What's with the Crows?

Every morning as I drive to work I think probably EVERY crow in Charlottetown starts to head out of town towards Cornwall (along the highway kinda). I always spot them along Maypoint Road flying overhead - and when I say every crow, I really mean EVERY crow - there are hundreds of them. I have never seen crows fly in flocks like that - and like clockwork no less - same time nearly everyday. And when I come home from work, about 50% of the time I see them returning to town.

Is there like a crow convention in the morning? Garbage eaters anonymous or something? They're really just wierd.

And yesterday there were three crows chasing a baby fox through my backyard (and I live in town)...the fox was gorgeous - the crows...just are kinda freaking me out a little. Anyone see "The Birds"?

Parlez-vous Français?

I've always loved french...the language and the men (yum...although Italian men --- oooooooh baby - a whole other story). Anyway, back to the language, I've decided to try and become bilingual. I took french in high school for seven years and did pretty well, but just didn't need to use it.

When I started working for the organization I'm with (take a wild guess), being bilingual is almost necessary if you have any hopes of advancement.

So I started this part time course two evenings a week and am surprised at my retention from high school and am enjoying it very much. We've covered the basics like "Mon nom est ____, comment ça va?" And I'm looking forward to class this week because we'll be conjugating verbs - woohoo! How lame am I for loving this stuff?

Vive la France!! :P

Daycare Mayhem

Alright, so in follow up to shitting on me the other day, I've made the decision to move my daughter to a new daycare. After some discussion with the (using this word verrrrry liberally) "teachers" at our current child care center we determine that the change in behaviour started when they decided to integrate the three year olds with the five year olds.

In itself this seems like not a bad idea as far as getting the younger kids used to interacting with older kids - but it was a permanent thing. So when the five year olds need to sit down for half an hour and do seat work (whatever it may be), they expected the three year olds to be able to sit quietly for that length of time.

Anyone who knows anything about three year olds knows that a typical child's attention span should be at minimum two minutes for every year of age...meaning three year olds should be expected to be able to concentrate on their task at hand for 6 minutes and some kids may be able to go longer upwards of 15 minutes.

Now, my daughter is very high energy and 10 minutes is about her limit for some things. For example, she doesn't enjoy coloring for 20 minutes at a time (and neither do I, so thank goodness for that!!)...but this would get her in trouble because she'd get out of her seat looking for something more interactive to engage herself in.

I found out the following day that they placed her in the two year old room permanently where all she does is play all day - comes home bored because half the kids in there at too young to even walk - and well doesn't get to do letters or songs or games like she did in her other class. So I'm pissed. I'm actually quite beyond pissed and upset about it. And I figure so screw em, and I'll be interviewing three new places on Monday to see where a better fit might come in.

I considered quitting work and staying home full time...and as much as I'd like to have that time with McKenze, I also want to work - I need that interaction with my co-workers and I am starting to really love my job. And really, McKenzie enjoys going to "school"...so it is a good fit for our family.

"Shit On Me" Day

Today sucked from the time I woke up til a short time ago. It started with my dear daughter (3) decided it would be a great idea to jump as high and hard as she could into a huge half-melted puddle at the daycare. Soaked to the bone I drag her inside to find that her extra set of clothes are missing.

So I take her home, change her and go back to the daycare (now 1/2 hour late because of the extra drive). When we get there and take our boots off we walk into the class and both get soaked socks because the other
F&#*(&g parents don't have the decency to remove their wet shoes or boots before traipsing through the classroom. How ignorant can they be?!? So (thankfully I brought extra socks for both of us) I was delayed yet again.

Work was work - nothing good or bad.

When I went to pick my daughter up, I ended up with yet another soaked foot because of the ignorant parent(s) who refuse to take their boots off and am then pulled aside by the "teacher."

I'm told my daughter has an aggression problem (at three years old, mind you). She hits and bites and scratches for "no reason whatsoever, just out of the blue." Well I don't know about anyone else, but I found that hard to believe. I'm not saying my daughter's an angel, because I know she can act out sometimes, but surely she was probably mad because someone had the blue crayon she wanted or a toy she wanted - there was SOME reason - (be it a good one or not) - to cause her to get angry and act out.

