We're on the move!

Becky and I (and the kids) are hopefully moving sometime in the very near future. We have found a new home which we have put an offer in on, and will be listing our house this week. If all goes well, we could be moving in April. (I'm on vacation the first 10 days of April so that might work out well)  Some people are wondering why we would want to move anyway.

Basically,

When we moved into our current house we thought it was perfect. We thought it was all we'd ever need. Big rooms, lots of them. A workshop of sorts, etc. Close to schools, and downtown. We knew it didn't have a big yard but at the time, we only had 1 child. And since we were so close to TPCS, we'd just take her to the park there. Everything sounds good right? And it was, for a while.

But things change.

We had Amelia. But we had four bedrooms so that's not a problem. But it's not as easy to take 2 kids to the park. By yourself. Or with both of us really. This is when we started to realize that the yard just wasn't big enough. But we dealt with it. And we started to make some changes to try and make it more appealing. I put up a fence. I put on a new deck. But it still wasn't working. Meanwhile, inside, we were constantly switching rooms, painting rooms and rearranging rooms. I think this may have been a subconscious manifestation of a need for change. Or a sense of dissatisfaction. I think we had a revelation sometime in late November/early December. It's time to move on. We aren't happy here anymore.

There are some other reasons too. It's loud. There is always people rippin' up and down the street driving cars that need serious exhaust work. A thousand buses drive by every day. The garbage/recycling truck wakes us up every time. And the dogs! Our dogs aren't quiet but there are enough dogs in the neighbourhood that make such a racket we think our dogs are outside barking when they are inside sleeping!

Also, being on a corner lot offers ZERO privacy.

So more or less, we're unhappy with the location of our house. Even moving to a bigger lot in town doesn't seem like the solution we're looking for. From the moment we started looking, we didn't even consider anything in town. Getting out of town is what we want in our hearts. We want a big yard, with privacy and quiet.

We've found a beautiful (if unconventional) house which fits our requirements with a few added bonuses. We know it might slip through our fingers, and we are okay with that. There's other houses out there and we aren't in a desperation situation. That being said, as great as the house we've found is, we have no delusions that we'll be there forever. Nothing is forever. Needs change. Desires change. And you have to change along with them. If nothing ever changed, the world would be a VERY boring place.

My First Blackhawks Game

The Time: 7:30pm Tuesday, January 19, 2010. The Place: Scotiabank Place, Ottawa, ON. The Event: Ottawa Senators vs. (The next Stanley Cup Champion) Chicago Blackhawks.

I'd been looking forward to this game my entire life. The first Blackhawks game I've ever seen live in person. I'd been feeling ill for a week prior and I would be damned if any sickness prevented me from going to the game. And of course, the worst I'd felt was that day. The lingering sore throat was still bothering me and now it was accompanied by a headache, fatigue and nausea. I didn't care. I was going no matter what. No way was I going to miss it. By the time we got there I was feeling fine. Still had a sore throat but other than that, all was good. We had a couple (or a few, depending on who you were) beers and headed inside.

Both on the bus and inside the arena there was an abundance of Blackhawks fans. Love it. With the team only coming to Ottawa every couple years, it's really no surprise. Said Blackhawk fans were plenty vocal as well. Possibly most vocal would be my Uncle Karl. He was part of the "few group" outside the bus. I'm not much of a chanter but he more than made up for me. We managed to squeeze my (life long Leaf fan) Dad into a Blackhawks jersey for the game. The Kimmerly's have the photographic evidence.

I was really excited to see the players in person (from a distance). Eventhough I am older than the vast majority of the team, I felt like a kid. It was a great feeling. Another great feeling was watching Marian Hossa score a shorthanded goal on a breakaway. It may have been the single most exciting moment of my life. (Marriage, kids births etc excepted) Chicago ended up losing the game 4-1 due to some lackluster play on Chicago's part, some questionable officiating, and a very lucky Senators goaltender.

