U is for Unexpected

Unexpected is right. Penny and I were unexpected...by her parents, that is. We pulled off the complete and total surprise of her parents when we showed up last night. They were really touched that we came down to spend Christmas with them. Nothing like a little positive karma for future use. ;-)

Unexpected also refers to the amount of rain we're receiving. At this time of year we can expect brief showers on & off during the day. However, we've had a rather steady downpour for the balance of the afternoon. Before the rains really hit Penny and I managed to hit the nearby pool and hot tub for some totally unseasonal Christmas Day swimming. Sure beats the Polar Bear Swim hands-down.

I hope this Christmas Day finds you well and enjoying the day wherever you are.

T is for Technical Difficulties

I'm really wanting to make some changes to this blog. I wouldn't mind looking at a different template or something really cool. However, with all the changes that the good folks at Blogger have made, they really missed the boat on adding some new, funky templates.

I was all set to try a modified version of one of the standard ones (including my banner and all that stuff) but I got so lost in the code, I gave up and reverted to this one. I think I've managed to sort out an issue with the background and how it loads at higher resolutions, so that should help a bit.

Guess I'll have to, like, bribe Kal and tap into his blogger code expertise. Wonder what he'll want for that?

S is for Surprises, Sun, Sand, Swimming, and Sex

( Edit at end of Post)

All four of those things will be had in various combinations and permutations because DW and I will be in sunny Florida for part of the Holidays. Here's how I mentioned it at work:

Me: "I got my wife a plane ticket as her Christmas present."

Smart-ass Co-worker: "Wow, that's nice of you. To where?"

Me: "Florida, to go see her folks and surprise them."

SaCw: "Really? So what will you be doing while she's gone?"

Me: "Um, I'm going with her."

SaCw: "Oh. Not much of a present then, huh?"

But seriously, ladies and germs....My poor DW has been somewhat worn to a frazzled remnant of her former self from the madness which is her workplace. This year has been a bit of a challenge for Christmas gifts between us because neither of us has any specific wants or needs. But she sent me a text message from work a little while back, telling me that if she could have it, she would love 3 consecutive days off, preferably somewhere warm. This little plan is brought to you by the fact that the Wondertwins are with their father for Christmas this year.

So off to the Scare Canada website I went, and - a few "Page Cannot be loaded" messages later, we had flights to visit her folks down at their winter place on the Gulf Coast. They are expecting to be all on their lonesome this year because the MiL's younger brother is ill and won't be able to travel down as originally planned. DW has confirmed that they will actually be at home when we arrive (although that might make for a really funny post later. Once we've actually started laughing about it, that is.)

In all honesty, I can use a little break myself. If nothing else, I can take 4 whole days off from school and work and basically put my brain on auto-pilot.

So there we have it....surprising her parents, sunny skies, sandy beaches, swimming in the nearby pool and much, much, much travel sex. Happy Holidays indeed!

******************************************************
S is also for Sacrifice. I can't say enough about the sacrifices DW makes for me and for our family. More often than not she deserves better than what she gets back, but its never unnoticed at this end. I couldn't imagine being without her. Not for a minute. I love you, baby...

R is for Remorse, Recriminations and Recontacting Rosie

Before I get into the heavier stuff, give a shout out to my old High School classmate Rose. A transplanted Canadian, she's married to a US Army guy and lives in upstate NY. Rose was a year behind me in school but was taking my French class (the keener) and her brother, James, was also a classmate.

Of course, none of this would be interesting without that Six Degrees of Separation tale, right?

I had been in touch with Rose via email years ago and managed to lose her contact details. But I came across her (and her blog) while reading the comments about another classmate and bandmate and friend of long standing who was facing, well, a life-altering moment.

You see, D - a well known and well-respected middle school teacher back home - was about to plead guilty to a luring charge involving one of his own students. It almost seems like the classic case. Popular teacher, high standing in the community, award winning, active in his church, dedicated to wife and family and passionate about his job....busted for rather inappropriate online activities.

39 years old, and life -as he knows it - is over.

Unfortunately, in our hermetically sealed little burg up North, this is major news, and, of course, everyone and his dog has an opinion. The opinions range from disbelief, to denial to righteous condemnation and absurd speculations. My sister being one of the many contented by their righteousness - "oh, I'm not surprised at all", she says. (I hear she's screening Martha to come in and re-do the ivory tower she currently calls home.)

Anyway, I'm not among those who will be calling for D's head. I just can't. While I find his actions deplorable both personally and professionally, I won't define the man by this bad act. Fortunately, there are some other bandmates who are taking the same stance. I took the time to write him a letter that said I'd stand by him no matter what. I also said that if he was wrongly accused, he should fight hard. But I also told him that if he was the man I knew him to be and if he was indeed guilty that he should face the music and spare everyone the grief of a trial.

Now some people might wonder why I'd be willing to stand by someone who will likely be known (not necessarily accurately) as a sex offender for the rest of his life...a man whose teaching career is over...a man facing a long road of personal reflection and emotional challenge.

...because he was there for me at a time when I faced guilt by association in that same small burg, and because I still believe he's a good man...although one who was clearly struggling with his identity (not to excuse his actions at all.)

Yes, he stood by me when I needed my friends, and that kind of dedication is something you never ever forget.

Q is for Quintessential Queries

As my DW has already done, it is my turn to share with you...

SIX WEIRD THINGS ABOUT MY WIFE

1. Some of you know that Penny has some rather chilly body parts. Feet. Flanks. Glutes. Its a running joke with us because I am, as someone once tagged me, The Human Hot Water Bottle. So you would think that she would appreciate being warm? Apparently not. She loathes hot feet and hot hands. Hates it. She feels all clammy, especially with her feet. We're not sure where the happy medium is. She has a pair of what she calls "Magic Socks" which alleviate the worst of the cold feet in bed, but eventually they come off.

2. Some women go nuts about shoes. Fortunately, my wife isn't one of them. Granted, she has way more in terms of footwear than I do, but she's nowhere near obsessed. However, she does have one clothing fetish: scarves. Not just any scarves. Ones she can knit. I'm very impressed with anyone who can knit, and my wife is one of the better ones at it. But she goes all giddy when she sees a scarf pattern, particularly if its some new, funky, multi-strand chunky design. Me? I don't get it. But it makes her happy.

3. There's nothing wrong with liking chocolate, but apparently if a chocolate treat involves layers, this triggers something in my wife. For example, with chocolate covered jujubes, she will eat all the chocolate off, suck the jujube clean of any remaining chocolate and then eat the jujube itself. She has to do this one at a time. Unless, of course, its a black one, and then I get it.

4. As some of you have seen, my wife is, well...um...uh...let's just say that 'June is bust-ing out all over.' As a result, if you have a body part that is likely to receive a lot of visual interest, I suppose it stands to reason that you want to make sure its presentable. This often means nipple alignments. Before she goes out anywhere, she'll often get me to make sure her "nipples are straight". If I look at this rationally, I suppose I wouldn't want one nipple pointing one way while the other is cock-eyed (so to speak) but as a guy, I just get to have free boobie looks. :)

5. Penny and I are equally bad for this one, but we often start crafts and leave them untouched for long periods of time. With Penny its needlepoint. With me, its models. We both have half-started or even untouched projects of various shades tucked away. In Penny's defence, she does complete some of them. In fact, she just completed and framed one that became a commemorative for our wedding. (Feb 5, for those of you planning to send Anniversary gifts) I'll let her tell you how that came about.

6. "There's no such thing as 'too hot'", she says. While this does not apply to feet or hands it does apply to that most exclusive of condiments: horseradish. Now, being of strong English stock I appreciate a good roast beef and horseradish, but Penny takes it up a notch. When we visit her "Aunt" for some of the Jewish holidays, she often has this wild purple horseradish which could curl nosehairs at fifty paces. That stuff became Penny's benchmark for "hot". Since then she's been on a quest for the ultimate hot horseradish. Borrowing a page from Kal, she's referred to some of the alleged "Extra Hot" offerings from the local grocery store as "Ussy-Pay". "Extra Hot, my ass", she says after biting into a roast beef sandwich in anticipation. Personally, I don't know what the right recipe is. We're still looking for the purple stuff.

There you go. She might be weird, but she's all mine and I love her to bits.

P is for Patriotism and a few other things

I admit it. I'm the closest thing to a flag-wavin' nut you're likely to see in this country. I get goosebumps listening to the Anthem, and I get a real swell of pride on Canada Day, watching the Snowbirds, and even on Remembrance Day. I dunno what it is, but I've got it. I love the flag, I love all the things this nation has accomplished and I appreciate the fact that its largely done without a lot of horn-tooting.

Of course, I can appreciate some good satire when I see it. These guys really top the list:



and



Gotta love it.

