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.

Sandbox Deterrent

Sunday after the dog walk, we also broke ground on a sandbox for my son and daughter. We are kind of winging it, but we outlined the general size, cut out the grass, and started digging out the dirt. The plan is to line with gardening fabric, fill with sand, then ring with garden ties. The ties might be one or two high, not sure on that. Then I am also planning on building some kind of cat deterrent. I’m thinking a screened lid, or maybe a tarp based lid. I’m not concerned about keeping water out, just cats.

Here are a couple pictures of our progress so far. Sprout helped get the bigger rocks out of the hole.


Canine Romp

Sunday was such a nice, warm sunny day. We managed to spend a lot of time outside, and part of that was at the Citizen Canine, Everybody and Their Dog Walk. We looked at the booths, checked out some of the tricks, watched some face painting, ate some hot dogs, and thoroughly enjoyed the weather.

Yoshi and Digger enjoyed the setting too. They got a bit of a romp in the field and both spent a little time in the water cooling down.

For our walk, my son Sprout sported a blue tail. He insisted on walking quite a way like this. It was pretty cute.