Monday 25 February 2013

Star Wars - the Legend Continues

I love the movies.  From frivolous flicks to more arty films, I love 'em all.  There are few things I like better then watching a craftily told story unfold through the magic of moving pictures, especially when it is experienced with others either in a theatre or at home with a bunch of friends or family.

One of my earliest movie memories is of Star Wars.  What kid of the late '70s early '80s wasn't enthralled by Star Wars?  Heck!  Han Solo was the reason I wanted to become an astronaut...until two things changed my mind.  First the space shuttle Challenger exploded changing my perception of space travel.  I think it made me aware of the differences between reality and the fantasy portrayed in the movies (I was only six years old).   Secondly I realized that Han Solo and Indiana Jones were the same dude (I don't remember watching any Indiana Jones until much later - but somehow I knew who he was).  I thought to myself, that's what I want to be,  not Han or Indy but Harrison!!  He gets to do it all!! And thus my love affair with movies began. 

The enduring appeal of Star Wars amazes me.  Beyond the sheer power of the Lucas (and now Disney) marketing machine (not to mention the power of the force), the movies themselves stand-up amazingly well against time.  Not only do I enjoy watching the films, as much now as ever, but my girls are in a huge Star Wars phase right now.  The fact that my girls are as captivated by the movies as I was when I was a kid, thirty years after the originals were made is testament to the power of good story telling. 

It's a great shared experience with the girls too.  They ask me questions like, "when you were a kid, who was your favourite character?"  I think they get a kick out of thinking about me as a little kid watching Star Wars like them.  They're equally amused and puzzled about the fact that Star Wars episodes I - III were not around when I was a kid (cue the realization light bulb over their heads that I'm older then they thought).

Truth be told, watching them get excited and wrapped up in the Star Wars universe and mythology and their joy whenever we watch or talk about the movies sure does bring back memories and subsequently makes me feel young and adventurous once again.  It's fun.




Wednesday 20 February 2013

February Blah

Well, I'm ready for Spring.  I'm not usually one to complain too much about the weather or the season.  It all shall pass in its own good time and as I get older I find time slips by fast enough without me fixating on tomorrow.  I figure it's best to enjoy today, cold and all and take it as it comes.

BUT I must say I'm ready for Spring.  This year I definitely feel the Winter Blahs...do you know that feeling?  I don't suffer from annual Winter depression or anything like that I just feel in a rut this month.  It's a pretty good rut to be sure as the family is healthy and generally happy, work is good, and I don't have much to complain about.  So I won't complain but I will say I've been feeling pretty darn wiped the past few weeks and am looking forward to a change in the weather.  Sure nicer weather won't mean the kids will sleep any better but it'll make getting up a little nicer even if I'm waking up even more tired than when I went to bed.  A little sun, warmth, and open windows would do the mind good and soul good.  The monotony of the Canadian winter is wearing me down this year and I look forward to not bundling up every time I need to step outside to shovel the driveway for the 10th time or chop blocks of ice away from my back door so I can let the dog out or to simply take the (stinking) compost out.  I look forward to complaining about having to put up the eaves trough (that the ice tore down earlier this winter) and cutting the grass and the endless gardening and little home repairs that are already filling out my "honey-do" list (such as repair the mortar on the chimney - which I probably should have done in the Autumn).

For now I'll take solace in the words from Ecclesiastes 3 and popularized by the Birds that reminds us that there is a time for everything:

1   There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:
    a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
    a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
    a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
    a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
    a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
    a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

15 Whatever is has already been,
    and what will be has been before;
    and God will call the past to account.
 
 



Monday 18 February 2013

Family Day

Well today is Family Day (at least for all of us lucky enough to live and work in Ontario...sorry Quebec). One day a year our government allows us to take time off for no other reason than to spend time with family and relax. Some of you might be saying this is a sign of poor work ethic or ridiculous value displacement for the province, but I disagree. Okay Ontario may not be the sexiest province we have in Canada but gosh darn we like a good day off and we sure love our families.

 I happen to be one of a sparse group of people who actually is very proud to live and be from Ontario, and not just because we make up random holidays for our own good pleasure. I like our diversity our laid back attitude, our humility and mixed embarrassment with pride for Toronto. I just love it all. Of course there are times that I think I would be happier in another part of this great land, like during yet another labour dispute with teachers, or when the government decides to build fake lakes to impress visiting dignitaries, but for the most part, I like it just the way it is.



