View from Magome

View from Magome
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

I figure I'd post a couple of shots from our trip to Japan this past April. This was taken in Magome. Very nice scenery.

Idiots are killing us!

I have just this one comment about work: Idiots really do want to kill you.

Should I elaborate? Maybe a little. When you have someone ask "How do I open this Word document?" then you really have to wonder. OK, so maybe the person may be a bit burnt out at the time, but still...

In other news...

I have seriously been thinking of looking for a position elsewhere. I won't be leaving the company as such. I'll essentially be looking for a job at another office. Maybe somewhere halfway around the world. It would be an adventure. And I do hope to learn more and be able to contribute as well. I've already taken the first step of sending out my CV. We'll see where that leads.

Summer is almost over. :-p The weather has not been the warmest this past week, although it has warmed up nicely yesterday and today. It might start to get rainy again by Sunday and Monday. Nevertheless, I shall continue to bike to work when I can! :-) I've actually done quite well this season.

Work and the Future

It's been a while since I last wrote something. It may be a combination of laziness and a lack of anything inspring to write about.

Recently, we've decided to start planning our next vacation. One of the first ideas was a trip to Japan, Korea and China. But after some discussion and stuff we decided that it might be too much to try in a short time (approx. 4 weeks). We didn't want to plan a trip where we would feel a bit too hurried or did not spend enough time at.

We finally decided to narrow it down to just China. It's a large enough country that we can probably cover enough of the key sites and cities within 3-4 weeks. So we started to sift through the guide books and web sites. We found that there are some tour outfits that offer private customized tours. Looking into the pricing, it seems like the way to go.

In other things, after talking with some people at work, it might be worthwhile to take a shot at getting a position in Japan. So tonight I've sort of brushed up on CV for review by a colleague. We'll see if I have what it takes. :-)

When last we wrote...

Well, it's been about a month and a half since the last posting..

Sis gave birth to the twins on June 2nd. Some small complications with some post-partum hemorrhaging but they fixed her up. A bit hairy at the point, but everyone is fine. The twins were both a healthy 6+ pounds each!

I've been trying hard to get in at least a day or more of commuting to work by bike each week. During the holiday weeks it was difficult. Also, there were two days (a couple weeks apart) where we had torrential downpours. The most recent one (a week or two ago?) was bad enough that it caused flooding on the Decarie autoroute!

Workwise, things haven't changed much. Almost everyone in my group have found a new position. The transfer of our current work is moving slowly. I still have my doubts about the success of this transfer. Oh well.

Otherwise, the weather has been hot and humid. I think it will be less humid enough tomorrow that it should make the ride to/from work more bearable.

Rainy May

Well, I managed to ride to work 3 days out of 5 the previous week. However, last week was just downright miserable. It was raining more often than not. And if it wasn't raining, the skies certainly look like it wanted to.

Surprisingly, this past weekend was quite pleasant. The sun decided to make an appearance and the temperatures started to warm up. A lot of folks decided to take advantage of this nice weather and do some gardening. I myself managed to pot up the annuals I picked up the previous weekend!

This week started off a bit slow. I guess it's mainly due to the Memorial Day holiday in the US yesterday. Today is a bit slow too. But heck, it's a good time to catch up on some stuff and to concentrate on some work. It's nice to not have so many interruptions.

In other news, my sister is scheduled for a C-section Thursday. The twins just refuse to come out on their own. It will be quite exciting on Thursday! I'm going to be an Aunt!

No wait... Wouldn't that make me seem old? :-o

Hmmm...

News and updates

It's been over a month since my last posting...

The trip was great! We had a wonderful time and a few interesting adventures. I will have to relate in some detail the trip another time.

In the meantime, the first week I get back to work, I get hit with a bunch of news. Not all of it was good.

It looks like the company is going to pull out the development of one technology. I figure this was bound to happen because we never really grabbed as much of the market as hoped. Oh well...

The next piece of news was confirmation that the bulk of the work that my group was doing is being moved to Brazil. The reasoning behind this was that if we were to move on to newer technology we would need to give up something. I think it was all related to headcount and costs. In any case, it all kinda sucks.

As for good news, well, I did find out that my manager's wife is expecting their first child. Of course, a whole lot of us didn't know about it until she mentioned it during an after-work drinking session (no, I don't think she drank). She's due towards the end of July.

Also, just yesterday, information about the re-org of our group was given. It's still not really clear because it shows our team intact still. This was cause for some concern with some people. My manager did talk to some of us to give us some reassurance. It seems that it is planned that I would move to one of the other groups eventually. I hope this remains so when the transfer is completed. Nothing like being held back! :-p

Anyway, must get ready to ride into work!

2 Days Left!

Before we're on our way to Japan again. :-)

Some things are ready. I dragged the packs out of the closet. We picked up a few more necessities. I went through the medicine cabinet for stuff but D told me not to bring the whole pharmacy. %-) So, we'll just bring some Robaxacet, Sudafed, Advil and Claritin. Definitely the Advil, since any type of medication in Japan is pretty weak by our standards.

Going out to lunch with some buddies today. Meet up with E as well before he heads back to Germany. I'm sure he'll have lots to tell to his colleagues back there. :-)

Since we will be in town, we will probably swing by the $ exchange for more Yen. I wonder if there is anything else I need.... Hmmm...

Boring Tuesdays..

How is it that television on Tuesdays is so boring? Is Tuesday some sort of blackhole for television programming? Is that why Tuesdays are cheap movie nights at the theatres around here? Maybe that's it! They've made TV so boring on Tuesday that you just HAVE to go out and catch a movie. Of course, the discounted movie tickets are also an incentive to go.

