Well, I had to break down and buy a new laptop. Alex has learned how to open my laptop and anytime I leave the room he has at it. I’ve actually started to put an elastic around the old laptop to keep him out. Unfortunately, I didn’t start doing that before he broke my #7 key and the space bar. As you can see they still work but the buttons themselves are missing. Prior to Alex’s fun, my computer had been having issues anway. There are previous posts about it here. So, Rob did some shopping for me two days ago and we found a decent one for just under $700 before taxes and such. It came today and he’s working on setting it up right now. I hated spending the money, but I spend so much time on the computer and since it’s crap now, I had to do it. Although Rob wanted a 17” screen, I opted for the 15”, mostly because I wanted to prevent Rob from stealing the new computer. It was my compter that broke, so it should me my new toy!
Time Flies
Wow, I’m 20 months old now. Well, here is an update on my progress.
By the end of this month, I should be able to:
*dump an object in imitation – yup
*use a spoon/fork – mostly, things I poke actually end up on the fork, but I still pick it off then put it in my mouth.
*run – yup and then trip over my feet.
…may possibly be able to:
*combine words – yup, the main one is “put back”, mommy and daddy tell me to do this alot.
* identify 1 picture by naming – yup, I can recognize mommy, daddy, and myself in pictures, I can also tell kitties.
*name 6 body parts – yup.
*throw a ball overhand – yup.
*speak and be understood half the time – well my parents understand me most of the time, but I don’t know about anyone else.
*use 50+ single words – I’ve never counted my vocabulary, but I’m sure I’m at least close.
…may even be able to:
*identify 4 pictures by naming – see above.
*build a tower of 6 cubes – I think I can, but I’ve never shown mommy or daddy that I can. I do stack block alot though.
Renovations
Rob and I decided to demo our hallway this week. It was a spur of the moment thing, but there really are a few things that need to be fixed up in our house so this is a good place to start.
In one way, I’m enjoying this. Rob and I are fixing up our own house, we get to decide how it ends up looking, we have the control over everything. But in another way, this really sucks. Plaster is just yucky. Dusty, sticky, smelly and messy. Fortunately, it’s all down now and we can soon start rebuilding.
19 Months
I’m going to be quick and to the point this month.
By the end of this month,
…I SHOULD be able to:
Stupid book, it just says “perform all preivious should be able to’s”, I’m not going to go through them all, but I’m sure I’m doing fine.
…will PROBABLY be able to:
* “feed” a doll – no feeding, but I make them kiss each other and I hug them, that’s similar right?
*use 6 words – I’m a pro!
*walk up steps – up and down, I no longer need help, although I won’t turn it down.
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*build a tower of 4 cubes – yup.
*identify 2 pictures by pointing – yup.
…may even be able to:
*name 6 body parts – almost, I know eyes, nose and belly button.
*wash and dry hands – I like soap, although sometimes I try and put it in my mouth.
Badger Badger Badger Badger (mushroom, mushroom)
Okay, Alex has done nothing but badger me all day about getting the pictures from the park posted. I finally had enough of him pestering so I’ve uploaded some of the park pics as well as a few others. Enjoy the pics!
Gotta be quick
Okay, I gotta be quick here. Dad’s in the kitchen making me breakfast and absolutely HATES it when I play with his computer. And, since he sucks at posting and Mom’s only moderately better, it’s up to me to make a post.
Yesterday Mom & Dad took me to the park by our house before Dad had to go to work. I got to ride in my wagon that Grandma got me for Christmas. The park was a LOT of fun. It has a little play set thing that has a couple slides and this little musical piano thingy. I had lots of fun with that though, unfortunately, a couple of the keys didn’t work properly. And the slides. I absolutely LOVED the slides. Like any kid, pretty much the first thing I did with the slides was try to walk up them. Mom had to help me a bit, but I made it! Oh yeah! I almost forgot about the swings. There’s a couple swings there too. I’m too small still for the one swing but I’m just right for the other one. I had fun in that too. Dad was better at pushing me in the swing than Mom. She was a bit of a wuss and was just giving me boring gentle pushes but Dad got me some good height!
