Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

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!

Took some time yesterday to start going over all of our current layers of junk, waste and excess. I started by tossing out straight up garbage, nobody can be upset by the removal of wrappers, shredded papers, and empty plastic containers. Then I took to the art supplies and recapped a bunch of markers, and put them all back into their respective boxes. I then dug out a handful of broken Mc Donald’s toys, and Wendy’s loot bags and put those in the trash for safe keeping. If I had my way, and a small dumpster I would air out this house, and drastically reduce our amount of stuff. Or at least take items out of their boxes, see them used, and the dregs thrown away. Instead we keep all the packaging and the items until whatever is inside has gone bad, gone off, dried up, or become totally unusable. It’s a real shame. I get not wanting to waste it, but also not using it before it goes bad is a terrible waste as well. Oh what could have been.

I have a three foot stack of homework, and art projects to sort into recycling, or a child specific keep pile. That’s a whole morning in and of itself. We either need more storage, or a lot less stuff in the communal living spaces. I think the “art station” might be at the tail end of its life span as both kids are too big to sit down there any more. Need to keep the art supplies but the two child seats, and the small table could probably go away. These kids grow up so fast!

They both still actively use the doll house(s) plural, so I’m not looking to remove those for a few years yet. I did move a whole slew of Lego creations down to the basement where they belong. That has sufficiently tidied up the living room enough to scratch my itch – for now.

I think if the kids would clean their rooms more thoroughly they could move the new interests into those spaces, and not have them occupy the family room floor. Our house is not large enough to have a separate, equally sized Living room where I could escape the messes created, so I have to be a little firmer about the tidiness of our communal spaces than the kids would like, I expect. Oh well.

I certainly don’t want to erase their presence in the house, or make them feel like their things aren’t important to us. I just constantly need to battle for space in our very small open concept home. Not tripping, or stepping on toys is a big win for me, them having toys at their disposal is important to them. If they would pick it all up, or push it against the wall when taking a break, I would be happy with that compromise, and they don’t have to entirely disassemble every creation each time they play. You clean up a little after yourselves, and I won’t tear it all down and put it back in the toy boxes out of my way. A good compromise!

Problem is our basement isn’t big enough to take all of this stuff and keep it out of view. So much of it has to stay visible up stairs on the main floor. Which means I want it tidy-(ish). If I were heartless I’d toss much of it into a giant garbage bag and run it to the dump, never to be seen again. But that would devastate everybody, and I’d just wind up feeling terrible about it. We have done a lot by way of taking things to the cottage for the young niece & nephew to enjoy them. That’s brought me a fair bit of peace of mind. Not in a landfill, not in my house, still getting used by the littles. Win-win all around.

I could go through my own closet again. Especially the t-shirt section, as I have more than I generally wear. I did give a friend about 12 pair of jeans, and several sweaters. I donated work shirts that I am too fat for. So I’m not exactly running fat in the wardrobe department. It’s not lean by any measure either. I too have a vast collection of sweaters that I wear. I could be more ruthless about my clothes and donate more of them I suppose. I’ll look into it once we get closer to shorts wearing weather.

Oh god, don’t get me started on the shoes & boots situation. I do have a pair of rubber Wellington boots to throw away, unrepairable holes in soles. I think we could do with paring down the number of coats we all have, as well as footwear. If it doesn’t fit, pass it along!

Sometimes I wonder if I should try to take the kids to hear live music being played. I think that exposure to Jazz, classical, or any other genre of music outside of my personal wheelhouse would be good for them. My tastes are fairly eclectic but I don’t really go in for a number of genres. I’d hate to deprive them of experiencing that stuff just because it isn’t my cup of tea. I do think live music, played by musicians is preferable. I like techno and EDM but I’m more concerned with getting the kids excited about learning an instrument. Feeling something about a style, or a desire to pick something up and learn it. Drums, bass, flute, saxophone, trumpet, violin, piano, guitar, cymbals, bongos I don’t much care. I derive a lot of joy from playing music by myself or as part of a group. Choir was always a lot of fun. Band, and the orchestra took up a tonne of my time and it made me feel connected with people. It’s a worthwhile endeavour even if you aren’t any good at it. Playing is the goal, not being good at it right from the get go. Beats staring passively at a screen watching others do stuff.

Music has always been a big part of my life. I could do the most mundane tasks with the right access to music to keep my blood pumping. I clean with it on. I shower with it blaring in the room. I paint with it. I drive with it. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do without music present.

Thursday is here. Another Leafs game tonight. Can they deal the deal? Or will they go to an ultimately unsuccessful game seven. I think whomsoever faces off against Florida is going to eat shit anyway, so… Let us see if the Leafs can handle their business, and bring some of the regular season back into the mix. Firing on all cylinders! Unity. A sense of urgency. A hearty grit, and a will to win. Come on Blue!

Lots planned for the weekend ahead. Mostly outdoor chores, and a whole lot of property maintenance. I am happy to announce that I did manage to get the air conditioner fan unstuck, lubricated, and spinning under its own power. I greased that puppy down, and unstuck it myself. After a few days of allowing the penetrating oil to work I switched the power on for another try, and it spun up to speed with no further issues. I should check the furnace filter soon, and stuff the vacuum hose down the air vents to try to clear them of settled dog hair, and dust. Add that to the list. I have a bunch of stuff to purge, and papers to recycle. Fun, fun, fun.

That was a disappointing showing last night if ever I have seen one. What’s going on here? A strong season followed by a big fat belly flop. It’s not over, but they have managed to take some of the wind out of my sails, I will tell you that much. I had my Austin Matthews t-shirt on, and my Leafs jersey going real crisp, and SPLAT!, A FOUL TURD appeared on my television screen for nearly three hours straight. Shut out by Ottawa! Madness.

But here we are on this cold, partially cloudy Wednesday. It was below zero and breezy this morning. Didn’t make for a very fun school drop off, not out morning walk. Luckily we did not have the tornadoes they were warning of, at least not directly over head, anyway. We had some torrential downpours, and a bit of win, but nothing too crazy. A couple of twigs fell out of the trees, but no major limbs, or trunk splits etc etc… the grass will need to be cut this weekend, that’s for certain. No escaping the green carpet growth now that “It’s gonna be May!”. Sorry, I had to get that out. It’s low hanging fruit, but satisfying nonetheless. Ha.

Had notice of a few more large reports coming my way in May, and for July, both of which will be welcome. There is a random fifth one floating about, but I don’t have the slightest idea of what is going on with it, so I can’t schedule it, or count on it as part of my earnings estimate. Could be time to do the 2025 version before the 2024 one gets sorted out at this rate. I don’t deal with that side of things, as a sub contracted party, I just make it happen when I get it.

Lots to do around here this weekend. I can as aforementioned cut the grass, and I can power wash the back deck, I can do the second layer of hedge trimming & patio clean up of all the previous trimmings. I can gather up all the twigs and take them to the farm. I can pick up all the winter hidden dog poops. It will be a busy Saturday and Sunday. Woah! Don’t tempt me with a good time. I can wash the exterior windows. I can once again attempt to power wash the faux bloody hand prints off of the brick work by the front porch. I can wash the garage door and driveway. I can wash both cars. Swap over the winter tires for their summer counter parts. You name it, the world is my oyster. Provided it is at least 10°C that is. Can’t have the exterior pipes burst if I turn the water on and it’s too damn cold.

Boy oh boy that Leafs game was disappointing though, wasn’t it? Ugh.