working together not on our own.

Let's make this year the best one yet.

I love you.

You husband,

UrbanDaddy

Randon thoughts...

2008-06-30T09:22:00.003-04:00

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.

Stewie's first haircut...

2008-06-29T12:58:00.015-04:00

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. :)

What I did today... by UrbanDaddy

2008-06-26T22:43:00.002-04:00

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!

and so the story goes...

2008-06-23T19:31:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-23T00:04:00.001-04:00

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.

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

2008-06-20T19:18:00.010-04:00

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.

For yee of little faith...

2008-06-18T07:47:00.002-04:00

... 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...

Overheard on a Monday... Returns...

2008-06-16T21:03:00.002-04:00

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 Newsday

2008-06-10T23:22:00.002-04:00

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

What's wrong with people?

2008-06-09T20:51:00.002-04:00

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...

I am an idiot...

2008-06-02T23:44:00.002-04:00

...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.

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

2008-05-26T19:29:00.003-04:00

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!!!

Where is the router?

2008-05-19T19:43:00.003-04:00

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!

Time to re-focus...

2008-05-12T23:34:00.002-04:00

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 Newsday (an urbandaddy original)

2008-05-06T21:36:00.001-04:00

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.

Tuesday Newsday (an urbandaddy original)

2008-04-22T14:06:00.003-04:00

Stories in the news that tickle my fancy, thanks to google.ca;

1. Ontario bans lawn and garden pesticides' It's the right of kids to play in the grass ... without compromising their health,' Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says.

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says he hopes a new ban on the sale and use of lawn and garden pesticides will allow children to again roll around on the grass.
"Our generation has taken to the cosmetic use of pesticides and I think, perhaps unwittingly, not fully understanding the dangers it represents to ourselves and, most importantly, to our children," he told a news conference in the back yard of a mid-Toronto home.
"It's the right of kids to play in the grass .. without compromising their health."
The new law, which is expected to come into effect next spring, would prohibit 80 chemicals and 300 products that experts say pose a potential health risk.
I can't believe I actually agree with the Premier on something that makes sense like this. And to think, it was just yesterday that I walked outside with my boy and took a deep breath of my neighbours freshly sprayed lawn. Last year we asked her not to spray the grass we share due to the horrible chemicals. She didn't. This year... She did.

2. Bank of Canada signals economic woes, slashes interest rates by half-point. The Bank of Canada signalled concern over the stalling economy Tuesday, slashing interest rates half a percentage point for the second time in two months and signalling further reductions in the future.
The latest move makes it cheaper to borrow money by dropping the key overnight rate to three per cent, a full 150 basis points from where it stood at the beginning of December.
"The bank is now projecting a deeper and more protracted slowdown in the U.S. economy," it said in a statement.
"This has direct consequences for the Canadian economic outlook, with declining exports projected to exert a significant drag on growth in 2008."
What does this mean? It means the US is bordering on an economic slowdown (or recession) and that Canada - although very dependant on the US economy - does not wish to go down that road. It also means hopefully lower mortgage rates for us variable guys and of most importance, if you have debt, now is a pretty fine time to get a consolidation load from the bank to reduce your debt load and reduce monthly payments.

3. Ice hockey: Sixteen arrested after playoff win by NHL Canadiens. Sixteen people were arrested for riots overnight, breaking shop windows and trashing police cars after the Montreal Canadiens advanced in the National Hockey League playoffs, police said Tuesday.
The Montreal Canadiens eliminated the Boston Bruins 5-0 Monday night to win their best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff first-round series four games to three.
Afterwards, thousands spilled onto downtown Montreal streets to celebrate the hard-fought victory, but festivities quickly degenerated into rioting with several police cars smashed and set on fire.
Sixteen people, aged 14 to 25 years, were arrested for break-ins, assaulting officers and damaging a total of 17 vehicles, including 16 police cars, of which five were set ablaze, said police spokesman Laurent Gingras.
Damage to the municipal vehicles was estimated at 500,000 dollars, authorities said.
$500G's in damage and this was only the first round of the playoffs... I guess hooligans need any excuse to damage other people's property. I did laugh however when I saw the headline used the word "Ice Hockey"... Stupid Associated Press... Like field hockey would have this problem...

4. Book Teaches Kids About Plastic Surgery - My Beautiful Mommy is a new kids book about plastic surgery. It was written by Michael Salzhauer, a plastic surgeon in Bal Harbour, Florida. The book details the conversation and process a mother and daughter go through as the mother gets a tummy tuck and nose job. Salzhauer says he came up with the idea to help parents explain cosmetic procedures to their children"It sounds like a joke but there really is a need to address this issue," Dr. Salzhauer told Reuters. "Hundreds of thousands of women have this operation in the United States. This is for a specific consumer at a specific time in their life that is going to turn their household upside down for a couple of weeks."
I really thought this was a joke. I passed over this story a few times thinking it could not be real, but it is. About a conversation between a mother and a daughter about size EE breast implants. "Dear, Mommy needs these to feel better about herself..." Says to her daughter, "You can have EE's too when you are 14". Oy vey. How come this is for women only? What? Guy's don't have plastic surgery too?!? Hey little dude, Daddy is having pectoral implants put in and his penis lengthened to make it with the ladies... Geez. Of course it's not for guys, cause we don't care. What a vain society!!! Now excuse me while I pluck my wayward eyebrow hair and shape my pubic hair into the rebel logo from Star Wars...

5. Toronto Jazz Festival Unveils Lineup.
The most important part of this story is the fact that my neighbour is playing June 22nd, 9pm @ The Pilot in Yorkville, as the Andrew Scott Quintet. Go check him out. We've been to the Pilot as a family to see him and the place was jammed. The show... Awesome. Need I say more! Here is the URL. http://www.tojazz.com/Pages/Toronto_Downtown_Jazz_Festival_pgS96.asp

Changes are in the air...

2008-04-22T09:57:00.002-04:00

I feel left out.

I had my list of blogs to read in my very little spare time from years ago when I started this thing and over time I have only added bloggers kind enough to leave comments on mine as a show of respect... But now, after attending 2 blogger meet and greets (I refuse to call them blogger girls nite outs), I have decided to totally revamp my blogroll to include many of the new blogs I have started reading and actually commenting on, and a great deal of them are from the very talented bloggers I have met over the past 6 weeks. I found a great reference list from Our Little Funny Bunny, whom I relied on to help me put blog names and faces to real names and places at the Panorama and I have vowed the next blogging event to make sure I am within a seat or 2 of Gabriella to help me ID the person I intend on speaking to. Gabriella, you rock!

So look for these changes soon.

I'm still trying to find a niche here at UrbanDaddy. Tried the Daddy talk, the sports talk, the random stuff, the business stuff, the Tuesday Newsday concept and the Thursday Thirteen but cannot find that great format to get me to post more regularly. Maybe I'll have to stage something, or post pictures... Who knows.

I will try to return to a Tuesday Newsday for today - I am off work today - allergies have killed me over the past 4 days. UGH.

P.S. To former Jays DH Frank Thomas... It was not about the $10 million dollars you would be owed next year. You were released because your batting average sucked and you can't play any other position. You should be thankful the Jays extended your career and gave you all that money. You should be embarrassed for your output not trashing the team for not wanting to be on the hook for your option. Go steal money from another team... please.

So I want to write a screenplay...

2008-04-15T19:00:00.002-04:00

... For a movie concept I have. For a reality show I thought up, and for a TV series that I could see on either the CBC or on Showcase.

Problem is...

... How the hell do I do it.

Anyone have any connections???

I'm still looking at the mens magazine and thanks to Denguy, have re-thunk my strategy (was that a word?) and need to start anew at a later time and date.

... and ... since the blogger meet up (as many of you call it, a "girls" nite out) I have decided to read up on some of these new found blogs and last night I found a "Mamalouper", and boy did I enjoy the read. If you need the link to it, I found it through "Our little Funny Bunny" in my blogroll to the right of the page.

More gems to find I'm sure!

Cheers.

I need a weekend to recouperate from the weekend...

2008-04-13T21:45:00.003-04:00

I'm in a creative baking mood, so here are a few "ingredients" from my weekend and we'll mix them all together and see what we get at the end...

Add:

Around 30 bloggers - most female
51 storey's above Toronto
A Metro Mama
Some Mac and Cheese
A tired - yet refreshed looking - Redneck Mummy (no pictures being molested this time)
A Don Mills Diva
A couple Silky White Russians - YUM
Rain
Swimming
Just Ducky ignorant parent chaos (lady, please take your stinky feet off the train table so the children who paid to play and use the table... Grrrr.)
2 cranky boys - both under the weather
Birthday party vomiting
Short naps (for the boys means no naps for Daddy)
Pending Passover cleaning and organizing
Coffee table dancing - the kids, not me... caught on video. :)
Stress
A slightly (more than slightly actually, but always great to talk to as the other Daddy blogger at the past 2 events) intoxicated Denguy
2 funny bunny's (Better than 1?)
Assertagirl - and great gardening tips
An UrbanMummy and Daddy
Low Grade fevers
A Sith Lord - I am
Nothing to eat in the house
and little desire to go to work on Monday...

Mix it all together, bake at 350 for 45 minutes and what you get is...

... a pretty great weekend!

If I forgot anyone from the Panorama outing, please feel free to comment and I'll make sure you are on my blogroll for the next get-together.

I'm still here...

2008-04-11T22:56:00.002-04:00

Hi
It’s been a while. I’ve had a lot to say, but no time to type it out. It’s all my fault… really. It all started just over a week ago when I unplugged UrbanMummy’s router to improve service to my lap top, and in doing so, I shorted the router and now it is destined to find a new home in a landfill somewhere. No laptop, no posting.

So what has been happening to me in the past week?

First of all, it looks like we are going to the local blogging get together somewhere high above the city of Toronto to a place that I (of course) have never been to. That’s what happens when you are born in the city…

Also happening to me in this life: The work / advancement / degree situation once again came up and again I am destined to remain where I am… Overqualified and underappreciated. Sigh.

I hate the rain. More than that I hate stupid transit riders who slow down at the subway entrance to shut their umbrellas thereby holding the rest of us up, and then have the audacity to shake the water off their umbrellas further soaking the people behind them. Then… They take their time strolling down the stairs. Fuckers!!!

I hate wind and rain because that means I cannot hold my umbrella in a position to keep me dry but I have to hold it in a position to keep the umbrella from folding upwards and in doing so I get wet and I bang my elbow on those stupid mutant garbage cans… OUCH.

I reconnected with an old classmate who works not too far from my office and owns a salon. Coincidentally I need a haircut, instead of butchering it myself. I love facebook for that.

I finally got Linus to eat some of my steak. He said he likes it now that he is three. When he was 2 he didn't and when he was a baby he couldn't eat it.

