Rollercoaster

Funny how life can bring you up and down to the point that you forget that your day has only been 24 hours long instead of 48, 72 or even 168. I've been up since 6am, common thing now with my job, and I'm starting to get used to that. Around noon, I received word that a family friend had died. It was my in-laws family friend, hence I didn't have extremely strong attachments, but my wife was beside herself when she heard the news. Well, not literally, because she was busy comforting her mother when she heard the news. I wished that I could have been there to comfort her, but I was at work and we were in the middle of getting our month end together. That was some crazy stunts. I did manage to get most everything wrapped up, and I got the deposit to the bank, which is a sight better than yesterday. I almost thought that I was done for when I got to the bank and found that the door was locked. Mercifully, there was an attendant standing at the door letting people out, and keeping most everyone else out, who saw that I only had a business deposit and she let me in. Bless you, woman!

Although Iron Man was release on DVD today, I didn't have a burning urge to get it. Especially because if I bought it, I would want to watch it, and if I watched it, then Caitlin and my mother-in-law would want to watch it. I remembered that there was a scene, in the Middle East, where raiders are wrecking havoc. At one point, they are herding people this way and that, and they seperate a father from his family. His son breaks free of the terrorists grasp and runs to his father who embraces him.

I don't think either my wife nor my mother-in-law would react well to that. I can wait a couple days. Or weeks.

The greatest irony is that my way of coping with the news of the passing of the family friend was to bury myself in work. When I got home, I played with Rini for a bit, and then watched some episodes of House Season 4. Understanding and mourning a lost loved one by looking to drama.

Is it the fact that I don't want to deal with it, or that I don't feel I feel the need? I'm not sure. What I do know is that he is going to be watching his family from afar, and that they will see each other again. As sure as I will see my grandfather again.

On that note, I need to get to the temple soon. Thankfully temple recommends are good for two years now. I almost thought that mine was two months expired!

While I'm mentioning things I forgot, I also forgot to get the CD in the mail! I think it would help if I actually stepped foot inside our home today, but I guarantee I will be there tomorrow! Why? Rent is due. So, tomorrow, rent and CD, priority A-1.

I best sign off, or else my day will be longer than 24 hours.

Rejuvination

The craziest thing that happened today was when we left Rini in her chair because she wouldn't say please to get out. She literally sat there for 45 minutes before she put her hand to her chest in an effort to make the sign for please, but she would not audibly say it. I've been told that it's my fault. Whether it's because I'm stubborn to the point that I think teachers are wrong because there is no way that I can be in the wrong, or because I've done crazy stunts like riding my bicycle across Cyprus, aparently I'm the stubborn one. At first we thought that this was a battle of wills and we would just watch her until she said please. Then we get the message from Kallie that she's still getting attention, so we had to leave. That raised her noise output by about 20 decibels. Rini's, of course. That little girl has quite the set of lungs.

I don't know if she gets that from me or Caitlin, or a bit of both. Probably both.

Work is getting a little harried, because we are approaching our month end, and we have to get some of our invoicing done, or else some of the sales agents will not get paid. That would be killing the golden goose, so I'm kind of under the gun here. Yet, the atmosphere is much more calm than I ever experienced at Source. Might be due to the fact that I know I'm not going to be taking part of the Christmas rush! That's a load off my shoulders.

I went by the Millwoods store today, just to see how things were shaping up, because I knew that Mike was gone by now. There was a new manager in place, and I could see him doing well in the store. Also there as a full time associate was Mike, aka Old Mike, from Southgate. He was there on a permanent transfer. There were a few new people starting, but oddly enough I didn't hear mention of Celyne's name. I wonder if she is still there? Maybe I can check it out when I go to HMV tomorrow. Hmmm... I'm not sure if I should go, because Caitlin might get Iron Man for my birthday. Then again, we might be getting Sleeping Beauty, since that will be hitting the shelves Oct 7. Meh. I would like to have Aurora added to the library, but Tony Stark would be an awesome addition too!

That calls for a little air guitar!
Baumm baaaa ber neer neer
Badum badum badum ber beer neer neer!

Hee hee.

Or the Watchmen graphic novel. Or maybe a family get-together. My parents haven't seen Rini for ages now. Uh oh. It'll still be a little while before they see her, because I just realized I forgot to mail off that CD today! And Caitlin even told me to pick up some things at home, which I did!

Well, I am just the fool today.

