Dear New York,

Dear New York,

So Rudy is done, and it looks like Hillary may be on her way out. Well, at least your team won the Super Bowl :-)

Make It Fit!

Here we are two weeks into our reno. For the uninformed, Gina and I decided that the kitchen, bath and dining areas of our flat were uninhabitable and opted to correct this by tearing out walls. While this seemed like a good idea at the time, it has turned out to be a lot of work.

Today is my first day back at work since starting. I took two weeks of vacation to start the work, and man, did I need it. After two weeks we have completed the demolition, removed an old chimney, had the rough plumbing and electrical completed, including removing a mess of wires and pipes that used to run through what is now our kitchen floor, have installed new framing and drywall, and sub-floors. As it stands, we need to get the crack-filling done, lay tile and build and install cupboards.

To make it easier to live through a to-the-studs gut job, we moved (partially) into the first floor apartment for the month. The previous tenants moved out in December, and we decided to not rent it until Feb. 1. Since Feb. is fast approaching, we need to get the apartment liveable so we can move back in. If nothing goes terribly wrong we should make it ( *crosses fingers* ).

Our friend Mark was a huge help through this - we very quickly got in over our heads, and since he had some time off work he was able to bail us out. However, he had been working evenings and weekends as well, so I owe him a lot. Thanks Mark.

I am anxious to get the pictures off of the camera so I can look at what we have come through. I will place them on Facebook ASAP.


The end is in sight. I am glad. And we will have a big house re-warming party when it is all said and done :-)

Party like it's 1999. err, 2007

... Cause 2008 is going to be a doozy.

I have not been blogging for quite a while. Busy, lazy, crazy, name your excuse. But today is the last day of the year, and I feel like I should start again. I know that the next couple of months will be very busy - January is renovate the house month, and February is renovate the bike month. I will put an entry dedicated to each of those project soon, but for today I think it would be smart to have a look back at 2007.

This year Gina and I celebrated 15 years married. What a beautiful and patient woman. She is also taking some classes at the university while working full time and keeping the rest of us straight. 2007 also saw Elias go from stumbling skater to regular goaltender on his hockey team (Go Stars!) which am now helping to coach (as if I know how to play hockey). Julian is continuing to push through high school, and is so dedicated that he has canceled all other extra-curricular activities in the pursuit of good grades. OK, so that was not his decision, but still - we are watching him becoming a man, which is terrifying.

In 2007, I got my "big boy" motorcycle license and a street bike to go along with it. As the owner of a vintage Kawasaki, I have a whole new group of excellent friends from the KZRider forums, like Dave and Colin who went out of their ways to meet me in Sudbury ON, and Ralph who toured me around San Francisco.

As for exotic locations (i.e. not Saint John), I travelled to the aforementioned Sudbury with the family in our tent trailer. One of many trips to get our money's worth. I went to San Francisco and Raleigh NC for work. San Francisco is awesome, and I will look for every opportunity to go back there. Raleigh, not so much. Then again, I was dropped in and flew out so quickly I didn't really get to do anything there.

Tonight, we are going to the Picards' as always to welcome in the New Year. I expect we will enjoy ourselves with our friends and family in one place, singing Auld Lang Syne and playing Guitar Hero. Then, on with the New Year!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year. I know that's my plan!

This is a test

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. If you were to see this message when this was not a drill, you would probably already be dead.

Have a nice day.