starcatcher.ca

How time flies! It’s twenty-ten, now (it’s also twenty-TO-ten; thanks Emilia for going to sleep before 11 and not letting me fall asleep for once that I can get stuff done), and it’s time to reflect on the previous year and to offer some insight as to what’s ahead for the coming decade. All things considered, it was a good year for us, namely because we’re all still here and nobody killed anybody yet. Our family got a little bigger with the arrival of Jonathan and Jolene’s daughter Madison, coming in the baby-filled month of September (2009 featured no fewer than 6 friends/family members having babies, 3 of which came in September), it got a little zippier with our new Matrix (bye-bye to the Esteem after over 6 years), and it got a little more spread out with David and Jackie moving to Ontario. We didn’t finish painting our deck yet, but Emilia’s soon-to-be new room (whenever we finally pull the trigger on moving her in there) was painted a bright blue and green, and we did have a hole in our kitchen ceiling for about 2 months (caused by a strange leak in the roof, unrelated to the painting).

Emilia kept us pretty close to home this year, but we managed to hit the beach a few times this summer, and to record a considerable amount of home movies that Emilia insists on watching all the time. That is, when she’s not watching Finding Nemo, A Dog Year, or her latest obsession, The Iron Giant (one of my favorite movies). To be fair, she doesn’t spend all her time watching TV… She spends a lot of time running laps around the main floor of the house, coloring on her coloring table (or on anything else), not eating (although she’s getting better at that one), calling people “garbage trucks”, and talking on the phone (especially to Nanny Veaux Nanny).

Christmas and New Years were quite nice… Emilia got a kitchen from Santa, and a little shopping cart and lots of play food, which is pretty much strewn about our entire house at any given time. She loves her kitchen. Also, we ended up having people over to ring in the New Year… We hadn’t expected people to actually stay until midnight, but we were thrilled that they did and that a good time was had by all, and not much cleaning up was required. (Which is always nice). This video is from Christmas morning, featuring Emilia (of course) crashing around with her new shopping cart and serving up some BBQ in her kitchen, as well as opening her gift from Uncle Mike (video is ~11mins).

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So what’s in store for 2010? Lots of new adventures, I’m sure… Emilia will be turning 2 soon, and next thing you know it’ll be summer vacation again, and then Christmas and New Years once more! And, I’m sure there’ll be other shit mixed in there too. Can’t wait!

Lots of concerts in Halifax this summer, but I didn’t go to any of them, partly because of the $$$, and partly because I really didn’t care that much (although there’s an outside chance that I’ll be catching Metallica in concert in October, which would be pretty awesome). Tall ships were here, totally missed that one. Buskers is on now, and I doubt we’ll make it…

All in all, despite the many opportunities, our summer has been pretty uneventful, with pretty much just a bunch of rain, me working, Melissa taking Stats, and Emilia not eating, but we’re working on fixing the latter with KFC fries and other nonsense. Thankfully, I had last week off which allowed us to go to PEI and to the beach a few times, and I also got to hit the ol’ Seaport Beerfest, both of which contributed to making this whole ordeal actually feel a little bit more like summer.

In the meantime, we took a bunch of pictures and video. Pictures are here (including beach pics from Aug15), video will be around later.

It’s safe to say that Emilia is comfortable walking around now. Barring the occasional crash n’ burn, she can pretty much get around on her own. Observe (~2 mins):

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Instead of uploading videos to the likes of YouTube or Facebook (whereby I would undoubtedly lose ownership of the file), I’m hosting my own videos (which probably means it’s going to go slow). I post two now: The first is of Emilia walking around (yes, she is walking now, although primarily between people). It also shows her doing the walking/crawling hybrid thing that she does (upright crawling on her knees). (~5 mins)

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The second is a VHS-rip from a family gathering at the Heritage Inn in Tignish on New Year’s Day 2002, and features Dad singing part of two French songs (that I always associated with my uncle Daniel when I was a kid). The videographer (my cousin Sarah, I think) cut off the tape halfway into each song, so what I have here is what there is (generally speaking, there is precious little video of Dad, so I take what I can get). Melissa and I are in this video (I’m playing guitar!), as are David, Jackie, Mom, my Nanny (Mom’s mom), and numerous other family members. Much younger, of course. (~3 mins)

