Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Updates

First I'd like to apologize to my loyal reader! I'm not sure anyone actually reads this other than you but hopefully more do.  So I have some updating to do.

Our garden has been doing really well. I will take pictures and upload them soon. The corn is growing very well and Zoey was able to eat a few strawberries before they stopped growing. More to grow in the fall. The banana peppers have grown and I have picked one to try. Cucumbers are blooming and hope to see some growing soon. Peas have pods but are just filling up and the watermelon plants are getting bigger. I forgot how big the cucumber plants get and spread so I have to cut them back a bit. Very happy with how everything is growing.

Secondly, we have decided to move! We feel that we have outgrown the current house and decided to put it on the market June 22nd. We had 5 viewings on June23rd and two offers both above asking. We picked the offer with the most flexible closing date and was also more money. After the home inspection and conditions were met we closed the deal and sold the house on June 29th. Now we have to find our new house. We are looking a little more east in Courtice, Bowmanville or Newcastle. Most likely Courtice or Bowmanville will be our best bet. The packing has begun and we will see how the house hunting goes. Hopefully something this week comes up and we can put an offer in to have it accepted.

The girls both graduated and are very happy with their progress over the year with Zoey getting a B/B+ average and Hailey getting expected levels and above in SK. Now the girls are going into Grade 3 and 1. New school, new house and new friends. The housing market is hot right now and interest rates are very good so we decided to sell.

Anyway, I will post our garden pictures and update on anything else that comes up. Mostly, I have been very busy with work and home so I have been neglecting the Blog but will try and keep a better posting record.

Cheers!!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Well I have been not updating my blog as my only follower may or may not have noticed!! Spring is here and we have already planted new flowers and things in our front garden. I have also built, with Zoey's help) a second gardening box for our vegetable garden. A very easy project and I think I wrote about it last year. The only things you need are:

6 - 6 foot fence boards
1 - 8 foot 2 X 2
1 - package of outdoor deck or fence screws 1 5/8 length

I used wood glue last time I made this but didn't this time because I forgot. Wouldn't hurt to use it but not really one of those things that will make or break the project. Take the 8 foot 2X2 and cut it into 8 pieces. You will have a 9th piece left over that is smaller than the other 8. Place two boards side by side and use the total width as your guide which works out to be about a 10 or 12 inch piece of the 2X2. Then use that to make the marks on the remained 8 foot 2X2 and cut your pieces. They will be used for middle support and end attachment of you boards. Cut two 6 foot boards in half as these will be the ends. I drilled pilot holes for the screws in my boards which does make it a lot easier and you can place your screws and then come back and drill them all in. When you screw everything together you will end up with a 3 X 6 garden box that you can use for flowers or veggies!




This is not the one I made but should look similar. This one is made with 2X4's and it was dug into the ground. You can do that also but I just placed mine on the ground and am going to fill it with topsoil.

The girls picked out seeds so we will hopefully be growing corn, peas, cucumber, carrots, radishes, watermelon and sunflowers. I also bought a strawberry plant and red pepper plant that we got from Walmart. I also planted herbs in a small planter that consists of dill, chives and sweet basil. I am going to try and grow garlic and jalapeno's if I have enough room. I may make a third box to plant the rest. I found out last year that big and tall plants and vines need a lot of space or they won't let anything else grow. I am carefully planning my boxes so I can maximize space and not have the taller plants block out the smaller ones. Last year the cherry tomatoes took over 50% of the box with the pumpkins take 40% leaving very little for the other things we planted. I am a little worried about the corn and watermelons. Not so much the size of them but the timing. I want to pick them at just the right time so I am following the chart on the package which gives the growing time from seed to harvest.

I will be documenting the progress to see how the garden grows. I have started the seeds in jiffy pots we bought at the dollar store and it worked great last year. Only time will tell. You can cheat and buy the plants at Canadian Tire, Walmart or any store that sells vegetable plants so you are already 3 weeks ahead of waiting for the seeds to sprout. I like the seeds because it was my care and watering that I was able to grow from a seed!

Cheers!!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Lorax Review

Dr. Seuss and his many brilliant books have been made into some enjoyable movies. It began in 2000 with Jim Carrey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas and a 3 out of 5 stars. 2003 was Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers that was rated 2 out of 5 stars. In 2008 it was Horton Hears a Who with Jim Carrey again & Steve Carell that received a 3.5 out of 5 stars. March 2nd 2012 saw the release of the 4th Dr. Seuss movie with The Lorax which has received some very good reviews so far. I have seen mostly 3.5 stars but some have been out of 4 instead of the 5.

Sunday morning we all went to see The Lorax in 3D at AMC in Whitby. Not the IMAX version which was more money. For anyone who is unaware, movies before noon are $6 for regular, $9 for 3D & $11 for IMAX. This applies to everyday of the week so if they are showing a movie before noon it is a discounted price. We paid $36 for the 3D movie which normally would have cost us $54.50 and using the savings to buy snacks. A normal 3D ticket costs $15.75 which saved us $13.50 for two adult tickets. The AMC provides a very good experience and would highly recommend them over anyone else.

The Lorax was a very colourful and musical movie. The movie begins with singing and introduces the town of Theedville. Everything is plastic and there are no trees or plants. Two young kids, Audrey (Taylor Swift) and Ted (Zac Efron) talk about trees in the story and wonder what happened to the trees. Ted talks to his mother and Grammy Norma (Betty White) about where the trees are. Grammy Norma tells Ted where to find his answers and to take 3 things and see The Once-ler (Ed Helms). The movie goes back and forth between the past and present with The Once-ler telling his story and how the trees disappeared. We are introduced to the Lorax (Danny DeVito) when a tree is cut down. Without giving anything else away, because I recommend going to see it, the end of the movie ends with the Theedville people needing to make a change in their ways or face an uncertain future. I really enjoyed the movie and the whole message in the story was not lost on myself or any of the adults. I am not sure if all the kids watching the movie picked up on the message but Zoey did.

