I did it to myself again
Tried to use the iGoogle blog interface to generate a post and mistakenly tried to refresh my email. Methinks I need to move this thingy to another tab in my iGoogle page.
(Outburst, I was actually writing something that you might appreciate. Specifically, the madness of the local sports media vis-a-vis the non-decisions of one Mats Sundin. But I wonder...does complaining about their silliness make me party to it???)
According to the weather-guessers, we have set some sort of moisture record for this season.
In layman's parlance, the Toronto area has been summarily pissed upon. Over, and over, and over. Frankly, I didn't expect this kind of rain this side of Monsoon season in Indonesia. But I was quick to remind myself that I could have just as easily been spending my weekends in an open jeep on some kind of FTX (Field Training Exercise). As a sidebar, I knew a Reg Force Captain who loved to utter the phrase "it ain't trainin' if it ain't rainin'!". Of course HE got to spend the bulk of the weekend in the CP (command post) while we got to practice personal "pruning" and experiencing the early stages of trench foot.
...not that I'm bitter.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant about the weather, because getting into some long-winded beef about stuff like Mats Sundin's hockey future or the sad state of the Who Jays, or the shockingly large number of unsold ducats to the Buffalo Invasion would just be too easy.
I just watched one of the better games of the CFL season tonight. Montreal visitng Saskatchewan. The score was extremely tight for most of the game and the lead changed hands at least 8 times. However, near the end is when things got exciting. Fumbles, interceptions, and a real hard-fought game that sent the Regina faithful home with a smile. Pretty intimidating when the defending grey cup champs can beat you even with their third-string QB.
Viva la Weekend!
I spent a day snipe hunting (with outcomes that Scott Adams could appreciate) and I am now home, relaxing and unwinding. Okay, so the relaxing came in the form of two large Rum & Cokes, but that's not really the point, is it?
Sadly, I have work stuff to tackle over the weekend so it won't all be relaxation and/or home reno activities. However, the work stuff is all part of my greater career advancement plan so I will make the necessary sacrifices.
...geekery most foul.
There are times when iGoogle is a neat way to centralize stuff, but maybe not for blogging. I had a nice little post on some post-grad school ponderings and managed to lose it.
Just sayin'
(Of course, Penny says I should just do it "the old fashioned way")
This weekend saw some more tweaks and fixes completed at the Stone-Shagwell manor. I brushed in this nifty sand/polymer mix in the stones on the front walkway. When this stuff gets wet, it hardens and cures, not only locking the paves in place, but also preventing ants and weeds. Score one for the bipeds there. The other labour completed was the building of a shelf in the garage. Not just any shelf, mind you, but a hanging shelf that takes advantage of the high ceilings. I'll have to get a picture of this puppy to do it justice. It's actually the first of three ceiling-based shelves we will be putting up there. We don't make good use of the space in there, so lesser-used items and seasonal items can get off the floor, and that will help a lot. Sadly, I haven't figured out how to deal with the 2 big snow shovels, but a few ideas come to mind.
I didn't get a lot of sleep lat night despite some serious fatigue. Not quite how I wanted to kick off Monday, but what can ya do?
Today began the work in the long-overdue leveling of the front walk. It looked okay before the deck went on last summer, but not so much now.
So after shopping today we got started on the first part, removing the stones and clearing out the weeds and soil accumulating between the pavers. Ironically, while we have many patchy spots on our lawn, we manage to grow a bumper crop of weeds between the stones in the walk.
It was a rather mindless, dirty job, but we managed to get all the stones out, all the weeds out, and most of the aggregate re-leveled. However, a little research showed that the bozo who put in the stones didn't really do it right. So when we go to pick up the big tamper tomorrow, we will also pick up the appropriate edge barriers (to prevent the stones from slipping and spreading), the cloth barrier (to prevent weeds from growing), and the sand to lay over the aggregate and to brush over and inbetween the stones to bind them all together. If done correctly, the online sources tell me the walk should last a good 20 years.
I figure by the time the task rolls around again, I'll have recovered from this one.
We won't talk about those big-ass 2'x2' pavers in the back that still have to come up and get sorted out. I'm not naive enough to think they were laid down properly in the first place. But, yeah, I know it will have to be done too.
Maybe next weekend....
(Edit: The task was largely done Sunday night and everything hurt afterward. All that's left to do is re-positioning the edging, adding more sand to the gaps in the stones, and re-installing the stairs on the porch. If the "fuck you" signals I was receiving from my muscles are any indication, I will definitely neeed to make the back patio refresh a 2-person job.)
Ow...
