KFC: Kenji Fried Candy

With Jeffy's arrival, we undertook the arduous New Year's Eve task of grazing through a gauntlet of appetizers. Featured atop the menu were Deep Fried Snickers/Mars bars:



Some Settlers, Hey! That's My Fish and decidedly cut-throat Blokus, managed to keep us awake until the magic hour. For all of our hard partying, I'm glad all the vomiting had concluded by mid-morning.

(Shirt) Buddies

Our dear friends arrived for the annual New Year's Eve family visit, Cheryl and her 4 kids with Jeffy coming tomorrow. The kids separated themselves by gender - some dolls and Polly Pockets in one room, cars and Transformers in another.

Overheard: our 5-year old son to the 6-year old boy, "Let's hang out like real teenagers."

When I was visiting them in October, there was some chagrin that the outfit that matches mine couldn't be found. We corrected that today:

Boxing and Scrubbing

Well, Christmas came and went; with it, my last duties as minister with Glencoe-Appin Pastoral Charge. After morning worship on December 26th, I packed up the remaining books, files and sundry office items. Yes, I literally spent Boxing Day with boxes.

Except I remembered that the desk drawer that I had saved for last, I didn't get to so I went in today do some final packing, report writing, and general tidying. The church laptop has been cleaned as best I could, trying to remove all trace of my computing for my eventual successor. Although the time to delete some 35, 000 files today took longer than I had time for - it seems there will be one final visit to the office to drop off the machinery.

And then, for real, I'll close the door and walk away.

Bands of Silliness

The craze with school kids these days is flexible bracelets of shaped elastic. Trademarked as "Silly Bands" it does seem rather inane. Our kids are going to be popular at school after this Christmas.

Christmas morning

Zhu Zhu Pets abound.


I think he's excited. I can tell by the whites of his eyes.

Snow Day

With dire weather warnings, closed schools and travel advisories today, I was reminded of this bit of brilliance from EasyIEPHelp -
There was a note of explanation that followed:

Dear Ms. Davis [teacher],

I want to be perfectly clear on my child’s homework illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint surrounded by male customers with money.

I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This drawing is of me selling a shovel.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Harrington [mommy in question]

Stocking Stuffer

It's practically a tradition now: decorate the tree and Kai puts his stocking on his head. Yes, he's feeling somewhat better.

His sister is more reserved.

The Croupier

Kai's been under the weather for a couple days: fever, barking cough, raspy voice, lethagic, no appetite. Last night he was up every 90 minutes with coughing and wheezing. There'a a colourful array of medicine dosing cups with residual banana berry red Tylenol and raspberry blue Advil on the kitchen counter, reminiscent of a shooter bar ("what's a shooter bar, Daddy?" - "uh, sometimes people get drinks in small cups and drink them fast").

We got into the doctor today who diagnosed a viral infection, suspected croup and prescribed 9 mg of steroid followed with a pudding chaser. We'll keep him out of daycare tomorrow and hope tonight's a quiet night.

With a blogpost title like this, you'd think there'd have been more gambling references beyond the casino bar.

A New Focus

About mid-September, the timing belt of the 2000 Focus gave way and I found myself stranded on the side of the road. Inconvenient at the best of times, the matter was complicated by the fact that I was on my way to the airport to catch a flight to Sault Ste. Marie. Calling roadside assistance, I discovered the program that we'd accessed in the past no longer existed (once the operator stifled her scoff upon hearing the age and mileage on the vehicle).

There was a panicked call to Shelley who happened to be home with Kai who happened to be home sick from school, a call to our dealership to arrange for a tow truck and a call to the airline to explain the situation. Watching the minutes tick by, I also called the hotel in Sault Ste. Marie to inform my colleague that I likely wouldn't be available to meet for supper as planned.

My rescue arrived when Shelley and Kai speedily delivered me to the airport, in time for my original flight! It wasn't until my return home that we made arrangements for a replacement car (we'd figured the cost of the next major repair would be better directed towards a downpayment on another car). We discovered with all the incentives, upgrades, and enticements, a new car would only be a couple thousand dollars more than a used one.

So after 300, 636 km, we handed the keys over in exchange for another Focus (2011 with Sirius satellite radio for 6 months - hello Radio 3!) I think I'll call it Desmond as a tribute to Paul Quarrington and Maury Chaykin.

Such was the adventure of the new car, apart from the fact that I lost my passport at the airport in Toronto...

"Taking My Talents to South London"

The biggest development in the year past is my resignation at my current churches to take a position as "Lead Minister" (lightning rod) at Calvary United Church in London. Effective January 1, 2011, I've been trying to wrap things up where I am but things keep cropping up.

I have to say this came about rather suddenly. I wasn't expecting to re-locate so soon, but an opportunity arose that was too good to pass up. Given the uncertainty that many mainline Protestant congregations are facing, the proposition of a stable and viable ministry that had opportunity for further outreach into its local community seemed like divine providence.

While I look forward to being part of a staff team (children's minister, youth minister, visitation minister, administrative and custodial support), I'll certainly miss the earnest commitment and engagement of Appin and Trinity United Churches and the support they've shown to myself and my family. But such is life, full of transition with cost and reward.

