Story Time!

So I used to get upset at my parents because my brother* and sister* were in their wedding photos and I wasn't.


*Both from my mom's previous marriage and significantly older.

Bairstow Haus vs. Columbia House

So I finally got around to canceling my Columbia House DVD club membership. It turns out that it's much easier than I thought.

You just call the number and after you choose English you're presented with the following options for reasons why you're canceling your membership:

1. You're moving out of the US
2. The membership owner is a minor (or is it a miner)?
3. The membership owner is diseased (Luke told me that it might actually be deceased - the automated person had a thick American accent) - he did however admit that if he was diseased he would probably watch more DVDs.
4. All other reasons.

So finally after a long time, Columbia House and I are planning on seeing other people. It's tough. I hope that I don't run into it in the Super Market with Amazon.ca

I have Gmail. One thing Gmail does is come up with ads based on your mail subjects. So for example, if I get an email requesting my drumming services, the banner ad is for used kits or music community sites. This morning I signed in and got this:

I need to stop talking about my inverted nipples on Gmail.

Black Mondaze

Let us get the sad news out of the way. My grandfather died on Saturday just shortly after they removed him from life support. It was very tough but most of us stayed by his bedside until after he was gone. He was 93, he had been married for 63 years to my grandmother

If you're interested in the information for the memorial service, please let me know.

This past week for Friday night youth events we played Live Monopoly in which you roll dice and go around the neighbourhood "buying" people's houses (they know you're coming in advance, it would be funny though if they didn't). Our place was supposed to be Boardwalk and Parkplace (we needed to have each place be a colour). But sadly I couldn't make it so the oh so classy portable at the church was the expensive-blues.

Here are a couple of stories I was reminded of this past weekend:

My mother the boxer: My family was sharing all sorts of skipping school stories and so my mom told the story of when she skipped school to help her friend with her prom date. You see, her friend didn't want to go with the guy, and so she had my mom spend the day punching her in eye so she would have a black-eye and he wouldn't want to go with her. It didn't work. She just had a really redeye and he wanted to go. They're married now, well I don't know that, but it could've happened.

Steve vs. The Vatican: So my brother decided that he would take his girlfriend (now wife - from Sweden) to go and see Niagara Falls. It was a Wednesday and he figured there wouldn't be too many people. Except for a special visitor that was there that day. The Pope. So there was a ton of people there to see the Pope and get in my brother's way.

We got some mail today that was addressed to Swiss Chalet Fan, must be Luke, man that guy loves his chicken.

In addition to METAL MONDAYS we're entertaining the idea of having Black Fridaze.

The garbagemen finally stole our dishwasher, so if you come looking for our haus don't look for a dishwasher.

I got to stay at a Bed and Breakfast for the first time ever this weekend. So I think that once Kerry goes to Teacher's College Mook and I will open a Bed and Breakfast of our own called Brunch S. Allen. It's going to be awesome, and mostly be toast and cereal.

Grandfather of all updates

Today I got a call from my dad letting me know that my grandfather isn't doing well, and tomorrow after my aunt from Australia gets to see him they are going to be taking him off of the life support system.

I took it pretty harshly and ended up leaving work early. I'll be taking the day off tomorrow to be with him and with the rest of the family.

It's seems messed that after 93 years of living his death is "scheduled".

Pray for him, pray for me, pray for us.

Bring your daughter...

Make sure that in reading this post you do not forget about Kerry's awesome re-telling of the first official METAL MONDAY!

Many of you have seen the movie Donnie Darko.
Some of you know that I enjoy that movie quite a bit.
However,
Few of you know that I ordered it on Amazon.ca from the toilet at work.

In moving we seem to have generated quite our fair share of cardboard refuse, so much so that the city won't take it unless it's properly bound with twine. Something we just don't want to do. So, in exercising benefit #3 of living so close to the church we decided to present the cardboard back to God, in the way of using the church's cardboard dumpster. A very hand thing to be near.

Speaking of garbage (heh), we have a dishwasher on our lawn. A dishwasher that predates out very existance at this house. We are guessing it came from somewhere in here, but none of us remember it and cannot figure out where it would've been from. So, I guess for now it's the marker for our haus (similar to Kristi's bike, the Pink Flamingo or the Pink Monkey), maybe it needs a pink paintjob. Well, what I am getting at with this story is on Thursday morning I heard the garbage truck and since we were discussing whether the garbage men would take it or not decided to watch from the bathroom I was occupying. So I looked through the blinds and watched the garbageman (I say that because he was a man) examine the appliance quite thoroughly, then look up frustratedly at our haus. I then acted on instinct and closed the blinds and hid up against the wall, from the garbageman!?! Why was I hiding, what was he going to do? Later talking to Mook, I found out that he was doing the same from his room and also hid from the murderous gaze of the man of garbage.

You know how you see alarm stickers on houses and you wonder whether they actually have an alarm? Well to put your mind at ease when you visit us, our sticker is a lie. Please don't rob us. We should also get a fake "Beware of Dog" sign.

I always like talking with people at dinner. It's a good time to talk. Especially about bodily functions and their weaknesses. The other day Mook and I had a great conversation about things that "go right through you" since I had been eating a lot of sunflower seeds around that time, and it was on my mind and in my...nevermind.

So my nephew has been quite the little talker (he's nearly three and lives in Sweden), and his new favourite thing to do is to inform my brother and sister in-law that they are running low on things, such as cereal. He's pretty much a food alarm.

If you could all keep my family in your prayers my grandfather (93) is not doing well. He went in for surgery last week to repair a blocked intestine and the surgery went fine but he suffered a heart attack pre-surgery. So they have him heavily sedated and aren't too optimistic about him recovering. It's tough for me. I've never had anyone as close as him die. So if you see me give me a hug, because chances are I could definitely use it.

In much better news. Mook S. Allen and I are going to be going to see Iron Maiden in Toronto on March 16!