Random Rumblings

Decline of the Waltian Empire

2012-05-26T09:27:00.001-04:00

So I'm sitting in the driveway, watching my girls as they run a lemonade stand to raise money for Spencer West. Traffic has been a bit light, mostly because there isn't a yard sale on this street. I have this strange feeling that Spencer might have done better if we'd just donated the money we spent on lemonade, cookies, cups, etc. That's just my slightly grumpy overtired self talking though - deep down I know this is a great experience for the girls. Gabi is busy putting more signs up, and I'm going to inquire with my media type friends about advertising. :)

You know, I used to get called the vacuum. At 3rd base, I was known as the guy who sucked every grounder and line drive up. When I pitched, the guys behind me said they could play about more in the hole because I was able to nab so many balls hit up the middle.

I honestly don't know what happened to that guy. I noticed I wasn't quite as quick as I was in my last year with the Legion of Doom, but my goodness, where I'm at now is just alarming to me. I played 3rd base last night, and missed every single grounder and line drive hit towards me.

Some were rockets that I wouldn't have gotten ten years ago, but I think I should have made at least 4 or 5 plays. At least I caught the gentle popup.

At least my pinball skills aren't declining. Absolutely rocked Scott's World Poker Tour to the High Score of just over 65 million the other night. I needed its slot in the basement for Whirlwind (due to height issues - with the fan topper its quite tall, and I have a bulkhead to contend with) and I thought maybe it was time for it to leave, but I think maybe it'll stay and Orbitor 1 will leave...at least for now.

Here's hoping the Montreal riot problems get taken care of in short order, since I'm taking 60 kids to Montreal next month.

He Who Shall Not Be Named

2012-05-23T20:08:00.001-04:00

Well, I'll probably never understand some people, ever. Got contacted by someone I used to know via Facebook with a request to remove their name from a post I wrote over five years ago.

Ok, I don't get it, but whatever. It's done. The exchanges have gotten increasingly snippy, mostly admittedly escalated by me, mainly because it's a rather annoying time consuming process. The blogger dashboard is very convenient for editing recent posts. Digging thru the last 5 years to find this one took the better part of a prep that I was planning to mark math tests in.

So the title of this post also could have been The grass isn't always greener. Saw an interesting grade 7 job in the postings. On a bit of a last minute whim, I put together an application and went for it. Was very grateful to get an interview (they interview five, and usually get well north of 50 applicants for each job), and thought I interviewed very well - I certainly felt like I put a strong foot forward.

Then, sitting in stop and go traffic on Kingston road, I start thinking about leaving my school. I remember the wreck I was leaving my last school, and heck, while I had a few good friends, there were also some people (who will also not be named) who I was thrilled to put in my rear view mirror. I absolutely adore the people I work with now - a fantastic group, I would have absolutely no hesitations about any of them teaching my kids, which I think is the ultimate compliment.

So I found myself stressed out all night, afraid I might actually get the job, and worried about what to say if I got it - there was no real reason to decline, unlike some jobs I'd gone for in the past and declined.

Luckily, the decision was made for me. I was thrilled to not find an email waiting for me at 8 am. I did get one at 8:04 informing me I didn't get the job. Woohoo - happiest rejection of my life, to be honest!

At any rate, the best thing about He Who Shall Not Be Named is that it got me digging back thru old blog posts, and really helped me realize that I should make a bit more of an effort to blog, even if I did get a bit annoyed in the process.

So, in the spirit of the Harry Potter titke (only name in the whole entry) I'll end this with a little spell to set everything right!

Ramu Ramu!

We Are Young

2012-04-02T19:41:00.000-04:00

No real relevance to the title today, just happened to be what I'm listening to when I started writing.

Awesome pinball weekend. Went over to Mike's on Friday night, after the kids were in bed, and got to watch a number of flipper adjustments and repairs done by Doug, who is very talented in the pin repair business. Really enjoyed my time playing Roadshow and Whitewater, but my favourite of the night was Theatre of Magic. I understand now why it is so popular. Still want a Whirlwind, however. Went head to head with Chris on a lot of games, which was a lot of fun too.

So High Speed had been down all week, and Saturday morning after squash Maya and I went over to Sayal, and I bought all the fuses that the pinrepair documents said I would likely need so I could troubleshoot the machine. We then went down to the ROM to see the Maya exhibit (get it - Maya in the Maya?), but not before I took a very hungry little girl to Johnny's Hamburgers at VP and Sheppard. Easily as great an accomplishment as what the Mayans did, in her opinion at least. We enjoyed the museum, but the special exhibit was insane. In fact, I think the crowds at Disney last summer were smaller.

So after the kids were asleep, I headed downstairs to try and get High Speed going. I replaced the first fuse I thought MIGHT be blown, then went at the one I was sure was, visibly obvious, even to my terrible eyes. It was at this point I discovered that they sell slowblow fuses in both 20 and 32 mm sizes, and while I'd purchased most in the necessary 32, I had bought the one I needed the most in 20 mm. Ah well - all I need to do is think back to where I was last September, where I needed to go on Youtube to figure out how to take off the lockdown bar on my first machine. Still dumb, just not that dumb. At any rate, I was somewhat pissed to discover this at 10:30 pm, where there was absolutely no chance of solving the error until the next day.

So, inspired by watching Doug work the night before, I decided to tackle the right flipper of Flash Gordon, which has only needed rebuilding since I bought the machine in December. Watching someone else and actually doing it yourself are two very different things, and what he did in 20 minutes wound up taking me nearly 3 hours, along with a lot of trial and error. It was 1 am and the damn thing was still sticking in the upright position when I finally packed it in for the night.

So after meeting my parents for a nice breakfast at Amigos, (man, I ate out a lot this weekend!), I went home with the girls while Gabi went shopping, and I went back at the flipper. The key was all in just adjusting it, and figuring out that the nuts holding the mechanism to the bat need to be really REALLY tight. I was very proud of myself when done, especially when I think back to the idiot that I was less than I year ago. Works out well since a potential buyer for the machine is coming tomorrow, too. Not overly motivated to sell it, but hey....when someone is interested, worth at least exploring my options.

So I went to The Source for the last fuses I needed, and got ravaged as far as cost, but if I wanted to see if that solved the problem, I didn't really have a choice. The girls and I were watching Spelling Night in Canada while I put Humpty together again, and was pleased as punch when it started working perfectly. Maya and I waxed the playfield, and High Speed is once again aptly named.

Happy Birthday Chloe

2012-03-25T21:13:00.000-04:00

The celebrations finally wrapped up today! Chloe is 4! Still can't believe my little baby who snuggled with me on the couch throughout most of the 2008 baseball season wouldn't sit still for that in a million years now.

She's a vibrant girl, always on the go, a bit stubborn (to say the least), but we all love her to bits.

So we did a small family dinner with Nona and Tata on the actual birthday, a few of her neighbourhood friends dropped by, and then we had the bigger party today at Playtime Island in Pickering, which was great - nice and clean. Gabi sure plans and throws mean birthday parties - maybe a side job for her? Most of my ideas were rejected, but I'm slowly getting over it - mostly.

The only real problem with the party happened when it was over and we were all outside. Maya dropped her ipod. It broke. Badly.

So a trip to the Apple Store ensued, and the only way to fix it was to replace it. So Maya's Santa engraving got wiped out, and it took most of the rest of the evening to restore it.

She gave me all her cash, and we drew up a chore chart to pay for the rest. Not a fortunate situation, but I am going to make sure she learns a lesson from it - or at least try to make sure of it. Let's just say it wasn't cheap.

But she's such a good kid, been pulling down lots of As lately, helping out with her sister and around the house...I'm proud of her and felt so bad - haven't seen her cry like that in quite some time. Still, my initial instinct was to be ticked off. I so have to temper those initial instincts....hard to do, because the calm as a cucumber approach was the right one. If she'd been being idiotic when she dropped it, that was one thing...but she just dropped it. Freak accident. Not like I haven't dropped my phone, or accidentally put the car in reverse at 80 km/h, or signed random water heater contracts. Sometimes stuff just happens, right?

