Sunday.

Another weekend has come and gone.

It will be Monday tomorrow.

That means another week of work.

Then it will be the weekend again.

What a vicious cycle...

Oooh.. I did forget to mention something....

THE BOSTON RED SOX WON THE 2004 WORLD SERIES!!!!

Long live the Idiot Savants, otherwise known as the Boston Red Sox.

And the Red Sox Nation breathed a collective sigh of relief and there was much rejoicing thereafter. :-)

WOOHOO!!!!

I just can't get enough of the replays and stories of the amazing playoffs. First they beat the Yankees in 4 straight after being down 3 games to none. They finally got that monkey of their back and "reversed the curse". Someone must have made some deal with the Bambino up there.

Then the amazing 4 game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals to finally, FINALLY win the World Series.

I think many a fan can finally say that they lived to see the Red Sox win a World Series Championship.

Just can't get enough... :-)

All I can say is that despite the stupid actions taken by the leader of the nation to the south, he still managed to get re-elected. And I think that this is all I will say on the subject.

In other news...

We've been working a bit more lately in putting together an itinerary for our trip to Japan next Spring. Here's how it looks so far:

- Arrive in Tokyo and overnight there
- Travel to Kyoto and spend about 7-8 nights there
- Fukuoka for about 2 days
- Beppu for 2 nights
- Takayama for the Spring Matsuri
- Magome (and do the Magoma-Tsumago hike)
- Matsumoto for maybe 2 nights
- Return to Tokyo for remainder of the trip.

From the looks of the itinerary we will be covering quite a bit of ground. We will be making our way further south this time as well as checking out more of the interior and smalller cities/towns. It should be quite interesting. :-)

A few things...

Caught a cold at some point last week. Took Thursday and Friday off from work. For treating the cold, I basically had at least 2 packets of emergenC each day. I also made a couple of honey/lemon drinks. I took 120hr Sudafed for a few days. Of course, I also went through ALOT of Kleenex. The cold eventually moved from my nose down to my throat. On Friday, I had almost no voice. By Saturday, things started to improve. Yesterday, it was just some congestion and slightly phlegmy cough.

I think the large doses of vitamin C during the early stages of the cold help it move along more quickly. The sudafed was more to help alleviate the symptoms (and breathe more easily when I sleep!).

Anyway... Today is Canadian Thanksgiving. Got today off. We had the turkey yesterday. Apparently it came out quite tasty (although the underside was slightly undercooked). I seasoned the bird with thyme butter. Slathered that stuff between the skin and the flesh of the breast area. Slathered more of it around the outside surface of the turkey too. Whatever was left was used to baste the turkey. Stuffed the cavity of the turkey (after a little S&P) with slices of 2 lemons. The bird was just under 5Kg so it was in the oven for about 3 hrs. I guess we could have left it in there a bit longer. Unfortunately, due to my congested state, I couldn't taste much. Oh well....

*gobble* *gobble*

BLEAH!

I have a cold. I don't like colds. It all started with some sniffling and sneezing yesterday that blossomed into sinus congestion by the end of the day. And today, I am totally congested and my head hurts. Plus, I think I'm running a mild fever.

Some people don't believe in it, but some think colds come about then the seasons start to change and the temps fluctuate like the Dickens! In a superstitious, I believe it, but I also think, more realistically, that colds are caught from others. Of course, one cannot go through life in a sterile room (think "Creep Show" segment with the roaches!).

Anyway, I'm on a training course most of this week. Had to cut out early because of this cold. Picked up some Neo-Citran on the way home. Hopefully that will knock me out for the evening. I think a good night's rest will help. Also, downing doses of Emergen-C couldn't hurt either! :)

*SNIFFLE* *SNORT*

Got up early today to check out a warehouse sale for kitchenware. It opened at 8AM but when we got there a little before 9 there was a huge line-up of people waiting to get inside. We decided that we weren't in desperate need of anything that would have us waiting in line. So away we went.

We next went to this clothing place that's down the street from work. I tried on a Nordstrikk sweater, but the styling just wasn't working for me. There seemed to be too much room in the shoulder area. I think it might have been cut too boxy.

Afterwards, we went hunting for a birthday cake. Dave wanted to check out Frannie's but when we got down to Monkland, it seems that Frannie's is now a Starbuck's. :-p Then I remember the little Italian pastry shop on Decarie. They had a number of cakes and such. We chose a tiramisu. Picked up an apple pound cake for ourselves too! :)

After we got home, we started to play around with out machines. I finally started to do something to the Ultra 10. I downloaded some patches and started to install them. The installation took a couple hours. Some patches didn't get installed so I have to have a look at why. :-/

Anyway, off to the cottage tomorrow to celebrate Dave's Mum's birthday.

