Saturday, June 21, 2008

I Can Still Hear The Snare in The Square

Summer always evokes memories of summer cam p for me. And it wasn't a sleepaway camp where we made crafts, made out by the campfire and ate smores. I went to cadet camp for 5 years. It was more like 6am wake up calls, french fries for every lunch at the mess and grueling wedge head (because I was an air cadet and even when I was at an army camp in Whitehorse, I had to wear my wedge - fabulous for the forehead).

Believe it or not but these were some of the best summers of my life. I felt like I lived, loved and laughed the whole 7 to 8 weeks that I was at camp. I went to Band Camp in Vernon in 1990 - a hideous hair year completed with Sun In streaks in my hair and an impossible crush on a guy named Ferris. I then wen to on to win a panel to go to Tech camp in Borden 1991. I made a radio and won top Tech cadet in BC. I was able to learn about Inuit culture (Whitehorse 1992) when I was a staff cadet. I will never forget the humiliation when I marched up to the dias when they called out Warrent Officer positions - they said Curly and I thought that they said Curry. I ended up being an admin clerk. Which may be the place where I fell in love with flying staplers. Then it was onto Penhold for true Air Cadet Camp (the first 3 were mainly army cadet camps with a few positions for air cadets to beat drums or staple documents).

I surprised myself (and I think my home squadron officers) when I landed a WO2 position at Penhold. I suspect that this had much to do with the fact that I had no history with the people on staff (and hence no rekindled friendships) and a massive ear infection which rendered me deaf. So I had no one but myself to commiserate with and this meant that I didn't talk myself into blowing off lesson plans, didn't talk myself into sneaking out after hours and didn't really make any friends until after the staff cadets had been assigned. I was determined to work hard and redeem my previous placement the summer before.

And of course then there was Penhold 1994 - when the mighty had fallen and the old regime had been replaced. Which ultimately led to me having a demotion (although same pay rate) to flight sergeant and one of the most moody summers of my life.

I will blog more about this - but for now given the time of year - I am always transported back to that initial excitement of leaving home for summer camp.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Little F*&$er

There is a little man who chooses to drag race his vehicle around my neighbourhood. This has been recent - however it always happens this time of year. Something about it being spring time and little men with little penises road raging around the hood.

I hate this man. He may be a teenager or he may be a middle aged guy on his lunch break- I am not sure. But if I catch him I guarantee that I will change his religion.

Today he scared Rowan so badly while he was in the backyard I vowed to catch him this summer if it is the only public service that I do.

For those of you who can remember the verbal smack down I gave to '9pm Rev My Motorcycle' guy you should looking forward to how I handle no Muffler Man.

Stay tuned.....

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Instant Gratification of Ebay

I love ebay. I just love it. There is a drama placed out with every transaction. Will I win it? Will I be outbid? Can I hit the bid button fast enough??

of course there is a dark side to all this 'shopping'. There is the crushing defeat when someone outbids you by 50 cents on an item that you thought that you had in the bag. Or the scary reality that you might have bought 3 Incrediblocks (no small mistake at $25 shipping per item). Or the relief that you in fact only bought 2 and had already found a home for the extra. There is cheeky smugness if you outbid someone. There is the excitement of the doorbell ringing - especially when you didn't pay extra for direct shipping to Canada.

Some recent finds - $3.74 for a Matt & Nat wallet (that matched my purse), 7 Gymboree summer outfits for Everly for 2 dollars a piece, Bjorn spit cover for half price. I LOVE ebay.

Next goal is to buy kitchen fixtures & bathroom faucets... about 75% cheaper on ebay.

Truly satisfying on a rainy weekday....

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

You Oughtta Know....

I would estimate that 50% of my parenting energy goes towards 'crime prevention'.

By this I mean that I try to avert disaster before it strikes. LIke putting all sharp knives up high. Removing all things breakable from the play room. Hiding chocolate and other treats up high before the little truffle sniffers can find them and demand TREATS before breakfast. Putting my favourite and my best bath bubbles under the sink so that they do not get used for general bubble making. Poopi - scooping the backyard before allowing the kids to play in the backyard. And up until two weeks ago this list also included putting all paints and paint brushes on top of the bookcase in the den so that the kids could not make eye contact with said contra ban and I was totally in charge of when and if there was going to be 'fun with paint time'.

I should also note that part of my crime prevention program includes vetting out inappropriate gifts such as paints with warning labels which include instructions which explicitly state that you must wash paint immediately off anything you don't want stained forever. Unless said paint gift is from a relative that we see quite frequently. In which case I divert to plan B which is keep the paint but keep it out of sight. Honestly when this gift was given I spent a long time searching the instructions on the bottles for the words WASHABLE or Water Soluble. Nada. Might as well be oil based melamine as far as I was concerned. Who the hell buys permanent paint for a 4 year old???

In a moment of blind stupidity, or perhaps due to extreme sleep deprivation, or an undeniable need to putting everything back in its place during my nesting phase prior to going into labour on May 19th, I grabbed the paint and assorted brushes and put them back with their art supply brethearn.

Sure enough yesterday while I was trying to mesh swimming schedules there was an unearthly quiet in the dinning room. After the quiet registered I got up to see two little people looking really guilty with a streak of gold in their hair. And fists full of wet wipes which also look like they have been used to mop up a large amount of gold PAINT. In the dining room. On the dining room CARPET in three separate pools of paint (with some hot pink for flair).

On my knees and scrubbing for what seems like hours (but honestly must have been for about 5 minutes) and there is only a wisp of a colour change to the pools. They resemble huge skid marks. In that special mopped up post gold way - sort of green and brown after tones. So I DRENCH the carpet in fantastic Oxy clean. And then I spray it again with cleaner. Then I let it sit and start to scrub again after HWSNBN gets home ("Why weren't you supervising them?"). Nothing. Just three huge skid marks.

Now before anyone starts a bottle drive for me to get my carpets cleaned ASAP I should say that we have already bought the hardwood and planned on the weekend that HWSNBN will be putting the hardwood down. In fact the reason why the art easel is even in the dining room is because of the plans to change the flooring. The only glitch is that this particular project is not scheduled to begin until September.

So it shall be a summer of skid marks in the dining room. Please look away when you come over....

For the record I have dispensed with the unwashable paint. And I dare the wrath of the relative to rain on me. Of course I will give them the Van Gogh tour when they come over next......