Hi... It's been a while... How are you?

You're still here. :)

YAY.

This is a summary of the week that was.

First, my employer cut off all access to blogger. Damn. I used to browse blogs and create draft updates there - during my lunch and breaks, of course. Now I can't. I see less posts coming in the near future, well that and facebook takes up a lot of my addiction time.



Last weekend we took the kids to Centreville - where I have not been for like 20 years. It was fun. The Happy Boy liked the rides that were not noisy (he really dislikes noise so much so that he wont pee in an automatic flush toilet if it flushes too loudly), like the riding cars, and the log ride. We met some friends up there and had a wonderful time. UrbanMummy made us a picnic and we all chowed down. Can't wait to go back.



I think the highlight of that trip was on the way home when the Happy Boy and the Weed fell asleep in their stroller, Happy Boy on the top and Weed on the bottom - it allowed UM and I the opportunity to walk around Queen's Quay and have an ice cream by the waterfront without interruption. It was heavenly. I like my wife. I've seen more of her in the past few weeks than I have in the past few years.

The following day we hiked up the cottage and played around in the heat.
Loads of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's even if the cottage isn't by any means child friendly and I have to be on high alert for breakage inside and the water outside.

During the week an old friend of mine since grade three, actually, with whom I had not spoken in a couple years called me out of no where to tell me that his Mom died. She was a nice British woman who developed a fear of the outdoors once her husband passed away 7 years ago. She, like he, was a pack rat and they kept EVERYTHING. They were renting a 4 bedroom townhouse and every room was packed full to the ceiling with stuff. It was really sad. She always treated me nice even though I rarely knew what she was saying because of that friggin accent. LOL.

The kicker here is that she died June 1st... ah, excuse me?!? I gave him shit. I had left him numerous messages and never heard back. Took the bugger 2 months to let me know. Nice, eh? Quite frankly I was kind of worried to have heard from him because I thought he was looking for a place to live for a "couple months". That means a year in Canadian time.

I am officially in the market for a career change. I'll be starting my last couses for my MBA in September - Corporate Finance and Business Strategies, and once done, will have my Masters and will need a new job for sure. My employer does not recognize MBA's and prefers to manage staff in the "traditional" way - not that I am knocking them - they can do what they would like, but it's no longer the way I want to be doing it. So if anyone knows a headhunter / recruiter in the finance, tax, consulting area, please think of my and let me know.

Thanks.

Until next time, when I update the arrival of UM's cousins from Jersey and the fun times we had at the cottage, at the Ontario Science Centre and their search for all things NOT high in "high-glucose corn syrup".

Thursday Thirteen

Inspired from my iPod...



Thirteen ESSENTIAL songs for everyone to put on their iPod's.



13. Enter Sandman - Metallica

12. Break on Through - The Doors

11. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zepplin

10. Sweet Child of Mine - Guns and Roses

9. Another Brick in the Wall- Pink Floyd

8. I Want to Hold Your Hand- Beatles

7. Hotel California- Eagles

6. Unchained Melody- Righteous Brothers

5. Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard

4. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

3. Heaven - Bryan Adams

2. Imagine- John Lennon

1. Boheniam Rhapsody - Queen


I'll bet you are sitting right now looking at number 1 and thinking of Wayne's World, where Wayne and Garth and friends are singing along to this song in a car, head-banging at the appropriate time...

I can.

Tuesday Newsday

Is back!

In the news this Tuesday July 24th via Google News.


1) The corpse of a mummified baby has been discovered inside a Riverdale home (Toronto, Ontario). A renovator working in the home on Kintyre Avenue, in the Broadview Avenue and Queen Street area made the discovery late Tuesday night. Police said the body of the baby, estimated at about four months of age, was found inside a ceiling of second-floor bedroom wrapped in a newspaper dated from September of 1925. The mummified remains will be examined by the Centre for Forensic Sciences.Police homicide investigators are probing the incident.
Oh oh... Some 100 year old dude and his wife are gonna get their asses whooped for this one.


2) The Canadian dollar reached a 30-year high yesterday, closing at 96.36 cents (US) - up more than a cent from Monday - after Statistics Canada reported a massive 2.8-per-cent increase in retail sales in May from a month earlier.
Damn... The more we buy here, the better it's getting to shop in the States. It is kind of neat to see the dollar climbing, even if it did kill our Scrapbooking business as the majority of our customers were American and took advantage of the then awesome exchange rate. $1.00 US got them $1.30 Can.


3) The two Arab countries - Egypt and Jordan- with ties to Israel have paid an historic visit to the Jewish state to "extend the hand of peace" on behalf of their fellow Arabs.
Considering Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have not seen progress for seven years, a period in which more than 5,000 people have died in violence, the large majority of them Palestinians, and dialogue is good dialogue unless it starts with, "Find a new place to live".

4) Troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan could be on her way to jail. The 21-year-old is facing a year in jail after her latest arrest on suspicion of drink-driving and possession of cocaine.
She was picked up by police, following a car chase in California, allegedly under the influence and with a small amount of cocaine in her pocket, she was arrested after chasing the mother of her personal assistant in her car early Tuesday morning, Santa Monica police said.
All this happened just five days after she was booked in connection with a May drunken driving charge. Hmmmm. Alcohol, drugs, driving under the influence... What is going to happen first: Jail, Overdose or Britney Spears OD's first? Role models??? NO WAY. The public is fascinated at watching these two half-wits self destruct in public. I'm sure Paris Hilton is happy the spotlight is off of her. I hope and pray that the earth will open up and swallow these two soon.. please. And stop buying their albums and watching their movies... please!

I'm still here....

I have to write some sort of post because I'm sick of looking at the July 8th post about the vomit comet, which I rode a week later. The Happy Boy had it, the Weed had it, I got it, then Urban Mummy got it. UGH. It was a major annoyance because of all that had to get done...

For Example,

I finished my marketing class last night - major group presentation to my professor and a few industry professionals. We rocked, but I was REALLY pissed off leading up to the end of this project. Throughout the entire 3 1/2 month course, I felt like I was responsible for keeping the rest of the group members meeting and talking, and if it wasn't for one group member who took the bull by the horn, we would never have made it... and we just did.

This project required us to take an existing technology project that was under performing and re-launch it for the company we choose. In our case, we were launching a product for Mac's convenience stores, which required us to learn about the industry, the product and Mac's marketing plan.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and we learned a ton! The problem was in accepting responsibility. Every time we had a class and our group was called to the carpet for not being prepared or for missing a checkpoint, I was the mouthpiece. Every time we had to discuss something in the group, like the 2 members who did not want to talk on their Mic's, or to tell the one group member who did not volunteer to do any work that it was not acceptable, I had to take over that task. I felt like I was on The Apprentice. I wanted to fire them all, except for one... the only female in the group who worked for Mac's and really had a desire to get this done... well.

To make a long story short, we came to the day before the assignment and presentation we due and I realized that the PowerPoint sucked and the assignment was missing very important information, about the product, the customers and the company. Minor, eh?

Nonetheless, I re-wrote the entire presentation today, and handed it off to my teammates 10 minutes before it was due to the professor with the prompting for them to forget it and forward it. One presenter backed out the night before, the other's Mic did not work and the other 2 never confirmed if they would be presenting or not. Grrrr. We just sent out an email telling them what they are doing and they did it ... well.

My blood pressure started to boil when I figured it would be two of us presenting and during the mic check, my router cut out, I lost my Internet and was logged off for 10 minutes. Thank goodness we were presenting last. When I logged back on, I had 7 emails from my group. lol. They were really worried, but we all came together and we got an "A" on the project and I pulled in another "A" in the course.

No time to rest as my Finance exam is due in 2 days. UGH. Crappy course, horrible US textbook, cramped content and worst of all, 50 multiple choice questions and three problems. Sigh.


Update:

Finished and sent the Finance exam 5 minutes before it was due... Answered all the questions, and can now calculate Weighted Average Cost of Capital with my eyes shut. Now that I'm sure I can use everyday. LOL.

Left Saturday for London, Ont. Stayed overnight at the 4-points Sheridan... nice hotel. Nice room, nice amenities (free bottled water). Crappy pool only because it was full of kids. There was a Harley convention there... all the bikers stopped by the Happy Boy to say hi, as he was waving to them... he made friends. He even asked me why one of them had a candle sticking out of his mouth. I told him he was holding it there.

Anyways, we drove Sunday morning to St. Thomas to spend the day out with Thomas the tank-engine. It was hot, sunny, and we had 2 cranky kids, lots of train stuff everywhere and we had fun!

We left before Sir Top En Hatt (or whatever his name is.. that guy that made Happy Boy cry last year), and went to the park to eat, play and run through the water... Then at 3, it was time to head back to TO. We packed the car, tossed in the kids, and by the time I got to the 401, everyone was asleep. LOL. We got home, calmed them down and off to bed. It's not 11pm and I'm going too. No school work tonight.

Watch out!!! It's the vomit comet...

I was really hoping to type this long, creative post about out trip last week to Disney with the kids and the crappy Disney Resort, President's Choice MasterCard fiasco, Happy Boy trying to push over Winnie the Pooh, food issues, our 6th Wedding Anniversary, travel, cousins, and an overall GREAT time, but as I sit here trying to work on my Marketing product launch (details coming), my Finance final exam and a couple of assignments, I periodically run upstairs to help UrbanMummy wipe up vomit from the Baby Boy. He started to throw up around 6pm tonight, after a weekend of the Happy Boy throwing up, sleeping and not eating.

So I figure I have account for about 6 total sleep hours this weekend and I have cleaned up no less than 10 "discharges". Poor kids. At least The Happy Boy is picking up... maybe tomorrow he'll eat. :)

I just have to keep the TV volume down so I can run up and help on the clean up.

How the mighty have fallen...

I changed my facebook status last night to reflect what I thought was a huge tragedy unfolding in the world of professional wrestling, the murder of Canadian wrestling sensation Chris Benoit. The Canadian Crippler was found dead in his suburban Atlanta home along with his wife and 7 year old son. The WWE cancelled their live "RAW" show and had a tribute to Benoit.

