19 Oct 08 Levaquin, bronchitis, Passchendaele, vascular surgery and time with Oma & boys & the DFW / SO
So the Levaquin antibiotics seem to finally have gained the upper hand on the nasty (acute, as per the pre-admissions physician at the Jewish General Hospital said) bronchitis and accompanying fever etc that has hounded me for the last 3 weeks.
It was a great, relaxing weekend, with an early Saturday rise (somewhat) and the DFW/SO starting a well-needed re-organising of the boys’ rooms and cleanup in general. I had 3 eggs, 10 slices of bacon, 3 toasts with butter for breakfast (appetite is back) and 2 tuna/mayo/mustard sandwiches for lunch. After that it was finalising the cleanup and reorganising and furniture moving around, followed by relaxing and watching “So you think you can dance, Canada” (man, all of them in the top 20 can really groove!… all of them, but the blonde in the blue outfit, mmmmmmmm)…
Then some absolutely scrumptious Lamb Balti and Basmati before heading out for the 22:00 late showing at the ScotiaBank cinema of the new war & romance flick Passchendaele by Paul gross… it was great, if not quite in the “sequence” that we both felt it would be. The second half of the movie has most of the actual combat scenes and as it is a WW1 movie there is very overt and visually intense depictions of how close the combat was in the 1st world war….
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Tags: boys, Food, Health, Love, Passchendaele, surgery, Tristan, Zachary
11 Oct 08 Beastie Boys launch “Get out and Vote ‘08 Tour” in swing states and support Obama Barack
While driving around in the car with the boys, I started singing the refrain to “Funky Cold Medina” by Tone Loc, who arguably had/has one of the funkiest raspy voices around. Well, since I’m still working on my “acute” bronchitis, my voice was a bit like his (for the wrong reasons)… anyways, the boys giggled and asked me what I was singing. We then broke in to a discussion about funky vs. hip-hop… and then they said they had almost forgotten the Beastie Boys. I reminded them about the robots in the Intergalactic video, and the b-boys rapping as pseudo-teletubbies in the other video… and their eyes lit up and both wanted to watch it here tomorrow…. 
Always in their casual yet tenacious style, the B-boys want to remind all eligible US voters to get out there and exercise their right. To back it up, they’ve announced a “voter awareness tour” called Get out and Vote ‘08 which kicks off in several so-called swing (critical) states including the following shows which were just announced:
October 28 Richmond, VA at Richmond Coliseum
Beastie Boys along with Sheryl Crow / Jack Johnson / Norah Jones / Santogold
(wow what a line-up)
Nov 1 St. Paul, MN at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium
Beastie Boys / Ben Harper / Tenacious D
(another nice trio of top level artists)
Nov 2 Milwaukee, WI in the U.S. Cellular Arena
Beastie Boys / Ben Harper / Crosby & Nash / Tenacious D
Again C&N with B-Boys ? Wonder if they’ll do an on-stage mashup ?
I love how Adam, Mike and Adam finished off with “we are very excited about obama. hope you all feel the same.”
Here’s the full PR:
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Tags: Beastie Boys, Concerts, hiphop, Music, obama barack, Politics, Tristan, Zachary
04 Oct 08 CTV W5 report on Canadian National Sledge Hockey team - a lesson for Tristan and all junior hockey players
CTV W-5 (W-Five) had yet another most interesting piece on tonight. This episode was covering the Canadian National Sledge Hockey team at the Paralympics to try and defend their Gold medal title in sledge hockey after a stupendous win at the games in Torino – or Turin depending on which language you prefer.
The team went on to win gold in the World Championship in Marlborough, MA as well as gold in the World Sledge Hockey Challenge held in Kelowna, BC.
It covers the usual locker room coaching and rallying the players, but it’s even more touching when you realize these people have to overcome both the physical and emotional demons that come with living with a serious disability and going on to practice a sport.
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Tags: CTV W-5, CTV W-Five, Kids, Sports, Tristan
29 Sep 08 Recovering from nasty cold / flu / throat infection after great weekend with kids & Oma
Well, those of you who are following my updates on Twitter will no doubt have noticed that it was a crappy end to a spectacular weekend with the boys; after celebrating Zachary and his 6 years, football, swimming, a trip for Zachary and Tristan with their stepfather to see the Alouettes pound Saskatoon (woohoo) …. the subsequent nasty phlegm and fever and restless sleep was a big downer.
Alas, c’est la vie. The irony is that I’m getting the work-sponsered flu vaccine once again this year in just 7 days.
oh, and a date for my vascular surgery!
Woohoo! ZachaWii !
27 Sep 08 ZachaWII : Zachary gets a Nintendo WII as a birthday gift ! What fun for the whole family :)
Well, just before I head off to bed after an action packed day… we celebrated Zachary’s 6th birthday today (one day early as he has an outing with his stepfather tomorrow) and what a blast!
Yes, Oma (grandma Elke) and I got him a Nintendo WII (!) .. as well as a Twister game. We decided on the WII for him, over the Sony PS2 and PS3 and the XBOX 360 based on a variety of issues including value for the money, physical interaction and non-violent games.
More details to follow, after an intense day of happy birthday singing, WII Sports playing and practicing.. and now, bedtime. There was also MAGH-2 and MAGH-3 practices at the St-Basile-le-Grand junior hockey for both of them in the morning. Tomorrow morning is the start of their swimming courses at the Chambly Aquatic Centre. Yup, the weekends are pretty fully booked – not easy for them.
“Dis moi pas que c’est une WII!” – Zachary while unwrapping the WII.
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Alors, juste avant que je vais faire dodo après une journée de fou, nous avons célébré les six ans de Zachary aujourd’hui (une journée plus tôt car demain il a une sortie avec son beau-père) et quel folie!
Oui, Oma (grand-maman Elke) et moi lui ont acheté un Nintendo WII (!) … et aussi le jeu classique Twister. Nous avons décidé sur la WII pour lui, au lieu de la Sony PS2, PS3 et XBOX 360 basé sur différents aspects dont l’argent, l’interaction physique et le nombre de jeux non-violents.
Je publierai plus de détails sous peu, après cette journée intense de “bonne fête”, WII Sports et pratique.. et maintenant : dodo pour moi. On avait les pratiques MAGH-2 et MAGH-3 de l’hockey junior St-Basile-le-Grand ce matin pour les deux. Demain matin c’est le début des cours de natation au centre aquatique de Chambly. Oui, des fins de semaines assez chargées.. pas facile pour eux.
“Dis moi pas que c’est une WII!” – Zachary en déballant la WII.
