Personal

May Two Four? Or May Two By Four?

Mulder

It doesn’t matter if you are cracking open a case of Labatts blue, affectionately called a Two Four, or if you are helping a friend build that deck by hammering down a two by four. This long weekend is one that many Canadians relish more than any other through the summer as it indicates the beginning of the monthly string of Holidays running through to Labour Day.

Many know that the holiday is to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday, but it is also the annual celebration of the birthday of the reigning Monarch. Since her crowning, over 50 years ago, Queen Elizabeth’s birthday has been celebrated on Victoria Day. This is not new and in fact there is historic record that many Monarch’s had their birthday celebrated on that of a former Monarch.

But in almost every case, the celebration was left on the previous Monarch’s birthday because the new Monarch ascended to the throne at an older age which meant if the date of the holiday was changed, it would just have to be changed again soon.

In the case of Queen Elizabeth, whose actual birthday is on April 21st, this has not been the case. Victoria was Queen for about 62 years. Elizabeth has been Queen for about 54 at the time of this posting.

Some out there think that the current Monarch of the Commonwealth deserves a nationally celebrated day due to her tenure as our Queen. I am not sure. I still know that if we do ever decide to add a new national holiday that Flag Day in February would be better. The winter blahs could use a boost and April already has the Easter break.

In any case, this weekend I will be cracking a few beers, trying to squeeze in some yardwork between thunderstorms, and probably setting off a few sparklers with the kids in honour of both Queen Victoria (God rest her soul) and Queen Elizabeth II (God Bless Her).

No, I’m not a staunch Monarchist, but I do believe in the civility that the position stands for. And getting a day off work ain’t so bad either!!

If you have the interest, you can read more about the recent Monarch’s birthdays here.

A safe weekend to all. Please don’t drink and drive.

Cookie Made It To The National Cheerleading Championships!!

Mulder

Last weekend, my daughter and her provincial champion teammates took the show to the Power Cheer National Championships, which were held in Mississauga, Ontario.

The weekend started out with some fun as T-bone, the better half and I made a pitstop at Staples to pick up some bristol board and markers, with which we proceeded to make up some signs to wave as we cheered on Cookie and her teammates.

The Hershey Center was split up with two floors going at once which meant the place was rocking all weekend.  They had demo performances and some great tumbling stunts performed by alum from my alma mater, the University of Western Ontario.  The reigning national collegiate champs for over 20 years running.

Cookie and her teammates took the floor for their first performance on Saturday afternoon.  The run was a bit shaky and they were sitting in 9th out of 12 teams when the first round came to a close.  Hope was not lost, but they knew they needed to make up a lot of ground to climb into the medals.

The second run started out really strong and they maintained it through to the end of their performance, where they had a slight bauble in their last stunt.  All in all, it was a very solid performance and ranked third best in the second run.
When the two scores were tabulated, they had finished a solid fifth in the nation.  This means her cheerleading season is winding down with one invitational left to go.  Needless to say, I am the very proud father of this 9 year old provincial champion.  She (and her team mates) may have finished 5th in the country, but they are, definately, first in my eyes.
She still has the provincial rhythmic gymnastics championships to go in a few weeks and then she (and we) can relax a little bit.  T-Bone has soccer season revving up soon which means many evenings swatting bugs and smearing the sunscreen on as we tour around Kanata.

Cookie's A Provincial Champion!!

Mulder

This past weekend was a busy one for Cookie.  On Saturday she (and her cheerleading teammates) were competing in the Ontario Provincial Cheerleading Championship at the Hershey Center in Mississauga just west of Toronto.  They did their routine twice over about 3 hours and after all was said and done, they won the event taking home a trophy almost as big as Cookie!!

This is one of those moments in a parent’s life that may only be surpassed by a possible national championship which they will be vying for this coming weekend.

To top it all off, on Sunday she was also competing in the 2nd qualifier for the Rhythmic Gymnastics provincials.  11 of the 17 girls competing would make it to the provincials which will be held later this month.  She finished 7th overall in her free routine (3 places better than she placed in the 1st qualifier) and she finished 7th overall in her hoop routine (3 places worse than she placed in the 1st qualifier) and she finished 7th overall for the meet (1 place worse than her 6th place overall finish in the 1st qualifier).

When the scores from both qualifers were combined, Cookie finished in 7th overall which means she will be at the provincial championships.

Needless to say, I am one proud pappy today.

Just In Time For Outdoor Patios …

Mulder

… I have quit smoking.  After freezing my ass off outside all winter.  After all the sniffles and wasted tissue paper.  After all the years of blowing my cash on the only consumer product, that when used as directed, will kill you.  I have finally quit for good.  I know it this time. 

What’s different?  Well I have tried Zyban … too buzzy for me.  I have tried Nicorettes … taste horrible.  I have tried the patch … it didn’t satisfy that oral fixation.  But this time … this time things are different.

