Category: Uncategorized

And right after a very full P.A.Day full of outdoor type things in the pouring rain. So it feels like Sunday to me, but the weekend has not well & truly even begun. Four shows over two days, all in Vaughan, and with limited parking. Going to do more driving this week than I had done over the last month combined. But the kids are smiling, if a little nervous, and I’m looking forward to see what another year in dance has taught them.

The two have been training for this very weekend since September. They spent most evenings this week learning the last big choreographed dance number with the entire cast. That was about five hours Monday & Tuesday, and then a combined three hours on Thursday doing lighting cues at the venue in Vaughan.

They both try very hard, so I hope it all goes off without a hitch later on tonight. I don’t get to see them perform until tomorrow evening. Then it’ll be time to shower and go to bed ready for school in the morning.

Between field trips, pa days, track & field, and dance, plus the girl guide camps, events, and trips down town it was a very busy May, and early June. By Monday everything is done, except school, and gymnastics on Wednesdays. We have this massive build up and then ‐ PAH! the air goes out and it’s all over for the year. Peace & quiet. Well, that is until the groans of “I’m bored” start up just in time for summer break. Should be a blast. My wife is down to her last few official weeks of time off, and then summer hits, and she goes back to work the third week of August. Man how time flies.

It’s raining, cloudy and busy on this particular York Region pa day, so I’m going to keep this short & sweet. Have a great weekend, stay safe out there. Ciao Bella.

Started with the easiest thing first and checked the cabon air filter, dirty but not horrendous, so I vacuumed that out. Second I checked to see that the pulley on the compressor was spinning, seems like it, though the compressor is way down low on the side of the motor. Third I put the ac refrigerant refill pressure gauge on the low pressure ac port and the unit is up in the 110psi range with no added refrigerant yet. It’s warm outside but not that hot. The gauge tells me that with the vents on high, the AC on its coldest setting that the compressor isn’t kicking on, as the pressure stayed the same for ten minutes straight. Which means the fix is beyond me. So a thermostat or compressor issue, but I know nothing so my opinion is weak sauce at best.

So I did the next best thing. I added windshield washer fluid, checked the tire pressure, and cleaned up the air vents, and inlets by the hood. Besides changing light bulbs and tires I’m not all that mechanically inclined I’m afraid. That’s all I’ve got. The manual I bought was helpful, if a little vague. It was for a series of the same/similar cars and not just my exact one. So hopefully I didn’t make things worse while trying to help.

So that’s my Thursday morning thus far. Good but not great. Paid the accountant today for doing my tax return. Lots of bills but not a great deal of work to be had as of late.  Today is my wife’s 41st birthday, a big round of applause for her. We’ve been a couple for nearly 22 years, married for 14 by the end of this month. Couldn’t ask for anything better.

I think I’ll take her out to lunch at her favourite restaurant in Newmarket to mark the occasion. Perhaps a candle on the flautas will suffice. She embarrasses easily, and I don’t want to do that to her. I know what I want, a hefty baby body sized chimichanga with refried beans on the side for good luck. Mm-mm delicious.

Tomorrow is a PA Day, and we have other children coming to us for a day out & about, or in watching movies, weather depending. Should be a whole lot of fun.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella.

Tarps, lawns, trees and what have you. Need to get to it right away before the next few days of rain and thunderstorms make an appearance. We dropped off a table, and made a run to the farm to get the tomato plot all gussied up ready to accept the seed started plants. I don’t know if the plants are going in now before the storms or afterwards. Not up to me to decide, so I’m staying out of it. All 8 know is, I worked up a hell of a sweat shoveling, moving bricks, and laying out a sixty foot long tarp, so I hope it is all worth it come September.

My two tomato plants went in the ground a couple weekends ago, so I’m all set for the amount of sauces I want to make this year. I’ll have a slice on a burger, but I don’t eat them like an apple. I’m not that fond of them. I’d love to do more veggies here, but the bunnies and squirrels attack just about everything we grow, including pumpkins and gourds. Those grow out of last years discarded compost, so free, kinda sorta, if you don’t count watering, and any help I might offer over the course of a season. I think my strawberries will be pretty weak again this year. Cherries and raspberries are looking strong though, I’ll say that much. Birds will decimate the cherry tree, so get’em soon if you want any.

Pretty sure it is Wednesday, but it’s a weird week with lots going on. I’ll have to take my own word for it. Ciao Bella.

