Mother Nature--not the nicest person...

We get home from work on Friday and our neighbour was excited to see us. Turns out that she found a baby raccoon under the fence between our two yards.

The baby raccoon was whining up a storm, calling for its mom. We didn't know what to do.

So we did a little calling/research and found out that we should try to keep baby Bandit warm, and try to feed it.

Trying to feed a raccoon

What do you feed a baby raccoon?

Turns out--pablum and applesauce. Bananas and strawberries if so inclined.

Before I go any further, I'll explicitly state that if you stumble across a baby raccoon (or any other wild animal), the best thing you can do for the animal is to leave it alone and call the humane society.

We ignored that advice and tried to take care of baby bandit until such time that momma showed up to take it away.

We did our best--got a tote, lined it with old towels, and tried to keep it safe and warm--bottles of warm water so the baby can keep its body temperature up, and tried to feed it.

Baby Bandit in the tote

After calling many 'pest removal' companies, we found a common theme--they all stated that we should call animal control. Well, that's the first thing we did. Animal Control stated that if they showed to take baby Bandit, they'd put it to sleep.

So we went to plan 'B'--Most pest control services stated that if we left the baby raccoon outside overnight, maybe momma would come and get it.

So that's the plan we went with.

We left baby Bandit outside last night but alas--no momma.

That wasn't the happiest news. We both agreed that Mommie Nature wasn't our most popular person at this point. See, the issue is if we leave the baby alone, it'll die. If we give it over to animal control, it's dead. And we can't raise a raccoon. So what do we do?

That's the decision we were faced with.

But before we called animal services, both Sandy and I agreed to give momma one more chance.

We left the raccoon alone for the afternoon whilst we went ot a B-B-Q at a friend's house. When we got home, both Sandy and I rushed to the back door to see what was up with our little tenant.

Well, turns out that the tenant wasn't home--the tote was empty.

We don't know why--we had a quick look around the yard but no Bandit(s) to be found. We hope it was due to momma coming back and grabbing her baby.

If not--we really don't want to know what happened to baby Bandit.

But all this shows that Mother Nature is definitely not benevolent. She isn't malevolant, either. Sometimes life just sucks. In the end, Mother Nature just 'is' and we have to live with what happens.

As for now, we hope that baby Bandit is secure with its mommy.

See all Bandit pics here--Baby Bandit Pictures

127 days to go!

So, we are at the point in the wedding planning that we need to figure out the bar and wine service.

We decided to stock our own bar and now need to decide on how much of this and that we are going to need.

Seeing as Dave doesn’t drink and I might have a drink once in a blue moon -- this is a bit difficult to figure out.

I have searched the web for help. I have called wineries asking for advice.

Now I am asking all of our readers/guests to give us their opinion.

We are having a basic bar with beer, wine, vodka, rum, and rye. Of course we have to figure out how much pop and juice will be required as well.

We have about 100 people on the guest list. I would say about 25% don’t drink alcohol. So, we are looking at about 75 potential drinkers.

I know that any unopened bottles or cases of beer can be returned for a full refund to the LCBO. So that makes it a bit easier knowing that if we purchase way too much we won’t be stuck with it but on the other hand I don’t want to have to be lugging stuff back after the wedding either.

So, if anyone has any ideas or advice on how much alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages we will need, please speak now or forever hold your peace. : )

In the history of television, there have been a few 'spectacularly unprecedented' shows--my parent's generation one could consider 'Gunsmoke' and 'I Love Lucy' as same.

In my generation, there was M*A*S*H, and, well, not much else.

For me, I'd add 'The West Wing' into the very short list of television shows that should go down in history for going contrary to the norm. In a generation of shows pandering to the lowest common 'viewer intelligence' denominator and striving for the cheapest production costs, The West Wing set itself far above the rest.

And I am sad that we only had 7 seasons of it.

But anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about today. Today, after having a 'West Wing 7th season marathon', I caught this in one scene--

You'll definitly have to click on the pic above to see what I noticed in this particular scene.

Don't focus on Josh or Donna or the other people in the scene--just have a boo at the background.

Did ya see it? Perhaps you'll see it better in this picture--

I'm going to leave my current employer nameless in this entry, but ever since I started working where I am, I've just noticed big yellow school busses. And when I notice the big yellow vehicles, my eyes always gravitate towards the name above the wheelwell (if there is one).

Whilst watching this particular episode of The West Wing, I couldn't help but notice the school busses. Yeah I know that Bradley and Janel were on the screen, and it's often very difficult to draw your attention away from that cute couple, but I managed.

Y'know, every once in a while I love working for the company that I'm working for. And when I saw our busses on The West Wing, well, that was just icing on the cake. I dunno if the West Wing production staff called for school busses in that scene, or if it was just happenstance, but having my company associated with the high values that the West Wing infers on a weekly basis, even if it was coincidental, well, I'm pretty happy.

