HALLOWEEN! now with extra bonus updateiness!

So this is the first Halloween that Lucas has dressed up for. There was debate, there were discussions, but he decided that he would be a dragon. Why?? Mostly because that was what pattern we thought looked doable (by which I mean, Chris thought that. I just nodded mostly.)

First off, it was not easy. Between now and next year I have to learn how to sew with a machine, because just being able to do basting and stuffing made me next to useless. Chris was basically chained to the machine for like 3 days. Second off, the result? The result is fucking amazing.

First, in process and then the result.

It's just lovely. He's the cutest dragon ever. Also the most tired. The problem is that the end of daylight savings was the other day and Lucas is a fricking mess because of it.

The coolest thing is that Lucas' daycare is in an old building built by the Catholic Church and now used for governmental offices. The daycare takes the kids trick or treating in the office building. It rules. All the office workers come out, some of the dressed up, and they hand out candies... so very cool.

We're going to give out some candies and such later and then we're going to go booting out to a street a block over where a production company is blocking off the street and having a Halloween party.

UPDATE
So it's now raining, and the daycare just called and Lucas has a 38.9C fever... so that narrows what we're going to do considerably.

Plop plop!

Ok, so if you're here for my infrequent ramblings about politics you should probably go somewhere else now.

Because this is a post about toilet training.

And while poop into a toilet and politics have a great deal in common, this may not be the post for you.

So we've been struggling with Lucas' toilet training, it's been pretty much fits and starts. He will be interested in the process and want to use the potty seat on day, and the next he'll look at you like you're mad when you suggest it to him.

So tonight we went upstairs and he got on the potty and after a little while, and some (frankly) stink, there were two distinct plops. I practically danced. Christine practically danced. Lucas looked at us like we were mad.

A big day!

LOOK, OVER THERE! AN INSULT!

Jason had a thought, one that had escaped me quite nicely. If the goal of Peter calling Belinda a dog (god, this sounds so High School when you type it out) was to destract everyone from the fact that the Plan That Isn't sucks, then it's working quite nicely.

My guess? We've got another couple of days of this, maybe till the weekend. My morning La Presse tells me that the CPC are defending Peter like nuts, so that will become the story now as well - then some goof from the CPC will get cornered by a journalist and the goof will, you know, do something goofy. Then that will be the story for a news cycle or two.

Then, probably middle of next week, like late Tuesday, early Wednesday, Peter will be having a little briefer with some journalists, about something boreing, and he'll say something like "you know, in retrospect, calling her a dog was not really smart. Hey, Darfur is really bad hey? Anyone want to take some pictures of me digging on my play farm?"

Per capita, and why it matters to the environment not at all (mostly)

I had dinner guests over on Saturday, relatives that I love to bits, and we got talking about the Environmental Plan That Wasn't, and at some point my Uncle made the point that on a per capita basis the US was doing better than Canada.

This is a point I've heard before, and I responded better to him (because being polite and reasonable to a relative is a lot easier than to some tighty whitey wearing asshole on the internets) than I ever had online.

The simple reality is that per capita is fine for comparing certain things between disparate population groups, costs of things, out puts of things etc etc, and it's certainly an interesting way to gauge how much pollution (for example) Canadians are putting out individually in comparison with other countries.

But it breaks down quickly when you move away from the academic into the reality: Canada pollutes less than the US. Period. Now, it can be pointed out that we've increased our pollution per capita to show how little progress we've made as citizens and a country to decrease our out put of crap. But in a global sense, in the only sense that matters to the actual environment, less bad stuff comes out of Canada and more bad stuff comes out of the US (and other places as well it must be pointed out - just to head off the people who think that anything that isn't "USA USA USA" is anti-American).

And that, in the end, is all that matters.

Sometimes the gods deliver...

I am, if you read the post below, clearly a person in need of some mirth.

Work was fine, but it was sort of mirth free. It's Christine's birthday today, and giving gifts makes me feel amazing, so that was good for a tone of mirth.

But then the Conservative Party of Canada delivered a oil tanker of mirth. They released their environmental plan.

