Replacement Transition

Last weekend I had a few minutes to spare, so my daughter and I headed out to Petsmart to get some new fish for the tank. Unfortunately the big Platy I had that had grown from a baby had just died. I was hoping to get some friends for him, but ended up getting a replacement.

Before visiting the store I had two Albino Cory’s, two Leopard Danio’s, and a Tequila Sunrise Guppy. I ended up buying two more fancy Guppies, and two Sunburst Platy’s. The guppies are a beautiful blue color, with bright red tails. The Platy’s are a softer orange, with a black spot on the tail, but one of them didn’t make the transition. In total I now have 8 fish in my 30 gallon tank.

The extra fish in the tank make a huge difference. The whole tank seems much more alive and full of movement. It is awesome having the bigger tank.

Now, to get those crayfish from my co-worker!

Double Push

Last night was supposed to be a double header at Ulti, but I was only able to stay for the first game. It was a great game though.

Before the game, the team showed up early and we got in a good warm up. We did a drill called three man that was good for getting handlers to remember to break their mark. At game time we only had 2 subs while the other team had what looked like 9.

We played well on a near windless night. My throws were pretty good, although I did lead one guy a little too much. He had made a break for the end zone which was perfectly timed with me getting the disc. I had an opening and put the disc up high in front of him. As it was coming down I could see he was a couple steps too far behind it and wouldn’t be able to catch up.

Defensively I was pretty solid. My running legs felt strong, and I never felt mismatched against an opponent. I even managed to block a couple throws.

We even used the opportunity to work on our zone coverage. This was good to do since it helped everyone remember the different positions and what they are supposed to do there. One thing I like about Ulti is learning. It still seems like every game I am learning something new. Putting that into practice during the game is the hard part.

I was even able to incorporate a push pass for a point into the game. Whenever I warm up I try to practice every throw I know, including the push pass. This is a short distance pass, and isn’t very safe. I had the disc right in front of the end zone line. We were about to score and my mark was forcing me home. A teammate passed my mark on the break side, and cut to the home side. I saw him coming and would have had to turn more to do a flick, so instead I did a quick push pass which happened to work out since he caught it for the point.

At the end of the game I packed up, and as I was walking back to the truck I was very happy with how I had played. I felt great too, and was sure I could have played another game. God thing we have a few more double headers later in the season.

Racers Frustrated

When you have two young children, and you get time off from parenting, you always want to make free time count. Today there was a DH race out at the dump, and since I wasn’t going to be racing in it, I thought it would be fun to go take some pictures.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t block off enough time. I hiked up the course, and took a few photos along the way. A few racers went by, but then there was a huge break. I kept watching the time but it was quickly fading. I needed to be home because Sox had an engagement today too. Reluctantly I started heading down to my truck.

Along the way I talked with a couple other spectators, and one of them told me that there was a 10 minute break between the different classes of racing. 🙁 Sucky. Driving home I was extremely frustrated and angry. I had just wasted a couple hours, and hadn’t really enjoyed myself at all. Such a disapointment. Here are some of the pics I did take though.


Sand Sight

I finished off the sandbox yesterday. At 8 in the morning, as we were thinking about getting ready for swim lessons, Sue thought I should call the sand place and see what time they opened. They were already open, so I went and picked up a half yard of sand.

In the afternoon after assembling our new wheelbarrow, I hauled it from the truck and dumped it in the sand box. Success!

We were having some friends over for dinner that night, but before they arrived, Sprout was out playing and digging. After dinner my son, our friends two kids, and the neighbours daughter and her friend were all in the sandbox diggin and playing.

It was a glorious sight! All my worrying about a less than perfect sandbox flew away.

Here is the final construction pictures.


Movie Inclination

Friday my mom was down looking after the kids, and she stayed Friday night. This allowed Sox and I to get out for a bit on Friday evening.

We were wanting to go see the new Star Trek movie since it came out, so that was our choice. After buying out tickets we headed to Kelsey’s for a drink. We didn’t watch the clock close enough, and ended up having to down the drinks pretty quick.

The movie itself was awesome. If you have any inclination, I would recommend going to see it, even if you weren’t a Star Trek fan.

I was actually glad I got to see the previews too. The trailers for both GI Joe and Transformers 2 looked awesome. I can’t wait for those ones to come out.

Sand Imperfections

On the way home from work today I stopped at Rona to get the rest of the supplies needed for the sandbox. I grabbed a few 2X6’s, and some landscaping fabric.

