Wating at Pearson

This never got posted as my wifi access timed out before I did the final save:

We're just waiting another hour for our flight. Which due to the power of a google search is supposedly on time. Momma was able to get hour a couple of hours ago as standby for the earlier flight. Now she'll be able to get some extra sleep.

Having traveled this holiday season I have the following advice
* Picking up your luggage is infinitely harder if your black luggage bag has no identifiable markings
* Criticizing the airline because you have black bags with no markings is probably not helpful

Merry Christmas

That's about all you'll get over a dial-up connection. More posts follow when we get access to a wireless hotspot. Pictures may be delayed because I'm pretty sure I forgot the cable for the camera.

Quote of the Day 40

Birthday for BigE and when he wakes up Momma asks him does he feel older?

BigE "I feel taller and my head feels bigger"

Where's Christmas Vacation Been?

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, normally a Christmas staple on the ol' tube, has gone AWOL. I haven't seen it once. It's not Christmas without Christmas Vacation running a dozen times during the holiday season.

The New FireTruck

Has a 'mote control and is a big hit. Thank you Auntie Karen.


Did I mention the noise it makes? Check out this video:

More $@&#(!^ Snow!

In Icing the Rink I mentioned how I had spent Friday night shoveling out the rink. That gave me 36 hours to try and get an ice base on it.

Since I didn't have a water tight seal, the plastic sheet was flat on the ground, I ha to work the sprinkler. Moving it around to fill an area then move the sprinkler to let it freeze. There was some good weather for it. Nice minus teens. -15 through -18 Celsius.


It's a little hard to see on the small left shot but there is a little round yellow metal sprinkler working hard out there. It's metal with no moving parts so it won't freeze.

I've used vapour barrier for the bottom previously. About $20 for a 20'x100' sheet that I would cut in two to make my 40'x50' base sheet. That would go over the wooden frame. The problem that ended up happening was that the sheet would tear. So it wasn't water proof anyways. I.e. so it would collect the water if I flooded it.

The end result is that I have to go slowly to build up the layers. That's when I ran into this, our snow storm.



For those astute readers you may have noticed that the chair and play structure are the same from the ice rink picture above. In fact it was taken from the same vantage point just 48 hours later. Yes my rink is under another foot of snow.

So now I'm trying to figure out how I will get my neighbours snowblower into the back yard. I think he thinks I'm joking.

BigE's Birthday Party

BigE celebrated his 4th birthday on Sunday. It took till today to get the guests out of the house and my exam written to get this post up.

It was one nasty day outside. 37cm of snow feel through the course of the day. It was a little questionable whether it was going ahead. However once Momma got there just before the start time she found almost everyone. In the end only one kid didn't make it. (And those following me were a little late).

BigE's party was at a gymnastics's club. He'd been there several weeks before when another kid from his class had a party there. He'd really liked it once he found the Jump-o-leen. Today was no different.

For the first hour the kids get to run, jump, climb on the bars and general mayham




After an hour or so of activity we headed up to the party room for a little pizza and party cake. This year the cake was a rocket ship. The last remnant of the original party plan (Rocket ships before Arnie's surgery meant we couldn't have 15 kids running around our house).


Somebody had no trouble figuring out what to do with the cake


Funny thing here was that all of the kids dove in to grab the candles to remove them. panicked parents worried about wax burns while the kids wanted to help or get one.

As mentioned the turn out was great considering the weather. With only the Torontonians following me late and the wussies from BC not making it.


At last we reached the presents. The kids were losing focus as their blood sugars increased and they became more tired. Once we started opening them the crowd surged forward to check it all out. BigE made out very well. BigE managed a nice Thank you at the end.

All in all I think everyone had fun.

Is this what they had hoped for?

Found in Seth Godin's Facebook for old people is a link to this hilarious image (click on it to enlarge).

Chritsmas Concert Conductor

And finally bringing the Christmas Concert series to a close is this.

During all this singing I noticed the teacher working hard to keep the kids singing and in time with the actions. I couldn't resist capturing a couple seconds of what was going on in front of the stage.

Chritsmas Concert Video 4

Besure to check out the kid on the far left at the beginning. He seems to be losing his head band.

Icing the Rink

We've had a lot of snow lately. Well for around here we have. Funny when I read Coldest winter in 15 years I thought great that will make it easy to freeze the rink.

