Moved

I finally decided and made the switch. I've moved to Wordpress.com.

Email me for the link if I haven't already sent it you.

That is all. Have a good night!

An evening on the couch

I guess I won't be meeting up with friends this evening. A headache has reared its ugly head this afternoon. I suspect it's related to lack of sleep and other "scheduled" things. I don't have any Tylenol or Advil handy in the office, so I guess I will have to suffer the rest of the afternoon with it. It's not a heavily throbbing type of headache. It's more of a "Hi! I'm here to annoy you because you're not getting the rest you need" type of headache. I guess I had better submit to its whims if I expect to be in shape to entertain my guests tomorrow evening.

Anyway, I have a few things left to finish up with at work. I'm *hoping* to get out of here around 4PM. I need to get some orange juice on the way as I'm low. Once I get home (and feed the demanding Blue one), I'll probably heat up some soup, pop a movie in, and crash on the couch. I think it will be an early night.

My Apologies

My apologies for not making an entry here in over a week. It's been a while since I lapsed like this. At the very least, I could have made a small entry of some trivial bit of information. But alas, I didn't. I guess it's been a combination of laziness, procrastination and other things swirling around in my life that has kept me from making an entry.

I'm still dealing with what I think are minor bouts of anxiety which I think I will need to bring up with my doc when I see him next. I think I will be seeing him towards to end of the month to go over some blood tests I'm having done next week. *sigh* We'll see what happens with that.

To some degree I've been thinking about the holidays. I plan on going down to Boston to visit the folks this year. However, the question is: how do I get there? Right now, airfare is pretty high. I'm looking at over $700 round trip for a direct flight. The alternative would be to drive. But I have never driven that distance on my own. I'm sure I could do it. Anyway, the holidays are more than a month away. I think I've still got time to figure this out.

This weekend, I will be having some friends over for hot pot. The weather is getting cooler and this is a great way to have friends over, have some good food and conversation and not really cook for them. :) Essentially, everyone will be doing the cooking themselves. It's usually fun. Hopefully, I will be able to crack open a couple of bottles of wine.

I'm hoping to go to my cardio class tomorrow morning. It's been a couple of weeks since I last went, so I feel like quite the slacker. And I really need to get the blood flowing and burn some calories. At the same time I really need to keep an eye on my heart rate. I think my instructor is being more conscious since that one girl went down at the beginning of this session. I believe it was because of high blood pressure. I think I should be fine as long as I am taking my meds (which I have been lax about on occasion) and pace myself. And I really need to make sure I pace myself because it's very easy to overdo it and not realize it until it's too late.

Anyway, gotta get some stuff done today. I'm planning on meeting up with some friends downtown for a pint and some food.

Dawn of a New Morning

Click to play

Big Day Tomorrow!

It's a big day tomorrow in the United States. Tomorrow is Election Day. Tomorrow is the day that the citizens to the south exercise their right and duty as a citizen and cast their votes in this presidential election. As for me, I have already sent in my absentee ballot early last week.



This past weekend was a fun weekend. There was Mandy's wedding on Friday. It was a Halloween Wedding. I had never been to one before so I figure it would be fun. And it was. :)



The only downer to the whole thing was the fact that the banquet hall started to kick us out before the bar closed at 1AM. The staff was starting to pick up and put away chairs. We were starting to take down some of the decorations and stuff a little after midnight. I'm not all that familiar with the liquor laws in Ontario, but I can understand when an establishment has to close the bar by 1AM, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone needs to be kicked out by that time too! Anyway, we cleared everything out by about 1:30AM.

The next day I went to visit a friend out in Grimsby. It's about 45 minutes from Oakville in the Niagara wine region. That afternoon we went out to check out some of the wineries in that area. I think we visited 5 wineries. I did tastings at all of the wineries. I think I sampled close to the equivalent of a bottle of wine! :-p Oy. That would explain the headache I had after we got back from visiting the wineries.


Needless to say, I ended up buying a bottle at each of the wineries. Getting the goods home was a feat in itself, but I did managed to transport in my ONE checked luggaged all 5 bottles of wine plus the small bottle of wine from the wedding (a wedding favor). There was also my costume which took up quite a bit of room. I still wonder how I managed it. *touch wood*

Anyway... I was greeted with some flowers when I got home yesterday. It caught me by surprise and I thought it was very sweet! I can't remember the last time anyone gave me flowers. I don't recall my ex giving me any flowers. So yeah, it has been a very long time since anyone got me flowers. It was quite nice. :)

Halloween Weekend

Well, I am off to Oakville today. My friend Mandy will be getting married this evening. It will be costumed event, so it should be both fun and entertaining. :)

I managed to get some sleep Thursday night. After I got home from picking up my costume and having dinner, I figure I'd pop a DVD in and fall asleep to that. At first I started to watch The Science of Sleep. But, since I hadn't seen that movie yet, I was more alert and paying attention to it. Nope, that wasn't going to work. So I popped in the ol standby, Amelie. I think about 15 minutes in I passed out. I remember opening my eyes a couple of times, but for the most part I was out until the end credits started to roll. Ahh! I love that movie. I suppose there's a certain element of comfort in that movie.

