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Tag: holidays

Are We Close Enough To That Holiday Limbo Period Where You’re Never Certain If People Are Still Working, Or Are Off On Vacation Time…

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But sometimes they answer emails or request work, but you’d swear you’ve had an OOO message explaining an absence for the end of the year. Do I need to finish this asap or… will you approve this now or… should I wait for a reply and any possible changes before I go round my pal’s for a drink or… do I give you until 9:00pm and then shut down for the day or… that type of thing. Get it?

Tuesday of the week before Christmas,  and other such Holidays are upon us as well. Seasons greetings, Happy Holidays, Happy/Merry (?) Kwanza, Happy Chanukah, and any such others that I’ve missed.

We have a very light dusting of powdery snow this morning, masking a brittle & crunchy layer of ice beneath thanks to all of yesterday’s rain. Is it treacherous out there? I dunno. All I did was uncover both vehicles, but parts of the driveway were slick, so I’d have to imagine so. Go a hair slower towards all those four way stops, and give yourself a breather heading towards lights at intersections. That sort of thinking should help you out on a day like today. Get some of that good old glare from the sun off the road and you have yourself a recipe for smashed glass and dented bumpers. But we all hope not.

Here’s a quick health tip reminder. Drink a glass of water. If you feel bound up inside, head-achey, or a bit dry of lip, go drink a glass now. It might rush right through you in the next 10-15 minutes, but a cool glass of water will be appreciated by your body. I regularly forget to do so, and I should take better care not to forget. One small step of personal kindness. Just don’t do it if you have to go drive somewhere, or wait in a place with no bathroom access. That will not be of any immediate help to you! Ha.

In alternate news I did a good amount of clearing up down in the basement. I finally tossed several years of old fair entries, kept all of the ribbons though. Kept some of the more special entries too. Stuff that really displayed effort and/or creativity. I also condensed down our books to open up some more space for the kids things, and to provide additional playable surfaces for them both. It doesn’t look like I got rid of much because of how much is still left, but I know I sent off 70lbs worth of books, novels, and hard covers. Tried to get some old manuals out the door too, but those five were rejected. I knew they would be, but worth a try. Can’t score if you don’t shoot! Ha. In all honesty though, as happy as I am with the progress, there are an awful lot of things that still need to be sorted out, organized and gotten disposed of. The old water softener which weighs a gods be damned tonne has to go. But I haven’t been able to empty out all of the congealed salt yet. Also my wheelie cart went to the in-laws never to return. So I need one of those, my ratchet straps and a final destination planned out before I fuss with it. We have a change table & crib combo that needs to go too. If our newly pregnant cousin on my wife’s side doesn’t want it, I’ll take it to the Care & Share donation drop off site. I just want it gone, but not to a landfill. I could just as easily break it down and burn it at the cottage, but it deserves to keep doing its thing unhindered.

I also need to designate an appropriate storage spot for all of our newly acquired wheeled luggage. I don’t want to bury it someplace it’s a pain to get to, but they are big & light weight. I guess the closets I emptied recently of baby clothes is as good a spot as any. I was hoping to retain that space for later, but those new bags need a clean, dry, and out of the way place to be stored so that the kids don’t try to climb inside them, and break the wheels or zippers etc… I tell you I dream of storage space. A magical extra door in the basement that leads to a cavernous, yet dry and luke warm room with rack upon rack of easily accessible storage. An Indiana Jones style warehouse to put all of our extra stuff. These are the desires I have. Not extra wives, or girlfriends on the side. No. I dream of adequate storage space, and an upgraded shop. But I digress. I could daydream about that sort of thing all day if I let myself. That and winning the lottery. Again – I digress. Shame, that. I’d be pretty good at spending money on all sorts of fun things. Probably why most lottery winners go bankrupt or end up back where they were inside of ten years. Eyes too big for their account balances. Plus getting fleeced by banks, bad money managers, shady business partners and the like. I’m drifting here, I can feel it! Dream a little dream of meeeeeeeee!

Less than a week to go now until Christmas. And then we’ll be looking down the barrel of a looming 2024! Crazy. Anyway, take care. Ciao Bella!

The Big Holiday Down Turn of 2023.