I haven't gone out on a cheapie movie night in a long time. Or for that matter, I don't think I've gone out to see a movie recently. I think the last time I went to see a movie was during the Fantasia Fest over the summer. Then I saw Cutie Honey and Porco Rosso.

Hmm.. Should see about watching a few movies this summer if possible... I wonder what they have planned as "Summer Blockbusters" this year.

Another weekend almost over...

Sunday morning. It's nice and sunny out at the moment. It's actually supposed to get up to +4 today! I think it was quite warm yesterday. It was warm enough to melt away quite ea bit of snow. But it's not all gone yet..

Got lots to do today. It seems we need to go up to the cottage just to check on things. Not sure how much snow will still be lying around up there. So I don't know if we can actually reach the cottage. Oh well.

Just another week and we'll be off to Japan! I still want to go through the guide books and web sites for more information. I would like to have at least a plan A and a Plan B (sunny day activity and rainy day activity). Maybe I am overplanning it a bit?

I stopped by one of the Kyoto tourism web sites that listed events and festivals. It looks like there will be a number of Spring Dances being held. It would be neat to catch one of those. I think they are all held by various geisha houses. It's an annual event. I think it might have even been mentioned in the book "Memoirs of a Geisha". I'll also have to check the books to see if there's any additional information there.

Hawaii Pics

I hope those of you who have stumbled upon my humble blog enjoyed some of the photos I have posted recently from our trip to Hawaii last year. :-)

I will try to post some more in the very near future.

Caldera, Big Island, Hawaii

Caldera, Big Island, Hawaii
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

View of the Caldera at Kilauea. You can see offerings to the volcano goddess Pele on the right.

More Luau!

More Luau!
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

Your traditional hula dancing at a luau. The telling of the history of Hawaii. There were no flaming batons, which are actually a Samoan thing.

Luau, Lahaina, Maui, May 2004

Luau, Lahaina, Maui, May 2004
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

This is the pit where they were cooking the kalua pig (and other luau fixings) all day. This was the ceremonial "get the pig out of the pit" deal.

Maui, Hawaii, May 2004

Maui, Hawaii, May 2004
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

This is what we gound at the end of a road and after a long walk. The water was incredibly clear and calm as it was protected by some reefs.

Spouting Horn, Kauai, Hawaii, May 2005

Spouting Horn, Kauai, Hawaii, May 2004
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

Waterfall, Waimea Canyon, May 2004

Waterfall, Waimea Canyon, May 2004
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

Waterfall, Waimea Canyon, May 2004

Waterfall, Waimea Canyon, May 2004
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

Waimea Canyon, May 2004

Waimea Canyon, May 2004
Originally uploaded by bunster10.

Since most of my photos are on the iBook, I've finally found a way to upload.. First of many to come.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

I guess I just seem to get enough meetings today. I had three of them to be exact. Of course, they were all spaced in such a way that it was hard for me to be productive in between! Blech! I really can't do much with an hour here and an hour there.

I really don't understand how some people spend they're entire day in meetings. When do they actually get to do any real work? If I had to go to meetings the least they could be is productive. I hate coming out of meetings feeling as if an hour has gone by and nothing to show for it.

Anyway.... And life goes on.

Countdown..

In less than two weeks time, we will be on a flight to Tokyo. It will be a slightly longer flight than last as we will be flying ANA out of IAD. Depending on what reference you use, this will be an approximately 14-15 hr flight. I think I might have to invest in a battery pack for the iPod.

I've also been making a few small purchases online. For example, this neat travel wallet from LLBean to hold all those important travel documents. It was only available in powder blue. Also, ordered a watch from LLBean since I don't want my chrome Swatch to set off the metal detectors (which it has at least once).

One of the fun things about preparing for such a long trip is figuring out if there is something you can get to make the trip easier. I like to try to shop for neat new gadgets or clothing, such as wrinkle-proof, quick-drying socks or pants. Or maybe this is just a great excuse to go shopping!

Right now I am also going through this mental phase at work where I know I will be on vacation soon and can't really think about doing much else. It's not really good, so I have to put in more effort to be more productive. I plan to login to work shortly and work on a few things. *sigh* At least I can charge the hours...

Two more weeks.

It's two more weeks before our trip to Japan. I am really hoping for some decent weather when we get there. With Spring it's hard to say if it will be a dry Spring or a wet one. In any case, we will pack as appropriate.

In the mean time I have managed to put together a little notebook with notes about hotels and train schedules. D thinks I might be overplanning a bit, but I just want to be somewhat prepared. I guess it's good to maintain a certain amount of spontaneity as well. I dunno. I suppose I am just one of those people who do not like too many (bad) surprises.

Another thing that should get done before we leave is our taxes! :-p We're just waiting for the papers for the 1st 60 days RRSP receipts. I could get the figures online for mine and at least get it going with the QuickTax. Hopefully we won't be owing much to the government this year. Goodness knows they take enough from us. :-p

Also, managed to get a friend to take care of the cats while we're away. We will have to show him how to give Finster his daily insulin. I have to remember to prepare an info sheet for him as well.

Hmm.. The weekend is already half over. :-(

It's been a while since my last posting (re: Re-Org). As some things have changed, other things have not. While the overall work has not changed, how things are being handled has. Some of us were afraid of this happening. It's become "us" and "them". It's very unfortunate that it's become this way.

Some people definitely have not changed. A few of us have been on training courses the past couple of weeks. In one instance, G was supposed to be on this one course, but M decided not to have him away for a 2nd week. So, M decided to take the course in place of G. I wonder about the login in that as the material being taught would be lost on M. Why not another person in the section? On top of that, M had just taken another course the week before last. Again, on that course, I wonder how much use M will get out of it. It's the ol' "use it or lose it".

