On Saturday Kim and I left the Boys in the care of my mother and aunt and went to a movie for Kim's birthday and some shopping at the mall.
Kim wanted to see Wanted (mainly for her girl crush Angelina Jolie) and it turned out to be not too bad, lots of action, pretty decent. I expected more elaborate gunplay but it was good overall (3 out of 4 stars).
After the movie I called to see how the babysitting was going ("fine") and Kim gave me trouble because I didn't explicitly ask how the boys themselves were doing. Yeesh. ;)
While shopping I picked out some new glasses and a pair of subscription sunglasses as a splurge item (covered by work insurance, natch). Kim got some new clothes for herself and the boys upcoming dedication in a couple weeks.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Boys!
Kim got some pictures today where they are both smiling. Check it out!
(Click to see bigger images)
(Click to see bigger images)
Monday, June 23, 2008
A Difference of Opinion
On Sunday I was entertaining the boys and flicking through channels for some background distraction (after all, babies are only so exciting for so long). I tuned in to the early going of the movie Thirteen Days about the Cuban Missile Crisis back in the sixties.
I had seen it before but it was worth watching again because its such a good movie. I don't know how accurate it is but from what I've heard a lot of the White House dialogue was taken from official government transcripts and is mostly historically accurate in major events.
As I was watching the movie (5 out of 5 stars on my review scale by the way, a "must see") I was struck by several thoughts:
1) Damn there was so many roads leading to escalation of hostilities and it feels like only one road that didn't and someone they found that road through luck, perseverance, and sheer will.
2) The American military command was chomping at the bit for a shooting confrontation. I mean even if the movie exaggerated their enthusiasm for conflict 100%, they were still practically begging for the chance to blow stuff up. And the events suggests that they tried to paint the President into a corner to force him to order a shooting war.
3) While the parallels to recent years and the Iraq war against Saddam Hussein's government are weak at best, I couldn't help but think that if Dubba & co (or reasonable facsimiles) were in charge in the sixties I wouldn't be typing this right now. Instead civilization as we know it would be the remnant survivors from World War III.
I had seen it before but it was worth watching again because its such a good movie. I don't know how accurate it is but from what I've heard a lot of the White House dialogue was taken from official government transcripts and is mostly historically accurate in major events.
As I was watching the movie (5 out of 5 stars on my review scale by the way, a "must see") I was struck by several thoughts:
1) Damn there was so many roads leading to escalation of hostilities and it feels like only one road that didn't and someone they found that road through luck, perseverance, and sheer will.
2) The American military command was chomping at the bit for a shooting confrontation. I mean even if the movie exaggerated their enthusiasm for conflict 100%, they were still practically begging for the chance to blow stuff up. And the events suggests that they tried to paint the President into a corner to force him to order a shooting war.
3) While the parallels to recent years and the Iraq war against Saddam Hussein's government are weak at best, I couldn't help but think that if Dubba & co (or reasonable facsimiles) were in charge in the sixties I wouldn't be typing this right now. Instead civilization as we know it would be the remnant survivors from World War III.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Sleepless In Carleton Place
Last night was Kim's birthday and she commented on how it would be nice to sleep more than three hours in a night and how she was jealous of me because I always got up with the second waking baby (almost always Lukas) and she got the first.
You see, the nightly routine is like this:
~10-11pm - feed and get boys ready for bed.
~2-3am - Sean wakes up for eating, and usually takes about an hour to eat and get back to sound sleep.
~4-5am - Lukas wakes up for eating and is usually back in bed after 30-45 minutes.
~6-7am - Sean wakes up for morning breakfast and I'm getting ready for work so Kim takes over.
So when Kim gets the first baby to wake up, she sometimes only gets 3 hours of sleep before and after. I on the other hand typically get 5-6 hours of sleep in one block.
So last night being Kim's birthday I agreed to get the first baby (most likely Sean) and let her sleep longer.