What I didn't realize was that the other comment in the article was also going to apply. Higher then normal level of snowfall. Snowfall? I figured that was for those in milder climates.

Well in the end I had waited and waited hoping wind, or warm weather might have cleaned up the rink. Nope. So, since I had some time between exams and the big party, I figured it was time to get started. 3 hours of shoveling later I finally had the rink clear. And by finally I mean FINALLY.

It was 11:00 so I figured I had some time to get a coat of ice down before hitting the sack. Then I saw the timer on the tap. You know those mechanical timers that let you turn on the sprinkler and have it shut off after so much time. So the tap is wide open. Guess what -15'c temperatures did to that? I ended up going in to boil the kettle a couple of times till I finally got the water flowing. I even had to use a wrench to get the timer off the tap. For a moment I thought the whole thing was going to come off the house.

Now I'm sitting in the dark waiting to move the sprinkler to a new location. So far so good. Things are doing better now that the ibuprofen is in my system.

PS Trying to avoid walking on the plastic and newly formed ice gave me the idea to use the long reach paint pole to move the sprinkler around. Normally I have to climb around the edges in the snow to get the movement.

Chritsmas Concert Video 3

Goofy Pics

BigE was inspired to make some silly faces. His buddy Monkey (from the WBFamily) took these pictures. After they were done at the Christmas concert they wanted to take some pictures too.

Here's two Monkey took (maybe with a little help from his Mommy)



Here's one Dada took while BigE was on my shoulders. Not too bad when I can't see the LCD or view finder.

Chritsmas Concert Video 2

Chritsmas Concert Video 1

Chritsmas Concert

This morning was the Kindergarten Christmas concert. There were four classes (two senior and two junior) up singing. They each did a couple of songs. BigE's class was up first. They sang "It's a Small World" which is what that thing hanging around their neck is. It's a little Styrofoam world covered in blue and green tissue paper.

Here's a dump of the pictures. The picture quality isn't the best. Even for a gym with our camera. Not sure why though. I have a few video's that I'm uploading so stay tuned.

The Christmas Tree

Here's this year's Christmas tree. A little on the small side this year. And by a little I mean about half height. But a Christmas tree none the less.

Note the green extension cord in the bottom right hand corner. That big red dot is the magical clicker from Single Greatest Toy Ever!

Single Greatest Toy Ever

Not a Wii. Not a firetruck. Not a helicopter.

But an extension cord with a on off button. Somebody likes the tree with all the lights. The only problem is that BigE wants to plug it in. Which we caught him doing once. So after the reminder that we don't work the plugs we figured we'd have to get an extension cord with a switch on it.

Well Momma found one with a nice big red on-off button. Boy it was a hit. Somebody could barely let go of it long enough to let the cashier ring it in.

After it was hooked up we had our own version of blinking lights

Off - Click - On - Click - Off - Click - On - Click - Off - Click - On - Click - Off - Click - On - Click - Off - Click - On - Click - Off - Click - On - Click - Off - Click - On - Click - Off - Click - On ...

Well you get the idea.

Quote of the Day 39

As BigE looks under the table

BigE "I can see well because of my blue eyes"

Dada "Hunh?"

I Miss Momma

BigE comes into the room, looks up to see me dressed and begins to cry. I was expecting something along the lines of "Do I have to go to daycare?" but oh no. After some wailing and crying

"I miss my momma"

Momma's boy. Time for me to break out more cookies and chocolate milk.

Dada's First Curling Event

Not sure how you can be Canadian and make it this far without trying curling. But some how I did. Sadly there was no pictures of any of our stellar sweeping. Or "HARD!" as we kept joking.



All I've got is a pic of our skip. Guess who's at the other end of the sheet calling the shot? That's right Dadda. Although I think he was ignoring some of my controversial shot suggestions. Your questioning my "Inside turn three rock takeout with a backspin?" Shut up and make the shot.

One Fine Loaf of Bread

We've been using the bread machine to make pizza dough for a while. Usually with pretty good results. I've also used the dough setting to make decent rolls on holidays.

A couple of times I have meant to make bread dough. Roll it up, and freeze it. Then when you want a fresh loaf pull it out before you go to bed, put in the oven, and set the timer so it cooks for first thing in the morning. Fresh bread first thing in the morning. I'd say the results are pretty good.

