A Week Later

Week one without the kids is over. While we miss the boys, it has been nice to not have to meet their every need, demand and want. Sleeping in is a nice benefit. We haven't done much grocery shopping - eating out a few times and eating up what we have in the house.

Tina cleaned up the rec room. The toy bins are back in their normal spot and the toys organized. She did an amazing job with Corbin's room. Won't go into the grisly details of what she found in his room - let's just say that OCD is a pain in the ass. The room looks good. A lot of stuff was taken out and things were given a home on the shelves.

We did some minor shopping on Saturday. Looked at some washer and dryers at Lowes. They have a pair on clearance. Will have to act fast.

We tackled Jeremy's room on Sunday. We moved the filing cabinet downstairs to the Everything Room (had to remove some things to get it fit) and relocated Jeremy's dresser to where the filing cabinet was. This made the room look roomier and more like a bedroom and less like an office (part of our plan to move the office out of his room).

There was plenty of dust and crap everywhere. I gave the room a good wipe down and vacuum. I think Jeremy will be happy with the additional space.

Later, Tina and I went through a whack of file folders and tossed a bunch of stuff. I still have to go through our financial folders.

The house is looking good. Just need to work on our bedroom, the fish tank and just clean, dust and vacuum the rest of house before tackling the great outdoors.

One project I hope to get started before the boys return, is tilling part of the rear yard lawn, levelling the soil and sowing new grass. I'll also be relocating our patio as part of this project. If the lawn turns out, then I'll do the rest during the fall.

We have less than a week left without children. We hope to maximize our work and relaxation time before mayhem (aka Corbin and Jeremy) returns on Saturday.

Posted by Adam

Electricity Can Be Fun

Just before Jeremy's soccer game, I noticed that the lights in the house were doing 'unusual' things like dimming, flickering and all sorts of good things. Oh oh.

Tried some other switches and the same thing. Hmmmm.

Went downstairs and no breakers were tripped. Aye carumba.

I decided that I had to stay home and do something (rant, rave, worry, cry, laugh and anything else that made me look like an idiot). I told Jeremy to get out of his soccer uniform. He wasn't too impressed but rolled along.

The boys were getting anxious, so Bev took them outside. I called Tina to let her know what was going on. She was busy with her works Annual General Meeting. She called Pam & Chris to see if Chris (an electrician by training) could figure out the problem.

Tina came home and shortly after, Chris and Pam showed up. Chris checked the panel and discovered that one of the two phases into our house was dead. That explains why the lights were flickering. I thanked Chris and Pam for stopping by and immediately called the after hours line at Enwin Utilities.

About 30 or so minutes later, Enwin appeared. He took off the meter and told me the good news - the problem was with their line. His plan was to connect a temporary cable between the meter on my house and the meter on the house next door. A few minutes later another Enwin employee stopped by with the cable. It wasn't a complicated procedure and would take all of five minutes to complete.

Well, five minutes took three hours. Seems the neighbour next door wasn't buying any of it. Her husband was not home and there was a language barrier. The Enwin employee identified himself and even had the lady call dispatch. No go. Time to get the on-call supervisor out here.

About 30 or so minutes later, Val comes by and speaks with the neighbour. The answer remained a resounding "NO" and this time she called the police. Fun.

The Enwin employees and supervisor thought of alternatives. About two hours, I told the supervisor, I could wait until the morning for a new cable to be installed - I had partial power to the house (including the fridge) and it wasn't hot or humid (it got cold and windy). The supervisor thanked me for my patience and left.

As the other two Enwin guys were about to leave, the police showed up. They chatted and the police relayed the neighbours concerns to us. In the name of neighbourhood peace, I said I had no problem with waiting till the next day for a fix. So the police talked to the neighbour again and this time she capitulated.

Enwin guys looked at me and I said "I'm not going to turn down full power". So they got the equipment about 10 minutes later were done and we had full power.

My thanks for the Val and the afternoon emergency guys for their patience.

Now I just have to wait for the yard to be dug up. Exciting times.

Posted by Adam

P.S. A huge "THANK YOU" to Tina. You are awesome.

Feels Nice To Do Some Outdoor Work

With Corbin's help I unloaded the van and had him help me with a few chores. I had him bring out the indoor plants into the garage.

In the garage, I asked Corbin to sit on a milk crate and hang out with me for a few minutes. He turned on the radio and I emptied a bag of potting soil into the new wheelbarrow. Took it over to the hose and with Corbin's help, I moistened the soil.

I then began re-potting the plants with Corbin's help. Even got him to shove his hands into the new soil. No complaints. After a little while Corbin got bored, and asked if he could water his tree (a Rose of Sharon). I said sure, after which is hung out in the backyard for a while. I continued my re-potting.

