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. :-)