I had also recently lent to P, I's copy of The Office. P really found it funny and was able to associate some real life colleagues with some of the characters from The Office. I know I could! Funny series with a hint if reality thrown in. ;-)

Anyway, it's finally March! Three more weeks before vacation! Woo hoo!! Looking forward to this trip. It's M's fault if my stuff isn't covered properly. I has tried to get someone on board to learn some of my stuff. Unfortunately, V is one of those people who does what is given and nothing more. This is rather frustrating, I find. I don't understand how some people just don't bother to show initiative or some proactivity in what they do at work. Or, am I just doing too much? Honestly, I feel guilty if I don't have anything to do. The occasional down time is good, but I don't like being idle for too long.

Well, tomorrow is yet another Monday to deal with.

In other things, yesterday I had gone out with a few buddies. One of them was recently laid off. We figure it would be nice to get together for lunch and maybe a few drinks.

So we met up at a coffee place downtown. It took us a little while to decide where to grab lunch. We ended up at a food court of a nearby shopping center. At least there was some variety to choose from! There we just chatted a bit about various things.

Afterwards, we decided it was time for some beer! So we headed on over to this brewpub called Brutopia. I think we hung around there for about 3-4 hrs before we decided it was time for some dinner! For dinner we headed over to Weinstein & Gavinos. Not bad.

Overall, we had a good time. It has been a very long time since I had gone out and had a few drinks with friends. A very long time. Must make a mental note to do this again. :)

Re-Org, yet again...

Last Friday our manager mentioned that it looks like we will have to be moved into an actual department. This is due to the "blueprint" of the organization. Our manager is not suppose to have anyone under him. Also, there is the possibility that we will be split. Sucks...

Yesterday, our manager comes into our team meeting with the directors of the other two departments to make the announcement that we were being moved. The bulk of the group was going to one and two people were going to the other. Of course we really weren't happy with the split. :-p

Other than that, it wasn't an overly hectic Friday. But there was at some point during the day when I wanted to kill someone for his sheer incompetence and lack of common sense. Thank goodness this person will be returning to his group by the end of next week.

OK, time to relax. It's the weekend. :-)

Woohoo! In less than 2 months, we'll be on our way to Japan again. I think it will be a slightly longer haul over since we will be flying ANA our of IAD. I guess I should review the itinerary. You could say I'm a little anal about planning this trip. I will say that I have not planned this trip down to the last hour! I think my boyfriend would kill me if I did that. I think more or less destination to destination planning should be a enough. I am trying to avoid day-to-day planning of the itinerary.

So.. where are we going again?

Arrive in Tokyo (and overnight). Shinkansen to Kyoto . Kyoto for 12 nights. Kanazawa for 2 nights. Takayama for 3 nights. Magome one night. Tsumago one night. Matsumoto 2 nights. Tokyo 5 nights. Then home.

Some things we plan on doing/seeing:

• Visit Expo2005 in Aichi
  
• Toji Shrine Flea Market
• Nakasendo Highway
• Takayama Spring Matsuri
• See Yomiuri Giants baseball game
• Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum

The list is ever growing. I don't know how much we will actually get to see/do in both Kyoto and Tokyo. For the smaller destinations, there should be just enough for us to see without feeling short on time. We shall see. :-)

Well, all lodging has been booked finally for the trip. Almost had a panic attack when our first choice Tour Club in Kyoto was all booked up! We did manage to get 4 nights at their sister place, Budget Inn and booked the remaining 8 nights at the Crossroads Inn. The inn is a little further removed from Kyoto Station but I don't think that will kill us.

The Japan Rail Pass vouchers have been purchased and received. We decided on getting both the 21-day and 7-day passes to cover the entire trip. I think by the end of it all we should either break even or come out ahead as far as train fare is concerned.

So what's left to do? I guess we could put together a list of things we want to see or do. Make sure we've got activities to cover both sunny and rain days. One thing for sure, rain or shine, we have that nice hike on the Naaksendo Highway between Magome and Tsumago! PLEASE let there be nice spring weather! O:-)

In other news.... It's been f* cold here all week! Friday was probably the coldest day of the week. I guess it's been too cold for the weather thingy on the right to show anything useful. On top of that I couldn't start my car up this morning. :-p I think the battery just needs a boost.

Anyway, I think the temps are suppose to slowly climb by Monday. Hopefully enough so I can start my car? We'll see.

Food Network Canada: Recipes: The Surreal Gourmet: Peanut Ginger Soba Noodles With Ponzu Shrimp
Yum.... This is one tasty recipe. :-)

Didn't have enough soba for tonight's dinner, so we substituted with some udon we had. I overcooked the udon just a tad, but it was still tasty! :)

Updated Japan Itinerary!

Well, we did some more research and this is what we have:

Kyoto - 12 nights
Kanazawa - 2 nights
Takayama - 3 nights
Magome/Tsumago - 1 night each
Matsumoto - 2 nights
Tokyo - 6 nights

Lodgings have been booked for Kyoto, Takayama and Tokyo. Just waiting for confirmation for the remaining destinations. Still haven't decided on where to stay in Kanazawa. Suggestions?

OK, so it's been a while since I last posted. Maybe I just don't have much to say? Who am I kidding. I've just been a bit lazy about blogging.

Well, the holiday season has come and gone. I think most people are still recovering from the binging and indulging during this period. Some might still be regretting it all. Other folks might be anxious about their next credit card bills. Me? I think I behaved for the most part, stomach and wallet-wise.

