Author: greatwallstudios

First things first I got outside took the wreath off the front door. Then I took down all the floor mounted lights, inflatables, and anthropomorphic animals doing Christmas type things. Then I pulled up all of the extension cords from the ground. I unwrapped the two trees that had light strands on them. And I pulled the two oversized light up wreaths off of the garage. I dried off the inflatable, and put everything back up into the rafters of the garage. Once the inflatable was dry it went back into its box and stored away with all the others from Halloween. I won’t be taking the lights off of the house until April, unless I get an oddly warm day with no work, and no winds, rain, or heavy fog. The house lights are up for months most likely.

Inside the tree came down, along with all of the ornaments which required organizing by type, size, and colour. Then the tinsels, and then all of the interior light strands. I also packed away the hats, tree floor mat, Elf from the Shelf, and any other child made holiday item we break out for Christmas. Also all of the stockings and their fancy fire place hangers get put away too. It’s about 90 minutes of work, and the tree going hack into its storage container always leaves me with forearm cuts, scrapes, and scratches. Such fun!

But once more the house is brighter, and less cramped. We can now play Switch Sports without fear of decimating the tree, lights, and all those hand painted ceramic ornaments we’ve made over the years. Definitely a step in the right direction for day one of the new year. Cleaning house, reorganizing closets, and putting things away. One thing that helps is that I bought less “stuff” for Christmas so the kids don’t have a tonne of junk just lying around in the living room this year.

I saw an interesting short on IG the other day about how I have living room children, whom keep their toys out here, and play out here, where I was a bedroom child, and my things & playtime was spent in my room. I like their presence out here with us, but an occasional bedroom playtime wouldn’t go unappreciated either. At least as far as keeping the common areas tidy. I could do with less “stuff” out here, but I like having the kids nearby, so I’ll not make too much of a fuss. Ha. Right.

Laundry was done. Dishwasher has run a session. Floors have been swept now that the tree has been out away. Now I see that the blinds could do with a wipe down because they are caked with dust. Ugh. It never ends. Baseboards, walls, trim, cabinets, door handles, ceilings full of cobwebs, you name it. A near constant rotation of additional cleaning that always needs doing. Not to mention all the new dog hair accumulation. Never ending!

I’ll have to look and see how much writing I actually did last year. I’m guessing somewhere around 115,000 words. Perhaps more, perhaps less. I’m none too concerned.

Anyway, Happy New Year to you all. Ciao Bella!

Namely golf, and on occasion bowling if the pins don’t fall my way. I’m seeing a lot of splits that I just can’t seem to make no matter how hard I try. Boo-boo! The golf was infuriating, but still fun. Seems I put like I drive, with a little too much oomph! No matter, we can spend some time getting better at it over the course of the new coming year. We have one more game from Christmas that we haven’t even cracked the seal on yet. The kids didn’t seem too interested, but maybe once the music starts they will care more about it then.

I’m off work today and tomorrow due to the New Year holiday. I guess I could have worked today but my being busy requires my clients to also be in the office working on a holiday. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t I don’t really know. I’ll take the day to play with my kids and enjoy the no rain for this second.

I almost didn’t get out of bed this morning with my alarm to do the garbage, green bin, and recycling. Has to be at the curb for 7:00am, for that one in a million shot where they turn up exactly at that time for collection. Alarm went off, I muttered WTF, rolled over and went back to sleep. Bolted up after about 15 minutes and got my gear to the curb. Luckily they had not come through the neighbourhood yet. Phew! Crisis averted. Garbage week only happens every other week, so we’d be saddled with more than we could get rid of if I missed it. That is to say that even with the holiday, today is a day just like any other, with consequences. Dun-dun-dun.

Happy New Year! Start the clock anew tomorrow kids. Also we are the furthest from Christmas that you can get. In six months school is out, summer is here, and we’re all a little older & wiser. Ciao Bella!

Today we have given Tennis, Bowling, and volleyball a go. Thus far volleyball is the most difficult to master, with bumps, volleys, blocks, jumps, spikes, and service to master. Fun time though. The volleyball location looks like some place I’d actually like to go. Very cheerful and wholesome. Doesn’t do much for my overly competitive daughters though. The bowling is very similar to the Wii version, so I kicked butt at that. Ha-ha. Maybe we will start a family league!

