It’s a girl!

Around 10:50pm Friday, November 27th.

8 pounds, 2 oz.

Baby girl!

 

So happy and relieved that mother and daughter are fine and back home.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things that ‘m thinking about as I wait for child #3 to make an appearance

13. Names. For a boy, for a girl, English names, Hebrew names, will the child like it, will it get them teased…

12. Do I have all the necessary supplies as we plan for another homebirth. I look everyday, I have the list at my desk and it causes me great stress to think that once active labour begins, that something may be forgotten. Having all the necessary supplies is the least I can do.  But if this baby requires a trip  to the hospital, I’m screwed and should do something about that like put together a travel bag…

11. Lack of sleep. Not that worried, I’m used to it, but carrying Stewie around with a herniated a disc in my back left a bad memory for me.  My wife on the other hand needs a ton of sleep, and once awake has a hard time going back to sleep.  Poor her.

10. If baby is a girl WTF am I supposed to do with that? I know boy parts, not girls parts. And yes, wipe from front to back is a good start but it can’t be that easy…

9. When will active labour start? I’ve been planning for this for weeks and as work gets closer and closer to my uber-busy period, I worry that it will come at a really terrible time (but I don’t care).  I’m ready to drop every thing to help out.

8. I think about clothes.  We have tons of boys clothes, but if it’s a girl, I don’t want her wearing blue… I want her in pink.

7. I wonder about family.  My mother and sister don’t see the kids that often as it is and if we really need the extra support will they we willing to pitch in for long periods of time?  I have no relationship with my Uncles and on my wife’s side all relationships have been getting better and better over the past 5 years.  Still not close, but improving!

6. Meconium poo.  That sticky, tar poo that you have to scrape off baby’s bottom.  I dread it and my wife has never cleaned one. 

5. What is this baby going to look like?  Pointy chin, big ears?  droopy left eye?   I’m betting on black hair and squinty eyes.

4.  Will anyone care besides us?  3 kids, geez.  That’s more kids than there are parents.  Are we being socially responsible having 3 kids?  I feel better since we live in an above average neighbourhood, used cloth diapers and drive a hybrid vehicle…

3.  The delivery.  I hope it goes well and we can have this baby at home and the mummy will be able to walk around after in as little pain as necessary.  I hope both mummy and baby come out of this delivery in the best shape possible.

2. How gutsy and courageous my wife is – and no, not for marrying me in the first place – but having to put your body and life on hold for 9 months prior to the birth and for 2 years after the birth. The delivery, contractions, pain, all that stuff. It’s inspiring, and amazing. Totally not for everyone (like men).

1. I think about my Dad and my Grandfather (Zaida) both of whom would have loved to have met my children. I am lucky to have them named in part after both of them but it does not and will never fill that void left by their passing.

The end of the world must be near…

I think the end of the world is near.  It makes me sad, but I think this is it.  What else could explain the absolute shit that is on TV these days.  Celebrity Rehab, Sex Rehab, Paris Hilton’s BFF, Tila Tequila and fuck, even P. Diddy, or whatever the fuck his name is, has a “reality” show.  It’s all friggin crap.  Hogan know’s best, the Hills, people with 8 kids, 16 kids, 32 kids, geez.  What makes this Tv?  It’s like being at the circus watching the freak-shows. 

Right now on showcase there are 2 men in thongs tied together by a harness in the 69 position and they are pounding the shit out of each other’s ass cheeks.  UGH.  Then the guy drools on the other guys leg.  UGH.  It’s as bad as watching poker on TV.  (turned off after 20 more seconds).

It’s no wonder I just stick to sports, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, and a ton of cooking shoes and news.

Please, someone come up with something original!!!

 

November 28th, 2009

November 28th, 2009 represents the due date of my wife with our third child.  It’s been a long, tough pregnancy for both of us because of the fact we have two very active boys who keep us very busy (and tired), plus we are breaking in a new nanny who sleeps a little too much during the day and too little at night.

This date also represents my parents wedding anniversary. My father passed away in 2002, so if the baby is born on this day it would be happy, but also dad. I wish my father was here to see my kids and meet them instead of having to rely on me telling them stories about their “Zaidy”.

Update: She was born November 27th. Missed the 28th by around 1 hour.

She is healthy, mummy is healthy, and the kids were woken up and brought from home to the hospital to see the birth. After watching, half-asleep, the attending mid-wive gave them popsicles and cookies, after which my 3-year-old turned to me and said, “Daddy?!? What are we still here?

LOL.

So my in-laws took them home.

We left a couple hours later.

A Crystal Meth Lab, you say???

Where?  Some crappy little town somewhere, right?

What?  Around the corner from my house, backing on to the park that all the local kids play at, and what is this I hear about the backyard being booby-trapped.  A neighbour was told by the police this afternoon that the backyard – whose gate was open – was booby-trapped in order to keep trespassers out.   Turns out the police scared a squirrel that was in the yard before they walked in, and the squirrel did not make it.

Nice.  Safe.  And to think I actually had one foot in this backyard picking up my neighbours soccer ball.

So this is what happened last night that lead to the surrounding area being roped off by the cops.

