Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Monthly update

Yeah Yeah, I don’t update this much.

What's been happening lately? Sickness :(

L has had an ongoing cough, stuffed up nose for what feels like months now. Ex took him into his doctor's and he now has an inhaler (steroid type I think to help his lungs). We're unsure the cause and can only think it's due to allergies. L is really really cute with it though. He needs a puff in the middle of the night and I almost died at how cute he was the first time I woke him. "L, wake up, it's time for medicine" and he perks right up sticking his face out for the inhaler mask and happily breathes in the medicine and lies right back down to sleep.

L has been making me laugh left and right. His ever expanding vocabulary makes for some awesome sayings. Currently, "ssoowwwy daddy" is one of my favorite L-ism He's also picked up others like "Oh Man" and it's so funny to hear these come from my lil man.

Halloween came and went, and I had L again this year. I found him a train engineer's outfit and a Thomas the Train candy bucket. It was the perfect costume as I took him out with a friend and her son who was dressed like Thomas...they were so cute together. L filled his bucket with candy (and my pockets with all the overflow) and after getting home, we dumped all the loot out for L to check out. He'd pick up a candy and bring it to me asking "Try?", so I would unwrap it and let him try it out. He got one of those candy bracelets, so I put it on his wrist and showed him that you bite pieces off. He bit into a piece and spit it out, hahaha. He started to lose interest in his candy loot and seemed only interested in the lolly pops. So I've got quite the bounty of candy with nobody wanting to eat it. Im glad he doesn't have a sweet tooth yet.

It's only been a few days since he went back to his mom's, but I'm already counting the days til I get him back. I miss his laugh, our games and teaching him everything I can. I recently found a flash card game for my iPhone that has alphabet cards and pictures of animals that start with each letter. It talks "A… Alligator; B…. Bee," etc. L loves it and asks for my phone to play with it all the time. It's hilarious when he tries some of the animal names like "hippopotamus" or "kangaroo", and it's amazing to see him pick them up so quickly. Each time you open the app there's slightly different animals, so always something for him to learn. You can also double-tap the cards, and it changes the screen to let you draw the letters with your finger. L hasn't gotten the hang of this part yet and just scribbles ("draws") over the space, but Im sure he'll get the hang of it. I've been trying to find more and more apps like this one as he really enjoys them and great learning tools.

I've been starting to think of Christmas, and excited as I get him for 2 full weeks (it's "my" week the week before Xmas, and it's "my" year to get him for the Xmas week….But, then I wont see him for 2 weeks as the same scenario plays out for ex). But still, I can't wait as he's definitely starting to understand the concept of holidays and activities. Im sure he'll be excited for all the presents he'll get and the arrival of Santa. Im a bit worried about him getting spoiled with presents, only because he's already got so many toys/clothes/books etc that it takes over my apartment. I wanted to see the feasibility of paying to get him enrolled in a proper daycare/school setting, but ex passing on her debts to me is just making this impossible. Although I have a great job and lower and lower expenses, Im still saddled with thousands of $$ of extra debt. I cannot wait for the time where I get this cleared out and able to re-build, but for now, just going to live as cheaply as possible.

Onto the shitty shitty stuff, and completely screwing that last plan to conserve funds, I had an incident with my car. The short of it, my car didn't stop, hit a curb with the front driverside tire and basically took a chunk out of my rim :*(. So now I've either got to replace an entire rim and tire ($800+) or look into winter tires now and get 4 steel rims and 4 winters for about the same cost. In addition to the other lil things that broke (about $1k of parts n labour). FML. Seriously such horrible timing. Looks like I'll be in lockdown mode for some time. And I'm looking into selling off stuff to fund these repairs. I feel sometimes that I have 0 luck when it comes to cars. Maybe my next one will just be a beater, clearly I'm undeserving of a nice car.

That's about it, rest of my time's been taken up with poker (cashed a couple decent amounts in tourney, last being a $5 KO with 900+ people and I chopped the 1st 2nd & 3rd place money with the 2 other guys that lasted for a bit more than $600 each), playing the new Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 (freaking amazing game), and hanging out with buddies. Oh and work, but that's a given. As these are little to no cost activites, I don't see this changing for a while. No snowboarding for me this year :(

Boo.

Also, Im always looking for new shows/ movie suggestions as having no cable, it's hard to find good shows to watch. Here's what Im grabbing weekly:

Heroes
Californication
Dexter
Castle
The Big Bang Theory
Two and a Half Men (pretty dull though)
How I Met Your Mother
Curb your Enthusiasm
Family Guy
Simpsons
American Dad
Bored to Death
Community
The League (new show with Jon Lajoie!)
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Flash Forward
30 Rock
The Office
South Park
V
Parks & Recreation
Mad Men

Any suggestions for interesting TV?


-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, October 30, 2009

Wheelin & Dealin

Again, Im horrible at updating this. Without a bus commute anymore, I have a hard time finding the time to write. And I don't miss the bus commute, so blog suffers.

Things have been pretty normal and not much to update on. At work, a co-worker is off on leave for a while, and Im taking over a bunch of her files. So I've been quite busy at work handling my workload and the
increase from hers. It's satisfying though when I pump out contracts and get buys done.

Halloween's a coming, and I have L again this year (yay). We're going to go out shopping after work and pick out a costume for him. Im hoping to bring him to the stores and have him choose his outfit. Then for Trick or Treatin, we're going to meet up with a friend and go out together. Should be fun this year as I think he was still a bit young to understand what was happening last year.

On other news, I posted my first 'hot deal' to redflagdeals.com. This is a website I've watched constantly for the last few years. It's a site where people post deals (duh) on anything and everything. In the past, I've used the site for many big sales saving $1000's easily. Last week, I go the weekly flyers in the mail and looking at Best Buy's flyer, they had a new promo to trade in used games. You could trade 3 and get 1 new $70 game free or trade 4 and get 2! Games to trade in had to be worth more than $9 to BB. A good deal if you have older games lying around and want to exchange them. But what made this a hot deal was the fact that you could go around to other stores like Rogers, Blcokbuster, etc and find qualifying games for $5-$20. So say on the worst side you could only find $20 that worked, that means you'd spend $80 to get $140+ in new games (and best case being spend $20 for the same $140 in credit!). Other factors for this was BB was screwing things up so bad, some people were getting the games AND keeping the gift card that had the value of the traded-in games. Also, some people were able to excahnge the new games for full store credit, meaning you weren't limited to getting new games, you could get anything that Best Buy sells. 1 guy in the forum was able to rack up about $800 in store credit after spending only about $120! Best buy was slow to catch on, but by the 2nd week, they adjusted the trade in values so they weren't accepting so many easy to find cheap games.

Still, in just over a week, the forum I started has more than 2000 posts and over 140,000 views!

I had my car in recently for it's first service appointment and finally made arrangement to get the dealer to pay for window tinting. Car came back looking slick. Nice dark black tint on the black car looks great. Still have a few more cosmetic changes to do on the car, but Im really happy with how it's coming along. I still really want to get a new set of rims for the car, but I'll likely be delaying this for a while. Im thinking if I delay getting winter tires this season, then the cost savings could justify rims next year. That way, I'd use my current rims next winter for the winter tires, and keep my summer's on the new rims. Again, just a hope, reality will likely keep it a future purchase for
quite a while.

That's about it for now, no idea when I'll update again


-- Posted From My iPhone

Monday, September 28, 2009

So I suck

At updates. Don't know why, but I just don't think to post here much. Lots of changes have been going on though.

Biggest change recently is my financial position. When ex and I split, we had our lawyers draw up a seperation agreement. Part of it detailed our debts and who would be responsible for them. Ex had 2 big debts to take on that were either under my name, or under both of us. Fastforward to august, I find out ex has declared bankruptcy!?! Never a heads up, no discussion about it, just creditors getting notice she won't be paying. Think I'm covered?? Nope! Our seperation agreement is between us, not the original creditors, so all that "her" debt falls back on me :(

How'd this happen? Ex had a good job...or at least I thought. That's the next big change, ex got let go from her job!!? Why? No clue. But 2 months before she goes on mat leave for kid #2, must have been pretty major.

So these debts are now my responsibility, without even a "sorry" from ex to me OR my parents (one of the creditors she had no problem screwing over). Nice slap in the face to those that supported.

L on the other hand has been doing amazing. He turned 2(!) and we had a flurry of kid parties over the last few weeks as a bunch of friends all have their kids' turning 2 this month. It's really cool to see him playing with other kids, his personality really shows through.

He's talking more & more, and is getting great at imitating me. It's hilariously cute when he laughs, then I laugh with a different sound, and he mimics it. So funny!

I finally managed to set up his room properly too. I hung some shelves, and stocked it up with his favorite toys. Now his room is a favorite hang out spot for him. And it helps keep the kid 'mess' isolated and easy to tidy up after.