So there you are.

Now for the hallway floor

Landscaping on the Saturday--now for a bit of floor installation to round off the weekend.

Sandy screwing down the sub floor

So we ripped up the carpet (boy was it dirty!) and prepped the sub floor (boy it was squeaky!). Sandy put down 3 inch wood screws every 2-3 inches along the joists--that stopped the squeaks!

The next issue--

Look Ma! Mould!

I dunno which owner in the past liked their water, but everytime we rip up the floor in rooms adjacent to thr bathroom, we find mould--really black icky stuff!!

Thankfully it's all really dry and looks like it happened a long time ago--but still... Yuck!

Floor's all prepped

After getting it all cleaned up and covered with the foam, we're good to go with the actual planking.

There for all eternity!

I love Sandy! She wrote that!

The finished hallway

Jumping to the end of the job, here it is. We havr to go find a nice stair nosing somewheres, and something for the transition between the bathroom and the hallway, but other than that (and the baseboards), we're done!

We're both pretty happy with the results--I did manage to smash my finger with the hammer--that hurt a bit. Sandy did alotta cutting on the table saw and installation after I hurt myself. We had fun with it.

See the lot of pics showing our hallway reno--Hallway Floor Renovation

Happy flooring!

Starting the job

Sandy and I wanted to make our front yard look a little better, so with that in mind, we took a trip to Telstar Nurseries, Hamilton Builders Supply, and Home Despot.

We picked up flowers, screeening, and some pavers. We threw all these parts and pieces in the front yard to see what happened.

Throwing pavers around

We dug up some of the red clay, threw down and leveled some screening, and then put down some pavers.

A course of blocks

Suprisingly, and without me trying, the wall turned out pretty level.

Wall's done

After throwing some good dirt around, Sandy started the planting.

Flowers and shrubs

So that's about it, really--Sandy finished the planting and I turned on the sprinkler--All done!

Flowers and shrubs

It was an enjoyable way of spending a Saturday afternoon.

See all landscaping picture goodness here--2006 Victoria Day Weekend Landscaping

Flowers courtesy of Telstar Nurseries and Garden Center--for all your blooming needs!

at least, on my system.

Every so often, Apache causes a GPF and my system reboots itself. Normally, this isn't an issue, but with WionXP, it seems that Apache won't start up (even though it's listed as a service) until the user logs in.

So if we're at work or otherwise away from the house and the server restarts, it sits at the login screen and Apache's not running. Thus, no website until we get home and log in.

I'm presumably working on the issue. I've got another server (a real one this time with SCSi arrays and everything!) that I just have to configure and copy the entire web site to, but that'll happen later...

For now, if you can't access the site for a few hours, don't panic--we'll give the server a little kick when we get home.

Sorry about any inconvenience.

Woodpecker on the suet feeder

Sandy took some exceptionally good pics of the downey woodpecker as it was feeding in our back yard.

Woodpecker on the suet feeder

I didn't resize the pictures, either, so they are quite large when you click on 'em--may take a few secs to download.

See all our bird pictures here--2006 bird pictures

And remember to think about God's littler creatures once in a while

There are those with much talent floating all over the world. Now that there's this internets thingy, these talented people have put their talents to good use!

Anyway, I didn't make it. I could find out who did, but that goes against my fundamentally lazy nature...

So here it is--

Luke and Lorelei

It's around 16 meg so right-click to save it on your system.

Or if you actually click on the link, you'll be waiting a while.

This video shows one of the numerous reasons why I love watching 'Gilmore Girls'.

See the message board entry--

Wedding Songs

I've added a list of all the songs that were posted and/or e-mailed to me thus far.

Have a boo and add your favourites to the list--either via e-mail to me or Sandy, or post a reply here or on the message board.

Any way you do it, let us know what you want to hear on our special day!

Richard Cohen, a columnist for the Washington Post, recently wrote an 'opinion piece' on Steven Colbert's performance at the White House Corrrespondants' Dinner.

Seems that Richard was shocked that so many people didn't like his little review of "The Colbert Monologue".

Eh, I thought that Steven Colbert was pretty much on-target myself. Others that thought the same sent many e-mails to Cohen, and got their friends, family, and whoever happened to read their blog entries to do the same--

Well, pointing out that people are angry as a response to the atrocities going on in the world is quite obtuse--"Hey, I've been poking you with a stick for the past 5 years--why are you angry??". The question shouldn't be "Why are those people angry?"--rather, the question should be, "Why am I not as angry as they are?"

William Rivers sums it up pretty clearly--

I was angry once. Now I'm getting to the point where I'm just 'meh' about it. That happens when you get kicked in the head too many times.

