Life as a Dad

It's been a little over a couple weeks in my new role as dad. I came into this with a few preconceived notions of what being a parent would be like. Not that they where completely off the mark, but rather just devoid of the feeling or experience which completes the picture now.

I've read a lot of articles and books on what to expect, how to deal with parenthood and what is normal during this transition from couple to family. I'm sure every dad strives to avoid changing too much but things DO change and change is hard. Saturdays will no longer be 'sleep in' and hang out doing nothing but drinking coffee and relaxing. That said, I don't miss it as I can now hang out with my little girl. Even now as I type this entry, my sweetie is sleeping on my chest and everything just feels right with the world.

While I'm still very new to this, one common thing I did read about was the idea that doing house work or cooking would take a long backseat. Our house isn't as tidy as we would like, but we still eat good meals at home. The lessons we learned during Britgal's pregnancy helped us develop cooking habits as we couldn't just go out for dinner. Now we'll see how long this lasts as energy continues to be sapped but we're both hopeful :) .

I'm a dad now offically!

Jan 02/08@20:25 will forever be imprinted into my memory as the date my little daughter came into this world to greet Britgal and myself. The whole experience has been amazing and humbling and we cannot wait to get to know our baby.

While I could talk forever about my little one (and it's only been days since her birth) I'll spare you all. Unfortunately, it must be a disease amongst parents to constantly talk poop/pee as I find myself already doing it - just a fair warning :)

Jack Frost

Who ordered the double serving of snow with a side order of blowing snow topped with freezing rain sauce??

I'm really starting to loath winter. That said the AWD in our car is spectacular! I was in 4 wheel lock (50/50) going around Kanata today (I had to pickup some necessaries that could not wait) and never had a problem with getting stuck or control. Visibility sucked a times, but I just went slow and things where always fine. I don't think I'd go out willingly, but at least I didn't have a horrible experience.

That said, a lot of nutty people with Geo Metros and the like where braving the roads only to end up stuck. Lots of people got trapped in the snow coming up the hill towards our house; only to be later trapped into a snow bank by a snow plow going by. A rule of thumb is if the snow is higher than the clearance for your car, you're going to get stuck (this goes for everyone). Basic physics say your wheels are useless if your car is jacked up on a ramp of snow with no wheels touching the ground.

I hope it all melts tomorrow.

End of an era

The Britgal and I have finally said our last goodbyes to our Ford Focus. I can't say we're teary eyed, or even a little sorry. While it wasn't the worst car in the world, we had more than our share of problems (it was the first year of the Focus so a lot of recalls occurred) and with our little one on the way, it wasn't going to serve our needs for space, gear + car seat nor safety in Ottawa winter.

With that, I introduce our new family transport vehicle; the 2008 Mitsubishi Outlander.
These aren't actual pictures of ours, but are close enough and the colour is pretty close (ours is 'rally red metallic'). The car is far and away more vehicle than we would have imagined owning, and still fits in our budget. The warranty can't be beat (5yr full/10yr power train) and it also is our first 'import' vehicle (made in Japan) so I hope the quality lives up to the name. This car is also the basis for the Citroen C-Crosser and the Peugot 4007. They are almost the same car but each with their own styling and interior choices.

After a lot of test driving (Hyundai Tucson, Nissan Rogue, Mazda5) and spreadsheeting, comparing, and fretting we finally decided on the Mitsu as it offered the best combination of features, safety, cost and a standard all-wheel drive (winter). The biggest tell tale feature is the boot. We needed something that could transport humans, kid, and gear without overloading (ie. use of seats). Our new car has this in spades with a special drop door tail gate and massive cargo area. In a pinch, if we need a lot of space we can fold down and flip the rear seats down for even more space (ie. Ikea).

It seems we got the vehicle not a moment too soon as the snow and poor weather is upon us already. AWD, traction control, ABS and lots more make the drive a lot less stressful. We've very happy with our new purchase, and I'm confident we'll have a much better experience than with our Focus.