That's about it I guess, hope to update a bit more frequently than I have lately


-- Posted From My iPhone

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Mobile video 1

Let's see if this works



-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, August 14, 2009

Pricing error madness

Don't know what's up this week with online stores, but it's been price error after price error. First, Dell's website was supposed to have 1 item (a laptop bag) on sale for $32 off. BUT Dell applied the discount pretty much site wide! I tried ordering a few things, and even though other people were successful, my order got cancelled :(

Next up was a US only deal, but was big enough to make news articles. This time BestBuy US has a 52" LCD for $9.99!!! This was an obvious error though, and BB cancelled the orders. (that tv retails for like $2000+)

Lastly, this morning was nutso! Futureshop mistakenly applied $150 off all orders! Again, I managed to order a few things, and thinking I was smart, chose in store pick up so I could get it today. But, FS fixed error and I got an email that the store couldn't supply my order :(. Others on the forum I found out about this were in the same boat, except a chunk of people who chose to have their orders shipped. Apparently those "shipping" orders are getting confirmed, though still possible they'll get cancelled.

Boo, I wanted free stuff :(

Sometimes these deals do work though (I've gotten $4 xbox 360 games, other free stuff, etc). So I definitely recommend daily reading of http://redflagdeals.com ; still great even without pricing errors.


-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, August 6, 2009

My kid is awesome

So I got L for the night yesterday after almost a whole week away. OMG, missed him!! Picking him up at daycare, he must've felt the same as he came running up the stairs yelling "daddy daddy daddy" and jumped into my arms.

We headed out to our park and he played on everything, seriously. This park has 3 sets of swings, 2 play structures, a wadding pool and a ton of toys for kids to play with. We went around and played with/on every single thing.

On the way home, I started him doing his cute animal sounds. I'm trying to teach him a few new ones like turkeys say "gobble gobble" and his version is hilarious. I also practiced his number counting and he's almost got 1-10 down! His words combined with his cute lil voice is seriously awesome. I'm going to try and get it all on video this weekend.

Our night routine went smooth and both of us got a good night's sleep. Back to daycare and his mom's tonight, but then back for my week starting tomorrow.

-- Post From My iPhone

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Non updates

Just haven't been feeling like updating this in a while. That, and I was posting via my phone when taking the bus and just don't have the free time now that I avoid the bus. And the lack of commentors just all add to not updating this on the regular.

But, L's doing great. His vocabulary is expanding like crazy. Right now, it's so cute getting him to do animal sounds. He knows them all! "what does a cat say?" "meow meow", a dog? "woof", a frog? "ribbit" (super cute), a lion? "rawwwr", a sheep? "baaaaa" etc etc.

My new place is still coming along. I try and get a little progress made everyday, but have a couple big jobs like painting to get done.

New iPhone is sweet. Everything is much faster. I had no problem jailbreaking and got all my needed apps back. I've started playing around with Simplify Media and then going to get my account linked with done friends who use it too. It lets you access all your media on your home pc via the phone. You can also share your collection with 30 ppl and access their media too. Hello 100's of GB of music wherever I am.

Long weekend ahead, but only cause I took holidays. WorkIng on the Quebec side, we don't get the august holiday. Booo. But some big plans so I'm looking forward... Especially if I run into those from nfld again ;)

A friend is in town visiting with her new daughter and L & I had a little BBQ fun with them. At first L wanted nothing to do with them, trying to say "bye" to them when we first arrived, but after a short warm up period, L started to get comfy with them and had a ton of fun. It was really cool to see her and her daughter, and great she finally got to meet my little one.

So yeah, want more consistant updates? Leave comments!! Lol



-- Post From My iPhone

Monday, July 6, 2009

Stupid Rogers

Grrr, called to find out status on my 3GS only to be told it was delivered (to the old address) and they signed for it??!! Bah, so they have to get UPS to go claim it back, then forward to me. Good news though as it allowed for getting a month of bill credits for their screw up.

Other stupid Rogers mistakes ended up with no Internet at new place. I guess when I told them my new address the agent wasn't smart enough to actually order the relocation and just changed the address to bill. Boo, so no home Internet until Friday :/

---

wow, "ex" is just getting ridiculous. Wanting to send her bf to my parents house to pick up our son and not understanding why it's inappropriate. Threatening cops/custody and all kinds of shit. All for nothing. She said she had to work late and couldn't come pick him up. I told her that my parents and I were home and could watch him another day. This way she could continue working and L would be with family. Pretty reasonable I thought, and would help her out, but no, suggestion/offer didn't go over well (for no reason provided). And all the fighting/arguing all rendered moot as she came and picked him up anyways. Just another in the long, frustrating saga of trying to reason and provide the best care for our son.

On the other hand, he's doing awesome. My parents have this cool Nemo interactive book that L mastered with us. You turn to a page and touch a picture, then hunt for the actual item in the drawing. The book knows where you touch, and you get encouraging sounds when you locate the item sought. L was amazing at it, completely understanding all kinds of words and finding the right shapes/things it asked for. Things like "find the treasure chest" and L would touch it perfectly. Really cool.

I'll be moved in fully and get him back wednesday and can't wait to see his reaction to the new place. Loving it so far as I took long walks around the area this weekend.

Also got out yesterday to play a bit of tennis with a buddy. It's been a long time since I've picked up a racket and was happily suprised I could still play. My friend was still learning and I tried passing on some tips I remember learning in the various lessons/camps I went to growing up. Mainly though it was just fun being out and doing something active. It was also gorgeous out and perfect day to play. Looking forward to more games. (our lil game went 6-1, 6-2 I think).

Anyways, other than the drama, great weekend even tho I skipped on the cottage trip some buddies went on.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Monday, June 29, 2009

Updates

So, about time I update this with all that' been going on. It's been busy over the last bit with tons of changes happening.

On life:

- L & I have moved! The closing date on my condo sale was Friday, and we got everything packed up and moved. Still have to wait a week before our new place is available, so we're staying with my parents. L loves it there. He loves the hot tub, the long walks & all the playing in the river.
- Bank really screwed me with the sale of the condo. Back in September last year, "ex" & I went into the bank to figure out what it would cost to pay off our mortgage. We used this info to decide that I would sell the condo. Well, fast forward 9 months (ie, 9 months of bi-weekly payments), and now the bank wants a few thousand $$ more! So frustrating! I was able to get the penalty reduced, but still not to what was expected.
- New car's still treating me well, though a buddy chipped a tiny piece of paint when he over-zealously opened the door.
- Cant wait to move into the new place. Though it's fun being back at home and having my parents around, I'm anxious to get set up.
- Ordered the new iPhone 3GS. I didn't think I was going to bother, but Rogers extended their promotional pricing to certain existing customers. See, when I first got the 3G, pricing was $199/$299 for the 8GB/16GB (I got the 8). With the new 3GS, pricing was set the same (this time for 16GB/32GB) however for new customers only. Rogers had stated that current 3G users could upgrade, but only at the un-subsidized pricing ($699/$799!). So I was happy to find out that Rogers was offering the $199/299 pricing to some 3G users. I called and was offered the promo price....sweet! As non-contract 3G phones still hold considerable value, I'm planning to sell my 8gb for $100. So it's costing me $100 to upgrade which I find funny as it would've cost $100 extra to get the 16GB last year. So in effect I'm paying the same upgrade price, but instead of just extra memory, I get all the benefits of the new model. Yay! & thank you Rogers!
- Works been tough over the last bit. A million different things all happening at the same time, so I'm finding it hard to get stuff done. Everything's a priority so managing what actually IS required first. That and I'm supporting another project as their procurement officer is in another country, I'm working on issues that come up there as well.

On "ex":

- Causing me stress! Things are just so frustrating dealing with her. example, I'm packing up my stuff & know I need to pack a weeks worth of clothes for when L & myself stay at my parents. So I go looking for my suitcase and realize it's not at my house. Then I remember I had lent it to "ex" for her b-day weekend trip to her parents (about a month ago). I send her a message asking her if she could bring it with L to daycare so that I can use it for my move. She eventually gets back to me saying she has no idea what I'm talking about, & that she returned my suitcase in November after Jamaica?!?! I tried reminding her that this was much more recent that November, but she was sticking to her guns that she did NOT borrow it recently, doesn't have it, and is completely unwilling to replace. I try reminding her of the fact that she used it just a month ago, and must remember benefiting from the added wheels that are on my suitcase and not on the rest of the set we split up. Still nothing. She claims to have no recollection borrowing it and that I was shit out of luck. I ask if she could please just check at her bf's parents (where she just moved into) that night as it was important I get it and I was sure she had it. Reluctantly ( and sarcastically) agrees that she'lllook for it, and guess what? She had it! She sent me a message saying she had move all of the boxes from one side of the basement to the other and found it on the bottom. No apology for her "I don't remember borrowing it, so screw you" attitude and even said "don't lecture me". OMG. Never again will anything be lent to her without some kind of written rental form as she was so willing to tell me she had no responsibility for it.
- She also left this note/calendar thing in L's bag telling me that I had to input all my holidays and return the form the next day. Uh sorry, but don't know why she'd expect this, especially within her 4 hour timeline she provided. So when I ask her yesterday when she was taking L this week, I get a reminder she had put her days on the calendar. I guess oblivious to the fact I have just moved, I reply saying the paperwork is all packed up in storage & I hadn't memorized it. Another sarcastically rude message back from her that she was thankful I so considerately returned it, I was happy to end the convo right there. No point even trying to reason with her, especially after her cavalier attitude about my $200 suitcase left in her care that she had no responsibility for had it gone missing.
- I just hate how I can't rely on anything from her. Always working on her own agenda. And love her backhand comments she adds on her blog (last one about how L was overly dressed on a warm day...haha, omg not shoes and socks!). Lol cause I had picked him up the week earlier on a gloomy/rainy day and he was in shorts and a tank top with no change of clothes, and without proper shoes.

