Parade Swing

Saturday morning was the Buccaneer Day’s parade here in Esquimalt. We had all sorts of fun. We started off with a pancake breakfast at our house with some friends, then we all walked down to the parade route. The parade took a while to get to us, but we weren’t dissapointed. Pirates and booty abound in this parade. Aaarrrrr!

It’s a tight fit sometimes, but they managed to get through without hurting anyone.

Gotta keep hydrated with lots of grog.

Watch out for these guys though. They are good at stealing and plundering.

Watch where you cross or you may get accosted by this vicious biker gang!

The celebrities were out in full force.
Hudson Mack:

Piano guy:

The Mascot for the Salmon Kings, Marty the Marmot?

There were some fine pirate vessels as well.

What better way to end the parade time, than a swing at the park.


Fish Power

Today I got out to PetSmart and picked out a couple more fish. I got a Sunburst Wag Platy, and a Red Long Fin Tetra. I’m still trying to get the crayfish too. Those are going to be awesome.

Tonight, for the first time since setting it up, I cleaned my new tank.

My new gravel siphon is awesome and did an excellent job. Strong sucking power meant none of the crud got backwashed into the tank. Of course, the bigger tank means more water to remove and to more water to add back. I didn’t let the water sit overnight to off-gas like I usually do. Just to do the 30% flush I needed three buckets of water. I did add some dechlorinator though. I’ll see how this water change goes, and if nothing disastrous happens, I’ll likely do the same procedure next time.

Clueless Regularly

I was out at Costco this morning picking up a few things. One thing I don’t get about Costco is why the people shopping there are so clueless. The aisles aren’t that big and the buggies are. People just stop in the middle of the aisle. They block each other, they cut each other off. Generally people are pretty rude there.

Contrast that to a regular grocery, hardware, or department store. I can’t recall seeing the same behaviour there. Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve seen the same behaviour at Christmas time, but it certainly doesn’t happen regularly.

Highlight This

As a parent this evening was not a highlight. I was grumpy and tired. I mostly wanted to be alone in a quiet place. Contrast that to our household. We had to tired and grumpy kids who were either crying, screaming, playing the drums, or playing with some other toy that made a loud noise and was getting on my nerves. Toss in a dog who was either in the kids way, or in my way. More than once I had to remind myself to calm down and chill out. Once I almost went outside to escape what felt like insanity.

I was not a happy camper as I made dinner, and thankfully Sox took the kids for a wagon ride. This allowed me to finish making dinner, and clean up a little. More importantly I was able to cool off a little bit, and my patience level was restored.

It was just the last few hours of the day that were hard. I don’t want this difficult time to ruin my memory of the day. I always knew there would be days like this.

Cake Donation

Mmmm, cake. There was cake after donating blood today. It was good. Their pre-donation procedures have changed a little bit due to donor feedback. Their is a new queueing system to ensure that everyone donates in the order they arrived. Kind if silly really.

I had brought a magazine to read while eating my cake and cookies, but ended up talking with another gentleman about mountain bikes, and mountain biking.

This was donation 41 for me.