So in bed at 10pm. Good start. Sean wakes up at 2 on the dot. I stumble out of bed, get dressed, grabbed the grunting baby, change him, feed him, rock him to sleep and try to put him back in bed at around 2:45am. No way dad, he replied! So we went back downstairs and I was so tired at this time I tried sleeping on the couch with him. It works and we drift off.
At 3:30 I wake up with sore shoulder, neck, back... not fun. But Sean is soundly asleep and goes back to his bassinet easily and I drift off in my own comfy bed again.
Lukas starts waking up at 4am and I wake up too. I don't get out of bed but have to wait for Kim to wake up and get him. She finally heads downstairs with him and I drift off again.
Until 5am when Sean wakes up looking for some more food. Groan! I really stumble out of bed this time and barely navigate the stairs to the living room. As I feed the poor boy I fall alseep and Kim has to poke me to burp him. She takes over after seeing what a wreck I am and I go back to bed, turning off my alarm as I can't handle getting up at 5:45 this morning.
Needless to say, I'm moving a bit slower today than usual.
You see, the nightly routine is like this:
~10-11pm - feed and get boys ready for bed.
~2-3am - Sean wakes up for eating, and usually takes about an hour to eat and get back to sound sleep.
~4-5am - Lukas wakes up for eating and is usually back in bed after 30-45 minutes.
~6-7am - Sean wakes up for morning breakfast and I'm getting ready for work so Kim takes over.
So when Kim gets the first baby to wake up, she sometimes only gets 3 hours of sleep before and after. I on the other hand typically get 5-6 hours of sleep in one block.
So last night being Kim's birthday I agreed to get the first baby (most likely Sean) and let her sleep longer.
So in bed at 10pm. Good start. Sean wakes up at 2 on the dot. I stumble out of bed, get dressed, grabbed the grunting baby, change him, feed him, rock him to sleep and try to put him back in bed at around 2:45am. No way dad, he replied! So we went back downstairs and I was so tired at this time I tried sleeping on the couch with him. It works and we drift off.
At 3:30 I wake up with sore shoulder, neck, back... not fun. But Sean is soundly asleep and goes back to his bassinet easily and I drift off in my own comfy bed again.
Lukas starts waking up at 4am and I wake up too. I don't get out of bed but have to wait for Kim to wake up and get him. She finally heads downstairs with him and I drift off again.
Until 5am when Sean wakes up looking for some more food. Groan! I really stumble out of bed this time and barely navigate the stairs to the living room. As I feed the poor boy I fall alseep and Kim has to poke me to burp him. She takes over after seeing what a wreck I am and I go back to bed, turning off my alarm as I can't handle getting up at 5:45 this morning.
Needless to say, I'm moving a bit slower today than usual.
Ridiculous
This news story is ridiculous:
I'm speechless. This time the courts have gone to far.A father plans to appeal after a Quebec court ruled that he didn't have the right to punish his 12-year-old daughter by banning her from a school trip.
Quebec Superior Court Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier ruled Friday that the girl should be allowed to attend the three-day trip within Quebec this week.
The father first forbade his daughter from going online after the Grade 6 student posted photos on a dating site, the Globe and Mail reported in its Thursday edition.
The girl's parents are divorced, and after she had an alleged row with her stepmother, the dad barred her from going on a school trip to mark the class's graduation from elementary school, the newspaper says.
"When he said, 'OK, it's final. You're not going,' she smacked the door, left and went to live with her mother," the father's lawyer, Kim Beaudoin, told CBC News.
Last Wednesday, the dad received a motion petitioning the court to overturn the punishment.
Two days later, the justice ruled that the punishment was too severe since the girl had already been sufficiently disciplined, said Beaudoin.
Beaudoin said the justice also said there was no reason for the punishment to stand, since the girl was now living with her mother, even though the father has custody.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Free Time, We Has None
The boys are over 7 weeks old and Kim and I have gotten into a decent swing of things at home.