On L:

- This kid is just too awesome. We went to the beach the other day and he loved playing in the water. He loves throwing stones and splashing in the water.
- His vocabulary seems to grow daily. We were all amused by his "ribbit ribbit" as he played with a little frog toy, so cute! It's still a bit tough to figure out some of what he's saying, but it's great to see him forming new words and chaining them together.
- He'a having a great time at my parents. Visits from his cousin are cute as they play together. We all take turns taking him out on walks in the wagon. It's cool as I pass neighbours that remember when I was that little and introduce him to them.
- He must be having some weird dreams sometimes. Last night, he "woke" a few times crying. I put woke in quotes as he's not actually awake. Most times, the second I open the door to his room, he stops. Last night though, I went in and he continued his cries for a bit. Sounded like "waaah wahhh car waaah car, etc" and I had to startle him awake, cuddle for a bit, then kissed and put back down. Just makes me wonder what kind of car nightmares he was having.
- To sum up, he's the best!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

No time

Sorry I haven't been updating this recently, too much going on right now. I hope to update soon though as lots has been happening over the last bit. Lots.

So, lil bit of patience, and more to come ;)


-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Not my fault

But I still get the blame. I told "ex" this weekend I'd take L overnight on Monday. She calls me that morning after dropping him off to say that daycare lady needs an early pick up. I had training all day, and couldn't guarantee I'd be there on time, so I let "ex" know I couldn't make it, and to change my overnight to Wednesday. I just get a text reply "shit. fine". The end?

Hardly. The next day she sends me an email saying I bailed on our son, etc etc. Tried to tell me it was all my fault, her night was busy etc. I tried explaining it was daycare lady that screwed everything up, and had we received proper notice, I never would have taken the Monday. I understood the crappy situation it created, but it was the lack of notice, not me bailing on my son.

No amount of reasoning with her could get her to understand. Just had to end the conversation at "sorry it happened, but not my fault". Had it been me, I'd have simply explained to daycare lady that the early pick up wasn't possible, and the short notice was unacceptable.

So anyways, I had L last night and we had a ton of fun. After harrassing the dogs at the park and riding the slides/swings etc, we came home for dinner. After his bath, I was playing games with him, getting Hun laughing hysterically. A bit too much at one point, as he got the hiccups and puked a bit. I put an end to the game, read him sine bedtime stories, and put him to bed. Great night!

This Friday I'm getting L dropped off to me instead of daycare so I can bring him into work. We're having an annual bbq day, so it'll be a great chance for work people to meet him while having a nice day outside for L. Should be fun, I'll try and remember the camera.

Still no apartment. Working on the back up plan, but still have a few last chances. Fingers crossed!


-- Posted From My iPhone

Monday, June 8, 2009

Homeless

I re-sold the house last weekend!! Still a few days to clear the conditions, but looks like a done deal.

I've been apartment hunting like mad, and hard to find a place that's basically vacant now as I have to be moved in less than 3 weeks!!

So far, found a place that'll work, though a bit on the expensive side. I figure I'll suck it up and take it and move again when I find the perfect spot. This place I found is part of a duplex (or triplex) where the owner lives in one of the places. He seemed pretty chill and flexible to my situation. A few more to see, but so far looking like I'll take it.

New car is awesome! Except for my friends' horrible 'not my forte' jokes, but to be expected I guess. Still do want it tinted (black on black leather cooks in the sun), and maybe a few other small mods as the aftermarket parts become available.

Liam's doing great. We have a ton of fun out at the parks now that the weather's cooperating. I bring him to this popular park where lots of other parents go. He plays with other kids and it's cool to see the interactions. He chases pigeons, laughing & freaking out when they fly away. We chase down pretty much every puppy that comes around so he can say hi.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I've been pretty busy with the whole new car/house sale/apartment hunting. Lots of other stuff going on, but figure a small update is better than nothing.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, May 29, 2009

Pointless poppycock

So all the issues with logistics and L starting this weekend disappeared. My car came in and thus will have no problems. How much easier this all would have gone had "ex" just stayed by her promise? There'd have been no arguments, no worry, just all solution. My car would've come in time and there'd have been no need for her help. But no, that didn't happen, but at least I'm all set for L'a return later today :)

Yeah, my car. I got a call at work Wednesday letting me know it arrived. A buddy from work offered a ride over to the dealership and we took off. Quickly noticed my car in the lot, and my friend (who just got himself an 09 Lexus IS250 I think) was impressed too.

We got the salesguy and headed out for the test drive. He explained the story of 500kms on the car to me as we drove. Apparently, Kia Canada had a sales meeting in Toronto showing off the new lineup. The sole black, automatic, SX model was bought by the Smiths Falls Kia owner. My dealership worked it out to get from him, and so the car had been driven from TO to Smiths Falls to Ottawa.

Not horrible, but I was okay with their compensation offering. Except, they were trying to pull a fast one here it seemed. K, so the test drive went well, got back and my friend left. I went in to hammer out the paperwork. This is where it got weird. He said the things he was offering in the deal had to be itemized on the bill of sale. So there they were, package a for $x, package b for $y, etc. Only there was no equivalent deductions anywhere to reflect that these were in fact free. The costs were being adding in to the total (!??!)

All apologetic, we went through probably 10 iterations of this form, but I couldn't help but think this is where they try to fuck people. I didn't really believe his sincerity about the errors, but I kept driving the price & payments down.

We still needs to go get registered/plates and go to a bank for the withdrawal authorization form. I was probably at the dealership for 6 hours before finally pulling out in the new ride. So far super happy with it, though a full review to come soon. Single complaint so far is the USB port FOR iPods doesn't work with my iPhone :( When I connect it, the screen shows "USB connecting" while my phone just goes from charging, not charging, charging, not... etc. until finally, an error on the screen that it can't connect :(

There is a 1/8" audio jack that I can use with the headphone port, but it means controlling tracks is all on the phone and not through the system like it's supposed to. I actually more hate that it means it won't charge my phone and I'll have to get the lighter power adapter. Also, I think I have a USB stick somewhere that I can dump my music onto and plug that into the stereo.

All in all I am very pleased so far. My payments came down a chunk from what I thought I'd be paying, the car drives well & looks good. Yay to the car!

And sure, a thank you to "ex" for being the one to make it happen. *I* would never pick the Escape, but hope she likes it as I do my Forte.

Peep this:



-- Posted From My iPhone

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Utter frustration

So things just get worse when others start to go right. I got an email from "ex" to "discuss" our drop off situation of L at daycare. As we're both on our way to owning our own cars, we both agree that we'll be able to cut out the tradeoffs, and replace with just picking him up from daycare on our nights.

Why I say "discuss" in quotes, is because she outined the changes and says I have 24hrs to comply. Um, sorry but that's unacceptable. She just keeps harping the whole "well, this is a reasonable request, so you have to do it". Nope! It's not reasonable for her to expect me to accomodate when I haven't even gotten my car yet.

I tried reminding her of her many promises about the car situation. I told her it could take upwards of a month to get my own car after she takes in the Rondo, considering the loan was in my name and needed to get cleared to enable my credit rating to support another car loan. Many many times she promised that she would do whatever it took to ensure the transition went well.

So I reply to her email letting her know that, while I agree about needing to change things up, the timeline she was imposing was unreasonable. I reminded her I may not have my car in this week, and thus can't guarantee I'd be able to pick him up myself Friday. She replies telling me "tough luck" and restates it's not her problem, this is how it will be.

Sounds reasonable to you? To any sane person?

It gets to the point I tell her we need to discuss this as we're both trying to move ahead, just need to work out the details. As I was getting L that night, we were to discuss when she drops him off. So she arrives at my place and immediately tells me that she's talked with her lawyer, her request is "reasonable" and tough shit for me if I can't do it.

Again, I remind her it was a condition of selling the Rondo that she respect the transition time and allows for adequate time to replace my vehicle. She agrees that I said that, however, she says "I never put it in writing anywhere" (basically, "I know I promised you I wouldn't try and screw you, but I've changed my mind and you don't have any proof aside from both of us knowing what we agreed to, so you're fucked"). Just another to the monster list of lies and deceipt.

It degenerates as she is completely unwilling to compromise. Her bf even chimes in to try and explain it to her, but no luck getting through. They leave, and I start my fun time with L. Except a few mins later I get a call from the bf offering help to make things transition smooth. At least one of them understands simple situations.

But wow, she just has no clue. What happens when I go on compressed schedule and take every other Friday off? L wouldn't go into daycare, and she'd have to pick him up from my place. Or what about when her pregnant ass starts staying home? She going to drive L in to daycare? And when the newborn comes, she'll be driving L around? Not likely!

She just thinks it's all clear cut and doesn't require any kind of planning. She can't see the impact down the road and just assumes her demands are reasonable.

