Interesting colour choice

I have seared my eyes in the WC at the Eiffel Tower. I was partially blinded for a short time after going in. Somehow the camera flash has even dampened some of the redness. The floor, the walls, the urinals, everything. Really really red. You have no idea...

Inge's Cabin of Pleasure

Wow. Has it really been that long? The children have aged and I am still stay-at-home dad. It's great.

We are going to France for a family trip. Near the end we're taking a little detour into Switzerland. I was looking around for places to stay in the mountains and I came across this. It sounds lovely. No info available and in fact it doesn't even seem to be there now. It's like I got a private invite that only I get to see. Maybe I won't take the family.

Anxiety Eases (28-10-2013)

It IS good.

Last night I had that weird mix of impending doom and mild anxiety that comes when you realize that the weekend is over. Work starts Monday and who knows what that will bring? And then I remembered. Monday is just as good as Saturday or Sunday. Sure, we have a bit of a deadline as far as getting to school for the final bell,  but The Dunc gets up at the same time regardless of weekday or weekend, so what did it matter?

And then I poured another glass of wine to round out the evening.

Dealing With Guilt (23-10-2013)

It's Wednesday. The livin' is easy. A is still home. I haven't had to pack their snacks myself yet.

I feel this odd sense of guilt. Like I'm getting away with something I shouldn't. It's a bit like taking a sick day when there isn't really anything wrong with you. That kind of guilt. Maybe we don't all experience it. Could be my Catholic upbringing I guess.

Wondering Where The Lions Are (21-10-2013)

Sun's up, uh huh, looks OK.

The new job started today. D and I took the girls to school.  A is still home this week. I do not have the picture of her running to catch up to us with C's backpack and Z's swimming bag. Whatever. First day. 

After the drop D and I wandered by Cherry Bomb for a cortado and some contemplation. We came up blank. So we meandered home, hung about for a bit, sucked back a couple of nipples worth of milk and hit the sack.

The guys are still doing our siding and it was pretty loud. They were banging away on the outside wall of D's room. So I thought it would be a better nap for all involved if we both sacked out in the big bed together.

Tough morning.

Impending...I don't know what (20-10-2013)

Sunday night. Unlike every other Sunday night for the past 8 years, I'm not thinking about work tomorrow. Because there isn't any now. Traditional work I mean. I finished that up Friday. Tomorrow D and I take the girls to school and then...uhhh... well I guess maybe we'll swing by Cherry Bomb and consider our options.

Sweet Happiness

Continuing in the foodie vein, if you can't find happiness in a bowl of baked sweet potatoes, where the hell are you supposed to get it?And then I remembered reading this pancake blog where the guy made fabulous artsy pancakes for his kids. Some of it was pretty impressive, and it turns out the basic ones are within the realm of my own limited cookery skills. So here's some made up happiness that I do a variation on pretty much every weekend for C and Z.And while I am far from the bestest cook in the whole land, I make 'em from scratch now and I guarantee they don't taste like

The Return - and some yummy soup

So it has been over a year now. I think the last post was shortly before the implementation of new filters on the internets at work. Hmmm. No more online frivolity from the desk. It has taken me this long to find time to do it from home.

When we last spoke, Steph had tried to eat some alien eggs. She's gone to France now. Maybe they have cleaner food there. They certainly don't have cleaner people. Moving on...

Here's another culinary tidbit for The Return: Cock flavoured soup. Yep. You hear correctly. I didn't read the ingredients, but somehow I suspect it is artificial flavour. I almost hope it is. But it begs the question: how does one simulate the flavour of dick?I know, I know, the brand originates elsewhere, regional dialects, yada yada yada. The fact remains, I'm not eating cock flavoured soup whether the flavour is real or not.

Steph's Alien Spinach Eggs

Stephalump eats a lot of really healthy food and not much else. This includes wacky things like raw spinach which, is quite good for you. Or so I'm told. The other day she was chewing away on some of said raw spinach when she came across these little egg things that were obviously laid by aliens. Here are the egg things. Those indentations would match the shape of Steph's lower teeth if you were so inclined. I'm not sure how she knew they were there. Maybe she saw them as she took a bite, maybe there was an extra squish of juiciness, who knows?
The wonderful thing about having access to a lab at work is that you can use the microscopes to get cool close ups of all kinds of things such as slivers, small cuts, hair follicles, alien eggs, etc. So here are some close ups of the things. One of them would make a cool desktop picture (feel free). The last one is mushy looking as I popped some of the eggers with a pick. These are obviously stills, but you can imagine seeing the little alien babies squirming about in there. Alright, I made that part up. But still...

Batman to the Rescue

Z created a gorgeous Batman comic for her friend M. The art is all her own original work. She dictated to me so that I could do the lettering for her, but the dialogue is entirely her own. At the time that she did this, she was pretty sweet on M and he really likes Batman. I'm not sure she's much of a fan left to her own devices. She gave me the Batman bandaids a few weeks after she insisted we buy them. Click for the large version, and be envious of the creativity and expression. "...and the smoke below came up into the hearts of the people." WOW!!

