Nice weekend

It's been another nice weekend, though Suzanne worked most of the day on Saturday and it rained all day Sunday.

Saturday was low key, we were outside a bit, finalize a hotel on St-Augustine beach with balcony on the water (I just can't wait to sip wine on the balcony with Suzanne while the kids are sleeping in the room). At night, Sue and I had a good meat/spinach/swiss cheese roule and the kids had tacos. We spent the evening on relaxing and reserving the dinners at Disney.

Sunday was low key again, with the rain and all. Sue and I worked on Sab's bike, and did some laundry and cleaning. Sabrina and Mathieu spent some time looking at Disney videos on the Net. Supper was steak for us and the rest of the tacos for the kids. I did some Nuance work at night and watch some BG while Sue read downstairs.

The wine of the weekend was the Chateau Berliquet St-Emilion Grand Cru 2004 -- Excellent, but a bit pricey ($45). The 2005 is $61. Suzanne's description: "It's good, it taste expensive".

Walt Disney

While sipping a glass of Chateau Berliquet St-Emilion Grand Cru Classe 2004, we booked a vacation for July to Walt Disney resort. Planes and hotel are reserved, now we just have to prepare a few days at St-Augustine. We're quite excited.

Here is what we're expecting to see from our hotel room balcony. Please don't tell the kids, it's a secret!

Oh and the wine is excellent.

Wednesday

A normal day. Sabrina goes to school, Mathieu stays with me, the cleaners come to take care of the house and I go through two meetings. Normal supper, normal everything. The homework is good, Sabrina does D-F, Mathieu recites his letters. Everyone has what they like for dinner.

I'm instituting leader day at our home. Sabrina, born on an odd date, will be leader on odd days. Mathieu will be leader on even days. So next time I hear: "me first" I'll know who to take care of first.

Quiet Friday, beautiful Saturday

Mathieu is not feeling well, he has a deep cough, so I've decided to stay home on Friday. Today is beautiful, Mathieu is also feeling better, so once I'm done cleaning I think it's going to be time for some sun. We went to eat at the Egg this morning, while Suzanne went to her office in St-Lambert. Talked to mom, she just bought herself a new Ford Fiesta (available June).

Montreal Dow Planetarium

The kids and I went to the Planetarium today. We were able to get in for free using our Boston Museum of Science Member Card, like we did at the Cosmodome. The first 10 minutes of the show were precious, seeing the looks of awe on both Sabrina and Mathieu's faces. A real great thing. Otherwise this was a great day, beautiful, the kids played well together. Tonight a treat, Sue is putting them to bed.

Spring break

We're enjoying the beautiful weather, but ski season looks like it's winding down. On Tuesday we went to the Cosmodome in Laval. Real fun.

Comic Relief

We've had a hard day. A long walk this morning. This afternoon I moved a tree and winterize our awning and our air conditioner. So when came time to put the kids to bed, I wanted everything to go well, which they didn't of course. After Sabrina was done with her cereals, I asked her to go brush her teeth:

"Sabrina, please go brush your teeth"

Nothing's happening. She's doing what she does best when she doesn't want to do what I want her to do: ignoring me.

"Sabrina can you go brush your teeth please"

This time I'm told she wants more cereals (a favored stalling technique). I saw no, she's already had lots. We start this tug of war battle where I say "go brush your teeth" and she says "give me more cereals". It comes to a point when I start losing it and tell her that if she doesn't heed my request I'm going to bring her in her room, door closed. To which she answers:

"Say pretty please, and I'll go brush my teeth".

Please understand that at this point all negotiation possibilities are gone and I'm not in a humor to let her win. There is no way I'm going to say pretty please so my answer to her is:

"I'm bringing Mathieu's bowl to the kitchen, when I come back you better be on your way to brush your teeth or I'm bringing you to your room".

She stays steady on her seat while Suzanne is saying "Pretty please, Sabrina, now go brush your teeth". When I come back she is still sitting on her seat, telling me to say "Pretty please" or she won't go brush her teeth.

I grab her in my arms and start going upstairs, at which point she understands that I'm not joking. At the same time, Suzanne is taking Mathieu to brush his teeth by laying him down on his changing table.

Before I reach the first step, Sabrina concedes and she asks me to bring her to the sink, which I do. As I'm passing near the changing table, I hear Suzanne tell Mathieu to stop clowning around and to lie on his back.

To which he answers:

"Say pretty-please"

Ever wonder what I do for a living?

-Martin

"What are you talking about, Batman"

Mathieu, playing with two of Max's Batman figurine. He's repeating this non stop.

Sabrina telling a story

"... and the tire was flat, but they forgot their pumper, so ..."

