Year in review

I'm really sorry to you guys, i havne't touched this in almost 2 months.

So much to catch  you up on....

Bash - really cool / unfortunately not a cash cow this year... not even a cash goat.  but it's not about the money

Band elections - guess what?  i'm P/M with ror for another year.  Was neat actually, we started a survey monkey page to have the band anonymously fill out a questionnaire for us.  helped alot.  There was some interesting turn abouts at the AGM, some surprising, some not so.  it'll be an intersting year coming up.

... hmm, what else...

i'll check my palm

oh, cops are cheap - i did a gig for the OPP, took them a while to pay me.  first it was "oh, we'll have the money ready" then it was "can we pay you later" and it took some email tag to catch up with them, but they eventually did (dang, i was hoping they'd give me a couple freebie speeding tickets instead)

baby hype - of course I have to talk about my baby.  well, i got to hear the heart beat for the first time early this month... kinda cool... (not seeing the brain on the ultrasound cool, but cool nonetheless).  And it's really starting to hit home lately.  We have the stroller, the crib, some bedding, and other supplies.  The room looks like a baby's room.  Mandy's finalized the date she'd be finished work for her mat. leave... so i'm going to be a daddy, this house will become the home.  I'm so loving this.  Mushy i know... sorry.  But it really is the dream.  I had to go pick out some baby gifts for hype's sort of first christmas, and that was really cool.  I'm still really frightened, but it'll all be cool.

food, food and more food - so saturday was justin and karen's potluck... ate a lot... sunday we had the ptc staff party here (more food and eggnog), and then monday i had the student potluck lunch... not many people showed up, but those who did had tons of food... and I ordered alot of food too, so I was good and stuff so I couldn't eat when we went to Cookie's place tonight... oh my... then tomorrow's dinner at my parents then probably on to the inlaws, and then... man this season will totally undo all that biking i did in the summer.

postings - so the LBoE is putting the pool hiring up again, and my 2 years are up and i guess i'll need to reapply.  hrmm... i really don't know what to do, i mean i should just put my name in the ring, just in case... but PTC has really become a nice home lately.  I kind of enjoy not teaching bratty kids.  I do pull my hair out still some days, but still... my scare would be, what if this were the year that a position comes up and i get it?  i don't want rain to be out of a job... that would totally suck... and on the other hand, justin and crystal are also both applying, that'd suck to lose my team.  they've been so awesome this past year.  then Mike tells me that there might be a job available at LU for a chemistry person... hmmm.... i guess i have to do what's right for Hype right?  We'll just wait and see what opens up.

 

i think that's about it fo rnow... pictures of christmas will be put up soon... just too tired lately to really do anything enthusiastic... as you can tell my by my oh-so-frequent postings ...

 

happy holidays people!

 

Thoughts that shock me.

Ok, yes... even though there are no clamouring emails to ask where's the daily / weekly updates on your blog, I know my adoring fans are curious.

Yes, there's lots of things I need to catch you up on:  my house (don't worry, pictures are forthcoming - i just got it spooked up the way i want) / hype's ultrasound pics / halloween party / etc...  I WILL get to them, I promise.

 

But for now, I 'm going to use this moment to talk about what I really thought blogs should be about.  What goes on inside my head, and to give voice to the insanity that probably wouldn't have been raised via verbal communication.  So here's some thoughts I've had recently that have shocked me:

 

WEIRD - it breaks the "i before e" rule?  Why is that?  Maybe it's why I don't like English as much as Math... so much "whenever it suits me" rules.

QUEUES - normally, I wait my turn somewhere when queuing until the next teller or cashier is ready and I wait 'till they call me forward.  I used to think it so rude that somebody would go ahead and barge up to a window when it might not be 100% ready yet, what if they have to do some extra paperwork when the last customer left?  Somebody else might be available sooner too!  Even at Pete's, when I know a room is now open (a client just left) I wait for Tracey to say "ok Ryan, go take the yellow room".  Well the other day, for no reason at all I broke tradition... I saw that a customer had left a wicket and I walked right up behind her for 'my turn'... and of course, as karma would have it, she was officially OFF at that point and was cashing out.  I felt like a total boob.  Why would I break with my tradition?  Never break with a good tradition that makes sense and is polite!

HOME OFFICE - I started asking about my vacation pay at work, and when I should have to take it etc... questions I have never have even bothered to ask until now (a good year and a half later).  So I figured I'd ask Lisa.  She's great at her job.  And when she answered she said "don't worry about taking them before any specific time, they can accrue, so that if you wan tto take them when your wife is due, that's fine!"  Just struck me that a) I hadn't thought about taking them & b) she remembered the fact that my wife is due in the next year.  To me, that personal touch meant everything.  Thanks Lisa.  It was a good reminder that not always is the home office a faceless void where only policy statements and paychecques come from.

COSTUMES - so we decided to have a costume party the other day.  For some unknown reason I was really stoked for Hallowe'en (I might even dress up for work).  So I mentioned we should have a party to show off the costume I picked out - yadda yadda yadda - Brandy and Mandy organized a whole party at our place.  It went really well.  What made it really stand out was how people really got behind the whole "let's dress up" idea.  Peter's costume was very inventive.  Greg went all out.  Just kinda struck me by surprise.  Normally our friends are very laid back people, but this again flew in the face of the norm and surprised me.

HYPE - i'm sure I've mentioned my baby's nickname before (hype - hypothetical, also there's a lot of build up)... anyways, I just needed to mention that it's really sinking in on me as well that yeah... there's a baby in my wife's tummy.  I've seen for myself... well I've seen the ultrasound video.  That was very neat.  There was a brain, some legs and even a beating heart.  Really kinda blows you away, when you think about all that mechanical stuff that is needed for a baby, and it's going on inside of Mandy.  MY BABY'S GOT A BRAIN!!!!!

 

I think that's about it for now.

Bayfield was pretty awesome!

...it was... i mean there were some people who got food poisoning / flu, or broke half a tooth

 

with ror's recent accident he let me lead alot as he took to the sidelines.  i should never lead a parade again, that saturday night curfuffle was horrendous... sorry Bayfield.

 

all in all it was  good time, we played in the bars... we shopped in duluth... we came home.

enjoy the pics

also, check out my soapbox page - http://video.msn.com/?user=-6745576166321313024

tell me what you think of pete's new girlfirend.

Dealing with death in the Knauff family

Apparently it involves lots of food.

 

It's been kinda sad this past little while as the Knauff family has had to deal with nanny's passing.  It's sad for me as well.  We'll all miss her really - the laughing, the funny stories, the shepherd's pies...

 

I won't go too much in it, but it's been good to have the family so near by and ready for each other.

 

rest in eternal peace Cecilia... maybe Ray will let you drive up there now. 

photo for Stacey

enjoy stace! 

Ryan Moore, you're starting to annoy me!

So, not for the first time is Ryan Moore starting to aggrevate me.

No, I'm not talking existentially, or referring to myself in teh 3rd person (tho', that does sound cool, I should do that more often!).

There is another Ryan Moore in Thunder Bay.

I found this out MANY years ago.  It was during a 'come and be slimed on tv' contest for "YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON TELEVISION" and the winner was a Ryan Moore from Thunder Bay.  It was kinda funny because at the time, the tv show was a little beneath our grade, so I was sorta made fun about it.