My kids... take a stool and the potty over to the coffee table and use it to get onto the table after which they turn on the music in the electric keyboard, then they dance on the table while Linus watches himself in the mirror... OY VAY.

New favourite show for a 3 year old... Wonderpets! Wonder pets, wonder pets, we're on our way...

NHL playoffs: Sens out in 4. Hope the Flyers and Wild lose too. Goon hockey is so 10 years ago...

Have you bought your toddler a "Smickoz" yet?? You should!

It's raining so I expect a kid or 2 in our bed very soon.

Yeah, thanks for the help... I think...

2008-03-30T09:40:00.003-04:00

What a great way to begin a Sunday morning... Looking forward to work on Monday. Not good. The irony is that 10 times out of 10, I'd rather be home with my family. Work politics suck! This is going to be a very rough week for me. I know it. It will define my future are my current employer (or lack thereof), but since I make it a policy not to talk about work in this vehicle, lets leave that alone for the time being.

Sunday. Today. 6am. Crying. Not over the monitor because I turned it off for Earth Day - and all the lights in the house (even unplugged a ton of stuff) leaving my mother to eat and read by candlelight while UrbanMummy and I went out for dinner with the baby group. Oy. Offtrack again. Crying. Yes. Calling for Mummy. So I went and fetched the little boy and brought him to the room. Very wet. Changed his diaper, UM breastfed him and we both thought we could score another hour of sleep before Linus woke up.

Nope.

Stewie talked, sat up, wanted water, to eat, his blankie... all that jazz. So I took him to the kitchen and he ate, and ate, and drank, and ate. 7am downstairs waltzes Linus, and he sits down to eat too. During this time I am getting food for them and Stewie is done so I let him down, Linus needs to pee. I take him to the washroom and while deciding if he has to pee or poo, I hear what sounds like a kitchen cabinet lock being shut and cereal pouring into a glass bowl... Odd... We finish up in the bathroom and upon walking into the kitchen I step on something that crunches. Then more. Then I look up and see Stewie chasing the cat with a scoop of her food, then dumping it in front of her, saying "Feed Lucie". She eats some. He rushes back, scoops up another and dumps it near her while uttering the same phrase.

The entire floor is full of cat food and the cat is trying to eat as much as possible.

I demand he clean it up. He sits down and starts putting it into the bowl. Then while I'm getting the food off the carpet under the table, I hear another noise... He went and got the broom and is sweeping the cat food towards me. Then his brother took over and within minutes was pushing to broom in little Stewie's face... Tears!

I can't wait to see how Linus' preschool swim class will go - swimming on his own, as he has been telling us for 2 weeks that he does not want to go to camp this summer because he does not want to swim. He even said he did not want to take swimming lessons... Should be a dandy!

Update:

Swimming was fine. 3 parks and rec. instructors and 6 kids. For everything they wanted Linus to do, he shook his head, no, then did it, in most cases quite well. That's my boy! Already suffering from a lack of internal motivation!

Help me!

Who is the idiot?

2008-03-26T21:35:00.003-04:00

· Me and my cheap ass payless winter boots that can’t grip the icy sidewalks, yet again this winter, or the ignorant asses who don’t clear ice and snow from the sidewalk in front of their properties allowing there to be dangerous ice all over.

· My old high-school friend who told us today during lunch that he was attacked by an elk at Jasper National Park for not running when he heard the animal hiss, or for whacking in between the eyes with a stick because it got too close to him.

· Me again for thinking that when you offer someone tickets to an event for free it’s because you want them to go, or them fir accepting the tickets by stating that they are looking forward to going, then telling you after the event that they gave them to a family member instead.

· Me for wanting to buy a replacement battery pack from our cordless phone at home, for $24.99, instead of buying the same phone brand new for $29.99.

· The guy who got on the bus with my work colleague and pestered people to talk to him, then when a young woman got scared from his talking and asked him to move - he refused - until my friend got up and demanded he move by yelling “NOW” at him, much to the delight of the entire bus.

Monday, Monday...

2008-03-24T08:30:00.003-04:00

News today that peaked my interest...

Canadian dollar dips to 97.42 cents US. OK.

Some US company called Bear Stearns did something today which leads the business news headlines and tells me that I need to find out what happened and what the hell this company does... News at 11. :)

So I googled "Bear Stearns" and the first listing was for the NY Times and the article is titled, "The Bear Stearns Crisis".

Hmmm.

Now I'm curious, so I read this article:

The subprime mortgage meltdown made 2007 a disastrous year for Bear Stearns, one of the nation’s largest underwriters of mortgage bonds. Beginning this summer with the housing slowdown, Bear Stearns has stood as the prime example of how
Wall Street’s big bet on securities based on risky home loans went south.
While many of its peers, including Merrill, Morgan Stanley and
Citigroup, have announced far more in devaluations, Bear Stearns draws far more of its profit from its trading operations. That was reflected in its fixed income unit, which reported a net loss of $1.5 billion, down sharply from the $1.1 billion in profit the bank reported for the same time last year.
While there were rumblings about the weakness of the subprime mortgage in the spring of 2007, it was the collapse in June of two internal Bear Stearns hedge funds that had been heavily invested in mortgage securities that kicked off the
full-fledged market panic that peaked in August.

This doesn't tell me enough about the company or what is going on...
Still curious.
JP Morgan Chase was in talks on Sunday night for a deal that would quintuple its offer for Bear Stearns, the beleaguered investment bank, in an effort to pacify angry Bear shareholders, according to people involved in the negotiations.
JPMorgan Chase initially offered $2 a share for Bear, angering the beleaguered firm’s stockholders who said the offer was too low. The sweetened offer is intended to win over stockholders who vowed to fight the original fire-sale deal, struck only a week ago at the behest of the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.
Under the terms being discussed, JPMorgan would pay $10 a share in stock for Bear, up from its initial offer of $2 a share — a figure that represented a mere one-fifteenth of Bear’s going market price.
The Fed, which must approve any new deal, was balking at the new offer price on Sunday night after several days of frantic, secret negotiations, these people said. As a result, it was still possible the renegotiated deal might be postponed or collapse entirely, said these people, who were granted anonymity because of their confidentiality agreements.
If the Fed were to reject the new proposal, it could set off a furor among shareholders of both firms that the government was preventing them from making a fair deal.
The renegotiation, which would set a sale price of more than $1 billion, comes after a tumultuous week on Wall Street and in Washington because of the near collapse of Bear and the hastily devised deal to save it.
While the initial agreement appeared to have defused the financial crisis of confidence that undid Bear, the initial terms of the deal — and the government’s controversial role in reaching them — drew criticism from those who say the takeover amounts to a government bailout of Bear, a firm at the center of the mortgage meltdown.
A new deal could raise even more questions about the Fed’s involvement in the negotiations. As part of the original deal, the Fed guaranteed to take on $30 billion of Bear’s most toxic assets. The central bank also directed JPMorgan to pay no more than $2 a share for Bear to assure that it would not appear that the Bear shareholders were being rescued, according to people involved in the negotiations.
In television interviews last week, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who has been closely involved in the negotiations, sought to portray the agreement not as a rescue effort but as a way to provide stability for the entire financial markets. “Let me say that the Bear Stearns situation has been very painful for the Bear Stearns shareholders,” Mr. Paulson said, referring to the $2 a share price. “So I don’t think that they think that they’ve been bailed out here.”
If the price is increased, however, some critics could have more ammunition to complain that taxpayers are helping to bail out a Wall Street firm that should be responsible for its own risky behavior. That is one reason the Fed was hesitant on Sunday night to approve the transaction at $10 a share, people briefed on the talks said.
Ahhh. Here is why it is so important to keep this company alive...
Inside Bear, the vitriol over that bargain-basement price was palpable last week. Bear employees own more than a third of Bear’s stock, and many longtime employees faced the prospect of losing all their savings. On Monday, some were seen crying in the hallways of the firm’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters.
One employee started a Web site to rally opposition to the deal. Some employees said they talked back to their new supervisors from JPMorgan, which commandeered desks and conference rooms after being given operational control of the firm last week.
The new price would still be a small fraction of what Bear Stearns was worth before its recent meltdown. Its shares were trading at about $67 two weeks ago and as high as $170 a year ago. So $2 a share, or even $10 a share is a fraction of what the company was worth.
Even after JPMorgan announced that it would acquire Bear for $2 a share, investors bid up the stock to close at $5.96 on Friday in anticipation that a better deal would be reached.
Some of Bear’s largest shareholders have even considered voting down the deal to send the firm into bankruptcy protection, where they speculate they might get more than $2 a share from creditors.
The British billionaire financier Joe Lewis, the firm’s largest shareholder, who had invested $1.26 billion in Bear over the last year at an average price of about $104, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he would seek to block the deal by taking “whatever action” necessary and would “encourage” the firm and “third parties to consider other strategic transactions.”
He and James E. Cayne, Bear’s chairman, were talking informally to friends and others about finding investors to mount a rival bid.
A major aim of a new agreement would be to provide assurances to investors who trade with Bear that it will continue to be open for business. Even with JPMorgan’s original agreement in place last week, some of Bear’s largest customers would not trade with it, still nervous that the deal might unravel.
James Dimon, JP Morgan CEO even offered certain employees cash and stock incentives to stay on and made calls to his rival chief executives on Wall Street — John J. Mack at Morgan Stanley and John A. Thain at Merrill Lynch, among them — pleading with them not to recruit Bear employees during the transition.
Moreover, Mr. Dimon, who had indignantly told associates that he would “send Bear back into bankruptcy” if the deal was struck down, was persuaded by his advisers that he had less leverage than he thought, according to people briefed on the conversation. Such vindictive behavior, they told him, would turn into a legal and public relations nightmare.
So interesting that all these US companies that made so much money giving out mortgages to US citizens who would normally not qualify for one, and then after taking they interest payments and foreclosing on their houses when they missed payments (being able to then sell the house for close to full resale value) and now crying foul and seeking government relief when their business hits a downturn and they can no longer continue to operate and earn $107/share. I'm crying for them... NOT. This is exactly why I refuse to play the market AND should there not be some sort of legal action against company's that make money praying on the poor and uneducated - the majority of people who lost their houses and savings in this type of situation. Very similar to the problem with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two US mortgage firms who went belly up and lost a ton of cash doing the same thing... Will people never learn???
So if you made it this far, congratulations, you get an "A" in economics too. You must also surely have some strong feelings towards government (taxpayer) bailout of firms like these and I would love to hear about it. I know somewhere, my professor, Dr. Moody would be proud.
I really agree that the type of instruments being traded, and greed, which has brought this about - sharing blame with the fall in the real estate market. It is the private trading of complex instruments that worries regulators and Wall Street and that have created stresses in the broader economy. Economic downturns and panics have occurred before, of course. Few, however, have posed such a serious threat to the entire financial system that regulators have responded as if they were confronting a potential epidemic.
A big problem has to do with the dizzying array of innovative products created by the biggest banks and brokerage firms that experts now acknowledge are hard to understand and even harder to value. In the past decade, there has been an explosion in complex derivative instruments, such as collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps, which were intended primarily to transfer risk. These products are virtually hidden from investors, analysts and regulators, even though they have emerged as one of Wall Street’s most outsized profit engines. They don’t trade openly on public exchanges, and financial services firms disclose few details about them.
Used judiciously, derivatives can limit the damage from financial miscues and uncertainty, greasing the wheels of commerce. Used unwisely — when greed and the urge to gamble with borrowed money overtake sensible risk-taking — derivatives can become Wall Street’s version of nitroglycerin.
Bear Stearns’s vast portfolio of these exact instruments was among the main reasons for the bank’s collapse, but derivatives are buried in the accounts of just about every Wall Street firm, as well as major commercial banks like JPMorgan Chase.
What’s more, these exotic investments have been exported all over the globe, causing losses in places as distant from Wall Street as a small Norwegian town north of the Arctic Circle, so more fallout is expected.
Only time will tell.
So here is how it all played out... JPMorgan Chase bought 39.5% of the shares - newly issued stock - at $10.00 a share, and this leaves JPMorgan on the hook for the first billion dollars of losses, then the US government on the hook for any losses after that. As of 10:12 this morning, trading in Bear Stearns was up over 75% and the stock was climbing to $11/share. JPMorgan stock was also climbing on the news.

