Category: Uncategorized

And another birthday in the bag. A rather quiet, but successful weekend. Could have done without the 40+ centimeters of wet & heavy snow, but otherwise time well spent. Glad to be here, and have another day at my disposal.

Had a conference call video meeting, did some paid work on Sunday to clear room in today’s schedule for grocery shopping, and paying the mechanic for my wife’s car. Doing the school drop off as per usual, and getting those must have Domestic Duties done, namely laundry. I went through my oldest child’s closet and found 52 pairs of pants! 52! Can you believe it? Not including those already out for wash. Good god man. After removing all the pairs one size too small we have 33 pairs left. Still, that’s alot. Don’t get me started on the sweaters! Oh my. I thinned out the t-shirts last week, so that’s no longer an issue. Thankfully.

Earlier today I saw a gentleman wearing a ball cap, a grown man mind you, with the tops of his ears tucked into the brim of the cap. Is this a thing? Is this new, or have I missed a new hat wearing trend. Good god some times I feel old and/or out of touch. It wasn’t a toque or a beanie mind, it was a ball cap, flat bill and everything. Not that it matters to me, but I hope that isn’t how we’re all supposed to be wearing our hats now. I look dopey enough in most ball caps, and that would just about sink the experience for me. You can wear it however it feels comfortable. I guess I’m less, “Look’it this feller” finger pointing and more “oh is this what we’re doing now?” Shoulder shrugged, hands raised kind of a thing.

So, back to monday, with March break next week. Five more school days until all hell breaks loose. I’m thinking warm mall walks, matinee movie, spring cleaning of the bedrooms, possibly a day on the slopes, and cottage maple syrup duties. I’ll still have work, because of course I will. Can’t send out invoices for payment if you aren’t also doing the required work.

Speaking of which, I have some illustrations to go and draw. Best be about it then. Ciao Bella!

I used to have this reoccurring nightmare about finding a parasitic tree growing just under the surface of the skin on my knee. Under an angry red bump, after I’d popped it like an excruciating zit, I’d find a tiny green stump, that looked like the stalk of a bamboo shoot. I’d grab tweezers and try to pull it out, and along with that tiny green tuberous thing would be this long fibrous fish net of red blood soaked tree roots, branching, and branching out, to match my blood vessels and arteries. I’d pull and tug, and eventually pass out. I’d awaken in a hospital where some masked up faceless surgeon would tell me they’d continued to pull on the parasitic growth until they had managed to extricate twenty or so meters of the root system from inside my veins. It never changed. I never saw what could have happened if I didn’t pull on it, and in my dream I always fainted from the pain. It never took root or sprouted from my knee. And I never had it growing from anywhere but my right knee. A strange, and horrible reoccurring dream to have as a child. It wasn’t worms or crawling bugs in that wound, but fibrous tree roots wending their way through my vascular system, silently. The only tell was the painful zit like lump where the merest stump of a stalk was. Ugh. Gives me the Willy’s thinking about it now. Not sure why that came to mind this morning, but here we are. A deep dark thought of my own. Just thought I’d share so you can be plagued by that same night terror off and on for years to come. Ciao Bella!

I definitely would have done so today when I cursed it out with a blue streak while shoveling several hundreds, if not multiple thousands of pounds of snow. I’m very glad my kids helped to shovel the front walk, so I wasn’t responsible for 100% of the property, but it was still a very high percentage that I cleared myself, over two or three attempts throughout the day. I hope I made it cry. That I ruined it’s self esteem, and made it feel like less of a thing. By this point in the winter, I fucking hate snow.

My back feels like shit, and I had to take a much needed nap today. I am exhausted nonetheless. I pray we get rid of 90% of it before we get any more this winter. UV must have been high today because we had significant snow melt today aswell.

Finding it hard to sleep tonight. I’ve been rolling around in this bed for two hours now trying to get back to sleep. To no avail. I’m not ready to get up and start my day, but sleep looks to be lost to me in these wee hours of the morn. I don’t feel like starting to shovel. I think playing a video game or watching a movie are out. Hmph! YouTube it is then. I’m almost to 450, and then on my way to 500 consecutive days of writing. Woowzers. I was starting to get an inkling the other day for a new short story idea. Out in space, obviously. That seems to be where my mind wanders to. Straight up isolationist fiction. Thanks Covid! Easy to write about sad isolated people when we’ve been living in bubbles for the last three years or more now. Will give me an excuse to crack the giant solar system & universe books I got for Christmas from the Smithsonian! They looked so glossy! Can’t wait to do some story research! Giddy-up.

