OMG, Who Let Him Near The Power Tools!

Yes, it's true, I am using power tools. Anyone who knows me also knows that I am quite possible the most useless human when it comes to anything "handy". I know how to fill the vehicles with gas, and I know how to replace the light bulbs. Other than that, I'm tragic. Here's the problem:

I refuse to accept my limitations, so any chance I get I will try to do it myself. Usually, it ends in damage and a half-assed finished product that needs to be fixed by a professional. But this time it's different, so far at least.

I am putting up a wall in our new house to create a playroom for the kids. So far, the wall is framed. Not much, but for me it's huge. And last night I took a trip into the world of electrical when I cut open the drywall and moved wall switches around. So, now I have moved the switches to their new happy homes and patched up the drywall around them.

Tonight, Jeremy and I will be putting up drywall and attempting the 'mudding and taping' of the new wall.

Generally, most of my past problems have come from trying to do a task without actually having the proper tools, so tonight I am renting the proper 'drywall screwdriver' and I think it's going to go well.

Even if it doesn't go well, there will be beer, and that's a good thing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICKI!

It's Vicki's 28th birthday today! Woo Hoo!

Have a fantastic day, sweetheart, I love you soooooo much!

Richmond is Bad

I don't like going into Richmond. I just had to go there to get some paperwork for buying our house and again I realized, I do not like Richmond. The layout is a mess, it's got zero curb-appeal, and I ALWAYS get lost when I go there. Today's 30 min trip took 55 min, due simply to the suckage of Richmond.

I don't want to go there anymore.

Except maybe for the casino.

The Couch Mission: It's All Good Baby

Just got authorization for putting the couch/loveseat in the new house. Just confirmed that Costco still has them. Just confirmed the cargo van pickup. I'm going to go pick it up at 1:30 and Jeremy will help me unload tonight.

Sweet.

Update: The Couch Mission

"Houston, we have a problem."

It was all going so well. I found a good deal on a cargo van and I had Jeremy lined up to help load/unload. The request to the current owners went in this morning. All was well.

By 5:38pm, there was no response from the current owners, probably due to a lack of checking their email. The van rental place is closed at 6pm. The mission has failed, for today.

However, at last check, no couches or loveseats had been sold from the Richmond location. We will get a "go/no go" for delivery by tonight. So, as long as there isn't a ridiculous run on Costco furniture in the next 24hrs, we'll be ok.

Check back tomorrow. And try not to worry too much, we'll make it through this.

My Valentine

Since the moment I met her, my life has been better, every day. She is intelligent, compassionate, and beautiful. Her smile lights me up inside and she takes my breath away, often.

I am truly blessed to have her. She will always be My Valentine.

I love you Vicki.

The Couch Mission

Today, it is my mission to get the couch and loveseat that we want from Costco.

That might not seem like a very exciting or difficult thing, but here is the catch. The couch/loveseat have just recently been reduced to clear and they are very popular. There are only a handful left in the lower mainland, so they need to be bought today. Also, Costco doesn't 'hold' items for you, you have to take it when you buy it. Still, it doesn't seem too tough, right?

Not only do I not have access to any sort of truck, but I also don't have a house to put the couch/loveseat in! I have a call in to the realtor for the house we bought to see if they'll let us put them in there early, and if that comes through I'll have to find a truck rental place and put this all together this afternoon. Of course, since I'm not exactly the Hulk, I will also have to find another human to get involved in this, possibly during work hours.

The outlook is not good. I'll keep you posted.

P.S. This was going to be a nice, mushy Valentine's Day post, but then I read what Vicki wrote for me, and there is no chance in H-E-double hockey sticks that I could compete with that, so that is the reason for the couch mission post.

New Rule

No more whining and complaining on my blog. What a waste of perfectly good bytes this has been lately. So, here is today's post...

This weekend was great. Vicki and I got a good amount of packing done, we got rid of a bunch of stuff we didn't need, and we got to have a bunch of fun. The bad thing was that I barely saw the kids, whoops. And of course Megan let me know that fact in no uncertain terms. She's good for that, keeps me in check.

