Never Make Corrections?

Well I broke my cardinal rule for blogging and edited the blog I made yesterday. Admittedly I edited the blog a couple of hours after I made the post, as opposed to a few days, but an edit is an edit. The reason for this edit was the amusing call I had from my wife after she read my blog. I had one sentence that made no sense and another where I referred to Patrick Lalime, the ex Ottawa Senators Goalie as Patrick Llama. This teaches us all a valuable lesson. Make sure you read what your spell checker is doing. My post yesterday was spelt beautifully, although it helps if the words it replaces the misspellings with, make sense.

As for politics, the Liberals won their 4th consecutive term yesterday, but they only managed a minority win, which apparently is the first since 1979. What this means I have no clue, maybe coalition with the NDP will keep them on the right track and prevent the awful lies of the last little while.

Hello Weekend, Goodbye Weekend

Wow what a quick weekend that was. Pretty much took it easy all weekend, except for doing the front and back lawns which nearly killed me. I can't understand why, maybe I'm just a bit run down. Sherri is doing good, apart from some back pain. She thinks one of the babies was playing football against her back, but I'm skeptical.

Today is election day, a time for people to pick the candidate that scares them least. Tell me if I'm wrong, but that just doesn't seem right. They're also forecasting rain today, which apparently is never a good thing. The last election there was only a 61% turnout. It's days like this that the also ran suddenly becomes the winner.

On a side note, Patrick Lalime, the Ottawa Senators Goalie has been traded to the St. Louis Blues. Time for a fresh slate at the beginning of the season. That is, if there is a new season this year.

Stand and Present errr........... Yes Those!

Sherri, the girls and I went to another ultrasound last night. We had high expectations of finding out the sex, but the babies just weren't playing ball. One was awkward to follow round, the other was curled up in a ball in the corner trying to get some sleep. I'm sure this is what I'll be trying to do over the coming months. That said, they are both healthy and nicely formed. We got to see heads, arms, legs and bellies, if just fleetingly. Their size is on track. Our next ultrasound is scheduled for 2 weeks time and it's mostly a sure thing that we will find out then.

Onto other stuff, I've completed the video of Alanna's grad. I still can't make a DVD of it for some reason, but I've made an SVCD which is a near equivalent, but lower quality. I'll try to have a play over the weekend and make a web viewable version. Talking of the web, I've managed to secure some really neat games and will hopefully launch those on the website over the next few days. It's incredible what a web browser is now capable of. I've got a lot of neat ideas for the website, it's just a matter of finding the time to do them.

Politics Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

With Canada going to the elections on Monday to decide who gets a chance to run the country, it's getting increasingly difficult to care one way or the other. As an outsider (I don't get to vote, just yet), I have no idea what each party stands for. I know full well what is apparently wrong with each party, because all the political camps are doing an excellent job of pointing out their oppositions short comings. But where will that leave new voters or voters who have become disenchanted with their current choice.

I realise I'm living in cloud cookoo land, but I have a little manifesto of my own. Say what you are going to try to accomplish. I realise that sometimes promises are made and only after coming to power do you realise the full extent of what you promised. If a promise has to be broken, tell the electorate. Tell them why it cannot be undertaken and tell them what you are going to do instead. Don't just one day announce the total opposite of what you originally promised. Don't try to blame all your short comings on the party leaving office. Be true to yourself and to the people who put you in this position of power. People do not mind paying tax. People mind when taxes are increased or introduced to fix a problem and then a year or two down the line you find that the money went elsewhere. Take Britain for example, where each car has to pay a road tax. All of this money is supposedly meant to go on maintaining the roads, but you drive around London and tell me that this is where the money has gone.

I could rant for ages, but I'm sure you get my drift. The age for a new kind of politician has surely arrived, but is anyone willing to step up to the plate. Probably not, but the mind boggles to think what the political system will be like in another 10 years.

?

