Summer Fun

Summer is underway, and the pools are open.

A co-worker of mine had a pool party last friday at his home, so we all took the afternoon off. I brought Aidan with me, he was a little clinggy at first but eventually he warmed up to all the strangers. Aidan gestured to take his shirt off so he could jump in the pool. Kids are great, they make me do things I would otherwise never do. The water was about 28 celcius and had water slide. We had a blast.

On Sunday we visited one of Marissa's friends in Maple. They have a nice large house with an above ground inflatable pool. Good thing we brought Aidan's swim gear again because he wanted in. Only downside is that it C-C-COLD.

What's new

Finally some decent weather has arrived. More daylight means less work and more outdoor time.

The little guy's latest favorite pastimes are the soccer ball and the recently donated sand/water play thing. I can remember back in kindergarten my favorite play station was sand and water too! In fact, Aidan likes these things so much he's turned down milk to stay outside, and if you know Aidan that is really something.

Last week he took a pretty bad fall in the backyard. He's okay and all the bruises scrapes on his face have healed. I'm sure there will be more to come but the first one is always the hardest, at least for the parents.

His latest word is 'No'. In the past he showed his disapproval by shaking his head. Suddenly he's taken to saying 'No No No'.

Trip to the Zoo

A couple of weekends ago we visited the Toronto Zoo. A lot has changed since I last visited over 10 years ago, for example the Monorail is replaced by a trolly, there are more indoor pavilions and nicer outdoor exhibits. Don't look for a McDonalds because there aren't any anymore. The monkeys have a large outdoor pen. I think Zoo tried to give them some new grass but the mokeys kept rolling up the sod.

Aidan enjoyed seeing the elephants and fishes. We bought a pass so we'll be going back at least a few more times this year. Did I mention there's a water park there now?

Rides

Remember when you were a kid and being attracted to those rides at the mall and never had a quarter. I recall my favorite helicopter ride at the Loblaws store near Danforth and Greenwood. By the way, that was a also time when you could leave your kids in public and go shopping for an hour and find them where you left them.

We did some shopping this past weekend at Fairview mall. Aidan got a little worried riding in the moving car but as you can see, he likes the stationary boat. The car is actually pretty scary because it moves like a horse.

Arrrrgh!!

I discovered a rather large dent on my Camaro this weekend while clearing of it snow from the backyard where it had been parked for the Winter. It appears that a large branch had fallen onto hood during one of those crazy wind storms. A few years ago this would have really pissed me off, but I've learned that such incidents are only bothersome.

I was planning to take it to a bodyshop but I learned that there is a technique out there called Paintless Dent Repair (PDR). Essentially it involves "massaging" the dent out from behind using specialized tools. Sounded too good to be true but after lots of research it does appear to be legitimate. It was actually pioneered by Mercedes Benz and was used to fix small dent and dings on the assembly line. I'll check out a few references in Toronto and give it a go in the spring. In fact I'm actually interested in taking a ceritifcation course in PDR. I think it could be a potential business for myself in the future. God knows where IT is going.

Filling dad's shoes

Enough said. (BTW, I didn't stage this photo)

Giant Timbits

Don't get me wrong, I don't feed my kid Donuts all the time.

Anyways, Aidan is seen here eating and sharing a Timbit with 'Be Be'.

Every Sunday morning after swimming we go to the Timmys drive thru to get a coffee and bagel. He's quickly learned the routine and today I found out he know's what "Timbit's" are. I was in the kitchen and mentined something about the left over Timbit's on the counter, he dropped eveything and came running from the living room into the kitchen to grab one. I guess he's truly a young Canadian.

Another interesting thing is the relative size of Timbits. I recall as a child that Bic Macs were huge, but in fact my hands were probably just small. I can appreciate now how that can be. In relative terms a typical Timbit to Aidan is equivalent to a grapefruit sized Timbit to me.

Sunday Afternoon

Marissa was teaching a class on Sunday so I figured another trip to the Ontario Science Center was a good place to spend a Sunday afternoon. It's really a great place for Aidan to run around, explore and see other children; especially since it's too cold outside to do anything else.

The most interesting thing I saw today was how kids interact when resources are limited. Let me describe it ... There's an exhibit where you connect together tracks to build a "roller coaster". Then you take these rubber balls and run them down the track. The interesting thing is that, there were 20 kids and 6 rubber balls. It doesn't matter how old you are, once the primal instincts kick in it's all for yourself and Aidan was no exception. He'd see a ball, go after it, some kid would grab it and he'd take off to find another, every kid was doing the same thing. Some kids were grabbing balls from each other too. You can imagine how the parents were handling it. At one time Aidan managed to come into possession of 3 balls and protect them for at least 1 minute. I was pretty proud of the little guy :-)

I ended up buying an annual pass because I'm sure we'll be back many more times this year.

