tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69891072638543277932024-03-13T06:57:18.588-04:00Geoff Takes on...geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-75297438519984390522017-12-31T13:27:00.000-05:002017-12-31T16:03:47.379-05:00New Year's Eve 2017First, let me wish everyone a happy new year. I sincerely wish all of you health and happiness for 2018. I am somewhat ambivalent about making new year's resolutions. My track record on the whole is spotty, which is precisely part of the problem; resolutions become flares for failure. On the other hand, I have had some success - complete and partial. Probably the geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-71577719419355368982016-10-21T14:00:00.000-04:002016-10-21T14:00:06.987-04:00The Malicious MindOne of the most astounding aspects of depression - my depression, at least - is the mind's ability to ruminate on and inflate past grievances and use those past experiences to create future ones that have little or no likelihood of actually happening. What are usually probably thoughtless oversights by others are infused with malevolent intent. Small annoyances become gigantic, the geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-65095910417340726092016-01-27T16:07:00.002-05:002016-01-27T16:07:20.917-05:00Clear! Pawthwump.I haven't written a blog post in just a shade over a year. After so much time, I wonder why I was wringing my hands over whether to continue or not. Jerry Seinfeld was the creator and star of his self-titled sit-com that ran for nine seasons and that was famously about nothing. NOTHING! Of course, I am no Seinfeld. My bank account is far less full and my area code geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-23552013230021442172014-12-03T10:34:00.002-05:002014-12-03T10:34:47.367-05:00The Eternal 21st Century Question: To Blog or not to Blog?I feel like I am at a bit of a crossroads with my blog. My readership has been declining over the past year or so, which in and of itself isn't a problem, but the decline has got me thinking about the future of this space. I never really got to do what I wanted to with the blog, which was to chronicle various DIY projects I had taken on. With Kate's Stage IV breast cancer geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-77064882708286111852014-11-29T15:59:00.000-05:002014-12-01T15:45:47.215-05:00That Fetal Pig - What a SliceI wrote a couple of weeks ago about Lena's experience with ABC Ottawa Take-off. This morning was Lena's last dissection class and parents were invited to sit in for the the dissection of a fetal pig, which had actually been started the week before with the removal of their brains. As we walked into the class, the young women who were leading the session were pulling the de-brained geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-15014484893698472512014-11-25T16:15:00.001-05:002014-11-26T08:07:23.669-05:00Making Stuff at Lee Valley ToolsSome of my favourite time spent with my daughter, Lena, is making stuff with her, whether pyrohy for Christmas dinner, putting together K'nex, or working away in my shop. This past year, Lee Valley Tools, purveyor of, among other things, fine woodworking and gardening tools, has put on a number of seminars that provide opportunities for children and their parents work on a project together.geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-83380187478348804082014-11-17T11:04:00.000-05:002014-11-17T11:04:00.484-05:00The Winter DoldrumsI have a confession to make. I hate winter. The season just sucks the life right out of me. Every flake of snow I see falling from the sky fills me with dread. As I write this on November 17, I am looking out my window watching it come down. Snow, to me, makes everything more difficult - driving, running, shopping, walking. And during the winter, the snow seemsgeofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-12270403813482994592014-11-13T09:37:00.000-05:002014-11-13T09:37:39.566-05:00Making Models and KnittingMy original purpose in starting my blog was to chronicle my attempts at trying a variety of handcraft and DIY projects in areas that were both new to me or where I had at least some experience. From my very first post, though, my intent was subverted by other issues and events in my life and has taken a largely different direction. That's fine with me but I do like to do the geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-44257113253209420832014-11-11T12:08:00.003-05:002014-11-11T12:09:20.215-05:00Remembrance Day, 2014I try to honour Canada's veterans every year on November 11 - and on other days. I think most reading this know why we take the time - many of us for the same reasons and many of us for our own personal reasons. Many of us know people who have served, who are serving and who have given their lives while serving. The following are past blog posts about my Grandfather who served geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-19545330925697303562014-11-10T06:30:00.000-05:002014-11-10T09:00:30.976-05:00The Workshop RenovationI have been slowly chipping away at my shop renovation (See my first post on my shop renovation), though a lot of what I have done is hard to see. I started by going through everything in my shop and putting what I didn't think I would need into a couple of big boxes. I had my fellow woodworking enthusiast and good friend, Darren, over so he could pick out some stuff, which he geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-86223621497804071692014-11-06T01:08:00.000-05:002014-11-06T01:08:25.923-05:00Curried Butternut Squash and Apple SoupOttawa-area journalist and blogger, Sonia Mendes, recently posted on her blog a recipe for a delicious-sounding spaghetti squash casserole. So, I have been inspired to post a very simple recipe of mine for a curried butternut squash and apple soup.