Over the weekend, we went to do some cross-country skiing since the temps were mild (-3C) and it wasn't windy. So off we went to Cap-St-Jacques nature park. The parking price went up to $5 from $4. We strapped on the skis and away we went. Since we didn't get to ski at all last year I was a bit rusty. I had to re-learn how to herringbone up the slopes. Coming down the slopes was still tricky. Never realized just how difficult to steer in these things! On one downhill slope, I was headed towards some low-lying shrubs. Not want to crash to deep into the shrubbery, I wrapped an arm around a signpost to stop myself. Needless to say this is not recommended! Thankfully, I did not pull my arm out of its socket.

By the end of it all (I think we covered 6-8km), I was pretty pooped! I was sore and stiff for the next couple of days. I feel alright today. Hoo boy! That was quite the workout. I think I will make more of an effort to do more x-country skiing. :-)

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.

Well, if you're into Ministry of Sound, this is pretty cool: John 00 Fleming biography.

In other things, it's been a long week at work. There's essentially just two of us to do the work of 4 people. We got 3 more people to help out, but they require some training on the processes. So guess who has to train them. ME! This means not getting some work done. Oh well. As soon as they are up to speed it should be better.

The weekend is here finally! Don't really have a whole lot planned for this weekend. Maybe head over to this place called Atmosphere to see what sort of travel-weight pants they have.

I've decided to really work on a regimen to get back into shape and lose a little weight in the progress. I'm going to try to keep track of what I eat and how much. Also, if I can't cycle to work, then I'm going to use the exercise bike at home. We'll see how long I can keep this up! ;-)

Went up to the cottage last night, mainly to water some plants, but we figured that since we were up there we might as well spend the night up there. Brought the iBook up along with the Japan books in an attempt to tighten up our itinerary. I think we did alright.

Installed Blosxon and Movabletype on this machine as well. I figure I'd play around with them and see how they work out for blogging. It's not that difficult to install, but will take a little time to figure out how to customize. :-)

Ahhhhh! The weekend at last! I thought it would never come! It's just been yet another wild and crazy week at work. Sometimes I don't feel like I get much of a break in between days.

I hope to relax a bit this weekend. We'll prob go up to the cottage Saturday night. Need to water the plants, but figure it would be nice to take advantage of Dave's parents not being there. Got some ground meat out of the freezer the other day. Should be good to go for tomorrow :)

Had a discussion at lunch about just getting up and moving to another country. Abe can easily get used to the idea. He's already been in other places for extended periods for work, so it would not be a big deal for him to get up and go. For others of us, it is a bit more difficult. There's this one girl at work who took a sabbatical and went to Africa where her sister was at the time. I don't think we can take sabbaticals nowadays. You just can't guarantee that you'll come back to a job. Oh well.. maybe one day when things get better.

8-)

Well, I think I am really starting to feel old. Went to the Dave Mathews Band concert last night (free tix!). Maybe it's me, or maybe it's where we were sitting, but I found the music a bit too loud. It seems like the pumped up the volume to the point where the singer's voice was becoming distorted. I just could not make out what he was singing. Of course, not being a big DMB fan, I am at a disadvantage with regards to what the lyrics could have been!

So, today, my ears are not ringing too much, but for one reason or another, I have this stiff neck. This is too bad, because I was hoping to play softball tonight. The team won yesterday! But I don't want to aggravate this stiff neck. :-p Sux to be old.

Anyway, still counting down the days to Japan! Come the end of the week, we will have approximately 3 weeks to go!! :-D

Payday tomorrow! WOO HOO!!

Had gone over to Jardin Jasmin yesterday and came away with just dirt! Actually, that's probably a good thing. I've got to look into taking better care of the orchids I have before I think about getting any more plants! Anyway, we picked up a big bag of this stuff called hydroton. they're like these little marble-sized balls made of baked clay. In any case, we saw them used at the nursery for some plants that like a very moist environment. I figure they would be great for the orchids to sit on top of! It looks like they can stay moist for a while. Also picked up a bag of soil for cactus and a bag of soil for african violets. We need to repot one of Dave's plants and one of two plants I got from work needs more media.

I am really starting to like this little iBook. I think that with each day I use it, the more accustomed I become with it. There are prob still some things about the OS X environment I haven't discovered yet, but soon enough I will be an old hand at it. I really like doing stuff wirelessly. I don't know how I managed to compute from the PC desktop.

I don't think I will be giving up my desktop any time soon, yet, most of this weekend, I had been using the iBook. I've also set it up so that I can receive my email on this machine. Hope my PC doesn't get too lonely...

Anyways, it's exactly one month before the big trip!!! :) 1 day down, 29 more to go!!!!

Darn! Have to go back to work tomorrow. Even these long weekends just don't seem very long any more. I'm supposed to play softball tomorrow, but we got tickets (from John) for the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Bell Centre. Hrm... Oh well. I'm sure the team can handle things just fine without me! :D Well, hey! What would you choose? ;-)

Had a taste of moon cake today. I had bought a tin of them on Saturday. They're from HK. They're rather tasty but rather rich. No wonder no one ever eats a whole one in one sitting! These things can be deadly when eaten in large quantities! We stopped by John and Jessica's to pick up the concert tickets and I brought them a small care basket of some braised beef I made last night and a mooncake. I think Jessica will appreciate the moon cake. :D

Anyway, we tossed around the idea of going up to the cottage next weekend. Maybe see if john and Jessica would like to come along and spend the day there. It should be nice. I just hope the weather cooperates.

:-)

Well, I just got my new toy yesterday: an iBook. It's the Spring 2002 model (so, yeah, it's second-hand). It's got the 700Mhz G3 processor, 384MB RAM, combo drive, and airport card. The package came with the airport hub and Jaguar as well! Overall, it's a pretty good deal.

We played with it a bit yesterday. Had to flash the airport hub with the new network configuration. Decided to do a clean install and away we go! :)

OK, so I'm still blogging from the PC, but soon enough I will be doing it from the iBook. It's kinda neat to be able to surf wirelessly! :D

A nice sunny Sunday morning here. Will probably go over to Jasmin Nursery with Dave's mom. See what there is on sale at this time of year. :-)

Ciao for now!