I suppose I'll even grand some grudging admiration to Weird Al and "Canadian Idiot"



But of course, "P" is really for Penny. My favourite Canadian Pervert (thanks, Kal. Btw, how's that ilicit sex video traffic doing?) I know I've raved on
ad infinitum about the awesomeness of my wife. And I'll continue to do so. So there. She rocks. and she's MINE. (Sorry Lowk, Kal, Larry, Dani, Callie, et al....)

And just for her, I'll leave you with this video from one of her favourite Canadians:



P.S. Ed, I haven't forgotten about the Meme tag. I promise I'll get to it.

O is for Ouch

Ouch. So there I was. No shit. Game was scoreless through 2 periods. 2:30 into the period they score. And again. And again. We lose 3-zip.

A disappointing state of affairs.

O is also for Oops.

When the venerable Grey Cup is presented to the winning team after the game, the boys get their hands on the actual 94 year old trophy. Unlike the Stanley Cup, which has 3 replicas on the go and the original safely on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. As with anything else which is 94 years old, the Cup tends to be a little fragile....as a BC Lion discovered to his chagrin on live TV when he....

Broke. The. Grey. Cup.

Yep. He broke it. Snapped if off its base.

This thing has had its share of bumps and bruises over the years but its never been busted like that before. And certainly not on live television.

It has since been repaired by a very talented Winnipeg welder.

Oh is also for Oh My God. As in what was Michael Richards thinking??

Oh, I seem to have reached the end of this post. Oh dear.

N is for "Now??"

...something I often ask Penny.

N is also for "Never say Die", which is exactly what the BC Lions did all season long and they kicked the asses of the Montreal Alouettes all over the field in the 94th edition of the Grey Cup, held yesterday in Winnipeg.

N is for Nit-picky. That's how I was working on a recent photo editing assignment. I was stuck in pixel land and I wasn't sure I was coming back.

That is all...

M is for Magna Carta

Okay, okay, so its a little historical geekery in the title. This rather belated entry is actually not about the 1215AD document as the foundation for representational governance. Honest, its not!

Its really more of a tribute to she who is My Wife. She who is Magnificent. Mollifying. More Meticulous than the gives herself credit for. And, most importantly, MINE.

MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!

(heh...sorry. Got a little carried away there.)

Have you ever had one of those "reality" moments? A moment where you think , rather objectively, about a situation that you're in and you just say, "How. Holy shit." Or words to that effect. "Is that really what happened?" I had one of those, recently. Not in a bad way, or anything. Just one of those, "wow, I really married this woman?" moments. More of a recognition of good fortune. She really is awesome, MY wife. I just love her to bits.

k, fine. So this wasn't really a "M" post. Except for the fact that Penny is Mine. My Wife. My Love. Mea Vita. Meum Mel. My pearl beyond price.

And, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
(so what if it's TMI? Ed and Sue will understand) ;-)

L is for Loss

The idea of "loss" has been much on my mind for the past several days.

So here we go.

Loss - what my Thursday team managed to do despite some unexpectedly
strong efforts on my part.

Loss - what my Argos managed to do on Sunday afternoon after fluking their
way to the East Final. A disappointing game from them on all fronts.
"Loss" will no doubt be felt by those who will not be returning to the
team next year.

Loss - what the Leafs managed NOT to do, despite losing Sundin and
Raycroft over the past couple of games. A 5-1 rout of Montreal was
clearly what the Team Therapist ordered.

Loss - Keenly felt on November 11th as Canada paused to remember those
killed, wounded or forever scarred by war. I can't help but notice that
my Legion's contingent in the town's parade was a little smaller this
year.

Loss - What my colleague 'L' is no doubt feeling after the loss of her
baby, just 11 days shy of her due date. She and her hubby had been trying
for 6 years to get pregnant and we were over the moon for her. We got the
sad news on Friday. Such cruel irony that many unworthies breed like
rabbits, yet this wonderful woman and her husband face yet another
staggering setback. Sometimes words are just not enough.

K is for Kick-Ass

(Don't get on me about hyphenations. This is my blog, so I'll do what I wanna!)

Yes...kick-ass would be the way to describe this last week. Or Kicking ass. Whatever works.

• I kicked ass in my most recent assignment for school. Got another "A". (Kick-ass!)
• I saw two totally kick-ass football games this weekend. The Argos and Bombers played a thriller, albeit in front of a disappointing playoff crowd. Then the Roughriders and the Stamps put on a great show.
• Michael Bishop - kicked ass coming off the bench cold to throw 2 TDs to clinch the Argo win.
• Saskatchewan's Defence - kicked Calgary's ass for the bulk of the game, setting up a major West division update
• My current model building efforts on a 1970 Plymouth 440 GTX - kicks ass.
• My Monday team - kicked ass last week to keep us in the top half of the league
• My Thursday team - kicked ass last week in a nice upset win.
• My wife - just generally kicks ass for her awesomeness

So there's your kick-ass post for a kick-ass Monday.

J is for Jones

Technical Designator: Jones, Kalezac Prometheus (ussy-Pay, Mk 1, Mod 0), one each, for the purpose of.

Scientific Nomenclature: Gluteus Irritatus Maximus

Ah, Jones. Wifey-pooh's vassal. Motherdear's firstborn. BG's endless competition. Handler of Recondo, keeper of The Garage, and major-domo for Rasta Cat. Jones, the Shameless luster-afterer of Penny and self-proclaimed successor to The Stony One in the event of his untimely (yet likely suspicious) demise. He, closet photo documentarian; tireless denouncer of irritating Mass-holes and ardent political op-ed blogger.

Truly, my friend, what can I say that has not already been said?

I think the burning question in everyone's mind is, "Dude, seriously. Like, what's up with the creepy rotting food pictures?"

Yes, friends, J is for Jones. World wthout end, Amen.
(pass the potatoes)

I is for Idiot

Well, what the hell else would I use? My loyal readership knows that I don't suffer fools well, and as Nov 11 draws closer, they seem to come out of the woodwork more and more.

Here's the latest example and aftermath.

People's lack of respect and consideration never cease to amaze me. And if ever there was a group of Canadians who deserve it unconditionally, its our veterans.

And then, just for kicks, you get idiots like this one. I don't envy the officers who have to learn to cope with what they see. Humanity saddens me sometimes.

I is for Idiot, indeed.

H is for Happy Birthday!

...and a Happy Birthday to The Panama Jackass, that Missouri Masher, that Nature Boy, that Deuce Bigolow Wanna-be...

LARRY!

G is for Goalie

Well, duh. What did you think I would choose?

G is also for Google. Without which I'd never be able to amaze Penny with my repository of useless information. Bless you, Google.

G is for "Go Figure", one of my signature phrases. Very handy in a number of anecdotal situations. It can say "that's an interesting story", or "fuck me, I'm bored of hearing this story AGAIN" with equal affinity.

G is for G spot. (Maybe one of these days Jones will figure out what happens when he finds it). When people tell me to go to my happy place, I know what I'm thinking about. Everyone else thinks I'm pondering a pleasant meadow. Silly rabbits.

G is for Grumpy. Which I am sometimes. I admit it. So, deal.

And finally,

G is for Guitar. An instrument I love to play but don't get to play much anymore. *sigh*

F is for, um...

How about "flailing", does that work? Cuz we all know what "F" is really for (I know Ed and Sue know for sure!)

F is definitely for Football. Unfortunately, Penny and I seem to be bad luck for the Argos because they lost every game we attended this year. So we're not going to attend the East Division semi-final this weekend. Instead, I'll just watch on the Tube.

F is for Five...as in a 5-2 win last night in my Ajax league. And I was doing a lot of flailing around at the puck for sure.

F is for FUBAR. Heh. 'nuff said there.

But F is really for Friends. And I count you all among them. :)

E is for Eerie

Sometimes it takes my wife to point things out.

I had come home from hockey late Monday night (I'll just slip past the ol' procrastination issues here) and I had showered and DW was staring at my left side as I changed.

"Oh my god" she said. "What happened to you?"

I gave her an odd look.

She said, "Your chest protector has branded you. You've got a pentacle! No, seriously!"

Of course, I didn't believe her but I went to the bathroom to check it out in the mirror. She wasn't kidding. I had the faint outline of a pentacle on my rib cage.

You knew we had to take pictures to prove it, right?

Here ya go...here's proof that I bear the mark.














First the cross thing, now this? What's next?

D is for D'OH!

Probably the singular catchphrase announcing failure, recognition of retroactive error or realization that you just uttered something you shouldn't have uttered.

Way better than "oops" by a long shot.

Of all the contributions to Western society provided by Matt Groening, I'd say that one was the biggest.

(Pretty sure that's what Larry said after The Steph posted that picture....)

C is for Cornucopia

Well, its for a lot of things...isn't it?

