I love that word.

In fact, I use it on one of my earliest personal website – we didn’t call them blog at the time. I think that page has been like that for 10 years now.

Anyways, I’m taking an Internet break.

I just don’t feel it anymore. When you don’t feel it, you shouldn’t push yourself to do it. Right now, I don’t feel it, I will not push myself to do it.

I’ll be back.

I don’t know when.

I don’t know how.

See you later.

You say it’s LovelyWife’s birthday

It’s my birthday too, yeah

They say it’s LovelyWife’s birthday

We’re gonna have a good time

I’m glad it’s your birthday

Happy birthday to you.

Yes we’re going to a party party

Yes we’re going to a party party

Yes we’re going to a party party

I would like you to dance (Birthday)

Take a cha-cha-cha-chance (Birthday)

I would like you to dance (Birthday)

Dance

I would like you to dance (Birthday)

Take a cha-cha-cha-chance (Birthday)

I would like you to dance (Birthday)

Dance

You say it’s LovelyWife’s birthday

Well it’s my birthday too, yeah

You say it’s LovelyWife’s birthday

We’re gonna have a good time

I’m glad it’s LovelyWife’s birthday

Happy birthday to LovelyWife.

EDIT: LovelyWife came back around midnight and proceeded to have Tequila shots and play GH5. You can see pictures on Flickr.

EDIT EDIT: Smells like 35 year old Spirit – The video. LovelyWife turns 35 and she had some Spirit…

Riding my bike to work, I get to think about a lot of stuff.

After all, I don’t have the radio to listen to, my Blackberry to play with or anything like that. Sometimes I’ll sing songs to myself, sometimes I’ll think about work and sometimes I’ll think about weird stuff.

I thought about the differences between the 8 year-old me biking and the 38 year-old me biking.

• When I was 8, helmets were for motorcycles.
  • At 38, helmets are mandatory.
• When I was 8, I would bike everywhere regardless of any severe denivelations along the way.
  • At 38, I study detailled maps of the city in order to avoid any and all inclines on the way to work and back home.
• When I was 8, I would do sliding power breaks à la Big Wheel.
  • At 38, I’m aware of the cost of bike tires.
• When I was 8, I would jump at any opportunity to jump a curb, go down a flight of stairs, zig-zag, do a wheelie.
  • At 38, I aim for the shortest possible route between two points.
• When I was 8, I would sometimes jump off the bike and run inside while the bike kept on going on the lawn.
  • At 38, I baby my bike more than my youngest child.
• When I was 8, shocks were a cool stylish addition to the bike.
  • At 38, shocks are a necessity.

But the main difference? Thirty years.

Ah September.

Ah September, how I hate you.

You see, working in a university combined with having a family makes for a very busy and schedule-changing September.

Kids are going back to school, and are starting the homework thing – which takes a lot of time. Gone are the days of summer where we could  just get home from work and chill a bit before having dinner and then cvhill some more.

For me, it means back to the winter schedule, where I get off work at  five o’clock instead of the summer hours that finishes at four. So basically I get home an hour later, but more importantly I work one more hour every day.  Of course, September means the student’s return, and that means a lot more issues with our systems – for example on Monday our system decided to take the lunch hour off, which meant that I couldn’t.

When you factor in the start of the Fall television series, it means that I have next to no time to do anything once I get home. Days are pretty much:

• Alarm goes off
• Hit snooze
• Alarm goes off
• Hit snooze
• Alarm goes off
• Hit snooze
• Alarm goes off
• Get up
• Pee / Wash hands
• Shower (optional: Shave)
• Breakfast
• Brush teeth.
• Drive kids to school
• Get to work (Bike or Bus)
• Make coffee
• Blog
• Work
• Pee / Wash hands
• Work
• Lunch (optional, it seems)
• Work
• Activia is evil /Wash hands
• Work
• Get home (Bike or Bus)
• Pee
• Wash hands
• Dinner
• Pass out on the couch
• Get up from couch to got to bed
• Pee / Wash hands
• Brush teeth
• Sleep.

