Poopy Smell !!!

That's right ! Our neighbourhood is surrounded by manure smell. They just plopped down the topsoil over the past 2 days. Here are some pictures.

Truck taking a "dump".



Truck spreading the dump.



That's it ! Six patio stones !
Can the builder be MORE of a cheapass?
There's enough room for steps and maybe a bbq.



Doesn't this remind you of the triceratops (a type of dinosaur) dump from Jurrasic Park ?

TTC bashing

This posting is dedicated to BLASTING the TTC walkout.

If you work for a union and stand strongly behind what a union believes in, then you should stop reading this posting. Otherwise, you will definitely be offended. These are my opinions and sarcasms so don't give me a lecture on this cause today ain't the time.

I am sick and tired of hearing that the TTC union is threatening to strike or walk out. After all these years of unionization, have they not figured out a better way to deal with these type of situations without inconveniencing millions of other people. Give me a break ! Talk about being stuck in the past. Unions to me in this day and age are as useless as a friggin floppy disk. They can be useful (if you still have a floppy drive) but overall, there are better tools out there.

I really don't care which party is right or wrong. What I do know is that walking out on the job and inconveniencing millions of other people is as selfish as it gets.
And don't even begin to tell me that the TTC forced you to walkout. BS ... every decision starts with a choice. TTC workers CHOSE to walkout. Whether they were bullied into it or freely made the decision, they did make it. They DID have a choice.

So what are the issues on the table? As far as the media and ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) website has advertised:

1. TTC drivers are being verbally and physically abused over payment of fare.
2. 53 janitors and 53 subway track workers will be permanently moved to the night shift from day jobs as part of a cost-savings measure.

If this is it, then you MUST be joking ! Also, the president of the ATU, Bob "Dumbass" Kinnear keeps mentioning that the union was "locked out" yet their website says that their members "walked off" the job. Now, how much respect can we all have for this guy. NONE ! This guy is as bright as a black lightbulb.

My comments to the issues on the table.

1. I have taken the TTC a lot in my lifetime and I have never ever seen a driver be abused over a fare dispute. Maybe times have changed but if so, why is it that I have not heard anything on the news about it. Everytime a cab driver gets assaulted, we hear about it. So when a TTC driver gets assaulted, they keep quiet? I find this hard to believe. Trust me, I have seen and heard more of drivers that are rude, lack customer service, lack transit knowledge, possess poor attitudes, and are plain unfriendly. I'm sure some drivers do get abused but come on, walking out on the job is not the way to deal with it.

2. One hundred and six workers are being asked to move to the night shift. I can understand the difficulties of a lifestyle change but give me a break. If you don't like it, then quit ! A job does not need to "baby" you. You will only see this in a union environment where 106 workers who don't want to change shifts can influence the rest of its employees to walkout on their jobs and inconvenience millions of other people. The ATU is a joke. How can I take this group seriously.

In the end, everyone has issues with their jobs. Some are more serious than others but it is wrong to inconvenience others to get what you want.

It is times like this that reinforce my disrespect for the TTC workers.
The TTC will always be a joke to me whether I CHOOSE to use it or not.

Exterior Painting

Just thought I would post some pictures of the exterior of the house since the painter just completed painting the doors, window frames, and garage doors. He plans to come back to do some touch-ups but I really don't think you'll be able to tell from the pictures. Enjoy !

The front view of the house:



The front door:



The painted garage doors:



The back view of the house:



The back garden door:



The two by fours I "borrowed" from the builder to ease the entry of the car over the very high curb:



The "cool" air conditioner:

THE Red Curtains

Okay, these pics are for Janny to display her red curtains.
What do you think?




Oh yeah, I thought I would also include a picture of Macleod's Park just a walk away from our house. Actually, you can see the park to the left of our house. Lots of kids have started to use the playground equipment.