 So happy family day everyone, even if you are working, and do not have the good fortune to live here in Ontario Canada.




Saturday 16 February 2013

Valentine's Day Reflections

We celebrated Valentine's Day as a family this past week, yes the love our family shares one for another with a wonderful chicken dinner and a number of delectable treats that my ladies helped make.  Yes, it's only fitting that we would share this day with the whole family.   What started as a romance turned to love and grew to a commitment and a family soon followed.  It's interesting that more people don't connect Valentine's Day with babies, kids and other familial joys and duties (like cleaning out squirrel nests from your shed in the dead of winter or endless mounds of laundry or other household chores that no matter how many times you do them, they'll always have to be done again).  For if you think about it, if the romance and love that so many people laud is as true as they proclaim, then it stands to follow that a good number of the many proclaimers of love will be sharing in the joys of matrimony and in many of those cases a family will eventually result.

Here's a little food for thought, eight years ago this past Valentine's Day, Alexis and I were engaged.  It wasn't elaborate and truth be told, while I knew Lex was the one for me, I wasn't planning on proposing for another few months.  It was spontaneous as the right moment presented itself and I seized it...it was perfect.  The progression from dating to engaged was as natural for us as Spring following Winter. 

Now, eight years later, we have three wonderful daughters, a dog (which we got three years ago, on Valentine's day), a house, a career, and all the trappings of a domestic life.  I couldn't be happier as our house is filled with more love and warmth than I could have imagined it would be eight years ago. 

So young men, let this be inspiration (or a warning) to you...the simple Valentine's Day you had this year, may very well have been the beginning of the most exciting adventure you'll embark on.  Good Luck!





Tuesday 12 February 2013

Our Grand Designs

Well I guess I suffered my own Super Bowl hangover.  No I'm not talking about the adverse effects of drinking too much during the Super Bowl - I'm talking about the let down teams often experience the season after winning the Super Bowl.  Apparently many such teams have a hard time balling again come September due in theory to the amount of effort, both physical and mental, it takes to reach the pinnacle of the NFL...and of course the amount of energy and time it takes celebrating being the champs. 

Yes...well that's what I'm blaming for my hiatus from blogging over the past week and a half.  Of course it's because of the let down after the Super Bowl...the end of another fantastic year of football and the long wait for a new season to begin.  Over the next 8 months I'll cling to every little tid-bit of information.  I'll anticipate the start of free agency and speculate about the draft.  Come June I'll be looking forward to the latest fantasy football preview magazine and really start to plan in earnest for the upcoming fantasy season.  Ahhh...the off season.

There will be plenty to keep me busy I'm sure.  And if I get bored, I'm sure my wonderful wife will find work for me to do...and if there isn't any, she'll create a make work project especially for me.  Take yesterday for example...I was sitting at my desk at work, happily plugging away solving Canada's information needs one record at a time when my telephone rings.  It's Alexis and she has called to tell me that she has destroyed our kitchen floor.  "What do you mean?"  I ask in a patient voice that is doing its best to mask the panic welling up from deep within my heart. 

You see we're planning on redoing our kitchen...in the summer.  She has been chomping at the bit to get the project rolling and for the past week or so has been playing with the idea of beginning to tear some of the fixtures out now in preparation for the work.  I have been quite clear and consistent in my conviction that it is much too early to begin the work and we should wait until much closer to when we are prepared to continue with the renovations.  I don't want to have a partly finished or partly demolished kitchen for 6 months.  I figure a good three day weekend of work and demolition, the week before the workers are scheduled to begin to install our new stuff, should be sufficient.  Alexis thought differently and turned her playful ideas into concrete action and thus I came home yesterday to a partly ripped up kitchen floor. 

Needless to say Lex and my girls put in a lot of hard work but only got a fifth of the first layer off...it needs a lot more work to finish the job.  I'm not even sure what the interim state of the floor would be like if we continued along this course.  We certainly can't install new flooring now when we're planning on redoing the whole kitchen in 5 or 6 months.  And I'm not sure the stuff that we've uncovered makes for a very nice 5 or 6 months if we in deed completed the phase my lovely ladies began.  So after some discussion, we decided to paint the section that's torn up to match the rest of the floor and put our rug back down to cover up most of the patch. 

