Guest Blogger: Gabriel! - How I like my new school!

Well, JJ's talked about the trials and tribulations of navigating the school system with his favourite eight year old here, here and here, where it ended with us switching to a new school and a special class designed for kids with Asperger's and autism.  Thought maybe an update was in order.  But why should I tell you about it when you can hear it from the horse's mouth, so to speak!  So, without further adieu, please welcome guest blogger...Gabriel!

Hi! I like the city in this picture, I have no idea why though.  It's true, even though its in the United States and I'm in Canada.

My School is Kensington.  It's a really good school because you learn a lot in there.  I am very happy to go there.  I had lots of friends at Humewood but I am learning better at Kensington.  My favourite thing about Kensington is that we get free choice.  That's when you play.  It's like free time.  What else do I like? Mostly everything.  And swimming's really good too. (Editor's note: the school has a pool! I know, right?  They go swimming twice a week!) 

Lookit! I'm a sock puppet.  (Editor's note: Sorry, we got distracted. Looks like that's it.)

GJ (and JJ) out!!

The Legend of Limpy

What up? Mind if I poop?

Warning: if you love mice, this entry may not be for you!

Hellloo! Internet!  Been a few days.  Been thinking about mice.  And my encounters with the little critters.  For instance!  The wife's aunt's cottage.  We were up there one summer and the place was INFESTED with mice.  You would see (and hear!) them running across the floor all the time.  And their little toxic poopoos were everywhere.  We head to the local store and buy the mouse traps they have...the old style wooden ones, with the wire snapper.  We set them up.  Smear peanut butter on the trigger.  We're set. Go to bed.  Wake up the next day and check the traps.  No PB, no mouse.  Little effers.  Off to Riverton to get more effective soltion.  We pick up these plastic traps.  They look less lethal than the wire and wood ones, but let's give them a try.  Go back to the cabin and set them up.  Not five minutes later..."snap!" Not five minutes after that..."snap!" And so on, and so on and so on! It's a mouse massacre!

Ottawa! Suburbs!

You're under arrest.

So a couple of weeks ago the fam and I headed to the nation's capital.  Besides attending Doc Zhivago's going away party, we also headed to Barhaven, a suburb of Ottawa, to hang out with an old friend of the wife's, her husband and their kids.  (Quick side note: their last name is Heffernan.  We were over at their place in Winnipeg a few years ago, while we were both living there.  I called her husband "Doug".  Which is not his name.  But does happen to be the name of the main character on "The King of Queens".  Doh. I wondered at the time why he looked at me quizically. If you ever read this, Rob...Sorry, man.)

Anyhoo, they invite another couple over.  The husband is an RCMP fella.  Very nice guy.  Didn't try to pepper spray us once!  Just kidding.  Just a little leftist humour there.  He was really nice.  Pretty boring job, though.  He teaches other officers how to fight terrorists. 

Anyhoo (again with the anyhoo! which reminds me, a partner was reviewing something I wrote the other day and said something I wrote was a bit "colloquial"! So I said "what?, it's not like said "ain't"! Or that's what I would have said if I had had any idea of what colloquial meant at the time - "informal!")

The point of my story.  So I say: "did you know any of those poor Mounties that were killed in Mayerthorpe?"

"I knew one....but I was stationed there when I started.  And I knew murderer guy.  He was one bad dude.  His brother charged him with something.  In the court room he attacked his brother so I had to choke him out in my red serge."

So I was like "I totally know what that's like.  The other day I was searching through this document to make sure I had covered all the defined terms...." 

Ok, I didn't really say that. But I might have if I had thought of it then instead of a couple of hours later.  Duh.

Later the bad guy bear sprayed his brother in a bar in front of the whole town.  No witnesses. 

Bonus Post! How I Spent my Summer Vacation: The Kia Parts!

Ok,

A couple of other awesome things happened during the summer "vacation".  The car above is ours.  Well, it's the same kind, colour and year, anyways.  This one looks a lot better than ours does.  Why is that? Two reasons.

As I pointed out in my last post, while in Winnipeg this summer, we stayed at the mother-in-law's.  The place has an undergroud parking garage where we parked while we there.  I had to go to work a couple of the days right after we arrived and one of these days Janelle and the boys came to pick me up.  I hop in the car.  But the wife is acting kinda weird.  "Is everything ok?" I ask.

"Yes."

Luckily for me, Tattle-Dum and Tattle-Dee are sitting in the back seat.  "Daaad, Mommy crashed the car!"

"Hon?" I say...

Yes, turns out  one of the cement pillars in the unfamiliar parking garage had jumped out at the last second and scraped the side of the car. 

Which sucks major ass.

"It's ok, hon," the magnanimous JJ says. "could have happened to anyone.."  Foreshadowing!

Smash cut to JJ off to Arborg with newly installed donut.  Hearing this faint weird noise.  "Tink-bonk.  Tink-tink-bonk. Tink-bonk."

What could it be?  Well, probably has something to do with the gravel road.  Probably nothing.  Pull on to the highway, and it's more noticable now.  Stop beside the highway in the dark.  Walk around the car.  What's there?

Well, to tell you that, I gotta tell you this:

The spare tire on the Kia is beneath the car.  There is a cable with a metal stopper thingy on the end.  To get the donut, you let the cable out.  Then turn the stopper thingy and the donut comes off.  Then you just retract the cable.  Easy peasy.  But take JJ's advice, don't forget to retract the cable. 

Yes, I had forgotten to retract the cable.  The metal stopper thingy had been dragging on the ground, ricocheting up and smashing into my rear bumper.  Over and over again.  The damage?  The bumper is sort of ok, but looks like it has been repeatedly bitten by a squirrel. 

Which sucks major ass. 

So that's the story of the Kia's summer vacation.

Vroom! Vroom!