Month: March 2018

I’m surprised I can find enough time to blog about Sierra’s 22nd month considering only a few days we had a flood in the basement.  We’re basically in a holding pattern at this point as people come in to assess the damage.

Sierra is still a ball of energy and love to laugh which is good times.  Although she does have a streak in her which has her turn a smile into tears at the drop of a hat.  We want to go inside after hours outside?  No way Jose!  Haha, I guess all kids are like that.

While she doesn’t say a whole lot of words (I’m pretty sure she’s just messing with me when she still refers to me as Maman), she can understand pretty much everything we ask.  A soother is ‘na-na’ which is really the only important item in her life to know the translation for.

After her bathtime she is enjoying brushing her teeth.  When I say brushing her teeth, I mean putting the brush in her mouth, sucking the toothpaste off of it, rinsing the brush and then sucking the water from it over and over again.  So…there’s minimal brushing going on.

 

Clearly she likes ketchup as much as her own mother.

Sierra is a little mystified as to where the snow has all gone.

Tyler was nice enough to host us lads over for an evening of debauchery.  When I say debauchery with gentlemen over 35 years old, it basically ends with us tired around 10pm.

Showing off her handiwork that she did at daycare

It was Victor Von Dube’s first birthday party and everyone had a great time!

Sierra helping out Mom while she took some photos of Victor eating cake.

It’s pretty nice outside around this time of year so we make the most of the park.

The ladies enjoying the campfire.

I came across this in a boardroom and thought it was hilarious.  Pasta and marshmallows!

Let’s not forget the super fun weekend with Dad where we went to Foret Larose!

Andreane and Vero went snowboarding at Mont Tremblant and supposedly had a fantastic time.  I’m excited to see a bunch of videos from that GoPro they brought with them!

A video from Mont Tremblant

Sierra showing Tandreane how to do a puzzle

The Easter Bunny visited a little early this year around the house.

It was rock n roll t-shirt day at work a few weeks back.  As you may know, I own a few so it was a tough decision for me.  I decided to go with one of my favourite Pearl Jam ones…it encompasses Pearl Jam, horror and comic books..all three things I love!

Another great day for a campfire!  It’s been a beauty month.  We have to keep Sierra fairly entertained as she doesn’t yet see the point of just sitting and staring at fire.

It’s Sugar Shack season around these parts and so we tried out a new place this year – Ferme Drouin out near Casselman.  This place was the cat’s meow.  With a few kids in tow, it was a great spot which wasn’t overly packed like some others we’ve been to…we could leave our stuff at our table, go get food whenever (the food was awesome).  It cost $25 per adult and I believe kids under 3 ate for free.  

Sierra having fun with Beatrice.

It was a chilly day (-15…well, not overly chilly!) so we didn’t bother going for the horse ride.

What kid doesn’t like visiting a farm?

Sierra trying to grab Maman a fourth helping of ‘tire’.

This place had everything!  Food, farm animals, tire/taffy and a sliding hill along with tubes!  Vero went down about three times before she insisted I try and walk back up the hill with a tube and Sierra in tow.

I thought I was being pretty clever by having the tube around my body walking up the hill!

A few months ago, I caught wind that Santana was coming into town.  It was strange because I had ZERO ticket information the morning of ticket sales and I was scrambling around looking for information.  I went onto the actual Santana site and there was a free fan club I could join and get information on upcoming tours.  Twenty minutes later I realize I can log into the site as a member and lo and behold, I had access to ‘fan club’ tickets which are tickets within the first ten rows of the concert.  Is this for real?!  Premium tickets available before the actual onsale date?  Sign me up!  We ended up with fourth row!  It was surreal to be that close.

My favourite part of the past few months was keeping our seat location a secret from Martin and Vero.  I even managed to get the tickets from the ticket booth without them knowing where we would be heading.  I did let it slip at one point that we were on the floor when I said something like “Boy, I hope I can drink this beer on the floor.”  We were all ecstatic when we saw how close we were.  We even had plenty of leg room!

