Okay, I know.. Long time no post.

But, hey, it's the holidays, and I can't be expected to make room for blogging when there are cookies to eat.

Okay, here's a roundup of the events since the last post.

Supper club Christmas Dinner - This took place at the apartment down the hall from the crack dealer downtown, otherwise known as M&N's. I must say that the supper was a much needed non-turkey experience, as we would be starting in on a string of traditional Christmas Dinners.

23rd - Our house Christmas Dinner -
We wrapped a free-range turkey in bacon, made Brussels Sprouts a-la-Mornay, mashed potatoes, carrot pudding, creamed carrots with parsley, two kinds of stuffing, and that wasn't including what the family brought (scalloped potatoes, desserts, salads, assorted other veggies). I just want to say that 1: not stuffing a turkey leaves it moister than with stuffing, 2: an electronic probe thermometer on a remote works wonders for having a turkey done exactly right, 3: Jenn's grandma is way too much fun when she's doing shooters with the girls.

24th - Family Supper in Sherwood Park -
There were a lot of dogs. Also there was a baby. The turkey was not as moist. We left early to get to church, where Jenn played flute, which was awesome. Then we went back to the in-laws.

25th - Christmas Morning and Bus Ride -
Turkey sandwiches for lunch, also we got us a bread maker, which kicks bum, since our old one has pretty much kicked the bucket. Jenn gave me a digital camera, which she bought just before learning that we won one in the home lotto. That's getting returned for store credit as soon as we can get there. We have our eyes on a couple of items.

At 3:00, we got on the bus and headed to Calgary. We took the Greyhound as an experiment, rather than the luxury option - the Red Arrow. The Red Arrow is worth the extra money. On the trip down, one fellow was so drunk he thought he was on a plane to Halifax. he started screaming "Just land this M**********R already!!!" along with shouts of "Holy S***" and "F***" and "What the F*** are you looking at?!? I'll take care of YOU!"

Fun, eh? So the driver pulls over, manhandles him to the front of the bus, and calls the cops. Within 10 minutes, buddy is on his way to the RCMP cells in Olds, and I just can't get the old Pogues song "Fairytale of New York" out of my head. Seriously though, No more Greyhound for us. They don't screen the passengers as well as either the airlines or the Red Arrow.

We arrive about a half hour late and eat Tourtierre and Quiche, and play with my brother's Guitar Hero III until it was time to open presents, which we did. I got, among other things, an HBC gift card, which leads us to...

26th - Boxing Day -
We arrived early at the mall, where I bought a new banker's coat at 40% off, and Jenn went nuts at Lululemon. Just after the coat-buying, Jenn shouted at me about hating to shop with me and yelled at us both to leave, so my brother and I headed out to the Wildwood Brewpub (Which has gone downhill) and then to a buddy's place to play "Rock Band" which I found fun because it was like Karaoke for points.

Later we picked up a shopped-out Jenn from the mall, and headed home for turkey dinner #3 at my parents house. This was a somewhat quieter affair, with no shooters and no dogs, just the steady application of too much food and too much wine and too much scotch until the company went home. All in all, a good supper, and it laid the foundation for...

27th - A day of rest (and turkey) -
On the 27th, we went out shopping again, and I picked up some shirts at winners so that I don't have to look like such a gorf all the time. We ate turkey soup for lunch, and turkey-Shepard's pie for supper.

28th - Travel -
Seriously, the greyhound driver took such a retarded route out of the city that we left the terminal at 4:00 and weren't on the highway until almost 5:00. Add to that the fact that the lights in the coach wouldn't turn on, and we had a pretty rotten trip, with no reading, no sudoku, and only our lupper to hold our interest. It included - you guessed it - turkey sandwiches. MMMMMMMMMMMM. I love turkey.

when we arrived back in Edmonton, our car wouldn't start until we plugged it in for about an hour, so we killed some time with getting me a haircut and whatnot.

29th - Today -
Wre have no turkey to eat. In a way, this makes me sad, but then I think of the gallon sized ziplock in the freezer holding our leftovers from the 23rd and all the good things that that will make, and I get a little happy.

In the morning, we listed our house for sale, following which we will be moving back to Edmonton, and lopping about 30-45 minutes each way from our commutes, which will give us an extra 2-3 man-hours per day to put in into renovations. It should also make it easier for our friends to come over, since it is kind of a long haul to Spruce Grove.

This evening, I get to put on my suit and go to a wedding of a distant cousin of Jenn's. This means (I hope) no turkey. Fingers Crossed, people.

