I know the year is going to be a good one when after I set up Sierra with a bowl of oatmeal and Dora the Explorer she comes running into the office saying “I want to give you a hug because I love you!”
This got me thinking that all the things I do for her are finally starting to click inside her brain and all this effort I put into parenting is finally paying off!
Then she realizes she wanted Cheerios instead of oatmeal and proceeds to have a meltdown.
Hey look, it’s New Year’s Eve and I managed to get a few minutes reprieve to put some thought into my favourite albums from the past decade. An entire decade!
iTunes shows I have 8,004 songs from the past decade. Let’s dig in! I’m not counting reissues but the Beatles had an incredible reissue campaign in the past decade.
Alice in Chains – Rainier Fog 2018
Arcade Fire – Reflektor 2014
Bad Uncle – The Surgeon’s Lament 2013
Big Wreck – Ghosts 2014
Billy Talent – Afraid of Heights 2016
Black Ribbons – Neuromancer 2012
Manchester Orchestra – A Black Mile to the Surface 2017
Boxer Rebellion – The Cold Still 2011
Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder 2017
Cannons – Open Letter 2013
Collective Soul – Live 2017
Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice 2010
Dear Rouge – Black to Gold – 2015
The Dears Acoustic: 2001-2005 (2016)
The Dears – Times Infinity Volume Two 2017
The Devin Cuddy Band – Volune One 2012
Fontarabie – Fontarabie 2014
Glen Hansard – Between Two Shores 2018
Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles – The Grand Bounce 2010
How To Destroy Angels – Welcome Oblivion
July Talk – July Talk 2013
Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur 2012
Les Cowboys Fringants – Octobre 2015
LIVE – Woodstock ’94 2019
Loon Choir – All of This and Everything Else 2015
The Lumineers – The Lumineers 2013
Matt Mays – Coyote 2012
Megadeth – Dystopia 2016
Metallica – Hardwired…To Self-Destruct 2016
Metric – Art of Doubt 2018
Murray Lightburn – Mass:Light 2013
Muse – The 2nd Law 2012
My Chemical Romance – Danger Days 2010
The National – Sleep Well Beast 2017
Nine Inch Nails – Add Violence, Bad Witch, Not The Actual Events 2017
Patrick Watson – Adventures In Your Own Backyard 2012
Pearl Jam – Lightning Bolt 2013
Postdata – Let’s Be Wilderness 2018
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool 2016
The Reverb Syndicate – Odyssey 2015
Rob Zombie – Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor 2013
Roger Waters – Is This The Life We Really Want? 2017
Royal Canoe – Today We’re Believers 2013
Sam Roberts Band – Collider 2011
Silversun Pickups – Widow’s Weeds 2019
Skye Wallace – Skye Wallace 2019 (this one is tricky…I literally got this album a month ago so I don’t know if it has the staying power to be the best of a decade. But it’s definitely the best of 2019 and it’s still going strong into 2020!)
The Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania 2012
Sound of Lions – 11:44 2011
Spencer Burton – Don’t Let the World See Your Love 2014
St. Vincent – MASSEDUCTION 2017
Tame Impala – Currents 2015
Taylor Swift – 1989 (2014)
The Tea Party – Live from Australia 2012
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks 2010
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – The Social Network soundtrack 2010
The Trews – …Thank You and I’m Sorry 2012
U2 – Songs of Experience 2017
The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding 2017
The Weeknd – House of Balloons
Whale Tooth – Search Party 2012
William Patrick Corgan – Ogilala 2017
Wintersleep – The Great Detachment 2016, In The Land Of 2019
It’s really interesting going down the rabbit hole of memories of all these great albums that have impacted me.
And for the greatest disappointment of the past decade…30 Seconds to Mars. You were destined to take the top spot from Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam. Then you produced crap for an entire decade.
Happy new year!
I’ve run a little late with this entry considering I’m writing this on January 16, 2020 and there’s a whole lot of snow on the ground. It’s strange to see that we were outside at the park like this six weeks ago! I do remember getting worried about the lack of snow for Christmas.
December was a fun month with Sierra. She is grasping the concepts of giving gifts, opening gifts, asking for items from Santa. Her attention span definitely wanes though. The evidence of this is her advent calendar which still isn’t completely opened yet!