Yesterday became a bit hectic at work as I was hoping to get a lot done before leaving for the day. Unfortunately, there were still some things not working, so I only managed to get so much done. Since today is the day of the group outing at work, I don't think much progress will be made anyway by my colleague. So I guess everything will have to wait until Monday. :-p

It's almost 7. I suppose I should shower and get ready my stuff together for the airport.

Sleep Elusive

For some reason, I just had a horrible time of getting to sleep last night. I suspect that one reason might have been that I got a thought in my head and itjust preoccupied my mind to the point where it took me quite a long while to fall asleep. Even after I did finally fall asleep, I didn't sleep for very long. I think I woke up around 1AM (went to bed at 11PM). I couldn't get myself to fall back asleep right away so I got on the computer and just surfed the web a bit. Once my head seemed to have cleared itself (I think it was about 2AM by then), I went back to bed. I figure I'd distract my thoughts a bit while trying to fall asleep and popped a DVD in. For sure I drifted in and out of sleep throughout the movie. I guess it was better that then just lying there wide awake. In any case, I really did not sleep too well last night.

Thinking about it, having that shot of espresso yesterday around 3PM probably didn't help either! :-p

In the meantime, I woke up this morning to a layer of wet snow on the ground (mostly the grassy areas). Yay? I think most of it will melt away during the day. However, it's rather windy and whatnot.

Friday, I will be headed towards GTA. Mandy will be getting married. It's a Halloween wedding! All guests are expected to attend in costume. I'm going to try to take as many pics as possible. And yes, I will try to get a picture taken of me in the dress. :-p

Weekend Wrap

Okay, so I really didn't end up doing much on Saturday. I kinda fell back asleep at some point until A called. I think it was nearly noon, so I think it was a good thing he called. The rest of Saturday was a blur off TV and general dorking around. Uhm, yeah, so Saturday was kind of a blur.

I did end up watching "Pride & Prejudice" Saturday night. I had been meaning to try to catch up on some movie watching. Tonight it's Dexter (still working on Season 1).

Today was the day to keep up with some housework. Vacuum, mop, laundry. The usual stuff. Come to think of it, I was actually productive! I actually planned out my grocery list. I wanted to make the soba noodles in peanut sauce for lunch. Then for supper tonight, I wanted to make some lentil stew. Then for tomorrow, I wanted to make some slow cooker chili. Yum! I also decided to splurge on getting the Swiffer Wetjet to take care of the uncarpeted areas of the house. After mopping the small amount of bare floor I have last week the old way, I decided it was easier this way. It seems to work well.

It's nearly the end of the month and the temperatures are starting to drop. I decided it was time to "winterize" my bed. This meant getting out the other half of the down duvet and velcro'ing it to the other one. It's a 4-season down duvet that I bought at Ikea a while back. I don't think they sell the 4-season down duvet anymore. It's quite cozy and comfortable. While I was at it, it was time to change the bed linens too. Ahh! Love slipping in fresh, clean sheets! But it won't be long before it's covered in cat hair. :p

Not sure what to expect this week. I need to remember to let my manager and team leaders know I'm taking Friday off for M's wedding. I think I still have to finish up something I've been working on. I think there's another project on the horizon. Anyway, whatever. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, time for bed. I need to get up early to prepare the chili for the slow cooker.

Wassup For the Times

Weekend at last

It's finally the weekend. I really have no idea how this past week went. Maybe because I was mostly busy going through data and stuff at work that the whole week became a bit of a blur.

Thursday was the David Usher show at the Metropolis. It was really an awesome show.

It's amazing to watch him perform. He really puts out a lot of energy and heart into his show.


The weather is suppose to be pretty crappy this weekend. I haven't quite decided if I will go to cardio this morning or not. If I don't I really should try to make it up somehow. :-p

One Reason to Vote November 4th

I <3 Keith Olbermann!

Tuesday Musings (or not)

It's rainy. I hate rainy days. I find that cloudy, dreary days, especially if they're cool, are a bit of a downer for me. Well, I suppose it shouldn't matter since I am in a windowless office these days. In any case, I just find this kind of weather depressing.