Our Visit to The Pinball Cafe

2012-02-17T22:58:00.001-05:00

Since I first heard that such a thing existed, I had wanted to visit the Pinball Cafe. However, living where I do and where it is located, I knew that finding the time to get out to the west end would require some compromise, hard work, and possibly even a scrapbooking party for Gabi. Hey, marriage is all about working on the relationship, right?

So you could have knocked me over with a feather when she offered to take me there as my Valentine's Gift. I have to admit - I feel bad - I just brought her a chicken shwarma after squash on Monday.

So we decided to go Friday afternoon, what with us having the lieu time for our late night at work the night before, one kid at my mom's and the other in daycare. We were thinking about grabbing lunch on the way down at my old haunt when I worked near Queen and Bathurst, the Prague Deli, but parking near Bathurst was near impossible, and I'd read on Twitter that the Cafe was now serving sandwiches, so we just went right there.

There's ample parking nearby, and relatively inexpensive - $4 got me the rest of the day, and the parking lot even has it's own couch and toilet, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend using them. Somehow or other I missed the Cafe on my quest for a parking spot, and we wound up walking the wrong way, but got things turned around pretty quick and found the place, once we'd looked up the address again. Being nearly one o'clock and well past our regular lunch time of 11:30, we were ravenous, so each ordered a sandwish combo. Gabi got the roasted chicken, and I went with the curried egg salad. I was delighted with my choice, as it was flavourful on a really fresh kaiser, and had lots of cucumber and lettuce on it as well. I sampled Gabi's and wasn't as thrilled, although I probably shouldn't be too critical, as alfafa sprouts and pesto NEVER make it on any sandwich that I'm making or even considering ordering. The combo included a bottle of soda from the Pop Shoppe, and I wound up having something I don't think I've had since I was a kid - a bottle of Black Cherry pop. It was awesome, and the sugar rush was perfect as I took my handful of quarters to the back of the cafe.

Since AC/DC, my main goal, was in use, I headed right over to Flash Gordon. I have one here, but it's a bit of a project, and I wanted to see what one properly tuned up felt like. I will be ordering the flipper rebuild kits when I'm done writing this, because a properly working right flipper makes all the difference. Their machine was missing the flasher, same as mine, so I still have no idea if I want to try and track that part down. It was fun, but since it's a machine I can play all I want for free, I didn't play again.

At this point, AC/DC was free, and I took it over. Three plays for two bucks. I have to say this - I've played a lot of Stern's latest titles, and I quickly loved this. I've read a lot of complaints about the face on the centre of the playfield, but trust me - this is such a fast game you don't have time to notice. The volume was turned way down, which I imagine is necessary for the sanity of the owners, but I could easily envision one of these in my basement with a subwoofer hooked up. I really enjoyed the game, it was a lot of fun, but the pop bumpers were drowning out what you could hear of the music. I also lost about 6-7 balls that drained right down the middle at the start of each ball - quite a few when you consider I played maybe 4 games. Other than that I loved it, and the multiball was crazy!

Gabi played a few other machines, and then joined me at AC/DC, and to my surprise and delight, she quite liked it too, although it's faster than anything we've got here. As we were taking turns playing, and I tried out Wild Fyre and Spacelab, we both noticed a rather large camera hovering around, filming us and the other players as we went at the machines.

After we'd hogged AC/DC for what felt like an appropriate amount of time, we went back to our table for the final element of our combo, the dessert. Rachel, one of the owners, said that this was her best brownie batch yet, so with a tip like that we both skipped the rice krispie squares. I'm pleased to report that the brownie was excellent - if you head down for some pinball, make sure you pick up one of those too.

I then struck up a conversation with the cameraman, and when I found out they were from Global, did a bit of name-dropping, since I know a few people there. They asked me if I'd answer a few questions, which I did, but I doubt any of it will make the story. I got interviewed so many times with my Scrabble Club kids last year that I didn't think it would be a big deal, but I started sweating and mumbling and got all nervous. If anything does make it, I'll come off like a bumbling idiot. Ah well. Jason, the other owner, got interviewed next, and I'm sure more of his stuff will make the story, from what I could overhear. Much smoother than I. Monday night on Global News, if you've got the time.

At this point, I ordered a hot chocolate for myself that quickly got taken over, and we both enjoyed it, then I headed back to the machines. I was dying to try Black Knight, as I'd almost had a deal in place for a trade for my Orbitor 1. I'm kind of glad it fell thru - I don't think I want one. It was all right, but I couldn't make the ramp shot to save my life - not sure if it was the flippers or me, but I got frustrated and moved on.

There were only two pins we hadn't tried, and since we couldn't get near Supersonic as a family had taken it over, Gabi and I headed to Comet. We both quite liked it, and stayed there until we ran out of quarters. In fact, she liked it so much that she's willing to let me pick one up. I wonder if the fact that she beat me on it has something to do with that. Now all I have to do is find one.
To sum up - food and ambience were very good. It's a bright space, comfy and welcoming, and Rachel was very friendly, although for some reason I introduced myself but never Gabi, a shortcoming I apologized for later. I loved my sandwich, my pop and my brownie, and the hot chocolate was ok, as was Gabi's sandwich, although I think that's my tastes, not necessarily the sandwich. I'm regretting not checking out the juke, something I'll be sure to do next time I pop by.

The pinballs were a nice collection. They're in good player condition, with the obvious exception of AC/DC, it being released just a few weeks ago, so it was near mint. Other than the BK flippers seemingly not being able to get the ball up the ramp (also could have been just my lack of skill, to be totally honest), everything that should work seemed to be working, which is always nice to find when you do go out to play pinball. Jason spent some time working on both Comet and AC/DC during our visit, so witnessing the maintenance going on usually indicates the machines are well cared for.

Both of us had a very good time, and Gabi is even willing to go back, which is nice for someone who more tolerates my pinball habits than truly enjoys them.

Basically, if you like pinball even a little bit, I think it'd be well worth your time to pay a visit.

Oh, and I imagine the sound on AC/DC rocks as much as the game. Next time I play one, I've got to figure out how to crank it.

Wisconsin-Illinois Road Trip Part Deux

2012-01-05T16:41:00.000-05:00

When I left off my little narrative, we were on our way back to Uncle Steve for our 3rd visit to the nursing centre, this time armed with a little more information. We met Don this time, Steve's roommate, who apparently never met a conversation he couldn't insinuate himself into, which was a bit annoying, but what can you do.

We then went back to the hotel, where we finally connected with Bill and Kay, who had Steve's keys. We wanted to get his mail, pick him up a few things from his apartment, and make sure everything there was good.

So we had a nice chat with Bill and Kay, and it was awfully nice to know that Steve has good friends to help him out when he needs it. From there it was off to the post office, where I found his mailbox, along with a notice of expiry. I paid for another 6 months for him, then we went hunting for his apartment, and hunting is the right word, because our information was wrong. So I'm trying to open what I thought was his apartment, and failing, when we hear noises inside. A bit alarming, so I ring the doorbell, and am surprised when someone answers.

Yes, I was trying to get into the wrong apartment and I think I might owe the guy some new underwear.

So we went to see Steve again, at least having accomplished getting the mail, and this time got a physical description of exactly where his apartment was. After going thru his mail with him and making sure there was nothing too urgent, we listened to a few more Don stories, then went apartment hunting again. With the right number and Steve's physical description, I found the place no problem this time, even in the dark of night (well after 8 by then).

Steve's apartment was nice, small and cozy, but comfortable, clean and very well organized. His big concern was whether or not he had made his bed, and I was happy to tell him that he had.

