Tattoos!

Well, I finally got quotes on my tattoos that I want.....

Price- 4.5" x 3" -$170.00 or 5.5" x 4" - $200.00 and will be placed on the left side of my chest.I'll be getting the smaller one. Cutting out the large one it looks TOO big.


This would next on my list. Price- 4" x 3.5" - $170.00 or 4.5 x 5.5 - $200.00 and would be put on my forearm. I'm thinking the large size on the right one, just below the elbow

And finally

3.5 x 3.5- $150.00 or 4.5 x 4.5 - $170.00 Again I think the larger one is what I'll get. This would be placed on the back of my neck/head.

After tlaking ot my mother she said she might be able to do a birthday fund for the first one. SWEET!

Now for the other two: Does anyone need someone killed?


OH! And Protocoach....The main reason I didn't skate is I had horribly weak ankles and flat feet. I put skates on and my feet would splay so wide my ankles were touching the ice. Mind you I think I made up for not ice skating by playing street hockey with Steve Yzerman during his rookie year. Maybe you've heard of him? good times playing goalie with no pads.....

Time to vote.

Canada is having it's Federal Election. Tomorrow. Monday January 23, 2006. It doesn't seem to matter what party I vote for I'm still going to get screwed.

We have something like 13 different parties to vote for this year. Unfortunately not all parties have reps in every riding. For example here in Kingston we have 5 choices: Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP are the three big ones. The Green Party is next in line and we have one independent.

Now I've followed politics about as closely as most people follow the history of bread making. I haven't got freaking clue who to vote for. I've joked and said I'd vote Communist or Bloc Quebecois but neither has a rep here.

Although the indie seems to be nice he'd be useless in parliament he's got no party backing. I refuse to vote PC or Liberal. I don't trust either one of them. That leaves me with NDP or Green....And I know neither has a snowballs chance of coming to power. Even so it's tough decision.

After much online reading, flipping of coins, throwing of darts, consutling of the spirts and talking to the dog I've decided to vote Green. They seem to follow my own beliefs the closest. So "GO GREEN"!

In other news.....

Still haven't heard back if I'm accepted for school. Not suprised though considering I haven't mailed my application in. I called the school to see if I needed to include anything with the $85.00 application processing fee and the application forum. I thought is was simple enough question to answer over the phone, but they want me to come in for a meeting on Wed, so I've held off the mailing. I think I'll call them tomorrow and see if they can answer my questions over the phone.

Friday after dinner we took Logan ice skating for the first time. He had a blast. Fell down a bit but kept wanting to skate some more. So Saturday we went back. I had my skates this time. First time I strapped skates on in about 20 years. I guess it wouldn't have been too bad if the skates fit. Mine are about a half size too small. Logan and I did about 4 laps before my feet hurt so bad I had to stop. Carrie had fun. It was almost as hard to get her off the ice as it was Logan. But we all had fun. Except for the walk. It takes about 40 minutes to walk from our house to the free rink at City Hall and 40 minutes back. But it's still better than the Kingston Memorial Center.

To get to the Memorial Center it only takes 5 minutes. It's an indoor areana and therefore you have to pay. Because they have hockey games they limit the amopunt of ice time the public gets. Now for the math: Public skating is ONLY on Tuesdays from 7:00pm to 7:50pm, the cost per adult is $3.00 and for a kid it's $1.75. So how is paying $8.00 for 50 minutes of skating a good value? Even though Logan complains a little on the walk the free sakte is much better. It opens at 9:00 am and goes untill 10:30pm (weather permitting) and they even maintain the ice surface! AND it's right downtown.

I pead on the floor!

You read it right. I pead on the floor.
I was making dinner last night and needs some peas. I reach into the freezer and grab a bag of the frozen ones. They are rock hard and stuck together. In my infinate wisdom I decide to crush the the peas apart.

The bottom of the bag broke.... All I hear from Logan is, "Daddy! What did you do?"
I told him I pead on the floor. I haven't heard him laugh so hard ever.
He laughed tyhe entire time I was cleaning up the peas....With Nova's help of course.

We took our Christmas decorations down yesterday as well. Thank god. I hate having that stuff up. Makes everythng feel crowded together.

