Today something struck me though. He has lots and lots of Hot Wheels cars, yet every time we play he grabs my least favorite/crappiest POS car he can find and gives that to me to play with. I am not allowed to choose my own car.
No fair!
November 30th was my last day at work. I have voluntarily left two other jobs, and on both occasions it was a rather sad last day as I packed up my belongings and removed any personal information from the company computer.
Nov 30th was more sad for a number of reasons. I didn’t really want to leave. The people I worked with were awesome, and I loved the work I did. Sure, the company I was working for was starting to clamp down and institute from policies that I found rather distasteful, but the people and tasks were what kept me going.
That day I had nothing to do except pack and clean. Once that was done there was a final lunch with the gang, and then I loaded my truck and left.
My plan is to take the month of December off from work related activities. There are a couple opportunities that I plan to explore, but I am not launching a huge job search just yet.
Later I will
This unemployment thing is certainly keeping me busy.
Today was also supposed to be my riding day, and raking up the leaves, but the chilly temps and wind put a damper on those.
Friday night we took the kids out to the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society to ride the Christmas train. It was a fun time, and both the kids enjoyed the train ride. After the train we headed to White Spot for dinner.
Saturday I went for a walk with the kids at Elk Lake while Sox and Yoshi went for a run. On the way home we stopped at Cannor and bought our Christmas tree.
Saturday night I then took the kids downtown to see the lighted truck parade while Sox got ready for her company Christmas party. The walk back to the car afterward was pretty hard since Elliot wanted to be carried part of the way. After I got home I quickly got ready while Sox put Amy to bed.
Today Sox took Elliot to a ginger bread house party, while Amy and I hung out at home. This afternoon Elliot helped me put up the Christmas lights outside.
Now that the kids are in bed I still have to set up the tree and string the lights on that so tomorrow night we can decorate it.
Last night though I got a different kind of telemarketer. The person I talked to mentioned something about a trip to Cancun. I immediately knew they were trying to sell me something, so I simply asked “How much will this cost me.”. The lady said she was passing me to her supervisor.
When the supervisor got on the phone I simply repeated my question on cost. His reply was normally this trip cost $2000, but that through their deal it would only be $499. Immediately I informed him that I was on the DNCL and that his company could be fined for calling me.
He muttered something about adding me to their Do Not Call list, but this got me to thinking. How am I supposed to report infringements against the DNCL? A quick perusal of the site, and I see there are instructions on how to report a complaint. Perhaps later today I will file that complaint.
These are stainless steel bottles that the kids can easily use. The only problem was that we somehow lost the little silicone valve piece from a few of them. We had three unusable bottles kicking around, so I thought maybe I should do something about that.
I went to their website and emailed about buying new valves. They sold replacement lids, but that would have meant recycling the old lids which were perfectly fine.
The lady that responded was very understandable, and sent us three replacement valves for free. This was awesome. Something I hadn’t noticed was that the bottle design had changed, and the valves for version 2 don’t fit in version 1 bottles. I’m hoping that I can get some more valves for those ones, or I can buy replacement lids barring that.
Anyway, the point was Innate-Gear has made me happy as a customer by simply mailing me some replacement parts for free.
Elliot and Amy really enjoyed the stories. In fact Elliot was completely involved with the story teller, answering questions, singing along with the songs, offering information, and listening intently when she was talking.
For the most part Amy sat still on Sox’s lap. She too listened and enjoyed the stories. I might try to get out there again with the kids.
I also highly recommend the store to anyone shopping for kids books. Lots of selection for all age ranges.
Aphro the cat is a pretty reclusive and quiet cat. The other night Sox and I were just about asleep (around 11:30pm or so) and I could hear her scittering around downstairs, then come bounding up the stairs and into our bedroom. Silence for a couple minutes, then she took off quickly down one flight of stairs, around the corned, then down to the basement. That was a little weird.
Moments later I heard Aphro coming back up the stairs at full speed, then up the second flight of stairs. The bedroom door was only open a crack, and she didn’t fit through, and bounced off the door sending it flying into the wall. WTF? Sox turned on a light and I looked at the cat on her cat tree. At first I thought she was sitting on one of our Thrifty’s shopping bags. I got up to verify then discovered it was around her neck. Woops. That explains the crazy behaviour; she thought the bag was following her, and she got spooked.
Yoshi is a special kind of nutcase. Lately he has been bad, and has been chewing on a lot of things. I’ve been keeping a list of the things he has wrecked. On the weekend Sox had Yoshi at the vet for a checkup, and it turned out that when we switched his food we should have upped how much we gave him. We were starving him, and he has lost a significant amount of weight. Felt bad about that one.
The vet ordered a blood test for Yoshi, and she needed a urine sample as well. I can now add to the destruction list a urine specimen cup. Crazy dog. I stopped at the vet’s office today to pick up another one, and when I told them what happened, the two women behind the counter couldn’t help but laugh, and another gentleman dropping off his cat was laughing as well.
Crazy I tell you!
At the first climb I could tell it had been a long time since I rode last. My legs definitely are not as strong as they used to be, so hefting my Bullit up the hills was a chore.
I also found that my bike felt jarring and harsh. The suspension seemed stiff, but it was actually fine. It turned out I had filled the tires too full, so after deflating the tires a bit, the ride quality improved dramatically.
My brakes were feeling a little off. I think the pads need replacing. Due to wonky brakes I chose to stay on the lower trails in case I needed to do some walking. This lead to a very fun ride.
The lower trails are the old-school trails to me. I know them well. They are still a blast, especially when the ground is soft and muddy from rain. You just never know when you are railing a corned if the ground will hold, or if the tires will break loose. If they break loose, can I recover?
After 1.5 hours I was done. My legs were toast, my bike was muddy. It was time to go. The shower when I got home felt wonderful and well deserved.
There was one unfortunate thing that happened on the ride though. I took my camera out of my pack to take a picture of a stunning stream. Picture a rushing babbling stream flowing over moss covered rocks. I planned to keep a small aperture so that I could get the water blurred. Woops, no card in the camera. Oh well. It made me focus on the ride, and the trails, not look for photo opportunities.