Dad took some pictures but we know he sucks at updating. I know that he’s moved the pictures onto the computer off the camera so maybe I can figure out how to get the pictures posted. Gotta find them on the computer first. So far, all I’ve found is porn, but I know they’re here somewhere.
Crap. Here he comes. Gotta go. Breakfast is ready. Yummmmm!
Alex is a goof!
So I just spent a couple minutes watching as Alex first grabbed the pillows on the couch, threw them on the floor, then grabbed one blanket and threw it on the pillows, then got frustrated as he tried to grab another blanket that was stuck. He actually screamed when it wouldn’t pull down. I finally had to help and put the blanket with the other stuff on the floor. After all that what does he do? Lie on top of them to drink his milk! What makes him a goof is he’s done this before. It’s apparently his new thing, he won’t take a drink unless the pillows and blankets are all set up and he’s on top of them. Silly goof!
Trip Report
So last night Rob, Adam and Jason and I headed towards Strathroy for a NL hold’em tournament that Adam heard about. After about a 40 minute drive it was clear it wasn’t quite in strathroy and to be honest, I have no idea where we were. It was definitely an out of the way town especially since I had never heard of the place before.
We took two cars, Rob and I followed Adam and Jason. Jason was the cellphone contact as Adam was the only one who knew how to get there. And when we pulling into the drive of what was probably a farm, I said to Rob, “You know, if Adam is actually a serial killer, this is the perfect place to lead us to.” We park and Adam leads us into a barn/shed. It probably at one point held a lot of farm equipment but was mostly cleared out except for the tables and chairs for all who were going to play.
The buy-in is $26+4 (we think). From what I gathered from Adam, it was a “charity” tournament for the local Optimus Club. It really wasn’t clearly advertised what the rake was, so we have no idea how much the real buy-in was. In fact, it wasn’t a very organized tournament; it was more like a very big home game.
The blind structure and chip counts kinda sucked. They started the blinds and 1/2 and then doubled them every 20 minutes(for the most part, there were a couple stages where it wasn’t a double). And we only started with 150 chips. Definitely not a structure I’m used to. There were 30 players and 4 ended up paying out. First was a cool $312.
It was slow for the game to start. Everyone seemed to know everyone else–if they weren’t related–so there was a lot of chatting and catching up on news before everyone was ready to play. When we did get going, Jason and I ended up at the same table and Rob and Adam were at two others. The best way to describe the play is “LOL, donkaments!”
It was bad; it was worse than the play at our home game. Everyone at the table would limp in. Although, if there were raises, it still didn’t thin the field, it just sweetened the pot. The betting typically consisted of min bets, ocassionally someone would bet 2XBB but that was rare. And if they had an Ace in their hand, that was good enough to call down to the river. So, my strategy was to wait. I didn’t want to get into to many pots with so many players. It was tough though, because of the blinds, waiting also meant worrying about being short stacked. As well, if I was in the BB or SB and I hit TP or better, I was staying until the river as my hand was likely good.
I really didn’t have a choice about waiting for hands, though. I was not getting very good cards either way. So I folded and folded and folded. Blinds are about 5/10 and I look down and see TT. My stack is so-so, so I decide to make a hefty raise and re-evaluate on the flop. I get two callers and the flop is 34Q rainbow. The only thing I am afraid of is a queen so I push and hope neither player has one. One calls and one folds. When she flips her cards I’m happy to see A7o. The turn is a 5 and I’m now dreading a 6 on the river, but I hold up when it’s just a seven. I scoop the pot and I’m good for a couple more blind increases.
My friend, Jason, is eliminated shortly after that and as he is busted he says to me “I hate the Mooney tables.” Mooney is the worst player at our home game. I nod to Jason in agreement as I’m a little frustrated as well.
Part way into the 10/20 blind stage, I looked down to see KK in the BB. Time to make a move, I need to get more chips if I want to get to the final table let alone to the money. The whole table limps in, so I push. Everyone folds except for one caller. He flips A6o. I laugh and just feel an ace coming since I do have the kiss of death. Amazingly, my hand holds up.
Later, I double up a short stack when my TT ran into her QQ. Then next hand I call another all in with AKo and he flips QQ again. I’m beginning to hate the ladies. I end up lucking out and the two of us split the pot when the board made a straight.