The Tennessee Trip Report

Spooky has already seen it. Oh well. My other readers (err, reader) haven't. Last June I was stuck in rural Tennessee for a weekend. So, long after it happened, here's the trip report:

FROM: D's Amazin Stuff
MTG DATE: June 20-24, 2008
LOCATION: Xxxxxx Powertrain Assembly Planet, Decherd, Tennessee
PROGRAM: XXXX Stainless Steel EOC
SUBJECT: Coolers crushing under installation torque (AKA Touring the Countryside)

Background
Xxxxxx Powertrain Assembly plant in Decherd requested an engineer to be present to help solve an issue wherein the XXXX cooler was crushing on installation. I solved that one and spent 2 days touring the countryside. Sadly, I had left the camera at home and had to buy a disposable. The pictures are terrible and made worse by having to scan them in.

Summary
First stop Saturday morning: Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Suppin’ Whusky distillery in Lynchburg, not 30 minutes from where I was staying in Decherd. Here’s one of the welcome centre in Lynchburg itself. The distillery is bigger than Lynchburg. They’re attached.
Turns out there was a biker rally in Lynchburg that day. If you look down to the right you can see some of the bikes. I had interesting conversations with a number of really large sweaty dudes.

The distillery was interesting but I got almost no usable pictures of it. I did get this one of one of the antique trucks in the fire brigade. Who knew an REO Speedwagon was a real vehicle?
I took a different route on the way back. I had a GPS in the rental. I found that if you told it to take the shortest route (rather than the fastest) it would pick any old road, dirt track, whatever, just to shave off some distance. I got to have a real taste of the Tennessee back roads. It tried to send me down this road. Beyond the hay bales it kind of peters out into some woods. I swear I heard duelling banjos as I turned around and took flight.
Saturday night after dinner I could hear howling engines and screaming fans. I searched out the race track and took in a few hours of good ol’ boy local dirt track racin’. The whole town was there. I didn’t even try for pictures of that with the old disposable.

Sunday I headed for the Cumberland Caverns. Tennessee is apparently riddled with limestone caverns. No pictures of that, for the usual reason. On my way there I stopped for this picture:
Have a look down there to the left, just above the For Sale sign for the 5BR Huge Home. Imagine my disappointment when I realized I had missed the Turkey Shoot the day before. Of all the bad luck. In case you are interested in the house and can’t pay for it up front, it does say “We Finanse”.

Further along I stopped for a recce of this fine establishment:
Another fuzzy sign, thanks to my great camera, but it is indeed a giant pink “Naigh Club”. And it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Nearest town was a good 30 minutes away.

The last shot is after the Caverns and after a driving tour of Fall Creek Falls State Park (named by a 6 year old no doubt). Another missed opportunity for me, as apparently Goober’s Super Service isn’t open on Sunday’s and Goober was nowhere to be found.
Conclusion
The only one I have really is that I need to bring a decent camera next time.

Drying the baby.

Yes, it's for a doll that C got for Christmas. But if you're really dense and shouldn't be licensed to be a parent, or maybe don't read very well, please be aware of the following: you need to hang the baby to dry after the bath. You can't just plunk her down on the side of the tub and hope she won't slide in or get moldy.

Dolls

Z took this picture. I find it quite creepy. The small one in the back is up to something.

Strawberry Pig

Last summer, in an otherwise normal batch of Ontario strawberries, I found this little strawberry pig. It was eaten promptly after the photo shoot. Mmmmm, strawberry bacon.

The Hairy Eyeball

When I was 16 or so and living in Calgary, I shelled out a whopping $75 for a 1971 Datsun 510. I drove the thing for over 10 years. I built an engine for it in shop class in high school. The old one ran fine, but the new one was bigger (Ooooh!). It was the first engine I had rebuilt from the ground up. I never even expected it to turn over and start, let alone drive back and forth across the country a number of times. The car was a little rough around the edges and not big on creature comforts, but it was easy to fix and it never really left me stranded anywhere. Of course, my definition of stranded was different back then when I didn't have kids or a real job. Back then I had no problem sleeping on the side of the road waiting for daylight so I could see to fix something myself.

When I lived in Calgary, I drove it to Ontario for the summers. Later when I lived in Northern Ontario I would drive it out West in the winter. In the final year I drove it from Parry Sound to Vancouver, then all the way back across to St. John's for Christmas, then home to Ontario. It was so cold driving through Quebec that winter that I had to drive in my sleeping bag to stay warm. The car was pretty rusty and the wind came in a lot. So in winter, it would warm up nicely sitting still, but the heater couldn't stay ahead of the drafts at highway speeds, so it would slowly cool down as you drove. The sleeping bag made it a bit of a bitch to use the clutch, but it was fine once you were going in 4th gear on the highway.

In my early 20's I gave it the fine paint job you see here in the pictures. I also named it the Hairy Eyeball because driving it sometimes reminded me of that really hung over feeling you get when you're so dehydrated that it feels like there's fur on your eyelids scratching your eyeballs, and you wonder who's cat shit in your mouth while you were sleeping.

