Lots of lights

I want one of these for my computer desk!

Furnace

Today the new furnace is going in. We are having a local guy put it in for about $800 cheaper than the original quote from the local "big" company. We are still going to have to borrow money but not that much and we should have it paid back quickly. It will be really nice to have real heat and see the gas bill change. Not that we would really be able to tell this time of year anyway.
The past couple of days with just the space heaters has been chilly, but not to bad. About mid-afternoon once the sun has warmed everything up its really not too bad, its not cool at all. Its the mornings that are freezing as we only leave one on downstairs. Making breakfast in a 12C kitchen is not fun.

So very cold and poor

So this morning after Maya and I got up, the thermostat which had a number that was a degree lower than is should be. So I set to the day time temperature as per usual and waited for the furnace to kick in... nothing happened. Oh oh. Last time this happned it was the fan motor, but a quick check of the cold vents, and total lack of regular furnace sounds assured me that it wasn't the same problem.
So finally the furnace guys comes at about 2pm, looks at the furnace for 2 minutes and says "this isn't good at all". I got a sinking feeling. He kindly pointed out what all was going on and what was wrong and why he was worried about our house blowing up.
Basically we need a new furnace, the very old one we have is in need of major repair and its not really worth it.
Anne hasn't woken up yet and knows none of this, I don't realy want her to wake up.

The best part of this is that is Friday and nothing is goign to happen until Monday at the earliest.

Added: I wondered what all the noise was about today while I was sleeping...... The furnace is over 30 years old and we knew this was coming, we had hoped just not now. We have some space heaters so our toes don't fall off. Apparently Maya denied being cold all day and was just wearing a long sleved shirt. If you want to donate to our poor fund feel free. We take cash, cheaque, and money order.

Watching the Olympics

I gotta say, one benifit of being home a lot is watching the olympics. I have caught some if not most of all of Canada's womens and mens hockey games this year.
Seeing the other sports in action has been really good as well. I feel very patriotic this winter :)

Job Update

I haven't updated on job stuff in a while so I thought I should.
I have had at least 1 interview that I haven't blogged about I think, but I didn't get the job anyway. There was a job in the paper last week that I just applied for, but other than that opportunities have been scarce.
I haven't just been looking in papers obviously, but I haven't had any leads anywhere and none of my contacts in various places have worked out either.
Recently I met with an employment agent (a service that the HRDC provides) and verified that I really was doing all I could to find employment in my field in the area, though she did give me a couple of idea that I am pursuing. One of which is self employment. The government gives you EI while you take a business development course and create a business plan. I am plan on doing this and seeing if a running a computer shop in the area is feasible. We will see if it will happen, but at the very least it will be very interesting to learn about.

Third in Fustal

So after languishing down in second-to-last place in the Saugeen Futsal League, my team managed to win our game on Monday and finish in third!
So this coming Monday the next season starts with new teams and more players. There are now 8 teams of 8, so the leugue is getting quite popular. For this next season, teams on based on countries and I am on the Netherlands team with an orange jersey (I thought maybe a green one would be more appropriate :) ). The team looks really strong too, we should have some very competitive games.
Its probably one of my favorite sports nights I have and I look forward to playing it more!

Lightening Storm?!

So its the middle of February, there is 2 feet of snow on the ground, and we get a huge lightening storm with driving rain?!? Its quite strange. There was thunder non-stop for like 3 minutes at one point.

Weird, but very cool. Sledding shoudl be awesome ones its gets cold again (says Luke's inner child) :)

Grandma

Monday morning at 3am my Grandma, my Dad's mother, passed away. It was very peaceful and expected and the family was there. Margaret Bellamy had been in a nursing home for years and been without sight for most of that time, she got pneumonia (I think) and wasn't able to recover, she was in her 90's. My Mother was sitting with her when she died and had been reading Psalms from the bible to her that evening. She seemed to be mentally alert right until the end, but had decided it was time to go.
It was been somewhat overshadowed in our house due to Anne's father's injury, but today is the visitation and tomorrow the funeral so we can concentrate on her. It will be my first experience as a pall bearer, so that will be interesting.
The last few days have been busy, that's for sure.

iPod excellence

Our iPod wasn't working properly the last little while, the scroll wheel was partially dead. Fortunatley the person I bought it from had an extended warranty at Futureshop.
So yesterday, since we were in Toronto dropping Anne's sister off at the airport we stopped by a Futureshop to see what could be done.
Well after they glanced briefly at our old iPod, we left the store with a brand new 30GB Video iPod. Its really nice, the colour is crisp and clear and videos actually look a decent size and easy to see.
The videos will be nice for long trips and for Anne when she does long transfers and stuff.

Rally videos

I made 14 WRC rally highlights this year.
You can see them all on Google Video now.
Enjoy.
Hopefully can continue to do it this year.