Had a really busy week this week. Thought I had got ahead of the curve on it, but was only partially successful at that. Could have been much worse. Still in a good place though. Chin up! Chipper outlook makes things easier to take. Yes! Can do attitude. Like water off a ducks back.

Could be an equally busy week ahead too. March Break looms on the horizon as well. Seems our winter didn’t feel like starting until February around here, so perhaps we’ll have all this snow and cold until deep into March or even early April. Should make the ski hills happy if that’s the case. Maybe I’ll take my eldest out snowboarding one day over the break. I’d love to get back onto some downhill skiis. Though I am worried about doing permanent damage to a leg or my head. Giv’er! I’m sure I’ll have more to say once the sun comes up on this fine March the 4th of 2023. Saturday – I am in you.

Isn’t so much the cold, or the blisteringly icy winds, but the fact that it makes my legs itch to the point that I scratch them until I bleed. I’m not sure if I have drier skin than normal, or if I have some sort of condition. But cool/cold weather will make my legs go beet red, and itch so badly I could claw my skin off if I don’t warm up in a reasonable amount of time. I can usually avoid this with two layers of long johns, thick pants, and snow pants, but it didn’t work so well this morning. Mind you I skipped the long John’s in favour of the snowpants. But I’ll have to rethink that later today at school pick up. As I am still sans car, so far more walking to be done until we get the second vehicle back from the shop. Yippy!

I have a long list of items to edit for today. Let us hope we are getting closer, rather than farther from the mark with each successive round of edits. Fingers crossed. Still have the french language versions to do, but I’ll need proper translations for that. Lots of legalese to parse. So best left to the professionals to look after that portion of the project.

Today is Friday, incase you were unaware. Another week into 2023! March has started. And not to mention that March break is just around the corner. Nine days off with the kids underfoot. Yay! Board games, video games, and maple syrup duties. I wonder if any kids movies are out in theaters or newly released on disc. They are too little for much of what I watch on streaming services. Which means the majority of the films I own are unsuitable for kids of their age. Makes a home bound movie date just that much harder to do.

I did manage to sort through three closets this week. Which makes me happy. It was a lot of shuffling materials between them. But I sorted them out, cleaned up the shelves, and segregated the belongings contained within, so that now, I don’t have to worry about the kids getting into my old office attire, or finding expensive sweaters crumpled on the floor of a closet with dirty hand/foot prints on them. I also managed to thin out my eldest t-shirt drawer, full of I’ll fitting shirts, and stuff they won’t wear. You can actually open & close the drawer now! Bonus! Will need to tackle pants next. I think we’ve had a growth spurt as lots of pants don’t go below the ankle any more. Box it up and keep it for the next kid down the line! New stuff in, old stuff out! Gotta keep the line moving. Anyway, I have lots to do today. So I best get cracking. Ciao Bella!

Have been dealing with this few a couple years now, as both pockets started to go, and now the central zippers have given out too. The fabric is willing where the metallic teeth elements are but the slider itself is not. These were very well aconstructed garments back when I hot them. I have three, two bulky heavier material sweaters, and a lighter material one. I guess I’ve had some of them for a decade or more so they don’t really owe me anything, but I’m still unhappy about it. Perhaps I’m being petty, but I would like to think that gear this pricey would stand the test of time.

For the most part they still keep me warm, and give me a semi secure spot to put my phone. If I half zip it I can atleast stop the phone from falling out, which is a plus. That’s my gripe for today. Time to eat, and get on with work. Gotta raise the funds to pay for this new grinding, vibration, noise from the front end of my wife’s vehicle. Round and round we go. Brakes, wheel bearings, rotors, calipers, tie rods… the list of fixable consumables is endless. Blargh!

It has been a busy one today, let me tell you. What a Hump-Day it has turned out to be. Had to red line it from 8:30am until a little while ago when I actually broke to eat my breakfast/lunch. I think I’ve managed to get ahead of the bulk of my work with one coordinated mad dash at it. Had to spot fill some gaps on a couple projects for another client inbetween all these new items. But I feel I am in good stead, as I wait on high resolution final assets from external partners. Or maybe not, who can tell this early on. Good place to be if all is well. I feel slightly less uncomfortable now. Bit of a panic when 13/14 new items come in at once that are all slightly related in one form or another. Well two camps of artwork, but roughly joined. If you know what I mean. Even had some new Photoshop compositing work added into the mix today. Good to stretch those muscles every now & again.