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It’s nice to get out every once in a while, especially in the fall when the colours are so bright and diverse. Sonja invited us to go apple picking in Windsor today, so we bundled up the tadpole and drove on down the 101 to the edge of the Annapolis Valley (somewhat; don’t get into semantics, please). The terrain was too treacherous for strollers, so we busted out the Snugli and carried her around. The girls (Sonja, Mia, Zoe, Melissa and Emilia) all enjoyed themselves, as did I (although being the only guy I had to keep the crude comments to a minimum). We are now all appled up and should be stocked in pies and crisps and cobblers until the spring. Or until we run out of apples. We ended up taking the scenic route on the way home (Highway 1 through Windsor down to Mt. Uniacke) to enjoy more of the fall colours.

We’d like to thank everyone who offered us congratulations on our recent “champagne” wedding anniversary (5 years on the 5th), and who came out to visit us yesterday afternoon and evening. A good time was had by all (or rather, nobody complained, except for maybe Sarah ), and we now have enough leftovers to serve us the next 5 years.

Boycott the Canadian Tire in Spryfield.

I had to have some emergency service done the other day, as my engine light came on while I was on my way to work, so I dropped the car off at the Canadian Tire in Spryfield, which is a 5 minute walk to my office. I figure that while my car was sitting in the parking lot, someone clipped it while they were pulling out, breaking my rear left side light cover.

I complained to Canadian Tire after noticing the damage (when I got home last night), and they said “it wasn’t damaged in our shop, so it must have either happened in the parking lot, or somewhere else” (a quick search of the parking lot yielded no light parts, although I think most of that fell into the light fixture). “And if it did happen in the lot,” they said, “someone else did it, and we aren’t responsible.”

“But I left my car in your care, and I expected it to be returned to me in the same state it was in when I left it here.” At which point he said, “if it happened in the lot, there’s nothing we can do. Just as if you would have taken it to Walmart, same deal.”

“Maybe next time I will go to Walmart.”

At least I know it won’t be Canadian Tire in Spryfield.

… but I finally cleaned up my freakin’ kitchen after yesterday’s baby shower. If there’s one thing Dunphy’s know how to do, it’s how to get the hell out of Dodge when there’s cleaning that needs to be done (Lord knows we’ve done it enough at her parents’ place).

In the continuing saga of the camera dump, we focus on Boobus’ Room. Melissa picked out colors a while back (Winnie the Pooh colors, a greenish and a yellowish… Those aren’t their names, but their names don’t matter), and we enlisted the help of Mom to come by to paint ‘er up back in November (Remembrance Day weekend, I think). More recently, our friend Beth came over to put up chair rail (this past Sunday; no pictures). The room is not yet decorated (nor does it have a crib, a dresser, or most other baby trappings), but then again it IS the only room in the house that’s been painted since we’ve moved in, so that has to count for something.

This is the first of the camera dumps where Melissa is starting to take pictures of Boobus. Specifically, profile belly shots. I’m posting one, and that’s it, the others are very similar.

Oh yeah, the story: we carved a pumpkin for Hallowe’en, and took some pictures.

I got a little lazy after buying my new PC this summer. Most notable among those lazy tendencies was the fact that I didn’t install my camera software on the PC for a while, and as a result, my camera got littered with pictures. So, in the interest of purging, I present a selection from the pictures on my camera between August and December.

The first section is the Erection of the Shed in my Back Yard, and I chose that wording carefully, mainly because the shed was a dick to set up. We initially put patio stones right on the grass and were going to set the shed on them, but the problem was that my backyard wasn’t as level as I thought it was. We then dug up a hole in the yard, filled it with a bunch of rocks hauled from Melissa’s uncle’s place in Dartmouth (no pics), then we filled it more with some crushed stone bought at Kent’s (again, no pics), and finally with a bit of gravel from the driveway. The ground being much more level (although there’s still a slight lean to the left, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was when we started), we could put up the shed. To do that, I enlisted the help of my co-workers for a little while, and finally David came back to finish the job that we’d started. Total shed construction time? 3 1/2 months. Man, I suck.

Last night’s storm was interesting… We didn’t get much sleep, as it was quite windy and rainy. Very windy. “Our house was shaking” windy. Almost made me want to get back up and play Zelda some more. Boobus did a good job at keeping up Wifey, as Boobus had never quite experienced the world-shaking that was last night’s storm.