So that is my update, I could have broken it down into several chunks over the last few days, but as you can see I was busy, and my Mom's computer is kind of, well, in need of an upgrade.

Happy New Year to all our readers, and for those of you in Supper Club, see you for the annual fondue in a couple days.

Coming up on Christmas

It is now about a month post-accident and the folks at the insurance company have not yet decided if they will be repairing or writing off my truck. I want to know because it is time for an oil change and the tranny fluid could use changed too if I am keeping it. Otherwise, I'm not going to bother.

Christmas is almost upon us, and that means that Jenn's students are performing Christmas concerts. I attended the first one along with a ton of other supporters, and we were really really impressed. Her grade 7 students didn't sound like they had been playing only for a few months (except for one bunch) and her Jr High Jazz band was really really good.

What about other Christmas stuff? My Christmas shopping is just about done, I just need top get Jenn her "Good" present, and the rest is over. That includes buying the turkey for the dinner on the 23rd. I bought a free-range farm turkey from Parkland Packers, although I think I will need to get one more, since it is only 17# and there are at least 12 people coming. I think I will need to get a small turkey to do alongside. I am also making the Christmas pudding as we speak, even though I am probably the only one who will eat it, I will continue to make it until people smarten up. The only thing I really still need for the supper is brussels sprouts, but I'm sure I will be able to manage. They will be made a-la-mornay, as they should be this time of year. The stuffing will be my mom's recipe if I can finagle it, and the cranberry sauce will be hand-made, since I'm that kind of guy.

For New Years, we will be having the Supper Club Gang over for Fondue and debauchery. Mostly debauchery. I have already picked up the non-alcoholic sparkling beverage (for those who don't drink) and some Jacob's Creek Sparkling Pinot Noir Blanc de Noir for those who do, together with Blue Curacao and Raspberry Sourpuss, to make the shooters that the girls all like, which go by the unfortunate name "Porn Star". I suppose that the theory is that if you drink enough of them, you start acting like, well....

I have further been considering another potential new tradition to insert between New Year's fondue and Lunar New Year. I think that I should start a tradition of mid-winter Fiesta in the third week of January. I propose that I host supper club around that time for a menu of traditional Mexican and Tex-Mex offerings. I need to use my tortilla press for something, folks! And don't forget that I have all the tequila in the world lying in my basement, and if I don;t have a reason to use it, I won't finish it before I go back to Mexico. Throw in a couple of cases of Pacifico or Dos Equis, and we are in business.

Yes, I think that we need to get that together.

Update on the accident

So here's the story - I hurt. Not a whole lot yet, just steady. Headache, jaw pain, stiff back, stiff neck... we'll see how it goes.

As for the truck, I took it in to get it appraised for repairs today. Here's the rundown:
Rear Bumper destroyed, both rear quarters damaged slightly where the bumper bent into them, outter panel on the tailgate smashed, frame bent slightly where the bumper attaches (not structural, just a tiny bit of bending) bent front bumper, cracked grille, bent frame pieces where front bumper attaches to frame, and my personal favourite, damage to two panels on the back of my cab where the frame flexed enough to smash the back of the box into the back of the cab (a 1 inch gap).

Conclusion? He hit me really really hard. He bent my truck in half and really messed the thing up. Tough little truck, though, and cheap to fix. Cost to repair? About $4500-$5300. Market value of the truck? Maybe $4000-$5500.

And therein lies the problem, folks, depending on whether the adjuster has had his coffee on the morning he opens my file, I might or might not get to keep driving my truck. I can't help but feel partly responsible, however, since I have had green truck for two years now, and have never given green truck a name, and because of that, bad things happened to it.

That is why I am sending out an SOS to the world and asking you all - If green truck survives, what should I name it?

My first thought - Thumper.

Pressing Questions of our times...

Many people have asked me, "Hey, Owen... What is it really like to be concussed?" This question has been based on a number of factors... My tendency to hit my head on things, my general clumsiness, and my occasionally asinine statements on the human condition.



So as of today, I can tell you with all honesty, being concussed sucks. It is like the last half of a medium-bad hangover. You vomit, you get chills, you get dizzy, and you feel generally rotten. Then your wife gets you out of bed to take you to the hospital so that the doctor can tell you that what you need is bed rest. What I personally think I need is to not have my head slammed into the rear window of my truck.



Oh, yes, the truck... probably written off, thanks for asking. The damage to the rear bumper and tailgate is pretty severe, and the truck isn't worth that much to begin with, which means we will probably have to buy another new vehicle which may have to put off moving back to Edmonton for a while. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see how bad the damage to the front bumper is.