Do I have a solution? Unfortunately no. That's why I wanted to discuss it out and plan for the different scenarios. Her input to that? Well X isn't for another Y months so we don't even need to think about it. Except there's some big X's happening in small amount of Y's. And they ARE happening, these aren't hypotheticals.

She's told me she's adamantly against changing the weekly schedule even in the face of my concerns, upcoming changes, etc.

Now tell me, I'm trying to work things out for our mutual benefit with L's interests at heart; she's doesn't want to hear anything that's not a complete agreement with her.... so who's being reasonable here?


-- Posted From My iPhone

Monday, May 25, 2009

So stupid!

Gah, when is this ridiculousness going to stop?? What am I talking about? The big problem? "ex" continues her smears, this time by telling people who they can (or more accurately, who they can't) follow on Twitter.

How'd this start? A while back I posted how "ex" sent out a message to mutual friends telling them to remove me as a "friend" on facebook. A few did, most ignored it. One of those people who removed me (said wasn't his choice exactly) ended up adding me on twitter. I got in touch with him explaining that it's probably best not to be followers of each other as "ex" would most likely have problems with it.

But as time passed, "ex" continued to add my friends to her Twitter (uh, double standard much?), so I decided I guess it's fine to add some friends to mine. Seems reasonable, right?

I guess not. "ex" sent out a message asking to remove me from their twitter. LOL. It's not like it changes a single thing, except how I'm not allowed to show I'm friends with certain people, but completely acceptable for her.

The pettiness continues to surprise me. You'd think by now it wouldn't even matter. But no, she continues to try and control what others do, hypocritically.

And here I was thinking I had seen the end of the hypocrisy (or better yet, hypocrazy). Guess not :(

-- Posted From My iPhone

Crack a bottle

This was the weekend of getting shit done. First up, I finally got the call from the dealership to let me know my financing was approved. But still have to wait until either today or tomorrow to find out when my make/model is actually going to arrive. As I really need to get the car by Friday, I'm hopeful that's the case.

Other big finish is my house is "sold". Well, accepted an offer and just have to go through the hoops associated with closing. Didn't get full asking, but a fair amount above the level the other units sold for recently. Pretty aggressive schedule too, so I've got to get finding a new place asap.

I'm fairly sure I'll be looking on the dark side (read: gatineau) for the new place. I work there, rent is considerably cheaper, daycare is ridiculously cheap and I'll have my own car soon. Lots of advantages. But I have no idea how, logistically, things will work. I expect super resistance and just hope things can be worked out civilly. Back up ready tho.

So yeah, a couple big "to-do"s crossed off this weekend and getting on track. Feels good!

-- Posted From My iPhone

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Yeah, I know what day it is

But don't care.

More important, today I'll find out what the deal is with my car.

Can't wait!!


-- Posted From My iPhone

Sunday, May 17, 2009

This is my forte

So, after hunting around for cars, I'm pretty sure I'll be driving a 2010 Kia Forte SX. I've got the dealership hunting down the info from Kia Canada as there've been no SXs delivered anywhere. The dealership I'm going through is the highest volume dealer and apparently gets first dibs on all cars.

So I went in, put a deposit down, and find out Tuesday when the car will be ready. I'm having the dealership order me the model/color I want, and once test drive is done, I'll be driving it away. As such, they say I'll be the very first owner of an SX model in Canada! Neato.

Can't wait til Tuesday to find out the specifics!!


-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, May 15, 2009

Need a ride

I've been sick this past week, and haven't thought to update this. Lots going on, biggest thing being, I need to get a car!

"ex" worked out a way for us to unload our shared, headache-inducing car, so I've now got a ticking clock to get my own car. I'm pretty excited about it, but completely torn with choices.

What I WANT:
Audi A3. I was trying to find an 06 or newer, but still found them out of my price range. Audi's really hold their value well, and I came across many listing with close to 200K Kms still fetching a good amount. So, I'll be pushing off that idea until at least my next car purchase. Too bad too, there were a few A3/A4's that were close in price range, but mileage was too high for me. Hopefully next time around I can visit them again, and they just keep getting nicer every year (and a new A1 model coming out).

So, then I turned my attention to a lease takeover. I like this idea as it puts me in a car without a long term commitment to it. Also, as the ppl trying to get out of a lease are usually in need to do so, there's some deals to be had. I'm going to check this out tomorrow:
It's a 2007 VW Rabbit. I'd be taking over this car for 2 years, at a monthly cost I can afford and I'd be able to just walk away from it at the end (or buy for another $13K, but doubt I'd be interested). BUT, I'm having 2nd thoughts about it. Over the 2 years I'd basically be burning $10K+ in the payments.

SO, then I started new car hunting again. My dad had suggested checking out some of the domestic models as a ton of dealers are going under / being shut down. Big problem though, domestic cars are ugly/crappy/not my thing. I mean there's obviously a few exceptions, but those are generally the ones considerably out of my price range. Nothing appeals to me in the entry-ish level cars these guys offer.

I began poking around and found some interesting cars to check out (new Mazda 3, Rabbit, GTI, Civics, etc) but although decent starting price points, by the time I've configured mine, they're just too pricey (or lacking options I want).

I grabbed my mail today, and inside was an invite to some Kia event going on at the dealership we bought the last 2 cars from. We had originally bought an 06 Rio5, but upgraded to the Rondo to give us that extra space for L. I was happy with the Rio while we had it. It drove well, had great options, but just wasn't big enough for us. I hated the Rondo, but manly because it just felt like driving a mini van. The car itself was alright, but it'd never be a choice for me.

But what's this? some new cars in their line-up for 2010? I had seen the new Kia Soul before, and although I found it pretty nice, I'm not interested in a SUV-like car. I'd much prefer a nice little hatchback or sedan. It's the other new model that's got me interested.
This is the 2010 Kia Forte. I have to say, it may just be the perfect choice. Great price point for a fully loaded model with the options I'm after. I sent a couple of info requests out to see when these are available. The 1 crappy part, was the picture I first saw of this car was a 2dr coupe version. It had nicer styling to me, but it doesn't seem like Kia's offering it this year, at least in Canada :/ But I do still like this 4dr, and judging by the financing calculations on Kia's site, this car is right in my price range. The downside being, I'll be back in the 'locked into a car' for the next few years. Not horrible, it just seems that after about 2 years I'm changing cars, and I'd be looking at a 5 year commitment on this one.

Anyways, hoping they have or can get quickly a Black SX Automatic for me somewhere in Ottawa. Then take it out for a test drive and make the decision...but this is the new front runner.


Any suggestions of other cars to check out?

Friday, May 8, 2009

Ghost in the Machine

Saw this neat post about a Flickr gallery called Ghost in the Machine





Robert Smith - The Cure


Check out the Hendrix one!

-- Posted From My iPhone

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Where to begin

So much crap going on, I don't even know where to start.

Still haven't received any news on "ex"s supposed restraining order. Big shocker. What's funny to me is she emailed friends telling them to remove links to her blog on their websites...? Then, added this ridiculous bs copywrite message on her blog trying to somehow say linking (and a bunch of other stuff) is basically illegal and will be enforced. Fucking LOL!! I'd like to see what google thinks of her trying to own a blogspot domain. What, she's gonna sue google because it publishes content she writes in rss feeds etc across the Internet?? Sorry, it's not yours to own.

And then I get a phone call from her demanding I remove the link on my site. Wow. Just wow. Again, threatening legal action and I just had to end the call there. Later on I get an email (cc'd to her lawyer) again demanding the removal of the link. So sick of dealing with this, I replied to both asking for the threats to stop and advised I'm now forced to change email accounts to avoid receiving empty (though still stress-causing) threats.

God, the time she wastes with her lawyer is unbelievable!

I got a call from her later to update me on what's going on with our car. Not much, and conversation was just tossing ideas around. Apparently we'll find out more this weekend what she's going to do. Then she mentions I'll be getting a registered letter to advise me of her upcoming changes of address. I ask her to just tell me what's happening, and a few teeth pulled later, she explains it. Come June, she's moving to a temporary address for 6 months, then a permanent one. I ask what she means by the temp one, trying to figure out where she's taking my son. Then the usual retarded response that it's none of my business. Omfg! This is L's residence 50% of the time and she doesn't think it's any of my business??

After more prying, she finally explains it. Her, bf & my son are moving in with the bf's PARENTS!!!! For 6 months!!!! Omg, this is the same girl who LAUGHED at me and posted derogatory comments when I had mentioned to possibility of moving to my parents should my house sell and I not find a suitable apartment. I saw messages like " what a pathetic loser" & "30 year old moving in with parents? What a loser" etc (paraphrased). And while mine was only a passing thought about my options, she's actually going to do it, and even better, with HIS parents. Too funny!!

Bah, I can't wait for the time when I don't have anything to say about "ex" and can just live my life without "fear" of what insane situation will arise.

L's been doing well, but continues to demand tv (or elmo, movies, babies as he points at the tv). And to make it even worse, my video card is crapping out, and I can't keep it running more than a few minutes.

Even more disturbing though, my kid is a biter. Anytime he gets frustrated he seems to want to clamp down on something with his teeth. Lately, I've seen him put his palm up to his mouth and bite down on it. I'm a bit worried how this may continue around other kids and he may bite another kid. So I'm trying to curb this behaviour.