So now I'm told to "fix it." HUH?! Who's the teacher here? We don't have these problems at home, so the problem lies in the teachers needing to get a backbone, put her in a time out (and make her stay there for the full 3 minutes!!!) and explaining what she did wrong and what a better alternative would be.

Am I so off the wall to think this should be a joint partnership with the daycare to rectify the situation? I'm not there all day - they are. I guess I'm just really bloody frustrated because I expect that these ladies have experience with this age group and would have some suggestions on how to curb this behaviour - but they tell me they don't have any ideas.

And the other part that bothers me is this is this is a newly manifested behaviour at the daycare (I assume from lack of a report prior to this)...so I wonder what has changed at the daycare in structure or teachers or bully's or what that would possibly trigger a change in behaviour with her.

ARGH. I just feel at a loss.

The Hockey Basement

My husband is a hockey fanatic. Anyone who knows him knows that he's an Oilers fan first and a Red Wings fan second. I've been with Bri for ten years now and in that time and the years before we met he has amassed an unreal amount of hockey memorabilia - some signed, some limited edition - but it has been boxed up for the past six years because we have had nowhere to put it. Until now.

When we bought our house it was on the stipulation that the basement be completed so he can have his "sports room" - well little did we know he was going to need a whole friggin floor to house his memorabilia. He has art prints on the walls, hockey sticks hanging all over the place - a curio cabinet and china cabinet converted to be a display cabinet for some of his pucks, cards, figurines, you name it...it's insane.

For Christmas I bought him a signed Kuri jersey - his first autographed jersey and certainly not his last from the sounds of it. I pretend that his passion drives me crazy with the occassional moaning and groaning, but in all honesty - I think it's cool. And it makes gift-buying really really easy (if not a big pricey!).

Speed Kills!

I received the following pictures and report in an email from a family member. This pile of metal was placed on display at the Stockholm Motorcycle Fair.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The Honda rider was traveling at such a "very high speed", his reaction time was not sufficient enough to avoid this accident. Swedish Police estimate a speed of ~250 KM/h (155mph) before the bike hit the slow moving car side-on at an intersection. At that speed, they predicted that the rider's reaction time (once the vehicle came into view) wasn't sufficient enough for him to
even apply the brakes. The car had two passengers and the bike rider was found INSIDE the car with them. The Volkswagen actually flipped over from the force of impact and landed 10 feet from where the collision took place.

All three involved (two in car and rider) were killed instantly. This graphic demonstration was placed at the Stockholm Motorcycle Fair by the Swedish Police and Road Safety Department. The sign above the display also noted that the rider had only recently obtained his license.

At 250 KM (155 mph) the operator is traveling at 227 feet per second. With normal reaction time to SEE-DECIDE-REACT of 1.6 seconds the above operator would have traveled over 363 feet while making a decision on what actions to take. In this incident the Swedish police indicate that no actions were taken.

So I just am flabbergasted by the pictures - they seem so unreal. I've been to numerous MVA's for work and haven't seem anything like this where the vehicles are literally entwined into one. So it goes without saying - please drive safe!

The Pitter Patter of Little Feet

Well, I just found out one of my best friends from highschool is pregnant with her first baby. Her and her husband live in Germany right now and emailed me a picture of their ultrasound and everything sounds and looks wonderful.

Babies are so exciting all the time - and I'm just so happy for them both!! When I hear my friends (or even complete strangers for that matter) are having babies I start to get that little twinge inside of me. Some of you will know what I'm talking about - that little pull or tugging or whatever to get pregnant again.

This is, of course, not for lack of trying or desire...so hubby and I will cross our fingers and hopefully will have good news as well in the months to come.

Congratulations Suz and Norm!!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Being from the west coast, I'm used to living a maximum of twelve hours away from family by car. Now living on the east coast, I am in complete and utter shock at the cost it will be for my family (of 3) to get back to the west coast for a visit.

I've been pre-planning a potential trip to my Mom's for Christmas 2006 (yes, I know, way early right?) well...I found out to fly there is going to cost three of us over four thousand dollars! WTF?

My Mom wanted to take the train across Canada and come to visit this summer. The train used to be affordable, right? Not so much anymore - one way for one person is nearly six thousand dollars! That's insane!