Funny Cat Video

Aero pointed me to this video - It was so funny as it was sooo true. Does everyones cat do that?

Taking a step back.

Sometimes I find myself so engrossed or focused on the issues at hand that I loose sight of the 'big picture'. Nothing particularly special about my situation, everyone does it and everyone (or a large portion of people) also realise that taking a step back to re-evaluate things is also necessary. With all the errands, running around, getting from A to B, working and the 1000's of other little things that we find to fill our days we loose the forest for the trees.

What am I ranting about? Nothing really, at least nothing all that special. Just that I'm reminded of how fortunate I am (and have been). I'm amazed at what I have purely on the chance that I live in the country that I do. I'm humbled by what I'm afforded through my ability to work where I do. Of course, I'm dumb founded that it all comes together regularly and I have the privilege to share it with the important people in my life.

The funny thing, it's the smallest, strangest thing that makes me sit back and appreciate what I have. For instance, this morning I sat at my computer, drinking my coffee and I opened my patio door for some fresh air. That was it. I realized, I live in a house with a patio, and I can open said patio door without fear that some sociopath is going to shoot up my yard. I can sit and sip my coffee in peace and quiet and reflect on things. I live in a country where I do not need to worry about basic health or welfare, nor if some other country is going to bomb us back to the stone age. Things could change (they always can), but for now, things are good; they could always be better, but I try not to loose sight that things are, in fact, good.

No preaching intended here, just pure reflection.

Big score

Today the wife and I went to our usual haunt of Homesense. Our mission was to acquire a few more fry pans which we can abuse (ie. dishwasher) without concern as we're cooking a lot more often these days (breakfast/lunch/dinner) and Britgal hates using my cookware as it cannot go into the dishwasher.

So we found two new pans (one small one large) which look nice enough and should work fine. We also found a food mill! I've been looking all over the place for a good quality food mill (not those nasty baby ones made of plastic or motorized ones). But of all the kitchen stores I've been too, those that have one (and they are rare) are asking 100$ for it... crazy!

So for 39.99 I got an OXO Good Grips food mill and I'm quite impressed with it's build quality (most of the OXO goodgrip stuff is top notch IMHO). It's going to be used to make our baby food (I've got some super books from Britgal's mum from the UK) as well as make some awesome tomato sauce, or fruit sauces. I'll likely give it a whirl with some of the seasonal tomatoes in the stores this weekend and either make a soup or a sauce... not sure. In either case, an incredible find! They also have a HUGE collection of real LeCreuset dutch ovens/pots. While they are 100$ a pop, they are very nice and I had to restrain myself as I have 3 cooking vessels of similar nature (not LeCreuset, but french made). Britgal reminded me that I do not need more heavy cookware :)

Tomorrow is going to be some card playing with they usual suspects, and I'm looking forward to it as it will be good clean fun (well... fun anyways). I hope I do well.. the sheer number of people going is making me wonder what my odds are going to be like.

Taste sensation

Well it's been quite a while since my last update and the Britgal and I have been busy preparing for the new arrival. This preparation generally entails spending cash on some of the strangest things (ie. wet wipe warmer). Having been through the whole wedding thing, I though it was a lot of 'cash grab' - they haven't got a thing on this baby market! The whole play on first timers is especially heinous as they drill down on your insecurities. If you don't keep things in check, you're walking out of the stores with more than you could possibly afford. In any case, things are going well and we're starting to get prepared for the big day.

Back to the reason for the post - I recently made a desert which I though was incredible. So simple, and I was highly dubious as it combines things my brain says would be 'yuck'. It's grilled plums with a balsamic glaze (side of vanilla ice cream or cool whip).