There's really nothing worse than the end of your vacation and trying to get back into the groove after you drag your hide back to the salt mines.
Don't get me wrong, I can be productive, and I am contributing (one of my colleagues even said "were you away???") but I always find it the equivalent of jogging through knee-deep water. Slow, messy, and awkward.
Just sayin'...
On other notes, I am excited at the start of the CFL season, and the hometown Boatmen might be able to go 2-0 if they smack the Pussy-Cats in the home opener at the Dome tonight.
I am baffled, however, at some of the NHL free agency moves. However, I am not surprised at the local media going bananas over Mats Sundin's non-decision with respect to his career. Every little indecision spawns 2-3 articles agonizing over it and performing some kind of navel-gazing analysis.
Gawd. You'd think this burg only had one team that mattered. Guys, he's likely not coming back. Get over it. Move on.
(I've missed my writing outlet. Glad school's over. For now. *8*)
Well, whaddya know. You leave a blog alone for a while and, well, nothing really happens with it. Apparently they are not self-perpetuating.
At the risk of raising the hopes of the one remaining reader (Duff) I am posting a very consolidated update.
Grad school is DONE (Sorry, Kal.) A long, long 23 months of work, study and sacrifice, but allegedly worth it in the end. Convocation is in November and I'm looking forward to seeing my classmates again.
Work is, well, work. No real changes there, in spite of my passive efforts to re-locate myself.
I am off hockey for the summer, having managed a small tear in my MCL in the first period of the first game of the summer season. I am hoping to be back watching pucks fly through the five hole in September. Penny wasn't all that disappointed to have me home all summer.
And in other news...
[[imagine, if you will, a lovely ultrasound of my bride's insides, showing the latest addition to the Stone/Shagwell manor, "Chip" at the ripe old age of 11w3d of gestation. But, Blogger being Blogger, it is having some kind of imagery-uploadery-fuckery-malfunctionery-thingy, therefore the image will be posted later.]]
Edit: Said scan of DW's indsides showing 'Chip'
1. I can now drink my way through Christmas, New Year's and, most
likely, our vacation at the end of January.
2. My pants are fitting again.
3. Meat no longer seems like the only food group, and chocolate is
actually tasty again.
4. I am not consistently, horribly and ridiculously exhausted.
5. I was allowed to take large doses of codeine for about six days.
Groovy...
6. We get to "try again".
7. Two weeks off of work that don't count as my vacation.
8. I can take Advil when I have a headache.
9. Hot, hot, HOT baths are no longer verboten.
And finally....
10. My hormones are back in order, which means sex on a very regular
basis. Can I get a "Hell, yeah?"
*Because I have to find humour in it... that's just they way I am
Maybe I should re-visit that lesson about the counting of the chickens.
The ultrasound on Thursday revealed that the pregnancy didn't take the way
it was supposed to. There's lots of medical jargon involved and no blame
to be assigned to people or situations but it doesn't ease the pain by any
means.
My heart hurts...
Yes indeed, I am alive, so life is good.
Life is good for a few reasons. They are (not necessarily in any order of importance):
- Work is good. I have been transferred to the Human Resources department at work. One of my friends, Big Guy, said "well, that makes you one of the few people actually qualified to work in that department!" I'm not quite as sure of that as he is, but there is a new Veep in there and there's a definite new direction in the place. I have a major new project to follow on the much-delayed launch of the learning management system. So, that's good.
- Sports are (mostly) good. With the exception of the game I played on Thursday, hockey has been pretty good. The Leafs, bah, well, the less said about that the better. The Argonauts, on the other hand, just clinched first place in the East and they host the East final. Toronto also hosts the Grey Cup this year, so that's gonna be great, cuz Penny and I are going. Hopefully the Argos will be there too. (BTW, Jones...yon erstwhile Michael Bishop is 10-1 in his last 11 games as the starter. Passed for 328 yards today and really, really looked good. He's finally matured as a QB. Penny hasn't felt the need this season to do her "Bull Durham" call, screaming as he dances in the pocket, "Don't think, Meat! Just THROW!!!") So, that's good.
- School is good. I am sporting a 4.04 GPA and I'm on my second-last course of my MA. The last course finishes in Feb and I have only my major project to do, which is due in the middle of June. I can't believe the program is almost done, but I gotta say I'm looking forward to having it all finished and reclaiming some much-neglected parts of my life. So, that's good.
- Life elsewhere is good. I retained some of my Army-honed skills in time management and I have listened to my Darling Wife's reminders about remembering to take time for me in the midst of school deadlines and work madness. I would also say that my sense of timing is damn near impeccable.