It was shortly there after that word started to leak out about the murder being a possible murder-suicide, when I received a comment from Laural Dawn about this situation - she remembered that I still get a kick out of the soap opera that is professional wrestling. As I prepared my witty reply, more word came down that it was almost 100% a murder-suicide and that Chris had been intimidating his wife after she filed for divorce. The thought that someone could hit a woman, let alone harm a child repulses me. I had this image of Chris as being a model citizen. I mean all the wrestlers that spoke about his death said so. They pointed out that he was all about respect and tried to instill that into the young wrestlers that came into the WWE and also with his son.

Say it aint so.

But now it looks like it is. And that leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Those who read my ramblings know that I cannot stand those peoplewho commit suicide but take others with them. I feel they are cowards. I have NO respect for these people. I understand you are having a tough time... too much drugs, maybe, and you feel you would be better off this earth, then go ahead. Please. Just do it along and don't be messy. Others have to deal with the crap you leave behind.

So I took off the Chris Benoit RIP tag and my image of this guy has gone from star to loser. I'll reserve truer feelings once the autopsy comes it. Chris... your own son, Chris. Damn!

Fuck you theif

This post is dedicated to the theif who took UrbanMummy's purse while we were with the kids at the Family Pride day on Saturday. This low-life snuck up behind me while I was feeding the Weed watermelon, and swiped it from in a pile of related kid stuff right beside me. We cancelled our credit card, and managed to recover 1 gift card, but gone are numerous gift cards, driver's license, health cards for UM, for the Happy Boy and for the Weed, as well as tons of receipts, and the sort. I hope you try and use the credit card and they call the police. I'd love to find out who you are and press charges. It's maggots like you that give this beautiful city a bad name. You need the money (there was none in the purse) or information so badly, try getting a job and earning it yourself. Asshole. Grrrrrrr.


Vesa Toskela - Welcome to Toronto!! Your 26-10 record and 2.35 GAA is most welcome. I can breathe easier knowing that once Andrew Raycroft falters, you will be there to pick up the reins and go. I give the team 5 games before you are the starter.


Belinda Stronach... I'm sorry for all the mean things that I said about you for changing from the Conservatives to the Liberals in order to take over a cabinet position. I hope your battle with breast cancer is a successful one. I wish you a speedy recovery!


I'm a big supporter of Toronto's sports teams, I like them all, especially the Raptors and Jays, but I'm having some doubts about the Jays management this year. For example, the Jays made a very few off-season signings, Tomo Okha, John Thomson and Frank Thomas. The Jays have released Okha and Thomson already. Busts. Thomas... 39 years old. Not the player he was last year. I have my doubts, but I think all the off-season moves to make the Jays better have failed, and considering the fiasco with closer B.J. Ryan's sore "back" requiring Tommy John ligament replacement in his elbow, I think it's time for J.P. Riccardi to go. The franchise will go on without his 5 year (7 year) plan. Bye bye, JP.


A judge on Monday ruled in favour of a dry cleaner that was sued for US$54 million over a missing pair of pants in a case that garnered international attention and renewed calls for litigation reform. I think the lawyer who sued the dry cleaner needs to have his license revoked. Do lawyers really want this guy representing their profession? Why can't the dry cleaner sue him for making a clearly obvious inflated claim. Another asshole. I wonder if this clown stole UM's purse? Hmmmm.


Speaking still of assholes...

An image and message of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit released on the website of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, on the first anniversary of his capture.

I love the hypocricy that is the United Nations. Let's blame Israel, let's blame Israel. It's been a year since Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier and have refised to give him back. They want like 1000 terrorists, er, prisioners returned to them. I got an idea, Hamas, give back the soldiers, turn your reign over to Fatah and let them work out a peace accord with the Israeli's and the UN, and, oh, that does mean stop firing rockets into Israel. Funny how that is not top news, that rockets get fired in every day, but when Israel does it, it's front page news.

But that is another story...

Knocking in the night

11:30pm.

I hear a door open quietly, then close, followed by the pitter patter of little feet, then the sound of someone knocking on a door. It was the Happy Boy. He was hungry. He left his room - quietly opening the door, then quietly closing it (I guess in case we came by his room we'd think he was still in there, or maybe so we wont see the mess - nonetheless, it's really cute). Walked slowly and quietly towards our room (we keep our doors closed so the crying baby wont wake the Happy Boy up) and knocked, and knocked, and knocked until I heard him from the basement.

I called his name, met him at the top of the stairs and he sat on my lap, head in hands and just sighed, said nothing, but sigh. He was very sleepy, I thought he was going to fall back asleep right in my arms. Instead he perked up when I asked him if he was hungry. He said he wanted "cottage cheese". Yup. Cottage cheese. So I took him to the kitchen, gave him cottage cheese and milk and after 15 minutes took him back to his bed where he slept like a (baby - but not our baby).

Cutie.

It's about time!!!

Imagine starting your day at 6:30am, starting work at 8am, working until 5-5:30, coming home for a nice dinner with your family (thanks hun), getting the kids ready for bath and bed, then at 8-9pm, juggling housework, spouse time, and school. Crazy, huh? I get asked all the time how I do it.

Well I do it because I have to... I want to.

But the real problem I have is with this issue... The herniated disk in my back.

With all that is going on around me I have little time to tend to my back exercises and stretches, and since my employer (6 months later) has not provided me with my ergonomic needs, I spend every other day in pain. I stopped taking meds a long time ago - I'd rather be a whiner than a druggie.

So over the past 6 months I have witnessed my ever expanding waistline as I work on my core, and abs, and I see the fat being replaced by muscle (still covered in fat though) and all my clothes are getting tight on me. I can stretch, and do very few exercises, like walking, but even that hurts some days. UGH.

The whole thing, excuse my expression, fucking sucks!

I was caught offguard at my last physiotherapy appointment when my therapist told me that I should be stepping up my stretchng and do actual exercising because of my advancement. I can work on my abs, legs and now arms too. She taught me how to work my superficial abs, which is also called the 6-pack, and that makes me happy because I'm a superficial guy, eh UM?

I look forward to setting aside lots of time to exercise. Shit. When would that be? Hmmmmm. Oh, I know, in July after my two present MBA classes end and before my last two begin to work out like a fiend and show the wife that hot bod that she has heard stories about and saw, well, before kids.

I just can't seem to lose that pregnancy weight. Damn.

Pass the rice cakes please/

I've been tagged...

A few days later and I am finally getting to the meme that Laural Dawn tagged me for!!!

Instructions: Remove the blog from the top, move all blogs up one, add yourself to the bottom.

Jersey Mum
Full Plate
Misadventures of Mommy Laural
Urban Daddy

Five people to tag: Urban Mummy, Here Kitty, Kitty, Cheaty Monkey (Haley), The kids are alright (Penelope) and Girl "x".


What were you doing 10 years ago?

Wasting my time up in Richmond Hill, Ontario at my Uncle's office trying to determine whether I could make a go of it selling promotional items or whether I wanted to get a "real" job somewhere in the city and play like a grown-up. I chose the grown-up. I applied for a few jobs, broke up with both of the girls I was "seeing" and started seeing someone else. Time for change. It was a turning point in my life, pre-Urban Mummy.


Five Snacks You Enjoy:

Fresh fruit
Fresh veggies
Ice ream
Mint chocolate anything
Peanuts


Five Songs That You Know All The Lyrics To:

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Heaven - Bryan Adams
Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard
Doesn't Really Matter - Platinum Blonde
Standing in the Dark - Platinum Blonde


Five Things You Would Do If You Were a Millionaire:

Hire a personal trainer
Travel a lot
Buy vacation properties all around the world
Buy a sports team to run - baseball, lacrosse or hockey
Buy a grand piano and get classically trained


Five bad habits:

Bite my nails
Wasting time surfing the net
Taking on way too many tasks at once
Waiting a week to sift the litter box (sorry dear)
Having to finish food


Five Things You Like To Do:

Gardening
Play sports
Cook
Listen to music
Thumb wrestle with Urban Mummy (although she cheats)


Five Things You Would Never Wear Again:

Anything to which my wife comments, "You are wearing that, in public?"
Cowboy boots
Pink
T-shits with iron-ons
Neon
(honourable mention goes out to - jeans to the office, and buttless chaps)

I am the worst Daddy in the world...

At least last night I was.

You see, the Happy Boy's bedtime, for the first couple years of his life, was at 7:30pm. Recently, he has decided that he wants to stay up and play, eat, sit on my lap, etc. This has resulted in bed-time being 9pm. Not cool.

So last night, I'm in my Finance class, listening to the professor with my headphone and the Happy Boy is going nuts... wants to sit on my lap, sit under the table, go behind me... So as he tries to go behind me, I hear, barely audible, through by headphones, "excuse me, Daddy", so I go to pull my chair in and drop the back corner right on his foot, catching the last two toes. He screamed, UrbanMummy appears, and I threw off my heat set... No blood, just a scrape. He was not happy. Real tears,

I explained to Urban Mummy what happened and she looked at me and said, "You're lucky you didn't break his toes". Our son then spun towards me and sad, "Daddy, you break it... you break my foot". Nice... Chastised by an almost 2 1/2yr old.

So we got him to bed, he said it was feeling better and he was out the second his head hit the pillow.

End of the story???


Not at all... read on.

So normally in the morning when I am in the kitchen and the Happy Boy wakes up, he tip toes out of his room, comes to the very open staircase, and yells downstairs, "Hi Daddy, Hi, Hi Daddy". I ask him to come downstairs, and he is as happy to see me as I am to see him.

But not this morning.

This morning he came downstairS, walked into the kitchen, right over to me with a very serious look on his face, came right up to me and said this... "Daddy, no put chair on toe again. OK. No hurt Happy Boy. OK. You broke it. Fix it. OK. No hurt Happy Boy.. OK.. OK... OK."

