Just An Ottawa Dad

Involved in Scouting? Come camping!!

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:54:00 +0000

If you are involved in scouting (Think Scouts Canada), then here is a great event coming up.

Camping, like you'll find in a provincial park, only it comes with a full day and evenings of program activities for the family, 20 minutes from Ottawa.

I'll be there. We had a great time last year, and this year is sure to be great.

I know the deadline says May 31st, but it was just extended to June 7th to allow even more people to take part.

Big Boy Bed

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Fri, 20 May 2011 23:36:00 +0000

Well, the Turtle was up at 5:15, and the Toad was up at 5:30 this morning.

Made for an early morning for us.

And now? Now the Turtle is in his 'Big Boy Bed'. It's a Cars toddler bed we found on Used Ottawa.

And the best part? He's excited about it.

Let's just see how long he stays in it.

I want to see... Tintin

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Wed, 18 May 2011 11:50:00 +0000

I've been a fan of the Tintin books since I was little. Before graphic novels really gained in popularity in North America. I'd read them in English or French. I wasn't picky. They are even one of the items (along with my lego) that I saved for my kids.

And now there is a movie worthy enough for me to go see in the theatres. In 3D even.

May 17: Jobs and 'I'

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Wed, 18 May 2011 03:13:00 +0000

I have a sitdown scheduled at work tomorrow, and it's been keeping me up.

My job duties at work have changed, and I'm not completely comfortable with what they have become. Or what they seem to have become.

I was honest with my boss about my feelings. Tomorrow I sit down with the president of the company to share my thoughts.

I'm going to stress the 'I' when I talk to him.

'I feel...'
'I was under the impression...'
'I understood that...'

I'm going to talk about how I feel, and how the changes made affect me.

Because I'm the important one here. And its really 'I' that matters.

Access to a pool

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:19:00 +0000

I just heard the story about this fellow (link) on the CBC Ottawa Morning show.

My first words to my wife were: "If i had a pool, I'd offer it to him."

I hope other people with pools out there feel the same as me.

UPDATE:
You can listen to the clip about him from the radio this morning here: CBC Ottawa Morning

UPDATE 2:
The CBC has an article about him here.

May 16th - Health and Sorrow

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Tue, 17 May 2011 01:01:00 +0000

My wife is now sick. Could be stress, could be tiredness. Either way, currently napping on the couch.

The Turtle seems to be on the mend though, which is good news.

Went to my mother-in-law's for dinner tonight. I've never actually enjoyed eating eggplant prior to tonight. I hope she makes it again on the holiday Monday.

Something has been weighing on my mind since last Thursday. You see, I volunteer with Scouts Canada. Only, I don't work with any of the age groups that people might associate with Scouts Canada. I work with the older youth. The "not quite youth" ones. I work with the 18-26 year old ones. They're called Rovers, and their program is driven by them. Most of the time, they stick to the program motto of service.

But that's kinda what I've been thinking about. Service. But more of the funeral type.

You see, as my Rovers were sitting around my dining room table, drinking tea and reviewing the camp they just organized for 150 or so 13-17 year olds, one of their fathers passed away in an accident.

I can't imagine being in that individual's shoes right now. 20 years old, and burying his father. A father closer to my age than his own.

It's not the first time I've had to deal with a death within Scouting. And won't be the last. The last time was an 18-year-old youth of mine. He had a heart attack and passed away waiting for a bus. I can still remember taking him paddling and rock climbing. Both things he would not have had a chance to experience if not for me.

I suppose that's why I do it. I act as a mentor to them as they follow life's path. From high school to college, through releationships and sometimes marriage. Even having their own kids.

That's why, instead of going to my college class to further my own self-growth, I'll be growing along with them. At a funeral home.

May 15th - Cold, Damp and Mind Dump

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Mon, 16 May 2011 01:48:00 +0000

Today started innocently enough. At about 2am. Turtle was crying. Way too early.