Carrie's been plugging away at her school work, slowly chiping away at her english.
Both she and Logan are out of school untill Jan 9. I can't wait for them to start back. I could use some alone time. LOL


GST cheques should be out tomorrow. That's good. That means I can pay for my school application. Man, I can't wait to start.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! (like you haven't heard that a million times already...)

So a whole year has come and gone. What have I done with it? Not a hell of a lot. That's not to say I wasted it, but I didn't do anything spectacular. I didn't save any lives, or take any. I didn't win shitloads of cash on the lotto. I didn't buy or sell any property, discover new medications, use any illegal drugs, take over a small country.....

"Well what the fuck DID you do?"

I kept getting up in the morning. I kept going. I kept hoping. Somes days that was almost too much to do.

I decided what I really want to do finally and had that dream beaten, crushed and put on the shelf.

So the week before Christmas I applied for a student loan. I was approved. Next week I apply at the school. I'd rather head to the states and become an airsmith, but for now I have to settle for taking Computer Networking & Technical Support. The school has a good grad rate and employment rate. Mind you I might have to relocate but it would most likely a bigger city. And that won't be for 2 years, well a little more sice classes start in Spetember.

We spent Christmas at my moms. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't fantastic either. Probably because I was at the tail end of a cold. It doesn't help that Logan was being a whiner all morning. "I wanna open more presents! I wanna help open that one! I wanna I wanna I wanna!"

Carmen, my "evil" sister, was proposed to earlier this month. No date has been set. Her fiance, Stephen, is a pretty nice guy. Why he chooses to abuse himself by marrying Carmen I don't know.

New Years eve was kind of bland. No money for a babysiter meant we had to stay home. So we had a couple of friends come over. Carrie fell asleep on the couch before 10pm.

So as of now It's 8:48 am, Jan 1 2006. logan and I are up, Carrie is still asleep, and our friends are snoring away on the air matress in the kitchen.

So far the new year is just fantastic.

Merry Christmas from the Pearson-Lavallee Family! 

All wet..Again

So I go to bed at 11 pm. 4 am rolls around and I'm sleeping sound until I realize that someone is running a bath.
I wake up enough to realize that it's not a bath, but someone doing laundry.
I wake up a little more and can hear that the water is actually pouring through my bedroom ceiling. Right at the foot of the bed.

The laundry room is right above our apartment.
After running around the apartment naked for a minute I managed to be coherent enough to send the wife upstairs to turn the laundry off thinking the drainage sink was over flowing.

She comes back down and says she can't do anything. One of the pipes broke. Luckily the shut off valve for the building is in our apartment. Now no one has water. At least until the plumber comes in to fix things.

So now we've got laundry to do, and we may need to replace our mattress.
And since we don;t have content insurance, we're probably shit out of luck.

Water water everywhere.....

So. New neighbors moved in up stairs on Monday. It looks like a single mom and her 3 kids, the oldest is 17 and the youngest is 12. The mother came down Tuesday evening to ask if we'd be interested in sharing cable with her and the family on the top floor.
We got screwed over on a "deal" like that before so we said no.

Yesterday afternoon we noticed some "rain" noise but it wasn't;t raining out side. It was, however, pouring in our bedroom. Carrie called the landlord and I went upstairs to see what the problem was. The sink next to the washing machine, used for drainage, overflowed. A sock had gotten into it and blocked the drain when someone did a load of laundry.

We ended up having to do a small load of wash since our comforter got soaked. The middle daughter came down to help us clean up and Nova got over excited....Right the middle of our bed so the sheets needed to get washed too.

Later in the evening she came back down with our clean laundry and stayed for a Pepsi. She's a typical 16 year old girl, starts talking and doesn't stop. LOL
Shortly after, her older sister(17) came down as well. She barely spoke. They left after about an hour.

20 minutes later the phone rings. The 16 year old wanted to know if she could borrow some movies. She came back down with her brother. Now I don't remember the girl's names, but his is Christopher. He and I talked a bit about paintball and I loaned him one of my magazines. I think he's hooked and he hasn't played yet.

Any way, it looks like the ceiling in our room needs to be repaired due to water damage. I'm just glad things weren't any worse.

DONE!

So the last 2 weeks have been nuts. We've been packing to get ready to move, making calls to have things transferred over to the new place, getting Logan to school, worrying about my grandma.....