Yikes!

It was an accident. I told him that. I apologized, again. Told him it was an accident... again. I already feel like crap.

I scooped him up and gave him a big hug and kiss.

He smiled at me.

Then he opened his mouth and said, "feels better Daddy".

Awwwwwww.

To think he spent all night worrying about chewing me out this morning to make sure I never do that again. He must have been searching for another family. Geez.

When did the almost 2 1/2 year old grow up?!?

Happy Birthday UM

June 1st was UrbanMummy's birthday (I wont say what number but she still looks like she's in her 20's and her skin is still super-soft)
So here is what we did for her...

Breakfast - she doesn't eat breakfast first thing in the morning, but I wanted to make sure that when she was hungry that there was food there for her, so I canvassed the team, and as a result, at about 11:30pm I made triple chocolate and raspberry pancakes for her, to be served in the am with a side of fresh berries. Yum.
For gifts, she wound up with some beautiful aquamarine earrings surrounded by itsy-bitsy diamonds (thanks to the Happy Boy for picking the more expensive earrings than the ones we had set out for her), some foot relief cream, massage oil, dark chocolates, fat free potato puffs, and yummy vanilla bath bubbles.

Not a bad haul, eh?

On Friday night, my mother and sister came over for a nice sabbath dinner chalk full of Indian Food from a place called Agra (Yonge and Sheppard). Always yummy.

I think she had fun.


Tonight, while warming up some food in the toaster, my lovely and in this case talented wife managed to set our toaster on fire. Hmmmm. Can I still use it? Good thing we have another. LOL.


Looks like we have major success with the Happy Boy and potty training. It's been days since he has had an accident and he even held his pee for 20 minutes today so we could drive into Burlington and head out. It's gross when he poo's into that mimi-potty, but it's all great. Especially since he empties his pitty into the toilet and flushes it away.


Got my first half class marks for my Finance class. 3 marks, 2 A's and a B. Not bad... Not great either. Have an assignment due this Wednesday.


At the office we are having a large re-organization but refuse to move my computer to my new desk. I might have pursuaded them otherwise, but when I get to the office after SportBall tomorroe, I don't know what to expect. If it's there, I'm happy. If not, it'll be dealt with through managers and possible higher up too. fuckers!

A change will do you good...

To all my loyal readers, please take note...

I just finished an assignment on "branding" of private label products, such as Wal-Mart's 'Ol Roy dog food which has become the world's most popular dog food. Cool eh?

So what is my point???

Well

I've been re-branded!!!

Come see the new me... the real me... sort of. My new URL is www.urbandaddy.blogspot.com. You will see lots of changes over the next couple weeks and please feel free to let me know if you like them or hate them.

Cheers,

UrbanDaddy.

Poor, poor Weed...

It happened. Finally. The Weed got his first tooth, follow by his second one the next day. Yay. He's going to be a cutie. Well, more of a cutie than he already is. :)

You see, The Happy Boy, would get a fever, runny nose and not eat the day before his tooth would come in. The Weed?!? Had to be different. He got the fever after his teeth came in and boy was it a doozy. He is trying to one-up The Happy Boy.

The Weed's fever peaked at 104 on Sunday and after a doctor's appointment on Monday, it was determined he has an ear infection. Poor little guy. He was hurting in the mouth and sick too. He just layed there for 2 days. Then came the rash... roseola, of sorts. All over his little body he had this rash. Now he is perking back up and smiling again. I hope UrbanMummy does not post a story about his health or sleepng again, and jinx him. LOL.

It's UrbanMummy's birthday on June 1st and I've been ready for this for almost a week. YAY. Keeping on the ball.


We have been trying to deal with potty training and the Happy Boy for a while and we have finally realized that if he runs around the house with no bottoms on, he acknowledges when he has to pee, or poo, and runs to the bathroom before there is an accident. Cool, eh? We tried feeding him, and bribing him, none of those worked. This kid even takes his pee, dumps it from the potty into the toilet, flushes the toilet and puts his potty back together after. Crazy! So this past weekend we took the kids to Dufferin Mall, into H&M, and bough him little boy boxers. He wanted red, he got red, and many other colours too. So when he gets home from school, or the park, he comes out of his diaper and into boxers. We still have the odd little pee accident, but all in all, it's really cute!


We also bought some sports stuff for the Happy Boy. He got a little baseball bat and t-ball tee, a soccer ball and net and hockey sticks with a hockey ball and a plastic puck. So for the first few days, all he wanted to do was play hockey. Bless this child!!!

Short and Sweet

Today is the 30th anniversary of the greatest movie of ALL time... Star Wars. How are we going to celebrate this in the SpeakEasy / Urban Mummy household... Hmmmmm.

Upper Deck wants to buy Topps. Grrrrr. Upper Deck is a sports card company and they are going around buying all the other card companies and putting out 10 different brands of the same inadequate card. I hate Upper Deck. I don't like spending $4.00 for a pack of 4 cards and getting 4 shitty players. Upper Deck, you suck. Fuck off and go away.

:)

The Weed has a tooth, the Weed has a tooth, our cute little baby boy, the Weed has a tooth!!! His first tooth broke through the skin on the bottom right of his mouth last night. Awwww. He's so cute. But man he's growing up fast... NOT.

Jim Balsillie, the founder of Research and Motion's Blackberry wants to buy the NHL's Nashville Predators and move them the hell out of Nashville into southern Ontario. Could this be the start of something good? If this is allowed to happen, then Gary Bettman, the commissioner - whom I like for breaking the Union - needs to go too. He put these teams down there. They don't belong. I'm not sure Kitchener or Waterloo works, but they are better than Kansas City, one would think. Kansas City,. after all, used to have the Scouts, who lasted all of what... 5 seasons?

RBC announced an increase in earnings of 14% this second quarter of 2007. TD Bank, 19%. Our bank fees and ATM fees? Still there. Fucking banks!!!

Re-cap...

Because of school constraints on my behalf and UrbanMummy and, well, for fuck sakes, Facebook taking up all my/our time, I have been unable to post updates.

Let's try a big one here:

Mother's Day - cards from the kids, from me and for the Moms. That's my job. gifts for the wife, gifts for Mummy and for the Moms usually my job but this year UM took on the task of arranging the Mother's gifts and they loved the professional picture of our two boys with a jazzed up frame that my artsy-fartsy wife styled up. Told her she could sell those frames for $20-$25. Nice day had by all. UM got from my mom a membership for the Toronto Zoo for the year (parking included)... SWEET.

Victoria Day - Began with a house party at night for us and the kiddies - fun. Saturday we went to the Zoo in the afternoon, showed the Happy Boy the Monkeys, Zebras, Tigers, Giraffes, Cheetahs, etc. He told us in the car as we were leaving the parking lot - unprompted, that, "I had fun at the zoo today, Mommy/Daddy). We had a nice picnic dinner in the park thanks to UM and her yummy pasta salad.
Sunday - cold - we prepared the house for Monday's BBQ (spoiled it for you...) by painting moer of the basement playroom, grocery shopping and driving around.
Monday - Play, cleaning, walking and preparing for the 4 couples and kids that came over for dinner. Yum. Only downside was that our neighbours dog chewed a ball I got for the Happy Boy from the Raptors game. He like it. It's flat now. LOL. I think he'll survive. Bedtime came at 1:30, only to be interrupted by the Happy boy who wanted Mummy (who doesn't at 2am). I got him back to sleep twice, but he made his way into my bed at 5am and we slept until 7. Cutie.

All in all, a great weekend. Had a lot of fun. Want more like that. Need to get right on that...


The Weed is clapping. Tries to say "Poo, poo, poo", said "Mama" once and pulled himself up on the train table. Whew. At 7 months old.


Just had a BK Joe coffee - Turbo of course. Supposed to have 4 times the caffeine of regular coffee - made from syrup so no coffee grinds. So far, no effect. LOL.


Work is undergoing a MASSIVE re-organization in hopes of making more money - the concept unveiled last week looks good but more soft skills are needed to boost the troops morale. I don't think they knew that, but I have to use my almost MBA for something. I gave suggestions to whomever would listen. I put myself out there. If they want to use me as a resource, I'm here, otherwise, it's the organizations loss.


I think I still want to see "We Will Rock You".


UM's birthday is coming up (fast) and I need a great gift suggestions that is going to knock her clothes off, errr, socks off. She said "no" to a party. Damn.


I read the posts of Cheaty Monkey and The Kids are All right (see my fav blogs to read on the side), both ladies are preggo, and both make me laugh when talking about the pregnancy... It wasn't THAT long ago... Was it?

I'm stressed...

Very stressed. Work, school, home... All that stuff. Really stressed. Ugh.


If you are Canadian - Stay OUT of Mexico. They don't appreciate our money. More Canadians are assulted in Mexico that any other country. Shame!


Four years ago I started a Residents Organization in my area to help build moreale, make the streets safer and get my street paved. It was in shambles... Loads of potholes. sewers backed up, the side of the street touching the curb had the brick exposed (VERY old) or had faded away. I was told by the City of Toronto's Manager of Infrastructure repair that the street was finally scheduled to undergo a "major renovation" in 2009, but our City Councillor was pushing to have it done sooner. We moved. I still walk on the street on the way to the subway. It's a mess. There is a large school on that street. So what a surprise when I walked on the street only to find that the sidewalks were ripped up and replaced on the Ssouth side of the street and they looked great! The North side was set for next week. Followed by the street.

I had a tear in my eye. Somehow I felt like the residents owed me their gratitude for taking on this issue since the streets had been in shoddy shape for decades but no one did anything about it. Part of me also says, Awww, fuck it. They would have fixed them anyways because of the school and TTC using the street.

On to the next, bigger and better community issue... Graffiti, vandelism, upgrades to the park and a street party for the summer.

The weekend that was...

Sunday was Lag Baomer. What exactly is Lag Baomer? Good question. I didn't really know either, until I googled it...

