Tuesday Newsday... For a Friday

First, a Happy Boy story...


"They're similar".

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

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

32% of workers fake sick

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

Dandruff's genes sequenced

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

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

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

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

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

It's prime time for procreating

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

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

Pedestrians not built to take on cars

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

Some random thoughts...

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

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

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

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

I’m done!

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

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

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

I really have no patience for this anymore.

Grrrrrr.

There, I feel a little better...


What are advanced speaking skills?

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

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

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

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

Ugh.

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

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

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

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

Both boys brought in a lot of candy this evening.

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

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

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

No more candy... please...

A very nice weekend indeed...

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



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

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

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

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

Monday - back to the grind.

Some sports notes:

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

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

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

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

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

I did it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G'Nite all.

Sports Snorts...

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

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

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

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

What a week... Shoot me now!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I want to go back to bed...

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

My head hurts. Can I sue the TTC?


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

"Giggle"

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

"giggle"

nice.

I could pull it off!

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

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'll be fine in 4 years.

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

Face bugs?!? Really?

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

Tuesday Newsday... Of sorts

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

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

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

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

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

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Boy...

Our baby is one year old today.

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

I can!

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

Time to start walking and talking and....

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!

Your Daddy loves you very much!

A big, freeking sigh...

Thoughts from the past day and a half...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I just left my wife...

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question:

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

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

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

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

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

Tonight I had to run...

... and run I did.

I've got a lot on my mind and I'm pretty stressed out so I needed a release. I chose to run. So out I went at 11pm tonight and I ran the farthest I have run since I herniated the disk in my back. It felt good. I'm still stressed, but I feel a little better.

A random sampling of what is on my mind today

• My last 2 MBA course which I fell a couple weeks behind in, but am trying to get current in
• Our Nanny's last day is Friday and we have a new one coming from Hong Kong at 1am Sunday morning - we still need to get the current on packed and out and we are back to square one with the new one... so much to teach. Our current Nanny has been with our family for 2 years and she will be missed. On the other hand, there are some things we did without to please this one that we will not be doing with the new one. Can't wait.
• We are having a mini-renovation done in the basement... Always stressful
• Apparently now is the time to look for schools and camps for next year for the kids... Are you kidding me???
• My back still gives me a little pain/stress and I need to lose weight and keep an eye on it. But I really need to lose weight. I've dropped only a few pounds, but a few inches just from exercise
• Urban Mummy... enough said
• Dentist appointments for the family
• My working future... I'm wasting away at my current employer, they fail to utilize my strengths and one I complete my MBA I'll have to shut up or move along... still undecided.
• Some fucking insect that bit me and drew blood in my vegetable garden. I was picking, like 30 tomatoes, and something latched on to my finger until I pryed it off. I now have a slight rash on my wrist. I think it was a spider. Waiting for my super-powers.
• Why my son cries when I take him to school on Tuesday's and why he keeps hitting and kicking and making his little brother cry. He knows better, he really does.
• Office politics. A very good friend of mine at the office once got upset with a few of us because she thought we were not being considerate of her around our group coffee breaks. Fast forward 2 months and this same friend breaks our coffee club and goes whenever she wants with whomever she wants... So why does it bother me??? Can't decide. Common sense tells me to forget it as being childish and move on, but part of me feels slighted as the organizer of breaks when after, like 2 years, it changes this way... Truth be told, I'm kind of glad it happened this way. The group was getting too big and since a bunch of them started hanging out after work, I've really realized that as a Dad, I don't have that much in common with any of them. I can't go out drinking after work and staying out until 1am, I don't have the flexibility to disappear on weekends and as for clubbing, well, I'm not 21 anymore... Been there, done that. So this has allowed me time to realize that I have to worry about me and my family and take care of my courses... My meal ticket. Nuff said.
• Clothes... I need new clothes... Nice ones. I'm tired of the same crappy clothes. I want to be taken shopping by my wife and have her pick some stylish clothes for me... If I'm going to be worth a million bucks, I need to dress and feel like it.
• Why it's midnight and I am no closer to bed than I was at 9pm.

And other stuff that crossed my mind this Tuesday:

• My youngest son's passport (expired)
• Pregnancy photos from the day UM gave birth that we still need to pick and I think about every day!
• Care and nurturing leave
• A too good to be true potential career move
• Where are my recruiters?
• Taking both cars in for service
• Phoning our grandparents
• Returning stuff to Staples
• Buying a bathing suit for Saturdays first swimming class
• Fixing the printer I somehow broke without even touching it
• Washing the dirty windows on the inside of the car
• Putting air in my bike tires and the strollers
• Taking pictures of the many stuff we are trying to sell on Craigslist.com
• Getting my motorcycle license
• Boating license
• My work team in which we no longer have a team leader but I somehow have filled in that void in an informal manner... As expected.
• and so much more

Sigh.

Sports thoughts...

I like that Hornswaggle is Vince McMahon's son... Makes me laugh.



The Blue Jays are so .500 it makes me sick. .500 winning percentage and 15th place in a 30 team league. Geez. I can hear the chanting now... "We're average... We're average".

Can anyone give me one good reason to vote Liberal??? Didn't think so. Besides being responsible for Ontario dropping to last in many significant categories, I find it just insane that Dalton McGuintey - Ontario's premier, keeps advertising how great he is and has to use biased people in these ads, like the current boss at the Daily Bread Food Bank where his leadership colleague worked - Gerard Kennedy - worked. And don't forget my MPP who Dalton kicked out of cabinet, but still finds no shame in running. Mike Colle, give it up... even if you do win, you've embarrassed your constituents... Go away gracefully.

Yom Kippur is coming up and I wish all my Jewish readers an easy fast... May you be enscribed in the book of life! And break fast is at our place! Woo hoo.

UrbanDaddy's baseball 3 stooges for the weekend.

Ramirez, Soriano and Drew...

Who?

Exactly.

Ramirez and Soriano play baseball for the Chicago Cubs and both did something this past weekend that really got my goat. They both hit home runs. Why is that a problem??? It's not that they hit home runs that bugged it, it's the way they hit them that has me annoyed. You see, both players, upon hitting the baseball, stood at home plate for a few seconds to watch the ball travel and also made some stupid-ass gesture before tossing their bats aside and trotting around the bases.

Two things come to mind in this instance.

1. If the ball does not leave the yard, these guys are going to have to run their asses off to get to second base as opposed to those players who run full out right away and could land on third or home
2. After watching this display I really hate the rule MLB Commissioner Bud Selig put in which penalizes pitchers from throwing at batters, because if I'm the pitcher who just gave up those homers, my next pitch is right in the middle of their backs to let them know that I don't appreciate they lack of professionalism...

J.D. Drew...

Who? This guys is an ass. All I remember of this clown is that he refused to play for the Philadelphia Phillies - who drafted him - because he was "too good" for that organization. You see J.D. told whomever that would listen that he was going to be the best baseball player ever (snicker, snicker). He said he was going to his .400, and lead the league in hits, runs, home runs, and bullshit.

So here were are, like 10 years later, J.D. is on his 4th team I believe and he is... well... average. But every time I see him, I hope someone will smack some humility into this clown. He probably has his own hall of fame in his basement. Loser.

From wikipedia:

1997: Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies
Drew was the second overall pick in the 1997 Major League Baseball Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. Drew and his agent Scott Boras elected not to sign with the Phillies, sticking to their guarantee that they would not sign for less than $10 million dollars. The Phillies had no plan to pay an unproven player this amount of money, and despite Boras' warnings, drafted Drew nonetheless. Consequently, Drew ended up playing for the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League.

1998-2003: St. Louis Cardinals
After playing for St. Paul in the 1997 season, Drew was selected fifth overall in 1998 by the St. Louis Cardinals. His first at-bat, in the 6th inning, ended in a strikeout, and he finished the night 0-and-2. In Drew's first appearance at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, he was booed loudly, and even had batteries thrown at him by two fans. Drew struggled to stay healthy, landing on the disabled list every season he played in St. Louis.

2004: Atlanta Braves
Drew was traded to the Atlanta Braves in December 2003, where he had the best season of his career while finally managing to stay healthy.

2005-2006: Los Angeles Dodgers
In December 2004, Drew signed a 5 year, $55 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, which included an escape clause after the second year. In 2006, Drew exercised his contract option clause, forgoing $33 million over the next 3 years to become a free agent. The Dodgers' General Manager Ned Colletti said in a teleconference that he was "surprised how it came down. Everything we had heard, everything that had been written led us to believe the player loved being here." This was especially a surprise since a few days before, Drew had told an LA Times columnist on how happy he was in LA and that he was looking forward to the upcoming 2007 season.

2007: Boston Red Sox
On January 25, 2007, Drew officially signed a 5-year contract with the Red Sox worth $70 million. Drew's revised contract has a clause that allows the Red Sox to opt out of Drew's five year contract after three or four years if Drew has extensive injuries due to a previously existing problem in his right shoulder.
Drew has played poorly so far in his debut season with the Red Sox, experiencing one of his worst career offensive seasons. Through September 9, Drew is batting just .252 with 7 home runs, 96 hits and 49 RBIs, far below his normal production.

Public image:
In his book Three Nights in August, Buzz Bissinger mentions St. Louis manager Tony La Russa's agony over Drew's lack of passion. La Russa tells Bissinger that it seems Drew has decided to "settle for 75%" of his talent, in large part because of his enormous contract.

L'Shana Tova

To all my Jewish readers, I hope you all had a wonderful New Year and are prepping up for the big Yom Kippur fast - pregnant women aside - Friday night.

Did you end up going to family for dinner Wednesday night? Thursday night? Was it ok? Check out what happened to us...

Wednesday night, dinner at my wife's Grandfather's condo. Dinner called for 6:00pm, why? because we have 2 children who go to bed at 7:30 and we hate having to put them to sleep there, or having cranky kids crying and being very unhappy. While not that unreasonable, the moving of dinner time from 7:30 to 6:00 did not happen because "we" had kids, but rather because her cousin (the oldest grandchild) had a daughter and since she thinks dinner should be earlier too, it was changed. We all win.

So we arrived Wednesday night just past 6pm, and there were already a few people there, and almost everyone else showed up before 6:15 so we were ready to eat, except that my wife's Aunt had not showed up yet and we decided to wait for her. UM's Aunt has 2 children and no grandchildren, so I think the concept of eating early for the sake of the children is lost on her. She is a very dominant personality who knows pretty much everything and is not afraid to tell everyone just that. Remind me one day to post why her daughter does not talk to us... something about getting married 3 weeks before her... 6 years ago... Something about "stealing her thunder". I know. Childish, eh?

So while waiting - now 6:45, UM decides to feed the kids and has plenty of help from my mother and sister, and her mother and father. The kids eat, and play. One of the big toy attractions is a wooden Rosh Hashanah play set that UM bought for the kids which possesses among other things, 2 wooden round challah breads which the Happy Boy loves to carry around with him. How is this relevant... read on...

So it's is now 7:10 and the kids are getting cranky and so are the adults... No sign of UM's Aunt and there are 16 other people waiting to start.. dinner was, after all, called for 6:00. So we decided that we need to start and when they show up they can join us... I'm sure they'll understand, right? They are over an hour late and there are kids waiting to eat.. No problem right?

Read on...

So we all get to the table and are set to begin when we realize that we have no challahs - you see her Aunt was bringing the challahs. So while UM's grandfather reluctantly agrees to begin, he sees that everyone is smiling and laughing and having fun and ready to go, so he spots the 2 wooden challahs in front of the Happy Boy and he invites my son and his 2 wooden challahs up to the front of the table to have a prayer made over the bread so we can begin. Together great-grandfather and great-grandson make the prayers over the challah's and smiling and laughing, they share a moment and we are ready to eat.

First comes the chopped liver and gefilte fish, then comes the soup... But as the soup is being served, guess who comes into the condo... without the challahs, and PISSED OFF.

She walked in with her husband (puppet), daughter and son-in-law, and housekeeper, and without even an apology for being over an hour-and-fifteen minutes late, but instead bitching and moaning about not having seats saved for herself - you know, she's 61 years old, has been coming to dinner for 61 years, and how dare we not leave her a seat, blah, blah, blah... at this exact time, the Baby freaks out and UM takes him to walk and feed him in hopes he'll clam down and we can stay and, you know, eat dinner. She passes her Aunt and says to her - in a probably pissed off tone - that she can have her seat because now she needs to take care of the baby, when her Aunt loses it. She comes at my wife yelling and screaming at her - something about her shit not stinking and how important she is... My wife, never backing away, but trying to step away, tells her Aunt that it was not her decision to begin eating, but everyone decision, you know being that there were 16 other people she left waiting. So her Aunt, still with no apology in sight, walks away, mumbles to her family and they sit beside the rest of the family at a small round table (how embarrassing, eh?) take all the bottles of wine - including the bottle my mother brought - open them up and start eating and drinking without talking to anyone. They ignore the rest of the family, are rude to everyone else and quite frankly ruined what was shaping up to be a fun evening.

Our kids lasted only 1/2 more, so we left, without eating more than appetizer and soup - and I so badly wanted to go give her Aunt a piece of my mind.. selfish bitch. But I declined... it is the new year after all and I want to be inscribed in the book of life... yadda yadda.

So our new years starts in a unique way. I despise her Aunt and her family and their holier-than-thou attitude. They ruined our evening while at the same time showing the rest of the family what asses they are. so I guess it was a good evening after all.

I apologized to my mother and sister for their behaviour... like making tea for everyone but not offering it to my mother and sister long after we left.

Bad things come to bad people... wait, they already a miserable, unhappy people without kids/grand kids... now the rest of the family hates them... it does work...


The rest of the holiday was AWESOME... good food, good fun, good family.

:)

L'Shana Tova.

9.11

Today is the 6th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks against our neighbours in New York City.

Today I am very sad for all those who lost loved ones in the cowardly attack. I feel for these families and wish the strength to go on.

Today I am very angry to see and hear people celebrating these attacks and releasing videos prompting for more cowardly attacks.

Today I wish all these scumbags will have the same happen to their loved ones that has happened to these innocent people.

Today I want to hear from everyone that what happened was wrong and that as members of the human race we should all get along. All we want is to be able to lives our lives in a safe manner in the pursuit of happiness. Sometimes we need to make sure that everyone gets a fair shake of living this way. Not everyone has experienced the opportunity to be able to live free, able to speak their minds, question their leaders, practice their religion freely and be able to explore opportunities regardless of whether they are a man or a woman.

This is what makes our country and the USA desirable to live in by people all over the world. It's worth fighting for.

Today, like the last 6 years, is a very sad day.

He loves his Daddy...

The baby does... He really does.

Today he blew me a kiss. A few of them actually. First time I have seen him do that. Awwww. What a cutie. He's 11 months old today. Oy Vay! Brings me back to when he was born and my disc was out and I could barely carry that little heifer. Now, thank goodness, I can carry and toss around that 24 pound frame.

I feel like he has grown up so much in the past week. He does my taxes, makes me coffee in the morning and just finished a case study on the Security Management and Manufacturers Industry. Oops, that was the Happy Boy. The Baby Boy waves, claps on commend, says something that sounds like "bottle" and like "ball". Blows kisses, shakes his head no, has given the odd kiss here and there, tries to stand on his own and has been heard saying, "no" and "clap". But what impresses me the most is that after 11 months of being beaten on by his older brother (out of love only folks), he now covers his head, turns away, and lets out a fake scream/cry whenever his brother gets too close. Nice. He's 11 months and he's playing us. Love it!

Today, at the park - which I hate going because all I end up doing is pushing the baby on the swing while the Happy Boy plays, otherwise I end up sweeping little pebbles out of the Baby's mouth and clean has face as he sneaks handfuls of sand inside - I noticed the Baby really wanted to go down in the sand so I knelt beside him ready to prevent a buffet situation and sweep for rocks when I realized he was actually playing in the sand and not eating it. Huh? My baby has grown up. Didn't eat so much as a grain of sand.

He really is growing up...

Oy.

Planning his 1st birthday... Who to invite? The dilemma of inviting friends for a second child so close in age when the 2nd one really does not have any friends of his own. Sigh. Anyone have any experiences they can pass along.

Thursday Thirteen

13 News Items that have intrigued Urban Daddy today...



1. 3,000-year-old beehives unearthed in Israel. I'm not sure what about this story intrigues me more, that there were bees 3000 years ago in the "Land of Milk and Honey" or that someone digging was able to identify them as being beehives... How often do you see 3000 year old beehives that you can identify these ones. What did the architects do? Say, hey lets call, Joe, he knows what a 3000 year old beehive looks like.


2. Tenor Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71. Sorry to hear that... Heaven will sound better.


3. Fred Thompson announces candidacy for president – Ice T to be his VP if elected.


4. Early adopters sour over iPhone price cut – Hmmm, sounds like the iPod video problem UrbanMummy had, when she bought the iPod and they lowered the price the next week and came out with a newer design. Nice of the staff to let her know. at least in this case, all the iPhone owners will be receiving a $100.00 credit. I guess it's too late to ask for a credit from the iPod video... Oh well. We'll know to ask next time.


5. Not enough for luxury. $2 million may become the new benchmark for a fancy home in Toronto. Geez. I'll take 2 please.


6. Food additives make children behave badly - Britain’s food watchdog is warning all parents today of a clear link between additives and hyperactive behaviour in children. Research for the Food Standards Agency has established the “deleterious effects” of taking a mixture of artificial extras that are added to drinks, sweets and processed foods. It has led the FSA to issue the advice to parents who believe their children to be hyperactive that they should cut out foods containing the E numbers analysed in the study. But the FSA has been accused of missing an opportunity to protect children and all consumers by failing to impose a deadline on manufacturers to remove additives such as Sunshine Yellow and Tartrazine from their products.


7. Facebook, the hugely popular social networking site, risks provoking anger from its users by opening up details of individuals to the web at large. A new public search feature will soon mean that basic Facebook user profiles — carrying names and photographs of the site’s members — are accessible through search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Hmmm. Good thing I removed all access.



8. Osama Bin Laden arises from the ashes to criticize the British PM's. Who the hell is this guy and why would anyone listen to him anymore? He is a murderer, and a big coward who has resorted to hiding in caves in Afghanistan to avoid capture. Real hero. Brave, brave man. At least Saddam Hussein hid in a well in his own country. Osama bin Jackass has to hide in the rough terrain of a giant sand box called Afghanistan... Respected leader? HA. Big fucking loser, is more like it. I do, however like the fact that his own cave has a nice dressing room in it that allowed him to dye and trim his beard and touch up his complexion. Want to look good to the terrorists he is instructing. Idiot!



9. Major League Baseball officials will investigate reports linking St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel and Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Troy Glaus to performance-enhancing drugs.
The New York Daily News said that Ankiel received a 12- month supply of human growth hormone from a Florida pharmacy in 2004. Sports Illustrated's Web site reported Glaus -- the Most Valuable Player in the 2002 World Series for the Anaheim Angels -- got multiple shipments of steroids from the same supplier. Damn. All this from that idiot Chris Benoit. Hey, if you do the crime you do the time. Send a message to kids who look to these athletes as role models and suspend or fine all these guys for life! Well except Glaus, he's a Blue Jay now. But if he ever gets traded to the Yankees or Red Sox, then it's life. :)


10. The big joke that are the Ontario Liberals have released an election platform that promises big spending initiatives, including billions more on education and health. $14.7 billion, actually. Without raising taxes, or should I say, by telling voters they will not raise taxes but doing it anyways... the Liberal way. Oh! And don't forget the promise of a holiday in February... Oh joy! And free beer for everyone... Desperate times call for desperate measures, eh Dalton?


11. Some girl from some Disney production called High School Musical II or something like that had nude pictures "leaked" onto the Internet. Oh joy! Another role-model in the making. Move over Lindsay and Britany.



12. The parents of a British girl whose disappearance sparked a four-month international search were declared suspects by Portuguese police Friday, their lawyer said. Looks like these 2 pieces of work, both doctors, were found to have traces of blood in their rental car that matches to that of their daughter. Give me a break. Jail awaits these 2 if all the evidence is true. How could they?!? Let alone the act, how could they waste the time of all the locals and their friends looking for this girl if they knew where she was all the time.



13. Federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion yesterday leapt to the defence of ideological mentor - and former Canadian Prime Minister - Pierre Trudeau, slamming former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for his attack on the deceased Liberal icon. Mulroney criticized his former nemesis for his pacifism and opposition to conscription during the Second World War and for wearing a Nazi arm band while Jews and other religions were being murdered in Germany and Poland. But thank goodness the Liberals have this dim light-bulb called Dion, as he said, "That's what he was saying when Mr. Trudeau was alive, now that Mr. Trudeau is no longer around, he wants to revisit what he said? He should argue with himself." Yes, Stephane, he should argue with himself... HUH? What? Errr, ok. Seeking to clarify his position, the Liberal leader said, "If he (Mulroney) is unfair for all the personalities as he has been to Mr. Trudeau, nobody will read his book for very long." Yup. You got it. Bang on Stephane. Whatever you meant to say.

I dread the day this guy becomes PM. Corrupt party. Incompetant leader.

Thoughts for a beautiful Labour Day

It's 30 degrees outside and I'm inside... So hot, so tired.



UrbanMummy goes back to work tomorrow and totally blames me. I don't blame her. I did, afterall, tell her that I would have a new job that would be able to support her and I by November... November 2001. Gulp.



Opportunities like this come by very infrequently, if ever, and if you don't grab the bull by the horns it'll pass you by and you will regret it forever. The last time I thought this way was after meeting UrbanMummy for the first time on July 1, 2000. That sentiment is beginning to creep into my head again. I made the right choice 7 years ago and I'm going to make the correct choice this time around too.



We have tomatoes in the garden... purple ones and orange pear shaped ones. They are yummy. Why, though, does The Happy Boy ask me every 30 seconds if the unripe ones that I brought in the house are ready? Does he think when I tell him they need to ripen that it will happen immediately or does he just have no sense of time. Or... Does he think these damn things grow on trees??? :)



We had to cancel our potluck playdate this afternoon because the Happy Boy has a croup cough... call in the hounds.



Looks like our Nanny woes are over... Our current Nanny leaves September 15th and the new one is due to arrive on the 16th or 17th.



Tuesday, tomorrow, brings a whole new schedule for the Urban family. School starts for UM and THB, school starts for UM and for me (my LAST 2 courses, then I'll have my MBA), I need to arrange a mixer for my class and discuss promotional licensing with them, I go back to physio for a back-checkup this week, my volunteer time with the local big brothers program and the rate-payers organization begins, my job search continues and the Jewish high-holidays are coming right up and I need to up the exercise / healthy eating... Can you say 4 hours sleep again. :)



Well the kiddies are due up from nap any minute and maybe I'll run them outside again... A nice long walk to Starbucks. LOL.

That was fun!!!

Today was a busy day, full of fun. I have not had this much fun in a long time.

Here's how my / our day shaped up...

Morning out to the doctor to have the boys looked over for their 3 month lube and oil, er, back to school check-up, and the boys are great. Gaining weight, developing according to schedule, just fine.

Then home - nap for the baby, then off to playgroup. There were a couple other Dads there and we ate, and played with the kids - changed a few diapers and had a blast. I've become the official burper for one of the Mom's. Nice title, eh?

Home again, naps for both kids, then off to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) to meet my mother and sister for the evening. It turned out to be a super-fun evening full and we got home just past 11pm and the boys we awake most of the evening.

The Happy Boy went on a few rides and his face light up while on them all. He smiled, laughed, waved and even tried talking to the other riders during the adventure. He especially enjoyed the cars he got to ride in that looked like a fire truck and ambulance. He sat in the car smiling and waving until the ride started. Off shot the car as Happy Boy scrambled to grab the wheel and start steering. He steered, smiled and waved for most of the ride, except for the few minutes spent staring at the track as he tried to figure out how the ride works. He's a funny boy.

The Happy Boy also loved the motorcycles, the tour of the firestation and seeing the fire truck from the 1940's, the CN Tower and all the fabulous colours it kept turning, the spotlights from the Convention Centre, the Snowbird and dog tag given to him, all the games, lights and action, and of course spending time with his Bubi (my mother) and Aunt (my sister).

Side note: I grew up going to the EX with my grandparents and those memories will be with me forever. I felt a bit nostalgic as my son was there with his grandmother.

Side note II: In the car looking for parking I pointed out the CN Tower to the Happy Boy and told him it was the tallest of its kind in the world and goes right up into the sky. About 30 seconds later, I hear the Happy Boy say the following, "Baby Boy, that is the CN Tower, it goes up into the sky...
Awwwww. I love that.

So back to me: I won a stuffed cow on the Whap-a-Mole. I always win, but at the CNE some machines are fixed so I look for the winners machine and use it after he/she leaves. Took me two games to win.

Won a stuffed dog tossing baseballs into a panda's mouth. Cost me $10.00.

Won a blue elephant by throwing a baseball 53 MPH according to a radar gun, then telling the attandant that I was going to throw the ball 55 MPH the next time. I did, and won. Funny how that worked out.

We bumped into some old friends we lost touch with when they disappeared into the suburbs, and a co-worker. Neat!

All in all, I had an awesome time hanging out with UrbanMummy, playing games, being out on a Friday night and having two very tired kids in a stroller being quiet just looking around. It brought back memories about when we were dating, well, except for the fact that I have a bigger gut, less hair and spit-up on my shirt and shorts.

So if you are in the TO area and thinking of going down to the CNE, I say go! You wont regret it.

Cheers.

Cavemen

Anyone else find those Cavemen commercials extremely annoying? I see them and I want to write to that company and tell them that I would never buy their product / use their service. But I'm too busy. I'll just complain... that works for me. :)



I hate that fucking caveman!

All in a days work...

Today was the first weekday in over 2 years without my boys Nanny (she is on vacation from Wed-Mon) and boy did it get started on the wrong foot. The Happy Boy, the older of the two, came into our bed at 3am, not to sleep, but to toss, turn, talk and cry especially when Mummy turned her back in him. Sigh. So in a moment of self-sacrifice, Urban Mummy sent me out of the bed and into his room to get some sleep before a very big day.

As a result of sleeping in the Happy Boy's room, there was no clock and I had to leave the house by 7:30 in order to walk leisurely to the subway in my suit and crappy dress shoes for a 9am interview of the job seeking kind. Hopefully the first of many. For those of you who know me, you would be surprised how nice I clean up in a suit... I even surprise myself.

Once that was done - about 30-45 minutes later, I went down to the lobby and summoned a friend of mine who works in the same building but in the North tower. He did not answer his phone and his voicemail did not indicate that he was away for the day... Hmmm. He did not know that I was coming downtown, but then again, he should be able to meet me... unless... The only excuse I would accept for him not calling me in the 20 minutes I hung around down there would be if he had to run out of the office to be with his wife and son as there was a baby due anytime. So I left him a message and off I went to the office.

It's summer. My employer is not overly concerned about the appearance of their employees, therefor me coming to work in a suit made me REALLY stand out. So much so that if anyone asked me why I was wearing a suit and if it meant I had an interview, I would tell them the following, "No, I was at a funeral". I anticipated the asker would just shut up and I could move along. I was correct, but still had to use that line twice.
friend for coffee / wife had baby

Once off the subway I strolled towards the office and saw a familiar face walking towards me... It was Josh-O. So I grabbed him and forced him to come across the street with me to Starbucks, where I forced him once more to let me buy him a coffee. We chatted. Nice guy. It was LONG overdue.

So once coffee was over, I went into the office and took off my suit jacket, tie and changed my shoes to a less casual brown shoe. It took me about 2 hours before I needed another coffee and that was when this already odd day, got even more awkward.

Coming out of Tim Horton's across the street from my office I noticed two firetrucks decending on the building, from different sides, yet no one was evacuating the building. As I waited to cross the street, 4 more firetruck pulled up and an ambulance drove up on the island right beside me. I crossed and asked the consierage in the building what was happening and she said nothin to her knowledge. We both watch 2 more firetrucks pull up. So I raced up to me desk to notify my Team Manager and grab my stuff in case there was an alarm, and at that moment the alarm came on.

Normally, the consierage comes on and acknowledges that an alarm was pulled, and what the problem was and wheter or not we should evacuate. In this case, the Fire Chief came on, and indicated that a bomb was found and that we should evacuate ASAP.

I made it down 6-storey's in the building when the Fire Chief came back on the loud speaker and told us that the situation was under control and that we should return to our desks. Instead of turning around in the stairwall - still full of people coming down - I walked to the lobby, turned back to the elevators and went back up to my desk.

I sat at my desk for about 5 minutes before I realized that I was the only person on the floor. I picked up the phone to call UM to let her know what was going on, and when I spun to look out the window, I was shocked at what I saw. The police had blocked the street with 6 police cars and were frantically taping off the street to keep cars and people away from the building... that I was still in. I told UM that I was a little concerned and she gave me some sound advice to; "get the hell out of the building ASAP". So I packed up my stuff and took the elevator to the main floor. I walked to the consierage and asked what was going on. She advised me there was a letter bomb scare and that the letter bomb was 10 feet from where we were standing. You see, the police had roped off the building, there were 10 police cars, 10 fire trucks, an ambulance, 2 helicopters already there and the bomb squad on the way. Everyone was across the street looking on, and I was in the middle of the action wondering why.

So I was escorted from the building and wound up in the middle of an empty street. Yonge Street. A very main road, all by myself with helicopters hovering above, walking towards the police so I could get out of the area. Why did they lets us back upstairs???

I hung out for an hour taking in the whole scene before heading to the subway to go meet UM and the boys at a birthday party. Actually ate cake there. First time I'd had chocolate in 2 weeks. Not bad, eh?

After the party, we all went home, I bathed the kids, we all ate, then off to bed. Whew. What a long day.

Ouch...

I don't normally like to write about my feelings in my blog, it's not for that. I remember how I feel at certain points in my life and don't need to write it here to remember it. Today, however, is a little different.

You see today I had an opportunity to - as I was promised - to be a part of an exclusive party at my in-laws cottage which would have in attendance several senior employees of a company that I would not be adverse to working at. It has been my intention, now 2 courses and three months from completing my MBA, to seek employment that I would find challenging and which would provide me an opportunity to advance my career. While not the most ideal fit for me, this company is in the top 3.

So over the past few weeks, I was advised to get my resume (or CV) together and find some positions in this company and that the people at this party would be able to get me a job in their firm... I could be one of them. So I worked really hard on my resume, found a few really awesome jobs that I would really enjoy, dressed up nice and came prepared to shmooze my way to a long awaited career change.

What happened today was very disappointing for me - and really it was my fault for expecting, believing, that something was going to happen. No expectations, no disappointments. I had expectations and boy was I disappointed.

Turns out my father-in-law had invited 2 guys he met at Starbucks, one of which was selling flowers 2 months ago, and he helped them develop a product which they came to pitch to this company today at the cottage. My FIL was very proud of these boys and they were thrilled to have this opportunity. IT was all very surreal to me because I've been in the family for 8 years now and my FIL and I have had an OK relationship, but never a great one. He treats us great, but individually I never got the feel that he really respected me. We have only ever hung out once, and I don't feel like he really ever took me seriously, and why should he? I married his daughter, gave them 2 beautiful grandchildren and don't cause any problems in the family. I don't get it.

I mean that. I don't get it. So on a day when I expect to be discussing opportunities, these two boys present this idea to the company and I don't even exist. For the few minutes that one of these VP's asked me a question about what I am doing now, he gave me exactly 10 seconds of his time before he turned away from me and started a different conversation. This day was NOT for me. I gave my resume to one of his colleagues and she left in on the cabinet by the door and when he left, not even a good-bye.

I guess, as UrbanMummy speculated, the people from this company were there to have a good time and maybe a small pitch on the side would have been okay, but after this big sell for the two boys, trying to force me in there too was too much for the VP to take, so he let it be... and so shall I.

Today was a waste of a day for me, emotionally, I put a lot of hope into this day and it turned out to be a big zero! The rest of the day was fun - good food, my kids had fun, UM made an awesome show of herself asking great questions and with he knowledge of relevant information (asking GREAT questions). But for me. Pfffffft.

Back to the drawing board.

I'll have to remind myself every morning. No expectations... No disappointments.

Mary, Mary quite contrary...

... Why does my garden grow... Without veggies???

This really disappoints me.

You see UrbanMummy and I decided to grow our plants from seed this year. We went to a seed show, picked out a fabulous selection of heirloom seeds, crazy stuff like; "Hale's Best Melon pre-1923", Coloured Carrot Mix, "Garden Peach" Tomatos, Romanesco Broccoli, Black Beauty Zucchini, Sweet Basil, Roman Chamomile from the 13th century, Vegetable Spagetti Squash from the 1890's and Chocolate Peppers, to name a few.

So all these plants made it into the ground - a week or two later than they probably should have - but once the squirrls and raccoons had their way - we were left with a pretty good selection of plants which have grown out of control... tall, full, flowering plants... but without any fruit.

We have tiny green tomatoes, nothing ripe. Tiny cucumbers, nothing ready. Tiny peppers, nothing close to ready. It's all there, but I don't know if it is going to be ready in time for the cold to come. It is mid-August afterall in Toronto and that means, its going to be getting colder soon. Oh oh. All that work, of getting the seeds planted and making sure the kids and cats didn't destroy them, then the outdoor animals, it looks like all we are going to have is this pretty garden.

A pretty empty one.

So how does my garden grow???

Barren.

:(

Ramblings about nothing

First off a shout out to Josh-O, hubby of Haley-O whom I continue to brush off for coffee because of vacations, work and other events, who was telling me why their loud floral couch was sitting on their front lawn for the past few days, when the elevation shut.on our conversation… I’ll get you buddy!


Looks like the Maple Leafs traded for a player (Mark Bell) who is going to jail after the season for 6 months - yikes... I think its time for front office overhaul. JFJ has to go. Does this look a little like Mike Sirotka, anyone??? Trading for damaged goods.

Caution:

The following post contains foul language.

Fucking Toys!

Fucking toys from China containing lead and other shit...

Would anyone have cared if the Canadian authorities not turned up this information? The Chinese company would have just continued shipping their toys to our children - who would have played with these toys, and once the paint chipped, played with it still, and been exposed to a potentially harmful contaminant. Grrr. So what does the president of this toy company do once he and his company's name have been exposed??? Hangs himself in the boardroom of his company... Coward.

Does this not send a STRONG message to us parents??? Buy locally! Buy wood toys. Buy smarter.

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.