Gates and Waits

So, we're still waiting to hear what's going to happen with Vone's job and her now-overdue return to work. After being told last week to take this week off with pay, she was also told that they'd be in touch with an update by Wednesday or Thursday. Since today is Friday and she still hadn't heard from them, Vone decided to call them this morning. And the update is... no update at all. Hang out at home with pay until we figure it out. We should be in touch next week. There might be a position there might not be. Yadda yadda yadda. Given the circumstances, we're doing our best to keep out spirits up and to not get to stressed out by not knowing what's going to happen. Like Mr. Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part. But we're still home together on "vacation" and we might as well try to enjoy it.

Yesterday was another day of getting some things taken care of around, but we still managed to have fun. While the car was getting it's brakes replaced at Canadian Tire, we spent 2-hours next door at MegaFun 4 Kids. Vone has been with the girls quite a few times, but this was my first visit - and holy crap this place is awesome. It's nice to have somewhere the girls can run around like maniacs, where they can't get hurt or break things, and where we don't have to clean up at the end of the day. And it's only $5 per kid per day. I would take the kids here every day if I was on extended paternity leave! :-)

I was also productive at home, upgrading the basement to "baby jail." Isla has taken to climbing the stiars lately, and she's actually gotten quite good at it. Often she's 4 or 5 steps up before I even notice. So clearly, it was time to install a gate at the bottom of the basement stairs.

But the challenge was how to make it work, considering that it needed to be something we could conveniently open and close, and there's a shakey banister post on the one side of the stairs. After a quick trip to Home Depot, I whipped up a little modification to a gate that we got from my sister and bro-in-law.

Thanks to some off-set hinges it can open all the way flat against the door to the cold-room...

...and using a couple of slide-bolts it closes firmly against the banister.

Ya, I know I'm way too proud of my gate.