Happy New Year from Mr. GQ

I don't think there's really any caption required ... other than... JEEEEEPERS... nice nostrils!

Happy New Year! ***pm

Winter Ice

well, today was gorgeous in Victoria County ( Lindsay area ) ... I got a few shots of some gorgeous icicyles; though the country roads were treacherous.... if I'd have had to stop, there'd not have been a CHANCE that I could have.... I guess I should drive slowly hey?!!

Am heading back to Brantford tonight ( snow predicted for tomorrow, so I am heading out late tonight ) .. the chaps are singing in London for New Years Eve, so I have to go home and iron my shirt!

Happy New Year to everyone!

My Niece Eva

my nephew Isaac

Christmas Baking

i think it's safe to say my sister Carol liked my baking !!

Mileage

well.... my car, the uh one that my dad lovingly calls the bambi basher, is getting up in miles.... hit a guard rail in Bancroft this summer, backed into the basketball pole in November, broke the mirror off and dented the right door, and then dinged a deer last week..... add to this, the mileage is now over 250,000 kms.... I'm thinking I should get in shape in case my car becomes toast before it's fully paid for.... I might be riding my bicycle!!!

X BOX

what kind of mind invented this thing....... holy cow, do I feel old.... for starters, the games are SO complex, that you have to have a philadelphia lawyer to help you understand the " mission" in some of these games...
FURTHER MORE.... the hand held controllers are like a helicopter stick.... there are like 8 buttons , alphabetically labelled, on this thing, plus 3 more that have 5 different buttons on EACH...... at one point, abby was nearly falling off her chair, she was laughing so hard at me .... i could NOT keep the stupid motorcycle on the road.... and they kept shouting.. HIT Y ..Daddy, HIT Y..... HIT THE YYYYYYYY button Daddy!.....

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???

boy, i miss pacman!

whooooooo baby, i ate too much....

well.... as Taylor says... if that was Christmas, we had it! Had a pretty decent Christmas actually. Went to the Christmas eve service at my church in Brantford, Saturday... then wrapped presents while watching Its A Wonderful Life ... twice!! Sunday, went to church again.. cause I'm SPURTUAL .....( and don't you forget it!!) Picked the kids up just after 3:30 and we were in Belleville by 6:35 ... my sister and brother and their family were all together at mom and dads... we had a really nice time... We didn't draw names this year, we bought generic gifts and then had a " steal another one if you don't like yours " game with the gifts.... I stole my brother in laws gift.... it was season 2 of the Bob Newhart show... it was either that, or keep the Pampered Chef GIFT PACK... JEEPERS!!

Today, against our better judgment, we went to the mall.. HOLY COW was it hot in there.... I had my lovely Santa hat on ... and my bangs were soaked... ok, shut up... my eye brows were sweating... is that better??? We bought a few used X Box games ( the kids got X Box for Christmas ) .... and came home.. and watched Christmas with the Kranks.. what a funny movie.

So tonight, I'm about to watch Team Canada Jr's vs the Finns .... if I can hear it, over the sound of David and my dad snoring... jeepers... sounds like a Stihl chainsaw convention in there....

Tomorrow, the diet starts... if I lose a 3 lbs a week, my sister says, in just over a year and a half, they'll be rid of me all together!! tsk...............

well, Happy New Year... and Happy Left overs... I'm going to find my ear plugs and going to watch the game!! ***pm

Merry Christmas Again!

Music

The tide receeds, but leaves behind
sea shells in the sand
The sun goes down but gentle warmth
still lingers on the land.

The music stops and yet it echoes
on, in sweet refrains;
For every joy that passes,
something beautiful remains.

M.B. Hughes

Parking at Future Shop

ok.... JUST SO YOU KNOW...... the CHUBB sign at Future shop means they have a Burglar/ Fire alarm with CHUBB Security Systems Inc..... it is NOT a parking spot for fat people.......... power hungry meter maid.... Bah Humbug

Oh Deer

well.... I did something tonight I've never done before... I hit a deer.... sigh....I was on my way home from my buddy Steve's house, wasn't even speeding, for crying out loud, and this deer jumped out in front of me just west of Lindsay.... and I have to admit, for a split second, my mind thought... OH GOODIE.. I'M GONNA GET A NEW CAR! TSK... stupid deer only dented my hood....

Oh Christmas Tree

Check this tree out... saw this tonight, on my way home!!!
that tree absolutely DWARFED the house..... and to be honest... if I'd not been hanging out my window, frantic to take the picture, before I flew past... I'd have probably not swerved and hit that deer... the one sitting on the farmers front lawn.... stupid deer

Merry Christmas!

well, for the first time in 100 years ( well, maybe in 42 years ) ... I'm done my Christmas shopping early... now, all I have to do is wrap a few items, and when I get home to Brantford, I'm gonna bake up a storm.... Am off for most of the last week and a half of the month, so have been pushing to get my inspections all done so I can relax at home with the kids... am really looking forward to some down time!

anyway, if I'm not talking to you, my friends, Merry Chrismtas!!

p.s. and in case I don't have a chance to uh... blast you in a snow ball fight... this is for you!