Lag BaOmer, May 6, 2007 this year, is a festive day on the Jewish calendar, celebrated with outings (on which the children traditionally play with bow and arrows ), bonfires, and other joyous events. Many visit the resting place (in Miron in Northern Israel) of the great sage and mystic Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, whose yahrzeit (anniversary of his passing) the day marks.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who lived in the 2nd century of the Common Era, was the first to publicly teach the mystical dimension of the Torah known as the "Kabbalah," and is the author of the basic work of Kabbalah, the Zohar. On the day of his passing, Rabbi Shimon instructed his disciples to mark the date as "the day of my joy."

Lag BaOmer also commemorates another joyous event. The Talmud relates that in the weeks between Passover and Shavuot a plague raged amongst the disciples of the great sage Rabbi Akiva "because they did not act respectfully towards each other"; these weeks are therefore observed as a period of mourning, with various joyous activities proscribed by law and custom. On Lag BaOmer the dying ceased. Thus Lag BaOmer also carries the theme of Ahavat Yisrael, the imperative to love and respect one's fellow

We were invited to Earl Bales Park for a giant festival by the Rabbi that lives on our street. The Happy Boy and I were coming home from picking up dinner and we stopped to chat with the Rabbi. My son, after playing shy, announced to the Rabbi that "I love bagels!!", to which the Rabbi said, hey were having a party in the park... are you coming. LOL. We went. There were kids playing with bows and arrows. Go figure. There also was a bonfire. Hmmmm. There were games, and stuff. It was....ok. We came, we stayed for a bit, we left. Happy Boy got to jump around inside an inflatable dreydl, and was climbing the giant menorah slide when a much older kid jumped down flattening all the kids in the way including Happy Boy. He did want to play on that ride anymore... He was, "Scared!!!".

We left the event and went to our friends for a nice BBQ dinner. Sweet.

The Weed enjoyed the fresh air and actually slept 5 straight hours that night. 5 straight!!! WOW. It was... weird. He's almost 7 months now and it looks like he might actually try sleeping.

I have my fingers crossed.

Help needed from my reader(s)

I need a underachieving technology to perform a MBA study on.

Does anyone know of, or maybe have used, a tech product that just didn't seem to fit? My MBA group needs to find such a product and with the assistance of the owner of this / these product(s) we do a complete study of it and offer recommendations to the company to help the technology hopefully with a new life. All this is under the guidence of our professor who was a member of the marketin team that brought Tic Tac's to Canada.

Please reply ASAP!!

Thanks

Only 600 votes to go...

I'd like to crack, at least 10.

LOL.

"Da Da"... Yes I am!!!

Everything is right with the world tonight!

At about 7:40pm tonight, the Weed was laying on our bed, with a big smile on his face, when I came over to put him into pj's. He looked up at me and said, "Da Da". Clearly. Not like a fluke word, but the real deal! He called me "da da". So I called over Urban Mummy to taunt her, er, clarify, and her and I stared in amazement as he lay on the bed saying over and over again, "da da, da da, da da, da da".

I love that little boy!

Thoughts...

Belinda Stronach is not seeking re-election in the next election. HA HA HA. I knew (and probably blogged) that once she became a traitor and left the conservative party, crossing the floor to join the corrupt liberals for a cabinet post, that she would be going nowhere in politics. Clearly I was incorrect. She is going somewhere... out! Bye bye Belinda, you turncoat, and take Tie with you. His segment "Win, Lose and Tie" on TSN is brutal. I turn the channel when it comes on.

It looks like rain outside... I don't have an umbrella.

I'm really jacked that the Raptors are in the playoffs - but I hate that they are playing Vince Carter and the NJ Nets because I'll be REALLY upset if we lose to "them".

Got my marks for my 2 most recent Grad school classes... both A's. Only 4 more classes to go. YAY.

We have something in common - my wife and I - besides our kids, marriage, house, etc. I love to garden and UrbanMummy is good at it too. We have seedlings now sitting in the living room soon to be headed in the garden, of all these funky heirloom fruits and veggies. She picked them, she planted the seeds, we watch them grow. Fun, fun, fun!

Need sleep... am painting... had to happen sooner or later. Which one??? Both, or is that either. :)

Of Poo, Sleep and Excess...

This morning on my wonderful walk to the subway I passed, not 1, not 2, but 3 Porsche SUV's either driving or parked in my area. Everytime I look at one of those cars I get angry at the fact people would actually buy these things. Firstly, what message does it give to your children... "Don't worry kiddies, we are superficial and you will be too. It's all about the name". Secondly, gas is over $1.00 a litre and with all this crap in the Middle East over oil, it's about time more of these Porsche SUV owners get out of their fucking cars and do what I do every day... Walk to the subway. Some of these SUV's are 2 blocks from the Yonge subway. 2 blocks! Thirdly, and I had to look this one up - while the price of the 2007 SUV ranges from $5K - $93K (USD) does the world need more of these cars, or Hummer's or that friggin huge Cadillac Escalade. Can you see around that thing when you drive? These things start at $56K and seat 24. They are excess x10.


As parents, once our kids hit that special age we decide we want them to start using the potty for poo and pee, and we run out and buy a little potty, sit it on the floor - usually in the bathroom - and expect a child to use it. I've noticed in the SpeakEasy household that our son walked by it for months looking suspiciously at it as if it was going to chase him down and bite his leg.

So I was more than a little surprised yesterday morning when my little boy - who not 3 weeks ago gave up his crib and pacifier within 3 days of each other, came into our bedroom and announced that he wanted to go poo AND pee in the potty so he could get that firetruck we've been offering him for 2 weeks. He ran to the bathroom, took off his pj's, his diaper and sat down with a truck and book and waited for us to come and sit with him. It was cute. He does sit there every now and then, usually at our prompting... well, always at our prompting.

But then there was poo... a LOT of poo. I mean a LOT. Neither of us wanted to go near it. UGH. I think at that moment, while he was jumping up and down, clapping and smiling, pointing at the poo, saying "I did it!!!" I was wishing he had done that in a diaper.

There must be a better way!


Sleep: Got almost 7 hours last night! 7 hours! That is 2 nights sleep, in ONE night! I'm practically giddy.

Now this I believe.

Found this in my inbox...



Although I have only personally met a few of you, word must be getting out. LOL.

... and I have one vote so far!

I must have a stalker. :)

Don't I feel special!

Thoughts...

I love the Raptors. A Toronto sports team not named the Rock who are having success. GO RAPS!

As hockey season winds down, my interest in the Jays heats up.

Brittney Spears is blameing Paris Hilton and her manager for her post partum depression, shaved head, excessive partying, drug addiction, for her becoming a horrible role model for even inmates, and apparently for invading Iraq and the Suez crisis. No word if she blames them for the extinction of the dinosaur. Brit... GO AWAY.

Some jackass killed 32 people and them himself in the ultimate act of cowardess. See suicide bombers... If your life is that fucked up that you want to do this to yourself go right ahead. Take 1000 pills, or jump off a bridge, but to take an innocent person who wants to live life with you is so fucking cowardly. You are an embarassment to yourself and your family. I hope you rot in hell. Asshole.

Whew... It's been K-razy...

What a week.

We found out on Saturday (last Saturday) that UrbanMummy's 90 year old Grandmother in New York was not doing so well. Her parents had driven to see her and it was suggested that we come with the kiddies to see her too. Then as we looked at all our options, like driving (not an option after all), flying out of Toronto, or out of Buffalo, we realized that it was going to cost us $4000 for the 4 of us to fly in to NY. Then we got the call that she was getting better and that we would not need to come, and right after that call, we got the call that she passed away.

We booked a flight into Newark, NJ, rented a car and left the next day.

Tip: For anyone with children who needs to rent a car in the United States and would like the company to install the car seats for you... rent from Avis car rental. They put the car seats into the car in less that 10 minutes and they were super-friendly. More than we can say for Budget and Hertz - both those car rental companies gave us a big hassel and refused to install the car seats citing litigation concerns. In both cases Hertz and Budget gave us pieces of car seats and set us on our way to figure out installation on our own. Never again. Avis rules!!

We drove from the airport into New York and into our hotel and the rest of the trip went as expected. We were only going for 2 days, which became 4 days, and I noticed a few things about my children.

1) The Happy Boy sleeps through everything! He slept in the car through banging doors and a crying brother sitting right next to him. He slept through the night in a bed with his brother in the next bed waking up every 2-3 hours and wailing for attention.

2) My son is the entertainer. No matter if he was meeting cousins for the first time or 5th time, he was giving them a show. Talking up a storm, and dancing and singing where necessary. During UrbanMummy's eulogy, he went over to her and when in her arms, was trying to talk into the microphone (which was off). What a ham...

3) When tired, The Happy Boy bites, kicks, hits and throws things, The first night he slapped his 17 year old cousin, then tried to bite her. She glared at him, he smiled, then apologized and kissed her arm. Odd.

4) My son is very polite. Many people commented about the fact that this 2 year old was saying "excuse me", "please" and "thank you" with regularity. Hey, I cannot control what he looks like but I can make sure he is respectful.

5) The Weed makes me very tired. He still gets up every 2-3 hours... all day... and night... every day... every night. Now we are starting to understand his needs and that helps get him back to bed easier at 3 in the morning. Last night excluded.


So we did the whole funeral and shiva thing in New York, and my boys got to spend time with their cousins and it was great. I loved seeing them bond. Even if it meant that my wife's uncle who taught her her first word, "shit", taught The Happy Boy to say, "Gramma, Gramma, go fuck yourself". She flipped out, everyone else laughed and he realized the power of that word, or phrase. I heard him telling me to do the same in the car on the way to the airport home.