I'm staring at the screen today faced with a blank page and wondering what to say. Over a hundred posts and I think I've done pretty well, but there still seems to be something missing. Life of children, the wife, the house, the pool etc is all great stuff, but I have much more to say, but it's a matter of finding my groove. Admittedly this is meant to be for me to pour out what's on my mind, but even I'm finding it a little hard to write sometimes, which no doubt some of you out there are finding a little hard to read sometimes. I need to ponder and see if I can take things in a slightly different direction.

Our Little Princess

It's about an hour before we have to leave. Alanna is upstairs getting ready for her grad. The last day of school and she's gonna knock their socks off with her outfit. I won't reveal too much, but you can be sure that the camera will be a clicking. Sherri's got the day off, so she'll have a chance to relax when it's all over. I must admit to being a bit nervous myself. Large gatherings have a tendency to do that to me, but I can handle it :-)

Onwards and upwards.

Welcome to Summer

As of yesterday, Summer is officially here. It's been really hot already, so I'm hoping we are going to have a scorcher this year. I actually forgot to mention we all went out as a family on Friday. My boss is going to England next week to get married and he had a bit of a party for a send off. It was nice to get away from things for a bit. Old farts that we are though, by 9:30pm we were beginning to flag. The wife's got a good excuse and actually so do I, but beer is generally a poor excuse, so I won't mention it :-)

Alanna has her graduation tomorrow. The last day of middle school and then it's hello high school. I can't think of anything more terrifying than the prospect of starting school all over again, arrrrrgh! Oh well at least she has a nice long break before school starts.

Happy Fathers Day

To Fathers out there everywhere, I hope you had a great Fathers Day like I did. I was awoken around 9am with a full English breakfast and a nice cup of tea. I got some great new shirts, which I really need and a nice case of beer for me in the fridge for when I watched today's Grand Prix. The day has pretty much been a blur, but a great one. Watched the race and ventured into the pool. Even though it was 75C, it was warm enough for a swim. Got out of the pool and dressed and snoozed on the couch for an hour or so. Spoke to me Mum and Dad, they're doing well and before I knew it, it was time for dinner. Sherri had cooked a wonderful roast beef with all the trimmings, which we haven't had for ages. Apart from that, I've pretty much watched TV and relaxed. In fact it's nearly 10pm and I'm knackered. I'm going to finish checking my mail and stuff and then I'm off to bed.

The one thing that has made this Fathers Day even more special is the two ickle ones that are growing and growing. In fact I've even felt them move. It still hasn't set in yet, that I'm going to hear the patter of tiny feet, but we have an ultrasound on Thursday, when we hopefully get to find out the sexes, that is if my little ones are not feeling shy :-) All in all, a great weekend. Life is grand.

Heartbeats!

Yesterday afternoon Sherri and I went to the doctor for a progress report on the babies. Both are doing well and we got to hear their little heartbeats again. They're both in their 150s, which is really good. Apart from a rough first month or so, Sherri has been doing great. She's getting bigger by the day and looking great. By hook or by crook, I'll put up some new photos on our site, it's been a while since I posted anything new.

Kosmo had another seizure yesterday. Mandi was with him. The poor little fella, was a little off for the rest of the day, but this morning he's back to his old self. I wonder if their is something triggering them? Maybe the weather? If he has many more in the next week or so, I'll give the vet a call. He was only their a week or so ago for his blood test and they told us everything is looking fine. Unless it's anything major, there's nothing they can really do for him, apart from up his medicine.

Anyway got to get out of the door. Me tea is getting cold upstairs and it's nearly time for work.

And What a Fine Morning It Is.

Kosmo's back to his old self. He was still a bit off last night, but I think a good sleep with people around has settled him. He won't be alone today which is good. Mandi has the day off school and then She's in tomorrow for her final exam and then school is over for another year. Poor old Alanna still has another week :-)

Weather is still holding up nicely, although it looks like rain this weekend. It's going to be around 27C today, which for all you Brits is around 78F. I still have a load of photos to download from the digital camera and upload to the picture gallery. In fact I'm working on something neat that will make it easier for me to update the gallery.

Anyway gotta fly. I wanna send off an email to my mate Dave and then it's time to head off for work.

Poor Little Pup!