Weeknights I get home and try to help Kim with whichever boy is hungry/awake/needing attention, we slap something together for eating dinner and we might eat at the same time although often it is shift-eating. Then we take turns doing things while the other watches the boys; laundry, dishes cleanup, etc. And we relax by watching some TV which is something we can do with the twins as it doesn't require too much attention and allows us to interact with them and try to keep them up until bedtime.
The biggest change for me has been the removal of evening "Bill Time", the hour or so that I would spend on the computer enjoying a game and letting the day's stresses and worries melt away while I chatted with the other online players and worked on my virtual empire in my favourite MMORPG, Eve Online.
Some nights I get home from my day job and it feels like I start a shift on my night job, the ride home being the only break. I admit that as much as I love my boys and I'm glad to hold them and visit with them when I'm home, I do miss my free time that I enjoyed for all those years.
Yet as much as miss my free time, my small sacrifice is nothing like what Kim has to go through. She's on the job 24 hours a day and yet seems to somehow maintain her composure and attitude through it all. All by herself during the day, no break at all until I come home and even then she is not really free but merely less occupied. She is a champion mother as I knew she would be.
And you know what? This won't last. They will grow up, they will need us less and less as the years go by and I know sometime in the future I'll look back and wish I could just hold them all night again.
So while I miss my free time I do not grieve for it. Instead I try to focus on this precious first few years when Kim and I are their whole world and they belong completely to us.
Weeknights I get home and try to help Kim with whichever boy is hungry/awake/needing attention, we slap something together for eating dinner and we might eat at the same time although often it is shift-eating. Then we take turns doing things while the other watches the boys; laundry, dishes cleanup, etc. And we relax by watching some TV which is something we can do with the twins as it doesn't require too much attention and allows us to interact with them and try to keep them up until bedtime.
The biggest change for me has been the removal of evening "Bill Time", the hour or so that I would spend on the computer enjoying a game and letting the day's stresses and worries melt away while I chatted with the other online players and worked on my virtual empire in my favourite MMORPG, Eve Online.
Some nights I get home from my day job and it feels like I start a shift on my night job, the ride home being the only break. I admit that as much as I love my boys and I'm glad to hold them and visit with them when I'm home, I do miss my free time that I enjoyed for all those years.
Yet as much as miss my free time, my small sacrifice is nothing like what Kim has to go through. She's on the job 24 hours a day and yet seems to somehow maintain her composure and attitude through it all. All by herself during the day, no break at all until I come home and even then she is not really free but merely less occupied. She is a champion mother as I knew she would be.
And you know what? This won't last. They will grow up, they will need us less and less as the years go by and I know sometime in the future I'll look back and wish I could just hold them all night again.
So while I miss my free time I do not grieve for it. Instead I try to focus on this precious first few years when Kim and I are their whole world and they belong completely to us.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Jiu Jitsu Update
I'm still attending Jiu Jitsu classes twice a week when work does not interfere. Today I got my second stripe for Blue Belt, and I should have my third stripe in about two month's time, and my purple belt a fewweeks after that! So say mid to late September.
War Is Tasty... Wait, What?
You think you have weird hobbies? Check this out:
Out of CANDY. That's hardcore.
What I Did Over THIS Christmas Break:
My brothers, sister, myself and some of our friends built a scale model of Minas Tirith during the Battle of Pelennor Fields from the novel, The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Out of CANDY. That's hardcore.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Its Sad...
... that in 2008 a big issue in the upcoming Presidential Election in the states is that Senator Obama is black.
Still Playing Online Chess
I'm still playing regular games on the online chess website www.gameknot.com.
I've finished 1221 games with 646 wins, 526 losses, and 49 draws. I have a current rating of 1480 on the site and am ranked in the 65th percentile (i.e. I'm ranked higher than 65% of the other thousands of players on the website).
Other interesting stats:
- playing as white I win 57% of my games and lose 39%. As black, I win only 50% and lose 44%.
- My highest ever rating was 1560 last July, and lowest was 1221 last December
- Against my regular opponent, Datagod, I have 70 wins, 49 loses, and 8 draws.