We got to the airport after the 3 days we were there and our flight was delayed... 2 hours. We went through customs and were steered down the side, I thought because of the kids, but nope, it was to a different area where we were all - get this - searched for explosives. They even patted down the baby. I offered to take off his diaper so they could check, but after swabbing our suitcases, they just walked away from our stuff lead strewn all over the place. Didn't even tell me it was ok to go get it. So we finally packed up and went to kill 2 hours of time. And we did. WEatching planes take off and land. For sanity reasons, we had timed the kids sleep so that they would sleep on the plane (1 hour trip) but the delay meant the Weed would be wailing on the flight and possibly the Happy Boy too.

I asked the Happy Boy to not sleep until the plane - and he did exactly that. Stayed awake until I buckled him in to the plane, then his head flopped down and he was asleep for the entire flight. The Weed on the other hand napped before the flight and was a nightmare for the first 20 minutes, but slept the rest of the way.

We landed, collected out stuff, flew through customs (because of the kids and it now being 11pm) grabbed our bag, bus to the park 'n' fly and home. Whew. Tuesday to Friday was long, busy and tiring. Now I just need to finish one final paper for my Human Resource Management course and another semester will be done. Only 2 semesters will be left. YAY.

It's Thursday!

and my son was crying this morning because his nanny took away the baby wipe he was using to clean the windows.

He really wanted to clean the windows. Kept saying, "Windows very dirty... clean now".

He's 2 years and 3 friggin months old and now he wants windex. Oy.

3 days ago he showed me his pacifier that he uses to sleep with only, and it, like the one he threw out a few weeks previously had a hole in the top of it. He asked me to "fix it". I told him I could not. He asked me to "tape it". I told him I could not. He then asked me to "paint it". I told him I could not. So the boy who I thought would be going into his teens with this pacifier said, "broken, throw garbage", calmly walked over to his garbage can and tossed it in. He has now slept three nights without it and has only mentioned it in passing to UrbanMummy telling her it was broken, that she needed to fix it, or "buy new one".

In conjunction with this gift of giving up his pacifier, looks like my little boy is also giving up his crib. He slept the last 2 nights in his big boy bed and even this morning, he woke up, knocked on his door, yelling "Happy Boy's here" (don't ask) then came out and downstairs to teh kitchen where I was getting ready for work.

Cutie!

Sidewalk, Seder, Sleep and Stanley...

Re-cap of the sporting week that was... Jays won season opener, Leafs destroyed 7-2 by Rangers... bye bye playoffs - crap ass team, crap ass effort when it matters, Raptors clinched playoff spot for the 1st time since 2001.

Seder's were great... UrbanMummy made a fabulous dinner for the 19 guests. It was a delight. Had some family, some friends and some people in need of a good Passover dinner. We brought up folding tables from the garage that we used to use for all-day crops and scrapbooking in our studio, and made a "U" shape. Bought more meat place settings and away we went. Great tradition. Especially since the Happy Boy, all 2 years and 3 months of him, sang the first of the 4 questions. My Mom had tears in her eyes.. if only my Dad and Grandfather (her father) could have heard this... It was special.

Sleep: None. Still getting 3-4 hours sleep a night. Yawn.

The next time people stop to talk on the sidewalk and don't move over for the pedestrians, I'm going to turn up my music real loud, put my head down and plough forward. Move, get the hell out of the way, or be run down. :)

Some thoughts for a Tuesday...

Poor Toronto Raptor Jorge Garbajosa, he landed awkwardly lasy night with about 4:12 left in the game and broke either his ankle or leg. It make me feel ill, and I'm not like that normally. Ugh. The Spanish 29 year old rookie, has been a wonderful fit for the Raps, and has become the teams all time best #15 taking over from the somewhat motivationally challenged Wince Carter.

This mornings 15-20 minute walk to teh subway and subsequential walk from the subway to the office was accompanied by some of the mesic I have heard in a long time. The morning randon mix was... Striptease by Hawksley Workman, Buddy Holly by Weezer, Death of it All by Rob Zombie, Hold On by Yes, Slither by Velvet Revolver, I love it Loud by Kiss and then Temptation by The Tea Party. WOW. Great music. I recommend if you do not recognize any of these songs that you pick them up. Guaranteed. Especially if your musical tastes are questionable (eh, Shroomie?). LOL.

Sleep? What is that. As a follow up to my last post, I did in fact make it through the weekend, and tonight is my presentation to my class - have not finished it yet... Hmmm. I have work to do.

Finished my group assignment, then my past due assignment. All I have left once the presentation is done is my final assignment for each course, some postigns them will be 3 courses away from my MBA. Whew.

Give me strength...

To make it through this weekend...

I'm melting. I really am. I'm melting down. I can see that UrbanMummy is almost totally wiped out. I'm well on my way.

You see, I have an assignment for my Organizational Behaviour course that was due last week. I got an extension. I have a group assignment due for my Human Resources Management course that is due Monday, but for some reason I am the only member of my group that has actually done any work on this project. Each day I check my email and nothing comes in from my team members. To make matters worse, I am presenting to my HRM class Monday night and I have not even looked at that chapter I am covering. It's going to be tight.

But here is where the problem lies. I promised yummy UrbanMummy that I would not do school work at night after the kids went to bed unless a) she was working on her course too, b) I had a class, or c) it was absolutely necessary. So I wait until she goes to bed and I begin my work on house stuff and my classes, which means that this week, I have been getting to be between 1-3am. Not bad eh, for someone who gets up between 5-7am when the baby wakes up.

Yes, that baby, the Weed, who doesn't sleep, but naps in 2-3 hour stints all night. He could be up at 12, 1, 2, 3... you get the point. But once he wakes up after 5am, he's up for good. It's play time. So this morning when he woke up at 3:30 with tummy troubles, I cursed him as I trekked into bed at 1:45. I managed to get him back to sleep at 6am, and I plopped down and snoozed away for another hour and a half until 7:30 which is exactly 15 minutes after I should have left.

I dropped the Weed into the nanny's hands, couldn't use the shower (it was re-caulked before it destroys our family room ceiling) so I skipped breakfast, grabbed my iPod and hit the road at 8am. Listened to Bang your Head by Quiet Riot, Heaven by Bryan Adams (our wedding song), Heaven's on Fire by Kiss and I Want to Know by the Information Society. I also listened to a few WWE theme songs.

Then the day begins...

I hope UrbanMummy naps. I hope she also figures out what she has to do for her assignemtn, now very overdue.

The day will end with a dinner at our synagogue, and for me, more school work and some more house cleaning before bed.

Saturday is chalk full of events for the kiddies like a play date, returning some stuff to the mall, and going to see the Leafs play the Sabres Saturday night. A BIG game for the Leafs to say the least.

Sunday, I believe, sees the beginning of some programming for the kids, and then as the day progresses, I see a birthday party, a much needed haircut for the Happy Boy, and the retrival our our second car (that has been in storage since we moved) to our house where it can be cleaned up and put for sale.

Like I said in the subject title...I need strength to make it through the weekend!

Some thoughts for a Tuesday

1) Why can the parking police - those glorified meter maids who walk the streets salivating at the thought of giving a dad with 2 young children a ticket because he wants to park closer to the building rather than 3 blocks away - park wherever they want, illegally, without getting ticketed themselves. Fucking hypocrites.

2) Will anyone from the Toronto Maple Leafs take on Cam Janssens tonight when the Leafs play the Devils? Janssens of course is that superstar winger for New Jersey who plays 3 minutes a game and loves to hit skilled players from behind or blindside them, hoping to cause as much injury as possible. If someone does decide to take him on it had better be early, cause he plays 2 shifts a game. Mr. Belak... Can you hear me?

3) I'm going to the Leafs game this Saturday night!!! First one this year and I'm taking my wife and her video iPod. Earlier in the marriage it would have bothered me that she would rather walk the halls than watch the game, but now... I'd rather see 25 minutes of the game and be with her, than go with a buddy or my sister the biggest hockey fan I have ever met, and watch it all.

4) On Saturday the family went to Seedy Saturday and bought some funky-assed organic heirloom vegetable seeds. I cannot wait for spring so I can plant them in the garden. Purple and white carrots - green pear shaped tomatoes, odd looking broccoli... This year I let UrbanMummy pick the goods. I think she did a great job this year.

5) I so want to play hooky and take my family to the zoo. I promised the Happy Boy since we missed out seeing the sloths in Costa Rica a few weeks back.

6) Why wont the Weed sleep more than 3 hours at a time... Doesn't he know how tired hes making Mummy and Daddy? Plus, our school work is falling behind.

7) Speaking of school work... I have a paper due last week, group assignment due Monday, presentation Tuesday, postings to do, then 2 final papers. See, I'm tired already.

8) I noticed that almost no one comments on my blog and I'm okay with that. My 2 regular posters are SciFi Dad and the Sensational Sultry Shroomness herself and they remind me to come read up on their much more interesting blogs. But, hey, even my wife, who got me into blogging and said I wouldn't be able to stay with it for more than a month, doesn't comment - but them again she's REALLY busy now-a-days. I blog for me, and I really like the comments but I don't want people to post because they feel obligated. I like the posts from SciFi Dad telling me that I can't spell (I really can't) my own screen name correctly. LOL. Makes me howl.
So go read these bloggers. You'll find them on the right side of my blog in the list of blogs that I read.

9) 12 Days until WrestleMania 23.

10) I wanted to put in the date of the Jays first game this season but their web-site is so fucked up I couldn't find it, so instead, the NHL season is almost in playoff mode, and the Leafs wont be there. This average team is just the same team that missed the playoffs last year. They are just down one prospect in Bell. I think the day the season ends, Ferguson Jr is gone. This team cannot be expected to compete for anything as long as they have no legitimate scoring besides Mats Sundin. It's sad. Thank goodness the Raptors are doing so well! Go Raps.

It's been WAY too long

This evening, Mr. and Mrs. Speakeasy stepped out of the kinder-jail for a couple hours to see what it's like to live as adults again. No hurrying around, no always checking the phone, no peeking at the watches. We put the kids to bed, and left. Together. Dressed as adults. For dinner.

Yeah, "dinner".