I would give The Lorax a 3.5 out of 5. It could have been higher but the story in the film about the present is only about 1/4 of the whole movie. 3/4 of it is based in the past and there could have been a bit more story about the present state and future of Theedville. The message in the movie is a great one and should resonate in everyone with today's climate questions and preserving out natural resources. I recommend seeing the film since it does send a positive message and hope for the future if you are willing to change and it begins with one person. It is actually refreshing to see a movie about a story that was written in 1971 that can still be relevant today and Dr. Seuss had that vision back then.

Go and see it and hopefully it will make you think about yourself and if you are doing enough or making the right choices in regards to our environment.

Cheers!!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Are we all a bunch of damn spoiled kids?

I am not one to complain unless it is warranted. Things really don't bother me and it makes me more mad at seeing someone drive like a real inconsiderate ass. Ad's don't bother me. Commercials I skip through on the PVR. I can tolerate the telemarketers and door to door sales people. The thing that really gets under my skin is whiners and complainers. Don't get me wrong. It is okay to complain when it is warranted but it is all how you handle it.

You order a meal and it is wrong. Tell the waitress and she should correct it. Drive thru is wrong so you take your meal in and show them the bill. They will correct it. Most people will want to help you if you are calm and relaxed but firm. You get your point across and people won't dispute it. The people that come with attitude and start whining and bitching like spoiled kids really set me off. Do you need to get all offended and snotty with someone who made a mistake? Are you the only table in the restaurant? No! Mistakes happen and if you were it that position you wouldn't want to be treated like crap. So why do people treat people like the are stupid and try to belittle them? I was at McDonald's last week and some woman was told that the chicken nuggets would be about 3 minutes and they would bring them out to her table when they were ready. She wanted the nuggets now and asked why they wouldn't have food ready? The lady at the register told her that during busy times they sometimes have a few minutes to catch up with food stocks and are not always able to keep up. They try their best but it is only a couple minutes longer. she wasn't happy with that and asked for the manager. She bitched to the manager with the same "I want my food now" and the manager told her the same thing the other lady did. She was not happy about the answer and asked what she was going to get for waiting. The manager replied nothing.

She told her that the nuggets were done and another manager brought them up to the register with fresh fries and thanked her for waiting. She said she didn't want them and asked for a refund. The manager said she would refund her money for the meal that was now in front of her and the woman was still complaining. She said that she shouldn't have to wait because her kids were hungry and someone said behind her "if you'd shut your mouth and take the food they wouldn't be hungry"! She was really mad and stormed out of McDonald's. That was now the talk of the dining room and how much of a bitch she was for not waiting. I was just ordering and was told to wait for the nuggets for the kids and I said it was not a problem. After she stormed out, the girl behind the counter said the nuggets were ready and the manager was walking buy and thanked me for my patience. I told her it was no problem and it happens. She told me to wait and gave me 4 pies for having to wait. I told her she didn't have to but said after that incident, she was more than happy to do it!

I was laughing thinking it would have been much better if that woman was still in the dining room to see good behavior gets rewarded. I guess she has been a spoiled brat all her life and just taught her kids a valuable lesson. Acting like a fucking jerk gets you no where!!!

Cheers!!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Saturn Ion's

Well last week was a little frustrating when our Saturn Ion wouldn't start. It was cold and I have had this problem before and thought it was the starter. I replaced the starter in the summer with a used one and low and behold it happened again last week. Aside from being pissed that it wouldn't start, I thought about having to buy a new starter. I got to work and started looking into "Saturn not starting" on Google when  it popped up on the search engine. I clicked on the first link and this is nothing new to Saturn owners. The problem is with the type of lube they used on the chip for the ignition switch. It freezes in cold weather and can collect moisture in humid weather causing issues with the chip and trying to start the car. The anti theft system thinks you are trying to steal the car so it disables the ignition for 10 minutes.

What I found out about this is that you leave the key in the ignition with the instrument panel light up and wait for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the ignition will unlock and allow you to attempt to start the car again. If the switch has an issue again with you starting the car, you have to wait another 10 minutes for it to unlock. Now that I know how to get it started once it locks I was feeling a little bit better about not having to buy a starter. This now gives me 3 options to do about this known issue that Saturn won't address.

1. I can clip a white wire attached to a clip that plugs into the ignition switch. This will disable the anti theft system and allow you to start your car without the problem of it locking for 10 minutes at a time. The problem is that the light on the dash will stay light and someone can steal the car. (Not that worried!)

2. I can buy an ignition switch at an auto parts store at replace it myself. To replace it I would have to remove the battery terminal so the air bag doesn't go off in my face and get a small ratchet into a really tight area to remove two screws and the ignition switch. Then put the new one in and put the screws back in with losing any. Then once the plastics are back on, connect the terminals again and go through starting the car which takes about 20 minutes. You will start it once which locks you out and wait 10 minutes, then do it again and it locks again. The third time should allow you to start the car with the new switch but if something is wrong you are screwed.

3. Pay my mechanic about $250 to replace it for me and if anything is screwed up, he can deal with it and get it working. This way I can pay for them to replace it and if anything is screwed up after they replace it then they can trouble shoot it and I can save the $70 to get it towed to the shop.

The bottom line is that this is something that Saturn could have easily addressed under warranty for me but they want to save a few bucks. If I had anything to get them to admit it and fix it I would go after them but since Saturn no longer exists, I'll pay to fix their lazy mistake.

Cheers!!