Job Interview

So I finally had another job interview yesterday. This time it was for a PC Technician job for the City of Owen Sound (City? heehee).
Anyway, I really have no idea how the interview went. It was the type where 3 people (only 2 of which have a vague idea of what the job entails) and they asked about 15 questions right off of a script and then gave me marks for the answers. Some of the questions were quite simialr too so I just ended up repeating what I said earlier. I could see the marks that the IT manager was giving me and they were very low, and I know I am very qualified for the posotion and was give relevant and excellent answers, so it was weird. But maybe the other candidates we getting low marks too, but it really was they type of situations where a smoothing talking but poor technician could get the job.
There was also a 15 question quiz afterwards with old A+ Certification test questions. I aced if, but some of the questions were very out of date.
Regardless it's in the Lords hands and we will see if I get it.

el oh el

SO I guess Saturday was the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. On it they had this new "rap" video. It's just 2 dudes rappin' about absolution nothing, but its totally hilarious and catchy!
Apparently the new guy in the videos is part of a trio of guys that did comedy stuff in LA that got hired by SNL. The other 2 are now writers for the show.
So here are 2 other videos they did before SNL. The Nintendo one being VERY funny for any of us who played the old NES as kids.
Just 2 Guyz
Nintendo (Oh and a bit of bad language in this one)

Indoor Soccer League - Futsal

This is the indoor soccer league that I play in on Monday nights. It's a lot of fun and very competitive. I actually find it a quite harder work out than hockey too, although I am definitely a better in hockey.
I am on the "Rangers" and as you can see we are in second last. But we did tie the team in first last week, so we can be good apparently.
It's awesome that someone put it together because I really thought there would only be hockey to play this winter which I was a little sad about.

Lord of the Manor

So Anne is gone for 3 days, including today, and so I am the king of the castle. I have lot to do however, as I am finally finishing the walls of Maya's cubby hole which will be a sort of play room for her. We plan on showing it to her on Christmas.
I also have numerous presents to put together and wrap and general tidying to do.
It just may be possible that I may fit in 1 or 2 gaming sessions as well... ;)

Death to Santa Claus

Anne and I are not going to do Santa Claus with Maya. We both think his entire purpose is commercial and in directed contrast to the true meaning of Christmas. We give presents at Christmas because that is what the wisemen brought baby Jesus, not because some fat guy dressed in ridiculous clothes brought us gifts because we were "good".

So thus, when I took Maya to the Early Years Centre yesterday and at circle time 80% of the songs were about Santa, and none has any religious anything in them, I grew a little irritable.
I just find the whole concept of Santa, and what he represents in this day and age, totally contrary to the Christian message and what we should be thinking about. And it causes all sorts of strife as well. Anne's sister, for instance, has renounced Christmas all together in her household, something clearly brought on by a Santa-centric society. They are not giving or receiving any presents, which is something I cannot blame them for considering how people and kids seem to act this time of year.
We even recently hear a parent admonishing her child, "You had better start behaving, Santa doesn't bring presents to bad little boys". Stuff like that really makes me mad.

So of course this brings up the whole problem of what an anti-Santa Maya will say to other kids.
For example:
Little boy: "Santa, brought me a new computer, I must have been really good!"
Maya: "Santa didn't bring you the computer, your parents did. Santa doesn't exist, stupid"
Little boy: "Does too, does too!" *cries* *runs away*

I hope to teach her a little diplomacy in this area so this doesn't happen. But it probably will, oh well. Obviously she knows about Santa now, but we will teach her what we think about it.
I think, overall, this will make Christmas easier for my family in the years to come.

Tall Pines Pictures

This will be the last Tall Pines post until I have the video footage.

Here are pictures Ian and ourselves took (mostly Ian though).

Ours our the first few, then you can tell that Ian's photography skills far surpass ours.

Johnston makes it around the "S" bend! His girlfriend screams shrillly, as if cheering, in the background. 

Rally of the Tall Pines

So on Saturday, Anne, Ian, Heather, Chester, Tim and I ventured up to Bancroft to watch the rally. Since it was a bigger group this time things moved a little slower and we missed the first couple of cars on the first pass, but no big deal. But say them all the next 2 times at that first spectator area and had a great time. Everyone listed to the advise to dress warm and cold toes were the only complaint. The night stages viewing also impressed everyone a great deal as well.
It was Anne's, Heather's, Chester's and Tim's first time at a rally and they seemed to have their expectations exceed. Anne had even said how we will do things differently next year thus inferring that she plans to go again?! Chester was quite pleased to have gone and had a great time, but I didn't talk to Tim enough to know how he felt.
Anne and I also met Ian's girlfriend Heather for the first time and were very pleased to have done so. We both enjoyed her company immensely. She and Anne got along great and we can't wait to get together again soon.
So it was an excellent day and Maya was apparently an angel for Andrea and John who graciously cared for her all day. I am sure Anne will recount her experience as well.

This Hyundai Tiburon won the rally. Definately the smoothest driver we saw all day. A well deserved win.
He was just coming off of a fairly sharp turn here. 

Across the bridge. This guy came in second.

Only one car really can into the sides of the bridge when we were at this spectator part. But they didn't damage anything or slow down at all.