Palmer's World

Last night there was a sprinkling of snow on the ground.  This morning I’m looking at a foot of it and there’s no end in sight.  Well, maybe after lunch.

I secretly love days like these days for one reason.  I feel like I’m on an Arctic expedition when I load up the kids into the sled with our supplies (backpacks) and blankets.  It’s an adventure.

When I reach the halfway point between our house and the school my legs are ready to give out and my heart is about to re-enact the chestburster scene from Alien.  But man, it makes me feel alive!

It’s ridiculous.  The kids are heavy, they are tipping all over the place as I try to navigate a narrow path where a car tried to go down the road and we follow their tracks.  There is laughter, there is singing, there is me collapsing for a few minutes and convincing Sierra to get out and walk the rest of the way.

It’s a fun time.  Plus all this snow gets rid of all that ice that I hate so much.

No, I’m not talking about everyone’s favourite topic from the past three years, I’m talking about the tabletop game called Pandemic from 2008.

I’m a die-hard fan of boardgames.  The more strategic, the better.  For years lunch hours were spent in an empty boardroom with Benoit bringing in new games to try out every couple of weeks.

Vero isn’t the biggest fan of games, but she’s not opposed to them either.  So with that knowledge, I realized that maybe the best way to approach games is to find one where we weren’t playing against each other, but we were playing TOGETHER against the game itself.

Look up any list of ‘best co-operative games’ and Pandemic is generally at the top of the list.

Two games in, we can see why.  The game changes drastically every time you play it.  The mechanics of moving to a city, treating disease and trying to find a cure always stays the same but every time you start a game different cities are infected and you have to figure out which ones to tackle first.

Our first game a few weeks ago was pretty brutal.  We were focussed on treating diseases that we never really found time to find cures which is the only way to win the game.

This time around, Vero and I lucked into some great cards from the beginning and we just went from there to eventually win the game.  It wasn’t easy.  It also took two hours!

I think over time we will figure out different strategies (hard to eradicate a disease on your own!) and maybe the game will speed up a bit each time we play.  I laugh at the suggested time to play being 45 minutes but I suppose it could happen if we were seasoned veterans.

Either way, it’s a fun game to play and I think we both enjoy the co-operative mechanics of trying to defeat the actual game and not each other.

I’ve been thinking of trying some non-alcoholic beers for awhile now but I felt that there really weren’t fun options out there.  Part of the reason I like to drink beer is to try out all the different flavours that are available.

When I was at CityFolk last fall I noticed a tent sent up for Harmon’s Craft Beer from Toronto.  I kept that name tucked in the back of my head and last week I decided to order an assortment to see if I would enjoy them or not.

I cracked open a hazy IPA last night while in the hot tub listening to some Rebel Force Radio (best podcast ever!) and it was quite tasty!  Hopefully the trend continues with the other beverages I ordered from them.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with reducing a person’s alcohol consumption and if this is the way to do so, I’m in good hands so far.

Update: I’m updating this post a few weeks after drinking some non-alcoholic beer.  I have to say that this has been a game changer for me.  Hopefully it keeps up.  I would say that I enjoy all the Harmon beer so far but I’m not a big fan of the Partake beer that I also ordered later in the month.  I just find the taste pretty bland overall with the Partake beer.  MAYBE the Octoberfest beer is worthy of another purchase in the future but that’s it.

But the Harmon stuff is great overall.  They even have a ‘buy three, get the fourth six pack free’ deal on this month so hop on that.

Last night I brought Sierra to her gymnastics class.  This would be her fourth class of the year.

So far she is really enjoying it.  I asked her afterwards what is the one thing she really likes doing and the one thing she doesn’t like doing.  She replied: “Dad, there isn’t anything I do not like!”

Her group had eight girls in it last night and the instructor starts off with 30 minutes of stretches and running around and then they get to go on the fun things; trampoline, bars, and whatever is on the other side of that wall in the gymnasium that is hidden from my view.

I always get a kick out of watching her have fun running around.  As a novice in gymnastics she has trouble doing things like lifting herself up on a bar but like everything in this world, it just takes practice.  It doesn’t seem to get her discouraged though.  She has a fierce spirit.

As for me, I haven’t grown tired of the 1.5 hour sessions yet.  It was only my second time and I enjoy watching Sierra do things and also watch what other gymnasts are capable up.  Those folks that can climb a rope are pretty impressive to a man with spaghetti noodles for arms!  I’m not sure if I will grow tired of the same old routine in the future and resort to reading a book but for now I am entertained.  The only time I snuck onto my phone was to take a look at buying some gymnastic bars for the house so Sierra can build her strength!  When I got home that evening I figured out that as a first step, if I sit on a kitchen chair, she can run to it and try and hold herself off the back of it.  That will help build some much needed muscles.

Today we got to spend some time with Marty, Véro and Melody or as we affectionately call her, Baby Melody.  I will have to explain to the kids that once a kid can toddle around, they aren’t much of a baby any longer!

If you look closely, you can see me in behind the log as I was holding Melody up!

We went to the Dewberry Trail off of Anderson Road which is a fun trek through the woods.  This particular trail has a lot of bird feeders at the entrance so folks bring bird feed and chickadees come and eat from their hands.  These chickadees have no fear of humans to the point that one flew into my fur hat!  That was the second time in the past year that one of these birds went for my head.  I’m not sure if they are just really bad fliers or if my head is an easy target.

