I need a life. Or least I need something to do...

It's been 9 days since my last post. Goes to show how much excitement I have in my life.

Last weekend we went to the Quinte Exhibition and Fair. What a FUCKING RIP OFF that was. We checked on line before going we're on a tight enough budget as it is so we didn't want any suppresses. Fat lot of good that did.
The website was right about the entry fee to get on the grounds, $10.00 for a 5 day pass. They also had a price listing for ride tickets, $0.75 per, 14 for $10.00, or 30 for $20.00. BULLSHIT!!
We go to the booth and the sign above it says each ticket is $1.00, or 22 for $20.00. When I asked about the pack of 14 I was told, "we don't sell 'em like that."
So, I spent $10.00, just enough to let Logan go on a few rides. Now, everyone has seen the giant slides they have, you know, the kind that you ride a potato sack down?
I wasn't hard to talk a 4 year old into going down, but he was too small to go alone. Number of tickets per person? 2 + 1 for the accompanying adult. So it cost $3.00 to go down a god damned slide. Further down the midway they had the kiddy rides. It cost 3 tickets to go on the merry-go-round, 2 to go on the moonwalk and 2 to go on the kiddy cars. Obviously I had to buy a few more tickets.

Tuesday was Logan's first day of junior kindergarten. He met his teacher Mrs. Montgomery. I'm glad parents were allowed to go into class on the first day. While everyone was looking around and chatting the teacher had a box on the table, and said that there was a special friend inside named Lucy. I think all the parents thought it was a class pet, a hamster or something. I found out today that Lucy is a lamb puppet.

Holy Hell! Where did the week go?

I just can't fucking believe it. It's been a week since my last post. Talk about slacking.

Not a hell of a lot has been going on. Just the usual mundane, boring day to day shit.

Carrie's still healing from her surgery. It's taking longer than expected, but she has been doing all the normal stuff she's not supposed to do. Except pick up Logan.

I've been lazy and haven't taken any pics of Logan in his new glasses. Maybe tomorrow I'll do it. We did, however, get him a soft leather eye patch for his good eye. The adhesive ones were just too harsh on him when they had to come off. He's missing about half an eyebrow.

It's now the end of August and still nothing from the military. I guess all my "minor" faults (flat feet, glasses, hearing loss, weight, asthma) are conspiring against me. I'm trying not to let it bother me too much, but I do feel really useless and old every time I think about it.

So. Options. 1)I fight like a son of a bitch and try to get a job at McDonald's. 2) Re-apply to Stream, a place where I didn't mind the work but HATED management.
3) Look into a program from Employment Insurance that will give me $5000.00 to take any one year course I want from nearly any school. 4)See about getting a student loan and taking a 2 or 3 year course for business management, and start my own indoor paintball field. 5)Become a gigolo. 6)become a ninja assassin. 7) Suicide. Or, finally, 8) become a taxi driver.
These are in no particular order.

On the lighter side..... Yesterday, when I took Logan to daycare, we spent the trip there arguing about when he goes to "big kid" school.
That's right. Next Tuesday, September 7, Logan starts junior kindergarten. He's very excited to go. Today we picked up some school supplies for him, and tomorrow we go to the school to meet his teacher and see his class room. Hopefully I'll remember to bring the camera.

All she has to show for it is a band-aid on the belly button

Yesterday was surgery day for Carrie. We were supposed to be at the hospital at 9:15 am, we were there about 20 minutes early. Not that it mattered. There were complications in the surgery before Carrie's and she was delayed almost 3 hours.

Things went very well. The surgery only took about 20 minutes. We don't have all the details, the doctor never spoke to me, but told Carrie, while still coming out of the anesthetic, something about her Fallopian tubes being blocked. They cleared them. More details may come when after she sees our family doctor in a week.

Aside from being sore, and feeling a little silly about worrying for 3 months, Carrie is starting to recover. Down side for me is no sex for at least 2 weeks, and I have to do all the heavy housework.

Last Tuesday, I think I forgot to mention that Logan went to the ophthalmologist. That was an adventure and a half.
Logan does have a lazy eye, and his good eye needs to be patched for the next 6 weeks. He also needs glasses.

