Some words of wisdom for us married men...

Super-sized Cruise Ship Proposal

Think the latest round of cruise ships are out of control? Check out this proposal for a 320,000T, 500m long giant (that's over twice as large as the current world's largest cruise ship Freedom of the Seas).



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30 Days Until The Newest Kwasny Arrives

As the spinning baby on the right says it is only 30 days until the birth of Jack (according to me) or Addison (according to Nardine) so I thought I'd give you an update on where we stand with respect to being ready for kid #2.

First off, Nardine is feeling a lot better. The antibiotics seem to have finally kicked in and the pain from her ribs has lessened significantly, to the point where today she was able to take regular Tylenol Extra Strength instead of the hydromorphone. Every doctor we've seen lately (and there has been a few of them) has given the baby the 100% o.k. diagnosis which is great considering the terrible bug that Nardine has had to fight off. The positive side of all this for Nardine is that instead of gaining weight over the last two weeks she has actually lost a couple of pounds (again, nothing to worry about according to the professionals). Nardine's obstetrician gives her about a 60% chance of having a natural birth before her scheduled C-section date of 23 April. While that would be great, we've already got some experience with the C-section so either way is fine with us.

Baby's room - for all of you that don't already know this, Dylan has moved out of her old room and taken over what used to be our guest room. Therefore the baby's room is pretty much done. We've put the crib back together, restocked the change table and are waiting on the final outcome before we make any major style changes (mom, I'm going to need those G.I. Joe toys soon). Since we never really believed in the 'baby-proofing' your house idea (probably because it involved to much work), the rest of the house is pretty much good to go. I'm sure that John and Cas will be happy to hear that we have acquired bottles and formula ahead of time so there will be no frantic dashes to the store with this kid! We've borrowed an infant car seat from a friend of mine at work so once again we managed to avoid buying our own - what a frugal family!

So what's left to do? Not much. We need to pack an overnight bag for the hospital, find someplace for Dylan to stay in case the baby comes before John and Cas get here (please don't come early baby!) and most importantly enjoy our last month together as a family of three. Dylan is still very excited about the new baby coming and is also thrilled that both grandmas and grandpas will be visiting soon. She's already assigned Nardine and myself the task of watching the baby while she takes grandma and grandpa shopping to buy a new high chair for the baby, apparently she's not ready to give her old one up yet.

PS - in keeping in line with my previous post, I thought you all might find this video funny, I laughed my butt off!

OK - This might be a bit political....



Here's an interesting video I found from the CBC program the Fifth Estate called "The Lies That Led to War". It gives an interesting perspective on why the war on Iraq was started and the very suspect evidence that was used to justify it. I'll warn you now it's long, about 45 minutes, but is very well put together and definitely gives you something to think about. Here's a bit of the lead in to the show -

" Since the US-led invasion four years ago, the fifth estate has covered Iraq and the war on terror from virtually every angle--the military, media, intelligence, politics--revealing aspects of the story that you didn't find anywhere else. Now, as the White House warns about the latest threat in the region, this time from Iran, it's worthwhile looking back to examine the deception, suspect intelligence, even lies, that convinced the world of the rightness of targeting Saddam Hussein."

SPRING 2007 IS HERE!


Well it's sunny, -4C and there's no snow so I guess things could be a lot worse! Spring also heralded in a new arrival - Dylan's first report card! Yep, Dylan received her first report card from preschool yesterday and of course being the genius that we all know she is, it was pretty much straight A's - although the grading scale may be a bit easier than what Jason's students are used to! Needless to say Nardine is the very proud mother right now, may be a long time before the report card gets taken off the fridge!

THANK YOU!





















Nardine, Dylan and I would like to pass on a big thanks to everyone who's called to check in on us or offered to help out over the last couple of days. It's great knowing we have so many family and friends that care a lot about us. Nardine would like to note however that no one has yet to step up with any get well gifts of jewelery or expensive shoes...just a thought.

134

And the hits just keep on coming....

Just so you all know - I think Nardine deserves an award. I'm thinking something like "World's Best Person For Coping With Pneumonia While 34 Weeks Pregnant" award (in my mind I see it as a giant bronzed statue of a box of Kleenex and a bottle of pain killers). Yep, as if getting the flu while pregnant wasn't bad enough, we just found out yesterday that poor Nardine now has pneumonia. The bonus side effect - Nardine also has bruised ribs from coughing so much over the past two weeks and has pretty much been unable to sleep the last couple of nights. I guess the good news in all this is that she is now on antibiotics that will take care of the lung infection and on some butt kicking pain killers to dull the extreme pain! The doctor said that the antibiotics should take five to seven days to clear the infection and that the baby is 100% ok and won't be harmed by any of this. In the mean time, Nardine wanted me to let you all know that she is currently accepting gift certificates or jewelery as get well soon gifts - please no IOUs.

BREAKING NEWS - this just heard out of Dylan "Oh no, I just shoved a bead up my nose!" Yep, Dylan just got a bead stuck in her nose - sorry no pictures. Luckily I was able to put all my first aid training into use and get it out with the handy tweezers contained in my swiss army knife. The three year old terror is now 100% ok and back to moving at a million miles an hour. Dylan has actually been very good these last couple of days and has been a big help in taking care of her mom while she's been sick. Hopefully this trend will continue when the new baby arrives.

