The week that was

Well, I got home alright early Monday evening. This was after the plane had a bit of a false start at the start of take off. It was a bit unnerving when you hear the engines rev up for take off, the plane starts to move and then you hear the engines die down and the plane turns off from the runway. The pilot announce on the PA that they had some sort of power indicator light go off and they had to check it out. He said it'd be a few minutes.

So a few minutes later, we make our way back to the runway. This time, the engines revved for a few seconds then died down. Uh-oh? Not really. I guess they wanted to test it out for a few seconds to make sure the power light didn't go off or something. Then we inched forward a little bit and then we actually did take off this time. Whew!

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. Customs at the other end was uneventful. Got my bag and made my way towards the exit and the taxi stand. On the way to the taxi stand, a man came up to me to ask if I wanted a taxi. Instantly knowing that this was probably an unlicensed hack trying to find a fare I immediately waved him off and sternly said "No!". When I got to the lineup for the taxis, I looked back and saw that he snagged himself a fare. Good luck buddy. Maybe I should report this to the airport. I don't think it's fare to the taxi drivers who take the time to get their airport permit and are licensed hacks.

Anyway... I came home to a "gift" from BS on the bed. :-p So guess what had to be laundered first. *sigh* So I had no choice but to make sure that the "facilities" were cleaned to his liking.

The next day, I'm back at work. That evening, I decided to be lazy and picked up a roast chicken at the supermarket on the way home. I gave BS his g/d as usual but he wasn't eating all of it. He'd have a few mouthfuls and that was it. When I took the chicken out, of course he wanted some of that! I gave him a couple of ounces of the stuff. He ate most of it. So that was Tuesday.

Wednesday evening, again, he wasn't eating everything. On top of that I noticed that he seemed to be straining in the litterbox. Uh oh. Was he constipated? Later in the evening, as I was trying to get to sleep, he would not settle down. Both he and Jum would usually jump into bed with me and settle in under the covers next to me. That evening however, BS was just absolutely restless. He'd get out from under the covers and pace around the bed. Eventually he made the motions as if he was getting ready to do a number. Nuh uh! Not on the bed! So I got his attention and drew him away from the bed.

By now it was about midnight. I was tired and I wanted to sleep. However, someone didn't want me to sleep because he would not settle down. Thinking that it might be the constipation, I called the emergency vet hospital to find out what I should do. Mistakingly thinking I said that he had problems urinating they suggested I bring him in to get checked out because if it were his kidneys then it could become fatal. Pee, poop, either way he was having issues. So I changed out of my PJs, managed to shove Mr. Blue into the carrier (he would not go in willingly) and away we went.

I think there was one other patient before us, so we waited a little before we saw the vet. The vet checked him out. She said we'd need to take some x-rays to see what's going on inside because she did not feel any hardened stool inside him. So it was back in the waiting area to wait while they zapped BS for x-rays. A little later they called me back in to show me his insides. She showed me where his lungs were, which were okay. Then the next blob, she said is his stomach. BUT, what's weird is that it's appearance seems to indicate that he has air in there as well as air in the intestines. She said that this is not normal. Uh oh. She suggested that he stay over night for fluids (because he was a bit dehydrated) and for blood tests to see what was going on. I figure, well, I've already brought him here, might as find out what's wrong with him.

The next day, I get a call from the vet tech saying that BS was stable and that the vet would call me later with more information. Whew! I guess that was good? Anyway, a couple hours later, the vet calls. She said that BS has chronic renal insufficiency that was complicated by acute uremea. Her prognosis was reserved at best. This did not sound very good at all! She suggested trying an IV fluid treatment for the next 48 hours. I think the only risk here is with the heart murmur he has. I figure, if there was a chance he can pull through and recover, I'd give it to him. So I okay'd the treatment. If anything came up before the next daily update they would call.

So that evening, I was a little jumpy whenever the phone rang. Twice it rang, but they were telemarketers. The third time it rang it was just Videotron toe confirm my move. The rest of the evening was quiet, which I guess was good. No news is good news?

The next day, just before lunch, the vet called sounding less somber than before. It seems that BS is responding very well to treatment. They started to feed him as well. They would do another set of tests later that night to see how he's progressed. Yay! But I guess we're not totally out of the woods yet!

Yesterday, I get the update that BS's numbers have improved a lot! His creatinine levels are still slightly elevated so they'd like to keep him one more night on the IV treatment. Okay.

Today, they called to say that he's well enough to go home but that he will require some meds for a little while. His diet will be restricted to low protein. He will need sub-q fluids every other day to help things along as well. I arranged to go pick him up between 12 and 1PM.

I went to get him. He seemed quite affectionate and talkative, as usual. The vet tech had with her a bag full of stuff for him. He's got 3 different medications he needs to take. There is a bag of fluid, giant syringe and needles for the sub-q fluid therapy. There was also a week's supply of low-protein foods, both medi-cal and k/d (so, whichever one he prefers). YOiks!

Of course he meows the entire way home. His homecoming was mildly received by Jum who was quite enjoying herself while BS was away. She was able to have my attention all to herself. However, she will be due at the vet soon for her teeth cleaning! Just you wait little missy!

In the meantime, I think BS is still trying to adjust to being back him. He's been wanting to be in high places since he got home. I don't know why is that. He was constantly cleaning himself for a while there. He was probably trying to get that vet smell off of him. I know he's been wanting to sleep but he just would not relax. I managed to give him his dose of metronidazole. He ate just about all his food. Then I gave him the clavamox. So far so good. Tomorrow morning, he will be getting all three (the third is fortekor).

Monday, after work, he will be getting some sub-q fluids. This ought to be fun. :-p

A little more from Boston

Well, I finally made it home. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it because just as the plane was revving up it's engines and started it's take off run, it turned its engines down and turned off the runway. O.o The pilot came on and said that they saw some thing go off related to the power and wanted to check it out. A few minutes later we taxi'd back to the runway and away we went. Needless to say, I was a little bit worried, but we made it here with no incident.

Last night's performance by Matthew Good we pretty good. After seeing him perform 2 weeks ago in SF, I can see that his illness has taken a bit of a toll on him. He started out sounding a bit rough around the edges but his voice smoothed out after the first couple songs. Aside from a couple of near misses in a line or two, he performed pretty well under the circumstances. Despite how he may have felt that evening, he gave it his all. The crowd wasn't bad considering it was mostly a college crowd. You had a few "older" folk like myself at the show. There was one girl somewhere not far behind me who was a bit loud and probably inebriated. I think it was during "Strange Days" that she blurted out quite audibly "Is that his new stuff?" O.o I think I bunch of us turned and glared at her for being a bit boisterous. Finally, at some point, someone told her to STFU. Aside from that the crowd wasn't bad. You had your usual shout outs and lame attempts at witty remarks, but overall it was a decent crowd.

Matt was gracious enough to meet some of the fans to hung around after the show. I know he didn't have to if he wasn't up to it, but being the trooper that he was and not wanting to disappoint folks, he did meet with us. He wasn't quite his jovial self that he was 2 weeks ago, but he was very polite in meeting people and obliging in signing things and having his picture taken with fans. I didn't need to have another photo of me and Matt, but I took one of Matt and Mike. Mike was very happy to see Matt perform in the Boston area, since one never knows when Matt might swing by this neck of the woods again.

All in all, it was an entertaining evening. Matt did his best and I don't think he really disappointed many people. His banter was a bit on the light side but he even admitted he was not his usual witty self. NLX who opened for Matt, did a great job and performed quite well. I will have to check out her albums. They were also selling limited editions of a silk-screened poster promoting the Cambridge, NYC and Philly dates of the tour. I picked one up and Matt signed it.

I think bro and I got home around 1AM. Bro had to get up at 6 for work. I felt a little guilty but he said he had a good time. I feel bad that Minessa couldn't have gone to the show. Who knew that frozen fish bit? Anyway, one day she will get to see Matt perform.

Meanwhile, here's a couple of videos I took when bro and I drove into town on Saturday. :)

Happy Easter

So here I am in the middle of Malden, MA. It's a little blue-collar suburb just a little bit north of Boston and about 10 minutes from Logan Airport. It's convenient to some of the major highways and roadways in the region. I have been spending this Easter weekend with my folks.

I got in Thursday night after a short flight out of Montreal. The actual flying time was about 44 minutes. I don't know why we were taxiing around YUL for almost 15 minutes before we actually took off. The airport really isn't that big! In any case, this bit of taxiing got us into Logan at about the scheduled time anyway. The flight, in general, was uneventful.

Friday was a work day for most people here. Being that Good Friday is considered a religious holiday, a lot of companies here are not obliged to give people the day off. I don't think the government offices give that day off either. So I just hung around the house and played with my little niece and nephew.