We then took the things he wanted, and headed back to the hotel for a hot tub, which was only very warm, but still quite nice, and even better, totally deserted. Of course, by then it was 11, and we hadn't really had dinner, so we found the one pub in walking distance serving food, and it was us and one other guy hitting on the waitress. The other guy, not us. We had dinner - we'll always wonder if he had dessert.

I then foolishly watched Avatar on HBO til the middle of the night, and as a result was pretty baked for the first leg of our return trip home. We went back to Steve's apartment to get the right jacket for him, then back for our final visit, which had to be fairly short as we had a tight timeline to get the keys back to bill and Kay. I got a bit emotional leaving, obvious reasons, right?

We then had to stop at Culver's, for our final lunch in Wisconsin, especially since Bill and Kay gave us some coupons. What an awesome place - I would say its a cant miss when in Wisconsin, or anywhere else that has one.

We then moseyed our way back down to Chicago and the Kindrachuk/Benoit household, stopping only to pick up some Wisconsin cheese for Bill, which was an experience in itself. Gabi thought we were going to be featured on a cheese based reality show.

We had a lovely time in Lisle, getting to visit with Bill, Janice, John, Alex and Charlie. It was nice getting to know the boys a bit better, and we were impressed by all of them. Charlie is particularly interested in cars, wants to open a shop working on high end cars, and needs money for parts for a Camaro he's rebuilding, so I got him to do a much needed oil change on the van. Win-win for both of us, I hope, although he had to get up early and it was freezing out while he was working.

Alex was already off skating (@6am!!!!), as was Janice, and we didn't see John or Dave, but it was particularly wonderful to visit with Uncle Bill. He took us all out for a nice Chinese buffet, which I never mind, and even gave me a piece of family history, which was a fur hat made by my Aunt Mary, which was cut from a fur coat that used to belong to my Baba Olga. We also really appreciated being put up for the night in a really comfortable guest bedroom - thanks, guys!

We're near Lansing Michigan right now, heading to Sarnia. I'm picking up a few replacement displays for Orbitor 1 from Corey, the Ontario Stern guru, and we should be home tonight.

Hasn't been an inexpensive trip, but it's been worth it in so many intangible ways, from catching up with family on Chicago, to Steve's jaw hitting the floor when he saw us, to the expected surprise on the girls faces when we bring their gifts. Gabi and I got a nice break from the routine and a chance to reconnect, which was really tremendous. All in all, a great trip.

Sent from an iPhone.

Neenah, Wisconsin

2012-01-03T13:07:00.000-05:00

Well, I sit here in the American Girl outlet in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We're going back to see Uncle Steve this afternoon, as he does his rehab in the mornings.

We left early New Years Day, not quite as early as planned, but we were on the road for good by 8, with only 1 return trip home for forgotten items. The Ontario portion of the drive was wet but uneventful, once again I picked the wrong border guard, although she went on break right before us and we wound up getting thru very quickly.

Michigan was notable for two things - high winds and road kill. We counted no fewer than 11 deer on the road between port Huron and Flint. A bit of gps time zone confusion, but we eventually made it into Chicago and our very nice hotel downtown. We had dinner at Due pizzeria, which was by far the best deep dish pizza I've ever had in my life. We'd go back in a heartbeat.

We then walked the Magnificent Mile until I thought I was gonna freeze to death, then back to the hotel.

All I'll say about Einstein Bros bagels is if you're considering eating there, don't. Craptastic. We then hit the American Girl store on the mile for the girls, then checked out of the hotel and headed north.

I programmed the gps with a stop in Milwaukee, and we hit Miller Park. For those who don't know, I play simulation baseball, and my team since 1987 has been the Milwaukee Brewers. The stadium, even with the snow-covered field, was awesome. I went a bit nuts in the team store, buying a bunch of shirts, a Brewers scarf (helps alleviate the freezing), and a nice wooden sign for the bar.

From there, it was straight to Uncle Steve. We found him in front of a TV watching the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl, and to say he was surprised to see us would be an understatement. We had a quick visit, then went out to try and find his friend who has his mailbox keys. That didn't work out, so we went back for another visit with Steve, then out to dinner and checked into our hotel.

I'm pleased to report that Steve is doing well, healing up nicely. He turned his bruised face away for the picture, and isn't tremendously mobile yet, but seemed in good spirits, and is certainly animated. I'm pretty sure he was happy to see us - I'm looking forward to going back - we're trying to arrive after his rehab and lunch.

We're having a great trip, and would be outright wonderful were it not for the news we got, which was that Mark Wright passed away suddenly on New Years day. We've been thinking about his family an awful lot, and the horrible start to their year. Our hearts go out to them - he was only 33.

We'll begin our return trip tomorrow, staying one more night in Appleton. Here's hoping the drive home is as smooth as the drive here was, and I'd really like to make Mark's funeral on Friday.

Will try to check in on the road home at some point.

2011, looking back!

2011-12-31T12:08:00.002-05:00

2011 was a good year for me in many ways!
First off, my family. Gabi and I continued to settle into and adjust to the lifestyle changes that came with the new house in 2010, and I've got a little story to reflect how that's going.
When we first started dating, I had a window in my classroom slip open over the Christmas break, the same year Mel Lastman called in the army. I returned to school to find a snow bank in the middle of my classroom, and all my carefully nurtured plants frozen like bricks.
So, to help me recover my plants, Gabi sent me a ficus, which I thought was the sweetest thing any girl had ever done for me. I never took it to school, because it quickly graced our apartment, then our first house. It did well, stayed healthy, and we named it the love tree, cheesy but highly accurate.
However, in the new house, this tree has doubled in size, an unbelievable growth spurt for a tree that had been slowly growing with us for a decade. An apt metaphor, I think! We love life in this new neighborhood!
The girls are doing good, as well, Maya thriving in Grade three, and Chloe thriving at being three. Maya's doing well in school and with her friends, and makes us very proud. Chloe, while a more challenging, stubborn child than Maya ever was by far, is showing some encouraging signs lately. Watching a Dolphins Tale with her this week was a revelation, she got so upset by Winter being hurt. Chloe is a very smart, chatty, confident child, and seems very popular at her daycare, with both students and teachers, which I'll take as a good sign.
Our trip to Orlando was a definite highlight, as well as our WDW moments, repeated Small World rides and heat related meltdowns notwithstanding. Hollywood Studios at night without the kids was fun, and the Aerosmith themed Rock and Rollercoaster was just as fun as Everest in Animal Kingdom. The absolute highlight of the trip for me was, surprisingly enough, our Princess lunch in Cinderella's castle. The girls and Gabi were enthralled, and I absolutely loved the pic of the four of us with Cinderella, sweaty though we were. I loved being down there with my parents and Ter and Jen and the boys, and all ten of us had a great time in our fantastic rental house, especially the pool.
The first part of July at the cottage was awesome - beautiful weather, and good times with family and friends. We're probably going to have to track down a new bunk bed for the 4 kids soon...
I took my first school trip as teacher in charge, and we had a fantastic time in Ottawa and Montreal, so good I'm repeating the experience. The ski trips were good too, although my first attempt at getting Maya on skis didnt work out so well. Hopefully this year will be better - we start lessons on the 16th!
Otherwise work was a mixed bag - I've had two fantastic groups of kids to work with, but admin changes are always interesting. I've wound up the year as co-chair, so we'll see how that goes.
Squash and baseball were good - another year with lots of minor injuries, including hamstrings, groin pulls and a mildly sprained ankle, as well as my current knee injury. I need to change something in my physical routine - to that end, I've joined both squash leagues to help me build up some strength Jan-April. That plus skiing on Sundays should really help...I hope. I struggled big time moving a pin into the house yesterday, and I'm a bit afraid of trying to get it into the basement. Haven't felt this weak in some time.
Cora's health finally improved, although she seems to have some kind of stomach bug right now, poor thing. 2011 was also the year we lost Jake, sadly. Probably the greatest catch and fetch dog ever, in his prime he probably could have played a mean centerfield, if you didn't mind a slobbery ball when he was done. He always loved to jump up on me and give me a big wet face wash. I'm going to miss those, but I sure love Lily, too, Ter and Jen's new pup.
I would be remiss without mentioning my new and rather obsessive hobby, pinball. However, I won't talk too much about it here, other than to say its something I enjoy very much, and have made some new friends through an awesome online community I've been made to feel at home in.
We're planning to possibly make 2012 the year of planning the kitchen, and hopefully make it a reality in 2013, although I think a vehicle purchase will probably be an inevitable budget line item in the next 2-3 years, and hopefully not sooner. I'm trying out Vera's Yaris now - we'll see what comes.
So, without any further rumblings, I'll sign off, hoping that everyone who takes the time to read this will have a good or better 2012!

Fwd: Roberto Alomar (@Robbiealomar) replied to one of your Tweets!

2011-12-03T01:00:00.001-05:00

From: Twitter <mention-jzbebfr=ebtref.pbz-691b7@postmaster.twitter.com>
Date: 3 December, 2011 12:49:39 AM EST
Subject: Roberto Alomar (@Robbiealomar) replied to one of your Tweets

Roberto Alomar @Robbiealomar replied to you:

Robbiealomar Roberto Alomar

@brewmanager @mlbfancave thx a lot man...;-)

Dec 02, 9:49 PM via Twitter for iPhone

In reply to…

brewmanager Walt M

"@MLBFanCave: The greatest second baseman of all time is Roberto Alomar. #MLBFC"

Dec 02, 2:44 PM via Twitter for iPhone

Reply to @Robbiealomar

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Welcome to the Jungle!

2011-12-02T23:50:00.000-05:00

Well, writing blogs is rapidly becoming a rarity in my life. At first I thought that Twitter was useless - who can express themselves in 140 character hits?

You know what? I can...I even like it. Twitter has also become a place where I've discovered a vast amount of information in things I'm interested in...mostly news, and of course, baseball. Doesn't seem to be much of a pinball presence out there, however. Maybe I should copy my tweets in here from time to time...

I've still been writing here occasionally, but really, it's been slipping for a number of years with the advance of Facebook and more recently, for me at least, Twitter.

Maya has been in Chile for just over a week now - missing her a lot, but her temporary absence has allowed us to really focus attention on Chloe in a way she's not used to. With two of us on her like Donkey Kong, we're definitely seeing an improvement in behaviour. She's not terrible or anything - just really stubborn and whiny...but what do we expect? She is still 3....

So I bought another pinball machine last weekend. Went to Chris Benn's and his friend Doug's place on a Saturday night a few weeks ago, and got to play 37 machines between the two houses. Some I liked, some I loathed, and one was so quirky and entertaining to play that it stuck in my head, so much so that I asked Doug if he ever sold his to let me know. He didn't want to currently, so I moved on...kind of. When Chris asked me which machines I liked, I told him, but mentioned how much I had liked this one really weird one. He mentioned to me that Sparky had one.

So I emailed Sparky to find out if he was planning to sell it at some point, and if so, to let me know. I got back a never say never, but probably not kind of email, forgot about it, and moved on.

About a week later, Sparky comes back to me, and has decided to sell. Now, a couple of things about this particular machine. 1. Very rare - Stern went bankrupt with it on the production line - only 889 were ever made, and it's very safe to say that fewer than that have survived. Some blame it for killing Stern, but to be honest, my research into the history indicates that Stern was on shaky ground anyways, and they had a lot more orders for it that they never fulfilled. 2. Sparky is the kind of guy where other people selling their machines use him as a selling point - this was once Sparky's game, so you know it's great. 3. I started the whole process, although I was thinking next year some time, maybe by summer. Sparky, however, was all about now, and I was thinking that if I really wanted to own this machine, and a great condition one at that, that I'd better pounce on this.

So I agreed to the deal, conditional on me selling Triple Strike first. I listed Triple Strike, and we waited a week, before Sparky agreed to do a trade&cash for the new one, which of course is worth way more than my relatively crappy Triple Strike, although it was completely working and looked worlds better than it did when I bought it. Of course, as soon as that happened all kind of potential buyers came out of the woodwork, all regretting not contacting me earlier when I told them it was sold. Never fails...

So last Sunday came, with my place being the hub of Wayne coming from Waterdown, and Sparky and Rob coming from Montreal. We moved machines around between the minivans in my driveway, played some pinball, had a good time chatting and in the end I had Orbitor 1 sitting in my basement beside what remains my pride and joy, my High Speed, which of course proved to have a weak upper flipper when they arrived. All 3 of them being pinball repair experts, they quickly showed me what needed to be fixed...and when they left after an excellent afternoon, I went to The Source and picked up my first soldering iron and some lead-based solder, watched a couple of youtube videos, and surprised myself mightily by repairing the flipper successfully - and a week later the repair is still holding.

Of course, that night Orbitor went all wonky...odds are I caused a short, which took four hours and many emails (and a phone call) to Sparky to diagnose. I felt bad - there's no warranty on 30 year old machines, for obvious reasons - caveat emptor clearly applies - but he was awesome - really helpful, even though I'm sure he had better things to do that listen to me (or read me) rambling endlessly without much clue what I'm doing.

By the end of the night, I'd learned a boatload about pinball machines. It took four hours to find the short, and by it's location made me realize that it'd probably been me that caused it in the first place, making me feel even worse about bugging Sparky.

In the process I'd made a few changes to the machine, some on purpose, some by accident (somehow I set it to 5 ball - something I'm going to be changing next time I'm in there - because it seemed to have changed the 60 second ruleset that is driving me nuts too with the machine.)

Slowly rewatching Star Trek:Voyager. In Season 5 now - you know, it really is too bad they're not making anymore Star Trek tv. Maybe if the next movie is as good as the last one...maybe.

Going to resume squash tomorrow after two weeks off with a really sore knee. It's only a slightly sore knee now - but the only way to heal it is probably to take some weight off, which I really can't do without playing squash. Irony sucks, doesn't it?

So - the title of this entry - I was driving to work this morning, and a GNR song came on with the iPhone on shuffle. My commute is such that I get two, and if I hit a couple of red lights, maybe three songs (I know I'm really lucky on that score) so I'd better pick some good ones. Despite Axl being a racist cracker, the band really kicked some ass - You Could Be Mine was blasting when I pulled into school, and I was having a grand old time. So I started writing this to Appetite for Destruction...didn't last long, some of it hasn't held up well...but c'mon - we've got fun and games.

Pinball Wizard

2011-11-06T22:25:00.000-05:00

I'm not quite sure how I got here, to be honest.

Back when I was a kid, I loved PA days. Hey, I'm sure kids today still love them. Me, not so much, since I have to be P about the A now, no matter what kind of stuff they come up with for us.

From about Grade 7 on, whenever a PA day would come up, I'd set things up with a few buddies, sometimes even a small group. We'd meet somewhere on Lawrence, and catch the 54 westbound, nothing in my pocket but five bucks and some bus tickets. We'd ride that over to the SRT, and head up to the Scarborough Town Centre. Some kids would have shopping, clothing and checking out the opposite sex in mind, but my circle of friends (at the time, at least) was far more into more important things.

We'd head straight to the Cineplex Odeon, and pick out a movie to see. Child admission was only $2.50, which was half the budget for the day, so we had to choose films carefully. I clearly remember that Goonies was one of the films we hit - maybe Jedi as well at one point. No popcorn for us, however. We took the precious change we got back, and headed over to Wizard's Castle. Ten precious quarters, and sometimes hours to wait before our show.

I remember wandering aimlessly up and down the noisy, dark aisles, spending more time looking than playing - had to make it last. The Star Wars sit in cabinet was always a favourite, and Dragon's Lair was cool, but it was 50 cents and always far too quick a play for my limited skills. I was pretty good at Galaga, but it was when they put in a High Speed pinball machine that I found my mecca. That game was just damn cool.

