Oh Canada!

Our home and and native land, something something something, something something something. Although I'm confused. I thought it was the "native american's" land. And if so, what are they doing in Canda for Zeus' sake? I mean, it seems a bit silly. Oh, I suppose you can argue that yes, it is North America but everybody knows that "America" is slang for USA. Try using it in some other fashion (even out of country) and I'll bet you have some confused people. Anyway, my summations are as follows after my brief exposure. 1. People are fairly nice. I mean compared to New Yorkers who I interacted with yesterday. But heck, everybody is nice compared to New Yorkers. I bet the Taliban are of a sweeter disposition than NY'ers. OK, maybe that's not super fair. I really only interacted with a few yelling at us where to park. They actually had people flagging us away from the park parking lot. I didn't realize that's what they were doing until later. I would've been highly irritated (slightly above my normal state) but they did save us $5 and we didn't have to walk that much farther. So, Arrogant New Yorkers: 1. But then Rebekah and I hunted down a Pita Gourmet so we could get some Gyros. The Chick taking our order was rude to everybody. Irritated Tourist: 1. But then, the guys making the food did an awesome job and went out of our way to be very considerate. So much so that I told the guy he was "awesome." I bet you don't get told that everyday by a stranger do you? So, all in all I like New York better.

Our trip has been enjoyable but expensive. Our hotel was a good deal and is nice. But prices at the Denny's next door are literally twice what we pay at home. So, we haven't been to Denny's yet. Add tip and taxes (about 20%) and most meals are around $40. thankfully, we've avoided most of the tourist traps, so our meals have been good. We did find free refills at a fast food joint and there was one family restaurant that was advertising free refills. It's amazing to me how much being able to drink four cups of coffee or three glasses of iced tea means to me when I can't have it.

We went over to the US side yesterday. That was interesting. The border guard asked specific questions which were polite but a little unnerving. I forgot our hotel's name for a minute, but Rebekah knew it. Coming back though was a little odder. The Canadian dude was very cool. Wanted to know why we went over the US side. all reasonable questions, just a little hostile. maybe he doesn't like americans. Wouldn't surprise me.

So, last day of away from kids vacation. gonna check out a cable car ride. Ideally, the cables are nice and sturdy. If not, I love you Mom and Dad. Have fun with the kids!

Moving right along

Well, today didn't quite turn out the way I expected but it went well anyway. I had planned for something to break up the routine of the day but that fell through. So, I finished some cosmetic issues with the sink, watched a couple movies and then, finally, got to work on hooking up the swamp cooler. It was pretty easy to hook up the evaporative cooler to the thermostat. All I need to do now is figure out where to put the thermostat in the house. Since all I have to do is run one wire (with 4 small wires in that one) to a suitable location. I hadn't eaten much all day except for some cheetos in the morning (shhh. don't tell my Dad. that's one of his pet peeves :) but finally cooked up some corn dogs. That's the extent of my cooking. I have fish sticks but don't want to use the oven. Takes too long and that sucker has burned me before. So, now I"m sitting here kind of bleary eyed watching Glengary Glen Ross which is supposed to be fantastic. It's about real-estate. But I like to think that I can enjoy a thinking mans movie. Although I'm not sure how watching a bunch of cranky salesmen having a bad-luck streak is haute couture. Well, that's probably a misuse of a stupid French term, but you get the idea. Anywho, I guess things are still going well for Rebekah and the kids. Lots of fun. Cell service is not so good at the house. It's got a metal roof and the exterior is stone so that pretty much bounces all cell signals off. When i talked to her a bit ago she was outside sitting on the swing. Then her phone was running out of juice so she had to go. I'm starting to get suspicious. I guess the shoe is on the other foot a bit. Normally, she wants to talk to me but I'm at work and busy. Well, Church is tomorrow and unfortunately so is Father's day. I don't normally care or pay any attention to it, but apparently other people do. I guess that's all for now.

One week down (almost)

Rebekah has been gone for almost a week. I am sitting here watching a movie after spending my third evening working on putting in a new (well, salvaged) sink It's finally done. I hope. Took me the better part of eight hours which sounds ridiculous. If you look at those DIY books they might say two hours. Well, let me tell you something. It might take you two hours if you know exactly where all your tools are. It might take you only two hours if you have a replacement sink that fits the existing hole perfectly (I didn't). It might take you only two hours if you didn't have to spend an hour chiselling caulk off. It might take you only two hours if the "new" sink wasn't tweaked and you didn't have to try to bend it, fit it, bend it, fit it, bend it, fit it, bend it, fit it, and then say "fugedaboutit" and call it good enuf. It might take you only two hours if you had all necessary sink lugs/clips and some idea on how to use them. It might take you two hours if you didn't keep dropping the sink clips. It might take you only two hours if you didn't have some clips that were straight drive and new clips that were phillips so you had to switch back and forth. It might take you only two hours if you didn't have... oh I give up. You get the idea.

This week hasn't been too bad. A bit lonely but I've kept busy with the sink project and life in general. I've stayed busy and work so between the two it hasn't been as bad as I expected. I don't miss the kids as much unless I actually see some wee ones on TV or something. I'm very good at being oblivous, so I am leveraging this expertise to the hilt. I think I have some entertainment plans tomorrow so after I verify the sink is good I'll tear into my swamp cooler. Our old one of probably 50 years or so finally could not be patched any more. So, I'm hooking up another one that someone gave us a few years ago. This wouldn't be a big deal, but I bought a thermostat for it on clearance and it's pretty sophisticated. It'll auto turn on and switch from cool to fan and it'll handle both speeds. So, it's pretty cool but it's a project for sure.

Somehow Rebekah made it to Michigan alive. I guess the kids did pretty well which is a major blessing. But because they did two crazy long days (not consecutive thankfully) she was really exhausted.

ok, well, that's my check in for now. I'm ready to pass out, so i'm gonna put the computer down before it falls on the floor.