For the second year in a row, we wanted to try and open up gifts for a series of days instead of opening them all in one morning. The way we see it is that we are stuck inside for the Christmas break, why not have something special to look forward to each day? Sierra was definitely blowing through a few gifts on Christmas morning until she stopped at the greatest gift ever…a fishing game. We stopped everything and played that game. We also played it the next day. And the next. Every time we asked if she wanted to open up some gifts, she said “No, I want to play the fishing game!” It warms our hearts to see that she actually enjoys playing with the gifts she receives instead of blowing through them and leaving them in a pile on Christmas morning.
Before I forget to mention, this past month (or past season…it’s been so long!) has been the time where Sierra isn’t the nicest person in the world. She constantly says no to us at every turn. “Let’s brush your teeth.” Non. “Let’s get you dressed.” Non. “Let’s leave daycare so you can go home.” Non. Argh! It is very frustrating right now. We are trying to give her a reward system like “Hey, if you get dressed to go to daycare you can watch television tonight.” but it doesn’t seem to phase her. When we point out that she can’t get something special, she just says “It’s ok.” like she’s consoling us! Hopefully this phase will pass soon enough because it’s getting too frustrating in the morning when I’m trying to have her speak quietly so she doesn’t wake Ezra but at the same time she’s saying no to everything!
Onto some photos!
Typically on a weekend I try and get away with both kids to give Maman a break. This must have been the day where Ezra was still sleeping in so I decided to hit the road with Sierra. First stop…breakfast!
We were pretty lucky to see Santa Claus while we were out at the grocery store!!
Sierra is starting to not like her picture being taken.
Etienne and I made a photo book of ourselves for the Christmas gift exchange at work. We were pretty disheartened when we found out at the last minute that there was NOT going to be any exchange this year! Luckily Kelly didn’t get the memo either so we did an exchange between ourselves. She was over the moon with this gift and proceeded to bring it to every meeting she could in the proceeding weeks.
Sierra’s first advent calendar! Note for next year: get the cheap ones where the chocolates have a different design to them. This kinder one was the same exact chocolate each day.
Preparing for her first job.
As parents with two kids, you sometimes have to split up when it comes to activities. Vero headed downtown with Trish to see Damien Robitaille at the opening ceremony for the Christmas lights in Ottawa. Jealous that they got to meet him on their way into the event! By the way, if you don’t have his new Christmas album, go get it now. It’s great!
Sierra showing me how the ratio of icing to cookie should be at least 50/50.
Sierra and I went to David’s Tea to pick up a gift for Maman and they treated her to some decaffeinated tea. Yum!
Bahaha!
Helping put up the Christmas decorations. Stan Lee’s Santa hat came out for the event!
I got a calendar notification reminding me to infiltrate the girls’ Christmas party with a gift of my own. I sent a long a photo book of my life. Vero thought it was hilarious and supposedly there were a few people fighting over the item!
Holly won it in the end and she tells me that her kids look at pictures of Uncle Ryan each night.
This is probably the photo they like to look at.
Tis the season to make sausage dip!
Sierra insisted that our tree had a star on top this year so we went out and picked one up.
The best part of Vars is their annual Christmas celebration! Someone tried to get me to play tunes for the kids but I wasn’t prepared in time. Luckily they got the guy who had been doing it for years and he knows how to get the kids entertained!
Sierra and her friend were more focussed on crawling on the floor than singing and dancing!
Ho Ho Ho!
I had a homework assignment for the month of December. I was going to play some Christmas tunes for the daycare along with our friend Vero. There has never been a French translation of Frosty the Snowman …until now! The daycare had this book and I copied the words down and figured out how to play it in French.
Clearly they had fun at daycare today!
I’m not sure if I have already posted this but this is this year’s school photo. I put in another two minutes of effort on her hair that morning. Usually it’s a rat’s nest.
For YEARS I have gone to the department’s Christmas party and they only had tea or coffee on hand. Finally, they have smarted up and offered up some hot chocolate as well!
Ah, the work Christmas party. Always a fun time. We now reserve Le Troquet for our festivities and rightly so! We spend most of our time there during the year anyhow!
For the past two years, Nanny Ruth’s Christmas sweater (I’m wearing it in this photo) has one the Branch’s Christmas sweater prize! We were going to go for a third year in a row which I mistakenly thought was four years in a row. So you will see that everyone’s t-shirt says FOUR FOR FOUR accidentally. I never told them the truth and if they are reading this now…sorry? My team loves Nanny Ruth’s sweater so much that they rallied behind the cause of winning another year in a row and we got some t-shirts made for the event. Unfortunately, we were completely shut out of winning this year…we didn’t even make it into the Top 3! I think that’s a little unfair, but whatever. At the end of the day, there’s no tears shed over losing a sweater competition. It is Christmas after all! Nanny, if you are reading this, I hope you enjoy seeing how much joy you bring to my colleagues! Special thanks to the great group I work with and the fun times that were brought to the Branch Christmas party even though most of you were severely hungover from the previous night’s party.