Swimming has been going great. He's getting more confident, and now with the warmer weather rolling in, I look forward to the outdoor pools.

Off to a friends' place tonight for a BBQ, and works out great, as L & I have to make ourselves scarce around dinner time as I've got 2 interested parties coming to view my house (!) Oh yeah, did I mention it's finally listed??! Woot, another step towards setting my life up proper and I can't wait to start looking for a new place.

Bunch of other crap on the go, but don't even want to open that can of worms.

Live and let live, repeated in my head non stop.


Ps, no comments on those videos??? But he's so cute??! Lol

-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, May 1, 2009

the munchkin - part 2

Part 2 - Videos

Bath Time:


Hide n Seek Tickles:


Spit Shine Squishy Face:


I really have no idea where he picked up the spit shine move.I find it kind of gross and try and discourage it. Had to grab a video of it though, cause it is cute.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

No news

Another day passes and I haven't "been served". I haven't heard anything more, and continue to wait.

But trying to ignore it and enjoy my days. Work is going well, and although I have a busy schedule coming up this summer, it seems like I might end up switching positions for a while. One of the higher up is off on leave and basically creating a vacant spot that needs to be filled. So I've put in my interest, and by the looks of things, am the only one doing so.

It'll be interesting if it pans out, and though not a long term thing, definitely makes it easier for future openings.

I get my lil man back tomorrow and can't wait to see him. Lots to do this weekend with him, and I think it's the start of the long haul of multi weekends with his mom. Stupid holidays, but can't complain as I really enjoyed the extra time in April, I'm sure his mom will feel the same.

Also my house should be going on the market this weekend, and looking forward to another leap towards my goals. Big weekend!


-- Posted From My iPhone

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Restraining order??

Apparently I'm about to get one. Why? Not sure. Just another one of those wacky threats I get.

What will it restrain? No idea.

What's the point? Absolutely no idea.

What's the problem? <---- I REALLY don't know!!

-- Posted From My iPhone

Waaaaaah!

The Internet is not private, waaaah

People can read what I write, waaaah

Me thinks somebody just has no clue.


-- Posted From My iPhone

Excessive blog checking

So, I'll finally be posting stats for a visitor. Yesterday & today someone from the domain mail.veritaaq.ca is just going through every single page here. Today, visit started about 11:15, with continual page views right up to 12. Yesterday was pretty much the same as this person goes through every single post made.

Stay tuned, I'll add some screenshots (LOL!!).

My guess is a certain someone, don't think many coworkers even care.

Updated:



-- Posted From My iPhone

Monday, April 27, 2009

Seriously??

So I see "ex" after work today so she can drop off L with me. I'm driving her back to her place and ask if she had any news to share.

She says not really, and begins to give status quo updates about the car, her house... when I stop her and ask, "what about new additions to your family?". She says there's nothing new, asking what I mean. So I ask flat out "so are you pregnant?". And what's her answer? "it's none of your business, that has nothing to do with you" and then the best comment "I don't know what I'm doing yet".

Ok, it may not be MY business, but it certainly affects L and if it affects him, I'm involved. I can't believe she would announce such a thing on the internet to anyone reading, but doesn't have the guts or backbone to let the father of her son know. And what of that comment? Is she seriously thinking what to do???!!! Like pondering #3+????

What a trainwreck. Don't know about you, but I'd think you'd want to know someone longer than 6 months before having a kid with them.

Wow. Just wow.

And what's up with L. After taking him out to the park for about an hour, he's demanding "elmo" which I think is TV judging by the finger points. But wth?? Why does he expect tv?? I know his mom and I are on the same page, and daycare lady knows, so where is this tv-addiction coming from??

Bizarre!!


-- Posted From My iPhone

Saturday, April 25, 2009

the munchkin

Part 1 - Some Pics

I take hundreds of photos of my little boy, and just dump them in an ever growing folder. I figured I'd put some to use and share them. Video's to come next.

Also, I didn't want to just upload them into Blogger, but cant seem to figure out how to embed a web page within this. So, hosted externally:

Clicky for Pickies



and oh yeah, did I mention "ex" is preggo again? yup, apparently!! Good 6ish month new relationship milestone! hahaha, lol

Friday, April 24, 2009

Entertainment for Friday

A couple friends showed me this awesome website:
http://thru-you.com

This guy has compiled various YouTube videos of people singing, playing instruments, etc. Then, he splices up the videos, video edits them together and creates original songs.

He links the original videos below, so you can see the raw material he starts with. There's some really awesome tunes made out of everyday ppl.

So yeah, check out that website, or look on YouTube for Kutiman.

Here's a DnB kind of one he did:



-- Posted From My iPhone

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lack o' updates

Yeah, I've been slacking updating here. I have a bunch of pics and vids I've been meaning to post, so that's coming soon.

Here's a peek, L and his cousin at her 2nd birthday party:




-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Forgot a title and stupid autocorrect

I decided I couldn't give up a day with L, so he came to my place yesterday. I took him out to a park and we spent about an hour playing on the structures. He really loves going down the slide, but was seemingly scared to go down by himself. Also weird to find he seems to hate swings now. This wasn't the first time I've tried to seat him and he starts to fuss.

After all that he was understandably tired out. We came back to my place for dinner and ran into a few neighbors on the way. L's getting away from his extreme shyness and happily greeted them.

Dinner, bath, bed went pretty routine and he slept through the night without issue.

Looking forward to the weekend, I get L back tomorrow and his cousin's bday party is Sat. Can't wait to see how he does with a houseful of kids :)

















-- Posted From My iPhone

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What a weekend

This past weekend was great. I had L with me and we went swimming again on Friday (one of the few things open on the holiday). He's doing really well at it and wasn't trying to drink as much of the gross public pool water as his first trip. I'm really happy how accepting he is of being taken into the water. It was also much easier logistically using the family change room.

Saturday we spent the morning in the park, had lunch and headed out to find Easter treats for him. I thought the candy specialty store would have at least some gluten free chocolate things, but no. Didn't even seem like the lone cashier knew what I was asking. "we have sugar free candy in the..." no, sorry, not what I need. Next place to check was a natural food store that I know has a gluten free section, it was just a matter of what Easter treats they'd have.

And it wasn't good. No special Easter treats at all :(. I settled on some choc chip cookies I know he likes and also picked up a bag of choc chips. Not what I hoped to find, but still good enough.

From there we headed to my parents who were going to watch him that night. This worked out well since we'd be driving even further west on Sunday for Easter dinner. I went out that night, had a good time though I didn't run into some people I thought I'd see.

Got up the next day and met up with L in the morning. We headed to my uncle & aunt's place for the Easter feast. We were the first to arrive, but that gave L a chance to get comfortable before the crowd showed up. We had a great time seeing the family and it was nice that L didn't have any breakdowns or problems at all.

Oh yeah, on my morning shopping tour, I picked up a backpack baby tether thing I greatly needed. See, a few weekends ago I took L grocery shopping like usual. But this time, it was next to impossible to keep him in the cart. I assume his mom brings her bf out when they shop, so have probably let L walk with one of them while the other minds the cart. Not good when you're alone though. The almost impossible job of pushing the cart, holding L's hand and keeping him from grabbing/poking/tasting everything in sight was a 1 time experience I knew I couldn't repeat.

So I found this cute backpack shaped like a puppy that has a tether and wrist strap for me. It worked perfectly, and also makes him look extra cute. Monday I used it to take L on a walk and it allowed for him to be "free" while I kept him safe. I'm very pleased with it, and easily worth the $15 cost. It was a long walk and tired him out nicely.

But all good things come to an end, and L went back to his mom this morning. He had an allergist appointment in the morning, and I'm pretty confused by the initial results. Apparantly he's allergic to dogs/cats even though he's been around them consistently and I've never noticed any issues. The flipside of this was he's NOT allergic to soy, yet it's always made him sick (in fact his worst digestive experience was when we used soy based formula)...? So yeah, I'm confused and will be investigating further.

Now just left to ponder what to do tomorrow. Normally I get 1 day out of Mon-Wed of "ex"s week. With the holiday schedule taking precedence, that means I still get a night with L. But "ex" has asked me to give up this night. She says he's not doing well and attributing that to missing his mom and feels it's be better for him to spend the week with her. I'm not too comfortable with the idea, the reasoning, nor the precedent it could set. I miss him when he's not around too, and love my time with him. So yeah, I'm reluctant about this and need to give it some further consideration.

Suggestions?


-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Who's putting who first?

I'm in the midst of my long time with my son. I had him as of last week, I keep him for Easter and have him again the weekend after. So his mom is only supposed to get him back Tuesday morning, then I take Wednesday, her thursday, and back to me Friday.

Obviously she's not getting much time with him, just the way the schedule works. It'll be similar for Victoria day weekend, but in reverse where I don't see him as much.

To add to the schedule, L has his allergist's appointment the Tuesday after this long weekend. "ex" asked me to trade L back Monday instead so he could sleep in and be better prepared for the appointment. Um, Monday is Easter Monday. I don't want to give up a holiday with my son, and so, I offered to take him to the appointment myself.