Why, I hear Jones asking?
My MA project is due June 13.
Ten days after that, so is Penny.
Life, as they say, is good.
I assure you that Mossy not only knows I'm in here, but has also given
me permission to be here...
(man, it's dusty... *koff, koff*)
Just though I'd drop in and let you know that we are both well and
things are fine.
I deleted the blog simply because I had nothing to say. I'd feel the
obligation to write, but my mind was a tabula rasa. I had bupkis.
Mossy has been very busy with school and, I'm proud to say, has been
kicking ass! He has, in draft, a post about a friend's 40th birthday
party which we attended, wherein ...well, I'll let him tell it when he
gets around to it.
We seem to both hang out on Facebook now more than anywhere else (well,
Toronto DOES have the world's largest Facebook community...we couldn't
NOT be part of it, huh?), so you can always try to find us there.
Hope all is well. Keep in touch!
Penny
PS Does *anyone* know where Kal is?
Just sitting here on a quiet and somewhat chilly Saturday. Penny's nephew, D, is getting married this afternoon, so she's out getting her hair done, and then she will come home to get The Girl's hair done. The Boy and I will go out to get the appropriate pre-wedding trim.
I'm back from a quick trip to Victoria where I was on a short e-learning course, and I got to see some of my school classmates, which was a nice treat.
Other than that, no major news on my end. Hope the remaining readers are well wherever they are....
Hello, remaining readers and RSS feed junkies.
A whole month and no Mossy tidbits? Frankly, I dunno what came over me.
Actually, I do. A couple of things, really. First, I didn't really have much to say...so I decided not to say anything until I had something to say. Second, grad school really consumed a lot of my writing energies, and therefore, the blog got short shrift. Finally, I came down with a new internet addiction. I won't tell you specifically what it is, but it rhymes with "Ace Cook".
Anyway, there are a few updates from Mossy-land.
First, school continues to go well. I'm hoping for my latest marks soon from course 5 (of 10). I *might* just keep my "A" average if all goes well.
Second, the gym has been a real plus. Wesley Crusher has me just humming along. I notice a real difference in my chest and my arms now. (I'm not buff, but I'm getting there)
Third, I recently celebrated a birthday. My amazing wife, Penny, threw me a BBQ bash this weekend. I am another year older on the calendar, but I don't feel it and I'm pretty sure I don't look it. Penny says my grey hair makes me sexier.
I won't argue with that. :P
So, that's the news thus far. Hope all my linked friends are well...
Well, I think Wesley Crusher (pls see Penny's blog for details) finally managed to get me to my "enough" point. At least we know when this kind of thing happens, he doesn't mess around.
DW and I were at the gym yesterday working with Mr. Crusher and he moved us from the weights into the fitness studio to do some core work. We did some speed squats and some ab exercises, and then he got us into "Chops". What happens is this: you position yourself like you're chopping wood. Full range of motions, altering the direction of chop...left, right, left, right...down, then straight up....down the other side...straight up...down the other side. I got through one set no problem.
Second set....not so much. I felt something particularly nasty in my lower back on the left side. Not like my usual back discomfort (which I know so well) but something different.
Needless to say, my workout was over.
I spent the rest of the night laid out with what I figure is a pulled muscle. Thanks to a well-stocked medicine cabinet, I am suitably drugged with high doses of Naproxen and Tylenol 3. However, I am not exactly loving my invalid status. So I'm hoping I'll be mobile for work but at this point its not looking good. Penny, Biff love her, has been looking after me and worrying about me. She is, at this very moment, snoozing on the other side of the bed. She didn't get a lot of sleep lat night because I was stuck on my back (read: snoring away) and from spousal worry.
Yep...this is why I married her. She worries about me.
So, courtesy of the joys of wireless routers, I am here upstairs with my laptop and staying connected to the outside world.
As my remaining readers know, Penny and I have been active at the gym with our trainer, young Wesley Crusher. Because we had just finished another 12 sessions with him, it was measurement day yesterday.
Now, I had made a significant drop in my body fat percentage and achieved some "inches" loss last time, so I was interested to see where we were this time around. As Wes warned us, we might actually lose inches, but we'd appear to be bigger because of better muscle definition, etc. So I was okay with that. I have no interest in achieving a bodybuilder-type look, but some better overall tone is certainly what I'm hoping for.
While the upper body still needs some work (although my biceps, shoulders and lats are coming along nicely) my legs are no problem. They get lots of work in hockey and they developed nicely in the Army, and when I was lifting weights regularly years ago.
