Author Archives: Court

About Court

This is Courtney Vallentyne's blog.

Quinn’s Favourite Hobby

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A few months ago we had the pleasure of meeting Quinn’s teacher at a program night at the school.  She made sure Nikki and I had a look at one of Quinn’s first writing assignments, which she thought was just great.  The assignment was to write about your favourite hobby.  Quinn had told us that he picked “breathing” as his hobby, which I actually had just initially thought was a cop-out topic, considering how many hobbies he actually has.  But, when I saw it I was actually rather glad he picked it, I think you will agree.

Quinns favourite hobby

 

My Favourite Hobby

My favourite hobby is breathing. I love to breathe.  Breathing the fresh delightful air.  Though it has to be the outside air with the shining sun staring at you, chirping birds flitting about and football sized sunflowers smiling at you.  Not the crammed dismal office cubicle air, with plump and sweaty old Bob next door complaining about rush-hour traffic.  Or greasy Joe spilling his coffee on the floor duct, flavouring the whole east wing oxygen with hint of chocolate latte.  But you gotta rough it with Bob and Joe because it makes it better when you hit that long deserved oasis.

 

Stay tuned for Cael’s masterpiece….

Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda, oh nevermind

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As I have mentioned here many times before,  summer camp is something that our kids have been doing for several years now.  To say they love it is a complete understatement, it’s so important to them now they look forward to it all year.

I saw this article indicating that apparently the usual summer camp activities were just too risky for a school board in Toronto and they ended up cancelling a year end trip on a class of grade 8 students. It’s easy for me to say that they are being silly since I’m only responsible for my own kids, but I do have to say that this does kind of seem on the nutso side.  I mean when you see stuff like this:

He described Camp Walden as an exclusive facility that reduces its rates for the school to make the trip possible, at a cost of $150 per student.

Chiro said he was making final preparations for the June 10 trip when the school board’s superintendent asked for proof that safety requirements about activities such as swimming and archery had been met.

This kind of thing just says to me that these kids were probably the victim of one or two squeaky wheel parents that complained about safety in the dangerous wilds of “an exclusive” summer camp.  There might even be SPLINTERS on the docks, gasp.

I mean come on folks, ANYTHING can be dangerous if you let your imagination wander.  These kids live in Toronto after all, there’s just so much that could happen to them.  I mean, heaven forbid it, but they might accidentally meet their Mayor, what then?  I’m thinking that some Hunger Games-style archery skills might give them a fighting chance, right?

Football family

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When we finally decided that the boys could play football this year, after several years of the boys nagging to play, I might add, I don’t think we really knew what we were in for. We knew about the schedule, and the possibility that the guys might not make the team if they got cut. In short, we had no idea.

The fun part about the practices (admittedly we have only had a handful so far) is watching the kids start to understand the drills, and even now start to get better. The coaches are tough, but so far you can feel it’s going to be a fun year.

I wonder how we will feel about it all after another 50 practices…..

Don’t ring the bell

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I saw this on Facebook today, and watched it and immediately felt all kinds of inspired.  This is old school, highly potent, and hard core motivation right here.  It’s a fascinating insight into Seal training, but mostly makes you feel about 10 feet tall and bulletproof for any of the hard stuff in your life.  I’m TOTALLY going to make the kids watch this because it’s a Dad thing.  I mean, come on, there’s a really sly parenting angle built right into this awesome speech, and you will see what I mean.  And when a four star general tells you to make your bed, well that’s probably good advice.

Joking aside, this is a fantastic speech about what it means to persevere and succeed.  It’s a long one, but it’s well worth it.

University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement

How to win an argument

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It seems that Moreta Folch is the Queen of winning arguments.  She had a little quarrel with her neighbours in Florida, it’s not clear about what exactly (she thought they were “unsavoury”).   Anyway it seems that she got somewhat upset over the dispute and decided to END it.  I mean, end it once and for all, forever, not open for discussion, nope never nuh-uh.

She bulldozed their home.

She called a bulldozer driver and hired him to demolish the trailer and septic tank where her neighbours lived.  She told the driver she owned it and wanted it gone.  The real owners arrived and found the bulldozer already in the process of destroying everything they owned.  So, they called the cops, and the predicable stuff is now happening with the courts.

But you gotta hand it to her, the bulldozer is a real closer.  There’s just no comeback that works after that.

 

 

Canada and Quebec

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This particular gem absolutely NAILS the sentiment I hear around Ottawa about the possibility of a separate Quebec.  These guys do a fantastic job, Quebec is absolutely the sexier and probably more stylish part of Canada, but nobody (to date) thinks that it could survive on its own….

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N5GzYhY2dk

I saw this shared on Facebook, very funny stuff.