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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I stand corrected...

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

Clear as mud?!?

Thought so.

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

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

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

Loads of new blogs to read

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

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

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

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

Nite all.

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Maybe next time! :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who reads this Urban Daddy blog, anyways? Google Analytics, please tell me the truth!

So, it turns out that after posting 200 posts over 4 years, you're still not a true or real blogger unless you look at some statistics to notice that it's not true that only your mother, sister and wife are reading your posts.

Hmmm.

Who knew.

In fact, I was shocked to see that several hundred people come by each week to poke about and learn more at the fun that parenting can be in urban Toronto with a full-time job where your family is the most important thing in the world.

So a fellow blogger, Haley O, The Cheaty Monkey (also my neighbour) mentioned this thing called Google Analytics and after adding it to my blog I had some hard stats to read through and I love me some statistics!

I also found some very interesting stuff yesterday.

I found a ranking of keywords typed into google which brought people to my site, and man are some of them really interesting, not because they got people to my site, but because I have this sneaky feeling that these issues I have touched upon while my kids are 1 and 3, are going to continue to be problems as my kids get to be older...

Here is the list of the top 15 keywords which brought people to my blog:

1. urbandaddy (the dot com site that came, ahem, after my blog was set up)

2. urban daddy

3. The urban daddy

4. Parenting

5. Daddy's in Toronto

6. How hard is it to be a dad?

7. Will I ever sleep again?

8. Who changes dirty diapers?

9. Can I work and raise a kid?

10. Will I lose my hair?

11. Will I gain weight?

12. Will I ever have sex again?

13. Discipline

14. Sweets

15. Treats
 

These keywords kill me because I can say they are all applicable and only time will tell how true they are all, but so far they seem to be right on track.

 

Parents... How many of those keywords below will I be searching out as my kids get older??

She's going to BFF!!!

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

Hooray.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A shit-storm is on the way...

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

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

Well that is about to end.

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

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

Details to follow...

Sleep. Sleep. My kingdom for some sleep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

There is something wrong with the world today...

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

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

Seriously though...

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

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

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

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

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


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

Happy 7th Anniversary...

UrbanMummy,

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

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

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

Let's make this year the best one yet.

I love you.

You husband,

UrbanDaddy

Randon thoughts...

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

I recommend:

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

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

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

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

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

Uh huh.

Too much time on their hands, eh? LOL.

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

Stewie's first haircut...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But wait...

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

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

Yay.

But wait some more...

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

Nice, eh?

Welcome to my world.

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

What I did today... by UrbanDaddy

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

and so the story goes...

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

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

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

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

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

UM is coughing and is exhausted.

I'm beat...

Weekend update

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





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

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

"Yes Linus"

"I got pee in my mouth..."



nuff said.



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



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

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

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

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

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

Draft day transactions:

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


Draft:

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

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

For yee of little faith...

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

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

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

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

Overheard on a Monday... Returns...

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

"I'm firing on all pistons"

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday Newsday

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

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


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


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


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


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

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