Well what was funny the other day with this particular loaf? I covered it with a tea towel to rise in the oven. I was making it fresh. Then as we rushed out the door I thought "Oh heck I'll just set the timer so it's done when I get back".

Turned out I forgot to remove the tea towel. It was baked for 30 minutes at 350'c. Not a burn mark. Imagine my surprise when I opened the oven door wanting to see the finished product when I saw this blue cloth. "What the he...."

Woopsie

Actions have Consequences

From the Globe and Mail is 'Merry Xmas Isaac, I hope you've learned your lesson'

Parents don't often tell their children what they can expect to get for Christmas, but thanks to some creative parenting, one Toronto-area teen knows exactly what he won't be getting. That's because his dad is selling what would have been his Christmas present — the popular video game Guitar Hero III — on eBay, after he caught the 15-year-old smoking pot in the backyard of the family home.

Smart Car Purchases

See this is what happens when you let somebody borrow your car you get Next Car We Buy Will Be a Pontiac Vibe

Four hours later your car comes back and for some reason the windows have to stay down so it can dry. Ooookay.

PS I was semi-awake but dam tired.

A Week with No Posts?

Bugger off.

I finished my last assignment for the semester last night. 11 pages of regression analysis. Now there is only two exams left. Not that isn't much of a good excuse because after that there will be Christmas or New Year or whatever.

The Christmas Party

Momma's work had a Christmas party for the kids this past weekend. Momma has been in on the organizing for a couple of years now. Swimming, pizza, Little Ray's Reptiles, Santa, and a gift. A lot of fun for all the kids.

After the kids got a slice of pizza Little Rays Reptiles showed up to entertain the kids. They liked the spiders and the cousin to the komodo dragon (forget the name). BigE liked the big dragon. Then he saw the Snapping Turtle. Boy that interested him



He moved in for a closer look. Although he could touch he was interested. It might be the first animal that BigE realizes eats other animals. In this case fishes. So maybe that's ok.


What's a round of reptiles without some big ugly old snake.


Then came Santa and the gift. For the first time in the four years we been there BigE didn't cry upon seeing Santa. He even walked up and answered Santa's question about what he wanted for Christmas. Quite the brave boy. He even hoped up on his lap for a picture.



Afterwards he gave Momma a thank-you hug that was worth capturing.

The Santa Claus Parade

We hit the Santa Claus parade for the village just down the road from us last Saturday. It was a cold day (compared to our warm fall). Minus teens Celsius plus wind chill. So we were all bundled up waiting for the parade to begin.
With Momma taking the pictures this is the best picture taken of me. To say I resemble Jabba the Hut here is no stretch.


Now the comfy couch award goes to these folks who parked in the no parking zone to watch the parade from their minivan. Maybe we're just jealous.


Here we are watching the parade go by. Again Momma had the camera so we missed taking a picture of the firetruck, police car, horse & wagon, and Santa.

After the parade we hit a local shop that does specialized ginger bread houses and shapes. You could get a house, chalet, palace, race car, or even aircraft made out of ginger bread. We picked up a little snack.

Here is one pic of our tired little boy. He perked up for another picture but this shows the little boy tired but willing to work through that ginger bread cookie.

Where Have You Gone?

As soon as I get the camera back from Momma we'll have shots from the Christmas parade and Momma's work Kids Christmas party. Hence we've been kinda busy. So that's why it's been 5 days since I've posted. Since I'm in class tonight it will really be 6 days till anything is published.

Stay tuned

PS I'd like to mention BigE has got one mean spiral on the football.

Woopsie

From Captains Quarters comes The Irish Job. What happend? Somebody stole 450 kegs from the Guinness plant. They simply drove up and took a trailer loaded ready for delivery.

Funniest part is this:

Well, the joke's on them. Only 180 kegs of it were Guinness stout. The rest of the kegs held Carlsberg and -- the horror! -- Budweiser. One can imagine the disappointment when the trailer gets unhitched and inspected.

You can imagine how pissed the thief must be.

On a personal note. I first found CQ during the Gomery commission. It was publishing key testimony while the media ban was under way. If you want a great view of Republican views check out CQ.

[UPDATE] Best comment line heard? "Where's Burt Reynolds? And are they filming Smokey and the Bandit 4?"