Anyways, fast forwards a decade or three, my group all discovered the opposite (or the same) sex, some moved on, some moved up in the world, and I find myself in Orlando with the family this summer. We spend a day in the complex pool, and are sitting outside the snack bar having a quick bite to eat when nature calls for me. The bathroom is inside another building, and to get there, I have to walk thru...the arcade.

It was pretty simple, three or four vids, no pinball, and a first for me, a coin-operated Xbox in a console. They had Galaga in a multi, so I was kind of interested...but I had no time. I couldn't linger, and I never did make it back in there the entire trip.

It got me to thinking - when DO I have the time for this kind of thing? I used to love them, and still do, to be honest. I don't feel my age when I'm playing them - not a bit, not that I'm that old or anything - but it makes me feel young, gives me an adrenaline rush. The only time I really have to play them - is after bedtime. Since finding arcades is pretty much impossible these days, the only option I have for playing is to...buy my own.

My favourite video game of all time is called Elevator Action. I started out looking for that one. I'd nearly bought one five or six years ago, so this interest couldn't have been a total shock to Gabi - but if she had any idea how much time I spent surfing websites reading about arcade collecting, even while still in Florida, I think she'd be surprised. (not any more though).

At the end of August I actually found a few examples, and was willing to spend a couple of days on roadtrips to pick them up - but again, the time monster got in my way - I just couldn't pull it off, or justify ditching my girls for multiple days to pick up something as frivolous (yeah, right) as a video game.

Further to this, I made an interesting discovery. Video games, unless expertly restored (beyond my skill-set), seem to not really hold up in value. In short, they seem to be a bit like flushing a large part of any money invested down the toilet, unless they're Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga. Pinball machines, on the other hand, seem to mostly hold their value, and in some cases, are rapidly appreciating. They still make them, and once I found the website that seemed to have a lot of people doing a lot of talk about pinballs (and vids too, to be honest, but it seems to be mostly pinballs), I became enthralled at the idea of owning a High Speed pinball to be able to play after bedtime, or even, if the girls got into it, before bedtime.

I got so enthralled, that I made a rather impulsive move. I found an ad for a Triple Strike, relatively close by and within my budget range at the time. I'd been talking about it for a few weeks, so I took Maya with me after her squash lesson (I was still hurt, so wasn't playing) and we drove out to Burlington and Terrence Glover's place, and picked up Triple Strike. In retrospect, I probably wouldn't have done it, although it's been a lot of fun shopping it out. It was working, but a mess overall. I've learned a ton on it, and I suppose in that regard $400 is a lot better than spending a lot more money and messing around with an even more expensive piece of machinery I had next to no clue about.

So I set it up in the garage, and we all played it, having some fun, and I slowly but surely learned how to take it apart to clean it, do what was necessary, and with the help of some fantastic people on Maaca, even solve the little credit switch problem I was having. I can't even begin to describe the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finally got it working, on free-play, 100%. While I'm very good at USING electronic equipment, changing the wiring setup and adjusting electrical switches was a new experience for me. Just today, I adjusted the switch on the right flipper, and it's working much better. Wouldn't have been able to do that two months ago, trust me.

So the plan all along was to finish it, and bring it into the basement to play over the winter. I'd never really stopped looking for a High Speed, and they kept popping up, but always in places like Green Bay or Boston...places I could dream about heading to over the weekend, but not realistically. So I decided to pick up, (after checking it out) a Rollergames, which looked both like an interesting game and a relatively kid friendly game. Then, on maaca again, someone who decided to part with their High Speed saw my quest, and I cancelled my Rollergames appt. I sold all the remaining Leaf tickets I had, and headed to Brockville to meet Bob, who was coming from near Montreal. We swapped some cash for the machine with the OPP watching us conduct our business the whole time (I was waiting for them to bring a canine unit over to sniff the machine).

At any rate, I now have two fully working machines in my basement, and a day where I don't spend at least a few minutes playing one of them is rare. They seem to require fairly constant tweaking, and the ramp is cracking pretty badly on High Speed, so I need to order a replacement, then figure out exactly how complicated the operation will be to put it in. Hopefully not too bad...but really, who cares? It's fun just working on them, if you can believe that.

And for a few minutes each game, I feel like I'm 14 again - without the acne and social awkwardness.

Slow start

2011-10-15T11:31:00.000-04:00

It's 11:30, the boat is out, but we still need to do the dock before we get moving.

Last cottage morning

2011-10-15T09:22:00.000-04:00

Its a bit after 9 am on a Saturday morning in October at the cottage, and the only thing stirring here besides me is the fridge motor and a couple of clocks.

Terry put together a boys weekend, and George and I came up to join him, along with Tony Pipilas, Chris Evanoff, and Mark, whose last name I don't have the slightest clue about.

George and I left a bit after seven, and with the heavy constant rain, took about 3 hours to get here. We played some cards, had a good time, and stayed up way too late, especially considering how our drive up had been spent comparing notes on exhaustion. I happily managed to split the pot on the 2nd poker game, which finally ended my losing streak of nearly a year since I'd won anything - although to be fair I hadn't been playing much.

I spent the night (some of it at least) on the leather couch, and surprisingly the phone only woke me up when Ter lost the "first wife to call" pool. It's a decent day right now - wet, but I see patches of blue out there. I kind of want to get the work done and get home, but I don't want to be pulling a jerk move and wake eveybody up myself.

Hmm...maybe I'll go run the chainsaw for a few minutes.

Paranoid Android

2011-09-16T23:28:00.000-04:00

Man...Radiohead...this song. I could listen to it a million times and still find new ways to appreciate it.

School is off to a busy start, but as expected, that double math load is a lot to handle. I find myself staying after school quite a bit longer than usual to get things done - unfortunately the daycare pickups and making dinner are just gonna have to be a bit later - cause I don't see how we could do any better in the mornings than we have been.

Quite a week for sleeping drama around here. On Wednesday night, the power went out around 11, and the lack of a nightlight woke up Chloe, who then went into a full-fledged night terror. Maya used to have them too - but I don't remember them being violent. More scary and detached. Chloe can be screaming that she wants Mommy - while Mommy is trying to hold her. I use the word trying because while this is happening, she's kicking, slapping, punching...and at one particular bad point, when I was trying to hold her arms, she reared back and headbutted me in the boys. Not fun at all. Got even better when the power went out for good at 3:30. Didn't feel like it, but apparently after awakening gasping for air and tearing off my CPAP mask, I did get some more sleep - but that sleep was rather noisy and didn't help Gabi sleep at all.

So Chloe was in bed early last night (thanks Nonna!), and we thought all was good for a quiet night - when, out of the blue, Chloe comes in complaining both of being hungry and having a hurting tummy. Then - I have to go Blah (our current word for puke in the house). We got her out of our bed in a hurry, and to the bathroom, but just beside the toilet, some projectiles were launched. It was impressive - all over the toilet, wall, carpet, and you just don't even want to know what happened to the magazine rack. A second bout later in our bed, and then general restlessness and wakefulness until 3 am - the fact that I'm coherent enough to write currently is suprising to me - but perhaps when I re-read it later I'll find I actually wasn't.

Went family veggie picking last weekend. Great idea in principle, and we had a great time with Vicki and Phillip, although Chloe, who loved it last year, was more difficult to manage. Should have thought a little more about how insanely busy the week was gonna be before starting all that. My birthday and squash finals (not that I was in them - not this summer - but I wanted the meal and a bit of a run) on Monday, Gabi's fair meeting on Tuesday, my curriculum night on Wednesday, Gabi's on Thursday (which I took Maya to, to meet her teacher), and then tonight, blissfully, nothing. In fact, tonight I finally canned the mild (practically flavorless, in my opinion) salsa I made on Sunday, and am now working on another fresh batch (which is aiming for medium, but since I'm not sure about the hot peppers I bought, could be anywhere from mild to suicide), but I'm starting to lose some of the tomatoes and peppers. Whatever I don't cook tonight I might have to dispose of gently. We'll see.