Had a change this AM to upload a few more shots from last fall's trip to Japan. :)

Bus Stop in Mitaka

Japanese maple (Miyajima Island)

Jizo statues (Kyoto)

Little girls in procession at Kitano Tenmangu (Kyoto)

Forgot to mention that I also went shopping today during lunch hour. There's a place just down the street from work that sells some nice casual clothing. It's sort of like a warehouse type place. They seem to sell samples, seconds and discontinued styles. Today there was a batch of Norwegian sweaters. Rather nice and starting at about $125. Considering that they go for about $300 in the stores, that's not bad. Today I came away with a cute black with floral embroidery top by Royal Robbins and a fleecy top also by Royal Robbins. Both pieces only set me back $65 total. Not bad. :)

Haven't blogged in a while. Work has pretty much been the same. Although it's been strangely calm this week. Of course, calm is all relative. In any case, I am on a training course Mon-Thu next week. In a way I have a 4 day vacation! Woohoo!

In other things, we had our group outing yesterday. We took the afternoon off to shoot some pool. Then afterwards, we went over to our manager's house for some grub. Na bad.

Started to hunt for Japan tickets. No seats available at the moment for the dates I've been plugging in. The cheapest fare is currently $880 with ANA. Seats are available but have to go via Washington Dulles or JFK. Of course you can't go straight to JFK from here. You'd have to arrive at either Laguardia or Newark then transfer over to JFK. :-p I don't think so!

We'd like to go JAL again. Tickets are $1015 with them. But no seats available at that price. Will keep plodding on to see when seats will be available and then pounce on them. I figure we go for 3-4 weeks on this trip.

It's Labor Day weekend. First long weekend since July 1st (well, that wasn't technically a long weekend, but a lot of people made it into a long weekend.). Next holiday won't be until October (Thanksgiving). Then it's the long haul before Christmas.

Didn't really do much this weekend. My brother came up for a quick visit before he starts his clases on Wednesday. I think his days of idleness are over. Today we went for dim sum with a couple of friends. We went to this larger dim sum place in Chinatown called Ruby Rouge. It was alright. I think the food at Maison Kam Fung was better. But then again, it could just be a matter of when we got there and what day. It's like the luck of the draw with dim sum I think.

After dim sum, we went for some bubble tea. Yum!!! :-)

Bleah! Back to work tomorrow....

Well, after having managed to survive 2 weeks of hell at work (largely due to having about 5 people away on holiday at the same time), I took a few days off last week to "recover".

OK, I am at times a bit of a workaholic. While I was at home last week supposedly taking a short vacation, I actually went ahead and logged into work. Why? Well, there were still a few things that needed to be taken care of and more or less completed by Friday. So there I was logged into work from home and checking my emails and logfiles. Pretty sad, isn't it?

On a more positive note, I will be heading to Germany for a 2 day workshop with counterparts from other parts of the world. It will be a nice break from the usual stuff. On top of that, I mentioned to my manager that I plan on rounding off the week there by spending some time in Amsterdam. He was cool with it. Besides, if I flew back on the Wednesday (the workshop is Monday/Tuesday), then I would be left with Thursday/Friday. Not worth it in my opinion. My other half will be accompanying me. I don't think he's ever been to Germany, so at least he can keep himself busy while I am in a workshop.

It's been a while sincew I travelled for work, so I'm looking forward to it. :-)

Gary's Boring Blog This is one of the Japan blogs I read off and on. I've been following Rosie's saga for the past couple of weeks and was saddened to see the title of the latest entry. My heart goes out to Gary, Megumi and their family. It must have been a tough struggle for them to get through all this.

Nuff said..

The past 3 weeks have been somewhat hellish....

Week one... Started OK. Half the team was on vacation. I had some stuff to work on. I inherited some stuff from a couple of people before they left. Of course I was also left with team leader duties....

Of course, as soon as the last vacationer left, all hell breaks loose. Escalations and urgent issues out the wazoo! Week one produced about 55hrs of work in time reporting. :-p I barely had time to recover that weekend.

Week two... faired no better... Emails flying left and right about more urgent issues and other things. I was juggling the jobs of at least 3 people. Another 50+hr week.

