resistance to persistence

A couple of weeks ago, my family went to Orlando for a little vacation and break from city life. Time to unwind. My inlaws came with us which was a great help travelling with a baby and also meant we had some babysitters.

We went the week hurricane Ike arrived but thankfully were unaffected other than an afternoon of thunderstorms. The rest of the week was warm and very humid. Beautiful. Swimming at 11pm was as warm as an afternoon in Toronto.

As this was my first time to visit Florida, I was left with some impressions other than just the beauty.

Wildlife - it was a strange mix of rainforest and forest animals. There were small lizards constantly jumping out of your way, signs for “don’t feed the alligators”, under which a rabbit was chomping away on the grass and a squirrel running past. What a juxtaposition. A medly of animals waiting to get eaten by a gator (which we sadly never saw).

Recycling - I’m not a totally environmental nut (I drive an SUV) but I definitely take steps to help the earth where possible and recycling has been something ingrained since I was a kid. But we couldn’t find recycling facilities at all. The hotel didn’t have any. We had to throw newspapers, glass baby bottles and plastic water bottles into the garbage. My stomach churned. I didn’t notice recycle bins at the mall or on the streets either. Did I simply miss them? Hey American readers, what is recycling like in your city? Leave me some comments.

Litigious - I’ve always seen the lawyer commercial spoofs on SNL and other shows but now I see how prevalent suing is in the US. Every commercial break had lawyer commercials wanting to “get you top dollar” for injury claims cases or suing a drug company. And there were soooo many Judge shows on daytime tv, all sorts of new judges I’d never heard of. Just shocking to see.

But overall, I really enjoyed Orlando. Hot, clean and sunny. I’ll definitely be back again in future years when I’ve got older kids to take to the amusement parks.

Yesterday in Canada was the national election. And this year I didn’t pay too much attention to it. Frankly I was pissed off that yet another election had been called so recently after the last one. The minority rule party just keeps dying the polls looking for a weak point in support for the 2nd party in charge so they can call an election to overthrow them and gain majority power. I know politics is in essence a power struggle but it just seems so inefficient and wasteful to me. Do I want my leaders constantly looking to play “king of the hill” or to work to make Canada a better place?

So this morning I checked the news to see what happened. No surprise, essentially the same result as before the election. Sure some seats have changed hands but no major shift in power. And at what cost? It’s reported that this election cost taxpayers 290 million dollars which I think would have been used better pretty much anywhere other than campaigning for yet another election. And apparently I’m not the only one feeling this way. Voter turnout was at it’s lowest point in a *very* long time.

Leaders, let’s put our heads down and get to work on improving things rather than working against each other.

my baby is my newest gadget

so it’s been an exciting February and an exhausing March. our little baby arrived at the end of Feb. as we both suspected, we had a baby girl. we decided to keep it a surprise for ourselves but we both had a dream that we were having a girl. very strange but i had a strong feeling.

i foolishly stayed up until 1:30am and had just drifted off to sleep when J woke me up and told me her water broke. labour isn’t like it is in the movies…you don’t have to jump in a cab and speed off to the hospital immediately…unless if you’ve had a couple kids it might happen very fast. but the next few hours consisted of getting the bags ready, last minute packing, laying around, dozing between contractions. I fell asleep for an hour at 5am and J continued on impressively without waking me. at 8:30, we got a bit anxious and headed to the hospital. inspection and monitoring for a couple hours and we were given the option to go home for a few hours to rest while J continued with contractions and dilating. we drove home again to relax in a more comfortable environment and for me to catch a bit of sleep. J’s mom came over to help with the painful contractions and I caught an hour of sleep.

we quickly drove back to the hospital an hour later…J’s contractions were intense and she wanted an epidural pronto. we got checked into a large birthing suite and started the process. hours of contractions and breathing exercises. J finally got an epidural a couple hours later and made things much more bearable for her. i caught another hour of partial sleep when i could. around 1:30am, we finally reached 10 cms dilated…the key point to start pushing. an hour of pushing later, our baby girl arrived looking beautiful and with all the required toes and fingers.

a few more adrenaline filled hours spent with the baby and we finally tried to get some sleep at 6am but it wasn’t possible…every 15 minutes a nurse came in to check J or check the baby. exhausting. no sleep for 2 days. time to wake up and get the day started with the baby. we learned all the stuff needed…washing, feeding, etc. we coasted on a lack of sleep and lack of food for a long time. exhausting, but it was a good preview into what the following weeks would be like.