Now another all-time favourite - Hummer, by the Pumpkins. Why can't Billy Corgan make music like this any more?

I've got another new obsession. I'm starting to wonder about myself - do I just need to have an obsession? What would happen to me if I didn't? I started off thinking about standup, full-sized video games, but after some research I realized that they're a money pit that stands virtually no chance of being an investment of any kind, or at least holding they're value. Exceptions are out there (Galaga, MS. Pacman), but the machine I would want (Elevator Action) has next to no cachet, therefore no chance of being more valuable.

So thru this research, I discovered a website called maaca.org, or Montreal arcade and amusement collectors association, and got kind of fascinated by the pinball collectors. I always enjoyed pinball, but gravitated towards certain machines over others, to be sure. In fact, there's one in particular I'd love to get my hands on. In 1986, Williams manufactured a game called High Speed - if you were ever in the arcade, you'd remember it as the one with the police siren on top. If I was to get a game, I'm 99% sure that's the one I'd want. I even almost bought one off ebay - but it was in Cleveland, and Gabi wasn't too wild about me taking a couple of days to pick up a pinball machine. It also went over my limit, but in retrospect perhaps not as big an issue as the Cleveland thing.

At any rate, I haven't decided what to do. My quest for a working Elevator Action machine did lead me to locate the glass marquee from the game, which is arriving on Tuesday (don't worry honey - it was only $15). I'm either going to just mount it on the wall, or get really optimistic and build a little lightbox for it. Or find someone to build it for me, since I'm ok at big stuff (decks and fences) but not really good at fine woodworking.

I found a beautiful edition of High Speed - but it's expensive, and in Green Bay,Wisconsin. Every time I bring it up, Gabi hip checks me into the cupboards in the kitchen. Subliminal communication?

Maybe she really wants new cupboards first.

Travellin'

2011-08-25T18:59:00.000-04:00

Well, as hard as it is to believe, the days we've been planning for for well over a year have arrived. I won't post these until we return, but will hopefully blog continuously throughout the trip.

We left on Thursday after picking up Chloe from her fun in the sun camp. It was invaluable to keep her occupied and on schedule, and to keep our sanity together. She improved in her behaviour over the summer, but getting back into routine will help tremendously in the fall. The drive wasn't too bad, but we did decide to use the 407. The problems really started at the border crossing. Chloe, who needed a really good nap, woke up on the bridge and was cranky for the next 40 minutes, which was how long it took us to get to the front of the line. Our border guard looked all of 21, and clearly took his job very seriously. It was obvious that the sanctity and safety of the entire country was in his hands, and he searched two cars ahead of us. It was further obvious that I'd chosen the wrong line. He asked us a million questions, some of them over and over again, and after we finally cleared Gabi told me that she'd nearly mouthed off. I let her know that she could have gone for the first cavity search if she had.

So we headed to a Target, still looking to solve our park-based stroller issues, then checked into the hotel and went to the Walden food court for dinner. Is that the crappiest mall ever, or is it just me? A lovely swim followed, and then we went to bed. Up early on Friday, we went to the IHOP, where I think I made an error with all the green money. I was pretty sure I had a $100 bill when I went in, but later I noticed I didn't. I believe the $85 dollar tip probably made someone's day. Ah well - dumb, but at least nobody got hurt.

We then kept on our stroller quest, getting more upset by the minute as we were unable to solve the stroller issue, hitting Toys R Us and another Target, where we actually bought one. We opened the box inside the store, where I was appalled to pull out a wheel, and the handlebars. Being 75 odd minutes before our shuttle to the airport, and me typically setting aside half a day to assemble anything and also ensuring that no children are in earshot (there will be swearing), we owned that stroller for less than five minutes.

Our shuttle to the airport was uneventful, and checkin got a little exciting when my luggage receipt had someone else's sticker on it, but hats off to Delta - they took care of everything. Our big worry was Chloe on the flight, but she was fine, other than the fact that they announced our descent into Atlanta - and Chloe passed out. I carried her off the plane with melted m&ms stuck to her butt, and our transfer went well, except I foolishly decided not to get any food in the few minutes between flights.

Our Atlanta/Orlando leg was a bit more interesting. They were flying around a storm, so there was turbulence, s turns, and no drink/snack service, which by that point I would have killed for. It was a bit of an edgy flight, but the landing was like butter, luggage pickup was no problem, and even getting the rental car was pretty easy. It came down to a Kia Forte, a Mazda3, but we chose a Chevy HHR, which I thought would be easy to see, and satisfy Gabi's liking for taller vehicles. I like it, actually - I'd consider it for a CR-V replacement when the time comes, for sure.

The GPS said our hotel was 15 minutes from the airport, so of course with Friday night traffic it took 50, so we checked in and headed to the hotel restaurant, where they had an asian themed buffet, which didn't have much variety (nothing like Mandarin), and which looked disappointing, but turned out to be delicious. I was so hungry I would have eaten anything at this point, and I was constantly hoping the waiter would take away my bone plate, because the pile of rib and wing bones I was accumulating was getting a bit embarrassing. We then met up with Terry and Jenny and the boys, and had a few drinks in the hotel lounge while being entertained with karaoke saxophone, which Chloe loved.

Up next - Downtown Disney

A great vacation

2011-08-23T17:31:00.000-04:00

I'm on Delta 1176, having just left Atlanta and cruising at 600 odd mph, heading for Buffalo and our van for the final leg home. Sitting next to Maya is a lot more fun than the guy from the first leg, who, while far more noble than I, spent most of the flight railing against our capitalist consumeristic society. He's on his way to India to volunteer at an orphanage for the next two years. Somehow I just didn't feel right raving about our little Disney vacation.

Since I last checked in, a lot has happened. Epcot finished strong, as test track and Soarin were both awesome rides. We missed the obligatory thunderstorm too, and headed home in the early evening for a swim and dinner. This was where I decided to use my groupon to Cici's, which may well be the worst restaurant I've ever had the misfortune to visit. Blah. At least it was cheap.

Saturday everyone offered to hang with the girls so I could take Gabi to the Florida mall, which I found very disappointing, although she went a bit nuts in a necklace store (for a rather long time in my opinion). We did have lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen, which was nice. We came home for a swim, then went for a group dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, which was tasty, but next time I think I might go medium.

Sunday was a day I won't soon forget. The girls wanted to swim again, so Gabi and I were freed up to go visit Universal Islands of Adventure and the World of Harry Potter. Now, my injuries this summer certainly haven't helped me in the waistline department, but I've rarely been as upset about it as I was at this crappy theme park. I tried the test seat at the Hulk, and while it was certainly snug, I felt like I fit. Not so at the front of the line, as I got kicked out of the ride. Embarrassing, to say the least.

We then walked thru the park to get to Harry Potter, where to my dismay there was absolutely no question of getting my butt into the seat of the dueling dragon Rollercoaster. Gabi toured the shops and displays with glee, but my day was wrecked and my mood sour, putting it mildly. Ok, I was seriously pisses off, to tell the truth.

So - the world of Harry Potter. Last chance at redemption, the test seat was comfortable, let's go. Gabi even agreed to go with me, and touring Hogwarts while in line was really cool. So we get to the front of the line (30 mins), and an attendant asks me to try another test seat. Guess what happened?

Crushed, completely utterly crushed, I decided that I didn't want to spend another minute and certainly not a single other dollar in this brutal place, so we left. We stopped in at guest relations on the way out, and thankfully they were reasonable enough to refund our admissions and the fastpass I bought so Gabi wouldn't have to wait so long while I rode all the thrill rides I'd been dying to try. So much for best laid plans, eh?

So just over two hours after setting out, we were back home for a swim, and then dinner out at the Golden Corral, where we befriended a lovely young waitress from Kazakhstan, and then each of us proceeded to leave her some very nice tips, to the point that I think we'd get some unexpectedly nice service were we to ever go back there.

