I just got back from my tux fitting for Kenneth’s wedding in May, and the whole experience brought back some fond memories of mine and Danielle’s wedding.  Kenneth went with the same store (Moore’s has great service and can accommodate for groomsmen across Canada and even the States), so I was back at the same location on Yonge Street where I was fitted all those years ago.

There’s something magical about the wedding tuxedo, regardless of whether you’re the groom or one of the guys chosen to act as bookends at the ceremony.  It gives every man an air of class and sophistication, even if it’s a rental, and that’s something that every guy can use a bit more of in his life.  As soon as you put it on, you feel like you should be sipping martinis and have a small handgun strapped to your ribs in case one of Ernst Bloefeld’s henchmen show up to throw a spanner in the works.

So between now and late May, I’ll be sorting out how best to groom my facial hair and working on my Sean Connery imperSHonation so I can be sure to demonstrate how debonair I can be in my fitted duds.

We interrupt this long hiatus from posting (3 months!) with a late-breaking news bulletin:

It snows in Canada.  All winter, in fact.  I don’t mean continually for the duration of the entire season, but on and off throughout it.  Sometimes it snows a little and sometimes it snows a lot.  Maybe it melts or turns to ice, but before April, you can be pretty sure that if it’s snowing, it will probably snow again.

So why on earth is everyone acting like yet another snowfall at the end of February is a sign of the end times?  This hasn’t even been a particularly snowy winter and you’d think that we were collectively buried under eight feet of the stuff.

Phew.  There. I got that off my chest.  Thanks for listening.  I’ll see you again in another three months. Or sooner.  Or later.  Maybe when it snows next.

It’s been a while without an update, so here’s why.  My pneumonia is still hanging around in my chest, although it gets a little better each day.  I think it got lonely so it invited a serious sinus infection a couple of weeks ago, so I’m treating that now too.  Sebby has a serious head cold (which is probably what caused my sinus infection), so no one in the house is sleeping all that well, which means getting better is just a far off dream at this point.

Aside from his cold, he’s doing great.  He’s walking around like crazy and talking up  a storm (both in French and English).  I’m impatiently waiting for the first snow of the season so we can play in the yard and make snowmen and snowballs, but I know that’s a while off yet.

While I’m recovering, my household projects are on hold as it takes most of our energy just to take care of every day chores, but I’ve got plenty of work in the house for later this fall and winter, including finally finishing the basement (baseboard and a drop ceiling).  Now that we have our new shed up in the yard, I’ll have to take apart the old one and hire a junk company to come pick it up and some random odds and ends of wood and metal that were lying around in the yard.

Once all that is done, I’ve got a short list of electrical work (some new outlets upstairs, light switches for some fixtures that have pull cords and an exhaust fan in our steamy bathroom), and then I’ll feel like we have a fully functional home.  Well, at least until I find some more projects to keep me busy.

This is my first week back to work after being hammered by pneumonia, and I may have actually started back a little too early.  I still tire very easily, am constantly dehydrated no matter how much I drink and I have random sweats, but no fever.  However, I was suffering pretty badly from cabin fever, so at least I feel a bit like a normally functional human being by returning to the ‘real world’.

Awaiting me in that real world are two lawns badly in need of cutting and and a short list of household chores that slowly grew in my convalescence.   Being sick is the worst.

Still, there are things to look forward to in my near future.  For example, our tickets to this weekend’s TFC match also admit us to the CNE for no extra charge, so assuming we can find a babysitter, it’s a relatively cheap afternoon/evening out for us.  I assume I’ll feel well enough to brave the Zipper with a bellyful of deep-fried delights.  Of particular interest is the Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger, which is exactly what it sounds like; a cheeseburger served between two donuts.

Rumour has it that The Arkells will be playing a free show later on in the CNE’s run, so if anyone is interested in heading down there to check them out, let me know.  Since the CNE marks the unofficial end of summer here in Toronto, why not celebrate it with a great outdoor rock concert and some food that will help fatten you up for the long winter to come.

So after having had a bad headache for over a week, I came down with flu-like symptoms a week ago today.  After work last Thursday, the body ache and fever showed up and I ended up having to take Friday off, but I figured it was just a matter of time until I felt better.  Since we had plans for the weekend up in Ottawa that couldn’t be rescheduled, figured I would feel better shortly and had built-in babysitters in the form of my parents for Sebby, we headed up on Saturday morning.

By Saturday afternoon, my symptoms had taken a turn for the worse.  With Danielle in Ottawa helping her sister pick out a wedding dress, I left Sebby with my parents and headed off to the hospital with trouble breathing and an astronomic fever.

Those of you familiar with our cottage and Shawville, Quebec might be surprised to hear that it even has an emergency ward, let alone a good one.  My expectations weren’t very high going in, but from now on, I’m tempted to drive the 5 hours for every medical emergency. In the three hours I was there, I was quickly seen, given x-rays and blood tests and diagnosed before being drugged up and sent packing back home.