First Ward Activity

I was chatting with Caitlin at the "Linger Longer" Potluck our ward had after church today, and I asked her, "When was the last Ward Activity we attended?" To which I received a bit of a shock when she replied, "In this ward? This is our first one." We have been in the ward for thriteen months, and we have never attended a ward activity. NEVER. Until today. I would think that attending church would at least count, but the activities commitee do not have a hand in planning sacrament meeting, or any of the other meetings in the three hour block. Now that I think about it, we haven't been attending church for the full three hours for quite some time either! Man, you have got to love Nursery!

It feels a little cold to drop off Rini and then leave as quickly as you can so that you don't hear the ear-piercing shriek that emits from her frame. But we both know that she only does that for about five minutes. Then she gets distracted by the other kids, or the toys, or the toys the other kids are playing with. When Caitlin went to pick up Rini last week, she was chasing bubbles around with the other kids. This week when I went to pick up Rini, she was asleep in one of the Nursery workers arms. I apologize that I don't remember this Sister's name! Turns out that Rini was falling asleep - yes, she was that tired that she was falling asleep in Nursery! - and this Sister picked her up so that she didn't get stepped on. Rini had only snoozed off for about ninety seconds when I arrived, and she woke up straight away. She is currently sleeping like the dead.

Funny thing happened in Priesthood. I was sitting through opening exercises, taking it all in, when I'm snapped out of my trance when I heard my name called. Turns out that I was going to be giving the "Hometeaching Moment" that day. I should not have been surprised, because Kurt assigned it to me over a week ago, and gave me a reminder last Sunday. Nevertheless, I had realized when he announced my name, that I had completely forgotten and by so doing had prepared nothing. I walked to the front as calmly and collected as I could. It was much like bearing a testimony, because as I spoke, the words came. I thought back to my hometeaching experience this past week, and yes, I had done it, and I had helped out my family because they had not gone through the lesson yet, and I got to meet a few more people in the ward. Something I had been lacking in doing for the past year. At that moment I realized what my story was for hometeaching. My hometeacher had been my link to the church for the past year. When the Bishop thought we had gone inactive, and statistically I think we had, my hometeacher knew that it was just a matter of scheduling that blocked us from attending church. He knew we wanted to go, and he was constantly checking up when he hadn't seen us at church for a week or two. After I told that story I closed things up saying that I hope that I would be that kind of hometeacher to my families, and I sat back down.

I then confided to my hometeacher, who was sitting beside me, about my folly in not filling the hole in my head that allowed that speaking assignment to fall out. We had a good laugh, and then someone sitting behind us mentioned, that no one could tell I had just winged it.

Sometimes that works. Sometimes it really, really does not. I recall a 30 second rendition of a five minute youth talk I was to give in sacrament meeting back in St. Albert. You could feel the heat from the firey crash on that one!

Time for bed. My commutte is going to be a lot longer tomorrow, since I'm going to be driving in from Beaumont. Caitlin and I are camping out Chez In-laws this week, so Caitlin can help with a sewing consignment project. Yeah, money! Boo, long drive! Mind, I might be able to car pool a couple of days this week. :)

A return to Geekiness

Although Rini had a bit of an upset stomach last night, she seemed okay today. Hence I was bold and took her with me to visit a friend I have not seen for some time. He was beside himself when he saw the DVDs that I brought over, Clone Wars Volume one and two. We managed to get through the first disc, but we had to get going home by thetime we got the second disc in. We watched up to the knighting of Anikin, but then we realized that Rini needed to get to sleep, and she wouldn't be able to sleep there!

Although the visit was partially inturupted by my rushing out temporarily to pick up Caitlin from the Women's Broadcast, we were able to get some good guy time in. Caitlin is right. I don't spend enough time with other guys. I partially blame my old job for that. Kinda hard to keep in touch with church friends when YOU DON'T GO TO CHURCH! Very glad that my new job lets me attend church meetings again. Have I mentioned that before? Well, it bears repeating.

Another geeky thing I did today, which has been long overdue, was that I burnt my first CD with the burner on our computer. Ridiculously easy, and the only reason that I didn't do it earlier is simply because I didn't have any discs to burn. Funny that it only took a trip to Staples to fix that problem. Further funny is the fact that I worked in a store where we had CD-Rs, CD-RWs, and Lightscribe versions of both discs stocked on a regular basis, and I never thought to dig out $10 and buy a dozen or so. I NEVER bought discs at The Source by CC, and I worked there for two years! That's rather odd, seeing I bought the burner, USB card, memory card reader, camera, memory cards, and a boatload of batteries, as well as a wireless router and card, not to mention a network card for my landlord's computer all at The Source. All that stuff, and I never bought CDs. And it's not that I went and bought CDs somewhere else. I never bought them anywhere until I was done, and into my new job.