I decided that a Coffee Tree plant would not come back inside and planted it outdoors. I still have to re-pot my Yucca Tree plant but that requires some hacking - maybe next weekend. I washed the old pots and let them dry in the warm sun. I also hosed down the easel so Tina could use it with Jeremy.

Back in the house, I worked on replacing the old thermostat with the new one I purchased. Installation was simple and straightforward. The packaging says 15 minutes or less for installation and it took less than 15 minutes. There is an error on the packaging in that it says you need two AAA batteries. You need three.

With that work done, I relaxed and enjoyed the warm and sunny weather.

Posted by Adam

March Break - Second Half

Jeremy attended a two-day day camp at WETRA (where Corbin's goes for horseback riding). Tina and Corbin spent some time together and I was back at work.

The weekend was spent at home. Corbin went to karate and we did some shopping.

It was a quiet and somewhat relaxing March Break - and the weather wasn't too bad this year.

Posted by Adam

March Break - First Half

Unlike past March Breaks, we had no travel plans, largely because of the Disney World trip in January.

The first half of March Break saw me doing as little as possible. Yup, I was King of Loafing. I did a few things here and there, but not much.

We did some things as a family, such as, going to the park, going for drive in the 'country', going to play basketball in the school yard and a trip to the Detroit Science Center.

Played some video games with boys - Corbin earned two rental video games.

All in all, not a bad March Break so far.

Posted by Adam

Home Alone

I took Corbin to Karate class, while Tina took Jeremy to a birthday party.

Corbin did well in his class - only having to do a set of push ups once. Despite his physical tics, Corbin appears to be paying attention and is learning new moves. He just needs to practise more.

It was time to take Bev back to Goderich. Tina decided to take both boys with her to give me some time alone and do some things around the house.

The break from the boys was greatly appreciated.

Posted by Adam

Well That Was Fun

Our boys fall in the "love playing with toys, but hate cleaning them up" category.

Jeremy is an expert at maximizing the 'spread' of toys throughout the house. Sometimes every room in the house - including the bathroom and the laundry room - will have a toy or two (or 30) in it.

Our house is not that big and when the toys start to migrate, it drives me crazy (which in turn drives Tina crazy). Two weeks ago, Tina cleaned up the house, including the crawl space and the toys. She did a terrific job. I was happy.

All was well. Until the boys made a mess.

So, like all other parents, we told them to clean it up. That went over like a lead balloon. Neither child was capable of cleaning up. They couldn't sort Star Wars toys into one bin and animal toys into another.

After repeated warnings, Tina grabbed some garbage bags and we started filling them up with toys. That pushed Jeremy over the edged. He cried his guts out. He even kicked Tina at one point. I found the crying amusing, but I did like filling up those bags. It felt good.

Now the toy bins sit empty on the shelf. The bags are in the garage and they boys, especially Jeremy, will have to sort them and then put them away. Our plan is to temporarily 'retire' some of the toys to minimize the messes and to help the boys concentrate on a few toys. Then we will rotate the toys to keep things fresh.

Posted by Adam

Cleaning the House Via Brantford

Tina made a proposition I could not refuse: take the boys to Brantford and she would clean up the house, crawl space included.

By 4:00 pm I was out on the road and Tina was starting her cleaning project. I told her that any garbage can go in the garage and that I would take care of it.

So I spent the weekend in Brantford, where Babcia entertained the boys for a couple of days and I did nothing. Not a bad deal.

I came back to a pile of crap in the garage (yeah) and a very clean and tidy house (double yeah).

Happy Valentines Day sweety.

Posted by Adam

It's Hot

The air conditioning has been off for about 10 days.

An unbelievable run considering that it is August and this is Windsor. It's usually hot, hazy and humid but this year it's been nice. It gets hot in the afternoon, but usually there is a breeze, so we just keep the windows open night and day.

It's hot today. The temperature inside the house shot up 2 degrees Celsius in one hour. It's mid-afternoon and with no breeze, our south-facing house was getting mighty toasty.

So it was time to turn on the AC. Hopefully, I'll be able to turn off in the evening.

Posted by Adam

Cleaning Continues

With no kids in the house, Tina and I have been concentrating on cleaning up the house . . . and watching movies and shows on TMN On Demand.

Corbin's room is done save for the relocation of some wall hooks and a non-slip mat under the rug. I'm about three-quarters of the way done cleaning up the office/Jeremy's room. Just need to go through the closet, put away all the CDs and DVDs I found, find a home for some containers, put a wall hook and magnet board, and vacuum and wash the floor. I still need to organize the manuals but that can be saved for a rainy day - or when I have access to the dining room table.

Tina has completely cleaned up the rec room. Lots of space for the boys to play in behind the couch. Everything has been dusted and vacuumed. I just need to spend some time organizing the entertainment unit. Again, could be a rainy day or hot, humid day job.

