Monthly Archives: February 2007

Deadbeat Dads

I love it!  The Ontario Government is stepping it up a notch in the shame game by creating a website to profile dads who skip out on child-support payments.  What a bunch of no-goods these dads are.  I’m not a big fan of using shame to get people to smarten up but this can be considered a worthwhile exception.
Check out www.goodparentspay.com to see if maybe you can provide a lead on a deadbeat dad.  Enjoy!

My Restaurant At Home Revisited

Last year I brought up an interesting idea that I’m more prepared to take on.  I believe I have the confidence to pull this off now that I’ve had some education in creative cooking.  One step closer to switching professions to the more interesting and exciting culinary world.  Just need to come up with the right idea now…oh, and a little more experience.

The 79th Academy Awards

So, even though I despise these things (see here) I still watched this year’s event.  What a hypocrite I am.   Some observations:

  • Ellen DeGeneres is equally as bad/good as Jon Stewart.  So we can assume she won’t be hosting next year (Seinfield anyone?).
  • I didn’t see any of the movies up for any Oscar except for Babel and I thought that movie was pretty lame-o.
  • We rarely go to movies these days.  When we did go once late last year it was to see Babel – should maybe have went to see the Departed which was playing at the same time.
  • Bravo for cutting off speeches ruthlessly for the non-celebrities.  Too bad it wasn’t the case for the more famous ones.
  • Since when do Americal Idol dropouts get to win Oscar’s?  Geez, I guess anybody can win one of these things.  I’d rather be Wonderboy.

Daycare decisions

We’ve been struggling this past month trying to decide where to relocate OG for daycare.  Our current arrangements have become a non-option for the time being as that family is preparing to increase its head count.
The struggle we are having is whether we want to enroll her in a commercial daycare environment.  For the past week we’ve been visiting a daycare very close to my office.  It is a fairly large daycare where they do the standard division of ages and can have capacity in a single room of up to around 15 children.  I believe a minimum of 3 caregivers are in the room at all times.

Not impressed.  Although a fairly reputable establishment I’m sure, the environment did not suit us, especially OG (at least we think).  The environment seems a little too institutionalized for me; far from a homestyle comfy feeling I would want to see.  Play, naps, meals all take place in the same room which although is somewhat large is not suitable for all three needs.

We did a few trial runs of a couple hrs each to get a feel for how the staff interacts and it wasn’t sufficient for us.  OG (biased) is a quick learner and requires more stimulation than simply running around from toy to toy.  Reading, colouring (which was controlled to specific times) and crafts are what she is getting more interested in.  And interactively with older people.  The caregivers were providing what I felt was minimal interaction on an educational level.  The rest of the time was mere supervision.

So we’ve been researching other in-home possibilities where we can expose her to an environment with a good mix of children of different ages.  We felt a huge advantage of our old arrangement was that there were kids older than OG that were playing and interacting with her frequently.  I would attribute a big part of her rapid vocabulary and memory development to this exposure.  Being in a room full of similar aged children is not going to be the same.  I’ve observed that equal aged children about her age ( < 2yrs ) tend to not interact meaningfully.  They pretty much just stare at each other and then sometimes try to take each others toys.  I'm not child expert person but I really don't see anything much going on there at the surface at least. We have a few leads that we're following up that could provide an environment similar to what OG is used to.  We haven't given up on the commercial product yet....just the initial one we gave a try.  There is a top notch daycare facility that we are on a waiting list for that provides a lot of the educational stimulation that was lacking in the other place.  And the environment is much less institutional.  By sending her there a couple days a week and spending some time with both Grandma's on the other days can be very beneficial.

Snow!

We finally had what could be liberally called a snow storm last night.  From where I come from (and from where some people I know now live), it was more like a moderate flurry.

Nonetheless, the blowing wind blew most of the snow into our driveway this morning.  Leaving it virtually impossible to ram the cars out of the garage without something unusual likely to occur.