A bit has happened since last entry.

Sunday, we had to send Tama off to a happier place. She was just going down hill. Last week, her appetite for the smelly mixture of canned cat food, cat milk and baby food was waning. She was also drinking a lot and peeing a lot. Saturday, we had only managed to get her to eat once. Sunday, she just flat out refused. So we called the vet. We were lucky they were able to see her.

We brought her to the vet. The vet checked her out. She had lost at least a pound since her visit in March. He checked out her teeth and found that she had a few sores. If it was painful for her to eat, this was the reason. Dental surgery would be one possibility. However, before we even consider that route, the vet suggested a blood test to see if there wasn't anything else wrong. We said OK. We left Tama there and they would call us within an hour.

The call came and they wanted us to come in. We got there and the prognosis was not good. The blood test results indicate kidney failure. :-( This would explain her lack of appetite and drinking habits. There were options, but were they viable options? Would it have been fair to us or Tama if we tried to prolong her life? She's managed to live this long with her chronic upper respiratory problem. We both think it's time to say good bye and let her go to a happier place where she won't have to worry about getting pilled, where she can get all the attention she wanted.

It was difficult, but we saw her once last time before the vet did the deed. It was certainly a rough Sunday afternoon.

After this, I do hope it will be some time to come before one of the other guys take a turn. Finster is now 12 years old an diabetic. Jum is next at about 8. BS is about 5-6. They all seem to be in good health. We'll probably have to have BS's teeth looked at after the vet told us about how Siamese tend to be predisposed to bad teeth. BS enjoys his food. Let's hope he can enjoy it for some time to come!

Anyway... enough of the depressing diatribe.

It's 4:30AM. Is your cat being fed?

We must have one of the most fussiest cats in the world. Her name is Tama. She's a lilac-point Siamese. She's got a chronic upper respiratory infection. And her food has to be just right. :-p

Her current formula is a mixture of regular canned catfood (no beef or seafood) mixed with Whiskas catmilk and baby food (meat puree). Blend that together with a hand blender and Voila! You've got yourself instant kitty slop. Oh! It must also be at room temperature.

I would like to go back to bed now. Thank you.

We are going to Japan!

After perusing the net for cheap airefares, we finally found one where there were actual seats still available at that low, low price! When we realized that yes, indeed, we can proceed to the next step in booking the tickets, we had to discuss whether we really want to do this or not. Needless to say, it did take us all of 5 minutes to decide to go ahead and book!

And where did we find these cheap tickets? AirTicketsDirect.com It seems that they deal with consolidators for some flights. In any case, we're just glad we got these tix!

Now that we've got the tickets, we put our itinerary together. As we will be going in October, the weather should not be too hot nor too cold. It's still the tail-end of typhoon season, so there is still that chance of foul weather.

We scoured the guidebooks we had on Japan and game up with the following itinerary:

Tokyo - Hakone - Kyoto - Hiroshima - Miyajima - Tokyo

Essentially, we will arrive in Tokyo, spend the first night there, then head straight to Hakone. We will finish up the trip in Tokyo so that we won't have to worry about racing back to Tokyo from our last stop in order to catch our flight.

Hotels were a bit of a challenge. After spending an entire weekend deciding on our itinerary, we spent about as much time researching hotels. We knew that Japan was not going to be cheap. We figure that if averaged about 15,000 yen/night for the two of us, then we would be OK. In the end, we managed to find rooms that cost less than that. This brought average cost per night down to 9525 yen! That's not bad considering that we are going to "splurge" for a hotel close to Tokyo Station the first night. But the bargain rates we got for Kyoto and the main Tokyo stay more than made up for that!

Anyway, we're both quite excited about the trip. I bought a travel pack from MEC this past weekend. It's about 58 liters and comes with a removable daypack. It's not a terribly large daypack, but I think it will have it's uses. We still need to find some travel towels as the Tour Club does not provide towels (they will rent them to you). I think Black's has them. We might swing by there this weekend to have a look.

Also on our shopping list is shoes. We figure that if we will be entering a lot of places where we would be required to remove our shoes, then something that's easy to slip on/off as well as be able to handle a lot of walking will be the thing to wear! We might poke around a couple of stores this weekend as well to see what's available and affordable.

Clothes. I need lightweight (not summer-weight) pants. I don't want to buy them now as I am hoping to lose a little weight and get into reasonable shape before the trip. If we're going to be doing a lot of walking, I want to be able to handle all of that without losing my breath! I might consider getting a skirt if the occasion arises and we go somewhere "nice". I saw one at MEC that might fit the bill.

The trip there will be long. We will be flying out of Chicago on JAL. From Montreal to Chicago, it will be Air Canada (code-share United flight, phew!). It will be early in the morning (6AM out of YUL). And it will be 13 hours from ORD to NRT. I hope we will have enough to keep ourselves occupied if we can't sleep during the flight!

Seating. I called JAL to reserve our seats. Unfortunately, bulkhead and emergency aisle seats are airport controlled (prob as a result of 9/11). The JAL rep on the phone put us in row 47, but also made note that we requested bulkhead/emergency aisle seating. We'll find out when we get to the airport, I guess, if we can get those seats. I wonder if we can get upgraded if we pose as blissful newlyweds! ;-) We'll see!

Less than a month and a half to go!! Woo hoo!!!