The week that is / was...

2008-03-22T23:10:00.000-04:00

I joined a ball hockey team to try and get into some shape other than the one I'm in right now and so far it's been just like I suspected it would be... If you hate sports, tune out right now.
I missed this teams first 2 games and in those games, they lost 8-1 and 9-0. I was told they needed defense. I play defense. Hmmm. 1st game on the team, 3-0 loss. I barely make it through 3 shifts and stagger to get off the bench for the rest. Too fucking tired. Stupid 11pm games. I'm now wondering if this comeback was a good idea... Game 2 was Good Friday night and it went MUCH better. We lost 2-1, but I made it though the game without getting tired at all. So in two games, I have not been on for a goal against, or one for, but I'm holding my own. Fun. It helped that I went for a jog twice this week. One 15 minute sleep fest and one 30 minute jog that
I had to halt because it was late, or I could have gone longer!

I love my kids. They make me laugh. Little Stewie almost made me throw up the other day. You see, when he hurts his hands or arms, he holds it up to us, grunts something and then we lean over and kiss it. He stops whining or crying and goes back to what he was doing. So what did he do??? Well I was changing his diaper and failed to see him picking his nose, so when he held out his finger and grunted at me, I instinctively kissed his finger. UGH. Came away with a wet booger on my lip. UGH UGH UGH. Told you. Pretty fucking gross, eh? Needless to say, I look at his fingers now before I kiss them.

On March 15th we went to see We Will Rock You, the gift UrbanMummy bought me for my birthday and had a great time. The music was GREAT and the play... Well... corny, but the music made it alright. I even really got into the play as it went on. Good character development.

So I put up a "no solicitors" sign on my mailbox to stop the numerous illegitimate peddlers that come to our door, and the first day it was up a kid came by selling something. I answered the door. Stood looking at him, and every time I tried to speak he talked over me. I was not listening. I pointed to the sign. He kept talking. I said, "hey, no solicitors". He kept talking. UrbanMummy came down, said "We're not interested" and she shut the door. Hmmm. Shutting the door. Nice!

The Leafs keep winning and are still not going to make the playoffs. All they are doing is missing out on a good draft pick. Stupid. I cringe when the win. So very sad.

My sources tell me we are heading into recessionary times... Interest rates are going down. Time to consider buying a bigger house!

If I had pictures...

2008-03-14T20:29:00.003-04:00

... or if UrbanMummy would share the pictures she takes of the kids and us, I would be able to:

Change my facebook profile picture... finally.
Show a picture of Linus standing beside the snow on our front lawn, and how it towers over him.
Post a picture of Linus standing on the giant glacier that was our front lawn.
Post a picture of Linus climbing into the tunnel I started to dig for him into the side of snow mountain that became the place he keeps his sled.
Post a picture of Stewie trying to help me shoval, not with his shoval, but with my shoval.
Post a video of my boys playing the keyboard and having a hell of a good time rocking out to it.
Post a picture of a beautiful mummy and her gorgeous boys looking into each others eyes.
Change my MSN profile picture.
Change my computer wall-paper.
Email pictures to my neighbour - of my neighbour - asking them to close their blinds in the dusk...
I could post a picture of my 2 boys eating dinner. The older one, eating bread, rice and plain pasta (carb-boy), and the younger one eating meat, grapes and pasta only with sauce.
I could post a picture of the closet we were having installed into the basement - which began over 7 months ago - still NOT finished, and ask if any local bloggers have a reliable handyman to recommend.
I could post a picture of UrbanMummy sleeping at night with all the covers in the middle of the bed, then one of me in the morning with all the covers, somehow. Actually a video might prove to be more entertaining.
I could post pictures of my boys with their security blankets - g-d forbid if one takes the others... That is worth biting over...
I could post a picture of my smile (I've been told I have a nice smile) after tomorrow night when we come back from seeing We Will Rock You, with the tickets UrbanMummy gave me for my firthday last month.
I would totally post 2 pictures of me from yesterday. One would be from 9:30pm as I paced the house frantically waiting to go play my first game of ball-hockey in 2 years at 11pm, and the other from when I finally got into bed just past 3am, looking way too exhausted and old to be playing kids games... Eh Denguy? :)
I would post pictures of all the shit in the garage that we are trying to sell on craigslist and freecycle, like the small wineracks, baby toys, dresser, books, rollerblades, etc., that has been clogging up the garage all winter.
The last picture I'd post would be the one I have of my family. The most precious things in my life. The four of us take quite a smiley picture whenever we can get someone to offer to snap pics of us.

Coda Magazine

2008-03-09T01:09:00.000-05:00

My friend and neighbour is the editor of a Jazz magazine called Coda. This year it is celebrating it's 50th year of publication. The magazine's web-site is http://www.coda1958.com/. Go check it out! I was there Friday with a few colleagues who are jazz musicians themselves.

Better yet, buy a subscription for that family member or friend that loves jazz.

Support your Canadian Jazz musicians!!!

Calling all wannabe writers...

2008-03-02T22:25:00.001-05:00

... I may have an opportunity for you.

But first I need you to keep it secret.

OK?

Great.

Thanks.

I'm starting an online men's magazine. For real men. Men like your husbands, neighbours, fathers, and the kind of men you want your boys to grow up to be and daughters to marry. That guy. Or if you are one of the few men who read my blog, then it is for you!

Why you ask?

Let me tell you a little story... It all happened a long time ago in a Shoppers Drug Mart across the street from my office. My friends checked out the magazines and I decided to look too. I was dumbfounded that all the magazines for men were either ones like Maxim - air brushed women, or like Men's health - steroid pumped up men, offering "rock-hard abs in 10 days". Unrealistic. Then there was GQ, hunting and fishing, some financial ones, and other crap and more crap. There was nothing for me. Nothing for the middle-class - above middle-class dude who wants to know about women, finance, health, education, etc., to help them with their life, their kids, discussing real issues, not to figure out how to lie to a girl you met in a bar by telling her you are a diplomat...

So this is the magazine I want to create.

I have an editor, and a few interested parties to co-publish the magazine in conjunction with a new - yet to be released - dating site and online talk show. It looks like it is really going to happen. But I need writers. If you are interested in potentially getting on board at the beginning, send me an article on any topic you think would be applicable to the average guy, and I'll forward the lot to the editor and see if something works. I'm not sure how this magazine goes from creation to a money-making venture but I'm assured that once sponsors and advertisers get wind of it, it'll be a success. That being said, once it gets backing, you will be reimbursed if you are selected.

Even if you toss in one article, or a bunch of them, we'll make you proud.

Thanks!

Sucks to be me...

2008-03-01T23:51:00.001-05:00

I'm sick. I hate being sick, I really do. Have no patience for it.

Worse of all is the fact that I'm coughing for the first time since I herniated a disk in my back almost a year and a half ago, and then, it killed me every time I coughed... This time... It's put my back out and I'm having a hard time moving, walking and picking up the kiddies. Especially in the morning. Thank goodness for Aleeve and Tylenol (Advil too).

Last night managed to feel well enough to go to my first Toronto Rock lacrosse game of the season. I have season tickets but the games are lousy times lately - Friday or Saturday nights - so I've been giving away or selling my seats, my sister being the beneficiary of 2 games thus far this season. Well, the game was great - Rock came from behind to win 9-7 (9th was in an empty net) and the crowd of just about 14,500 were as noisy and into the game from the get-go. Although I already sold my seats for the next game, I'm looking forward to the game after!!

I need meds and sleep... Not gonna happen.

I need to get over it!

This is my 202nd post

2008-02-26T21:18:00.002-05:00

Wow. Who would have thunk it?!?

So the trade deadline was a bust for the Leafs, so lets move on to something more timely.

My son. Linus.

He's a cutie. He's just over 3 years old... He's awesome.

Here is what happened on our walk over to his pre-school today:

He told me that he was tired (he used to say that all the time so I would carry him, or we would drive him) but he clarified his comment by stating that he was tired because he woke up very early and did not go back to bed... He should have.

Then he told me that he was hungry and he justified it by saying that he was hungry because he did not finish his breakfast this morning but instead he wanted to play and he should not have done that...

Sweet.

He gets it!

Of course this was the same kid that 2 days earlier had gotten himself and his brother dressed in jacket, boots, and hat and with the car keys he took out of the drawer, announced that he was taking Stewie with him outside... They were going shopping. Geez. And he didn't even ask me what I needed...

Yes, I admit it, I'm a geek...

2008-02-26T07:33:00.003-05:00

Today at 3pm is the NHL trade deadline and I can't wait. It's one of the most exciting days in the entire hockey season and 2 days ago I was hoping - not praying - that the Toronto Maple Leafs would sell off every valuable asset and tank it for the rest of the season to get a high draft pick. But what does this ass-backwards franchise do??? First they give everyone a no-trade clause in their contracts, then when every player states they will stay with the team, it blows the chance of getting better players in line. Take Mats Sundin for example, one of the greatest Leafs of all-time. He's 36, or 37 and he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year meaning he can choose to play with any team next season. So what he should have done was waive his no-trade clause, get trade for young players and draft picks, then in the off-season, re-sign with the Leafs (if he so desired). But nothing like that is going to happen now unless it was a ploy to get more from other teams (please may that be the case)

In other non-sports related news:

Stewie poo'd on the potty yesterday. Happily. Had his potty book, kept pressing the button which made the flushing sound, and away he went. Yay. That would be so much easier, considering the little dude is 16 months old! I welcome an end to diapers as we did with Linus at just over 2 1/2.

