Some thoughts for a Tuesday…

Poor Toronto Raptor Jorge Garbajosa, he landed awkwardly lasy night with about 4:12 left in the game and broke either his ankle or leg. It make me feel ill, and I’m not like that normally. Ugh. The Spanish 29 year old rookie, has been a wonderful fit for the Raps, and has become the teams all time best #15 taking over from the somewhat motivationally challenged Wince Carter.

This mornings 15-20 minute walk to teh subway and subsequential walk from the subway to the office was accompanied by some of the mesic I have heard in a long time. The morning randon mix was… Striptease by Hawksley Workman, Buddy Holly by Weezer, Death of it All by Rob Zombie, Hold On by Yes, Slither by Velvet Revolver, I love it Loud by Kiss and then Temptation by The Tea Party. WOW. Great music. I recommend if you do not recognize any of these songs that you pick them up. Guaranteed. Especially if your musical tastes are questionable (eh, Shroomie?). LOL.

Sleep? What is that. As a follow up to my last post, I did in fact make it through the weekend, and tonight is my presentation to my class – have not finished it yet… Hmmm. I have work to do.

Finished my group assignment, then my past due assignment. All I have left once the presentation is done is my final assignment for each course, some postigns them will be 3 courses away from my MBA. Whew.

Give me strength…

To make it through this weekend…

I’m melting. I really am. I’m melting down. I can see that UrbanMummy is almost totally wiped out. I’m well on my way.

You see, I have an assignment for my Organizational Behaviour course that was due last week. I got an extension. I have a group assignment due for my Human Resources Management course that is due Monday, but for some reason I am the only member of my group that has actually done any work on this project. Each day I check my email and nothing comes in from my team members. To make matters worse, I am presenting to my HRM class Monday night and I have not even looked at that chapter I am covering. It’s going to be tight.

But here is where the problem lies. I promised yummy UrbanMummy that I would not do school work at night after the kids went to bed unless a) she was working on her course too, b) I had a class, or c) it was absolutely necessary. So I wait until she goes to bed and I begin my work on house stuff and my classes, which means that this week, I have been getting to be between 1-3am. Not bad eh, for someone who gets up between 5-7am when the baby wakes up.

Yes, that baby, the Weed, who doesn’t sleep, but naps in 2-3 hour stints all night. He could be up at 12, 1, 2, 3… you get the point. But once he wakes up after 5am, he’s up for good. It’s play time. So this morning when he woke up at 3:30 with tummy troubles, I cursed him as I trekked into bed at 1:45. I managed to get him back to sleep at 6am, and I plopped down and snoozed away for another hour and a half until 7:30 which is exactly 15 minutes after I should have left.

I dropped the Weed into the nanny’s hands, couldn’t use the shower (it was re-caulked before it destroys our family room ceiling) so I skipped breakfast, grabbed my iPod and hit the road at 8am. Listened to Bang your Head by Quiet Riot, Heaven by Bryan Adams (our wedding song), Heaven’s on Fire by Kiss and I Want to Know by the Information Society. I also listened to a few WWE theme songs.

Then the day begins…

I hope UrbanMummy naps. I hope she also figures out what she has to do for her assignemtn, now very overdue.

The day will end with a dinner at our synagogue, and for me, more school work and some more house cleaning before bed.

Saturday is chalk full of events for the kiddies like a play date, returning some stuff to the mall, and going to see the Leafs play the Sabres Saturday night. A BIG game for the Leafs to say the least.

Sunday, I believe, sees the beginning of some programming for the kids, and then as the day progresses, I see a birthday party, a much needed haircut for the Happy Boy, and the retrival our our second car (that has been in storage since we moved) to our house where it can be cleaned up and put for sale.

Like I said in the subject title…I need strength to make it through the weekend!

Tuesday’s ranting; parking police, hockey and gardening…

1) Why can the parking police, those glorified meter maids who walk the streets salivating at the thought of giving a dad with 2 young children a ticket because he wants to park closer to the building rather than 3 blocks away, park wherever they want, usually illegally, without getting ticketed themselves. Fucking hypocrites.

