Holy crap … so Shari and I bring the family back from our first BIG vacation only to have to launch into our daughter’s SECOND birthday … I’ll let that soak in for a second. Little Brie Carder has been breathing the air on this planet for over 700 days. I’d say she’s been walking around but really? She only started that shtick about a year ago …

Shari and I were actually going through some old photos and videos last night, which lead to a ton of memories flooding back for both of us. What was amazing for me watching the videos of our one year old was despite the outward changes how little she had actually changed in personality. What’s even more shocking is just how much her little brother is just like her. There is no doubt that these two kids are related, and there’s even smaller doubt that these kids came from Shari and me.

I got to show Brie two bits of media which I’ve been DYING to show her for at least two years now. She watched Toy Story … and she watched some Looney Tunes. Shari and I had decided no TV for her until she was two. And now that she’s there, I’m going to start opening up the floodgates and show her some really cool stuff. She was mesmerized by Toy Story and that couldn’t have made her father any happier. Now all she needs to do is declare that Buzz is her favourtie … not that wimpy cowboy doll …

Hey there everyone in Timbit land! So I’ve been slaving away at a new design for the site, mostly so that I could do some proper twitter integration. A good chunk of me decided that it was high time I overhauled the site anyway, so this here represents Black Box 5.0 …

I owe some stories and some pics … after all my daughter turned two this past weekend and I didn’t say a darn thing! so now that I’ve got the major design changes out of the way, I can focus on getting some more content up and running. So stay tuned!

Hey there everybody … all three of you … I think there was a blue moon out last night so I guess it’s time for me to post once again …

So Shari and I have a new favorite TV show … Modern Family. The jokes are surprisingly fresh and as new parents a lot of the humor resonates REALLY close to home. Personally, I love the show because I can totally relate to the character of Phil Dunphy. To describe it in the easiest way possible, the guy is ME. He likes to smack talk about his wife, but only after making sure she’s not in earshot. He lives in a bit of a fantasy world where his self evaluation may be a little more inflated than it deserves to be. And most importantly, he’s a tech toy FANATIC!!!

I knew this when in a previous episode he was trying to teach his wife and daughter the correct sequence of remote control button pushes to turn on the entertainment system PROPERLY. I myself have struggled with this and indeed sovled the issue by picking up a kick-ass all in one remote. However last night’s episode took Phil’s love of tech to a whole new level. He was geeked because it was his birthday. And why was he geeked about his birthday? Because it was on the same day as the release of the new Apple iPad.

Normally when a show hits viewers with a product placement I just roll my eyes and start mumbling under my breath. Reality shows like Biggest Loser, Survivor and Amazing Race aren’t even subtle about it with “challenges” being brought to you by various products. 30 Rock is normally the only show who handles placements perfectly, by delivering a scathing satire in the same breath as the actual product placement. Just think of the whole Jack Donaghy – Elisa – McFlurry love traingle and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

So it was amazing to me that last night it took me almost a good ten, fifteen minutes to clue in that the whole iPad angle COULD have been a placement! So believable and in line with his character was Phil’s desire for the iPad that I just took it, hook line and sinker. It wasn’t until the second commercial break that I realized not only that the iPad WAS coming out this weekend, but also did I remember about the fact that this was an ABC television show … ABC is owned by Disney … and Disney and Apple are the BEST of buds aren’t they?

I was right there with Phil, sharing his excitement about the new toy which was launching THAT very weekend. And when he uttered the line, “Next week! That’s like the worst thing you can say to an early adopter!” I was RIGHT there with him in that sentiment.

If you haven’t seen the show, you need to. The fact that they’ve created enjoyable realistic RELATABLE characters is only one facet of this fantastic show. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go line up for my iPad.

Brie’s mom and I have been noticing a trend with our little girl of late … she’s been getting REALLY obsessive about certain things. For instance, whenever she grabs a book to read she always makes it a point to back to her bookshelf and get a book for EVERYONE who’s in the room. Sometimes yes that includes her little brother who is lying on the floor … drooling.

Now this could just be dismissed as very cute toddler behaviour but we’re starting to see events which lead us to the above mentioned assumption. For instance, on Logan’s change table we had an incident where one of the shelves dropped out of it’s mount. This of course resulted in all of the items on said shelf being spread across the floor. This happened in the morning when I was still getting ready to head into work.

Brie walked into the room, saw the mess, came back out and found me in the bathroom, grabbed my hand, lead me into her brother’s room, pointed at the mess and said something like ‘broken’ or ‘fix’. She REALLY wanted it fixed, REAL BAD. Clearly I was headed to work and didn’t have the time to do that. Once I got home that night, the shelf was fixed but we didn’t have time to reload the shelf. Well the next day after I had gone to work, Shari stepped into the room to find Brie putting all of the items back on the shelf.

I sure do hope this trend lasts because I’ll really like it when she starts helping out cleaning around the house.

It was five years ago this week when I was first introduced to my lovely Shari … she was downtown visiting Morgan in the hospital … I was living downtown with Kate … we had talked on the phone a little bit to get to know each other, but this was the week where we first met face to face …

The place was Fran’s, down by the Eaton Centre across from old Massey Hall. Shari was there with her girls and I showed up with a shaved head and a trenchcoat. Not the best of first impressions to say the least. We talked, or as she would put it I talked and she just wondered if I could get a word in edgewise. I’ve told my darling many a time how I felt that night, but here five years later I’ll say it again …

I walked into Fran’s wondering if she would be good enough for me … I walked out wondering if I would be good enough for her.

