Too good to be true

I will never ever win the lottery. It's always someone old, or alone, someone that was laid off recently, or 30 people that share it. The way the universe works for me is that my 'lottery win' is finding a quarter in the couch, or not shitting myself when I'm nowhere near a bathroom (this one I actually haven't won but that's a story for another day).

Case in point: today. The morning to be exact. Everything is going better than planned. The wife is up, kids are up, lunches are ready, school things are all ready to go. It couldn't go better. The drive to work was bearable. I even made it to the gas station with the gas tank empty light on. Parked the van at work and headed to the office.

And then the universe decides to nudge me.

I look down and I AM WEARING TWO DIFFERENT SHOES.

This morning was too good to be true.

That is all. Run along.

She's 4 and a half.

Our oldest, 6-year old E has been bothering us about buying popcorn at school. It's some sort of fundraising they do for the school. The older kids sell Kernels flavoured popcorn. E has been all over his mom and I trying to pry $2 from us. Like any Filipino family, and this is how it was when I grew up, we told him that we would buy our own popcorn at the store because its cheaper and we get more.

Now Tuesdays in our house is piano lesson day. A good friend of hours teaches the kids. We proceed to pay her and we never ever have exact change. This was the case this past Tuesday. The change that we receive, $2.50, sits on the counter in the kitchen.

Wednesday after school we make popcorn for the kids for a snack. E2 (middle of the triplets) goes into his back pack and pulls out a Kernels bag of flavoured popcorn. I'm on shock. This is the same bag of popcorn that I have been telling E the senior that he can't have.

"Where did you get that?"
"My sister gave it to me." Smiling.
"A, where did you get this popcorn?"
"From Jocelyn."
"Who's Jocelyn?"
"She's a helper."
"She just gave you popcorn?"
"I gave her money."
"Where did you get the money?"
"I found it."

Not only did our daughter swipe the change from the kitchen counter in the morning and put it in her back pack. She had the wherewithal (just wanted to use that word) to try to frame her brother. Genius. She's 4 and a half years old.

I'm about to become a hockey dad.

I'm about to become a hockey dad.  I'm pretty nervous.  I have received the e-mail for a pre-season practice on Saturday.  Judging by the e-mail list of parents and the last names, my son will be one of the visible minorities on the team.  Not to mention the fact that he is 5 years old turning 6 in a month, and just started skating this year.  It's amazing that so much has changed in (ahem) thirty-ish years and yet some things haven't really.  

When I was 7 years old, I wanted to play hockey pretty badly.  When you're a kid life is about play, school, and friends.  I begged my parents to let me play.  I had no idea how much it cost and what was involved.  For my birthday all I wanted was hockey equipment.  At the time we were living in Edmonton.  My father would walk me to one of the four outdoor rinks in our neighbourhood.  He would sit in the freezing cold shed and put my skates on and then he would get on the ice with me and be my goalie.  Imagine, a thirty-something Filipino father who immigrated to Canada standing in the freezing cold on ice playing goalie for his son. Oh the things you do for your kids.

I found out later in my twenties that while we were living in Edmonton my mom and dad were having a rough go of it.  My father didn't have a job for about a year and my mom had almost died while giving birth to my little brother.  My request to play hockey must have been the furthest thing from their minds.  Except that I bet that it wasn't.  On my 7th birthday my parents, who must have been struggling but never really let that show to us, gave me a pair of hockey gloves.  It was all they could afford.  I loved them.  They were black with red and white fingers.  I put them on and  played in the living room with my Northlands stick and a tennis ball.  I used my little brother's empty Pampers box as a net.  It was about two feet tall and a foot wide.  The flap would open in the front of the box.  I would shoot wristers into that box for hours.

Fast forward 30 years.  We were able to get some equipment for our son second hand.  I have to go out and get a neck guard, mouth guard, some elbow pads, a water bottle, and a couple of sticks today.  First practice tomorrow morning.  I'm about to become a hockey dad.

How I Slept in My Bed Last Night

We have a 5-year old and 3-year old triplets. My wife was able to sneak away to the bed left behind by the kids.