Quote of the Day 38

BigE at bed time

"I know all your tricks Dada"

Then as I entered the room a minute later somebody was hiding under the blankets when they popped out and shouted

"BOO!"

"See Dada I have more tricks"

The Nappy

It was a late night for BigE on Friday so we were looking for a nappy on Saturday. After some initial complaining I thought I had BigE sold on the idea. He ran upstairs ahead of me and did his usual hiding schtick. This time it was under the bed.

I searched for a little bit. Then upon "finding him" I said come on back on to the top of the bed. To which BigE replied

"It's comfy down here. I'll have my nappy here, under my bed"

After some 15 minutes of shenanigans I read the riot act to BigE and told him if he wasn't asleep within another 15 minutes he had to go back on top of the bed. 45 minutes later all was quiet. So I snuck into his room and caught this:



Yup, that's his bed over him. He'd dragged everything down to the floor to use.

BigE Dancing

Well this video pretty much speaks for itself.



Amazing what happens when I'm normally not around.

Hike!

We were watching a bunch of football on Sunday. Sadly the Broncos went down to da Bears in OT. When Benson got hurt I thought that was the end of that. I mean Rex Grossman leading a comeback. Pfuuhhhhh.

Anways, for about 45 minutes BigE was running the loop around the kitchen and family room. Every time he entered the family room he tried to throw me the ball on the run. By the end he was getting pretty good. You just can't start them young enough.

Anyways after a bit he started running in and trying to do something resembling a hike, but while running. Then he stopped and started hiking the ball to me. Then I caught this 4 second clip.




At least the Green won the Grey Cup in the later game.

The Snowman

No Smokey here. Just our first snowman of the year. We took advantage of the first snowfall this week to build a snowman. Things went ok. Didn't pack the snow down enough on the first two balls used for the base. So they cracked like eggs.



But after a little persistence we had a snowman.

How Much do you Love Momma?

Who knew that Momma was out in front by that much. Just the other day Momma asked BigE who much he loved Momma. This much she said as she held out her arms.

BigE "As big as the house"

Momma "How much do you love Dada?"

BigE "As big as the garage"

So for devilment I decided to ask the same question this morning. Momma was working so it was just BigE and I snuggling in bed. I stretch my arms out and ask how much do you love Momma?

BigE "As big as this bed" (A Queen)

Dadda "And Daddy?"

BigE "As much as my bed" (A Twin)

I think it's time to start buying some love :-p

BigE's Remembrance Day

For Remembrance Day BigE colored a page for Remembrance day. They asked the kids what peace means to them. They put them together and gave each family a night with the book. This week we got to see it.

It's a little hard to see because of the binding of the book. It reads "Peace is building with the blocks together"



By the way that is a self picture.

The one thing I remember BigE telling me that he saw a Daddy movie. After asking him what that meant; it turned out that it was not a cartoon. About a guy who "got killed"

Little sponges.

Broken IPOD

From NY Times Tech blog comes Turning Nonworking Gizmos Into Money which is a small update on What to do with that old IPOD.

This was about the guy who started BuyMyBrokeniPod.com (and has renamed it http://www.buymytronics.com/)

Bossy Bussey

Momma "Don't be so bossy! BigE"

BigE "I'm BigE Bussey. That's why I'm so bossy!"

Computer Cleanup

Over at LifeHacker.com (one of those tips, tricks, life guide type sites) comes A Meaty Thanksgiving Download. While for the American Turkey Day I will definitely be putting that onto my USB key to bring home for Christmas.

It's handful of apps (17MB download in total) with tools to clean up that computer that your less than handy relative has bloated up with virus, IE bho's, or whatever mess.

Of course this is good for any time of the year!

The Snow has Arrived

and I'm not sure who's more excited Arnie or BigE.

BigE wasn't having any snuggle time this morning. "It snowed!", "It SNOWED!". Ever since we were putting up those Christmas lights, before it snowed and got cold, BigE has been asking when it will snow.

Well last night he got his wish. Today we wore our snowsuit to school. It wasn't really cold but it was wet sticky snow.

Arnie was also excited to see the snow. At first I thought that excitement had to do with the 60 second pee he took. No really. But after that there was glimpses of Silly Saint. It took a few loud scoldings to calm him down. He did get to go for a couple of rolls in the snow though. I wasn't being completely heartless. But you did know he had surgery right?

