Neil Yan Dot Com

It’s 21 days later and we’re back at the H1N1 clinic at Metro Hall for Ben’s second vaccine shot. As we arrived, I noticed there was no line-up at all, even though the website said there was a 45 minute wait. That was a good sign! After a bit of paper work, we snaked through the corridor to the front, where we were waved to the first available nurse.

Our nurse was Asian, not blond. Oh oh! Not a good sign. I sense this one isn’t going to go as smooth as the first shot. Right off the bat I felt a bit uneasy; mainly because either the nurse didn’t hear us, or her English wasn’t up to par. Either way, Ben was up first.

After a short survey on her laptop, she decided that Ben’s thigh was the best place for his shot. “But, the blond nurse gave it to him in his arm!” was my thought. Ben sensed something was going on; he was figidy on my lap. Sure enough, once his leg got pricked, he let out the loudest high pitch scream! After what seemed like an eternity, he was back in his mother’s arms and the crying subsided. He’s fine again.

Next up, me! Like Ben’s first shot, I felt nothing…until a few minutes later, a tingly feeling down my arm! Ah, the “critters” must be working through my body…or something…whatever they injected in me. Whatever it is, I’m 80%+ protected again Mr H1N1. Sheila opted for the unadjuvanted version…why? Because she doesn’t like eggs.

Interesting milestone today. At exactly 10:56PM tonight, our national debt will officially break the $500 billion mark again. We’ve been below that mark over the past 12 years, but due to “stimulus” spending by our beloved Conservative government, our debt is growing again. To see the national debt clock, click on this link:

http://www.debtclock.ca/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=1

But, we pale in comparison to our neighbours to the south. Check out their national debt clock:

http://usdebtclock.org/

We left the Toronto Parade before the mad rush, so Ben missed Santa. His first parade ever was a major success!

I expected the worst, but in the end, Ben didn’t even flinch. On Friday, we lined up at Metro Hall for Ben’s H1N1 vaccine. Sheila and I wanted to get it too, but in the end, we weren’t on the “critical” list. But Ben was. For 2 weeks now, the story has been the same, 2 to 3 hours line-ups. So we decided to go on a friday night after dinner; how bad could the lineup be after 7PM. The clinic closes at 9PM. We gave it a shot…no pun intended.

We got to Metro Hall and the line snaked down the hall about 15 metres. I asked a woman at the end of the line if that was the end of the line; she said no. She pointed to another line further down the hall. Damn! We proceeded to the second line, and lucky for us, it wasn’t long…maybe 5 people deep. The line nazi (altho she was really nice) told us it would take 45 minutes max! We can do 45 mins!

As we snake through the hall, we noticed a lot of babies, kids, and singular men of all ages. I can see why the babies and kids are there, but I’m not quite sure why all the single men. Anyways, the 45 minutes went by pretty quick. Surprisingly, no a lot of crying kids. Weird.

A nurse flagged us down. We sat down; Ben still figuring out what we’re doing. We pulled up his sleeve to reveal his chubby arm! The blond nurse prepares the needle. Ben is fixated on her long blond hair. Perfect!! A distraction! I mentally prepare for the wail and the tears, since Ben was the one sitting in my lap. She stabs him with the needle, squeezes the plunger…and….

…nothing!  He was still fixated on her hair. No tears, no crying, NOTHING!! That’s my boy!! He didn’t even flinch!! A quick bandage job and off to the 15 minutes waiting area.

Ben continued on with the evening like nothing happened. Now, he’s half vaccinated! We’ll do it all again in 21 days!

My poor Ben took a real beating yesterday It started in the morning when he was playing behind a chair that I was sitting at. I got up to go to the kitchen and he curiously tilted his head around the chair and I ploughed him over with my leg. He fell straight back, paused, and wailed! I picked him up immediately and started the “I’m sorry buddy, daddy didn’t see you”. Then somewhere in there, I promised I’d buy him a car when he turned 16. He stopped crying immediately. I hope he doesn’t hold me to it. Sheila said she would One tear for the morning.

Then we went up to Markham for lunch. After lunch, we started to load him into the truck. Sheila opened the door and I took a step forward. The door sprung back close and it slammed into the back of his head. Not hard, but enough that he paused, thought about the pain, and then wailed!! More consoling, but this time, no offer of a new car. He stopped crying within a minute. One tear for the afternoon.

After a long day hanging with my family, we headed home downtown. Sheila and Ben went to bed first…in our bed. Around 12:30AM I heard a thud. I ran into our room. Ben fell out of bed…on my side. Sheila had picked him up, a bit of consoling, some boob-food, and he was back to his REM state. One tear for the night.

This morning, I checked for bruises or bumps. Nothing.

This morning I woke up saying we need to get him a helmet. Then I reminded myself he’s got my hard melon. He’ll be fine. He is fine! To get back at us, he was up at 6AM this morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to take on whatever his parents throw at him!

My colleague and I were on a business trip in the US when we heard about the KFC CHICKEN BOWL. It sounded disgusting. They put a couple of scoops of mash potatoes into a bowl, then they top it with corn kernels, then they top that with popcorn chicken (and we know what that is…the leftover bits on the floor), and to finish it all off, the douse the thing with their gravy and fake plastic cheese. Mmmmm, good, right?!!

Well, we’ve been humming and haaing for over a year now, and we finally did it! We decided that we were going to split ONE bowl; why waste money on 2 when we know it’s not going to go down well. We chose TOONIE TUESDAY to go, since it was the busiest day of the week for KFC. If we were going to die from eating the “bowl”, we wanted witnesses!

After ordering it, and taking it to our table, we analyzed it. IT LOOKED DISGUSTING! BUT, the surprising part, the first bite wasn’t too bad. I gave it a 5 out of 10! I had about 4 or 5 bites before I chose to work on my BIG CRUNCH sandwich! I haven’t had one of those in a long time. After taking my time to devour my chicken sandwich, I proceeded to go back to the bowl for some more punishment. The next and FINAL bite, WOW, let me tell you. CONJEALED grease never tasted more disgusting!! I might as well as licked the bottom of the 21 piece bucket after it has sat for an hour. What was once a 5/10 quickly became the 0/10!

Lesson here: DON’T ORDER THE BOWL. We knew it was a bad idea when it wasn’t even listed on the menu

To give you an idea of what we ate, here’s what the bowl looks like on TV and the other picture is what we ordered:

Sheila and I bought a new home in Markham! We’ve been looking for a few months now. Since Ben will be under the careful watch of my mother in Markham, it only made sense that we live near her so that he doesn’t have to commute too.

Third times a charm! We’ve bid on 2 other house (actually a semi and a townhouse) over the past 3 weeks. We lost those two dwellings to people who were willing to pay CRAZY money. We weren’t! No 10 year old townhouse should cost $400,000+.

But when we saw this house, we knew we wanted. It’s in a great community (Upper Cornell, Markham). It’s a block away from an elementary school. It’s within a quick drive to one of the highest rated high schools in Ontario. There’s 2 parks within a few minutes walk! Everything Ben can use and grow up around. And there’s lots of kids in the neighbourhood!

The best part, it all happens in 3 weeks!!

Speaking of Pooh: