Merry Christmas
As the song goes, it’s Christmas once again. But once again, it doesn’t really feel like it. I miss the building excitement when I was a kid, of a sparking morning and family and the chaos of presents and …
2025th
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CPAP Fail
I snore. There, I said it. I snore most likely because I used to grind my teeth. And that was because of stress. I had a dental guard to stop the wearing of my teeth (I no longer have canines), but I stopped wearing it …
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Back in the Office
Back in May, the company decided to close our 12th Ave. location due to its prohibitive cost and lack of use. This was a decision I supported – the extreme short notice was not particularly welcome, however. I …
So, I published a book...
Remember that book I wrote? It’s been published. To be fair, I didn’t get a publisher (believe it or not, I am the publisher). I got a printer. And a seller. And they’re called Amazon. Yes, yes, I know, …
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So, I wrote a book...
You already know that I’m a writer. If this blog alone isn’t enough of a reason, I’ve got a bunch of stories in some sort of draft state. Well, now I’ve taken it more seriously. I wrote (well, …
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Monkey's First Day of University
I’m still reeling from your 18th birthday, Monkey. An adult. It’s a big change, I think more for me than for you. But today, you started university. When I went to university, Nana and Granddad drove me up to …
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Happy 20th Anniversary
Where does 20 years go? For Alex and I, it was LavaLife. Yep, an online dating site. We’re one of those. To be fair, the real thing LavaLife did was connect two people who probably wouldn’t have met any other …
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Happy 18th Birthday, Monkey
I’ve thought of how to start this post so many times over the last few months and I’ve still not figured it out. The regular platitude of “happy birthday” just doesn’t cut it. This …
The Tale of Our Oven
When we bought our house, it came with a Dacor range. (In appliance lingo, a “range” is an oven and a stove top, combined.) I was never particularly happy with it, not the least of which was because the oven …
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Filling the Cavity
You might recall that I got a cavity recently. Not a particularly proud moment, even if it’s been over 20 years since my last one. Still, something that needed to be fixed before anything else went awry. I was …
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Irish Family Trip, Day 12
Our flight was early, so we had an early morning. Well, early for some in this family. For me, it was normal. Packed and ready, downstairs, with cab called so we could get to the airport. The taxi arrived on time, we …
Irish Family Trip, Day 11
Last (full) day in Ireland. To zero surprise, I was up before everyone. I thought about where to go for breakfast – we’d had a few other ideas on our mind – when a thought crept across… Premier …
Irish Family Trip, Day 10
One of the problems with renting a car is returning it, especially before you get dinged for another day. The car was of no more use to us – everything from here is on foot. So I got up at 6:30, while my family …
Irish Family Trip, Day 9
Some yobbo felt the need to tear down the road with his car, popping exhaust, waking me up. Then a bunch of assholes waking up their friend — and the entire fucking hallway — at 3am. This should have been the sign for …
Irish Family Trip, Day 8
For once, we were up early. (Well, “early” for my family, anyway.) Alex had a geocaching event that she wanted to attend, because how often do you get to do something like that in another country? Besides, it …
Irish Family Trip, Day 7
Unsurprisingly, I was up before everyone else. We weren’t under the same time pressures as the day before, though we did have a dinner we had to attend in Newtownards. I made coffee. It was … reasonable. I …
Irish Family Trip, Day 6
And I thought yesterday was a drive. I woke up to people above us thumping around. The joys of a four-storey walk-up. Dragging everyone else out of bed, we headed up the road to Blas, a restaurant in the Gateway Lodge. …
Irish Family Trip, Day 5
Today was a drive. I think we covered most of the Irish West Coast. Which means you do nearly twice that, because there’s nary a straight road to be found in this country. Roads felt like they were wrapped like …
Irish Family Trip, Day 4
Sometimes, when you have a really busy day, and you might not have entirely slept off the jet lag from two days earlier, you sleep in a lot later than expected. We were an hour behind schedule getting going. And I say …
Irish Family Trip, Day 3
When I got up around 7:30, Monkey had already been up for an hour. I loathe mornings on vacations without plans because people will sleep indefinitely and I didn’t pay a few thousand dollars to fly to a different …