That aside, just what color is this?


When I first took the photo the flower looked more blue than purple. After I uploaded the photos at home the flowers still looked a bit blue, but not as blue as it showed on the camera's LCD. Now, at work, the monitor here seems to give it more purple. So just what the heck is the true color of this flower now? O_o

Yes, yesterday was definitely one of those days when my imagination and thinking gets the better of me. I have really got to stop over-thinking things at times. It will just give me trouble in the end. If something seems to be going well I should leave it well enough alone and just go with it.

Happy Tuesday.

Mondays

Maybe because it's Monday. Maybe because I'm breathing in fumes coming in from work being done on a nearby roof. Or maybe it's because I have not been listening to my tunes today. For whatever reason I feel kinda "meh" today.

Of course, I also feel like such a 'tard. Without going into too many details, I just feel like maybe I should have done something and I hope that signals did not get crossed or misinterpreted this past weekend. As a result, I think I am starting to think too much about it. And you know how thinking too much can be bad for you...

Anyway, I guess I'll have to wait and see. But in the meantime, I just feel like banging my head on my desk. But that could be painful... :-p

Fresh Air and Sunshine

It's been a somewhat busy weekend.

Saturday, I went to my outdoor cardio class. I tried very hard not to overdo it. I didn't need to have my heart rate up too high. After getting home and relaxing a bit, I went out to the Botanical gardens to shoot some pictures and to check out the annual Chinese Lantern display there. We decided to get there a little bit early as I had heard it will probably get pretty busy and crowded as it got dark.






Today was a Hash day. I was not entirely sure if I wanted to go or not. In the end I did go. More fresh air and exercise. I think I did alright. I have a slight headache right now, but that might be due to other things or a combination of things. If it doesn't go away before I go to bed I might take some Tylenol for it.

In general, I think I had a pretty good weekend. This coming week I have the David Usher concert to look forward to.

ToTM

Warning: This might be TMI for any male readers. And I know of at least one guy who reads this blog! ;-)

If there's one thing I hate and that's that time of the month. :p For me, the symptoms are never the same thing twice. Some months I might be perfectly fine. Other times, I could be a total bitch about stuff. For sure, I very rarely get cramps. Bloating? Well, I think that happens when I least want it to. Cravings... Yes, sometimes I do feel like eating more. I usually have a headache on of the days. One thing for sure is that I want to sleep more. That's one things that's fairly consistent each time.

Anyway...

So I went yesterday with Melissa to look for a Medieval outfit for a friend's wedding on Halloween. After Googling and checking out the websites of a couple of places, I decided to visit one costume shop located near the Old Port. The place has 3 floors of stuff! The main floor had accessories, wigs, masks and some costumes for sale. The 2nd and 3rd floor were all costumes they had for rent.

After poking around a bit, we found the rack where the Medieval outfits for women were. One of the first dresses I pulled out was a light blue dress made of some polyester material. The style was more or less what I was looking for. Poking around some more, I found a nice burgundy colored dress of similar style. But this was of a more velvety material. There was some gold colored threading in the trim. I tried on both. The blue one would need some altering, but the color and the material really did not look all that flattering on me. :-p The burgundy one fit very nicely, however. There did not seem to be a need to make any alterations at all. The dress came right down almost to the floor.

I guess the dress is styled similar to this but the sleeves are not as flared and the pattern in the fabric is not as plain. When I tried it on, it was definitely more flattering than the light blue one.

For accessories, we found a pearled tiara type thing. Rental of the outfit cost about $100. I would pick it up the Wednesday before Halloween and I'd have to return it the Monday after. This worked out perfectly as I will be flying to TO Friday and returning Sunday.

After that was done and we had grabbed some dinner in Chinatown, I decided that I needed shoes. I really don't have any dress shoes that I could wear with the dress. And I wanted to find something with a slight heel since the dress came down to the floor. So the quest for shoes began.

We headed towards downtown. We first checked out an Aldo, but they didn't have anything I liked with heels that wouldn't kill me. Next was the Bay. Nope. Nothing there either. Then we checked out some of the shoe places at Eaton Centre. Bingo! Found a pair of Clark's that were comfy and not too high in the heel. So the shoes were found and bought.

The one thing that depressed me about shopping is whenever I wanted to shop for clothes. I can never prescribe to the latest trends. We had stopped by an H&M to look at what they had. Melissa found a cute, cropped argyle sweater. She wanted me to try that with a white shirt. So I did. Went to the dressing room to try it on. I came out of there very depressed. *sigh* Well, so much for me wanting to try something on stylish. :p

Let's face it. I have some tummy bulge issues to deal with. At my age, it won't be easy. Short of starving myself, it will take some effort to lose it. Diet-wise, I think I have been pretty good about not eating too much junk food or high fat foods. However, I think portion size is still an issue. At the same time, I have been working out a bit more. I have been working on toning and strengthening some muscles, so it's possible some of the weight is muscle weight. In any case, I need to make more of an effort to lose the love handles (I don't know what's to love in them). :-p

I think I should go back to sleep. The cat thinks it's time to be fed.