Got him back to bed, at about 3am. Or 4am. Don't quite remember.

Woke up at 6:47am. Heard "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy". Normally, I love this. Daddy was one of the last names he learned.

However, it's not really something I look forward to 3 hours after he went back to bed.

Get out of bed. Toad's door opens. Great. Two wide awake kids, and 2 parents who want to sleep until Tuesday.

Downstairs. Diaper change. Milk. Breakfast. I think about coffee. Breakfast is over.

Need to run out to pickup a toddler bed. In the truck. Drive to the bank. Drive across the city. Think about coffee. Pickup bed.

Realize that I forgot to empty the truck from the night before. Still full of camping gear from the Beaveree and Dance Recital paraphernalia.

Remove car seat. Fold down seat. Wish for a screwdriver. Bed in truck. Drive home.

Turtle quite excited. Won't get off the bed. Carry the bed upstairs. Forgot the plan.

Clean room. Place bed. Search for plug covers for the newly exposed outlet.

Take photo of the crib. Solid wood, cherry color. Someone will want it. (I hope.)

Downstairs. Think about coffee. Toad off to play at a friends. Turtle hungry. Quick lunch.

Sit to work for a bit. Turtle to bed. Old bed, not new one yet.

Call to ensure that Toad has eaten prior to birthday party in the afternoon. Work some more.

Wife takes Toad and neighbor's kid to birthday party. Turtle wakes up. Doesn't want to be put down. Wheee...

Watch some of Muppet Treasure Island with Turtle. Will now accept being put down, but cannot leave his sight.

Clean out future laundry room. Think more about finishing flood renovation. Might paint tomorrow.

Supper. Pasta, Chicken, Sauce. Turtle won't eat. Raspberries. Still won't eat.

Wife and Toad get home. She had cake, chocolate. Wheee....

Kid bath. Kid bed. BBQ chicken and veggies. Pick dandelions while waiting.

Two eyes watch me from shed. Raccoon. Wheee...

Wonder about water shortage and act of weeding yard. Should probably settle for it being green this year, not worrying about weeds.

Think about coffee. Eat dinner. Plan summer birthday parties for kids. Feed annoying cats.

Start to tidy kitchen. Settle for no food left out. Need sleep.

Gather thoughts. Realize I need to convince raccoon to let me borrow a paint brush from his chosen residence.

Blog. Good night.

Water: Tearout

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:35:00 +0000

The tearout is done. 300 square feet of hardwood floor, numerous sheets of drywall, some insulation. All gone.

Now what to do with the space.

The way I see it, we have the ability to re-envision part of the basement.

You know, make it more useable. Or something like that.

I know I want a laundry room down there. That will give me a pantry off the kitchen. I've always wanted one of those.

I'm now thinking about removing the kitchenette from the basement and converting the entire area into a laundry room. It would give me a space about 9' x 7', with a window and a single door.

That leaves the old office. Despite never actually being used as an office. (I had the best of intentions when I fixed it up in October.) I'd still like an office type space in the house. With a desk for my wife and I, and someplace the kids can do 'art' and such.

It would be nice to find space for a pull-out couch or murphy bed too. Just to make it multi-functional.

I've also always liked this sort of thing, and I know the kids would enjoy it. I'd just need to figure out how to do it.

What are your thoughts?

Water: Expectations

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:15:00 +0000

I'm almost certain, that if I had a therapist, I'd be told that I should talk about how I feel.

I'm upset.

I'm frustrated.

I'm stressed.

I went downstairs to the basement last night, innocently enough. I was looking for some rain pants.

I wasn't expecting the splash. Who expects that? Who expects to put their foot down on the carpet and have it splash.

I wasn't expecting to see the signs of water seepage along the edges of the hardwood floor in the basement either. Or the bubbles in the paint under the basement window.

I was expecting to find rain pants, run back up stairs, put them in the truck and head out to pickup a trailer of canoes.

