Remarkably, there still remains some Halloween candy in the house. No, the entry title refers to the last of this year's ghoulish imagery. I just had to post this because I love it so much. Scary? No doubt. A little creepy? Absolutely; I think Wee-Mina took Matthew's zombie makeup to heart. But beyond that, her vampire is still fashionably dressed and sporting a lovely heart pendant choker and some orange jewelry across her shoulders. She has an eye for detail, this one. I remember when Matthew used to do the same.
November 06, 2009
November 05, 2009
And Another Update
Sorry gang, I'm still quite bagged so this'll be another quick entry. To tell the truth, I think I'm fighting something. Anyhow, the kids are fine and Jennifer has been off at a work conference for the day. She's expected to get home later tonight which is a nice switch for her. The kids and I picked up some fish 'n' chips on the way home and I've let them gorge themselves on cartoons; sometimes, you just gotta let 'em be kids.
I picked up Jennifer's repaired computer yesterday. It turns out it was the hard drive. Despite the $200 price tag, it could have been worse. I've just about finished reloading the software and organizing her mail, browser and personal files.
November 03, 2009
Latest Update
Just a quick update to let everyone know I'm feeling better and managed to go to work today. It was a good day and I created a presentation for the lads at the office to recap my day-long seminar on Friday. And, because the two grandmothers asked for it, here's a quick picture of the little plunderess, Marina.
November 02, 2009
Caught Up
I feel like Matthew looks. I went to bed with a headache last night, then woke up four or so hours later feeling awful. My headache was worse and my stomach was flipping like mad. I spent the first hour fighting both then decided if I was going to throw up, I might as well take something for the headache. Eventually, the headache abated and my stomach started feeling better. I then fell asleep around 5:00.
I slept in 'til 8:30 then went to work. Although I was feeling better, my energy was completely drained by the time I'd checked my e-mail. It was pretty quiet, so I decided to go home and rest. I even opted out of a board meeting tonight. Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I might take another day to recover. Luckily, it's no worse than a general wearing down; I guess the past few weeks have caught up with me.
November 01, 2009
The Night of Nights
I love this picture of Marina; it's not the best picture of the group, but it is the only one with that expression. It was a pretty long day yesterday and both kids were primed for the big night, Marina in particular. In fact, she's still going a mile-a-minute.
We decided to stay home last night and take the kids around the neighbourhood. Jennifer took the kids out first, doing one street over and half of our own street. I stayed home and dispensed the candy. We didn't get a whole lot of kids, maybe 30 or so. Jennifer came back and suggested I finish the street with the kids which, in retrospect, was very nice. We then came home and the kids began to sort (and eat) their candy. All in all, it was a lovely Halloween…until this morning.
The cat didn't take kindly to Daylight Savings Time, deciding to Meow-It-Up™ at his usual time. We took our time getting up, then made a Halloween treat bag for Chloe and wished René a Happy Birthday on our way out of the grocery store. The shopping done, Jennifer notice a scratch that runs 3/4 of the length of the van as we packed it up; we'd been keyed. When we got home, I checked the street we'd been parked on last night and behold, at least another 6 cars showed the same deep scratches. No doubt a Halloween prank and, I'm sure, one that will be costly at that. We just can't seem to catch a break. Little shits—thanks for ruining the weekend!
We finished our trip with a stop at the pet store to pick up some stuff for Cato. He's lucky though; we almost walked out with the cutest little black rescue cat. I keep thinking another cat will keep him company but looking at how he and Boo get along, I imagine he'd get tired of a new friend pretty quickly. Grumpy old cat.
October 30, 2009
And So, The Time Has Come…
Fierce Concentration … captured on October 25, 2009 - 5D
I had a good day today at the Park Hyatt hotel for an all-day "intensive" course on Social Media. You know: blogs, Facebook, Twitter…that sort of stuff. As some of you already know, I've been focusing a lot on social media and mobile marketing these past six months. I can't tell you how much of a boost it's been to my career, both in terms of security and spiritually. Most importantly, it's re-ignited my passion for marketing. Secondly, it's allowed me to expand my capabilities. Not only do I continue to contribute to the big ideas and develop strategies but I get to art direct, photograph and follow this new vein as well. Is it too much? No, because it's all connected. And that's what's so exciting.