Monday we headed back to the Magic Kingdom, which was a great way to end our trip. Maya and I found Tiana, her favorite princess, and even better, no lineup! The girls both waited for Rapunzel while I crossed the park to get fastpasses for Splash Mountain. I was completely soaked when I got back to Rapunzel-I think Monday was the hottest day we saw. Maya and I used fastpasses to great effect, doing everything we hadn't the previous Monday (except Space Mountain - Maya was cool with the lizard in her bed, but not so much with the dark - and birds, of course). We hit Buzz Lightyear, Stitch's escape, the laugh floor, the speedway, did a run on splash mountain and a couple of turns on Thunder Mountain, then hooked up with Mommy and Chloe. I took Chloe on Aladdin's magic carpets while the others did the tiki bird show, then Gabi and Maya did splash mountain, which was Mommy's only thrill ride the entire trip.

I took Chloe to it's a small world for her last ride before leaving while the big girls shopped, then we sadly left Disney to go for a last family dinner at Chili's, which was excellent. I was deeply upset to find out about Jack Layton, however. His final letter was very reflective of my impressions of him, however.

Terry Jen and the boys had a very early flight, so we didn't see them this morning, but we did get to pack up and close up the house with mom and dad.

In all, it was a super fantastic family vacation, good to spend time with and hang out with everyone, the house was good, except for the crappy mattresses and lack of main floor air conditioning. We had mostly good food, we mostly got along, most of all we did lots of wonderful things as a family. Can't ever thank my mom and dad enough - as usual. They're awesome.

By the time this posts, I'll be home. I can't wait to be in my own bed. Getting turbulence-I'm gonna put the phone away so I won't risk yakking on it.

Shopping realization

2011-08-22T17:59:00.001-04:00

I've come to the inescapable conclusion that the only reason I can stand shopping so much (unless I'm shopping for myself of course) is that my iPhone keeps me very entertained.

No wireless data signal in Florida = extreme shopping boredom. A proven equation if I've ever seen one.

EPCOT

2011-08-22T17:58:00.001-04:00

3 theme parks in 3 days. What the hell were we thinking?

We're at Epcot today, the last of the four parks we're visiting at Disney, and I'm not sure if it's burnout or what...haven't really done anything yet, but Maya and I have a few fastpasses - one for test track, which Im really looking forward to, and Soarin, which is also supposed to be amazing.

We visited the Magic Kingdom on Monday, which was great, although the heat got to Gabi quite a bit. We had a lovely experience at the Princess lunch, which was also a very nice two hour break in air conditioning, and, even better, we missed a rainstorm. Two particular highlights for me were splash mountain, which was awesome, and watching Chloe watch the electrical parade, which she danced to and waved her way thru the whole thing.

We took Tuesday off and did some shopping and swimming, then Wednesday was Animal Kingdom. Chloe's first big girl ride was the Kali River Rapids, and she got absolutely soaked. Maya and the boys headed over to Everest next, which has to be one of the neatest roller coasters I've ever been on. It's frontwards, then backwards in the dark, then frontwards again. Just awesome. Maya and I did Kali again, then got caught in a torrential downpour on the way to meet Mommy and Chloe in Dinoland. Chloe fell asleep on the way to safari expedition, but woke up fairly happily to see the hippos and elephants. We then saw the parade before Maya and I split off again to ride dinosaur while Gabi and Chloe went to A Bug's Life, which absolutely terrified Chloe...poor thing may never go into another movie theatre - ever. I thought Dinosaur was kind of cheesy - but Maya didn't look.

On Thursday morning all ten of us went to the Contemporary Hotel, only my favorite hotel of all time. We had brunch at Chef Mickey's, where we also met Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Pluto. The food was very good, and the kids (and my dad) all had a great time posing for photographs and getting hugs from the characters. All ten of us went to Hollywood Studios, which has been both one of my best and least favorites combined. Least because there were some serious snits and meltdowns, and most because after bob, Gabi and the kids went back to the house for a swim, Mom, Ter, Jen and I closed the park despite the massive downpour. We had a great time, and while the Tower of Terror and Star Tours (and American Idol, to be honest) were all kinds of nauseating, the Rock and Rollercoaster featuring Aerosmith was just awesome.

Here come the girls - I've been on one of my favorite rides - an air conditioned bench.

Auction Hunters

2011-08-05T13:59:00.001-04:00

Now, I was surfing on the TV one night a few weeks back, probably right after the groin injury and came across a show called Auction Hunters, which I enjoyed. That led me to Storage Wars, which was ok, but I prefer the former.

So I started surfing around, and came across a few auctions in the GTA, including one in Ajax this wednesday. I mentioned my plans to Dave, and while I had to talk him into rescheduling a meeting, he definitely wanted to check it out, as did I.

So I hooked up the trailer, picked up some cash and Dave, and we headed to Ajax. Got there before 10, only to discover that the auction was actually at 12. Crap.

So we ran an errand for Dave that required the trailer, Vicki put on a late breakfast for us, and then we headed back.

The crowd was huge - over 100, I think, and it's fair to say it was a huge representation of society. People of all races, levels of income, etc. One guy looked like he thought he was a cowboy, and there were some people of the extreme high mileage variety. Another guy was there with his two sons, and they were decked out in designer everything. It was interesting to see.

The first locker had a chair, some kind of big foam statue, and a few bags. My interest level? None. Went for $55, which was $54.99 more than I would have paid for it.

The second was worse. It had an old microwave, and a small metal couch, with the worst stain I'd ever seen on it. I overheard someone calling it Monica Lewinsky's couch, which was tasteless but possible, I guess. Those were the only two things in the locker.

The price on this one? A buck. Plus $100 deposit, of course.

Just when I thought this was gonna be a total waste of time, other than entertainment value and a good time with Dave, we got to the third locker. A 10x10, it had lots of interesting things. Visible were an oak pedestal table and chairs, a 32 inch LCD tv box, a mitre saw, and a lot of other interesting boxes and bins with potential. Using the things I'd seen on the show, I valued it around $1000, and set my limit at $500.

Before I could even think of bidding, the price was well over my limit, and wound up being $1050.

The last locker was just as disappointing as the first two, and so we trailered home empty handed, but certainly highly entertained. Keeping my eyes open for other ones, although who knows if I really want to get into this. Just for fun, maybe.

Review - 2011 Hyundai Elantra GL

2011-07-28T12:00:00.001-04:00

Since I'm considering buying a car sometime in the near future, I jumped at the chance to spend a day with my dad's new Hyundai Elantra, to take it out for some typical family activities, and see if it might make it as a future family vehicle.

First off, since I first saw the design I thought the vehicle was smoking hot, so definitely open to consideration based on appearance.

It drives really nice too, with good acceleration and smooth, almost unnoticeable shifting. Cornering is quick when needed, although not something I had any occasion to push hard - my girls were all in the car.

Well, not all. I couldn't see where we could possibly put Cora in this thing, were all five of us to have occasion to go out. Observing how much Chloe loves the dog to bits (poor dog), Cora may not actually be my last dog as I'd previously been thinking.

Upon getting in, Maya promptly asked me to move my seat up, an accommodation I tried to make, but I already had very little space for my legs. Gabi felt the cab forward design was making her a bit uncomfortable, which was alleviated by her moving her seat back. In fact, the only one of us completely comfortable is CoCo, which isn't hurt by the fact that I used the opportunity moving her carseat to do a long overdue strap height adjustment.

So - the end result? I like driving the beast, it's peppy and fun. It's losing out big time in comfort and space, and Gabi's feeling of dislike for the car will ultimately trump every other factor. It's nice, and I can tell why my dad likes it, but I don't think it's for us, not at this point at any rate.

Of Kitchens and Wardrobes

2011-07-23T21:11:00.001-04:00

It's pretty safe to say that we love living in this house, after a year. One thing we're agreed upon is that the kitchen is not so much loved as tolerated. Barely. Slightly more since we upgraded the appliances - but only slightly.

So after a year of listening to complaints about the colour while we hip check each other into the fridge, I contacted Sass, our most excellent friend who runs a painting company, about coming in to do our kitchen. While waiting for him to let me know when he could, he had a death in the family, and I could tell it was unlikely he'd be able to squeeze us in. Our condolences to Sass, by the way.

So rather than be patient, I decide that I'm gonna do it myself. Fool. So on Thursday morning we move everything out of the kitchen, I filled the holes while Maya removed switchplates and taped, which went well until Chloe entered the picture and tried to take off a switchplate that Maya had already moved. At this point, Gabi took the girls to a pool party and I went to Home Depot to buy paint, as I was certainly not going to Lowes.

So I painted til 5, then we went out to Jack Astor's at the STC for dinner. An unusual meal. First, our hostess was a former student now in grade 12. A yelp of pain when I touched my fajita hot plate attracted the attention of another former student, who then sent another former student over to say hello. They are all doing well, and the two boys spoke highly of their time at Miner and with me, particularly history. Food was good, and afterwards we continued on our quest for the perfect ceiling fan, but struck out once again.

After the girls were in bed I resumed painting, and quit at about 1:30, too tired to move any further.

So Friday I awoke rather sore, and we dropped Chloe off at camp and went to meet Vera for breakfast. She had some amazing Russian pictures, and gave me a rather cool hat, although I had to ask for a translation. Maya went with Vera for a sleepover, and Gabi and I went shopping, me to buy a new belt and Gabi for the girls. We then picked up Chloe and took her to Baba's, and found ourselves with that very precious rarity, a kid-free afternoon! So what did we do? Wink wink...no such luck. We went to Vaughn Mills, where I absolutely tore it up. I've bought virtually nothing for myself all year, so I needed shorts, my sandals were killing my feet so I replaced them, and the find of all finds for me, a pair of Nikes, $169. Oh, marked down to 139. Then 119. Then 89, 59, 39 and finally, at $9.97, I snapped them up. They look a little weird, but are comfy as hell. We then hit two more hd looking for fans before Gabi finally foundone we

Letter to Lowes Canada

2011-07-19T20:59:00.000-04:00

Good evening,
After viewing an item on the website lowes.com, I travelled to Lowes in Pickering to see if a similar item was available there. Fortunately, it was.

Unfortunately, the price markup was ridiculous.

The item is the Hunter Regalia Brushed Nickel 60 inch ceiling fan. The lowes.com price is $159, and your Canadian in-store price is $228. This is a $69, 43.4% markup.

While I understand that operating a retail network in Canada is more expensive for various reasons, I fail to see or imagine any reason that would lead to that kind of markup. I want to shop in Canada and locally; however, at that kind of markup rate I cannot fathom buying the fan, even though it's the one that both I and my wife would like to install in our kitchen.

Is there anything that can be done about the price of this item in Canada for me?

Thanks,
WM

Let's see if I get any kind of action about this - I get some markup, but 43%????

Car Maintenance

2011-07-18T10:27:00.001-04:00

I knew restoring mobile blogging would help me kill time.

I sit in the office at Bertrand while the poor overused van receives some new fluids and bulbs. In the past two weeks, it's gone back and forth to the cottage 3 times, once with the trailer (and with a very heavy couch), as well as all over southwestern Ontario for Kailey and Dan's wedding.

So in a minor state of anger (ok, rage) I accidentally pulled the wire for my Bluetooth mic, and it pulled some of the interior trim on the a-pillar off. Nothing I did could get that panel back on, so I went to Toyota to find out how much a new panel would cost.

The guy at the parts counter suggested I try a clip first. So I bought two, snapped one in, and tried it. Worked so well I can't get the panel off again to install the extra clip. Thanks parts guy at Brimell Toyota - you just saved me some bucks. The clip was $2.40.

Chloe is at a morning playgroup today. She's been driving us a little bit nuts, just typical three year old stuff, but as is typical with such a wide gap between kids, we forgot what 3 was like. Dropoff went well, and i'm picking her up in an hour. Fingers crossed.

We're thinking we timed the cottage perfectly - it seems to me this might be the best week of the summer to be home in air conditioning so far. I'm going to install my in-ceiling rear speakers in the mancave this afternoon, then try to finish cleaning out the furnace room. I'm also painting the kitchen, but not til Thursday. We're going to do the whole thing white, and hopefully slap up a ceiling fan too, finances permitting. That, and finding one Gabi likes. Always an important factor.

Fingers crossed.

Perfect weather...again

2011-07-17T12:13:00.000-04:00

So I left the cottage mid-afternoon, and made great time down to the city yesterday. 2 hours, 26 minutes, a new best. I got the mail, flaked out for a while, hit Canadian Tire and the library, then headed over to pick up George. He was running a bit behind, so I helped him cover the pool and finish getting ready to go, and we left with barely enough time to spare, arriving 2 minutes before the game. I promptly fouled out as the leadoff hitter. 12 beers. Sigh.

We won handily over one of the best teams in the league, then in the 2nd game we were down by four when I took a 3-2 pitch that I was sure was gonna be short. 24 more beers. Sigh. My first beers in 2 years with the team, and suddenly I owe 36. Unhappy about this.

So George ANSI left the game, got some gas and diet pepsi, and a couple of cheeseburgers, then hit the road. We had a great time on the drive, just conversing and philosophizing in general, and without really speeding (much), I made it back in 2:20. Not an official record, because the clock started at McDs, not home, but still pretty good.

Today was gorgeous. I knew the lake was gonna get nuts, so we did tube rides early, then Pace and I headed into town to pick up some wood for Terry, a few groceries, and rather annoyingly, fill both tanks with propane as someone had finished off what I thought was a full spare tank and just left it under the BBQ. Fifty bucks to fill em both, plus boat gas....it adds up.

We have eaten well, played hard, and even enjoyed some scrabble, although Claudine was not fond of some of the two letter words.

Gotta hit the road - trying to beat some of the traffic, and the trailer is loaded for the dump.

Chilling by the fire

2011-07-14T21:24:00.000-04:00

Well, the kids and women are all inside, and I'm sitting outside by myself supervising the fire as it burns down to embers, at which point I'll probably put it out. It's one of those nights where my feet are toasty, my front is ok and my back is freezing - in short, a wonderful night to sit contemplatively by the fire with some sleeman product and blog.

Cora was lying by my feet until I went in to get my phone - she's had quite a last week. Finally feeling better, but there's been quite a bit of drama - not eating, diarrhea, goopy eyes and what have you. Thankfully, she bounced back yesterday, and today was far more like her old self, but mellowed. I mean, she's nine, so it's not like I expected puppy behavior forever.

I've got my 738 favourite songs on shuffle, and the red sunset is incredible. Am I a lucky guy or what? Blues Traveller, the Who, Hip, Watchmen, Counting Crows, James Taylor....loving this.

Just heard Fire and Rain, and that song always takes my back to 92/93, living with Dan Pidverbny on George St., and a point in my life of serious insomnia, or at least refusing to go to bed at a decent hour. I got to know Andy Frost very well in those days, broadcasting the show Overnight on the Rock Radio Network over the Wolf. It was Andy who told me about the death of John Candy, and then he played that song. One of those indelible moments in your mind, I guess. I was having a miserably lonely year, one that much improved the following year living with John, Ryan and she who shall not be named.

I drove thru Peterborough yesterday, and probably will again shortly after my phone picks up a signal to send this. I miss that town. I'm very jealous of Mike and Mer getting to live there full time. I love everything Toronto has to offer, but the traffic blows.

The Big Rock Candy Mountain...now there's a campfire song.

Wow, what a sunset that was. Spectacular! And now the Pikes...Kiss me you fool - too good to be random...

Alas, I must go in to help with bedtime, even though I really don't want these moments to end...

These might post out of order - for the record, this is cottage blog #2.