Some funnies from Sabrina

"I like to do things when they are my idea"
"Timealot" = pool thermometer
"rainbrella" = self-explanatory

This weekend

Sunday was an amazing day: we worked outside on the garden and the pool, and then spent a lot of time in the pool. This is so far becoming an amazing summer even if I have to work on Saturdays (Martin). I did change my wireless network from a Linksys G box to a Time Capsule (n box). All in all though, it was an outside day.

They are so smart ...

Sabrina read the cars book to Mathieu. We're talking about 50 pages with about 150-250 words per page. She read it almost verbatim. Except that she doesn't read yet (I'm working on that). She read it to him from memory.

All of Mathieu's shorts are dirty so I put his swimming suit on. "What's that papa?" he asked. "Those are your pants". "No" he replied, "it's my bathing suit". He's a bit more then 1 1/2 but he speaks so well. I met 3 years old that don't speak as well as he does.

No epipens today

I'm working from home for the rest of the summer to take care of our amazing kids. Suzanne left for work this morning with the epipens in her purse this morning and to be honest, I feel like I'm in a car on the highway with my family and nobody is tied in. People don't realize how brutal a peanut allergy can be. I'm sure a lot of people think we are overly paranoid.

It's our anniversary today!!!

Six great years, two amazing kids...

So what do we do on this special day? Suzanne works half the day and I fix the central vacuum (thanks to http://builtinvacuum.com/flowchrt.html). Right now Saby and Suzanne are doing the groceries. Matt and I just got the darn vacuum pulling again. I foresee a short dip in the pool.

Thanks mom for reminding me what day it was today.

My little swimmer

From afraid to expert in 2 hours.

Father's Day

It's funny how things go. My idea of Father's day was to sit in front of my new iMac and learn how to use it. That didn't happen. It was even better! We went to have breakfast at Cora's then I worked on the pool. At 88F, it's pretty warm so it didn't take long for me to jump in. Sabrina was close behind. She came in with her new floating speedo bathing suit. We had a good time, her hanging on to me for dear life.

However in the afternoon, she came back and went from someone hanging on to me to a little swimmer, sitting on a noodle with a floating balloon on her back. She is so amazing she can now manage in the pool by herself.

Even better, she is so considerate she counted that there weren't enough chairs for the five of us at the patio table so she went to get one by herself. Real amazing. Her and Mathieu were full of "I love you" and I even got one from Max. The day ended by a massage.

I wish it was father's day everyday. With my family it does feel like it.

The iMac

The Mac is a wonderful machine I find to be a cross between Unix and Windows, so far. It is by far the most elegant of them all, and OsX is a joy to work with, once you understand how things are done. A lot of people I know who switched from Windows to Linux made a big mistake by jumping over the Mac. It is by far a much superior machine that is very pleasant work with.

Now that I have a full English keyboard (thank you Mac Expert at the Apple store in the Eaton center), one that is unwrapped, typing is much easier. It's not a PC keyboard though and I'm typing at about 60-70% but I can see myself getting used to it. It is very sturdy and has an excellent feel.

Working on a 20" 1680x1050 screen is amazing. The OS looks great on it and is a joy to work with, apart from the idea of having the top menu bar morph into whatever program you're using, instead of having a menu bar on each window. I understand the need for this on a small 9" screen. On a 20" inch screen, I find I do a lot of travelling with the mouse, a lot more then I should. I'm sure it's even worst on a 24" screen.

As far as the OS goes, there is a learning curve and I'm climbing it. But just the fact I could easily fire up a terminal, type python and see the familiar prompt within 5 minutes of starting the computer is good enough for me.

If Windows is like a normal sedan like a Ford focus, or a Toyota Corolla, Linux is like a Yaris, a Geo, a Kia, a Hyunday or any small high production car that doesn't cost much. Working with a Mac is like driving a Smart, a Prius, a Mini, a small Mercedes, a car that has a certain amount of elegance and pizazz not everyone is ready to pay for.

It's too bad, it's a great machine.

I've cross on the other side... and I like it

A few things happened in the past few days... I am now permanent and we got an iMac. The picture below was taken with the camera on the computer.

the purchase hasn't been as smooth and as elegant as I associate Apple with:

• Because I'm on Voip, I'm not on Canada411 so validating me an my credit card took a while.
  
• I asked for an English machine and I got a French one. When I called the store I felt like I was bothering someone. So I am now finger typing on a wrapped keyboard to make sure I can return it. No 30 words/minute here. Takes away from the experience.
  
• The learning curve is bigger then I expected. And the menu bar only on top of the screen may work well on a 9" screen, but it;s a lot of travelling on a 20" screen. Not very ergonomic.
  

I love the machine though... very much.

It begins (part II)

Sabrina was arguing with Suzanne a few minutes ago: "Where's my email, maman, where's my email". Yes we are geeks and she has an email account, but for a 3 1/2 to actually ask for it, well...