I didn't expect the friendly conversation with the nice young lady that answered the phone when I called the insurance company.

I didn't expect to talk to an insurance adjuster. (Although, he was amazingly helpful, and did a great job of walking us through the process.) The lady from the restoration place was great too.

What it basically comes down to is that we had water enter through or around the basement window. From all purposes, it looks as if we have no insurance coverage. It wasn't sewer backup, it wasn't a pipe burst, it was water seepage.

We haven't heard back from the insurance agency. Probably not until later in the week.

We did start damage control this morning. We cut away the wet drywall, ripped up the hardwood floor (sob), and tore out the wet insulation.

At this point, I'm asking Mother Nature to go easy on us. I have 2 exterior basement walls without insulation. Please don't let the temperature drop too much.

While tearing out the drywall around the electrical panel, we realized we could see daylight. Not the best thing to see from inside the basement. We also discovered that there is no insulation around the 'headers'. The headers are the pockets above your exterior walls made by your floor joists.

Usually, you'd want those insulated. It tends to keep the house warmer, especially the floors.

So, in order to fix that, you need access to them. So, we tore out the drywalled, stippled ceiling too.

We also found about 50 or so advertising flyers for Kanata Self Storage. They were stuffed in the headers, as if they were for insulation. Oh, and a report card from the spring semester from Sir Robert Borden High School dated 1985. Two years after the house was built.

I've got another 150 square feet of hardwood to pull up, but it's going to wait until the morning.

Then we need to figure out the best method to fix everything. Funny how something like this isn't built into our monthly budget. We just don't have a line item for 'flood repair' or the like.

Looking for Network Administrator

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:58:00 +0000

I'm slightly biased, but the company I work for is hiring a Domino/Network Administrator. If you're interested after reading the description below, contact me and I'll pass your interest along.

Position Description:
The successful candidate will be responsible for ongoing development and administration of our web server farm and office server infrastructure including network and workstation hardware/software.
You need to be skilled in setup and support of TCP/IP networks, firewall, back-up/recovery solutions and server o/s including Windows/Linux as well as web servers such as Tomcat. Your background includes education/certification in network infrastructure, security and operating systems. Knowledge of Lotus Domino and database operating environments would be an asset. Exposure to an AIX environment would also be helpful.
If you thrive on a wide variety of challenges, are interested in leading new initiatives, learning and applying new technologies and growing in a dynamic work environment - where your skills, innovative ideas and dedication are valued, encouraged and rewarded, this position should be of interest to you.

Life beyond a Miami Beach: Day 7

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Up for our first port destination: Nassau in the Bahamas.

We actually bought a shore excursion for Nassau. A glass bottom boat tour. If I had to pick a word to describe it, it would be "meh". It was a 90 minute tour that consisted of a slow drive through the harbour where the "narrator" talked to us about who used to live in which house along the shore. Really, I'm here for the glass bottom part, not for who used to live where. The glass bottom part was okay, but consisted of us standing around 2 viewing "boxes" with 4 windows at the bottom of each. What we didn't realize is that they were throwing bread overboard upstairs while we were downstairs to bring the fish in. So, we weren't really seeing it "au natural". And due to over crowding of the tour, we ended up sitting and waiting while the other half of the passengers got their chance to see. We then took a return trip through the harbor.

The Toad enjoyed the looking at the fish, but was bored for about 70 of the 90 minutes. The Turtle was bored for most of it, but then he's pretty young and he wasn't in the mood to sit still.

We returned and wandered through the straw market, and to be quite honest, the merchants were nice up until you said you were just looking at the moment, and then got rather rude. We make it a practice to not buy things from rude people and left the straw market empty handed. We did get the Toad a purse with Tinkerbell on it, and my wife got a few nice inexpensive necklaces. I really doubt that most things we saw were made locally, aside from the carvers we saw actively doing carving.