That is not to say I'm not working at trying to change things--with my voice, with this blog, with my vote--I believe that we, the people, truly hold the power and we just have to wake up to that understanding.

However (and this is the important bit), anger, if directed in a non-healthy way, can only be detrimental to the issue, to communication, to debate and to healthy resolution. In our zeal for ridding the world of monsters, we must be careful not to become monsters ourselves. From Cohen again--

Emanating raw hatred... untreated and disease-laden verbal sewage... Yeah, making someone hate you is not the best way of getting your point across. I understand the anger, the frustration--the obfuscations and the power trips that the current US administration are throwing our way makes me angry, as it should make any law abiding citizen angry. However, throwing vitriol into the situation will just make it that much worse.

You have the right to be angry. That said, I don't care how angry you are--if you can't conduct yourself in a reasonable mannner, then I'm not going to listen or try to understand your point, and I wouldn't expect anyone else to, either.

Try a carrot instead of a stick next time.

Of course, that's just my opinion.

I'm home sick today. Quite unwell--all congested and the throat is making my life difficult. But eh, not one to complain...

Sandy is home as well--she's not walking well due to some foot thing.

So we're both home, and spending time taking care of each other--that's the good bit.

So it's 4ish and Oprah's on. I'm on the 'puter looking up stuff about Ghost Whisperer so I'm giving the richest woman in the world some cursory attention.

O is going on about fiancees and the questions they should be asking each other to strengthen their relationships or somesuch.

Sandy's watching from the couch.

I'm (reminding you) at the computer.

The window's open and a nice cool breeze is flowing thru the room.

Sandy pipes up, "Do you have cold feet?"

"Yes", I reply.

She gives me a look--I know immediately that I said something wrong.

I state, "I'm going to put on some socks"

She is still giving me a look of shock.

I'm rewinding the conversation in my head, looking for where I went horribly, horribly wrong.

Can't find it.

I question Sandy. She mentioned that she asked me if I had cold feet. Well, my feet were cold so I said yes.

Ahhh, the penny drops--I'm blaming the sickness for the slow response time. She was referring to our upcoming wedding ('cause that's what Oprah's going on about)

"I meant that I really had cold feet!"

And now I'm wearing socks--no more cold feet

Here's hoping that the upcoming year is your best ever. Waitaminute -- of course it will be , you're marrying me!

Thank you for being the best fiance ever! I truly am the luckiest girl in the world!

Love you to infinity + 2.

I once had a little run in with the MTO, so they're already in my bad books for sheer bureaucratic nonsense.

However, my tale of woe does not compare to what a good friend of mine experienced just the other day.

Jenn went off and got herself married. That was mistake number 1 (kidding! :p )

No, the marriage was the good bit. What happened with the MTO, however--not so much.

After she requested a new licence due to her name change, the MTO sent her one. They spelled her name wrong, however. That's an honest mistake.

How to fix it, however, was something completely different.

In order for the MTO to change Jenn's name on her licence, Jenn had to show up with her marriage certificate. Not just the one from the ceremony, but the 'official' one that was signed and notarized by some high-gov't official.

So she paid the 50 bucks that it takes to get this piece of paper. That took a bit but finally it was in her hands.

She nips off to the nearest MTO, waits in line (that's a whole other story--line waiting at the MTO--regular time and physics laws do not apply, but I may talk about that later), and when her turn comes up at the wicket, the lady told Jenn that she had the wrong form.

Wrong form?

See, it turns out that in this lady's mind, Jenn needed the 'Brown Form'.

What's the brown form? The scaled down (and therefore cheaper version) of the form that Jenn had in her hand. Jenn tried to explain all this to the lady, but alas, all fell on deaf ears.

The person at the next wicket over mentioned to 'brown form' lady that the paperwork in Jenn's hands were the right forms, however, the lady behind the counter wasn't having anything resembling rational discourse--Jenn didn't have the brown form and that was that. Jenn's form had all required information (and then some), but the paper wasn't brown in colour.

So Jenn, smartly, instead of getting extremely angry with the woman, just left the building.

And then proceeded to another MTO location in town--walked in (smaller line this time), showed the guy the form, and the guy promptly changed her licence. The guy voiced his incredulity at the obtuseness of 'Brown Form' lady, but alas, they are permanently in the system--government work and all...

Eh, bureaucracy in all its splendour.

On a parenthetical note, I went to the MTO this very day 'cause my b-day is on Sunday (nothing like leaving things to the last minute).

I walk in--4 wickets open, 4 people standing in front of them. I'm the next person in line.

10 minutes...

15 minutes...

20 minutes and one person's done. In this time, the line behind me went from just me to 7 other people.

I waited to be called.

Wasn't called.

I could hear the people behind me shuffling impatiently 'cause there's a wicket open, but I'm 'by the rulz' guy and I waited to be called.