Which in turn means I have nothing much to blog about. So there’s nothing to see here. Move along.

Sorry.

Lots going on last week-end.

Saturday

LovelyWife had some people over from her workplace. I told her we should invite them more often, that we we wouldn’t have to clean-up like crazy everytime they came over.

We had great food – we ate from 8pm until midnight, great wine – except that fortified wine “Le Confessionnal”  from la Halte des Pèlerins, and then we played Guitar Hero 5 until 3 in the morning. It was fun.

Sunday

We rested. Really. We’re old.

So, how was your week-end? How do you keep track of the wines you like – do you have a notebook, an on-line thing, something else? I’m thinking I should start to keep some sort of record of the stuff I like and dislike. Also, how often do you have to get people to visit your house before you stop cleaning like a madperson when they come over?

I used to carry a red Sharpie with me at all times. I used it to correct various spelling mistakes on signs posted around the workplace, the mall, the restaurant, etc. I stopped doing that, because I really hate being late to meetings, but my OCD tells I can’t leave that mistake alone. I was going crazy.

They do it in English.

They do it in French.

This one still remains my favorite.

Considering I work in a bilingual university, it’s nice to see that we are equally bad at spelling in both official languages.

Sometimes I also do it on the Internet. I used to think that people would be happy to have someone tell them about their typos in a friendly manner – also, you can’t really circle anything in red on the Internet yet – but I am now reconsidering. Is there such a thing as being too helpful?

Activia really makes you regular.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to cancel all my appointments between 13:30 and 14:15 for the next year.

Holy crap.

I posted this same image last year.

I’m reposting it again this year, because quite frankly, I have absolutely nothing to say about 9/11.

But…

I feel that publishing something about my kids, my work or my Wii would be disrespectful.

Peace.

While all of the United States is blogging about healthcare, let me take a moment to tackle my real issues.

This one?

or that one?

Heck I’ll get them both. Now if you need help about that heath care issue, I’m available. Well, I’ll be in a couple of weeks, once I beat my games…

In honor of 9-9-9, here’s a special Beretta 92 (9mm) edition of One bullet short of a full gun. Enjoy!

• Only 10 days until:
  • The International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Prepare to unleash you inner Buccaneer! Yarrrrrrrrr!
  • I go see a Montreal – Ottawa pre-season game. W00t!
  • Bones’ birthday! Yes, I have a friend nicknamed Bones born on the International Talk Like a Pirate Day! How sweet! Avast Matey!
• WP Event Calendar broke my blog. I took my sweet revenge and deleted WP Event Calendar. Take that!
• The 22nd edition of the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival was held from September 4 to 7, 2009. Of course, living in Gatineau, we decided not to go to the tourist/local trap and were rewarded with an awesome surprize! One balloon landed in the park right across the street from hour house!

You can see the rest of the set on Flickr.

• This morning I almost got squished by a taxi turning right on a red light while I had the right of way (via the pedestrian light). Who knew frakkin’ taxis were so dangerous? /sarcasm. Yet one more bike story under my belt. Sigh.
• Speaking of funny bike stories, I completely forgot to bring underwear today. I’m committing a serious breach of etiquette and making this a Commando Wednesday.
• Rockband: The Beatles is coming out today! Now I’m a little pissed that this is not also coming out for Guitar Hero. What am I supposed to do, spend another 200$ to get the Rockband drum set? On the Rockband Beatles website, it says “Works with all Rockband and most Guitar Hero controllers and microphones” (emphasis mine). Anyone tried this with the Guitar Hero setup? Anyone? Bueller?
• For the next 179 hours, I’m listening to my iTunes library in alphabetical order. No reason.
• Even if today is 9-9-9, we’re not moving to Blackboard Release 9 anytime soon.
• 9 opens today. Are you excited to see this? I kinda am, but I’m not 100% sure…

In pure Call of Cthulhu tradition, I’ll keep the last bullet for myself for when the actual madness comes.

Actually, I used all the bullets this time.