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Got it with the internet/cable box switch over and having a blast watching Shoresy, and soon after I’ll watch all of LetterKenny too. I think Crave carries movies too. Having a good time hearing all that rapid fire chirping on the ice. It’s a worth while time.

Around this time every year a touch of hope for a Toronto Sports Team gets into your heart and you begin to feel just a smidge of excitement for their chances – and… it’s gone. Nope. Out early into over time on game seven of the first round series. It was fun while it lasted. Hell my eldest daughter and I saw our very first live NHL game this year. Sadly, probably not a repeatable occurrence unless we go to Ottawa, or catch them playing in Florida again. No way can I afford to go see them at home. Not in the same caliber of seats anyway. I’ll look into the pricing for the nose bleeds up in the 300’s. I think it’ll be close to or more for the 300 seats than I paid for both fourth row from the ice behind the net at Amalie Arena.

I will need a radio or something as I really did miss have an announcer in my ear to feed me information during all of that frenetic action. I mistook a couple of calls when I had to guess at what was going on.

I’ll look at prices for Ottawa tickets too. Lots of hotels near by, just off the high way. Can make a whole day out of it. Could be a fun lasting memory. Not the eight hours of driving to get there and back, but eating before the game, watching the game, staying up later than normal, and then staying over in a hotel before a mobile breakfast, and the trek back home again.

Or, I’ll take my kids to a Jays game for 1/3 of the price, and be there in an hour, and home in 45 minutes. Ha. Atleast we have lots of choices being just above Toronto. We could try TFC too. I used to love going to soccer games with my wife prior to us having children. Stadium has changed a fair bit since I last sat inside it.

I believe today is Sunday, so I’m going to have a lazy day. I fixed our fence, fixed the lid on the garbage box, erected a newly purchased  storage unit my wife bought, and I cut down some oddly shaped lumber into useable pieces. I did a fair bit more cleaning & sorting in the garage shop too. I have more proper lumber on hand, so I’m getting rid of the too small scraps I keep because I usually don’t have any real lumber on hand. Now I realize I have White Oak, Red Oak, Ash, Walnut, Cherry and Pine boards. I don’t need to keep scraps “just in case”, as I will likely create more from the newly acquired real hard wood boards.

Now that traveling is done, and tax season is over, I can look seriously towards finding a reasonably priced used 1.75Hp bandsaw. Or failing that, buying one new with a warranty and mobile base accessories. I also decided I want to put mobility wheels on my heavy work bench so I can move that around too, to act as an outfeed table in my small confined space. Or I’ll wind up playing Gears of War 4 whenever I have any spare time and the garage will sit quietly until I get back in there once again. Who is to say how things will shake out.

Last night’s comedy show in Orillia, at Casino-Rama was a real hit. All three acts were better than the last. The video portions prior to the show were very entertaining. The drive there and back sort of suck, due to the distance, rain and subtle fog that rolled in late yesterday evening. But made it home safe & sound. The show started about 30 minutes late to end at 11:00pm instead of  closer to ten. The seats near the back were still pretty good. No obstructions, and the audio was clear. I was worried that I would miss have subtitles present, but it turned out to not be a problem.

The youngest woke up and chose violence today, so she and I are at home practicing reading instead of doing the Girl Guides park clean up. As tired as I am after getting to bed late, I was not altogether unhappy about doing a park clean up today before the rain comes. Kids. Funny little creatures.

Trying to keep the day as low key as possible so that I can stay awake after a long drive, dinner, drinks and a night out to see a show tonight. Off to Casino Rama to catch the Tom Segura show. We’re meeting a couple friends in Orillia and grabbing dinner prior to the show. I can’t imagine the show being more than 75 minutes in length, as I don’t know if he has an opening act or not. My goal is to either grab a nap at some point today, or just not do a whole lot physically so that I’m not yawning and exhausted the whole time.

Not to mention we have Ssturday morning Girl Guide plans – again. But not down town, thankfully. We’re on the roster for a park clean up at 9:00am near by, so I don’t have to get out of bed until 8:00am or so. Our biggest issue to solve is whether or not the kids sleeps at my inlaws, or if we fetch them and bring them home at the end of our night, sometime around midnight. I guess it depends on the traffic and the drive itself.

This is our second Friday night out in a row in a very long time. This show, the tickets I mean, are a Christmas present of mine, so no way were we not going to go. It just happened that last week was the ball game we went to. Which was also a lot of fun. The group we went with were pretty rowdy, and unwieldy, but I enjoyed myself and didn’t feel too much second hand embarrassment. My wife hates cringey moments, and was less impressed. I ignored it, and left it alone. Not my monkey, not my circus.

As lovely as it is to be social, I’m also always tired and much more of a homebody than I care to admit. Out of home adventures every once in a while are enough to keep me happy. It just usually goes without fail that once we plan one, other things pop up right around that time too. Do it feels like feast or famine. Ha. Isn’t that always the way.

The mornings are still a little too crisp for my liking, but before long I’ll be out weeding garden beds, and hunched over the lawn trying to limit the spread of dandelions. I’m hoping that last springs nitrogen burns will mostly be gone this year as I didn’t add any more this year. I clogged the spreader and did the rest by hand and the pellets were clumpy and I burned a fair number of patches of earth near our trees. Not the worst thing I’ve done, but I should have tried to break down the clumps further before tossing it on the grass. Live and learn.

I want to wait another couple of days before I put our Glad bulbs and Dahlias in the ground. These late in the spring icy mornings are going to stunt their growth or kill them if we aren’t lucky.