I've finished 1221 games with 646 wins, 526 losses, and 49 draws. I have a current rating of 1480 on the site and am ranked in the 65th percentile (i.e. I'm ranked higher than 65% of the other thousands of players on the website).
Other interesting stats:
- playing as white I win 57% of my games and lose 39%. As black, I win only 50% and lose 44%.
- My highest ever rating was 1560 last July, and lowest was 1221 last December
- Against my regular opponent, Datagod, I have 70 wins, 49 loses, and 8 draws.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Sleep Is A Luxury
Some nights are not too bad. Others not too good.
Take last night for example: we had the Boys asleep and in bed by 10pm and Kim and I soon thereafter. At around 2am Kim got up with Sean and was back in bed by 2:45, and I got up at 3am with Lukas and back in bed before 4am. That's about as good as it gets without them sleeping through the night.
The night before last was not so great. Kim was especially exhausted and Lukas especially awake so I sent Kim to bed at 11 and I stayed up with Lukas until I could get him asleep at 12:15am. However when I put him down he woke up and needed to be fed, changed, rocked, and finally asleep for good at 1am. Just in time for Sean to wake up to eat. I fed him some but he wasn't ready for sleep and had to pass him off to Kim before 2am because I was dead on my feet.
My sacrifice seemed to help as Kim was slightly more lively the next day.
The hardest part is the late night feedings. I eagerly await the day when those 3am feedings are the exception instead of the rule.
Take last night for example: we had the Boys asleep and in bed by 10pm and Kim and I soon thereafter. At around 2am Kim got up with Sean and was back in bed by 2:45, and I got up at 3am with Lukas and back in bed before 4am. That's about as good as it gets without them sleeping through the night.
The night before last was not so great. Kim was especially exhausted and Lukas especially awake so I sent Kim to bed at 11 and I stayed up with Lukas until I could get him asleep at 12:15am. However when I put him down he woke up and needed to be fed, changed, rocked, and finally asleep for good at 1am. Just in time for Sean to wake up to eat. I fed him some but he wasn't ready for sleep and had to pass him off to Kim before 2am because I was dead on my feet.
My sacrifice seemed to help as Kim was slightly more lively the next day.
The hardest part is the late night feedings. I eagerly await the day when those 3am feedings are the exception instead of the rule.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
On Saturday the in-laws asked to watch the Boys while Kim and I had a quick date so we went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
It was an enjoyable movie and pretty much in line with the previous three movies in terms of believability. Instead of religious woo hoo though, it used Alien woo hoo. Its all the same really so that didn't bother me.
As long as you can put aside all of the completely unbelievable things (like the magic rain forest with flat ground for an extended car chase, ant colonies that consume entire bodies, and the incongruity that aliens would come to earth and collect artifacts from all over for its cultures like "archeologists!" Indy exclaims at one point but then destroy their collection completely when their ship takes off) you will be OK. Needless to say I had some issues doing just that.
In the end I enjoyed it despite its shortcomings and plot holes. The action sequences were enjoyable although I felt it fell down a little at the very end much like the Last Crusade movie.
Overall I give it 2.5 stars out of 5. Fun, but silly.
It was an enjoyable movie and pretty much in line with the previous three movies in terms of believability. Instead of religious woo hoo though, it used Alien woo hoo. Its all the same really so that didn't bother me.
As long as you can put aside all of the completely unbelievable things (like the magic rain forest with flat ground for an extended car chase, ant colonies that consume entire bodies, and the incongruity that aliens would come to earth and collect artifacts from all over for its cultures like "archeologists!" Indy exclaims at one point but then destroy their collection completely when their ship takes off) you will be OK. Needless to say I had some issues doing just that.
In the end I enjoyed it despite its shortcomings and plot holes. The action sequences were enjoyable although I felt it fell down a little at the very end much like the Last Crusade movie.
Overall I give it 2.5 stars out of 5. Fun, but silly.
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