Oooooh!!!! I forgot to mention that a got myself a Sony Net MD :) It's a neat little thing! Even though it's an entry model, it still does quite a bit for what it is. :) Got a back of 15 mini-discs to start off with. Now I can record a whack load of stuff from CD to MD. I like the fact that it's small, lightweight and quite compact. I think these guys are better than MP3 players! :D

Just thought I'd share this. :-))

It's finally summer here in Montreal. After a rather cold, wet spring, things have started to heat up around here. Lately, the temps have been in the high 20's, sometimes getting above 30. Of course this means that it's hot, hazy and humid. Quite to contrast to the winter temps we got this past season.

Anyway, made a trip down to Boston a couple weekends ago. It wasn't too painful. The weather could have been better, but what can you do. While it was around 30 up here, it was around 20 and pissing rain the Sunday we were down there. Didn't do too much other than some shopping and stuff.

Of course, being away meant that the cats had a break in their usual routine. Finster went to the vet for boarding while the others got checked in on by a friend. When we came back, Finster was none the worse for wear but Tama seems to be slightly off her food since we weren't around to give her her daily dose of canned food. As a result, she's lost a little wait. For a Siamese, that means she's skinnier than usual. We will have to try to entice her back to the canned food as she just doesn't eat enough of the dry kibble.

I am trying to make an effort to cycle to work. I first cycled to work last Monday when a lot of people had taken that day off (Tuesday was a holiday). It wasn't too bad. Still got to get over my fear of crossing the larger intersections. I should consider leaving my laptop at home. It was a killer ride home with that load on my back! I will see about riding in tomorrow morning. I will try to do the Mon-Wed-Fri ride in. At least that would be a start!

Started a small garden on the deck this year. It's mainly various types of plants in planters. Got some impatiens going in planters on the rails. I've got a mix of verbena, viola, geranium, oxalis, fuschia, snapdragons and coleus in some planters on the floor. Nice colorful assortment. Next season I hope to do better as far as how to plant the different plants in a btter manner.

I've also got two cherry tomato plants that Dave's mom gave me. They seem to be doing well and are starting to bear fruit! I also have a cucumber plant that's flowering now. I wonder if those will bear fruit! The cucumber I had attempted to start from seed. First attempt and they're flowering! Not a bad start. :)

Anyway, let's see how I keep up with my blog. ;-)

OK, so I have not been able to update my blog as of late. It's just been so crazy and busy at work that who has time to much else? Anyway, this morning, I decided to take a few minutes to work on this. It's not going to be very long.

Rant 1
Just WHY is the US in Iraq again?

Rant 2
*sing* I want sunshine... on a cloudy day....
OK, honestly? Can't really complain considering that the temps ARE finally above the freezing mark!

Anyway... back to the grind.

Hasta!

Managers
I am not a manager myself, but I have gone through a number of them in my time. This is not as a result of my changing jobs. This is as a result of numerous re-orgs, re-structuring and managers moving into other areas. I've had different types of managers, some were great, some ineffective, and some who love meetings.

Today, I found that a colleague's manager is just NOT a very good people person. And on top of that, this manager does not seem to act very professionally. He basically tells this colleague that he was lying about the hours he was reporting on an activity based on heresay from another party. Now, what gets me is that this manager just inherited some people into his group about 2 weeks ago. Did he have any idea what these people were working on? Did he make any effort to at least talk to each of the "new" people to see what they were working on and what they're responsibilties are. During the bit of turmoil we had at my home office, my then manager at some point acquired one whole group. This brought his section to over 50 people. But he managed to make time to at least meet with each and every individual to see what they were working on and what concerns they might have with all that was going on. This other manager, on the other hand, not only tells my colleague that he was lying about his hours but he was also telling him that he was losing his job in April. Like DUH, I think just about everyone at this location knows that. So why bother to state the obvious? Was this a scare tactic? In any case, this was very unprofessional, in my opinion.

Anyway, that's my beef on that subject.

Texas Update
Well, it seems that the weather has decided to get wet today. Not a big deal. At least the temps are on the mild side. I think it's more or less been in the 50-60F range. Been working hard to cover as much stuff as possible at work. I am really hoping that I can sufficiently cover what I need to cover by the end of next week. The only glitch has to do with this other thing that just kind of came up during a meeting on Tuesday. I'm not exactly sure what they want me to do, but I'm hoping to read up on some stuff I printed. Maybe I can at least get some idea of the material. I would like to at least try to do some homework on a subject first if possible.

Anyway, I think that's enough babbling for today.

Well, I've managed to survive my first weekend here in Texas, more or less. Saturday, I went over to the Dallas Galleria. It's a pretty big mall with some swanky stores. As its main attraction, there is even an ice skating rink. Overall, I found the mall to be fairly average. I mean, you have your usual mall stores like the Gap, Victoria's Secret, The Body Shop, just to name a few. That's why I found it average.

At some point I stopped to grab a bite to eat at Subway. I took a seat at a table that overlooked the skating rink. I found it rather amusing to see so many Texans trying to skate. I could see that there are some kids who are taking lessons and are serious about figure skating. Then you have the bunch of kids who obviously have not skated much and are more or less shuffling their way around the rink. I have not skated in years, so I'm sure I'd take a few spills if I got out onto the ice again.

So, what did I do for a few hours at the mall? Let's see... I got myself a sweater that was on sale at the Gap. I found some Richard Feynman books at the one bookstore there. I picked up one CD. A set of small headphones. A small Dilbert Calendar. Sudafed. A present for my sweetie (which I will not describe here).

Today, I mainly vegged. Did a load of wash so I had some clean cloths. Read some. Napped. Watched some TV. Chatted with people online. Really not a heck of a whole lot. Did not bother to have the room picked up, which was OK by me. Not like I'm a big slob or anything. :-)

Anyway... I think that's all there is worth noting...

It's still rather cool today. Then it started to rain this afternoon. By the time I got out of work, it was raining rather steadily, not heavy, but it was raining.