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News is out saying the theme for Christmas 2023 is… “Cutting Back“. Corporate Greedflation pumped up the price on everything so folks just decided to not treat yo-self. I get it. I mean I didn’t exactly cut back. I took greater stock of what I was buying and how much I spent, but I didn’t deny my kids anything. Also – did you look at a lot of toys they put out this year? Big, bulky plastic items with little to no articulation, over sized pricing to match the ridiculously over sized toys. I don’t blame people for not buying massive chonky toys that don’t do much by way of transformations, or gimmicks or anything really. Do I need a three to four foot tall Batman robot that stands rigidly? No. No I don’t. Even as a toy obsessed adult it doesn’t ring any bells in my head. Also, I am not going to spend more than $15 on any one action figure, so those Star Wars Black items, or DC legends figures on the rack that start at $35 are an instant flop in my book. Know your worth.

I could go on and moan about things I see in the store price wise, or playability wise and bore you all for an hour. But rest assured, the general state of the toy aisle is kind of stagnant. Action figures of all shapes and sizes were a sizable part of my youthful Christmas experience. Selection seems to have diminished as well, over the years. But that could just be the youthful glow of nostalgia and lack of self awareness as a child in a toy store clouding my judgement/memories. I see copious amounts of the same seven to ten toys, but not a huge selection across the entire store between IP’s, brands, or category of toy. It could potentially be that what is currently offered doesn’t register with me as I don’t follow things like Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, or Five Nights at Freddy’s, or things of that ilk. So perhaps I have blinders on when walking the toy aisles of various stores. That’s a definite bias to watch out for.

In other news I did manage to find time to wrap some gifts. So that has taken some of the stress off of my shoulders. I also have some of the girls laundry in the wash, and the dish washer has run and been emptied. All great news for me. I have some clothes left to wrap and then I’ll put the Crocs in gift bags as I don’t feel like wrapping shoes. I had a great time wrapping gifts last night. Loud music, a cold bevy, a nice big rigid work surface I can cut on without worry. Lots of paper to choose from, lots of scotch tape, and all the self stick tags you could ever need in a single year. I might wrap some of the wine bottles I bought for my inlaws. Otherwise I’m just about done. I have one last item due in from Amazon at some point today, and that will conclude my holiday shopping.

One big local tradition that we have avoided like the plague was the Elf on the Shelf. I can go to bed at night and rest easy knowing I don’t need to set up an interesting tableau for my kids to find. I could add some glib note towards surveillance and the panopticism, but I’m not that guy. I just didn’t want to be bothered to set up 24 different scenarios for my kids to find or wonder at. Just doesn’t sound like any fun.

Have a great Tuesday December 12th of 2023. I’m down to just a few days left before I reach two years on my writing every day writing streak. My how time flies. Ciao Bella!

Banging out the classics like a tone-deaf seal.

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Some acts should just stay in the studio with the sound boards, and the mixers, and the editors whom can chop up useable chunks of caterwauling and turn it into a top 40 hit. Enrique, Axel, that fat dude from Motley Crue, those folks should all sit down and give their heads a shake. I know that drug habits and alimony are expensive, but sweet cheese bud, pull yourselves together. The leopard seal squeals are making those over inflated ticket prices a real cross to bear. Hard to enjoy yourself when the lead act sounds worse than the average karaoke lounge act in Korea Town. And that’s with folks singing across a language barrier, not old fat dudes forgetting half of the songs they wrote that got them there in the first place. Dreadful. I can not for the life of me impress upon you how disrespectful it is to charge these obscene ticket prices for near has-been musical acts of yesteryear, and they sound like these shrieked, half forgotten mumbled parody accounts on TikTok and IG.

In other news we will be in December by Friday of this week, how wild is that. Oh, and we did put up our Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon as I thought we would. My little minions came home from their overnight Zoo trip with the Girl Guides around noon and the first words out of their mouths wasn’t “hello” , or ” I missed you”, it was “can we put up the tree now?”. Good thing I had brought up all the tree lights and decorations that morning, and brought the tree in from the shed to warm up before assembly. I still had my hands and forearms shredded by the faux tree, as happens every year, long sleeves or not. It extracts a drop or two of blood to feed the holiday spirits. Thirteen years without fail this tree has drawn a blood sacrifice. Every. Damn. Year!

We loaded this bitch up with almost every bulb & ball we own. It’s a very full tree this year. I also added 400 new light bulbs to the tree this go around. In addition to the four hundred from last year. I might even go so far as to buy even more to add next year too. I still see far too many dead spots on the tree. I’m sad that all the blood taken over the years hasn’t resulted in the pre-lit tree remaining functional. Nothing another 1,600 bulbs of white or multicoloured lights couldn’t fix. I want this thing to light up the street! A Griswold Family Christmas Tree!