The girls got to have a sleepover with their Aunt and Uncle and cousins and they had a blast! We dropped them off Saturday afternoon and we were supposed to pick them up Sunday morning. However, my parents decided to pick them up for us and we didn't get them back til 1:30pm on Sunday! Very cool. Then, we spent a couple hours at home and then went to the Buckinghams for dinner. Very cool.

So, it was a busy, fun, overall good weekend. The drive back this morning sucked pretty bad. The snow had just hit on the connector and there were no visible lines or lanes whatsoever. As well, the snow was falling heavily so the headlights were only good for giving the 'Star Wars - Warp Speed' effect. Fun but not so good for safety. Add in more than a dash of 'Oh God I'm tired' and you have a less than enjoyable trip.

However, I am about to leave work and when I get back to Jeremy's I will be firmly planting my derierre on the couch til tomorrow morning, so I don't have a darn thing to complain about, that is for sure!

I am planning on posting something EVERY day this week, without any complaining or whining. Good luck to me.

Bye for now!

Having a Blog is Depressing

It really illustrates just how uninteresting my life is. I thought I'd have two or three great things to post every day, but all I can come up with is blogging about not blogging. I think I could make top 5 on the Lame List for sure.

We get our new place in 2 weeks and we move in 4 1/2 weeks, Wow. There is so much to do between now and then, it makes me want to take up drinking. But drinking isn't cheap, so then I'd have something new to worry about.

Ok, definitely top 3.

The Hope-Princeton

Coming back to Vancouver after this weekend, the Coq was closed for over a day and so I had to eventually give in and take the 'other' road yesterday afternoon. As some background, I have always contested that the Coquihalla is a much superior route in all areas: travel time, safety, enjoyability, and even cost since you spend the equivalent of the $10 in extra gas if you use the Hope-Princeton. Now, a lot of people are scared of the Coquihalla in the winter, and for good reason. I mean, both routes are mountain roads but the Coq can definetly be the worst of the two. However, after having driven the Coq weekend after weekend in the winter for the past 3 months, and now having done the same on the HP, my position has absolutely been solidified, past the point of opinion and squarely into the world of fact.

The HP yesterday was painfully slow, windy, and poorly maintained. Even in being a little generous to the HP with my calculations, it added no less than 45 minutes to the trip and used up more than enough extra gas to eat up the $10 in savings. I also witnessed two near accidents which would have been 'head-on' accidents compared to the 'impact with a snowbank' type accident that I have seen on the Coq.

Anyway you slice it, the HP is a slower, more dangerous route between the Okanagan and the Lower Mainland, and why anyone would use it unless the Coq is actually closed, is completely beyond me.

Let's Clear the Air

Yes, it was Pillsbury. Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookie dough in the plastic wrapped tube format that looks like a big sausage. But NO, I did not sit down and polish off the whole thing, that is ridiculous! I ate about 1/4 of it while watching some TV with Jer.

I didn't finish the rest of it til the next morning at work.

General News Update for the World

At this point, I have no idea who knows all our latest news and who doesn't, so if I blog about it then I'm off the hook. I can always say, "You didn't know? I posted it on my blog, I thought you read that!?". See, it's all about the easy way out. But seriously, here is all our latest good news.

VICKI IS PREGNANT! Woohoo! We found out just before Christmas, actually on the same day of the year that we found out about Megan 5 years ago. And, as it turns out, Vicki's due date is August 29, the same as Megan's due date. Cool. Of course, after her pregnancy with Megan, Vicki vowed to NEVER AGAIN have a summer pregnancy. Well, I recently vowed to eat better, so OOPS to both I guess. It will now be my sole responsibility to keep my beautiful wife cool and comfortable this summer, which I will do with as many air conditioners as necessary. (stay tuned for some good deals on almost-new air conditioners this September)

Also, we have found a new house down here in Langley. (pretend like I didn't already tell you that in the previous post) We remove subjects this week and we get possession on Feb.22. Moving day will be Mar.11 so everyone we know at either end of the trip can consider themselves on notice to help those days. It's going to be a little crazy getting everything ready to move and getting the new place ready(i have to attempt some minor construction-cringe) but it will be all worth it to have my family back together. I CAN'T WAIT!