Saturday, we went to Jin's on Rte. 1 for some dim sum. For some reason my nephew was upset over something and through a bit of a tantrum. His sister did not seem to be having any issues and quietly ate her dumplings and drank her juice. Eventually, my sister took her son out to the car with some food (he likes this particular fried thing). She was about to go home with him but managed to calm him down in the car and he ate. My mom got an order of noodles for my brother-in-law to take to sis. Other than that, dim sum was pretty good.

After eating, bro and I went over to Work N'Gear to check out some Carhartt jackets for women. I'm not sure what possessed me to look into these jackets, but I felt the need to have one. They're quite durable and they last for a very long time. My brother has one and it's aged quite well. I found a medium in a sand color. It's a zip-up with velcro flap closure down the front. It's not bad and it fit well. I was hoping to find this other model that's got this sherpa lining. The store closes at 8PM, so bro suggested that we head into town to see if there's anything we can find down there.

We decided to just bite the bullit and park at the Pru parking lot. I figure we shouldn't have a problem with finding something to buy to get the parking ticket validated for discount parking. I did find some stuff at the Body Shop. I think it was more than enough for the parking.

I hadn't really walked around the area in a while, so we got out onto Boylston Street and walked ab it back towards Copley Sq. From there, we got back to Newbury Street and walked up that way. Funny, how over the years, there were times when that seemed like a long walk. Now, it really doesn't seem like much.

It's interesting to see what shops are still there or not on Newbury Street. It's sad to see that the spot where they sold these gargoyles is no longer there. There was a "Space for rent" sign in the window. They had been there for over 15 years. I guess times change. The Faerie place is still there. It's a bit more commercial and sunny. They've only been there for several years.

With the internet and iTunes, alot of the used music stores are now gone. Mystery Train is no longer there on Newbury St. So much ahs changed over the years. My bro says that the only used music place he knows of now is in Harvard Sq.

We went to Newbury Comics. I've always liked going into this store. There's a variety of interesting knick knacks. Since I've been gone they've expanded and now have stores in a number of locations. However, for me the real Newbury Comics will always be the one on Newbury Street. :-) Well, the one located in The Garage at Harvard Sq is a close 2nd.

While we were walking around the Pru Shopping area, we noticed an inordinate amount of people dressed up in various types of costumes. When we got off the elevator from the parking garage, we first encountered a bunch of people waiting to get into California Pizza. Just beyond that crowd, I spied me some people dressed as Star Wars characters. I was like, "Uh oh. Just what's going on here today?" It turns out that there is some sort of anime convention happening at the Hynes Convention Center not far. Ack!

So needless to say, everywhere we went we saw folks dressed up either as their favorite anime character, or even video game character! There were plenty of Naruto and Dragonball related outfits. I think at some point I was ready to get out of there for some air!

I think after spending a couple of hours in the area, we figured it was time to start heading back. I think it was somewhere around 3:30-4PM when we left. The parking cost us $12 instead of $34 (OUCH!), but it sure beat going around in circles looking for a place to park. Sometimes, you just need to splurge a little bit. I don't think I can deal with paying fro parking like that on a daily basis though!

Since we didn't find any Carhartt jackets in town, we went back to the other place. We found the jacket. I tried it on again. The zipper on one wasn't behaving very well, so I tried on another one that had a better working zipper. I took the jacket to the cash. The salesperson rang it up and said it was $55! Apparently, the coats were 50% off! Well, that was a great deal! Hmm.. I hope I don't look too butch in it. :-o

So that more or less brings us to today, Sunday.

Almost Mid-week Update

I went to California.
I tasted some wine.
I bought some wine.
I was in Sonoma County.
I visited San Francisco.
I saw Matthew Good perform at the Cafe du Nord (see previous post).
I flew back to Montreal.
I flew in first class from San Francisco to Chicago.
I was stuck in the back of the plane from Chicago to Montreal.
I was on a training course last week.
I was almost put to sleep all last week.
Some days, the instructors did not let us go until after 5PM.
They didn't let us go until almost 6:30PM on Thursday.
Friday was the St-Paddy's Day pub crawl.
I had four half-pints the entire evening.
I got home late.
I slept in Saturday.
I did not do much Saturday, except fret over Matthew Good's health with a few other people.
Matthew Good posted about how he was doing.
We were mostly relieved.
I caught up on some stuff around the house Sunday.
I WoW'd somewhere amidst all of this.
I had my review Monday.
I wasn't entirely happy with the outcome, but there's a bit of a story behind it.
Logically, it made sense.
The course of action was reasonable and was accepted.
Today is Tuesday.
I had a glass of French pinot noir with shish taouk takeout.
Wooooo!

Tomorrow will be Wednesday.

I lead such an exciting life.

Matthew Good

Some stuff I recorded during the show in San Francisco. :)

Sleepless in Canuckistan

Yeah, well. I gotta remember not to have any coffee, nevermind an espresso, late in the day.

Alright. Going to try to go to sleep. Again. :p

Much overdue update

Ok.. It's been a few days since I wrote anything. I guess I can't really come up with any real excuse other than sheer laziness. :-p

I didn't strain myself over the weekend other than go to my cardio workout on Saturday. I really needed to do it since I hadn't gone in about a week since my cold. I'm pretty much over my cold. So that's some good news. I think the multi-prong attack of ColdFX, Emergen-C, Sudafed, Tylenol and soup helped shorten the cold's life-span.

On Sunday, I got myself into a little trouble. A friend of mine kinda nudged me into it. I had nothing better to do sometime so I guess some sort of distraction was welcomed. I bought into World of Warcraft. :-p I think I will leave it at that.

To be fair, I have not become an addict yet. I know that there are some things that I need to get done and I will get done. One of these things is to complete the online course that I enrolled in almost a year ago. Of the 4 courses required for this particular certificate, I have only completed one. The second languished for some months but I think I have finally completed it. I've gone ahead and started the 3rd course. Gosh darn it, I will get that certificate in Systems Administration!! Therefore, before I even *think* about logging into WoW, I will work on my online course. I want to put in at least 1-2 hours each night on the course. I will stay the course!

I hope. :)

In 8 days, I will be flying out to San Francisco. I will be hanging out with my friend J who dragged me into the WoW thing. She and I will try to do some of the touristy things around the Bay area. We're also going to go catch Matthew Good at the Cafe du Nord. I think it will be fun. Just how much trouble can two girls get into?

Some people annoy me. Within the company there is another person with a name similar to mine. The difference is that her last name is spelled with an "e" and mine with an "a". This is enough for some people to accidentally email me stuff that was meant for her. Now, I've been the polite and professional sort and have forwarded her any misdirected mail as well as cc'ing the original sender. Usually the sender will reply with an apology. However, not ONCE has my evil Doppleganger replied back with nary a "thank you". Hmph. I believe this person is suppose to be a project manager or something. Well, she hasn't been very professional in replying. Next time, and this was suggested by my director after I told him the story, if I receive any email meant for her I will ask if she's ever received anything meant for me. If I don't get a reply to that, well now, I don't think I'll be forwarding her anything further.

Okay, that was my small rant for the day...

This weekend, my friend M suggested that we go to the Montreal High Lights Festival All-Nighter, la nuit blanche. I think it will be fun. I don't know how far I can make it, but we'll see. :-)

Friday

Well, I think I am about 90% over my cold. There's just some snifflies left and a slight cough that is also going away. So I think it's looking better for this weekend.

I plan on having a few friends over for hot pot tomorrow evening. I'm evening contemplating going to my cardio class tomorrow morning since I missed it all this week. I need to get back on track and keep going. I've even registered for the Spring session already. The days and times I wanted were almost full! Whew! Good thing I looked into registering last night.

Spring is just around the corner! Uhm, yeah right. Kinda hard to imagine that when the windchill the past couple of days has been around -20C! Brr! I think today we'll get a reprieve from the colder weather in exchange for about 2cm of the white stuff. Oh well. Can't have everything.

Meanwhile, I've got to get my ass in gear and start collecting boxes for packing. I need to start cleaning up the office and the closet in the back. I'll probably start doing this after I have my little soiree tomorrow. I'll also need to start doing address changes for things like magazines. I'll also need to contact the utilities and services too. Hm.. I should probably put together a checklist of things that need to be done.

Two and a half hours

This might as well have been this morning's presentation I had to sit through.


Actually, this Chicken presentation is more entertaining.

Sniffle, Sniffle, Cough, Cough

I do feel a bit better today actually. Well enough that I made it into work today. Not that I really have a whole lot to do at the moment. It's been rather slow lately.

I hate having colds because it makes be all gross and icky. My nose gets all congested and snotty. I blow my nose so much that it's all red and irritated. I hate this about colds.

I guess I will pick up some groceries tonight after work. I might pick up a rotisserie chicken while I'm at the supermarket. I don't quite have the energy to really do much cooking. I'll probably have the chicken with some soup. That should be good.