We went to Caffe Demitre's, which for those of you who don't know, is known for their ice cream. Well, waffles, crepes and banana splits too. It's a dessert joint.

Man was it good.

Boy was I wired after.

I didn't get to bed until almost 2am. Sure I also cleaned up some of the house and did more research towards my assignment (now 4 days past due) and case study (due next week), but still it was worth it.

It was so much fun, I want to do it again. Going out with the wife. Not the dessert place. That place is NOT going to help my new healthier eating lifestyle.

They grow up so quickly

Last night I asked the Happy Boy to be quiet so as to not wake up his baby brother who was sleeping in the swing. My son agreed. Then when I started talking a little loud, he said to me, "Daddy. Quiet. Don't wake Weed".

Crazy.

Then today he told his nanny to "shut up" because she was singing.

Oy Vay.

Where did the time go.

They grow up SO fast.

I guess it had to happen sometime...

Poo in the tub.

Last night. First time ever.

You see it was a unexpected event considering the Happy Boy is 26 months old and has never pooped in the tub, and the Weed, now 5 months old, managed to resist the temptation... until last night.

It was like a giant squid inking its enemy. Both boys were in the tub, just finishing off their bath when a brown liquid shot out of the little one towards the bigger one. Both him and I looked at it for what seemed like 5 minutes, and both eventually reacted the same way... horror. The Happy Boy back away from the evil invader and tried to get up in the tub. I surveyed the situation and figured I had mere seconds before my son was engulfed (that and I'd have to bathe him again after cleaning out the tub) so I leaned over and plucked him out of the tub.

Like calling for help, I leaned in for the little one, now making sure the bath water was all brown, and yanked him out of the water while yelling for Mummy to come help. Behind me a cold boy standing naked, wet, shivering and on the verge of tears.

In came Urban Mummy and she got the situation under control by towelling off the Happy Boy, directing me on how to clean and clean the tub and asking me if it really was fair to have the baby hanging under my arm, near the tub, also cold and wet. Oops.

I cleared out the tub, got the water from the tap nice and warm, then hosed off the Weed and left the bathroom to write this post. Maybe March 11th will forever be known as brown water day in the Speakeasy household.

Tuesday Newsday returns

Here's the plan...

Pick some news stories from Tuesday (I use Google News) and post them. When you look back on your blog in 50 years, you'll get a kick out of what what considered newsworthy.

My Tuesday Newsday for March 6, 2007.

1) Bob Rae to launch bid for Liberal nomination - Former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae made it official this morning, that he will make a bid to return to federal politics.
"I'm going to be submitting my nomination papers to the Liberal headquarters this morning and I'm hoping to run in the riding of Toronto Centre," he confirmed. That would be the same riding that Ken Dryden was parachutted into and won handly. It's a very strong Liberal riding, but if anyone can make it go PC blue, it might be Rae. After bombing as Premier of Ontario, he changed parties from NDP to Liberal in hopes of leading the Grits in the next election. Buzz. Wrong door. Now he needs someway back into politics... I know, be Liberal and run in a Liberal dominated riding. Geez.

2) Online tax filing temporarily suspended - Canadians hoping to obtain an early tax refund by filing a return online face a delay. The Canada Revenue Agency announced Tuesday it has temporarily shut down computer systems for personal income tax filing. So there was no virus, or hacking problems, but the CRA shut down the system due to "security concerns". Oy. Looks like the "employer of choice" needs to find ways to keep it's legacy systems up and running. To go down just before tax time is a BIG problem. It figures.

3) Canada's Walk of Fame announces 8 more honourees - The list includes former toronto Maple Leaf goalie Johnny Bower; "Man in Motion" Rick Hansen, whose face has become synonymous with the fight to fund research into spinal cord injury; Jill Hennessy, star of the U.S. TV drama Crossing Jordan; comedienne Catherine O'Hara; rock group Nickelback; actor, author and director Gorden Pinsent; director/producer Ivan Reitman; and TV journalist Lloyd Robertson.
... and SpeakEasy. Shit that would make it 9. Oh well.

4) Women on Atkins dropped more poundsthan others - Women on the low-carb Atkins diet lost more weight than those on three other popular plans, but the dieters on all four programs dropped only modest amounts of weight and regained some of it within a year, a new study shows. Just goes to show you that a healthy lifestyle full of exercise and low-stress is better than dieting. Problem is that it's just for fucking hard to maintain.

5) Girl, 16, videotaped in gang rape - Mississauga, Ontario - A cellphone camera recorded the gang sex assault of a 16-year-old girl -- allegedly by four students at Cawthra Park Secondary School in Mississauga -- police say. So my thoughts on this are probably the same as everyone else who read or heard of this event. 1st, the 2 18 year old men were named, but the 2 17 year old "boys" were not. If your causing bodily harm to someone unable to defend herself, and you are doing it with "men" then you are not a "boy". You are a "man" too and should be tried that way. 2nd, if you are stupid enough to do something as low as this, why record it? Oh, so you'll be able to be caught. Idiots. Actually that might be a case for trying them as "boys"... they have the mental capabilities of children. 3rd, does anyone really want these 4 thugs back into society? I'd be happy if they were shipped out to fight the Taliban, or to go find Osama, or to go bring back some gang members, or those idiot KKK racists. I think they lose their right to play in society will all the decent people. Don't you?

Only 3 games?!?!?

I can't help but think that if the NHL was serious about headshots and headhunting, they would have thrown the book at uber-goon Cam Jannsens for his ugly cheap shot on Toronto's Tomas Kabarle, which saw and elbow to Tomas's head, and then Tomas flying head-first into the boards.

First of all, I have an issue with the concept of "finishing your check". What is that? A guy passes the puck and you get 2-3 seconds to hit him??? It should not be like that. It should be immediate, and that is one way to cut back on injuries and rough play.

As for the instigator? Forget it. There should be no fighting in hockey anymore, period. Now it's just 2 goons in a staged fight. I'd rather see a nifty play or a great goal instead of a stupid fight between the same guys. Yawn. BORING.

I actually love the new NHL - not yet sold on the shootout. If it's got to be there, then make it 5 shooters. I hated the clutch and grab NHL and I stopped watching games. Now with the new rules and salary cap, I can't get enough. It's fun again.

So back to Cam... I heard New Jersey Devil commentator Glen "Chico" Resch commenting that Kabarle should not have been admiring his pass and that he should have known that Janssens was on the ice. So what does that mean, Chico? That all players should know when Janssens is on the ice so they can watch out for a cheap shot? This guy plays 3 minutes a night. 3 MINUTES. LOL. Kabarle was an all star. The whole thing stinks.

Memo to NHL: Cut the head shots. Hit in the head and your gone for 10. Accident or not. Hurt the guy and your out as long as he is. Oh, and cut out the fighting, let the goons go find another thing to do.

He spoke...

Ahhh,

Thank goodness there were witnesses. Late this afternoon, the baby (soon to be 5 months old), said "hello" to me when I was playing with him. He said it in front of UrbanMummy and her friend. I looked at them and asked them if they had heard him - he was very clear.

Yes they did.

:)

Avacado tonight for him. Teeth next.

Back... From vacation.

Returned last night / this morning about 2am from an 8 day cruise with the family. My wife, 2 year old, 4 month old, and my wife's parents hit the
high seas for food, fun and... well... sickness. Oh well. It happens.

I'll have to sum up the week in a post, but this happened on our ship, not to us, thank goodness.

One of the passengers aboard the Carnival Liberty, a man in his 70s, broke the neck of an armed robber, killing him, according to police in Limon, Costa Rica.
A group of 12 tourists from the Carnival cruise ship Liberty, who were attacked by three armed muggers in Costa Rica last week, made it safely back to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.
One of those tourists, a man in his 70s who has not been identified, broke the neck of one attacker, killing him, according to police in Limon, Costa Rica.
The other two assailants ran off and none of the tourists were hurt, despite the fact the muggers were armed with at least one knife and a gun.
The story received national attention and reporters and photographers waited at the exit gate of Terminal 19
in Port Everglades early Sunday, but the ''hero of the Liberty,'' as he has become known, didn't identify himself and avoided the media.
He has been described as a former U.S. Marine who is thought to be from Ohio.
The van he and the other passengers had hired was attacked by the three men in ski masks just as it arrived at a nearby beach, according to the cruise line.

After the incident, the passengers had the van take the injured mugger to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
He was identified as Warner Segura, 20.
Costa Rican authorities ruled the killing was self-defense and did not press charges.
Other passengers said the ship had left Limon about 90 minutes late Wednesday after the incident.

Many of those passengers said they had walked around the city without trouble. ''Me and my friends walked about 12
blocks and had a beer on every block with no problem,'' said Bob Dancy, 69, of Indianapolis. ``If it had happened to me I probably would have done the same thing. And I probably would have gotten shot.''

So now it looks like all the cruise lines are pulling their stops in Limon, Costa Rica as a result and will be going to Hondras instead. How pissed would you be if you were the President or Prime Minister of Costa Rica and as a result of these 3 hooligans, you loose the tourism dollars from the cruise lines. Time to clean up crime in that area, eh? I'd be furious. I'd find jobs for the youths and put the country to work earning back the trust of the cruise industry. No more guns, no more violence, base your ecomony on tourism and SHARE THE WEALTH!!!

Why does this seem SO wrong...

Peter Forsberg is now a member of the Nashville Predators.

I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that Lord Stanley's Cup resides in Tampa Bay and Carolina. If Nashville wins the cup, I don't know what I'll do.

Nashville???

Nashville???

It just doesn't make sense.

Thanks to Metro Mama.... I had always wondered.

Your Porn Star Name Is...

Jason Jizzy

What's Your Porn Star Name?

Valentine's Day

Has come and gone again...

6th year in a row now that UrbanMummy gets the following items - lest I screw up this holiday - Chocolate heart, flowers (not roses, she hates roses - but loves Calalillies), a card from me, a card from our son and new this year a card from our other son too, a gift - something thoughtful if at all possible, and this year, like last year a gift from the kiddies - each card came with a mini box of chocolates. I also got her this cute figurine of a mummy holding a little baby, which goes with the mummy holding the toddler she got for Mother's day last year.