1. Four ripe plums, peeled and pitted in halves.
2. Drizzle some olive oil on the plums and grill in a high heat pan (oil stops the sticking)
3. Make balsamic sauce. 1/2 cup of balsamic (reduced to half), 1 tbsp of sugar/sweetener, 1 tbsp lemon juice, tspn of vanilla extract
   
4. Drizzle sauce over the plums, and serve with a scope of ice cream or coolwhip

The taste is awesome (and it's not bad for you either) as it's not the same old, same old desert.

Weekend

Like many weekends, this weekend was an enjoyable one.

Note the last weekend was a birthday celebration for my mom, in which we had BBQ at my sisters (yum), some homemade cake (yum yum), pressies and some glow-in-the-dark mini golf which was super fun. I was doing well on the front nine, but lost my nerve near the end (or perhaps it was my retinas!).

This weekend, the basics all occurred - sleep in 'till 9ish, snuggled with the Britgal, watched some bad British television and had some late lunch. After some quick shopping for popcorn (don't ask - pregnant ladies are just weird), we acquired some snacks at the ever popular Kernels store in Bayshore shopping plaza.

While at the mall, I remarked on something that while trivial seems almost a little profound for me. I hate the mall now. I used to like the mall a lot, then it was mostly fine - very convenient for shopping and browsing. Now I think I sorta loath the mall. It's not the crowds, as most stores are busy on the weekend (mall store or not). I think it's the environment; the idea that 1000s of stores in one location is a fantastic idea. An idea that brings with it the meta-idea that the mall can be a place of socialisation and even a hobby. A final selection of all things 'you will need' in one spot - one that I cannot abide.

Maybe it's because I like to look for things, I enjoy browsing and checking things out. I enjoy markets, and larger stores where I can get lost and spend my time as I wish. I can stroll and look at the wares in a relaxed manner, or I can zip in and out without much fuss. I find myself in a paradox of shopping. I enjoy the mom/pop shops that bring interesting things to the forefront, and large stores (RCSS, Chapters/Indigo, Farmboy, and even FS/BB to a lesser extent) for the selection and price.

The mall it seems is getting extinct - at least for me.

Later that evening we had dinner with Dinsdale and Lady M at a restaurant I had never been to - Milestones. It was busy and without a reservation we had a 20min wait for a table. Time flew by since the company was great, and dinner was passable. I had the ribs but I think I make better ones in shorter order; too bad since the place has a nice atmosphere and I felt a little under-dressed in a golf shirt with shorts.

On the Sabbath day, we spend the day cleaning - and cleaning :) . It was needed, since a few weeks of neglect have left us dusty and in need of a vacuum. I even tried out my stoves self clean feature. Most stoves have this option, and most people just chuckle about the idea of self-clean. Many I've spoken to have told me that self-clean means it helps but you're still scrubbing for a while.

I was brilliantly surprised when my oven, after 3 hours of incredible heat, turned all the messy spills, splats and runs into grey and black ash. I had to wipe my oven clean with a paper towel; no gloves or cleaner needed. I was very happy :) I even remembered to remove the racks first so they didn't loose their shine and become difficult to slide (since they aren't as smooth after). So my oven looks pretty spanking new and it's a good feeling (for a short while :) ).

Still thinking about it, I'm not sure if I scrubbed my kitchen so thoroughly because I wanted to do it for a while, or I was getting frustrations out (from work etc) and needed to feel like something was getting down right (hehehe).

Oh yeah...

Check out the new NIN album coming out.

The eagle has landed... in the nest.

Britgal and I (well mostly me) have been on the look out for cribs and the other baby requirements. So Kijiji and Craigslist have been popular haunts for me (and Britgal for approval). Today we scored a very nice crib and change table (pictured), which is fairly modern, in good nick (the change table looked unused!), and a reasonable price ($275 for both) considering a new crib alone starts around 200$. Ikea cribs are nice, but don't have a side that lowers and that is almost a deal breaker for Britgal as she's short (it's fine for me). Plus to get the change table that matches and also in good repair and sturdy was quite a find!