C is for Choke, which is what my Argonauts did when they had a chance to clinch first place and a bye to the East final. Penny and I went to the game and were throroughly disgusted with the on-field product.

C is for Crunch, which is what fellow North Bay native Mike O'Shea does to people on the football field. In fact, he's done it 1,000 times. Yep, Mikey recorded his 1,000th tackle on Friday night. Well done, Mike.

C is also for Cuddle, and Penny and I did much of that this weekend.

C is also for Cool...and I give that big shout out to all my readers, commenters and lurkers. You folks rock.

Edit:

C is also for Clarke. As in Bob. He who fell on his sword as the seemingly untouchable GM of the Philadelphia Flyers. He wasn't universally liked as a GM in the NHL, but he definitely took some good stands when he needed to. I give you Eric Lindros as an example. Take a break Bob. I'm thinking you need it.

B is for Baseball

I really lost most of my interest in baseball after the strike, but I was thinking of Larry when I heard that the Cardinals made it to the World Series. I was a little sad that Carlos Delgado won't get a shot at a World Series title but I hear it was quite the series.

As much as Larry is a hockey fan, I know he likes his hometown Redbirds too. So, here's to you Larry...may your boys bring home the hardware this year.

A is for Argentina

Argentina - a lovely little country with some interesting and somewhat dubious socio-political history. They recently unearthed Juan Peron to move him to a new mausoleum. Needless to say the event was fraught with all sorts of emotion.

However, on a more positive note, Argentina is the home of my friend Daniela, her husband Seb, and their daughter Sophie. Sophie has her own photo blog and she's an absolute cutie. Dani and Seb are, I think, still hoping to move to Canada some day...although why they wanted Winnipeg still escapes me. Seb is also likely the only Maple Leafs fan in the Greater Buenos Aires area.

Night of the living brain dead

Somewhere in a parallel universe, my doppelganger has had an awesome day. I, on the other hand, had a pretty tiring day at the salt mines. By my calendar, I had all of about 45 minutes of unscheduled time yesterday. Yikes.

All things being equal, I'm hoping his day goes to shit and mine is nothing but success and accomplishments.

Here's hoping, anyway.

Btw, I must give a big shout out to the BatRider. I've resisted the urge to really needle him about the Eskimos being knocked out of playoff contention this past weekend. Fortunately he's a good sport about most of my ribbing on all things "Eskimo" so the banter will, I'm sure, continue.

I'm toying with the idea of my own A-Z list like Steph but I dunno if it could be done consecutively. Must consult her for the rules.

Have a happy!

Rampant Despotism IV

Well, we finally did it. We really did. We finally took the next steps on our path to rule the world.

After much drooling and longing, we picked up Civilization IV this weekend.

Anyone who has read this blog (if there is anyone left reading this blog) knows that I was a big CivIII fan and I was really excited to see that an update would be forthcoming. The game came out a while ago but it has finally taken up residence in the Stone-Shagwell manor - the perfect plaything for two equally aspiring despots.

Granted, Penny and I take different approaches to world conquest. She's all about steamrolling the competition, and I'm more into the economic and cultural stranglehold prior to military action, but the end result is the same. What I really like about this version is that apparently you can run multiplayer scenarios on the same machine where you take turns.

Once I crank some more RAM into the computer (because we're at the bare minimum for the system requirements) we'll have to try it out.

The graphics rock, the soundtracks are amazing and I could happily spend a few days building and ruling a few worlds. *sigh*

Screen shots follow...

So here I sit...

...Wires crossed yet again with DW's ex. My schedule says to drop them off after 7, and when I arrive at 7:20 he ain't here. So I call. He's apparently half an hour out.

Since I have no interest in burning up gas for 30 minutes, here we sit. Good thing The Boy was in slow mode getting out otherwise we'd sit here longer.

This isn't helping the headache I've been nursing since noon. This one is a doozie and nothing seems to help. Maybe sex will. :P

K. Is he here yet? *looks* nope. Not here yet. Fuck.

I have to do a major shout out to Steph, the Dirty Gypsy for her awesome alphabet posting series. She came up with 26 great posts that really are a great read. You'll even find a really awesomely embarassing picture of Larry the Nature Boy from a recent party chez Steph. Nothing like a pic of a drunken blogger on a bathroom floor in a really stupid hat to bring out those wanting to use the picture for evil purposes. (Like that picture would have any other purpose???)

*looking at clock*

Shit.

I really should have just gone back home and told him to pick the kids up there. But I'm a nice guy so I didn't do that. But I should have. Oh well.

Fuck its cold outside. Could be worse. I could be in Buffalo. That does apply at almost any time but in this case it's doubly applicable because they got pounded in a rare fall snow storm. Buffalo and the parts of Ontario right across the border got 12"-15" of the white stuff closing roads and schools and wreaking all sorts of havoc. Better them than us.

Speaking of which , I played 2 good periods of hockey last night and I'm not quite ready to talk about the 3rd period so we'll just not, okay? K. Good

7:42PM. Not here. ~sheesh~

My head still hurts. Did I mention that? Good. Didn't want you to forget.

Hmmmm. What else....Penny has been back at work part days this week I'll leave her to relate the gory details, suffice it to say that she really is the glue holding her department together. Based on what she told me I envisioned her department looking something like Klinger's Office when he got sick and the doctors took over. Chaos chaos everywhere.

7:50. I'm really glad I have my blackberry. Otherwise I'd be seriously bored. Kids are keeping themselves entertained with some kind of in-car wrestling. As long as they are still laughing and there's no blood I'll leave them to it.

7:56. He arrived. Kids gone. Am off.

Hey, wait a minute!?

This week I got a real sign that I had been lying low for too long. I was working on my paper (submitted last night, thank you very much) and went to the fridge for a drink. When I opened the door I saw a milk carton with my picture on it.

So, yes, I've been located. Alive and well.

The Stone/Shagwell clan is off to the wedding of Penny' niece at beautiful CFB Borden, where she is marrying a meathead. No, not Mike Stivic. She's marrying a Military Policeman - known as meatheads particularly for their red berets. Although by all accounts he's a great guy so I'm happy for them both.

It will be a trip down memory lane for me because I spent no small amount of time at Base Boredom over my time in the big green machine and I haven't been there in quite some time.

Last evening was spent with Penny's favourite nephew and his wife, who are also in town for the wedding. Nothing like a couple of pints of Alexander Keith's finest to lubricate the ol' brain pan.

Must get my mop trimmed now. :)

I bear the mark!

Every once in a while life makes things interesting. In school we get the lesson and then take the test. But life prefers to give you a test and then teach you the lesson.

Case in point...

Last night was game 2 for my Ajax league. We were fresh off an 8-4 win last week but facing the league's comic relief team, The Pylons. They're a good bunch of guys with a great team spirit and in spite of the fact that they usually own the league basement we seem to have trouble with them.

The game actually went well and was pretty balanced and both of us goalies were keeping things interesting by frustrating the shooters. In the second period we were up 2-1 and I took a shot fairly high on my chest. Normally this isn't a problem but this time it really hurt. Sometimes that happens but the upper part of my sternum was really sore. I didn't think much of it and figured I'd have a pretty good mark where the puck had obviously hit me between two blocks of padding.

After the game I pulled off my chest protector and felt down inside my shirt. My hands made contact with my Celtic cross and it was BENT! I walked over to a nearby mirror to look at my chest and I had a lovely imprint of the Celtic cross outlined in red just slightly right of centre on my chest. Ouch...

Penny says its like I've been branded and I really should take a picture to show the mark, cuz its a good one.

So, kids, when you're playing a contact sport...take off the bling. Avoid the brand and the devil's mark.

(And for my next trick, ladies and germs, I'll be figuring out how to unbend my cross...coming up next!)

Muggy Monday

I swear the fall is supposed to be cooler, but with how I was sweating from the humidity today you would think it was the height of summer.

Even at home we're in this great personal comfort conundrum. Its too hot to be enjoyable in the house, yet the thermostat says it shouldn't be hot enough to require the A/C. Applying some logic to the situation, we know its not exactly a wise use of energy to be firing up the cooler air. So we try fans inside. They work. Unfortunately, that lovely air circulation doesn't extend itself to the GO train. I was regretting my choice of a dress shirt both on the way to work and on the way home.

Back in a moment....must tidy the kitty box

* * *

I'm back. Miss me? (I swear that cat is suffering from some internal necrosis...that was nasty!)

Sorry...TMI, I know.

I know for a fact that my evening is guaranteed some air conditioning, because hockey starts tonight. Hockey also starts on Thursday night. (I love playing 2 nights a week...) Unfortunately, both starts are late ones (1o:30) so I'll be a mite sluggish for my 9:30 meeting tomorrow, but I'm told this is what caffeine is really for.

I hope your evening finds you cooler than this one...