And as of this past Saturday we are moved in to the new place. Me, my step-dad Jim and my mothers minivan.... It only took us about 7 hours. Not bad. I just wish I had more painkillers. My back is killing me.

We spent Sunday and most of Monday unpacking. And we did more this morning. It doesn't want to end! The place is starting to look good now. We have pictures on the wall, furniture is set up. We do have an extra sofa that the last tenants left behind. Seems they couldn't get it out.

Logan loves his new room, it's twice the size of his last one. The room is a square with a short wall splitting one side. His bed is in a cubby, next to his closed and he has TONS of floor space to play on.

The master bedroom is a bit small and we need cupboard space to hang some of our clothes. Maybe we'll get an armoire for Christmas?

Stress!!! God, I need to get drunk.

Grandma broke her right arm in 2 places.

A few days later Carrie is diagnosed with a kidney infection. She gets her prescription for Ciprofloxacin, a penicillian of some sort. Four days later Carrie is off to the hosptial by ambulance at 3:00am because she's having an allergic to the meds.

The next day the dog gets into Logan's pretzels and spends 2 days barfing up all the salt and everything else he's eaten.

Add to that our new land lady wants to know when we'll be able to pay rent. That, of course hinges on Disability and thier approval of our moving allowence. We finally hear form Disabilty. We were approved but not for the $900.00 we were eligable for. They approved us for $400.00. Not enough for the rent, let alone a truck rental and other shit we need to do. Thank god for family that is willing to help us out.

We were hoping to move in on the 26th but that may not happen since the land lady found some mould in the apartment. She is hiring a crew to clean it. I just hope they get it done.

On the paintball forum I have a kid complaining he was unfairly banned for post "weird poop stories". Now the forum is supposed to be at about a PG-13 level, so ther is some minor sex talk, but not much. We do our best to filter content for profanities and we do not allow porn. This is an example of his post:

Taught him a very valueable lesson that day, don't leave your stuff anywhere becuase someone is going to POOPY SHIZZLE on the coats.

Now this isn't the first time he's posted questionable topics and many of his posts are less than helpful to people so I banned him. His next show of brilliance was to contact me over AIM to defend his actions. The actual conversation is longer but this is his ultimate defense (yes his name has been changed):

17:09] True Puzuma: What you did was beyond stupid and imature.
[17:09] I am a Doofus: wasnt saying it wasnt
[17:10] I am a Doofus: i was saying that it was funny
[17:10] True Puzuma: it shows me that you have no sense of decency
[17:10] I am a Doofus: and i wanted to tell everyone
[17:10] True Puzuma: or intelligence
[17:10] I am a Doofus: ...intelligence
[17:10] True Puzuma: of right or wrong, or an inkling of common sense
[17:10] I am a Doofus: no, me doing this doesnt show my intelligence or in your point of view lack there of
[17:10] I am a Doofus: it shows that i am a teenager who likes to have fun

I haven't even had time to deal with my own ailments. for the last week and a hlf my right shoulder has been in pain. Actually it's muscles surrounding the shoudler making it difficult to support myself. I've also been having foot and knee problems for the last few days and I've been in a REALLY bad mood too.

It's no wonder people buy high powered rifles and site in bell towers and book depositories.....

Courage. Honor. Valor.

It's Remeberance Day/ Vetrens Day.

I tried to explain to Logan what it was. It's hard to get a 5 year old to understand why we observe the 2 minutes of silence at 11:00 am on the 11th day of the 11th month. All I could come up with is, "It's to say thank you to the good guys for beatng the badguys a long time ago." He accepted it, but thought you had to be quiet all day long.


Thank you Grandpa Frank. 1921-1999

Thank you too, Grandpa Herman "Doc" Lavallee. I would post his pic if I had one and I am unable to post his birth and death years. We are packing to move and that info is in a box already.

More news

Mom called this morning.

Here's the deal. Grandma had surgery at 5:30 pm Saturday. It lasted 5 hours and she doing well. They put the plate in her right wrist and it was decided to do the same for her upper arm. So she should be good to leave the hospital on Tuesday!

From what mom said I was one of the first people she asked to see wharn garndma came to. Damn I hate not having a car. I'd have been there during the surgery.

I can't wait to see her and know she's doing well.

Update.

Mom called back last night. Grandma is worse off than we thought. The upper arm break is clean and can be reset easily.