Yeah, I know. It's a pretty boring blog entry. I know I'm usually brimming with excitement. :-p

In just over 2 weeks from now I will be flying to San Francisco. I'm going to meet up with my friend J. Not sure how much trouble 2 girls can get into in SF, but I guess we'll soon find out. While I'm out there, I'm also going to catch Matthew Good there. J got tickets for his show at Cafe du Nord. It should be good. :-)

Politics

When I'm sick, I really don't feel like doing much. Would you? So here I sit, perusing the web and checking out what's interesting, I came across this video on Tony Pierce's blog. I thought it was quite interesting.


As a result of some hype over this interview, Derrick Ashong filmed this as a follow-up. Rather impressive.

Just couldn't avoid it

I have a cold. :-p

It started with a little bit of sniffling yesterday. Then the string of sneezes started. For me, this usually meant the beginning of a cold. After I got home from work I started on the ColdFX regimen to fight the cold. I drank a crap load of water. I kept a box of tissues nearby. A bit before going to bed, I had a slight headache, so I took a Tylenol for that.

We'll see how this cold progresses this weekend. :p

Oh yeah.. Dry throat woke me up around 4. Cat saw that I was up and demanded to be fed. I'm going back to bed soon. :p

Helping

Not entirely sure how to interpret this one. However, it seems somewhat sad.

Tuesday - Frigid Temps

The wind chill yesterday was pretty bad. Today not as bad, but it was still pretty cold. I think we've been spoiled with the on again, off again mild temps. We're getting fairly normal winter weather right now. They're currently forecasting about 5cm of the white stuff overnight and another 5cm tomorrow. Yay?

Kinda quiet at work. Occasionally there's a few little things to work on, but not a heck of a whole lot. I hope things pick up a bit soon.

I need to get my workout back on track again. Tonight I plan on going to my cardio class again. I missed all last week due to the aforementioned "internal" issues. I think for the most part the issue has been rectified. Now I need to get back in shape. :-p

In less than 2 months I will be moving into a new home with a new mortgage. This should prove to be an interesting endeavor. It will be the first time in over 6 years that I will be living in and owning a house. Condo living is similar to apartment living in my opinion.

Anyway, I need to collect some boxes for packing.

Some days...

I just feel like I am falling apart or something. Maybe it has something to do with this thing called getting old. Well, I think it sucks! :p

I'm feeling a bit better after taking a dose of Immodium Thursday morning. Now I'm just waiting for things to "regulate" themselves. :-p

In 26 days I will be flying off to San Francisco. Yup. On March 6th, I am flying to San Francisco to hang out with a friend and catch Matthew Good perform at the Cafe du Nord. I've never been to SF, so this ought to be fun and interesting. I haven't decided what camera to bring with me. I might just bring both for the sake of convenience. I'll just bring my backpack and small carry-on sized luggage.

Aside from that I've decided to do some baking this weekend. I haven't done that in a long while and I felt a need to. Well, I did make a banana bread the other week, but that's easy stuff. I made some almond biscotti yesterday as I was making some pasta sauce. The almond biscotti could have been shaped and sliced better, but they still taste good. Today, I'll probably make some oatmeal cookies. I *might* make either chocolate chip cookies or the lemon poppyseed cake. Yum! I haven't made the cake in a long while. I might do that.

I guess that means I should get off my arse, go shower and head off to the supermarket for a few things. :p

Ugh!

I have no idea what caused it. I just wish it would go away!

Yesterday morning, after I got to work, I just wasn't feeling very well. My stomach felt very heavy and I was pretty tired. So at some point during the morning, I decided to go home. It was a good thing I did.

After I had kinda slept for a little bit, I was having to make frequent trips the bathroom. Ugh! I felt wretched. I have no idea if it was something I ate or if it was a bug that was causing this. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I did not much of anything other than drink water all day.

This morning, I felt well enough to go in to work and get some stuff done. Not 100% better, but it was better than yesterday. :p

I hope this Maalox helps. :p

Forgetting

I think I torture myself with XKCD at times. However, I feel that I can relate to some of the stuff he puts up. Geeky romantic.

Insert Witty Title Here

Friday was pretty boring. Work was kinda boring. Some people decided to work from home due to the impending snow storm yesterday. My team leader was one of them. I kinda figure he would do that anyway especially since it was a Friday. I managed to find a few things to do. I think I left work around 3:15PM in an attempt to bet traffic. I think it took me about 20 minutes to get home. That wasn't bad. At that time the ice pellets started. The rest of the evening I heard the sound of ice pellets being blown against my windows.

I watched the movie Once last night. It was actually a pretty good movie. It's done a little bit differently. The storyline is not too heavy or overly complicated. I didn't realize until a read a little bit about the movie is that the lead actor is from the Irish group The Frames. Some of the music in the movie is quite nice. I would recommend this movie if you like good music.

Lately, I've been listening to some Damien Rice. I also recently discovered Ani DiFranco. Although I have seen her name in passing a number of times, I never got around to actually listening to her stuff. It's not bad really. I've also recently been listening to Imogen Heap and some Metric.

Today, nothing too heavy. I braved the snowy terrain and went to my cardio workout. The conditions were granular snow with an icy base. Because of the snow, it made for a more strenuous workout. I had to slow down a bit towards the end. Otherwise, I guess I'm happy I made it out there.

A sort of lazy afternoon. I tried to work on my online course. I think I need to read up on some stuff before I attempt the exercise and quiz.

Thursday

I ended up sleeping with my iPod on. I slept with the earbuds in my ears. Surprisingly I did manage to fall asleep towards the end of the Snow Patrol album. At some point during the night I woke up listening to some Damien Rice. Since it was only 3:30AM, I went back to sleep. Since the winds had died down at that point, I took the earbuds out.

What is this world coming to? In the past 24 hours, there have been reports of some child deaths or abandonment. The saddest was the case of two little girls in a First Nations community in Saskatchewan. It's huge tragedy for a small community.

Next there is the case of an 8-month old left in a cold stairwell of a shopping plaza near Toronto. From the description given of the child, the poor thing might have been beaten and left to die in the cold. Thankfully, some passersby heard her cries and got help.

There was also the case of 2 kids left in the car seats for over an hour in Calgary. The region is currently suffering from severe cold and windchill. The mother came back to the vehicle after having taken a 3rd child to the doctors. I mean, WTF? Why did she leave the other 2 kids in the car, unattended, in extremely cold weather?

I don't think it's unusual to hear about stuff like this during the winter months. What I find unusual is how many stories just popped up in such a short time span. The weather across the country in recent days has been pretty bad. An ice storm has knocked power out to half of PEI. The weather front that swept through this region brought high winds and plummeting temperatures. We're expecting almost a foot of snow tomorrow. :-p

Is Spring here yet?

It's 4:53AM

I think I have a few hangups and anxieties I need to address at some point. One of these is that I have as of late developed a dislike for very windy weather. I have no idea where the anxiety over this kind of weather developed. It's never really bothered me much before. Take yesterday for example. Almost as soon as I have found out that the weather today will involved wind gusts of up to 80 kph, I started to feel anxious. Of course this feeling of anxiety does not help my blood pressure. I had to consciously breathe deeply to try to calm my racing heart. I did a quick check of my BP yesterday before I took a very short nap before going to my cardio workout. I was sitting around 126/80. Not terribly high.

Anyway...

Recently, there's been some drama in the area. One of the guys I know at work who lives in the neighborhood with his wife attempted to take his own life by downing a handful of pills. Now, there's a bit more to this than a suicide attempt. Apparently, things have been building up in recent months (maybe in the past year even). I know that hes been hinting at divorce for a while. Why he hadn't gone through with it, I don't know. I think there are also some factors involved in this whole episode that might have led to this as well. Bottom line, things just came to a head and got ugly late Friday night/early Saturday morning.

Apparently, there had been times when he got pretty violent and punched holes in the walls of the apartment. He even broke an ironing board in half and used a piece of the metal to try to hurt himself. More recently, he killed their pet turtle and said something to his wife to the effect that she was next.

So after he took the pills, his wife called 911. He was taken to the hospital. I think the police stayed with her for a while. The police car was still in front of their building when I went to my cardio class Saturday morning. I spoke to a friend who's friends with the wife and had been in touch with her. The wife will be staying with friends. A restraining order has been issued against the husband. When the husband is discharged from the hospital, he will be charged with domestic assault.

So why am I writing all this? I just want to get it off my chest I guess. I don't think anyone from work knows I have this blog. If they did, they'd think I was a major head case for some of the things I've babbled on about. I guess another reason I wanted to write this is to also point out the fact that the husband is not a big brute. On the contrary. He's about my height and size. He's not a big guy at all. Some might even consider him slight. I guess this is to dis-spell any image that violent men tend to be these big, ugly ape of a man.

