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Some folks just don’t dance.

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You can have a wide open dance floor, loud music, drinks, food, and lots of good vibes and some folks just don’t dance along with you. Have to admit, it’s been a few years since I last had a good dance party session. I know I’ve danced at weddings over the last decade, but besides cutting a rug in my kitchen along with the kids, I haven’t danced in full view of the public in a very long time. I’m also fifty pounds heavier, and my knees and hips are older than ever before. I’m not a smooth on the dance floor as I once was. Tired, heavy and falling off the beat! Ha. Still had a good time though. The music wasn’t entirely my jam, but I can make do.

I would have to imagine there are a number of hangovers avoided today by those using edibles instead of alcohol. Buzzed with no morning after roughness, what more could you ask for? No dry mouth, or raw throat from smoking. Bladder less stressed because I’m not pounding five or six beers. Less time spent searching for, and using the washroom. I’m still a touch dehydrated, but that’s from dancing in a sweater as a fat-(ish) forty odd year old man, in a small room with ten other people. Drank some Gatorade on the short walk home, and I feel right as rain.

Big plus is that the majority of my friends were there, and we all live stumbling distance from the house we were partying in. Babysitters were in short supply for the evening, I’ll bet, due to how many shin-digs were going on. We’ve had this party on the calendar since early December. It was a shame my spouse couldn’t join me in the end, but for a shining moment I thought we’d actually go to a party together for a change. But her cough, and our lack of babysitters meant she opted to stay home. Her take home prize from the doctors office earlier in the week made her desire to go out wane considerably. Damn you doctors office bug!

On the positive side no hangover means I was up and at’em by 8:00am, and my wife can have a lie in, and chill without the kids being mental, or all up in her space. I don’t need 12-16 hours to get over a hangover. It’s a really great way to party. I endorse it as long as you can walk/taxi where you need to be. Don’t drive under the influence, not worth it. Also no throwing up, no pounding head ache, no gut rot, no need to go pee every half hour, no spins when trying to sleep, no night sweats, no dry mouth, it’s all pretty up & up compared to drinking. I’m a ten milli Tommy. That makes me feel good, but not out of control, or destined for the moon. Feet firmly planted on terrain firma, with my head in the clouds, but not in a totally blacked out menace to society kind of way. It’s nice, don’t have to worry about saying/doing anything stupid. Doesn’t make me aggressive, or melancholy, or feisty. Just a nice warm internal hug that makes me feel alright. The CBD also helps to alleviate those general aches and pains in my knee, hip, wrists, and lower back. That pain relief fuzzy coating makes the THC buzz just that much more like a warm hug. Glorious.

Anyway – Lazy Sunday is here! Shall we watch movies as a family. Play a board game? Or sit listening to the kids lose their minds playing Mine Craft. I’d like to watch more Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy if I had it my way. But that’s a long slog even for me, and I’m a fan of both series. I don’t watch the SW prequels, and I’m not as enamoured with episodes 7, 8, and 9. Rogue One however, I could watch twice in a row on most days. Far superior to all three prequels, and most of the last trilogy as well. It went off the rails as soon as The Force Awakens tried to rehash A New Hope. Lost cause. Andor was a slow burn, but added more than any of the last movies have done to the world building, and using non-Skywalker era characters. It was far more interesting. But I digress.

Can’t take the kids skiing or tobogganing due to the rain. Might need to find something constructive for them to do before they drive me crazy with Mine Craft tantrums. Where are the head phones! Not dry enough to scooter, or ride our bikes. Too rainy for ball hockey in the driveway. Maybe I should take them somewhere like a mall for an hour long walk about. I wouldn’t mind going to a Chapters/Indigo book store to find more reading material. I do have four books that I found out the other day from my TBR list, so maybe I’ll cool it on the book purchases right now. You know what I’d really like, another book like the New Horizons one, about the Pluto mission. I tried reading about the Mars Rover, but that comes across like a textbook slash technical manual. The Pluto mission was more cinematic and humanized. It was a terrific banger of a read. Makes me think of Apollo 13, and their scramble to fix issues off the cuff.