I was awake around 5am this morning. Kosmo was on the bed and I felt him jump off. It's unusual for him to move much before I get up, so I looked over at him and he was just stood there in a frozen pose. Then I could see the onset of a seizure and then it began.

I've never really spoken much about Kosmo's attacks, but I think it may help others and maybe take the stigma away. Kosmo was diagnosed with Canine Epilepsy on New Years day. The first seizure was horrifying. At first we thought it was something he ate. Maybe he was choking. I foolishly put my hand in his mouth to stop him swallowing his tongue (you do not need to do this, dogs do not swallow their tongues. Sometimes it looks like they are biting on them, but afterwards the tongue seems undamaged). Then I just comforted him, by speaking in a low calm voice. Soon enough he pulls out of it, albeit a bit groggy and a bit wobbly for a few minutes, but he recovers pretty quickly. Kosmo also tends to get very hungry and very thirsty, try not to let your dog over indulge. Also if your dog want's to lie down and relax, just leave him. Do not go over and pet him. He just wants to relax. Try to keep him in site and make sure he can see you.

Sometimes, like today he'll have another one an hour or so after, but you just do the same thing, comfort him and just be there. Although it might look very painful, dogs do not feel a thing. All epilespy is, is a misfiring of electrical signals in the brain. Just imagine a car misfiring and it's performance is directly effected, it's the same for animals and humans. It's not something you can catch, it's not your fault, it's not their fault, it's just something that happens. Apparently Cocker Spaniels are known to be prone to it and usually develop it during their 2 or 3 year if at all.

Kosmo is on 2 medications, twice a day and will be for the rest of his life. He takes one pill of phenol barbitone (sic) and bromide liquid. He's fine with the pill, although we usually have to wrap it in bread or ham before he'll eat it. The bromide is a different story. God he can be a real pain with that. We have to take it up with a syringe and squirt it into his mouth. You'd think the more he takes it, the easier it would become, but the reverse is in fact true. I usually have to wedge my fingers between his two jaws and then administer it. Once my fingers are in place, he gives up the fight, but that's just Kosmo. It's probably not best to do that with a Alsatian or Doberman :-) He also has some valium, which is to be injected rectally, should he have a cluster of seizures, usually three or more within an hour.

When there is no one home, we now have Kosmo in a large cage in the house. That way we can be sure, if he has a seizure while no one is around, he won't fall off anything or bang his head against corners or walls. It may sound cruel, but he seems more comfortable in his own little space and it also prevents little accidents while he's having a seizure. If one does occur, it's very simple to wipe down his cage.

So yes we have a poorly pup and he's going to need looking after for the rest of his life, but we would never trade him for anything. He's such an unbelievable happy pup and incredibly loving. He's so excited when people come home and is well and truly a part of the family. It's going to be difficult with the twins coming along, but we'll manage.

England Won, France 2 :-(

Oh dear, yesterday was not a good day for English football. We had the game in the bag for 90 minutes and in typical English style we let it all slip away. Even Sherri was getting into the game until that point. She felt really deflated, probably more so because I was gutted. Oh well, we have to live and learn and just do what's needed to make the next round, which shouldn't be too difficult in theory, but then again the theory was Greece weren't going to beat Portugal.

My back is still killing me. Serves me right for spending 2 hours in the pool with no sun tan lotion. I won't be doing that again in a hurry. At least it's got my tan off to a good start. It will be nice to have a decent tan for a change.

Sherri is doing well. The babies are getting bigger by the day, which means it's making it harder for Sherri to move around. Her legs get a bit swollen every now and then, but a quick massage soon sorts that out. We're back to the doctors on Wednesday for a regular checkup. Hopefully we'll be able to hear the babies heartbeats a bit better. I think it's 2 weeks after that we have our next ultrasound. This should hopefully be the one that shows us the sex of the babies, then we can start really planning names and stuff.

Anyway time to get some work done. No rest for the wicked.

Ouch!

