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.

Purple Slippery

Today the fam headed off to the Purple Hay park (Elliot likes to name parks on his own, and this is the name he and I came up with). It was cold this morning, around 4 or 5 degrees, so we all bundled up.

This is all of us having a snack after playing for a bit.

The kids played on the swing, ran around, and went down the slide countless times. Amy was wearing fleece overalls which were pretty slippery on the twisting slide. Half the times she came down she got turned around backwards which caused all sorts of giggles.

At first neither of the kids had gloves on. When Amy got off the swing, I was alarmed at how purple her hands were, so I insisted she start wearing gloves. No fight there, and Elliot even wanted his on too.

Pilots Show

On Saturday night I got out to a concert. It was the most enjoyable concert I’ve seen in a very long time. I think I had the appropriate number of beer before hang to get me in the right mood.

Can you tell who it is? No? It is the Stone Temple Pilots. A while ago I had given up on concerts, but when I heard these guys were coming to town I jumped at the chance to go see them. I’ve been into these guys since their first album (92/93 era).

A buddy and I headed down to the show and had a few beers before they took the stage. Right from the first song I knew I was going to enjoy it. They have so many awesome songs that it was impossible for me to now have fun. Vasoline, Plush, Creep, Crackerman, Dead & Bloated, were all awesome. The standout song for me was Sour Girl though.

The TC writeup by Mike Devlin didn’t have much good to say about the show, felt like he didn’t put much effort into the article, yet still rated the show 4/5 stars. Weird mix there.

I felt bad for the guys in front of me though. They were having a good time at the show, but they were smoking. One third of the way through the show security came along and kicked them all out. They weren’t bothering anyone, they were just having a good time. Sucks to be them.

I’ve said it to many people, but I find Victoria concert goers to be pretty boring. Most people were sitting in their seats watching the show. A rock show like this needs to be experienced. I was standing the entire show, dancing, jumping, generally making a fool of myself, and damn it was fun. I haven’t done that in a long time.