BUT

She needs a metal plate and 4 screws in her wrist, so she needs surgery.
Mom wasn't sure when they'd do the surgery, but figures it would be some time today. She also said tehy won't be putting a cast on grandma, just a sling. So grandma will need X-rays once a week for the next 6 weeks.

On the plus side, grandma now has a new nick name: Old Iron Fist.

Broken Arm.

I just got a call from my mother. We have call display so I knew it was her. My stomach did a flop before I answered knowing I'd hear bad news. I was right.

This morning my grandmother was in the garage. She was on the stairs to enter the house and fell. She broke her humerus. I don't remember if it was the left or right arm. I was too concerned that the 85 year old lady was alright. Yes I know how stupid that sounds knowing she has a broken arm. I'm concerned that there may be more damage.

Mom called just after the ambulance left. She'll call me back tonight to give me more details.

I need sleep...

Man, having a puppy is tiring.
Piddle on the floor, poopies here and there, needing to go out every 30 minutes, me being the best chew toy on the planet...

Now let's add a twist. The other day we were out walking Nova. We went through the front yard and found one of the other tennants out there with her shitzu/dacshund, Gizmo (who for some unknown reason I keep calling Corky). He and Nova spent the next hour running around and chewing on each other.
Yesterday she came down to ask if we could do her a favor. She was asked to go out by some of her co-workers. She didn't want to leave Gizmo alone and wanted to kow if we could dog sit. It was only supposed to be for a few hours but turned into all night.

Now, Nova is only 11 weeks old now, and Gizmo is about 1 year. So from 4 o'clock when he was dropped off untill 1 am when I went to bed, the two of them were running around and beating on each other. Both dogs kept trying to get into the bedroom all night long. Scrathing and whining at the door...

Logan got up at 7 am. Yelling because one of them pooped on the floor.

Now it's almost 8:30am, both dogs are asleep on the couch. Wish I were still sleeping.

Progressing...

I now hate Best Buy. Well, at least the manager of the soon to be new local Best Buy.

I went to the 3rd interview and was told that I was everything they could want or need in an employee, but since I've been unemployed for almost 2 years I'm a "risk". WHAT THE FUCK is that supposed to mean? I sent several emails to their head office and haven't had a single response. Managers can be such assholes.

We told our landlord that we will not be renewing our lease. It's not that I hate this place, but it's small and so poorly heated. It's also got mice. I've killed 3 with my shoe (not with the stink). We told the superintendent about them and he gave us some traps and poison. We also get TONS of spiders and centipedes in here.

We have found a new place. Much nicer too. It's about 900 square feet and all inclusive. Free laundry to boot! It's a much nicer neighborhood. There is a nice park with a wading pool less than 100 feet down the street, there are 2 schools within walking distance (1 public, 1 catholic) and there are lots of kids around too. The only real downside is it's a bit further from downtown and the grocery stores.

We had to take Logan to the hospital last night. He got up yesterday morning with a bit of a fever and he was having some trouble breathing. He's asthmatic and we've had a smog advisory over the last week so we didn't pay too much attention to his cough, especially since it wasn't sounding like anything more than a bit of irritation.

So we gave him his puffers and some advil. His temp went down but his breathing didn't improve. At noon we gave him his puffers again and still no improvement. At 6:30 we gave him yet another dose and still no change to his breathing. It was labored and shallow. So off we went to the hospital. They gave him some Prednozone and more ventolin. He could breath again!

It terrifies me when he has a sever attack like that. I've been through them myself and I know how hard it can be. Trying to imagine my son going through it. No matter how calm I seem to be to everyone around me all I could think is that my son is suffocating.

Today he woke up with a bit of a cough and that's it. He's breathing normally and has no fever. Thank god.

Nova is doing fine. He's afraid of the rain so takng him out to do his business today hasn't happened. He just wimpers are tries to get back indoors. Funny stuff... Untill I have to clean up after him.

As far as other jobs go. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm thinking about going to school, assuming I qualify for O.S.A.P, and taking some business courses. Other than that I'm thinking about asking the local tattoo shop if they need an apprentice.
I'd be working there for free, but maybe I could get some ink done too. If they do piercing maybe I can get those done too.....

This is our new puppy. His name is Nova 

Looking good!

