Top of the world

 It was the 2nd last day of 2011.
And we decided to spend it in the clouds.  Well it was foggy.
It was the 35th anniversary of the CN tower.
And Kieran was excited about going to what was the tallest freestanding structure in the world.

I was just curious about the food.

From the security check at the base, the elevator ride, to the revolving restaurant, to the observation deck, where Kieran didn't want to step on to the glass deck.
It was such a novelty of a venue.  Did you know, the restaurant completes a full rotation in 72 mins.  Each pillar passes by in about 6 or 7mins so there are 12 pillars.
Too bad about the fog.  Wished we could have seen the view from 1500 ft up.

I thought the best part of the meal was Kieran's Chicken fingers and fries.  The chicken fingers were so moist and the crust was crispy and not oily at all.

I thought it was way better than mine and Tresa's meal.
You know the last time I was up at the CN tower, it was cloudy as well.  What the heck?  It would have been nice to get a nice clear day where we can see our house.  I was actually feeling a little dizzy from the moving deck or maybe it was from my lingering cold or my food, so maybe it was a good thing I could not see through the clouds.

But Kieran thought it was cool.  The dyson hand dryer was also very neat.
And the old railway round house and all the trains were fun for him.

We stopped by this guy's place to interrupt his flooring install, and more importantly to pass on some important things that he's going to need.

He's in for some good times ahead of him.
He's going to need to call in some favours!
Ha...he'll do ok.  Cuz Anne is going to be there too.

The Cup 2011

It was a snowy night.  Roads were slick.  Making for a tense battle scene between a burgeoning dynasty and a couple of hungry 2nd place guys for the past two years.

There was the pre-game face to face tale of the tape between these two rivals.

Where it almost came down to a fist fight.  But the match would be settled on the electronic simulated ice.

And it would go to the team who wanted it more this year.

The Goodwill Clothing Online Hackers or the Euro Connection Titans.

It was tough to say how it would finish.  Because neither team was really any good.  So it was pretty even.

It was a backup system this year.  Going to the XBox NHL 06 instead of the more newer version we used last year.  Who would this benefit?  Both teams were unfamiliar with the game.  So it was a toss up.  But the team that gelled together and found their stride sooner would come out on top.

It was the EC Titans cruising to victory in Game 1 of the best of 7 series.  Dominating face offs and hits, and more importantly - goals.

A tight 2nd game with both teams struggling to score, but with the score tied 1-1 late in the 3rd frame a go ahead garbage goal sealed a critical game 2 for Goodwill Hackers.  Game 3 was decided by the Titans.  Another tight game turned the tide for the Hackers as they took game 4 1-0.

Game 6 was a must win for the Titans.

But the Goodwill Clothing Online Hackers were just too much.  Scoring quickly to go up 2-0 in the first frame.  The EC Titans needed to score to get back into the game, but it was 4-1 in the second, and the 3rd period was a tight game with no scoring and that was all she wrote for the Titans.  


Starting strong in the series but sputtering out to lose the last 3 games.  They just could not match the speed and determination of the Hackers.
  
I blame it on my cold.  If I was 100%, I think the outcome would be different.
Meh...it's hard to say.  We still probably would have lost.  The better team won.

2011 Cup Champions

Derrick and Hong

Click for photos.

Dinner was fun.  We need to get together more often.  Next time we will have our couch to complet this room and make it more comfy.

You guys should come over again this summer, this time with the wives.  Before things get more busy for all of us.  Except Derrick. I'm not planning on any renos, but we will be planning and saving for another reno.  This time the kitchen and bath.

All I can say is that Tresa is happy that trophy is out of our house.
We'll get it back next year.
If we all get PS3, how will that affect how we play this game?

My Lucky Christmas

R is for Room is done and Relief.
For chRistmas time with family or how some asians say it - fama-Ree.
For maRketing and commeRcials.
For Ransacked and tRaffic and RetuRns and Refunds and sometimes shhhh.....Regift.
For Rest and Recovery.

Where marketing commercials blitzes and crowded malls and website slowdowns and online crashes are common now.
It's so chaotic and stressful.