I don’t know a whole lot of Santana songs but it doesn’t matter.  They put an amazing show.  A lot of old tunes, new tunes and everything in the middle.  The entire band is still in top shape!

The day after Santana I took the day off to brew some beer.  Martin hooked me up with some actual hops and I had never made beer with them so it was an interesting process.

I almost needed a bigger pot!

After many minutes of boiling, the hops had descended a bit in the pot.

We don’t like going to stores without shopping carts because Sierra loves them so much!

Sierra figured out how to clean up dust.

My second career as a children’s entertainer took flight on a Saturday morning over at Krista and Ben’s.  I had some great help from my pal Ethan who managed to strum a few tunes for me!  It was quite fun and I learned a few kids songs along the way.  I have to say, those kids loved ‘Happy’ by Pharell quite a bit.  It took a few weeks to learn an hour’s worth of tunes but I think it went over pretty well!

Elizabeth enjoyed my guitar case more than me actually playing (naturally).

Someone really wanted her picture taken.

Luckily it warmed up a bit last week so I got to bring Vero out to Foret Larose to see how wonderful it was.  Jon and Chantal came along and the kids had a fun time being towed in this sled.  Luckily the snow was pretty nice to the person towing them!

This might be the last time Sierra will ride in this backpack.  It’s getting quite tight!

Great spot for a break.

Taking a break from the madness which is a flooded basement.

Definitely one of my favourite photos from this photo series!

 

 

Monday morning I awoke at 5:45am and I’m standing in the bathroom and I can hear some water.  A lot of it.  Oh no.  What’s going on down in the basement?

I rush to the basement and lo and behold, it’s bad.  It’s not two feet of water bad, but there are things floating around!

Now, in my hazy memory, I think I ran over to see what was going on at the sump pit.  And that my friends, is the dumbest thing I could have done.  In the heat of the moment, and the sluggish still-asleep brain, I had forgotten the #1 rule about approaching water…there could be electricity involved.

I started taking some photos after calling the insurance company.  This was taken after I managed to suck up most of the deep water.  Now all that was left was the surface stuff and whatever was under the laminate.

Luckily, I am here to tell the tale, but I have to tell you, I’m very upset and shocked with myself that I wasn’t thinking straight and I could have died going into that situation.  I still can’t remember if I had ran back up to Vero first to wake her up (sidenote: she thought there was a guy with a gun in the house with me screaming ‘VERO!  VERO WAKE UP!  Man, what a way to wake up!) and hauled on some rubber boots.  I’m not even sure if rubber boots would have saved me if I was wading in two inches of water and some electricity ran through it.  Maybe someone can let me know.

At first, I didn’t think there was much water over in the guest bedroom.  Then I noticed that when I stepped on the laminate you could see some water rise up in this crack.  Sure enough, when pulling it all off, there was some water under the floor.

Either way, I’m still a little shaken by the event after the fact and how I could have potentially be dead by now.

ANYHOW, let’s get back to the less morbid part of the story…the discharge pipe of the sump pit was gushing water upwards and outwards.  As in, I got a face full of it when I opened up the door to the pit.  Fantastic!  I remember unplugging the pump and assessing the situation.  Standing in two inches of water and water coming down onto my head meant that there was water all over the sump pit room.  I managed to bring in a new (spare) pump in and attach everything back together again.  After drying the electrical plug I fired it back up and everything seemed to be working fine again (as fine as standing in two inches of water could be).

Next up…how to get rid of all this water quickly.  I couldn’t find the spare portable pump I use to empty the hot tub so Vero suggested the shop vac.  Pro tip everyone: remove the air filter if you want to use it on ‘wet’ mode, otherwise it just stops when the bucket is half full and even at that, it has a really hard time pushing all that water through a filter!  I had to consult a youtube video to figure that one out!  After that, I’m not sure how many times I filled and dumped out the shop vac but at one point I wasn’t standing in two inches of water anymore.

