Monthly Archives: October 2008

Before I knew any better, I thought that recovery from grief was a process of linear motion. Now that we’re in the middle of it, I realize that recovery from grief is more like travelling over mountains that turn into hills that hopefully one day turn into valleys, if that makes any sense. Instead of a straight forward path to getting back to “normal”, there are a series of progressions and regressions. I’m hoping that we’re now into some of the smaller mountains even though some days are better than others. It’s hard to realize that it’s very much like two steps forward and one step back. Hopefully our mountains will turn into valleys soon! Continue reading →

This summer when Kris spent time at Buck Lake with Uncle Don and Doreen, he came home with two cool new boy’s toys for me and him from Uncle Don. That’s right, we got rc helicopters
! They are totally fun although a bit hard to control and catch onto. A bunch of the guys at my office have them too. I guess boys always like having their toys. Kris and I are going to have to get them up in the air really soon! Continue reading →

Our office Christmas party is coming up really quickly as the seasons whiz through fall and into winter. We always look forward to the shenanigans that occur at these get-togethers and wonder what kind of funny gifts or prizes they’ll have. Sometimes they’re really good and sometimes, well, they’re not. The funniest was one year this guy who didn’t drink won a bunch of alcohol and traded it for a different gift. It was a board game, he traded it again hoping to get a better one. He ended up with a company cup full of different
promotional pens! We all got quite the chuckle out of that one! Promotional pens may be a great way to advertise but they’re a really lame christmas gift! I’ll keep you posted of any funny christmas party stories we have in the upcoming weeks. Continue reading →

The coffee shop is undergoing some serious competition with some of the cool new coffee centers that have come onto the market. It seems like you can have your own barrista at your beck and call with some of the newer coffee machines. For example, the capresso offers one touch, individual cup brewing. You can make a coffee, latte, cappuccino, espresso, hot chocolate or even tea using these machines. I’m not sure how easy cleaning and maintaining this machine would be or that you could have the same cool coffee-shop ambiance in your own kitchen though. We’re just happy that we have programmable brewing on our regular machine and we still can’t remember to set it up so there’s coffee ready in the mornings! Continue reading →

Our families definitely have the love to travel. Joe travels so much that he is completely a nomad while Doreen and Dee seem to go on at least one big trip a year. Things have been hectic at our house with just one thing leading to another to another. This last weekend is a good example of how our lives are in total upheaval right now. First, the kids got the flu. Emma threw up every half and hour all night. Even Kris was up puking a couple of times. Then Paula got it and was sick for a couple of days and then I got it and was sick for a couple of days. Kris broke his tooth at the movie theater with Doreen on Saturday and had to get an emergency dentist appointment on Sunday. Monday morning, Paula and Emma were in a car accident — everyone’s okay, not to worry. I wish that we could travel right now but I think if we did we’d need a heck of a lot of travel insurance. I hope things calm down soon. We could really use a break! Continue reading →

Bamboo has been growing in popularity in recent years because of it’s environmentally friendly qualities. It can grow as much as six to eight inches each day, which makes it an easily renewable resource. It is the fastest growing woody plant in the world and has even been recorded to grow as much as four feet in one day! The qualities of bamboo also make it an excellent resource from which to make many products. The marketplace is now booming for bamboo. Everything that you can imagine is available (especially for home decor) from bamboo cloth to bamboo flooring to bamboo furniture to bamboo dishes to bamboo shades. Bamboo can regenerate itself in years instead of decades like more traditional forest sources of wood. This is definitely a plant that deserves all the attention it is getting. I have even found a few sites where you can buy bamboo plants that are able to withstand the colder temperatures of Canada’s winters. So far the only bamboo products we have in our home are bamboo cloth, a bamboo cutting board and bamboo shades. I’m hoping for bamboo sheets soon and maybe even bamboo wood floors one day!

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Congrats to Kris!  He had his first paying article posted onthe internet.  We posted a short story of his on Triondand it was published on Authspot!
It is “The Darkness” and was a recent english project.  Who knows, we might get him to let us publish some more later!

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So, my wife Paula found the most hillarious new shoes!  We may just have to geta pair of these for my  little brother Joe, whois notorious for constantly being bare footed.  These are some of the oddest new shoes that I have seen in  a long time.  Yep, they really are shoes that look like bare feet.  Need I say more?

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It is funny how things can snowball from something simple. A few months ago, my son Kris turned 14. Around here, that means that you can legally get your learner’s license. Also, once you do get your license, you are automatically basically on probation for a few years. So, we figured “What the heck?” and made him get his learner’s. He got it on the first try, and now we are trying to find a way to learn that works for him. He is terrified of driving, which is good to a point, but it makes it hard to get him to try. Soon, we will need to add him to our car insurance (that should hurt!). Before you know it, he will be asking to borrow the car to go out with friends and we will be left pacing the front hallway, hoping that he comes home soon. Once you have your license, you are a little more of your own person and it seems like one more step towards him spreading his wings and taking off to become a self-sufficient adult. OK, maybe I am getting ahead of myself, but sometimes I wonder.

As parents, we all try to prepare our kids for that day when they stand up to the world all on their own, and yet we also dread both our children growing up and leaving, and also just how they will do in the world and will it be nice to them.

In the meantime, all I can do is try to support him, teach him to make good choices, and maybe take him out driving once in a while. Continue reading →

Recently, I have done a lot of  late night work, and done a lot of time in hospital rooms with various family members.  My wife asked me to find a quiter mouse after one particularly bad stay in hospital where she was trying to sleep and I was trying to work quietly.  It turns out that the hospital has great wireless connections, but  a mouse click can be a really loud cutting noise in a quiet room.
I did a quick search and it turns out that there are actually very few companies that make quiet mice.  What mistified me even more was that there were actually people going through the trouble to post that it was stupid because they didn’t need it.!  While I understand that this does not bother most people,  I have to admit that it is a great idea for my family.
This sounds like a great idea for anyone who wants to do computer work around other people in a quiet area. Continue reading →