When I started this blog I had a few things in mind. I was going to write this blog, take French, exercise and I felt that I was going to lose one of them. It was the exercise of course. Who wants to spend summer running and swimming when you can spent it on patios drinking beer? Not me. So I decided to join a Gym. I have some free time during the day and I work right near a chain gym and can go on weekends to one on the island. I think once I pay and can exercise without worrying about the elements I'll be more encouraged.
Yesterday I took a fitness test, I scored excellent in everything except core strength and regular strength. I did a ton of push ups but that measures endurance, sit ups were another story of course it's not my fault though, it's the belly's fault.
Today I go back to get a program. I don't think I'll be getting a significant workout today, just instruction on the machines and such so I'll probably go back tomorrow. Anyway I've got a 37 day trial so hopefully I can stick to it as I have with this blog and French.
Housing update, we found a place we like that needs a lot of cosmetic work, we're going to put an offer in tonight. It's bank owned so we're hoping to get it cheap! If we do get the place I expect to be extremely busy between work, housing repair, the gym, french, writing and then living to enjoy the fruits of my labour.
That's a lot of crap to do and now I'm off to do my French homework before the Gym.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Exciting Softball?
Yep it was an exciting game of softball last night. We played the top team in the league. First we got of to a rocky start losing 9-1 going into the bottom of the second, where we were to hit. We slowly crawled back and managed to pull within 3 runs, 9-6, with just one inning to go. I made my first out of the season, I was 21-21 or something but with two runners on and two outs in the fifth I couldn't pull it together and I flew out to centre, but that wasn't the last inning.
In the last inning we pulled within one run, I was on first and it's 9-8, again 2 outs. Kate was hitting and she knocked a ground ball to short. I was of course running as fast as I could and I'm pretty fast. Kate's no slow poke but but I guess the guy playing short didn't really want to risk a longish throw so he pitched the ball to the second baseman who was covering second. I was actually shocked they were going for me at second I was so close to the bag. So being that I'm allowed to and the game was literally on the line, I slid into second. Sliding is something that I've never been allowed to do in softball but this league allows it on second and third. Sure enough I slide into second and crash into the fielder, who I didn't realize was a girl until the play was over, and they dropped the ball. I felt a little bad. I didn't exactly hurt the girl but surely she was worse for wear after the collision. What can I do, it's the last inning we're down by one run with two out, I'm allowed to slide so I did, and I saved the game. The next three batters hit safely and we won the game 12-11.
I cut my leg up on the slide but it wasn't nearly as painful as the four balls I had to throw back into the infield in the first. I have bursitis or tendinitis in my right shoulder, stupid rotator cuffs, I've always disliked cuffs.
The mood was unfortunately a bit solemn after my awesome play, I guess people didn't want to celebrate the win under hard knock circumstances? I don't know, all I know was I made the play of the game, it was the TSN turning point for sure.
I rewarded myself by chugging a teammate's beer when he went out for a smoke.
In other news, house hunting is still going slow, tomorrow we'll have a line up of houses. The rats, the cats, and Kate are all doing well and we are officially out of our place on Napoleon on the 31st of October. It's going to be an interesting, and probably stressful few weeks ahead. Yay!
In the last inning we pulled within one run, I was on first and it's 9-8, again 2 outs. Kate was hitting and she knocked a ground ball to short. I was of course running as fast as I could and I'm pretty fast. Kate's no slow poke but but I guess the guy playing short didn't really want to risk a longish throw so he pitched the ball to the second baseman who was covering second. I was actually shocked they were going for me at second I was so close to the bag. So being that I'm allowed to and the game was literally on the line, I slid into second. Sliding is something that I've never been allowed to do in softball but this league allows it on second and third. Sure enough I slide into second and crash into the fielder, who I didn't realize was a girl until the play was over, and they dropped the ball. I felt a little bad. I didn't exactly hurt the girl but surely she was worse for wear after the collision. What can I do, it's the last inning we're down by one run with two out, I'm allowed to slide so I did, and I saved the game. The next three batters hit safely and we won the game 12-11.