It's snowing outside... Again. Sigh. Or should I say, still.

I'm waiting for Linus to get dressed so we can walk to his pre-school in a few minutes. It used to be such a chore for him, all I would hear were cries of, "I'm tired, I don't want to go to that school, or I want to go home", but his Tuesday / Thursday school he gets Daddy in the morning and Mummy picks up and Thursday he gets either Gramma both ways or a combo of Mummy and Gramma. Fun, fun, fun!

Time to go!

Saturday night is alright...

2008-02-24T07:13:00.002-05:00

.. For heading out in the cold to downtown Toronto to hook up with a bunch of very cool bloggers for a few drinks, and that is exactly what UrbanMummy and I did last night.

Once we got home and settled down - sent the babysitters home - I wanted to track down the blogs of all these fun people I met and start reading but after a quick stop at facebook (sorry, hun) and my email, I got only to the first blog and was ready for some shut-eye. Today, on the other hand is a new day!

So let me briefly add some comments about last night...

The meet-up was scheduled for 7pm and we arrived fashionably late, just before 8pm. Ok, we were not trying to be late, we had to ensure the kids were in bed. In the car heading downtown, I asked UrbanMummy for a rundown of who was going to be there that I would know and who she would know, and I asked for a little bio, if possible. Her reply, that she didn't really think she knew anyone made me a touch nervous and a whole lot excited. I mean we all blog... How bad could it be, right???

We found the bar - stupid directions from Google maps were wrong, but UM is a human GPS so we were fine the location, parking and I even got a history lesson of the area. I grew up in the 'burbs so downtown to me has always been a whole lot of weird and crazy people just wandering around looking to get in trouble... I know it's not like that all the time, buy hey, I digress.

Once inside there were a few people scattered around and right inside the door was a group of about 8 women and one guy, and I leaned over and asked them if they are bloggers (how else do you ask that question?). They were and we got introduced, sat down and let the evening unfold.

We chatted, drank, told stories, talked about our kids, our gardens, and we laughed... and laughed and laughed. Did I mention there was some boob action going on every now and then? Something to do with a blogger called the Redneck Mommy... I'll have to check out her blog to see if our "contribution" made the list. LOL. We met up with Kgirl, whom I have been reading for a few years, and Denguy, whom I have never read, but we have - as it turns out - played ball-hockey against each other for years. I had a nice chat with b*babbler of blithelybabbling, and got a book to review from MetroMama. I know there were more, and I will add you guys to my blogroll as I take out some of the old links I do not go to, and add some new ones from last night.

All in all, I had a fab time and can't wait for the next get-together so I can talk to the rest of the group that were too far away to chat with. Be warned! LOL. I hope to get a listing of the bloggers that were there last night and I look forward to some new reading material.

P.S. I hope that CAA arrived sooner rather than later for our poor out of city bloggers, and that the bill got covered in full...

Send pics!

Thank you

2008-02-21T23:44:00.000-05:00

For the very kind birthday wishes, the facebook greetings, the phone calls and the yo, dude, happy birthday man... You look great for 40. (I'm not. Not for a few years now, thank you).

Thank you wife and children for the awesome tickets to We Will Rock You... I CAN'T wait!!!

Thank you to my work colleagues for making me pay for my own coffee that day and for my lunch. ;)

Thank you to my mother and sister for the underwear (not just for Hanukkah, I guess), tea and token money.

Thank you to my in-laws for dinner, more token money and for having your daughter.

It was a fun day, I had a great time! I really hope my kids grow up to be close to each other.

Re-introducing the UrbanDaddy family...

2008-02-19T20:44:00.000-05:00

First, I need to steal a great post from my wife's blog (with permission).

"For future reference, we are now referring to The Happy Boy as Linus.
The similarities are striking.

Let’s take note:
Though young, Linus is unusually smart.
Everyone likes to think their child is smart. I don’t know if my Happy Boy is unusually smart, but he does have very strong language skills (often using words like actually, & similar). He makes interesting connections, and has a fabulous memory. He hasn’t quoted philosophers or found the Great Pumpkin yet, but he is just 3!

Linus is almost never without his blue blanket.

Well, in our case, it is striped. And we don’t let it out of the house, although, if we did, believe me, it would be with him everywhere. And like Linus’ blanket, Blankie has magical powers. If The Happy Boy falls and hurts himself, blankie makes the pain feel better. If The Happy Boy is scared, Blankie makes him feel less so.

The younger one, the one formerly known as The Weed, in future to be referred to as Stewie. Yes, him:

He’s a character and a half. He’s stubborn, he’s tough and I swear he's trying to kill us. He's very on the ball, he's very bright and has been known to mutter obscenities in a British accent. No. That last bit I made up.

But this is my family. For better stories, go to visit UrbanMummy.

The stress that is Valentine's Day...

2008-02-13T10:04:00.003-05:00

I know it's just one day in a year and I know that if you need to make a grand gesture on this day and not all others, you're probably in deep shit with your wife, but still... It's an important day but not for the reasons you may think. You see Valentine's day, with children, is all about showing their mother that they think of her this day and that they love her, on February 14th. Sure she needs something from her husband too, but really, a guy could go nuts and buy a ton of expensive, beautiful stuff, but that handmade card with the baby's hand print on it is what makes her day... no?

Here is my story.

My wife, UrbanMummy... according to www.helpaguybuy.com, is a DIY mom. DIY, of course, meaning do it yourself. By definition that means the following;
She can make her own jewelry, design a room, and make a handmade gift, all while her oil painting is drying in the corner. The DIY Gal enjoys eclectic music, funky art and curious collections. She can scrapbook with the best of them and has a sense of style and taste that is uniquely her. The DIY Gal may also bring her inspiration to the kitchen where she enjoys making homemade breads, cakes and delicious dishes for her family.

Yup, that's her. So what does this site of sites (sponsored by WalMart) recommend I buy for her this wonderful Valentine's day???

Well, this... A robe, pink iPod, or a digital camera, heart pendant, heart paperweight... and the list goes on. But here is the problem, and I'm hoping UM reads this after I have given her gifts tomorrow... She has all that stuff. We just bought her a new laptop... She has enough jewellery (that may be up for debate) to go out for 2 months without repeating the same piece(s), she has a video iPod, we have a nice digital camera. She doesn't like (read: hates) dust collectors... So what to get her.

Well, how about the same as I get her every year.

A bouquet of flowers, not roses (she dislikes them), but real flowers like the ones you draw. If they have a calalily, I'll toss a few in too (her favourite flower). Dark chocolate from me, and from the kids. This woman I married almost 7 years ago LOVES her chocolate, and she's still breast-feeding so she NEEDS it.. Right dear. :) Jewellery is going to be left aside this time around because I found something I want to buy her, but I have to save up my loonies and toonies and pick it up for her birthday, in a few months instead. For dinner, I think it will be fondue. This Valentine's Day is also going to be big in the homemade cards and stuff, cause I know she loves that, and well, pretty much that is good enough reason for us to do it for her. I mean, unless I'm reading this holiday wrong, it's not about accumulating possessions, isn't that for Mother's Day, birthday's, Hanukkah / Christmas, Anniversary... Need I go on?!?

Honey, I love you.

If you hate the gift we got you, please be kind in the comments. IF you love them, please be kind in the comments...

I have a foot massage with your name on it! Just say the word!

Anyways... According to some magazine or another, this is the ultimate list.

Gift Ideas for wife
Valentine poems
Earrings, celtic jewelry
Animated valentine cards
Bracelets, necklaces
Flower bulb, wild flower
Cappuccino mugs
Fur lamps - not real fur, that's cruel.
Scented candles
Victorian jewelry, antique jewelry
Personalized romance novel
Theme gift basket, candles
Erotic perfume - as opposed to non-erotic?!? Like what? Eau du Dog Pee?
Romantic gift baskets
Marriage, intimacy, private parts
Homemade gift
Bubble bath
Fitness tapes - Yikes! What does this tell her? Honey, I think your fat...
Hawaii vacation, surf - Clearly written by a woman!
Romantic spa, bath baskets
Erotic massage oils, sensual massage oils

Gift Ideas for Mummy
Soak in the bath
Time on her own
A week's worth of precooked food
Florida vacation - without kids?!? :)
Italian food - but not Indian, or Chinese, or Ethiopian...
Boyfriend - WTF?!? This must have been a typo...
A bottle of wine
Camping trip, barbecue
Chocolate candy
Beauty treatment
Spa gift certificate
Ultimate relaxation basket
Bracelets, necklaces
Silver jewelry, celtic jewelry
Designer perfume
Old fashioned candy
Candles, candle holders
Easy meals, brownies - Cause brownies are easy meals...
Handmade gifts, handmade jewelry

So pick a few from this list and you're on your way! No thanks needed, just send money. ;)

Thursday Thirteen

2008-02-07T08:59:00.000-05:00

Thirteen things on my mind today:

1. I think I need a reader to tell me who has new posts and a stat counter to tell me who, if anyone visits, and where they come from.

2. How can I be expected to apply for internal positions at my current employer if experience is needed that I do not have and probably will never get.

3. An older colleague that sits beside me in the office told me upon my return from the washroom that my, "blueberry" was ringing and beeping off the hook.

4. I have Toronto Rock lacrosse season tickets but so far cannot attend the first 2 games... There are only 8 games in the season...

5. I need a fancy header for my "Tuesday Newsday" blog feature (that I have not done in a while, mind you).

6. Make hockey more skilled by removing what they call, "finishing your check". Popping someone after they have passed the puck or along the boards is a penalty and should be called that way.

7. While I disagree with drug use in sports, remember that these performance enhancing drugs were not illegal at the time these guys were doing it. Was it wrong?!? Damn yes! Illegal, nope. We should pity those that abused it - they will regret it - and despise those that do it from this day forth.

8. Those kids that bring knives to school and those adult that stab people in places other than appendiges should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. When someone gets stabbed in the neck, chest, back... they are being stabbed to kill them, not to send a message and this law should be black and white. Stab in a kill-zone and you go to jail for 15 years. Kill someone and its life. This way we can take the decision making out of the hands of judges and into the hands of doctors.

9. I don't mind snow, and I have no problems trudging to the office, but it really bugs me when people don't shoval their walks, or when neighbours shovel their sidewalk in front of their house but can't take the extra few seconds and shoval a path in front of their neighbours house so people like me don't have to walk knee-deep in snow on the way to the office / subway.

10. Why can't I find a good, honest, recruiter / head hunter???

11. After losing 8-0 to the Florida Panthers last night, is it not time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to trade and release absolutely everyone so they can tank the season and get a high draft pick??? Steve Stamkos would be quite the prize for stinking all season...