Well more for Tresa than for me.  She does all the shopping.  I just see the bill.  Which I think is more than a fair barter.  It takes a trooper to venture out into crowded parking lots, traffic jams, ransacked stores and find and evaluate a potential gift and maybe a cold and flu virus or two.

All Kieran and I do is shower, get cleaned up, brush our teeth and get dressed to go to our respective family houses.  And we say our 'merries', eat, drink, chat, eat some more and hugs and kisses goodbye for another season.  Whether it be easter, mother's day, father's day, thanksgiving, someone's birthday whatever.

I can't remember if I was sick last year.  But this year I got the flu shot in Nov.  I had to finish the basement.  That was priority number 1.  And that was my christmas gift to us to be able to enjoy the space, but more so for me to finish and relax.  Now I wish Elte would deliver us our couch sooner rather than later.
I was doing fine until about a week ago and I was feeling slightly unwell.  But a few days later I was feeling a touch of the cold, played hockey to sweat it out and then played again and now I'm congested.  So I'm number 3 in the house to get sick.  But no flu.  Which is not too bad.  Flu for me spells lights out.

I should have taken a picture of the kids playing pictionary.  This game is so stressful.   But great for the brain.  I'm glad to be a part of it and create some chaos.  But then my role changed to being a referee because it was hard to tell who said the word first.

It always amazes me how the simplest gifts make people smile the biggest.  Toys and games, and gift cards and clothes, but it never occurred to me how this one box would change the holidays.  I had to concede at this one.  I should have known.  But his aunt knows him better.  He even labelled it so no one would take his Lucky Charms.

Merry Christmas... and happy boxing day to all the asians waiting in lines around TO.

Double digit day

It was my last window of opportunity to get something done before the cold weather finally is here to stay.  On thursday it was going to be a double digit day in terms of temperatures.  I had changed my front brake pads on the Subaru weeks back but I noticed that braking wasn't smooth.  So I planned on replacing the rotors before it began to snow.  So when the weather forecast came in.  It was good timing.  I hate working out in the cold.  So I had to take this opportunity that was presented to me.  How many times in late December in Toronto does it reach 11-15 deg C?

Front rotors.

It was also the day the stairs were getting installed.  So finally we can get rid of those vinyl tiled stairs forever and have something decent to look at and walk on and it would go with the rest of the basement.



Replacing the rotors didn't take me long.  It was raining, but I had the car half in the garage so I could work on it.  All the while the stair guys were taking out the tiles and installing the stairs.  They were there a long time.  The tiles were giving them lots of problems.  It was tough to remove.  And the glue was horrible.  Glad it was a fixed price contract.  They had to finish in one day.  Because they had another big job to go to on Friday.

Basement stairs and rec room finished.

Who's Gloves are These?

I cannot believe I got this!
I got the HockeyToronto Email and I checked every leaf player that hasn't been injured.  And I'm not going to say which player it is.  But luckily after 400+ responses.  I was the first person to reply with the CORRECT answer! Some people were responding more than once and getting pissed. Meh.

What's is funny is that the answer to this question was right in FB.  That's not how I determined it, by that time I'd already known I'd won.

I was sure someone would have beaten me to it.
Thanks BRUCE!


So off Kieran and I go to the ACC via TTC.  Kieran has only been to the ACC during the public free skate.  Never to a game.  So this is exciting.  For me and me for him.  I'm sure he's just happy to be riding the subway.

An early christmas present.  Hope the Leafs beat the Canes.  That would be icing on the cake. They gotta do better on the PK.  And they gotta quit with the brain cramp penalties.

We picked up our tickets and we were at the ACC for Kieran's first Leafs Nation game.

The seats were fine, it's the atmosphere that I wanted Kieran to experience. The National Anthem.  And that huge flag that goes across the Gold section.
The cheering of the crowd.  The boos. The elation when a goal is scored and a big save is made.  The combined frustration when opportunities are missed.  And the herd of the crowds between periods.