Now that Christmas has passed I can start posting photos of a project I was working on. I was going to attempt to make a cribbage board for my parents as well as another one for Vero’s dad. I got these biscuits from Emile at work who had taken down a few trees on his property. I let them dry over a month’s time on the heater at work. I had purchased a router to do the middle portion but after speaking to Dad I realized that the router needed bits and other things that I wasn’t prepared to purchase so I returned it and worked at carving out the middle portion for the cards.
I sat on the project for a few weeks seeing that the clock was ticking. I needed to get this done! I then took an old credit card and drilled a few holes in it to act as a template to drill over 300 holes into the board. As you can see from the photo above I marked it with a pencil before going all out!
Birthday party fun!
Everyone loves a good marshmallow.
Sierra pulling Maman on the sled!
After some varnish.
Making some Christmas cookies
Note the Mr. T action figure!!
Might steal this idea for next year.
Finished product! The only thing that really messed up with this entire project were the custom playing cards I ordered…the box they came in was larger than the spot I carved for them!
I can’t figure out if the cribbage board or the custom playing cards were the best part of the gift!
It’s been a long Star Wars ride but we went and watched Rise of Skywalker on opening night and it was great!
For a few years I have been suffering from styes that form on my eyelid. I was having a good run of not having any for a few weeks but it came back in full force. I hadn’t had it this bad since when it first started up years ago. Hopefully one day we’ll figure out how to get rid of them but as the specialist once told me: “You won’t die from it, but you will die with it!”
Sierra riding the escalator at my work
There were carollers so Sierra and I sat down in the lobby to listen to a few songs.
Santa was nice enough to pay us a visit at work!
After awhile at work, it’s time for a break.
It was great to see some of the old gang from when we worked together back in 2010. It’s also crazy to think that some of us still work together! Hey, when you love your job and the people you work with, why would you leave?
Clearly Sierra was not too happy with Mina trying to watch her iPad.
It’s Christmas eve and the cookies, milk, and carrots are ready for Santa and his reindeer!
Christmas morning
Alright, some context is needed for this five minute video, but it is well worth watching. A few months ago while eating a smoked meat sandwich for lunch, we asked Sierra what she wanted from Santa Claus. She thought about it for a bit and then said “a smoked meat sandwich!”. We thought this was quite funny but when we asked her a few more times as Christmas got closer, she had the same answer. But she also added a few things…”un smoked meat sandwich puis un non et un oui!” Only Santa could figure out what she meant by this and Santa delivered! Sierra was VERY excited to see some smoked meat come her way for Christmas.
Smoked meat!!!
Prepping Christmas dinner.
What a great Christmas treat! Poppa, Grandma, Abbey and Maureen came to visit us for a few days! Too bad it was freezing rain most of the time!
Sierra enjoyed the activity tablecloth that Grandma brought for Christmas.
I had a good laugh at this one on Facebook.
Sierra enjoyed the slippers that Nanny Ruth made for her.
Kitchen party!
I love how this photo makes it look like I’m playing to an audience of one.
Obligatory moose mug shot!
https://thesaltymarshmallow.com/instant-pot-spaghetti/
I modified the recipe from the site above and it came out decent. Vero really likes it. I feel there’s a little bit of flavour needed. The comments section mentions someone adding some brown sugar as they like a sweeter taste, I may try that next time. Update: I did try the cup of brown sugar and while good, I wasn’t a fan. I need to figure out the missing ingredient.
Theres a lot of spaghetti to eat, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have leftovers for two more nights.
Kids.
Sometimes they are like this:
But then sometimes they are like this:
And if you’re really lucky, they give you this once in awhile:
Ezra is full out screaming at me 50% of the nights but then other nights he’s content to hang out with me. You never know what you’re going to get! But he’s doing good for the most part. I don’t feel he’s got any health issues that we need to be concerned about. What do I know? Maybe the 50% of the time he’s screaming at me is because he’s allergic to hanging out next to his Dad?