W00t-W00t it’s the big game day for our oldest! Shot put (ball throw) and 200m sprint are on the docket for today. A second day out of class, but this time it’s to compete on behalf of the school. She has her colours on, and is ready to rock n’ roll. I’ve made it abundantly clear that her 9nly goals are to try for an incremental decrease in her overall times, and to enjoy the day competing with friends. Should she do really well then the regionals are held elsewhere, and will require some planning ahead of time. But we’ll burn that bridge if it quacks like a duck. Otherwise our focus is on today, and being as supportive as we can be. I packed her plenty of drinks, and her lunch will be delivered from the school, so she’s all set. Hat, sun screen, plenty to drink, and food to eat.

I for one am excited for her. She’s tried really hard and is very consistent in her running. Perhaps with nerves, and adrenaline she can shave a second or two off her official time. That’s a win in my book. Improving incrementally is a worth while endeavour. It also gives us a baseline to beat next year. Should she decide to keep on top of running track.

Which reminds me, we need to get back 8nto the habit of practicing Taekwondo so it isn’t such a shock when we pick it back up in September. Lots of core work, push ups, stretching and kicks of all shapes and sizes. The pads should work for the fall too, I hope. I don’t want the additional $400.00 charge for the next size up.

It is shaping up to be a hot and sunny day today. The girls have to run all their hearts and finals in the afternoon sun, so that’s going to suck. On track day they went in the morning before the full heat of the day. Not so today. Hopefully the bruise she have herself on the knee from playing grounders this weekend doesn’t interfere too much. Doesn’t seem to have slowed her up any yet.

I need to get into the bathroom, as it could be a long, hot day in the stands for us. Take care. Ciao Bella!

My youngest child hates change, but things are going to be different. Trying to prepare her for the change in weather, and school ending for summer. Her having a birthday, growth spurts, new clothes, learning to actually ride a bike instead of clinging to her tricycle, gearing up for mum’s return to work in August after a year on sabbatical,  and school picking back up in September. As much as things remain the same, there will be change. Have to make her as resilient as possible to not melt down the second a routine changes, or things get altered from how she thinks it should be. It is hard. Not impossible. Easier to point things out ahead of time to prepare for it rather than drop stuff on her last minute. That’s just a recipe for disaster.

Anyway, welcome back to Domestic Duties Monday, it’s a thrill a minute around here. Grocery shopping, laundry, dishes, floors and working on paid projects too.

Spent the morning at the Zoo, enjoying the zoo mobile ride, greenhouse, and animal care facilities. Three spots I had previously never visited before. Had a fun time even in the drizzle.

Also the US  folks are still running my numbers up and I appreciate that a lot. It’s kinda fun to see. I do not expect anything from it, so it’s a fun surprise when I check in and see something besides a zero on the daily view counter. My usual 1 to 3 count is normally enough to keep me happy, so seeing nearly 50 one day gave me the flutters. Ha.

I’m going to sit down for lunch momentarily so I thought I’d check in before I did so. Was planting at the farm yesterday, and landscaping at the inlaws, do my back and hands are a tad sore.

I have work lined up for Monday which is fantastic, really glad to have that on the books. Invoices out means money coming in. Keep the ball rolling a little longer, and a wee bit further down the road. Happy to have it.

Hope your lazy Sunday is everything you hoped for, and more. Ciao Bella.

Weekly view count numbers are up, way up all thanks to the mysterious US enclave of folks looking at something(?) From the archives, but I don’t know what. Maybe I’ll get a few more pennies of ad revenue, always good for a laughter to see the 0.01 for a busy month. Ad blockers, they really do work! Not in my favour mind you, but eventually it’ll hit a threshold and I’ll get a notification for a single dollar. Or they’ll up the minimum and I’ll be chasing that passively for another decade. I’d love to know if it was for the short stories, but my miniature war gaming builds are pretty popular as far as my stuff is concerned.

I do in a year what others get in a slow morning, so not exactly a high traffic zone. I do get notifications when views exceed 43 in a day, as that was my previous high traffic milestone for a single day. Yeah – I know, I’m famous. Ha! It could be the resin kit stuff, the painting of my sculpted #supersculpey busts, or my VF-1 build up & air brushing article. Whatever it is, I don’t know which thing is drawing their attention. Perhaps one day I’ll find a widget on the back end that will tell me what drew all that attention in the first place.

I once had a mash up image of James Marsden and Vladimir Putin do numbers because it got picked up by a college humor listicle. That was pretty awesome. My mr Bean-Un mash up was popular for a while. And a few things I wrote about Harginger Down (a Matt Winston /ADI) practical effects kickstarter movie did well, and get views every so often.