Haircut

This is me with my new haircut.

What's new

It's been a while since the last post. I've been busy and didn't have much of a creative mindset. Maybe it was due to the deep freeze but I'm determined to try to increase my blogging.

Last weekend we went on a shopping trip to the Eaton Center. Seems like a blah thing to do but I've not been out for a while so for me it's a big deal. Too bad for me I couldn't find any new clothes but at least Aidan got some new stuff from Gap and Old Navy.

Today Aidan got a very cute haircut which I'll post another time. Later on, we went to the Dr. for his 18 month checkup. He's on track with his weight, height, speech development so that's all good news. The Dr. and intern described him as the perfect patient since he allowed them to use him as a guniea pig. He even gave them a wave when they left the room. I took all the credit for his good behaviour (don't tell Marissa, hehe).

So that's all for now.

Mega Walmart Shopping

A lot has been said about the new Walmat superstore and it's negative effects on Canadian grocers like Dominion, Sobey's and especially Loblaws. We as a family bunded ourselves in warm clothing to brave to -30C temperatures to do our weekend groceries there. I've already been there twice already but it being the size of a football field, it wont be a familiar experience for me until at least the 5th visit. I have not even been to the auto or seasonal section yet.

It's obvious that Walmart did some research on who it's local clientele are, there are some pretty indigenous fruits and vegtables that would surely please the palette of the predominately immigrant population of Scarborough. Bulk okra, choyote and some unrecognizable stuff for example. Some of the meat packaging looks suspect but that may be because I'm used to seeing it packaged in white stryofoam instead of pink.

The clear advantage is that this place is a one stop shopping complex, you can even build a bear and get a hearing aid. The food prices are better (but not by much). There are a different variety of products (sometimes by different suppliers).

However this place won't have everything that are in the isles that Dominon and Loblaws has. It doesn't carry PC products and it doesn't feel like a grocery store.

My conclusion is that it's convenient and I'll be back sometimes. But I recently discovered that shopping at the Chinese grocers are are a better deal. The produce is fresher too. I can cut the grocery bill by 40% by doing so and there alot more interesting stuff there too. BTW there is a TNT opening up where the old Knob Farms used to be on Commisioners Rd. Loblaws used to get $130 a week from us, so I would be worried if I were them.

Big City - No variety

I'm working on replacing some baseboards in my home. I really can't stand the look of the run-of-the mill 3 inch high moulding found in all homes, it's thin and lacks character. I challenge you to find a newly built home, regardless of the price, where the builder hasn't used the same .49 cent/foot cheap mdf baseboard. The same boring stuff is used around windows too. I decided to go with a 5-1/4 high squared pine stock but top it off with a simple base cap. This style of baseboard and cap (or mopboard) was used in older traditional homes and you'd be surprised how such a minor detail can make a difference.

I was dismayed to discover that you can't find base-cap moulding anywhere. I went to the usual big box stores as well as some specialized lumber retailers specializing that in trim. It appears that the two piece baseboard has gone the way of the dodo because it's too time consuming to install and ultimately eats into the bottom line of the builder. Funny enough, you can readily find it in the US but I'm convinced Americans are more architecturally savvy. I mean most of the styles such Misson, Shaker and Federal all originated in the US, I can't think of anything in this regard that's pervasive and Canadian in nature; except for perhaps a beaver cap.

So I've been reduced to having to buy a moulding bit from Lee Valley so I can create my own stock. I don't mind doing that but it's really a pathetic state for the consumer where we're surrounded by ten thousand square feet building supply stores but they all carry the same old crap catering to the lowest common denominator.

New Walkman

When I was about 15 my brother Warren and I headed to the Eaton's downtown to buy me my own Sonly Walkman. I belive it was a WM-9 and cost about $75. I had it through most of highschool or at least until it's size became an embarassement. It only played tapes so it didn't have an AM/FM tuner nor did it have auto-reverse. It used 4AA batteries and had a strap to lug it around like a 'tricorder'. I kept a collection of Maxell and Teac tapes full of 80's music. It was a great little machine.

22 years later I bought myself another Sony Walkman, only this time it doesn't play tapes. What are tapes again? I wonder if all those little Indian owned stores on Yonge street are still selling cases of tapes, but I digress. It's about the size of two AA batteries and weighs next to nothing. I could have made it easy on myself and bought an iPod but I went old shool. Main considerations were FM tuner, durability and fidelity. The Sony NW-S205F is a sports Walkman so it's weather-proof and comes with the arm band etc. Cool extras are that it comes with a pedometer, calorie counter, and stopwatch. It also detects the workout rate so it can change the playlist accordingly. For example change from Air Supply to Kenny Loggins-Top Gun when you're heading downhill at 80mph.