Not much else going on around here besides building lego sets, washing new clothes, eating Christmas candies, and my wife putting her one thousand piece puzzle together on the dining room table. I have done laundry, and not much else, except walk the dog, take down three trees, put two 1,000 pound tires on a farm buggy, and swap over a set of forks for a bucket on the old case tractor down at the farm. It’s been a quiet and restful holiday break. I did have a bit of work to start on Friday afternoon, but otherwise I’ve had a riot of a time doing much of nothing.

This week will probably be slightly busier as I will need to work on Monday, Thursday & Friday. Plus the hockey game downtown on Sunday night. No real plans for New Year’s Eve but that’s par for the course with us. I know the town has fireworks, so that would be a fun time as long as it isn’t pouring rain the whole time.

I just paid off a very unpleasant Visa bill for the joint holiday / birthday that happened this month. Between the birthday party and Taekwondo there was an additional $1,100.00 on my card, plus all those birthday & Christmas presents, and my business expenses, and the renewal of Disney+ for almost $200.00 bucks, and my WordPress renewal. Yikes. When it rains it pours! Glad I had just gotten paid by a few clients. Now to tighten those belts once more, and make do with what we’ve got. Holiday spend thrift me needs to go back into hiding until next Christmas. Scrooged me needs to step back into the limelight and right this ship!

I need to sort out my Ladt HST payment to the CRA tomorrow, and get that scheduled. So I have a few things to do tomorrow along with paid/invoiced work. Yay!

It’s raining a whole lot for the foreseeable future so I best keep sm eye on the basement for flooding, and watch for ice on the driveway, and front walk. No good having somebody fall & hurt themselves. When I go grocery shopping next, I’ll have to grab salt, or ice melt, as well as laundry detergent and fabric softener. Going to be a pricey trip to the shops. Fun times. Third last day of the year, here we come!

Work returned on Friday mid day, so the restless, aimless holiday weeks have found some direction, if only for a few hours yesterday afternoon. A bit strange to just be floating around with the whole family present. Kind of nice too though. Well, at least while the kids aren’t fighting over anything anyway. They can only do “nothing” for so long before they get bored and attack one another. Not to say we haven’t done anything. Two family Christmas parties, Christmas Day, our last climbing session until the next level starts up again. Play date at the farm, followed by a play date elsewhere & a pizza party, plus we went to go see Sonic 3. So while it has been quiet, we haven’t done absolutely nothing. I think we have struck a nice balance. I for one feel as though it has been a restful winter break now that we are halfway through it.

And today it is raining. Grrr. Nasty rain. But on the bright side we had a pleasant ride out to go see Christmas lights in Uxbridge on Christmas eve, so that was a good wholesome time for the entire family. Those that came along anyway. We got there as it opened and it was a little lined up, but we were prepared for that. We had stopped for dinner at the drive through, so we each had drinks and a meal to occupy us while we waited for our turn to drive through the fancy lights.

I have even gone so far this break as to turn off my morning alarms so that I could attempt to wake up naturally feeling well rested. My bladder has other plans. So that didn’t work out as planned, but no matter. I have given it the old college try. Ha.

The year ends next week, and a fresh one begins. Mixed emotions about that. I have things to get done with service Ontario in the new year, so I need to figure that out soonish. We have travel plans that require a visit to the notary, so we have to get on that too. Busy – busy.

Happy saturday, the last of 2024.

Typically I talk about the books I’ve read this year in slightly more detail, even though for the most part I discuss them as I read them. But, since I cannot for the life of me recall which books I read this year, after reorganizing my shelves, and having given away four hundred or so titles. I cannot seem to locate them, and I don’t see the point in discussing a partial list. Maybe in a few weeks of thinking, and even more searching I might figure out what/where the gap is, and I can do so then. But for now, no further book talks.

I spent a great deal of time in spring of 2024 in Florida, all around the state. From the Keys, to Orlando, to Tampa Bay, and Clearwater. It was hot, and sunny, and a whole lot of fun. Unfortunately our kids kinda missed the boat on Disney parks. My eldest and I like mega/giga coasters, and the youngest isn’t exactly infatuated by walking silent mascots or characters. Plus it was above 93°F the whole time, and we nearly melted. We much preferred SeaWorld, and Busch Gardens to all three of the Disney parks we visited. I’m glad we went, but next time we will go to Universal Studios instead. Yeah buddy!