I cut my leg up on the slide but it wasn't nearly as painful as the four balls I had to throw back into the infield in the first. I have bursitis or tendinitis in my right shoulder, stupid rotator cuffs, I've always disliked cuffs.
The mood was unfortunately a bit solemn after my awesome play, I guess people didn't want to celebrate the win under hard knock circumstances? I don't know, all I know was I made the play of the game, it was the TSN turning point for sure.
I rewarded myself by chugging a teammate's beer when he went out for a smoke.
In other news, house hunting is still going slow, tomorrow we'll have a line up of houses. The rats, the cats, and Kate are all doing well and we are officially out of our place on Napoleon on the 31st of October. It's going to be an interesting, and probably stressful few weeks ahead. Yay!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Trudging Through It All
The house hurting is going poorly. There's always something wrong, foundation, bricks, closing date, location, asshole real estate agents (couple of those). It's becoming frustrating as we are officially out of our current place Oct 31st. We're in Toronto this weekend so time is quickly becoming our enemy. Add on French classes twice a week and all the packing we need to do and it's going to be a rough October if we don't find a place soon. So good luck to us!
Speaking of French class, have you ever been in a class with one of those jerks that always talks to the teacher, as if he's the only guy in class. The same guy who makes 'suggestions' on how to better teach the class. I was in shock and if it were high school the guy would have got a spitball to the back of his head when he suggested we memorize all the words in the lexicon before reading the content. Memorize the words out of context? What a painfully dull and ineffective way to learn something. This is the same guy who spoke for the class when asked if we wanted to take a break. He gets right in there and says no break because he has a train to catch, like I give a shit about his train. No one said anything at all. I don't want a break that's why I didn't say anything but there must be smokers in the class. If I still smoked we'd have a break for sure, if only to annoy this one ass. The class itself is huge and the room we're in is small, I was 5 min late last week and I had to sit on a metal chair from the hall with no desk to lean on, and I had to stare at the ass's balding head all class, of course he sits in the front room. The jerk answers every question before she picks him, there are participation marks and he's looking to steal all of them. I just want him to shut up, he'll tell stories and stuff in class! SHUT UP and stop wasting out time you idiot. All right rant over although I'm sure I'll have more, I'll only been in 2 classes with this jerk so far. When the stress of moving gets to me I may have to say something.
We had a double headed in baseball last night, we won both games and I hit a home run in the second game. Second dinger of the year. Unfortunately my right knee is a bit swollen and painful after back to back games and I said I could play football on Wednesday, we'll see how that goes, it's only touch of course but that doesn't mean much for my knee. I'm sure it will be fine of course.
Not too much else going on. Between house hunting and school it's been pretty busy. I did manage to watch the football games on Sunday. I went 11-5 to tie for the weekly win, 140 bucks or so. I should have won the whole 280 but a couple fluky Monday night picks lost the full amount for me. At least I'm in first over all, well again tied. Lots of time to extend my lead though.
Speaking of French class, have you ever been in a class with one of those jerks that always talks to the teacher, as if he's the only guy in class. The same guy who makes 'suggestions' on how to better teach the class. I was in shock and if it were high school the guy would have got a spitball to the back of his head when he suggested we memorize all the words in the lexicon before reading the content. Memorize the words out of context? What a painfully dull and ineffective way to learn something. This is the same guy who spoke for the class when asked if we wanted to take a break. He gets right in there and says no break because he has a train to catch, like I give a shit about his train. No one said anything at all. I don't want a break that's why I didn't say anything but there must be smokers in the class. If I still smoked we'd have a break for sure, if only to annoy this one ass. The class itself is huge and the room we're in is small, I was 5 min late last week and I had to sit on a metal chair from the hall with no desk to lean on, and I had to stare at the ass's balding head all class, of course he sits in the front room. The jerk answers every question before she picks him, there are participation marks and he's looking to steal all of them. I just want him to shut up, he'll tell stories and stuff in class! SHUT UP and stop wasting out time you idiot. All right rant over although I'm sure I'll have more, I'll only been in 2 classes with this jerk so far. When the stress of moving gets to me I may have to say something.