I have a bunch of thistles and thorny weeds to pull along the side of the house too. Lots of low lying branches I should trim off the trees so that I can cut our grass easier, and stop skunks from trying to set up shop beside the deck/ac unit. Lots to do in preparation for late spring, summer and fall.

It’s here, it’s here, the start of another new month, yay! A nicer, warmer, sunnier month at that too. May, where you dress for winter in the morning and wind up sweltering in the heat by the afternoon. Inbetween you might see hail, rain and a wind storm too. Hard to plan around. Layers! Layers are your friend and pants which convert to shorts. Robust yet functional outer wear that transforms should be a more widely accepted fashion choice this time of year. Lucky for me I dug out all my cargo shorts back in November for all of my Florida trips over the last six months, so I am ready to start cutting grass, and weeding garden beds, and being outdoors for meals and friends. Great time of year.

We recently switched over to unlimited internet, with superior speeds and my wife went out to buy the kids a new gaming system, and I’m just locked on to it, like you wouldn’t believe. I came by it honestly, because in my mind I laid this stuff to rest ten years ago, and was happy about it – eventually. But she brought this system into the house, and I’ve been tasked with setting up the kids games, profiles, and settings. The controllers feel right at home in my hands. In each case I had to sit through & navigate the tutorial portion so that they can just plug and play. But it’s awakened a sleeping giant. I ordered a few games over the weekend, and I have them setting up now. To be honest I am most excited for Gears of War 4, it still has Marcus Fenix in it, and the other characters I know. Booyah! Back in the thick of it.

I’ll have to control myself, as I only worked for myself occasionally when I was a big Xbox 360 guy, now I have this next gen stuff here at my finger tips, and I’m home full time. Working of course, and doing my Dad Domestic Duties. But the schedule, she ain’t always full to the brim. Not only that but I got a second cable box for downstairs so if I can’t handle HGTV for another hour, I can scoot down to the basement and watch the Jays, Leafs or TFC if I can find them. I have all these new distractions to focus on. Next step is setting up the extra parts of our security system. That should prove to be a taxing endeavour. No one else will do it if I don’t.

I have a few wood working projects on my mind that I’d like to start soon. But now I’ll have to contend with a gaming time vampire type situation. Scheduling will become even more important.

Alot of things don’t open until 10:00am or later. What’s up with that. I want to get my errands done and be home to work by then. Bicycle shop doesn’t open until almost noon. Can’t buy the kids tires locally then, have to go to Walmart because it’s open by 8:30am when I’m out & about trying to get a productive jump on my day.

We’re back to Monday. Paid my income taxes today. Such fun. Trying to get the CRA site to allow me to pay my HST. But those aren’t due until June, so I have time to figure it out. I usually wait for the slip from the government and pay at the bank, but I think I can do it without the line up. Way better that route.

I’ve done my grocery shop, and I’m sat waiting for the next stop on my errand run to officially open its doors. I’m not the only one if the cars around me are any indication. Next stop after this is home to do laundry – again. Bah! Never ends. Round and round we go, full baskets, suitcases and knapsacks full of dirty clothes. If I could have a maid and a chef I would do so gladly. Wash our clothes and make us food! Now that’s gotta be luxurious living.

A busy friday ahead of us. Though the week should be quieter due to the Taekwondo pause. Soon dance and Guides will end for the season. Then gymnastics will come to a close. The weather will get nicer. And we’ll be outdoors more often once more. Things are looking up.

Weekends are a struggle. Do nothing and it feels as though you have wasted the weekend. Do too much and you’re exhausted running into Monday morning and a full week. Trying to find the delicate balance of doing just enough to not feel it was a waste, and keep everyone happy and engaged, but not so much that I have to drag my own ass about town when all I want to do is go hack to bed for a 2 hour map.

So in review 7 hours of party bus, baseball and rowdy friends on a Friday night, followed too closely on the heels by a nine hour ROM day trip using Go Trains and the TTC subway wasn’t an ideal set up for us. Not to mention it was with a girl guide troop of nine to eleven year olds with WAY too much energy. It was a lot for me, and I know it was a lot for my wife, whom is one of the troop leaders.

Today I’d like to nap, lie down, read or fall asleep while watching a movie. A true Lazy Sunday worth putting on the books. I think I’m on book five or six for this year. A third book of the Dune Series. I have all ready finished Messiah, and Children of Dune. Working on God Emperor right now. Plus whatever else I’ve read before. Not going to be a really high number of books this year, but a respectable dent in my collection. I have a Don Winslow book to read next, and soon a new entry from James S A Corey to contend with. I loved their Expanse universe, and read all nine books plus the collection of shorts which they produced to fill in some gaps and back story.

Truth be told I have some brand new (to me) Xbox games coming to the house. Which reminds me, I need to install the cable box for the tv this week. And get the other packaged materials up & out of the box. I need to cut the grass, plant several bulbs, and pay my tax bill at the bank. I have 3D renders to finish for tomorrow at 9:00am. Work means invoices getting paid. Yahoo!

Got in late last night after an evening baseball game with 11 friends plus my spouse, on an out of control party bus, in a very social part of the ball park. Then a very early morning with my eldest daughters girl guide group to catch a train, then subway to wander the ROM for four or five hours. We missed our planned 3:10pm train home, and are now hoping to catch the 4:10pm instead. I’m tired, cranky, and my feet hurt from all this concrete. I want to go back to bed now please.