The 2nd run-in we've had was in grade 8, when our teacher, Mr. Travis, would read out any articles in the newspaper that contained students.  And he read this lovingly article in the "dear santa" section, about how this Ryan Moore was soo good to his younger brother that he really wanted a ninja turtle etc... again, not me, but nobody got that, so I got teased.

Fast forward now to a few years after uni.  I had worked hard, scraped up the money from LTOs to pay off my student debt.  It felt great.  Until I got a letter saying "dear deadbeat, you owe us money - signed some bank".  Took me forever to convince these people that I AM NOT THAT RYAN MOORE.  I had to send in my D/L etc... to do so.

Just the other day, my parents dropped off a letter in their mail addressed to me.  Which is quite odd, I haven't lived there in like 3 years now.  I open it, and it's a collection agency trying to get payment for a fine from teh City of Thunder Bay Provincial Offences Office for $25.  Now, the only fine I've ever had recently was that one with the fender bender (go back a few months to read up on it).  But it wasn't that, that charge was dropped.

So it takes a bit of calling both the collection agency and the city of thunder bay oto find out that, yet again, they are searching for the wrong Ryan Moore.  Again it takes a bunch of pieces of photo id for them to understand that i am "ME".  Suc a difficult thing to prove really!

The kicker is that when I sent my fax of my D/L to the city I noticed that my address was wrong.  I had never changed it when we moved.. oops, so I went down to the MTO place to get that address changed.  The double kicker was that it turns out my licence has expired!!  I apparently missed the expiry date... tsk on me.  So thanks Ryan Moore, you cost me $75!!!

 

[ps - is it license or licence?  I forget]

The best man's speech for Rob & Lindsay

Thankfully my wife video'd it.  You can find it here:

 

http://soapbox.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=55a9cc7f-ad1b-43b7-ae9f-ebd967a6f187 

 

Now the first little bit got cut off, so to make sure you can enjoy the WHOLE speech, I'm putting the text in.

 

---

 

Best Man’s Speech

 

I’d like to thank Lindsay & Rob for allowing me the opportunity to come up here and speak.  I hope you don’t mind that I’m dressed somewhat different.  When Rob asked me to be in his wedding party I asked what should we wear.  He said “man, if this one makes it to the altar you could wear a dress for all I care.”

 

For those who don’t know me, my name is Ryan, and I’m the best man.

*pull on lapels*

And I’m trying to do a good of it.  Rob said that if I do a really good job, I can be the best man at his next wedding!  (I’ve been using that joke for a week now, and I never get tired of it.)

 

Rob had asked me to be his best man several months back, and it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago I realized what might come along with that responsibility – making THE speech.  So, on our last phone conversation I asked him if I should expect to speak, to which he replied:  “that sounds like a Lindsay question.”  Sounds like you’re learning early to defer to your wife.

 

Lindsay, do me a favour.  Put your left hand, palm up, on the table.  Now Rob, put your right hand, palm down on hers.  Just hold it there for a few.

 

Now in doing research for this speech, I wanted to familiarize myself with the catholic style of weddings and happens in them.  And the websites I came up with all focussed around 3 important items in the ceremony:

 

·        The aisle

This is the ‘long walk down’.  Everybody gets to see the bride.

·        The altar

This is where the marriage vows and communion are taken and they are pronounced officially married in the sight of God.

·        The hymn

This is a sort of prayer, that signifies celebration of the joyous couple.

 

It seemed to make sense.  And it was relieving to learn that Lindsay had been reading from the same pages I was, because as she was walking down with Garth in tow, I could see her mouth the words:  “AISLE…  ALTAR…   HYMN…  , AISLE. ALTAR. HYMN,… “ *repeat and speed up for effect*

 

Now, according to Rob, we met in highschool.  I must admit, I don’t really recall.  What I do recall is when I was looking for a job, he was the one ushering me into Radio Shack for an interview.  Working with Rob there, those were some good times.

 

Rob, do you think they ever found that banana?

 

It was here that Rob & Lindsay started their courtship.  She always popping for a visit.  Dropping off cookies, cakes or whatever it was she had baked that day.  I think we ALL benefited from her stopping in.  Rob, he gained himself a beautiful wife… I gained 30lbs.  Thanks Lins.  *pat belly*

 

So Rob and I worked together at Radio Shack for some time, until he decided to up and leave to work for Sears.  And again, he got me to go in for an interview there as well.  Good thing Rob didn’t become also teacher, or else I’d look like a stalker.

 

But working together at Sears was also a good experience.  It was like working with God…

 

you barely saw him,

he was “holier than thou”

and if he did ANY work… it was a bloody miracle

 

But really, he was a good worker.  When you gave him a job to do, he went to town to do it right.  Like that time he bought 3 bags of those Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  Those he finished with ferociousness.

 

Rob was also the guy that introduced me to Law & Order, Pulp Fiction, and generally any Samuel Jackson flick.  We acquainted me with bands like Sloan, Ramones, the Tragically Hip (do you remember dancing on the speakers at Armani’s to “Blow At High Dough”?)… so to my friends and family – he’s the one you can blame.  If you’ve ever been annoyed by my constant repetition of movie quotes, or lines from songs, come on up here and meet the master.

 

There are many stories I could retell while I’m up here.  But I don’t think this’d be the time ‘nor place.  Just ask him next you want some hilarity about his “when I slept in a fridge” story, or “which bathroom did I fall asleep in this time”, or any of the many famous “K-car” ones.  My favourite tho’, still has to be the “would you come to a wine and cheese party with me?” story.

 

But we’re not here to retell old tales.  We’re here to congratulate this happy couple on the next big step in their life.

 

And if I can just pass on 3 things that I was told when I was getting married:

 

1.      A marriage should be 50/50

Rob, you need to realize that anybody who believes that, they know little about women, and even less about fractions.

2.      The four words you’ll ever need from on:

“Yes, dear.  I’m sorry!”  But keep in mind, that when Reg taught me that, it’s to come with the accompanying abasing head movement.

3.      “To keep a marriage brimming with love in the loving cup, when you are wrong, admit it; and when you are right,  shut up.”

 

Oh, and if you were wondering why I had you put your palms on the table like that, well, Rob, I just wanted to get for the last time the feeling of what it’s like to have the upper hand.

 

I’d just like to end by toasting the bride and groom.  But before I do, I’d like to say some lines from a song to the groom.  This song was written many years ago, but the lyrics, I believe, are still meaningful today.

 

“She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.  She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.  And with a love like that, you know you should be glad.”

 

And in the words of Groucho Marx

 

“here’s to the prettiest, here’s to the wittiest, here’s to the truest of all who are true, here’s to the neatest one, here’s to the sweetest one, here’s to them in one – *turn to crowd* here’s to you “

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the bride and groom – Rob & Lindsay Rickards.  Slainte

So much to get you cuagh tup on, I've just been lazy.

There's just been SOO much to get you all caught up on... I've just ignored the mounting task of trying to document it all.

 

There's the endless painting by my father-in-law.  The 100+ spiders I've been killing.  The joys of pulling weeds.  A new bike route.  Taking applications & diong interviews.  Rob & Lindsay's wedding. 