Tina already vacuumed out the crawl space - where I removed the shelves. I just need to find a decent carpet to cover the imperfections in the floor. I need to redo the lighting.

Our bedroom and the bathroom need a good cleaning - I'm hoping to get the bathroom done Thursday before we get Corbin from camp.

Haven't done much outside, I'll be able to work on that next week during my vacation. I need to get quotes for new windows in the basement, a fence between the garage and house, a concrete pad beside the garage and reconstruction of the concrete porch in the backyard, and get two posts on our wooden fence replaced.

We may clean the carpets next week. Maybe.

Posted by Adam

Yard Sale 2008

In an unexpected move, Tina decided to have a yard sale tomorrow. We weren't planning on having one, but Tina has joined the good side and is getting rid of things. We are selling a bunch of toys, furniture, books, kids DVDs and so forth. Jen is bringing some stuff to sell.

Whatever does not get sold will be taken over to Value Village or similar. No holding on to things for the next yard sale. Sell it or dump it.

Posted by Adam

It's Been A Few Weeks

It's becoming hectic around the house. All of us have been sick - some worse than others - over the past few weeks. I got beat good and had to take three days off from work. Tina has an ear infection that is finally improving.

Tina's mom, Bev, is down for two weeks. That meant moving Guinea, the Guinea Pig, from the living room to Corbin's room. Tina sat down with Corbin and laid down the ground rules. So far, it seems to be working out, though Guinea has become more vocal and more demanding with all the traffic walking by in the hallway.

Jeremy is settled in his 'new' room, which also doubles as our 'office'. The room needs a good spring cleaning and I have to move Jeremy's stuff from Corbin's room into Jeremy's room. He doesn't seem to be touching anything he shouldn't be, but I'm sure that will change in time.

I finally got around to planting some more perennials in the Rivard corner flower bed. Tina provided much needed assistance since I also bought four flats of annuals to fill in the blank areas - hoping to stop people from cutting through the bed. She has a good green thumb. Eventually, I want the entire bed filled with perennials. I'm looking at a three to four year time frame.

I also got more mulch and topped off the Rivard bed, hopefully locking in the moisture and soften up the soil some. There were some deep and long cracks in the soil last year - yes it gets that dry here and the clay soil does not help. My next project is to relocate the sand box and have some concrete poured beside the garage to

Having a couple of flats of annuals leftover, I asked Tina if she could plant them in the vegetable garden flowerbed. She said yes and she did an awesome job. But she was achy for a few days. Even Jeremy helped her out by watering each plant with his small watering can. Tina tells me that he wants a bigger watering can, but not as big as Daddy's because that would be too heavy.

Jeremy and Corbin are both in gymnastics - on different days - and doing well. Corbin has a few more horseback riding and tennis lessons.

At school, Corbin received a Student of the Month award for Determination. He was very proud of this achievement. Corbin is doing well. He does times tables in the games room and does very well. Jeremy is, well, Jeremy. He knows more of his letters and his attention span has improved since the surgery and glasses. But boys will be boys.

Recently, Tina accompanied Jeremy as a chaperon for a class trip to the Lazee G Ranch. The kids got to see horse and other animals. I'll have to post some pictures from that outing.

Posted by Adam

Separate Ways

So far, so good with the separate room thing. The boys invite each other to their room to play or watch a movie. Tina likes being able to send them to their own room when both boys are in trouble.

Yesterday, Jeremy helped me put up hooks for his housecoat and clothes. Just have to clear out the closet and some shelves and he should have most of his thing in his room.

Both boys seem to be falling asleep all right, though both of them did get out of bed and complain about being alone. Oh, get over it and get back in bed.

Posted by Adam

On Their Own

Today, the inevitable happened. We moved Jeremy's bed into the office. It was becoming difficult to get the boys ready in the morning and they are both growing, so having both of them play in Corbin's room was becoming problematic.

So Jeremy shares his bedroom with the 'office' aka home of the desk, desktop computer and filing cabinet. We moved the DVD player and monitor into Corbin's room. Corbin was told that despite it being his room, the Jeremy still has the 'right' to watch a movie in his room. Over the next week or so, we will clean up and reorganize the office and move as much of Jeremy's clothes and stuff as possible.

The long-term plan would see the filing cabinet, desk and computer move into the basement behind the couch. Or we may sell the desk and get a smaller desk just for the computer. Time will tell.

Posted by Adam

That's A Lot of Parts

After cooking up a breakfast for Tina, Bev and myself (scrambled eggs with cut up bacon and home fries - with Tina's assistance), it was time for Tina, Bev and Corbin to head to Goderich. Bev was going back home.

That left me with an empty house. That meant it was time to assemble the Mail Center Armoire I had purchased a week or so ago.