Wes did all the measurements and then go to the calf. When I got started with all this, my calf muscles were at 16¾". After dropping the fat, they went down to 16¼". This is good!. Yesterday? After 12 more sessions?
Seventeen. Freakin. Inches.
Holy crap! That's bigger than my neck!(16½")
It brought to mind an observation from an old Army buddy of mine. We were out for morning PT one day in the late spring. It was nice & warm and shorts were definitely the order of the day. Wally was running behind me on this trek and when we were abck at the Armoury doing stretches and ab work afterwards he remarked, "Geezus, [Stone], those aren't calves...those
are COWS...they're f**king huge!"
So, there I am. Walking around with heifers below my knees.
Do with that what you will.
(To the previous owner of my House)
Dear Dipshit:
I'm honestly not sure whether I should be filled with pity for you, or filled with a desire to see you tied to a stake and stoned for general nincompoopery...probably the most critical mental coin toss in human history. But late yesterday afternoon, I was definitely looking for a suitable post hole digger.
To wit: I was removing and replacing a couple of the dreadful light fixtures you yourself had replaced (leaving lovely paint gaps, too) and I saw where you had some trouble with one of the mounting screws. You know...the ones which screw upwards into the utility box to, you know, HOLD the light in place? Yeah. That one. Wanna know how I know you had trouble?
Picture it. There I was. No shit. Standing on my mini scaffold bench. All set to install the new hanging fixture my bride liked so much. Could I hang it correctly? Nope. No chance. Your trouble spot? Staring me in the eyes, laddy-buck. That screw hole? Stripped. Not a thread remaining. Imagine how I looked as I managed to effortlessly push that #10 machine screw through the hole with noooooooooo effort whatsoever.
Kinda defeats the whole purpose, don't it? I mean, I can't hang a light fixure with one screw, can I? (although, judging from the previous light, you managed to....how it stayed up is a puzzle for household physicists everywhere.)
Anyway, Mr. Braintrust, in whatever home you own now, if you fuck up and strip the screwhole in a junction box, suck it up and replace it! Don't leave the next poor bastard to figure out how to do so on his own. Although, in your defence, I'm not sure how we could have removed that puppy without removing six square feet of drywall. (I will forward you a copy of my letter to subdivision homebuilders; subject: Consideration of replacability of basic outlets and junction boxes as installed by fuckwitted builders to save the asses of competent DIY-ers who discover your fuckups. Like, seriously, dudes...why did you screw it in from the TOP as well as from the sides?)
I recognize that you're the same mental pigmy who couldn't install drywall if your very life depended on it, not that *that* little hurdle seemed to slow you down, if the basement is any indication.
Anyway dude, seriously, don't try any renovations in the new place, ok? You're more a danger to yourself than others.
Cheers,
Mossy.
----------------------
(To Hampton Bay lighting, the designers of my new kitchen hanging light fixture)
Dear Cocksuckers:
I recently had the indescribable pleasure of installing your Model ****** 5-light hanging fixture in my kitchen. After coming up with an innovative solution to a stripped screw fitting I struggled to hang your light properly. You see, you provided this wonderful diagram of the components of the fixture, but you were a little skosh on the best way to install that bad boy. I mean, it's all well and good to tell us how the componends go together, but if one follows the instructions to the letter, one winds up with a brutally twisted mass of cables as the fixture threads onto the centre screw. This little glitch triggered much consternation in my bride, and no short of questioning of your collective parentage and brain power on my part.
I was going to give you some detailed instructions on how to sort out your diagram, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't understand them. After all, its MAKES SENSE to do it my way. Besides, I'm not sure I can adequately detail the physical contortions required, nor can I articulate the marital care and handling instructions needed, because this little gem can put marriages in jeopardy (not ours, of course....we're well-hardened to these little frustrations, havign survived the installation of new laminate flooring, tile flooring, bedroom painting, storm doors, drywall installation, and wallpaper borders...all with nary a bad word.)
Anyway, folks. Get some REAL DIY-ers in there to try installing it from scratch and see what you can do about those instructions, k? Otherwise, you're gonna have some real goat-fucked lamps out there with YOUR name on them.
Lotsa love,
Mossy
Wow. As much as some people were stunned by the death of Steve Irwin, I'm floored by this one.
Brad, for those of you who might not know, was the lead singer of Boston. He had a clear, resilient tenor voice and had a lasting effect on 70's and 80's music.
No real details yet, but he was apparently home alone at the time. He was only 55.
Now I'm sad...
I don't care about indecision
I don't care if I get behind
People living in competition
All I want is to have my peace of mind....