Oh, yes, the front bumper. Not only was I rear-ended by the chief of the Duncan's First Nation (just outside of Peace River, incidentally (the first nation, not the accident)) in his brand new GMC Denali (indian chief must pay well these days), I was thrown forward a carlength or so into the back of a Student-at-law driving a Santa Fe. When we exchanged business cards, we just laughed.



So anyway, WAD 1-2, we'll see how it turns out, and a concussion. Nice way to spend your weekend, no?

Been a while

Boy it has been a while since I posted anything. The reason for that? Busy, but doing things that aren't very interesting. I have been taking a course every friday in Calgary, Jenn has been doing report cards and now doing parent/teacher night. Also band camp is next week. In and amongst all that we have decided to move back into Edmonton, since what we would save on gas in a month would top up what we need for a mortgage on a fully detached bungalow in a good location. Needless to say I have spent the evenings lately painting, spackling and cleaning.

I have been so busy, in fact, that I have not had time to make beer. I am almost beerless. The only beer I have is the good one that I want to send to competitions this year, so I don't want to drink it.

So that is what we are doing. Boring, I know.

Alberta Health

Well, our Christmas present budget may have gone the way of the Dough-Dough (see, an extinct bird pun). Alberta Health just tracked us down after two moves and dinged us with almost $1,100.00 in overdue premiums. We're applying for the subsidy, but Christmas shopping is on hold until such time as we can get this sorted out. Watch this space if you feel like you should be getting a present from us, because you will be able to find out for sure if you will not be getting one. Announcements will be made!

Stupid government.

Based on the forms and the website, we qualify. Based on what the person told me on the phone, we don't. All I can do is apply and find out.

What fun.

I Made the Vile Bastards Sing the Barney Song...

Well, I am officially a sadistic witch... And it feels great!

I decided if you can't beat 'em, make 'em sing. My new policy is if you are late for my Social Studies class you have two choices, you can 1. Go and visit with the principal, or 2. Stand at the front of the room and sing a song of my choosing. I got to test it out twice yesterday. It was glorious! The kids never pick going to the principals office...Wonder why?

The first group was a pack of three young lads who have been showing up for class late fairly often. After numerous detentions and even phone calls home, I decided I needed something more powerful. All three boys were told to stand at the front of the room facing the class. Now, to trully appriciate this you need to know that in my classroom I have a "stage"- the front. The first 6 feet of my room are literally a stage that is about 3/4 of a foot higher than the rest of the room, so they really get the spotlight, I even had the projector shinning on them!... But anyhow back to the delinquents. So they figured it was no big deal that they were 8 minutes late and class had started. When the boys arrived they were told to stand at the front and that they would be performing. When they asked me what they were to sing I told them twinkle twinkle little star. They started the song and it died about three beats in. They didn't know the words. So then I told them to do the ABC song. They started and then they messed up the alphabet. After getting a laugh out of the class for not knowing the alphabet, I told them they had to sing it again, without mistakes. They did it again, but no one could hear it, so I made them do it again- louder. Well, by the end of it these boys, who had been trying so hard to go for "Joe Cool", were nothing more than red faced geeks who didn't even know the alphabet. They won't be late again. The second group that was late in one of my other classes got to do the Barney Song. Even they had to do it several times. I think the lates and bad behaviour will stop. If not, I am on a role comming up with sadistic punishments so that I at least get some enjoyment out of my work. I must say, I really enjoy comming up with ways to punish my bad little students.

Just to let you all know, I did have a better week this week. I think I might not quit afterall, at least not until next week...

So I just voted

I feel that it is important to vote even in something as inconsequential as the Spruce Grove Municipal election, and as such, I studied the campaign lit, checked some boxes, and exercised my franchise yet again. At least this time, I had no notion of hating any of the candidates I was voting for, as has been the case in the past.

Also, I changed the furnace filter. It really needed it.

The rare and irregular rantings of Jenn...

Well, this our blog afterall. I realize I don't write very often. It's rare that I have time. But I have decided to take some time today.

