Month: June 2017

Father’s day is coming up and I saw a poster at work advertising some charitable campaign event to purchase a tie for your father.

Mike rocking the Christmas tie.

It got me thinking about ties in general.  I had a bunch of ties over the years and a few years ago, I had my good friend Nat put those ties on a weight loss program so now I have a bunch of skinny ties.  I preferred the look of them compared to the fatter ties.

The flask tie is always a hit at Christmas service in church.

In the past year, I’ve decided to not wear a tie at all because…no one is wearing them!  I roam the halls and I don’t see any ties in sight…it’s even rare to see them on a ‘higher up’.  I almost felt like I was the person who was out of place with his choice of neckwear.

The ‘It looks cooler this way’ tie.

Today’s blog post asks fashion expert Nat the question: Are neckties still a thing?

Ties still a thing…in the fashion world some would say yes, others no. For example, if you look at pictures from the latest celebrity fashion events of the year, MET Gala, Tony Awards, Oscars, the men are either in bowties, or skinny ties.  Paris Fashion Week had an assortment of fall 2017 trends, anywhere from oversized coats, clothing in shades of red and burnt orange, fur, etc…not so much suits and ties (some had a few more formal preppy looks such as Stella McCartney’s collection, yes we are talking about Paul McCartney’s daughter!). 

The classic bowtie.  The unicorn of ties?

I personally don’t think it’s a question as to whether ties are still a thing. I think it’s more of a “if you like wearing ties, wear ties!”. I think it’s important that everyone brings their own sense of style into the way they dress, and more importantly, feels great wearing it! For example, I hate wearing dress pants to work (jeans on Friday is my only exception to the rule) so over the last few years, I began to only wear skirts and dresses. Does everyone do that at work? No, but I love it so that’s how I roll!

The moustache, the tie and the smoking hot wife by his side…James makes that tie pop!

Now with that out of the way, I would say if you’re looking for a skinny tie, regular tie or bow tie, all depends on where you are going, your personality and your ultimate look.   Now if you’re looking for specific examples of what’s “in” right now, checking out fashion bloggers is one stop you can make on your quest. Many of them are on Instagram (one I follow is Adam Gallagher – iamgalla.com) and can perhaps give you some insight into a style you’d like to try out for yourself or incorporate into your everyday attire.

Kids with ties…always cute!

In the end, the tie will always have my vote! 🙂

Thanks for your input Nat!  Nat can be currently found planning out the launch of her own Etsy clothing enterprise!

Sierra getting some fashion tips from Aunt Nat.

Sunday and Monday were the greatest days we have ever known in the year 2017.  With temperatures around 40 degrees Celcius with the humidity, it was time to have some fun in the sun!

Luckily, I had been procrastinating the seasonal hot tub cleaning.  What better way to do it then outside in a scorching hot day?

With the goal of a pool in my mind’s eye, I scrubbed that hot tub and started filling it up.  I even put a second hose into it as it wasn’t filling up fast enough for my liking!  I was literally losing daylight as I watched the 4,000litres of water slowly fill this awesome vessel which provides fun and entertainment for all.

While I filled the hot tub, Sierra was having fun with Tante Andréane who showed up for a few days before she heads out to Portugal with her parents.  Sierra got to open a few gifts from Tante Anne-Marie and Andréane and one of the was a sprinkler with little grubs sticking out of them.  I find it ironic that I went to war with some grubs on my lawn earlier this month and now they are back in sprinkler form!

Sierra didn’t really know what to make of the sprinkler.  While we think she enjoyed it, she also wasn’t screaming in laughter.  Maybe the water was too cold?

Either way, it just paved the way to the main event….the cool tub was ready for the summer!

It was 78 degrees when the cool tub finally finished filling up but I put the temperature up for Sierra to hang out in.

I’m glad I remembered the rubber ducky that Maureen had brought us!  It was time to put this thing in action!  I was winded after blowing it up but it was totally worth it.  Sierra loved it!

Seeing that Monday was also going to be a scorcher, some last minutes plans to go to Calyspo Water Park took shape.  Vero and I both got the afternoon off thanks to our super accomodating managers and we met up with Andréane who thought she was a loser for going alone to the water park.  I think the only losers are the people who didn’t bother going!  It was a fantastic day….40 degrees, no lineups at all, plenty of space to swim in the wave pool….I even managed to surf on my flutter board in the lazy river for pretty much the entire length!  I have to say that I’m glad Vero convinced me to go on some rides…I had gone before with Evan, Anne-Marie and Vero and I was scared for my life, but we found some less scary ones that were great fun!

Greatest two days of the summer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After years of successful brewing, I finally encountered a bad batch of beer.

I managed to finally get off my ass and build the new keg fridge as the only fridge has died.  I’m hoping this one lasts more than two years!

I hooked up some beers that have been sitting in the storage room since the winter…a scotch ale and a Christmas concoction of cinnamon, nutmeg and other assorted goodies.

Unfortunately, the scotch ale had gone bad.  Like…really bad.  But while I sipped on a pint on Saturday night, I told myself “You know, it just tastes sour…maybe I stumbled onto how to make a sour beer.”  I searched the internet about drinking a bad batch and all signs pointed to the fact that I wouldn’t die from it.  The beer was super cloudy.

It wasn’t until the end of the pint that I told Vero “Yeah…I’m not going to drink this anymore.”  I switched over to the Christmas batch which surprisingly tasted pretty good!

The next morning, I awoke and I felt like I had a sunburn over my body.  I started to wonder where I got some sun yesterday…sure, we were out at a garage sale, but that was about it.

I had a giant rash over spots of my body…my inner arms, my face, my thighs, my feet and my hands.  Vero said that the left side of my face looked puffy and abnormal.

I’ll have to monitor the situation but at this point, with limited knowledge, I’m assuming that maybe this is an allergy to the yeast in the sour batch.  Or I could be allergic to the Christmas batch.  I dumped the bad batch and I’ll wait awhile before diving back into the Christmas batch.

Note: If the beer tastes pretty sour…don’t bother with the entire pint thinking you stumbled upon something magical!