We took in our very first NHL game at the Tampa Bay Amalie Station Arena. I bought us some amazing seats four rows back from the ice, just off behind the net. Besides the fog horns, and the smoke machines it was really awesome. Weird to be walking around in ninety degree weather, then sit in an ice rink to watch hockey, then head back outside to overheat once more. Epic! And definitely memorable.

Clearwater beach was absolutely gorgeous too, if a tad crowded. We don’t stay down there so we have to sort out our parking situation on the fly. But renting a cabana with lounge chairs for $50.00 is clearly the right move. We’ve done it twice now, and I can’t complain. It’s great to get out of the direct sun, and not have to sit on the ground in the sand. The white powdery sand is really nice too. Gets hot, so hot. But takes great photos!

Work did pick up in the fourth quarter, so I’m not anywhere near as far behind as I once feared. Which is great! I have work lined up for the new year as well, which is pretty fabulous. This year is good, but to also know I’ve got several thousand dollars worth of work in the winter is a load off my mind. Keep the ball rolling as we head into winter, then head long into tax time. I don’t know what the future holds but I do know I have a couple items lined up, and that’s better than nothing by a wide margin.

This year my wife’s uncle Fred passed away leaving the bulk of the farming to my father in law, and my brother in law. Along with that came all of the jury rigged farm equipment that was well and truly fubared. Spring and fall were both a mess due to weather delays, and various component breakdowns. They got it all in though, and got it all out of the ground too. So there is that accomplishment. We’ve just had the scrap metal salvage people around the farm picking up bits and pieces. So it looks a lot cleaner, even if they could come back every day for a week or more and still not be finished taking every single item lodged in the tree lines, bushes, fields, and drive sheds. Still looks better than it did before, and that’s what counts.

I did not do anywhere near as much wood working or sculpting/painting this year. I replaced my airbrush and took some time to paint up various board game pieces. I also bought some cheap 3d printed D&D minis to paint up with the airbrush for practice. I started on priming my resin kit with it, but due to travel I didn’t get that far along. I can pick that up again in another few weeks if I have a lull. I played a little more guitar & bass this year since I bought all those inexpensive foot pedals to get me a better sound, and to boost my morale towards playing. I noodled on the piano fairly regularly though i did not learn any new songs.

We cleaned up the exterior of the property and removed several trees, and all of the loose brush. Winds storms have added some of that back to the old piles, but that’s a fact of life when you have mature trees in your yard.

We had to trade in the old van for a new one, so that was a pretty big deal for us. But boy is it ever nice to drive something a bit more trustworthy. Nice and roomy on the inside too. Less crowding for when we head north to the cottage next.

This summer two of my brothers came to town with their families and we visited idly Whitby, the Playdium, mini putt, and Wonderland. The day trip to Canada’s Wonderland was brutally hot, but lots of fun. We rode the mega coasters and screamed until we were hoarse. Got on a bunch of rides, and also some got soaked on the White Water Rapids. It was very pleasant, and I hope to do it again with the whole family. Which reminds me, we will soon need to purchase our seasons passes again.

Lots more went on around here, but I have to retain some semblance of mystery! Hope you all had a good year, with another equal or better one on the way. Ciao Bella.

Both kids have been asking for a Nintendo Switch for quite some time so I found one on sale on Amazon that had a game, a one year subscription, tv dock, joy controllers, and a grip controller attachment. Then I spent a relatively long time setting up my two kids accounts, plus one for myself, and then three hours to download the game from the estore. It was a tense exchange while my kids waited for it to become available to play on. Then once it was they were too afraid to try it, so I blasted out a grand prize first place finish on a 50cc race as Yoshi, and then they were cool with it. I did tell them that we weren’t going to buy any games for it until AFTER we see what their aunt & uncle had bought for them in relation to the Switch (if anything at all). I know my youngest wants Smash Bros for $80, but I don’t know what game(s) the older one wants to get/play. She finds too much choice hard to parse and freezes up. Does it all the time. Whether it’s in the candy aisle, toy store, movie choices, you name it. More than two or three options and it’s game over. Might as well pack up, head home, and embrace the ensuing tantrum over a failure to choose anything at all. But I digress.

