Movember 2010

Well, Movember is done and I've got to admit, I was glad to shave the mustache off.  Every time I would talk, I could feel my mustache poke me in my bottom lip.  Every time I would exhale, I could feel the  hairs from my mustache move.  It would drive me nuts.

And the itching... I hated the itching.

But, I had a feel good moment yesterday when a co-worker walked up to me and thanked me for participating in raising awareness to prostate cancer.  He informed me that his family life has been affected by this ugly disease.

Dam!  I only wish I could do more.  Sign me up for next year!

DanJr

Centro in San Luis Potosi Mexico

Today I had a little time off because the plant that I've been working at had the power off and was closed.  It's unfortunate considering my work made sure that the plant was open on Sunday before they sent me, but it looks like the local plant had different plans than there corporate office did.  It's not the first time that happened.  They walk a different walk over here in Mexico.

So me and a guy that was down here from my customers corporate office desided to make a trip to "Centro", the down town of San Luis Potosi.  There were many different things to see here, and many of them are old.  I mean really old.

Frogger in Mexico

Back home, my wife has one of those really old school portable frogger games (It still works).

I remember playing this game as a kid quite a bit on my computer, on my nintendo, or in the arcade.

But unfortunately, over here in San Luis Potosi Mexico, they play a different kind of frogger game and it scares the daylight out of me.

Interesting Lunch in San Luis Potosi

Let's just say, I went out at a time that we Canadians would think would be a good time to go out for lunch.  12:20pm

What we witnessed on the highway was something to be remembered.  The highway was closed in both directions by "La Policía Estatal" bye the federal jail.

This was the escorts...

Movember

Here I am in Mexico, and I just finaly posted about Movember.  It's still itchy as hell, but I'm half way there.  It has been noticed by a few people, and Darcy has already told me not to get used to it.

I've been wanting to grow one for Movember for a couple of years now, but I would keep forgetting until I would start noticing others peoples moustache.

I followed the rules and every thing.

November 1st - Start clean shaven
No facal hair under the lip and no connection between the moustache and side burns

I'm also registered with ca.movember.com

Here's a link if anyone is interested in donating to Mens's Health

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/642324/

Anyway, till next time
DanJr

It's 3 am

Well, I just got picked up by airways transit and I'm on my way to the airport for my 6 am flight to Dallas. It's bloody early!

I'm not the biggest fan of flighting. When to plane desends, my ears have a hard time with the pressure change and it normaly hurts like hell and this trip does it twice. Once to Dallas and again to San Luis Potosi Mexico.

The girls were all sleeping when I was picked up and Jake sent me off. He's such a great dog. It always sucks leaving my family for work, I alway miss stuff and the girls are growing up so fast.

O well, I figuered I'd just write this short post before I need to shut off my BB.

Have a good one
DanJr

Getting ready for another trip to Mexico

Broken car, unfinished gaming board and off to the middle of Mexico.  This has been a very different week, it started with work telling me to get ready to fly to Mexico at a customers site.  Two day travel and six days on site they tell me.....Right!  I've heard that before!  At least they didn't wait to Monday to tell me I'm leaving the next day.

It really sucks that next week is the week I'm going, because Darcy is done with her mat leave and Monday is her first day back.  I really wanted to help her out with her first week, at least I've got Monday.

And the bloody car!  I noticed on Thursday that you brakes on the car didn't feel right.  It would stop, but I had to push the peddle all the way down.  I called the mechanic on Friday morning to see if they can look into it.  By late afternoon I get a call and they tell me that the master cylinder for the brakes needs to be replaced.  I can fix machines that make cars, but the cars them self, bahh and what he hell is a master cylinder for a brake assembly.  It's over six hundred bucks for the part alone and they didn't have any in stock.  So on Monday, it's going to be a mad scramble to get the girls to the baby sitter, Darcy to work and my ass to work.

Fun fun fun!

I also got a chance to work on my portable gaming surface.  I have the base coat down and some kitty litter for texture.  I'll find out tomorrow it the glue did a good job with sealing the surface so that I can paint it without the litter following the brush or the roller.

I'll be posting some picks of the board some time next week I hope, once I get back from Mexico.

If I'm back come Wednesday of next week, this would be the first time work has ever been right about my travel arrangements.

Here's hoping.