We also scored a vibrating chair with music and an aquarium for 30$ (usually around 90$+). This lady kept her stuff in awesome condition, so Britgal couldn't leave it at just the crib. I had to drag her out before things got out of hand :)

I'm a Dad!

I'm going to be a dad, and I'm super excited (read: terrified) and can't wait for the little one to come. You can sorta make out the head (right) and small hand. It was super cool to see the little one moving around and getting comfortable like in a laz-y-boy chair. Let the count down begin!

Orange you tired?

This past week and weekend I've been re-doing our 'powder room' (fancy name for 1/2 bathroom). My wife had painted it already once, but the colour just wasn't working for us and the flow into the house just wasn't there. Now I'm not one to take the safe route, I do enjoy the flair (as much as any straight man can) and I look for bold colours to define the room. All the creams, and whites, and eggshells etc are just too neutral for me. In our living room we took a small risk on a deep greenish brown which works really well with the white trim, so this time I took a bigger risk - orange!

Not only did we do the colour orange, but in
finish. First step was to paint over the blue walls my wife had previously painted (and failed to remove the fixtures off the wall - stead of just paint we decided on trying our hand at a venetian plaster faux finish (see sample on the right for an idea).

While I'm not an expert in plaster, I can say that after doing this work, there was nothing fake about the effort involved in applying this finish. To start, I painted the bathroom with normal latex paint with the colour set to a very vibrant orange. At first it seemed almost too bright but it did darken a tad after it dried. That took about one night (after work).

Next I had to trowel on two layers of this tinted acrylic plaster (real plaster is made with stone). Each of these coats was taking about 4+ hours to apply to a very small room (3'x7'). I did one coat per night and of course it was hot and muggy (and we don't have AC yet). This stuff was messy and unforgiving too, and my inexperience in troweling plaster onto walls was slowing me down. After the two layers of plaster, I re-inspected for missed areas and re-plastered again.

On Saturday I sanded the whole bathroom down to burnish the plaster and give it the distinctive look it is supposed to have. I then re-plastered some more holes found while sanding, re-sanded again and took a break. After a cold drink of water, I had to wipe down all the walls to remove the plaster dust and cleanup whatever the dust had stuck to (everything, including me).

After the normal cleanup, scraping and removal of drips, I then had to install a framed mirror we bought to match our new bathroom decor. I had a fear that this mirror would be a total pain but with a level and measure tape I knocked it into place without much fuss. After picking up all the plastic, paint tins, tape, towels , trowels, plaster bits and vacuuming things looked pretty good.

The final steps to complete today (Sunday) were to install a new bronze centre set faucet. Now I've installed a faucet before, so this was going to be a cake walk for me. Just remove the old faucet, install some shutoff valves to make life easier in the future, crimp down the valves, connect the supply lines, tighten down the hatches and you're done.

Then it occurred to me that the pop up plug in the sink was silver and would not match our new faucet - crap! So I was all set to go to the HomeDepot and ask for options, but I opened the faucet box first to take some rough measurements for the supply line and what do you know! It came with a new pop up plug assembly matching our new faucet. I was very happy for about 1 minute, until I realized I've never installed anything like a new drain and nothing even close to a pop up assembly + drain. So I whip out my trusty home repair book, consult it for drain replacement and write down the things I needed (putty, large wrench) and off I went to the HD.

I spoke to one of the older guys in the plumbing aisle and he clarified what I already feared. Due to the way the drain was installed (I brought photos!) I had to cut the PVC pipe, re-cement a new adapter as the original tail piece was so deep into the PVC pipe I couldn't just remove it (without removing the pedestal sink at least).

So I got some nice wrenches for plumbing work (20$), a hack saw, putty, PVC adapter, PVC coupler and PVC cement. My wife held the sink up while (just in case) as I hacked sawed the original drain pipe off. It came off without too much issue, and I was off to the races. I did a dry fit of the entire assembly, double checked everything fit as required. I then cemented the PVC adapter, connected the drain assembly, applied the plumbers putty to the the flange in the sink, tightened everything down and was done. I finalized everything by installing the faucet and finally tested with water in the sink for about 10 minutes and then drained the water - All Good!