We picked up his glasses last night. His are similar to mine, and just a shade darker. He's four, so keeping them on, for now, is a little difficult.

As mentioned in a previous post, I finally got a pic of my Grandfather's medals.

My Grandfather's medals 

Hopefully I'll be able to display it in my home someday, and do the same for my dad's dad.

thing. 

And the Games go on

Ok. The Olympics are on TV. That's supposed to be a good thing, right?
I mean, the Olympics are on every 4 years. You sit down and watch the seemingly endless coverage of your favorite events, cheering on the guys and gals from your country so they can bring home that elusive chunk of gold. Hell, you might even know one of the Olympians personally giving you even more reason to go insane during a particular event.

It's not like it a last minute throw together sport challenge, right? That's the way CBC seems to be covering things though. They've had 4 years to pull their shit together and give us the BEST coverage they can. I know there are 37 events, and most are broken down into a different classes (men's, women's, individual, team, weight, distance) and so I don't expect to see EVERYTHING on the bootoob. I also didn't expect to see a schedule that looks like the cable guy is coming over to fix things.

My local listings go something like this:

" Friday August 20 7:00-12:00 CBC Olympic Morning Basketball Women's prelims: Athletics men's/women's qualifying; Swimming men's/women's heats; Diving women's prelims; ....."

Yeah, it tells me what's being covered, but that's over a five hour block of time. What if I only want to watch diving? I have to HOPE to switch channels at the right time to see it. I can't set my VCR to record it because I don't want to waste tons of tape. The afternoon coverage is done the same way. Add in all the commentator babble between event coverage, it just pisses me off.

I don't think any one event deserves more coverage than another. I can understand why sailing has no coverage, but why does swimming have tons? In the evening they "recap the days events". Cool, I'll get to at least see highlights of the untelevised events that I WANT to watch. WRONG!WRONG!WRONG!WRONG!WRONG!WRONG!
They repeat exactly what they showed during the day. I want to see archery, fencing, judo, tae kwon do, and mountain biking.

So far there's been ZERO archery and fencing. The only judo I've seen was by accident on the French station. Mountain biking is coming up in the next few days.

Canada is sucking the hind tit so far this year for medals. We're tied for 15th over all for medals with 1 bronze. USA is in first with 35 medals over all, but tied for first in gold with China.

Mountian biking is our sport. I can't wait to see it.....if I'm lucky enough to have it tuned in.

Almost enough to make me triskaidekaphobic.

Yup.
You read right.
Triskaidekaphobic.

It's been a LOUSY Friday the 13th. We had decided to re-arrange the bedroom. Sounds simple, right? That meant the computer had to be moved back to the living room.
Well, the computer desk broke. So did one of the legs of our bed frame. To top that off our digital camera fried when it was re-connected to the computer. Carrie started her period again. This is after having it gone for two days.

Man, if that is bad luck I don't know what is.

On the positive side, no-one here was seriously injured. Mind you I saw the after effects of 4 different car accidents.

Opening ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics were televised to day. That was some cool shit. Good thing I don't do drugs. I don't think I could have dealt with the parade of Greek history if I were stoned.

The days I HAVE to watch are going to be the 14 to 22 for fencing, 14 to 20 for Judo, and 27 to 28 for mountain biking. I'll probably take a look at archery and tae kwon do as well.
Take a look at the CBC schedule for more info

Here we go....

I've been trying to think about how to make my blog worth while reading. Should I do some kind of political commentary? What about reviews? Maybe I could write stories or poems?

I decided that I'm not as rabid as some are about politics. I don't have the money right now to be renting movies to review, and I haven't written anything since high school.

That doesn't leave me with a lot of content. All I have is my day to day life. Quite frankly, it's not all that interesting. At least not yet. It might change once I get into the army.