The curb is done

Curby

Looks like they are putting the curbs up for our streets. Some construction worker dropped by today to ask that I remove my car from the garage since they plan to block off all the driveways. It should be completed over the next 3 days. Still trying to figure out who gets the sidewalk. The worker had no idea which side. All he knew was that a curb was being put up. Talk about lack of information. While I was moving the car, I noticed that the next door neighbours babysitter had difficulty parking her car along the curb. She ended up 2 to 3 feet off the curb. Thank god she's not driving on the road. Take a look !



And on that famous topic ... this morning, I almost got rear-ended by some car because we had to suddenly stop on the exit to Sheppard from the 404. God dammit... it's great to have a car with really good brakes, ABS, and brake assist but when the car behind you doesn't have it, what help is it? Good thing, the girl was smart and swerved to the right to avoid us. That's one smart driver ! We need more of her around. Now hopefully, she's decide to go out and purchase a car with all the electronic goodies ... otherwise, she'll be practicing a lot of swerving over her lifetime.

Till the next time ...

Update on the house

So, it's probably time for an update on the house. What has has been done so far. Well, a couple of things here and a couple of things there.

1. We had our AC unit installed last Wednesday and then temperatures in the GTA fell to below 10 degrees. Great timing, ehh? No worries, better to have it installed now than wait till it gets warm when everyone known to man will be calling up the contractors to do the installations. Got ourselves a Lennox model which will complement our furnace of the same brand. Decided against the Carrier model since it cost $100 more and was told that it was a noisier unit than the Lennox model we bought.

2. Still haven't got our first water bill yet so I contacted the Town of Richmond Hill and they said that it should be arriving anytime soon. It's funny b/c they send out a bill once every 3 months so you have no idea if you should be conserving or not. I guess we have lots of water and this is not a concern for Richmond Hill.

3. Oh yeah, remember, the rule to cut cardboard boxes to 60cm by 60cm dimensions in order for Mr. Recycle Man to pick up. Well, I got around to doing this a couple of weeks ago and sure enough, no stickers this time. Then again, maybe he ran out b/c we have several neighbours who still dump entire cardboard boxes out in front of their house expecting him to pick it up.

4. Almost all the deficiencies in the house have been resolved. All that is left is the power sanding of one of the steps on our stairwell and some drywall patch up in the second floor bathroom. Other than that, the builder still needs to finish up the outside of the home. They have begun painting the garage doors on our street and ours should be done sometime this week. It'll be interesting to find out what colour they will use. It better not be PINK or else someone is sure going to get it.

5. We picked up some bathroom fixtures from Pottery Barn over the weekend in Rochester. Yes, we went over to the US again ... prices are cheap, the exchange rate is good, and a quick getaway during the long weekend all made it well worth it. Anyways, just got those installed today. Some advice, the Chelseas Waterloo Outlets are not worth the time for shopping but the Eastview Mall in Rochester rocks. I picked up some dress shirts from Banana Republic and Janny got some clothes from Abercrombie and Finch. Killer deals !

6. The number 71 is on the front of the house. I had to drill into the brick in order to put the numbers up and boy, was that a task ! Drilling into brick is much more difficult than drilling into, let's say, drywall. Good thing I had an old drill bit for concrete that helped quite bit. When it was all said and done, the number is up.

7. They have padded down the ground around the area so I assume they are preparing for grass this summer. Hopefully, they will also install a couple of patio stones so that I can start up the bbq. Then again, I need to buy a bbq first. First things first, patio stones and grass, then bbq.

8. Some contractors came over to nail down one of the hardwood floor reducers. They then decided to advertise some of their other contracting services such as painting, pot light installs, backsplash, finished basements, etc. The one service that really made me laugh was that he could replace our light fixtures for us. No, not pot lights, but take out the current light fixture and install another one. Okay, I know I'm no home renovator but I'm sure I know how to uninstall a light and then put up a new one. Hilarious ! I almost started laughing. That's one service you might as well keep to yourself unless the customer asks about it. Needless to say, this won't be a contracting I will be contacting.

