Sunday, May 20, 2007

Happy father's day


Happy father's day
Originally uploaded by architect.
The roof terrace is now open.

roseanne giving inaugural anthem

This past week Ali's cousin Mike was in town and Ann asked if he could help us build a roof terrace with the salvaged wood that's been sitting up there for a year and a half (or two?). We managed to get it done with using all of the old wood, and several runs to Home Depot, Rona and the lumber yard. We had to buy 16 new 2 x 6's (which covered approx. 2' of our deck) and 6 sheets of lattice- hauling it up 3 sets of stairs up to our roof. A HUUUUGE thanks to Mike for all his help and for showing me the tricks of the trade.

LL 1


LL 1
Originally uploaded by architect.
When I took LL up to the roof deck for the first time he looooved it and celebrated with a little "white men can't dance" dance.

lattice work


lattice work
Originally uploaded by architect.
LL surveying the new lattice work.

posts


posts
Originally uploaded by architect.
surveying how to layout the posts and rails.

trimming


trimming
Originally uploaded by architect.
Mike trimming the deck- (I would have butchered this job).

decking


decking
Originally uploaded by architect.
Sunsetting on day 1, shortly after deciding that a simple pad for a deck would not enough...

levelling


levelling
Originally uploaded by architect.
Miraculously we joined the two portions without the need for a step.

base frame


base frame
Originally uploaded by architect.
Laying down the baseframe.

storytime


storytime
Originally uploaded by architect.
Last week we stayed at the Olsen Tsai residence for a couple of nights while Ana babysat LL.... or at least got in a couple of bedtime stories.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Yellowknife


Yellowknife
Originally uploaded by architect.
Finally getting around to posting some of Ann's photos from the OSM cross-country tour. Ann was away for a couple of weeks while I stayed back with the munchkin. Here's a pic of Ann and Ali in the NWT.

TO blurry


TO blurry
Originally uploaded by architect.
All the pics of yunyun were blurry- this was the best we had. J took yunyun to Ann's concert in TO.

TO D:G:T


TO D:G:T
Originally uploaded by architect.
Ann and J stopped by to see Deanna and Greg's newborn- Thalia while the orchestra was in TO.

Yellowknife sunrise


Yellowknife sunrise
Originally uploaded by architect.
First stop on the OSM tour was Yellowknife- where the days are already quite long.

NFLD- Easternmost point


NFLD- Easternmost point
Originally uploaded by architect.
Ann's first trip to Nfld.

spud the super pumpkin


spud the super pumpkin
Originally uploaded by architect.
Last weekend we took a drive along the park-lined St. Laurence to LaSalle where we stopped at a park for a bike ride. LL was more into the sculptures scattered throughout the park.

sleepy head


sleepy head
Originally uploaded by architect.
LL is blessed with the Tsai ability to sleep anywhere and to sleep through anything. A few months ago the daycare had a fire alarm and LL slept through the alarm.

3 generations


3 generations
Originally uploaded by architect.
While gonggong was in the States for a conference, popo stayed here in Montreal much to LL's delight.

Look at me I'm 33


Birthday girl and LL
Originally uploaded by architect.
Ann's birthday was last week- making her 11 times older than LL.

The cook, the baker and the cake

Mark kindly offered to make another one of his delicious cakes for the occasion!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Healthcare is killing me and our Karma reader is on the fritz

So this morning Ann, LL and I went to get the second round of vaccinations for Hep A- which we needed for our trip to the DR last year. We went at 8:00 and parked on the street after double checking the parking signs. When we came out of the clinic at 8:45 the whole row of cars had tickets on them, with the car owners standing incredulously beside their cars looking at their tickets. The store owner directly in front of our car said "Yeah, they make a lot of money on this block. This city has too many signs." Trip to the dermatologist $95, Trip to the traveller's clinic $42, free health care system... not so priceless.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Trike


Ann found a trike for LL on craigslist for 20$- which he rode to daycare for the first time this morning. He rang the bell at everyone that we passed. Nice find mom!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

I knew this was coming

The thing with living in the Plateau/Mile End is that if you park your car on the street (with a resident's permit) you have to move your car everyday. The other day I was telling one of our friends at the park that I had forgotten to move our parked car twice in the month of April and had miraculously escaped getting a parking ticket both times. I went on to say that this of course meant that I was overdue to get towed or something worse.

Today I was heading off to my doctor for my monthly steroid treatment, (thankfully our road hockey association does not test for folicle enhancing substances) and decided to drive so as not to cut into my work hours too much. As I neared the doctor's office I was approaching an intersection when the light changed. I quickly looked behind me and decided to go through. Having learned to drive in Winnipeg during the winter, my knee-jerk reaction is usually to maintain speed and go through before it turns red rather than hit the brakes and get rear-ended. As (my) luck would have it, our city's finest just happened to be sitting at that light perpindicular to me. Unlike our friend Neil I have no pre-planned strategy, can't really pretend to only speak Spanish, and my batting average for getting let off with a warning is 0.00%. (The last time being pulled over was about 10 years ago). To top things off Ann had the car registration in her wallet at home.

Argh. $95 later I am now the recipient of a ticket for the infraction: "DRIVER OF AN R.V. [registered vehicle?] FACING AN AMBER LIGHT, NOT STOPPING BEFORE THE STOP LINE." [Maybe it says a N.R.V. (non-registered vehicle?)]

Oh well, at least no points taken off and I can reset the parking karma back to zero.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Absence makes the heart grow patriotic

Soooooo. I am beginning to recover from Ann's cross country tour with the orchestra- which meant I was home alone with the munchkin for a couple of weeks. LL spent one of those weeks with a recurring fever- long enough to warrant a visit to the paediatrician. Thankfully a few of our friends from the park had us over for dinners which made for a nice break for LL from dad's pasta special. Ann was welcomed home by a swift handover of parental responsibilites while I went off and played the last game of the road hockey season, topped off by a visit to the neighbourhood pub and then Indian take-out. This Friday will be the annual awards banquet, where I hope to walk away with the 4th straight Lady Byng. My efforts may be hampered by the fact that I only played a handful of times this year. Spring has finally arrived in Montreal so my eyes and nose are now completely swollen and the sneeze parade is in full swing. But the real reason for this post is an anecdote from today, when I went to go pick up LL from the garderie:

(roughly translated from french)

Daycare Worker: "So, can I ask you a question?"
K: "yes"
DW: "How come LL is always singing "Oh Canada"?"
K: (What? Is this not normal behavior? We make him sing the anthem every morning and before he goes to sleep.)
"Hockey. He's been watching a lot of hockey." (Mom's been away for two weeks- how do you think we killed that 7-8pm void?)
DW: (laughs and hollers over to another daycare worked across the play yard) "It's from watching hockey!"
(turns to me and says) Well, he sings the ENTIRE anthem and he's been teaching all the other kids how to sing it.

(I noticed, coincidentally, when we got home that LL was wearing red sweat pants and his red and white team canada olympic shirt.)