Have a great rainy Sunday January 28th, 2024. Ciao Bella!

PA Day Antics.

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Hello glorious Friday morning, how are you! For what it’s worth the sun is currently shining, I can see some light grey blue sky out my window and the kids are home off school because of the York Region pa day schedule. I believe there is another one, plus the Family Day holiday in February to plan around too.

Not to mention there are only a few weeks left until Valentine’s Day. Not a huge deal, atleast not around my immediate neck of the woods. We do something nice/simple for the kids, but we don’t make much of a fuss about it between my spouse and I. Haven’t done so since the mini mites entered the picture. We haven’t celebrated some of our more minor milestones from November yet. For a few years running, actually. Finding a trust worthy baby sitter has proven challenging, and we don’t go out all that much to warrant an exhaustive search. My eldest can do her babysitting course in another year or two, and then we’re all set to go out on the town to enjoy ourselves until 10:00pm. Living large! I’m excited. For a few years from now, we’ll really be able to live it up together, as a couple! Instead of trading off to go and do stuff separately.

The temperature is still really low, low, low, low. Not going to be much fun to go outside. I know we’d spoken of doing an outdoor skate this weekend, but I fear that will require hours of labour to clear the rink before we begin. And by then I’ll be too tired/frozen to want to skate for an hour or more.  The things we do for the ones we love. Not looking forward to having to manhandle the old snowblower around on the ice pad at the in-laws. Heavy and traction less. Stinks to high heaven, and never wants to start. I always end up pulling skin off my fingers pulling the recoil fifty times in a row. Not to mention the sore shoulder that will give me. Or I’ll get to scrape down the ice pad with a metal blade and then shovel the fine crystals off so the ice is nice and smooth. The only thing I don’t do, because I think my brother in law enjoys it, is flood the rink or run his homemade zamboni contraption. Can’t say I blame it. Setting the boards, stakes, and liner was a real chore. Cleaning the ice sucks, but maintaining the cleared ice pad is a piece of cake in comparison.

Which reminds me, I need to find all the skates and helmets for the outing. Pray that last years oversized skates still fit, and that the edges are still keen enough to skate on reasonably well. The girls have done two sessions of Ringette so they know how to skate, the basics anyway. Can move forward and backwards, but we’re not doing olympic trials or speed runs or anything like that. Good enough to just have fun is all that matters at this point.

Working from home during a pa day certainly is an experience in futility with small kids at home. Some times I think my oldest is mature, and other times – yeah, not so much. To think the original plan, pre Christmas was to be back in Florida right now. Several things didn’t line up, so we had to pass on it, but otherwise we could have avoided much of this sudden deep freeze, and be riding roller coasters right now, or sitting on a beach. It wouldn’t be all that hot, but a mid sixties to low seventies is better than the minus twenty give with the windchill we currently have. I can do shorts and a sweater in a theme park. I sure as hell can’t do that here, right now, deep into January. Brrr. No thank you.

I very nearly pulled the trigger on a new bandsaw yesterday. I held off though. I got to looking at saw mills again, and my eye started to wander. Then I was looking into chainsaws and Alaskan mill set ups, and got to thinking – again. So I halted all activity because I’m obviously not 100% certain of what I really want to do with my limited funds. I think I still need a bandsaw regardless of if I get into milling. I need to be able to resaw boards, more than I need to be able to slab logs. No, scratch that. Processing my own logs into slabs is great! But, I still need a bandsaw to break down slabs for use on anything other than live edge projects which are not trendy anymore. Had a real hay-day the last four to six years, but moving away from that sort of thing now. More straight edge, asymmetrical designs. Think minimalism with a flare for angles and joinery. But I digress. I only watch a few Japanese, and American furniture builders right now. It’s what I’m seeing, but that’s a tiny sliver of what’s going on out in the wider world.

Anyway. Have a nice Friday, and a great weekend. Stay warm!

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!