2 weeks later, the baby is doing great. she’s gained a ton of weight, faster than most babies the doctor said so we’re feeding her well. every 3-4 hours, round the clock, it’s feeding time. 8 feeds a day minimum. by the time you change her, feed her, dress her and get her to sleep you have about 1-1.5 hours of time until you do it all again. sleep comes in small intervals and you try to nap when she does.

sadly, i have to go back to work in a couple days and i’ll miss the daily interaction with her. she’s changed so much already and each day is a new adventure. she’s definitely the best thing to happen in our lives.

my favorite balloon from the baby shower

oh yeah…in case you haven’t heard, we’re having a baby. that’s also the reason why things have slowed down a big on the blog. i didn’t realize how much goes into just the preparation for a baby. there’s the obvious stuff like getting furniture and clothes ready. but there’s so many other things that go with it. and i make things last that much longer by researching and reviewing almost every item. who knew a diaper garbage would need a pros and cons list to make a decision on which to buy, along with researching friends opinions and consumer reports. haha.

a lot of the big stuff for the baby’s room is bought. i’m planning on painting. we’re looking at getting a larger vehicle. lots of other stuff to buy and cleaning out the house to make room for our 3rd little person.

j’s entering the 3rd trimester and the tiredness is starting to set in. last night the baby started pushing all around and it was a fun yet eerie feeling. I’ve felt kicks already but this is the first time where it felt like the baby was squirming around.

we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl…that’s going to be a surprise until the day of. it makes things harder for people trying to buy us gifts and clothes but i think the surprise is more than worth it.

one of the coolest things that happened was the timing of when we found out. I had a feeling and on Father’s Day (otherwise a depressing day thinking about my Dad) I found out I was going to be a dad myself. In February that is going to be a reality.

so until then, I’m doing lots of errands, helping J as much as possible, reading lots of baby info, and enjoying sleeping through the night while I still can.

is it February yet? I can’t wait.

The friday of Labour Day weekend, I had the day off to make it a 4 day weekend. I decided to go to the CNE as I’d tragically never been there, after living in Toronto for 10 years. I brought my camera along as I was sure to find some stuff to shoot. Early in the afternoon, fighter planes (F-16, F-22) were flying overhead, practising for the airshow the following day. I also saw helicopters overhead as I was wandering around in the rides, but I thought it must have been part of the airshow practise as well. As I made it further through the park, I came to an area where the helicopters were taking off. You could take an actual helicopter ride instead of just spinning around on the Tilt-A-Whirl or the Scrambler.

I’d always wanted to take a helicopter ride but never figured I would have a chance to do so. I’ve flown a small cessna and a glider before when I took some flight lessons. I’ve also been a passenger in some small commuter planes and even a seaplane. But never a helicopter. Flying is in my blood…my grandfather was a pilot. I remember when I was a kid, my dad telling me about flights he’d taken in choppers and I always daydreamed about what that would be like. The difference in takeoff and unrestricted vertical and horizontal movement is what I wanted to experience. The opportunity was staring me in the face.

If the price was right, I was in. A quick ride was only $35. That’s the kind of cash I could throw down. How could you refuse for that price? But for how long do you get to ride in the mechanical birdl? 3.5 minutes. $10/minute! Still worth it in my book, so I waited in line to pay. There was a 40 minute lineup to take your flight, but since I was flying solo, there was a family of 3 just about to go up that I could jump in with. Perfect timing. And since the chopper only flies 4 passengers, 3 in the back, 1 up front, I got to sit up front with the pilot so the family could sit together. What a score! I went from eating cotton candy to riding shotgun in a helicopter in less than 5 minutes.

The flight was really fun even though it was short. The experience of takeoff and landing is obviously much different than a plane. The chopper smoothly lifted off the ground, pointed the nose down towards the end of the short “runway” and we took off, heading west over the Gardiner Expressway and Ontario Place. We continued out over the water a bit, turning north into the city and back east towards the downtown core. It was a great view of the CN Tower and skyscrapers.

And then it was all over. We headed down for a landing, flying to the runway westbound. The chopper flew across to the end to slow the speed, banked around 180 and returned to the other end of the runway, rotating and softly landing. A quick unboarding and the classic running crouch away from the helicopter you always see on tv and it was complete.

You can see more photos from the quick ride here.