This week in the regular life files:

Monday- Sweet fuck all.
Tuesday- Foul mood, ran away from home for 3.5 hours and just hung out at the mall.
Wednesday- Stopped in at the library to get a book on Flash MX 2004. Which is no good to me because I have Flash MX.
I also found out my sister Carmen and my half sister Amber are a lot alike. Earlier this week Carmen got trapped in her bosses office for 45 minutes. Last year Amber got locked in the broom closet at the Tim Horton's she works at. She was locked in for 15 minutes. She had the only key to get in the closet.
Carrie dropped of her prescription for her new glasses.
Around midnight a skunk sprayed the window of the apartment below us. Since we had the air conditioner on it sucked the stink right into the bedroom. I almost hurled. Our eyes were watering, we were gagging and both ended up with a headache.
Thursday- Went to my moms to do laundry. My grandmother took me shopping. I was only expecting to get a a pair of pants. She got me three pair. As well as a pair of Merrell sandals and a pair of Merrell shoes. In total she spent close to $300.00. I fought like hell not to get the shoes. The clerk at the shoe store said you can't argue with your grandma. Yes you can. Only I lost.
After lunch, Carrie and I went to the mall to get a refill of my allergy medication and her glasses. They look good, kind of a pink anodized frame with a slight rose tint in the lenses. I just hope she doesn't lose them like she did her last pair.
Friday- Hasn't happened yet.
Saturday- Same as Friday. Do you really want to know about Sunday?

New Old photos.

A couple of weeks ago my grandmother gave me some pictures. I finally got them scanned.


My mom's parents on their wedding day. 


My grand father before he left for war. 



Back from war. 

Stress filled weekend. Ugh!

Friday we had a major down pour here. Not as bad as Trenton, just 20 km away. They got 5 inches of rain, but we got pretty hosed too.

Carrie and I were out spending the very little pocket money we had at Zellers. When we got to the check out we couldn't see across the street it was raining so hard. A few minutes later it let up enough to be classified as a heavy drizzle. So we bolted out the door to make our way to the mall, because it has a sheltered bus stop. We were half way there when the clouds burst a second time. We were completely soaked.
Carrie was complaining that she felt "squishy", and we both figured it was because she was wet.
We were wrong.

When we got home and got changed, she realized she had started her period. Or thought she did. A few hours later she commented that it seemed heavier than normal. Not that we had any idea what normal was anymore, having been over 9 months without and NOT being preggers.
Saturday morning, she was still very heavy. Around noon I had called my mom for advice, was told a few things and persuaded to wait, "it'll slow down."
Sunday morning, still no change. Carrie was looking pale, feeling weak, and I was very nervous. We called my mom, and convinced her to take Carrie to the hospital to be checked out.
The doctor said that Carrie was hemorrhaging but we had caught it in time. They didn't explain WHY, but they gave Carrie a prescription for progesterone to help slow/stop the bleeding, and told her to come back on Thursday for an ultrasound.
She's been on the pills for 4 days now, and they seem to be helping a little.
Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

Monday my mother calls and leaves me a message saying she took my grandmother to the hospital because of chest pains. Grandma had been having them since Friday. FRIDAY! And she never said a word. They hospital hooked her to an EKG, drew some blood and determined that it wasn't a heart attack or stroke. They figure it's angina. She goes in on Friday for stress testing to confirm it. For now she's on nitro pills.

We called housing yesterday. The two people we wanted to talk to there weren't in, of course. So we made a few inquiries and got another name to speak to. I'm sorry we did.
When we called yesterday, we were told that we signed up for low income housing in January 2001, and had been on the list for only a year (it's now 2004, you do the math) and that it's a 3 year wait. Today we got a call back from them because the secretary of the "Boss" heard what we were told yesterday and wanted to try to clear it up. Hooray! NOT!
A couple of hours later, after looking at our file, she called back to tells us, "yes, it's three years. You signed up in 2003, which is what you were told yesterday."
They're damned lucky I'm poor and can't afford to buy a rifle, because Belleville does have a bell tower.

In other news, the stairs I helped build at my moms would have cost her $5000.00. Mike started his own business and is planning on using his free work as a show piece for his advertising.

Well, it's now 1936 hrs and I'm dying of thirst. I think I'll go make a batch of Kool-aid.

I'm sick of waiting.