Also, my attempts to communicate with Boobus have succeeded! As I was talking to Boobus this morning, Boobus indicated that Boobus was aware of my presence by kicking back! This is a massive step forward in our relationship, and I hope for much more progress in the weeks to come.

Two out of three SMU Math Profs like the smell of Melissa’s chicken stew.

(the other didn’t say anything)

Went kayaking at Sea Sun Kayak School yesterday. There, I discovered several things:

• I’m VERY MUCH out of shape.
• Mother nature doesn’t like me (head wind both ways? check.)
• Neither do kayaks (I couldn’t fit in the first one I tried; the rudder broke on the second one and I made the mistake of staying in it, and it was constantly turning right, no matter what I did; the third one was ok, but by that time, it was too late. I’m still surprised I managed to not tip my boat)
• Did I mention I was out of shape?
• Charlie has an endless amount of patience for tugging my ass around for about half of my trip

By the end of the day, I felt as though I’d taken several Viagra (I was stiff all night). Last night’s sleep was so-so (it’s 7:15 and I’m already up), and today will most likely be a writeoff. All in all, though, it was a fun trip.

Now let us never speak of it again.

Oh yeah, pictures on Facebook.

Melissa’s brother was married yesterday in Alma, NS, just outside of Pictou. It was a very nice civil ceremony at her mom’s place, where a gazebo was built for the occasion, and tents set up with chairs and flowers and all that good stuff. There was lots of food, lots of drink, about the best corner-store fireworks display you’ll ever see, and most importantly, lots of love in the air. People came from all around, including Mom making the trip from PEI, and Melissa’s cousin Frankie coming down from Ontario. We stayed in Pictou, and we got back this afternoon, and man, were we tired. Thank God tomorrow’s a holiday, where we will tempt fate yet again by having the family over (while Frankie’s still in town) for a slightly different celebration.

Yep, so yesterday was Jonathan (Melissa’s brother)’s bachelor party. Or so it should have been, because ALL BUT ONE OF HIS FRIENDS BAILED. Nevertheless, we went Tidal Bore Rafting with a few others (women-folk, including Jolene (Jonathan’s fiancée), which nullified the event’s status as a true bachelor party), and we had a great, albeit wet, muddy, and sunburned time. It’s pretty amazing to see the tide coming in on the Shubenacadie river, as it happens VERY fast, and it creates some ridiculous standing waves. I’m surprised the boat didn’t sink (mind you, it was a Zodiac, which are near impossible to sink unless you puncture its tube)! Both Jonathan and I got tossed from the Zodiac twice. After that it was mudsliding (or rather, claysliding), which was very grimy. Everybody wearing white, after the mudsliding, was wearing red. We then had some eats and came home, and went to bed.

The night continued with dinner at The Thirsty Duck (wifey came too, every party needs a DD), followed by Mike taking us to Boomer’s where he proceeded to buy an obscene amount of drinks (helps to know the guy who owns the place). We turned in relatively early, not drunk at all (too much food beforehand), calling the day a success, and Jonathan’s friends a bunch of dicks. The wedding is on Saturday, and I’m sure there’ll be lots to say about that when it’s finished.

Part of me knows it was a long trip, but part of me (the part that didn’t want to go to work this morning) knew that I was sad to see it all end. It was too bad that we couldn’t stay on our trip longer, but then again, I had to come home to mow the lawn as it was approximately 3 miles (or, ‘1/3 McMahon’) high.

The rest of the trip went well. We saw two Just For Laughs shows. The first was called “Britcom”, and featured a bunch of British comics doing humour that may or may not have been British… Some of it was quite funny, but one fellow was quite painful to watch as his routine pretty much involved him running himself down for 10 minutes. Ugh. The other show was the Kids in the Hall’s show, and it was absolutely fantastic! All new sketches that may become classic some day (if they ever release them on DVD), showing that the boys were still true to form. The only bits that were familiar were an appearance by Buddy Cole and Mr. Tyzik (the headcrusher, VERY funny stuff even though it’s almost 20 years old), but nevertheless we didn’t want to see stuff we’d seen before, and we were NOT disappointed. Great show!

