About Me


Name::ron st.amant
From::Toronto, Ontario, CA
I'm an American living in Canada because my wife made me...no, no it was my choice...see honey, I said it! In September of '05 we had our first child and the rollercoaster got even more scary. Oh and I'm probably coughing...or complaining about it.
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Recent Posts

Dilemma
JibJab
Flying Solo
Tranquility Base
Wowzers
Questions of Podcasting
Dueling Numbers: 416 versus the 905
The Daily Show Takes On The Gonzales Scandal
*sigh*
Bon Voyage

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March 2007

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Spring Is Finally Here Edition

Hmmmm...sun (check), temps above freezing (check), birds singing (check), Cubs preparing to break my heart (check)...all the unmistakable signs of spring!!! It's an absolutely beautiful day here in the Greater TO and it is supposed to get a bit warmer as the week wears on, hopefully drying up the backyard. We enjoyed a three-day weekend, spending time with Mom and Dad "Crash" Snyder. Apparently Dad had an argument with the boards at the hockey game last week...and lost. But he's a hockey player so he's fine, so just give a double double from Tim's and put him back in the game, eh! Shelley has been feeling much more energetic and has been working on the basement, sanding and painting. She was positively bouncing throughout the house Friday as she worked out on paper the landscaping of the backyard and the plans for the deck. It's the happiest (and least pukey) she's been since the beginning of the pregnancy. School is winding down now, and I had a challenging assignment this weekend reading Noam Chomsky and watching Farenheit 9/11, but I managed to survive and had a great class Monday discussing politics with my classmates. I also got to spend extra time in the JCR with Alex and Jen, me compadres from U of T.  click for larger, pop-up photo Alex and I were particularly obnoxious and annoying, but we made ourselves laugh and that's what is important!!! Jen had fun laughing at us, sort of like you do at the monkey house at the zoo, more in sorrow than in enjoyment. Since spring is here but Shell is with child, she couldn't manage to give Dixie her bath and spring cut, so we found a nice friendly place in town to take care of her and today was her big 'spa day'. The place was called Super Suds Pet Stop if you're ever in town and want to get your dog groomed (like that will ever happen) but they were such nice people and *coughreallycheapcough*. So here was Dixie's before picture:  click for larger, pop-up photo And now her after:  click for larger, pop-up photo She looks and smells wonderful :)  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo The next few weeks are really crammed with stuff: baby appointments, papers, exams, puppets, the Heels in the Final Four, dogs, The Masters, cookouts, friends, a wedding anniversary!, and other things. Hopefully the sun will continue to shine and the warm air flow and the grass becomes more visible. And God...would it kill ya to let the Cubs win it all this year?? Cheers

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Tuesday, March 22, 2005

The World Is Starting To Scare Me Edition

It just seems the world is getting weirder. Sure its been pretty weird at other times- Hitler, Pol Pot, KC and the Sunshine Band- but it just seems like there's a higher percentage of weirdness (I guess per capita weirdness) going on. My own local weirdness is my wonderful wife who is now obsessed with food. Of course I expected a pregnant woman to have peculiar issues with food, but I never expected her to lunge at the toaster, knife in one hand, strawberry jam in the other...a weird gleam in her eye, a manic expression on her face. For a second I was sure the next few minutes would involve me barricading myself in the bathroom, her, axe-wielding, like Nicholson in The Shining coming at me..."Heeeeere's Shelley!!!" Luckily for me, I have a background in sports and my reflexes are such that I anticpate physical confrontations- and with her bad hip I can out run her. So as she sat there in the blue living room chair, huffing back a half a loaf of toast, jelly on the corners of her mouth, looking like she stepped out of Lord of the Flies...I knew the true meaning love. Love means staying even though you fear your pregnant wife will run out of food and turn to cannibalism. The other weirdness I've encountered with pregnant women and food is that my wife sat for 3 hours looking through her recipe box, reading each and every recipe and, frankly on several occasions moaning in ecstasy. It was then that I realized there is such a thing as recipe porn. I am so afraid of her increased hunger that I've taken to sleeping downstairs in the basement figuring that if she gets ravenous in the middle of the night she has to get out of bed to find food rather than just rolling over and taking a bite out of me. Plus, this way, she'll likely go through both dogs before she gets to me and one would figure to hear a yelp or two which would startle me awake and I can protect myself with a 4-iron, sofa cushions, several canned goods and if all else fails I can hide in the dryer. So while I balance out my life of living with a wolverine and going to school full time, its been rather challenging. It's spring now, technically. Before I get my hopes up too much it's important I think to remember that its spring in the Antarctic too at some point, so it's really a matter of semantics. There's still snow falling here, snow frozen on the ground, snow heaped on the sidewalk, in the driveway, in the backyard trash can that lost its lid in November and now has the largest block of ice I've ever seen inside. Still spring is coming...I heard some birds singing yesterday (of course for all I know they were complaining about the snow too rather than singing a happy song). We took the dogs to the park on Saturday which turned out horrible because it was a muddy swamp.  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo Dixie clearly ran to high ground! Well I hope you've enjoyed this mid-week edition of the TGIF. I might do this a bit more frequently...or not. I'm also thinking about taking questions again about politics or history since I enjoyed that so much in the past, so if you have any send them along. Cheers

