Weekend Lights

What a weekend. Busy, busy.

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.

Supervisor Muttered

I’ve written about the National Do Not Call List before. I still get just as many telemarketers as I did before the list was in effect. Most of the callers are charities, and I’ve taken to telling them I don’t donate to anyone calling me. This gets me off the phone quickly, and doesn’t require me to hang up on someone just doing their job.

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.

Bottles Replacement

I had to make a quick post about some excellent customer service I received. We bought some water bottles for the kids at London Drugs. The brand was Innate-Gear.

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.

Bookstore Recommend

Today was my first Wednesday playing the role of Sox. She worked while I had the kids out of daycare. The plan was to meet up with Sox, then head down to Tall Tales Bookstore for story time. Every Wednesday at 11 am they have someone from the story tellers guild come and entertain the kids. They also provide some coffee for the parents.

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.

Pets Crazy

People that have met my pets, or have heard some of the stories know just how crazy they are. I have a couple more stories.

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!

Mountain Bullit

I got out for a nice mountain bike ride today. Today was my first day of unemployment, as well as the first day of December. It was chilly out, but I dressed warmly and headed out.

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.

Movember Important

Movember is done, and I still haven’t shaved. I have a couple job search related and Christmas party related functions to attend, and I really don’t like how I look clean shaven. I’ll keep what I have for a little while longer.

I’m pretty happy with the fact that I was able to raise $520 (my goal was $500). Surpassing that was good, but now I need to make a goal for next year. Speaking of next year. Next year I won’t have any supporting facial hair. I caught a lot of flack from Sox over that. She felt I was cheating. I don’t think the same way, but next year I will go for the Mo only.

This year I also managed to take a daily picture of my Mo progress. You can see the pics here.

All in all it was a fun month, and I managed to raise some funds for a very important cause.

Colorful Sides

I was needing something else to add to the aquarium these days, so I though I would head out and see about picking up some schooling fish. I was thinking neon tetras since they are pretty colorful.

At PetSmart the guy I talked to mentioned that they just got their neon tetra shipment and he was still seeing a big die off. It was likely that some or all the fish I bought wouldn’t make it.

Instead I got directed toward the Black Neon Tetra tank.

I watched them a few minutes and decided to get a group of five for the tank. So far I really like them. They mainly stick together, are a little smaller than the rest of the fish, but are just as active. In the store I couldn’t see it, but in my tank I see that they are a really cool silver color, with a blue and a black stripe down their sides.

Prevalent Events

The H1N1 flu is prevalent in the media today. There is a lot of hype about it, and it is very difficult to know how concerned we should be. Lots of people seem panicked about it, others don’t seem to care. I think I am in the middle somewhere. I read what I can, and try to take as many precautions as I can. More and more I am using those purell stands that are popping up everywhere.

I’ve heard about some changes to children’s sporting events. In hockey everyone gets their own water bottles to try and stop passing around germs. That makes sense, is pretty reasonable, and is economical. In soccer, they are stopping the after game handshake. I’m not such a fan of that one.

This CBC article is hilarious. They propose dropping the traditional handshake, and instead adopting the fist bump.

The handshake, with its potential to transfer the flu virus, should be replaced with the safer — and more contemporary — “pound,” says the dean of medicine at the University of Calgary.

Meeting someone and not shaking hands does seem strange. This is a long standing tradition, and I cannot fathom how one flu strain would make us rethink age old traditions.

However, add in the post bump explosion and I’d be all over it.

Spastic Toys

When we got back from the playground this morning, Yoshi was very happy to see us. He was quite spastic since he hadn’t been walked yet.

As the kids got settled in the house, Amy wanted a toy on the floor. We had used it on the couch to block Yoshi from sleeping there.

I then saw her sippy cup on his bed totally mangled. Bits and pieces everywhere. Aaargh. He had several of his toys all about and yet he rummaged through a cloth shopping bag to find this to chew on.

Apparently it had some leftover milk in it which made it extra tasty.