And speaking of excitement, well, it's Halloween. The kids had an exciting day at school today and have already dressed up. But tomorrow is the BIG day. How it will unfold remains to be seen; there are many plans in the works so I don't know what will shake out. No matter what, I will eat more than my fair share of Reese's peanut butter cups so that means I'll need to spend more time at the gym.
October 29, 2009
Dull
Like the title of the photo, it's another dull, grey day in T-Dot. I'm speaking of the weather or course, not the mood. Although I think everyone could do with a bit of sunshine.
I always think of Fall as such a vibrant time of year but this past week has been anything but. You can see the fallen leaves, lining street edges, but they lay there sodden instead of skipping merrily across the street, coaxed by the wind. The colours have been drab as well. And the mornings, dark.
Dark will do well for Halloween this weekend, although there's talk of rain. The kids will NOT be happy if it rains but we'll see what happens. As for myself, I hope to go to the Zombie Short Film Festival at The Revue tomorrow to celebrate the season.
October 27, 2009
Slow Goes the Battle
1-and-a-half of 3 things down. First off, Jennifer took the van in for servicing yesterday. They acted like it was no big deal; like tie rods fail all the time. You could tell it was a pissing contest between one service department and the other. It's so nice to be the customer, stuck in the middle. Luckily, this bit was indeed covered by the warranty. We did get the alignment done as well and this did cost us; but, it was needed.
Step 2, Jennifer's laptop. Of course, it started up for the Apple fellow (I'd tried at least 7 or 8 times, without success) so I copied all her necessary information to a USB key. He agreed that the hard drive was likely the culprit but I should try a clean install of the OS. That's what I'm trying to do now. The computer has continued working—I've restarted with the Leopard installer, it's verified the disc, wiped the drive clean and crashed. Now I can start up from the DVD drive anymore. Ah, but that's what evenings are for…wasting your time troubleshooting. More on this later.
The final issue is the roof. So far, Jennifer has had no luck talking with the original roofer. She's left multiple messages, but they haven't found the time to call back yet. Guess who's losing a customer? More on this later as well.
October 26, 2009
La P'tite Marina
On the way home from school Marina looked up at me and said: "Citrouille."
"Oh…pumpkin!" I exclaimed with obvious pride. She does this, the Wee-One, ever since she started French immersion. She'll softly throw a new word she learned that day to see if I understand what she's saying. For the most part, I get it.
As we walked along, Marina would point out the various citrouilles standing guard on people's porches. "Look!" she'd call. "Trois citrouilles! Une petite, une moyenne et une grosse citrouille!"
Then at dinner she perked up for a joke. "Do you know that all horses speak French?" she asked. Jennifer looked at her curiously, "No…how do they speak French?"
Pointing to her nose, she beamed: "They all say: Nez, nez, nez!"
Ah, my little French girl!
October 25, 2009
All Better Now
We took it easy today. But it's not like we could have driven anywhere or afforded to do anything! Alright, alright, I'll stop being bitter.
No, we took it easy because, even though Matthew is feeling better and hasn't had a fever since he went to bed last night, we wanted to take advantage of one more day off to make sure he got over his flu. About the only thing we did that was strenuous, was walking down Roncesvalles to get some meat from Rowe Farms and veggies from Ko's. Of course, a coffee from Cherry Bomb and a couple of pain au chocolat were necessary to complete the venture.
The day was definitely cooler but beautiful and sunny. And a funny thing did happen on our walk; I had to stop at the bank on our way out and the lady in front of me was so busy talking to her friends, she left her bank card in the machine. WITHOUT LOGGING OFF! When I got to the ATM, I was faced with a screen asking which account I wanted to draw funds from. It wasn't until after I handed her her card back that I remembered all the things we need to pay for over the next few months. I could have replaced the Mac today! Who says nice guys finish first? Oh well, at least my karma is still intact.
The kids rounded the afternoon off with some pumpkin carving and we were paid a visit from Catherine who was in town for the weekend. She hung around while Jennifer made some cookies for her to take away and we wished her well as she headed off to the bus station for the trip back to UWO, in London.