We had a double headed in baseball last night, we won both games and I hit a home run in the second game. Second dinger of the year. Unfortunately my right knee is a bit swollen and painful after back to back games and I said I could play football on Wednesday, we'll see how that goes, it's only touch of course but that doesn't mean much for my knee. I'm sure it will be fine of course.
Not too much else going on. Between house hunting and school it's been pretty busy. I did manage to watch the football games on Sunday. I went 11-5 to tie for the weekly win, 140 bucks or so. I should have won the whole 280 but a couple fluky Monday night picks lost the full amount for me. At least I'm in first over all, well again tied. Lots of time to extend my lead though.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
First Day of Class Round 2
While the day has not been horrible in any sense but it's been one small mishap after another and it's only 10:00 am.
We were awake early because Kate has to be at work at 8:30 everyday now, boo that, it means I have to be up too. We only had one Club Soda left so we split it and I had to bring a Gingerbeer with my lunch. On the weekend we bought glass containers with plastic lids. We both used one for lunch Kate's blew up in her bag and mine leaked leaving a fine layer of gravy over all the other items in my lunch bag. Minor mishap, could have been worse and got all over my school books.
At the office the only other coffee drinker is on vacation, a cool vacation I might add, he's following the trail of the US army from Normandy down to Paris. So he's not here and the coffee making is up to me, as it was on Friday. I'm not used to people not drinking coffee so I assumed the pot was empty when I brewed a new pot this morning. Of course I was the only coffee drinker on Friday so very little had been removed from the pot. As you may imagine it overflowed and coffee was everywhere. I cleaned it up before anyone else in the office saw.
I brewed a new pot and sure enough when I finally get a fresh coffee back to my desk, I spill part of it. It was again a minor mishap.
Then I go to use the washroom and the toilet is a cavalcade of toilet paper and shit. If you're going to use that much TP why not flush the toilet at halftime? This toilet is stuffed all the freaking time! I had to walk all the way to the mall and use the bathroom there.
I also realized that I've been inadvertently screening my parents who have a new 905 number. I thought they were trying to sell me something, which I get a lot of.
So today is my first day of class and it seems everything is 3 inches to the left, hopefully things straighten out.
Update on the housing front. We've seen a couple places that are good but one needed brick work and the other has some foundation questions. Two areas of repair we are not excited about involving ourselves in, but we are still following up on the foundation place. The owners claim to know nothing about it and we're going to see if a pro can take a look at the foundation, don't know if anyone will do that for free, the roofers didn't mind. Anyway I think that place is a longshot because of the foundation.
Wednesday we go to look at more places.
We were awake early because Kate has to be at work at 8:30 everyday now, boo that, it means I have to be up too. We only had one Club Soda left so we split it and I had to bring a Gingerbeer with my lunch. On the weekend we bought glass containers with plastic lids. We both used one for lunch Kate's blew up in her bag and mine leaked leaving a fine layer of gravy over all the other items in my lunch bag. Minor mishap, could have been worse and got all over my school books.
At the office the only other coffee drinker is on vacation, a cool vacation I might add, he's following the trail of the US army from Normandy down to Paris. So he's not here and the coffee making is up to me, as it was on Friday. I'm not used to people not drinking coffee so I assumed the pot was empty when I brewed a new pot this morning. Of course I was the only coffee drinker on Friday so very little had been removed from the pot. As you may imagine it overflowed and coffee was everywhere. I cleaned it up before anyone else in the office saw.
I brewed a new pot and sure enough when I finally get a fresh coffee back to my desk, I spill part of it. It was again a minor mishap.
Then I go to use the washroom and the toilet is a cavalcade of toilet paper and shit. If you're going to use that much TP why not flush the toilet at halftime? This toilet is stuffed all the freaking time! I had to walk all the way to the mall and use the bathroom there.
I also realized that I've been inadvertently screening my parents who have a new 905 number. I thought they were trying to sell me something, which I get a lot of.
So today is my first day of class and it seems everything is 3 inches to the left, hopefully things straighten out.
Update on the housing front. We've seen a couple places that are good but one needed brick work and the other has some foundation questions. Two areas of repair we are not excited about involving ourselves in, but we are still following up on the foundation place. The owners claim to know nothing about it and we're going to see if a pro can take a look at the foundation, don't know if anyone will do that for free, the roofers didn't mind. Anyway I think that place is a longshot because of the foundation.
