Friday, June 08, 2001
Stuff I Want to Do Before I Die #371: Build My Own Car
When I was over in England, I saw one of these Caterham Lotus 7 kit cars. I first saw this car while watching the intro to the classic The Prisoner television series, and several years later I found out that this car came available in kit form. So seeing this car again in Britain has revived in me one of my long-term (i.e. before I die) goals: build my own kit car. Now you have to understand that I am an idiot when I come to mechanics, but I figure this would be a great way to learn. Not cheap either, and I need more space than I currently have at present to build one. Still, it is a goal, and at some point I will endeavour to make it happen. ;-)
Sleeplessness Due to Pregnancy
I’m not sure this sort of this is talked about much, but my dear wife has now entered that stage late in her pregnancy where she is having lots of trouble falling asleep at night. I don’t know if all pregnant women suffer from this, but as Erika gets bigger she gets correspondingly more uncomfortable in bed. She also suspects that there’s some hormonal change that is making her more alert (and hence more awake) as well. What with all of the tossing and turning in bed, I am also getting less sleep. I remember with the last pregnancy I ended up sleeping in the guest bed just so I could get a good night’s sleep, and I think we’re getting to that point again. Feel a built guilty about it, as it would seem on the outside to imply a lack of “solidarity”, but things work out better when at least one of us has more energy and is more awake. Erika likes to call it “sleeplessness practice for when the baby comes” – she can’t be more right. ;-)
While fence-building is rarely an event for celebration, we were very glad to see the workers start construction on ours this morning. This only makes sense if you know our situation: the workers who last worked on our house stopped work due to some sort of conflict they had back last November, and nothing has been done since. I got in a couple of other contractors to do what amounts to finishing work in the meantime, but I guess they didn’t consider it lucrative enough, since they walked away without having started work. So finally we found a contractor willing to build a decent back-yard fence for us, in addition to a much-needed shed. They had actually done work for two other homeowners in the immediate area – both adjoining the laneway, and we had really liked the work they had done. So Erika tracked them down, and the started work today! What a relief! Martine down the road offered to take Vanessa over to her place for dinner with her young boys, so Erika and I decided to head off to a local restaurant in order to celebrate. For a change, we decided to go to somewhere we hadn’t gone to before in The Beaches – so we ended up at Jamaica Sunrise. Good food, so-so service (we ended up getting our appetizers and meal together, and a couple of people who came in after us got served before we did).
What I had known since late last week through the grapevine was made public today: Sitraka (formerly KL Group) sold off its Mobile division today. Rumours abound as to layoffs in this division, but as yet have not heard anything definite, other than only very recent hires (and transfers?) got laid off -- albeit with a healthy severance package. The employees still there apparently will see no benefit from this sale (at least dividend-wise), and am told this will push back their public offering at least one more year (a statement I heard once-a-year for every year of my time there! ;-) Redo Gerstein Web Site? Over my holidays I received an email asking me to tender my services as Webmaster to U. of T.'s Gerstein Sciences Library to redesign their Web site. I finally had a chance to look at their outline, and submitted by proposal this morning. I believe I had taught the person who submitted the outline to me in my HTML/Web Design class at the U. of T., and she remembered me when it came time to ask for proposals. It would be a nice feather in my cap should I get the job, so I hope they look upon my proposal favourably. iStockPhoto - "Open Source" Photos Ran across this site today in the course of work. I like the concept of *free* royalty-free images -- kind of like open source for stock photographs. They have some cool stuff I know I can use. Will look through their submission criteria, and see if they will accept any of my digital photographs and scans. BBQ-ville
Despite the generally crappy weather, summer *is* coming, and ever since we donated our old BBQ to my mother-in-law last summer during our move, we have been BBQ-less. So today we headed off to our local Enbridge gas appliances outlet and surveyed what they had. We looked at a number of Weber cookers, but in the end decided on a funky-looking Ducane model, which, in addition to its inherent funkiness (though my wife thought it more clunky than funky), was also the most compact and easily movable (its on castors instead of fixed wheels), while offering maximum cooking volume. Looked at some interesting Vermont Castings BBQs, but they looked heavy enough to plummet through our deck and leave a sizable crater besides. Am looking forward to using the Ducane BBQ we choose -- weather permitting -- Tuesday evening, when the gas company brings it over and installs it. This seems to have been a big food-themed day, what with buying the BBQ, me making a lemon meringue pie for my wife, and the major Iron Chef tournament on The Food Channel. Seeing Booby Flay getting squelched by Iron Chef Morimoto was fun to see. Finding a Cousin Umpteen Times Removed
Thanks to the Scouse page, I was able to get in contact with a fellow who ended up being a very distant cousin of mine, related to the brotherof the man who was my Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. He was also able to fill in some interesting gaps, such as the name of a Great (x6) Grandfather from a relevant marriage record. It also seems highly likely that my Great-Great Aunt was a witness at the marriage of one of his direct forbearers. Have forwarded all of this info on to my cousin in Britain, who is in a better position than I to track down and view original documents. Still, this is all testament as to what can be accomplished genealogically-speaking via the Internet. Oh yeah, speaking of which, don't bother buying this book.
