Vacation Home

Welcome back to life.

We just got back from vacation yesterday morning, and I miss Maui already. I have some more posts on this later, but I just wanted to say this: I am so glad our flight was on Saturday night. It was tough to stay awake most of the night only to have to get on the 9am ferry to get home. I was feeling pretty gross, but upon hearing that this morning some of the ferry sailing were cancelled due to wind, I am glad it all worked out the way it did.

On that note, nice welcome home. A fine west coast storm. Cold biting wind, and heavy pounding rain. And Yoshi is clamouring for a walk. 🙁

Halloween Entertainment

Halloween last night was a pretty timid affair. There were no group fireworks like years past thanks to new fireworks purchasing bans across the region. Also, thank to George W it was still light out at 6pm when some kids were just getting started. It felt a little weird, and the pumpkins looked funny in the light, but I imagine it was safer for little ones. The bulk of the kids came between 7 and 8 when it was dark.

The upside to the ban was a distinct drop in firecracker noises. In fact I didn’t hear any until Halloween night, and then I heard less than half a dozen I would say. Great news for Yoshi.

Without the neighbourhood gathering to attend, Sox, Sprout and I headed to the Rec Centre for the bonfire, hot chocolate and hot dogs (Sox only). It was pretty neat as always. Sprout was pretty quiet but he stared at the flames quite a bit. We had promised him a firetruck, and boy were we all disappointed. Thankfully there were a couple police cars for Sprouts entertainment.

LOTD – Pumpkin Degutter

Thinking about Halloween next year? Want to carve more pumpkins in less time? Like using power tools? Want a degutter?

You need this drill attachment for gutting pumpkins. Get out the guts quicker, and get down to carving sooner! Sounds awesome.

via ParentDish

Dinner Sunset

Last night for dinner Sox and I did takeout. Bad parents. The end result was that we finished dinner early, and the sun was still setting. I wasn’t sure if the sunset was going to be brilliant or not, but we thought we would take a chance and head to Saxe Point park to take a peek. Yoshi needed a bit of a walk so it all seemed to work out.

The sunset wasn’t as brilliant as I had hoped, but I still managed to get some good shots.

The rest of the pics are here.

Carved Pumpkins

Cleaned and carved the pumpkins tonight. I’m pretty happy with how 2 of them turned out. The third is ok, but isn’t what I envisioned. It was a fun way to spend an evening watching tv. I wonder what Sprout will think of these?

Pumpkin Ride

We headed out to Galey Farms today for a little hay ride/pumpkin gathering.

Sprout enjoyed the hay ride, and particularly enjoyed the old firetruck parked on the far side of the field. He spotted that from a long way away. Once in the field he and his buddy L roamed about a little and sort of helped pick out a pumpkin.

As I was taking pictures, suddenly my camera stopped focusing. I was very confused until I realized the battery was kaput. Ooops. I had thought about charging too.

I missed some pictures of the boys on the return hay ride, and in the petting zoo.

LOTD – Electric Paper

For the kid, and the gadget geek in me there is the electric paper plan launcher. Fun and educational? Scratch the educational, this gadget is just awesome. How else can you get your plane up to 50 km/h?

via Gizmodo

Thursday Sunset

Thursday evening Sprout and I took Yoshi for a walk that allowed Sox to make dinner without interruption. Us boys are good at interrupting.

Yoshi had a great run in the park, and I got lots of nice sunset pictures. Sprout insisted on walking a large loop, so he also had a great walk. It was a little chilly, and arriving home to a warm house that smelled like freshly cooked stew was a treat.

Honest Reduction

Something I learned today. If you seem genuine, honest, and realistic, you might be able to set your own price at Zellers.

I was looking at some toys for Sprout today, and they had a $40 toy that had a sign under it saying it was marked down to $30. Great.

At the till I asked the lady to scan and see what the price was, and sure enough it scanned at $40. I mentioned I thought it was $30 because of the sign under it. She looked in the flyer to see if it was on sale, and it wasn’t. The sign did say it was a price reduction not a sale.

She rang it through at $30 without me asking, or without a double check on the price.

I am honest though, and I am pretty sure the sign was correct for this toy, but I could have been wrong. 25% off is pretty nice, and the whole reason I grabbed it.

Romp Silent

Another walk for Yoshi today. He is one lucky dog.

Sox and I cleaned up the basement this morning then it was all attention on Yoshi. We took him to Elk Lake today for a field walk. He always loves a good romp in the tall grass.

Today was no exception, and he returned to us soaking wet. Of course we had forgotten to take a towel so that meant he had to shiver himself warm. Sorry Yoshi.

At the halfway point we stopped for a break and were talking when I spotted a magnificent hawk perched at the very top of the tree next to us. It was huge. We tried to get a little closer to take a better look, but of course Yoshi scared it and the hawk flew to another tree. It was still close to us, and it eventually decided that the dog roaming on the ground 40 feet below was too much and flew off for good. It was completely silent. Very cool.