9. Did I mention that we have curtains for the front of the house on the main floor? Can't remember. Well, we got curtains from our outlet shopping trip to Michigan and silly me, I got the wrong length. Long story. The short story is here. If you want the long one, speak to Janny. Anyways, my fault and I had to fix it by using curtain rings. It didn't turn out that bad at all though or at least that's what Janny made me think :P

10. That's if for now...

Magnet for bad drivers

I haven't blogged about the traffic for a long time. One of the reasons is that I don't have to commute to work anymore.

Well, it's about time I complained about the traffic. I used to have a separate blog to relieve my stress but I decided that I would just do it here instead. I think I have gotten past the point of stress and just mouth 'WTF' everytime I see poor driving.

One thing I have come to realize is that I am a "magnet" for bad drivers. I get behind the wheel and BAM ! bad drivers are everywhere.

Just this morning, some dumbass driver almost hit me with her brand new car at the Fairview Mall subway drop-off.

Two days ago at the Alton Towers plaza parking lot near McCowan and Steeles, I drove past 4 rows where cars were stuck trying to get out and get into parking spots. The confusion just made me laugh. How difficult is it to park a friggin car. It takes 2 seconds.

Last week, a Mercedes SUV came charging down the right lane while I was trying to merge onto the highway. There was space for him to move over one lane but instead, he drove beside me accelerating as I did.

A couple of weeks ago, a van driver with 'NO' passengers tailgates me in the HOV lane after entering the lanes at a 'non-entry' point. He then changes lanes to cut me off b/c I wasn't driving fast enough. Keep in mind that I usually drive between 125 to 140 km/h on Hwy404.

All of this ill driving behaviour is making Toronto one of the worst cities to drive in. Congratulations to you if you made it to work without encountering poor driving behaviour. As a native Torontonian, I am embarrassed by the # of crazy things people do when driving in Toronto. I attribute it to the 'variety' of driving styles by the many people in Toronto. How else can you explain it ?

Anyone have a better answer?

Just blogging about anything ...

Well, I'm sitting at home on a Saturday just finishing up some reading for work. As for Janny, she is working on school work with a fellow classmate downstairs. With the new job and all, blogging has become a lessor priority.

Let's see ... what have we done in the house? We put up some curtains last weekend in the front room of our house courtesy of the Pottery Barn outlet in Michigan. The prices there were pretty good and a far outcry from the regular PB stores. We also finally cleaned up the guest bedroom (well, it's still missing a bed!) of the mess that was in there. I put up some window coverings for our front door in the meantime until we decide whether or not to replace the glass inserts. The coverings consisted of wax paper and double-sided photo tape. Trust me, it doesn't look all that bad. It'll have to do. I think I mentioned the 6 hour garage opener install with the help of my Dad. What else ... what else.... ummm....the builder sent one fo the contractors over to change out one of our front windows. Apparently, the seal had broken, thus, causing condensation in between the panes. I think that's it.

On the work front, I finished up orientation last week and I'm still waiting for my first work assignment. The priority now is obtaining a US work visa. This is taking much longer than expected. The "virtual office" that comes along with my job is quite a perk as it gives me more flexibility in managing my time. Yeah, I say this now and then when I get assigned, I'll be busy as hell. The one cool purchase I decided to give myself for the new job was a brand new cell phone. The company pays for the monthly bill but I have to pay for the hardware. This enables employees to purchase what they want. I got myself a Motorola Razr V3. This gadget is COOL ! I had my old Samsung for almost 5 years and the thing was falling apart. Yep, this was the cheap side of me. I got the phone to last 5 years. Pretty good $100 investment if you ask me.

Other news .. I bought out the lease on the car so I now own it 100%. I had signed up for a 3 year lease instead of the usual 4 year in 2003 so in April, I had to make the decision to give the car back or buy it out. Well, considering that the car only had 29,000km on it and has had no major issues, the answer was simple. The other thing that made the decision easy was that I still enjoying driving it, as much as I did the first day I bought it. Never felt this way before but then again, I used to own a Golf and a Jetta. Sorry VW owners but I despise VW cars. The quality is just horrible.

And here is my baby stuck in construction outside our house:



Anyways, time to sign off and get back to reading....