Pretty accurate… I’m an “ESFP”

ESFP – The “Entertainer”

ESFPs are cooperative, “here and now” people-persons that enjoy excitement and love new adventures. Because of their highly social nature, they are especially lively when they are the center of attention and hate being alone. ESFPs have a practical side that allows them to finish work efficiently and are often good problem solvers.

About the ESFP
Expert Quotes & Links
“For the ESFP, the entire world is a stage. They love to be the center of attention and perform for people. They’re constantly putting on a show for others to entertain them and make them happy. They enjoy stimulating other people’s senses, and are extremely good at it. They would love nothing more than for life to be a continual party, in which they play the role of the fun-loving host.”

- Portrait of an ESFP (The Pesonality Page)”They love the excitement of playing to an audience, and they try to generate a sense of “showtime” wherever they are. Performers are not comfortable being alone most of the time…”

- Jung Type Descriptions (ESFP) (similarminds.com)
“ESFP like action and excitement, and are able to link together people and resources. Because they accept and deal with people as they are, they are able to understand what is necessary in order to motivate them to get jobs done. They prefer a work setting that is lively and action oriented.

The end is near…

I have 9 days left of school and I have never been busier… As a result, this post will be brief, as will any other post up to December 7th (my last day of class).

We spent 5 days in NY/NJ with family for thanksgiving and for an unveiling. Love spending time with my wife’s family there. Most of them are super-nice and two of the kids, in particular, are total wankers. (They post provocative pictures on facebook then complain that their Dad found out and the got in trouble… Basically, we ate, shopped, ate, shopped and played. Black Friday provided us with some great deals. Both the boys and UrbanMummy were sick (Happy Boy threw up) and I’m sure if I was not getting up at 4am to take the Baby to the lobby so as to not wake anyone up, I would have got sick too. I just had no time for it,

One interesting note from the trip – besides how well we got along with UM’s parents who drove there (we flew) and stayed in the same hotel as us. UM’s Dad quit smoking (thank gawd) and they have decided to stop smoking in their house so we can bring the kids over (yay!!!). But the interesting part occurred Saturday morning when the Happy Boy, burning up with a fever, wolfed down a bowl of dry cheerios and the threw them up in the lobby at the breakfast table. You see, his grandma cupped her hands and caught all the cheerio vomit before it landed on his blankie (thank gawd). This is the same woman whose 8 year old niece threw up about 5 thanksgivings ago, and she had to leave the room because it she couldn’t handle bodily functions like that… Guess she could after all because it his her grandson.

He walks… Sort of. The Weed took his first steps (that UM saw) today. I saw him take bout 7 steps to his mummy… Cutie! Heavy little cutie. es wet grass… hard to light.

I like 4 on 4 hockey better than the shootout. Extend overtime!

The baby also got a tooth while we were away… About time! He has 4 up top, 2 on the bottom and they came months ago… We thought for a moment that he was going to have 6 teeth for the rest of his life. Whew.

Ricky Williams – a NFL football player suspended for all of last season for drug use, played for our Toronto Argonauts instead in the CFL. He got paid a lot of money and, well, he sucked. He didn’t re-sign but instead tried to get back with his NFL club, the Miami Dolphins to pay back some of the money he owes them that they gave him in incentives and signing bonuses. Anyways, the Dolphins didn’t want him on the team this year, apparently couldn’t use him even though they were 0-10 at the time. But this past Monday night Mr. Williams got his chance to play and well, was a bust. 5 carries for negligible yards, and he fumbled the ball and was stepped on by the opponent and is… Out for the season. One sportscaster had the following comment about Ricky getting injured last night on the very wet grass. He said, “Ricky hates wet grass… Too hard to light”. Funny, eh?

I thought it was.

Dear… My “groupies” will do it…

I think I need help. Like real help, not just mental help. LOL.

I’m only human, there is just one of me (who has had a cold for almost 2 weeks now) and I have spent every waking hour working on my Corporate Finance final exam. It is one tough course! I would say I have spent around 15 hours (non-working) so far. And this is only the mid-term exam… I’m so toast for the final exam in 3 weeks if I don’t geta great mark here…

I know the closet (formerly referred to by my wife as “Anne’s place”) is now entering it’s 2nd month of being turned upside down. And everything that used to be in that room was thrown up by the closet into the kid’s play area.

We are taking a trip soon and I need to get the suitcases… I promise I will put om my gear, grab a baseball bat and steel-toed shoes, then head in there to find the goods. If I don’t make it out, please tell my wife I love her.