A typical evening for me is to return home, help out with Sierra to put her to bed and then I bring Ezra downstairs and we watch some TV/movies. Somewhere along this ride he gets a bottle and then if I’m lucky he’s all smiles for 30 minutes and then he starts to get cranky so I rock him to sleep or wrap him in a blanket and he falls asleep next to me for an hour until the next feeding. Feedings are slowly stretching past the two hour mark. Sometimes he’s can go another 30 minutes, sometimes not. That’s on a good day. On a bad day, he’s crying after I give him the bottle and he doesn’t let up for two hours. I even had to employ this handy device one night:
I’ve learned to watch Star Wars with the subtitles on.
He’s enjoying the Christmas lights we have put up. Vero tells me that he stares at the Christmas tree a lot.
Onto the pictures!
Mom’s still got the Midas touch!
We’re teaching Sierra how to take photos.
Two beauties!
Maggie Simpson.
I’ve never seen this outfit before. Is this supposed to be Mickey Mouse?
Sierra gets some cuddle time with Ezra before bedtime usually. At a quick glance you would think Sierra is looking at the camera but we all know she is staring at the television behind us.
Vero goes out for the night and the supper of champions emerges!
Vero would probably tell you that this is a typical morning for Ezra. Having a nap while taking a walk around the neighbourhood.
Taking Ezra for a sled ride.
It was the just the three of us one night so Sierra helped give the bottle while I cleaned up the kitchen. They both did quite well!
The snow comes and goes around Ottawa so we took advantage of it when we could. It’s interesting to see how Ezra reacts in the cold. If there is the slightest gust of wind it takes his breath away so we generally have to bundle him up in blankets. But on a day like today he was doing good.
I think they are both getting used to having photos taken.
I saw this at the Canadian Tire toy section and I thought “Yep, that sounds right.”
Fredo and Ezra hanging out.
THIS is what we like to see in the evenings!
Ezra enjoys the time spent in his little play yard.
Checking out what the family is doing.
Relaxing.
Watching Christmas specials on a Saturday morning.
Sierradinosaur and Ezra were really into Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Ezra was loving playing with this.
And this!
Damien Robitaille! Trish and Vero got to see him play a few Christmas tunes down near City Hall.
He has a new Christmas album out this year which is a great listen (and a great gift under the tree!)
And so it begins! With the Rise of Skywalker coming out in a few weeks I decided to take Ezra on the journey of watching six Star Wars films with me.
For Holly’s Christmas party I infiltrated with a gift of my own…a photo book of my life! It was a hot ticket item for the gift exchange!
Sausage dip!
Ezra was helping put the Christmas tree up.
Ezra and Sierra got to meet Santa at the Vars Christmas celebration!
I have to take tips from this guy. He was a great entertainer.
The afternoon was a hit and we give thanks to the Optimist Club for putting on this great event each year.
Watatow! Four months old already!
I feel this is going to be more of a review on the actual Bronson Center than the show itself! Short review: Texas King caught the crowd’s attention and Big Wreck killed it as usual. I recorded the show using my iPhone and it came out pretty good! I will try again at the next concert. I brought Etienne to the concert for his birthday and we met up with a few of his friends who were equally blown away by the show.
A history of the Bronson Center and a review of the new changes: YEARS AGO, the Bronson Center sucked large. Mike and I would show up for a show and it would be general admission throughout the entire building so we would end up in the back row with our parkas on and sweating bullets. I believe that show was for Broken Social Scene. No beer, dying of heat, it sucked.
It’s been a rough month with Sierra as she has caught a couple of viruses from the daycare. This year was the worst the daycare has seen in a decade. It even wiped out some of the staff for close to a week!
I remember hearing Sierra over the monitor saying her bellybutton hurt. I went in and asked if she rolled onto her doll’s head and she said yes. Then I went back to bed and she kept complaining that her bellybutton hurt. It dawned on me….she wasn’t talking about her bellybutton, she was talking about her belly! I rushed back in but the damage was done as she had vomited in her bed. Poor thing. The rest of the night was spent over a bucket and watching Dora the Explorer. Pro tip for parents: if you notice that there is a really bad stomach bug going around the daycare, don’t decide one night to pound back a couple of beer, and head to bed around 11pm when there is a high probability that you will wake at 2am and have to stay awake helping out a poor girl being sick!
Sierra really enjoyed Halloween and is gearing up for Christmas now. It’s great to see that she fully grasps these things and now it’s up to us to figure out what sort of traditions we want to have. Sierra’s already forced us into the “let me have a Halloween candy after supper!” tradition! We are starting to let her know about Santa Claus visiting the house at the end of December which has always been a welcome visit in my house!