Here’s what the place looked like after a day of work.

Now I can take a step back and analyze the situation.  Who do we call?  Well, we call JF of course who had two floods in the past five years!  He recommended we give the insurance company a call and they’ll arrange to have some emergency crews to come on out and give us a hand.

Sure enough, that’s what I do and those guys were here in about 30-60 minutes (timing is a little hazy writing this three days later).  Either way, their help was much appreciated.  Especially since I noticed the pump sometimes not running well and I was thinking the problem was not the pump at all.  After some tests, the project manager and I determined it was the check valve that must have been busted.  At least the problem was solved!  Now onto the cleanup.

The guys found some black mold under the laminate flooring around the TV.  Ewwww…how long have we been breathing that stuff?!  It’s interesting to see that years ago, they painted the floor as you can see the paint is flaking off now.

The rest of the day was spent tearing up laminate flooring, moving furniture and ripping off trim.  Note that Vero and I did help out but the majority of this work was done by the awesome emergency cleanup crew.  These guys were top notch.  They also put in these huge fans and dehumidifiers to suck the moisture out of the basement for the next 72 hours.

I hope our parents like what we did with their room.

It’s interesting to see what process occurs when a flood happens.  For everything bad that people say about insurance companies, they sure have their stuff together when an emergency occurs.  Within five minutes of me calling my insurance company, the emergency cleanup crew calls me and sends a team out.  Then I get a visit from the ‘field insurance adjuster’ that afternoon around 4pm to take a look around and take photos.  We also get a call from the insurance adjuster walking us through the steps and sending us some emails with information.  The next day we get a visit from an electronics technician who will test out a few thing around the house that may have touched water.  Tomorrow they will send over some people to cut out the ruined drywall.  After that…who knows what will happen but I’m assuming it’ll move into the renovation phase of fixing the basement.

It’s been a killer few days and unfortunately, it’s not like the end is near.  A basement doesn’t get renovated in a day (much like Rome).  We are lucky enough that it wasn’t sewage that had backed up so we can’t complain too much.  Of course we didn’t have it as bad as others do.  But it is a jarring experience and sometimes we find it very hard to absorb all that has happened.

I’m sure I will come up with a ton of tips so you can avoid situations like these yourselves.  I’m sure I’ll be adding them to this post.

• I guess I should point out that this can happen to anyone…not just people who live in the country.  Inform yourselves about what can happen in your own basement even if you live in a suburb like Orleans.  Here: read this handy handbook this Friday night if you want to avoid a situation like this.
• Try as you might, you can have a lot of backup systems in place, but they may not cover every scenario imagined.  Try your best and don’t be afraid to spend some money to get to a point where you are comfortable with every eventuality.
• Keep important documents up high!  We were extremely lucky that the water did not enter the storage room.  There are two important things close to the floor in that room…our filing cabinet with important documents and my X-Men comics.  🙂  I now realize that I should arrange my comics not in alphabetical order but in order of value!
• Don’t be a fool and rush into a situation involving water without dealing with electricity first.  Seriously.  Dumb mistake.

 

The other day I decided to bring a Pearl Jam poster into work because I’ve been running out of room for posters in my own house.  Why not spread them out into my massive office space?

This is a cool poster from 2010 and the PJ community were having a ball when Ames Bros. released it.  I mean, what’s not to love about this poster?

Anyhow, I brought it into work where a few people were interested about it in general, some people were indifferent and clearly I was in a team of people who weren’t fanatics like myself.  Sidenote: find new friends who love Pearl Jam.

Over the weekend I start thinking about the poster and remember that it was pretty hot on the resellers market.  I checked on Ebay and had a moment of instant regret when I realized that I had left a hot seller of a poster in my open cubicle where thousands of people had access to it!

