Month: October 2012

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of babysitting two year old Mackenzie, the daughter of Emilie and Ryan. Emilie was in town to help out with Vero’s cousin Melissa’s bachelorette party so it was up to me to keep an eye on Mac.

First order of business, dump out the hot tub water! The ladies were excited to have a hot tub that night, and I filled it with well water the week before, only to discover that a rusty looking film coated the entire hot tub after a few days! I tried to remove it with chemicals, but to no avail so it was time to get the water out, scrub it down and hopefully have a tub of hot water ready for the evening’s activities! Luckily it all worked out. Future Note: Don’t use the well water to fill the hot tub!

Second order of business, take care of Mac. Luckily for me, as soon as Mackenzie woke up from her nap (which Emilie said she woke up early from), she was crying her head off. Bonus! It’s like I won the lottery! No matter, this did not bother me. I know kids cry. I also had a hunch that this would be my life for the rest of the Saturday considering kids like their Moms and Dads rather than handsome strangers.

First order of business, get the kid back under control! I thought maybe taking a time-out of all the hustle and bustle was in order so we went down to the piano and I started practicing my scales and Crocodile Rock (yes, I’m learning this great song on piano!). Mac seemed to quiet down with the sounds of the piano and we played a duet once in awhile which sounded like someone sat on the keys. Fun times! She then chilled out in her playpen for a bit while I practiced the intro part of C.Rock.

Afterwards, it was snack time! Grapes, granola bars and crackers were the order of business! I find children fascinating. I have no idea what they are thinking. It frustrates me to no end! I want to know “Do you want to eat this? What do you want to do?” I feel that it’s a guessing game.

Pass the grapes? No.
Pass the crackers? No.
Pass the granola bar. Bingo.

As she eats the granola bar, I’m wondering if the kid is going to choke at one point (I wonder if Emilie is reading this right now in horror) and then I decided that maybe it’s best to just give her a piece at a time instead of allowing her to shove it all in whenever she feels like.

Then all of a sudden, crackers are her new best friend! Forget about granola, goldfish crackers are the new thing on the block!

After sitting there for quite a bit of time, I think she gave up so it was time to hit the road on this beautiful fall day.

First up: Get the stroller in action! I couldn’t figure out how to lock it in place so it kept collapsing in on itself. I thought maybe if Mac sat in it, it would work itself out, but it just looked like the stroller swallowed her whole. That wasn’t going to work. I finally found the lock and we were in business! And that business was heading to the park!

The stroller is interesting in that I could already see that I would hate using this stroller every day. My feet kept walking into the back wheels and I had to hunch down to grab the handles. So I guess when it’s time to go stroller shopping, it’s all about the test drive. But in borrowing one for the day, it’s not a big deal.

When arriving at the park, I saw a swing. No, I’m not dumb enough to throw a 2 year old onto the big kid swing. I found the one that they can sit comfortably in. I did read the warning label and figured she was old enough. Unfortunately, I think she didn’t know how high the thing was and started to cry, so that was the end of that. I did manage to snap a photo of her before the tears started falling.

A quick stop at the community mailbox and we were back home playing in the leaves! Throwing leaves in the air, rolling in the leaves, making a fort..it was all good fun…for me! Mac just sat there wondering what the heck I was doing. I realized maybe it was time to go inside.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing piano, drums and guitar to see which she would prefer. I don’t think she’s into the drums considering the sticks kept going for my face.

Unfortunately for us, fun time was over when the girls came back and Mom came down and visited while I was showing her how to dance to some Cat Stevens. After that point, Mackenzie had a keen sense that her mom was upstairs for the rest of the night. The evening was spent crying for Mom and crawling over to the door going upstairs. No matter! I can fend against cries of children! I tried everything in my power, but nothing would stop her.

In the end, it was 8:30 and it was time for bed and she conked out. Emilie said she was probably just super tired from new surroundings, all the attention, trip in the car from Barrie.