Wednesday we go to look at more places.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Real Estate Hell
So we put an offer in on duplex. It was countered, at the same time another offer for the same place was countered. The other people had looked at the house and put their offer in the next day. Kate and I took a week and did a lot of research on the house and the costs of the various repairs we were aware of. To date the house has had 5 offers including ours and the one that went in at the same time as ours.
The other offers were either too low or they were pulled after the home inspection. So I suspect the other people don't really know what they're getting into but offered more than us. All of this is reasonable in my mind, here's where it gets hairy.
So our agent is pitching our offer. Among his weapons is a list of homes that sold in the area for the same price, roughly, that we were offering. The sellers agent took them out of our agent's hand, said 'Bullshit!' and threw the papers in the garbage. An interesting technique. In the same discussion our agent asked how long they were giving the other people interested to do a home inspection and get financing, something we have a legal right to know, the agent refused to tell us stating 'I can make it 100 days and I don't have to tell you.' Okay, aside from that technically being against the rules I'm actually fine with it. It sucks for the seller because we're going to find another house and when this offer falls through because the buyers are too zealous our offer will be off the table. Oh well I guess that's why the house has been on the market for so long and all these offers are falling through, a mentally unstable agent. Now it gets worse.
We still like the place and we were given a counter offer that had a clause that if the other people didn't buy the house we would get it. We didn't like the price nor would I ever sign an offer without knowing how long the other people had to get the inspection and financing done, am I a moron? This agent must think so. So we send back our own counter proposal. This is the part that angers me, it seems he didn't even bother showing his client our second offer, that is illegal, or against real estate code or whatever. But what can we do? We've given up on the house and are filing an official complaint, hopefully the guy gets fired but we really have nothing left to gain from this endeavour.
We have already gained very valuable insight, we're well prepared to access the potential costs of another home and we are well aware of how nasty people in this business can be, although I'm assured this was a unique situation. I don't think Kate is on the same page yet but I am fully prepared to play hardball on the next house. People get real estate agents to do their dirty work and I'm not letting my kind hearted nature be taken advantage of. I am beginning to understand very well the common phrase 'It's not personal, it's just business' translated that means, 'I want to screw you but I feel bad so I'm going to lie to myself about how it's not my fault'. It's funny we accept that in the business world, but when some kid says he has a gun because society makes him we don't give a rat's ass.
Speaking of rats, ours are doing well. They seem more confident that we intend no harm, DoubleV actually leapt (is leapt a word? blogspot says no but I'm leaving it in anyway) onto me yesterday and climbed up to my shoulder. Of course upon finding no food up there he returned to the table he was on. The cats seem to be getting along better too, Brewski is calming down and hissing much less. A few days alone with Jedi seems to have softened him up a bit. He's not all the way there yet but it's promising.
I start classes again on Sept 8th and we lost our first softball game of the fall season 12-11. I hit a home run in my first at bat, my second of the year I think. I actually went 3 for 3 Monday with 2 RBIs.
Last weekend we were up at Scott's in Kingston where I helped him build a fence. It was quite enjoyable work actually, even when it rained on us. I look forward to a time when I have many such projects, hopefully soon in Montreal although it's been a rocky road so far.
So that's pretty much the crap I've done over the past week or so.
The other offers were either too low or they were pulled after the home inspection. So I suspect the other people don't really know what they're getting into but offered more than us. All of this is reasonable in my mind, here's where it gets hairy.
So our agent is pitching our offer. Among his weapons is a list of homes that sold in the area for the same price, roughly, that we were offering. The sellers agent took them out of our agent's hand, said 'Bullshit!' and threw the papers in the garbage. An interesting technique. In the same discussion our agent asked how long they were giving the other people interested to do a home inspection and get financing, something we have a legal right to know, the agent refused to tell us stating 'I can make it 100 days and I don't have to tell you.' Okay, aside from that technically being against the rules I'm actually fine with it. It sucks for the seller because we're going to find another house and when this offer falls through because the buyers are too zealous our offer will be off the table. Oh well I guess that's why the house has been on the market for so long and all these offers are falling through, a mentally unstable agent. Now it gets worse.