So what's been going on? Over all, not much.

I saw an article in one of the free local papers saying that Best Buy is coming to Kingston. So I applied on line with the on-line interview. At the end it said there were no postions availble and figured that was it, no big deal. A few days later I get a call for a live interview with them.

It looks like it went well. I have a third and final interview on Tuesday. The only downside is that the store doesn't open untill late November/ early December.

This past Tuesday we got a puppy. He's a 7 week old Beagle/Basset cross. We named him Nova, short for Cassanova. When we took him for his first walk all he wanted to do was follow the ladies around. It was kind of funny. Mind you he seemed like the "model" types more. I'll put some pics up soon. Of the dog, not the women he picks up.

We'll be giving our notice at the end of the month. We need to move. This place is just rediculous. I shouldn't have to call in a hhousing standrads enforcement officer to get a fucking floor tile replaced. Besides, assuming I get the job, I'd like to live a little closer to work. Having to get across town to be at work for 6 am, without a car, can be difficult.

Almost there.

Yup. Almost there.

It's been a rough week. Some/most of the repairs are done. The entry way has an indoor/outdoor carpet installed. Some of the glue is still wet in spots but most of our stuff is back where it belongs. Most importantly we have our kitchen back!

Logan is back in school and seems to be enjoying himself. He's there for half days for the next 2 weeks. After that he's in for full days. YES!
Add to that that Carrie's back at school this year too. I actually have some alone time! Question is: What am I going to do?

I'm getting depressed about not having a job. I've had several interviews, but none have panned out. It's not like I can't do the jobs I've applied for. I know I'm doing EVERTHING right in the interviews, being positive, friendly, enthusiastic, knowlegedable, answering any question they throw at me with confidence.

I know what I want to do. I know how much it'll cost. Probelm is I don't have access to money. My credit is fucked up, so I can't get a persoanl loan. Can't get a studant loan becasue the school is in the US and isn't a "recognised" educational establishment. All I need is $5000.00 CDN. and everything is covered for me.

Shit, it's getting to the point where some days I feel like selling sexual favors. At least I'd be doing something.

It's about freaking time!

Ever since we moved into our apartment we've been asking the super to do some fixing up.
None of it should have been a big deal, but none of it got done unless it was ABSOLUTELY necessary(like fixing the toilet or shower). Every time we asked we'd get told "it's not in the budget" and it would be avoided.

Well, a few weeks ago we got fed up and called the Housing Tribunal. They suggested that I contact the City Property Standards Officer. He came by on Wednesday and looked around. He took some note and told us he'd make a few call and be back in about 3 weeks.

Thursday the super came by asking what stuff needed to get done because the landlord called him with a list of things that had to be done by Sunday.

Friday the wife and I cleaned out the entryway area. So our kitchen is a fucking disaster. We have shit sitting outside and we now have no spes in place to GET IN OR OUT of the apartment. The super Pulled them off the wall, yanked up the crappy linoleum flooring and layed down a layer of thin cement over half the floor.
Later today I'll have to help move the stairs so he can lay the rest of the cement, and hopefully tonight put the new flooring in.

Damn. I know I wanted the repairs done, but being "trapped" inside wasn't part of the deal! At least people won't be killing themselves by tripping the the holes in the floor...

Fun, Fun, Fun!

So....
Wednesday, both my grandmother and sister were to arrive. So my mother picked us up and took us to Ottawa to hang at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. When I was a kid I thought it was a blast. Now I found it interesting. Thankfully Logan was with us and kept us laughing. Talk about an exhausting visit! We arrived at 11:00 am and left at 3:00 pm. We did have fun, Logan more than anyone else.

After that we headed to the Airport for our first pick up at 4:00 pm. Grandma arrived a little late but had a good flight home. Once the luggage was collected and put in the van we went back in for dinner and to wait for Paula to arrive at 6:00 pm. Other than a guy dressed like a chicken waiting for Paula to arrive was pretty quiet.

Yesterday the family went on a boat cruise of the 1000 Islands. The original plan was to visit Boldt Castle. But due to a misunderstanding we ended up just going on a 3 hour tour (begin singing Gilligan's theme). We did, however, end up circling the castle.

Below are the pics, or some of them. I don't think anyone would want to see all 180 pcs so I just picked a few.