A suspicious chemical odour (acetone – which smells like nail polish remover) led authorities to a meth lab inside a home in one of the city’s most sought-after neighbourhoods.

Toronto police closed off a block of Woburn Avenue near Avenue Road, located in Toronto’s quiet Bedford Park community, while they investigated the duplex. The street address was 438 and 440 Woburn. These properties were sold in 2008 for $810,000.00 each to a developer who was going to tear them down and put up three houses.  The economy went south and the developer rented them out, in this case to an individual met over the internet.  

“This was a full methamphetamine lab,” Staff Sgt. Jim Qualtrough of the Toronto Police drug squad told reporters on Wednesday.

“What is particularly disturbing in this case is this lab is right in the middle of a residential neighbourhood,” said Staff Inspector Mario Di Tomaso. “Because of the volatile chemicals that are used, they are a great danger to neighbours.” 

If you look in this picture you see the house on the left and behind is the “chicken park” called that because of the KFC right beside it.  Pretty much anytime you are in the park, you can smell the fried chicken.  Local kids play there during the day with their parents and nannies.

No one was inside the home at the time of the discovery and as of Wednesday evening, no arrests had been made.

I guess there are some lessons to be learned from this fiasco.

1) Never rent to someone you meet over the internet

2) If you are going to run a meth lab, please keep it away from parks

3) Know your neighbours!

4) This area has been called desirable and ritzy.  What do you think that will do to my property value?

I’m sick

I’m so sick.

I went to the doctor this morning – fell asleep in the waiting room.  I had a mask on, the doctor put a mask on.  It’s all very bizarre.

Anyways it turns out I have a virus – a “very very minor one” but in this day and age they are all serious especially when your wife is 37 1/2 weeks pregnant.  So I’m on antibiotics and wiping down everything I touch at home.   Sometimes I feel great and sometimes I feel like death.

Here’s to hoping it goes way by the weekend.  Heading into the tax season means I have a LOT of work to do!

Excuse me… Time for more tea.

Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget: Remember our veterans and their sacrifice today.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

-           Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

If you see a vetern… Thank him!

Sewn to the ground

I love my family.  The make me laugh.  Especially my kids, Linus and Stewie, or monkey-see, monkey-do.  If one does something the other must do it.

The only place where they completely differ is around how they interact with each other, obviously, considering the ages.  Linus is going to be 5 soon, and Stewie just turned 3.  So here are some of the things I’ve had to deal with as these two grow up together;

Stewie: Crying

Me, “Why are you crying… Come here”

Stewie, “I can’t… Linus put me in a time-out”

Or…

Stewie: Crying

Me, “Stewie!  Come here”

Stewie, “I can’t… Linus sent me to my room”.

Or just last week…  Linus, Stewie and myself were playing in the basement when all of a sudden Stewie is laying on the floor on his back not moving a muscle and all of a sudden Stewie is crying.  I ask him to get up but he said that he cannot.  Why???  Because Linus sewed him to the ground.

Oh yes!

His brother had sewn him to the ground.

I tried to convince him that there was no way without thread and a needle that he could have been sewn to the ground and his brother even tried lifting him off the floor by his head, but that little boy was not going anywhere.  Then Linus let go of his head and it thumped back down to the floor.  Ouch.  More crying.

After laughing a little and trying to get him off the floor it was Linus that solved the problem by jumping over his brother and un-sewing him from the floor.

With that Stewie got up, stopped crying and the two boys went back to playing.

Oy vey!

It must be Monday

For a month (and probably all of last year) I really wanted to get my winter jack dry cleaned. The once while collar was greying and the jacket as a whole was getting a little on the, say, ripe side. Totally not cool.

So last night I decided on the plan. I was going to stop for a Tim Horton’s this morning and right beside it is a dry cleaner. While I’ve never been in there I see him putting his sign on the main street, shooing cars that park in the cleaners spots and passing out flyers for discounts. He even offers to do minor alterations for free.

But an odd thing happened along the way. I bought my large double-double, and when I carefully went to put it in the car (sorry… My wife should stop reading at this point)…

… and when I reached across the seat, it spilled a little puddle onto the seat. With no napkins in the car and either too fucking dumb or lazy to go back into the coffee shop to get one I reached for my jacket and used it to wipe of the spil. I mean, geez, it’ll be in the cleaners in a few minutes, right?

So I walk into the cleaners with a proud grin on my face, drop my jacket on the counter and the guy behind it looks at me and says this;

“Sorry. I cannot clean your jacket. I’m closing up the business in, ummm, an hour because no one come to have clothes dry cleaned”.

So I stood there… Thinking about how “wisely” I wiped up my coffee spill with my jacket and how inconvenient this was. It’s supposed to be 18 degrees today. Probably the warmest day before winter and everything was aligned to have this jacket cleaned…

… It’s Monday.  If  had brought my jacket in before and maybe a couple dress shirts here and there, the dry cleaners might still be in business.  Now all I have is a coffee smelling jacket and I’ll have to wait another year before getting it cleaned.