Tonight was formal night, and everyone took the time to pretty themselves up. It was enjoyable to dress up a bit for dinner, as the elegant look is more what I would expect when dining in a restaurant of that caliber.

We also registered the Toad in Camp Carnival. An opportunity for her to go and play with others her own age and make some friends. It's included at no extra charge (one of the few things I've discovered) and they even take children if you go off ship in port and provide a cell phone to you in case of emergency.

Observations:

Water, Lemonade and Iced Tea (unsweetened) are available for free all the time to drink, but soft drinks and of course anything alcoholic is an extra. As are milk, juice and fancy coffee outside of meal times.

You are allowed to bring 1 bottle of wine or up to 12 cans of pop onboard with you when you board. The corking fee is $10 per bottle, but can still make it much cheaper than buying wine by the glass or bottle.

Bottled water is available for sale, but you can bring your own bottle and fill it up almost anywhere on the ship.

Tomorrow is a "Sea day" while we make our way down to St. Thomas. We'll be in St. Thomas on Wednesday.

Night.

Life beyond a Miami Beach: Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

This is it. Today we start on the next phase of our vacation and board the cruise ship.

I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time am a little anxious. I've never done anything like this before.

We were up early this morning and did the last of our packing before heading to the lobby to catch the cab. Despite asking about car seats for the cab, the cab didn't arrive with them. Thank goodness that traffic was light. I was rather nervous about the drive to the port and didn't think about the fact that the camera was in the trunk of the cab, and not in my pocket. I wish I'd had it with me.

We got out of the cab, settled our account and looked around at the people everywhere and had no idea what to do next. Turns out that there are people in white hats who take your luggage for the baggage check. I'm glad I arrived at the port with our luggage already tagged.

After someone checking our boarding passes and security, we had someone check our boarding passes, and then checked in to the ship (note: we have yet to get on the ship yet.). We sat and waited until our boarding number was called (we were #14) and headed up the escalator (not the one we were sitting near of course) and had someone check our boarding passes befor walking the gangway onto our ship and had someone checking our boarding passes.

A quick elevator ride to the top deck (Deck 9, Lido deck) and we found the lunch options (we didn't know that there would be a lunch available, we didn't read that beforehand, and had made provisions to have for lunch). We grabbed some food and began the discovery process that any buffet line that begins with salad options is shorter than any other line, especially those with deep fried foods.

We found our room, asked for one of the bunks to be lowered and that the mini bar be emptied so we could put the Turtle's milk in it. Note to future first time cruisers, milk for your children can only easily be gotten at breakfast and dinner, not lunch. If you have a child with a lactose reaction like me, you can get soy milk in the morning through room service (free, but with the suggestion of a gratuity) or at dinner in one of the sit down restaurants. We'd order enough with room service to allow us enough for the day.

We took part in the safety briefing and returned to make sure that our cabin was outfitted with life jackets for the kids. We met our room steward, his name was Eufracio but told us to call him E.

Dinner was served in the Platinum restaurant, and is a 3-7 course affair depending on what you order. Me, I'm allergic to raw tomatoes, so I tended to skip anything that had raw tomatoes in it, or that looked like it might. The dining room was great, the food was great, and the kids ate from the adult menu as it was much healthier than the kids menu. Seriously Carnival, can't you come up with some children's menu items that aren't deep fried?

When we returned to our stateroom that night, I made the happy discovery that the crib fit in the bathroom of our stateroom, allowing us to put the Turtle down for a nap without requiring the rest of us to sit in the dark.

Anway, bed for tonight. Into Nassau tomorrow for our first port day.

Night.

Life on a Miami Beach: Day 5

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

This morning, we actually slept in. I was the first one up and went across the street on a coffee run. McDonalds coffee really isn't all that bad, and it is much better than the in room coffeemaker.

We took today as a relaxation day. We went for a walk around the neighbourhood, picked up some postcards and went for a walk on the beach.

After a lunch of sandwiches, we put the Turtle down for a nap and I took the Toad to the beach.

