Pretty accurate...

ESFP - The "Entertainer"

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

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

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

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

The end is near...

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

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

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


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


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


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


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

I thought it was. :)

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

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



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



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


Shall I go on?


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


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



Work related stress:


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


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


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


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



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



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



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

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

Thoughts for a bizarre Monday...

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

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

3 weeks to MBA

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

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

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

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

"Lasterday" is any day before today...

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday Newsday... For a Friday

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.