The. Best. Job. Ever.

As a parent you watch a lot of TV you wish you didn't. Well,that's assuming you have a TV to begin with.

Anyway, there are a lot of kids shows that make me very very very angry.

Too much yelling. Too much product tie in. Too much. So the ones I like, I like a lot.

Dora is pretty good (though there is yelling and product tie in) from an educational point of view. Sagwa is amazing, as are The Koala Brothers and a few others.

My favorite is This is Daniel Cook. The premise is this: Daniel goes and does some new activity or job with some adult.

The kid has the best job ever.

And he's like 8.

Christine and I watch, mesmerized.

Lucas watches it the way he watches most TV when not sick, like a guerrilla attack. Whoosh "oh, c'est Daniel.... ooh, autobus jaune" etc.

Signs of Spring

So, when you live in an urban setting you have different signs of the arrival of spring than your suburban or rural brethren.

Here are my signs of urban spring (northern climes version):

1. The return of motorcycle cops
2. The hare Krishna parade (if 5 loopy looking goofs with a drum can be called a parade)
3. The return of the drunks to Carré St-Louis
4. Theenormouss pot holes everywhere
5. The smell of manure that is actually rottingvegetationn that got caught under the snow last fall

To this list I must add a new one:
6. Syringe disposal.

Under my sink, where most of my friends keep cleaning products or garbage bags (I have this collection as well) I also keep an empty 2L Diet Coke bottle. It's my home made sharps box.

Yesterday I went out and picked up two syringes. One was complete, needle and all, the other was broken off about 5 -7 mm below where the needle would be. I know that some outreach programs are trying to teach users to break the needle off and put it somewhere like a sewer or some such, and I'm hoping this is what happened.

Drug addiction is a horrible problem, a blight upon all of us, etc etc etc... I'm all for treatment over punishment, etc etc etc but (wait, here it comes) I'm really tired of the junkies users not taking the needles to an exchange site. There's one a couple of days a week at one of the local pharmacies, there are several organizations that do it (some are mobile so they are all over the city). The local CLSC has a sharps box on it's outside wall. It just pisses me off. Some little kid could get drugs into their system or infected with something (I know that not all users are ill with HIV/AIDS or other blood born illnesses, but my theory goes that if you're willing to leave your used needles on the ground, you aren't very tidy about other things).

Done

So you go to a room. In the room is the computer you just picked up. The computer is hooked to a projecter dealie. 

On the screen are your presentation slides.

Your readers, the woman who is chairing the presentation and your advisor come in.

So you talk for 20 minutes. Answer about 30 minutes of questions. 

And then you get sent out in the hall (thank god that Christine came, if I hadn't anyone to talk to I would have gone mad). 

Then you get called back into the room. 

Shockingly these people have seen fit to give me an M.A. 

Eventually the numbness will leave my brain. 

So now I'm done. I've got my M.A (well I have to walk across the stage etc).

What the fuck do I do now?

Indian Night

So, Lucas had his favorite meal, bhajitarkadalpapdum. So he's happy like only a 2.5 year old full of yummy Indian food can be. 

So we go upstairs, give him his bath, get him ready for bed and he demands that we all do downwards facing dog. This is a yoga move where you put your hands and feet on the ground and make a V with the rest of your body. It removes a lot of stress, stretches out a lot of your muscles and, frankly, hurts like hell if you hold it for more than 30 seconds. 

Lucas has no stress, hasn't buggered up his flexibility from years of life and can pop in and out of this pose like most of us flop into our office chair. 

He required two of these from all of us, and would still be holding the pose if we didn't order him to bed. 

Generator

So, on Thursday the power went out. So I called the Hydro Quebec poweroutage 1-800 number and was told it would be back on at 5:45 pm. At 5:50 I called and was told 8pm.. around 7:30, on a lark, I called at was told midnight. Around 10 I called and was told 2 am. At 1:30 AM the tractor trailer sized generator was in place across the street and our house was back to lightly vibrating. 

I'm not even sure if I've blogged about this in the past. But here's a brief summary. We moved in here August 1st. Since then we have had approximatly 3 months where there wasn't a generator parked across the street.

And now it's back. 

Oh yes, Hydro Quebec is a source of pride. Oh yes, they have the best transmission system in the world (BULLSHIT) etc etc etc, but why oh why can't they do the thing that they are actually meant to do? Deliver power from their transmission lines to the distribution lines and then to my and my neighbors homes and businesses? 

Better(ish)

So I'm still at home sick. But I've gotten to that point where if I don't start doing something soon to occupy my time I'm going to shoot myself. Basically I've got bronchitis, though a very small case that we caught early on, coupled with some kind of upper respiratory viral infection.  

The good news? I haven't had a real fever in days. 

The bad news? This cough will last for weeks. 

GARRRGGHHH! 

Sick. So very very sick

I don't know what it is, a cold or the flu, and I don't care. 39C+ temps... or shivering... coupled with intense stress (work, school, being a parent).

Has left me near incapacitated. 

God I can't wait for winter to end. 

SICK!

I'm achy. And sore. And blocked up. And feverish. And I want to crawl under my bed. And deadlines loom. Wheee!!