You see I have this friend of a friend of a friend with a “candy” boat.  And every so often they sneak on down to visit our neighbours to the south and come back with some Commit nicotine lozenges.  They are these little tablets that seem to cover the best of all worlds.  They satisfy the nicotine habit.  They satisfy the oral fixation.  I made a game that I am not allowed to pull the easy corner of the package to open them so it satisfies my hands for a few minutes regularly.  And it keeps me from that nasty tar and carbon monoxide which satisfies my doctor!!

The Commit lozenges aren’t contraban (it’s only candy and nicotine and not unlike Nicorettes) but it isn’t sold up here in Canada so all you Yankees who think pharmaceuticals only go one way across our border …. (buzzzz) … wrong.  I am already counting what I have left and planning for my next mission of espionage!!

Wish me luck.  (And don’t worry, I promise not to become the infamous reformed non-smoker who harangues his smoking friends incessantly).

I want to give some credit to my sister who has now been over 10 weeks smoke free for introducing me to these lozenges.  They are doing the trick.  I also want to thank my wife who is encouraging me to quit by quitting herself.  I have a feeling with both of us working on it together, we will have a long healthy life ahead of us.

Now to figure out what to do with the savings.  For those of you who don’t smoke, a pack of large cigarettes is over $10 in some shops and consistently over $9.

Maybe a roll out basketball net for my next “get healthy” objective.  Lose 50 to 70 lbs and dunk again.  (Yes I could dunk when I was a lot lighter … and I don’t mean donuts into my coffee!)

I Love ATI But…

Mulder

For the past few days I have been experiencing some really weird problems … errrrr … computer driver issues … errrrr … catastrophic crashes and blue screens. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Catastrophic crashes and blue screens.

Nowhere online have I found a good fix. (And believe me, I tried). I think I have rebooted or had to power down a blue screen at least 50 times the past 24 hours.

I gave up this morning. I uninstalled all the ATI software and drivers, rebooted in VGA mode (which sucks cuz I can’t use my dual screens) and I will have the beast in the shop for a fix tomorrow morning.

The ironic part is that I have sold semiconductors (and other components) to ATI and tons of other companies in Canada. I guess it’s true a mechanic’s car is always in awful shape.

All right. That’s it for my griping. The ATI Radeon has served me well and it will do so again. I am pretty sure I created havoc on the system myself somehow so I am pretty sure someone smarter than me can fix it.

Cookies Climbing The Ranks

Mulder

Last weekend I made the journey down to Toronto where Cookie was competing in the first of two Ontario provincial qualifiers for rhythmic gymnastics.

They changed the format this year so that anyone who wants to compete at provincials must compete at both qualifiers. The scores are then merged and they take the top 60% to provincials. This means that we got a good look at all of the competition that she will face should she qualify.

Last year, as some of you may remember, she finished in last place at provincials, but just making it was big for her. At this first qualifier, competing against everyone, she finished 10th of 17 in her free routine, and 4th of 17 in her her hoop routine for a 6th place overall.

Am I a proud dad or what?  She is making huge strides in her athletics.

But I must add, I am even MORE proud of the nine A’s she received on her report card a week or so ago. She’s one smart Cookie too!!

Another Young Medallist In Our Household

Mulder

Yesterday was the gruelling two and a half hour soccer marathon that ends the year of T-bone’s indoor soccer season.

The format was a mini round robin of three 25 minute games, one against each of the other teams in their league. After two wins and a tie his team faced off against the other finalist in a full hour long game.

I must say that I do enjoy watching the indoor winter league more than the summer leagues. The pace in the final game was very quick as the two teams knew what was on the line. But in the end T-bone and his teammates were victorious.

He is sporting a shiny gold medal today.

I think the only downside to the day was that he only got to play about 30 minutes out of the 125 minutes of game time through the competition. The average time played was about 70 minutes on his team. With the league being just a small four team houseleague and not a “Competitive” level, I would have hoped he had more playing time, even if it meant they didn’t get the gold.

But the disappointment in playing time didn’t down us or how well he played when he did get on. I’m still very proud of him. In the third preliminary game he had a couple of great breaks up the field dekeing a player on each. Both runs were started with nice defensive plays and one ended up with a nice push forward to a winger and the other in a shot that was just shy of the mark.

Tim Horton's To Open In Kandahar!! My Boycott Is Almost Over!!

Mulder

Finally, that sweet, addictive, creamy Timmy’s Double Double will be passing my lips, going over my gums, because look out Kandahar, here it comes!!!

Tonight on CTV Newsnet, Sandra Jansen reported that Tim Horton’s has agreed to open up a Tim Horton’s mobile truck type store in Kandahar for our brave soldiers.  My 37 day strike had numerous posts here, and here, and here following up on what the status was.  But, finally, I see the light (shade of a Double Double) at the end of the tunnel.  And just in time to win myself a Rav 4 in the Rrrrrooooll up the Rrrimmmm to Win contest!!