DanJr

Scale

I made a youtube video a few weeks ago on scale (15mm) for flames of war.

Here is it...Roll2Hit

For those who don't know, FOW is a table top strategy game based on WWII.


DanJr

First Tank Platoon Done

I have to say, it feel pretty good the I finally have my first tank platoon done.  It only took a couple of painting sessions to get them done, but I was nervous to start them because I really wanted them to look good.

Well now I'm done, and I'm very happy with how they look.

Now that I have all that said...

Paint, paint and more paint!

Now that I have the 30mm scale models out of my system (for now), I can focus more on my FOW models.

My wife got me the Battlefront FOW bag for my birthday (very nice) and I picked up "Das Book".  I like!  I also finaly got my mortar platoons, reg and heavy.  I've been waiting for these guys for about 2 months now.

The one thing I really want to focus on once I've got these my units done it playing more games, and starting and finishing my terrain.  I find in our current games, we lack a lot in terrain and obstacles.  Using LOS rules is just one dynamic I really want to get more in my gaming.

I'm also looking forward to playing the missions in "Das Book".  The gaming board I have in mind will be pretty cool to play on, and the one that Rick is working on will also kick ass.

Anyway, on a side note, my curling season is working out pretty good.  We are winning the game that we should be and competing in the challenging ones and I'm improving.  I really like playing twice a week.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Good night
DanJr

Changes to the Blog

Made a couple of changes to the blog this weekend. I got inspired by a few other blogs that I've seen.

I added a Links page. So if you people want to know what I find interesting.

I also added a Hobby Queue. I will give props to "What Would Patton Do?" for this, I love this idea. I've been working pretty hard on my models, and this is just a list of things that I'm working on.

As for other things, curling season has started again. WAHOO, I've been waiting all summer for this, and we've been going pretty good. Back in the hack again. HEEHEE.
Well, I just wanted to make this short, so it's short.

Goodnight
DanJr

Long time no post ;)

I have been busy. Between work, hobby, curling and more importantly family, I've been very busy indeed.

I also started a new channel on you tube for my hobby. It's a little hard to find the time to edit video (also the fact that I'm a newb), but i did start one.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Roll2Hit


Well any way. I hope to post an update soon with a little more to read.

PS- HAPPY OKTOBERFEST

-DanJr

I need a Title!

Hey!

I know it's been a long time, but I have been busy. Work, family and modeling.

Well I think you can say that automotive is bouncing back, we've been insanely busy with automotive work. That's enough about work!

The girls are growing up so fast, Laura's just about done her first year of school, O is a hand full and Blondie is moving around on the floor. I really wonder what happens to the days sometime.

I've picked up the Flames of War rule book and I love it. The rules, the setting and the models. I starting collecting Canadian First Infantry Brigade and First Armoured Brigade. I've also been having alot of fun learning about the history. I new of the importence of Canadian troops in Normany and the Netherlands, but I didn't know of there presence in Italy or anywhere else for that matter. I don't remember being taught that in school growing up which kinda pisses me off a bit.

Oh, on a side note, the new Doctor Who season is really good.





Matt Smith plays the role very well and maybe my second favorite doctor, but my favorite is still Tom Baker.

Review on "The Kids of Carcassonne"

Ok, I've got a 6 month old (Aubrielle), 2 year old (Oceane) and just about 5 year old (Laura). All girls...

If any of you have young kids, you should check this game out for them.

It's "The Kids of Carcassonne", I heard of this game from The D6 Generation podcast when they talked about recommended games for kids. This game wasn't reviewed but I've been trying to get a couple of the other games they were talking about and couldn't find one, but I've been itching to play something with the girls that wasn't shoots and ladders or candy land.

Just to get this out of the way, I've never played Carcassonne, but after getting this kids version, my wife is interested in trying it (so an I).

Link to Rio Grande Games
http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=313]

The game is for Kids 4 and up (My two year old is getting a kick out of it too)
2-4 players
-no dice or no cards

36 heavy card stock (about 2.5mm)
32 wooden bonhommes (larger than the regular bonhommes from the Carcassonne game)

The object of the game is to take turns placing tiles and try and connect roads that have your coloured bonhommes and be the first to place eight guys on the tiles.

And that's pretty much it.