We still like the place and we were given a counter offer that had a clause that if the other people didn't buy the house we would get it. We didn't like the price nor would I ever sign an offer without knowing how long the other people had to get the inspection and financing done, am I a moron? This agent must think so. So we send back our own counter proposal. This is the part that angers me, it seems he didn't even bother showing his client our second offer, that is illegal, or against real estate code or whatever. But what can we do? We've given up on the house and are filing an official complaint, hopefully the guy gets fired but we really have nothing left to gain from this endeavour.
We have already gained very valuable insight, we're well prepared to access the potential costs of another home and we are well aware of how nasty people in this business can be, although I'm assured this was a unique situation. I don't think Kate is on the same page yet but I am fully prepared to play hardball on the next house. People get real estate agents to do their dirty work and I'm not letting my kind hearted nature be taken advantage of. I am beginning to understand very well the common phrase 'It's not personal, it's just business' translated that means, 'I want to screw you but I feel bad so I'm going to lie to myself about how it's not my fault'. It's funny we accept that in the business world, but when some kid says he has a gun because society makes him we don't give a rat's ass.
Speaking of rats, ours are doing well. They seem more confident that we intend no harm, DoubleV actually leapt (is leapt a word? blogspot says no but I'm leaving it in anyway) onto me yesterday and climbed up to my shoulder. Of course upon finding no food up there he returned to the table he was on. The cats seem to be getting along better too, Brewski is calming down and hissing much less. A few days alone with Jedi seems to have softened him up a bit. He's not all the way there yet but it's promising.
I start classes again on Sept 8th and we lost our first softball game of the fall season 12-11. I hit a home run in my first at bat, my second of the year I think. I actually went 3 for 3 Monday with 2 RBIs.
Last weekend we were up at Scott's in Kingston where I helped him build a fence. It was quite enjoyable work actually, even when it rained on us. I look forward to a time when I have many such projects, hopefully soon in Montreal although it's been a rocky road so far.
So that's pretty much the crap I've done over the past week or so.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Weekend at Loon Lake
It was an extended weekend I suppose with a wedding thrown in there on Saturday. The wedding was a fine example of a wedding. It was in a Catholic church but there was no mass and they moved it along at a steady pace so no complaints. Kate and I were also invited to a brunch since we were out of towners. Of course we knew no one so we sat at a table for ten by ourselves until one other misfit joined us. The other misfit whose name I forget worked for a Junior hockey team so the conversation was good for one of us. Kate was not impressed.
Most of the time we spent in Thunder Bay, or at the cottage on Loon Lake. We flew in with Porter on Wednesday and back home Monday. Thunder Bay is interesting in a boring kind of way but Kate and I found a great place called Ruby Moon, which had wireless Internet, food and beer and was near a comic book store. While Kate busied herself with free lance work I read a football magazine and browsed the comics at the comic book store.
The cottage also has a sauna so we were in there a few times. It's not like a hot tub. You can sit in a hot tub for twenty minutes and then roll in the snow for a couple minutes without feeling the slightest bit cold. You can also sit in a hot tub for an hour without passing out due to heat stroke. The sauna has other qualities, for one it's very hot and for two you cool down about ten seconds after you leave the room. Our bright idea to jump in the lake after the sauna was not as fun as I expected it to be. Instead it felt like we we jumping into liquid ice.
The rest of the time was spend cooking or cleaning or reading a book by the fire or on the porch. It rained for a couple days. The day the tornadoes hit southern Ontario we had some pretty hefty winds. The rattling of everything kept us up most of the night and the fact that the upstairs rooms aren't sealed made it especially cold. Almost as if the wind, which I believe broke the sound barrier on three separate occasions that night, was basically blowing on us all night. Cold and loud and creepy, I rather enjoyed it actually, especially after finding a couple Lovecraft books to read.