Coupe of issues, it does not allow you to drag and drop Mp3 files to it like most players that's because Sony natively suports ATRAC and not Mp3 so you need to use it's SonicStage software transfer mp3 files. The screen is only 1 line so it's not as pretty or intuitive to use as the iPod. ATRAC tracks however have a much higher sound quality and requires less storage, as a positive side effect the unit can play for 3 hours with only a 3 minute charge.

So 25 years later Sony is no longer the leader in portable music players. The Mini Disc was a commecial flop and heads rolled this year at Sony due to loss of Mp3 player market share to Apple Inc. Still I bought another Walkman and it's still a great little machine.

On Vacation

This week I'm on Vacation! The last time I was on vacation was June 2005 when we went to Nova Scotia. We're not going out of town but we plan to spend some quality time at home and about. I'm actually looking forward to going to the Ontario Science Center for some exploration.

As you may have heard, my brother Warren gave me a R/C airplane for Christmas. This weekend was my second attempt to fly it somewhere else besides into a pole. I was pleasantly surprised to get it to loop and pull up just before nose diving into the earth. I also managed to attract an audience (acually a 7 year old kid with his dad). I'll continue my flying lessons as long as the plane remains air-worthy.

Aidan will be 17 months old tomorrow. I've become the people I used to ask, "Why do you quote your kids age in months?". I do it because I don't want him to grow up.

Most parenting books will tell you by "this age your child should be able to...". They never said that he'll be able to take a DVD out of it's case, insert it into the player (right side up) and cycle through the tv's video modes to get it to play. It's a wonderful thing to watch a child grow.

New Years 2007

Happy New Year!

Despite still recovering from the flu, conjuntivitis and a hacking cough I'm starting the new year with optimism. I'm still working on my resolutions but here they are so far in no particular order:
1. Use up as much change as possible
2. Work smarter = less
3. End clutter
4. Be more creative
5. Get more sleep


It was 10 degrees Celsius this afternoon at the Beaches. We spent time in the playground followed by my sad and embarrassing attempt to fly my radio controlled Air Hog. My first flight was a disaster and thank god no one was aboard because I slammed it into a concrete pole. What are the chances of flying a plane into the only pole in an open field? The controls take some getting used to because usually pulling down on a joystick means climb, but in this case it means dive.

The funniest thing is that there's no snow, anywhere. So everyone is huddled around a small mound beside the skating rink created by a Zamboni. I actually I saw new grass coming out of the ground.

I confirmed to myself today that sharing is learned behaviour. Aidan found a small soccer ball on the ground and started playing with it, another kid came by and tried to grab it from him. Not being sure if it was his, I asked "Aidan" to share and give him the ball. Reluctantly he did, but seconds after Aidan ran after him and tried to pull it away from behind. This same scene always replays itself at any Thomas the Train display, ask any parent.

A perfect New Years Day.

$50 Best Buy Card

Hey I got a $50 Best Buy card during a quaterly meeting at work. That was a little embarrasing but I plan to spend it on Mo, Aidan and Minx because they have been putting up with my long hours and foul moods.

I think Adian would like a new Blue's Clues DVD. Marissa, probably a Charmed CD and Minx a bluetooth headset to talk to the other cats handsfree.

TX Blogging

I'm posting this Blog using my Palm TX PDA.

The interface isn't pretty and I have no idea what this is gonna look like after I publish it. I was hoping to add a photo but I can't find the upload button.

December Playday

Aidan and friends spent time at holiday get together last weekend.

Charlotte, Clover & Brandon, & Aubrey

Zoom Zoom Update

It's almost been a month with the Mazda 3 now. This little car as been a joy to drive and best of all it's very convenient running errands and shuttling the little guy around. Another plus is the great fuel efficiency, I can drive for at least two weeks daily without having to refuel.

Aidan says he likes how he can drop cookie crumbs on the seat and watch daddy vacuum it up.

Bye by plastic table

The weather in Toronto today was terrible. After a record November high of 16C we got cold rain and high winds. And while walking across the parking at work today I almost lost my big arse umbrella to the wind. Anyways I arrived home and gazed into the backyard when I noticed a part of a tree branch miraculously balanced on a plastic table that I had temporarily moved outside. "Pretty neat" I thought given the strong winds. Then after about 5 mintes of admiration, I said "Impossible". Upon closer inspection my suspicions were correct, a branch had broken off an oak tree and speared the table top. The plastic top isn't thin either. I guess that's how people get killed during tornados.