No major clear outs today. I got through some closets yesterday, and that seems to have satiated my desire to purge/clean/reorganize matters. I’d love to do much, much more. But I can only move around so many things without input from the rest of the family. Clothing swaps, donations, garbage runs. It has to be coordinated. My kids seem to cling to old clothes and stuff that they never wear, just to artificially inflate their closets. Pass off the too small/don’t like – don’t wear items, and make room for the next size up gear we have stored away. Keep the chain moving. Takes effort, both physical and mental to stay on top of it. Plus I’d love to reclaim the space from all this unused, or unwanted gear. House just feels better when every single closet and corner is not packed to the rafters with unused clothing of every shape, colour, cut & design.

Part of me loves the minimalist ideal, and part of me wants cozy eclectic collections of things. Hard balance to strike around these parts. School pick up in an hour. Back to work then! Ciao Bella!

Is just me after shoveling even more snow. On the plus side it’s only about minus one outside, so I didn’t freeze my ass off, though with the increased temperature the snow felt heavier, and was compacting under the shovel. So a toss up as to whether that is a win or a loss. I’m grossly sweaty now either way. Going to need to jump back through the shower. Although with more snow coming all day today I will have to go out for at least a round two, and later on possibly a third time. So I’ll hold off on rinsing off for right this second.

It’s times like this that I kick myself – again – for not having a snowblower, or having outdoor speakers to play music while I shovel. Music makes just about all things better. Especially tedious or repetitious jobs. I love to clean and work to my personal music collection. Not all music is good working music. I worked at this one distribution centre that played elevator muzak over the phone lines, and atleast eight times a day Copacabana played on repeat. I also had a severe case of micromanaging immediate supervisor. I was the one and only member of her team, and she sat at my elbow and pointed on my screen for eight hours a day. I was forever washing finger print smudges off my PC screen. Yes, the art department – consisting of us two people, operated on PC. Had to relearn all my quick keys and everything. Veering off topic here. Fat older and sweaty from shoveling snow. There all caught up for Tuesday February 28th, 2023. Best start gathering up your tax info, as the season of misery is set to begin.

I’m going to sit and enjoy some breakfast before I clock in for work today. I’m hot and irritable right this second. Not a good combo for precision work on food quality labels. I need to chill out for a few, and get some waffles in me. Mmm waffles. Chock full of fat man inducing calories, but by god are they delicious! Quick to get up to temperature aswell. Oh goody! And on that note of pure gluttony, I will bid you adieu. Ciao Bella!

Starting to feel a little claustrophobic with all of the winters accumulated junk hanging around as of late. Did a deep dive clean up of my office, which resulted in me hanging two framed posters I’ve had for at least a decade, possibly only eight years or so. Opening some packages of pens and pencils, and throwing away twenty one year old paints that had gone rock solid. It was my very pricey high viscosity, high pigment white and black paints. No way to revitalize them at this point. The cheapo plastic containers they came in had poorly fitting lids, and my aluminum foil cap/insert didn’t hold up over all that time. Oh well. No point holding on to twenty one year old spoilt paint. More room on the shelf for my Murphy’s Oil, and Windex bottles. Get those off of my work surface. I also need to take some wood working supplies out to the shop, but as I don’t want it to warp, I have to keep it inside for now. I just want it gone! Damnit, but not ruined. That shit was expensive. I also took the time to build a second alligator clip tree to house my new 4.5″ high clips. Get them out of their wrappers and onto the desk in a useable fashion. I added my sanding sticks into the mix too. Still waiting on my decal setter solution, and panel line ink. Not to mention the Tamiya paste I ordered to clean up seam lines. Lots going on in there this weekend. If I had my way, I would buy a metallic peg board for my office to hang over my model building station, but I need to move some larger purchased sculptures before I could do that. I would also like to build a utensils holding station to get more of my work surface back. Fling all that gear up on a wall, or cubby system, and reclaim the desk for working. Right now I only have 1/3 of the desk for working on, the rest is covered in tools, and consumables. I really, really need to attack all of the drawers and closets in this house. We have so much extra stuff that should be donated, or put into rotation to get used up. I’m terrible myself for saving things until later, or for a suitable occasion, only for the thing to have gone off by the time you feel you should actually use it. I hate that. Money wasted. What a rip-off! Argh!

Not for nothing but we had a homework blitz this weekend to get my eldest ready for their next book talk. Book read, report worked out orally, then dictation typed up fixing any chronological errors, and then six or seven run throughs to practice all the words and get comfortable with the material. I think the kid’s going to be ok. Then after gymnastics we need to practice for tomorrow’s Yellow Belt testing. Fingers crossed! We’ve been doing a fair amount of prep for it, so I think we are in a good place.

No matter. We are back to Domestic Duties Monday. Laundry is underway. I will vacuum at some point today. I have some new projects that came in on Friday evening, and this morning to attend to, so I best be off soon.