Change

Change can be a scary thing. It can also be a necessary thing. There are days when I wonder change is needed. Change is sometimes a difficult decision to make.

For some time now, I have been contemplating change. I think that I have made a few major changes in my life. I upgraded from a condo to a townhouse this year. That was a huge change. But it's a change I probably would have done eventually.

Career-wise, I am wondering about change. I've been working at the same company for almost 14 years now. For the past couple of years I've been thinking of looking for something different. I feel that I'm not able to really learn any transferable skills except for what is usable in this company. Also, there have been changes in how things work here that bother me. Things have gotten to a point here where you sometimes need to ask around for stuff to work on. It's crazy, but I do not understand why I would have to ask anyone for work. Some of the folks here complain about having so many projects. Well, hey! I'm here! Why not offer me some of that? I'd like the opportunity to build up my competence so I can be a useful resource!

However, I think alot of this also stems from the fact that for the better part of 2007, I was without a manager. Without a manager, there was not a whole lot of guidance. Sure there were team leaders, but they were busy trying to find resources to work on some of the projects. However, it just seemed like they didn't feel like they had the authority to allow those with less experience to work on some of the projects at the time. Thus, it becomes that evil Catch-22: How can one gain the knowledge and competence to work on something if they are not given the opportunity to work on something to gain that knowledge and competence? And from this my frustration is borne.

So, what am I doing? I decided to pull the trigger last night and let loose my CV for a position at a company where a friend works. It's a large financial institution. Yeah, I know. There's a certain amount of volatility. But this place recently received some backing from another large financial institution. I think it was some sort of partnership or something. Anyway, this bolster helped to nearly double the value of their stocks. So, it can't be all that bad, could it?

Happy Birthday, Dad!

It's hard to believe that Dad is almost 70. I guess that since I've been living away from home for just over 15 years now to me Dad hasn't really aged in my mind.

The pic was taken almost a year ago when we went to Hong Kong. He hadn't been back there in many, many years. This was his first big trip back to Asia. I think he and Mom would like to go again next year.

Happy birthday, Dad!

Up Too Early

Ugh!!!

My mobile started to buzz around 4:50AM. I answer. The caller was asking for Paul. I told him he's got the wrong number. He said he called the main number at work and it gave him an extension. I told him he probably accidentally dialled my extension (a difference of one digit). Ooops.

So NOW that I am up, I figure I'd write a bit. About what I haven't any idea, but I figure I'd write. Sometimes it helps me clear my head. Sometimes it's to release some verbal diarrhea.

Last night I had some friends over for a Thanksgiving pot luck dinner. I made baby back ribs slow cooked in a dry rub. Melissa and Dan came over early to prepare some mussels and a couple of ducks. Another friend came over with a lasagna that needed some reheating. Someone brought over a nice Lebanese rice dish and some stuffed grape leaves that his mother prepared. There was some focaccia, herbed potato salad, an assortment of cheeses and plenty of drink. For dessert there was some canoli, a yummy pumpkin pie and an orange babka. Cleanup afterward wasn't too bad. Everyone lent a hand. Much of the dishes made it into the dishwasher. Some items which I could not clean immediately but did not want the cats to get into were put into the oven. This morning, I managed to wash all of the wine glasses before relenting to the demands of the cats.

I think I should go back to bed now... :-p

It's nice to get out

I got to get out this afternoon to take some shots at some autumn color.

It was a gorgeous day. It was warm. There were only a few passing clouds.

I met up with a couple of people out by Vaudreuil-Dorion. From there we headed out towards Rigaud. We stopped by a sugar shack place and took some shots. Not as much color as we hoped for there. Afterwards, we headed over to Rigaud ski hill. After taking a few shots from the hill we made our way down to the river and took some shots there.

Something I came to the conclusion about now after having some suspicions about. I really should not try to manually focus. I think that with my poor eyesight, I might not necessarily be focusing correctly. I've noticed that some of my shots were just slightly out of sharp focus at times. This can be frustrating at times. I guess I will have to try to rely on the autofocus feature of my camera. :-p

Do your part

I'm already registered to vote in Tuesday election here. I also have the right to vote south of the border. However, until now, I have not exercised that right. This time I am making an effort to get an absentee ballot.