An afternoon of watching a movie on the Disney channel, a trip to the grocery store for tomorrows lunch and some veggies and we called it a day.

A few observations:

People, especially men, should not wear thongs to the beach. This is even more important if the thong wearer has a lot of body hair.

Although we now have credit cards with a chip in Canada, I have yet to come across a single credit card machine down here that uses the chip.

I was reminded today about the tide, both high, and low. No wonder the water level at the beach seemed to fluctuate from day to day.

Yesterday was the first time I have ever heard a person referred to as a 'baby mama', not a girlfriend, partner, wife, etc.

In South Beach, on New Years Eve, you have to pay to reserve a table. The fellow I spoke to paid $250 to reserve a table at a restaurant in South Beach. Not even on the beach, or even facing the fireworks, or even a top end restaurant. Just for a regular restaurant and having the honor of then paying for a meal.

Life on a Miami Beach: Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

People, especially men, should not wear thongs to the beach. This is even more important if the thong wearer has a lot of body hair.
Although we now have credit cards with a chip in Canada, I have yet to come across a single credit card machine down here that uses the chip.
I was reminded today about the tide, both high, and low. No wonder the water level at the beach seemed to fluctuate from day to day.
Yesterday was the first time I have ever heard a person referred to as a 'baby mama', not a girlfriend, partner, wife, etc.
In South Beach, on New Years Eve, you have to pay to reserve a table. The fellow I spoke to paid $250 to reserve a table at a restaurant in South Beach. Not even on the beach, or even facing the fireworks, or even a top end restaurant. Just for a regular restaurant and having the honor of then paying for a meal.

Life on a Miami Beach: Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

We got up early this morning all bight eyed and bushy tailed. Actually, we didn't. We stayed in bed until the kids woke us. Once we got up, we ate, got dressed and went back out to catch the 120 bus again, for another quick tour though Miami Beach and across the MacArthur Causeway, getting off on the other side of the causeway from the Miami Children's Museum.

It was a long walk around and under the causeway to the museum. All-in-all I was impressed by the museum. In the time we spent there, the Toad rushed from one area to another to see it all. She didn't spend much time sitting still. There was a 'Main Street' area with a bank, doctor/dentist office, and a grocery store. A vet clinic, fire station and a really cool dinosaur area. The dinosaurs were electronic, in other words, they moved.

We met a friend of mine at the museum, with his kids. It was great to be able to mix a little bit of work into my vacation.

We left the museum, hopped on the 120 bus back to the hotel so the Turtle could have a nap. The Toad and I went to the beach before dinner and played in the water some more. This time watching for 'big blue balloons'.

We headed back to the grocery store before dinner, picked up some nachos, salsa and looked at easy lunch options for Sunday. We also picked up two bottles of 'Little Penguin' wine to take on the cruise with us. No point in paying for wine when I am allowed to bring my own.

After a dinner of leftover pasta with melted cheese on top, we put the kids to bed and relaxed in front of the TV. Something that never happens at home.

Night.

Life on a Miami Beach: Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Got up this morning with thoughts of shrimp. Not the two we brought with us, they're always on my mind.

We headed down to the Bayside shopping district of Miami. We took the bus to get there, which I looked up on the Miami-Dade transit site, which exclusively uses Google Transit to plot your trip. It was fairly accurate as to when buses run, but not that accurate as to what buses actually run. We were looking for the 119 to get us to our destination. (Only one bus, which was great.) Never did see a 119, we did on the other hand find a 120 Beach MAX, which I later discovered to mean it is the equavalent of an express bus, meaning it skips a large number of stops that other buses will service.

The trip on the bus costs $2 per person. That worked out to $4 each way, or about 1/10th the cost of a cab ride. (I called around first.) And, I learned something. While in Ottawa, it is fairly common to see children in a backpack carrier, it is completely unknown in Miami. Everyone who saw the Turtle in the backpack marvelled at what a really neat idea it was, and of course how cute he is. That got us talking to some of the other passengers on the bus. Children are a great ice breaker.