Carrie, Logan and I moved to Belleville in October of 2001 because I got a better paying job at a company that is managed by assclowns. We were still tight for money and applied for low income housing. When we signed up we were told it was a 12 to 18 month wait. So we waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
When we would call to find out how much longer it would be, we would get told various time frames, 2 to 6 months, 6 to 8 months, 2 months to a year. And we'd wait again.
We went to where we applied for non profit housing to see what the hell was going on. The lady we spoke with didn't really have anything to do with the placement process, she just took the information and passed it on, but was extremely helpful. She gave us a couple of names and phone numbers to contact to get this straightened out. Now with it being a long weekend we'll have to wait until Tuesday to try to get some answers. October will be the start of year 4 for us to be on the waiting list.

I'm still waiting to hear from the army. I did, however call them on Thursday. I did it for two reasons: 1) I wanted to confirm that they received my medical files from my family doctor, and 2) to find out what was going on with my processing.
My answers were: 1) "Yes we did get your files.", and 2)"The review board has all your information. Your first and third choice of trades begin in September, your second choice starts in January. You should hear from us in the next 2 to 6 weeks."
For those of you that don't know, my choices are: 1) Vehicle Tech 411 (mechanic), 2)Material Tech 441(welder/fabricator), 3)Mobile Support Equipment Opperator 935(drive EVERYTHING the army has).
That's a modified list. Item 1 was actually item 3. Number 2 was 1, and 3 was 2. When I went in to drop off my application information, I had JUST missed the cut off date for Mat Tech and MCSE. So we fudged things around a bit.

So while I wait for the army, I'm still unemployed. I did apply online to Future Shop. I have to wait until the finish building it I guess.

The PATIO IS DONE!!

Well, It's done. It took over a month for it to get completed, but it's finally done!

I didn't get started on the patio itself when I thought I would. I was told be ready for 1400hrs, but didn't start until 1800hrs. It was raining too. But it took the three of us 3 hours to lay the brick work. When I left at 2100hrs, all that was left was to sand, tamp, and re-sand it. Having only two brooms I decided to leave. That and I was cold, wet, tired and hungry.
What do you think?


Sunday, before we started on the patio. 


the patio and stairs. 


the stairs that took 7 hours to build. 


To celebrate the completion of the project I went for a swim today. DAMN that water was cold! It was free at the public pool so I didn't mind too much. On the plus side I got to embarrass a female life guard. There was a day camp there today. When I left a few of the boys from the camp were goofing around in the shower area. I was in the change area drying off when I heard a whistle blow. I turn around to see what's up and I can see the lifeguard standing there, and she can see me in all my butt nekkidness. No swimsuit on, no towel. Nothing. Funny thing is, I wasn't embarrassed at all, even when she walked through the change room.

Not a typical Monday

I know, I know. Today is Tuesday.

Yesterday was so insane, I haven't been able to breathe until now.

Logan had a dentist appointment at 0810 hrs. I wasn't looking forward to it, seeing as his last 2 tries at getting his cavity filled failed miserably. Then again, it wasn't our regular dentist that saw him the last two times. Dr Verpoorte seems to be able to deal with kids better than his associate.
The nurse came in and explained to Logan what was going to happen, starting with the gas, then about the different drills they use and finally the filling. Logan was given a choice of purple, blue, green or white for filling color.
Everything was going fine upto the filling going in. Logan had enough of the gas and having things in his mouth. As Dr. Verpoorte said, it's not the best filling he's done, but it's in.

I was expecting Logan to not want to go to school afterwards, but he did. So I took him in.
On my way home, I looked out the bus window in time to see an older lady wipeout on her bike. She went down hard.
Nancy, the bus driver, and I hopped off the bus to see if she was okay. She was rolling around in pain, scrapes on her right shin, but nothing that looked too bad. A passerby stopped to lend a bit of a hand, and called 911, left a pillow and took off. Nancy had to go, so I waited for the ambulance to arrive, just in case she went into shock and passed out.
The EMTs checked her over, nothing broken, just some scrapes, and pulled tendons in her leg. She's probably got some nasty looking bruises today.

When I got home, our friends Andrew and Jenn called. They had scavenged an old Compaq Deskpro computer form his dad's place and wanted some help to get it up and running. Sounded easy enough, so I foolishly agreed.
Did you know that Copmaq didn't have a BIOS on the motherboard for the system they had found? It's supposed to be in a hidden partition on the hard drive. The hard drive was missing, by the way.
It took us two hours to find the right file to add the BIOS to the hard drive Andrew had. But it does work.