To my wife's credit she did the majority of the painting and even touched up spots around the main floor - scratches and spots along the walls here and there - she also cleaned up the mess of tiles and floor pieces on the front porch too and even shoveled some snow because she was feeling badly about it all.  I for my part rustled up the tools and paint and helped with the painting. 

That doesn't sound like much but it wasn't a simple matter.  My roller was in my shed which at the moment is in winter-condition.  That means it is jam-packed, bursting at the seams with all the stuff that I'm trying to protect from the cold and snow.  While rummaging around in the shed I had a ladder and then a garden hose rack (both heavy metal objects) fall on my head.  What's more is that I discovered a varmint had taken up residence in my shed. 

Oh yes, a squirrel had squeezed its way inside my shed, found my stash of yard waste paper bags and had shred them to kingdom come.  I mean I couldn't have had more than 3 or 4 bags in there but it looked like about 50 bags had gone through a mechanical shredder and subsequently strewn all over my shed floor.  What a mess!!  So I ended up cleaning my shed out in the cold with a light snow/sleet falling on me.  It was a wonderful night. 

The floor is now livable although I'm not too sure we'll leave it for six months.  I might end up peeling the onion back a few layers and seeing what's underneath.  But that's for another day.  For now I think we'll be content looking forward to our summer renovations while enjoying and living vicariously through other peoples' experiences as documented on the numerous design shows we have been watching recently (which we may cut down on in an attempt to rein in our enthusiasm and penchant for spontaneous DIY redesign projects).  Video's such as this:


Friday 1 February 2013

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year



Yes my friends this is the weekend we've all been waiting for...the Super Bowl!!  I haven't missed watching a Super Bowl since 1991...I watched the quarter or so of the Bills/Giants game, saw the kick go wide right and have been hooked ever since.

For sure the Super Bowl doesn't always live up to its name, especially in the '90s when it seemed like it was a blow-out almost every year.  But the last decade of Super Bowls have been spectacular I'd say with some real classics and I'm hoping this year's bout between the Ravens and '49ers is as good as I'm expecting.

Who do I think is going to win?  I really don't have a clue - my girls are pulling for the Ravens and so I think I will too.  They've a few players I'd like to see get a ring as well.  Boldin, Reed, Oher and Rice to name a few.  I like the way they play - full speed ahead, full of heart and grit without a lot of nonsense.  John Harbaugh, their coach, seems cool and even.  His approach seems very leveled.  The fact the team name has its origins in literature is pretty cool too - they're named after the Edgar Allan Poe poem, "The Raven."

To be honest I wouldn't mind seeing the '49ers win either though.  They too have some great players that would be nice to see get a ring.  Randy Moss, despite all of his past-antics, has been a great player and I'd like to see him light it up one more time.  Their young QB Colin Kaepernick  has a good story and seems like a good guy. Carlos Rogers has been one of my faves since coming into the league (drafted by my favourite team the Redskins).  And Frank Gore has consistently been one of the most dependable and under-rated RBs in the league over the past few years.  Jim Harbaugh, their coach, is emotional, fiery and fun to watch (and was a guest star on Saved by the Bell many moons ago).

I like these types of Super Bowls because I'll be happy regardless of who wins...as any true football fan, all I want is a great, hard fought game by both teams.  I think that's what we'll get.

I often have called it my second or third favourite holiday behind Christmas and possibly Home Coming weekend when I was at Queen's - I know neither the SB nor HC are official holidays (heck, Home Coming doesn't even exist at Queen's anymore).  And while it is one of my favorite weekends, it's also a little sad because after Sunday there will be no more football (NFL) for eight long, dark and cold months.  But I won't dwell on that here...not now.  Not when we have one more glorious game to experience and much frivolity to partake in.

As  I have been the last 5 years or so, I'll be taking in the game with my brother-in-law and nephews.  This year my ladies will be joining in, at least until they're too tired to go on.  My wife will make some taco salad, we'll order some wings, and have some chips and soda.  There might even be a cake this year at Noli's request.  Who knows, we might even be able to squeeze in a game of our own before the party begins.  I can't wait!!

And to close off tonight, the poem that inspired the Ravens moniker...sleep tight.