andrurok

I'm just sitting here on a cool Thursday morning, thinking about my dreams last night.

not that climbing routes is evil, it isn't at all. i just love the
whole dynamic of bouldering.

choosing to climb pre-set routes or making up your own.
choosing to climb WITH someone or alone.
choosing how fast to get really tired.

now i'm going to go and "hang out" with the love goddess, and she
ain't no coffee machina.

in the last month, 3 of my former students have died. 2 murdered, 1 of natural causes.

numbing. chilling. i don't know what else to say about it right now, but i sure wish i did.

this is the french verb : souvenir (to remember)

and, "souvenirs" in french, means memories

You should check it out : "TOSCA SOUVENIRS"

my big baby within really wants to go on a rock climbing trip RIGHT
NOW or VERY VERY SOON.

i'm willing to take a few hissy fits if I can't go.

can someone please help me get this figured out. either help me not
desperately want to feel the rock under my fingers or help me to go
climbing.

i'm willing to do lots of different things to make this happen.

after having a bit of an interesting weekend with Lucille and Iyma
and I all getting sick sick sick
after years of teaching
after a cold bike ride home
after eating slightly burnt brussel sprouts
after realizing that you only live once
after realizing that you only die at the end of your life
after paying my parking tickets, student loans, debts to society and
conscience
after putting in my volunteer hours as a nice guy
after being an idiot my whole life

hey this sounds like a poem. wicked, i'll sell it you for a million
dollars. will i be able to go climbing then?

The range. Not the baby. Seems like I have lots of time for sitting around on my computer eh? B O R I N G.

but oh so tempting? the last night of having no kitchen stove/oven. but the BBQ will still be used....oh yes it will.

-A

i don't like things that get close to their expiry date.

i'm not too fond of ear infections.

and i really don't care for pink eye / conjunctivitis.

as a side note, I DO NOT have a pet peeve for anything to do with
Audioslave yet. Except maybe to ask: "Why can't I spend every day
sitting around listening to music (ie. Audioslave) and hanging out
with friends?"

i guess every sun has it's cloud.

however, every house also has it's kitchen (almost)

Rihanna
Michael Jackson
Manu Dibango

it's no secret that Silvia and I have been having some trouble
getting our house finished, and there have been some major frustrations.

tonight i was talking with some friends about frustrations with the
tradesmen we have been dealing with, and it was bothering me. there
was something about what i was saying (why do they keep going away
and not coming back for a long time....it's not done right...etc...)
and the way i was feeling that was bothering me.

after thinking about it for a while I started to realize a few things.

there is so much opportunity in the trades, that quality is no longer
NECESSARILY the bottom line. on so many levels.

there are no concrete 'consequences' for sloppy or late work.

I guess there are a lot of directions my thoughts could have gone
from there, but I was focused on my own feelings about it. I have
friends in the trades, my brother, father-in-law and brother-in-law
are all trades people, what would I want for them? Under what
circumstances would THEY complete work incorrectly, or late, or just
in an annoying, unprofessional way.

If you want a positive experience with trades people, I think you
just have to set it up the way you want it to go. The person who is
paying for the service is the BOSS and needs to take responsibility
for this.

This makes me feel better, because it means that positive experiences
are in my future when I learn how to be a better boss...it's on ME
this way.

is not the best place to train for a long run.

my lovely daughter has come in 5th in round 2...looks like daddy needs to go see his big girl go running next Thursday for the city finals.

house update:

i would like to record the fact that my "big girl" iyma WON her Cross
Country race today.

YAY kiddo! Grade 7.

Starbucks is one half block from work. I can walk there in less than a minute from the front door of the school.

I don't love their coffee luckily, otherwise, by the end of the school year I would probably be trying to sneak quickly over there between classes.

Today I witnessed someone ordering a 'grande half-caf, low fat, no foam, latte'.

Wow. That was neat.

so, my most humbling moment of my first week of teaching at my new job had to be teaching Kindergarten. They haven't got a hint of anything but cuteness, but not a single iota of patience either, you hesitate and they are GONE.

ah. it's fun, trying to remember, and re-learn the energies of 5 year olds. how to pace the lesson, how much to try to cover, when to stop repeating yourself to make sure you have been understood...how much to let them have a chance to say stuff....it goes on....you watch a good Kindergarden teacher at work:

they make it look effortless like a well-honed olympic athlete (pick your favourite athlete...).

just go ahead and try to replicate that, drop yourself in there.

uh-unh. it's not so easy as it looks!!

the pace of change is incredible - there are routines within routines, establishing the COMPLEX schedule of decision making ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS. So it's not luck.