Week three is better. A couple of people are back from holiday. Some semblance of sanity has returned. Team leader still on vacation which means I still have to deal with the crap issues. :-p At least I *KNOW* what I am talking about or dealing with. But I won't go there. ;-) Never know who's reading this!

Anyway, I hope to take a few days off this week just to breathe. But it's so hard to take days off in case something turns up and a bad decision is made.... Oh well...

<^_^>

It's been a rough week...

It started off slow... but I should have known that it was the calm before the storm. Silly me. I saw the signs. I should have acted sooner. Oh well.. I guess I will have to live with it.

Of course, half the team will be on vacation for the next two week. That leaves just 5 of us to do the work of 10. We are going to have so much FUN! Not....

We shall see what state of mind we will all be in after 2 weeks...

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of.... Packaging in Paradise!

Yet another Monday. I suppose it's become a mantra for many of us when we come into the office on a Monday morning. Bleah.

At least I had a decent weekend. The parents were by on their little road trip through Canada (Niagara Falls, Toronto, Montreal). The weather co-operated so we had a nice time checking out Chinatown and the downtown area. We had dim sum for lunch which wasn't bad. Got me some new Merrells at MEC and the boys picked up some KK while we were there. Picked up a few steaks at the local butcher as well as a couple of brochettes to grill for dinner. All in all, we had a nice time.

The folks left early on Sunday. The rest of the day we vegged and worked on some small things. Dave did a clean install of OSX on the 12 inch iBook. Had some problems afterwards with it communicating with the Airport Base Station. I couldn't quite figure out why it just won't see it. It could see a neighboring wireless network but not ours. After some fiddling around and resetting the base station, I managed to get it (and my iBook) to see the base station again. Before the settings for the airport were set to "Automatic". Now they are set to specifically connect to our base station. I'm wondering if it's because the other network was using 10.0.1.1 as well? Hmmm... Well, whatever the problem was, everything is working again. :-) I'm wondering if that's why we occasionally lose contact with the base station....

So, after much dicking around with that, we needed to pick up a few things from the store as well as a new toner catridge for the printer. That done, Dave was back to reading up on CSS. I think I'll let him become the expert on that one. :-) After having looked for and downloaded all sorts of documentation on CSS, he finally remembered that he had bought a 2nd hand book on DHTML and CSS when we were in Boston (gotta love that Victor Hugo book store on Newbury street). So I guess he'll be reading that for a while. In the meantime, I should get my own ass in gear and read up on some stuff as well. The problem I'm having is finding the energy to even get started. I want to learn a bit about Perl programming. I'd like to have a look at CSS as well. Oh well...

We'll see how things work out with the O2 as a server. Will have to investigate a bit further about ISPs.....

Paper cranes

Paper Cranes

A-Bomb Dome - Hiroshima 

Hiroshima Castle 

As mentioned earlier, some more pics from Japan. I just happen to choose a few shots taken while in Hiroshima.

The mind is such a terrible thing to waste... So, don't use it!!!! ;-)

Yet another day. I don't know if Tuesdays are any better or worse than Mondays. OK, so we're one day closer to Friday on a Tuesday than if it were a Monday. However, Tuesday is still closer to the beginning of the work week than it is to the weekend. Tuesday is just one of those days. There must be a conspiracy behind Tuesdays. I find that programming on TV for Tuesdays are quite boring compared to other days of the week. Why is that? Something to think about on a Tuesday, I suppose. ;-)

Day has been relatively quite. Like yesterday, I've got stuff to do, but nothing that's too overwhelming (thank goodness!). Yet, I don't feel that I am as busy as I should or could be. Look at this! I'm blogging during my lunch hour! I guess it's probably better I wasn't working and eating my lunch at the same time. I read somewhere that this is not really healthy for you. I suppose one thing that could happen is that you get indigestion or heartburn if you're stressed over work while eating. Not a good thing, I guess...

Maybe I'll post more pictures later. :)

Why is it that on Mondays I really don't feel like doing a heck of a whole lot? Or maybe there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot happening today. :-p

Clouds have been coming in and out during the day. There was a sprinkle or two in the morning. If the weather remains stable, I might decide to ride into work tomorrow. We'll see...

I hate days where I just sit around waiting for the next crisis to pop up. I've managed to do what I need to have done today done already. There are plans to do some other stuff, but that's only for tomorrow.

bored, bored, bored..... maybe I shouldn't say that. I might jinx things.... :-o

Quick Grill Idea

Marinate boneless, skinless chicken breast in some italian dressing for about an hour. Prepare as a side some veggies. Grill chicken breasts on the ol' bbq and VOILA! Dinner is ready!