12. Why is a spelling bee, dog show or poker considered a sport and shown on a sports station??? Golf too, for that matter.

13. The Buffalo Bills are coming to Toronto for eight games over 5 years, 5 will be pre-season games. . Does anybody really care???

Another weekend screeches to a halt...

2008-02-03T22:33:00.000-05:00

... and another super-busy week is about to begin, starting with cleaning the house so the Nanny doesn't think we are incapable of keeping the house clean on the weekends. We can't, but she doesn't need to know that. Like a friend of mine said Saturday night, he got in "trouble" from his wife for not cleaning the house for the cleaning lady. He said he wants a cleaning lady, not a tidying lady. It's so true! I know you would do it too... Don't lie. :)

So what kept us busy this weekend???

Friday night shabbot dinner seems so far away, but because of the storm that wrecked havoc in the Greater Toronto Area Friday (I was one of, less than 10 that made it into the office on Friday out of about 75), my mothersister stayed home and we ate with the kids, played, bathed and shucked them off to bed before 7:30. Whew. So far, so good.

Saturday we had after-nap plans with some friends to come to our place - was a lot of fun, we ran all the kiddies into the ground and off to sleep they went just past 8, and for the second night in a row, Linus slept in his bed almost all night. Thank goodness... His middle of the morning wake-ups were killing us.

Sunday saw another early rise, 6am, and we hung around the house both making a mess and cleaning it up. We got both kids dressed in snowpants, and took Stewie and Linus out for a tumble in the snow. First time for Stewie... He cried and cried until he realized he could eat the snow, and then he just sat there, middle of the lawn, eating a snowballs. We did, however make a giant snowman that Linus named, Aaron.

Then our friends came in from Burlington and off we walked to the in-laws for a super bowl party... Chili, wings, desserts, baked brie. Fun... Except for the BORING game. Well, most of it was boring. The ending was fun considering that UrbanMummy has a fair amount of family in the NY/NJ area and they are Giants fans, and there is a Canadian on the Giants roster (so I was told), I'm voting for the Giants. Go Giants.

What did you do???

It's... It's... It's.... February!!!! Thursday Thirteen

2008-01-31T22:27:00.000-05:00

Yay!

Known as a very depressing month to most, February has a different meaning to me. For me, February is significant for 13 of the following reasons;

I got a letter from the Ministry of Transportation, which means, my birthday is this month.
Valentine's Day
The days are getting longer
Baseball Spring Training begins
The NHL trade deadline is in February
UrbanMummy has just under a week off and that means little day trips with the kiddies
That "family" day that I don't get but will take as vacation
After the 28 days, it's March and with March, comes April, then May, then June... You get the picture.
I hope and prey to use February to change jobs
Become a substantive manager at my current position
Lose weight and get in shape playing sports
Get that closet done in our basement
Make the little misses VERY happy.

Just some weekend stuff...

2008-01-20T08:49:00.000-05:00

So now when my older boy smacks the younger, the younger makes a face and pinches the older boy with a look of anger on his face, then he smiles and goes on with his business... This is going to be a problem. The older boy usually whine/cries and I come to his rescue. Oy. I can see us having to pull them off of each other within a year. And to think we kept telling the older boy not to hit/kick/bite his little brother because when he gets bigger... Well that time has come. sigh.

Why doesn't the Food Network show cooking classes early in the morning on the weekends? Why do they show infomercials. There are people up very early every day of the week that like to watch cooking shows!!!

How come every time Urban Mummy cleans up "clutter" that clutter is my stuff? What's wrong with hockey drill books I have not used in 15 years? That stuff never changes? Or a book on pitching? If my folks had realized I wanted to pitch - besides the hours I would spend per night pitching to a box I drew on the back of the garage, I would probably still be in the major leagues making $10 million per season. Hmmm. And Star Wars books? Old copies of the Income Tax Act and books on how to craft political research from 1980? Come on... That stuff is gold! Not like yucky physics and chemistry books. :)

What about dating? Are there enough dating shows on TV or the net these days? I mean good ones, not like the 3rd wheel or blind date. Real ones. What about ones from the perspective of the male species? Not really sure. What do you think?

... and the Giants are going to be playing the undefeated New England Patriots in, like 2 weeks in the Super Bore. Yawn. My father-in-law wants me to care but I don't. I just want to be invited to the Super Bore party... Now THAT is fun. :)

Did I mention it is cold outside... like really cold?!?

Gotta run and clean the house before the nanny comes home, because you know, she should never see that this house is chaos when she is away on the weekends...

The Official Cure for the Toronto Maple Leafs...

2008-01-16T15:09:00.001-05:00

Yes folks you heard it here first. I might be available to take over JFJ's position once he is jettisoned to the unemployment line after butchering this team. How could he possibly think that last year's team which missed the playoffs was good enough to bring back this year almost intact - except for the additions of Jason Blake, Vesa Toskala and Mark Bell... Who approved this? They need to go too.

So lets start with how all this comes about.

First, the CBC gets it all started as they yank the Leafs from the Saturday night slot and replace them with the Ottawa Senators. I'm a huge hockey fan and would enjoy watching the Sens just as much. They are a really good, young team.

By not having the Leafs there, the slap in the face heard across the country would prompt the egos at MLSE to take action. Bye bye Peddie, Tenanbaum, JFJ and sadly the coach, Paul Maurice. Temporarily in comes a management team of former GM Cliff Fletcher and if the price is right, Scotty Bowman. Include Glenn Healy, Doug Gilmour and this group will take the roster of the Leafs and the Marlies and head into a board room only to come out with the following to do list:

1. Mats Sundin - great Leaf. Gone. To a contender as the playoffs come to other teams (not the Leafs). For at least, a good young player already on a roster, a young prospect from a farm team and a 1st round pick or 2. He's playing his best to get the most back to the team in his trade.

2. Darcy Tucker - for a young player and a pick
3. Bryan McCabe - back to the Islanders for a young player and a pick
4. Jason Blake - for a pick
5. Andrew Raycroft - for a pick
6. Matt Stajan - for another young player
7. Mark Bell - for anything
8. Alexei Ponikerovsky - player and a pick (he's big and has shown signs of being able to find the net, although penalty prone)
9. Nik Antripov - he's finally exceeding expectations, so it's a fluke (see Jason Blake) and time to go! Player from roster, young player and pick.
10. John Pohl - anything - he was JFJ's big steal from St. Louis... Oh, how the Blues must still be reeling. LOL.
11. Wellwood, Wozniewski and Kubina we'll take a pick for all three. The 2 defenseman must go and if Wellwood committed to getting in shape, then he can stay.
12. Vesa Toskala only if there is a fabulous offer like a young player or solid veteran.
Hal Gill - very slow and Bates Battaglia (on the farm) can go if anyone has interest in them. They shouldn't be good enough for this team, yet they are. Sad.

You see theses spare parts can bring in the youth. The kids on the roster not playing like Moore, White, Strahlman, Kabarle (the new Captain) Steen, Deveraux, Belak (every team needs an enforcer) and Tlusty need to play... A lot, in order to assess if they are keepers or gone. They'll figure it out.

As for the farm... I'll never forget Ed Belfour stating that Jay Harrison was a true NHL defenseman. So what does MLSE do with him??? The farm. Bring him up. Also coming up to play, and play hard include Carlo Colaiacovo (get him healthy and a personal trainer), Simon Gamache (1st line), David Ling (the leading point getter and set-up man) and Kris Newbury - Marlies leading goal scorer (last years tough guy - why?), bring up Jeremy Williams, Robbie Earl, Darrly Boyce (a plus 18) and on defense, Bryan Muir (if he can play on the NJ Devils, he can make the Leafs). Bring up Pogge to play net, and a lot of net and this is the 2008/2009 team.

In the off season sign a few free agent veterans to teach the kids never to give up, maybe one or two with Stanley Cup rings, and only young free agents if they are young! Bring back Mats if he wants either this year or next year to end his career.

This team will compete for either last or a playoff spot, so they'll be not better or no worse than the current bunch. Only difference is that in 2-3 years my team will be better and the current Leafs wont!

UrbanDaddy for GM!

Random

2008-01-10T21:05:00.000-05:00

Both my kids have fevers tonight... Poor guys. They are now sleeping.

Found some cool jobs to apply for today. Special thanks to Laural Dawn for keeping me in the loop at her firm... Anyone else want to take a stab, my resume / CV is updated daily.

Ever heard of Tata Automotive? No? You will...They have a $2500 car coming out to market. Sure, it's probably made of paper-mache, but its $2500.

I need to increase the traffic on my blog... No, wait. No I don't. :) If you can read this, I thank you.

So now that I can actually watch TV for the first time in, like 5 years, the fucking writers go on strike. Grrrr. At least my wife found a sit com from many years ago starring Kirsten Dunst - when she was young - and it was cool. I rely on her for old sit-com material... That's her thing. :)

I'm still here...

2008-01-10T00:21:00.000-05:00

... But without a computer. Mine is... Out of service right now. Grrr.

I'm using UrbanMummy's. When I can.

Quick Updates:

Our new year's day open house was a success
I got sick
I got better
Linus got sick
I need sleep

G'nite

The week that was... Happy Birthday Big Boy.

2007-12-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

Happy 3rd birthday to my big boy! You made it to three years old and along with that you bring some good points and some quirks. You are empathetic, so your teachers say, and we have seen. You speak very well for your age and use words like, "similar and available". You know how to speak well enough that you are able to put on a baby voice and character and speak in that weird way to us and others that we forget how articulate you are. You like to come to Mummy and Daddy's bed every night because you heard a noise or don't want to be alone. You make me laugh, even when you are being serious and asking me questions like, "Does Auntie R have a penis?", or, "Why do people say bless you when you sneeze?". Even tonight when you bit me, snacked me, knocked over your brother or jumped on Mummy, you are still our little big boy. I love you!

Tinker toys - remember them? I grew up playing with them. I had a few. They became boring as they started to break and my folks never bought me more. Well... They are back! (Were they ever gone?!?) Our big boy got 2 sets of them for his birthday and he loves them... Well loves having us make stuff for him like a car, elevator, or microphone that he can sing with, but he really like taking the orange ones (the really long ones), putting a round piece on the end and bopping his baby brother over the head with them... Nice.

Birthday Cake?!? Maybe not. Linus told me last night that he gets cake for his birthday, and balloons and gets to play with his friends. He was right. But then without taking a breath he told me that he doesn't want cake, but presents instead... He's only going to be three... Oy.

