The Eco Dad

I'm certainly glad I put 'irregularly updated' in this blog's description, 'cause it's been just over three weeks since I last wrote anything. I don't really have any excuses. It's just been a bit busy with a family vacation and a work-related trip to Amsterdam, Holland. Oh yeah, and my oldest starts school this week. He seems alright with it. I'm f*cking terrified! For our family vacation we went the cottage rental route. We've done the group cottage rental thing before and I have to say, with the right people, it's a good idea. Luckily, we go with the right people. At our busiest we had 10 adults and 6 children. We were spread around 5 cottages on one property, so we weren't on top of each other for 7 days, thankfully. That's how friendships are ruined. Nope, this was about a 3 hour drive outside the city limits and each family that went had their own cottage. The property was waterfront so the kids got plenty of beach time while ...

I'm still on the fence as to whether I even like this running thing. I'm going to be honest, I hit the 2k mark of this last 10k and I thought, WTF am I doing?! Where's my runner's high? Then I remember why I'm running - to do good. This 10k was done to raise funds for research on heart and stroke PLUS I got to run with these beauties below. Check those sweet finisher medals! Together, as a team, we raised over $1000 for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Afterwards we got to hang out and have some brunch. Throw in the fact we all got some exercise and I suppose there really isn't any reason not to run. Tonight I just signed up for another 10k, and this one will benefit the SickKids Foundation in order to support SickKids Hospital in Toronto. So far I'm solo. One of the other guys in the photo has said he'll run it with me. I'll try and convince a few others because, hey, nothing like raising funds for a good cause with good people. My goal...

The first long weekend, in Ontario anyways, with decent weather is (hopefully) the Victoria Day weekend. It's sort of an unofficial kick-off to summer, even though summer is actually another month away. It's also a huge weekend for gardening. I'm not sure if it's because the temperatures are all but certain to stay above that bloody frost point or because the only shopping people can do on the holiday Monday is at a nursery/garden centre. Either way, I don't care. I went to our local nursery this long weekend and picked up some flowers and a couple scotch bonnet pepper plants. At first I wondered if it broke the mission of not buying new, but plants are perishable items, kinda like food. I've never really heard of someone buying pre-owned annuals. They die. Every year. Circle of life. Perennials, I suppose, you could buy second hand, but I've never heard of someone digging up someone else's garden to transplant it in their own garden. You'd risk root...

I did it! I completed all 1776 steps of the CN Tower climb for the World Wildlife Foundation. Total funds raised by me? $370! It's not a huge amount, but it's $370 they wouldn't have otherwise had. To add to that awesomeness, I also got to spend time with friends. The only part that sucked was the 0500 hours alarm set on my phone on a Saturday morning. That was dumpy. Just gonna go ahead and use a B&W filter in honour of all the baby pandas we saved. This is the kind of activity I think more people should do - something for your body, for a good cause, with good friends. Look at all the win in that picture. If the picture wasn't in black and white you'd see even more win as the girl in the middle got a fluorescent yellow shirt for raising over $1000 ... yes, over one thousand dollars! She's a rockstar, or, as the WWF considers her, a platinum panda member. I think I might try to find more good causes to support. I just wish most of them weren'...

While I've pledged to refrain from buying new things for a year, my wife has not, and that's okay. She spends enough time with a start-up company and mothering our kids that she doesn't have the same amount of time I do to research and find second hand clothes, especially when she needs an emergency pair of shoes. I did make the absolute most out of the situation though. I took some time and sat down with my three year old this morning and made him a garage for his cars ... from mom's shoe box. Waste not, want not? Constructing/decorating the garage didn't take much time. I think I got 15 minutes of quality time with the boy on this one, but it was 15 minutes of him and I working together. He got to place some stickers and then park his cars in the garage. Lately we've been playing a lot of cars, so I thought this particular craft would be fun ... and it was. We'll likely be playing with it this afternoon when he gets up from his nap. Time to use th...