Irish Family Trip, Day 1/2
Despite the lack of sleep due to the Dirty Knobs concert and rising early on Friday to prepare for an interview that was delayed, I couldn’t sleep Friday night. Still, I forced myself to sleep in a bit. I took the house …
Cruising to Alaska with Mom, Day 8 - Vancouver and home
I had the worst sleep. Between a third day of fucking fever and headaches (the Tylenol was barely having any effect), the crew decided to have an all-night dance party in the crew quarters underneath us (Deck A, below …
Cruising to Alaska with Mom, Day 7 - At Sea, Sick
Didn’t sleep well. Wasn’t hungry but had a bit of breakfast anyway. Went back to the room to rest and sleep. The ship doesn’t really have a quiet spot to settle and sleep other than your own cabin. I tried to watch Death …
Cruising to Alaska with Mom, Day 6 - Ketchikan and the flu
I woke this morning knowing that there was a high likelihood that, by the end of the day, I’d be buried under the sheets with something nasty. I was very unhappy with that reality because the one thing I did not …
Cruising to Alaska with Mom, Day 5 - Glacier Bay
Five o’clock came earlier than I expected. I’m not sure I couldn’t sleep due to the (somewhat forced?) excitement of entering Glacier Bay, or just because sleeping on the ship hasn’t been great. I …
Cruising to Alaska with Mom, Day 4 - Skagway and the White Pass and Yukon
I’m starting to lose track of days. I think that’s the sign of a good vacation. Heavens forbid that I might actually like cruising… We arrived in Skagway early, I woke briefly and glanced at the …
Cruising to Alaska with Mom, Day 3 - Inside Passage and Juneau
Slept better. Ish. Having a shower was an improvement. Surprisingly, despite the small room, the bathroom is quite reasonable. Bathtub with shower, vacuum toilet (like in an airplane), with enough room to change where …
Cruising to Alaska with Mom, Day 2 - Inside Passage
I’d had a headache leaving Calgary yesterday. It returned last night. I slept terribly. But my biggest fear of sleeping in the same room as my mother – the teeth grinding and snoring, a distinct memory from …
Cruising to Alaska with Mom, Day 1 - Vancouver and Departure
A few months ago, Mom declared that she’d like to go on a cruise, but it was a struggle to find the right thing, since traveling solo isn’t particularly cheap (double occupancy is a thing), and her mobility …
I got another cavity
Time for the ol’ semi-annual visit to the Oral Torturer – the dentist. For the first time, ever, my jaw is killing me, the muscles having seized thrice, no doubt brought on by extensive x-rays (which I …
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Monkey's Graduation
Whenever I take a day off from work, I write an Out of Office (OOTO) message. Most people write fairly boring OOTOs, along the lines of: I’m away from the office today. If you have an urgent needs, please send them …
Right Place, Right Time, Right Answer
I was having lunch with my friend Jim the other day, reflecting on how many years we’ve known each other, trouble we’ve gotten into (him more than me, let’s be honest, I’ve never been that …
Calgary will see drought in 2025
Almost a month ago, I was about to write a post about how it was almost February, and we had no snow. I never got around to finishing it, and then a week later, it snowed. Well, it’s now almost March. We have no …
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Montreal, Le Central, Mozart, and Vomiting ... oh my
Alex has a mild obsession with the movie Amadeus. This comes from seeing it as a child, home with a cd, and her father thought it would be an interesting thing for her. Not Strawberry Shortcake, not The Care Bears, not …
Why We Need DEI
Sometimes, you don’t take a single step back, you take a dozen. This week, a certain re-elected “leader” of the world announced not just an end to DEI efforts, but a vehement branding of them as …
The End of Childhood Adventures
When you’re a parent with young children, you can see possibility, opportunity, and endless field of options. That’s part of being a parent, it’s being freed of expectation and looking towards the best …
Senior Developer Shiny Object Syndrome
Senior Developer Shiny Object Syndrome (noun) ˈsiːniə dɪˈvɛləpə ˈʃaɪni ˈɒbʤɪkt ˈsɪndrəʊm A condition wherein a developer, usually far too proud of their own abilities, uses technology and/or tools inappropriate for the …
The trip home from Ruskin
It took us two days to drive out to Ruskin for Christmas. No matter how we sliced it, it was going to take two days to get home, too. And that was a good thing. Travelling through the mountains in winter is a tough slog …
2024, a Year in Review
A lot of people talked about how glad they were that 2024 finally came to an end. The worst part of this year for me was that I worked too hard and missed some of my eldest daughter’s last year at home before going …
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