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Vero and I had the pleasure of having Mom, Dad and Nanny Ruth over to the house over the Winterlude weekend.  Fun times were had and it’s always great to have Dad and Mom around to help out with little things that we can handle with some difficulty, but is nice to have a guiding hand.

Saturday we headed down to the Market to meet up with Lynn, Sue, Johnny and Aggie.  Unfortunately for all of us, everything Winterlude-wise was shut down.  The Canal, the ice sculptures, the snow sculptures…what a drag!  Especially for Nanny who desparately wanted to skate on the Rideau Canal!

We all wanted a bite to eat so we headed to the Clocktower Pub where he had to wait awhile for our food, but it was decent in the end.  The new IPA is a killer beer however.

However, by this time, it was 4PM and we all decided to head back to our house to hang out.  That was the extent of our Winterlude!  A trip for lunch downtown!  I did drive Nanny out to Kanata so that she could visit her cousin for the night.

We hung out at the homestead for the rest of the night and mowed down on some great chili which was made into a supreme chili after we added some homemade hot sauce/marinade that my friend Nat had acquired for me.  It was quite tasty which prompted Lynn to finish off about 18 bowls of chili to my dismay!

It was great to have Lynn, Sue, Johnny, Aggie and Mike and Joanne drop by to see the house!

Mike also showed up later and we hung out for a bit and I went to bed while he finished watching the Abyss on TV.

The next day was spent fixing the hot tub with Dad.  It turned out to be a larger project than foreseen.  Instead of being able to unscrew the air regulator for the jets, it was glued into the PVC pipe so we ended up having to cut out the entire t-section of PVC to get it out.  Bummer!  Then of course the regulator couldn’t be acquired that weekend so we had to put a temporary solution in so that the hot tub could still work, but the air regulator would be capped off.  We managed to get it done but then found out that the hot tub pump wasn’t working anymore!  Luckily, Dad gave a few twists to the shaft and it started working.  I was worried that we left it in the cold too long.  That’s the pain of having a hot tub in the winter!

We also started filming Mom and Dad’s old 8mm films with our new video camera.  That was an interesting experiment.  It took awhile to get everything in focus and looking as good as it could.  I even realized that hi-def was looking weird because it was picking up details from the actual projector screen!  It’s nice to have those film digitized though and it didn’t cost $200.

A great visit from the family that Vero and I appreciate every time!

…and Benoit and I were blown away!

After a long day at work, Benoit came along with me to see David Chilton speak…otherwise known as the Wealthy Barber (or the Healthy Barber as Vero likes to call him!).  We grabbed a seat right before it started and it was two hours of non-stop hilarity for me.  Mr. Chilton is quite hilarious.  I was cracking up all the time.

I was also impressed by how he spoke, and how he spoke non-stop for two hours without breaking a sweat.  Incredible.

His talk involved three separate parts:
1) Looneyspoons – The story of how Greta and Janet Podleski contacted him for help in self-publishing their own book.  (think abouit that for a minute!).  They ended up being the creators of the Looneyspoons cookbook!
2) Financial information involving annuities, reverse mortgages, TFSAs, RRSPs and index funds.  I really enjoyed how he presented index funds by splitting up the room and making us realize that if one group chose an index fund of 8%, that the rest of the room can collectively get 8%…but that means one group may get 5% and the other group gets 3%.  Interesting.
3) A motivational story about Canada’s favourite past time…complaining!  I am a fairly positive person generally…so much so that a few of my friends get annoyed at that when they want to complain about something.  In the end, we have it pretty darn good compared to a lot of the rest of the world, so why bother complaining?  Case in point…Mr. Chilton was at a charity golf tournament and at the 15th hole the event got rained out.  Then as everyone was sitting there eating steak and enjoying some wine, all they could do was complain about it.  Think about THAT for a second.

He also talked about a boy who had muscular distrophy (I could be wrong on that front) who was there with his mother and was having the time of his life.  He got up on stage and raved about how lucky he was to be invited to this charity golf tourney and how he has met many of his heroes today.  Imagine how the people complaining about missing three holes of golf felt after that!  Later on in the night, Mr. Chilton ended up winning the door prize of a trip for two anywhere in the world and he gave it to this boy and his mother.  Incredible!

Months later Mr. Chilton read an article about how a mother who was dying of cancer wanted to bring her child to DisneyWorld and applied for the Make a Wish foundation but was denied because their mandate only helps kids who are sick.  This boy with the ‘trip anywhere in the world’ tickets decided to give them to this mother!  Incredible again…quite inspiring.  What’s even better is we find out later that American Airlines contacted the boy and got him another set of tickets so he could go on that trip with his mother as originally planned.

As I walked out I received a copy of The Wealthy Barber Returns and it’s next on my reading list.  I read a few chapters already and I remember the original book being a little more geared towards the finances whereas this one (so far) deals more with outlooks on life.  I shall give a full review when it’s done!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/02/15/pol-gun-registry.html?cmp=rss

Here’s an interesting news item in relation to the long-gun registry.  Two NDP MP’s break party rank and vote (presumably) in favour of what their constituents wish for and not what their party wished for.

I say “Good on ’em!”.  Must be a hard balancing act to manage your constituents expectations as well as your own party’s.  The only thing I hate about all of this is that they publicly get called out on this fact and its said that there will be repercusions.  One would think that would happen regardless, why does it have to be said?

After hearing the Totally Rad Show’s review of Kingdom Rush, I figured I would try it out for 99 cents. I don’t often buy apps for the iPad, but sometimes I come to this realization that I don’t even know if I can buy anything for a buck anymore. Heck, a bag of potato chips costs me more than a buck!

I must say that I am a little addicted to this game for the past two days, much to Vero’s chagrin. It is a tower defense style game where armies try and get past you and you have to build armies, archers, mages and artillery to stop them in their tracks. Strategy is needed in the sense that some armies are invulnerable to certain attacks so you have to think how you want to place your armies out.

So far I am enjoying it quite a lot! It’s no Plants vs. Zombies, but I have grown a little tired of that game. I have already a hit a level where after ten tries, I still can’t manage to defeat it, and that’s only Level 10 out of 70!

After seeing Sam Roberts rock out with the jean jacket the other night, Vero must have clued into what I’ve been saying for months now…I need a jean jacket!

The jean jacket was a staple of mine many moons ago. It was definitely in my style to wear denim on denim…heck, who doesn’t like that?

So last night, Vero set before me the most glorious looking piece of rock and roll ever produced…a jean jacket. It fits quite nice and I can’t wait for the spring to bring it out!

Sundays have been quite relaxing over the past few weekends.  Nothing on our plates so I just assume that when I wake up, it’s due time to sit myself back down again and do something awesome.

Well…I was doing something awesome, but it was more like work…I was building the wedding website!  Took awhile to figure a few things out, but I think we have the navigation down and there are just a few things to tweak here and there.  I’m excited for our plans for it…I think Vero is a little scared at all my ideas.  We’ll see how many happen!

The main point of it will be to relay important information about the wedding to everyone.  Gone are the days where there has to be a chain effect of information passing through telephones.  The Year 2012 people!

Haven’t been to the New Edinburgh for a few years.  It was nice to go back and find plenty of seating for all of us.  Went with Vero to her colleague Doug’s birthday party.  Good times were had.  Mike and Trish showed up as well and the night descended into random conversations and the chatter about THIS guy: a public servant here in Ottawa who made a phenomenal video for Ellen’s Dance Dare.  You definitely have to check it out.  It is fabulous.