So, faced with that realization, I donned my  armour and wielded my only weapon available to me:  the Canadian Tire Special Manual Snow Push ( CTS-MSP ).

The snow had drifted in several spots on the driveway upwards to about 3-1/2 feet so previous experience told me that to complete the entire task would take at least an hr.  Much more time than I had to spare.  So I mapped out the areas I needed to shave down in order to get the cars out and onto the road.  Cleanup the rest later when/if I get around to it.

About 10 minutes into the job with only about 6 square feet cleared out, to my relief I noticed Ray making his way over with his blower.  Ray has come over to save me on several occasions when we had a snowfall that is more than usual.

Thanks to Ray, I am again postponed from having to go out and buy a snowblower myself for yet another year.  Something that I debate over each and every start of winter.  But logic has always prevailed.  In this neck of the woods, this type of snowfall only happens about 3 times a year, 1/2 a dozen in ‘bad’ winters.  Any snowfall less than today’s is quite manageable by manual labour in both effort and time.

Although it is somewhat disheartening to see somebody blow your driveway in about 5 minutes with ease as opposed to the 1 1/2 hr of backbreaking effort (especially when the snow banks get higher and higher making it harder to move the snow off the driveway), it’s not enough for me to sway towards to the simple life.

Let’s say a typical blower that would suit my needs costs about $1200 with taxes.  That’s a little on the cheap side but it’ll do for the point I’m about to make.  Assuming it lasts about 20 years and we get about 4 snowfalls a year that truly requires its usage  (I’m going to assume that global warming will not be enough to impact my 100 ft x 25 ft driveway over that span of time), that’s about 80 legitimate uses.  1200/80 = $15.00 per usage plus gas and maintenance fees puts it up to around, say, $16 a usage.  That’s about $3 a minute.  My snow shovel cost me about $15 which makes that about 18 cents over the same amount of usages which in the end is going to be about a penny a minute.

True, if I get a blower it will probably be used more than the 4 times out of sheer laziness.  But to counter this, I have generally become more lazy anyway when it comes to clearing the driveway such that nowadays I will only shovel the driveway when it’s clear that it would be somewhat cumbersome to get the Jetta out onto the road (the CR-V has a much higher tolerance).  And even then, I tend to only shovel the parts that would impede the car on its journey down the driveway.

This is a dramatic shift to how I used to maintain my driveway.  And the shift can be directly related to the birth of OG.  In the winters preceding her, I was diligent in keeping the driveway as clear as possible from snow — cleaning it right down to the pavement.  Boy was I proud whenever I looked out onto the vast expanse of snow covered land *except* for my little area of black gold.    Often, I would gaze out fondly from the opening of my garage while enjoying a much deserved frosty beer after a hard hr’s work.  So much spare time back then.  Now, my standards have dipped excessively to a level where the bare minimum of effort is all that I’m looking for.  I now pride myself on how many weeks in the winter I can go without ever having to touch my shovel.  I do not attribute this to laziness.  I attribute it to wanting/needing to spend my time on more important and more valuable efforts:  aka L’il OG.

So, to get a blower requires overcoming a few obstacles:

  1. The cost per usage is quite high
  2. The # of required usages is quite low
  3. I have neighbours on both sides and across the road that up until now have always willingly come to the rescue.  I personally believe these guys actually want, nay, need to do my driveway in order to justify their purchase of a blower.

Thus, the question:  What year will it be when I have enough $$$ that I don’t care about the cost, the price on my time saved by a blower is high enough and I’ve pissed off all my neighbours?  The question is moot for by the time that would ever occur we’d have set up shop in Phoenix as per Sonia’s wishes.

Introduction to Gourmet Cooking I

Last night I started a 4 week, 4hr a night cooking class with my pal Jason. It’s being offered by the Continuing Education faculty of Conestoga College. The location is at the Waterloo Campus which is on University across from the Taco Bell / Pizza Hut Cardiology Centre. It’s in the building where the old school for questionable characters used to be. Continue reading

20 or so Words and Phrases

Each month, I’m going to list around 20 words or phrases about things, events, thoughts, etc. that reflect what’s happening in my life at the moment. Some items will be recognizable to family and friends. Some only relevant to me. Let’s see how it goes.