I built the framework I needed, and laid the fabric down. It is done as I can make it without filling it with sand.

Unfortunately some of the angles with the cement pad mad cutting the wood difficult. This has left a couple gaps in places. Turns out that I am more of a perfectionist than I thought. Right now the imperfections are bugging me, but time is running out. Also, I don’t have the tools, nor the know-how to fix these small imperfections.

I know that in a while it won’t matter, and I know the kids are going to have lots of fun in it, but I can’t help but be a little disappointed. I want it to be perfect for my kids.

Approached Action

On the ride home from ulti tonight I was in a bike lane, and my spidey sense started tingling. Over my left shoulder a car appeared and pulled in front of me. As we approached a road their right turn blinker came on, the slowed, and started moving over.

Instantly I slammed on the brakes and watched as the car stopped as well. This driver was waiting for me to pass. If they couldn’t make the turn, then why start passing me? Just slow down a little, wait for me to go past the road, then make their turn.

I was fuming, and was contemplating saying something, then noticed the big N on the back of the car. I cut the person some slack, and they waved at me and made their turn.

In retrospect I shouldn’t have cut the slack. I should have pulled up beside them and explained why that was a dangerous thing to do, and explained the better course of action. Obviously the parent in the passenger seat didn’t know how to handle the situation any better. I could have informed two people with a few words.

Windy Thrower

Ultimate was on the agenda tonight. The game was pretty good for me. I felt like I played pretty well, once I got the first couple bad throws out of the way. Once again it was windy making throwing for the newer players difficult and daunting.

Along with the wind comes a zone defence. This was something I never did when I was first learning. We always played using the vertical stack no matter the conditions. This was great for learning, but definitely is not how we do things now. The zone is makes learning the game just that much more difficult.

One of the zones we did was a 1-3-3. There was one person as the mark, then three players as a wall, then the other three as another wall. I was the lone guy chasing the disc. It actually felt good to be out runnig, though I did get the force wrong a couple times.

I also made a couple good defensive blocks. Those always feel great when you poach off your check a little to entice the thrower to him. I managed this a couple times, and swatted the disc down.

I even managed to catch for a couple points. Weee.

In the end we lots 7-6 which was unfortunate. We scored more than one upwind point which is very hard to do.

Next week we have a double header which should be intersting this early in the season.

Shorter Sights

Yesterday we me up with some friends to watch the Victoria Day Parade. Someone had mentioned to me that it was going to be shorter this year, but I have to say that it was still a very long parade. We didn’t stay to the end.

Below are some of my pictures, the rest are here.


My daughter enjoying the sights.


My son had a great time this year at the parade.


This is the group we watched with.


My daughter showing us her non-sleepy face.

Some cool cars:

Some other sights:


Experienced Money

Sunday night I was out late at a poker game. I was one of the least experienced players there, and at times it showed. I wasn’t happy with how I played, especially with the first hand I was dealt.

On the flop I paired up my kings. The only other guy bet into me pretty hard, and not thinking I called. The River and Turn were more of the same, and each time I called. On the River I had a feeling something was up, but I didn’t listen to my instinct. The other guy a trip 10’s. I deserved to lose the money I did.

I simmered down a little and checked my anger for a bit. How could I be so stupid. I managed to claw back most of what I had lost, but then it started going downhill again.

One hand I was pretty happy with I managed to get a lot of money out of a very good player. I think he put me on a set when I actually had a straight. I am happy with how I bet since I got the most out of him I could have. After I showed, he said that if I had bet any higher he would have folded.

Much later in the night I was sitting on the short stack and was down to just over $3. I got a K6 and was almost last to act. By this time the pot count had improved a lot so I shoved all in. I had one caller, so I managed to doubled up. Next hand I was dealt a K10. Again all in and won that pot, but didn’t double up. Still sitting on the short stack the next hand was something like a KJ. All in again (noone would believe me) and raked in another pot. In three hands I drastically improved my chip count and felt much better.

Alas it wasn’t to be, and by the end of the night I was busted. Fun night though.

I borrowed one book on cash games and started reading it, but I think it has done more harm than good so far. The concepts in this book are too far over my head. Since starting the book, the two games I’ve played in I’ve busted out, and I truly think it was because I played horribly. That is because I’ve been trying too hard. I want to learn more, but I need a different book. Something more simple to read.