I have been impressed with Mario Kart 8, I really like it. The gravity defying element is pretty awesome. I like that the music, and general feel are still so similar to the N64 version. And very close to the SNES version at that! Very nostalgic. I need to figure out how to skid into corners again as my lap times weren’t as sharp as they should be. No matter. All this means is that we have an entirely new category of games to look at now too. So much for working without distractions! Ha.

I also somehow managed to get Fortnight up and running on the Xbox for my youngest, as she had been asking about that for a really long time now. I blocked a great many options because she is so little. I have to approve things as they come up, and I limited, to the point of choking out, the chat options. No chat, no third party website visits. I can tighten down controls even more if I feel I need to do so later on.

The next thing they’ll be wanting is a VR headset, so we’ll have to brace ourselves for that. Though with the presence of the brand new switch that might be delayed for a while as they game on the newest console in our home. One would hope.

Christmas was otherwise very pleasant. My oldest woke up with a fever, so we stayed home and did our own thing for the entire day. It was really nice. I made a hot breakfast of beans, bacon, toast, while my wife made the pancakes. It was really nice. I finished off the day with a Rye & Coke while watching the new Nate Bargatze special on Netflix. Hell, we even saw two NFL games on tv yesterday, so that was awesome. My wife got dug in on her new 1,000 piece puzzle. So I know she was having fun. I cleaned up wrapping paper, and the recycling so I was pretty happy about that.

The new puppy hot more gifts than my wife & I combined, so he’s a spoiled little brat. Chewed the legs off of his new squeaky chicken almost immediately. He was a little perplexed by the wrapping paper, and cheers of joy from the kids, but he didn’t attack any gifts, or mangle any toys (yet). Still early days.

I hope that you and yours are all well taken care of. Ciao Bella!

Making a hot breakfast, and opening gifts from Santa Claus, plus our stockings while we wait for the grandparents to arrive to finish the rest of the gifts. I came from a free for all present opening family, while my wife came from a watch everybody open each gift one by one in turn. It’s a nightmare of boredom, and frustration. I personally hate it. Makes it feel more performative for the gift sender than the gift opener. No-no you can’t enjoy it unless I watch you, is a weird power struggle vibe. Not a fan. But onwards and upwards!

Had a fair old snowfall last night. I had even gotten out to shovel earlier yesterday to try and mitigate the amount I would have to deal with today. But with the temperature rising, and the amount of snow which fell, I felt it was a smart choice to enlist the help of both of my children. I did however manage to clear the front walk, and 80% of the driveway myself before I gave in and asked for help. Which they freely gave, so that is appreciated. If we have too much more I’m not going to have much room to put it anywhere!

If we could cap the snowfall at two or three inches per event then I would likely never need any help, but seeing as we got six to eight inches pretty consistently across the property I was going to require assistance. If it were still the soft powder from last night, no problems, just puff heavily and that stuff will go away. But the temperature rose significantly, and the bottom portion was a warm sticky mess. Adding several pounds to each shovel full. Makes pushing the snow around a real chore too. Not to mention you either have to move heavy shovel fulls, or twice as many half full shovel loads. Not cool.

I was sweating like a pig by the time I was done, and downed a pint of water immediately upon coming inside.  From what I can see of the forecast ahead we will get a little bit more snow, and then rain, rain, rain. The temperature will go up above zero, and the rain is to stick around for two, twonand a half days possibly. Yuck. I hate rain in winter. Ice dams flood things terribly when we have these conditions. I could do without.

I forgot to inspect their work before heading inside, so now I see a patch at the very bottom of the driveway that they gave up on, which I’ll need to sort out. But otherwise they were very helpful. It went much quicker with all three of us throwing snow, instead of it just being me. My back, shoulders, and arms all thank them profusely!

It is a pretty quiet Christmas Eve, so I don’t think we’ve got much going on today. Happy holidays.

Good news, the dogs play well together off leash. They ran for the full hour, and should now collapse in a heap and sleep for a good portion of the day. That’s my good deed done for the day. Ha! Happy monday.