A factor that I think is involved in all this is the fact that the husband's family never took to his wife. He's of Ukrainian descent. She's Mexican. His late father mistreated her one time by grabbing both her arms and shaking her. He left bruises on her arms. The husband does not show any backbone. Why didn't he defend his wife? Since his father's death last year, I think his mother may have been harping on him still about his wife. I believe that this is part of what's been building up.

Anyway, it does leave me with some questions as to why he did what he did to end up in this situation...

I think I'll go shower now and get an early start to the day.

It's now 5:13AM.

Vancouver Blog Wars

Now, some of you know I frequent Matthew Good's website. As a result, you get to know about certain people of that world and that community. One of these people is Duane Storey. He's a rather unassuming fellow, but I find him interesting nonetheless. Interesting enough that I check out his blog from time to time. For a bit more explanation about the Blog Wars, kindly head over to his site (link over on the right there).

Thursday

Yeah, so I was feeling a bit down last night. I find that I've been getting this way everyone once in a while. It never lasts for more than a day or so. I suspect that I tend to get this way when I start to think about certain things. There's no real logic behind it all. Anyway...

Monday evening, it looks like I've finally sold my condo. It was rather interesting in how it all transpired. Let's see if I can summarize this simply.

• Visit by prospective buyer A last Wednesday.
• Offer made by buyer A on Friday but with condition of 2nd visit with father.
• Delay in answering offer until after 2nd visit scheduled for Sunday.
• Counter-offer made Sunday soon after 2nd visit.
• Delay in answering counter-offer until buyer A discussed it with parents.
• Counter to counter-offer made Monday mid-day. Will wait until after work to accept counter.
  
• Hour or so later, call from agent that there is another client interested in property. Very motivied.
• Visit by buyer B. Does the usual tour. Talks with agent. Discussed with wife.
• Offer made by buyer B for more than the counter-offer from buyer A.
• Offer by buyer B accepted. Mortgage approval pending.

So there you have it. I tried to summarize the whole thing as best as possible. Now i have a shopping list of documents and things to do that my agent emailed me. I've managed to locate most of the documents. I still need to get one document from the surveyor which I have to pay for. It seems that when I bought my place they were too lazy to order a certified copy of the certificate of location from the surveyor. Oh well. :-p

Tuesday, I was a bit tired. I was probably still a bit excited over the fact that my place finally sold. In any case, having a cat that wakes you up around 4:45AM does not help either. I will have to either start going to be earlier or try to sleep in more on weekends to catch up. Either way, I think the cloudy days do not help matters much either.

Yesterday was a bit better until I started to feel down in the evening. I had made a crockpot full of chili last night. It was quite tasty. I could have given it a bit more kick if I had remembered to get a small tin of jalapeno peppers. No matter. It was fine the way it was. So now I have lunch and dinner for the next couple of days.

Something that has been getting to me is the fact that I have started to spend a bit more time on Second Life. One thing that I keep reminding myself is to not to let something like SL take over all of my spare time. There are still things that I would like to get done. I have to constantly remind myself that I need to do this or that. So far it hasn't gotten to the point of total addiction or obsession. At least not yet. I hope someone out there who knows me can occasionally keep an eye out. :)

The weekend is quickly approaching. Chinese new year is coming up soon. I'm contemplating making something, but I would definitely need to plan it out a bit. Maybe I'll go to the Hash this Sunday. I haven't gone since the one before New Year's. We'll see.

Some days...

I just feel a bit bummed out. For whatever reason I find myself in a bit of a funk. I guess i'll just head off to bed and sleep it off.

Oooooh! That's purdy!

This is purdy. I'd like one. But I've already got a regular iPod and an iPod nano. Oh well.

Sibel Edwards

Copied from matthewgood.org:

Sibel Edmonds: Kill The Messenger

Click here to watch the documentary “Kill The Messenger” about the Sibel Edmonds affair. I highly recommend that you find some time today, or over the next few days, to watch this crucial film. The information provided in it is extremely important, so if you have a blog, or an email list that you use to send group emails to friends, please help spread the link.

More on the documentary here.

M.L.K.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day in the States. Matthew Good posted this on this site.

Accidental Cougar

I came across this article today. I thought it was interesting...

To Be Wanted

Saturday

Well, I was presented with an offer by the client who visited Wednesday evening. However, she wants a second visit with her Dad. My agent, wanting to avoid the same scenario as last weekend (and I don't blame her), suggested that we respond to the offer only after they've had their 2nd visit. So the girl will be visiting again Sunday afternoon with her Dad. I hope it turns out well.

Meanwhile, I started up the outdoor cardio workouts again. Tuesday was the first class. It wasn't too bad. However, a day or two later I started to feel it in my abs. I guess I just haven't been doing any crunches in a while. :-p But all in all it was a good workout.

Wednesday, before the visit that evening, I went for a massage. This was the first time that I have ever had a massage. The clinic that I go to for my annual physical and now my physiotherapy for my elbow has a massage-therapist. I figure, why not? So I made the appointment last week. It wasn't bad at all. I knew there'd be some knots in my back. She found them and really worked on them. Ouch! She warned me that I might feel a little sore the next day or two. I think I might go back for another session in a few weeks.

Today, I didn't do too much. I went to the morning cardio class. It was a good workout. It also showed how out of shape I was after just 2.5 months of not working out. I think my heart rate was hitting 170. I tried to pace myself, that's for sure. I think I was starting to lose some steam towards the end. It felt good though.

On the way home from cardio, I stopped by Future Shop to check out some CDs. I was looking for something in particular, but I really should have known better than to expect FS to carry it. In any case, they had some CDs that were marked 3 fo $25. I found 3 that looked interesting and got those. Afterwards, I went over to Bureau en Gros to get calendar refills for my Dayrunner. Yes. I know. It's almost the end of the month. :-p

Anyway, I'm going to make some miso soup with udon noodles tonight. :-)

Catch up

Okay. This will be my Clif Notes version of the week that was.

Saturday-Sunday: Had a total of 4 visits to the place.
Monday: Quiet
Tuesday: Visit scheduled but client was late.
Wednesday: One visit
Thursday: One Visit
Friday: Offer made by woman who visited Saturday. Counter-offer was made and sent to agent next morning.
Saturday: One visit. The agent tried to get some info out of me about the offer. My counter-offer was countered.
Sunday: Counter to the counter was made and delivered. Buyer requested another visit. After visit, the counter was refused. Why? Because she didn't think her bedroom set would fit. O.o

When she came over to look at the place again she seemed to be fixated on her bedroom set and whether it would fit in either the smaller bedroom or the mezzanine. She had a female relative with her who kept giving her alternatives to doing things. In the end, when my agent called her agent to find out what was happening, she decided not to buy because she didn't think her bedroom set would fit. My agent said that she was not a serious buyer and that she wasted our time with all the negotiations. In her 20 plus years in the real estate business she's never seen this happen.

In any case, I had a visit Tuesday evening and last night. I have another one this evening. The couple from last night seem very interested and might make an appt to come over the weekend with her Dad. I remember they were talking about the possibility of putting up a wall on the mezzanine to make a more closed off bedroom area. Anyway, we'll see!

I have another visit tonight...

Yeah, I suck. :-p

I haven't made an entry since last week. I think quite a bit has been happening as of late. I will try to make a more significant update here later today. Maybe.

Resolutions Redux

I suck at keeping resolutions. :-p

I finally pulled myself away from the glowing monitor at about 11PM last night. I was having a pleasant conversation with someone from the matthewgood.org community. Ultimately, I really did not get too much of anything else done. *sigh*

Let's see if I can get it right tonight this time. :p

Resolutions (con't)

3) I resolve to complete my O'Reilly Online courses. I managed to complete 1 of 4 courses. I am about 78% done with 2nd one. I haven't quite figured out why kinda let it slide. :p

In general, I think I suck at keeping resolutions. Last night, instead of getting away from this damn computer at 8, I stayed on until a bit after 10. Well, okay, so I was busy uploading some holiday pics to Flickr. Still...

:-p

And, it's just friggin' COLD out there today!!!

Resolutions

Since some people I know have decided to publish their resolutions for this year, I've given it some further thought as to what resolutions I should make myself. Normally, I don't make resolutions. This time around, I think I need to in order to get some things under control in my life.

1) I will resolve to limit my time in front of the computer at home in the evenings. As I am not planning on taking a course this winter term, there's no real productive need to sit in front of this damn thing from the time I get home until it's time for bed. Yes, folks. This is the sad life I lead some days. Therefore, I have decided that unless I do have something I need to do, I will limit my internet social time to 8PM.

2) I will resolve to read more. I have a number of books I have picked up in the past year and have not gotten around to reading. There are a couple that I have started and have not finished. I used to love to read and I feel that I should get back into reading more. I have a number of books both fiction and non-fiction just waiting to have their spines cracked open.