My minions posing with the newly decorated faux tree.
As much as I like it, I still see dead spots. My oldest blue bulbs are still the most vibrant on the tree, to this day!

Here we are, Tuesday. Snow squall warnings and all that jazz. Glad I don’t have to commute on days like today. Take it easy out there. Ciao Bella!

Ah, the holiday classics.

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Started the season off early while in Florida watching Elf with the kids, with about 12 minutes of commercials every ten minutes or so. Then while I had the night to myself I sat down to watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Always good for a laugh. About three days late for US Thanksgiving, but close enough for me. And now, this morning while I have the laundry running, the dish washer emptied, have showered already, and brought up the Christmas tree decorations, and fetched in the faux tree from the shed to warm up, I’m ready to enjoy National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. If the kids stay out for a Zoo visit after the group sleep over, I might even watch Scrooged too! Hard to know at this point in time. I may put the movies on in the background while I do something else. Trying to get back into the holiday spirit. We had a bunch of it rub off during the long hours of holiday cheer promoted at all three of the parks we visited for 11 of the 14 days of our trip. Trying to recapture the joy! Helps that there isn’t sweltering heat, and we are back at home in the colder temperatures, and have family & friends around once more.

Which reminds me I need to wrap my daughters birthday presents some time soon. Then I will have to do an about face and leap into Christmas shopping. Luckily I have five people off my list already with gift cards, due to distance. My kids have three gifts each already purchased. I have a few more to go get and i can call it a day, comfortably, i feel. Which is a load off my mind. This year I’m going to do a better job of keeping track by filling out lists of what i buy for whom. So i don’t panic shop, and wind up over spending like in years previous, because i forget all of what i already have picked up for the kiddies.

Spent an hour or so yesterday and added a second wrapped maple tree trunk with colourful lights, and then reworked my extension cord situation so that I could put the gecko & Christmas mouse out beside the tree. I think the Santa train can stay packed up this year. I need to get bricks or rocks to keep it from falling over, so that might be a random side quest to achieve next spring/summer/fall before another Christmas. I should draw up plans for how I want the lighting set up executed. I’m always having to switch & swap out cords, so a numbered diagram would alleviate that issue if I put in the effort to prepare one. Add it to the list of “nice to haves”.

Now I might make it seem like we do a lot of exterior decorating for Christmas, and that isn’t really the case. More than some, less than others, is where we sit. One string of lights along the eaves, two 4 ft lit wreaths, two partially wrapped maple trees, a gecko and a mouse. And if I can stand to constantly fix it, a Santa Train that falls over constantly. I’d love to have blow ups, and rows of candy canes, and even more lights up on the house, boughs with lights on the railings, but I don’t know how you’d work all of that in, or power it all up. That kind of display is for the independently wealthy, which I am not.

Later on today when the kids get home, I’ll put on some music and we can assemble the tree and decorate it as a family. I’ll give my wife a chance to have a nap after her girl guide outing with the kids last night, and this morning. Hard to believe we are back to Lazy Sunday again, so soon. Ciao Bella!

Woken up by acid reflux burning a hole in your throat.

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Not the way I had planned to spend my friday night and/or very early saturday morning, but here we are. Nothing like getting up before 2:00am to wander the house in the dark looking for Tums, and a Gatorade to soothe my singed oesophagus. Other than that, and a pit stop to empty my bladder while I was up, the night went off without a hitch. The house is rather lovely when it’s quiet, and I can hear all the kids softly snoring away in their rooms. Makes me miss the dog, he’d have been up, tail wagging if he heard me walking through the house. A quick snuffle of my hand, an ear twiddle and then he would have scooted back off to bed. Miss that damn fool at the weirdest times.

The birthday party circuit has kicked into high gear, and we now have engagements most weekends from here on out. I could open a modest art supply store with all the gear I have purchased in the last month. The era of loud battery operated toys for birthday gifts has ended. Thankfully. A blessing really.

So what’s the plan today? Oh right, the aforementioned birthday parties. I’m off on a trek through Scarborough to find a glow in the dark Mini Putt place. Will have to think real hard about whether the youngest actually goes. Not a solid competitor just yet. Bit of a rotten cheater with a bad temper about losing to anyone for any reason. May have to leave the kid with Mum for the afternoon. We will see.

