DPoD July 31st - Shadow Puppets!!

We've been eating at the dining room table since Y arrived so that everyone will fit with lots of leg room. Big C really enjoys the fact that he can see every bus that goes past. Monkey discovered this morning that the rising sun creates the perfect opportunity for making shadow puppets. I ran for the camera hoping to capture the event. I was able to take pictures of the following:

Please submit a comment after this blog as to what you think these photos represent. Monkey is interested to hear what everyone thinks!

DPoD July 30th - Those crazy Canadians BBQed their PIE!

{Dave writing, logged in as Saje} Since I got to the photo first, stolen from tbf.ca, I thought that I should get to make the post. Ok, so Sunshine had all the smarm and even took the photo, but I got to the computer first, so it's mine!

I brought pie when we went to E-man's parents for supper. It was time for dinner when I arrived, and I neglected to consider the timeliness of my decision (since it takes more than 40 minutes to cook) and the fact that it would heat their house up enormously to bake a pie indoors in the 30 decgree heat.
So E-man's father decided that we could put the pie on the hot barbecue.
Why not? We're in Canada. We have a barbecue. We have a pie to heat. It seemed to make a lot of sense. We waited the requisite half an hour so with a lot of sarcasm being passed around the dinner table.

Our reward - an honest to goodness delicious barbecue pie. I don't think I'll ever go back to the oven version. I really don't.

The whole gang is just silly

Aunt H and the Original Monkeyman made things downright silly on Sunday afternoon. There was lots of tickling and bellyblowing involved at times. However, the highlight of the afternoon was being held by one hand and one foot and being swung back and forth like a pendulum. Both Monkey and Big C giggled non-stop throughout the entire time. Each child also went to the floor asking for more (Big C's was particularly cute). The silliness would still be continuing if not for having to stop for dinner and bedtime. Needless to say, both boys slept like rocks, even after Monkey's extra snuggles and return trip downstairs for dessert of cookies and ice cream.

DPoD July 30th - Y makes a fabulous supper

Oh, my goodness. Today was the day that Y told us she was going to make us supper. I took her shopping and we got all of the required food (which only consisted of cabbage, eggs and thinly sliced pork). We later discovered that she brought the rest of the spices and food with her on the airplane. After a trip to the Canadian National Art Gallery with me to check out the Renoir exhibit, which was astounding, we came home so that she could cook.

The house and everywhere around it smelled fantastic. As she was cooking Aunt H and the Monkeyman showed up. Silliness ensued as the house smelled even better. At supper time we were summoned to the dining table that Y had prepared. There was miso soup and okonomiyaki (I had Y check the spelling for me!). Y showed us how to prepare our meals and we took many pictures of the delightful meal. It was very delicious. We were amazed at the flavour of a meal that came from such simple ingredients. The red ginger and green spice were both very tasty. The omanyaki sauce was delicious and the meso soup not only tasted great, but is very healthy. Y did a fabulous job of cooking and has obviously learned well from her mother in Japan. We ate as much as we could and still had lots left over to enjoy later this week. Thank you so much Y for bringing us such a wonderful meal!

DPoD July 29th - My Saturday photos

The day started off with Y mailing out her postcards back to Japan. We will be keeping an eye on the blog analytics to see when her family receives the postcards. We hope that you look at this website and enjoy the pictures.

We then went to the Museum of Agriculture and my favourite part was when Big C was splashing in the mud puddles. He had a fabulous time going in them over and over again, grinning from ear to ear. Here's a few of my favourites.

Our day at the "Farm Museum" (The Museum of Agriculture)

Earlier this week the boys went to the Museum of Agriculture. Monkey had such a good time that he wanted Y and mommy to come and see what the whole thing was all about. So this morning we borrowed a car from the folks over at tBF and headed out.

We had lots of fun seeing all of the animals. The boys enjoyed showing Y the cows, pigs, sheep, turkeys, horses, chickens, bull and rabbits. We spent quite a bit of time in the tractor exhibit and Y even went for a couple of rides with the boys on the big tractor.

Big C loved the cows and spent the whole time in their barn mooing at them. It is funny since I was reviewing Monkey's baby book last night with Y and he did the same thing at that age.

The rain did nothing to curb our good time and we will be sure to be back again really soon.

The WB family cuts thier hydro consumption by half!