Ah well. Humbled by KG's. But it's like your first time trying to get up a rock climb. It's rarely perfect, and always feels easier the second...third...fourth time.

EXPERIENCE. Or is it just OPTIMISM, DENIAL or OTHERWISE?

N-ah, I know it's going to be fine.

The House.

The house is a very un-finished place. I'm currently highjacking someone in the neighborhood's unprotected high speed wireless connection....not bad....

Except for the reason behind it. NO home phone. Big cell phone bills!

No home phone...the people at ROger's seem to have a bit of difficulty with CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Sympatico was not much better setting up my high speed 'dry loop' (called such because it doesn't go down a BELL phoneline, but a Roger's phoneline.....all inter-related of course). But, thankfully the people at Sympatico informed me that I DO have service at the new address. Which is odd, because the phone wire is hanging in mid air at the attachment to the house...connected to WHAT?

Electrical. IT's not easy, trying to get the best out of your electrician. They are far too busy. THis city needs a lot more electricians.

We have a new stove that is sitting in our front porch. We can't install it because it is too heavy for Sil and me to move...needs a burlier arm.... Our frig hasn't arrived yet. Maybe when they bring that they can move the stove for us. MOst likely I will move it tomorrow though.

No heat or A/C....electrician thing. Not a biggie for now, but things can change fast.....

But hey, it's FRIDAY MAN...YEAH! THings are good at the McBurney house camp! Fire up the barbie-Q!

remind you of TANG (tm) ?

we need our electricians to do their THANG (tm). Helllllllo!!!!! potlights, pothead, or both?

tomorrow our floors will be sanded, our windows will be installed and papers will be signed.

thursday, our appliances (sans refrigerator) will be delivered.

friday we complete the move and dis-own ourselves from 231 Markham Street forever. then we drive to Ottawa for to celebrate my mama's 60th.

then i start a new job on Tuesday. for which i have not spent more than 5 minutes thinking about.

i.
i.
i.

bad. bad Andrew.

moving on....

when you be paingtin' all d'eh, ja don wanna move
when jew eat some pizza and don wanna groove
if it's time to sleep but hours of work to do
when you sit down to breath, and have a beer, even though it's hot in here

ok. i will now get to my point being this:

Creemore Springs is one tasty beverage in a tall can when it's cold and tastes so fresh and yummy, and the second one always tastes even better.

but Coldplay can still break me in half like a piece of uncooked spaghetti in under 4:55.

the wall is gone. good riddance, who needed that thing anyhow.

thanks to Brooklyn Funk Esssentials I have now ridden the L train and feel like a million bucks.

painted some ceilings with Cesare today. It's always good to be humbled day after day by old men who seem to be able to work tirelessly. When I get home, and have a beer on the couch I feel like crying because I'm so drained. Maybe I can get used to it. Physical labour work is so rewarding, especially on just a few hours of sleep.

Mix that with the emotional turmoil of leaving your home of 10 years.

Add a little shot of new job and maybe a teenage daughter starting grade 7....now you are feeling the love of a middle aged man.

I have turned off a certain part of me. I'm not sure what part that is or if I will ever turn it back on. Let's call that part 'Y'. I don't know why, just for fun. It's the first letter I saw when I glanced (yes, I actually glanced) at the keyboard. With 'Y' turned off, I walk faster, I paint like a robot. With 'Y' turned off I feel strong and capable in so many ways, yet much less 'liberal'.

'Y'

It really feels like a switch or a fuse that has blown. Like a threshold that I have crossed. And maybe it's a one way street.

I turn around and see bikes piled up against the wall, waiting to be ridden. I see climbing holds in a box, waiting to be pulled on. I see hundreds, possibly thousans of screws on the floor. Their fate is the garbage. Poor them, I hope I don't end up there. Fuck hope. I'm not going in the garbage.

See me in the morning.

Had a great final session last night - everything worked out as planned.

I set up the garage and did a couple of easy problems to warm up, then Patrick showed up and the real fun began.

After Patrick came Ken, then my neighbor Dan (the sculptor), then Guido, Julie, Duane and right near the end came Graeme, which was good. The highlight of the night for me was climbing the 'Fly Like An Eagle' route to the same song by Steve Miller - hilarious. Ken did the final ascent of 'Eagle Torture' and Patrick destroyed his wrists on the highly coveted 'Traverse of the Not So Bald Eagle'. We (I) had a bit of an eagle theme going on last night with my first problem I made up being called 'Eagle Grip', climaxing (not quite literally) with 'Fly Like and Eagle' and culminating with the improvised solo free onsight ascent of the longball 'The Eagle Has Left the Building'.