I’m not sure how I feel…

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I hate… Today…

13. BMW drivers – Think they own the world because they drive a BMW.  I was always told that Mercedes drivers represent old money and BMW driver’s new money.  So I am coming to the conclusion that new money means having to show people you have money and that equates to buying / leasing a beemer and driving like you don’t give a shit about anyone else on the road.  I must honk 2 of them a day for not signaling or cutting people off.  Assholes.

12. My office keyboard.  Stupid thing got wet (something to do with me spilling water on it) and now when I type capital letters the Ucking thing drops the first letter and capitalizes the next one… 

11. Swine flu / H1N1 / influenza panic… Good g-d, people are going to make themselves sick worrying about the damn vaccination.

10. The NY Yankees.  They won the world series last night and, well, see my post on them on my sports blog; www.daddyknowssports.wordpress.com.

9. Our former nanny.  Left us a couple weeks ago and has been texting me asking for more money – extra money that she thinks she is entitled to, but confusing with vacation pay which she received way more than she was entitled to.  She thinks she was given extra pay our of the kindness of our hearts, I told her it was but there aint no more.  Now she’s bitching about calling the labour department.  I called first and we’re good.  She’s a noob. 

8.  My Achilles.  I finally stretched a lot and went for a run to test it out.  Ran for 10 minutes and there was no pain, but it felt really weak, like any sudden movement would cause it to hurt.  I hate that.  I need to run to stay healthy.

7.  My weight.  I blame it on Halloween that I am forced to eat those fucking little chocolate bars like they are going out of style.  Because they are small does not allow me to eat 10 of them at once, right?  OR does it…

6.  Fair-weather friends.  Either you’re my friend and you want to hang out, or we’re not and that’s fine, but don’t string me along by being phony and they never come out.  I can’t waste time on this whole being social thing… After planning a few outings, if it’s not reciprocated, I’m done with you.

5.  Jedi vs. Sith on Facebook.  I’m fucking addicted!  Grrrr.  As of last night I was 78th in the world.  14 million players have this application.  I have 4100 points (3 points for a win, lose 1 for a loss) and the leader has 40,000.

4.  Hulk Hogan signing with TNA wrestling.  It’s a shitty promotion that might have potential if they cut the gimmicks and produced a decent show.  Crappy writing and even crappier plots make me wonder why this show exists.  Besides the fact that I hate the name “TNA” since it is too close to “Tits ‘n’ Ass” but Total Non-stop Action is not the name for a successful wrestling organization.  And Hogan… 56 years old.  Seriously.

3.   My choice of area for trick-or-treating this year.  Sucks ass.  I expected the $2 million dollar home owners to kick out some kick-ass treats for the kids.  But one candy-bar per houses?!?  Cheapskates!  How disappointing.  Not making that mistake again!

2.  Guns and Roses.  I’m still pissed at them for their simply horrible release this year.  I kind of wish they had released a bunch of stuff throughout the past decade so the shit they put on this album might have come out in other releases.   There is no good hard rock nowadays and as I listen to a few of their songs on my iPod It makes me even more pissed off.  They used to be great.  Same for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver.  Where is the new Saliva, Disturbed and Rob Zombie?

1.  Iran.  Saw this news story and it pisses me off, considering Iran claims to be doing nothing wrong. Ever.

The seizure of a massive shipment of Iranian arms bound for terrorist organization Hizbollah, proves the arms flow to Syria and south Lebanon from Iran.  The attempt to smuggle arms to Syria and Hizbullah was an Iranian violation of a UN Security Council resolution.  Typically, Iran continues to smuggle arms to terrorists under the guise of legitimate international commerce, turning the Mediterranean Sea into a platform for illegal action. 

The weapons seizure “unequivocally and without a doubt” proves the Iran-Syria-south Lebanon weapons-trafficking route.

The ship was released overnight Wednesday after 36 weapons-filled containers were unloaded, and the 12 crew members boarded the vessel and made their way back on their planned route.

Hundreds of tons of weaponry, the largest arms seizure in Israel’s history, were intercepted in the daring raid by Israeli naval commandos aboard the cargo ship sailing 100 nautical miles west of Israel.

The arms shipment was 10 times the size of the cache found on the Palestinian arms ship Karine A in 2002, defense officials said.

The different types of arms offloaded from the ship were familiar to Israel as those Hizbullah already possesses in its arsenal, Israel Radio quoted defense officials as saying.

Military sources assessed Teheran would be forced to change its smuggling routes following the Israel Navy’s successful operation.

The cache was hidden inside shipping containers belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) which departed from the Bandar Abbas Port in Iran some 10 days ago, were unloaded in the Egyptian port of Damietta and then loaded onto the Francop, a German vessel flying an Antiguan flag.

On Wednesday, Israeli PM, Netanyahu addressed the international community concerning Iran’s material support for terrorist organizations by saying, “Iran is sending these weapons to terror organizations to harm Israeli cities and kill its citizens.  The time has come for the international community to exert real pressure on Iran to stop this criminal activity and to support Israel when it defends itself against these terrorists and their patrons.”

This is going to be a tough task considering the axis of evil lined up to denounce Israel left, right and centre every time something happens in the middle east.