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Friday, March 18, 2005

The Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh Edition

It's been a pretty quiet week this week, which is a blessing. Tuesday was one of the best days in a long time. We finally was able to hear the baby's heartbeat at our latest midwife appointment. This fastpaced little whoosh..whoosh..whoosh that represents the life growing inside my wife *154 was the heart rate for those scoring at home*. I also got to hear my wife's heartbeat as well that went whoosh......whoosh. And I think some Chinese food she had eaten the day before...which for the record went glurg...glurg...glurgle..bleck...fashum. But anyway. In other health news, all my blood tests revealed good news for me. Cholesterol and blood sugar levels were excellent so I'm still alive I guess. If Tuesday wasn't packed enough with doctor's visits, it also marked the 4-year anniversary of Shell and I meeting for the first time. I can't believe it's been four years. Susan, Emma and I picked her up at the airport and apparently I spontaneously combusted at the sight of her. Now I think that's a tad bit of hyperbole because as I remember it, no fire alarms were eset off. I DO remember being a bit smitten. How couldn't I??  click for larger, pop-up photo Of course it was soon after meeting her that I discovered she can't tell the difference between RED and BLACK...as evidenced by the fact she told us her RED knapsack should be somewhere on the luggage carousel  click for larger, pop-up photo So after search for 15 minutes for the "red" knapsack we finally found the actual piece of luggage and off we were for fun and adventure. Here we are 4 years later married, living in Canada, owning a house, two dogs and a baby on the way. So apparently not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I've been scanning in more old photos this week. A wide variety of stuff too. Here's a small sample: Me and my mom at a baseball game (c.1969)  click for larger, pop-up photo Me and Cinnamon (c.1971)  click for larger, pop-up photo Contemplative in SLC  click for larger, pop-up photo Shelley and Dixie getting ready to go to Ft Funston  click for larger, pop-up photo Some shots of Salt Lake Valley...oh how beautiful it was to wake up there in the morning :)  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo Next week I'll try to have some photos of the Mormon Temple and other old pics. Not to be left out is today's picture of the dogs :)  click for larger, pop-up photo It's still cold and frozen here, though my friend Rachel SWEARS it's turning 'springish'...I'm holding her to that. My golf clubs are calling to me. I want to wear shorts again. I even miss mowing my lawn (okay that's not true). In political news, last night one of the most important figures in US history passed away, George F Kennan. Kennan was the author of The Long Telegram, the document that became the basis for the policy of containment of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Kennan was 101. To read more about him check out This Article in the Washington Post. You've probably never heard of him unless US Foreign Policy and history is your thing, but trust me when I tell you that inside the State Department and government circles, few men had more impact in the second half of the 20th century than did Kennan. March Madness news: The Utes won their opening round game against UTEP. They've got Oklahoma on Saturday...eek I'm worried. Of course I'm got two other teams in the field- North Carolina and Old Dominion. If you're into brackets for the tournament I went 13-3 on Day One...pretty good. You can view my brackets by clicking on the bracket name below: CHICAGO ALBUQUERQUE SYRACUSE AUSTIN FINAL FOUR Well the sun is up, the sky is blue, its beautiful and so are you. Cheers