Got a start on some Christmas shopping, but I notice the prices have all jumped considerably this year. Good old corporate greed under the guise of ‘inflation’. Tree might look a little sparse this year, but I assure you I did not cheap out. I spent slightly more than last year (due to other kid’s birthday present obligations) but I certainly did not walk away with the same quantity of goods. No matter. I have some major projects on the way (at some point before Dec 31st) so I could potentially buy more if I have missed the one thing either kid was really hoping for. I followed the catalogue images they circled, and the tv commercials they moon over. So I think I’m good. But when more paid work comes in, I could comfortably do one more item each for the kids. I haven’t even gone looking for what my wife wants. Or the in-laws, or any body else even slightly tangentially related to me whom may be expecting a gift this year. Not to worry. There is still time to figure everything out. We are in November, so time is a wasting. If you plan to order on-line your window to get it by the holidays is gradually shrinking. **May the odds be forever in all our favour.

Lots of running around today…

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Doing odd jobs and picking up things for the house. For instance, I always cheap out and get plastic snow shovels which usually break on me part way into the season. So today I laid out some cash for a proper metal one. We needed more matches for candles and such, so picked those up from the store. I bought eye hooks for hanging toy hammocks in the kids rooms to get all those stuffies off the bed/floor. I bought more baby wipes, as they come in handy for more than cleaning dirty baby bums. I grabbed a proper light up wreath for the front door, which the kids will flip their shit for. And for myself I grabbed an extra 300 lights for our Christmas tree, because the white and blue motif we’ve used for going on 13 years is a bit cold and drab. These kids are vibrant, and deserve a little colour. Let me tell you, if our house wasn’t so cluttered with kids stuff, I’d have light up garlands every where, and I’d hang streamers, and put up a whole lot more festive stuff. But that’s too much while all of the kids things are still everywhere. I imagine that once they get into double digit ages, we can pass much of the toy clutter on to younger families, and we’ll still have enough clothes to dress a football team four times over. Once the kid stuff begins to recede I will reclaim the dining room table, and build a nice candle centric display in a glass bowl with left over holiday ornaments and such. A fancy table runner. Oh… it will be very nice in here! Ho ho ho…

So I added the new decorations in to our current line-up, and then powered up the trusty old stud finder to assemble the toy hammocks, and then I will need to fill out the flu shot forms for the three of us going after school today for even more jabs. Such fun! Better than a raggedy ass hospital visit at this point.

I was also paying my bills, as a few invoices have come in, and I can get flush with the mechanic, and the medical stuff I bought for my youngest. A new humidifier and a large Hepa filter set me back nearly $400.00 bucks, but the kid is on the mend (fingers crossed) for more than just a week or two before the next illness comes around. There were some Kickstarter items I backed, and promptly forgot about, so that was a couple more bucks to make up for. I had bought a lot of airbrush paint, thinners, washes, and cleaners last month, so the Amazon bill came home to roost. Plus our Great Wolf Lodge trip had some bills attached to it with Falls Parking, dinner on the town, the Sky wheel ride, and a stop at the arcade & on site store at GWL. It all adds up. Plus gas for both vehicles, and groceries, & oil changes. Bad month. Not a good look. But I don’t have to buy that stuff again, so investments in the house are a good thing. Investments in general health & well being is great too. We don’t vacation much at all (Covid times or otherwise). So I splurged, and now I had to come to terms with that. Bought and now paid for. Next!

It also seems like a lot, on the old Visa bill, because I stopped using my debit card, and now I track ALL purchases on the one card, and pay it off every single month. More secure too. That new tap feature can make you pretty reckless though, holy shit. Tap, tap, tap. I suppose they designed it that way to get you to be more free with the wave of a hand.

It’s funny, I was going to do a couple of movie reviews today for Top Gun Maverick, and Jurassic World Dominion. But I’ll save that for another say. I just had something else to say today. Mainly because I was excited about the new lights for the tree and a proper wreath for the door! I’m positively giddy. That’s all she wrote today though. Ciao Bella!

Breaking long held rules…

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Broke down after years of holding the line, and let the kids put up our Christmas tree before Remeberance Day. I figure with the looming CUPE strike, and then the possible teacher strike this holiday season could go sideways pretty quickly, so why not let them have it just this once. It took us a while to do it, and we listened to Michael Buble croon some holiday songs in the back ground, and a few of us have settled in to watch “Elf” with the tree lit up. I generally feel pretty strongly that we should give the Vets their due by waiting to observe Nov 11th prior to starting in on the holiday season. But we’ve had such unseasonably warm weather these last few weeks, so I put up the lights in warm sunshine, instead of freezing rain & high winds. And given that the kids are off school 2 days minimum (Friday & Monday) with the CUPE strike action, the thought of them being home 24/7 whining and asking me constantly to put up the tree was going to get on my nerves, so I nipped that in the bud, and we have it up for two months, instead of six weeks. Ha. The big red Christmas bow is on the front door, and there are a few other items still left to go, but that can wait. The tree was the big ticket item. And with the time change the kids were up ‘early’ jumping in place to get started.