All in all, a fun time had with the Mac and me! I must admit that it’s frustrating when you don’t know what the heck a kid wants. I can only assume that as a parent, you just figure these things out as you go along, but man, it must be frustrating when you first start out!

Would I do it again? Of course! Kids are cool.

I’m sitting at the Royal Oak waiting for Mike and Vero and I’ve heard No Sugar Tonight and Go Your Own Way played so far. Is my alter ego behind the playlist? What’s next? Pumpkins?

As you may or may not know, I am a big fan of the old Sierra computer games, King’s Quest, Police Quest, <insert name> Quest.  They were great games to grow up with.  Many a day were spent on the Tandy 1000 trying to figure out how to beat King’s Quest.

Years ago, I lost my copy of the King’s Quest Collection.  I still remember picking that up on a trip to Toronto when I was a kid and showing up at Nanny Ruth’s place with it, just marvelling at the packaging and the user manuals because I had to wait a few weeks until getting home to actually use it!

Always on the lookout, I wasn’t prepared to pay $80 on Ebay for it, but lo and behold, Kijiji was my friend in the past few weeks and I managed to find a copy for $10 in Peterborough!  Luckily, Krista’s parents live there so within 12 hours that as well as the Space Quest collection were mine for $20.  They are in excellent condition and I’m pumped!

Alas, I didn’t have much luck on the Kings Quest 3 front.  I found a listing in London so I had Troy pick it up for me for $8.  In the end, it came in a box with all the manuals, but the slipcover was missing.  The guy did throw in the disks for KQ4 for free so I can’t complain for $8.

Not sure if this will be the start of a great tradition, but so far I am enjoying it.  This year, Vero and I decided to go visit Connie and Troy in London for a few reasons.

1 – They are great company.

2 – Turkey would be served.

3 – They have really great kitchen mats to sink your feet into.

4 – Get some recording done in the Red Room.

5 – It was due time to see them!!!

The trip down on Saturday morning was uneventful and we were glad we weren’t going Eastbound on the 401 because I swear there must have been an accident that held up traffic for 100kms!

We pulled into London and caught up on what we’ve been up to for a bit until Troy and I snuck off into the Red Room (aka his recording studio) so we would exchange movies/tv shows/music.  We then jammed on a few new tunes that he’s been working on…a lot of Dave Matthews tunes that came off great on the first try and we even threw in Superstition there for good measure.

That night, we had a lovely feast of spaghetti and wine.  J. Loch reigns supreme!!!  We also checked out C-Diddy’s rise to air guitar fame in the film ‘Air Guitar Nation’.  It is an excellent film to kick back and have a few laughs.  Not as awesome as Animal House or Guy Terrifico though!  Seek those films out!!!

The next morning we headed down to The Early Bird which was basically my idea of awesome.  They had concert posters and music memorabilia all over the place.  The portions were large and scrumptious and the staff were amazing (and doubled at the bar next door during the evenings).  I had a great smoked meat sandwich while the others munched on a variety of items that filled us up to the point of thinking “We have to eat turkey later today?!”

When we got home, I showed the song I wrote for Vero to Troy and Connie and applause was heard down the street.  I’m glad that everyone approves, but I’m super glad that Vero approves of the song.  Connie had some reservations about me singing about Vero having a head like a mule, but that’s a minor point!

Troy and I ended up recording an acoustic version of the song and he laid down some amazing harmonies over top my vocals.  I’m really impressed with how it came out and Troy added a lot of little things that made the song stand out.

After the greatest turkey dinner I have ever eaten (stufffffinngggg), we settled down to relax and digest this great bird in our stomachs.  I believe the stuffing it was made the meal and I still can’t believe that Troy hates stuffing.

During the day, we ended up watching the documentary of Lemmy Killmeister as well as a documentary on Tom Petty which were both pretty great.  The Tom Petty one was 4 hours long so we didn’t end up watching even half of it before we passed out!

All in all, it was a trip which Vero and I love…relaxing with good company and good food.  Plus getting a little recording in never hurts!

Special thanks to Connie and Troy for the excellent hospitality, the gifts on our bed, and overall, a great experience.