Tidbits

Straight out of the "WTF?" file, hockey fans will be aghast to see that the New York Islanders have engaged in their latest round of silliness. Not content with signing Alexei Yashin to his 10yr-$70M contract, or with replacing easy come, easy go GM Neil Smith with their backup Goalie (Hello, Garth Snow), but the Isles finally went off the deep end. They had drafted Rick DiPietro as their goalie of the future a few years back and, well, its tough for a guy to play well behind a bad team. Just ask Marc-Andre Fleury. Anyway, Charles Wang (owner) decided that he really wanted to hang on to DiPietro. So he offered him a new contract.

A 15 year contract.

Worth $67.5M.

Guaranteed if he suffers a career-ending injury.

Holy crap.

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In other news...NASCAR officially created a new racing series in Canada - the Canadian Tire Series - by purchasing CASCAR (the small-time Canadian Stock Car circuit.)

Because Canada needs this. Really, we do. Because there wasn't enough reason to put a "3" sticker, complete with halo and wings, on your Monte Carlo or other GM product. News flash, folks. It was a race. He's Dead. Get over it. You don't see people doing that for Greg Moore or Gilles Villeneuve, do you? ~sheesh~

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A shout out to the folks over at Boatmen Blog (see links). I tripped over them today (first useful link I've found from the Red Star of Toronto, I mean Pravda, I mean, The Toronto Star. All those crazy-ass Argo fans can get their Frank D'Angelo bashing joys there.

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Condi Rice was apparently in Halifax yesterday to offer her thanks to the many Haligonians who took travellers in when flights were diverted because of 9-11. Wonder if she had to look for it on a map.

=========

The Steph actually Audioblogged. Colour me floored.

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I'm generally in a Fuck You kind of mood today. Could you tell? Oh, and, Larry? Lemme know how that new relationship is working out for ya. ;-)

Remote Friday

Hello from a not-too-distant place. Penny and I are out for a quick getaway and while she's tied up I thought I'd blog.

Got some nice news back from school with an update on marks for the big presentation my team did while I was in Victoria and the paper I had to submit after I returned. The marks were good and I got lots of constructive feedback on how to keep improving things, so I can't really complain. (We even had a blog assignment and I managed an A-. Do with that what you will.

Hockey is starting soon and the playoff runs for football are starting. My Argos are only 2 points behind Montreal for first place in the East and if they keep playing as well as they have recently, first place is not out of reach. dtrini, his DW and Penny and I will be attending the final Argos home game...fittingly against Montreal. Can't wait for that one.

Anyway, not a whole lot else to say. My next school course is going on and a lot of my writing energies are going there. Blogging for school? Who knew!

Hope all is well with everyone out there. I'm still lurking around and reading when I can and commenting when the mood strikes.

Best Time of the Year

(yes, my paper is done so now I can concentrate on more important things....at least until my next one is due)

My favourite sports weekend is this weekend. The Labour Day classics mark the run up to the playoffs for the CFL. I plan on spending Monday absolutely engrossed in the Calgary-Edmonton game, and then the Toronto-Hamilton game. Tonight is BC at Montreal (and although some experts are billing this as a potential Grey Cup preview, I don't think Montreal will get there. BC will definitely have its hands full with Calgary, if Henry Burris keeps playing well), although Saskatchewan looks like a dark horse.

Unfortunately, Monday also marks the start of my next course at Royal Roads. Apparently we don't worry about holidays when we do distance courses. ;-)

However, very little will get between me and football this Monday.

"It's the most wonderful time...of the year..."

On another note, I do plan to spend some time in the workshop this weekend, finally getting my workbench done. All that remains is the fitting and installation of the drawers and the final fitting of the top.

Then I get to dismantle the old one.

"Queequeg? Fetch me my pry bar!"

Hello, blog

Remember me?

Yeah, I know. It hardly seems like we have any "quality time" together anymore. Ever since I started that new thing. You know, school?

She's pretty demanding, I tell ya. Heck, I didn't do much with her last week and I'm really paying the price, now. I mean, its not like I ignored her or anything....I just laid a foundation. Something to build on. You see, we have this big date on Thursday and I really needed to make sure I had things right. I had to gather my thoughts, and all that. But Thursday's coming fast and I had a lot to do. She was really nagging at me and I knew I had to do something to make it up to her.

I think she's a little happier. She's feeling like I'm meeting her stringent demands for something "origina", instead of hearing only what others have said...or even worse, stuff people have quoted from individuals who were smarter.

Thursday should be interesting when it all comes together.

Until then cherished blog....I'm not going anywhere...I just need to take care of a few things, ya know?

On braces and beans and blogging

I was reminded by Kal that I've been a little quiet on the blog front recently and I suppose that's true. In my defence, I offer the fact that I was away for 2 weeks getting all edjimacated and that I've spent the bulk of this first week home reconnecting with my wife.

Colour me guilty. *g*

One of the ongoing assignments for school has been a reflective blog. I suppose that's what I do here - reflect - but the reflections are of a more personal nature. The school blog is also reflective, but more specifically reflecting on our learning experiences in the program and about learning in general. The blog assignment was somewhat experimental for the faculty and it wasn't without its problems, but it is worth 20% of my total grade. So, I blog.

A guy does need a place to have non-school thoughts published and vented, and this is the place.

There are a few random updates...

Penny is at the dentist this morning with The Boy, having his braces fitted. Most kids I grew up with dreaded the thought of becoming "metal mouth" for a long period of time, but he seems to be looking foward to it. I'm not sure why, though...

Penny was also cooking up a storm yesterday afternoon. She was prepping two massive pots of beans to be turned into Baked Beans (using her mother's recipe), she also did a huge batch of beef stew and she had prepped corn, chicken strips and chicken burgers for dinner. In response to my somewhat astonished gaze, She said, "I know, I know...I was nesting a little bit yesterday."

No complaints here, babe.

Other than that, work is work...school is school (final paper assignment due August 31) and life has returned to abnormal chez nous.

We pause for station identification

Dtrini and Bonnie will get this one...


































Wow....they really do come home...

Almost done....

My group presentation is done and its the last day of my residency. I'm brain-weary but really pumped about what I've learned so far. Choosing the program here was definitely the right call. There are some really, really smart people in my cohort and, as one of my collegagues mentioned, it feels like I have a faculty body well beyond the 3-4 profs.

I'm excited to be going home to my DW and to the simple pleasures of sleeping in my own bed, snuggling with Penny and pulling the cat out of whatever it is she's getting into.

A long 2 weeks but a good two weeks. Just have to get through the long flight home...

For my "Babe"

Except that in a few days, my plane will be leaving, I'll be on my way back to you so I won't be missing you anymore.

This isn't me, this is my stand-in

I give you this Meme in my absence.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and a street name)

Max Bayview, Max Lighthouse, Max St. Germain, Max Fencerow, Max Glenrose, Max Commanche, Max Heron, Max Pine (Actually, I think these are my DJ names...just like Johnny Fever.)

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy)

Richardson Skor

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your middle name)

Rock M

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)

Blugh Katz

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)

Weylynn North (my agent made me modify it...and besides, Thaao Phenglis was already taken.)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of mom's maiden name and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in.)

Sto-Mo Bi-Nor (Renegade Pilot, Trader, Mercenary, and Intergalactic Slut-puppy)

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (your favorite color, favorite drink)

The Blue Screwdriver

Is it still Posh if its just Victoria?

Hello readers:

My body tells me that its well after 1AM even though the clocks say its about 20 past ten.

I have arrived safe and sound in Victoria and I'm on my way via cab to the Royal Roads campus. Right now I can't tell you much because its too dark to see anything, but I'm sure its lovely.

Penny is off to take the Wondertwins to their camp soon....and I'm missing her lots right now.

I'll blog again once I've found my campus, my dorm, and my bed....in that order.

Night-night...

~yawn~

Another week, come and gone

Friday already? Wow...a speedy week indeed.

I've spent a lot of this week getting school work done and getting work work wrapped up before I go.

Penny and I spent the bulk of yesterday together doing errands and other last-minute things. We upgraded her PC at home (sound and graphics), but not without an amusing yet poignant lesson in the importance of reading package instructions prior to leaving the store to save yourself a return trip.

Hockey was on last night, and the Steve's Painting crew managed a 2-1 win in the first of 3 round-robin playoff games. With the other two teams in our division playing to a 1-1 tie, this means we have a slight hold on first place for the moment. I'll be missing the next 2 games because of school, so I told the boys I was fully expecting to be playing in the final on the 24th. But, no pressure, eh?!

I'll blog as frequently as I can while I'm away but don't be surprised if I'm too busy to say much.

I'm gonna miss my DW like mad when we're apart. Fortunately for us, we don't have the kids the night I come back.