That last one I'm going to blog on it's own next.  I had to do the best man speech, so I've made sure I have a digital copy of it, and posted it on my soapbox page.

 

I'm still waiting to take pictures of the house... once the boxes are gone, I will.  I know ... you're saying "but it's been over 3 weeks."  I know... just give me some more time.  Still have to go look at real futons.

 

24 hrs left - then i'm truly a homeowner

Yup another day and we'll have the keys to our new house!

 

We even got to do the final walkthrough yesterday.  Mandi even gave us the back door key, just told us we couldn't go ahead and really use it until Monday. Which begs the question - can i be breaking into my own house?  I just want to go over now and start dropping things off.

 

In the final walkthrough, I started to think "this is really small".  Maybe it was  because we hadn't seen it in forever... but I think it's because the house is now ours.  And we always tend to be the most critical of our own property or abilities.

 

Still, can't wait to get moving.  So much yet to do still... We have a lot boxed up, but still alot we don't as well.  That part's not going to be fun, but at least we'll have a lot of hands helping.

 

So, in recap - tomorrow we get keys to our very first house.  We'll be moving the smaller boxes all week, and then Saturday will be the big move.  Maybe sunday or monday we'll have a "come see it before it's settled" party. 

 

I just really want to set up my home theatre room in the basement.  That's going to be fun. 

Camping at Quetico... again (always awesome!)

So we planned on this trip for a while... just hadn't planned it.  And when time came we talked it over and a 'simple' trip would suffice.  Go into Bemar, from there to Saganagons and then into Beechu back into Bemar.  It would be 2 nights, 6-10km a day, no portages.  Sounded like a dream... almost a let down seeing as we were used to 20km a day plus 3-4km in portages.

 

So we head out.  This year I even brought a fishing rod... you never know!  With all that extra time I wanted something to do.

 

Now the road into Bemar was brutal.  There's been plenty of logging going on lately so it was a real rabbit's warren trying to find the real road versus a logging road.  After about 2 hours of driving around we figured we'd have to turn back.  We decide quickly that we'll go into Quetico at Stanton and head around on Pickerel (one of our first options).

 

That was pretty awesome.  We just base camped it.  Finally got into the park (after telling them that we'd go into the park at Sue Falls - because Stanton was full) around 5ish.  We find a nice island just west of the put in and set up there.  It's a nice campsite.  On the way out we've trawled for some nice lake trout, but no luck.  So after campsite is set up we paddle around casting for whatever.  I catch my first fish EVER.  A nice little bass... but I let it go.  I'd want some pick/pickerel or trout.  Rory had a pickerel but dropped it back in the water.

 

Then we just hang out.  It was good, I read half a book while we were just hanging out.

 

Next day consisted of the same stuff.  Jarron invented "bacon pancakes".  Regan and I trawled for more trout south all the way to Watasi Island (around 10km round trip) and no luck.  Then some more fishing - more snags for me (lost 5 lures that day) and more hanging out.  Got to watch Regan cut up a bass.  Pretty neat - I think I need to  do more fishing. 

 

The night was pretty fun.  We started getting a mouse infestation.  I saw one by Regan's foot and said "there's one" and Regan stomped.  "man you almst got him, that was pretty close."  Rory thenflashes his light and it turnsout Regan did get him.  Into the fire he went... Regan felt SOOO bad.

 

The next day was even more relaxed as we just fished a little in teh am, took down the tent and trawled on teh way out...  Still nothing fo rme, Regan got a few more bass.  But that's about it.

 

It was a quick trip... and I felt a bit of a loss not doing a BIG trip with changes of scenery, but at the same time it was quite fun!  I enjoyed fishing and reading.  That wind tent/thingie Regan had was awesome.  I slept in there the one night and it was surprisingly still warm and bug free.

 

Can't wait to get out again.  Pictures will be up shortly.

I know lawyers are blood sucking vampires, but come on!

 Okay, it's really not as bad as I'm making it out.  But everything was going so right lately that there was bound to be a snag right?

So we went to meet with the lawyer... because apparently you can't buy a house without one (don't know why... Brandon, please inform me!).  We signed some papers, looked at teh title search etc...  Then he hit us with the bill.  A wopping... well let's say that it was more than 10% of the cost of my house.  Which is insane.  People were telling us we should budget about 1/4 of what he was charging.

 

Kept me up for a while.  Called the mortgage specialist for a few questions and mentioned the charge, to which she sputtered "that doesn't sound right."  So she made some calls and it turned out that the legal secretary had charged us an extra few THOUSAND dollars... a slight oversight in the math.  Man, she should go back to school. 

 

True, lawyers don't necessarily have to be good in math, but I found it  odd that the itemized list was all hand-bombed.  I mean who does manual math these days with computers and excel and whatnot... just reinforced that what I'm doing at PTC is a good thing.  Teaching people to see the importance of proper math / numeracy skills.

 

 

New title... kinda the same job

So, on Monday, Julie had finally had enough.  I applaud her decision to stand up for herself... but at the same time it really put the rest of the team in a bind.

 

The first reaction for me was "oh, well I guess I'll get that raise I was hoping for."  Which is insane, because that was essentially me talking to myself saying that I'd already accepted her job.  AAAAHhhh

 

So, the day plays out, and it's all quiet.  The phone call comes in from 'head cheese'.  We talked for a while, and he essentially offered me the job right away.  I told him I'd have to think on it... which I have been doing.

 

I made lists of all the concerns I had.  I talked with Rain about her point-of-view on the situation and the whole "independant business" aspect.  That had me a little spooked.  I mean, c'mon, I've got a kid on the way and a house to pay for.  AAAAhhh

 

So, after some long chats to Tony and discussions with the wife, I made the decision.

 

I'm a CENTRE MANAGER for PTC Thunder Bay!

 

The wage is slightly less than I would make teaching Full Time... but there is potential to grow.  I just have to get a hold of the Lakehead Board and figure out what the situation would be if I were to put myself on hold with them for the year.  See what happens after that.

 

Wish me luck! 

updates? i have none - did go camping tho'

So, yeah, not much new going on in teh Moore font.

 

Some pretty nice short weeks I'm having.  Every weekend in July was booked up, plus one in August.

 

First was Tconite, then Hibbing, then this past weekend was the camping with Mandy, next will be Butternut and then the guy's canoe trip.

 

So pretty busy.  I booked off every Friday at work so I could make sure I get everything in order.  I feel guilty, but I really enjoy my time away from work.  Especially lately.

---

Anyways, so this past week we went to the KOA to visit Uncle Al while he's camping there instead of going to band practice.  It was a good time.  I've been trying to be all about having a good time at band lately and try to build the comraderie.  I think this was a god time for that.  I'll post some pics ... enjoy.

---

Also, I promised Mandy that she'd get at least one wekend in with me where we'd go camping.  So this past weekend I called it our Anniversary camping trip.  It was really good.  Site #29 at the Sleeping Giant Park.  Just a few down from where we were a few years back with the kids (Alex, Cayley and Jordynn).