All told, it took me about 1.5 hrs - mostly due to the learning curve of the drain installation.

Here are some before photos:


Here are some after photos (see my hand - heh! ):


Here are some shots of the faucet and drain, one expensive toilet paper holder (but the wife really loved it) and the floating shelf which really pops nicely with the back drop of the plaster.


Britgal really likes how the bathroom turned out (I think she was iffy on the orange+plaster at first) and is already on the hunt for a bog brush and roll holder to match (*sigh*). As one of my first semi-major projects, it turned out pretty well and I think was worth the effort. Sitting in the bathroom, it actually feels bigger now and has a lot more style to it.

I'm going to go relax now :)

The magic eraser

So we've all seen those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers (Superstore has NoName versions too). They are awesome at cleaning and removing scratches in walls, stains off tables and all sorts of things. It's basically a super fine sand block so don't use it on shiny things (it'll take the shine off). One use I never though of was for my ceramic stove top. I love my oven, but the top collects grease and stains from cooked off water etc. You can scrub and get most of it off, but there is always that small amount of stuff that seems to live just beneath the surface. So I was reading a home/garden forum (yeah yeah, I'm a domestic) and it recommended using those magic erasers. And it did an awesome job - it took the whole thing to a brand new shine.

I think I'm going to play some PlayStation now :)

Feeding the beast

I've recently discovered the joy that is Google reader (google.com/reader). Now I can check my RSS feeds/blogs/news all from a central spot. The best part is that you can bookmark their special link into your tool bar to easily add sites. The best part is that you can use your LiveBookmarks in Firefox to read, reader just like any other RSS feed. It's like a super aggregator - it's awesome.

I've been listening to NIN Year Zero (as RJA) and it's growing on me. It's not my favourite album, but it's different. I think I like it more than With_Teeth. With_Teeth was very commercial and accessible and understandable as Trent was still trying to find his feet after a long hiatus. This album was an interesting experiment. I had hoped the album was to be more story telling given all the marketing done. It's a hail back to the old TDS days where he was using textures in his music, but a little more 4/4 time and less odd beats.

Ah yes, well done team TO and the climb!

Well I think that's it for the random thought of the day. Well perhaps one more!

Getting my just deserts.... mmmm cake.

So I had my birthday over this last weekend, and it was quite a great time! Friday started off with a great lunch at the local Indian with Dutch, Nail, Serdic, RJA and myself all eating some good food. This was followed up with a gift delivered by RJA - Mini Eggs! These things are like crack and it's shameful (and very nice) to be given a box of these candies.


Britgal gave me my pressies on Sat prior to leaving for the family visit. I got some cool t-shirts, golf shirt and some knick knacks. Then she really surprised me with the DVD set for Stargate season 9! Oh man... Then she broadsided me with another gift - a Playstation 3! Wow! I was rather speechless as it was very generous and of course geeky. I do enjoy my games and this piece of kit is quite nice too! Crazy!

Right after that, we then drove to k-town to visit the family, where we had a nice dinner of lasagna with homemade chocolate cake (fudge like icing which was soooo good!). I received a nice shirt, vase for plants and some bulbs to plant into my garden (mud pit at the moment) which will likely find a place to live in my planter box or a nice pot. My sister and her husband generously gave me a gift cert to the FS, so I'll be looking for either a international iPod charger or something else cool.