In normal morning tradeoffs, it's basically L gets dropped off and the other patent then takes him in to daycare. You get to see him for maybe 20 mins. So I was asking "ex" to give up this time, I'd let L sleep in and take him to the Dr. This would make it so "ex" wouldn't need time off work, and would get him back after daycare that day.

What's her response? That I'M being selfish for putting my own desire to spend Easter with my son ahead of his "need" to sleep in.

WHAT??? Didn't I just offer to make it better on everyone involved? She gives up 20 mins max with him, and the result would be him sleeping in, her not taking time off, etc. A pretty win-win deal, but does she see it that way, nope!

So I finally understand, it's only selfish when I do something to preserve my time with my son. No matter it's better for everyone, especially L, it's still selfish.

Sorry, but I put to you that she's being extremely selfish for not wanting to explore any option other than her choice.

So sick of her and this bs.

Oh yeah, she also posted on her blog that she has a stalker. And added a counter that supposedly counts the time since she last read my blog. Funny since it lead me to find her IP address and comparing it to my stat database, it's the same as the one used to post negative comments on here. So basically proves those comments were made by her or her bf.

Who's stalking who? And she's doing this to gain information for her lawyer and seems interested in a restraining order???? Hahaha. I don't want to see/talk/anything of her as much as I can. Get over yourself! Grow up and be an adult. Do this for our son.

But the biggest question I have, what do you expect to gain from any of this?? You think it'll affect custody? No chance. Maybe smarten the fuck up and see I'm fighting for what's best for my son. And then maybe you'll back the fuck off and we can continue to raise our son together and apart.

Sorry for the rant, I just can't believe the bullshit I see. And that's nothing about her "private" blog where she continues to shit talk me and make me out as a bad dad to her Internet friends. Like the one who posts about getting pissed on in the face by her man and liking it. Good company you're keeping there.


-- Posted From My iPhone

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Fuck you snow

It's such utter bullshit to read "ex"s blog and come across a comment saying I only want to spend time with my son "for the most part". Uh, what part don't I want to spend time with him?

All the while trying to get me to give up time with him to make it easier for her. Such fucking bs! I'm getting so sick of her lying and defamatory remarks taking jabs at my fathering. She goes off on how bad a dad I am on her private blog thinking somehow her comments don't make their way back to me.

Meanwhile I'M the one raising L on my own. She shacked up as quick as she could with new guys until the current one kept her around. Not even considering L should things go sour, she's living with the guy already. Using him to help with bills and such, I guess that's why there's money for lawyers. Funny how she dove right into a dependent relationship when she left to figure things out for herself.

I'm the one doing this on my own. I don't get help with bills; I don't have help when I take him out, etc. It's frustrating to then read she thinks I'm only thinking of myself. Sorry, but you're the one with the self centered approach using others to make it easier for yourself. You think it was in L's best interest to have a guy you've known all of a half dozen months live with you two? Ha! I'd like to see the rationale there. It's more likely it was convenient to have someone share the costs without taking into account the possible repercussions on L, especially if things don't work out.

So stupid/frustrating/annoying!

Current most popular "ex" saying: lawyer copied.


And it's snowing. Fuck you snow!

-- Posted From My iPhone

Monday, April 6, 2009

Mini Phelps?

My weekend with L was great. Got him back Friday afternoon, and I think as an apology for that hat fiasco, his mom offered a bunch of accessories to stay with him. She had his fall jacket and a new pair of rubber boots. Perfect, since we were expecting a gloomy weekend.

I got a little break Friday night that gave me the chance to go out. I went to my poker friends' place for an impromptu cash game. Full table right away, it didn't take long for some big pots. I was playing well, hitting cards when I needed to, except on the big pots. Things like I flopped a set, but guy on his straight draw would stay in the hand and hit his card :(. The couple big pots I dragged were mostly bluffs, so I was pretty lucky there. Left up some money and headed out to see a friend dj.

I was also hoping to run into someone for a chat, but didn't get the chance. The night was alright, weird point when I ran into this girl I kind of know, felt like I had to say "hi", but had nothing to talk about so just awkward silence. The night was pretty tame.

Saturday was more gloomy rain, so L and I stayed in for indoor activities. He's getting to he a wicked little helper. I was using the handvac to clean up some stuff as L was hiding (he's scared of vacuums). Then I was moving stuff around and knocked a plant over. Dirt on the carpet and on my leg, I didn't want to track it all over the place. I asked L, "can you bring the vacuum to daddy? The loud machine, can you get that?". L totally understood, faced his fear and brought me the handvac. It was amazing to see how much he understands.

Sunday looked like it was going to be just as dreary. His swim date got cancelled, but I still wanted to take him. So early afternoon I made a trip over to the store and got him a little life jacket, swim diapers and some shorts. We went to the pool nearby and I was suprised to find out it was only $2. I knew it was free for L, but thought it'd be more like $5 for me. Bonus. I got him all ready to go and we headed for the pool. His reaction? Loved it. He had no problems coming right in with me and seemed like he was having a great time. Although he kept trying to drink the water when I'd let him float on his own.

There were a few other parent/kid combos and I was glad L was doing much better than some. There was another boy in tears a lot and I could tell it was tough on the dad. We just floated around staying clear of the other swimmers and found some of those weighted rings to play with. L would throw them in, I'd catch them in my feet and pass it back. He was laughing everytime (I think because I was using my feet). I splashed some water at him, and that became his new favorite thing to do. He pounded on the water getting us both drenched while laughing. It was cute.

Changing afterwards was the tricky part. After I had him all ready it was hard to keep him near while I changed. But, slowly got all ready and we headed home. We'll definately be doing that more often, and I think it'll be a lot of fun when his swim date works out.

The sun had come out so we played outside until dinner. Swimming must have taken a lot out of him as after dinner he didn't last too long. He was asking for his bottle, and I asked if he wanted to go upstairs for bath & bed. He started going up and I got the bottle ready.

Things are getting so easy now that he understands questions. Even if he's crying, I just have to ask him questions and can usually figure out exactly what's upsetting him.

Blah babbling away and haven't gotten to me trying to find one of those baby-tether-leash-handcuff things that attach toddlers to their parents or the reason why I need to find one. I'll post about that later.....but anyone know?? Toysrus?

-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, April 3, 2009

Well that's shitty

Losing friends sucks. Post-breakup with "ex", I never asked any friend to choose "sides". "ex" did, sent out bs messages to our friends basically telling them to choose and made up bs as to why.

But I didn't go that route. I talked to some that had removed me, and they weren't happy about it either. Basically said that they were freaked out by her message and didn't want to get involved. No problem, I wouldn't ask anyone to get in the middle. But I still feel her message was unwaranted and she needs to apologize for it and send out to those lied to.

Alls to say, I don't mind trying to comply with her wishes. If anything, it does make things a bit easier. But it wasn't like I was going to rid myself of friends because they're still friends with her. That's exactly what I hated about her message asking people to pick. What I can't/won't tolerate is friends who would prefer to ignore anything of what's happened and continue on as if nothing did.

When a friend tells me they don't care, hey, no problem. But, why are we friends? You don't care about a huge life changing event? I can understand not wanting to be put in the middle of anything, but not open to listening if I have something to say or vent about? Or criticize me for coping with it? Sorry, but why are we friends?

Not wanting to get into it further, I'd rather just let it (them) go. You don't want to hear it when I need someone to listen, not much of a friend at all. You want to stay impartial, fine, no prob, but there's a huge difference in those 2.

So BAH! Sorry, but I'd rather focus attention elsewhere.

Anyways...

Last night I watched the new Xmen Origins: Wolverine movie. Hehe, this movie's coming out in theatres in May and I'm watching it, near DVD quality, on my couch. But even better (worse) was this version isn't even complete. The whole movie's there, but there's some of the big CGI isn't. Like this part where a guy goes flying over a train, you just see a crudely animated stickman like figure flying through the air. It was a decent flick, but there seemed to be holes in the story (well discrepancies from how I remember it).

Also started watching a new show called Castle. It's kind of similar to Dexter in that it's a police show, but instead of following a serial killer forensic guy, this show revolves around a crime author (played by the guy who was the captain in the movie Serenity). He's got many best-selling crime novels, and the first episode has someone killing people in ways similar to some of his books. So, the police engage his expertise to help solve the case. He then uses his contacts to get permission to shadow the homicide's cute detective on further cases to provide inspiration for future novels. Overall, not a bad show, and it's been added to my download list.

Looking forward to tonight. I get L back for the start of a pretty long time with him. See, next weekend I get him too. As it's Easter, and my year with L for that holiday, I'm about to get almost 2 weeks with him! Yay! I can't wait, and I know my family can't wait to see him again. Swim date all lined up for this weekend too. Now just to get through the rest of the day.


-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, April 2, 2009

I got nuthin

Yeah, been a pretty quiet start to my week, not too much a gwan. Home is empty with roommate moved out and no L this week, so I've just been tackling different areas trying to get it perfect so I can take pics.

I'm hoping to get it on the market asap as covering the entire mortgage, condo fees, etc is just a little pricey for me. Also a couple lower units are up for sale, so I want mine up to compete for the buyers that would prefer an upper unit.

I've been chatting more and more with my downstairs neighbour (one of the lower units up for sale) and actually going to miss our little talks. I'd prefer not to leave my little community, but looking forward to getting my *own* place. I just hope I can get something great for L and I.