The box was heavy. There was lots of styrofoam to protect the various pieces of wood. I pulled each part out and checked it against the list - a very long list. All the parts were there. So began the long process of assembly. I wasn't in a hurry so I took my time.

Assembling the unit was similar to assembling IKEA furniture accept that they wanted you to glue the wood dowels. I thought about that and said to myself "well that makes sense - it makes the unit stronger". Did I mention there were over 40 wood dowels. So I inserted the dowels, screws, bolts and whatever else into the various components. I took a break. I assembled some more. Another break.

After an hour or so, I had the various shelves into one of the sideboards. Attaching the opposite sideboard was tricky but I managed to line up everything. I made one mistake inserting a dowel into a hole it did not belong in.

With the unit upright - it is heavy - I attached the hardware and doors. That was an easy task to do with all the pre-drilled pilot holes. The final task was attaching the back boards. This particular product used screws instead of nails to hold the back board. While a tedious job - 40 screws - it does make for a better quality product, especially since the back board was broken up into several pieces, minimizing the possibility of warping. There were holes for wires and such.

I moved the unit into it's resting place and admired it. It sits well with our furniture and matches the fish tank stand we have. I took break, but was on a roll. It was time to demo the shelf by the front door.

A few bangs and a pull here and there and the shelf was detached from the wall. It is amazing how much larger the front area feels. Of course now I have to patch up the floor and paint the wall, but that is a project for next weekend.

Posted by Adam

New Furniture

Last week, Tina and I did some browsing and shopping sans children. While at Staples, Tina found an armoire for the office. It had a fold down door that transforms into a desk, shelves and mail slots. It was what we were looking for to replace the crappy shelf at the front door - it is our intention to remove that shelf and free up room by the front door.

The unit was on sale, but we didn't buy just then. I looked around online and didn't find anything quite like it. So I stopped by Staples on my lunch yesterday and ordered the unit. Apparently, I purchased the last unit in the city.

It was delivered, for free, during the morning. I just have to assemble the unit. Should be fun.

Posted by Adam

The Sound Of Silence

Tina took the boys and her mom up to Goderich so that Bev could spend some time with Gerry before coming back to Goderich. That meant I had the house to myself. That meant I could sleep in without being woken up by a 4-year old wanting to be fed.

I slept in until 8:30 am. I know it doesn't sound like sleeping in, but trust me, that is at least 90 more minutes of sleep I get on your typical day.

I took my time getting to breakfast. I cut up some bacon and fried the pieces up. Next was 5 or 6 farm fresh eggs, scrambled. I put the bacon in and voila, scrambled eggs with bacon. It was heaven.

The rest of the weekend I did some chores. I cut all the dead perennials and cleaned up the leaves from the flowerbeds. I vacuumed the upstairs. I cleaned the bathroom. I watched TV. I browsed the internet.

Most importantly, the house was quiet and peaceful. Good times.

Posted by Adam

Get This House In Order

We spent most of the day cleaning and tidying up the house. Vacuuming. Dusting. Emptying dishwashers. Laundry. You name it, we did it.

Later in the afternoon, I gave the fish tank a good cleaning. Replaced all the algae covered plastic plants with new plastic plants and gave the glass and log a good scrubbing. Replaced the old heater with a new heater. Changed about one-third of the water. It was cloudy in the tank but that would disappear in a few days.

It was good to get the house nice and tidy.

Posted by Adam

Return To Windsor

The weekend went well. No major problems for the rest of the weekend.

On Saturday, Corbin, Jeremy, Babcia and myself played outside in the snow for almost two hours. the boys had way too much fun - all bundled up in snow pants, gloves and toques.

Later the boys played with Babcia while I worked on the laptop, un-installing and installing software and cleaning up the hard drive.

Sunday was a relaxing day. I packed our stuff and brought it up to the front of the house. The kids played with Babcia while I read the newspaper.

The trip back to Windsor was uneventful. Weather was good for the most part. We stopped in London to grab a bite to eat.

We came back to a garage full of garbage and recycling and a crawl space that was cleared out for the boys to play in. A job well done Tina.

Posted by Adam

The End of an Era...Almost

Today, Tina removed the VCR from the office and a bunch of kids video tapes for Bev & Gerry to take home with them.

Bev mentioned before how their old VCR died. We didn't use the VCR in the office all that much - the boys mostly watched DVDs - so we decided to give them the VCR. Tina also packed in a bunch of toys for the boys so that when we go up to Goderich, the boys can play with something other than dolls and 'girl' toys.

We still have one VCR downstairs, but I think that VCR will be on it's way out before the end of the summer. I haven't used for god knows how long. I see that space being replaced by a HD digital cable tuner with a PVR or maybe a PS3. Who knows?

Posted by Adam