Luckily, I come in on Monday and it’s still there.  I quickly take it back home and came to decision that if I sell this, it could pay for my trip to Chicago this summer.

Slap it up on Ebay and a week later, it sold for $1,200+.  It was exciting to see the bids climb up over the past week (as any Ebay seller knows).  Sure, I’ve sold video games in the past and have gotten excited when they creep up past $100 but this is a whole other world.  This will help pay for the flooded basement we are in the midst of dealing with.

Vero went to Mont Tremblant with her sister so that left Sierra and I all alone for the weekend.  This took a lot of mental energy.  Not to handle the situation, but to ensure it was the greatest weekend she has ever experienced in her life!  Much preparation is needed for such an event.  I can’t just have her hang around the house all day long and consider that a ‘super fun time weekend with Dad’.

First stop, Larose Forest!  Google Maps led us astray a little bit and I ended up on a road which is closed during the winter.  I only clued in when I ended up on what can only be described as an ATV trail.  Luckily, my parental senses took over and made me realize I should just backtrack and go check out the parking lot with a giant P7 sign.  Sure enough, we found a lot with three entrances…one for a hiking trail, one for cross country skiing and another up the road for dog sledding.  There wasn’t even any need for the snowshoes that I packed which was a bonus!

The first part of our trek was underwhelming.  But about 300 metres down the path, the actual forest appears and it was like something out of Middle-Earth.  This wasn’t some Vars cemetary path riddled with birch trees…this was something else!  What a fantastic path.

We only encountered two cyclists during our trek for an hour through the woods.  Luckily there are some signs which pointed me towards a lone picnic table in the woods.  Sierra is unfortunately in a tight squeeze on the backpack so it was good to get her out of it and take a break (read: 30 pounds on my back is quite heavy!).  Here Sierra is enjoying a snack while getting really excited any time she heard a bird chirping.

Hanging out.

After our break she still wanted to walk around.  We ended up encountering a bridge which she thought was quite incredible.  She ran up and down the bridge a few times.  Then I realized our trek out of the woods would take us about 6 hours if I let her stare at every branch we encountered so I put her back into the backpack.

I like this picture.  It only took 40 tries.

When we exited the path and were walking up to our car, we heard quite the chatter down the road.  After listening for a few seconds I realized it could only be the sounds of many dogs barking!  There must be some dog sleds up ahead!  We walked down the road and sure enough, we encountered about a dozen vehicles with dog sleds next to them.  I had never seen that many dog sleds in my life.  Sierra was having the time of her life.  I ended up chatting with one of the women there.  Turns out that they pay a membership fee to have the trails groomed and so they go every weekend they can to train the dogs on these trails.  Must be a really interesting group to be part of.  Sierra was not too happy when I decided to head back to the car.  I’m pretty sure I found teeth marks on the security straps of the backpack as she was trying to chew her way back to seeing all those dogs.

Luckily I found something else to distract her with.

If Vero notices some tree sap on Sierra’s jacket, this is where it originated from.

Sierra trying to get one last look at the dog sleds before leaving.  All in all, the Larose Forest was a great success and I can’t believe it’s been there all this time and I only went to visit now!

After lunch and an afternoon nap we headed to the St. Laurent mall so I could look at some frames to hold some comic artwork in.  Unfortunately they didn’t have any in stock so I decided the only way to salvage the situation was to bring Sierra to Toys R Us.  My favourite part was when she found a house set that she already has back at home.  I managed to snap this photo in the split second that the box decided to jump out at her.

Toys R Us…the ultimate daycare?

The next morning our plans for visiting Ethan and Ellie for a morning music session fell apart so I had to rack my brain for something else to do.  It was a beautiful morning once again and the sun was out so we decided to go for another walk.  This time we went back to the Vars cemetary path.  There’s no picnic table in the middle to have a snack at, but it’s a nice path nonetheless.  I didn’t need the snowshoes which was a bonus. 