So, there you have it, we sold our house, we bought a new one, we're moving over Spring Break, and we're having another baby. Wow, life is boring sometimes.

OMG, We just bought a house...

Yup, after much(probably way too much) thinking and considering and painful decision making, we put in an offer on a townhouse here at the coast this morning, and our offer was accepted.

So, as long as we remove all the subjects, on February 22 we will be the proud owners of a new(to us) home. I should be more excited, but I'm just worn out mentally. I don't know why I worry and over-analyze some things and other things I'm way too laid back about. I'm such a pain in the ass sometimes, as Vicki will attest to.

Anyway, yay for us, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel of not living together.

Of course, now we have to pack up our house. And by we, I mean Vicki.

Love you sweetheart!

The Golden Globes

Tonight at 8pm. What can I say, I love movie award shows. Each year I try to ensure that my calendar is clear and the night's schedule is well mapped out so that I can sit back and enjoy the pointless celebrity-gauking that is the Golden Globes and the Oscars. The Oscars are definitely the more important awards and my favorite, but the at the Golden Globes the celebrities are allowed to drink, which can make for more entertaining speeches.

Last year I had to work on Golden Globes night, it was a sad time. This year, I am free and clear and it will be a great thing.

And I know what you're thinking, "Did Vicki know about this kind of thing before she married him?"...Answer - I don't think she did, but it's too late now. :)

My Burnt Fingers...Anyone see "The Office" Last Night?

So, here are the pictures of what I did to my fingers with some cooking oil while frying some chicken at Jeremy's house back in November. I did it on a Tuesday night.

Wednesday Morning:
Wow, that's a big blister.

Wednesday Night:
OMG, that's just ridiculous!

Thursday Night:
Ahhh, that's much better.

Almost time to go home...Yippee!

I still don't have anything interesting to post about, but at least I'm not feeling so sorry for myself anymore, man that was hard to take. I'm going home tonight after work and I get to see my girls; I love the weekends. The home inspection on our place goes today at 1pm and after that the subjects should all come off. Still nothing for us to buy here at the coast, but something will come up soon. We have to start packing this weekend, ugh. Oh well, it'll be a good reason to throw out stuff we don't really need.

I'll try to have something more interesting next week.

Have to write something....

If I'm going to have a blog, I guess I should post something from time to time. Interesting week. We have an accepted offer on the house, and the subjects should come off on Friday. It's good news, but it's also kind of sad because we're going to have to leave all our friends and family. But, it's the first step towards getting my family back together, this commuting stuff is BS. I miss my girls and I miss Vicki, sooo much. I thought living the bachelor life would be a lot of fun and keep my mind off things, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to go back to Jer's and sit my butt on the couch and watch TV all night, I'm sure not complaining. (especially with the 40' LCD TV and HI-DEF channels. Thanks again Jer) But in the end, the only thing that makes me truly happy is my family. I guess that's a good thing about all this, I'll sure appreciate every moment with them even more now, but I can't wait for this transition to be over.

See, this is why I didn't blog earlier, I'm always so melancholy(sp?) in January that I just end up being a downer. That's no fun.

But this is...Panda Golf
Thanks, Jeremy!

Happy New Year!

Ok, the title of this post is all the 'happy' I can muster today. I'm back at work, away from my family again. I hate January.

WashWorld

Maybe this is wrong, but I am super-stoked over going to WashWorld tonight. WashWorld is basically the ultimate car wash mecca. I picked up the Accord last night and tonight I get to go wash it and vacuum it and shampoo the seats and detail the inside. I love the feeling of having a totally clean car, it's like a fresh start.

Ok, I'm weird.

Picasa

Picasa is my new favorite software, and everyone should go get it and use it. It is software for viewing/organizing/printing...digital pictures, and it rocks. It's made by Google and it is really user friendly and intelligently designed. And if you can't figure something out, the Help link is quite useful.

And check the "Red Eye" fixing thing, Vicki loves it!