 

The first night we just sat back and relaxed.  We got in for like 5:30 or so. The girl who checked us in recognized me as a teacher (still an odd experience) and we set up camp and had some hotdogs.  I accidentally trapped a chipmunk in our screen tent.  He climbed in ok the one door ... but couldn't find it again.  Trapped like 3 of them (not all at once tho').

 

Then we slept. 

 

Next day we woke up, had some deepfried pancakes.  Well I did at least.  THen we hung out for a while, napped a little, then headed down to the beach to swim.  I say swim, but really we just waded up to our waists.  We're getting old, our excitement level's dropped.

 

When we got back, Mandy's parents came by for a visit... then Charm and her kids and my mom.  The camp was a hoppin' at that point.  The kids wanted to go down to the beach... so we did, came back and had some dinner.  They also made soem s'mores after borrowing (mooching) some marshmallow's from the neighbours.

 

Soon it was all peaceful again and Mandy and I hung out watching the fire for a while.  I could stare at a good coal based fire for hours.  But, we were pooped.  So we turned in earlier and went to sleep.

 

Now mandy will tell you the aztek is cold... i don't think so.  I was so wam.. Plus we put the double sized mattress in there and it fit beautifully.  Never had a better sleep in there.

 

In the morning we pakced up and headed over to the Howie camp... it was ok, we got to say Congrats to Kris and Greg (except Greg wasn't there).  Then my allergies really kicked in (even after i took medication) so we hightailed it home where I could get some real rest.

 

Check the pics!

-ry

peter's joke

just in case you wanted it...

 

http://soapbox.msn.com/?user=-6745576166321313024

 

this is my soapbox page, look for some good videos

the most recent is Peter's joke telling ability.

Officially growing up... papers are signed and everything

So, ... with all the news of mandy being pregnant we're becoming more and more 'adults' as we mature and ready.  Mandy's been given books by Rain on what to expect, Charm's giving advice, we're planning financially and ... just well ... being adults.

 

It's cool.

 

The only thing we were missing was a house so far.  We've been looking for some time now.  Had MANY fights over what houses we've liked etc...

 

On the 9th we went out with Mandi for another round of 4 houses.  We looked about and really liked the first one we saw.  So much so we went back to have another look at it.  We called my dad, and Mandy's dad to have their opinion.

 

They really liked it... and we really liked it... 7:30 we went home to just think about if we were to put a bid in or not.

 

By 8:30 we had put a bid in... 8:35 we had one the bid by $100!!!!!  Mandi was just going bonkers... I was ready to throw up, and Mandy was just excited as all she could be.

 

Tonight we just finalized all the mortgages and signed the last of all the papers.

 

It's official... we're a family with a home now.  It's going to be awesome.

 

We have to wait until Aug.13th now to take possession and move in.  I really can't wait.

 

Now those who will get to see it, be warned, it's cozy... but i'll have my own basement.  OOOOoooh!!

Hibbing '07

Another year, another Hibbing Mines & Pines Jubilee comes.

 

It was weird this trip because it was setup that I would drive with Deb and the girls.  Let me tell you it's entirely a different scent to:

 

A) not drive

B) not let any bodily functions go

 

crazy.  What also was weird that the girls fell asleep in the back pretty quickly... well after I let them watch some DVDs.  So it was a quiet ride.  But it was a nice ride.

 

Hibbing was a blast as always.  When we got there we enjoyed our normal first night relax.  I showed Peter my joke list on my palm and he spent most the night reading the jokes.  It was pretty funny watching him read the palm and then just stop reading to laugh hysterically before he could finish the joke.  He also would try to incorporate the people around into the joke.  Well, not all the peope, just Brandy (we had to do something since she doesn't like the Towelie-Head Brandy song).

 

The next day was pretty low key - the parade wasn't until 3!!  That's a pretty late parade for us.  I watched some of my Spinal tap, Jim Breuer stand up comedy...  It was pretty weird as it was only going to be me leading the parade.  Rory was back in town for a wedding.  So I had to be on the ball calling the shots, when to tune up, when to suit up.  Luckily the parade was easy.  We must have waited at least an hour or more.  When we finally moved we had plenty of space so that we didn't have to keep stopping and starting.

 

The barn-storming wasn't as fun as it usually is, hard to keep together a band that has a million different ideas and very little listening ability.  Sorry, I am just frustrated over it still.

 

Checco's treated us very well.  Too bad we had to keep going to other places.  I wanted to go back, but we had to hit the Brick Yard, which turned out to be pretty fun as well.  We played on the second level of the bar, just over the crowd.  Still boggles me how people go so crazy over piping.

 

The ride home meant we stopped at the Lake Superior Trading Post.  I like that place.  I usually go looking to get stuff for camping and end up with other stuff.  I picked up a book on basic science experiments... I'm such a geek.  We also got to cruise around their dragon boat festival... it was kind of like how Bayfield had all their craft booths out.

 

All in all - a good trip.  If you're in teh facebook group, you can check out some of the other pictures.  I'll post what I have, but I tend to take less pictures these days.

 

l8r

Stress #2 - i'm such a good lawyer

Remember a while back when I blogged about that car accident thingie?

 

Well I've never really found out anything about the court date.  I've called a couple times but got no real answer.  They kept saying "you'll get something in the mail".  That mail never came.

 

I did however get the date fo the trial.  It was for y esterday.  So Monday I went in and asked the questions WHERE/WHAT TIME?  I had about the RUDEST person available.  First she said that "WE NEVER MAIL ANYTHING OUT" ... which begs teh question, "how would somebody find out when their trial is?"  I was aggrevated.  SO I asked her that question, to which she replied "well how DID you find out about the date?"  I told her that I had called and that was all they gave.  So she said "wait one minute, i'll be right back".  She came back with a returned envelope.  The thing that they NEVER mail out was returned to them because they wrote my address wrong.  And they did it back in MAY!!!!... so 2 months have passed and nobody even bothered to contact me to say 'hey we couldn't mail this to you'... so I would have been in default had I not called.

 

Well I then follow this up with the request for my disclosure forms (the report from the officer's point of view).  And I get the meanest response ever - "you won't get it".  "But i do have a right to it", and she got snippy saying that it would take a while.  But I was never informed that i HAD to request them with a certain amount of time to get them.  So she let me fill the paperwork out.  At worst, I could as for a stay of the trial because I haven't had all evidence made available to me yet.

 

Fast forward to Tuesday.  I get a call from the Provincial Offences office... "Mr. Moore, you requested the disclosure forms, and upon rview of the forms we have decided we will withdraw the charges.  You still have to go to court to present yourself to the prosecution attourney and at that point they will inform you that they are officially withdrawing the charge."

 

WOOHOO  -  take that Brandon.  I'm such a good lawyer, I didn't even have to go to real court and I got myself off.

 

Well the day of the court I went and presented myself half an hour before trial starts.  And the PA looked like he was surprised I was there "you do know we're withdrawing the charge right?"   He said I didn't ahve to be there... but I wanted to be sure, so I stuck around.

 

After the 15th person came into the court I figured it could be a long time before I have my moment, so I had the PA reassure me that I did NOT have to be there, that i COULD leave and everything would be alright and they would still withdraw the conviction.

 

I have my little piece of paper  photocopied today saying "withdrawn R/P"  (at the request of the prosecution).