When I was over in England, I saw one of these Caterham Lotus 7 kit cars. I first saw this car while watching the intro to the classic The Prisoner television series, and several years later I found out that this car came available in kit form. So seeing this car again in Britain has revived in me one of my long-term (i.e. before I die) goals: build my own kit car. Now you have to understand that I am an idiot when I come to mechanics, but I figure this would be a great way to learn. Not cheap either, and I need more space than I currently have at present to build one. Still, it is a goal, and at some point I will endeavour to make it happen. ;-)
Sleeplessness Due to PregnancyI’m not sure this sort of this is talked about much, but my dear wife has now entered that stage late in her pregnancy where she is having lots of trouble falling asleep at night. I don’t know if all pregnant women suffer from this, but as Erika gets bigger she gets correspondingly more uncomfortable in bed. She also suspects that there’s some hormonal change that is making her more alert (and hence more awake) as well. What with all of the tossing and turning in bed, I am also getting less sleep. I remember with the last pregnancy I ended up sleeping in the guest bed just so I could get a good night’s sleep, and I think we’re getting to that point again. Feel a built guilty about it, as it would seem on the outside to imply a lack of “solidarity”, but things work out better when at least one of us has more energy and is more awake. Erika likes to call it “sleeplessness practice for when the baby comes” – she can’t be more right. ;-)
Wednesday, June 6 2001
Our Fence is Finally Getting Built!While fence-building is rarely an event for celebration, we were very glad to see the workers start construction on ours this morning. This only makes sense if you know our situation: the workers who last worked on our house stopped work due to some sort of conflict they had back last November, and nothing has been done since. I got in a couple of other contractors to do what amounts to finishing work in the meantime, but I guess they didn’t consider it lucrative enough, since they walked away without having started work. So finally we found a contractor willing to build a decent back-yard fence for us, in addition to a much-needed shed. They had actually done work for two other homeowners in the immediate area – both adjoining the laneway, and we had really liked the work they had done. So Erika tracked them down, and the started work today! What a relief! Martine down the road offered to take Vanessa over to her place for dinner with her young boys, so Erika and I decided to head off to a local restaurant in order to celebrate. For a change, we decided to go to somewhere we hadn’t gone to before in The Beaches – so we ended up at Jamaica Sunrise. Good food, so-so service (we ended up getting our appetizers and meal together, and a couple of people who came in after us got served before we did).
Monday, June 4, 2001
From the "Glad I No Longer Work There" Dept.What I had known since late last week through the grapevine was made public today: Sitraka (formerly KL Group) sold off its Mobile division today. Rumours abound as to layoffs in this division, but as yet have not heard anything definite, other than only very recent hires (and transfers?) got laid off -- albeit with a healthy severance package. The employees still there apparently will see no benefit from this sale (at least dividend-wise), and am told this will push back their public offering at least one more year (a statement I heard once-a-year for every year of my time there! ;-) Redo Gerstein Web Site? Over my holidays I received an email asking me to tender my services as Webmaster to U. of T.'s Gerstein Sciences Library to redesign their Web site. I finally had a chance to look at their outline, and submitted by proposal this morning. I believe I had taught the person who submitted the outline to me in my HTML/Web Design class at the U. of T., and she remembered me when it came time to ask for proposals. It would be a nice feather in my cap should I get the job, so I hope they look upon my proposal favourably. iStockPhoto - "Open Source" Photos Ran across this site today in the course of work. I like the concept of *free* royalty-free images -- kind of like open source for stock photographs. They have some cool stuff I know I can use. Will look through their submission criteria, and see if they will accept any of my digital photographs and scans. BBQ-ville
Despite the generally crappy weather, summer *is* coming, and ever since we donated our old BBQ to my mother-in-law last summer during our move, we have been BBQ-less. So today we headed off to our local Enbridge gas appliances outlet and surveyed what they had. We looked at a number of Weber cookers, but in the end decided on a funky-looking Ducane model, which, in addition to its inherent funkiness (though my wife thought it more clunky than funky), was also the most compact and easily movable (its on castors instead of fixed wheels), while offering maximum cooking volume. Looked at some interesting Vermont Castings BBQs, but they looked heavy enough to plummet through our deck and leave a sizable crater besides. Am looking forward to using the Ducane BBQ we choose -- weather permitting -- Tuesday evening, when the gas company brings it over and installs it. This seems to have been a big food-themed day, what with buying the BBQ, me making a lemon meringue pie for my wife, and the major Iron Chef tournament on The Food Channel. Seeing Booby Flay getting squelched by Iron Chef Morimoto was fun to see. Finding a Cousin Umpteen Times Removed
Thanks to the Scouse page, I was able to get in contact with a fellow who ended up being a very distant cousin of mine, related to the brotherof the man who was my Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. He was also able to fill in some interesting gaps, such as the name of a Great (x6) Grandfather from a relevant marriage record. It also seems highly likely that my Great-Great Aunt was a witness at the marriage of one of his direct forbearers. Have forwarded all of this info on to my cousin in Britain, who is in a better position than I to track down and view original documents. Still, this is all testament as to what can be accomplished genealogically-speaking via the Internet. Oh yeah, speaking of which, don't bother buying this book.
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