All posts by McBean

Still here!

Hello?
Hello?!

Makes sense… 🙁

So, still wanting to do this on a regular basis, more as a personal endeavor, to remember things… but life/kids/work/games/motorcycles/etc/etc/etc and… I suck.

Jeez, Oct 2019…
Guess this was about 5 months before the world changed and everyone stopped…
Everything…
“Stay home, stay safe.” was the plan for all to stop the spread of COVID. 

Oddly enough this made work really busy, we need to get things ready for “At-Home-Learning”, this was a big shift for everyone. O365 and products became a necessity for teachers and students. First month was a scramble to get all the in-school network drives files on TEAMS or OneDrive so teachers have access to their files. This lead to other issues with teachers not having devices at home… or internet…
Some lived in areas that just couldn’t get it, but everyone was doing their best to do what they could to be affective to teach.
Students were also having issues. We need to set things up for them to take home devices so they could be taught, this was a big undertaking and the first time was a bit of a Cluster F@&k. We did it… we always do.

I did mention that Jen is a vice-principal… she is, during a pandemic… trial by fire.
She crushed it, and still is.

Where was I… right.
By the second wave we had laptops in all the teachers hands to make things easier for them, but we just finished getting the student laptops back in the schools from the first wave, and now we needed to put that back out again… lots a work.

Third wave, we had plans in place, and the first spike was big, but the team handled things great. After that it was a steady flow… now we are at the end of the year.

We are almost through it.

 

What else…
Drive-by birthdays, finished the backyard, outdoor Thanksgiving, daycare is expensive (saved money), I like cooking with fire, teaching your kids isn’t easy, bought a new keyboard, houses all around us, working from home is a good/bad in ways, lost one of the cats, getting a kitten tomorrow, Jamie has changed bikes/cars twice, and COVID SUCKS…

Yup.
Ian ouT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Let’s try this again…

Now… just let me look over my notes so I can tell you a story. 🤔 Hmmmm… might be easier just start fresh. 😣

Hi, my name is Ian, and this is my site. 😐

All kidding aside, list time.

    • Built a deck
    • Went out east (Cape Breton)
    • Stopped in Montreal (didn’t like it)
    • Played with kids
  •  
  • Finished deck
  • Paint main rooms in house
  • My Pebble dies
  • Mourn BBQ (not dead, just blew off deck)
  • New job… same place just Admin now
  • Fall hikes

    • I drink coffee now..
    •  Jen’s Pebble dies (was using it)
    • Have an Amazfit
    •  4 or 37 ice storms, lost count…
    • Thought I was dying.. (I wasn’t.. coffee through me for a loop)
    • Winter not ending
    • Great Wolf Lodge for Alex’s 5th
  •  
    • Sophie likes tacos… A lot…
    • Started MCU with kids
    • Sophie loses top front tooth
  •  Fracking hot ass summer
    • Wrapped my car roof 
    • Rode my dream bike, isn’t the bike I want… damn that’s fast..
  •  
    • Painted the master bedroom
    • Tried “cottaging”, didn’t mind…
    • And….We buy coffee in tubs now…

Not Dead

Honest…
Just busy, tired… and WoW classic is out… 😐
15 years ago we started pla… just landed, got to go… 😉

I’ll be back, I hope.. just went through a few of the old ones, and I miss doing it…
Good memories 😀

-Ian out-

Pointed in her direction

We are done… Sophie has had her last birthday party for the year…
She managed to have 3 this year, well OK maybe not “3” parties, but 3 days that were pointed in her direction because she turned 6 years old.

Parents were able to make it down for this one. 🙂

They have never seen the new house in person, and Alex was just a little guy last time they were down, but the kids were happy as hell to see grandma and grandpa… think grandpa got his workout in for the day with the amount of running around the kids put him through.
It was a good party, and I believed everyone had a good time, and Sophie ended up with more presents… 😐

Hugs were abundant, and never in short supply, especially after grandma brought some rocks from the Thunder Bay Area (amethyst, etc). I have this feeling Sophie going to be a geologist.

Of course Sophie/Alex wanted to show their school. So we went to the playground to fly a kite, the kids had to make sure that Grandpa didn’t fly away… and grandpa made the mistake of letting Sophie use his camera, there are going to be a lot of photos to sift through.

Last thing we did was go out for dinner, and ended up going to a nice place in Dover, 211 Main Gastropub. It was too cold for the deck, which was a bit of a downer, they looked really good, but the inside was nice, and the food was good. Higher end pub-grub, with more local items thrown in… my parents ordered some clams, and that was a new thing for the kids. To explain, we normally don’t have seafood/fish around the house since Jen has strong feelings against it… so this was the first time the kids saw a clam, and also tasted it. They liked it! 😀

Yesterday was also my parents anniversary. All the best. 🙂

Stopped by the hotel this morning to surprise them with some goodbye hugs.