During these hands, Adam goes broke and then later I see Rob come by my table so he’s out as well. It’s up to me now to represent.
Finally, the “tournament director” yells out that we will be going on break and after break we will be at final table! Blinds will also start at 20/40. I count my chips and I’m hurting. I have just under 200 chips. Once the game was one again, I check the chip stacks at the table there are 8 of us and only one other player is as desperate as I am. I was definitely going to have to push with any type of good holdings.
First hand is dealt and I’m UTG. I check and see QQ. Perfect, I’m sure to get a caller with this hand, so I push my stack in. Nope, everyone folds. Okay, the ladies really are a crappy hand for me tonight. In the BB I check and see 94 both spades. Sigh, with 60 chips coming off my stack this and the next hand, I’m not likely the looks of how things are going. So before the flop is dealt, everyone but one person limps in. As the cards are dealt, I see spade, then spade and finally a third spade. I flopped a flush. Not a great one, but it’s all I have, when it’s my turn to act, I push my stack to the center again. I get one caller again and when he flips his cards, my tournament is over. His K3 of spades, makes his King high flush better than mine. My only hope is a runner runner for a straight flush. It doesn’t happen and I end out in 8th place.
I head over to where Rob and Jason are and the three of us wait until Adam finishes playing a Sit and Go that had started up. His game ends and he tells us he finished in first, so at least one of us were able to leave with a small profit.
This is just copied from my poker blog and Rob will likely post a few additional comments on the night later today.
A day late
I turned 18 months yesterday. I was busy playing with Grandma Andrea all day because mommy and daddy were working so I forgot to post.
By the end of this month I SHOULD be able to:
*say 3 words – I’m getting quite proficient at this talking thing. Grandma recently taught me “knittin'”.
*point to a desired object – My new game with mommy and daddy is to throw my crib toys out onto the floor in the morning, start crying, and when they come to get me, point until they are put back into my crib.
…will PROBABLY be able to:
*run – and then fall shortly after I start.
*use a spoon/fork but not exclusively – I’m still figuring it out, I poke at the food but I don’t always come away with a mouthful.
*point to one body part when asked – I know and can point to eyes, ears, mouth and nose.
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*kick a ball forward – no kicking yet.
*follow a 2 step command without gestures – I don’t really listen to my parents, I like to try and do what I want.
…may even be able to:
*identify 1 picture by naming – not sure on this one.
*use 50+ single words – I can say alot, but my vocabulary is not quite that big yet.
Computers Suck
So my computer has been acting a little weird lately. And the other day I got a BSOD (blue screen of death), when I turned my computer back on, all my default settings on firefox had returned and all my saved passwords were gone. As well, every time I opened a program, I’d get a little pop up that a file was corrupt and to run chdsk. I’ve reloaded my setting for firefox, but everytime I shut down my computer, they disappear again. Rob thinks my hard drive is going so that sucks huge. We weren’t really looking to get a new computer anytime soon, but mine might not last much longer. Stupid computers.
Big Kiss
Happy Valentine’s Day Rob!
The Seventeenth Month
Boy, it’s been another month. Well, let’s see how I’m doing.
By the end of this month I SHOULD be able to:
*use 2 words – Doing well on this front.
*drink from a cup – sippy cups are fine. I can also drink from a regular plastic cup, but either my parents or the grandparents have to hold the cup or I might make a huge mess.
…will PROBABLY be able to:
*build a tower of 2 cubes – yup.
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*walk up steps – very cautiously I can, but typically only one before I need help. And my mom worries and hovers around me when I want to do it on my own.
*remove an article of clothing – LOL. I’ve been doing this for months, I like running around the house half naked.
*feed a doll – no dolls in the house and I haven’t tried feeding a stuffed animal. I do hug and kiss my toys though.
…may even be able to:
*build a tower of 4 cubes – I think so.
*identify 2 items in picture by pointing – we haven’t tried the picture thing. I can point to my nose when asked though, does that count?
*combine words – nope not yet.
*throw a ball overhand – I throw everything!!
*speak and be understood half the time – nope, only the folks and grandparents are slowly figuring out my code.
