Category: Family

No word on any buggy whips

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While talking to my dad today (he turns 65 today — happy birthday Dad!) we were chatting about what’s going on at the farm right now. He’d planned to start planting today but it rained, so they stuck to indoor work. One of the things he did was work on cleaning out the old farmhouse, which is being renovated. The house is over 150 years old, so he found some interesting stuff in there, including — get this — a tool to make musket balls.

I know any Europeans reading this are probably thinking, “150 years old…big deal.” However, when you’re rummaging through a house that was built before your country was even officially a country and you find a working tool that goes with a freaking musket, I’d contend that’s still a little surprising.

[tags]musket ball[/tags]

Today is April 23rd

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One year ago today we moved into our condo. Nellie has dubbed today condoversary. This does not surprise me. She has dubbed Feb 13 engageversary and Feb 16 cativersary. A little part of me is tempted to start sleeping around to see if I can invoke divorceversary.

Two months from today we will be hiking and sleeping at Lake O’Hara in the Rockies.

Four months from today I will be enjoying my first day of post-MBA freedom.

Today is April 23rd.

Big day.

[tags]april 23, condo, lake o’hara, mba[/tags]

Today

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. I do not care about this so much since I’m about as Irish as pineapple, and my tolerance for drinking cheap draft in crowded bars is pretty much down to nil. However, a shocking number of people (many of whom I know for a fact are not Irish in any way, shape or form) are wearing green today, so maybe this is a bigger deal than I thought. Having grown up in a place named New Scotland, in a non-drinking family, the importance of March 17 may have been lost on me.

Today I am 89% of the way through my MBA. I have 157 days left. If the entire program were put on the timeline of a single day, it would be about 9:22 PM. I am officially phoning it in at this point.

Today my brother is in town again. He was here just last weekend; I guess he really missed the place. Anyway, we had a bite and a couple of pints at Smokeless Joe last night (I believe we have now taken pretty much everyone we know there) and he’s off to meetings today and tomorrow. Soon he’ll know the city better than we do.

Today’s it’s cold again, which is deflating after the semi-warm day we had on Saturday. Supposed to be above freezing & rainy tomorrow and Wednesday, which bodes well for removing some snow.

Today I’d like to be working for VanCity, like my friend* William Azaroff.  He got to meet Muhummad Yunus and he does some cool stuff at work.

Today is gonna be the day that they’re gonna throw it back to you. By now you should’ve somehow realized what you gotta do. I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now.

* It feels odd to call him that, since I’ve never met him in person, but rather have communicated only a few times over email and phone. Still, blogs & Facebook & Twitter give a strange sense of familiarity. Hmmmm…there’s a whole other blog post simmering there…

[tags]st. patrick’s day, mba, smokeless joe, toronto weather, william azaroff, vancity, muhummad yunus, oasis, wonderwall[/tags]

"Half of his readership was lost to a cholera outbreak…"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Last week The Onion did a brilliant piece making fun of Marmaduke (my favourite line was “Today, almost six decades later, this plucky octogenarian continues his tireless work, bringing laughter and joy to millions of readers long since dead of old age.”) which I sent to a co-worker. This prompted a discussion of other comic strips long overdue for death. He sent me a link to the King Features site and pointed out that most of the offending strips live there.

Honestly, I’m baffled. People still read Beetle Bailey? Blondie? Dennis The Menace? Hi And Lois? Mary Worth? Rex Morgan M.D.? Sweet tubercular Moses, The Family Circus!?! Were these ever considered funny? Granted, they’re all 48+ years old (Blondie being the oldest, having started in 1930) and taste in humour certainly changes over the years, but that raises the question: how many fans of these strips can possibly still be alive?

.:.

Those of you who know her should check out Nellie’s new blog. It’s the same address as her old blog, but she’s switched topics. Photography is her latest interest, which I’m all for ’cause I think she’s got some real talent. She’s taking a class to help her learn some technique, and she has a shmancy new camera from which I keep expecting to hear a HAL9000 voice. Anyway, link/subscribe to nelliedee photographee and have a look.

[tags]onion, marmaduke, king features, beetle bailey, blondie, dennis the menace, hi and lois, mary worth, rex morgan m.d., family circus, nelliedee[/tags]

12 days 'til Spring, my ass

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Another day, another snowstorm. How typical.