Next, we had a later dinner with Outraged (Aero to some) and his wife K at Moxies. We followed it up with a couple frames at the local bowl-o-rama for some midnight bowling. The first game I was doing well but the following game, I was definitely sucking quite badly. In any case, it was good fun for all involved to get silly and enjoy ourselves in black light! After bowling we retired around 12:30am and woke up around 9am to have some breakfast at our usual watering hole. My friends piled on the goodness and gave me a nice gift of a chocolate Homer (from the Simpsons), my favourite Japanese soft chew candy and a gift cert to HomeSense. I do enjoy the kitchen stuff, so I'm going to have a lot of looking around fun in shops! Very cool! Here are some shots of my buds, K, A and Britgal all having a bowl of a time :).



And of course, the gals 'forced' the boys to go shopping the next day. They were silly enough to leave us unattended (at-a-boy Aero!) and we found stuff to do. That sure doesn't look like Oscar Mayer!


An excellent way to ring in year 31! Thank you all!!!

Four all to see

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Software Developer
2. Technical Support (x2)
3. Hotel Night Auditor
4. Grocery clerk

B) Four places I have lived:

1. Ottawa, On
2. Kingston, On
3. Cornwall, On
4. Thunderbay, On

C) Four TV shows I like to watch:

1. Stargate
2. Firefly
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. Two and a half men

D) Four places I have been on vacation

1. UK (England, Scotland)
2. Italy
3. Japan
4. Thailand

E) Four of my favorite foods:

1. Thai
2. Indian
3. German :)
4. Wife's cooking

F) Four places I would like to be right now:

1. Home
2. Japan
3. India
4. Germany (oh wish granted) - drinking beer rather

Touch down!

I've made it to my hotel once again. I'm quite tired. I did not get my upgrade coupons honoured, so it was economy for me this time. Long flight too - apparently there was low wind, so we lost about 1/2hr or so.

Breakfast on the plane was interesting - I've never had an egg log before. It came with a side of I don't want to know, and a sauce of cheese like something. Truely strange.

I'm going to catch some zzzz's and perhaps wake for some dinner.

Going back

So I'm going back to Germany again for a few more days of 'workshop' for our customer. This trip has got to be one of the harder ones for me (and britgal). I've only been back a short while and now I'm flying out again.

At least I'm coming back Thursday, so it's a short trip but I'll miss my wife a lot.

I'll also be missing game night again too.

*sigh*

From Wikipedia:

On December 20, 2006, Disc 1 of a so-called "prototype" edition of the DVD set appeared
on the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay, including the aforementioned bonus content and a
still image gallery. The torrent also contains the artwork from the promotional poster that
was rendered for the DVD, containing more detail than the original VHS cover. On December
23, 2006, Disc 2 appeared, including behind-the-scenes footage of the "Closer" video with
commentary by Mark Romanek. Both of these discs were submitted to The Pirate Bay (along
with The Broken Movie DVD "leak") by a user known only as seed0.

Fans speculate that Reznor may have been the source of this leak, based on a post on his official blog: "12/21/06 : Happy Holidays! This one is a guilt-free download. (shhhh - I didn't say that out loud). If you know what I'm talking about, cool."

---

So I got these Closure DVD images and the Broken movie. The Closure DVD is nice but the quality of the video is not all that and a bag of chips. It's mostly because it was filmed in the late 90's in less than stellar conditions. I've already got this on VHS (official) so I know what the subject matter is mostly. The DVD comes with a few extras (making of) along with a nicer fidelity. Along with this was the Broken movie - something that as NIN fan I've known about for a while. Many bootlegs of this movie are floating around, but to have this 'semi-official' version on DVD is something of a treat for fans. I've never watched it, but I did today. It was disturbing, and to be honest I wasn't ready for this kind of disturbance - it's like a snuf film (The FBI had to investigate to ensure it wasn't) and highly violent. I almost wanted to vomit - it was that harsh. I can see why they never could get the Broken movie published - no one would touch it.

On a different note, I went to a house warming party for Darklight. It was great to meet some truly interesting people (and apparently they read blogs) and see a comfy home. Can't say the music was my favourite (the singing at least :) ), but good times, good food, good people = great party.