So after his birthday party we took all the presents into the living room with Linus, and had him open all of them as we decided what he had already, what he wouldn't play with and what he could have and play with now. He loved the dump truck and the wood fire truck, but the Fisher Price battery operated dinosaur that roars and tries to bite was not a winner as it made Linus run for cover. He did however tell me that he is keeping that toy for when he is bigger and it wont scare him. LOL. So we asked Linus to set aside 2 toys and we had 2 toys from Hanukkah and we packed both kids into the car and took them to the local Fire Station to have him donate the toys for Christmas Wish. Linus gave the toys to the fireman (and didn't start crying and asking for them back this year), and we all proceeded to the fire truck after a brief tour of the station. Linus and the fireman sat in the fire truck and Linus was shown how the truck operated and all the fancy bells and whistles. We left after about 35 minutes and headed home. I like this tradition that UrbanMummy started.

As I try to write some of this I am watching the BBC and news that Benazir Bhutto was killed a political rally. She, apparently, is not the 1st opposition leader killed while Pakistan is under the rule of General Parvaz Musharraf. Hmmmm. What really comes to my mind is, "What's with these people? Have they no morals? Killing for the sake of killing in the most cowardly way". I really have no patience for suicide bombers, especially this coward that shot and killed Bhutto, them blew himself up killing close to 30. Extremists must go!

Toronto Marlies are 21-5 so far this season and no one cares...

Some holiday thoughts....

2007-12-24T16:01:00.000-05:00

Coal in the stockings of every upper-management type that works for the Chicago Bulls basketball team and approved the firing of coach Scott Skiles on the 24th of December... Couldn't wait 2 more days
Jamie Lynn Spears - 16 - is pregnant. First there was Brit, now her little sister. Seems wacko Mom allowed her to have a live-in 19 year old boyfriend. Duh. This woman is actually writing or has actually written a book on parenting. HA HA HA. I want to be in line to get that book, not to buy it but to smack every person that purchases one, and give them their money back. But, do we know that the dad-to-be is really this 19yr old boyfriend or could it be... Kevin Federline? He does like to be looked after financially, and already knows the Spears family... Hmmmm.
Congrats to UrbanMummy for finishing her diploma after not so long ago completing her Masters... No more courses, please dear... No more.
Our baby-boy - Stewie - now knows that if he calls, "da da" that I will give him attention, so he spent all day doing that yesterday. I love it!!!
It really is illegal to shovel your snow from your driveway or walk into the street. Tell your friends and neighbours. :)

Why, why, why???

2007-12-23T21:56:00.000-05:00

Why did facebook have to add a new application to the Jedi vs. Sith application that also keeps track of stats and is Star Wars themed?!? It's not like I was already trying to kick the Jedi vs Sith habit, but now I have a new addiction... damn!

Why does my oldest son - hereinafter referred to as Linus (see UrbanMummy's blog for the reasoning) no longer deem it necessary to sleep through the night? He sleeps from - on average 8pm to on average 1am, then he sits in his bed wailing, usually something to do about wanting his mummy, or not wanting to be alone. Then I hop into bed with him and once I fall asleep, he leaves his room with his blankie, walks quietly down the hall and jumps into Mummy and Daddy's bed with Mummy. Grrrr.

Today I received my degree in the mail and 3 advanced diplomas in, as far as I can figure, in classes that I excelled in. So I now officially have my MBA. Now I can focus on my Masters of Marriage...

For all my readers who are celebrating Christmas, we here at the Urban Daddy household wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I am SO done...

2007-12-17T22:18:00.000-05:00

I am.

Finished. As of 2am last night/this morning when I emailed my Corporate Finance exam to my professor. My last exam. My last course. I'm done. I'm finally done, after three long years. I'm done. I registered for business school one week before The Happy Boy was born in 2004. A couple people suggested to me that there is no way that I would be able to see this through to the end. To them, I laugh. I did it. Now all I need is another kick-ass mark on this exam, an acceptable mark in this course and then its just a short wait until I receive my Master of Business Administration. Finally. So how do I treat myself today?!? I didn't. I was a pallbearer at the funeral of my Uncle, whom I mentioned a few posts back, had fallen ill with cancer. I'll miss him because whenever I missed my dad (13 years younger than him) I always knew I could talk to or see my Uncle and he'd remind me of my Dad or talk to me about stuff they did growing up. That option is no longer available. Another thing that dawned on me is that with my Dad, Uncle and their parents gone, the next generation is myself and my 2 cousins. One cousin has all girls, but between 2 of us, we have 4 boys and still know very little about our heritage short of a few stories told here and there. It's kind of surreal.

In both one of my best and worst moments in recent memory, I was thankful to have my wife there to keep me honest, and for that I owe her a lot. She stood beside me through 3 years of classes and assignments and while she didn't always appreciate the late nights and frequent classes, I know deep down inside she wanted this for me as much as she wanted her masters degree that she got not too long ago. She just has trouble showing it sometimes. I'm proud of her.

So besides an obvious lack of sleep - Saturday night got about 2 hours sleep - I've been thinking about life after MBA and I have a lot on my mind. Some of which include:

A white Christmas. While I don't celebrate it, per se, I like a white Christmas. With all this snow we have and the possibility of more coming, I think it's a lock. Merry Christmas to you all.
I want to take a cooking class, or classes. My father-in-law said he wants to take them with me too. Really? He also quit smoking 3 weeks ago. I'm so impressed. Good on him.
I got re-assigned at work starting today - ho hum.
I hope the tech company that I have been consulting with manages to get moving forward so I can further develop the Finance role I utilize for them.
I'm updating my blog - soon to read others - and both my kids are coughing in bed. It's just past 11pm and I wonder if I'll be able to get more than 6 hours sleep tonight... That would be a huge treat. :)

Time to finally get ready for bed before 2am. It's been three long years...

... and then there was one...

2007-12-09T21:49:00.000-05:00

... one course left. Finally. I only imagined this day way back in December 2004 when I registered and was accepted to graduate school that I might be relieved to be completing my designation. Back then, we were soon to be parents and had all this "time off" coming. Fast forward 2007 and we have 2 kids, both of us are working and taking courses, and I have begun consulting with a tech company hoping to get them off the ground running... Needless to say, we have no time. I have no time... But I will. Soon.

I just completed one course, business strategy, and within days I received my final mark in a percentage. 91%. Not bed, eh? This would be right up there with my economics marks, my accounting marks (100% in financial accounting), new product development(s), organizational behaviour(s), marketing, human resources management, and hopefully soon Corporate Finance. Whew. I'm tired.

Tired, and not that smart. :) You see I have an exam due December 17th. 60 questions. I've already done 10 of them and I still decided to take Brian Mulroney's memoirs from the public library on a 7 day loan. I don't read very fast and the damn thing is 1100 pages. Yes, 1100 pages, plus. Mission Impossible. :)

Oh, time to get back to work... So I can read... or sleep.

What's up with that?

2007-12-03T23:41:00.001-05:00

My son... The Habs fan?!? NOOOOOoooooo. Say it ain't so!!!

The Happy Boy was drinking his pre-bed cup of warm milk when I turned on the TV to see the score in the Leafs game. He saw the game and said, "I don't like that! I don't like hockey". Hmmph, I thought to myself. He'll like it one day. Then an update came on the TV and it was of the Canadiens scoring a goal, to which the Happy Boy pointed, smiled, clapped and rejoiced. I was beside myself. I said, "buddy, that is Montreal?!?", to which he replied, "I like Montreal. My friends Mom is from Montreal. My friend goes to Montreal sometimes..." Damn.

Aww, I know why he likes the yucky Canadiens... Their uniforms are red and his favourite colours are red, pink and brown. I'll have to show him the Black Hawks and the Hurricanes. He can be a fan of either of those, but NOT the Habs. I'd never live it down.

Let it snow

2007-12-02T22:19:00.000-05:00

A very busy weekend at the UrbanDaddy household has been capped off by a lot of snow (and now rain) around the house. I love to get out and shovel first thing in the morning but figured it might not be a good idea to leave two children in the living room to play together while I shoveled and UrbanMummy worked on her assignments. I left it, but checked it often to make sure it was still there... It is.

Once again the old adage, "Bad news comes in threes", came true on Sunday as The Happy Boy fell at a birthday party this morning splitting his lip, I found out my sister's budgie is dying (man, she loves that thing), and my Uncle (my late father's brother) has cancer. Bad, bad, bad.

The Happy Boy incident happened at a birthday party when my son decided he could ride a riding car off of a wooden platform but failed to consider that when the front of the car hit the floor, he would go - face first - into the steering wheel, splitting his lip. Fortunately, he did this in front of 2 good friends of ours - both doctors - who were able to examine him and gently let me know that he was alright, before telling me why I should be concerned that he wasn't alright. When they handed him to me his face from the nose down was covered in blood, as were his hands. I thought his teeth had been knocked out or had gone through his lip.

Turns out he just split the inside of his lip with his teeth and once in the arms of Mummy and cleaned up, he soon realized crackers were more interesting to him than sympathy and off he went to play and eat. That's my boy! Tough as nails. Just like Daddy who has played ball-hockey with bruised ribs, a separated shoulder and numerous knee injuries.

As for my uncle... I have three uncles, two on my mother's side that I no longer talk to and one one my Dad's side (he is 13 years older than my Dad) and once my Dad passed away, I found that being around this uncle really brought back memories and made me feel comfortable. To find out today that he has cancer and was not well was very upsetting for me because I'm not sure I am mentally prepared to say goodbye. I may not always have the opportunity to see my uncle but knowing that he is there and that I can always ask him questions about my family or my father was very comforting. Losing my grandfather just days after returning from a heritage visit of sorts to Poland was disappointing and this would be on par. Although my uncle is 82 years old, he shows very little sign of his age except for being bow legged because he doesn't want to undergo knee replacement surgery (pain and fear) and the fact that he votes Liberal. He makes a great apple pie, loves to talk politics and reminds me of my Dad in so many ways... It's eerie. I wish him a speedy recovery.

Other happenings:

I've had to call on my few blogger friends to help with some seasonal issues, like whether Santa exists or not. You see, were are Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas, so essentially, Santa does not exist to us, and my son wanted to know why. For this, I have sub-contracted Laural of The misadventures of (pregnant) mommy Laural. http://lauraldawn.blogspot.com/ I'm sure there will be more issues relating to the tooth fairy, where babies come from and the Easter bunny... Loads of fun. I encourage all of you to comment with your tips, hints, techniques and thoughts... All comments are welcomed.

I also found out this Sunday that I do not finish my MBA December 7th as I previously mentioned, but rather that is the ending date of my business strategy class. On the 7th I get my final exam for Corporate Finance, then have to bust my ass to complete it, and do well. Class ends December 17th... Whew. I can't wait. There is a list a mile long of things to do in the house.

P.S. Anyone have a great Hanukkah idea for m'lady? I'm stuck! Everything she wants she orders online after memorizing the credit card number.

Pretty accurate...

2007-11-29T23:59:00.001-05:00

ESFP - The "Entertainer"

ESFPs are cooperative, "here and now" people-persons that enjoy excitement and love new adventures. Because of their highly social nature, they are especially lively when they are the center of attention and hate being alone. ESFPs have a practical side that allows them to finish work efficiently and are often good problem solvers.