The rest of the trip was pretty relaxing (except for almost seeing a head-on collision by some yahoo from Florida passing cars like a maniac by the NB border). We took a trip to St. Joseph’s Oratory (for any Blue Rodeo fans, the inspiration for the song “Brother André’s Heart” came from here), a very nice church indeed; waded through some moderate Montreal traffic, and came back home.

All in all, it was a very fun trip. We ate out WAY too much (at least twice at McD’s, which is more times than in the last year or so for us), but such is life on the road, I guess. We’re thankful for the Lemay family for putting us up in Montreal, and look to repay the favour when Mike and Marjorie come down next month!

These last two days have been nothing short of exhausting for Melissa and me. At the moment, Melissa’s having a bit of a break before we head out again. We’ve seen lots of strange and wonderful things, especially last night as we were walking up and down St. Denis St. in Montreal during the Just for Laughs festival. It was like Buskers Festival in Halifax, but on ALL the steroids. Yesterday involved a quick tour through the SciTech museum in Ottawa, and the trip to Montreal (and supper with Mike & Marjorie). Today was the Biodome and a trip up the Olympic Stadium tower. Still to come are the two Just for Laughs shows tonight, so I’ll write about that later. There are lots of pictures of today, but my camera’s not handy.

Oh yeah, big thanks to USR8054, the wireless network signal that I’m currently “borrowing” from Mike’s parents’ place!

The weather in Ottawa has been nothing short of fantastic (despite the fact that they’ve been calling for thundershowers the entire time). So, beautiful weather in hand, we ventured out into the city, albeit not too far from our hotel.

First, we had a simple breakfast of grilled-cheese sandwiches, cooked in our hotel room. We then shuffled over to the Parliament buildings for a few hours, touring the East Block and the Centre Block. We learned a bunch of stuff that we should have already known about Canadian history, “interacted” with “actors” pretending to be famous Canadians (although Maurice Richard was nowhere in sight), and took lots of pictures. After that we were pretty tired, so we had some way-overpriced lunch at a downtown restaurant and headed back to the hotel for a little nap.

Our evening activity was a guided tour of what used to be the Ottawa-Carleton Jail (now a hostel). The guide was easily the best actor we’d seen on our trip (she was very lively and knowledgeable about the history of the jail and who all stayed/died there). Apparently, the jail is the site of many of Ottawa’s most famous ghost sightings and hauntings, but we didn’t see any there, although I somehow managed to get my wedding band stuck in the bars of one of the tiny cells. And there were homeless people having sex in the bushes as we were leaving (ugh).

The last part of the day involved a little drive down to where I spent some of the first years of my life, the Rockcliffe PMQ area. To our surprise, many of the PMQs there have been abandoned and boarded up (including our old house on Mynarski); what’s more, many PMQs have been totally torn down (including what would have been our old house on Bishop)! It seemed as though some of the remaining PMQs had been converted into low-income housing, but they seemed pretty run down and in need of repair. A shame to see a neighborhood go to waste, indeed.

We didn’t do as much yesterday as we might have liked, but we’re enjoying our stay in Ontario so far. This morning we’re going to the Science & Technology Museum, as well as to my old stomping grounds from ten years ago, and to some shopping, before we head out to Montreal this afternoon. Back on the road again, fun fun fun! (ow, my back)

We’re in Ottawa now. Even though we left Edmundston at around 9:45, we got in a fair bit later than we’d anticipated, mainly because we took a little detour through Quebec City, including going to mass at some St. Anne somethingorother church (we didn’t take pictures from inside the church, as that’s rude, inconsiderate, and just about everyone else was doing it and we didn’t want to appear like tourists), and checking out the Montmorency Falls, which was cooler than it was during our grade 9 class trip to Quebec City because we got to go up in a gondola and walk around the falls.

Then it was back to the road. We tried to get in to Old Quebec, but given the fact that we didn’t have a map and I didn’t really know where we were going, we ended up taking a wrong turn and driving through QC for a half hour before making it back to the highway. Montreal was retarded… Whoever thought it was a good idea to pass the Trans-Canada Highway through a major city should have their head examined. Nevertheless, we made it through, and after a boring drive through Ontario, we arrived in Ottawa, checked into our hotel, and went out for Chinese food. Our hotel kicks ass; 16th floor, kitchenette, absolutely fabulous view (note the Parliament buildings in the upper-left corner), and of course, free wireless.

Today will be VERY busy.