The car is just out of the question really - who wants to drive that far? Most of the vacation time will be spent travelling to get to where you wanna go and the travelling to get back home. That's not much fun. Sure you can sightsee along the way, but unless you have a few weeks to do it properly, is it worth it? Not really. And with the cost of gas the way it usually goes near summer, it would probably be just as much as it would to fly. Well, maybe not quite.

So...I'm going to start saving. Hopefully stockpile some airmiles too. I don't know if we'll be able to swing Christmas. I think it would be fun to save up and meet everyone in Disneyworld or Disneyland for Christmas one year. Did that when I was in grade 7 and it was so much fun. Our daughter will be five in 2007...might be a good idea, right?

Who Likes To Read?

Man alive I love to read. I went to Indigo yesterday with my Christmas gift cards and blew the thirty-five bucks in about five minutes. Of course, before going I scoped out the internet to see what books were available that I have on my list (yes I keep a list - about thirty books or so that I need to read, must read, really want to read). Chose three books, because of course, they're like ten bucks each now - when exactly did pocket books start costing over six bucks!!?? Good grief.

I read all kinds of genres - supernatural seems to have caught my interest lately - but here is a run down of some of my favourite authors:

Kelley Armstrong
Laurell K Hamilton
Jim Butcher
Kim Harrison
JD Robb
Nora Roberts
Janet Evanovich
Piers Anthony -- Incarnation of Immortality Series
Dean Koontz
Rachel Caine

This list is by no means exhausted - I could probably go on forever naming authors from years past who I've read but these are the authors I currently follow - or a handful of them anyway. As soon as something's published by them, I gotta read it!

Now if only I could get my husband to understand why I love to read so much. He's not much of a reader - he is quite specific in what he'll sit down and read - and that's limited to true-life accounts of paramedics, police men, firemen or rescue missions (ie: Krakauer's books, etc). I don't care how much or little he reads so long as he pretends to read when our daughter is around, because if nothing else, she will grow up loving books and loving to read!!

Something I Stumbled On...

I know that the Star Wars Kid hails from the year 2003, but today was the first time I had heard of him and seen this video and damn it's great to watch for a laugh. Doing a little more reading and jumping around on various websites related to Ghyslain (the Star Wars Kid) he received some really positive comments from people and some not-so-nice comments on his 're-enactment.'

All of us has done something silly and embarassing in what we would assume is a private moment. I've tried to do stupid dumbass dances ("the running man") to stupid dumbass songs and look like a monkey when I do them. I also like to pretend I know how to sing - that is until the cat leaves to the silence of the basement or my three year old daughter says "Mommy, enough!"

Whatever anyone says - this kid is cool and has a great attitude for having one of those private moments video taped and uploaded to the internet. Have a look and have a chuckle!

Original Thoughts

I'm taking part in this online game called Cut Throat Island - sort of a bloodier version of Survivor. And as part of the game we are faced with challenges which are judged by our "host" and/or his designate.

Anyway, our current challenge (as we are now competing as individuals), is to come up with a sentence of at least six English words (excluding names, numbers and dates) that is completely original to any other sentence ever spoken, written or thought of. HUH!?!

I thought this would be a piece of cake, but of course, how can any thought truly be original? Everything we think of is in some way or another related to something we have heard or read or seen - probably most often subconsciously...right?

Then I think of screen writers or comedians and those people are paid to be original and interesting...so they write up their little sketch or movie scene and think 'hey this is pretty terrific - no one's thought of this before!' - but really, how do you know that? Someone somewhere has surely thought the same thing at some point in time - sure they might not have published it, they may not have the same outlet for their thoughts, but it can't REALLY be authentic in originality, can it?

So now I'm screwed and am likely going to get my throat bloodied following this challenge - if not completely cut wide open! Ugh.

Let's Begin

So as this is my first official blog I do not want to run a run of the mill "Hi this is my first post" kinda dealy. I will say that this blog is not going to be all that interesting - but will mainly be somewhere my family can check in to see how we're doing considering we're so damn far away from one another.

It will also (hopefully) give me a chance to bitch, whine, moan and celebrate things that I would normally do to my family and rather then start off the new year driving them crazy with my rants, I'll redirect them here and hope for all our sake that it will be a good outlet for me!! Hehe.