As Andrew was checking things out (the drive had Win98 on it), I was getting ready to go to the YMCA for a workout, and Andrew was thinking about going with me. I had just started to pack my bag when the phone rang. It was my mom. Her ex-step-son-in-law,Mike, finally showed up to start work on the stone patio she wanted. But they needed an extra set of hands.
First we had to build the steps to get out the patio door. From the ground to the door it's 4 steps. The top step is a landing that's level with the living room floor, so it's about 4.5 feet above the ground. The landing is approx. 5-6 feet long and 4-5 feet wide. It took 3 guys 7 hours to build it. I was on shovel/wheelbarrow duty. We used close to 40 wheelbarrows full of limestone, close to 300lbs/load. Once that was done, we moved the rest of the limestone to the pit where the main deck is going to be, that was another 20 barrows full.  That was all packed down last night.

All this on the tails of a busy, but enjoyable Sunday. Mom called me at 0900 hrs and asked if we wanted to go over for brunch seeing as my step sister was visiting with her kids. We had HUGE omelets. All three of the kids played in the backyard together. We all had water gun fights, and the  three boys wrestled with me and grandpa Jim.
The day went fast and it was supper time really soon. 1800hrs and people were still full from brunch, but I still managed to eat 2.5 bbqed hamburgers! Man did I feel sick when I got home.


Grandpa is down! Victory is ours! 


Getting ready tor the water gun fight. 



The boys. Nolan, Logan, Kadin. 

I got a call just a few minutes ago. Mike got the afternoon off. Looks like I'm going back to help lay the patio brick today. At least there's no more shoveling or wheelbarrows.
Damn my arms are tired!

Hooray for Phones!

On Thursday of last week I asked Kris, via ICQ, if he had Marks phone number. He said no. I wasn't overly surprised, seeing as he and Mark weren't buddy-buddy.
Kris did suggest I ask Shaun. Just as I finished reading it, Shaun pops up on MSN. When asked if they planned it they both said no. I have my doubts about that. But Shaun gave me Marks phone number.
 
Here it is Sunday, and I finally gave Mark a call. I haven't spoken to him in a few years, at least 2, but probably closer to 4.
It was a little awkward, and we never really fell into that old "good friends" type of banter. I guess it's just too many years of news have passed and not knowing what to ask.
 
SO. Mark and his long time girlfriend (Bonnie), got married last August. They've moved into a house, have no kids, but have at least 2 cats. I'm guessing there's more, but Mark only confessed to two. He's been working at the same place now for, as far as I can figure, 6 years. I know Bonnie was working when I left Nova Scotia after high school, but didn't think to ask if she was still pulling her weight. (I'm going to get slapped for that one)
 
We made the typical small talk about how no-one can afford to go more than 100 meters from one for a vacation, which means we won't see each other unless someone wins the 6/49. I asked about some other common friends we had, and was told that he didn't see them very often.
 
The one person I was hoping for news about was Julie. Unfortunately Mark hasn't heard from her since the wedding. Maybe she'll contact him soon and he can pass my info on to her.
 
Other than that, not much has been happening. I'm still waiting to hear form the army. I haven't been to a movie in a dogs age. I'm waiting for the Olympics to start. I had a job interview at Staples last week, but didn't get the job.
 
OH! I went to my FIRST Mechwarrior: Dark Ages tournament at the Fable Shop. I didn't play, I don't have enough figure to make a decent army. I went mainly to see the game mechanics. Just like back in high school in Kris and Johns basement, it took forever for things to start. It was scheduled to start at noon, but everyone kept trying to tweak their armies. There was no money involved, but there was a prize. A pair of hard to get figures. If you haven't seen the game yet, check it out  http://www.wizkidsgames.com/mwdarkage/ 

A little wet and soggy

It's now Wednesday. Waterfornt weekend is done for another year, and rumor has it, again, this will be the last one.