That is really weird.

Now that I got that out of my system, I should mention that it was not the burning of the disc itself that was long overdue, but rather what is on the disc. Pictures of Rini, Caitlin and myself for my parents. They do have internet, but it's dialup, and the postal service can get the CD, with 160 pictures on it, to their computer faster than their dialup could. There are actually a lot more pictures, and videos, that I could have put on the disc. Hmm... Maybe I'll burn another tomorrow. The mail won't be picked up until Monday anyway.

Service Surprise

A couple days ago, I received an email from my Elders Quorum
Presidency. With the women's broadcast tonight, there was a certain
amount of chairs that needed to be set up. Usually this kind of thing
is brought up on Sunday, but I guess there was some kind of scheduling
goof up, because I only received a couple days notice. Nevertheless,
I did have the time available and I made a note to attend.

Caitlin and Rini came along, so we made it a bit of a family activity.
Especially when we overestimated how long it would take to get to the
chapel, and we wound up taking a walk around the building.
Fortunately, the weather was seasonably warm, and we had some decent
jackets on. Rini had a ball running around looking at all the trees
and fallen leaves. I'm sure she would have loved it even more if the
leaves crunched, but it rained this morning, so the leaves only
crunched a little if at all.

Once we got in, we were still a little early for setting up the tables
and chairs. The only reason that we were able to get into the chapel
was because another ward was having a baptism, and they arrived early
to fill the font. We found a couple basketballs and a soccer ball
that we played with for a little until we decided that we should start
setting up. We had just set up about ten tables when we received word
of how the setting was supposed to be, and we were doing it wrong.
Simple fix though, and even simpler once a couple more people showed
up.

That's kind of the sad part too. Only two other men showed up to help
with the chairs and tables. There were a number of sisters who were
helping in the kitchen and working on the centerpieces. Caitlin also
helped with laying out the tablecloths. Meh. It really wasn't all
that tough with three brethern.

Good exercise!

Tomorrow, I'm going to get together with a friend I haven't seen for
some time. I'm looking forward to this guy's night/afternoon out,
even though we'll be spending the time with our respective children
because our wives will be at the Women's Broadcast. I only hope that
Rini doesn't have anything contageous, but I'm thinking the reason she
threw up tonight was because of the brownie she ate.

Another thing I'm a little concerned about is that she's not saying
"Please" anymore. Whenever we prompt her to say it, she becomes
silent. Or screams. Or hits. But whatever she does, she does not
say "Please." She is almost 2 years old, and she might be moving into
ye olde rebilious stage one. Officially there are three rebelious
stages. One at two years old, the second at five, and the third at
thirteen. I'm thinking that each one is progressively stronger, and
builds upon the previous one. None of the stages end, but tend to
lessen in intensity from time to time. Like when they're asleep!

Takes after her father

You could say that Rini was taking after her father, or her mother
depending on how you define the context, in her behaviour tonight.
We were trying to teach her how to ask to get out of her chair.
Prompting "Mama", "Down", "Please". She was being quite the goof,
because she would say "Mama, <something unintelligable assumed to be
'down'>" then after our prompt for 'please', "Juice!" Yeah.

Me: "Daddy"
Rini: "Dada"
Me: "Down"
Rini: <mumble something or other, but I guessed it to be 'down'>
Me: "Please"
Rini: "Juice!" <giggle hysterically>

So I made up a song, sung to the tune of the Chorus of "Jerk It Out"

My daughter
Is such a goof.
The way she's acting is more than proof.
She frustrated my wife,
Hey but that is life.

I can't wait until this girl is a teenager.

OH WAIT! I can!

No more drip!

This might sound a little odd to celebrate a lack of sound, but
anytime Rini goes down for a nap, you would think that it is time for
a celebration of sorts.

Today, I fixed up Andy's computer, and he in turn fixed up our kitchen
tap. The computer was a very easy fix. First, the network cable was
plugged into the on board ethernet port, which doesn't have any
drivers. This was a problem that I already solved by installing a new
ethernet card. They had just forgotten to plug the cord into it.
Also the cord was not plugged into the router, so we were not getting
any internet signal either. Again, quick fix. Finally, the biggest
reason the internet was not working: the modem was on standby. Press
of a button and we were in business again.