-- To be continued if I can think of any other resolutions I feel I should make...

Someone was bored...

Someone stomped out DUBS in the snow...

New Year's Day

Well, after being awoken by a certain feline at 5AM demanding to be fed, I went back to bed and didn't get up again until about 11AM. Ooof! Boy! Did I sleep in this time! I think I might have slept too much. I still feel a bit tired. :p

Another year has come and gone. Now is the start of another year. Some people take this as an opportunity to start fresh. To start anew. At times I just see it as another date on the calendar. I guess New Year's Day is more symbolic than anything.

Today I woke up to the sight of more falling snow. The expected accumulation this time around will be 15-20 cm. Oh yay. Yesterday, I had thought about maybe going to a movie, but I really don't know if I'd want to drive through this. It's not that the theatre is that far, but I'm probably just being a bit lazy about it. That and the fact that I don't like the idea of going to a movie alone. It's rather depressing.


Last night I made this yummy udon noodle stir-fry. It's the first time I used fresh udon noodles for such a dish. I had a few things in the fridge to use in the dish as well as the greens I picked up when I bought the noodles. Yummy. This will be added to my repertoire of dishes.

Remember kids...

Responsible behavior this holiday season or this could happen to you!

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

I suppose I won't be the only one to write a blog entry on the last day of the year. I guess it's a question of what do people tend to write? I would think that a lot of people will create lists of what was good or bad for the year 2007. Some will probably write some retrospect of the year and what they look forward to in the new year. I guess it's really hard to come up with something more original for the last entry of the year.

I will say that again, this year, I will end it at home on my own. I don't think it's a huge deal. Sometimes it's better to spend some quiet time while others are whooping it up somewhere. I guess I just don't have the energy or motivation to whoop it up. That's not to say I'm depressed or anything. But I won't lie and say that I'm just all peaches and cream about the whole situation.

I have also become more aware about how selfish it is sometimes to think about yourself when there are others who are in worse situations than my own. Knowing this, I think it helps to lessen the impact of whatever I happen to be going through. I guess you could say it's a sort of philosophy I've slowly started to take up. That doesn't mean I will give up all my worldly possessions and go off to work in some third world country. I will, however, lend a hand or ear to those who need it most. I find that it's friends like this that are more valued than anything else. At least, this is what I believe.

Anyway, I think I will Wii my way into the New Year.

So to the handful of regular readers, I wish you all a Happy New Year. :-)

Holiday Blahs

I don't know what it is about this time of year. Is it because I'm spending it "alone" that I feel kinda "blah"? I just feel kind of bummed out today.

This past week seems to have gone by rather quickly...

Monday, I went into town (Boston) with my brother just to poke around. Incredibly we found on-street, metered parking. The traffic in was not bad at all.

I really didn't have anything I needed to buy. I did end up getting two CDs at Newbury Comics. I checked out a couple of clothing stores, but really didn't see anything that appealed to me. I guess I'm rather fussy about clothing. :p

Tuesday was Christmas. The carnage that was the opening of gifts started upstairs with all the gifts for the twins. I think they got way too many toys. I don't know how my sister deals with all of it. Then the carnage moved downstairs for the adults. My sister got the new iPod nano from me and bro. Bro got a USB turntable from sis and me. I got the Nintendo Wii from sis and bro. Parents got cash. Bro-in-law got some gift cards.

Wednesday was calmer. Bro and I went by the mall just to check out a couple of things plus find me a bag to carry the Wii back in. I didn't want to haul it back in its box. :p That would have been too obvious at Customs. Found one that I liked at the Best Buy. It was black with pink. Got home and chilled before it was time to head out to the airport.

I had MSN'd with a friend earlier and he mentioned that a bunch of them were going out for dinner that evening. He asked if I wanted to join. I figured, why not? While at the airport, he text the directions and tried to confirm attendance. I said I had a couple things to do once I got back. He offered to pick me up at the airport. I said, cool!

I got home, took care of a little "mess" that BS made on the bed and quickly freshened up before heading out to dinner. The restaurant is a Portuguese one out in the east end near St. Leonard. It was meat, meat and more meat, with some seafood thrown in for good measure.

After dinner, we went to Rockaberry for dessert. We had fun talking about some silly stuff. To cap it off, we went to Cafe Milano for a late evening latte. It was a pleasant evening spent with some friends.

Thursday, I didn't do too much. I had physio in the morning, so I had to get up for that. Did some quick grocery shopping afterwards. Threw a load of laundry in. Chilled the rest of the day before deciding to hook up the Wii. I think I played Wii Sports for about an hour that evening. It was fun. :-)

Yesterday, I wanted to head over to the mall. I was chatting with Abe when I mentioned it. He said he was stuck at home with no car. I offered to rescue him and go to the mall. I wanted to check out the Wii games at EB Games. I found a couple: Elebits and Super Mario Galaxy. Abe inquired into the price of the PS3. He called his brother to find out about some technical aspects of it. We walked around the mall some more. I picked up 2 DVDs at HMV. I found a baselayer at Sports Expert. Then Abe decided to go back to EB Games. He ended up buying the 40Gb PS3. Sucka!!! ;-)

Last night, there was a potluck dinner at a couple's place. They don't live too far from me. I decided to keep it simple and get some cheese and crackers. It ended up being 6 of us in all. Not bad. There was enough food for everyone. I told Yan I needed to give her some cooking lessons. After we had some food and talked for a bit, we all played some poker. I've never really played poker before so we played a couple of "dry runs". After that, the real game began. No money was involved, so it was all good. In the end, of the 6 of us, I finished 3rd, which really wasn't bad.

Today, I woke up after 4 hours of sleep. I feel a bit blah. :p I think I'm going out for some sushi tonight with Abe. Maybe a movie later. I dunno...

Bah-ston

No, I don't really have a Boston accent. Occasionally, I might slip and pronounce a few words in a certain way. My sister has more the accent than I do.

Yeah, so I am back in Boston for Christmas. I flew in yesterday. I think I spent more time on the tarmac or taxiing on the runway than I did in the air. The flight itself was about 45 minutes. Before we pulled away from the gate, they had to pretty much shut down the plane to reset the system because something was a bit wonky. Then it was taxiing, taxiing, taxiing around before we got to the runway we were to take off from. Once we landed at Logan it was more taxiing. :p Sooo.. Instead of getting to the gate by 8PM, we got there around 8:30.

Today, I didn't do tooooo much. The family plus my aunt and cousins went out for dimsum for lunch. It wasn't too bad. Of course, just having returned from Hong Kong not too long ago, my Mom was making comparisons. Oh well. I guess my Mom just has to have something to complain about. In general, the dim sum at this place in Saugus on Route 1 is not bad. I really can't remember the name of the place. It's where Weylu's used to be many years ago on top of a hill.

After dim sum, Mom, bro and I went over to Square One Shopping center. Ack! I braced myself with last minute shoppers. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought. There was a line up for the kids to have their picture taken with Santa. Otherwise, the crowds weren't that bad. I went to Filene's Basement and found myself a Kenneth Cole down jacket. It was on sale for 25% the ticketed price. So I paid a grand total of $59.99. That's not bad! Then we strolled around a bit. Mom had gone off on her own and called my brother to tell him that she walked over to the Kmart. We continued to walk around a little bit more before we headed out to pick up Mom by the Kmart.

This evening, we went out to Not Your Average Joe's for dinner. Mom's birthday was Thursday, so we went out tonight to celebrate. I had their Thai Chicken and Shrimp. It wasn't bad. I also tried their Peanut Butter Thing for dessert. Oof! I think in the end, I just ate too much! :p I don't think I will be having much breakfast tomorrow.
_________________________________

Catching up.... Since Tuesday....

Okay, so there was a Vegas Night party at work on Wednesday. It was held at the Science Center by the Old Port. They had blackjack tables, poker tables, Roulette, craps and roving magicians. There was also a live band playing in a room not far from where the casino was. The food was pretty good. They were serving some yummy canapes before the buffet opened. There were many gifts to be won. Alas, I didn't win anything. Yet, I didn't lose anything either. We were all given tickets to exchange for $1500 worth of chips. I played some blackjack before it was time to go home. I had a good time, so I guess it was a good thing I decided to go.

The viewing of the condo by the couple who cancelled Tuesday had to cancel again because the poor woman who is pregnant was bleeding. Oh well. and it seems that the couple who did come to view the place are going to put an offer on the other condo instead. :p

Thursday was not too exciting. I had my first appointment with a physical therapist about my elbow. She did a full evaluation to make sure that there wasn't something else amiss. In the end, she confirmed that it was tennis elbow. :p She showed me a few exercises and stretches that I should do. Next appointment is on the 27th in the morning.

