This is a post from my (new) “Daddy Daze” series, an anecdotal exploration of my odd little adventures in parenting in bite-sized chunks (for your reading enjoyment) and because the last thing this world needs is yet another doting parent blog. Rudolph Overload Unlike my childhood when the desire to watch the annual allotment of holiday specials needed to be coordinated deeply with the weekly TV Guide and a patiently timed aggregate effort by myself and my siblings to claim the tube for that half hour span of precious programming, Claire is spoiled by a PVR. A few minutes of thumbing through the digital program guide netted me a swath of programmed recordings, and having nearly forgotten the effort the list of shows suddenly available [...]

A “reloaded” post is a quick-clipped summary of a bunch of small things from the past few days. I want to write them down, but I am either lacking in (a) details or (b) time. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Enjoy. Dinner in the Park Friday evening we drove out to Sherwood Park to go out for sushi and such. One might question why we would drive to the opposite end of the city — and in fact into a neighboring town — to go for sushi when we have our regular restaurant right nearby. The fact is, actually, that a friend — Gene who was my University roommate — and his wife recently (as in last week) opened a new sushi restaurant there, [...]

A “reloaded” post is a quick-clipped summary of a bunch of small things from the past few days. I want to write them down, but I am either lacking in (a) details or (b) time. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Enjoy. The Chopping Game I’ve been playing Minecraft again. I’d kinda been off it for a while — the summer mostly — but in the last couple weeks I’ve ventured back into the world we created last winter and I’ve been chopping my way through the new features, rule-sets, and other changes. I’ve still not figured out all the bits, though: I really need to find that wiki and spend some time look at what all the little tweaks mean. The food and nutrition [...]

This is a cross-post from my photo-blog: pixelated (and back again)… because I really like this photo and wanted to share it. Really. It was just a stupidly lucky shot, but like so much photography it is being in exactly the right spot at the right moment. I had been tempted to just give you a pic from my iPhone today. You almost got one. It was almost that kind of day. A Friday. A post-work, too-exhausted-to-care photo day. Almost. But then, timing being what it was, we’d finished supper, the dog was pacing around the kitchen, the refridgerator was acting up again, and I just needed to get out for a walk. Claire insisted on coming along. We put on our jackets and shoes, [...]

A “reloaded” post is a quick-clipped summary of a bunch of small things from the past few days. I want to write them down, but I am either lacking in (a) details or (b) time. That’s just how it goes sometimes. Enjoy. On Paints and Beds I was feeling a little blue. Literally. I was speckled all over my arms, and a bit on my face with a kind of greyish indigo. Eggshell. The direct result of that casual splatter often encountered by your everyday-average-homeowner turned painter when he stumbles upon the need to hurriedly add colour to a wall as a result of buying new furniture that (in opposition to the norm) is delivered weeks earlier than anticipated. Recommendations included in the lesson are [...]

Claire and I had eaten dinner, gone to and from her swimming lessons, played in the backyard and were killing a few minutes watching television before her bedtime.  I happened upon an old episode of Batman. You know… the old Batman.  The 1960s Adam West in baggy tights spouting cheesy dialogue Batman. Claire was fascinated, though she couldn’t quite figure it all out. Who were the bad guys? Why were there bad guys? Why does Batman’s car go so fast? Was that girl really dead? (She had melodramatically fallen into Batman’s personal nuclear reactor.) Why did Batman take off his costume? Is that a bad guy, too? (Referring to Alfred.) Who is that guy? Is he a bad guy or a good guy? She peppered [...]