Heh, heh, heh.

Enjoy the weekend, all....

(NOTE: I'm sufficiently disgusted with the stinker the Argos played last night against Montreal that I am refusing to comment as a protest. Power to the People, and all that.)

How can we miss you when you don't go away?

Dear Dominik:

Yeah, sure. You might be a really great goalie to some people, but despite your repeated Vezina Trophy wins, you never did a lot for me.

Must be that stupid-ass bucket you wear on your head.

And, yeah, it was all touching and shit when you finally got the Stanley Cup with Detroit, but a real champion knows when its time to call it a day.

That, my friend, ain't you. Because you still haven't figured it out.

I did some checking. Yes, you left after the '02 Cup win. But for some insane reason you came back. You played a whopping 14 games. 14. Why? Because your groin went out on you. Of course, you got to enjoy the 3-ring Circus, featureing: You, Curtis Joseph, and Manny Legace. Then you hung them up again over the 04-05 lockout. But nobody really expected you to come back. (to your credit, you did willingly give back a lot of the salary you signed for because you felt you really hadn't earned it.)

And yet, inexplicably, you did come back. To Ottawa, of all fucking places.

43 games played but only 28 wins. Oh, yeah...and you had all those wins in the first half of the season when, yep, your groin/adductor/whatever went out again. So the Sens put their playoff hopes on their rookie goalie. Might work in Carolina, but not in Ottawa, pal.

And here you are, inexplicably, back in the NHL with Detroit.

Dude, I don't get it. You don't really have anything left to prove and you're a trainer's nightmare because one mis-placed lunge with a pad and you're toast for the season.

Dom, you're done. The sooner you recognize this, the sooner you can get on with your life and we can get on with hockey.

Love,

NHL fans everywhere.

Technorati Tag: hockey

The Champ...

Its amazing what you can find when you look for it. Anyone wondering what this whole "Champ" thing was that I posted in Penny's latest blog can go here for a listen.

Oh, the shame of it all

After watching the Argonauts get their asses handed to them by the BC Lions, I am completely ashamed to be a fan. I haven't seen this much bad play since the Chevy Chase show, or when Ralph Benmurgi thought that a TV show would be a good idea.

Bad penalties, weak play, and no coordination whatsoever.

Shame, shame, shame

..and on this day in history...

(Courtesy of Wikipedia...)

1794 - Reign of Terror leader Maximilien Robespierre was guillotined.

1914 - Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, starting World War I.

1976 - The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude flattened Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.

1990 - Alberto Fujimori became President of Peru.

1996 - The remains of the prehistoric Kennewick Man were discovered.

Slight correction...

I should have checked my facts better. Don Rogers, who died recently, was the last surviving test pilot from Avro Canada. He was Avro's Chief Test Pilot at the time of the Arrow program. He did not, however, pilot the Arrow. His aviation claims to fame were the landmark test flights of the Avro C-102 Jetliner.

The 4 Arrow test pilots were, in fact:

• Jan Zurakowski (d. 02/2004)
• Peter Cope (d. 04/2005)
• Jack Woodman (d. 05/1967)
• Wladyslaw "Spud" Potocki (d. 1996)

Shame on me. ;-)

Friday in the Rain

I suppose it could have been worse...it could be pissing down rain tomorrow. Oh, wait. It might.

(Hmm....must ask dtrini about backup plans for our double date Drive-in Night...)

Yes, I am here. I haven't died. Nor have I given up blogging. There hasn't been a great deal to say, although I've lurked around where possible. (I think Ed and I were suffering the same malady)

Pre-residency for school started this week, so I've been getting used to the online learning environment, reading papers and reading books and then reading more papers and reading and highlighting and note-taking and reading and holfuckamIstillreadingmorestuffohmyGODIcan'tbelievehowmuchfuckingreading
I'mdoing....and then reading some more and workin on my first assignment: a reflective paper.

I know you've all be clamouring for a hockey update, so here it is. We had our last regular season game last night. Until last week we had a nice win streak going and then we turned in a real turkey last Thursday. I didn't feel I played badly, but we just could not make a pass to save our lives, let alone put the puck in the net. Strangely enough we had managed to hold onto first place in the division. This week we were determined to play better but still came out rather flat against a team we've done very well against in previous games. Paul, our captain, had a new stick and he kept firing the puck over the net. Wes, our top scorer, had a new blade on his and had much the same problem. I was doing my very best "Doc Oc" impression between the pipes at our end and Trappy the Wonder Glove was snagging just about everything in sight.

But we were still down 2 goals with about 1:45 remaining in the 3rd.

Fortune smiled on us. They took a bad penalty by dumping one of our guys in their end and we took advantage. We scored with 34 seconds left.

4-3.

So I went to the bench and they put on the extra skater. Now, this ploy rarely works for us but somehow we popped one in.

Tied 4-4 with 10 seconds on the clock.

Not bad, all things considered. We finished one point out of first. 6-4-1 over 11 games. What really stinks is that because I'm off to Victoria as of the 5th, I'll miss the 2nd and 3rd playoff games in the round-robin. Ah well....no sacrifice too great for education...

That's all for the moment, readers.

Keep smilin'!

Wow....big news out there today

I dunno where to start...

Israel wipes out a well-known UN observation post, killing 4 peacekeepers - including one Canadian. Kofi Annan says, "deliberate", and Ehud Olmert says, "oops".

Lance Bass (ex-N'Sync) shocks the world by coming out of the closet. Hmm. Lance is gay. There's a fucking news flash. Who didn't see that one coming? C'mon..let's see some hands! Anyone? Anyone?

The last surviving test pilot of the Avro Arrow died today. Truly the end of an era.

There's the highlights, folks....pick 'em!

"Tranquility Base, here...the Eagle has landed."

37 Years ago today...humanity took its biggest step toward the stars.

Technorati Tag: Spaceflight

Muggy Monday

Folks, its hot. Damn hot. REAL hot.

I could, conceivably, fry the proverbial egg on a downtown sidewalk. Damn hot all weekend, too. But that didn't matter. I spent the weekend with my nose in my textbooks...plugging away at my first assignment. *ugh*

To kick the weekend off, we had a little commuter chaos. Around 2:30 Friday afternoon, 6 cars from a freight train jumped the tracks near one of the GO stations in the west end of the city, effectively paralyzing commuter trains.

Now it wasn't all bad for the Stoney One. I had planned an slightly early beverage departure with a couple of colleagues, figuring that if we had to wait out a train stoppage, we might as well do so with something frosty in our hands. After a while we headed down to Union Station where the madness was in full swing. The display boards showed trains cancelled, trains delayed, crowded buses, and cell phone traffic so thick you could almost see it. I wasn't particularly worried...the kids were already at their Father's place...DW was working, and the Cat was probably sleeping. So I fired up the laptop, put on my headphones and listened to tunes while I waited.

I eventually caught the first Eastbound train which was announced (7:30, or so) and headed for home. Penny got lucky (well, that too) and was off work early and picked me up at the station when I got off (well, that too). Could have been far worse, I suppose.

While I really wanted to, I didn't generate a speck of sawdust this weekend. Too hot to work in the garage anyway.

(Yes, I know this is a totally lame-ass post. Deal with it.) ;-)

Technorati Tag: Life

A Quickie

I'm getting some momentum on a big work project, so I don't want to get lost in blogland at the moment.

I'm alive. I'm well. I'm still checking my daily canon, briefly.

Keep smiling!

Some people should just shut up

I mourned the recent loss of another Canadian soldier in Afghanistan this weekend (a reservist, no less), but I fumed at some of the remarks which sprung, unbidden from people who really should have just kept their traps shut.

I won't speak ill of the dead since there's no documented evidence of what he is alleged to have said. However, anyone who has seen documentaries like 'Letters Home' will know that soldiers serving far away will have some pretty far ranging thoughts and emotions running through their hearts...some of which might be misconstrued upon reading.

'nuff said there.

However, I will point out a few things - as I did with that so-called "Draft Dodger" guy who ran to Canada from his US Army unit.

• Service in the military is volunteer.
• Its "military." What the heck do you think you might actually be doing??
• The days of recruiters lying to people are long since past.
• Reserve augmentation on Operational deployments (in the CF) voluntary
• Having said that, you get integrated right in....there's no distinction made just because you are a reservist...no 'lesser jobs' because you usually do the gig part-time.
• You should know this particularly if it is your second tour on Operations

So...to the father of the late soldier's girlfriend: please shut up. Your allegations do more to sully the boy's memory than they do anything else. Sure, you're hurt and you're looking for someone to blame. Tell you what: why not blame the guys on the other side of the firefight? Why not blame the international community for failing a nation so badly it fell into anarchy and fundamentalism? Don't blame the military here unless they really missed the ball on his ability to get the job done.