And finally, since I know that you've all been eagerly awaiting them since September of last year, here are the photos from my hike of the '100 Mile Wilderness' section of the Appalachian Trail last fall. In all there were seven of us who covered just under 100 miles in nine days and then summited the highest peak in Maine, Mount Katahdin. Hope you like the pictures and DON'T FORGET TO TAKE THE TEST (it's available online right now!)

Appalachian Trail

Your civic duty...and I don't mean taxes.

I gave you the warm up with the Stoopid test, now it's time to really put your brains on the line. This Sunday, March 18th the CBC will be broadcasting 'Test the Nation' where they will attempt to figure out just how smart Canadians are. You can do the test online or print off a copy and do it during the show. Once the show is over they will broadcast the answers and you can figure out just how many brain cells you put to death over the years! Follow this link to read some common questions about the show and learn what you need to do to participate: Test the Nation:FAQ. So here's the challenge: take the test. Consider it a free opportunity to give the old gray matter a workout and to figure out how many brain cells you've slowly put to death over the years. Lets see if we can beat the national average!!

Life is starting to return to normal around here. Dylan is now 100% and is itching to get back to preschool to play with all her friends but unfortunately it's spring break this week - who would have thought that three year olds need a spring break? Nardine is unfortunately still fighting the good fight. I'm pretty sure that once this sickness is broken Nard will take up the practice of wearing a face mask like you see people doing in China and Japan as I'm pretty sure she NEVER wants to be sick again! Can't say I blame her.

Weather is supposed to be nice this weekend so hopefully we'll get outside and take some new pictures to update the blog with - DON'T FORGET TO TAKE THE TEST ON SUNDAY!!

Jack or Addison Pregnancy Shots

32 Down - 8 To Go!

Thought you all might enjoy a pictorial view of the last 32 weeks of Nard's life - not looking to bad hey!! Things at the Kwasny household are starting to look up - Dylan is still good and only has a bit of a cough and some dark circles around her eyes as souvenirs. I managed to make it to work on Friday and feel a million times better today. Nard is still fighting the good fight but is definitely better than yesterday and my guess is she'll be up to at least 80% by Monday. Needless to say it's going to be a quiet weekend around here.

As you probably already noticed the link for the pictures above takes you to a new photo album rather than the Flickr one that you've been used to until now. The site is called Picasa and it's part of Google's free web 2.0 utilities that they offer to anyone. The big benefit of Picasa over Flickr is that Flickr limits you to 200 photos unless you pay for more, Picasa gives you one Gigabyte of free storage - enough for 4000 photos!! You also get a Gmail acount with four Gigabytes of storage, free web based word processor and spreadsheet, a Blogger account and many others. Also you can download Picasa software for your computer which I just started using and so far it's the best program I've come across to organize our millions of photos. Anyways if you haven't got a Gmail account yet (which will give you access to all of this) then head on over to www.gmail.com and sign up!.

So I'll put a link to our Picasa album over on the right side of the blog and try to figure out someway to display it as nice as the Flickr photos. I won't be deleting any of the Flickr photos but probably won't be adding any new ones either.

GROUND ZERO....
















Well the Kwasny household is firmly in the grasp of the flu - I didn't think all of us were supposed to get sick at the same time but I guess somebody has a sick sense of humour. Dylan has gotten a lot better (only a bit of a cough left) and I am also on the road to recovery but poor Nardine and her reduced immune system are taking a beating. Thankfully she's a tough girl and I know she'll make it through (plus I think being unable to go shopping for more than three days in a row will be sufficient motivation to get her up and moving!).

Check out this location on Google Maps (make sure you have 'Satellite' selected in the map options on the upper right corner) - nope it's not Canadian - zoom out and you should be able to figure out who it belongs to!

Like I didn't know this already....





We now have proven documentation that I am in fact the smartest person in the family (this includes extended family of course) as I've always expected. First time through the test and I'm only 2 PERCENT STUPID - the challenge is on. Post your score in the comments section if you dare to.....

Here's a cool photo I found of the eclipse on Saturday night plus some info on the shot itself:"It's obviously a composite image as the exposure changed dramatically from 1/250 sec at the left hand end through to 30 seconds at the totality at the right hand end. The most difficult exposures were the ones around 2 seconds, too short to do with a lens cap, yet too long to avoid shake from the shutter."

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TAX TIME



For all of you who have yet to experience the joy of QuickTaxWeb I highly recommend it! We've used it the last couple of years without any difficulties. Taxes are easy, electronic filing means quick refunds and all for the low cost of just under $20 (plus 25% off if you bank with RBC). Click on the picture to take you to their website.

The Family Gets Bigger!!

Ok, the title may have gotten you all a little excited - no the baby isn't here yet. Dylan has just been hard at work this evening expanding her robot clan, I think she might be positioning for some kind of hostile takeover. We may have to start giving into her demands of an endless supply of ice cream and apple juice.

PS. Jason, instead of climbing McKinley I think we should learn how to do THIS!!