October 24, 2009
The Day of Broken Things
Sigh. I took the car in to get the winter tires put on the van this morning. This year, the proper rims for the Grand Caravan were finally made available, so we bought some to avoid the $150 switchover fee every Fall and Spring. Today's cost for the rims and the mounting: just over $700. While they were swapping the wheels, they found that our brakes are wearing, the wheels need alignment and the tie-rod ends need to be replaced. @#$%@ American cars. The tire guy said he'd never seen anything like that on a car with only 23K on it. He was pretty adamant that we only drive to the dealer to get it fixed.
I called the dealer to set up an appointment; he didn't seemed fazed by my concern of a wheel dropping off on the way there. Hopefully, this should be covered by the warranty. The alignment and brake job are another matter. All this after a roofer recently determined that the roofing job we contracted in 2003 wasn't the most exemplary venture; as the leak in our bedroom ceiling can attest to. So now we're waiting to see what's covered by the warranty and what excuse the old roofer can dream up that rescinds the agreement.
Then, Jennifer's laptop finally died. It's been acting up for probably six months but today, it refuses to start. I tried every trick I know (and I know quite a few) but it continues to make some odd and unnerving sounds. I can't even boot up from the original system disc which doesn't bode well. I'll set up an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar to see if they can figure something out or, at the very least, manage to copy Jennifer's data. But this will have to wait until the car gets fixed.
And just in time for Christmas.
October 23, 2009
Health Update
Well, the Lad stayed home again today. After we gave him some medicine at 4:00 am, Jennifer decided she'd stay home with him. Sadly, this means the trip to Edmonton has been canceled, or at least, postponed. Much to the disappointment of the Wee-One who walked in from school yesterday and went straight to her room to cry. Scenes of broken hearts by jilted boyfriends flashed through my mind. We did our best to console her and eventually, she nibbled at her dinner. Matthew on the other hand, was saddened by the missed trip but has been enjoying movies with Daddy and catching up on PVRed episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
He did get through the day without any medicine although his temperature is starting to rise. As the rain lashes against the bedroom window, I think we'll stay in and take it easy on this blustery weekend. I have a meeting tomorrow morning and I've got to take the van in to get our snow tires put on. Otherwise, it should be pretty quiet.
October 22, 2009
Plans in Flux
Uh-oh. A certain young man woke up with a fever and a sore throat this morning. This could be problematic because tomorrow, Matthew, Marina and Jennifer are supposed to fly to Edmonton for the weekend. We'll have to see what develops. So far he's read in bed and now he's downstairs watching TV.
On a positive note, he did finish his book. You should know that this brings me no greater pleasure, knowing this is the third Tintin book he's read and that he loves them…as he should. Of course, he's reading them in English but hopefully, someday, he'll read the French copies which sit in his bookcase.
October 21, 2009
October 19, 2009
Finding the Time
Where does one find the time? You leave the house before 8 in the morning and you don't get home 'til after 5:00. There's dinner, some time with the kids, homework, and the next thing you know, it's 9:00 pm. By this time, all you're looking forward to is a little down time in front of the TV. Or, like us, you're catching up with the first season of Mad Men on DVD. But that hour or two is never enough. It's not enough to get to those tasks you've promised yourself you'd do; like the home movies, or the half dozen jobs you've got lined up for the volunteer organization you're working for, or even, to simply clean up the house.
Piano lessons. Soccer practice. Halloween and birthday parties. New clothes. Bigger clothes. Longer clothes.
I haven't done any yoga in 6 months. My chakra is so misaligned, I can't see straight (OK, I thought that was funny). Unfortunately, I can't do yoga first thing in the morning. Despite being a morning person, that doesn't extend to exercising at 6:00 am. I can't do it after dinner because the child's pose—among others—doesn't lend itself to a full stomach. I suppose that leaves after work because by the time Matthew goes to bed, near 9:00, I've no energy left. Of course, I'm pretty wiped when I get home too.
So where do you find the time and when did life get so busy? I suppose, as the kids grow older, the time will come. But until then we, and those parents around us, will just keep plowing through life like chickens with our heads cut off. For those of you who've been there but since moved on, let me remind you: it's exhausting.