Tonight (THURSDAY) I will be taking her down with Dan, while cooking my famous 'Consolation Eagle Ribs'. hopefully I'll be able to serve the ribs by about 10pm...

Lucille has a cold today, so no daycare for her...but that means no renovation for me! Not good, considering we need to be in that house by next Thursday, and it's not looking too good right now! Today should bring a LOT of change, flooring and tiles are going down, primer is being finished on the top 2 floors (hopefully).

There's always a lot more going on than just that though: getting in touch with the phone guys, appliance guys, flooring guys, electrical guys, canceling appointments, making appointments, planning my next school year, can you tell I'm a little bit pre-occupied with a couple of things?

Still, it's a pretty exciting time of our lives, it's just difficult to take time to appreciate how excited we are, isn't it.


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So - little miss McBurney has now turned 1 year old.

She started it off with a bang, literally. She woke up screaming (not that unusual, but it sure set the tone.) and followed it up by doing a full-contact body wrestle on her diaper changes (an especially good struggle on the poopy diaper!).

The best part of the diaper change was when Sil was doing diaper change #2 of the morning (the messy one) and Lucille decided to take her glass baby bottle and throw it on the floor, smashing it into pieces. (I think that may have upset mommy a bit, but she made up for it by forgetting her cell phone at home.)

We walked Iyma to camp (island canoe camp), walked home (markham street), walked to the new house (montrose), walked to the Faema shop to buy coffee and cups. Then, on the way back to Markham Street, we stopped for birthday chinese food on Bloor Street! Lucille got to drink water out of a straw for the first time - almost drowned herself, but had lots of fun. She had trees (broccoli), white trees (cauliflower), zooks (zucchini), tofu and rice - what a good baby. Here's her fortune:

"Others are attracted to your lively and sociable personality."

Hm. Does that mean she takes after me or Sil? Or neither?

Finally, we walked back to Markham street and here we are. Photos of the party and stuff to follow after tomorrow.

A

Well, it has been 3 days and she still isn't walking. sorry....THREE days.

Stubborn little thing, just like her mother! ;)

Right in the middle of our renovation job, Sil goes back to work, I get to watch after Lucille full-time, and it's a crazy HEAT WAVE with record breaking temperatures.

Makes me want to sleep all the time - and I lament the fact that my coffee machine is at the new house - it's drastically reducing the amount of caffeine I can consume in a day!

Right now Lucy is in the cupboard....I'm going to take a picture....ok, so I took a few...:

some time after tearing down walls, scooping up some plaster and lath, dumping it in the dumpster, pulling nails out of joists......

...at some point, maybe it was the first time I sat down in the sun in the back yard.....but at some point, maybe it was getting to the house early, before the rest of the guys arrived and making coffee and doing some work on my own......at one of these times I think I started to feel like the house at 384 and a half or 384a as we like to call it....i started to feel like it was MY house....not the old owners.

it was funny today, as i was tearing out the ceiling, i noticed some newspapers bundled in the ceiling...

this only has significance because it was just last week that a guy doing some renovating found a mummified baby in the walls of the house he was working on. THis baby was buried in the wall in the early 1900's...the cause of death was natural apparently...the baby still had the umbilical cord attached.

anyhow - so the bundled up newspapers were just that. bundled up newspapers. i have no idea what they were doing in the ceiling. no drama, and i'm ok with that. solid.

the epic ordeal of designing a brand new kitchen when you have 4 bosses. ahh. i just try to nod and smile but once in a while i have to make up my mind...they ask me to give input, what do i REALLY THINK?

hm. i'm a little fatigued, but i'd go to the driving range right now if i could...

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yeah, so the shit is over.

parasites. those little jerks that live in you gut and make your life miserable. eating your food for you and sending it on it's way far too fast.

explosive.

it's a shortcut to weight loss. 5 pounds in less than 24 hours. if only i could do this once a week!

virus. not the computer kind. the nasty little guys who multiply inside, silently while you are off climbing. they make your muscles break down and cry, but you don't know why.

nasty ass.

maybe it's the little bacteria bastards doing their silent osmosis or whatever....divide and multiply. trojan horse. without the sexual innuendo. completely without...i have never felt less sexy.

how the hell do you spell diary-a diarrhea die-a-ree-a.

boo.

so - i have been remiss in my blogging duties.

please enjoy the following photos:

Lucy is trying to stay on this 5.12c at White Bluff.



Hats by KEN .


New house. Pre-renovations.



Sil's ankle job.




The after-bruise.