2) Will anyone from the Toronto Maple Leafs take on Cam Janssens tonight when the Leafs play the Devils? Janssens, of course, is that superstar winger for New Jersey who plays about three minutes a game and loves to hit skilled players from behind and blindside them, hoping to cause as much injury as possible. If someone does decide to take him on it had better be early, because he plays 2 shifts a game. Mr. Belak… Can you hear me?

3) I’m going to the Leafs game this Saturday night!!! First one this year and I’m taking my wife and her video iPod. Earlier in our marriage it would have bothered me that she would rather walk the halls of the Air Canada Centre (ACC) than watch the game, but now… I’m okay with it. Without that wonderful iPod, my options would be either see 25 minutes of the game and be with her, or, go with a buddy or my sister (the biggest hockey fan I have ever met), and watch it all. In order to spend time with her, I need the marital aid called iPod.

4) On Saturday the family went to Seedy Saturday and bought some funky-assed organic heirloom vegetable seeds. I cannot wait for spring so I can plant them in the garden. Purple and white carrots – green pear shaped tomatoes, odd looking broccoli… This year I let UrbanMummy pick the goods. I think she did a great job and we will see what comes out of the ground!

5) I so want to play hooky and take my family to the zoo. I promised Linus we would go since we missed out seeing the sloths in Costa Rica a few weeks back on our vacation when his brother got really sick.

6) Why wont Stewie sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time??? Doesn’t he know how tired he’s making his Mummy and Daddy? Plus, our respective graduate school courses are falling behind.

7) Speaking of schoolwork… I have a paper due last week, group assignment due Monday, presentation Tuesday, postings to do, then 2 final papers. See, I’m tired already.

8) I noticed that almost no one comments on my blog and I’m okay with that. I get a lot of hits, and my two regular posters are SciFi Dad and the Shroom Monkey. The comments are much appreciated as is the reminder to read their blogs..

Hey, just realized, my wife, who got me into blogging and said I wouldn’t be able to stay with it for more than a month, doesn’t comment – but them again she’s REALLY busy now-a-days, you know, with a couple kids and suffering from sleep deprevation.

I can honestly say that I blog for me, and I really like the comments but I don’t want people to post because they feel obligated. I like the posts from SciFi Dad telling me that I can’t spell (I really can’t) my own screen name correctly. LOL. Makes me howl.
So go read these bloggers. You’ll find them on the right side of my blog in the list of blogs that I read.

9) 12 Days until WrestleMania 23.

10) I wanted to put in the date of the Jays first game this season but their web-site is so screwed up that I couldn’t find it. I want to really vote for those Jays considering the NHL season is almost over and my Toronto Maple Leafs won’t be in the playoffs. This very average team is just the same team that missed the playoffs last year. They are just down one prospect in Bell. I think the day the season ends, Ferguson Jr is gone. This team cannot be expected to compete for anything as long as they have no legitimate scoring besides Mats Sundin. It’s sad. Thank goodness the Raptors are doing so well! Go Raps.

There. I’ve said my piece. I feel better.

It’s been WAY too long! Date night!!

English: unrecognized dessert. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This very nice March evening, my wife and I stepped out of our kinder-jail for a couple of hours to see if we remember what it’s like to be adults again.  The plan was not to rush – no regular checking of our phones, no peeking at the watches, hopefully not too much yawning either.  We put the kids to bed, did not tell them we were going out, make sure the sitter was prepared and we left.

Together.

Dressed as adults.

For dinner.  Yeah, “dinner”.  LOL.  What do adults eat when they rarely get out of the house together?  Well that’s an easy one.  We went to Caffe Demitre’s, which for those of you who don’t know, is a dessert establishment known for their ice cream sundaes, waffles and crepes.

Man was it good.  And boy and I still wired!  Hence the blogging instead of, ahem, sleeping.

I didn’t get to bed until almost 2am and full of sugar, I cleaned up some of the house, did more research towards my grad school assignment (now 4 days past due – oops) and got working on my case study (due next week), but still it was worth it getting out and eating junk for dinner.