Just having fun browsing.

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Favourite past time of mine is to just go look on Kijiji or FB Marketplace, or some auction sights and browse endless ads for wood piles, tool boxes, bandsaws, air compressors, milling machines and so much more. Day dreaming about how I would fill out my dream wood/work shop if I ever managed to fall ass backwards into obscene wealth. It also helps me to organize my current shop too. Nothing like catching a monster break on a piece of equipment or tool by grabbing it second hand. I do love me some retail therapy, but some shit is just as good used, rather than paying the full MSRP. Need to work smarter now that Greedflation is so high on everything else.

Sliding cabinet saws, awesome, but way too big for my shop space. Still fun to look up & read about. Imagining how easy it would be to finally breakdown a full sheet of plywood without having to bust out a circular saw, straight edge, and my garage floor instead. Looking at the various motor sizes for said cabinet saw. If you go that big you want atleast 5HP, maybe even 7HP, and a 12″ blade on top of all that too. 1HP, 1.5HP, 1.75HP, OR 2HP bandsaws of all shapes, makes and models is another good one to look for. If I had an extra $1,500.00 laying about with no urgent household needs attached to it, I’d be out there in a heart beat, so that I could resaw all this barn dried Ash that I have. I’d love to turn these ten/quarter boards into three quarter or half inch boards to make them more useable. But the reality of our home and appliances says “Not so fast MF!”. Going to need a new fridge in the next few months. The AC will likely need to be replaced in a year or two. Vehicles are aging faster than we are. So the money will go into the household and not my hobby shop. C’est la vie.

Going to need to earn some serious cheddar to get the household straightened out before I can lay out good quality cash for new or improved wood/work shop tools & equipment. Oh well. Such is life. No point rushing to buy something inferior that I’ll need to also upgrade from down the line. Make do until I can meet or exceed my needs in a few months or a year (or 2 or 3).

Most of the fun is in the hunt for good deals and quality items anyway. Spending the money is the worst part! Compare and contrasting items side by side. Agonizing over technical spec’s. Doing a search to see which brand has the easier spare parts to find, order, deliver and the associated price point. Live the fantasy for just a little longer while looking.

I know when I went looking to upgrade my table saw I was able to find six or seven of the same model and the prices varied quite widely. Some folks overestimate the worth of a mid to low tier tool, and others are looking to move it out of their way as they have already upgraded and need the space back. These are the people/deals I’m looking for. They want to recoup some of the cost, but have already purchased something else and aren’t trying to make money on the deal, just soften the financial blow they took, and pocket some cash and reclaiming space. My people! That’s the ticket. “Looking to upgrade” nope, this dude is raising funds, going to be over priced. “Upgraded and need this thing gone“ Yeah Buddy – My Man! Looking for a little cash in hand, more excited about the space waster leaving than the sale price.

Also – side note. Expect everything to be heavier and harder to get to than you think it will be. 200 pounds? Probably closer to three. Take a dolly, wheelie cart, or whatever with you. Pray for no stairs, or too narrow walkways. Ugh. Save your back whenever possible. Bring a friend, or two.

Happy Friday before the holiday long weekend. Have a great Thanksgiving folks. Ciao Bella.

The Open Category is Notoriously Difficult to Place in.

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Usually my painted ceramic sculptures get disqualified because they don’t 100% fit inside the category. This year that wasn’t even a choice to make in the guide book. So I split the difference and purposefully entered the open category for Technique not Previously Named. And I got a fourth place! I placed, which is very nice for a change. There were some very painstakingly gorgeous pieces in the category (No Needlework), so I’m just happy to get recognized and not DQ’d.

Ogre Rogue bust gets 4th place!
Got my name on the card too!
The whole category, lots of great & inspiring pieces here!