Friday, well.. I managed to finish what I needed to get done at work not long after lunch. After that it was a bit of slacking off. I shot the shit with some coworkers. There was a bottle of good port open, but I didn't have any. Apparently, there was a bottle of wine opened somewhere else. Another person mentioned that a manager had a whole bar set up in his office. Yes, it's more or less the last real working day before the holidays. Technically, Monday is still a work day, but I don't think too many people will be in. I'm in Boston, so obviously, I won't be in. :D

Oh! Today I did receive an email from the real estate agent. There might be a viewing either Thursday or Friday. She'll confirm the date and time as soon as she gets the info. I hope I have a chance to tidy up the place some more and maybe declutter a bit more. *sigh* I might have to do something about the cats as well. I dunno what, but... I guess we'll see.

Tomorrow, my brother will only be working until noon. We're planing on heading into town for a bit. We'll probably get off by Back Bay Station. I like hanging out in the area by the Pru and Newbury St. Let's see what kind of trouble I will find there. :p

I'm Exhausted!

I've been working almost non-stop prepping my place for its first viewing. The agent just came by to pick up a set of keys for any weekday visits. Her client that was originally suppose to come by Sunday but was postponed to tonight due to the snow storm had to cancel tonight because she thinks she's about to have her baby. However! The second visit scheduled for tonight is still on and will probably be moved up to 8PM.

*GASP* *PANT* I'm tired! My shoulders and muscles are a bit sore from hauling stuff, carrying stuff, packing stuff most of the weekend.

I'm taking a bit of a breather right now before I do some more picking up. The potential buyer coming tonight is the niece of another agent. I think she just got married so they want a place of their own. My agent will try to convince and push the other agent into making a serious offer on my place. It's in their price range. So we shall see.

If I have any energy left I'll post an update later.

Meanwhile, the place I'm buying was inspected this afternoon. No major problems there. Just a few small things. The guy has inspected many similar townhouses in the area so he's familiar with the construction. Anyway...

*BREATHE*

Uhm..

I'm not sure what to say...

Do chocolate bunnies and disturbing mix?

Trip Photos

Oh! In case you haven't heard, the gazillion shots I took on the trip are up on my Flickr. I managed to edit it down to about 550 shots. :D

Monday Evening

I am very tired. I guess I am somewhat exhausted. The other night while I was having some late supper, my eyes started to close on me. I think my body just wanted to shut down.

I guess I've been tying to do so much this past weekend that I have not given myself sufficient downtime to recover. Since there was this snow storm on Sunday and the viewing postponed to Tuesday, I ended up napping all afternoon. I think I really needed it.

The place is just about ready for viewing. I think I've done all I can for the backroom at this time. I need to put away a few things before tomorrow evening. I've already taken out some of the garbage. I'll probably have to put away the boxes for packing in the garage. I managed to do some mopping tonight. I'll probably run the vacuum over the rugs tomorrow.

*SIGH* So much to do to show the place and impress people.

Okay, I'm pretty tired so I think I will go to bed now.

Friday - Update

I must apologize for not having written sooner. It's just been one rather busy week. Busy in the sense that I just didn't have a chance to sit down and write an entry here. So where to start?

I guess I will start where I left off, more or less.

Tuesday: I don't really remember much about Tuesday. I did send an email to a real estate agent about selling my place and making an offer on another. She emailed back and said that we'd meet Wednesday evening. In the afternoon, there was a beer and pizza thing for the department. That was dinner for the day!

Wednesday: Today, we had our group outing. We decided to go curling again this year. Since I had volunteered to be designated driver for 2 of the guys who live near me, we left directly from my place to the curling rink. We curled for 2 hours before making our way to Portovino for the department holiday lunch. As it's happened at past holiday lunches, there were the odd dozen of us who stick around to the bitter end. This year, I think we started to leave around 6:30PM. We all made sure that everything was able to get home one way or another. One of my charges was quite out of it, but we managed to get him into my car and safely home.

That evening, I had my meeting with the agent. We first did the paperwork to list my place for sale. As for the asking price, we agreed that if I wanted it to sell fairly quickly, I should price it close to what similar condos have sold recently. In essence, mine will be priced below most of the other mezzanine condos. Then we wrote up the offer on the townhouse. After doing some thinking, I had decided to go for my ex manager's townhouse instead of the one that required a lot of work. Do I really want the headache of renovation?? Anyway, we discussed price. The agent suggested a starting figure to which I agreed. So the offer was written up. Considering it was getting late in the evening, she'd present the offer the next day.

Thursday: The offer was made and countered. I came home to find the for sale sign on front of the building. Whoah. Things are moving along pretty quickly. The agent came by after work to go over the counter offer. We discussed it. I think it was a fair counter-offer. I toyed with the idea of countering it with something silly, but I decided against it. :) The agent had also mentioned in the email she sent in the afternoon that she's scheduled a viewing for Sunday at 1PM! Apparently a couple was interested in checking out one of her listings. She told them about my place. So now they will get to see my place before the other one! :-o They seem pretty serious about wanting to buy a condo. So I hope all the de-cluttering and stuff will help sway them to make an offer. :)

Right now, my place is a bit of a disaster. Today, I also had to call about the certificate of location. I need to make an appointment for a home inspection. I also needed to get mortgage approval for the house. *sigh* I'm feeling a bit wiped. :p

Save our environment!

I received this from Avaaz.org:

Right now, a major UN summit in Bali has just a few days left to hammer out an agreement on stopping catastrophic climate change. But instead of helping out, Canada is actually sabotaging the UN talks! On Saturday, experts gave us the global "fossil" award for being the worst country in the world on climate change.

There's still a few days left to save Canada's reputation -- and the climate -- but we need a massive democratic roar to remind our Prime Minister what Canada is all about, and stop him from blocking the world at Bali. Click below to sign the petition and we'll advertize the number of signatures we get in an ad campaign across Canada this week. Our goal is to get 25,000 people to sign in just 3 days before the ads run. Click below, then forward this email to all your friends and family right away:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/another_canadian_climate_crime/4.php

Enough is enough. Prime Minister Harper's short-sighted, undemocratic and big oil-driven policy on climate change is damaging the world and destroying our image as a good country. We're supposed to be the nice guys, who try to do the right thing in the world.

The vast majority of Canadians are hopping mad on this issue -- we can win this. We just need to show Harper how serious we are that he change course. Sign up now and forward this email to everyone you know - we've got just 3 days to hit 25,000 signatures!

Do your part and sign the petition!

Schmap

This is kinda neat. It seems that a shot I took of Spouting Horn in Kauai got shortlisted for the next edition of Schmap Kauai Guide.

Home Again

Well, I've been back from my trip a couple of days now. It almost feels like I never left home. I don't know why that is. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It just feels a bit weird. I mean, just last week, I was in Tokyo planning my day trip to Nikko. I guess it's back to some sense of normalcy.

Something about this

It just gives me the warm fuzzies. *sigh*

Now I'm depressed. :p

Gate C85

I am such a keener. Or maybe I'm just a bit anal about stuff like this.

I got up at 4AM this morning to get read to head off to the airport. My flight is at 8:22AM. I got to the airport a little after 6AM. There was hardly a line-up for United. There was almost no line going through US Customs. I got to my gate before 7AM. And this is after making a stop to get plug adapters. I'm miffed I couldn't find the missing plugs for the adapter set I already had. So I ended spending $40 plus tax for another set. Bleah.

It's a sunny morning. There's a bit of a strong wind. I suspect the take off might be a little bit rough as a result. It's an Embraer jet, so I'm sure it will be slightly rough getting out.

Anyway, from this point on I will be updating my trip blog. Hopefully, I will be able to upload a few pictures there along the way. :-)

Sometimes it's a matter of principle

Since I got the Nikon P5000, I would like to sell the ol' Sony DSC-W1. It's a pretty decent camera. It's performed rather well for me. So I posted it on the forsale bulletin board at work. This is what I got. Names removed to protect the stupid.

______________________________________________
From: E
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 4:11 PM
To: F
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

I'll bring it in, but there is a huge difference in the quality of the product. If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest you go check out that Kodak and handle it. Kodak has yet to produce a standout product. So you really can't compare.

BTW, you might want to refresh that page. It says there are 0 left of that model.

There's very little room to negotiate on the price. Sorry. And I'm not in any hurry to sell either.

_____________________________________________
From: F
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 3:50 PM
To: E
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Hi E,

Well then if you ask Future Shop, they will align their price, and it's still available on line at Best Buy as far as I can tell.
But it's not the point. I'm not in a hurry, and this is for my step sister, who's still a student… I'll have to ask. Any negotiation margin would be a must here.

Still, I'd like to have a look tomorrow if don't mind.
Best regards,

F
_____________________________________________
From: E
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 3:33 PM
To: F
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

The Sony also has more manual options. Another reason it's heavier is because it has a sturdier body, not plastic.