Reiko's first question was when we broke the news to her was: "We don't have to move, do we?" Which wasn't really a question, followed quickly by: "So, we won't have to decide what church we're going to on Sunday morning." That was the extent of her analysis and she deemed it to be good.

All this was happening in June/July when all the Raptors were getting ready to cut ties with Chris Bosh and LeBron James was preparing for his ill-advised LeDecision. Here's hoping I handled it better than they did.

What's New?

There's been a lot happening in the year-plus of inactivity onsite here. Where have I been? I guess The Facebook is to blame for a lot of it. And me being otherwise occupied (read: lazy) is another.

So, what's new? New job, new car, those are the big ticket items. Also, new glasses, new school year, new user ID at CBC Radio 3, new expansion pack for Settlers of Catan...

I'll go into more detail on each of these in due course (and backfill some of the missing year too). I was looking for an opportune time to return to this cyberspace; thanks to Ursula for having a birthday giving me that excuse. I am so excite! [sic]

Rebirth

back to beginnings:
birthday wishes for urs.
time to blog again!

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2010, originally uploaded by buddhak.

Reiko as a lioness and Kai as the Autobot Transformer Bumblebee.

I'm taking the picture, dressed as Travis Ishikawa, the light-hitting, defensive substitute for the San Francisco Giants. I have on my cap (circa 1987) and ballglove (circa 1978). It's an elaborate costume for me to masquerade as a Japanese-American first baseman when everybody knows I'm more of a middle infielder!

But you don't really care, look at the kids! For your information (and our own record-keeping) the count was 108 visitors between 6 -8 p.m.

To the Cottage!

Instead the backroad, country drive we opted for major highways going 402, 401, 407, 400. To keep Reiko busy, we charged her with the duty of writing down the names of the cities and towns we drove through.

We stopped at an outlet mall where Shelley and I bought some shoes. Thanks to my short, wide, flat, pronating feet, I got an extra 25% off an already discounted pair of "premier running" shoes, paying $98 less than original price.

Upon arrival at the cottage, (turns out the highways did reduce our driving time substantially), it was to the beach. In trying to extricate a lovely pink- and black-speckled rock from the lakebed, I tried building a little dam to drain the area and allow for more digging room. It didn't work. But it kept me occupied for the afternoon.

In the evening, I pulled some lucky letters during Scrabble allowing me to play "jerk", "reflex", "gizmo" and the coup de grace "monetary".

So ... with a good bargain on my feet, 300+ points in Scrabble on the board, cold drinks in the fridge and some more quality family time in the offing, I can safely say vacation time is here.

Turnaround List

Kai woke up at 6:45 a.m. today. That's 13-hours of sleep for him. Maybe it's the start of a growth spurt.

We left the farm after lunch, did a couple errands around town before heading home. Next was the checklist: unload the car, start laundry, mow the lawn, get ready for Reiko's soccer game, go the Y for some Total Body Conditioning, talk with the neighbours, pack for a few days at Shelley's parents' cottage, watch some Colbert and Letterman. Head to my own bed for a night and we'll be off again.

Early to Bed

After a full morning of helping Grandma with some sewing and gardening, an afternoon in Mitchell's Lions Park and mini-zoo (where Kai discovered he could communicate with donkeys), and a visit with our neighbour Aunt Myrtle, it was an unexpectedly early bedtime for Kai.

He picked away at his supper, cranky and irritable, I invited him to leave the table for a little lie-down. Checking on him five minutes later, I found him fast asleep on the half-reclined La-Z-Boy. Attempts to rouse him were unsuccessful so I put him in bed at 5:45 p.m. So far, he's woken once briefly to take of his daytime clothes; we'll see how long this lasts.

Silent Spring

It was a busy season of work (developing a Confirmation Class curriculum and schedule with a neighbouring church and working with a couple church visioning processes along the way) and free time was used at the YMCA, starting and finishing the Nintendo adventures of Zelda: Windwaker, and some reading (recreational - The Book of Negroes, and work - With or without God).

Now that we're well into summer and proper holidays are upon me, I'll re-attempt the catching up of things here. Mostly, I imagine it will be posting and captioning pictures of the kids. Maybe a story or two too. I better get at it; these things don't write themselves.

Depreciated Portrait

Now that we live in a world where a 3.0 megapixel digital camera no longer costs $600, the answer to the question "Daddy, can I use the camera?" results in a self-portrait.

March Madness (blogging ketchup)

Well, so much for that momentum I mentioned about a month ago...

I'll at least recount the week that was March Break 2009 and see what else I might extract from the memory banks.

Potty Party!

After many false starts and half-hearted attempts (and numerous unclaimed "potty presents" that Shelley bought at the dollar store eons ago), Kai spent the afternoon in Spiderman underwear and peed in the potty!

It was not the attentive parental moment that we had hoped it might be. Shelley was shopping in the States with her sister and I was upstairs getting supper ready. Still, when I happened upon the scene, there was much rejoicing and celebration.

His potty present turned out to be a volcanosaur. Just add water and the volcano "erupts" and dissolves in foamy tectonic fury leaving behind a dinosaur that will increase in size after 72 further hours in water.

There was one other accident this evening, there was another successful potty event as well. Here's hoping this time, we've turned the corner and diaperless days are in sight.