Funnily enough we went to a big indoor park yesterday, full of trampolines, foam fits, dodgeball court and climbing equipment. And within 30bseconds of getting out into the park my eldest hurt her foot by landing half on a trampoline, and half on a line green padded surface. The very first thing the safety video tells you precisely not to do. So today she is limping a bit. No bruise, no swelling, no numb toes, but a limp and some tenderness. I could have called that happening to one or both of my kids. I just knew it. Glad it doesn’t seem to be permanent damage. Could have been much, much worse. Glad it wasn’t a neck, head or spinal injury. Not with how hospitals are as of late. The birthday party we attended was otherwise a good deal of fun. Both kids tried the leap of faith onto an air bag, and tried the trapeze over a foam pit. So I think they had fun regardless of the initial foot injury.

So a lovely four day weekend, unexpected, but nice nonetheless. I have one more bout with the leaves left to go, and then we can think about putting up the second half of the Christmas lights, ornaments and displays on the lawn, trees. Who knows how long any of this will last. So best to take advantage of the dryness and warmth to get those pesky chores out of the way before the weather eventually turns, and we get that icy rain and snow. Ciao Bella!

Those liminal days of limbo inbetween holidays.

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55 days until Christmas, but we still have Remembrance Day, A P.A Day, few birthdays to get through first. Halloween is officially done, and I’m not entirely ready to shift directly into Christmas, and the Holiday Season. I need a breather. I had hoped to dry off, and take down the Halloween inflatables, and possibly put up some exterior lights. But, much like always around here, plans have changed.

I have my youngest home bound again, thanks to her unyielding post nasal drip cough which she can’t seem to shake off. It was a rough nights sleep, and a wet phlegmy cough filled morning, so she is once again riding the couch/bed combo trying to recuperate. Had a chest x-ray last week, but no news there, as of yet. So no news is good news, but it means we’re stuck trying to use the humidifier in her room, an inclined plane of pillows, and a cool breeze go try and clear it all up. No puffers or steroids (which is for the best). Lots of parents talking about running a course to the end with multiple puffers just for the cough to return in less than a week. So we’re all trying something. The kicker is, we aren’t even into flu season yet, so it’ll only get worse. I’m glad we’ve stuck with masking, but we are few and far between with any others who bother to mask their children still too. There are some, but not many.

On the plus side it’s about 16°C today, which is unseasonably warm, and I’m ok with that right this second. If plans had of stayed the same, I’d be outdoors soaking up that warmth. But I’m inside keeping my kid occupied, and waiting on changes/edits to current projects. The big one I’m waiting on has to pass through some UK officials office for sign off on the data first, so there isn’t much I can do about that. Not my party, not my dance floor.

A warm grey Tuesday for November 1st, 2022. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Aiming for those last few days of 2021 writing streak…

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Which means pulling out all the stops to create something written every day until the new year begins in order to fulfill some weird kind of anxiety about not doing enough creative writing during the year. For all those days when I followed the white rabbit down the hole on YouTube regarding wood working or welding or sculpting or entertainment news about movie spoilers. For those lull days when I didn’t do jack shit. For those weeks in September and October where my singular focus was on home DIY projects and not being creative in any way, shape or form. For those days when I really wanted to watch a movie instead, or bury my face in a good book. Now it is a race against time to prepare some short, fun ‘content’ for my blog. On the plus side, by skipping writing in September I was also able to buy our Christmas presents and avoid busy stores, malls, parking lots and any possible supply issues. The big show starts tomorrow, with some champagne and orange juice at days first light. Stay sane, stay safe, and be merry (where possible).

I too am excited for Christmas…

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Whether or not Covid looms over it like a bloody great black storm cloud threatening to drown us all at the slightest whim. Regardless of hand washing, masking, social distancing and drastically limited contacts to anyone beyond our immediate family. Even with that horrific tangible threat just looming on the horizon, my childrens bottomless zeal for Christmas, Santa, family fun and presents is keeping us on the cheerful side of what could potentially be a drab and dreary worry filled occasion. God bless the blissful ignorance of children and their singular fixation on Christmas time! While the inexhaustible energy levels can be bothersome, some might say, the optimism is hard to beat at a time like this.