I am also more than aware that we need to decide if we are going to sell the car, or store it away somewhere for the winter. I need to clean out the garage to make room for the other car, and we still need to remove that giant, yucky, built-in cabinet from the happy boys room. Then, and only then, can we have his new furniture delivered…

Shall I go on? Lots to do and little time. Welcome to my world. Here are some more pressing issues which must be completed ASAP. Ain’t it great being a Dad.

Still to be done; Change the litter, tidy up before the nanny comes home, put away the bag from dinner, did I mention complete my exam?

I already have my fingers crossed that I will be able to double my sleep intake tonight compared to the last 2 nights. I’m just beat!

Top things off, I managed to get myself jammed into the middle of someone’s personal stuff and as a result, have some work-related stress now.

How did I get to be the bad guy??? I listened to someone who had problems, she confided in me, then something went off the track and now she’s spreading rumours about me. OY. Kindergarden…

The story in a nutshell: A female colleague of mine in a troubled long-distance relationship. She was driving long hours on the weekends to visit him, and long hours back Monday mornings to get to the office for 7:30 or 8:00am… From what I could gather from her, the future of this relationship hinged on whether the male was willing to have a child with her. He already has 3 kids from a previous marriage and was, err, fixed. She wants kids. She loves him and his kids.

Problems in their relationship always centred around kids and when they broke up, she was emotionally stressed of which myself and a few other colleagues made ourselves available for many long walks, even more talks and nurturing to get her back on her feet. She did. She even started dating again and started having fun again. She even applied for a big promotion in the TO area and started to move past him and olet her roots set in.

But out of nowhere, without telling any of us who supported her, she changed her Facebook status message to read that she is engaged… To this guy again. It turned out that he promised to have the “procedure” reversed, they have been spending time at his place again and as a result, she stopped talking to her colleagues who helped her at her lowest point.

I remember how happy I was when she smiled for what seemed like the first time in months, she was that upset about the break-up.

So now she’s getting hitched, we all see that from Facebook. ell she claimed to the group of us that he actually changed her status update. Her family do not approve of this relationship based on the stress it caused her.

So why the post? Because the past week in the office she has been avoiding me and word has gotten back that she speaks of “feuds”, witches and goblins, indeed. I feel like I’m back in high-school. You see, I never cared if she broke off with him, married him or didn’t… I have my own life. I helped her out because I felt bad for her, and she needed support.

So now I have no choice but to distance myself from her. I know it’s all very high-school, but that type of behaviour is accepted in this work environment and as a result it can come back to bite me in the ass as I try to move up in the organization.

I’ll just forget it ever happened and count down the days to new opportunities, maybe a new job. I have courses to take and kids to look after at home, I don’t need them at work too.

Oh, and the “groupies” comment…

My wife thinks I have “groupies” at work who do my bidding…

Ah, to have such power…

I wish!

Thoughts for a bizarre Monday…

I find a lot of people paint their houses for “resale” value rather than because they love the colour. I mean seriously… How many kids grow up loving the colour taupe… Is taupe even a colour? Or is taupe the default colour that people paint their houses knowing full well that the new buyers are going to re-paint it anyways cause it’s so ugly… Hmmm. It’s a taupe conspiracy… Buy shares now!!!

Digital signage… Still mulling that one over…

3 weeks to MBA

Mazel Tov Dr. Andy and family… Bye bye an semblance of life as you knew it

You know what happens when you need to be reached by your spouse and you have a blackberry attached to your waist but it’s on silent all day… Hello couch… Hello lesson.

What was the word The Happy Boy used on me today??? Oh yeah, “Slammed”. I back up in the kitchen and to avoid stepping on a cat I took a two-step and bounced my back off the kitchen cabinet. The Happy Boy looked at his mommy, then me and said, “Lucie (cat) just slammed you off the kitchen cabinet, Daddy”. Slammed. I shake my head.

“Lasterday”, The Happy Boy drew his first “A”.

“Lasterday” is any day before today…

I know they are not supposed to stand in the bath but I left the Weed stand in the bath, on his own for 15 seconds… Owwwww. Walking is coming… I can smell it…

… No. That smell is The Happy Boy’s poo… Turns out the nanny has been letting him snack on fibre cereal… Man has his poo been fluffy… He’s over-ripe.

Tried the homemade turkey king crab-bee route… survey says… BUZZ.

Question: Is my wife bisexual??? Something to do with a vulva and a Volvo… See her blog in the next day or two for the answer. www.urbanmummy.com/journal

Question for the ladies: What does your spouse / significant other do that shows you love? Seriously…

Tuesday Newsday… For a Friday

First, a Happy Boy story…

“They’re similar”.