It seems that the drop in the telecom market has hit this region fairly hard as well. Here in Telecom Corridor, many of your big name telecom companies have laid off hundred of people over the past year or so. It's rather depressing. At the height of the industry, it was quite busy here. The parking lots were full. The area restaurants were packed at lunch. We went out to lunch at a chinese restaurant not far from the office. Apparently, that place used to be packed all the time. Now it's not even half full. These are not high times anymore.

Anyway, enough with the depressing stuff. Hmmm... What else is happening? I dunno. There's still talk on the news about the space shuttle. More home videos of the shuttle starting to break up before it got over Texas. Which could very well likely mean that the break up started to occur soon after the last communications between the shuttle and mission control.

Well....

Howdy all loyal readers... That's right, all two of you. What? Membership has dropped? We're down to one and a half? Oh dear. Something must be done to rectify this.

So it's still relatively mild here in sunny Richardson, TX. today started a little on the chilly side with the temps hovering around 1C. Of course cold is all relative to where you're coming from! ;-) The temps did rise during the day to a high of about 54F or so. Everything is done BIG here. The cars are BIG. The coffees are BIG. The plates are BIG. The subs are BIG. BIG BIG BIG BIG! I guess that's because this is a big state so everything has to be BIG. ;-)

Hotel living... Gotta love a place that has high-speed connection for free. They prob got a good package deal with some ISP like AT&T Broadband or something. Nice to kick back with a bottle of beer (Sam Adams my choice) and catch up on some email or something. Chatting with some friends is always a nice thing to do too. This is especially so if you want to rub in the fact that it's warmer here than it is there! :D

Another thing of note around here (State-side) is that there is still a lot on the news about the Space Shuttle Columbia. It's almost non-stop news about this. Sometimes you just get a little tired of it, but at the same time you have no choice but to have some sort of feelings about the loss. But PLEASE, don't over do it. The chatter here at the bar is rather interesting on the subject. :)

Well....

Let's try another font. I like fonts.

Well, what seemed like a routine machine became tragedy. I was just zapping through the channels this afternoon when I came across a CNN newsfeed on WGN. I found that unusual so I watched it for a little while. At first, I wasn't sure what they were talking about exactly other than that it was related to the space shuttle. Then it dawned at me that something very terrible had happened. It seems that something had gone horribly wrong as the shuttle was making their way back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle and its crew are lost.

It's rather difficult to believe that such a thing can still happen after the Challenger disaster, but one has to bear in mind that space travel and exploration is still in its infancy (relatively speaking). Anyone who wants to become an astronaut and be a part of space history should realize what the risks are. Haven't we all seen enough science fiction television and movies to realize that things do happen? I think that overall we have been relatively fortunate in the number of tragic accidents since the induction of the space program. I don't know if it has ever been publicized, but I would imagine that even the Soviet space program had its ups and downs as well, we just don't know about them.

In any case, I feel that after such an event, we should still move forward. The loss of such fine astronauts is terrible, but they knew the risks. And it's been mentioned that since shuttle missions have become routine that people don't even know or even pay attention to who the crew is. I think in some way this is a tragedy in itself.

Well, in other news... Finally, there is a break in the weather. The temperature here has finally risen to more bearable levels! It was warm enough that there was some melting snow happening! Also, tonight, we took a walk around the neighborhood after dinner. I missed doing that when the weather was just too cold.

Anyhooo.....

Yeah, it's been a while since I last wrote something of any significance here. Either I've been too lazy, too tired, or just haven't thought about it. Take your pick. Today, I figure I should write something. Yes, I do feel guilty for not making an entry here even though I suspect that very few people read this. :)

Anyway, it's been colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra around here as of late! BRRR!!! We had a "break" in the cold weather this past weekend when the temperature actually got about -10C!! Yes! I was starting to consider that virtually tropical after we went through -40C windchills last week!

Anyway, we didn't come out of that short deep-freeze unscathed! Some of our water pipes froze as a result. :-p Thank goodness nothing burst! That would have been messy and expensive! In any case, after a little over 24 hours after discovering that we were without hot water, we managed, with minimum of destruction, to regain the use of hot water!! Yipeee!!!

Latest news? I'll be off to Dallas for a month for work. Well, not so much work but for a transfer of knowledge. From the Customs/Immigration point of view, I'm there to learn. And this is true. I don't know how they do their stuff, so that's why I'm heading down there to learn all about it. A month living out of a hotel room. At least I won't be alone down there. Some colleagues are aleady down there learning other bits and pieces of stuff.

Anyway... must think about food!!! YUM!! :)

First day back to work after a 2 week holiday. It's pretty dead here. At least it's almost lunch time! :) I haven't received one new email since I got in this morning. I wonder if other people are still away for the holidays. In any case, things need to pick up soon in my area. We've got a tight deadline.

I need to re-new my passport. It expired back in September, but I hadn't had the chance to fill out the forms for it. Anyway, if I am expected to travel anytime soon then I had best get cracking!

The weather today is kinda grey but not too grey. It's probably what they would call mostly cloudy. They're forecasting some flurries for today and a high of about -2C.

Blah! I guess that's it for now.

Christmas is Over!!!!
Thank goodness! Not that I don't like Christmas, but who really needs all the stress that comes with this particular holiday? There's the shopping, the cooking, the baking, the planning. Then there's the travelling (when applicable). Whether it's by car, train or plain, no one really likes to travel during the holidays. This year was no exception.