If you do further research, the Kodak you referenced is considered a "budget" digital camera with fewer features than the Sony.

Sorry to be blunt, but if you want to pay the same price as the Kodak, then why not buy that model instead? I checked and the Kodak is sold out at Best Buy at $79.97. The Kodak is sold at Future Shop for $179.99. And that's just for the camera and alkaline batteries. So I think $150 is a fair price.

_____________________________________________
From: F
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:57 PM
To: E
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Well it has a better LCD and focus range, but it's heavier and has less ISO choices, and it's probably out of warranty… for the rest it looks pretty similar.
I'll buy it for a 100$, maybe more but I'll have to discuss it at home.

How much are you comfortable to negotiate?

F

____________________________________________
From: E
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:44 PM
To: F
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

The Sony DSC-W1 is a better camera overall.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=kodak_c533%2Csony_dscw1&show=all

What were you thinking of offering?

//E

_____________________________________________
From: F
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 1:45 PM
To: E
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Why not.

Is it negotiable?

This 5MP camera + bag + 2Gb + tax, is available at best buy for less than 150$:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Kodak/kodak_c533.asp

F


_____________________________________________
From: E
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:19 PM
To: F
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Hi F,

Yes it is. Would you like me to bring it in tomorrow?

_____________________________________________
From: F
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:15 PM
To: E
Subject: RE: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

Hi,

I could be interested.

Is it still available?

_____________________________________________
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 2:14 PM
Posted To: For Sale
Subject: Sony DSC-W1 5.1MP Digital Camera

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Sony/sony_dscw1.asp (photo is of a black one, this one is silver)

Works perfectly fine. Comes with 2 rechargable AA batteries and charger, USB cable, software.

Will throw in 1Gb and 512Mb Memory Sticks and Lowepro carrying pouch.

All for $150.

Tuesday morning

I think my blog is boring. It tends to be full of mundane, everyday stuff. Very seldom is it really exciting or thought provoking. I guess this blog really is more of an outlet for my emotional being. In other words, it's a bit of a selfish outlet. This is, in a sense, my semi-public diary. I air my thoughts and concerns about my life. To avoid breaching other people's privacy, I avoid talking about people who are close to me. Besides, if friends have confided in me something, I'm not about to divulge it here.

Anyway...

I will be working from home today. I'm not 100% sure if this guy will be able to come by to clean the dryer ducts. I suspect one of those European sparrows that proliferate the area built a nest in there while I was away in May. So now the dryer duct is blocked which means my clothes won't dry. I've been air drying my clothes for a couple of months now. I think it's about time I get to use my dryer again.

I suppose I could take advantage of today to get a few things done around the place. Clean up a bit. Start to pack a few things. Get some papers in order. Run a few errands as well. Hopefully, I will be able to pick up the heater for the home office. It's one of these wall-mounted convection heaters. The thermostat went on it. The part itself costs about $38. Throw in labor and the total cost is $118. Ouch. If the dryer duct guy comes, I'm looking at potentially $250 minimum for that job. *sigh* Just can't win. :p

Oh, throw on top of that the amount I will be paying for pet sitting while I am away. Usually, a friend who lives down the street from me would be able to to it. However, he will also be on vacation during the same time I will. I've asked around to see who might be able to help out. There was one guy at work I asked who lives nearby. However, he's been wishy washy about giving me an answer. Screw that. I ended up asking at the vet clinic when I went to pick up some catfood for BS. They didn't (or won't) recommend any pet sitters but could recommend boarding facilities. However, considering BS's mental state when he's taken away from home, that was not an ideal option. But, the clinic did say they could provide the service of having a vet tech come by to take care of the cats. The cost they quoted me was about $49/day. Ouch! That was at least twice what some of the pet sitters were asking for. After I got home, I saw that there was a message from the vet clinic. It seems that after discussing this with the vet and considering that I have been a long time client, they wanted to offer the services for $650 (plus tax, of course). This comes out to about $30/day. Not cheap, but it is better. I suppose the one pro to this is that it would be a vet tech coming to take care of the cats instead of an animal lover. Not that I don't trust them, but it's just an added peace of mind. Bottom line, I don't have to take the cats away from the comforts of home.

That being said, money matters have been stressing me. It just seems that when it rains it pours. The unexpected expenses and such just drive me nuts at times. On top of all that, I have this trip coming up as well. I really have to keep an eye on any spending that I do while I am out there. :p If I plunk down any significant coin on anything, it had better be pretty damn special!

Meanwhile, I think I've managed to get most of my travel papers in order. I got my passport back last week with the tourist visa for China. That was another expense. They just had to have the one consulate in Ottawa. That's about 5 hrs of driving round trip. The visa would take a few days to process. Then another 5 hour round trip. Essentially, I would lose 2 days of work. :-p So I paid someone else to do it. Eh. Whatever.

Sunday

The weekend is nearly over. *sigh* Well, that kinda sucks.

Last night I had some friends over for hot pot. It was good. We had fun. Everyone left with their bellies full of hot pot goodness and desserts. Oh, some port made it into some of the bellies as well. I think it's a nice way to start off this cold-weather season. B brought a marbled cheesecake that was quite good and rich. S & M brought these yummy little cookies. S made little cheesecake sandwiches with the coconut wafer cookies and dipped them in the porto. It looked quite good. At the end of it all, there were only a few almond shortbread cookies and a quarter of the cheesecake left.

I think I had 2 glasses of port. The second one must have went straight to my head. By the time everyone was leaving, I could barely keep my eyes open! It would have been quite rude of me as the hostess of this soiree to fall asleep! :-) Anyway, I went to bed after I cleaned up the last bits. Everyone helped to pick up and clear the table. I love my friends for always giving a hand without being asked! :-)

I think I hit my head on the pillow around 11:30-12:00. I was awoken around 5AM by Blueshit who wanted to be fed. After I fed him I went back to bed. At some point my alarm went off at 7:30. I hit snooze and didn't wake up again until about 9:30. Crap. It's a bit late to go to the supermarket. I usually preferred to do my grocery shopping in the morning when it's less crowded. I try to avoid Saturdays if I can help it. However, at some point this afternoon, I felt that I needed to at least pick up a few things. So I went out around 3:30PM.

The trip to the supermarket reminded me why I rarely went for groceries in the afternoon on weekends. It was a true test of patience. People with their carts everywhere, often blocking aisles. You also get those who have no idea where they're going and just stop. The truly annoying people are the ones who see you are trying to pass by but just don't move. I think I need to practice my look of sheer evil for such occasions. *sigh*

I spent most of today working on my Flash. I think I may have finally resolved the snowfall issue of the project assignment. I started work on the 3rd assignment. I think I made some pretty good progress. (^o^)/

I'm taking a bit of a breather now. I just had some dinner. Wasn't much really, just some left over chicken curry. I bought some naan bread to go with it. I'm kinda full now. :-p

Yes, it's a bit slow this morning....

So I came across this site which I think is pretty cool! Some interesting ideas, that's for sure! :)

(O_O)

I thought I would be more of a capuccino, but anyway... :)

You Are an Espresso

At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Had a rough week? You could be Dwight.

Thursday Morning

It's cold. My feet are cold. I am without a heater in the back room. I'll probably only be able to take it to the service center Saturday. :p I guess I will have to run all my errands right after my workout on Saturday. I have guests over Saturday evening.

Nothing too exciting. Wake up. Feed meowing cat. Go to work. Curse about things not working. Go to class. Go home. Do some more work on assignments. Yeah. I don't have much of a life a the moment. But heck, I feel like I am accomplishing something! :-)

Other than that, I think the more I think about it the more I think I will go ahead and put in an offer on that house when I get back from vacation. After talking to a number of people, they all agree on going in low on the offer. I can't blame them. For sure, at least $20K is needed for some of the work to be done: the floors, the kitchen, the basement. I think what I would end up doing is add what I would need to the mortgage. At least this way it would be at an interest more reasonable than if I took out a personal loan or a line of credit. Anyway, this is about a month away.

Meanwhile, I need to go to my cardio workout tonight. I missed Tuesday's workout.

Eeeeek! Everything is falling apart!

Well, not really. It just seems that way.

After weeks of procrastinating, I finally called someone about getting the dryer vent unblocked. So I called this guy referred to me by this guy who repairs appliances who was referred by the guy who works with the ventilation systems here at work. (I know a guy who knows a guy...) Anyway, I told him what area I lived. When he asked what floor I was on and I said 3rd, he went, "TABAR-NOOSH!". Uh-oh. That did not sound good.

Long story short, he had a job in the neighborhood recently. Where the vent is located outside is very difficult to access. It would require at least a 60' ladder which he doesn't have but would have to rent. Bottom line, it would cost me minimum $250 for the job. *sigh* Well, it has to get done at some point. Also, the weather conditions would have to be such that it would be safe for him as well. Can't blame him there! Anyway, appointment has been set for next Tuesday. If the weather sucks then it will have to wait until after I get back from my trip.