The Happy Boy – almost 3 years old, picks up the last cheese string in the house and is now eating it instead of letting his baby brother eat it. So the baby, now whining, is now forced to eat a chunk of marble cheese that I have to slice from a brick of cheese. Wanting to make sure his 1 yr old brother understands he’s not getting the short end of the stick in the cheese market, the Happy Boy shows the Weed that the 2 pieces are almost alike by saying to him, “look baby, they are similar… see, the pieces of cheese are similar”… He then tells me that his little brother will eat it because they look similar… How does he know that word? When did he get his drivers license? How do they get to be so friggin smart and cute at such a young age.

… And now to the news as seen through the eyes of UrbanDaddy… with a big thank you to Google news…

32% of workers fake sick

Excuses. Everybody has one to dodge exercise or chores, but a new survey shows nearly a third of U.S. employees use a fake one to miss work — and over a third of bosses don’t believe them.
Thirty-two percent of workers questioned in a Harris poll admitted calling in sick when they were well at least once last year — and some employees had excuses for missing work that left their bosses baffled.
One woman claimed she got whiplash from brushing her hair. Another said her psychic told her to stay at home or something awful would happen, and a man said he had nothing to wear because his roommate had locked all his clothes in a shed.
What??? I buy all those excuses… I’m sure everyone has – once in their lives – had their clothes locked in the shed by a roommate, parent, spouse or imaginary friend names “Cleo”…

Dandruff’s genes sequenced

First, researchers grew enough fungus to give dandruff to 10 million people. Next, they sequenced its genes. Then they found out that not only does an icky fungus live on your head and cause dandruff– but it could be having sex. On your head. Right now. Sex??? Really??? I told UrbanMummy I always hear panting and moaning and she swore it wasn’t her…
A team at Procter & Gamble Beauty said on Tuesday they had sequenced the genome of Malassezia globosa (that was in the top 5 for names for our first son… we chose the Happy Boy..) , a fungus that grows on the skin of between 50 percent and 90 percent of the population. It causes dandruff and a range of other skin conditions. I’m still perturbed about dandruff flakes having sex on my head. Fuck that’s gross.

Being fat is still unhealthy, experts warn (was it ever healthy???)

Being overweight may not kill you, but it could lead to obesity, U.S. health experts cautioned on Wednesday in response to research suggesting that being a bit heavy does not raise the risk of death.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that being overweight did not increase the risk of dying from heart disease and cancer. It also was linked with a significantly decreased rate of death from non-cancer and non-heart related causes, such as accidents or diseases like Alzheimer’s. Yup… Still unhealthy…

RCMP claimed Leveque had sexual problems, fancied young women – I needed this one because the headline tells me that liking young women is a sexual problem… Read on folks…

A secret RCMP file on former Quebec Premier Rene Levesque alleges that he suffered from sexual problems and was so drawn to very young women that it left his party at times in an embarrassing situation.
New files obtained by The Montreal Gazette under the Access to Information and Privacy Act reveal that Levesque may have been under even closer scrutiny than many realized.
In a report dated Feb. 9, 1972, for example, Levesque’s sexual proclivities are discussed.
“Levesque could have (aurait) certain problems of a sexual nature,” says the heavily censored report. “He likes skirts. And particularly when they are young. Which at times puts the Party in an embarrassing situation since Levesque, after an interesting encounter, would disappear for a few days.” LOL That was some secret file, eh? It’s been 35 years since all this happened… I’m 36… Who the fuck cares. He likes skirts… LOL. Maybe it was kilts. This guy was probably a Liberal… That would figure.

It’s prime time for procreating

Colder temperatures leave you feeling hot and bothered? You’re not alone.
For those with babies on the brain, the latest data from Statistics Canada shows October through December may be prime time for procreation. Although live births were fairly evenly distributed in 2005, the most recent year for which numbers are available, a subtle increase took place during the three-month period between July and September.
Given that most pregnancies last 40 weeks, the implication is that “spring fever” might not come when it’s pouring rain but with the falling snow.
July, August and September each accounted for 8.8 per cent of the year’s newborns; by comparison, babes born November through February comprised between 7.3 and 7.9 per cent. Spring was the least likely time for making babies, with roughly 5,200 fewer infants born in February – suggesting a May conception – than in any given prime time month: 24,896 versus 30,174 in July, 30,083 in August, and 30,112 in September.
go sperm go… go sperm go…

… and finally under the category of duuuhhhhhhhh…

Pedestrians not built to take on cars

Drivers also need to exercise extra caution. Recent tests of the current model of pedestrian revealed a glaring safety-design problem — it always comes off worse in crashes with cars.
Not surprisingly, more than half of pedestrian related crashes take place at intersections. So let me get this straight… when there is an accident involving people and cars, the cars win??? No shit??? This IS breaking news. I’m fucking speechless.