Actually, this one caused some consternation as my brother et al were scheduled to fly back to Halifax this evening. They ended up going to the airport a little early in the hopes of getting an earlier flight, and were able to do so. The early flight ended up leaving nearly an hour behind schedule, but that’s about all you can expect on a day like this, and there’s no reason to think their original flight wouldn’t have been similarly affected.

I’m glad they got away successfully. It was a nice visit, I’d hate for it to have been ruined by problematic weather.

.:.

I can’t believe I have to set the clocks ahead tonight. Ridiculous. Thanks, Dubya. Swell idea.

[tags]toronto snowstorm, pearson travel, halifax flight, daylight savings[/tags]

2 days, 4 Dickinsons

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It’s been just over 36 hours since some members of my family arrived: my dad, my brother and my nephew. Since they got here yesterday morning we’ve had some breakfast at Sunset Grill, walked around Toronto a bit, played some crib (while my brother & nephew went to the CN Tower), watched some Planet Earth, had dinner at The Keg, shopped at St. Lawrence Market, had breakfast at Over Easy, visited the ROM, relaxed (while my brother & nephew swam in their hotel’s pool), ordered some Pizza and went to a Raptors game (while Nellie bought herself a Nikon D-60).

The question now is whether they’ll be able to fly out tomorrow evening because of this storm.

[tags]sunset grill, cn tower, planet earth, the keg, st. lawrence market, over easy, ROM, raptors, nikon D-60[/tags]

"Officials would not estimate the likelihood of success, only calling it high."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Yesterday my brother was supposed to be in town for dinner, but fate prevented him from reaching Toronto in time, so Nellie and I just went ahead and had dinner at the same place. Screw valentine’s day; ’tis a crock.

Much more important to us are the days immediately before and after V-Day; Feb 13 is the anniversary of the day we got engaged (which Nellie refers to as engage-iversary) and Feb 15, the anniversary of the day we adopted the cats (which, naturally, she refers to as cat-iversary). Of course, there’s another wonderful day coming up on Monday: our new holiday. Thank you Dalton McGuinty.

One more Valentine’s-related tidbit: I’m guessing NBC re-aired last year’s V-Day episode of 30 Rock, ’cause yesterday my blog was flooded with hits for the phrase “Happy Valentimes!!”

.:.

Let’s see, what’s in the news today? Hmm…US primaries…campus gunman…Pentagon to shoot down satellite…baseball hea…wait, what?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon plans to shoot down a disabled U.S. spy satellite before it enters the atmosphere to prevent a potentially deadly leak of toxic gas from the vehicle’s fuel tank, officials said on Thursday. [via Reuters]

Yeah, I don’t see how anything could go wrong with that.

.:.

Toshiba: bring out your dead.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has decided to exclusively sell high-definition DVDs in the Blu-ray format, dealing what could be a crippling blow to the rival HD DVD technology backed by Toshiba Corp. [via MSNBC]

Seriously where’s my Blu-Ray Children Of Men?

[tags]valentine’s day, family day ontario, disabled satellite, hd-dvd, blu-ray[/tags]

This title should have been "a lassi for my lassie," but she drank beer instead

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Last night seven of us went to Indus Junction to celebrate Nellie’s birthday. It was very, very tasty…I think we tried five different appetizers and five mains. The vindaloo shrimp appetizer was excellent, as were the vegetable dumplings and the paneer & cauliflower dish. The vindaloo salmon was good too, and the soft garlic naan and dhal mahkni. A few of us had dessert; the rice pudding was apparently quite good but my double-fudge tart was just too much chocolate (!) for me.

All in all, good food, good spot, good service. We’ll be going back, I think.

.:.

The Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators early last week, but that was when Heatley and Alfredsson were injured. Last night the Senators, with their top line intact, hung a 6-1 loss on the Habs. Glad I didn’t stay home to watch that one.

.:.

It sounds more and more like Godspeed You! Black Emperor is over, finished, kaput. Granted, A Silver Mt. Zion is still active, but I’ll miss the bombast.

[tags]indus junction, montreal canadiens, ottawa senators, godspeed you! black emperor[/tags]