Sierra is 95% self-sufficient at 3.5 years old. Saturday and Sunday mornings consist of me getting some hummus and crackers for her, going downstairs and turning on Dora the Explorer for her. I can go to the office and do things like updating this blog for you all!
I’m not sure why I took this photo one morning but I must have been proud of the work I put into her hair that morning. These days it’s rare that she wants a lulu or clips so when I manage to convince her it’s a treat. I’m trying to think of what a lulu is in English…hair elastic?
It was an exciting day at the daycare as everyone got their nails and faces painted!
Halloween! Sierra’s Dora outfit came out pretty good!
Our team decided to have a clown theme this year. Nick put it best “I really enjoy how all of us came as different versions of clowns!”
So here’s the thing…Halloween was a wash. Literally. Torrential downpours hit the Nation’s Capital this year and it sucked! Vero was nice enough to head out with Sierra and I stayed at home with Ezra handing out candy. We ended up giving only half of the regular amount (around 45 pieces) which must be because of all the rain. Kids weren’t venturing too far outside this cold, rainy night. Vero did come up with a genius idea of putting Sierra in her parka but with a Dora apron.
Ezra and I watched An American Werewolf in London while handing out candies. Did you know the director of that film also directed Michael Jackson’s Thriller video?
What a haul!
I think these poppy stickers are a great idea (except they didn’t really stick to this type of jacket).
Bahaha! Facebook has some gems sometimes.
The neighbours missed Halloween due to illness so a couple of days later they managed to score a LOT of candy considering we had boxes of it left!
I get a call from Vero saying there is a water leak in the basement. GREAT. Luckily the leak was not to the boiler as I had originally feared. But it still was a pinhole leak spraying water in behind a wall. Vero said the latex paint had a giant bubble forming out of the wall that she has to poke with a fork to get the water out!
I took this picture to show all home renovators what NOT to do. When you have an unfinished basement and are thinking of putting some walls up, please don’t build a wall where it’s impossible to get to some shut off valves! Ridiculous! I actually ended up having to cut a piece of the joist out of this because after I fixed the actual leak down the line, when I went to turn the water back on this valve wouldn’t stop leaking! This was happening to me at 9pm at night! I managed to get the valve into a spot where it was dripping once a minute. I put a towel in there and decided to wait until Dad showed up that weekend to give me a hand.
I have to thank my parents for giving me the skills to repair things in the house. Generally I can wait for someone to help me but this was one of the first times that I looked at the issue and said to myself “I have the skills required to fix this. Just get it done no matter how long it takes.” It was a pain working on the piping in behind the wall but I managed to get it done with the help of some Sharkbites.
I also love how I just realized I spoke about this already on the blog!
Sierra is a big fan of Passe-Partout so I took this photo at work for her.
Troy and Connie sent up these nice earmuffs for Sierra. She wears them all the time!
We’ve always had this doghouse on our property.
No more! Dad was itching to get outside and do something one morning so we decided to take down this doghouse. What a pain. It had this really sturdy rooftop built with shingles that we had to take down and cut up into manageable pieces. What a job! I’ll probably find a bunch of things in the spring that need cleaning up. I am thankful I figured out there was a Vars dump just down the road to drop things off to! If anyone needs 50 feet of chain link fence and some of the accessories, they are yours!
Sierra’s getting pretty good at putting her snowsuit on.
First snow of the year came quite early in November this year! Sierra wasn’t too excited about going to the daycare until I mentioned we could go on the sled.
A typical Saturday morning for Sierra.
Heading out for a walk.
Sierra is really nice when it comes to letting Maman have a nap.
At least the snowfall let us get some holiday photos done in time for Christmas.
I died of laughter for this one.
Sierra trying to catch Maman.
Sierra is now understanding the concept of what cashiers do.
The snow left us as fast as it came in! Sierra and I took a walk around the neighbourhood and ended up at her daycare’s playground.
Krista and the kids came out for a beautiful Sunday afternoon so we could see the Russell Christmas parade.
Fire trucks!
Merry KISSmas! Vero couldn’t stop laughing at this float.
Nor the dinosaurs!
The main man and lady themselves!
I hadn’t been to a Christmas parade in years. I had forgotten that the kids get A LOT of candy.