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Sunday, March 13, 2005

The Long Week Edition

As most of you know this was quite a long week for us. Grandpa Snyder passed away this week and we spent a fair portion of it with the Snyder family in Waterloo, sharing memories, tears, laughter, and songs with each other. I've said it before, but it bears repeating- I married into an amazing family. I've never seen such a big family be such a close family. That of course all starts with Grandpa and Grandma Snyder.  click for larger, pop-up photo School continues of course as my year winds down toward summer break. A few papers left to finish and then finals to study for. I've been reading a good (if somewhat flawed) book by Fawaz Gerges called America and Political Islam. It is interesting and well worth the read. As you can see from the little gator ticker, Shell has crossed into week 15. Tuesday we have another appointment with the midwife. It continues to snow here. Frankly it is starting to take on Biblical proportions of snowfall, which in my imagination is only helped by the fact that Shell and I watched The Day After Tomorrow again last night, so I'm prepared to wait until Dennis Quaid rescues us. We have plenty of can goods. The snowfall doesn't mean we can't take the dogs to the park (or more pointedly it doesn't mean that I can't take pictures of the dogs and feed them to you like you aren't already tired of them...well Tara at least isn't so here's a few)  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo I'm continuing to slowly scan in some old photos. It's a nice project because we've got tons of photos and since my web space recently quadrupled I've got the room. (Plus this allows me to post pictures NOT necessarily of Dixie and Willow!) Here's two of my favorites from the last batch I scanned in. The first is a famous mansion in Salt Lake- The McCune Mansion. It sits near Temple Square and was restored several years ago. It's quite spectacular. [As with all pictures here, just click to see the larger version.]  click for larger, pop-up photo This is one of my favorite pictures of Shell. This is from my birthday in 2001. Shell got all dolled up for me and took me to dinner at this virtually empty restaurant in San Francisco. The only other people there at the time were a Jewish wedding party. We had the entire wait staff at our disposal (or so it seemed).  click for larger, pop-up photo There will be lots more strolls down memory lane as I scan more in. I also want to wish James a belated Happy Birthday. James is responsible for introducing me to Shelley and for that I'll always be grateful (except when she makes me do laundry at which point I hate him!!) James is a really great person and is blazing the trail for me as an older dad. So here's a picture of the birthday boy (and his lovely wife):  click for larger, pop-up photo Also there's a special congrats that goes out to Miss Susan who was just accepted into a PhD program this week. So hopefully one day soon I can call her Dr. Susan (that just sounds great doesn't it?) We love you Susan.  click for larger, pop-up photo Well that's it for this week. Here's hoping for some sunshine for everyone. Cheers.

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Friday, March 04, 2005

The Tick-Tock McGlockton Edition

A new little wrinkle to the TGIF- the ticker above will count us down. The little gator is an inside joke. Well I finally had *MY* first doctor visit in Canada (not counting the probing I got from the government 2 years ago during my immigration application). I got my OHIP Card last month and went in for a check up. I have a high normal blood pressure but beyond that I'm reasonably okay. I'm in the crunch period for school. March madness isn't just about basketball. I've got three papers due this month and then I have about 3 weeks off until finals. I'm looking forward to the end of the semester so my brain can rest, but I'll miss the new friends I've made. The summer looms as time to work, prepare for the baby, take a brief (and for my wife much earned) vacation and then also spend a few days doing some research in the South. With a swing or two through VaBeach to see my friends, play some poker, losr a dozen or so golf balls, hug the nieces and nephew, annoy my siblings, and sponge off my parents just like old times. I'm a bit perplexed by how slow time is passing with the pregnancy. Now I know that once the baby is born time will speed up, my life passing before me like a comet...yada yada yada. So I shouldn't be complaining right? It's the control freak in me. I can't do anything about what is happening to my child and my wife. I'm powerless. Grrrr. It was new toy day for Dixie and Willow. Dixie took to the little orange bear (orange...she's soooooo Shelley's dog). While Will was fond of the green doggy. [Click on the pictures for better view]  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo Well my mind is pretty much a big jumbly mess right now. I don't have anything profound for you this week and I'm not sure I want to wade into the Social Security morass just yet (though I'll have some words on it in the future). I've just been reading way too many declassified State Department cables this week about the Suez Crisis (the subject of my first looming paper). Tomorrow I have to spend a Saturday at the Library...not fun, though perhaps I can find a quiet corner. Since I enjoyed last weeks post about movies so much I thought I'd recommend some films books for you this week: 3 films (all based on novels and all starring Tobey Maguire)- Seabiscuit, Wonder Boys, Cider House Rules 3 books- Harlot's Ghost, Norman Mailer; John Adams, David McCullough; Gods of War, John Toland Hopefully you'll check one of two of them out. Well I should get back to President Eisenhower and his merry band of diplomats as they try to get the Brits and French and Israelis out of Egypt. Until next time, Cheers

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