I'm not going to lose sleep over it if it is. Waterfront isn't the best thing I've been to. Hell I've been to kids birthday parties that offered as much entertainment. After all Waterfront is really only a flea market. This year there were supposed to be more craft stalls than ever before. It didn't look like it to me.
Aside from the crap, I mean crafts, that I wouldn't buy because I'm not over 70, there's the "Ethnic village". The village is a food court. That's it. No there isn't a McDonald's or a Pizza Hut. The food is supposed to be from various countries around the world. This is a good thing. I like to eat. I like to try new things. Unfortunately everything is way over priced. A polish sausage cost $3.00, and a can of Coke was $1.75. And it's a small sausage.

I'm still unemployed, but that will hopefully change by the end of this week. I had an interview at Staples yesterday. The guy I was supposed to be interviewed by was out assisting a customer in home, so I was seen by someone that wasn't prepared to see me.
She told me that it's normally a 3 interview process, and she was usually the second interview. Aside form the "what can you bring to the company" question it went well. I never know how to answer that.

I woke up this morning to a "sever thunderstorm warning". That's a nice way to start the day. Shortly after that I got a call from my mom telling me that if it gets really bad, hide the family in the bathroom. The storm lasted MAYBE 20 minutes. Hell, it didn't even rain that hard. No lightning, no hail, no dark foreboding skies. sigh. Maybe next time we'll get a tornado, now that would be cool!

Waterfront and Ethnic Festival

Yep. It's that time of year again here in Belleville, Ontario.

Depending on who you ask it's either a 3 day or 5 day event. Sticklers say it's only three because the craft shows and concerts don't open until Friday. Others say it starts on Wednesday with the closing of "the Village" downtown, for the all week sidewalk sale.

No matter how you choose to look at it, it still needs better organization.

The events are reasonably well planned. It's the travel that needs the help. Because most of downtown is closed to street traffic half the city busses are re-routed. This year its complicated due to a bridge being refurbished. Next is the "free shuttle" service.

To allow everyone to get to all the events at Meyers Pier or at Zwicks Park the city has commandeered a few city buses that run from the bus terminal to Zwicks and Meyers, or from the mall to Zwicks.

The biggest problem is the times these shuttles run. Events start at 1100 hrs. Shuttle starts at 1200 hrs. For people with a car it's not that big of a deal. Those, like myself, without have a problem with it.

How can I take Logan to see Spongbob Squarepants and get to other more "grown up" things on time? Spongebob was to be there at 1215 hrs. I was expecting monster line-ups like we had for Dora, so I wanted to get there around 1130 hrs. I figured that would give us lots of time to wait and we could take the shuttle from Zwicks to Meyers to catch the bellyflop competition. Since we couldn't get there at 1130 hrs, I figured we were screwed. Walking was not an option with a 4 year old, especially since we walked home Friday night after the fireworks.


Spongebob, Logan and Mommy 


Daddy, Logan and Spongebob. 

We finally found our sponge buddy and he did have a line up. We waited form 1230 to 1245 to get our pics taken with him. After that we looked around the "kids village", Logan helped Carrie build a wooden tool box at the Home Depot tent, and then Logan saw the Lego tent and palyed in there for a bit.

We never made it to the bellyflop competition. Logan was starting to get cranky and Carrie and I were sweating buckets. We got home around 1430 hrs, and laid down.

Yesterday was a little more fun.

At 1830 hrs the parade started. Logan had a blast waving at EVERY person on EVERY float. Most waved back.

At 2000 we wandered down to Meyers Pier to wait for fireworks. We saw a couple of tallships and listend to some live music.

A great Canadian band Krome was on stage. Logan though they were awesomeand was dancing to all their tunes.

Fireworks were supposted to start at 2145 hrs, but were delayed until 2200hrs. They lasted for nearly 30 minutes, 22 minutes LONGER than our Canada Day display. That's kind of sad.

When we left, the Tea Party was just taking the stage. I've seen them before and would have liked to see them again, but all votes are vetoed by a tired 4 yearold.

Stressed

I'm pissed off. Not in general, but at something specific. Or, I should say someones specific.

Now, I know I haven't had this blog up and running very long, and those few of you that read it don't know a hell of a lot about me or my family.

Carrie has a brother who is badly schizophrenic. He's been in care for sometime, but as of a week and a half ago he had walked off on his own. Without his medication. So the provincial and local law have been trying to find him.

