Ah, yes....winter is coming and with it comes snow, cold nights, frost on the car windows that need scraping off and inevitably..the common cold (and if you're unlucky, the Flu). For those of you with no more people to care for than your own self and perhaps some significant other, it's bad but not horrible. You're big people now and can take care of yourself. You can make some chicken noodle soup, buy some stock in cough syrup and tylenol, hide under the covers and get this sh@t over with as quickly as possible. If it's not quick enough for your boss (providing you're employed), then you can always go into work and share your good fortune with your fellow employees and with any luck, your boss will get sick too...that'll show'em!
For those with kids in the house, it's a whole other story. Sick monkeys in your house can't take care of themselves all that well when they're young and when they're teens, they refuse being treated like a child. The cold, this fine year, has gone from myself to my S.O. in the amount of time it took to give her a kiss Hello, and went quickly from there to our kids faster than anyone could possibly predict. The joy has successfully been spread...now is the time to enjoy the fruits of that labour.
Fevers: Aah... kids are irrational creatures on the best of days. Finding the particularly irrational irrationality that is the sure sign of fever can be a chore..until you remember where you stored the thermometer. Then it's simply a matter of tucking that tool under an arm or under a tongue (or for those with the really young, into a more..ahem..hidden area), and then calculating from ºF to ºC or back in order to figure out if it means a fever or not. In my case, I bought a Celsius thermometer and I'm only familiar with Fahrenheit fevers. Once you've figured out if your kid is feverish, fine, or really feverish...it's probably changed. Doesn't matter. Apply liquid Tylenol or Motrin if you own the stuff...go shopping if you don't.
Coughs: There are different types of cough. Phlegmy and dry are the top two. You can hear the difference. One sounds like coughing and gargling at the same time. Pay close attention to that one. The white liquidy stuff is probably just snot that the kid has inhaled backward down his/her own throat because they didn't feel like blowing their noses for the 30th time that minute. It's a cold...not a flu. It's the greeny-yellowy thick stuff that should worry you. That added colour means a flu...and that'll mean a trip to the Doctors' office. Another joy and a fine way to spend a morning, an afternood and/or an evening. Be sure that when you're there, that oyu child touch as many objects as possible. That way, they can share what they have and pick up some new and different diseases. Less of a waste of time that way. Maybe you'll get lucky and pick up the chicken pox as the same time and can get that over with at the same time.
Sniffles: Your nose is bi-polar. If it's feeling all happy, it'll run all day long. If it's feeling down, it'll clog up the works. If it's like a kids' nose, it'll bounce back and forth in quick succession. Buy plenty of Kleenex..they'll come in handy at least half the time.
Listlessness: Your kid's supposed to have more energy than you. You're old and they're not. If they have less energy than you..they MUST be sick. That's about as easy to guess as anything else. If s/he is acting listless and the moment you keep them home, they jump on the internets, warm up the PS3, dig through your DVD collection...they're faking you out and aren't really in the mood for school. Take advantage of it. You're not at work today 'cause they faked you out. Fake out your boss and enjoy the day off. :D
That's about it..I may add more later. I've got to get back to my sick little monkey now. There's an episode of Dora the Explorer that I simply MUST see....again.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Lice rhymes with nice...
...but that's about as far as the similarities go.
Yes, if you are currently experiencing an itch that wasn't there before, you are familiar with the term Head Lice. It's not a nice term, and not a nice predicament to find yourself in. For the 2nd time in 3 years, one of my children brought home a friend from daycamp and that friend invited two friends who laid two eggs and so on and so on, until there was a party going on on my kid's scalp. My kid shared it with my wife and now it's like a double-mint commercial, but with less smarmy smiles. Not unlike facebook-inviting friends to your house party, lice bring troubles with them. Treating (or rather killing) the little bug(gerers) is easy enough, I suppose. Just $30 of insecticidal shampoo and ten minutes before rinsing... or so it would seem. The box doesn't tell you about the medieval torture devices that come with the shampoo. These often come in fanciful and pretty colours like blue or green and resemble afro-picks from the 80's but with much smaller teeth. Their duty is to help you pick lice from your hair, but their secret agenda is to introduce you to the joys of male-pattern baldness at an early age - through the ripping out of as many hairs as possible. Usually, this means that per pound, you rip out close to 1000x more hair than you uncover lice. Sure, lice are small but child psychologist bills are expensive and how else are you going to explain that all that pain is worth not having an itchy head to a 5 year old.
