Get the kids out of the house for a few hours of peace for mum. Feed them, entertain them, but most of all keep them from climbing on mum, and asking for drinks & snacks once she sits down. Ha. Kids. Gotta love’em!
Happy Mother’s Day to all whom fill the role. Take it easy on the mimosas and steer clear of the thirty dollar egg breakfasts today. Cheers!
One particular issue that my garage shop has is power, or the lack thereof. So once we did some remodeling upstairs I paid an electrician to add a new small sub panel to the garage, in hopes I could land several 115v outlets, and hopefully at least one 240v. I got four 115v outlets and a 220v. Not bad, but it meant my dreams of welding at home were lowered a fair bit. Had to find a small unit that could run 115v, instead of a regular sized unit on a 240v. But, concurrent to this lack of outlets, is the fact that they are all located on one side of the garage, and clustered together. So unless I wanted to stack machines on top of each other and forever more be moving tools around on wheelie carts, I did the second best thing I know of and draped extension cords all over the show. It was unsightly, and most likely not very safe. It’s a short term fix for a long term problem.
But now that I have cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned up the shop. Moved tools all around, and eliminated a lot of the space wasting items I finally decided to clean up the cords. Now I cannot eliminate them entirely, I did however consolidate them down, and managed to unplug, and recapture five cords. I think that’s pretty great. It now means I have open outlets once again, so I can put a tool directly into the wall socket (if that works) and not rely almost entirely on chains of cords strung together. I feel safer. It looks better. And my stock pile of usable cords has grown considerably.
So that was what I did to occupy myself after rock climbing, and throwing a ball around in the street with my oldest daughter today.
While the OT winning goal wasn’t ours, that was a very entertaining game three to watch. I like that level of intensity. It was a real nail biter right up until the buzzer sounded. Whoo wee that was nearly 80 minutes of electric play. Serve it directly into my veins! Would have loved to be up 3 – 0 in round two against Florida, but I think it is still achievable to win this series. Fingers, arms, legs, and toes crossed. Hell I’ll cross my eyes too if it means an entry into round three of the Stanley cup play offs.
I have rock climbing earlier than usual this session of Saturdays, so I’ll need to make sure I cut the grass on Fridays or Sundays because we won’t get home until the full heat of the day is Upon us. High UV days can really land you in some trouble around here. My base tan is pretty faded from February in the Keys. No desire to get badly burned ever again. It’s not all that warm here but the UV index is really high, so odds are I wouldn’t even have any sun screen on, or an SPF shirt to protect my arms and neck. Just straight star radiation to the exposed skin for a hot coal glow all evening, and night sweats to go along with it . No thanks.
The gym is starting to get really hot inside, so I should probably find suitable shorts that I can wear so I don’t immediately sweat through my clothes once I walk through the door. It also has that stale sweat stink most gyms suffer from which I’m not very keen on. Yuck. Smells like unwashed ore teen kids coming out of gym class to sit in front of you for the whole rest of the day in junior high. Ugh! Horrendous.
Anyway, it is officially Saturday, and it should be around 19°C today. Perhaps I will tackle some outdoor chores today since last week it was so cool outside. We could ride our bikes, or take a spin on our skateboards. That might be fun! Now that the weather is turning we can be outdoors more often. Throw a ball around and play catch. Kick a soccer ball. Take the sparring pass outside and really give them shit in preparation for next month’s tournament. That just might be the ticket!
And other such fun pass times, like eating bees, digging up hornets nests, playing slap tag with wasps, and getting high off centipedes. It’s all fun and games until you get stung on the cornea, then it’s war!
Friday is here and the lawn could do with a good mow right about now. Our extracurricular schedules are heating up as we draw close to the end of the session. Timing, and time management are going to play a very real part of our lives over the next two to three weeks. That, and open communication will help us mitigate stress and anger. So, good luck with all of that! To us, and all of you out there whom happen to be in a similar boat. Things will settle down after the first week of June. I mean that does lead us into summer break and the kids being home 24/7 for nine weeks, but we love them, so we make it work.
The farm is set to plant some five hundred native apple trees this weekend. From what I understand three hundred forty of them have gone in the ground all ready, so not too much farther to go. They are more widely spaced than the previous orchard of some twelve hundred fifty trees of eight or so varieties. I made signs for those several Christmas’s ago using my router and four ten foot lengths of cedar planking. It took me a while to do.
We will have to make a cider press to deal with all of these apples before too much longer. Could be a fun project to build. Speaking of which, I think we decided on making a dog bed with a pull out drawer as our next wood working project for the house. The current dog crate is gigantic, and we never lock him in it any more. He has proven himself fairly trust worthy, at least when the kids bedroom doors are shut and he can’t chew their stuffed animals to pieces. No accidents in the house, or furniture damages. So to reclaim the space his stuff will go on a low rise bedframe, and the crate can go back to my inlaws. Should make the front hall more open, and easier to navigate. I hope. I’ll likely make a furniture build post or two about it when I get to it. It requires a lower frame, a drawer, and an upper frame to hold the bedding. Nothing too crazy fancy. I’m thinking; box joints with the router. Half inch plywood interior, floating inside the upper frame rails. Pretty easy. Two boxes that fit inside one another, and one that sits on top. Bam. Golden! Just need to draw it up, and build it.
Gearing up for a family trip out west in a couple of weeks. Nothing too crazy, just an extended weekend, with flights to and from British Columbia. The end of this month, and the first week of June are going to be all sorts of hectic chaos, so I need to be both healthy, and in a good spot mentally to deal with all of what will be going on. Birthdays plural, prom, dance recitals, taekwondo tournament, the end of this session of Girl Guides for both age groups, and school spirit days leading into the end of the school term. The build up to summer break. Oh my it will be a lot. Trough in more than 14 hours of flights, and a brief cross country trek with my kids, and no wife or dog, and you have a recipe for some fun!
I both look forward to it, and fear for my safety. Ha. I’m not that worried. I took these kids to Florida for five days by myself, fed them, washed them, and saw that they slept a reasonable amount. We can do this! Traveling with kids is so much easier with two involved parents though. Especially when it comes to bathroom usage in public spaces. I worry.
Just the other day I cancelled an order for 195 minis that I tried to buy on Kickstarter in 2020. A different company bought out the IP license, moulds etc, and were set to deliver on it in early 2026, but it was going to cost more money to go ahead and buy the figures I had already bought, plus pay to ship them here via the US, and who knows what the tariff situation will be like then. I have mourned those minis a few times over the last five years. Not only that but the new owners altered the count, by replacing some unique figures with others from the same moulds. I’d rather not have them at this point. 75$ USD from 2020 isn’t too crazy a loss to take. Not if it’s going to cost me 3x that just to have them in hand next February. I’m sanguine about it because I know that the Dungeons and Lasers crowd sourcing I just backed is legit, and will provide me, and my kids with lots of cool things to both assemble, and paint. Now 2026 won’t be a total cluster of minis, but a reasonable quantity will show up. I’m good with that. We can paint for multiple afternoons, instead of months, and months. I’m good with that.
Have spent much of the morning drive all across Stouffville, and parts of north Markham running errands, meeting with my Gastroenterologist, grocery shopping, and walking the dog among other things. Food is out away ready to finish out the week good, and strong. Plus I have the appropriate forms in hand to complete some much needed blood work that I have been putting off because, of course I’ve been sick, and life gets in the way. Plus travel, the kids extracurriculars, busy work schedules from out of the blue, and let us not forget I allowed my requisition forms to go out of date. So my bad, ultimately. But I have rectified it now, and at the end of the month once I was able to land an appointment I booked myself in for some needles. Yeah! Poke, poke, poke, stab, jab, blood draw. The fun never stops around here.
Our quick trip to BC is rushing at us head on. We all need to stay healthy for that. Then right after that we will start to see the kids programming close out for the summer break. We will still have climbing, and Taekwondo right up until the very end of June though. So not entirely free of evening obligations. But once done my oldest will have obtained her Red Stripe belt. That’s pretty great. Very proud of her for sticking with it, and moving upwards. She has a tournament coming up the first weekend of June, so that’s exciting. I’m pumped.
Of course my youngest has her dance recital that very same day. So I might miss her performance taking my eldest to her tournament at the Pan Am arena in Markham. Hopefully we can make the 2:30 pm show. But the studio does videotape it, so I will get to see it at some point. Possibly just not live, and in person.
It is Wednesday, and this week has felt like a month in, and of itself. That Leafs game aged me a year all in one go. These play off games are so stressful. Ugh. Great hockey to watch, but I hate it — deeply. Almost ready for another go around. Thankfully tonight’s game starts a full hour earlier at seven o’clock, so I can be in bed before eleven if there is no overtime played. Yay!
A gift I was given many years into my time working for Moosehead Breweries Ltd, has finally given up the ghost. My famously stylish Clancy’s Brown Ale umbrella, the envy of all Easter Coasters around these parts. A true staple in our patio styling. The corner stone of our vibe. The foundational piece upon which all the rest was laid. Died. The top cover shattered and the fabric drawn down to its ankles. I might keep the teak wood bits, and toss the rest in pieces over the summer. I’ll pour one out in its name. A proper send off.
I have the boring one which came with the set somewhere in the shed. I’ll want to find that out some day soon. The weather is starting to turn for the warmer. A flat green replacement will suit just fine – for now. Besides a contest I don’t really know how I would go about getting a new branded patio umbrella. I’m not in a position to worry about it right this second, but I should give it some thought.
Welcome to Tuesday, eh? The Leafs won a real nail biter last night. The starting goalie is out with a concussion. Will kept us alive, just barely. We can not be swept! We have a win!
It’s a high school PD Day in York Region, and my wife has a half day doing her coaching/medic recertification later on this morning, so since she had completed all 145 modules as of late last night, while I watched Winnipeg close out game seven to move on to Round Two, we decided to go out for breakfast in town. It’s a rare deal when we get early morning alone time to eat a hot meal in peace. Especially now that her sabbatical is done for another four or five years.
Sixty dollars, or shy of thereof was what it cost us. Nothing special either. Seems like we could have ordered the whole family East Side Mario’s for that, and had two meals out of it — each. A dinner and the following day’s lunch. It tasted fine, I had a waffle, two bits of bacon, two sausages, and one fried egg, apple juice, and a glass of water. My wife had an omelette with home fries, orange juice, and a glass of water. No mimosas, no champagne, no mixed drinks, nothing extravagant. Sixty bucks seems steep to me. Maybe I’m just cheap. Twenty five bucks, oh yeah, I could do that once fortnightly, but not for sixty bucks.
Was nice to spend time alone with my wife without the kids eavesdropping, snooping, or butting in with comments, questions, or statements every twenty seconds. So that was pretty great. Happy Monday y’all.
I now find that it is far more pleasurable to “not be hungover”, than it is to be drunk. I’d rather sleep every night without the spins, vomiting, and pursuing head-ache & nausea. None of the things I’ve done drunk out weight the benefits of not having to suffer those after affects. I miss going dancing but I’ve never needed to be drunk to do it, it just only ever happened at a club where we were going for the express purpose of drinking. But I can cut a rug alcohol free at pretty much any point. In fact I do so rather frequently, at home, outdoors, at the cottage, walking at the farm. If the vibes be hitting, we be dancing!
Went to a bonfire last night to celebrate my friend’s birthday later on this week. I did take a ten milli tommy (actually a 12.5 mg) but whose counted eh? Which leaves me having fun, but not wrecked, and no wicked next day follow through. It’s great. I walked there and home, had a good time, talked a bunch, met some new people and was home on the couch before 10:45 pm. Fantastic!
Today the weather is better so I have already washed all of the exterior windows. Once we are done our late Easter family shin dig I’ll power wash the cars, the front porch, and the back deck. Plant some bulbs, and pick up errant dog poop from the back yard. A full day ahead of activity. If yesterday had of been nicer I could have gotten more of this done then. Oh well.
If I’d of known that a project I was keeping on the back burner was going to go out without any need to retouch it, I would have spent much of yesterday’s warm sunny afternoon cutting the grass, moving brush, and pulling up weeds. Now it’s 5°C and rainy, and I don’t much feel like being out of doors. Not my cup of tea. 16°C like yesterday, and partially sunny is a far better option. I obviously cannot leave the grass untouched until we get some more of that weather, so once the grass dries out I can cut it, provided it doesn’t rain — again.
I have both the Dahlia bulbs, and the Glads ready & waiting in the garage now, to be buried in the front garden. I started to pull some weeds, but I have an hour or two of that to do ahead of me still. I wanted the beds clean before I planted any of the nicer stuff, but I might have to do both at the same time. Planting, and weeding that is.
I could drag the brush to the farm I guess. I’m concerned the vehicle will get stuck in the mud with how wet it has been since last night. All well and good to clear the yard, but getting the van stuck at the farm doesn’t help me at all. I also found out the wood cleaner for the power washer, so that I can tackle the deck at some point soon. I had big plans around here, and I’m being stymied by the weather! D’oh!
In other news the garage is as wide open as it will ever be. Feels pretty good. Can’t wait to build something useful for the house. Or a desk for my oldest child. I have a good quantity of Cherry, so whatever I make it will be pretty nice! I hope. Might put the deck on hold though, as her room is pretty crammed with toys at the moment. Unless I stick a new desk right, smack dab in the centre of the room, there isn’t anywhere to put on just yet. All the toy bins, and toy stacks, and toy piles need to go. She’ll age out of that stuff in another 2 to 3 years, so no rush. She can remain my kid for a while longer. Hold off on moody pre- teen angst for as long as we can!
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