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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Friday, July 29, 2005

The Dude, Where's My Oxygen Edition

So for the last 10 days or so I've been mostly bedridden, dealing with another bout of bronchitis. I've now seen a specialist as well to determine what if anything can be done to facilitate better breathing- I've had issues with my nose and throat since I was a kid. They got me on some anti-biotics, an inhaler, and a nasty little sinus cleansing ritual twice a day in which I essentially re-enact the time I was nine and almost drowned in the community pool when my neighbor dunked me in the deep end and I caught a lung-full of pool water...nummy. Once you get through the initial 'icky' factor of the way warm water feels being forced through your face, and also the occasional post-nasal drip of saline solution, I actually breathe better afterward...so there's that. Of course I have to do this twice a day for the next 2 months before I go back for a follow-up. We've had a small break in the apocalyptic heat-wave, finally getting some rain and today a cooler afternoon, enough so that we could open the windows without melting the vinyl tiles in the kitchen. There was some drama in my softball life last week as well. I have mentioned before that the coach on my co-ed team was sort of a loud-mouth jerk...well it finally wore on me enough that after our game last week, I emailed him that it disturbed me and eventually he emailed me back and asked that I no longer play for his team. This from a guy who was suspended for a month for getting into a physically confrontation with a player from one of his other teams during a game. So perhaps I'm better off. I'm still playing with my father-in-law's team so I still have two games a week to keep my busy. (pause...) I come back after taking some time to watch Tiger finish shooting a 61 today in the second round of the Buick Open. Sheesh. As you might notice looking at the top to the little gator, we are now under 37 days until the baby is due. Starting to get weird a little bit, waiting for the moment when my wife says..."um, let's get going to the hospital". The baby's room is starting to fill up with little bits here and there. Some of Shelley's friends from the States have sent her some stuff for the baby and it is absolutely adorable. We've almost got the furniture painted and since we have a holiday weekend here we are hoping to get it done by Tuesday. Here in Canada of course the big news of the last few weeks has been the resolution of the NHL lockout. How the hockey fans up here managed to survive a whole year without hockey I'll never know, but survive they did and they're waiting for October 5th when they drop the puck again for real. I've finished both The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and now with nothing new to read just yet I'm digging through my bookshelves for some stuff that I haven't read in a while. In fiction I'm re-reading Stuart Woods' novel Chiefs which follows three police chiefs in a small town in Georgia over the course of 50 years. It was made into a mini-series twnety years or so ago with Wayne Rogers, Brad Davis, and Billy Dee Williams in the roles of the three Chiefs. For my non-fiction buzz I'm reading some material regarding Woodrow Wilson and the years before the US entrance into the Great War. I haven't been able to take many photos since I've been sick so much lately, so I guess you get off lucky this week. Until next time... Cheers

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Monday, July 11, 2005

The Several Entries In One Edition

As I remaked in the last edition, a had crafted a really long post replete with pictures that suddenly disappeared upon my sending the update message...so we try again. Had a really nice father-to-be day. Shell got me a great gift...  click for larger, pop-up photo A few weekends ago we took Leah and Quinn for the weekend and I also had a softball tournament, so Shell was stuck basically shouldering the load of taking care of them. Luckily for us, most of my games on Saturday were at the Rec Centre which has a nice water park-type thing. So the kids had a blast...  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo That water was really nice...I know because after one of my games it was so darn hot that I walked over in my uniform and got soaked. It was a long day and I was pretty gassed...  click for larger, pop-up photo I played pretty well, hitting the ball solidly except for this pop up...  click for larger, pop-up photo We played pretty well and made the quarterfinals only to get beat in the bottom of the ninth. We had to have some car work done and near the garage is a sports store. Browsing around, I found this for my little girl...  click for larger, pop-up photo Tuesday we went to a Jays game to celebrate Alex's birthday. Although it took us a long time to get up to our seats, the people at the stadium at least let us use the elevators to the upper deck... The roof was open and sitting behind the plate gave us a great view of the CN Tower  click for larger, pop-up photo The new stuff they've added to the ballpark, including a new centerfield jumbo tron and some awesome LCD screens on the outfield wall, not to mention the new turf, really make the place new nicer...  click for larger, pop-up photo  click for larger, pop-up photo We had a blast and Shell got to spend some time talking to Jen...  click for larger, pop-up photo And Al got to kiss his girlfriend...who despite the look on her face really does love him...they're so cute! ...  click for larger, pop-up photo Of course I think the real reason the ladies came to the game is obvious...vices vices vices...  click for larger, pop-up photo Me and the Mrs...  click for larger, pop-up photo The baby's room is starting to come together, but we've still got some stuff to do. This last weekend we tried to get some yardwork done, but the lack of rain we've had for the last month has made everything terribly dry. Shelley is at 32 weeks as of yesterday and is starting to have the end of term fatigue again, but she managed to find enuogh energy to go shopping this weekend :P and we went to see War of the Worlds too...  click for larger, pop-up photo I get to register for classes next Monday, so keep your fingers crossed for me that I get the ones that I want! Happy Anniversary today to Scott and Allison and also Joni and Brian!!!!!!!

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Monday, July 04, 2005

The Where's The Cake? Edition

Well this is crazy. I wrote a wonderful post with loads of pictures and more importantly birthday greetings to Alex, Scott and my father-in-law Gerry, but between the night and the morning it disappeared off the server. I'm still not sure how. I will try to recreate it soon but unlike most of you in the States I don't have the day off so I have to offer an amended TGIF that just says Happy Birthday to my friends Alex, Scott, and Gerry and Happy Birthday America.

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