The first game I played was with my wife, Laura, Oceane and myself. This game was pretty much, get the concept of placing tiles, taking your turn and placing guys on the board.

By game three, Laura is carefully looking over the playing area and trying to close off roads that have her coloured bonhommes on. Oceane is having fun with placing tiles (any tile can go anywhere) and placing guys on the board once Laura, my wife or I tell her too. And my wife and I are blocking each other with every turn we get.

I got this game last week, and we've been playing it almost every night since then. Sometimes the four of us, and sometimes just me and the girls (Aubrielle still a little too young :P ). I've also not been pulling punches with Laura in this game ether, she really gets it and understands what to do to win. She not playing to try and block, but closing off roads and thinking two or three moves ahead. And she has kicked my ass a few times.

In conclusion, I recommend this game for anyone who has a kid(s) at almost any age above 3 or 4, and like me, if you have a kid that is under that, you can still include them in the game with the older kid(s).

Puppy Madness

So far, at work, two people have got new puppies, and there cute...

It's making me think that Jake would like a little brother, A 230lb Old English Mastiff brother. Aren't they cute. Too bad, I'll never get one, Darcy's more than likely not going to say yes to a new dog for some time now. I can't blame her, life at home is already pretty crazy with three kids and stuff, doesn't stop me for looking at the puppies pics thou, lol.

Well, the training has been going great, I'm really starting to notice my fitness level go up. Running is easier, so is the swimming. I still need to work on my breathing cadence in the water. So far, it's the one thing that makes me stop, keeping air into my lungs and breathing properly without getting the odd gulp of water. I do need to pay a little more attention to my biking, I find that my not paying enough attention to my biking.

I'm going to continue with my training and getting ready for the race on the 6th of June. It's coming up fast. I hope to find some time in the next few weeks to go and run the running portion of the race as a workout, so that I get a chance to see what to expect. The same goes for the biking portion too. I've also been collecting workout numbers like HR, duration and distance. I think I'll see if I can find some way of entering this info on the blog somewhere just to keep track of it.

Well, that's all for now, Later.

-DanJr

Big win!

This is pretty crazy, so far the training was been going pretty good. I'm running two to three times a week and swimming one to two. Now that curling is done and over for the season, I should be able to ramp that up the swimming to twice and running to three times and bike riding to twice a week.

That one day of rest is driving my crazy, I feel like I should do a little mini workout, but i know I "MUST NOT" because fitness builds during my rest time (or so the Triathlon Bible says). It does work, because the first run i did right after my day of rest and i ran my first, ever in my whole life, 5 km run...

That's 5 km without rest or walking during to run.

ZOMG.............!

Anyway, like I said, the curling season is done and wow, what a finally. On Monday and Thursday nights we went undefeated for the payoffs. What a time to start winning. We all felt that our season just got started, lol. Oh well, lets hope that we can keep it up next fall.

Till next time...

-DanJr

Wah. I gotta get some new pics in my flickr stream.

Anyway, just a little update. My girls are back home, and it's been nice to get the chaos back. While they were gone, I realised how much I miss the noises and just plane craziness when they're around.

So far so good with the training schedule, I should be ready to slowly ramp up my running starting next week. Hopefully I can get some running shoes this weekend. I also gotta fix my bike. I bent one of my gears a few years ago. Don't shift in the middle of a climb, that's bad. My swimming will also start next week as well.

The warmaster challenge is this weekend in Waterloo, so I'm going to try and hang out for a couple of hours with the guys from Windsor that are participating. Should be fun.

All in all, it looks like it will be a busy weekend.

Later
-DanJr

Boo!

I'm still here.

Ok, now that I've got that taken care of. It's been a pretty crazy... month? Work, family and hobbies have been keeping me out of trouble.

As an overview, I started painting my warmachine models, Kara Sloan is an awesome fig. I'm just about done, I just need to work on my highlights and base. Once my wife comes back home with the camera, I'll post and updated pic.

Curling season has gone into play offs, and we're doing pretty good. This year I've been really working on hitting the bloom and coming out of the hack clean, and it's shows. I'm been playing really good. I also found that I can't were leather curling gloves. Blister, Aarrggg!

The girls are up north for the beginning of this week. The house is way too quiet, I don't like it. I guess I need a little chaos in my day after all. ;) I'm looking forward to there return Wednesday.