Sierra wanted to take care of Melody at all times so she would walk near her and try and hold her hand.  Ezra wasn’t a fan of the walk at all and I would leave him behind a few times and he would walk on his knees.  I’m sure the kids are not a fan of my speech on how some folks don’t have the luxury of having feet that work and they should be happy they can use them!

It was a good time to chat with Marty about guitar stuff and it wasn’t too long of a walk on a mild morning.

We haven’t done a lot of visiting folks for the past few years but we decided to venture out and see Lynn and Sue in Perth for an afternoon of fun.

They weren’t kidding when they said there wasn’t any snow up there!  We arrived to a light dust left by some snowfall the day before.  Back in Ottawa we still have snow on the lawn after some freezing rain the other day, but now it’s rock hard and a pain to play in.

Crossing their pond, we looked at a tree that was near ready to come down due to some beavers in the area.  Lynn said he sees them around quite a bit which is a nuisance as they are taking down some good trees.

Checking out the camper trailer.

After some lunch of turkey soup (where Ezra thought the sight of a knife with a banana carved into the top was hilarious…”A BANANA KNIFE?!  HAHAHAHA”) we went outside to do a treasure hunt.

When I mentioned that the kids enjoy going looking for geocaches once in awhile, Sue went above and beyond and set out clues and created a treasure map out of an old LCBO bag.  It was fabulous.  The kids were excited to run around the property looking for new clues.  Each clue had a picture of what to look for next (e.g. a bench in the woods).

Looking at the first clue

X marks the spot!

After the treasure hunt and a walk around the property, we settled in for a bonfire which was quite stubborn in getting started.  But eventually it got going and we enjoyed some marshmallows and Sierra sang us some Christmas songs.  Lynn also tempted me with tales of the wagyu beef he was going to eat that evening as he received it as a gift from his son!

Vero always gets ideas of moving out to Perth and living on the river like Lynn and Sue have done.  Every time I go I have to admit that it’s a beautiful spot that soothes the soul.

Update: Sierra must have really loved her trip to Lynn and Sue’s place.  She had to draw four images about her Christmas vacation and two of those images were from her time spent there!

Sierra told me that Lynn is really tall

Sierra and Ezra around the campfire

 

The scene: In bed, reading a book about the making of The National’s Boxer album out loud to Ezra Saturday morning…

Ezra: ”Dad your nipple smells good and your nipple feels good!”

I’ll take any compliment I get!

Sierra: ”Dad, what does smashing mean?”

Dad: ”Its like saying something is great. ”Your outfit is smashing!”

Sierra: ”Wait, so does that mean The Smashing Pumpkins are also The Great Pumpkins from Charlie Brown?!”

I had no response as a six year old had managed to blow my mind with this revelation of my favourite band. I knew of the physical linkages between Billy and Charlie but never thought of this!

Kids are awesome.

Pulling out a small bags of bonbons that had six inside.

Maman: Combien est-ce-que tu vas prendre?

Ezra: Juste toute

Clearly I pick out really great Christmas gifts for Vero and what better year than 2021 when I bought her the 21st century equivalent exercise equipment!

Ring Fit Adventure is a video game for the Nintendo Switch that also combines the user actually doing physical exercise instead of just sitting there and clicking buttons on the controller.  There is a ring I hold in front of me and there is also a controller I strap onto my leg.

How it works is that it mimics what I’m doing in real life and has the avatar also do it.  I have to lightly jog in place to stroll through a forest.  I need to push in on this ring I hold if I want to shoot a burst of air to hit a target.  I need to really get my knees up high if I’m running up stairs.

It’s pretty easy when I’m strolling through the forest.  I’m not feeling that I’m getting much of a workout.

BUT THEN I ENCOUNTER A MONSTER!  Ho boy, I’m still sore the day after!  If you encounter a monster you have the choice of different exercises to do (at Day 2 I’m limited to things like squats, overhead presses, and…ab crunches?  I can’t remember what it’s called).  Let’s say the monster has 100 hit points.  Every time I do a squat I deliver damage to the monster.  I didn’t realize that the better I actually do a squat, the more damage I give to the monster.  It’s directly related to how well I’m doing an exercise.  This was a really key point for me to learn on Day 2 because at first I was thinking “Boy, these squats aren’t too hard.” but I was only dealing 3 hit points of damage to a monster at a time.  But if you actually squat really low you could take off 20 damage in one shot!  I thought this was a genius gaming mechanic of tying in actual fitness with game results.

I was really invested in damaging monsters.  In real life, I don’t want my exercises to take forever.  So in the gaming world, I also don’t want a monster fight to last that long.   So I was starting to really focus on doing the exercise in a way that delivered the most damage and afterwards I realized that it was forcing me to actually get some exercise in a proper way.

Like most fitness regimens, I’m not sure if this will stick.  But I can say this…it seems to have kept my interest more than me just following a YouTube workout where the person is saying “Ok, give me ten more squats!”  I can’t quit at this because the monster is still standing and the only thing left to do is actually give ten more squats to get through the game.  That was the first time I had really powered through some exercises.

So…if you have  Switch and are looking to have fun while getting fit, give it a try!