Clearly things worked out from that first meeting. I went to a Survivor event at her house in Oakville. I almost ruined everything by poking her too damned much. Clearly I was over enthusiastic. We had our ‘first date’ a couple days later at a glow in the dark miniputt.

Looking back some of these details are starting to get a little bit fuzzy. Having two kids running and screaming around the house does tend to dull one’s mind. Those two kids though are just a part of all that Shari and I have accomplished together in the past five years. Truly I consider myself a blessed and lucky man to have her in my life. I’m just glad she was able to get over a poor haircut and bad wardrobe and give me a chance.

Love yah babe. Looking forward to the next five years!

So it’s a new year … which always seems to bring about those pesky resolutions … and apparently also those holiday pounds. So that must mean it’s time once again to try and lose some weight! Colour me ecstatic … woo … hoo …

Once again our little circle of friends is engaging in what we like to refer to as the Fat Losers. Clearly a riff on the NBC show Biggest Loser, but ours has a little bit more of an edge don’t yah think? Anyway our merry little band is keeping an eye on each other … watching each other’s waistlines and eating habits … trying to make sure that everyone is doing all they can to reach their goals.

But there are challenges. Take today for example. I’m out for a walk with a coworker … and he suggests a path … which goes RIGHT BY a sidewalk sale in a market where they’re selling half price fudge. I’ll let that soak in for a second. Half. Price. Fudge. I hope anyone who’s reading this can appreciate how hard it was to walk past that. After all, it’s been my wife who has instilled into me a sense of thriftiness and taking advantage of a sale wherever you can. Stupid fudge …

So here we stand at the threshold of a new decade? Are you excited? I am! I’ll be entering this decade with two toddlers and leaving it with two preteens … god that sounds scary to say right now …

So what’s on my mind? Well let’s see … clearly the world’s been going to hell in a handbasket … Mark McGwire is in the news again about steroids, eroding what little love I have left for baseball … plus it irkes me that all of this will reduce the resale value of my McGwire rookie card … whoops, I almost typed that as WOOKIE card … that would have been a completely different beast now wouldn’t it?

Conan O’Brien is losing his late night spot … which although it doesn’t really affect me because at that time slot I’m either asleep or more likely on my XBox, I still feel bad for the guy. The letter addressing the People of the Earth really hit the nail on the head, and he didn’t get a fair shake at earning his own audience.

I’m in yet another weight loss challenge with the circle of friends. Yes, there will be a web site going up for said challenge soon enough and yes, it will be designed by yours truly. It’s amazing how Shari one day suddenly turned into a project manager from work and started assigning deadlines on me for having my code done.

The kids had a great holidays, and Shari and I had a blast watching them enjoy themselves. The two of them were perfect angels at every function and it was wonderful. We’re just now left wondering where those two kids have gone two because that’s NOT who’s living under our roof.

Sooooo … that’s about it for right now. As more thoughts cross my mind I’ll try and be mindful and make them public here on the site. It’s always a little unsettling to get a couple of complaint e-mails from people asking why I haven’t posted. Kinda freaky to know that people are actually reading this. So for those who are put out by my lack of posts please be understanding. As I’ve tried to point out above … I’ve got a couple of things going on. I’ll post when I can!

Can I go a whole month without posting? Sure I can … but why would I choose to do that?

So what’s been on my mind as of late? Well mostly family … having two kids is really kicking the crap outta me and Shari … we love those kids dearly but man are they a lot of work. People may ask me, aren’t you worried when they’re older they’ll read this and get upset? Nah. Once they’re old enought to understand, I’m going to let them know just what a pain in the ass they were.

However for all the frustration … I am getting a little giddy. With christmas right around the corner, I’ve been looking at things with a fresh perspective. I’m looking forward to putting up the tree in the living room this year and I’m eagerly awaiting things to be under it. Instead of hoping for things for myself under there, which is my usual preference … I’m already imagining Brie under there … eyes all a glow at seeing all of her presents. Next year it’ll be the both of them who will be under that tree and then my pride will be twice as full. I can’t wait!

Before all two of you who read this get all sarcastic on me … and point out that I’ve been a parent for around 18 months now … let me explain what’s on my mind.

With Brie getting older … and every day turning more and more into a little lady … I find my mind wandering to concerns about what exactly I’m going to be doing to raise her. Not fundamental things like feeding and cleaning her. Instead things like “how many times a week will I show her Toy Story? When do I put a game controller into her hands? When do I explain to her how awesome it is that we’re Canadian?”

Shari and I have this AWESOME responsibility … not just to physically bring these children to adulthood … but to shape and mould them into individuals … to pass along to them a sense of values and morals. It’s begun to weigh upon my thoughts … quite a bit.

I just need to make sure that my children understand that Kid Rock is good … and the Backstreet Boys are bad.

Alrighty … so what do parents of two children both under 18 months do with the majority of their free time? RECOVER!!! And what’s the best thing to do to recover? WATCH THE BOOB TUBE!!!

Shari and I haven’t been too bad with getting sucked in lately … we’ve only added Hell’s Kitchen to our schedule in the past couple of weeks … watching the ‘new’ season at 8 and then last season on the Food Network right afterwards at 9 … (I like it when Ramsay yells at the cooks … it makes me laugh … I’m cruel like that) …

However Shari and I are going to be in BIG trouble REAL soon … for one … Survivor starts next week … ruh ruoh … and then the following week, not only does Thursday get better with the CSI premiere … but also the Amazing Race starts that weekend … god, and that’s just one network …

Apparently the Race is going to have a pair of Harlem Globetrotters this year … I can’t wait to see two gigantic basketball players crammed into tiny little taxis …