Or rather their Plan to Get Around to Having An Environmental Plan, maybe, If Voters Make Us, And Industry Doesn't Get Too Mad™

It's great, four years of consultation. Emmissions cut in half by, omg wait for it, 2050, possible rules by 2011 for deeper cuts, no caps on greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 or 2025 and "intensity based emmissions targets". I'm going to cut and paste from the CBC here, because the mirth has caused me to be unable to type "Intensity-based targets means environmental emissions would be relative to the economic output of various industries. That means even though individual emission limits for each barrel of oil or piece of coal could be lowered, if production increases, the overall amount of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants could grow."

Wheee....

To be clear: The LPC completly screwed the pooch when it came to the Environment, signing a deal and then going "there now" is not environmental action, but this deferal of a plan, this utterly idiotic waste of time (2050? DO THEY THINK WE'RE ALL MENTALLY ILL?) is a really good example of stage managed pseudo action. It makes me ill.

But the mirth.

OMFG THE MIRTH!

Goodbye Mitts

So Mitts went to the vet today to be put to sleep. She hadn't eatten in days, would barely budge from the bed, had a big drink the night before last and then promptly went downstairs and puked it all up.

I'm numb from all of this. And weary. So very weary.

Ah... guilty till proven innocent

Most things in politcs can be looked at in three ways:

1. Is it smart politics - as in does it make you look good and potentially make the opposition look bad?
2. Is it good for the country/state of democracy?
3. Will it achieve what it's stated goal is?
   

This is an example of something that scores amazingly well on #1 and, in my opinion, falls horribly short on #2 and #3.

Think about it, if you're against this piece of legislation you are soft on crime, pro-Paul Bernardo, pro-killers etc etc etc.

As for #2, I think that anything that puts the onnus on the accused seems like an awfully good way to reverse just about everything our justice system is meant to stand for.

Finally, #3? I suppose it will keep individual bad guys off the street, but will it stop other people from doing bad things? Nope. Not a bit. So, sure, repeat offenders will be in jail. And?

Colds, Computers and Cats with BONUS UPDATE

So last week we were on vacation. Time to relax, to kick back, to take care of some chores...

or, in the case of our house, deal with everyone having a cold, a computer with a dead power supply unit and to take a cat to the vet to find out whta was going on with her.

The cold/sore throat is fading.

The computer is with these fine people (because I had a spare $200 $300 ish to just throw around).

But the cat, the cat is breaking our heart. Mitts stopped eatting dry food about two weeks ago, so we got some wet foot too see if she had a problem with her mouth or something. She ate that for a bit, but then became less interested in it. So we went into the vet to have her checked out, they took blood and did tests on it. It came back showing that two enzymes in her liver were elevated. So we took her in for an X-ray to see if there was anything obvious. Her liver has basically shrunk, so we've got her on anti-biotics on the theory that mb it's an infection. They are doing nothing except causing her trauma: (freaked cat + droper full of anti-biotics = cat wrapped in towel to control her) + stressed human adults = super freaked out cat.

Unless some kind of miracle happens very very soon we're going to have to take her to the vet for her last trip. MITTS IS GOING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN SEEMING BETTER (water consumption and a bit of weight gain) TO LOOKING SICKER THAN EVER.

I feel like puking.

Ugg indeed

So the return of cooler weather has seen the return has seen the return of the Ugg boot. This and this kind of explain how I feel about them.

I want them to go away.

10 000 mile check up

So Lucas just had his 3 year check up. As we knew, but now have official confirmation of, the boy is umm.. FREAKING HUGE! 97 percentile in both height and weight (which is good, balance in those two catagories is nice).

He now weighs 19kg (41.99 lbs) and is 102 cm (40.14 inches).

Which is, by any measure, big. Both of us are, frankly, a bit freaked out sometimes by how big he is. We spend a lot of time trying to explain to him that because he is big that he has to be calm and not push other kids (we'll start there and then move onto the exceptions, self-defence and such - I'm not having him absorb head shots from some kid with a Napoleon complex either). We also spend a lot of time thinking about how much the two of us ate when we were teenagers (both of us were atheletes and really active). Frankly I'm considering seeing if we can get some kind of timeshare on a milk cow or something.

Good bye and Good Luck Kelly

A friend of this blog and blogger, Kelly Nestruck, has done something quite brave and quit his steady job at The National Post, moved out of his place in Toronto, packed all his stuff and is moving to England. 

So, for what it's worth (given that in an hour most blogs get more hits than I do in, say, a week), I'd like to wish Kelly well. 


Just don't develop one of those annoying fake accents. 

Or I'll kick your theatre reviewing ass.