A good fun time, I’d definitely recommend it for anyone that likes flying. HeliTours.ca was running it and they also do other tours around Toronto.

saturday evening, j and i went to blowfish restaurant for dinner. when we arrived, there was only one other couple there. i instantly recognized muchmusic vj sarah taylor quietly dining. blowfish is a very cool, meticulously designed restaurant. the design is very warm and comforting. the large wooden block tables, and benches and bar underlit with a light pink glow. very geometric patterns. even the table settings were precise - the waitress continually shuffled plates around to proper locations and rotated the accent candle for it to line up parallel with the table. this would be an obsessive compulsive’s dream job. even the washroom area was very cool. and i say washroom “area” as there wasn’t a men’s and women’s washroom. there were 4 individual stalls with revolving doors to enter - it took a couple pushes to see how they worked. and these 4 stalls opened to a central suspended sink with long metal taps hanging from the ceiling. again, it took a couple tries to figure out how it all worked. it’s a definite conversation piece.

oh yeah, this is a restaurant, so i better talk about the food. j and i aren’t sushi eaters, but she had been there before and wanted me to try it because of a few dishes she knew we’d like. as a snack when you arrive, there’s a bowl of edamame, boiled and and served with salt. very addictive. i thought they were just large green beans, but now i’ve found out they’re actually soybeans. still very delicious. we next had some sweet potato chips, thinly sliced and deep fried. onto my favorite part - the okinawan rolls are like california rolls but with avocado, banana, mango and wrapped in deep fried sweet potato. i could have eaten just these all night. onto the main course - steamed rice, mashed wasabi sweet potatoes and thinly sliced beef tenderloin. j had the sesame crusted chicken breast. and we topped all that off with a dessert of flourless chocolate cake with fruit and parfait. a delicious evening.

if you’re looking for a cool spot to have a great dinner of sushi, you have to try blowfish (king & bathurst).

This afternoon I went for a walk to grab some lunch and happened across this funny looking post on the sidewalk. It looked like a giant lollypop. After a quick inspection, it turns out it’s a “gum drop-off”. Drop-off makes it sound like it’ll be recycled. Is this a Willy Wonka scheme to make all the chewed gum into fresh new gum?

mmm…freshly chewed gum for free

From envyrobubble.com…

It all began with a casual stroll, shopping downtown. We weren’t trying to change the world, we were just two moms with a weakness for beautiful shoes. But then: splat! We stopped in our tracks only to discover the bottoms of our Manolo Blahniks covered in gooey gum.

That got us thinking. Why were people throwing gum on the sidewalk? And why wasn’t there a place to dispose of it in an environmentally responsible way?

We did our homework and realized a public gum container would have to be designed specifically for gum, so we gave it a unique shape. It had to get attention and raise awareness of responsible gum disposal, so we covered it with a fun, eye-catching spiral design and made it scream bubble gum pink. Then we joined forces with a leading recycler to ensure that the gum collected became something useful: fertilizer.

Interesting. I’d like to know how much gum it takes to make some useful fertilizer. Is there really a business in this? By the time you manufacture, pay materials, installation, pay someone to collect all the gum from the bins, is the recycling company paying enough to make a profit? Or is this a non-profit company simply out to save the sidewalks and the cost of another pair of Manolo Blahniks? Either way, I’m in full support of getting more gum off the streets. I’m just not sure we need specialized bins to do so - a garbage can would suffice. I know where one gum-happy artist will be hanging around now - I like his form of gum recycling much better.

Have you spotted any of these around Toronto? Any other cities? Leave me a comment.

it was one year ago today that my father had his accident while on vacation in the dominican republic. i looked back at my work notebook from that day. the morning started off very normal. a list of work items, things I needed to do during the day, notes from meetings. then nothing else on the page.

i don’t remember anything from that day before i received a phonecall. just a regular day, nothing special. until the phone rang and i got the tragic message. just thinking about it still gives me chills. i remember everything from that point on very vividly. my heart racing trying to absorb the contents of the phone call, struggling to understand what was being told to me, wondering how this could have happened, continually trying to wake up from this bad dream or a cruel joke, worrying about my mom by herself. calling my wife, trying to keep it together. the longest 20 minutes of my life waiting for her to drive to my work and pick me up. the drive to my sister’s work to tell her, seeing her collapse from the news, driving to her apartment to rest. calling mom. waiting to find out if and when mom would be flying back to toronto.

the weeks following were brutally hard. coming to grips with the changes in life. finally seeing dad come back and realizing it wasn’t all a dream. somedays i still imagine that this never really happened and it’s like he’s still in kingston, i’m in toronto and i just haven’t been home in a while. but i know that’s not real.

the last thing i remember of my dad is hugging him goodbye after christmas. i never thought that would be the last time i saw him, but thankfully, i remember that vividly as well. mom, dad and the dog on the front step waving goodbye as we left.

the past year has been a year of firsts - first birthday without dad, first father’s day, first thanksgiving, first christmas. i’ve heard the first year is the hardest as you go through each of these events. i’ve come to accept he’s no longer with us and i think of the good memories from each of those special days. memories are very important, so get a camera and take lots of photos and videos of your family and friends. they’ll be priceless as you get older.