Gotta love summer grilling. It's fast and easy. Another yummy idea: Chicken Satay. Follow the recipe on a jar of Thai Kitchen's Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce and you've got yourself some delicious chicken satay with some kick! :-)

OK... Just posted a few more pictures from Japan.. Hope you enjoy! Whoever happens upon this blog. :)

Sunset. 

The Floating Torii of Miyajima at low tide. 

Narrow stone street in Kyoto new Kiyomizudera Temple. 

Nummy Japanese snacks! 

It's Saturday. Do you know where your mind is? Somedays I wonder about that. I think it's there. But then, if I think, therefore I mind? Not that simple is it?

It's sunny. I'm listening to some Latin tunes courtesy of Putumayo. It's a change of pace from whatever is usually playing on the radio or the music video stations. Plus, my CD collection has been a bit stale lately. I haven't really been inspired by much these days in the music department. At work I usually tune into either Ministry of Sound or Trance Airwaves. Maybe it's because it's easy for me to push the music into the background while I work. I notice that when there is no background noise or music, it's a tad more difficult for me to concentrate on what I am doing. Strange, no?

The other half has gone off on a bike ride around the island. I think he needs to work off some of the stress he's been feeling at work as well. It's been rough since it's currently just he and his boss running the operation. Sometimes he has to pull some long hours. I'm just glad he doesn't have to go into work today. :-p

I suppose I should try to be a bit more productive today. Maybe I can try to finish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's been languishing on my nightstand for some months now. Hmm, better make that a year. I think I picked up the book not long after it was released. I have such a backlog of books to read. I recently ordered two books by Anthony Bourdain (A Cook's Tour on FoodTV) from Amazon.ca. I almost wanted to get some computer books at Chapter's recently, but then remembered that there was a library at work. Saved quite a few bucks right there!

Hmm.. Maybe I should look into trying some of the recipes in Flavors of Aloha. It's a neat little cookbook I picked up when we were in Hawaii this past May. It's put together by the Japanese Women's Societ of Honolulu. It's got a nice mix of recipes from the different ethnic groups that populate Hawaii. Quite a few of the recipes are traditional with a Hawaiian twist to it. I should mention that while we were there we did not have any Spam. We did have some poke which is quite delicious and is a different spin on sashimi. :)

OK, all this food talk is starting to make me hungry. I think it's time for breakfast. ;-)

Sign seen on Miyajima Island 

Maiko at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto 

I just figured out how to use Blogger's Bloggerbot to upload pictures.  So here's a few of the many shots taken in Japan last October.  The trip was amazing.  Planning another trip next year. Enjoy!

A rare shot of Nijo castle with no tourists! 

A package of 6 Owakudani Eggs... 

Classic shot of Hakone with Fuji in the background. 

C'est le weekend!
 
Finally.  The end of the week is here.  It just couldn't get here fast enough.  I am just absolutely zapped!  but the crazy thing is, sometimes, even after I've gotten home, work still seems to follow me.  That kinda sucks. :-p
 
So, what to do this weekend?  Well, we've got tickets to go see "Cutie Honey at the Fantasia film festival! That's on Sunday though.  Other than that I just hope to unwind and relax a bit this weekend.  I don't want to exert too much of my gray matter.  Or, what's left of it anyway....

 

 

Another day, another dollar.

Yet another rip, roaring day at the office today. The usual B.S. and craziness. Everyone making demands of all of us. It's amazing that no one has gone postal yet! %-]

But other than that, I think I managed to accomplish what I was hoping for today. Of course, some stuff had to be put on hold until an a proper solution is found. :-p A bit frustrating if you've already put in a lot of hours into it.

In the meantime, I am rather exhausted! I am just about ready to zonk out! But I figure I'd write a little bit.

I've also been trying to work on building up an itinerary for next year's Japan trip. If we take 4 weeks, then we could probably get to visit more places... It's been slow going... :-/

Anyway...

And how fast is your connect? ;-)

Argh!!! I hate telemarketers... But thank goodness for caller ID. For some reason, I have been getting some unsolicited calls from chinese telemarketers. It just annoys the hell out of me! Just because I have a Chinese surname, they assume they can sell me something. These calls tend to be originating from the Toronto area and they all want to sell me long distance!!! :-p Needless to say, they almost always try to call during dinner time. :-p

Anyway, today was just one those days at work where things just keep coming at you one right after another. It was a relatively busy day but they were mainly issues about one thing or another. I kinda like dealing with issues as long as it's something that makes me think a bit.