One lady we met on the bus told us of a better way to get where we were going called the MetroMover. It's a raised unmanned wheeled bus/train like system that runs throughout the downtown area of Miami. Did I mention that it is free to take? And really, really cool. In fact, it would really work well in Ottawa.

Once we got to the Bayside area, right beside the arena that the Miami Heat play in, we wandered right past Bubba Gump Shrimp. You know, like the Forrest Gump movie. We talked with the store staff (It's both a store and restaurant) and decided to come back and eat after poking around a bit. (Yeah, like there was any doubt. (The Toad loves shrimp.)

We quickly found the Disney store and only picked up a few things for next Christmas. PJs, and a jogging suit. A few stores later and we ended up in the GAP. Wanna guess how many fleece items they had in their clearance area? Quite a few. Speaking of warm weather wear, the Toad noticed today that people weren't wearing jackets. Probably because it was close to 30C with the humidity.

We picked up some cute items at GAP, and found me some clip-on sunglasses and headed for lunch. This was one of the challenging lunches. How to deal with the 4 year old eating shrimp, while the 1 year old we haven't allowed to have shellfish sits on the other side of the table? We kept them separated and hoped for the best. And everyone washed their hands very, very well. So far, no issues.

After lunch we picked up a few things in the gift shop, the Toad spent her money on a ride on a carosel, and bought some silly bands.

We hopped back on the MetroMover and headed back for dinner. We did get a little lost and got on the wrong one, but a quick realization along with a Russian family who did the same thing, and we were back on route. Traffic was much worse getting home, but the bus did drop us off a whole block from our hotel.

When we got back, we put the Turtle down for a nap, the Toad played with her Leapster and we had dinner. After dinner, I took the Toad our for daily visit to the beach.

The wind had been up all day, and had blown a lot of kelp into shore, and some interesting looking blue balloons. I'm glad I spotted them before the Toad. I was thinking I recognized them, and it turns out that I was right. I pointed them out and asked her not to touch them, even if other adults/kids did. They were Portugese Man O Wars. Rather toxic. Quite painful. Never heard a warning about them though. Again, glad I spotted them first.

The Toad was also amazed by the planes that lost their flags. In translation, that would be planes towing advertising banners behind them. And I was surprised by two things: how crowded the grocery store was at 9:00pm, and there is such a need for a kosher vodka that they have advertisements everywhere for L'Chaim Kosher Vodka.

We finished the night with the Turtle sleeping in the bathroom, and the Toad in the bed, and us flaked out watching some TV and sleeping on the uncomfortable pull-out bed.
Night.

Life on a Miami Beach: Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:00:00 +0000

So far, this trip has been eventful. Let's recount the events so far:

We flew into Fort Lauderdale last night (Dec 28, as this isn't getting posted until we return from the trip), the flight was uneventful, aside from the capitan singing to us at random intervals. (Much appreciated, and I seem to think I may have flown with him before. I love Westjet.)

We picked up our baggage, met the shuttle (Fort Lauderdale Shuttle Inc). I recommend them, but don't recommend using their website to book anything. It accepted my booking, but never actually 'placed' the order, making for much confusion the morning of the flight when I called to confirm. They did offer free car seats (usually a $15-25 charge each at other shuttle places) and they were the least expensive compared to the other shuttle companies I got quotes from.

The driver and her fiance were great. She had most of her facts about the area backwards/confused, and he had no problem correcting her. It was very amusing for me. Having been a local cop, he knew a lot about the area.

We got to our hotel (Crystal Beach Suites and Health Club) and checked in. Nothing eventful. Got the crib, pulled out the sofa bed and listened to the Turtle scream and cry because of how over tired he was. We ended up in bringing him to bed with us, where I sang a few rounds of the 2 songs I could think of. 'I've been working on the Railroad' and 'Skin-a-marinky dinky dink'. Wouldn't you know that it put him to sleep.