Back in Training
Well, as of Feb 12, I will be back in training for work. I’m not sure how many people I let know I was applying to a different position at the bank, but I got the job.
Currently, I’m in a sales position. I can hit my goals, but it’s hard. I’m definitely not a sales person. I was approved to move to Visa Customer Service, which as you can tell from the title is more customer service oriented. I need to still offer “Valued Added” products, but I don’t need to objection handle, which is good, since that is what I’m not good at.
It’s five weeks of training at full time hours which will be nice as well, since I’m currently part time. I go back to part time after the training, but I hope to pick up a few extra shifts. But if not, the guaranteed part time hours at VCS are more than what I was guaranteed at Activations and are actually pretty close to the number of hours I’ve been typically working now.
The Sixteenth Month
Happy New Year’s! Anyway, I’m 16 months old now so here’s an update.
By the end of this month, I SHOULD be able to:
*imitate activities – yup.
*scribble – over any books I can find!
…will PROBABLY be able to:
*use 3 words – I’ve used “kitty” and “thank-you” for sure. There may be a couple others.
*dump and object in imitation – in imiation, on my own and not just dumping, but throwing is fun too.
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*use 6 words – I don’t think it’s 6 yet, but close
*run – hehe, for a few months now!
…may even be able to:
*kick a ball forward – I kick things, but not specifically a ball to go forward.
*brush teeth, with help – yup. I like to brush my teeth.
Merry Christmas
Well, as everyone probably figured, Alex made a killing again this year. He is quite spoiled. Rob’s dad even visted yesterday and dropped off more presents for him.
So, he received tons of clothes, a lot of books and a few stuffed animals. He now has a TMX Elmo (although he’s afraid of it), a Little People garage set. A Thomas the Tank engine musical thing. A huge safari wagon. Plus more and that was just from the presents we opened at our place!
Then we headed over to my parents and there were more presents. Mostly for Alex. He now has a train table, wooden train set included. It also has storage underneath and the board the train sits on is also a white board or a chalk board. There was a musical chair, and a baby einstein book reader. He got a larger wooding train set that is also blocks he can build with. There was a mega blocks Pirate ship and a drum set. Yeah, this was just from my folks. We have a very spoiled child.
Rob and I received some great gifts too. We now have a light sign of vegas to go in the poker room as well as a poker themed clock. Coke glasses. Rob got the 80’s Trival Pursuit game and my brother Travis game me a game based on the CSI TV show. We now also have a new light to go in the living room. It’s similar to the one we already have, but in the middle of it, is a lava lamp. That is very cool.
I could go on and I’m sure I missed a few things. I just wanted to list the important items anyway. And finally the point of this post is to say “Thank-you!”. Everything is great and we love all of it.
All Nighter
So, last night was the first time Rob and I had to basically stay away all night taking care of our sick child. Alex has had colds before, where he woken up in the middle of the night, a little stuffy and needing his soother, but last night was much different.
Around 10PM last night, Alex starts screaming in his crib. Rob goes in to check on him figuring he just lost his soother or had a bad dream. A short time later, I hear Rob ask for help. I come into the bedroom wondering what is wrong, thinking possibly Alex had a really leaky poop. It turns out, he had vomitted all over his mattress. Poor kid. He’s still screaming and shaking. He’s all clammy and he’s pale. He’s definitely not feeling well.
After cleaning him up, changing his clothes, washing him off, changing the sheets, cleaning us up, since he was covered in the stuff and we had to pick him up to start cleaning, the three of us head to the livingroom. I figure Alex is not going to want to go back to sleep right away, so sitting with us in the livingroom will help him calm down and feel better.
Probably 30 minutes later, Alex is acting tired. Rubbing his eyes and being slightly fussy. So I try to put him back to his crib. Ten minutes later (during this whole time there was complete silence, so he had fallen right to sleep), more screaming. We check, and yup, he has puked again. So, we clean up again and return to the livingroom. It looks like we will be spending the night out here. Rob gets a bucket and we start our vigil.
Unfortunately, for my little guy about every hour to hour and a half, his stomach starts churning and up it comes. Fortunately, between bouts Alex would fall asleep. But as soon as he woke, we knew to quickly get him to the bucket. So basically Rob slept on the one side of the couch and I craddle Alex in my arms and dozed on the other side.