 

Okay... that down... now to get a hold of that other stupid guy and make his ins. company see that it was NOT my fault at all.

Trip to Taconite

Sounds like a good pipe-tune.  If I knew how to write one, I would.

 

Well... what an amazing trip.  We were so well taken care of.  Taconite, you are an amazing city.  I wish every year was your 100th anniversary.

 

So what happened is we all decided to take off to Taconite, at about the same time, I took the new route, that went along hwy 15/16.  I think it was shorter, but there definitely needs to be more work done on the roads before it's a pleasant short cut.

 

Well we figured Deb would be there first so we decide to head on straight to Grand Rapids, where we're being put up for the night.  We were to look for the Rainbow Inn.  Turns out there is none... it's changed.  So that took a few to figure out... then we had to get a hold of Lefty.  That got us nowhere (as we didn't have his cellphone).  So we feel awful ... we were supposed to play at like 1 or something when they started their celebrations, and it's now like 3.

Finally we get a hold of somebody as we walked around downtown Taconite.  We were given a nice place to park our vehicles, a big tent for shade and even... drum roll... A COACH BUS.  This bus is to ferry us around from town and back and whereever else we wanted.  It was like mega star life.  A real live hotel, and  fancy bus!

 

We played alot down town... by the firehall... in the VFW... even in some lady's back yard.  It was awesome.

 

The night was just about as good.  Same sort of deal, just bussed around for dinner, then back to teh town for some more playing.  It was an awesome time.

 

The parade the next day... man it was warm.  But, for only 3.5 blocks... who cares.  We could have done that like 10x and not worked up a sweat!  Maybe we should have worn full dress.

 

Then it was a leisurely drive home.  I got a weird allergy attack on the way back.  I just kept blowing my nose the entire time.  And Brandy said she had some major dehydration without realizing until it was too late.

 

Well, the pics should be up ... check 'em out.  I was too busy to take real pictures... Chris has some on his blog.  Check his space out!

 

Letting the cat out of the bag

no, i'm not talking about taking Kris' new cat, stuffing it into a bag, and then releasing it... tho' that does sound like a good idea - without the letting it out thing... I hate cats. 

---

Anyways, so for a while now, I've known I'm going to be a daddy.  It's a funny story.  Mandy was staying at her parent's place watching the dog.  And I'm not a big fan of going over to visit because I'm slightly allergic to Kasey.  So she called me to come over and visit.. and I said I'd get there.  She didn't believe me so at one point during the phone call she said "YOU HAVE TO COME OVER, BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT".

 

Man, that was a pretty fast drive over.

 

I get there and sure enough, there's that little line that says somebody's goign to have a life changing experience.  Being forever the chemist I had to read the instructions... over and over.  The little pamphlet said that "there could be the chance for a false negative, but only a VERY RARE chance of having a false positive".  A few websites later confirmed it.

 

Wow... (check the pics at the bottom).

 

So for the next little while it was pretty overwhelming.  You become pretty sensitive to any baby-talk for a time.  Especially as Rain has her baby... But anytime anybody said "oh, you're next" or "and when are you guys having kids?" you get super sensitive.   Geoff at my work, his gf is due, and Dawn and Stephen had Campbell, so it was driving me nuts.

 

We've been looking at houses lately a little more seriously... and we figured it's probably about time to tell.  Then Mandy gets sick, and she's concerned about being able to take medication, so we figure we HAVE to tell people now... just to allay our own fears, and possible get some advice where we can.

 

A few years back Mandy went to Churchley's when they were going out of business.  And they had a great sale on these little Precious Moment's figures that said "the good Lord always delivers" where it's a pregnant woman holding a baby names book.  Mandy said that when we want to announce, we'll just wrap that up, give it to the folks and let them figure it out.

 

So we give it to her parents.  Her mom opens it up and says "aww, Precious Moments, just like Barb collects" and puts it away.  We nudge her dad to say "I think you should look at it closer".  And even later, Mandy asks her mom "what did it say?"  And she couldn't answer, so I guess she didn't really look at it.  I guess these clues aren't normally given in gift form.  After much prodding her dad figures it out.

 

At my folks' place.  My mom opens it up, reads the label and just screams.  My dad was the one who had to take a few stabs in the dark to piece it together.

 

Pretty funny I thought.

 

Well,... t-7months...

 

any advice?  [i wonder how long it would take me to reach Mexico..?]

 

Pranking a prankster - happy bday Brandy

So, it's that time of year for Brandy... and we had celebrated her birthday already, which makes it prime time to prank her.  She wouldn't be suspecting it because we HAD the celebration already.  And, to top it off, she had a lousy day at work, so she was really distracted.

 

A couple of days ago, E and I had the idea to do this... and she had figured we could do something with an embarassing picture.  So some photoshopping later and I have the 4 pictures you'll see below.  I printed about 3 of each off, and then we set about trying to find a way to get Brandy out of the house.

 

Thanks to Deb and Brandy's love of strawberries, Deb coerced her out of the house to go pick some strawberries.  This gave E and I the time needed to go and get the zillion balloons (in her FW colours), ribbons to string about the car (in Con.College colours) and various other sundries (a pair of her own binoculars and great goggles).  We netted that car in the ribbons and then tied the pictures to the ribbons, and then tied balloons all over.  We made 2 posters that had the items taped to them.  It was quite the show.  Even Brandy's mom and sister had to come out and take a look.

 

When Brandy got back, she was stunned... she apparently didn't even suspect this.  Seeing as she's instigated all the other pranks thus far, it's hard to fathom that we pranked the prankster (zowie, kablooie).

 

Aah... it was fun.  enjoy the pics!

 

been a long week

So it really has been a long week... ever since my part last week I've just felt slowed down... and no, it's not because I'm now 30... I'm not old yet.

 

Family - so, since last week, my sister's come into town to visit the folks with her 4 kids.  Man they are a handful!  They're jumping and climbing over EVERYTHING.  A few things broken already, a camera almost lost (charmane... tsk tsk).  Dad's goign crazy, and mom's just loving it.  In fact the other day I went over, to visit and drop off somethign for mom, and poor dad was left alone with the 4 wee'uns.  He was about ready to pull out his hair.  So I stayed and helped out.  Mom and Charm came back later than they planned and becasuse her van wasn't working hey missed the bus to take everybody to the Old Fort.  "That's ok, Ryan's here now, he can drive us out there."  Aaah, sis... just like my wife, automatically volunteering me for things I don't want to do.

---

PTC - This is just been one slow week there.  There's been lots of absences and thus it's just felt slower.  Trying to find things for people to do and it's just felt harried.  Plus the whole reno thing is going to crap.  Ralph is being less helpful than normal.  Looks like we may NOT get the extra room we wanted, but Tony wants to go ahead with the same plans... with one or 2 changes that he 'changed his mind about' after the fact.  Ugh... the guy's about as clear as mud sometimes.  In fact we talked about getting more computers for the office when he was in town and he said he'd get us 2.  Monday morning 3 monitors and one refurb'd comp comes in.  A day later another computer comes in but it's entirely different that what we typically order... so I call Tony and ask himif I can go out and get the hardware needed.  He says "sure" and I send him back a list for approval and he replies with "you know I could just order this stuff myself for you?" which I send a note back saying "sure, but some things we need for monday" and his reply?  "just to be clear I AM ordering this stuff!"  Argh.