I'll bore you with more nothings another time, for now, here's the cutie himself:






-- Posted From My iPhone

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Lawyers lawyers lawyers

Yesterday, "ex" and I were emailing about upcoming trade offs and holiday schedule (Easter & Victoria day coming up). She outlined a pretty detailed itinerary of the trade offs, only she's trying to get me to agree to give up a night here and there. For instance, Easter Monday is my night with him, going back to her care on Tuesday. But he has a doctor appointment that morning, so she wants him Monday night so he can better "adjust" to her before the visit. ??? I've never heard of this adjustment period before; we're usually trading back in the mornings and bring L right to daycare.

I expressed concern about her proposed schedule, and she writes back, quoting our seperation agreement about being flexible for L's best interest. No problem, but how is this in his best interest. Sounds to me like it's in her best interest in that it's just her preference. I really don't see how it impacts him going to the doctor, and I'll take him there if it's such an issue. Sorry, not giving up Easter so she can have an "easier" time.

That brings us to tradeoff last night, she arrives and I give her a lift back to her place. As I'm pretty much done trying to talk to her anymore, was a pretty one-sided talk for the 2sec drive. Dropped her off and headed back home to bring L to the park. Only, where's his hat? It's still pretty cold out, and so I send "ex" a text saying she forgot to give the hat and I was upset as this wasn't the first time (last time she tried to leave him with no winter jacket at all for my week, but at least her bf understood the importance, and happily came back to drop it off).

What's her response? I should have my own hat and I didn't give her something last time (no idea what she was talking about) and I should make sure I give her whatever it was. ?????? Seriously WTF!? Okay, what about toque? I'm just getting pissed off as she brushes it off as nothing, and not wanting a fight, told her I was just going to get L a set of everything and the good-for-us-on-a-budget sharing will stop. Seriously, SHE forgot to give the hat, knows it's needed, but offer to bring it by??? Nope!

So I told her it'll be a good idea for her to go out and get L a warm jacket of her own. I'm done with trying to make things work when I'm the only one putting in any effort.

This morning, I dressed him up and used his fall vest instead of his winter jacket. Drove over to her place and we traded back. I'm sure it was an accident, but as I held out the car keys for her, she tried to snatch them too quickly and my finger was caught in the chain. Any apology? Nope! Just started yelling how her lawyer's not going to like hearing I didn't use his winter jacket??!!

WTH? This is just getting ridiculous. Everyday it's another retarded scenario, (empty) threats of lawyers and pointless bickering.

It's almost as if L's best interest only matters when it aligns with hers. Or anytime I don't agree with her, I must be putting myself ahead of him. ??? Whatever. So glad.... bah

Other than that, last night was great. We played with some kids records on the turntables (weird old ABC song with different lyrics, the number song, etc). L had fun scratching the record and playing with all the buttons. Dinner, playtime and bath all went great, and he slept like a champ.

Looking forward to Friday :)


-- Posted From My iPhone

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Weekend part 2

Left off Saturday afternoon, still had a house guest and we started a couple games of poker. Taking too much of their money, I started to get ready to go out.

Didn't think it was going to be a big night as I was still feeling rough from the night before, but that changed quickly. Our buddy was working the bar and he gives good deals on drinks. A couple rounds later, and the night was picking up. Ran into a friends' sister I hadn't seen in a while, and we got along great catching up. Last call closing in, but none of us were ready to call it a night.

We decided to grab a 2-4 from some random place on Chinatown and met up to keep the night going. Lots of fun drunken conversations later, .... Hrm, I'm going to omit the next bit, but it was interesting....And I was done. Passed out and got a ride back home when I got up.

So Sunday was pretty much a write off, giving myself some much needed rest. Although things didn't unfold as expected, it was still a good night and I'm glad I decided to head out. But I find out later I was totally supposed to go somewhere else that night, and had it not turned out so well, I'd probably regret not going, but it ended up being worth it.

I'll have L this weekend, so it'll be much more low key. We have a swimming date with a friend and her son and I can't wait to get L in a pool.


Random non-weekend stuff (cause I don't want to make a wack load of posts):
- appulous is back, yay.
- rode on a new double decker bus
- didn't have change or tix for the bus this morning, but found active transfer when I got to the stop, yay free ride
- "ex" seems to think it's ok to send out complete lies and defame me to our friends, yet wants to "develop" a relationship for the benefit of our son. While I agree in principal, ain't gonna happen unless she clarifies that to all she sent it to. And, as she hates being proven wrong, I don't see it happening. But done are the days of allowing this attitude to continue.
- I get L back for the night tonight and can't wait to bring him out to the park and get all muddy.

And that's the weekend-to-now round up, minus the unmentionables ;)


-- Posted From My iPhone

Amazing weekend

Taking me a while to post, work's been keeping me busy.

This past weekend was awesome. On Friday, went out with a couple buddies to meet up with some girls over at this bowling place. Wii bowling skills don't exactly translate to real life, as I quickly learned with my first 2 balls going straight to the gutter. Adjusted to a lighter ball and kind of improved. I still did pretty bad, but managed to get a strike. One weird thing was I noticed my iPhone glow in the blacklights. I say it's weird because it was the back of the phone glowing. Usually blacklights make white-colored stuff glow, but this was the shiny black part glowing away.

Phone aside, my game never improved and I finished last. It was more fun than I expected and can see going back for another go. We finished up the pitchers and headed downtown for a few more drinks. It was pretty low key, and after, came back to my house.

We were all moving slow the next day. I was up first and killed some time by heading out and doing a little shopping for L. Others eventually got up and started discussing plans for the night.

Okay, so Saturday night was the better night, but I'll get to that next post. Gotta run.



-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, March 27, 2009

These are the worst days

Every 2nd Friday sucks. This is the day L goes back to his mom's for the week. It marks the beginning of the long wait to see him again. I hate how he sees his daycare more than either of us.

So Thursdays are always treated special, and last night went great. We played outside, and L is getting over his extreme shyness. It's weird, I find if I'm holding him and someone tries to say hi to him, he bashfully hides in my arms. But outside walking around, he's going up to almost everyone he sees with his adorable "hi!" and sideways wave. He happily brings them rocks or leafs and is so proud of himself.

He also loves dogs! A neighbor came out with one and L basically forced us to run after them so he could see the puppy. We finished up playing and went inside to get cleaned up for dinner.

Everything went smooth with dinner and he 'helped' with the dishes. He's obsessed with the dishwasher and now that he understands me, it's great to involve him. I pass him a dish or cutlery and ask him to put it in.

We did some reading and toys before heading up for the bath routine. Recently I started putting all the bath toys in a basket and ask L to choose which ones he wants that night. As the water's filling, he grabs a few and puts them in the tub. Typical little boy in the tub, as we were finishing up and the water draining, he started pulling at his man parts. Oh L, I get him distracted with a toy and get him out.

We said 'night night' to each other and he snuggled up for bed. Must have been pretty tired from all the running around as he was quickly down for the count.

Thursdays are great... well, every other one ;)

Now to just get over this sickness I've had for the last while and things would be great.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Two steps back

Urg, without the long drawn out, drama filled story, things are not going well.

"ex" sent me an email with concerns about my disciplinary milestone. She raised concerns that it's overly harsh for a toddler, etc etc and wondering where I got this idea from. Guess she forgot about all the nanny shows she used to subject me to. These were proven, effective methods. She said she didn't feel she'd be able to let his tantrum run its course, and concerned we're not doing the same thing at our respective homes. Sorry, but the fact she's not willing to use an effective method isn't my problem/fault. I merely relayed something that worked in my house.

But blah blah blah it all deteriorated to legal threats and demands. Seriously, if she would just act civilly, these problems would be easily resolved between us. Instead, chooses to spend money on a lawyer and act like I'm the worst person in the world. Nice way to treat your son's father. Can't help but think of the better use of those funds for the benefit of our son.

I'm so looking forward to the day when things get better. It's so frustrating to deal with these issues on a daily basis.


On the lighter side of things, Hendricks gin is the shit! My buddy got a bottle as a NY gift and has been hooked since. I have to admit, that's some tasty gin. Quickly replacing my Jack as the preferred drink, just too bad bars around town don't stock. He brought a bottle over yesterday and it reminded me I've got to get some.

Lord knows I could use it ;)

-- Posted From My iPhone

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Timeout

L is a baby. I haven't introduced any discipline with him, and instead, have always just re-directed his attention when things aren't going well.

Last night, we started his dinner, and didn't take long before he was done eating the meat. But he was still hungry, asking for more toast. I thought maybe he didn't like what was served, so I whipped up a different batch to make sure he was getting a proper meal. But when I gave him the alternate meat, he still refused and wanted more toast. I had the feeling he didn't want to try the 2nd batch because he thought it was just more of the same.

I tried to explain to him that if he eats just 1 little bite, I would "reward" him with more toast. This didn't go over well and he continued his refusal to try it. I took him out of his highchair and put him in a timeout (standing facing a wall). He cried up a storm and I tried to explain again that if he just tries the meat, we could go back to the rest of the meal.