Saturday is here, the weather is nice enough for now, and we’ve got some landscaping planned to do at the in-laws for the morning. Mostly shaping shrubs, bushes & ornamental trees with a side of  pulling thistles and other such prickly weeds. Watch out for those chemical burns. Not fun. Not fun at all.

I think I’m done here as far as tree pruning.  All of our decorative shrubs died off ages ago, so I don’t do much shaping with a hedge trimmer here. The back hedge gets touched up every so often. Top one year, outer face the other, back and forth year after year. Handy to have a corded unit that is so light weight. It gets tiring to wave that thing around over your head trying to straighten up a nine foot tall hedge. I will say this, after trimming the top 4-6 ft off, the ice storms didn’t make the hedge bend over or lean this winter, so as stark a difference as that trimming made, it worked as intended.

I checked the apple trees for any sign of fruit for this year and bubkis, so I did a very thorough pruning job yesterday. The cherries are out, and I just trimmed the really low lying stuff that chest height. I’m not opposed to leaning down to mow under a branch, but I don’t want to hunch or crawl under anything. So the limbs that make me have to do that got the axe yesterday. Satisfying to finally make the change.

Anyway, have a great Saturday. Ciao Bella!

Now I have today, Saturday and Sunday to hopefully rectify the issue, but I do have a plan moving forward to rectify things. It will involve me needing to go to all of my subscriptions and swap over my details in all of my various accounts, but I can handle that. I am more concerned about my paid work contacts still being able to find me, so that I can, you know… work.

I’ll have to wait and see what becomes of things because it is entirely out of my hands now. Luckily I have temporary access to grab my contacts list. Which is what I was concerned most about losing. Sucks if all my archived materials get taken away, but I can survive the glitch at bare minimum. Cool. Adapt, and keep moving forward, even if it slows to an incremental crawl.

So that was my late Thursday night & Friday, how has yours been? The school fundraising bbq was yesterday evening. It was lots of fun. The whole school did a line dance number together out near the parking lot. It was really nice to see my kids enjoying themselves, and showing off their new collective moves. I don’t know how much money was raised, but it was a pretty solid looking crowd of Stinger families. The PTA should be proud.

My hands and arms ache from all of the tree work I’ve done the last two days. Not that is has been transformative, or anything like that, but I cleaned up a fair ole chunk of the yard. I do need to sort out the street facing portion of my apple trees and cherry tree. I’m not a fan of getting stuck in the face by low lying tree branches. But, being fruit trees, and I want to be able to harvest them, I also don’t want pencil thin, 30ft tall trees like I may usually want from pines, for trees, or maples. I just want to cut the grass with as few obstacles as I have to have. That’s where I am coming from. And that is my goal.

Anyway, it’s early and I might go out with my loppers and shears and give it an honest go for a day three of hand busting physical labour. I’m a martyr, that’s what I am. A saint. A golden boy of heavenly delights. Ha – yeah right.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

I took down several sapling trees yesterday, and two very large portions of another shrub/bush/tree thing. I cut it down with a hand saw, and chopped it into bite sized chunks and took it all to the farm. Today I pruned the low lying branches off of our Lilacs, and tidied up the Cherry tree and Apple trees too. I should have a far easier time cutting the grass the next go around. Also I hope to curtail the presence of any skunks or raccoons by eliminating low lying cover. If we are to adopt a puppy in the coming weeks or months I don’t want skunks anywhere nearby if I can help it.

Plus after all that cutting and chopping my forearms and hands are a little numb from the work. The vibration from the reciprocating saw didn’t help my wrist or elbow any either. While it’s lovely to take a moment to be outdoors and work while I wait in approvals for paid work, I don’t need to injure abuse myself in the process. Gotta work smart, not hard.

So here we are on Thursday. Kids have their big school bbq, and my wife will be out at her school’s prom supervising the event, and being with work friends. I hope the weather remains nice so that we don’t get too hot, nor chilly if the sun sets on us while we’re all outdoors. The kids have a big dance number planned, so that could be fun.

Speaking of dance numbers, the recitals are next weekend, and I think my girls are in four of the six shows. Not always together, but same days, different times kind of a thing. It’ll be a long, and arduous weekend for all involved. The costumes are nicely done. I hope they last longer than the previous year. I don’t expect that the costumes will hold up over time. But, once it’s all said and done we can tackle the girls hair, and get them cut & styled for a change as he dive into summer. Hard to believe that June is almost here! Can’t wait!