May 24 2012

Heavy Metal

A few weeks ago I was going through a box of my old crap and I came across my old Heavy Metal magazines.  I totally thought I had thrown them away or recycled them when I moved away to college.  Finding these brought back a lot of memories.

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May 23 2012

Mold

So my wife and discovered we have some mold in our down stairs rec room.  We got rid of an old couch and found the baseboard had some mold on it.  We moved some other furniture and found a bit more.  Ugh… this sucks so much.  We have a mold guy coming in tomorrow to check it out but we pretty much know what he’s going to say.  We just need the details of how bad and how much $$$.

Anyone else have to deal with mold in the home at one point or another?  What pains me is that as soon as you say “mold” it can make others think “what kind of house/shack do you live in”.  The think is, we live in a very nice house.  I’m quite proud of the house we have and how we’re making renovations to make it our own.  We’re actually putting down new hardwood floors this summer.  But even the nicest house can have secrets behind it’s walls.  The one thing that I tell my friends that buy homes is that “when you buy a house, you’re buying someone else’s problems” and I 100% believe that.

I’m not looking forward to all this.  I wish I could just jump forward in time to when it’s all over.  And no, that’s not my house in the photo.  Good god, how can anyone ignore a problem like that. o_O


May 22 2012

Where did you grow up?

Did you grow up in the big city or the country?  Maybe you grew up in a smaller town or a smaller city?  Did you enjoy it or couldn’t wait to leave it?  Maybe you never left it.  I grew up in a small city called Belleville Ontario just 2 hours East of Toronto.  The population of my home town is just shy of 50,000 so it’s not so big, but big enough when you’re growing up.  I remember being totally in love with Belleville while I was in High School.  I couldn’t believe that there might be places out there that could compare to it.  There was out little comic book shop which I remember seeing my first Omaha the Cat Dance issue.  Our mall was the best and had all the shops I needed or cared about.  I remember riding my bike all over that city, then walking all over after my bike got stolen.  Even after my girlfriend (soon to be wife) and I left after high school, we still held home close to our heart.

We grew up though and began to see Belleville in a different light.  We noticed that people that didn’t leave for school became stuck there.  Some (not all) of the people we knew from school bounced from job to job or ended up working in factory jobs.  Belleville is a conservative,  blue collar city at it’s core and if we stayed there we would not have been able to achieve everything we dreamed of.  It’s a fun place to grow up for sure, but I’m very glad that I left.  It made me realize there is a place beyond my hometown and to stop looking at it through rose coloured glasses.

There is one song out there that always makes me think of my growing up.  It’s from a Canadian band called Blue Rodeo and the song is called Better Off as We Are.  Give it a listen as see what you think.

I hope that others kids that that live there will make the same discovery and not allow themselves to get stuck.  Because you can always go back and visit.  It’s not like it’s going anywhere, but they should be.


May 21 2012

Happy Victoria Day

The last Monday in May before the 25th is called Victoria Day in Canada.  It’s a holiday that we’ve set aside to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday and to ring in the summer season.  My Victoria Day was pretty full and busy to say the least.  I got up and finished the laundry that I started and then helped my kids with their Pokemon DS games.  Then we all piled in to the van to go and grab some veggie and flower plants for the gardens.  Several stops later we had all the plants, soil and mulch that we needed.  I’m not much of a gardener, that job falls on my wife.  I’m just the help in that department.  Once we got home we set to work putting it all in the ground.  I specifically helped my kids get the flowers they picked out in to their little flower area at the side of the house.  Oh, I also mowed the lawn too… and weeded the beds.

After all that we treated ourselves  to some soft ice cream before we headed off to see some fireworks.  We went to a different place then normal and it was pretty cool.  They seemed to go on for ever.  I think it was about 40 min worth of “Ooooos” and “Ahhhhhs”.  Getting out didn’t take too long as I was able to scoot in to an adjacent parking area and leave probably 30 min earlier then if we stayed in our current line.

Phew… it was a long day but lots of fun.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have a shower and then go to bed.  How did you spend your Victoria Day?  What?  You didn’t have one and had to go to work?  Haha!  Suckers. ^_^


May 20 2012

Allergy Season

I woke up this morning and I was all stuffed up and sneezing my brains out.  Allergy season seems to have arrived again.  Wonderful.

I have horrible allergies.  I’ve had them since I was a small child and I’ve suffered ever since.  My allergies aren’t that bad in the spring and summer.  If I can avoid the out doors as much as possible during the warm months, then I’ll generally be okay with little meds needed.  But my family likes to go camping, so you can guess where that leads me.  Even so, I’m not too bad.  It’s August and the fall months that will absolutely kill me.  Which is why I look forward to winter so much.

So this morning was like a little preview of what’s too come.  I took some drugs to keep me breathing and I was okay thank goodness.  Anyone else out there suffer with allergies?  Anyone get those allergy shots to stop you from sniffing and sneezing?  I know I should get them… but I’m a lazy bastard.


May 19 2012

New Computer

Some time this year I think we’ll have to invest in a new computer.  The one we have right now is about 6 years old and it’s getting kind of slow.  When ever we have to look in to a new computer I get a little stressed.  I’m not much of a computer guy so I don’t really know about specs and such.  I know I don’t want to spend an arm and a leg, nor do I need a full package deal.  Our mouse, keyboard and screen are just fine so we don’t need those.  We’ll only need the tower (do they still call them that?).

Any tips on which brand is better or how to look for a  computer that best suits our needs?  Our needs being word processing, emailing, web surfing and the occasional Photoshopping.

Update: Thanks for all the tips everyone!  I honestly I have no idea what specs are good for computers.  I used to, but that was a long time ago.  I was able to find out the specs I do have.  Apparently I’m running a…

Dell Dimension DV051

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.80GHz

2.79 GHz, .099 GB of RAM

144 GB of space

At least that’s what the properties window tells me off of My Computer.  I have no idea how to upgrade a PC.  Is it easy?  Is it more cost effective?  Also, what are peoples opinions on refurbished computers?