This went on until about 5:30 AM. Alex woke again, but he didn’t seem to need the bucket. In fact, he kept motioning for the bottle of water we had ready for him. He hadn’t wanted any earlier in the night, even though we tried, so I was happy to give it to him. He started drinking and drank about a quarter of the bottle. He seemed less pale and more alert too. But, without any warning, a few minutes later, all the water came right back up. Time to clean up including some of the couch as well.
After that, he still wanted water. So Rob gave him some, but in stages, hopefully so that it would stay down. It seemed to, so the three of us curled up in our spots on the couch again to wait and see.
It was around 8:30AM when I woke from a doze and I saw Alex opening and closing his eyes. He was just working his way to wakefulness. He looked much better. There was colour in his cheeks and he wasn’t clammy anymore. In fact, when Freya came to investigate he wanted to play with her. I’ve also given him a little food and some milk and he’s had no further problems. He seems his typical self again this morning.
So the damage total:
3 pairs of pj’s
3 of my T-shirts
2 sheets
1 of Rob’s shirts
1 couch
Not bad for his first time vomitting.
Congratulations….me!
Well, first off, I’d like to think the editors for recognizing my ongoing contributions to bettering the world through writing. So, what the hell am I talking about anyway? It’s really quite simple. I was just recently named Time’s Person of the Year. Yep. L’il ol’ me. Last year was Bono and the Gates’ – this year, me. Well, okay, not just me exactly. All of us. Yes, you too. And you over there – yes, you – you’re on the list too.
Well, since the spotlight’s on me now, let me be the first to say that this has to be the absolute biggest copout I have ever seen from an established and distinguished media operation. What this really says to me is that most of the people wanted Kim Jong Il but there was no way in hell that Time was going to name him Person of the Year. Pathetic.
Hooters and Dough*
*not to be confused with our other favourite pasttime: hookers and blow.
So, as most of you are probably aware, last week was my 35th birthday. Rather uneventful day. I slept. I lounged for a couple hours. I worked until midnight. Well, we decided that this past Saturday we’d go out for dinner to celebrate. The choices were pretty simple: Applebee’s or Hooters – both having opened recently in the Forest City. The winner was Hooter’s – for no other reason than neither of us had ever ate at Hooters before. I’d heard many great things about their chicken wings so I was quite looking forward to it.
Okay, I can’t talk about Hooters without talking about the Hooters’ Girls. I think I’ll sum it tidily with this one word: meh. Sure, they had decent racks on them but none of them were terribly beautiful and the nylon orange shorts were rather hideous.
Now, about the food. Hang on…I’ve got the perfect word for it: meh. We both found the chicken wings to be rather greasy and, while we ordered them as hot, we’re pretty sure they didn’t deliver hot. I ordered a Buffalo chicken sandwich (hot) that came with fries. It actually was hot. Not burn your tastebuds hot, but an okay kick to it. I’ve had much hotter. It was a huge chicken breast, but, like the wings, was greasy – although not as greasy as the wings. Nikki had a Smothered Chicken sandwich which she said was quite good. She found the fries to be greasy as well but I didn’t think they were that bad.
If we were with a group of people that wanted to go to Hooters, we would probably tag along, but I don’t think we’ll be going out of our way to eat there again. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give Hooters a good solid meh.
Alright, so that covered the Hooters part of the title, now on to the Dough part. This morning, rather nicely after I had just awoke, the phone rings. I look down at the caller ID and see “Corus”. Now I immediately realize what this is but couldn’t quite figure out what the hell they were calling us for.
“Hello?”
“Hi, is Nicola there please?”
“Sorry, she’s not available, can I take a message?”
“Sure, this is {insert forgotten name here} from FM96. She entered the Freeloader draw for Future Shop and she was one of the winners. She’s won a $200 gift card for Future Shop”
“Most excellent!” (Yes, I really said Most Excellent, which, oddly enough, was more excited than I sounded when I won the FM96 $10K Payday back in ’01)
So yeah…Nikki won a $200 FS gift card. She hasn’t decided what she wants to spend it on, but it really sounds like she wants a Nintendo Wii. Wii’ll see….