About the ESFP
Expert Quotes & Links
"For the ESFP, the entire world is a stage. They love to be the center of attention and perform for people. They're constantly putting on a show for others to entertain them and make them happy. They enjoy stimulating other people's senses, and are extremely good at it. They would love nothing more than for life to be a continual party, in which they play the role of the fun-loving host."

- Portrait of an ESFP (The Pesonality Page)"They love the excitement of playing to an audience, and they try to generate a sense of "showtime" wherever they are. Performers are not comfortable being alone most of the time..."

- Jung Type Descriptions (ESFP) (similarminds.com)
"ESFP like action and excitement, and are able to link together people and resources. Because they accept and deal with people as they are, they are able to understand what is necessary in order to motivate them to get jobs done. They prefer a work setting that is lively and action oriented.

The end is near...

2007-11-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

I have 9 days left of school and I have never been busier... As a result, this post will be brief, as will any other post up to December 7th (my last day of class).

We spent 5 days in NY/NJ with family for thanksgiving and for an unveiling. Love spending time with my wife's family there. Most of them are super-nice and two of the kids, in particular, are total wankers. (They post provocative pictures on facebook then complain that their Dad found out and the got in trouble... Basically, we ate, shopped, ate, shopped and played. Black Friday provided us with some great deals. Both the boys and UrbanMummy were sick (Happy Boy threw up) and I'm sure if I was not getting up at 4am to take the Baby to the lobby so as to not wake anyone up, I would have got sick too. I just had no time for it,

One interesting note from the trip - besides how well we got along with UM's parents who drove there (we flew) and stayed in the same hotel as us. UM's Dad quit smoking (thank gawd) and they have decided to stop smoking in their house so we can bring the kids over (yay!!!). But the interesting part occurred Saturday morning when the Happy Boy, burning up with a fever, wolfed down a bowl of dry cheerios and the threw them up in the lobby at the breakfast table. You see, his grandma cupped her hands and caught all the cheerio vomit before it landed on his blankie (thank gawd). This is the same woman whose 8 year old niece threw up about 5 thanksgivings ago, and she had to leave the room because it she couldn't handle bodily functions like that... Guess she could after all because it his her grandson.

He walks... Sort of. The Weed took his first steps (that UM saw) today. I saw him take bout 7 steps to his mummy... Cutie! Heavy little cutie. es wet grass... hard to light.

I like 4 on 4 hockey better than the shootout. Extend overtime!

The baby also got a tooth while we were away... About time! He has 4 up top, 2 on the bottom and they came months ago... We thought for a moment that he was going to have 6 teeth for the rest of his life. Whew.

Ricky Williams - a NFL football player suspended for all of last season for drug use, played for our Toronto Argonauts instead in the CFL. He got paid a lot of money and, well, he sucked. He didn't re-sign but instead tried to get back with his NFL club, the Miami Dolphins to pay back some of the money he owes them that they gave him in incentives and signing bonuses. Anyways, the Dolphins didn't want him on the team this year, apparently couldn't use him even though they were 0-10 at the time. But this past Monday night Mr. Williams got his chance to play and well, was a bust. 5 carries for negligible yards, and he fumbled the ball and was stepped on by the opponent and is... Out for the season. One sportscaster had the following comment about Ricky getting injured last night on the very wet grass. He said, "Ricky hates wet grass... Too hard to light". Funny, eh?

I thought it was. :)

Dear... My "groupies" will do it...

2007-11-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

What else can I do? I'm only human. There is but one of me, one with a cold as of mid-last week, mind you. I've been working on my Corporate Finance exam. It's tough... Really tough. It has taken me about 15 hours so far. Not bad, eh? This is the mid-term. Wait until the final, in 3 weeks...

I know the closet (formerly Anne's place) is now entering it's 2nd month of being turned upside down and not complete and that all that was in the room is spread all over the kids play area in the basement. I know that we are taking a trip very soon and we need to pack... I'll get the suitcases soon, I promise...

I know we need to sell/store the car, clean out the garage, remove that yucky heavy red cabinet from the Happy Boy's room, arrange to have the boys new furniture delivered...

Shall I go on?

Change the litter, tidy up before the nanny comes home, put away the bag from dinner, did I mention complete my exam?

I already have my fingers crossed that I will be able to double my sleep intake tonight compared to the last 2 nights. I'm just beat!

Work related stress:

How did I get to be the bad guy???

So girl I work with was in a troubled relationship - now she may read this blog so I don't want to mention any names so I will give the general story - bad relationship - out of town - she was driving long hours on the weekends to visit and long hours back Monday mornings to get to the office for 7:30 or 8:00am... From what I could gather this relationship hinged on whether the male was willing to have a child with this girl (had has 3 and underwent the "procedure") She, pushing 35 wanted a child and loved this guy and his kids...

Problems occurred when this child issue came to be a major sticking point and the "break-up" was long, tormenting, and caused her a TON of emotional stress of which myself and a few other colleagues made ourselves available for many long walks, even more talks and nurturing to get her back on her feet. She did. She even started dating again and having fun - looking for a big promotion in the TO area and really letting her roots set it.

Then, out of nowhere, she changes her facebook profile to read that she is engaged... To this guy again. Turns out he promised to have the "procedure" reversed, they have been spending time at his place again and she stopped talking to all her colleagues who helped her at her lowest point. I can even remember how happy I was when she smiled for what seemed like the first time in months, and now she's getting hitched and I have to read about it in my news feed. Classy, eh?

Well it gets better... See, she claimed that he changed her profile. Wouldn't surprise me because no friends or family really approve of this relationship because of the damage it did to her last time, and he is really controlling and deceptive from what I have heard - not that I blame the guy in most cases. This hot young thang drives, like 4 hours to shack up with you on the weekends and has great rapport with your kids - If I was in that position, I would tell her just about whatever it took for her to look past that issue and give me more time to charm her...

So why the post? Because the past week in the office she has been avoiding myself and a few others, and word has gotten back that she speaks of "feuds", witches and goblins, indeed. I feel like I'm back in high0school. You see, I never cared of she broke off with him, married him or didn't... I've been so busy with my life - the important stuff to me - that I just helped her out for her. The fact that she doesn't feel comfortable talking to be about him, I can understand... but not telling me about being engaged?

Knowing that I would congratulate her and be happy for her unconditionally, is unforgivable. So I choose to do what we used to do in high-school. Stop hanging in the same circles, or at the same coffee shop and ignore her... Oh yeah. I'm not in high-school. Those are her tactics. I'd confront her if she would stay in the area long enough from me to.

Or I'll just forget it and count down the days to new opportunities...

Thoughts for a bizarre Monday...

2007-11-12T21:46:00.000-05:00

I find a lot of people paint their houses for "resale" value rather than because they love the colour. I mean seriously... How many kids grow up loving the colour taupe... Is taupe even a colour? Or is taupe the default colour that people paint their houses knowing full well that the new buyers are going to re-paint it anyways cause it's so ugly... Hmmm. It's a taupe conspiracy... Buy shares now!!!

Digital signage... Still mulling that one over...

3 weeks to MBA

Mazel Tov Dr. Andy and family... Bye bye an semblance of life as you knew it

You know what happens when you need to be reached by your spouse and you have a blackberry attached to your waist but it's on silent all day... Hello couch... Hello lesson.

What was the word The Happy Boy used on me today??? Oh yeah, "Slammed". I back up in the kitchen and to avoid stepping on a cat I took a two-step and bounced my back off the kitchen cabinet. The Happy Boy looked at his mommy, then me and said, "Lucie (cat) just slammed you off the kitchen cabinet, Daddy". Slammed. I shake my head.

"Lasterday", The Happy Boy drew his first "A".

"Lasterday" is any day before today...

I know they are not supposed to stand in the bath but I left the Weed stand in the bath, on his own for 15 seconds... Owwwww. Walking is coming... I can smell it...

... No. That smell is The Happy Boy's poo... Turns out the nanny has been letting him snack on fibre cereal... Man has his poo been fluffy... He's over-ripe.

Tried the homemade turkey king crab-bee route... survey says... BUZZ.

Question: Is my wife bisexual??? Something to do with a vulva and a Volvo... See her blog in the next day or two for the answer. www.urbanmummy.com/journal

Question for the ladies: What does your spouse / significant other do that shows you love? Seriously...

Tuesday Newsday... For a Friday

2007-11-09T11:27:00.000-05:00

First, a Happy Boy story...

"They're similar".

The Happy Boy - almost 3 years old, picks up the last cheese string in the house and is now eating it instead of letting his baby brother eat it. So the baby, now whining, is now forced to eat a chunk of marble cheese that I have to slice from a brick of cheese. Wanting to make sure his 1 yr old brother understands he's not getting the short end of the stick in the cheese market, the Happy Boy shows the Weed that the 2 pieces are almost alike by saying to him, "look baby, they are similar... see, the pieces of cheese are similar"... He then tells me that his little brother will eat it because they look similar... How does he know that word? When did he get his drivers license? How do they get to be so friggin smart and cute at such a young age.

... And now to the news as seen through the eyes of UrbanDaddy... with a big thank you to Google news...

32% of workers fake sick

Excuses. Everybody has one to dodge exercise or chores, but a new survey shows nearly a third of U.S. employees use a fake one to miss work -- and over a third of bosses don't believe them.
Thirty-two percent of workers questioned in a Harris poll admitted calling in sick when they were well at least once last year -- and some employees had excuses for missing work that left their bosses baffled.
One woman claimed she got whiplash from brushing her hair. Another said her psychic told her to stay at home or something awful would happen, and a man said he had nothing to wear because his roommate had locked all his clothes in a shed.
What??? I buy all those excuses... I'm sure everyone has - once in their lives - had their clothes locked in the shed by a roommate, parent, spouse or imaginary friend names "Cleo"...

Dandruff's genes sequenced

First, researchers grew enough fungus to give dandruff to 10 million people. Next, they sequenced its genes. Then they found out that not only does an icky fungus live on your head and cause dandruff-- but it could be having sex. On your head. Right now. Sex??? Really??? I told UrbanMummy I always hear panting and moaning and she swore it wasn't her...
A team at Procter & Gamble Beauty said on Tuesday they had sequenced the genome of Malassezia globosa (that was in the top 5 for names for our first son... we chose the Happy Boy..) , a fungus that grows on the skin of between 50 percent and 90 percent of the population. It causes dandruff and a range of other skin conditions. I'm still perturbed about dandruff flakes having sex on my head. Fuck that's gross.

Being fat is still unhealthy, experts warn (was it ever healthy???)