First year teaching sucks. The first month of this first year was bloody awful. I am not really enjoying my job right now and what's more is I wonder if I ever will. Everyone says it gets better. I hope they are right, but right now I don't believe them. The kids are horrible people, every last one of them. They are all so obnoxious and I am starting to get really tired of dealing with them. I just don't remember it every being ok to waltz into a class late in junior high. I also don't remember it ever being ok to come to class unprepared, yet for some reason my students don't seem to understand why I get mad at them for these behaviours, or why they get punished for them. Usually when you rub a puppy's nose in his mistake he understands, it just doesn't seem to work the same with my students- they really don't get it. Sometimes I think maybe I should just be meaner, and that may be the approach I need to take with these kids. It seems to be what is needed. They all already hate me, and to tell you the truth I don't like them any either, so there is nothing to loose. I just don't ever remember these behaviours as being ok. Now to be completely honest, most of these behaviours are comming from my grade 9 social studies kids and not my band students, my band students are great and I like most of them.

What's really getting me right now is all the work I am doing just to "stay afloat" as the say. I have been putting in 14 hour days and working through the weekends right now. I calculated it out, and if this is what it takes, I am making about $12.00 and hour. I am getting to the point where I am considering not teaching next year if things don't improve soon. I am taking things one week at time in order to be a bit more positive and to look for the improvements. It's hard though, I am tired. I wake up at night and can't get back to sleep because I am thinking about work too much. On Tuesday I have 3 boys in for detentions at lunch for comming late to my class and waltzing right in during an in-progress exam. It gets better though... They thought it was ok to walk up to students who were writing their exams and start talking to them. The Gall! I couldn't believe it. So they have a lunch hour detention (because we can't keep them after school) and now I have to think of some creative punishment for them to fulfill. I am thinking of retorting to lines or making them write an essay, but I don't know.... Some peoples kids...sigh.

On a more exciting note, we got to go to two hockey games this weekend. We saw the Oilers beat Philly 5-3 on Saturday and yesterday we saw the Pats beat the Oil Kings 6-2... The Oil Kings have only been playing together for a few weeks though, I think there is still hope for them as a team... We took my little sister and the Spanish exchange student that has been living with my family to the Oil Kings game. She is an adorable girl and she loved the hockey. She escpecially loved the fighting and smashing. She also was quite intriuged by the fact that most of the boys on the team were 16-19, or at least she was until she saw their teeth....

This cold sucks.

I started coming down with this whatever it is on Sunday night, and now I am strongly considering going to the doctor if it doesn't improve over the weekend. I woke myself up coughing last night at 1:00 AM, which was not fun. I'm off to take some dayQuil

First Day of Work

Got there on time, by 1:30 I thought I was going to pass out I was so dizzy. My throat went from scratchy to can't swallow, and I had no cough drops. When I got home, I went to bed at 8:00 PM, and didn't get up until 6:30 the next morning, when I went to do it all over again.

And most of my files haven't made it there yet. I'm taking about 30. I looked at the family law files at the new firm, and there are about 120. Tomorrow morning I am going to go through and see where things are and what needs done and see how many of these are real files and how many are just sitting or A/R. 150 files..... That's a lot. I consider 80 a full load. We'll see how the split with MD goes.

Oh, did I mention that the family law assistant's last day was last Friday? Anyone know a legal assistant who wants work?

Last day of work

Yesterday was my last day of work at my old firm. I worked there for exactly one year. I learned a few things while I was there. Most of them were law related, but here are a few of the non-law-related ones:

1: My ability to drink coffee has grown into an inability to drink caffinated tea.

2: It isn't worth it to work at a firm that is so overworked, understaffed, and disorganized that I have to constantly apologize to clients for the mess.

3: Divorce lawyers are in huge demand both from the general public, and other firms. Since they found out I am moving (and because of that, ultimately movable) multiple other firms have called me to say that they are looking too and if I want to come and do divorce at their shop if I am not happy at my new place, they will make it worth my while.

4: Don't eat at the Rainbow Palace in Spruce Grove. It's terrible.

Flute Rock

So last night Jenn and I saw Jethro Tull in concert. I have a few observations:

With the dollar at par, a concert t-shirt shouldn't cost $40.00

That dude is too old to be doing that.

That dude is having way too much fun with a flute.

Dude: This is a whole assortment of old dudes, both on stage, and in the audience.

Seriously, though, it was a rockin' concert, and because it was directed at 50-somethings and starred 60-somethings, it was over by 10:30, which is good on a weeknight, even though that still had us going to bed much later than normal.

I assume that Jenn could go into more detail or speak understandably about the fluting.

Jenn's New Job V - Attack of the Clone Job

So today, a little late, Jenn was offered a job teaching band at Victoria Composite, which is the Public School System's arts focus school. She is currently on contract to Edmonton Catholic, but this bodes well for the possibility of her finding a permanent contract once she is done her temp. What happy news. Multiple boards are "keeping her in mind for next year" and since she has had job offers from both major boards already, how much better might it be when she has a year under her belt and experience teaching a core subject (social studies).