Wow what a day it's been today. Got out of bed around 8am and had a couple of hours on the computer messing with some new stuff for the website. Got the wife up and went out to do a bit of shopping. I had to get some new drill bits and some yard bags to clear away the sod, that the pool installers had to pull up to install the pool. 10 bags later and I've hardly made a dent on the pile left behind. Looks like it's gonna take a few weeks to clear as there's no way the binmen are going to take 10 bags or more at a time.

Anyway once I'd finished filling up the 10 bags, I was a bit grubby. The weather was gorgeous, so today was the day O christened the pool. Blimey O'reilley was it cold. Even when you got used to it, if your body dried off for a few seconds and you went back under, it was freezing again. Although I say freezing the temperature of the water was still around 75F, which isn't really so bad.

So I was in the pool for nearly 2 hours. Sherri decided to join me as well, as it looked like I was enjoying myself. Ouch, that sounds like she got in to stop me enjoying myself, but that wasn't the case at all ;-) When I finally got out, I had a lovely colour. Actually it is a lovely colour if you're a lobster, I'm just hoping I don't suffer tonight. Even Kosmo came in briefly and he loved it. We have to be careful of him, as his claws are long and we don't want him to gouge the lining.

It's only just gone 9pm and I'm knackered. I think tonight is gonna be an early night, as it's a big day tomorrow. I get to watch an F1 Grand Prix in the afternoon for a change and then that's followed by the first England Euro 2004 game against France. I haven't watched England in a while, probably since the last world cup, I hope they are up to the task. We shall soon find out.

Oh Look a Spare Bit!

My ankle is much better, just aches a bit now and then. Friday is once again upon us. I'm taking Mandi to her drum lesson as usual and then I'm going to relax for most of the weekend. I may even venture in the pool tomorrow if the weather is nice and I can manage it up the ladder. Talking of ladders, it's amazing what you find when you actually read the instructions. Apparently the reason the ladder is a bit wobbly, is that you have to secure the ladder to the pool rim with a bolt through the pool top and the ladder top plate. I wondered why there was a bold spare, I just figured it was just redundancy. Oh well, live and learn.

Sunday is going to be a great day. Theirs the F1 grad prix in Montreal, which means I can have a few beers while watching and there's also the first England Euro 2004 game. I just have to find out which channel the football's on.

Anyway I'm gonna love you and leave you to have my nice hot Timmy's coffee and some peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies.

When I was a kid... (Part 5)

I started at Chilmark Creative sometime in 1988, I think it was around March, but my memory is a bit hazy without looking at my CV. Chilmark Creative was a company operating under the Chilmark banner but quite independent. Basically Chilmark was some kind of PR company, with an Advertising, PR and Creative arm. The creative company was run by John Loader. The offices were located just off Theobalds Road on Great James Street. All 3 companies were in an old Victorian house and Chilmark Creative was on the top floor.

John was basically getting swamped with work and had asked Kieran at the graphics bureau he used, if he knew of anyone that was looking for work. Funnily enough I had asked Kieran a little while before if he knew of anyone looking for someone. My name was put forward and after a quick interview I was hired. It's funny, I had to work my months notice at Garner Holloway, but just before I had my chance to officially hand in my notice, John sent my letter of offer to Garner Holloway. Needless to say Neil, my then boss opened the letter. I can remember it as clear as day. He came to me, handed my the envelope and said "This is not the kind of mail you should be getting here". Ooops, am I bad :-)

I was sad to leaved Garner Holloway as it was first real rung on the computing ladder, but I had learned pretty much all I could and it was time to move on. Besides, the money at Chilmark was way better, mainly because I was hired as Studio Manager. Before you think, that was a leap, from computer grunt to Studio Manager, let me explain that I was employee number 2 at Chilmark Creative, so you pretty much could choose your own title.

As always I had lots to learn, but loved every minute. I got to work with some great clients, like Hoover, Gucci, Kingfisher, B&Q to name a few. I even had the chance to mix programming, databases and DTP together to make a huge pricelist for Hoover Commercial. Conventionally it probably would have taken us 4 to 5 times longer. I was at Chilmark Creative for nearly 2 years, when John took me and Mandy (she started about a year or so after me) out to lunch to let us know he was relocating the company to Alton, Hampshire. He said we were more than welcome to come too, but realised it was a long way. Consequently I accepted a generous redundancy from John and over the following year or so I still did work for John remotely, producing labels and DTP stuff.

