I set a record

Today I managed to get 3 traffic tickets, in one shot.

1. Failure to surrender proof of ownership

2. Failure to produce proof of insurance

3. Expired plate

In total , $480 in fines.

I admit it all my fault. First I though I had renewed the plate sticker but I guess I overlooked it because I had another car at the time the renewal notice came in.  I also cleaned out my wallet and threw away my old insurance card because I had another one coming. Or course I forgot to put it back into my wallet.  And the ownership papers were sitting in my files at home. Don't ask me why that was.

At least the officer was nice about it and advised me to just dispute it in court.  I know I'll only end up paying for the insurance fine ($60) and have the more costly ones dropped.  What a way to start the morning.

Mutha F'n Ants

I hate insects.

This year black ants seem to have made their way into my house.  Strangely though, I only see them in the second bedroom or the bathroom, where no food exists.  I tried the round ant traps but those are useless.

Fortunately I found a great low toxic recipe that seems to have worked.  

• 2 cups sugar
  
• 1 cup water
  
• 2 tablespoons boric acid (Borax)

This concoction draws out all the worker ants, a really horrible sight.  I resisted the urge to blow torch them all, so that they could take the "kool-aid" back to the nest. Ants gorge and regurgitate their food back in the nest, so everyone including the queen ant dies.

My neighbours said they noticed a increase in ants this year as well.  

On a side note, Aidan has a playmate next door. They spend afternoons outside crushing ants with stones. I need to get them each larger stones.

44 King to Home

A great way I found to get more training time in is running home from work. The distance is approximately 8km from 44 King to Queensdale. I actually thought it may be more like 13km but no such luck, even if I take the Lakeshore trail. 

Today it took me about 50 minutes. Not too bad considering I was carrying a backpack. I saw some pretty weird people at the corner of Broadview and Queen. But it's all good :-)

Beyond stupidity

Today Louis Caldera, Director of the White House Military Office resigned over the controversial low-altitude fly over by a Air Force One look alike.

It turns out Caldera was responsible for at least for notifying the White House Press Secretary and the Deputy Chief of staff, but he  failed to read an email about final plans because he left the office early. Hmm, another career ruined by email.

I would have guessed that the branches of US government would have detailed plans, protocols and checklists for such types of operations. I know in my line of work I have plans, checklists, walkthroughs so things don't go pear shaped.

I don't know if this is true, but I've also been told that the 3 days between when George Bush #1 told Saddam not to cross the line in the Kuwait desert and when the US planes actually attacked Baghdad, was due to a military SNAFU. Turns out that there was computer problem that prevented the different branches of the military from planning the bombing runs. I'll bet there were some pretty long nights and pizza dinners at the Pentagon to figure that one out.

Distance Training

I have started my distance training for the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon in September. 

This is my personal goal for the year. I admit I'm a little anxious about it because I know marathon running is both mental and physical stamina.

I found a great tool for calculating distance along a route.  It uses google maps, and you simply plot waypoints and the distance keeps getting aggregated. Cool.

http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

I didn't notice the world ending

Yesterday Chrysler filed for Chapter 11.

I could have sworn the politicians and financial experts said the world was going to end if the car makers went under. Todays seems pretty normal to me.

The US and Canadian governments are complete buffoons. It's bad enough they shoveled billions of dollars of tax payer money into a company they knew was going to go t*ts up. They now want to bring 10 billion more dollars to the table and take only a 2 percent stake.  I'm not a bright guy when it comes to finance but, if I came to a party with all the money I think I get to call more than 2% of the shots.

Just give me a free Fiat and I'll consider my portion of the debt repaid.