This morning I got up, got dressed, took the Toad to the grocery store with me and picked up groceries for a few days. We returned to have breakfast and plan the day. Our first stop was the beach.

Wow.

The beach is literally about 60 meters from the front door of the hotel. And the sand is white, and it has very blue water. And it had two people sleeping on it. They were either homeless or drunk, or both. We avoided them.

The Turtle loved the sand. The Toad loved the sand. There are two rules of this vacation we've decided.

Everyone needs to listen to Mommy and Daddy.
We need to go to a beach every day.

I wish all of life was that easy.

After playing on the beach, wading in the water and collecting shells and uttering "We still have 13 more days of vacation. You don't need to keep every shell.", we came in for lunch. The grocery store (a Publix) is an entire block away. Maybe the length of a football field. And they had no fewer than 30 brands/flavours of pasta sauce. I was overwhelmed. Who needs that much selection?

After lunch we had some downtime where the Toad played with her Leapster2 (Christmas gift win!) and the Turtle had a much needed nap. My wife and I planned out the next few days. Tomorrow is a visit to Miami Bayside, Friday we're going to meetup with Keith and his family at the Miami Children's Museum, and I think that Saturday with be split between the beach and a tour through South Beach.

After our downtime, the Toad and I headed back to the beach for some fun in the sand. Building walls, digging holes and standing in the surf. On our way back, I did notice something I'm glad the Toad never noticed. Two people having sex on the beach while fully clothed and while 'working' at renting beach chairs and umbrellas. I guess business was slow.

In the morning she had noticed a topless sun bather. I've previously only experienced them sunbathing face down, not face up. I'm glad she didn't say something to the lady. She has a habit of doing that.

Before dinner we went for a walk down 71st street, crossed over the inner costal waterway and found a fountain. On the way back we 'cheated' for dinner and grabbed cheeseburgers for dinner (with carrots and apples and grapes from our suite). At 59 cents each, it was pretty cheap. Tomorrow we're having wagon wheel pasta with meat sauce. I cooked up the ground sirloin tonight. I do like the way that they mark the fat content on the labels for the ground meat. Regular (90/10) ground sirloin is 90% meat, 10% fat. Lean ground sirloin is 93/7. Not much difference for a ground meat 1/3 more expensive.

The kids are now asleep. We've just discovered that we get a faint wireless signal from the lobby in our suite, so looking stuff up on the Internet just got much easier. The Toad has the double bed to herself, the Turtle is sleeping in a cot in the bathroom, and we're going to be on the lumpy sofabed again tonight. It has me wondering if I can make a bed on the floor out of the sofa cushions.

G'Night.

Season of Giving

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 01:35:00 +0000

I'd like to recount you a story. It occurred tonight.

We got mail, from my father-in-law. Inside were 2 gift cards, one for the birth of our son (the Turtle, which happened 15 months ago) and the other one for Christmas for the two kids. It was for $100 at Walmart, and that meant they each had $50 to spend.

We finished dinner quickly tonight, I'm not sure how, with my two. Both could be in the title run for world's slowest eater. We decided to go to Walmart so the Toad (she's 4) could pick out something for herself.

On the way over, she was talking about how we had to take our donations over to Toy Mountain. My wife mentioned that Toy Mountain was looking for toys for 7-9 year-olds at the moment.

We walked up and down aisles, throughout the entire toy section at Walmart. The Toad knew she had $50 that she could buy herself something with. She picked out 3 things and handed the gift card to the cashier with pride. She bought bubble bath, Silly Bands and Meccano.

Bubble bath for the Turtle.

Silly Bands for herself.

And the Meccano. It was for Toy Mountain. Because it had an '8+' on the side. And Toy Mountain needed toys for 7-9 year-olds.

I knew my daughter was a giving person, but I never really knew how much. It makes me so proud of her, and it brought a tear to my eye.