---

School - Placement meetings have all gone through and... well it's time for me to contact Wendy and see if there's anything left for me.. hate this time of year... the grovelling, the pleading for a case... and it always ends up the same way, with maybe there being just 1 LTO for me.  I kinda just want to walk away from it all... this will be my 5th year with the board and I feel no ahead then when I started... and yet tehre are tons of people getting on after me.  I don't get it.  I want to just stick with PTC, but... as above I'm a little frustrated there as well.  What to do... banks don't give houses to the unemployed.

---

Pipeband - We played for the Relay for life the other day, and that was a great show.  I got to call out, so it's good practice for me on teh parades.  A little bit of a curfuffle with some of the timing with teh event co-ordinator.  But, oh, well.  Last practic was a real snafu tho'.  We couldn't get into Westgate because of the exam schedule, and we were beign bumped from the Elks' because of the "Boot Scooters", so we scrambled last minute to find a place... deb's to be exact.  Members were to go to her place to practice while the students went to the Elk's for lessons.  Only it turns out that the boot scooters didn't show up, so we could have stayed there... grr.  Then there's teh whole issue of getting the Ad for the KEY out this week.  It has to be in by Friday, and I doubt it's going anywehere.  I have it all about ready several times, but people keep saying "change this, change that" and that's only after much prodding can I get them to come and do anything.  Stuipid thing is as soon as it's not done in time, they'll be coming yelling at me "why wasn't it ready".  Sometimes this band can be pretty aggrevating.

---

Brandy / Hiro bday -

 

Purchases / Finding Time -

Pictures of my car's "pranking"

These are from Christopher's space:

 

http://christophertennant.spaces.live.com/PersonalSpace.aspx?_c11_PhotoAlbum_spaHandler=TWljcm9zb2Z0LlNwYWNlcy5XZWIuUGFydHMuUGhvdG9BbGJ1bS5GdWxsTW9kZUNvbnRyb2xsZXI%24&_c11_PhotoAlbum_spaFolderID=cns!B5F62C3CCFEFA256!262&_c=PhotoAlbum

 

hope it works out...

First paddle of the season

So, for the past few days Don's been in town.  I've been trying to hook up with the guy so we can do somethign.  I mean I only get to see him once a year or something like that.

 

So he suggested we put the canoe in the river by his house  (Kam) and paddle around a bit.  And let me tell you it was awesome!

 

It was good hanging out with a good friend that I really can connect with.  Don and I go WAAY back.  So just the time to chat was good.

 

However, I'm as burnt as an ant under a magnifying lens.  It's hilarious actually.  I'm all red and blotchy on the tops of my palms, the tops of my arms are just RED!, and I've got a wicked case of 'canoe knees' (where the inside of your knees are just burnt).

 

I enjoyed it nonetheless.  thanks don!

 

It also gave my friends the opportunity to 'prank' my car.  I knew it was coming - it wasf airly obvious after brandy kept calling asking me where i'd be and what time - but still, I play by the rules. 

 

Thanks guys (when I get the pictures I'll put them on here).

 

the newest 30 year old

-ry

Tony's visit

So we got a visitor this past week at PTC.  "Big Cheese" I call him.  So the whole idea of "WHAT ARE WE DOIGN WITH THE OFFICE"? is being settled.  At first I was a little put off by his saying that the office looked like crap... but then you really look at it and... yup, it looked like crap.  Everything we've done int he past 6 months has been band-aid fixing.

 

So we've gone over the plans for the renovations.  At first I couldn't see the plans finalized... i guess i have that sort of vision problem.  LIke when we look at a house that's unfinished, i can't envision what it would look like finished.  Anyways, so after some sketching and mre talking I think I see it.  It'll look pretty cool.

 

• We'll have a T-room (not a tea-room) where we can store our stuff, saving space in the office
  
• we're getting 2 new computers
  
• separating the place into 1 office, 3 classrooms and 2 small meeting rooms
  
• the walls separating are not going to be to the ceiling so i get to look into WHITE NOISE generators

just looks very interesting.

Now we used this opportunity to let people know about how we felt when they're pushing the envelope on the breaks issue.  Mary gave us the idea to put up some memos around the office saying that "official times are ..., you must put in y our 3 full hours.  Any less and it will go on your attendance reports that go to the case managers.  Breaks are allowed 1x a day, for 15 minutes."  Someting to that effect.  Man were people PISSED OFF today.  It was kinda funny.

The one guy in particular we wanted this 'pointed at' did a COMPLETE 180 turn.  He started defending us to the others.  "you know, in a job, if you work less than 4 hours you're only allowed one break!"  Hilarious!!

Oh, well...

Party this weekend here.  Play some poker, enjoy some friends.

My sister's in town to surprise my parents (ugh, 4 li'l neices and nephews).

l8r all

New respect for Rory

Okay, so I haven't been on here in a while.  Reason being:  Rory's a daddy! 

Congratulations Rory & Rain on your little baby girl!

Now they just have to name the little cutie.

 

So, yeah.  Sunday Mandy & I went to Boulevard for her "walk for leukemia".  Which was fun.  We went with Shawna and Ryan and Shaun.  Shaun was pretty fun, watching him playing with all the free toys he got.

[We also got a bunch of free stuff too]

 

On the way back I figured I'd give Ror a shout about what he wanted me to teach on Monday.  Didn't reach him on the house line... or the cell phone... hmm...

Turns out Rain went into labour around midnight on Saturday [which is good, otherwise they would have induced her on Monday].  It was a harrowing moment for them (actually like 25hours worth of moments).  But the little girl is in the world.

 

...And I've got Rory's job this week.  Man, he's got some brutal kids.  Not just some, but ALL.  Imagine the worst kids you could deal with.  Now do that for a full class, and then do that for 3 periods a day!  Brutal... fun... but it's really draining.

 

So here I am, going on the 4th day of covering, and I'm still making stuff up for  him... I'm brutal at History.  Making it up as I go along.  Which is ok, Rory's been really 'phased' this past week, so I don't mind stepping up.

 

Thursday's a shortened day I think... and then Friday I'm gonna let them do their projects.  Should be good.  Apparently we have a movie to watch... just haven't pre-watched it yet... *irk*  So i should find something as a backup... hrmm... maybe some knockout gas!  :)

 

piping gigs are awesome

So, yah... did I hit the jackpot when it comes to hobbies.  I guess it comes from the fact that I've excelled in the hobby to the point I can get good gigs... but who's counting?

 

Rory emailed me to do this Air Cadet annual dinner... usually I charge about $100 for these gigs, but Rory told them $50, so I split teh difference for $75.

 

So what did I do to earn this $75?  Well I get suited up, drive over early, practice a bit, run over the logistics, then play for about 5minutes.  Then I get a free dinner (I'll get to that later).  Then do some practicing and  then the exactly same piping (5min) but in reverse to get them out.

 

So really I did about 10min in total of piping, 10min of practicing and i get CASH and a free meal!  Sweet.