Ho hum.....

OK.. not quite ready for bed... Neglected to mention that back in January, in the throes of wanting to spend some money, I got myself a 14-inch G4 iBook. Of course this was just some weeks before Apple announced the release of an even more updated version of the iBook. :-p Other than that, I'm quite satisfied with this little machine. At first, I really wasn't sure if I had wanted the 12-inch or the 14-inch. I had used the older 12-inch and I liked the compactness of it. But, I decided to go "big" and get the 14-inch. It took a little getting used to, but it's great. :-)

OK... Now I try to go to sleep... %-)

Finally, it's the end of the work week. However, I don't think my work is done. I've still got to go into work Saturday to finish up something I can't remotely from home. :-p Kinda sucks.

A bit stressful this week. Had to work on some stuff that the customer wanted today, but it was delivered to us somewhat incomplete. If they knew what they were testing, they would have caught this little oversight. As it was, I had to discover this little problem. Oh well, the customer, needless to say, did not get their patch today. We'll see if the escalation process yields any answers on Monday.

Got a hair appointment tomorrow as well. I think I'll go to my appointment before heading into the office. Dave has to go into work tomorrow too. Oh well, at least it's both of us.

Still trying to research some more stuff for next year's trip to Japan. I had printed out some stuff from the JNTO site for some placed in the Chubu area. Will try to print out some more stuff later.

Here's a link my brother just showed me. A cyclist he knows. Crazy things.

Speaking of crazy... Car started to start up a bit louder than usual as well as making some funny noises. Brought it to the garage Tuesday night, next day, he tells me that the exhaust pipe fell off as he was moving the car out and back into the garage. Funny it happens at the garage and not on the street! Strange luck!

Need to start planning the painting of the bathroom. Brought back a slew of color samples last week, but we haven't had a chance to go through them yet. Oh well....

*YAWN* Ok, that's it...

Not much about anything...

I woke up this morning feeling quite exhausted. I don't know why. I can't say that I have been overworked, nor have I been physically pushing myself either. Maybe it's time for another vacation. Another? Yes, we just took 2 weeks in May to jet off to bee-yoo-tee-full Hawaii. The weather could have been better, but overall, it was really nice, albeit a bit expensive. My Mastercard bill is still reminding me how expensive it was. :-p

Highlights of the trip? Well, we got to visit three of the islands: Kauai, Maui and Hawaii (the Big Island). On Kauai, I would have to say it was the boat trip to the Napali Coast. At the same time, it was also sort of the low-light because I nearly tossed my cookies because of the rough waters. :-p But the sight was spectacular! On Mauai, I think the drive up Haleakala was really nice, especially the views of the cindercones from the top. Coincidentally, that was also the day we were suppose to do the mountain bike ride down from Haleakala. :-/ On Hawaii, it would have to be the lava flows. After trekking about a mile and a half out, we got to see real, red, flowing lava. Despite the heat and the exhaustion, it was a trek well worth the physical pain. Also got to see some petroglyphs on the way down to the end of the Chain of Craters Road.

Would we visit Hawaii again? Probably not any time soon. We found it a bit expensive despite the deals we got on our hotels, cars and flights. In general, food is not cheap. When we visited a supermarket on Maui, we were somewhat put-off by the price of some everyday items like orange juice. I suppose that since everything has to be shipped over from the mainland, a certain premium has to be paid for these items. So, as a result, everything else is also rather expensive. Real estate is also at a premium out there for obvious reasons. Amazingly, while we were there, gas prices had started to climb in the US and Hawaii did not have the highest gas prices. California did!

Well, planning has started for our next vacation. We're planning another trip to Japan in 2005. This time we want to go for 3 weeks. Also, Dave bought tickets for the World's Expo, so there's another reason for going. :-) We haven't come up with a firm itinerary yet. However, this time I'd like to try to make it down to Fukuoka and Beppu. We'll probably make Kyoto our homebase for visiting the Expo site in Aichi prefecture. We figure that it'd be nicer to stay in Kyoto versus Nagoya. And with the rail pass it would make commuting between Kyoto and Nagoya easier. Will have to investigate some possible destinations soon!

:-)

Ho hum....

Vacationed in Hawaii in May for two weeks. Visited Kauai, Maui and Hawaii (Big Island). It was quite interesting as well as somewhat expensive. :-p But overall, we had a nice time. It was awesome to see flowing red lava on Hawaii. Just couldn't get enough of the wild chickens on Kauai! ;-) Could do without the commercialism on Maui.