This, of course, goes on for a few days, morning and evening. In the meanwhile, there's so many more fringe benefits for the parents than the box lets on. Who else can say that they change and wash all the bedsheets in their house daily, as well as all towels and clothes and who get to store teddy-bears in garbage bags outside their house for weeks at a time. Don't worry about that last bit though... the kids will have no problem at all going to sleep after an hour of hair-pulling torture without their teddies. They fall right asleep, letting their parents continue with the laundry and vacuuming of all the sofas, couches, beds and rugs that their kids glanced at during the day. Aah...lice. It's so much fun.
Yes, if you are currently experiencing an itch that wasn't there before, you are familiar with the term Head Lice. It's not a nice term, and not a nice predicament to find yourself in. For the 2nd time in 3 years, one of my children brought home a friend from daycamp and that friend invited two friends who laid two eggs and so on and so on, until there was a party going on on my kid's scalp. My kid shared it with my wife and now it's like a double-mint commercial, but with less smarmy smiles. Not unlike facebook-inviting friends to your house party, lice bring troubles with them. Treating (or rather killing) the little bug(gerers) is easy enough, I suppose. Just $30 of insecticidal shampoo and ten minutes before rinsing... or so it would seem. The box doesn't tell you about the medieval torture devices that come with the shampoo. These often come in fanciful and pretty colours like blue or green and resemble afro-picks from the 80's but with much smaller teeth. Their duty is to help you pick lice from your hair, but their secret agenda is to introduce you to the joys of male-pattern baldness at an early age - through the ripping out of as many hairs as possible. Usually, this means that per pound, you rip out close to 1000x more hair than you uncover lice. Sure, lice are small but child psychologist bills are expensive and how else are you going to explain that all that pain is worth not having an itchy head to a 5 year old.
This, of course, goes on for a few days, morning and evening. In the meanwhile, there's so many more fringe benefits for the parents than the box lets on. Who else can say that they change and wash all the bedsheets in their house daily, as well as all towels and clothes and who get to store teddy-bears in garbage bags outside their house for weeks at a time. Don't worry about that last bit though... the kids will have no problem at all going to sleep after an hour of hair-pulling torture without their teddies. They fall right asleep, letting their parents continue with the laundry and vacuuming of all the sofas, couches, beds and rugs that their kids glanced at during the day. Aah...lice. It's so much fun.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
What is Tetraplycotemy
Tetra - meaning four
Ply - parts
Temy - Cutting
Cutting something into four parts..often something difficult to do. In this case, splitting hairs with gusto.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Cats - R.I.P.
My last two entries were talking about my cats...so it's only fair that I finish off this post with something about my cats.
Tarzan was lucky enough to find a home and was adopted about 6 months ago or so.
Ginger, Seven and Bishop are gone now... they were brought to the SCDD (SPCA) and had one last week to get adopted, but didn't make it.
I went over on the day before and brought them their last meals.
The manager was even nice enough to let me into the cage area to say 'goodbye' properly, withough a cage in between me and my cats.
Rest in Peace!
I shall miss you all
Tarzan was lucky enough to find a home and was adopted about 6 months ago or so.
Ginger, Seven and Bishop are gone now... they were brought to the SCDD (SPCA) and had one last week to get adopted, but didn't make it.
I went over on the day before and brought them their last meals.
The manager was even nice enough to let me into the cage area to say 'goodbye' properly, withough a cage in between me and my cats.
Rest in Peace!