Sierra surprised me a few days ago when she drew this picture and said “This is for your friend Etienne.” She must hear me speak about him a lot. She’s only met him once in the summer. How nice of her! She also drew another bunch of pictures for him later in the weekend so I suggested they go to my other friends. What a pleasant surprise my friends have in store on Monday morning!
Ezra has finally entered what I like to call the ‘Guy Smiley’ zone. Every time we smile at him he returns them to us! I think I even got him laughing a little the other day. This is the beginning of a great addition to the family. Before this moment I’m sure there were a few times where I thought “What am I gaining from having this kid in my arms who is crying?”
There have been quite a few evenings in the past month where he is a fussy baby. Sometime after supper. Which coincidentally turns out to be when I take him downstairs to give Vero a break. There are some good nights where he takes the bottle, smiles at me for awhile and then falls asleep (like last night!). There are other nights where I give him the bottle, he smiles for a bit but then for the next hour and a half he is NOT liking life and cries at me for the entire time. I rock him, I walk with him, I twirl him around like pizza dough. Nothing works. These are some trying times! I wonder if he is developing an intolerance like Sierra had even though Vero isn’t eating any dairy. Is there some soy allergy sneaking in there? Who knows? I’ve even had to put the subtitles on Star Trek Deep Space Nine while I’m watching with him because there’s no way I can make out what the actors are saying! Ha ha.
In the past week we are starting to see a transformation for the better. Vero has said that he is starting to sleep from midnight until six am which is a welcome change. He has done that consistently for the past five nights. I also stumbled upon a position that typically makes him comfortable. If I sit him on my knee and lean him forward he seems to not cry as much as was before. This is good! It’s really exciting when a parent finds a little trick that seems to make their kid feel better.
We have been giving him one bottle in the evening of four ounces of milk. So far he doesn’t seem to want anymore. At this point I can pretty well feed him the entire 4 ounces without giving him a burp and then he sits up and burps on his own. Of course, this can vary from time to time but it’s exciting to see that he’s starting to do things on his own. When will he be able to hold his own bottle!?
He is a happy baby and that’s what counts!
After bath time! He seems to enjoy bath time these days. He didn’t care for it entirely at first. Even now I don’t seem him laughing at the thought of water but I’m sure that will change.
Wow, was it this nice outside one month ago? I’m typing this as we got dumped with 10 centimetres of snow!
Some visitors for Thanksgiving
Beautiful morning for a campfire
“And that’s why we don’t talk about politics at the table!”
Ezra’s getting ready for Halloween!
Ezra sure loves snuggling up to Grandmaman.
Et Grandpapa aussi!
Sierra is such a funny person when posing for photos with Ezra.
Sierra wanted to help feed Ezra.
Ezra was lucky enough to get a bunch of more visitors in the past month. Here is Melissa making sure he sleeps well.
He couldn’t stay asleep when Tante Carole wanted to hold him.
Hanging out in the playground.
A typical evening….just the boys hanging out downstairs on the couch watching Star Trek.
Some moments are pretty cool hanging out with this little dude.
But most moments were from a series I like to call “Don’t kid yourself. Behind every good photo of Ezra smiling on this website is ten more of these videos where he is crying for an hour.”
This was probably the last campfire of the year.
Rob and Ezra singing.
This kid cracks me up!
Sierra taking Ezra for a walk showing him all the Halloween decorations.
Who would have thought that 24 years after Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released, we would be hanging out together watching a concert video from that era. Ezra and Billy sure look alike!
Ezra is taking it all in at the pumpkin patch.
I’m not entirely sure what Ezra thought of my costume!
Nanny Ruth and Beth came to see what all the fuss was about.
To avoid crying, let the kid bring a book to the photo shoot.
I must have been telling a pretty good joke here.
I told Nanny she would have to stay for another few months considering I haven’t mastered this move yet.
I think Sierra was trying to take a selfie. Not bad!
Out for a walk with Maman.
Maman must have been waving a chocolate bar in front of him.
Maman found this pumpkin in our backyard!
This pumpkin definitely moves a lot.
Vero took 20 photos to find the perfect one. I chose this one to post. I’m not sure if she would approve?
Pretty scary business handing out candy.
Ezra was guarding the candy at the front door whenever I would sneak off for a beer.
I had a good laugh when I saw where Ezra’s hands were heading on this photos of Mel and Jonathan! The look on his face says “Awww yeah, watch this!”
Hanging out.
Out and about at the St Laurent shopping centre.
I worked from home one day and Vero passed Ezra to me for a few minutes while she had a shower. He fell asleep! We didn’t bother moving him. It was quite interesting trying to type while he was laying asleep on my arm.