The one end result of all this is Dada realizes he has to finish clearing out the garage. Enough of this parking outside business.

What Time is It?

We were doing a little work on the time the other day. So we made a clock to play with. BigE was doing a pretty good job with the time. He's starting to get the hourly thing. I don't know how we're going to get that 1 can mean 1 or 5 thing just yet.



The arms are held on by an arm of a paper clip. I folded it in half with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Where are you Hiding?

I was in the kitchen and turn my back. I heard the call "come find me". When I turn around, this is what I saw:



Geez I wonder wear he could be?

A Painted Birthday Party

BigE had a Birthday today with his buddy No. Last seen in Trip to Miller's with No. Well today was No's birthday. There was make your own pizzas, crafts, and face painting.

The kids had about 20 minutes of hard-core activity. They found the longest stretch to the house to take on. What the house really needed was a loop. Of course the whole time dada cringed as they slid on their knees. Darn that looked painful.

Then the kids got to make their own pizzas. BigE went for the classic cheese pizza, while all the other kids are adding Parmesan and pepperoni. I thought he was going to be the only kid with a clean pizza. But then came the topper. One little girl wanted just dough. kind of a flat bread, that wasn't really flat or bread. The one surprising fact was a Bige didn't want any party cake. Like we are going to force him.

the best part was probably the face painting. Once bige realized that the PO to wash off, and it wasn't permanent, he was pretty excited. He even managed to be first in line. He chose to be a cheetah.



I must say the paint held up pretty good all day. He was even concerned on going to bed to make sure that the jammies didn't smudge. We will have to see how much paint ends upon the pillow in the morning.

At the end of the party. The loop bag contained more jungle themed fun. Not only did they get stickers, binoculars, and an animal shaped noisemaker, but they also got sunglasses. And Bige likes funny sunglasses:

Arnie's Surgery II

As mentioned in Update on Arnie he had surgery to repair or his torn cruciate. However, after some weeks it has not healed correctly. That resulted in meeting a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy or TPLO for short.

This was a more invasive surgery that required screws and a plate to fix his joint. he home tonight and were trying to keep him quiet. Poor bugger every time he goes there he gets his legs shaved. Click here for someone's experience on tplo.

My Fun New Software

okay it's getting late butI can't wait to post this. I am writing this with my fancy new software. It's its Dragon Naturally Speaking standard 9.0. Yes that's right, voice recognition software. And it seems pretty kick ass. While software can seem to keep up with my speech. I keep stopping, and watching it process I'm saying.

I've worked my way through the training package that came with the software. It seems to work pretty well. I only had to make a couple of minor adjustments.

Everything I have typed has been dictated through the headset.
Man is a lot of fun. But my poor little Celeron and M Laptop is working hard to keep up. I can't have too many processes running running, or else things them to slow down a little. Then again maybe I have to stop watching the status window as it process is what I'm saying.

For software with little training, on my peculiar voice, I think it's done pretty well.

This bit I typed to the dictation box. Which is a little tool, as well as you do enter text into a weird programs that are not fully supported by the software. I can't say the name, because that seems to trigger some keyword on the menu. But you can talk into the dictation box and when you're ready. You say the word transfer.

So far it's done pretty good. Until it's fully trained up have to remember to speak clearly and have a controlled pace. When I do that. It seems to do much better. Now I am starting to speed up in my speech. It seems to be keeping up if I don't keep looking back for it. I just need to remember when to say period or comma ( I had to type those words by hand).

just to reiterate, I am running on a Celeron m laptop with 768 MB of RAM. It's pretty neat how it knew to turn megabytes into MB. I have a couple of applications open. I have Firefox, Thunderbird, and iTunes all running right now. But that is about all my little laptop can handle. I would say any computer bought in the last two years should run the software pretty well.

Although have to admit, I don't think I've been a completely give up on the keyboard just yet. Some of the editing can get a little tedious through voice commands. but I don't think, at least for this version of the product, that that is the purpose of the software. At least know when I get Momma trained upon the software. She should have no excuses not to read up some blog posts.

Jeepers look at the length of this post. Maybe this dictation thing is not going to pay off. It's not like I'm getting paid by the word. Anyways, good night.