We got a call from Carrie's parents to let us know he was on the loose and that we were to call them if we saw her brother. We saw him tonight and had him in our home.

It was the most nerve racking hour and a half I've spent in a long time. Carrie tried her parents several times, but the line was busy. So I told her to call 9-1-1.

It wasn't until after the cops had left that we got through to Carrie's dad. Her mom was off at BINGO, and her sister was with her dad getting drunk. Both of them started bitching at Carrie for calling the cops. I can guarantee her mom will call later to do the most bitching and complaining. Mind you, I'll have a few choice words for them!

After the police left, Carrie told me that while her brother was on the run, he was extremely violent at one place he stayed. I was glad he left without force.

Knowing that a person is mentally ill is bad enough. Watching them try to avoid the help they KNOW and admit they need is even worse. Having other family members berate and belittle you for doing the right thing? I can't imagine how Carrie feels.

I can only hope that the Army gets a hold of me soon. I pray that we get posted anywhere but here. I can't stand seeing Carrie so torn up over this and it always seems to fall in her lap.

Carrie's sister is also schizophrenic. Last month she was the one we had to deal with. She had decided that she couldn't deal with her two daughters anymore. So she called the Children's Aid Society. They apparently have a “weekend off” program where they take custody of the kids for 2 days. A week later, she still hadn't picked them up.

She did call us to see if we would take the girls. Finances and lack of space forced us to say no. It hurt Carrie a lot, but she knew C.A.S was the best place for them. Her sister should have known that too, but still told Carrie that she didn't love her nieces. A few weeks later C.A.S called because sister told them we wanted the girls. Again Carrie had to tell them no. Again the family said she was a bad person.

Even though my side of the family can be nuts and angry with each other, I can still see and feel the love. Carrie's family rarely says or does anything nice for her or about her, yet I can feel her love for them. I just don't understand why.

Why? How? What?

I was sitting here watching the Discovery Channel. It was a show about amusement park rides. Cool stuff.
When they went to commercial it was an ad for HP computers. You've probably seen it, the one where Donkey from Shrek complains about a receding hairline?
At the end HP takes credit for helping create the graphics for Shrek. That's a kind of arrogant don't you think? Yes, the animation company needs computers, and probably got the best deal from HP, but HP just puts components together. I don't see Intel or AMD taking credit for helping make the movie. There's no ads from ATI or nVidia doing it. Hell HP doesn't even make their own monitors.
It's kind of like the caterer taking credit for the space shuttle launch. "Buy Maxwell House Coffee. We kept ground control awake for the launch!"

Now, what's up with these blogs? When I log into my blogger dashboard there's 2 lists of blogs. The bottom one for recently updated blogs, and Blogs of Note. Who decides what's "of note"?

Let's take a look at Spindrift surfboard.
Spindrift started the blog in May of 2004. All of the entries are pictures of surfboards. I don't surf, but can see the beauty in just about anything.
I don't see how it's a "blog of note". Especially when there is no text content. Are these Spindrift's personal boards? Does Spindrift own a pro shop and these are for sale? Are these hand made by Spindrift?

Terminal Island is another one I don't get. I like the look and like the interface idea, but he states it's a TEST. He's got two or three posts and that's it.
Again, no real content.

Kuwait Diary was one I had hopes for, just based on the title. I thought it would be blogs form someone stationed in Kuwait letting us see how things are. Again it's just pics.

Caliblog actually has some content. It's not earth shattering, but it's intelligent.

I'm not ragging on Blogger.com to see if I can get into the "of note" category. It'd be cool and all, but I'm not concerned. All I want to know is what they base the choice on. Maybe I can change my writing style or pick a direction for this to go.

I can't imagine too many people want to read about my mundane life.

Canada day

Well, Canada just had it's 137 birthday.
Here in Belleville, we had thunder storms all day. It cleared up enough to have a fireworks display. Because the ground was wet I din't go, but I've heard peolple complaining that it only lasted 8 minutes.