I shall miss you all
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Painting Miniatures - The work Space
Miniatures: The work space
Before you go to the store and buy yourself a series of figurines to paint, or even before you buy the paint to slop all over those figs, you have to get one question answered. That question is: Where will I be painting?
The main answers to this question are:
a) Hunh?
b) I’ll be changing places
c) The same spot, but I’ve got to clean up afterwards
d) A permanent spot
Let’s skip answer “A” for a second and go on to answers B & C. Hopefully, answer “A” will clear itself up by the end of this installation.
The Basics: The main things that you need to think about when choosing your location (non-permanent or permanent) is space and lighting. Depending on whether you will be painting a single figurine, or whole groups of them at once will change how much space you’ll be needing. A good chair or stool to sit on is a MUST. Miniature painting is time consuming and there’s no need to break your back hunching over needlessly… a nice cushion is a plus. Try to ensure that the height of the chair or stool brings you to about elbow height to the surface you’ll be working on, so you can lean your elbows on the table and have the figurine at around face height. You’ll need a nice flat and horizontal surface to put everything on. I emphasize horizontal because little bottles of paint rolling off of your desk might very well add colour to your life, but it’s hardly practical. The area that you’ll need to clear off to put all of your stuff is around 4’ square (2X2’). This will give you 1-2’sq. for the actual work and the rest dedicated to the paints, brushes, water, towels, other figs, magazines etc..that you’ll be using to paint your fig. This area will change depending on how many or how large your fig(s) are and how many you plan on doing at once. In the case of a permanent location, you can dedicate more space for storage of paints, bits, boxes, tools and other assorted materials. *Note: Even with moveable locations, you’ll still need a semi-permanent/permanent location to keep all of the stuff that you’re not using immediately, and to store your work tools etc.. when you’re not actually painting. So…a chair and a flat surface. Easy enough, right? Wrong!
Location: It’s all well and good to say that you’re just going to use the kitchen table to paint on, and many people do just that, but you’ve got to keep a few things in mind. - Lighting: not everyone can paint during the day, using pure sunlight to illuminate your work. In fact, most days and all nights, sunlight isn’t enough light, so you’re going to have to provide some extra light somehow. *This’ll be discussed at length when I talk about tools. -
Distractions: Like I wrote before, painting takes time and a certain amount of concentration (as you’ll find out). Distractions take many forms. The most obvious are things like pets (cats just love walking across paint surfaces, scattering minis, paint, & water), kids (what’s that Dad?, Can I touch? Dad won’t mind if I play with his toys), and Significant others (Why didn’t you take out the trash? Shouldn’t you be doing else?)… other, non-living distractions might be things like the phone, internet, television, or sunbathing neightbours. Avoid distractions when you can. -
Safety: Living distractions can also be sources of danger, especially considering that you may be working with glues, solvents, sharp obects & tools. You want to leave a swathe of dead enemies on the battlefield, not in your kitchen. Keeping this in mind might limit your work area to places where you can limit access. - The work surface: Face it…accidents happen. Paint get spilled, exacto knives slip, things get gouged and although you want to protect your surface, accidents will happen…. So working on that Louis XIV table might not be the best idea. It’s a good idea if it’s a stable work surface because you don’t want it either wobbling from side to sie or tipping over easily (TV trays are out, I’m afraid).
That’s it for the actual area. In our next installment, I’ll be talking about the kinds of tools that will come in handy when working with both metal and plastic minis.
Stay tuned.
Before you go to the store and buy yourself a series of figurines to paint, or even before you buy the paint to slop all over those figs, you have to get one question answered. That question is: Where will I be painting?
The main answers to this question are:
a) Hunh?
b) I’ll be changing places
c) The same spot, but I’ve got to clean up afterwards
d) A permanent spot
Let’s skip answer “A” for a second and go on to answers B & C. Hopefully, answer “A” will clear itself up by the end of this installation.