If nothing else, at least he had the balls to stand up and be counted when it really mattered. All you're doing is spewing a lot of shit.

Edit: an article posted to the Toronto Star's website this evening had some words from his father. While he didn't have to directly refute the claims made by the girlfriend's father, his words were enough to put the claims into serious doubt. Nice to see some sanity for a change.

Soccer Hating Rationale #659

I nearly snarfed my coffee when I read this little tidbit from the French coach after their loss to Italy.

"I don't know what Materazzi said to Zidane," France coach Raymond Domenech said. "But it's a shame. It's sad. He (Materazzi) did a lot of acting and for such a big man, a gust of wind made him fall over. It's regrettable."

Apparently "Zidane" means "Wind", in French.

...must be a synonym, or something.

Draw your own conclusions here.



I think the French Encyclopaedia will have to update the entry of "Zidane, Zinedane" to reflect a few cross-references, including: Bertuzzi, Todd; Myers, Brett; Ismail, Raghib...

Football Daze

Greetings from the second quarter of the Argos-Blue Bombers game!

Penny, the Wondertwins and I are here in the sun in Sect 109B enjoying a good East Division tilt.

As birthdays go (well, non-me birthdays, that is) its been pretty good so far. The kids and I ran out to the nearby mall to grab birthday gifts for their mother while she was working this morning. She managed to get off early enough that we wouldn't be completely scrambling for the train to get into town.

So the sun is shining. The family is here. The Argos are still winning

Life, I think, is pretty good.

(Edit: Argos managed to lose this one, unfortunately. 4 turnovers will do that to you...as will failure to cover Milt Stegall effectively)

Happy Birthday, baby...

For my bride...beautiful as ever.

You truly are getting better and better.

I love you like mad and I could not imagine my life being as amazing and incredible as it is with anyone else but you.

- Your NNLMM

For my American Friends

Happy 4th of July!

The Lord of the Moss: The Return of the (Sawdust) King

Yes indeed, folks. I am back.

I decided to include a small blog vacation along with my work vacation to
help with the recharge of the brain.

What did I do? Well. I did, like...stuff. Mostly to do with the
generation of sawdust in the garage, but a few other domestic chores were
tackled as well. I did, much to my surprise, no plastering. I'm not sure
if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

However, here are some of the highlights. Casa Stone/Shagwell now has:

- A new Garage Door Opener (to replace the one which only opened when it
really felt like it)
- A new BBQ. Its huge. Totally Kick-ass. Has a side burner. Has a
store-away cover. (Insert Tim Allen-like bark/howl of manliness here)
- New Citronella lanterns. Bought months ago but finally installed.
- A new pegboard storage unit. Great overall design but I do have some
thoughts on how to make it better. Suffice it to say I need a little more
practice in making strong lap joints. (as evidenced when the front panel
came crashing down onto the garage floor.)
-A new (not-quite-finished) rolling work cart. Of course, I have to
dismantle the old, somewhat rickety one before it goes into place. I just
have to finish installing the top and building the drawers on the new
beastie.

Penny and I managed to slip away to the summer home of a long-time friend
of her family. We made a great day trip up to some of the
not-so-congested cottage country North-East of us. It really was a great
trip and the people were very welcoming. (thanks baby *g*)

And with that, I hit the "send" button and go off in search of lunch.
give me a few days to get caught up on everyone's blogs. I'm WAY behind
in my reading.

Tagged By Kal

1. Which curse word do you use the most?
I definitely find the F-word to be very handy in a variety of forms and uses. (particularly when wrestling with a nasty carpentry issue, or as a precursor to some percussive maintenance)

2. Do you own an iPod?
Nope. I have a MiniDisc player which does quite nicely.

3. What time is your alarm clock set for?
Depends on what time I need to be out the door. The earliest is 6:15, if I'm biking...otherwise, it's set for around 6:45 so Penny and I can get up and get the kidlets moving.

4. How many suitcases do you own?
2 of my own. Collectively we have lots. Unlike Kal, my DW has no fears of spousal flight.

5. Do you wear flip flops even when it's cold?
Nope. Warm weather only. (Socks, Kal? *DORK ALERT! DORK ALERT*)

6. Would you rather take the picture or be in the picture?
Taking it, but only because I have a pet peeve about having feet cut off. Panoramas not required.

7. What was the last movie you watched?
das Boot and The Longest Day

8. Do you or any of your friends have children?
Unlike Kal, I remember my online friends too. Yes, I have 2 step-children and a number of my friends (even the online ones) have children.

9. Has anyone ever called you lazy?
Yeah, and sometimes its deserved. Other times people just mistake my laid-back "just in time" approach as laziness. Fools. ;-)

10. Do you ever take medication to help you sleep?
Only when I am absolutely desperate to get to sleep.

11. Which CD is currently in your CD player?
Can't remember the last time I stuck a music CD in a player.

12. Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk?
Chocolate, for sure. I'll drink regular (2%) but it has to be ice cold.

13. Has anyone told you a secret this week?
Kal did, and I'm gonna burn him with it. Just gotta find that address for Wifeypooh...

14. When was the last time someone hit on you?
Does the regular flirtation with my Wife count? Strangely enough I've become pretty oblivious to that kind of thing since DW and I got together. So it could have happened more recently with someone else but I'm not likely to notice.

15. Can you whistle?
Yep

16. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
DW. She called to tell me that work has glitched the kids bennies yet again.

17. Do you think people talk about you behind your back?
I'd say it's guaranteed. I used to care. Now...not so much. I know Kal does. :P

18. Did you watch cartoons as a child?
I sure did. Although with only 2 channels in rural Ontario where I grew up, we didn't have a lot of options.

19. Do you add your own questions to Memes when Kal is too lazy to do so?
Yes...yes I do!

20. Are you shy around the opposite sex?
Good question. Sometimes I can be; other times, no. Depends on the situation, I suppose.

21. Which movie(s) do you know every line to?
Full Metal Jacket.

22. Do you own any band t-shirts?
Yes. I have a well-loved RUSH tee from their Toronto concert years ago.

23. What is your favorite salad dressing?
Depends on the salad. However, I'd have to be at gunpoint before I willingly put Blue Cheese on anything.

24. Who was the last person to make you mad?
Probably someone at work.

25. Do you do your own dishes?
I load the dishwasher. Does that count?

26. Ever cry in public?
Only during my street corner Onion Slicing/3 Card Monte act.

27. Are you on a desktop computer or a laptop?
I'm currently ON a chair, typing at a laptop.

28. Are you currently wanting any piercings or tattoos?
I'd toy with the idea of another tattoo. Not so keen piercings, despite Penny's insistence.

29. Would you ever date someone covered in tattoos?
I'd say that 3 ink jobs is my limit for good taste. 3 small ones. No 3 large "hey this one covers my entire back" ones.

30. What did you do before this?
Flamed Kal

31. When is the last time you slept on the floor?
Probably 4+ years ago, crashed in a hotel room after a singles get together.

32. How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
More than I seem to be getting lately. But the hallucinations are getting interesting.

33. Do you eat breakfast daily?
I don't care what anyone says, Bagels ARE breakfast.

34. Are your days full and fast-paced?
Way faster than Kal's.

35. Do you pay attention to the calories on the label?
Only when I forget to ignore them.

36. Do you use sarcasm?
Duh...

37. How old will you be on your next birthday?
Older. And Older than Kal. But I still have Penny and he doesn't [taunt, taunt]

38. Are you picky about spelling and grammar?
Yes I am. I'm a great speller, but I'm a lousy typist.

39. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
Nope

40. Do you get along better with the same sex or the opposite sex?
Opposite sex. Just ask any of them.

41. Do you like mustard?
Kal wrote this lame-ass question, didn't he?

42. Do you sleep on your side, stomach, or back?
Yes

43. Do you watch the news?
I try not to, but I read the online newspapers all the time.

44. One of your scars--how did you get it?
The one behind my right ear, from the removal of a mole as a late teenager and it opened up after the stitches were removed. Got a little messy and the scar is rather evident.

So there you go. 44 useless items of information about me for your dining and dancing pleasure.

15% gratuity added. :)

Happy Birthday Kal!

...and many more, brother. :)

Farg

You would think that after sleepless Sunday, I would get to experience the joys of Monday with Morpheus.

'Twas not to be.

It was well after 3AM when I was finally able to crash.

That runny stuff leaking from my ears would be my brains.

*sgh*

Ya know

The fact that you can still find yourself waiting for sleep at 12:45 AM after a long and full Fathers' Day taking the Wondertwins to the science centre really and truly sucks ass

Having to start your day in slow gear and in the rain makes it so much better.

Just sayin'...

I tell ya

Its an awesome time of year.

Not only is Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final on, but the CFL season kicked off last night, and the race is on to the 94th Grey Cup. This kind of sports nirvana doesn't come again until mid/late October as the CFL playoffs heat up and the NHL is kicking off.