Being overweight may not kill you, but it could lead to obesity, U.S. health experts cautioned on Wednesday in response to research suggesting that being a bit heavy does not raise the risk of death.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that being overweight did not increase the risk of dying from heart disease and cancer. It also was linked with a significantly decreased rate of death from non-cancer and non-heart related causes, such as accidents or diseases like Alzheimer's. Yup... Still unhealthy...

RCMP claimed Leveque had sexual problems, fancied young women - I needed this one because the headline tells me that liking young women is a sexual problem... Read on folks...

A secret RCMP file on former Quebec Premier Rene Levesque alleges that he suffered from sexual problems and was so drawn to very young women that it left his party at times in an embarrassing situation.
New files obtained by The Montreal Gazette under the Access to Information and Privacy Act reveal that Levesque may have been under even closer scrutiny than many realized.
In a report dated Feb. 9, 1972, for example, Levesque's sexual proclivities are discussed.
"Levesque could have (aurait) certain problems of a sexual nature," says the heavily censored report. "He likes skirts. And particularly when they are young. Which at times puts the Party in an embarrassing situation since Levesque, after an interesting encounter, would disappear for a few days." LOL That was some secret file, eh? It's been 35 years since all this happened... I'm 36... Who the fuck cares. He likes skirts... LOL. Maybe it was kilts. This guy was probably a Liberal... That would figure.

It's prime time for procreating

Colder temperatures leave you feeling hot and bothered? You're not alone.
For those with babies on the brain, the latest data from Statistics Canada shows October through December may be prime time for procreation. Although live births were fairly evenly distributed in 2005, the most recent year for which numbers are available, a subtle increase took place during the three-month period between July and September.
Given that most pregnancies last 40 weeks, the implication is that "spring fever" might not come when it's pouring rain but with the falling snow.
July, August and September each accounted for 8.8 per cent of the year's newborns; by comparison, babes born November through February comprised between 7.3 and 7.9 per cent. Spring was the least likely time for making babies, with roughly 5,200 fewer infants born in February - suggesting a May conception - than in any given prime time month: 24,896 versus 30,174 in July, 30,083 in August, and 30,112 in September.
go sperm go... go sperm go...

... and finally under the category of duuuhhhhhhhh...

Pedestrians not built to take on cars

Drivers also need to exercise extra caution. Recent tests of the current model of pedestrian revealed a glaring safety-design problem -- it always comes off worse in crashes with cars.
Not surprisingly, more than half of pedestrian related crashes take place at intersections. So let me get this straight... when there is an accident involving people and cars, the cars win??? No shit??? This IS breaking news. I'm fucking speechless.

Some random thoughts...

2007-11-06T20:01:00.000-05:00

I want to interview my wife so some of her regular readers can get to know her better... To know her is to love her. In good time...

I finish my last 2 courses and GRADUATE in one month from tomorrow. WOO HOO. But... I have a TON of work to do. Anyone good with or know anyone good with Corporate Finance? Help!!!

Some random things my oldest boy - The Happy Boy - has said or asked me recently...

At 3am after I brought him back to his bed and layed down beside him so UrbanMummy could sleep more... 1st he asked why I was sleeping with my glasses on. Second, he asked, "Daddy...Why do people say bless you when I sneeze?" This was keeping him up?!? Hmmmmm.
I took the pumpkin that sat in front of our house for the last 3 weeks, cut it up and last night made a pumpkin loaf, mini bundt cakes and a bunch of mini muffins.. oh, and spicy pumpkin seeds too. So after eating one muffin and liking it, my son asks me this; "Daddy, do the pumpkin muffins have handles on them like pumpkins do? Why are the muffins brown and the pumpkins orange? Did you take a brown pumpkin and cut it and cook it and make muffins for me?" Handles, eh? Hmmmm.
Last week he took some bath water, splashed my sister and then looked at her and said, "Auntie R, you're shirt is wet!"

2007-11-05T23:36:00.000-05:00

I’m done!

I’m tired. Not sleeping well. Stressed out.

Work stresses me out
Home stresses me out
School stresses me out
My job search stresses me out as does my work.
My “friends” stress me out and now my “work friends” stress me out.
My inability to lose weight and lack of variety in my wardrobe stress me out
My shoes stress me out.

I’m tired of being run down and not having anyone care. I’m tired of working my ass of and not having any of it acknowledged. I’m tired of being nice and thought of as an ass. If you think I’m being an ass, trust me, you’ll know. (not you... other people).

I really have no patience for this anymore.

Grrrrrr.

There, I feel a little better...

What are advanced speaking skills?

And how do we know our children have them? We all think our kids are great communicators and, well, we speak their “language”, but when can we start to believe that either they speak better than average or possess above average smarts? I’m not sure what the answer to this question is. I do know that who we hear it from matters depending on who that person is or what they do for a living. For example, I’m cute! I know I am… so my mother says… see? Who it comes from...

So when family tells me that my son speaks very well, I smile, and nod. Of course he does… he’ll be 3 in 2 months and well, you’ve never really been around kids his age too often to know what an average 2, 2.5 or 3 year old should sound like. When my educator wife, tells me his language is advanced, I listen a little closer, and when a stranger in line of a grocery store tells my wife that our son speaks extremely well for an almost-3 year old, and that she teaches 3 and 4 year olds, well, I pay a little more attention… But how could he not be smart??? Look at his parents, right? His mummy is a genius and his daddy… well… he’ll be smart like his mummy. LOL.

Way too much candy...

2007-10-31T21:53:00.000-04:00

... has passed by my lips and into my chubby belly. Ugh. I'm going to be sick. Someone pass me some water... and an Advil, Aleeve or Tylenol Ultra. After eating all that candy and carrying the Weed for most of this evenings Halloween outing, I'm beat! Both the Weed and the Happy Boy brought in a lot of candy this evening. Good thing UrbanMummy is on the ball and agreed to trade all the Happy Boy's candy for a toy, which he gladly did! Easier when he some rarely has had chocolate or sweets. Toys!!! Gotta 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 Weed and he crawled right into their house and disappeared in the family room with the toys. Then came the Happy Boy and UrbanMummy and they disappeared into the house, leaving Josh-o and I at the door to chat about computers and give out candy... fun.

After about 15 minutes, we dragged the kids back into the wagon and shleped them home. Oy. I'm beat...

No more candy... please...

A very nice weekend indeed...

2007-10-29T20:02:00.000-04:00

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!!!

D-Day came and went...

2007-10-22T23:24:00.000-04:00

I did it!

Completed my presentation for my Business Strategy class today - worked on it from basically 8am - 4pm. Didn't even stop for lunch, not that I would have enjoyed it since I have these 2 stupid canker sores which make just about everything to do with eating, smiling or talking difficult.

Came home, BBQ'd, got the kids to bed (or so I thought) and then signed into my class. My presentation was right off the bat 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.

Now I 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 the case study, and finally submitted it! 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 it's not real, but this is live TV and boy, she almost killed herself.

Went upstairs to prep for shower before bed and found UM and Happy Boy in bed... our bed. Cuties! Did some more household cleaning, going to shower, then off to bed before midnight hopefully (in the Happy Boy's bed. lol).

More work tomorrow on Business Strategy, then Finance class tomorrow night, a business meeting Wednesday night and some work "town hall" meeting Thursday.

Whew. I can't wait to sleep and swallow.

Sports Snorts...

2007-10-21T22:57:00.001-04:00

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!

2007-10-21T22:37:00.001-04:00

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...

2007-10-12T17:18:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-10-11T17:07:00.000-04:00

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?

2007-10-10T17:14:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-09T06:52:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-10-08T11:09:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-10-01T13:44:00.000-04:00

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...

Today was a thinking day... Help us all.

2007-09-26T21:37:00.001-04:00

I just left my wife...

... left her watching some stupid Grey's Anatomy spin-off show about Childbirth and all that crap. I hate these lame shows.

What I really hate is that I watched about half of it and could get addicted to it... Therefore I cannot watch. Must not watch. I need to do school work. Yeah, that's it... and blog. :)

A new feature on this blog is my restaurant review of a "family friendly" establishment which I critique based on it's food (my kids don't eat fries - don't put them with every meal), access, how friendly the staff is to children, how friendly the facility is to children (like high-chairs, changing table - in the guys bathroom too), and the speed of service and cost.

Good places in Toronto include; Safari on Avenue Road. The bathroom is not convenient but they know how to keep families happy. Staff are super-friendly and food is generally out-of-this-world. Then again, my kids love their currie pasta and chicken-chipotole chowder.

Other good places in TO; Hersheys - have toys for the kids there too, and Hershey is a uber-friendly guy.

Applejacks, the Rainforest Cafe and Mandarin get top marks too.

But tonight we had an experience... Ugh. We went to a place called the China Buffet King in Richmond Hill. Got there just after it opened, so we expected it to be pretty empty, but I was SO disappointed after this meal.

The service SUCKED! Have you ever had to ask a server to clean off your table? I asked for Soya sauce and instead of getting it for me (you know it was me, UM and the 2 kids), the server point in the general vicinity and walked away. I had to ask for napkins, the bill, then had to hunt them down to get it back. Just brutal. We actually left no tip. For what? We did everything?
The food? Below average to average. Huge trays of food with very little on it. Selection... below average too. They try too hard to do a little of everything but do nothing well. 2-3 dim sum items, 3-4 sushi items, a huge dessert section and fresh veggie row that looked good (not for $16.99 each, though) and the rest of the food was lazily prepared. For example, the shrimp, not peeled, the mussels and squid, chewy (overcooked), the chicken with bones in it, breaded shrimp which looked like they were breaded and stuck to a potato wedge. All just weird and gross. I couldn't find anything to put on my plate.

Urban Daddy's recommendation on China Buffet King... Stay home and eat kraft dinner... That way if you feel gross after eating it, you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

Question:

Is it considered politically incorrect to have a conversation with a work colleague while in the bathroom - or more specifically in a stall. I know guys are different than gals since we are only in stalls for one reason, you gals are in there for everything, so when a guy talks to you from inside a stall, it's generally really weird.

What about if the guy is talking to you and at the same time passing loud gas, grunting and moaning? Creepy? For a guy... YES. Well this happened to me Monday. A very odd colleague walked into the washroom while I was washing my hands, proceeded to get into a stall, make a TON of gross noises, including farting and grunting even when I tried to escape and had the door open he still was fighting the fight that people at the elevator (20 feet away and around a corner) were wondering what the hell was going on.

I was left shaken... Probably also because this guy never washes his hands and leaves with newspaper tucked under his arm. UGH.

Is that grounds for dismissal? Good thing I'm not in charge. :)

My boy was at the dentist this evening for a check up. Got to ride the chair, had his teeth counted (he told the hygienist he had 5 teeth, he has 20). He got checked, met the dentist, got the orange toothbrush he wanted, and berry flavoured floss. It was all really cute. When we got home I heard him thank his Mummy for taking him to the dentist... Awwwww.