The Storm of the Century

the snow has fallen, so have my arches, for that matter... but for the most part, the horrific storm of the century ( I'm quoting 680 AM ) is over. And Toronto, for all of the panic they instilled in people, by their sensational weather forecasts, got a grand total of something like 6 1/2 cms!!! yup... 3 inches!... I have to tell you, the HYPE they build on some radio stations ( the above one, mostly ) over "nothing" news, is really annoying...
They were SO worried about how this storm was going to affect people, that they were at the mall, interviewing the manager at the Yorkdale Mall.. to see how they were going to CLEAR THE PARKING LOT ... yup, that's real news. So, the manager says, our "guy" is prepared to come in BEFORE the storm, to put sand and salt on the parking lot, and then overnight, he's going to come BACK and plow the lot. wow.
... I am sure glad I caught THAT news clip... I'd have always wondered how they prepared the way for aggressive frantic shoppers!! I must say though... when I drove BY the Yorkdale mall, and saw a 90,000 Horse Power John Deere Tractor, with a Sanding machine on the back and a 17 foot wide blade on the front... my imagination went wild... I thought to myself.. I BET THOSE GUYS ARE GOING TO DO THAT PARKING LOT WITH THAT THING......

sigh... sometimes, I'm just plain sarcastic!

ok, this is REALLY cool

if you know me... you'll already know that I LOVE Swiss Army knives... I have a small collection of them... 7 I think, different knives, including my favourite .. which is a Swiss Card. It fits inside a little leather case the size of a business card, and has all the tools, including full size removable scissors, a knife and screw drive, pen, tooth pick and my personal favourite... the TWEEZERS!!! I got it from my brother for being in his wedding... I offered to be in his 2nd anniversary some time after that ( likely 2 years.... duh ) so that he'd give me another one.. but he didn't bite. AAAAAAAAAnyway... I saw something tonight that took my breath away... Swiss Army has gone MODERN ... and they now have a swiss army knife with a MEMORY STICK included.... be still my heart... I wonder if IT will survive a trip through the wash!***pm

Clear Cutting

Today, i saw the weirdest thing... I was down a little cottage road in Otonabee Township, and I saw this way cool machine, chopping trees to smithereens... its like clear cutting, for brush, except this thing was cutting trees as big as six" around... made the road bigger.. but JEEPERS... the road was COVERED in bits of wooden shrapnel ... I was afraid my snow tires might have splinters... I guess I'll know in the morning huh? ( or should I say EH? )....

Sunday Nights

I've never been fond of Sunday nights...

when I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to go to Church Sunday night cause it was too late... and on Sunday nights, my mother told me, they used to sing a LOT of hymns .... ( Probably cause the pastor didn't have enough material to fill a second sermon!! ) and since I loved the music, I felt hard done by, that I couldn't go to Sunday evening service.. ( boy has THAT changed ) anyway...

When I grew up ..uh... let me rephrase that... when I got older, and became gainfully employed .. uh.. let me rephrase that... after I began to work... uh.. let me rephrase that... after I had a job and had to go TO work on Mondays, Sunday nights sucked. I was tired from a busy weekend, and keyed up already about having to go to work Mondays... a couple of the insurance jobs I had along the way, not the least of which was Metlife, were particularly troubling.... and Sunday nights were awful... dreading the morning after!!

But none of that is even close to how sad it is... to wave goodbye to my kids for another two weeks..... After I drop them off, and come back home to pick up the pieces of my life, my house seems SO empty and lonely.... and horrible....

After all these years, I still hate sunday nights....

Chronicles of Narnia

I took the kids to see the Chronicles of Narnia tonight.. what an incredible movie... if it hadn't been for the four year old behind me who kept asking his mother... WHERE'D HE GO? WHAT'S HE DOING? WHY DID HE DO THAT? THIS IS SAD!!, it'd have been a perfect evening.... so after the ambulance came for the little kid behind me ( I hope they are able to get that Farmer's Mutual Hat out... the one that's stuck part way down his throat ) , we went to Midnight Madness at Liquidation World.... at 70% off, the prices are about the best bargains I've ever had... bought $104 worth of stuff that I didn't like, and that I won't ever use.. but really, the values were too good to pass up...
In particular was the 90% off aisle at 9:30 ... at one point, I had two boxes of stemware in my arms( apparently, someone said, stemware is for wine .. who knew ) .. anyway, I was pushing and squeezing, trying to get the box packed tightly so I could carry more stuff in my arms.. when I heard this sickening crack... I decided about then, that I didn't need stemware.... and set it back on the shelf... and whoosh... someone else grabbed it.. i mean, it was NINETY Percent offffffffff!!!

so now we're home... 11:21 pm on a friday night, and I can't keep my head up... but I'll try to keep my head up long enough so that my kids will go to bed before I do... its too embarrasing to think I'm in bed before them!

at any rate, thanks for listening!***pm

Lossssssssssssa miles today

hey honey.... I'm HOME! for those who think I don't work hard enough, I left home at 8:10 this morning, and got home at 10:29 tonight.... 443 kms round trip.... and now I'm tired.... no where near enough coffee to manage a trip like that. Stopped at a big outlet mall south of Barrie... spent an hour in the Black and Decker store and then a few minutes in the Royal Doulton store... got some pretty decent bargains, for which my family will be thankful come December 25th....

So tomorrow we sing again ( the Chapelaires, that is ... www.chapelaires.com ) ... we're in St Thomas, at the new building built by Faith Baptist. Tomorrow's inspection list will be short, cause I'll have to get through Toronto and get to St Thomas by 4 pm.... I HATE going through Toronto... did I tell you that before? anyway, i'm ugly and I need beauty sleep .... i know, there's no point.. shut up!
G'night!