I think I worked for myself for 6 months or so, before deciding it was time to get a proper job again. I remember reading the Loot newspaper and in their was a job for a DTP specialist to work on the paper, putting it together. I applied for the job and had my first interview on a Sunday night at 6pm. I must admit this was the worst job interview I'd ever had. I'd only been driving a couple of years and my knowledge of London wasn't too great. The normal 15 minute journey took me over 2 hours and needless to say I was late. Very late. Fortunately the boss their at the time Patrick was understanding and set me down to do a test, to see if I was competent or not. I think I was sitting on the computer for 2 or 3 hours before I specially asked what happened next as I'd finished doing what was asked of me. Patrice turned to me and said see you Tuesday. I asked if this was a second interview and he said no, you've already started.

Now that was the strangest job interview I'd ever had, but my time at Loot were excellent. What started as a 12 to 16 hour night shift, three times a week, ended up as five times a week, but the shift was reduced to around 5-7 hours long. I've got quite a few stories to tell about my time at Loot and also some funny characters to introduce, but that happens in the next thrilling installment. To be continued...

One Small Step for Man. A Giant Leap for an Idiot!

A nice late blog today, mainly because I haven't been near a computer all day, no not even at work as I was off today. The reason for being off wasn't intended. I had a little accident yesterday and I'm paying for it today. I got home last night and went into the garden to put together the ladder for the pool. Anyway to cut a long story short, I put the ladder up and went up to test stability, which was OK. On the way down, it wasn't so good. I slipped off the last couple of rungs and when I hit the ground I heard a loud crack, never a good sign. After the brief wave of pain, I was able to get to my feet, albeit with a bit of a limp. When I woke up this morning though it was quite a bit worse. I though it was probably best to keep my weight off it all day and that I did. I've still got a bit of a limp, but it's not half as bad as it was. Typical me, Clumsy Colin.

A Milestone. 100th Post.

Mornin' all. 100 posts and I'm still going. I must admit I never thought I would do this many, or be as regular as I have (no I'm not talking lots of bran regular). Now this milestone has been reached, I suppose the next one would be 500. I would imagine that's gonna take a while.

As for yesterday, I won't go into details too much, suffice to say the pool is in at it works. Now all we need to do is find out what we do with all the chemicals. We have pool school next week, which is usually done before the pool is installed, but they were just too busy, so we had to make do with next week. I'm sure it's no biggie, but better safe than sorry. I don't want to end up with some kind of toxic fungus growing on me.

Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals was last night and no good news there I'm afraid. After an awful start, the Flames tried to claw their way back, but too little, too late. Oh well there's always next year.......... for the Sens that is.

Hello Monday.

We won't mention anything about the Calgary Flames losing in second overtime, but just wish they finally dispatch of Tampa tonight in the winner takes all game 7.

Pretty much did nothing yesterday. Had to install all the hardware for the gates to bring us up to permit standards, i.e. the gates have to be self latching, self closing and lockable from the inside, which indeed they now are. I had to go out yesterday to pick up a couple of bits to finish the job, including a huge adjustable spanner. The springs I put on the gates had a bolt head that was just too big for my existing spanner. I also had to get a neat drill bit that extracts stripped screws. I'm sure I'll be using that again and again.

So the wife is off today overseeing the installation of the pool. I just hope Kosmo behaves himself, he always hates strangers around the house.

Time for me to bid farewell. I have to go upstairs to finish my tea and hassle the girls to get ready to leave.

Guten Morgen!

Try as I might, I was unable to stay up much last night. I usually like Friday nights to myself to have a few beers, catch up with people on instant messenging and do a bit of coding. Unfortunately all Kosmo wanted to do was go to bed and he can be very vocal in that respect. Anyway by midnight, I'd had enough of his crying, so off to bed it was.