Another great snack in the woods.

When we got off the path, I knew I needed a break in a few hours (aka, I needed Sierra to nap) and the only way to do that is to make sure she expels some energy!  She walked most of the way home.  However, as any true adventurer knows, you don’t have a time limit when there are wonders around.  Here is Sierra taking a look at an eaves trough making some noise.

One driveway later she encountered a mud puddle!  There was no shortage of things to discover in the span of 20 meters.  It was going to be a long walk home!

My favourite part of the walk home was that at one point, she looks at me, proceeds to sit down on the pavement in the middle of the street and then lie on her back.  I had a good laugh at her.  Clearly she was pooched!  I threw her back into the backpack and we headed home.

In the afternoon I was racking my brain for what we could do, but I saw that it was sunny out and hovering around zero degrees so we decided to have a campfire.  It was a great idea until two minutes into it when she wasn’t having any of it.  I brought her around on her sled for a few laps and when she finally convinced me to leave and go inside, Vero, Andreane and Danielle had arrived home.  The super fun time weekend with Dad had officially closed!  I hope she had fun.  I sure did.

 

 

 

More specifically, I miss watching shows in a world where on-demand didn’t exist.

Now, before you and tell me that I’m crazy, of course I prefer the on-demand world.  I was one of the first people out there figuring out how torrenting works so I could download the latest episodes of Lost on my computer so I wouldn’t have to rush home from whatever I was doing in order to catch the latest episode.  On-demand is a fantastic addition to our lives because it allows us to live our lives a little more.

However, at the same time, it has taken something from us.  It has deleted the ability to have a collective experience surrounding a cultural event.  Say what you will, but I’m saying that the tv series Lost was a cultural event.  Much like when a new Netflix series drops unexpectedly and everyone jumps into the zeitgeist of How to Make a Murderer or Stranger Things.  It gets people talking…but not for long.

 I am re-watching Lost right now with Vero.  It’s an exciting time for me because I get to watch the show knowing what will happen, but I also get to see Vero’s reaction at all the mysteries that need solving and remember (fondly) how I was asking the same questions along with my friends.

That is the problem with on-demand television right now.

Instead of your friends getting together one night for dinner and saying “Yeah, what’s up with that monster on Lost?!”, the conversation veers more towards “Have you seen Stranger Things?  Isn’t it awesome?”.  That’s where the conversation ends when talking about the newest, greatest TV series out on Netflix.  We basically get to share and compare a few notes on how we think the TV series is great, but that’s it.  We don’t get to dive into details like “OMG, what is Character X going to do about Situation Y?!”  There’s no concept of the water cooler talk where we discuss specific mysteries.  Because…the mystery has already unfolded over a 10 hour series which you probably binged-watched over the weekend.  The moment is gone and was captured in your mind for 30 seconds until you put on the next episode.

Network TV still subscribes to the model of one episode per week so we haven’t completely lost the concept.  But in an on-demand world, it’s hard for me to find people who have watched the same exact episodes at the same exact time as me.

Me: “Did you see the new Star Trek Discovery episode?  SO GOOD!”

Colleague: “Oh no!  I have not.  I will catch up.”

Fast forward the next week, I’ve already gone past that moment in time and never think of bringing it up again.

Nat: “OH MAN, it’s crazy what happened in the latest episode of Rebels!”

Me: “Wait, I haven’t seen it.  Let’s all pause our talk.”

I’ve essentially killed the conversation because it’s not like Nat is going to come back and say “So…what did you think?”  Nat has already moved onto another series that she wants to talk about.

I miss Lost…and I’m glad to be re-watching it with Vero because it brings me back to the time where it’s exciting to talk to someone about what is going to happen in the next episode.  Of course, in an on-demand world, we just hit play and watch a new episode.  But at least those few minutes in between are interesting and gives me a glimpse back to a more interesting time to watch TV.