Eventually, the woman at the free wicket got up and walked to the back, never to be seen again.

So that was that.

5 minutes goes by...

Then another person was done and left the building. The person behind the counter finishes up paperwork, starts chit-chatting with the person next to her (who was busy with a 'customer'), and then she gets up and disappears to the back.

So now there's two people manning the counters, and there's a line of 10 people behind me.

I'm still waiting...

Finally a person leaves and I get called up.

Very pleasant person handles my issues--that was the good bit. I'm done in all of 3 minutes flat (including paying and pleasantries) and I get out of there.

I'm thinking that time loses meaning at the MTO...

And the MTO lost meaning of anything that makes sense a long time ago--pleasant people (sometimes), but just odd in their dealings...

Fire Station #8 Redux

You might remember the original, but that was disassembled a long time ago.

But I liked it so much that I decided to build it anew--this time with a better sense of scale for any tentative future layout that I may build.

Not too shabby...

So here's the newer, more compact version. The details of the original are still present, but in a much smaller form.

This will hopefully inspire me to work on the layout in the basement. We shall see...

All pics of the firestation--Fire Station #8 done in LEGO bricks

Downey Woodpecker

The woodpecker came back! And it allowed me take a few pics!

Woodpecker Feeding

So I thought I'd share!

Pics here--Birds 2006

As posted in the Globe and Mail--

Canada warned not to emulate U.S. drug policy

What's the right direction for the 'war on drugs'?

And what happens with this 'harm reduction'?

Crime goes down? What's that??? Improved physical and mental health? Come again????

We have to stop thinking this 'war on drugs' is a criminal issue--it's a medical issue.

We also have to stop thinking that this is a 'society' issue--it's a personal issue--between the drug user and him or herself. Like gambling/drinking/smoking--it's part 'n parcel with anything addictive.

The current laws put drug users in jail in order to 'rehabilitate them'--turn them into non-drug users. At least, that's the premise--"We want a 'clean' society--one with no drug users!"

I'm going to start calling these people 'ostrich wannabes'.

Our drug laws haven't reduced drug use *and* the current drug laws cause more harm and crime in society--Users looking for money for their 'next fix' commit crime. Users looking to escape incarceration break the law.

What happens to society if we make drug usage legal? Does everyone become a junkie? Nope. What really happens is crime goes down, jails become less crowded, and users can seek legal treatments.

I've said it before (and I'll continue to say it)--what we're doing now isn't working.

I really liked one of the recent additions to Sparky's and Sandy's Space, so I'm keeping it!

If you look to the top of the page (just below our picture), you'll see 4 links. These links are as follows--

Blog Entries - This very blog you're reading right now

Photo Gallery - Pictures of, well, anything that interests us

Message Forum - A message board for us and our friends

Web Page - The (mostly) original S's & S's S web page

These linls are also in the list to the right. At any time, have a boo at what else is going on around here.

Of course, one of the biggest concerns for a web site administrator is spam. Since spam can infiltrate a web site via all of the above links, the 'single product use' spam-ridding solution won't work, and I'm not going to maintain 3-4 separate spam thwarting software packages. For example, someone once proposed that I jump to WordPress for my blogging endeavours and implement the Akismet tool. The problem is, Akismet only works with WP and won't cover our photo gallery or our message board.

So again, mod_security to the rescue!

Since mod_security analyses the incoming request before the request is acted on by any of the above web applications, all are protected at the same time. It doesn't matter if the spammer tries to wreak havoc with the blog or the photo galleries, or the message board--all spam is stopped dead by mod_security.

Of course, spam is stopped only if mod_security knows to stop it.

So that's my continuing job--updating and tweaking the 'ban list' to stop all spam before it infiltrates Sparky's and Sandy's Space.

And I actually enjoy doing it

If you see spam anywhere on this website, or if you ahve ideas or suggestions, please drop me a line.

If you're a spammer--too bad for you! :p

What you don't see in this pic is a Downey Woodpecker

The Downey Woodpecker was very good at putting that feeder between himself and our camera. Everytime I thought I had a shot, he'd get the feeder to spin around again!

Grr!!

To see what a Downey Woodpecker really looks ike (instead of the top of his head and his tailfeathers that we captured here), look here--Downey Woodpecker

We'll continue to try and capture this elusive bird 'on film'.

But for now, here's some pics of the Goldfinches for you!

less camera-shy bird

See all pics of birds--2006 Bird Pictures

We implemented a full message board.

No real reason, really, except it's easier than blogs to get a dialogue going for various topics of conversation.

Not to say that the blogs'll stop--they won't--but blogs are blogs and discussions are discussions--time to separate the two.

So go over and see our new message board--

Sandy's and Sparky's Message Board

Also, I put a link to the right so you can find it anytime.

Have at it!