After joining North American Patriot, BBS, Free Dominion, The Reclusive Antiquarian, Uncle Meat (who will not be running the shop), Lucious Phil and Brent Colbert in the boycott, I am hoping my fellow boycotters will be just as pleased as me to hear this news.

A Night To Remember

Mulder

Tonight I attended the Senators vs. Capitals hockey game at the Scotiabank Centre here in Kanata. I was surprised to see so many men in military uniforms walking towards the stadium and figured it must be an Armed Forces night, which it was. I was settling in to my company’s season tickets, right on the glass in section 115 and turned around to see almost two whole rows of men in their fatigues and berets. I asked one of our fine soldiers if his boss was attending. He said yes, he’ll be about four or five rows behind us.

Having worked hard on Gordon O’Connor’s campaign, I was quite excited to be able to rib him about having better seats than he got. I turned around every few minutes and then noticed a big group of men in dark suits and coats huddling as they came down the row. I espied our Minister of Defence among the throng, but then realized that he wasn’t the highest ranking official in the place. Beside him was Peter McKay and right there, five rows behind me and 7 seats over was Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his son.

I was awestruck, and joined a few people in snapping some cell phone shots.

Harper At Sens GameAt the first intermission, Mr. Harper walked down and stood in the corner beside the penalty box to get some pictures taken of himself and some of the troops. He was cordial as many well wishers stopped by to shake his hand, me included. I introduced myself and told him I was pleased to help on Gordon’s campaign and that I thought he was doing a bang up job so far and that I was both proud and pleased that he was leading our country in the right direction.

He asked me what my blog was and I told him. He said he is pretty sure he had heard the name from his wife and repeated what many of us know. She is a blog reader. Whether or not he was just being cordial, I appreciated his friendliness and was, especially, pleased to see him sitting in a seat and not tucked up in a box. I also must say that considering the game was a 7-0 blowout at one point, the whole entourage stayed for the whole game which ended with a 7-1 score. Alexander Ovechkin scoring the lone Caps tally.

I mention this last goal because I really respect Ovechkin for his skill, but tonight during the warmup, he saw a youngster sitting a couple of seats over from me and flipped the lad a puck over the glass. With the puck and a quick handshake from Mr. Harper, this will be a game that young man remembers for a long time.

I think I will probably be floating around on cloud 9 for the next few days after meeting our illustrious leader. Ironically, I was wearing my OfficiallyScrewed.com baseball hat tonight (shameless promoting in a throng of 19,000 plus. When I went up to the concourse at the second intermission I gave Gordon a wave. Upon passing him I said hi and shook his hand. Peter McKay gave me a funny look. Maybe it was the hat….maybe it was me in a sweatshirt and jeans and being greeted nicely by our Minister of Defence. In any case, it was nice seeing Peter get a stick from someone in the penalty box and giving it to Ben Harper. A nice touch on a nice evening.

Officially Unscrewed?

Mulder

Tonight, I had the priviledge of attending my riding associations annual general meeting. The Board members were elected and the executive was named. I am still not sure it actually happened, but I was nominated and now sit as the Communications Director. What is a communications director you might ask? Well directly from the Association website:

Responsibilities: The Communications Director’s primary responsibilities are: (a) Newsletters: design/write and arrange for printing and mailing; (b) Website: design, write and maintain; (c) Correspondence: email replies and postal communications; and (d) Fundraising letters: write, merge with membership list, and arrange for printing and mailing.

To break this down….

a) Newsletters: I can use mail merge in Word, and I can write with some rudimentary skill, as displayed on this website. I also know how to handle mass printing, envelope stuffing and mailing so that’s not an issue. Ok, so far so good.

b) Website: Ugh. No offence to the original designer, but I think this area is one I can help in. Hopefully, no one saw the trouble I had moving my server and getting WordPress up and running. But I think overall it was pretty smooth for my first effort into PHP and xhtml.

c) Correspondence: email etc. I should be fine here. I am good on the PC, and did a lot of work with mailings when I was in tech support my first year in the high tech industry.

d) Fundraising letters: Ok, so being in sales I think this one is ok. I am more used to providing goods for people giving me money instead of just asking for it, but maybe that means I put some good effort into explaining the benefits for those who are unsure about things.

I must also say that Brent Colbert was there as an independent observer and scrutineer. When I exclaimed my concern over this blog and my position, he said that I should put a disclaimer up. So in light of this, I have edited my old legal disclaimer and would like to reiterate here, that my words on this website are not necessarily those of the Conservative Party of Canada. I choose to express my views here, but seldom differ from those of the Tories. I do believe that there is a time to express your view, and a time to tow the party line. Once views are all presented and a decision is made, I do fully support the decisions which the majority make.

This has been a heck of a week. Previous to this, I have re-entered the land of the working having begun a new job last Monday. Back into strategic technical sales and marketing for me. (If you’re looking for some Memory or Memory modules in Ottawa, let me know!!