 

Now the dinner was pretty funny... I didn't know any of these cadet kids at all.  So after some idle chit chat, it was getting a little awkward.  Until somebody tried to shake the coffee creamer thimble.  They said they were going to try to make butter.  Beign a "chemicist" I had to point out that this isn't possible.  I told this (highschool age) girl that we used to do this as a test to see how long somebody might do this ... sort of a stupidity test.  Which she then proceeded to tell the younger kids that it could happen.  This one young girl shook the creamer for about a full hour.  Never stopped!  Just kept asking me "how long has it been now?"  One of the older girls even went so far as to put real butter into a coffee creamer as evidence that another table had already done it!  Pretty funny!

 

Ah, well... to be young and dumb.  Not for this guy anymore.

 

the perils of being a biker

NO, not the Hell's Angel's type... just a bicycle type.

 

Well, yesterday was pretty fun.  I woke up in the morning with Mandy, and she asked if I was going to give her a ride because it was going to rain.  I looked outside and it wasn't raining, so I told her she could take the car, I would bike it.

 

getting to work was easy.  Going home?  Well, a bit of a cloud came over, misted the place up pretty good.  I didn't mind getting wet so much... but the constant soaking of my butt and splattering of mud all over me (like it kept getting in my eyes!).  I was a sight when I got home.  Man, that was kinda fun actually... weird thing is now my bike squeaks alot.  Wonder how I can fix that.

 

Today (Friday)... I almost got killed.  And not a "i almost was hit by a car" story I told a while back about how i was biking on the wrong side of the road and then when another biker came along, i had to move into traffic to avoid him.  That was pretty tame.

 

I was biking down the street (on the right side) and I was coming up to the intersection with another car at about the same time.  She slowed down adn put her blinker on for a right turn.  I wanted to turn left.  So I take it for granted that a) she'll stop, which will give me enough time to get around her; b) she sees me.

 

As i'm going left and in front of her SHE MOVES!  Nearly clipped my back wheel.  Had she been a bit faster going out she would hit ME.  Crazy bitch!  That would NOT have been a good ending to the day.  It's been a long week.  I need to go find some Innis&Gunn ruby... or something.

 

Good new rollerblading spot

Eat your heart out Cindy...

 

Picked out my rollerblades again this summer.  Brandy picked herself up a pair and they're keeping us active.  I can't believe how much I'm losing already.  I'm fitting clothes I couldn't before, it's great.

 

Well, looking for places to go and blade is ahrd.  Brandy doesn't like to blade on uneven ashphalt.  So Deb recommended the new extension to the Expressway.  Man, that's awesome.  From the highway to Mapleward is 5k.  It's a good long go.  So there and back, it's 10km... very good.

 

Took some photos with my cellphone.  It was a nice time.  We've gone a few times.  The first time was hilarious.  We were unsure we could actually park there with all the signs etc... but as we were parking another car came behind us, and when we got backthere were even more cars.

 

So all you other bladers in Thunder Bay, trust me, it's worth the trip to go there... and those of you not here... well I'm sure you have nice blading places as well, but this is cool!

 

 

Biking while wet...

Okay, I know I'm beginnnig to sound like a broken record, but it has been a while since I've been on.  Not much to report I guess...

---

Lately I've been trying to bike to work alot, and it's been GREAT.  I used the car only 2x last week.  It's been cool saving all that money in gas.  Plus I've lost 5lbs already (but I tend to find them on the weekend).  So I've bought a couple of new biking outfits... well sort of workout pants and shirts so that I just don't sweat up regular clothes.

Today was the first day there was going to be some rain.  (Well yesterday there was as well, but I drove because I had to do some errands after work).  Anyways, I biked this morning and it was damp, but not raining.  5min into the bike and it was RAINING .  Not heavily, just constant enough that I was wet.  By the time I went home it was good.  I hope I can really keep this up... lose anotehr few pounds.  I'd like to get down to 200 or lower.

---

Work... well PTC is gettign 'fun'.  Doing alot of tutorial stuff for Office 2007.  Finished Word today.  So that's about 1/4 done.  Bought a good book for it, but it doesn't look ilke I"ll be reimbursed for it... grr.  But I do like the new Vista.  If this download ever finishes I can try it out on my computer.

What also is geting fun is how busy we're getting.  As of Monday we'll be at 42 people.  Yikes!  Juggling the right number of computers is always fun.

The not-so fun part is when 2 of the morning guys can ruin your whole day.  They're brutal.  One has needed a day or 2 off book work (or so he says) so I let him on the computer... yesterday I caught him on game sites, and today the internet was down so he didn't want to be on anymore.  When I tried to get him to do some work he just gives me rude remakrs back.  Then he complains to he CM that "the teacher's are hovering".  GRR...

---

How's the house shopping coming?  Well it's coming.  We've decided that we need to do a lot of debt reduction and saving for a down payment.  When we went to the bank I had a number in mind... they said a number that was higher.  A few days later they get us an official number which is somewhere in the middle.  Which is good... but they had stipulations.  Which kidna gave me some angst.  So we're just going to go and have plan our finances a little better for the next few months.  Wish us luck.

A exhaled sigh of relief

I know it's been awhile since my last blog... I'm horrible at doing things consistently.

---

 

So, since my last blog time, I must say things are looking up.  In the past few days PTC has gained like 7 new clients that start tomorrow... so needless to say the number of employed hours has increased, so we got the go-ahead to hire somebody else on without worrying about my availability.  Which is good... I know Julie felt awkward having to ask, and I can't fault her for asking.  Really, I have it VERY good there.  It also helped that Rain sent me a nice email saying that I'm "OK'd" there and I should never have anything to worry about... seriously.  I feel guilty.  I feel like that lazy cousin that the family has to get together and support because he's too bone idle to get a job or something.

 

Things are looking really good at PTC.  We got new computers, I got the go-ahead for the upgrades to the existing ones.  John at ACO gave me a really good deal on RAM.  So good that I was able to get an extra one and still be less than what I told Tony.

 

So putting together the new computers we got made me realize 2 things for Monday:

 

1. Vista is pretty neat, and I'm getting myself a copy (especially since I'll have to show others how to use it, so I should know how to use it myself)
   
2. They only had Office 2007 installed - so all the thoughts of me putting together a tutorial package on it have been stepped up from "maybe" to "has to be done for Monday" status.

I spent almost all of Sunday just doing a walkthrough of Word.  And I still haven't finished!  I'm about half the way through Word, and it's jsut the basic stuff.  Haven't even touched images, text boxes, columns, tables, etc... and those are the harder stuff.  So I wouldn't even hazard to guess I'm half way done.  At least the stuff I have done will be enough for one day, so I can spend Monday night working on hopefully enough to keep them busy for Tuesday, etc...  argh.

Other than that, things are good.  Realization about this whole house thing is settling in and the tightening of the belt is starting to happen.  But that was an inevitability.  Just gotta stop going out to shags and whatnot.

Sent in my fine on Saturday saying that I would contest the charge in court.  So apparently I'm going ot Traffic Court!  Wish me luck.  The lady said that after I sent in the form that in 3-4 weeks they'd send me when my date in court would be.  Which is most likely 2-3 weeks after that... so I think I have a lot of time before I meet this thing head on.  I hope I don't forget anything.