As the weather begins getting colder in the fall, few meals take the chill off like soups and stews. Plus, both the geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-21359806583283735812014-11-03T13:02:00.000-05:002014-11-22T22:49:42.584-05:00Dissecting Animals at ABC Ottawa Take-OffLast Saturday morning, our daughter, Lena, was looking every bit the pre-teen fashion plate: a green and blue tartan shirt over a pair of grey leggings; a mod pair of glasses perched on her nose, her long golden hair pulled tight into a ponytail at the back of her head. Incongruously, one of her latex-gloved hands was wielding a razor sharp scalpel, poised ready to reveal the inner geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-59842361134347025212014-10-21T16:26:00.001-04:002014-10-21T16:28:13.130-04:00A Long Lost High School FriendI had a bit of an odd dream a couple of nights ago. An old friend from high school made an appearance - just bumped into her, exchanged a few pleasantries and we each went on our way. We had, as I said, met in high school. If I'm being truthful, she was probably my first adolescent crush, but once I realized nothing romantic was going to happen, we fell into an easy friendship. geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-76782050153882572042014-10-09T11:44:00.002-04:002014-10-09T11:44:22.532-04:00Ongoing Service FrustrationsEarlier in the week, I wrote about some problems we have had with some local retailers and our frustrations carried over to this week. As Fall settles in in the capital, we are accustomed to seeing our fair share of rain and this week hasn't disappointed. So, imagine my frustration when every day we've seen rain this week, my newspaper has been soaking wet because the carrier doesn't geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-68414756965587981532014-10-03T12:26:00.001-04:002014-10-03T12:26:39.952-04:00Retail Blues - the SequelI continue to be amazed by the poor service offered by so many retailers in our little part of the world (See my earlier post). I understand that many in the retail sector may not be very well paid, but if you agree to do a job, then try to do it well and if your company makes a promise, fulfil it. This all brings me to two recent negative experiences.
Back in August, I somehow geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-17900107523774388182014-09-30T11:38:00.001-04:002014-09-30T11:38:27.984-04:00Mariann Domonkos - Canadian Table Tennis SuperstarOne evening the girls and I were lounging and our daughter, Lena, asked me tell her a story from my childhood and, really, I had a hard time coming up with one on the spot, but we had been talking about Lena's soccer a bit earlier and that got me thinking about my own illustrious youth sports career. What popped into my consciousness was a ping-pong (ahem, table tennis) program I took when geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-4786374005421554392014-09-26T17:11:00.000-04:002014-09-26T17:11:04.297-04:00The Terry Fox RunLena's School, St. Bernard, held its annual Terry Fox Run today. I have volunteered most years to herd the kids around the course and I really enjoy it. For those who don't know, Terry Fox was a young Canadian diagnosed with osteosarcoma and who lost his leg to the disease. To raise money and awareness, he undertook to run all the way across Canada, starting in Newfoundland in geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-7433186105002008412014-09-22T11:26:00.000-04:002014-09-22T11:26:03.507-04:00Genetic GenealogyFor my birthday this past April, my girls got me a genealogical DNA test. A number of companies offer an array of tests that offer higher or lower degrees of precision or which test different aspects of your DNA that give you information about your paternal or maternal line or some combination of both. The results then get entered into the company's database with the goal of matching geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-55580373497357674022014-09-15T17:40:00.000-04:002014-09-17T08:44:08.800-04:00RunningAt least three days a week and more often, I hope, four days a week, I tie up my shoe laces and head out for a 7-8 km run around our neighbourhood. I run for a variety reasons, including the obvious - I like the health benefits. I think I am pretty heart healthy. I have gone from being borderline hypertensive to having blood pressure that my doctor raves about and that he says geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-70756079117157566732014-09-14T14:49:00.001-04:002014-09-14T14:49:04.103-04:00The Lost SummerI can't believe that I haven't written a post in over five months. Have I done a Rip Van Winkle and slept away the summer? No. In fact, I'm more the anti-Rip. Ripless, even. I have spent the last two years struggling to cobble together more than four or five hours of sleep a night. No, I guess my hiatus has more to do with coping with family stuff, being tired geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-37168780263681814682014-04-08T13:31:00.000-04:002014-04-08T13:31:39.863-04:00The Sprung SpringI apparently haven't written a post in over two months. The inter-related factors of poor mood, writer's block, having all 18 of our windows replaced, an almost endless winter and a deflating season for my much-loved Ottawa Senators have all conspired to keep me from writing anything more than the tersest (though admittedly witty) Facebook posts. With the melting snow, though, geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-48259247415155710002014-01-31T13:40:00.001-05:002014-01-31T13:40:32.972-05:00A Nice Trip to Get GroceriesYesterday was, for me, a kind of busy day: Drive Kate to the hospital, go work out at the gym, pick Kate up at the hospital, rush home for Kate's home nurse, meet with our financial advisor. All of that on four hours sleep. So, when our finance guy left, I was not in the mood to go out and get groceries but we had nothing for dinner and Kate, the cancer patient, wasn't up to it.geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-88474237435375837442014-01-27T13:07:00.001-05:002014-01-27T13:07:33.983-05:00Ten Things People do to Piss Me OffI am trying to be a more tolerant and happy person. Nevertheless, people insist on doing things that piss me off. Here is a top ten of sorts:
Texting while driving.
Parking in a handicap spot without a permit just because someone is too damn lazy to walk an extra 20 yards.
Leaving a grocery cart in a parking spot because someone is just too damn lazy to walk an extra 20 yards geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-15013111918628552552014-01-21T14:30:00.000-05:002014-01-21T14:30:02.319-05:00The Concordia BA in Economics (Co-Op Program) Classes of 1992-93 Lying awake at three in the morning a few weeks ago I was reflecting on my university days and realizing that this coming summer will mark the 25th anniversary that I met all my undergraduate friends. We were in a bit of a special program - a Co-op program in Economics at Concordia University in Montreal. The premise of co-op programs is to give students the dual benefits of a geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6989107263854327793.post-51514580271253476412014-01-14T14:51:00.001-05:002014-01-14T14:51:02.447-05:00A Depressed Person's Social LifeThis morning I got together with a friend and former colleague for a coffee. Most people take this kind of get-together for granted, but for a person with serious depression, the prospect can be daunting in a number of respects. Just working up the energy to get ready for such a meeting can be an effort. Almost by definition, I am miserable and I figure I don't geofftakesonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791752956866543860noreply@blogger.com2