Despite the loss, I had a great time. I look forward to next time. Although, it'll likely be Montreal or Toronto. Either way, I'm doing what I have to to get tickets. I'm addicted now.

Boredy Bored Bored

Gah! I am so bored!! I emailed myself 3 books to read today. All 3 are duds.

1. Crowley's Book of Lies. It's all weird. Structured like poems and stuff. I can't make heads or tails of it. It makes no sense. It's all references and symbolism. There's notes and commentary after each "chapter" but that doesn't help. If anything, it makes me more confused!

2. Some Big Long Word That Starts With An "R" by Nostradamus. It's not in English. And I can't read whatever language it's in.

3. Death in Dunwich - A Call of Cthulu Adventure. I had no idea what this was about. It was in a big folder I downloaded with hundreds of occult and conspiracy books. Turns out, it's some kind of murder mystery game. Apparently there is a die to roll and depending on what comes up it determines what information you are given. In any case, it made about as much sense as the other two books.

I tried to email myself The Secret Doctrine by Madame Helena P. Blavatsky but it was too big for Gmail. Then I tried Isis Unveiled by Blavatsky but it was too big for the email at work. Rats. I really want to read those. Guess I'll have to another way.

Sometimes I wonder

Sometimes I wonder how alot of the things we eat and drink came to be. Fruits and vegetables are pretty self explanitory. As are nuts. But what about bread? It's a fairly involved process. It can't have been done by accident. I mean, who's idea was it to even grind up wheat to make flour?

I guess an even more inexplicable item would be beer. Let's make a drink out of barley and hops! Again, I fail to see how this could be an accident. Someone had to come up with this stuff. Cake, pasta, rum, the list goes on.

There's all kinds of geniuses out there. Some are astronauts, some are particle physicists, and some are cooks.

Can you tell I'm bored today?

My annual sickness has arrived

Every year I get strep throat. It usually comes in Jan or Feb. Well, it's Jan this year. Last night my throat was feeling a little sore but I thought it was just dry. As the night progressed I figured it wasn't as simple as that. I stopped on the way home and got some Strepsils. When I woke up I knew what was going on. I know that kind of pain anywhere. So I've been poppin' sore throat drops like they are going out of style and it still hurts. To make matters worse, the headache is here now, I'm sweaty and my energy level is dropping fast. I hope I can make it thru the last 5 hours of the shift. When I get home I have anti-biotics to start poppin'. I'm gonna sleep all day and then go to bed early. I really want to take the girls sledding Thursday but now I don't know. Let's hope I get over it faster than Becky did.

 

Also tonight, I've had a craving for cashews and for pepper. Weird.

It did sting a little.

I come back from holidays and I ask my trainee, "Are you back with me now?" She says "If it's okay with you, I'd rather stay with "Joe"." (names have been changed to protect the innocent) OK. "I just learned so much more from him," she says. The conversation lasted another 20 seconds or so. I respected her wishes and told her where "Joe" was.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. One one hand, it's kind of a slap in the face. And on the other hand, I'm almost glad to be rid of her. She said that Joe explained things to her and let her do it, whereas I would show her how to do it the first time (while explaining) and then got her to do it. Actually doing it myself helps me explain it better. She learns better by doing it herself. Her learning style and my teaching style didn't match. Sometimes when I was explaining things to her I felt she was ignoring me. And other times, I'd tell her how to correct something and ten minutes later she'd totally ignore the problem and not implement the solution. I think I'd be better off training a new hire instead of a transfer. Sometimes I got the feeling she thought I was "just a kid".

Yeah, Joe's been here longer than me and has been doing this job longer than me and has been training longer than me and probably knows more than me but for her to be so blunt about it....Like I said, it was a blow to my ego, but if she ends up sucking at her job, at least you can't pin it on me. Besides, watching someone work, waiting for a training opp is pretty damn boring.

Whatever.