The Exact Moment I Got the Flu This Year

About a month ago I was having some chest pains.  Enough so that it warranted a visit to the doctor.  I’ve had this pain once before this year.  It’s called pleurisy.  Some sort of infection in the chest wall that causes pain when there is friction between the chest wall and say your lungs.  So breathing or moving can cause this pain.  I know right?  Breathing, that’s kind of essential to living.  The first time the doctor gave me antibiotics and in a few days I was back to normal.  So, thinking this is the same thing, I had just been taking Advil for a couple of days and it was working but it wasn’t gone completely.  So there I was in the doctor’s office.  The doctor and I had determined it was the same thing as before.  I told her I was taking Advil and she said to keep going with that  until the pain subsides and I should be fine but call if it’s still around in a couple of days.  Cool.  Then it happened.

Doc:  “Do you want the flu shot?”

Me:   “Ummm no thanks, I usually don’t get it.”

Doc:  “Are you sure?”

Me in my head:  I just realized you must get paid for every flu shot you give, also you are a terrible salesperson…thank goodness you became a doctor.

Me: “Yup, I’ll maybe get it at work.  They have clinics set up for the next few weeks.”

Me in my head: Nope not getting it.

Two weeks later, fever, chills, phlegm and now coughing.  So a total of 3 weeks in and I’m still coughing.

That is all. Run along.

5 things I Googled today

1. Can you warm/heat up mayonnaise?


2. Sepinwall Parenthood


3. TV Guide Listings


4. Shopbot


5. fuckyeahteambartowski


That is all. Run along.

"Oh the redhead said you shred the cello. And I'm Jello baby"

Retraction

I take back what I said about Rob Ford.  I knew it.  It’s like betting on the Bills.  You just don’t do it.  No matter how ‘in the bag’ you think it is.  The story is here.  Apparently Ford is all in on the joke then goes back inside and calls 9-1-1.  It seems Ford went on a rant with a bunch of expletives thrown in.  He’s declined to comment.  I sit corrected. 

Looking Forward

Friday is a big day.  End of the work week, beginning of the weekend.  I’ll have to preface this by saying that we have 4 small children.  A soon to be 5-year old and three, count ‘em three, yes triplets, the trifecta, the tre, the hat trick…, 3-year olds.  So, it’s not hard to believe that my wife and I don’t go out.  We go out here and there, she has drinks after work, I get to go to the gym a couple times a week (on a good week) to hang out with my buddies.  Friday my wonderful siblings and I are going to see Sheezer.  Yup an all-woman cover band of Weezer!  Oh baby, chips and gravy!

From the department of ‘all things seem to happen at once’, Friday is also the final season premiere of one of my favourite shows – Chuck.  I’m likely not going to be able to watch this as I’ll either be already downtown or putting the kids to sleep so I can go downtown.  No PVR either.  I’ll have to catch it online somewhere the next day.  Watch the teaser here.

Oilers

Well, there’s the arena thing. The story from the Journal.  Looks like E-town is getting a face lift.

Tonight the Oil are up against the best team in hockey at the moment – the Caps.  Should be a good test.  We’ll find out if RNH stays or goes back to junior after this game.  I think he stays.  How could he not?  He leads the team in points.  Plus the game is on TSN so hopefully the Oil put up a good showing.  Checking the lines it might be a good idea to put some coin down for the Oilers to beat the Caps, now I just gotta find two other games to parlay. 

Text to my betting guru – “Oilers might be a good play tonight – just sayin’”

Text back – “I have some money on them…”

Charity

So I just decided to give back to the community.  Pledging some dough to the United Way that automatically gets deducted from my paycheque.  It’s out of the goodness of my heart…ok who are we kidding it’s like 60% goodness of my heart and 40% I really really want to win something like and iPad or Leaf hockey tickets (that I would promptly sell for way over market value to some obsessed Leaf fan).  I am a bad person.

Also just thought of some of the best charity slogans or at least the ones I like:

United Way – Without you there would be no way.

Canadian Blood Services – It’s in you to give.

That is all.  Run along.