Basement chatter.
Vero called me one day to tell me that there was a leak in behind a wall in the guest room. FANTASTIC. I get home, take a look at snap at photo of this lovely position where the leak is coming from. It’s in behind a joist AND in behind a wall where the suspended ceiling doesn’t have access to. Future home renovators: if you decide to build some rooms, why don’t you move it over a foot or two so you have actual access to the piping when it decides to leak!? What a pain to fix. I had to slice out some sections of the joists and will have to brace them again later. I ended up using sharkbites for most of the job even though they are more expensive. They had a slide coupling which made my life easier as I couldn’t move the two pipes much.
The best part of the job was when I went to turn the water back on and a leak developed from the cut off valve. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? I managed to get it down to a drip every 60 seconds so I waited a few days until Dad came down so we could patch that up. It was also a pain of a job which required another section of the joist to come out.
Sierra bringing Ezra around the block.
I had a good laugh at this one.
Speaking about good laughs, here I was trying to get Ezra to laugh.
I took Ezra in this contraption for a spin around the house while vacuuming. I’m not sure if he liked it or not. I think he enjoyed it after getting used to it.
Mom, Dad and Nanny came for a quick visit over Remembrance Day weekend. Here’s a photo of four generations of family together on the comfiest couch ever.
Troy sent up some beer from local breweries around London, ON. Thanks! Here’s Dad dipping into the many that were consumed that weekend.
Nanny was quite amused by Ezra, or was is the other way around?
Ezra is amused by anyone, even Poppa!
Three months already! Ai ai aieeee.
Some really, really close seats. I could see the sweat on their faces!
Sunday night in Ottawa…what is there to do?
Head down to the National Arts Centre to see Matt Mays on the Howl at the Night tour, that’s what there’s to do!!
You all know my love for Matt Mays. He can do no wrong in my eyes.
This tour was the culmination of everything that has come before it. His band is top notch and the way the night unfolded was magical.
I had no idea Etienne and I got tickets so close to the stage…third row in a the small Babs Asper Theatre at the National Arts Centre. It was uncomfortably close at first but once the show started and the crowd gathered it just made it all the more intimate.
Pretty sure I could touch the stage if I reached out my hand! I was also kicking myself for leaving the good phone at home. The iPhone5 camera does NOT take the best photos.
Skye Wallace. The Dream Weaver.
Skye Wallace opened up the set and it was a rocking good time. The band was firing on all cylinders and Skye Wallace is a force to be reckoned with. She had an incredible stage presence and is definitely worth seeing again. I even picked up all her albums at the merch booth after her show.
Starting out the show nice and slow.
The Howl at the Night tour was a combination of their past few tours. They opened the show with a bunch of acoustic tunes and morphed into a full out electric show. I really enjoyed how the set unfolded…first up was Matt solo on piano. Then he invites a bandmate. Then another, and another, and another. 8 songs into the set we finally get to see the full lineup.
I really love the latest touring lineup of Matt Mays. I always enjoy Adam Baldwin as the right hand man and now the stage is flanked by Leith Fleming-Smith is an insane keyboardist who has his own legion of fans. I even saw someone with a homemade t-shirt of Leith and it said Leithal Weapon. Fabulous!
I’ve seen Matt Mays a lot over the years. I remember seeing him open up for the Sam Roberts Band on their inaugural tour back in 2003. They’ve been around Ottawa quite a bit and I have to say that this was the best live incarnation of the band I have ever seen. Everything coalesced into a fantastic night. I was glad that Etienne got to experience the power of Matt Mays for the first time!
I almost forgot to write about a highlight of the night…Matt brings the mic out into the crowd through the aisles at one point and then decides to hook back in on good ole Row CC which was our row! Sure enough, he starts walking on top of all the seats to end up smack dab on Etienne’s seat and singing to the rest of the theatre. So basically, we had to stare at his butt for the rest of the song which was hilarious. Good times were had.
Check them out on this tour!
Here’s the tour poster created by Ottawa’s very own Ottawa Gig Posters.
Setlist (Matt Mays)
Howl at the Night
Drive On
Dark Promises
Downtown
Ola Volo
Ain’t That the Truth
The Past
Spoonful of Sugar
Travellin’
Building a Boat
Indio
Station Out of Range
City Of Lakes
Take It on Faith
Let There Be Love
Terminal Romance
Tall Trees (country version)
On the Hood
A few months ago my bud Matt got me into this bluegrass band called The Dead South who hail from Saskatchewan. They had this incredible video:
Anyhow, when I heard they were coming to town a bunch of picked up some tickets for a Tuesday night in Ottawa at the TD Place.