It was so much fun, I want to do it again. Going out with the wife. Not the dessert place. That place is NOT going to help my new healthier eating lifestyle.

I’m just not so sure when the next time out will be!

Related articles

• Caffe Demetre (eatmeetandgreet.wordpress.com)
• Caffé Demetre (foodophilic.wordpress.com)

They grow up so quickly

Last night I asked the Happy Boy to be quiet so as to not wake up his baby brother who was sleeping in the swing. My son agreed. Then when I started talking a little loud, he said to me, “Daddy. Quiet. Don’t wake Weed”.

Crazy.

Then today he told his nanny to “shut up” because she was singing.

Oy Vay.

Where did the time go.

They grow up SO fast.

The Joys of Parenthood than no one Mentions… Poo in the Bath-tub.

Giant squid bathtub (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lack of sleep, sickness, diapers, vomit, and so much more are things that we expect to have to deal with as parents, and I’ve received tips on how to deal with all of them.  But my friends never talked about poop in the bath-tub, nor did they mention the after effects on me or on the kids…

Poo in the bath-tub.

Last night, for the first time ever.  I must have skipped over this section in the new-child parenting manual because I was at a complete loss over what to do, and thankfully instincts (or in-stink) set in and we managed to escape unscathed.  You see it was a very unexpected event because in the 26-months since Linus has been alive, he has never pooped in the tub, and all 5-months of Stewie had never done that deed in the tub, until last night.

Looking back, it was like a giant squid inking its enemy.  Both boys were in the tub, just finishing off their bath when a brown liquid shot out of the little one towards the bigger one.  Both Linus and I looked at it for what seemed like 5 minutes, and we both eventually reacted the same way… horror.

Swiftly, Linus got up and backed away from the evil invader that was slowly moving towards him.  I surveyed the situation and figured I had mere seconds before Stewie was engulfed (then I’d have to bathe him again after cleaning out the tub) so I leaned over and plucked him out of the tub with mere seconds to spare.

Adeptly, I alerted the maternal unit of this poo slick – the bath water was all brown – and she arrived in good time (with a smile on her face), grabbed towels and went right to the big cold boy standing naked, wet, shivering and on the verge of tears.

So picture this chaos…My wife is towelling off Linus, while directing me on how to clean the tub of poo (SHE read the manual!), and asking me if it really was fair to have baby Stewie tucked under my arm like a football, dangling over the tub – also cold and also wet.

Oops.

So I cleared out the tub, got the water from the tap nice and warm so I could hose off Stewie and once he was dry and with mummy, I cleaned the tub, then left the bathroom to write this post.

Maybe March 11th, 2007 will forever be known as brown water day in The Urban Daddy household.

It’s the parenting stuff no one ever tells you about…

No shit!

Urban Daddy Parenting Tip: Have a mapped out evacuation plan, plus contingency in case you’re slow.  Plus keep toys to a minimum in case you like washing poo off of toys.

Tuesday Newsday returns

Here’s the plan…

Pick some news stories from Tuesday (I use Google News) and post them. When you look back on your blog in 50 years, you’ll get a kick out of what what considered newsworthy.

My Tuesday Newsday for March 6, 2007.

1) Bob Rae to launch bid for Liberal nomination – Former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae made it official this morning, that he will make a bid to return to federal politics.
“I’m going to be submitting my nomination papers to the Liberal headquarters this morning and I’m hoping to run in the riding of Toronto Centre,” he confirmed. That would be the same riding that Ken Dryden was parachutted into and won handly. It’s a very strong Liberal riding, but if anyone can make it go PC blue, it might be Rae. After bombing as Premier of Ontario, he changed parties from NDP to Liberal in hopes of leading the Grits in the next election. Buzz. Wrong door. Now he needs someway back into politics… I know, be Liberal and run in a Liberal dominated riding. Geez.

