I was going to update once in a while on the state of my garden, wasn’t I? I didn’t. Sorry if you were expecting anything. I will do that very soon. I’m just settling in after a chaotic few weeks. The kids were visiting their grandparents (my parents) and Angela and I decided to use that time wisely. Its been so bloody hot that its been hard to motivate ourselves into getting anything done. So much for partying it up while the kids were gone!

My hard drive went on the computer, so I’ve been hobbling along the net on an old P-III that I put together from parts. Its got an old slow hard drive and 384MB RAM. This machine is not ready for a modern operating system like Windows Vista or Ubuntu 9.04 (which I had installed on it – review later), so I installed Crunchbang Linux on it.

This post is the first one on my new hard drive. I installed Ubuntu on the machine again and I will review my install experience, comparing it to the other machine, when I’ve had some more time with “Jaunty Jackalope”.

TTFN

This will be an interesting month, as we will be moving to a new home.  We’ve been keeping our “ears to the ground” for a 3 bedroom to move into so that the kids could each have their own room again.  We got spoiled with that situation before an its not been the same since.  They would stay up much later than they should because they had each other to keep themselves occupied in the one bedroom.  Despite threats of death, doom, and destruction, they would keep chattering away until WAY TOO LATE.  Its also out of the city.  Yay! No more fighting with rush hour traffic to get across a congested bridge that shuts completely down in the winter many times due to accidents.  And, now, Caleb can help me with the garden, as we’ll be able to plant one!

My phone, long distance, and internet can move with me.  My television service can move with me.  The electricity is scheduled for disconnection/reconnection.  A moving truck has been reserved.  That leaves calling or writing to the companies that we deal with to update mailing information.  The kids’ school will need some papers filled out for a transfer.  We need to pack our stuff.  And, to think that last week this was not even a thought.  Everything happens for a reason, I guess.

The next two weekends will involve visits from family, as well.  I guess that this month is packed with activity.  I hope that I can keep it all under control, for the most part.

Last week was spring break for New Brunswick schools.  So, our kids were home with little on their minds.  Thankfully, their grandma took them for two days and they had a great time with her.  I took Monday and Friday off, so I had a three day work week.  So, now I’ve got to get geared back up for a whole week of work before the weekend.  Man, if it snows or gets icy one more time, I might be out of luck for getting out of the apartment:

So, this month, I’ve started work an hour earlier than before.  Its certainly nice to get home earlier.  That 7:30pm arrival was the pits (I’ll probably be doing them again, though).  So, now, I get home 6:30-6:45, if I don’t have to go elsewhere first.  That part is nice, as I can actually enjoy some “awake” time with the kids, instead of the cranky “before bed” time.  Its not the end of the shift that’s really getting to me (although the other shift is closing time, so there was no question as to when it ended).  Its the start time.  Before, I’d have lots of time after getting the kids off to school to shower and fart around with any dishes left over fromt he previous night.  I could prepare a brunch and generally mosey my ass out the door and be at work in plenty of time (because I’d had to get up with the kids – summer’s different).  Now, I have about 20 minutes between getting the kids off to school and getting me out the door to work.  I’ve got the back a lot of the other stuff up now.

Why does one hour make so much difference?

So this is Christmas eve. Our house celebrates the tree worship as do many others in North America. Abby and Caleb are wound right up. They see the gifts for them under our tree and they can’t wait to open them. Little do they know that Santa will be bringing a lot more, despite the fact that they may barely deserve them. I’ve sent them off to bed in hopes that they will settle down and sleep sometime before 10pm. Will they? That remains to be seen…

…and an update on the whole scene.  It turns out that we weren’t too far off from our guess of 10pm.  The kids are fast asleep and Ange and I caught “Superbad”, a really crass but good movie.  Perhaps it’ll get a review soon.  Since I’ve been feeing a LOT under the weather lately, I’m off to bed, as “you know who” will be up bright and early, I am sure (actually, I think that Angela will be up first!).

Merry Christmas everyone!

I took Wednesday off work so that I could be around to see my children’s Christmas concert (and to ferry them back and forth for the evening performance).  This was Abby’s first and she performed smashingly.  In fact, the kindergarten classes did a great job on their song, which was quite funny.  Caleb had a snappy tune to sing with his class, which I still kind of have stuck in my head.  I don’t know if that’s good or bad.  LOL.  If I get the roll of film developed soon, I’ll add a few pictures to this post (maybe with the other kids faces blurred, as I won’t be getting publication permission from them or their parents).

Christmas is around the corner (at least the commercial bonanza that is called Christmas).  What are you going to be doing? What have you done? Ready? Celebrating something else?

What to dress them in is the title of this post.  Its just a quick thought on the dilemma that many parents face each morning when they are getting their kids ready for school.  There’s supposed to be a nasty storm coming our way, which is over Ohio right now.  It won’t likely get here until tonight, but, in the mean time, the temperature is in the single digits and its raining.  So, its really not warm enough for their rain coats unless they’re layered with sweaters and pullovers, which they hate.  I’ve decided that they’re going to go with their winter coats because of the temperature, but they’ll be wet when they get home today.  It looks like mother nature is going to win again.

This storm is supposed to dump a lot of snow and freezing rain on us, and yet the forecast for our weather doesn’t seem to reflect that.  How can you have a severe weather warning that covers the entire province and yet the very same weather service is showing a reasonably decent weather forecast? I’m confused.  Weather Network, you have to be more clear today!