Film: The Internship

Posted on 7/17/2013 by boj Posted in Baby, Bike, Film

When people realise I have three kids one of the most common comments is “You must be really busy!”. The answer is no. The busiest time in my life was with two kids, full time job, household and a Masters’ degree in progress. Three kids, full time job and household is actually way easier. And by easier, I mean less stressful. We do what we have to do and then we do fun things. The rest does not get done; whether that is good or bad, I am not inclined to tell.

These days we are having a wonderful spell of summertime fun despite the heat wave.

Hats!

Posted on 6/17/20136/18/2013 by boj Posted in Knitting1 Comment

Remember how in a post a few months ago I was saying how I would really like to improve my sewing skills, possibly by taking a course? Also remember how once I am done working, sleeping, managing the household, playing with my boys, keeping in decent enough shape and maintaining some contact with likeminded individuals outside of my immediate family I have no time for anything whatsoever? So, no sewing courses for me. I do have a project that is complicated enough satisfactorily completing it would involve acquiring those elusive skills. The challenge: make a cycling cap I would not be embarrassed to sport in public.

Luckily, I suffer from occasional insomnia which gives me that extra 6 to 8 hours a day I would have otherwise spent sleeping. Last March, while my dad and sister were visiting, I used one of these opportune “white nights” to practice my sewing skills in making a hat.

It is supposed to be a cold weather cycling cap functionality list of which would include hiding helmet hair, soaking up sweat and keeping my ears warm (super important, I have very sensitive ears).

The hat was obviously absolutely terrible. The only reason I did not immediately trash it is because it might be a good prop if the kids ever do “Bob and Doug McKenzie” style skit for a school talent show.

My dad, not wanting to say anything about the hat in question, changed the subject by asking me to replace the liner in his winter hat.

Sure I can replace the liner, but in the process I have borrowed his hat for indeterminate period of time to attempt to reverse engineer the design and make a similar hat for myself. No, I have no desire to dress like a man of my dad’s generation, but the hat itself has excellent shaping and with lighter fabric and a single seam added between the forehead and the visor, this would make an amazing cycling cap.

Then for a while I did nothing due to actually sleeping at night. I did purchase a real cycling cap (summer version, no earflaps) to compare and contrast.

So today I was so sick I could neither go to work nor get anything done at home. It is just a cold I think, but it has got the best of me. I watched about four hours of television at which point I needed to do something more constructive or I would go crazy. It was time to do the first prototype of my dad’s hat.

Yes, that is a shopping bag that got ripped earlier this week when I attempted to carry milk from Costco’s cart to my bike. I put it in the recycling bin, but pulled it out when I was looking for strawberry container I could make the hat’s visor out of.

Anyhow, the point of this post is to take down notes on the prototype hat so I can fix it in the next edition as I am highly unlikely to remember the details without writing them down.

– The back of the hat should not end in a little triangle
– The central seam should only go up to the top of the head
– Side seams should be much more slacked
– Both top and bottom line of the central panel are slightly curved

Let’s hope that the next prototype turns out a resounding success.

Go City!

Posted on 6/15/20136/15/2013 by boj Posted in Bike

I often brag about municipal services in Ottawa and particularly Kanata. I made good use of Early Years services when my babies were babies, we looooove our library and backyard skating rink etc, etc…

In last couple of weeks I was extra impressed. The Ottawa Police found our bicycle that was stolen last year. Not only did they catch the bleepety snots who stole it, but one of the cops apparently goes through the bike room every once in a while looking for more valuable specimens and then searches through the database for matching descriptions. The Opus is safe back home and I have set it up as my fast bike. It took a little bit of TLC, but it looks fantastic now.

Then yesterday afternoon, I took the kids to the library and guess what greeted us at the front door?

Yes, a bikerack! I’ve asked the library manager and our City Councillor for one earlier this year and here it is! I’ll take all the credit.

I did the Costco run

Posted on 6/13/20136/14/2013 by boj Posted in Bike1 Comment

It’s a 9 km round trip and it took me 52 minutes including shopping. I had a light to regular grocery haul (24 litres of milk and seven bunches of fruit/vegetables). Traffic was not busy and it is still light out at 8:30PM so the ride was quite comfortable.

