Who's a Fat Bastard - Crazy days

December 12, 2014

Mama Lee's Birthday Cake

      I don't know why I feel the need to apologise, but I do. I really screwed up the end to yesterdays blog, writing wise, and under pressure. I did a lousy job with the pictures. So here is a picture of Casa Lisa Paella that I never posted yesterday. It is so hard for me not to just sit down and eat several bowls of this amazing dish.

Casa Lisa Paella

      I got out of bed at 7:30 this morning because today was Papa Squatch Dayscare. Cup of Joe in hand I worked on yesterday's blog until Jen dropped the Grandkids off at 8:15. That gave me another half hour to work on the blog before I had to take Bella to school.  At this point I'm about eighty percent finished. Fifteen minutes later I had Christo packed in the truck and taking him to his preschool. 

I gotta go to school Papa

That was the last I thought of yesterdays blog. 

      Once Christo was safely pre schooling, I went down to Stupor Store because one of my strings of light on the front of the house burnt out. Ten lights from each end work but the whole middle section is out. The strangest thing is, I have more lights plugged into the end of the dead one, and they work fine. The pickings at Stupor Store were slim but at fifty percent off I'll make it work. I bought three ropes and one string of seventy lights. It only took me two tries. I was having a bad day and didn't even know it. I had once again left the house without my wallet.

     On returning home my neighbour across the alley, Back Yard Bob, was cleaning up his yard after the storm. The alley way was littered with branches and pine needles. "I'm going to clean this up when I get back Bob." I yelled to him across the alleyway. I went down and paid for the lights they were kind enough to hold for me. When I got home for the third time Back Yard Bob was almost finished cleaning up. I had no choice but to help him. I went and put on my work gloves and we filled two large green waste bins and four garbage cans worth of pine shrapnel. We stood and talked for close to an hour. I don't know Back Door Bob and his wife Claudette very well. They spend most of their summers at their cottage and I hibernate most of the winter. We have always had a friendly relationship and like all our neighbours kind and helpful people. Plus Back Yard Bob is a hunter and has given me meat, so I like him. 

     I unloaded the truck and showed the Lovely Lisa my purchases. I had gone to the $1.25 store looking for extension cords. There is a massive extension cord shortage this year. This is the fifth Loonie Store I have been to looking for them. They only had interior cords but I know a trick. Wrap the connections with stretch and seal for a watertight connection. I also bought a bunch of stocking stuffers for the Grandkids.

      I have grown to hate crows.Did you know they are a protected bird. They eat dead things. They also ruin your lawn.

Stupid Crows

I made myself a breakfast of ham and eggs before I had to go pick up Christo at pre school.

The lovely Lisa asked me if I could drop off a container of Paella for Mama Lee. I could have easily puled over to the side of the road and scarf it down in a heartbeat! Instead I went and picked up Christo and took him with me to see Mama Lee. Unlike Bella,  Christo doesn't play with the dogs. He has been nipped by both of them several times. They aren't attacking him. He was just your average spastic toddler who pets a dog like beating a rug! He does however no longer torment them.

Rat dog Hell!!

      We dropped off the Paella for Mama Lee, had a short visit and took him home for a Hotdog lunch. They say doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. I must be totally freakin nuts! Every time I feed Christo Hotdogs. He asks for two. He takes one bite out of each bun and then eats the wieners.  I give him a bowl of Party Mix and a glass of Apple juice, those disappear in a hurry. I'm the Papa. I'm not getting into food issues with them. That's Jen and Christians gig. Eat it , don't eat, it I don't care. Just realise that's all there is. Bella has more food issues than Christo. But Christo is way more stubborn. He will sit there staring at the plate for days!

      First job was putting up the lights I had just bought. With Christo as my official photographer, I got to work. The lights went up out front quickly. I added more white rope light to the tree and replaced the dead string out front with the new ones I bought. 

In the back I put a double red rope into the plum tree. You can't really tell how it's going to look until after dark. I then trimmed the branches of the Cherry tree. With that done, I borrowed Next Door Gords extension ladder and cleaned out my eavestrough. 

Cleaning the eaves

The wind storms had filled the gutters with pine needles. Yesterday I could see the gutters overflowing. I cleaned all four downspouts and must have pulled five pounds of pine needles out of the eaves. 

Christo took all the pictures. Here's some examples of what a four year old takes pictures of.

He's a regular little Ansel Adams.

      At this point he informed me that his hands were cold. It was time to pick Bella up from school so Grandma Lisa who was writing out Christmas cards, would keep an eye on him while I took Nutmeg with me to pick Bella up. She lost her mind when she saw Nutmeg. I may as well not have been there.

Bella loves Nutmeg

 Christian showed up about a half an hour later and they were gone. I could finally relax. Or could I? It was 5:00 and as I sat there decompressing. I was thinking about a picture I took at Mama Lee's Paella extravaganza and couldn't remember posting it. That's because I didn't. "Holy crap sandwich!" I said to no one in particular. "I never posted my blog this morning"  " That's too bad" the lovely Lisa said "We're meeting Gord and Penny at the Rivers Reach at 5:30."
      My blog was about eighty percent written and zero percent illustrated. I threw the thing together as fast as I could with the lovely Lisa urging me on. "We're going to be late and it's all your fault." I posted the blog about 5:20. I said "Alright Sweetie let's go." to no one in particular because the lovely Lisa was already in the car with the motor running. We were a few minutes late but it didn't matter Gord and Penny were next in line when we got there. They had been waiting about fifteen minutes. The Reach is always packed on Friday nights. Half price appies till 6:00 and a $12.95 prime rib dinner. We ordered Kalamari and Mushroom caps to share and twenty minutes later, with no sign of Willie and Annie we ordered our prime rib.
We had all finished our dinner when Willie and Annie arrived. They ordered and we sat and talked and watched them eat. How much fun is that? After the reach Gord and Penny went home and the lovely Lisa and I went to Willie and Annies for a pot of tea and some of Annie's home made Christmas treats.
      Around midnight we said our goodbyes having survived another Mac attack. We took the long way home so the lovely Lisa could see the Christmas lights. A lot of the bigger ones I had scoped out for her were already turned off. Still it seems a lot of people have put in the effort this year.
      We went to bed at 2:00 without me writing a word. Now it's 10:42 and at least I'm caught up.

That's all I've got
Till next time
Peace out Ya'll

©2014 Dave Squatch Ward