The Argos played their season opener to a great crowd on a gorgeous day against the Ti-Cats. I honestly figured that the Argos would have their hands full with a rebuilt Tabby team. I was even more worried when the Argos lost Damon Allen on the first Offensive series. He got nailed with a late hit and I believe he broke a finger in his throwing hand. Back-up Spurgeon Wynn (yes, really) came in and on his very first pass, airs one out to Tony Miles for the TD. The mighty Ricky Williams rushed for just under 100 yards. Not a bad start for his first "for real" game in a new league.

So much for my skepticism.

The argos won 27-17. I don't mind missing that call in my pool. ;-)

Here it is, a sweltering Saturday and I'm flipping back and forth between the hockey game and the football game.

Its been a relatively quiet day. Penny is working all weekend. I watered the garden, did some laundry and the kids rented a movie to keep themselves occupied downstairs where the temperature is much, much cooler.

The kids and Penny have a very secret squirrel Fathers' Day project going on. I have no idea what it could be, but I'm sure it will be very interesting. All I know for sure is that it involves a couple of cans of spray paint and the glue gun.

I'm not sure what the plans are for tomorrow. I'd love to go to the Warplane Heritage out in Hamilton but its a bit of a drive and I honestly dunno if The Girl would get much out of it. The Zoo is a possibility. Its closer, at least and both kids like it.

Edmonton's up 1-0 on Carolina and Calgary's leading the Eskimos 7-0.

Gotta love this time of year....

How to make me feel like I'm in hell

Stick me on a crowded commuter train seated next to two noisy, dippy 20-something dyed-blonde females who have NO volume control.

Not that I have anything against said kind of female...

I just wish they'd dial it down a notch...and I just know they'll. yammer. all. the. way. home.

For all the William Shatner fans out there

This is one of the best parodies of the legendary "I Am Canadian" sketch. And I finally found the video to go with it.

Okay, I finally succumbed

I swore I wouldn't. But I'm weak. Forgive me.

I've officially fallen onto the YouTube wagon.

Holy potential work day time-waster, Batman!

I'm not personally keen on searching all the self-made vids for more evidence in support of Darwin's theory of evolution, or the Awards given out in his name. But its interesting to see all the old music videos out there from my hard rock days. *sigh* You just gotta love hair bands and truly impressive prog-rock.

So now you'll see me adding links to some of the tunes of my youth, just like all the other rapidly aging 70's/80's kids.

Sad, really.

Could a move to MySpace be far behind?? ~shudder~

Disclaimer: I am NOT contemplating a move to MySpace. I'm quite happy here, tyvm. I was just commenting, tongue firmly planted in cheek, on the slippery slope I was on having signed up with YouTube.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Just when I thought I couldn't be shocked

I really figured I had seen and heard it all (even if I hadn't necessarily done it all.)

With all the chaos I had experienced with my family years ago, I really figured that there wasn't much that could shock me.

Please note the date and time here as I freely admit my error in that judgement.

An old high school classmate sent me a message this morning asking me if I had heard from my sister. Of course, I hadn't since we don't talk that much. He said there was big news out of our Home Town this morning. Of course, those words never leave me feeling happy or unworried. He pastes a web link into his messenger window and I check out the article.

What I read left me absolutely stunned. Stunned.

The subject of the article is someone I have known for nearly 25 years. We were classmates for the last 3 years of high school..we played in bands together...socialized...and he was arguably one of the most popular guys at school. Solid family life, devout faith, and a real dedication to his teaching career. He married his high school sweetheart and all that...has 4 kids. As I mentioned to a fellow blogger this morning, "imagine the least likely person about whom you'd receive this news...the person you would simply think it impossible....and my old classmate is that guy."

So you can imagine my surprise to see his name and photo associated with a story of a recent arrest on charges of sexual interference and internet luring.

Him? Uh, this is a joke, right? There's no way. He's not....no...cuz he wasn't ever...you know?

There's a chorus of that running through my mind today.

All I can say is that as much as I feel for the family of the alleged victim, I feel awful for his family because I do know what they're going through. In a small town like ours he was well known and his teaching career is effectively ruined, even if it turns out to be a false accusation. Although the sad realization is that if there's an Internet charge involved, there's probably a trail of some kind...and therefore....some small grain of truth or concern in there somewhere.

Somewhere north of here.....families are going through their pain and hurt and shock

Somewhere north of here.....a community is reacting in disbelief

Somewhere on the sending end of this blog.....a guy is sad for everyone involved and is reliving his own grief and guilt-by-association...hoping that the healing can begin soon.

Sou'Wester Saturday

Its a damn good thing I'm nice and solid because the wind blowing today could take a small child away. Fortunately its sunny...so you could at least watch the little ankle biter flying off into the distance.

I was toying with the idea of a nice long ride today but I don't particularly relish the idea of having to pedal into the wind. Of course the wind would be blowing in my face both ways, because fate is like that.

The Boy is off to Buffalo for an overnight trip with his Corps and The Girl is at her grandmother's place for the night. DW is working until 9:30 so its just me and that darn cat for the day. Is it possible to teach a cat to play Scrabble?

DW was in a movie mood last night after paying some bills (Payday Friday often coincides with Movie Friday at our place) so she rented Casanova and Aeon Flux. We really enjoyed them both, particularly some of the comedic lunacy in Casanova. I knew it was only loosely based on the Casanova tale so I didn't object to the occasional departure from the story. The advantage of filming in a place like Venice is that it has remained largely unchanged over the last couple of centuries....except for the pollution levels, I suppose. Aeon Flux was definitely an interesting presentation of the original work...kind of a Logan's Run meets Gattaca sort of thing. However, spending a couple of hours watching Charlize Theron kicking ass and taking names is rarely a bad way to spend an evening.

So here we all sit, waiting until we drop off The Boy and DW anxiously waiting for me to finish pecking out this missive on the crackberry so she can read it. Over to you hunny. :)

As Fridays go, well, this was one of them

Actually it got off to a wonderful start.

Last night was spent in the glow of a 4-0 win in hockey and a nice, quiet snuggle, etc) with my bride.

When the alarm went off in the morning, snuggling up to the form beside me was way better than dragging my ass out of the bed to bike to the train.

I had heard it was likely to rain this afternoon, making it no good to ride. (It didn't' and I didn't. But who knew at 6:15?)

I had a 2-hr class session to conduct (with the inevitable last-minute prep beforehand) and then a meeting with my interim boss afterwards. When all that was said and done, I was baked. But teaching always does that to me. Classroom work is a mental and physical drain.

However...

Its Friday. Its payday. The weekend is here. I'm in a reasonably good mood and on my way home.

Enough blogging. I'm in the middle of "The October Horse" and Caesar is drawing closer to his fate. Vini. Vidi. Vici.

#413

I'm happy to announce that this is post No. 413.  I'm sure you're all rejoicing at that news.

 

There isn't a lot that's blog-worthy at the moment, hence my silence.  I was, however, pleased to note the successful removal of one high-ranking terrorist/insurgent vermin the other day.  Sadly, where one goes away, yet another will rise to fill his place.  I won't get all polyanna and wish for peace, flowers and happiness, but there really are some twisted and misguided souls out there.

 

A big thumbs-down to all the idiots more concerned with the fact that it was 6.6.06, than the fact that it was 62 years since the Normandy Landing that same day.

 

Why are people so stupid?  Penny?  Kal?  Cricket?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?

 

 

D+62

As we walked along the beaches of Normandy,
We came to Juno, Omaha and Gold,
And whispered a prayer for the boys,
Who said goodbye to it all;

-Chris de Burgh

Lest We Forget...

Sunday is a day of what?

(Holy crap, I haven't blogged since Wednesday!! Must be a sign of the apocalypse or something)
According to someone's religion - if you subscribe to that sort of thing - Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest. Of course, my mother never went for that argument when I was a kid and being directed to clean my room, etc. Damned lapsed protestants...

But, I digress.

This Sunday was the Ride for Heart. The 5AM alarm came mighty fucking early that morning. Even on a lousy nights' sleep I managed to remember everything I needed to bring and made it there in one piece. The Bat Rider and I were teamed up for the ride. He's as much a howl outside of work as he is in the office. He's far more regular rider than I am (as his blog shows) and he kept me hustling at a good pace. We were yakking and doing character assassinations all along the way (all the technicolour, spandex-clad Tour de France wanna-bes were the perfect fodder.) Some people take this shit a little too seriously. There was a bit of a lineup for our Early Bird start, but when we hit the Finish line and saw the HUGE number of people headed for the 8:15 start we figured we made the right call. I goofed in my initial estimate. There weren't 3,000 riders, there were over 13,000 riders. Holy crap! The photo gives you an idea of what the early stage of the 8:15 ride was like.