Dave and I consider ourselves to be very environmentally conscious. We barely ever use the air conditioning, we hang our laundry to dry. Big C is in cloth diapers and we walk to the grocery store. We were really confused when our hydro bill came two months ago and it was higher than many other people's that we know. We looked back and realised that this has been going on for quite a while. It caused us to take a good hard look at how 4 people were using 1900 Kw hours over 58 days.

We toured the house and we made some changes. These changes resulted in us cutting our consumption by more than half, down to a mere 900 Kw hours in 60 days.

So how did we do it?
*We toured the house and we started to use a power bar to turn off the computer, printer, modem, speakers and monitor all at once. That represents more than 2 Kw hours per day. These things use "phantom power" even while they are turned off
*We put the TV, VCR (yes those still exist), DVD player and cable box on a power bar and we shut them all off every time we are done with them.
*we turned off the de humidifier in the basement. I don't know if this will be sustainable through the winter when the clothes are hanging down there-we'll see.
*we turned off the furnace fan
*we never used the air conditioning (there was one night where we wished that we had used it, we just didn't think of it soon enough)
*we only used the ceiling fan when there was no wind and the windows were open. It helped us to keep the AC by sucking cold air in to the house
*we turned off Monkey's CD player (it used to be on 24 hours per day)
*We borrowed a kill-o-watt meter from the library and took a good account of where we were loosing our power. This also helped us to see which appliances were not taking power (my clock radio and the noise machine seem to run on air alone!)

The WB Family issues a challenge...

Here is our challenge. If any of you out in WB Family land can lower your hydro bill by 25% or more your name will be entered in a draw to win a trip in our luxury 2001 VW Jetta to the restaurant of your choice to buy your OWN lunch. How could anyone not want to give it a try!? To enter, please provide a copy of your previous and most recent hydro bill to show the change. There is no deadline to enter-we will award a random number of prizes at the sole discretion of the WB Family co-founders.

Hydro Ottawa is running a *slightly* better incentive plan you see the details here https://www.hydroottawa.com/conservation/index.cfm?lang=e&template_id=396 "If you reduce your electricity use by 10% this summer, Hydro Ottawa will give you a credit on a future electricity bill. It's just that simple!The Hydro Ottawa Summer Savings program runs from July 1, 2007 until August 31, 2007. Just reduce your electricity use by 10% between July 1 and August 31, as compared to the same period last summer, and you'll receive an additional 10% credit on a future electricity bill. This is on top of what you'll save by using less electricity!"

DPoD July 27th - Monkey shows Y all about Thomas

Monkey has caught on to the fact that if he asks if he can show our guest student some of the Thomas he has on DVD that we'll say yes. He asked again this morning and Y was all game. The boys love that she is here and are giving her lots of hugs. Here's a photo of the boys on Y's lap as they snuggled in for some Thomas on the TV.

DPoD July 25th - Our New Ride

Since I've had a little spare time on my hands I've done some research into new vehicles. This prompted me to go into a couple of dealerships and the first set of doors that I walked into was a Ford/ Lincoln dealership. Well...after strapping in the boys and taking this bad boy out for a test drive I was quickly putting pen to paper and making it official. I brought home the new vehicle, fit for persons of our size and with plenty of storage space, and took a few quick photos to show it off. It's a good thing that the price of gas has declined recently.

I'm pretty sure that Sunshine will be excited and surprised when she checks this post! Surprise honey, I hope that you like it!

July 26th DPoD - The Museum of Agriculture

Ok, so we didn't really buy a super expensive SUV. The car was getting some paint work done and this is the rental that they gave us. Actually, they were only going to transport us to the rental place in it, but since I had the seats installed they agreed to let us have it for the day.


What we did do today is go to the Museum of Agriculture. A huge hit. We checked out the cattle, including a very large bull that Big C was quite impressed with, then moved on out to the feed lot where the cattle were grazing. Monkey pointed out that one of the baby cattle was getting some pecho, which big C absolutely approved of. After a snack of pudding and bananas, composting the banana peels on site of course, we headed for the play structure. Guess what they had, a barn and a tractor to play on. Big C thought this was a train and was beside himself. Monkey made some friends playing with trucks and shovels in the sand while Big C went on the 'twisty slide' over and over and over again. We then checked out the birds and both boys sat on the piggy bank in real dimensions to a pig.


We then headed for the tractor exhibit before we left. I think that given the choice Monkey and Big C would still be there. Monkey had his picture taken in the little setup that they have, then rode every tractor in the place at least twice, including the life size John Deere that's more like an amusement park ride than a tractor. After checking out the tractor that compared steel tires (very bumpy) to rubber tires (only a little bumpy) both boys were tuckered out and ready to go home. Big C fell asleep almost instantly on the way home and Monkey managed to make it all the way home for a good lunch.


Needless to say, we'll be back again soon, maybe even this weekend with our student Y.

Special Bonus DPoD #2

The first raspberry of the season has arrived at our home. After 11 months of anticipation and numerous times asking 'is it ready yet, is it ready yet, is it ready yet?' the moment has finally come. The degree of redness was tested....

the berry was picked and displayed for all to see....

then the berry was eaten.....

and a little victory dance was performed.

Long live the reign of the raspberry.

DPoD July 24th - Our visitor and the special gifts

Yesterday we met our homestay student, Y, who is truly delightful. Her grasp of the language is quite good and she is very polite. She spoke with us in the car ride home after meeting 2 very enthusiastic young boys and joined us for a meal of spagetti followed by chocolate borwnies and ice cream. She then shared some fantastic green tea with us that she brought from home.

She was kind and brought both of the boys gifts - a colouring book for Monkey featuring cars and a book about all sorts of vehicles for Big C. The first 30 or so pages are all about trains! I don't think that he's set the book down yet and constantly points to the same page shouting, shaking and pointing at the trains! Here's a picture of what the book looks like:

DPoD July 23rd - Look at what I can do with my Chair

Daddy, could you walk out of the room for 5 seconds. I'd like to show you what I can do.

I can get into my chair all by myself. I'm the best little climber in the world.

DPoD July 22nd - Reading time with Grandpa

Today grandpa stopped by for his usual Sunday morning visit, however this time he took Monkey to an event known as the 'weed n feed' with grandma. Before they left grandpa and Monkey had a little time to themselves to read from Monkey's book about the body. He and grandpa discussed the kidney and the bladder (important stuff for a 3 year old old to know) as well as lots of other body parts. Both of them had a great time, with Monkey asking lots and lots of questions. We may have a budding scientist in the works, but that's for him to decide many years from now.
We installed the car seat and they were off to the party. Monkey had a fabulous time in the pool once he got warmed up to the idea. By the end he was jumping in on his own, playing and swimming in the water and was desperate to be the last one out. He also experienced his first pitted cherry. His knowledge of the berry family improves all the time. Needless to say he had a solid night's sleep last night.

DPoD July 21st - The Shoe Thief

From those of you that recall the May photos, you may remember that Big C liberated one of his shoes from the car one day upon our return from the Museum and S & T. He has now added a new chapter to this, he started taking Monkey's shoes, as well as mommy and daddy's whevever he gets the chance, and wears them around the house. Today he decided to take them for a stroll up the stairs. I thought it best to grab the camera and get a few shots while also ensuring his safety in the matter. What a little monkey he is himself!

DPoD July 20th - the rather innocuous looking doorframe

This appears to be nothing more than an ordinary doorframe. However, after our showers yesterday morning this was the location that the water was coming from. All in all it was about 2 cups worth, but needless to say we've contacted the builder and stoppped showering in our bathroom. They're coming by on Monday to check it out. Please let it be something simple.

Buh bye computer monitors / paper weights!!

About three months ago I scored two huge computer monitors on my favourite site http://www.usedottawa.com/. I got them home only to discover that the cables that were required to go in to the backs of these things to connect them to the CPUs seemed to be proprietary and that I could likely find them, but not without a lot of hassle (read: time) and money put out.

Since spare time is not something which I have a lot of these things just sat around. Dave moved them upstairs and then downstairs. In to the garage and then back upstairs. He is very tolerant. These things must weigh 25 lbs each. Finally I admitted defeat and I put them back up on http://www.usedottawa.com/ for sale.



Well buh bye monitors. Some young fella named Jackson* is now their proud owner. He came and loaded them in to his car. It was riding visibly lower as he pulled away.


For my trouble, money towards the king sized mattress fund. At this rate, we'll be sleeping tight by 2010!


* names have been changed since I never asked the guy if I could use it

** photo is of the actual money that changed hands during this transaction

*** no vehicles were hurt in the off-loading of these monitors