-Ian out-

Gekko costume

Oh where to start… was a whirlwind weekend, that started right after work on Friday.
I had to drive to Cambridge to pick up some tea, but not just any tea… see this is a magic potion tea that changes colours from a dark purple, to a bright pink when lemonade is added, it was a big hit at the party. I didn’t mention the party bit… there was a party. Sophie is turned 6 today, and wanted a princess STEM party, and Jen being who she is, gave her just that.

Party was done at a place called Exploring Senses Play Lab, it’s in a home basement, and setup for multiple child mayhem. Painting, slime making, water table thingy, buckets on pulleys that you can fill with sand, and these O ball things that suck when you step on them… Sophie looked to be beaming, all her friends were there, and her brother (i’ll get to him in a bit).

OK, OK, I’m going to talk about him now, 30mins in his pants were off… actually off, and the only boy there, but luck for me I was on the pizza run, and missed all that fun. When I got back, he was wearing the “Gekko” costume we brought so he wouldn’t throw a fit as we were leaving the house. Guess it was a good thing in the end. 😐

The greatest thing about the party is we didn’t have to clean up, I felt a little bad, just a little… 😀

The next day we went to the MakerExpo in Kitchener, to see some cool stuff, and have the kids make soon things too. There was a cardboard building area, jigsaw cutting, soldering, robots, more robots, battle bots, Lego, video green screens,  and balloons… lots of balloons.

That’s all for now.
Sophie also has a party this weekend with the older generation, so going to get spoiled again.

-Ian out-

Tornado of Destruction


Here’s to everyone that had a good May-long weekend…

Of course everyone’s weekend started with the royal wedding, and I was kicked up out of bed to make tea, and get scones… all the kids piled in to watch the ceremony. Alex was only able to watch for about 15 mins until he was unable to sit still, and turned into a walking tornado of destruction. Sophie was almost able to make to to the end, but then she starts to fiddle with things… noisy things, and not listening to the word stop… good times.

After all of the wedding stuff was out of the way, we all piled into the car to head to Burlington, because Jen had an appointment to take her iPhone back to the MAC store to have a problem looked at… lucky they have iPads for the kids to play with. Most amusing thing about it was Alex trying to figure out how to sit on the ball chairs, it was awesome to watch… and I mean AWESOME… I’m a bad person… 🙁 😉
Jen also had her phone replaced… good stuff. 😀

To kill time, we stopped at the RGB (we have season passes), to have a walk around and see the wonders of life in the world of plants.

Kids like it, and made a new friend too.


Love my family.

Rest of the weekend was relaxing.
I was able to get the oil changed on bike, along with cleaning the chain, two things I put off for too long. Sophie helped in between running talking to neighbors and friends, but everything went smoothly, and I enjoy that sort of thing. Plus, Jen had a good friend over, and gave them some time to talk.

-Ian out-

Celebrate the Day

And that wagon has left the coral…
Slacker, that’s me in a nutshell, and it probably will never improve. That being said I’m trying, and this post has been days in the making. As stated in the last post that had any value, we have been super busy all over. Personal and work, so down time I have is vegging out in front of the idiot box.

So what’s happening… mothers day, and found a big cock that screams Jen… she likes chickens… get you head out of the gutter, only room for one down there. 😉

We had the Charnish clan come over for a BBQ, to celebrate the day, and the upcoming birthday of my beloved wife.
Which is TODAY!!! 😀
Happy Birthday love, sorry that your day isn’t going to well, hopefully we can turn that around tonight with the concert.

My bike was down for some maintenance for the last few weeks. I manage to get my bike ripped apart, and drop the forks off to be rebuilt, and got them back last Wednesday-Thursday?! Finished putting them on Saturday, and popped out for a ride. Good to be on the bike again, can collect my thoughts… so ya, blank. 😉

 

Jen also brought something home for me to build, I had fun… I named it “Pinchy”.

-Ian out-

The Better Choice

I’m not going to lie to you…
I had things I was going to talk about, there was an ice storm, I worked from home, Alex’s birthday (4), Sophie was sick 🤮 when Alex was opening presents on his birthday… and then Alex was sick again, this time tonsillitis… I got tonsillitis, and put on meds that made the tonsillitis feel like the better choice. 🤪

This picture explains the last five weeks in a nutshell.

Fuck the world, curled up on a mat sound asleep…
(I did not leave him there, and not sure why he does this in random areas?!? )

We have had something going on at our house 5 weeks in a row, and really need a break from the weekends. Speaking of work, there have been some projects that are keeping me on my toes.

This week is also messed up, so the kids will never be on schedule for the rest of the school year, Sophie is a bear to get up in the mornings.  🙁

-Ian out-