A few minutes of crying later, we had a huge breakthrough. I asked again, 'do you want to try this 1 piece, if you do, I'll get you more bread' and you know what? He turned to me and said Yes. He put out his hand to get the meat, put it in his mouth and happily ate it! I was so proud! Gave him a big reward-hug, got him back in his chair, and he went on to clear his tray of food!!

Happy at the effective work, I thought I'd share this with his mom. She has told me before she has problems getting him to eat, and always asking for suggestions on how I do things so she can try the same techniques. So, I send her a text briefly explaining what happened, what I did, and the amazing result. What does she reply? " I didn't think we were forcing him to eat if he wasn't hungry?" okay, maybe I didn't explain it well enough, he WAS hungry, but was refusing to eat a portion of his meal. I re-explain that this wasn't a case of him saying he's done, but that he didn't want anything but toast.

I thought she'd appreciate the info, ask questions about my method, and possibly even thank me for the info. But any of that? Nope! Just straight up ignored after that. I really don't get what she wants. Calls in a panic when things aren't going well for her, but when I try and proactively help, I just get the rudeness. She says that co-parenting is important, but when I communicate, I get the feeling I'm a burden to her. Whatever, I'm confident as a father to L and will just continue to raise him how I see best.

I still can't believe just how well that worked out. From screaming refusal to happily finishing his meal, it was an amazing transition to see.

Kid development is an awesome thing to witness.


-- Posted From My iPhone

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Has to be said

I thought it was understood, but I continue to see/hear things that my "ex" thinks I hate her.

So in an attempt to stop any further spiral of false info, I DO NOT hate her. Whatsoever.

I had hatred for her selfish actions, but that's something she'll have to live with.

The only hate I'm feeling is for the ridiculous situations and arguments that grow exponentially when it would just take a level headed look at the situation.

Ie, that blog post about being greeted by a "fuck off", when all her anger was due to me asking for a simple answer. All that was needed was a 2 second reply, and instead, thanks to the stubborness, turned into a big battle of heated words. It prevented our regular chat about how our son is doing, what new stuff he does, and all that other stuff we miss out on as we only see him part time.

I'd be so much happier if she would just cease with her smear campaign, grow up, and try to actually raise our son together but apart. I have nothing bad to say about her, only bad things to say about actions.

Curious what she writes? Check out the very loosely baby-based blog of "ex"


-- Posted From My iPhone

Monday, March 23, 2009

Guess I'll be posting stats

A shame really, but for one to announce that they don't read my blog at all, while the stats show daily checks, I guess I'll be posting the hard data to show the truth.

Again, that's my only goal in any writing dealing with "ex", to provide the other side to the wild stories being told.

Just another in the long line of saying 1 thing nicely publically, but doing the exact opposite when not in the public eye.

As a heads up, stats show every entry click, page views, times, etc. I've got 1 log from a constant visitor, with daily visits since the start. Oh yeah, forgot to mention it shows ISP and registration info about the visitors. ie, I see mail.COMPANYNAME.com.

Any guesses how often it IS checked?

-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, March 20, 2009

What a nice greeting

"Fuck off" the 2 words said to me when "ex" dropped off L. Nice, huh? Why such the attitude? I can only guess it has to do with the frustration of getting an answer out of her yesterday trying to get a confirmation of a bill (in my name) paid. Just needed to know when and amount. What do I get? "For sure" ??? What does that mean, so I ask again to clarify, "I told you, for sure" ??? Obviously something lost in text land, so I tried calling. No answer. Weird, we were just texting, so phone's in hand. Try calling again, and she's shut off her phone. Nice one.

So then today, still needing an answer to let creditor know, I try her phone again. Not answering, again. Try a bit later, and get an answer, but it's her bf. Relay the message I need to speak with her and he lets me know he'll pass it along. Hours pass and I still don't hear back. I try her again and she actually answers! I explain that I need to know when and for how much this payment
will be made (over 90 days no payments already, I knew I had to stay on top of this, or would just get ignored like the last 2 months). She agrees to send me the details. Finally getting somewhere! Or so I thought.

Another hour goes by and still no msg :(. I call her again (getting pretty sick of hand holding at this point) and, again, explain that I need to get back to them and her msg is holding everything up. She agrees again, and end the call.

So what do I get? Her telling me $X amount is being sent to me today. Um, okay, except the amount isn't enough, and verbally was told it'd have to wait until next pay. Confused, I reply back letting her know the amount owed. I think she finally understands and says the full amount will come. Perfect, but why does it take ALL this shit just to arrive where we could've been last night when the simple question was first posed.

Bah! Getting back to the drop off, I was early getting home, so I texted her letting her know when I'd be home, and she could head over. Response? None. Doesn't tell me anything, and time just goes on. Getting close to normal drop off time, I head out to wait. Who's hear already? Her bf sitting in his car. Okay, so where is she? Try calling, but direct to voicemail. I see bf is on his phone, and figure he's chatting with her. See him end his call, so I try her again.

She answers "WHAT???!!" yelling at me. 'Just wondering where you are, when I'll get my son...' click. She just hangs up. WTF?!

How am I supposed to deal with this?

She arrives soon after and parks sideways across my and my neighbors' spots. 'Can you straighten this out?' I ask as she's still in the car. Completely ignored, she shuts the car off and jumps out with the above mentioned greeting. How fucking nice is that. No chance to ask how L's doing, no nothing aside from F.O. and starts walking to bf's car.

Normally at drop off, we drive the other back home. This gives us that chance to discuss L, but no chance here. I guess we can only do that when SHE wants something.

I chime back 'what the fuck? What's you're prob?' "Get the fuck away from me" she barks as I approach her to give mail that's come in. She gets this look like I'm going to hit her or something (never ever have, though I've been hit a fair amount of times), so I just stop. No point even trying to reason with her.

I get in the car, greeted with big smiles from L as he starts telling me some kind of story. I straighten out the parking and start to get him out. Only, where's his jacket? He's only got a jean jacket (puke) on, and while adequate for the current temp, I know there's still cold days ahead.

I phone her again, but she doesn't answer. Nice fucking communication. I call again, and bf answers. Don't know why it's so easy to get straight answers out of him when it's like pulling teeth to get anything from the person I wasted 7 years on, but he completely understood jacket would be required, and agreed to drop it off.

L and I spent the time playing around the yards, picking up stones, and just enjoying the outdoors.

Bf dropped off the jacket, and now I might actually get a few days of calm. Woohoo!!

Why is it always SO difficult??


-- Posted From My iPhone

Beejiving no more

I got a disconnect email letting me know I've been logged out of Beejive's IM app, so launched it up to re-connect. It opens up, but as it logs me in, I get a weird "PC load letter" error message. Okay, that's weird. Clicking the screen opened up YouTube to a clip from Office Space about stealing being bad (ending with the part where the group smashes their hated printer(fax machine?).

LOL. Looks like they've introduced some anti-piracy measures. A quick google searched revealed I wasn't alone, and more and more people were finding out they've been cut off.

Not a huge deal, many options available as a replacement, but I did like Beejive's functionality, it's just not worth the $16US pricetag. Maybe if I used multiple IM accounts (it supports many like aim, yahoo, etc so you can send a message to your contacts at any of these services), but I don't, and just want a simple app for using MSN.

Grabbed a new one called MobileChat, so we'll see how it goes as a replacement. Seems a lot more basic, but I don't need it to do much.

I'll be keeping an eye out for a patched version of beejive anyway though, and still hoping they release mini versions of it where you pay less, but only get 1 IM client (msn for me).

Still though, that's one of the best "friendly" anti-piracy methods I've seen.






-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Guess I'm a Bastard..?

Today I met up with "ex" so we could go scope out a potential school to put L into. As he's 18 months now, more daycare options are open to us. This place seemed great. They do cool activities with the kids, great location, offer good structure, etc, but no mention of cost on their website.

On our way over, I noticed she wasn't wearing her anniversary ring (I mentioned before that I thought it odd she did post-marriage) and asked her about it. She brushed it off saying when her attire is paired with gold, she doesn't wear it. She asked why it even mattered to me since she bought it herself. ??? What? I tried to remind her how it was my gift to her (it was the paper anniversary, so I actually got her a drawing of a ring explaining she could go pick it out, and gave her a budget), but apparently, the way she remembers it now is that I got her nothing it seemed. So somehow I guess I'm a bastard that got my wife nothing on our anniversary. I just shrugged it off and just didn't want to get into anything over something that really doesn't matter.

We get to the school and have our interview. Everything is great about it and would love to see L in a place like that. But, of course, it costs money. It's not wildly expensive, but a fair chunk more than now, and likely won't be do-able :(. I'll have to look into it more, but I'm about to have significant financial changes soon (sell my home and go back to renting an apt, car situation, etc) that I won't really know if I can manage it. I'm sure there's other options as well, and I could end up moving to a different area of town, so I think we'll have to stuck with our language barriered lady for now.

I can't wait to get him into a school like that soon though. The kids do gymnastics, martial arts, daily crafts, excursions, etc and I can't help but think he's just playing with toys in a basement all day at daycare. I know his mom feels the same and anxious to get him moved.

I can't wait for tomorrow as my week with him begins. I hear he's got a cold right now so I hope I can get him feeling better. Always with the sickies, poor lil guy :(

-- Posted From My iPhone