The first year I drove to St.John's with the new paint job, I was stopped by the OPP crossing the top of Toronto on the 401. Really, I think they just wanted to make sure I wasn't stoned or something. When I told the cop I was on my way to Newfoundland I think he said something like "yeah that figures". Then he made me promise not to drive into Toronto and let me go.

That same trip, on my way home, I drove it into the ditch in a snowstorm at night somewhere out on the Rock. It ripped up some of the exhaust, but I was trying to make the ferry that night so didn't want to wait for the next day to get it fixed. You don't realize quite how loud a car with no muffler can be until you drive it onto the enclosed car deck of one of those big ferries. Later, in Nova Scotia I stopped to have some welding done to try to make it a bit quieter again. The punk at the shop kept staring at me, then eventually said "that's an interesting paint job, are you what they call a hippie?".

Even though the engine was still strong, I finally got tired of trying to locate parts to keep the rest of the car going. Ontario doesn't have the same pick your own part junkyard scene that Alberta did. Here they had long ago crushed all the cars I wanted to pick parts from. So I bought a truck one spring and coldly turned my back on the Eyeball. It lived in a boat shed for the summer at the marina where I worked because I had nowhere else to put it at the time. That fall the guy up the highway who ran a tractor trailer shop agreed to take it away. The shed had a damp dirt floor and the rear brakes rusted and seized up, so I had to use the forklift to get the car out. The pictures were taken while I waited for buddy to come with his flatbed.

I know it's getting boring, but the story's not quite over. Buddy was pretty handy with the tools and the welder. He took the engine and transmission from the Eyeball and built them into a frame he had made for a little yard tractor. He even put a hydraulic pump and scoop bucket on the front for clearing snow. I have a picture of the tractor somewhere but I couldn't find it. If I ever do I'll put it up. Buddy moved away a few years later and sold the tractor to someone in Parry Sound. Maybe it's still running...
UPDATE: I found the picture of the tractor. Yes, this used to be my old 510. Hope it's still running.

Repetitive socking

Last week work was shut down for 3 days and everyone was forced to take the time off without pay. Not ideal, but not the end of the world, and I made grand plans of getting all sorts of crap done around the house. Instead, C got a bit of a fever and cough and had to stay home from daycare so I just hung with her instead. We engaged in various exciting activities, had tea and cakes at 11, that sort of thing. If there's one thing she loves, it's accessorizing. Hats, mitts, underwear as hats, you name it, she likes to put it on and off over and over. She especially likes socks. The video is 3 minutes of what we did over and over for stretches of 20 minutes or more at various times over the 3 days. In the end, it was very therapeutic. And since she had 3 days of me all to herself, I am now the runaway favourite and it's all about Daddy!

Sunfire Coolness?

So it's early days yet, and uncalled for, but I need to poke fun at something already. I've never been a big fan of spoilers and scoops on road going cars that don't have prancing horses or dancing bulls on the coat of arms. Fine, if you buy an STI it comes with a pretty big spoiler and the scoop is functional. And you might even take it to the track every now and again and get it up to a speed where the spoiler actually does something. And I'll admit that if I had a minivan I might put a huge rubber spoiler on it simply for effect. But otherwise, are these things necessary? What about on the gorgeous piece of machinery pictured here? What does it add? It looks like someone was playing Need For Speed and only had enough points to get one or two items. Instead of opting for some springs or tires or something else that might actually improve performance, they go for the hood and roof scoop. And what is that colour? Faux Carbon Fibre?

Honkin'

This makes me laugh. It's like a documentary. Stop motion video by one Andy Martin, music by Paul Steel.

Nasty new supervillain in Parkdale

Sad, frightening, but apparently true. There is a vile new villain roaming the streets of Parkdale. The Man of Steel himself succumbed to the powers of this as yet un-named evildoer simply by laying eyes on him. I was happily scooting through the climber at the Albert Crosland Park, chased by my daughter, when I came across the horrifying news. Our laughter was instantly silenced. You can be sure we walked home immediately with our eyes tight shut lest we too fall victim to this malefactor.

El Moto Tipo

A while ago I was in Chihuahua on business. Interesting place. I have to say it's more fun to pronounce the word "Chihuahua" the way it is spelled rather than the way it is supposed to be pronounced. Try it.

I snapped this picture while we were driving around the city one day. There are a few things I like about it. The dude (el tipo) has his traveling repair kit hanging on the left handlebar. You can see that he has already worked some magic on the headlight with his favourite tool. Why not duct tape? Dunno. I suppose packing tape is cheaper. There were other parts of the bike that had been repaired in the same fashion. From the looks of the tank and helmet, I'd say he needs to repair things on an ongoing basis. I also like the backwards baseball cap under the helmet. He is sporting some clean khakis, so he must be on his way to work, but I like the fact that he has kept the cap and not compromised his coolness (la frescura?).