Other than that all I did for Canada Day was argue online with a 16 year old kid. Why? Not really sure. It started with a post on a paintball forum about a Canadian jackass Toobis. Someone came across this idiots website and a rant he posted on how Hitler was demonized, and was actually a decent person. You can read the thread here as well as my comments to the 16 year old kid. I refuse to post a link to Toobis' web site, but there is one in the thread.

I woke up this morning with sore shoulders and chest. I was at the gym yesterday. Usually I focus on biceps and legs, but yesterday I did some bench presses. Man I need to do more work!

Later today I'm taking Logan to the kiddie pool to slapsh around in. Now I'll be able to complain about a sun burn too!

I'm stumped.

I have absolutely no clue as to what I need to do.

Here I am, hoping to get into the army. I've done most of the required preliminary work, all that's left is the actual fitness test. Here in lies my quandary.

I'm 5' 10 3/4" tall, 232 lb. For my height, I should only be 170 pounds. That means I need to lose 60 pounds.

"Go on a diet, you idiot!"

Yeah, right. Which one? It's not that I don't have the will power to stick to a diet. It's a lack of finances. Everything I've read tells me that eating FRESH FOODS is the best way to shed pounds with regular exercise. I can't afford to but a head of lettuce every other day. I'm stuck with processed crap because I need food to last at least 2 weeks.
Hell, I can't even afford to get Slimfast. The shakes need too much milk and a box of 6 bars won't last long. I'll have to double check the price of them. At least I'd be sure to get more balanced diet.

The next thing I'm having problems with is finding a workout routine. I need something to help me build strength for push-ups and chin ups. Can I find anything online? HELL NO!

I guess this means I'm off to the library to find some fitness/anatomy books.

Oh hell. I almost forgot. I have to take Logan to the dentist in the morning. He needs to get a cavity filled, or as the dental assistant put it, "He needs to get the sugar bugs out of your mouth."

Sweet Jesus, I'll need a drink by 10:00 am.

Pride and Patience

Lets start with patience.

Today at the local mall, Dora the Explorer made an appearance. Having a four year old son we had little choice but to take him.
Dora was to be there from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, near the food court. The layout of the mall is kind of like a square donut, a ring of stores on the exterior wall, and a core of stores at the center. The line up started at the stage (food court) wound it's way along the exterior stores almost back to the food court again. Now, the mall is used for indoor walking before the stores open, you follow the exterior wall exactly you'll walk 1 mile. We got to the mall at 10:30 am and waited at about the 1/2 mile mark. That's a SHITLOAD of kids.


Me, Logan and the famous Dora the Explorer! 

I was quite impressed, very few cranky kids were there. By noon we had advanced to the 1/4 mile mark and still all but the youngest kids (under 2) were still very well behaved. Mine included. We finally got to the stage at 1:00 pm. I still can't believe that we spent 2.5 hours in line for 30 seconds on stage with a geek in a costume. The things we do for our kids!

Now for the Pride.

Friday we went to my moms to do the laundry. When we got there I wandered into my grandmothers living room to she how she was doing. She was doing a cross stitch so I took a look around.
She's a typical old lady, all her stuff is this old antique type stuff, Hummel figurines, clocks, that sort of stuff. But the one thing I ALWAYS, look at is something on her wall.

I don't know exactly what to call it. She has a box on the wall, with a glass front, like a frame. Inside, centered from left to right, but above the mid point from top to bottom is a photo of my grandfather. It was taken shortly after he entered the army, but before he went over seas. Below the image is a small plaque with his birth year, and the year of his passing, as well as the years he served in the military. Below the plaque are his medals, and surrounding the picture are his pins. It looks fantastic and it's a wonderful way to remember him.

I also found out that these items were offered to my uncle, my mom's brother, and he refused them. I can't understand why. My grandmother said, "I guess he just wasn't proud of his father." That just crushed me. I told her I'd be honored and would love to have it hanging in my home. I think she was ready to cry when I said that.

It also got me thinking about my dad's dad. I'm going to call my other grandma at the beginning of July (more long distance minutes for my phone plan) and see if she still has all of grandpa medals. I like to have a display for him in my home as well.

Once I have them both, they'll be passed down to Logan, along with a third. The third won't be ready for sometime, at least not until I'm done my years in the army. I just hope I get in and can do the memory of both of these men proud.