It's like a mission, Valentines Day is... You can't screw it up and leave it to the last minute. It needs time to prepare.



It's -30 today with the windchill. That's really fucking cold. Too fucking cold to be walking around without a hat. I need a hat. I'm cold. So cold that I'm just getting feeling back in my ears. Hmmmm. Only a few days and I'll be going from -30 to +30. CAN'T WAIT!!!!


Only 45 Days to Wrestlemania.
(Break it down)


One day... One paper left to do before vacation. I've barely touched it and I'm already half way done it. It needs work. A lot of work.


My Valentine's Day surprise from UrbanMummy... Besides a beautiful card from the kiddies and a super-yummy dinner (wheres the soup?) I was floored by the ultra-sexy hair cut my wife of almost 6 year got. Yumma Humma.

CANCER...

A very scary word that has no doubt touched each and every one of us in some way. I've always known it best as being what killed my mother's best friend, after she battled breast cancer for 16 years.

Yesterday, the disease hit somewhat close to home when I received and email from my friend's wife - whom I have known for about 10 years, he played on my ball hockey team with his brother - that simply stated that he has cancer. No details were given because none were known.

SHOCK.

They have a baby a few months older than the Happy Boy and they are expecting their second child very, very soon.

SHOCK.

As someone who tries to keep his emotions in check - never get too high, never get too low - this email has been most disturbing for me. You see, me and death do not get along very well. Quite frankly the concept of death I understand and am cool with, but the who concept of being dead forever (if that is what you believe too) is what disturbs me most. I try to put myself in his shoes and imagine what is going on in his mind, and then I stop. There is so much to think about and so much to do.

It's all very sad.

But as a generally non-religious person, I said a prayer for him this evening and will probably do so every day until he gets through this ordeal. He needs everyone's support. I look forward to reporting in my blog in the future of his progress, for the sake of his wife and children and those around him who love, care for, respect him and are his friends.

Get well soon!!!

My 100th post!!!!

WOW.

100 posts.

For those who said I would lose interest, you were W.R.O.N.G. Mind you, now that I have reached this milestone (I'd like to thank my wife and children... This will be the last post ever. LOL. Just kidding!!

Tonight we had our neighbour and her son over for dinner and play time along with a girl from The Happy Boy's school and her parents. It was really nice! Plus... With UrbanMummy cooking, I knew it was going to be something special. The pasta was yummy, the salad and garlic bread most complimentary. A nice evening was had by all.

Now, I'm just cleaning some dishes, updating my iPod and re-writing my assignment. Rest up everyone.

:)

Success!!! At last!!

Nearly 2 years to the date that my lovely wife bought me an iPod - which means my birthday is rapidly approaching... again - I have managed to not only have iTunes installed, but also easily and quickly managed to put music on it.

My music.

Good music.

Guns 'n' Roses, Velvet Revolver, Korn, Rage Against the Machine, Queen, Def Leppard, Kim Mitchell, Green Day.

Sweet.

Back to work... Whoopie!

I knew it wasn't going to be so easy to go back to work when I decided to go to bed at 10:30 - after the Weed's dream feed - so as to maximize my sleep in preparation of his waking up at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5am as has been the patter over his little life so far. He did not disappoint. This meant we awere all exhausted in the morning.

I brought the little guy back into the bedroom to be with Mummy at 7:15 just before I raced out the door to try and walk to the subway. The Happy Boy was awoken by the Weed's crying so into Mummy's room went to little passengers, and down I continued to take the car out of the garage - a task that UrbanMummy is incapable of, or afraid of doing (giggle). My mystery back / piriformis ailment still bothering me, I figured I would try the 15-20 walk to the subway and see how I felt. Mistake. Minus 20 weather with the windchill and the damn walk took me just over 30 minutes. Sigh. Frozen and tired, I arrived at the office to find out that nothing had changed. Still hated being there. Don't like the people I work with, don't find the work challenging and found that the smell in the place makes me stuffed up. I might actually be allergic to the office. :)

So since I've been warning my boss that I would be coming back, I gave him a list of things that needed to be done before my first day so I can jump right back into the swing of things and not have to wait around wasting time and money, but I got into the office with no access to me terminal, or my desk, and when I managed to get partial access, I no longer had an inventory. Ugh. Time to start looking forward to break.

Break... was fun, cold but fun. Gotta love Tim Hortons. Large Double Double.

I came back to my desk and there was one phone message... from my wife??? NO. It was from my Doctor. She had my MRI results. My "back" problems... They are real. I have a herniated disk in my back. In the L5 area (lowest disk). The disk has a moderate to large herniation and the disk is pushing outward, not to the side as was expected, hence my numbness in weird areas.

Joy. Out of all the sports injuries I have had, ranging from stitches, seperated shoulders, broken toes, broken and cracked ribs, sprains, strains, torn rotator cuff, tendonitis, cuts, welts... Never a back issue... Until now.

So while break was ok, lunch was not.

A few of us went for lunch (my sister - who works for the smae employer as me) bought, and I found that after lunch it was sitting on my cvhest, like I had really overeaten (I had not) or that something I ate did not agree with me. By the time I got back to the office, it was worse and I was getting really sleepy, that I actually considered sleeping at my desk (I did not). I left work 20 minutes after the office closed and made my way home, where I skipped dinner, and proceeded to sleep through my online Human Resources Management class.

That night I threw up. Often, but nothing really. Not good when suffering from a herniated disk in your back.

So Wednesday, I slept. All day. I remember a comment from my wife just before bed. I believe she said something to the effect of, "Must be nice to be able to sleep all day". "Not really, I replied". Well who knew that she would be felled by the same virus (I swear she gave it to me in the first place), and she would be sick until early Sunday morning. Me? I started to feel better Friday. Not great until Saturday, but not like her. She was sick, sick, sick. Couldn't eat, drink or keep anything inside her. Our poor baby got sick too, but she somehow managed to stay hydrated enough to keep him fed, and herself from the hospital.

Me??? I swear I carried that 16 pound boy around for the past week. The longer I held him, the more I felt my back hurt and as a result, my foot go numb and my big toe hurt (the nerve). Wont he ever sleep!!!

So that was my shitty week. Literally. Ended it today with a Super Bowl (yawn) party at the In-laws and with some funny emails from Shroomie chalk full of Valentine suggestions. LOL.

Going to hit the sack and wait for the wailing wake up from the littlest one between 5-5:30am. That is when my day will start all over again.

Sights and sounds in the SpeakEasy household...

Today, being my last day at home before returning to work after a 2 month paternity leave and 6 week sick leave, I am full of emotion.

I really felt that at the beginning of this leave that I would be able to get things done around the house, build a better relationship with my wife, form a bond with my son, finish my 2 classes, jump start my promotional business and socialize. I was wrong. Not only did I not see my friends, but our non-sleeping (heavy) son, and my lack of any sort of physical shape whatsoever resulted in, what we suspect to be, a herniated disk, or pinched nerve in my back. I'm waiting for the MRI results which should be here any moment.

So I go to physiotherapy twice a week now, and have managed to lose 10 pounds (a good thing) and my stretching and exercises are aimed at my lower back, abs and butt. That might help with the build a better relationship part... Butt seriously (pun intended) This time away from work has helped me put life back into perspective. I need to spend more time on me. I want to be in shape, I want that exciting career, and the pay and power that goes with it. I love politics and need to be involved in some way, and I really want to take cooking classes and guitar lessons (if only I could sing). I no longer need to eat all the time, especially snacks. I hate the way I feel after eating some 300 calorie treat. I took my wife for granted. Whatever I didn't do, she would do. She's like that. She's a doer, and I'm an accepter. I'd take on 10 tasks, knowing that I'd only be able to do one or two and she'd wait for the results. When they didn't come as fast as they should have, she would, understandably, question my work ethic. I need to learn to say no, and do what I say. It's been tough, but I find the results much more relaxing for me.

I learned that school will take care of itself. I enjoy the courses and do very well, whether I pour 30 hours a weeks into it, or 3 hours. I have to be productive and get the work done and enjoy the process.

I learned that I miss the company of my wife. Not that we used to go out often, but since both children have arrived, we are just plain tired at 8pm and want to unwind. She likes the internet, and I like to clean, take care of tasks and well, work the net too. But this pattern has become destructive. We are here together but not really together. We need to find a common task we can do together and I need to pamper the hell out of her. I really get it when she says that she wants to feel like she did when we were dating. Hell, back then, I was 29, no responsibilities and just wanted to impress this hot chick I met. Now? We take turns handing the baby off to each other bemoaning how long it has been since we managers to shower. Rough, eh?

I wanted to set goals. I need goals. I want to make sure that what I want to achieve helps my family get closer. I want a clean house that is not covered in clutter, and I want to see my friends and my wife's friends. I want more "guys nights out", and more time bonding with our kids. I want my lap top back (the hard drive blew), and I want a good nights sleep. I don't want a sore back anymore and I want to finally be in a position to make something happen in the workplace.

2006 did not end well, and 2007 has to be a better year because for the first time in years, I am clearly seeing my future and it sucks, unless I want to change it. I do, and I can. So stand back world and watch out for me. I'm ready to make that splash in the pool of life, and for the first time in my life, I'm NOT taking a life jacket, just in case.

Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to the household...

The Weed decided to get up at 4am this morning... How thoughtful.

The Royal Rumble was yesterday, the only WWE PPV that I have ever seen in a bar, or paid for (except attending Wrestlemania 6). I missed it. I missed my 3 friends that used to do the wrestling thing with me. I have not heard from them in years. Oh well.

The Happy Boy told me, over the weekend that he, "no like this Mummy... Want different Mummy". Same for his little brother. Poor kid is going to miss me big time when I go back to work.

I am going to potty train the Happy Boy and am calling out my 4 loyal readers (lol) for their tips, tricks and advice.

The new neighbours that moved in behind us, to whom I brought over an apple pie to welcome them to the neighborhood, but have not heard from yet, finally got blinds for their bathroom/bedroom last night. Thank goodness.

All the Dads in the playgroup are having another "Guys nite out", Feb 6th at our place. On the menu is deli and a few starters, like chopped liver (yum). I love that we can all get together and bash the Liberal party of Canada.

Speaking of the Liberals... I watched the beginning of question period today and found it funny that new Liberal leader Stephane Dion was picking at PM Harper for his environmental record, when Dion was the Environment Minister under the Liberals and did nothing to help Canada. Hypocrite. Yet people still vote for these idiots. Sigh.

This is the end...

Today represented the last time I'll be around to drop off and pick up The Happy Boy from pre-school, as I'll be heading back to work on Tuesday from my paternity leave / sick leave. It's kind of sad, actually. I have really enjoyed spending time with both kiddies, and as I recover from my disk / joint problem in my lower back, I find that UrbanMummy and I have been able to finally make headway in the house by cleaning up areas that remained in chaos since we moved - namely her office and the garage.

I do know that I need to get caught up in my classes - started Human Resources Management and Organizational Behaviour II, January 2nd and have fallen behind as a result of my injury and exhaustion.

We have a family vacation coming up - over my birthday - which is either going to be great, or a nightmare, depending on which, if either, child decides to sleep. If neither of them do, then it'll be me toating them around the ship at all hours while their Mummy sleeps. I wonder if they'll let me bring them into the casino.

I watched some of the AllStar game last night - like the new uniforms - they make the players look more in shape than do the old ones, but I really hate to see tradition go out the window. The game itself was a little boring - which figures since the NHL uses the AllStar game to "introduce" Americans to hockey. I felt like I was watching a roller hovkey game. Lots of flash, no substance.

I did catch the end of the Raptors game. Geez. Almost at .500. Great stuff. I really enjoy watching them play and I really like Jose Calderon. Great team player and all around good guy. I'd pay to see him play.

I got rid of all my Toronto Rock tickets for this season... Too much on my plate and not enough support from family to be able to make the 8 games - 6 of which are on Friday nights. Oh well, there is always next season.

Valentine's Day is coming up and I'd love to hear from people what they have done that went over great and what they did that bombed.

TTFN

A first...

Saturday January 13th, at 8:13am, while sitting at our kitchen table eating pancakes (our Saturday morning ritual), my son, The Happy Boy, calls out to me... "Daddy". "Daddy".

I reply, "Yes, buddy".

"Daddy, I love you", he says.

I spin towards him, and with a half-smile / half-teary eyed, reply, "I love you too".

Awwwwwww.

Is this too much cake???

For a 2 year old and 15 other 2 year olds to appreciate?

It sure was for the adults. We all just stared at it, mouthes agape. Look at all the little hands gathered around waiting for their piece of the train to eat. It was really cute.

The cake was for our long awaited birthday party for The Happy Boy as he turned 2. His birthday was in december but a lot of his classmates and baby group we away or busy so we chose January.

In honour of my sons love of trains we chose a Thomas theme - although I do not belive that he has ever actually watched Thomas on TV, and my mother-in-law (MIL) made this for him. Zoinks.

The only thing more surprising than the cake was trying to clean it up hours later. I ended up using a piece of the track (licorice) to scrape away all the icing, and other yummies that made that cake what it was.

Thursday Thirteen

*** This Thirsday Thirteen was previously completed December 2, 2006 but not posted due to injury. It is posted now for this Thurday. Please wait to read it then. :)


Thirteen Sports Cards re-cherished by Speakeasy

1. Jim Benning & Fred Boimistruck - 2 young promising defensemen hurried along by the horrible Toronto Maple Leafs teams of the 1980's. They were the future, the hope. They bombed. But I have their rookie cards!!

2. Sidney Crosby - supposed Upper Deck Rookie cards - hopefully he will re-establish the hockey card industry and I can sell some of my older sets and pay off our mortgage.

3. Norman Aubin - Another ex-Leaf, but he has a cheesy moustache on his card and it makes me laugh.

4. Joe Reekie - Does he?

5. Jason Kidd - looks like his rookie card, #134 Topps, but I cannot find a price for it anywhere. Is it rare, or a dud?

6. A bunch of 1977 O-Pee-Chee sub-set hockey cards. 22 of them to be exact. I'm looking at Card #4, Marcel Dionne. The cards have rounded corners. Looking to see what they are worth...

7. A Parkhurst Prospect rookie card of some tall lanky kid named Chris Pronger. Rumour had it that he demanded to leave Edmonton cause his wife caught him cheating. Tsk. Tsk. Also have Darren McCarty (the bankrupt one) and a chap named Markus Naslund.

8. Dennis Rodman - For some reason I have a bunch of his basketball cards and in each one he has different colour hair. A very weird looking individual who bopped Carmen Electra. Yum.

9. Michael Jordan - his Chicago White Sox card from when he decided to take up baseball after "retiring", or being suspended from the NBA. I should have sold those babies when then had value.

10. Any cards from the Atlanta Flames, Cleveland Barons, Kansas City Scouts Colorado Rockies or any team that has folded. I look at the guys that were playing for these teams and now I understand why the team folded or moved.

11. Checklists. Those old paper checklists that I ticked off in my youth that are now worth so much money. I see them and a tear comes to my eye. What was my mother thinking.

12. Any ProSet cards. That tacky series that was so full of errors like in the spelling of guys names, etc. Those cards got good when the company corrected them along the way making the errors valuable. But them they saturated the market with their crap and now I look at those tacky cards and wonder what I could have done with the money back then.

13. All the rookie cards I put away in special protective cases for when they were worth thousands of dollars. For every "valuable" card I still manage to find in my collection, I have 1000 cards of guys like Patrick Poulin, Vesa Viitoski, Shayne Toporowski and Jiri Slegr. Geez. Why couldn't Pauli Jaks make it big... I must have 60 of his crappy card. Sorry Pauli if you read this.

December... The Month from Hell

Oy. What a month.

To begin with, there have been no posts because me computer has been acting up on me. I have no administrator access, and cannot fix the problems without access. So my computer dies a slow death every day.

My course ended December 8th. Another "A".

We had a scrapbooking show, event on December 3rd and 4th and after doing some heavy lifting, my back and piriformis muscle went into full spasm on the 5th result in my being on flexerol (prescription muscle relaxer), tylenol 3's and Nuproxen for a long period of time that culminated December 21st when my piriformis muscle went into full shutdown resulting in me taking Valium, more tylenol 3's, a very strong anti-imflammatory, then anti-biotic for the cough that was making things worse. I left my house on the 21st with my mother and was able on the 26th to come back for a few hours to see my sick wick and sick children. While being able to stand (not straight) a little more every day, and not be exhausted, I stopped taking the valium just last night, and while still sleeping at my mother's because I'm just friggin useless here, I am starting to see some progress and was able to see The Happy Boy for his 2nd birthday on the 27th.

Basically 2006 was shit, except for the birth of our little one that doesn't like sleeping (poor UrbanMummy). It taught me a HUGE lesson about taking care of myself and those around me that I love. I really fucked it up and man am I paying the price.

I tried acupuncture for my piriformis on the 20th, just before the spasm set in and it was really weird. I'm not a needle guy and having those things sticking out of my back, ass and leg felt quite odd, but I gave it a shot. I just don't know if it caused the spasm. All I know is that the resulting sciatic pain is the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life and I've been through many injuries with all the sports I have played. This one took the cake.

I know this was rather rambly, but I had been trying to post it for a few weeks but couldn't sit down on a chair until recently, and I'm actually standing right now as I type this.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Special greetings to the wonderful UrbanMummy who helped me push myself so I could be where i am today in file and through this illness. I'd still be hunched over if it was not for your encouragement, and by encouragement I mean yelling at me to "Stand up straight!!!".

Thank you to Shroom Monkey as the only one of my "readers" who took the time to email me remind me to post. I appreciated you thinking of me. It made me smile. I wish you an awesome 2007.

And just a note to Penelopeto that I'm going to miss reading your blog and I hope that you are able to one day continue, or amybe in this crazy city we live in, we'll get the kiddies together and say hello. You are a wonderful writer and I enjoyed reading your work.

If they would just stay little...

Today we took the weed to the doctor for his 8 week appointment. 8 weeks, already! WOW. 63cm long! 25 inches. He's a real pretty kid. If only he'd sleep better. LOL.

What's with all this snow outside? Geez. It's only December. Can you say "global warming". I remember 10 times this much snow when I was younger, in October. Or maybe after all these years, my view has become distorted. Who remembers? I just remember always having my crazy carpet with me.

UrbanMummy has been watching a lot of "The Facts of Life" on TV. Which bring me to this question... What ever happened to the character that played Blair? UrbanMummy doesn't know. Maybe Haley does...

Speaking of "The Facts of Life", I always had a crush on "Joe", played by Nancy McKeon.

I hear NASA is planning on building a city on the Moon. Two thoughts come to mind: 1) Is there not a better way to spend money than to try and put people on a planet that will never be hospitable for man to live on as we do on earth? I mean, really, what about all the poor people? The poor countries? Geez.
2) Why do I always wonder if it's better to put people on the Moon or on Uranus? All the criminals, gangs, racists, etc. should be banished to Uranus. Just for the name and reputation. "Hey Joe, you'd better not shoot anyone or they'll send you to Uranus. I hear it's quite a hole there. You never come back."

What's with all this recent press about Russian spies, and poisonings? I guess what do you expect from a country that is largely run by the mafia and has insane political views, like supporting Iran's "nuclear energy" efforts. With all the beautiful land their own, and the history of their country, it's a crying shame that so many corrupt individual control the wealth while the rest of the country suffers.

So the Federal Liberal party elected Stephane Dion as their next leader. Why?