The Basics: The main things that you need to think about when choosing your location (non-permanent or permanent) is space and lighting. Depending on whether you will be painting a single figurine, or whole groups of them at once will change how much space you’ll be needing. A good chair or stool to sit on is a MUST. Miniature painting is time consuming and there’s no need to break your back hunching over needlessly… a nice cushion is a plus. Try to ensure that the height of the chair or stool brings you to about elbow height to the surface you’ll be working on, so you can lean your elbows on the table and have the figurine at around face height. You’ll need a nice flat and horizontal surface to put everything on. I emphasize horizontal because little bottles of paint rolling off of your desk might very well add colour to your life, but it’s hardly practical. The area that you’ll need to clear off to put all of your stuff is around 4’ square (2X2’). This will give you 1-2’sq. for the actual work and the rest dedicated to the paints, brushes, water, towels, other figs, magazines etc..that you’ll be using to paint your fig. This area will change depending on how many or how large your fig(s) are and how many you plan on doing at once. In the case of a permanent location, you can dedicate more space for storage of paints, bits, boxes, tools and other assorted materials. *Note: Even with moveable locations, you’ll still need a semi-permanent/permanent location to keep all of the stuff that you’re not using immediately, and to store your work tools etc.. when you’re not actually painting. So…a chair and a flat surface. Easy enough, right? Wrong!
Location: It’s all well and good to say that you’re just going to use the kitchen table to paint on, and many people do just that, but you’ve got to keep a few things in mind. - Lighting: not everyone can paint during the day, using pure sunlight to illuminate your work. In fact, most days and all nights, sunlight isn’t enough light, so you’re going to have to provide some extra light somehow. *This’ll be discussed at length when I talk about tools. -
Distractions: Like I wrote before, painting takes time and a certain amount of concentration (as you’ll find out). Distractions take many forms. The most obvious are things like pets (cats just love walking across paint surfaces, scattering minis, paint, & water), kids (what’s that Dad?, Can I touch? Dad won’t mind if I play with his toys), and Significant others (Why didn’t you take out the trash? Shouldn’t you be doing else?)… other, non-living distractions might be things like the phone, internet, television, or sunbathing neightbours. Avoid distractions when you can. -
Safety: Living distractions can also be sources of danger, especially considering that you may be working with glues, solvents, sharp obects & tools. You want to leave a swathe of dead enemies on the battlefield, not in your kitchen. Keeping this in mind might limit your work area to places where you can limit access. - The work surface: Face it…accidents happen. Paint get spilled, exacto knives slip, things get gouged and although you want to protect your surface, accidents will happen…. So working on that Louis XIV table might not be the best idea. It’s a good idea if it’s a stable work surface because you don’t want it either wobbling from side to sie or tipping over easily (TV trays are out, I’m afraid).
That’s it for the actual area. In our next installment, I’ll be talking about the kinds of tools that will come in handy when working with both metal and plastic minis.
Stay tuned.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Tick tock... another one of me on the way.
| Tick tock... another one of me on the way. | Jul. 20th, 2005 @ 12:37 pm |
|---|
Well...the missus and I have another child on the way, due sometime at the end of this year, and although a pregnancy is supposed to last 9 months or so, those 40 weeks sure do pass fast!
So many things to do. A baby room to create from my office, which means finding spots for all of my 'stuff' like filing cabinets, my compi, and about one metric ton of paper. It also means renovations to the room... aah, renovations, the home-owners greatest fear and by far the most time consuming prospect of all!
I've given up on my garden for this year...not enough time to really tend to any plants. My flower gardens are looking raggedy as well, with my miniature white roses taking over and suffocating my red roses. The house, and myself are starting to look our ages. Grey hairs and weeds abound! Wrinkles and cracks in the ceilings all grow with time, and I don't have enough stucko for both.
Don't get me wrong...I AM looking forward to this next child. If s/he is anything like his/her older brother, I'm sure that many of those lines on my face will be mostly laugh-lines and smile-creases :)
Now if I could just stop time for a while, I might jsut get everything done in time. In the meanwhile, I'm trying to convince my wife to extend her pregnancy for another month or two. It's not going well so far.
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