The taps were fairly simple as well. First we shut off the water to
the taps, simple, then we removed the... parts. I want to call them
spigots, but I think the proper name is cartridge. In any case, once
that part was out, it was plain that the reason for the leak was due
to the leak in the O-rings. They were quite damaged and needed to be
replaced. One trip to Home Depot, and the solution presents itself.
Or so I thought. Andy and I went to Home Depot with the cartridges
and the O-rings, hoping that it was be a quick, in and out ordeal.
Turns out they were sold out of the O-rings that we needed, but there
were some other stores that had them. Clairview and St. Albert.
Uh... Yeah. No. We just bought new cartridges that cost $4 more, and
they also had new O-rings on them. After that, it was a simple matter
to install the cartridges. Then turn on the water, and... NO MORE
DRIPS!

Last night, we kept a 4L milk jug under the tap to catch the water.
It was full by morning. The time to fix that tap had definitely come!
It is so much nicer not to have to worry about the tap, or listen to
the incessant dripping. Caitlin is very happy for that!

And as the saying goes, "Happy Wife; happy life."

Prayful girl

One thing that I'm proud that Rini has figured out is prayer. I'm not
quite sure if she's figured out that we address Heavenly Father
because we're speaking to God, but she does cross her arms, and most
of the time she will stay still for the entirety of a prayer. She
does have some trouble when we're in sacrament meeting, and the
opening or closing prayer goes on for longer than five minutes. Two
or three minutes, she's fine. When we have our evening family prayer
or mealtime prayer, she's fine!

We would get her to start saying prayers, but we are still having a
trial of a time to get her to ask for drink, toys or 'up.' Whenever
we try to prompt her, ie. Say 'Daddy', say 'juice', say 'please', she
usually follows those prompts. When she's impatient, she'll jump
right to the end and say 'peaz'.

The closest we have tried for family scripture study is reading her
Book of Mormon board books. She also has a Bible board book, and we
read from that sometimes. We need to move on to the bigger things.

One other thing. Rini hasn't said "Thank you" very much, but she can
say it in Chineese quite well! Maybe we should do that for a bit.

More exploration

I think that Rini is getting to be smarter than we give her credit
for. That, and we are going to have to seriously look into getting a
proper bed for her very soon. The playpen isn't working so well
anymore because she's figured out that the bottom can come up, and
when she does that, she gets stuck.

We have the offer of a toddler bed for $50. The only thing is that we
would have to travel to St. Paul to pick it up. Oie. Might have to
hold out on that one, or find something a little bit closer. Maybe
IKEA, or maybe Kijiji. I hear there's lots of stuff there! The other
thing to check would be that yahoo group that I used to subscribe to.
I'll have to dig around for that though.

Rini is getting to be a climbing fiend. One of her favourite
activities is to climb on the computer chair, and then let herself
down by sliding underneath the armrest. She also does that with the
rocking chair too. I'm thinking we might have to take her bouldering
one day, but we'll see how that pans out.

One thing that she's climbing quite well is her car seat. We only
have to help her when she gets out now. She quite capable of getting
into the seat all by herself! Mind, she hasn't quite figured out how
to secure the seat, so we do have to conitnue helping with that little
bit.

Kallie pointed out that skill development works differently with girls
than it does with boys. The general pattern of development with boys
is: First, fine motors skills; Second, verbal skills; and third, gross
motor skills. With girls, the pattern is the opposite. Gross motor
skills develop first, and then you have the verbal skills, and then
the fine motor skills develop. Rini has already mastered the basic
ambulatory skills, such as crawling, walking, running, climbing and
descending stairs. Right now she's trying to pull up the cover on the
base of the playpen. Why? I'm assuming because she can!

A interesting bit of advice I got tongiht from an experienced father
of three boys and two girls. The relationship a father has with his
sons is different than the one that he has with his daughters. Mostly
because the daughters tend to get away with murder. I don't think
that I'll be quite like that. Then again, I've never been a father
before, and I'm just learning as I go here.

Yesterday, Caitlin and I discussed an odd matter, planning in advance.
We discussed when would be the best age for Rini to get a cell phone,
bank account, and allowance. We decided that allowance would start
when she started school, and would segue into compensation for chores
done around the house when she's fourteen. That would be about the
time that we would consider a cell phone. I would want her to have a
phone once she starts dating. Caitlin said sixteen would be the ideal
age for that, but I thought that fourteen would work just as well,
because that's group dating age. We still have at least twelve years
to discuss this, and with the way technology is running, things might
be a bit different in ten years. Or the pessimist in me thinks that
we'll be on the edge of armagedden anyway so we won't be worrying
about trite things like cell phones.