Oh and one more thing. Some of the advanced versions of the software let you do some powerful macros. The standard version only let you record a simple macros that don't contain any special punctuation. The nice thing here is that I can type "http://theBusseyFamily.ca" by saying just the letters t, b, and f.

UPDATE: I left most of the errors in so you can get a sense of how it did.

The Magical Medicine

Today we banged our chin on the coffee table. With the tears streaming down his face somebody was really sad. Once I opened the freezer door the crying stopped in about 3 seconds.



Here he is propped up by pillows on the coach starting to feeling better.

Small blessings for injuries that can be made all better by the popsicle.

There's Hope Yet

There's hope for Momma's left side if she managed to put this together

Two Courses Down

First there was one. Now there is two done.

This one was even squishier then the last. But there's nothing like a nice 60 page hand in to add some impressive weight to a mountain ... of well something. 10 pages about the group done by the group. Then each person does 6 pages about them plus one or two on the evaluation on the other group members.

That leaves somewhere between 20 and 300 courses to go.

Coffee is Good for You

From the Daily Telegraph Drinking coffee 'is good for the heart'

One to three cups of coffee a day may protect people from heart disease and strokes, according to research which contradicts numerous studies that have suggested that coffee is bad for you

And really the truth behind all this consumption stuff and how to live your life:

Dr Sarah Jarvis, a fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners said: "This is a message about moderation. Too much exercise, too much coffee or too much alcohol are bad. In moderation they are beneficial."

The Rink makes it's Return

Well I decided to get a jump on the weather and season by setting up the hockey rink early. With Arnie on leash walking until further notice I don't have to worry about a doggie ripping the plastic.



As you can see I've decided to go with a larger and thicker tarp. Rather then my ususal cheap vapour barrier from the home fixer upper store I went with two 20'x28' tarps. So what your looking at is about 38'x28'. (38 is two 20's with a one [UPDATE] and a half [END_UPDATE] foot overlap).

Also new this year I'm not wrapping the tarp up over the boards. What would in effect create a little pool. This year I'm trying it flat on the ground. The boards are only there to give it structure and stop the puck.

I was going to wait till next weekend when the temperature is expected to drop but I thought I had time today. Plus I can use the expected highs of 10+'c this week to hammer in a couple of support stakes. According to www.theweathernetwork.com I'm looking at some upcoming cooler weather.



Oh and why no pic of the finished product with the boards on? Because my tired old cordless drill died. I had to charge it up for another three hours after turning maybe 30 screws. Moral of the story kids? Always get dual battery packs.

Taking the Luggage out to the Airplane

For some unknown reason BigE was interested in the conveyor belt that takes the luggage out to the plane. In his mid it goes right from check-in to the bottom of the plane. He does also know about those little luggage cars.

So a couple of hours latter I see BigE loading things onto the couch. What's up? I'm taking the luggage out to the airplane.


Today we were back at it. This time it was covered. Maybe it was raining at the airport.

BigE was a Babysittin' Friday

We had BigC over for a few hours and BigE was only too happy to play with him. We had a little time for play. As usual every new house is a world of new toys to a kid. BigC was roaming around trying out the new toys



We then sat down for a little Pizza supper. BigC was pretty full and BigE didn't like those vegatables that had infested his cheese pizza.

So we were off for a tubby:


Finally we had a little bed time snack


BigE was a little disappointed to wake up and find BigC gone. He wanted him to sleep over for the whole night. I said sure but your getting up with him when he wakes up early!

Quote of the Day 37

We're building a fort with the Lincoln Logs when we added the fort look-out peice.

BigE "Look we made a treehouse! TreehouseTV.com!"

Dada: "Waha?!?"

BigE: "TreehouseTV.com that's what they say on the TV at the end of a show."

What they pick up is wild sometimes.

Happy Birthday Daddy

Today was Daddy's birthday, Big E was really excited. We baked daddy's cake and then iced it. Big E was a little dissapointed that we wern't having a party for daddy. I guess I'll have to remember that for next year.



Big E certainly likes to eat what he bakes (like daddy). He told Daddy where to cut the cake and here is a shot of how big a peice it was.



Oh, this is Big E's second hunk of cake. Needless to say Big E was feeling "a little excited" after all that sugar.