  • Gourmet cooking class
  • new skis, road skis
  • Tremblant for 5 days
  • neuroethics
  • more sleep
  • Wonderboy banner
  • Bedroom renovations
  • bitter cold
  • A dismissal at work
  • Kindermusik
  • Meaningless FFI options
  • MMQB Trophy
  • Repeating words and phrases
  • almost jumping
  • colouring in the bathtub
  • anticipating daycare transition

Dick Butkiss Trophy acceptance email

Last night during the ‘real’ Super Bowl XLI in which Indianopolis finally won a title with Peyton Manning, there was supposed to be an award ceremony for the MMQB Football Fantasy Champion at one of the team owner’s place during half-time. Unfortunately I, the champion, was unable to attend due to late arrival home from our ski trip to Mt. Tremblant along with the crazy -30 C and windy weather that was resulting in poor driving conditions.

Thus, the award ceremony was delayed to this morning and reduced to a simple handshake from Pat and the handover of the trophy. The group was a little disheartened that I was unable to attend last night for it was the 1st time in league history that the champion did not receive the trophy in person.

Therefore, I crafted an ‘acceptance email’ that I sent to all the owners in lieu of giving an acceptance speech in person. Here is a copy of the contents I delivered. SInce it may never happen again I was sure to be humble and thankful in order to set a good example for future winners. Because really, it is mostly luck that wins the championship. A good team to get you into position but to finish on top requires a lot of things that are out of your control.

The Acceptance Email:

Subject: Gushing with ‘Pride’ over the Dick Buttkiss Trophy

1st of all: I apologize to all for not attending Super Bowl XLI at Don’s place last night. I heard great things about the party and the spread put on by the gracious host and guests. Unfortunately I was in transit on the 401 until midway into the 3rd quarter due to poor weather conditions and a long trip from Mt. Tremblant

This morning Pat presented me with the Dick Butkiss Trophy. I immediately proceeded to parade around the office holding the trophy high up for all to see. I intend to leave it in my office for a few days so that visitors can look upon it in wonder and awe until they find out what the award is for and then quickly lose interest. It will also be there for Pat to look at covetously each time he drops in for a visit.

I would like to thank the owners of the league for allowing me to enter the league and participate. The competition is very high in this league and I was forced to ramp up quickly on many areas of the NFL that are not necessary in the traditional spread pools that I’ve regularly played. Fortunately, it seems that MLB Rotisserie skills do migrate over to this format and having used the CBS website for those leagues I didn’t have to spend time learning how to use the site for gathering information, etc.

But most importantly I’d like to thank the previous owner of the franchise, formerly known as Steeler Pride. I inherited a team that had the tools to win again this year. Since taking over, I’ve enhanced the team by drafting talent for the future and making a trade to compliment the team but the solid core remains intact.

As for winning the season it simply came down to being in the right place at the right time. There are better teams in this league that in the long run would be the horse to bet on and almost always payoff. From what I can see, the only reason I topped out was that I lucked into having some really hot players down the stretch, most notably Steven Jackson and Vince Young. As for the final game itself, that was literally a coin flip and Tony deserves the trophy as much as I. I know we both left a lot of points on the bench that game and would love to go back and adjust the lineups. But I’m glad we can’t because the outcome would most certainly have been reversed.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful season and look forward to meeting you next season at the draft.

Roach.

By the way, the Dick Butkiss Trophy (the name is a modification of the real ‘Dick Butkis’ who I believed played for the Bears and was in a bunch of Miller Lite commercials in the 80’s) is a beauty. About 2 ft tall with engravings of all past champions including the newly anointed 2006 champions: “Roach’s Ruddigers”. A picture will be posted.