Woke up around 8:30 to the tones JS Bach, which in this instance wasn't a CD alarm but the telephone. The swimming pool people want to swing by our house to swap the 15 foot pool for the 18 foot one that we ordered. Sure enough 20 minutes later the guy turned up. All we need now is for the installers to put it all together on Monday. Sherri is off work then, so when I come home I could potentially go for a dip :-)

We're off out today to get a few bits of hardware for the gates and to pick up Kosmo's flea/heartworm medication, it's that time of the season again. Then I suppose I'll be installing said hardware in preparation for the pool. We also need to get a new door handle for the front door. At the moment when you close it, it locks and the latch doesn't open it again. I actually locked myself out this morning, but luckily there was someone in the house to let me back in.

On a final note, the Calgary Flames are one game away from winning the Stanley Cup and bringing it back to Canada for the first time in about 11 years. I really hope they manage to beat Tampa today and save us all having to watch a game 7. Yes I know I'm an Ottawa Sens fan, but this is a Canadian team.. oh yeah and their not Toronto :-)

Ouch, Spelling Mistake!

Every now and then I look over past posts and it's quite neat to think that if I continued this for years to come, it will make fascinating reading (or so I think) for my babies to be. However I'm not blind and I do notice the spelling mistakes and wrong words used on occassion. It's sometimes very tempting to go back and make the necessary corrections, but I stop myself. Why? I can hear you ask. The reason is simple. Blogs are moments in time. They express how you feel and what is going through your mind at a given time. If you start altering that, you change the whole feel of the blog. So if you do notice something that isn't kwite rite, do not fear, your intrrrrepid blogger has probably notissed it two.

Let it be Saturday............... PLEASE!

Wow did I have a struggle getting up this morning. I didn't go to bed too late last night, actually I think I finally fell asleep around 11:30pm. I did have a fairly busy evening though. Last night after work I decided to mow the front and back lawns again. Now let me tell you, I'm very proud of myself, I didn't swear once. My biggest frustration with the mower is it's electric which means a trailing cord that is always getting in the way. Now who's idea was it to get an electric mower......... er it wasn't me, if that's a big enough clue. :-) Oh well looks like I've got into a method of mowing that doesn't frustrate me too much.

Spoke to me Dad around 10:30pm last night, he wanted to install the new version of the Bakery software I wrote, and it went very smoothly. It's always nice when that happens. So nothing too stressful last night, but I suppose it's just a culmination of early mornings that's taking a toll on my body. One of the many joys I'm sure of being middle aged, so I need to do something to alleviate that as I'm nowhere ready for middle age......... er except the spread that is :-)

Same Old, Same Old

Another Tuesday flashes past and sometimes it feels like life is just whizzing by. Weather is still crap, but it's payday tomorrow so that at least adds a silver lining to the cloud. Work is really by at the moment. Working on translating some software that is already in English and French to Spanish. First step is to convert from English to Google Spanish. This at least fills the holes for now, but usually leads to some funny literal translations. The client's going to supply the official translations, so anyone out there speaking Spanish can breathe a sigh of relief. Also playing with some new technologies, which is always neat.

Time to sign off and make sure the rest of the family is up and at least nearly ready to leave. Even with 3 bathrooms, I thank God I'm a man :-)

How Much!

Took Kosmo in last night for some bloodwork. As he's on bromide for his medication they like to check his levels once in a while to make sure it's not having an adverse effect. He wasn't too bad when we got there, but afterwards while I was waiting for his prescription and bill he was a real git. I can't suppose it's easy for a dog, but I'm sure he had an inkling of what's going on. I'm also working on some new webstuff which should be interesting, looking at taking the Meeks site to the next level, but some boring work stuff will have to come before that, oh well it's all a learning process. I think I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the bill. Blood work and prescription came to $212.00. All I can say is thank God for the pet insurance we took out on Kosmo before his first attack, it's more than paid for itself.

It's a gray, murky morning today. The sun looks like it's had a lie in today and it must have rained quite a bit last night as Kosmo came in from the garden soaking. Apparently we can also expect some more rain during the day. Bloody hell, it's just like being in England :-)