Toad, someday, I hope you'll read this and know how much this meant to me.

Love Daddy.

Swagger Wagon

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:29:00 +0000

I love this ad campaign.

Songs to Capture the Mood

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:09:00 +0000

I find that when I am down, I tend to gravitate towards specific types of music.

For me, I tend to lean towards country songs from the 90's. I'm not sure why... It's not the sad ones that I listen to, just the genre as a whole.

What do you listen to?

(Side note, my wife and the Turtle arrived safely in Calgary.)

Without a Doubt

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:05:00 +0000

This was, without a doubt the hardest goodbye I've ever made.

It sounds strange though. My wife (and best friend) has left for a few weeks to be a strong shoulder for her best friend, who is losing her dad to cancer.

The Toad and I said goodbye to her and the Turtle at the airport this evening. I think I teared up about 4 times, as I told the Toad what was happening, and where to look for Mommy and the Turtle to give goodbye hugs and kisses.

They'll be gone for a two weeks, maybe more. The Toad and I will go on with our day to day plans, missing them both. Especially the little boy who looked at me this morning and said 'Da-da' for the first time...

Fun Little Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:44:00 +0000

The time is 1:45 PM EST.

What a fun little earthquake that was.

Victoria Day Festival 2010

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:30:00 +0000

There's an entire week of activities coming up from the 14th to the 24th of May at Dow's Lake. It's the Victoria Day festival. It's one of the Ottawa Festivals.

You can find all the details on their site, including the listing of bands, and when they are playing. The main details are below.

Festival opens daily from 11:00 am, and will close the evening of Monday, May 24, 2010... with a Fireworks show by Royal Pyrotechnie at 10:15 PM.

There is a Charity Breakfast, May 15, 16, 22, 23, and 24, 7:00 to 11:00 AM. Breakfast will be served by Gravel Foods, all proceeds donated to CHEO.

The midway will open at 4:00 pm daily until Friday.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, the Midway opens at 11:00 am.

There is free parking at the surrounding government buildings at The Experimental Farm and
Sir John Carling building.

This year’s Victoria Day Festival sports the tallest Ferris wheel in Ottawa for this year’s event. It is seven meters high, and overlooks the lake, with a spectacular view of the tulips.

There will be a Midway, Petting Zoo, Pony Rides, Car Show, Water Park, Face Painting, Balloons, Live DJ, with live bands starting on Friday.

Bad Boy Scout. Bad.

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:58:00 +0000

I noticed a link on Yoni Freedhoff's Site about the fact that the Boy Scouts (The Boy Scouts of America by the way, not Scouts Canada) have a Video Game badge.

The details of it are here.

I'm not certain what they may be trying to accomplish here, aside from trying to build a bridge to today's youth. I understand the concept, but I'm not a fan of it.

I see it as muddying the brand.

Disclaimer: I'm a Rover Advisor. I provide advice (not leadership) to an energetic group of 18-26 year olds who develop programs for the younger sections of Scouting and Guiding.

Hintonburg ArtsPark 2010

noreply@blogger.com (wildunknown) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:53:00 +0000

My family went last year to celebrate Mother's Day. Had a great time.

Art, craft, music, performance, photography, surprises… and lots of family fun! Presented by the Hintonburg Community Association

Every year, people tell us they look forward to ArtsPark and we know why. It's a low-key, one-day outdoor festival of art, music, performance... it's free... and it's fun for everyone in your family. (Don't forget it's Mothers' Day too.)

Join us Sunday, May 9 2010 from 10am to 4pm at Parkdale Market (Parkdale Avenue at Armstrong Street in the heart of Hintonburg's QUAD arts district). Browse the work of local jewellery, textile and clothing designers, see displays from QUAD artists, visit the Poetry Factory, have a bite to eat and enjoy the talent of scores of musicians and performers.

You can find more information here: http://hintonburg.com/artspark2010.html