Some random thoughts…

I want to interview my wife so some of her regular readers can get to know her better… To know her is to love her. In good time…

I finish my last 2 courses and GRADUATE in one month from tomorrow. WOO HOO. But… I have a TON of work to do. Anyone good with or know anyone good with Corporate Finance? Help!!!

Some random things my oldest boy – The Happy Boy – has said or asked me recently…

• At 3am after I brought him back to his bed and layed down beside him so UrbanMummy could sleep more… 1st he asked why I was sleeping with my glasses on. Second, he asked, “Daddy…Why do people say bless you when I sneeze?” This was keeping him up?!? Hmmmmm.
• I took the pumpkin that sat in front of our house for the last 3 weeks, cut it up and last night made a pumpkin loaf, mini bundt cakes and a bunch of mini muffins.. oh, and spicy pumpkin seeds too. So after eating one muffin and liking it, my son asks me this; “Daddy, do the pumpkin muffins have handles on them like pumpkins do? Why are the muffins brown and the pumpkins orange? Did you take a brown pumpkin and cut it and cook it and make muffins for me?” Handles, eh? Hmmmm.
• Last week he took some bath water, splashed my sister and then looked at her and said, “Auntie R, you’re shirt is wet!”

Who needs stress?

I’m done!

I’m tired.  Not sleeping well.  Stressed out. 

Work stresses me out
Home stresses me out
Graduate School stresses me out
My job search stresses me out as does my work.
My “friends” stress me out and now my “work friends” stress me out.
My inability to lose weight and lack of variety in my wardrobe stress me out
My shoes stress me out.

I’m tired of being run down and not having anyone care.

I’m tired of working my ass of and not having any of it acknowledged.

I’m tired of having to work with children – pretending to be civil servants – who talk nice to your face but gossip about you behind your back and try to destroy you with their lies, manipulation and deception.   

I’m tired of being nice and thought of as an ass. If you think I’m being an ass, trust me, you’ll know. (not you… other people).

I really have no patience for this anymore.

Grrrrrr.

There, I feel a little better…

So on to something that does not stress me out… My family.

So, what are advanced speaking skills?

And how do we know our children have them?  We all think our kids are great communicators and, well, we speak their “language”, but when can we start to believe that either they speak better than average or possess above average smarts?  I’m not sure what the answer to this question is. I do know that who we hear it from matters depending on who that person is or what they do for a living.  For example, I’m cute! I know I am… so my mother says… see? Who it comes from…

So when family tells me that my son speaks very well, I smile, and nod. Of course he does… he’ll be 3 in 2 months and well, you’ve never really been around kids his age too often to know what an average 2, 2.5 or 3 year old should sound like. When my educator wife, tells me his language is advanced, I listen a little closer, and when a stranger in line of a grocery store tells my wife that our son speaks extremely well for an almost-3 year old, and that she teaches 3 and 4 year olds, well, I pay a little more attention… But how could he not be smart??? Look at his parents, right? His mummy is a genius and his daddy… well… he’ll be smart like his mummy. LOL.

Way too much candy…

… has passed by my lips and into my chubby belly. Ugh. I’m going to be sick. Someone pass me some water… and an Advil, Aleeve or Tylenol Ultra. After eating all that candy and carrying the Weed for most of this evenings Halloween outing, I’m beat! Both the Weed and the Happy Boy brought in a lot of candy this evening. Good thing UrbanMummy is on the ball and agreed to trade all the Happy Boy’s candy for a toy, which he gladly did! Easier when he some rarely has had chocolate or sweets. Toys!!! Gotta love toys!

On the way back to our house we stopped by – as promised – to see Haley-o, Josh-o, the Cheaty Monkey and Rascal. After picking up some much needed candy (lol) I put down the now uber-heavy Weed and he crawled right into their house and disappeared in the family room with the toys. Then came the Happy Boy and UrbanMummy and they disappeared into the house, leaving Josh-o and I at the door to chat about computers and give out candy… fun.

After about 15 minutes, we dragged the kids back into the wagon and shleped them home. Oy. I’m beat…

No more candy… please…