Elliot Brood in full Hallowe’en garb
Thanks to Vero for letting me head out on a Tuesday night to check out this band! Going to a concert is a game day call when there are two kids in the house.
I missed the first couple of songs of Elliot Brood which is a crying shame because the first song they played was C’est L’Halloween which I had been talking about the week prior at work. Supposedly this song is super popular around the world but no one has heard about it. But out of nowhere, Elliot Brood opens their set with it! My friends were freaking out. Here‘s an interesting article about this song.
Great stage setup by The Dead South!
I found Chanelle, Matt and Matt’s mom a few rows from centre stage. The TD Place floor was packed but they had shut down the stands for the event…probably due to lack of ticket sales?
Elliot Brood was a great rollicking time and I will definitely be checking some of their music again as I was not familiar with them.
The Dead South put on a great show as well. I’m not entirely familiar with their catalogue of tunes but the crowd seemed to know every word! You can tell the band is embarking on a larger production type of show where they choreograph some moves (like the swaying of their instruments at the same time) as well as some extended jams to fill in some time between songs. I was wondering if the lack of a drummer would be an issue but with a bluegrass band, there are no worries!
Also, can I put a shout out to Danny Kenyon who handles the cello strapped to his back like a champ? He is crazy good. Let’s be honest, the entire band is great.
Two thumbs up for this show. Catch them if you can!
Can I just say I think it’s really interesting how they are huge in Germany but this will be the first tour that brings them to the Maritimes? I can’t wrap my head around that considering they are a Canadian band!
Now…onto my one gripe. It’s a large one so hold on the for the ride.
Who the heck charges $20 a CD to ticketholders?!
I was walking in there thinking I would plunk down my cash to pick up their three albums. I have listened to them on Google Play Music but it was time to support this band with some dollars.
Now, I’ve been to a few concerts over my lifetime. As I type this, it shows that I have been to 610 of them.
In my experience, I have never seen a cd priced higher than 15 bucks. Generally you’ll see CDs hanging around the ten buck mark.
Now, on one hand, you would think that maybe the price of CDs have gone up over time and that’s how they can justify their price. I do agree that the price for CDs are slowly creeping into the 20 dollar range. In fact, The Dead South albums are all hovering around 22 bucks on Amazon.
But the other hand is the following: you’ve already got fans coming in the door. You also are hoping to win new fans with your awesome tunes and your show. You want to melt their brains and have them wanting more when they leave. What better way to do so than to have a cd at a bargain?
Case in point: I walked out there with nothing other than a poster. I didn’t even bother picking up one CD. But I was ready to buy all three CDs if they were priced at $15 or less. My friend Chanelle was thinking of picking up a CD to support the band but balked at the $20 price point.
I went to see Skye Wallace a few weeks after this Dead South show and she blew me away much like Dead South blew me away. I went and picked up all her albums for ten bucks each.
In today’s market, buying tour merchandise has become even more of a showing of support for a band. We already have your music via streaming services. Why do we need a CD?
To show our support. So please don’t gouge us.
Hey, what do I know? Maybe you end up selling enough $20 cds to a smaller group of people but still make more money? I’m trying to wrap my head around what the ultimate goal of selling tour merchandise is. Is it to make the most profit, or is it to get something in the hands of fans to show their support, or is there a middle road somewhere? I have a feeling the middle road is what most bands take.
Rant over! Still a great show and I encourage everyone to check out The Dead South!
Setlist (Elliot Brood)
C’est L’Halloween [Matt Maxwell]
@Unknown[Lyrics: …I could hear them coming over that hill…]
’til the Sun Comes Up Again
Jigsaw Heart
Dig a Little Hole
Woodward Avenue
@Unknown[Lyrics: …come out with your hands held high…]
2 4 6 8
The Valley Town
Without Again
Write It All Down for You
Setlist (The Dead South)
Diamond Ring
Time for Crawlin’
Boots
Miss Mary
The Recap
Honey You
That Bastard Son
Blue Trash
Fat Little Killer Boy
Snake Man
Black Lung
Heaven In A Wheelbarrow
Spaghetti
In Hell I’ll Be in Good Company
Crawdaddy Served Cold
Banjo Odyssey