On the Road again
This year, the Christmas destination was Ontario. It's about a 7 hour drive along the not-so-scenic Highway 401. Very long. Very boring. Check out the highway on Mapquest and you'll see just how straight and boring it is. Nothing but fields. The road is relatively straight, so it's easy to get bored and nod off (not a good thing). It's not bad as long as you have someone with you (to share the boring drive) and some music.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...
We lucked out this year in that the Niagara region was hit with a small snow storm early Christmas morning. We were fortunate that the drive in was clear and sunny. When we woke up Christmas morning, we saw nothing but white outside. It really makes it seem like that long 7 hour drive was worth it! It was still snowing a bit when we got up.

Land of Mau's
Ever seen an Egyptian Mau? Cute kitties. Really cute and cuddly if they have been properly socialized. They just want to cling to you!

New Year's Resolutions
None. Why make them if you can't keep them? ;-)

C'est tout pour maintenant!

Xmas Shopping
Have *YOU* started your holiday shopping yet? I don't think I have yet. I'll probably stop by the mall this week. I don't think I have the patience or the energy to even think about doing this sort of shopping on the weekend! I'd rather be doing other things than to wrestle through a crowd!

Photo Ops
I loaded up my little Olympus Trip 35 camera the other day with a roll of color print film. I originally hoped to take a few shots while I was up north on Sunday, but as I was busy trying to get up from falling down in the snow, taking photos that day was an act in futility. I was just too busy ensuring that I stayed upright! 8-)
Work Blah Blah Blah
Nothing too exciting at work. I'm trying to organize a Christmas lunch of sorts for some folks at work. It will basically be a bunch of us who have worked together for the past few years until the most recent restructuring. I figured that since we're all buddy buddy that we'd get together, have some lunch and swap some gifts. It's a bring-your-own-lunch type of affair so it cuts down on the amount of organizing required.

Today's Weather
OK, so I'm something of a weather nut. There's something about it that fascinates me. In any case, it started out pretty frigid out there this morning sine the temps had dipped last night. But it seems to have warmed up now and it should be bearable the rest of the week. Ahhhh... no need to make a dash from the car to the door! :) I just hope it decides to snow a bit more. I would like to do some more skiing, especially on the golf course. I need to really practice my technique!

Th-th-that's all folks! 8-)

Brrrr!
Went up north to do a little cross-country skiing this morning. The temps in the AM were not so bad, just a shade below 0C. The conditions weren't too bad, despite the alternating warming and cooling weather. Did some snowshoeing in parts where it was just a tad too difficult for me to do on skis. Overall, not a bad day. In the end, I was aching a little bit (mainly in the knees), but I think it was well worth it. Now the temps have been dropping throughout the evening. It's suppose to get down to about -19 tonight! :-p

Totoro
Picked up the DVD for Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro). It's dubbed in English, but hey, for $13 who can complain? It's a cute Miyazake movie from around 1987. Great kids' movie. :)

Tonari no TOTORO TOTORO
TOTORO TOTORO... :-D

Jacket
Finally settled on The North Face "Talkeetna". Not a bad jacket. Fairly windproof. It comes with a zip-out polar. Kept me dry today! :D

BLAH!
It's such a gray day today. It's not frigid. It's not snowing. It's not even raining. This is the sort of weather that makes you want to stay in bed. I wouldn't mind that. It sure beats a day at the office. OK, so it is Friday after all. You still have to wait until you've done your hours before you can go home and start your weekend!

Hmm.
I guess there won't be much of an opportunity to do much cross-country skiing this weekend if there's not much snow.

Not listening to tunes at the moment....

Eye Candy
There just doesn't seem to be enough of that around here. Sure, there's the occasional Ferrari, but now that winter is here, where are all the hunky guys in tank tops and tight shorts? ;-D Hehehehe! Just kidding. I don't usually ogle such studs, especially if I'm with my guys! 8-)

Current vibes
Listening to Ministry of Sound at the moment. It seems that Thursdays are rather lively over there with a DJ spinning and bantering and reading emails out at the same time. :D Rather amusing at times. :)

Weather
Hmm. It seems that things are starting to warm up a little bit, somewhat. Maybe a hint of snow. I hope it's not too frigid this weekend.

Comments
Normally, I don't like to discuss politics. Discussions in this arena have a tendency of creating new enemies. However, I came across this in the news. Have things really gotten so out of hand that it's now "shoot first, ask questions later"? You be the judge.

95 yr. old Palestinian woman shot by IDF

Just how many more innocent lives will be lost in the name of religion?

Other things
It's still cold. It's bloody cold! And it's only early December! Yes, I will probably continue to whine about the cold weather. I just have to remember that when the temps hit 30+ in the summer that I should not complain! ;-)

Local Forecast

The Ferraris are back! It seems that the dealer may have just cleared the showroom out to do some cleaning up (ergo the big dumpster). Ahhhh! Something nice to look at. Although in this weather I doubt they will park many of them outside. :(

Brrrrr!
OK. So it seems that Old Man Winter has decided to rear his cold, ugly head a bit earlier than usual. We're barely into December and we're already experiencing sub-freezing temps and wicked windchills! Today's high is supposed to be about -11C but we're currently at -14 with a windchill of about -23C! BRRRRRR!

What do do when it's this cold? Stay in a nice warm environment! If you've got a fireplace, use it! ;-) Nice warm foods like soups are great in keeping the body warm and comfy. Just had lunch (chicken curry and rice), so I am satiated and warm for the while. Had 3 coffees this morning because I was still feeling the chill!

Ferrari
*SIGH* It seems that the Ferrari dealership across the street is either closed or about to undergo some renovations. Or maybe they are closed for the winter? That probably would make more sense. Who would want to drive a Ferrari in this cold, wintry weather? We'll see in the Spring.

Cold
Did I mention how cold it is out there? I don't think we usually get these temps until January or something. It seems that winter started early here. I hope that with an early winter, an early spring would come of it! I hope so!