I was kind of concerned when I first spoke with my doctor as my symptoms seemed indicative of a particularly bad seasonal flu, but it wasn’t flu season.  She couldn’t rule out West Nile, which was my greatest fear.

I was shocked by the diagnosis; pneumonia!  Apparently it stood out like a sore thumb on my chest x-rays and fully explained everything.

Since the diagnosis, I’ve been on antibiotics and just suffering through the end-phase symptoms of fever, fatigue, body ache and more fever.  I swear I’ve never sweat so much at night in my entire life, and I feel like I’m constantly drinking to keep my fluids up.  I’ll probably be off work all week, but I’m finally able to start helping out at home after WAY too long without being able to hold my baby boy.

The only big plus of this whole mess is that my plan to start eating and living better got a bit of a boost with some high-fever weight loss.  In a little less than a week, I’ve managed to drop nearly half of my extra body weight, but someone will probably tell me that’s not the best weight to lose.

So, sorry for the rambly post… I’m still a little woozy in the ol’ noggin, but I hope to be right as rain in a few more days.

It’s been some time since I’ve posted an update, which is something I’ve regretted for a while now.  Frankly, I’d thought people had forgotten all about this blog, but a few friends and family have recently commented that they missed it, so I’m going to see if I can resurrect this bad boy.

To keep from falling into a guilt spiral if I can’t get a post up every day or so, I’m going to aim for one post per week.  Since the majority of my time currently revolves around work (creating Powerpoint presentations and writing and editing communications), chores at home and baby stuff, I’m assuming only the latter is something you’d want to read about.  However, I’m guessing it’s not ALL you want to read about, which is why I haven’t been posting.  I haven’t really been sure what to share.

Until last year, this blog was a pretty open diary of my life over the last seven years, and many of you (especially Kenneth) use it to search back and figure out what you were doing, if you can tie a past event to something I shared in here (camping trip, cottage weekend, hijinx of some sort).

Since Sebby has just freshly turned one, he doesn’t even have an opinion of how much of his life he’d like permanently etched into the fabric of the intarwebs, and I’ve been torn about what stories to share with the public, those to keep private within our tight circle of family and those that we’ll share with a wider group of friends.  That’s also part of the reason I haven’t shared any photos of him in here.

More recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that I might be over-thinking this.  I mean, how many of our parents created baby books for us with the ever-incriminating “bathtime photo”, and we still share that with our friends.  So long as I keep things tasteful and non-embarrassing, we should be fine.  After all, it’s not like he’s going to be turned down for a job 20 years from now because his old man posted a photo on a blog of him at his first birthday party with icing all over his face.

Mmm, icing-licious (click image to see full-size)

And if that does cost you a job in the future, I’m sorry Sebastian.  But not really.

For the rest of you, you will hear from me again before midnight  on July 27, 2012.  I promise.

It’s been a tiring week in our house, with both Danielle and Sebby falling under the curse of a wicked virus.  It’s been high fevers and sleepless nights across the board, and Mojo and I have been hiding in the furthest, darkest corners of the house to keep from catching what’s going around.

Fortunately, it seems the worst of it all is over and life is slowly returning to normal.  “Normal”, of course, being a relative term as sleepless nights aren’t really out of the ordinary in a house with an 8-month old.

If the nice weather continues to build, we should have a great weekend ahead of us, with tickets for the TFC match on Saturday and a long (and ever-growing) list of outdoor chores to prepare our yards and gardens for the summer.  That list includes chopping down a “bush” that is nearly tree-like in size, which will be a lot of fun until it comes time to chop it into smaller chunks for the green bin.  Still, outdoor work beats indoor work when the temperatures are in the mid to high teens and the sun is shining.

Despite the rising temperatures and sunny skies, I won’t be joining many of you in the great outdoors over the next couple of weeks.  Instead, I’ll be camped out in front of the TV anxiously watching as my annual NCAA March Madness bracket either builds to success or falls to failure.

That’s right, it’s time once again for the annual US College Basketball tournament; the only time of year when I watch or care about the sport of basketball, and I’m giddy with excitement.  Giddy.  You heard me.

My bracket for 2012 is a risk-taker, with more than a few significant upsets, but I’m full of hope (as I am every year before the games start) and I’m as confident as anyone is who has filled out their bracket.

Luck is also on my side this year as the tournament starts in earnest on my birthday, which pretty much guarantees that I’ll be flipping the swtich from 33 to 34 with my eyes glued to the screen watching the last few minutes of a relatively insignificant first-round game tick by slowly, mired in constant fouls.  It’s gonna be awesome.

Stay tuned for progress reports where I will either gloat about my success or winge about my failures.  I’m equally adept at both by now, it’s just one of the advantages that comes with advanced age, or so my dad tells me… often… and in great detail.