As I was passing through the exit check I did not get any complaints but I think I will put my groceries in the bag once I get out of the store in the future. The bicycle parking is on the “lepers patio”, i.e. where employees go to smoke, so if anyone is there smoking, it stinks. On the other hand, I don’t think they get too many customers as opposed to employees using the bike rack, so I really can’t complain. Besides, the rack was closer to the entrance than my usual parking spot so I had to walk less. Because, you know, I can’t be bothered to strain myself.

I am going to drink electrolytes next time I go, I have a headache now that could have easily been prevented. Other than that was a really nice bike ride, a great example of combining pleasant with useful.

Chris said I should make the title of this blog post be “I did the Costco run in less than 12 parsecs”.

Doing groceries the fun way

Posted on 6/8/2013 by boj Posted in Bike1 Comment

Did I mention how amazing is to be able to run errands by bike? It is absolutely great!

I have been going to my regular groceries stores by bike for a couple of weeks now. I have not gotten around to Costco yet, but there is still time.

Today I wanted to pick up 20kg of frozen beef from the farm. That’s 1/4 of the bike’s capacity. How cool is that! It is a bit of a long ride, no problem, blast the music on from the phone on the handlebars and go!

I have a freezer full of super organic beef now. I wonder how long it will take us to go through it all.

Camporee

Posted on 5/29/2013 by boj Posted in Baby

He might only have duck-tape insignia, but Trev is my favourite science officer.

Yes, our Beaver colony dressed up as Star Trek crew for the parade. This was Trev’s second camping experience, after our March Yurt trek, and he loved it. I originally wanted to bike to the event since it is only 38km away on relatively flat road but unexpectedly cold weather caused me to pack an extra backpack filled with blankets and sweaters.

While Chris was still able to put everything on the bike, the load was just too wide and tall for me to be comfortable carrying it. Also, I realized that I wanted to eat full dinner before going and I have not left myself enough time to eat and get there without rushing and arriving late, possibly after sundown. All things considered, biking to the event would have been fantastic and if we do end up going again in the future, I will try and get everything set up so we can do it.

Whatever activities there were, Trev was not terribly interested in ceremonies, organized games or sing songs. He did some of it half heartedly and after a while we did not even bother going. What he did love was sleeping in the tent, playing with the kids in our Beaver Colony and roasting marshmallows on the camp fire. Even when all the other kids had gone to do activities he was not interested in, we had fun walking around or just relaxing at the camp site. Of the ten kids, only one was the same age as Trev and the balance were at least a year and a half older. He split his time between playing with boys, girls and by himself. He is particularly fond of one of the girls who liked his owl. And yes, glow sticks and staying up late are The Best Things Ever.

Can you spot the egg-laying mammal of action in the below picture?

Because the the really rainy week leading up to Friday, the first night was cold with temperatures in the single digits. We got into our sleeping bags and I was a little bit cold until I realised that I did not zip up the weather protection over the mosquito net. Once I closed the tent properly the area heated up within minutes and we were fine for the rest of the night. The next night was somewhat warmer and we were very comfortable. As this is as cold as it gets during the regular camping season, I think in the future I will be bringing fewer blankets. I had two for each of us and used one to line the foam mat. I am going to invest a bit to bring our camping gear into the 21st Century and replace the foam mats and the first blanket with small packing self inflating mats. I will let Trev keep whatever blanket he wants for inside the sleeping bag (he is particular about his blankets) but for myself, I can go with a lighter airplane blanket and a scarf in place of the large household blanket I brought this time. I don’t really think I can reduce the remainder of the equipment that much. The lawn chairs I would obviously not take on a family camping trip, but as we were on a group camp site this time, they were imperative. Perhaps I can replace them with small tripod camping chairs but not without some loss of comfort.

While I am excited about family camping, we have looked at our calendar and the summer looks very busy. Apart from packing light, we actually have to find a weekend we can get out of town. Then there are the bugs. This weekend was cold and there were almost no bugs because of it. Last time I camped I came back with over 200 mosquito bites and came home with no wish to camp for the next half a decade.