And there's all these activities during the intermission that we rarely see on the tube.  These are the reasons we go see a game live vs on TV.  It's that experience I wanted for Kieran.  Something I never got to do until I was an adult.

It was a bit of a sleepy and frustrating game.
And that beer and popcorn in the first period made us both need to pee bad by the first intermission.  I forgot about the line ups to get down to the restrooms.

It was 30+ shots to 15 for the Leafs.  People were cheering for the Leafs to finish it.  So frustrating for nearly 60 mins.  And a late 3rd period goal seemed to seal the win, but there was a needless penalty at the end of the game.  But thank god they pulled out an Overtime win less than a minute into OT.

I know Kieran was itching to go home.  It was late. Was hoping the Leafs would dominate and score and make this a walk.  But they had trouble getting the puck through.
And we got to ride the new TTC subway!
It feels so much wider and finally a subway that is on par with what has been in Asia and the rest of the world outside of North Amer.
It's very cool.  And quiet.  Roomy.
I'm sure this was the highlight of Kieran's first Leaf Game.
I'm just glad they won.

Carbon Xmas Foot print

This house is across from McCormick Arena.
It has so many lights that my crappy iPhone 3G camera pics turn out.

Not sure what their electricity bill is like during the month of December but I would switch to LED's.
And maybe some solar panels juicing up some lithium batteries to power the lights.

It's definitely the most lit house on the street.
It's like the street pooled all of it's lights and dumped it on this one house.
The rest of the street is ghetto dark.

Gotta pick out the train decoration.
If you stand in the yard long enough.  I'm sure you'd get a tan.  Or your retinas will get a candy cane image burned into them.

And Kieran noticed that this house has no grass.

Maybe all the lights burned out the grass.

Night Sky

These are glow in the dark stickies, I got from my brother.  This is at 7am.  These things hold the energy imparted to them from the light for an amazingly long time.

I asked Kieran if he wanted me to cut out stars, because that's very conventional.  Ceiling, dark, skies, stars.

With the leftover pieces he used to create neater stuff.  I just lifted him up and he placed them on the ceiling.
The top one is a Pokemon character.  Can you guess what it is?
Then the other two are a fish and a shark.

The light coming in from below is from the hallway.  But the door was only slightly open.  Took this with my f2.8 17-55mm E-FS canon lens slightly zoomed in.  I love it!

Below Grade Playroom

Wow, can't believe we started this project at the end of May.  The May 24 weekend to be precise.  I'm basically done.  We have no sofa yet and the stairs are going to be done in a few weeks, but with some help from Sam, my nephew and brother-in-law and a lot of help from my brother Mel, my work is pretty much done.  At least for now.  Not sure what I'm going to be doing in the evenings now.
We've lived with this basement for nine years.  Wilma was saying how nice Milan (the previous owners) made our basement. Nothing wrong with it I said.  We just made it better.  Plus it's our house now.  That's what the deed says.  We took out the kitchen that we no longer used.  We only used it when we first moved in, because we had no appliances.  Last year we got rid of the appliances in the basement.

At first we just wanted to remove the kitchen and square up the room.  Basically recover that space the cabinets took up.
Then we had an idea.  Make it into a media room (actually that was my idea). With one condition.  No wires running on the floor somewhere.  Ok.  I can do that.  At least I can try.  And try I did.
And then it morphed. I took down the stairwell wall to insulate, I redid the crawlspace (insulated and installed a light).  Relocated the hallway light.  Ran speaker jacks to the living room, ethernet to all 3 floors. Phone jacks, media nook, feature lighting. It took longer than I thought.  But there are only so many hours in a day.  And now the days are getting shorter.  It's dark at 5pm ET now.  And it's Dec.  Brrrrr....That's it for me.  It's hockey season.

But we finished it.  And it's the only room in the house that we've re-made into what I call Tresa's vision.   I give her all the credit for picking out all the wow factor stuff.  My work is all under the paint.  I did the best I could to meet her design.  There were some compromises along the way, but I think the room works.  Can't wait for the sectional.  Sitting on the floor watching Pokemon hurts my butt.  Don't know how Kieran does it. 
This is our playroom.
Basement Reno