Now we are back in Montreal and spending our time learning about natural gas, and oil furnaces and other expensive house things. The roofers gave us an estimate that was much lower than we expected on the place we are currently considering but the 45 year oil furnace counters that pretty effectively. We still want it and will hopefully be putting an offer in tomorrow. Our only time pressure is government tax breaks so we have very little pressure to buy, still I hope to get this place at the price we want it at. I guess that's every one's story.
Most of the time we spent in Thunder Bay, or at the cottage on Loon Lake. We flew in with Porter on Wednesday and back home Monday. Thunder Bay is interesting in a boring kind of way but Kate and I found a great place called Ruby Moon, which had wireless Internet, food and beer and was near a comic book store. While Kate busied herself with free lance work I read a football magazine and browsed the comics at the comic book store.
The cottage also has a sauna so we were in there a few times. It's not like a hot tub. You can sit in a hot tub for twenty minutes and then roll in the snow for a couple minutes without feeling the slightest bit cold. You can also sit in a hot tub for an hour without passing out due to heat stroke. The sauna has other qualities, for one it's very hot and for two you cool down about ten seconds after you leave the room. Our bright idea to jump in the lake after the sauna was not as fun as I expected it to be. Instead it felt like we we jumping into liquid ice.
The rest of the time was spend cooking or cleaning or reading a book by the fire or on the porch. It rained for a couple days. The day the tornadoes hit southern Ontario we had some pretty hefty winds. The rattling of everything kept us up most of the night and the fact that the upstairs rooms aren't sealed made it especially cold. Almost as if the wind, which I believe broke the sound barrier on three separate occasions that night, was basically blowing on us all night. Cold and loud and creepy, I rather enjoyed it actually, especially after finding a couple Lovecraft books to read.
Now we are back in Montreal and spending our time learning about natural gas, and oil furnaces and other expensive house things. The roofers gave us an estimate that was much lower than we expected on the place we are currently considering but the 45 year oil furnace counters that pretty effectively. We still want it and will hopefully be putting an offer in tomorrow. Our only time pressure is government tax breaks so we have very little pressure to buy, still I hope to get this place at the price we want it at. I guess that's every one's story.
B+
I failed in my quest for an A but it's only the first of a number of classes so I have plenty of time to get that GPA up. There are a few reasons I missed the grade I was hoping for and I still intend to speak with my prof so all is not lost yet. Here are the main reasons I missed the mark:
1) Concordia has been under the McGill shadow for quite some time, in order to glamorize themselves they have adopted their own 'Concordia' grade structure. A B+ (the mark I received) is a score between 80-85%. For the first 32 years of my life 80% meant A, Concordia is a trend setter in separating the awesome from the awesome minus 1. I must also note that I am loathe to speak negatively of Concordia after dealing with the University of Terror, I mean Toronto. Perhaps the single most frustrating institution on the planet, except for a certain wannabe phone company.
2) I missed 3 classes at the end of the semester, in which difficult things were learned by many, but not so much me.
3) There was a very large section on reading comprehension that dealt with tax law in France. I would be hard pressed to comprehend it if it was English, let alone French.
4) I possibly suck at exams.
I also found out that the marks I get in these classes won't be as impressive to universities as I originally thought so it's not as big a deal anyway. I was however quite disappointed in myself nonetheless. Next time I'll study French tax law before the exam.
Next class starts on the 8th of September.
1) Concordia has been under the McGill shadow for quite some time, in order to glamorize themselves they have adopted their own 'Concordia' grade structure. A B+ (the mark I received) is a score between 80-85%. For the first 32 years of my life 80% meant A, Concordia is a trend setter in separating the awesome from the awesome minus 1. I must also note that I am loathe to speak negatively of Concordia after dealing with the University of Terror, I mean Toronto. Perhaps the single most frustrating institution on the planet, except for a certain wannabe phone company.
2) I missed 3 classes at the end of the semester, in which difficult things were learned by many, but not so much me.
3) There was a very large section on reading comprehension that dealt with tax law in France. I would be hard pressed to comprehend it if it was English, let alone French.
4) I possibly suck at exams.
I also found out that the marks I get in these classes won't be as impressive to universities as I originally thought so it's not as big a deal anyway. I was however quite disappointed in myself nonetheless. Next time I'll study French tax law before the exam.
Next class starts on the 8th of September.
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