And finally, today is my first day of training. I've made the decision that I am going to participate in the Milton Ontario Try-A-Tri event June 6th, 2010. I plan to "participate" not win or even compete. Just finish! I want to end the triathlon season with at least one full triathlon event. I've started with my diet to lose some weight and my running/walking started today. I hope to walk every day and run/walk 3 times a week. Bike 1/2 times a week and hit the pool for lane swimming no less than twice a week. It all starts with one. The time change this last weekend screwed me up, but I am going to walk tonight after my curling game. As for my diet, I'm cutting fried food, soda drinks and I'm also going to increase my water consumption and decrease my caloric intake. (That almost sounded like i knew what I was talking about)

Anyway, I hope to log all of this, so lets see if I can keep typing to help out in my personal health goal.

Cheers
DanJr

PS-Wow, thank google for spell check, lol.

Being sick! Blahhh...

Nothing sucks more that being sick. I had a cold for the last couple of days, so I haven't been very productive and I missed a day of work. Not cool at all, and now the girls have it.

As for how my week end went, It wasn't too bad. My wife and I had a ruff Sunday morning because of a long evening the night before. It wasn't drinking, it was CANASTA. I love the game, don't get me wrong, but it may not have been a good game to start at 10pm. We played three games, it was fun. Still shorter than domino's.

Outside of the sickness and the night of canasta, we had some good family time. With us and the girls and with the in-laws.

I also finished the second book in the Horus Heresy novels from Black Library. I'm still hooked, I'm going to pick the third book as soon as I can. I'm anxious for the books that cover the Dark Angles and the Fallen Angles.

Hopefully, the girls get over the cold soon.

Later
-DanJr

Jinx this!

Did you ever think that the day is going just a little too good? I go ta admit that I started the day off like this. I woke up this morning, had coffee ready (thank you for the new coffee machine sweet heart), something to eat, a good drive in and I was at work with allot of time to spare.

Now that my work day is winding down and I'm almost done, I guess I really didn't have anything to be to paranoid about. I know that by typing this, I maybe jinxing myself. Hell, I'm the one who always freaks out went someone say "Last run" while snowboarding and your still at the top of the hill.

I'll walk down!

But I do feel comfortable saying that it was a good day today, I'm at peace with saying this. Especially knowing that I'm going home in 5 minutes, and I still have to drive there, lol.

I also hope that this means I'll have a good game curling tonight.

See ya later
-DanJr

Need to learn Wordpress

Ok, I know that these easy to use templates on Blogger are nice for the average Joe, but it's driving me a little nuts. It's not letting me personalise the page like I would like to see it. I've been using computers since I was 12 and I know allot of different computer languages (even thou there all old [Dbase, Turbo Pascal, Basic, etc...ssshish I feel old]).

Html wasn't hard to figure out a few years back when I was playing around with a geocities page, I think I can figure wordpress. Besides, there are a few things I would love to do with this whole blog thing. No flair, but definitely a personal touch.

The curling season is going pretty well, and I'm already starting to feel a little sad that it's two thirds done. I'm very happy that my wife is ok with me still playing 2 night a week, it's really helped with my game, and I've noticed that my skip is making me throw more than just guards and draws. Hopefully I can keep it up.

On another note, my girls have started a new session of swimming and there doing so good. Laura's swimming so well, that Darcy and I are really thinking about having her participate in a competitive team. Provided that "I" don't have to drive her to the pool at 5am for a practice. O is also doing very good, her back and front floats are supper good. I think my wife and I have fish for kids.

I kinda missed not posting for the last few days, so I really want to make an effort to keep this up. So until next time.

Cheers
-DanJr

My first post of 2010

2009 is over and time to go back to work.

So what to make my first post of the year be about!

I got a PS3 for Christmas (Thank you sweet heart), so I'm enjoying the list of new titles that I have to play with, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted 2 and so much more.

This holiday I did have a chance to play Batman:Arkham Asylum and Border Lands. Holy hell, I loved both very much. I really feel bad about having a wii for so long, because I feel like I've been deprived.

Speaking about the wii, I did play BoomBlox with my oldest and that was very cool. Now that she old enough to play video games, the wii just maybe getting more play outside of Rock Band.

So now that I've finally got the first post of the year up, I should be able to keep it up.

Talk to you soon
-DanJr