Light bulbs. In the span of a few days, I've had 3 bulbs go out on me. Two of the bulbs were from the same socket. One of the guys at work suspects that Hydro maybe adjusting the power now that it's gotten cooler and people are starting to crank up the heat. :-p

Speaking of heat, I noticed that the digital readout on the convection heater in the back room is a bit funny. It reads FR instead of the temperature. I found a place and called about it. I'd have to remove the unit from the wall and bring it in for them to diagnose. Yay... Now I've got to move the bookcase that is in front of the breaker panel. I've been meaning to relocate this bookcase, but I just never got around to it. So I guess I will be doing that tonight!! :p

Meanwhile, I made the appointment to have my car readied for the winter. I need a new set of winters because the other set has already gone through 7 winters. This will set me back at least $400. *sigh* Thank goodness this week is payday.

Anyway... Still at work. I think I will go home now. :p

Nearly obsessed

Sometimes when I get it into my head that I want to do something, I almost alway go ahead and do it. This situation with the house seems to be one of those things. So here is an image of the object of my current near-obsession. This place is literally around the corner from my place.

Fall Back

I guess I forgot to mention that this weekend we had to adjust our clocks. "Fall back" as it were. Some people see it as gaining an extra hour of sleep, which I would tend to agree. I think the con to this would be that come 10:00PM you already want to go to bed.

Speaking of bed, I laundered the bed linen yesterday. I love how the front loader spins a lot of the excess water out of the laundry. I threw the sheets and stuff to wash in the morning. I hung them to dry (I still need to get my dryer issue resolved). By evening, the stuff is all dried. Since the weather has been getting cooler, I figure it was about time to double up the duvet. I had bought at Ikea a few years back this 4-season down duvet. It's essentially 2 duvets of different thickness. There are velcro attachments in six places. When you velcro them together, it becomes this one super warm, soft, fluffy duvet. Ahhhh! I was toasty warm last night! So where the cats. :p

Meanwhile, I'm wondering what to do next. I am seriously considering selling my condo and buying a townhouse that's for sale around the corner from me. The thing with it is that I think this will require some belt tightening. The thought had also crossed my mind about maybe asking the folks for a small loan to help give me the extra boost, but I won't cross that bridge until I have to. It's a huge deal for me, I think, to decide to sell one place to buy another. I know there will be some amount of stress involved. :-p

At the same time, I am wondering about what course I should take next and where. If I want to continue with on the creative side of things, then maybe I should take some other web design related courses at Dawson versus the ContEd courses at Concordia. The courses at Dawson are less expensive and are usually taught by very knowledgeable instructors. The web design program at Concordia is pretty new, so I don't know what the quality of the teaching is like. So I will have to think about that a little bit.

Well, enough musings for a Monday morning... Got some work to do.

Weekend Update

Well, weather-wise, it hasn't been all that bad here. I guess it was sunny for the most part. Saturday was a bit on the nippy side when I went out for my workout. I really need to look into finding better workout clothing. I think the stuff cross-country skiers wear would be appropriate. Need to have something that will wick away the sweat but also keeping you warm.

Anyway, after my workout yesterday, I had to swing by Rona to look for lightbulbs. I now had TWO burnt out lights: one in the kitchen and one by the dining room/stairs. Thankfully, they're both the same type of halogen bulb.

I think I've been a bit of a piggy and just eating way too much lately. I weighed myself the other day and could not believe how much I've gained! :p As a result, I need to keep an eye on my portions and cut down on some of the fatty bad stuff too. *sigh* And I was doing pretty well for a while there. I don't want to say that the weight gain might be due to some of the muscles I'm slowly building from the workouts.

Last night, I had some leftover 3-bean chicken chili over macaroni. It might have been a slightly large portion, but it was sooo good! For lunch I had made some rice porridge. It's a bit heavy, but warming on a cold day. Today, I was bad. I had a whole Dr. Oetker's thin crust mushroom pizza for lunch. To compensate, for dinner I had a salad of mixed greens, grape tomatoes, red peppers and blue cheese dressing. Somewhere along the way, I had some yogurt and a few Snack-aralli. I think I need to curb the snacking somewhat as well. :-p

Anyway, today I think I made some headway in my Flash project. I had some issues with making some leaves change color, but I think I managed. Next step is to add in some other seasonal details.

Friday

Okay.. I'll spare you any more Red Sox videos and other images. :)

It's finally Friday. I've actually got some work to do today. Later this evening, I have a real estate agent coming by to assess the value of my place. I'm thinking of "upgrading" from a condo to a small townhouse. Square-footage, it would be a bit bigger, but it won't be terribly huge. It would be nice to have a small backyard to do a little bit of gardening. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

This weekend, I need to work on my Flash project. I need to start drawing some items that I will use in the project. I need to draw at least a tree, some flowers and maybe a shrub or two. I want to keep it relatively simple. I don't want to make it so complicated that I won't be able to finish it.

Hopefully one of the guys in the office can come over and help me test out the dryer before I call the vent guy to see about getting the exhaust vent for the dryer looked at and cleaned if necessary.

Yes, my life is just soooo exciting at times. :p

And MORE!!! (At least until it gets yanked)

This is my typical morning...

But wait! There's more!!!

If you can't get enough of Papelbon...

Rally highlights

In case you missed it: *CLICK*

Red Sox Rolling Rally

I'm spending most of my lunch hour watching the webcast on Fox25 of the victory rally for the World Series Champs, the Red Sox. They have a flatbed truck with the Dropkick Murphys and Jon Papelbon. What's the big deal? Check this out:

I wonder if other teams have such characters on their teams.

Meanwhile, I think I've finished my second Flash assignment. This should allow me to work on the project. What I will probably do is work on creating the graphics that will be used in this Flash project. I will need to draw some trees and flowers and other such things. If I can, i will try to use some images in this presentation. If I can find a decent image of a bare, leafless tree, then that would be great. Maybe find an image of a bunny rabbit to hop across the screen or something. Anyway, I have all these ideas in my head. I just need to get them out and onto the screen.

Tonight, I plan on going to my cardio workout. No excuse tonight. The weather is not too bad. It might be a bit on the cool side, but it's not unbearable. Just dress in layers and I should be fine. :-) Tomorrow is the Flash class. Workout again on Thursday. Home assessment on Friday.

Oh, man! I don't know how I manage sometimes...

Please Welcome the 2007 World Series Champions...

The Boston Red Sox!!!

The boys managed to do it this year! It was a tight game, but they held on and pulled through!

Things got iffy in the 8th. But the team pulled through!! :D

Eek!!!

Okay, so there were a couple of places that had an Open House today. I figure it wouldn't hurt to at least check them out. Besides, they were right around the corner from me.

The first place I went to wasn't bad. It was cozy. The kitchen cabinets could do with a bit of an update. The carpeting on the main floor would have to go and be replaced with hardwood floors. The bedrooms on the 2nd floor are not bad. There were a couple of Chinese guys there commenting on the small size of the rooms. I'm like "DUH!". If they had any clue about the homes in the area, they should already have a idea about the size of the rooms. Sheesh. The basement seems to be half finished. The asking price is $359,000. Considering the work I would want to have done on it, I'd probably knock about $15,000 from that price.

There were also a few young couples looking around as well. I don't know how serious some of them are. I might end up having to take out a line of credit if I were to buy this place and fix it up.

The other place I checked out was just a few doors down in the same row of townhouses. It's a corner unit. It's cute. The layout is different. It doesn't have a mezzanine level though. It's cozy, but it doesn't feel as big for some reason. Anyway, the asking price for this property is $439,000. It's a bit more than what I can afford.

Meanwhile, at the first home, I was talking to the agent there. I told her I lived around the corner. I don't have any fixed dates for moving. It was pretty much a situation where if things fall into place, then it could happen. She offered to do an assessment of my place. So we set up an appointment for Friday evening. :-o I guess we'll see. If something does happen, I don't want to have to move until at least the spring. Winter moves are a hug pain in the arse; especially if there's snow and shite. :-p

I guess we'll see.

Uhm, yeah, okay, whatever..

Yesterday

After I had a relatively early spper, I went out for a walk. I went mainly because I needed milk. As I was changing into someting more comfortable to walk in I noticed the rising moon. I immediately went to grab my camera and tripod. I shot of a bunch of shots in succession as the moon was rising above the Bombardier building. I was too lazy to upload them last night. I'll probably get around to it later today.

Also, I was in a bit of a mood yesterday evening before I went out for a walk. Later it wasn't so bad as I distracted myself with my Flash assignment. Not bad for an hour's work. Once I figure out how to post what I've been working on, I will. :-)