Well that's pretty much all I had to say... l8r all!

oh, go check out my Fable Pics... I found out how to get the Pimp Hat, goes perfect with the Bordello he owns now!

That's a lot to take in in one day

... that's what she said!  Man, I love the Office!

 

Anyways...

---

So, today was THE day.  We went to the bank to look into our possibility of getting a mortgage and stuff.  I've thought and done some pre-calculations myself on it so it wasn't entirely a surprise.  We looked at the payments and figured out what might be a top limit for us.  Which wasn't a surprise.  The kicker came in when she reminded us that we would have to have a sizeable chunk of money to be able to do teh closing cost stuff.  Which for us right now, given our debts, might be hard to come up with.  Give me a year and I'll have my car paid off, and it won't be so hard, but now... a little iffy.

 

So, ya... they didn't laugh at us.  They did need us to get some 'confirmed numbers' for them (as they couldn't pull up that info on the computer) before we get an official pre-approval.  But at least we were up front with our "we know nothing" stance, which was good... we ended up learning a few things.  normally I just pretend to know and nod whenever necessary.

 

The other good thing that came out was we started our RRSP investment stuff.  Something about mutual funds and what not... but it's started at least.  We needed to.

 

What wasn't so good today was when I was asked by Julie if I could "confirm which days of the week you would be supply teaching."  Essentially she wanted me to say I would only supply teach on specific days.  She wants to hire ANOTHER person there.  Which sort of makes sense, but at the same time, ... I can't give that confirmation.  I'm in a lose-lose situation if I do.

 

If I were to say I'll only supply teach on Thursday or Friday each week... what if i don't get called those days?  What if I get called on Mon-Wed?  Do I turn them down?  If I keep turning down days they stop calling me.  See?  Lose-Lose!!  Of all days to put this on me... the day we go in to look at a mortgage... sheesh!

 

I think i need some pepto!

So much to talk about

Like Dave Matthews says "so much to say"

---

So how's my battle with the ticket going?  Well not good.  I can't take option #2 which is to plead guilty with an explanation.  Apparently that is only for when you have financial or time problems.  So they don't want to listen to me unless I'm fighting it.  So I've tried to contact PointTS to see if they can give me some options.   I really don't want to fight the ticket, but I don't want to pay it either... it's 4 demerit points!  On the upside, Mandy just got a speeding ticket (thank god I'm not the only one in the family to get fines!)

---

So congratulations go out to Steve and Dawn!  Campbell is a cute li'l baby boy! 

Rory and Rain... you're next!

---

As of late, been starting to really look at houses.  Been to a few open houses already... confusing the realtors by going with Brandy and then re-showing up with Mandy.  The one today was kinda funny "you're just playing with my mind now aren't ya!?"  heh

So we've been looking and deciding and we're finally going to see the bank about being pre-approved.  We'll see what they say... hopefully they don't laugh at us!

Found a really nice one on Mary St.  2 actually!  A little out of the price range that I think I can afford, but we'll see what happens after Tuesday.  Wish us luck.

---

Now... what else.  Nothing much.  I've ben making up new business cards.  Been at Churchill alot lately and noticed they don't ahve any of my cards anymore and I have been out.  I really need to start pumping myself at other schools.  Ran into a few people I went to school with and they have FULL contracts already.  SERIOUSLY... what am I doing wrong?

---

Other than that... realizing this summer's gonna be a load of fun with ror out of commission and me running this band... hope I just don't fudge it all up.  Alot of pressure.

Been biking alot lately, tho' I haven't seen any poundage dropping... soon maybe.  I really need to lose about 20lbs.  I said if I lost 20 I'd start looking at rock climbing.  But I really can't wait to get out and go canoeing.  Man that is going to be a blast.  Hopefully I get some time off for it.  Julie hired a new person out of the blue the other day.  Haven't met him yet, so we'll see what he's like. 

 

that's about all I can think of for now... maybe I'll be more verbose next time!

-ry

I'm a politician / accident / karma's a bitch

So the other day I started to think to myself that life was kind of going good.  Mandy and I saw a house we really liked, and it is most probably in a range we can afford... I started to really clear down some of my debt because I've been picking up a lot of work supplying lately.  And, I had my work appraisal at PTC and it earned me a raise.  And not just a $0.34/hr raise like I would expect at Sears when I was there... this was a RAISE... It rivaled an MP's raise to be honest.  OMG, I'm a politician!

 

So, give me a few more months, hopefully my debt'll be gone, the car will be paid off in another year... so I figure my credit would look good to a banker and we might start talking about mortgages and see about this home.  Life was looking up!

 

-karma-

 

My parents invite us out for dinnner... and hey, we like to go out to eat!  So we start driving off down the road to get to Gargoyle's.  We come to a red light.  There is a black Kia in front of us and a maroonish sedan in front of them.  The light goes green and we all proceed through the intersection.  Just as you reach that point where you can increase speed the kia's brakelights are on, and he's dead stopped, so I have to SLAM on mine.  Longest secont occurs as we just tap bumpers.  Phew... thank god I got new brakes!

 

So we all put our hazard lights on, and I wait for a clear lane so I can get out.  I walk up to the Kia's car and ask if they're ok... the passenger says her head hurts, while the driver's calling 911.  Good call I guess.  I go to inspect our fender bender.  We are literally touching... you could slide a dime in between us... almost.  I go and pull my car back an inch or 2 to inspect the damage.  On my front fender the rubber is slightly scraped, and you can see some missing paint.  (I think I've done more damage brushing by my car than what I'm looking at).  I look at his fender and his black paint has a chip taken out (his fender is metal).  So I say "I think we're ok... really there is no real damage her, just some aesthetics issues."  At which point the driver then points to his front end.  This is where I sort of realize why his brake lights when on in the first place.  The car ahead of him must have stopped abruptly as I notice his front end is crumpled in, and it's leaking fluid.  Yikes.

 

So the fire dept comes, the ambulance comes and then the police officer comes.  Eventually the officer asks us "what way were you headed?" and "you were the 3rd vehicle?" then takes our licence and registration and disappears in his car for 1 hr.  Excellent detective work.  After standing around like mopes for an hour he comes back out and talks to the maroon car (1st in the chain) person and hands her a big piece of paper and she then walks away.  He comes now to the other 2 people (myself and Kia)... "you both will be fined... Mr. Moore your fine is $110!"

 

-this is karma-

 

Really?  He explains something about the rule of the road being you have to at all times make sure your vehicle CAN'T get into an accident... but we just tapped... I really wasn't listening as I was pretty stunned.  I ask him how he arrived at the decision that I was in the wrong and he just cites the traffic act to me.  Only now does he ask me if there's any damage to my vehicle.  I say there's some paint scraped off... so he comes over to look and then leaves me to contemplate WTF...

 

So what do I do?  Is this karma... something that I must accept as fair turnabout for the cosmic balance?  I mean there must be some validity to what he was saying.  Had I not been following too closely maybe I could have avoided this?  I dont' think so... I had about a car length between... and we just tapped... literally.  I don't want to go through the hassle of fighting this ticket in court... it's only $110, -- but then again it might be 4 demerit points!

 

GAR

 

karma... she's a bitch!