2) Online tax filing temporarily suspended – Canadians hoping to obtain an early tax refund by filing a return online face a delay. The Canada Revenue Agency announced Tuesday it has temporarily shut down computer systems for personal income tax filing. So there was no virus, or hacking problems, but the CRA shut down the system due to “security concerns”. Oy. Looks like the “employer of choice” needs to find ways to keep it’s legacy systems up and running. To go down just before tax time is a BIG problem. It figures.

3) Canada’s Walk of Fame announces 8 more honourees – The list includes former toronto Maple Leaf goalie Johnny Bower; “Man in Motion” Rick Hansen, whose face has become synonymous with the fight to fund research into spinal cord injury; Jill Hennessy, star of the U.S. TV drama Crossing Jordan; comedienne Catherine O’Hara; rock group Nickelback; actor, author and director Gorden Pinsent; director/producer Ivan Reitman; and TV journalist Lloyd Robertson.
… and SpeakEasy. Shit that would make it 9. Oh well.

4) Women on Atkins dropped more poundsthan others – Women on the low-carb Atkins diet lost more weight than those on three other popular plans, but the dieters on all four programs dropped only modest amounts of weight and regained some of it within a year, a new study shows. Just goes to show you that a healthy lifestyle full of exercise and low-stress is better than dieting. Problem is that it’s just for fucking hard to maintain.

5) Girl, 16, videotaped in gang rape – Mississauga, Ontario – A cellphone camera recorded the gang sex assault of a 16-year-old girl — allegedly by four students at Cawthra Park Secondary School in Mississauga — police say. So my thoughts on this are probably the same as everyone else who read or heard of this event. 1st, the 2 18 year old men were named, but the 2 17 year old “boys” were not. If your causing bodily harm to someone unable to defend herself, and you are doing it with “men” then you are not a “boy”. You are a “man” too and should be tried that way. 2nd, if you are stupid enough to do something as low as this, why record it? Oh, so you’ll be able to be caught. Idiots. Actually that might be a case for trying them as “boys”… they have the mental capabilities of children. 3rd, does anyone really want these 4 thugs back into society? I’d be happy if they were shipped out to fight the Taliban, or to go find Osama, or to go bring back some gang members, or those idiot KKK racists. I think they lose their right to play in society will all the decent people. Don’t you?

Only 3 games?!?!?

I can’t help but think that if the NHL was serious about headshots and headhunting, they would have thrown the book at uber-goon Cam Jannsens for his ugly cheap shot on Toronto’s Tomas Kabarle, which saw and elbow to Tomas’s head, and then Tomas flying head-first into the boards.

First of all, I have an issue with the concept of “finishing your check”. What is that? A guy passes the puck and you get 2-3 seconds to hit him??? It should not be like that. It should be immediate, and that is one way to cut back on injuries and rough play.

As for the instigator? Forget it. There should be no fighting in hockey anymore, period. Now it’s just 2 goons in a staged fight. I’d rather see a nifty play or a great goal instead of a stupid fight between the same guys. Yawn. BORING.

I actually love the new NHL – not yet sold on the shootout. If it’s got to be there, then make it 5 shooters. I hated the clutch and grab NHL and I stopped watching games. Now with the new rules and salary cap, I can’t get enough. It’s fun again.

So back to Cam… I heard New Jersey Devil commentator Glen “Chico” Resch commenting that Kabarle should not have been admiring his pass and that he should have known that Janssens was on the ice. So what does that mean, Chico? That all players should know when Janssens is on the ice so they can watch out for a cheap shot? This guy plays 3 minutes a night. 3 MINUTES. LOL. Kabarle was an all star. The whole thing stinks.

Memo to NHL: Cut the head shots. Hit in the head and your gone for 10. Accident or not. Hurt the guy and your out as long as he is. Oh, and cut out the fighting, let the goons go find another thing to do.

He spoke…

Ahhh,

Thank goodness there were witnesses. Late this afternoon, the baby (soon to be 5 months old), said “hello” to me when I was playing with him. He said it in front of UrbanMummy and her friend. I looked at them and asked them if they had heard him – he was very clear.

Yes they did.

Avacado tonight for him. Teeth next.