I think that tomorrow's dinner party will be to celebrate Jenn's employability.

Accidental Feast

Last night I got a phone call from Nick the Mighty Brewer, seeing if I wanted to bottle some beer on Saturday and maybe do something. Soon enough, he and M were arranged to come over. Then we realized that if they were coming, shouldn't we invite these other two people, and by this time I was planning a dinner party. It wasn't long before I was inviting over Jenn's cousin into the bargain, and so now we are having a dinner party for 6 on Saturday without really having ever meant to.

The menu is secret, but suffice it to say that there will be meatloaf.

The extra fun will come from the fact that Jenn is teaching flute for, like, 6 hours on Saturday, and I will be prepping it all myself, which will be fine, since I really am the cook here, I mean really, like, most of the time.

Saturday

The first Saturday we have to ourselves in about 4 weeks. What do we do with it? We clean the house. We have floors! There are counters under all that stuff! Hey, what's this thing? Why, it's the vacuum cleaner! Well, as long as we have found it, we may as well use it.

Hey, what are these Parmesan rinds doing in the freezer? Time to make soup. Yum yum yum. Whoops, time to do the laundry.....one load, two loads, white load, blue load. Boy, I wish we had folded laundry from the last time we did it two weeks ago. Now we have a months worth of laundry to fold. What fun.

Hopefully we will have enough spare time to go to the Bay and spend my gift cards. I need some shorts for going to the gym.

Maybe Sunday will be more of an "us" day. Who knows.

Jenn's New Job IV - The Phantom Lunch

So this weekend, our plan was for Me to pick Jenn up after school at 3:00 and go for an early supper. Three hours later, we decided to go and come back and finish the work the next day. We came back to the school Saturday at 10, and didn't leave until 9:30.

All the kids have been assigned instruments who it is possible to do it for. That leaves, um, lemme see, half. Jenn needs to assess each and assign an instrument and do the necessary paperwork to get that in place. This means that I will be coming to her school after I am done practicing law for the day and doing her administrative work so that she can get all these instruments assigned before the kids have their "how to play ______instrument" Field trip on Wednesday. Assessments will therefore be taking place Monday and Tuesday at lunch and after school.

Sunday night Jenn gets an e-mail stating that she is on lunch monitor duty all but one day per week until further notice.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Not supposed to happen to teachers who are doing after-school activities 3-4 nights per week.

First year teacher on a temp contract - good idea to make a fuss?

Grrrrrrrrr

Jenn's New Job III - Revenge of Jenn's New Job

So now, in addition to her position as a full-time teacher for Edmonton Catholic, Jenn has a very part time gig directing the Edmonton Homeschool Band once per week. The pay isn't huge, but it is welcome for two young people who are, even now, embracing the lifestyle.

More exciting news from the people who brought you Jenn's new Job!

Jenn's new job the sequel - Owen's new Job!

Yes, you heard right, Owen has a new job. Starting in October, Owen will be doing the exact same thing as before, but for almost twice as much money. At the same time, Jenn will be doing different stuff than before, but for more than twice as much money.

All in all, When it comes to money, we will have more of it. What will we do with it, you ask? Pay off our scary-big loans. That and a trip to Scotland. And maybe some DVDs.

Oh yeah

One other thing has been keeping me from posting for the last week. I have been enjoying the first bicycle I have owned in 18 years. I grew out of my last bike at about 12, knees hitting the handlebars at every turn, and never got another, suburban Calgary being rather a car kind of town, and me being a teenager. A bike couldn't have hurt, though, what with the getting fat between 10 and 27.

Anyway, I cheaped out and bought a discounted floor model from Walmart (I know, I know, if you are going to buy a bike, support local business and buy a decent one or your life will suck and boils will break out all over your body and the poor Mexicans who assembled your bike will all die in a factory fire). I didn't have the money for a good one, and I haven't ridden a bike in 18 years, so I figured I wouldn't blow a ton up front in case I hated it.

I bought a CCM Commuter, which is a hybrid bike, an ungainly tall thing with sticky shifters and a tendency to steer wide on fast corners. Maybe that's just my not having ridden a bike in 18 years.

Anyway, I have been taking advantage of the excellent bike trail system in Spruce Grove just near my house, which leads down through a series of lovely parks. I can also get to work quite quickly as long as I don't have to go to court, which would require a motor vehicle.

Anyway, I'm having a ton of fun with it.

woot