On the other hand neither of my Nuts N’ Bolts, nor my Rice Crispy Squares got anywhere near the podium for food stuffs. My Roses, Hostas, and Dahlias did pretty well this year. My wife entered all of those from our front garden. My BIL’s veggies did really well too. No surprise there, he enters 75-80% of all of the vegetable categories, so he is bound to win, or place in a good number of those. Even the kids got on the board with their crafts and photography entries. Nothing to get upset about. Fewer first place finishes, but still on the podium, or worthy of a 4th, 5th, and 6th place ribbon. No small feat given how large some of the more popular categories can be.

Spent more than five hours there in total yesterday. My hips and feet ached all last night, and my back was terribly uncomfortable for the last hour and a bit of the evening. We managed a ferris wheel ride, monster truck show, dirt bike air show, and the opening night fireworks display. My only gripe was that the Smazhed Burger folks didn’t come back this year. I searched the grounds for them last night, but to no avail. Had left over pizza when I got home instead. Now that’s not the fault of the fair, so don’t take my complaint that way. More disappointing that i couldn’t get a second bite at the burger i really, really enjoyed last year. Oh well. I did partake of a chocolate sauce filled churro, which was tasty. But not the Smashed Burger I was well and truly craving. Also at some point I will get some cinnamon dusted Tiny Tom’s donuts. Always a culinary favourite of mine. Tastes like the fair to me!

Oh!, are we doing this again? Ok… um… let me think. Hmmm…

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We started off Domestic Duties Monday with a blitz! Had to rush into Markham for an oil change and get gas for this evenings extra curriculars with the kids. Lots of running around to do each evening from now until April or so. Then I hope we can cut back on something, for May & June. Though as the weather clears it isn’t so bad doing all this evening running about, playing chauffeur, papa coach, cheer leader, and equipment manager. So today includes, dishes, laundry (gotta keep all of these uniforms clean, and organized), vehicle maintenance, recycling gathering & sorting, and getting my day job projects off for approvals. This DDM is going to be chock a block with things to do. So much to do, so little time!

I’m super happy I don’t have to add commuting into the mix here, or a micro managing boss. The PA Day on Friday was a bit strange, as we couldn’t do much outside as there was little to no snow, but I hope that will change for the February 3rd PA Day now that we have snow on the ground, with an expectation of more to come. Hell, I even had to shovel the driveway, and paths to make way for all that should be coming later this week. Hopefully not 18 inches in one dumping, but eight to ten inches over three days wouldn’t be awful. The kids love making snowmen in the yard, or throwing tiny snowballs at the house as we mockingly shake our fists at them through the windows in faux outrage. Get some mileage out of their snow suits, and the yard too! Goes untouched for days or weeks if it’s cold but has no snow in it.

Took the kids for a walk at the mall to stretch our legs, look at stuff, then pick up lunch to bring home for all of us. We kept it together for about 90 minutes. And you know what? I’ll take it. No fights, no squabbling, no tantrums, and we all wore our masks, and got a warm comfortable stroll under our belts out in public. And, what’s better, about 80% of the people we saw, outside of the food court were masked up, so I was pretty happy about that. Lots of decorations up for the lunar new year, and we loved to see it all. Lots of red and gold accents. And lots of rabbit imagery which my kids enjoyed. A great lazy Sunday mooch about. I hope to one day be able to spend the whole day walking Square One in Mississauga, have lunch, watch a movie, wander around just looking at stuff. Perhaps shop for an item or two. Spend some quality time with my kids on our own, as my wife “HATES” to walk around a mall aimlessly or to go shop in person. I like it. I loved it as a kid, and I love it now. Beyond food, and maybe buying a new book it wasn’t to spend money, but get out, to walk in comfortable temperatures, watch people, and see what’s new in fashion and other things I don’t really keep tabs on anymore. Plus if we can work both a lunch, and a movie screening into the deal that will give my wife six to eight hours of alone time to nap, or work, or read uninterrupted for a change. I think the kids are still too young for an outing of that length, but over time we can build up to it. That would make me happy. Maybe in the late spring I’ll try for a day at Wonderland with the kids, see if an amusement park can bump up their daytime outing hours? Possibly. Depends on work, but I think I can swing it!

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.