My legs were okay afterwards, but geezus, my ass was sore. Bike seats must be some kind of BDSM-inspired device.

There was no rest for the wicked, because after I got home Penny and I were yard-work demons. We weeded, we fertilized and we added some more edging to the front garden, picked up some better soil and stuff to mix in and feed all the greenery, and we did managed to get the lawn mowed. (Please remind me to get our own mower fixed...cuz that 6.5HP fucker from next door is a complete bitch to move around the yard.) By the time that was all done, I was done.

On our way out to DW for a little Blizzard reward, we met our new neighbours (2 doors down) and it turns out that the Wife and I have mutual friends and we've seen one another on the GO. The joys of suburbia and commuting. *bliss*

But after all that work, I was toast. According to Penny, I crashed around 9:30PM and I didn't surface until 7 this morning. I opened my eyes a couple of times after 4AM, but that was it. Fortunately, I'm not feeling any soreness (other than on my ass from my bike seat) and I am - for the moment - tempted to do the 50km ride next year.

And here I sit thinking that it's time for coffee.

(BTW, we did slip out to go see X-MEN 3. Wicked movie. I discovered that the "Xavier School" as shown in the movie is actually the campus of Royal Roads University. Wonder if this means I'll come back as a mutant??)

The best revenge

...is the kind served up in a blog.

To hell with the legal channels for retribution for eBay sales gone bad. Blog it!!

Public Idiot No. 1A

I give you His Worship, Mayor David Miller of Toronto.

In a rare moment of agreement with Royson James of the Toronto Star (a.k.a. The Red Star of Toronto) I can see that the Mayor fiddled (pedalled, actually) while Toronto burned...burned by ATU Loc. 113 as well as by the heat of the day. He was pedalling around on a photo-op to kick off Bike Week in Toronto. So imagine if you will, a bunch of smiling and waving politicians on their bikes...along with all the event's participants...getting a police escort (on their bikes, of course) through the heart of downtown...while tens of thousands of highly pissed-off commuters watched in sweaty disbelief.

And people wonder how the French Revolution got started...

The Mayor's biggest crime is that he knew for weeks that this issue was brewing and he did nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Made a couple of pro-forma statements to the newsies about how the Union should get back to work. *yawn*

Dave: spend a little less time on your hair and a little more time actually running the city. Stop pandering to all the NIMBY granola crunchie waterfront condo and co-op owners who think the Island Airport is the spawn of Satan. John Tory has done a better job addressing the concerns of Torontonians in recent crises than you have.

Oh, and by the way...its not just Toronto residents who got burned in that little transit fiasco...lots of us might work here but we don't live here. In case you think that doesn't matter, think again, Goldilocks.

Public Idiot No. 1

I give you Bob Kinnear: President of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113. Catalyst and rabid supporter of the wildcat transit strike on Monday.

Is it a coincidence that he kept up his stream of vitriol and hyperbole...appearing to "stand up to The Man" when he's up for re-election this year?

I think not.

Bob, do us all a favour: take a hike. Preferably a long one. Personally, I hope you keep defying the rulings of the Labour Board. I'd like nothing better than to see your unionista ass in Jail.

From the mind (and blog) of Robert Fulghum

I've been a fan of his for many years. My loyal readership (all 3 of you) know that he's one of my links.

Unreciprocated, of course, but I'm okay with that. He has a lot going on.

This tale from his online journal illustrates something we should all remember: try to have a little bit of fun every day.

I give you the tale, "Players".

Enjoy

I was going to blog yesterday

I really was. Honest.

But it was too *&^%$#<~! hot. Hot. Sweltering. In freakin' MAY! It hit 34C. That's not including the humidex.

And, just to add to the joy, the Toronto Transit Commission's maintenance workers decided to protest some shift changes by walking off the job at around oh-dark thirty Monday AM. The Drivers and other Operators, not wishing to cross their picket lines, were unable to work.

So the whole damn TTC was shut down.

On the hottest day of the year so far.

On a Monday morning.

Did I mention that it was hot?

Technorati Tag: Life

A funny thing happened on the way to a comment

I was responding to a comment made by Outburst on my recent post regarding the issue of "Intelligent Design" being forced upon schools in the US. I realized that my comment was approaching dtrini-like proportions, so I thought I'd post it instead.

Outburst's comment was that Intelligent Design isn't science, so it shouldn't be taught in a science class.

My response:

"Agreed. A philosophy/sociology class is a far better venue for that kind of discussion.

May that sort of foolishness never happen here.

Of course, this is the same province where a kid scoring full marks on an oral French test (language, you perverts!) can lose 35% of his mark because he can't remember the "signs" that they've been teaching the kids. Yes, signs. As in, some kind of twisted sign language. Like a Hawaiian dance, or First Nations signing.

WTF???

Apparently this little gem was proposed by some folk singer (maybe its a CanCon requirement?) and the leftie morons who run the school boards are just eating this shit up.

I know this much: If I tried to flap my arms around while attempting to make myself understood in Montreal, I'd be banneed from the City for life! Rome? Well, that would be another story entirely.

(Um, what point was I trying to make with all this?)"

This is why I like Jay Ingram...

The article speaks for itself. I've added relevant links for those who wish to dig further.

Intelligent design a difficult foe
For many, evolution theory hard to grasp
May 20, 2006. 01:00 AM
JAY INGRAM


Scientists are absolutely correct to argue that intelligent design — the claim that a designer, not evolution, created life on Earth — is not science and does not belong in science classrooms. But it might come as a surprise to many of them that simply saying so isn't enough.

First, to understand why intelligent design isn't science, you do have to know something about what science is.

Scientists constantly test their theories, trying to poke holes in them. They perform observations and/or experiments to do that. If their preconceptions are not supported by what they see, detect or calculate, they are discarded.

Darwin's theory of evolution has been subjected to more than a century's worth of testing. Not once has a fundamental prediction made by the theory been shown to be incorrect.

It's true that the story of life on Earth is still incomplete, something that ID proponents (and the creationists before them) have seized on by arguing that, for instance, there are no fossil forms that show transitions from one species to another. But such claims are not true.

Transitions between land animals and whales, fish and four-legged terrestrials have been found. There are still gaps, but the point is that there are no new fossils that disprove Darwin.

Proponents of intelligent design, on the other hand, do no experiments. They have promised them in the past, but so far, nothing. Instead, they simply criticize evolution. So, they're talking about science but they're not doing any. Science is about doing something. ID should not be taught in science classes because it isn't science.

That all seems pretty straightforward. So why does ID have so much traction in the United States?

Two interesting takes on this have been published in the last few days. One is an article in the journal Public Library of Science Biology about the work of Jon Miller at Northwestern University medical school.

Miller has been measuring scientific literacy over the past 30 years. In the United States and Canada, that literacy is appallingly low. No more than about 15 per cent of the general public can read and understand a science article in Time magazine. To his mind, the acceptance of intelligent design is directly related to the strength of the religious right in the U.S.

How about these examples: One out of every three Americans thinks evolution is "definitely false;" only about one out of seven is convinced it's true. In a ranking of 34 countries whose adults accept evolution, the United States stands 33rd. (Turkey is 34th.) Perhaps the most extraordinary claim made by Miller is that the United States is the only country in the world where a political party wants ID taught in schools.

With that background, it should have come as no surprise to scientists that countering the appeal of intelligent design was going to be difficult. Yet, many seemed surprised when that turned out to be the case.

Scott Lilienfeld, a psychologist at Emory University in Atlanta, understands why. In an article in this month's Skeptical Inquirer, Lilienfeld argues that the problem with scientists is that they expect the general public to be sensible about the whole issue and choose evolution.

But should they be? There is, of course, the issue of religion, as I just mentioned. But what about those who are on the fence, people who might be churchgoers but are not virulently anti-evolution? Is evolution the "common sense" explanation for the glorious diversity of life? No, it is not.

Evolution is hard to grasp. It only makes sense if you're willing to give it millions of years, and if you can grasp the idea that the most infinitesimal changes in genes can, when captured by natural selection, actually create marvellous organs, like the eye, and marvellous species, from fruit flies to blue whales.

Lilienfeld argues that intuition, so helpful in much of life, is a bad guide to accuracy in this case. The Earth does look flat; it isn't. The sun appears to revolve around the Earth; it doesn't. Living things appear to have been designed by someone (or Someone); they aren't.

Lilienfeld contends that the solution is to improve the teaching of science in school, to impress upon students that intuition can be wrong, and that the scientific approach is one way of ensuring that doesn't happen.

Of course, if intelligent design is part of that science education, so much for the chances of introducing thinking.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay Ingram hosts Daily Planet on the Discovery Channel.

*article shamelessly purloined from the Toronto Star.