Category: General

Film – Something, something Zohan

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Film, General, Higher Education

I have a tendency to dislike team outings at work because they tend to be awkward. I just came back from my first team outing with my grad school lab dwellers and all awkwardness was done away with by not actually hanging out together. Admittedly, I missed the “picking up the sandwiches” part because I had to get Trev from daycare and ready for the babysitter. Then we drove to the cinema close to Carleton where we met up with everyone only to end up hanging out alone with Chris because everyone watched a different movie. It wasn’t really avoidable because the film that everyone wanted to see was sold out and the rest of the people had seen some subset of the remaining movies. Two of our group were in the same theater as us, but they were sitting two rows away even though I saved them seats. I could have just gone to AMC Kanata with Chris when my mom was in town. That would have saved me $35 in babysitting money and a ride across town in post rush hour traffic. Grumble… Fortunately, Chris and I enjoyed spending time together and watching the movie.

Last weekend Chris, Trev and I went to the Art in the Park. There were a lot of babies in slings which made me think of Trev last summer when I would snuggle him with me. I remember him being really calm, but I doubt that he was. It wasn’t so long ago and yet I feel I have forgotten it all.

One day pirate Trevor was Googling with his mom

Posted on by boj Posted in General1 Comment

The other day I was following links from the one of the cute artsy sites, I can’t remember which, when I encountered instructions on how to make stamps from erasers. I immediately wanted to make some and justified it by assuring myself that Trev would really like an eraser stamp or hundred.

Being an adult, I can waste as many erasers as I want and there is no paranoid art teacher that can stop me from using exacto knife if I so choose.

The next question was what to draw on the stamp. Since these stamps are for Trevor, the answer was obvious – a duck! So I googled duck drawings on the interweb and found one that I like. I checked out the artist and apparently they also make children’s books. I though this one was apt since Trev has a shot appointment next week.

Google Art

Posted on by boj Posted in General2 Comments

I have been playing around with iGoogle of late when I read an article about the new artists’ themes feature. In any case, I decided to give it a try and randomly picked this one. It has been a week and I am absolutely in love with it! It is drawn by a Camilla Engman whose website seems to be down right now, probably because everyone has seen her drawings on Google and just had to check her out. In any case, here is some of her stationary.

Film – Fellini’s Roma

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Film, General

Watching this film on big screen was a blast. The version played had bad and faded English voice over for the narrator but the dialog was in Italian. Additionally the reel was not stored properly so the film was brittle and kept breaking. However, the experience was great. I love watching movies in the cinema and this is a great example of how much fun it could be.

Trev and me
This picture has nothing to do with the movie, I just like how it turned out. Trev is all “oh, mommy is hugging me again…”.

Film – The Duchess of Langeais

Posted on by boj Posted in Film, General

I’ve had some really nice bike rides this year. I am streamlining my home-school bike route. If I take bike paths it is 24km and if I drive on Carling it is 19. The challenge is to combine roads and paths in such a way that I make use of roads for speed where they are not busy and bike paths to avoid busy sections. So far the preferred eastbound route is 20.9 km and westbound 22.5. I take different routes because of traffic patterns that depend on time of the day. I haven’t tried either of these routes in their entirety so I am looking forward to checking them out. Of course, I will probably vary the paths every day to keep the interest.

In any case, I did a 22km route in 70 minutes this morning. I am quite proud of myself. I expect that in a couple of weeks I will be able to do the trip in just under an hour. Once I get there I will be happy.

Bike chariots

Posted on by boj Posted in Gardening, General2 Comments

After another failed attempt at getting Trevor’s hair cut, we decided to cut our losses and go look around for a bike trailer. So far this one is the favourite. It is a bit on the pricey side so we are looking at our options. I have been keeping an eye on postings at work to see if anyone is selling these but they are so expensive and useful once you have them that people who have gone through the trouble of buying one keep them for years.

Other than that, I got some digging done and planted a few daylilies between the driveway and the path. Daylilies grow like crazy so, once I am done they should take over in a year or two. I have a lot of landscaping to do, particularly on the far side of the house where we will completely redo the area and perhaps put in a play structure or a sandbox. We will need to fence this part of the yard from the main back yard which I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do fully this year. I still need a good idea for the area in front of the fence because it has been completely taken over by weeds. We are going to put in a door as well so a little path is in order.

On the other hand, with all the other responsibilities I have, I should not be spending more than 3 hours a weekend on it. I will probably put in a bit more time in the spring and do less in the summer.